A Conard County Homecoming

by Rachel Lee

  “Not fair,” she said a bit breathlessly to Zane as they hurried down the sidewalk. “That dog has four legs.”

  He laughed. “I’ll slow down soon, unless you want me to right now.”

  “Full steam ahead. I’m doing fine.”

  The air wasn’t quite cold enough to make her chest ache, but it wasn’t far from it. She loved cross-country skiing as a hobby, but rarely did she go fast enough to cause her bronchioles to want to spasm. Today was no threat, and it felt good to be stretching her body this way.

  He was right, though, about having to stop at every corner to check for traffic.

  “You know, there’s a track at the junior college you could probably use if you want to keep a steady, fast pace.”

  “Maybe I’ll check it out sometime,” he said. “What kind of surface does it have?”

  “I don’t know exactly.” She hadn’t thought about what he might need for his wheels. “The high school is a cinder track. You probably couldn’t use that, but the college has a fairly new track with a different surface.”

  “That might work.”

  Dang, he didn’t sound the least breathless. She was beginning to feel out of shape.

  But then he slowed down. “Close to a mile,” he announced.

  She thought about it. “I’ve never measured distances in town. How do you know?”

  “Practice. It was actually 1.6 klicks. Over a kilometer and a half. Everywhere I’ve been in the world, the metric system has been more useful.”

  She strolled beside him at his more sedate pace. The twilight was arriving, the streetlights popping on. Nell occasionally wanted to sniff something, so he paused and let her.

  Ashley watched, amused. “Did you tell her she’s off-duty?”

  “I always give her a chance to be a dog when I slow down like this. She needs it. I enjoy it. And trust me, she never loses her awareness of me.”

  They passed a few people, but given the time of day and the chilling weather, Ashley supposed most were inside preparing dinner and keeping warm. Those they did pass simply waved and called out a hello. No one tried to stop them for a conversation.

  Her cell phone rang, and she struggled to get beneath her jacket and pull it out. It was Connie.

  Connie’s voice filled her ear. “Julie’s gone to the hospital in labor. Trace is quietly freaking. You coming?”

  “I will shortly. Thanks for letting me know, Connie.”

  She stuffed her phone into her jacket pocket. “After we get home, I need to go to the hospital. My friend Julie is in labor. I gather her husband could use some moral support.”

  “Don’t wait on me. Go ahead.”

  She looked down at him in the dimming light, then noticed that Nell had lost all interest in trees and grass but was poised beside him. Focused intently on him. Something was happening.

  “After we get you home,” she said firmly. “Right, Nell?”

  Nell gave a small whimper and nudged at Zane’s arm.

  Zane muttered, “Oh, for the love of...”

  Nell rose and laid both her front legs on his arm.

  “Listen to your dog, Zane,” Ashley said firmly. “If you don’t she’ll lick your cheek and you’ll grow icicles.”

  The humor didn’t work. Nell’s touch didn’t work.

  Just like that, Zane had gone away.

  Ashley looked at Nell. “Let’s get him home.” She moved to the back of the wheelchair and Nell dropped to all fours, understanding. Something inside Ashley had quieted until all feeling fled. A self-protective emotional crouch. All she could think of was the fact that as big a man as Zane was, the wheelchair was surprisingly easy to push.

  A most excellent wheelchair.

  For a man who seemingly had just dropped off a ledge into the pit of hell.

  * * *

  Zane was astonished when he realized Ashley was pushing him toward the ramp to his house. “What the heck?”

  “You zoned out. Nell was worried. I wasn’t going to leave you sitting in the middle of a sidewalk. You don’t remember?”

  “Not a thing,” he admitted. Well, not exactly true. He’d been remembering another place and time. Not for the life of him could he imagine what had cast him back there. A quiet street, his dog, his new friend, streetlights coming on...he’d never had an assignment that included streetlights. But something had kicked him over.

  “I can get up the ramp,” he said somewhat forcefully. He grabbed the push rims, taking over. He knew the instant Ashley let go.

