Montana Love Letter Read online

  Settling back in the pew, Janelle admired the stained-glass window behind the altar where the small choir sat. The scene depicted Jesus kneeling in prayer in Gethsemane.

  Knowing Raeanne might get restless, she’d brought along an activity book to keep her occupied. Before long, Rae and Hailey were playing silent games of tic-tac-toe and “find the object.”

  By the time the service ended, Janelle felt refreshed by her communion with the Lord. This was the first church service she’d attended since Raymond’s funeral, and it felt good to be back in the fold.

  As they left the sanctuary and stepped out into the warm summer day, Adrienne Walker stopped her.

  “I do believe that was you I heard singing, my dear. You have such a lovely soprano voice.”

  Janelle flushed. “Thank you.”

  “If you decide to stay in Bear Lake long, I do hope you’ll consider joining our choir. So many of our members are getting older now and their voices are deepening. We’re out of balance with too many altos and basses.”

  Janelle had noticed the soprano section was particularly thin. “It’s kind of you to invite me. I enjoy singing but I don’t have a trained voice, and I haven’t sung in a choir since high school.” Although she had had the lead in the student musical her senior year. “If I do stay in Bear Lake, I’ll certainly consider it. Of course, I’d need a babysitter for Raeanne.”

  “I’m sure something could be worked out. We rehearse on Thursday evenings.”

  “I really don’t know yet what my plans will be.” Nor did she know when she’d feel comfortable again leaving Rae with a sitter.

  “Keep us in mind, dear, if things work out.” With that, Adrienne scooted off to speak with another member of the congregation.

  “Come on, Rae,” Hailey said. “I’ll race you to the truck.” The two of them dashed off as though they’d just escaped from solitary confinement.

  “Watch out for cars!” Janelle called after them, but they were already on their way, galloping across the parking lot.

  “They’ll be fine.” With his hand at her back, Adam nudged her toward his truck. “I’d say the pastor’s wife intends to hog-tie you and drag you into the choir whether you want to go or not.”

  “I think a pastor’s wife must be required to take a class in recruiting volunteers for church functions.”

  “In that case, I’d guess she got an A plus.”

  Janelle laughed. “The truth is, assuming I stay here in Bear Lake, I would like to sing in the choir. But I haven’t left Raeanne alone since—”

  “Since your husband died?”

  She nodded.

  “I understand. It’s hard to adjust after you lose someone you love.”

  Even harder when it turned out the one you loved didn’t love you in return. Certainly not exclusively.

  * * *

  After a quick lunch, Adam went into the garage and sat down at his desk. He had to figure out this tax business before things got any worse. And they would get worse. He’d finally deciphered the letter from the IRS. He was expected to appear at a hearing just weeks away.

  Chances were good that if he didn’t have some answers by then the lien on the bank account would be the least of his worries. He’d be behind bars.

  He got out the paperwork and turned on his computer, pulling up his tax return. For a moment he stared at the monitor. The numbers swam across the screen like minnows fleeing a largemouth bass.

  He blinked and knuckled his eyes. When he looked again, the image of Janelle appeared superimposed over the tax return. Smiling at him. Her lips slightly parted. A hint of laughter in her eyes.

  An ache tightened in his chest, and a rush of wanting caught him by surprise.

  Shaking off the sensation, he chided himself for even thinking about Janelle. He had the IRS to worry about. The fact that she and her daughter seemed to fit so perfectly with him and Hailey wasn’t worth considering. He barely knew the woman. She had her own issues to work out, needed to make a home for her daughter. Needed to start over clean.

  No way would she want to get tangled up in his life.

  Gritting his teeth, he forced himself to drag out the stack of invoices from last year and his bank records. He’d start over, too. If he concentrated hard enough, he’d get it right this time. He picked up a pencil and found a lined notepad.

  He wasn’t a stupid guy. He could do this.

  Immediately his palms began to sweat. His fingers cramped around the pencil. Pain crept up the back of his neck. Just like it always had when he’d taken tests in school.

  But this time he couldn’t fake the answers.

  There was no question. He needed help.

  He could take this pile of gibberish to one of the

  Rotary guys who was a CPA, but then he’d have to explain why he couldn’t handle his own record-keeping.

  There were probably lots of accountants in Missoula or even Kalispell who could do the job for a fee. But in many ways, western Montana was one small community. Word would get back to Bear Lake.

  The heat of shame rose up his neck. He’d worked so hard, so many years, to keep his secret.

  Somehow he’d have to do it himself.

  He didn’t know how long he’d struggled trying to make sense of his records when he heard a light rapping on his open office door. He looked up to find Janelle smiling at him.

  “I’ve packed up our things and put them in your loaner car, so we’re about to leave. It’s almost three. We can check into the motel now.”

  “Oh, yeah.” He spun his chair around and stood. He tossed his pencil on the pile of invoices. Janelle was leaving and suddenly he didn’t want her to go. “I guess you’ll need the key, won’t you.”

  Her lips twitched. “I imagine it goes faster with the engine turned on.”

  “You could always ask Rae to push while you steer.”

