by Ruby Laska
Cal hesitated. "Should I look? Or should I just give it to Roan without unwrapping it?"
Now that he'd come this far, he was suddenly nervous. Asking for Jimmy's help had been hard enough, but Cal had taken Jayne's words to heart. His friends cared about him, and he might as well start acting like it. Reaching out was a start.
And putting everything on the line for Roan felt right, too. In a sense, the treasure hidden in her old house didn't matter. He was going to do everything in his power to try to make things right with her, to make her his. If that required patience, he would be patient. If it required apologizing, he would apologize. If it required loving her with all his heart, well, he was pretty sure he could accomplish that.
But it had occurred to him that helping her find the treasure would be a good way to start.
"Well, on the one hand it might be considered a breach of privacy,” Jimmy said. “But on the other hand, you have no way of knowing if this hidden object is the one that she was searching for. And if it is something upsetting or disappointing, you might want to shield her from that knowledge. I have noted that women can become rather emotional about unexpected outcomes."
"You think?" Cal said, smiling to himself. Jimmy was doing his best to help. Besides, Cal had already made up his mind. He slipped off the ribbon and pulled the tissue away.
Inside was a folded length of fabric in red, white, and navy. As he and Jimmy carefully unwrapped it, it became clear that they were holding an old American flag.
"This is incredible," Cal said, counting the rows of stars. "Thirty-nine stars for thirty-nine states...any idea when this would have been made?"
"Late nineteenth century?" Jimmy guessed. “Maybe 1870s or 80s?"
"Well, I hope it's valuable," Cal said, examining the tiny rows of stitches affixing the white stars to the blue background. "Someone put a lot of work into this."
"What are you going to do now?" Jimmy asked.
Cal started wrapping the flag back up in the tissue.
"I don't know. You think it's too late to take it to her now?"
Jimmy looked at his watch. "Almost one in the morning? On a work night? When you and she had it out just a few hours ago?"
"I see where you're going there," Cal said. "Guess I might as well get a few z's and shave first, huh."
"Well, it does seem like the logical course," Jimmy said. He shone his beam around the room, illuminating the old wallpaper, the cobwebbed windows, the oak floors. "This place must have been really nice once."
As they walked back to the old bunkhouse, Cal found himself hoping that, for Roan's sake, it had been beautiful and full of love. Who knew? If Matthew and Jayne had their way, maybe it would be again.
#
Roan was standing in the lane, watching a pair of chickadees skitter around pecking at the seed someone had cast out on the lawn for them, when the bunkhouse door opened and Matthew came out. He was wearing a pale green apron with smiling tomatoes embroidered on the pockets, and holding a pan, which he dumped into the frozen turned earth of the flower garden. He noticed her standing there and put up his hand to shield the glare of the rising sun. "Roan? Is that you?"
Roan didn’t think she could get much more self-conscious than she already was. She'd worn an embroidered cotton tiered skirt her father and Mimi had brought her from their honeymoon trip to Mexico, so beautiful Roan had never thrown it out, despite her feelings about Mimi.
Well, those feelings just might be changing. Along with a lot of other things.
Roan had also washed her hair and let it dry into ringlets, and put on makeup and her favorite old cowboy boots and a pretty soft blue coat she'd bought at a thrift store. She might not be everyone's idea of pretty...but she was hoping she might be Cal's.
"Good morning, Matthew," she said, hugging herself and shivering.
"You, uh, want to come in and have some coffee? I made Irish oatmeal, too. With dried blueberries."
"I'm not really hungry," Roan said. "But coffee might be nice."
"Huh." Matthew appeared to be trying not to smile. "Well, Cal's in there shaving and getting all dressed up to come and see you at work, so you might be able to save him a trip."
"Oh!" Roan blushed deeply. Apparently everyone was going to know her business with Cal—assuming she managed to patch things up. Maybe Cal was coming to yell at her some more, or—
"Poor guy's pretty torn up over you," Matthew said, holding open the door. "You'd be doing us all a favor if you'd come get him settled down."
"Well, in that case..." Roan took a deep breath and followed Matthew into the house.
Inside were the usual sounds of laughter and delicious smells issuing from the kitchen. Matthew led the way, picking up the coffee pot and a mug from the counter. "Look who stopped by!" he said heartily.
Just then Cal burst into the kitchen, a dress shirt unbuttoned over a pair of pressed khaki pants. "Hey Zane, did you borrow my brown belt?"
He saw Roan and stopped short, his expressing going from harried to anxious to hopeful in the space of seconds.
"Roan."
"Hi, Cal," she said shyly.
"I, uh, had something for you. I was going to bring it by the store. I mean, if you're working today. Or I could bring it by the house. Whatever's convenient."
Zane reached over and smacked Cal on the back of the head. "Quit talking," he muttered.
"Why don't we give them some privacy?" Regina said. She was wearing a sateen robe and fluffy heeled slippers, her lipstick in place despite her hair being wrapped in a turban, the picture of screen legend elegance. She winked as she led the rest of them from the room, Matthew grabbing the coffee pot as they filed into the living room.
