Page 21 of I'll Be Home For Christmas

Tears rolled down her face. She’d thought Lucas was a man who wouldn’t cheat, and now, it sounded like he had a girlfriend. Another cheater. Another man who had done her wrong, and she’d been certain that after last nightm she was falling in love with him.

Never had she fallen for someone so quickly.

The door opened behind her and she felt Lucas’s arms slip around her. She stiffened but refused to face him. This ended right now. She would not put up with another man cheating on her.

“I’m not cheating on her or you. That’s the first time she’s called me in a year. Not since she broke off our engagement after my parents were killed.”

His parents were killed? Was that the mystery of why there was no family here living with him?

She whirled around to face him, trying to wipe the tears from her face. “What happened?”

Reaching down, he brushed the tears from her cheeks with his fingers. “Listen to me and you’ll understand.”

With a sigh, he closed his eyes for a moment and then led her to a chair in the bedroom where he pulled her down into his lap. Gazing at him, she could see the pain etched across his face, the tension in his jaw, the way his brown eyes were dulled with hurt.

This was real. He wasn’t lying.

“Thirteen months ago, my parents and my sister were flying back from a dance competition. My sister wanted to become a professional ballet dancer and she’d competed in a competition in Chicago. My father had grown impatient with the airlines and when they landed in Billings, he chartered a small plane to take them to Missoula, and then I was going to pick them up. But they never arrived.”

His brown eyes darkened and she could see tears forming in the corners. “The little plane had engine trouble. It appears they tried to turn around, but they didn’t make it. All three of them plus the pilot were killed when it crashed in the mountains. It took us three days to find them in the rugged terrain. I was crushed. I’d lost all three of them at once.”

Her fingers reached out and caressed his cheek. How did someone deal with three funerals of loved ones at the same time?

“A week after the funeral, Beth decided to end our engagement. During the worst time of my life, she decided to call it quits. So no, I’m not cheating on her or you. That wouldn’t be right.”

She laid her head against his shoulder. “I’m so, so sorry about your family. To lose them all at once.”

She couldn’t imagine. Even though she felt jealousy toward her brilliant twin sisters, she would never want them to be killed. The pain would be unbearable for her and her parents. But to lose your entire family in a plane crash.

“Why weren’t you with them?”

“The cattle truck was due to pick up the main part of our herd. I told Dad to go with Mom and Sis and I’ll stay behind.”

Shaking her head, she couldn’t imagine the hurt that he’d felt letting his father go in his place.

“He’d not seen my sister dance since she won the high school competition. So I told him I would stay and he could go watch her,” he said. “I should have been the one on that plane.”

“No,” she said, her heart jumping in her chest. “If you had died, then we would not have met.”

“No, but my father would be alive,” he said.

“But you are their son and will continue their name and your heritage and have children. If you had died, that would all have been lost. I’m sure they would be glad you survived, though it has to be so very tough.”

“I just wish they had not taken that small airplane to get home. Dad was trying to get back here to help me, but the cattle had been taken care of. Everything was done.”

Stroking his face with her fingers, she reached down and kissed him.

“Beth left me when I needed her the most. There is no way we will ever get back together. You don’t have to worry about that.”

With a sigh, she realized she had let her life experiences fill her mind, and she’d jumped to a conclusion. Lucas had been the bearer of her distrust.

“I’m sorry I didn’t trust you. I should have known you would never cheat on me or your previous girlfriend. I let my past cloud my judgment. You’re not the big jerk. You’re Lucas,” she said as she hugged him to her.

“Thank you,” he said. “I promise you, I would never ever cheat on you.”

Oh, how she wanted to believe that. And already she knew he was a good man. But she’d been burned and she was the one who had to overcome her grief and give him her complete trust. And she wanted to. This man deserved to be loved and trusted and she had to put the past behind her.

“Give me time,” she said. “Already you’re proving to me what a wonderful man you are.”

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