Haley stared at Santa, who watched her closely.

Her wish had been granted? She’d impulsively wished not to be trapped in this crazy town with real Santas, huge men surrounded by fifty-year-old junk, and hot cowboys who kissed like fire.

She looked around, but nope, she was still in the middle of the sporting goods store in Starlight Bend, with the hot cowboy in question hovering at her right shoulder.

“It doesn’t say what wish,” she said, showing Santa the card.

“Don’t worry,” Santa said, and winked at her. “You’ll see.”

Haley opened her mouth to ask what he meant by that, but Santa swung away, dropped his sack, and faced the next crowd of kids being ushered in, his hands on his belt. “Ho, ho, ho!” he bellowed, and the kids laughed.

Haley turned to Maddox, who was watching her intently. He closed his hand around her arm and led her away.

Wishing, Haley realized, was a complicated thing. She cupped the business card in her hand, the tingle in her fingers and her heart puzzling her very much.

* * *

After a great meal at Lakeside Cafe, Maddox took them back to Andy’s. Andy didn’t answer when Maddox called out for him and didn’t look up when Maddox towed Haley into the back to the workbench.

Haley’s phone lay in about fifty pieces. Maddox heard her gasp even over the 1960s transistor radio blaring Christmas music on Andy’s table.

Andy raised his head as Maddox put his fists on the bench. Andy’s brown eyes were huge through the lenses of his headband magnifier, blinking at him like a goldfish through its bowl.

“Come back tomorrow,” Andy said before Maddox could speak. “I’ll have it done.”

Andy turned away, already shutting them out of his personal space. Haley looked upset, but Maddox led her outside.

“I’ll buy you a new phone,” Maddox said as they emerged and headed for the stables. “That one was probably dead anyway.”

“Not the point.” Haley huffed. “How am I going to make calls and order my gift?”

She pulled out the card she’d picked from the tree with the name of a girl who lived almost halfway to Kalispell. Haley had showed Maddox the card at lunch. The girl had asked for a dollhouse, a real one, where the lights worked and the windows and doors opened and closed.

“I could have one delivered,” Haley said, despair in her voice. “I know a wonderful miniaturist who custom designs houses and always has readymade ones for short-notice gifts, especially at Christmas. But how am I supposed to get in touch with her?”

“Hey, now.” Maddox put his hand on her shoulder, finding her quavering. It was too cold out here, hard on someone not used to it. “Everything will be okay, you’ll see.”

“How can you say that?” Haley’s voice rang down the quiet street, to be absorbed by the thickly falling snow. “I’m stuck here, my phone’s in a million pieces, I can’t talk to my dad, and I’ll probably miss Christmas with him. I haven’t missed Christmas Eve or Christmas Day with my dad since … well, ever.”

Maddox pulled her around the other side of the empty hitching posts and put his arms around her. Haley stiffened for a moment, then slumped against him, the fight going out of her.

Something had changed. She’d been feisty and fiery all morning, sure she’d kick the dust off this Podunk town as fast as she could.

Now she was losing hope, her resilience deflating. Maddox held on to her, wishing the strength he’d been gifted with could be transferred to her. He often wished that, watching others suffering and wanting more than anything to give them some of his toughness. If he could give one part of his strength to help someone who needed it, he would.

Maddox pulled Haley close, rubbing her back. Haley leaned her head on his chest, her wool cap tickling his chin.

She fit fine against his body, in the circle of his arms. They swayed a little together, finding warmth in each other. The street was quiet—people rarely came down this little lane except to seek out Andy.

Haley continued to shiver. She curled gloved fingers into his chest, quieting, as though she didn’t mind at all standing in his embrace in a snowy side street.

When she looked up at him, Maddox brushed her lips with his, but he didn’t pull her into another deep kiss. Instead he tucked a lock of hair back under her cap and released her.

“Let’s get home,” he said in a quiet voice. “We’ll warm up and then figure out what to do.”

“There’s nothing to do,” Haley said. “Except wait.”

And that was killing her, he could see. Haley was a woman who ran around fixing everything in her path. Kind of like Aunt Jane, though in a different way. Maddox was figuring out that Haley thought she knew what was best for everyone and grew frustrated when she couldn’t make it happen. Aunt Jane also believed she knew what was best for everyone and quietly moved heaven and earth to achieve it.

The two of them together …

Maddox suppressed a shudder. If Haley stayed longer, he might have to move out for his own safety.

