Bella sat at her desk that afternoon, composing letters to send to parents explaining about the photos she wanted to take and the child care tips they might want to contribute. Usually moms were eager to share everything they knew about kids. She’d certainly gotten experience helping Jamie with the triplets.
Despite the work, she found herself missing Hudson. The place just wasn’t the same when he wasn’t there. Yes, she’d resented him when he’d first moved in, so to speak, to check up on her. But now they worked in tandem. Not only that, she missed his physical presence, the sparkle in his eyes, the energy he projected. Cowboy or businessman, he was one difficult man to ignore.
When the phone rang, she picked it up. “Just Us Kids Day Care Center, Bella Stockton speaking. How can I help you?”
“Is Hudson Jones there?” a gruff male voice asked her.
“He’s not available at the moment. Can I help you?”
There was a pause. “No, I need to speak to Jones. If I leave a message, will you make sure he gets it?”
“Of course I will. Or I could put you through to his voice mail.”
“I don’t trust that stuff. I’d rather you hand deliver it.”
She smiled and wondered how old this man was. She pulled a pink message pad and a pen from her desk. “As soon as he comes in, I’ll hand it to him.”
“Tell him this is Guy Boswick from Pine Bluff Ranch. He can reach me at...” And he rattled off a number. “I have a problem for him to handle.”
“Can I tell him what this is in regards to?”
“No. I need to talk to him. Don’t worry. He’ll know who I am when you give him my name.”
That was a cryptic message if she’d ever heard one.
“All right, Mr. Boswick. I will do that.”
“If I don’t hear from him today, I’ll call back tomorrow,” he assured her.
“That’s fine. I understand.”
She hardly had the words out when Mr. Boswick said “Goodbye” and hung up.
A half hour later, Hudson blew through the door along with the wind and a few snowflakes. He had a smile on his face.
Bella couldn’t help but smile back. Hudson Jones was infectious. She just hadn’t figured out if that was a good thing or a bad thing.
As he took off his jacket and hung it in his office, she followed him inside, the message in her hand. “You look as if you had a good meeting.”
“I did. We figured out how to keep things easy for the babies.”
“I’m not sure anything is easy with babies,” she warned him.
He chuckled. “Probably not. But how’s this for an idea? Reindeer antler headbands for the babies, and we put them all in carriages. That way, volunteers at the school can decorate the carriages and we don’t have to worry about costumes.”
“I think that’s brilliant,” she agreed. “Did you come up with that or did Eileen?”
“A little bit of both. Eileen knows kids and what will work and what won’t. I’m sure some parents must have carriages. If they don’t, I’ll buy a few and we’ll use those.”
“Is that in the budget?”
He arched his brows. “If I have to make a purchase outside the budget, we just won’t tell anyone, right?”
“I don’t know. Walker could mark me down for being a coconspirator.”
“Not if we pull off the pageant with a big kick.”
When their gazes met, Bella experienced that shaken-up feeling all over again.
Hudson hung his Stetson on the hat rack. With his flannel shirt open at the collar, dress jeans and brown boots, he was as tempting a man as she’d ever seen. But that’s all he was at this point—a temptation.
She broke eye contact first, remembered the message in her hand and held it out to him. “You had an odd phone call, a Mr. Guy Boswick. He wanted me to hand deliver this to you.”
Hudson took the message and studied it. “He has a problem?”
“He wouldn’t tell me what it was. He just said you knew him and you should call him back. He warned me that if you don’t call him back today, he’ll call again tomorrow.”
“And keep calling until he gets me. That’s Guy, all right.”
“So you do know him.”
“Yes, I do. I worked on his dude ranch a couple of years back. He became a father figure to me for a while. He’s a tough old cowboy, but he has a good heart. I can’t imagine what he wants now, though. I’d better give him a call.” He looked back up at her, and she thought she could be wrong, but it seemed his eyes twinkled when he thanked her.
“Anytime,” she said, meaning it.
As she went back to her desk, she realized she hadn’t closed Hudson’s door, nor had he. Apparently he didn’t expect the conversation to be private. She liked Hudson’s transparency. He said what he felt, and he meant what he said.
Bella couldn’t help but overhear the beginning niceties of the conversation. After all, her desk wasn’t that far away from Hudson’s open door. She wasn’t trying to listen, not at first. But then she heard, “You want me to accept a position in Big Timber with you at Pine Bluff? Why would I want to do that?”
He was being offered a job? Now Bella was all ears.
