Riverbend Road

by RaeAnne Thayne

  Wyn’s twin had been her best friend. He wasn’t sure she had ever really recovered from losing him so suddenly.

  “When do you go back to work?” Charlene asked her daughter.

  “Tomorrow, bright and early.”

  Charlene’s jaw tightened and he saw Wynona pick it up too. She suddenly looked like she was having a tough time not grinding her back teeth.

  “I can’t wait,” she said in a cheerful voice he suddenly realized didn’t ring quite true. She studiously avoided looking at him, focusing her attention on the tomatoes she was slicing.

  “No more disobeying direct orders or running into burning buildings, young lady,” her mother said sternly.

  The knife in her hand smacked down a little harder than strictly necessary on the cutting board.

  “Right. What she said,” he drawled.

  She lifted her gaze from his tomatoes long enough to give him the skunk eye. “I was doing my job,” she said stubbornly.

  “So was I when I suspended you,” he retorted. “It’s my job to do all I can to make sure my officers don’t take unnecessary risks.”

  “The key word there is unnecessary,” she retorted. “I don’t believe I did that.”

  “Gotta say, I’m on Cade’s side on this one,” someone said from the doorway to the kitchen.

  “Marshall!” Charlene exclaimed. She bustled to her son and hugged him.

  Marsh still wore his sheriff’s department uniform. His dark hair stuck out in tufts like he’d just taken off his hat and he looked like he hadn’t slept in about seventy-two hours.

  Wyn and her mother hugged and fussed over him in turn—and then Katrina came in and repeated the process. When he extricated himself from the last of the women in his family, Marshall made his way to Cade, where they exchanged back slaps.

  “Happy birthday,” Cade said.

  “Thanks for making the time.”

  “Are you kidding? I wouldn’t miss it.”

  “And thanks for keeping my baby sis in line,” Marshall said, with a meaningful look at Wyn. “She thinks she’s invincible and always has.”

  “Hey!” she protested.

  “True story,” Katrina said.

  “Oh, the trouble you and Wyatt used to get into,” Charlene said. “If you weren’t jumping off the roof with a blanket for a parachute, you were taking your dad’s canoe out onto the water by yourself when you hadn’t even started school yet. Picture me with four kids under the age of six, including twin terrors who never stopped moving.”

  “And you’re still getting into trouble,” Marshall said.

  Before she could answer, their uncle, Mike Bailey, came in from the back door wearing a striped blue apron and carrying tongs.

  “This chicken is close to perfect. How we doing in here?”

  “We were just finishing up,” Charlene answered. “I think we’re ready when you are.”

  “Do you mind grabbing me a clean platter for the birds?”

  Charlene reached into the cabinet next to the sink and pulled out a large platter with enameled cherries on it. “Here you go.”

  Their hands brushed as she handed it to him—just like his had with Wynona earlier over the fruit. If he hadn’t been watching their interaction, he might have missed the way Charlene blushed a little and the tender smile her former brother-in-law gave her before he trotted back outside.

  The air was just about sizzling with electricity between Charlene and her late husband’s brother, if he wasn’t mistaken.

  How long had that been going on?

  And did her children know?

  Cade glanced at the others to see if any of them noticed but Wyn and Marshall were still bickering about her suspension and Kat was grabbing salad bowls to carry outside to the patio tables.

  “Cade, grab those plates and take them out, will you?” Charlene asked.

  He nodded and picked up the stack she indicated. Another thing that wasn’t his business. Charlene had said it herself. He was a guest, not part of the family, and he would do well to remember that.

  * * *

  DINNER WAS, PREDICTABLY, DELICIOUS. The only time he ever ate home-cooked meals this good was right here, at this comfortable house on the lake with the view of the Redemption Mountains.

  He was just finishing up his second piece of moist, flavorful chicken when he finally had the chance to talk to Marshall.

  “You’ve had a busy week, from what I’ve been hearing on the scanner,” he said to Marshall.

  “So have you. Boat rescues, house fires, the whole gamut.”

  “Summer tourist season is never boring, is it?”

  Laughter rippled across the patio, and he looked over to see Wynona smiling at something her aunt Jenny said. Though it was cloudy, a shaft of sunlight seemed to find her with unerring precision. She had her head tilted to the side and some of her hair was slipping from her topknot. From here, he could see the curve of her jaw, the long, graceful column of her neck.

  In that flirty, soft little dress, she looked like every fantasy he’d never known he had come to life.

  As if she felt his gaze, she shifted her gaze to him. He couldn’t seem to look away and he saw her lips part slightly, her breathing quicken.

  “Seriously,” Marshall said, jerking his attention back to their conversation, “thanks for watching out for our Wynnie.”

  “She’s a good cop,” he said gruffly.

  “I have no doubt of that. She’s a Bailey, isn’t she? But I also would guess she hasn’t changed that much since she and Wyatt were jumping off the roof with blankets for parachutes. She tends to be a little reckless and doesn’t always think through the ramifications of her actions.”

  “She’s not the only one,” he muttered, keeping his gaze firmly away from her and trying not to think about that kiss that had changed everything.

