Lilac Wedding in Dry Creek
A MOTHER’S SECRETWhen she ran away from the juvenile home she was raised in, Cat Barker left more than an unstable childhood behind. She also left her first love, Jake Stone. The two had more in common than anyone understood, but neither knew how to trust.Now Cat needs help, and there’s only one person she can turn to—Jake, her daughter’s secret father. Though Cat can see the tender man she once cared for, she still fears love and marriage. Until a daunting challenge renews her faith—and teaches them all a lesson about trust.Return to Dry Creek: A small Montana town with a heart as big as heaven.
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“Maybe you should move closer to me,” Jake said quietly.
At those words, Cat’s world flipped over. At first she thought he wasn’t going to meet her eyes, but then he looked at her squarely and she saw the tumult of emotions in them. For a wild moment, she wondered if maybe she and Jake had a chance to go back in time and be together again.
“I wouldn’t try to push myself into your lives. I promise,” he said after a moment. “I just—well, if you were closer I wouldn’t worry about the two of you so much.”
“Oh.” Cat felt all of her wild imaginings fall back to earth with a thud. She had somehow forgotten how responsible Jake felt for everything and everyone. Of course, he would want to do his duty by her and Lara. She just knew that love was a far cry from duty, and she had searched for love her whole life.
She needed to remember she had come here for Lara. Her own feelings didn’t matter.
She looked down at her daughter. Cat needed to be strong for her.
Dear Reader,
It’s spring again and, if you’re like me, that signals a time for new hope. Something stirs in each of us when we see new green shoots of grass or plants come to life after a hard winter. On the family farm where I grew up in Montana, my mother had lilac bushes and, if my sisters and I left our bedroom window open at night, we went to sleep with the fragrance of the bushes all around us. Maybe that’s why spring, in my mind, always smells like lilacs.
I’m sure you have similar memories and I hope this book will remind you that new beginnings are still possible—whether it’s in a relationship or some other place that is broken in your life. Remember all things are possible with God’s help.
If you have a minute, I’d love to hear from you. Just contact me through my website at www.janettronstad.com. In the meantime, God bless you and keep you.
Sincerely,
If thou canst believe,
all things are possible to him that believeth. —Mark 9:23
This book is dedicated to my friend, David White,
with love and affection.
Chapter One
Distant thunder rumbled as Jake Stone lifted his duffel bag onto his shoulder, closed his door and started walking down the hall toward the lobby of the Starling Hotel. It was a rainy day in March and he didn’t look forward to the long drive north to Dry Creek, Montana—especially because once he got there his older brother would start pressing him even harder to move back to the ranch, settle down and get married.
Jake refused to marry some poor woman just to stop his brother from nagging him to death. The Stone boys had bad history when it came to family life, even if his brother chose to ignore it. As for moving back to Dry Creek, Jake had decided years ago that this nondescript hotel near the Las Vegas airport was home enough for him.
He entered the lobby and glanced over to where the owner of the place stood behind the counter.
“Well, don’t you look fine?” Gray stubble showed on Max Holden’s weathered face, but his eyes were lively as he looked up. “Going home to Dry Creek for your brother’s wedding is doing you good already.”
Jake stopped and ran a finger around the collar of his new white shirt so he could breathe easier.
“Got some stamps?” He finished walking over to the counter, dropped his duffel bag to the floor and reached into the back pocket of his jeans, pulling out an envelope and handing it to the other man.
Jake didn’t like to talk about the wedding. His brother was wrong if he thought getting married would change who he was in the eyes of their small hometown. Not that Jake blamed anyone for how they felt about the Stone family. Everyone knew about the years of physical abuse out at their ranch. All of the family secrets had been laid bare when his father was murdered and his mother had gone to trial for doing the crime. People naturally had wondered if the sons were more like their father or their mother. Neither answer had been good back then.
Max took the long, white envelope from Jake and weighed it in his hand. “I figure two stamps should do it.” Then he glanced down at the writing on the front. “I hope this Cathy Barker appreciates all the letters you send. Who is she, anyway?”
So much time had passed since Jake heard someone speak the woman’s name that he hadn’t expected the jolt that went through him. Max had never questioned the envelopes before.
Secrets had destroyed Jake’s family as surely as his father’s alcoholism. If his mother had confided in their neighbors, then they might have understood what was happening. And she might not have served a ten-year prison term before anyone realized she was innocent and had only confessed to protect her teenage sons from facing suspicion.
“We used to call her Cat,” Jake began and forced himself to set forth the whole story. “I don’t know how she feels or even if she gets the letters. I put my return address on every one, but she never writes back.”
At that bit of information, Max’s jaw dropped along with the envelope.
“You mean to tell me, all these years you’ve been stuffing those letters with cash—and don’t think I don’t know what’s in there—then asking me to mail them like they were your last will and testament. And you don’t even know whether or not they’re getting through to her.”
