Jasper intervened. “That’s enough, you two. Marla, you and Clarissa have to stop pestering Aiken every time he comes around. You stick to your own business. So tell us, Aiken, what made Laird so taken with this woman?”
“That’s what I can’t figure out. I meant to ask you, because it makes no sense. He couldn’t get enough of her. I’ll be the first to admit she was something to look at, but he asked her all about herself like they’d known each other for years, and he even invited her to dinner.”
Jasper’s head snapped around. “He did what?”
Aiken nodded. “I know. He should have given her the cold shoulder, but he just sat there staring at her like he was in love with her. Even Celia noticed it, and she blew up at him. She accused him of flirting with her, but he wasn’t flirting. He was just taken with her. Everybody was.”
“Especially you,” Marla chimed in.
“Marla, I swear to God, if you say one more word about her, I’ll…”
Jasper chopped the air with his hand. “I’m asking the questions here. Stay out of it, Marla.”
Marla jabbed her finger at her brother. “Look at him. You can see he’s just as love-struck as Laird. What was it about her, Aiken? Did she have a really nice ass or something?”
Aiken did his best to ignore her and Jasper answered instead. “I’m sure it wasn’t her ass Laird was interested in, even if it was especially nice. Did he mention why he thought she was so special?”
“Maybe he’s interested in humans now, too,” Marla chipped in. “Maybe there aren’t enough Bruin women on the Peak now, and all the men have to run off to Iron Bark to find mates.”
Beatrice exclaimed, “Marla!”
Aiken held up his hand. “That’s okay, Ma. I know as well as anybody that humans are forbidden, so you don’t have to worry about that. I’m just puzzled about Laird and Celia’s reaction to this young woman. Laird treated her like some kind of relative, and Celia went after her with all her claws and teeth. She drove the poor woman out of the house after she said the Kerrs had nothing to worry about with the complaints.”
Jasper knit his brows. “That is odd. Did this social worker say anything about herself that could have sparked Laird’s interest?”
“No. She has no family. She grew up in foster care after her mother died in childbirth.”
“Odd. Very odd that Laird would invite a stranger into his home like that. He should know better than to mix with outsiders.”
“What do you know about him? Does he have any history that could be connected to someone in town?”
“He’s a Bruin. Bruins don’t have connections with people in town.”
“I know. I just wondered.”
Beatrice spoke up. “Laird Kerr has lived and worked on Bruins’ Peak all his life.”
“He said he had worked for the Dodds when he was younger. He said that’s how he met Celia.”
“That’s right. He worked for Celia’s father, old Breslin Dodd, when the Dodds had thousands of head of cattle grazing on their land. Laird started as a cowboy and rose in the Dodd family business to manage all their herds. That’s how the Dodds earned their family fortune. They sold cattle to the local slaughterhouse in Iron Bark. When the old man died, he wanted to leave his whole operation to Laird and Celia, but scandal rocked the Kerr family.”
“What happened?”
“No one knows. The Kerrs covered it up, and no one ever found out. Laird turned his back on the ranch and moved Celia back to Kerr territory to be closer to his family.”
“So what happened to the ranch? The Dodds don’t have that kind of fortune nowadays.”
“They sure don’t. The ranch would have gone to Celia’s brother Vaughn. He was a responsible, hard-working man. Everyone admired him. Everyone was pleased that he would take over as Alpha of the Dodd tribe after Breslin died, but he died suddenly before that.”
“How did he die?”
“A bull gored his horse during a round-up and Vaughn was crushed in the fall. It was a freak accident, and Laird left soon after. The ranch passed to Vaughn’s younger brother Addison. He squandered the fortune and neglected the cattle until nothing but a small fraction remained. That’s the position the Dodds find themselves in today.”
Aiken rubbed his chin. “Interesting: I wonder what made Laird quit and go home like that. It must have been something serious.”
