He probably should have waited to buy breakfast here at the airport. As he now saw, he could have spent time with more pleasant company than his own.
He slid his overnight bag beneath a plastic table with enough chairs attached to make a quad.
“Mitch! Look!” Trey exclaimed, grinning. He was playing with a couple of the toy ponies he’d gotten as birthday gifts. “Little horses, like Robbie’s!”
He grinned back at the kid and reached across the tabletop to give him a high five. Then he looked over at Andi, who sat staring at the paper-wrapped sandwich in front of her.
“Is this seat taken?” Not waiting for a reply, he planted his rear in the seat beside hers. His left knee twinged from the punishing workout he’d put himself through that morning. A small twinge, and he’d felt no backlash from it till now. A good sign of progress.
Too bad he hadn’t had such luck with Andi.
His right thigh brushed her leg, reminding him of all he had missed. “I see you made it here on time. No sleeping in after a night of girl talk?”
“Who said my friend was female?”
“Very funny.” This time, his grin felt forced.
After that Dear John note of hers, this lighthearted exchange sounded unreal.
She was putting up a front for the sake of the kids, especially her son, who was old enough to pick up on their words along with tone and facial expressions. He didn’t blame her for that. It was the same reason he hadn’t pushed her for answers the second he’d taken his seat. That, and the fact that she would just refuse to reply, leaving him unsatisfied...again.
“Jed mentioned you’d initially planned to stay with your best friend, the kids’ babysitter...Cara.”
“Grandpa has a lot to answer for,” she mumbled.
“He also has a lot of answers. Which is more than I can say.” He lowered his voice. “You planning on telling me why you left me high and dry and damned frustrated last night?”
Silently, she focused on the sandwich in front of her. He had called it right. He would have to approach her from another angle. “We had use of the rental all day. I’d have gone with you to pick up the kids.”
“That’s okay. I wanted to spend some time with my mother-in-law.”
“Didn’t she miss me when you showed up alone?”
Her brows rose. “Why would she? You were just there for the party since you had time on your hands.”
“Yeah. And I had a lot more of it later on.” He shot a glance at Trey, who appeared zeroed in on the ponies. Still, he lowered his voice. “What happened?”
“We chatted while the kids ate breakfast, and then I called a taxi to bring us here.”
“You know that’s not what I meant.”
Her chin went up the way it had that one day at the Hitching Post. Then, he couldn’t tell defiance from determination from challenge. Now, he had a bad feeling she’d just given him a shot of all three.
“Last night was a mistake,” she said quietly.
Fool that he was, he couldn’t keep his pulse from jumping. “You mean leaving?”
“I mean considering it at all.”
“Quite a change in tune, isn’t it?”
She turned away to spoon something for Missy, baby food or applesauce maybe. He cared only because it took his mind off the conversation. But a split second later, his thoughts went where they were bound to go. To where they’d been all night. To what might have been.
In the time they had spent in that restaurant, she had told him what he’d wanted to know—what had her so worried. A story she had kept from so many people, but not him. She had trusted him with the truth. Then why had she run off?
“Would it have made a difference if I’d gone up to the room with you?”
He saw her chest rise, heard her breath catch. He felt his own breath lodge in his throat until she shook her head. “Not enough to make it matter in the long run, Mitch.”
She had told him how much she had been devastated by her husband’s death. Yet she had said she’d come to accept her loss, and he had seen the truth of that in her manner. In her eyes. Still, he felt certain she was holding something back, trying to handle it on her own. And despite the way she’d walked off on him, he still wanted to help her.
Maybe, no matter what she claimed, she hadn’t gotten over her loss yet. He could understand that.
Or maybe he couldn’t trust his instincts about her.
Maybe he’d never be able to depend on his instincts again.
* * *
LATER THAT DAY, Mitch found himself wandering toward Cowboy Creek’s sheriff’s office, something he had sworn he wouldn’t make a habit.
But in all honesty, he needed the visit to distract himself from an image he couldn’t erase from his mind. He kept seeing Andi and the kids in the airport taxi she’d insisted on hiring rather than let him drive them to the hotel.
How would we explain that? she had asked.
Even as he’d opened his mouth, she had added, I don’t want to have to tell another cover story, especially one involving the kids.
That kicker kept him silent, and finally, he’d agreed to let her go.
The bad taste that phrase left in his mouth had him yanking open the office door.
“Well, look what the wind blew in,” Paco said with a grin. “Ready for a cup?”
“I’ll pass, thanks.”
“Sheriff’s in his office.”
Nodding, he went past the desk to the door in the rear of the room. He hadn’t expected to run into his dad until suppertime.
When he entered the office, Lyle glanced up from the spreadsheet he was perusing. His eyes over the rims of his half glasses were as clear and alert as ever, but his hair was mostly gray now.
“Coffee?” his dad asked.
“What, are you trying to give it away? Paco just offered, and I turned him down. I think I’ll get a cup of the real stuff over at SugarPie’s.”
“Good thinking. Don’t overdo it on the bakery goods, though. I hear we’re eating early tonight.” Lyle propped his crossed feet on the edge of the desk and sat back with his hands behind his head. The wooden captain’s chair creaked in a handful of places.
