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

by Jeanne Arnold

  “I didn’t. But I need your help,” he whispered.

  “Okay. How can I help?”

  “It’s Deliah, ma’am. She’s going to be upset with me.”

  “What did you do?” I asked.

  “I told some people.”

  I walked over to the couch and sat on the arm and faced him. “About Deliah?”

  “About what I did to Douglas. I bragged about it and I shouldn’t have. Caleb told me to keep it to myself.”

  I leaned back and rubbed the side of my neck. “Oh that. Who did you tell?”

  “A bunch of guys at the rig where my brother Troy works. They were saying stuff about the Haldens getting their due, and I told them how they were all good guys, how they stood up for my sister.”

  Meggie poked her head down the stairwell. “Avery, bring up two liters of Coke. Okiedokie?”

  “Okay,” I shouted back. Then I turned to Travis. “You didn’t do anything wrong. I’ll tell Gabe. He’s outside with his brothers.”

  “Please don’t—”

  Deliah skipped down the stairs. When she saw me facing Travis, she gave me a disgusted look and then bit her lips closed as if she were going to cry.

  There was a commotion in the kitchen, and she ran back up the stairs. I moved closer to listen. A door slammed. Meggie yelled. The door slammed again. I ran up the stairs straight to the kitchen window where my sister was standing on a chair. There were two police cars in the driveway with their lights on.

  “Bad boys, bad boys,” my sister said excitedly.

  I dashed to the yard, tripping on my boots, and caught Gabe just as he was being handcuffed by a police officer. His arms were behind his back, and he looked uncomfortable. His hat was on the ground.

  “What happened?” I asked while my heart pounded fiercely in my chest. Caleb and Lane were in handcuffs and standing side by side against the hood of a cruiser. I could hardly believe what I was seeing.

  “Where’s Joel? Where did Judson go?” Meggie asked me, and then she shouted toward the office. “Joel Halden—get your ass out here!”

  The police officer led Gabe to his car. It was about to rain.

  “Do you know who you’re dealing with? Their father won’t stand for this,” Meggie said hotly.

  “Why are you taking them?” I pleaded.

  “They’re under arrest for felony assault and battery of Douglas Loch.”

  I turned to Meggie, who was as shocked as I was. “That’s a mistake,” she whispered.

  “I’m aware of who they are. I believe Travis Ingarson is also on this property. I need to speak to him, Mrs. Halden,” said an officer who approached Meggie.

  Deliah rushed to my side and curtly brushed my shoulder. At the same time we blurted, “He’s not here!”

  “Travis went home,” Meggie lied to the officer and glared at me sideways with a questioning eye.

  “Alright, Mrs. Halden. It’s important you call if you do see him.”

  I drew my attention back to Gabe. The officer pushed on his shoulder to get him to duck into the cruiser. Lane and Caleb were marched to the other waiting car. None of the boys said a word.

  “This can’t be happening,” I said as I looked around for Judson and Joel. I grabbed Gabe’s hat off the ground.

  “Heaven help us all,” Meggie said and raised her hands.

  Elizabeth came out of the house and stopped when she saw what was going on. Judson was right behind her. He scurried into the yard ahead of her and slapped a hand on the hood of the closest police car.

  “Don’t talk, son,” he said to Gabe.

  “What are the charges?” Elizabeth asked.

  “They beat up a butthole who lived in the coop,” said Deliah. “Can you save them? You’re a lawyer.” The doors on the police cars slammed, and the cars reversed.

  “They what?” Meggie asked with her hands on her cheeks.

  “I’m not a criminal lawyer, but I’ll definitely do my best. Judson and I can follow them to the station.”

  I barely noticed Erika sneak out. She backed out of the driveway before the police took off.

  “No, Avy!” shouted my sister. She was standing on the porch in tears. “Don’t go to jail!”

  Meggie ran over and grabbed her hand. My sister’s face turned red as she tried to wrench herself out of Meggie’s grip.

  “Banana, stay there. I’ll be right back!”

  I followed Elizabeth and Judson across the driveway, hoping to catch a ride. Deliah was already in Gabe’s truck that Judson had been borrowing. My sister got loose and tumbled down the back porch steps. My heart launched into my throat and I froze.

