long after you left, they sent Dana and Liz away, too,” Bella told him.
Hudson slid an arm across her shoulders—a wordless gesture of support and comfort—while Luke just looked on helplessly.
“I’m so sorry,” he told her. “We—I—honestly thought it was the best decision at the time.”
“Well, you’re here now,” she said again, blinking away the tears that had filled her eyes. “And Dana’s been found, too—she lives with her adoptive family in Portland—so I’m confident that we’ll all be together again soon.”
Luke shifted his gaze to his brother-in-law. “Has your PI succeeded in tracking down everyone else?”
“Not yet,” Hudson admitted. “But he’s got some leads and I’m sure we’ll see results soon.” He glanced down as his cell phone buzzed. “Sorry—that’s a business call I need to take.”
“Of course,” Bella acknowledged, nudging Luke back toward the door, then closing it softly after she’d followed him out. “I need to get back to work, too,” she said apologetically.
Luke nodded. “Maybe we can catch up some more later.”
“We’ll definitely catch up later,” she immediately responded. “But now you’re probably exhausted after your long drive, so why don’t you go back to our house, put your feet up and relax? Even have a nap if you want.”
“A nap?” he echoed.
“Nap time isn’t just for preschoolers,” she assured him, pressing something into his palm.
He stared at the key, wondering how it was so easy for her to not only accept his sudden reappearance in her life but even open up her home to him after so much time had passed. “I don’t want to impose,” he told her.
“It’s not an imposition,” she insisted. “We’re happy to have you.”
He believed that she was happy, but he didn’t think her husband was overjoyed.
“You and Hudson are still newlyweds,” he protested. “I should get a room at the boarding house so you aren’t tripping over me.”
She laughed. “Obviously you haven’t yet seen the house. When you do, you’ll realize that there’s plenty of room and no reason to worry about anyone tripping over anyone else.”
Still, he wasn’t entirely comfortable with the idea of staying with the sister he’d had no contact with for more than a decade. Or maybe it was the prospect of staying in Rust Creek Falls at all that made him uneasy.
“Please,” she added, and with that single word, the last of his resistance melted away.
“Okay,” he relented. “I’ll stay for a couple of days.”
“That’s a good start,” she agreed.
Luke was smiling and shaking his head as he walked out of the day care and headed back to his truck. He’d forgotten how sneaky his sister could be—and how he’d never been able to refuse anything she asked. But he was grateful for her invitation and looking forward to the opportunity to catch up with her and Jamie and Danny.
He was also curious to check out Bella and Hudson’s house, but he wasn’t quite ready to put his feet up. What he was, his growling stomach pointed out, was hungry.
Earlier, his gut had been so twisted up in knots over the impending reunion with his sister that he hadn’t been able to eat anything. Now that the initial meeting was over, he realized he was famished.
He hadn’t forgotten about the Ace in the Hole—or the thick, juicy burgers that were served with a mountain of crispy fries. In fact, the memory alone was enough to make his mouth water and, when his stomach rumbled again, he steered his truck toward Sawmill Street.
But for reasons he couldn’t fathom, he abruptly turned off Sawmill onto North Broomtail and pulled up in front of Daisy’s Donut Shop again.
* * *
After graduating from high school, Eva had wanted to follow her passion and pursue a diploma in baking and pastry arts. But following her heart had led to heartache more times than she could count, so she’d listened to the urging of her parents and opted to study accounting instead. She’d just completed her first year when her father was diagnosed with lymphoma, so she’d returned to Rust Creek Falls to support her family and postponed the rest of her studies.
She’d been fortunate to get a job at Daisy’s Donut Shop. The part-time hours had allowed her to earn a little bit of income while also providing the flexibility she’d needed to take her father to his various doctors’ appointments and therapies. When Ray Armstrong had finished his treatments, she’d been able to increase her hours and now she was working full-time. Since the doctors had officially declared her dad to be in remission, he’d been pressuring his daughter to return to school and complete her degree. In the spirit of compromise, she’d been taking some online courses and was now only a few courses shy of completion, but she was still happier baking than studying.
Her friends liked to tease that she would be the perfect wife and homemaker, but she hadn’t yet met a man who agreed with their assessment.
Maybe having her heart stomped on time and time again should have taught her to be wary, but there wasn’t anything she wanted more than to fall in love, get married, fill her home with babies and her kitchen with the sweet scents of baking, so she was trusting fate to put the right man in her path.
In the meantime, she kept busy filling Daisy’s display case with mouthwatering goodies. Since the morning rush had passed and it was still early for lunch, Eva took advantage of the lull to brew a fresh pot of coffee, then sipped a cup while she took inventory of the goodies that remained. The white chocolate cranberry cookies had sold out, which made her feel pretty good. Her boss had protested that there was no need to expand their offerings beyond the tried-and-true muffins and doughnuts, but Eva had been playing around with some of her grandmother’s recipes, tweaking here and there, and the residents of Rust Creek Falls—most of them creatures of habit—had overcome their reluctance and started to look forward to daily specials.
Today’s pumpkin spice muffins had been gone within the first two hours of the shop’s opening, the sticky buns had sold out shortly after and there were only two eggnog biscotti remaining in the jar on the counter. She pulled an empty tray out of the case—the cheesecake-stuffed snickerdoodles had also been decimated by the morning crowd—replaced the liner and set out neatly decorated gingerbread boy and girl cookies.
She glanced up when the bell over the door chimed, and her heart immediately skipped a beat.
He was back.
The handsome cowboy with the sexy voice and troubled eyes.
She’d hoped to see him again, but she hadn’t expected that her wish would come true so quickly.
“You’re back,” she said, because her brain couldn’t seem to focus on anything else.
He