  Marsh had been his best friend for more than two decades. What would he think if he knew the sorts of thoughts Cade was entertaining about his sister?

  He hoped to hell the man didn’t find out.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  “I’M SORRY CARTER had to leave so early,” Wyn said to her sister, though it wasn’t at all true.

  “He’s heading out first thing in the morning to take a climbing group up Teewinot in the Tetons and he still had to get his gear together.”

  “Oh, he guides other climbers too?”

  “Among other things. He takes river trips down the Snake and in the winter, he’s a ski instructor in Utah.”

  “He seems...nice.”

  “He’s very nice—not to mention he looks like he belongs on the swimsuit issue of an outdoors magazine.”

  “I don’t believe outdoors magazines generally have swimsuit issues.”

  “Maybe not, but if they did, I would nominate Carter for the cover,” Kat said.

  “So you like him?” she asked carefully.

  “Sure. He’s a lot of fun. Except for the part where he’s a few carabiners short of a full rack,” she said pointedly.

  Wyn flushed. “You heard that?”

  “The window was open and it was a little hard to miss. Don’t worry, Carter didn’t hear you. At the time, he was down at the lake trying to skip a rock with his toes.”

  “Still, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. I don’t even know the guy.” She loved her little sister, even if she wasn’t always crazy about her choices in men.

  “It’s nothing I haven’t thought before.”

  “So why are you dating him?”

  “I teach second grade in Haven Point, Idaho, Wynnie. Guys who look like Carter aren’t exactly thick on the ground around here.”

  She wanted to tell her sister looks weren’t everything, but she knew the advice
was unnecessary. Unlike the man in question, Kat wasn’t stupid.

  “I just don’t want you to have your heart broken.”

  “A broken heart isn’t the worst thing that can happen to a person,” Kat said.

  In an almost involuntary reflex, Wynona looked over at Cade, who was across the patio talking with Marshall with his legs stretched out and an empty plate balanced on his knee. She focused on her sister again, hoping Kat hadn’t noticed.

  “Isn’t it?”

  Katrina shrugged. “I’d rather risk a few rips in my cardiac muscle than sit home night after night, waiting for life to happen to me.”

  Wyn didn’t do that. She went out with friends, she attended concerts in Boise, she had season tickets to a theater troupe in Shelter Springs. Okay, maybe she had come to the point where she would rather not date at all than waste her time with someone she knew wasn’t a keeper, but that was her.

  She wasn’t waiting for life to happen to her. She thought of her appointment with her academic adviser in Boise, the stack of paperwork waiting on her dining table at home, the changes she was preparing to make.

  “Enough about Carter,” Kat said. “What’s up with Uncle Mike?”

  Wyn shifted her gaze to where her father’s older brother was scrubbing the grill. He was the sweetest man, always willing to lend a hand. His wife had died fifteen years ago after a short battle with colon cancer. They’d never had children and after she died, Uncle Mike seemed content to run his auto repair shop in town and restore classic automobiles, including the ancient blue Ford pickup he cherished.

  “What do you mean? Nothing’s wrong with him.”

  “He’s acting weird, don’t you think? And I think he and Mom aren’t getting along, for some reason. Before we sat down to eat, I went back inside for the napkins and they looked like they had been arguing. Mom was all red in the face and Mike looked upset.”

  Come to think of it, Mike hadn’t said much during dinner, when he was usually full of fun stories.

  “You know how Mom can be. He probably got sick of her asking him for the hundredth time if he checked the temperature of the chicken, so her precious babies all don’t get food poisoning.”

  Kat didn’t look convinced. “Everybody is acting weird,” she complained. “Marshall’s mind seems to be a million miles away and Cade has hardly cracked a smile all night.”

  At the mention of his name, that involuntary reflex kicked in again and her gaze shifted to him. This time she found him watching her in return. They both looked away quickly and she felt her face heat.

  “He’s checked his watch six times in the last twenty minutes,” Kat went on. “Maybe he has a hot date waiting for him at home.”

  She hated the jealousy that sliced through her like her mom’s best paring knife through his sun-warmed tomatoes.

  “You obviously have too much free time on your hands during the summer when school’s not in session, if you have nothing better to do than speculate on Cade Emmett’s love life.”

  “Are you kidding? Sam and I have great fun watching women throw themselves at him, then trying to guess which ones he’s willing to catch.” Katrina’s mouth twisted into a pout. “It used to be fun, anyway. Lately he’s totally boring. It’s been months since he even flirted with us, no matter how hard we try. Our theory—well, Samantha’s, anyway—is that he has a secret love muffin out there somewhere and he’s staying loyal to her.”

  Her stomach muscles tightened. Maybe he did have a secret lover. Come to think of it, she hadn’t been aware of him dating anyone in some time.

  She hadn’t heard any gossip among the other officers and hadn’t seen him make or receive any furtive phone calls or texts, but that didn’t necessarily mean anything. Maybe he was just being extraordinarily discreet.

  Would he kiss her with such heat and hunger if he was hiding a relationship with this hypothetical woman? Maybe that explained why things had become so awkward between Wynona and him, because he was racked with guilt over cheating on the woman he loved with one of his officers.

