A Baby for Dry Creek and A Dry Creek Christmas: A Baby for Dry Creek

“My job includes room and board, too,” Reno offered.

“Oh, no, you convinced me that wouldn’t be proper.”

“Oh, it’s different with Reno,” Linda said smoothly. Reno thanked her with a smile until she added, “Mrs. Hargrove was saying that he admitted in the post office the other day that he feels only family feelings for you on account of the fact that you’re almost cousins.”

“Almost cousins?” Chrissy asked faintly.

Reno could see Chrissy was surprised. He was shocked himself. “I don’t remember saying anything quite like that.”

“Oh, well, Mrs. Hargrove goes for the essence of what a person says,” Linda said with a wave of her hand. “You know how it is—sometimes you’re not even sure what you mean, and then Mrs. Hargrove sums it up for you and it’s right on the nose.”

“I see.” Chrissy swallowed. “Well, I’ve never had an almost cousin before…”

“What about Garrett? He’s your cousin,” Linda said as she adjusted the salt and pepper shakers on a nearby table. “Just pretend Reno is Garrett.”

“I could do that, I guess,” Chrissy said.

Reno frowned. He didn’t like the fact that Chrissy could make a promise like that so easily. He sure couldn’t promise to see her through the eyes of a cousin any day soon.

“I don’t see why you’re looking for a job anyway,” Linda said as she moved to another table and swung out a chair for Chrissy to sit down. “If that guy in Vegas is the baby’s father, shouldn’t he be paying enough child support to take care of you both? I thought you said he had a trust fund or something.”

“He does,” Chrissy said as she sat in the chair. “But it’s complicated. To get child support, I need to claim he’s the father, and if I do that, I’m worried Jared’s mother will have a better case to get custody.”

“But you’re the mother. She can’t just take your baby away from you.”

“She’s already got some attorney trying to find out things about me so he can say I’m an unfit mother.”

“And if that doesn’t work, he’s trying to scare her into giving up Justin,” Reno added. “Someone set fire to Chrissy’s mother’s house just before we left L.A.”

“You’re kidding?” Linda said as she looked from Reno to Chrissy. “Some lawyer would do that?”

Reno nodded. “He might not do anything himself, but he’d pay people to cause some damage.”

“Wow.” Linda frowned. “He’s serious. I thought he was just some kind of crazy guy who wrote letters to stir up trouble.”

“I still have the letter,” Reno said as he patted his shirt pocket. “I’m keeping it in case we want to get a restraining order on him or something.”

“It’s not the lawyer I’m worried about—it’s the people he hires that scare me,” Chrissy said. “I’m glad Justin isn’t old enough to walk or crawl. I’d be a nervous wreck every time he went out to play.”

“Oh, surely the lawyer will give up after a while. He can’t care that much,” Linda said.

“It’s Jared’s mother who cares. And she never gives up. Oh—” Chrissy stopped in surprise and turned toward Reno. “I never thought about that—that’s why you didn’t want me to take the job at Lester’s and stay at his place, since he’s not married. You were worried Mrs. Bard might use it against me in a custody battle.”

Reno grunted. He should have thought of that. “You can never be too careful.”

“Well, you don’t need to worry about Mrs. Bard when you’re in Dry Creek,” Linda said firmly. “We’ll take care of you and Justin. We keep an eye out for strangers.” Linda paused. “Well, except for a few times when things have gotten out of hand.”

Reno grimaced. He could tell from the look on Linda’s face that she was remembering the time a stranger had come to Dry Creek and dressed up as Santa Claus so he could get close enough to the woman who was playing the angel in the church Christmas pageant to try to shoot her. Come to think of it, Linda had felt sorry for the man in the Santa Claus costume and given him a free spaghetti dinner from the café before the pageant.

Linda looked at Reno. “I guess she’d be better off out at your ranch.”

Reno nodded. “My dog, Hunter, doesn’t let strangers get too close unless I give him the all-clear sign.”

And I’ll be there, Reno thought. He remembered that what had saved the angel was that Pastor Matthew had risked his life to save hers. Even Reno had been touched by their story of love and happiness.

“I don’t really think the lawyer would send someone up here. Do you?” Chrissy asked as she looked from Reno to Linda. Justin seemed to sense his mother’s fear, and started to fuss.

“Of course not,” Reno said quickly as he scowled at Linda.

“You’re perfectly safe here,” Linda added when Reno finished.

“It’s just that I keep hearing that music playing in my head,” Chrissy said as she put Justin to her shoulder and looked over at Reno. “Remember after the fire, there was that black car with a few guys in it, and they were playing those old songs from the sixties—it sounded like a CD or something. I remember because they were playing that song—how does it go…the Mrs. something one—”

“Mrs. Robinson?” Linda asked as she stood up from the table. “I don’t believe it. They’ve called here.”

