Thunder Canyon Homecoming / A Thunder Canyon Christmas

Maybe it was foolish to think that she could indulge in a casual no-strings affair when she’d never done so before. Or maybe that was just another reason why she should go for it. When she’d made the trip to Thunder Canyon, she’d done so knowing that the journey would bring changes to her life. Meeting Corey had given her another opportunity to make another change.

She’d never known anyone like him—he was larger than life, a man strong enough for a woman to lean on, a man she wanted to be with. He didn’t strike her as someone who did anything by half measures, and she knew that if she ever made love with him, it would be a spectacular experience.

What worried her was the possibility that he would seduce not just her body but her heart, and that when he was gone she would be left with only memories of the time they’d spent together and her heart in pieces.

Because he would go. She knew that. He had no more intention of staying in Thunder Canyon than she did—but she wasn’t ready to pack up her bags just yet.

And although heading back to San Diego held a certain appeal, she knew she couldn’t do it. She couldn’t go back to her old life and pretend that everything was as it had always been. She’d come to Montana because she needed answers, and she wasn’t going anywhere until she had them.

After another restless night, Erin got up Tuesday morning and readied herself for work as if it was any other day. Because her dreams had been mostly centered on Corey, she hadn’t come up with any revelations about how to tell her boss about the possibility that he could be her brother. Instead, she decided to act as normal as possible, as if nothing had changed.

But she found herself making excuses to walk past his office, trying to catch a glimpse of him, trying to figure out if there was any familial resemblance between herself and her boss. She had two brothers, and she loved both Jake and Josh, but there was just something about Grant Clifton that had appealed to her from the start.

A man didn’t rise to the position he was in without having a fair amount of drive and ambition, but he wasn’t ruthless or hard. Her own experience had shown her that he was a fair and compassionate employer; according to his friends, he was loyal and steadfast; the love he obviously shared with his wife of three years proved he was faithful and devoted; and when he talked about his mother and his sister, he demonstrated that he had a strong sense of family.

Was it possible that she might be part of his family? If so, would he grow to care about her as he obviously cared about Elise? Of course, if it turned out that Erin was his sister, it would mean that Elise was not.

How would he deal with that revelation? Would he resent Erin for bringing it to light? Or would he accept that she was as much a victim of circumstances as everyone else?

“Is everything okay?”

Erin realized that she’d been standing in front of the reservation computer for several minutes without inputting any data. She looked up at Carrie and managed to smile. “Sorry. I don’t know where my mind is today.”

“I think I know,” her coworker teased, nodding her head in the direction of the counter.

Glancing past her, Erin saw Corey standing there, and her heart gave that all-too familiar jolt.

“What’s he doing here?”

“Looking for you,” Carrie told her. “And honey, if you’re not interested, feel free to give him my number.”

Erin felt her cheeks flush as she moved past her coworker to the counter.

“Are you here to see if I was playing hooky today?” she asked him.

“Nope. Just to see you.”

“Any particular reason?”

“You were on my mind. In fact, you’ve been on my mind since I left your house last night, a detail that did not go unnoticed by my associates at the meetings I had this morning.”

She wasn’t sure how to respond to that, so she remained silent.

“This is where you could say that you’ve been thinking about me, too,” he prompted.

She didn’t think his ego needed the boost of hearing the words, even if they were true. But she folded her arms on the counter and dropped her voice, as if making a confession. “What if I tell you that, as I drove to work this morning, I was thinking about playing hooky again because it’s much too beautiful a day to be cooped up inside?”

He leaned closer, so their faces were only inches apart. “Did you think about playing hooky again with me?”

“A girl has to have a few secrets,” she teased.

“Something tells me you have more than a few.”

It was an effort to keep her smile in place as his words struck a chord. He was right. She had more secrets than anyone in Thunder Canyon knew, more than anyone would possibly guess. And the longer she stayed, continuing to perpetuate the myth that she was just a California transplant looking for a change of pace, the guiltier she felt. She’d made friends with the people in town, listened to their confessions and hopes and dreams.

