He wrapped his fingers around hers and tugged the knuckles to his lips, his eyes never leaving her startled gaze.
He kissed her there because that was all he would allow himself. For tonight, at least.
*
Taking a deep breath, Rachel knocked on the front door of the Harris house, a sprawling suburban mansion set back from the main road on the outskirts of Yuletide. A detached, double garage sat on the far side of the brick driveway. Centered in the peak of the garage someone had hung the old sign that used to welcome visitors to “Harristown.”
Now, it simply welcomed their company, but she guessed that didn’t include her. Luke’s parents had never been overly warm toward her even when she and Luke had been happily dating. At the time, she’d told herself it was because her father had been instrumental in changing the town’s name, but that was only a guess.
Emma still lived with her parents, so it made sense to drop off her revamped bridesmaid dress here. And, as luck would have it, Luke’s truck sat in the driveway. Or at least, Rachel guessed it was his based on the Army bumper sticker and the wealth of other vehicles parked in the double driveway.
A moment later the door swept open to reveal Emma herself.
“Oh. Hi.” The girl’s greeting was less than enthusiastic as she glanced backward over her shoulder. With her long, tawny hair clipped back in sections around her head, she wore a leopard print plastic apron printed with the name of a local beauty salon. “I’m just getting my hair done for tonight.”
She closed the door a little behind her, as if to shield Rachel from view from anyone else who might be inside. A television blared nearby and there was a group of people talking in a room close to the front door. Rachel wished she could simply hand over the gown and leave. But her promise to herself—and her girlfriends—wouldn’t be fulfilled until she’d made peace with her ex-boyfriend.
Besides, she couldn’t deny a part of her was excited about the prospect of being Gavin’s date tonight, even if she was nervous, too. What if he was right? What if there was a connection there that they couldn’t walk away from?
“I just brought your dress over so you’d have it tomorrow.” Rachel handed her the gown, then—before she lost her nerve—she rushed to add, “But I was hoping to speak to Luke, too.”
Emma’s gaze darted from the garment to Rachel. “Seriously?” She lowered her voice and stepped closer to the threshold. “Now?”
“Is it a bad time?” Memories of the way Kiersten’s father greeted her at the karaoke party returned. Would the Harrises be as adamant that she stay away?
Emma’s expression turned pained. “It’s just the whole family is here. And—”
“You’re letting cold air in the house, Emma,” a familiar male voice said from inside the house, just as the door flung open the rest of the way. “Who’s here?”
The groom stood beside his sister, tall and imposing. His expression shifted from curious to cool as he saw Rachel. No matter what Kiersten and Gavin tried to tell her about Luke wanting to heal the old rift between them, Rachel knew for certain that he’d clung to some facet of the grudge for reasons she didn’t understand.
But that’s precisely why she’d come back home this week.
“Hi.” Rachel acknowledged him with a nod, aware of the room behind him going quiet. Watching. “Can I talk to you for a minute?”
The crowd behind him shifted. His family and some guests seemed to be watching a sporting event on television in the family room while, in the kitchen beyond that, Emma’s hair stylist held a paintbrush in one hand and a pot in the other. Now, Luke’s mother stood from her spot on the couch and headed toward the door.
Rachel wasn’t prepared to do battle with the whole family. She took an involuntary step backward on the snowy front step, her boot heel slipping off the stair so she had to make a quick grab for the handrail.
Emma intercepted her mother, however, taking both of the smaller woman’s shoulders in her hands. “Mom, it’s fine.” Emma held up the dress Rachel dropped off. “Let’s try out my gown while Luke handles this, okay?”
Mrs. Harris stared at Rachel for a long moment, her dark eyes similar to her son’s. Thankfully, Luke stepped into a pair of boots by the doorway. “I’ve got this, Mom. I’ll be back in a minute.”
As he exited the house and closed the door behind him, Rachel couldn’t decide if she felt relieved not to have to enter the Harris domain, or offended that she hadn’t been invited. Remembering that she was trying to let go of her old grudge against Yuletide, she went with the former. At least she could breathe freely away from his family.
“Do you mind if we talk out here?” Luke gestured toward a circle of holiday inflatables on the front lawn—Frosty pirouetted on a pair of ice skates, Rudolph leaped over a moon, and Santa waved a bell from his sleigh. In the middle of the huge, lit figures, a wooden bench sat under an arbor draped with plastic poinsettias.
“Sure.” She followed him to the bench, but when he didn’t take a seat, she didn’t either. “Listen, I won’t keep you from your family. I know it’s a big weekend. Congratulations, by the way.”
“Thank you.” He nodded, folding his arms. Listening.
But would he be receptive to her message? Everything about his posture suggested he was skeptical. Frankly, it seemed silly and unfair.
“I miss Kiersten,” she began, not knowing where else to start since she didn’t feel the need to apologize for anything. “She’s important to me, and I wish I could spend more time with her. But I think it’s awkward for her since you and I have a strained relationship at best.”
Still he said nothing, but at least he acknowledged her words with a nod. Perhaps, she realized, that was one of the reasons they hadn’t made a good couple. They both tended to retreat after a disagreement, whereas Gavin and Kiersten were more outgoing and willing to discuss the difficult topics, like their feelings.
“So,” she pressed onward, needing closure. That was the whole reason she’d come here. To make peace. “I want to see if there’s any way you and I can move forward. Put the past behind us and be…if not friends, maybe we could at least be friendly? We were all friends long before that day you proposed.”
Snow fell on Luke’s head and shoulders, matting down the top of his hair. He looked thoughtful. “Can I ask you a question?”
“I wish you would. I’m here to clear the air.” Her gaze wandered over him, and while she could see, on an intellectual level, that he was still a good-looking man, she didn’t feel any of the spark she felt whenever Gavin was around.
“Do you know where your father went when he left Yuletide?”
“Until two days ago, I had no earthly clue. But the other night, my mother told me that she gave the police his phone records that showed he’d been calling a Caribbean island in the weeks before he left.” She shrugged, grateful for the hood of her voluminous cape as the snow fell harder.