Return to the Black Hills

by Debra Salonen

  “A teen. Good luck with that,” Remy said, with a slight smirk.

  “Hey, for your information, last year I coached two Girlz On Fire gymnastics teams. A couple of the girls came very close to placing at the district level. Not bad for our first try.” First, and probably the last, Jessie thought.

  She pushed the memory away. What was happening with Girlz on Fire was out of her hands at the moment. Maybe someday, after the dust had settled, she might be able to resurrect the pieces of the dream, but that was going to take a lot more money than she currently had. Another reason to win Kamikaze’s million-dollar prize.

  She looked at her watch. “Damn. I have to run. I only have a few minutes to talk to him before the show starts. Stay put. I’ll be right back.”

  She jogged across the street even though there was no cross traffic at the moment. In fact, the street was completely empty thanks to the bright yellow Do Not Cross tape that Marsh and Eerik had put up early that morning before they started filming.

  Spectators were starting to collect along the sidewalks and storefronts. She probably should have scheduled this meeting for later, but she had to admit she’d wanted to show off a bit for Cade Garrity. If the guy was going to be her landlord, he deserved to know what kind of person she was—and her work pretty much defined her.

  When she reached the plaza adjacent to the community center, she glanced over her shoulder. Remy was still by Yota, but she wasn’t alone. Eerik—skateboard in hand—had stopped to talk to her.

  Jessie wasn’t surprised. Remy was, without a doubt, one of the most beautiful women Jessie had ever known. The irony was they were identical twins. They just didn’t look—or act—anything alike.

  With a shake of her head, she hurried across the open plaza, which had been packed with tourists and paparazzi earlier that morning during filming. At the moment, the area was empty save a tall man in jeans, a white shirt and cowboy boots. No hat. A few feet away, a young teen she assumed was his daughter, lounged against the town’s mascot—a pony-size concrete dinosaur named Seymour. The girl was dressed similarly, except she was wearing a cowboy hat and a bright pink T-shirt sporting a Lady Antebellum logo.

  “Hi,” Jessie called out. At the curb, impulsively, she did a round-off, ending in a backward flip to land a foot in front of the pair.

  “Wow,” the girl exclaimed, pushing off to step closer to her father.

  Twelve going on twenty, Jessie thought. Been there and then some.

  “That was very cool,” the girl said. “Can you teach me how to do that? Dad says you’re a stuntwoman. I plan to ride bulls someday, but maybe I could be a stuntwoman, too.”

  Jessie wiped her hands on her pants. “I’m Jessie Bouchard,” she said, shaking Cade’s hand first. “Sorry about showing off. It’s what I do.”

  “Show off?” His tone wasn’t insulting or rude, but Jessie could tell her stunt had left him underwhelmed.

  “I meant the flip. I do stunts for a living, but my passion is Parkour. It’s also called Freerunning. Ever hear of it?”

  “As opposed to paying to run?”

  She couldn’t decide if the question was meant to be serious or snide.

  “Oh, Daddy, stop. I promise not to bug her about teaching me how to jump off buildings. Really. I mean it.”

  Jessie looked between them, trying to follow the debate, which obviously had been going on for a while.

  “Fine. Okay. I believe you.” To Jessie, he said, “Sorry. We were rude. I’m Cade Garrity. This is my daughter, Shiloh. We aren’t in complete agreement about renting to you. I like the fact that you don’t smoke, don’t have pets and only need the house for three months. Which, hopefully, is about how long my dad will be at his spiritual retreat. My reservations have to do with your job.”

  “My job?”

  “You jump off buildings for a living, correct?”

  “When the script calls for it,” she said, slowly. She was beginning to not like this man—even though he was handsome enough to be on some Western-wear billboard. “And when all the proper safety precautions are in place and the stunt’s been cleared by all the right people. I wasn’t planning to jump off any of the buildings on your ranch, if that’s what you’re asking.”

  He had the grace to blush a small degree, but his daughter saved him from having to apologize. “See, Daddy. I told you she was normal. She just has an extreme job. Like Mom used to.” She looked at Jessie and explained, “My mother was a barrel racer. Her saddle slipped and she got trampled by her horse when I was a baby. I never knew her.”

