The Maverick's Holiday Surprise. Karen Smith Rose

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       Chapter Three

      As she approached Jamie’s front porch, Bella couldn’t stop thinking about Hudson and the way he’d studied her photos. He’d really seemed interested. She’d never thought of taking pictures for actual payment. That would be a breeze if it panned out because she loved photos and she loved horses, so she knew they’d be good. She hoped Hudson would really follow through with his offer.

      As she opened the door to the ranch house, Bella heard commotion in the kitchen. Taking off her coat, she hung it in the closet and headed for the voices and the squeals.

      She smiled when she saw the scene in front of her. Fallon O’Reilly was helping Jamie with the triplets by trying to feed Katie while he fed Henry and Jared. Bella felt warmth spread around her heart at the generosity of Fallon and others who were giving of their time so easily. However, the way Fallon looked at Jamie, Bella suspected there was more there than a friend helping a friend.

      Fallon was a year older than Bella and came from the kind of family that Jamie and she wished they’d had. She was a product of parents who had been married for decades and who loved their kids dearly. In turn, Fallon was great with kids. She should be; she worked at Country Kids Day Care.

      When Fallon spotted her, she smiled. “As you can see, applesauce is on the menu. Katie is wearing it exceptionally well, don’t you think?”

      The baby had obviously waved her hands around with applesauce-covered fingers. There was even some on the little pink ribbon in her fine hair. She smiled when she thought how Jamie always dressed her in pink and tried to keep the ribbon in her hair so everybody would know she was a girl. He was such a good dad.

      On the other side of the table, Henry and Jared had smeared it all over their mouths, on the high chair trays and even on Jared’s nose.

      “This looks like fun,” Bella said with a laugh. “Can I join in?”

      Jamie motioned to a chair on the other side of Henry. “Pull it up and have a go at this.”

      As Bella settled in, she said to Fallon, “How’s everything at Country Kids?”

      She brushed back her curly red hair. “Busy as usual. I had a four-year-old today who hit another child, so I had to call his parents to come pick him up. He was having a tantrum.”

      “How did the parents react?”

      “Not well. But I explained that he couldn’t disrupt the whole class just because he couldn’t get his way. The mom admitted she and her husband are having some problems at home and that’s why he’s acting out. Her husband lost his job in Kalispell, and he’s taken two part-time positions to try to make up for it. But they’re having financial difficulties and arguing. All of that affects kids.”

      Bella exchanged a look with Jamie. Everything regarding home life affected kids. That’s why she and Jamie were trying to give the triplets all the love and attention they could muster. With others joining in, the triplets should have a good start on life, even though they’d been born prematurely and had had to catch up. Even though they’d lost their mom.

      “Fallon, I don’t know if we say it often enough, but we’re so grateful for your help,” Bella said.

      “I love helping.” She turned her blue eyes on Jamie and then the triplets. “When these little ones follow me with their eyes, as they grab hold of my finger, or they eat their food instead of wear it, I feel like I’ve accomplished something important.”

      “I know what you mean,” Bella agreed. “That’s why I love working at the day care center, too. Babies are so easy to love.” She thought about her background and Jamie’s and added, “Unlike teenagers, who are angry and ungrateful sometimes.”

      “Our grandparents did their best,” Jamie murmured.

      Bella supposed that was true. People could do only what they knew how to do. But it seemed love should be easier to give than to withhold, and she’d always felt their grandparents had withheld their affection. She always surmised that they’d taken in her and Jamie out of guilt. Years before, they’d disowned their only daughter, Bella’s mother Lauren, when she’d gotten pregnant out of wedlock, and Bella suspected they regretted that decision. When Bella had gotten pregnant, it had brought back for her grandparents all those unwanted memories and stress—stress that no doubt contributed to her grandma’s death. At the end of the day, she had blamed herself for all of it. She’d ended up believing that she was a burden who should have never landed on her grandparents’ doorstep.

      Jamie’s thoughts must have been following the same course because he said with regret, “I wish things were different with Gramps, but that’s too much water under the bridge, isn’t it?”

      “I wish things were different around the holidays especially,” Bella agreed.

      Gramps still lived in the same house in town, and they never heard from him or saw him. She wished he could be part of their lives, but he’d disowned her after she’d gotten pregnant, even though she’d had a miscarriage. That hadn’t made any difference to him. He’d been cold and mostly unspeaking until she moved out when she was eighteen. There was so much resentment there—resentment for his wife dying, resentment СКАЧАТЬ