Blessed Vows

Jake watched her with serious eyes

It was as if in that brief moment he could see right through her to the places that mattered and held the greatest truths. Rachel’s heart skipped a beat, and her soul brightened the way sunshine did after passing clouds.

The earth seemed to still and she saw the man he was, beyond the warrior and her brother’s friend and Sally’s uncle. Jake was no longer a stranger. She couldn’t say exactly why; it was only something she could feel. Like faith. Or like hope.

She could sense the heart of the man, his integrity and character and strength. And his goodness.

He folded his strong arms over his broad chest. “Come join me.”

That sounded like the best idea ever.

JILLIAN HART

makes her home in Washington State, where she has lived most of her life. When Jillian is not hard at work on her next story, she loves to read, go to lunch with her friends and spend quiet evenings with her family.

Blessed Vows

Jillian Hart

www.millsandboon.co.uk

My purpose is that they may be encouraged

in heart and united in love.

—Colossians 2:2

Dear Reader,

THE McKASLIN CLAN continues when Rachel meets her brother’s best friend. Jake is on temporary leave from active duty in the Middle East so that he can take guardianship of his orphaned niece. Rachel falls in love with both the man and the little girl, and forsakes the life she knows in Montana to move across the country to where Jake is stationed. Always a romantic, Rachel marries her knight in shining armor and means her wedding vows with every bit of her heart and soul. Love, like faith, takes great belief and trust. But will her love be strong enough to open Jake’s battle weary heart?

Thank you for choosing Blessed Vows. I hope you enjoy Rachel’s story as much as I’ve enjoyed writing it.

I wish you joy and the sweetest of blessings,

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter One

How did she get talked into this? Rachel McKaslin asked herself as she peered into the basement’s deep-box freezer. The answer was easy—because she had a teeny-weeny problem saying no. Especially when it came to saying no to any member of her family.

Which was why she was hanging nearly upside down in the freezer and freezing. Her fingertips were numb from shoving packages around. There was a roast in here somewhere. She knew it was in here. But could she find it? No. She did manage to find everything else, though: packages of hot dogs, boxes of frozen fish fillets, bags of frozen vegetables and a big sack of ice pops. The Popsicles she’d been looking for the last time she’d been searching through this freezer.

Wasn’t that just her luck?

She grabbed a couple of grape Popsicles and heaved herself over the edge of the freezer. Her feet hit the ground—yes, she loved being short—and she rubbed the small of her back. A home-cooked meal, that’s what her brother Ben had requested for his military buddy, who’d apparently been eating more MREs than real food for the last few years.

Okay. Frozen fish fingers probably didn’t exactly qualify as the main course of an old-fashioned home-cooked meal.

It would have helped if Ben had called while she’d still been at work at the diner. She could have made up something right there to bring home. Or she could have stopped by the store and bought a roast like the one she couldn’t manage to find now.

Maybe it was time to call in reinforcements. Maybe her sister Paige could send someone over from the diner with a to-go box. And after putting in a twelve-hour day on her feet, she’d be more than glad to give that a try.

It wasn’t as if she could cook a roast that wasn’t here. Ben would understand. But would his best friend?

She sighed. Well, with her luck, probably not.

She closed the freezer lid, flicked out the overhead light and at the base of the narrow stairs rising up out of the basement, she could hear the briiing of the phone.

Great, how long had it been ringing? She imagined Paige calling, worrying about why Rachel hadn’t answered after the twenty-seventh ring. Paige was a worrier. Or maybe it was her sister Amy checking in from her latest househunting quest. Or Ben—if it was Ben, then she could explain about the failed roast recovery mission.

She tried to dash up the stairs, but her bunny slippers on the narrow steps slowed her down. By the time she flew up and into the kitchen and wrapped her hand around the receiver, the ringing died. The dial tone droned in her ear. And she didn’t have caller ID.

Her cell phone began to chime the opening bars to “Ode to Joy.” Excellent! Whoever had called was trying her other phone. Except, where was it? As the electronic music grew louder and louder, she followed the sound into the kitchen and to the round oak table where her duffel bag sat, still zipped. She dug around until she found it.

