A Rancher for Christmas

by Brenda Minton

  “That’s all very cozy and nice, but it isn’t a home.”

  “Breezy, don’t worry about me. I’m making up for my past.”

  “The past doesn’t have to hold us prisoner. If we believe what we say we believe, then aren’t we set free? Isn’t that the purpose of that baby in the manger?”

  “Whom the Son sets free is free indeed,” Joe quoted. “Yes, Breezy, you’re right. I’ve been set free from my past, from the many things that nearly destroyed my life. But I have something I have to do, and until it’s done, I’ll be staying in the nativity. If it was good enough for that baby, it’s good enough for me.”

  How could she argue with that? “If you change your mind...”

  “If I change my mind, I’ll let you know.” He winked, held up the coffee in salute and walked away.

  Breezy watched as he made his way back to the nativity. She wondered how no one else had noticed that Joe slept there every night. But then, no one else had really been watching. They were all trying to figure Joe out, wondering if he was safe, where he’d come from and when he’d leave.

  They had no idea that Joe was making their lives better.

  Breezy considered him a friend.

  After picking up the medicine for the girls, she headed back to the Circle M, worrying that Jake would wonder what had taken so long. She thought of Joe and his determination to make up for the past. She was just as determined to let go of hers. Maybe letting go meant telling Jake?

  When she pulled up to the house, she saw Jake waiting on the front porch. She got out of the car and held up the bag of medicine. Jake walked down off the porch to meet her. A caged lion came to mind. He looked as if he’d been pacing.

  “I’m sorry. I saw Joe and I wanted to make sure he’s okay. It’s going to be cold tonight.”

  “I know it is.” Jake took the medicine from her. “But you should have called. I was worried.”

  “Are the twins still sleeping?”

  “Yes, and Marty’s making dinner. Breezy, I’m serious about this. You need to understand that until we prove who has been breaking into the house or catch them, you’re not safe.”

  She slipped her arm through his. “I know. And I’m sorry. But you also have to trust that I’m being careful. I’m not going to put myself or the twins in danger.”

  “But you went to your house.”

  “Just to get coffee for Joe,” she admitted.

  “Next time, don’t. Or at least let me go with you,” he said.

  “Right, okay. I do have to go over there tomorrow. There’s a horrible smell in the fridge. Something has to go.”

  Right, okay. Just make sure you activate the alarm while you’re in the house.”

  “Yes, sir. I’ll activate the alarm,” she agreed, teasing him. He mock-scowled at her.

  It was nice to have someone worrying about her. But it was still a new feeling to Breezy, and she was afraid to get used to it.

  As they stood in the living room, the lights from the tree twinkled. Christmas was just around the corner. Somehow they would make this work. They would make a family out of the remnants and they would survive.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Breezy left the girls with Marty when she drove over to her place the next afternoon. Jake had been out in the barn, talking to Brody about some cattle the younger Martin wanted to buy. They’d been at it for hours and she hadn’t bothered to let Jake know she was leaving. Marty knew. And Breezy would keep her promise and set the alarm.

  As she walked in the front door, she answered her phone. It was Joe.

  “Hi, Joe, what’s up?”

  “Am I speaking to Breezy Hernandez?” It wasn’t Joe’s voice.

  “Yes, this is Breezy.” She turned to push a code into the alarm and then waited to close the door and make sure it was activated.

  “Miss Hernandez, I’m calling from Austin Community General. We have a patient, Joe Anderson. He asked us to call you and let you know that he’s here. He’s had a heart attack and he’s in serious but stable condition.”

  “Joe?”

  “Yes, ma’am. Mr. Anderson wanted someone to know.”

  “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

  She hung up and stood there for a minute. She wasn’t sure what to do. Did he have family? Was he alone? She would go to him, of course. Everyone deserved to have someone. A person to call, to turn to.

  She walked through the house, uneasy. She really disliked that someone had taken her peace, her joy in living in this house. It was her home. She had a plant. She had a nativity. And she was getting a dog. That’s what people did when they had a home.

  The fridge was her main goal for the day. That and more clothes. She opened the fridge door and held her breath, grabbing contents and tossing them in the trash. Something really stunk.

  A noise caught her attention. She told herself it was nothing. And then she tried to convince herself it would be Jake coming to check on her. But Jake would have announced himself. He wouldn’t be in the office and that sound definitely came from the office.

  Slowly she closed the refrigerator door. She opened a cabinet drawer and pulled out a rolling pin. Anything could be a weapon. She eased along the wall, taking careful steps. As she walked she reached into her pocket for her phone and came up empty. She’d left it on the table in the living room.

  Wonderful.

  Go after the prowler or get her phone? The phone. And the alarm. She eased across the living room and as she reached for her phone he came running. She hit Redial, knowing it would ring to the ranch.

  “Might as well hang that up,” he said. He was tall with blond hair. She didn’t know him but he looked like someone you would say hello to on the street.

  “Who are you?”

  He smirked. “What does it matter?”

