A Canyon Road Christmas Read online

  “Yes, I did.” Cat lifted an eyebrow at her brother before turning to her father. “Hi, Dad. I hope I didn’t make anyone wait too long for dinner.”

  “No, not long at all,” Eduardo said with a smile. “I’ve only been here five minutes or so.”

  “Good.” She put the basket of garlic bread near her father’s place setting and then sat down. Tone a little too falsely cheery, she added, “This all looks great, Miranda. I hope you didn’t go to too much work.”

  “Not much work at all,” I replied. Now that all the food had been brought out, I figured it was safe to sit down in my normal spot, to Rafe’s right. When we’d eaten our first meal at this table, he’d tried to get me to sit at the head, since that place should be reserved for the prima, but I’d demurred. It felt strange for me to take that spot, no matter what the Castillo tradition might have been. The table was far too long to think about putting Eduardo at the other end, so he was seated to Rafe’s left, with Cat next to him. A little lopsided, but at least we wouldn’t need megaphones to communicate with one another.

  “Rafe tells me that you’re an excellent cook, Miranda,” Eduardo said as he took a piece of garlic bread from the basket and passed it along to his daughter.

  “I had a good teacher,” I said, trying to fight the flush of embarrassment that rose in my cheeks. Maybe one of these days I’d get better at accepting compliments. “My Great-Aunt Rachel. She’s amazing.”

  “And so are you,” Rafe said. “Even though you’re going red as a tomato right now.”

  I did my best to pretend I didn’t know what he was talking about. “Anyway, I like to cook. I can’t wait until Christmas — I’ve always wanted to try making a goose.”

  “You need to be careful, though,” Cat remarked as she dished herself some salad. “Rosa tried to roast a goose for Christmas dinner one year and almost caught her oven on fire.”

  “Goose is very fatty,” Eduardo observed, a certain amused light dancing in his dark eyes. I had the impression that he might have gotten a certain perverse pleasure in seeing his bossy older sister prove she wasn’t infallible. Not that he would probably admit it if pressed, but it was nice to see that Eduardo wasn’t quite as angelic as I’d thought.

  “I’ll be careful,” I said.

  “You’re sure you want to cook Christmas dinner so close to the wedding?” Rafe asked. I knew he wasn’t revealing any deep, dark secrets, since we’d already let Eduardo know the ceremony had been scheduled for the twenty-third, and he in turn had gotten the word out to the Castillo clan. “I thought you might want to get away for a few days.”

  I shook my head. “No, I’d rather stay here. We can plan a vacation for later on if we want, but I want to spend Christmas in our new home.” Well, my new home anyway. This house was certainly not new to Rafe, but maybe he looked on it with fresh eyes now that he was living here with his wife, rather than under his mother’s thumb.

  “That actually sounds great,” he said. “A nice Santa Fe Christmas.”

  “We’ll all have to do the Canyon Road walk,” Cat suggested.

  Puzzled, I tilted my head at her. “What’s that?”

  “Something we’ve been doing here in Santa Fe since before I was born,” Eduardo said. “Canyon Road is closed to vehicle traffic, and the galleries and shops stay open and offer snacks and desserts and hot cider and coffee.”

  “There are bonfires, too,” Cat put in. “And most of the buildings have Christmas lights or farolinos — ”

  “What’s a farolino?” I asked. I knew I’d never heard that word before.

  “Luminarias,” Rafe said. “You know, the little paper bags with candles inside them?”

  Right. We’d decorated with luminarias at the Jerome house, having them march up the front walk to the big porch. As a child, I’d been fascinated by them, by the warm glow of the candles inside the brown paper bags. Canyon Road was picturesque enough on its own, with its old adobe buildings and tall trees. I could only imagine how spectacular it must be with the walls and rooflines of the structures there picked out by glowing farolinos.

  “And there are carolers, and sometimes it feels as if everyone in Santa Fe is there,” Cat said. “I can’t imagine spending Christmas Eve any other way.”

