Rebecca Winters - Home To Copper Mountain

“An F-5 tornado cut a mile-wide swath through the tiny community of Hillmont ten miles from here. It wiped out the town, whole ranches, trees, cars, trucks, houses, fencing, equipment, barns, horses, cattle and thirty members of our family assembled at a church where they’d gathered for a christening.

“I was just getting over the measles. Since Pam had already had them, she volunteered to baby-sit me and the boys who, according to Pam, balked at going to boring church.

“Uncle David had a bad cold that day so he stayed home with us. When the services were over, there was going to be a big party.”

She sucked in her breath. “Everybody going to church left the ranch house. None of them ever came back.”

Rick’s expression darkened in horror and incredulity. She looked away, not wanting to see any more of his reaction.

“My parents and siblings were inside the church. So were Pam’s parents and siblings, the boys’ parents and siblings and Uncle David’s wife, his married children and grandchildren.”

“Good heavens—”

“Uncle David is really our great-uncle. He was the oldest member of the family and the last surviving adult of the Jarrett clan. He took us all in and raised us.

“I know it broke his heart to have to make that announcement today. He’s such a good man, and has bent over backward to be fair to each one of us. I don’t think your father could possibly understand how grateful Uncle David must be that this house is going to stay in the family.”

A lump had lodged in her throat. “T-there’s an old saying that we suffer three deaths in this life,” she stammered. “First when we die, the second when we are laid to rest and the third when our name is never spoken again.”

Her gaze lifted to his once more. “Your father has ensured that our ancestral home will stay in the Jarrett family for another generation anyway. I love Clint for loving Pam that much,” she whispered.

Audra continued in a voice that disguised little of her anger. “What I don’t understand is how ungrateful the boys are. They’re lucky he’s been able to leave them any birthright at all. On top of taking care of us all their lives, he took out loans to pay for our college education—”

She broke off talking.

None of this was Rick’s concern.

Embarrassed to have gone on and on, Audra finished dishing up the dessert. “As long as you’re here, would you mind taking these to the dining room?” She handed him two plates without looking up.

“I’ll be back to help.”

That’s what she was afraid of. She didn’t want to spend another second in the company of Rick Hawkins, of all people.

Hopefully, he’d be gone by tomorrow. Audra had no desire to get to know him any better. When you got to know someone, you learned to care about them.

Who was she kidding? She already cared about him. Until he’d rescued her from her nightmare, he’d only been an attractive face in a series of wedding photographs.

But a photograph only showed a face and body. It didn’t reveal the total person. Rick possessed layers of desirable qualities that broke down the defenses guarding her wary heart. When he’d followed her into the kitchen to help her, to listen with compassion to all she had to say, she realized he’d breached the outer walls and was standing at the door of its inner chamber.

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