A Stone Creek Christmas by Linda Lael Miller (13)

CHAPTER TWELVE

He’d gone and fallen in love, Tanner realized, staring up at the ceiling as the first light of dawn crept across it. Olivia, sleeping in the curve of his arm, naked and soft, snuggled closer.

He loved her.

When had it happened? The first time they met, in his barn? Thanksgiving afternoon, before, during or after the kind of sex he’d never expected to have again? Or last night, at the dance?

Did it matter?

It was irrevocable. A no-going-back kind of thing.

He stirred to look at the clock on the bedside stand. Almost eight—Sophie would be up and on her way to school on the bus, well aware that dear old Dad hadn’t come home last night.

What had Tessa told her?

He spoke Olivia’s name.

She sighed and cuddled up closer.

“Doc,” he said, more forcefully. “It’s morning.”

She bolted upright, looked at the clock. Shot out of bed. Realizing she was naked, she pulled on a pink robe. Her cheeks were the same color. “What are you doing here?” she demanded.

“You know what I’m doing here,” he pointed out, in no hurry to get out of the warm bed.

“That was last night,” she said, shoving a hand through her hair.

“Was I supposed to sneak out before sunrise? If I was, you didn’t mention it.”

Her color heightened. “What will Sophie think?”

“She’s probably praying we’ll get married, so she’ll have a mom. She wants to grow up in Stone Creek.”

To his surprise, Olivia’s eyes filled with tears.

“Hey,” he said, flinging back the covers and going to her, and the cold be damned. “What’s the matter, Doc?” he asked, taking her into his arms.

“I love you,” she sobbed into his bare shoulder. “That’s what’s wrong!”

He held her away, just far enough to look into her upturned face. “No, Doc,” he murmured. “That’s what’s right.”

“What?”

“I love you, too,” he said. “And it’s cold out here. Can I share that bathrobe?”

She laughed and tried to stretch the sides of it around him. Her face felt wet against his chest. “This all happened so fast,” she said. Then she tilted her head back and looked up at him again. “Are you sure? It wasn’t just—just the sex?”

“The sex was world-class,” he replied, kissing the top of her head. “But it’s a lot more than that. The way you tried to cheer Butterpie up. That goofy reindeer you rescued, and the fact that you ran a background check on his owner. The old Suburban, and your grandfather’s jacket, and that pitiful-looking little Christmas tree.”

“What happens now?”

“We have sex again?”

She punched him, but she was grinning, all wet faced and happy. And his butt was freezing, since the robe didn’t cover it. “Not that. Tomorrow. Next week. Next month…”

“We date. We sleep together, whenever we get the chance.” He caught his hand under her chin and gently lifted. “We rename the ranch and renovate the house.”

“Rename the ranch?”

“You said it once. ‘Starcross’ isn’t a happy name. What do you want to call it, Doc?”

She wriggled against him. “How about ‘Starfire Ranch’?” she asked.

“Works for me,” he said, about to kiss her. Steer her back to bed. Hell, they were both late—might as well make it count.

“Wait,” she said, pulling back. Her eyes were huge and blue and if he fell into them, he’d drown. And count himself lucky for it. “What about Sophie? Does she get to stay in Stone Creek?”

“She stays,” Tanner said, after heaving a sigh.

“We’ll keep her safe, Tanner,” Olivia said. “Together.”

He nodded.

And they went back to bed, though the lovemaking came a long time later.

Tanner told Olivia all about Kat, and how she’d died, and how he’d blamed himself and feared for Sophie.

And Olivia told him about her mother, and how she’d left the family. How her father had died, and her grandfather had carried on after that as best he could. How it was when animals talked to her.

When the deepest, most private things had been said, and only then, they made love.

* * *

On the morning of Christmas Eve, Olivia stood in a hospital corridor, peering through a little window at the main reason she’d been afraid to get married, long before she met Tanner Quinn.

He waited downstairs, in the lobby. She had to do this alone, but it was better than nice to know he was there.

