“Pretty place,” Breezy said when he reached the front porch of the house.
“Thank you.”
He nodded toward the door. Time to get it over with. He figured she’d be here another ten minutes, and then she’d be gone and he wouldn’t have to worry about her. He’d hand her a check and they’d go their separate ways.
Today he’d said a few prayers on the matter and maybe it was wrong, but he’d prayed she’d take the out. Of course he knew God didn’t exactly answer prayers based on Jake Martin’s wants. But he’d sure be grateful if the good Lord made this easy on him.
“Let’s go inside.” He led her across the porch with the bentwood furniture. Ceiling fans hung from the porch ceiling and in the summer they made evenings almost bearable. Not that he spent a lot of time sitting out there.
“Do you live here alone?” she asked, turning a bright shade of pink. “I mean, do you have family here? In Martin’s Crossing?”
“This is my home and I do have family in Martin’s Crossing.” He didn’t plan on giving her the family history.
What would he tell her? That he and his twin sister had helped raise their younger siblings after their mom had left town, left their dad and them? This ranch had been in their family for over one hundred years and keeping it going had put his dad in an early grave. Now he’d lost his sister, and he was determined to find a way to keep the family together, keep them strong, without her.
But no, he wasn’t alone. He had his brothers, Duke and Brody. They had their little sister, Sam. Short for Samantha.
Duke lived in the old family homestead just down the road.
Their little brother, Brody, only came around when he needed a place to heal up after a bad ride on the back of a bull. The rest of the time he stayed with friends in a rented trailer in Stephenville.
Sam had been in boarding school and was now in college. Out of state. That was his idea, after she couldn’t seem to keep her mind off a certain ranch hand. Their dad, Gabe Martin, hadn’t seemed to connect with the thought that his family was falling apart. It had all been on Jake.
The house was dark and cool. He led Breezy through the living room and down the hall to his office.
He flipped the switch, bathing the room in light, and motioned for her to take a seat. He positioned himself behind the massive oak fixture and pulled out a drawer to retrieve papers.
Breezy took the seat on the other side of the desk. With a hand that trembled, she pushed long blond hair back from her face. Lawton had mentioned she sang and played guitar. Something about being a street performer in California. Jake had taken it upon himself to learn more.
“Why didn’t you come back here with Lawton?” Jake asked, pinning her with a look that always made Samantha squirm. He didn’t have kids of his own, probably never would, but he knew all the tricks.
She looked away, her attention on the fireplace.
“Miss Hernandez?”
“Call me Breezy,” she whispered as she refocused, visibly pulling herself together. “I needed time to come to terms with what he’d told me. I didn’t know how to suddenly be the sister he thought I would be. Or could be. And I have a sister in Oklahoma.”
“I understand.” It had come out of nowhere, this new family of hers. “Lawton’s dad kept his skeletons hidden pretty deeply. But as he got older—” he shrugged “—guilt caught up with him.”
“I see.” She bit down on her bottom lip. “I could have been a part of their lives.”
His heart shifted a little. And sympathy was the last thing he wanted to feel.
“Yes, I guess.”
“And Lawton’s wife. She looked very sweet.”
That’s when his own pain slammed him hard. He cleared his throat, cleared the lump of emotion that settled there. He hadn’t yet gotten used to the loss. “Elizabeth was my twin sister.”
She bit down on her bottom lip and closed her eyes, just briefly. “I’m so sorry.”
“So am I.”
“So why am I here?”
“Because Lawton came home from Oklahoma and changed his will.” He brushed a hand over his face, then he reached for the manila envelope on his desk. “He left you his house, money from his dad’s estate, as well as a small percentage of his software and technologies company. He left the twins a larger percentage as well as a trust fund. The business manager, Tyler Randall, also inherited a small percentage of the company.”
“I see.” But she clearly didn’t understand. He was about to make it clear. And he prayed she’d take the out.
“Breezy, Lawton and Elizabeth left us joint custody of their daughters.”
He and this woman were now parents to two little girls.
Chapter Two
“No.” Breezy shook her head. This couldn’t be happening. No one would give her custody, even shared custody, of two little girls. “He couldn’t have done that.”
“I’m afraid he did.”
She met his blue gaze, knowing he disliked her. Or at the least, disliked the situation he’d been forced into with her. He knew these little girls. They were the children of his twin sister. Of course he was angry. She was angry, too.
What had made Lawton, a man she barely knew, think this was a good idea? She’d never stayed in one place longer than six months until she moved to Dawson, Oklahoma. She’d never had real family until her sister, Mia, found her. She definitely didn’t know how to raise a child.
“I’m not sure what to say,” she admitted.
“That makes two of us. I never planned on losing my sister and my best friend. And I certainly couldn’t have seen this coming.”
Jake Martin studied her. His blue eyes were sharp; his generous mouth was a straight, unforgiving line.
He shook his head and hit a button on an intercom. A woman answered. “Okay,” he said.
