A Thunder Canyon Christmas by RaeAnne Thayne Read Free Book Online Page B

most of it’ I think we might have a problem explaining.”
    â€œI wouldn’t worry about it, El. Your brother knows me well enough to know I’m not the kind of guy to take advantage of a vulnerable woman.”
    No matter how much he might have wanted to. Okay, as much as he still wanted to.
    Â 
    Much to her relief, Matt was right. Grant hadn’t kicked up any kind of fuss about her rolling in just after sunrise from a night on the town.
    Her brother had just been leaving the house when they pulled up. He didn’t say so but Elise suspected he’d been on his way to look for her since he generally didn’t go to work at the resort this early in the morning.
    She had feared some sort of scene. Grant could have a temper and was the only male she knew more overprotective than Matt. But Grant—the closest thing she had to a father figure since John Clifton’s murder a dozen years ago—had given Matt one long, searching look, then apparently accepted the story.
    â€œI really appreciate you keeping her safe,” Grant said, clapping Matt on the shoulder. “Somebody without your scruples might have taken advantage of the situation.”
    Elise remembered that searing kiss and her intense reaction to it. She could feel a blasted blush creep up her cheeks and had to hope Grant didn’t notice.
    â€œGlad I could be there. We left her car at The Hitching Post. Need me to shuttle it home for you?”
    â€œNo. I can have somebody from the resort drive it out here later this morning.”
    Elise felt supremely stupid and about ten years old again. She was grateful when Matt said goodbye quickly and left, saying he needed to get to the McFarlane job site early that morning.
    After the door closed behind him, she was faced with her headache and Grant, who watched her with a concerned frown.
    â€œI don’t get it. After Haley pulled out of your plans, why didn’t you just come home and have dinner with us?” he asked. “Erin was sorry she missed you.”
    She didn’t want to sound whiny or self-pitying, especially not when Grant and Helen were so happy about finding Erin. “I was already at The Hitching Post and you all weren’t expecting me home so I just decided to stay and enjoy the band. In retrospect, maybe not the smartest decision I ever made, but it worked out okay in the end.”
    â€œYou were lucky,” Grant growled.
    She sighed. “I know.”
    â€œI don’t even want to think about what might havehappened to you if Cates hadn’t been there,” Grant growled.
    â€œIf Cates hadn’t been where?”
    Her mother walked into the kitchen wearing her favorite green bathrobe and Elise mentally groaned. So much for her furtive hope that she might sneak away from Grant’s lecture and climb back to bed to nurse her blasted headache before her mother came downstairs. She was in for it now.
    â€œElise had a little run-in with a drunk cowboy last night down at The Hitching Post. Matt Cates came to her rescue. That’s why she’s just rolling in at 6:00 a.m.”
    â€œWhat a nice boy. Those Cates brothers are always so thoughtful.” Helen smiled. “They must take after their father. He’s always been the nicest man.”
    Her mother tended only to see the good in people. Either that or she hadn’t paid any attention to the Cates twins’ antics over the years. Matt and his brother had been wild hell-raisers until recently.
    They hadn’t completely worked all the wildness out of their systems. She remembered the fierce way Matt had taken on Jake Halloran to protect her and then the stormy, wondrous heat of his kiss.
    â€œTell me again how you ended up spending the night at Cates’s place instead of coming back here after you left The Hitching Post?” Grant asked pointedly, which she found the height of hypocrisy coming from a man who’d enjoyed a healthy reputation as a