Love Inspired December 2014 - Box Set 2 of 2: Her Holiday FamilySugar Plum SeasonHer Cowboy HeroSmall-Town Fireman

by Ruth Logan Herne

  Tanner was quiet a moment, the hum of the truck tires on the snowy road the only sound in the cab of the truck. “So, when you left Saddlebank, what did you do?”

  Her heart raced but then she took a breath, quieting herself. His question was simply a way of catching up, filling in the gaps of their separate lives, Keira reminded herself. Just like he’d said they should.

  “I moved to Seattle and got a job there as a waitress,” she said, looking ahead at the road, trying not to delve too far back. “Same work I did at the Grill and Chill when we were dating.”

  “Did you know someone there? Is that why you chose Seattle?”

  “No. I just wanted to move close to the water. Be somewhere different than Saddlebank.”

  “Did you like it there?”

  She’d hated most every minute of it, but admitting to that would only lead to questions that would take her places she didn’t want to go. “I didn’t mind it. I had a few adventures, made a few friends, but I was glad to return to the ranch and do what I always enjoyed. Helping my dad with the leatherwork.”

  “And now you’ve expanded,” he said.

  “Business is good. At one time I thought of setting up a shop in town but my dad didn’t want me to leave so for now, I’m happy working here.”

  “Any other plans for the business?” Tanner asked, turning the truck one-handed onto the highway.

  “A few. I want to hire someone more permanently to help me with the piecework. I want to set up a website and do internet orders. I’ve had a number of requests for that whenever we do a trade show. I need more trade show equipment.”

  “Like what?”

  “Some custom backgrounds. A few more display racks. A better table where I can do business. That kind of thing.”

  “Sounds ambitious.”

  “I like the work and I feel like I’ve brought it to a new level.”

  “No more saddle work?”

  “I’d do some, but I’d have to hire someone to help me with that.”

  “Maybe you could teach me.”

  She shot him a look, wondering if he was teasing. And though his mouth was quirked up in his familiar half smile that usually denoted some form of mockery, she caught a glint in his eyes that softened it.

  “Would you want to do that? Trade in your wrenches for a sewing machine?”

  “Well, when you talk about it like that, I’m not so sure.” He laughed, but then grew serious again. “I’ve always liked working in the shop with your dad. I knew a few things. I’m a fast learner. I think I could put a saddle together with the right teacher.”

  There it was again. That hint of a promise. A vague glimpse of a future.

  “And what about you?” she asked. “What did you do after...after we broke up?”

  Tanner shrugged and his mouth shifted into the partial smile that could either be construed as cynical or as teasing. “You know already. Worked. Rodeoed. Tried to outrun the shadows of David’s death.” He glanced sidelong at her and his smile shifted toward cynical.

  Then he looked away and in the silence that drifted up between them, Keira knew Tanner’s questions hadn’t been answered.

  Please, Lord, she prayed. Let me know what to do. What to say.

  But not yet, she thought, catching his crooked smile as he reached across the cab for her hand. She put her hand in his, curling her fingers around his, letting his large, rough hand warm hers.

  Not yet.

  Chapter Ten

  “You’re still around?” Vic Moore asked as he walked alongside Tanner out of church. “I thought you had to head out to Sheridan.”

  Tanner looked up at his old friend and shrugged. Tanner was tall, but he always felt short around Vic, who was easily six-four. With his dark hair and easygoing smile, Tanner was surprised Vic hadn’t been snapped up by any of the single girls in Saddlebank.

  “Yeah. Got a good reason to stay.” Tanner glanced behind him at Keira, who had been detained by Brooke and Allison, who he caught looking at him with eagerness in their expressions. They looked immediately away, but it wasn’t too hard to guess they were talking about him.

  “I kind of guessed that. Keira’s looking a lot happier than she has for a long time,” Vic said, adding a wink.

  Tanner smiled at the comment, which also ignited a spark of hope. He still felt as if he and Keira were carefully finding their way around this new relationship, but he was starting to look past the next day. Starting to let the vague promise of a future settle in his mind.

  “If you got some time, I need to talk to you,” Vic said as they made their way to the foyer of the church.

  “You sound serious,” Tanner said, shooting another glance back to see if Keira was coming. He hoped they could go out for lunch afterward. Spend some time alone, away from the ranch. He turned his attention back to Vic. “I don’t have a lot of time. I need to head back to Sheridan tomorrow, spend a couple of days there to make sure I still have a shop and some employees.” He had called the shop foreman last night and had received a favorable report. But he had also gotten a call from a dissatisfied customer, so he had to deal with that, as well. “But talk to me now, if you have the time. Keira will be a while.”

  Vic caught his lip between his teeth, as if thinking, then angled his head to a quieter corner of the foyer. “Follow me,” he said.

  They walked through people tugging coats off hangers; mothers and fathers crouched down teasing mittens on reluctant hands, pulling stocking caps on turning heads.

  “So, what do you need to tell me?” Tanner asked when they stopped.

  “It’s not a huge deal. I didn’t want anyone to overhear, but I thought, now that you’re back, I could get out of the lease I have on Alice’s ranch.”