  The stark, emotionless announcement left Jessie speechless. She looked at the man across from her in a different light. No wonder he wasn’t crazy about her career. He probably assumed it held the same kind of risk as the one that killed his wife. Before she could formulate any sort of reply, a voice said, “Hi. Sorry to interrupt. I’m Remy Bouchard, Jessie’s sister. Has she asked you, yet?”

  There are two of them? Cade looked from the athlete to the Southern belle. Sisters?

  “Hey. You two look alike. Are you twins?” Shiloh asked, her tone suddenly very girlish and young.

  Cade still couldn’t believe she’d dumped a lapful of personal information on a perfect stranger. They were going to have a long talk about personal boundaries and privacy. Especially since Shiloh was the reason he was here today. His perfect little girl seemingly overnight had turned into a rebellious hellion with a snippy attitude and secrets that could easily get her in a lot of trouble. Cade had felt panicky and out of his depth. Instinct told him he needed help. Family.

  Unfortunately, returning to the Black Hills meant trusting his father. And we all know how well that turned out.

  As usual.

  “Ask me what?”

  He directed his question not toward the vivacious blonde but to the woman he’d been emailing for the past week. Jessie Bouchard, aka Jess DeLeon. He’d checked out her website. Very hip, jazzy and impersonal. Nowhere did it say anything about a twin sister.

  He saw her give her sister a scalding look. “Remy has unexpectedly come by some free time and she thought it would be a good reason to drop in on me. If you’re not comfortable renting to two people, that’s perfectly understandable.”

  The idea of renting his father’s house for the summer had seemed logical. He needed another set of eyes on Shiloh for those times when he was in the field. He’d read the horror stories about online predators. That alone made his blood run cold, but discovering his daughter would go behind his back to do exactly the sort of thing her mother had…well, that nearly killed him.

  “The house has two bedrooms. The problem is it’s my dad’s place. He’s on some spiritual quest and I don’t have a real clear timeline on when he plans to return.”

  “Well, we’re flexible, aren’t we, Jess? Worst-case scenario, you have to come home with me to finish your training.”

  Cade’s gaze hadn’t left Jessie. He could tell by the small flicker in her cheek muscle that going home wasn’t something she was in any hurry to do. He could sympathize with that easy enough. He’d resisted his father’s overtures to come home and claim his inheritance for years.

  Now, here he was. Different reason, but still.

  “I need someone to pick up Shiloh from the bus stop five afternoons a week.”

  She nodded. “You said that in your email. Three-to-four hours after school. Saturday mornings. Maybe a few evenings if you have meetings. None of that is a problem. I’m an early riser. I’ll probably be a few miles into my run by the time you get out of bed,” she boasted.

  He doubted that, but he couldn’t fault her work ethic.

  “I’m not an early riser, but I am a bit of a night owl,” Remy said. “So, if you got called out on a farm emergency, I would happily hang out with Shiloh until you got home.”

  He stifled a sigh. There were nights like that when you were in charge of a ranch. His father had promised to be that go-to person for his son and granddaughter.

>   She might have said more but a sudden ringing sound made Remy clutch her giant bag. “That’s me.” She stepped away to take the call.

  “It’s Bing,” she told her sister. “I told her I’d call her as soon as we spoke. She saw your rollover. We all did.”

  Rollover? He didn’t like the sound of that.

  Jessie didn’t comment, but her gaze followed her sister as she returned to the brightly painted box on wheels across the street.

  “Is that your car?”

  She nodded. “Yes. That’s Yota.”

  “Your car has a name?” Shiloh asked. “Cool. We should name your truck, Dad. How ’bout…Demon?”

  “How ’bout we don’t?”

  Jessie’s unpainted lips moved suspiciously, as if working to suppress a grin.

  “So,” he said, a bit more severely than necessary, “you’re planning to stay in the area until mid-August?”

