Read A Thunder Canyon Christmas for Free Online

she’d never said anything. “I was embarrassed about being there by myself. It’s not something I usually do.”
    â€œI’m glad you were there,” he said as he headed to the refrigerator for the sauce. “Except for your little episode with the jerk, it’s great to see you. So are you back in Thunder Canyon to stay?”
    She sighed and sounded so forlorn that Tootsie must have sensed it. She nuzzled her leg. “I don’t know. Every thing’s in…limbo. My mother wanted to come home for the holidays and begged me to come with her so I took a temporary leave from my job until the new year. After that, I don’t know what I’ll do.”
    He really hoped she would decide to stay. He likedhaving her around. He started to say so but she spoke before he could get the words out.
    â€œI guess you heard about my…about what happened twenty-six years ago.”
    â€œWho in town hasn’t?”
    Her sigh this time sounded even more forlorn and he cursed himself for his tactless response.
    â€œSorry. Was that the wrong thing to say?”
    â€œI really hate having everyone gossiping about me. I hated it after my dad’s murder and I hate it more now. Everything is such a mess.”
    He couldn’t begin to imagine what she must be going through. “How are you holding up?”
    â€œNot too great,” she confessed softly.
    He set down the box of pasta he’d just pulled from the cupboard and crossed to give her a reassuring squeeze on the shoulder.
    Instead of comforting her, as he’d intended, his gesture made her big blue eyes brim with tears.
    â€œMy mom wants the family together for Christmas. Everyone, including Erin.”
    â€œAnd that’s a problem?”
    She sighed. “I feel like I don’t even belong at Clifton’s Pride anymore.”
    He stared. “You most certainly do belong at Clifton’s Pride! It’s your home and the Cliftons are your family. Why would you feel otherwise, even for a moment?”
    â€œI’m not a Clifton. Not really. If not for a quirk of fate and a moment’s mistake by a nurse, I never would have known any one of them. I’m not a Clifton. But I’mnot really a Castro, either. I barely know those people. I don’t know who I am.”
    A tear brimming in her eyes dripped over and slid down the side of her nose and his heart broke.
    He grabbed a tissue box and couldn’t resist the compulsion to pull her into his arms. She felt small and feminine and he wanted to hold tight and take on all her demons for her.
    â€œYou’re the same person you’ve always been. You’re Elise Clifton, daughter of John and Helen and sister to Grant. Blood or not, that’s who you are.”
    â€œI wish it were that easy.”
    â€œWhy isn’t it? They’re your family.”
    She frowned. “They’re not my parents! I don’t belong in Thunder Canyon at all!”
    A dozen arguments swarmed through his head—he hadn’t been in law school without reason. But then, she wasn’t a hostile witness on the stand, either.
    â€œSo blood and genetics is everything? According to your reasoning, anybody who’s been adopted into a family should always feel like an outsider.”
    â€œI wasn’t adopted!” she exclaimed. “I was switched for their real daughter. For the child Helen and John should have had. They didn’t choose to be stuck with me. My whole life is a mistake! I’m a mistake.”
    â€œDo you really think that’s what your mother and Grant think?”
    â€œI don’t know. They’re so happy about Erin,” she whispered.
    Her tears started flowing in earnest now and she added a few sobs in there to really twist the knife.
    Nice, Cates, he thought. Take a vulnerable woman who has already had a rough night and reduce her to tears. He had definitely lost his touch.
    â€œHey. Easy now. Come