“What a mess!”
“You can say that again, honey.” Leslie patted Cory’s arm.
“How come the driver rammed into the building?”
“Your dad said he was a bank robber from Jackson who killed the real driver to get away from the police. By the time he reached Moose, the police and rangers had him blocked so he couldn’t go forward or backward, so he drove into the center.”
“Is he dead?”
“No. He’s at the hospital being treated for cuts before they take him to jail.”
Samantha leaned forward. “Was anyone in the center hurt?”
“No. None of the skeletal crew were in the reception area at the time of the accident.”
“That was a blessing.” The thought of anything happening to Nick made Samantha ill. On the other hand, the fact that he hadn’t been out with a woman all night made her so euphoric she wanted to shout for joy.
“You’re right,” Leslie murmured, sounding shaken by the threat to her husband’s safety. Who could blame her?
Jessica bit her lip. “Thank goodness Dad’s and Pierce’s offices are down on the other end.”
“Can we go look inside?”
“We don’t have time, Cory honey, but your father will show us around later. Right now we need to take Samantha to Grayson’s so she can book a cabin for next weekend. Then we’re going to have breakfast in Jackson before we take her to the plane.”
Cory looked over his shoulder at Samantha. “I wish you didn’t have to go home today. Will you play Dragon Ball Z with me again when you come next weekend?”
“I’d love to,” she exclaimed before Leslie could say anything. “Maybe we could all go to a movie in Jackson on Saturday after the school party. And later, you could come to my cabin with Lucy. We’ll play games, eat pizza and have another sleepover.”
“Goody! Can I, Mom?” he begged.
“Are you sure?” Leslie asked Samantha, eyeing her through the rearview mirror. “After being up all night with the girls, you may be too exhausted.”
Samantha appreciated the other woman’s concern. Undoubtedly Nick had told Pierce and his wife about her medical history.
“We’re positive, aren’t we, Jessica!” she declared in an attempt to reassure Leslie she was fine. Getting involved in her daughter’s life was the greatest thing that had happened to her in thirteen years.
Jessica looked starry-eyed. “It’ll be perfect.”
“How come you have to go home today?” Cory demanded.
“Because I’ve got a court case in the morning to prepare for.”
“Did somebody do something bad?”
“They want to. I’m asking the judge for an injunction to stop loggers from building a road.”
“What’s an injunkshun?”
“It means I want him to tell those people ‘No, you can’t build a road there.”’
“Where do they want to put it?”
“In the Kelly Creek area.”
“Where’s that?”
“In the Wild Clearwater country in north-central Idaho. They call it the Yellowstone of Idaho. Every time a new road is built, it ruins the habitats of the animals, and brings people who pollute the clean air and water. More roads mean more mining, all of which destroys the rivers and streams.”
“Dad says that’s really bad.”
“Your father’s right, Cory. We all have to fight to preserve the environment.”
Jessica eyed her mother. “Dad could use you to fight for the Endangered Species Act.”
“Why hasn’t he hired an attorney before now?”
“The funding has been cut off except for necessities. Pierce has asked the governor to do something about getting extra money for one. I’m a reporter on the school newspaper staff covering issues that Teton Park has to deal with,” Jessica told her.
“Good for you! My daughter the nature activist!”
Leslie chuckled. “Living in the park is turning me into one, too.”
“Isn’t it unfortunate that everything always comes down to money,” Samantha mused aloud. Nick had to be frustrated out of his mind.
“Look, Mom. There’s Grayson’s! I’ll get Sandy to ask her dad to give you the corner cabin. It’s the biggest one, and has a picnic table along the window where we can play games.”
Samantha’s gaze swerved to the grouping of white-trimmed guest cabins, very rustic and cozy-looking with curls of smoke rising from some of the chimneys. The Tetons formed a breathtaking winter backdrop. She couldn’t wait to stay here.
She never wanted to leave….
