The Holiday Gift Read online

  A Cowboy for Christmas

  With two kids and an active life, widow Faith Dustin only wants peace and quiet for Christmas. But her snowy Pine Gulch ranch is nothing but chaotic. All that keeps Faith going is her helpful neighbor, cowboy Chase Brannon. He’s always been “good ol’ Chase,” her faithful friend. Until he kisses her under the mistletoe...

  Years ago Chase blew his chance with the woman he’s loved since childhood. Now he’s determined to step out of the friend zone...and into the role of husband. But the scared and stubborn Faith won’t let herself fall. With Christmas just days away, Chase will need all the magic of the season—and the help of her two matchmaking children—to unwrap a second chance at love.

  Praise for New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author RaeAnne Thayne

  “Romance, vivid characters and a wonderful story; really who could ask for more?”

  —Debbie Macomber, #1 New York Times bestselling author, on Blackberry Summer

  “This quirky, funny, warmhearted romance will draw readers in and keep them enthralled to the last romantic page.”

  —Library Journal on Christmas in Snowflake Canyon

  “Entertaining, heart-wrenching, and totally involving, [Evergreen Springs] is a sure winner.”

  —Library Journal

  “A sometimes heartbreaking tale of love and relationships in a small Colorado town.... Poignant and sweet.”

  —Publishers Weekly on Christmas in Snowflake Canyon

  “RaeAnne Thayne is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors... Once you start reading, you aren’t going to be able to stop.”

  —Fresh Fiction on Snow Angel Cove

  “Plenty of tenderness and Colorado sunshine flavor this pleasant escape.”

  —Publishers Weekly on Woodrose Mountain

  “Thayne, once again, delivers a heartfelt story of a caring community and a caring romance between adults who have triumphed over tragedies.”

  —Booklist on Woodrose Mountain

  “Thayne pens another winner... Her main characters are strong and three-dimensional, with enough heat between them to burn the pages.”

  —RT Book Reviews on Currant Creek Valley

  Dear Reader,

  I’m so excited to bring you the story of Faith Nichols Dustin and Chase Brannon, at long last. I introduced them two years ago in The Christmas Ranch, the first book in my current Cold Creek miniseries. I loved Chase and Faith from the beginning. Faith had just suffered a great tragedy and the world seemed a bleak place. Chase was not only her neighbor but her best friend—caring, loyal and fiercely protective of her.

  I knew a few basics about their lives and the journey they would have to find happiness again together, but uncovering the details of their story has been a true delight.

  I’m always so happy when I have the chance to return to Pine Gulch and visit old friends! It’s been ten years since I wrote my first book based in Cold Creek Canyon (I know! I can’t believe it, either!) and the people who live here almost feel like family.

  Wishing you and your loved ones the very best this holiday season.

  RaeAnne

  The Holiday Gift

  RaeAnne Thayne

  RaeAnne Thayne finds inspiration in the beautiful northern Utah mountains, where the New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author lives with her husband and three children. Her books have won numerous honors, including RITA® Award nominations from Romance Writers of America and a Career Achievement Award from RT Book Reviews. RaeAnne loves to hear from readers and can be contacted through her website, raeannethayne.com.

  Books by RaeAnne Thayne

  Harlequin Special Edition

  The Cowboys of Cold Creek

  The Christmas Ranch

  A Cold Creek Christmas Surprise

  A Cold Creek Noel

  A Cold Creek Reunion

  Christmas in Cold Creek

  A Cold Creek Baby

  A Cold Creek Secret

  A Cold Creek Holiday

  A Cold Creek Homecoming

  The Cowboy’s Christmas Miracle

  Dalton’s Undoing

  Dancing in the Moonlight

  Light the Stars

  HQN Books

  Haven Point

  Snowfall on Haven Point

  Riverbend Road

  Evergreen Springs

  Redemption Bay

  Snow Angel Cove

  For a complete list of books by RaeAnne Thayne, please visit www.raeannethayne.com.

  Get rewarded every time you buy a Harlequin ebook!

  Click here to Join Harlequin My Rewards

  http://www.harlequin.com/myrewards.html?mt=loyalty&cmpid=EBOOBPBPA201602010002

  To Lisa Townsend, trainer extraordinaire, who is gorgeous inside and out. And to Jennie, Trudy, Karen, Becky, Jill and everyone else in our group for your example, your encouragement, your friendship, your laughter—and especially for making me look forward to workouts (except the burpees—I’ll never look forward to those!).

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Epilogue

  Excerpt from A Bravo for Christmas by Christine Rimmer

  Chapter One

  Something was wrong, but Faith Dustin didn’t have the first idea what.

  She glanced at Chase Brannon again, behind the wheel of his pickup truck. Sunglasses shielded his eyes but his strong jaw was still flexed, his shoulders tense.

  Since they had left the Idaho Falls livestock auction forty-five minutes earlier, heading back to Cold Creek Canyon, the big rancher hadn’t smiled once and had answered most of her questions in monosyllables, his mind clearly a million miles away.

