Startled by a scream, Abby jumped out of bed, threw on her robe and flew out into the hall, belatedly realizing she’d forgotten slippers. The floor was cold.
The house was dark. Totally dark. No glow of moonlight filtered through the blinds. Not even the night-light in the hallway was on. And the wind was even stronger now, battering the house with unrelenting force, rattling the shutters and scraping branches against the windows. It sounded as if some unknown creature was trying to break in.
The faint beam of a flashlight bobbed through the living room, and then Jess appeared in the hallway in a faded T-shirt and jeans, his haggard face a mask of concern.
A low, keening cry came from the twins’ room.
“It’s Sophie,” he said in a hushed voice. “The power just went out and she’s terrified of the dark.”
It was no wonder, with what the poor child had been through back in California when she and Bella were left alone overnight.
He pressed his fingertips against the door to the girls’ room. “Sweetheart, it’s me,” he whispered. “Uncle Jess. Can I come in?”
“It’s dark,” she wailed. “I need my light.”
Abby waited at the open door while he set the flashlight on the bedside table so it illuminated the ceiling and softly lit the room. Bella stirred sleepily under her blankets, then rolled away from the light.
Jess picked up Sophie and sat on the edge of her bed, smoothing back her tousled hair. “Everything is fine. We’ve just got a snowy night and the power will be out for a while.”
“Can’t you fix it?” She turned her tear-streaked face up to look at him. “Please?”
“I just called the power company and they said it might be a couple hours.”
“But Gramma has lights we can use. She said so.”
“I don’t feel safe using her candles or kerosene lamps when we’re asleep, honey. Would you like to keep my flashlight?”
Her lower lip trembled. “I want you to stay. And I want our puppy back. Can you get him?”
He considered it for a moment. “Now that Abby is here to help us and Grandma’s home, I’ll go get him as soon as I can.”
“Tonight? He could sleep on my bed.”
“Tonight is too cold and snowy, but maybe tomorrow. It was nice of the neighbors to keep him for a while, wasn’t it?”
She rubbed her eyes and yawned, then snuggled deeper into his arms.
Struck by the sweet intimacy of the moment, Abby felt her breath catch and a deep sense of longing wrapped around her heart.
Jess had been all she’d ever wished for back in high school and college. Fun. Daring. Smart. Someone who shared her love of horses and ranch life, dancing, and skiing on weekends. He seemed to excel at everything he ever tried, and she’d been proud to be with him.
But what she’d loved about him then had been superficial compared to what she was learning about him now. Seeing his warmth and gentleness with this distraught child made her imagine falling in love with him all over again, if she wasn’t careful.
“What would you think about all of us going out by the fireplace for the rest of the night?” he continued. “With the furnace off it might be chilly by morning. We’ll be warm and cozy out there.”
Sophie nodded. “Bella, too?”
“Absolutely.” He stood with her still in his arms and grabbed the quilts on her bed. “I’ll come back to get her in a minute.”
“I’ll bring her,” Abby offered. She leaned over Bella and touched her shoulder. “We’re all going out to sleep by the fireplace. Would you like to join your sister and Jess?”
The child shifted and mumbled something in her sleep, then her eyes fluttered open. “I wanna go, too.”
“Of course you do.” Abby snagged her quilts and draped them over her shoulder, then scooped Bella into her arms. “Would you like to bring the pink sparkly bear on your bed?”
Bella nodded. “That’s my best bear.”
“Perfect. Let’s go.”
In the middle of the living room, two extra-long leather sofas faced each other in front of the fireplace; a third faced the fire. A couple of matching recliners and an upholstered rocking chair filled the room, while numerous wildlife prints and an elk-horn chandelier hung from the walls.
It was a warm and welcoming room, and much more upscale than how she remembered it years ago.
Abby helped Jess get the girls on the sofas, both snuggling with the extra quilts. The warm, flickering glow and gentle crackling of the fire lulled them back to sleep in minutes.
Jess hunkered in front of the fire and pushed some of the logs around, then added a few more. The flames highlighted the angles and planes of his face and limned his lean body with golden light, making her wish she had a camera to catch the perfect moment.
“What about your grandma? Do you think we should bring her out here, too, in case her room starts getting too cold?”
“She has the bedroom closest to the fireplace, so I think I’ll just go open her door wide and cover her with another blanket. I hate to wake her, but if she stirs, I’ll bring her out here.”
He disappeared down the bedroom hallway for a few minutes, then returned and eyed the two empty sofas. He settled into one of the leather recliners. “This furniture is soft as marshmallows. I’m not sure it would be much support for her broken hip.”
