Читать онлайн книгу «The Maverick′s Midnight Proposal» автора Brenda Harlen

The Maverick's Midnight Proposal
Brenda Harlen
Should Old Acquaintance Be Forgot? Sighting confirmed! That handsome, brooding cowboy about town is Luke Stockton—Rust Creek Falls's long-lost son. It's been over a decade since his parents' tragic death…and Luke's sudden departure. Our guess is he's here to reconnect with his estranged siblings. Why, then, is Luke spending so much time at Daisy's Donut Shop? The coffee's great but…Perhaps beautiful baker Eva Armstrong has him in her thrall! Careful, Eva, you've had enough heartbreak. Despite the sizzling kisses, Luke isn't the marrying kind. Still, we encourage a little mistletoe mischief…after all, Christmas is the season of love. Perhaps Luke and Eva will "ring" in the New Year together. Get it? All we want for Christmas is a happily-ever-after!


Should Old Acquaintance Be Forgot?
Rust Creek Ramblings
Sighting confirmed! That handsome, brooding cowboy about town is Luke Stockton—Rust Creek Falls’s long-lost son. It’s been over a decade since his parents’ tragic deaths...and Luke’s sudden departure. Our guess is he’s here to reconnect with his estranged siblings. Why, then, is Luke spending so much time at Daisy’s Donut Shop? The coffee’s great but...
Perhaps beautiful baker Eva Armstrong has him in her thrall! Careful, Eva, you’ve had enough heartbreak. Despite the sizzling kisses, Luke isn’t the marrying kind. Still, we encourage a little mistletoe mischief...after all, Christmas is the season of love. Perhaps Luke and Eva will “ring” in the New Year together. Get it? All we want for Christmas is a happily-ever-after!
She shrugged. “When someone returns to town after a dozen years, people are bound to talk.”
“No doubt,” Luke admitted, his tone grim.
“All good stuff,” she told him.
He lifted his mug, swallowed a mouthful of coffee. “It seems that you have me at a disadvantage.”
“How so?”
“You obviously know my name—and apparently a lot more—but I don’t know yours.”
She touched a hand to the bib of her apron. “Oh. I forgot my name tag today,” she realized. “Eva Rose Armstrong.”
He set down his mug and proffered his hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Eva Rose Armstrong.”
She felt a tingle through her veins as her palm slid against his. His hand was wide and strong, with calluses that attested to a familiarity with manual labor. It was a man’s hand, and every womanly part of her responded to the contact.
“Eva,” she said. “My friends call me Eva.”
“Are we going to be friends, Eva?”
“I think so,” she said, not daring to admit that she already hoped “friends” was only the beginning of what they would be to one another.
“I could probably use a friend,” he admitted, releasing her hand to pick up his fork again. “I don’t think I have any left in this town.”
* * *
Montana Mavericks: The Great Family Roundup— Real cowboys and real love in Rust Creek Falls!
The Maverick’s Midnight Proposal
Brenda Harlen


www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
BRENDA HARLEN is a former attorney who once had the privilege of appearing before the Supreme Court of Canada. The practice of law taught her a lot about the world and reinforced her determination to become a writer—because in fiction, she could promise a happy ending! Now she is an award-winning, national bestselling author of more than thirty titles for Mills & Boon. You can keep up-to-date with Brenda on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/brenda.harlen) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/BrendaHarlen) or through her website, www.brendaharlen.com (http://www.brendaharlen.com).
For my parents,
who exemplify the joys and blessings of home—not just at the holidays but always.
Contents
Cover (#u61036bc7-79a4-5834-82fd-ef03dac87562)
Back Cover Text (#u3357baa1-c363-575c-9679-6437871169cd)
Introduction (#ucb25ba46-0f54-5f12-9edd-c1e6de3912bd)
Title Page (#ueb0bbe37-7425-5870-94d9-ae9b2535d013)
About the Author (#udf2addb7-4b6b-5f9e-9b84-81a64c27e115)
Dedication (#ue7f72a47-1435-5fe0-9943-aa115069a8a4)
Prologue (#u003de14c-912b-55f2-acce-5a834fec28a2)
Chapter One (#u670510d3-54d7-5942-a99c-e9e4dec3ea52)
Chapter Two (#u031a9cdd-3bed-52b1-945f-2e6e00900412)
Chapter Three (#ud16b12de-6e2e-565a-95fa-2d4fd4a225ba)
Chapter Four (#u0c14f377-193a-54e3-a30a-4b2f649ee554)
Chapter Five (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Six (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Thirteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Fourteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Fifteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Epilogue (#litres_trial_promo)
Extract (#litres_trial_promo)
Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)
Prologue (#u77eabab8-e960-508d-aff2-140c49d477e7)
Lee Stanton paused as he entered the room, his gaze caught by the blinking light on his phone indicating that he had a message. He picked it up to check the call history. The same number had shown up on his display more than a dozen times in the past four days, though the caller, who’d identified himself as David Bradford, had only left two messages previously. This would be the third.
He pressed the button to connect to voice mail, then punched in his access code.
“This is David Bradford again, the private investigator from Tulsa, hired by Hudson Jones to track down Luke Stockton from Rust Creek Falls, Montana. Please call me back at 539-555-6234.”
Lee hit the erase button.
The investigator was nothing if not persistent, and the client—Hudson Jones—was obviously getting his money’s worth. Unfortunately, his perseverance wasn’t going to pay off this time, because it wasn’t possible to find someone who didn’t exist, and Luke Stockton had disappeared twelve years earlier on his way to Cheyenne, Wyoming.
Lee tried to put the call out of his mind as he rummaged through the refrigerator, looking for something—anything—to throw together for dinner. After seven hours on horseback feeding cattle and checking perimeter fence, he was cold and tired and hungry. And apparently long overdue for a trip to the grocery store.
He pulled a bottle of beer out of the fridge and twisted off the cap. He tipped the bottle to his lips as he picked up the phone again, dialing from memory the number for Peppe’s Pizza.
While he waited for his dinner to be delivered, he turned on the television and flipped through the twelve channels that were included with basic cable as part of his rent. But nothing on the screen held his attention for long.
For the past dozen years, he’d walked the right side of the law, working from sunup to sundown, falling into bed exhausted at the end of the day. But no matter how fatigued his body was, he couldn’t escape the memories that continued to haunt his dreams. Memories of a past he’d wanted only to leave behind. Now he couldn’t help but wonder if that past had caught up with him.
...hired by Hudson Jones to track down Luke Stockton...
He opened the laptop he’d picked up secondhand and kept plugged in because the battery didn’t hold much of a charge. He opened a browser, then started a search for Hudson Jones.
The results were numerous and instantaneous, and a quick skim of the headlines revealed that Hudson Jones was a millionaire cowboy originally from Oklahoma. Since he knew that Luke Stockton had never been to Oklahoma and hadn’t rubbed elbows with any millionaires in his past, he figured the PI had taken a wrong turn somewhere. He was about to close the browser when a headline announcing Hudson Jones’s marriage caught his eye. The name of the man’s wife: Bella Stockton.
Bella? Married?
Stunned, he clicked on the link and found himself looking at a photo of the millionaire cowboy and his beautiful bride. The caption indicated that the couple had exchanged vows early in June—almost six months earlier.
Lee’s heart hammered against his ribs as he leaned toward the screen for a closer look. The stunning young woman in the white gown didn’t bear much resemblance to the awkward teen he remembered. Except for the eyes. Even in an online photograph, even after so much time had passed, there was no mistaking those big brown eyes.
He blinked away the moisture that blurred his vision and finally acknowledged the truth that was staring back at him: Hudson Jones’s bride was indeed Luke’s little sister.
And if her new husband had hired a PI to find Luke, then Bella must have told him about losing touch with her siblings. Maybe she’d even asked Hudson to help her find them.
