“I’m completely incredible, so we get to culture 400 of your favorite cows together?” Her indignation caught him off guard. She laughed, “What about this shows me I’m ‘completely incredible’ Jake? You just want your heifers bred.”
She tore open a swab packet with vigor, motioning for Larry to bring the next cow. Jake held his hand up, holding him off. Larry continued to circle the cow in tight quarters, pretending he couldn’t hear.
“Look, Tess, I’m sorry. I’ve wanted to see you in person so we could talk. I was a wreck after the hearing, and I’ve been so busy with Cassie since, this is first chance I’ve had. I guess it wasn’t fair to spring this on you on a veterinary call,” he admitted miserably. “But other times you’ve been here I thought we had fun together.”
Tess gave him a baleful stare before turning to Larry. “C’mon, Larry, we’re ready for you here.”
After she swabbed the cow, she handed the culture to Jake wordlessly, took the inoculation syringe in her right hand, and quickly thrust it into the bovine’s back.
“Okay, not only was it unfair, it was lame,” Jake conceded, as Larry took the cow away. “You deserve a lot better than this, but I didn’t think you’d mind. You’ve never been a hard sell before.”
“Maybe that was a mistake on my part,” Tess said, her voice clipped.
“It wasn’t a mistake, Crash. I like how easy-going and approachable you are. I like your exuberance.” He put a hand on her arm to slow her incessant motion. Even the cast on her left arm hadn’t slowed her down.“Tess, c’mon.”
She flashed a look that pierced him, before swabbing the next cow. “You don’t like my exuberance, Jake McGreer. My exuberance scares you,” she hissed angrily. Larry looked away uncomfortably, whistling softly in the afternoon breeze. She stared at him resentfully, before popping the needle into the bovine’s back. “It hasn’t been right between us for weeks, Jake, not since the day I was here to suture Alchemy. That was a long time ago.”
Their eyes locked for a long moment, and the heat of her anger turned steely. “You’ve been certain all along you know what’s best for me. You don’t seem at all concerned about what I might want,” she said, her voice flat. Man, she can be tough.
Once Larry led the cow away, he stepped in front of Tess, still standing on the stool. Meeting her stormy blue eyes, he took her hands in his, and said, “Tess, we’ve been through this. You know how I feel about tying you down here. I want this to be right, for all of us. You and I could be close, probably very close, but how will Cassie take it, once you’re gone?”
“You don’t get it, do you?” Tess hissed, pulling her hands away from him. “You don’t want to get it. This is a lot more about Vicki, than it is about me.”
Larry held off, circling the next cow a few yards off, he noticed gratefully, before giving Tess his full attention. “What do you mean?”
“Vicki felt tied down, she made you miserable because she hated it here, so with Tess, it’s like you’re looking for an excuse, an out, to protect yourself. Whenever there is a misunderstanding, your first instinct is to bolt, and you do, every time. Instead of calling me when you got the insurance letter, you made unfair assumptions, so sure that I’d turned you in, that I’d betrayed you. Instead of discussing it, you just waited, fuming when I showed up. It was like you wanted there to be something wrong.”
“Tess, I. .” he began, but she continued.
“My dad has a heart attack, and you pretend not calling me is about giving me space, not crowding me while I’m home with my family. You sent flowers, but what was that all about anyway? You can’t really think that was ‘making it right for me’, can you?”
“Probably not,” he admitted, sheepish.
“The whole time I was in Philadelphia, you left me hanging. You might not have been able to offer much help from Green Junction, but at least if you’d called, I’d have known you cared. You’ve treated me badly, Jake. We could have stayed close, but you didn’t really want that. You don’t really want to trust me, and you refuse to allow yourself to believe in us.”
“Oh, Tess,” he said wearily. “I trust you, I do. I know you have my back. Look what you did for us last week. After the hearing, all you cared about was Cassie, even with your arm. My life is crazy right now, and honestly, I don’t want you stuck with any part of it. You’re incredibly generous, but I can’t take advantage of that. I won’t. It just doesn’t feel fair to involve you, or worse, trap you. It’s too much to ask.”
