After less than two weeks in Rust Creek Falls, he was more tempted by her entreaty than he’d ever thought he would be. But his sister wouldn’t want him to move back to Rust Creek Falls if she knew the truth about why he’d left. If she knew that he was responsible for tearing their family apart.
He’d always thought the self-imposed exile was his punishment for being responsible for the loss of their parents. He hadn’t known that the deaths of Lauren and Rob were only the beginning. He’d chosen to walk away—confident that Jamie, Bella, Liza and Dana would be taken care of by their grandparents. He hadn’t known that their family had been further torn apart, that Liza and Dana had been put up for adoption, that Jamie and Bella had been given a roof over their heads but not much more.
His heart ached for all of them, but for Bella most of all. He couldn’t fathom everything she’d been through—a teenage pregnancy and miscarriage followed by the death of their grandmother. Yet, by some miracle of fate, she’d gotten through all of that. And looking at her now, snuggled in the loving arms of her husband, Luke was both grateful and relieved to know that she’d found a partner who loved and appreciated the wonderful woman she was.
Jamie had traveled an equally rocky path to get where he was, including the death of his first wife only hours after the birth of their three babies. But he had worked hard to make his ranch a success for himself and his children, and he’d even found love again with his longtime friend and confidante.
Danny had been miserable when he left Rust Creek Falls with Luke and Bailey, but he’d eventually found his way home again to reconnect with his high school sweetheart and discover that he was the father of an eleven-year-old daughter he never knew existed. And while Luke suspected their reunion had been more painful and complicated than he knew, they were now planning a wedding and future together.
He was sincerely happy for each of them, genuinely grateful that they’d managed—seemingly against all odds—to find happiness and contentment in their lives. Although he’d lost touch with Bailey years earlier when his brother had headed to New Mexico, he drew comfort from the knowledge that Bailey was with the woman he loved—likely married and possibly even a father now, too.
He didn’t know anything about what his two youngest sisters had been doing for the past twelve years, but he was looking forward to seeing Dana at the wedding. According to Bella, their twenty-year-old sister had been adopted by a wonderful couple and raised in a loving home. He could only hope that Liza had fared as well—and that Hudson’s private investigator would track her and Bailey down soon so that their reunion might be as complete as possible.
“Luke?”
He looked down at the hand on his arm, then up into his sister’s concerned face.
“Are you okay?” Bella asked gently.
“Sorry,” he said. “My mind just wandered for a minute.”
“And we should wander up to bed,” Hudson suggested to his wife.
“All right,” Bella agreed. Then to Luke, “He thinks if I pressure you, you’re going to hightail it back to Wyoming, but I just want you to know how much I want you to stay.”
“I do know, Bella,” he said, sincerely touched by her entreaty.
“And you’re thinking about it, right?”
“Bella,” Hudson said, shaking his head.
“I’m thinking about it,” he said, if only to appease her.
But after her husband had dragged her out of the room and he was alone with his thoughts, he was surprised to realize that it was true.
* * *
Sunday brunch had been a tradition in the Armstrong house for as long as Eva could remember, and it was the sound and scent of sizzling bacon that lured her downstairs the following morning.
Her father was already at the table, with a mug of coffee in one hand and the Gazette in the other.
“What can I do to help?” Eva asked, as she always did.
“Everything’s under control,” her mother said, as she always did.
So Eva poured herself a mug of coffee and took her usual seat at the table.
Ray finished with his paper, folded it in half and set it aside just as his wife carried a platter loaded with crisp bacon, creamy eggs and fluffy pancakes to the table.
“Breakfast looks almost as good as you,” he said with a lascivious wink for his wife.
“Flattery won’t get you out of helping with the cleanup,” Marion told him.
It was another common exchange—a comfortable routine they’d established over the years. And though Ray would, predictably, grumble when his wife handed him a tea towel, he never actually balked at doing his share of kitchen duty.
Her parents were the reason why Eva had so much faith in the power of love. For all of her twenty-five years, they’d been an example to her, and it never failed to warm her heart to see that, after thirty-seven years of marriage, three kids and countless crises—the worst of which had been her father’s bout with cancer five years before—they were still head over heels in love.
When she was a teenager, their overt displays of affection had sometimes made her squirm. Now that she was older, she could appreciate how fortunate they were to have found one another. As were each of her sisters.
That was what Eva wanted, too. A partner in life. Someone to stand with her through the good times and not-so-good times. Someone she could count on to always be there for her.
She wanted Luke Stockton to be that man. And maybe she did have a tendency to fall hard and fast, but when she was with Luke, she forgot about every other man she’d ever dated. When she was with Luke, she forgot about everything but how much she wanted to be with Luke—forever.
Maybe she was jumping the gun a little. After all, she’d known him for less than two weeks and they’d only shared two kisses. But she felt as if she’d known him a lot longer, and those kisses made her believe they were but a prelude to something more.
