Montana Dreams
PRAISE FOR KIM LAW
“Montana Cherries is a heartwarming yet heart-wrenching story of the heroine’s struggle to accept the truth about her mother’s death—and life.”
—RT Book Reviews, 4 stars
“An entertaining romance with a well-developed plot and believable characters. The chemistry between Vega and JP is explosive and will have you rooting for the couple’s success. Readers will definitely look forward to more works by this author.”
—RT Book Reviews, 4 stars (HOT) on Caught on Camera
“Kim Law pens a sexy, fast-paced romance.”
—New York Times bestselling author Lori Wilde on Caught on Camera
“A solid combination of sexy fun.”
—New York Times bestselling author Carly Phillips on Ex on the Beach
“Sugar Springs is a deeply emotional story about family ties and second chances. If you love heartwarming small towns, this is one place you’ll definitely want to visit.”
—USA Today bestselling author Hope Ramsay
“Filled with engaging characters, Sugar Springs is the typical everyone-knows-everyone’s-business small town. Law skillfully portrays heroine Lee Ann’s doubts and fears, as well as hero Cody’s struggle to be a better person than he believes he can be. And Lee Ann’s young nieces are a delight.”
—RT Book Reviews, 4 stars
Also by Kim Law
The Wildes of Birch Bay
Montana Cherries
Montana Rescue
Montana Mornings
Montana Dreams
Deep in the Heart
Hardheaded
Softhearted
Turtle Island Novels
Ex on the Beach
Hot Buttered Yum
Two Turtle Island Doves (novella)
On the Rocks
Sugar Springs Novels
Sugar Springs
Sweet Nothings
Sprinkles on Top
The Davenports
Caught on Camera
Caught in the Act
Holly Hills
“Marry Me, Cowboy” (novella), Cowboys for Christmas
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
Text copyright © by 2018 Kim Law
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.
Published by Montlake Romance, Seattle
www.apub.com
Amazon, the Amazon logo, and Montlake Romance are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc., or its affiliates.
ISBN-13: 9781503902855
ISBN-10: 1503902854
Cover design by Shasti O’Leary Soudant
To Arsula Shumway. You know I love your name. Thanks for the use of it!
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 Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
About the Author
Chapter One
Can we just sit a minute before we go in? Catch up a little?” Jaden Wilde rested his hand on his girlfriend’s forearm, halting her escape from the front seat of his rental. She paused before opening the door, and when she glanced back, he offered his signature head-tilted, you-know-you-love-me look.
“It’s your brother’s wedding, Jay,” Megan pointed out. “And we’re already very late.”
He caressed his thumb over her arm, wishing it weren’t February and they didn’t have to be bundled up for the weather. He wanted to touch her skin. “But I haven’t seen you in seven weeks, Meggie. I miss you.”
Resolved, Megan reversed position and covered his hand with hers. “And I haven’t seen you in seven weeks. I get that. It’s been a while. We’re not used to that.” Though dating for more than three years, this was the first time they’d been separated for any real length of time. “But you’re the one who didn’t make it in for the rehearsal last night. You’re the one who barely picked me up in time to even make it to the wedding tonight.”
“I can’t help that my flight got canceled.” Jaden motioned to the falling snow outside the car. “Or that an unexpected snowstorm slowed my drive from Missoula.”
“Yet you were supposed to arrive Wednesday, Jay. You observed your last counseling session that morning. You should have been here days ago.”
“I had to meet with my professor before leaving town. You know that. And he only had yesterday afternoon available.”
“And you couldn’t have arranged any earlier appointment had you set it up weeks ago?”
Megan’s eyes narrowed with annoyance, and Jaden blew out a frustrated breath. It seemed all they did lately was argue. Ever since Megan had stayed in Birch Bay after Christmas. He was tired of fighting with his girlfriend. Tired of not having his girlfriend at his side.
And if she’d been in Seattle, she’d likely have reminded him to make that appointment weeks ago.
“Can’t we just . . . be for a minute?” He tried again. “Just enjoy each other’s company?”
He didn’t want to go into the surprise he had planned for later by starting the evening off like this.
“We’re already here,” he went on. “We’re sitting in the church parking lot.” He looked at his watch. “And the wedding doesn’t start for another ten minutes. We have time to say hello to each other. To smile at each other.”
The annoyance in her eyes shifted, but instead of the pleasure he’d hoped to see, thinly veiled anger shone back. “That’s exactly my point.” She enunciated her words a little too clearly. “The wedding starts in ten minutes. We don’t have time to say hello to each other. Not right now. You’re in the wedding party, and you haven’t even met the woman you have to walk down the aisle.”
She once again reached for her door handle.
