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unaware that a certain six-foot cowboy had nudged his way into her life. All Amy had to do was get a job and make a better future for Catherine. One that didn’t involve Nathan Gray.

    Nathan drove along Main Street, taking in the sights and sounds of downtown Bozeman. He hadn’t come into town much over the last few months, except to rescue his wayward brothers when they’d had one too many beers. Or a sister who didn’t want anyone’s help.  
    It was just as well his mom wasn’t home yet. Sale flags hung from nearly every window, enticing bargain hunters into their stores for a little retail therapy before Thanksgiving.  
    Last year their house had looked like a vegetable market. His mom must have bought every glowing three inch pumpkin in Montana. His dad had strung them along the ceiling, over the fireplace and around the staircase, anywhere to keep his wife happy. When he’d switched them on their house looked like it had been taken over by orange aliens from outer space.  
    Not content with glowing pumpkins, his mom had consulted Martha Stewart’s website. She’d built a turkey centerpiece for their table. Every vegetable known to mankind had been used in the two foot high creation. It came complete with a long cranberry neck and enough corn cobs to feed thirty people.  
    This year Sally had been put in charge of the decorations. God help them all if she got a whiff of the bargains flaunting themselves in the stores.
    He turned right, heading to the outskirts of town and toward the one store he felt at home in. Any red-blooded male could be forgiven for dilly-dallying over the merchandise at Jake’s Hardware. It was a man’s store, built rough and rugged like its owner. You wouldn’t find color coordinated rows of frilly stuff in here. No one tried to interest you in a coil of twine if you’d come in looking for an angle grinder. If you wanted a power tool you went to the power tool aisle. You didn’t find them stuck between the door handles and kitchen faucets. And man, you could guarantee you’d find every top notch angle grinder on the market, waiting for your inspection.  
    He moved his rear view mirror to keep an eye on Catherine. As soon as Amy had left the pickup, Catherine’s big brown eyes had fluttered open, staring at him without a care in the world. He’d half expected her to start screaming, but she hadn’t, and he didn’t know if that was a good thing or not.
    He pulled into a park outside the hardware store and stared at the window display. Pumpkins of all shapes and sizes had been stacked around the latest do-it-yourself products to hit the shelves. He peered a bit closer, trying to figure out what had been draped under the pumpkins. A quilt. Not just any quilt, but an orange monstrosity with turkeys and leaves and apples sewn everywhere.  
    Jake had hit rock bottom if he’d given in to the marketing frenzy tearing through every other store in Bozeman. A man didn’t need cute when he walked into this store. He wanted something tough and dependable, with enough power to blow the national gridline to smithereens.
    Unlocking his seatbelt, Nathan looked over his shoulder. A smile lit Catherine’s face. Clapping her hands and arching her body, she let him know she was ready to shop. He grinned at the excitement on her face. “I’ll get your stroller and then we’ll go inside and buy what we need.”
    As soon as he opened his door a gust of ice cold wind tore through the cab. He rushed around to the back of his truck, opened the solid canopy and pulled Catherine’s stroller out. He’d forgotten to ask Amy how to put the thing up, but it couldn’t be hard. He’d seen parents flick them open with one hand.  
    He tried a flick. It didn’t work. Yanking it open wasn’t getting him very far either. His gaze tore over the frame, almost as fast as the wind whipping through his jacket. At the rate he was going he’d have frostbite before the damn thing opened. He peered through