A Thunder Canyon Christmas Read Online Free Page A

scarf around her neck. She had to escape. What a nightmare. As if she needed more gossip about her flying through town.
    She heard someone call her name but she didn’t stop, only pushed through the front door out into the cold night.
    The streets of Thunder Canyon glittered with brightly colored Christmas lights. They blinked at her from storefronts and the few houses she could see from here. A light snow drifted down, the flakes plump and soft. Away from the front door, she lifted her face for a moment to feel their light, wet kisses on her face.
    She found a strange sort of comfort at the realization that she’d been seeing the same holiday decorations in Thunder Canyon since she was a girl. Her entire lifemay have changed in the last few weeks, but some things remained constant.
    â€œYou’re not thinking about driving in your condition, are you?”
    She opened her eyes, somehow not very surprised to find Matt standing a few feet away, looking big and dark and dangerous in a shearling-lined ranch coat. His eye was beginning to swell and color up and he had a thin cut on his cheek she very much feared would leave a scar.
    â€œThinking about it,” she admitted.
    â€œSorry, El, but I can’t let you do that. You heard what the deputy said. I need to take you home.”
    â€œAnd how are you going to stop me?” she asked, with more of that unexpected belligerence.
    He smiled suddenly and she blinked at the brilliance of it in the dark night. That must be why she was taken completely off guard when he reached for her purse. After a moment of fishing through the contents, he pulled her keys out, dangled them out for a moment, and then pocketed them neatly in his coat.
    â€œI can give you a ride back to the ranch and find somebody later to take your car home. Face it, Elise, you’re in no shape to drive.”
    She couldn’t go back to Clifton’s Pride yet. Just the thought of walking inside the ranch house in her condition made her queasy.
    She didn’t need to see that same wary look in everyone’s eyes she’d been dealing with since before Thanksgiving, as if she were somebody who had been given some kind of terminal diagnosis or something. Hermother hugged her at the oddest moments and Grant and his wife, Stephanie, went out of their way to include her in conversations.
    She especially didn’t want to show up tipsy when Erin was there in all her perfection, the daughter they should have had.
    â€œI don’t want to go home yet,” she whispered, grimly aware the words sounded even more pathetic spoken aloud.
    â€œNo?”
    â€œNot yet. I’ll only be in the way. My…my mother and Grant have…well…guests for dinner.”
    He gave her another of those long, considering looks and she could feel herself flush, certain he could guess what—or rather whom—she meant.
    â€œWant to go back inside?”
    She shook her head. “I don’t think I need to see the inside of The Hitching Post for a while.”
    Or ever again.
    â€œFair enough. Do you want to go grab a bite to eat somewhere? I’m sure we can find somewhere still open.”
    â€œNot really.”
    He gave a half laugh. “Well, I’m running out of options. You’ll freeze to death if you sit out here in the parking lot for another hour or two until your head clears.”
    â€œI know.”
    After another pause, he sighed. “My place is just a block or two away. If you want to, I can get cleaned upand fix you something to eat and we can hang there until you think the coast is clear back at Clifton’s Pride.”
    She hated that he had to come to her rescue, just like when they were kids. She had been a clumsy kid and it seemed like every time she fell, he had been right there to help her back up, brush off the dirt, gather her books, whatever she needed.
    From the time he had fought two schoolyard bullies bigger than he was—and