Sweet Home Montana

by Lisa Mondello

  Her face showed panic. She placed her hands on her face as her cheeks flamed. “Oh, no. I don’t mean you. I enjoy being with you. Oh Lord, I really put my foot in my mouth with my bellyaching this time.”

  He laughed. “Is that what you call that?”

  “Don’t say you haven’t noticed. It’s become a habit. Ever since Bruce left and took everything I had with him, I’ve felt as if I needed to prove something. Do something in order to convince myself that I hadn’t wasted ten years of my life for nothing. And it’s not just because of Kas being so successful. I know it seems like I’m trying to compete with my brother. But it’s not that at all. It’s what I thought that I would have in my life.”

  “You wanted out of Sweet,” Caleb said quietly.

  She came into the living room and sat down at the end of the sofa, curling her legs under her as she turned to him. “Did you ever think of leaving Sweet? I mean, there really isn’t anything to do around here except rodeo, dancing at the bar, or going to another potluck.”

  “Small town doesn’t suit you much, does it?”

  She shrugged. “I just didn’t think I’d end up back here at twenty-eight years old with nothing more than what I started with when I left.”

  “People have setbacks. Things happen. You can plan for things and then something happens to change those plans.”

  He found himself lost in thought, thinking about some of the people he’d known in the army. Good people from places all over the United States. Some were very different from him and what he thought life should be. But at their core, they were all the same. They wanted to be happy, and they wanted to go home and live their life with people they loved. It didn’t really matter what living life consisted of.

  Caleb hadn’t known when he’d left for the army that he’d end up going into law enforcement. It was only when he got home and started searching for Julie that the idea of going to the police academy became a goal. He’d blamed himself for leaving Sweet and leaving Julie behind. If he had been here…

  Katie snapped her fingers a few times. “Earth to Caleb.”

  He caught Katie staring at him. “Sorry. I was thinking.”

  “Yeah? It would be nice to talk about something other than me for a change. What were you thinking about?”

  “Julie.”

  Warmth filled her expression. “I can’t believe you haven’t talked to Julie at all. That doesn’t sound like her.”

  He shrugged. “It’s as if she’s fallen off the face of the earth. And if I hadn’t gone into the military, if I hadn’t wanted to leave Sweet to see the world, well, then maybe I would’ve seen what was going on. Maybe she wouldn’t have left.”

  “Or maybe she would’ve left anyway.”

  There were days that Caleb had wondered that very same thing.

  “I get this obsession you have.”

  She chuckled. “Oh, is that what this is?”

  “Yeah. I have it, too where Julie is concerned. She wasn’t the type of person to just leave family behind without even so much as sending a Christmas card or note to say, hey, I’m okay.”

  Katie’s face was soft and sympathetic and her eyes filled with emotion that he found hard to turn away from. “You’re in law enforcement. Isn’t there anything you can do to search for her?”

  His mouth twisted into a frown that made Katie chuckle. He loved the sound of that laughter. It touched him some place deep in his chest and spread warmth throughout his body.

  “You’ve already tried, haven’t you?” she asked.

  Caleb nodded. “Against rules, but yeah.”

  Katie’s mouth dropped open. “See? I always knew you were a rebel.”

  He chuckled at that. “I wouldn’t exactly call myself a rebel.”

  “You’re getting there.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “You haven’t arrested me yet. Lord knows you had plenty of opportunity.”

  He shrugged.

  “Let’s just get out of the house, okay?” Katie said. “We can’t go skiing. But you do have your condo up in the mountains.”

  “With a hot tub.”

  “Hmm. I can wrap up that huckleberry coffee cake in the oven and take it with us.”

  “If it even makes it to the condo. I can smell that bread from here.”

  “Where is it? I mean, you probably shouldn’t be in the car for too long a drive,” she said.

  He groaned, impatient with being pampered when all he wanted was to get off this couch and get back to doing something. Anything.