NICK CAME AWAKE all of a sudden, which was strange because the house seemed quiet as a tomb. He glanced at his watch. One-thirty?
Sam. She was supposed to be on the noon plane!
His adrenaline surging, he jackknifed into a sitting position and checked his alarm. It was pushed in. He distinctly remembered setting it for eight o’clock before collapsing into bed after the all-nighter at the visitors’ center.
Had he heard it go off and then gone back to sleep?
Pulling on the bottoms of a pair of gray sweats, he hurried out of the room. The bed in Jessica’s room was made up, with no sign of Sam or her suitcase. Further investigation proved no one was in the house.
His daughter had left him a message in the usual place.
Dear Dad, Leslie came and got all of us in her car. We’ve gone to Jackson to have brunch at the Moran Grill, then we’ll take Mom to the airport. Cory wants to go ice-skating later, so we might do that. When you get up, there’s plenty of roast to make sandwiches, and there’s chocolate mint cake in the fridge, too. Enjoy your day. Love, Jessica.
Nick reread the note. Enjoy my day?
What daughter was this?
Certainly not his little guardian of hearth, home and family. Not the little worrywart who until yesterday needed to know his every move ahead of time if it was at all possible.
He couldn’t ever remember having this kind of luxury to be alone in his own house, knowing Jessica was feeling totally secure away from him.
Security.
That’s what Sam had given their daughter by entering her life. But if she didn’t stay in remission, the thought of what it could do to Jessica was too terrible to contemplate.
Nick bowed his head. Right now he’d be ungrateful to entertain negative thoughts. He’d done too much of that since the moment Sam had signed over their daughter to him. That kind of thinking got you nowhere.
Seize the day, Kincaid. He was a free agent for a few hours. He intended to make the most of them.
Before another minute passed he needed to call Melanie. But when he reached for the receiver in the kitchen, he couldn’t bring himself to punch in the Hollisters’ number. What would he say to her if she hadn’t left yet?
You’re a very nice, attractive woman who will make some lucky man a wonderful wife?
Maybe it was a blessing she’d overheard the ranger talk about Jessica’s mother being in Moose. Melanie wasn’t looking for a man with baggage. At least this way she wouldn’t view last night’s experience as a personal rejection.
Better to leave it alone and wait to thank Rex and his wife tomorrow when things were back to normal.
There was that word again. He shook his head. There was nothing normal about anything. Who was he kidding?
What he ought to do was call Gilly King. If she were free for lunch tomorrow, then he would avoid wasting time driving out of his way to see her, only to discover she wasn’t there.
He headed for his bedroom where he kept a master list of phone numbers. After sinking down on the side of the bed, he picked up his cell phone and dialed the Mammoth ranger station.
The ranger who answered said she was off duty, but she’d be back on first thing in the morning. If Nick wanted to leave a message, the other man would make sure she got it.
Nick gave him his name and number asking her to call, then he hung up.
Normally he’d be starving by n
ow, but for some reason he couldn’t understand, he wasn’t that hungry. He went to the living room for the Sunday paper, but the headlines with their usual attacks against the president bored him.
He threw it down on the coffee table, deciding to take a shower. Once he’d dressed, he would drive the car over to the gas station and fill it up so he could take off early in the morning.
Twenty minutes later he pulled up to one of the self-serve pumps. When Bill Hughes saw him from the doorway, he walked over. “How are you doing, Nick?”
“I’m good. How about you?”
“Can’t complain.”
“When Jessica’s mother asked me to fill the tank with gas yesterday, for a moment I thought it was Jessica at the wheel. You could have knocked me over. Now I know why your daughter is such a little beauty.”
Bill was the second person to tell him Sam had been driving around in his car yesterday. With her red hair and blue eyes, she was impossible to miss. Certainly Nick hadn’t been immune to her charms the first time he’d seen her in the Lory Student Center. She’d stood out like a heavenly scented candle glowing in a dark room.
