Chapter Thirteen
I f the ride home was filled with tension so strong it hummed, the rest of the day proved even more intense. Grady had been home when Sarah and Alex returned at noon, and he had told them someone had broken the windows out of their equipment at the cutting and slashed all the hydraulic hoses. He’d been on the phone since ten, calling for parts to repair them, and Paul had gone looking for Ethan. Everyone, including Ethan, sat down to dinner that evening and attempted to keep the conversation light for Delaney and Tucker’s sake. Even though the kids knew what had happened, the men suspected it was likely a bunch of bored teenagers causing trouble again, which had been the case three years ago, Sarah learned.
“Delaney has decided to join our fishing challenge,” Sarah told Alex, attempting to keep the mood light. “She said she would love an evening of dining and dancing with her father when we catch more fish than you.”
Alex smiled at his daughter, then turned his piercing blue eyes on Sarah, obviously not pleased she
’d gotten around their date by including Delaney. “You don’t consider it cheating, two against one?”
Sarah filled her fork full of mashed potato. “You can choose a partner if you want. Or Delaney and I will limit ourselves to only five traps to match your five.”
“I’ll be your partner, Dad,” Tucker piped up. “We can beat the girls.”
“What challenge?” Paul asked, looking from Sarah to Alex. “I want to be included if we’re having a fishing contest.”
“What’s the prize?” Tucker suddenly asked in alarm. “I don’t want to go dancing.”
“If we win, we can pick our prize,” Alex assured him after giving Sarah one last promising look.
“Maybe the women will have to wait on us hand and foot for a week.”
Paul snorted. “They pretty much do that now.”
“They can do my school project that I’m supposed to finish over vacation,” Tucker said. “I don’t want to make a stupid book about what everyone does around here. I’d rather spend my vacation riding the snowmobile Santa’s gonna bring me.”
“Why don’t you take pictures of all the logging equipment?” Sarah suggested. “That way, you wouldn’t have to draw everything. You can make a photo album of everyone’s job, and even include a picture of yourself driving the skidder on the cover.”
Tucker instantly brightened and looked at his father. “Can I use your digital camera?” he asked.
“Sure, Tuck.”
“Sarah, can you remind me to order a new bulb for the ozonizer on the hot tub?” Grady said. “The bulb burned out, and the water’s all fogged up and starting to smell.” He looked around the table. “The tub’s out of commission until we get the bulb replaced, so don’t anyone use it.”
“How long will that take?” Delaney asked, obviously not liking that the hot tub couldn’t be used during vacation. “That’s how I warm up after ice fishing all day.”
“I’ll have it overnighted,” Grady promised.
“Sarah met Thumper today,” Alex said, changing the subject. “He seems to have survived another hunting season okay.”
Paul chuckled. “It’s a wonder, considering he’s got the brains of a bullfrog. I found him standing in the middle of the road the other day, and he didn’t even have the sense to move when I drove right up to him. He just started licking the bumper of my truck. If some hunter didn’t get him, one of our logging trucks sure as hel—heck will,” he finished, amending his language in deference to the children. Sarah was appalled at how they could talk so callously about an animal they had named. “He’s beautiful,” she said. She held her arms out as wide as she could. “He had antlers this big, and he sounded like a freight train coming through the woods. I ran screaming down the road when I heard him.”
“Thumper wouldn’t hurt you,” Tucker assured her. “He’s too dumb to hurt anyone.” He looked at Alex. “Tomorrow’s Christmas Eve, and it’s snowing again, so I’ll be able to ride the snowmobile Santa’s bringing me. You said there’s got to be at least a foot of snow to run it.”
“If we get another six inches,” Alex agreed. “And if Santa brings you a snowmobile. But you can’t ride it on the lake. The cove might be frozen over, but as long as there’s open water still showing in the center, you’re not even allowed to walk on the ice. That’s the rule.”
“I know,” Tucker said with a frown of impatience. “I’m not as dumb as Thumper.”
