Imperfect Magic (Dancing Moon Ranch Book 11)

by Patricia Watters

  Her attention was again drawn to what was happening outside. First to leave the plane was a big black dog, a Rottweiler, that was straining on the end of a leash held by a man wearing jeans and a U.S. Marshal jacket. The marshal gave a command, and after the dog sat, the man spread his arms and attempted to hold back the Hansen family, but when a tall man holding a toddler, accompanied by a woman clutching the hand of a little girl about three, stepped off the plane, the marshal moved aside and let the family close in around them. An older couple was last to leave the plane, and although Julia had never met any of them, she'd learned over the past week that the older man was Billy's father, and his wife was the U.S. Marshal's sister.

  Grace was first to embrace Jeremy and his little son, and as she held them, Julia could feel the relief and love of a mother who'd wondered if she'd ever see her son again, or even meet her grandchildren. Jack wrapped his arms around all three of them, and when he and Grace finally released Jeremy so they could hug Billy and their little granddaughter, Grace was mopping her eyes. The rest of the Hansen clan moved in, some hugging and laughing and swatting each other on the back, others crouching to talk to the little girl or touch the toddler, who had buried his face in his father's chest. The pilot and another marshal emerged from the plane and set numerous totes and bags on the airstrip, and before long, the plane was barreling down the runway and heading for the sky.

  Everyone began grabbing bags, and when the swarm of people started toward the lodge, a rush of adrenaline sent Julia's heart quickening, the first sign of an oncoming panic attack. But the intense urge to flee was suddenly overpowered by another emotion, one so strong she stood immobile as the man in the U.S. Marshals' jacket, waiting for the others to pass, stopped not more than ten feet from where she stood at the window looking out. It was his face that held her captive—the frown lines between his dark brows, the shadow of a day-old mustache that tipped downward at each end, a head of dark, closely-cropped hair and distinct sideburns, a man who looked more like a thug than a marshal.

  In an instant she was back in time, unable to move, buried in debris that trapped her arms, leaving only her head and shoulders free. A U.S. Marshal, hearing her cries for help, rushed in and started digging, bare-handed, into the rubble, but before he could free her, the building began shifting. Still, instead of fleeing when he could, the man hurled himself on top of her as falling debris and structural members closed off their only means of escape, throwing them in to pitch-blackness in a space barely large enough for two people to huddle together. Still, he'd managed to dig her out of the debris, but by then she'd been on the verge of hysteria, certain they were destined to be crushed beneath tons of rubble, so to help keep her calm, the man sat with his arm around her while keeping a steady dialog going, pumping her for answers to questions about herself, not because he was curious, but because he was trying to help her get through the horror.

  Miraculously, she hadn't been seriously hurt, only bruised and scraped, but the thought of being buried alive had taken hold. But sometime during the long terrifying ordeal, he said, "We've been talking for hours and you're just a voice in the dark, so describe yourself. Tell me what you look like."

  "I'm your average blue-eyed blond," she'd replied. "My friends called me Barbie when I was in high school. And you?"

  "I'm Italian. Dark hair, dark eyes. Most people think I'm a mafia hit man."

  She laughed, a light moment during the course of a living nightmare.

  When rescue workers finally dug through the rubble, she had just a short glimpse of the man known only as Mario, before they placed her on a stretcher, and took her away. It was true. He did look like a hit man, though a handsome one, with a face that showed concern, and caring, as he looked down at her. Then he gave her shoulder a little squeeze with a hand scraped and encrusted with dried blood from digging her out of the rubble, and said, "Best of luck to you, Barbie." When he smiled, her world seemed a little brighter, but she had no way of knowing what lay ahead because the reality of what happened had not yet sunk in. She was about to ask him his last name so they could stay connected, since they'd spent several hours together during a time when she was certain she was going to die, but he'd already walked off, and that was the last she'd seen of him. Yet, after two decades, his face was still clear in her mind, but that was the face of a much younger man. The face of the man outside fit her memory in a way, but his face was harder, with lines that said his life had not been so good.

