The Good Race: Book One of the Grayson Falls series

by A. M. Mahler

  And he wanted his dog back.

  His working dog, Bravo, had also sustained effects from the bombing. As they were traveling at the time, he hadn’t alerted fast enough and the bomb had exploded right after the dog barked. Not many people knew that military working dogs could get PTSD, but Bravo did. He wasn’t sleeping at night without Ethan, had trouble responding to another handler, and often cried.

  When the news had reached Ethan, he’d asked for Bravo to be discharged with him, and his request was granted. Now, he was just awaiting word of when Bravo would arrive back in the States. They had gone through extensive training together. Getting a job as a working dog handler in the Marine Corps was extremely difficult, and there had been heavy competition. Their bond ran deep. It had to. They had to trust each other implicitly.

  When Ethan had made his way out of the overturned Humvee after the explosion with Bravo, the dog had lain close to him, offering what comfort he could to his handler, who was writhing in pain on the ground. Bravo wouldn’t even let the medics near him. Ethan had to issue the stand-down command numerous times before the dog finally laid down again, growling all the while, but keeping his distance. He hadn’t been allowed to stay with Ethan at the hospital, and Ethan had felt his absence keenly.

  But Bravo would be heading home any day now. And with the farm no longer an option, Ethan needed to find someplace to call home. He couldn’t see himself following his parents to Florida, and Grayson Falls suddenly looked pretty good.

  As long as his new brother and sister weren’t total assholes.

  He liked the idea of having more brothers and sisters. Maybe they wouldn’t ever be real close, but hopefully they could at least be friends.

  He had just started toward the front door when he heard a child’s laughter coming from the side of the house, so he started in that direction. He hadn’t gotten far when two men rounded the corner swinging a little girl in between them. She squealed in delight as the men sent her higher each time. He recognized one as Eric Davis. The other was in a police uniform.

  “Sergeant Donohue,” Davis greeted him. “You made it out.”

  “I don’t have too heavy of a schedule at the moment,” Ethan said, accepting Eric’s hand.

  “This is Danny McKenzie, the schmuck that trails after your sister Jackie with stars in his eyes and his tongue hanging out.”

  Danny rolled his eyes and held out his hand. “It’s nice to meet you. Jackie and Ryan are equally as curious about you.”

  “Ouchie!” The little girl called out, pointing to Ethan’s prosthetic.

  “It did hurt,” he said, bending down to the girl’s level. He hadn’t mastered squatting yet, but he could bend down a bit. “And what’s your name?”

  “This is my daughter, Emma,” Eric said.

  “That’s a very pretty name,” Ethan smiled.

  “Dr. Jackie fix boo-boo,” the child said, before sticking her thumb in her mouth.

  “I’m afraid I’m stuck with it now,” Ethan said, standing back up.

  “Sorry about that,” Eric muttered.

  “Doesn’t bother me,” Ethan shrugged. “Kids always ask the questions adults are too scared to.”

  “Come on inside,” Danny said, waving his hand. “We were just going in for a beer after feeding Jackie’s chickens for the evening. She’ll be home soon.”

  “She has chickens?” Ethan asked.

  “Unfortunately,” Danny sighed. “This is a poor agricultural area, and she got paid in chickens once. Then another patient paid her in building the coop. We have no idea what the hell to do with them.”

  “Being raised on a farm, I bet you do,” Eric said to Ethan as they entered the house.

  “We could use the pointers,” Danny replied as he made his way to the fridge to retrieve three beers. “She gets paid in vegetables and eggs, too, but now we’ve got the chickens out there giving them to us.”

  “That must make paying the bills interesting,” Ethan chuckled, accepting the bottle of beer and easing down on the sofa when Eric, Danny, and Emma did the same.

  “We keep the lights on,” Danny said. “Jackie didn’t get into small-town doctoring for the money. Did you drive out here from Nebraska?”

  “Yup,” Ethan nodded. “I probably should have called ahead or something, but all I had was the mailing address. You weren’t listed in the phone book.”