  “You had somewhere to go,” he said.

  “It can wait.”

  “It doesn’t have to. I’ll be fine.”

  “Zane...”

  “I need to think about what just happened. I don’t know why I cut out. Go worry about your friend and her husband. You’ll be more useful.”

  “Fine.” Her tone took on an edge.

  He started pushing himself up the ramp, but he paused once to watch her walk away and into her house. Bad enough he’d zoned out, but did he have to talk to her that way? She hadn’t done anything wrong.

  But it was best for her if she stayed away. Best for him. Never mind that he’d been enjoying her company. No one deserved having to deal with him.

  “Come on, Nell,” he said unnecessarily as he reached the porch and leaned forward to fling to the door open.

  Just him and the dog. It was safest. No one got hurt. Because he seemed to have a built-in capacity for doling out pain.

  Chapter Seven

  Ashley battled irritation as she entered her house and began to strip for a shower. What the heck had she done? She’d brought him home when he zoned out. Was that a crime?

  Standing under the hot shower spray, washing her hair, she decided that she might be overreacting. The guy had evidently had an episode. He didn’t seem to have any idea of why, and he’d been surprised to find himself back at home. That must be hell to deal with. Plus, he probably hadn’t come back entirely from wherever he’d gone. So, yes, he’d been short, had wanted to get away from everyone. For all she knew he was both worried and exhausted. He might have been battling demons while he went away. Bad memories. They would hardly put him in a good mood.

  By the time she’d finished blow-drying her hair enough that she wouldn’t freeze by the time she got to the hospital, she was feeling a whole lot more charitable toward Zane. He couldn’t help it. She knew that. What did she expect? That he’d come back from a bad episode and be all cheerful and sunny?

  Of course not.

  She pulled on a warm blue jogging suit and her other pair of running shoes, grabbed her wallet so she’d have money to ferry coffee and food to Trace if he needed it, then bundled up and headed for the hospital.

  A glance at Zane’s place showed that lights were on, so he wasn’t sitting in the dark. That much was good, she supposed.

  But what an odd day. First the visit to Cadell’s ranch, where Zane had seemed to unwind and make a connection with Mikey. Then the utterly unexpected invitation to join him for lunch at Maude’s, followed by asking her to walk with him.

  Maybe he’d overloaded. He probably wasn’t used to that much company anymore. It was as if he’d been reaching out for the first time in what must have been a very long time for him, given what he had told her, and then something had snapped inside him, isolating him once more.

  She guessed she could understand that. She could certainly forgive it. Whether she’d expose herself to more of it remained to be seen. Attractive as he was, he might be more of a complication than she was truly willing to deal with.

  At the hospital she went to the maternity waiting room and found Connie there with Trace Archer, Julie’s husband. A tall, lean man, he couldn’t be a stranger to tough times. As she understood it, he’d been
shot in his right hand and to this day suffered an awful lot of pain from it. Julie had once confided his only relief from it would be amputation. So far he hadn’t wanted to use that escape hatch.

  She gave Trace a quick hug. “So where are we?”

  “Likely going to be an all-nighter,” Connie answered. “Marisa wanted to come, but Jonni’s down with some kind of stomach bug and while she could have left him with Ryker, she didn’t think the bug would be welcome here.”

  Ashley shook her head, smiling. “I’m sure it wouldn’t be. Can I get anyone coffee or something to eat from the cafeteria?” She knew Trace swallowed coffee as if it were the staff of life.

  “I’d love some coffee,” he said. “But please, not from the machine in the hall.”

  Ashley grinned. “I read you. Connie?”

  “Nothing for me unless you see a reasonably fresh-looking turkey sandwich. I haven’t eaten since breakfast.”

  As Ashley walked through the halls toward the cafeteria, she remembered the half a salad she’d left behind. Oh, well. Besides, she wanted something a little more substantial now, anyway. Hunger had started gnawing at her stomach during the walk with Zane.