Jasper headed for the door. “Forget it. You’ve got work to do. I’ll send Boyd out here, and you two can go down to the harvester together.”
Marla and Clarissa went inside behind their father. Aiken heard Marla’s high-pitched laugh. No doubt, his sisters would get lots of good laughs at his expense when they thought about him hooking up with some human woman from town.
He pulled his work boots back on. He definitely wouldn’t forget about this. He never could let go of a mystery once he sank his teeth into it. He would follow it until he found the answers.
Chapter 6
Harmony hitched her bag over her shoulder and slid her key into the car door. The lock popped, but before she could open the door, a lanky body flopped against the car. A pair of hard eyes and a crooked mouth grinned up at her. “Yer the lady that went up Bruins’ Peak yesterday, ain’t ya?”
Harmony recoiled internally, but she kept her composure. “Yes, I am; and you’re Bain Campbell. We’ve met before. I’m the one who asked you about your father’s encounter with the little girl up there.”
He slapped his thigh. “Tha’s right. I knew I’d seed you before.”
Harmony made a grab for her door handle again. “Excuse me, Mr. Campbell. I’m on my way home from work.”
“Tha’s okay. Then you still have time to talk to me, seeing as yer not in any great hurry.”
“What do you want to talk about?”
“I hear you saw a bear up on the mountain.”
“Who did you hear that from? No, wait, don’t tell me. It was Florence Maitland.”
Bain clapped his hands. “Dang it, yer a sharp one, ain’t ya? It surely was Florence. She seems to think this was a special kind of bear.”
“It wasn’t any special kind of bear. It was just a bear.”
“You know I hunt bears for a livin’.”
“Yes; I know that.”
“Well, seein’ as how yer on your way home from work and ain’t in no particular hurry, I came over here to ask you a particular kind of a favor, if you don’t mind.”
“What is it?”
“I want you to show me where you saw that bear. I want you to take me back to the exact spot.”
“Why; so you can shoot it and sell the fur to the tourists?”
“Now, miss, I wouldn’t do that. If this is a special sort of bear, I’d just trap it, like. I’d take it to the zoo or something.”
Harmony narrowed her eyes at him. Anyone in Iron Bark knew you couldn’t trust a Campbell any further than you could throw him. Harmony could throw this weedy character over the back fence, and she wouldn’t trust him with a wooden nickel.
“I can’t take you up there. I’m in the office until next week.”
“But you’re going back up the mountain again. Everyone’s talking about it all over town.”
“I’m going to visit the Dunlap family next, but that doesn’t mean...”
Bain perked up. “The Dunlaps, huh? That’s down the way. And where did you say you saw this here bear?”
“I didn’t say. It was about a mile off the turnpike, near the old logging camp. I took the trail marked X30 over the rise and down into the ravine. It was in there.”
“But tha’s inside Dunlap territory. Tha’s perfect. You could take me with you when you go see the Dunlaps.”
Harmony put out her hand for the door again, but he still didn’t get the message. “I don’t think this is a good idea.”
“O’ course it’s a good idea. It’s the best idea I’ve had all year. Come on. I don’t weigh much. I won’t cost you any extra gas. You can show me the spot you s
aw this bear and go on to the Dunlaps. I won’t cause you any trouble, and you can pick me up on the way back. What do you say? Is it a deal?”
Harmony stood back and shifted her bag on her shoulder. “I suppose you aren’t going to let me drive away from here until I agree to your wacky plan. Am I right?”
He let out a feral shriek. “Dagnabit, yer a smart one. I can see you’ve been to schooling. That’s why you make the big bucks, right?”
Harmony sighed. “All right; I’ll drop you off and pick you up. That’s it. You can’t come with me to Dunlap Homestead.”
He gave her a rapturous grin. “No sweat. You can count on me. I wouldn’t want to visit Dunlap Homestead anyway.”
“Why?”
“They’re snooty. They’re strictly upper crust. Didn’t you know that?”
