by Linda Conrad
And in the end, he’d hurt everyone involved, mostly Jenna, by insisting they marry and start a family right away. Obviously, he knew next to nothing about love and was better off being done with marriage for good.
Of course, he’d certainly had lots of opportunities to remarry over the years since Callie had taken off. He’d even been in a couple of semiserious relationships, which he’d broken off before anyone got hurt.
Everyone he knew kept trying to fix him up. But he refused to make the same mistake twice in his life.
No, Jenna would always be his first priority. He’d sworn to provide her with all the love she’d missed by not having her mama around. And he refused to take any chances on hurting her even worse.
So he had no intention of falling under some kind of romantic spell with Summer. But she’d made him curious. Itchy to know all about her.
Nothing wrong with scratching that itch, was there?
Before he could start up the engine, his cell rang. Gage’s number appeared. At this hour?
“What do you need, brother?”
“Hello to you too, Travis. Where are you?”
“Just landed at the airstrip. I’m on my way back to the house.”
“I’ll meet you there. I’ve uncovered some intel on Summer’s background that I think you should hear.”
Travis sat there for a moment, contemplating his feelings. He’d just told himself that he wanted to know more about her. But did he want the info coming from his brother, instead of directly from her?
“All right. But don’t come to the house. Meet me at the ranch office in twenty minutes.”
Clicking off, Travis turned the key and the pickup roared to life. Gage and his internet searches were a pain in the neck sometimes. But maybe it would be better hearing the facts from him, rather than pushing to get the information from Summer. He wanted to get closer to her—not shove her into a corner the way he had done with his ex-wife.
* * *
Gage was already waiting for him by the time he arrived at the ranch office and opened the door. His brother’s expression was grim in the ambient glow of the outside floodlights.
“It’s late.” Flipping on the office’s overhead lights, Travis threw his keys on the desk and sat in his favorite chair. “You sure this wouldn’t have waited until tomorrow?”
Gage plopped down on the old leather couch opposite him. “I don’t need much sleep. And I thought you’d want to know what I found as soon as I confirmed it.”
Travis drew a bracing breath. “Please don’t tell me she’s really an escaped ax murderer. If she’s wanted by the law, I don’t want to know.”
With the most somber smile Travis had ever seen on his younger brother’s face, Gage leaned his elbows on his knees. “She’s not a criminal. But the police in Greenwich, Connecticut, are quite familiar with her. The detective I spoke to tonight was glad to know she was okay.”
“Greenwich? Is that where she’s from?”
Gage nodded. “After searching for some kind of tragedy that took place five years ago in the Northeast, I spotted her name in several news accounts and police reports. I hadn’t really expected Summer Wheeler to be her real name, but it is.”
“Of course it is. She’s no liar. I would know that about her.”
Gage raised an eyebrow, but continued with his tale. “She may not be a liar, but I have to say she is a master at understatement. That was some family tragedy she had. More like a colossal disaster.”
Now Travis’s curiosity was reaching a peak. “Quit with the embellishing and give it to me straight.”
“Right. It seems your innocent-looking Summer married into one of the biggest mob families in New England. The cop I spoke with says he’s convinced she didn’t know the truth until it was too late, but I don’t find that credible. Hard not to know what business made your in-laws filthy rich.”
Shrugging a shoulder, Gage went on, “Anyway, she and her young husband were at home, with their six-month-old daughter asleep in her upstairs nursery, on the night when all hell broke loose. A couple of low-ranking soldiers from a competing mob broke into the house, looking to steal money and then make a hit on their rival’s son. They were expecting such a hit would move them up the ranks in their own organization.”
Travis felt his chest constrict. But he tried to breathe normally and listen.
“Apparently, one of these dudes was high, and just plain crazy to boot. After they broke in and tied up the husband, the crazy one decided to…uh…take a taste of the young wife. After he roughed her up a little, the other one panicked, locked her away in the basement and took off running. He’d apparently thought he was just involved in a robbery and didn’t want any part of what his buddy had in mind.”
“How bad was it?”
“No one knows for sure how things went down after that.” Gage blinked a couple of times. “Summer managed to break free of her ties. She didn’t know what to do first, but court documents say her only thoughts were of her sleeping child in the upstairs bedroom. She kept hearing terrible noises coming from above her, and finally she began to smell smoke. That’s when she used her fists to break a window in the basement and crawled outside.”
“Hell.”
“Yeah, it must’ve been for her. The police know she ran next door, half-naked from the earlier abuse and bleeding bad. But by then the fire trucks were already on the way. She turned right around and went back in the house, but she couldn’t manage to fight her way upstairs through the smoke and flames. When the paramedics arrived, one of them had to drag her away from the fully engulfed house.”
Travis did not want to hear the rest of this, though he knew he had no choice but to sit and listen to the worst. He’d wanted to know her secrets.
“It turned out her husband was dead before the fire was set. And the baby died of smoke inhalation. Summer spent four months in the hospital and in rehab for her burned legs and smoke-filled lungs. Then she was in and out of a psychiatric hospital for the next few years.”