Maddox touched another kiss to her lips. He resisted the urge to kiss the hell out of her again, first because she was hurting, second because someone would come down this street and their encounter would provide dinner conversation for the whole town. People were already talking, Maddox knew—a kiss would put the cherry on top.

Haley looked up at him, her brown eyes full of sorrow, and broke his heart.

* * *

Haley was very cold by the time they reached Maddox’s ranch. The house had a name, she discovered, as they rode under the arched gate—Stardust Ranch. Very poetic.

Her heart warmed in spite of her anguish when she saw the lights in the windows of the yellow house welcoming them in the early twilight. It was definitely a home.

Aunt Jane listened to Haley’s tribulations without changing expression as Maddox breezed back out to see to his horses.

Aunt Jane shrugged when Haley finished. “Everything works out for the best,” she said. “If you end up here over Christmas, then it was meant to be.”

“I’m meant to be with my dad in his house, cooking dinner with him,” Haley said in frustration. “He needs me there.”

Aunt Jane patted her hand. “There’s a little bit of magic in Starlight Bend every Christmas, honey. It will be fine. You’ll see. Now, you go enjoy yourself a while, and I’ll call you down in time for dinner.”

Haley was still full from lunch at the diner. She’d thought she’d be going light by ordering the turkey sandwich, until it had arrived—huge slabs of turkey with gravy and potatoes piled, open-faced, on homemade bread, and apple pie for dessert. Enough carbs to choke a bear. The weird thing was, no one here was obese. But if they had to walk, horseback ride, snowshoe, and ski all winter, they’d easily work off heavy meals. It wasn’t a diet for people who sat at a desk all day.

Haley found books in the living room, juicy murder mysteries interspersed with books of knitting patterns. She was in the rocking chair in her bedroom, deep in a mystery when Aunt Jane announced dinner. Haley blinked, surprised she’d sat for hours absorbed in a story, no thought of going over work things on her laptop.

Aunt Jane’s dinner, which Maddox returned to the house in time for, was hearty vegetable soup, thick slices of meatloaf, the inevitable potatoes—boiled this time—a salad containing winter lettuce and more veggies, and baked apples for dessert. Lance sat nearby, a hopeful look on his face. He disappeared only when Maddox dropped a chunk of meatloaf on the floor. There was a sound of slobber and a clink of tags, then Lance’s head rose to peer over the table again.

“How do you all move around so fast?” Haley asked when she finished, patting her stomach. “Everyone in town zips from place to place with so much energy. I just want to go to sleep.”

Maddox grinned at her. His eyes sparkled blue in the light of the candles Aunt Jane had lit around the room. For ambience, she said. The windows were dark now, flakes of snow drifting past.

“You get used to it,” Maddox said. He’d put away more food than Haley and Aunt Jane together, and he looked full of life. “Horses keep you on your toes. I’m going to have to get them into the ring tomorrow. Snow is lightening up, and they’ve had too much time off.”

“Does that mean the snowplows will be able to work?” Haley asked, but without the eagerness she’d expressed this morning. She’d already learned that Starlight Bend ran on its own schedule.

“Maybe,” Aunt Jane said. “There are a lot of roads, and they plow out to people who are the worst off—ones who’d be truly stranded. We’re fine here—we can get in and out to town without too much trouble.”

“What about the road where my car is?”

“Who knows?” Aunt Jane said. “As long as the car’s flagged, so the snowplows don’t run over it.”

Haley looked up in alarm, but Maddox’s eyes danced. “Don’t worry,” he said. “Buddy took care of it. They’ll see the flag before the car’s a pile of fiberglass.”

Haley knew he was teasing her, but she gave him a glare. “Doesn’t anyone in Starlight Bend take care of anything? That’s an expensive car, and my phone is now scrap. It’s wasteful to be so careless.”

Maddox shook his head as though she didn’t understand, but Aunt Jane answered. “Of course we’re not wasteful, sweetie. It’s just that we value different things. A car’s only good if it gets you around when you need it to. Any car or truck can do that. A phone’s useful if you can’t talk to someone face-to-face. But any phone will do in that case. Things can be replaced. People can’t, no matter what anyone thinks.”

Maddox’s amusement had disappeared. Haley remembered that his parents had been killed when he’d been small—how horrible that must have been. No, people definitely couldn’t be replaced. Each was unique, like her dad, and Aunt Jane, and Maddox. Lance too. Haley reached down and gave Lance’s head a pat. He looked disappointed her hand didn’t contain meatloaf, but he enjoyed the petting as well.

