Even her sister Mia’s husband, Slade, had been a little on the suspicious side when he first found her. He’d looked into her past and dug up what dirt he could find. He’d done it for Mia. Even bringing her to Oklahoma had been for Mia, not for Breezy.
It had worked out, though. And had given her a taste of what it was like to belong. It had only been a few days, but she wanted to belong in Martin’s Crossing. Belong to a town with a small grocery store and neighbors who asked how she was doing.
Jake ended his call and walked back toward her. With his long, powerful strides he was there in a matter of steps. He kneeled next to her, bending those long legs and folding his arms over his knees. He pushed back the black cowboy hat and peered at her. He looked concerned.
She took a breath and waited.
“Are you okay?”
“Of course I am.” She made sure to smile as she said it. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
His face split in a grin. “Well, you were almost toast out there with Johnny.”
“The bull’s name is Johnny? How ridiculous.”
Eyebrows arched. “Really? What would you name him?”
She shook her head. “I thought perhaps Sir Loin. But then he didn’t seem very chivalrous for a knight, so maybe Johnny is better.”
“He usually isn’t aggressive, but he does like to play. And when a bull his size decides to play, that makes you the bouncy ball.”
“I’m glad you came along when you did.”
“Me, too,” he replied. His voice was soft, like wind through the pines, and it undid her a tiny bit. “You’re probably cold.”
She was cold. She’d been wearing yoga pants and a T-shirt when she’d gone on this wild adventure. And her slippers were soaked from the damp morning grass. As she considered her pathetic condition, he slipped off his jacket and eased it around her shoulders.
“This should help.”
Words failed her. The jacket smelled of Jake Martin, like pine, mountains in the fall and cold winter air. She wanted to bury her nose in the collar and inhale his scent. She wanted to tell him she didn’t need his jacket. Without his jacket she was safe. Not tangled up with him, longing to be a part of something she’d never be a part of. In her experience, wanting always ended with disappointment. What she wanted was always taken from her or left behind when she moved on.
*
Jake watched as a train of emotions flickered across her face. He’d seen gratitude when he’d first put that coat around her, then he’d seen fear and maybe regret. He wished she wasn’t so easy to read. She’d be less complicated if she could be as composed as she thought she was.
Breezy was poetry, classic novels and maybe the Bible, all rolled into one very open book. It was a book he thought he might like to read. In any other life but his own.
For Violet and Rose’s sakes, he couldn’t mess this up. He’d seen, even in their short introduction to Breezy, that the girls would need this woman in their lives. But he couldn’t need her. His entire life was a juggling act. The ranch, his career, the twins, his family. One more thing might set the whole mess falling fast around him.
But he would handle the moments when she made him smile, made him laugh. He was selfish that way.
“Do you want to go back to the house?” he asked, needing to get past whatever vibrated in the air between them.
She shook her head; he’d known she would. “I’m cold, but I’m not going to faint or fall apart, Martin.”
He smiled again. “I didn’t begin to think you would, Hernandez.”
At that she actually smiled, and he saw her vulnerability slip away. She was strong again. Snuggled in his jacket that she would leave scented with her lavender-and-citrus fragrance.
“If you need to do something, go right ahead,” she offered. “I know you didn’t come over here with the intention of rescuing me and then solving a mystery.”
“No, I came over to feed. To do that, I’ll have to get the tractor and hook a round bale. I’ll be gone in about fifteen minutes.”
“I haven’t forgotten how to protect myself. I’ve been doing it a long time.”
He had no doubt she could protect herself. And he also knew that was her way of telling him she didn’t need him to look after her. He walked away, taking a spare jacket that had been left inside the tack room and heading out the side door to the tractor. He climbed up into the big green-and-yellow machine and closed the door, blocking out the sounds and thoughts that were bombarding him this morning.
But one thought wouldn’t be evaded. When was the last time anyone had looked out for Breezy? Had she ever been made to feel safe, to feel protected?