And it was still ringing. Whew. She flipped it open. “Hello?”

“Ah, is this Rachel McKaslin?” a man’s gravelly voice asked, as if uncertain he had the right number.

A man’s voice she didn’t recognize. I think I know who this is. “Yep, that’s me.” She yanked open the freezer door on the fridge. “Is this Jake, by chance?”

“That would be me. Your brother told you I was comin’, but did he warn you about me?” There was a smile to Jake’s voice.

Without a doubt a very handsome smile, she thought as she tossed the ice pops into the freezer section of the fridge for later consumption. “Yep, he sure did. The question is, did Ben warn you about me?”

His warm, easy chuckle came across the line. “He did. Ben said that you are the generous and lovely soul who agreed to look after us at the last minute and on a Friday night. I take that to mean you cancelled a date?”

“Who, me? Date?” She bit her bottom lip to keep in the snicker.

“Well, it is a date night, and I understand you’re a single attractive lady.”

Yeah, right. Not since high school. There were a lot of great men in the world, good and decent men. She firmly believed that, but they never seemed to be interested in her. Maybe it was because she was always so busy, and that didn’t leave a lot of time to date. But that didn’t explain why no one ever asked her out. Most men were looking for a more worldly woman and, as she looked down at her fuzzy pink bunny slippers, she was anything but worldly.

“I thought I’d sacrifice a date night for Ben’s best buddy,” she said diplomatically so he wouldn’t know he was wrong, wrong, wrong about her. The reason why she was about to be a bridesmaid for the umpteenth time, and not a bride. “It’s the least I can do for the man who braved machine-gun fire to help haul my brother to cover a while back.”

“He was shot. I couldn’t just leave him there for the enemy to trip over.”

“My family and I, we’re all so grateful to you.” Rachel couldn’t imagine the kind of courage it took for someone to do their job in the military. “Because of you, our brother’s home safe and sound.”

“You’re giving me a lot of credit. I was just doin’ my job. And Ben’s a pretty tough guy. I should know, since we serve together. It takes more than a bullet to stop him.”

Humble, with a sense of humor. Judging by the deep rumbling baritone of his voice, Rachel figured that Jake had a drop-dead handsome face to match his charm, his smile and his voice. Which meant he was far, far out of her league.

Too bad. She sighed, not really disappointed. She had resigned herself to her unmarried status. She trusted God’s plan for her life. Maybe she wouldn’t always be single. Maybe He was simply making her wait for the very best man.

The thing was, she was getting extremely good at waiting.

“Rachel, can I ask you something?” There was a slight hesitation in his attractive baritone, as if something was wrong.

He’s canceling. That’s why he was calling at the last minute—not that she blamed him. From his perspective, he was probably imagining that being with his best buddy’s over-thirty-year-old spinster sister wasn’t the most fun way to spend an evening. As her slippers scuffled along the kitchen floor, she supposed he was right.

It was just as well because the roast she’d planned to rotisserie was missing in action. “I know Ben probably felt he needed someone to meet you, since you came all this way and he ran off to spend a romantic evening with his bride-to-be. But eating supper here probably wasn’t your first choice. I understand if you’d like to cancel.”

“Backing out isn’t in my nature. The trouble is, I can’t get to your house.”

“Oh, you’re lost.”

“That’s not my problem. I found my way here from the airport just fine. But getting to your house is harder than you’d think. I’m parked down the way in your driveway.”

“You’re here?” No way—she hadn’t heard anyone come up. Then again, hadn’t she just been in the basement nearly upside down in the freezer?

“How long have you been sitting out there without me knowing it?” Rachel headed straight to the sink and yanked the curtain out of the way. She squinted through the long rays of sunlight. The parking area and the gravel lane leading up to it were empty.

“I’m not exactly at the house yet. Look down the road and you’ll see my problem.”

A break-down? A flat tire, what? She scanned the length of the newly graveled driveway, past the lawn’s reach to the point where the tidy white board fencing paralleled the road.

