The Luxury of Being Stubborn (The Stubborn Series Book 4)

by Jeanne Arnold

  “Oliver Remington’s partner was allegedly kidnapped and murdered and a nineteen-year-old man of interest was hospitalized in a related incident,” I whispered to myself.

  “I need to change,” Deliah’s voice interrupted my investigation. “The lake was freezing.”

  I stood up and stared at my perspiring skin in the mirror. “Just a minute.” I folded the paper and splashed my face with cold water.

  Deliah skated past me when I came out. I found Gabe sitting on the bed with his guitar across his lap. He had a sour look on his face. There was no way he knew about either article. He fell back and rubbed his eyes.

  “I’m famished, and I didn’t buy any dinner. We might have to eat sandwiches again.”

  “Open Sesame,” Caleb said with his nose pressed against the screen door. I didn’t open the door, so he walked in. He was carrying a pizza box and a six pack of Coke. His HalRem cap was on backward. He looked the most like Gabe when he did that.

  “Why are you following me?”

  “Because you’re classy, sassy, and a whole lotta smartassy,” he said and paused a moment. “Because I read that article. Now I’m curious.”

  “Don’t you have a date with that cashier or some bimbo from the pool hall?”

  “I’m done with blondes.”

  Gabe joined us and wrapped his arms around my waist and gently squeezed my stomach. “What article about a bimbo?”

  “The secret one Travis slipped her outside while you were in here and he was making googly eyes at her butt,” Deliah said.

  She’d snuck out of the bathroom and managed to get on the couch without me seeing her.

  I tightened my eyes on her smug face. She really had it in for me. “Maybe Caleb can give you a ride home now,” I said.

  “Does this have something to do with the FBI sniffing around for Jud?” asked Gabe.

  “No,” I said. “I don’t think—”

  “Just tell him already,” Caleb drawled. “There was an unsolved missing person case on this property.”

  “Jud’s a murder suspect?” Deliah said excitedly.

  Caleb laughed. “Did I say that?”

  “Who was murdered?” Gabe asked. He dragged a chair out from the kitchen table and offered it to me as if I needed to sit down to hear the bad news. I motioned for him to use it and sat on his lap.

  “Grandpa Oliver had a silent partner who turned out to be buzzard bait,” Caleb replied.

  “No wonder Jud stuck around to help you with the lodge. He was looking for the dead guy,” said Deliah.

  Gabe scowled. “That’s not why. He’s got nothing to do with a murder.”

  “He didn’t stick around, now did he?” Caleb said.

  “You didn’t find the skull until after we left,” Gabe corrected. “It’s got nothing to do with him.”

  Caleb held out his hand in front of my face. “Fork over the article Travis gave you. I’ll figure this out.”

  “No.”

  He cocked his head and grinned. “Legs, don’t make me do a strip search.”

  Gabe slid his leg out to block Caleb. “Touch her and die.”

  “We’ve had enough touching today,” I said. “Can we eat first and then we’ll solve the murder?”

  Gabe’s fingers dug into my jean shorts and clipped the article.

  I stood up. “You’re going to rip it.”

  Caleb lost interest. He opened the pizza box and helped himself to a slice. He turned around and climbed over the side of the couch. The laundry from Meggie’s was in his way. He lifted the bag over the couch and dropped it at Gabe’s feet. Meggie’s box fell out. I swung my gaze around the room. Nobody saw it but Gabe. Deliah was washing her hands at the sink.

  “Oh that,” I said as I remembered I was supposed to dispose of the evidence. I tried to act casual as Gabe’s forehead beaded with sweat. “I was going to tell you.”

  “You were gonna what now?” he squeaked.

  I leaned over the chair and spoke so my words tickled the side of his neck. His skin was cool to the touch. “I think I’m pregnant.”

  Gabe’s face blanched as if someone sucked the life out of him through his nose. Caleb reached over the couch and waved with his finger. “Toss me a Coke, Mona Deliah.”

  I nudged the pink box under the couch with my toe before they could see it.