Lee shook his head and tipped the bottle to his mouth again. He was only speculating about her thoughts and motives. He had no way of knowing if Bella wanted to find Luke, but the possibility tugged at him.
Half an hour later, after he’d finished another beer and half of his pizza, he finally picked up the phone and dialed the PI’s number.
Chapter One (#u77eabab8-e960-508d-aff2-140c49d477e7)
Anticipation and trepidation wore on Luke with every mile on his tires throughout the drive to Rust Creek Falls. The scenery outside his window was a blur as memories of his first twenty-one years played through his mind like an old movie—and not one with a happy ending.
He’d traveled from Cheyenne to Butte the day before and crashed in a cheap motel. Though his body had craved sleep, his mind wouldn’t let him rest and he’d stared at the ceiling for a long time, questioning the impulse that had brought him on this journey.
When he woke in the morning, his first thought had been to turn around and go back to Wyoming.
Because he was a coward.
But apparently the fierceness with which he missed his family was stronger than his cowardice, because instead of turning back, he pushed forward.
After fueling himself with an extra large coffee, he’d started back on the road to Rust Creek Falls. Three and a half hours later, he was almost there.
His gaze searched for the familiar sign that welcomed visitors to town. Twelve years earlier the sign had been old and worn, so it was possible that the marker was no longer standing or—if it was—it might be faded so much that the paint was impossible to read. It didn’t matter. Luke didn’t need a marker to let him know he’d arrived. Even if he hadn’t recognized the terrain, he would have known it in his gut.
But twelve years was a long time, and people changed more quickly than the towns they lived in. Bella hadn’t even been a teenager when he left; now she was a woman—and a wife.
Mrs. Bella Jones.
He shook his head, still unable to believe that his little sister was all grown up, still struggling to come to terms with the time he’d lost with his family. And the staggering weight of guilt, because he knew it was his fault.
Of course, Bella didn’t know that. Because if she did, she would never have made the effort to find him. More likely, she would have been grateful that he’d left town, and happy he’d stayed away. But she deserved to know the truth—all of his brothers and sisters deserved the truth. A truth that Luke had been too ashamed to tell them, and the grief and remorse weighed on him still.
Although a dozen years had passed since he left Montana, in all that time, he’d never forgotten—or stopped missing—the family he used to have. Since he left Rust Creek Falls, not a single day passed without him thinking about the family he’d walked away from. Bailey and Daniel had gone with him, and the three oldest brothers had stuck close together—at least for a while.
Over the years, he’d lost count of the number of times he’d thought about going home—only to remember all the reasons he’d left. For Luke, “you can’t go home again” was more than a catchphrase—it was the reality of his life.
So why was he trying to change that reality now?
Because Bella wanted to see him.
He’d finally called her from the motel the night before to tell her that he was on his way. Partly because he was desperate to hear her voice and partly because he knew that if she was expecting him, he’d be less inclined to turn around and head back to Wyoming.
He’d let her down once, but he wouldn’t do it again.
Now he was finally going home—a prospect that filled him with anticipation and more than a little bit of trepidation. As a result of one foolish, youthful error in judgment, he’d lost them all: his parents—Rob and Lauren, and his six siblings—Bailey, Danny, Jamie, Bella, Dana and Liza.
His error.
He tried to push the painful memories aside, because he knew that there was no way to go back in time and do things differently. But sometimes, late at night and deep in dreams, he allowed himself to make a different choice. A smarter choice. And in those dreams, he woke up in the same house he’d lived in for the first twenty-one years of his life, his mother making breakfast in the kitchen while he crawled out of bed, grumbling about the early hour as he dressed in the dark and headed out to the barn to help his father and brothers with the chores.
And every time he dreamed about them, he awakened with such a huge, heavy weight on his chest, he wondered how it was possible that his broken heart was still beating. Then he’d grab a granola bar or pour himself a bowl of cereal and head out to the barn at whatever ranch he was currently working and throw himself into the physical labor, as if successfully wrestling bales of hay would somehow help him overcome the grief and guilt.
His foot eased off the accelerator as he approached the town limits, doubts again battering at him from all directions. Was he really going to do this? Was he, finally, after so many years, going to see his sisters and brothers again?
He’d programmed his GPS to take him to Just Us Kids—the day care facility owned by Hudson Jones’s family and where Bella was employed as a manager. The day care hadn’t existed twelve years ago, which made him wonder how many other businesses had come and gone in that period of time. Was Crawford’s General Store still the only place in town to buy a quart of milk? Did the Ace in the Hole still have the flickering neon sign that beckoned local cowboys with the promise of cold beer and pretty girls? Was the coffee at Daisy’s Donut Shop still always hot and fresh?
He could use some of that coffee now. Especially when he glanced at the display on his GPS and saw that his ETA was less than fifteen minutes.
Less than fifteen minutes after more than twelve years.
His fingers tightened on the steering wheel as he drove down Cedar Street, the winter finery on display reminding him that Christmas was less than three weeks away. Garlands and twinkling lights festooned all the storefronts, and a dusting of fresh snow on the sidewalks added to the holiday atmosphere.
Even in Wyoming, he’d heard about the flood that had devastated Rust Creek Falls a few years back, but the community had obviously come together to rebuild. He’d expected—maybe even hoped—that the town had changed, but everything looked very much the same.
He impulsively turned the corner toward Daisy’s Donut Shop, desperate not just for a quick cup of coffee but also a few extra minutes to regain control of his emotions before facing his sister.
He pushed the door open and joined the line at the counter. An elderly man, headed to a table with a mug of steaming coffee in his hand, nodded in his direction.
Just a friendly resident greeting a stranger in town—or so Luke believed until the man said, “Nice to see you, Luke.”
The gruff voice was as familiar as Old Gene’s face. “Good morning, Mr. Strickland.”
“You home for the holidays?” the old man asked.
Home.
The word tugged at something inside him.
Was this his home? He’d been wandering for so long, never setting down roots in any one place, that the word was almost unfamiliar to him.
Unfamiliar and yet oh-so-inviting.
“Just here to visit my sister,” he said.
Gene nodded. “She’ll be glad to see you.”
Luke hoped he was right.
The old man carried his coffee to a booth, where a group of his contemporaries was already seated and waiting for him.
A middle-aged man with graying hair and a much younger blonde woman stepped up to the counter next to place their order. Luke recognized the man as Ben Dalton—the only attorney in town. Ben spotted Luke when he turned to speak to his companion and his eyes widened in obvious surprise. After shaking Luke’s hand, Ben introduced his female companion.
“This is my law partner, Maggie Crawford.” Ben winked. “I stole her away from a big firm in Los Angeles.”
“Then you’re a long way from home,” Luke said to the woman.
She shook her head. “This is my home now.”
“Maggie’s married to Jesse Crawford,” Ben told him.
“Jesse went to school with my brother Bailey,” Luke explained the connection to Maggie. And he’d gone to school with Ben’s daughter, Paige.
“Small world,” she murmured.
“So it would seem,” Luke agreed. “Although Rust Creek Falls has grown even more than I realized if it’s able to support two lawyers now.”
“Four,” Ben corrected. “My daughter, Lindsay, has been working with us since she passed the bar last year. And Maggie’s brother, Ryan Roarke, hung up a shingle after he married Kristen Dalton.”
“Good to know there are options if I find myself in need of legal services,” Luke said.
“Speaking of legal services,” Maggie said. “We’ve got to get to Kalispell for a settlement conference.”
Ben nodded. “It was good to see you again, Luke.”
“You, too,” Luke said. “And nice to meet you, Maggie.”
As the two attorneys turned and walked away, he stepped up to the counter.
“Can I help you?”
He glanced from the tempting variety of sweets in the glass-fronted display case to the even more tempting woman behind the counter, and awareness hummed in his veins. Or maybe he’d just imagined the sensation. Maybe what he’d felt was simply relief that here, finally, was someone who didn’t know him or his history. Because the gorgeous blonde with wide blue eyes wasn’t anyone from his past. If he’d met her before, he was certain he would have remembered.
