Harlequin Heartwarming December 2020 Box Set

by Cari Lynn Webb, Linda Warren, Mary Anne Wilson

  “Grandma Dot is here,” Lily called out. Then she looked at Georgie. “Grandma Dot has the rules and lists.”

  Rules. Lists. Those were things Georgie preferred. Things Georgie relied on every day. She should be delighted. Thrilled the scavenger hunt was so well organized. Except panic piled up inside her. Now she’d be expected to have fun. To be fun. With Zach. Her sisters would be watching. Expecting them to act like a couple. Georgie pressed her knee against Zach’s.

  “The theme this year is Twelve Winter Duos.” Grandma Dorothy stood in front of the fireplace and opened a three-ring binder.

  The entire family settled back into their places at their tables.

  “The rules are the same.” Dorothy gave the lists to Jon to hand out to the others. “You can only buy two items. You can only photograph two items. The rest need to be handmade with things you find. Everything has to be completed with your partner. First couple to complete their list on or before Christmas Day wins.”

  Across the table, Lily pointed at something on their list and whispered into Conner’s ear. Ethan and Grace moved across the room to strategize. Ben and Rachel retreated behind their tree.

  Georgie leaned into Zach and read the list he held. The duos included ugly sweaters, outdoor ornaments, a pair of hot and cold somethings, a pair of animals, cookies and cowboy winter accessories. “I’ve never seen a scavenger hunt like this.”

  “Have you ever done one?” Zach asked.

  Georgie shook her head. “Have you?”

  “At school a couple of times.” Zach considered the list. “They’ll never see us swooping in and winning it all.”

  Georgie laughed and released her panic. Perhaps she could have fun. With Zach.

  CHAPTER NINE

  THE KITCHEN AND dining area cleaned and prepped for lunch, Georgie walked outside, Zach beside her. She asked, “Can you take me into town? I would’ve asked Fiona or Lily, but they left on an errand run.”

  “You didn’t want to join them?”

  She hadn’t been invited. “They’re heading to the flower shop and grocery store, then stopping at the bakery for chocolate muffins.”

  “You have something against bakeries?” Zach teased.

  “My sisters claim I take the fun out of running errands.” Georgie buttoned her jacket under her chin and ignored the common theme. “It’s not my fault I like to follow my shopping list. If I do that, I don’t get distracted and buy things I don’t need.”

  “But you might miss the one thing you really need.” Zach walked beside her to Dorothy and Big E’s house and the rental car.

  “If I needed it, it would’ve already been written down.” Georgie moved to the passenger side of the SUV. Zach followed and opened her door for her. She dropped into the seat.

  “What’s on your shopping list?” Zach sat in the driver’s seat and set the scavenger hunt paper on the console between them. “We can only purchase two items for the hunt. I vote ugly sweater and the cowboy duo. We could buy matching cowboy hats and shirts.”

  “We can make the ugly sweaters. The cowboy duo could be a picture of two horses on the ranch.” Georgie put her hands on top of her knees. “Before we tackle the scavenger hunt items, I need more pants. As of this morning, my suitcase is now vacationing in Saint Lucia with no return date. I borrowed sweaters from Lily, but that’s all that will fit me.”

  “Let’s go to Brewster’s Supply Store.” Zach buckled his seat belt, turned the defrost to high and waited for the SUV to warm up. “Grace’s parents own it. If the Gardners don’t have it, they can get it.”

  “How do you know this?” Georgie tucked the scavenger hunt paper into her jacket pocket.

  “I spent the morning with everyone at the stables and then in the dining hall.”

  She’d spent last night with the same group. She’d learned different details about some of her family, thanks to Rosie’s candid nature. “And you asked where to go shopping locally?”

  “No.” Zach laughed and pulled out of the driveway. “I asked who had local ties to Falcon Creek and who had moved here. Even though the Blackwell brothers grew up here, they all left home. Only Katie and Grace remained true to their roots and stayed in Falcon Creek.”

