“Did you tell her we ride horses?”
“No. My father must have introduced her to the Lone Ranger.”
Gabe lifted her by her wrists and spun in place until she was flying out to the sides, giggling. I adored him more than ever because he humored her.
“That was fun! Do it again.” She fell to her knees dizzy.
I pulled her out of the snow as I witnessed Gabe and Caleb turn to stone.
“Oh shi…shkebab,” Caleb said as he caught himself.
“What now?” I asked. “Is Brigg Barrett here too?” I patrolled the lot and spotted the green car idling behind a news van. There was a picket sign sticking out of a window. I couldn’t read what it said.
“That girl won’t give up,” he said and made a belly laugh. “One side of her brain musta got lost and the other side came looking for it. I’ll handle her. Lieutenant gave strict orders to keep her kind off the property.”
Deliah ran past Caleb with her coat flying behind her like a cape. “Shelly! Shelly!” she shouted. “You missed the ceremony. We’re having cake at my house!”
The small girl slipped out of the front seat, and Caleb stopped his pursuit. He turned back to us and held up his palm. “Hold your fire. The enemy is retreating.” The Prius honked a long honk for Caleb’s benefit and drove away. He walked back while itching his ear and wearing an ornery look on his face.
Deliah showed Shelly her necklace as they tailed Caleb. When they were in earshot, I heard Shelly tell Deliah, “My sister won’t get out of the car. She still looks hideous.”
“I got wings. See?” My sister showed the girls the plastic airline pin on her coat. I was pretty sure she thought Shelly was her age since they were the same height.
Deliah bent down to speak to Brianna. “I’m Deliah. Her name’s Shelly. She’s my best friend from here. You’re Avery’s sister? Man, she looks just like you.”
Brianna pointed to my mother who was kissing Emmie’s face. “I have a new My Little Pony. Wanna see it?”
My father passed the girls as they walked away holding onto Brianna’s hands.
“Funny seeing you here, Avery Norah.” He pulled me into a side hug and rubbed his beard on my cheek. “I’m glad to see your arm is healed.”
“This isn’t funny at all, Dad.” I wanted to stomp my feet and run away.
“Mr. Ross. Welcome, sir,” Gabe said as he shook his hand. “This is my brother, Caleb.”
“Good to see you, Gabe. I hear you’ve had a remarkable few weeks. I’d like it if we could catch up later.” Then he nodded at Caleb. “Sean Ross, Avery’s dad. I must say, your reputation precedes you, Caleb Halden.” He extended a hand and they shook.
“Pleased to meet ya,” Caleb replied. He turned to me and winked. Then he scowled as he scratched his wrist.
“Joel tells me you’re both working for the enterprise. That makes us colleagues. I’m scheduled as lead RF engineer on an exploration team next week.”
Gabe’s eyes widened. “You’re the guy Lane hired from New York? From Radar Valley?”
“You all knew?” I blurted at Gabe. “You knew he was moving out here?”
Gabe twisted his frown. “I didn’t know it was your dad, Av’ry.”
“Your aunt and your mother have been conspiring to get me to move out here since before the baby was born. Valerie wants to be involved in her sister’s life. My job’s been hanging in the balance long enough. Things just came together.” He rubbed his hands back and forth and grinned.
“Mr. Halden didn’t set this up. You just want to keep an eye on me.”
My father’s shoulders rose and then he let out a big sigh. “The job posted and I was qualified. Don’t be upset. Your sis misses you. We all miss you.”
I stared at Gabe’s hazel eyes, and all I could think about was my freedom. It was about to be snuffed out. There was no way I was going to live in the trailer under their noses. I couldn’t believe my mother had a plan all along. No wonder they let me move out. No wonder I didn’t get the fight I expected.
“Since when do you wear a suit or have a beard? Mom said she’d never let you grow one.”
“I can’t argue with you there. I never had an occasion to wear a cowboy hat either. I think it’s about time.” He tipped his chin and rubbed his sideburns with pride. “I also said I’d never move us to the Midwest—and what do you know—here we are.”
