Montana Mistletoe

Chapter Twenty-One (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twenty-Two (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twenty-Three (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twenty-Four (#litres_trial_promo)

Epilogue (#litres_trial_promo)

Extract (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter One (#u8a7c9191-ce7e-5e54-b98f-e661ed4311a1)

Jess Langford stopped outside his grandmother’s room at the rehab center and dropped to one knee. “Okay, girls. Do you remember what we talked about in the truck?”

The five-year-old twins bobbed their heads vigorously, their long, curly blond hair bouncing, though even now Sophie was edging toward the door, her bright blue eyes sparkling with excitement.

“We gotta be real quiet, so Gramma gets better and comes home.” Bella wrapped a long strand of her silky hair around a forefinger. She was edging toward the door, too. “And we can’t make her bed jiggly or she might cry. ’Cause she hurts.”

Jess sighed as he stood. Betty wasn’t hooked up to tubes and wires any longer, so those hazards were over, and she was made of much tougher stuff than anyone he knew. But the rambunctious twins had enough energy to wear anyone out—especially a seventy-seven-year-old woman who had been through surgery two weeks ago for a broken hip.

“Remember the rules? No running, no climbing on her bed. Promise? And indoor voices only, or we’ll have to leave.”

The girls raced into the dimly lit room and flung themselves against the side of the bed, chattering excitedly about their day in kindergarten. The pretty new layer of snow outside that looked like the sparkly real diamonds on their favorite Barbie dresses. Their latest adventures with their hay fort in the horse barn...which they currently called their princess castle.

Jess leaned against the door frame and stifled a yawn.

Last week, his only ranch hand had quit without warning, saying he’d had it with Montana’s winters and was going back to South Texas, which left Jess alone to run a horse-and-cattle ranch. Amid all of that, he’d been taking care of the house, laundry, meals and the girls, and getting them off to school. These days, even four hours of sleep was a blessing.

But he hadn’t been able to say no when Betty called at supper time and begged him to bring the girls for a visit tonight because she missed them so much. He owed Betty the moon and stars for all she did to keep the household running, so how could he refuse?

Seeing their joy and the love in Betty’s eyes made the trip worthwhile every single time.

Jess straightened and moved to Betty’s bedside to kiss her cheek. “How’s my favorite grandma?” He teased. “Better since yesterday?”

“Getting better all the time,” she retorted, spunky as ever. “I should be out of here in just a few days.”

“I sure hope so. We all miss you.”

He hadn’t done much praying in years—he and God hadn’t been on the best of speaking terms since his little sister, Heather, died when he was nine and his mom passed a year later, but since Betty’s fall he’d been trying a lot harder. Hoping God was listening, he briefly closed his eyes and sent up yet another silent prayer for Betty’s full recovery.

From the other side of the bed, Bella craned her neck to look at something in the shadowed corner of the room. “Who are you?” she chirped.

Jess looked over his shoulder, expecting to see a nurse or a tech of some kind. A frisson of awareness ran through him when his gaze landed on a woman in jeans and a sweater sitting stiffly on the edge of an upholstered chair, not someone in blue hospital scrubs.

Though he couldn’t make out her features, the woman’s long, honey-gold hair and slender build instantly sent him twelve years back into the past. “Abby?”

She rose slowly and stood there like a startled doe ready to flee, tension radiating from her. “Jess,” she said quietly in the sweet, melodic voice that had haunted his dreams for years.

He blinked and swiveled his gaze to Betty’s smug expression before turning back to the woman he’d once loved with all his heart. The heart she’d ripped out and crushed beneath her dainty Tony Lama boots. “What on earth are you doing here?”

“She’s here because I want you to hire her,” Betty announced. “I asked Norma and Frieda from the senior center to put notices all over town. This young gal saw one and she needs a job. So now you just need to find a new ranch hand and we’ll have the help we need. Isn’t this just perfect?”

Perfect. Not the word he’d use. He blinked again, shell-shocked, as a flood of bittersweet memories tumbled through his thoughts.

She’d tried to stand in the way of his dreams. She hadn’t believed in him. And her unexpected defection had left wounds that took years to heal. And yet here she was, thinking she could waltz back into his life and work at his ranch.

Not in this lifetime.

“I...thought you were married,” he managed after a long, tense silence. “Right after we broke up. Then you moved away. Chicago, right?”

She nodded, then tilted her head toward the twins and seemed to consider her words carefully. “Honestly, when I inquired about the job, Betty’s phone number was on the flyer, but not her name. And I had no idea that it was at your ranch. I can see this isn’t going to work out, so I’ll just be on my way and—”

“No,” Betty said sharply. “You two just need to get over whatever happened between you, and think of this as business.” Her narrowed gaze swung between Abby and Jess. “I’m being discharged the day after tomorrow, which means I can come home. But I’ll still need to be driven back into town for therapy a couple times a week, and I will not be capable of cooking, laundry, meals and caring for the girls. Not for months. Well into calving and foaling season, Jess, when you’ll need to be outside 24/7. Abby says she’ll gladly work until the summer—”

Abby’s startled expression suggested that Betty’s assumption about that length of time wasn’t quite true, but Betty barreled on regardless.

“—and by then, I’ll be in fine shape.” Betty leveled a stern look at Jess, daring him to contradict her. “But without Abby’s help, I am not going to come back to the ranch and be an even greater burden to you.”

Yes, Jess needed help. But Abby? “I just don’t think—”

The older woman folded her arms over her ample chest. “You haven’t found anyone else to help out, and Abby is in a bit of a pickle. So if you don’t hire her, I’ll be moving to the senior citizens’ home over in Waveland, where I’ll be out of the way. For good.”

“Gramma,” Bella cried, scrambling up the side rails of the bed and curling up against Betty before Jess could stop her. “You hafta come home. Then our puppy can come home, too. Please.”

Sophie’s eyes filled with tears. “We need Gramma. I don’t like it when she’s gone.”

Abby watched the girls for a moment, her expression inexplicably sad, then looked up at Jess. “This is awkward for both of us, but it’s true that I could use a job for a few months, until I go back to graduate school. And it does sound like you need help.”

Right now, caring for the girls and keeping his beloved grandmother out of that run-down senior housing project were more important than anything. And a day didn’t go by that the girls didn’t beg to get their puppy back from the neighbors—who had kindly taken him in when Betty got hurt and life turned upside down at the ranch.

Hiring Abby might be a temporary solution for all of those worries.

Yet, serious questions began piling up in Jess’s mind. Questions that would best be asked away from the twins’ all-too-curious ears. He’d already learned that they often heard things that he wished they hadn’t, then asked awkward questions at exactly the wrong times.

Abby’s father’s ranch was just thirty-five miles away. So why hadn’t he taken her in if she needed help? What had happened to her teaching career—and the man she’d married right after she broke up with Jess?

But more to the point...just what sort of trouble had she gotten herself into?

“Let’s discuss this tomorrow while the girls are in school,” he managed on a long sigh. He pulled a Broken Aspen Ranch business card from his wallet and handed it to Abby. “Maybe at Millie’s Coffee Shop, two o’clock?”

She nodded.

“Just so you know, I always have a background check done on anyone hired at the ranch. No exceptions.” Her eyes widened, and he realized how harsh his words must sound. “My lawyer insists on it.”

He’d known her since first grade. He’d loved her once. Imagining her capable of serious wrongdoing was like imagining the twins’ new puppy guilty of bank robbery.