My Kind of Christmas

that could pay pretty well for a couple of… But if there are
already enough pickers…”
    “I bet there’s room for one more,” she said, smiling. “Wait
right here a minute.” And she strode off across the yard to the big barn and its
small office.
    Nora turned her eyes up to Noah’s. “Grandmother?” she asked.
“How old is she?”
    “I have no idea,” he said with a shrug. “She’s full of life,
isn’t she? It keeps her young. She’s been a fantastic supporter of the church,
though she doesn’t go to services very often. She says Sundays are usually her
busiest days and when they’re not, she reserves them for sleep. Maxie works hard
all week.”
    “And that’s her grandson?” Nora asked.
    “Yep. She must’ve gotten started early. I think Jack put Tom
at about thirty.”
    “What’s she going to say to him? Because he doesn’t want to
hire me. He took one look at me and pronounced me not strong enough, which is
bull, but… But for that matter, you don’t want me to get the job because even
you think it’s too much for me.”
    “It’s between Maxie and Tom now. And I might’ve been wrong
about this idea. Let’s see what happens.”
    * * *
    Tom Cavanaugh sat at the old desk in the cider press
office for a while after Nora left, completely stunned and disappointed. When
she first walked in, he thought she was a fresh-faced teenager and his immediate
prediction was that Buddy would be after her. She was so damn cute with her
ponytail, sweet face and petite body. When she admitted to being twenty-three
with two children, he couldn’t hide his shock. But worse than the shock—if she’d
told him she was twenty-three and not a single mother, he’d have followed up
with some kind of advance that would lead to a date. He wouldn’t have hired her
because that could have been problematic, hiring someone who sent little sparks
shooting through his body. It would eventually lead to love among the trees,
something that was strictly prohibited. Mostly.
    Tom had spent a lifetime on this orchard and he was aware of
certain employees falling in love among the apple blossoms and harvest bins, but
Maxie had always warned him about the foolishness of that sort of thing. She
said it could be pure bliss, unless it went wrong and turned into pure lawsuit.
But lectures or not, Tom’s first intimate experience with a girl had happened in
this orchard on a sultry summer night right before he went off to college. The
memory could still make him smile.
    And the smile turned to heat as he replaced the young girl of
his past with Nora in his mind.
    Damn, that little Nora was lust at first sight. Her bright
eyes, soft, full lips, splatter of freckles across her nose… Just his type, if
she weren’t married, mothering a couple of kids and divorced by the age of
twenty-three. He was looking for a different kind of woman, a woman more like
his grandmother—settled, smart, a strong moral code. Maxie had been married
exactly once, to his grandfather. She’d been widowed since Tom was in college
and had never remarried, never shown an interest in men after her husband
passed. Not that there were many eligible men in Virgin River…. Maxie had long
been dedicated to the business, the town and her many friends.
    The office door opened and speak of the devil herself, there
stood his grandmother, who he had always called Maxie rather than Grandma. She
tilted her head and twisted her glossed lips. “You didn’t hire that girl, though
she desperately needs a job. She has children to feed.”
    “She probably weighs a hundred and ten pounds soaking
wet.”
    “We don’t hire by weight. And we can afford to be charitable.
I’m going to tell her she has a job. When are you starting the harvest?”
    “Maxie…”
    “When?”
    “I don’t think this is a good idea, Maxie. She could distract
the pickers. The men.”
    Everything inside Maxie seemed to twinkle and Tom knew at once
she was on to him, that she knew exactly who Tom was worried about. But she
didn’t say anything. “Okay, we’ll dock her pay for being attractive. When?”
    “I think August twenty-fourth. My best guess. But, Maxie—”
    “It’s done. She’s a good girl, Reverend Kincaid vouches for
her and I bet she works harder than anyone. Young mothers can be fierce. Hell,
Tom, I still pick apples and I’m seventy-four! You can be a little more
generous.”
    And then she left his office.

ISBN: 9781459244375
    Copyright © 2012 by Robyn