A Thunder Canyon Christmas Read Online Free

happened?”
    Since he seemed to be focusing on the two of them, the rest of the crowd seemed happy to slip away from any scrutiny and return to their drinks and their food. Elise really wanted to join them all and started easing away, but Matt pinned her into place beside him with a glare, as if this was all her fault.
    â€œSumbitch stole my girl.” A thin trail of blood spilled out of the corner of Jake Halloran’s mouth and he wiped at it with a napkin.
    The deputy frowned at Elise. “You his girl?”
    She shook her head, grateful she was still sitting down in the booth when the room spun a little. “I just met him tonight.”
    â€œYou’re Elise Clifton, aren’t you? Grant’s sister?”
    Wouldn’t her brother just love to hear about this little escapade? She couldn’t wait to try explaining to Grant why she had let herself get cornered in an empty hallway by a drunk cowboy. “Yes.”
    â€œWell, Ms. Clifton, the guy seems to think there was more to it than a little chatting at the bar.”
    â€œHe’s wrong,” she said, then was appalled at the note of belligerence in her voice. Must be the margaritas. She normally was not a belligerent person. Just another reason she needed to swear off drinking for a long time.
    â€œWe were only talking, Deputy Morales,” she went on in what she hoped was a much more cooperative tone of voice. “I met him maybe half an hour ago. We talked about walking outside for some fresh air while the band was taking a break. I came back here to get my coat and he just…kissed me.”
    She drew in a shaky breath, more mortified than sheever remembered feeling in her life. Even more embarrassed than the time she had been bucked off by her horse in the junior rodeo for Thunder Canyon Days when she was eleven and Matt had been the first one to her side.
    â€œI tried to tell him I wasn’t interested but he didn’t listen,” she said. “Then Matt came into the hallway and saw I was having a tough time convincing him to stop, so he stepped in to help me and Jake hit him.”
    â€œHow much have you had to drink, Ms. Clifton?”
    She looked down at the speckled Formica tabletop then back up, drawing a breath and hoping she sounded more coherent than she felt. “Not so much that I don’t know how to be perfectly clear when I’m saying no to a man, sir.”
    â€œThat what happened?” he asked Halloran. “Did she say no?”
    â€œI heard her say no, Joe,” Matt said. “Loud and clear.”
    â€œI don’t believe I asked you,” the deputy growled. Elise suddenly remembered he had a younger sister who had once carried a very public torch for Matt back in Matt’s younger, wilder days when bar fights probably weren’t an uncommon occurrence.
    â€œDid the girl say no?” he asked Jake again.
    â€œWell, yeah. But you know how women can be.”
    The deputy gave him a long, disgusted look, then turned back to Elise. “Do you want to press charges for assault?”
    She gave him a horrified look. “No. Heavens no! It was just a misunderstanding.” Yes, the man had beenwrong to paw her, especially when she’d made it clear she didn’t want him to. But she had been wrong to flirt with him back at the bar, to use him only so she could hide from Matt.
    â€œWhat about you, Cates? You want to press charges?”
    Matt shook his dark head. “I know how things can get out of hand in the heat of the moment.”
    â€œFine. All of you get out of here, then, so I can go back to my wife and my steak. Can you make sure she makes it back to Clifton’s Pride okay?” he asked Matt.
    Matt gave her a look she couldn’t decipher, then nodded.
    The moment the deputy ushered Jake over to the other Lazy D cowboys who had come to his rescue, Elise rushed back to the hallway, grabbed her red peacoat off the rack and twisted her