  It did sound like a lot of fun. The house was so close, we’d be able to walk over without having to worry about finding parking on one of the streets adjacent to Canyon Road. “Okay, the Canyon Road walk on Christmas Eve, and then both of you over for dinner on Christmas Day.”

  “And your parents, too?” Rafe asked. “After all, they’ll already be here for the wedding.”

  “I’ll have to check,” I replied. From the way my mother had talked, it sounded as if she and my father just wanted to come to Santa Fe to see me safely married, and then they’d pop right back to Jerome to spend Christmas there. And by “pop,” they meant teleporting, rather than spending hours on the road. Whether they’d want to stay, I didn’t know for sure. The past few Christmases, everyone had gone up to their house for dinner — Ian and Emily and their spouses, and the grandchildren. The kids grew up so fast when they were little like that. Would my parents want to miss spending the holiday with them?

  I honestly couldn’t say for sure. To my relief, no one pressed me on the subject. We still had a couple of weeks to get it all figured out anyway.

  Rafe lifted an eyebrow at Cat and inclined his head toward Eduardo, who was concentrating on scooping up a forkful of lasagna and therefore distracted. She swallowed and looked suddenly apprehensive. Go on, he mouthed at her.

  “Um, Dad,” she began, and Eduardo looked up from his food.

  “What is it, Cat?”

  She fidgeted with the napkin in her lap, then said, “I found a house. It’s in Pojoaque. Miranda and Rafe went with me to look at it yesterday, and today I bought it.”

  For a moment, Eduardo just stared at her, almost as if he hadn’t heard her correctly. “A house?” he repeated.

  “Yes. Actually, it’s the Luna Rio winery. Remember how Seth was talking about it at the restaurant the other day? It sounded like just the kind of place I was looking for, and it turned out that it was. I didn’t want to take the risk of someone else snapping it up, so I went ahead and bought the place.”

  “You don’t know anything about making wine,” Eduardo said, echoing the same argument I’d made only a few days earlier. His expression was calm enough, but I could see the furrow between his brows as he frowned faintly.

  “I’m not going to make wine,” Cat replied. I couldn’t see her hands, but I had a feeling that she was continuing to play with the napkin in her lap. “I’ll keep the vines and keep producing grapes because they’re valuable, but I’m just going to sell the crop to other local wineries. They’re always looking for New Mexico grapes because none of the winemakers around here want to admit to using grapes from California and Arizona.”

  “It seems you’ve thought about this a great deal,” Eduardo said, still in that same mild tone.

  “Well, I didn’t want you to think I was going off half-cocked about this whole thing.” She paused there and appeared to study her father’s expression. Words stumbling a bit, she went on, “I — I didn’t want you to get angry with me for doing something impulsive.”

  “Angry?” He smiled and shook his head. “Why on earth would I be angry with you? Your money is your own to do with as you please, and you’ve made it clear enough that your situation here in town was only a temporary one until you found a place that suited you. I might wish it was a little closer, but Pojoaque isn’t so far away.”

  “Thanks, Dad,” Cat said, her eyes a little too bright. She blinked before continuing. “And I won’t be moving for a while, anyway. I can’t really get anyone in to give me estimates on the work that needs to be done until after the first of the year, and then I have a feeling it’s going to be a few more months before the place is ready.”

  “That long?” For the first time, Eduardo looked truly conc
erned. “I hope you haven’t bought a money pit, Cat.”

  “Oh, it’ll probably feel like one by the time I’m done,” she said cheerfully, obviously not at all daunted by the work that lay ahead of her. “But in the end, it’ll be worth the effort.”

  “It really is a beautiful place,” I said. While I was relieved that Cat’s father didn’t seem too dismayed by the massive purchase she’d just made, I also wanted him to know that Rafe and I were fully on board with the idea as well. “The house definitely needs some updating, but as far as we were able to tell, it’s mostly cosmetic work that needs to be done.”

  “But you don’t know for sure?” Eduardo asked. “Cat, didn’t you have a building inspection done before you signed the paperwork?”

  “No,” she responded, then went on quickly, “Don’t worry, though — Alyssa had them add a clause in the contract that the purchase could be reversed if any major structural issues were found.”