But she hadn’t told a single one of them her real reason for coming to Thunder Canyon. Not even Erika, who had chosen Erin to be the maid of honor at her wedding. And now Erika was married to Dillon, and Erin was fighting her attraction to Dillon’s brother, who happened to be good friends with Grant Clifton, who might be Erin’s brother. There were too many strings connecting all the players in the drama of her life, and they were getting all tangled up.

She’d been dishonest with so many people. Even if she wasn’t guilty of telling lies, she certainly hadn’t volunteered the complete truth. And she couldn’t help but wonder what they would think of her when they found out. Would the people who had become her friends understand why she’d been silent about her true purpose for coming to Thunder Canyon? Or would the truth cost her those new but treasured friendships?

Her mother tried to instill in all of her kids the importance of being honest. If you tell the truth, she’d pointed out to them, you won’t ever forget what you said. Erin understood the importance of the message and she’d tried to live her life accordingly. That had changed when she came to Thunder Canyon.

No, she admitted to herself, it had changed when she’d said that she was quitting her job in San Diego because she felt as if her life had stagnated since graduation and she wanted to explore some other opportunities. Her parents had been supportive—or tried to be. They’d also been hurt by her decision, but not as hurt as she knew they would be if she’d told him she was going to look for a family that Erma had told her was in Montana.

And that one little lie had led to more little lies. Since coming to Thunder Canyon, however, she’d been guilty of so many deceptions and half-truths she wasn’t sure she could even remember them all. And she feared that those half-truths were going to come back to haunt her.

Maybe she’d believed they were necessary. Maybe she still did. She couldn’t imagine how the tightly knit community would have responded if she’d slapped the newspaper clipping down on a table at The Hitching Post the first day she’d arrived in town and proclaimed that she was related to some or all of the persons in the photo.

Instead, she’d taken a more subtle approach. She’d gotten to know the residents of Thunder Canyon and asked some discreet questions about the families in that faded picture. Unfortunately, the responses she’d received to those inquiries had told her little. And although there was no shortage of skeletons in the closets of the residents of Thunder Canyon, she hadn’t heard any murmurs about anyone losing a baby more than twenty-five years earlier.

And then, by sheer luck, she happened to be nearby when Grant Clifton pulled a picture of his sister out of his wallet. Coincidentally, that sister was born on the same day in the same hospital as Erin, and she had some similar features to each of Erin’s brothers.

But Erin still didn’t know what to do now, how to verify her suspicion that someone at the hospital had somehow mixed up those two babies.

A hand waving in front of her face jolted her out of her reverie. She looked apologetically at Corey. “Sorry.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to talk about it, darlin’?”

She could hardly deny that her mind had been wandering again, so she only shook her head. “No, I’m not sure. But it’s not something I can talk about. Not right now.”

“Will you keep me in mind, when you can?”

She wouldn’t have blamed him for feeling dissed by her lack of attention, but he seemed more concerned than offended, and she was touched by his offer. “I will,” she promised. “Thanks.”

“So why don’t we talk about your lunch plans?” he said. “Do you have a date with Stefan or can I steal you away for a little while?”

“Why are you so determined to take me to lunch?”

He shrugged. “It’s lunchtime, I’m hungry and I enjoy your company.”

“How could any woman refuse such a gracious in vi tation?”

“Stefan was booked, wasn’t he?”

“Until four-thirty,” she admitted.

“Then he won’t be putting his hands on you today,” Corey noted.

It was the hint of smugness in his tone that prompted her to tease, “Not until this afternoon.”

Erin retrieved her purse from her desk and came around to the other side of the counter.

“How does DJ’s Rib Shack sound?” Corey asked her.

“My mouth is watering already,” she told him.

He reached for her hand and was pleased when she didn’t pull hers away. It was a small thing, but it meant a lot to him because it proved that she was starting to feel comfortable with him.

“But we might have some trouble getting seated,” Erin warned. “We have a conference group that booked several large tables for lunch there today.”

“Are you forgetting that DJ is my cousin?”

“Does that family connection trump a group of fifty-five paying customers?”

He winced. “Well, I’m sure he can find a couple of chairs for us in the kitchen.”

Erin laughed.