She followed up the question with a smile, drawing his gaze to the curve of her glossy pink lips. Yeah, her mouth looked a lot sweeter than the glazed doughnuts for sale, but he’d come back to Rust Creek Falls for one reason and it wasn’t to enjoy the local sights—no matter how pretty they might be.
“Coffee,” he suddenly remembered. “Large. Black.”
Those beautiful blue eyes sparkled with humor. “For here or to go?”
“To go.”
She selected a tall paper cup, filled it from the pot then snapped on a lid.
“Thanks.” He passed her his money in exchange for the beverage.
She smiled at him again. “You’re welcome.”
* * *
“Large café mocha with extra whipped cream.”
Eva Armstrong regretfully shifted her attention from the backside of the handsome cowboy making his way to the door to her next customer. Ellie Traub was a regular who always ordered an old-fashioned glazed along with her large mocha and carried both to a table where she’d sit with Mary and Rita Dalton—sisters-in-law by marriage—and chat about all the comings and goings in town.
“That Luke Stockton sure grew up to be a handsome man,” Ellie commented.
Eva mentally assigned the name to the cowboy, satisfied that it fit—even if it didn’t answer any of the questions racing through her brain.
“Of course, they were all good-looking boys,” Ellie continued.
“Who?” Eva asked.
“Luke, Bailey and Daniel. And Jamie, too, of course.”
She used the tongs to select a doughnut from the case and set it on a plate. “I didn’t remember that Jamie had so many brothers.”
The older woman nodded. “Rob and Lauren had seven kids altogether—four boys and three girls.”
Eva punched the order into the cash register.
“And then, when they died in that accident...” Ellie let the words trail off as she shook her head. “Of course, you were probably too young to remember that. It was close to a dozen years ago now.”
Twelve years meant that Eva would have been thirteen when they died. And now that she had the reference of a timeline, she did vaguely recall hearing about a car accident that resulted in the deaths of a local rancher and his wife and orphaned their children. In fact, one of the daughters, Bella, had been a year behind Eva in school.
She handed the customer’s change across the counter. “Have a good day, Mrs. Traub.”
“Thanks,” Ellie said, and carried her mug and plate away from the counter.
Eva turned with a smile to the next customer in line but was admittedly distracted by thoughts of Luke Stockton. In fact, she felt a little dazed after the brief encounter with the handsome cowboy, as if she’d been hit over the head with a sack of flour.
Of course, she had a habit of falling hard and fast—and always for the wrong men. But no matter how many times her heart ended up bruised, she refused to give up hope. Just like the fairy-tale princess who believed that someday her prince would come, Eva believed that her soul mate was out there somewhere.
Or maybe, just maybe, he was right here in Rust Creek Falls now.
The rest of the morning passed in a blur. The doughnut shop did a brisk business, which kept her hands busy but didn’t prevent her mind from speculating about the new man in town.
“You trying to rub the Formica right off that table?” asked a voice behind her.
Eva glanced back at Tracie, the cook who worked the lunch shift. “I guess my mind was wandering,” she admitted as she dropped the cloth onto the tray filled with plates and cups that she’d already cleared away.
“Maybe it could wander back to the kitchen and get started making a lemon meringue pie.”
“I thought apple and coconut were on the menu today.”
Tracie nodded. “But I got a call-in order for a lemon meringue.” She looked at the slip where she’d written the customer’s name and number. “Lydia Grant. She’s making dinner for her fiancé tonight and apparently lemon meringue pie is his favorite.”
Eva knew that, of course. Because Lydia’s fiancé was Zach Dalton, a rancher who had recently moved to Rust Creek Falls with his father and siblings after the devastating loss of his mother in a house fire.
Unlike so many men, Zach was a traditional kind of guy who wanted to get married and have children. In fact, he was so determined that he’d even advertised in the Gazette for a woman who was an excellent cook and homemaker and loved kids, dogs and horses.
Eva had gone on a few dates with Zach before he’d fallen in love with Lydia—who didn’t have any of the traits that he’d claimed to be looking for in a wife. Now Eva, who had fulfilled all of his requirements—at least on paper—was being enlisted to make Zach’s favorite pie for his future wife to serve to him.
As she carried the tray of dirty dishes to the kitchen, she acknowledged that this was only the most recent in a string of romantic disappointments.
But her heart wasn’t heavy as she began to measure the ingredients for the pastry. Because she wasn’t thinking about Zach and Lydia’s engagement—she was thinking about the return to Rust Creek Falls of sexy cowboy Luke Stockton.
* * *
Luke sat in his truck in the parking lot outside Just Us Kids Day Care Center. Somewhere inside the brick building with the colorful sign that looked as if it had been written in thick crayon by a first grader, his sister was waiting for him. He took another minute to finish his coffee as he continued to sit and stare at the double doors that would take him from the present to his past.
He lifted the cup to his lips and let his gaze shift to the fenced-in play area where a group of kids, bundled up in thick snowsuits, hats, mittens and boots, were playing in the deep snow. Despite the frigid temperatures, they were laughing and giggling and having a great time. He didn’t know how old they were—three? four?—but watching them reminded him of Bella when she’d been a similar age.
As a child, she’d had seemingly endless energy and enthusiasm, and she’d found joy in every aspect of life. Of course, that was a lot of years before their parents were killed, sucking all the joy out of all their lives.
Before he could go too far down that dark path, he stepped out of the truck and made his way toward the entrance. He lifted his arm to reach for the handle, then hesitated again. Over the past dozen years, he’d never let himself think about a potential reunion with his siblings because he never believed he would come back to Rust Creek Falls. Now that the moment was here, he was paralyzed by his own doubts and fears.
Apparently his sister felt differently, because the door he was staring at suddenly flung open.
“You’re here!”
Those two words were the only warning Luke got before Bella launched herself into his arms. He caught her—a reflex action—and she pressed her cheek to his, covering his face with kisses and tears.
The unexpected outpouring of affection made his heart swell inside his chest, so much that his ribs actually ached.
“You’re really here,” she said again.
“I’m really here,” he confirmed.
“I know you said you were coming,” she acknowledged, “but I’ve been waiting for so long that it feels like forever.”
His arms tightened around her. It felt like forever to him, too. And though he’d had more than a few reservations about returning to Rust Creek Falls, right now, with Bella in his arms, he was certain that he’d made the right decision.
All too soon, she was drawing away again. “Come on,” she said, tugging on his arm. “I want you to meet my husband.” Her eyes sparkled as her lips curved. “We’ve been married for almost six months, and I still get such a thrill every time I say that.”
“I feel a shock to hear you say it,” Luke confessed. But he was eager to meet Hudson Jones—and to thank him for hiring the PI who had tracked him down.
When he stepped into the building, he was immediately enveloped by warmth—a welcome reprieve from the bitter winds blowing outside—and assailed by various sounds and scents: crying and cooing and singing; baby powder and Play-Doh and fresh gingerbread.
“We’re baking cookies for the toddlers to decorate today,” she explained. “And to eat, during snack time.”
“I guess day care isn’t all about story time and building blocks,” he mused.
She laughed. “You have no idea.”
He took a minute to catch his breath and survey the space. The tiles beneath his boots were multicolored, the walls were painted sunshine yellow and decorated with artwork that he suspected had been done by children who attended the day care. “How did you end up working here?”
“The facility was opening at a time when I was desperate for a job,” she admitted. “Jamie’s wife died after giving birth to their three babies, so I came home from college to help him with Henry, Jared and Katie.”
He’d thought nothing could surprise him more than discovering that Bella was married, and now she was telling him that his youngest brother had also married—and been widowed—and was a father. “Triplets?”
She nodded.
