Sweet Montana Boxed Set 1-5

by Lisa Mondello

  Hearing her gush with appreciation over her brother felt a little awkward. “It’s funny. I keep forgetting he’s a police officer in town. To me he’s just my brother.”

  Tara laughed. “I get that. I didn’t know that Caleb had family in town. I thought they all moved away. I must’ve heard wrong.”

  “No you didn’t. I just moved back.”

  “Oh, then welcome back. What can I help you with?”

  “I need to find a housewarming gift for my brother and soon-to-be sister-in-law’s new house.”

  “For the chapel?”

  She nodded.

  “I love what they’ve done.”

  “So you’ve seen it since it’s been renovated.”

  “I’ve been nosy. Me and Brody went over and checked it out while they were doing some work.”

  “Brody? You mean Brody Whitebear?”

  “Yes. Do you know him?”

  “Yes. Small world.”

  “Yes, it is. I think I know exactly what you can get for a housewarming gift. Katie was in the shop last week and had her eye on something over here.”

  Fifteen minutes later, Julie walked out of Sweet Sensations with two hurricane lamps she hoped Katie would like. She knew Caleb would like anything, but Katie had particular taste. She hoped Tara had remembered Katie’s choice correctly.

  As Julie walked to her car, she spotted Hunter’s truck in the parking lot across the street. Her heart started beating faster, and she feared she’d make a fool of herself right there on Main Street. She glanced at the hardware store to the right of her, but since the truck was parked closer to the diner, and it was a little past noon, Julie figured that perhaps Hunter was having something to eat before visiting the next ranch on his list of client bookings today.

  She walked to her car and placed the hurricane lamps inside the trunk and hoped they wouldn’t roll around when she drove over to the chapel later that day. She questioned whether to go over to see if Hunter was inside the diner. When she slammed the trunk shut, she looked up and saw him sitting in a booth by the window alone. He was staring at her and smiling. She lifted a hand and waved to him. With his hand, he motioned her to come to the diner. That was a good an invitation as any.

  There was a lot of traffic in Main Street, something that usually happened right before the festival as people came into town to work on it and set it up. There would be more traffic this weekend when the festival was in full force. She looked both ways and then darted across the street to the diner. As soon as she swung the door open and breezed inside, she felt the cool air bathe her face. A waitress walked up to her with menus in her hand.

  “Do you want a seat at the counter?”

  Julie shook her head and then pointed to where Hunter was sitting. “My friend is here.”

  The waitress glanced over her shoulder to where Hunter was sitting and her smile faltered. “Oh, you’re here with Hunter?”

  “Yes.”

  The waitress tried to hide how green she felt behind a smile. It made Julie wonder just how many women in this town had a crush on Hunter Williams.

  She smiled back of the waitress, and then headed down to the table. Hunter slid out of the booth and stood up, like the gentleman he was.

  “You’re eating alone or are you meeting someone?” Julie asked.

  “I’m not eating alone. You’re here.”

  “So I saved you from eating alone.”

  “Normally I don’t mind. Sometimes Brody or Dusty have business in town and we’ll catch a bite to eat together. But if you had gotten into the car and driven away, I would’ve sat here lonely and pathetic.”

  She chuckled as she slid into the booth and dropped her purse next to her on the bench. He did the same but on the other side.

  “What are you doing in town?” he asked.

  “Buying a gift for Katie and Caleb. They invited me to dinner tonight.”

  He seemed a little disappointed.

  “What’s that face for?”

  He shrugged. “The whole time I was watching you walk over to the diner I was hoping I could find a way to get out of work early so I could ask you to dinner.”

  “We just had dinner the other night.”

  “That wasn’t a real dinner. I mean a dinner where you put on a sexy black dress and I get all dressed up in my best cowboy shirt and boots and we go to dinner and dancing.”

  She liked the way that sounded. “We can do that another night.”

  “Don’t you go back to work soon?”

