A Yowling Yuletide (6 page)

As Matt helped Miranda whip up some
scrambled eggs and bacon for a very late breakfast, he couldn’t
think of a single day in his life when he’d ever felt so happy.

There were Christmas carols playing softly
in the background and the mouth-watering aroma of his favorite
breakfast meat being fried on the stove. But the thing that really
made the whole day brighter, was watching Miranda flittering around
the kitchen like a tiny, redheaded house fairy.

He was pretty sure that he could spend the
rest of his life just sitting there watching her, and he’d be
happy.

But time passed quickly and the hour of
reckoning crept up on him.

By six that evening, Matt felt as though
some clawed creature were writhing about in his stomach, gutting
him from the inside out.

He had started to dress in his usual blue
jeans and a t-shirt, but Miranda had given him the stink-eye, so
he’d gone back and found a pair of dark slacks and a button up
shirt. He was glad that he’d changed when she emerged from the
dressing room a few minutes later wearing a stunning chocolate
brown dress that hugged her curves and made her golden eyes
glow.

Then he started shaking his head and
pointing back towards the dressing room.

“
No way,” he argued. “If
you go wearing that, I’ll have to beat Tyson up just for looking at
you. You wouldn’t want to be responsible for me ending up in jail
with assault charges, would you?”

“
You’ll just have to
control yourself somehow, because this is the only dress I brought.
Besides, I think it makes my hair look more like a rich auburn
instead of shocking red.”

He chuckled and gave an affectionate tug on
one escaped curl.

“
I love your
hair.”

“
People who are not
redheads always say that,” she grumped, but there was a delighted
twinkle in her eyes. “It’s almost time. I can’t wait to meet your
mom!”

Matt choked a bit on that declaration.

“
Hold up just a second,”
he cringed, not wanting Miranda to be blindsided by what was
coming. “I should probably warn you. The only time I’ve ever
brought a woman home to meet my mother, was the night that Tanya
agreed to marry me. So my mom is probably going to have a lot of
questions about you.”

Miranda tilted her chin to one side,
considering that.

“
What do you plan to tell
her?”

“
Hell if I
know.”

Matt could see that Rachel and Tyson's sleek
luxury sedan was already parked in the driveway as he chauffeured
Miranda down the lane towards his mother’s house. It filled him
with dread, but he couldn't turn back now.

The petite redhead seated beside him was
almost buried beneath the gifts they'd purchased and wrapped for
Rachel and his mother.

It wasn't until he was helping her carry the
packages out to the car that he noticed an extra gift marked for
Tyson.

"What's this?" He'd demanded, hands
trembling with a sudden urge to smash it against the concrete a few
hundred times.

"It's a pair of leather driving gloves,"
Miranda answered with a smile. "I thought they might be nice on
cold mornings when he drives in to the city."

That was a damned thoughtful gift, which
made him nearly rabid with worry.

Was she just being nice and trying to
include Tyson in the gift exchange? Or was she hoping that her gift
might gain the millionaire's affection?

It was never something he would have
considered before Tanya, which was why he kept his fears to himself
and the package was safely returned to Miranda.

He really wanted to trust her, to believe
that she was being honest with him. But now that they were
approaching the point of no return, he found himself being eaten
alive by doubts and fears.

Parking beside the black sedan, he walked
around the car to open Miranda's door and collect all the packages
so she could get out.

Again he was tempted to destroy the gift for
Tyson, but again he talked himself down from the emotional ledge.
Then they were being welcomed inside and the option was taken from
him.

"Hi sweetheart, thank you for coming," his
mother beamed. "Those gifts are beautiful, go put them under the
tree and come into the dining room. We're just sitting down at the
table now. Oh...!"

His mother offered a little gasp as Matt
stepped through the door, revealing the petite redhead behind
him.

"Mom, this is Miranda. Miranda, this is my
mother, Jeanne."