  Faith frowned. He wasn’t acting at all like himself. They were frequent travel companions, visiting various livestock auctions around the region at least once or twice a month for the last few years. They had even gone on a few buying trips to Denver together, an eight-hour drive from their little corner of eastern Idaho. He was her oldest friend—and had been since she and her sisters came to live with their aunt and uncle nearly two decades ago.

  In many ways, she and Chase were really a team and comingled their ranch operations, since his ranch, Brannon Ridge, bordered the Star N on two sides.

  Usually when they traveled, they never ran out of things to talk about. Her kids and their current dramas, real or imagined; his daughter, Addie, who lived with her mother in Boise; Faith’s sisters and their growing families. Their ranches, the community, the price of beef, their future plans. It was all grist for their conversational mill. She valued his opinion—often she would run ideas past him—and she wanted to think he rated hers as highly.

  The drive to Idaho Falls earlier that morning had seemed just like usual, filled with conversation and their usual banter. Everything had seemed normal during the auction. He had stayed right by her side, a quiet, steady support, while she engaged in—and eventually won—a fierce bidding war for a beautiful paint filly with excellent barrel racing bloodlines.


  That horse, intended as a Christmas gift for her twelve-year-old daughter, Louisa, was the whole reason they had gone to the auction. Yes, she’d been a little carried away by winning the auction so that she’d hugged him hard and kissed him smack on the lips, but surely that wasn’t what was bothering him. She’d kissed and hugged him tons of times.

  Okay, maybe she had been careful not to be so casual with her affection for him the last six or seven months, for reasons she didn’t want to explore, but she couldn’t imagine he would go all cold and cranky over something as simple as a little kiss.

  No. His mood had shifted after that, but all her subtle efforts to wiggle out what was wrong had been for nothing.

  His mood certainly matched the afternoon. Faith glanced out at the uniformly gray sky and the few random, hard-edged snowflakes clicking against the windshield. The weather wasn’t pleasant but it wasn’t horrible either. The snowflakes weren’t sticking to the road yet, anyway, though she expected they would see at least a few inches on the ground by morning.

  Even the familiar festive streets of Pine Gulch—wreaths hanging on the streetlamps and each downtown business decorated with lights and window dressings—didn’t seem to lift his dark mood.

  When he hit the edge of town and turned into Cold Creek Canyon toward home, she decided to try one last time to figure out what might be bothering him.

  “Did something happen at the auction?”

  He glanced away from the road briefly, the expression in his silver-blue eyes shielded by the amber lenses of his sunglasses. “Why would you think that?”

  She studied his dearly familiar profile, struck by his full mouth and his tanned, chiseled features—covered now with just a hint of dark afternoon shadow. Funny, how she saw him just about every single day but was sometimes taken by surprise all over again by how great-looking he was.

  With his dark, wavy hair covered by the black Stetson he wore, that slow, sexy smile, and his broad shoulders and slim hips, he looked rugged and dangerous and completely male. It was no wonder the waitresses at the café next to the auction house always fought each other to serve their table.

  She shifted her attention away from such ridiculous things and back to the conversation. “I don’t know. Maybe because that’s the longest sentence you’ve given me since we left Idaho Falls. You’ve replied to everything else with either a grunt or a monosyllable.”

  Beneath that afternoon shadow, a muscle clenched in his jaw. “That doesn’t mean anything happened. Maybe I’m just not in a chatty mood.”

  She certainly had days like that. Heaven knew she’d had her share of blue days over the last two and a half years. Through every one of them, Chase had been her rock.

  “Nothing wrong with that, I guess. Are you sure that’s all? Was it something Beckett McKinley said? I saw him corner you at lunch.”

  He glanced over at her briefly and again she wished she could see the expression behind his sunglasses. “He wanted to know how I like the new baler I bought this year and he also wanted my opinion on a...personal matter. I told him I liked the baler fine but told him the other thing wasn’t any of my damn business.”

  She blinked at both his clipped tone and the language. Chase didn’t swear very often. When he did, there was usually a good reason.

  “Now you’ve got my curiosity going. What kind of personal matter would Beck want your opinion about? The only thing I can think the man needs is a nanny for those hellion boys of his.”

  He didn’t say anything for a long moment, just watched the road and those snowflakes spitting against windshield. When he finally spoke, his voice was clipped. “It was about you.”

  She stared. “Me?”

  Chase’s hands tightened on the steering wheel. “He wants to ask you out, specifically to go as his date to the stockgrowers association’s Christmas party on Friday.”

  If he had just told her Beck wanted her to dress up like a Christmas angel and jump from his barn roof, she wouldn’t have been more surprised—and likely would have been far less panicky.

  “I... He...what?”

  “Beck wants to take you to the Christmas party this weekend. I understand there’s going to be dancing and a full dinner this year.”