  Nearly everyone she passed recognized her and knew that Julie was in labor. It was the kind of good news no one felt the need to keep a secret. She paused briefly a few times for short, general conversations, then entered the cafeteria. They were still serving dinner, and there were some good sandwiches to choose from. She got Connie her turkey and also picked up a roast beef for Trace. He might not feel like eating, but if this went on all night, he’d need the energy. Nerves probably had his candle burning at both ends. It wasn’t as if he’d been through this before.

  When she got back to the waiting room with her tray, Trace had begun pacing and Connie was skimming a magazine. Connie must be a calming influence, Ashley thought. She’d done this more than once. Yet Trace was pacing.

  “Here’s your coffee,” she said to Trace. “And a roast beef sandwich. You’d better eat. You need to keep your energy up.”

  “Maybe in a bit,” he answered, taking the large coffee. “Thanks.”

  Connie looked up, a smile dancing in her eyes. “Men suffer more than we do, I sometimes think.”

  “Well,” said Trace, “I was supposed to be with her. How calm can I be when I’m stuck out here?”

  Ashley exchanged looks with Connie, then asked, “Trace, you’re supposed to be her coach?”

  “We took classes together.”

  Connie rose, tossing the magazine aside. “Ashley, you stay with Trace. I’ll find out what’s going on.”

  “Absolutely.” She bit her lip in worry as she wondered what had gone wrong. If Trace was supposed to be his wife’s coach, shouldn’t he be with her?

  Trace perched on a chair, coffee in his good hand, his banged-up one in a leather glove and cradled close to his body as if he didn’t want it to bump anything.

  “Connie will find out,” Ashley said as reassuringly good. “All that practice as a cop? She gets answers.”

  He offered her a mirthless smile. “I just want to know what’s going on. Is something bad happening? God, Ashley, I love that woman.”

  “I know you do.” She wished she had comforting words, but she seemed to be out of them. In fact, when she thought about it, she’d been unable to offer any real comfort to anyone in a while. None for Zane, certainly, and now none for Trace. When had life gone so cockeyed?

  But now she, too, was worried about Julie. They’d grown up together. She didn’t want anything bad to happen to her friend. Nothing. She desperately wanted Julie to come through this with a healthy baby.

  Impulsively, she reached out and laid her hand on Trace’s thigh. “It’ll be okay.”

  Empty words, but he nodded. He gave her the faintest, palest of smiles.

  It had better be okay. If something went wrong, she wasn’t sure she’d be able to handle it any better than Trace.

  Then Connie popped into the room. “I just spoke to her, Trace. She’s fine. Somewhere something glitched, and they didn’t have a record that you were to be her coach. So you can go in now. You, too, Ashley, but briefly. Julie asked for you.”

  As Ashley walked down the corridor with Trace, she said, “I can’t believe they’d keep the husband out, paper or no paper.”

  Trace had begun to feel better. He smiled. “Maybe we have a tendency to faint.”

  That drew a relieved laugh from Ashley. “Somehow I don’t think you will.”

  “Sure. Like I’ve ever heard my wife scream before. That could be very different.”

  Ashley hadn’t thought about that. “Julie doesn’t strike me as a screamer,” she answered. “She strikes me as a cusser. If it gets rough, she may divorce you before morning.”

  Trace laughed, his whole demeanor changing. “Yeah, she could do that. You never have to wonder what that woman thinks about anything.”

  When they entered the labor room, it was surprisingly quiet. A fetal monitor beeped, but Julie was sitting with the head of her bed up, her knees a bit bent and a smile on her face, quickly banished by a grimace as a contraction came.

  Her brow looked a little damp with perspiration. She reached out the hand that wasn’t attached to the IV to Trace, and he took it. “Everything’s fine,” she said. “Everything. I kept asking where you were, and nobody seemed to get it. I decided you must not have arrived yet.”

  “I’ve been sitting in the waiting room wondering why they wouldn’t let me see you.”

