Forever Santa Read online

  “I think that could be arranged.” Gracie lifted her legs off Trent and twisted toward him on the sofa. “You can have two or three kisses if it makes you see Jordan faster.”

  “Has anyone ever told you you’re bossy?”

  “Only you.” Gracie plastered little kisses on the edge of Trent’s mouth. “But you like being told what to do.” Gracie held back a yawn.

  “Only when it’s in my best interests.” Trent pushed a stray red curl off Gracie’s face and frowned. “You need an early night. I’ll see Jordan in the morning.”

  Gracie couldn’t stop another yawn from breaking free. “Promise?”

  “Promise. Now, Mrs. McKenzie, it’s time for bed.”

  “But it’s only eight o’clock. It’s way too early to go to bed.”

  Trent stood and held his hand out. “You must be getting old. Now move your butt before I throw you over my shoulder and carry you upstairs.”

  Gracie held onto Trent’s hand as he pulled her upright. “I’ll go on my own two feet, but only because you’ll put your back out if you carry me. And just for the record, I’m usually able to do twice as much shopping before collapsing in a tired bundle.”

  “Those long nights and early mornings are finally catching up with you.”

  Gracie stopped under the mistletoe Trent had strung above the living room door. “I wouldn’t change our long nights and early mornings for anything. Have I told you how much I love you?”

  “You might have mentioned it once or twice.” Trent looked up and smiled. “How about we practice our yummy kisses under the mistletoe?”

  “Did I also mention what great ideas you have?”

  “It’s nice to be reminded.” Trent wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her against his body. “I love you, short stuff.”

  And Gracie found out just how yummy her husband’s kisses could be.

  Trent wasn’t sure what he was going to say to his brother. Gracie could be wrong. She might have misread Jordan’s reaction, added emotion where there wasn’t any. But knowing his wife, he didn’t think that would have been the case.

  The mudroom door slammed and he heard someone unzipping their coat. “Is that you, Jordan?”

  “You expecting someone else?” his brother yelled back.

  Trent pushed out of his office chair and walked into the kitchen. Hot coffee and food would be a good start with Jordan. He’d never seen anyone eat as much as his brother. Mrs. Davies, their housekeeper, kept the fridge, freezer, and pantry stocked with enough food for two winters. Which was just as well with Jordan on the loose.

  “You want coffee?” Trent asked.

  Jordan frowned, his blue eyes as sharp as laser beams. He ducked behind the pantry doors and opened the lid on a cookie tin. A handful of cinnamon crunch cookies landed on the kitchen counter. “What’s with the coffee? You usually try and keep me out of the kitchen.”

  Trent glanced out of the big picture window over the kitchen sink. If it had been a clear day, he would have seen the Bridger Range, sprawled across the landscape in front of him. But the only thing he saw today was snow, as thick and unwelcome as the conversation he was about to have.

  The drip of the coffeepot filled the room. “Gracie said she saw you at the mall yesterday? Dressed as Santa.”

  Jordan stuffed a cookie in his mouth. No amount of munching could hide the suspicion on his face. “Gus got the flu and they were down one Santa. Jake volunteered as Santa Security yesterday and saw me shopping. I did a couple of hours until another guy arrived.”

  “Better you than me.” Trent slid a thick black mug of coffee across to his brother. “How was it?”

  “Better than feeding the cattle this morning.” He opened the fridge and poured half an inch of milk into his mug.

  Trent wasn’t so sure. If it had been him, he would have sooner been on the back of their flat deck, dishing out hay. He waited for his coffee, grabbing a cookie to fill in time.

  “What else did Gracie say?”

  Jordan sounded pissed off, defensive, and so damn unlikely to tell him the truth that Trent wondered why he was bothering with the question. But he knew why. He’d promised Gracie he would. Tasting a few of those yummy kisses she’d been talking about last night had addled his brain. Made him agree to do the one thing Jordan hated.

  He took a slow sip of coffee, watching his brother over the rim of his mug. “She said she saw Tracey at the mall.”

