by Vicki Tharp
Us. We. Holy shit. Look at me lumping myself in with them. Considering myself a part of this hodgepodge family. And yeah, I think that was me picking up one of the shards of my soul and sticking firmly back in place. Huh. What do you know about that?
The lump formed in my throat and tears pricked like needles behind my eyeballs. I slumped into the vacant chair beside Hank. He’d already piled my plate high with all my favorites: bacon, eggs and the fluffy biscuits of Lottie’s that butter dreamed of being spread on. I grunted my thanks to Hank and tucked into my breakfast. I was afraid if I looked around at the faces of the people I was beginning to think of as family, I would lose it.
I wasn’t about to let anyone see me do that.
My stomach growled as I filled it. The bacon salty in my mouth, the eggs, light and fluffy as clouds. The warm maple syrup I poured on my flapjacks transported me back to the crisp, clean air of Vermont in the fall that I could almost see the bright orange, yellow, and fiery red leaves falling. People spoke around me but they weren’t talking to me so I didn’t pay much attention. Chairs scraped on the floor as people left. By the time I came up for air, only Hank, Link, and Dale remained at the table. Jenna and Lottie had already cleared the dirty plates and were in the process of putting away the leftovers.
Dale tipped his coffee cup back and tossed the last swallow into the back of his throat. He grimaced. Lottie’s coffee was the best I’d ever swallowed so I knew his problem wasn’t with the coffee. “Link, I’d appreciate it if you’d supervise the boys. I don’t want anyone getting hurt bringing the rest of the barn down.”
Across from me, Link stiffened.
“Dale,” Lottie said, her words heavy with reproach. “Link is like family.”
The stern gaze Dale sent his wife brokered no argument. “I need him with the boys. It’s for the best. You understand, right, Link?”
We were having a meeting before the rest of us went to work. A type of family meeting that I’m certain Link had been privy to in all the years before. He glanced at me and I kicked Hank under the table when he put his arm across the back of my chair, all but daring Link to say something about me staying for the meeting while Link was asked to leave.
Link schooled his expression, but he couldn’t stop the heat of anger that ran up his neck and infused his face. He nodded once to Dale, the gesture stiff as if he was pulling tightly on the reins of his control. “Yeah, Dale. I get it. Loud and clear.”
His chair legs gouged against the floor, sending goose bumps rushing up my flesh. Link skirted the table and grabbed his hat from the rack by the door. He stuffed it on his head, met Lottie’s troubled gaze, and said, “Lottie,” before striding out the door.
The screen door slapped back against the doorframe and Hank released a lungful of air.
Dale looked like he’d kicked his favorite puppy. “Christ,” he ground out, rubbing his hands down his face. “This is bullshit. Lottie, tell Link to get his ass back in here.”
“Hold on a minute,” Hank interjected. Jenna sat with her arms wrapped around her middle, then swiped at the tears rolling down her cheeks. Link had worked on the ranch her entire life. She’d told me he was like an uncle to her. As financially devastating as the arson and other problems at the ranch were, the emotional toll it was taking on this family was far worse. “This is hard. I know. What matters is this family. This ranch. Nothing else.”
Lottie came around the table, taking Link’s abandoned seat and softly scooting it back in. “Link is family. He’s lived here his entire life. He loves this ranch as much as any of us—”
“That may be so, sweetheart.” Dale rubbed his calloused thumb across the translucent skin on the back of Lottie’s hand. “Of all the people on this ranch, his name was the only one on that list. I hope more than anything it means nothing. But right now, we can’t take that chance.”
“Dismissing him like he was just another ranch hand hurt him more than he’d ever admit. It’s not right. He’s a good man.” Lottie’s voice cracked at the end.
“When this is all over, if I’m wrong, I’ll be the first to try to make it up to him if he’ll let me.”
Lottie nodded once, then removed the list from the back pocket of her jeans and smoothed it out on the table. I got out the copy Hank and I’d taken to the rodeo the night before and we compared names we’d crossed off. Dale and Lottie had placed a few discreet calls to some of the people on the list and ruled them out as likely suspects. When we were finished, Jenna combined our lists and jotted down the people we couldn’t easily dismiss.