  “Well, if you think you’re going to hurt me, I’d like to know the name of the man I’m going to knock out,” she informed him with what she hoped was a confident look.

  “Aren’t you going to wait for Jake to rescue you?”

  “No, I typically don’t wait for a man to rescue me. You’re in my home and I’ll handle you,” she said. “And your name?”

  “Tyler Randall, the man who should have had twenty percent of a business, not ten. But you managed to get my share. You showed up, and claimed to be the senator’s daughter.”

  “I never made the claim. Lawton found me and...”

  He waved his hand in the air. “I don’t really care. I’m just letting you know—” he raised a file “—that I’m getting what is rightfully mine.”

  “And you think I won’t stop you?”

  “I think unless you want Jake Martin to know that you were arrested on suspicion of murder, you won’t say a word.”

  She froze, looking at the phone in her hand, hearing Marty yelling, asking if she was safe. Her breath came in ragged gulps. How could she be okay? Someone knew. And if he knew, Jake would know.

  And she would lose the twins.

  “Oh, I’ve upset you.” Tyler Randall took a step toward her. “I have an idea. You sign your share of the business over to me and I won’t tell Jake that the aunt of his nieces has a criminal past. Of course there’s a chance his P.I. will eventually uncover this information, but for now you’ll be safe in your stolen life.”

  Her stolen life. She shook her head. It wasn’t stolen. It was hers and it was real and it meant everything to her. The twins meant everything to her.

  Jake. She let go of the pain that threatened to steal her breath. He had hired a private investigator. He hadn’t trusted her. She couldn’t let that be a distraction, not now.

  “I’m not signing anything over to you. I’m calling the police.” She raised the phone. Marty was still talking, still trying to con
vince her help was on the way. She pushed End and called 911.

  Tyler rushed her, but she stepped to the side. Maria hadn’t been a perfect parent but in little ways she had shown she cared. She had made sure Breezy could protect herself.

  “You won’t get away from me.” Tyler laughed, not as confident as he’d been a minute ago.

  He reached for her and she grabbed his arm, kneed him and then elbowed him in the nose. He went down on his knees, screaming in pain.

  “Self-defense, Mr. Randall. I’m not anyone’s victim.”

  She had been once, a long time ago. But she would never be a victim again. She pushed him down on the floor and held him with her knee in his back as a car roared up the driveway. When Jake walked through the door, she stepped away.

  He nodded and then he jerked Tyler to his feet. There were sirens in the distance. It was over.

  She walked out of the living room, leaving Jake to clean up the mess. On her way out of the room she looked at the nativity on the mantel. In the kitchen she walked past the poinsettia she’d watered and cared for. It stood two feet tall and was covered with red blooms.

  Jake could now effectively take the twins. Why would he be loyal to her? She was the sister who came out of nowhere to claim a portion of Lawton’s life, his inheritance, his children.

  He had hired a private investigator. That knowledge hurt. Where trust might have been, she now had the knowledge that even as they’d been forming their own family with the twins, he’d been looking for a way to take that family away from her.

  As the thoughts rolled through her mind, she knew they weren’t logical.

  Logic didn’t seem to matter when nothing made sense. Her heart feeling shattered didn’t make sense. Her anger didn’t make sense.

  What made sense was leaving. She had to go to Joe. He needed a friend and she could be a friend. As she headed for her car, Jake caught up with her.

  “Where are you going? The police need to talk to you,” he said.

  “I need to go.”

  “Breezy, you can’t leave. You can’t just walk away.” He reached for her hand. “Come inside and talk to the deputies.”

  “Right, okay.”

  “Why do you think you have to leave?”

  She blinked a few times. “Because I’m always going to be the homeless girl in your eyes. You are never going to trust me, not completely.”

  “We need to discuss this.”

  She shook her head. “No, I need to talk to the deputies. Just let me get this over with. The one thing I can’t do is talk to you right now.”

  “So you want me to back off?” he asked. “When have you ever backed off and left me alone? You forced me to admit that everyone needs someone. You need someone right now.”

  “You hired a private investigator,” she accused. Pain tightened in her throat and tears burned her eyes.

  He didn’t deny it. “I had to protect the girls.”

  “Right, of course. Now I have to talk to the police and then I have to go. I have a friend and he needs me.”

  He put his hands up and backed away. “Fine, go talk to the police.”

  She nodded and walked past him, pretending she didn’t need him.

  * * *

  Jake wasn’t going to argue with her. He wouldn’t chase her and plead with her to stay in their lives. No way would he tell her how much they needed her.

  He remembered trying to tell his mother they needed her. He’d pleaded with her to take Samantha and Brody, to not leave the little ones. She had shaken her head and told him she was sorry. She couldn’t stay and be a mom.

  The police questioned Breezy. She told them everything Tyler had confessed to. She told them how she’d defended herself. And then she thanked them and said she had to go.

