A Maverick under the Mistletoe. Brenda Harlen

but he still hadn’t wanted to believe it. But the truth was hard to deny when it was right in front of him.

      She hadn’t invited Sutter in for a cup of coffee the night before because it was a school night. Well, it was a school night tonight, too, and she didn’t seem to have any qualms about having company. Or maybe she didn’t consider Alex company. Maybe—

      Don’t go there.

      He sharply reined in his wandering thoughts and continued on his way.

      He’d honestly thought he’d let her go. When he’d driven away from Rust Creek Falls five years earlier and Paige had decided to stay, he’d known that was the end for them. And yet every time he was near her he felt the chemistry that had always sizzled between them. That sizzle warned Sutter that they weren’t as over as he wanted to believe.

      Except the fact that she was at home tonight with her new boyfriend suggested that he might be the only one who felt they weren’t over. And that really sucked.

      His mother had said that she was making pot roast for dinner, one of his favorites, but he’d declined her invitation to join the family—as he’d declined most of her invitations since returning to Rust Creek Falls. Too much had been said and done for Sutter to pretend otherwise, so aside from working with his father and brothers on the ranch, he usually kept to himself and prepared his own meals at Clay’s house. Tonight, he pulled into the parking lot of the Ace in the Hole instead.

      He climbed the rough-hewn wooden steps and opened the screen door beneath the oversize playing card—an ace of hearts—that blinked in red neon. The bar was dimly lit and buzzing with conversations that mostly drowned out the Johnny Cash song emanating from the ancient Wurlitzer jukebox that still played three songs for a quarter. A long wooden bar ran the length of one wall and the dozen bar stools that faced the mirrored wall reflecting rows of glass bottles were already occupied, with several other patrons crowded in between the stools and leaned against the bar.

      The booths that lined the outer walls were also filled, as were most of the wooden tables that surrounded the small dance floor in the middle of the room. Discarded peanut shells crunched under his boots as he made his way to one of those tables near the mostly unused stage in the far back corner. He pulled out the ladder-back chair and settled onto the creaky seat. The round wooden table was battered and scarred but appeared to be clean.

      “What are you doing here?”

      Sutter looked up, startled to see Paige’s sister Lani standing at his table. She was wearing a pair of jeans and a plaid shirt, so it was only when he saw the apron around her waist and the order pad in her hand that he realized she was his waitress.

      And not a very happy one, judging by her tone, so he kept his deliberately light and said, “I was hoping to look at a menu.”

      She tossed a single laminated page on the table. “That’s the menu—look all you want.”

      “You probably don’t get very many tips with an attitude like that,” he mused.

      “I’ll give you a tip—stay away from my sister.”

      He looked around. “Is Lindsay here, too?”

      Lani’s eyes narrowed. “You know very well that I’m talking about Paige.”

      Ellie’s roast beef with a side of gentle prying suddenly seemed infinitely more palatable than substandard pub fare with prickly attitude, but no way was he going to let Paige’s little sister run him off.

      “And I’ve barely seen her in the three months that I’ve been back in Rust Creek Falls,” he pointed out to her.

      “You saw her last night,” Lani noted.

      “Yeah, and here’s a news flash for you—it was a public meeting at town hall.”

      “You walked her home.”

      He didn’t bother to ask how she knew. This was Rust Creek Falls, where anyone might have seen them and no one could ever keep a secret for very long. “Actually, she would probably say that she was walking alone and I just happened to be beside her.”

      “Good.”

      “How about a beer while I try to decide between the cheeseburger and the bacon burger?”

      “We’re out of bacon.”

      “In that case, I’ll have the cheeseburger and a draft beer.”

      She nodded and took the menu back, but she didn’t move away from his table. “Alex Monroe is a good guy—and he’s good to Paige.”

      “Have I said anything to the contrary?”

      “The fact that you’re still in Rust Creek Falls says plenty.”

      “I’m here because I’m helping Collin with his campaign.”

      “Then you’re going back to Seattle after the election?”

      “Not that it’s any of your business,” he felt compelled to point out. “But yes, I’m going back to Seattle after the election.”

      “And that’s why she’s better off with Alex,” she said triumphantly. “Because he won’t leave her.”

      “But does he love her? And does she love him?”

      “She’s with him,” Lani said firmly. “That’s all that should matter to you.”

      He didn’t want to admit she was right, so he only shrugged, as if he was bored by the whole conversation. “Are you going to get my drink now?”

      “Maybe.” She turned away and went to another table, where a young couple had just sat down. She took their order, immediately returned with their drinks, then went back to the bar again and finally brought Sutter his beer.

      The election was in two more days, and then his job here would be over. He should probably hang around a little while longer to tie up any loose ends, but he figured it was safe to assume that he’d be back in Seattle within a week. Back to the freedom and contentment of being anonymous, back to the big city where there weren’t memories of Paige Dalton in every direction he turned.

      He should forget the burger and get back to the ranch to start packing so he didn’t have to spend any more time in Rust Creek Falls than was absolutely necessary. Except that leaving this town meant leaving Paige again, a prospect that was just as unappealing now as it had been five years earlier.

      She’s better off with Alex.

      Sutter suspected that Lani was right, but he wasn’t going to believe it was what Paige wanted until he’d heard it directly from her lips.

      * * *

      Paige really liked Alex, but she wasn’t in love with him. And while she’d hoped that her feelings for him might grow and deepen with time, as she dished up the peach cobbler she’d made for dessert—using canned fruit in the recipe because there were no fresh peaches to be found in Montana at this time of year—she realized that wasn’t likely to happen. At least not so long as Sutter was in Rust Creek Falls.

      Not going to think about him, she reminded herself sternly.

      The admonishment snapped her attention back to the present but failed to banish all thoughts of the other man from her mind. Which probably wasn’t so surprising, considering her extensive history with Sutter. But that was what it was—history. He was her past, and Alex was her future.

      Except that she was starting to question whether that was really true. She might want to think she and Alex could have a future, but the more time they spent together, the more difficult it was to imagine they would ever be anything more than friends.

      He was an attractive man—objectively she knew this was true—but she wasn’t attracted to him. Her heart didn’t start to pound as soon as she saw him, her blood didn’t hum when he was close and her knees didn’t go weak when he kissed her. She guessed that Alex probably felt the same way,