  “Not until Monday.”

  “Might be hard to get a reservation and a place close by with the festival happening this weekend. Word is most of the hotel rooms are booked and most of the reservations at restaurants are filled.”

  She leaned on the table toward him and said in a quiet voice, “What’s wrong with here?”

  He smiled and seemed to growl in a low, deep voice. “I don’t get to see your legs in that sexy black dress.”

  They made plans to go to the festival together. She’d tell Caleb about it later when they had dinner at the chapel house. He wouldn’t be disappointed as long as he knew she was going.

  When she left the restaurant, she headed north to Billings. She needed to buy herself a black dress.

  Sweet Montana Secrets: Chapter Seven

  Hunter cursed his busy schedule all week. He hadn’t had time to do much of anything beyond having a simple phone conversation with Julie at the end of the day. He loved hearing her voice right before he fell asleep at night and wondered what it would be like to be in the dark and hear her voice as she lay next to him.

  But he had to hold himself back. He couldn’t push her. The more they talked the more his mind filled with questions he had no time to get the answers to. He was usually busy from March all the way through November most years. But for some reason his phone was ringing off the hook this week.

  They’d made a plan to go to the festival together. He’d appeased Julie by calling Ruth, a client of his who also had a table at the festival where she was selling some pottery. Ruth was excited about seeing the paintings.

  Hunter wished he’d burned them a long time ago.

  But he had promised so he knew it would make Julie happy to see that he’d followed through on that promise. He’d gone out to the festival grounds earlier in the day to drop off the paintings for Ruth. When he returned, he quickly showered and cleaned up so he could pick up Julie and they could head to the festival together.

  Just as Hunter was leaving his apartment, his cell phone rang. He tried to ignore it. He didn’t want to pull it out of the his pocket because he was afraid of who might be on the phone. But he checked anyway just to make sure wasn’t Julie calling about some last-minute change.

  As he suspected it wasn’t Julie. It was one of his bigger clients who had a stable of horses Hunter usually serviced. He knew that there was a competition next week and most likely this was an emergency since he was already scheduled to go out to Bert’s ranch next week. For people who were in competition or had injured animals, shoeing could mean the difference between canceling an event or in the most severe cases, it could mean risking further injury.

  Hunter decided to let the call go to voicemail. If Bert needed him, he’d call back. Otherwise, he’d call back tonight. He’d been looking forward to seeing Julie for days and he wasn’t going to let anything get in the way of the day they’d planned.

  He climbed into his truck and drove the short distance through town to Julie’s apartment. In a way he didn’t even think of it as Caleb’s even though Caleb’s name was on the lease. But Julie was there. It made it her home, and his compass seemed to move in that direction these days.

  She was standing on the porch leaning over the porch rail looking out at something when he arrived. She smiled when he pulled into the parking lot and waited for him on the porch until he got out of the car.

  “Wow. You look amazing, Julie,” he said, not being able to help himself. Her smile grew bri
ghter.

  She did a little twirl that made the sundress she was wearing lift a little along her thighs. “You said you wanted see my legs.”

  He fiddled with his cowboy hat and then looked back up at her. Damn. “Yes I did.”

  She’d worn the dress for him. He liked that. It didn’t really matter what she was wearing, but the fact that she’d thought about it and chosen that dress to show off her long legs just for him, well, that was special.

  “Are you ready to go? There is already a line of traffic heading down towards the field.”

  Her expression changed as if she was suddenly worried about something. “Maybe I should put on some boots. I’m sure the field will be a little muddy in places from that rain we had last night.

  He glanced down at the flats she was wearing.

  “They should be okay. If there’s any mud, I’ll carry you over it.”

  She laughed, throwing her head back and placing a hand over her chest.

  “You know that line would be real corny if it didn’t also do something to me. How many times have you delivered it?”

  “First time. I swear.”

  “Let me get a sweater and I’ll be right down.”