Her cell phone buzzed as she was nibbling on the last bite of her bacon. She glanced apologetically at her mother, conscious of the “no cell phones at the table” rule.
“Go ahead,” Marion relented. “Everyone’s finished eating.”
Eva pushed away from the table to retrieve the device from the windowsill above the sink. She felt a flutter in her belly as she wondered if—and hoped that—it might be a message from Luke.
But it wasn’t. It was her boss, asking if she could cover Karen’s shift that afternoon. Eva hesitated. Although it was only a four-hour commitment, it would mean four fewer hours that she could spend with Luke.
On the other hand, Luke hadn’t asked her to spend any time with him today. In fact, when he’d dropped her off the night before, he hadn’t made any mention of when he might see her again. Besides, she’d had a life before he came to town and she would have a life again when he left. But she really hoped he would change his mind about going back to Wyoming and decide to stay in Rust Creek Falls instead.
In the meantime, Daisy had given her a job when she desperately needed one—not just for the income to help her parents out but to give her a reason to stay home during her dad’s treatments. So she could text back only one reply: Happy to help.
When Eva agreed to work Sunday afternoon, she’d resigned herself to the fact that she wouldn’t see Luke that day. It was after four o’clock and halfway through her shift when the bell over the door jangled and he walked in.
“Hey,” he said, obviously surprised to see her. “I thought you were supposed to be off all weekend.”
Which confirmed, to her profound disappointment, that he hadn’t come in looking for her but had another reason for being there. “I was—but Karen’s in bed with the flu.” She held up a mug, a silent question.
Luke glanced at his watch, then nodded and took a seat at the counter. “Have you ever said no when someone asks fo
r a favor?”
“Of course I have,” she responded.
“Really?” he challenged, accepting the mug she passed across the counter. “Tell me when.”
“Well, I can’t remember offhand,” she admitted. “But I’m sure that I have.”
“I’ll bet you haven’t,” he said. “You’re the type of person who just can’t turn away from someone in need...which is kind of what I’m counting on.”
She eyed him warily. “What do you mean?”
“I need help.”
“What can I do?” she immediately offered.
Luke smiled. “See? You didn’t even ask what—you just said yes.”
“I said, ‘what can I do?’” she clarified.
“And the answer is, help me with my Christmas shopping.”
“I’d be happy to,” she agreed. “I love shopping, especially this time of year when the stores are all decked out for the holidays.”
“I was hoping you’d say that,” he said. “But that’s not actually why I’m here.”
“So tell me why you are here,” she suggested.
“I’ve been invited to dinner tonight and I realized, when I was at your door emptyhanded, that I probably shouldn’t have shown up emptyhanded, so I offered to take something for dessert.”
“Excuse me for a second,” she said, grabbing the pot of coffee and moving to the other end of the counter to top up Homer Gilmore’s cup.
Not because he’d asked for a refill, but because she needed an excuse to turn away so that Luke wouldn’t see how much his casual admission of a date with another woman had hurt her.
And not only was he going on a date with another woman, but he’d come into Daisy’s to pick up something for dessert—likely something Eva had made. It was just like Lydia Grant’s request for lemon meringue pie all over again.
She chatted with the old man for a minute, until she was fairly confident that she could return to her conversation with Luke without crying. She set the pot back on the warmer and forced a smile. “We’ve got a small six-layer German chocolate cake that a customer ordered for his girlfriend’s birthday before he found out she was allergic to nuts.”
“I don’t think nuts are a problem,” he said.
She took the cake out of the case to show him.
“That looks yummy—and the perfect size for four people.”
“A double date?”
“What?” He seemed sincerely baffled by the question, then he laughed. “No, it’s not a date at all.”
“It’s not?”
“No,” he said again. “I’m having dinner with Danny, Annie and Janie.”
“Oh,” she said, feeling foolish.
“Did you really think I would come in here to get dessert for a date with another woman?”
“Well, you admitted that you didn’t expect to find me working today,” she reminded him.
“I didn’t,” he confirmed. “But I was happy to see you.”
She pulled a flat piece of cardboard out from under the counter and began forming a box for the cake.
“Is this the first time you’re meeting your niece?” she asked, eager to change the topic of conversation and forget that she’d jumped to embarrassing and erroneous conclusions.
“It is,” he confirmed.
“While you’re having dinner tonight, you should listen for any hints about what Janie might want for Christmas,” Eva suggested as she set the cake in the box and closed the lid. “Preteen girls are notoriously picky and it would be good to have a starting point before you go shopping.”
“Before we go shopping,” he reminded her.
She punched the price of his cake and coffee into the register, and he passed some bills across the counter. “When are we going shopping?”
“Whatever day works best for you.”
“Wednesday?”
He picked up the cake box and winked at her. “It’s a date.”
