Beiman never remarried, although Vi said she’d heard there was a widow from Butte he passed time with.
“You know much about Junior?” she asked him.
“Not really. I mean, I met both of Walt’s sons when we made the offer on the ranch.” Jace hadn’t realized at the time the younger man wasn’t Walt’s biological son.
“Let’s just say the apple didn’t fall far from the tree. Junior was just like his mama, even though his daddy raised him. Soon as he could, he got off that ranch.”
“I thought Junior lived in the second house.”
“Nah, that was Walt’s nephew.”
Jace was confused. Maybe it was the nephew he’d met that day when they negotiated the sale.
“Not everyone is cut out for life on a ranch. They read books, thinkin’ it’s all romantic. When they get here, they realize it’s isolated, cold, and lonely. Most of your time revolves around the livestock, which can be damn dirty work. I don’t need to tell you that, though. You know all about ranching. You come from the land, Jace Rice. It’s obvious.”
“My great-grandfather was a rancher in Colorado, but he sold most of his ranch land to the Aspen Company, who used it to develop a ski area. I worked ranches growin’ up, but my family didn’t own one.”
“You aren’t married, are ya?”
“No, ma’am.”
That was his cue to leave. Jace thanked her for the coffee, pie, and stories, and walked out the front door of the café.
“See ya later this week,” Vi hollered after him.
Red and Bree spent an afternoon exploring Sun Valley. They had lunch, and then wandered through the shops. She found several things she thought would be perfect Christmas gifts for Cochran, but she wasn’t in the right frame of mind to shop. Seeing all the families out, enjoying holiday activities, made her miss her own.
“Still with me?” Red asked. “I have one more stop I want to make.”
Bree nodded and followed him back to where they’d parked.
She couldn’t get her mind off the last few entries in Zack’s journal. Had they really been that unhappy? So unsuited? Wasn’t Zack her soulmate? Hadn’t she believed she’d grow old with him? She wondered now. If he had lived, would they still be married?
Red put his hand on her arm. “You’ll be bleeding soon if you don’t quit chewing those nails.”
She dropped her hand and looked out the window.
“Why don’t you tell me what’s got you in this state?”
“I wish I knew who sent the journals.”
“You have no idea who did?”
“Maybe I should call his sister.”
Bree hadn’t kept in touch with Zack’s family after the funeral. The conversation would be awkward, but maybe she’d get some closure.
Red pulled up to the town park.
“Where are we going?”
“You’ll see. Follow me.” They walked down a path that wandered into a heavily treed area.
Bree could hear voices and children’s laughter. Both grew louder the further they walked. The sidewalk made a turn, and the canopy of trees opened into an area crowded with children skating on an ice rink. Red walked over to the concession stand and ordered two hot chocolates and two pairs of skates.
“What size shoe do you wear?” he asked.
“Oh no, I’m not getting out there. I’ll wait right here for you.”
“Give me a size seven,” she heard him say to the teenager manning the counter. How had he known that was the size she wore?
Red sat down on the closest bench. “Come on. You know you want to.”
She didn’t want to, but Red was so good to her, how could she refuse to ice skate with him if that’s what he wanted to do?
For the next hour, they skated around and around the rink. Christmas music played from speakers on top of the concession stand, and the skaters sang along.
“Look who’s here,” he said, pointing to the skater coming on the ice, dressed as Santa Claus.
The children out on the rink skated over and crowded around him.
“I brought my daughter here every Christmas from the time she could walk.”
“I’m sorry, Red.”
He looked at her, brow furrowed. “What for?”
“Being a spoilsport.”
He smiled at her in the way her father probably would’ve, took her hand, and led her around the rink.
“That’s enough for me,” he said on their third lap.
“Me too. Thank you for bringing me here, Red.”
“My pleasure, Bree.”
“All that skating made me hungry,” he said once they were back in the truck and warm.
“I could eat.”
“What are you hungry for?”
“Anything, really. Whatever you feel like is fine with me.”
“Okay, then.” Red started the truck and drove out to the highway. “It isn’t too far from here.”
Bree’s phone pinged, and she pulled it out of her pocket. “Oh, sweet boy,” she sighed. “Look.” She held the phone up so Red could see the photo her sister had texted. “This is Cochran,” she said proudly. In the photo, he was asleep next to the Christmas tree. His cheeks were pink, like so many of the skaters they saw this afternoon.
Was she making a mistake, being away for Christmas? Maybe being around her family would lighten her spirits. If anyone could help her forget what was bothering her, it was Cochran.
Red pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant she and Jace had gone to the only other time she was in Sun Valley.
“I don’t get down here often, but it’s one of my favorite spots,” he said, noticing the expression on her face. “Asian okay, or would you prefer something else?”
“No, this is great.” Maybe Jace’s friends wouldn’t recognize her.
Red raised an eyebrow.