  “It’s no problem at all,” Danny assured him. “Eric said you’d be coming at some point, so we were already kind of expecting you. I’ll warn you ahead of time, though. Jackie will insist you stay here. Eric and Emma are downstairs. Ryan is upstairs for now while his house is being built. There’s a free bedroom up there, and she’ll probably insist you take it.”

  “Don’t bother trying to say no,” Eric said, holding up his hand. “She’ll run right over you like she did me.”

  “That’s very kind of her, but any day now I should be finding out when my dog is getting back, and I’ll need to go get him. My parents lost their farm, so Grayson Falls seems a good place for both of us to stay for a little while I figure out my next step. I thought I’d try to rent some place small for me and my dog.”

  “Well, you can tell her that,” Danny said. “But once you say the word dog, she’ll only get more insistent. On top of being a doctor, she’s a mother hen. She likes her family close, and you’re her family.”

  “She doesn’t know me,” Ethan protested. He didn’t like imposing, especially once he had Bravo. He’d seen a hotel in town, and he’d figured he’d stay there until he found a place of his own.

  “You’re not the first brother that’s been sprung on her,” Danny said with a dry laugh. “Speaking of,” he continued as he stood up and looked out the front windows. “It looks like both your brother and sister are just getting home.”

  “Well, here goes,” Ethan said under his breath as he rose to face the door.

  When it opened, a man and woman with similar features and coloring entered, and he got his first look at his siblings. Jackie was a light blonde, but Ryan was darker-haired, almost brown. Both were tanned, but Ethan was darker, having spent his career outside under the desert sun. It looked they all shared the same blue eye color, and perhaps his and Jackie’s noses were slightly similar.

  “The whole thing definitely needs to be painted,” Ryan said as they entered.

  “That’s the least of our worries,” Jackie replied. “The whole track has to be repaved and—” She broke off when she saw Ethan standing in the living room, then pressed her hand to her mouth.

  “Wow,” Ryan said.

  The three of them stared at each other for what felt like hours but was probably only a few minutes. Ethan was rooted to the spot. It seemed Ryan was, as well. Jackie, however, walked right over to stand in front of him.

  “You’re Ethan, aren’t you?”

  Ethan could only nod his head. He hadn’t expected to feel like this when they met. He assumed it would be just like meeting anyone else for the first time, with no real feelings, just a vague curiosity over what the new acquaintance would be like.

  But he felt none of that. Here he was, finally faced with two people he was related to by blood, and he felt an overwhelming gratitude. He had never felt like he didn’t belong with his parents. Not once. But this was something different.

  “Look at you,” Jackie whispered. “You look just wonderful. It’s not like it was when I found out about Ryan. He and I already knew each other and were friends, so it was a different adjustment and a bit of a shock with everything else that went on. But this is different. You’re different.”

  “Not quite sure how to take that,” Ryan muttered, and Jackie shushed him.

  Ryan finally moved over to where they were standing.

  “It feels different. It feels good,” she repeated.

  “Definitely not sure how to take that!”

  “I know what you mean,” Ethan finally said. “I don’t know who my father was. I was adopted right after I was
born by the two most amazing people I’ve ever met, but you’re right. This feels different.”

  Jackie’s smile bloomed. “You’ll stay here, of course.”

  “Listen, about that…”

  “Don’t even bother, bro,” Ryan said. “It’s not going to work.”

  “But my dog is coming back soon and I really can’t—”

  “You have a dog?” Jackie clapped her hands together. “I’ve always wanted one, but doctor’s hours are so crazy that I didn’t think it would be fair on a dog.”

  “My dog was my Marine Corps working dog,” Ethan tried to explain, but it seemed like everything he said only got her more excited.

  “Aw, a military dog? Did he get injured?”

  “He’s not leaving without his scars,” Ethan said.

  “Jacks, he might not be the kind of dog you cuddle with,” Ryan said, coming to Ethan’s rescue.

  That was a true concern. Some military dogs were weapons, and you most assuredly did not cuddle up to them at night—not if you still wanted to have your jugular vein inside your body in the morning.

