“Plenty do,” he said. “I prefer science. Bureau says light snow tonight, and I’ll back it over Bob Downey’s hip any day.”

More laughter from Simone. “Well, it’s cold enough to snow, that’s for sure. I’m pleased to be in the vehicle and not out there.” It was toasty warm inside the cab. Way warmer than it would have been in Ethel. “I don’t know how you can bear being out in this all day.”

“It can get a bit cold from time to time,” he agreed with his typical flair for understatement.

Saying it was a bit cold out here was like saying it was a bit warm in the middle of the Mojave Desert. Of course, she expected no less. Grady wasn’t someone who moaned and bitched about his lot. He worked a ranch, he’d been in the military, and both those things weren’t conducive to luxury indoor working conditions.

He was tough. As nails. And why in the hell she’d thought he’d just roll over and play nice after she’d essentially bribed him into being her fake rancher boyfriend, she’d never know. He might have agreed, but there was only so far she could push him, and he didn’t have any compunction pushing back, as he’d proved earlier in his office.

Something she’d be wise to remember as he switched on his vehicle headlights. The light was fading quickly now as the night drew in. “Time to head home,” he announced.

“How do you even know the way back?” her father asked as Grady turned the vehicle around. “We’ve been driving all over, and there’s no real road.”

“Well…” Grady’s voice was dry as the cold, cracked ground under their tires. He turned the wheel and pointed straight ahead. “It’s kinda easy at the moment.”

And there in the distance was the cabin lit up like a Vegas slot machine. Grady’s mouth had flattened into a thin line, and she heard a swift intake of breath from the back seat, which could have been either or both of her parents. The house blinked and flashed, but Suzanne didn’t care how tacky it might appear, she got a little teary just looking at it.

It was Christmas, damn it.

She knew Grady had legitimate reasons to be all bah humbug, but she was annoyed enough about everything that had gone down these past couple of hours—she didn’t need his or her parents’ festive derision. They were just lights for crying out loud.

“I’m so pleased you decided on the blinking lights, Josh,” she said, forcing a breathy kind of excitement into her voice.