“Yep.” Danny picked up a sledgehammer again, and another wall partition came down.
“Why?”
“She thinks it will be romantic.”
Luke kept his opinion of that to himself as he walked out of the barn and back to his truck to retrieve the heavy-duty work gloves he kept tucked behind the seat with his toolbox.
Danny looked up when he returned. “I thought the mention of romance had scared you off.”
Luke began to load up his arms with broken pieces of wood. “I haven’t been to a lot of weddings,” he acknowledged. “But generally the decor runs to flowers and bows, not cobwebs and dirt.”
His brother set down the hammer and bent to pick up some of the accumulated debris. “I’m getting rid of the cobwebs and dirt to make way for the flowers and bows,” he said, following him to the Dumpster.
Luke tossed the wood into the receptacle. “It would be easier to rent the community center.”
“I’ve put a deposit on it,” Danny admitted. “Just in case.”
“You’ve done a lot of work already,” he noted.
“I can’t take credit for all of it. Jamie’s been here a few times, Bella and Hudson have also pitched in and Annie’s here as much as possible—although I suspect that’s as much to ensure I’m following her grand design as to lend a hand.”
Luke chuckled. “Spoken like a man who understands his woman.”
“I’ve loved Annie forever, but we could have a hundred years together and I don’t think I’d ever pretend to understand her.”
“I hope you have a hundred years together to try,” he said sincerely.
“You know, that almost sounded like a wedding toast,” Danny mused. “Maybe you can repeat it on the twenty-fourth with a glass in your hand.”
“I haven’t decided if I’m going to stay that long,” he reminded his brother.
“I know,” Danny acknowledged. “But even if you don’t stay, you could come back for the wedding. I’d really like you to be there.”
“Then I will be,” he decided. “Even if I don’t stay, I’ll be here on the big day.”
“Of course, if you stay, you could help me turn this place into a wedding venue.”
“I’m a ranch hand, bro, not a miracle worker.”
Danny chuckled as they both got back to work.
But while Luke continued to ferry broken boards and debris to the Dumpster, he thought that maybe he would stay.
And maybe he would spend some time with Eva Armstrong while he was in town.
Chapter Five
A day off from the doughnut shop usually meant sleeping in for Eva, but she was awake early Saturday morning. She had too many things on her mind to be able to linger in bed. Or maybe it was too much of one thing on her mind—Luke Stockton.
She hadn’t stopped thinking about the man since he stepped up to the counter at Daisy’s on his first day back in town and ordered his coffee. Large. Black. To go. It wasn’t really the way he drank his coffee that stuck in her mind—it was the low, rumbling tone of his voice, the intensity in his deep blue eyes, the sexy curve of his unsmiling lips, the strong line of his jaw, the breadth of his shoulders and—
She shook her head.
And she was pathetically infatuated with a man she’d only crossed paths with a few times.
But in her heart, she was sure that Luke’s return to Rust Creek Falls now, after a dozen years away, was destiny. And after more failed relationships than she wanted to acknowledge, she believed that fate had deliberately put him in her path.
Of course, fate had given her signals before—inaccurate and unreliable ones. But Eva refused to give up. She believed in true love and happily-ever-after, and she trusted—with all of her heart—that she would find hers.
After a quick shower, she went downstairs for a cup of the coffee she knew her mother would have left on the warmer. Since her father’s cancer diagnosis, her parents had vowed to live every minute to the fullest. As a result, it was rare for them to spend time just hanging out around the house. Today they’d planned to leave early for Kalispell to browse the antiques shops; then they were having dinner with friends in the city, which meant that Eva had most of the day and the house all to herself.
As she sipped her first cup of coffee, she gathered the ingredients for her not-quite-famous, melt-in-your-mouth pie crust. Because a day off from the doughnut shop didn’t mean a day away from the kitchen. In fact, she was never happier than when she was mixing and measuring.