* * *
“How long will it take you to get ready?” Gabe leaned over me and tickled my neck with his nose. He snuck a hand under the covers and tried to find the hem of my shirt, but it was trapped underneath me.
I rolled into him and stretched. He was fully dressed, and his face was cold. “It’s early. Why are you up?”
“I got something to show you. Git up. Find your earmuffs.”
It took me all of three seconds to pull on my jeans and gobble half of a Pop-Tart. I dragged my feet all the way to the driveway.
“Why do you have a pink car seat in your truck?” I asked.
“They said I needed it.”
I gave him a confused look and then Meggie’s front door slammed.
“Avy!” My sister skipped across the lawn and slipped in the snow at the edge of the driveway. Gabe ran over and scooped her up with one arm. She wrapped her hands around his neck and whimpered into his collar while my mother watched in her bathrobe from Meggie’s new wraparound porch.
“Sean and Valerie didn’t object when I asked if I could take her with me.”
“She gets up before the crack of dawn. They give her away pretty easy these days. You’ll see why.”
I took her from his arms and helped her climb into the seat. I buckled her in and frowned at Gabe.
“Since when are you on a first name basis with my parents?”
I watched him tip his hat at my mother as he circled the hood.
“Where are you taking us?”
“To get ice cream!” Brianna yelled into my ear, fully recovered from her tumble.
I squinted across the cab as Gabe climbed in.
He grunted. “I don’t think your ma would like that very much. How about we stop for eggs after we get where we’re going?”
She shook her head. “Not hardboiled eggs. They’re yucky.”
“I second that,” I said.
Gabe drove out of Meggie’s road and turned onto the highway in the opposite direction of town. “Hold on,” he said as he gunned it past a water tanker just in time to slip back into the lane before an oncoming cement mixer creamed us.
“Vroom,” said Brianna. She clapped her mittens. “Go fast!”
“No,” I scolded. “Don’t encourage him.”
“Spoilsport,” he said. “I like your sister. She’s got the need for speed, Av’ry.”
“Whatever happened to your court appearance and speeding tickets? Isn’t there a bench warrant issued if you don’t show up or pay?”
He pulled a pack of Skittles out of his jacket and poured them into his mouth.
Brianna leaned forward and held out her mitten. “I want candy. I want candy.”
“Gabe, put them away,” I said. “Not before breakfast, Banana. We’d have to peel you off the walls.”
“Pweeze? Oh pweeze!” she cried.
“You didn’t answer me about the speeding tickets.” I ignored my sister’s begging. If he spent enough time with her, he’d learn not to show her anything remotely resembling candy.
“It’s taken care of. All charges are dropped. Tickets paid.”
“Who did that?”
Brianna began kicking her feet up and down because we weren’t paying attention to her whining.
“Papers are in the glove box,” he drawled.
I dodged my sister’s swinging boots and found the envelope. “No way. Judson did this?”
Gabe shrugged. “Somebody probably owed him a favor.”
“You should try to find him and thank him. That was a lot of money, Gabe. You could have done hard time.”
&n
bsp; “Nah,” he grumbled almost inaudibly.
I wasn’t going to give up on Judson. Gabe needed closure.
“I got new bajamas!” Brianna announced randomly. I didn’t need to ask her if they were flannel and plaid.
“Put this on,” Gabe said as he flung a bandana into my lap.
“Uh no.” I tossed it on his lap.
“I promise you won’t be disappointed. Don’t be a pain.”
I scoffed and took the blindfold back. “I’m not a pain and I’m not wearing that.”
“You’re stubborn. Just put the goddang thing on.”
Brianna tried to pull the blindfold off my face for the last stretch of the drive. Gabe parked the truck and killed the engine. I couldn’t hear anything outside when he opened the door.
“I’m taking her out. Then I’ll get you,” he told me.
“Fine, I’ll just sit here. This is dumb.”
“Dumb is a bad word, Avy,” said Brianna.
Gabe laughed. “You better watch that filthy mouth. She’ll go home and tattle on you.”
I listened while Gabe ordered her to stay put. He promised her something. I couldn’t hear what it was.
