The Snowstorm in Gold Valley by Liz Isaacson

Author:Liz Isaacson [Isaacson, Liz]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: AEJ Creative Works

Norah hung up the call from Javier, her stomach sinking at the same time warmth sang through her body. Sterling had asked her to meet him in the barn instead of at the car, so she entered the structure, expecting to see him hard at work with one of the horses.

Instead, he leaned against a stall, feeding a black and white horse sugar cubes from his palm. He chuckled as the horse’s lips fumbled across his skin.

“Don’t give ’im too much,” Owen called from a few stalls down.

“Sterling.” She marched over to him. “You sent a catered meal to my house?” Horror washed through her. Had he gone there? What had he seen? Did he meet Mama? She could barely swallow, and her stomach swooped up in a riot.

“Shh,” he said, barely looking at her. “Yes, I sent some food to your house.” He gave her a quick glance and lowered his voice even further. “I thought then we could go to dinner together.”

She leaned away from him, one hip cocked, her arms folded—mostly as she tried to keep her insides from quaking. “You’re joking.”

The horse gobbled up the last sugar cube. “I’m not.” He wiped his hands on his jeans. “We can go to Missoula. No one there will see us.”

“I can’t drive an hour and a half—one way—for dinner.” Did he think she was made of steel? That she didn’t need to sleep? That she had gas money for such luxuries?

“Starvation, then.”

That was still a half hour away. But the thought of spending time with him, eating alone with him, kissing him…. Norah let the idea play around in her mind.

“I’ll pay for gas,” he said. “And dinner.” He paused as Tom Lovell came into the barn with his wife, Rose, and their daughter Mari. Norah stepped away from him automatically, like she couldn’t even be caught talking to him.

“Hey, Rose,” she said as the family approached. “Mari, are you riding tonight?”

“Yeah,” she said. “My mom’s going to have a baby.”

“Mari,” Rose admonished as Norah’s eyes flew to the financial director at Silver Creek. She latched her hand in Tom’s and beamed at him. “I guess it’s not a secret anymore.”

“Well, you tell Mari something, and you can’t expect it to stay under wraps.” The cowboy chuckled, and Norah smiled with them.

“Congratulations.” She’d never given any thought to having a family, but one look at Sterling standing down the fence line, and suddenly all she could think about was having a house full of his sons.

Her own face heated as Tom helped Mari saddle a horse named Liquid Nitrogen. “Don’t hold so tight,” he told her. “Just because you’re mad about the baby—”

“Not mad,” Mari said, but she held the reins with a death grip. “Ride.”

“Go on, then.” Tom gestured for her to take the horse out to the arena. “Don’t run him too hard.” He watched her go, then stepped back to Rose’s side. “She’ll come around.”

“You better go out there with her,” Rose said. “She might run away.

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