From an early age, she’d been fascinated by the process of putting together various dry and wet ingredients. Maybe they didn’t look like much of anything before they were put in the oven, but somehow, as she watched through the glass window, magic happened, turning unappealing pans of goop and lumps of batter into the most delicious cakes and cookies that brought smiles to the faces of her family and friends. By the time she was old enough to understand that it wasn’t magic but heat that caused the transformation, it didn’t matter—she was hooked.
As she cut the butter into the flour, the bowl of glossy red apples on the table snagged her attention. Well, that made the decision easy. She would make an apple pie. Not because Luke happened to mention that he was “an apple pie kind of guy” but because she had the necessary ingredients on hand.
She peeled and sliced the apples—enough for two pies, so that her mother could serve one for dessert after Sunday dinner.
Then she squeezed lemon juice over the fruit, sprinkled on some cinnamon and a light dusting of flour, then tossed the apples to ensure they were evenly coated.
Setting that bowl aside, she floured her work surface and rolled out the pastry she’d mixed earlier. She divided the filling between two dishes, then cut strips of rolled-out pastry to make the basket-weave crust, laid it over the apples, trimmed and pinched the edges, then sprinkled the top with sugar and slid the glass pie plates into the oven.
She tidied up the kitchen and sat down at the table with a second cup of coffee to wonder what she was going to do with the rest of her day. Of course, her thoughts then wandered to wondering what Luke Stockton was doing.
When the scent of baking apples began to permeate the air, she looked up Hudson Jones’s phone number and impulsively dialed. As she listened to the ring, she felt butterflies fluttering in her belly. Maybe this was a mistake. It was certainly presumptuous. The man had simply made a throwaway comment about apple pie and—
“Hello?”
She immediately recognized Luke’s sister’s voice. “Hi, Bella, it’s Eva Armstrong—from Daisy’s Donut Shop.”
“Hi, Eva.” The other woman’s tone was friendly enough, but Eva could hear the unspoken question in her response.
“I hope I’m not interrupting anything, but I’m trying to reach your brother, Luke.”
“Luke?” Bella echoed, sounding even more surprised now.
“When he was at the doughnut shop the other day, he mentioned that he liked apple pie and I baked one this morning that I could drop off for him.”
“He does like apple pie,” Bella confirmed.
“Should I bring it over, then?”
“I wish I could say yes and maybe steal a slice for myself,” his sister said, “but Luke’s actually at Short Hills Ranch visiting Jamie and Fallon and the kids today.”
“Oh.” Eva felt her spirits sink along with the possibility of crossing paths with the handsome cowboy.
“Of course, Jamie has a sweet tooth, too,” Bella told her. “If you wanted to take a drive over to the ranch, I’m sure your pie would be devoured and appreciated there.”
“I don’t want to intrude on their reunion,” she protested.
“I’m sure Luke would be happy to see you. Maybe even relieved.”
“Relieved?” she echoed.
/>
“I know Jamie’s glad that Luke came home,” Bella explained. “But I’m not sure he’s quite ready to forgive him for leaving in the first place.”
“He must have had his reasons,” Eva ventured, recalling what he’d told her about the situation after their parents were killed.
“Do you know where Short Hills Ranch is?” Bella asked her now.
“I do,” Eva confirmed. “But—”
“Good.” The other woman cut off her objection. “It would be a shame for that pie to go to waste.”
And Eva let Luke’s sister’s words convince her.
* * *
Luke might have grown up with six younger siblings, but he’d had little-to-no contact with kids in recent years. And while he’d been looking forward to seeing Jamie again and meeting his brother’s little ones, he couldn’t deny that he was feeling a little overwhelmed.
The toddlers were so active and boisterous, it was hard to believe that they’d been preemies. Maybe Henry, Jared and Katie were still small for twenty-two months—since he had no idea what was the average height or weight of an almost two-year-old, he’d take Fallon’s word for that—but they were undoubtedly healthy and happy. And loud. Very loud.