  “Oh no,” I murmured to myself.

  Meggie was on her in a heartbeat, but I couldn’t leave my sister without seeing if she was okay. Brianna rolled over crying. Her lip was busted open and bleeding down her cheek. I scooped her up as Meggie ran into the house to get a washcloth.

  I yelled to Elizabeth, who was sitting in the passenger side of Gabe’s truck as it backed up. “I have to stay here.”

  In the kitchen, Meggie cleaned Brianna’s chin while I held a Popsicle to her mouth to numb the cut and stop the bleeding. She was whimpering terribly.

  “Travis is hiding out somewhere,” I told my aunt.

  “Uff-da. I never guessed this day would involve handcuffs or that I’d be harboring a fugitive at a birthday party.”

  “Is Cowboy Caleb in a jail?” my sister asked quietly.

  “He’s going to the police station. They have to ask him and Gabe and Lane some questions,” I told her.

  Meggie set a hand on my shoulder and then went back to helping Brianna. “Judson will take care of them.”

  “Are they going to ask Caleb what his favorite color…owie!” she screamed when my aunt dabbed her lip with a washcloth.

  “Do you know his favorite color?” I asked as a distraction.

  She nodded her head, and I returned the Popsicle to her lip. Tears rolled down her face. “Caleb lubs puwple and wainbows.”

  Meggie and I exchanged a look. “I think you’re absolutely right,” I told Brianna with a phony smile. “If you draw a picture of him, you should make him wear a purple shirt with a big rainbow on it.”

  Brianna grinned, and then she cried out in pain.

  “I’m glad you didn’t say prison stripes,” Meggie whispered. “This is going to be a mess if they have to fight these charges in court. Maybe I want to be called for jury duty after all.”

  * * *

  I picked Gabe up at the justice center less than an hour after he was arrested. I borrowed Meggie’s truck because Gabe had the keys to his Mustang in his pocket. Judson posted bail. Then Elizabeth countered by pressing charges against Douglas for trespassing, harassment, intimidation, and assault. His lawyer dropped the charges against the boys. They were free to walk out.

  Gabe was as ornery as the dark clouds when he stepped onto the sidewalk. He wouldn’t hold my hand and walked so fast I had to scamper to keep up.

  “I’m glad you’re okay.”

  “This is the last I’m ever gonna talk about it. The lieutenant is p-i-s-s-e-d,” he said. “Take me home now. I’ve seen enough of this dump.”

  “Judson wants us to gather at the lodge.”

  “Can’t we do it another day?” he asked as he climbed into Meggie’s truck.

  “It’s Deliah’s first birthday with all of you.”

  Gabe grunted. “Well, I’m starving, and I’m not in the mood.”

  “They’re all on their way. Meggie’s packing up the food.”

  He knocked his head back on the headrest. “Pull into McDonald’s. I can’t wait.”

  The line was at least a dozen cars long, and something was wrong with the intercom. We wasted precious time waiting, and then Gabe ran inside the restaurant anyway.

  “Molly and Eli are in there with her mom,” he told me when he came out unwrapping his burger.

  “Did you tell her you all got arrested?”

  �
�Nope.”

  “Did you invite her to the party?”

  “Nope.”

  I turned and stared at him as I waited for traffic to clear. One bite into his first Big Mac, and it was halfway gone. When I pulled onto the road between a semi and a Hess truck, he had started on his second.

  I drove right by the cabin when we reached the ranch. Mr. Halden’s Bentley was a few hundred yards ahead of us. I identified Lane’s pickup truck coming at me through the dust trail. He slowed down before we passed each other. In the front seat was a blonde passenger.

  “What’s he doing with Molly?” I asked. “Didn’t you just see her in town?”

  “Huh?” Gabe said.

  He stopped, and I realized it wasn’t Molly. Erika was sitting in the middle.

  “What is going on?” I muttered under my breath so Lane couldn’t read my lips. I waved and passed the truck.

  Lane drawled out his window, “We’re running over to her place. Catch y’all in a few.”

  “He’s going to her place,” Gabe said. His mood lifted as a result of the cheeseburger.

