Reflecting On Wishes (The Wishes Series) (26 page)

And she wasn’t doing it just because she had a little crush on Jake either. Not that he reciprocated any feelings whatsoever.

He was a delicious man though.
Good Lord
…

There were so many success stories she learned about in her visits.
Kringle Farms
did much more than her initial knowledge of their works. They were not only a great place to go around Christmas time to see the lights and tour the farm, but they also had many programs for children and adults with disabilities. They wanted to start an after-school program for youth’s interested in animal welfare as a prospective field of work. The northern section of the farm housed abused and neglected animals that would have been euthanized had they not taken them in. But sadly, they didn’t have the funds to hire more help around the ranch to cover the additional work load.

Lilah was planning on changing that with the help of
donations and her family’s charity as well.

The renovation and building costs for the
Kringle Farms
would be several million dollars if it was done in the capacity that it needed to be done in. But it would also create more jobs for their small town of Sugar Creek, and in hard financial times, that would be a blessing.

Tomorrow she would be paying a visit to the Kringle’s to pick up something the kids had been making over the last month out at the farm. When Lilah saw the crafting session Mrs. Kringle hosted for the children
, she knew that something they made would be the perfect addition to the goodie bags she was designing to hand out at the barbecue. Of course, when she asked Mrs. Kringle for two hundred hand crafted ornaments, the woman had gone pale and momentarily speechless. Once Lilah offered to buy all the supplies and to come out and help on crafting days, she soon won her over.

The days of coming home speckled with clay, glitter, paint and glue were well worth the end results. Not only had Lilah fallen in love with the children, but the farm itself and what it represented had melted her heart. It was a place of hope, acceptance and love. In fact, Lilah had spent many of her days off volunteering where ever help was needed. She didn’t mind bottle feeding newborn baby pigs and calves, or mucking out stalls, and she absolutely loved grooming the horses even though it was hard, dirty work.

There was also Roxy. Lilah and Roxy had become fast friends and everyone had started calling Roxy her shadow because everywhere Lilah went, Roxy was soon to follow. Jake didn’t seem too fond of the fact his daughter had taken such a liking to Lilah, but after the first few days of meeting stubborn resistance from Roxy, he ended up giving in and letting her spend time with her newfound friend. Lilah wasn’t sure why Jake had been so adamant at the beginning about trying to keep Roxy from spending time with her, but she suspected it probably had something to do with his ex, Roxy’s mom. There were several times she wanted to try talking to him about it. Once, she even tried but he shut her down so fast and harshly, she never tried again. He was a hard man, at least around Lilah, but to other people, he was a true southern charmer. Sometimes it made her feel pretty horrible, like there was something wrong with her. Most people liked her. She wasn’t used to having someone close her off so personally like that. When it came to business, they got along fine. The vision they had for the farm coincided perfectly and it was obvious how much it meant to him. Lilah loved that she could see the depth of his passion for philanthropy and his joy for life.

Unfortunately, a little, hopeful part of her—well…she wanted more from hi
m than a working relationship, or at least the chance to explore it.

Lilah turned her computer off and reached in her desk drawer for her bright orange
Juicy Couture
handbag and car keys. It was time to head home and enjoy a long soak that would hopefully clear her mind as well as relax her body. In the morning she would see him again. That thought both excited her and terrified her.

***

The day had been unbearably long for Jake. First thing that had gone wrong was the tractor had broken down when they had been brush-hogging down the waist-high southern pasture to get the site ready to move the horses over, while the east side was getting the fences torn down and rebuilt. Then Roxy had lost her kitten, Footsie, and had been inconsolable until the farm-wide search had produced the whereabouts of the little fur-ball when she was found sleeping in the shade of the old willow tree behind the house. After those two hours had been lost, Jake tried to get back on track, but low and behold a sudden, thunderous rain had sent them all inside for the remainder of the afternoon. It wouldn’t have been so bad if he had been able to at least get some paperwork done. Instead, he’d ended up on the phone with the contractor trying to go over the details of the beginnings of the renovations, while Roxy ran around the house chasing Footsie like a banshee, squalling and hollering until he finally got off the phone and paddled her behind for not minding. He had never swatted her before. Dammit, when she had cried, he had cried right along with her and promised he’d never spank her again. The little smarty-pants knew she had him wrapped around her finger when she’d stopped crying immediately and made him pinky promise. Damned if he didn’t sniffle right along with her and make the promise.

Jake sighed and tilted his head
from side to side, groaning with relief when his neck cracked and a tiny bit of tension left his sturdy frame.

God, he was stressed the hell out.

The combination of everything from being short-handed, the fundraiser that was coming up and the beginnings of renovations left him tired and tense. Add in the frustration of the attraction he had towards Delilah of all people…

Jake took his hat off and tossed it onto the dresser. A cool shower to wash the sweat away was in order. After that, he was going into town for a few cold beers at the
Rolling Stone
, his favorite watering hole. It wasn’t much more than a hole in the wall with a few dart boards and pool tables that played twangy country music from a juke box that had seen its better days. But the people were mostly good and Bucky the bartender always had a spot for him at the bar close to the big screen television. Bucky’s kid Lyle was friends with his little Roxy. Lyle was a regular out at the farm. He loved helping out no matter what job you gave him. He was several years old than Roxy but mentally he was the same age level as she was so they got along great. He felt comfortable there since Roxy never made fun of him for being slow like most of the other kids did. That was something he was so proud of his girl for. She had such a caring heart and even though she was just getting ready to turn four, the kid was smart as a whip and very intuitive as to what was going on around her. She’d taken Lyle under her wing and they had been best buds since she’d started to walk and talk. Bucky and his wife lived paycheck to paycheck with him tending bar at night and her waitressing at Ms. Lola’s during the day, often pulling double shifts just to make ends meet. Jake and his family didn’t mind having Lyle around the farm and they each took turns watching out for him just like they did Roxy. It seemed more and more, they were getting kids hanging around after school, asking if they could help out to have something to do. He hated turning them away, but without the proper amount of staffing and parental consent, his hands were tied.

