The Cowboy's Holiday Blessing

“You know, some coffee would be good. Do you have time?”

“I can make coffee, but then I have to go. School is out but it’s a teacher work day.” She glanced at her watch again, and not at Jackson. “You should call your parents.”

Because this had nothing to do with her.

But years ago she’d been a kid like Jade, lost and alone, looking for someone to keep her safe. As much as she wanted to run from this situation, she couldn’t leave Jade alone.

Chapter Two

The schoolteacher looked at her watch again and then she sighed. He nearly sighed in unison because he didn’t know what to do with the kid sitting across from him. Madeline Patton taught school. She had to know more than him.

Jackson pushed himself up from the chair, groaning a little at the spasm in his back. He held the back of the chair and hoped it didn’t roll away, because if it did, he’d be face-first on the floor in front of God and everyone.

Madeline stood, too. She faced him, looking him over as he stood trying to get his balance. His lower back clenched and he managed a smile to cover up the grimace.

“Are you okay?” Madeline faced him, her brown eyes narrowing as she watched him, her gaze settling on his white-knuckled grip on the back of the office chair.

“I’m good…” He was great. “I think I’ll make that pot of coffee and try to sort this out.”

Some kid had knocked on his door, claiming to be his. He had broken ribs and a messed-up back. He was wonderful. Every day should start this way. He managed a smile because it wasn’t Madeline Patton’s fault.

“Maybe she should go with you?” he offered, a little bit hopeful that he was right about her being worried.

“No, she shouldn’t.” Another little glance at her watch.

“I’m in the room.” The girl slumped on the couch and Bud had curled up next to her. The dog raised its head and growled at him. Yeah, well, his hackles were raised, too.

Jackson shook his head and turned his attention back to Ms. Patton. “What do I do with her?”

“I’d start with feeding her.”

He sat down, hard. The chair rolled a little. “Right, feed her. I think there’s more to it than that.”

“I know there is.” She hefted her huge purse to her shoulder.

Concern flickered through those brown eyes. He hadn’t meant to play her. He was long past games. In the words of his niece, games were so last year.

Yeah, he was going through a mid-life crisis, but Madeline didn’t need to know that. She didn’t need to know that he envied Wyatt Johnson for settling down with someone he’d wake up with every morning. Man, he was even jealous of Andie and Ryder Johnson’s twin girls.

Jackson had two rocking chairs on the front porch, and at night he sat alone and watched the cattle graze in the field. He was as sick of being alone as a man could get. But most of the women his age, if they were still single, were listening to their biological clocks. They were ready for rings and babies.

Which brought him back to the problem at hand: Jade Baker.

“I’ll get the coffee started, then you need to make a plan,” Madeline offered.

“Thanks, that would be great.” He smiled at her and she didn’t even flinch. He was losing his touch or she was immune. Either way, he was a little baffled.

“Where’s the kitchen?”

He pointed to the wide doorway that led to the dining room and from there to the kitchen and family room. Madeline nodded and away she went, that long skirt of hers swishing around her legs.

“Why don’t you just give me a hundred bucks or something and I’ll head on down the road.” The kid, Jade, shot the comment at him.

Jackson turned the chair to face her. She was hugging his dog. She looked younger than thirteen, maybe because she looked sad and kind of lost. Wow, that took him back to Mia when she’d landed on their doorstep twenty years ago. Travis, nearly twenty-five years ago. Jesse when he’d been about twelve. Jesse had been an angry kid. Now he was a doctor.

Jade Baker, aka his kid. She’d asked for a hundred bucks to leave. Surely the little thing wasn’t working him for money? Could it be she’d been dropped off by someone who knew she resembled their family? He rubbed his thumb across his chin and studied her. She just stared at him, with eyes that looked like his and Reece’s. Eyes that looked like Heather’s and Dylan’s.

He could smell toast in the toaster. Jade glanced toward the door that led to the dining room and the kitchen. The dog perked up, too. The girl had pulled her blond hair into a ponytail. Her jeans were threadbare and her T-shirt was stained. He didn’t know a thing about her life or what she’d been through.

