Be Mine at Christmas(8)
Author: Brenda Novak

But, in a way, Kayla was her daughter now.

“He was older, then?” Matt asked.

“Yeah, uh…a lot older,” Kayla said. “We have no idea where he is.”

Matt seemed to look more kindly at Angela, probably because he felt sorry for her.

Only sheer will kept Angela from dropping her head into her hands. How had she expected this to go?

Certainly not the way it was going…

“I’m sorry to hear that,” he said sincerely. “But he’s the one who’s missing out. You know that, don’t you?”

“Time to eat!”

Peggy’s announcement brought the conversation to an end, and Angela nearly cried in relief.

MATT COULDN’T BELIEVE that someone had taken advantage of Angela when she was so young. He knew she didn’t really have a family; everyone knew that. A foster child wasn’t common in Virginia City then or now, so her first appearance at school, when they were in the seventh grade, had caused quite a stir. If he remembered right, Betty Cunningham had given her a home because of some tenuous connection with Angela’s family, and Betty hadn’t wanted to see her become a ward of the state.

But Betty, a widow herself, had already had her hands full. A bit eccentric, she’d taken in any stray animal that had crossed her path, so she’d had something like three dogs, a couple of cats, some hamsters and a ferret. Matt knew because Stephanie had lured him over to the house once with the promise of showing him the animals. When she’d come on to him, he’d gotten out of there right away, but he’d stayed long enough to see that the situation was unique. Besides caring for all those animals, Betty had had to deal with Stephanie, who’d always been getting into trouble, and Betty herself had been sick a lot.

Suddenly, Matt felt guilty for being so hard on Angela. If Angela had helped to corner him the night he’d had sex with Stephanie, her involvement could only have been in a peripheral way, and it had no doubt been Stephanie’s idea. Anyway, Lewis was right—they’d all been so young.

He caught her watching him from across the table and smiled. He hadn’t been very friendly to her so far, but it wasn’t too late. According to what she’d told him and Lewis, she was in town for two weeks.

He had half a mind to make sure they were the best two weeks she’d ever known.

CHAPTER FOUR

“ANGIE!”

Angela rolled over to find Kayla standing at the side of her bed. “What?” She squinted in the light streaming through the sheers at the hotel window. They’d chosen the Gold Hill Hotel because Angela remembered it so nostalgically from when she’d lived in Virginia City before. “What time is it?”

“It’s only eight. But I just talked to Matt. He’s off work on Mondays, and he says we want to get an early start.”

“Do we have plans with Matt?” she asked, confused. The last thing she recalled was the charming way he’d walked them to their car after the dinner party was over. She’d been terrified he was going to ask her out. Kayla’s story had really affected him, and she’d felt his eyes on her all night, had felt him shift closer to her while they’d been watching the movie after dinner. But at the car, he’d kept his hands in his pockets and had merely told them to get a good night’s sleep, then had waved as they’d driven off.

She’d thought that would be the end of it, at least for a few days. They’d had an enjoyable night, established a friendship. And now she had a lot to think about. Matt wasn’t married, and as far as she could tell, he wasn’t involved in a serious relationship. He had a steady job, family in the area, a solid reputation—what appeared from every angle to be a very normal life.

Which made telling him about Kayla a real possibility.

But Angela wasn’t sure he’d thank her for the news. His jaw tightened anytime Stephanie was even mentioned. What if he grew angry at the deception and rejected Kayla? Angela couldn’t subject Kayla to any more hurt. And Angela was equally afraid of the opposite possibility—what if he decided to take his daughter away from her?

“He wants to know if we’d like to ride the train,” Kayla said. “And afterward, he said we could help him pick out his Christmas tree.”

Kayla sounded thrilled. She and Matt had gotten along famously last night. He’d taught her how to play chess while Angela had helped Peggy clean up and had even given her advice about boys. How could Angela say no?

She wouldn’t. She’d go and make sure he was everything he seemed to be, and then she’d figure out whether or not to tell him.

THE TRAIN RIDE HAD been fun, but short. It was a narrated thirty-five-minute ride through the heart of the Comstock mining region, after which they went to pick out Matt’s tree. Angela liked tramping through the snow; it was cold, and she was getting wet, but she felt so alive. She tried to convince herself that the flutter of excitement in her stomach was the result of returning home. But she knew it wasn’t just Virginia City. Every time she looked at Matt, she felt a sudden warmth.

How long had it been since she’d kissed a man? she wondered as he tied the tree on top of his truck.

Since before Betty’s death. Angela hadn’t dated in more than a year.

She missed the male-female contact. She also missed the experience of feeling desirable and desiring someone else.

“Are you staring at his butt?” Kayla murmured, her voice scandalized.

Angela hadn’t realized that Kayla was watching her. She considered pretending otherwise, but she could tell by the knowing gleam in Kayla’s eyes that the girl wouldn’t believe it. Regardless of any embarrassment, she decided it was better to acknowledge the truth. “I’ve never seen a pair of jeans fit quite so well,” she said, using her mitten-covered hand to shield her mouth so Matt wouldn’t hear her.

Kayla giggled. “You should go out with him.”

“No, we leave in two weeks.”

“Why not have some fun while we’re here?”

“We are having fun—”

“Hey, what are you two talking about?” Finished, Matt faced them with one eyebrow cocked.

It probably wasn’t too difficult to tell they’d been talking about him. But Angela refused to admit it. “What we want for Christmas?” she said as innocently as possible.

He wiped his sleeve across his forehead as if he’d worked up quite a sweat. She and Kayla hadn’t been much help. They’d chosen the biggest blue spruce they could find and left him to it.