Jenna chewed on the end of the pencil as she double-checked her work. She tucked a foot onto her seat and rested her chin on her knee. “Okay, in no particular order, of the twenty names Pearl gave us, we’ve narrowed it down to seven. If Pearl hadn’t forgotten anyone and if this list is a valid lead to begin with,” Jenna qualified. “The four Talbot brothers. No surprise there. Sheriff Tate. Miss Doris and Link.”
“Who’s Doris?” I asked.
“Link’s wife. Soon to be ex,” Hank allowed.
“What is the likelihood she’s involved?” I asked
Dale sat back and pinched the bridge of his nose as if staving off a migraine. “About as much as anyone on that list, I guess. None of it makes sense. Even the Talbots. Those boys couldn’t bait a mouse trap without someone pulling the strings.”
Lottie shook her head. “No way is Doris involved.”
“She hated it here,” Jenna said. “She pretended she didn’t, but one time, when I was helping her weed her garden, she said something to that effect. That she never would have married Link if she’d known she’d still be living on someone else’s property after twenty years of marriage.”
Lottie grunted as if kicked in the gut. “I never knew.”
“Not a solid motive. She’s finally free of this place. So why would she cause us trouble?” Hank said. “If what Jenna says is true, I’d think she’d happily stay away.”
Hank’s hand rested lightly on the back of my chair, his thumb caressing the faint bite mark on my neck I’d noticed in the mirror after my shower. He was intent on the conversation, but a part of him seemed to be thinking back to the cabin, to his teeth on my flesh. His leg was crossed under the table, his knee resting against mine. I shifted my hand to cover his knee. His thumb at my neck stilled, but that was the only outward indication he’d noticed my hand on him. Jenna glanced in our direction with a faint smile. Apparently, she’d noticed. Well…dang.
“What about Link?” I asked because clearly no one wanted to be the first to go there.
“Nope, never.” Lottie shook her head.
“Nuh-uh,” Jenna said at the same time.
Hank shrugged. Dale pursed his lips but didn’t say anything.
In all honesty, Link was the first on my list. Not because he doesn’t like me, but because of all the people on the ranch, he’d have the best working knowledge of the layout of the land and of what we were going to do, where we were going to be, and how we were going to do it.
I knew he was going through a rough patch with his mother dying and his wife leaving him, and maybe that accounted for his grumpiness and all the stern disapproving looks. Everyone else at the table knew him better than I did, so I’d defer to them on that one, but not as far as crossing him off the mental list in my mind.
I moved to the last name on the list. “What about the sheriff?”
“What about the sheriff?” Sheriff Tate said, as he opened the screen door and stepped into the kitchen. Jenna choked on a sip of coffee.
Lottie patted her on the back as if trying to knock the air back into her. “Won’t you join us for coffee? We were finishing a family meeting.”
I stiffened when the sheriff’s eyes darted to me at the mention of family. Hank must have seen it too because he leaned forward and whispered in my ear, “Whatever he’s thinking doesn’t matter.”r />
The sheriff pasted on a stiff smile and said, “Don’t mind if I do, ma’am.”
While his back was turned, Jenna quietly palmed the lists and pocketed them. I glanced at Hank, Dale, Lottie, and Jenna. We were all concerned with how much the sheriff had overheard of our conversation. Like high school when the kid everyone had been talking about walks into the room and everyone falls deathly silent. Except this time, there was potentially more at stake than someone’s hurt feelings.
“What can I do for you, Tate?” Dale had asked before the silence grew too awkward.
Instead of taking a seat at the table, the sheriff leaned back against the kitchen counter and announced, “More of your cattle showed up at auction.”
“Well, I’ll be damned,” Dale said.
“Hallelujah.” Lottie’s face flooded with relief. “How many?”
“Fifteen.”
Hank scooted his chair around to see the sheriff better. I did the same. “What do we have to do to get ’em back?”