  “Did you just growl at me?” she asked, laughing.

  “You’d growl too after a week and a half of sitting on your butt. The condo isn’t that far. It’s up by Red Lodge Mountain. Satisfied?”

  “That’s only an hour or so away.”

  “I thought that would be a good thing. It makes it easy for me to get away for a few days. I didn’t buy it to get away from Sweet. I got it so I could occasionally have some fun. I’ve…been a bit of a workaholic these last few years.”

  “Which explains why you’re getting cranky sitting on the couch.”

  “Wouldn’t you be?”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “One more sorry and I’m going to take you over my knee.”

  Her eyebrows stretched high on her forehead. “You wouldn’t dare.”

  “Try me.”

  And the thought of that, having Katie close to him, was more intoxicating than he imagined it would be. And he had imagined it.

  “Let’s get out of here,” he said. “If we stay, I’m going to eat that whole pan of huckleberry coffee cake.”

  * * *

  “I always miss fresh huckleberry over the winter,” Caleb said as they drove by the sign of a closed bakery advertising huckleberry jam.

  “There’s huckleberry everywhere,” Katie said, laughing.

  “I know. My mom used to make huckleberry jams and preserves. We used to have it all year. But there is just something about huckleberry in June.”

  She glanced at him momentarily and then brought her eyes back to the road in front of her. “Maybe we should skip the lodge and go to the casino.”

  Caleb frowned. “Where’d that come from? You’re knee-deep in expenses for the chapel, and now legal bills, and you want to blow some money at a casino?”

  “It might be fun.” She shrugged. “I know it’s a big deal around here. I knew a few people who’d gotten in over their heads.”

  “It’s easy to do. Not such a great idea when you don’t have money to burn.”

  “Which I don’t.”

  “Which you don’t.”

  “You mean to tell me you never think of just taking a hundred dollars and seeing if you could double it triple it or hit the jackpot?”

  “I wouldn’t say that exactly. I’ve spent a few nights at the table for a good time with some friends. But it’s just not something that floats my boat.”

  She took her eyes off the road for a second again to look at him and then chuckled as she glanced back at the road. “Well, we wouldn’t want your boat not to float.”

  They passed a sign that mentioned good bison burgers and good music.

  “Hey, are you up for seeing a band?”

  “What? No hot tub? What about your neck?”

  “While I’d love to see you in a bathing suit—”

  “I didn’t pack one.”

  “I know. Which puts me at a disadvantage. So plan B. I am hungry, and most of these honkytonks have good food to go with good music.”

  “Are you sure it won’t be—”

  “Stop.”

  “What?”

  “Treating me like damaged goods.”

  “I’m not. I just don’t want you to hurt yourself.”

  “For the past week you’ve been coming to my house checking on me. I had a concussion. My head had a gash in it. But the rest of me is just fine. I’ll tell you what I want, Katie. I want to be with you on a date like real people do instead of bein
g hovered over. I don’t want to talk to you about the chapel or the accident or anything else other than you and me. And I want to hold you in my arms on the dance floor. You know, up close and personal, just you and me. Can we do that?”

  She glanced at him with her mouth agape from his outburst.

  “Sure.”

  “Okay. Let’s dance.”

  # # #

  Chapter Six

  Fifteen minutes later, they pulled into the restaurants/honky-tonk that had a parking lot full of trucks. Caleb reasoned that it must have good food or good whiskey if so many people were there. Katie reminded him that it might be the only place that was actually open and so it didn’t matter how good the food was as long as there was whiskey.

  She was enjoying the simple back and forth conversation. Caleb had always been easy to get along with. He seemed so genuine, something she wasn’t used to after ten years of living with a man who’d artfully deceived her.

  And he wanted to dance with her. He’d practically had to hit her over the head to get her to see that he wanted to hold her on the dance floor. Hold her. Like a real date.