He only made brief introductions, and
although he could see curiosity burning in her eyes, his mother
didn't ask for more.

"It is real pleasure to meet you," the older
woman smiled at Miranda, but there was a hint of concern behind her
eyes. The last time her son had brought a girl home, the selfish
creature had nearly destroyed him.

"Thank you," Miranda beamed in return. "It's
so nice to meet you. Matt almost didn't bring me, but I promised to
be on my best behavior."

The self-depreciating humor seemed to soothe
Jeanne's nerves a fraction, but Matt knew it would take some time
before everyone in his family recovered from the damage Tanya had
done.

He quickly deposited his armful of brightly
wrapped packages under the Christmas tree, then led Miranda into
the dining room.

His mother had already hurried in to add
another place setting beside his, directly across from Tyson.

Matt watched as Miranda's eyes lit up at the
sight of the man and his gut tied itself into such knots he was
sure he'd never be able to eat.

For his part, Tyson looked just as delighted
to see the redhead.

"Hey there Little Red, glad you could make
it," the good-looking millionaire offered with a chuckle. "Rachel
claimed you were hanging around the farm, but I told her I'd
believe it when I saw it."

"You've already met?" Matt's mother looked
greatly relieved. It was apparent that she trusted the other man's
judge of feminine character more than Matt's.

"Oh yeah," Tyson offered a roguish grin that
left Matt sporting white-knuckled fists. "Freckles and I go way
back."

“
That’s wonderful,” Jeanne
beamed, stepping back out of the room to bring in the Christmas
ham. It was a tradition for her to bring it out last, fresh from
the oven and smelling like heaven.

She placed it in front of the empty chair at
the head of the table, the place where Matt’s father had always
sat. She still set a place for her husband as well, keeping him a
part of their holidays, even though he had passed away almost six
years ago.

It was a romantic gesture that her children
treasured. They’d both grown up dreaming of the day they’d find a
love as deep as their parent’s.

“
Will you serve for us,
dear?” Jeanne asked her son, and Matt silently nodded, standing to
better separate large slices of the glazed meat for each of the
individuals seated around him.

This was a traditional gesture that he’d
inherited from his father and the familiarity helped to flush some
of the bitterness from his stomach.

After that, dinner seemed to progress
without any unnecessary drama and he actually started to enjoy
himself.

Despite their initial banter, Tyson and
Miranda shared only casual conversation with the others at the
table, and she even held Matt’s hand for awhile as they were
waiting for his mother to bring out dessert.

Then it was time to clear the table and
exchange Christmas gifts.

At first, Matt was only vaguely concerned
about Tyson’s response to receiving a gift from Miranda, but that
was before the millionaire offered his gift to Rachel.

“
I know we haven’t been
together for very long,” the man murmured, placing a kitten sized
box in front of Matt’s sister. “But I wanted to prove to you how
much you actually mean to me.”

Rachel looked confused as she gave the
package a soft shake and everyone heard something small rattling
around inside.

Unwrapping the gift, she looked inside and
hesitated as if afraid that whatever it was might bite her. So
Tyson reached inside and pulled out the small velvet coated box,
kneeling beside her as he did so.

Everyone in the room went abruptly still and
silent as they all watched him open that box.

Inside was an enormous diamond ring.

“
Oh my god,” Miranda
whispered, matching Rachel’s gasp word for word, so that the
exclamation fell upon Matt’s ears in a muted stereo surround
sound.

Tyson’s hands were actually shaking as he
held the little box up.

“
Will you marry
me?”

All eyes immediately focused on Rachel as
she stared down at the huge gemstone twinkling in the light of the
Christmas tree. Then she was nodding and smiling, tears sparkling
in her eyes as Tyson breathed a tremendous sigh of relief.

Matt managed to tear his shocked gaze away
from the happy couple to look down at the redhead seated beside
him.

If Miranda had dreamed of winning Tyson’s
affection, then this twist in events was almost certain to reveal
her true motivation for being here.