It wasn’t his job, that role of protector. She did have a sister in Oklahoma. And she had made it clear that she relied on herself, her own abilities.
Jake had the twins, Samantha, Brody and sometimes Duke to watch over, to keep out of trouble and to protect. Lawton had put Breezy in his life but he hadn’t made Jake her guardian.
With that settled in his mind, he drove out through the field with a round bale on the back of the tractor and cattle following behind him. He’d hired a kid to do this job but it hadn’t worked out. James had been twenty-one and wanting to save up to go to welding school. After a week of taking care of things at Lawton’s place, James had stopped showing up.
That left it to Jake. Maybe when Brody came home he’d help out. And Duke would do what he could.
As he headed back to the barn to park the tractor the county deputy was pulling up in his car. Mac the blue heeler greeted him, his stub tail wagging. Jake knew the deputy. They’d gone to school together a long time ago.
When he stepped back into the barn after parking the tractor, Deputy Aaron Mallard was in the office. Breezy stood in the doorway answering questions and apologizing because she really hadn’t seen anything other than loose cattle and an open door.
The deputy nodded in greeting when he saw Jake. “Jake, been a while.”
“Aaron, yeah, it has. I didn’t touch anything, but I can tell you it wasn’t like this yesterday.”
“Didn’t figure you left it a mess. And I know Lawton was a stickler for neatness. Someone was looking for something in the filing cabinet. It’s pried open. Funny, because I’m not seeing anything but feed bills and farm equipment receipts.”
“That’s really all that we kept in here.”
“Anything in the house that someone would want?”
“I guess there could still be paperwork or research in Lawton’s office. He took most of his work to Austin but sometimes he worked at home,” Jake responded. He tried to remember anything Lawton had said or even hinted at. Had they had prowlers before? It wasn’t unheard-of these days.
The country used to be safe. They hadn’t locked their doors for more years than he could remember. Yeah, life had changed. People didn’t mind stealing from neighbors. Worse than that, now they even stole from the church if they got a chance.
What had happened to respect? Leaning against the door frame, he shook his head at the turn of his thoughts. “I’ll take a look around, and see if I can find anything that might have been interesting to a burglar.”
“Could be it isn’t a burglar, Jake.” The deputy closed the filing cabinet drawer and walked out of the office. “Could be they’re searching for something and it isn’t a random breakin. Lawton developed some pretty serious financial software. Could he have left something around here that he was working on? Something new?”
“Yeah, maybe,” Jake agreed, trying hard not to think about how this put the twins, and Breezy, in danger. If someone was searching for Lawton’s latest project, what would they do to get their hands on it?
“I’ll make sure we send a patrol by here a couple of times a day, and you all keep the alarm system activated.” The deputy gave Breezy a look this time. “And keep the doors locked.”
Jake walked Aaron out. They discussed the odds of it being someone they knew. They talked about the weather and Chris
tmas. As they talked, Breezy walked out of the barn, closing the door behind her. She told Jake she’d meet him at the house.
She was still wearing his jacket. He watched her walk down the driveway, his dog next to her. He knew her scent would linger on his jacket. Every time he pulled it on, he’d smell that light spring fragrance.
Jake had been around awhile. He knew temptation when he saw it, when it walked away with his dog and his coat. And maybe took a little of his common sense with it.
It had been years since he’d met temptation head-on like this, but he still recognized it for what it was. And he still knew where that road led. He knew he wasn’t going there.
Chapter Five
After Jake left, Breezy decided to unpack her few belongings. She’d been putting off the task of settling in, thinking something would happen, preparing for the reality that this, too, could be taken from her. She’d kept her clothes in her suitcase and her toiletries in the bag she’d put on the bathroom counter. Unpacking meant staying. Unpacking meant a commitment to remain here and help raise two little girls.
It meant staying in Jake Martin’s life. For a long, long time. Always being the person he tolerated. A person he’d rather not have in his world.