"I wanted to let you know that Mimi found my mother's jewelry," Roan said. "I'm going to see Dr. Raj later today. I'm hoping I can sell Mom's things quickly and get Angel on his surgery schedule."
"That's—that's great news," Cal said. He didn't look all that happy, however. "Wow."
"Yes, I know." For a moment the two of them stared at the floor. Roan began to wonder if she should have come. Or at least worn a more normal outfit, and maybe tried to do something with her hair.
"You look beautiful," Cal blurted.
"I do?"
"Wait here."
He dashed down the hall and was back in seconds with a tissue paper package.
"I found this in the house."
"You did?" She barely registered the lumpy object, unable to take her eyes off his hopeful, handsome face. He'd gone looking for the treasure—he’d done it for her. He still cared about her, at least a little bit.
"Yes, and I think—"
She ran to him and threw her arms around him, hugging him hard. After a second he hugged her back, burying his face in her hair, kissing her neck, her jaw. "Roan," he groaned. "You make me crazy. I need you."
"You have me," she whispered, and then they were kissing, the package forgotten on the table where Cal dropped it. There was longing and need in the kiss, fire and heat and urgency, but there was tenderness, too.
When someone cleared their throat loudly from the other room, Roan broke the kiss reluctantly. "I think your friends want to come back and finish their breakfast," she said.
"I think you're right," Cal admitted.
"And I need to get to work."
"Of course."
"I really only came by to say hi."
"Hi..." He kissed her once more, softly. "Could I come by after work? Maybe take Angel for a walk with you?"
"Yes," Roan said. "It's a date."
She didn't blush this time, even when all of Cal's friends started cheering.
EPILOGUE
Roan was invited to Thanksgiving dinner at the bunkhouse, a grand affair that concluded with Matthew’s pumpkin ginger pies and a stolen kiss as Roan and Cal pitched in with the dishes. Dr. Raj was able to schedule Angel for the following week, and she was home recovering comfortably by the time Cal got the news that he’d passed the departmental
exam with flying colors. They celebrated with champagne—and a meaty bone for Angel.
It turned out that very few thirty-nine star American flags had ever been made. In 1889, everyone believed the two Dakotas would be admitted as one state, and the next year a forty-three-star flag was made to celebrate the statehood of not just the Dakotas but Montana, Washington and Idaho.
Which made Grandpop’s flag extremely valuable. An appraiser estimated that Roan might get fifteen thousand dollars for it. But by then, she'd sold her mother's jewelry for more than enough to pay for Angel's surgery, even after keeping a delicate pearl ring for herself.
On a cold December morning, all of Cal’s friends attended the swearing in of the three new Conway police officers. After they took the oath and Chief Byrd shook each of their hands, he took the podium once again and looked out over the audience gathered in the crowded conference room. The room was overflowing with the new officers’ friends and family. In the center of them all, Mimi was resplendent in a zebra-striped suit and towering heels.
"It's my pleasure to announce that this morning's ceremony will be concluded with the unveiling of a recent donation to our station. A historic flag dating back to 1889, from the estate of the Brackens family. Mimi and Roan, I wonder if you would do the honors."
The room fell silent as Roan and Mimi made their way to the back wall, where a curtain had been hung over the newly installed glass case. Roan met Mimi's eyes—and Mimi winked. "One, two...three!" she exclaimed as they pulled back the curtains.
The audience gasped, then cheered. The old flag had been carefully restored and mounted, and Roan was sure it had never looked more resplendent. She wished she knew the story of how it had come to be in her family. But even in the best of families, there were things you could never know, secret loves and losses, hidden treasures and forgotten promises.
Every family experienced hurt as well as happiness. The luckiest people got a second chance to find the love that was lost along the way.
Roan reached for Mimi's hand as the audience applauded. "To the Brackens family!" someone shouted, and a chorus of cheers went up. Roan found Cal in the crowd, looking handsome in his uniform. Their eyes met and he mouthed I love you, and Roan knew she had everything she ever wanted.
#
Half an hour later she was helping Jayne serve the cake while Matthew ladled punch. Cal was standing with the other new officers, receiving congratulations, when Chief Byrd came over.
"It's come to my attention that Cal and Darrel and Trevor aren't the only new graduates around here," he said.
Roan looked up in surprise. "What do you mean?"
"You may not know that Dr. Raj and I go way back. We've been bowling together every Tuesday for a decade. He told me one of his patients just graduated from physical therapy. So I issued one extra invitation to the reception."
He pointed to the back of the room, where Mimi was teetering on her high heels, tugging a leash and grinning. While Roan watched, Angel walked through the door, wearing a big red bow around her neck. Cal went to greet them, and led them over to Roan.
"Thank you!" she said to Chief Byrd, remembering in the nick of time that it probably wouldn't do to hug her boyfriend's new boss. So she made do with hugging her boyfriend instead.
"The old girl's looking good," he said, giving Roan a quick kiss that held the promise of much more later.
"I heard that," Mimi said, handing over the leash to Roan. "And I'll take it. A woman my age can't be choosy with her compliments."
As not one but two silver-haired gentlemen in the crowd looked her way with admiration, Roan laughed. "Um, I think Cal was talking about Angel." She reached down and stroked the dog's fur, which was silky from a celebratory grooming. "You're going to get spoiled from all this attention," she chided.