Olivia closed her eyes for a moment, rested her forehead against the glass.

Restless, unhappy, Delia had left a husband and four children behind one blue-skyed summer day. Just gotten on a bus and boogied.

Olivia’s worst fear, one she’d successfully sublimated for as long as she could remember, was that the same heartless streak might be buried somewhere in her, as well. That it might surface suddenly, causing her to abandon people and animals who loved and trusted her.

It was a crazy idea—she knew that. She was the steady type, brave, thrifty, loyal and true.

But then, Delia had seemed that way, too. She’d read Ashley and Melissa bedtime stories and listened to their prayers, played hide-and-seek with them while she was hanging freshly laundered sheets in the backyard, let Olivia wear clear nail polish even over her dad’s protests. She’d taken all four of them to afternoon movies, sometimes even on school days, where they shared a big bucket of popcorn. She’d helped Brad with his homework practically every night.

And then she’d left.

Without a word of warning she’d simply vanished.

Why?

Olivia opened her eyes.

The woman visible through that window didn’t look as though she could answer that question or any other. She’d retreated inside herself, according to her doctors, and she might not come out again.

It happened with people who had abused alcohol and drugs over a long period of time, the doctors had said.

Olivia drew a deep breath, pushed open the door and went in.

Everyone had a dragon to fight. This was hers.

Delia looked too small to have caused so much trouble and heartache, and too broken. Huddled in a chair next to a tabletop Christmas tree decorated with paper chains and nothing else, she looked at Olivia with mild interest, then looked away again.

Olivia crossed to her, touched her thin shoulder.

She flinched away. Though she didn’t speak, the look in her eyes said, Leave me alone.

“It’s me, Mom,” she said. “Olivia.”

Delia simply stared, giving no sign of recognition.

Olivia dropped to a crouch beside her mother’s chair. “I guess I’ll never know why you left us,” she said moderately, “and maybe it doesn’t matter now. We turned out well, all of us.”

Delia’s vacant eyes were a soft, faded blue, like worn denim, or a fragile spring sky. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, she nodded.

Tears burned Olivia’s eyes. “I’m in love, Mom,” she said. “His name is Tanner. Tanner Quinn, and he has a twelve-year-old daughter, Sophie. I—I want to be a good stepmother to Sophie, and I guess, in some strange way, I needed to see you to know I could do this. That I could really be a wife and a mother—”

Delia didn’t speak. She didn’t cry or embrace her daughter or ask for a second chance. In short, there was no miracle.

And yet Olivia felt strangely light inside, as though there had been.

“Anyway, I’m planning to come back and see you as often as I can.” She stood up straight again, opened her purse. Took out a small wrapped package. It was a bulb in a prepared planter, guaranteed to bloom even in the dead of winter. She’d wanted to bring perfume—one of her memories of Delia was that she’d loved smelling good—but that was on the hospital’s forbidden gift list, because of the alcohol content. “Merry Christmas, Mom.”

I’m not you.

She laid the parcel in Delia’s lap, bent to kiss the top of her head and left.

Downstairs, Tanner drew her into a hug. Kissed her temple. “You gonna be okay, Doc?” he asked.

“Better than okay,” she answered, smiling up at him. “Oh, much, much better than okay.”

* * *

At six o’clock straight up, Kris Kringle officially closed the tree lot. He’d sold every one—nothing left now but needles and twine. The plastic reindeer and the hired Santa were gone, but the sleigh was still there.

He looked up and down the street.

Folks were inside their warm lighted houses and their churches now, as they should be on Christmas Eve. When he was sure nobody was looking, he gave a soft whistle.

The reindeer came—all except Rodney, that is. Took their usual places in front of the sleigh, waiting to be hitched up.

He frowned. Where was that deer?

The clippity-clop of small hooves sounded behind him on the pavement. He turned, and there was Rodney, coming to ward him out of that snowy darkness, ready to take his first flight. The donkey had filled in willingly at the tree-lighting, but this was the real deal—and everybody knew donkeys couldn’t fly.