“Ethan, could you help Sarah carry her Christmas presents down from the attic after dinner?” Alex asked his brother, breaking into a forced smile when Sarah kicked him under the table. “She asked me to help her, but I need to help Tucker finish a project he’s working on.”
Ethan forced his own smile. “Sure,” he said, filling his mouth with ice cream. Sarah tamped down the heat inching toward her cheeks. Great. Just what she wanted to do, spend time in the cramped attic with Ethan. What was Alex up to? She hadn’t asked for help with her presents. For that matter, how had he even known she had presents stashed in the attic?
The moment everyone finished eating, Sarah jumped up and started clearing the table, only to have Alex volunteer to help her with the dishes.
“What in God’s name made you ask Ethan to help me carry down my presents?” Sarah asked in an angry hiss as she shoved silverware into the dishwasher.
Alex passed her a plate. “It was the only thing I could think of.”
“Only thing for what? Payback for this morning?”
“This morning?” he asked, looking confused.
“When I compared you to Thumper,” she impatiently explained.
He grinned. “Hell, no. I’m much more inventive about getting even for insults. I’ll also get even for
your scheme to avoid dinner and dancing in Greenville,” he added, and leaned closer. “Not that it matters, because I’m still holding you to that kiss when I win.”
“You still haven’t explained Ethan,” she said, refusing to respond to his threat. Or was it a promise?
Alex sobered. “I want my brother back,” he said softly. “I know what I’m asking might be hard for you, but just this once, just for the span of this evening, could you please not question my motives?”
Sarah started packing the dishwasher. He was asking her to trust him? For Ethan, who hadn’t said two words to her since he’d been home? The tension in the house since he’d returned had been so thick Sarah wasn’t even sure a chainsaw could cut it.
“Okay,” she softly conceded. “I’ll let him help me.”
Alex pulled her forward and kissed her quickly on the forehead. “Thank you,” he said, spinning around and walking into the great room, conveniently ignoring the rest of the dishes.
Sarah finally made her way up to the attic, a silent Ethan treading behind her. She immediately went to her stash of Christmas gifts, picked up several brightly wrapped boxes, and turned to hand them to Ethan.
“Sarah,” he said softly. “Sarah, I’m sorry.”
He set the boxes on a table, then took hold of her shoulders. “I am so damned sorry for what I said the other night. I was an ass for getting angry and storming out, and it had absolutely nothing to do with you. Of course it wasn’t your fault Alex drove off half cocked and got into a wreck. That was his choice.”
“I didn’t ask for those men to chase me,” she said tightly.
“I know,” he said, hugging her gently. “My big brother has kindly reminded me that I’m dumber than Thumper. I never should have implied any of it was your fault.” He lifted her chin. “Will you forgive me?”
Sarah buried her face in his chest and nodded.
Ethan squeezed her in one more enormous hug, then kissed the top of her head and released her. He grabbed the boxes off the table and walked over to the attic stairs, nodded at his brother standing halfway down them, and quietly walked past him when Alex nodded in return. Alex quietly walked into the attic and up to Sarah. He gently set his hands on her shoulders.
“Thank you,” he whispered. “For everything.”
“What’s Ethan got against women?” she asked, turning to stare out the dark attic window.
“Men’s hearts get broken, too, Sarah,” Alex told her softly. “A girl shattered Ethan’s heart several years ago, to the point that it may never mend.”
She turned to face him. “Is that why Grady brought me here? To…to…was he hoping I’d catch Ethan’s eye?”
Alex chuckled. “He brought you here because he thought we boys all needed our eyes opened.”
He rubbed his hands together. “So, which one of these pretty packages is your gift to me?”
Sarah gave him a sweet smile. “I didn’t bother to wrap your gift,” she said, heading toward the stairs. “Why waste good paper on a lump of coal?”