  He shook his head as he watched her disappear into the apartment slamming the screen door as she breezed through it. It felt like the years apart hadn’t even happened. The easiness they felt together, and the flirtation seemed to all fall into step.

  But those years had happened and it still left too many things unsaid. Hunter needed to know the answers to those questions he had when he was lying awake in bed thinking of Julie. Maybe tonight. Maybe they could put it all out on the table after a good day together. He wanted her to trust him enough to tell him the truth. It was the only way they’d be able to move forward. And he wanted that with all his heart.

  He loved her. He’d never stopped loving her. He wasn’t foolish enough to think she’d fall back into his arms and trust him completely. It would take time. But he wanted a future with her and that could only happen if they bared their souls.

  Julie stepped out of the apartment onto the porch and checked the door to make sure it was locked. Then she seemed to skip down the stairs. Just as Julie got to the bottom of the stairs, Hunter’s cell phone rang again. He ignored it as he walked with Julie to his truck. The cell phone stopped ringing for a few seconds, then it started up again as he opened the truck door on the passenger side. Julie looked down towards the source of the noise.

  “Aren’t you going get that?”

  “No.”

  She frowned. “What if it’s important?”

  “It’s always important. Everyone wants me to give them attention immediately. Right now the person who is going to have my immediate attention is you.”

  Her smile was slow and her eyes filled with emotion.

  “Thank you.”

  She climbed into the truck and he slammed the door. Then he walked around back behind the bed and pulled his cell phone out of his pocket to check the caller ID. Bert again. It probably was something important. Bert wasn’t the type to nag him unless it was. Dammit.

  He climbed into the truck and slammed the door. Then he turned the truck’s engine over.

  “It’s okay if you take that call,” she said.

  “Sometimes it’s better not to know.”

  Julie reached her hand across the cab of the truck and touched his.

  “Take the call. It’s what you do. It’s not going to ruin the day.”

  He felt his eyebrows pull together. “It may cut our day short.”

  “It’s what you do. And it will happen all the time whether it’s today or some other day. So take the call. I’m not going to disappear.”

  He stared at her for a long while and drew in a deep breath. “Are you sure?”

  She smiled. “I promise.”

  * * *

  They’d had to park at the end of a big field because it seemed like half of Montana had come to the festival. Julie and Hunter walked around the aisles of exhibitors selling everything from farming products to old trinkets and crafts.

  They held hands as they walked together. Almost immediately, Julie’s mind went back to the last time she’d been to the festival with Hunter and had shared moments like this. They had conceived their child that day right after the festival. Julie had told her parents she’d gone to the festival with Katie and was staying overnight. But Katie had been home sick with the flu.

  Of course, Julie had never intended to go with Katie. That had just been her cover. She knew her parents wouldn’t call Katie’s parents to find out if she was really there. Her parents had left town for an overnight church trip and they hadn’t wanted to leave Julie home alone by herself. At the time, Caleb had been in the military, stationed overseas. That meant that the house was empty. After the festival, Julie and Hunter had gone back to her house and made love for the first and only time in the bed she’d slept in as a child.

  She had been eighteen years old at the time. She’d been an adult but was so inexperienced. But they’d been in love. She had never experienced anything that came even close to what she felt for Hunter since.

  Today was the first time in a long time that she felt some sort of trust seeping back into her. She felt comfortable with herself even though she knew that they were a long way from where they needed to be. They had a lot of hurdles to get over.

  But she could already see that Hunter and her were getting there. It was time to take those barriers down and face them. She was facing them and they didn’t hurt today. Not on such a gloriously beautiful sunny day in Sweet, Montana.

  As they walked down the craft aisle that was filled with pottery and wood carvings, something caught Julie’s eye. She rushed over to one of the displays.

  “Let’s just keep going.” Hunter took her hand and started tugging her down the path to another exhibit.

