A Husband for the Holidays (Made For Matrimony 1) Read Free Page B

toes.
    Oh, no.
    She looked down at the bow she’d botched and untied it with trembling fingers. Oh, this was bad.
    True, in the years since the divorce she’d barely dated. The few times she’d gone out? Her friends had talked her into it and there’d never been a second date.
    She’d never reacted to anyone the way she did to Mack.
    “We need to talk.”
    Darcy jumped at the sound of his voice right behind her. She turned and looked up at him, at the hard set of his jaw, the iciness of his blue eyes. Oh, how she’d hurt this man she’d loved with all her heart. If only she could go back and undo the past.
    But she couldn’t.
    “About what?” Panic fluttered in her throat. He couldn’t want to get into their failed marriage already, could he?
    “Why we’re here.”
    Darcy put down the scissors she could barely hold anyway and crossed her arms over her chest, needing the barrier it signaled to both of them. “I know why I’m here. My aunt and uncle asked me to be.”
    His eyes flashed. “You could have come home at any time.”
    She inhaled sharply. “No. I couldn’t. You of all people know why.”
    “I don’t even know why you left in the first place.” The words were simple but stark and sliced through her as cleanly as a sharp blade.
    She lifted her chin, fought the threat of tears back. “Of course you do. But it doesn’t matter now. I’m going to help my aunt and uncle out, then I’ll be out of your life.”
    He looked at her, his intense blue gaze unreadable. “You’ll never be out of my life,” he said, his voice low.
    Darcy stared after him as he strode out of the barn, his words vibrating in her soul.
    Marla hurried over to her. “You okay, dear?”
    Darcy forced her lips into what she hoped passed for a smile. “Of course.” At her aunt’s skeptical look she added, “A little shaken, but I’ll be fine, Aunt Marla. It’s been a while.”
    The phone rang and her aunt glared at it, then went to answer, clearly reluctant to leave Darcy alone.
    She picked her scissors back up and decided right then not to show how much the encounter had affected her. As she started a new bow, determination set in. It might be too much to hope she could get Mack to understand now what he’d been unable to back then. But she absolutely had to try so she could finally move on.
    Wasn’t Christmas a season for miracles?
    She’d need one.
    * * *
    Mack strode out into the cold, thoughts whirling. He thought he’d been prepared for the shock, but he’d been wrong. Way wrong. Seeing her wasn’t easier after all these years.
    Especially when she looked so damn appealing.
    But it’d been the look in her big brown eyes that killed him—wary, hopeful, sad all mixed together. Regretful.
    Regrets. He had a few of those himself.
    The still falling snow swirled around him as he approached Joe, who was readying to bale and load cut trees into a truck for delivery at a local store. Joe looked distinctly guilty as he approached.
    “You saw Darcy?”
    Mack gave a curt nod. “Yeah.”
    Joe’s look was assessing and it made Mack uncomfortable. He didn’t want the older man to see how rattled he was. “I’m sorry we didn’t talk to you about Darcy. We were afraid you’d quit or that she wouldn’t come. We didn’t want either to happen.”
    Mack shook his head. He wouldn’t have quit. And he wouldn’t have discussed Darcy with her uncle anyway—it would be disloyal and he’d never ask Joe to do that. “It’s all right. So where are these going?” He pulled a fresh-cut spruce off the trailer.
    “Tom’s. Said delivery would be first thing tomorrow.” With that, Joe turned the equipment on.
    It suited him.
    It didn’t take nearly long enough to load the truck with the trees and wreaths the grocery store owner had ordered. By the time he’d completed several other tasks and he ducked back into the barn, he didn’t see Darcy.
    The stab he felt wasn’t disappointment. It couldn’t be. He’d been