The Rancher's Christmas Match

“How about brushing Shorty for me?” he offered.

She looked at the brush and looked at the sixteen-hand Quarter Horse. She didn’t seem quite as sure of herself as she had when she first peeked up over the stall door.

“So where’s your mom?” he asked as he grabbed a step stool and lifted her to stand on it. She looked unsure, so he guided her hand to brush the horse’s neck.

As she brushed Shorty, Isaac glanced toward the double-door entrance to the stable. No sign of anyone looking for a runaway kid.

“She’s meeting with Mr. West. That’s your dad,” she informed him.

He chuckled and she kept brushing.

“Did you stay in town last night?” he asked. He hated that he was so curious. But there was something about Rebecca Barnes. She was a mix of strength and sweetness, and then there was that slightly wounded and not-so-trusting glint in her eye.

Someone had hurt her. Maybe more than one someone.

He shook off the questions that he considered asking the little girl, who was busy brushing his horse, talking to it as if they were sharing their best-kept secrets.

“Nope.” Allie handed him the brush. “We stayed here.”

“Here?”

She gave him a curious look. “Are you going to be sick again?”

“I wasn’t sick,” he insisted. “And no, I’m not. I’m just surprised. I didn’t know you stayed here.”

“Because you were sleeping,” she said, sounding matter-of-fact. “We had dinner with Jack. He told us Maria made the casserole. It was better than anything my mom can cook. She burns stuff. She says it’s because she’s distracted.”

“She wouldn’t want you telling everyone that she can’t cook,” he warned.

“You’re not everyone. Anyway, we stayed here. In the garage. It’s a nice garage with no cars in it, so I don’t know why it’s called a garage.”

They’d stayed on the ranch. The thought unsettled him.

How much could he or should he ask without seeming too curious? He felt like a sixteen-year-old with a crush on the new girl. That wasn’t happening. No way. No how.

“Hey!” A shout from the front of the stable caught his attention.

“Hey back,” he returned.

Eve, a resident of the ranch, glared at him, then managed to soften her expression as she approached. Smile or no, she didn’t appear to be too happy, and it seemed his pint-size stable hand might be the reason.

“You ran off.” Eve pointed at the girl. “And you didn’t ask permission or tell me where you were going. That really isn’t very nice.”

“Eve,” he warned.

If there was another person on the ranch not naturally kid friendly, it was Eve. She’d come around by degrees as she’d gotten attached to Carson’s children. But she would be the first to admit that she didn’t have a lot of experience with children. She’d been an only child to what she referred to as her “hippy parents.”

He wanted to laugh, because somehow she always got stuck babysitting.

“Do I look like a day-care provider?” she asked him.

“You seemed to do a pretty good job,” Isaac teased. “Except you have a tendency to lose children. That can’t be good.”

“I wanted to see the horses,” Allie explained. “I should have told you, but I thought you’d say no.”

Eve maneuvered her chair around the horse, giving the animal a less-than-trusting glance. Shorty didn’t even twitch.

“What if something had happened?” Eve asked the little girl.

Allie’s shoulders hunkered forward and she sighed. “I didn’t think about that. I just wanted to see the animals. Did you know there’s a llama?”

Eve melted. She could act tough but on the inside she was a marshmallow. “Yeah, I know there’s a llama. Do me a favor—next time ask. And if you’re going to wander, take Maximus. Now we need to head back to the house. Your mom will be finished talking with Jack and she’ll be looking for you.”

“Do we have time to see the llama?” Allie moved close to Eve’s chair and leaned on the armrest.

“I think so. But I don’t do well in the dirt out there, so Isaac will have to take you.” Eve shot him a look.

He glared back, the way he would have done if he’d had a little sister that pestered him. He did have a little sister, a half sister named Daisy. But since they’d never met, he didn’t know if she was a pest.

“I’m kind of busy.”

Eve smirked. “Doing what?”

He glanced down at Allie. “Work.”

“What work would that be?” Eve continued.

“Believe it or not, Eve, ranch work is real work. There are fences to fix, cattle to work, horses we’re training.”

She saluted. “Gotcha, Sarge.”

He held a hand out to the child at his side. “Even a spitting llama is better than a stubborn female.”

As he walked away, Allie’s hand in his, Eve called out, “When you get done, could you take her to the house? I have to get some work done.”

“No problem,” he called back to her.

Allie was silent for a minute. “Isn’t she your friend?”

He glanced down at the blond-haired child. “She is my friend.”

“Did you date and get mad at each other?”

“No, we just like to tease. She knows how to...” He cut off the explanation because a kid wouldn’t understand Eve getting under his skin the way she did. “We just like to give each other a hard time. But no, we haven’t dated. We’re just friends.”