  Perhaps, then, her cousins would understand her need to continue on her career path, even if that career path carried her farther and farther away from her family.

  “Of course, they all returned home eventually,” Zach said. “Because family comes first.”

  One of Rudy’s favorite lines. But Georgie’s family was now spread out between California and Montana. The Harrison sisters were no longer rooted in one place. In one home. They hadn’t been for years. “Speaking of family, how come you didn’t tell me about your brother? I’m really sorry.”

  “I could ask the same about you.”

  “I don’t have a brother.”

  He tapped the steering wheel and glanced over at her. “That’s not what I meant, but you already know that.”

  He meant her triplet status and her stranger status with the Blackwells. She should’ve told him. Just as he should’ve told her about his brother. Georgie cleared the hurt out of her voice. “Lily and Amanda are my triplets, but they’re also identical twins. Peyton is the oldest. Fiona is the youngest. I don’t have anything special to claim.”

  “Having four sisters is pretty special,” he said.

  “We were close growing up.” At least, she’d thought they had been. Until this morning.

  “But not now.”

  “It’s different now.” Georgie glanced out the window at the snow-filled pastures. The land extended in every direction, vast and beautiful with its pristine layers of snow. “My sisters are in love and want me to be the same.” They also wanted her to be fun.

  “That’s not a bad thing,” he said. “They want you to be happy.”

  “I don’t have to be in love to be happy.”

  “What do you need to be happy?”

  “My career,” she said.

  “And doing research fulfills you?” he asked. Doubt pulled his eyebrows below the frames of his sunglasses.

  “Absolutely.” What fulfilled her was the knowledge that she was helping others so that families wouldn’t suffer the loss of their loved ones.

  Georgie, it’s your mom… Her dad had never finished his sentence and yet his unspoken words had shattered her world all the same. Four words that had started a coast-to-coast phone call that had ended with the funeral arrangements. Four words that even now haunted her. She rubbed her arms, but the chill of grief remained.

  Zach frowned, as if she’d given an incorrect response. “So, you prefer experiments over patient contact.”

  “My research is done in a lab.” She’d been in a lab the day her father had called to give her the news about her mom. She hadn’t left. She’d simply sunk to the floor and wept. “It’s meant to save lives.”

  “But lives are lost while you’re in your lab experimenting,” he said. “Patients are suffering.”

  She assumed he meant patients like his brother. And she hated that. Hated knowing with every failed experiment, every failed trial, a patient lost hope. Their families stood by helpless, grappling with the potential loss of their loved ones. “In a perfect world, cures and vaccines would be discovered overnight.”

  “But it’s not a perfect world.”

  The tension in his voice pulled her gaze to him. Pain tightened across his mouth. His jaw firmed as if he fought against it. Georgie ached for him and searched for the right words. “My mom often told me there are only perfect moments and a collection of those makes life worthwhile.”

  His shoulders relaxed. His voice loosened. “Tell me one of your perfect moments.”

  Georgie flipped through her childhood memories. Their house had been loud and lively. The sisters had argued as siblings tended to
do, cried together and laughed. “When I was in middle school, the entire city had a power outage that lasted all day. After sunset, Mom lit a bunch of candles. We crowded around the dining-room table and played board games until past midnight.”

  Georgie swallowed. That had been the last time she’d joined Harrison game night. Certainly, that hadn’t been the last time she’d had fun. Plain, pure fun for the simple sake of fun.

  “Did you win every game?” Zach teased.

  “I lost more than I won that night.” And Georgie hadn’t minded. For one night, she had enjoyed herself. Hadn’t felt like she’d needed to prove herself. Hadn’t felt misplaced. She studied Zach.

  He made her feel the very same. Safe and understood. But she didn’t really know him. He shouldn’t make her feel any sort of way. Yet she kept turning toward Zach to settle herself, not her sisters. Her sisters were overwhelming her with their love and wedding talk. “What about you? Have any perfect moments?”

