The Rancher's Christmas Match. Brenda Minton

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СКАЧАТЬ got the message loud and clear.

      Someone in church had hurt her. If he had to guess, it probably had something to do with Allie.

      Jack got to his feet, steadier today. “We should get on the road. Rebecca is going to make a list of materials she’d like to purchase for the shop. Isaac, you should see to those Christmas trees.”

      Isaac grabbed the bill Holly had left on the table. “I’ll do that, but I’d prefer to wait until Allie can go with me. I have a feeling she’s a Christmas tree expert.”

      Just like he was an expert at getting involved where he shouldn’t. Allie didn’t remind him of a child in Afghanistan, a little girl with dark hair and pleading eyes. He’d seen her look his way. And then she’d been engulfed by the explosion, the smoke, the violence. Her story never made it to the news. No one thought about her or the tragedy of a young life lost. He remembered. His friends remembered. The image had stayed with them. There were times late at night that he’d get a text from one of the men he’d been stationed with, asking if he still had nightmares.

      He did.

      “Isaac.” Jack’s voice caught him mid-thought. A hand on his arm brought him back to the present and he managed to breathe, to clear his head. He swiped an arm across his forehead and walked off, still holding the bill for their lunch.

      He heard Holly say something like “don’t worry about it, it’s on the house.” Jack told her to take the money. Conversation buzzed around him as he walked out of the café, the door closing behind him, cutting him off from the buzz of curious voices.

      As he walked down the sidewalk, a headache started. Throbbing pain began at his temple and radiated down to his ear and above his eye. He leaned against the building, closing his eyes as he drew in fresh air.

      “Breathe,” a low voice told him. He’d expected it to be Kylie. It wasn’t, though. He was surprised to hear Rebecca’s soft alto.

      “Easier said than done.” He opened his eyes, but squinted against the sun. He pulled sunglasses out of his pocket and slid them on.

      She stood next to him, shoulder to shoulder. She was a surprise. First, he’d expected her to walk on, or to take the same stand she’d taken on Monday when she’d offered him a ride.

      Instead, she remained next to him.

      He matched his breathing to hers until his thoughts became rational once more. The sky was blue. A cool north wind brought the fragrant hint of fall turning to winter. The town maintenance crew was working from bucket trucks, hanging lights from poles.

      His world was far removed from the terrors of Afghanistan. And yet he thought of all the children living in that country, listening at night for the sound of gunfire or bombs, wondering when a neighbor would be revealed as an enemy.

      “Better?” she asked.

      “Yeah, thanks.”

      She stepped away from the side of the building. “We all have our pasts to deal with. Things that might not be frightening to one person can be a nightmare to another.”

      “Church?” he asked, as she started to walk away.

      Without looking back, she nodded. And he let her go, watching as she returned to her daughter. Allie grabbed her hand, said something that brought a frown to Rebecca’s face, then they moved on.

      He would follow. Soon.

      * * *

      The future home of the Hope Lakeside Salon was on a corner of Lakeside Drive just a block from Mattie’s Café. The street was lined with brick-and-wood-sided buildings. The structure was two stories. Downstairs would house the salon, while the upstairs rooms were being remodeled to rent by the night.

      Rebecca found herself overwhelmed and excited as she looked around. The building had been renovated, the walls painted ivory, leaving whoever started a business there to choose their own colors. There were several rooms, including a large main one that might have once been a store. A door led to a hallway and several smaller ones that would make treatment rooms as she expanded her business to include a day spa, offering facials and massages.

      “This was a dry goods store when I was a kid growing up in town,” Jack told her. “My mom would bring me here to buy shoes. She would buy cloth for sewing.”

      “Those are good memories,” Rebecca agreed.

      She had memories, too. Of gardening with her mother, helping her father clean the church. But senior year of high school everything had changed. She’d met Greg. And she’d learned that her father preached forgiveness to his congregation, but his daughter was exempt from his mercy.

      The bell over the shop’s door chimed. Isaac entered, looking more himself. He pushed his hat back and glanced around the bright, clean room.

      “Will this building have the water you need for a salon?” he asked.

      “I’ll see that it does,” Jack responded. He headed to the back corner of the room. “There’s a restroom behind here, with water pipes. We’ll have to run lines along this inside wall.”

      “I’m hoping to have four stations, for four stylists. I know that sounds ambitious,” Rebecca said.

      Isaac glanced around the store. The front had floor-to-ceiling windows, with an area to the right of the door where hair product displays might be located. The other exterior wall had two large windows that overlooked the lake, a short distance away.

      “I think it’s good to be ambitious,” Jack told her. “I’ll have them install five. Why not dream big. And what else will you have in this front area?”

      “I think a couple of stations for manicures and pedicures, and possibly a small boutique in the back corner. Of course, it’s going to happen in stages. I have the money to get the salon started. I’ll need chairs, sinks, equipment.”

      “This is why I picked you, Rebecca.” Jack sat on a folding chair in the corner. “I like that you’re ambitious, but you know how to take things in stages.”

      She stood in the center of the room, picturing it all in her mind. Her dream. She wanted this, for herself and for her daughter. They would have stability here. They might still be two against the world, but the world around them would be smaller and they would at least feel less alone.

      She didn’t allow herself to think about having people to depend on. She’d believed she had that in Arizona and she’d been fooled. She’d made the disastrous choice to trust Robert Larkin as a business partner. She’d never expected the longtime friend of her aunt to embezzle money from the salon and disappear. His crime had become her failure. This time she wouldn’t lose. She wouldn’t let herself or Allie down.

      “You okay?” Isaac asked. He hadn’t sneaked up on her and yet his presence at her side took her by surprise. She smiled at him, noticing again the scar that zigzagged along his cheek and ended somewhere beneath the black cowboy hat.

      “I’m good. Just daydreaming.”

      “Was it a nightmare? You looked pretty intense.” He said it with a teasing grin that revealed a dimple in his right cheek.

      “No, СКАЧАТЬ