The Secrets of Bell River

Her tray full, she balanced it with one hand and pulled out a chair for Tess with the other. “Sit while you look at the menu. Jude can tell you what’s good.”

Tess sat, draping her coat across her lap. But she remained on the edge of the seat, back erect, as if unready to commit to staying. Across from her, the companion chair seemed conspicuously empty, like a question spoken aloud. Was he going to join her, or not?

Well, was he?

He wanted to. In fact, he was surprised how strong the urge to sit was. It felt like a magnetic pull. He’d love to talk to her, to find out more about her, and at the same time provide a buffer between her and the avid curiosity radiating from the Dellians around the room.

But why did he think she needed a buffer? The curiosity was mostly a result of him talking to her. He knew all too well how much gossip he’d caused by coming home, and how many people speculated on what had happened between him and Haley in Los Angeles.

If he wanted Tess to be less conspicuous, the best thing he could do was leave. No one here was going to accost her. He took inventory. None of the more rambunctious young men of Silverdell were here, and none of the unhappily married drinkers, either. In fact, the only unhappily married man in the room was Alton Fillmore, and if he ever got mad enough to hassle a woman, surely it would be his witchy wife.

Besides, Dallas was the sheriff, and he’d make sure everyone behaved. Tess was hardly in danger of anything but an hour or two of loneliness.

This alone thing was probably entirely a figment of his imagination. She’d entered the restaurant with the express intent of eating by herself. Maybe she’d even been looking forward to some privacy.

He studied her, wondering whether the pink on her cheekbones meant she hoped he’d stay—or was praying he’d go.

As if she felt his gaze, she looked up from the menu. “So...what’s good?”

“Everything,” he said. Molly would just have to wait a few more minutes. “And that’s not an exaggeration. In fact...”

He had just scraped the chair back from the table, as if to sit, when his cell phone chirped softly in his pocket. For a split second, he considered ignoring it.

But he didn’t, of course. Even if it were only another pseudo-emergency, it was real to Molly, and Jude was all she had. He darn sure didn’t want her crawling back to a man who beat her, just to get some comfort and support.

“Sorry,” he said, as he dug out the phone. He clicked Answer without even looking.

“Molly, sweetheart, I’m about to leave Donovan’s—”

A trill of musical laughter flowed through his ear and into his gut. “It’s not Molly, Jude.”

“Haley?” The name came out on an exhale of shock, and within an instant he knew what a mistake that had been. At least two people were sitting close enough to have heard him. And those two people would tell two people, who would also tell two people...

In fact, behind him, he could already hear someone whispering, “It’s Haley. Haley Hawthorne.”

“Hold on.” His voice was hard and gruff, but damn it. They’d agreed she would leave him alone, entirely alone, for six full months, before she tried to talk him into returning to L.A.—and to her.

It had been only four months since he’d come home. He had actually begun to hope she’d accepted the inevitable and moved on. Every time he heard about her partying with some celebrity, he crossed his fingers.

So why was she calling now? Why tonight? Did she have some kind of radar that warned her he was about to sit down with a very pretty stranger?

And why did he mind so much? One way or another, he would have to leave. He wasn’t footloose enough to sit around flirting with the new massage therapist, no matter how adorable she was.

He put his hand over the speaker and turned to Tess. “I’m sorry. I have to go.”

* * *

ALMOST AN HOUR LATER, Tess pulled through the open iron gates of Bell River Ranch as twilight lowered a blue wing over the landscape. She loved this time of day anywhere, even in smoggy Los Angeles, but here, on this rolling land bordered by ancient trees and snowy mountains, the beauty almost took her breath away.

Or maybe her heart was beating so rapidly she couldn’t get enough oxygen.

She worked at taking slow breaths. She wanted to be calm and professional for this meeting, but it wasn’t easy. Ever since Rowena had called and asked Tess to come by the ranch to discuss the job, her nerves had been tingling with anticipation.

She’d asked twice...did Rowena mean for Tess to come to the main house? Not the spa’s office, as she had on Monday? Rowena had been offhanded, but definite. Yes, she wanted Tess to meet the others, and it was easiest to do that at home.