  Even after all this time, calling it Alice’s ranch still created a roil of agitation. “Why would you want to do that?”

  “I know I’ve got a year left but Keith McCauley approached me about his ranch. He said we could lease to own but Keith wanted us to start this spring. That would mean I’d have to back out of the lease on Alice’s. Keith’s place is perfect. It’s right beside mine. I could get my brother Jared back to Saddlebank and on board but I can’t afford to lease two ranches and run my own.”

  “So why do you need to talk to me about that?”

  “Well, now that you’re back, I thought you would be taking over the Circle C and running it.”

  “I don’t know if I’m ‘back’ per se,” Tanner said, but even as he edged around Vic’s comment, he knew that he was closer and closer to finding a way to make that happen. “I’m just taking things one day at a time for now,” Tanner conceded. “But I’ll talk to Alice about the lease. I’m back Wednesday night for a Thanksgiving dinner do-over at Refuge Ranch. I can let you know then.”

  “That’s soon enough.” Vic eased out a smile, then started walking toward the foyer. “And I’m looking forward to seeing you at the NFR.”

  “I hope so. Got a lot riding on it.”

  “Proud of you, friend. You’ll do great.”

  Tanner smiled as they stepped into the foyer. The pressure to win had always been there, but as the actual event got closer it was squeezing harder.

  “What are you two chatting about here, all by yourselves?” Keira found them, hooked her arm through Tanner’s and pulled herself close to him.

  “Business stuff,” Vic said, giving Keira and Tanner a broad smile. “But we’re done here.” He grew serious as he looked at Tanner. “Let me know later this week what you figure.”

  Tanner nodded and as he left, Keira gave his arm a light jiggle, as if getting his attention. “What do you need to let him know?”

  “Business stuff,” Tanner repeated, giving her a quick smile. “So, what do you say we go for lunch? I thought we could try out that ne
w place that Peggy Janik started up. Give her some support instead of the Grill and Chill for a change.”

  “Hopefully George won’t find out.”

  “The competition is good for him. He needs to up his game if anything is going to happen between him and Brooke.”

  Keira stopped him with a finger on his mouth, her eyes wide with alarm. “Shush, you. It’s the other way around. George has no idea that Brooke likes him.”

  Tanner was confused, but he wasn’t going to waste any brain space on Brooke and George’s puzzling relationship. Right now, he was enjoying Keira standing close to him. He caught her hand and kissed it, savoring the return to the easy give and take they always had as a couple.

  “Let’s go, then.”

  “I should let my parents know we won’t be home for lunch,” Keira said.

  She pulled out her phone and while he waited for her to notify her parents he got her coat. But just before he returned to the alcove where Keira stood, Alice came out of the church. Her eyes flicked from him to Keira’s coat, hanging over his arm.

  “Are you staying at the ranch tonight?” she asked.

  “No. I’ll be heading for Sheridan. Why?”

  “The carpenters need to talk to me about a bearing wall. I was wondering if you could help me out.”

  For a moment Tanner felt torn. He recognized her appeal for help as another small connection she was trying to create.

  “I can’t until after the NFR,” he said, acknowledging her request but not brushing it off completely. “If it can wait until then, I can help.”

  “That would be nice.” She stood, watching him, as if she wanted to say something else, but then she turned and walked away.

  As he watched her leave, pity for her brushed over his heart. She looked so alone. She had no husband and her beloved son was dead. He was all she had left.

  Which made him wonder if he should approach Alice about the ranch when he came back for Thanksgiving dinner.

  Don’t you want to wait until after the NFR?

  But what if he didn’t win?

  He had to. Too much was riding on it. Literally.

  “Hey, you, is that my coat?” Keira tugged at the coat he still held and he turned his attention back to her.

  “It is, my dear,” he said, helping her put it on. As she zipped it up, he turned her around and pulled the hood up over her hair, taking a moment to brush a strand away from her face.

  He reminded himself that right now he was with Keira. The NFR and all it represented was a few days away yet.

  For now, that was enough.

  * * *

  “So when will you be back for the Thanksgiving do-over?” Keira set her napkin down beside her plate, trying not to project her expectations on Tanner.

  They were sitting in a quiet corner of The Pasta Place, a new venture for a woman from Great Falls who had moved to Saddlebank a year ago. Keira had come a couple of times with Brooke, but George at the Grill and Chill was a bigger draw for her friend.

  “You just polished off a whole order of ravioli, two pieces of garlic toast and a salad, and you want to talk about another meal?”

  Tanner’s crooked smile created a quiver in her stomach. He could always do that to her.

  “No. I want to talk about family and being thankful for all the blessings we have.”

  He leaned forward and took her hands in his, his thumb caressing hers. “I have to go to Sheridan tonight,” he said, the reluctance in his voice sending a happy thrill through her. “I need to talk to my shop foreman face-to-face, but then I’ll be back in time for the feast. As long as you’re making your mom’s infamous sweet potatoes, I’ll be there.”

  “If that’s all it takes, I’ll make gallons of sweet potatoes. Plus my dad had bought this fifteen-pound turkey that is going to take forever to stuff and even longer to eat,” she added, “I doubt I’d make that much of a dent in a turkey that size,” he returned.

