Jane's Long March Home

by Susan Lute

  When she’d come downstairs and informed him the boys were locked in the bathroom, her defenses were firmly locked in place. His attempt to lull her into opening up was met with stubborn silence.

  She’d finished the stack of pancakes and bacon he put in front of her, put her plate in the dishwasher, then staring straight ahead as though giving report to her superior, had informed him she’d be in the barn. All that was missing was a smart-ass salute.

  It irritated him, that bit of unemotional, military formality. He should be glad she was out of his way so he could concentrate on what to do with Bobby and Pete.

  After what he’d seen of her trim waist and that flash of satin skin when she’d opened her bedroom door, he wanted more than just that brief view. Of course, he wouldn’t pursue it, so why was it so hard to get rid of the idea?

  Because Jane Donovan is a hard-headed, contradicting, conflicted, fascinating lady. That’s why, he growled under his breath.

  She’d been on a fishing expedition when she asked about the boys and definitely hadn’t liked his answer. Her sudden interest had him taking another look at the half-formed plan he’d been mulling over of turning the boys over to Beth.

  He was about to go see what was keeping them, when the Marine slowed, then pivoted sharply. Suspicion pricking the back of his neck, Chase leaned forward to see what had caught her attention.

  Swearing, he stepped out onto the porch.

  Making for a trail that cut through the lower pasture, Bobby hovered over Pete, who clumsily used the crutches they’d gotten at the hospital. They must have slipped down the stairs while he was distracted with Jane, descending into the living room where they could escape without being seen.

  He started after them. A movement from Jane stopped him. She’d put on her sunglasses, the ones that gave her that cocky, dangerous look, before sauntering toward the boys as if her hip didn't bother her at all.

  Thumbs tucked in the front pockets of her jeans, she raised her chin to a rakish angle. His traitorous pulse spiked, keeping pace with her calculated steps. Bewitched despite his best efforts not to get caught, he stepped under the shadowed canopy of the apple tree.

  Well, hell. Could he really turn Bobby and Pete over to a system that didn’t always work as well as it should? A crazy idea taking shape, he decided to wait and see how the Marine handled their bid for freedom.

  Keep them from running. The refrain repeated itself over and over in Jane’s head.

  Why? Her pesky heart demanded sharply.

  She knew the answer. Growing up at the orphanage, she’d often been given the newcomers to look after. The Marine Corps had reinforced the nuns’ teaching with its unwritten code to serve and win battles.

  A swagger she’d all but forgotten from her teenage days resurrected itself. “Where are you boys off to?”

  Bobby and Pete eyed her warily, unearthing unwanted memories of how little she’d trusted anyone at their age; how little that had changed over the years.

  “We...um gotta go.” Bobby, his hands balling into fists, planted himself between her and his little brother.

  The June sun overhead promised a hot day. Dirt beneath her boots was hard-packed. A yellow, very pregnant cat slunk out of the barn, off on a hunt through the tall grasses of the pasture.

  “It’s a long walk to town from here.” Taking off her glasses, she squatted, resting elbows on her knees as she swung the shades in slow circles. “You boys got traveling money?”

  Bobby wasn’t about to give anything away, but she could see his mind moving frantically through his options.

  This is what got a person into trouble. Every time. This feeling of being responsible. Of wanting to help. Not being able to walk away. Secretly not wanting to turn out like her mother.

  She should be grateful Kimberly Donovan - that was her mother’s name though she had no face to go with it - hadn’t left her daughter in the garbage bin just down the block from the orphanage. She should be glad the strung-out woman had somehow found the will-power to make it to the orphanage door and ring the bell.

  A much younger Sister Mary Margaret had taken them both in, but it hadn’t taken Kimberly long to decide she preferred the streets and drugs to her baby girl.

  Jane sneered. As a teenager, knowing there was little even her mother had found to love about her, she’d flirted with a life that made Kimberly’s look like a walk in the park. The day she woke up in a stranger’s bed, without a single memory of how she’d gotten there, was the day she’d decided to change roads. It was the day she enlisted in the Corps.