“Ready?” he asked, bending over Rodney and stroking his silvery back.

He fitted the harnesses gently, having had years of practice. Climbed into the sleigh and took up the reins. They’d have to stop off at home, so he could change into his traveling clothes and, of course, fetch the first bag of gifts.

First stop, he decided: Olivia O’Ballivan’s house. She’d been so kind to that little tree—next year at this time, he knew, it would be growing tall and strong on the grounds of the new shelter, glowing with colored lights.

Yes, sir. He’d deliver her present first.

That woman needed a new coffeepot.

* * *

Christmas Eve, the weather was crisp and clear with the promise of snow, and Olivia felt renewed as she watched Tanner’s respectably muddy extended-cab truck coming up the driveway. They were all invited to Stone Creek Ranch for the evening—she and Tanner, Tessa and Sophie—and she knew it would be like old times, when Big John was alive. He’d always roped in half the countryside to share in the celebration.

Her heart soared a little when she heard Tanner’s footsteps on the back porch, followed by his knock.

She opened the door, looked up at him with shining eyes.

He took in her red velvet skirt and matching crepe sweater with an appreciative grin, looking pretty darn handsome himself in jeans, a white shirt and his black leather jacket.

“Olivia O’Ballivan,” he said with a twinkling grin. “You shopped.”

“I sure did,” she replied happily. “That big box of presents you passed on the porch is further proof. How about loading it up for me, cowboy?”

Tanner bent to greet Ginger, who could barely contain her glee at his arrival. “Anything for you, ma’am,” Tanner drawled, still admiring Olivia’s Christmas getup. “Tessa and Sophie went on ahead in Tessa’s rig,” he added, to explain their absence. “I told them we’d be right behind them.”

He straightened, and Ginger went back to her bed.

“She’s not going with us?” Tanner asked, referring, of course, to the dog.

“She claims she’s expecting a visitor,” Olivia said.

Tanner’s grin quirked one corner of his kissable mouth. “Well, then,” he said, making no move to leave the kitchen or load up the box of presents.

“What?” Olivia asked, shrugging into her good coat.

“I have something for you,” Tanner said, and for all his worldliness, he looked and sounded shy. “But I’m wondering if it’s too soon.”

Olivia’s heartbeat quickened. She waited, watching him, hardly daring to breathe.

It couldn’t be. They’d only just agreed that they loved each other….

Finally Tanner gave a decisive, almost rueful sigh, crossed to her, laid his hands on her shoulders and gently pressed her into one of the chairs at the kitchen table. Then, just like in an old movie, or a romantic story, he dropped to one knee.

“Will you marry me, Olivia O’Ballivan?” he asked. “When you’re darn good and ready and the time is right?”

“Say yes,” Ginger said from the dog bed.

As if Olivia needed any canine input. “Yes,” she said with soft certainty. “When we’re both darn good and ready, and we agree that the time is right.”

Eyes shining with love, and what looked like relief—had he really thought she might refuse?—Tanner reached into his jacket pocket and brought out a small white velvet box. An engagement ring glittered inside, as dazzling as a captured star.

“I love you,” Tanner said. “But if you don’t want to wear this right away, I’ll understand.”

Because she couldn’t speak, Olivia simply extended her left hand. Tears of joy blurred her vision, making the diamond in her engagement ring seem even bigger and brighter than it was.

Tanner slid it gently onto her finger, and it fit perfectly, gleaming there.

Olivia laughed, sniffled. “To think I got you a bathrobe!” she blubbered.

Tanner laughed, too, and stood, pulling Olivia to her feet, drawing her into his arms and sealing the bargain with a long, slow kiss.

“We’d better get going,” he said with throaty reluctance when it was over.

Olivia nodded.

Tanner went to lug the box of gifts to the truck, while Olivia lingered to unplug Charlie Brown’s bubbling lights.

“You’re sure you won’t come along?” she asked Ginger, pausing in the kitchen.

