Forever And A Day (Montana Brides, Book #7) Read online

  “Sounds like a good idea. Do you want me to tell Sarah the plans for our guests have changed?”

  “I’ll tell her after I’ve seen the Buchanans.”

  Pete jammed his hat on his head. “I’ll make sure the horses are okay. If I hear anything, I’ll give you a call.”

  Jordan nodded and followed Pete out the door. You were more likely to be stomped on by your horse than attacked by wolves, but he wasn’t taking any chances. Not with two kids on the ranch and a temporary housekeeper who hadn’t been on a horse in years.

  When he walked into the converted barn, Sarah was busy getting lunch ready. Abby and Jennifer were curled up on the sofa with a stack of books and his sister-in-law’s cat between them.

  “Is Peaches all right over here?”

  Sarah looked up from the kitchen counter. “She’s fine. The girls don’t have any pets at home so it’s a treat having a cat to cuddle.”

  Jordan frowned at the orange fluffball. “If she gets annoying just tell her to scoot.”

  Sarah nodded toward the sofa. “I don’t think Peaches will annoy Abby and Jennifer. The cat and the girls have been inseparable since they arrived. Do you want some lunch?”

  Jordan looked at the sandwiches Sarah was making. If the food on the counter was anything to go by the sandwiches would taste great. “I’ll get something to eat once I’ve spoken with the Buchanans. There’s been a wolf attack on the neighbor’s ranch.”

  “Was anyone hurt?”

  Jordan shook his head. “Not that we know of, but three heifers were killed. Steve’s called the Forest Service to verify the attack.”

  Sarah’s face had turned white. “Will the wolves come down here?”

  “No. They prefer the mountains. I want to change the Buchanans’ schedule so they keep away from our trails for a couple of days. Do you know where Pat and Alice are?”

  “They should be here soon. They went upstairs to freshen up.” Sarah wiped her hands on a dish towel and opened her laptop. “What changes do I need to make?”

  Jordan moved around the counter and stared at the fancy spreadsheet she’d opened. Color coded rows stared back at him. “You did all of this from the information I gave you?”

  “Most of it. Pete gave me a list of the activities the Buchanans have booked in for. After you’ve spoken to them, I’ll make the changes. I’ve set it up as a template so you can use the same format for all of your guests, if you want to.”

  “How did you learn to do all of this stuff? I wouldn’t have thought spreadsheets would be useful for housekeepers.”

  “Spreadsheets work well in a lot of applications. It’s a way of…what?”

  “Applications? You sound like you know your way around computers?”

  Sarah went back to fiddling with the food in front of her.

  “Where did you learn to create spreadsheets like this?”

  “I haven’t always been a housekeeper,” she muttered. “I used to be a computer programmer.”

  “You did?” She was the complete opposite of any computer geek he’d ever met. Not that he’d seen many. And they sure as heck didn’t have long blonde hair past their shoulders and legs that reached into forever.

  The timer on the oven beeped and Sarah reached for the pot mitt. The smell of cinnamon wafted past his nose and made him remember how long it had been since he’d last eaten.

  She lifted the muffins onto a cooling rack and rinsed the tray. “Don’t touch. You can have some once you’ve had lunch.”

  Jordan frowned. She must have eyes in the back of her head to have seen his hand reaching out. “I’m the boss.”

  “And I’m the housekeeper,” she said with a sweet smile. The one that made him forget what he was going to say next.

  He cleared his throat, then looked back at her laptop. “So you worked with computers? Why did you change jobs?”

  “The business closed down.” She took a plate of sandwiches across to the table, then returned for some napkins. She glanced at him from beneath her lashes, blushing when he raised his eyebrows.

  Jordan felt a smile work its way across his face. “You wouldn’t make a good poker player, Legs. What is it you’re not telling me?”

  She pursed her lips and did the little frown thing that wrinkled her nose. “I owned the business.”

  He took a moment to consider what she’d said. “Closing everything down must have been a hard decision to make.”

  “It would have been harder staying open.” She glanced up as Pat and Alice Buchanan walked into the kitchen. “Are you ready for lunch?”

  “More than ready,” Pat said. “We’ve put spare clothes in our backpacks and left them beside the front door. The rafting company said we might need them.” He looked across at Jordan and smiled. “Thanks for taking us out on the trail today. We can’t wait to see more of the ranch.”

  “That’s what I’ve come to see you about,” Jordan said. “There’s been a wolf attack on a neighbor’s ranch. They’re not common and no one’s been hurt, but I’d sooner keep you off the trails for another day or two. How do you feel about going to Old Faithful and the geyser tour tomorrow instead of Friday?”

  Pat looked at his wife and she nodded. “Sure. If it stops us getting tangled up with the wolves we’ll do anything. Will the mountains be safe after tomorrow?”

  “We’ll know more about what’s going on by Friday. There hasn’t been a wolf attack for a couple of years, so we’re not in any danger. I just want to make sure we minimize the risks.”

  “As someone on the receiving end of those risks I couldn’t agree more.” Pat glanced at his daughters. “We’re all good riders so if there’s any trouble we’ll be able to get away in a hurry.”

