Caught in the Act: Book Two: Independence Falls

by Sara Jane Stone

  He watched as she took in the panoramic view of the Cascades. Her brow drew together, her head turning to the left. He knew the second she spotted the pair of fir trees in the center of the clearing. She sucked in a breath, her eyes narrowing as her hand tightened on the lead. There was no doubt about it—she knew where they were now. And she remembered every moment they’d spent together. He could see it in the way she studied the space beneath those branches.

  Seven years ago, he’d met her under the twin firs nearly every day for a month. It had started with a simple picnic. He’d known her forever, grown up playing Little League with her brothers. Chad, the second eldest of the Summers brothers, had been his year in school. But that summer, Liam had been unable to resist the wild, daring gleam in Katie’s eyes, or the way she’d worn her clothes shorter and tighter. Maybe it had been his imagination, or maybe she’d been pushing the limits.

  She’d had a rough year. At eighteen, she’d lost her father to a sudden heart attack days after burying her grandfather. After her dad died, it was just Katie and her brothers. Her mother had walked out years earlier and never looked back.

  In hindsight, he realized Katie had probably been trying to escape her grief. At the time, he just plain wanted her. So damn much that he’d put on blinders. He thought he’d found someone who wanted the same things he did. He’d pushed aside the warning signs—she was too young, too sad, and too damn innocent.

  “Why did you bring me here?” she asked. There was an edge to her tone as if she didn’t feel the need to hide her dislike for him when they were alone. How deep did those feeling run?

  He shrugged, setting the question aside for another time and place. “Fastest way home.”

  “We’re trespassing,” she said, her gaze fixed on those trees.

  “Not anymore. I bought it.” He pulled on the goat’s lead. He hadn’t planned on revealing that fact today.

  “When?”

  “A few years back.” As soon as he had the money. He’d been desperate to make this land his own.

  “Why?” This time, honest wonder filled her voice.

  “Nice views.” He nodded to mountains visible over the tops of the distant trees. She’d grown up looking out at those peaks, but he’d always lived closer to town on a thumbprint of land in a rented home. His parents—God bless them—had gotten by on a combination of love and timber harvesting. And there had always been more love to go around than money from working in the forest, especially in the winter months.

  The fear of getting kicked out of their house, of never having enough to pay the bills, had hung over his childhood. Some kids were scared of monsters under the bed. But Liam had grown up terrified of calls from collection agencies. As his dad grew older, unable to keep up in the field alongside the young guys, Liam had realized the importance of plan B—an office job that didn’t require physical work, and came with health insurance.

  “What are you going to do with it?” Katie asked, drawing him back to the present and the piece of land that proved he was walking down the path marked success. The equity stake in Moore Timber his best friend, Eric Moore, had offered Liam in exchange for help running the company was one more milestone on that road—and one he had yet to prove he deserved.

  “Thinking about building a home here someday,” Liam said.

  “A house? I would have thought you’d want to forget about this place. About us. After the way you ended it.” Katie raised her hand to her mouth as if she couldn’t believe she’d said those words out loud.

  Liam stopped beside her, losing his grip on the goat’s lead and allowing the animal to graze. “I messed up, Katie. I think we both know that. But I panicked when I realized how young you were, and how—”

  “I was eighteen,” she snapped.

  “By a few weeks. You were so innocent. And I felt all kinds of guilt for not realizing it sooner.”

  “Not anymore,” she said, her voice firm. Defiant. “I’m not innocent anymore.”

  “No.” Liam knew every line, every angle of her face. There were days he woke up dreaming about the soft feel of her skin. But it was the way Katie had looked at him after he’d gone too far, taken too much, that haunted his nightmares. In that moment, her green eyes had shone with hope and love.

  Back then, when he was fresh out of college, returning home to build the life he’d dreamed about, that one look had sent him running scared. He wasn’t ready for the weight of her emotions.

  And he sure as hell wasn’t ready now. Eric had given Liam one job since handing over part of the company—buy Summers Family Trucking. Liam couldn’t let his best friend, now his business partner, down. Whatever lingering feelings he had for Katie needed to wait on the sidelines until after Liam finished negotiating with her brothers. There was too much at stake—including his vision of a secure future—to blow this deal over the girl who haunted his fantasies.

  He drew the goat away from the overgrown grass and started toward the wooded area on the other side of the clearing. “We should go. Get you home before too late.”

  But Katie didn’t follow. She marched down to the fir trees. “I’m twenty-five, Liam. I don’t have a curfew. My brothers don’t sit around waiting for me to come home.”

  “I know.”

  Brody, Chad, and Josh were waiting for him. Liam had been on his way to see her brothers when he’d spotted her car on the side of the road. They’d reluctantly agreed to an informal meeting to discuss selling to Moore Timber.

  She spun to face him, hands on her hips. “I think you wanted to take a walk down memory lane.”

  “Katie—”

  “Back then, you never held back.” She closed the gap between them, the toes of her sandal-clad feet touching his boots. “So tell me, Liam, what are we doing here?”

  He fought the urge to reach for her. He had no right. Not to mention bringing her here had confirmed one thing: After seven years, Katie Summers still held his mistakes against him.