“Take whatever records you have down to the auction house. From the sounds of it, this bunch didn’t even bother to remove your ear tags. The local sheriff will release them to you with your proof of ownership and then you can either bring them back or let them go through the sale.”
Hope filled Lottie’s eyes that maybe there was a light at the end of the tunnel of this nightmare. She exchanged a look with Dale. “With the price of cattle now…”
“It would be best to sell them,” Dale nodded. “Where’re they located?”
“A small auction house outside of Laramie.”
Out of the corner of my eye, Jenna sat up straight. “I’ll go.”
When Hank opened his mouth to argue, she wouldn’t let him get a word in. “Dad,” she added for the impact she knew it would have on him. Smart kid. I gave her props for that. “You know I want to take on more responsibility around here. With all the focus being on clearing off the barn right now, this is something I can do to help without you worrying about me getting hurt.”
She’d thrown that getting-hurt part in, playing on Hank’s aversion to having her help with the clearing. He shook his head, a half-smile toying with his mouth. He knew she was playing him too, but she had a valid point.
There was something else beneath her eagerness that went beyond wanting the responsibility that was lost on Hank and the others and I wondered what she was up to.
“She’s got you there,” Lottie added in support. Hank narrowed his eyes at Lottie as if telling her to mind her own business, but the glower lacked any real heat.
Hank glanced at Dale, “You gonna help me out here?”
Dale shook his head, but by the grin on his face, he was enjoying Hank’s predicament. Hank dragged a hand down his face, the scrape of whiskers on his skin loud in the silence of the kitchen. “Fine,” he said at last though the reservation rang clear in his voice. “But you take Mac with you. And a map.”
Jenna pursed her lips in frustration. “I know how to get to Laramie.”
“Take it or leave it.” There was no compromise in Hank’s voice.
“You’ll go with me?” Jenna asked me. It made me feel good that she seemed excited that I was going with her, instead of frustrated with having to take along a chaperone. Besides, my body was finally starting to recover enough that I didn’t feel like a semi-truck had flattened me, so a day trip sounded like a luxury compared with what Hank, Dale, and the rest of the hands had in store for them today.
“Sure thing. Ready whenever you are.”
She hopped up from the table, her excitement almost palpable. “I’ll grab the log books for the identifications and then we can go.”
Hank leaned in and kissed me on the lips. He was in and out before I knew what hit me, but you’d have thought he’d gotten down on one knee and declared his undying love by the silence that invaded the room like a living, breathing creature.
This house belonged to the parents of the mother of his child. Though I knew Hank and Jenna’s mother were no longer together and that even Dale and Lottie had a spotty relationship with their daughter, it couldn’t have been easy to see him kissing another woman in their kitchen.
He raised a brow at Dale, but the patriarch remained silent. Dale’s hard expression was enigmatic. Lottie stared at her clasped hands in her lap. While we weren’t exactly hiding our budding relationship, which would be hard to do after he’d dragged me down in front of God and everyone at the rodeo last night, it didn’t feel quite right to flaunt it in front of Hank’s former in-laws. I guess flaunt wasn’t really the right word because I didn’t feel like he was trying to rub their noses in it. Maybe it was more of a declaration without having to have that awkward conversation.
The sheriff claimed Jenna’s abandoned seat at the table, shifting the focus away from us—thank you, God—and filled us in on the rest of the investigation. The conversation was short because there was little information that was new. He was still waiting for the report from the arson investigation. The men who’d brought the cattle to the auction sounded unlikely to be the ones who’d stolen themfrom what the sheriff in Laramie was able to gather, but Sheriff Tate had hopes the men might lead them to who had.
Jenna strolled through the kitchen, a huge smile on her face, the logbook and map tucked under one arm. I stood to join her and Hank dug his truck keys out of his pocket and tossed them to her. “Take my truck. I don’t trust that rattle trap of yours to get you two there and back.”
* * * *
At the last minute, Dale decided he wanted Jenna to bring the short stock trailer in case she found a saddle horse or two at the auction to replace the ones we’d lost. When she’d finished connecting the trailer, Hank walked out to us. Dale and Lottie were still inside with the sheriff and Jenna darted off, leaving us alone so she could say her goodbyes to Quinn. I climbed out of the driver’s side door and leaned against the front fender. Hank dragged me around to the other side of the truck, putting it between us and anyone who might see.