  With a scowl, she firmly disconnected from the old emotions on every level. That was water under the bridge, and she was long gone from it.

  “Do you know where you’re going?”

  Bobby’s brows slammed together. His young face was an open book. Jane used his overdeveloped sense of responsibility against the boy. “How far are you going to get with your brother dragging that cast around?”

  And, who will take care of you? A question she couldn't ask without getting the boy's hackles up. Giving him time to think about it, she glanced down at her nails and studied them. They were cut straight across, with not a lick of polish. The cuticles were smooth and tidy.

  She made her voice just as tidy, as though the boys’ welfare hadn’t that instant become very important to her. “You could stay here.”

  “No!”

  “Russell will let you stay.” She stood and locked gazes with the man who’d approached, quiet as a Stealth bomber, behind the boys. They hadn’t noticed, but Jane had been acutely aware of him from the moment he’d stepped out of the house. “Won’t you?”

  “They can stay.” He said it with a cautious edge, but like he meant it. His willingness to play along opened up a Pandora’s box she didn’t want to have anything to do with.

  Bobby’s mouth turned down in scathing distrust. He motioned Pete to start moving.

  Jane outflanked the teenager to clamp a hand on the little tyke’s shoulder, holding Pete in place. Eventually, the boys might find themselves alone and homeless in a dangerous world, but not on her watch.

  Her sore heart fluttered at the understanding gleam in Russell’s eyes. Her free hand slid into a fist.

  His too perceptive gaze cut to Bobby, but not before a wish that things could be different slipped free of Jane’s tight restraint.

  *

  The next day, bellied up to his desk to get some work done, a cup of black coffee cooled at Chase’s elbow while he considered his next move. He’d thought his days of planning treatment strategies were over, yet here he was working to individualize one for the Marine. That he’d accidentally stumbled across serious ammunition to fight her demons so early in the game was a stoke of pure luck on his part.

  He cursed under his breath. When had Jane stopped being his uncle’s Marine and become a woman badly in need of his help? Was it when she’d put on airs and sauntered toward the boys, her real intentions hidden beneath that sexy swagger of hers? No.

  Maybe it was the moment she’d squatted down at their level and talked to them like equals, as if being there, at that moment, was all that mattered.

  He shook his head at the seductive image. Not that either.

  “Russell, you are one unlucky son,” he muttered, rising to stand at the window.

  It was when he’d come up behind the boys. Though he could tell she knew he was there, her attention remained firmly fixed on Bobby and Pete, her questions not pushing, just curious as she coaxed them into staying. All the while, her thoughts had been directed inward. The isolation she found there littered her gorgeous eyes, betraying a fearful inner landscape.

  He was snared. Well and truly. He would do everything he could to help her. Not because his uncle willed it, but because he’d unfortunately discovered there was more to Jane Donovan than the stoic Marine who’d been sent for him to heal.

  Simply put she intrigued him. There was an intriguing woman hidden beneath all the layers of pr
otection she’d wrapped herself in, and much to his dismay, he wanted to be the one to bring her out of hiding.

  Gus poked his head into the office. “Bad news, Boss. I just got off the phone with Jim Bartlett. He just sold the last of his horses to another buyer.”

  After his run in at the hospital with his neighbor lady, Chase had been vaguely toying with, someday, turning the place into some kind of working ranch, but mulling over the treatment plan he was developing up for Jane, a crazier idea came to mind. “Do you know anyone else who has horses to sell? Sweet-natured, gentle animals?”

  “Maxine Connor has the sweetest animals in the county. She breaks them in real gentle like.”

  Maxine Connor. Of course. Sighing, he gave into the inevitable. “Let’s go see her, then.”

  “What about the youngsters?”

  “Jane can keep an eye on them. Are they still in the barn?”

  Gus raised bushy brows. “Yup. They finished cleaning up the tack room. When I left, they was sweeping out stalls.”