“And you left school to be his babysitter?”
“He’s family,” she said simply, as if that explained everything. “And the only brother I had left after you, Bailey and Danny took off.”
“Bella—”
“We’ll talk about that later,” she interjected, hooking one arm through Luke’s and raising her other hand to knock on a partially open door beside the main reception desk.
“Come in.”
She pushed the door open the rest of the way. “Hudson, there’s someone here that I want you to meet.”
The man behind the desk slid his chair back and stood up. The smile that lit his eyes when he looked at his wife assured Luke that he was just as much in love with Bella as she obviously was with him.
Then his gaze shifted, and cooled noticeably. “You must be Luke.”
He nodded and shook the proffered hand. “It’s nice to meet the man who won my sister’s heart.”
“She won mine first,” Hudson said. “And I’d do anything for my beautiful bride, so I was pleased to hear that David Bradford was successful in tracking you down in Wyoming.”
“I’m grateful for your efforts,” Luke said sincerely.
“I just want Bella to be happy,” Hudson said.
Luke understood what the man was saying—and what he wasn’t. Hudson had hired the private investigator to find Bella’s siblings because it was what she wanted, but he wouldn’t tolerate anyone—even her family—hurting his wife. Although Hudson’s demeanor made him a little wary, Luke couldn’t help but respect his new brother-in-law for wanting to protect his bride.
“I am happy,” Bella assured him. “And I know this is going to be the best Christmas ever, not just because it’s my first as Mrs. Hudson Jones—” she sent an adoring look toward her husband “—but because Luke is finally home and Danny is planning his Christmas Eve wedding.”
Luke opened his mouth, intending to tell her that he wouldn’t be staying in Rust Creek Falls for Christmas, but the last part of her statement pushed everything else from his mind.
“Our Danny?”
Bella nodded.
“He’s here—in Rust Creek Falls?”
“You didn’t know?”
Luke shook his head. “We kind of lost touch a few years back,” he admitted.
“He’s been here since October,” Bella told him now. “After he saw an interview with Jamie on The Great Roundup, he realized he missed his family and finally decided to come back.”
“What’s The Great Roundup?”
His sister seemed surprised by the question. “Don’t you watch TV?”
“Not a lot,” he admitted.
“The Great Roundup is a reality show, similar to The Amazing Race but with a Western theme,” Hudson explained. “There are various challenges of skill and survival, and the winner gets a million dollars.”
“And you watch this?” Luke asked, his tone dubious.
“Travis Dalton and Brenna O’Reilly are on the show,” his brother-in-law explained.
“And they’re engaged!” Bella exclaimed.
Although Luke didn’t know Travis or Brenna, he knew the Daltons and O’Reillys were longtime residents of Rust Creek Falls. But he was more interested in what she’d said about their brother than the details of a reality show. “And you said Danny’s engaged, too?”
“To Annie Lattimore,” she said, naming their brother’s high school sweetheart.
“I should have known,” he realized. “Danny never wanted to leave Rust Creek Falls—or Annie.”
“Then why did he?” Bella wondered. “Why did you?”
He answered with the truth—or at least part of it. “Because we couldn’t stay. The grandparents made it clear they didn’t want us hanging around, that even four kids were too much of a burden.”
“Not long after you left, they sent Dana and Liz away, too,” Bella told him.
Hudson slid an arm across her shoulders—a wordless gesture of support and comfort—while Luke just looked on helplessly.
“I’m so sorry,” he told her. “We—I—honestly thought it was the best decision at the time.”
“Well, you’re here now,” she said again, blinking away the tears that had filled her eyes. “And Dana’s been found, too—she lives with her adoptive family in Portland—so I’m confident that we’ll all be together again soon.”
Luke shifted his gaze to his brother-in-law. “Has your PI succeeded in tracking down everyone else?”
“Not yet,” Hudson admitted. “But he’s got some leads and I’m sure we’ll see results soon.” He glanced down as his cell phone buzzed. “Sorry—that’s a business call I need to take.”
“Of course,” Bella acknowledged, nudging Luke back toward the door, then closing it softly after she’d followed him out. “I need to get back to work, too,” she said apologetically.
Luke nodded. “Maybe we can catch up some more later.”
“We’ll definitely catch up later,” she immediately responded. “But now you’re probably exhausted after your long drive, so why don’t you go back to our house, put your feet up and relax? Even have a nap if you want.”
“A nap?” he echoed.
“Nap time isn’t just for preschoolers,” she assured him, pressing something into his palm.
He stared at the key, wondering how it was so easy for her to not only accept his sudden reappearance in her life but even open up her home to him after so much time had passed. “I don’t want to impose,” he told her.
“It’s not an imposition,” she insisted. “We’re happy to have you.”
He believed that she was happy, but he didn’t think her husband was overjoyed.
“You and Hudson are still newlyweds,” he protested. “I should get a room at the boarding house so you aren’t tripping over me.”
She laughed. “Obviously you haven’t yet seen the house. When you do, you’ll realize that there’s plenty of room and no reason to worry about anyone tripping over anyone else.”
Still, he wasn’t entirely comfortable with the idea of staying with the sister he’d had no contact with for more than a decade. Or maybe it was the prospect of staying in Rust Creek Falls at all that made him uneasy.
“Please,” she added, and with that single word, the last of his resistance melted away.
“Okay,” he relented. “I’ll stay for a couple of days.”
“That’s a good start,” she agreed.
Chapter Two (#u77eabab8-e960-508d-aff2-140c49d477e7)
Luke was smiling and shaking his head as he walked out of the day care and headed back to his truck. He’d forgotten how sneaky his sister could be—and how he’d never been able to refuse anything she asked. But he was grateful for her invitation and looking forward to the opportunity to catch up with her and Jamie and Danny.
He was also curious to check out Bella and Hudson’s house, but he wasn’t quite ready to put his feet up. What he was, his growling stomach pointed out, was hungry.
Earlier, his gut had been so twisted up in knots over the impending reunion with his sister that he hadn’t been able to eat anything. Now that the initial meeting was over, he realized he was famished.
He hadn’t forgotten about the Ace in the Hole—or the thick, juicy burgers that were served with a mountain of crispy fries. In fact, the memory alone was enough to make his mouth water and, when his stomach rumbled again, he steered his truck toward Sawmill Street.
But for reasons he couldn’t fathom, he abruptly turned off Sawmill onto North Broomtail and pulled up in front of Daisy’s Donut Shop again.
* * *
After graduating from high school, Eva had wanted to follow her passion and pursue a diploma in baking and pastry arts. But following her heart had led to heartache more times than she could count, so she’d listened to the urging of her parents and opted to study accounting instead. She’d just completed her first year when her father was diagnosed with lymphoma, so she’d returned to Rust Creek Falls to support her family and postponed the rest of her studies.
She’d been fortunate to get a job at Daisy’s Donut Shop. The part-time hours had allowed her to earn a little bit of income while also providing the flexibility she’d needed to take her father to his various doctors’ appointments and therapies. When Ray Armstrong had finished his treatments, she’d been able to increase her hours and now she was working full-time. Since the doctors had officially declared her dad to be in remission, he’d been pressuring his daughter to return to school and complete her degree. In the spirit of compromise, she’d been taking some online courses and was now only a few courses shy of completion, but she was still happier baking than studying.
Her friends liked to tease that she would be the perfect wife and homemaker, but she hadn’t yet met a man who agreed with their assessment.
Maybe having her heart stomped on time and time again should have taught her to be wary, but there wasn’t anything she wanted more than to fall in love, get married, fill her home with babies and her kitchen with the sweet scents of baking, so she was trusting fate to put the right man in her path.
