The Moore Sisters of Montana: The Complete Series Box Set: Books 1-4

by Ann B. Harrison

She let her head fall back and laughed. “Oh, you have no idea, Cory. It wasn’t until I had time off here that I realized how insane it all is. The rush, the constant having to be the best and brightest star. How much everyone wants a piece of me. It gets sour after a while and I didn’t even notice I was caught up in it.”

  “So why do it then?” He stared at her with a frown on his face.

  “I don’t know. I mean, I used to but now I’m not sure it was for the right reasons. You probably wouldn’t understand being an only child. I’m the middle of three not counting Mari, all overachievers. It makes you strive to be better or drown under your siblings’ glory.”

  Cory laughed. “Sounds painful to me.”

  “Yeah, that’s how it feels about now.” She finished the coffee and put the mug down. “Do me a favor? Don’t say anything to your dad. Let me sort things out on this end, okay?”

  “Sure.” He jumped to his feet, relief clear in his expressive eyes. “I’d better go or I’ll be late for school and get into trouble.” He scooted out of the yard. “See ya later.”

  Bella waved as he pedaled away down the lane. She sat and pondered the possibilities. Cory was prepared to give up everything and move to Seattle so Jake could be with her. But was that what she wanted? In the meantime, she still had a book project to finish and a restaurant to cook for and, after last night, she wouldn’t blame him if he’d changed his mind about being with her.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Bella went inside and got out her cookbook file, notepaper, and cell phone. She had work to do and, with luck, she’d be able to tie it all up. Pausing in the kitchen to take a vitamin and grab an apple for breakfast, she looked at the stove. It’d worked for her before the hotel kitchen stove was replaced, it would work again.

  Bella told herself to make the right decision for the right reasons. She spread her notes on the living room floor and began to plan.

  By midafternoon, she’d made major headway and set up dates with Jason for later in the week. All she had to do now was tweak a few recipes and she could start collating them for the editor.

  She knew Jake was on duty today at the fire station and what time he’d be home. That left her an hour and a half to get herself sorted out and ready for the plan she wanted to put into action.

  She picked up her cell and called Woodsie, ran her idea past him first.

  “Sure, Bella. You know you’re welcome here anytime. And just in case you were thinking any different, Jake has steak in the refrigerator for dinner tonight. You might want to try and find something a bit different that wouldn’t make us all think it’s more of the same, you know?”

  “Of course I will. Leave it with me and thanks. I appreciate you letting me take over, again.”

  “Anytime.”

  Bella hung up, grabbed her purse, and headed for town. She needed supplies and a large dose of ‘please forgive me’ ingredients. Wine, chocolate, she was willing to try them all.

  She brought her supplies and arrived back at the house loaded down ready to create.

  By the time Jake pulled into the driveway, her nerves were taut and ready to snap. Would he be angry with her for the way their evening had ended? Or would she be able to convince him it would all work out if he gave her a second chance?

  *

  Jake climbed out of his truck, weary after a big day at work. A small scrub fire followed by a bad car accident had kept them on their toes. Now all he wanted to do was grab a beer, eat dinner, and crawl into bed. Not necessarily in that order.

  He walked up the path and sniffed. Someone was busy in the kitchen and it wasn’t his father because he never touched the steak, always charred it beyond saving. There was no way that smell came out of a frozen meal which meant that Bella must be here. Besides, Jake remembered Woodsie and Cory were at soccer training. His heart swelled at the thought of holding her in his arms but just as quickly the thought dashed away.

  He’d all but talked himself into telling her it was over. Last night was her night to shine, he got that. And it was a special dinner for The Lake Hotel. He didn’t mind, he knew going in he was only there so they could spend a little time together after she finished cooking. Sadly he’d been left hanging.

  The first Valentine’s Day he’d had a date in years and he’d ended up going home alone. Not how he’d envisaged the evening. And now she was in his kitchen doing what she did best by the smell of things. Cooking.

