Cowboy’s Christmas Bridesmaid (Trinity Falls: Icicle Christmas #8)

17. Tanner

17

TANNER

T anner stood outside one of the homes in the valley with Zeke by his side, looking at his truck and wondering how he had gotten himself into such a jam on Christmas Eve.

The supply house had called him last night to let him know they had finally gotten the right breaker for the panel here. He figured Valentina would be impressed if he got it installed and messaged her to let her know it was ready for inspection photos so far ahead of the scheduled date in mid-January.

Sure, it was Christmas Eve, but it was a quick job, and Zeke liked coming along with his dad for little things like this. After all, their own Christmas Eve tradition mainly consisted of hanging around drinking hot chocolate and Zeke opening a small present before bed.

So, they had trooped over here, and Tanner got the breaker installed quickly, then sent Valentina the simplest message he could:

#7 is ready for photos of the panel now

maybe we can do it after Christmas?

After sending it, he’d shoved his phone back in his pocket before he could do something stupid like beg her to see him or talk to him now. He knew it was pathetic to be grasping for reasons to get in touch. She had made it painfully clear how opposed she was to the idea of being with him.

But that didn’t change the fact that he missed her terribly.

Even Zeke kept asking about her. And he’d had plenty of time to ask about Valentina, run around with the ball, and even go for a hike during this last week of school, all because she’d had the courage to stand up for him and tell Mrs. Hastings what he needed.

True to her word, Mrs. Hastings had even sent out a message to all the parents, encouraging them to use the same method Valentina had suggested. With a single moment of bravery and genuine caring for Zeke, Valentina had managed to make life better for every child and parent in a whole class of second graders.

That alone made Tanner’s heart ache every time he thought about it. How could he just let her get away?

It makes no sense to chase a woman who doesn’t want me.

But now, because he was so desperate to talk to her, he had come to work on a holiday, and he must have driven over a nail on the way into the work area. His tire was completely flat. And since he’d loaned his spare to a buddy working the site last week who had done the same thing, he couldn’t do anything about it. They were stuck .

“Our truck won’t work?” Zeke asked sadly, gazing at the truck that faithfully took him everywhere he’d ever wanted to go.

“It’s okay,” Tanner told him right away. “It’s just the tire. I’m going to call someone to come get us.”

He planned to call his cousin, Logan. But his phone started ringing as he was pulling it out of his pocket.

Valentina Jimenez

He slid his thumb across the screen to answer right away.

“Valentina,” he said, his voice a little too deep with emotion.

“I, uh, can come take that photo now if you’re still there,” she said, sounding oddly nervous.

“Sure,” he said. “My truck has a flat, so we’re stuck here anyway.”

“I’ll see you in a few minutes,” she said, and ended the call.

“ Oh, wow,” he sighed, running a hand through his hair and blowing out a breath, trying to figure out why she was really coming out, and whether maybe, just maybe she had changed her mind and wanted an excuse to talk to him too. “ Wow…”

“Was that Valentina?” Zeke asked him. “Why are you being weird?”

“That was Valentina,” Tanner told him. “She’s coming now.”

“To fix the tire?” Zeke asked dubiously.

“No,” Tanner said, unable to hide his smile at the idea of Valentina changing a tire. Though he was pretty sure that like anything else in the world, she could definitely do it if she put her mind to it. “She’s coming to look at the work I just did. I’ll call Uncle Logan about the tire.”

“Valentina,” Zeke sighed, with the same goofy smile on his face that Tanner was pretty sure he was wearing right now.

“Yup,” Tanner told him.

He pulled out his phone and messaged Logan to let him know what was going on.

“She likes your cowboy hat,” Zeke said suddenly.

“Huh?” Tanner said.

“You know, your cowboy hat,” Zeke said, indicating the truck, where the hat in question was stowed. “She smiles when she looks at it.”

He grabbed his hat out of the truck, wondering what his life had come to if he was taking advice on romance and fashion from a seven-year-old. But he wasn’t doing so well on his own, and beggars couldn’t be choosers.

By the time he had the hat on his head and had messaged back and forth a couple of times with Logan, he heard a car pulling into the driveway.

“Here she comes,” Zeke said excitedly as they watched her dark blue sedan pull up.

Tanner felt like he was holding his breath as Valentina got out of the car. She had her usual wool coat on, but he could see she was wearing jeans and brown boots under it, and her long dark hair cascaded down over her shoulders.