There he was. At least she figured it was him behind the wheel of a bright red SUV. She could barely make out an impression of a tall, dark-haired, wide-shouldered man behind the wheel, but with the glare on the windshield it could have been her imagination filling in the details.

So, why was he just parked in the middle of the road for no reason?

Then she saw the giant ungainly brown creature leap into the middle of the road, between the vehicle and the house. The bull moose lowered his massive four-point antlers, and he meant business. He bellowed an ugly, flat-noted call before he pawed the ground with his impressive front hooves.

Moose attack! Rachel dropped the phone and flew out the back door. She grabbed the first thing she passed by and ran full-out down the path, swinging what turned out to be the old kitchen broom.

“Get! Go on!” she waved the yellow bristles in the direction of the stubborn moose.

The creature didn’t even bother to turn around. He kept his hind end to her, as if he already knew there was no way she was a threat.

Well, as if she’d let her brother’s best friend and rescuer be bullied by a stubborn old moose! “You can’t bully anyone you want. Get out of the road.”

Nothing. The moose had dismissed her entirely. Instead, his unblinking gaze remained on the shiny red vehicle that gleamed in the autumn sun. The animal swung his head as if in a challenge and pawed.

Disaster. All Rachel could see was the animal attacking that brand-new vehicle. That wasn’t going to happen on her watch. She swung the broom closer to his hind end. “Hey!”

The moose didn’t acknowledge her in any way. What he ought to be doing was bolting in fear of a human being with a weapon. Okay, it was a broom, but he was a wild animal. Weren’t they afraid of people? “Go! Shoo!”

Nothing. How was she going to help Jake now?

The driver’s-side window rasped down. That deliciously low male voice called out, “Need any help?”

“Oh, no. I can handle it.”

“I see. You’re doing an excellent job.”

Was he mocking her? The moose shook his head menacingly, and bowed low, as if preparing to charge.

Okay, this wasn’t going well. It would be a shame for the moose to bash up that new vehicle with his antlers, plus scare the city boy half to death. Lord, a little help would be appreciated.

The door of the Jeep whipped open and a lean hulk of a man dropped to the ground as if he’d fast-roped from a Black Hawk helicopter. “Shouldn’t your pet be in the pasture or something?”

“Oh, he’s not a pet. Are you kidding? Who keeps a moose for a pet? He’s a wild animal.”

And that’s why he’s not charging you? Jake didn’t have a whole lot of experience with moose, but he did know they were dangerous. “Why don’t you back off nice and slow?” He caught up a good-sized rock in his hand.

“You’re going to hit him with a rock?” the woman with the broom huffed.

“Only to scare him off. Not hurt him.” What kind of man did she take him for?

Jake didn’t have time to find out because the moose charged. He was a huge creature. Bigger than the Jeep, the moose gained some serious speed with his awkward-looking legs. He could cause real damage if he hit the vehicle…and he’d probably scare little Sally.

Doing what it took to defend his small niece, Jake lobbed the grenade-sized rock. The hunk of granite bounced off the swoop of the moose’s right antler, low enough to give him a slight bonk, but not enough to seriously hurt him. Was it enough to stop the beast?

The great animal shook his head, looking a little cross-eyed. That had to hurt.

For good measure, Jake chose a second rock, peering around the door frame to see if the animal was going to run off, regroup for a second attack or, more possibly, turn around and take his anger out on the woman with the pink furry slippers.

Ben’s unmarried sister. Part of him couldn’t help thinking, no wonder. But that wasn’t fair, because she’d obviously not been expecting him so soon. Had she been lounging after a hard workday, maybe? She wore a big shapeless T-shirt with the faded logo of a local college and baggy shorts.

It was hard to get much of a good impression. Especially with her thick chestnut hair sticking in awkward directions and some of it nearly straight up. She wielded the old broom like a martial arts expert.

One thing he had to say about her was that she was no shrinking violet. She boldly marched toward the angry moose and swatted him on the flank with the bristle end of her broom. “Shoo! Go on! You stop being demanding and greedy. I’ll feed you when it’s time and not a moment sooner.”

