Sweet Home Montana

by Lisa Mondello

  “Listen to me. That whole ceiling may come down on you. You have no idea how much damage there is.”

  “I’m not leaving Caleb in here alone! What if he wakes up before someone arrives and he needs me? What if he stops breathing?”

  “Katie—”

  “I’m not leaving, Harper.”

  The noise of a sigh coming through the phone sounded distorted to Katie’s ear.

  “They’re on their way. Be on the lookout for them when you hear the siren.”

  She nodded, glancing down at Caleb’s lifeless body, knowing Harper couldn’t see her. “Make sure they hurry.”

  * * *

  Katie sat in the hospital room in the chair across from Caleb’s bed. Caleb was asleep, but each time she moved in her chair, he stirred in bed. She didn’t want to wake him. He needed his rest. So did she. But she wasn’t leaving here until she at least had a chance to talk with him and know for sure that he was going to be all right as the doctor had said.

  After twenty minutes of staring at Caleb’s peaceful face as he slept, she realized she was shivering. So she got up from the chair and grabbed her coat that she’d flung off over the back of it. Then she curled into a ball and pulled the jacket over her body like a blanket. Just as she was settled, she heard Caleb moan. She pushed the coat off her body and did nothing to stop it from falling to the floor. Then she bolted to her feet.

  “Did I wake you?” she asked.

  “I knew you were here.” His voice was groggy, most likely from the pain meds the nurse just injected into his IV.

  “I just wanted to make sure you were okay. I know you’re not, but I just… Never mind. I know you need to rest.” She quickly grabbed her jacket from the floor, pushed her arms through the sleeves, and began to zip it up.

  “I don’t want you to leave,” he said.

  Her heart fluttered and she knew it shouldn’t. For God’s sake, Caleb was lying in a hospital bed because of her. Because she didn’t know what the hell she was doing down at the chapel and she’d relied on him to help. He could have been killed.

  Keeping her coat on, she sat back down in the chair. “You really do need your rest. But I’ll stay little while longer,” she said. His hand was stretched out on the bed and she longed to reach for it. But he hadn’t invited her to so. It was such a simple thing. Touching his hand. Feeling that connection. She’d been so scared. And yet it felt like a boundary she couldn’t cross.

  “Stop it, Katie.” He looked at her with only one eye open and the other at half-mast as if he were fighting to fully wake up and fighting against the pain meds.

  “What am I doing? Tell me what you need.”

  “I need you to stop blaming yourself from my being here. It’s not your fault.”

  Tears she’d been holding back out of fear filled her eyes. “You don’t have to let me off the hook. I should’ve known better. I should’ve known that the snow on the roof was too heavy and I shouldn’t have gone inside until the roofer came to inspect it.”

  “I went in there on my own. You didn’t force me.”

  “But only because you knew I’d do it myself.”

  He smiled weakly. “Seems I’m always doing that, aren’t I?”

  She chuckled and fought from sobbing at the same time. Emotion lodged in her throat making it difficult for her to trust her own voice.

  “I don’t know why.”

  “Why what?”

  “You keep coming back. Lord knows I’ve given you enough trouble for a lifetime. You probably wish you did arrest me that first night.”

  “Something tells me…it wouldn’t have made a difference. You would have gone back as soon as you were bailed out.”

  She laughed, but it was a totally ugly-crying kind of laugh that made her want to hide her face with her hands.

  “I’m fine, Katie. It’s not your fault.”

  He was trying to comfort her. It should have been the other way around.

  “I’m glad you’re okay, Caleb. I’m really sorry.”

  “Don’t leave.”

  She hadn’t gotten up from the chair yet. But now that she knew Caleb was going to be okay, she was about to leave. She couldn’t handle his letting her off the hook..

  “I should have known better,” she said.

  “No, I should have. I knew that roof was a problem. Putting up that caution tape should have been the first…the first thing I did…when I got there. The way…that beam came down, it could have easily been you or one of the contractors who got hit.”