  “Yes. I’ve been invited to try out for a game show in Japan. I participated in it last year and didn’t do as well as I would have liked. There were extenuating circumstances but that doesn’t mean a lot in the end. I lost. I don’t intend to lose this year. That’s where the training comes in.”

  “What kind of training?”

  “A lot of running to build up my endurance. Balance work. Wind sprints. Weights, if I can find them. I figure there must a gym in the area, right? If not, I can make do. I’m adaptable.”

  “The nearest one is probably twenty miles away. Do you need any special equipment besides weights?”

  “No. Not really. I always carry a couple of mats with me.” She did a half-squat, drawing his attention to her legs and derriere. Her legs were shapely, the muscles well-defined by skintight black pants. “Jumps are a big part of Parkour. I try to lower the impact on my knees whenever possible.”

  His gaze traveled up to her face, but not quite as quickly as it probably should have. She was everything an athlete should be: trim, compact, coiled energy in repose. Just like Faith.

  She spoke, drawing him back to the present. “Hey, listen, if you don’t want to do this, I understand. I would have told you about my sister, but, honestly, I had no idea she was thinking about staying. Apparently, she lost her job, and, well, our mother passed away last fall. I think Remy’s been feeling a bit lost lately.”

  “There’s a lot of that going around,” he said, recalling the argument he’d had with his dad a week earlier.

  “I didn’t see this coming when I asked you to move back, son,” his father had said. “People die. You don’t know when and you sure as hell don’t know in advance how that death is going to make you feel.”

  Dealing with loss was one thing Cade did understand.

  Despite his misgivings about Jessie’s career, Cade was tempted to accept her and her sister as tenants, if only to cross one problem off his list. There were still a dozen more he needed to handle.

  “Let’s be clear. Shiloh rides the bus, but if she misses it for some reason or needs to come home early, I’d expect you to go after her. Is that a problem?”

  “No. Have a cell phone. And, contrary to what some people believe, I can drive a car without rolling it.”

  Her dry humor made him smile. He looked in her eyes and saw a genuine person. His gut said he could trust her not to do something stupid. Of course, his gut had been wrong in the past. Dead wrong.

  “Hey, Dad, look at me.”

  He looked around, shocked to discover his daughter wasn’t standing a few feet away from him.

  “This is so cool,” she hollered, adding a little squeal of delight as she continued her climb up the tower that had been erected in the middle of the street. Yellow caution tape fluttered in the light breeze. Tape she’d obviously ignored.

  “Shit,” he swore, and took off running.

  Even fueled by pure adrenaline, he was quickly passed by Jessie, who somehow levered herself from the ground to a spot parallel with Shiloh before Cade even reached the bottom of the tower.

  “Hey, Shiloh. You need to stop. Right now.”

  Shiloh reached for another knob an arm’s length above her head. “Why? This is fun.”

  Don’t tell her it’s dangerous. That’ll only make her keep going. He’d learned that the hard way six months earlier.

  “It’s also extremely uncool to climb without the right gear. The friction tape on these holds is killer on bare feet. You might not notice that going up—adrenaline does that, but believe me, you will when you start down. It’s going to sting like hell.”

  Shiloh froze. “Really?”

  Jessie moved horizontally several pegs. She could have been standing on solid ground, she seemed so at ease. “Really. Plus, you might not know this, but it’s against the law for a child under the age of eighteen to climb one of these without protective gear. Your dad can get in trouble for this.”

  Shiloh looked down. “Nuh-uh.”

  “Oh, yeah. Big fine. They call it child endangerment. He could go to jail.”

  “Jail?” Shiloh looked over her shoulder and momentarily lost her balance. One foot slipped out from under her, but, luckily, Jessie was there to stabilize her.

  “Grab the purple knob with your left hand and hold on tight until the dizziness passes,” she ordered, her tone calm and reassuring.

  His neck ached from looking up but he wouldn’t start breathing normally again until Shiloh was on the ground. Jessie continued to talk in a low, reassuring voice, adding authority to her speech by using phrases such as personal liability, safety first and taking risks not the same as brave.