"Both of my girls are going to be spoiled rotten, if I have anything to do with it," Cal said.
"You need to get back to your admirers," Roan said. "And I need to finish serving cake."
"As long as you make time for me later," he said, breaking away reluctantly.
"Of course," Roan murmured. For Cal, she had all the time in the world.
***
Did you enjoy Black Heat?
Check out more sweet, small town romances by Ruby Laska:
The Boomtown Boys Series:
Black Gold
Black Heat
The Cupid Island Series:
Larissa Learns to Breathe
Standalone novels:
Mountain Song
Heartbreak, Tennessee
A Man for the Summer
Mine 'til Monday
Along for the Ride
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…or keep reading to enjoy an excerpt from Black Flame, Book 3 in the Boomtown Boys series.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ruby Laska grew up in a small midwestern town, where her passions included state fairs, Vince Gill, and the local library. A recent West Coast transplant, she lives and works in Emeryville, California. When not writing sweet, small-town romances, Ruby loves to explore San Francisco’s neighborhoods, stopping in at every shoe store and searching for the perfect cup of joe.
PLEASE ENJOY THIS EXCERPT OF BLACK FLAME
By Ruby Laska
CHAPTER ONE
“But—it’s Christmas,” Deneen Burgess sputtered, her face coming dangerously close to violating the Burgess family “No Tears Under Any Circumstances” rule, which was almost as sacred as the “Never Admit Defeat” rule that she had already violated earlier in the week.
She’d come halfway across the country to escape her family’s scorn, and they didn’t even know about her latest mistake yet. She wasn’t about to compound the error by crying in public.
“It’s not Christmas today,” the woman behind the rental car counter pointed out unhelpfully. “Only Christmas Eve. And barely noon, so I’m not sure you can even call it ‘eve’ yet.”
“Thank you for your help,” Deneen said miserably, giving up all hope of leaving the Conway, North Dakota airport in a taxi or a rental car. It was probably just as well; she was down to her last eighty-seven dollars, so she would have had to put transportation on the just-in-case Visa her dad had given her when she graduated from college and started her first job.
That had been four years ago, and she’d never managed to go more than a few months without having to put some unexpected expense on the Visa. Mother and Daddy never got angry with her, but they made it clear that it was time for her to find a nice husband to keep her in pocket money. Deneen had almost started to believe they might have a point, that she might as well give up all hope of making it on her own and find a man to take care of her, but she didn’t have any current prospects.
Her sister Jayne had never needed to ask for money, but then again, Jayne was the perfect one. She’d managed to find not just a well-paying job but a fantastic boyfriend—none other than Matthew Jarrett, who had been famous in Red Fork, Arkansas for his looks and athletic ability and charm and, well, everything about him was just as perfect as Jayne. Just once, Deneen would like to know what it felt like to be perfect herself.
That’s why she was here. To prove she could be really, truly, good at something. After all, Jayne had found a job the minute she came up here last summer. Unemployment was down to three percent in this oil boomtown. With all the extra disposable income in the local economy, there would surely be a need for a skilled events planner. After all, newly wealthy oil workers would be getting married and having kids. There would be birthdays and engagements and retirements and christenings and all kinds of parties and celebrations.
And while the unthinkable, horrible event of last week was still too painful to think about, the timing couldn’t have worked out better, because Matthew and Jayne had announced their engagement. Now Deneen had come to Carson, Nor
th Dakota to plan her sister’s Valentines’ Day wedding, and prove to her family that she had a talent all her own, while wowing all her potential customers, and giving her sister a gift to remember. Not to mention, avoiding having to face her parents once they found out that she’d been fired yet again.
That’s why she’d spent the last of her savings on a one-way plane ticket here on Christmas Eve. She’d planned to surprise Jayne and Matthew, and everything had gone without a hitch until now. It had been an uneventful flight through crisp, sunny skies; her luggage was stuffed with cute cold-weather outfits and gifts for the engaged pair; and she’d been having a pretty good hair day, too, at least until the heat blasting through the tiny building that served as an airport terminal made it stand on end.
But apparently there were no rental cars left in town, and the only taxi service was already booked solid and not even answering their phone. Deneen briefly considered hitching a ride out to the ranch where her sister was living, but one look at the snow-covered streets outside changed her mind. She’d just have to give up some of the element of surprise, that was all. But that was all right: Jayne would still be thrilled that Deneen had come all this way.
Except that Jayne wasn’t answering her phone. Deneen tried three times before remembering that her sister said there wasn’t always good cell reception at the ranch.
“Reception’s better outside,” the woman behind the car rental counter called.
“Of course it is,” Deneen muttered to herself, attempting a pleasant smile and wave at the woman as she schlepped her suitcase toward the door.
Outside, the wind hit her full blast in the face. It felt like ten below, not that it ever got that cold in Arkansas, and Deneen pulled up her hood and stamped her feet while paging through Jayne’s texts in search of the number to the ranch’s land line. “Please please be there,” she whispered, and hit the call button.
Look for BLACK FLAME in Spring 2014!