In the meantime, she kept busy filling Daisy’s display case with mouthwatering goodies. Since the morning rush had passed and it was still early for lunch, Eva took advantage of the lull to brew a fresh pot of coffee, then sipped a cup while she took inventory of the goodies that remained. The white chocolate cranberry cookies had sold out, which made her feel pretty good. Her boss had protested that there was no need to expand their offerings beyond the tried-and-true muffins and doughnuts, but Eva had been playing around with some of her grandmother’s recipes, tweaking here and there, and the residents of Rust Creek Falls—most of them creatures of habit—had overcome their reluctance and started to look forward to daily specials.
Today’s pumpkin spice muffins had been gone within the first two hours of the shop’s opening, the sticky buns had sold out shortly after and there were only two eggnog biscotti remaining in the jar on the counter. She pulled an empty tray out of the case—the cheesecake-stuffed snickerdoodles had also been decimated by the morning crowd—replaced the liner and set out neatly decorated gingerbread boy and girl cookies.
She glanced up when the bell over the door chimed, and her heart immediately skipped a beat.
He was back.
The handsome cowboy with the sexy voice and troubled eyes.
She’d hoped to see him again, but she hadn’t expected that her wish would come true so quickly.
“You’re back,” she said, because her brain couldn’t seem to focus on anything else.
He seemed surprised that she’d remembered him from earlier—or maybe he thought he should remember her from years ago—but he only said, “I’m hungry.”
“Then you’ve come to the right place.” She smiled, wanting him to feel welcome, and wishing she could ease the tension that was evident in the line of his jaw and the set of his shoulders. “Breakfast or lunch hungry?”
“Huh?” He looked at her blankly.
She didn’t know where he’d gone after he’d left the doughnut shop earlier, but it was apparent that his mind wasn’t occupying the same physical space as his body.
“Are you hungry for breakfast or lunch?” she asked again.
“I don’t even know what time it is,” he admitted, glancing at the watch on his wrist.
“It’s definitely time to get you some food,” she decided. “How does a roast beef sandwich with steak-cut fries sound?”
“Delicious.”
She smiled again as she filled a mug with coffee and set it on the counter, then gestured to the chair. “Sit.”
He sat, then lifted his eyes to meet her gaze. “Are you always this bossy?”
She winked at him. “Only when the occasion warrants.”
She left him with his coffee while she slipped into the kitchen to get his food, pausing first to pull out her lip gloss and quickly swipe the wand over her lips.
“He’s back,” she told Tracie, tucking the tube into her pocket again.
“Who’s back?” the cook asked.
“Luke Stockton.”
“That’s old news,” Tracie said, continuing to chop cabbage for the coleslaw she was making. “Half the town saw him in here this morning.”
“I don’t mean he’s back in town,” Eva told her, piling thinly sliced beef onto bread to make his sandwich. “I mean he’s back here. Sitting at the counter.”
“Is that why you’re loading up that plate?”
“He said he’s hungry.”
The cook chuckled. “And the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach,” she agreed.
Eva felt her cheeks flush. “I’m not interested in his heart.”
“Just his body?” Tracie teased. “Can’t blame you for that—the man is spectacularly well built.”
Eva’s cheeks burned hotter. He certainly was that, but that wasn’t why she wanted to feed him. Or not entirely.
“He looks a little...lost,” she said, adding fries to the plate.
“He hasn’t been home to Rust Creek Falls in twelve years,” the cook reminded her. “He’s probably feeling a little lost.”
Twelve years.
Eva couldn’t imagine being apart from her family and friends for more than a decade. Even the few months that had passed between visits when she was in college had seemed like an eternity. “I wonder why he stayed away for so long.”
“There was a lot of speculation about that,” Tracie mused. “But if you want the truth, you’d better ask the man himself.”
“I just might do that,” she decided.
“Wait,” the cook said when she started out of the kitchen.
Eva held back a smile as the other woman added a couple of sprigs of parsley to the plate.
“Presentation matters,” Tracie reminded her. “You know it, or you wouldn’t have retouched the gloss on your lips.”
Unable to deny that she had done just that, Eva silently took the plate and returned to the counter.
“Thanks,” Luke said when she set the meal in front of him.
“Enjoy,” she said, and busied herself tidying up the arrangement of mugs as he picked up his fork.
She was glad that he was early for lunch, so that he was the only customer in the doughnut shop and she was able to focus exclusively on him. Although she suspected that even if she’d had a line all the way to the door, she would have found her attention solely on the handsome stranger.
“Do you want to talk about it?” she asked when he’d polished off the sandwich.
He looked up, obviously surprised by the question, but immediately shook his head.
She gave him another minute before she asked, “Where did you go when you left here this morning?”
He dipped a fry into the ketchup he’d squirted on his plate. “To see my sister.”
“I can only imagine how excited Bella must have been when you showed up.”
Thick brows drew together over his dark blue eyes. “How’d you know Bella is my sister?” he asked warily.
“I heard Ben Dalton call you Luke,” she confided.
“It’s quite a jump from my first name to my family connections,” he pointed out.
She shrugged. “When someone returns to town after a dozen years, people are bound to talk.”
“No doubt,” he admitted, his tone grim.
“All good stuff,” she told him.
He lifted his mug, swallowed a mouthful of coffee. “It seems that you have me at a disadvantage.”
“How so?”
“You obviously know my name—and apparently a lot more—but I don’t know yours.”
She touched a hand to the bib of her apron. “Oh. I forgot my name tag today,” she realized. “Eva Rose Armstrong.”
He set down his mug and proffered his hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Eva Rose Armstrong.”
She felt a tingle through her veins as her palm slid against his. His hand was wide and strong, with calluses that attested to a familiarity with manual labor. It was a man’s hand, and every womanly part of her responded to the contact.
“Eva,” she said. “My friends call me Eva.”
“Are we going to be friends, Eva?” he asked, releasing her hand.
“I think so,” she said, not daring to admit that she already hoped friends was only the beginning of what they would be to one another.
“I could probably use a friend,” he admitted, dredging another fry through ketchup. “I don’t think I have any left in this town.”
“You haven’t stayed in touch with anyone here?”
He shook his head and shoved the fry into his mouth.
“I have to admit that piques my curiosity,” she told him.
“You know what they say about curiosity.”
She ignored the warning. “Twelve years is a long time to stay away from your family.”
“I was working.”
The abrupt response and clipped tone cautioned her to back off, but she pressed on anyway. “You didn’t get any time off?”
“Ranching is a full-time job.”
She nodded an acknowledgment of the fact. Though her parents both worked in education, no one who lived in Rust Creek Falls was oblivious to the arduous demands of working the land. “No time to make a phone call?”
“How do you know I didn’t?” he challenged.
“Did you?”
He pushed his now-empty plate aside. “No.”
“Well, you’re here now,” she said. “That’s a start.”
“Maybe,” he allowed, lifting his mug again, only to discover it was empty.
“More coffee?” Eva offered, wanting to give him an excuse to linger at the counter awhile longer.
Although the lunch crowd would soon fill up the tables, she didn’t want to watch Luke Stockton walk out the door because she didn’t know when—or even if—she would see him again. And maybe it was unreasonable and irrational, but she couldn’t help feeling that the man sitting in front of her was going to change her life—but only if she could get him to stick around long enough to do so.
“No, thanks,” he said. “Just the check.”
“How about dessert?” she offered as an alternative. “I made the pies fresh this morning, and the coconut cream is a favorite of many customers.”
“Actually, I’m more of an apple pie kind of guy.”
“We have apple, too.”
He rubbed a hand over his flat belly and shook his head. “That sandwich was more than enough to fill the hole in my stomach.”
She reluctantly wrote up his check and slid it across the counter.
His fingers brushed hers as he reached for the slip of paper, sending little sparks dancing up her arm and making her wonder how she would respond if he ever really touched her.
Unfortunately, he seemed completely unaffected by the brief contact.
“Thanks,” he said. “For the meal and the company.”
“My pleasure,” she told him.
