Читать книгу A Maverick for Christmas - Leanne Banks - Страница 8

Abby Cates remembered the moment she fell for Cade Pritchett. She had been nine years old at the time, and he’d been giving swimming lessons at Silver Stallion Lake. At seventeen, Cade had been tall, strong and blond. He was nice to all the kids, but demanded they learn their strokes. Abby was pretty sure he didn’t remember scooping her out of some too-deep water when she’d choked and panicked. In her little-girl mind, Cade was a god.

Despite her best efforts, Abby had never found any man who could top Cade in her mind, not even now that she was twenty-two. And that was a terrible shame, especially since he’d never noticed her and, on top of that, wedding fever was running through Thunder Canyon like a bad flu.

Now that her older sister Laila was engaged to Jackson Traub, the discussions of weddings were nonstop. Her mother was usually so eager for Christmas that she began decorating plans in early November, but this year she was clearly distracted. If her mother didn’t take a little break from wedding talk, then Abby was going to explode through the roof of her family’s home. She tried not to listen to her mother’s phone conversation as she finished cleaning up the kitchen after dinner.

“A double wedding for Marlon and Matt,” her mother cooed. “Love is definitely in the air. And soon enough, there will be babies,” she continued, her tone giddy with delight. Abby glowered. Love is in the air. Yeah, for everyone except her. Her mother began to dig for more details on the double wedding of her cousins, and Abby turned the water on high as she washed the last pot. She wished she could wash out her brain as easily as she could clean the dishes.

Why in the world had she fallen for a man who couldn’t seem to even notice her? Talk about unrequited love. Then it had gone from bad to worse when he’d dated her beautiful oldest sister, Laila, the town beauty queen. Then it went from worse to tragic when he’d proposed to Laila. At least her sister had turned him down, but she’d hated the idea that Cade would suffer from Laila’s rejection.

The past couple of years it had been so hard to see Cade with Laila. Abby had felt as if she’d walked around with a permanent knot in her stomach. In love with her sister’s on-again, off-again boyfriend? It was like a bad soap opera. Although she loved Laila, Abby had been torn between guilt and resentment. She’d successfully kept it hidden, but she didn’t know how much longer she could manage it, especially since it felt as if everyone around her was finding love and getting married. And as far as Cade Pritchett was concerned, she might as well be invisible.

Irritated with her bad mood, she muttered to herself, “Suck it up. Wedding fever won’t last forever, and Christmas is right around the corner.”

One second later, the door opened and her sister Laila waltzed in wearing a smile and flashing a cover of a bridal magazine. “I guess I need to start planning for the big day.”

Abby felt something inside her rip. The beginning, she feared, of turning into a rocket and shooting through the roof. If she didn’t get out of here. “Gotta go,” she said, tossing the towel she held on the counter. “I’ll be back later.”

Laila shot her a bemused look. “Where are you going?”

“I need to do some research for a paper,” Abby manufactured, although it was partly true.

“Can’t you do it online?” Laila asked.

“Nope. Tell Mom when she gets off the phone,” Abby said and grabbed her coat. She jammed her hands through the sleeves and raced outside. Full of so many different emotions, she walked blindly away from the house. She skipped getting into her orange Volkswagen Beetle, hoping the cold air would freeze her feelings.

She was torn between swearing a blue streak and crying. She hated to cry, so she began to swear under her breath. Walking toward town, Abby whispered every bad word she could call to mind. At a younger age, she would have gotten her mouth washed out with soap, but there was no one to tattle on her unless she counted the bare November trees and whistling wind. Unfortunately she used up her repertoire very quickly, and despite her best efforts, her eyes filled with tears.