Lilac Wedding in Dry Creek

Lilac Wedding in Dry Creek
Janet Tronstad

A MOTHER’S SECRETWhen she ran away from the juvenile home she was raised in, Cat Barker left more than an unstable childhood behind. She also left her first love, Jake Stone. The two had more in common than anyone understood, but neither knew how to trust.Now Cat needs help, and there’s only one person she can turn to—Jake, her daughter’s secret father. Though Cat can see the tender man she once cared for, she still fears love and marriage. Until a daunting challenge renews her faith—and teaches them all a lesson about trust.Return to Dry Creek: A small Montana town with a heart as big as heaven.

“Maybe you should move closer to me,” Jake said quietly.

At those words, Cat’s world flipped over. At first she thought he wasn’t going to meet her eyes, but then he looked at her squarely and she saw the tumult of emotions in them. For a wild moment, she wondered if maybe she and Jake had a chance to go back in time and be together again.

“I wouldn’t try to push myself into your lives. I promise,” he said after a moment. “I just—well, if you were closer I wouldn’t worry about the two of you so much.”

“Oh.” Cat felt all of her wild imaginings fall back to earth with a thud. She had somehow forgotten how responsible Jake felt for everything and everyone. Of course, he would want to do his duty by her and Lara. She just knew that love was a far cry from duty, and she had searched for love her whole life.

She needed to remember she had come here for Lara. Her own feelings didn’t matter.

She looked down at her daughter. Cat needed to be strong for her.

Dear Reader,

It’s spring again and, if you’re like me, that signals a time for new hope. Something stirs in each of us when we see new green shoots of grass or plants come to life after a hard winter. On the family farm where I grew up in Montana, my mother had lilac bushes and, if my sisters and I left our bedroom window open at night, we went to sleep with the fragrance of the bushes all around us. Maybe that’s why spring, in my mind, always smells like lilacs.

I’m sure you have similar memories and I hope this book will remind you that new beginnings are still possible—whether it’s in a relationship or some other place that is broken in your life. Remember all things are possible with God’s help.

If you have a minute, I’d love to hear from you. Just contact me through my website at www.janettronstad.com. In the meantime, God bless you and keep you.

Sincerely,

Lilac Wedding

in Dry Creek

Janet Tronstad

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

If thou canst believe,

all things are possible to him that believeth.

—Mark 9:23

This book is dedicated to my friend, David White,

with love and affection.

Chapter One

Distant thunder rumbled as Jake Stone lifted his duffel bag onto his shoulder, closed his door and started walking down the hall toward the lobby of the Starling Hotel. It was a rainy day in March and he didn’t look forward to the long drive north to Dry Creek, Montana—especially because once he got there his older brother would start pressing him even harder to move back to the ranch, settle down and get married.

Jake refused to marry some poor woman just to stop his brother from nagging him to death. The Stone boys had bad history when it came to family life, even if his brother chose to ignore it. As for moving back to Dry Creek, Jake had decided years ago that this nondescript hotel near the Las Vegas airport was home enough for him.

He entered the lobby and glanced over to where the owner of the place stood behind the counter.

“Well, don’t you look fine?” Gray stubble showed on Max Holden’s weathered face, but his eyes were lively as he looked up. “Going home to Dry Creek for your brother’s wedding is doing you good already.”

Jake stopped and ran a finger around the collar of his new white shirt so he could breathe easier.

“Got some stamps?” He finished walking over to the counter, dropped his duffel bag to the floor and reached into the back pocket of his jeans, pulling out an envelope and handing it to the other man.

Jake didn’t like to talk about the wedding. His brother was wrong if he thought getting married would change who he was in the eyes of their small hometown. Not that Jake blamed anyone for how they felt about the Stone family. Everyone knew about the years of physical abuse out at their ranch. All of the family secrets had been laid bare when his father was murdered and his mother had gone to trial for doing the crime. People naturally had wondered if the sons were more like their father or their mother. Neither answer had been good back then.