  She raised one hand, pressing her index finger to his chest. Damn, he wished he’d kept his leather jacket on. Her touch ignited years of flat-out need. No, he hadn’t lived like a saint for seven years, but no one else turned him on like Katie Summers.

  “Back then,” she continued, “you asked for what you wanted.”

  No, he’d issued commands. He’d held nothing back—except his heart.

  “Honey, if I want something,” he said slowly, “you’ll know.”

  Her eyes sparked with desire. That flash—it was unexpected, like the moment when a chainsaw blade ran up against a rock. He felt the danger, knew the warning signs. If she looked at him like that for any longer, with her full lips parted, he’d kiss her.

  The baby goat pushed between them and the tension shattered. Katie stepped back, scooped up the young animal, and thrust it into his arms.

  “I need you to carry the little one,” she said, her tone once again hard and unforgiving. The desire he’d witnessed seconds earlier had seemingly vanished without a trace. “Her legs are tired.”

  He’d gone from almost kissing her to carrying her rescued goat in the blink of an eye. Whatever happened next, Katie Summers was not going to make this easy.

  “Lead the way, Katie. This time, I’ll follow you.”

  Chapter 3

  KATIE TOSSED A bale of hay into the stall, watching as the goats pulled it apart. She’d placed the four-legged family in the far corner of the barn, away from her horses. She wanted them to feel safe here.

  “Later, I’ll bring you a bucket of grain,” she told the animals. “Not that you need it. There is plenty to eat out in the fields. But I’m going to spoil you today. Tomorrow, I’ll let you loose in the pasture.”

  Only the youngest, the little girl goat Liam had dutifully carried back to the barn, looked up from the feast.

  Liam. She shook her head as she headed for the exit
. After all this time, she couldn’t believe she’d walked headfirst into the past. It wasn’t that she avoided him. That would have proved impossible. Since Liam’s little sister had returned home from serving in Afghanistan, Georgia and Katie had become close friends. In a few months, Katie would be Georgia’s maid of honor when she married Eric Moore, Liam’s best friend and boss. And Liam would be the best man.

  No, there was no avoiding him. But that didn’t mean they had to awaken old memories.

  Trying to push Liam out of her thoughts, she crossed the field to the farmhouse. Her father had added a wraparound porch, wide enough to accommodate a porch swing and a pair of rocking chairs, but otherwise the three-story structure stood much the same as it had when her grandfather first built the place. The red paint had faded and chipped in some places. A few of the wooden boards needing replacing, but they would get to that once they had a little extra money.

  Katie picked up her pace. If they just held on awhile longer, they would have the money to repair the house, pay their debts, and more. She and her brothers had struggled to maintain the family business for years, but Katie had finally found a way out of their just-getting-by existence. Both Granddaddy and her father had devoted most of their lives to Summers Family Trucking, determined to leave behind a tangible legacy, and now she’d found a way to make it thrive. She just needed her brothers to trust her, to be patient, and let her finalize the details.

  Glancing over at the vehicles lining the dirt and gravel parking area in front of the house Katie spotted her wagon. She’d taken her goats straight to the bar when she’d returned home, leaving Liam to beg a ride from her brothers, or wait until she finished. Seeing to the animals came first. But while she’d been busy settling the goats into their new home, her brothers had gone out, changed her tire, and driven her car home. Beside her wagon stood Liam’s motorcycle.

  Hands on her hips, she stared at the bike. What was he still doing here? Out of all the ten thousand or so people in Independence Falls, Liam was the last one she expected to stick around and visit with her brothers. If anyone else had come to her rescue on the side of the road, her family would offer him a drink and a game of pool. But Liam?

  Every time Brody caught sight of Liam—in the grocery store, on a job site, or at the bar—fury flashed in her brother’s eyes as if he was hearing Liam’s words from that awful morning, seven years earlier, for the first time.

  I’m so damn sorry. I’ll leave her alone, I swear. You have my word that I won’t touch her again. I won’t go anywhere near your sister.

  Katie had walked into the room that fateful morning just in time to hear Liam’s apology. She’d frozen on the spot, shocked to find the man she loved, whom she had stupidly assumed loved her in return, breaking up with her—and tearing her trust to pieces in the process.

  She reached the three steps leading up to the porch as the front door swung open. And there he was in his leather jacket and jeans.

  “You’re still here?” She glanced past him to where Chad, her middle brother, held the door. Brody and Josh stood beside him.

  Her mind flashed back to the last time she’d seen Liam surrounded by her three big brothers. Brody, the oldest and most even-tempered of the three, had his arm drawn back ready to slam his fist into Liam’s face. If she hadn’t stepped between them, she had a feeling Brody would have thrown that punch, then another and another.

  Her brothers had found out she’d been seeing Liam from one of the local gossips. When she didn’t come home that night seven years ago, they had sought him out, demanding that Liam walk away from her if he wasn’t serious. And Liam had. Just like that.

  “He’s leaving.” Brody crossed his powerful arms in front of his chest. “Now.”

