Her Montana Twins

“Whoa. Stop there,” Brody said. “One step at a time.”

“I know. I’m just nudging you a little toward that first step,” she said, turning back to her iPad.

Brody looked over at the pictures and smiled at the toothless grin of the little boy. Of their own accord, his thoughts shifted to Hannah and her twins.

And on the heels of that came Dylan’s comment about taking on that responsibility. He wasn’t so sure he was ready for that.

* * *

“I’d like to call this meeting to order,” Deputy Cal Calloway announced, glancing over the gathering. Rusty Zidek sat across the table from Hannah, fingering his long, gray mustache as he looked over the agenda in front of him. Abigail Rose sat beside him, frowning at Hannah. “And I would like to thank Mrs. Douglas for agreeing to take over from Miss Rose to be our new secretary. Abigail asked to step down, stating her obligation to the Centennial Committee, but we’re glad she decided to stay with us.”

This netted Hannah a wink from Rusty and a sigh of relief from Cord Shaw. Cal gave her a quick smile of thanks, his blue eyes twinkling at her, then he returned to the agenda.

The meeting was being held in one of the smaller rooms adjacent to the council chambers. As Hannah opened the laptop she used to take minutes for the town meetings, she glanced at the time on the top of the screen.

Hannah had promised her mother she would be home by five. It was three-thirty now and she needed to stop at the pharmacy to pick up medication for Chrissy, whose teething pain still hadn’t settled. Plus, she needed more laundry detergent. And juice and a new mop. Her old one had broken on her as she rushed around the apartment last night cleaning up while the twins were sleeping.

As her mental list expanded, Hannah felt another resurgence of sorrow mingled with anger at David’s death. If they hadn’t gotten married so quickly she wouldn’t have gotten pregnant and she wouldn’t be rushing around right now juggling all these obligations on her own.

Hannah dismissed that thought as quickly as it was formulated. She loved her babies. Fiercely. It was just that she wished her babies had a father and that they could have known David.

Her thoughts were broken off by the door opening. As it had the last time, she saw Brody Harcourt, and her heart gave a little jump. It had been almost a week since he had come into the town hall and somehow, ever since then, he had been on her mind. The fire station was only a couple of buildings away and she had caught the occasional glimpse of him when she returned to her place for lunch. But he hadn’t come back to the town hall since that day.

Then, to her dismay, he pulled out the empty chair beside her and sat down. She gave him a nod of acknowledgment, then dragged her attention back to the flickering cursor on the blank screen. She typed a header for the document. Deleted it and started again when she realized her fingers were on the wrong keys. Seriously, she had to get her head in the game. It wasn’t as if Brody was new in town and they had just met.

No, but it was the first time since David’s death any man had shown interest in her.

And you shut him down.

And so she should have. She was a widow with two children who required all her time and attention. And Brody Harcourt was the kind of man who liked to take risks. Not the kind of person she should be attracted to.

She swallowed and focused on Deputy Cal Calloway, who was making a few additions to the agenda. Hannah started typing, mentally sorting and filtering what needed to go in the minutes from what was being said.

“The first item we need to deal with is if we need to do anything more with this note we received.”

“Which note is this?” Brody asked.

“I’ll bring you up to speed, Brody,” Cal said, spreading a piece of paper in front of him. “Cord received this letter a while back. We’re not sure what to do about it.” He rested a hand on the table as he looked down at the paper. “It says, ‘If you want to know what happened to your time capsule, you need to think about L.S.’ Now, we aren’t sure who L.S. is, but we have a suspicion it might be Lilibeth Shoemaker.”

“How did you get the note?” Brody asked.

“It came anonymously to Abigail,” Cord spoke up. “Sent in a dirty envelope. No return address. No idea who brought it.”

“Me and the mayor asked Olivia to look into what was in that time capsule,” Abigail put in, looking self-important. “And we both thought we should keep an eye on Lilibeth.”

“So now we need to decide what to do about this,” Cal said. “As you know, the sheriff’s office is stretched thin, so we’re hoping this committee could help us with this.”