“I’ll just settle my brains for a long winter’s nap,” Ginger said, muzzle on forepaws, gazing up at Olivia with luminous brown eyes. “Don’t be surprised if Rodney’s gone when you get to the ranch. It’s Christmas Eve, and he has work to do.”

“I’ll miss him,” Olivia said, reaching for her purse.

But Ginger was already asleep, perhaps with visions of rawhide sugarplums dancing in her head.

Stone Creek Ranch was lit up when Olivia and Tanner arrived, and the yard was crowded with cars and trucks.

“There’s something I need to do in the barn,” Olivia told Tanner as he wedged the rig into one of the few available parking spaces. “Meet you inside?”

He smiled, leaned across the console and kissed her lightly. “Meet you inside,” he said.

Rodney’s stall was empty, and Olivia felt a pang at that.

She stood there for a while, marveling at the mysteries of life in general and Christmas in particular, and was not surprised when Brad joined her.

“When I came out to feed the horses,” he told Olivia, “there was no sign of Rodney the reindeer. I figured he got out somehow and wandered off, but there were no tracks in the snow. It’s as if he vanished.”

Olivia dried her eyes. “It’s Christmas Eve,” she said, repeating Ginger’s words. “He has work to do.” She turned, looked up at her brother. “He’s all right, Brad. Trust me on that.”

Brad chuckled and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “If you say so, Doc, I believe you, but I’m going to miss the little guy, just the same.”

“Me, too,” Olivia said.

Brad took her hand, examined the ring. “That’s quite the sparkler,” he said gravely. “Are you sure about this, Liv?”

“Very sure,” she said.

He kissed her forehead. “That’s good enough for me,” he told her.

Together they went into the house, where there was music and laughter and a tall tree, all alight. Olivia spotted Ashley and Melissa right away, and some of Meg’s family, the McKettricks, were there, too.

Sophie rushed to greet Olivia. “I get to stay in Stone Creek!” she confided, her face aglow with happiness. “Dad said so!”

Olivia laughed and hugged the child. “That’s wonderful news, Sophie,” she said.

“I’ve been thinking I might want to be a veterinarian when I grow up, like you,” Sophie said seriously.

“Plenty of time to decide,” Olivia replied gently. Just as she’d fallen in love with Tanner, hard, fast and forever, she’d fallen in love with Sophie, too. She’d never try to replace Kat, of course, but she’d be the best possible stepmother.

“Dad told me he was going to ask you to marry him,” Sophie added, her voice soft now as she took Olivia’s hand and smiled to see her father’s engagement ring shining on the appropriate finger. “He wanted to know if it was okay with me, and I said yes.” A mischievous smile curved the girl’s lips. “I see you did, too.”

“I’ve never been a stepmother before, Sophie,” Olivia said, her eyes burning again. “Will you be patient with me until I get the hang of it?”

“I’m almost a teenager,” Sophie reminded her sagely. “I suppose you’ll have to be patient with me, too.”

“I can manage,” Olivia assured her.

Sophie’s gaze strayed, came to rest on Tessa, who was off by herself, sipping punch and watching the hectic proceedings with some trepidation, like a swimmer working up the courage to jump into the water. “I’m a little worried about Aunt Tessa, though,” the child admitted. “She’s been hurt a lot worse than she’s letting on.”

“This crowd can be a little overwhelming,” Olivia replied. “Let’s help her get to know some of her new neighbors.”

Sophie nodded, relieved and happy.

Arm in arm, she and Olivia went to join Tessa.

“You’re coming to my open house tomorrow, right?” Ashley asked hopefully, sometime later, when they’d all had supper and opened piles of gifts, and the two sisters had managed a private moment over near the fireplace.

“Of course,” Olivia said, pleased that Ashley looked and sounded like her old self. “Did you manage to get rid of Jack McCall yet?”

Ashley’s blue eyes shone like sapphires. “The man is impossible to get rid of,” she said, nodding toward the Christmas tree, where Jack stood talking quietly with Keegan McKettrick. As if sensing Ashley’s gaze, he lifted his punch cup to her in a saucy toast and nodded. “But I’m having fun trying.”