  “Katie, what the hell were you doing driving around with a flat spare?” Josh demanded. He was the youngest of her brothers, only eleven months older than she, and the only brother who’d inherited their mother’s red hair and green eyes. Brody and Chad looked like twins with their dark brown hair and matching eyes.

  “I didn’t know.”

  “I’ll see you around, Katie,” Liam said, stopping beside her at the base of the porch steps. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Brody step forward as if he’d personally escort Liam to his bike if he didn’t keep walking. “Take care of your goats.”

  Liam walked away, easy and carefree, as if he hadn’t spent the afternoon leading her through the past.

  Brody turned his intense gaze to her. “What goats?”

  Still holding the door open, Chad shook his head. “Don’t tell me you brought home another stray animal, sis.”

  Chin held high, she marched up the steps. “I didn’t have a choice. Their owner wasn’t taking care of them. They deserve better.”

  Brody met her defiant gaze, his powerful arms crossed in front of his chest. “How many?”

  “Three.” She walked through the door, past Chad.

  “Then you’ll be glad to hear Liam offered us a way to keep your herd fed through the winter,” Chad said, closing the door. He headed past the main stairs toward the large, open farm kitchen in the rear of the house, Brody and Josh behind him.

  “He what?” Katie followed at her brother’s heels.

  “Sit down.” Brody pulled out a chair and held it for her. He had crafted each piece of furniture by hand, using downed trees from their twenty acres. But that was back when her oldest brother had time to spend in his woodworking shop. Before they started saving every downed tree for firewood to heat their house or to sell to help make ends meet.

  Josh claimed a seat beside the one Brody held for her while Chad headed for the fridge, pulling out a six-pack of longnecks. He set the beer on the table and went to the cupboard for a bag of chips. Chad twisted the top off one of the bottles and handed it to her before sinking into another chair.

  Brody waited until everyone was settled before taking his place at the head of the table. A legal pad lined with his handwriting sat in front of him.

  “Turns out Liam was on his way over when he spotted your wagon,” Brody said.

  Her grip tightened on her untouched beer. He’d planned to visit her brothers? The same day he’d led her past their spot under the fir trees? The day’s events were like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle she couldn’t fit together.

  “Moore Timber wants to buy Summers Family Trucking,” Chad said, cutting to the chase.

  “What?” Her eyes widened and she set the bottle on the table before it slipped from her hand.

  “After the snafu with B&B Trucking, Eric Moore feels his timber company would be better served by having their own trucks and drivers instead of relying on an outside vendor,” Brody explained.

  With four years of undergraduate business classes under her belt, that part made sense to her. “But why was Liam here and not Eric?”

  She couldn’t name one person in Western Oregon who didn’t respect and trust Eric Moore. He’d built his late father’s timber company into the largest operation in the Pacific Northwest. He had a reputation for working hard alongside his employees when needed, and he always did the right thing. He even took in his three-year-old nephew, Nate, after his sister and brother-in-law passed away in a car accident.

  “It is Eric’s company,” she added.

  “He made Liam an equity partner,” Josh said. “Eric’s stepping back to spend more time with Georgia and Nate. Get ready for the wedding and all.”

  “Seems Eric put Liam in charge of closing the deal,” Chad said.

  “Liam was here to buy our trucking company?” He hadn’t said a word to her while they walked home. Katie bit her lower lip, her grip tightening on her beer. It wasn’t as if she needed another reason to dislike Liam Trulane, but he’d given her one anyway.

  “Look, I know you two have a history,” Brody said.

  Chad snorted.

  “We didn’t
want that to influence your view of this deal,” Josh added.

  “It won’t,” she lied. The idea of giving control of the family business, her grandfather’s baby—Summers Family Trucking—to Liam Trulane? It turned her stomach.

  “But I don’t think now is the right time to sell,” she added.

  “Look, I don’t know the ins and outs of finance. Not like you do,” Brody said. Of all her brothers, he was the only one who hadn’t gone to college, choosing instead to stay home and run the trucking company alongside her father. But he was also the brother who understood the business side of things the best. He’d managed Summers Family Trucking for years without her help. And while Chad and Josh had graduated, they hadn’t exactly focused on business management classes.

  “None of us do,” Chad said. “But we’re not deaf. You’ve been saying for the past year that we’re in trouble.”

  “We were,” she clarified. “But once Mr. Fidderman at Black Hills Timber signs the contract that gives us the exclusive right haul the excess from their harvests, the limbs and other useless pieces, to the biomass plant, we’re going to be fine. Better than fine. We’ll make a good profit from our cut of the haul.”

  “Maybe,” Chad said. “If he signs the contract.”

  “He will,” Katie insisted, her attention focused on her oldest brother. “And then we won’t need to sell to anyone.”

  Especially not Liam Trulane.

  “We can keep the business in the family. In a year or two, some of us can step back,” she continued, glancing around the table at Chad and Josh, and back at Brody, whose lips formed a thin line. “If we want to do something else.” She had a feeling Brody would never walk away.

  “Katie,” Brody said. “I want that deal to come through. But the contract with Black Hills isn’t worth anything until we iron out the details. Frankly, right now all we have are a few trucks and a new chipper to process a bunch of branches no one is paying us to haul. If Mr. Fidderman doesn’t come through—”