“Too much to ask? Too much for me to ask, right? That I could actually know what is going on with you, between us? That you’d communicate with me, without holding back? Because then what we’d have would be real, as in, a real relationship, real intimacy, real trust. You’d like to pretend you’re doing me a big favor, making it easy for me to leave, but that’s just an excuse. Instead of taking a chance and really letting us happen, you’re all about protecting yourself,” she fumed.
“Tess, that’s not fair. You’re brilliant, with so much to offer, and I know how life is. I don’t want you caught in a situation that will wear you down, and I can’t bear to have Cassie grow close to you, and lose you. She doesn’t need that.”
“And neither do you,” she said, looking right at him, her eyes blazing.
“That’s right, neither do I. I don’t want to be hurt again, I don’t want to hinge my dreams on someone else, and be disappointed.”
“And you’re certain I would disappoint you?”
“No, I’m not certain, but it feels risky. Look Tess, I’m sorry. I hurt you, but I didn’t mean to. I understand how confusing these past weeks must have been for you. I was trying to protect you, and myself, I guess. I should have let you in; I wanted to, I was just afraid of overwhelming you, that it would be too much.”
“I assure you, it would not have been too much,” Tess snapped. She crossed her arms, and her voice got quieter, but the ice was still there. “Maybe you’ve done a good job of protecting yourself from disappointment, Jake, but you sure haven’t protected me.” Her bright eyes narrowed. “The first time we got close, you said I was safe with you. It hasn’t felt very safe to me at all, and that has everything to do with the way you’ve behaved since then.”
Jake felt as if she’d knifed him. “Tess, I’m sorry. I’ve been thinking of you for weeks, waiting to get a break from all the stress. I just wanted to be able to enjoy each other, without any pressure. That was what today was supposed to be about, lame as it is.” He could still see the clouds of hurt in her eyes, and he wanted to pull her close, hold her, offer her comfort. He stepped closer, but Larry was still circling the next cow.
Tess motioned him forward.“Well, Jake, you’re right, it was lame. But I guess at least you tried, if only a very little bit,” Tess told him resignedly, turning to swab JM294-12.
*****
Tess had almost finished inoculating the heifers when Cassie rode up on Sparky. “Hi, Daddy, Hi, Dr. Tess,” she said, in her cheery high pitched voice. She was all bundled up. Little fringed chaps covered her legs.
“Hey, little girl,” Jake said affectionately.
“Hi, Cassie,” Tess smiled.
“Daddy, Tilda said it was okay for me to ride out to see you guys.” Tilda stood near the horse barn on the distant knoll, in boots and a warm coat. Jake waved. “That’s right, Cassie. Dr. Tess and I will be done in an hour or so, then maybe we can all take a trail ride. You want to ride Sparky around the pasture for now, so I can keep an eye on you?”
“Sure, Dad, Sparky needs a workout. Dr. Tess, Tilda and I just checked on Rhiannon,” Cassie said importantly. “She’s in her box by the stove in the mudroom. No signs of puppies yet, Tilda said.”
“It’s going to be another week, Cass. Right around Thanksgiving. But they’re getting ready. Every day those puppies are growing bigger and stronger in their mama’s belly, ready to make their appearance,” Tess answered. “Soon you’ll be able to play with them and help them learn what they ne
ed to know.”
“Daddy, will you hold Sparky? I want to give Dr. Tess a hug.”
Jake took the reins, and Cassie swung off her pony. Tess knelt down to be close to her, feeling a rush of love for the little girl. Cassie wrapped her hands around Tess’s neck, squeezing. “Ooo, I’ve missed you so much, Dr. Tess.”
“I’ve missed you too, Cassie. And your hugs. You give the best hugs,” Tess said, wiping her eyes quickly, wondering if Jake would ever get his act together.
“Tilda is making roast chicken for dinner, and Daddy wants to take a trail ride. You’re staying, right?” Cassie asked. Tess glanced at Jake, and he smiled at her anxiously, his eyes troubled, a yearning look on his face, willing her to say yes.
“Sure Cassie, I’ll stay.”
“Great, on our trail ride we’ll take you down to the creek, and show you the dam. You’ll really like it, I promise. I have my English saddle on Sparky today, Dr. Tess! Watch me post.”