  “Oh, he cuddles,” Ethan said. “He’s actually a bed hog.”

  “I can’t wait to meet him,” Jackie said, then turned and headed toward the kitchen. “Ryan and Danny will help you bring all your stuff in and show you to your room. I’m going to order pizza and go out and pick it up.”

  As she disappeared into the kitchen, Ethan could only stare after her. “Wow.”

  “Yup,” Ryan said.

  “I bet she gets what she wants all the time.”

  “Yup,” Danny, Ryan, and Eric said in unison.

  “She’s got a talent,” Ethan said with respect.

  Ryan clapped him on the shoulder with a laugh. “Welcome home!”

  Twenty-Two

  ETHAN CAME BARRELING through the doors of the hospital the next afternoon with his hand wrapped in a bloody towel. He’d cut it on the rusted equipment in the barn. Jackie had given him permission to root around in there to see if anything still worked and could be of use. It turned out to be a treasure trove, but the equipment was old. He’d figured that if he was going to hang around a bit, the least he could do was see if he could get the soil ready this fall for a spring planting.

  Jackie had said she and Danny didn’t have time to tend to the farm, but if he was going to be around and wanted to have a go at it, she didn’t have any other plans for the land. She had bought it for the privacy, and so Ryan could have use of the barn. There was a harrow in there he’d been working on when he’d sliced open his hand.

  Ethan had ideas for the land. She already had the chickens, so he checked them out and found some eggs in the morning. He gave them a float test and all but two were good, so he found a glass bowl in the kitchen and kept the eggs on the counter with a sticky note that read: “Okay to eat!”

  It was a rudimentary coop and he would improve it, but the chickens needed to roam free during the day. It was healthier for them and the eggs they produced. They also needed crates for nesting. He’d pick them up with a couple of bales of hay and get going on that.

  There was room to plant corn and hay, too. He would also plant a vegetable garden. There was a lot of land here, and he thought Jackie and Danny might go for a little farmer’s market if he could get it far enough away from the house. There was plenty of room for cows, as well. He wondered what they’d think of that. Nothing big, just enough to sell locally. It seemed strange to him to have all this land and not cultivate it. Pumpkins, tomatoes, cucumbers, herbs—things that could be started in a greenhouse. There was a small one behind one of the barns. He doubted Jackie even knew it was there, but it was big enough to get started.

  Yes, Ethan could definitely keep himself busy this summer and fall getting everything ready. It would be peaceful for him and Bravo, and exactly what they needed to recover and adjust to life outside the military.

  He walked up to the front desk and held up his hand.

  Sadie peeked over her glasses rim at him.

  “I need to see the doctor.”

  “She’s very busy right now. Let me see what we can do.”

  “I’m her brother,” Ethan supplied.

  Sadie arched a brow at him. Her scrutiny lasted so long, he began to squirm. Damn, he’d faced down insurgents that were less intimidating than this lady.

  “You look more like Natalie’s brother,” she said, putting a clipboard with paperwork and a pen on the ledge in front of him. “If your writing hand isn’t injured, get going on those forms. I’ll see who’s available. Keep that hand elevated.”

  She marched away and left Ethan to figure out his paperwork. His injured hand was his writing hand, so he supposed he’d just have to give his information to his nurse.

  The receptionist returned a minute later. “Come on back. Natalie will start with you. I let Dr. Reilly know you were here, too. She’ll be by to see you as soon as she can.”

  She led Ethan into an exam room and he hopped up on the table, keeping his hand elevated as instructed. It hurt like a bitch, but really, after losing part of his leg, pain was all relative.

  He looked around. All the normal equipment was there, but it didn’t seem as stark as a normal doctor’s offices. The floor was a light-colored, creaky hardwood; the walls a soft green. There were some Norman Rockwell prints framed. The room had a cozy feel. He liked that whoever had designed the hospital had kept the feel of the home.