Neither of them dated. It was the code on the ranch. This was a place for healing, for getting lives back in order. Relationships were unnecessary baggage for people dealing with physical and emotional problems they’d brought back from war.

The last thing he needed was to drag a woman into his messed-up life. He remembered all too well what it had been like living on this ranch with Jack, back when he was still fighting the nightmares of Vietnam. He remembered Jack climbing into the bottle and not climbing out for weeks, the ranch crumbling around his ears and livestock begging to be fed.

He wasn’t Jack, but he feared the what-ifs.

What if he became Jack? What if he hurt a woman and children the way Jack had hurt his wife and kids?

Nah, it wasn’t worth that kind of guilt. And fortunately there’d never been a woman who had made him consider getting serious.

* * *

The room Jack West used as an office was on a back corner of the sprawling log home. Massive windows offered a view of the wide-open fields belonging to the ranch. One wall of the room was lined with floor-to-ceiling bookcases. The shelves were filled with books and family pictures, as well as trophies the ranch had won at different rodeo events in the tristate area. Tristate meaning Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri.

Jack had explained it all at the beginning of the meeting. He’d shared personal details that had been uncomfortable to hear. Stories of his wife, his children, his road to recovery and, now, today, trying to forge a relationship with his estranged, adult children.

So far Carson was the only one of the three who had agreed to meet with him. Isaac was not a full brother to Carson and his siblings, Colt and Daisy.

“I’d love to show you the building I have available,” Jack told Rebecca. “I think a salon with the potential to expand to a day spa is a terrific idea. I could see how it would benefit the resort we’re renovating. Now I admit, I’m concerned with your ability to bring in local traffic.”

“I think you might be surprised,” she countered. “Also, we could advertise in nearby communities, like Grove. If people want to get away for the day, go to a top-notch salon, perhaps eat at the tearoom you say is going to be opening in the spring, then why not come to Hope?”

“Why not come to Hope?” He grinned at that. “Good point. We should use that in advertising to local communities.”

She couldn’t help but smile at his approval. Goodness, she had to stop needing this man’s approval and she had to stop basking in his praise. He wasn’t her father. And if he learned about her past, he might not be as easygoing as he appeared.

“Yes, why not come to Hope?” Rebecca repeated.

Jack gave her a long look. “Why did you come to Hope, Rebecca?”

The question took her by surprise. What should she tell him? She had a feeling he would find out her secrets somehow, some way.

“My parents live in Grove. After my aunt passed away last year, I realized Allie and I were adrift in Arizona with no support system. I had friends, but they were busy with their own lives. I decided to move closer to home and I saw your advertisement. My parents...” They wanted nothing to do with her or with Allie. But that didn’t matter. If something happened to Rebecca, her parents would be there for Allie. She had to believe that. After all, she was their only child. Allie their only grandchild.

“Rebecca?”

She shook her head at the question. “I’m sorry, I got lost in thought.”

“If you ever want to talk...” he offered. And then he grinned. “If you ever want to talk, Kylie is a good listener. I give too much advice and have too many opinions. Or at least that’s what the folks hereabouts like to say.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” She glanced out the window, gathering thoughts that continued to go astray.

Thoughts that could get a woman in trouble. Thoughts of a cowboy with steel-gray eyes and a smile that flashed often and with a ton of mischievous charm. He’d disappeared yesterday after Allie’s seizure and she hadn’t seen him since. Not even when several of the ranch residents had gathered for dinner in the big dining room that connected to the kitchen.

No one had mentioned him. No one said anything about checking on him to make sure he was okay. Not that it mattered to her.

Her focus needed to stay on taking care of Allie and providing for them as best she could. She was a single mom with only herself to rely on. And now, strangely, she seemed to have a friend in Jack West. With that in mind, she had to do her best. She had to make a success of this salon.

Another quick glance out the window and the object of her thoughts appeared. And next to him, her daughter. They were standing at the fence, and Allie had climbed the bottom rail to stand next to him, her hand reaching for the white-and-black animal.

Rebecca stood. “I should go get Allie. I didn’t mean to impose on Eve. And now it seems Isaac has taken over babysitting duty.”

She diverted her attention back to Jack, who remained sitting in his deeply cushioned office chair. He, too, had spotted Isaac and Allie, but didn’t look concerned.

“She might have had to get some work done,” he said of Eve, who had been a longtime resident of the ranch. “I’m afraid I hadn’t planned on our meeting taking quite this long. And I apologize to you for that. Why don’t you head on out there and make sure things are okay? Later we’ll drive to town and take a look at the building. I’d like for you to see it in person and then we can compare your design ideas to the actual structure. If you like it, it’s all yours.”

“Thank you, Mr. West.”