The others. Rowena said it so casually, as, of course, she would. She took her network of connections for granted. At home. She took that for granted, too.

They were going to offer her the job, surely. Why else would they invite her here? And she would get her first glimpse of the house her biological father built.

As she neared the house, a large, open wagon drawn by two horses rumbled past. Loaded with hay and about a dozen laughing children, and spangled with colored lights, it was clearly a holiday adventure offered to the guests. What a fun vacation Bell River must be—sleigh rides on Monday, hay rides on Wednesday...

The kids waved as they passed her car, though they had no idea who she was. Through her closed windows she could hear giggling and singing, and happy shouts of “Goodbye, goodbye!”

She couldn’t resist waving. She parked, climbed out and pulled her coat around her more tightly against the clear, sweet cold. After a lifetime of warm Los Angeles holidays, this certainly was a change.

Good. There was nothing left in California for her anymore. A change was what she desperately needed.

Someone must have seen her pull up, because before she could ring the bell the door opened, the Christmas wreath chiming merrily with small bells. Rowena stood in the bright rectangle of light, smiling.

“I’m so glad you were nearby,” Rowena said. “Marianne’s food is fabulous, isn’t it? Here, come in and get warm.”

Tess had imagined this moment a hundred times since deciding to apply for the job. So much to absorb, so many people and things she wanted to see. Her mother had obliterated all traces of Johnny Wright from her life, and had very little to share when she was ready to confide in Tess.

They’d apparently been lovers only briefly, having met when he had a meeting with her boss over a real estate deal he was considering in Denver. Her mother had lived there, though Tess had never known.

She hadn’t realized Johnny was married until she told him of the pregnancy. Whatever his reaction had been, it had frightened her mother enough that she left Colorado entirely. She bore her daughter in Los Angeles, raised her there and never spoke of him until she lay on her deathbed.

So the picture of Johnny Wright and his family was no more than a blank silhouette in Tess’s mind. She’d met Bree and Rowena. But Penny, the third sister...would she be here? Would Tess meet the men who had married the Wright daughters? Did they have children?

But now that the moment had arrived she felt flustered and could hardly take in a single detail. Rowena ushered her past the beautiful holiday decorations of the entry and into a large parlor room teeming with people. It took several minutes to get through the introductions, and even then, when she sat on a comfortable armchair, Tess wasn’t sure who was who.

Bree, of course, she recognized. But except for Rowena and Bree, Tess found herself staring at a room full of ridiculously good-looking men, from late twenties to eighty, so Penny must not be here.

Tess worked to get the men straight. The oldest one was the ranch manager, Barton James. Then there was Dallas, Rowena’s husband, and a gorgeous blond named Gray, who apparently was married to Bree. The dark-haired guy was Max, Penny’s husband, even though Penny herself was nowhere to be seen.

The youngest of the group, who had a rascal’s smile, freckles and every bit as much sex appeal as the older guys, was Dallas’s little brother, Mitch.

Whew. She thought that was all. It was certainly enough.

“Did Rowena even give you enough time to finish eating?” Dallas turned his shockingly blue eyes toward her from his perch on the piano stool. “If you had to give short shrift to Marianne’s prime rib, that’s a crime.”

Oh, yes, that’s why this one looked familiar. He had been in Donovan’s tonight, too. He’d been in a sheriff’s uniform, and he’d left right after Jude did.

“A crime? You planning to arrest me, Sheriff?” Rowena, who was passing him, bonked him on the head with a sheaf of papers she carried. “You know we’re desperate here. I couldn’t put prime rib ahead of Bell River.”

“You don’t put anything ahead of Bell River.” He grabbed Rowena around her waist and drew her in with a chuckle. He put his lips against her stomach. “You hear that, Hatchling? You’ll have to come to Daddy if you need anything, because Mamma’s got a one-track mind.”

Rowena shook her head in mock exasperation, but she ruffled her husband’s hair affectionately before pulling away and coming to sit near Tess.