This animal wasn’t a pet? Jake watched as the moose shook his head again, no longer threatening. The poor guy looked contrite before he ambled off in the direction of the lawn, as if he were going to wait there for his feed.

Thank the Lord no one was hurt—including the moose. Jake straightened, dropped the rock and considered his unlikely rescuer. Rachel was not what he expected. Ben talked about his sisters a lot, and it had been clear that he was closest to Rachel.

She looked like her picture. Ben had had family pictures in his dorm during their training years and later in his duplex in the years that followed. All of Ben’s sisters were pretty. Rachel’s picture had always given him the impression of a demure and introverted young woman, an innocent and a wallflower. Not someone who bossed moose around or had a sparkle to her soul that made him keep looking.

“Uncle Jake?” a small, candy-sweet voice asked from the back seat of the Jeep. “I wanna pet the deer.”

“It’s a moose, Sally baby,” he answered without taking his gaze off of Rachel McKaslin as she held her broom like an M-4. “It’s a wild animal. We’d be smart to stay back and give it room.”

“Oh. All right.” Her sigh was a wistful sound of disappointment.

He’d been hearing that sound a lot over the past few days since he’d come to take charge of Sally. He’d been pulled off active duty in Iraq, and he was still in shock.

One day he’d been rescuing a pair of captured marines and the next day he’d been on a cargo plane to the States with the news his sister had been in an accident, had died and been buried. And he was not only the executor of her estate, but the sole remaining family that his little niece had.

The trouble was, he’d been stateside four days, and it hadn’t been time enough to settle his sister’s estate, and already his colonel wanted to know when he could get back to active duty.

And Sally…how did he comfort a grieving child? He was a rough-and-tumble Special Forces soldier. As a para-rescue jumper, or PJ, he knew how to jump out of an airplane from twenty-five thousand feet, parachute in and set up a perimeter, execute a mission without a single mishap.

He had Sally, but what was he going to do? It had him stumped.

As if he didn’t have enough on his mind, the moose was still glaring angrily at the Jeep from his field. Maybe it was the color that was making him so angry. While the animal had backed away, he hadn’t backed down. He still swung his head from side to side and pawed the ground. The Jeep was definitely in danger.

But was Rachel?

“You stay belted in, Sally.” He shut the door, leaving her safe and considered Rachel McKaslin, his best buddy’s little sister. She was out in the open and unconcerned. Did she know the threat? He stalked the good five yards separating them, keeping a close watch on that moose.

Rachel lowered her broom. “I’m sorry. I should have anticipated this. Bullwinkle does this every evening.”

“Bullwinkle?”

“It’s just what I call him. I should have fed him and the horse earlier, and you wouldn’t have been so rudely welcomed.”

“I thought you said he wasn’t your pet.”

“Not a pet, no, more like a sometimes friendly, sometimes not, wild animal who’s decided to take up residence around here and chase the horses away from his grain trough. He’s a pushy moose.”

“Pushy, huh?” Jake paced closer to protect Rachel, watching as the moose lowered his head and started to charge. Great. On a mission, Jake was prepared for every contingency. He just hadn’t thought he’d have to be on alert on a simple trip down a gravel driveway. “Want to give me that broom? It looks like he’s coming in for round two.”

“I can take care of him.”

Jake’s hand shot out and he had the broom before she could blink.

“Hey! You took my broom.”

“I did.”

“But it’s my moose. I can handle him.”

“I’m trained to serve and protect, so I might as well make myself useful.” The handle was solid hardwood. He’d excelled at hand-to-hand combat. “Rachel, stay behind me.”

“You’re a little bossy, too. It’s a moose, not war.”

“Everything’s war, pretty lady.” He timed the moose’s gait, waited until the huge ungainly creature was coming head-on and then shot out and rapped him on the nose.

Big nostrils flared, the moose skidded to a stop and shook his head.

“That smarted, didn’t it?” Jake kept the broom at the ready. “Do you need another smack?”

The moose’s eyes rolled in anger.

