The Montana Bride

By Jeannie Watt

She’s not running anymore…

After a decade away, Jacie Rose has returned with her daughter to Sweetheart to renovate a historic hotel…and to lay some ghosts to rest. She knows she’ll have to confront mistakes she made in the past, but she didn’t expect to be living right next door to the guy she once asked to be her husband.

When Brett Starr was approached ten years ago by Jacie Rose with the wild scheme of marrying her to help her out of a jam, his white knight instincts kicked in and he agreed to be her emergency groom. The only problem was that the bride didn’t show up for the wedding. How’s he supposed to get used to seeing the woman he’s never forgotten every day now that she’s his neighbor?

Determined to provide the secure home life for her daughter that she never had, Jacie is not about to bring a man into her life—even one that she sometimes thinks should have been there all along. But Brett and Jacie soon discover the spark between them is even stronger than before… Now that their paths have crossed again, will they lead them back to the wedding that almost was?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tule Publishing
• Release date: Sep 15, 2015
• ISBN: 9781943963041

Jeannie Watt

Jeannie Watt lives in a historical Nevada ranching community with her husband, horses and ponies. During the day she teaches junior high and at night she writes about cowboys, ranchers and cops. When she’s not writing or feeding the animals, Jeannie enjoys sewing, making mosaic mirrors and cooking with her husband.

Book preview

Author

Dedication

I want to dedicate this book to Deb Salonen, who suggested that I send Tule an idea for a story, and to Lilian Darcy, who welcomed me to the fold. I’m so happy to be part of this lovely group of authors. Thank you, ladies!

Dear Reader,

Have you ever made a crazy decision under desperate circumstances? That’s exactly what my heroine, Jacie Rose, did at the age of eighteen when she discovered she was pregnant. Realizing she had no way to support herself and feeling panic-stricken over the reaction of her image-conscious stepfather, she asked her friend, Brett Jackson, to help her escape Cherry Lake by marrying her. Brett agreed—crazy decision number two—and then Jacie didn’t show up for the wedding.

Jacie had her reasons, but for ten long years Brett has wondered what they were. Now Jacie is back in Cherry Lake and Brett finally has an opportunity to discover just what happened and why...and that’s where the fun begins.

I’m thrilled to be part of the Secrets of Cherry Lake series. I had so much fun working with Joan, Paula and Roxanne developing a special community in a beautiful setting. I love our characters, our town, our secrets and I hope you do, too.

Happy Reading!

Jeannie Watt

Chapter One

Nudging open the screen door with one foot, Jacie Rose fought to keep hold of the collapsing cardboard box filled with dishes. A little help?

Sorry, Mom. Jacie’s nine-year-old daughter, Darby, dashed down the hall of their newly rented house, long brown braids flying, and opened the screen door the rest of the way.

Oh yeah. Her daughter was sporting a much improved attitude—a big change from going to die of boredom, which had been the complaint for the first hundred miles of the drive from Seattle to Cherry Lake, Montana. It was tough leaving friends behind, but it wasn’t like she wouldn’t see them again in a few months, when school started.

Jacie set the box on the table. Help me finish unloading, then we’ll call Lil about that pizza she promised us.

Sure. Darby nearly tripped as she went down the stairs, being more focused on the mare who’d just ambled closer to the fence than on where her feet were going.

Careful, Jacie said automatically.

Yeah, Mom. But Darby kept shooting looks at the horse as she headed down the walk.

Half an hour later everything had been transferred from the SUV to the house. Jacie brushed the hair back from her forehead with the back of her hand, then took a long drink from her water bottle. The house was still nearly empty, except for the meager furnishings that had come with the place, but they had what they needed—cooking utensils, bedding, their clothing, Jacie’s office supplies for the contract she’d be working on while they were in Cherry Lake. Darby was on the phone to her bestie, Isabella—aka Izzy—explaining how the prospects for her summer had turned around.