  “Oh, leave her alone, Hunter. She wants to have a look.”

  “You know each other?” she asked with surprise.

  “Ruth, this is Julie. She’s the one who insisted I bring these dreadful paintings here.”

  “So nice to meet you, Julie,” Ruth said. “Don’t listen to him. You have yourself a look.”

  She recognized the first painting as one that she had seen at Hunter’s apartment. But there were others she hadn’t seen.

  “You didn’t tell me you decided to display your work,” Julie said.

  Ruth laughed. “Decided? I’m not quite sure he decided anything. He brought one of them to the ranch when he came out to shoe Old Smokey Bones. He’s my gelding. He asked me if I would hide them here in my booth today. Hide. That’s the word he used.” The woman laughed loud.

  Julie turned and gave Hunter a questioning look.

  Hunter shrugged. “Thanks a lot, Ruth. You were just supposed to keep them here so I could say that I showed them at the festival.”

  Julie’s mouth dropped open. “Just to make me happy or to shut me up?”

  “That was the plan, yes.”

  “Hunter Williams, I can’t believe you would do that. These paintings are great.”

  “Those pictures are going right into storage in my closets as soon as the festival is over.”

  Ruth lifted a finger in protest. “Not if I can sell them first. That was the deal.”

  Julie looked up and saw Tara Mitchell and Brody Whitebear walking toward them down the lane.

  “Oh, geez,” Hunter said, turning away. “Ruth, put those things away.”

  “I will not!”

  “Hey, we found you,” Tara said. Before anyone could say anything more Tara zeroed in on the painting they were looking at.

  “Oh, look at this, Brody. This is beautiful.” Tara turned to Ruth. “Is this from a local artisan?”

  Ruth motioned with her eyes to Hunter.

  Tara swung around with her mouth dropped open. Brody frowned.

  “You did these, bro?” Brody asked Hunter.

  Hunter blew out a q
uick breath. “Yeah. Can we put them away now?”

  “Hunter Williams, you’ve been holding out on me,” Tara said, looking at the painting of a boy and girl climbing a fence to look at a man on a bronc. “This is wonderful. I want to get some of these in my shop.”

  “I’m not ready, Tara,” Hunter said quickly. “I’m not sure I’ll ever be ready.”

  “You obviously are now. How many of these do you have?”

  “A few.”

  She turned and eyed him. Then she turned to Brody. “How come you never told me Hunter painted?”

  Brody shrugged. “I didn’t know.”

  “Why don’t I believe that?”

  “Because you’re a woman with a suspicious mind.”

  “That’s right.” She turned to Hunter. “I can sell these in my shop. My customers love local artisans.”

  “I’m not an artisan. I’m a farrier.”

  “Why didn’t you come to me instead of taking a booth here at the fair?”

  “I wasn’t ready.”

  “Stop fidgeting,” Julie whispered.

  “I don’t want to be here,” Hunter whispered back.

  “You’d rather be at the livestock show.”

  He shrugged. “Yes, let’s go there.”

  Hunter took her hand and pulled her away from the booth as Julie waved goodbye to the others.

  “I never thought you were shy,” she said, nudging him in the side.

  He put his arm around her as they walked in the direction away from the livestock display. “Nah, I just wanted to have you all to myself.”

  * * *

  They walked down a path that was covered with brush on both sides. Hunter could hear the sound of the band playing in the bandstand area. Somewhere on the fairgrounds, the livestock auction was in full swing. The sound of the auctioneer taking bids with his bullhorn boomed over the music.

  But he still took the opportunity to pull Julie into his arms and dance to the music that was playing in the distance. She giggled as he twirled her around. The sound of her laughter, not the motion, made his head spin.

  She was so beautiful. He couldn’t understand why she’d had so much doubt in her life and why she’d punished herself so much that she’d felt she couldn’t come home. She’d opened up to him about her therapy, but not about what had caused her to go. He needed to know.