She had news for him. He was no picnic, either. But they were stuck with each other and she’d make the best of it.
The decision to stay meant picking a room. There were two bedrooms and a craft room upstairs. She had picked a spare room on the ground floor, close to the room that had belonged to the twins. A room those twins would return to in time. They would spend nights with her. Maybe even weeks.
Breezy’s new room was pretty with tan, textured walls and another wall of stone, with a fireplace in the center and French doors that led to a patio. She stood in the middle of that room and tried to imagine herself living there. She tried to picture herself helping Jake Martin raise two little girls, picture them growing up. She would be there as they went to school, as they started to think about boys and dating, and then someday they would leave. And where would she be then? Still in Martin’s Crossing, still single and wishing she could find a place to belong?
What if she grew to love this town?
How would it feel to grow old in Martin’s Crossing? For some reason, images of Jake Martin popped into her mind. Unattainable, undeniably gorgeous, a man with rules, a man of faith. She would be coparenting those little girls with a man who was everything she’d never been.
She headed down the hall to the kitchen, where she quickly made a list of things she needed from the store. What she really needed was to get out of the house. Breezy headed for Martin’s Crossing, AKA: The One-Horse Town. As she drove she called Mia. She needed to tell her sister everything that had happened. She also needed to know she still had an ally, someone who trusted her.
“Hey, sis.” Mia sounded bright, happy. Of course she was happy; she’d found the man of her dreams in Slade McKennon and the two of them were having a baby. “How are you?”
“I’m good. It looks as if I’ll be staying here awhile.”
“Really? But…”
“Lawton left me something in his will.” Her voice choked as she said it, and she blinked away the threat of tears.
“Breezy, are you okay? Do you need me to come down?”
Breezy cleared her throat. “I’m good. Mia, he left me joint custody of his little girls.”
“Girls. As in children?”
“Twins. They’re toddlers.” She paused, because saying it would make it real. “I’m going to have to stay here.”
“Oh, Breezy, no. You were just getting settled. You still have your things at my house.”
A few things in boxes she’d never unpacked. Even at Mia’s she’d had a hard time believing she had a place to stay. And there wasn’t much in those boxes. A few stray seashells, a photograph of herself singing at a coffee shop in Pasadena and a Christmas ornament. Because families had Christmas ornaments they kept and hung up each year. She’d bought one for her tree at Mia’s.
“I’ll be able to come up eventually. But for now, I’m going to have to stay close to Martin’s Crossing.”
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Mia, a former federal agent, couldn’t let go of that instinct to look beneath the surface. Breezy smiled, thankful, so thankful, for her sister. They’d spent almost twenty years apart but they’d been busy reconnecting, making up for that lost time.
“I’m really okay. I’ve been in worse places.” Homeless shelters, on the street, alone.
“I’ll be praying for you.”
Mia’s words came so easily. Her life with the Coopers had been grounded in faith. She had a foundation, one that included a loving and stable family. Breezy’s path had been different. She hesitated to answer and Mia knew.
“Breezy, it gets easier.”
Believing, having faith, trusting. Yes, she was sure it would get easier. “I know. I’m going to work through this, Mia.”
“I know you will. So tell me about the girls.”
She smiled. “They’re beautiful. They’re two and almost identical. They have dark hair and blue eyes.”
A long pause. “And who are you sharing this guardianship with?”
“Lawton’s brother-in-law, Jake Martin.”
“Oh.”
Breezy smiled a little. “Don’t say it like that. He’s horrible, an absolutely straitlaced grouch.”
“And there’s nothing worse than straitlaced grouches, right?” Mia teased. “Who, other than you, calls a man ‘straitlaced’? Does he wear cardigans with elbow patches, maybe he has thick glasses and…”
Breezy laughed at the image. “Stop! He’s just… Well, he has rules.”