  Hadn’t he said the exact same thing to Shiloh’s mother? Not that it did a bit of good. Faith claimed her career was the key to her self-identity.

  “What about being a wife and mother? Doesn’t that count?” he’d asked.

  She’d refused to answer. But as they said, actions spoke louder than words. Saddling a horse, riding into an arena, slipping beneath that horse at a full gallop…actions that spelled the end of her being a wife and mother.

  He let out the breath he’d been holding the minute he saw Jessie and Shiloh start to descend. They probably weren’t more than ten to twelve feet above him. But it was enough to make every muscle in his body tense in nervous anticipation.

  “Oh, my,” a voice said beside him.

  He knew it was Remy even though he didn’t dare take his gaze off Shiloh.

  He crushed Shiloh to his chest a few moments later, safe and sound. “You are grounded,” he said, his voice gruff with emotion. “For life.”

  She wiggled free of his clasp. “Oh, Daddy, I wasn’t very far up. I wouldn’t have broken anything if I fell. Would I, Jessie?”

  Jessie, who was still perched above them like a lizard on a branch, suddenly launched up and out to land beside them. She picked up the boots Shiloh had kicked off. “It only takes seven pounds per square inch—that’s seven PSI—to break your collarbone. If you had landed wrong, you would have broken something, Shiloh. And if you ever do anything that stupid again, I will break something for you.”

  Her tone was part teacher, part drill sergeant and part mother. And, at that moment, Cade wanted to kiss her. She was exactly what had been missing from his life for so damn long that he felt like a blind person who suddenly acquired sight.

  Shiloh’s look of smug triumph disappeared and she flung herself back into his arms, sobbing.

  He patted her back with soft words of comfort, but his gaze never left Jessie. She looked first at the boots in her hand, then at her sister. He couldn’t read whatever silent communication passed between them, but when she looked at him, he was ready. He knew what he wanted to say.

  “So, when can you two move in?”

  CHAPTER TWO

  “HOW ’BOUT THIS AFTERNOON? After the exhibition?”

  Jessie couldn’t say she was surprised by the offer—he probably felt her owed her something for rescuing his kid, but she knew better than to pass up a golden opportunity. And even though she’d scolded
the girl, Jessie couldn’t blame Shiloh for giving the tower a try. Jessie would have been the first one on it when she was that age—safety harness or no safety harness.

  “Sounds good. Shiloh is going to go into the community center and use the computers to print you a map. Aren’t you, Shiloh?”

  Shiloh heaved a sigh and took her boots. “Sure. I can do that.” She smashed her feet into the boots then stomped across the street and straight into the building.

  “Thank you,” he said, his voice so low Jessie had to lean in to catch what he was saying. “I didn’t think she’d do something that stupid in public.”

  “Sure. No problem.”

  The show would be starting in a few minutes and she hadn’t had time to go through her usual warm-up routine. She looked at her sister. “Rem, would you do me a favor and stick around for the map? I need to meet the guys to make sure we’re all on the same page. Have you seen J.T.?”

  “Who’s that?”

  “Our camera guy.”

  “The one you used to date?”

  Jessie winced. She didn’t want to be reminded of that mistake. She never would have gone out with J.T. in the first place if not for Dar—J.T.’s mom and Jessie’s mentor. In hindsight, Jessie should have recognized the blatant manipulation for what it was—a last-ditch attempt to solidify Jessie’s loyalty against the coming firestorm.

  “We went out a couple of times.” Until his possessiveness got him in trouble. “Anyway, you know what he looks like. Have you seen him this morning?”

  Remy shook her head.

  “Damn,” she muttered under her breath. “I really need someone to film this.” She paused. “Wait a minute. I have a camera you could use if he doesn’t show up.”

  Remy put one hand to her heart dramatically. “Me?”

  “Wait here. Don’t move. I’ll be right back.”

  She raced to her car. The camera was right where she left it on the floor of the backseat. She returned inside a minute. “Here,” she said, handing Remy the compact black bag. “It should have a full battery, but just in case, don’t turn it on until the action starts.”