A Home of Her Own (Dundee, Idaho #4)(52)
Author: Brenda Novak

Whoever it was stopped pounding.

Stepping to the window, she parted the drapes to see the back of a man close to Mike’s height, with shoulders just as broad. When he turned, she realized it was his brother, Josh.

“Oh, no,” she breathed and cast a worried glance over her shoulder, wondering if she should warn Mike before she answered the door.

“Damn it, Lucky.” The voice came from outside. “I know he’s in there. Open up.”

Josh had probably already confirmed that Mike wasn’t at the ranch. With Mike’s truck at her place, Lucky didn’t see any point in playing games. They’d already been found out.

Making sure her robe covered her well because there wasn’t much dignity in being caught in such a situation, she opened the door to a flushed but still handsome Josh Hill.

His jaw hardened as his gaze ran over her disheveled appearance. “Where is he?”

Lucky’s spine stiffened at his icy tone, but before she could respond, the stairs creaked. Mike came down, fully dressed, and answered for her. “Here. What do you want?”

Josh’s eyes met Mike’s and a challenge seemed to pass between the two brothers. “What the hell are you doing?”

Mike scowled darkly. “Mind your own business, little brother.”

“This is my business. It’s Christmas, hardly the time to take this kind of—” he eyed Lucky with no small amount of contempt “—risk, yet your truck’s parked out front for anyone to see. What are you trying to do? Make the holidays memorable by tearing our family apart?”

“Get out of here before you say something that really pisses me off,” Mike replied. “You have no right to interfere.”

“No right?” Josh’s hands flexed as though Mike’s response angered him beyond words. “You’re choosing Red’s daughter over your own family, a cheap fling with—”

“Josh!” Mike interrupted, almost explosively. “I’m warning you, watch your mouth.”

Lucky felt their powerful wills collide, feared they’d come to blows in her living room, and stepped between them.

Mike moved her out of the way, and Josh seemed to pull his gaze from her only with considerable effort. “You told Mom you were sick last night,” he said to Mike.

“You’ve got something to say about that, too?”

Shoving a hand through his hair, Josh released what sounded like a frustrated sigh. “Only that Mom’s on her way out here.”

Lucky’s breath lodged in her throat, and Mike blanched for the first time. “What?”

“She just called and asked me to check on you. She’s worried because you’re not answering your phone. ‘Poor Mike, to be so sick on Christmas Day.’ She’s bringing you the presents you left behind last night when you walked out on the rest of us—” he shifted his gaze back to Lucky “—almost the moment you learned our new neighbor was here alone.”

Mike didn’t respond. Lucky wasn’t sure he was even paying attention. He seemed to be preoccupied, searching for something.

Josh cocked an eyebrow at him. “If you’re hoping to find your hat, it’s outside—which says more about last night than I really want to know.”

Lucky felt her face burn, but Mike acted as if Josh’s words didn’t bother him in the least. “I’ll grab it on the way out,” he said and turned to her. “I’ve got to go.”

“No kidding. Hurry.” Stepping back so Mike wouldn’t feel he owed her any kind of goodbye kiss, or even a handshake, she gave him a polite nod. “Enjoy the rest of the holidays.”

Mike hesitated. When he glanced at her tree, Lucky felt her embarrassment return as he seemed to notice that there wasn’t a single present underneath it. But then he strode through the door and was gone, and she prayed he’d make it out of her driveway before his mother arrived.

MIKE REFUSED TO LOOK at Josh as he stalked outside. He found his hat easily enough, fished his keys out of his pocket and had nearly climbed into the Escalade before Josh addressed him.

“Once wasn’t enough?” his brother asked as he passed by on the way to his own vehicle, which was parked behind Mike’s.

Mike didn’t answer, but he knew Josh was talking about that first experience with Lucky in the motel, which he’d admitted to him on the phone.

“What’s going on, Mike?” Josh pressed.

Mike tossed his hat in the passenger seat. “Nothing.”

“Are you going to be able to stop seeing her?”

Mike scowled irritably. Of course he was going to be able to stop seeing her. He and Holbrook were planning to up the ante on the house until she couldn’t say no, right? She’d be packing her bags within the week. Then she’d be gone, and he’d have no choice but to stop seeing her.

Unfortunately, he thought it might take that drastic a measure to get her out of his head and his heart.

“I’ve got it under control,” he said tersely.

“Finding your hat in the snow and your truck in the drive when you could’ve slipped over here without leaving such obvious signs, had you been thinking at all, doesn’t make me feel very optimistic about that. If you had to see her, why didn’t you use some caution?”

“Let’s get out of here,” Mike grumbled. He didn’t want to explain that he couldn’t sneak and pretend. He respected Lucky too much to treat her as though she wasn’t worthy to be seen with him.

BARBARA BALANCED Mike’s presents in her arms as she climbed out of her Cadillac and walked toward the door. Mike was rarely sick and, when he was, he generally didn’t say anything about it. He was like his father; he tolerated discomfort in silence. So this illness, which had been bad enough to take him away from their Christmas Eve celebration, had her worried.

“Mike, it’s Mom,” she said, letting herself in. She assumed she’d find him in bed, but he came around the corner fully dressed and looking much better than she’d expected. “Oh, you’re up.”

“Yeah. Merry Christmas.” He kissed her cheek, took the presents from her and carried them to the couch. “Where’s Dad?”

“He was on the phone with his brother, and I thought I’d give him some time to wish the rest of his family a merry Christmas,” she said. “Why didn’t you answer when I called you this morning?”

He cleared his throat. “I must’ve been out with the horses.”