  Jake stepped up onto the porch and before he could reach for the door it opened. Bella stood there, the light from the living room shining behind her. She had her hair up in the trademark messy knot, no sign of the diamond clip from last night. Her skintight jeans hugged her curves and the white T-shirt left little to his imagination. He’d done his best not to look at her breasts last night when he put her to bed but it was a tough call, he was a red-blooded male after all. It wasn’t something he could control when she was around.

  “Hi.” She reached up and kissed him, her arms slipping around his neck. “Have a good day?” Bella leaned into him.

  “Busy. You?”

  “Kind of. I crawled out of bed late this morning. Don’t think I’ve ever slept for so long or so well.” She laughed and the sound blew apart all the words he’d planned on saying. His willpower wasn’t going to hold up. He knew it when he walked in the door.

  “Thank you for putting me to bed last night. It was really sweet of you.” She reached up and kissed the tip of his nose. “I need to talk to you but can we have dinner first and then chat before you do anything rash like tell me you don’t care about me anymore because my lifestyle sucks?”

  She could read him. He hated that.

  “Please, Jake. I’ll beg if I have to.”

  Way to make him feel like an insufferable heel. “Sure. If that’s what you want, that’s what we’ll do.” He gave her a smile and she relaxed in his arms. “I missed you today.”

  Her eyes misted up and he was lost.

  “Come in and sit down. I’ve got a cold beer for you. Dinner won’t be long. Now you’re here I can put on the grill and do the steak.” She pulled him in and pushed him into a comfy chair that angled toward the kitchen so he could talk to her while she worked.

  “Sounds good to me.” He laid his head back and closed his eyes and tried to unsee the carnage from today. It was bad enough when children were involved—ten times worse when it was someone he knew. Thankfully they would all be fine but it would be a long road to recovery for the mother and her two toddlers.

  “Here you are.” Bella pushed a cold beer into his hands and perched on his knee.

  “Thanks. I really need this.” He took a long drink and told her about his day. By the time he’d finished, his father and Cory arrived home from soccer training.

  “Hey, Dad, Bella. Something smells good.” Cory headed straight for the kitchen and opened oven doors, looked in pots, dipped his finger into the dessert chilling in the refrigerator and generally checked dinner out.

  “Excuse my son for his bad manners.” He frowned in Cory’s direction.

  “It’s okay. He can have the dessert with the dirty fingerprint in it.” Bella laughed when Cory screwed up his face. “You don’t expect us to eat it, do you?”

  The teen shrugged his shoulders. “Nah, guess not. How long ’til we eat?”

  “There’s a platter of olives and cheese in the refrigerator if you’re dying of starvation. You can nibble on that if you like. I wouldn’t mind some with a glass of wine.” She got off his knee and walked into the kitchen. “Woodsie, how about you?”

  “Not right now, thanks anyway. I need a shower. Been mowing lawns all day. Not fit for company until I get rid of the dirt and sweat.” He hurried away to the bathroom.

  Jake watched his family and wondered how he hadn’t missed this kind of normal before.

  Chapter Nineteen

  They’d taken a walk after dinner, just the two of them, and Bella got her chance to apologize. “I’m sorry. It all got out of ha
nd when all I wanted to do was curl up on your knee and fall asleep.”

  “You came here for a rest. Now I can see why your producer insisted on it. What I don’t understand is why you didn’t listen, why you thought you had to keep working so hard. I hated seeing you so worn out last night.”

  She huffed out a sigh. “I’m sorry. It’s my own fault, I get that. You know my sisters and I competed in everything and I mean everything!” She laughed and squeezed his fingers, wanting the contact more now than ever while she opened her soul to him. “You know, Dakota is brilliant with her jewelry, my love is cooking, and April can do anything she puts her mind to. She can spout off a poem or a song at the drop of a hat. She’s magic with words that girl as well as anything else she lends her hand to. I just wish she’d make up her mind what she wants to do and stick with something instead of flitting from project to project. The parents indulge her something shocking being the youngest.”