  “That’s what Connie said. Somebody fell asleep at the wheel. It doesn’t matter now. Hey, Ash, how you doing?”

  “I’m doing fine. It’s you we’re all thinking about.”

  “Considering billions of women before me have done this, I wouldn’t waste a whole lot of concern.” She winced and began panting. At once training kicked in and Trace started coaching her.

  Looking around, Ashley found a chair and pushed it over so Trace could sit beside his wife. When Julie relaxed again, Ashley said, “I got Trace a roast beef sandwich.” She held it up. “Think you can get him to eat?”

  “Put it on the table,” Julie said. “It’s going to be a long night. I’ll get him to eat it. But he probably wants more coffee.”

  “She got me some,” Trace objected.

  “Ha. I’ve never seen anyone drink coffee the way you do.”

  “I’ll get some more,” Ashley said quickly. Whether Trace wanted the coffee or not, she felt these were moments he’d like to share privately with his wife. He was certainly entitled to them.

  A nurse buzzed in to check on things just as she was leaving. She apologized to Trace for not bringing him in sooner. “Honestly, we don’t try to lock out fathers. I really can’t imagine how this happened.”

  Ashley slipped out and trekked toward the cafeteria again. She wondered if she ought to stay the night to shuttle coffee back and forth.

  Connie caught up with her near the cafeteria. “I’m thinking about going home. Julie said the nurses are predicting she won’t deliver before morning. First babies take a while.”

  “Until they don’t,” Ashley remarked, causing Connie to grin. “Listen, I can sleep in tomorrow. Are you on duty?”

  As a sheriff’s deputy, Connie’s hours could be irregular. “Nope, I’m off, and I’m honestly glad Ethan can babysit. Sometimes I need a break from that, too.”

  “Three little kids? I’m not surprised. The oldest is probably more help, though.”

  “She helps when her life doesn’t get in the way. But you spend all day with youngsters.”

  Ashley laughed. “And I get to send them home at the end of the school day.”

  “I forgot that lucky part.”

  A couple of hours later, however, Julie didn’t seem to want much company
other than Trace’s, so Connie and Ashley both left, promising to return early in the morning.

  “Big event,” Connie said as she climbed into her cruiser. “The first one is the best.”

  “Maybe someday I’ll know.” Not that she’d ever been in a rush. Content with her life as it was, she wasn’t looking to change it drastically anytime soon.

  * * *

  Trace called with the news, waking Ashley at seven in the morning. “Healthy baby boy, Julie’s resting, and no, we haven’t decided on a name yet, because I don’t want my son to be called Trace.” There was tired humor in his voice, though, and happiness. “Julie wants to see you, Connie and Marisa, but not until much later. No offense, Ashley, but she’s pooped.”

  “None taken. I’m just thrilled for both of you.” Happiness for Julie suffused her morning. She’d watched her friends go through this and had some idea of the magic of bringing a child into the world. She also had some idea of the work and fatigue involved. Time to go grocery shopping and start cooking a lot of refrigerator and freezer meals so Julie and Trace could focus on their new baby. She almost whistled a tune in delight.

  A quick check of the weather warned her that the day had remained as chilly as the night. She dressed in a fresh green fleece top and pants, stuffed her feet into boots rather than running shoes, and was just pulling on her jacket when she heard a scratching at the door.

  Startled, she held still and listened to be sure she’d heard something. The scratching came again, quiet, as if whatever was doing it didn’t want to create damage.

  She opened the door and looked down into Nell’s brown eyes. The dog didn’t look happy and whimpered a bit, shifting from leg to leg.

  Ashley didn’t need any more invitation than that. Quickly zipping her jacket, she stepped out into the cold morning and watched her breath create clouds. Nell hurried her across the yard to the ramp. The front door of Zane’s house was open a crack.

  Even though the dog pushed the door wide-open, she hesitated on the threshold. “Zane?”

  She was answered by a heartfelt curse.

  Nell whimpered and took a few steps toward the living room, then looked back.