  Telling herself she could handle a crowded room, her desire to know if this was the same man overriding her phobia, she moved to the rear of the great room and sat on a couch near the back door. Her cabin was just across the drive that ran behind the lodge, not more than twenty feet away, an easy exit if she felt a panic attack coming.

  The room soon filled with people, and as she watched the excitement and listened to the enthusiastic chatter, she also watched for the marshal to come in, but he apparently remained outside, or maybe went to his cabin. Grace mentioned that he and the older couple would be staying in two of the cabins. Julia had given it no thought at the time, knowing she'd see little of anyone because she was working on a script for her latest video game, and that would keep her occupied inside her cabin during the week before Christmas and through New Year's, when the lodge would be alive with ranch guests, and she wanted a reason to stay away. After that, the guest ranch part of the operation would close until spring, and she'd be comfortable enough mingling with the Hansen family.

  She glanced out the window and saw snowflakes fluttering in the air. While she was watching the activity surrounding Jeremy and Billy's arrival, the snowflakes had been barely discernable, but now snow was beginning to stick to the trees and ground. It had been overcast all day, and since the ranch sat high above the valley floor, snow on cold damp days was always a possibility. She had no problem with light snow, even up to a few inches, but the thought of snow building brought feelings of being buried…

  She cut off that troubling thought when, in her peripheral vision, she caught sight of someone walking toward her, and saw that it was Maddy Matthias, who'd left her husband's side when he started to entertain the kids with magic tricks.

  "Mind if I join you?" Maddy asked. "I can't get a word in edgewise over there right now, not even with the dog."

  Julia glanced to where the family was crowded around Jeremy and Billy, and several kids were petting the Rottweiler, who seemed contented enough. "Be my guest," she replied. "I'm just staying out of the way. I'll spend some time getting to know Jeremy and Billy after all the excitement has worn off."

  "That could be a long time," Maddy said. "The family has four years of catching up, and everyone wants all the details, especially Mom, so you'll have to pick a number and wait in line."

  "That's okay," Julia replied. "I'm enjoying just watching from a distance."

  "I've been wanting to talk to you since you arrived but you've made yourself scarce," Maddy said. "I have an equine program you might find helpful in dealing with your claustrophobia."

  Julia knew Maddy meant well, but the last thing she wanted was to be singled out as the poor, pathetic, step-kin who couldn't cope. "I'm actually doing okay," she replied. "I've just been busy working on a script I need to get out."

  "Grandma mentioned you're a video game writer," Maddy said. "That must be fun, especially when the games come out and you know you wrote them."

  "It is fun," Julia replied. "The Children's Club series I'm working on has become very popular, and it's in the age range of the kids here, so they might even have some of the games, if they're allowed to have them."

  "They are, but not until they've finished their chores," Maddy said. "Video games are a great tool Dimitri and I plan to use when our time comes."

  Julia found herself looking down at Maddy's tummy, to which Maddy laughed, and said, "Our time isn't coming yet. Dimitri and I are in the process of building a house, but when it's finished, we'll start on our first little illusionist.
"

  Julia laughed. "Maybe after all the excitement of Christmas and New Year's is over, I'll walk up to your building site… and… see… what…" Her voice trailed off when the front door to the lodge opened and the marshal stepped inside. After shutting the door, he stood near the entrance, like he wasn't sure what to do, and Grace and Jack and the rest of the family were so occupied talking to Jeremy and Billy that they were unaware that he was there.

  But Julia was aware. In fact, she couldn't take her eyes off the man, who hadn't glanced her way. Instead he was smiling slightly as he looked at Jeremy and Billy's little girl, Amy, who was being handed a flower Maddy's magician husband had pulled from behind her ear. The marshal's smile softened the frown lines between his brows and lifted the corners of his mouth, making him look younger. Making him look like the face in her memory. Could it be? The odds were astronomical that the same man would turn up at the ranch the very week she arrived...

