The Rancher's Holiday Hope

by Brenda Minton

  “Don’t push it,” Sierra said with a smile because, really, she no longer meant it.

  Kylie wiped at her eyes. “Never. I can’t put into words how happy I am for you, Sierra. We’ve been friends for several years and we’ve walked through some dark times together.”

  “And we’ve found the light together.”

  “Yes, the Light.”

  Sierra looked around the chapel and sighed again. “I do love this place. I think for a time it was just the place where I chose to be because I didn’t know where else to be. Jack pushed me and I resented it, but this job has helped me to figure some things out. It is also helping me to plan the next phase of my life.”

  “This sounds serious,” Kylie said as the two of them stood looking at the amber stained-glass windows.

  “Jack told me to find my dream, what makes me happy. Yesterday I called and spoke to Millie at the Cupcake Café. I’m thinking about buying it. I don’t want to leave Hope. This is my home. But I’m ready to start a real life here, not an existence.”

  “I’m so happy for you, Sierra,” Kylie said.

  “I’m happy, too,” Sierra said. “Happy but afraid. In the back of my mind, I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop.”

  “Life isn’t perfect. There will be ups and downs.” Kylie shrugged. “But you get back up and keep moving forward.”

  “Thank you.”

  They made their way back outside. Melody had an armload and she gave them a curious look but didn’t ask questions.

  “Where do we take it all?” Melody asked.

  “If we’re going to set up the reception arena, let’s go ahead and haul things in there.” Sierra thought of something else. “I didn’t think about feeding everyone today.”

  Kylie grinned. “Don’t worry, I did. The men are on their way with food. They’re going to fire up the grills and start cooking for all of the workers.”

  Sierra grabbed a box and headed for the reception arena. “Let’s get this party started,” she quipped over her shoulder.

  “Did I hear party?” Nonni called out, doing a little jig as she grabbed a bag of clothing from the back of Melody’s car. “I am the oldest one here, but I plan on teaching you all how to have fun. The Lord’s way, of course.”

  “Of course, Nonni. There is no other way.” Melody followed her grandmother inside, lugging a big box of toys.

  “It’s always a good time when we do the work of the Lord and have fun in the Lord,” Nonni assured her granddaughter as they put their load of toys and clothes on a nearby table. “You see, when we all work together, we have a good time. We are giving to others, spending time together, sharing our hearts. None of this sitting at home on the smartphone playing games.”

  “Hey, I like games.” Doreena, Max’s mother, gave her mother a hug. “But you’re right, Momma, we have fun when we think of others.”

  “I raised a smart daughter.” Nonni laughed and patted Doreena’s cheek. “So, let’s see what else Sierra would like for us to do.”

  Sierra looked at the piles of gifts, clothing and other items. “Okay, I have tables set up by age and gender. Let’s start taking gifts to the appropriate tables. There is also a household item section and a table for parent gifts. We also need to start sizing and hanging the clothes on the lines we’ve strung at the back of the room.”

  “Let the fun begin,” Kylie quipped.

  They’d been working for a half hour, with Nonni leading them in some church songs, when Carson stepped into the room and announced that the food was ready. He scanned the crowd, saw his wife and couldn’t hide the love he had for her. Sierra felt something she hadn’t felt before. Envy. The emotion took her by surprise. She loved Kylie and had been so happy for her friend when Carson had returned to Hope and the two high school sweethearts reunited.

  She’d never felt jealous of their relationship. Rather she’d been glad that it was them and not her stuck in the mire of those emotions.

  Sierra had always known that a single moment, one event, could change a life. She’d experienced it in so many negative ways. Now, finding it happening in a positive way, it took her by surprise to look back and see how it had unfolded, how God had been at work.

  A small child, a man willing to make a woman a cup of tea, and everything had changed. She thought about Bub and what that silly dog had also meant to her life. Because she found herself turning to him when the nightmares crashed in.

  Looking around, she saw Nonni, Doreena, Melody and the other townswomen who were now a part of her circle. Max’s family had shown her such love and acceptance. They’d shown her what a family could be.

  “Are you going to come with us?” Kylie asked, a hand on Sierra’s arm, drawing her back to the present.

  “Of course I am. I was just thinking about this event and how God had His hand in orchestrating so much that has happened.”

  “Oh?” Kylie’s eyes widened.

  “Just go.” Sierra gave her friend a little push toward her husband. “Carson is waiting for you.”

  “Yes, he is, isn’t he?” Kylie got that look on her face. After being married for a couple of years, that look should have gone away, or so Sierra thought. But she’d been wrong before.

  Sierra followed the crowd from the room and found that the men had set up tables in the kitchen and were serving hotdogs, brats, burgers and side dishes. There were several cooks, including Carson, Pastor Stevens, Isaac and Max.

  “This was very nice of you all,” Sierra said to Isaac as she went through the food line.

  “It’s the least we could do since you women are doing the rest of the work. We men don’t mind doing the heavy lifting or the cooking.” Isaac winked at his wife, who had stopped working to feed her daughter.

  Rebecca glanced back over her shoulder at Sierra. “Do not believe him. This was all Jack’s idea.”