Thank goodness for a herd of quarter horse mares. Funny how a horse simply made life better.

She glanced at the small clock she’d set on the built in bookcase and figured she had time for a shower before she was due to meet Lil, her best friend from high school, who’d found her this nice little rental, at the Pizza Shack. As she walked into the smaller of the two bedrooms, she wondered how much The Shack had changed. How much the town had changed? Because after running away from Cherry Lake almost ten years ago to the day, she’d never once come back.

Hey, Molly! Brett Jackson lifted his head from the plank he was measuring to replace a broken board in a stall, hoping his cousin was in hearing range, but apparently she wasn’t.

He set down the board and walked to the barn door, peering out across the pasture. No Molly, but as he turned back, a flash of pink caught his eye. He stepped out of the barn, squinting into the morning sun. Several of Molly’s mares were sunning themselves near the aspen grove and there, in the middle of them, stroking Calypso on the nose, was a kid. A girl to be exact, wearing hot pink jeans and matching flower hoodie. She was, in a word, bright.

Brett set down the hammer and crossed the graveled yard behind the barn to the pasture gate. He didn’t know where Molly was, but if this girl were part of horse day camp, she’d arrived five days early.

He started across the pasture, and was almost to the mares when one of them spotted him and alerted the others, who turned their heads to placidly stare at him. Molly had definitely hand-picked the gentlest of the gentle for her camp. The girl also spotted him and took a quick backward step, her gaze shooting around wildly.

Hi, Brett called as he slowed his steps, trying not to spook the kid. It’d be difficult to explain that she couldn’t come into the pasture due to liability issues if he never got a chance to talk to her. I see you’ve met the ladies.

The kid stopped backing up and raised her chin in a gesture that nudged a memory he couldn’t quite get hold of before it evaporated. Yes, she said before swallowing and then, giving a good shot at nonchalance, shifting her weight to one side. They’re nice.

Yes, they are, Brett said, stopping next to Gracie and stroking a hand down her neck. He smiled at the kid as he spoke, but she didn’t smile back. Stranger danger, no doubt. Good for you, kid.

Are you new to the neighborhood? He’d just moved back to Cherry Lake himself a month ago, but he thought he knew most of the local kids.

She pointed to the house on the opposite side of the pasture. We just moved here from Seattle.

I see.

I really like horses, she explained. But we can’t have one in Seattle. Boarding costs are out of this world. He smiled a little at the girl’s phraseology, fairly certain he was hearing a direct quote there. My mom used to have horses. She roped.

Then your mom probably didn’t live in Seattle all of her life.

Nope. And that was the end of that conversation stream.

Is your mom home? Brett asked, tilting his head in the direction of her house.

Yes. She’s settling in.

I’d like to stop in and introduce myself, since we’re neighbors. Do you want to walk together?

Again the stranger danger look and Brett had just decided that his best bet was to send her home and visit mom later, when a shout came from the opposite side the pasture and he glanced over to see a woman climbing through the fence.

Darby Elizabeth, she shouted again.

I’m here, Mom, the girl called back, as if she weren’t a hot pink beacon in the center of the field.

The woman started toward them and again that niggling memory edged into his brain, then a second later Brett shifted his gaze from the slim woman with the sun-streaked brown ponytail striding toward them to Darby and then back again.

No. Way.

She stopped dead a few yards away, a shocked expression crossing her face as she recognized him, and then she slowly started forward again.

Jacie? Brett asked, knowing full well that it was indeed Jacie Rose closing the distance between them. She was back in Cherry Lake and just as beautiful as he remembered. No, more beautiful.

You know my mom? Darby asked.

Brett waited for Jacie to answer that question, not wanting to screw up anything she might have already told her daughter. Jacie stopped, putting a possessive hand on the girl’s shoulder as if ready to shove her behind her in order to protect her. Yes, he and Jacie had some unfinished business from the past, but it wasn’t as if he was going to start spouting off about it. Surely she knew him better than that...but from the cautious way she was eyeing him, he wasn’t so certain.