Max took the long, white envelope from Jake and weighed it in his hand. “I figure two stamps should do it.” Then he glanced down at the writing on the front. “I hope this Cathy Barker appreciates all the letters you send. Who is she, anyway?”

So much time had passed since Jake heard someone speak the woman’s name that he hadn’t expected the jolt that went through him. Max had never questioned the envelopes before.

Secrets had destroyed Jake’s family as surely as his father’s alcoholism. If his mother had confided in their neighbors, then they might have understood what was happening. And she might not have served a ten-year prison term before anyone realized she was innocent and had only confessed to protect her teenage sons from facing suspicion.

“We used to call her Cat,” Jake began and forced himself to set forth the whole story. “I don’t know how she feels or even if she gets the letters. I put my return address on every one, but she never writes back.”

At that bit of information, Max’s jaw dropped along with the envelope.

“You mean to tell me, all these years you’ve been stuffing those letters with cash—and don’t think I don’t know what’s in there—then asking me to mail them like they were your last will and testament. And you don’t even know whether or not they’re getting through to her.”

Rain continued to pound against the windows as Jake tried to think of an answer that didn’t make him seem like a half wit. Nothing came to mind. It sounded foolish to admit that it eased his worries to send her money.

“You’re sure about sending this?” Max asked as he looked down at the envelope now resting on his counter. “What if you have another dry spell? You might not always be winning at the poker tables like you have been. And, there’s a lot of money in there.”

Jake glanced over his shoulder. The lobby was empty. But, through the main windows, he could see the figure of a woman walking down the street toward the motel, trying to hold a black umbrella open in front of her against the wind. As near as he could tell, it looked as if she was rolling a big suitcase behind her. He had only a few minutes before she got here.

Jake turned back to Max. He’d have to talk fast. “If I keep my expenses like they are now, I have enough money in the bank to last me a hundred and fifteen years. I don’t plan on living nearly that long, and Cat might need something today. She’s a friend from the youth home—you know, the place where they sent me and my youngest brother when they shipped my mother off to prison and my older brother joined the rodeo circuit. No one there will ever give me Cat’s address, but they always promise to forward the letters for me.”

Jake had never strung so many words together in his life and he was starting to regret it.

Max cleared his throat and nodded. “I know how it is. There are guys from Vietnam I’d send my last dollar to if they needed it. You go through something like that with someone, you never forget them.”

Jake nodded. Maybe it wasn’t so bad to bare his soul after all.

Then the door clicked open behind him and the wind blew cold air inside, making the back of his neck shiver. He didn’t turn to see who was there. The anxious frown on Max’s face was enough to scare the woman away without him adding to it. Thinking of Cat always unnerved him.

“Mommy?” The voice of a young girl sounded uncertain behind him.

He’d been mistaken in thinking it was a suitcase beside the woman, Jake realized. He was usually more observant, but the rain on the windows had made it difficult to see. Still, he didn’t turn around. He figured a woman with any sense would be shepherding her little one out of the Starling about now. One good look at the run-down hotel would be all it would take to give a mother with a young child second thoughts about staying there. The place had heart, but the color from the linoleum had faded away to nothing over the years. He should give Max some money to replace the linoleum with carpet. Jake had the money to give and Max had been good to him over the years.

“Can I help you?” Max finally asked as he looked past Jake. He must have expected the woman to be gone by now, too. “Our business is mostly by the month. There’s a nice family motel around the corner and down a block, though. It’s a little more expensive, but they’ve got a small pool. Ask for the spring special and they’ll treat you right.”

“I am looking for 3762 Morgan Street,” the woman said. “I think it must be a house or an apartment. I didn’t see any numbers outside your place and I wondered if you’d know how close I am.”

Jake lost all feeling in his body before she got to the street name. He knew that voice as well as he knew his own.

“You got a package or something?” Max asked, suddenly cautious.