He hadn’t really known Gloria. She’d been about his age and she’d liked hanging out at rodeos. Someone had told him she lived in the back of a van with her older sister. He hadn’t believed it. He should have. The next time he’d gone through the Texas town where he’d met her, she wasn’t there.

Fourteen years ago. He barely remembered her. But seeing Jade, the memories resurfaced. He hadn’t loved Gloria. He let out a sigh. A kid should at least have that knowledge, that her parents loved each other.

He stood up, holding his breath to get through the pain.

“Sorry, kid, I’m not giving you money. We’ll figure this out, but money isn’t going to be part of the deal.”

“Why not? You obviously don’t want me here. With some money I can hit the road and find a place to live.”

He admired her pluck. She had stood, and his stupid dog, Bud, stood next to her. “You’re not even fourteen yet. You can’t live by yourself or even take off on your own. And one hundred dollars? That wouldn’t get you to Tulsa.”

“I could get emancipated.”

“Honey, at your age you can’t spell that word and you can’t even get a job. We’ll try for plan B, okay? Let’s go see what Ms. Patton is cooking up in there.” He eased forward a couple of steps. Jade glared at him and started to walk away. He reached for her arm and stopped her.

“Let go of me.” She turned, fire sparking in those hazel-green eyes of hers.

“I’ll let go, but you’re not going to blame me for not knowing about you.” He’d made a lot of mistakes that he’d had to own up to. He sure wouldn’t have walked out on a kid.

He would have claimed his kid if he’d known about her. If it was possible that she was his, he’d do everything he could for her. But she wasn’t his. He was pretty sure of that.

“Yeah, well, you do kind of have something to do with my life and not being in it,” she shot back at him, her chin hiking up a few notches and a spark in those eyes that dared him to tell her otherwise.

“I didn’t know where your mother went to, and she never tried to get in touch.” He had let go of her arm and they stood in the center of the living room, facing off.

“Yeah, well…” Jade stared at him, her eyes big in a little-girl face. Man, she was a tough kid. He didn’t know what to do. He could hug her. Or he could just stand there and stare. He didn’t think she’d want either.

“Well, what?”

“Well, you coulda tried.” Her bottom lip started to tremble. “Haven’t you heard of the internet?”

“If I’d known, I would have searched the whole world to find a kid of mine.” He softened his tone and took a step forward.

“Yeah, right. My mom said you told her once that you never planned on having kids and so she didn’t bother telling you that you had one.”

“That was real nice of her to do that.” He wasn’t going to say anything against her mother. The kid had gone through enough, and he didn’t know Gloria well enough to say much more.

She reached for his hand. “I didn’t think you’d be so old.”

“Well, thanks, Jade. Is Jade short for something?”

“Just Jade.” She had hold of his hand. He looked at her hand in his, small and strong. Yeah, he would have been okay with having her for a kid.

The toast popped out of the toaster and coffee poured into a cup from the single-cup brewer on his counter. Jackson Cooper had the kitchen of her dreams. It didn’t seem fair that he had her coffeemaker, the replica of a vintage stove and fridge she’d always dreamed of, granite countertops and light pine floors. But really, what was fair?

Life? Most often not. She’d learned that at an early age. She’d put away the baggage of her past years ago, when she realized carrying it around weighed a person down. If a person meant to let go of their burdens, they shouldn’t pack them back up and heft them over their shoulder.

She pulled toast from the toaster and buttered it. From the dining room she could hear Jackson talking to the teenager who had knocked on her door just over an hour ago. A few minutes later they walked into the kitchen and their likeness floored Madeline. The two had the same strong cheekbones, the same strong mouth, and eyes that matched. Jade’s hair was lighter.

Jackson walked to the sink and ran water into a glass. Madeline stood next to the counter, feeling out of place in this mess of his and even more out of place in his home. This wasn’t where she’d expected to end up today, in Jackson Cooper’s kitchen, in his life. When she woke up this morning, it had been like any other Friday. She’d been looking forward to the weekend and decorating her house for Christmas. Jackson hadn’t figured into her plans. Ever.