I still couldn’t believe Hank had sold his other truck to give Dale the money—despite the fact Hank had insisted it reminded him too much of his injury—but then again I shouldn’t have. The more I grew to know this man, the more I understood how giving he was, how willing he was to sacrifice for the greater good. For the people he loved. It had also became clear to me that while he’d left his daughter with her grandparents to work and ride the circuit, I didn’t believe for one minute he’d abandoned her like her mother had.
No, he’d left to do his best to provide for her, to give her the best life he could give her. By the haunted gaze in his eyes as he watched her walk over to Quinn to tell him goodbye, that as hard as it was for Jenna to grow up most of her life without her father around every day, the sacrifice had been twice as hard on Hank.
Hank came up to me and gently knocked my foot sideways with his boot so he could straddle my leg and move in close. He rubbed the knuckles of one hand down my cheek then cupped his fingers behind my neck and bent his head to touch his lips to mine. His lips were firm yet smooth and when I expected him to pull back, he tilted his head and deepened the kiss, running his tongue over the seam of my lips asking my permission to let him in.
Holy hell. All I wanted to do was oblige.
I opened for him and his tongue dove in, glad no one could see us yet at the same time I was tired of caring who I was with, who saw me with who. Hank had been right, in his world—my world now, the one I had spent part of my life defending—it was no one’s business but our own who we became involved with.
Bees buzzed in my belly, not in the oh-shit-my-life-is-over kind of way I’d gotten used to, and more in the I’m-gonna-die-if-he-doesn’t-put-his-hands-on-me kind of way. It had been a long time since I’d been with a man. Really long. Monks-would-pity-me long. As much as I wanted this man, more than my misspent libido urged me on.
r /> Hank broke the kiss and rested his forehead on mine. His fingers linked behind my neck, his thumbs tracing a path from the edge of my jawline to the pounding pulse at the base of my neck and back again. It was a very vulnerable position for me, and I had to remind myself this man would never hurt me. His chest expanded rapidly with each breath, matching my own. “Jesus Christ, Army. What you do to me…”
Explanation proved unnecessary. With his legs straddling one of mine, the proof of what I did to him was a hard truth pressed up against me. “Tonight,” he said with utter conviction, his pupils dilating, confirming where his mind wandered.
“Yeah, I’ve heard that before, Cowboy.” I played the long-suffering woman.
He nipped my bottom lip playfully. “Oh, what I wanna do with that smart mouth of yours. I’m gonna—”
The gate to one of the paddocks slammed and Hank stepped back.
Gonna what? Gonna what? I leaned down and glanced through the trucks window as Jenna started walking our way. She had the shittiest timing. Like pulling the trigger as your CO orders “Don’t shoot” shitty.
“Tonight,” he mouthed. I’d be wondering all day what he was “gonna” do to me when he finally had me alone.
It was going to be a hellaciously long day.
My heart stutter-stepped, like tripping on a crack in the sidewalk and the next step, the next beat, slammed down harder than it should.
To catch yourself before you fall.
Is that what you are doing, Mac? Falling for this incredible man?
Hank and I came back around to the driver’s side as Jenna opened the passenger door, stood on the running board and stared at me over the roof of the truck. “You coming?”
I opened the driver’s door in answer and glanced back at Hank.
A smile on his lips as he leaned in and whispered in my ear. “Not yet. But you will.” A flush raced up my neck and settled high on my cheekbones. If I could’ve harnessed the heat, I could’ve powered a small town for a week.
He held the truck door open for me to climb in, then closed the door behind me. Instead of heading off to the barn where the rest of the guys were busy with the backhoe and front-end loader, he stood there as I backed his truck and trailer up and headed down the driveway. I watched him in my side mirror as he got smaller and smaller etching the image of him—standing there in the driveway, hip shot, thumbs tucked into the corner of his front pockets, looking seven kinds of sexy—into my mind.