by Lynda Chance
Jeff McIntyre dipped his head and seemed to visibly relax somewhat, maybe because of the respect in Josh’s tone, and taking his hand back, indicated that Josh take a seat across the desk. Josh sat and the older man followed suit.
“How can I help you, son?”
“I don’t want to take up a lot of your time. But what I have to tell you is extremely important, and I hope you’ll believe what I have to say.”
“I have no reason to doubt your word, son.”
Josh was going to take that as an olive branch, and he believed it meant that Mr. McIntyre wasn’t going to blame him for his father’s sins. Josh cleared his throat and met the other man’s eyes. “Thank you for that, sir.” He firmed his lips. “It’s come to my attention that Jesse Whitaker has been working here on the Bar M.”
The other man’s eyes narrowed. “That’s true.”
“I don’t believe it’s a situation that you should allow to continue.” Josh concentrated on breathing evenly and holding the other man’s eyes. He fully expected that the older man might pull a rifle on him at any given moment … and probably would as soon as the name ‘Hannah’ came from Josh’s lips.
“Why do you say that?”
Josh managed to keep his voice even as he answered, “He’s not a good person and he can’t be trusted.”
“You think he’s going to rustle my stock? Steal my implements?” Jeff McIntyre asked shortly.
“No, sir. He’s not a thief, not that I know of,” Josh answered as neutrally as he could manage.
“So how is he not trustworthy?”
“He’s a threat to your step-daughter.”
The older man’s eyes narrowed on him and became piercing as his scowl deepened. “Hannah?”
“Yes, sir.”
“First of all … you mean my daughter, don’t you? Hannah is my daughter.”
Shit. Josh had fucked up already and insulted the man. “Yes, sir. I’m sorry.”
“What do you know about Hannah?” An unmistakable edge had entered the older man’s voice and Josh didn’t fail to recognize it.
“Nothing much … Ty Anderson is a friend of mine. Ava is his sister and I saw Hannah at the Andersons’ house last night.” That was all true, even if Josh was leaving out parts that he knew would get him shot if the other man knew about them.
“And?”
“She mentioned Jesse was working for you,” Josh replied.
“You got some interest in my daughter you’re not letting on about? She’s fifteen, Turner, you realize that?”
“Yes, sir, I know how young she is. And I’ll respect that. But not everyone will. Jesse Whitaker is a scumbag, a lower than life piece of—” Josh was getting pissed just thinking about Whitaker near Hannah and he caught himself before he said something that her father might take exception to.
Except her father didn’t take exception. “Spit it out. Say what you’re thinking, so I know what I’m dealing with.”
Josh lifted his hands from where they rested on his knees and cracked his knuckles as he tried to contain the rage in his system that even Jesse’s name could induce. “He’s a piece of shit. He’s a piece of shit that doesn’t understand what the word ‘no’ means. The son-of-a-bitch has hurt girls before, and he’ll hurt girls again.” Josh narrowed his eyes and leveled his gaze on the other man. “And I’ll be goddamned if he’ll hurt Hannah.” Josh paused and took a deep breath and then added, “Sir.”
For a moment the other man was silent while he seemed to measure Josh’s conviction. “How do you know all of this?”
Josh let out a breath and sat deeper into the chair. “I can’t tell you that. But I will tell you that he’s hurt someone very, very close to me. You can speculate on who that is, and you’d probably come up with the right answer. I would appreciate it if that information doesn’t go farther than this room. I would never have told anyone that … except … I’m worried about Hannah … so worried that I’m sick to my stomach.”
Hannah’s father watched him from across his desk for a few seconds before he abruptly stood to his feet. Josh did the same and they walked out of the study and over to the front door where Hannah’s dad turned to him. “I’ll think about what you’ve said, and you can be sure I’ll take care of my own. You’ve never personally done anything to hurt my family, and I won’t blame you for things you can’t control. But son, I’m warning you—you best remember that my daughter is only fifteen years old, and if I catch onto anything out of line—you’ll live to regret it, understand me?”
