Three Nights before Christmas (16 page)

“Let me know if you want to switch it up at all,” he said.

“I’m fine. I like it out there.” She’d started out on the back lot because she’d wanted to limit her chances of unpleasant surprises, like running into Austin and his mom that first day she’d come home. Too many people came out to the farm. Almost no one came out to the back lot. Being out there put her in control, made her feel safe.

Funny that
safe
was how she felt when Austin showed up these days. Some of it had to do with the way he instinctively respected her boundaries and warned her before stopping by. The more time she spent working on Lucinda with him, the farther away their past seemed.

But she couldn’t focus on Austin now. She’d made hot chocolate and a fire for a reason, damn it. Trying to sound casual, she said, “I almost forgot to tell you—Jenna’s coming up tomorrow. She’s going to stay the night, if that’s okay with you, so she doesn’t have to do the big drive again.”

Sawyer frowned. “Are you in some kind of trouble?”

Annoyance made her go stiff. “No. But thanks for the vote of confidence.”

He set down his mug, freeing up a hand to run through his shaggy mountain-man hair. “I didn’t mean it like that. I just wondered why she was coming all this way again, that’s all.”

“We’ve got some loose ends to tie up. Is it cool with you if she stays the night?”

He threw a frantic gaze around the living room, all the tension that the hot chocolate had tamed suddenly seeming to rush back. What the hell was wrong with him? She tried to see it as he was seeing it, but all she could see was a comfy home. Sure, some of the furniture was older and more worn out than she was. She liked to think of it as antique, though antique dealers would probably cry at the sight. But still, the cabin had character…and toilets protected by a locking door. What more could a girl ask for?

“It’s your house, too,” he said. “You don’t need to ask me for permission.”

“I was being courteous. I know it’s been a while since you had a social interaction with someone who wasn’t looking for a Douglas fir with a straight trunk and perfect crown, but that’s the way civilized people deal with each other.”

“Great. Thanks for the tip.” He grabbed his mug and strode into the kitchen.

Well, that didn’t go the way I expected.
Other than thinking she might have committed a crime, he hadn’t asked her anything at all about her lawyer’s visit. She wasn’t sure whether to feel relieved or annoyed.

For the next few hours, Sawyer was a whirling dervish, scrubbing everything in sight. He’d never been a clean freak—neither of them had—but they tidied the place up and made it more visitor-friendly.

He asked if she would stay on the farm the next morning while he took care of some things in town. She agreed, since it wouldn’t be feasible to catch a ride out to the back lot and another one back before Jenna arrived in the afternoon. But she also checked he wasn’t heading into town to avoid Jenna. It hadn’t escaped her attention that he’d been a bit weird every time he mentioned her lawyer’s name. He brushed off her question, but when he came back from town the next morning looking like he’d strolled off the set of a
GQ
photo shoot, Lacey realized he hadn’t been avoiding Jenna. He’d been dolling himself up for her. Suddenly, her brother’s weird behavior triggered a sisterly instinct she hadn’t been able to indulge in a hell of a long time.

The scaredy-boy was nervous because a girl was coming over.

Hot damn, it was like the night she caught him shaving his peach fuzz and slathering on too much cologne for his first date. Absolutely priceless.

His lumberjack beard had disappeared, leaving his face all naked and exposed. He’d had a haircut, which meant she could actually see his eyes. His hair looked clean, too. Not that she’d noticed it being dirty before, but now it shone, making her realize he’d probably put as little effort into taking care of himself lately as she had. Unlike her, he’d gone whole-hog and bought some new duds, too.

He wasn’t bad looking, her brother. She didn’t know Jenna well enough to guess at her type, but Lacey hoped like hell the spit-polish her brother had given himself might turn out to be worth the effort.

Sawyer very wisely avoided her as much as he could after coming back from his manly makeover, but Lacey finally managed to hunt him down as he grappled with the baler, trying to unclog the plastic netting stuck inside it.

“You’re hot for Jenna. Just admit it.”