  The meds were taking effect. Caleb’s eyes kept drifting closed, and then he’d force them open.

  “Can I bring you something tomorrow?” she asked.

  “Huckleberry,” he whispered.

  She smiled. Huckleberry was a native delight in Montana. You couldn’t go anywhere without seeing huckleberry coffee, or chocolate, or coffee cake, or pie.

  “I will,” she said, standing up and gazing down at him. He’d fallen asleep and that was a good thing. He needed his rest.

  She touched his hand, no longer caring that he hadn’t offered it to her. She needed to feel his warmth rather than the cold she’d felt earlier. Then she walked out of the hospital room and walked down the hall toward the elevator. The first thing she’d do when she got into her car would be to call Kas.

  * * *

  It had been over twenty-four hours since Katie’s brother, Kasper, and his fiancée, Tabby, had flown in from New York City. In those twenty-four hours, Katie hadn’t heard a single “I told you so” from her big brother. Of course, she had made herself scarce, giving Kas one excuse after the other about work and going to the hospital to see Caleb as a reason she couldn’t be home.

  But it was Sunday and she wasn’t working. She knew that Kas would only let her avoid him for so long before he confronted her about what had happened on the chapel grounds.

  After showering and getting into a pair of comfortable jeans and an oversized cotton sweater, she emerged from her bedroom and found Kas at the kitchen table staring into his mug of coffee.

  “It’s that interesting, is it?” she asked, trying to fill the air with some humor before she took the bull by the horns and they dove into a serious conversation.

  Kas barely glanced up at her. “I wish.”

  Katie glanced around. “Where is Tabby?”

  “She went straight to the ranch to visit Trip again. Seeing Tenterhook yesterday made her realize how much she missed being at the ranch and being around her horse. I have a feeling she’ll be out there all day today.”

  Trip was the owner of the Lone Creek Ranch that Katie had taken riding lessons at in high school. That’s how she’d met Bruce. Tabby had lived on the ranch since her parents died several years ago and learned barrel racing from Trip, who had known her father years ago when he and Tabby’s father were both bronc riders.

  Katie poured herself a cup of coffee and pondered whether to bother with a bagel or an English muffin for breakfast to fill her stomach so it wouldn’t sour after she had her conversation with Kas. She decided on cream in her coffee and conversation. She’d deal with the upset stomach later.

  Dragging a chair from the table, she then sat down and faced her brother. She wanted to dive in and get this over with. But she sensed something was wrong.

  “Okay, out with it.”

  Kas glanced up at her and frowned. “With what?”

  Her brother was a successful businessperson in New York City. But he was also a hometown boy. She knew how much he loved Sweet. But his life and his business were in New York City.

  Katie had always thought that that was an odd combination. How could you love the big city, the noise, and the activity and still love the quiet and the harsh life of Montana winters. But Kas always came back during the winter. And it wasn’t just to play hockey with the local boys.

  She leaned back in the chair. “I’ve known you too long for you to pretend something isn’t spinning around in that head of yours.”

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nbsp; “Don’t worry. It’s not about you.”

  The momentary sense of relief she felt was fleeting. “It’s not Tabby, is it?”

  He didn’t say anything.

  “What is it?” she asked, leaning forward and resting her hands on the table. “Tell me.”

  “She misses Sweet.”

  “You already said that. Tell me something I didn’t already know.”

  “She hates New York City.”

  “So do a lot of people. They still live there.”

  “I’m afraid that she’s not going to want to come back to New York City with me. “

  Katie frowned, reached a hand out, and placed it over her brother’s. “Did she break up with you?”

  “Tabby loves me. I have no doubt about that. It’s just New York City has her down. Some people acclimate to it quick enough. It took me a while too. But every day I come home, I find her sitting in the same chair by the window, looking at the busy street below. I can see it in her face. She doesn’t feel like she belongs there.”

