Christmas with the Rancher. Mary Leo

didn’t want to join her then so be it. He could fly out later, alone. She intended to be on that flight out of Idaho tomorrow afternoon, and there was absolutely nothing that would stop her.

      “Surprise!”

      At least fifty complete strangers stared at her seemingly waiting for her reply. At once she turned back to the door to check out who had stepped inside after her, but there was no one. The “surprise” had been for her. She stood staring at all the smiling, happy faces feeling like a deer caught in the headlights, too stunned to physically move.

      Who are these people?

      Then, slowly, as if the picture in front of her began to focus, she could pick out familiar faces and realized the strangers were some of her closest friends from childhood.

      “Oh, my God! You guys,” she said completely dumbfounded by their exuberance.

      She was going to kill her father, who was noticeably absent from the lively group. Probably a smart move on his part considering the anger she felt towards him knowing the “steak dinner” was simply a rouse.

      And she fell for it....

      At once the group bombarded her with questions and old jokes. She had a hard time keeping up as she tried to be polite. Unfortunately, she didn’t recognize anyone right off or remember their names. She had little desire to rekindle friendships or to get the dirt on any of her fellow classmates which seemed to be what most of the group wanted to share, along with their business cards and contact information.

      She graciously took their cards, wrote down other pertinent info, and shared her own contact information knowing perfectly well from her past experience with these fair-weather friends that none of them would follow through. Once she drove out of town that would be the end of it, exactly how it had been when she and her mom drove out of town fifteen years ago.

      For the next several hours Bella bounced from one parochial conversation to the next with people she’d all but forgotten. Even her childhood best friend, Jaycee Barnes, now mother to two boys and a girl, initially only stirred up a mild amount of nostalgia. Then, as if a switch had turned on inside Bella, the more they shared their lives the more she genuinely missed their friendship. She’d never bonded with another girlfriend like she had with Jaycee. They had been more than best friends; they had been sisters.

      Jaycee looked tired. Gone was her waist-length chestnut-brown hair, replaced by a short cut that had lost all its bounce. She wore a plain blue Western-style shirt, black jeans and well-worn tan-colored cowgirl boots. She carried an alert baby girl on one hip, dressed in a red Santa outfit with a white stretchy headband around her little head that sported a spray of mini round ornaments that bounced every time the baby moved.

      “You brought your baby to a bar?” Bella asked once the two women had settled on bar stools. They sat at the end of the long wooden bar, farthest away from the front door and the Christmas tree that dominated the picture window adjacent to it. Bella was working on her third longneck beer while Jaycee sipped a club soda with several limes. They had chatted about her children for a good ten minutes and now Bella wanted to move onto another subject. Children were fine, as long as Bella didn’t have to interact with them or listen to gloating parents... Jaycee was beyond gloating and well into exulting.

      For one thing, Bella had a hard time believing anyone would want to bring their “cherished” baby to a bar let alone want to nurse said baby while sitting on a bar stool.

      “It’s family owned,” Jaycee said, as she cradled her baby under a small pink coverlet with a strap that she’d slipped over her head that kept both baby and nursing mama hidden.

      It wasn’t as if Jaycee had whipped out a breast to feed her baby or anything equally uncomfortable for everyone else...but still.

      A bar!

      “And that means...?”

      “It’s not like it’s a regular bar-bar where singles troll for a pick up.”

      “Didn’t you just tell me you met your husband in this bar?”

      “That was different. Fred wasn’t trolling. He was here on business.”

      “What kind of business could have brought him to Briggs?”

      “Fred works for the National Potato Council.”

      Bella nodded, and smirked. “Of course he does.”

      She took a couple swigs of her beer while Jaycee droned on.

      “It’s a good job, but raising three kids is costly. We’ve been trying to buy a bigger house ’cause we’ve outgrown the one we’re in, especially with another baby coming. I found the perfect one in town, but Fred’s been traveling so much it’s hard to pin him down long enough to get all the paperwork together to put in a proper offer.”

      Bella nearly choked on her beer. “You’re having another baby?”

      “Yes, isn’t it wonderful?” Her girl’s hand poked out from under the pink blanket and grabbed her mom’s chin.

      “Wonderful,” Bella lied.

      It was one thing to have three kids and be financially strapped, but to be happy about being pregnant with a fourth was simply irrational...at least in Bella’s way of thinking.

      “Bella, baby, Mommy’s trying to have a conversation.”

      Bella was about to take another pull on her beer when she focused on Jaycee’s words. “You named your baby Bella?”

      Jaycee nodded, and a wide grin spread across her haggard-looking face. “You’re my best friend. Isn’t that what best friends do? I’m sure when you have your own baby girl you’ll name her Jaycee. You don’t have to if you really don’t want to. I won’t be offended, I promise, but that’s the promise we made to each other when we won the tiaras.”

      Bella suddenly remembered they’d tied for Miss Junior Russet when they were eight years old, the same day they’d promised each other to name their first baby girl after each other. It was the first time in the history of the pageant that there’d been a tie and Jaycee thought they should do something special to commemorate the occasion. Bella had agreed and had treasured that tiara, always keeping it prominently displayed in her room.

      But when it came time for her to leave with her mom, she could only bring two suitcases filled with her things and the tiara didn’t make the cut. At the time, she figured she’d be back for her things later, probably in a week or so. Had she known they wouldn’t be returning to Briggs anytime soon, she would’ve brought her tiara with her. It had been one of her favorite things. She had no idea what happened to it and hadn’t thought about it in years.

      “That was a long time ago. We haven’t spoken to each other since we were kids. How can we possibly still be best friends?”

      Jaycee threw Bella a look as if she didn’t understand the question. “Did you get another best friend?”

      Not even close.

      “No, but friends keep in touch.”

      “I figured you were busy, is all. I forgave you for not answering my letters.”

      “You forgave me? You sent me one letter telling me how Travis had started hanging around with the popular girls in school and when I asked you to be more specific you never wrote back.”

      The news that Travis had moved on so quickly had devastated Bella and had taken her a long time to get over the hurt.

      Jaycee took a sip of her drink. “I wrote back, but you’d already moved. The letter came back to me, unopened with no forwarding address. Besides, I was mad at you for leaving and not telling me first. I eventually forgave you and sent you another letter, but that one came back, as well. Now that I have kids of my own I know exactly how much they misinterpret situations they don’t understand. It was your mama’s decision to leave, not yours. I just couldn’t understand that when I was twelve.”

      It