He liked to hear her laugh. She seemed so serious most of the time, as if there were heavy issues weighing on her mind. But when she laughed, it was like the sun breaking through on a cloudy day. The soft, sexy sound seemed to burst out of her, and her beautiful blue eyes danced and sparkled.

“For DJ’s signature rib sandwich, I would happily sit in the kitchen,” she told him.

As it turned out, DJ did manage to find them a small table on the opposite side of the room from the conference guests and with a fabulous view of the resort property. Be cause they both knew what they wanted to eat, he took their orders so that he could get it into the kitchen before the conference group started clamoring for its food. Corey ordered a beer and Erin, because it was the middle of a work day, requested a soft drink.

“So tell me,” Erin said, “how you manage to have so much free time when you’re supposed to be in town on business.”

“I’m my own boss. When I first started out, I worked more than my share of eighty-hour weeks to ensure my business was successful. Now I have the luxury of being able to pick and choose my jobs and the hours that I’m going to work.”

She eyed him over the rim of her glass. “Why did you start your own company instead of going to work at Traub Industries?”

“I did work at Traub Industries, as all of my brothers and my sister did. But, although the experience was memorable and I certainly won’t complain about the opportunities the company has afforded me, making a career in the oil business wasn’t what I wanted to do with my life.”

“So who does run the company?”

“My mother took over at the helm when my dad died, and she’s still the CEO. My brother Ethan is the CFO. My stepfather is on the board of directors.”

“So it really is a family business.”

“I guess it is,” he agreed.

She tilted her head. “Are there issues between you and your stepfather?”

“No. Not really.”

“Which is it—no? Or not really?”

“Peter’s a good guy,” Corey said. “And he makes my mom happy. It’s pretty amazing to think about the fact that he was willing to marry a woman who was on her own with six kids.”

“But—” she prompted.

He didn’t say anything.

“But he’s not your dad,” Erin finished for him.

“No, he’s not. I was so young when my dad died that my memories of him are pretty foggy, but it was still hard to accept anyone else trying to take his place. It’s only recently that I’ve realized Peter made his own place—and I’m glad it’s with my mom.” He shook his head. “But it seems that we’re always talking about my family—tell me something about yours.”

“The Castros aren’t nearly as interesting as the Traubs,” she said.

“That’s an opinion, not a fact,” he chided.

She shrugged. “Okay, my parents are Jack and Betty. My dad’s a harbor cop and my mom is a high school history teacher. I have two brothers, Jake and Josh, both of them older. Jake is a cop in New Orleans and Josh is a perpetual student. He’s currently studying geosciences at Princeton.”

“And what do your parents think of your decision to move to Montana?”

“They’re trying to be supportive. They understand that I needed to make some changes in my life. They just wish I didn’t have to make them so far away.”

“It could be worse,” Corey said philosophically. “You could have gone to New England.”

She smiled. “Which is what I remind them whenever they start complaining about how far away Thunder Canyon is from San Diego.”

“Do you get home to visit them very often?”

“Only once since I moved here,” she admitted. “I’d hoped to go back again for Thanksgiving, but that doesn’t look like it’s going to work out now.”

“It’s hard being away from family, especially at the holidays.”

She nodded. “I don’t think I’ve ever missed a major holiday with them.”

“So why don’t you invite them to come here?”

She seemed startled by the suggestion. “I can’t believe I didn’t think of that.”

“Sometimes it takes someone from the outside to see the possible solutions to a problem.”

“That’s exactly what you do, isn’t it? Companies hire you to come in and determine what’s not working, and you fix it.”

“I offer suggestions,” he clarified.

“And if a company doesn’t take your suggestions?”

“People don’t often ignore advice that they pay for, but it’s always their choice.”

The waiter brought their lunches.

Erin plucked a curly fry from her plate and bit off the end. “How long does it usually take—your review and analysis?”

“Are you trying to figure out how long I’m going to be in Thunder Canyon?” he teased.

“I’m trying to make conversation,” she retorted, but the flush in her cheeks confirmed his guess.

“Well, the answer to that question is that it varies depending on the complexity of the problems. Is the company simply looking to improve its bottom line, or is it teetering on the edge of bankruptcy? Is it a mom-and-pop operation or an international conglomerate?” He picked up his spicy barbecue chicken sandwich and bit into it.

