A Rancher's Christmas. Ann Roth

felt by Zach and everyone in town.

      She slid onto the bench-style front seat—Uncle Redd’s car was that old. In an attempt to get warm, she hunched down and hugged herself.

      Zach got into the driver’s side with a fluid grace she hadn’t expected of a man his size, shut his door and started the car. “Once the engine warms up, I’ll turn the heat up high,” he said.

      As he rolled toward the exit, she glanced in the rearview mirror at her uncle. “I’ve missed Sugar and Bit. Are they still inseparable?”

      “Pretty much. You’ll see them at the house. If you want, you can keep them with you tonight for company. Wish I had the room at my place, but I don’t.”

      The thought of staying alone at Uncle Lucky’s didn’t bother Gina. “Thanks, but your dogs won’t even remember me. I’ll be okay by myself.”

      “Probably better off without them.” Uncle Redd chuckled. “Bit still thinks he’s human, and that always gets Sugar’s goat. They’re like an old married couple.”

      “Sort of like Gloria and Sophie?” Gina teased. Her elderly cousins, widowed sisters, lived together and bickered constantly.

      “Exactly, and almost as old in dog years. Bit’s almost ten and Sugar just turned nine.” Redd sighed. “We’re all gettin’ up there—present company excluded.”

      “Don’t forget, I recently turned thirty,” Gina said. “That’s not so young.”

      Zach made a sound that could’ve been a laugh. “You’re just a kid.”

      She scoffed. “You can’t be much older than me.”

      “Four years. That may not seem like a big difference, but trust me, I’ve been around the block a lot more than you have.”

      “I’m not exactly naive,” she argued.

      “From where I sit, you’re both still babies,” Uncle Redd quipped from the back.

      Gina shared a look with Zach, both of them acknowledging that today, they felt old and weary.

      At last Zach cranked up the heat, and a welcome blast of warm air hit Gina. The highway was dark and deserted, with only the car headlights lighting the way. No one spoke. The combination of warm air, darkness, silence and exhaustion was impossible to resist. Gina’s eyes drifted shut. She was almost asleep when Uncle Redd broke the silence.

      “Gina grew up here.”

      Zach glanced at her, his face shadowed in the dash lights. “Lucky said that after you graduated from high school, you left town.”

      She remembered that day well. Her parents had both been alive then, and excited about her future, yet sad to see her go. She’d been the opposite—desperate to leave Saddlers Prairie, get her education and start fresh in a big city. All her life, her parents had fought about money and struggled to make ends meet. From the time she was in grade school, Gina had vowed to leave town someday and find a high-paying job. She had no interest in ever coming back, except for occasional visits.

      “She’s the first one in our family to graduate college, let alone earn a master’s degree,” Uncle Redd said with pride. “She’s a smart one and pretty, too.”

      “Uncle Redd!” Gina said, embarrassed.

      “Well, you are.”

      She snuck a glance at Zach. His gaze never left the road, but his lips twitched, and she thought he might even crack a smile.

      “Since the day she left she hasn’t been back to visit but three times,” Uncle Redd went on. “Once over Christmas break that first year in college and again when her dad—my oldest brother, Beau—passed that summer. After that, we didn’t see her for another four years, when her mama took sick with pneumonia. Marie was forty-two when she had Gina. She and Beau had been married almost twenty years and didn’t think they’d ever have kids. When Gina came along, they were over the moon. We all were. Of the three of us brothers, Beau was the only one to have a child.”

      “You don’t need to bore Zach with all that,” Gina said.

      “I don’t mind.” Zach glanced at her. “I knew you were the only kid in the family, but Lucky didn’t tell me the rest.”

      After another stretch of silence, Uncle Redd let out a loud yawn. Soon, soft snores floated from the backseat.

      Gina glanced behind her. “He’s out cold.”

      “I don’t think he slept much last night.” Zach rolled his shoulders as if he, too, were tired. “You’re in marketing, right?”

      She nodded. “I’m an assistant vice president with Andersen, Coats and Mueller.”

      “That’s a big firm.”

      “You’ve heard of them?”

      “I’ve read a few articles where they were mentioned. Do you like what you do?”

      No one had ever asked her that, and she had to stop and think. “I love it.”

      That wasn’t quite true. She loved the perks that put her in contact with the decision makers in big and small companies, and she liked the respect from her boss, colleagues, family and friends. “It’s hard work, though. Right now, I’m in the middle of holiday campaigns for several clients.” Her turn to yawn. “It seems like weeks since I’ve had a decent night’s sleep.”

      Even without the holiday push, she couldn’t remember the last time she’d slept through the night.

      “Let me guess—you live on caffeine.”

      “And chocolate. Lots of both.”

      “And you enjoy living that way?”

      “The chocolate part, for sure.” She smiled. “Everyone knows that if you want to get ahead, you have to work long hours.”

      Although Zach didn’t comment, Gina had the feeling he wasn’t impressed. She wanted him to understand.

      “Growing up, we had enough to eat and a roof over our heads, but we were poor,” she said. “My maternal grandfather owned a farm equipment business, and when my parents married, he hired my dad to work for him. Then, when my grandfather died, my dad took over the company. For some reason it never did very well. My mother worked two jobs to pay the bills. I always wanted something better.”

      “That makes sense. So do you have the life you want?”

      She was getting there. “I own a condo in an upscale high-rise and I drive a Lexus.” Between the steep mortgage, car payments and credit-card bills, she never quite made ends meet, but that was her business. “I can eat out wherever I please and buy new clothes anytime I want. You draw your own conclusions.”

      “Sounds as if you’re doing well.”

      A few moments of uncomfortable silence filled the car. Gina searched her mind for something else to talk about.

      “Where are you from, Zach?”

      “Houston.”

      “I thought I heard a bit of the South in your voice.”

      She was about to ask about his background and what had brought him to Saddlers Prairie when he turned on the radio. A Carrie Underwood song filled the air. And with that, the conversation was over.

      Gina shifted so that she faced the passenger window. Giving in to the exhaustion weighting her down, she closed her eyes.

      She didn’t wake up until Zach shut off the engine and touched her shoulder. “Wake up, Gina. We’re here.”

      Chapter Two

      Zach gathered with the entire Arnett family, dogs included, in the living room of Lucky’s house. They’d asked him to help play host to a steady