“I don’t know anything about them.”
“Well, it looks like you’re gonna find out.”
“All right: you can meet me here Monday morning.”
He clapped again. “Perfect.” He finally got his oily corpus off her car and sauntered away down Park Street.
Harmony heaved her bag into the back seat and fired up the engine. She drove down the street to the supermarket and parked. She pushed her basket through the aisles to collect her week’s shopping when she caught a glimpse of someone she recognized in the produce aisle. It was the man who leaned against the Kerrs’ kitchen counter.
She tried to avoid him, but when she finished all the rest of her shopping, she had nothing left to get but the produce. She headed that way. He must be gone by now. She turned the corner, but he wasn’t gone. He stood in front of the mushrooms with a tablet computer in his hand. He touched the screen with a stylus.
She never would have recognized him as the same man she saw before. His clean-shaven face gleamed in the store lights, and his short brown hair still showed the comb marks in its slick surface. No baseball cap in sight.
He wore black suit pants and a brand new button-down dress shirt. His polished leather shoes poked out under his pant cuffs, and a shiny watch peeked out beneath his shirt sleeve. He looked up from his computer when Harmony appeared and went back to what he was doing.
Harmony tried her best to avoid him. He was obviously busy, and she wanted to pay and get out of there in time for dinner, but something told her she couldn’t avoid him forever.
Her cheeks burned when she steered her basket toward him. “You’re Hyatt Kerr, aren’t you? I saw you at the Homestead the other day. How is your family?”
He flipped the cover over his computer and tucked it under his arm. “I’m not Hyatt Kerr. I’m Aiken Dunlap.”
Harmony’s eyes flew open. “You are? Oh. I assumed you were a member of the Kerr family. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. I was just visiting the Kerrs that morning.”
“What were you doing there?”
“Barton is my best friend. He asked me to come over and help him build a dynamo for their milling operation. The Kerrs want to expand, and the dynamo will harness electricity from the streams to run the mill.”
“That sounds interesting. Where did you learn to do that?”
“I didn’t. Barton learned it on the internet, but he’s still building his prototype. That’s what he wanted me to help with. What about you? I hear you’re coming to our Homestead next.”
Harmony couldn’t stop smiling up at him. “Yeah; I guess everybody knows.”
“Apparently Bruins’ Peak is a source of endless curiosity to these people. As you saw the other day, we’re just regular people living our lives.”
“Maybe it’s your isolation that sparks their interest. Celia said you keep to yourselves. That’s bound to get on their nerves.”
“Maybe.”
She nodded toward the computer. “What are you doing here? You don’t seem to be doing any shopping.”
Now it was his turn to blush. “No, I’m not shopping. I’m checking the market price of vegetables. My family runs some big commercial greenhouses, and we sell the produce to local stores. I’m collecting price information for my father and brother so they know how much the stores mark up our produce.”
“Wow. The folks on Bruins’ Peak sure do have a lot of different businesses. You must be doing all right for yourselves.”
“We get by. We have to, since we don’t have much to do with the locals.”
“Why is that? Why do you keep to yourselves?”
“That’s just the way it’s always been. Everybody does better when we stay apart, especially the Bruins.”
“Bruins: that’s what Celia called you. What does that word mean?”
“It means ‘bear’.”
“Why do you call yourselves that?”
Aiken shifted from one foot to the other. “I don’t know. Someone way back in history called us that. I better go now. I’ll see you later.”
He hurried out of the store, and Harmony rounded up the last of her groceries and headed for the checkout. So much for her Kerr family tree; he wasn’t Hyatt Kerr after all. He was Aiken Dunlap. Well, at least she could start her new Dunlap family tree on the right foot.
She loaded all her bags into the trunk of her car when she saw him again. He walked down the sidewalk adjacent to the parking lot. From a distance, he struck her as something out of place in this Podunk backwoods town. Who dressed like that on the streets of Iron Bark, like they were on their way to the New York Stock Exchange?