  “She belongs with you. You belong together. That’s what love is supposed to be, right?”

  Katie said the words easily enough. She wasn’t sure she believed them anymore. If she did, maybe she’d still be married. But thinking back to the hard years she’d lived with Bruce, and the betrayal she always felt, she knew something just wasn’t right with them. She’d stuck it out far longer than she should have. In the end, Bruce had been the one to leave.

  She knew it wasn’t love that made it not work. She loved him well enough. Well enough? What was that? You shouldn’t love somebody well enough. You should love them with everything inside you. It should be like breathing fresh air. Looking at her brother, she realized that maybe that’s what he was questioning.

  “Do you love Tabby? I mean, like for the rest of your life can’t-spend-another-moment-without-her type of love?”

  He nodded. “I can’t imagine not having Tabby in my life. I’m not quite sure how I was before I met her. It seems a little surreal to think that just a few months ago she wasn’t in my life at all. Now I can’t imagine what it would be like to go back to living in that big apartment in the city with just me.”

  “Lots of people have long-distance relationships. It works.”

  Kasper made a face. “It won’t work for me. I don’t want it to work like that for me. I don’t want to be one of those people who get to be with the woman I love twice a month.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  He puffed his cheeks as he blew out a quick breath. “Not think about it anymore this morning. Tabby hasn’t said anything to me. She hasn’t even asked about how long we’ll be here. I just suggested we come for a visit and she ran and packed her bag. Seeing how happy she was to be here made me realize just how unhappy she was in New York City. But that conversation is for another time and one to be had with Tabby.”

  She grabbed her coffee mug and curled her fingers around it noting that the temperature was already cooling. She didn’t bother taking a sip.

  “Caleb is going to be getting out of the hospital in a few days.”

  “Good. He’s going to be okay?” Kas asked.

  “Yes. It could’ve been a lot worse.”

  When Katie thought of all the ways it could’ve been worse, it made her heart stop beating. If the beam had hit him square on the back of his head or neck, it would’ve been a lot worse. He could’ve been paralyzed or even dead.

  “I hope you learned your lesson,” Kas said.

  “Yeah, I don’t know what made me think I could handle a project like this.”

  Kas frowned. “I’m not talking about the project. Well, I guess I am a little. You should’ve gotten insurance or made sure anybody who was on the property had their own insurance to cover whatever kind of injuries may happen.”

  “Insurance?”

  “I doubt very much Caleb will sue you for anything. He wasn’t on duty but he is missing time out of work and that’s something you need to talk to him about. His medical bills will probably take a chunk out of your budget. But you need to be responsible for those too.”

  She nodded. She hadn’t thought of any of that, and now it seemed so very trivial to think about it now.

  “He almost died. He could’ve.”

  Kas nodded. “I know. But he didn’t. I saw your face when you came home from the hospital after seeing him last night. You’ve known Caleb practically your whole life and so have I.”

  “It would’ve been horrible,” she said softly, looking down at her hands holding the mug and wishing she could hold Caleb’s hand or touch his cheek and feel that warmth again.

  “Why do I get the feeling it would’ve been a whole lot worse for you than it would’ve been for me?” Kas asked.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Caleb and I have been friends since first grade. We’ve fallen out touch, but that doesn’t make him any less a friend. But you…”

  “What are you saying? It would have been awful if Caleb had…”

  She shook her head and drummed her fingers on the kitchen table. Somehow she’d expected Kas to be angry with her. She didn’t expect this.

  “It happened. I never should’ve started this project not knowing what I’m doing. And if I spend the rest of my life working day and night I will pay you back for every cent of the money you loaned me.”

  “Katie, I’m not talking about money. I get it. It was a lot of money. But I didn’t know what I was doing in the beginning either. You’ll learn. And you’ll ask me questions. And hopefully I’ll think of things to tell you before accidents like this happen again.”

  She rubbed her face as if washing away the shame.