“Yes, sir.”
Josh turned and left.
Chapter Five
Janet McIntyre waited until Josh left and then she walked up behind her husband who watched from the window and put her hand on his shoulder. “What was that all about?”
Jeff turned away from the dust still settling in his yard and faced his wife. “That boy’s worried about Hannah. Says Jesse is no good and might hurt her if he catches her alone.”
“Oh, my God. Do you think it’s true?”
“Probably. The Turner boy believes it, that’s for sure. He must really believe Jesse’s a threat to Hannah, or else he wouldn’t have come here. I could tell he knows what’s going on between his father and Cindy, and I think it took all the nerve the boy had to show his face around here. And he only did it for one reason.
“Hannah?”
“Yeah.”
“You think he has feelings for her?”
“Absolutely. I don’t know how I feel about that yet, but he’s working himself into a crazy state thinking someone might hurt her.”
“Are you sure that’s the reason and he’s not just doing a good deed?”
“No question about it. I recognize the crazed look in his eyes that says he’ll do whatever he has to do to protect the things he cares about. Yeah, I recognize the look because I see it everyday.”
“Where?”
For a moment Jeff didn’t answer, just ran his eyes over his wife’s form with extreme possession. “In the mirror.”
****
Within the hour, Jeff McIntyre was sitting in Sheriff Thompson’s office, where he had recited the story almost verbatim, only leaving out the bit about the identity of the girl who’d been attacked, and who he believed was the Turner girl, Katie.
“What do you think?” he asked the sheriff now.
“I’ve never particularly cared anything for the Whitaker kid. He’s never broken the law, though, not that I know of. I’ve got nothing to pull him in for.”
“What do you know about Josh Turner?”
“Other than his father is a lazy piece of garbage who’s in and out of my jail for disorderly conduct all the time?”
“Yeah, except that. Everyone in the county knows Chris Turner is pure shit. I’m speaking of the boy now.”
The sheriff shook his head. “Jeff … I think he’s a good kid. Maybe that’s not what you want to hear, but nothing indicates otherwise. Jimmy Clack thinks the kid is a gold mine and even trusts him with the cash register. He says the feed store hasn’t been this clean in twenty years. The boy doesn’t sit around if there aren’t any customers. He makes himself useful. He’s a hard worker.”
“What else?”
The sheriff shook his head again, looking thoughtful. “I don’t know what to tell you. You know my daughter Mandy is a senior this year as well. She says that Josh is on track to graduate second in his class. That’s pretty damn impressive.”
“Yeah,” Jeff agreed.
“This morning, I caught him—”
“Caught him what?” Jeff McIntyre cut in.
“Nothing bad, man. I saw him helping Mrs. Dawson after she dropped her purse. Everyone else just ignored her and went about their business, but not the Turner boy. And then to top it off, he loaded her groceries for her, all the while listening to her yammer. And you know how she can yammer.”
“Yeah, I do.”
“I think you’re barking up the wrong tree if you’re trying to
get something on the Turner kid. More than likely, what he’s saying about Jesse is true and he’s probably right. You need to watch out for Hannah.”
Jeff contemplated the other man for a moment. “I can easily fire Jesse and I guess I will. He’s been late three or four times already. But I still don’t like how familiar Josh seemed, talking about my daughter. She’s too young for boys to be hanging around—”
“You’re not going through anything we don’t all go through when our girls begin to grow up. Mine’s a senior, remember? I’ve wanted to take a shotgun to more than one kid. But you just can’t.”
“But it isn’t right. He’s too old for her.”
“Well, don’t look to me for answers. He hasn’t done anything wrong, and your daughter’s what, almost sixteen?”
“Yeah.”
“It’s not like I can throw him in jail. If I arrested every kid who has a younger girlfriend, three-quarters of the boys at Redwood Falls High would be in my jail. Just calm down and remember that you and Janet raised Hannah right and she’s not going to do anything she shouldn’t do. And from everything I’ve seen, no matter what kind of rocky start Josh Turner had in life, he’s a good kid. Diana and David did a damn fine job with him.”