  Grinning, he went to give the Marine the good news that she would be playing babysitter. When he stepped into the cool interior of the large building, the murmur of voices drew him past the stalls, to the back of the cavernous building.

  “You boys do good work. How old are you?” Jane’s quiet, calming tone would coax a grown man out of his last beer. Chase stopped in the shadow of a sturdy support beam to listen.

  “Six.” Pete scrubbed greasy hands on his pant legs. Jane handed the little guy a rag.

  Bobby was slower to come up to scratch. “Thirteen.” his voice cracked on the last syllable, making him flush.

  Chase was impressed with how little effort it took Jane to get useful information from the runaways. He straightened. The woman was more dangerous than the incendiary device that nearly took her out in Madrid.

  “You boys in need of a job? I’m sure Russell could use some extra hands around here.” Amused blue eyes pinned him, her smile full of mocking humor. His heart did a sudden back flip.

  He rubbed the ache at the back of his neck. Pete’s frail thinness, Bobby’s wary determination to protect his little brother no matter what, and the Marine’s cockiness made it near impossible to ignore her challenge to make room for the boys on the ranch.

  How long could he reasonably expect to keep the brothers safely off the streets? He was going to find out. He’d play her game for the time being. But by his own rules.

  Knowing what was there, he looked past Jane. “Did you find the motorcycle?”

  Jane shrugged as though it were no big thing, but there was a glow of excitement in her eyes that hadn't been there when she first arrived on the ranch. “A Harley. Sweet machine. Looks like it’s been abandoned.”

  “It was here when I bought the place. Must have been left by the previous owners.”

  She looked longingly at the big bike. “I’d love to buy this baby from you.”

  The sudden wish that she’d look at him with the same longing was completely irrational. But mixed with the sweet scent of vanilla she wore, the sharp smell of used motor oil and hay; the volatile combination had his blood pumping big time.

  Get a grip, buddy. “I’m sure we can come to some kind of arrangement.” Dragging his attention away from the sexy lady, Chase addressed the boys. “I’ll pay good wages if you're willing to work hard.”

  “You’d pay us?” The cautious hope sprouting on Bobby’s face was one more link in the chain binding Chase to a situation he would have bet, just that morning, he would have had no intention of shouldering.

  He shouldn’t do it. Was absolutely certain there would be ramifications down the road he couldn’t foresee. But it was too late to change his mind. Deep in his gut he knew Jane needed these kids as much as they needed a safe place to land.

  “I expect a good day's work.”

  Bobby hesitated, but not for long. “Okay Mister, you’ve got a deal.”

  Jane’s look of approval lured him in. About to dive headfirst into those compelling blues of hers, he pulled himself back just in time. “I have to go see about some horses. I want you to watch the boys.”

  The sassy smirk left her face. “That's not part of our deal.”

  “It is now. You know the homework I mentioned earlier? We’ll discuss what it entails when I get back.”

  Sidestepping the picture of an unlikely family that mushroomed in his head, with ground-eating strides Chase walked as quickly as possible away from the scowling lady Marine, who was making a mine field of the simple, quiet life he’d left Seattle and a thriving practice to find.

  CHAPTER

  VII

  “Bobby and Pete were asleep before their heads hit the pillow. I appreciate you watching them for me today.”

  He’d crept up on her. Jane opened her eyes at the husky voice that scraped an unwanted tremor of need up her spine. He leaned against the porch railing, his feet crossed at the ankles, arms folded over his chest. The snaps of his shirt were open, revealing a sprinkle of dark hair.

  She gave the porch swing a firm push. She was not going to fall into the trap of being charmed by her therapist. She was on the ranch to get whole and healthy, so she could return to her duties, prepared to handle any situation the Corps threw at her.

  In the meantime, to stay on her toes, she had no qualms lobbing a few shells into the Doc’s camp. “You didn’t give me much choice.”

  He met her accusation with a level gaze. “No, I suppose I didn’t.”