  An expression of relief passed over his face. “Well, that’s good. I’m glad you took your cousin with you to help with the contract — and I’m glad that Rafe and Miranda also approve of the house.”

  “It’s a really impressive piece of property,” Rafe said. He’d been mostly quiet up until then, eating lasagna and salad and garlic bread, interspersed with sips of chianti, but it seemed as though he thought he should chime in now as well. “I don’t doubt that in a few years, Cat will make back her investment. New Mexico grapes are at a premium right now, so she should be able to get top dollar for her harvests.”

  He hadn’t said anything to me, but I had a feeling that Rafe had been doing some quiet research on the side, trying to ascertain just how much money the Luna Rio grapes were worth. Apparently, what he’d found had reassured him. It wasn’t that Cat couldn’t afford to pay for the old vineyard and never get anything out of it, but if she could be self-sustaining, all the better.

  “That sounds very promising,” Eduardo said. Judging by the way he relaxed back into his chair, I thought Rafe’s words had been more than welcome. Directing his next words to Rafe and me, he went on, “Now, I suppose we should discuss your reception. We’ll have it at the restaurant, just as we’d planned the first time, but is there anything about it that you’d like to change?”

  Considering that I’d never made it to the first reception, had fled to the false refuge of Simon’s “apartment,” I didn’t feel I was qualified to comment on anything that might need to be altered. Really, all I wanted was the sort of pleasant, low-key gathering where everyone could enjoy themselves without having to expend too much effort.

  Surprisingly, Cat came to my rescue, saying, “I thought everything looked beautiful, but maybe you could give the reception space more of a holiday feel somehow.”

  I hadn’t really asked Rafe what he’d done after I’d teleported out of Loretto Chapel, leaving him standing at the altar by himself. Those memories had been painful enough that I had no desire to revisit them, and I knew he felt the same way, wanted to focus on what lay ahead of us, not behind. As far as I could tell, though, it sounded as if he’d avoided the reception, and so Cat would have been the one who’d actually seen how the hall was decorated, or what kind of food had been served.

  “That sounds like a good idea,” I said. “Maybe sort of a ‘winter wonderland’ feel — white fairy lights and crystal ornaments, everything white and silver.” Which would also echo the beaded and jeweled ornaments on my new wedding gown, although I kept that particular detail to myself. I didn’t want to give Rafe even a hint of what the dress looked like. Probably I was being paranoid, but after surviving Simon Escobar’s evil plots, I thought it was better not to take any chances.

  “I think that would be beautiful,” Eduardo said. “If you have time, possibly you and Rafe and Cat can choose what you’d like to use for decorations.”

  Rafe didn’t look terribly enthusiastic about this suggestion, although I figured he would gamely go along if pressed. Cat, on the other hand, seemed ready to go.

  “Oh, that’ll be fun. There’s this great party rental place down in Albuquerque we can go to. Just let me know when.”

  “My schedule is pretty open for now,” I replied. “Why don’t you make sure you have the house squared away, and then we’ll figure out a good time to go to Albuquerque and see what we can find.”

  “How about next Monday, just to be safe?” she suggested. “I can’t imagine anything with the house taking much longer than that, especially since I can’t start any real work for a few more weeks.”

  “Sounds good.” I glanced over at Rafe, who looked almost relieved that he was being left safely out of these negotiations. “You’re sure you don’t want to come along?”

  “Positive,” he replied, so quickly that both Cat and I couldn’t help but share a conspiratorial chuckle.

  “Okay,” I said. “We won’t twist your arm.”

  From there, the conversation moved on to the food we’d be serving at the reception, and the most delicate way to let people know that we didn’t expect them to get us any other presents. One of the spare bedrooms here at the house was still stacked full of gifts from the first wedding. Both Rafe and I knew we needed to get in there and unwrap everything and make a database of who’d given us what and write thank-you notes, but it was a task we’d both been putting off. However, I knew we’d have to take care of it before this second wedding ceremony took place, or it was going to look pretty bad.

