Read Second Chance Christmas (The Colorado Cades) for Free Online Page A

her feel like the center of his universe. The heady euphoria wasn’t worth the harsh disillusionment.
    She didn’t realize how reluctant her steps had become until Justin gave up waiting on her and met her halfway, moving with that unconscious swagger of his. Damn it. Even the way the man walked was irritating.
    He took her hand between both of his. “Beth. You look great.” There was a raspy quality to his deep voice that always made his words sound more intimate than they should.
    “Elisabeth,” she corrected, withdrawing her hand. “No one calls me Beth.” She wasn’t the type of person who inspired nicknames. As a child, she’d been shy and serious—the worrier on the sidelines who did her best to keep her reckless twin out of trouble. As an adult, Elisabeth only revealed her fun-loving side to a select few. She commanded a sizable staff and sometimes had to deal with difficult guests. People needed to take her seriously.
    She ignored the undignified memory of shrieking with laughter as Justin tickled her one morning. Justin didn’t do “serious.” At least, not in his personal life.
    “I asked the restaurant manager to have a table ready.” She was proud of her casual tone. No reason to get emotional about this. “I can spare about half an hour.”
    He nodded. “Same here. Lead the way.”
    In the evenings, a hostess seated diners, but during the slower day shifts while many guests were on the slopes, restaurant manager Javier Ortiz did double duty. Javier, a slim man with salt-and-pepper hair, had started as a busboy when Elisabeth was in sixth grade. When he saw her with Justin, he did an almost comical double take.
    “Señor Cade. It has been a long time.” He cut his dark eyes toward Elisabeth, as if seeking guidance on whether he should be happy to see Justin. Whatever Javier glimpsed in her posture or face led him to instruct, “This way, Señor” in a clipped tone he never would have used with a guest.
    After they were seated, Justin shook his head with a self-deprecating smile. “I think it’s safe to say I’m no longer on Javier’s Christmas card list.” He tapped his napkin-wrapped silverware. “In fact, I kind of got the feeling he might come at me with one of these knives.”
    She unrolled her own cloth napkin and studied the butter knife. “If it makes you feel better, I doubt these would do much damage.” She paused a beat. “But I suppose he could always grab one from the kitchen.”
    “He wouldn’t be the first to ambush me this week. Do you know your sister recently threatened to tear me limb from limb?”
    “Lina?” It was a dumb response—she had only one sister. One highly confusing and increasingly erratic sister . When Elisabeth had announced her engagement, Lina seemed to take the news as a personal affront. Next she’d overcompensated by acting as if they were teenage BFFs who should be together or be texting every waking second. Finally, and most bizarrely, Lina had thrown herself at Justin on the dance floor with all the subtlety of a brick.
    Then again, a case could be made for throwing bricks at Justin.
    While Elisabeth momentarily indulged in that fantasy, he’d begun speaking again. “Lina and I saw each other at the sporting goods shop. She was pretty angry, ranting at me that your engagement is...might be emotional fallout from... There’s no way to say this without sounding like a deluded egomaniac.”
    “You’ve never let that stop you before,” she said sweetly.
    “Does your moving away have anything to do with me?”
    The question shocked her into silence. Is that what he thought? Justin and Lina considered Elisabeth so pathetic she’d let an ex-boyfriend run her out of town?
    She kept her voice calm and low. One might even say detached. “You stopped having influence on my life the day you broke up with me.” Well, later that same week, anyway. There may have been a weepy, seventy-two hour period of hoping he’d come to his senses that