His Christmas Gift, page 4
He could feel his sister watching him, but he kept his gaze trained on the TV.
“Jenna won’t be here until late afternoon, if you’re trying to avoid her,” Lacey said.
“Why would I want to avoid her?”
“I don’t know. There was just a weird vibe between you two when she was here last time.”
Sawyer gave his sister a look. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Lacey made a noncommittal sound but didn’t bring it up again. By ten, he could barely keep his eyes open, and he handed her the remote and headed off to bed.
The next morning, he spent half an hour trimming then shaving his beard. It was a bit of a shock to see his skin exposed for the first time in months, and he definitely felt the bite of the cold, morning air when he left the house and crossed to his truck. It took ten minutes to drive into town where he had to use every trick he knew to sweet-talk Rainey Brown at Nell’s Cut and Curl into squeezing him in between appointments. By the time she’d finished he didn’t recognize himself – which he figured was a good thing. He was heading out of town when he caught sight of a sale sign in the window of one of the clothing stores on Main Street. On impulse, he pulled over and ducked in for a quick look at the sale rack. He left wearing a new red and black plaid, flannel shirt and a pristine down coat, with a further two new shirts and a handful of plain white T-shirts in a bag.
He drummed his hands on the steering wheel as he drove back to the farm. He’d taken longer than he intended, and he hoped Lacey had coped okay. He paused to grab the mail at the bottom of the driveway, quickly scanning the postcard from his parents, the second he and Lacey had received as their parents cruised their way around the Caribbean.
His happiness at learning they were having a great time faded as he continued up the drive to the parking lot and saw how full it was. He parked quickly, scanning for his sister. He spotted her dealing with some customers and waited until they were heading for the barn to pay for their tree before approaching her.
“Who’s next?” he asked, and she threw him a relieved smile.
“There’s a couple – whoa. Who are you and what have you done with my brother?”
“Too funny. Where’s this couple who need help?” Sawyer asked, but he could feel his cheeks warming as Lacey catalogued his haircut, shave, new shirt, and jacket.
“They’re up the back where the seven footers are. He’s got a bright red coat on, you can’t miss him,” Lacey said. Amusement danced in her eyes, however, and he knew he was about to be on the receiving end of some sisterly shit-slinging if he didn’t move fast.
“I’ll get onto it,” he said, already striding away.
He caught sight of Lacey heading his way three times over the next hour, but each time he either managed to avoid her by engaging with a customer, or she was pulled up by someone asking for assistance. He was clearing a blockage in the tree baler when she finally caught up with him.
“So, tell me again how you have no idea what I was talking about when I mentioned a weird vibe between you and Jenna.”
He tugged on a tangle of netting stuck in the mechanism. “What are you going on about?”
“He said innocently. You’re hot for Jenna. Just admit it.”
The netting came free in a rush, sending his knuckles slamming into the cold metal of the baler. He hissed and shook out his hand to ease the pain.
“I barely remember what she looks like,” he lied.
Lacey cocked an eyebrow in disbelief. “Let me refresh your memory. Tall, really nice ass, cute face, amazing eyes.”
He frowned at his sister’s very specific praise, a little disconcerted by how closely her observations echoed his own. Lacey grinned.
“Don’t worry, I didn’t change teams on the inside. But I do have eyes in my head. Jenna is a hottie. You have good taste.”
“I barely noticed.”
“Sure you didn’t, Mr. Close Clean Shave.”
Lacey reached out to touch his cheek but he batted her hand away. Lacey laughed, clearly delighted by his discomfort.
“Don’t you have work to do?” he asked.
“I do, but this is much more fun. Feel free to pump me for information about her in a shameless attempt to find out if you’re in with a chance.”
He’d split the skin over one of his knuckles and he shook a droplet of blood off onto the snowy ground.
“Thanks, but I think I’ll pass,” he said, aware that he was sounding more like a grumpy bear with every second that passed.