  Gabe hauled up and snatched my hand. He tugged me down the hall and into the bedroom and shut the door. I sat on the bed while he hovered anxiously.

  “I found it while you were gone. Is this why you were in such a hurry to go to the drugstore? Were you getting another one?”

  I tipped my chin and glared at his serious expression. I had the good sense to know it wasn’t the right time to push him over the edge. The day had been crazy as it was.

  “Take a breath. It’s Meggie’s.”

  “What?”

  “Cross my heart.”

  His eyes tightened as if he still didn’t believe me. “Valerie would murder me if you got pregnant at eighteen.”

  “You said you wanted kids.”

  Gabe’s face warned me to stop teasing. “Your sister has been helping me rethink that plan.”

  “Imagine if they had two of her at once.”

  His features relaxed. “So he storked her again?”

  “I think Meggie had something to do with it.”

  “She might as well giftwrap a heart attack for his fiftieth.”

  My phone buzzed against my hip. I dug into my pocket. Gabe reached for his phone on the bed at the same time.

  “It’s mine,” I corrected him.

  He shook his head and held up his screen so I could see that he was getting a call at the exact same time.

  “It’s Judson. Answer it.”

  “I will already,” he drawled and fell back onto the pillows.

  I glanced at my screen and then held my breath while I showed Gabe. He raised his eyebrows and we exchanged the same wide-eyed look. As he answered Judson’s call, I took my phone and crouched at the door.

  “Molly? Hi,” I said in disbelief. “Where are you?”

  Five

  “Y’all decent?” asked Caleb as he swung open the door to Lane’s command center and let in all of the engine sounds from the unit.

  “Where’s Gabe?”

  “Hobnobbing with the king of country music. He sent me.”

  I did a prompt eye roll and then gave him a look that said I would walk a hundred miles before I hitched a ride. Gabe was probably running an errand for Meggie since Joel’s party was the next day. I turned off the computer monitor and grabbed my backpack. “I’ll walk.”

  “Suit yourself. It’s a hike and a half. I’ll follow behind in case you catch farmer’s lung along the way.” He shut the door.

  I was sort of relieved to be leaving work. I wanted to get away from the endless conversations about North Dakota crude oil and the filthy, overcrowded drilling site, and soak my achy bones in a warm bath. I locked the door behind me.

  Caleb was sitting on the landing outside the door. I scanned the well pad. It resembled a game of Tetris made from closely parked trucks and tankers. Someone new was always pulling in and tightening the pack.

  “Lane’s truck’s here. Y’all having fun at work these days?”

  “He mostly wanders off. It’s probably better since I still haven’t told him that Molly called me last week. Gabe thinks it’s a bad idea.”

  “She was my worst idea ever,” said Caleb as he stood. He headed through a maze of vehicles to get to his truck. I followed his hat.

  “It’s not right what she did. But she said she feels bad.”

  He jerked his chin over his shoulder. “She better feel lower than bad,” he said loudly. “If Eli’s fine and dandy, she’s not squeezing a drop of sympathy from me.”

  Molly confessed the truth after all. She never went to rehab or gave up Eli. She drove to Minnesota and left him with her aunt so she could take time to figure out what to do.

  I
gave in and took a ride with Caleb. When we headed toward downtown, Williston traffic was at a standstill. No one was moving through the green lights. We pulled out of a line of trucks and plowed through a patch of orange prairie lilies lining a hardware store parking lot.

  “Another traffic accident? You picked the right line of work for this town,” I said.

  Caleb continued to drive over speed bumps that separated the parking lots until he stopped short and rolled down his window to yell at a group of guys wearing HalRem uniforms. “What’s the damage?”

  The person who approached the truck lifted his hat and smiled into the cab. “Hey there,” said Troy Ingarson.

  I recognized him right away even though I’d only seen him in dimly lit places like parties and bars when he and Gabe had the occasion to play together. I heard sometimes he worked on Lane’s crew, but I hadn’t run into him. He resembled Travis only he had earrings in both ears, and he dressed more like a rocker than a farmer. He gave me a funny look as if he was wondering why I was with Caleb and not with Gabe.