“No, really. I love Asian food.”
“Uh huh,” he answered, grinning back at her. “You’re full of mystery today, aren’t you?”
“I’ve been here before. That’s all. And you’re right, the food is great.”
They were seated quickly, at a high top table in the bar area. Bree hadn’t seen either of Jace’s friends.
“I’d ask if this is someplace you came with Zack, but it hasn’t been open that long.”
“No, not Zack.”
“Who, then?”
“Jace brought me here last summer. The husband and wife who own it are friends of his from Aspen.”
“I see.” He studied the menu. “Sake okay with you?”
“Uh, sure.”
“Hot or cold.”
“Hot, please.”
“Good girl,” he answered.
After the waiter took their drink order, Red sat with his hands folded on the table.
“Who should we talk about first?”
“What do you mean?”
“Jace or Zack. We’re going to talk about them both tonight, so you decide which you’d like to talk about first.”
“Red, I really don’t—”
“Nope, I insist. If you can’t decide, I will. Let’s start with Zack.”
She glared at him and folded her arms.
“You don’t want to talk? I will. How long were you married?”
“Five years.”
“How old were you when you met?”
“I was fifteen, Zack was seventeen.”
“You knew him, what, ten years before he died? How many of those years were you together?”
“What’s with the interrogation?”
“You’ve been frustrated with me in the past about…what was it you accused me of? Talking in riddles?”
“That’s right. And telling me I need to figure things out for myself. What’s with the sudden shift?”
“Maybe I’m feeling generous, given it’s Christmas.”
“You’re giving me the gift of your wisdom, is that it?”
“Somethin’ like that.”
She lean
ed back in her chair.
“How old were you when you got married? Twenty-two?”
“Close. I was twenty-one.”
“You aren’t going to give an inch, are you?”
Bree shook her head.
Red continued asking her questions about her life with Zack. Most of her answers were no more than one or two words.
“What are you getting at, Red? Can you just cut to the chase?”
“I’ve been more than patient with you. Your turn.”
“Oh, for Christ’s sake,” she groaned.
“Come on now, I think you’re enough of an adult to have one frank and honest conversation about the mess you’re making of your life. Don’t you?”
20
“What did you say?”
“You heard me. Zack is dead, Bree.”
“I’m very well aware of that, Red.”
“No matter how many places you revisit that the two of you went, or how many letters you read, or pages in a journal, he isn’t coming back.”
Bree’s eyes filled with tears. “I know that.”
“I’ve spent a lot of time listening to you over the course of the last few months, and it wasn’t until last night that I realized who you remind me of.”
“I thought I reminded you of your daughter.”
“You do. But you also remind me of my wife.”
She tried to wipe the tears from her eyes. How dare Red do this to her in the middle of a crowded restaurant. Bree looked up just as Jace’s friend approached the table.
“Merry Christmas. It’s so nice to see you again, Bree.”
“Hi, Jill. This is my friend, Red Dugan. Red this is a friend of Jace’s, Jill Woodward.”
“You look familiar,” Jill said to Red.
Red told her about the ranch and that he’d eaten at the restaurant several times since they opened.
“Thanks for coming back,” Jill smiled, looking back and forth between the two. “How’s our buddy Jace? Since you’re at a table for two, I assume he isn’t with you.”
“He’s well,” Bree answered.
“We were just talking about him,” Red smirked.
“Sorry to interrupt. It was nice seeing you again, Bree.”
“You, too.”
Bree glared at Red and was about to tell him how little she appreciated the position he was putting her in, when a waiter approached the table, asking if they were ready to order.
“Not yet,” answered Red. “But we’re in no hurry.”
“Speak for yourself,” said Bree once the waiter walked away.
“Now where were we?”
“Your wife.”
“That’s right. Let’s circle back to your husband first.”
“What about him?”
“There is an edge in your voice when you talk about him. Did you realize that?”
“There is today, because I’m mad at him.”
“Something in the journal made you mad. From what you said, it made you wonder if you’d made a mistake.”
“Not that exactly. It just made me wonder. I’m not sure I ever really knew him.”
Red sat back in his chair. “Tell me what’s in the journals, Bree. Get it out.”
“A few of the journals were written before he met me.”
“What about the one you were reading earlier today?”
“After he graduated from the Air Force Academy, Zack, like all the other new lieutenants, had sixty days before they had to report to their first assignment.” Bree told him that, in Zack’s case, he had to report to pilot training in Texas. He proposed the day he graduated, they were married less than a month later, and the trip they took to Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho was their honeymoon.
Free from the anxiety of being in school, Zack was light-hearted and fun. Some days they knew what they would do, and some days they let the day lead them to their next adventure. It was the most uninterrupted time they’d ever spent together.
They fly-fished, and got to know Annie and Dave, who were the outfitters in Salmon. At the ranch, they rode, and fished, went for long walks, and sat on the porch of the main lodge, and talked.