“Excuse me a minute, Bill,” Nick muttered. He removed his hand from the gas hose and got back in the car to turn on the ignition. One glance and he could see the gas tank no longer registered empty. He hadn’t even noticed on the drive over!
Jessica knew where he kept an extra set of car keys. She must have prevailed on Sam to drive them to the store, and Sam had realized it was almost out of gas. Nick had assumed they’d walked to the grocery store.
He turned to Bill. “Did she charge it to my account?”
“No. She tried to pay me cash, but I told her to forget it.”
“That was very nice of you, but I’ll take care of it now.” He pulled a twenty dollar bill out of his wallet and tucked it in the chest pocket of Bill’s uniform.
Nick could tell Jenny’s father was dying to ask questions, but he managed to refrain. It was just as well, since Nick was in no mood to answer them. In twenty-four hours, Sam had made a shambles of the ordered world he’d taken years to build.
“Thanks, Bill. See you later.” He shut the door and drove off. Without knowing what he was doing, he ended up in Pierce’s driveway.
To his surprise his friend’s garage door suddenly opened and he saw the taillights of his truck flash red.
Nick honked so they wouldn’t collide.
Pierce stood on his brakes. In the next instant he jumped down from the cab and walked out to the car. He shot Nick an ironic grin.
“We’d really make history if one of our young rangers happened to drive by and see the latest in a series of car-truck accidents within park boundaries. It would get back to Lewis Fry from the cable network, who has already sensationalized last night’s story to the limit of his ability.”
A sound of exasperation escaped Nick’s throat. “I should have phoned first, but I didn’t know I was coming over here until I pulled in your driveway. Now that I think about it, I left my cell phone on the nightstand.”
“That explains why I couldn’t reach you.”
Sensing something was wrong, Nick sat up straighter. “What’s up?”
Pierce’s blue eyes studied him for a moment. “Jess admitted to Leslie that she turned off your alarm so you could sleep.”
“That little monkey.” She’d never done anything like that before. But then Sam had never been in Jessica’s life before. Her presence had turned his daughter’s life inside out just as thoroughly as his. “Leslie shouldn’t have had to worry about getting Sam to the airport.”
“My wife wanted to do it. It gave them a chance to get acquainted. When I couldn’t reach you on the phone a few minutes ago, I thought either you were still dead to the world or…you were at the Hollisters’.”
Nick stared back at him as they communicated without words. “Now you know.”
“Yup. In that case, how would you like to go to Jackson? The kids should be through ice-skating by the time we get there. Cory wants to get hamburgers at Shiver’s. I thought we’d join them.”
“I’ll drive,” Nick said without having to think about it.
“Give me one second.” Pierce moved his truck back into the garage, then joined Nick. “Let’s get out of here.”
“I owe Leslie for this.”
“No you don’t. Samantha booked a cabin at Grayson’s for next Saturday night following the school party.” Nick’s body quaked. Sam was coming for the whole weekend? “She has already asked to let Cory sleep over with her and Jess. He was ecstatic when he told me about it on the phone.
“My son has always been crazy about your daughter. Now it seems Samantha has made a real hit with him, too, which is no small feat as we both know. Since he’s all excited about it, Leslie and I have decided we’re going to enjoy a mini honeymoon at the house.”
Nick cleared his throat. “That’s good. You two need it and deserve it.”
“With Jess taken care of for the weekend, it looks like you’ll be free to do whatever you want for a change.”
Whatever I want. I wish I knew what that was.
You’d better figure it out fast, Kincaid. Otherwise you’re facing the weekend from hell.
CHAPTER EIGHT
AS JESSICA ENTERED the kitchen from the garage ahead of Nick, they both heard his cell phone ringing.
“That’s probably Mom! She promised to call and let me know she got back to Coeur D’Alene safely. I’ll get it!” Jessica was off like a shot.
He glanced at the clock on the wall. Seven-thirty. While they were eating hamburgers, Cory had informed Nick that Sam’s plane had taken off at one. She would have been home quite a while by now. Did her friend pick her up, or had she left her own car in the airport parking lot?