“Who?” Chrissy asked as she started patting Justin on his back.

“Some guy called asking how to get to Dry Creek, and he had that music playing in the background. I think he was on a cell phone—we don’t always get good reception here if someone is on a cell. Usually we don’t even get the call, but sometimes it comes through and sounds faint like this one.”

“They called here?” Chrissy looked over at Reno.

Linda nodded. “We finally got the phone for the café listed under Dry Creek Café, Dry Creek, Montana. We thought we should ask for reservations for our new dinner section.” Linda motioned to the three tables in front of the window. “I’m so sorry. We never would have gotten a listing if we’d known.”

“Did he say where he was when he called?” Reno walked over to the window and looked out at the road leading into Dry Creek. He saw a puff of dust in the distance, but it looked like a pickup.

“He asked for directions from Salt Lake City,” Linda said, and then looked over at Chrissy. “And I invited him to try the café while he was in town. He said they would, so he must have someone with him.”

“We should call the police,” Chrissy said, and then bit her lip. She stopped patting Justin on the back, and he started to cry. “Of course we can’t do that. No one’s done anything. It’s not a crime to play sixties music.”

“We’ll tell our deputy sheriff anyway. He can keep an eye out for strangers,” Reno said as he held his arms out to take Justin. “And we’ll tell the men at the hardware store. Not much gets by Elmer and Jacob.”

Chrissy gave the baby to Reno, and she stood up and started to pace.

“You’re safe here,” Linda said. “We have a neighborhood watch program going—well, not the official thing, but we watch who comes and goes. Not that there’re many strangers anyway.”

“I do feel safer here than in Los Angeles,” Chrissy admitted. It made sense that there would be fewer strangers here and fewer chances for mischief. “My nerves just need to settle down.”

Chrissy stopped pacing at the window. She could see the Dry Creek church across the street, and the Big Sheep Mountains were in the distance. The Montana landscape didn’t offer many places for a criminal to hide. She should feel safe here.

Then she glanced over at Reno. He was rubbing Justin’s back.

Maybe she was relaxing too soon. The lawyer wasn’t the only man she needed to worry about while she was here.

Chapter Seven

Reno was just about as content as a man could be. The midday sun was shining in the café window with enough force that it might even be drying up some of the mud outside. If it did, Reno would have an easy drive to the ranch.

Not that mud was on his mind too much. Chrissy was sitting across the table from him, and she had a happy flush on her face. They had both just eaten a couple of the best hamburgers Reno had ever tasted.

Life didn’t get any better than this, Reno decided as he leaned back in his chair.

Everyone had calmed down after Linda decided that maybe the man who had called on the phone was Jacob’s nephew, who was planning to visit the old man in a couple of days and be there for Jacob’s big birthday party.

“I’d forgotten he might call,” Linda said again as she held Justin up and smiled at him. “Pastor Matthew told me they wanted to have a birthday party at the Elktons’ barn and asked us to provide the food, so of course Jacob’s nephew had this number.”

“If you need help with the party, let me know,” Chrissy said before she took one of the last French fries from her plate and dipped it in ketchup. “I can help you handle a hungry crowd.”

“Oh, that’s a relief,” Linda said. “I wasn’t sure how I was going to manage everyone, even though we’re going to have a limited menu. Grilled steaks and baked potatoes mostly, since that’s Jacob’s favorite dinner. Besides, it’s a good menu for cowboys, and they’re inviting the whole crew at the Elkton ranch.”

Reno frowned. He wasn’t sure he wanted those cowboys to get a close-up look at Chrissy. “Maybe I should help instead. You know how those cowboys are when there’s a party.”

“I’ve worked in Vegas,” Chrissy said as she picked up the last French fry. “I can handle anything.”

“Maybe you can both help,” Linda suggested as she laid Justin over her knees and started to rub his back. The baby gurgled in delight. “We’ll even be able to pay decent salaries.”

“Oh, you don’t need to pay me,” Chrissy said. “It’ll be fun to have a party.”

Some of the joy went out of Reno’s day. He supposed Chrissy’s disappointment in Dry Creek was inevitable, but he didn’t like to think about it. “This might not be your usual party. Besides, we don’t have parties very often around here, so you wouldn’t want to get used to it. Mostly it’s a pretty boring place.”

“I don’t know about that. We’ve had a lot of weddings in the last year.” Linda eyed Reno suspiciously. “I don’t know if those are exactly parties, but they have sure been fun. You don’t want to sell this place short.”

“Well, I guess there have been the weddings,” Reno acknowledged. Maybe if he was lucky, there would be another wedding to help keep Chrissy entertained. Women sure liked weddings. He looked over at Linda. “I don’t suppose you and Jazz are planning to get married any time soon?”

