It Came Upon A Midnight Clear. Suzanne Brockmann

faces it. She talks about it matter-of-factly. We should be able to do that, too.” She made a sound that was half laughter, half sob. “Easier said than done, though, huh?”

      Dex Lancaster set his glasses down and reached across the table to cover her hand with his. “You know, your being here is a godsend to both of them.”

      The exact same thought had crossed Crash’s mind at least three times a day. But he’d never said it aloud. He’d figured that Nell surely knew.

      She smiled at Lancaster. “Thanks.”

      The lawyer smiled back at her, still holding her hand.

      The man liked her. He more than liked her.

      Dexter Lancaster had a thing for Nell. The man was twenty years her senior, at least, but Crash knew from his subtle body language and from the way he was looking at her that he found her undeniably attractive.

      Lancaster was no fool. And judging from the fact that his law firm had one of the best reputations in the country, he also was not an underachiever. Any second now, he was going to ask Nell out to dinner.

      “I was wondering…” Lancaster started.

      Crash coughed and stepped into the room.

      Nell slipped her hand out from beneath Lancaster’s as she turned to look up at him. “You’re back,” she said, giving him a smile. It was a bigger smile than the one she’d given Dex Lancaster. “Did you have any problem getting the rings?”

      Crash took the two jewelers’ boxes from the inside pocket of his jacket and set them on the table in front of her. “None whatsoever.”

      “You know Dex, don’t you?” she asked.

      “We’ve met a few times,” Crash said.

      The lawyer stood up as he held out his hand, and the two men shook.

      But their handshake wasn’t a greeting. It was a not-so-subtle sizing up. It was more than obvious, from the once-over Lancaster was giving him, that he was trying to figure out what claim—if any—Crash had already staked out.

      Crash met the older man’s gaze steadily. And after the handshake was done, he moved slightly to stand closer to Nell, putting one hand on the back of her chair in a gesture that was clearly possessive.

      What the hell was he doing?

      He didn’t want this girl.

      He’d resolved to stay away from her, to keep his distance, both physically and emotionally.

      But as much as he didn’t want her, he didn’t want to see her taken for a ride, either.

      Crash didn’t trust lawyers any farther than he could throw them, and Dexter Lancaster was no exception to his rule, despite the fact that his eyes twinkled like Santa Claus’s.

      Lancaster checked his watch. “I have to get going.” He twinkled at Nell. “I’m sure I’ll talk to you soon.” He nodded at Crash as he slipped on his overcoat. “Nice seeing you again.”

      Like hell it was. “Take care,” Crash lied in return.

      “What was that all about?” Nell turned to ask as the door closed behind Dexter Lancaster.

      Crash opened the refrigerator and pretended to be engrossed by its contents. “Just a little Army/Navy rivalry.”

      Nell laughed. “You’re kidding. All that tension just because you’re in the Navy and he was in the Army?”

      Crash took a can of soda out and shut the refrigerator door. “Crazy, huh?” he said as he escaped into the other room.

      Chapter 3

      Nell glanced up from her computer to see Crash standing in her office. She jumped, nearly knocking over her cup of tea, catching it with both hands, just in time.

      “God!” she said. “Don’t do that! You’re always sneaking up on me. Make some noise when you come in, will you? Try stomping your feet, okay?”

      “I thought I’d made noise when I opened the door. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

      She took a deep breath, letting it slowly out. “No, I’m sorry. I’ve been…feeling sideways all day. There must be a full moon or something.” She frowned at the half-written letter on her computer screen. “Of course, now I’ve got so much adrenaline raging through my system, I’m not going to be able to concentrate.”

      “Next time, I’ll knock.”

      Nell looked up at Crash in exasperation. “I don’t want you to knock. You’ve been working as hard as I have—this is your office, too. Just…clear your throat or play the bagpipes or whistle, or something.” She turned back to the letter.

      Crash cleared his throat. “I’ve been ordered to tell you that after two days of rain, the sky’s finally clear, and the sun’s due to set in less than fifteen minutes,” he said.

      Sunset. Nell glanced at her watch, swearing silently. Was it really that time already?

      “I’m waiting for a fax from the caterer, and Dex Lancaster’s supposed to call me right back to tell me if Friday is okay to come out and discuss some changes Daisy wants to make to her will, but I guess he can leave a message on the machine,” she told him, thinking aloud. “I’m almost done with this letter, but I’ll hurry. I’ll be there. I promise.”

      Crash stepped closer. “I’ve been ordered to make sure you arrive on time, not five minutes after the sun has gone down, like last Monday. Daisy said to tell you that the rest of the week’s forecast calls for total cloud coverage. In fact, the prediction is for snow—maybe as much as two or three inches. This could be the last sunset we see for a while.”

      The last sunset. Every sunset they saw was one of Daisy’s very last sunsets.

      Every clear day for the past two weeks, Daisy had brought Nell’s work to a screeching halt as they’d all met in the studio to watch the setting sun. But now there was less than a week before the wedding, and the list of things that needed to be done was still as long as her arm. On top of that, the sun was setting earlier and earlier as midwinter approached, cutting her workday shorter and shorter.

      It was also reminding her that the passage of time was bringing them closer and closer to the end of Daisy’s life.

      Nell looked at her watch again, then up into the steely gray of Crash’s eyes.

      To her surprise, there was amusement gleaming there.

      “I’ve been ordered not to fail,” he told her, giving her an actual smile, “which means I’m going to have to pick you up and carry you downstairs to the studio if you don’t get out of that chair right now.”

      Yeah, sure he was. Nell turned back to the computer. “Just let me save this file. And wait—here comes that fax from the caterer now. I just have to—Hey!”

      Crash picked her up, just as he’d said he would, throwing her over his shoulder in a fireman’s hold as he carried her out of the door.

      “Okay, Hawken, very funny. Put me down.” Nell’s nose bumped his back and her arms dangled uncomfortably. She wasn’t sure where to put her hands.

      He seemed to have no problem figuring out where to put his hands. He held her legs firmly with one arm, and anchored her in place by resting his other hand squarely on the seat of her jeans. Yet despite that, his touch seemed impersonal—further proof that the man was not even remotely interested in her.

      And after two weeks of living in the same house, sleeping in a room one door down the hall from his, and working together twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, on this wedding that had somehow grown from a small affair with forty guests into a three-hundred-person, Godzillasized event, Nell probably didn’t need any further proof.

      William