“I understand you have a problem you want me to solve,” Hudson said. “But public perception can’t be swayed easily. I have a commitment right now. Any PR firm can help you.”
Bella supposed Guy Boswick was raging a powerful argument to sway Hudson to Big Timber, away from Rust Creek Falls. Maybe an emotional argument if he’d been a father figure. After all, Hudson didn’t really need a job. He was wealthy.
“All right, I’ll agree to that.” Hudson listened, then asked, “How soon do you need an answer?”
Boswick must have told him and said a few more things because Hudson ended with, “It was good talking with you again, too, Guy. Take care,” and he set down the cordless phone.
Hudson looked Bella’s way, and she couldn’t pretend she hadn’t heard. Rising from her desk, she went into his office. “Maybe I’m sorry I gave you that message. I couldn’t help but overhear. Did he offer you a job?”
“Yes, he did. But I don’t know all the details yet. Someone from the ranch is going to be contacting me. Then I’ll know more.”
“When would it start?” she asked hesitantly.
“Bella, there’s really nothing to talk about. Everything’s supposition at this point.”
“But when we talked about putting together the child care book, I was under the impression you were going to stay until Valentine’s Day, right?”
“I don’t want to talk about this now, Bella. I have a lot to think about and information to get. I will tell you I’ll be out for a couple of hours tomorrow. Actually, maybe I’ll just take the whole day. I need to clear my head, go riding, maybe work some colts. That will probably be the best thing for everyone. If you need me, you can reach me on my cell.”
Bella decided not to mope. She’d known what kind of man Hudson was when he’d arrived. He’d told her point-blank he was a traveling man and not one to remain in one place. So she certainly hadn’t been weaving dreams about him staying, had she? Valentine’s Day or sooner, he was going to be leaving again, and she’d better get used to the idea.
She raised her chin when she replied, “I won’t need you, Hudson. I managed Just Us Kids just fine before you got here. I can certainly handle it tomorrow.”
As she turned to leave his office, he called her back. “Bella?”
She stopped but kept her shoulders squared and her back rigid, her head held high.
“Life is about choices, and they happen every day. This is just another one of those choices.”
“Commitments happen every day, too,” she returned, then went to her desk and ignored Hudson for the rest of the day.
* * *
The atmosphere between Bella and Hudson remained excruciatingly strained after his phone call to Guy Boswick. This was one time when she had no idea what he was thinking. Could he seriously be considering taking a job in Big Timber? Riding the range again? Training horses? He was a man of many talents, that was for sure.
As she worked at her desk all day on Thursday, she couldn’t stop herself from wondering where he was and what he was doing. Couldn’t stop herself from missing him. It was odd when you got used to a person’s presence. When the individual was gone, a piece of your heart was, too. No, not her heart, she told herself. She couldn’t care that much about Hudson. Could she?
She thought about the days and weeks and months after she and Jamie had been split up from their other siblings. Each minute at first, and then each hour, and finally each day, she’d wondered where they were and what they were doing. She and Jamie had been too young and hadn’t had the means to keep track of them. Their grandparents had made it clear their sisters and brothers were no longer their concern. Were Liza, Dana, Bailey, Daniel and Luke bitter and resentful? Was that why they never called or returned...because Rust Creek Falls had nothing but bad memories of the split-up after their parents’ deaths? And sadness. All good reasons not to return, she supposed.
The day rolled along even though Bella didn’t put much gusto into it. At least not until she visited the classrooms to talk and play with the kids. But when she returned to her desk, she fell into the same thoughts, missing Hudson and wondering if he was actually considering the job offer. Knowing she could only make herself crazy, she forced herself to stop. Her life certainly didn’t revolve around his, and his would never revolve around hers. At least not with any permanence.
Could an affair assuage some of what she felt for Hudson? Or was it already too late for that? He could even be gone before Christmas.
In an effort to get her mind off him, she returned to her year-end report. She didn’t pick her head up until one of the moms, the one who had threatened to take her son to another day care center if she saw evidence of a sniffle, entered Just Us Kids to pick up Jimmy. Marla Tillotson never seemed to be happy. Bella had glimpsed a smile on her face once in a while when she was with her son, but not often. Bella had also noticed that Marla stirred up gossip with the other moms. She managed a new laundromat that had opened up recently, so she was in contact with many town residents. When she heard news, she spread it around.
As Marla approached the desk, Bella pulled out the clipboard with the sign-out sheets. She handed it to her with a smile and asked politely, “Is it getting any colder out there?”