She sat quietly, forcing herself to maintain eye contact with him. The door behind her opened. She didn’t turn, even when he looked past her, smiling at whoever had entered the room. There were footsteps and quiet voices.
Curiosity overrode her desire to hold his gaze, to not feel weak. She glanced back over her shoulder and the room spun in a crazy way that left her fighting tears, trying to focus. Twin girls toddled across the room wearing identical smiles on identical faces.
“These are your nieces.” His voice came from far away.
“Oh.” What else could she say? The toddler girls were smiling as they bypassed her to get to Jake Martin.
“The lovely lady behind them is Marty, their nanny,” he explained, nodding toward the older woman who had remained in the doorway. He leaned down, holding out his arms. The girls ran to him and climbed onto his lap. He hugged them both tight.
“They’re beautiful.” They were dark-haired with blue eyes and big smiles. After all they’d been through, they could still smile. Though she didn’t want to, she attributed that to the man sitting across from her.
“They are.” He kissed the top of each dark head. “And we are their guardians.”
“You should have told me.”
He shrugged and looked at the girls, who had picked up pens and were drawing on the papers on his desk. He moved the envelope out of their reach.
“I think I just did.”
“I meant from the beginning.”
“Really? I should have disclosed this to someone I’ve never met?” He shook his head. “I’ll do whatever I need to do to keep them safe.”
“I get that.” She kept her voice soft, not wanting the girls to hear anger. She had too many memories of loud and unforgiving voices as she hid beneath the bed with Mia and their brother, Juan.
Was she really angry with him? As she studied the little girls on his lap, she thought not. He wanted to protect them.
He gr
inned at the girls and they reached up to pat his lean cheeks. “Rosie and Violet, this is your aunt Breezy.”
She had nieces. She wanted to hug those little girls close. She wanted to hold them forever. They were looking at her, wide-eyed, curious but not ready to come to her.
“Hi, girls.” What else could she say? Her vision blurred. She raised her hand to wipe away the tears that drifted down her cheeks.
Jake Martin looked at the little girls he held, his gaze serious and then he refocused on Breezy. He studied her, as if looking for a sign that she might run. He pushed a box of tissues across the desk, never removing his eyes from her. She wouldn’t run. She didn’t know what he knew about her, about her past, but she wouldn’t run. She couldn’t. Not now.
“Marty, why don’t you take the girls back to their playroom?” He set the girls down, easing them onto their feet. They walked around the desk and Breezy wanted to touch them. Rose smiled up at her and toddled close, little legs and bare feet peeking out from her colorful sundress, white with big brightly colored flowers. Violet held back, letting Rose take the lead.
They were identical, but not. Rose had a slightly rounder face. Her dark hair had a bit of wave. Violet’s dark hair was perfectly straight.
“Hi, Rose.” She leaned and the little girl walked up, unafraid, her little face splitting in a dimpled grin.
“Hi, Rose,” the toddler repeated and giggled. Breezy smiled.
“You’re both very pretty.”
“Very pretty,” Rose repeated and Violet giggled.
“And smart.”
“Smart a...” Rose started what sounded like something inappropriate.
“No!” Marty jumped forward. “Uncle Duke is a bad influence.”
“I know he is.” Jake shook his head. “He’s going to start putting money in a college fund if he doesn’t watch his language around them.”
Marty took the hand of each girl and they left the room with soft words, giggles and the patter of their bare feet.
“They’re precious.” Breezy turned to face what felt like her judge and jury. He had leaned back in the big leather chair and his booted feet were on the desk.
“Yes, they are. And I will do anything to protect them.”
“I’m sure you would.” She studied him for a minute. “But you don’t have to protect them from me.”
“That’s the problem. I don’t know you, Breezy. I know you were Lawton’s sister and he had the crazy idea that this would be best for his girls. But he also didn’t plan on dying so soon.”
“You don’t want me in their lives?”
He exhaled sharply and shook his head. Of course he didn’t. “I’m not sure what I want.”
The answer surprised her. “Did you hope I wouldn’t show up?”
He shrugged. “It would have made my life easier.”
“Right, but I’m here and those little girls are just as much my family as they are yours. Tell me what I need to do.”
Jake Martin tapped his pen on the desk and studied her.
“Lawton left us joint custody as long as you remain here, in his house. But there are stipulations. If you leave, you lose custody and ownership of the house. If I see a reason that you’re not capable of this, I take full custody. If either of those should happen and I should take full custody, the house goes to the girls. The money is yours no matter what happens. He had hoped...”
“That I would be in their lives.”
“Yes. He said you’d lived a life of independence and adventure. He wanted his daughters to learn that from you.” He brushed his hands through his hair and she saw the lines of exhaustion around his eyes. “Lawton had a very different life. Structure was the senator’s favorite word.”
“I see.” She let her gaze travel to the windows that offered a view of the rolling fields dotted with cattle. Craggy, tree-covered hills rose in the distance, gray and misty, as clouds spread across the sky.