  She walked over to the Christmas tree and took her ornament off, the one he’d given her. When she approached him she did so with her chin up, her brown eyes soft. She looked like a woman preparing herself for a battle. “I’m leaving. It’s easier than waiting for you to tell me to go. But I’m taking this. I’m not leaving everything behind. And I’d like to be able to see my nieces from time to time.”

  He should stop her, he thought. But he couldn’t. That twelve-year-old boy who had begged his mother to stay wouldn’t let him. If people didn’t want to stay, they couldn’t be forced.

  “Take whatever you want.”

  She opened her mouth as if she meant to say something, but she shook her head and walked away. He watched her as she got into her car and drove away.

  Jake turned back to the house. Tyler was being put in the back of the police car. The deputy gave Jake a few more details. They would follow up, letting Jake know what charges would be filed. Jake listened but his mind had drifted off, to the pain that flashed in Breezy’s eyes.

  He should have told her about the private investigator. He should have told her it didn’t matter. Not anymore. But he’d waited too long and someone else had told her. No matter what he said, he looked guilty. He looked like a man who didn’t trust her.

  When he pulled up to the house, Marty came out. She watched him walk up the steps, across the porch. She stepped aside to let him in the house. “Well?”

  “She’s gone.” He kicked off his boots.

  “What do you mean gone?”

  He brushed a hand across his face. “What does gone usually mean?”

  “In this household it means a stubborn man doesn’t know what’s good for him and didn’t fight to keep what he wanted.”

  Jake plopped down in the recliner and looked up at her. “Really? And what does this man want?”

  “That woman?”

  “I’m not going to chase after her and try to force her to stay.”

  “No, you wouldn’t want to do that. Why try to talk out a misunderstanding when you can let it hang between you? After all, words are so useless.” Marty shot him an accusing look and then she dusted the table with the towel she’d carried in with her.

  “I learned a long time ago that you can’t beg someone to stay in your life.”

  “You learned that, did you?” Marty sat down on the edge of the sofa. “Did you ever learn that sometimes a person needs to hear the truth so they can make an informed decision?”

  “I’ve learned that, but I also know that Breezy is not a woman who stays in one place long. Maybe she was looking for this out?”

  “I don’t think so. She loves it here and she loves those girls.” Marty let a hefty pause hang between them. “And I think she probably loves you. Although I’m not sure why.”

  “Must be my charm.”

  “Go after her.”

  “I don’t know where she went,” he admitted. “Maybe she went back to Oklahoma. If so, then maybe that’s where she wants to be. Her sister’s there.”

  Marty studied him for a moment. “What’s in that report?”

  “That’s her business to tell.”

  “Do you care about her?”

  Jake shrugged at the question. “I’ve known her three weeks. I don’t know what I feel.”

  “Oh, I think you do.”

  Maybe he did care for her, but he’d been wrong before. What if he was wrong again?

  Chapter Sixteen

  Breezy walked down the hospital corridor to a room at the end. The nurse had informed her that Mr. Anderson was in a private room. And then the woman had said that Joe was quite a charmer. Yes, Joe was. But a private room? She thought back so many years ago and shivered at the memories.

  For a long moment she stood outside the door of Joe’s room telling herself that this moment was nothing like Maria. Joe wasn’t going to die. The nurse had told her that he’d definitely improved and that he was now stable. Though it had been touch and go when the ambulance
had brought him in.

  Ambulance? What had Joe been doing in Austin?

  There were a lot of questions and only the man himself could answer them. She rapped lightly on the door, waited for him to invite her in, then peeked inside the room to make sure it was indeed the Joe she knew. He waved her inside.

  “Joe, how are you?”

  “I’m going to be just fine, Breezy. It’s this old ticker of mine. It hasn’t been the healthiest the past few years. I never expected it to knock me down, though.”

  He indicated a chair next to the bed. She looked around the room with the small sleeper sofa, recliner and even a dorm-size refrigerator. It was better than the apartment she’d lived in back in California.

  “This is nice, Joe. Much better than the nativity,” she observed.

  “If the nativity was good enough for the King of Kings, I think it is good enough for one old man who has done a lot of wrong things in his life.”

  “Joe, is there someone I can call?”

  “No, there’s no one.”

  “No family, no children?” she pushed.

  He brushed a neatly manicured yet shaky hand over his face and shook his head. “No, I think not.”

  Now she was confused. “You think you don’t have children or you think I shouldn’t call?”

  The nurse came in, took vitals and checked the IV. She then moved around the room to take care of other small tasks and then asked Joe if he would like some coffee. Joe pointed at Breezy.

  “No, but my guest might.”

  Breezy shook her head. The nurse smiled at them and left.

  “Joe, are you sure you’re okay?”

  “I will be. It’s just time for me to make things right.”

  And then Joe told her a story about a young man who had come from a good family, a wealthy family, but he’d had a drinking problem that no one but his wife knew about. He’d been a mean drunk, he admitted. And his wife, rightly so, had left him. She’d taken their child with her, and a good deal of his money. She’d also forced him to sign paperwork stating he would never try to see their child.