  Thunder clapped overhead, followed quickly by fat drops of rain plopping on the roof of the porch. The patter wrapped them in a cozy intimacy that had a faint flush warming her cheeks.

  “Did you get the horses?”

  “The lady’s thinking it over.”

  Lady? Out of nowhere jealousy pricked Jane, which made no sense. Chase Russell didn’t belong to her in that way, and never would. Quickly dismissing the unreasonable resentment, she raised an inquiring eyebrow.

  “My next door neighbor, Maxine Connor, has a few horses to sell. She’s just not all that keen on selling them to a city boy.” For the first time since she met him, Russell smiled. A genuine smile that made it to his gorgeous eyes, then reached out to her. “Her words. Not mine.”

  Her stomach plummeted. She gave the rocker another push, trying not to notice how truly hot the man was with his jeans riding low and his feet bare.

  “You could get them from someone else.”

  “I could, but Gus says Maxine has the sweetest horses in the area.” He paused, then without explaining why that was important, changed the subject entirely. “You were good with the boys this morning.”

  She shrugged. “I’ve had a little experience.”

  “At the orphanage?”

  Jane stared at him. Russell was just doing what he’d agreed to do. His job.

  “Sister Mary Margaret liked the older kids to help out.”

  On a sudden, crazy impulse, she left the swing and joined him at the railing. Her thigh brushed his. A spark of acute awareness snapped along sensitized nerves like a loose high voltage wire. She sucked in a breath as his outdoor, woodsy scent pushed her into wanting more.

  Don’t be stupid. She shoved her hands into her front pockets.

  “Were you ever able to find out anything about your mom, or her family?” Russell’s smoky tone was easy, more like one friend talking to another than a counselor engaged in talk therapy with his client, which was what this little impromptu conversation had turned into.

  Everything about Chase Russell was unexpected. His clean good looks. The way he reluctantly took the lost under his protective wing. How he was looking at her now, as though he was really interested in Jane the person, not just Jane the wounded Marine he had to fix.

  Didn’t the Doc know he was supposed to set a time and place for these little chats, not pounce on her whenever the whim struck?

  “There’s nothing to know. When it was more important for my mother to get her next fix than it wa
s to be a mom, she left. And she didn’t leave behind any dear daughter letters to explain why she left me with strangers.” She pushed away from the railing, the man and the memories.

  He stopped her with a restraining hand, fanning the heat curling in her belly. One finger stroked her jaw, leaving a trail of fiery maelstrom in its wake. “I’m sorry.”

  Tired of fighting her attraction, she gave him a crooked smile. “You don’t have to be. That was a long time ago, and the Corps is my family now.”

  His hands dropped as his brows came together. “That’s good.” He didn’t look convinced.

  Perhaps it’d been a mistake to think she could go toe to toe with Russell and not get burned. In her own defense, she was fighting a war on three fronts. “What’s this homework you mentioned?”

  “Like I said, you did a good job watching over the boys today. Your homework should you decide to take it-” Humor eased the frown from his handsome face. “-is to find out their real names and where they came from.”

  From somewhere deep inside Jane came a sudden wish that the man wasn’t her therapist. It would be a novelty to be the girl next door with no worries. The one who was dating the hunky neighbor guy.

  She’d never had the chance to be that fresh, innocent girl, who’s dream was a picket fence and a family of her very own that included a husband she could count on and love to distraction. And while she was dreaming big, why not add four happy children, a cat and two dogs to the picture?

  But, she wasn’t that girl.

  Gunny, step away from the good doctor.

  Intending to put some distance between her and the unlikely image he seemed to have of her as the boys’ guardian angel, and the illusion that they could all make one big happy family, she edged away from Russell.

  She’d meant it sincerely when she’d promised herself she would jump through any hoop he asked her to, but that hadn’t included taking on two runaway kids, who needed more help than she was capable of giving. Or, becoming responsible for getting strategic intel from them.