A Boulder Creek Christmas Read Free Page B

Christmas spirit?”
    “It’s right here.” She hummed a few bars along with “We Three Kings”as it piped through the speakers. “See?”
    “It’s a start.” He paused, searching for the right words. “Why are you so put out with me, Lani?”
    “You don’t know?”
    “I know what you think I did, but I’m not at all sure your account is the way it actually happened. Why don’t we swap versions tonight? I’ll swing by your house and pick you up. We can ride to the auction together.”
    “You mean…like a date?”
    “Sure.” Ryan’s voice brightened. Now they were getting somewhere. “If you want to call it that.”
    “I don’t, and no, thank you.” Lani leaned in and pressed a hand to his forehead as she finished attacking the stubble along his jawline with the razor. “You must be suffering from a fever to even consider such a thing.”
    “I’m perfectly lucid.” Ryan spoke carefully around the blade. He was regretting his decision to ask her to include a shave, but the mirror told him he couldn’t back out now, with half of his face clean and the other still covered in a scruffy winter blanket. “How long are you gonna hold your grudge over something that happened years ago?”
    “Because my version is fact and it did happen. And, for the record, I’m not harboring a grudge. I’m simply exercising…sagacious caution.”
    “Sagacious…all this because I kissed you?”
    The crimson wash across Lani’s cheeks told Ryan he’d struck a nerve, and he wished immediately that he could take back the words.
    “It wasn’t just a kiss, Ryan.” She took a step back from the chair, drew a long, laborious breath. “And, for the record, you didn’t kiss me. I kissed you .”
    “Yes, you did.”
    “Go ahead…rub it in.”
    Were those tears in Lani’s eyes? Oh, brother, he’d made a mess of things now. Ryan swallowed hard. “Hold up a minute, Lani. Let me explain myself.”
    “There’s no need. Your actions that followed were explanation enough. I was about as much of a fool as a person can possibly be.”
    Moisture turned her luminous green eyes to glistening jewels.
    “No you weren’t, and I said wait a minute.” Ryan nudged her hand away and pushed himself from the chair to stand and face her. He lowered his voice. It would do no good to force the issue. He needed her cooperation here. “Please listen to me.”
    “The answer is no.” Lani wiped her hands on a towel and then lobbed it at him, smacking him squarely in his well-groomed face—well, halfway groomed. His reflection in the mirror proved that one cheek and jaw still showcased the telltale five o’clock shadow. “I told you I can’t go tonight. I don’t want to go with you. So, save your breath for the auction block. I’m sure there’ll be a plethora of willing bidders vying for your undivided attention, handyman skills…and more.”
    “What’s that supposed to mean?”
    “Forget it, Ryan. The haircut’s on the house, but you’ll have to finish the shave yourself.”
    Lani spun on her heel and strode away, back toward the storage room, but even without a glimpse of her face, Ryan could imagine the expression tattooed there, judging from the tears that strangled her voice.
    “Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.”

3
    The sharp crack of a hammer greeted Alani as she turned her Honda into the driveway of her small frame house the next afternoon. At the top of the drive, blocking the single-car garage, sat a black, mud-splattered pick-up truck that looked familiar.
    Too familiar.
    Alani pressed the Honda’s brake, threw the car into PARK, and opened the driver’s-side door with a single breath. She stomped over snow-laden gravel and turned the corner toward the staccato burst at the rear of the house.
    “Ryan, what are you doing here?”
    “What does it look like I’m doing?” Sawdust danced in a halo around his head as he glanced up from the redwood deck without missing a stroke of the hammer.