  “I don’t expect any trouble, but it’s good to know.” Jordan picked up a platter of fresh fruit and took it across to the dining table. “Enjoy your lunch. I’ll give the tour company a call and see if we can change your booking.” Sarah followed him with a big plate of sandwiches. “What time are you heading across to Alex’s place, Sarah?”

  “Two o’clock. I’ll give you my email address so you can let me know what’s happening.”

  Jordan wasn’t letting her off the hook that easily. He wanted to know why she’d closed her company. From what he knew of her she wasn’t a quitter. She didn’t do spontaneous, so the decision to close wouldn’t have been made lightly.

  He picked up his hat and watched Sarah fill another plate with food. “I’ll be back before you leave.”

  She went to say something, then thought better of it. He didn’t stay to see if she changed her mind. He might not know much about computers, but he did know about women. And this woman wasn’t happy.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Sarah put the last plate in the dishwasher and turned it on. She went through the list of things she still had to do before she left for Alex’s ranch. Top of the list was emptying the dirty laundry bags in the Buchanans’ bathrooms.

  Alex was happy for her to take the dirty laundry to his ranch to wash if it made her life easier, and for that she was incredibly thankful. Having fresh towels and linen each day could make a difference to what Jordan’s guests thought of their vacation.

  She wanted the Buchanans to have a great vacation, to tell their friends about it. She knew better than most that word of mouth referrals were one of the best ways to sell your business. Just like bad reviews could make it crumble.

  Before she’d walked halfway across the kitchen, her cell phone blasted out the opening tune of Star Trek. She pulled the phone out of her back pocket and stared at the number.

  “Hi, dad. What’s wrong?”

  There was a pause, a moment when Sarah imagined something had happened to her mom.

  “Nothing’s wrong. Nothing that we haven’t talked about before, anyway.”

  Sarah relaxed slightly, but only enough to cross her mom off of her potential problem list. She had a feeling she knew where this conversation was heading. The same way any conversati
on in the last twelve months had headed.

  She gripped the phone tighter, prepared herself for what would come next. “I’m not coming home.”

  Sarah heard her dad take a deep breath. Around about now he usually reminded her about taking responsibility for her life. He’d mentioned the thousands of dollars it had cost them to send her to MIT, the postgraduate computer engineering degree that was wasted on a ranch. He didn’t consider cooking strangers’ meals and changing their linen a responsible way for his daughter to act. All he wanted was for her to be happy. To be as successful as he was.

  “Your mom showed me your email.”

  Sarah could hear the disappointment in his voice. James Bennett, her one-time, low life, ex-fiancé, had tried to launch a software program that would change the way data was retrieved from databases around the world. It had the power to revolutionize the way people purchased goods online. It could make him a millionaire many times over.

  No one would ever know that Sarah had spent two years working on the preliminary designs, building the theoretical models that eventually formed the structure of the retrieval process. James had been the mouthpiece of her company, the public relations superstar that would launch them into the stratosphere.

  She’d fallen in love with him, trusted him to do what was right. But he hadn’t filed the copyright information as she’d asked and she’d been too busy to check. James had walked away with her software designs, a list of international corporations that were lining up to purchase the software, and her heart.

  Not that she paid much attention to her heart nowadays. It was her pride that was taking precedence. A year ago she’d started court proceedings that would sue the pants off him. She wanted the ownership of her software back and James in prison.

  A few days ago her lawyer had told her that the findings of the Court were nearly complete. He expected an answer within the next couple of weeks.

  “I haven’t heard anything more from my lawyer, dad.”

  “I’m not calling about the lawyer.” Her dad sounded preoccupied, as if there was something other than his disappointing daughter on his mind. “Your mom and I are planning a skiing vacation in December. We thought we’d head across to Montana and stay in the Big Sky Resort for a couple of weeks. We could combine it with Christmas.”

  Sarah nearly dropped the phone. Her parents hadn’t been on a long vacation together for years. When they did manage to get away, they hardly ever spent more than four days in the same place. Between her dad’s work and her mom’s social engagements, life was too hectic for long periods away from home.

  “You’re coming here? To Montana?”

  “Don’t sound so shocked. Your mom and I aren’t getting any younger. We want to spend some time with you. I wasn’t sure whether you’d still be in Montana by Christmas.”

  Sarah didn’t know whether her dad was genuinely interested in where she’d be living or hinting that it was time she came home. “I’ll be here, dad.”

  “Good. That’s good. I’ll book our flight for December twentieth. That will give us a few days to unwind before Christmas day.”

  Her dad? Unwind? Something strange was going on. “Is everything okay? You sound a bit…” She didn’t want to say weird, because her dad was never weird. Opinionated, stubborn, and sometimes unreasonable, but never weird. “…not yourself.”

  “I’m fine. Everything’s fine. How’s the housekeeping going?”

  He never asked how her job was going. It had led to so many arguments that they’d decided it wasn’t worth bringing up. “Are you sure everything is all right?”

  “Would you stop asking me that? I’m fine. Hang on a minute, I’ve got another call coming through…”

  Sarah listened to the music drifting down the phone. Nothing pop, rock, or country for her dad. Violins wafted through Pachelbel’s Canon in D. She’d always thought it was odd that her dad had chosen music that most people used at weddings for his ‘on hold’ tune.