She’d lived in Dawson for over a year, and even though it was a small town, she didn’t run in the same circles as Jackson Cooper. Every now and then he flirted with her at the Mad Cow Café. But Jackson flirted with everyone.

“You made toast.” Jackson set the glass down on the counter.

“I did, and the coffee is ready.” She dried her hands and watched as he shook two pills into his hand, popped them into his mouth and washed them down with water.

“Are you eating?” He pushed a plate in her direction.

“I had a granola bar.” She pushed it back. “You need something in your stomach.”

“Right.” He glanced at the girl that she’d delivered to his front door. “There’s cinnamon and sugar in the cabinet if you want it for your toast. After we eat we’ll figure this mess out.”

Jade carried her plate to the table and sat down. “I don’t know what you need to figure out. Fourteen years ago, you messed up.” She shot him a look and flapped her arms like wings. “Your roosters have come home to roost.”

“Great, she’s a smart-mouth to boot,” he grumbled as he picked up a slice of toast.

He took a bite and glanced out the window. He didn’t sit down. Instead he stood next to Madeline, his hip against the counter. His arm brushed hers. Of course he would be comfortable in his own skin. He wouldn’t feel the need for space.

She stepped away from him, picking up a pan that had been next to the sink. Not her pan. Not her mess. She grabbed a scrubber and turned on hot water. Jackson rinsed his plate and opened the dishwasher.

“You don’t have to wash that.” He touched her arm.

“I don’t mind washing it.” She rinsed the pan and stuck it in the dish drainer. She glanced out the window again. The land here rolled gently and was dotted with trees. Cattle grazed and a few horses were chasing each other in a circle, bucking and kicking as wind picked up leaves.

“Can she stay with you?”

“Excuse me?” Madeline glanced in Jade’s direction and turned her attention back to Jackson.

“Look, Maddie…”

She lifted a hand to stop him. “My name is Madeline.”

“Sure, okay, Madeline. I need to work this out and you can’t leave a kid here with a single man, not when you aren’t sure if that single man is her father. And I don’t really want my family to know about this, not yet.”

“So you want to hide her at my house?” She tapped her foot on the light pine floor and fought the urge to slug him.

“Not hide her. She needs to stay somewhere and she can’t really stay here, not until we know exactly what’s going on.”

As much as she didn’t want to, she got it. She also kind of admired him for thinking about the girl. They could call the police or family services, but then she’d end up in state custody. Jade definitely couldn’t stay alone with him, a single man. What if she wasn’t his? Even if she was, there were things to consider.

She glanced across the room at Jade and she remembered that first night, fourteen and alone in the Montana town she’d rarely visited as a kid. Frightened because she had fifty dollars and no one to turn to, she remembered flashing lights at a convenience store and being driven to a group home.

Fear knotted in her stomach, the way it had then, half a lifetime ago.

“Yes, she can stay with me for a little while.”

Jackson watched her, his eyes narrowing. “You sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure.”

“I’ll pay you.” His mouth shifted into a smile, revealing a dimple in his chin.

“Pay me?”

“For letting her stay with you. I can write you a check or pay you cash.”

Madeline glanced at her watch. “I really have to go, and I don’t want your money.”

“There will be the expense of feeding her. She probably needs clothes. I need to pay you something.”

Jade stood, the quick movement catching Madeline’s attention, and from the jerk of his head in that direction, Jackson’s also. The girl held her plate, trembling a little.

“Stop, okay? I’m a kid, not something you trade off or try to get rid of. I thought it would be different…” Jade bit down on her bottom lip and looked from Madeline to Jackson. “You were supposed to be different.”

His smile dissolved. Madeline watched as he approached the girl who might possibly be his daughter. He sat down at the table and pointed for her to sit back down. He was used to girls, used to kids. He had been raised in a house with eleven other children. Now he had nieces and nephews.

“Different than what?” he asked.

“Different, that’s all.”

“From?”

“From my mom. I thought it would be—” she looked away “—better here.”

Jackson whistled. “So far we haven’t made much of an impression, huh?”

Madeline wanted to correct him, to tell him he hadn’t made a good impression. The girl claimed to be his. Madeline was just the unsuspecting stranger who had ended up with Jade on her doorstep. And she’d gotten tangled up in this.