Like today, when the McKinnon boy, Blake, came by offering to muck out stalls so he didn’t have to go home. Jake had questioned him about his black eye and the bruises on his wrist but the kid said it was from a fall, being clumsy and all that
. But Jake knew the kid’s dad was an alcoholic and nine times out of ten you’d see his beat up old Ford truck sitting outside of the
Rolling Stone
every day by five, after his shift ended at the mill. Jake also knew that Blake’s dad, JB had been arrested for domestic violence before when he’d come home drunk as a skunk and beat on his wife. In Jake’s mind, there was nothing lower than a grown man raising a hand to a woman or a kid. And justice wasn’t always handed down like it should be when your brother was the police Lieutenant and was slicker than snot.

Jake was fuming all over again as he stepped under the lukewarm water, thinking about the fear he saw in Blake’s eyes. He wasn’t going to stand around and ignore it. The signs were all there and Jake was tired of worrying about the kid and his mom. It was time to pay a visit and put a little fear in JB’s eyes and let him see how it feels to cower and want to hide.

Once he’d showered and dressed in his
Wrangler
jeans,
Justin
cowboy boots and a plain blue button up shirt, Jake set his black
Stetson
on his thick-in-desperate-need-of-a-trim, blond hair. It was time to kiss his girls goodbye and head out for the evening. He had a feeling he was really going to need that cold beer he promised himself after he stopped to talk to JB.

“Daddy, Daddy! Look what me
and granny are makin’. Chocolate chip, my fa-bor-ite!” Roxy bounced up and down, pointing at the cookies that were in the oven.

“Your
favorite
, not
faborite
, Roxy.” He scooped her up and gave her a kiss.

“That’s what I said, Daddy. Fa-bor-ite.” She gave him a look that suggested he might be deaf.

Jake laughed, giving up and hugged her tight.

“Save me some of those for when I get home, okay?”

Roxy nodded vigorously and wiggled until he set her down so she could go back to the oven and watch the cookies bake.

“Now you better not be getting in any trouble tonight, son,” his mother scolded quietly.

“I would never, Momma.” He gave her a lopsided grin and kissed her cheek. “Thanks for watching Roxy tonight.”

“I don’t mind at all. You need to get out more often, Jake. You’ll never marry and get me a daughter-in-law and more grandbabies if you don’t go out and meet someone, now will you?” She had a mischievous twinkle in her eye when she winked at him and patted his shoulder.

“Now, Momma…”

“I know, I know—don’t pry, don’t push, blah, blah, blah. Go on and have fun. And don’t give old JB a heart-attack. At least not a fatal one.” She winked at him again and shooed him away.

Jake’s dad came up behind him, catching the conversation and adding his own opinion. “If it’s fatal I’d say he got what was coming to him. Just make sure it looks like an accident son.” His dad laughed and slapped him hard on the back. Roxy quickly took over by taking her grandpa’s hand and began tugging him over to the oven to show him her cookies, giggling when he swung her up in his arms and teased her about eating all of them.

“I’ll see y’all in the mornin’.” He said as he walked out the door.

Just as he was about to shut it, his dad hollered out. “Drink a beer for me, son, and dance with a pretty lady!”

Jake was already feeling more light-hearted after that little bit of family time. After all, family was what was most important.

He had only made it about five miles away from home before the beam of his headlights brought to his notice the bright orange Mustang sitting on the side of the road. Only one person he knew of in this town, or probably any other, that drove a god-awful orange car.

Delilah Cane.

He shook his head. Orange. Why in the hell would anyone want a screaming orange car?

Thunder rolled across the sky and the heavens decided to laugh at him as he pulled off the road behind her. Another damn downpour. Just his freaking luck.

Lilah pounded her fist on the steering wheel and cried out in frustration.

Why oh why hadn’t she paid attention to her check engine light? It had been
going off and on for the past two weeks and she meant to take it in and get it checked or at least tell her dad or one of her brothers, but she had been so busy lately she’d let it slip by. Now look at her. Stuck on a country road, in the dark, and she obviously left her cell phone on her desk in her hurry to leave. Now it was thundering and she was going to have to walk home in the rain in her four inch
Betsey Johnson
black and hot pink peep-toe pumps. This would of course, happen when she’d worn a dress to work because of an early meeting with an investor and she had wanted to look her professional best. Now she was going to walk in the rain in a short, thin, spaghetti strapped summer dress that was the same shade of hot pink as her gorgeous shoes. Dammit all to hell and back.

She smacked the steering wheel once more and tried to start her car again. It wheezed, continued to billow smoke from under the hood, turned over, then sounded as if it gave a sigh and puttered out. That was when she noticed the headlights in her rear-view mirror. Her heart pounded in fear when a truck pulled to a stop behind her and she was grateful when the rain came down hard and fast. It kept whoever was in the truck from getting out, giving her time to squint her eyes and try to see if she could make out what kind of truck it was to see if she knew the person or not. Unfortunately the glare from the headlights blinded her vision to the point that the only thing she could make out was that it was big, dark and it had the look of a Dodge grill.

The driver’s door opened and her heart slammed in her chest like she was running a marathon. She rolled her window down just enough to talk through it when a man knocked on it.