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But she checked the peephole, anyway.
Too much tall stood there.
Now she was sweating in her sweater.
“C’mon in,” she said, her words deceitfully calm. “I’m going to be honest. I’m not sure I have anything on hand to make an edible meal.”
Shrugging out of his heavy coat, Thomas took in the small living room and galley kitchen. Nina watched him for signs of disappointment or regret. But in typical lawman fashion, he seemed to be sizing up security—and taking in information on how she lived.
Heavy beige curtains covered the sliding doors to the tiny backyard that she and Sam loved to play in. The furniture came with the place, and it was mismatched and clunky.
Wishing she’d taken a little time to decorate the rooms with her own sense of style, Nina crossed her arms over her midsection and stood her ground. She worked too much to worry about making it into Architectural Digest.
“It ain’t much, but it’s home,” she chirped, motioning to the big doors and several windows. “On good days, I can see the Pryor Mountains, which is kind of cool since I could also see them from my bedroom in Wyoming, growing up.”
His stormy eyes widened. “What, you circled the mountain and settled on the other side?”
“Something like that.” Looking at her sad little home through the eyes of someone else made Nina self-conscious and almost embarrassed. But she shook that off the way she shook off everything she couldn’t deal with. “Let’s see what we can round up.”
She headed to the refrigerator and stared at the barren shelves. “I see a few carrots and two potatoes.” Then she checked the freezer. “And a bag of chicken breasts that might have come with the house.”
Thomas snorted and gently moved her aside. “The date on the chicken is still within the safe zone. We’ll hope the same with the potatoes and carrots. Do you stock any canned goods?”
She nodded and opened an overhead cabinet by the refrigerator. “Oh, look, chicken noodle soup and tomato soup. If only we had some crackers.”
“We don’t need crackers,” he stated, already rolling up his sleeves. “You get the decorations ready and I’ll get dinner going.”
“What exactly do you plan to cook?” she asked, wondering how she’d managed to get in this predicament in the first place.
“The Thomas Grant special, ma’am,” he said in his best Texas drawl. “You’re gonna love it.”
She doubted that, but she’d give it a shot since she couldn’t kick him out now. Sam’s head moved in ping-pong style back and forth between them. Obviously, he smelled something in the air. Something distinctive and different.
Another human in the kitchen. Or a tad too much of some new and exciting undercurrent.
Soon, Thomas had the chicken and potatoes browning in a big pot, along with some onions and peppers he’d discovered in a crisper drawer with all the joy of a kid opening a present. He hummed while he cooked.
Nina pretended to be unraveling Christmas lights, but she couldn’t help glancing over at him. A giant wearing boots had taken over her home. And it was beginning to smell good, which caused her stomach to make strange noises and her heart to do funny jumps and bumps.
Finally, after he’d dismantled cans and rummaged for spices and splashed this and that into the pot, he turned it to simmer and came to sit beside her on the now-too-small floral love seat in front of the tiny electric fireplace. “Chicken noodle soup and biscuits coming up in about a half hour.”
“Really?” she asked, surprised. “We could have just opened a can for the soup. And I’m not sure how you managed biscuits.”
“Really, I opened two cans for my special soup. And added a few special ingredients.”
“I’m almost afraid to ask.”
“Then don’t.”
“And the biscuits?”
“You had flour, milk, eggs and baking powder.”
“My mom restocks every time she comes to visit.”
“Well, that turned out to be a good thing.”
His eyes were so amazing. They’d turned as blue-gray as the storm she’d seen over the big sky at dusk and just as mysterious.
Nina laughed and inhaled. “Well, I have to admit that smells better than the soggy pizza I usually bring home.”
“You’re almost out of protein bars,” he replied. “I didn’t throw your last two into the pot.”
“I’m so glad you didn’t.”
They bantered back and forth while they got the lights straightened out and wrapped around the sad little evergreen.
“I think this tree is going to be lost in a burst of color,” Thomas stated. “Where did you buy it? ’Cause I think you need a refund.”
“Ha, funny.” She shrugged. “A kid was selling them to make money to buy a bicycle. I felt sorry for him. He’d obviously scoured the back forty and...found the best of the lot.”
“We could find you a prettier tree,” Thomas pointed out. “But this one is kind of tugging at my heartstrings in that Charlie Brown kind of way.”
“I wish you could see the tree my mom and dad put up each year,” she replied, not even thinking about her words. “It’s fresh and has to be at least nine feet tall and covers one corner of the den in our log house. Dad fusses every year, but he loves hanging the lights on the tree and along the staircase. We all gather on Christmas Eve and sing carols and hymns, and then we eat a big meal of barbecue and all the trimmings. My brothers and their families all live nearby and I usually show up at the last minute and then...it’s Christmas.”
“That is Christmas,” Thomas said, his eyes dark with a longing that tore at Nina’s heart. “Sounds wonderful.”
“You’ll see, Thomas,” she said. “My family has a steadfast rule that we can bring anyone we want home for Christmas.”
He nodded, but he didn’t look so sure about that invitation.
Did he think she was pushing him in the wrong way? Nina wondered. Because she’d done it again. Invited him to go home with her for Christmas. She wouldn’t ask anymore.
Or was he too afraid to stop being alone to enjoy being with someone during the holidays?
She was about to ask him that when the buzzer on the stove dinged and caused her to step back.
“Dinner is ready,” he said, that distant longing still in his eyes, his smile beautiful but full of resolve and regret. “We’d better eat so we can finish making this tree as special as the one you just described.”
“I have to admit, that was some pretty good soup. Noodles and potatoes and carrots and...what kind of spices did you put in there?”
Thomas grinned and winked. “You had some ginger and rosemary stashed away in the spice drawer.”
Nina hit a hand against her head. “Oh, my mom gave me a whole spice rack last time I was home. I think she was trying to give me a hint. You know, get some spice in your life and find someone and get married and make babies.”
“All that from a couple of shakes into the pot?”
“All that and more,” she replied, before taking a sip of her hot chocolate. “She also gave me this cocoa mix.”
He toasted her with his own. “I think mixing up the recipe