Uh-oh. “Maybe that wasn’t the best course of action. It works with sharks who get a little too aggressive.”

“Smacking them in the nose?”

“Yep. It works every time.”

“He’s pushy, but mostly harmless. All I need to do is get him some grain. Wait here. With you at my back to cover me with a broom, I feel perfectly safe.” She sauntered away, as if without a care in the world.

He was a soldier with fifteen years of experience spent in parts of this world few Americans saw. He’d seen evil, touched evil and battled it. Real evil. And he had the scars to prove it. Even remembering made his heart ache.

He was glad that Rachel McKaslin’s biggest problem at the moment was her semi-pet moose. There was peace and goodness in this world. It didn’t hurt that he got to see a rare glimpse of it before he headed back to guard this country’s freedom.

It didn’t hurt to see what he was fighting for.

Chapter Two

Could she see Jake from here? Rachel absently unsnapped the grain barrel’s lid and stood on tiptoe. Her attention was elsewhere, straining to see across the aisle, through Nugget’s box stall and past the open top of the half door.

Nope. No such luck. She saw plenty of sky and maple trees and the lawn in front of the house. But no Jake.

Pity, since he was such a sight. She had the right to look because he hadn’t been wearing a wedding ring. He was pleasing to the eye, pleasing in the way God intended a man to be. But there was more to him, and that was the attractive part—Mr. Jake Hathaway, Special Forces hero, defending and protecting.

He sure had seemed to be in control. He had to be to participate in all kinds of secret missions in the military. Handling a moose was no challenge for him. He’d tossed that rock as easily as if he’d been skimming stones on a pond and expertly enough so that he’d winged the animal on his antler and hadn’t caused any real harm.

And just what did he think of her? Please, don’t let him think I’m a nut bar. She rolled her eyes as she removed the lid and reached for the scoop. She was still wearing her fuzzy bunny slippers!

She hadn’t had a chance to run a brush through her hair or change out of her comfy after-work clothes. So she wasn’t exactly looking her best; she was more like looking her worst.

Great way to make a first impression.

This was the reason she didn’t have a boyfriend. She kept scaring them off. That was why she made sure, when she prayed for the right man to come along, that he have a sense of humor.

He would definitely need it.

She grabbed a pail from the shelf, dumped in three scoops of sweet-smelling grain and sealed the bin. Nugget was leaning over the side doorway, nickering in hopes of an early supper, poor guy. After leaving him with promises of grain to come, she hurried with the small bucket down the aisle and crawled through the paddock fence that faced the driveway.

Jake was still wielding the broom defensively, but the moose was a little farther off with his head down and snorting. Obviously there had been some action while she’d been in the barn. Before the big creature could charge again, she held the pail high and shook it.

The resulting ring of grain striking the side of the bucket brought the moose’s head up. He studied the bright red Jeep gleaming like a big bull’s-eye, and then turned to look at the bucket she held. To help him along with his decision to choose the grain over the vehicle, she shook the pail harder and hurried toward him.

“Give that to me and stay back.” Jake seemed to take his self-assigned role of defender seriously.

Maybe it was because he thought a woman wearing big long-eared slippers might not be tough. Well, she wasn’t afraid of a wild moose. She ignored Jake’s advice, she was sure it was well meaning, but really, it wasn’t as if she hadn’t dealt with this situation before. She marched across the road and upended the bucket on the ground. The grain pellets tumbled and rushed into a molasses-scented pile in a bed of wild grasses, and the moose came running.

With her empty bucket banging against her knee, she hurried back onto the graveled lane as the moose attacked the pile as if he hadn’t eaten in five weeks.

“A little theatrical for a moose, but he’s mostly harmless,” she told Jake, who’d rushed to her side looking pretty angry. “He didn’t take a liking to your Jeep, though. I’d move it into the garage if I were you, while he’s distracted.”

“I can’t believe you did that.” He stood between her and the moose. “You could have been killed. More people are killed every year in the Iditarod by moose than by all other predators combined, including wolves and mountain lions. You might treat him like a pet, but he’s still dangerous and unpredictable.”