Brenda Minton - The Rancher's Christmas Bride

Years ago, Lucy had escaped, joining the army and then returning to start a protection business with her former army buddies. Last spring she’d finally come home to Bluebonnet and ended up marrying their neighbor, Dane Scott. And Lucy had adopted Maria’s baby girl, Jewel.

The only problem with all of this was that Lucy suddenly was into everyone’s business and thought all her siblings needed to be fixed. She’d turned into a mother.

“How’s Dan doing?” she asked as she entered the barn.

Alex put the pitchfork back in the storage room. He closed the door of that room. Long ago it was the room their father had locked Lucy in when he’d learned of her teen relationship with Dane.

“He’s good. Word travels fast in a small town.”

“Yeah, it does. I was at Essie’s.” The café their aunt owned. “She said Doc came in after he’d gotten back from Killeen.”

He knew that hopeful look in Lucy’s eyes, she was thinking maybe there was something between him and Dan’s granddaughter. He headed out the front door of the stable. The sun was setting and the air had cooled ten degrees with a wind coming out of the north. He figured there’d be frost on the ground when he woke up in the morning.

“I guess Dan’s granddaughter is sticking around?” Lucy asked as she walked next to him.

“Is there a point to this visit?” He opened the door to the garage he’d had built since he returned home last spring. Inside were a couple of tractors and a farm truck. The equipment belonged to neighbors. The tools belonged to him.

“How’s business?”

He pushed a rolling toolbox in the direction of the John Deere tractor. “Business is good. And I’m not interested in Dan’s granddaughter, not as anything more than a neighbor in need. I’ll remind you that it wasn’t too long ago that you weren’t interested in dating. Just because you’ve gone to the other side doesn’t mean I’m going to.”

Lucy sat on a rolling stool and watched him. Studied him, more like. The way a scientist studied an insect. “One of these days there will be a woman who makes you forget. Or at least helps you let go of the past.”

“It isn’t going to be this woman.” By the past Lucy meant the women who couldn’t be seen with him because their daddies didn’t want them dating a Palermo. As a teenager it had hurt. As an adult, he guessed he didn’t blame them.

His dad had been a cult leader who abused his family. And most people would have said the apple didn’t fall far from the tree. For a long time he’d almost believed it, thinking that he had no choice but to grow up in the shadow of Jesse Palermo.

He slid under the tractor and ignored his sister. Time was limited and Jerry Masters expected his tractor fixed in the next week. “I’m looking at buying some used equipment to sell.”

“Can you do that and get those bulls ready to buck?”

“I can. Marcus is going to come home and help with the bulls. It works for us both. I invested my earnings. He blew through his like water.” He scooted out and picked a different tool. Lucy was watching him, her dark eyes serious. “Stop worrying, Luce. I’ve got this.”

“I always worry. It’s my job.”

“You don’t have to worry.”

“Yes, I do. I worry that Marcus is going to hurt himself or someone else. I worry that Maria has been talking to Jaxson Williams. And I worry that you still think it was all your fault. Everything.”

“It was.” He scooted back under the tractor, hoping she’d take the hint and leave. He knew better, but it was worth a try.

“You were a teenager and not responsible for our father’s actions. Ever.”

He gave up on the tractor, slid out and sat up, knees bent and arms resting on them. He gave his sister a long look. “Are you finished?”

The look in her eyes told him she wasn’t. “No. I have a lot to say. You didn’t lock me in that room. Our father did. You couldn’t have busted me out. He wouldn’t have allowed it. You didn’t kill him. He made a choice to get on a bull that was rank and couldn’t be ridden.”

“I’m pretty sure I wished him a less-than-heavenly reward.”

“You’ve regretted those words a thousand times.”

“Are we done?” Because she hadn’t yet brought up his best friend, Daniel, who had died under a bull. It had been Alex’s job as a bullfighter to protect him but he hadn’t. He had a long history of not being able to protect the people he cared about.

Lucy shook her head and he knew the worst was yet to come.

“What is it?” he asked when she didn’t spit it out.

“Mom.”

Great. This was going downhill fast. Deloris Palermo had a habit of putting her kids last. She’d skated in and out of their lives for the last dozen years.

Lucy sighed. “She took out a mortgage on the farm.”

It took him a minute to make sense of those words.

“And?”

“And she hasn’t been making the payments.”

He wanted to punch something. Instead he sat there with a wrench in his hand, waiting, hoping she’d tell him it was all good somehow.

“Please give me some good news.”

Lucy shook her head. “I’d love to but there isn’t any. She hasn’t made the payments in six months. I wouldn’t have known if I hadn’t seen a man at the end of the drive taking pictures. The place is going to be auctioned off.”

“What do we do? I’ve invested most of my savings in this business and the bulls. I know Marcus doesn’t have two dimes to rub together.”

“I don’t know if you’re right about Marcus. He’s been winning lately. Mom said she’ll sell her half to us if we want. She’s being generous, she says. Because she won’t make us buy the whole ranch. She said Dad wanted her to have half and the rest split between his four kids. So in order to get her name off the land we have to pay her half the appraised value.”

“The appraised value of five hundred acres and a house.” He hung his head, wishing he could start this day over. “If we do that, she has to pay the second mortgage. That or we pay her, less the amount she owes. But do you really want to go in on this? Now that you’re married, it doesn’t seem like this should be your problem.”

“We stick together, Alex. All of our lives we’ve only had each other. That doesn’t change just because I’m married.”

He tossed the wrench to the ground and did something he rarely did: he gave his sister a quick hug. “Thanks.”

She hugged him back, the gesture awkward. “You’re welcome.”

He headed back to his tools. “So now I just have to figure out how to scrounge up a down payment. And face the reality that our own mother has put us in debt.”

“Yeah.”

“And you ask me why I’m not interested in a relationship. From what I can see, people who say they care tend to just rip each other to pieces.”

“There’s a difference between people who care and people who say they care. You’ve never let me down. I don’t know if I’ve ever said it, but I love you, Alex.”

He blinked to clear his blurry vision. Because he wouldn’t let her make him cry. “I have to get up early,” he said as he wiped his hands on a towel. “And you have kids to take care of and a husband probably wondering where you are.”

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have brought this up.”

He managed a grin. “Remember when you used to stay out of our business and just let us all live our lives?”

“I seem to remember that person. I was a little bit broken, too.”

“I’m not broken. I’m not even fragile. I’m cautious.”

“And you’re not cautiously interested in Dan’s granddaughter?” she asked as she stood at the door, preparing to leave.

“No. I’m not interested. I found her on the side of the road in her wedding dress. If that doesn’t scream trouble, I don’t know what does.”