A Rancher's Christmas. Ann Roth

brought food, offered solace and shared stories about the old rancher.

      A cheerful fire danced in the fireplace, at odds with the occasion, and the little room was almost too warm. None of the Arnetts seemed to mind the heat or the company. Zach was grateful for the support and for their acceptance of him, no questions asked. It was a good thing because he wasn’t about to air his dirty laundry to anyone. Only Lucky had known the truth.

      From that first day Zach had drifted into town nearly three years ago, lost and broken, the people of Saddlers Prairie had welcomed him. Zach hadn’t planned on staying, had only known that he needed to get out of Houston and start fresh someplace else. The big sky, rolling prairies and wide-open spaces of Montana had appealed to him, and the welcome mat in Saddlers Prairie had pulled him in.

      In need of money—he was damned if he’d touch his bank account—he’d applied for work at the Lucky A. He hadn’t known squat about ranching, but Lucky had taken a chance on him and offered him a job. Wanting the rancher to know what kind of man he was first, Zach had told him the whole sorry story of the commercial real-estate company he’d built and his subsequent downfall, sparing none of the ugly details.

      Lucky had accepted him anyway and advised him to put the past behind him. Zach had done just that. He’d learned the ranching business and had soon become Lucky’s foreman. The successful CEO he’d once been and the beautiful woman he’d been engaged to seemed like part of someone else’s life.

      Clay Hollyer, also a transplant and a former bull-riding champion who now worked as a rancher supplying stock to rodeos around the West, wandered toward Zach. His pretty wife, Sarah, pregnant with their first child, was at his side.

      The couple offered their condolences. “What will you do now?” Clay asked.

      The near future was a no-brainer. “Someone needs to take care of the ranch, so I’ll be staying at the Lucky A for a while.”

      After that, Zach had no idea—except that he wanted to stay in town. His father and stepmother thought he was out of his mind for living in a trailer on a run-down ranch and working for peanuts when he didn’t have to. But Zach had learned to draw happiness from the little things in life and, for now, he was content.

      He glanced around for Gina. She was standing to the side of the fireplace, beautiful and animated as she chatted with people.

      Make that he used to be content.

      Now that Zach had met Gina, keeping his promise to Lucky and convincing her to hold on to the Lucky A seemed even more of a Sisyphean task than he’d thought. He seriously doubted that Gina would give up her career to run the Lucky A, but if he could at least convince her to keep the ranch in the family... That was what Lucky really wanted, for her to pass it down to her heirs—that was, if she had children one day.

      She seemed so driven that Zach didn’t know if she wanted kids. She sure was good with Bit and Sugar, though. The two dogs seemed wild about her, too. Bit, a Jack Russell, pranced around her, and Sugar, a white, sixty-pound husky, wagged her tail nonstop. Both of them hovered close and gazed at her adoringly, which said something about her.

      Locals and transplants seemed to want to be around her, too. A group of women, some of whom she’d probably known growing up, surrounded her. Among them were Meg Dawson and her sister-in-law, Jenny Dawson, and Autumn Naylor, who were all married to ranchers, and Stacy Engle, who was the wife of Dr. Mark Engle, the sole doctor in Saddlers Prairie.

      As engaged as Gina appeared to be, Zach noticed her yawn a few times. After spending the whole day traveling, she had to be exhausted. It had been a tough couple of days, and Zach fought the drowsies himself. Without thinking about it, he moved toward her. Her friends offered condolences to Zach before wandering off.

      “You doing okay?” he asked, leaning in close to be heard over the noise in the room. He caught a whiff of perfume, something sweet and floral that reminded him of hot tropical nights.

      “I’m managing. I found out from Stacy that you’re the one who found Uncle Lucky yesterday. What exactly happened?”

      Zach didn’t like talking about it. “Lucky was supposed to meet me at the back pasture first thing in the morning. When he didn’t show and didn’t answer his phone, I came here, to the house, looking for him.”

      “And you found him still in bed. Uncle Redd mentioned that Uncle Lucky had a heart attack, but he didn’t tell me about you finding him.” Gina shuddered. “That must’ve been awful.”

      “Not the best way to start your day.” Zach grimaced. “The only good part of it is knowing that Lucky was asleep when he died and didn’t suffer. We should all be so lucky.”

      “Pun intended?” she asked, her mouth hinting at a smile.

      “No, but what the heck.” Zach grinned.

      He liked Gina. He couldn’t help himself. Not just because she was easy to look at. She also cared about her family and the people in this house. They seemed genuinely pleased to see her, and she acted as if the feeling was mutual.

      She fit in well here. She belonged. Did she know how special that was?

      “Do you ever see yourself moving back to Saddlers Prairie?” he asked, feeling her out.

      “Are you kidding?” She let out a humorless laugh. “I’m staying through Thanksgiving, period. One week from Sunday, I’ll be on a flight back to Chicago. I hope—”

      “I’m glad you two are getting a chance to know each other,” Gina’s cousin Gloria said as she and her sister Sophie squeezed past several people to join the two of them.

      Both gray haired with sharp, brown eyes, their faces looked so much alike, they could’ve been twins. That was where the resemblance stopped.

      Gloria, bigger boned and taller than Sophie by a good four inches, patted his arm. “Isn’t Zach wonderful?”

      Sophie, who was two years younger than Gloria and soft around the middle, fluttered her lashes at him. “I hope you’re getting enough to eat, Zach. There’s a ton more food in the kitchen.”

      “I’ve had a plate or two, thanks.”

      “That’s good.” Sophie turned to Gina with a fond smile. “You’re so thin, cookie. Did you eat?”

      “I’ve been nibbling.” Gina yawned.

      Gloria gave her sister a dirty look. “You don’t look too thin to me, sweetie. You’re just right. Tomorrow will be a busy day. You have an early afternoon meeting with Matt Granger, Lucky’s attorney. He’ll give you a list of errands like you had had when your mother passed—stopping at the bank and so forth. You’ll also want to make calls to cancel Lucky’s health insurance and Social Security, any subscriptions he had and who knows what else.”

      Sophie frowned. “Don’t burden her with all that now. She’s exhausted, aren’t you, cookie?” She grinned at Zach. “I call her ‘cookie’ because I could just eat her up!”

      “You’ll eat anything,” Gloria muttered. “Land sakes, Sophie, she isn’t a child anymore.”

      Used to the bickering, Zach glanced at Gina and saw her smother a smile.

      “Now, now,” Gina soothed, hooking her arms through her elderly cousins’. “Remember what’s happened. And don’t refer to me in the third person.”

      “All right, sweetie. Excuse us a moment, Zach.” Gloria pulled Gina away from Sophie, speaking loudly enough that anyone within ten feet could hear. “What I was trying to say before she—” Gloria jerked her chin Sophie’s way “—so rudely interrupted, is that tomorrow you’ll be going nonstop, and you should probably get some sleep.”

      “We have guests, and I don’t want to be rude.”

      “Yes, but you traveled all day, and it’s an hour later in Chicago. People will understand, and they all know they’ll see you again at the funeral. Zach