Which wasn’t entirely a bad thing as their nonstop chatter filled the long gaps and uncomfortable silences that punctuated his attempts at conversation with his youngest brother. Fallon tried to help, introducing topics that she thought might establish some common ground. But it was obvious to Luke that his brother was still angry—and maybe even hurt—by what he considered the abandonment by his three older siblings almost a dozen years earlier.
And though Jamie had apparently welcomed Daniel with open arms when he’d returned to Rust Creek Falls, Luke understood why his youngest brother might harbor more resentment toward him. As the oldest, Luke was the one who could have—and maybe should have—taken the initiative to look after his siblings and keep them all together. Instead, he’d failed them all.
The dogs provided another welcome distraction from the awkwardness between the brothers. In addition to three babies, Jamie had two retriever-shepherd mix puppies that were just over a year old. And the adorable mutts, like the kids, held nothing back.
According to Fallon, Jamie had found the pups the previous winter. The mother had been hit by a car and Jamie had rounded up her babies—seven in total—and taken them to the vet to be checked over and placed in good homes. Jamie hadn’t intended to keep even one for himself, but he’d somehow ended up bringing two of them home.
Andy and Molly had barked like crazy when Luke showed up at the door, jumping all over one another in their efforts to be the first to greet the visitor. A quick word from Jamie, however, and they’d immediately dropped their butts to the floor, although their bodies had continued to quiver with repressed excitement.
There was nothing repressed about them now as they tumbled on the floor with the kids, rewarding tugs on their ears and tails with sloppy, wet kisses. Growing up on Sunshine Farm, there had always been at least one dog around, but over the years, Luke had forgotten how much comfort and companionship an animal could provide. Maybe when he got back to Cheyenne he could drop by the shelter and pick out a dog. The idea was incredibly appealing to him, but he suspected a dog wouldn’t be happy confined in a tiny apartment while his human companion was gone from sunup to sundown every day.
“Are you getting hungry, Luke?” Fallon’s question drew him back to the present.
“I’m hungry,” her husband interjected.
“You’re always hungry,” she said, but she softened the reproach with a smile that was filled with love and affection.
Luke looked away, deliberately refocusing his attention on the babies so that he didn’t feel like a voyeur.
Maybe he shouldn’t stay in Rust Creek Falls too long. Both of his siblings who had remained in town—and the one who had returned—had fallen in love, and he had no desire to walk down the same path. He’d already experienced enough heartache to last a lifetime.
Sure, it warmed his heart to see Bella with Hudson, and to witness the way her millionaire husband doted on her. And yeah, he could appreciate the obvious connection between Jamie and Fallon—and no doubt Jamie appreciated having not just an extra set of hands to help with his three babies but the partnership of a woman who clearly loved Henry, Jared and Katie as if they were her own.
The engagement of Danny and Annie was less surprising to Luke, because he remembered how deeply in love his brother had been before they left town. In fact, Danny was the only one who had balked about the decision to leave Rust Creek Falls, and Luke had always suspected that Annie was the reason.
“I’m just going to check on the bread that’s in the oven,” Fallon said at the same time the doorbell rang. “Were you expecting more company?” she asked her husband.
Jamie shook his head.
“Bella?” Luke guessed as Henry climbed up onto the sofa and then onto his uncle’s shoulders from there. He instinctively reached up to hold the boy steady, not wanting to be responsible for the little guy tumbling off and crashing to the ground.
“She lived here with me and the triplets for more than fifteen months—she rarely remembers to knock before walking in,” Jamie responded, but there was affection rather than disapproval in his tone.
Jared—eager to do everything his brother did—was attempting to crawl up Luke’s front. “I’m glad you and Bella stayed close,” Luke said as he steadied the second toddler.
“We had to,” Jamie said pointedly. “We were all that we each had left.”
