Page 7 of Christmas Creek Cowboy

Thinking of you, Dad. Merry Christmas.Love, Vanessa.

“Well, hell,”Calen muttered.

Emmy gave him a couple of minutes to try to absorb the new message. Even if this woman wasn’t his bio-sibling, it was obvious she felt a connection to Waylon. Not enough of a connection, though, to come forward after Waylon’s death. Then again, maybe she didn’tknow he’d died.

“Are there any other letters from her?” Emmy asked.

“I’m not sure.”

That sent them scrambling to the three additional piles to start going through them, but they’d barely started the task when there was a knock at her door. Emmy hadn’t heard a car pull up, but it could be someone who’d just walked, since the house was in town.

“Calen?” someone called out after another quick knock.

Both Emmy and Calen cursed. Because it was Sasha.

“Calen, I went by your office and Junie said you were here,” Sasha went on. “I need to talk to you.”

Crap. What the heck did she want?

After more mutters and cursing, Calen went to the door. Emmy was right behind him. In fact, when he opened the door, she stood side by side with him, forming a human barrier just in case Sasha thought she was going to be invited in. She wouldn’t be. It wasn’t possible for Emmy to totally avoid her former friend, not when they lived in the same town, but she saw the woman seldom enough to feel a jolt at the sight of Sasha on the porch.

“Oh,” Sasha said, her blue eyes widening a bit, maybe because Emmy was giving her a world-class glare. “Oh,” she repeated, shifting her attention to Calen. “I need to talk to you.”

“So you said. Talk,” he snarled. Apparently, he was doing some glaring too. “If this is about the disco ball, then Mick ishandling that.”

Sasha shook her head, her long auburn hair swishing with the movement. “No. Uh, it’s about the letters you found. The ones your father didn’t deliver.” She paused again, nibbled on her bottom lip, which today was coated in Christmas red. Probably to coordinate with her body-hugging sweater and pants. “One of those letters might be mine. It was sent to me, but Inever got it.”

Well, that got Emmy’s attention, and she played a quick connect-the-dots. Some of those letters obviously contained secrets. Emmy should know because her own love letter to Calen had been in the mix. But what kind of letter was causing Sasha’s lip nibbling?

“The letters will be turned over to the US Postal Service,” Calen informed her.

“No!” Sasha gasped and then glanced over her shoulder as if to make sure no one was listening. No one was. “You have to let me go through those letters, Calen. For old time’s sake.”

Emmy figured the look Calen gave Sasha went past the mere glare stage. This was more like one of the deeper-levels-of-hell looks. “For old time’s sake?” he repeated.

“Yes.” Sasha squared her shoulders and was probably trying to appear as if she had the power here. She didn’t. “Please,” she added. “It’ll cost you nothing to giveme my letter.”

“And what’s in this letter?” Emmy asked.

Sasha flicked her an annoyed glance then returned her pleading eyes to Calen. “Please,” the woman repeated. “You don’t have anything to lose if what’s in any of those letters comes to light, but I do.”

Interesting, and Emmy couldn’t wait to go through the piles to see what she could find. For now, though, she stayed put because Sasha was moving in on Calen. As brazen as brazen could get, she reached out and took Calen’s hand. Not for long, though. Calen pulled back, and when he brushed against Emmy, he caught her hand instead.

Sasha noticed.

She looked at the hand lock before her narrowed gaze met Emmy’s. “You can’t possibly be involved with each other. Is this so you can get back at Owen and me?”

Oh, that was the wrong thing to say, and Emmy was in no mood to explain a little friendly hand-holding between, well, friends. Nope. She wasn’t bothering with that explanation at all.

Emmy looked Sasha right in her narrowed eyes. “I think you’re interrupting my afternoon with Calen, that’s what. And it’s time foryou to leave.”

A wiser woman probably would have just shut the door in her face, but Emmy’s anger wouldn’t let things stay that wise or simple. She turned to Calen and did what she’d thought aboutdoing earlier.

Emmy pulled Calen to herand kissed him.

She wasn’t sure who was more surprised by the lip-lock, but Emmy thought maybe Calen won that particular award. He made a sound of surprise, the kind a person made if they stepped barefooted onto something sharp. He also went stiff.

But that didn’t last.

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