  Jordan’s face shut down faster than the howling nor’wester rattling the shingles on the roof. He stood up and walked across to their office. “You ready to go over the plans? I’ve got to phone through another list of supplies to Jake’s Hardware before we get snowed in again.”

  Jordan had thrown a curve ball in Trent’s direction when he wanted to turn the Triple L into a vacation hot spot. An authentic ranch vacation business had never been in their long term plan and Trent wasn’t interested. Gracie had arrived in Montana about the same time Jordan started getting really pissed off with him. Between the two of them, they’d convinced him that it made good business sense to diversify their income.

  Not long after Trent agreed to Jordan’s ideas, they’d set up a desk for him in the ranch office. Within a short space of time, Trent had readjusted his way of thinking about his brother.

  Jordan had always drifted through life, happy to play follower to his older brother, happy to go along with whatever plans someone else made. But that changed well before the architect finished the concept design for converting an old barn into guest accommodation.

  Come Spring, Jordan would be opening their ranch vacation business. Before then, they had the interior fit out to complete.

  Trent pulled a set of plans closer and stared at the ground floor. The barn was three stories high, big enough for the entire ground floor to be used as the living quarters. The second floor had been devoted to guest accommodation, with Jordan taking over the top floor.

  They’d tried to save what money they could, but the final price had been twice what they’d expected. High-end vacation experiences came with high-end price tags.

  Jordan pointed to the kitchen area. The dark walnut cabinets were waiting to be installed. They’d worked out a deal with the contractor which meant Trent would spend the next three days helping to install the units.

  “Gracie’s nearly finished painting the walls in the kitchen.” Jordan’s hand ran along another wall. “She wants the scaffolding moved across here by the end of the day. She’ll join Frank and Pete on the second floor when she’s finished, but they’ll need more paint.”

  “When is the plumber arriving?”

  Jordan pulled the project plan out of a folder. “In two day’s time if the weather doesn’t close the road.” He pulled a piece of paper out of his back pocket. “I made a list of what we need. Can you see anything I’ve missed?”

  Trent compared the project plan with the list of supplies, then glanced back at the floor plan. “Looks good to me. Is the kitchen counter still on schedule for the end of the week?”

  “The granite has already been cut. They’re doing the final polish now.”

  Trent leaned his arms on the desk and scrutinized the plans one last time before pushing them back toward Jordan. “Tell me about Tracey.” The temperature inside the office dropped a few degrees. He glanced up at his brother. “You know Gracie’s worried about you? She’ll pester me until I tell her you’re okay.”

  Jordan picked the list of supplies off the desk and stuffed it in his pocket. “You can tell her there’s nothing to worry about. Call me on my cell phone if you need me.”

  He walked out of the office and Trent frowned at his brother’s back. It took a lot to rattle Jordan. Whatever was happening in his brother’s life amounted to more than he was letting on. Gracie wouldn’t leave Jordan alone if she thought he had a broken heart.

  Heaven help them all if she decided to try a little magic of her own.

  Gracie poured the last of the kitchen paint int
o the tray. She swept her brush along the lip of the bucket, scooping up the dribbles. The avocado green color would look beautiful against the walnut cabinets and create just the right atmosphere in the barn kitchen.

  She took a moment to enjoy what they’d created, what the McKenzie family would enjoy for generations to come.

  The light spilling through the window at the end of the room made the ground floor look magical. The glazier had taken a week to install the three story feature window. The wooden frame had been custom made, curved at the top to soften the straight lines of the building.

  With Jordan coordinating the contractors and more than a little luck, they’d made the barn watertight before the worst of the weather hit.

  On the inside, the ground floor drywalling and plastering had been finished and painting was underway. Gracie couldn’t wait to see what the open plan room would look like when it was finished.

  “I hear you want the scaffolding moved?”

  Gracie glanced over her shoulder at Trent. “The contractors will finish the wall they’re working on this afternoon. I’ve just got the touch-ups to do in the kitchen, and then I can help them paint the living room.”

