for a big family celebration? “All right. I’ll get him here even if I have to track him down and toss him into the trunk of my SUV.”
“Thank you.” With that settled, she handed him a platter of roasted carrots and potatoes to carry to the table.
Throughout the meal, they chatted about their jobs. Arden, a professional photographer, regaled him with anecdotes of her afternoon trying to take a four-generation family portrait.
“There were twenty-eight of them! They wouldn’t fit in my studio, and it’s too cold to shoot outside. We got to use the Cielo Peak performance hall because the family makes annual contributions and one of the sisters plays in the jazz ensemble. The great-grandfather nodded off twice while I was trying to arrange everyone. Between trying to keep him awake and trying to keep the toddler from fussing, it was the most challenging job I’ve had since the Cavanaugh wedding where the bride wanted a picture with her biological parents—a divorced couple who hadn’t set foot in the same room in seventeen years.”
That led into a discussion of Arden’s own wedding plans, and Justin was happy to listen as he polished off the last of his roast beef. Or, at least, half listen. He would take a bullet for his sister, but he wasn’t cut out for conversations about the color of pew-bows. So it took him by surprise when conversation halted, his sister peering at him as if awaiting a reply.
He stalled brilliantly. “Um...”
“You men can talk trivial sports statistics until the cows come home, but can’t sit through five minutes of wedding updates! I asked if you thought you might bring a date to the ceremony. While it’s customary to allow guests a plus-one, it’s not like you’re dating—”
“Untrue. I date all the time.”
She rolled her eyes. “My point exactly. You don’t have a girlfriend, and God knows Colin will come alone. Assuming he even attends.”
The doubt in her tone was wrenching. “Hey, he wouldn’t miss this for the world. He agreed to walk you down the aisle.”
“I know. But...sometimes it feels like we’ve lost him. I wonder if we should have tried harder to keep him here instead of letting him roam the countryside, doing odd jobs on ranches. This will sound stupid, but I worry that if he drifts too far out of orbit, he won’t be able to find his way home.”
Justin stood, clearing plates from the table. Would it be cruel to point out that Colin had lost his wife and child and probably needed distance from Arden, who now had her own child and was about to become a wife? No matter how sincerely Colin wanted his sister’s happiness, her bliss couldn’t be easy to be around.
After a moment, she joined him at the sink, her earlier sadness replaced with an air of determination that never boded well. She smiled. “Speaking of your abysmal dating habits—”
“We weren’t. We were discussing our drifter brother and how we should save him from himself. Let’s explore that further.”
She ignored him. “Christmas is a special time.”
It was eerie how much she sounded like their mother. Arden had only been four when their mom got sick. Did she remember that Christmas had been Rebecca Cade’s favorite time of year? Did Arden recall any of the traditions that had faded once their mom was gone? For a second, the kitchen around him seemed filled with the aroma of spicy sausage balls and the sharp sweetness of lemon bars. He recalled the music of his mom’s laugh after she routinely tried—and failed—to hit the high note in “O Holy Night.”
“It’s a time,” Arden continued, “of reconnection. Even if you haven’t spoken to someone in months, you can send them a card.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Why do I think you mean ‘someone’ specific?”
“You never should have let her go.” Arden’s voice was soft, but the reproving note echoed all around him. “As I’ve said many times before, you and Elisabeth were great together.”
“You have a point. Not about us being great, but about you saying it many, many times. Give it a rest, will you?”
“Colin has gone God knows where, so I can’t help him. Maybe I still have a shot at getting you to fix your messes before I move to the ranch. I know we joke about your love life, but breaking up with Elisabeth Donnelly was the stupidest thing you’ve ever done.”
It hadn’t been stupidity. It had been self-preservation. But he couldn’t explain to his happily engaged sister the claustrophobia he’d experienced during dinners with the Donnellys or the clawing panic as Elisabeth watched her friend Michelle succumb to the same disease that had taken his mother. His growing attachment to Elisabeth and her family had been uncomfortable enough, but then Kaylee had started visiting during some of her mom’s hospital stays...
He cleared his throat, shoving the memories aside. “You don’t have to worry about Elisabeth Donnelly. She’s found some businessman. You can bet they have more in common than she and I ever did.”
If Elisabeth decided to enter the corporate world, she was bright enough to fast-track herself to a fancy corner office and well-dressed minions. Meanwhile, Justin worked three different jobs in the course of a year to compensate for the off-season and lived in a rented house. His ambitions were about conquering black diamond trails, not making money or building a legacy.
“She has a boyfriend?” Arden frowned. “It’s a small town, and I haven’t seen her with anyone. Maybe it’s not serious.”
“Serious enough that he proposed and she said yes.”
“What?”
He leaned against the counter, his pose relaxed. It was important that Arden saw how unbothered he was by Elisabeth’s engagement. “They have a long-distance relationship—even longer distance than you and the cowboy. I ran into Lina on Sunday, and she filled me in on the details.” He omitted the part about how Lina thought the engagement was a mistake and blamed Justin for her sister’s rash decision.
“Oh.” Arden’s forehead furrowed into pensive lines. “I was so sure you and she...”
“Sis, I’m glad you found true love, but that doesn’t give you magical insight into everyone else’s personal lives.” No matter how fervently she insisted he and Elisabeth belonged together, stubbornness did not equal truth. “No more unsolicited opinions, okay?”
She snorted. “Yeah, that’s gonna happen.”
As she brewed coffee to go with the chocolate-caramel brownies that were cooling, Arden brightened. “I always liked Elisabeth, but talking to her got weird after you broke up. Now that she’s over you, I should call and compare notes on wedding gown shopping.”
He made a noncommittal sound.
“And I have to keep reminding myself that Garrett fell into my life when I least expected it. Just because I was wrong about you and Elisabeth doesn’t mean you’re doomed to be alone.” She poked him in the shoulder. “The right girl for you is out there.”
God, I hope not. Because he’d rather ski blindfolded down the side of a mountain than meet her.
* * *
NINE O’CLOCK FOUND Justin sitting on his black leather couch, eyeing his cell phone