“No, you haven’t made a great impression.” Jade rubbed her eyes hard. Madeline pulled tissues out of a box on the counter and handed them to her. Jade took them with a watery smile and rubbed her nose and then her eyes.

“Okay, let’s start over. Jade, I’m Jackson Cooper and I don’t know squat about raising teenage girls. Today one landed on my front porch and I’m trying like crazy to figure out what to do and to keep that from being a problem for both of us.” He glanced at Madeline. “And this isn’t her problem at all.”

“I don’t like being called a problem,” the girl cried again.

“Right, okay, you’re not a problem. But you are a situation that I need to figure out. And I need a little time to do that.”

“Okay.”

“So for now, you’ll go with Ms. Patton because that’s the best thing for us to do. And I’ll work at figuring something out.”

“She can’t go with me yet,” Madeline interrupted. “I have to be at work. Now!”

“Okay, so we’ll work this out. She stays with me for now while you go to work and later we figure something out.”

“Jade, I’ll see you later.” Madeline leaned in to hug the girl.

Jackson stood, probably to walk her to the door. She didn’t need that. She didn’t need any of this.

“I’ll see myself out.”

Jackson walked with her anyway. “You’ll be back?”

“Yes, Jackson, I’ll be back.”

He must have read her mind.

“Thank you.” He grinned as he opened the front door for her. “Sorry if I haven’t been the best host. It isn’t every day that I get a wake-up call like this one.”

She didn’t want to like Jackson Cooper. She didn’t want to let her guard down. But he had a way of easing into a person’s life, taking them by surprise.

“I think we’ve both been taken by surprise today.”

Maybe she had been the most surprised. She had formed opinions about Jackson. Now she had to rethink those opinions.

Chapter Three

Jackson couldn’t think of another reason to keep Madeline from leaving. He could think of several reasons why he wanted her to stay. She stood on his porch, brown hair, brown eyes, brown sweater and skirt. He couldn’t quite figure her out, and he felt pretty sure that’s what she planned when she camouflaged herself in brown. What she probably hadn’t expected with her disguise was the fact that she intrigued him.

“I have to go.” She stepped away from him, tripping over that crazy dog of his.

Jackson reached for her arm and steadied her. “Sorry about the dog. He can get in the way.”

“Right, okay, I’ll see you later.”

“Madeline, thank you. I’m sure getting mixed up in this mess wasn’t on your to-do list when you woke up this morning.”

“No, it wasn’t. And I’m still not sure how I feel about this. I think you should call family services.”

“It’s the right thing to do?” He smiled because he guessed she always went by the rules. “But then she’s in the system and my hands are tied. I’d like to figure this out and then I’ll make a phone call.”

“She could be a runaway.”

“I’m going to check into that. Don’t worry, I’m not planning on harboring a juvenile.”

Madeline’s brows shot up. “I think you plan on letting me harbor said juvenile.”

He grinned and shoved his hands into the front pockets of his jeans.

“If you go to jail, I’ll bail you out.”

“Thank you, that’s very kind.” She glanced at her watch. “I have to go. Please think about calling your parents.”

The urge to lean down and kiss her cheek didn’t come as a surprise. But today he had to think like Jackson the dad, not Jackson the guy who loved beautiful women. He smiled and promised her he’d think about calling his parents. But he’d already come to the conclusion that the last thing he needed was the entire Cooper clan descending on his house today.

Madeline hurried down the steps and across the lawn to her little sedan. He couldn’t help but smile as she slammed the door, opened it and slammed it again before driving away. He remembered her doing that when he’d helped her pick up her groceries last week.

When he walked back inside he found Jade on the sofa, a throw blanket pulled over her body. She blinked, and offered a little smile.

“I guess you were up all night?” He eased down onto the desk chair he’d left in the middle of the room.

“Yeah, pretty much.”

Jackson rolled the chair closer to her. “I’m going to get some work done. You take a nap and later we’ll figure out what to do next.”

“What’s next? I’m your kid and my mom is dead. What are you going to do, dump me on the side of the road somewhere?”

