High-Calibre Christmas

Not that small. “Are you here alone?” he asked, glancing down the same aisle she had been looking down even though he suspected he was the person she’d been looking for.

“Yes. That is, I’m in town visiting some friends.” She seemed flustered.

“Oh, who are you visiting? I know most everyone around here,” he said. It wasn’t quite true. He’d been gone so long that he hadn’t recognized anyone since he’d been in town. Except for Kayley. And McCall.

“My friends aren’t from Whitehorse,” she said. “They’re just passing through, so I decided to meet them up here. They love dinosaurs, and with the Leonardo museum nearby … We’re all staying at the same motel. I was just getting a few snacks for later.”

He saw that she had a small basket. In it were crackers and a wedge of cheese. He realized that there might be some truth to her story. It made more sense than what he’d been thinking, that was for sure.

“I personally am not that interested in fossils,” she said, smiling. “I’m sure you’ve been to the museum.”

“Yes.” He’d forgotten how small and delicate she was. A wisp of a woman. Certainly no threat. And certainly no reporter or private investigator. Just a lonely widow with a lot of time on her hands.

“I think you’ll enjoy it,” he said, realizing just how unreliable his instincts were since hearing of his mother’s death—and all the news that followed. “The other museum is just across the parking lot. It has a lot of Montana history. That might be more to your liking.”

“Thank you. I’ll make sure I see it.”

“Well, enjoy your visit,” he said and got back in line. Ava disappeared down the aisle. Once outside, he climbed behind the wheel of the SUV, started the engine and glanced back.

Had he expected to see Ava Carris watching him from inside the store?

She was nowhere in sight.

Shaking off his earlier crazy thoughts about her stalking him, he drove away.

Chapter Four

Ava knew it was just a matter of time before her sister found out she hadn’t flown to Seattle as she’d planned. She’d seen the message this morning when she’d checked her cell phone, but she’d been avoiding calling her sister back.

A mistake. It would only make Evie more determined to know what was going on. The last thing she needed was her sister butting into things. Now, still shaken after running into Jace Dennison, Ava moved to the back of the store and dug out her cell phone, deciding the best way to head off trouble was to call Evie back.

She and Evie were so close they could finish each others’ sentences. She’d always feared that Evie could read her thoughts. That fear was realized when Evie answered on the first ring and demanded, “Who is he?”

“It isn’t always about a man,” she said defensively.

“With you it is. You’re going to make a fool of yourself.”

“No. It isn’t like that.”

“So, what is it like?” her sister asked snidely.

Ava wasn’t sure.

Evie heard her hesitate. “Where are you? I’m coming there.”

“No. I need to be on my own for a while.”

“John wouldn’t want you to be alone.”

She hated it when Evie brought up John. She missed him so much. “I’m not alone. I have to go. Please, just stay away.”

John hadn’t liked it when Evie had shown up shortly after they’d gotten married. She was always there, butting in, causing trouble.

“She’s my sister. What do you want me to do?” Ava used to plead with him.

“I can’t deal with you and your sister.” He would storm off, and she would plead with Evie to give her some space.

But would Evie listen?

“Ava?” Evie had that patient tone that meant she wasn’t going to give up. “Tell me where you are. You know I’ll find you. Why make it more difficult for me and put me in a foul mood when I see you?”

She sighed, knowing it was true. She could never get away from Evie. It had always been that way.

“I’m in Whitehorse, Montana, but I don’t want you to come here.” Evie wouldn’t like what she was doing. “Please, Evie.”

She hung up and remembered the quart of orange juice she’d seen Jace Dennison had in his grocery basket. She could almost taste it as she found the refrigerated aisle and bought herself a quart of juice just like his.

VIRGINIA WINCHESTER HAD always thought that her life would have been so different if her baby had lived.

But in reality she wasn’t all that convinced things would have turned out for the better.

The father of her baby hadn’t jumped at marrying her when she’d told him she was pregnant. She’d been convinced he would, though, once the baby was born and he saw his precious son.

Jordan McCormick never even saw the baby before the son they’d conceived had died. Nor had he attended the funeral.

At the time, Virginia had blamed his mother for keeping him away. Now she wondered if he’d known what his mother had done and that the baby Virginia had buried wasn’t his. Wasn’t it possible he’d known all along that Marie Dennison was raising his child?

That would mean that Joanna McCormick had told her son that she’d paid someone to switch the babies.

Virginia felt a surge of anger and frustration at the thought. Maybe everyone had known but her. Now there was no way of knowing. Jordon had died in a ranching accident not long after that, and his mother was in prison, not talking after a plea bargain that got her life instead of the death sentence.

Jordan, Virginia now realized, would have never married her. His mother wouldn’t have allowed it—just as her own mother had told her.

And even if he’d gotten up the gumption to stand up to his mother and do right by Virginia, she knew Joanna would never have allowed her son to stay on the ranch, let alone live there with Virginia and the baby.

Just as Virginia’s own mother would never have allowed her and Jordan on the Winchester ranch. Joanna McCormick and Pepper Winchester hated each other. Virginia knew only what she’d heard through the county grapevine, but apparently her mother had been in love with Joanna’s husband, Hunt McCormick.

Nothing had come of it, but still all that bad blood had spilled over onto their children.

Jordan had never been strong enough to stand up to his mother. Virginia wasn’t any better with her own mother. So what would have happened to her and her son?

Any way she looked at it, Virginia knew she would have ended up raising their son alone. She had barely been able to take care of herself when her mother had thrown all of them off the ranch three years later.

She had seen how her brothers had struggled without money or a place to live after growing up being taken care of on the Winchester ranch. They’d been forced to get jobs just as Virginia had. At least she hadn’t had a baby to support and care for, as well.

Her mother had asked her why she’d come back here. It wasn’t out of love for her mother. She hadn’t known why she’d come back.

Pepper was convinced it was for the Winchester money, but then her mother always thought the worst of her children. Except for her youngest son, Trace.