Making Christmas Read online

  MAKING CHRISTMAS

  Wyoming Wildflowers series

  Book 10

  Patricia McLinn

  Also by Patricia McLinn

  A Place Called Home

  Lost and Found Groom

  At the Heart's Command

  Hidden in a Heartbeat

  A Place Called Home Trilogy Boxed Set

  Bardville, Wyoming

  A Stranger in the Family

  A Stranger to Love

  The Rancher Meets His Match

  Bardville, Wyoming Trilogy Boxed Set

  Caught Dead In Wyoming

  Sign Off (Caught Dead in Wyoming, Book 1)

  Left Hanging (Caught Dead in Wyoming, Book 2)

  Shoot First (Caught Dead in Wyoming, Book 3)

  Last Ditch (Caught Dead in Wyoming, Book 4)

  Look Live (Caught Dead in Wyoming, Book 5)

  Back Story (Caught Dead in Wyoming, Book 6)

  Cold Open (Caught Dead in Wyoming, Book 7)

  Hot Roll (Caught Dead in Wyoming, Book 8)

  Reaction Shot (Caught Dead in Wyoming, Book 9)

  Body Brace (Caught Dead in Wyoming, Book 10) (Coming Soon)

  Flores Silvestres de Wyoming

  Flores Silvestres de Wyoming: El Principio

  Casi una Novia

  Pareja Hecha en Wyoming

  Mi Corazón Recuerda

  El corazón de Jack

  Colección de trilogía Flores Silvestres de Wyoming

  Innocence Trilogy

  Price of Innocence

  Marry Me Series

  Wedding of the Century

  The Unexpected Wedding Guest

  A Most Unlikely Wedding

  Baby Blues and Wedding Bells

  Rodeo Knights

  Ride the River: Rodeo Knights, A Western Romance Novel

  Seasons in a Small Town

  What Are Friends For?

  The Right Brother

  Falling for Her

  Warm Front

  Secret Sleuth

  Death on the Diversion

  Death on Torrid Ave.

  Death on Beguiling Way

  Death on Covert Circle

  Death on Shady Bridge

  Death on Carrion Lane (Coming Soon)

  Serie I Fiori di Campo del Wyoming

  I Fiori di Campo del Wyoming: L'inizio (Il Prequel)

  Innamorarsi In Wyoming

  Il Mio Cuore Ricorda

  Il Cuore di Jack

  The Wedding Series

  Prelude to a Wedding

  Wedding Party

  Grady's Wedding

  The Runaway Bride

  The Christmas Princess

  The Surprise Princess

  The Forgotten Prince

  Hoops

  Not a Family Man

  The Wedding Series: The Complete Collection (Books 1-7 and Prequels)

  The Wedding Series Trilogy

  The Wedding Series Box Set Two (Books 4-5, The Runaway Bride and The Christmas Princess)

  The Wedding Series Box Set Three (Book 6, The Surprise Princess, and Hoops prequel)

  The Wedding Series Box Set Four (Book 7, The Forgotten Prince, and Not a Family Man prequel)

  Tod in Wyoming

  Tod in Wyoming: Sendeschluss

  Tod in Wyoming: Hängengelassen

  Tod in Wyoming: Abgeschossen

  Tod in Wyoming: Grabenbruch (Coming Soon)

  Wyoming Wildflowers

  Wyoming Wildflowers: The Beginning

  Almost a Bride

  Match Made In Wyoming

  My Heart Remembers

  A New World

  Jack's Heart

  Rodeo Nights

  Where Love Lives

  A Cowboy Wedding

  Making Christmas

  Wyoming Wildflowers Trilogy Boxed Set

  Wyoming Wildflowers Box Set Two (Book 5, Jack’s Heart, and A New World prequel)

  Wyoming Wildflowers Box Set Three (Book 6, Where Love Lives, and Rodeo Nights prequel)

  Wyoming Wildflowers: The Complete Collection

  Wyoming Wildflowers: The Complete Series

  Standalone

  Courting a Cowboy

  The Games

  To Love a Cowboy (A Western Historical Duet)

  Widow Woman

  Wyoming Wild: Western Romance Series Starters

  Christmas Romance: Three Complete Holiday Love Stories

  Proof of Innocence

  Survival Kit for Writers Who Don't Write Right

  Watch for more at Patricia McLinn’s site.

