Chapter Five
On Saturday morning after Thanksgiving, a group of Marietta townspeople convened in the basement of the St. James Church for their final meeting to make sure everyone had their instructions for Christmas in Marietta.
Letty and Val were both helping with the Stroll, which would take place the following weekend.
Letty had volunteered to help with the parade and the lighting of the tree.
To her surprise, Riley had also volunteered for that job. He was a late addition.
“Since when do you help with the tree? Don’t you always take charge of the food trucks?” Letty asked him after his name was called out. He’d managed to sit beside her when she arrived.
“Val is doing it this year. I thought I’d switch it up.”
“Why?” It seemed she was asking him that question a lot these days.
He smiled. “I bet you can figure it out if you think about it.”
He was doing it to be around her.
After the meeting, Letty and Val went to the Java Café.
“Maybe it was my imagination, but it seemed like Riley was totally enthralled with you during the meeting. He didn’t even glance at anyone else,” Val said after they sat down with their drinks.
“Maybe.” Riley hadn’t asked her out again after the first time, but she didn’t think he’d given up.
She was probably being overly cautious, but ever since he hauled her out of Grey’s Letty had been confused about Riley’s motives.
It was weird having him pay so much attention to her.
She’d gotten over him a long time ago, but she had to admit that he was every bit as attractive to her, if not more, than he’d been when she’d been crushing on him as an eighteen-year-old.
“Do you know why?” Val took a sip of her latte.
“I might. You know how you thought Riley was acting different and you wondered if he was thinking of settling down? I don’t know about the settling-down part, but I think I’ve figured out who Riley is interested in.”
“Who?”
“Me.”
Val stared at her, then burst out laughing. “No really. Who is it?”
“Thanks, Val. You’re great for the ego.”
“You know I didn’t mean it that way. I’m surprised is all.”
“I’m not kidding. It’s me.”
“When did this happen?”
“I’m not sure. I don’t know whether it was sudden, or he’s been thinking about it.
You know we’ve been seeing a lot of each other since Vivian was born.
Since you and Liam got married, really. But the first I realized there might be more to it was when he dragged me out of Grey’s Saloon one night not long before Thanksgiving. ”
“Why did he do that?”
“I was at the bar flirting with Bud Davis—”
“Bud Davis, Liam’s and my new hand?”
“The very one.”
“He’s cute, but I hear he’s a player.”
“I heard that too, but I didn’t really care. I was having a bad day—It was—It was the anniversary of the day my parents died.”
Val’s expression turned sympathetic…and a little bit guilty. “Oh, Letty, you should have called me. Or better yet, come out to the ranch. I should have remembered.”
“It’s been a long time. There’s no reason you should have remembered. Anyway, I decided having sex would help me not think about it.”
“Take it from me. That doesn’t always work out.”
“Yours did. You and Liam are madly in love and happy with the baby.” Vivian wasn’t Liam’s biological child, although he’d adopted her as soon as he could.
Although it hadn’t been easy, Liam and Val had worked out the situation with the biological dad.
He now lived in California and had nothing to do with his child.
Much to Liam and Val’s relief, since he wasn’t exactly a great role model.
“Yes, but Liam is wonderful,” Val said with a happy sigh. “Not all men are.” She frowned and added, “But Riley is pretty great, even if he is my brother.”
“I know. But that night I just wanted someone who could help me forget and who I could forget just as quickly.”
“So, did it help you forget?”
“I don’t know. I never got the chance. Riley saw us and dragged me out of there before anything could happen.”
“That’s when you knew he was interested.”
“No. I just thought he was going all big brother on me. I’ll admit it surprised me because he hasn’t acted that way in a long time. So I yelled at him on the way to my place. Once there I told him I didn’t need a big brother interfering in my life. I’m thirty years old, for heaven’s sake.”
“What did he do?”
“Said he wasn’t my brother and kissed me.”
Her eyes widened. “Whoa! I’d say that was a big clue.” Eyebrows raised, she asked, “So how was it?”
“It was good.” Really, really good, to be honest. “Obviously he doesn’t think of me as a sister. It’s been a long time since I lived with your family, and he’s clearly gotten past that.”
“Have you?”
“You know I’ve never thought of Riley as a brother. Never mind that. Then he pissed me off and I threw him out.”
“What else did he do to make you so mad?”
She wished she’d thought before she mentioned that little gem. Oh, well, she might as well tell her. Val would just worm it out of her eventually. “He said if I was so determined to have sex, he was available.”
Val laughed out loud. “And yet, you let him live.”
“Yes, and he’s lucky I did.”
“I had no idea my brother was that clueless.”
“He sure was that night.”
“Wow. You and Riley,” Val said, shaking her head. “I remember when you had such a crush on him.”
“I was eighteen, Val. I’ve grown up since then.”
“So you have no romantic feelings toward him? None at all?”
