CHRISTMAS AT THUNDER HORSE RANCH by ELLE JAMES

Author:ELLE JAMES [JAMES, ELLE]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ROMANCE - - SUSPENSE
Publisher: HARLEQUIN
Published: 2014-09-01T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

Emma insisted on spending the night on the couch in the living room. Being alone in the big house with Dante made her uncomfortable. After being in the presence of his family and extended family, she found herself wishing she really did belong and that was a dangerous thing to do.

She had bad luck with families. Her father had left when she was a little girl. As a single parent, her mother had left her alone since the age of twelve so that she could save money on babysitting.

To survive, she’d learned to cook and do her own laundry and that of her mother’s or it wouldn’t have gotten done. Her mother worked her day job and a night job to keep her in a private school.

A month after Emma graduated from high school, her mother caught a staph infection at the nursing home where she cleaned rooms. Within two weeks, she’d died.

Completely alone at eighteen, Emma had depended on herself since. Too many times when the world seemed too harsh or the tasks too hard, she’d gone back to her rented room and cried herself to sleep. She’d have given her right arm to have someone hug her and tell her everything would be all right.

She’d completed her undergraduate degree working nights washing dishes at a local restaurant. Then she worked her way through her master’s degree as a teacher’s assistant. She’d captured the attention of the department head and was offered a teaching position when she completed her master’s and went on to get her doctorate, determined that no matter what, she would always be able to support herself without working two jobs like her mother had.

All in all, she’d had a limited family experience, whereas Dante’s family was almost storybook perfect. Lucky man.

Dante had gotten up before dawn, dressed and went out to tend to the animals, leaving Emma to dress and scrounge in the kitchen for breakfast. The refrigerator was well stocked with enough food to feed an army. A freezer in the pantry was full of what looked like a half a cow’s worth of packaged beef, frozen homegrown vegetables and loaves of bread.

She supposed they had to buy in bulk when they could only get to the major grocery stores once every other month and maybe not at all during the fierce winters.

Whipping up a half a dozen eggs, she chopped onions, tomatoes and black olives and tossed them in a skillet, pouring half the eggs over the top to make an omelet.

When she had two plates loaded, the back door opened and a frigid blast of air slammed into her. “Holy smokes.” She danced out of the draft and grabbed the pot of coffee she’d made and poured a cup full. “Sit. I have breakfast ready.”

“Thanks.” Dante stomped his feet on the mat to get the snow off his boots and sniffed the air. “Smells better than gas.” He winked and shrugged out of his jacket, scarf, gloves and an insulated cap.

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