Montana Mistletoe. Roxanne Rustand

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СКАЧАТЬ around the bend and pulled to a stop in front of his pickup, discharged the twins and then rumbled on down the road.

      Clad in identical puffy pink winter jackets, with matching pink woolen caps and mittens, at this distance their only obvious differences were their snow boots...or lack thereof.

      Jess leaned down for hugs. “I’m so happy to see you,” he exclaimed as he stepped back, giving each a playful tap on the nose with a forefinger. He dropped his gaze to Bella’s purple boots, then to Sophie’s tennis shoes, which were nearly invisible in the ankle-deep snow. “But where are your boots?”

      “She forgot them at school,” Bella announced. “Again.”

      At Sophie’s worried expression, he cracked a smile as he swept her up into his arms to brush the snow from her shoes, then put her in her booster seat, then hoisted Bella in. “Seat belts, ladies.”

      Once they were fastened in, he settled behind the steering wheel and looked up at them in the rearview mirror. “I’ve got a surprise for you back at the house, girls.”

      Sophie’s eyes opened wide. “Presents?” she breathed. “Like Christmas?”

      “No, not like Christmas. Sorry. Christmas is still how many weeks away?”

      “Seven,” Bella said glumly. “It’s too far.”

      They’d become so impatient that he’d started looking at the calendar with them every evening before bedtime, counting down the days until the holiday. Despite their mother’s troubled life, she must have managed some happy Christmas memories with the girls.

      “You’re right. Seven whole weeks, and Thanksgiving has to come first. But who’s been away for almost a month?”

      “Gramma!” The twins squealed in unison.

      “Right. She’s home now, but remember—she’s weak and tired, and we can’t be too exuberant.”

       “Zoober mint?”

      “Exuberant. I mean that we don’t want to act too excited. So just like at the rehab center, we can’t climb all over her lap, or bump her and make her fall. Then she’d have to go back to the hospital again.”

      Chastened, the girls fell back against their seats.

      “But there’s someone else at the house to see you,” he continued, glancing at the rearview mirror again.

      The twins sat frozen, their eyes big and round.

      “Mommy?” Bella whispered, her voice rising with heartbreaking hope and excitement. “Did our mommy come back?”

      Jess chastised himself for such a blunder. “No, not yet. Do you remember the pretty lady you met in Grandma’s room a couple nights ago? She had blond hair like yours and she was really nice.”

      Silence.

      “Her name is Abby, and she’s staying with us for a while. She’s going to help Grandma with the house and the cooking and with you girls, too. Won’t that be great?”

      When he looked up in the rearview mirror, he could see silent tears tracing down Sophie’s winter-pink cheeks.

      Bella’s head was bowed. “When will Mommy come back?” she whispered. “She said she would come back. We don’t want a different mommy.”

      No worries on that score.

      He’d been too busy with the twins and the ranch to even think about dating.

      And as far as Abby was concerned, that was a no-brainer. They’d had a long relationship but it had ended long ago. The sooner he found a permanent housekeeper the better, because then she could be on her way.

      Yet he couldn’t deny that it was a relief having someone to temporarily help watch over the twins and keep them safe.

      He’d loved them from the day they showed up in Montana, so scared and lost and innocent, but they’d also made him face the biggest fear in his life, and he hadn’t had a good night’s sleep since they arrived.

      He knew all too well how impetuous little ones could be. How tragedies could strike in an instant.

      And how devastating it was when the fault was his.

      * * *

      Eager to get dinner started, Abby sorted through the kitchen cupboards and walk-in pantry, then mentally cataloged the contents of the refrigerator. She’d already gone through the chest freezer in the basement and found plenty of beef—which was no surprise on a cattle ranch.

      Betty hadn’t emerged from her long nap yet. And Jess had been outside in the barns all afternoon, only popping in to say he was heading out to pick up the twins.

      The days were shorter now, in these first few days of November, and daylight was already fading, sending long shadows across the kitchen floor. She turned on the lights, then glanced at the clock on the stove.

      She pulled a roast from the bottom freezer drawer and put it in the fridge for the following night, then tossed a couple pounds of ground beef into the microwave on Defrost.

      She suddenly heard footsteps come up the stairs to the back porch and she turned to find Jess ushering the twins though the door.

      She offered them a warm smile. “I’m so happy to see you girls again. How was school today?”

      They silently stamped the snow from their feet and shrugged off their coats, hanging them up on a set of lower pegs in the entryway, and left their hats and mittens on a shelf above the pegs. Neither of them glanced her way.

      “Hmm. I wonder if I have your names right.” She looked at Bella and playfully tilted her head. “You must be...Sophie.”

      Instead of smiling, Bella turned away.

      “And...you must be Bella,” she said to Sophie. “Am I right?”

      With an almost imperceptible shake of her head, Sophie pulled off her sodden tennis shoes and trudged across the floor, her socks leaving a trail of wet footprints. Bella followed her, giving Abby a wide berth.

      “Go put on dry socks or your slippers, Sophie,” Jess called after her as he hung up his own coat. “I’m afraid they were hoping their mom had arrived, after I told them someone new was here at the ranch.”

      Abby could only imagine how hard it must have been for them to find their mother wasn’t here after all. “I’m afraid I’m an awfully big letdown.”

      “They’ll come around. Suppers have been really basic since Betty fell, so I’m sure they’ll be happy to see something besides spaghetti, hamburgers and frozen dinners.”

      Abby mentally readjusted her plans for dinner from spaghetti to meatloaf and baked potatoes, and lowered her voice. “Is there any chance you could adopt the twins?”

      “From what I’ve read on the internet, they could be considered abandoned after no personal contact with their mother for six months. Now it’s СКАЧАТЬ