Bain Campbell’s words came back to her. The Dunlaps were upper crust, too upper crust for the likes of this town. Aiken exuded success, business savvy, and power. Anyone could see it on him. His shoulders etched their chiseled outline inside his shirt, and his waistband cut a straight, firm line across his washboard abs.
A quiver of excitement rippled through her flesh. Somewhere inside those pants, he kept his manhood tucked between rock hard thighs and angular hips. What would it be like to....?
She slammed her trunk shut. She was going to his house in a few days to investigate his family for mistreatment of children. She couldn’t start thinking about him like that. Nothing would ever happen between them. A man like that didn’t take to a penniless social worker with no family. He was on his way up. He said himself he helped his father and brother run their empire. They must be rolling in the millions.
Just then, he glanced sideways and caught her eye. That look pierced straight to her guts. She couldn’t let him stride out of her life. She had to talk to him, just one more time.
She chucked her handbag into her car and trotted to catch up with him. She flanked him and panted for breath. “You’re not walking all the way home, are you? I can give you a ride as far as the turnpike if you like. That’ll save you the hike.”
He bit back a smile, but he didn’t stop walking. “I’m not walking home. I’m meeting my brother Boyd at the hardware store. He’s picking up some parts for our hydroponic system.”
“Your system sounds amazing. I’d love to see it sometime.”
“You can have a look on Monday, if you’re not too busy with the kids.”
Harmony floundered for words. “Actually, I’m supposed to check out your operation anyway. The Service wants me to verify you aren’t growing marijuana up there.”
Aiken cast an amused grin her way. “I’m sure the locals believe all sorts of crazy stuff about us.”
Harmony looked away. “You don’t want to know.”
“I already know. They say it straight to our faces when we come to town.”
“I’m sorry about that. I guess some people just never learned any manners.”
“It’s all right for adults. It’s hard on the kids, though, especially when they come to the Halloween parade and the other kids yell rude names at them and say they don’t have to dress up at all because their devils.”
“That must be hard, and your kids are so nice and friendly. It’s too bad you can’t be closer to the townspeople.”
“That’s the way it’s got to be. I
t’s better that way.”
“You said that before, but I don’t see why.”
“You’ll just have to take my word for it.”
She stopped in the middle of the sidewalk to face him. He would have walked right on, but she put out her hand to stop him, too. “Explain it to me. From what I’ve seen, you people are kind and generous and successful. This town needs people like you, so why do you hold yourselves apart? Are you too good for us or something?”
He faced her with that direct gaze of his. It shot straight to her core with its determined ferocity, but she couldn’t escape the gentle kindness that went with it. “We’re not too good for you. No one would be happier than we would if we could be together, but we can’t.”
Harmony stared up at him. “Are you talking about the townspeople, or are you talking about you and me?”
His eyebrows went up. “You and me: since when are we talking about you and me? There is no you and me.”
Harmony kicked an invisible stone into the gutter. “Of course not; forget I mentioned it.”
“You did mention it, so now you tell me what you’re talking about. Who said anything about you and me?”
“I don’t know what I’m talking about. I don’t know what’s got into me ever since I went to visit the Kerrs. My whole life is turned upside down, and no one knows it. Shoot! What am I doing talking to you about this? You don’t care about my life.”
“I care about your life, Harmony. I want to know everything that happened when you visited the Kerrs, but you have to understand. There can never be any you and me. Got that? Never.”
Harmony’s heart twisted into knots. She never let herself believe he could look sideways at her, but hearing those words spoken out loud crushed the very life out of her. “Okay; if you say so.”
“Now tell me what happened at the Kerrs. Can you think of any reason Laird got so interested in you? You must have noticed it.”
She dared lift her eyes to his face. “I noticed it, but it wasn’t just Laird who got so interested in me. Their whole family, and even their house, had the strangest effect on me. I can’t explain it.”
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