Sleigh Bells for Dry Creek

Sleigh Bells for Dry Creek
Janet Tronstad

Home In Time For ChristmasRodeo rider Wade Stone never thought he’d step foot in Dry Creek, Montana, again. Not with his family’s harrowing past. But nine years later, he’s back on the Stone ranch and getting stared down by the townspeople. Except by Amy Mitchell, whose heart he broke after one sweet kiss.Wade knows she’s afraid he’ll leave again, but surely there’s no second chance for them. It seems the whole town—and her family—is against them. Until one beautiful Christmas sleigh teaches everyone the true meaning of the holiday.Return to Dry Creek: A small Montana town with a heart as big as heaven.

Wade Stone’s gray Stetson hid part of his face, but she didn’t need to see his eyes to know he had changed.

When Amy had known him, he was gangly and not yet a man. There was nothing boyish about him as he stood before her now. His broad shoulders were squared. He looked powerful and a little wary. His wool jacket was open, a flashy silver belt buckle with a rodeo scene all too visible.

“I’m sorry,” Wade said, his voice low and tense. She turned to look at him. Was he going to apologize? For leaving her? After all this time? Then he continued. “My mother shouldn’t have offered you the job. It’s a lot of work—hard work—and it’s just not for you.”

A shadow of whiskers covered his face, showing he hadn’t shaved this morning. His jaw was tense.

Amy lifted her chin. “I’m stronger than you think.”

He looked at her for a long moment. “You’ll regret it.”

“I don’t think so,” she said, looking him square in the eyes.

Dear Reader,

When I began the story of the Stone family, I knew I wanted to touch on the problems people have when they try to go home. Those difficulties can seem even more pronounced at Christmas than at other times of the year.

I have received emails from enough readers to know that the holidays can be difficult for many of us. That’s why I always urge the readers of my Christmas books to find a church where they can attend services. We are all part of the family of God, and that’s never more real than when we celebrate the birth of Our Lord together.

So have a blessed Christmas this year. Reflect on what He means to all of us.

And, if you have a minute, I would love to hear from you. Just go to my website, www.janettronstad.com, and email me from there.

Sincerely,

Sleigh Bells for Dry Creek

Janet Tronstad

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

And ye shall know the truth,

and the truth shall make you free.

—John 8:32

This book is dedicated to my friends

in the Fort Shaw Bible church, located in

central Montana. They are making the

long journey together, the bumps in the road

and all. I wish them a Merry Christmas.

Chapter One

Wade Stone stopped his pickup at the edge of Dry Creek, Montana, and peered through the icy windshield. The December sky was dark, as much from the storm clouds as from the slowness of the dawn. He turned his headlights off and could still clearly see the small town. A few weathered buildings with chipped paint and sagging porches lined each side of what passed for a street. Most people would travel through Dry Creek and forget all about it by the time they reached the state line.

But not Wade.

Even though he had been gone for nine years, one look at this town reminded him of how much he missed it. He was weary of living out of motels and following the rodeo circuit. At twenty-six years old, he had yet to find a place that measured up to Dry Creek, and he was ready to settle down.

He glanced over at his mother, sitting so still in the passenger side of the seat. It didn’t matter how he felt; he and his family were not welcome here. They couldn’t expect to come back and pretend the past was wiped clean just because his mother had served her jail time. In a place like this, people took murder seriously. They wouldn’t soon forget that she’d killed her husband.

By now, his mother must realize her desire to come back wasn’t going to work. He should have said something earlier, but her request that he drive her to the café had caught him off guard. He’d only returned to the family ranch last night, and he hadn’t thought through some of these things. But now that he had, he’d just turn his pickup around and leave before anyone knew they had even been here.

He was all set to do that when, out of the grayness of the dawn, a sudden flurry of hail came quick and hard. The tiny hailstones hit his windshield in a fast rhythm and, just when he became worried they’d actually do some damage, the storm stopped. Everything seemed strangely peaceful for a moment, and then a shaft of light came streaming right through the dark clouds.

