Chapter 2
Callie
Snow flurries swirl in the air as I clutch Danny closer to my chest. Danny is my eight-month-old baby. Despite already traveling for three hours, I still have two days of driving ahead of me.
I’ve been hired as the new baker at the Naughty List Ranch in Silver Bell Hollow, Montana. It’s thousands of miles from Asheville where I live, but I’m good with that. I’m looking forward to the fresh start.
Besides, Mary Maas offered good pay and excellent health benefits.
Danny has Down syndrome. He’s the sweetest baby, and I wouldn’t change him for the world.
He’s already an amazing person. But he’s going to need years of physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy.
I want him to have access to every resource he could need, so yeah, the health benefits were the deciding factor.
Once I’ve settled Danny, I get into the driver’s seat. I blink gritty eyes and will away the exhaustion that’s been plaguing me for months. There was something about Mary when we had the video interview. She’s never even tried my baked goods and yet she offered me a job on the spot.
When I asked her how soon I could start, she said, “As soon as you can pack your car.”
I didn’t tell her that it would take me all of two hours to pack. The medical bills with Danny’s birth were crazy high to manage on my own. I’ve sold everything of value that I owned, even down to the wedding and engagement rings that Danny’s father gave to me.
Cornelius Winthrop the Third is at the top of his class at law school and has all the right connections along with a perfect pedigree.
But he’s also a chronic gambler that believes his next big win is just around the corner.
His wealthy parents keep bailing him out of trouble, so he never learns his lesson. Not that it matters to me.
The moment that Corey with his perfectly arched eyebrows, flawless manicure, and obsession with bespoke Italian suits learned that his son had trisomy 21, he was out the door.
He made it clear he had no interest in fathering a child with Down syndrome.
I had no interest in a man that couldn’t love his own child.
I didn’t want anything from Corey, so I left our marriage with exactly what I brought into it.
Nothing. I’ve never regretted my decision to divorce Corey and have Danny.
Even on the hardest days, all I have to do is look at Danny to remember why I keep going.
He’s the song in my heart, the reason it keeps beating.
I turn the key in the ignition and send up a silent prayer the car starts. I don’t know how I know it, but I know that if I can get to Silver Bell Hollow, then everything is going to be all right. It sounds crazy, and I can’t explain why. I only know that it’s important Danny and I go.
The engine starts once then sputters before dying.
I close my eyes, take a deep breath, and try again.
Then again. Four times before I finally admit defeat with tears filling my eyes.
I refuse to let them fall. I’ve come too far, and Danny is counting on me.
I can’t lose this job. I won’t lose this job.
I take a minute to gather myself. The car is still warm despite the snow flurries outside. It’s likely to stay warm for another hour, and soon the sun will rise. That means Danny and I aren’t in immediate danger from hypothermia.
“See, that’s already one blessing,” I tell my son, my voice cracking a little on the last word. “There are always blessings to count.”
It’s what my parents used to say. They passed away just a month before I graduated high school. The three of us didn’t have much, but we always had each other. I wish they could see Danny. They’d adore him just as much as I do.
As the grief wells up, I reach for my phone. The first thing to do is let Mary know that I’m running late. After that, well, I’ll figure out the next step when I get to it. One crisis at a time.
When Mary answers the phone on the first ring, I realize how early it is and instantly feel bad for calling. I could have waited. I could have sorted this out on my own.
“It’s Callie, you know the new baker for your ranch.
I’m running a little late. My car isn’t starting, and I’m kind of stranded.
It’s starting to snow, and I don’t know how I’m going to get there.
But I’ll figure it out. I’ll be there as soon as possible.
” I grip my cellphone tightly, praying that she doesn’t fire me before I’ve even had a chance to show up.
“Oh, goodness,” Mary clucks. “Are you safe? Are you warm? How’s Danny?”
Her concern has me biting the inside of my lip so hard I taste blood. I don’t remember the last time someone cared about the two of us.
“We’re good,” I manage to croak out rather than tell her that everything has felt so hard for so long. This job was the first good thing to happen to us in months, and I’m afraid it’s about to be yanked away from me.
“If you wait, I can send one of my boys. He’ll pick you up and get you here.”
“Are you sure?” I hate the tearful note of hope in my voice.
“I’m positive! He’s a good boy. You just sit tight and wait for the handsome cowboy to show up and rescue you,” she says the words with a small laugh. Mary mentioned that she and her husband, Christopher, have fostered dozens of teenage boys over the years.
“If he doesn’t mind,” I mutter even though I don’t have any other good options.
“Just send me your location, and try not to worry, dear,” she reassures me before ending the call.
I know the damsel in distress waiting for a man to rescue her isn’t a great idea. But I’ve been running on fumes for so long, and whatever happens, something good is around the corner. It has to be.
The next three hours pass slowly. Danny sleeps through most of it except when Corey calls. I silence it without bothering to answer. I already know he’s going to leave a string of angry voice messages accusing me of stealing things.
“It’s OK. You can go back to sleep,” I promise Danny and start singing the lullaby my dad always sang to me when I was scared.
He eventually settles, and I watch as the rest stop slowly comes to life. Businessmen in fancy suits come and go. Families with kids eventually arrive, hustling their little ones hurriedly into the warmth of the building.
I watch as one father lifts his three-year-old onto his shoulders so he can gesture at what he wants from the vending machine.
I wanted that for my son, a loving father who would accept him. Not once has Corey asked about him. He never wants to know how he’s doing or if he’s hitting his milestones or even if my son is happy.
“I’ll love you enough for both of us,” I whisper into the silence. It’s the same promise I made to him on the day he was born.
A bright red truck pulls into the rest stop and parks two spaces down from my beat-up old clunker. I assume the person is just another traveler until a man climbs down from the cab, those faded blue jeans hugging him tighter than a clingy toddler being left behind at day care for the first time.
“God bless Wranglers,” I mutter under my breath. For the first time in well over a year, my dormant libido wakes up. There’s a swooping sensation in my belly, and my mouth is suddenly dry.
He’s wearing a flannel shirt that’s snug across his broad shoulders and a red Stetson with white fur on it. It almost seems as if he were going for a cowboy Santa Claus aesthetic.
He surveys the lot, zeroing in on my car before he stalks toward it. His dark beard is neat and trimmed though it’s his eyes that steal away my breath. They’re blue, the kind of blue you might see in a painting of a lake.
When our gazes connect through the windshield, a shiver goes down my spine. He’s here for me. I don’t know why that thought fills me with so much delight, but it does.
Beside him is a large dog. I think it might be a Labrador Retriever. I always wanted one as a kid. I thought about adopting a dog when I married Corey, but he never liked the mess that animals leave behind.
I scramble out of the car, closing my door quietly so as not to disturb Danny who is resting peacefully. The snow flurries have turned into a mixture of icy rain that stings my face with every wet drop that falls from the overcast sky.
His dog sits on asphalt as the cowboy’s gaze travels up and down my body. This one moment is more intimate than any caress I’ve ever received. “Mary and Christopher sent me. I’m here to take you to the Naughty List Ranch.”
Something about the way he says the word naughty has me wishing I were that type of woman, the one who did impulsive things with strangers. But I’m not. I’m a single mom with a baby to look after.
As if sensing the direction of my thoughts, his gaze goes to the back seat which has a few pieces of luggage but not much, far too little for a woman moving from her home. It might be my imagination, but his features seem to soften. “Are you and the little elf ready to go?”