“Then tell me you’ll come home with me after this weekend,” Jaden hurried to say. He gripped her hand when she looked back. “You’ve been here helping out for weeks. My family appreciates it. They’ve told me so. They love you, and The Cherry Basket needed you when Sarah first left.” He gave her a pleading smile. “But it’s time to come home now. I need you now.”
Her lack of opening the door didn’t exactly reassure him. “Are you aware we found out this week that Sarah isn’t coming back to work at all now? She’s staying in Bozeman to take care of her mother indefinitely. Which means the store is no longer only temporarily without a manager. It’s completely without one.”
“But you’re not even in retail, Megan. Both of your degrees are in technology.” It was becoming increasingly difficult to remain calm about this whole situation. “That’s it.” He sliced his hands through the air as if calling a batter safe at home. “I’m drawing the line. It’s not like it’s the busy season right now, anyway. Someone else can handle things until a new manager is hired. They’ll be fine without you.”
Megan’s glare turned to ice. “First of all, Jaden Wilde, yo
u don’t draw lines. Not for me. Ever. And second . . . quit being a selfish ass for once in your life, and think about your family.”
“Selfish ass?” He reared back. “Are you kidding me? I always think about my family.”
“You only think about how you can help them emotionally.”
He clenched his jaw. The accusation was unfair.
“You know that’s not true.” He took a calming breath and brought his voice back to a normal volume. This argument was rapidly getting out of control. “I think about a lot more than that, and you know it. I care about all of them. About the orchard, the store. I only want us all to be happy and healthy for once in our lives.”
“And together,” Megan said softly. “You want all of you to be together.”
He wasn’t sure what her point was. “Of course I do.”
He didn’t talk about his family a lot, but Megan was aware of their history. He and his five siblings hadn’t had the best childhoods in the world. Their mother had been narcissistic, and her manipulations had affected all of them. It had even played into their relationships with their father, because Max Wilde had done more dodging and hiding from his wife than having a backbone and helping his children.
But they were on the path to healing now. At least, some of them were. His sister, Dani, and their dad had both been through counseling after the past had reared its head three years before. Dani still kept weekly appointments, and she was happier now than Jaden had ever seen her. She was also firmly rooted in Birch Bay. As was Nick.
Nick and Nate were twins, only two years older than Jaden’s twenty-five, and though Nate still roamed the world like a nomad, Nick had come back home and settled down as well. Gabe was about to get remarried—this time to a wonderful woman. And Cord, though probably as messed up as any of them had ever been, hid his issues well via his work. He was a medical doctor and partner in a private practice down in Billings.
Some of them were good, and some of them weren’t. But was it so bad of him to want to be able to help if he could? To hold out hope that they might someday be the family he’d always dreamed they could be?
“Let’s not fight, Megan.” He took her hand again. “I love you. I hate fighting with you.”
“And I hate fighting with you.” She squeezed his hand in return and offered a tentative smile. “But tell me just how you think the store’s going to run itself? They need me here, Jaden. And I want to be there for them. I think a lot of your family. Plus, I like doing this. I’m actually pretty good at it.”
He knew she was. Dani raved about her every time they spoke. The business, thanks to its increased online sales, had cleared more in the past few weeks than it averaged during their high-tourist months.
“And what’s three more months, anyway?” she continued, though she no longer looked at him.
They planned to move to Birch Bay for good three months from now, once he finished his practicum and earned his master’s degree in counseling psychology. He had a job lined up for the following year, working under a local psychologist in order to earn his counseling certification, and he planned to eventually open his own practice here in town. His focus would be children and families.
Megan would work as a freelance app developer, they’d buy a house . . . have babies . . .
“Fine,” he relented. And though Megan once again turned for the door, a sharp blast of air whipping inside the second she cracked it open, Jaden only reached into his coat pocket. “But then we’re going to do this now, instead of waiting until tonight as I’d planned.”
Megan looked back once again, her original annoyance making a reappearance. “Do what now?”
Then her gaze landed on the jeweler’s box in Jaden’s hand.
“Oh, Jay.” She shook her head. “No. Don’t do that now.”
“Yes.” He reached across her and closed the door. “Now. I miss you, Meggie. I love you. I want to—”
“Not. Now.” Megan stressed the words with a soft voice, and something about the way she said them finally registered. She was serious.
“Why not now?” He straightened in his seat.
“Today is about Gabe and Erica. It’s their wedding.” She shook her head again. “This isn’t about us.”
“And we don’t have to make it about us. That’s not what I’m trying to do.” He forced a smile, wishing they could have one single conversation like they used to. Where they didn’t have to argue.
He opened the box to the ring he’d had designed for her.