  “You won’t be climbing the scaffolding though, will you?” He raised his eyebrows, giving her his infuriating I-know-best stare.

  Over the last few days, Gracie had watched the two painters climb the frame like monkeys. When they’d sealed the drywall three stories above the ground floor, she’d held her breath, half expecting one of them to topple off the scaffolding.

  She left her brush against the edge of the paint tray and walked toward her husband. “I can guarantee I won’t be going anywhere near the painting contractors.”

  Trent hauled her in close and kissed her nose. “I’m glad to hear it. Is it hotter than usual in here, or is it just me?”

  “We’ve turned on extra heat lamps to keep the room warm. The weather forecast said there’s more snow on the way and unless we want the paint to take a week to dry, we don’t have any choice.”

  Trent looked around the room, then over at the wall of scaffolding. “I’ll get Pete and Tim to move the scaffolding later today. When are the painters arriving?”

  “They’ll be here in half an hour. Did you talk to Jordan?”

  “He said he’s okay.” Trent looked as though he was about to say something else, but thought better of it.

  “Is that it?” Gracie asked. “Did he say anything about seeing Tracey kiss another guy?”

  “Nope and he isn’t about to. Don’t push him, Gracie. He’ll tell us what he wants to when he’s ready.”

  “Jordan wears his heart on his sleeve. He was shocked when he saw Tracey.”

  Trent sighed. “I promised you I’d ask Jordan how he’s feeling and he said he was okay. Now you’ve got to promise me that you won’t pester him. He’s an adult. He can take care of himself.”

  Gracie didn’t think it mattered how old he was. A broken heart was a broken heart. It still hurt the same, still left you feeling as though your whole world had collapsed in on itself.

  “Your brain is working overtime.” Trent lifted her chin and looked her in the eyes. “Promise me, Gracie.”

  She took a deep breath and nodded. “All right. I won’t say anything. But if Jordan brings the subject up I want to make sure he’s really okay.”

  Trent kissed her lightly on the lips and smiled. “You do that, Gracie. I’ve got some work to do in the office, but I’ll be back here before lunch to start putting together the kitchen cabinets.”

  Gracie looked around the quiet building. In an hour it would be a hive of activity and she couldn’t have been happier. The barn would look beautiful when it was finished. And hopefully, with everything that needed to happen before they took their first booking, Jordan wouldn’t have time to think about what he’d seen in the mall.

  Chapter 3

  “Grab your coat, hat, and scarf, Gracie. We’re choosing a Christmas tree.”

  Gracie heard Trent’s voice coming from somewhere downstairs.

  “Where are you?” he yelled.

  “Second floor. The last bathroom on the left.” Gracie stretched her back and stared at the bathroom wall. Over the last week she’d prepped, painted, and touched-up more rooms than she’d ever done in her life.

  “That t-shirt has seen better days, Gracie.”

  After the first day of sanding, she’d covered her hair in an old t-shirt, knotting the sleeves together to keep the worst of the dust away from her head. Since then the shirt had been covered in four different colored paint splatters and half a ton of plaster dust. The rest of her clothes weren’t much better, but she figured all of the mess was worth it.

  “If you stand there for too long I’ll give you a wall to paint.”

  Trent smiled at her. “Are you coming with us? Jordan’s getting the horses ready.”

  “You’re going now?”

  He undid the t-shirt wrapped around her head and grimaced. “There’s a break in the weather. If we don’t get up to dad’s plantation now, we might not get there for a few days.”

  When Trent’s parents got married, his dad planted one hundred pine trees for each Christmas they’d spend together. When Trent and Jordan had been younger, they’d laughed and told their dad he was being over-optimistic. They’d never realized just how over-optimistic he would be.

  Trent’s dad had died seven years ago. Each Christmas they chose a tree from their dad’s plantation. They hauled it down the mountain, remembering the man that had made a huge impact on their lives.

  Gracie kissed Trent’s cheek. “Is your mom coming with us?”

  “She said to go ahead without her. The road has been closed and she’ll try and get out here in the next few days.”