“So it could be weeks or months,” she guessed.

He nodded, chewing.

“Do you enjoy it?”

“I enjoy the challenge.”

“Is that why you’re here with me now—because I turned you down the first time you asked me to dance?”

“You’re here with me,” he pointed out. “And if you’d accepted my original invitation, the only thing that would have been different is that we would have shared our first dance sooner.”

“First dance?”

He grinned. “Yeah, I’m counting on there being more.”

She smiled back, not protesting his assumption this time. Then her gaze slid away, caught by something across the room. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw that it wasn’t a “something” but “someone”—her boss, Grant Clifton. But it wasn’t the direction of her gaze that bothered him so much as the brief glimpse of yearning that he read in her eyes.

Then she focused on her plate again, and Corey was left to wonder if he’d just imagined the longing he thought he’d seen. He hoped so. He sure as heck didn’t want to think that she was lusting after a man who was his friend, her boss and married to boot.

However, it would explain why she’d been resistant to his overtures. Not that he thought he was irresistible, but in his experience, most women were flattered by his attention and often sought him out, and he’d been trying to figure out why Erin seemed impervious to his legendary charms.

He’d considered the usual reasons—she was just getting over a failed relationship, she didn’t like the color of his hair or his eyes, she thought he was too tall/too short or too young/too old, or she just wasn’t attracted to him—although he’d discarded that possibility after their first kiss because he knew that a woman couldn’t kiss a man the way she’d kissed him if she didn’t feel at least some degree of attraction. It had never occurred to him that she might be infatuated with her boss.

“How’s your sandwich?” Erin asked.

“Great,” he said, and picked it up again.

They chatted casually as they finished their lunches. He noticed that Erin was both attentive and entertaining, her focus never again wavering. Maybe he had imagined the look she’d sent in Grant’s direction. Maybe she’d actually been looking at someone else’s lunch—or their dessert. He’d dated a lot of women who looked enviously at the cheesecake on someone else’s plate but refused to order their own.

“Dessert?” he asked her.

There was still a handful of fries on Erin’s plate when she pushed it aside, shaking her head. “I couldn’t eat another bite.”

“Not even a tiny slice of pecan turtle pie?”

She sighed wistfully. “As much as I love DJ’s pecan turtle pie, I know they don’t serve tiny slices.”

He flagged down their server and ordered a slice anyway, asking for it to be boxed so Erin could take it home.

The cake was delivered along with his credit card slip, and Corey slid the dessert across the table to her.

“I really don’t need the three thousand calories in this box,” she told him. “But I’ll say ‘thank you’ anyway, knowing that I will savor every last bite while I’m watching American Idol tonight.”

“What do you watch on Fridays?” Corey asked, as they headed out of the restaurant.

“Nothing in particular.”

“Then how about catching a movie with me?” he suggested.

“What movie?” she asked.

“I don’t even know what’s showing,” he admitted.

“I would have expected you to find that out before you decided you wanted to go.”

“I just thought it would be fun to go to a movie with you.”

“I don’t like horror flicks,” she warned him.

“You could snuggle up to me during the scary parts.” He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

She laughed but shook her head. “All the parts are scary parts, and I’d have nightmares for a week.”

“Okay, no horror flicks,” he promised.

“And I’m not big on sci-fi, either.”

He nodded his understanding. “Aliens can be pretty scary.”

Her gaze narrowed. “Are you mocking me?”

“Of course not,” he said, but his lips twitched as he tried not to smile.

“Just for that, you have to buy the popcorn.”

“It would be my pleasure,” he told her, and he meant it.

She eyed him warily. “What are we doing, Corey?”

“Setting up a date.”

“Is it that simple?”

“For now.” They were back at the reception desk, and as much as he wanted to linger, he knew she needed to get back to work. “I’ll give you a call to let you know what time on Friday.”

“Okay,” she agreed. “Thanks for lunch.”

As she started around the counter, he caught her hand. She looked up at him, questioning, and he bent his head to touch his lips to hers. It was a quick and easy kiss that was over before she could think to protest about the inappropriateness of him kissing her at work.

“It was my pleasure,” he said, and walked away with a smile on his face.

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