Christmas morning arrived with record-breaking cold. The cove had been frozen for weeks, but this morning the whole northwestern bay of Frost Lake was solid ice. Tucker was ecstatic, all but jumping out of his socks to hurry outside to drive the downsized snowmobile Santa had brought him. Alex seemed equally ecstatic over the ice-fishing basket Paul had gotten him, along with a promise to help him with the contest on New Year’s Day.
Sarah eyed the beautiful fishing traps Alex gave Ethan and fretted about her much smaller, cheaper ones. But it didn’t take fancy equipment to catch fish; it only took skill. And she hadn’t lived on an island all her life without learning how to fish. Saltwater or fresh, Sarah figured most fish thought alike, and she intended for her and Delaney to trounce the men, whose team had grown to include Alex, Tucker, Paul, and Ethan, making the odds two to four against the women. Grady was staying neutral. Sarah had sewn dark green chamois shirts for all the men and had embroidered the NorthWoods Timber logo on the pockets. She had also put a lump of coal in Alex’s stocking hung on the mantel, along with a note from Santa that said if Alex tried harder this coming year, maybe he’d get something better next Christmas.
Everyone had agreed that Santa was a very smart man.
Sarah had made a rag doll with a dried apple head for Delaney as a decoration for her bed. Sarah remembered being almost eleven and wanting to explore her burgeoning decorating skills, so she included material for curtains and pillows so Delaney could have the pleasure of sewing them herself. Tucker, the little imp, had also wanted an Atomic Man backpack. On a trip into Greenville months ago, Sarah had found silver material, and she had made Tucker the fanciest Atomic Man backpack ever seen. Even he said so.
She was taken aback by the lavish gifts the Knights gave her. Sarah opened packages of beautiful clothes, a brand-new roasting pan, and enough novels to keep her reading for months—including a romance novel from Alex, the sister book to Rachel and Keenan’s story. When Alex handed Sarah one last gift, the entire room suddenly went silent. She unwrapped the tiny box with trembling fingers and opened the lid to discover a simple gold wedding band sitting in a bed of satin. She could only look at Alex, unable to find words to express her…her…Oh, God, he’d bought her a wedding band!
Alex smiled, darted a quick glance at his father, and told her a wife should be wearing a ring if she didn’t want every male this side of Canada hitting on her when she went to town. Sarah finally found her voice and thanked him for his very thoughtful gift, tucking the box beside her other gifts with a promise to wear it whenever she went to town. Later she set a large ham and homemade bread on the table, since Grady had told her it was tradition to have build-your-own sandwiches for Christmas lunch. They were just beginning to fill their plates when a noise outside interrupted their meal.
“Wow!” Delaney said, beating her brother to the window. “What a beautiful truck—and it has a bright red bow on it!” She looked at her father, her smile widening. “I wonder who it’s for.”
“Maybe there’s a card,” Alex offered, walking to the window with everyone else. “Sarah, why don’t you go out and see?”
With a sense of dread and a sharp look at Alex, Sarah threw on her jacket, slipped into her boots, and went outside.
“God save us all,” she heard Paul whisper as she left.
Ethan muttered a curse.
Delaney and Tucker were in their coats and out the door right behind her, the four men following them.
Sarah, her hands shaking as she held the card and the title document to the powder-blue SUV, croaked, “It—it’s mine?”
Alex nodded. “It’s yours.”
“But it must have cost a fortune!” She shoved the card and the title at him. “I can’t accept something this expensive.”
“The truck is yours, Sarah,” he told her, tucking his hands behind his back. “You can leave it to rot where it sits, or you can drive it.”
Sarah looked at the sea of faces watching her. Ethan and Paul looked horrified, Grady looked happier than a cat with a belly full of cream, and Delaney and Tucker looked as if they couldn’t imagine why anyone would want to refuse such a beautiful gift.
Alex looked…dammit, he looked even more expectant than he had when he’d given her the roses. Sarah stepped up to the diabolical jerk and kissed him on the cheek. “Thank you for the lovely gift, Alex. I just love it.”