Linda’s smile tightened. “Jazz and I are no longer engaged.”

“What?” Chrissy said. “Why didn’t you say something? Here we’ve been chatting away about all my problems and—oh, I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry,” Linda said. “We just realized we have incompatible goals. It’s really for the best that we found it out now, before we went to the trouble of getting married.”

“How incompatible can your goals be?” Reno had always pictured Linda and Jazz as a sensible engaged couple who agreed on what they wanted out of life. “I thought you two were planning to buy the Jenkins place and raise cattle. Isn’t that what this café is about? Saving up enough money for that ranch?”

Linda lifted her chin and then bent to rub Justin’s back some more. “There’s more to a marriage than which piece of land to farm and what cattle to buy.”

“Well, of course, but—”

Reno was interrupted by the sound of a loud scraping that came from outside on the porch.

“What’s that?” Chrissy said.

Reno could see the shape of a man through the glass on the café door. Something about the shape looked familiar, but it didn’t look quite right.

The door opened, and Lester Wilkerson stepped inside the café.

“What’s with him?” Reno had never seen Lester in a suit before. He didn’t even know the man owned a suit. Yet here he was, wearing a black suit and a tie. He was holding a metal bucket. Lester had slicked his red hair back and shaved his face so close he’d nicked his chin. The metal bucket was dented in a few places and obviously old, but Lester was holding it out in front of him as if it was a grand bouquet.

“What’s this?” Reno asked. Now that he’d gotten a closer look at the bucket, he could see it held what looked like a small bush.

“Flowers,” Lester announced as he took a deep breath and smiled. “Well, not yet, but Mrs. Hargrove told me there will be some soon—geraniums.”

Lester held out the bucket to Chrissy. “I know women really like their flowers and there aren’t any blooming in Dry Creek right now because of the rain—well, and winter, of course—but there should be some flowers on this plant soon. They’ll be red, according to Mrs. Hargrove.” Lester paused as though to remember something Reno figured he had memorized, and then continued after clearing his throat. “The way I see it, if one flower says welcome to a woman, a whole plant should say it ten times better—so welcome to Dry Creek, Chrissy Hamilton.”

“Why, thank you,” Chrissy said as she accepted the bucket and held it in her lap. “I’m touched.”

Reno wasn’t touched. He was astonished.

“I know women like them fancy bouquets,” Lester continued. “But I figured you might like a plant to keep in the kitchen window. Sort of a homey touch.”

Chrissy blinked. “I think that’s the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me.”

Reno wondered if she had forgotten he had just driven over two thousand miles to bring her and Justin back to Dry Creek. “Yeah, it’s sweet. That’s Lester for you. As sweet as they come.”

“I just wanted to welcome you to Dry Creek,” Lester said again nervously. Now that he didn’t have the bucket to hold, he used one hand to smooth back his hair. “I’m sure you and your baby will be happy here. I heard you’re thinking of taking the job I posted for a cook—”

“She’s not taking the job,” Reno interrupted. “She’s going to work on the Redfern Ranch bottle-feeding the spare calves.”

Chrissy moved the bush so she could give Lester a soft, apologetic smile. “It’s only because I think family should stick together, and Reno says we’re practically cousins.”

Lester grinned. “Oh, well, that’s okay then. I can see why you’d want to help out your cousin. Cousins, huh?”

Lester turned to Reno and winked before turning his smile back to Chrissy. “And I bet your cousin told you what a good neighbor I am.”

Reno forgot Lester had asked him to put in a good word for him. “He’s the best—but about this cousin business. Actually, it was Mrs. Hargrove who said—”

“Ah, yes, Mrs. Hargrove. Wonderful woman.” Lester grinned even wider. “Besides, my place is just next door to the Redfern Ranch. I’ll be seeing you almost every day as it is. I usually pick up the mail for both places and bring it out from town.”

Justin was starting to cry. Reno didn’t blame him. The little one couldn’t see his own mother through all the leaves that went into that plant. Linda moved the baby so he cradled against her shoulder and could see everyone.

Reno frowned as he turned back to Lester. “I thought you stopped getting our mail when Nicki got married. I haven’t seen you around, and the mail’s always on the counter when I go to town.”

“Yeah, well.” Lester shrugged. “I’ve decided I should be more neighborly, so I’m starting up again. The Bible says to do unto others you know.”

Reno had never heard Lester quote from the Bible before.

“It also says it isn’t good for a man to be alone,” Lester added as he dipped his head for a pause. “I used to enjoy those morning visits with Nicki before she got married. She’d always cut me a big piece of her coffee cake and pour me a cup of coffee.” Lester managed to look forlorn. “It was more than the food. I kind of miss that womanly touch—being a man on my own isn’t easy.”

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