“I’m pretty sure she isn’t seeing anyone. At least, she’s never mentioned anyone and she never says we when she’s talking about stuff she did on the weekend. What else can I tell you? She works a lot. She’s scary smart. She loves Destiny’s Child and cheesy hamburgers.”
Sawyer held up a hand to stem the flow. “You want to calm down? I got a haircut. Last time I looked, it wasn’t cause for breaking out the wedding invitations.”
“Don’t worry. I won’t cramp your style. Maybe we should come up with a signal so I can get out of the way if you want to make a move,” Lacey said, not bothering to hide how much she was enjoying teasing him.
Sawyer sighed heavily. “You done?”
“Not even close.”
Shaking his head, he headed for the barn.
“You can run but you can’t hide.” Lacey called after him.
Lacey kept up a steady stream of sisterly sledging for the rest of the afternoon, twice making him look up when she claimed to see Jenna’s car pulling into the parking lot, only to belly laugh and admit she was only joking. Normally, he would have gotten sick of her ragging and employed all his big-brother skills to shut it down, but this was the lightest, the most playful he’d seen Lacey since she’d come home, and he didn’t have the heart to kill her joy – even if it meant being the butt of the joke.
He was packing a selection of Christmas decorations in tissue paper when Lacey sidled in behind the counter and gave him a meaningful look.
“The hottie has landed,” she said, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively.
“Sure it has,” he said dryly.
Lacey held up her hand in the pledge position. “I swear it’s true this time.”
Sawyer glanced toward the door, aware of the kick of anticipation in his belly as his pulse sped up. Maybe Jenna would walk through the door and the pull of attraction he’d experienced would be gone. Maybe he’d take one look into her clear, green eyes and feel nothing but vague appreciation for what she was doing for his sister.
Maybe. But just to be safe, he ran a hand over his newly cut hair and squared his shoulders.
*
Jenna took a few minutes to gather her things before exiting her car. Like the last time she’d visited, Gallagher’s Christmas Tree Farm was doing a brisk trade, and she’d been lucky to score a parking spot. She slid her phone into her handbag and grabbed her gloves and scarf, winding the latter around her neck before flipping down the visor to check her makeup.
She frowned as she registered what she was doing. As if Lacey cared if her mascara was smudged or her lipstick faded away to nothing. Still, she quickly smoothed on a new coat of Cutie Pie before slipping on her gloves and exiting the car.
Figuring Lacey would either be in the barn or out amongst the trees with the customers, Jenna started across the parking lot. She couldn’t see Lacey in amongst the trees closest to the barn, so she ducked inside and came to an abrupt halt as she took in the Christmas wonderland she’d walked into.
Twinkling fairy lights were draped and wrapped around the exposed roof beams, and the two longest walls were lined with trees decorated with exquisite ornaments and dripping with tinsel. Usually Jenna avoided all the fanfare of Christmas – she never put up a tree at home, and she couldn’t remember the last time she’d willingly listened to a Christmas carol. There was no denying the charm of the display in front of her, however – the smell of fresh pine needles filled the air, fairy lights twinkled and changed colors, and glossily-wrapped presents waited beneath the lower boughs of the trees.
A memory rose up to bite her – her younger sister, Cassie, surrounded by colorful Christmas wrap, her face wreathed in smiles as she tore off the last piece of paper to reveal the full set of the Anne of Green Gables novels. More than anything, Cassie had loved getting lost in the pages of a book, and her eyes had glowed with appreciation as she smoothed her hand reverentially over the cover of the topmost volume.
Grief sliced through Jenna’s chest, stealing her breath for a moment, and she turned blindly toward a shelving display full of boxed fairy lights, buying herself a few seconds to recover.
Freaking Christmas – this was why she hated the festive season. Too many memories hiding around corners, waiting to ambush her when her guard was down. She took a couple of deep breaths, burying the memory back where it had come from, then faced the counter again and started walking.
Only to stop in her tracks a second time when she spotted the tall, dark-haired man talking to Lacey.