  “Are you there, Sarah?”

  “I’m here, dad.”

  “I have to go. There’s an emergency at the hospital. I’ll get your mom to send you the details once everything is confirmed.”

  “That’d be great.”

  “Take care of yourself, honey. Don’t go falling for a cowboy.”

  “There’s not much hope of that. I’ve sworn off men for life.”

  “Don’t go judging everyone by James’ standards. He was an idiot. Look for someone like me and you won’t go wrong.”

  Sarah nearly choked. Her dad had made a joke. At least she hoped it was a joke.

  “I take it your silence means you’re thinking about it,” he said dryly. “I’ve got to go.”

  “Bye, dad.” He’d hung up. He’d be back on the phone to the hospital, making sure he knew exactly what was happening. He cared about his patients, sometimes more than his family. Sarah and her mom would always be there for him. If he wasn’t there for his patients, they’d die. Those kind of odds tipped the scales in his patient’s favor every time.

  She stared at the phone for a few more minutes, thought about what he’d said. She still couldn’t believe her mom and dad planned on coming to Montana for Christmas. She didn’t want to get her hopes up. They could cancel at the last minute, reshuffle her around her dad’s patients. It wasn’t worth getting excited or worried about because it might not happen.

  But she couldn’t help feeling a little excited. Maybe even nervous. Her parents hadn’t visited her in Montana, didn’t know how important her time away from Portland had been. This would be her chance to show them how beautiful Bozeman was, how much the friendships she’d made meant to her.

  “Am I interrupting something?”

  Sarah dropped her phone. It skittered across the wooden floor, stopping in front of Jordan’s feet. “You’re going to give me a heart attack.”

  He picked up her phone and shook it. “I don’t know about your heart, but the phone doesn’t sound broken.”

  “It’s not meant to sound broken,” Sarah muttered. She took the phone out of his outstretched hand and unlocked the keypad. She opened a couple of apps and breathed a sigh of relief. “It’s still working.”

  “Did the Buchanans get away on time?”

  Sarah nodded. “The shuttle picked them up about fifteen minutes ago. I’m about to change their towels and then I’m heading across to Alex’s ranch.”

  “Do you need a hand?”

  Sarah stared at Jordan. He looked as though he meant it, but then he always looked like that. Nothing was ever too much trouble or took too much time. Before she’d moved to Montana, she would have found those traits endearing. Not anymore.

  “No, I’m fine. Have you heard anything more about the wolf attack?”

  “Not since Steve called.” He stuck his hands in his pockets and watched her take a clean linen bag out of a drawer. He cleared his throat, looking about as comfortable as a mechanic walking into a librarians’ meeting. “Why did you close your business?”

  Sarah slid her phone into her back pocket and started walking toward the stairs. Jordan followed. She didn’t know what to say to him, what difference it would make to anything.

  She shrugged her shoulders, tried to make out that it hadn’t been important. “One of my employees took some software I’d designed. He tried to sell it to our clients as if it was his. I found out about it before the sale went through.”

  “And you closed the whole business because of that?”

  “There were only two of us plus a part-time admin person. I needed to reassess what I was going to do next. I couldn’t concentrate on the business until I’d worked a few things out.” Like lawyers, copyright regulations, and a broken heart.

  She’d spent most of the month after James left putting together a folder of emails, production sheets, and programming data. Her lawyer had used the information to prove she was the one who had designed the software and not James.

  “Has everything worked out the
way you wanted it to?”

  “I’ll tell you in a couple of weeks. The judge should have made their ruling about who owns the software by then.”

  Jordan disappeared into Abby and Jennifer’s room and came out holding a couple of towels. “What are you going to do once you have an answer?”

  “I haven’t thought that far ahead.”

  He raised his eyebrows at her downright untruthful answer. Sarah knew exactly what she was going to do. She’d already contacted Noelle, the young woman who’d worked in their office. The clients that James had been speaking to were still interested in buying her program. One of them wanted an exclusive deal. It would earn her millions of dollars and James Bennett wouldn’t see a single cent.

  Jordan put the wet towels in the laundry bag. “While you’re thinking about what you’re going to do, you should consider staying in Bozeman. It’s as good a place as any to restart a business.”

  “I’m not sure where I’m going to live. Mom and dad want me to go back to Portland.”

  Jordan gave her a sharp look. “Will you?”

  “I don’t know, I like it here. I’ve met some great people and Emily, Sally, and Tess are good friends.”

  “You must miss your friends in Portland.” Jordan said it as if having friends was a given. That there’d be people back home she wanted to see.

  “I didn’t have much time for friends. I worked long days, most weekends, too. It wasn’t easy keeping in touch with people.” She didn’t bother to add that James had been the center of her world. She hadn’t thought she needed anyone apart from him, but she’d been wrong.

  If she’d had a few close friends, she might have realized what he was up to. Who he was meeting when she was bent over her desk, working on her computer.

  “If you need anyone to talk to…you know, like brainstorm, I could help. I’m good at seeing possibilities.”