Page 33 of A Mustang River Christmas

Pike chuckled. Laney rushed out of the kitchen, and then back in, the fluttering movements obvious and out of character.

Oh, Laney.

“So,” Cody began, “there’s a rumor that you and Laney are a bit of a thing.”

Pike was professionally and joyfully in other people’s business, and had been for years, so he supposed he really couldn’t resent Cody being in his.

Hell, Cody was an important part of his healing. A good friend, a great boss. Something like family.

“Yeah,” he relented. “You know, such as my involvement is.”

“I don’t know what that means, Pike.”

Neither did he. It might’ve meant one thing years ago, but it didn’t mean that now. He’d been celibate for ten long years, and then he had broken that celibacy for Laney, and now for the last month and a half, they’d been sleeping together. He couldn’t imagine not being with her. Even after this short time. Probably because when she had first arrived nearly eight months ago, he had been captivated by her, and it hadn’t stopped. She was the only woman who had come close to tempting him toward breaking his celibacy. The only person that he had wanted to confide in on the level that he had.

“Yeah, I’m still figuring that out, actually,” Pike said. Forced to be honest.

“Seems like you guys are a pretty good match.”

“My trouble is I’m still figuring out if I can be a good match for somebody.”

“In my experience,” Cody said, “you find the person and then you figure out how to become good enough to be their match. At least that’s how it worked for me.”

And that was when Pike realized something that he had been circling for a while now. He had to take control of this. He had done so much to get back into control of his life. He had done all of the right things. He had gotten clean, he had come back to his daughter. But he hadn’t fully come back to himself. And only because of Laney had he even gotten close to it. And it was a choice. It was always a choice. A choice to stay in this kind of purgatory, where he allowed himself just enough, just a little bit, or to move into everything. And he wanted everything.

Cody was right.

He had to grab hold of the life that he wanted. With both hands.

He had been like a man with a broken leg who had just gotten off crutches. He had started walking again, but he hadn’t really let himself run.

It was time to run.

Of course, there were some things that he needed to do, some plans he needed to put in place if he wanted to make all this happen. Christmas was in just a week. And he wanted to make this a Christmas that none of them would ever forget.

“I want to buy six of those Christmas trees,” he said.

“Six,” Cody said. “The bidding on those is expensive.”

“Cody,” Pike said. “I have money.”

“Well, sure, not trying to insult your financial status here. But... I mean, six trees.”

“And at least that many gingerbread houses.”

Cody’s eyebrows shot up. “Are you serious?”

“I’m very serious. And I’m going to need to store them until Christmas morning.”

“Why do I have the feeling this is a grand gesture?”

“Because it is.”

And it was going to be the grandest of gestures.

Chapter Ten

Thankfully, Chloe worked late on Christmas Eve, which meant that she came home and fell asleep, and all Pike had to do was rise early, go collect the trees and the gingerbread houses and get them all set up in the living room.