  “It happens with the baby in the family, I hear. If you all have different talents, why the competition then?”

  “I’m not really sure. In my case, I think I was trying to prove myself. Being the middle child can be daunting for anyone. Dakota is the oldest if you don’t count Mari into the mix. First to do everything! And April is the baby so she gets away with whatever she does. I kind of got lost in the middle somehow.”

  “I believe it’s actually a thing.” He smiled.

  “Yeah, I know and I’ve tried not to let it get to me but at every opportunity it rears its ugly head. Like I don’t even have a say in what I’m doing.”

  “You’re very driven but where does it end, Bella? When do you look at what’s going on and say that’s it? I’ve achieved everything I set out to do. Do you have to have a full-on collapse to realize that you’ve achieved your goals?”

  She stopped and looked at him with her mouth open. “Say that again.”

  “You’ve achieved everything you set out to do. That part?”

  A sense of achievement came over her. “I have, haven’t I?”

  “You tell me. When you first looked at entering Masterchef, what was your goal?”

  “To be the best. To have my name plastered over merchandise and cookbooks.”

  He shrugged his shoulders. “And you have that, don’t you?”

  “Yeah. Yeah I do.”

  “So why keep pushing then?”

  “The competitive me always has to slap back the timid, quiet me and take over. I guess I never really felt I was satisfied with what I’d achieved.”

  Jake roared with laughter. “You, timid? Oh, please.”

  Bella tried to appear offended. “Yes, me. Timid.”

  *

  “I’m sorry but I find that very hard to believe.” He pulled her against his chest and muffled her protests. What on earth was he going to do with her?

  “Jake, can we be serious here for a minute?”

  “Sure.” He let her go, waited for the bomb to drop.

  He might have come to terms with how he felt about Bella but he had no idea if she was on the same page as him, not after last night when all of her Hollywood friends had arrived.

  “You know I have to get this book to my publisher, right? Can you let me deal with that and then we can have a makeover Valentine’s Day dinner, please?”

  “A makeover?” Maybe he’d get a chance to give her the gift he got. But was it too late?

  “Yes. What you saw last night was for Mari and the show. That wasn’t anything like I wanted for myself. Or for you.” She stood patiently while he stared at her.

  “Just you and me, no cameras, no Hollywood producers or stars?”

  Bella shook her head, lip between her teeth.

  Jake swallowed. He couldn’t refuse her. “Sure. Why not?”

  “One more thing.”

  He couldn’t hold back the sigh and Bella looked pained. “I’ve decided to go a different theme with this cookbook. I want to use shots of you and Cory in it. Mainly in the garden, perhaps one at the firehouse if you don’t mind.” She held up her hand when he went to protest. “I know you don’t like the idea but hear me out, please. I want this book to be more about family and relaxing. Cherry Lake is the perfect backdrop for that. I didn’t realize at first how glitzy my books were getting and it was only when I saw the photos that it hit me what I should be doing.”

  “Glitzy?”

  “Yeah. You’ve seen my show. It’s way over-the-top glamour, which is fine but I’ve had enough. I want this book to reflect more on the casual and every day. You can have the final say on the photos, promise. I mean, I ran it past Jason and he said some would look really good without focusing in on your faces. You know, like a shot only showing your hand stirring a pot or something.”

  He tried not to laugh while she worked herself up over it.

  “Oh, for goodness’ sake, let me show you what I mean.” She grabbed his hand and dragged him up to her cottage, and pulled him inside. The floor in the tiny living room looked like a tornado had swept through it. Bella dragged him past that mess to the little table in the kitchen where she had a pile of photos spread out.

  She grabbed one. It was from the cookie-decorating day. It was a shot of his hands decorating a hot-pink heart with spots of white icing. His fingers were stained with red coloring and the yellow of his work uniform was a faded backdrop for the star of the photo – the heart shaped cookie. The contrast between his large hand and the fragile cookie wasn’t lost on him.

