Forever Wishes (Montana Brides Book 4) (17 page)

Jake took the milk from her hands and started making a pot of tea. “Sit with me for a minute, mom.” He carried two steaming mugs across to the kitchen table and sat down. “Scott’s never going be alone. He’s got all of us and lots of good friends. There’ll always be someone around to give him a hand when he needs it. And mom, we love you too. You know that don’t you?”

Rosemary blinked back the fresh set of tears clouding her eyes. “A girl needs to be reminded every now and again.” Rosemary sniffed, reaching for her soggy tissues.
 

Jake got up and gave her a hug. “You’ll never be alone either, mom.” With a smile in his voice he said, “We’ll keep on pestering you and giving you sleepless nights forever.”

She took a deep steadying breath. “That sounds pretty good to me. You’re a good boy, Jake.
 
Now let’s head back into the dining room. Scott and Lucy will be wondering where we’ve disappeared to.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

Erin frowned at the plants sitting in little black bags around her backyard. For the last three weeks she’d spent every spare minute in her garden. The harder she worked, the less time she had to think about Jake. That was the theory, anyway. The only problem was that her theory wasn’t working too well.
 

Earlier in the day she’d gone down to the garden center and spent a fortune on trees and shrubs. They were all sitting exactly where they needed to be planted. Now she was left with the job of digging holes, fertilizing, and watering into place sixty-two plants.
 

“Hello.”

She dropped the spade she’d been using and stared at the man walking toward her. “Matthew? What are you doing here?”
 

“I bumped into Nicky and she mentioned you’d bought a house. I thought I’d come and see how you are.”

Erin frowned. After the way her ex-fiancé had stormed out of her life she hadn’t expected to ever see him again. Never wanted to see him again. She didn’t believe for one minute he’d popped around out of curiosity. Matthew never did anything spontaneously.
 

She forced a good dose of enthusiasm into her voice. “I’m doing great.” There was nothing like stretching the truth to cover up a broken heart. Thankfully he hadn’t been the one doing the breaking. This time.
 

Matthew looked uncertainly around the backyard. His brown eyes moved from one side of the garden to the other. “It’s going to look good when you’re finished.”

Erin nodded, not quite sure what to say. “It’s not the best time to be landscaping, but I’ve chosen shrubs that don’t need a lot of water.”

“You’ve got a lot of digging ahead of you.”

Erin shrugged. “It’s just the beginning. Once it gets cooler I’ll buy a few more plants.”

Matthew picked up the spade she’d dropped and handed it to her. For some weird reason she decided to take pity on him. When all was said and done, he’d been an important part of her life for more years than she wanted to remember. He’d just conveniently forgotten to tell her he had a major aversion to children.
 

He was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt. Perfect gardening clothes. “I was just about to put some of these plants into the ground. Do you want to give me a hand?” She half expected him to say no, but he looked more relieved than insulted.
 

“Sure. Where do you want me to start?”

For the next hour they worked together, digging holes and watering plants into place. Matthew told her about what he’d been doing for the last few months, and the promotion that hadn’t worked out.
 

When it got too dark to keep going she dusted off her jeans and surveyed the backyard. A row of trees were now planted and would quickly grow to screen the old tin fence that she couldn’t afford to replace. White carpet roses added a touch of color to the ground, and they’d even planted a dozen primroses into pots she’d salvaged from the previous owner’s trash.
 

Matthew stood with his hands on his hips, looking at her. “What do you think?”

“Not bad for a city slicker and a librarian. Thanks for your help. I probably would have run out of steam before now.”
 

“It’s the least I could do,” he mumbled.

Giving him a sharp stare, she decided to ignore his last comment. She wasn’t in any frame of mind to try and decipher male reasoning.
 

The day before she realized she’d sunk to new depths, and she wouldn’t open her mouth to prove how low she’d gotten. Ethan had come to the library on a class visit with Lucy. Hanging out for any crumb of information about Jake from his sister and six-year-old nephew had to be desperate.
 

She missed Jake more than she ever thought she would and that worried her. Matthew’s appearance tonight left her wondering what on earth could happen next. “I’ve got some ice cream in the freezer if you want to share some?”

A slow smile of thanks lit his face. A year ago his smile would have warmed her heart. Now it just left a little dent of sadness for a relationship that was doomed from the start.

They spent the rest of the night catching up on what Erin had been doing. Well, most of what she’d been doing. She stuck with work, house renovations and Nicky’s wedding stories. All nice, safe, topics.

As he was leaving, Matthew stopped and turned to her. “I enjoyed tonight. I half expected you to boot me out on my ear.”
 

“I guess you caught me in a weak moment.”
 

He shuffled on his feet and Erin wondered what was coming next. “I can’t help tomorrow, but do you want a hand the following night to finish off the planting?”

She hesitated. Just because Matthew was willing to spend an hour shoveling plants into the ground didn’t mean it was a good idea.
 

 
“As a friend,” he added. “I’m not expecting you to welcome me back into your life. I just thought I could help you finish your garden.”

Erin knew how confusing friendship could become. She’d already been down that road with Jake and it hadn’t worked out. “As long as you don’t get any ideas about where this might lead, you’re welcome to come back. I’ll be starting about five thirty, so come any time after that.”

“See you soon.”
 