  Wyoming Wildflowers series

  Wyoming Wildflowers: The Beginning (prequel)

  Almost a Bride

  Match Made in Wyoming

  My Heart Remembers

  A New World (prequel to Jack’s Heart)

  Jack’s Heart

  Rodeo Nights (prequel to Where Love Lives)

  Where Love Lives

  A Cowboy Wedding

  Making Christmas

  More romance by Patricia McLinn

  Bardville, Wyoming series

  A Stranger in the Family

  A Stranger to Love

  The Rancher Meets His Match

  A Place Called Home series

  Lost and Found Groom

  At the Heart’s Command

  Hidden in a Heartbeat

  Seasons in a Small Town

  What Are Friends For? (Spring)

  The Right Brother (Summer)

  Falling for Her (Autumn)

  Warm Front (Winter)

  The Wedding Series

  Marry Me series

  The Games

  Copyright © 2020 Patricia McLinn

  eBook ISBN: 978-1-944126-92-6

  Paperback ISBN: 978-1-944126-93-3

  EPUB Edition

  www.PatriciaMcLinn.com

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

  Cover Design: Art by Karri

  Dear Readers: If you encounter typos or errors in this book, please send them to me at [email protected]. Even with many layers of editing, mistakes can slip through, alas. But, together, we can eradicate the nasty nuisances. Thank you! — Patricia McLinn

  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thir
ty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Epilogue

  The Wyoming Wildflowers series

  Also by Patricia McLinn

  About the Author

  CHAPTER ONE

  December 23

  This was not a good idea, especially considering what happened five months and two days ago.

  That was Bexley Farber’s primary thought as they pulled away from the cluster of figures waving good-bye from the porch of the Slash -C(+15others) Ranch’s main house.

  As if Kiernan McCrea had heard her thought from the driver’s seat, he abruptly said into the silence, “You sure you want to do this? I could take you back. You could spend the holidays safe and sound with the Curricks and all.” He didn’t look at her.

  “So could you.” She, too, looked straight out the windshield … except for the corner of her eye.

  His mouth quirked. More a grimace than a smile. “Worth the risk to have Christmas with family, you know.”

  She stifled a reaction, remembering a reference to Kiernan and his family from the summer, which led to— Nope. Not going there, even in memory.

  “I—” She cleared her froggy throat and started again. “I do know. That’s why we’re — I mean, each of us, individually, is making this trip.”

  “This mad trip.”

  She smiled tightly. “Not completely mad. Not as long as we stay ahead of the storm as you all plotted out.”

  “Aye. So we’d best be going. Unless you’ve changed your mind.”

  “No.”

  He accelerated onto the highway, heading north.

  That revealed dark, heavy-bellied clouds to the west. The tops of the Big Horn Mountains seemed certain to tear open their bottoms, releasing a gush of snow.

  Which matched the current forecast. Blizzard warnings starting tonight and continuing into Christmas Day.

  It was the second of twin storms, moving from west to east across the country. The first twin reached the East Coast yesterday after knocking out Bexley’s flight home. With so many scrambling for new flights she hadn’t been able to get another one.

  As Bexley knew now, this second system had threatened to trap Kiernan in San Francisco, where he’d been for business. He got out just in time, on a flight to Denver. But then stalled there, because no flights could get into his destination of Boston. Or anywhere near it.

  In a flurry of phone calls, his family in Gloucester, on the coast north and east of Boston, told him not to risk it. To rent a vehicle in Denver and get up to Wyoming, where he could spend Christmas with the Curricks, close friends of the family.

  He did rent this four-wheel drive and he did make the trip to the Slash-C last night. But according to his explanation this morning at breakfast, as he’d listened to the news and weather reports along the way yesterday, a different plan formed.

  He’d drive the thirty-some hours to Boston, far enough behind the first storm to have cleared roads and far enough ahead of the second to not be caught.

  The Curricks and their friends, who’d arrived for an impromptu welcome breakfast for Kiernan, were divided down the middle about whether it was a good idea or — as Donna Currick, the family’s grande dame, said — a mad plan.

  Then Matty Brennan Currick, married to Donna’s son, Dave, and a hearty endorser of his plan, said, “And you’ll take Bexley with, since her flights were all canceled, too, after she came here to do winter videos for her business. That will give you company and a second driver as far as Chicago.”

  “Chicago? But your family’s in Wisco—” Kiernan cut it off mid-sentence.

  Amid explanations about how Bexley had planned to connect to a train to her hometown south of Milwaukee after flying into Chicago, so she could do the same after driving, then Dave’s suggestion they pick up I-94 in Madison, take it to her hometown, and Kiernan could stay on it to resume his eastern route, which prompted lots of map-checking, no one seemed to notice Kiernan’s knowledge of her family’s location.

  Except Donna, Bexley thought.

  Better Donna than her daughter-in-law, Matty, who had a tendency toward matchmaking. All with the best intentions, but the last thing Bexley wanted was being matched with Kiernan McCrea.

  The second-to-the-last thing was being shut up in a vehicle with him for seventeen-plus hours.

  She wasn’t quite sure how she’d ended up here … except for the longing to be with her family for Christmas. An instinct to get home, to get to family that gripped so much of the population that from the right angle, the earth would probably look like a teeming ant hill, with streams going one direction and other streams just as determinedly going different directions.