She might be kind enough to wait until the
evening was over before telling Matt she wasn’t coming back to the
house with him. Or she might simply find an excuse to leave early
and then spend the rest of her life avoiding him and his
family.

That clawed creature was back in his chest,
tearing at his heart and making it almost impossible to
breathe.

As Tyson slipped the ring onto Rachel's
finger, Matt looked down at Miranda and saw tears streaming down
her cheeks. She was crying even more than Rachel and his mother
combined. But were they tears of joy for the new couple? Or was it
the weeping of a broken heart?

He found out after his mother finally
finished congratulating and hugging Rachel and Tyson long enough
for Miranda to slip in.

The pretty redhead threw herself into
Tyson's arms, sobbing so violently it was difficult to understand
what she was saying.

But Matt heard it clearly enough.

"When we were in school together, you always
promised that we'd someday marry each other," she accused and Matt
instantly felt the world around him grow cold and dark.

The sound of Christmas Carols faded away to
be replaced by the harsh rasp of his ragged breathing. The lights
and decorations surrounding him took on a cruel tin-like
emptiness.

He was drowning in the realization that he'd
been fooled once again. He'd dared to pin his hopes and heart on
the fantasy of a red haired angel, but she was still in love with
another man.

He told himself that it wasn't her fault.
That love could be cruel and fickle. But it didn't stop the pain,
it only made it worse. Because he loved her and he wanted her to be
happy, even if that happiness came from being with someone else.
That realization was the final agony, the truth that broke him.

He was rendered deaf, dumb, and blind to
those that surrounded him.

Standing on legs that felt wooden and numb,
he walked out of the room. Then out of the house.

He kept walking, unaware of where he was
going or of the cold that bit at his exposed skin. He might have
continued walking right into a frozen grave, if a warm hand had not
seized his arm and pulled him around.

Matt stared down in confusion, finding it
difficult to register what he was seeing or gentle hands that were
forcing him to put on a thick coat.

When he finally managed to speak, it was
only one word.

"Why?"

"Because you'll freeze to death, you loon!"
Miranda scolded him, tugging at his collar until he lowered his
head enough for her to pull a knit cap down over it.

"Why didn't you wait for me?" She finally
asked, zipping up her own coat and pulling the hood up to frame her
angelic face. "And why aren't we taking the car?"

Matt looked up and found himself halfway
across the pasture, heading towards home. He must have been running
on an automatic homing instinct.

"I just had to get out of there," he
admitted, avoiding her eyes as he stated walking again.

Miranda kept pace beside him. She was quiet
for several minutes, then looked up at him with a frown.

"Do you really hate him that much?" She
murmured softy.

Matt was surprised to hear her ask such a
question, especially now that she had just as much a reason to
dislike Tyson as he did.

"Don't you?"

Miranda looked incredibly confused.

"Me? No. I love him."

"Yeah, I heard that part," Matt growled,
feeling dagger-like claws twisting in his gut. "But he's marrying
Rachel."

"Yeah, I think it's great. They're perfect
for each other. Besides, now that he's getting married, he'll stay
closer to home, I'll get to see him more."

Matt gaped at her.

"You can't seriously think you still have a
chance to win him back? Do you have any idea how much that would
destroy Rachel?"

"What? Win him back? Matt, you aren't making
any sense. Why would I want to be with Tyson? I'm in love with
you."

He stopped and turned on her so abruptly she
walked right into him, bumping her nose on his chest.

"Ouch."

He was too distracted to apologize, grabbing
her shoulders and giving her a little shake to force her to look up
at him.

"Don't lie to me," he growled furiously.
"You have no idea how hard it was for me to see you crying over him
in there. To see you throwing yourself into his arms and begging
for him to marry you instead."

He'd seen Miranda happy, hurt, sad,
mischievous, afraid, and a whole lot of emotions in between. But
he'd never really seen her mad, until now.