He yanked hard on the netting, and it came loose so suddenly his knuckles slammed against the baler. He hissed and shook out his hand. “I barely remember what she looks like.”

Lacey cocked an eyebrow. “Let me refresh your memory. Tall, really nice ass, cute face, amazing eyes.”

He frowned, and she grinned at him. “Don’t worry, I didn’t change teams on the inside. But I do have eyes in my head. Jenna is a hottie. You have good taste.”

“I barely noticed.”

“Sure you didn’t, Mr. Close Clean Shave.”

She tried to touch his cheek, but he swatted her away, making her laugh.

“Don’t you have work to do?” he asked.

“I do, but this is much more fun.”

To Lacey’s huge delight, Jenna’s attraction to the new-and-improved Sawyer was blatantly obvious. The normally unflappable lawyer could barely speak as her gaze stroked Sawyer all over. She even did a girlie little wave, then blushed brighter than a headlight. Judging by the heat pouring off the two, the farm could get rid of the barrel fires and invite customers to gather around Sawyer and Jenna instead.

Sawyer did his man-of-the-house thing and insisted on getting Jenna’s overnight bag from the car and taking it into the house for her. When Lacey led Jenna to the cabin a few minutes later, she couldn’t help but tease her buttoned-up lawyer. “He’s single. Just in case you were wondering.”

“I wasn’t.”

Lacey grinned. For a defense lawyer, Jenna was a shitty liar.

With only about ten days till Christmas, the farm was rammed with customers. After showing Jenna to her room, Lacey said, “Sorry to abandon you, but I need to get back out there for the last couple of hours of daylight—a lot of people come up after school to pick out trees with their kids.”

“Maybe I could come with you and we could talk in between customers?” Jenna suggested.

“Sure, if you don’t mind hanging around while I’m serving people.”

“I can help packs bags or whatever,” Jenna offered.

So they ended up in the barn, helping the sales staff ring up customers. Jenna wrapped the handmade ornaments people brought to the counter while Lacey worked the cash register. She hadn’t spent much time helping out in here since her first disastrous day home, but Sawyer had created a Christmassy haven that seemed to invite families in and then gently encourage them to empty their wallets. The barn’s rustic interior sparkled with white twinkle lights strung from the rafters, cheerfully decorated Christmas trees dotted around and traditional Christmas quilts covering hay bales for customers to sit on while one of the staff members sold them hot apple cider, hot chocolate and coffee.

The place was magical. Lacey felt a pang of disappointment that soon they would have to pack it all away and turn it back into a boring old barn.

With so many customers to serve, Lacey and Jenna never got a chance to speak about anything confidential. It wasn’t long before Sawyer had sniffed them out and started teasing Jenna.

“Don’t tell me Lacey roped you into helping out?”

“Don’t look at me,” Lacey said, holding her hands up in innocence. “She roped herself.”

“I have an ulterior motive,” Jenna said. “I’m desperate to talk to Lacey about our strategy for the new trial, and I didn’t want to wait till after she’d finished for the day.”

Mother trucker.

She hadn’t had a chance to warn Jenna not to say anything. She hadn’t even expected that Sawyer would spend more than a minute with her lawyer, considering how desperate he’d been to get away the first time Jenna had come here.

You are such an idiot.
Lacey felt her face contorting with guilt, and she didn’t need to look at her brother to feel the shockwaves rolling off him.

“I didn’t want to say anything until it was certain,” she said, trying to justify herself.

“Until what was certain?” Sawyer asked.

“Dave has recanted his testimony and given a new statement. Jenna’s been working with the D.A. to get me a retrial based on new evidence.”

Sawyer’s gaze burned through her. Oh, he looked neutral enough, but she knew her big brother. A storm was brewing inside him. A massive freaking tsunami of disappointment, advice, and hurt.

The hurt was hardest for her to deal with.

“We just squeaked in under the wire to appeal based on new evidence,” Jenna explained.

