Christmas Moon by Sadie Hart Page A

inside her tingle with
awareness. There was something there between them, more than just
working together, and Bree was tempted to explore it. Tempted to
see just where things could go with Hunter.
    And maybe she would, soon enough.
    Bree followed him out to his truck, reveling
in the cold touch of the wind against her skin as she tilted back
her head. It had been a long day, but the woman they’d saved had
been worth it. Heck, it reminded her of why she’d loved her job.
She’d been damned good at it too.
    Guilt shouldn’t have stopped her, it hadn’t
had to. Her old pack would have still accepted her, though a new
one somewhere else not so much. The ride home was mostly quiet. She
watched as they passed house after house lit for Christmas. The
whole town radiated with Christmas spirit, with hope. Happiness.
She bit her lip.
    Arianna would have loved all the glowing
reindeer, the Santa countdowns, the lighted presents. Her heart
gave a painful twist, but this time it wasn’t for what she’d lost.
It was for what she wanted to honor. Ari was gone, but her spirit
still lingered—and she didn’t deserve to be kept locked in Bree’s
heart with nothing but unending solitude wrapped around them
both.
    What good was keeping alive her daughter’s
memory if she kept it boxed away, afraid to feel joy again, afraid
to feel anything at all again?
    “You’re quiet,” Hunter murmured as he turned
his truck up her drive. Her house looked so...empty.
    Barren.
    “Thinking.” Her hand touched the door handle
and she paused. This was the house of a woman who’d wanted to
disappear, who’d had nothing left to live for.
    It was about time she put that woman to
rest.
    Bree lifted her chin a notch in determination
and glanced to Hunter. “Know of a good place to get a Christmas
tree?”
    Hell, two days until Christmas, she knew it
was a long shot. She probably wouldn’t even have luck finding an
over-priced artificial at the local grocery store in this small
town, but she hoped otherwise. She wanted this suddenly more than
she’d wanted anything in a long time.
    Hunter looked between her house and her. She
could see the wheels in his mind turning behind those dark eyes of
his and Bree felt her breath catch, waiting. “A real one?” he asked
in the quiet of the cab.
    Hope snared in her chest, beating wildly, and
Bree fisted her hand against the truck door. Her head tilted in the
slightest nod. “Yes.”
    Ari had loved the smell. So had Bree for that
matter. She’d give anything to have that fresh pine scent in her
house again, the thick branches lit with multi-colored lights,
garland wrapped around the heavy green, and ornaments weighing it
down.
    A grin flashed across Hunter’s face. “That I
can help you with. Give me an hour.”
    She opened her lips to protest. He didn’t
have to go through the trouble, he just had to point her in the
right direction but Hunter held up a hand. “Just nod and agree to
meet me right here in an hour.”
    Bree bit her lip to hold back her smile.
“Okay then. I’ll meet you right here.”
    Then slid out of the truck, the cold winter
wind wrapping around her. She pressed her fingers to her mouth as
she watched Hunter back down her drive and angle the truck towards
his house. One hour and she could find herself a tree.
    It gave her an hour to see what Christmas
decorations she’d packed with her in the move. An hour to start
living again. Hope swelled in her chest, and there, wrapping around
her heart, she could almost feel Arianna smiling inside her—her
spirit once again aglow with the season.
    “Sorry sweetheart,” she murmured as she
headed for the front door. “Your momma can be a bit slow.”

Chapter Twelve

    Hunter found himself grinning as he finished
packing up the truck, his gaze scanning to the woods beyond his
house. A Christmas tree. He didn’t know where the sudden desire had
come from, but the moment she’d voiced it, he’d seen the flash of
longing spear through