According to Cory, he and Jessica had prevailed on Leslie to stay and watch the plane leave. Pierce’s son was full of admiration for Jessica’s mother. She’d taught him a new version of chopsticks on the piano and could beat everyone at his Space Raiders game. And she’d said pizza was good for growing boys who wanted to be rangers.
The disturbing realization that every thought in Nick’s head had to do with Sam drove him to his lab to check out the latest soil samples for spores. Hopefully the first series of dam flushings had eradicated the problem.
He’d just opened his carrying case when Jessica said, “The phone’s for you, Dad. I left it in your bedroom. It’s Gilly King returning your call. Is it okay with you if I call Mom on our phone?”
What? No third degree to find out why he’d called Gilly in the first place?
“Go ahead.” Jessica was so consumed by thoughts of her mother, nothing else seemed to register right now. Like daughter, like father?
The question haunted him all the way to his bedroom. He reached for his phone. “Hi, Gilly. How are you?”
“Hi!” She had a little-girl voice that was cute and deceiving because she was one tough ranger. “I’m great! The question is, how are you? The news about the semi crashing into the visitors’ center is all anyone can talk about around here.”
It took him a second to remember there’d been a disaster last night. Other things had been on his mind. Another woman had filled his thoughts.
“You’d be amazed what a mess it made. Too bad there has to be a funeral for the driver of that rig. He was just trying to do a day’s work when he was attacked.”
“Isn’t it always the culprits who seem to walk away without a scratch?”
“You’ve got that right.”
“Obviously you were trying to reach me about something. What’s going on?”
“How would you like to have lunch with me tomorrow? I’m going to be in the general vicinity on business.”
“Lunch? I haven’t had an invitation to lunch in so long I can’t remember. I’d love it!”
“What time would be good for you?”
“Twelve-thirty?”
“All right. I’ll pick you up at the ranger station
and we’ll drive to the Park Street Grill in Gardiner.”
“Sounds terrific, Nick. Thanks for calling.”
“My pleasure. See you tomorrow.”
He hung up. That was easy enough. Too easy?
What in the hell is wrong with you, Kincaid? Did you want her to give you a hard time? Were you hoping she would tell you she was involved with someone else, but thanks anyway?
In a vile mood, he headed back to his lab. As he passed Jessica’s room, he could see her on the bed, lying on her stomach with her legs up, ankles crossed. She moved them back and forth while she chatted happily with her mother.
He’d raised his daughter not to eavesdrop on other people’s conversations, so took his own advice. But it almost required an act of nature for him to keep moving to the other bedroom. He could picture Sam on a bed in much the same position, her red-gold curls a lick of flame in the lamplight.
No sooner had he prepared some new slides than Jessica breezed into the room. “Dad? There’s something important I have to ask you, but I don’t want you to think it’s because I don’t love you.”
His mouth grew taut. “I know you love me, honey. Just tell me what it is you’re trying to say.”
“How would you feel about me spending Thanksgiving with Mom and my grandparents in Denver?”
One of the slides fell to the floor and broke.
“Mom told them about seeing me, and they want to meet me.”
He rubbed a hand over his face.
Like the big volcano that was building beneath Yellowstone Park—one that would make Mount Saint Helens look like a firecracker when it blew—the world he’d known with Jessica was starting to crack with a burst of steam here, a new geyser there, a hot lava bed suddenly visible where no lava bed had ever been before.
“If I go to their house, then I’ll be able to meet my two great-grandparents from my grandfather’s side, who are still living. They’re too old to travel, but they’ll be at my grandparents’ for dinner.
“Dad, if you don’t want me to go, I won’t. But since the family has already invited us to Gillette for Thanksgiving, I thought maybe you wouldn’t mind going alone this once. What do you think?” His little girl was so excited she had to catch her breath before continuing.
To Be a Mother Page 11