A Thunder Canyon Christmas Read Online Free PDF

After the cold weather set in, his favorite evenings were spent at home watching a basketball game with her curled up at his feet.
    Used to be Marlon would join them but these days his twin had better ways to spend his time.
    Matt supposed it was only natural that lately Tootsie’s company didn’t seem quite enough anymore, especially since it seemed like everybody he knew was pairing up.
    â€œHow long have you lived here?” Elise asked.
    He shifted his attention from the dog to his house and winced again at its sorry shape. The place was a work in progress. He had stripped years worth of ugly wall-paper layers, down to the lath and plaster. He’d finished mudding the walls a few weeks earlier but had been so busy rushing his crew to finish Connor McFarlane’s grand lodge in time for Christmas, he hadn’t had time to paint.
    At least the kitchen and bathroom were relativelypresentable. He had started with the kitchen, actually, installing hand-peeled cabinets, custom tile floors and gleaming new appliances.
    He had also taken out the wall of a tiny bedroom to expand the bathroom into one big space and he was particularly satisfied with the triple heads in the tile shower and the deep soaking tub.
    But he couldn’t exactly entertain his unexpected guest in his bathroom. Maybe he should have spent a little more time working on the more public areas of the house.
    â€œI’ve got lots of plans but I have to fit the work around the jobs I’m doing with my dad,” he said.
    She nodded. “That’s right. I heard you were working for Cates Construction these days. Do you like it?”
    He was never sure how to answer that question. Most of the time, he was only too aware of the subtext behind the question. You really dropped out of law school to work construction? Couldn’t hack it, huh?
    That hadn’t been the truth at all. His grades had been fine after his first year of law school. Better than fine. Great, actually. He’d been in the top ten percent of his class and had fully intended going back for his second year—until he realized after he came home to Montana for the summer that he was much happier out at a work site with his dad, covered in the satisfying sweat of putting in a hard day’s labor, than he’d ever been in a classroom.
    â€œI do like it. There’s always a new challenge and it’s great to watch something go from blueprints to completion, like the McFarlane Lodge.”
    â€œHaley told me about that. It sounds huge.”
    â€œIt is. More than 10,000 square feet. It’s been a fun project but a little time consuming. That’s why I only have bits and pieces of time to work on this place. This is the third house in town I’ve rehabbed on my own.”
    She cast her gaze around the room. “Um, it looks good.”
    He smiled at her obvious lie. “No, it doesn’t. Everything’s a mess out here. As soon as we wrap up the McFarlane Lodge, I’ll have more time for the finish work here. But come on back to the kitchen and see what I’ve done there. I’d love a woman’s perspective.”
    Surprise flashed in her eyes. “Mine?”
    â€œYou see any other women around?”
    â€œNot right this very moment,” she muttered. “I’m sure that’s not typical for you.”
    He shouldn’t be irritated by her words but he was. Yeah, he’d been wild in his younger days. Not as wild as Marlon, maybe, but he’d had his moments. How long and hard did a man have to work to shake off a wild reputation?
    â€œCome on back,” he said again and led the way through the compact cottage to the kitchen.
    When she saw the room, the shocked admiration on her features more than made up for the dig about his reputation.
    She did a full three-sixty, taking in the slim jeweled pendant lights over the work island, the stainless-steel, professional stove, the long row of paned