Dallas, Texas Christmas Eve
Beth Ames couldn’t help but sing along with the holiday song on the radio. Christmas had always been her favorite time of the year, and she was even more excited this holiday season because it was her nephew’s first. Four-month-old Cody was the love of her life, and she was grateful—if a little surprised—that her sister had invited her to celebrate the milestone occasion with them.
Over the years, the relationship between Beth and Leighton had been strained more often than not. While Beth might wish it wasn’t so, she couldn’t change the dynamic on her own, and her sister had always rebuffed her efforts to get closer. That had finally changed when Leighton confided to Beth that she was pregnant.
No doubt Leighton had been scared about the prospect of having and raising a child on her own, now that the baby’s father was no longer a part of her life. Of course, Beth had questions about the man, but Leighton refused to answer them. And the more she pushed, the more her sister resisted.
“I appreciate your support, but I don’t need your lectures,” she’d said. “So if you want to be there with me when the baby is born, you’ll stop asking about a guy who, I can assure you, has less than zero interest in being a dad.”
Beth wondered how her sister could be so certain of his disinterest if she hadn’t told him about her condition, but she bit her tongue. Because as much as she believed the father-to-be had a right to know, she didn’t want to do anything to jeopardize their tentative truce.
Instead, Beth had focused on doing what she could to support Leighton throughout her pregnancy. She’d coached her during sixteen hours of labor, and she’d spent every free minute with the new mom and her baby during the first few weeks—until Leighton had recovered enough to demand some space.
Still, she understood that motherhood was a big adjustment for her usually vivacious and fun-loving sister, and she tried to help without stepping on the new mom’s toes. But as the weeks turned into months, Leighton seemed increasingly worn out and unhappy.
Thankfully the onset of the Christmas season had revived her sister’s good spirits. She’d been so genuinely filled with holiday spirit that she’d invited Beth to spend Christmas Eve at her apartment and even stay over to share in the morning celebration.
So now here she was, with her back seat full of festively wrapped presents and a box of groceries to prepare the holiday meal.
She didn’t see her sister’s car in its assigned parking spot, but it wouldn’t be out of character for her to have forgotten something she needed to have before the stores closed. And since Leighton had given her a spare key, Beth didn’t hesitate to let herself in so that she could put the perishables in the fridge.
After the groceries were away, she plugged in the Christmas tree lights and turned on the radio, tuning it to her favorite station that had been playing “all holiday music, all the time” since the first of December.
Feeling excited, and a little impatient, Beth decided to call her sister to find out when she’d be home. She was surprised, when the phone started to ring, to hear an echo of the sound coming from the bedroom—where she discovered Leighton’s cell plugged into the charger on the bedside table.
Shaking her head over her sister’s forgetfulness, she started to turn away when she saw a note beside the charger with her name on it.
Beth,
Change of plans—sorry. I’ll explain when I can.
Merry Christmas.
XO
L
Change of plans?
What the heck was that supposed to mean?
Where had her sister gone?
And, more important, where was Cody?
Rust Creek Falls, MontanaChristmas Day
And another one bites the dust, Wilder thought, listening to the excited chatter of conversation around the table as everyone congratulated Hunter and Merry on their engagement.
But he kept a smile on his face, because his brother was grinning, the bride-to-be was glowing and six-year-old Wren was ecstatic that her Christmas wish for a new mommy had come true. He was happy for Hunter and Merry and the new family they were making together, but he was also grateful that he wasn’t shackled with the responsibilities of a wife or child.
Not that any of his siblings acted as if they were constrained by their relationships. In fact, his brothers Logan, Xander, Knox, Finn and now Hunter, too, seemed sincerely happy to have found a special someone to share their lives. But Wilder wasn’t in any hurry to follow in their footsteps. He was perfectly happy with his life the way it was right now. As the old saying went, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
“I’m a lucky woman,” Merry said, responding to a comment from one of her future brothers-in-law.
“And Hunter’s a lucky man,” Max said, about his newly engaged son.
Wilder couldn’t help but notice that, in addition to the paternal pride on his father’s face, there was a look of smug satisfaction. When the family had moved from Dallas to Rust Creek Falls six months earlier, Max had set out to find romantic matches for all of his sons—even going so far as to enlist the services of a local wedding planner to act as a matchmaker and offering her a million-dollar bonus if she succeeded. With the announcement of Hunter and Merry’s engagement, he obviously felt as if he was well on his way to accomplishing his goal.
Five out of six was a pretty impressive success rate, Wilder acknowledged