  “I would have thought of it eventually,” Isaac claimed.

  “Of course you would have, honey.” Rebecca shook her head. “No, he wouldn’t have. He would have been at home watching football.”

  “The Chiefs might go to the Super Bowl.” Isaac slid a burger on a bun and placed it on Sierra’s plate. “Eat up, you need energy because Nonni informed us all that there’s to be a dancing lesson after lunch.”

  “Oh, I don’t dance,” Sierra said.

  “You do now,” Max told her as she stopped at the table with side dishes. “And don’t worry, we didn’t make any of this. Holly did.”

  “Good thing, because none of us need food poisoning.”

  His hand went to his heart. “You wound me.”

  She laughed. “I doubt I’ve even made a dent in your self-confidence.”

  “I’ll forgive you if you’ll join me at table five.”

  “Are the tables numbered?”

  He pointed to the table where his family sat together, hands joined in prayer. Her heart thumped at the sight of them. It was the kind of family that every child dreamed of when they didn’t have that for themselves. Once, a long time ago, she’d prayed for a family that would sit at the table together, go to church together, cook dinner together.

  “I don’t know, I think Kylie...”

  He arched a brow at her objection. “Scared?”

  “No! Fine. Table five it is.”

  “I’ll meet you there.”

  Sierra bypassed several groups of people who asked her to join them at their tables. It would have been easy to sit with Kylie and Carson at their table with the rest of the West clan. Or she could have sat with her friends from the ranch. Pastor Stevens and his wife, Tish, waved her toward their table. Everyone knew that she was the single among the many couples and families.

  As everyone tried to draw her to their group, she realized she had people. A lot of people. Including this borrowed family that had welcomed her as one of their ow
n.

  Max. She didn’t know if he was the sum total of the changes taking place or if he just happened to be where she was and her heart had included him. She couldn’t compartmentalize things as she usually did. So she avoided. She sat next to Melody and pretended the conversation she really needed to have at the moment was about the Christmas event.

  She ignored that Max had taken a seat across from her and was watching her, and that, for the first time, he looked as unsure as she felt.

  Chapter Sixteen

  The family sat around eating, joking and talking of Christmas. Max listened, sometimes chiming in, but mostly his eyes kept straying to the woman sitting across from him. Not once did she mention her Christmas plans, or seeing her family. He hadn’t thought much about the fact that he took his family for granted. They’d always been there, always been close. Even when times were difficult, they’d had each other.

  “You should join us for Christmas, Sierra.” Nonni reached for Sierra’s hand. “I know you have your celebration at the ranch, but perhaps you could have your time with them and with us. Tell her, Maximus, she should spend Christmas with us. We will go to the morning service at church and then home for lunch and gifts. In the evening, we will light candles and tell the story of the birth of Christ. It’s a beautiful time to spend together. Be a part of our family this year, Sierra.”

  Sierra looked stricken. Max nearly reached for her hand, but he couldn’t reach. Never mind the fact that his family would question their relationship. That would only put more pressure on her and make her more uncomfortable.

  “I think it’s up to Sierra, Nonni. They have traditions at the ranch just like we do at our house.”

  “Of course they do.” Nonni looked at him as if he had just hatched. “I’m only saying she could spend time with us, too.”

  “I’ll consider it,” Sierra said.

  “Good!” Nonni said as if it were decided. He knew his grandmother, and in her mind, there was no question about where Sierra would spend Christmas.

  With them.

  “Yes, good.” Melody winked at him. “Nonni, how about that dance now?”

  Nonni clapped her hands and beamed at Melody. “Thank you for reminding me. I want you to see how we will celebrate your wedding to Andrew. Organizing the reception is very important and much easier to show you now, with this big crowd to help.”

  Doreena put a hand over her mother’s hand. “Momma, they might not all want to dance.”

  Nonni looked perplexed. “Who doesn’t like to dance? Come on, let’s get everything ready. Max, if you have the music on your phone, Sierra can put it on her musical system.”

  “Yes, I can do that if Max has the music.”

  “The music is very loud,” Max warned.

  “It isn’t a problem. The sound system is at the front by the DJ booth,” Sierra said and she didn’t seem at all put off by his grandmother’s suggestion.

  “Got it.”

  Sierra winked at him and then she started to make her rounds, going from table to table, asking for participants. Max paused at the door, watching as she spoke to each group, smiling and gesturing with her hands to get her point across.

  Suddenly a bomb hit him.

  He didn’t want to leave Hope.

  He didn’t want to leave her.

  Just then, Nonni caught up with him as he headed for the DJ booth. She walked fast and talked fast, his grandmother. He thought she might have made an excellent salesperson. Or a lawyer. She had a gift of circling her conversation and then tightening it like a lasso.

  “So, Grandson, since Andrew is not here, you and your Sierra will be the bride and groom. For demonstration only.”

  “My Sierra?” He felt heat climb his neck and he pulled on his shirt collar, which had suddenly grown tight.

  “Oh, please, you’re not so cool that we can’t see what is happening. You light up when she is in the room.”

  “You make me sound like a teenage girl, Nonni.”