  “Meeting my horse, Rain Dancer, for the first time.” Affection smoothed over his face, softening his voice. “He has heart and more will to win than I’ve ever seen. He’s fierce in the arena, then rolling and playing in a mud puddle in his downtime. We earned each other’s trust. I’ve never connected with another horse quite like that before.”

  “I used to help Amanda with her animal rescues,” Georgie said. “But I can’t say I’ve ever connected with an animal like that before.”

  “We’ll visit the petting zoo at the ranch,” Zach said. “I’m sure the animals could use the company and you might make a connection.”

  “That won’t be necessary.” There was no purpose. Georgie crossed her arms over her chest. Bonding with an animal she’d most likely never see again seemed like all kinds of wrong. “I’m happy despite not having any pets.”

  “Rain Dancer isn’t a pet. Or simply a horse,” Zach said. “He’s family.”

  “Right now, I have enough new family around me.” Enough people to unsettle and exhaust her.

  “For such a big family, the Blackwells are really close,” Zach said. “I always wanted that.”

  Georgie wasn’t sure what she wanted, except their collective blessing on her new job. “Don’t you find it all a bit much?”

  “Not really.” Zach shrugged. “It’s comforting, I’d think, to know so many people have your back.”

  “But it’s also a lot of people in your personal business. A lot of people offering their opinions about your life and your choices.”

  “Big or small, anyone who loves you will have opinions about your life and your choices.” Zach pulled into the Brewster’s parking lot and turned off the car.

  “It’s just a lot of people to disappoint.” Especially if she loved them and they loved her. Inside her lab, mistakes could be studied and corrected. Mistakes in life, with patients and family, were hard to make right. In two weeks, she’d return to where she belonged. She glanced at Zach.

  He’d chosen her today, wanted her on his team. She’d never considered wanting to be with someone long-term. But something about Zach made her reconsider. She opened her car door, got out and inhaled the brisk, biting air.

  She was on a scavenger hunt team. Nothing remotely long-term about that.

  Frank and Alice Gardner, owners of Brewster’s Supply Store and Grace Blackwell’s parents, greeted Zach and Georgie inside the main entrance. Alice told them to let her know if they needed anything special. Then the cheerful woman retreated to the checkout counter to assist another customer. Frank unclipped his cell phone from his belt and excused himself to answer a call.

  An older gentleman sat in a rocking chair next to a lit fireplace. The carvings in the vintage chair were etched as deep as the man’s wrinkles. Both had a timeless air about them. He lifted his arm and waved them over. “You two are new to Falcon Creek.”

  “Yes, sir.” Zach took the older man’s hand.

  His gleeful cackle disrupted Zach’s introduction. “Everyone here, new or old, calls me Pops. Ain’t answered to ‘sir,’ well, ever.”

  Georgie grinned, liking Pops instantly.

  “Legs are too long for riding those bulls.” Pops released Zach and considered him. His steely gaze trailed from Zach’s cowboy hat to his boots in a slow assessment that matched his thoughtful tone. “Saddle bronc or calf roper?”

  “Is that a thing?” Georgie asked. She’d never considered height could ever really be a disadvantage for anything. Especially since she’d spent most of her teen years researching how to grow taller. “Can you really be too tall for a bull?”

  “Height isn’t always an advantage on a bull,” Zach said. “Make my living on both saddle bronc and calf roping.”

  “Got tossed to the ground a few times myself before I came to my senses.” Pops chuckled. “Them broncs recognize the unprepared and take advantage.”

  “Back doored,” Georgie whispered.

  Pops beamed at her and rolled his hands one over the other. “Tumbling head over tail off the back end of a bucking horse.”

  “You’re riding a bucking horse?” Georgie stared at Zach. Details matter. When had she stopped asking questions? Why had she? “That’s your event.”

  Zach nodded. “That’s saddle bronc.”

  “Spectacular show at the rodeo, too,” Pops added. “When done right, those eight seconds are a thing of wonder.”