Olivia laughed. “Maybe you shouldn’t try too hard,” she said.

Soon after that, with little Mac nodding off, exhausted by all the excitement, people started leaving for their own homes.

Merry Christmases were exchanged all around.

Olivia left with Tanner, delighted to see a soft snow falling as they drove toward home.

“I meant to congratulate you on how dirty this truck is,” Olivia teased.

“I finally found a mud puddle,” Tanner admitted with a grin.

It felt good to laugh with him.

They parted reluctantly, on Olivia’s back porch. She’d be going to Ashley’s tomorrow, while Tanner spent Christmas Day with Tessa and Sophie, at Starfire Ranch.

He kissed her thoroughly and murmured a Merry Christmas, and finally took his leave.

Olivia went inside, found Ginger waiting just on the other side of the kitchen door.

“Did your visitor show up?” Olivia asked as Ginger went past her for a necessary pit stop in the back yard.

“See for yourself,” Ginger said as she climbed the porch steps again, to go inside with Olivia.

Puzzled, Olivia looked around. Nothing seemed different—and yet something was. But what?

Ginger waited patiently, until Olivia finally noticed. A brand-new coffeemaker gleamed on the countertop, topped with a fluffy red bow.

Tanner couldn’t have brought it, she thought, mystified. Perhaps Tessa and Sophie had dropped it off? But that wasn’t possible, either—they’d already been at Stone Creek Ranch when Tanner and Olivia arrived.

“Ginger, who—?”

Ginger didn’t say anything at all. She just turned and padded into the living room.

Olivia followed, musing. Brad? Ashley or Melissa?

No. Brad and Meg had given her a dainty gold bracelet for Christmas, and the twins had gone together on a spa day at a fancy resort up in Flagstaff.

The living room was dark, and Christmas Eve was almost over, so Olivia decided to light the tree and sit quietly for a while with Ginger, reliving all the wonderful moments of the day, tucking them away, one by one, within the soft folds of her heart.

Tanner, proposing marriage on one knee, in her plain kitchen.

Sophie, thrilled that she’d be a permanent resident of Stone Creek from now on. She could ride Butterpie every day, and she was already boning up on Emily’s lines in Our Town, determined to be ready for the auditions next fall.

Ashley, so recently broken, now happily bedeviling a certain handsome boarder.

Olivia cherished these moments, and many others besides.

She leaned over to plug in Charlie Brown’s lights, and that was when she saw the card tucked in among the branches.

Her fingers trembled a little as she opened the envelope.

The card showed Santa and his reindeer flying high over snowy rooftops, and the handwriting inside was exquisitely old-fashioned and completely unfamiliar.

“No way,” Olivia marveled, turning to Ginger.

“Way,” Ginger said. “I told you I was expecting company.”

And just then, high overhead, sleigh bells jingled.

* * *

“You look mighty handsome in that apron, cowboy,” Olivia said, joining Tanner, Tessa and Sophie behind the cafeteria counter at Stone Creek High School on Christmas Day. It was almost two o’clock—time for the community Christmas dinner—and there was a crowd waiting outside. “You’re under-staffed, though.”

Tanner’s blue-denim eyes lit at the sight of Olivia taking her place beside him and tying on an apron she’d brought from home. Tessa and Sophie exchanged pleased looks, but neither spoke.

A fancy catering outfit out of Flagstaff had decorated the tables and prepared the food—turkey and prime rib and ham, and every imaginable kind of trimming and salad and holiday dessert—and they’d be clearing tables and cleaning up afterward. But Olivia knew, via Sophie, that Tanner had insisted on doing more than paying the bill.

A side door opened, and Brad and Meg came in, followed by Ashley and Melissa, fresh from Ashley’s open house at the bed-and-breakfast. They were all pushing up their sleeves as they approached, ready to lend a hand. Meg was especially cheerful, since Carly had shared in the festivities, via speakerphone. She’d be back in Stone Creek soon after New Year’s, eager to take Sophie under her wing and ‘show her the ropes.’

