Page 30 of Catching the Mistletoe

The question hung in the air for a long moment and my gaze shifted away from Arabella to the window, locking onto the Ruby Mountains in the distance. For a split second, I was there—no longer confined to the driver’s seat, but out in the wilderness. I could almost feel the crunch of snow under my boots, the chill of the mountain air filling my lungs, as if each breath could cleanse away the acid in my gut, brought on by questions I didn’t know how to answer. I felt a sense of longing for the peace of that. Just me and the mountain, a stark silence that demanded nothing from me.

But they were miles away, and I was here with Arabella.How did you get so smart?Maybe I could distract her. “You know something.”

“Mmm?”

“You’ve ticked one of those items off the list.”

“Huh?”

“We’re taking a road trip where we don’t know where we’ll be the next day. That’s gotta count for something, yeah?” I flicked her a glance, my heart squeezing at the way her lips curved in a soft smile.

“Yeah. It does. Thanks for pointing it out.”

“No problem.”

She let out a soft sigh. “I think it was the families at the hospice that set me off.”

Seems like she’d forgotten her second question, which made me blow out a breath of relief. “Makes sense.”

“It’s just that this has been a really crazy year, you know?”

“It sure has.”

“This time last year, I was deathly ill, just about to be put into a medically induced coma while Genevieve was doing everything she could to save my life. Which she did, obviously. Then it was surgery, recovery, buying the ranch, moving from Vermont. Setting everything up. I just haven’t really had a chance to process everything.”

“That’s fair.”

“Seeing all those families with their kids was like a punch in the guts. Everyone in my family worked themselves to the bone to make sure I could receive all my treatments at home. Mom couldn’t stand the idea of me being overnight anywhere else, if it could be avoided.”

“She’s amazing.”

“She is.” She went quiet for a moment, but she definitely seemed more settled now. “You’re a good listener, Mack. Thanks for that.”

“You’re welcome.”

“But you haven’t answered my second question.”

Fuck. Seems like I wasn’t off the hook after all. I shrugged. “There’s not much to say.”

“No?”

I shot her a quick glance. There was a slight frown between her brows and shadows in her eyes. She knew I was withholding, and it upset her. I had to give her something. Shifting in the seat, I swallowed heavily. “I know a thing or two about bad families, I guess. It’s obvious when you see a good one.” I could still feel her eyes on me, making me shift again. Fuck, this was a long drive.

She was quiet for a long moment, but then, “Where is your family? Back in Tennessee?”

“Dead.”

“All of them?” Her voice was low, soft. I could barely hear her.

“Yeah.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be.”

“What happened to them?” Even though her voice was a whisper, it echoed in the confined space like a shout.

Every cell in my body screamed at me not to answer her. The pull she had on me was already almost more than I could bear. I knew opening up to her would only make that pull harder to resist. Impossible to resist, though, was the light in her eyes when she looked at me. Fuck. I tightened my grip on the steering wheel, aware that I was about to cross a point of no return.

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