  “And when it goes wrong in those eight seconds?” Georgie pressed, imagining all the things that could happen to him and his body the same way she predicted the outcome of a scientific test. Only now she was fearful for Zach.

  “It’s the measure of a man, his resilience, strength and ability to face his fears again and…” Pride lifted Pops’s chin. “To get back inside that chute and take another ride.”

  Or it was the measure of a man with no regard for his body or his health. Didn’t he care about himself? His future? She cared. And that was why she hadn’t asked questions. “Seems like too many unnecessary risks.”

  “Got yourself a good horse?” Pops rubbed his chin, ignored Georgie’s outburst and considered Zach. “Makes all the difference in the roping.”

  “Rain Dancer and I have been together for more than ten years,” Zach said. “He’s the best I could’ve asked for. Trained him myself.”

  “Time enough to build a solid bond.” Pops nodded. Approval flashed in his gaze. “Nothing like the trust between a horse and rider.”

  There it was again. That special connection between a horse and a person. Georgie had no special connection with another person, let alone an animal. She’d been perfectly fine, too. Until now. Now she wondered if she’d missed out on something, well, special.

  “Zach, that was Ethan.” Frank Gardner approached. “He was coming down here to help me organize the warehouse. We got supplies sooner than expected. But Ethan got an emergency call in the next town over. Do you think you could help me out? Ethan said you know your way around the stables.”

  “What can I do?” Zach asked.

  “You don’t mind?” Frank ran his hand through his gray hair. “We gave the staff time off for the holiday. Wasn’t expecting so much heavy lifting this week, but the coming storm changed things up.”

  “We aren’t in a hurry, are we?” Zach looked at Georgie. “I know you like to stick to your list and all.”

  Georgie narrowed her eyes at Zach.

  His grin only expanded.

  “No rush,” Georgie said. She could change. She could slow down and enjoy herself. If only her sisters were there to see her. “Is there anything I can do?”

  “Alice has the store covered.” Frank shook his head. “Appreciate the offer, but I’ll let you shop.”

  Frank and Zach headed toward a door marked Warehouse.

  Pops motioned to the empty rocking chair across from him. “You don’t look like a Blackwell.”

&n
bsp; “Thanks.” Georgie lowered into the rocking chair and noticed the chessboard on the table between them. “I’m a Harrison.”

  “My granddaughter, Grace, married a Blackwell.” Pops harrumphed. “Stubborn lot, the Blackwells.”

  “I’m not sure stubborn belongs solely to the Blackwells,” Georgie said.

  Pops’s smile creased his perceptive eyes. He set his index finger on a black bishop on the board. “Do you play?”

  “Haven’t for a long time.” Not since she’d given up board games. Georgie studied the chessboard and realized the game was already in progress. She took in the chess pieces removed from play for both sides, returned her attention to the board and counted her potential moves. She could shop, stick to her list, or she could… “I used to play with my dad.”

  “Hardly matters how long it’s been.” Pops slapped his knee. “Frank has played almost every day since marrying my daughter almost fifty-five years ago. Even that hasn’t helped his game much.”

  “Pops, I can hear you,” Frank called from behind the checkout counter. He picked up keys from the hook on a back wall, kissed Alice on the cheek and stopped at the warehouse door to holler, “Pops, did you ever consider I’ve been letting you win all these years?”

  “Frank Gardner, you’re more of a man than that,” Pops yelled. “Don’t be denying it now. I wouldn’t have let you marry Alice if you hadn’t been.”

  Georgie saw the respect and affection in both men’s faces. Heard the same in their gruff voices. She’d never really considered how her father would get along with her husband. She’d been too busy avoiding dating to consider marriage. But she’d want more than her father’s approval. She’d want his blessing. She’d want to know he believed theirs was a bond that could last like Alice and Frank Gardner’s. If she planned on ever getting married. Which she didn’t. Georgie concentrated on the board and decided on her first move.

  Pops rocked back in his chair, tugged his worn cowboy hat off his head and scratched his forehead. His gaze remained fixed on the game board.