Travis could understand her need for mental help. No wonder her eyes burned with intensity sometimes. Like a frightened animal. Now he knew what and who had done that to her.
Clearing his throat, he asked, “Did they catch the creeps that did it?” If not, it would be a struggle not to go after them himself.
“The cops caught up to the crazy one within a few days. He was too stupid to run. The other one apparently was so scared he never stopped running. But, at any rate, it was the crazy one who was the worse of the two. The detective I talked to said they figured the other guy was just a hired hand. He’d actually saved Summer’s life by locking her in the basement.
“The creep they caught stood trial, and Summer’s testimony convicted him.” Gage finished speaking on the end of a breath. “They have the death penalty in Connecticut, but the judge handed him life with no possibility of parole, because there was some question about his mental condition. If the state’s lucky, another prisoner in the prison yard will stick the crazy bastard with a shiv someday soon and end it early.”
Speechless, Travis hung his head.
“Pretty rough, huh? The cop I talked to seemed surprised that Summer had made it this far without a complete mental breakdown. He said he’d figured she was in the funny farm for good.”
“What happened with the husband’s parents?” Travis wondered if they had helped Summer.
“The killings started a local mob war, which left an opening for the FBI to gather evidence. Summer’s father-in-law is now serving time in a federal pen. Her former mother-in-law committed suicide.”
“Then she has no one.”
With a giant push, Gage rose to his feet and loomed over him. “Now, don’t go doing that again.”
“Doing what? What the hell are you talking about?”
“You’re feeling sorry for her and convincing yourself you need to take charge of her life. You can’t save everyone you meet, brother. The whole world needs saving, and it
isn’t up to you to do it all.”
“Ah, shut up. I know I can’t help everyone who needs it. But I can be a friend to those in trouble through no fault of their own, can’t I?”
Gage ran his fingers through his hair. “Geez, Trav. You’d think you didn’t have enough on your plate. What are you going to do with a woman on the verge of being a raving nutcase? Start thinking about your family and the ranch first for a change.”
“That’s not fair. You know my family always comes first.” Travis had had enough of Gage’s admonitions for the moment. “Go home, bro. You may not need much sleep, but I have to be up in less than five hours for another long day. I appreciate your letting me know about all this. But I’ll handle it from here.”
Grumbling, Gage turned to leave. “I’ll go,” he said from the door. “But, remember this—you can’t really help her. She needs professional medical care that you know nothing about. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
Travis refrained from kicking his brother out the door. He knew Gage was only trying to help. But he was grateful when his brother’s truck started up and he was once again alone in his office.
Thinking about the horror story he’d just heard, Travis’s heart went out to the young woman who’d lived through the worst of all fates. She’d lost a child.
If the situation were reversed, if he’d lost Jenna like that, he’d be a raving lunatic. And he would probably be wandering around the country just as she was, trying to find peace of mind.
Summer needed someone. She needed him and she needed Jenna. She needed roots and people who cared. And he was going to see that she got just that.
At least for a while.
Chapter 5
Summer leaned against the door frame of Jenna’s room and watched Rosie tucking her into bed. It had been a long day, and she wondered if she’d made any headway at all with the little girl.
“Say your prayers, baby.” Rosie leaned over and straightened the blanket.
Jenna closed her eyes and folded her hands. “God bless Daddy, Auntie June and all my uncles. And God bless Rosie, Ms. Dowd and my new foal. And, God, please watch out for my mama. She doesn’t have anyone to take care of her.” Jenna opened her eyes reached out for a hug.
“Didn’t you forget someone?” Rosie leaned in and gave her a quick hug. “What about Summer?”
Jenna wrinkled up her nose but quickly closed her eyes and folded her hands. “Dear God, I didn’t think I wanted Summer here, but she makes good stuff. She can stay.”
Summer held in a gasp and then the tear about to escape from the corner of her eye, while Rosie turned out the light and shut the door behind her.
“I guess I passed muster today,” she whispered to Rosie as they walked down the hall.
“I had a feeling she would eventually respond to you. She really needs people in her life who care about her.”
As they walked down the stairs toward the kitchen, Summer asked a question that had been bothering her all day. “I didn’t notice any toys in Jenna’s room. She has pictures of horses on the walls, and there are ropes and other riding paraphernalia stashed around the room. But I couldn’t see any stuffed animals or dolls. Is there a reason for that?”
If Jenna were her little girl, she would have tons of stuffed toys and dolls and doll houses. Emma had at least a dozen soft animals in the few months of her short life. Summer’s dreams were full of them now, along with the other dolls she’d been planning to give her child as she grew into them.
Rosie shook her head sadly. “Jenna asked me to put them away several years ago. Said they were too babyish for her. But, in my opinion, it’s because dolls and stuffed toys remind her too much of the time before her mother left.”
Summer could almost appreciate those sentiments. “What does she think about you leaving?”
“I can feel her pulling away from me. She’s protecting herself from another hurt by shutting me out of her life, slowly but surely. I don’t like it, but I understand. I wish I could do something to make it better, easier for her, but I don’t know what.”
“What does Travis think?”