  The whole town had a nice feeling to it. He knew he could never be a big-city guy. He also knew he wasn’t cut out for life in Florida. He’d had enough of the constant heat and sunshine to last him multiple lifetimes. A slow pace with no one yelling at him, no fears of roadside bombs, and no breaking out in cold sweats was, literally, what his military psychiatrist had ordered.

  He could make a life in Grayson Falls with his new siblings if they didn’t mind. He had plenty of money saved to get him a year or two until he could turn the farm into a viable small business. When he drove around town, there didn’t seem to be any sort of business showcasing locally grown or made goods. Surely there were residents here that were quilters, potters, and artists? Perhaps they would be interested in selling things on consignment? He’d check into it. Maybe he could get something going with the general store.

  He straightened when the door opened. A petite, brown-haired nurse entered the room wearing hospital scrubs and carrying a laptop. When she turned and they saw each other full-on, they both froze. Her blue eyes widened, as he was sure his must have done. It was like looking in a mirror. They say everyone had a twin somewhere in the world, and he’d be damned if he wasn’t meeting his.

  And then it dawned on him.

  This must be Sarah Currie.

  He’d been told his other sister, Sarah, was in the witness protection program, but that she was here in Grayson Falls working in a non-threatening position. This had to be her. Did Jackie realize it? Nobody else had seemed to.

  “Hi, I’m—I’m Natalie. I’ll be your nurse.” She quickly put the laptop down on the counter and she took a deep breath when her back was to him. So, she had noticed the resemblance, too.

  “You’re Ethan, right?”

  “I am.”

  “I understand you cut your hand. Let’s have a look.”

  When she turned back to him, she was definitely more composed. She stepped forward and took his injured hand in hers. Then she unwrapped the bloody towel and disposed of it. When she turned back, she began to gingerly assess the mess. She efficiently cleaned it up and inspected it again.

  “It’s a clean cut, but it’ll need to be stitched, so you’ll need to see the doctor after all.”

  “She can do it at home if she wants,” Ethan said. “I probably should have just waited for her. I don’t want to throw off her day.”

  “She’s a doctor. Her schedule is already off when she wakes up in the morning,” Natalie chuckled. “That’s just par for the course around here.”

  “Is it
nice working here?” he asked, then cringed. Was that an appropriate question?

  “Oh, sure!” she smiled. “Dr. Reilly is great. She’s an excellent physician. You never know what’s going to come through the door here. There are routine appointments scheduled, but we’re also a walk-in urgent care for the town. Anyway, let me go let her know she needs to see you after all.”

  Jackie entered a few minutes later. “Are you actually prone to injuries, Ethan?”

  He knew she was referring to his leg, as well as the various other scars that were visible on his body. The truth was, he was a little accident prone.

  “I am, kind of,” he admitted. “By the way, I think she’s Sarah.”

  Startled, Jackie looked up from his hand. “Who’s Sarah?”

  Way to drop the bomb, dude.

  “Natalie,” Ethan replied. “I think she’s actually Sarah Currie. When she comes in, take a look at us. I might be crazy, but I swear we could be twins.”

  She ignored his comment.

  “How did you do this anyway?” she asked, motioning to his hand.

  “A harrow.”

  “What’s a harrow?”

  “A sharp piece of farm equipment that people can cut themselves on,” Ethan quipped. “You have a barn full of stuff, but it needs to be cleaned up to see what works.”

  “I own a harrow?”

  “Among other things,” he smiled. He was thoroughly charmed by his new sister. She was smart and clever. She also had Danny, Eric, and Ryan eating out of her hand. He wondered how long it would take before he joined them. There was a sweetness to her, but Ethan could see that underneath she was a powerfully strong woman.

  When the door opened again, Natalie entered carrying a suture kit. She pulled a metal tray table over and began laying things out.

  Jackie stifled a gasp when she saw them together.

  The tension in the room rose. A big old elephant walked in and sat down in the corner. Seeing Ethan and Natalie in the same room next to each other, there really was no arguing it.

  But they had to ignore it. For Natalie’s safety, they all needed to keep this to themselves.