Two days after they got back from Idaho, Zack left for Texas. Between then and the time he died, they were apart more than they were together. When he completed pilot training, he was stationed in Colorado Springs. Bree completed her bachelor’s degree during that time and was thinking about graduate school.
Zack encouraged her to do it. She remembered thinking how good it felt to know he believed in her. “Do it now,” he’d told her. Had he said “before we start a family,” or was that just the way she remembered it?
With both of them focused on their individual pursuits, Bree didn’t feel as though they saw each other much more than they did when he was in Texas. The only difference was, they slept together every night.
She brought it up to him one day, and he told her it would soon be worse. He was being deployed to Afghanistan.
The day before he left, one of Zack’s buddies stopped by to see him.
“I can’t believe he volunteered to go,” the friend had said to Bree.
When Zack walked in the house, a few minutes later, Bree left. She told him she had errands to run, but the truth was, she was so angry, she didn’t want to be around him.
She drove and drove, that afternoon, with no particular destination. When hours later she was still just as angry as she’d been when she left, she considered not going back to the house at all. In the end, she changed her mind, knowing she’d ultimately regret it if she didn’t see him before he left.
When she came home, Zack was as angry as she was. They fought about the deployment.
“How can you not understand?” he shouted at her that night. He accused her of being selfish, and then he walked out.
Sometime in the middle of the night, she heard him come back in, but he didn’t come into the bedroom; he slept on the couch. When she got up the next morning, his bags were packed and he was standing by the front door. Bree walked into the kitchen to get a cup of coffee, and when she came back, he was gone.
“That was the last time I saw him.”
“Get rid of them.”
“What?”
“The letters and the journals. Especially the journals. Don’t read another word.”
“Why?”
“As I said at the start of this conversation, there isn’t anything that will bring him back. In fact, reading words that weren’t meant for you, is doing the opposite. It’s pushing him farther away. Let your memories be, Bree. Let the rest of it go. No good will come of you knowing what else there is in those journals.”
“What do you think I’m going to find?”
“Who sent you the box?”
“I already told you, I don’t know.”
“There must have been a reason whoever it was didn’t want you to know.”
The waiter came back to the table and asked if they were ready to order. “Go ahead,” she told Red.
He ordered for them both before he excused himself from the table.
Was he right? Should she just let it all go? Reading as much as she had certainly hadn’t helped her either mourn him, or let go of him. It only reminded her that things between them were far more strained than she remembered.
Red sat back down at the table. “Ready?” he asked.
“For what?”
“Let’s talk about Jace.”
“Must we?” How much more of an emotional wringer did Red intend to put her through?
“Oh, absolutely. That’s what I really want to talk about.”
“Why?”
“You need to see what everyone else does.”
“And that is?”
“Jace Rice loves you, heart and soul,” he paused when Bree started shaking her head. “And what’s more, you feel the same way about him.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Hear me out.”
Bree sat back in
her chair, her arms folded in front of her again.
“Didn’t your mother ever tell you how rude that is?”
“What?”
“Folding your arms when someone is talking to you?”
Bree released her arms and rested her hands in her lap. “Better?”
“Much better. Now, as I was saying…”
December 23. He still had time to drive to Monument and spend Christmas with his family, but he would have to leave now. Jace went upstairs to pack a bag.
After he’d painted all the rooms on the main floor, he finished repairing the wood floor, and installed the tile in the kitchen and in the downstairs bathroom. He hadn’t started the work on the upstairs of the house yet, but there would be plenty of time when he got back from Colorado.
Whenever he went up the back staircase, he thought about what Vi had said about the attic. There’d be time, later, to explore up there too.
Vi’s words that day, not only about the house, stuck with him. “Not everyone is cut out for life on a ranch,” she’d said.
The more time he spent at home, the more those words rang true. Even if a relationship with Bree was possible, how could he ask her to move to his isolated ranch?
The last time they spoke, he was in Vegas for NFR and she was on her way to Idaho. Was she back in Monument with her family? Only one way to find out.
“Hey, Mama,” he said when she picked up the phone. “I’m fixing to leave now, so I’ll see you sometime late tomorrow night, as long as the weather’s good.”
“Jace, you might not want to leave yet.”
Before he could ask why not, he heard a rap at the door. “Give me a minute, Mama, someone’s at the door. It’s probably Yance. I asked him to swing by the house when he had a few minutes. I’ll call you right back.”
“Come on in, Yance,” he yelled from the kitchen after he hung up. When the ranch manager didn’t open the door and come in, Jace thought maybe he hadn’t heard him.
“Got cotton balls stuffed in your ears?” He pulled the door open, and instead of Yance, Bree stood on the other side of it.
Stay with Me (Cowboys of Crested Butte Book 4) Page 22