  "Julia?" Maddy's voice seemed to come from far away.

  Julia blinked rapidly, while trying to remember what they'd been talking about, but it had completely escaped her. The only thing on her mind was the man in her line of vision

  "Do you know him?" Maddy asked.

  "Who?"

  "Mario. The U.S. Marshal."

  "Mario?" Julia's heart quickened, but for a very different reason than before.

  "Mario Moretti," Maddy said. "You were staring at him and I was wondering why."

  Julia gave a nervous chuckle. "I guess he caught my attention because he doesn't exactly look like what I would expect a U.S. Marshal to look like."

  Maddy laughed. "Actually he looks like he belongs on the other side of the law, like maybe behind bars. In the past he stopped in on occasion to remind us he was still in charge. He's really kind of a jerk though, but Jeremy and Billy like him and insisted he stay through Christmas, since he has no family except his sister, who's also staying, so he must have a good side."

  Julia found herself again staring at the man while wondering if, after all those years, it could possibly be the only man she could imagine letting into her small, insular world. At least that was the way she'd felt over the years. On seeing him now, if it was the same Mario, she wouldn't want him to know what an emotional cripple she'd become. It was pathetic and humiliating.

  She was curious, though, about what Maddy just said, because it didn't fit the Mario who had literally helped her hold onto her sanity during a time when she'd felt on the verge of snapping. "In what way is he a jerk?" she asked.

  Maddy shrugged. "He's pretty much a macho, male, take-control, U.S. Marshal, maybe not so much with my brothers, but at times he treated me like I was in middle school and he was the principal. I really didn't appreciate it."

  "I assume you're talking about when you went to Las Vegas," Julia said, having heard about the fiasco from her grandfather.

  Maddy let out an unladylike snort that came out louder than she expected, Julia realized, when Maddy clamped her hand over her mouth, but it had the effect of turning Mario's head toward them, and when he looked their way, he stared at Julia, so long in fact, she wondered if he recognized her, if he was the same Mario.

  Trapped in his gaze, she couldn't look away, and when his frown deepened, and his eyes became intense—an odd reaction coming from a perfect stranger—she was all but certain that he was her Mario. The chain of reactions she feared most, those that came on the cusp of a panic attack, gripped her. Knowing she had to leave at once, she said in an anxious voice, "I've got to go," then left abruptly by the back door, shutting it quickly behind.

  Once outside she took several long draws of the brisk December air, and on exhaling, saw her breath wafting in misty puffs, a reminder that the vise gripping her chest was letting up. She braced her back on the building and waited for things to settle.

  Several minutes later, when she felt as if she finally had some control, she turned and peered through the window. Mario was no longer there, and when she scanned the people in the room, she saw no sign of him…

  "Julia?"

  The sound of a male voice that had, for years, been only in her memory, brought Julia turning around, and for the moment she was too stunned to speak, so she simply looked at him and nodded. He was older, in his mid-forties now, but the face she remembered over the years was still there, and still concerned, or maybe more perplexed than concerned.

  "I wasn't sure it was you," Mario said. "Why did you rush out?"

  Julia struggled to find a plausible reason for her abrupt exit, while trying to juggle a whole range of reactions similar to those triggered by her claustrophobia, but which she knew were not caused by her phobia this time, but because she was in the presence of a man who had hovered in her memory for twenty years. "I… it was getting… noisy."

  Mario looked at her oddly, like he was mulling something over, then he said in a discerning voice, "You're Howard Barker's granddaughter."

  "How did you know?" Julia asked.

  "All communication between Jeremy and his family comes through me, and the name, Julia, caught my attention," Mario replied. "But you have your grandfather's last name. When we were trapped, you were a couple of months away from getting married."

