Pamela Nissen - Rocky Mountain Redemption

The words stuck like a prickly burr, and had Ben narrowing his gaze at his brother, yet again. No matter that the callous comment could be true, it didn’t diminish the sudden, unexplained need to come to Callie’s defense.

Joseph set the box on the end table. “You’re compassionate to a fault. Whether it’s a stray animal or someone down on their luck, you’ll take most anything in and not think a thing about it if you get bit in the process.”

Ben couldn’t deny Joseph’s words. Puffing out his cheeks on a sigh, he pictured the most recent strays that now shared his home.

“Yeah,” Aaron agreed. “Take those two starving kittens that showed up in your barn last summer. I sure wouldn’t have wanted to get my hands close to them when they ate. The way they protected their food with those little, needlelike claws…” He demonstrated with an amusing amount of drama that had Ben chuckling. “And remember those pathetic, warning growls they’d make even while they chewed?”

“How could I forget? But now they’re a good, healthy weight.” With gleaming black and white fur, full bellies and a lackadaisical demeanor that made Ben wonder if he’d spoiled them to the point of incompetence.

“I realize I’m taking a chance here, but I’m not going to take the locket from Callie. I just can’t do that to her.” Somewhere deep inside his heart, his words rang true. “And, as far as the job goes, she’s not going to take no for an answer. She obviously needs the money.”

Goaded by the lackluster vote of confidence in the stoic expressions on their faces, he raked his fingers through his hair, trying to see their side of things. They’d all four been betrayed by Max. Even so, there’d been a hope that existed among Joseph, Aaron, Zach and Ben that Max would come to his senses someday. That he’d return home to the family.

The idea that Max lay cold in some unmarked grave made Ben’s chest tighten with ready sorrow. How had he failed so miserably? It should’ve been different. He should’ve been able to turn Max around and get him to see reason.

When he thought of his brother’s widow lying in the other room, her weakened body racked with fever and sickness, his heart wobbled off-beat. There had to be more to her than met the eye. And he wanted to be the one to uncover it.

“I think if you had the opportunity to talk to Callie, you’d see why I couldn’t just turn her out in the storm.”

“Maybe,” Aaron conceded. “But why you feel like you have to go and give her a job, room and board, when it’s pretty obvious she’s trying to pull a fast one, is beyond me.”

“Keep your voice down.” Ben sliced another reproving look to Aaron and moved to stand next to him. “She won’t take a handout. She insists on paying me back for her care, and I’m inclined to believe that she means it. You both know that I could use help around here. One good look at this place proves that.”

“I don’t know…it all looks fine to me.” Joseph quipped good-naturedly, stepping toward them. He turned his head as though taking in the full measure of the place.

“This from a blind man.” Aaron rolled his eyes, clapping Joseph’s arm. “Inspect things with those sensitive fingertips of yours, and I think you will change your tune.”

Ben chuckled softly. “I’m not arguing. We all know that I didn’t inherit the ‘neat and tidy’ ways in the family like you, Joseph.”

“At least you’re right on that account.” Aaron quirked an eyebrow.

“Listen, I know how much guilt you carry over Max leaving the way he did.” Joseph sighed, setting his focus dead center on Ben. “We all feel responsible in one way or the other, but we tried to get him to come back. Even doled out more money for him when it was obvious he’d been a fool and spent all of his inheritance.”

Aaron slid his hands into his pockets. “Pulling this little lady into things when we don’t know her from a stranger could be barkin’ up the wrong tree.”

Ben glanced over to the front window where the town slowly dug out from the foot and a half of snow that had fallen last night. In spite of the impeding snow that made movement outside difficult, at best, his brothers had been on his doorstep at ten o’clock this morning, checking to make sure he’d returned safely from his calls last night. The youngest, Zach, likely would’ve been here, too, but he was probably buried knee-deep in chores on the cattle ranch where he worked as foreman.

Ben valued the close relationship he had with his brothers. They looked out for each other, picked up slack when one was down. And they all felt a profound hole where Max had been.

His jaw ticked with edginess. “Max aside, Callie is obviously in need of a little help, and I’m going to do what I can for her.”

He remembered, with a sense of shame, the panic in her eyes last night when he had as much as accused her of stealing the locket. “You’re right, though. She could easily be some fast-talking thief who knows an easy target when she sees one. And if that’s the case, I’ll do my best not to get taken, but until I find out more, she’s staying right here.”

“That is the longest uninterrupted stretch of sleep I’ve ever seen,” came the soothing, cellolike timbre of Ben Drake’s voice.

“What time is it, anyway?” Indulging herself in the heady, restful feeling, she stretched beneath the warm covers. She edged a sleep-fuzzed gaze over to see him leaning against the wall, one booted foot draped over the other and his arms crossed in a relaxed fashion at his chest.

The merest whisper of awareness quivered down her spine.

“Eight o’clock.”

When he moved over to the bed, she focused on the way the sunlight danced about the room. “Hmm…the way I feel, I would’ve thought—”

“Friday. You’ve been asleep for over a day, straight.”

Horrified, Callie slammed her eyes shut.

“Catching up, are you?”

She’d had no intention of languishing for so long. This would only delay her in getting the job. Ben could’ve hired someone else, for all she knew. She had to have this job so she could pay off the rest of Max’s debt—before Whiteside came looking for her.

She glanced up at Ben, trying not to notice his fresh-shaven, squared jaw and the half grin tipping his lips.

And the rebellious trip of her heart.

She gave her head a hearty shake. “I apologize that I’ve taken up—”

“No apologies are necessary.” He settled a warm hand against her brow. “How are you feeling? You look much improved from the night before last when you showed up here.”

“I feel fine.” Folding back the covers, she hauled her legs over the edge of the bed and sat up.

“Hold on, there. Not so fast.” He braced a hand at her back and hunkered down, eye level. “You may feel better, but you’re probably weaker than a newborn colt.”

“I’m just fine. And I don’t need your help.” The sound of her own pulse surged like breaking waves through her head. Dizzy, she clutched the quilt to her chest and feebly pushed herself up to standing. She teetered, struggling for balance. “Better than ever.”

Her knees buckled and she started to fall, but his strong arms caught behind her with disarming comfort.

“Well, I’ll give you this much, your stubbornness hasn’t weakened one bit.” He lifted her into bed, his muscle-roped arms searing straight through her thin undergarments like a warm, mesmerizing flame.

She drew in a slow, pulse-calming breath.

“You must’ve grown up with a passel of brothers to stand your ground with, right?”

“Wrong.”

“Then what?” His eyes sparkled. “Let me guess, the middle child in a houseful of girls?”