“Holy crap,” she whispered under her breath, so stunned she could do nothing but stare.
It was Sawyer Gallagher – the width of his shoulders and the straight line of his nose gave that way – but it was not the same Sawyer Gallagher she’d met when she was here three weeks ago. Instead of a long, overgrown mop, this man had a new, short haircut that was crisp and stylish enough to make a GQ cover model green with envy. And instead of half his face being hidden behind messy facial hair, the clean, deliciously masculine angles and planes of his jaw and cheekbones were on display.
And he was gorgeous. Steal-her-breath, ruin-her-underwear, inspire-a-thousand-fantasies gorgeous. There was no denying or pretending or avoiding it.
He was that hot.
She felt as though someone had pulled out her seat just before she sat in it, leaving her to land ass first on the floor. She hadn’t been prepared for this. Not by a long shot. She’d come here ready to deal with the wordless shrugs and silent disapproval of a shaggy mountain man. Instead, she now had to somehow get past the fact that she would be spending the next twenty-four hours under the same roof as the sexiest man she’d ever laid eyes on.
She was still trying to get it together when Lacey glanced across and spotted her.
“Jenna. You made it,” Lacey said, starting toward her.
Jenna tried to remember what it was a person normally said in circumstances like this. It took her brain a painful few seconds to supply the answer.
“Hi,” she said.
“You remember Sawyer, right?” Lacey said, glancing over her shoulder toward her brother, who had remained at the counter.
Jenna met Sawyer’s dark brown eyes. “Hi,” she said again.
Apparently it was her word for the day.
Then she did something she’d never done before in her life—she lifted her hand in a girly little wave, the kind the head cheerleader might give the captain of the football team as he ran onto the field for the big game.
Lacey’s gaze flicked from Jenna’s hand then back to Jenna’s face, then her mouth curled up at the corners as though she was suppressing a smile.
“How was the drive down?” Sawyer asked.
He moved closer, and she had to quell the urge to back away from his attractiveness. It was like a force field, bearing down on her, making her exquisitely aware of how tight her jeans were around her thighs and the cinch of her bra band around her rib cage and the way she could feel her pulse pounding away in the pit of her stomach.
“It was okay. No snow, so that was a bonus,” she said. “Although, I’ve got my snow tires on, obviously, so even if it had snowed, it would have been fine.”
She bit her tongue to stem the flow of nervous words that was suddenly pressing at the back of her throat. The hand wave had been bad enough. She would not make this any worse by babbling like an idiot.
“I’ll grab your luggage and take it inside,” Sawyer said, holding out his hand.
She stared at his open palm blankly, noting the ridge of calluses at the base of his fingers. Then she realized he was waiting for her to hand over her keys so he could unlock her car.
“Oh. It’s no bother. It’s just an overnight bag.”
“I’ll take care of it for you,” Sawyer said.
There was something about his tone and the way he was looking at her that told her he was determined to perform this small service for her.
“Well, okay. Thanks. It’s in the back,” she said, pulling her keys from her purse and handing them over.
His hand closed around the keys, his fingers brushing hers as she withdrew, and a ripple of pure, animal awareness washed through her.
Oh, boy.
Without another word, Sawyer walked passed her, exiting to the yard.
“He scrubs up pretty good, doesn’t he?” Lacey said.
Even though she could feel how pink her cheeks were, there was nothing for Jenna to do except play innocent.
“Sorry? Oh, Sawyer, you mean?” Jenna said in her best I’m-not-interested tone. She augmented her performance by flicking at some imaginary lint on the thigh of her black denim jeans. “I guess he does look a little different with his hair cut.”
“He definitely does.”
Lacey still looked as though she was trying not to smile and Jenna rolled her eyes, finally dropping her indifferent act.
“Okay, he scrubs up extremely well. Can you stop laughing at me now?” Jenna said.
“Sure. I just think it’s cute, that’s all. I’ve never seen you flustered before.”
“That’s because it doesn’t happen very often.”