Sawyer shifted to focus on her, giving Lacey a momentary break from his scrutiny. “You think she’s got a chance of getting her conviction overturned?”

“That’s what we’ll be aiming for, yes,” Jenna said.

“That’s great news. Good to hear.” Without another word, he turned on his heel and strode away.

A trainload of regret barreled into her. Lacey groaned and dropped her forehead into her hand. “Damn it.”

She’d seriously hurt him, the one person who’d stuck by her through everything. She could explain. She still believed her reasons were valid. But she knew her brother. Letting him cool off was the best way to go. She owed him some space right now, some time to process the news before having to talk to her. Even if she tried, he would just be all hurt and quiet, and they wouldn’t get anywhere. So she kept working inside the barn, letting him do whatever he needed to do outside—sling trees into customers’ trucks, punch a fire barrel, sulk… whatever.

She was replenishing the stock of ornaments when Henry—Sawyer’s second-in-command at the farm—rushed into the barn, panting with panic. “Lacey, come quick! It’s Sawyer.”

Her stomach seized as shock stole over her. “What? What’s Sawyer? What?”

Henry grabbed her arm and ran with her toward the exit. “He was just run over by a truck. Hurry!”

‡

“S
awyer.
”
Terror lanced
through her as she raced across the busy parking lot, where she found her brother lying on the ground behind a truck. He was moving a little, awake but ashen-faced, and the realization that he wasn’t dead leeched every bit of strength from her. She fell to her knees next to him. “Did you hit your head? Are you bleeding?”

“I’m fine,” he said, his voice gritted with barely repressed pain. “Help me get up.”

“Are you kidding? We need to call an ambulance. Where does it hurt? What if you’ve injured your back?” She ran shaky hands over him until she got to his leg, and he hissed before she touched it. “It’s your leg? How bad is it?”

“Since I don’t have my handy-dandy, portable X-ray unit on me right now, I have no freaking idea,” he bit out through clenched teeth. “Will you help me stand, please?”

“You need to stay still until the ambulance gets here.” She pulled out her phone, but he yanked it away and threw it at Jenna.

“Hey,” Lacey protested. She didn’t think he’d actually meant to hit Jenna, but pain was making him aggressive and she didn’t want him to hurt himself or anyone else.

“Help me stand,” he repeated.

“Jesus, you are a stubborn bastard,” Lacey said.

“I’m so sorry, Sawyer,” said an older woman wringing her hands next to them. Lacey belatedly recognized her as Mrs. Cavanaugh, one of their mom’s oldest friends. “I was sure I’d checked my mirrors.”

“It’s completely my fault,” Sawyer told her. “Don’t beat yourself up over it.”

So apparently he could still be civil to some people. And Lacey knew deep down that whatever happened wasn’t completely his fault. He had to have been distracted to get hit by a truck in their parking lot, and it didn’t take a genius to figure out what he was distracted by.

Lacey offered him a hand and tried to help him up, but his face lost the gray and turned sheet white. He looked like he was going to puke.

“You okay?”

“That way.” He jerked his chin toward the cabin.

“Are you sure? You look like you’re going to pass out,” Lacey said.

But of course he was sure, stubborn bastard that he was. Didn’t matter that every movement made him grunt in agony. Didn’t matter that each hop he took probably made his injury a million times worse. Didn’t matter that she couldn’t bear his weight on her own so Jenna had to help. None of that mattered.

Because, as Jenna pointed out while Lacey was busy trying to find ways to knock some sense into her brother, Sawyer was worried about the business. More specifically, he was worried about leaving the business for however long it took to fix his leg.

Jenna suggested that she take him to the hospital and leave Lacey in charge of the farm. Sawyer’s hesitation was a fist to Lacey’s gut. He might trust her to work in the back lot, but running the moneymaking part of the business?

Nope.

Message received loud and clear, big brother.

When he finally relented, they got him into the back seat of Jenna’s Volvo SUV, where he could stretch his leg out. And Lacey turned her attention to proving she wasn’t the family screwup.