A Rancher's Redemption. Ann Roth

sure you want to watch a movie tonight?” he asked after she yawned for the second time. “You have to get up even earlier than I do, and with Big Mama riding your case....”

      “Don’t remind me.” Dani grimaced. “Ever since the Poplar Tree restaurant opened and the Prosperity Daily News ran that story about them, business at the café has been slipping. How many times have I told Big Mama that we need to step things up and make some changes in order to compete? Does she listen? Heck, no.”

      Everyone who knew Trudy Alexander called her Big Mama. The nickname suited the five-foot-eleven, two-hundred-plus-pound female. Although she towered an intimidating five inches over Dani, Dani gave her as good as she got. They were both strong-willed women, and they often butted heads. And yet, their love for each other was obvious.

      At the tender age of four Dani had lost her mother to cancer. Two years later she’d also lost her father, when a tree limb had crashed through the windshield of his car, killing him instantly. The freak accident had left Dani and her two older brothers orphans. The boys had been taken in by an uncle in Iowa. He hadn’t wanted a girl, and Dani had gone into Prosperity’s foster care system. Luckily for her, she’d been placed with Big Mama. A couple years later, the older woman had legally adopted Dani, with Dani keeping her original last name.

      “I know our customers,” Dani went on. “I should—I’m there six days a week, from five o’clock in the morning until we close at 2:00 p.m., and often for a few hours after that. I waitress, I order food and supplies, help with the hiring and firing, and I sort the mail. Most of those are responsibilities I’ve handled since I was in high school. The only things I don’t do are the cooking and the financial stuff.”

      “You work hard,” Nick agreed. As hard as he did, for which he respected her.

      “And I do a good job—a really good job. So why doesn’t Big Mama trust me to make decisions that could help our restaurant?” Dani snickered. “Heck, she doesn’t even trust me to get through a Saturday or Sunday without nagging me about one thing or another.”

      Presumably Dani’s mom, now in her late sixties, would retire someday and Dani would take over. But handing the reins over to anyone, even her daughter, wasn’t proving easy for her. For now, Big Mama preferred to run the business her own way, keeping Dani on a tight leash. Nick had been hearing about it from Dani for several years now. “Of course she trusts you,” he said. “She just prefers to be in control.”

      “If she trusted me she wouldn’t have to be in control. You wouldn’t believe the day I had, much of it courtesy of her.” Dani grimaced again. “Which is a long way of answering your question. No, I don’t want to call it a night just yet. I’m so ready to escape into a movie, and I want to do it with my best friend.”

      As bone-tired as Nick was, Dani needed him and he wasn’t going to let her down. She and Big Mama were like family to him. He was a lot closer to them than to his own sister and mother. Dani was loyal to the people she cared about. Even when she was in a bad relationship, she stayed true to her boyfriend. His fickle mom, on the other hand, didn’t know the meaning of loyalty.

      “Today was worse than usual?” he asked.

      “It was pretty bad.”

      “What happened?”

      Dani slanted her head. “Are you sure you want to hear about this?”

      If talking about her day took her mind off Jeter, Nick was all for it. “Sure.”

      “How long have I been running the restaurant on weekends so that Big Mama can take a few days off?” Dani grumbled. “As if she’s ever really ‘off.’ Business has slacked a little lately, but that doesn’t mean I stand around, twiddling my thumbs. She must’ve called ten times today, making sure I’d done this chore and that one. Have I cleaned the tables and reset them after customers finished and left? Have I checked the salt-and-pepper shakers and the sugar bowls to make sure they’re filled? You’d think I was a new hire. I just wish she’d get that I know what I’m doing and let me do it.”

      She didn’t expect a comment, so Nick just nodded.

      “I’ve done tons of research on steps we could take to increase our business,” she continued. “But no, she finds something wrong with every one of my ideas. I even suggested she watch Restaurant: Impossible, the Food Network show about saving restaurants from going under, so that she could see what other restaurants are trying. She claims she doesn’t have time for that.”

      Dani’s lips pursed in irritation. She was definitely in a tough situation.

      “Maybe I can help,” Nick offered. “Big Mama’s crazy about me.” She always had been. As a teenager, he’d spent more nights at her dinner table than his own mother’s. “Let me talk to her.”

      “No, thanks. I’ll handle this myself. Besides, she’s so stubborn that not even your Kelly charm could budge her on this. It’s enough that you’re letting me whine.”

      Dani had always been an independent female—except when it came to men. She fell in love fast, and tried way too hard to please whoever she was with.

      Nick didn’t do love, period. What was the point of falling for a woman when love would ruin a man’s life? Because sooner or later, the relationship was bound to end. Women were fickle and not to be trusted—Dani excepted.

      “Big Mama started her business forty years ago,” he said. “Anyone would have difficulty letting go.”

      “And I get that, but it doesn’t make my working life any easier. I want her to trust me, Nick.” Dani needed her mother’s trust. Owning and running a restaurant wasn’t easy, and Big Mama wasn’t getting any younger. She deserved to retire and let Dani take over. “Okay, I’m through complaining—for now.” She switched gears. “Let’s watch a movie so that I can forget about work and Jeter.”

      “Soon,” Nick said. “But first, ice cream with hot fudge sauce, if you have any. Let’s eat in front of the tube.”

      Her eyes lit up. They were an unusual silvery-blue, the same color as Sly’s and those of their brother, Seth, whom Nick had met a few times when he and Dani had first become friends. But then Seth had left town, and Dani and Sly hadn’t seen or heard from him in years. They had no idea where he was.

      “I like the way you think, Mr. Kelly. And yes, I happen to have bought a fresh jar of hot fudge sauce on my way home today—just for you.”

      Nick had been to her apartment so often, he knew where she stored everything. In the pine cabinet to the right of the sink, he found the bowls. The drawer next to the stove yielded the ice cream scoop. Dani opened the jar of fudge sauce and heated it in the microwave. By the time he piled ice cream into the bowls the fudge sauce was nice and hot.

      “I want first crack at that sauce,” Dani said with a teasing twinkle in her eyes. “Otherwise, you’ll eat the whole thing.”

      Nick gave her a look of mock hurt. “I’d never do that.”

      “Ha. Your sweet tooth is so big that mine dims by comparison. But you never gain an ounce, you lucky man.” She sighed. “I wish I could eat whatever I wanted and not put on weight. That’s the one good thing about my breakup with Jeter. I won’t have to diet anymore.”

      Jeter had ridden Dani’s case about her weight but Nick thought he was nuts. “What do you care about some Neanderthal’s opinion?” he said. “You’re perfect the way you are.”

      And she was. Curvy in all the right places. With pretty eyes and a plump mouth made for kissing, she could attract any man she wanted. Plus, she was warm and friendly, with a heart as big as the Montana sky.

      Nick was crazy about her, but not in a sexual sense. As attractive as Dani was, he considered her a cross between sister and best friend. That was the whole reason they’d stayed close all these years. Sex would just mess up their relationship.

      Dani finished drizzling a stream