The Rancher's Christmas Bride. Brenda Minton

hunting. But I’m sure you can look that up on the internet,” he teased, punctuating his words with a wink.

      “Stop making fun of me. When I decide to do something, I do it. I’m staying and I’m going to help my grandfather.”

      “Calm down, I’m not making fun of you.”

      Of course he wasn’t. But she’d gotten used to Aidan and his brand of teasing, which she now realized had been more. He’d smiled as he pointed out her shortcomings, then he’d told her he was teasing. Now she could look back on the last two years and a relationship that had been chipping away at her hard-earned self-confidence.

      She briefly closed her eyes. When she opened them he had stepped a little closer. His expression, soft and concerned, eased the tension building inside her.

      “I’m calm,” she said.

      “I admire that you want to help Dan, even if you don’t know a thing about ranching. But don’t you have a job you need to get back to?”

      A few days ago she would have said that she did have a job. She had an apartment, a job and even a fiancé, who would now have been her husband.

      “I have a new job but I don’t start until mid-January. I have plenty of time to stay and help my grandfather.”

      The job now seemed like another area of her life she’d given over to her parents. It was a job they’d wanted for her and approved of. And she’d agreed to the private school even though she’d wanted something else. She’d been looking at a small rural school when her father told her he’d gotten her an interview with a friend.

      “Suit yourself.” He headed for the barn with the empty bucket. “I have to get home and get my own chores taken care of. Tomorrow morning you’ll need to move a round bale to the cattle. They’ll eat about two of those fifty-pound bags of grain. And then you’ll need to feed the chickens and gather eggs. Don’t forget Bub.”

      The list of chores made her take a step back and reevaluate the plan. She quickly swallowed past the lump that lodged in her throat. She could do this. The other thing she could do was ignore the humorous glint in his dark eyes and the dimple in his left cheek.

      He was the complete opposite of Aidan. He was the opposite of what she knew about life and men. He laughed too easily and smiled too much. He was too carefree.

      But her grandfather had commented on his life, making her think everything hadn’t been so easy for Alex Palermo.

      “I can do all of that,” she informed him because he seemed to be waiting for confirmation.

      “I think you probably can,” he said, suddenly serious. “Don’t forget to lock the doors tonight.”

      “Lock the doors. Of course.”

      The humor evaporated. “I’m serious. I know you want to stay here. And I know you can handle things, but these cattle rustlers are real and I don’t want you to think you have to go out and tangle with them.”

      Her earlier ease with the situation dissolved with that warning. “What should I do if I see or hear something?”

      “Call 911 and then call me. I’ll write my number down for you. And let Bub sleep in the house with you. He looks like a drooling mess, but he’s got a pretty vicious bark.”

      “Okay, I’ve got this.”

      He winked, then he kissed her cheek, taking her completely by surprise. “Of course you do. I believe you can do this.”

      * * *

      Alex heard a truck door slam. He walked out of the stall he’d been cleaning and spotted his sister Lucy getting out of her truck. She waved and headed his way. Lucy was proof that the Palermo family could overcome the past.

      An abusive cult leader for a father. A mother who’d abandoned them. Some folks around town still gave them the stink eye, as if they were waiting for one of the Palermo kids to turn out like their father.

      Years ago, Lucy had escaped, joining the army and then returning to start a protection business with her former army buddies. Last spring she’d finally come home to Bluebonnet and ended up marrying their neighbor, Dane Scott. And Lucy had adopted Maria’s baby girl, Jewel.

      The only problem with all of this was that Lucy suddenly was into everyone’s business and thought all her siblings needed to be fixed. She’d turned into a mother.

      “How’s Dan doing?” she asked as she entered the barn.

      Alex put the pitchfork back in the storage room. He closed the door of that room. Long ago it was the room their father had locked Lucy in when he’d learned of her teen relationship with Dane.

      “He’s good. Word travels fast in a small town.”

      “Yeah, it does. I was at Essie’s.” The café their aunt owned. “She said Doc came in after he’d gotten back from Killeen.”

      He knew that hopeful look in Lucy’s eyes, she was thinking maybe there was something between him and Dan’s granddaughter. He headed out the front door of the stable. The sun was setting and the air had cooled ten degrees with a wind coming out of the north. He figured there’d be frost on the ground when he woke up in the morning.

      “I guess Dan’s granddaughter is sticking around?” Lucy asked as she walked next to him.

      “Is there a point to this visit?” He opened the door to the garage he’d had built since he returned home last spring. Inside were a couple of tractors and a farm truck. The equipment belonged to neighbors. The tools belonged to him.

      “How’s business?”

      He pushed a rolling toolbox in the direction of the John Deere tractor. “Business is good. And I’m not interested in Dan’s granddaughter, not as anything more than a neighbor in need. I’ll remind you that it wasn’t too long ago that you weren’t interested in dating. Just because you’ve gone to the other side doesn’t mean I’m going to.”

      Lucy sat on a rolling stool and watched him. Studied him, more like. The way a scientist studied an insect. “One of these days there will be a woman who makes you forget. Or at least helps you let go of the past.”

      “It isn’t going to be this woman.” By the past Lucy meant the women who couldn’t be seen with him because their daddies didn’t want them dating a Palermo. As a teenager it had hurt. As an adult, he guessed he didn’t blame them.

      His dad had been a cult leader who abused his family. And most people would have said the apple didn’t fall far from the tree. For a long time he’d almost believed it, thinking that he had no choice but to grow up in the shadow of Jesse Palermo.

      He slid under the tractor and ignored his sister. Time was limited and Jerry Masters expected his tractor fixed in the next week. “I’m looking at buying some used equipment to sell.”

      “Can you do that and get those bulls ready to buck?”

      “I can. Marcus is going to come home and help with the bulls. It works for us both. I invested my earnings. He blew through his like water.” He scooted out and picked a different tool. Lucy was watching him, her dark eyes serious. “Stop worrying, Luce. I’ve got this.”

      “I always worry. It’s my job.”

      “You don’t have to worry.”

      “Yes, I do. I worry that Marcus is going to hurt himself or someone else. I worry that Maria has been talking to Jaxson Williams. And I worry that you still think it was all your fault. Everything.”

      “It was.” He scooted back under the tractor, hoping she’d take the hint and leave. He knew better, but it was worth a try.

      “You were a teenager and not responsible for our father’s actions. Ever.”

      He gave up on the tractor, slid out and sat up, knees bent and arms resting on them. He gave his sister