* * *
Luke was glad he’d stopped by Daisy’s Donut Shop to pick up something for dessert—not just because the cake scored big points for him with his niece and future sister-in-law, but also because talking to Eva helped him forget, at least momentarily, that he was nervous about the family dinner.
By the time Janie got up to clear the dessert dishes from the table, Luke was surprised to realize that they’d been sitting around the table for almost three hours. Even more surprising was how much he’d enjoyed the time he’d spent getting reacquainted with his brother’s fiancée and finally meeting his niece. A few weeks earlier, he wouldn’t have believed it was possible for love to endure through so many life events and so much time apart, but Danny and Annie proved him wrong.
After Janie excused herself to go do homework, Annie began the washing up. Danny and Luke offered to help, but she shooed them out of the kitchen.
“She doesn’t seem like one of those bridezillas you hear horror stories about,” Luke noted.
“Annie’s not the type to sweat the small stuff,” Danny agreed. “The only thing she was really worried about was the venue.”
“And it’s all ready to go.”
His brother snorted. “Hardly.”
“Well, I know it probably needs some flowers and stuff,” Luke acknowledged, sipping the beer his future sister-in-law had offered him after the meal.
“We have to pick up chairs from the community center and set them up, then decorate the whole building with miles of pine garland and twinkling lights and big red bows.”
“When you say we, you mean you and Annie, right?”
“Actually it was intended as a collective we,” his brother admitted. “As in, anyone I can convince to lend a hand.”
“I can haul chairs,” Luke decided. “But I’m not sure I’d have the first clue what to do with twinkling lights and bows.”
“Me, neither,” Danny admitted. Then, when Luke put his almost empty bottle on the table, he asked, “Do you want another beer?”
He shook his head. “I’ve had my limit.”
“You’ve had one,” his brother noted.
“That’s my limit when I’m driving,” he said.
Danny’s brows lifted. “Since when?”
“Since the night that I got wasted and Mom and Dad were killed.” He hadn’t planned to blurt it out like that, but it was time—past time—for him to tell his brother the truth.
Danny rubbed his thumb through the condensation beaded on his can of soda. “Everything changed that night, didn’t it?”
He nodded grimly. “And it was all my fault.”
“What are you talking about?”
“The accident.” Luke swallowed. “I think Mom and Dad were out that night because...because of me.”
“Why would you think that?” his brother asked cautiously.
“Because it was late, and we were drunk. Well, I was drunk, and I’m pretty sure Bailey was, too. But not you. You weren’t drinking.”
“I was only eighteen,” Danny reminded him.
“And always a rule follower. You wanted us to leave the bar,” he suddenly remembered. “But we weren’t ready to go. There were girls, and they were so friendly and pretty...and I was a drunken fool.”
“It wasn’t your fault,” his brother said.
“Where the accident happened...” Even after a dozen years, remembering brought back all of the pain. Sure, he’d gone on with his life without his parents and without the rest of his family, but everything had changed that fateful night, and he knew that there would forever be an emptiness inside him because of it.
Danny waited for him to finish his thought, though he looked as uneasy as Luke felt about where this conversation was going.
“Where the accident happened,” he began again. �
�I always figured they were so far away from home, so late at night, because they were looking for us.” He scrubbed his hands over his face. “If I’d just listened to you, given you the keys and let you drive us home, that night might have ended differently. Everything might have ended differently.”
His brother, eyes suspiciously bright, shook his head. “It wasn’t your fault, Luke.”
“How can you know that?”
“Because it was mine.” Danny set his soda can down and stood up to pace restlessly across the room. “You’re right about the fact that they were looking for us—because I called them. I’m the reason they were out on the road that night. It was my fault.”
Luke was stunned by his brother’s revelation—and not entirely sure he’d heard him correctly. “You called them?”
Danny nodded miserably.
He took a moment to absorb the implications of this admission, then realized it didn’t change anything. He didn’t believe for a minute that anything that happened was his brother’s fault. Luke was the one who was responsible. He was the oldest and the undisputed leader whenever the three of them were out. If he’d made better choices, Danny would never have been put in the position of having to make such a call.
“But Annie’s helped me to believe that maybe it wasn’t my fault,” Danny said when Luke remained silent. “That the fault lies with the driver of the vehicle that slammed into Dad’s truck. Maybe my phone call was the reason they were on the road that night, but I’m not responsible for what happened to them.”
“You’re not,” Luke agreed, eager to reassure his brother. “It wasn’t your fault.”
“And if it wasn’t mine, then it wasn’t yours, either,” Danny said.
“Maybe,” Luke allowed, desperate to trust that his brother was right but still unable—or unwilling—to let go of the guilt that he’d carried with him for so many years.
Because if he truly let himself believe that he wasn’t responsible, then he’d simply be trading one set of regrets for another—namely that he’d stayed away from Rust Creek Falls and his family for all these years.
The Maverick's Midnight Proposal Page 12