  Beck McKinley. The idea of dating the man took her by complete surprise. Yes, he was a great guy, with a prosperous ranch on the other side of Pine Gulch. She considered him a good friend but she had never once thought of him in romantic terms.

  The unexpected paradigm shift wasn’t the only thing bothering her about what Chase had just said.

  “Hold on. If he wanted to take me to the party, why wouldn’t Beck just ask me himself instead of feeling like he has to go through you first?”

  That muscle flexed in his jaw again. “You’ll have to ask him that.”

  The things he wasn’t saying in this conversation would fill a radio broadcast. She frowned as Chase pulled into the drive leading to his ranch. “You told him I’m already going with you, didn’t you?”

  He didn’t answer for a long moment. “No,” he finally said. “I didn’t.”

  Unease twanged through her, the same vague sense that had haunted her at stray moments for several months. Something was off between her and Chase and, for the life of her, she couldn’t put a finger on it.

  “Oh. Did you already make plans?” She forced a cheerful smile. “We’ve gone together the last few years so I just sort of assumed we would go together again this year but I guess we should have talked about it. If you already have something going, don’t worry about me. Seriously. I don’t mind going by myself. I’ll have plenty of other friends there I can sit with. Or I could always skip it and stay home with the kids. Jenna McRaven does a fantastic job with the food and I always enjoy the company of other grown-ups, but if you’ve got a hot date lined up, I’m perfectly fine.”

  As she said the words, she tasted the lie in them. Was this weird ache in her stomach because she had been looking forward to the evening out—or because she didn’t like the idea of him with a hot date?

  “I don’t have a date, hot or otherwise,” he growled as he pulled the pickup and trailer to a stop next to a small paddock near the barn of the Brannon Ridge Ranch.

  She eased back in the bench seat, a curious relief seeping through her. “Good. That’s that. We can go together, just like always. It will be a fun night out for us.”

  Though she knew him well enough to know something was still on his mind, he said nothing as he pulled off his sunglasses and hooked them on the rearview mirror. What did his silence mean? Didn’t he want to go with her?

  “Faith,” he began, but suddenly she didn’t want to hear what he had to say.

  “We’d better get the beautiful girl in your trailer unloaded before the kids get home.”

  She opened her door and jumped out before he could answer her. Yes, sometimes she was like her son, Barrett, who would rather hide out in his room all day and miss dinner than be scolded for something he’d done. She didn’t like to face bad things. It was a normal reaction, she told herself. Hadn’t she already had to face enough bad things in her life?

  After a moment, Chase climbed out after her and came around to unhook the back of the trailer. The striking black-and-white paint yearling whinnied as he led her out into the patchy snow.

  “She’s a beauty, isn’t she?” Faith said, struck all over again by the horse’s elegant lines.

  “Yeah,” Chase said. Again with the monosyllables. She sighed.

  “Thanks for letting me keep her here for a couple of weeks. Louisa will be so shocked on Christmas morning.”

  “Shouldn’t be a problem.”

  He guided the horse into the pasture, where his own favorite horse, Tor, immediately trotted over as Faith closed the gate behind them. As soon as Chase unhooked the young horse fro
m her lead line, she raced to the other side of the pasture, mane and tail flying out behind her.

  She was fast. That was the truth. Grateful for her own cowboy hat that shielded her face from the worst of the frost-tipped snowflakes, Faith watched the horse race to the other corner of the pasture and back, obviously overflowing with energy after the stress of a day at the auction and then a trailer ride with strangers.

  “Do you think she’s too much horse for Lou?” she asked while Chase patted Tor beside her.

  He looked at the paint and then down at Faith. “She comes from prime barrel racing stock. That’s what Lou wants to do. For twelve, she’s a strong rider. Yeah, the horse is only green broke but Seth Dalton can train a horse to do just about anything but recite its ABCs.”

  “I guess that’s true. It was nice of him to agree to take her, with his crazy training schedule.”

  “He’s a good friend.”

  “He is,” she agreed. “Though I know he only agreed to do it as a favor to you.”

  “Maybe it was a favor to you,” he commented as he pulled a bale of hay over and opened it inside the pasture for the horses.

  “Maybe,” she answered. All three Dalton brothers had been wonderful neighbors and good friends to her. They and others in the close-knit ranching community in Cold Creek Canyon and around Pine Gulch had stepped up in a hundred different ways over the last two and a half years since Travis died.

  She would have been lost without any of them, but especially without Chase.

  That vague unease slithered through her again. What was wrong between them? And how could she fix it?

  She didn’t have the first clue.

  * * *

  What was a guy supposed to do?

  Ever since Beck McKinley cornered him at the diner to talk about taking Faith to the stockgrowers’ holiday party, Chase hadn’t been able to think straight. He felt like the other guy had grabbed his face and dunked it in an ice-cold water trough, then kicked him in the gut for good measure.

  For a full ten seconds, he had stared at Beck as a host of emotions galloped through him faster than a pack of wild horses spooked by a thunderstorm.