Rabbit Creek Santa by Jacqueline Rhoades

she could see the truth in his. "I promise you, I'm in this for the long run, sweetheart. I'm not going anywhere but down the road to my own cold bed. I'll give you time to think and figure things out. When you've done that, you give me a call." He gave her a brotherly kiss on the forehead.
    And then he let her go. He pulled on his boots and picked up his coat , tugging it on over his bare torso. "I love you, Lindy, and I love that pup. I'd do anything for you, but I can't fight Joe's ghost. You have to figure out a way to do that yourself."
    Lindy watched him walk out the door and through the window, watched him climb into his truck. He was already turning the truck around when her hands began to shake and her wolf began to whine. She was suddenly more afraid of his leaving than she was of him staying. In her bare feet and wearing only his oxford shirt, she was out the door and running before the decision was made.
    She followed him down the drive waving her arms over her head.
    "Don't go, Travis, please don't go!"
    There was no way he could hear her and no reason he should look in his rearview mirror and yet the brake lights flared and the truck backed up. Lindy ran to meet it. The door flew open.
    "Are you crazy, woman?" he shouted for the second time that day. "What the hell's the matter with you?"
    She was fully dressed the first time. She was barely covered now. What would she be wearing if she did it again? The thought made him smile . At least this time she wasn't crying. He scooped her up, sat her in the passenger seat and laughed when she shivered as the cold leather hit her bare bottom.
    "You are crazy, aren't you?" He shook his head and put the truck in reverse.
    "No. Yes. I don't know. I wasn't crazy before I met you!" Shivering again, she rubbed her arms with her hands and stamped her feet. "Can we go back to the house and talk?"
    Travis stopped the truck and thought about it. Then he threw the shift into park. "No. Not until you tell me how I made you crazy and why you're running through the snow half naked in the middle of the night, 'cause sweetheart, you're driving me a little crazy, too."
    "You were right. It's not Joe. It's me. I don't know. Maybe I am a little crazy." Lindy tried to laugh at her confession, but her teeth were chattering too badly. "Or maybe you were right about the other thing, too. Too much is happening too fast. Yesterday morning… Was it only yesterday? Yeah," she nodded answering herself, "I knew where I was headed, what my life would be like."
    " Were you happy with that?"
    "Yes," she started to say, but then opted for the truth, "No, but I wasn't crazy either."
    "That's probably debatable. I'll have to ask around," he said in an attempt to make her smile and wipe the worried and confused look off her face.
    "It's not funny, Travis. I've never been this way before. I don't know what to think. I don't understand what I feel. I don't know whether I'm coming or going or which end is up. The moon is coming full. My wolf is going wild. I don't trust myself in most things." Lindy sucked in her breath and bit her lower lip. She straightened her shoulders and let out her breath. "At this very minute there are only two things I'm sure of. I love my son," she said and her voice hitched, "and I don't want you to go."
    "I told you I wasn't going anywhere but my cold and lonely bed."
    "I know what you said, but when you left, it felt like…"
    "I was leaving you for good."
    Lindy nodded her head, unable to admit her weakness aloud. The truck's heater was kicking in and turning the cab into a toasty oven. That didn't stop her body from trembling.
    Travis closed his eyes and thought that he finally understood what was standing in his way. It wasn't Joe. It was fear.
    "He didn't leave you, sweetheart," he said quietly, and when she raised her eyes to his, he knew he'd hit the nail on the head.
    "No," she whispered softly, "but he still didn't come back."
    Travis reached across the console and