"Well, I thought I might have to come back up here after Christmas for a few days to pack up and at least get Jillian on stable ground so she could manage without me. Those were a couple of the details I was trying to get organized in my head while you were finishing up your homework club, pageant practice and stuff. But when you get down to it, I don't have that much to pack. And you came up here with one suitcase. Bottom line is, I can't stand the idea of even spending a few days away from you if I don't have to."

"Good, because neither can I!"

"So here we are, two jobless people-ought to be interesting. I've saved money since living here-when you live in one furnished room and work two jobs, it's not that hard. And there's that money from the sale of my mom's house when she died-that was going to go toward a house of my own. Now it will be a house of our own, but it might not come as fast, honey. With neither of us working yet and real estate so much more expensive in San Diego-"

"I don't care," she said. "I have a cute apartment. And I'll get a job. I'll do whatever I have to if I don't get a teaching job. I have office experience, waitress experience-"

He stroked her pretty blond hair. "You should be with kids. I've seen you with them. There's no question that's were you belong."

"I will be, but if it takes a while to find a teaching job, I'll just work somewhere else while I'm looking."

"You're unbelievable, you know that?" he said. "I wondered why you weren't all jazzed about going home. Crap, once again it was me-just because I didn't say the right things!"

"Or I didn't ask the right things," she said. "I have to be honest, I was afraid to ask. I didn't want to cry when you told me you just couldn't come with me."

"Listen, you're first, Becca. I'm going to teach you to trust me again somehow. Right now, just remember you're first. What you need is the top of the list. Always." Then he laughed. "That Jack, sometimes the guy is brilliant, you know? I was telling him tonight that I was leaving-saying goodbye, really-and I told him that I had kind of liked the idea of growing a family in a place as clean and safe as this. He told me to remember that the safest place to grow a family is in a happy marriage. I'm going to make you happy, Becca, because I love you. You're what keeps my heart beating."

"Denny," she said, her eyes welling up with happy tears.

He rubbed a thumb under one eye. "You didn't want to cry, remember?"

"Then don't be so wonderful all the time." She sniffed. "Now what?"

His eyes took on a naughty gleam. "Well, the plans are set. The schedule is set." He started unbuttoning her pajama top. "I guess I'll just have to work you out for a while. In fact," he said, putting his big hands on her small butt, "if you just climb up on my lap, you wouldn't be putting any weight on that ankle..."

Fourteen

The routine of having Denny get up in the early morning, make her coffee and leave her curled up under the down quilt while he went off to work was an easy thing to adjust to. When the phone rang beside her bed, she eyed the clock as she rolled over. It was eight-thirty. She was surprised she'd slept so late, as excited as she was to pack up to leave. She reached for the phone and said hello.

"Becca," Jack said. "Are you awake?"

"Sure," she said.

Jack laughed. "No, you weren't. Have you looked outside yet?"

"Why?" she asked, sitting up in bed.

"We had heavy snowfall during the night. I'm going to come down there and clean off the steps and salt them. When you're ready to leave the apartment, you have to call me. The street is under almost two feet of snow. So, it's nonnegotiable-you could break your other leg and your neck."

She thought about that for a second. "What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to drive down there in Preacher's truck to pick you up-Denny took mine out to the farm. When you get up, you'll see a mound in the driveway-that's Denny's little truck. I'll drive you to the bar or wherever you want to go. And dress warm. We have more snow forecast."

"Why is Denny in your truck?"

"That Nissan of his wasn't gonna make it all the way out there, even with chains. We're not a priority for plowing-we generally do our own."

"When will you be down here?" she asked.

"Ten minutes. It'll take me twenty to clean off and salt your steps. You can go back to sleep, if you want to-I just didn't want the noise to scare you."

"Thirty minutes gives me plenty of time to dress and be ready to leave. But take your time. I don't want you to have to wait for me."

As Jack carried Becca down the snow-crusted stairs a half-hour later, she saw the mound of snow that had been Denny's truck. A lot was going to have to happen to transform that igloo into a moving vehicle.

In all her trips to ski slopes, Becca had never seen anything quite like this. Even in the heaviest of snowfall in the mountains, this was her first time in a tiny town that was buried by snow. People were shoveling and snowblowing their way out of the homes and driveways, standing on ladders to shovel and scrape some of the weight off roofs. Kids were throwing snowballs, building forts and snowmen. Dogs were rollicking in the snow. There was exactly one narrow lane plowed down the street-just enough room for a vehicle, one at a time.

Becca couldn't suppress a brief fantasy about being completely snowed in with Denny. Not in their little room above the garage, but in a house with a fireplace and a nice, functional kitchen. She'd be more than happy to lose a few days that way....

Jack drove her to the bar. Rather than parking in the back as usual, he pulled through two feet of snow to take a narrow space in the front and left the truck running. Preacher, all bundled up, was shoveling off the stairs and a path to the street.

As Jack carried her past, Preacher said, "Help yourself in the kitchen, Becca. I'm going to be tied up awhile."

"Thanks," she said with a laugh.

When Jack put her down right inside the door, she found an unexpected flurry of activity there. There were canned goods, bags of nonperishables and miscellanea lined up on the bar and on tables. Mel and Paige stood behind the bar, sorting and creating piles. Their four kids were coloring at a table in front of the fire. Jack went immediately to a stack of unconstructed boxes and began to fold them into shape and tape them.

"Hi," Becca said to the women. "Getting those Christmas boxes ready?"

"We have to try to get them all delivered right away," Paige said. "We have more weather on the way."

"It would be awful if people didn't get them before Christmas," Becca said.

"It would be awful if they didn't get them," Mel said. "Some of these people need them. They might be hungry even as we speak, and if they're also snowed in, have no way to get food. If we wait even a day and can't get down some of those back country roads..." She shuddered. "One of the local farmers is plowing a lane out to Cameron's house. He's got the Hummer-our ambulance. He has to be able to get to town to the clinic. It's heart-attack season, not to mention slips on ice, broken bones, strained muscles, cars sliding off roads, et cetera."

"Heart-attack season?" Becca asked.

"First dramatic snowfall of the year," Mel said while making groupings of foods for care boxes. "Shoveling and heart attacks. All the warnings in the world just don't seem to help. During an ice storm a couple of years ago, we had a school bus go off the road. Jack and some of the guys rappeled down the hill to them. First responders had to carry the kids up one at a time. Fortunately no one was seriously hurt, but it could've been disastrous. Three years ago, we had a teenager lost and half the town went in search. Oh, Jack!" she said, turning her attention to her husband. "Paul Haggerty called-he's plowing the stretch from 36 into town so if we have to get to the hospital, we can. And once he has access, he'll bring some heavy equipment into town along with the construction company's fuel truck."

"Good. We could get gas out at Buck Anderson's ranch-he keeps a good supply for his equipment-but getting there could be a problem."

Becca felt a sudden surge of panic. "Is there any way to check and be sure Denny got out to the farm all right?"

"I'm sure he did or Jillian would have called asking after him," Mel said. "But go in the kitchen and use the phone. Her number will be in the listing by the phone. Matlock. Jillian Matlock. And then get yourself something to eat-I bet you haven't had breakfast."

Becca worked those crutches very quickly.

"Yes," Jillian said. "Denny and Colin are out clearing, plowing and removing snow from the roofs of the greenhouses. Most of it melted from smudge pots warming the inside, but sometime in the night, the snow and cold overwhelmed us and covered our paths to the greenhouses. How are things in town?"

"Very active," she said. "Everyone seems to be very busy."