The front gate banged on its hinges as Matthew left. What had she gotten herself into now?

Two nights later, Matthew wasn’t the only one who turned up to help. Nicky arrived and nearly gagged when she saw him standing in the garden.
 

Pulling Erin to the front of the house, she hissed, “What’s
he
doing here?”

“I know, I know. Call me dense, but he offered to help. And before you begin to think we’re getting back together – we’re not. He’s just helping me out as a friend, that’s all.”

“Friends?” she shrieked. “How can you be friends with the jerk? He ditched you before your wedding. I can’t believe you’d even consider talking to him, let alone shovel dirt like old friends.” Nicky glared at her. “This isn’t a rebound thing because of Jake is it?”
 

“Of course not.”

Nicky gave her a long stare.
 

Erin poked her tongue out and they both giggled. “Are you going to give us a hand or not? I’ve got fresh strawberries and cream for dessert.”

“As long as I can pass on the cream, I’m in. I’ve got a wedding dress I need to squeeze into.”

They walked back around the house, grabbing a spade each on the way through.

Nicky moved toward Matthew.
 

He looked up from the ground and winced. “Nicky.”

“Hi.” With a bland look that wasn’t quite friendly, she added, “Long time, no see.”
 

He pushed his shovel into the ground. “Congratulations on your engagement. Sam’s a lucky guy.”
 

Nicky gave him a sharp glare. “Thanks. We’ve got most of the planning done. It’s just a matter of waiting out the last month before the big day.” With an innocent expression on her face, she added, “Oh, that’s right. You know all about the last month before a wedding. You’ve been there before.”

Erin’s mouth dropped open. “Stop that and start digging.” Passing a pair of gloves across to Nicky, she pointed down the next row between her and Matthew.
 

Over the next hour, Erin tried to keep the mood light and friendly, but Matthew and Nicky kept sniping at each other from opposite ends of the garden. By the time they’d finished planting the last shrub she’d used up every scrap of patience she could muster.
 

Matthew wisely decided not to have dessert.
 

After seeing him out the front door, Erin wasn’t in any hurry to get back into the kitchen. She had a disturbing feeling she was about to be on the receiving end of one of Nicky’s friendly chats about life and love in the twenty-first century.

Jake closed another file on his laptop and stared out of his dining room window. Bringing work home hadn’t been a brilliant idea. The only thing he’d managed to do was give himself a headache from peering at the screen for too long.
 

Over the last few weeks he hadn’t slept much. When he did, he kept thinking about all the things he’d said to Erin on their last day together. He was an idiot for laying all his crappy behavior at her feet. And he felt as guilty as hell about how he’d acted with his family.
 

After the way he’d behaved at the camp, Erin would think he had a chip the size of a tree trunk on his shoulder. Sometimes he thought he did.
 

The doorbell rang, jarring his thoughts back to the present. He raced down the stairs, unlocking the wooden door. He held his breath, releasing it slowly when he saw the woman standing in front of him. “Hi, mom. Come in.”

Holding a basket of muffins in her hands, Rosemary walked up the stairs and through to the kitchen. “Don’t look so disappointed, Jake. It’s not every day I come here with hot blueberry muffins.” She frowned at him as he followed her across to the kitchen counter. “Lucy said you’re feeling a bit down, so I thought some home baking might make you feel better.”

He swallowed the lump in his throat. Muffins were almost as good as the band-aids she used to dish out for cuts and grazes when he was a boy.

“How are you?” she asked.

“I’m okay. You shouldn’t listen to Lucy. She worries about everyone.” He plugged in the kettle and grabbed a couple of mugs out of the pantry. Sometimes he wished he had half a dozen brothers and sisters to keep his mom and Lucy out of his non-existent personal life.
 

With Scott living in his own apartment, his mom had been looking for someone to rescue. And he had a suspicion that he was at the top of her list. But if she really wanted to help someone she needed to look more closely at Lucy. If he thought his love life had taken a serious nose dive, then Lucy’s had hit Antarctica, and wasn’t heading north anytime soon.
 

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“Not at the moment.” He grabbed the milk out of the fridge. “The muffins smell great.”

His mom leveled him with a no-nonsense stare. “I’m here if you need someone to talk to.”

“Thanks, mom. How was your dinner with Scott and Cindy?”

A smile spread across Rosemary’s face. “Scott’s pie was wonderful. He even made an extra lemon cake for me to take home. I don’t know where we’d be right now if you hadn’t stepped in to help, Jake. You were right. Cindy’s a lovely woman. They’re coming over for dinner soon and Scott rings me every day to let me know he’s okay.”
 

“I’m glad.” He moved across the room with two steaming mugs of coffee in his hands and sat down beside his mom. Taking a sip of his drink, he reached for a muffin. “Mom, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking.” He cleared his throat, trying to find the words he wanted to say. “I’m sorry I left you and dad to look after Scott. And I’m sorry I didn’t come back to the ranch after dad died.” He fiddled with his muffin. “I let you down.”

“Oh, Jake.” Rosemary stood up and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. “Honey, you were seventeen-years-old when you left home. Not much more than a boy yourself. When you told us you wanted to be a lawyer we couldn’t have been happier. Your dad and I knew your heart wasn’t in the land.”

“I still feel bad. I could have made everyone’s life a lot easier by staying here.”