Their discussion of Jake unfortunately brought an image of the man to mind, and it sure wasn’t straitlaced. He was a man who made a girl dream of chivalry, of being rescued, of being protected. She’d never counted on being rescued, and she’d learned at an early age that she could only count on herself.
For years Mia had been on the list of people she didn’t count on. As a little girl, Breezy had spent several years waiting for her sister to find her, to rescue her. Because as children it was Mia who looked out for her. Mia had made sure she didn’t go hungry. But Mia hadn’t shown up and Breezy, the child, hadn’t understood that her sister had been a child, too.
“Shudder! A man with rules,” Mia said, bringing her back to the conversation.
“You’re not helping.”
“No,” Mia agreed, “I’m not. I’m sure he’s perfectly horrible. I think I’ll look up Jake Martin of Martin’s Crossing on Google and see what I come up with.”
“Please don’t.” Because she knew that would only convince Mia to begin plotting Breezy’s demise. Or marriage. “Just say your prayers for me and I’ll keep you posted.”
“I love you, Breeze,” Mia said. The words, even spoken from so far away, made all the difference.
“Love you, too.”
Breezy ended the call as she drove past the city-limit sign of Martin’s Crossing, population 678. She wasn’t quite to town. There were a few farmhouses with barns scattered about, and a flea market with a gravel parking lot a little farther in. The building that housed the flea market was decorated for Christmas with lights wrapped around the posts, and plastic deer with red bows on their necks placed along the exterior. A tree, big and tacky, had been decorated with garland and big ornaments.
Ahead of her she could see the gas station on the left. On the right was the Martin’s Crossing Community Church and fellowship hall. Next to it was a large open area and a park. A block down from the church she knew would be a left-hand turn that was the main street of Martin’s Crossing. A street that was wide, and had a couple of businesses on either side. She’d noticed a restaurant called Duke’s No Bar and Grill, just down from it was the feed store and across from that was the grocery and a tiny gift and clothing store. She had seen a couple of other businesses that she would check out in time.
Welcome to Martin’s Crossing.
She pulled into a parking space in front of the grocery store and got out. In front of her a man had just opened a ladder and was climbing up it, holding a string of lights. The building in front of him was tiny and narrow, with a single door and a window. The sign on the window claimed it to be the home of the wood-carved nativity. Above that sign was one that heralded the name of the building as Lefty’s Arts and Antiques.
“Hey there, young lady.” He smiled down at her.
“Hello.”
“You must be Lawton’s sister.”
Breezy was surprised. “How did you know?”
He grinned. “Word travels fast in a town like Martin’s Crossing.”
“Yes, I’m sure it does.”
“Could you hand me up the string of lights and hold them as I hook them up to this overhang?” He grinned down at her again. He had white hair, gray eyes and a smile that took away her reservations, that part of her that always held back.
“Of course.” She held up the lights and he pulled a hammer out of the tool belt hanging from his waist.
“Thank you. My name’s Lefty. Lefty Mueller. I’ve been in this town all of my life.”
“I see,” she said, not knowing what else to say. His gray brows drew together as he squinted, watching her with equally gray eyes.
“And your name is…?” he asked as he raised his arms to hook lights along the overhang.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I’m Breezy Hernandez.”
“Lovely, very lovely. Well, I’m glad you’ve come to Martin’s Crossing, Breezy Hernandez.” He grinned. “We can always use a fresh breeze.”
She smiled at the turn of phrase. “You’re very charming.”
“I do my best.” He slipped lights over another hook. “And I love to think that I help bring Christmas cheer to this little town. I’ve got these lights now. You go on inside and look around.”
She glanced toward the grocery store, wondering what time it closed, then gave up and walked through the door of Lefty’s little shop. As she stepped inside a Christmas carol played, ending abruptly when the door latched. The interior of the store made it easy to believe that Christmas was less than four weeks away.
Love Inspired December 2014 - Box Set 1 of 2: A Rancher for ChristmasHer Montana ChristmasAn Amish Christmas JourneyYuletide Baby Page 25