“No, I’m not going to dump you. I do want to check all of the facts before we make any big plans.”

“Fine.” She looked a little pale and her eyes were huge. “Do I have grandparents or something?”

“Yeah, you have grandparents.”

She closed her eyes, a little-girl smile on her face. After a few minutes he scooted in the other direction, back to the desk and his laptop. He flipped the top up and hit the power button, all the while watching a kid who really thought he could be her dad.

He sighed and shook his head. First he checked his email because a certain bull he’d been after for a year had been put up for sale and he’d made an offer. Still nothing on that front.

So where did he begin searching for Jade Baker’s story? And her mother’s? Death records, obituaries and telephone directories. Every search came up empty. He had another connection, a friend who had gone into law enforcement. He typed a short email asking for information on runaways—one specific runaway, actually.

He sat back, trying to think of other avenues for finding Gloria Baker. But it wasn’t her name he typed in the search engine of the internet. He found himself doing a search for Madeline Patton.

She’d been in the area for a year. She’d moved to a town where she didn’t have family. She’d bought a house connected to his land. The house had once belonged to his great-grandparents. It had been their original homestead, before oil and ranching paid off for the Coopers.

His grandmother had taken a liking to Madeline and sold that little house and two acres to the schoolteacher for almost nothing. Maybe his grandmother knew more about her than the rest of them.

Or maybe he was the only Cooper left out of the loop when it came to Madeline. That kind of bugged him.

His search of Madeline Patton turned up article after article, all from Montana newspapers. He leaned back in his chair and his finger hovered above the mouse. Her story, if she had one, should be private. But the brief sentence under the heading wouldn’t let him back away. He clicked the link and started reading.

For a long time he sat there. He read newspaper articles about a child named Madeline Patton. He searched for more articles. As he read he went from pain to rage. He had never wanted to hurt someone as badly as he did at that moment, thinking about that little girl.

Man, it made him want to drive to the school and hug her tight. It made him want to keep her safe. No one should ever be used the way Madeline had been used. Exploited. Hurt.

He closed down his computer because he knew these were her stories, her secrets. She had a right to her privacy. She didn’t trust him. She definitely wouldn’t trust him with these secrets.

He stood, easing through the motion and then holding on to the desk as he took a deep breath. Jade remained curled in a ball on his sofa, sound asleep. He leaned over her, shaking her shoulders lightly. Eyes opened with a flutter and she pulled back.

“I have to get some work done in the barn. Are you going to be okay here by yourself?” He figured being by herself might be something she was used to. Just guessing.

“Yeah, I’m still tired.”

“Sleep on. If you get hungry there’s lunch meat in the fridge and a container of chili my mom brought over yesterday.”

“Thanks.” Her eyes closed.

Jackson slipped on his boots and pulled on a jacket. When he stepped outside he took a deep breath of cold, December air. It felt good to get out of the house. He never would have made it in the nine-to-five corporate world. Walls were not his cup of tea. He liked open spaces, horses in the field and bulls moving around their pens.

Blake, his older and less charming brother, could have the corporate gig. If someone had to count the money, it might as well be Blake.

Jackson whistled for the dog. He came running from the field, brown splotches on his back where he’d been rolling in the grass. When the dog got close enough, Jackson groaned.

“Bud, you stink. Get out of here.”

Bud wagged his tail as if being stinky sounded like a compliment.

He shrugged down into his jacket and trudged down the driveway toward the barn. Horses whinnied and trotted along the fence line. Cattle started moving from across the field.

He flipped on lights in the barn and a few whinnies greeted him. He stopped in front of the stall of the little mare he’d bought last week. She stuck her velvety black nose over the door of the stall and he rubbed her face. She’d make some pretty foals. Her daddy had sired quite a few champion cutting horses. Her brother was a champion barrel horse. If people were concerned about pedigrees, hers topped the charts.

A minute later he walked on down the aisle to the feed room. As he unhooked the door he heard a truck easing down the driveway, the diesel engine humming, tires crunching on gravel. He stepped back to the center of the aisle and shook his head. Travis, late as usual.