“Oh, hell. I don’t know. I haven’t thought about him like that in years. I can’t figure out what brought this on. I mean, why me? Why now?”
“You’ll have to ask him.”
“There’s more. I could tell he wanted to kiss me again at Thanksgiving.
But he didn’t.” Which was her fault. But damn, she couldn’t get involved with Riley.
What if he really did want to settle down?
She wasn’t the settling-down type. Falling in love was too dangerous.
You could never depend that the one you loved wouldn’t be taken away from you. Like her parents.
“Can I say I would love it if you two got together?”
“I wouldn’t get too excited yet.”
“Why not? He’s single and interested and you’re single and…” She paused. “Look, I know he’s my brother, but Riley is a really good guy.”
“I know. He’s a good guy but when did he decide he wanted to settle down?”
“Recently, apparently. Has he asked you out?”
She nodded. “I said no.”
“Why?”
“I’m afraid if we get together and he really does want to settle down I’ll break his heart.”
Rules. If she and Riley got together she’d have to make sure he understood that it wasn’t forever. If that’s what he wanted. Maybe Liam and Val were wrong, and he had no more interest in settling down than she did.
*
Riley thought he was making headway with Letty.
She hadn’t given in yet, but he figured it was only a matter of time until she at least agreed to go out with him.
With that in mind he did everything he could to help her with the tree.
The decorations were handled by a local women’s group, but Letty was in charge of the lighting and making sure Santa showed up to do the honors.
“If Santa can’t make it will you do it?” Letty asked him one day.
“Why couldn’t he make it?”
“It’s happened before. He could get sick or break a leg or something.”
He stared at her wondering if she was kidding. Nope, he didn’t think so. “Okay, I’ll be your backup, but you have to do something for me. Playing Santa is not on my list of fun things to do.”
“What do you want me to do?”
“Be my date for the Stroll.” After his Santa gig, if it was necessary. He fervently hoped that it wasn’t.
“I thought we decided not to date?”
“You might have but I never did. Come on, Letty, let’s have some fun. I know the Stroll is one of your favorite things.”
“And if I say no?”
“I’ll still do it.”
“Good answer. All right. I’ll go with you.”
Riley didn’t always go to the Stroll, usually because of some crisis or simply because he was needed on the ranch.
Besides, it had never been his favorite thing to do at Christmas.
But this year his ranch manager said he’d be available if needed, and his father also offered to keep an eye on things.
His dad wasn’t in great health, and consequently had cut way back on his duties at the ranch, but he’d been feeling much better lately. Besides, he’d have to be on his deathbed to quit working entirely, which, thank God, he wasn’t.
“Is there a particular reason you want to go to the Stroll?” Jasper asked. “Got a date or something?”
“As a matter of fact, I do.” He knew his dad wanted to know who it was, but Riley wasn’t ready yet to reveal his plans for Letty and himself.
His parents would find out soon enough who he was dating when the townspeople saw them together.
Nothing stayed secret for long in Marietta.
Not that he wanted their relationship to be secret.
What relationship? he asked himself. He’d barely gotten her to agree to go on a date with him, much less have a relationship.
He didn’t think she was playing hard to get.
He thought she simply was hard to get. Letty wasn’t going to make it easy on him.
He’d have to prove to her that not only was he serious about her but also that she could trust him enough to give him a chance.
Thank God, the regular Santa showed up at the starting point, allowing Riley to make his way to the tree lighting. It took a while since almost everyone in town or near town showed up for the tree lighting. It and the Stroll kicked off the Christmas season.
Luckily, he found Letty before the official lighting, talking to the lighting coordinator.
She was bundled into her heavy ski jacket, wearing jeans and a knit hat.
She wore her hiking boots rather than cowboy boots, since they undoubtedly had more traction.
He wondered what she’d do if he kissed her?
To her it would seem to be out of the blue, but he’d hardly thought about anything else since kissing her the night he took her home from Grey’s.
Why had it taken him so long to realize Letty was beautiful?
Maybe he’d been deliberately blind, thinking she wasn’t the one for him.
But that feeling had changed over time, climaxing when he saw Bud Davis pawing her at Grey’s…
and Letty not discouraging him. It still made him want to punch something or someone, preferably Davis, whenever he thought about it.
“Hi,” Letty said. “I take it Santa showed up since you’re here.”
“He did. He should be here before long.”
Carolers sang ‘O Christmas Tree’ while waiting for Santa and his sleigh to arrive.
A cheer went up when he did and not long after that Santa climbed down from the sleigh and threw the light switch.
A gasp went up from the crowd as the beautifully decorated huge tree with its gazillion twinkling lights was revealed.
“What do you think?” Letty asked him.
“It’s gorgeous. And so are you.”
She patted his arm. “You’re sweet to say that, but we both know I’m not.”
“To me you are.”