“Cold enough to trade leather boots for fur-lined ones,” Marla said. Her gaze went to Hudson’s office. “So Mr. Jones took the whole day off?” she asked. “I noticed he wasn’t here this morning either.”
Bella wouldn’t gossip, but she would be honest. “Mr. Jones took a personal day today.”
Marla gave her a wicked smile. “I’ll say it was personal.”
Bella couldn’t keep her eyebrows from arching up. “Excuse me?” she asked, knowing she shouldn’t pursue it, yet interested in most anything about Hudson.
“I stopped in at the Ace in the Hole for takeout for lunch. He was there with a very beautiful redhead. They seemed to know each other well, at least from the way he was patting her hand. They didn’t seem in any hurry to eat and were enjoying glasses of wine.”
Bella felt as if she’d been stabbed. Hudson had taken off today for a date? A long lunch with afternoon delight afterward?
Should she be surprised?
With Hudson’s charming nature, he’d been in Rust Creek Falls long enough to make friendships, to meet lots of women. She turned back to Marla. “Mr. Jones’s business is his alone,” she said, her voice devoid of inflection. “Go ahead back to Jimmy’s classroom. I’m sure he’ll be ready to leave.”
Marla gave Bella an odd look, then a little shrug. She went down the hall to her son’s classroom.
Bella was not going to give another thought to Hudson Jones.
Not one more thought.
* * *
When Hudson came to work the next morning, he looked somber as he gave Bella a nod then went to his office. He didn’t say good-morning. He didn’t ask how the day had gone yesterday. In essence, he was quieter than she’d ever seen him, and he stayed that way.
Was it because of the kisses they’d shared that she now felt piqued that he was ignoring her? Was it because of their argument? The possibility he’d be leaving?
As the day progressed, and he stayed in his office on his computer, she imagined exactly what he’d been doing yesterday. Maybe he was so quiet because he’d had a marvelous afternoon and evening in bed with the redhead. Maybe the redhead had turned his head. Maybe...
Maybe too many things. She was tired of her mind running in circles or supposition playing havoc with her thoughts. Maybe they should just get everything out on the table and then worry about digesting it.
The afternoon seemed tediously slow as she thought about what she could say, what she could ask. Eventually she signed out the last parent and child, and she watched all the teachers leave.
That left her and Hudson. Now was the time.
He was still at his computer, studying the screen as if it held the answers to the universe, when she marched into his office.
He swiveled away from the monitor and gave his attention to her. “Are you leaving?”
“In a minute. First I have something to ask you.”
“Go ahead.”
“Why did you ignore me all day? Because I’d like to know whether you’re keeping your commitment to Just Us Kids or not.”
“I didn’t ignore you today.”
“I don’t know what you’d call it. You hardly said two words.”
“I have a lot on my mind. My mood had nothing to do with you.”
For some reason that conclusion annoyed her more than anything else. It seemed she was becoming of no importance to him. Or was it that he had become too important to her?
Because she wasn’t used to caring for a man, because she had too many thoughts spinning around in her head, she blurted out, “Oh, I understand it had nothing to do with me. That’s probably because you must have had a spectacular time yesterday with the redhead.”
After his brows arched and he leaned back in his desk chair, she realized Hudson looked totally surprised at her outburst. Meeting her gaze directly, he said, “Lunch with that redhead was all about business. Period.”
Bella felt a red flush begin at her neck and start to creep up into her cheeks. She felt like an absolute fool, and she couldn’t stand here and face Hudson another second. In one continuous motion she left his office, grabbed her coat that she’d laid over her desk chair, as well as her purse from the bottom drawer, and made for the door.
By that time, Hudson was standing in the doorway to his office. “Bella—”
But she couldn’t look at him right now. She couldn’t talk to him reasonably, not after she’d acted like a foolish teenager, the foolish teenager she’d once been. She rushed out of the day care center and into her car, then pulled away in a burst of speed.
* * *
Hudson had two reactions to Bella’s sudden departure. The first—he was worried about her. But the second... Was that jealousy he’d detected? If she was jealous, did that mean she cared about him a bit?
He could go after her, but he expected she needed time to calm down, time to realize they were going to have to talk about this eventually. As he walked through the rooms, closing up the place, he realized he’d been wrong when he’d said his mood today had had nothing to do with her. It had actually had a lot to do with her. Yes, their argument. But more than that, everything else that was on his mind, too.