To: [email protected]
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Date: Wednesday November 14, 9:15 PM
Subject: Puppy Tails Sinful Sammi: Took a trail ride on the ranch today and stayed for chicken dinner. Rhiannon’s puppies will be along soon~ Cassie is over the moon. Will stay here for Thanksgiving. Thanks for everything and REALLY sorry to miss your sure-to-be-terrific cranberry sauce and those low fat mashed potatoes. Are you starching Archie’s shirts in your spare time?
Love, Tortured Tess. To: [email protected]
From: [email protected]
Date: Wednesday, November 17, 8:46 PM
Subject: Still Delicious Tortured Tess:
I’m doing my best to get Archie OUT of his shirts, and
when I do, I fully expect he’ll be stiff, and not the least bit
starchy ~ He’s a perfect gentleman, but his kisses knock me
sideways. We’re headed to a movie right now~ Sure hope Jake figures out how to put the yahoo back in my favorite cowgirl!
Love, Sensationally Saute-ing Samantha
***** A fierce November wind slapped Jake’s face as he and Larry hoisted the metal ramp back into the cattle carrier Friday, just before noon. The air at the south ranch was cold and grey, heavy with a coming snowstorm. Since Wednesday, he’d been plagued by Tess’s words.
His thoughts had been spinning for days, weeks really, always coming back to the memory of how right it felt to have her in his arms, how he’d felt seeing her with Aaron, Brett and Stuart at the Jackalope. She deserves the best, which I could give her, if I just knew she wasn’t going to wind up frustrated here, resentful about her limited career options. He’d given himself a headache, trying to think it through. He’d considered all angles, and just couldn’t get the best of it Maybe it’s the coming storm, but something just doesn’t feel right.
The fat Hereford yearlings they’d unloaded were already down at the creek, breaking through the ice to slurp the water, pawing for hardy pasture grasses beneath a thin cover of snow.
His leather gloves manure-stained, Larry slammed the cattle carrier doors shut, eyeing the dense stratus cover that was moving in from the west. “We can just about beat the first big snowfall of the season if we leave now, Jake. Looks like it’ll hit hard, wherever it hits.”
“Sure does. Let’s get out of here. It’ll be snowing hard by the time we get back to town,” Jake answered. “Spike can manage this herd all right.”
The engine on the big truck started with a chug and a whine as Jake climbed into the passenger seat. As Larry pulled out, he eyed the dim sky to the northwest. “Cassie wasn’t feeling real well when I left her at school this morning. Tilda said she’d grab her, but I’d like to get home before school’s out, if we can make it.”
“It might be snowing already, up at the ranch,” Larry answered, nodding towards the snowcapped mountains already obscured by cloud cover.
Highway 17 was a straight shot due north. After forty minutes on the road, they stopped for fuel and sandwiches. As Jake handed the girl at the register two hundred dollar bills, his cell buzzed. The dread and anxiety he’d felt all day quickened when he saw the number on his display.
“Mr. McGreer, this is Principal Thompson at Green Junction Elementary. Cassie came into the nurse’s office with flu symptoms earlier, and Nurse Beatrice sent her home. Is she there with you?”
A chill stabbed at Jake as the cashier handed him change. “No, Ma’am. I think our housekeeper, Tilda, would have called if Cassie had come home sick. You sent her home, you said? Are you certain?”
“It appears her mother signed her out, Mr. McGreer,” Principal Thompson admitted quietly. Instincts on high alert, Jake grabbed the bag and shot through the door, sprinting across the parking lot to the eighteen wheeled cattle truck. “Mrs. Thompson, I left a copy of the new court order with your office last week. Cassie only spends supervised weekend time with her mother now. You’re saying Vicki picked her up?” He motioned for Larry to hurry as he slammed the door shut. Shooting Jake a look of alarm, Larry accelerated onto the highway.
Principal Thompson’s voice collapsed. “Oh, Mr. McGreer. I’m so very, very sorry. We’ve had a spate of the flu the past two days, and Nurse has had her hands full. I’m afraid the records in the health office still show Cassie’s mother’s number as a first contact. Vicki signed Cassie out an hour and a half hour ago. This matter just came to my attention. What shall I do?”
As the truck picked up speed, Jake felt his chest collapse. He spoke urgently. “Please call Sergeant Fuller. He’ll have to make certain Cassie is recuperating at her mother’s. I’m on the road still a good two hours south of Green Junction. To be quite honest, I’m worried sick. Cassie’s mother is suffering from a drug addiction, Mrs. Thompson.”
