A Thunder Canyon Christmas by RaeAnne Thayne

make her smile and help her forget her troubles for a moment.
    He wanted to give her the gift of a happy, lighthearted evening where she could forget her worries—and this was definitely one present he didn’t need anyone else’s help to deliver.

Chapter Seven
    H ow did he do it?
    Elise studied the man across the low-lit table from her, strong and dark and gorgeous. Though both Cates twins had been wild, Marlon had always been the charmer while Matt had always seemed more the studious type—one reason he had gravitated toward law school, she supposed.
    But tonight, he was making every effort to charm her…and it was definitely working. If she wasn’t careful, she would fall hard and fast for him.
    She would just have to be careful, she warned herself as her insides trembled from another of his smiles.
    â€œSo you never really answered me the other night. How long do you think you’re staying in Thunder Canyon?” he asked, in a tone of voice that made her think he had genuine interest in her answer.
    She refused to let him fluster her. Matt might be the studious one but he had a reputation as being every bit the player that Marlon used to be.
    â€œI’m not sure,” she answered. “I promised my mother I would spend the holidays in town. For now that’s what I’m focusing on, just spending time at the ranch and helping Haley at ROOTS while I’m here. Once the holidays are over, I don’t know. I’m considering my options.”
    â€œWhat are they? Maybe I can help.”
    â€œMy job is still waiting for me in Billings if I want it. That’s a definite possibility. My life is there. My friends are there. For now, I still have a house until my mother decides whether to sell it or rent it out.”
    She paused, then added reluctantly, “Jack and Betty Castro haven’t exactly made it a secret that they would like me to go down to San Diego for a while so they and…their sons can get to know me beyond phone calls and emails.”
    He studied her out of those surprisingly perceptive brown eyes. “You’re not so sure about that one, are you?”
    She sighed, moving her undeniably delicious pasta around on her plate. At the reminder of the Castros, the happy bubble around them she suspected he had carefully nurtured seemed to fizzle and pop.
    â€œIt’s all so difficult. They’re strangers to me, you know?”
    â€œSure they are.” He paused and reached across thetable to entwine his fingers around hers. “You know, they’re going to stay strangers to you until you make an effort to get to know them better.”
    â€œYou sound like my mo—like Helen.”
    â€œYour mother,” he said, squeezing her fingers lightly. “Helen is your mother, no matter what the DNA says.”
    His words brought a lump to her throat and she had to reach for her water glass. “My mother is urging me to spend more time with them.”
    â€œDon’t you like them?”
    â€œSure I like them. They’re very nice people.”
    How could she explain that spending time with them, coming to know them, would make this strange, twisted journey seem more real, somehow? She didn’t understand her tangle of emotions, she only knew she wanted everything to go back to the way it was a few weeks ago, before she’d ever even heard of Erin Castro.
    She couldn’t continue in this limbo, she knew. Something had to change. She just wasn’t sure she was ready yet.
    â€œJack and Betty are coming back to Thunder Canyon as soon as school lets out in San Diego to spend the holidays in Montana with Erin. Betty is a teacher there. History. Jack’s a police officer. They have two sons in addition to Erin, one who’s a police officer like his father and one who is a student.”
    â€œAre the brothers coming, too?”
    â€œAs far as I know, only Jack and Betty. They want to get to know me better while