Jeff thanked the man and left his office, wanting to get back to the ranch without delay to fire Jesse Whitaker.
****
Hannah poked her head in Ava’s room, intent on dragging some answers from her friend. Ethan had left shortly after had Josh this morning, and now Hannah couldn’t stand the curiosity anymore.
Ava was digging through her drawers and glanced up when Hannah entered. Hannah knew her mom would be here in a couple of hours to pick her up, so she had to pry the information from Ava as quickly as she could. She decided the blunt approach would be best. “I want to know what’s going on with you and Ethan.”
Ava turned to face her with a deflated sigh. “Do we have to do this right now?”
“My mom’s going to be here after while, so yeah. And we’re alone, so spill it.” Hannah plopped down on the center of the bed.
“There’s not much to tell that you didn’t see at the party last night.”
Hannah narrowed her eyes on the other girl and crossed her arms over her chest. “You’re wasting time, Ava.”
Ava moved to the chair in front of her desk and sat down and focused on Hannah, a resigned look on her face. “Ethan’s been coming here for years, right?”
“Sure.”
“So has Josh, but Josh has never noticed I’m anything more than an inanimate object, like a stick of furniture.”
“But Ethan has?” Hannah asked, a trickle of excitement for her friend running through her. Ethan was hot. Hot with a capital H. And of course, it didn’t exactly hurt Hannah’s feelings to know that Josh hadn’t noticed her friend. Inside, she was smiling about that.
“Only recently. Well, maybe for a year, I guess? About a year ago, I started to notice that his gaze would linger, you know? Or if I was in the room, he’d drag his feet and not leave the very second that Ty would. Stuff like that. Nothing more happened, he never tried to talk to me or anything and I really just thought it was my imagination, you know?”
“Okay?” Hannah gave a verbal nudge.
“Okay, well, it wasn’t my imagination, and a few weeks ago—”
Ava’s voice trailed off and Hannah came to her knees in a rush of motion and threw her hands on her hips. “Tell me, now! I’m dying here!”
“This is embarrassing, Hannah. You have to understand … I was mortified … and you better never tell anybody, okay?”
“Of course not!”
“Okay.” Ava swallowed and took a deep breath. “It was during the summer … before school started. Mom and Dad were at work and Ty should have been at work, too. And I thought he was.” Ava looked at Hannah and shook her head at whatever she was remembering, bright red color spilling into her cheeks. “Hannah, I never prance around half-naked—”
“Oh my God.”
“Yeah. I was standing in the bathroom, blow-drying my hair so I couldn’t hear much of anything.” Ava put her face in her hands and shuddered before continuing, “I was in my bra and panties.”
“Holy crap.”
“Yeah. The bathroom door was wide open and Ethan walked from the living room into the hallway and saw me. I saw someone come in and almost had a heart attack. And when I realized it was him—”
“What happened?”
“I must have turned off the blow-dryer, but I don’t remember doing it. I just froze … staring at him. And shit, Hannah … he didn’t turn and leave.”
Hannah was almost in a trance, picturing what her friend was describing. “What’d he do?”
“For a few seconds he stood completely still and then he walked straight toward me.”
“No, he did not!” Hannah exclaimed on a gasp.
“Yeah, he did.”
“And?”
“He stood in the doorway without taking his eyes off me. I mean they were glued to me. Like running up and down my entire body, you know?”
Hannah couldn’t get her throat to work so she stayed silent and waited for her friend to continue.
“Then he put his hands on the doorframe and leaned toward me and he looked as pissed as shit. Just like he did when we showed up at the party … that same exact expression.”
“And?”
“And then he said, and I quote, ‘Do you know how to close a fucking door?’”
“Oh my God,” Hannah said.
Ava let out a breath. “I know, right?”