“Easy,” he said as my boot slipped on the edge of the door. He grabbed my hips when my feet hit the ground. Then he held me against the door with his entire body.
“Is she—” I was about to ask if my sister was sticking her fingers in the tailpipe or crawling under the truck, when he rushed his lips into mine and surprised me with a full on, aggressive kiss.
I froze while he ran his hands into my hair and whispered, “I like this on you.” I tried to kick his leg, and he stepped back, leaving the tang of Skittles on my tongue. “Take Av’ry’s hand, and y’all follow me.”
A fuzzy mitten grabbed ahold of me and led me through the snow. I kept my mouth shut. It would be over soon enough.
“Okay stop,” Gabe said after we walked a ways. Then I heard him whisper something to Brianna, and she took off squealing.
“What did you say to her? Don’t let her run too far. You’ll never catch her.”
“Relax. She’s not going anywhere.”
“Avy! Avy! See them?”
“Nope. I can’t see anything.”
Gabe stood behind me and lifted the bandana off my head. He held his hand in front of my eyes and set his lips on my ear.
“I never turn down a dare,” he drawled in a sultry voice as he removed his hand.
The first thing I spotted was a blur of pink running circles in the snow. Then I realized what she was running around.
“Avy! Look at them! Look!” Brianna continued to run and squeal.
I twisted my neck and tried to get a glimpse of Gabe’s face. He held onto my jeans and forced me to look forward.
“When did you do this? They’re hilarious,” I said as I studied the pair of giant snowmen. The tall one was wearing a cowboy hat. A blowup guitar was strapped to his middle section.
“Me and Deliah built them. I thought your sis would get a kick out of it.”
Brianna began undressing the snowwoman and playing with her buttons.
“They’re incredible. We should take a photo.” I flashed my gaze around. “Wait, where are we? Is this your mother’s land?”
He released my belt loops and let me spin around to take in the entire, staggering picture.
“I had no idea it would be this hilly. What is that?” I waved to a structure that was partially hidden down the hill.
“It’s the Remington’s ranch. Lane says my mom grew up here.”
“What are you going to do with it?”
He grabbed my hand and wove his fingers through mine. “Fix it up and live in it.”
My entire body itched with anticipation. “With me?” I bounced on my toes, hoping he would give me the answer I wanted.
“Yeah with you. Lane says I’m sitting on a goldmine. You’re gonna want to start paying attention when I talk about oil.”
“Is it safe to explore? It looks like it’s been there for a hundred years.”
His eyes crinkled and he glared at my little sister. “Any shot she’ll fall asleep in the truck?”
“Not a chance,” I answered. “She doesn’t come with a pause button either.”
“Avy!” Brianna swung a shovel in the air. Gabe let go, and I took off in her direction.
“Put that down! You’ll hurt yourself.” I tripped as I was about to grab the weapon.
Gabe snatched it out of her hand before she could amputate my legs or smash a snowman. She climbed onto my stomach and bounced.
“I think Av’ry needs a snow blanket to keep her warm. She’s in shock.”
I was in shock. I was lying in the middle of Gabe’s homestead in North Dakota—with my sister of all people. Gabe owned a ranch. We were going to make it our home.
Brianna climbed off of me and jumped up and down. “Hide Avy like daddy hided me in the sand.”
“No, please don’t,” I said as I tried to roll over and get away. “Haldens with shovels are bad news.”
Gabe slid on top of me and straddled my waist so I couldn’t move. He grabbed my sister’s hand. “How about you make your sister a snow hat too?”
She grinned wide.
“No, Brianna!” I screamed.
When Gabe released her hand, she scooped up a handful of snow and giggled. “Make her a hat and then give her a beard like your daddy.”
“Gabe, stop it!” I struggled, but his knees were holding down my arms.
My sister dumped the snow in my eyes and laughed. Everything was funny to her. Gabe held me tight between his legs. My jeans were absorbing the snow.
“Let me go. I’ll do anything you ask,” I said as I attempted to catch my breath.