It definitely didn’t happen very often with men. She’d never been the kind of woman who got giggly and silly over a good-looking guy. There’d been plenty of them in her classes at law school, but she’d never been even remotely tempted by their polished confidence and undeniable physical appeal.
Sawyer, on the other hand, wasn’t even close to being polished, and he didn’t strike her as being cocky or arrogant, either. He was that most elusive of male specimens—the strong silent type. And apparently it was her personal brand of catnip.
Not exactly the best time to discover she had a thing for beautifully built men who worked with their hands for a living.
“Come on up to the house and I’ll show you your room,” Lacey said.
Jenna fell into step beside the other woman as they exited the barn and headed for the cabin.
“He’s single. Just in case you were wondering,” Lacey said.
“I wasn’t.”
“You sure?”
Jenna shot her client a look. “I thought you were done with laughing at me?”
“Sorry. It’s kind of irresistible.”
Jenna made a noncommittal sound as they mounted the steps to the front porch. She braced herself for the impact of being in the same space as Sawyer again, but there was no sign of him, and when Lacey showed her to the guest room, her bag was sitting on the end of the bed with her car keys resting on top.
“Bathroom is down the hall. Help yourself to anything in the fridge, and feel free to put on fresh coffee or whatever. Sorry to abandon you, but I need to get back out there for the last few hours of daylight – a lot of people come up after school to pick out trees with their kids.”
“Maybe I could come with you and we could talk in between customers?” Jenna suggested hopefully.
“Sure, if you don’t mind hanging around while I’m serving people.”
“I can help packs bags or whatever,” Jenna offered.
“That would be awesome, but please don’t feel obligated.”
“No obligation. It’ll be fun.”
They stopped by the kitchen on the way out to grab a mug of fresh coffee each, then Lacey led the way back to the barn. A woman Jenna didn’t recognize was behind the counter serving, and half a dozen people were waiting patiently.
“Better jump in,” Lacey said, lengthening her stride as she headed for the second register set up on the rustic counter.
Jenna watched from one side as Lacey dealt with tree sales. The third customer had a basket full of decorations, and Jenna stepped forward to help wrap them in tissue and place them in brown paper carrier bags with the Gallagher’s Christmas Tree Farm logo printed on the side.
Lacey caught Jenna examining one of the bags as the glut of customers eased.
“Pretty cool, huh? Sawyer had them made this year. And he added all the decorations, too. We never used to sell anything except for trees and stands. But all this stuff has been going gangbusters.”
“I’m not surprised, it’s so pretty in here, even I want to buy something, and I am not a Christmas person,” Jenna said.
Lacey’s gaze went over her shoulder and the small hairs on the back of Jenna’s neck stood on end. She didn’t need to turn around to know that Sawyer was standing behind her.
“What did Christmas ever do to you?” he said, and she realized he’d overheard her comment.
“Nothing. I’m just not a festive celebration type person,” Jenna said, trying not to stare at the cheekbones that had been revealed now he’d shaved off his scruffy beard.
“Sure there wasn’t an ugly incident with Santa Claus? Some kind of dispute with Rudolph?” Sawyer asked.
His tone was so dry, so matter of fact, it took her a second to understand he was teasing her.
Sawyer Gallagher, of the please-leave-my-house vibes and glowering frown.
“No Christmas trauma to speak of, no,” she said.
“Interesting.” His gaze flicked down her body and Jenna’s toes curled inside her boots. There should be a law against men as good looking as he was growing beards. Hiding his undeniable masculine beauty was a crime against nature.
“We’re almost out of those mercury glass stars,” Lacey said. “Might want to double up on them next year.”
Sawyer nodded as though he was making a mental note. “Good call.” His glance shifted to Jenna again. “Don’t tell me Lacey roped you into helping out?”
“Don’t look at me, she roped herself,” Lacey said.
“I have an ulterior motive,” Jenna said. “I’m desperate to talk to Lacey about our strategy for the new trial, and I didn’t want to wait till after she’d finished for the day.”