Abby curled up with an afghan on the sofa nearest his chair and surveyed the room. “It’s a beautiful room, Jess. Just like out of a magazine. Did you do all of this decorating?”
A corner of his mouth briefly kicked up. “Nope. I know even less about decorating than I know about heart surgery.”
“Your dad did it?” She remembered him as being tightfisted and short-tempered.
“Maura.”
Abby tried to smother a grin. “Ahhh. Sounds like the twins might have reason to worry after all if the vegetable lady comes to call and decorates while she’s here.”
“That’s her career. Her husband died young, and she needed income. So she started a decorating business in town.”
“In Pine Bend?”
“Obviously there wouldn’t ever be many clients around here, so she added a little florist and gift shop later.” He rolled his head against the back of his chair to look at Abby. “After Dad died, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to give her some business and help her out. Nothing in this house had changed since Mom passed away over twenty years ago.”
Chastened, Abby lowered her gaze. “I’m sorry—I shouldn’t have teased. And I really do think she did an amazing job here. I’m surprised she’s not working in some upscale market in a city.”
Closing his eyes, Jess gave a soft laugh devoid of humor. “Not everyone needs to move far away, Abby. Some find everything they want right in their own hometown...even if it takes them years to figure that out. Like me.”
* * *
He was just starting to fall asleep when he heard Abby’s soft, wistful voice.
“Do you remember when we were back in high school? Some of the neighbor kids would ride their horses over and we’d all play cavalry out in your pastures. Are any of them still around?”
“The Cavanaughs went bankrupt and moved away not long after their kids grew up. Dad swooped in and bought up their land for pennies on the dollar before any developers could grab it. He always figured my brothers and I would move back to take over the adjoining ranches and help build his Langford empire, but Devlin and Tate couldn’t stay far enough away to suit them. None of us wanted to come home after college, really. Dad wasn’t exactly easy to work for.”
“But you came back. You could have found a way to pay for vet school and still follow your dreams, but you gave it up.”
“Yeah, well...Dad was sick, and how could he have managed alone? Devlin is career military and Tate has done too well on the rodeo circuit to give that up. So I had to come back.”
“You’re a good man, Jess. I hope your dad appreciated what you sacrificed.”
Jess’s dad had considered Jess’s return to the ranch his duty and privilege, not a sacrifice. And he’d remained as cantankerous as ever until the day he died. “Maybe this isn’t the life I wished for, but it’s been a good life. I wouldn’t change a thing.”
She fell silent for a moment. “What about the Nelsons—are they still around?”
“They went under, too. And Dad snapped up that ranch as well, just before his health started to fail. Drought and cattle prices have been devastating for a lot of folks around here.”
“It’s been tough for my dad, too.” She tucked her feet beneath her and wrapped the afghan more snugly around her shoulders. “And he never really got over my brother’s accident. Like your dad, he’d wanted his son to take over the ranch someday.”
Her older brother had gone off to follow the rodeo circuit with big dreams but not much sense, and he’d spent more time on booze and women than he’d spent on his rodeo career. The consensus around town had been that Bobby’s bull-riding accident was a terrible misfortune but not much of a surprise, given his wild, careless lifestyle.
“What’s he doing now? I haven’t seen him around here in years.”
“Computer programming in Seattle. Still bitter about his wheelchair. I was so scared that something like that would happen to you, too,” she said softly. “When I asked you to make a choice and you chose following the rodeo circuit instead of me, you broke my heart,”
“And you broke mine when you gave me that ultimatum.”
Back then, Jess had been young, fresh out of college, and felt invincible despite the example of Bobby’s accident years before. There’d been nothing he’d wanted more in life than to rodeo with his cousin Logan, earn money toward the massive cost of vet school, then set up a veterinary practice together.
“Ironic, isn’t it?” He lifted his somber gaze to meet hers, silently acknowledging their broken past. “I started moving up in the ranks for the annual saddle bronc championship, but barely lasted a full season before Dad got sick and I had to come back to run the ranch anyway.”
But no matter what had triggered that long-ago confrontation between them, it had only delayed the inevitable. When she’d demanded that he choose between her and his fledgling rodeo career, he’d seen the truth. She hadn’t really cared about him or his lifelong dream to escape his difficult and demanding father and this ranch.
Earlier tonight he’d come in from the barn exhausted and cold clear down to his bones. The bright, welcoming warmth of the kitchen and the aromas of cookies and dinner had filled him with a sense of peace, as if finding Abby in his kitchen made him feel he was finally, truly home.
But whenever he thought of what might have been between them, he only had to remind himself that their once-in-a-lifetime love had only ever been in his imagination.
He might have loved her, but she’d never truly loved him back.