Wade heard an indrawn breath and looked over at his mother again.

“That’s God’s message to me—that light in the darkness,” she said, turning to him with relief shining on her face. “I was right to come back. It’s a sign from Him.”

Wade held his tongue. He didn’t begrudge his mother the faith she’d found in prison. After all, he knew people did what they had to do to survive in those kinds of places. He’d done some foolish things himself after her trial ended and he left the family ranch. He was seventeen and thought himself a man, but he bought his first packet of spearmint chewing gum just because the smell reminded him of that kiss he’d stolen from Amy Mitchell down the street from here. Sweet, golden-haired Amy. He’d never forget her.

Just having the gum had given him comfort in those early days when he had been sleeping in his pickup and trying to find his place in the rodeo world. The smell made him dream of a better life, even if he knew he’d never live it. He supposed it was like that for his mother and her newfound faith.

“It’s winter. There’s nothing unusual about this kind of day,” Wade finally pointed out, trying to keep his voice soft. He understood her hope. He still had a packet of that gum in his shirt pocket.

The glow dimmed on his mother’s face. By now, covered by more gray clouds, the light was gone from the sky, too.

“You think I’m wrong? To come back here?” she asked.

“No, I just meant—” He scrambled to find words to explain his unease and then couldn’t bring himself to speak them. He might not share her faith, but his mother had suffered enough. “It doesn’t need to mean anything. That’s all.”

Strands of white hair ran through his mother’s formerly all-black mane, and her nose had the slight hook inherited from her Cherokee grandfather. Wade didn’t need to look any closer to see she was fragile. She might be only forty-five years old, but unless she smiled, she could pass for sixty. He wondered if she’d gotten her full hour of exercise each day when she’d been away.

She searched his eyes for a moment. “Is that why your brothers aren’t here?”

“Did you send them letters, too?”

She nodded and then looked out the window. Her face softened as though she was dreaming. “You might think I’m foolish to be here, but once our ranch is back in shape, there will be room for all of you boys to come home and make a life for yourself.”

After nine years of standing empty, the ranch house was in shambles. Wade had looked around with a flashlight last night when he’d arrived. At least one of the windows had been broken, and an animal of some kind had gotten inside. Dishes sat in pieces on the kitchen floor and chewed-up paper had been blown into the corners of the living room. He hadn’t been able to see the fields in the dark, but he imagined they weren’t any better. He hadn’t come back because he felt he could change anything on the old place. He only wanted to do what he could to spare his mother any more pain and humiliation. He owed her that much.

“Don’t worry about my brothers and me. We have lives.” He didn’t see the need to go into details. He wasn’t sure that his mother knew about Jake’s recent string of gambling losses in Las Vegas. And none of them had heard from Tyler in a couple of years, so Wade assumed his youngest brother was having a hard time, too. There hadn’t been a place in Montana, so both of his brothers had gone to live in some kind of state institution for juveniles in North Dakota when their mother went to prison. Wade had been old enough to be given a choice about going with them, and he had refused. His emotions had been so raw back then that he wanted to put everything behind him, including his family.

He hadn’t been able to, though. He’d thought of his brothers more than he had wanted, even if he hadn’t known what to say to either of them when he’d called. He wondered if his brothers blamed him for not sticking with them, but he’d never asked. He felt bad enough about it on his own.

“The barn is tight against the weather. We can all stay there if needed until the house is ready,” his mother continued, as if it was a plan she’d worked out in her mind some time ago—and he guessed she probably had. She had been sleeping in the tack room off the barn for the few days she’d been back, and he figured that was mostly because the roof was good and there was an electrical outlet. She could plug in a lamp to read that Bible she carried everywhere with her.

Wade had unrolled his sleeping bag in one of the old stalls last night. He didn’t need a light to read anything—religious or not—but he had lain there until midnight, watching the moonlight shine through the frost on the side window and wishing he could wipe away the past with a big, black book like his mother seemed to be doing.