Her brother had seen her life as adventurous. She guessed it had been, if a person wasn’t fond of knowing where one would sleep or where their next meal would come from.
Jake moved in his chair. His shoulders were broad, his arms corded with strong muscles. Breezy had always been taller than average. She wasn’t a petite little thing who backed down easily. She had street smarts, and a black belt.
All of that aside, Jake Martin intimidated her. He was lethal, she thought. The type of man who had always had power, never felt afraid or out of control of his life.
“I guess you’ll have to trust me,” she said after several minutes of trying to get a handle on her emotions.
“You have the option to take your money and leave.” He slid a check and a few papers across the desk.
She took both and he sat there like a rock, a solid mountain of a man with a strong chin and a mouth that shifted the smooth planes of his face when he smiled, making him less intimidating.
She considered the offer, to take the money and leave. That was the option he wanted her to take. And maybe he had the right of it. How long could she stay here without feeling caged? What about her life in Dawson with Mia and her adopted family, the Coopers? Did those two little girls really need someone like her?
Martin’s Crossing was another small town. For a girl raised in cities, she wasn’t used to small-town closeness, church on Sundays, people who knew her story. A picture of those two little girls on his desk caught her attention, making her rethink who she used to be and forcing her come to terms with the person she needed to be now.
“I’m not going anywhere.” She sat back and gave him a satisfied smile that trembled at the edges. Hopefully he didn’t notice it, or how her hands shook as she took the check and looked at the amount. She repeated her mantra. “I’m staying here with my nieces. If this is what Lawton wanted, then I owe it to him.”
“For how long?” His jaw clenched. “What would it take to buy you out, to make you leave?”
“I’m not for sale. I have two nieces who have lost both of their parents.”
He sighed and stood up, obviously not happy with her response.
“Okay, fine. So here’s the deal, Breezy.” He walked to the window and then looked back at her. “I don’t want the girls to be upset by this situation. They’ve been through enough.”
“I agree.”
“That means you’ll understand that I make the rules.”
“Why is that?”
“Several reasons. Lawton left the decision-making to me. They’re comfortable with me, and with Marty. I’ll bring them over to the house so they can get to know you.”
“Joint custody?” she reminded him with a voice that unfortunately shook.
“Right, and that will happen. But first we’ll go slowly. You’ll visit with them. I’ll supervise. If all goes well, we’ll come up with an arrangement that works for us both.”
“When do I get to spend time with them?”
“Tomorrow.” He picked up the hat he’d dropped on his desk. “I have work to get done and you’d probably like to settle in.”
“I guess that’s my cue to leave.” She stood, picking up her purse and waiting for him to say something.
He rounded his desk and walked with her to the door. “I’m sure you’ll find what you need at Lawton’s place.” He pulled a key out of his pocket and handed it to her. “Anything else you need, you’ll find in Martin’s Crossing.”
“Is there a grocery store?”
“Yes. Grocery store, gas station, restaurant and feed store. There are a couple of little shops, antiques and the like.”
He opened the front door and motioned her out ahead of him. She shivered as she stepped outside, surprised by how cold it had gotten. With this weather, she could believe Christmas was coming. She’d been looking forward to spending the holi
days with Mia.
“Do you have any other questions?” Jake asked.
“None.” She nodded at him, her final goodbye. And then the case of nerves she’d been fighting hit and she couldn’t get her feet to move forward.
Her brother and sister-in-law were gone. She had two nieces who needed her. She needed them just as much. The man standing next to her seemed to be calling all of the shots. Everything inside her ached.
“Are you okay?” His voice rumbled close to her ear. She shivered at his nearness.
“Yeah, I’m good.” She swiped at her eyes and looked away from his steady gaze, taking a deep breath. A hand, strong and warm, touched her arm, sharing his strength.
“It’ll all work out. Maybe it doesn’t seem that way right now, but it will. And I’m sorry, that you and Lawton didn’t have a chance to spend more time together.”
She nodded and closed her eyes. The hand remained on her arm. But then it slipped away. She opened her eyes and took in a deep breath. She could do this.
“Thank you.” She looked up at him, surprised by the way his presence gave her more strength than she would have imagined.
Maybe someday they would be friends, even allies.
He pulled a business card out of his shirt pocket and a pen, quickly writing something on the back before handing it to her. “That’s the information for the alarm system. And you can call if you have any problems. I’ll see you tomorrow at noon.”
She took the card, glanced at it then slipped it into her purse. “I’ll make lunch.”
He gave her a look but then he nodded. “You can do that.”
Breezy walked down the stone steps to her car, her mind reeling. As she backed out of the drive Jake Martin still stood on the porch. He raised a hand as she pulled away and she returned the gesture.
It was the beginning of a truce. Truce, but not trust. Jake Martin wasn’t the type of man who would give trust easily. She understood because she was the same way.
A Rancher for Christmas Page 2