“I can’t keep dogs at my apartment,” Haley said wistfully. “No pets allowed.”

Aunt Jane rose and began collecting dishes. “I can’t imagine living like that. For people who are allergic, I can understand, but to banish all pets, period? Nope. Never living in a city if I have to do that.”

Maddox winked at Haley as he started gathering dishes. Haley jumped up to help. “Inhuman,” Maddox said. “Lance agrees, don’t you, boy?”

Lance’s tail thumped hard. Maddox grinned again and disappeared into the kitchen with his plates.

He could be such a shit. At least, he pretended to be. But he helped his aunt, looked after his animals, was kind to kids and good to his friends, like Andy, no matter how odd they were. Maddox took people as they were—didn’t expect them to be anything other than themselves.

Refreshing.

He also kissed with hot skill and had a body to make a goddess weep. Haley stacked dishes with more energy than necessary and charged into the kitchen with them. Maddox took them from her, his strength coming through the plates she handed him.

What the hell was she going to do?

* * *

No party tonight. Maddox knew Haley was bored out of her mind, but that was life in the sticks. The television was out because of the storm, the Internet now out too.

Maddox usually went into town nights the roads were good, to hang out with friends at the bar, the town’s gathering place. He didn’t like to leave Aunt Jane on her own out here in the snow though, and Haley would never make another ride, especially in the cold and dark.

She was dozing while Aunt Jane knitted and Maddox caught up on newspaper reading. Lance lay on the carpet an exact distance between all three of them.

He liked this, Maddox realized. Haley warming the room with her presence, relaxing into the quiet. Maybe that’s what she needed—a place to simply stop.

There was a lot going on inside her head, though. She was too upset at the wrong things, which meant something was bothering her more than simply being stuck at Maddox’s ranch. Maddox was going to pry what she was holding in out of her. He’d learned a long time ago that hurting couldn’t heal unless you ripped off the bandage.

Aunt Jane, on the dot of ten, set aside her knitting, went to the kitchen to top up Lance’s food and water bowls for the night, came back out, and kissed Maddox on the cheek.

“I’m turning in,” she said. “Good night, Haley.”

Haley came awake. “Good night, Aunt Jane.” She made no move to rise and make her way upstairs with her.

“Night, Aunt Jane,” Maddox said, returning the peck on Aunt Jane’s thin cheek. “Don’t let the bed bugs bite.”

Aunt Jane tousled his hair, as she’d done every night since he was ten, and climbed the stairs. The sound of Lance eating came through the kitchen door as Aunt Jane’s footsteps faded.

“Now then, young lady,” Maddox said to Haley. “You and me are going to talk.”

“We are?” Haley blinked her brown-gold eyes at him. “I thought men didn’t like to have heart-to-heart talks with women.”

“Well, this man does. You were upset about your phone more than you were about your very expensive car being buried in a snow bank. What’s up with you?”

Haley gave him a cautious look. “Nothing’s up. I’m just unhappy that I’m snowbound, and that I can’t help either myself or get the kids their gifts. That’s all.”

So she said, but Maddox knew there was plenty more. He wanted to know everything about Haley McKee, not just her name or her daddy’s company, but about her. And he was running out of time. The snow would stop, Christmas would come, and his world would start again. Without Haley.

“Anyway,” Haley said. “What’s up with you? Why does a grown man live with his aunt when you could move out your own, or leave town altogether? You have a degree in engineering, you said. You could take a job anywhere, in any city. Lots of opportunity in Seattle, where you could make a lot of money. Yet you hang out here and train horses.”

“Not everything’s about money,” Maddox said. The words came out more harshly than he’d intended, and he closed his mouth with a snap.

“See? That’s why I’m intrigued. What makes you tick, Maddox Campbell?”

Maddox held up his hand. “Tell you what. Since we’re both so fired-up curious about each other, how about we make this interesting?”

Her eyes narrowed. “Interesting how?”

Maddox rose, went to the hutch where his aunt kept her best china, and rummaged in a drawer. He came out with a deck of cards.

“I told you we played checkers to while away the winter nights,” he said. “I was making that up. What we really play is poker. You up to it?”

“Depends.” More caution. “What do you play for?”

“Tonight, for answers. We lose a hand, we have to answer a question.”

Haley was on her feet, her eyes sparkling as she answered his challenge. “And what if we really don’t want to answer that question?”

“Then you have to take something off.” Maddox fixed his gaze on her, daring her to refuse. “Truth or strip poker. Your choice.”