Of course, having spent the morning at Ashley’s herself, Olivia had been expecting them.

Tanner swallowed, visibly moved. “I never thought—I mean, it’s Christmas, and…”

Olivia gave him a light nudge with her elbow. “It’s what country people do, Tanner,” she told him. “They help. Especially if they’re family.”

“Shall I let them in before they break down the doors?” Brad called, grinning. He didn’t seem to mind that he looked a little silly in the bright red sweater Ashley had knitted for his Christmas gift. On the front, she’d stitched in a cowboy Santa Claus, strumming a guitar.

Tanner nodded, after swallowing again. “Let them in,” he said. Then he turned to Olivia, Tessa and Sophie. “Ready, troops?”

They had serving spoons in hand. Sophie even sported a chef’s hat, strung with battery-operated lights.

“Ready!” chorused the three women who loved Tanner Quinn.

Brad opened the cafeteria doors and in they came, the ones who were down on their luck, or elderly, or simply lonely. The children were spruced up in their Sunday best, wide-eyed and shy. Some carried toys they’d received from Brad and Meg in last night’s secret-Santa front-porch blitz, others wore new clothes and a few of the older ones were rocking to MP3 players.

Ashley, Melissa and Meg ushered the elderly ladies and gentlemen to tables, took their orders and brought them plates.

Everyone else went through the line—proud, hardworking men who might have been ashamed to partake of free food, even on a holiday, if the whole town hadn’t been invited to join in, tired-looking women who’d had one too many disappointments but were daring to hope things could be better, teenagers doing their best to be cool.

As she filled plate after plate, Olivia felt her throat constrict with love for these townspeople—her people, the home folks—and for Tanner Quinn. After all, this dinner had been his idea, and he’d spent a fortune to make it happen.

She was most touched, though, when the mayor showed up, and a dozen of the town’s more prosperous families. They had fine dinners waiting at home, and Christmas trees surrounded by gifts—but they’d come to show that this was no charity event.

It was for everybody, and their presence made that plain.

When the last straggler had been served, when plates had been wrapped in foil for delivery to shut-ins, and the caterers had loaded the copious leftovers in their van for delivery to the nursing home, the people of Stone Creek lingered, swapping stories and jokes and greetings.

This, Olivia thought, watching them, seeing the new hope in their eyes, is Christmas.

Inevitably, Brad’s guitar appeared.

He sat on the edge of one of the tables, tuned it carefully and cleared his throat.

A silence fell, fairly buzzing with anticipation.

“I’m not doing this alone,” Brad said, grinning as he addressed the gathering. All these people were his friends and, by extension, his family. To Olivia, it was a measure of his manhood that he could wear that sweater in public. He knew how hard Ashley had worked to prepare her gift, and because he loved his kid sister, he didn’t mind the amused whispers.

A few chuckles rose from the tables. It was partly because of his words, Olivia supposed, and partly because of the sweater.

He strummed a few notes, and then he began to sing.

“Silent night, holy night…”

And voice by voice, cautious and confident, old and young, warbling alto and clear tenor, the carol grew, until all of Stone Creek was singing.

Olivia looked up into Tanner’s eyes, and something passed between them, something silent and fundamental and infinitely precious.

“Do I qualify?” he asked her when the song faded away.

“As what?”

“A real cowboy,” Tanner said with a grin teetering at the corners of his mouth.

Olivia stood on tiptoe and kissed him lightly. “Yes,” she told him happily. “You’re the real deal, Tanner Quinn.”

“Was it the muddy truck?” he teased.

She laughed. “No,” she answered, laying a hand to his chest and spreading her fingers wide. “It’s that big, wide-open-spaces heart of yours.”

He looked up, frowned ruefully. “No mistletoe,” he said.

Olivia slipped her arms around his neck, right there in the cafeteria at Stone Creek High School, with half the town looking on. “Who needs mistletoe?”

* * * * *