He retrieved his wallet from the inside pocket of his sheepskin-lined leather jacket, then selected some bills and tucked them under the check before he slid off the stool and rose to his feet.
Her heart sighed as her gaze skimmed over him again. She guessed that he was at least four inches taller than her own five-foot-eight-inch frame, with broad shoulders that tapered to a narrow waist and long legs encased in well-worn denim.
She wanted to tell him that everything was going to be okay, that whatever had caused him to stay away for so long was water under the bridge, that his siblings were all going to welcome him back—because Rust Creek Falls was where he belonged. And she wanted to tell him that she was glad he was home—because she’d been waiting for him her whole life.
But mindful of the brevity of their acquaintance, she wisely kept those thoughts to herself.
Instead, she reached for his check again and impulsively scribbled her cell number on the back of it. “In case you ever need pie...or doughnuts...or...anything.”
* * *
Luke looked at the hastily scrawled digits, then at Eva.
Pie...or doughnuts...or...anything.
Anything?
Was she hitting on him?
As if she could somehow read the thoughts that circled in his mind, her cheeks flushed, the pink color adding a natural blush to her creamy skin.
Eva Rose Armstrong really was a beautiful woman and maybe, under different circumstances, he might consider what she was offering. Hell, there was no might about it. If he’d come to town for any reason other than to reconnect with the family he hadn’t seen in a dozen years, he would already have asked when her shift ended and made plans to meet her later.
But he was in town to reconnect with his family and he had no time—and even less inclination—for anything else. He’d proven adept enough at messing up his own life; he wasn’t going to mess with a pretty young thing who wasn’t smart enough to be wary of strangers.
But she’d been kind to him, so he carefully folded the check in half, then tucked it into the inside pocket of his jacket with his wallet. “See ya.”
“I hope so,” she replied, her lips curving into another sweet smile before he turned away and headed to the exit.
Because that sweet smile seemed to promise all kinds of things that he wasn’t sure she meant—and that he couldn’t accept even if she did.
Still, as he turned his truck toward Bella and Hudson’s house, it was Eva’s pretty eyes and warm smile that lingered in his mind.
* * *
Luke’s first impression of Bella and Hudson’s home was that it looked like a million dollars. Of course, his sister’s husband was a multimillionaire so it was entirely possible the house they’d purchased from Clive Bickler was worth that much—or more. It was certainly a lot bigger and grander than the home the seven Stockton siblings had shared with their parents, and the newlyweds lived there alone.
He unlocked the door with the spare key, then punched in the code that Bella had given him to disarm the alarm system. A man with Hudson Jones’s wealth would want to protect what was his, and Luke appreciated that the protection extended to his sister.
Curious about the house and whatever insights it might give to the couple who lived there, Luke decided to wander around. The home was constructed with high-end materials and included all the latest conveniences, but it wasn’t ostentatious. As he made his way from room to room, he couldn’t deny that it had a warm and homey feel, and he was pleased to know that his sister had been lucky enough to fall in love with a man who could provide her with all the love and luxuries she deserved.
When he stepped into the family room, his gaze was immediately drawn to the river-rock fireplace and the assortment of photos displayed on the mantel. He crossed the glossy hardwood floor for a closer look. The first picture that caught his eye was of his youngest brother, Jamie, standing next to a woman he thought he recognized as Fallon O’Reilly, with three adorable toddlers at their feet. The next frame contained a wedding photo, and the groom looked enough like Hudson that Luke guessed the man was his brother, but the bride looked vaguely familiar to him, too. Beside that picture was one of Danny, cheek-to-cheek with his high school sweetheart, Annie; beside it was a photo of Dana, all grown-up and proud at her high school graduation.
The smile that tugged at his own lips faded when his gaze shifted to the next photo—an older picture of all the Stockton siblings together with their parents, Rob and Lauren. A reflection of the happy family they’d once been. Before he ruined everything.
Suddenly Luke couldn’t bear the thought of facing his sisters and brothers again. He couldn’t face the condemnation he was certain he would see in their eyes when they learned the truth about the events of twelve years ago. It would be better for him—for everyone—if he went back to Cheyenne and forgot any ideas about a happy reunion that could never happen.
He retraced his steps to the door, eager to escape the house, the whole town and especially the memories and regrets that assailed him. He yanked his coat off the hanger and was reaching for the door when the sound of the bell stopped him in his tracks.
What was he supposed to do now?
He felt weird answering the door at a house he was only visiting, so he peeked out the window instead.
Almost eight years had passed since he’d last seen his second youngest brother, and his heart gave a hard kick against his ribs when he recognized him on the doorstep now.
He opened the door. “Danny.”
“I almost didn’t believe Bella when she called to tell me that you were in town,” his brother said.
“So you stopped by to see for yourself?”
“Nah, I stopped by because Bella was afraid you might have been spooked by her emotional outburst and decide to take off again before she got home.” He looked pointedly at the jacket in Luke’s hand. “Was she right?”
“I guess I can’t blame her for thinking I’d run...again,” he admitted, sliding his jacket back onto the hanger. “There are a lot of memories in this town.”
“More good than bad,” Danny said.
“The bad are more powerful,” he argued.
“Maybe more recent,” his brother acknowledged. “Because you’ve been away for so long.”
Danny stepped across the threshold and pulled him in for a man hug. “It’s good to see you, Luke.”
Luke slapped him on the back as he attempted to swallow the lump in his throat. “You, too, Danny.”
His brother cleared his own as he stepped away and moved down the hall toward the kitchen, obviously familiar with the layout of their sister’s house. “Bella also said that there were snacks and drinks in the fridge, and to make sure that you didn’t go hungry.”
“No worries there,” Luke said. “I grabbed a bite at Daisy’s before I came here.”
“Well, I could use some coffee,” Danny announced. “You want a cup?”
“Sure.” Luke warily eyed the programmable machine that could brew individual cups or full carafes. “If you can figure out how to use that thing.”
“It’s not as complicated as it looks. The harder task might be finding the coffee.”
But it turned out that Bella kept the coffee pods conveniently located in the cupboard directly above the coffee maker. When the coffee was brewed, they took their mugs to the table where Danny told his brother about his reunion with Annie and finally meeting Janie—his daughter.
“And the surprises keep coming,” Luke murmured.
“How do you think I felt?” Danny asked. “When I first discovered that Annie had a child, I assumed her husband—ex-husband now—was the father.”
“A reasonable assumption,” he agreed.
“When we left... I never even considered the possibility that Annie could be pregnant,” Danny admitted.
“You were eighteen,” Luke reminded him. “Most guys that age are only thinking about sex—not the potential repercussions of it.”
“And then I ran away, and I missed the first eleven years of my daughter’s life.”
Luke stared into his mug. “You didn’t run away,” he denied. “I ran away—and you and Bailey came with me.” And the fact that Danny had missed those eleven years with his daughter was one more thing Luke was responsible for. One more wrong he could never make right.
“But now you’re home,” Danny said, sounding genuinely pleased. As if he’d already forgiven Luke for everything he’d done.
But Danny didn’t know the half of it.
Chapter Three (#u77eabab8-e960-508d-aff2-140c49d477e7)
“This isn’t my home,” Luke said, regretting that it was true. “Not anymore.”
“Then why are you here?”
He lifted his cup to his lips as he considered his brother’s question. It was the same question he’d asked himself countless times since he’d tossed his duffel bag into his truck and turned it in the direction of Rust Creek Falls.
He still wasn’t sure he knew the answer, so he responded with a simple if incomplete truth. “I got a call from Hudson’s PI.”
“Good to know the guy’s finally earned some of the big bucks our brother-in-law is paying him.”
“It looks like Hudson has a few bucks to spare,” Luke noted, turning his head to encompass the whole room.
“That he does,” Danny agreed. “Although it was actually Jamie’s wife who started the search last year. Fallon tracked down Dana in Oregon, but she hit a lot of dead ends after that and Hudson offered to take the lead.”