  “Need a lift?” Caleb asked.

  “No thanks, man. I’ve got my work truck parked over there.” He pointed to the gang lighting firecrackers on the hood of a utility truck. “A tour bus broke down at the corner of Hedderich’s department store. The ten o’clock news just shot through here chasing the story. I’ve been watching buses pass through for the Fourth of July show at the Badlands. It must be somebody big.”

  “Better they hound some lame-o rock band than the Haldens,” Caleb joked.

  “Yeah, what’s up with this murder investigation? It’s all over the news and papers. It’s the only thing my little brother talks about. Well—that and Avery,” he said as he angled his head to get a better look at me. “Did you and them hear about Rachel?”

  My ears perked up. Gabe hadn’t mentioned her name since the reporters decided to forgo the burial ground angle for the unsolved homicide.

  “I have to know,” I said a little too eagerly.

  “Her parents sent her away to stay with family out west.”

  Caleb turned his head abruptly and flashed a toothy grin. “What do you know, legs—you and the radical Robin Hood have another thing in common. Didn’t your folks ship you off too?”

  “That explains why she hasn’t been back to terrorize Gabe. What did she do?” I asked Troy and ignored Caleb.

  “She slashed all of the tires in the parking lot at the Dickinson field office where they issue APDs. You know—applications for permit to drill. She really needs to get a life.”

  “She needs to get laid,” Caleb said.

  Troy laughed out loud. I smacked Caleb’s arm and he flinched.

  “Can we go, please? Unlike you, I have a life to get back to. It’s dinnertime already.”

  “Catcha later,” Caleb told Troy.

  Troy waved to me. “You bet. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  Caleb made a sweeping circle around a building and headed down an alley.

  “Is he coming to Joel’s party?”

  He jerked his shoulders like he didn’t have a clue. “So what’s for dinner? Your place or mine?”

  * * *

  “Have you seen my black dress?” I asked Gabe as I stood in front of the lodge on the Remington Ranch and stared at its enormity. “It’s the only thing I can wear to the party that covers the mess on my back.”

  “Where would I see it?” he asked with a nail hanging off his lip. He was hammering something inside the entryway even though he wasn’t supposed to work on the property. The double doors were lying in the grass beside a dozen broken window panes.

  “Do you know what you’re doing? It’s going to be a job getting all of those windows replaced by winter,” I told him. “You’re always out here working and nothing seems to be getting done.”

  Gabe walked into the sun and bent down in front of me. He wrapped his arm around my legs and pushed me over his shoulder. “Thanks for the pep talk,” he said as he walked us inside.

  I yelled and slapped his bare back. “Gabe! Put me down! Come on!”

  He let me slide down him slowly until my feet hit the great room floor. I fixed his T-shirt that I was wearing over my swimsuit and drew my gaze above his head and along the wraparound balcony that bordered the second floor.

  “I’ve only worked on oil rigs. I don’t know what I’m doing, but I’m working as fast as I can to get us out of that shoebox. We’ll live in the back and rent out the upstairs,” he said. Then he tore a sheet off an old leather sofa that was set against the fireplace where a wooden letter R hung crooked near the ceiling. Dust clouded the air. It was so thick I could write my name in it before it fell. No matter how many times I swept, dirt seeped out of the walls and floorboards.

  “You don’t like people. How are you going to handle renting rooms to strangers for a living? You’ve seen what Meggie has to deal with every day.”

  “I’ll hire help. You can run the place.”

  He pushed me onto the couch and locked his knee against my hip so I couldn’t move.

  “Is every moment you don’t wear a shirt a moment you think I want you?”

  “Yup,” he said as he ran his fingers through my damp hair and moved it out of my face. He smelled good, like hard work and sunscreen.

  “Do you think the FBI agents have something on Judson? How come you aren’t trying to figure out what they’re doing in the field with all that equipment? What are they looking for anyway?”

  “Why do you talk so much?”

  “Gabe,” I said annoyed when his grin materialized. “Joel must’ve been around when your grandfather’s partner went missing. Or was he on a tour, and Judson and your mother were…that would explain how Judson knows this place so well.”