  “Hey, I didn’t think you were ready for something like this. But you’re smart and you learn fast. And it’s a good project. Honestly, I couldn’t believe the price you proposed to Callahan and I was even more surprised when he agreed to it. You’ll probably double your investment right now without doing another thing. But this isn’t about money. I saw the way you looked when you walked through that door last night. I saw the anguish on your face. When did you fall in love with Caleb Samuel?”

  * * *

  Her brother was nuts. City living had made him weird and soft and romantic. Or maybe Tabby had done this to him. He was not acting like the brother she’d known her whole life. And Katie was not in love with Caleb Samuel. How could Kas even think such a stupid thing like that?

  She’d known Caleb Samuel practically her whole life. He was…Caleb. And he was her friend. And she’d worried about him all week while he was in the hospital. But he was coming home in a few days and he could finish healing. And life could get back to normal again.

  In the meantime, she had work to do. She’d called her insurance company and made sure she had insurance on the property from this day forward.

  The last couple of days had been warm and the snow had started to melt. As she pulled into the small chapel parking lot she saw how tire tracks marred the soft ground and in the grass next to the chapel. Some of these marks were made by the police cars and the ambulance that had come to help Caleb when the beam had collapsed on top of him.

  She stared at the ground. Some were different. She wasn’t sure how she knew. She got out of the car and studying the footprints leading to the side door. It was odd. They weren’t boots of any kind that she recognized. In one spot, it was as if the person walking had slid and maybe even fallen.

  Her heart sunk. All she needed was someone else to have an accident on her property. She’d be bankrupt for sure.

  She’d spent two days getting quotes from contractors in the area, not that she knew for sure she could afford them. But she wasn’t about to let this project sit and not be worked on. Especially the roof. That needed to be fixed right away. She wasn’t sure how she’d feel coming back here after seeing Caleb collapsed on the floor. But she’d started this project, and Kasper had given his blessing to finish it, no matter what it took.
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br />   As she walked to the side door she marveled at what a difference a few days made. The weather just a few days ago was cold and snowy. Today the temperature was creeping into the fifties. Spring was on its way. It was Montana, so they would most likely see snow in some form or another until May, especially in the higher elevations. A lot of what had fallen and created such problem was already gone.

  She looked at the pasture, still covered with snow, and the mountains in the distance. She loved this place. Always had. She didn’t know what was going to happen beyond finishing the chapel and seeing it beautiful again. But it would be finished, and it would be beautiful. Someone would live here, look out at that mountain range every morning when the sun came up, and know they were home. Someone would raise a family here and maybe live their life to a ripe old age.

  Chuckling, she shook her head and then looked at the path in front of her. She stopped short when she saw the yellow notice on the side door. And her stomach dropped.

  Bright yellow couldn’t be good. She hadn’t applied for her building permit yet. She couldn’t do that until she got the plans approved from the building inspector. Perhaps he’d come out here earlier to see her and put a note on the door.

  But as she got closer to the door, Katie saw in large bold letters Cease and Desist Order. The envelope tucked behind the yellow notice made her stomach churn. She grabbed the envelope and thought about stuffing it in her pocket to look at later. She didn’t want it to be a distraction from what she’d come here to do, which was to assess the damage done inside the chapel and have contractors give her an estimate of what it would cost to fix it.

  But the letter wasn’t from the building inspector. It was from a law firm in LA. The same law firm who’d closed the deal between her and Henry Callahan.

  Katie tore open the envelope, read the contents, and wanted to scream. He was suing her? Stuffing the letter back in the envelope as she walked back to her car, she fumed about how idiotic this was and how she could make it go away. It was as if something was trying to tell her to forget this project.

  She turned and looked at the chapel. But she couldn’t. This was her ticket out so she could get her life back on track. This was something she could make right and beautiful again. Tears filled her eyes as she climbed back into her car. She hated going to Kas again because he was so preoccupied with Tabby. But at least he would know how to handle this before she completely flipped out.