We went to school together, Jacie said to her daughter, smiling down at her as if everything was normal, when any kid worth their salt would have instantly picked up on the odd vibe between the adults on either side of her. Darby was apparently worth her salt because her gaze swung between Brett and her mother. A couple of times. And Jacie was giving him the please keep your mouth shut look, as if he was going to say, Hey, remember that time you left me waiting in the courthouse?

His mouth tightened and he said, That was a long time ago. Your mom and I barely knew one another.

Jacie seemed to relax an iota, but her hand remained firmly on Darby’s shoulder. I’m sorry she slipped into your pasture. We’ll talk about trespassing when we get back to the house.

She must have applied the perfect amount of mother pressure to her daughter’s shoulder because Darby’s mouth opened as if to protest, then slowly closed again as she gave a flat mouthed nod. I’m sorry I came into your pasture without asking, she said to Brett.

I’m not mad, Brett said. But the problem is insurance liability. He shot a look at Jacie as he spoke. Her asshole stepdad, Clinton Calloway, had been an insurance guy. Still was, as a matter of fact, in addition to being the mayor of the town, which made him wonder why Jacie was back in Cherry Lake.

Now was definitely not the time to ask, what with Darby growing increasingly interested in the interplay between him and her mother, despite Jacie’s attempt to appear as if they were the merest of acquaintances.

Jacie met his gaze full on and he realized he’d forgotten how incredible her eyes were, stormy gray, edged with dark, dark lashes. Darby’s eyes were the same shape, but bluer, with less of a crystalline quality to them. We’ve taken up enough of your time, she said. I promise that Darby won’t be back in your pasture.

He had a feeling a ‘but Mom’ was coming, however Jacie steered her daughter in an about turn and with a quick goodbye, the two of them headed across the field. Brett watched her go, her back stiff, her steps quick despite the tall grass, as if she couldn’t get away from him fast enough.

Hard to believe she once asked him to marry her.

You never told me that Brett Jackson was living next door. Jacie hissed the words into the phone, glancing over her shoulder to make sure Darby was still in her room. Oh yes. The door was still firmly shut, as Darby worked through the fact that her mother would not discuss the possibility of supervised visits with the horses next door in order to avoid liability issues.

I didn’t know, Lil protested.

All right, Jacie said, pushing her hair back from her forehead, her fingers catching in the waves. Sorry. It was just a heart-stopping surprise finding Darby chit-chatting with him out in that damned field. Heart stopping in many ways. How was it possible that he was even better looking than he’d been in high school?

What was Darby doing in his field?

There were horses there.

Jacie heard something that sounded a lot like Lil smacking her forehead. Brett’s cousin, Molly, is running a horse day camp. She bought property off Mission Range Road, but I had no idea it was next door to you. Mission Range goes on for miles.

Indeed it did—past cherry orchards and hayfields and past other small ranches and farms. Ralston Lane, where she lived, was a five-mile-long offshoot of the main road.

And I honestly didn’t know that Brett would be there. The last I’d heard he was building a house in Miles City, with his fiancée.

So maybe he’s only back for a weekend or something. Jacie’s voice brightened. Visiting his cousin. That makes sense.

This could all be an exercise in poor timing. Lil agreed. Although, you know...there’s no need for you to be all cagey about what happened. It was a long time ago. Dire circumstances.

It was a long time ago, but she’d never once made contact with Brett after running out on him. Never explained or apologized. She’d been too deeply into protection mode. As she saw it, there was a lot to feel cagey about.

Jacie shot another look at the closed bedroom door. You can see where I don’t want Darby to ever get wind of how I tried to handle matters back then. I mean, what if she thought that was the way to solve problems? By lying to your parents and running away?

Do you honestly think that Brett is going to say something about that? Lil asked in a puh-leaze tone. Why?