  “Av’ry, c’mon. It’s not a good day to piss him off.”

  He sat up and leaned back with his hands behind his neck and studied the room.

  “You didn’t tell him he’s being surprised, did you?”

  He looked down his nose and made a seductive plea with his eyes. “I did no such thing.”

  “I wish we could stay here all day, but I have nothing to wear.”

  “That works for me,” he said as I climbed onto his lap. “Just wear these earrings and this.” He pulled at my collar and peered down my shirt.

  “I have to tear the cabin apart and find my dress. Do you have something to wear?”

  “We’re all…I’m wearing a tie.”

  He moved his hands up my legs and squeezed. I squirmed. It tickled. Then his lips seized mine. I melted into his chest and kissed him back. The sweet taste of his kiss made me hunger for candy. I ran my fingers over his perfect jaw and behind his neck. He moaned his impatience into my mouth and made me kiss him harder. All the while, I could hardly handle what his hands were doing.

  “I love this,” I hummed at his warm lips.

  He tugged on my bottom lip playfully and laughed as if surprised by my boldness. “We have to be at Meggie’s.”

  “I know. I’d rather do this,” I whispered and tried to kiss him again, but he held me back.

  “You don’t know how much I love that you’d rather do this. But—”

  I slid off his lap annoyed. I adjusted my T-shirt and carefully arranged the straps of my suit on my shoulders. “You are so confusing sometimes.”

  As soon as we got back to the cabin, I dumped the last of my boxes into a pile on the bed and searched through my belongings while Gabe showered.

  “My dress is nowhere. My mother will kill me if I show up in shorts,” I told him while he was shaving in the steamy bathroom.

  “Av’ry?” He leaned into the mirror and ran the razor up his neck. I got shivers watching him try not to cut himself.

  “Yeah?”

  “There’s a dress hanging on the door. It’s been there for weeks.”

  I scowled. “I’m not wearing that. My mother made it. I never tried it on.”

  “Well, it’s a dress. You need a dress,” he a
nnunciated slowly.

  “Not that one. She made Deliah the same one. What if she wears hers?”

  He rinsed his razor in the water and examined his face for cuts.

  I stared at the dress as he walked into the room and threaded his belt around his waist. He reached for his only clean shirt and wrestled it on, then grabbed for something under the bed and removed a gray vest from a bag I’d never seen before.

  “Why aren’t you getting ready? I’m fixin’ to leave.”

  I sat on the bed and crossed my legs. “I don’t want to wear that. Let’s skip the party.”

  Gabe buttoned his fitted vest over his tie while I sat watching in awe as his style transformed.

  “Sometimes you act like your stubborn sis when she doesn’t want to eat her carrots. Wear the damn dress. Or don’t. I’m leaving.”

  * * *

  Gabe loaded his guitar into the back of the truck cab and set his cowboy hat on his head. He was twirling a cherry lollipop in his mouth. He didn’t say a word to me the entire drive until we approached Meggie’s road.

  “I got a lot of stuff on my mind,” he muttered out the window.

  “I should have guessed you wouldn’t be thrilled to celebrate his birthday.”

  I smoothed a hand over the pink fabric on my legs. I wasn’t used to wearing something so girlie. I preferred layered tank tops over pleats and spaghetti straps. At least my black nail polish and cowboy boots looked good.

  “We’ll hide out in the trailer.”

  “I won’t make it,” he said.

  “Make what?”

  “Another minute without touching you.”

  A warm feeling washed over my face even though the heat wave had eased up and the temperature was perfect. “We don’t have to stay long. We can eat cake and leave. My mother will be pissed off when she sees the bandages on my…what is that?”

  I leaned into the dashboard. A white party tent with scalloped edges took up Meggie’s entire backyard. There was no way she was going to get Mr. Halden out of her truck without him seeing it. Gabe drove through the front yard and around the back of the house. Cars and trucks were lined up behind the coop. The usual HalRem trucks and vans blocked the driveway.