True-Blue Cowboy Christmas by Nicole Helm

Author:Nicole Helm
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Published: 2016-09-01T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

Summer stood in tree pose, her eyes on the trees that separated her caravan and the Lane property. She breathed through the yoga move, trying to keep her thoughts active and proactive.

Yesterday had been…not great. The day after the kiss, and Thack had been scarce. Mr. Lane had been well enough to pick up Kate from school and had taken her out to dinner in town, so Summer hadn’t seen either of them before it was time to head home.

She had been alone in the Lane house and had felt as lonely as she’d felt in a long time. She’d cleaned and cooked, left a note reminding Thack he’d promised to put up decorations with Kate that night, and felt as though everyone was avoiding her. Only sheer force of will and practice had kept her tears at bay until she’d lain down for the night.

Caleb and Delia were busy with chores and arguing over how much Delia was capable of doing while pregnant. Lissa was sleeping better, so Mel had been working on getting Christmas together at her own place.

No one needed Summer. She should be relieved, even happy to have a day for herself. But she missed Kate’s chattering. She missed sharing the details of Kate’s afternoon with Thack.

She missed all of the ways they’d begun to feel like family, even knowing she should never have let that happen. The Shaws had to put up with her. One way or another, she was a piece of them. She was nothing to the Lanes. Not really. She was only an employee, and it was probably a stretch to even call her a friend.

No, that wasn’t fair. Kate considered her a friend. Kate looked up to her, and in turn, Summer was amazed by the little girl who’d made this all happen.

She would not be melancholy and self-pitying today. She had come this far. She had gotten the things she’d wanted when she’d gone after them. She would not stop now.

Determined, she leaned back, arms behind her head, palms up, and almost toppled off her platform when she heard footsteps and Kate’s panicked voice calling her name.

She righted herself just in time, then hopped off the platform. She made it maybe two hurried steps before Kate was launching herself at Summer, wrapping her arms around her waist with surprising force.

Summer wrapped her arms around Kate in return and squeezed tight, giving Kate the warm place to land she seemed to need even as panic clawed through her. “What’s wrong? Is it an emergency? What’s happened?”

“I don’t want to go to school. Please don’t make me go to school.”

School? Well, not quite an emergency, but certainly odd. Thack was the one who handled Kate’s morning routine, and it was only seven, so school was an hour or so away. But Summer had thought Kate enjoyed school. She was always eagerly chatting about her day in the afternoons.

But she was sobbing into Summer’s stomach now, holding tight and shaking.

Summer took a deep breath and tried to think through the way her heart was breaking for the girl.

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