Why indeed, but Jacie still felt edgy. Darby knew nothing about the trauma that had followed Jacie discovering she was pregnant a month shy of her eighteenth birthday. All Darby knew was that her father and mother had parted before she was born. Jacie never tried to sugar-coat the matter—although she’d also never mentioned that she hadn’t had any idea how to find Darby’s father to tell him of the pregnancy—and Darby wasn’t the only one of her friends being raised by a single mother. Her daughter actually seemed proud of the fact that it was just the two of them, mother and daughter, making their way in the world and for that Jacie was grateful.

Only three people know what happened, Lil continued. You, me and Brett.

And the county clerk. The justice of the peace.

I’m sure you were a minor blip on their radar—if that.

Jacie pushed her hair back once again, searching her pockets with one hand for a hair elastic, then giving up. I’m going to cling to the he’s-here-to-visit scenario. Better for my peace of mind.

Good plan, Lil said. We’re still on for tonight. Right?

Totally. Darby’s angry enough at me already. I’d hate to think what my life will be like if I deny her pizza, too.

Brett stood on his porch, sipping beer and gazing out over his fields with a sense of deep satisfaction. He wasn’t certain if he was cut out to be a farmer, but he was sure going to give it a shot. His father and grandfather couldn’t understand why, if he was going to farm, he chose to grow hay rather than working for Jackson Cherry Orchards. They’d be more than happy to find a way to take him on now that he’d given up rodeo.

Actually, it wasn’t so much that he’d given up on rodeo, as rodeo had given up on him. A guy could only be slammed into the ground so many times before his body started showing signs of wear. When he’d tried to discuss the possibility of quitting mid-season with Kristen, his long-time girlfriend, she’d looked at him as if he’d suggested they join a cult and give away all their worldly goods. Oh, she’d listened, but when he actually did quit, she continued on the road, with his former best friend, Jake. Sometimes life worked out that way—the people you think you know best, you don’t.

He was okay with it now—or as okay as he was ever going to be—but it had taken most of a year for him to get over the raw feeling of betrayal. No hard feelings, Kristen had told him. She’d simply fallen in love with someone else. She hadn’t even seen it coming. Jake was not so straightforward. In fact, Brett hadn’t spoken to him since Kristen announced that she wasn’t quitting the circuit. He took Jake’s number out of his phone, along with Kristen’s and after working in Miles City for a stock contractor for seven months, followed his original pre-Kristen plan of heading back to Cherry Lake and making some kind of life there that didn’t involve getting the snot beat out of him by a saddle bronc.

The door opened behind him and Molly came out to stand next to him.

Nice fields, she said with a smile. She’d been teasing him since early spring about acting like a proud father after he got the hay crop in.

They’ll do.

Just leave me some pasture for my horses.

He’d already turned two pastures back into the hayfields they’d been in twenty years ago before the place had sold to a horse rancher. Almost everything had become pasture and deer habitat, with the result of the deer overrunning the place. Even now, as darkness fell, he could see them moving closer to the house.

Well, I’m out of here, Molly said, hoisting the shoulder strap of her purse up over her shoulder. Since he’d contributed the most money to their joint purchase of the ranch, she’d insisted that he have the big house. She stayed in the small foreman’s house on the far side of the property.

See you tomorrow.

Bright and early, she promised. Molly had just pulled out of the drive when a couple of windows went dark in Jacie’s house, one after the other, as if she was walking through the place, snapping off lights as she went. A moment later she walked out onto the porch, stood for a few seconds staring across the yard, then made her way to the top step and sat down.

Brett started down his porch steps. It was after nine o’clock and since there was only one light on in Jacie’s house, toward the front, he assumed Darby was in bed. Maybe he’d stroll on over to have a neighborly chat and clear the air.

Chapter Two

Jacie propped her elbows on her knees as she sat, letting her eyes adjust to the twilight and breathing in the sweet scents of the Montana summer. Scents she’d forgotten, but which now brought memories rushing back. When she’d left home a week