The Rancher's Christmas Match. Brenda Minton

wouldn’t want you telling everyone that she can’t cook,” he warned.

      “You’re not everyone. Anyway, we stayed here. In the garage. It’s a nice garage with no cars in it, so I don’t know why it’s called a garage.”

      They’d stayed on the ranch. The thought unsettled him.

      How much could he or should he ask without seeming too curious? He felt like a sixteen-year-old with a crush on the new girl. That wasn’t happening. No way. No how.

      “Hey!” A shout from the front of the stable caught his attention.

      “Hey back,” he returned.

      Eve, a resident of the ranch, glared at him, then managed to soften her expression as she approached. Smile or no, she didn’t appear to be too happy, and it seemed his pint-size stable hand might be the reason.

      “You ran off.” Eve pointed at the girl. “And you didn’t ask permission or tell me where you were going. That really isn’t very nice.”

      “Eve,” he warned.

      If there was another person on the ranch not naturally kid friendly, it was Eve. She’d come around by degrees as she’d gotten attached to Carson’s children. But she would be the first to admit that she didn’t have a lot of experience with children. She’d been an only child to what she referred to as her “hippy parents.”

      He wanted to laugh, because somehow she always got stuck babysitting.

      “Do I look like a day-care provider?” she asked him.

      “You seemed to do a pretty good job,” Isaac teased. “Except you have a tendency to lose children. That can’t be good.”

      “I wanted to see the horses,” Allie explained. “I should have told you, but I thought you’d say no.”

      Eve maneuvered her chair around the horse, giving the animal a less-than-trusting glance. Shorty didn’t even twitch.

      “What if something had happened?” Eve asked the little girl.

      Allie’s shoulders hunkered forward and she sighed. “I didn’t think about that. I just wanted to see the animals. Did you know there’s a llama?”

      Eve melted. She could act tough but on the inside she was a marshmallow. “Yeah, I know there’s a llama. Do me a favor—next time ask. And if you’re going to wander, take Maximus. Now we need to head back to the house. Your mom will be finished talking with Jack and she’ll be looking for you.”

      “Do we have time to see the llama?” Allie moved close to Eve’s chair and leaned on the armrest.

      “I think so. But I don’t do well in the dirt out there, so Isaac will have to take you.” Eve shot him a look.

      He glared back, the way he would have done if he’d had a little sister that pestered him. He did have a little sister, a half sister named Daisy. But since they’d never met, he didn’t know if she was a pest.

      “I’m kind of busy.”

      Eve smirked. “Doing what?”

      He glanced down at Allie. “Work.”

      “What work would that be?” Eve continued.

      “Believe it or not, Eve, ranch work is real work. There are fences to fix, cattle to work, horses we’re training.”

      She saluted. “Gotcha, Sarge.”

      He held a hand out to the child at his side. “Even a spitting llama is better than a stubborn female.”

      As he walked away, Allie’s hand in his, Eve called out, “When you get done, could you take her to the house? I have to get some work done.”

      “No problem,” he called back to her.

      Allie was silent for a minute. “Isn’t she your friend?”

      He glanced down at the blond-haired child. “She is my friend.”

      “Did you date and get mad at each other?”

      “No, we just like to tease. She knows how to...” He cut off the explanation because a kid wouldn’t understand Eve getting under his skin the way she did. “We just like to give each other a hard time. But no, we haven’t dated. We’re just friends.”

      Neither of them dated. It was the code on the ranch. This was a place for healing, for getting lives back in order. Relationships were unnecessary baggage for people dealing with physical and emotional problems they’d brought back from war.

      The last thing he needed was to drag a woman into his messed-up life. He remembered all too well what it had been like living on this ranch with Jack, back when he was still fighting the nightmares of Vietnam. He remembered Jack climbing into the bottle and not climbing out for weeks, the ranch crumbling around his ears and livestock begging to be fed.

      He wasn’t Jack, but he feared the what-ifs.

      What if he became Jack? What if he hurt a woman and children the way Jack had hurt his wife and kids?

      Nah, it wasn’t worth that kind of guilt. And fortunately there’d never been a woman who had made him consider getting serious.

      * * *

      The room Jack West used as an office was on a back corner of the sprawling log home. Massive windows offered a view of the wide-open fields belonging to the ranch. One wall of the room was lined with floor-to-ceiling bookcases. The shelves were filled with books and family pictures, as well as trophies the ranch had won at different rodeo events in the tristate area. Tristate meaning Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri.

      Jack had explained it all at the beginning of the meeting. He’d shared personal details that had been uncomfortable to hear. Stories of his wife, his children, his road to recovery and, now, today, trying to forge a relationship with his estranged, adult children.

      So far Carson was the only one of the three who had agreed to meet with him. Isaac was not a full brother to Carson and his siblings, Colt and Daisy.

      “I’d love to show you the building I have available,” Jack told Rebecca. “I think a salon with the potential to expand to a day spa is a terrific idea. I could see how it would benefit the resort we’re renovating. Now I admit, I’m concerned with your ability to bring in local traffic.”

      “I think you might be surprised,” she countered. “Also, we could advertise in nearby communities, like Grove. If people want to get away for the day, go to a top-notch salon, perhaps eat at the tearoom you say is going to be opening in the spring, then why not come to Hope?”

      “Why not come to Hope?” He grinned at that. “Good point. We should use that in advertising to local communities.”

      She couldn’t help but smile at his approval. Goodness, she had to stop needing this man’s approval and she had to stop basking in his praise. He wasn’t her father. And if he learned about her past, he might not be as easygoing as he appeared.

      “Yes, why not come to Hope?” Rebecca repeated.

      Jack gave her a long look. “Why did you come to Hope, Rebecca?”

      The question took her by surprise. What should she tell him? She had a feeling he would find out her secrets somehow, some way.

      “My parents live in Grove. After my aunt passed away last year, I realized Allie and I were adrift in Arizona with no support system. I had friends, but they were busy with their own lives. I decided to move closer to home and I saw your advertisement. My parents...” They wanted nothing to do with her or with Allie. But that didn’t matter. If something happened to Rebecca, her parents would be there for Allie. She had to believe that. After all, she was their only child. Allie their only grandchild.

      “Rebecca?”

      She shook her head at the question. “I’m sorry,