  For God’s sake, Katie wasn’t a virgin. She’d been married for nearly ten years, not that it meant much now. For all the years she’d been married, she and Bruce had spent more time living apart than together even though they’d lived under the same roof. Work and school schedules had seen to that. She couldn’t remember a time when they’d ever gone dancing or even had a date.

  Katie had never been like some of the girls she knew who’d fawn over men. She wasn’t part of the local hockey bunny team, the girls who’d hang out at all the hockey games the boys in town played. Or like the rodeo bunnies that hung on all the men who would go on a weekend rodeo run and come back bandaged and broken from a fall from a bull or a bronc.

  She knew too many girls she’d graduated high school with who’d ended up following a man like that. Those guys had big dreams of winning on the rodeo circuit and then became bitter when injury and lack of earnings forced them to quit. Sure, there were plenty of them who did well and she did like rodeo. She’d even promised to go to a few with Tabby when the rodeo season started again.

  And she did love it. But she had dreamed of something more in her life. More than just a Saturday night in a honky-tonk or riding from rodeo to rodeo like a gypsy looking for gold.

  Her heart pumped wildly in her chest as they made their way to the door. Music was already pouring out into the night from the jukebox along with the sound of the occasional burst of laughter.

  “Whatever they’re cooking in there smells good. It’s making me hungry,” Katie said.

  They walked to the front door and immediately saw a chalkboard with the day’s specials.

  “Bison burger.”

  “Is there any other kind?” the hostess said, overhearing their conversation as she walked back up to the podium that held the chart with seating arrangements for the restaurant.

  “Are you here for food or for the band?” the hostess asked.

  “Both,” Katie said.

  She glanced at Caleb, who had an expression of satisfaction he was trying to hide. His mood had changed considerably since they’d left the house.

  The hostess quickly checked the bar and then the seating chart in front of her. “All my tables in the honky-tonk are full but I have some space at the bar. You can order some food there and the bartender will bring it out to you.”

  Caleb nodded to Katie.

  “That sounds great.”

  As they weaved through the people moving about in the restaurant and made their way to the bar, Katie noticed there were a few people on the dance floor. The stage where the musicians already had their equipment set up was dimly lit. Music from the jukebox grew louder as they got closer to it. When the song ended, the few people who’d been dancing stopped and headed back to their tables.

  They ordered their dinner, having the same thing, bison burgers and fries. Katie ordered a tall glass of sweet tea because she was driving, and Caleb had a beer from the tap.

  Before the food came out the band started playing. They were good and played some of the country music songs Katie knew. When a particularly fast song came on, everyone in the room seemed to get up on their feet and either run to the dance floor, or clap and move to the music near their table.

  Caleb took Katie by the hand and led her into the throng of people and they danced, laughing and spinning until the song ended. Sweat poured down her forehead from dancing and being in such close proximity with everyone on the dance floor. She watched Caleb, just to make sure he didn’t overdo it and get dizzy. Concussions were a funny thing. You could be okay one minute and then fall flat on your face the next. Caleb didn’t appear concerned.

  Caleb glanced over her shoulder to where their place was at the bar just as a slow tune started to play.

  “Our food isn’t out yet.”

  Katie turned too and saw that the bar was empty. “So it seems.”

  She turned back to Caleb and he looked down at her in a way she’d never seen before. “Dance with me, Katie Dobbs.”

  His eyes were dark with heat that made her catch her breath. “We have been dancing.”

  “That’s not good enough. I told you what I wanted in the car. I want to hold you in my arms on the dance floor.”

  Without saying a word, she stepped into his arms and waited for him to wrap his arms around her, he took her hand in his and slowly guided her across the floor. The dance floor wasn’t nearly as crowded now that the fast tune had ended. It gave them much more room to move. But Katie liked just standing there with Caleb lifting her face and pressing her cheek against his. She felt his hot breath on her neck and could swear she heard the beating of his heart with every move he made.

