Jolene Navarro - Lone Star Christmas

“Hi, Max. What a good-looking family you have there. Welcome back to Clear Water.” She didn’t move, just stared at the two little ones standing next to him. “My. Those boys look just like you.”

The one closest to him took his hand. He was the friendlier one, the one who did most of the talking. “Everyone says we’re mini-Maxes. When we get our black cowboy hats, we’ll be just like him. He’s going to teach us how to ride bulls. He says—”

Max put a hand on the small shoulder. If he didn’t cut him off now, he’d never stop talking. “Hey, Danica.”

Okay, calling her by her sister’s name was low, but he couldn’t let her know how much she disturbed him. “What brings you out to the ranch?” He really hoped his voice sounded casual, as though seeing her again didn’t uproot his foundation.

Her eyes went a little wide, then her smile relaxed. “I’m Jackie. You used to be able to tell us apart. Of course, that was a long time ago. Now it looks like you got your own twins. Congratulations on the family.”

“They’re not twins,” he started to explain.

“He can’t tell us apart, either.” One of the boys giggled.

The other just watched the exchange. That had to be Tomas. He seemed to be six going on sixty.

“These are my brothers. Isaac and Tomas. That’s Ethan.”

“I’m five. Tomas is six. Ethan is sixteen.” Isaac offered up the information with a giant smile.

“Your brothers?” Her big green eyes blinked a few times.

“Yeah, it’s what happens when your father marries someone the same age as you.”

“Oh. Um, I’m sorry.” She looked behind her. “In town, I heard you were here with your wife and kids.”

“We’ve been here a couple of hours, and the town gave me a family? How did they even know we were here?”

“Welcome to Smalltown, USA. And having a Delgado back on the ranch is big news.”

“Well, you can let them know there’s no wife. Just a band of brothers.” Had she driven all the way into enemy territory to see if he was married? “How about you?”

“No brothers.” The grin showed off the dimple on her right cheek. Just as quickly the smile faded, and she looked down.

That infectious grin took him back to when he was seventeen, to the time when his one goal was to get her to smile just like that. He had lived to make her laugh.

They weren’t teens anymore. What was she doing out here? She had made it clear the last time they had talked that a Delgado and a Bergmann could never be together. “Are you the town’s welcoming committee, or did they send you to warn us to leave, before the good townsfolk arrive with pitchforks and torches?”

Both boys looked up at him. Tomas had a deeper scowl than usual. “They don’t like us?”

Max closed his eyes, wishing he had kept his mouth shut.

Jackie walked around her car and stopped at the bottom step of the house. “No. You’re welcome here. Your brother was just trying to be funny. It’s been a long time, and the ranch has been...” She twisted her mouth as her gaze swept the fences that needed repair, the overgrown pastures and the weed-covered yard.

“Neglected?” He didn’t know why he was embarrassed by the condition of the ranch. Moving behind his brothers, he rubbed their heads. “We were just about to go in and inspect our living quarters. It’s a bit cold out here.”

“I hear you’re at the top of the ranks as a Professional Bull Rider. You hit the PBR as soon as you turned eighteen.”

Had she been following him? He liked the thought of that. She’d been in his thoughts just about every day since she walked away from him. No reason for her to know that.

He turned to the heavy oak door. The old key had to be jiggled a bit to fit in the knob. An odd sensation of coming home settled deep in his bones.

He shook it off. This was not home. The only reason he was here was to get the place ready to put on the market. And to get his body back into shape for the PBR finals.

Jackie’s boots hit the porch. “They said the cold front would be arriving tomorrow.” He could feel her right behind him. Her voice did the same strange thing to him as it used to. She continued on like it was not a big deal that they were standing so close after all these years. “Looks like they got it wrong.”

It had taken years to bury thoughts of her. Now he couldn’t think of anything else. “Yeah, they do that sometimes.”

“The reason I came out was to talk to you about the original town plot on the edge of the ranch. It borders our ranch. The church and school are well over one hundred years old. There might be some other buildings even older. Our mothers had been working to restore them and give them back to the town as a historical site. After they...after the accident it was forgotten. I’ve been trying to revitalize their dream. Your father hasn’t returned any of my emails, phone calls or letters. So, when I heard you were out here, I wanted to make sure I got to talk to you.”

He waited, but it seemed she had finally stopped talking. Was she nervous?

“My father was down in the Caribbean for the last month. There was a boating accident. He was killed along with his wife.” He nodded to the identical-looking brothers, who were now playing on the old porch swing. “Their mother.”

Her mouth fell open. “Oh, Max. I’m so sorry.”

“It’s actually been a little over a month. No one even knew they were missing at first. Anyway, that’s why he didn’t get back to you.”

“You have custody of the boys now?”

“Shared custody. An aunt on their mother’s side will be taking them. She has a job to finish overseas, then she’ll come pick them up for Christmas. Ethan is hanging with us for the holidays, then he heads back home to Chicago.” He made the mistake of looking at her.

Sadness clouded her eyes as the afternoon sun glistened off the moisture that hovered on her lashes. When they had met as teens, they discovered they were both motherless, something they had in common.

But the true shock came when her father found them at the dance together. Angry, he told them that Max’s mother had killed hers. The two women had been killed in the same accident here on the ranch.

After dropping that piece of news, he took Jackie away. But Max didn’t want to think about their parents now, or the summer he thought he had fallen in love.

Max shoved the door open and stepped into his grandfather’s home. Neglect had a smell. It was old and musty.

“This is where we’re staying?” Ethan didn’t look enthusiastic about the old ranch house.

Max started pulling back heavy drapes. He opened the windows. “It just needs to be aired out.” He sneezed as particles filled his nose.

“Look at this!” One of the boys, Isaac maybe, tried to climb onto an old Spanish saddle that sat behind the leather sofa.

“This is so cool!” A stuffed quail was inside a glass lamp, and cowhides and antlers decorated the room. The more energetic one—the one Max thought was Isaac—ran around the large living room touching the dust-covered furniture and fixtures. The river-rock fireplace opening was taller than the boys. The dining room could be seen on the other side.

“The outlets don’t work.” Ethan was back to staring at his phone. He frowned. “This place is ancient. Is there even electricity?”

“Of course, there’s electricity. This house was built in the early ’70s. We just need to dust everything off.” He flipped a switch, but the massive antler chandelier didn’t light up. He walked to the other wall and flipped everything on the panel. Nothing.

Jackie had her phone out. “I’ll call Mabel Horten at the co-op. She’ll know if it’s been turned off.”