“Jack.” He smiled as he corrected her.

“Thank you, Jack.”

A moment later she was cutting across the lawn in the direction of the small enclosure where her daughter remained next to Isaac, her hand reaching for the llama, which seemed less interested in the grass in Allie’s hand and more interested in the man next to her.

The llama must be female. He probably charmed all females, young children, animals. Not Rebecca, of course. She couldn’t be charmed. She had no desire to be charmed. Ever again. Because charming men usually had an agenda and it usually ended with her being hurt.

“Hey,” Rebecca called out. Allie glanced her way. Isaac continued to stare straight ahead. Ignoring her, of course.

The phone in her back pocket buzzed. She wanted to ignore it, but pulled it from her pocket and answered.

“Rebecca Barnes?” The voice wasn’t a familiar one. It had been years, but her first thought was that something had happened to her parents.

“This is she.”

“My name is Jared Owens. I’m a parole officer out of Springfield, Missouri.”

Her heart dropped. This call could go only one way. It would bring back the past. It would bring back the guilt and the pain.

“Okay.” She focused on Allie, who had turned around to watch her. Rebecca waved and smiled, as if the call hadn’t left her cold inside.

“Miss Barnes, Greg Baxter was released from prison one month ago. He’s missed two appointments with me and I have reason to believe he might be in Oklahoma.”

“How did you get my number?” She hadn’t been in contact with Greg in years. Not since he robbed a store, shortly after she’d realized she was pregnant with Allie. She’d been eighteen at the time and Greg had been a mistake. Her attention remained on Allie, who was definitely not a mistake. She was something beautiful from something so ugly and hurtful. Her daughter.

“Your mother gave me your number,” he continued. “Miss Barnes, we have reason to believe that Greg will try to locate you and his daughter.”

“No.” The one word emerged from deep within. “He can’t see her.”

“I understand that. I agree that he should not be in your lives. I want you to understand that there is a warrant out for his arrest. He violated the conditions of his parole and it’s our intention to bring him back to the state of Missouri. This is a courtesy call because I wouldn’t want you to be taken by surprise should he try to contact you.”

“Thank you. I do appreciate that.”

“Miss Barnes, if he does contact you, please phone us. I’ll give you my direct line.”

“I’ll put it in my phone.” She managed to minimize the screen and switch to Contacts. With fingers that felt cold and clumsy she entered the name and number. The call ended. Her world shifted precariously as she considered what it meant to her life, to Allie’s life, that Greg Baxter had been released. She drew in a deep breath and then exhaled. She wouldn’t let him take anything else from her.

Over the years people had told her to have faith, to realize God had a plan. She’d been unable to find faith since the day her dad had told her that Allie’s seizures were a direct result of Rebecca’s sins.

“Mom?” Allie called out, her happy grin faltering.

Rebecca hurried forward, plastering a smile on her face and avoiding eye contact with the man who studied her with a knowing expression.

“We were meeting Mama Llama,” he finally said.

She had to look at him, had to pretend that everything was just fine. Had to prove she wasn’t shaking inside, threatened by the past and the memories.

“Mama Llama doesn’t appear to like you very much,” Rebecca said, pointing to the animal, which had drawn back and bared its teeth at Isaac.

“Yeah, females sometimes take an instant dislike to me. I can’t imagine why.”

“He let me brush his horse,” Allie chimed in. It seemed not all females disliked the cowboy.

“That must have been fun. And where is Eve?”

Allie shot Isaac a worried look and Rebecca pretended not to notice his wink.

“She had to get some work done,” he explained.

Not only had he charmed her daughter, now he was aiding and abetting her. Rebecca pinned him with a look, and like her daughter, he squirmed a little with guilt.

“And she brought Allie to you?”

Allie groaned. “I might have sneaked off while she was on the phone. I saw the horses.”

“Telling the truth,” Isaac said. “Always good for the soul.”

Rebecca held out a hand to her daughter. “We’re going to town for lunch and then we will meet Mr. West at the shop. Isaac, thank you.”

He pushed against the llama as it reached across the fence to nip at his sleeve. The animal came back and grabbed his hat. Allie laughed until tears rolled down her cheeks, and the tension inside Rebecca eased.

Isaac pointed at Rebecca. “Was that a giggle, Ms. Barnes?”

“I’m an adult. I don’t giggle.” Rebecca smiled as he pushed his hat, tooth marks and all, back on his head.

“It most definitely was a giggle. And for that, I’m buying lunch.”

Rebecca tried to object. She seriously wanted to tell him he couldn’t. But before she could respond, Allie had jumped down off the railing, a huge grin on her face, obviously thrilled with the idea.

So she accepted. For Allie’s sake. Nothing else.

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