  “Any clues who she might be?” Katrina pressed. “And why he feels like he has to hide their relationship?”

  The idea of it made her feel hollow and achy inside and she spoke more sharply than she might have otherwise.

  “He’s my boss, not my BFF. We don’t hang out at the station house in between dispatch calls doing each other’s hair and talking about our latest crushes. Unlike you and Sam, we have better things to do.”

  Katrina’s eyes widened with shock and hurt at what Wyn realized was a totally unprovoked attack. Now the ache in her stomach was coated with a slick layer of guilt.

  It wasn’t her sister’s fault Wyn was all tangled up over Cade and didn’t know what to do with her feelings and she had no right to take her confusion out on Katrina.

  “Yeah. Everybody’s in a pissy mood tonight,” Katrina said in disgust. “Some party. And now it looks like it’s going to rain.”

  “I’m sorry. I guess I’m a little on edge about going back to work tomorrow.”

  Katrina frowned. “Just because I don’t run into burning buildings like you doesn’t mean my life is shallow or that I don’t care about important things.”

  “I know that. Of course it’s not! You’re a teacher, just about the hardest job out there!”

  “That’s right. And I kick ass at it.”

  Despite the lingering turmoil, she had to smile. “You absolutely do.”

  She adored her younger sister, even if she could sometimes be superficial and a little immature. Sometimes she had to remind herself that Kat was barely twenty-six, which seemed a lifetime younger than her own twenty-nine.

  Her sister was also quick to forgive. “We should do something to liven things up,” she said after a moment. “Marsh looks like he’s going to fall asleep at his own birthday party.”

  “Any suggestions? And resurrecting one of our old dance numbers is completely off the table.”

  Kat laughed just as lightning flashed at almost the same moment thunder boomed across the lake.

  “Wow! Where did that come from?” Kat asked.

  “Oh no,” Charlene wailed. “I was hoping that storm would stay away until after we had dessert!”

  Mike turned from the grill. “No problem. We can have dessert in the house. Boys, help clean up these dishes.”

  The boys—both over six feet tall, in their midthirties and strong enough together to lift a patrol car—dutifully rose and began piling dishes in their arms just as fat raindrops plopped onto the concrete. Another lightning strike flashed and thunder rumbled just an instant later.

  “That’s a close one,” Marsh said. “The storm front must be passing right overhead.”

  “Hurry, everyone!” Charlene exclaimed.

  Ordinarily, Wyn loved storms, especially those summer thundershowers that churned the waters of the lake and sent boats racing for the safety of the shore. When she was young, she used to love nothing better than to sit in the window seat in her second-floor bedroom and watch dark clouds race across the sky while the waters boiled.

  These sudden fierce squalls that seemed to come out of nowhere were something else again.

  Wyn grabbed the potato salad and the basket of silverware. In the few seconds it took to carry them in the house, the raindrops began to fall with harder intensity and velocity and she barely made it inside before the clouds completely unleashed. The lightning now seemed to be hitting with hardly a pause in between strikes.

  “Hurry, hurry. Get in here!” Charlene stood just inside the back door, ushering everyone into the kitchen as if none of them had the sense to get in out of the rain without her guidance.

  “Is that everything?” Wyn’s mother asked as Cade hurried inside with his arms full of condiments and salad toppings.

&nbs
p; “All I could see.”

  They were all a little damp as they crowded into the kitchen while the thunder continued to rumble. The adrenaline rush and the crowded conditions left her a little breathless.

  “That certainly woke everyone up,” Katrina said with a grin. “Too bad I didn’t have time to snap pictures of everyone running around like chickens with your heads cut off.”

  Her mother suddenly looked horror-stricken. “Pictures! Did somebody bring in Marshall’s baby album? It was under my chair. I was going to pass it around after we finished eating.”

  “Thank you, Mother Nature,” Marsh drawled.

  “Oh, I hope they’re not ruined!” Charlene cried. “There are pictures of your dad in there holding you that are just priceless and I don’t have copies of them anywhere else. Someday you’ll want to show them to your own children.”

  “I’ll get them,” Wyn said and headed for the door.

  “No, I’ve got it.” Cade pushed past her before she could reach it and ran out into the deluge. He crouched down under the chair where Charlene had been sitting and emerged triumphant with a photo album a moment later. He wrapped it in his arms and hunched the rest of his body over it before he ran back inside.

  “Hurray.” Charlene looked close to tears as he handed it over to her.

  “It should be okay,” he said. “The chair seemed to be protecting it from the worst of the rain.”

  “Thank you, my dear,” her mother said. “That could have been a disaster. But look at you! You’re sopping wet!”

  In just the thirty seconds he was outside going after the album, the storm had drenched him, leaving his dark hair soaked and his blue polo plastered to the strong muscles of his chest and shoulders.

  Wyn couldn’t seem to take her eyes off him. She swallowed hard, feeling warm all over. His gaze met hers and something shivered between them, just like those waves churned up by the storm.

  “It’s fine,” he murmured.

  “No it is not!” Charlene exclaimed. “Wynona, grab a towel and help him dry off.”