  “I heard him. That’s not what I meant. He just got released from jail, and now he’s driving around town with Erika Ingarson?”

  “This is news to you?”

  “Why was she sitting in the middle of his truck?”

  “Your investigation skills are hit and miss these days,” Gabe snickered. “It could have something to with the lieutenant gifting a mineral deed to her grandfather for protecting Jud all these years.”

  I opened my mouth to speak, and then stopped when I figured out the rest. Erika slept at Lane’s the night Douglas barged in. She made the breakfast that we ate.

  “Yeah. She’s with Lane,” Gabe grumbled as the realization washed over my face. “That one flew right under your nose while you were busy dissecting Jud’s past life.”

  My breath rushed out in a loud huff.

  He set a hand on my leg and rubbed my knee. “Nicely done. You got rid of Erika Ingarson.”

  Gabe parked behind the Bentley. Mr. Halden was sitting in the front seat talking on his phone. As soon as we got out of the truck, we heard the noise.

  “That’s coming from the lake,” I told him. I took his hand and pulled him down the path. “Is that what I think it is?”

  Deliah was riding a Jet Ski with Caleb sitting behind her. She had on a pink life vest and was making waves ripple through the lake. My father was sitting on the dock, wearing tie-dyed swim shorts, dangling his feet while holding Brianna on his shoulders. She had swimmies on her arms.

  “Where did that come from?” I asked as I pointed to the dock sticking out of the water.

  “Nice of y’all to join us,” said Judson from a brand-new picnic table.

  I rolled my eyes. “Did you build that dock?” I asked Gabe as he walked away.

  He turned around. “I started it. It was supposed to be a surprise. Jud found it half built behind the lodge after I got sick. He finished digging up the old posts and put it in.”

  “Whose idea was the Jet Ski?”

  “Lane traded his motorcycle in for a small motorboat and one of those Sea-Doo thingamabobs while we were in Oklahoma.”

  Gabe continued to walk out onto the dock.

  “Everything straightened out now?” my father asked Gabe without mentioning the word jail.

  “Yup. All cleared, Sean,” he replied as Deliah flew by.

  “Well now, look at these two characters. They’re as thick as thieves,” said my father of Deliah and Caleb.

  “Legs, you want a turn?” Caleb called from the water where they slowed to a stop. Deliah slid off the seat.

  “I do!” yelled my sister.

  “I’d like to give the birthday girl a present,” I said as I swatted a mosquito off my arm.

  “What did you get me?” she asked. She climbed onto the dock and removed her life vest.

  I walked over to Meggie and Elizabeth at the table and lifted my gift bag out of the pile. Emmie was bouncing on Elizabeth’s lap. The baby was fascinated with her red hair.

  “Here,” I told Deliah as she wrapped herself in a Texas flag beach towel. “It’s just from me. You’ll see why.”

  She set the bag on the table and started to lift out the contents. Without delay her cheeks turned red, just as I suspected they would. She fished through the bag and touched all of the items. Then she covered her mouth and ran around the table to hug me.

  “I love you! I love you! Thank you!” she squealed and jumped up and down.

  “My word,” said Meggie. “What did you get her?”

  Deliah waved her hand in my face. “Don’t tell her. It’s our secret.”

  When Deliah turned her back, I plucked at the bra strap on my shoulder, and Meggie smiled approvingly. She mouthed the words in a barely there whisper, “Nice work, kiddo.”

  “Where’s my mother?” I asked.

  Meggie pushed a paper plate with a heaping pulled pork sandwich and a side of potato salad in front of me. “Val isn’t feeling well. The doctor said it’s a good sign that the baby is revving up the pregnancy hormones. Remember, kiddo, she’s considered high-risk because of her age, so we have to let her rest a lot. ”

  “Brianna said it’s a boy.”

  “She found a blue baby outfit in one of Valerie’s drawers yesterday. It was meant for Eli.”

  My father stepped up to the table and set my sister on a bench. “I hope no one has spilled the beans,” he said.

  “Jelly beans!” Brianna exclaimed.

  “What now?” I asked.

  He reached into a tote bag on the ground and pulled out a key. He dangled it in front of my eyes.

  “You bought me another car?”