  She laughed. “I’m sure she’d be willing to try, but I don’t think we’d get very far.” Her gaze skipped to his cluttered desk and the mess he’d made of things. “Looks like you’re having a bad bookkeeping day.”

  “Yeah, I am.” He tucked his fingertips into the pockets of his jeans. He didn’t think he’d ever had a good bookkeeping day. “Numbers just aren’t my thing. They make me crazy.”

  “Is there something I can help you with? We don’t have to be at the motel right at three o’clock.”

  “No, that’s—” He mentally stepped on the brakes. He had a problem and needed help. Janelle needed a part-time job and a place to stay while she house hunted. Maybe, just maybe...

  He shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “Look, I just had an idea. I’m sort of in trouble with the IRS. I messed up my tax return, I guess.” Big-time! “Maybe we could help each other out. You stay in the cottage for as long as you need to while you’re house hunting, and in your spare time you can straighten out the mess I’ve made with my taxes. I could pay you whatever you think is right.”

  Janelle’s jaw dropped. He was offering her a place to stay and a job?

  “I...I don’t know.” Her gaze fell on his desk. A chaos of paperwork covered the top, and one drawer was so full it couldn’t be closed. On some level that much disorder offended her sensibilities, and her fingers itched to straighten out the mess. Fix it.

  “You and Rae would be a lot more comfortable here than at the Pine Tree Inn,” he pointed out. “Not that it’s a bad motel. But here you have the run of the house. The lake’s right at your doorstep.” He shrugged as if it should be the easiest decision in the world.

  It should be, except that staying in such close proximity to Adam was far too tempting. “Isn’t there an accountant here in town?”

  “Sure there is.” He took a couple of steps toward her. His eyes looked tired, his hair mussed. “Except
I don’t like everyone in town to know my business. You seem like someone who could keep stuff confidential.”

  She sensed there was more to his story than he was telling. “Just how much trouble are you in with the IRS?”

  He shifted his gaze to a couple of cars in the garage that were waiting for repair and cleared his throat. “They’ve put a lien on my bank accounts. There’s a hearing in a couple of weeks. If I don’t have my books in order by then...”

  He left the thought hanging, but Janelle knew that it would mean big problems for him. With fines and penalties, the problems could be big enough to bankrupt him. She wondered how he’d gotten himself into such a deep hole.

  “I only took one class in tax accounting in college, and that was years ago. Beyond that, I’ve done the family taxes and my husband’s business returns.” She eyed the paper maze on the desk again. Would she even be able to find the bottom of the pile? “I’m not all that experienced if you’ve got a complicated return.”

  He brought his gaze back to hers. “There are a couple of schedules for the business. Not much else. It shouldn’t be that hard. I’ve got one of those computer programs that’s supposed to do all the adding and stuff.”

  Then why couldn’t he do it himself? Because he’d established no sense of order? Or was he simply averse to dealing with the IRS?

  She worried a loose button on her blouse, trying to think what she should do. Free rent for a month or two plus a little cash would help her stretch her funds. She already knew Rae didn’t want to leave Hailey; she’d become quite attached to the girl in just two days. So had Janelle, for that matter.

  And she would enjoy the challenge of putting things right in Adam’s financial world.

  But the real kicker, the thing that made Janelle want to agree to stay the most, was that Adam had an uncanny way of getting Raeanne to relax. To be herself. To speak, however haltingly. How could she walk away from that?

  She took a deep breath. “All right, I’ll stay.”

  “Great!” The strain around his eyes and the tightness of his shoulders visibly eased.

  “Tomorrow you can show me what you’ve got. If it’s too complex a tax return for me to handle, I’ll tell you.” Or if it would be better to light the desk on fire and start over. “Then you’d have to find someone else. I have no desire to get you into more trouble with the IRS than you’re already in because of my inexperience.”

  “It’s a deal.”

  He extended his hand and she took it. His palm was rough and calloused, his grip firm. His smile reached his eyes, crinkling the corners. His dimple appeared and she couldn’t help but wonder where this deal would lead them.

  * * *

  By Monday afternoon, Janelle realized she had a serious challenge on her hands. Two of Adam’s tax returns were being questioned by the IRS. Numbers didn’t match. Business expenses were twice what they had been three years ago. Income was down, expenses up.

  He’d paid some taxes, but on the surface it appeared not nearly enough.

  Unless she could justify the income vs. expenses.

  Considering the number of cars and trucks that had been brought into the shop this morning, Adam’s garage was a thriving business, but his record-keeping was a disaster.

  Bills and receipts weren’t separated. She dug around in the stack of paperwork on his desk for the better part of an hour to come up with all the monthly bank statements. Little wonder the IRS questioned his returns.

  She looked up when he stepped into the office. He stood in the doorway a moment, wiping his hands with a blue cloth, looking amazingly macho in his overalls. Her late husband had always been well-groomed, most often wearing a tie and a sport coat, his hair carefully styled. She wondered why she’d thought his appearance had been so important when Adam’s more earthy look now seemed so much more virile.

  “How’s it going?” he asked.

