me, but for Jamie.”
“I think your brother’s hands are full enough with Henry, Jared and Katie,” she said.
“I don’t mean for him to have more babies,” Bella said. “Although there was a definite rise in pregnancies for wedding guests who drank the spiked punch, there was also a noticeable increase in the number of couples falling in love,” she pointed out. “That’s what I want for Jamie—for him to fall in love, and for real this time.”
Fallon didn’t say anything. She wasn’t going to ask, but her curiosity must have shown on her face because Bella’s lips curved into a slow smile.
“Apparently Jamie doesn’t tell you everything,” his sister mused.
“Maybe that’s because he wants to keep his private life private,” she suggested. Because she knew that Jamie and Paula’s marriage hadn’t been without its share of problems, but she also knew that Jamie had loved his wife.
Bella waved a hand dismissively. “If I’ve learned nothing else this past year, I’ve learned that keeping secrets doesn’t help anyone. My brother needs a wife, his babies need a mother and most of the women in town are keeping a respectable distance because they think he’s still mourning Paula.
“I’m not saying he didn’t care for her,” his sister hastened to explain. “He wouldn’t have married her if he didn’t believe he was in love with her. But even I could see that they were ill-suited. Paula might have wanted Jamie, but she never really wanted to live in Rust Creek Falls and...” she paused now, as if reluctant to say aloud what she was thinking “...I don’t believe she ever wanted those beautiful babies.
“Of course, by the time my brother realized the truth about who she was and what she wanted, they were already married. And Jamie being Jamie, he was determined to make it work.”
“She would have loved Henry, Jared and Katie,” Fallon said. “If she’d been given a chance to be a mother to them, she would have loved them.” Unfortunately, complications resulting from her pregnancy had taken that chance along with her life.
“You always did have a huge and forgiving heart,” Bella told her. “And that’s what I want for my brother—for him to find someone like you who will help him open his heart again.”
She felt her own heart beat faster as she wondered if her friend had somehow guessed the truth of her feelings for Jamie.
But Bella continued, oblivious to Fallon’s inner thoughts and deepest emotions. “Someone down to earth, preferably a Rust Creek Falls resident who understands life on a ranch and might be willing to become an instant mother to these precious babies.” She grabbed a tissue from the box on the table to wipe the drool off Henry’s chin. “Can you think of anyone who might fit the criteria?”
Me! Me! Fallon wanted to respond, while jumping up and down with her hand in the air like an eager second grader.
“I’m sure there are more than a few suitable candidates,” she said instead, and hoped her friend didn’t guess that her lack of enthusiasm was based on a reluctance to watch Jamie hook up with anyone else.
It had been difficult enough for her to see him with Paula, but she’d tried to be happy for him because she knew he was in love with his wife. She’d been sincerely pleased when he told her about his wife’s pregnancy, because she knew how much he wanted to be a father, to have a family of his own. Her heart had ached, but she’d put a smile on her face because she loved him so much she valued his happiness above even her own.
But now, she wasn’t sure she could go through that again. She didn’t want to sit back and be a spectator while the man she loved fell in love with another woman.
“Has he indicated any interest in meeting someone new?” she asked cautiously.
“No,” Bella admitted. “But why wouldn’t he be content with the status quo when he’s got someone here taking care of his babies every day and often putting a meal on the table? The only thing he’s not getting is sex.”
Fallon felt her cheeks flush. “How do you know he’s not having sex?”
“Because he’s too exhausted to ever leave the ranch and find a willing woman,” his sister said matter-of-factly.
Which didn’t preclude him finding a willing woman on the ranch, and that wasn’t completely outside the realm of possibility considering that several of the baby chain volunteers were single women. On the other hand, it wasn’t very likely with Jamie’s sister living under the same roof.
“So what do you think?” Bella prompted. “Can you help me come up with some prospects for him?”
“Sure,” Fallon agreed, because apparently she was enough of a masochist to play matchmaker for the man she’d been crushing on for more than a decade. Or maybe she was finally ready to face the truth and acknowledge that, if Jamie was ever going to show any interest in her, he would have done so years earlier. But aside from one single, solitary kiss the summer between his first and second years of college, their relationship had never been anything but platonic.
Henry crawled into Fallon’s lap, stuffed his thumb in his mouth and dropped his head against her breast. “I think someone’s trying to tell me that he’s tired.”
“Already?” Bella glanced at her watch. “I guess we’ve been gabbing longer than I realized.”
Fallon nodded toward Jared, who had fallen asleep with his cheek on the carpet and a car in his hand. Only Katie was still upright, although Fallon could tell by the little girl’s flagging movements that she wouldn’t object to being put down for a nap.
Bella helped her get the babies changed and settled into their individual cribs before she headed off to work with a reminder to Fallon about their upcoming trip to the bridal salon.
She was genuinely happy for her best friend, and maybe feeling just a little sorry for herself, because she had no imminent plans for a wedding or a family of her own. But she would put a smile on her face, stand up beside the bride, continue to lavish Henry, Jared and Katie with attention and affection and, most important, pretend that she wasn’t seriously infatuated with their father.
* * *
Jamie had more than enough work to keep him busy throughout the morning and most of the afternoon. After he checked on the mare and fed the heifers, he worked on fixing the fence on the north border that was in desperate need of repair. Though he couldn’t say for certain, the look of the damage—combined with some talk he’d heard in town about Craig Garrison needing parts to fix his ATV—suggested to Jamie that his neighbor’s idiot son had run into the fence while he was out joyriding, probably in the middle of the snowstorm a couple of weeks earlier.
He immediately felt guilty for the thought. Craig wasn’t really an idiot; he was just a teenager. The spoiled youngest son of a successful rancher who didn’t care that Jamie was struggling to keep on top of countless daily tasks without additional fence repairs added to the mix.
He’d bought the Circle K ranch from the bank when Dierk and Gretchen Krueger opted to walk away after the floods decimated their land three years earlier. They’d worked the ranch for almost forty years with the intention of passing it on to their own children someday. But none of their children was interested in the property—especially not after the floods—so they’d opted to sell and move