  He covered my sister’s ears. “No, Avery. I bought a house.”

  “Your mom doesn’t know, kiddo,” added Meggie.

  My father sat down and pulled his sunglasses off his head and rubbed his eyes. He put a slice of watermelon on a plate for my sister.

  “If I eat this, I get birthday cake,” she said. My sister knew the drill.

  “Your mom thinks we lost it to another offer,” my father continued.

  “Are you trying to upset her?” I asked confused.

  “The house will be ours, but there’s a family leasing it until the end of the year.”

  “Can’t you pay them to leave?” I asked.

  “I offered to do just that,” drawled Mr. Halden as he took a seat beside Meggie and placed a hand on her shoulder to pull her close.

  “And I’m grateful for the offer, Joel,” said my father. “You’ve done enough for us already. I don’t want to be in the business of displacing families, especially when there’s a shortage of homes in Williston. Valerie wouldn’t approve of that either. I don’t want to worry her with this.”

  “So you’re buying it and lying to her?” I asked.

  “Avery, we’ll be moving close to the due date. If I tell her now, she’ll worry for months. Meggie’s happy to let us continue on at the farmhouse.”

  “Y’all can live in the trailer when we move out. It’s pretty cozy,” Judson told my father.

  “My offer stands,” Joel said distractedly as he swiped a slice of watermelon off the plate and stood up to take a call on his phone. He walked out on the dock and stood at the end facing the lake.

  “Someone take that phone and toss it in the water,” said Meggie.

  Judson snapped his fingers at Brianna. “If he eats that watermelon, do you know what’ll happen?” he asked.

  She looked up from her plate of juice and red mush and shook her head, her eyes wide with curiosity.

  “He’ll grow a watermelon in his belly.”

  My sister dropped her gaze to her plate and pushed it away.

  Elizabeth slapped Judson’s hand and made him stop.

  I looked up when I felt a raindrop hit my cheek. A storm cloud hung directly above us.

  “We better take cover in case,” Meggie said as she eased Emmie fro
m Elizabeth’s arms.

  Judson pushed the dishes off the tablecloth and lifted it in the air like a parachute. “Get under. Maybe it’ll pass.”

  I gathered the food and covered it before the rain came. Caleb didn’t get out of the lake. He was splashing Deliah with the Jet Ski as she taunted him from the dock wrapped in a towel beside Mr. Halden. Gabe moved from where he was sitting so he wouldn’t get splashed.

  “It’s passing us,” Meggie announced a few minutes later when the sun came out from behind a cloud. “By golly, that was lucky.”

  “Look, Avy! I won’t get wet. I got a hat on,” said my sister. She paraded around the picnic table until my father grabbed her arm.

  “What is that?” he asked.

  Meggie held her heart and started laughing. My sister had a pink padded bra on her head. She took it off and swung it around like a lasso. I grabbed it and shoved it in the gift bag before my father touched it or Deliah could see.

  “She’s a little young to uncover Victoria’s secret,” said Caleb as he emerged from the water.

  “Brianna or Deliah?” I asked.

  He stepped back and rubbed the front of his neck as he gave me a funny look. He was dripping all over. “You bought those for Mona Deliah?”

  I touched his smirking lips with my finger and scowled. “Don’t you tease her, Caleb Halden.”

  He grabbed my hand and tried to push down my arm. “Fine, legs. I’ll tease you.” He butted me with his head and then tackled me, and before I knew it, I was on his shoulder and he was racing to the lake.

  “Caleb! Stop! Gabe—stop him!” I screamed. “Help!”

  Gabe watched as Caleb flung me awkwardly into the lake.

  My sister came running to the edge of the water where Gabe was standing. She clapped and shouted, “Ha ha, Avy!”

  “You didn’t stop him,” I said to Gabe as I waded out of the water and shook off.

  “Where are you going?” he yelled when he realized I was walking back to the cabin.

  I marched up the path as the sun peered in and out of the dark clouds. I had my clothes off before Gabe reached the cabin. I locked the bathroom door and pulled on a tank top and new shorts. My boots were sopping wet inside.

  “Hey, can you run me over to Meggie’s to get my car?” Gabe asked through the door.