The woman Guy had sent to meet with him was basically his ranch manager; she took care of the books, scheduling, vet appointments, and kept all running smoothly. She had been a looker, that was true. And in the past, Hudson had wanted to look.
This time he didn’t.
He hadn’t cared at all what she looked like. But he’d listened to what she’d said, and that had caused him more turmoil. He tried to decide whether he should stay or leave Rust Creek Falls. Point one, did Just Us Kids still need him? The day care center was back on track now, the client base saved, rumors put to rest, the scare of another epidemic almost resolved. Was there a need for him to stay?
He’d told Walker he’d stay until the book project was completed. No, it hadn’t been a hard-and-fast promise, but he did always keep his word. Besides, he’d found he actually liked living in Rust Creek Falls, especially at Clive’s ranch. But there was one more reason compelling him to stay. And her name was Bella.
* * *
Bella drove home, her face still flushed from her encounter with Hudson and her own stupidity. She usually filtered what came out of her mouth. What had happened?
At the ranch house, she jumped out of her car and practically ran inside. This ranch had become a safe haven. But as she stepped over the threshold, she realized it might be safe, but it was noisy, too.
The babies were squalling for their dinner, and Jamie just shook his head. “Paige couldn’t come tonight, so I said I could handle them on my own.”
She could see that he was trying to, but more than anything, she could see how exhausted her brother was. Slipping out of her coat, she hurried to help him feed the triplets. With two of them catching spills, wiping sticky hands and playing airplane games, they soon had the babies fed. Bathing, however, took a little longer.
By the time they’d settled all three in their cribs and returned downstairs, Jamie looked at Bella with a weak smile. “You didn’t get anything to eat.”
“I’m not hungry,” she said honestly, still remembering what had happened with Hudson. How was she going to live that down?
Her brother’s shoulders slumped a bit as he picked up dirty dishes from the table and took them to the sink. She could tell he was practically dead on his feet, and she knew he needed more than a good night’s sleep. He needed a break.
She pulled out a kitchen chair and pointed to it. “Sit.”
“I have to clean up the kitchen,” he reminded her.
“No, you don’t. I’ll do it. I want to talk to you.”
“That sounds ominous,” he said as he sat in the chair, obviously too fatigued to argue with her.
“You have to take a break from everything or you’re going to collapse.” When he started to protest, she held up her hand. “I’m going to ask for Monday off. I want you to call a motel in Kalispell and leave tomorrow morning for a few days. I want you to get some rest while I take charge of the babies and the schedule and the ranch chores.”
“You can’t do it on your own.”
“You’re going to have to trust me, Jamie. The baby chain will help with the triplets, and if I need help with the chores I can call our neighbor’s son.” When he began to protest again, she cut him off. “You’re not going to be any good to the triplets or the ranch if you fall over from exhaustion or get sick. You probably haven’t had a solid night’s sleep since they were born.”
“Since they came home,” he admitted. “I think I hear them, and I wake up to check, or I worry that I’m not going to hear them.”
“Or one of them cries,” Bella added. “Believe me, I understand. That’s why you have to do this. You have to depend on me as I’ve always depended on you.”
“What about you?” he asked.
“I’ve actually had breaks—like that afternoon I went riding.” Like the afternoon she’d slept on Hudson’s couch. “I even get a break at work,” she added.
“Around all those kids?”
“I don’t have direct responsibility for them—the teachers do. I can take my lunch break without worrying or take a walk.”
Or stop in Hudson’s office to talk to him, she thought. But that wasn’t going to happen again.
Jamie got quiet. He actually seemed to be considering her offer. Finally he looked at her and said, “I’ll only do this if the neighbor boy can come over and help you with the chores.”
“Call him and the motel. Any motel you want.”
“Just something with a bed would be good,” he admitted.
“I’ll call Hudson and ask him about Monday.” She hoped she’d just get his voice mail.
But that, of course, didn’t happen. He answered his cell on the second ring. But before he could say anything, she launched into an explanation.
After a moment’s hesitation, Hudson assured her, “No problem. Take the day off. I can cover for you.”
“Great,” she said, ready to hang up.
“Bella, about this afternoon...”
“I really have to go, Hudson. I think I hear one of the triplets. I’ll see you Tuesday.”
And before he could say more, she ended the call.
Was it the cowardly way out? Possibly, but she was also buying time. Maybe in a couple of days he’d forget about her outburst. Simply put, it might not have been that important to him. If it wasn’t, she was off the hook.
If it was...she’d deal with Hudson on Tuesday.