  “I’ve seen you eat. You could definitely have an influence on the leftover quotient.”

  He laughed and once again Keira felt as if she had to pinch herself. To remind herself that this was Tanner sitting in front of her, not some figment of her imagination or a dream she would wake from.

  “I’ll be there as soon as I can,” he said, grinning at her.

  Keira nodded, holding his gaze, other questions rising to the surface.

  After Tanner had kissed her the first time, she had made herself a promise that she wasn’t going to think further ahead than the next moment with Tanner, but she couldn’t stop the past and the future from slipping into the present.

  “And then the NFR?” she said quietly.

  Tanner drew in a long, slow breath, looking down at their joined hands. “Then the NFR. And after that...” He let his voice drift off as if he wasn’t sure what was coming after that, either.

  “Do you have to do this?” The question burst out of her before she could stop herself. Silly her. She wasn’t just talking about some local rodeo. This was the Super Bowl of rodeos. What Tanner had been working toward all year.

  But the thought of his motivation for competing burned like a sharp knife in her chest. David wasn’t worth it.

  Tanner’s eyes narrowed a moment and the knife turned. Had she pushed him too hard? Asked too much?

  “You know why I need to do this,” he said quietly.

  “But you’re not doing it for yourself, are you?”

  “It’s all...laid out. All planned.”

  She heard an edge of desperation in his voice. As if he had to convince himself even more than he had to convince her.

  “You make it sound as if you have no choice, but you do. You don’t need to prove anything to anyone. Not anyone who matters.”

  “Alice matters.”

  Frustration clawed at her.

  She wished she could tell him exactly why she wanted him to not compete. But she didn’t dare say more.

  Then he looked up at her and his smile was back, the warm intensity of his gaze making her cheeks flush.

  “No matter what happens, I’m hoping that when I come back we can be together.”

  Her shoulders dropped and the tightness in her neck eased. “I like the sound of that,” she said quietly. It was enough, wasn’t it?

  Tanner’s smile drifted off and he leaned forward, brushing a kiss over her lips as if to seal his promise. Then he sat back, his expression growing serious. “But that’s the future. For now, we’re here and I’m glad we could spend some time away from everyone else. It’s been an interesting few days, hasn’t it?” he asked quietly.

  “A wonderful few days,” Keira reiterated.

  Tanner’s smile shifted. “I never thought I would be able to say that I’m thankful for a good old-fashioned Montana snowstorm.”

  Keira’s only response was a warm smile. Then Tanner’s expression grew serious again. “You know, I was hesitant to stop by the ranch when I first came here,” he said quietly. “I brought the saddle other places but none of them could do it. I fought every inclination to come because I knew you were back and I didn’t want to face you again.”

  “Why was that?” she asked, though she knew precisely the reason why he was. The precariousness of their growing relationship seemed to require going back over old ground in order to find their footing in this new place they had come to.

  Tanner’s grin showed her that he understood what she was doing, but it also showed her that he didn’t seem to mind. As if he, too, understood the groundwork they needed to lay in order to move on.

  “The thought of facing you made my heart hurt.”

  The blunt honesty of his response sent a stab of remorse through her and for a moment her own resolve wavered.

  You need to tell him.

 
; But she brushed the voice aside. Some events in the past needed to be dealt with but others were best left behind. They couldn’t be changed.

  “I’m sorry,” she said quietly. “I sometimes wish we could go back and do things differently.”

  “How would you have?”

  “I would have let you know what was important to me and what wasn’t important so that you wouldn’t think you had to do all that extra work just to provide for us. I think we should have talked more. I think we should have been more honest with each other. We didn’t talk as much as we should have. We used to always pray and read the Bible together, but we lost that somewhere along the way.”

  “I know that was my fault,” Tanner said quietly, looking down at their hands, now entwined. “After my dad died, I felt as if I lost my way. And then, when I found out I didn’t get anything in his will, that hurt more than I wanted to admit, and I was too proud to tell you.”

  “And so it should. Have you ever found out why you dad did that?”

  Tanner shook his head. “I think only Alice knows the real reason and we’ve not been especially close. And the only other person who could tell me was Dad, and he’s gone.”

  Keira fought down the usual frustration over the situation then she stopped herself.

  Forget the former things.

  “And the lawyer?”

  Tanner pulled his hands out of hers, folding his arms over his chest. His body language was eloquent and Keira felt as if she had pushed things too far. Then he released a deep sigh. “I feel as if hiring this lawyer was part of what sent David to his death.”

  “That’s crazy.” The words burst out of Keira and as soon as she spoke them she wished she could take them back. Especially when a deep glower lowered Tanner’s dark eyebrows, shading his eyes.

  “Not crazy at all,” he growled. “It was finding out about the lawyer that caused the fight between us. He was so angry with me.” The pain in his voice cut like a knife.

  “But that was David’s problem, not yours,” she said. “I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. It wasn’t right for your father to do that. Besides, we don’t know if it was Alice’s idea or your father’s. Maybe she had something over him. Some reason he did what he did.”