  With the urgency of the instinct, the encouragement of the driving plan backers, and the looming deadline of the incoming storm, she’d quickly repacked the belonging she’d need for the trip, and let herself be bundled into the big, comfortable four-wheel drive.

  Like a spelunker following a rope back out of a cave to daylight, she tried to retrace how all that happened. But she kept losing the thread in conversational side caverns. Consultations of weather forecasts, storm warnings, road conditions. Memories of past blizzards. Cautions about handling Wyoming winter roads. Donations of equipment and supplies for winter driving.

  No spelunker would ever make it out of a cave that busy and chaotic.

  Kiernan slowed the vehicle for a turn to the east.

  With the dark clouds hidden from view behind them and a brighter prospect before them, Bexley’s spirits lifted slightly.

  However it happened, she was on her way now — headed home.

  In a car for seventeen-plus hours with Kiernan McCrea.

  Bexley raised her gloved hands as if to adjust the hood on her jacket, allowing her to take a sideways look at the profile of the man in the driver’s seat without being too obvious.

  This was not a good idea.

  Seventeen and a half hours in a vehicle with Kiernan McCrea. That’s if they didn’t take breaks, didn’t stop for meals, didn’t stop for … rest.

  She closed her eyes.

  Maybe she could sleep from Wyoming to Wisconsin. Except for when she took her turns driving, of course. She could volunteer to do lots of the driving, since he’d face a dozen or more hours to go after dropping her off.

  No need for conversation or strained silence if he slept.

  The presence of Kiernan McCrea, sleeping beside her.

  Her breath hitched.

  This was really not a good idea.

  Especially considering what happened five months and two days ago.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Five months and two days ago

  Something about Kiernan McCrea snagged Bexley’s attention the first time she saw him, standing on the back porch of the Currick ranch house, looking out to the Big Horn Mountains as if he could read them.

  And it wasn’t the tall, dark, and handsome thing he had going with thick, wavy hair that always appeared as if tossed by a breeze from his native Ireland.

  Because she wasn’t looking at him — wasn’t looking at any man — that way. She’d sworn off men. Probably for good. Certainly for the rest of this year and into the next, because eighteen months of no men struck her as a nice round number and a good start on what she needed to do.

  To heal. To get back to herself. To forget the past and forge a future. On. Her. Own.

  So, what about this guy caught her attention?

  Despite very limited exposure to him.

  First, because he rarely stopped working from what she could tell. Second, because when he was dragged — and he clearly had to be dragged — into social gatherings that gave them occasion to speak to each other, he never even made eye contact.

  And then she had it.

  Kiernan McCrea was an outlier on the Slash-C Ranch.

  The slight Irish accent set him apart, of course, but more than tha
t, he wasn’t friendly. In fact, he was downright dour, entirely unlike the people who lived on the Slash-C and visited here.

  That made Kiernan McCrea stand out.

  And it was weird, because in the beat when their eyes met for the first time, she’d thought… She’d been wrong. Way wrong.

  He hadn’t even smiled when they were introduced. Just a curt nod. Then, the first few times she’d crossed paths with him on the ranch and said a cheery hello, he’d looked right through her.

  Made her shiver. And not in a good way. Not that she was up for any shivering in a good way, because she wasn’t. Sworn off men. Until into the new year.

  Didn’t mean she couldn’t be curious — on a strictly academic basis.

  Kiernan McCrea was a definite outlier on the Slash-C.

  Though not an outsider, as she was.

  When she’d arrived in Wyoming, she’d known only Val.

  Val — Valerie Trimarco Ralston — had invited Bexley to come to the Slash-C Ranch, where her husband, Jack, was foreman. Perhaps an unlikely spot to work on launching an online business, but no way was Bexley turning down the invitation.

  Val ran a successful business that started as a mommy blog and grew into online courses and communities. Bexley met her through intersecting interests in building online communities, though Bexley’s had been for young DINKs — Dual Income, No Kids — while Val helped overwhelmed mothers, especially single mothers. They met virtually, later in person, forming a friendship, then a closer friendship, and now a business association.

  Val was kicking her backside to create a new online presence after her previous one imploded. Along with her relationship, her self-esteem, and her sense of who she was. … Or had that last one slo-mo imploded long before her ex declared his ex-ness in one stunning and abrupt hour almost a year ago.

  It had taken arriving at the Slash-C for Bexley to realize one of the things she still held against Nigel was his timing.

  If he’d dumped his bombshell a couple months earlier, she’d have been here for Val and Jack’s wedding last summer and she wouldn’t have been such an outsider now.

  Instead, Nigel refused to consider going to a wedding in Wyoming. He hadn’t precisely said he didn’t want her to go. But she’d been in the misguided mindset that it was the two of them sailing through the world together. She’d given up the idea of attending.