We had a good influence on her, he decided. We got her to let her hair down a little, if nothing else.

“Hi, guys,” she said, waving a little awkwardly.

Sure enough, Zeke was right. Her eyes slid up to Tanner’s cowboy hat as she approached, and her awkward smile deepened into a real one, dimples and all.

“Hey, thanks for coming out on Christmas Eve,” Tanner told her.

“I’m sorry about your tire,” she said. “Do you have someone coming? If not, I can give you a ride home after this.”

“My cousin is on his way,” Tanner told her. “But thanks."

“Valentina,” Zeke exploded.

She turned to him, her smile brightening when he wrapped his arms around her and gave her a big hug.

“What do you want for Christmas?” Zeke demanded, pulling back and looking up at her so intensely that Tanner thought he was about to start taking notes.

“I have pretty much everything I could want, thank goodness,” she told him. “So I always make a wish for my parents to be safe and healthy. And so far, I’ve gotten exactly what I wanted every single year.”

“You don’t get any presents at all?” Zeke asked sadly. He was clearly too young to understand what a blessing a parent’s good health could be.

“Oh, I always get other presents,” she told him. “There’s supposed to be some bad weather this year, and Mr. Radcliffe has a lot going on, so I’m not traveling to see my family. But they sent me a great big box in the mail, and I’m sure it’s full of fun stuff. I can’t open it until tomorrow.”

“You might be able to figure out what’s in there if you shake it,” Zeke advised her with a serious expression. “Did you shake it?”

“I might just give that a try when I get home,” she told him.

“Okay,” Tanner said. “Let’s show Valentina the electrical panel so she can get home.”

Zeke shot him a look of frustration, but Tanner knew better than to keep Valentina from working when she wanted to work.

They all trooped into the house and down the basement steps to the electrical panel.

Tanner had done some rewiring, but he’d also redone most of the work in the panel. He was proud of how safe and efficient it would be from now on. He had left the face plate off for the photos so Randy would be able to see that there was no longer an ugly tangle of wires behind it.

“I guess I shouldn’t send this to Randy until the twenty-sixth,” Valentina said sadly, looking down at the image on her screen.

Tanner turned quickly, before she could see him smiling.

“What?” she demanded.

“You would work night and day if you could,” he teased her. “Wouldn’t you?”

“I like my work,” she said lightly.

“How’s the presentation for Baz turning out?” he asked her as he held the face plate back up and slid one of the screws in place to tighten it.

“It’s almost done,” she said, moving to hold the face plate for him, making it much easier for him to place the next screw .

“That’s great,” he told her, finishing the second screw and moving on to the third one.

“It’s missing something though,” she said.

“Did you ever get out to the Williams Homestead?” he asked her as he placed the fourth and final screw.

“No,” she said softly.

It occurred to Tanner that she probably wasn’t comfortable going out there on her own after having to make it so clear that she didn’t want to be with him.

“Listen,” he told her, lowering his screwdriver and closing the door to the panel cover. “We’re friends, and that place belongs to my aunt and uncle. Why don’t we run over there now?”

“Isn’t a storm coming?” she asked nervously.

“Sure,” he said. “But not for hours. And it’s not like we’re going into the wilderness or anything. The big house is right there, and Logan and Ansel live on the homestead with their families too. There are plenty of places to shelter if we had to.”

He had been so careful to say we’re friends . He hoped it would be enough to make her feel comfortable. He wanted to help her, whether she wanted to be his girl or not. And he would spend any time with her that he could get.

“I did want to talk to Mr. Radcliffe about this before his wedding,” she said thoughtfully.

“Well now you’ll have time to visit, think about it, and incorporate it into your plan, if there’s a way,” he told her. “And you can still present everything to him before he goes off on his honeymoon.”

“Let’s do it,” she said excitedly. “But what about your truck?”

“I’ll bet Logan and Caroline will take care of it for us,” he predicted, knowing his cousin would do whatever he had to do if it meant Tanner getting more time with Valentina.

“We’re going to see Great-aunt Annabelle?” Zeke asked.

“We sure are,” Tanner told him. “But we’re riding with Valentina, so I need to grab your booster and leave the keys for Uncle Logan.”

As he ran over to his truck, he willed himself not to see this turn of events as some kind of Christmas miracle. But he couldn’t stop his heart from pounding.