  “You’re being purposely argumentative.” She didn’t look or sound pleased. “Trying to con an old woman is not right.”

  He took a deep breath and decided it was best to be agreeable to her plans. “What would you like us to do?”

  “Hook up the music,” she started, ticking off one finger. “And then everyone will act as if they’re the family and wedding attendants. They will dance in with their scarves, everyone forms a circle, and then the bride and groom enter and join the circle. And then the dance.”

  “You’ll have to show everyone the dance.” He scrolled through his phone until he found the appropriate music. It was an Assyrian instrumental folk song.

  “Of course I will show them. It would have been nice if Andrew could join us. But he’s away with his family. I don’t understand young couples today, living such separate existences.” She arched a brow, as if asking him to give an explanation to the missing fiancé.

  He knew better than to comment.

  A few minutes later, Pastor Stevens was in charge of music and Max was standing outside the make-believe doors with Sierra. Carson and Kylie, Rebecca and Isaac were also a part of the pretend wedding party. Max looked at the group assembled. He could picture in his mind a wedding party that looked very similar to this one. And the bride looking up at him was the woman standing next to him right now.

  “I really don’t dance,” she told him.

  “It’s very simple. It’s more of a skip, really, and the bride has a scarf she dances with. The groom has a cane or something that is wrapped and tasseled. When we get to the circle, you take two crossover steps and then a few steps forward, and then, going back, you kick out with left leg, right leg, left leg and then sidestep again. Repeat.”

  “Got it.” Her hand fluttered on his arm and then settled there. Everything around him grew fuzzy and he could only see her face.

  Is this what it felt like, to stand with a woman, promising her forever? Did it feel this thick with emotion, this amazingly right? He leaned his face close to hers.

  “You may now kiss the bride,” Isaac teased, his loud voice piercing the strange bubble that had wrapped around Max in the past few moments.

  Max jerked back, aware that he’d very nearly done something crazy.

  The music started. They were instantly drawn into the charade his grandmother had created, with Melody calling out the names of couples and music playing in the background as people laughed and clapped. He and Sierra were announced last. They danced their way through the crowd and joined hands in the circle.

  Nonni squeezed into the circle, taking Sierra’s hand on one side and Kylie’s on the other. Max’s parents and Melody joined the circle on his side. The circle began to dance the steps clockwise. Sierra was laughing and breathless next to him.

  When the song ended, they all collapsed into chairs.

  “That was fun,” Sierra whispered to him. “And kinda embarrassing at the beginning. What was that, Max?”

  She meant the almost kiss.

  He shook his head. “Let’s take a walk.” He stood up and took her hand. He didn’t know what he meant to say but he knew that something had to be said.

  Hopefully by the time he got her outside, his head would clear and he would be himself. In the next few minutes he needed the right words.

  * * *

  They assured everyone they would be right back. Sierra smiled and made excuses that she knew no one believed. Max led her out the front door and down a nearby trail to a water feature and gazebo. It was beautiful in the spring with flowers and green grass. In December the grass was brown and the roses had been clipped back for the season.

  She let her mind wander, unsure because his hand still held hers, as if he didn’t want to let go, and she wasn’t sure she wanted him to let go. She didn’t know anything about herself anymore because he’d changed everything.
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br />   They walked along the trail that surrounded the gazebo and his hand tightened on hers, as if he wasn’t quite sure what he’d meant to do when he’d led her out here. She smiled, rather liking the idea of Max St. James being flustered.

  “Where’s your helicopter?” she joked as they made another loop on the path that normally would have been edged with flowers. She pulled him toward the bridge that led over the water feature and to the gazebo with its gingerbread trim and pretty benches.

  “At the airport in a hangar.” He let go of her hand and moved around the gazebo like a caged tiger. “Why do you ask?”

  “Because I haven’t seen it. Not that I’ve missed it. I most definitely have not missed it.”

  “I didn’t think you had.” He brushed a hand through his hair and leaned a hip against the ledge of the gazebo. “I could take you up in it sometime, if you want.”

  “You didn’t bring me out here to talk about helicopters,” she reminded him, taking a step closer to this man who had become such a big part of her life in less than three weeks.

  Not just him, his family.

  It frightened her, because keeping people on the edge of her life meant keeping them in a place where she felt safe.

  “About the dance...” He brushed his hands over his face. “My grandmother did that on purpose.”

  “Oh, she must be in trouble, you called her ‘grandmother.’ Not Nonni.”

  He grinned at her. “She’s up to her matchmaking tricks and obviously working overtime. But that moment, before we danced, that was just...wow.”

  It had felt like their lives had collided. That there’d been no air to breathe, no chance to get away from that one moment.

  “It was wonderful,” she admitted, simplifying all she’d been thinking.

  “Sierra, I want to spend time with you. I want to do more than meet up when there’s a family event, church event or catastrophe.”

  “I’ve kind of liked those moments.”

  “I want to take you to dinner. Somewhere other than Hope.”

  “But you’re leaving,” she reminded him. “So we will have a dinner out once in a while when you come back to town? Is that what you’re proposing?”