  “See what I mean? That’s you but nobody can see that.”

  He saw exactly what she meant. Jake put the photo down and picked up another. Similar to the one she’d framed for him, this one showed Cory grinning as Bella piped a dot of pink icing on his cookie, while he held a tiny edible silver heart shaped bead ready to put in place. He hadn’t seen Cory that relaxed and happy in years. Truly relaxed without the usual frown lines between his eyes. Bella had done that for his son. A knot formed in his chest. He fought it down before he spoke.

  “Jason does good work. I can see why you use him.”

  “Yes, he does and he’ll be back day after tomorrow to start again. I want to get this book done within the next two weeks. That’ll give my editor time to go over it before sending it off to the printers.” She slid a hand up his chest. “And if you didn’t already know, Jason is happily married.” She laughed at the shock on his face he was too slow to hide. “Do you mind helping a girl out here?”

  Chapter Twenty

  Bella still hadn’t heard from Russell a week later. She’d been keeping busy preparing for the photo shoots and tweaking her recipes, trying not to think too much about what the final outcome would be. He’d have to run it past the studio for final approval but still, she was stressed thinking about leaving Cherry Lake and doing her final season in Seattle.

  They’d spent two days shooting at the cherry orchard, wishing the trees were dripping with buds or fruit but it was too early in the season. At least the snow had melted leaving the beginnings of grass under foot had added much needed color to the shoot. Add to that an old red tractor from the farmer’s shed and Bella was more than happy with the layout.

  The other photo shoot they’d completed was at the Christmas tree farm on the end of the jetty where Jake’s boat was normally moored. Cory had spent the day with her while Jake was on duty. Probably just as well because Bella was desperate to spend another date in the cabin, surrounded by quiet with the stars overhead. The cabin had become important to her. Most of their dates had been out here scraping and painting the hull ready for next season followed by a quiet meal in front of the fire. So different from anything she’d done before but by far the most enjoyable outings she’d had. More than once Bella had wished for the quiet life and it was only when they were alone working together she believed it could happen.

  Today’s shoot was at the fire station and the day couldn’t have been more perfect. Crisp, cool morning air with sunshine to keep the chill at bay once they got started, Bella
couldn’t have asked for more. Jason climbed up on the steps of the fire truck and angled his camera down at the men drooling over Bella’s lamb koftas, sizzling on the barbeque. It’d taken the firemen a while to relax with a camera clicking in their faces but once the food started to come out, they didn’t give it another thought. Her finger food, small pancakes with smoked, trademark Flathead Lake trout and her special sauce had disappeared as fast as she supplied it and they all watched with interest as she started the next course.

  Bella turned the meat on the barbeque and reached for a plate she’d prepared earlier, layered in fresh greens to make a bed for the koftas. “Okay, guys. Food’s up. Come and get it.” Jake had brought in a few willing off-duty firemen to help out and give everyone a chance to try her cooking. She handed over the food, while Jason wandered around taking shots.

  “My wife would have loved this shoot. Everyone loves a fireman according to her.” Jason paused beside her and changed his camera lens.

  “I think the locals do too by the look of things.” Bella indicated the small group of people gathered across the normally quiet street and grinned.

  “Get a couple of them over here, Bella.” Jason nudged her. “You have plenty of food and I think it would work well. If we don’t get anything useful, we can put it down to a public relations exercise.”

  “Okay.” She walked across the street and spoke to the gathered locals. “If any of you would like a taste test of my food, you’re more than welcome. I have to warn you though that there’s a possibility you may end up in my next cookbook. The photographer is rather snap happy today.”

  “So long as I get to stand next to a hunky fireman, count me in.” An elderly lady with a blue perm marched over the road and wiggled in next to Jake, hooking her arm through his elbow much to his amusement.

  “Any other takers?” Bella spied the two ladies she’d met the first day she arrived. “Ladies, how about it? I’d really like if you could join us.”