“You’d have to ask him. I suggested once that he needed to remarry for Jenna’s sake, and he nearly bit my head off. Said he wouldn’t take a chance of hurting his little girl again by getting her hopes too high.”
“That’s an odd thing to say.” It made Summer wonder if Travis had been speaking for himself when he’d mentioned being hurt. And if he was using Jenna as an excuse to protect himself.
Not that it mattered, really. Not to her. She couldn’t let herself be interested in applying for the job as Jenna’s stepmom. It wouldn’t be fair to anyone, in the long run. She’d be afraid of comparing Jenna to her dreams of a lost child. Besides, she’d already blown any chance of a real relationship with Jenna’s father by starting off lying to him.
Rosie bid her good-night and went to bed. Summer wasn’t the least bit sleepy, so she stayed downstairs, hoping Travis would come back early from his trip. He’d said he would try.
She sat at the kitchen table with a cup of hot milk and thought about her last few days in Chance. After they’d driven Jenna to school that first morning, she’d begged Rosie to drive her through town for a while. Wanting a decent excuse to look for the man she’d seen the first day on her way into town, she’d claimed she needed to learn her way around.
Rosie hadn’t minded spending more time in town, saying she had a couple of errands to run anyway. So they’d stopped at a funny old grocery store and picked up supplies, and then they’d gone to a meat processor to retrieve the packaged meats the household had ordered.
During their whole time in town, Summer had kept her eyes trained for any other vehicles. But her mind had wandered. She couldn’t stop thinking about Travis. How he was doing, and if he was giving her any thought. Did he wonder about her as she wondered about him?
She’d hoped to spend some time with him when he showed her around the ranch. But he’d phoned Rosie to say he’d been called away, and her hopes at a few moments alone with him were dashed. He hadn’t even been able to return for dinner.
She’d told herself the problem wasn’t that she was missing him. She couldn’t possibly have become so attached to the man so quickly.
She only wanted to seek his opinions about Jenna—to hear his thoughts about how he desired his daughter to be raised. And about a replacement for Rosie when she left to be married. And had he heard anything from the mechanic about her car? She really needed to do something about that car tomorrow.
But all those varying thoughts hadn’t stopped her from keeping one eye out for the truck she’d seen. The one carrying the man she sought. It hadn’t been at any of the places they’d stopped. So the whole trip to town had been a big waste.
Then, the next afternoon, she and Rosie spent hours cooking and baking. Summer had never seen so much food prepared in one residential kitchen. She’d asked who they were feeding, and Rosie had told her tomorrow was the day of the month Travis always set aside to visit the needy.
Summer couldn’t quite picture that, but she went along with everything Rosie did and helped pack the food up for storage in a big walk-in refrigerator. If she were still here next month, she wanted to be able to show the new housekeeper how things should go.
The days had gone by fast enough, but the nights seemed endless. At midnight, she finally gave up waiting for Travis and went to bed.
* * *
Summer woke up before dawn, feeling cranky and tired. She hadn’t slept well. It wasn’t the bed. The bed was fine—comfortable. The problem stemmed from bad dreams and tossing and turning, worrying about the stupid situation she’d created for herself.
Becoming so involved with the people she’d met in Chance had not been smart. She’d come here for one reason. Not to become entangled in other people’s problems.
Rosie was already in the kitchen, washing a few things in the sink, by the time Summer crawled out of bed, took a shower and
made it downstairs. But the skies were still gray and the sun not fully up. It made her wonder if Rosie had a hard time sleeping, too.
“Good morning,” Rosie said brightly as she handed her a cup of coffee. “Can I fix you something to eat?”
Shaking her head, she replied, “I’ll stick to fruit this morning, thanks. It’s Saturday—when do you think Jenna will be down? Does she sleep late on weekends?”
Rosie chuckled and poured herself a cup of coffee, too. “Jenna already flew through here about a half hour ago, dragging her father along with her. They were headed to the barn to check on the new foal. She’s all excited about naming her little filly.
“I suspect,” Rosie said, easing into a chair at the table, “Travis will try to corral her back here for something to eat before too much longer. Saturday is my usual day off, and I have a million things to do.”
Rosie folded one knee under her and took a sip of coffee. “Travis takes care of Jenna’s meals on the weekends. Or he drops her in town to spend the day with her great-aunt June. I just stopped in to see if you needed anything. Remember where we stored everything we prepared yesterday? You can help Travis load it into the SUV, can’t you?”
“Oh, sure. That’s not a problem. You have a good day.”
Rosie jumped up, a smile lighting up her whole face. “My fiancé’s driving over from San Angelo later. We’ve got an appointment with the preacher to go over all the wedding plans.”
“That sounds nice.” Summer remembered her wedding, and how excited she’d been to start her life with the man she’d thought she loved.
But she’d also had another thought last night and wanted to test Rosie’s response to it. “Uh, are you having a large wedding? Lots of attendants?”
“Not really. Just my sister, coming down from Dallas to stand up for me, and we’ve invited a few friends to be present. And Travis and Jenna, of course. Why?”
“Have you considered including a flower girl? Or a young attendant? Anything Jenna can do. I’d thought if you would involve her more in the wedding, it might help ease her into the idea of you leaving.”