Luke didn’t know how to respond to that. No matter how many times he apologized, it wouldn’t change what had happened when he’d left Rust Creek Falls—or the reasons he’d felt compelled to go. Nothing could change the past, so he’d learned to put one foot in front of the other and move forward, though the weight of the guilt and regrets made the progress painfully slow.
He was grateful when Fallon came back into the family room, and even more so when he realized that she wasn’t alone.
“Look who dropped by,” she said.
Luke did look, and he felt an immediate pull low in his belly when he saw Eva Armstrong. He recognized the pull as basic physical attraction, and while he was willing to acknowledge that his blood hummed in his veins whenever he was near the pretty baker, he was also determined to ignore the hormones clamoring for him to stop looking and start moving.
“Bella told me that you’d be here,” Eva explained before anyone could ask. “I didn’t want to interrupt but—”
“You’re not interrupting anything,” Luke interjected, inexplicably grateful for her presence.
“Eva brought pie,” Fallon said. “Still-warm-from-the-oven apple pie.”
“My favorite,” Luke noted.
Eva’s cheeks flushed with pretty color. “Yes, you mentioned that when you were at Daisy’s the other day.”
“You made the pie for me?” he asked, surprised and pleased by the gesture.
She shrugged. “I like to bake, and I had apples on hand.”
“If only we had ice cream,” Jamie lamented as his daughter toddled over to their new guest and lifted her arms in a silent plea to be picked up.
Eva, without any hesitation, did so, propping the toddler on her hip with a natural ease that Luke couldn’t help but envy. “I brought some of that, too,” she said.
“Then I say it’s time for pie,” Jamie said.
Luke, his mouth already watering in anticipation—for Eva as much as her pie—nodded his agreement.
But Fallon shook her head. “We can have pie for dessert after lunch, which I am going to dish up now.”
“That’s my cue to go,” Eva said, but Katie was winding a strand of Eva’s long blond hair around her hand, effectively entangling her.
> The neat braid she’d worn when she was working behind the counter at Daisy’s was pretty enough and undoubtedly practical for work, but Luke liked the way she looked now, with her hair tumbling over her shoulders—and captured in his adorable niece’s fist.
“But you just got here,” Luke protested.
“And it’s lunchtime,” she pointed out.
“You can stay and eat with us,” Fallon said. “There’s plenty to go around.”
“Oh, no, I couldn’t,” Eva said.
“Do you have other plans?” Jamie’s wife asked her.
“No,” she admitted. “But I really don’t want to intrude.”
“You’re really not,” Fallon assured her. “I’ll just go set another place at the table.”
“Are you sure you don’t mind?” Eva asked, her gaze sliding to Luke as if gauging his reaction.
“Of course not,” Fallon insisted.
“My wife always cooks enough for several extra people,” Jamie said. “And her beef stew is exceptional.”
“Beef stew sounds like the perfect meal to warm the blood on a cold day,” Eva said.
Luke was pretty sure he knew at least a dozen more interesting ways to warm her blood, but he quickly slammed the door on that wayward thought.
“Then let’s get HJK rounded up and settled into their high chairs for lunch,” Jamie said, lifting Jared off his brother’s chest and into the air, making the little guy giggle.
“Up! Up!” Henry demanded.
Fallon deftly took Jared from her husband so that he could treat Henry to the same high ride.
Since Eva already had Katie on her hip, she carried the little girl to the kitchen.
Luke followed, appreciating the subtle sway of her hips beneath the long, loose skirt. Most of the women he knew lived in jeans and flannel, but Eva seemed to prefer softer fabrics and styles. Rather than downplay her femininity, she embraced it. And Luke found himself wanting to embrace it, too, and every other part of her.
* * *
Eva felt a little self-conscious about sitting down with the Stocktons for what was obviously a family meal, but everyone else seemed to take her presence in stride. Fallon directed her to the empty chair beside Luke, but first, Eva set Katie in her high chair, buckling the belt around her middle to ensure the active toddler wouldn’t be able to wriggle out of it.
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