  At the end of the evening, Eduardo and Cat both said goodbye and headed out together, and I shut the door and looked over at Rafe.

  “He took it well,” I said.

  “I was pretty sure he would.” A slight shrug, and he came over and pulled me to him, wrapping his arms around me. “My dad knows how to roll with the punches as they come. And it could be worse — at least she hasn’t fallen in love with someone down in Las Cruces or something and is moving four hours away.”

  “True.”

  We went into the dining room and began to clear away the plates. Once that task was done, I got the pan with the leftover lasagna — not that there was much left; we’d all done a pretty good job of demolishing it — and put some foil over the top before I set the pan in the refrigerator. In the meantime, Rafe got to work rinsing off the knives and forks and dishes so he could place them in the dishwasher.

  “I like this,” I said, and he lifted an eyebrow at me.

  “Doing dishes?”

  “No,” I replied. “Just…this. Being domestic together. Having a quiet evening with family. It’s almost like — ”

  “Almost like none of that stuff with Simon happened?” Rafe finished for me.

  “Something like that. I mean, obviously it did, or I wouldn’t be prima of the Castillo clan now, but it’s just good to have the feeling that things are settling down.”

  “I hope so,” he said as he shut the dishwasher door. “I think I’ve had enough excitement to last me a lifetime.”

  Now it was my turn to lift an eyebrow at him. “You sure about that? Because I was thinking that I had a few ideas about how we might end this evening.”

  He went and wiped his damp hands on the towel that hung from the magnet on the side of the refrigerator, then came over to me and took me in his arms. After a hearty kiss that tasted of chianti and garlic bread, he murmured in my ear, “Oh, I’ll never get tired of that kind of excitement.”

  Then he scooped me up in his arms. I gave an excited laugh, and clung to him as he took me up the stairs. As he laid me down on the bed and gave me another very thorough kiss, I thought I could get used to married life. It was worth everything we’d been through to end up where we were now.

  I only hoped things would always stay this way.

  4

  Rafe

  Only ten minutes or so after Miranda and Cat had headed out for their expedition to Albuquerque, Rafe’s phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket, wondering if maybe they’d forgotten something or — God forbid — had experience
d some kind of car trouble.

  The number displayed on the screen wasn’t Miranda’s, though. It was his cousin Sophia, Tony’s mother. Looking down at the screen on his cell phone, Rafe couldn’t quite keep himself from frowning. He had no idea why Sophia would be calling him, although he doubted it had anything to do with the upcoming wedding. Tony had once again been pressed into best-man duty, although he’d joked that if this wedding backfired, too, he was washing his hands of the whole business. At any rate, Tony’s mother had been invited to the ceremony, of course, but that was the extent of her involvement.

  “Hi, Sophia,” Rafe said after swiping on his phone’s screen to accept the call. “What’s up?”

  Her voice sounding somewhat strange, his cousin asked, “Rafe, would you mind coming over? This isn’t the sort of thing I want to discuss on the phone.”

  The request immediately made his spider sense start tingling. “You afraid the NSA is listening in or something?”

  Although Sophia wasn’t nearly as devil-may-care as her son, usually she had a pretty good sense of humor about things. Now, though, she only said, “No, nothing like that. It’s just that I’ve been going through the items taken from the house where Simon Escobar was staying, and….” She trailed off there, something that sounded like a sigh coming through the cell phone’s tiny speaker. “It’s something I’d like to talk to you about.”

  “Why me and not Miranda?” He didn’t exactly like where this conversation was going, but he figured that it was really Miranda’s responsibility as prima to handle this sort of thing, as much as she’d tried to avoid anything to do with Simon Escobar once he was safely out of the way.

  A long pause. When she finally spoke, Sophia sounded obviously diffident. “Because Miranda’s still finding her way as prima, and I’d rather talk to you. Once you’ve heard what I have to say, you can approach her with the information if you want. All right?”

  “All right,” Rafe echoed. He didn’t like the sound of any of this, but better to go hear what his cousin had discovered. “I can be over in about ten minutes. Is that okay?”