Montana Wrangler. Charlotte Carter

as he was told.

      Still holding the can of ground coffee, Paige looked on with amazement and a fair amount of admiration. Bryan appeared quite content to follow Jay’s orders. Clearly Jay knew more about raising boys than she had ever hoped to learn. Her focus on her career, and her ambition to move up to a position of manager of one of Elite Hotel’s European properties didn’t leave room for marriage or raising a family. Maybe someday, of course. But not in the foreseeable future.

      So far no man had made an effort to tempt her to change her mind.

      She watched as they sat down together to eat their sandwiches, then remembered Grandpa and the snack she’d promised him. Hurriedly, she got the coffee going and found a plate for the home-baked cookies.

      She was just pouring his mug of coffee when Grandpa came into the kitchen.

      “Since everybody is here, guess it’s time we all had a talk.” He sat at the head of the table and placed a large manila envelope beside him.

      Paige delivered his coffee and cookies.

      “Sit down here, child.” Grandpa indicated the seat next to him. “It’s important you hear what I got to say.” He glanced down the table. “You, too, boy. Pay attention now.”

      An uneasy feeling raised the hair on her nape as Paige slipped onto the chair. Grandpa sounded so serious; something monumental must be on his mind. Could his health be failing? He seemed especially tired and stooped, which wasn’t like the grandpa she knew. Maybe he was going to sell the outfitting business and retire?

      “Now then, we all know that Krissy could be reckless sometimes, but she did do some planning ahead. I’ll give her credit for that. ’Course, I did prod her a bit.” Clearing his throat, he pulled some papers from the envelope. “Your ma loved you, Bryan. Don’t you ever forget that.”

      The boy poked his finger into his sandwich, making a hole in the soft bread.

      “After your parents passed on a few years ago, Paige, I sat Krissy down to have a long talk about Bryan.”

      The boy looked up. “What’d you say?”

      “Hang on a minute, son. I’m getting to that.” His hand shook as he took a sip of coffee. “The point is she wanted to make sure Bryan was well taken care of if something should happen to her.”

      A band tightened around Paige’s chest. Her little sister had actually worried about what would happen to her son if she had died prematurely. Grandpa must have been very persuasive. A swell of love for him and her sister filled her chest.

      “She made arrangements for Bryan?” she asked.

      “Yep.” Grandpa nodded and patted the papers he’d pulled out of the envelope. “She wrote out sort of a will, not that she had much money to leave to anyone. But she had her son. If worse came to worst, she wanted to be the one to name the person who’d raise her son. Be his guardian.”

      Paige’s breath lodged in her throat. Maybe Krissy had finally named the boy’s father and wanted him to care for his son. Take responsibility at long last.

      Grandpa shoved the papers toward Paige. “Krissy wanted you to raise him, child. Raise him like he was your own.”

      Paige’s mouth opened. Not a sound came out. She’d been named Bryan’s guardian?

      Why in the world—

      She’d always assumed Grandpa would be there if anything—

      She couldn’t possibly—

      Looking to the other end of the table, she realized Jay and Bryan were as shocked as she was. Both of them struck dumb.

      As if the words Grandpa had spoken had finally registered, Bryan’s eyes widened. His face turned red. He leaped to his feet.

      “I don’t want her to be my guardian!” he screamed. “I want my mom!” Knocking over his chair, Bryan raced from the room and out the back door.

      Stunned, Paige sent up a heartfelt prayer. Please, Lord, what am I supposed to do now?

      Chapter Two

      Paige pushed back her chair. “I’d better go after him.”

      “No, I’ll go.” Jay stood, yanking Bryan’s chair upright again. His brows and mouth drew into a disapproving scowl. “You and Henry need to talk.” Grabbing his hat on the way, Jay went out the back door. The screen slammed behind him.

      She exhaled. Someone really needed to fix that door.

      Turning to her grandfather, Paige shook her head. “Why on earth did Krissy want me to raise her son? She and I have never been close. I hardly know Bryan, or even his likes and dislikes. It seems to me you should be Bryan’s guardian. You and Grandma took care of him from the time he was born.” More so than Krissy ever had, Paige suspected.

      “Me and Krissy talked a lot about what to do if something happened to her. Since your folks were gone, we are the only blood relatives around.”

      Paige had been stunned when her parents had sold the hardware store and moved to Arizona. Competition from big-box stores had finally driven them out of business. It turned out that decision, followed by a high-speed car crash, had been a fatal one.

      “Thing is, I’m getting old,” Grandpa continued. “I don’t have many years left. We both figured I might not be around long enough to see the boy through to being a man.”

      Her heart lurched. “Are you ill?”

      “No, child, not that I know about anyway. And the truth is, Krissy loved you more than you might’ve realized.” He took her hand, and she felt him tremble.

      “I love...loved Krissy, too, Grandpa. We’re sisters.” An ache rose in her chest. “But I didn’t really know her. How could I? We haven’t lived under the same roof for more than a dozen years.”

      “I know this isn’t something you expected. ’Course, Krissy didn’t exactly expect to die young either, I don’t suppose. But she was clear about her wishes. I told her she ought to talk to you. See if raising her boy the rest of the way would be all right with you.”

      “That would have at least given me some warning.” Talk about being blindsided. This was as bad as a thousand good ol’ boys in funny hats showing up at the hotel registration desk for a Shriners’ convention that wasn’t on her calendar.

      If Krissy had asked, Paige would have told her right off that she wasn’t prepared to be any child’s parent. Certainly not a boy on the cusp of adolescence.

      “I reckon she was afraid you’d say no,” Grandpa said.

      “I would have, Grandpa.” That admission brought the heat of guilt to her cheeks. What kind of a rotten aunt did that make her? “What do I know about raising a boy? A boy who’s about to be a teenager? I can’t even imagine how I’d manage. And he sure wasn’t keen on the idea. You saw that.”

      He sipped his coffee, then took a bite of a chocolate-chip cookie. “He’ll adjust to the idea, given enough time.”

      “The way he acted, we’ll both be old and decrepit before he’s thrilled with the idea of me being his guardian. I’m practically a stranger to him.” Granted, she should have tried harder to get to know him. But given her life, her goals, she’d have to make huge adjustments in order to do a decent job of raising him. And Bryan would have to leave everything and everyone who was familiar to him. What in the world had Krissy been thinking?

      “In those papers I gave you, there’s a letter from Krissy. There’s probably no law that says you have to take on the boy. But maybe there’s something in there that’ll make you change your mind.”

      Paige sincerely doubted it. But could she actually walk away from her responsibility to Bryan, her only nephew, however ill-advised Krissy’s wishes might be?

      *