He also had the passing thought that the day could be a little about him. It was his birthday, after all.
“I love you, Megan.” He held the ring up between them. Was it so wrong to want his ring on her finger for his birthday? “And you love me. This isn’t about making it our day, it’s just about making it official. Is that such a bad thing? I’m tired of waiting, Meggie. I love you. I want my ring on your finger.”
But as his words ran out—and as she remained as silent as she’d been throughout the length of his monologue—he began to clue in to what it was he really saw in her eyes. And it wasn’t respect for another person’s nuptials that had her stalling.
Panic suddenly threatened to close off his air. “You don’t want to marry me?”
He pulled back. He knew he’d been rushing the engagement—the plan had been to wait until after his graduation. But as she’d just pointed out, that was only three months away.
Megan’s lips tightened the slightest amount, and then her trim shoulders lifted in a shrug beneath her wool coat. “I just think we need to talk about things first. And we don’t have time to talk right now.”
“What do we need to talk about?” His heart rate remained out of control. This was Meg. This was the woman who loved him. She couldn’t be changing her mind about that.
She’d sworn she wouldn’t.
“We’ve dated a long time, Jay.”
He nodded. “Yes, we have. And people typically follow that with marriage.”
“Or . . . maybe they realize that marriage may not be the right next move?”
The expression of apology that appeared with her question had the airport sandwich he’d wolfed down threatening to make a rapid comeback.
He realized he looked like an idiot sitting there with the ring still held up between them, so he lowered his hand. “What’s going on here, Megan?” Fear licked at his insides. “I don’t understand. Did you meet someone else?”
“No,” she hurriedly assured him. “Not at all. I’ve simply been thinking . . .”
Her shoulders gave another small shrug, and her face crumpled even more.
“Have you really missed me as much as you thought you would, Jay?”
“Yes.” Was that all this was about? He’d been too busy to call as often as he should have. Their conversations had been short. He’d do better. “I’ve missed you like crazy. How can you even ask that?”
“Or have you missed me because me moving here before you wasn’t our plan?”
“What are you talking about? I’ve missed you because you weren’t there.”
She reached over and took his hand, but he noticed that she chose the hand that didn’t hold the ring. “I’ve missed you, too,” she assured him. “But the thing is . . . I’ve been feeling like I should be missing you more.”
Jaden felt as if a hole had opened in the pit of his gut.
He looked out the windshield, at the small church waiting for them to enter. At the happiness he knew they would find inside.
And he suddenly got it.
He turned back to his girlfriend. “You’re having cold feet.”
“Cold feet happens before a wedding,” she argued. “Not before an engagement.”
“But don’t you see.” He nodded toward the church. “This is a wedding. And it’s got you thinking.”
“No, Jaden. I’ve been thinking it for a while now.”
The hole in his gut stretched wider. “It’s only been a few weeks, Megan.”
How long could she possibly have been thinking that she didn’t miss him?
“I’m aware of that,” she answered almost under her breath.
“Then . . .”
The front door of the church opened, and his sister peeked out. When her gaze landed on them, Dani waved in a quick, beckoning motion.
Jaden ignored her. “I don’t understand.” And he truly didn’t. They loved each other.
They missed each other.
“It was only an inkling at first,” Megan explained. “It started a couple of weeks into the new year.”
So one month ago. He wiped any emotion from his face. “And what pushed it from an inkling to more?”
Guilt entered her features, and anger once again fired through him.
“You said you hadn’t met anyone else,” he accused.
“I haven’t.” She held her hands up in front of her. “I swear. It’s just that”—she glanced away from him, and her throat convulsed as she swallowed—“I had a dream.”
Jaden merely stared at her, unable to fathom where she might be going with her statement.
“And there’s this woman in town.” Megan glanced back.
“A woman? So . . . what are you saying?” He grasped for her reasoning. “You and she are . . . experimenting?”
She actually rolled her eyes at him. “Don’t be ridiculous, Jaden. I said there wasn’t anyone, and I meant it. That means male or female.”
“Then what’s the deal with this woman?”
He didn’t look back at the church, but from his peripheral vision, he now caught both Dani and Cord standing at the open door.
“She interpreted my dream,” Megan answered. And still, all Jaden could do was stare.
Some woman had interpreted his girlfriend’s dream?
Interpreted?
He blinked as her words began to sink in. Megan was the smartest woman he knew. She’d finished her master’s program in record time, had hired on as an off-site consultant with a Fortune 500 company the week after receiving her degree, and had continued to pull full-time hours for that very company even while managing his family’s store. She could do it all.
Yet she was sitting in front of him now, telling him that she’d gone to a woman who’d read her dream?