“I’ll the Sergeant right away, Mr. McGreer. And I am so sorry,” Mrs. Thompson said, her subdued voice filled with concern.
In high gear now, the truck accelerated north. Jake pressed speed dial, cold fury pulsing his veins. No answer on Vicki’s cell. As he dialed the vet clinic, panic squeezed his chest. With Vicki, anything is possible. Please let Cassie be okay.
*****
The phone at the reception desk pealed as Tess checked her clients out. Bea and Doc were out to lunch, and Alice was busy in the lab. “Green Junction Veterinary.”
“Tess?”
“Jake, what’s wrong?”
“Tess, the school nurse accidentally set Cassie home with Vicki over an hour and a half ago. I’m two hours south of town and I can’t reach Vicki on her cell. Can someone go over to her apartment and make sure Cassie is okay?”
Tess felt her stomach lurch. “Oh my God, Jake. I’ll be at Vicki’s apartment in five minutes. I’ll call you from there, okay?” Slipping her arms into her down coat, Tess grabbed her keys, calling for Alice, racing to her little maroon truck.
Thin autumn sunshine cast bare tree-branch shadows across Vicki’s yard as Tess rushed up the sidewalk. Once on the porch, she pounded on the door, frantically calling. Vicki’s car was gone. Increasingly panicked, Tess ran to the side of the house.
Her breath clouded tall windows as she peered into the empty apartment, desperate for a glimpse of Cassie. Peeking into the bedrooms, it was obvious that Vicki had left hastily. Her drawers and closet doors had been left open, clothing strewn on the floor. Afraid to give up, Tess returned to the door and continued to knock, calling loudly for Cassie.
Sergeant Fuller’s cruiser pulled up to the curb. The passenger window dropped and he raised a hand, motioning Tess into the car.
“Nobody here, huh?” he asked. Washed in cold terror, Tess slid onto the passenger seat, listening as the Sergeant broadcast Vicki’s car description and license number across the scanner. Clipping the mic back onto the dashboard, he turned to Tess. “Cassie must have told her Ma where Jake had gone, for her to try and pull a stunt like this. The highway goes east, west, or south. Those are our options. I don’t see Vicki heading to Kansas. It’s a roug
h trip south to New Mexico, and likely she’d cross paths with Jake. I’d say west to California or Arizona is a safe bet. What do you think?”
“I’ve heard she likes California,” Tess said weakly, trying not to let her voice quiver.
“No kid wants to see a policeman chasing her Ma. You are coming along?” Sergeant Fuller’s voice was taciturn and even, his face emotionless, betraying none of the horror Tess was feeling. She nodded yes, and slammed the door shut. Sarge flipped the siren on and they tore across town and up the on-ramp, entering the interstate at record speed. “I called her Pa. He’s filed a missing persons report. He might want to hear from you, though, just so he knows we’re going after her.”
She dialed, and Jake picked up immediately. Her voice wavering, Tess told him, “We’re on Route 50 Jake, heading west.”
“That’s probably a good bet, Tess. Tell Sarge we’re heading up 285 and across 114. I can’t make anywhere near the time I need to in this big truck, though, and snow’s coming. Vicki’s probably already past Gunnison, if she went that way. Santa Fe would be the sneaky route, south down 550 at Montrose. Let’s hope she hasn’t thought of that, though.”
Tess didn’t know what to say, but Jake continued, “Vicki’s father is calling the bank. She can’t have had too much cash put aside. She’ll have to either make an ATM withdrawal, or start using charge cards, Tess. Either way, she won’t get too far.” Though his voice was panicked, Jake spoke with assurance. He’s trying to comfort both of us.
Mountains and trees and creek beds sped past as they raced west. Sergeant Fuller was a good driver, Tess gave him that. If I weren’t so freaked out, this might be fun, she thought, giddy with nerves. They made it to Gunnison in twenty minutes. She tried not to think about the panic Cassie must be feeling. And she’s sick, poor little thing.
It began to snow. Icy freeze hit the cruiser’s windshield, swirling across the highway. Fueled by fear, Tess thought of Vicki, possibly drug-addled, speeding losing control of her car on the slick snow and flying off the road.
Crashing Into Tess (The McGreers) Page 20