He lifted the side of his lip into his cheek and angled my face. He was enjoying himself, while I was enjoying his rare mood. “Are we back to playing games again? How about a dare?”
“Kissy face, kissy face,” Brianna sung as she crouched beside me and stuck her face in Gabe’s. She saw exactly what I saw. Gabriel Halden was downright irresistible. She had good taste for a preschooler.
He stood up and offered me a hand when Brianna took off down the sloped landscape like a bolt of lightning. I heard her yell, “Cowboy! Another one!”
The cowboy snowman was supposed to be Gabe. I thought she had figured that out. Maybe there were more snowmen. “Wait for me!”
Gabe brushed off the snow in my hair and chuckled. “Do I want to know what happens if you give her candy?”
“Cowboy!” Brianna hollered louder as if I didn’t hear her the first time. I wiped off my wet pants and spotted her. She pointed down the incline and fell on her butt.
I stepped up to Gabe and glanced at his profile. He was watching the horizon with intensity. A figure walked out from under the porch of the log cabin. He was wearing a cowboy hat.
“Cowboy man! See?” Brianna rolled on her stomach and looked up at me with rosy cheeks.
“Is that Judson? What is going on?”
Gabe tilted his hat as if he was expecting him to materialize on the side of the hill.
I grabbed his sleeve. “Your…uncle…he’s back?”
“My uncle? The one who owns an international oil conglomerate?”
My eyes spread wide. I stepped away from him and shook my head in disbelief that he had come to terms with accepting his fate. “You knew Judson came back?”
Brianna rolled over in the snow and began making snow angels and singing at the top of her lungs.
“She’s got the right idea, kissy face,” Gabe said as he grabbed my hand and pulled me back into the snow. I fell on top of him. He wrapped his hands around my wet jeans. “Enough of the analyzing, okay? He’s always gonna be Uncle Dud. We agreed.”
“So you knew he was here?”
“Yeah, I knew he was here. He brought me out to see the place. He wants to help us fix it up. We all spread my ma’s ashes out here yesterday. Except Caleb didn’t. He got t
he chickenpox. Probably from swapping spit with you know who.”
I was rendered speechless—and then a snowball hit me in the neck and landed on Gabe.
“That’s not nice,” he uttered after he spit the snow out of his mouth.
I turned my head to see Brianna cover her eyes and cry into her mittens as if she knew we were going to retaliate.
“May I have the pleasure?” he asked sneakily into my lips and kissed me once more.
I rolled off of him and grinned. “Be my guest,” I whispered as Judson’s face came into view above us.
“Who’s the little pipsqueak, lover boy?”
“She’s Av’ry’s sister,” Gabe said. “Did you find the key?”
“Nope, but I plan to deliver.” He tipped his hat and grinned. “Right now I’m fixin’ to start an egg eating contest. Who’s in?”
Brianna crawled over to me as fast as she could. She hid her face bashfully from the towering cowboy man. “Eggs are yucky.”
Judson knelt in the snow and tapped her shoulder to get her to look up. “Well howdy, partner. I’ll bet you a stack of chocolate chip pancakes we can eat these bandits under the table.”
He said the magic words. Brianna made a growling sound in her throat and jumped out from behind my back. She hesitated in front of him and then lifted his cowboy hat to get a look at his eyes. “Take me! I’m a hungry monster.”
Judson reached for Brianna’s hand and winked at me. He led her away, but my sister broke out of his grip and skipped toward Gabe’s truck, chanting about eating pancakes with cowboys.
Gabe was spread out in the snow when I turned to give him a hand. He always looked inviting at the most inopportune times.
“Let ’em go ahead. She’ll give him a crash course in parenting. We could use the five extra minutes.”
“Five minutes? For what? To tell me the whole truth? Do you have any more uncles I should know about? Are you hiding any more secrets, Gabe?” I knelt over his face and set my fists on my hips. I grinned at his sly expression.
“Ya never know,” he drawled as he pulled me back into the snow and rolled on top of me. “No better time than now to find out.”
Acknowledgments
Stubborn Truth (The Stubborn Series Book 3) Page 27