how she felt. But he didn’t. His father was Max Malone—rich surgeon and successful rancher. And one hell of a nice guy. So how would Shane, or any of them, know how she felt? How could they possibly understand?
Only her mother had. Now she was gone.
The intervening months since Mom’s fatal heart attack had dulled the shock and pain, but as the holidays drew nearer, the emptiness had returned.
The sad memory of her mother brought her full circle. This was why she’d come back to Montana. If she’d stayed home, it would have been her first Christmas alone. Always there had been Mom, and for a dozen holidays—all but the last one—there had been Savannah, too, sharing their cozy suburban Detroit apartment Jenny knew Savannah’s marriage to Shane’s brother was what her best friend had always wanted, yet the fact that she would never again live in Michigan had left a bigger hole in Jenny’s life than even she had expected.
“It’s slow going tonight. If you want to lay back and sleep, I’ll wake you when we get there.”
She glanced at him through a sheen of moisture and blinked hard. “Good idea,” she said, ready for any distraction.
She found the handle, gave it a tug and reclined the bucket seat, then breathed deeply through her nose. He smelled of soap and aftershave...and something far more dangerous. She turned her face to the window, closed her eyes and tried to nap, but the scent of him, his mere nearness, made sleep impossible.
Maybe coming here had been a mistake—especially this time of year, when emotions ran deep and a sense of hope and love abounded. Normally she would view the season through the eyes of an amused cynic, but that uncanny sixth sense of hers said this year might be different. She folded her arms and shivered. If that were the case, how would she keep her distance from this man beside her? Worse yet, did she even want to?
He was acting like a son of a bitch and he knew it. What was it about this woman that got under his skin so? He wanted to think it was her attitude about her roots, but he knew it was something more.
He glanced over at her thigh-hugging jeans and gritted his teeth. The physical reaction he’d had the last time he’d seen her was back with a vengeance. He forced his gaze to the snow-slick highway, trying his damnedest to forget the memories they’d made together...horseback rides over foothills, the cattle drive just before she’d left when he’d spent three long nights watching the campfire reflected in her dark brown eyes, listening to the soft sounds of her sleep as she snuggled in her bedroll, her husky morning voice as she joked with the cowboys over breakfast....
But the images wouldn’t go away.
This is stupid, guy. He tightened his grip on the wheel. She’ll leave again as she did before. It would be foolhardy to get involved. He’d allowed himself to care a little the last time and look where that had left him.
Frustrated and alone.
He blew out a pent-up breath. Somehow, someway, he would keep his distance. Besides, he had to remember how she felt about Buck. He had hoped she might have mellowed with time, softened her inflexible attitude about a people he loved and respected. Obviously, he’d been wrong. She sounded as angry as the day she’d left. Exactly why was that?
He looked down at her one more time, then drove on.
Why did she hate an entire race? In a flash he imagined the two of them sitting in front of a decorated tree, her secrets tumbling out as he held her....
No! Not a good idea. He sat taller in his seat. An intimate conversation with Jenny Moon was the last thing he needed.
But with each passing mile, her rosy perfume wrapped around him, tugging at his resolve, reminding him of other needs—need for a family as his younger brother Ryder had found with Savannah and Billy, need of a good woman to share his hopes and dreams, a woman to hold under the mistletoe and kiss for more reasons than tradition.
He passed another ranch with Christmas lights strung around the windows and something tugged at his heartstrings. Maybe it was the hohdays that had turned his mind to mush. Whatever it was, for the first time in thirty-three years, none of it—not Buck, his brothers, Dad, the miles of Malone ranch, the horses—none of it seemed enough.
He could lie to himself all he wanted, but his gut told him something fundamental was missing. And his gut was never wrong.
A gust of wind blew a sheet of snow over the windows and Shane pumped gently on the brakes. “Better sit up and tighten your seat belt.”
Jenny jerked into action next to him as he flicked on the windshield wipers, hoping to find the highway in front of him, but another gust of white blanketed the front end of the Explorer. He pumped harder on the pedal, feeling gravel instead of highway beneath them. They were nearly stopped when he felt the downward slide followed by a solid thunk as the front end burrowed into the embankment. He lunged against his seat belt and saw Jenny do the same. “Are you okay?”
She stared at him with those big brown doe eyes and his heart raced.
“Is it your neck? Your chest?” He unbuckled himself and faced her.
She raised her chin and looked him in the eye. “Was this your first time driving on this stuff or were you just trying to scare the hell out of me?”
He let out a relieved breath and smiled. “Welcome back, Jenny Moon.”
“I’m glad you find this amusing, but how are we going to get out of here.”
He heard the fear in her voice. Without analyzing the wisdom of his actions, he reached over and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “Now don’t you worry your pretty little head over it. I’ve gotten myself out of far worse scrapes than this one and—”
She stiff-armed him and thrust him away. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“I was just trying to comfort you.” Anger danced from her slitted gaze and he couldn’t resist. “Or were you expecting something more?” He grabbed her wrist and saved his face the sting of her palm.
“Y-you arrogant, self-absorbed cowboy.”
He held up both hands and scooted back behind the wheel, his eyes never leaving hers. In spite of her bravado, he noticed she was shaking under her folded arms. “There’s a blanket in the back if you want it.” She didn’t budge so he reached behind him, grabbed it off the seat and deposited it between them. With one hand on the steering wheel, he felt under the seat and found the cellular phone.
“You sure you know how to use one of those things?”
He swallowed another smart-assed response and punched in the preprogrammed number for the ranch. It rang three times before Ryder answered.
“Sorry, bro. Did I wake you up?”
“Are you kidding? Savannah won’t go to bed till Jenny gets here. Are you close?”
“Not really. The roads are getting worse and... well...we’re in a ditch right now.”
“Give me some directions and—”
“Nan. I got a shovel and sand in the back. I can be out of here before you could find us. Just wanted to tell you it might be