  “In that case, let’s go. I can’t wait to see your dad’s trees.” Gracie held Trent’s hand as they walked through the guest bedroom, onto the mezzanine landing, and down the staircase. The barn was slowly taking shape, slowly becoming more of what they’d imagined when they’d first seen the plans.

  “It’s looking good.” Trent’s gaze skimmed the deep cream walls of the living room, the rich mahogany window frames, and the bare bulbs dangling from the ceiling.

  Gracie imagined the room with big comfy sofas, a polished floor, and colorful rugs. “The whole barn looks incredible. Jordan wants your mom and I to go shopping for the furniture after Christmas.”

  Trent ran his hand along the granite counter. She knew he was proud of the way the kitchen had turned out. The green, white, and crimson marbled granite looked great with the white butler’s sink. It was a kitchen their guests would enjoy using after a day on the ranch.

  Trent lifted Gracie’s hat and coat off the stand in the entranceway. “Let me guess. Emily?”

  Gracie smiled at her husband. “How did you know?”

  He opened her coat and waited while she slid her arms in the sleeves. “Most sheepskin coats are brown or black. This is the first pink one I’ve ever seen. And the fluffy matching hat…well that’s just pure Emily Scotson if I ever saw it.”

  Gracie did the big pink buttons up, then twirled so that Trent could see the coat from every angle. “She made it especially for me. All of the other coats I found were too long and weren’t pink.”

  Trent picked his own coat up and smiled. “Funny that. Boots?”

  Gracie looked down at the paint splattered sneakers on her feet. She disappeared under another rack of coats and reappeared with her outdoor boots. “They weren’t too good for painting.” She held back a yawn as she slipped her feet inside the leather.

  “You’ve been tired for the last couple of weeks, Gracie. Are you sure you’re not overdoing things?”

  “Paint fumes,” she said from behind her hand as another yawn locked her jaw in place.

  “You don’t need to work in the barn from dawn to dusk.”

  Gracie wrapped a bright purple scarf around her neck and smiled. “We’re past the smelly stuff now. This
is where the fun starts.”

  “I think I should warn Jordan about you and mom.” Trent threw his jacket on and pulled out his gloves. “I hope he’s given you a budget?”

  “Of course.” Gracie opened the front door and held her breath as a blast of cold air hit her in the face. “That’s why we aren’t shopping until after Christmas. Between the online sales and the store discounts we’re looking for bargains.”

  “Just keep mom away from Dominque’s,” Trent muttered. “Nothing in the barn needs expensive jewelry to make it complete.”

  Gracie hooked her hand over her husband’s arm. “A little bit of sparkle never hurt anyone.”

  “I was afraid you’d say that.”

  Gracie thought it was just as well Trent had a twinkle in his eyes. Otherwise two women with bling tendencies would give him ulcers as they headed into a big shopping extravaganza.

  By the time Trent and Gracie made it across to Jordan, their horses were all saddled and ready to go. Jordan took the lead, with Gracie following behind. The sky was so clear and so blue, that Trent could almost feel the next fall of snow on his skin.

  Gracie’s horse, Daisy, cantered through the fine powder as if she was three years old. It seemed like a lifetime ago that Gracie had first ridden Daisy. Eighteen months ago, Gracie had been a mini daredevil, willing to try anything to become a cowgirl. Looking at the way she rode Daisy now, no one would believe she hadn’t been born on the back of a horse.

  “I love the bells on Daisy’s bridle.” Gracie’s voice was full of laughter. “It makes me feel as though we’re Santa’s elves. All we need is a sleigh to pull the presents.”

  Jordan slowed his horse. He didn’t exactly smile, but it was closer than he’d gotten all week. “We’ve got one of those, too.”

  “You’re joking?”

  “Dad used to take us on sleigh rides each Christmas. Trent hitched it up to the horses a couple of years ago to give our friends’ kids a Christmas Eve surprise.”

  Gracie moved alongside Jordan. “Why didn’t you do it last year?”