  Mentally, she pushed her inappropriate thoughts aside. “Clearly there are some—” she searched for a diplomatic word that wouldn’t offend him “—inconsistencies in the recent tax returns. I’m going to have to go back three years and re-create that tax return, which looks okay, then move forward through the next two years.”

  “Big project, huh?”

  “It’s going to take a while, I’m afraid. I’d like to reorganize pretty much everything and start fresh.”

  Looking down, he scuffed the toe of his work boot on the concrete floor. “I really botched things, didn’t I?”

  “Tax returns can be tricky.” Particularly for a man who worked with his hands and lacked a talent for record-keeping. She suspected his late wife handled the latter for both the garage and household. Her passing away had put him in a bad spot, not only emotionally but at a practical level for someone running a business.

  “Dad! Dad!” Hailey, closely followed by Raeanne, raced full speed into the garage. “Can we go swimming at the lake? Can we?”

  “Slow down, young lady. Who is we? And where are you going?”

  Hailey shot a glance in Janelle’s direction. “Rae wants to go swimming, and we thought maybe her mom could take us there.”

  Janelle’s lips twitched. “It’s Rae’s idea to go swimming?”

  “Well, no.” Her cheeks coloring, Hailey checked with her dad. “But I asked her and she nodded yes.”

  “You know what?” Janelle straightened the pile of papers on the desk as best she could. “I think I could use a break. A picnic lunch and a swim would be a perfect way to spend the afternoon.”

  Hailey cheered and Rae grinned.

  “If it’s all right with your father,” Janelle added.

  “Sure.” He shrugged. “Sounds like a good way to keep this demanding duo out of my hair.”

  Hailey threw herself at her father and hugged him. “Thank you, Daddy.”

  Janelle smiled at the obvious love Adam and his daughter shared. Her own father had been mostly an absentee dad before his death. She hadn’t had a chance to develop such a close bond as Hailey and Adam had.

  Her chest suddenly ached with regret. Raeanne hadn’t had much of chance with Raymond, either. And now there was no chance at all.

  * * *

  The following morning, Janelle decided she couldn’t delay her search for a house any longer. As comfortable as both she and Raeanne felt living in Adam’s cottage, she wanted to be settled by the time Rae started school at the end of August.

  Granted, she’d done some preliminary searching on her laptop for homes in the area. But that wasn’t the same as actually seeing the real estate.

  She’d house hunt in the mornings and work on Adam’s tax returns in the afternoon.

  He gave her the name of a Realtor, and she called ahead for an appointment. Despite Janelle’s warning that they might get bored, the girls insisted they come with her.

  Lake Country Realty was located on the main highway just south of town. It occupied a small log cabin with pictures of houses and properties for sale featured on a bulletin board by the front door.

  Janelle opened the door and herded the girls inside.

  A slender woman in her forties, dressed in casual slacks and a jacket, met them with a welcoming smile.

  “Hello there, you must be Ms. Townsend.” She nodded to the girls. “I’m Sharon Brevik. We talked earlier.”

  Janelle introduced Raeanne. “You may already know Adam Hunter’s daughter, Hailey. We’re staying at his cottage while he’s repairing my car.”

  Sharon said hello to the girls. “I’ve known Adam forever. Best mechanic around and a genuinely nice guy.” The slight lift of her brows suggested she was more than a little curious to know if there was something going on between Janelle and Adam other than car repairs.

  “Yes, he does seem to be all of that. He recommended I see you about buying a hous
e.”

  “Perfect. Let’s get started.”

  They all sat around Sharon’s desk, which was covered with for-sale flyers, escrow papers and who knew what else. On the one clear corner of the desk sat a photo of Sharon and her family.

  She began by asking what sort of house Janelle was looking for and her price range.

  After they spoke for a while, Sharon said, “Since you’re not familiar with the area, why don’t I take you on an orientation tour? We’ll drive by some houses that are currently for sale and I’ll tell you about the neighborhood, where the schools are and so on.”

  Nearly three hours later, the girls were beginning to squirm in the backseat of Sharon’s car. Janelle was developing a headache. They’d driven through the upper lake district, along the east shore, as far south as Polson and back to Bear Lake, while skirting the Indian reservation and national forest land. Finally they returned to Lake Country Realty.

  The girls couldn’t wait to get out of the car. Neither could Janelle.

  “You’ve given me a lot to think about,” she told Sharon. “I’m going to have to get the girls some lunch then think about this.”

  “Call me whenever you want to narrow down the choices.”

  Janelle agreed, then took the girls to the Pee Wee Drive-In and got them all burgers and shakes. It was not generally her preference for healthy eating, but the girls had been so well behaved that she felt they deserved a treat.

  Back at Adam’s house, while the girls decided to eat down by the dock, she went directly inside and collapsed on his leather couch.

  A few minutes later, she heard the sliding door open.

  “You were gone a long time.”

  At the sound of Adam’s voice, she opened one eye. His mechanic’s overalls had picked up a grease stain on the right shoulder. “Do you have any idea how many thousands of acres the greater Bear Lake area covers?”

  One side of his mouth hitched into a grin. “Generally speaking, yeah.”