High-Calibre Christmas

He left, stopping outside on the sidewalk to breathe. The news had him more than a little rattled. It was as if nothing in his past had been as he’d thought it. Not his mother. Not even his uncle Audie. Most especially, not himself.

Jace walked three doors down to the Range Rider Bar, shoved open the door and stepped into the dim, cool darkness. He needed a drink.

As he took a stool at the bar, the young female bartender smiled at him. “What would you like?”

“Beer. Whatever you have on tap.” He’d never been a drinker. As she walked away, he realized he should have ordered something stronger. He glanced in the mirror behind the bar, taking in the three patrons on stools at the other end, glad to see that he didn’t recognize anyone—nor did they seem to know him.

When the bartender brought his beer, he stared into the depths of his glass and tried to take in what McCall had told him.

Audie murdered two women and took his own life? He thought of his uncle, a prickly loner who only softened when he was around his sister Marie and Jace. But he would never have guessed the man capable of murder.

“Holy hell,” he breathed and took a long drink of the beer.

Marie Dennison wasn’t his mother. Instead Virginia Winchester was? He’d never laid eyes on the woman.

Nor did he plan to, he thought as he took another drink. He’d get the only mother he’d known and Audie buried. Then he would get the hell out of here.

He thought about his family ranch to the north of town, where he’d been raised. He’d put it up for sale. That way there would be no reason to ever come back here.

He finished his beer, feeling a little better. First the mortuary, then a real estate office. With luck, he’d be putting all of this behind him in forty-eight hours.

Getting up, he tossed some money on the bar and headed for the door. As he stepped out onto the sidewalk, he came face-to-face with the only woman he’d ever loved—and the real reason he had sneaked in and out of town all these years.

MCCALL HATED THAT SHE’D had to give Jace Dennison the bad news. She was still a little shocked to see how much he looked like the rest of the Winchesters. Why hadn’t they all seen it growing up? Maybe some people had seen it.

Or maybe it had taken him growing into a man to see the striking resemblance. He’d left Whitehorse at eighteen. Now he was a man, an incredibly handsome man with the Winchester dark eyes and hair.

What would he do now that he knew the truth? Get out of town as quickly as possible. As it was, he’d given Whitehorse a wide berth for years. After his father’s death, he’d visited the ranch to see his mother and uncle but hadn’t been seen around town.

Her phone rang. She picked up, not surprised to hear her grandmother’s voice.

“Did I catch you at a bad time?” Pepper Winchester asked.

“I was just thinking about you,” McCall said. “I might come down to the ranch this afternoon. Are you and Virginia going to be around?”

Her grandmother chuckled at that, since she hadn’t left the ranch in twenty-seven years except recently, and that was only to help McCall pick out flowers for her wedding.

“I suppose Virginia will be here,” Pepper said. “Is there something you need to talk to her about?”

“Yes, I’ll be there in about an hour,” McCall said. “Please don’t have Enid cook anything.” She hung up, thinking about her grandmother’s irascible housekeeper. For all the years Pepper had been a recluse, closed up on the ranch, all she’d had for company was Enid Hoagland and her husband, Alfred.

With Alfred gone, now there was only Enid and McCall’s aunt Virginia. Virginia was possibly even a worse companion, given her bitter relationship with her mother. McCall often wondered why she was still at the ranch.

Pepper was convinced her daughter was after the famed Winchester fortune, but McCall suspected Virginia had other reasons for wanting to be with her mother after all these years.

KAYLEY.

Jace looked into those amazing blue eyes of hers and was surprised that they were exactly as they were in his dreams. Her hair was still the color of sunshine, and he knew the feel of it between his fingers the same way he knew the feel of her skin beneath his lips.

“Kayley,” Jace said on a breath. What was she doing here? Last he’d heard she was teaching school in some small town in western Montana.

“Jace,” she said, her wide, full mouth quirking a little as if amused at his reaction to running into her. She would have expected him to return to Whitehorse for his mother and uncle’s funerals, but he didn’t have a clue she’d be in town, even though he should have. She and his mother had always been close.

His mother—he groaned inwardly at the thought of what the sheriff had told him.

“So you’re just home for the funeral,” he asked. Kayley had always been able to knock him off balance. He’d thought he’d outgrown her effect on him. It shocked him that she could still make him feel like a teenager.

She shook her head. “I live here now.”

Damn, but she hadn’t changed. If anything she was more beautiful. Her blond hair was shorter, her blue eyes still like the Montana sky, her wide, full mouth still entirely too kissable. She wore jeans, boots, a checked Western shirt and jean jacket … and no one wore jeans like Kayley Mitchell.

“I came back a year ago. I’m teaching kindergarten here in town.” Her expression softened. “I was so sorry to hear about your mother. Marie was a very special person.”

“Wasn’t she, though.” Marie had adored Kayley and had been devastated when he’d broken the engagement. While his mother had not mentioned Kayley for years, he’d known that Marie kept in touch with her. He’d seen a letter to Kayley at his mother’s house the last time he was in town. That’s how he knew she was teaching in Western Montana. It had been addressed to her at the school.

He’d wondered then if his mother had left the letter out where he could see it. The address had been Miss Kayley Mitchell. Not subtle, but effective. Kayley hadn’t married. At least, she hadn’t been married then.

“So, you came back to Whitehorse,” he said.

“This is home,” she said a little defensively. “I missed it. You’re still doing whatever it was you do.”

“Still,” he said, also feeling defensive.

They stood like that, just looking at each other, neither of them seeming to know what to say. Jace wondered why she didn’t tie into him, tell him what a jackass he’d been to break things off so close to their wedding date. He deserved her anger after what he’d done to her. He thought they’d both feel better if she just let him have it.

“How are you doing?”

He shrugged. “I’m okay.”

She nodded, clearly knowing he was lying. That was the problem with a woman knowing you too well.

“It’s tough, you know, with everything that came with Marie’s death.”

“Marie?” She raised an eyebrow. “She was still your mother no matter what.”

“Yeah.” And Audie was still his uncle, and everyone in the county knew his life history even before he did.

“I know it was hard for you to come back,” she said.

He almost laughed, because he was just wishing to hell he hadn’t. Seeing Kayley made it all worse. If that plane crash had laid him up just a little longer in the jungle …

“If you need any help, or just someone to talk to, for old time’s sake,” she said, “I bought my folks’ place. If you don’t remember the phone number, it’s in the book. They moved to Arizona, spend most of the year there and some with my sister in California, only a month here in the summer.” She stopped abruptly.

He figured she knew he wasn’t going to call.

“My thoughts will be with you tomorrow,” she said.

“It was good to see you,” he said. Good and painful. All these years, he’d tried to convince himself that he’d gotten over her. No wonder he’d gone out of his way on his other visits back home to make sure he didn’t run into her.