It was obvious to both of them that Bella’s husband had a lot more resources to throw at the task—and more success as a result.
“Over the years, I’d given a lot of thought to reaching out to our siblings, but I’m not sure I ever would have found the courage to come back if Bradford hadn’t made contact.”
“We’ve all been carrying a lot of baggage for a lot of years,” Danny noted. “Maybe it’s time to let it go and make a fresh start.”
It sounded like a good idea to Luke, but he wasn’t sure it was possible. “Was it that easy for you?” he asked.
“It wasn’t easy at all,” his brother said. “But it was necessary.”
Luke swallowed another mouthful of coffee.
“So how long are you planning to stay?” Danny asked.
“I haven’t thought that far ahead,” he admitted.
“There’s no specific date that you’re expected back in Wyoming?”
He shook his head. “My boss told me to take as much time as I needed.”
“Then you can stay for my wedding.”
He recalled Bella mentioning plans for a Christmas Eve wedding. “December 24 is still two-and-a-half weeks away.”
“Two-and-a-half weeks isn’t a lot of time after so many years,” his brother pointed out.
But if he was there for Danny’s Christmas Eve wedding, Luke suspected that Bella would insist he stay for Christmas and he wasn’t accustomed to celebrating the holidays. In fact, he hadn’t celebrated anything in a very long time.
Sensing his hesitation, Danny said, “It would mean a lot to me to have you there.”
“Bella and Hudson might not want me hanging around that long,” he warned.
“In this house, Bella and Hudson won’t even know you’re here,” Danny said.
“I’ll think about it,” he decided.
“Or maybe there’s another reason you don’t want to stay,” his brother allowed. “Maybe it’s not just cattle and chores waiting for you back in Wyoming.”
Luke looked at him blankly.
“Maybe there’s a special lady anxiously awaiting your return?” Danny suggested.
He immediately shook his head. “No, there’s no one in Wyoming.”
But as soon as the words were out of his mouth, an image of the pretty blonde from the doughnut shop popped into his mind. Eva. As pretty and sweet and tempting as the biblical figure for which she was named.
“No one in Wyoming,” Danny echoed curiously. “Does that mean there’s someone waiting for you somewhere else?”
Luke shook his head again, attempting to shake the image loose. “No,” he denied. “There’s no one at all.”
“That’s too bad.”
“I like being on my own, with no one to depend on me but me.”
“And no one to rely on but you, too,” Danny pointed out as he pushed away from the table and went to the refrigerator.
“It works for me,” he insisted.
“I thought it worked for me, too, but I was only kidding myself.” He pulled out the tray of snacks Bella had prepared and set it in the middle of the table. “I missed a lot of years with Annie and Janie, but I’m determined to make up for that now.”
“I’m still trying to get my head around the fact that you’re a father—to an eleven-year-old.”
“It’s been an adjustment for everyone,” Danny admitted. “And as much as I want to hate Hank—Annie’s ex—because he got to be there when Janie was born, to hold her as a baby, soothe her when she was crying, witness her first steps and take her to school on her first day, I can’t. The truth is, I’m grateful that he was there for them, because I wasn’t.”
“You didn’t know,” Luke reminded him.
His brother nodded, though he didn’t seem reassured by the fact. “Anyway, I can’t wait for you to meet her,” he said, the pride in his voice unmistakable. “She’s smart and funny and absolutely beautiful.”
“She must look like her mom, then,” Luke teased.
“That she does,” Danny agreed. “But the shape of her eyes and the stubborn tilt of her chin are just like our mom.”
Luke reached for a cube of cheese.
“Mom and Dad’s first grandchild.”
His brother nodded. “When I found out that Janie was my daughter, when I got over the shock, I couldn’t help but think of Mom and Dad—how they would have responded to the news that they were grandparents.”
“They would have been thrilled,” he said and popped the cheese into his mouth.
“Yeah,” Danny said. “But only after Dad kicked my ass into next week for getting Annie pregnant.”
“He would have done exactly that,” Bella said from the doorway.
Both Luke and Danny turned. “We didn’t hear you come in.”
“You were preoccupied with your journey down memory lane—without me,” she said, sounding just a little piqued.
“It’s a long road,” Danny pointed out. “And we only just got started.”
“I don’t really mind.” She settled into the empty chair between them. “I’m just so glad that you’re both finally home again.”
Luke felt something inside twist painfully. “Rust Creek Falls isn’t my home, Bella. Not anymore.”
She tipped her chin up and met his gaze squarely. “Of course it is,” she insisted. “And after you’ve spent some time here, you’ll realize it’s true.”
“Bella.” He touched a hand to her arm, hoping the contact might ease the harshness of the truth she needed to hear. “I’ve been living in Wyoming for twelve years—that’s my home now.”
“But you’ve never stayed in any one place for more than two years,” she pointed out.
He frowned. “How do you know that?”
“It’s one of the reasons it took Hudson’s PI so long to track you down. The other reason—” she pinned him with a look “—is that Luke Stockton somehow became Lee Stanton.”
He picked up a cherry tomato and popped it into his mouth, but his sister wasn’t letting him off the hook.
“Why?” she demanded.
Before he could respond, Danny’s cell phone buzzed. “That’s my cue to run,” he said. “Annie went to Kalispell this afternoon for a dress fitting, so I have to pick Janie up from her study group at school.”
Luke pushed away from the table and stood up, offering his hand to his brother. Danny shook his hand, then pulled him in for another hug.
“Stop by anytime,” he urged his brother. “I know Annie will be happy to see you, and I’m eager for you to meet my daughter.”
“I will,” Luke promised.
Then Danny gave Bella a quick hug, too, before he disappeared down the hall.
“Now,” Bella said, turning her focus back to Luke, “answer my question.”
“What question was that?” he hedged, selecting a broccoli spear from the plate.
She snatched it out of his hand before he could lift it to his mouth and held it away from him. “Why were you living in Wyoming as Lee Stanton?”
“It wasn’t intentional,” Luke told her. “At least, not at first. The bookkeeper at the ranch we were working put me on the payroll as ‘Stanton’ by mistake and it just seemed like too much effort to try to correct it. When I moved on, I continued to use Stanton so that I could reference my work history under that name. And, in some ways, it was easier to start a new life with a new name.”
“But why did you want a new life?” she pressed. “Why did you leave?”
He heard the confusion in her question—and the hurt. “It wasn’t an easy decision to make,” he admitted, wanting to explain the past and soothe his sister. “But what choice did we have? The ranch was going to be taken by the bank, and the grandparents didn’t have room to take us all in—and no interest in doing so. As Gramps said, we were legal adults and they had no obligation to provide us with food or shelter.”
Bella’s dark brown eyes filled with tears. “I always suspected that they made you leave.”
“They didn’t make us leave, but they didn’t give us any reason to stay, either. And we thought Jamie, you, Liza and Dana would all be together.”
“After they sent Liza and Dana away—” she swiped at a tear that spilled onto her cheek “—there were times I wish they’d sent me and Jamie away, too.”
“Was it really so bad?” Luke asked.
“Probably not. We had a roof over our heads and meals on the table. But there was no affection. There was rarely even any warmth or kindness.”
“I’m so sorry, Bella.”
She shrugged. “It’s water under the bridge now. Or mostly, anyway. Because it turns out that you were wrong about the ranch.”
“What do you mean?”
“Sunshine Farm doesn’t belong to the bank—it belongs to us.”
“To you and Hudson?” he guessed, because it seemed a reasonable assumption. Bella’s husband obviously had a ton of money, and it was just as obvious he would spend it all to make his wife happy. If the property had been for sale, Luke could imagine Hudson buying it for her without blinking an eye.
But she shook her head. “To you, Bailey, Danny, Jamie, me, Liza and Dana.”
He stared at her, uncomprehending. “But...how?”
