It Must Be Christmas Read online

  “I love you, Chloe,” he said simply. “I’d do anything for you. Anything.” Nate turned and headed back to the door. He paused, hand gripping the knob. “We’re having Christmas Eve dinner at Travis’s house tonight. I want you and Derrick to come. Seven o’clock. Thirty-five twenty, Maple Creek Court.” Without waiting for her to respond, he left.

  Chloe picked up the check and smoothed her fingers over the crisp paper. Nate Christensen really was an extraordinary man and she’d be a fool to let him go.

  THIRTEEN

  “Behave yourself or I will have your butt, mister.”

  Derrick rolled his eyes as they walked under the portico to the looming front door of Travis Christensen’s house. The kid had some serious ’tude, but Chloe planned to change that.

  “You act like I’m not house-trained, Chloe. But damn, have you ever seen a house this big?”

  “Language,” Chloe warned.

  “Yeah, okay. Think they have a butler?”

  Chloe snorted. By the looks of the place, Travis probably ought to have one. Compared to Nate’s run-down ranch house, this place was a palace. Chloe looked down at her black leggings and thigh-length sweater and felt suddenly underdressed. Maybe she should have reconsidered coming tonight. After all, she was sort of dropping in, despite Nate’s invite. It’s not like she’d told him she was coming.

  “I have no idea,” Chloe replied. “Just do me a favor. Say please and thank you and don’t complain about the food.”

  “Please,” Derrick said. “You should see the garbage my foster mom fed us for dinner. These guys could serve me a cow’s butthole and I’d be happy about it.”

  “Oh my god, Derrick.” Chloe resisted the urge to slap her palm against her forehead. “Language!”

  “Oh, right.” He gave her a sheepish grin. “Sorry.”

  He totally wasn’t sorry.

  Chloe reached out and rang the doorbell, fully expecting a butler to answer. The sound of male laughter filled her ears as the door swung wide. “Hey Chloe,” Travis greeted with a knowing smile. “Glad you guys could make it.”

  Now it was Chloe’s turn for a sheepish smile. “I hope this is okay that we’re just dropping in. Nate invited us but—”

  “I’m glad you’re here,” Travis said. “Nate’s been a broody son of a bitch all night. Maybe this’ll pull his mood out of the shitter.” He winked at Derrick. Obviously, the Christensen brothers would do nothing to discourage Derrick’s ornery streak. Boys will be boys, she supposed.

  Travis ushered Derrick in ahead of Chloe and said, “The girls want to open presents after dinner. You game, little man?”

  He turned and looked at Chloe with wide, expectant eyes. Her heart felt like it might burst in her chest. “Travis, you didn’t—”

  He answered her with a wink.

  “You bet I’m game!” Derrick exclaimed. “Hey man, do you have a butler?”

  The two walked farther ahead, Travis answering questions as fast as Derrick could lob them at him. She followed them through the foyer and into the vast living room. A giant Christmas tree decorated one corner of the room, the twinkling lights reflecting on the ceiling above. Two twin girls played near the tree, examining the colorfully wrapped boxes with gentle shakes. Travis led Derrick over and introduced him to the girls who waved sheepishly. They couldn’t have been more than five or six, but Derrick took it in stride and joined them in their hunt for whose gifts were whose.

  Chloe’s gaze wandered to the opposite end of the living room. Grouped around a wet bar were Nate and the rest of his brothers. He looked up from the squat glass in his grip and a slow smile grew on his face as his eyes met hers.

  “Thank god,” Travis murmured at Chloe’s side. “I was afraid he’d never snap out of it.”

  Chloe gave him a sideways glance and Travis nudged her. “Don’t be shy. If you’re going to be a part of this family, you’d better get used to hanging out with a bunch of boisterous jackasses.”

  She laughed. If the rest of Nate’s brothers were as funny and easygoing as Travis, there was no doubt that she’d love them all. She loved their brother, after all.

  Nate crossed the room toward her. The simple act held her rapt. She’d never seen a man walk with such predatory grace. Every move precisely placed. The individual muscles of his body rolled with every step and it took a conscious effort for Chloe to keep her mouth from hanging open on rusty hinges. Nate Christensen was magnificent.

  He stopped mere inches from her. Chloe looked up to see into his face. His presence overwhelmed her and infused her with a delicious heat. How could she have ever thought she could stay away from him?

  “Sorry I didn’t call.”

  “Let’s go out onto the patio and talk.”

  “Derrick—”

  “Will be fine,” Nate said. “Just for a minute. Please.”

  As though she had no control over her own body, Chloe let him lead her toward the paned French doors that led out to a wide covered patio. The nip of the December air soaked through her sweater but Chloe didn’t know if it was the chill or the proximity of the man standing beside her that caused gooseflesh to rise on her skin.

  “It’s so pretty out here.” White Christmas lights decorated the bushes and trees that dotted the yard while bright colored lights graced the hedges and the low stone wall that bordered the driveway.

  “Travis did it for the girls,” he said. “They love Christmas.”

  “You guys have each other’s backs, don’t you?”

  “Always,” Nate said. “But I didn’t bring you out here to talk about my brothers.”

  Chloe turned to face him. Nate rattled her unlike any man ever had. His proximity intoxicated her until she swayed with drunken giddiness. “What did you bring me out here to talk about?”

  * * *

  Nate stared down into Chloe’s luminous green eyes. She thought a bunch of Christmas lights were pretty? Hell, all of the lights in the world didn’t hold a candle to her beauty. “We didn’t really get to finish our conversation today.”

  “We didn’t?” she asked wryly. “I think you said more in those ten minutes than you’ve said since we met.”

  She joked to lighten the mood, but Nate wasn’t interested in levity. Not when so much still hung in the balance. “I didn’t say half of what I wanted to say.”

  “We don’t have to do this tonight, Nate. It’s Christmas Eve and everyone’s inside waiting. I don’t expect you to make a big scene for my benefit. I wouldn’t be here tonight if I hadn’t really listened to what you said today.”

  Nate wasn’t good at apologies. He wasn’t good at any of this emotional shit. He’d been dead since the day Miranda betrayed him and finally he felt like he was ready to join the land of the living. He was ready to quit wallowing in his own self-pity. He wanted to be happy. He wanted to heal from all of the tragedy that had weighed him down over the past few years.

  “This isn’t about making a scene. This is about making things right and starting fresh. I want you to know that I don’t expect to pick right up where we left off,” he said. Nate swallowed against the lump of emotion in his throat. The swell of hope that threatened to choke the air from his lungs. “I know that I need to earn your trust and respect back. That the things I said to you can’t be fixed with a simple apology. I’m willing to take it slow, Chloe. I’m willing to do whatever it takes to win you back and to prove to you that I’ll never disrespect you like that again.”

  She smiled up at him, the expression so soft that it melted Nate’s heart. “Do you really think I could do what I do for a living and not believe in second chances, Nate?”

  Relief washed over him. Nate lowered his mouth to Chloe’s in a slow kiss. Her arms came around him as she rose on her toes and her body melted into his as though they were no longer two people, but a single form. They came slowly apart, their lips lingering. Nate murmured against her mouth, “I’ll never give you a reason to have to give me a third chance.”

  “