A Family By Christmas
Автор
Brenda Novak
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16,3K
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After facing the difficult reality of her marriage, Jaclyn Wentworth leaves her cheating ex-husband and settles in Reno with her three children. Struggling with her new beginning, Jaclyn runs into Cole Perrini, former high school bad boy, now successful in his business and also kind enough to give her a job in his company. Cole is opposite to Jaclyn's ex-husband in every way, but working closely together during the charming Christmas season makes Jaclyn realize this might be exactly what her family needs. As the attraction between them grows, Cole and Jaclyn struggle to keep their relationship professional. Will both open their hearts to this second chance and finally choose each other?
PROLOGUE
THIS WAS IT, the absolute last straw. Jackie Wentworth couldn’t take any more.
Numb, she sat in her new Suburban, the engine idling, as she stared in sickened wonder at her husband’s Dodge Ram with its identifying rodeo bumper stickers. She’d spent hours looking for him, worried when she’d returned home from her friend’s place in Utah a day early to find their bed, their entire section of his parents’ home, empty. Even though it was the middle of the night, she’d driven past his friends’ houses, his two sisters’ houses and gone all the way out to Sand Mountain, his favorite weekend haunt.
But she’d been fooling herself, of course. His dune buggy, or “sand rail,” was still in the garage. She just couldn’t bring herself to believe the worst, at least not at first, not after all the counseling sessions and promises and hard-won confessions they’d been through—and finally, finally the forgiveness she’d managed to wring from her own heart. But here he was, back to his old tricks.
What a waste. Jackie closed her eyes, hoping she’d see something different when she opened them again. But the scene was just the same. Her husband’s truck sat in the dimly lit parking lot of Maxine’s, one of the legalized houses of prostitution that stood neighborless in the barren desert just outside Feld, Nevada.
Behind her, Mackenzie and Alex were wearing their pajamas and fighting over the pretzels Jackie had bought to keep them occupied. Alyssa, the baby of the family at two years old, wailed miserably in her car seat. It was nearly three in the morning. Jackie couldn’t blame them for feeling put out. But she heard the noise they made as though it came from somewhere far away. Her ears were ringing too loudly, her heart thumping too hard, to hear anything clearly.
Opening her door, just in case she was going to be sick, Jackie put her head between her legs and took long, deep breaths. It’s okay. You’re okay, she told herself.
But she wasn’t okay. She didn’t know if she’d ever be okay again. She only knew she’d leave Terry. She’d take the children with her if she had to crawl on her hands and knees and carry the three of them on her back. And this time she wouldn’t let anything undermine her determination.
“Mommy? What’s wrong with you? You look like you’re gonna throw up.”
“Mom, Alex is touching me.”
“Shut up. You’re such a pain.”
“You shut up. You’re the one who started it.”
Jackie couldn’t answer. She straightened, thinking of the movie classic Gone with the Wind. She pictured Scarlett O’Hara crying and angry and shaking her fist at the sky, swearing she’d never go hungry again, and finally understood the depth of that kind of resolve. Because she felt the same way.
“As God is my witness, I will never let myself become so dependent on another human being again,” she muttered.
“Mommy? Why are you talking to yourself? What’s wrong with you?”
“Just leave her alone. Can’t you see she’s sick?”
Alyssa cried louder. “Out, out, out!” she chanted.
“Yes, sweetheart.” Jackie turned, dry-eyed, to face the three of them. “We’re getting out. Soon.” Out of Feld. Out of Nevada. Out of her loveless marriage.
Her words did nothing to placate the baby. Alyssa had no concept of soon, except that it wasn’t now, but Jackie felt infinitely better. Terry thought he had her where he wanted her. Since the car accident that had killed her parents six years earlier, she had no family to speak of. She’d spent what money she’d inherited attempting to leave him once before. And she’d married him right out of high school, so she had no college education, no marketable job skills—and three young children to care for.
What would she ever do without him? How would she make it? They lived with his parents on his father’s ranch. Terry knew he’d inherit the whole operation someday, but they had no real money, not of their own. Her husband hung out with the same guys he’d known in high school, partied nearly as hard and cheated on his wife. And every time he got himself into a scrape, he ran to Daddy.
Her life had turned out so differently from what she’d planned. She’d married Terry Wentworth because she believed in his potential, the sweetness in him. She’d wanted to see him rise to that potential. But at eighteen she probably wasn’t the best judge of character. Since then, she’d realized he was too lazy and too weak to fight the influence of having everything handed to him on a silver platter. He had no determination, no ambition, because no problem was too big for Daddy to solve.
Except this one, Jackie promised. Burt Wentworth was a formidable foe, but if he gave her trouble over the divorce—and she knew he would—she’d fight him.
She thought of marching into Maxine’s to tell Terry so, then decided against it. Why embarrass him? Let him have his fun. Reality would intrude soon enough. But she couldn’t leave without letting him know she knew what he was up to. Otherwise he’d claim she’d seen someone else’s truck in the dark. He’d lie and cry and play the martyr. And she was done with all that.
Backing the Suburban out of the lot and parking it where the children could no longer see Terry’s truck, she surreptitiously retrieved the large hunting knife they kept in the glove box, got out and methodically slashed all four of Terry’s tires. The wheezing sound of escaping air followed her back to the Suburban. By now the baby was quiet, and her older children had stopped fighting, too busy turning in their seats, trying to see where she’d gone.
“What did you do?” Alex asked, as she climbed back in.
Jackie discreetly put the knife away and started the car again. “I just left Daddy a message,” she said.