  Julia was distracted momentarily by the fact that Mario had remembered her name. She always assumed she'd just been a woman in the rubble to him, while he had been tantamount to her guardian angel, someone who arrived on the scene when she was buried alive and teetering on the brink of death, and would be with her until she took her last breath, if it had come to that. There had even been times, over the years, when she wondered if he had been a real guardian angel. Everything happened the way people described, and once she was out of danger, he left.

  Realizing he was waiting for her to fill in the details, she said, "The… wedding plans fell through and I never married."

  "Anyone?" The perpetual frown between Mario's brows deepened.

  "I… got involved with other things, so no, I never married anyone."

  "Are you okay then?"

  "What do you mean?"

  "After the bombing. Have things been okay?"

  "Oh, yes. I'm fine," Julia lied, but she didn't want Mario to know. He was a tower of strength. She was like a crushed flower.

  "That's good," Mario said. "Some of the other survivors didn't come out of it so well."

  "And you?" Julia asked. "Have things gone well for you after that?"

  Mario let out a short, ironic laugh. "I've been in worse situations. They come with the job."

  "I don't think I'd like that job very well," Julia said.

  "It has its shortcomings," Mario replied, "but I stay with it because it puts a lot of wiseguys behind bars, and sometimes the rats I protect turn their lives around. What about you? When I asked what you wanted to do with your life, you said you and your fiancé were in the process of starting a river rafting business. Did you?"

  Again, Julia was surprised he'd remembered what she'd told him, but she didn't want to talk about her shattered dream. All the hopes she once had, vanished when a bomb blew out the side of a building. Even the man she loved vanished in a sense, because he couldn't cope with her fears and phobias after that. "It was an impractical dream," she said, and hoped she sounded sincere. But the man who'd been part of her dream had filled the other half of their dream with another woman. Rogue River Rats was a successful business, which it would not have been if Cole had waited for her to come out of her shell, because he'd still be waiting.

  "Maybe we could spend some time together while I'm here," Mario said." You told me you liked visiting your grandfather when you were growing up because he kept a horse for you on his ranch, so maybe tomorrow we could ride in the mountains."

  Julia hadn't realized how much she'd blocked out of her mind since those long, pitch-black hours, nor did she remember telling Mario about spending time at her grandparent's ranch. In fact, she was surprised Mario remembered anything she'd told him on the one day in their lives
that could well have been their last. She also knew she couldn't venture away from the cabin with him or anyone else, not on foot, and not on horseback. "I haven't ridden in years," she said, "but I'm surprised you can still ride. I remember you telling me you lived on a ranch when you were a teen, but you've been a marshal for years. When was the last time you rode?"

  "About two days ago," Mario replied. "I had to help Jeremy repair fences taken down by a snowstorm. So, are we on for riding in the mountains tomorrow?"

  "I still can't. It's my… umm… back," Julia said. "It…. sometimes gives me trouble." She hated lying, but it was just a small lie to keep Mario from knowing the truth, that by venturing away from her place of security, any number of things could start a chain of reactions that were not only embarrassing and humiliating, but were hard to explain, even to herself.

  Mario looked at her soberly, like he wasn't buying what she was telling him, then he shrugged, and said, "It's probably better that I don't go riding either. I have paperwork to do, and I need to get started. Good seeing you again." Saying nothing more, he turned and walked off, and Julia realized he'd misconstrued everything she'd said as giving him the brush-off. The thought that he had just walked out of her life, for the second time, troubled her deeply.

  CHAPTER 2

  His elbow propped on the kitchen table, his chin braced against the heel of his hand, Mario stared out the window of the cabin Roberta and Bill were staying in, his gaze on the snow drifting past the window, his mind focused on his encounter with Julia Barker the day before. Seeing her caught him off guard, so much so that for several seconds he'd been blindsided by the sight of her. If he'd simply seen her sitting and talking to Maddy, he would have been reminded of a woman whose face had haunted him for years, but he wouldn't have known it was the same woman. But when she looked intently at him and held his gaze, he knew it was Julia…