“I say we confront her,” Abigail said, inspecting her electric-blue nails, her glasses glinting in the bright lights of the meeting room. “She was pretty angry about losing that beauty contest. I’m sure she did it to get even and she needs to know you can’t steal stuff belonging to the town.”

“Now, Abigail, we don’t know for sure she is a suspect in spite of her being upset,” Cal admonished her. “And whoever sent this note wasn’t ready or willing to show his or her face. It could just be someone who has an ax to grind with Lilibeth.”

“Or it could be someone who knows something,” Abigail pressed.

Rusty leaned forward, looking over at Brody. “Say, Mr. Harcourt, I noticed at the town hall the other day that Ms. Shoemaker seemed mighty interested in you.”

Hannah was surprised at the twinge of jealousy Rusty’s comment gave her. And why she should even feel that way.

She thought of their conversation in the café last week. How, for a moment, she had felt it again. That slow curl of attraction she hadn’t felt in years.

Brody created a completely different set of emotions that made her feel as if she was being unfaithful to David’s memory.

“She’s a flirt, that’s all,” Brody said, his voice disinterested.

“She’s never flirted with me,” Cord said, grinning as he leaned forward to look past Hannah at Brody.

“Maybe it’s because I’m a romantic, whereas you’re a hardened bachelor who doesn’t believe in love,” Brody retorted. “Which makes me wonder why you’re on that Old Tyme Wedding Committee.”

“It’s because I’m a hardened bachelor,” Cord said with a laugh. “I can view things objectively.” Cord looked back down at the note in front of him, then over to Brody again. “As for Lilibeth, I think you should capitalize on her interest in you. Maybe see if you can find out what she knows. Turn on that Harcourt charm.”

“I think that’s a great idea,” Abigail said, suddenly coming to life. “You could cozy up to her. Find out what she’s been up to. You’re a good-looking guy, she’d be interested in you.”

“I dunno about the good-looking part,” Cord drawled. He gave Hannah a little nudge with his elbow. “We need a second opinion. What do you think, Hannah? Would you be interested in a guy like Brody?”

Hannah could only stare at Cord, her mind going blank as she struggled to think what to say.

“I’m—I’m not Lilibeth Shoemaker, so—so I can’t—can’t say.” She clamped her lips on her stammering response and turned her attention back to the laptop in front of her, wishing her cheeks didn’t feel so warm. She was sure she was blushing.

“I think we should follow through on the note,” Rusty said, folding his gnarled hands over each other, his eyes narrowing as his piercing gaze moved to each member of the committee. “See where it takes us.”

“I’m not going to flirt with Lilibeth,” Brody said, a note of finality in his voice. “It’s not fair to her because I’m not even interested in her.”

His adamant tone created a surprising serenity in Hannah and his “not interested” comment, a tremble of hope.

“And we all know that Book-it Brody doesn’t look back or go where he’s not wanted,” Cord said with a hint of a smile. “Too proud.”

“But Lilibeth is the only one in town we know of with the initials L.S.,” Abigail continued, obviously not willing to let this go. “And what was she doing at town hall?”

Hannah assumed the question was addressed to her. “She was asking about the Miss Jasper Gulch contest,” she said. “She claimed it was rigged and wanted to find out more about it.”

“See. There you go. She’s snooping around. She’s hiding something.” Abigail slapped her hand on the table as she turned to Brody. “I think you’d better check her out, Brody.”

“I have a better idea,” Cord said, his drawl deepening. “Why don’t we get Mr. Harcourt and Mrs. Douglas to speak with her together. That way she won’t be suspicious and it would satisfy Brody’s tender sensibilities.”

Brody shook his head, wondering what Cord was up to. “I don’t know about that, either—”

“I think that’s a great idea.” Rusty cut into Brody’s protest, granting Hannah and Brody an avuncular look. “Why don’t you two take her out for coffee in the next couple of days. Feel her out about the time capsule. It’d be better if the two of you do it. Like Cord said, she won’t be as suspicious.”

“I agree,” said Deputy Calloway before Hannah could lodge her own protest. “We need to deal with this note, and this is the most discreet way to find out if Lilibeth has anything to do with the disappearance of the time capsule. Now, let’s move on to the next item on the agenda.”