The Brands Who Came for Christmas by Shayne Maggie

Author:Shayne, Maggie [Shayne, Maggie]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Romance
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2011-11-12T04:51:27+00:00

An hour later they pulled in at the house, and Maya reached over to blow the horn. Within minutes several bundled-up women came scrambling out the front door. One was carrying a small chainsaw. Mel, of course. She tossed it in the back of Caleb’s pickup, then came to the driver’s door of the van, tapped on the window. Caleb rolled it down.

“Where do you think you are, Caleb? New York?” she asked him.

“Huh?”

“Keys,” Mel told him, holding out a hand, palm up. “You’ve got that thing locked up tighter than Fort Knox.”

“Oh. Right.” He dug in his pocket, fished out the pickup keys and handed them to her. “It’s not that I think anyone’s going to steal that heap,” he told her. “Just habit.”

“Oh, yeah? I suppose it would be, for a guy used to tooling around in a Mercedes-Benz sedan.” Mel wore a blue knit hat with a fuzzy ball on top over her short dark hair. Her bangs stuck out from under it, and a couple of snowflakes had landed in them and clung like glittering ornaments.

“Lexus coupe,” he told her. “It’s less pretentious.”

“Oh, yeah, right. That’s downright slumming.” But she said it with a smile. “So you may as well drive the van over. I’ll take Mom with me in your truck. That is, if you trust me with your wheels.”

Already the side door of the van was sliding open, and Selene and Kara were clambering into their seats, snapping their belts. “Sure I trust you,” he told her.

“You should,” Mel said. “I figure any collisions I might have can only improve the looks of that thing, anyway.” She sent him a wink and turned away.

“Hey, I saw yours in the barn, Mel. Makes mine look like a luxury car,” he called.

Mel stopped, turned and eyed him.

“And, I might add, mine runs.”

She grinned and sent him a mock salute, then walked away. As he rolled his window up he heard Vidalia say, “I told you he’d loosen up once he got to know us.”

In the back seat, Kara and Selene were still laughing at his exchange with Mel. As he put the van into motion, Kara said, “I’m so glad it’s snowing! It really ought to snow on tree day, don’t you think?”

“Oh, yes,” Selene said, sobering. “Snow is a great backdrop for murdering a tree.”

“Oh, gee, here we go…” Maya muttered.

“Oh, come on, Selene!” Kara cried. “Don’t spoil it for us!”

“I can’t help the way I feel! I just don’t think it’s nice to chop down millions of living trees every year just for our own selfish pleasure. Hell, we only throw it out a few weeks later!”

“It’s not like we’re chopping down wild trees, Selene,” Kara argued. “These trees wouldn’t exist without the custom! For Pete’s sake, they are planted and raised just for this purpose! Selling them helps farmers make ends meet. You’re so narrow-minded!”

“I am not. Life is life. Trees have spirit, and I don’t see the sense in murdering them.”

“Dammit, you two, enough!” Maya shouted.

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