“When Dad remortgaged the property to fix the barn and buy the new equipment, he also bought mortgage insurance.”
Luke was stunned. Even at twenty-one, he’d had a pretty good picture of the tight financial situation at Sunshine Farm. He’d heard his parents talking about it in hushed and worried tones when they thought their children were asleep. He’d recognized the strain in his father’s voice, seen it in the lines that furrowed his mother’s brow. He’d listened to them argue about the purchase of secondhand equipment that they couldn’t afford but desperately needed to keep the ranch operating, and he knew that they’d had to remortgage the property. He hadn’t known they’d also arranged for insurance on that mortgage.
He and Bailey and Danny had left because they hadn’t believed that there was any other option. For the past twelve years, they’d worked for other people when they could have been working at Sunshine Farm. Or maybe it was naive to think that they might have been able to keep the ranch going—a difficult enough task when Rob Stockton had been around to oversee the operation. More likely, Luke and his brothers would have run the ranch into the ground and been forced to sell anyway.
“We just discovered that the property had been transferred into all of our names, pursuant to the terms of Mom and Dad’s will, a few months ago when Zach Dalton approached Jamie to see if we were interested in selling,” Bella explained.
“Are you going to sell?” he asked.
“That’s a decision we have to make together,” she said. “All of us.”
“I guess that explains why you’re so eager for a family reunion,” he noted.
“We only found out about the property a few months ago,” she said again. “We’ve been looking for you a lot longer than that.” She smiled again. “And now you’re finally here.”
“Are you sure Hudson doesn’t mind me crashing here? Because I can call Melba Strickland to—”
“No,” Bella interjected firmly. “Hudson doesn’t mind, and no, you’re not staying at Strickland’s Boarding House when you’ve got family here.”
He turned his hand over and linked his fingers with hers. “I missed you,” he confessed, his voice quiet. “All of you.”
“Then why didn’t you ever come home?”
He could understand her confusion. She had no way of knowing that his leaving had been prompted not just by grief over the loss of their parents but by guilt—because he was responsible for their being out on the road that night. In addition to all the other factors, that truth was what had compelled him to leave Rust Creek Falls—a futile effort to escape the daily reminders of the mistakes he’d made.
He owed Bella the truth. After all this time, she deserved to know the real reason he went away. But she seemed so happy to see him, and it felt so good to be welcome. The happy light in her eyes warmed the deepest, darkest places in his soul, and Luke didn’t want to dim that light.
Not yet.
“You know what? It doesn’t matter,” she decided when he remained silent. “It only matters that you’re here now. And—fingers crossed—Bailey and Liza will soon be, too.”
“I don’t know if this helps at all, but the last time I saw Bailey, he was heading to New Mexico with his fiancée,” Luke said.
“Then Hudson’s PI will be heading to New Mexico next,” she decided.
“What’s in New Mexico?” her husband asked, walking in with a couple of flat boxes in hand.
“Not what but who,” Bella said, lifting her face for his kiss. “And, fingers crossed, the who is Bailey.”
“New Mexico is a pretty big state,” Hudson noted, glancing at Luke. “Any chance you can help narrow down the search?”
Luke shook his head. “Sorry. At the time, I was so baffled by his decision that I didn’t ask many questions.”
“No worries,” Hudson said. “If he’s still there, Bradford will find him.”
He set the boxes on the table.
Luke sniffed. “Is that...pizza?”
“And wings,” Bella told him.
“There’s a pizza and wings place in Rust Creek Falls?”
“Wings To Go recently expanded their menu to include pizza.” She pushed away from the table and moved to the cupboard to retrieve plates.
“And Daisy’s Donut Shop is more than doughnuts now, too,” he noted.
“You’ve been to Daisy’s?” She grabbed a handful of napkins and set them on top of the plates.
“Twice,” he admitted. “For coffee on my way to the day care this morning, then for lunch afterward.”
“Did you have dessert?”
He shook his head. “The huge roast beef sandwich and mountain of fries filled me up.”
“You should have had dessert,” Bella said, setting the plates and napkins on the table.
“The woman behind the counter did say that the coconut cream pie was popular,” he told her.
“All of the pies, cakes, cookies and pastries are popular,” his sister said. “Especially if Eva did the baking.”
“Eva?” he echoed, surprised. “The waitress?”
“She sometimes serves customers,” Bella confirmed. “But she does most of the baking at Daisy’s. I don’t know if she has any formal training, but no one who’s tasted any of her creations would question her qualifications as a baker.”
“Now I’m sorry I skipped the pie.”
“But you got to meet Eva,” she noted.
“I guess I did,” he agreed.
“She’s very pretty, don’t you think?”
“I think you need to work on your subtlety,” Hudson said to his wife, opening the lid of the pizza box.
“I wasn’t trying to be subtle. I was trying to ensure Luke appreciates everything that Rust Creek Falls has to offer.”
“I’m not looking for any kind of romantic entanglements while I’m in town,” Luke said firmly.
Hudson grinned. “That’s what I thought, too, when I first came to Rust Creek Falls.”
Chapter Four (#u77eabab8-e960-508d-aff2-140c49d477e7)
Eva had just hung up her apron when the bell above the door jingled. She glanced at Karen, a single mother who worked part-time at the doughnut shop while her kids were in school. “I have to take off,” she told her coworker. “I’ve got my final exam tonight and I want to review my notes.”
“Yeah, I just need a sec,” Karen said, not looking up from her phone as her thumbs tapped the keypad. “Sally’s at my mom’s today, home from school with a fever.”
Eva looked longingly toward the promised escape of the back door but, unable to fault the woman’s concern for her child, she returned to the front counter.
Her forced smile widened naturally and her heart gave a happy bump inside her chest when it recognized the customer: Luke Stockton.
“Are you here for food or just coffee today?”
“Coffee,” he said. “And... I was hoping to see you.”
Her heart bumped against her ribs again. “You wanted to see me?”
“Hudson and Bella are both at work today, leaving me alone with my thoughts for the past few hours, and they’re really not the best company.”
“What were you thinking about?” she asked, filling a ceramic mug from the pot.
“Everything. And nothing.” He picked up the mug she set on the counter. “Any chance you can take a break and have a cup of coffee with me?”
“Since I just finished my shift, there’s a very good chance,” she told him, reaching for a second mug.
Luke carried their beverages to a booth near the window.
Eva slid into the seat across from him. “Do you want to talk about the everything or the nothing?”
He smiled, just a little. “The one very big thing.”
“Which is?” she prompted.
“My sister—and my brother, Danny—have asked me to stay in town until his wedding,” he confided.
Eva knew—because there were very few secrets in Rust Creek Falls and because the bride had asked her to make the wedding cake—that Danny Stockton and Annie Lattimore were getting married on December 24. “It makes sense that he’d want his family to share the occasion,” she noted.
“But Christmas Eve is still three weeks away.”
“And you have to be back in Wyoming before then?” she guessed.
He shook his head. “No. For the past couple of years, I’ve been working on a huge spread outside Cheyenne—there are plenty of hands to cover the work, especially this time of year.”
“So you could stay...but you don’t want to?” she asked, seeking clarification.
“I’m not sure what I want,” he admitted. “Bella and Hudson have gone out of their way to make me feel welcome, but it still feels strange to be back after so many years. And I haven’t even seen my brother Jamie yet.”
Eva remained silent. Though she had a thousand questions she wanted to ask, it was obvious that he needed someone to listen—and not judge.
“He was only fifteen when I left,” Luke continued. “Now he’s married—for the second time—and the father of three toddlers.”
“Henry, Jared and Katie.” She opened a packet of sugar and dumped it into her cup, stirred. “They’re adorable.”
“I guess I’ll see for myself this weekend. The invitation to their house came to me through Bella, from Jamie’s wife. I’m not even sure if my brother knows that I’ve been invited.”

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