“And then?” Hannah asked.
“I was pretty much in shock and stayed silent, and then I heard Ty coming in from the back door, and Ethan moved away and slammed the bathroom door shut and that was it.”
“Holy crap.”
“I know.”
Hannah stared at her friend for a moment while Ave looked steadily back. “So did anything happen between that day and then last night?” Hannah asked.
“No, not really. Just a lot more of those searing looks of his … a whole lot more and a whole lot hotter.”
“And then last night? When we got to the party and he stood blocking our way in? That was the first of … whatever it is?”
“Yeah.”
“So, what happened after Josh pulled me outside?”
“I pushed past Ethan and went inside—”
“That was brave!”
Ava grinned. “Yeah, I know, right? I was pretty proud of myself. I saw Ty and Kayla and went to where they were hanging out, but Ethan followed me. He just kind of hung around, almost like he was guarding me, you know? He didn’t say much and then Ty took off with Kayla and told Ethan to take me home and you know the rest.”
“I don’t know what happened after he followed you in here last night. I heard arguing.”
“Oh, we argued, all right,” Ava agreed.
“Did he kiss you?”
“No.”
“Damn it,” Hannah said on an exhale.
“I know.”
“What was said?”
“He immediately started bitching about me not being careful, being too young to go to a party like that, blah, blah, blah.”
“What’d you say?”
“I told him it wasn’t any of his business and that I already had a brother and didn’t need another one and he needed to leave me alone.”
“And?”
“There was a minute there when I thought he might, you know, I don’t know, grab me or something, but he didn’t. He just said, ‘whatever’, and then he slammed out of my room and went into Ty’s.”
“Whoa. Did Ty ever come home last night?”
“He came slinking in around six this morning, I think.”
“So do you like Ethan?”
Ava raised a single eyebrow and amusedly asked, “Really, Hannah? Have you seen the guy? Or are you totally blind to anyone who isn’t Josh Turner?”
Hannah ignored the qu
estion. “Then we need a plan. You know, to push Ethan into something.”
Ava began shaking her head. “Uh-uh, no way. I’m not that brave … or suicidal. I’ll just sit here and drool whenever I see him, but I’m not going to be in on any ‘plan’.
“Okay, I get that, but you’re taking a chance and he might slip through your fingers.”
Ava narrowed her eyes as if she didn’t care for that scenario but she didn’t respond to the ploy, and instead, changed the subject. “What about you and Josh? What happened?”
“Just more of the same. He harped on about how young I am, kissed me some more, and then reminded me again that we can’t date, even though he wants to.” Hannah wasn’t ready to tell Ava everything that had happened between Josh and Jesse at the party. It was highly doubtful that Jesse would ever come into Ava’s radius, so Hannah wasn’t afraid her friend could get hurt. But she didn’t want her to know everything that had gone down the night before, or how scary Josh had been when he’d been threatening Jesse.
“Well then, here we are. Kind of in the same boat. What are we going to do about it?”
Hannah smiled. “Today? Forget about it and go shopping ‘til my mom comes?”
Of course, there wasn’t really any place in town the girls could go shopping, but they had a few hours to burn until Hannah’s mom came to pick her up, so they walked the few blocks over to Main Street and went inside the general store.
Even though Hannah loved the ranch, the wide-open spaces and the swimming pool her father had put in the year before, the ranch was secluded. It was nice when she spent the night with Ava. Since the family lived in town, the girls could walk everywhere and often did.
They spent about forty-five minutes browsing through the make-up and magazines. They made a few selections, and Ava paid first and went to wait for Hannah outside on the sidewalk. Mr. Rigsby was ringing up Hannah’s purchases when she felt another customer walk up behind her to get in line to pay.
“That’ll be twenty-one-seventy-five, Miss McIntyre,” Mr. Rigsby said.
Hannah felt a moment of panic and embarrassment when she realized she had gone over twenty dollars. It was even worse knowing she was about to hold up the line behind her.