  Katie wanted to weep. It had been a long time since she’d been in the arms of a man. Since she had come back to Sweet, she’d had a total of one date and it had been a disaster. Both she and the man she was out on the date with admitted it and called it quits halfway through the night. They hadn’t even finished dinner. It was the one and only time she took a blind date from a well-meaning friend. And maybe for that reason alone, loneliness had settled into her over the winter in a way she’d never felt lonely before.

  But being with Caleb was so easy. There was never any awkwardness. Without a doubt, he was the reason why that lonely feeling had ebbed over the last few weeks.

  “You’re not half bad, Caleb Samuel.”

  He pulled away just enough so he could look down at her and she could see his smile.

  “Only half bad?”

  “Actually, you’re pretty good at this. It makes me think you’ve had some practice.”

  He cocked his head to one side. “Well, you know me and some of the other officers down at the station managed to do some dancing when things are slow. Just to keep up on it.”

  She laughed. “Yeah, those slow nights can be rough.”

  “Exactly.”

  They began dancing again, and they resumed their position with his face so close to hers that she could feel the heat of his skin against her cheek. She closed her eyes and rested her head on his shoulder, letting the music and the touch of the man she was with fill her with peace.

  But just as they began to fall into a rhythm, she suddenly felt Caleb’s muscles tighten under her hands. He pulled back abruptly and stared at a place beyond her at the bar.

  Katie turned to see where Caleb was looking, but all she saw were two people running into the swinging door of the kitchen.

  “What is it?” she asked.

  Before he could answer, Caleb dropped his hands from her waist and ran through the bar towards the kitchen door. Then he disappeared.

  * * *

  Caleb could hardly believe his eyes. He’d only caught a quick glimpse of the woman standing by the doorway, and then she’d disappeared into the kitchen. His mind immediately registered Julie, his baby sister, who was no longer a baby anymore.

&n
bsp; He felt empty as he pulled away from Katie’s arms, and sprinted across the dance floor to the back of the bar where he’d seen the woman who looked just like his sister. His heart pumped as he moved and the sudden burst of adrenaline made his head a little woozy.

  “Hey, you can’t be back here.” the bartender said, reaching across the bar in an attempt to get his attention.

  “I’m a cop.”

  “And I’m Tinkerbelle,” the bartender said in a droll voice.

  Caleb pulled his badge out of his wallet flashed it at the bartender. He hated the delay this was causing him. If that really was Julie, he needed to get to her quickly before she disappeared.

  But just as fast as he flashed his badge, the bartender lifted his hands as if in surrender. “Gotcha,” the bartender said. “They went somewhere back there.”

  As he was pushing through the swinging door, Caleb heard the bartender say, “Jerome is not going to be happy about you being back there.”

  Caleb didn’t know who Jerome was and he didn’t care. He’d deal with Jerome when the time came. He quickly looked around the kitchen. Several people working at food stations, making sandwiches and burgers. He saw one person with two identical plates that looked like what he and Katie had ordered. Suddenly Caleb wasn’t hungry and didn’t care about it.

  “Did you see a woman and man run through here?” he asked the cook.

  A young kid standing at the dishwasher looked up at him as if bewildered and the man with a knife in his hand used it to point to a hallway leading to the back. “They went out back. But you won’t get too far if you go down there. Jerome doesn’t like—”

  “I’ll take my chances.”

  Caleb ran down the small hallway with a set of closed doors. Two of them were marked restroom, which he surmised were for people that worked there. Another door was partially open. Caleb took a chance and knocked on the door.

  There was a heavyset man sitting behind a beat-up metal desk that had seen better days leaning back in his chair with one foot propped up on the edge of the desk as he talked on the phone. His eyes widened as he saw Caleb breach the sanctity of the office.

  “I’ll call you back,” he said to whoever he was talking with, and then hung up the phone quickly. “Who the hell are you and what are you doing in the back of my honky-tonk?”