“Sounds like my old bones cracking, doesn’t it?”
“Not that I’ve ever heard.” He took a seat in one of the visitor’s chairs. “How’s the arthritis?”
“Good days outweigh the bad. How’s the knee?”
Mitch shifted and felt the reminder of too much exercise that morning. “Doing okay. The good days are adding up.”
“Nice to hear. Mine are going in the opposite direction. I won’t be sorry a few months from now when I turn in my badge.”
He looked again at Lyle’s graying hair. Retirement had to come for his dad sometime. He’d always known that. He just hadn’t realized it would happen this soon. “You’ll miss it.”
“Well, sure. Just the way your granddad did when he left.”
“Leaving his legacy behind him.”
Lyle smiled. “Just as I’m doing, son.”
Mitch swallowed hard. He propped his ankle on his good knee to take the strain off the bad one. To have an excuse not to look across the desk.
Both his dad and granddad had been proud to have another member of the family in law enforcement. When he had packed to leave for the job, they had each taken him aside. He’d gotten invaluable tips from two lifetimes of experience. And, above all, he’d gotten the advice to “go with your gut.”
Advice that had served him well—until a poor judgment call left him wounded and his partner dead.
He tapped his knee brace and looked at his dad again. “You’ll be missed.”
“I’m sure I will, for a while. But someone will come up the ranks to replace me, and later someone to replace him. That’s part of a legacy, too, always having officers ready to protect and serve.”
He nodded, knowing that as well as his dad did. He’d heard that call even before his dad and granddad had shared it
with him years ago. It was what had made him want to follow in their footsteps.
“Of course,” Lyle said, “with all that shifting around in the department, we could end up being shorthanded around here.”
He nodded, but said nothing. First Jed, claiming a shortage of wranglers on the ranch, and now his dad, hinting at a similar situation in the department.
At least some folks wanted him around.
Chapter Thirteen
Mitch escaped from the glaring afternoon sun into the dimmer interior of SugarPie’s. At this time of day, the sandwich shop was nearly deserted, except for one lone white-haired diner.
Mitch couldn’t have left if he’d wanted to. Jed Garland’s eagle eyes had already spotted him, and Jed’s hand was raised high, waving to the waitress.
“I just got here,” Jed told him. “Paz and Tina are finishing up an order at the L-G.” He gestured toward a chair. “Have a cup and help me kill some time.”
Mitch took one of the pink-cushioned chairs opposite Jed.
“How was your trip?”
He froze. Just how much did the man know?
“Nancy said you had to go away overnight, too. How’d your knee hold up with the traveling?”
Slowly, he relaxed. “The trip was fine, and the knee’s improving every day.” He wished he could say the same about his interactions with Andi.
The waitress, Cole’s sister Layne, came to take their order.
“And how are you doing, girl?” Jed asked, reaching for her hand.
She smiled. “Fine, Jed. Just tired, but that’s not news lately.”
“I’d think not. Between that little boy of yours and the new baby, I’d be worn-out, too. I told Tina to let you know we’ve got plenty of room at the Hitching Post if you need to come stay awhile.”
“She did tell me, thanks.” After a warm smile for Jed, she took their order for coffee and went back to the kitchen.
Jed turned to him. “Missed you at the hotel yesterday, Mitch. We’re getting kinda used to seeing your face out there again.”
He didn’t know what Jed knew or surmised or would make up out of whole cloth about his absence. Thanks to his years working with the man, he did know for sure the heights Jed was capable of going to for his family. And the breadth of his concern for extended family such as Layne.
He’d always admired Jed’s kindness to others.
He only hoped his efforts at the Hitching Post had paid back some of his old boss’s many favors. Because his days of playing assistant were over. “I don’t guess I’ll be around as much out at the ranch.”
Jed’s white eyebrows shot up. “Why’s that?”
“They can use a hand over at the sheriff’s office temporarily, and since I’ve done about all I can do at the hotel, I told them I’d swing by.”
“You’ll be back to help with the Christmas tree?”
He’d forgotten about that. Jed sat frowning so intently, Mitch didn’t have the heart to give him an outright no. He looked down at his coffee mug. “With that crew at the ranch, you’ll have plenty of hands to set up the tree. And I’d be no good at the rest of it. I’d break more ornaments than I got hung.”
“That’s a tradition in the family,” Jed said, chuckling. “And speaking of family, Andi and the kids are back home. We’re having a party tonight for Trey. You’re invited.”
“Thanks, but my mom’s going all out for supper.” Not a word of lie there. She’d insisted on making a big meal to welcome him home after his overnight trip. Because he had skirted the truth about that, and because she’d gone to so much trouble, it would take a stronger man than he was to miss the meal.
But this man could get used to having a home-cooked supper every night. Too bad he didn’t plan to stick around.
He wouldn’t even consider moving back home.
Jed might succeed in getting Andi to stay in Cowboy Creek permanently, and how would he handle that? How could he risk seeing her but not being able to have her?
* * *
ANDI SET HER cell phone on the bed beside her and picked up her notebook again.
“Let me guess,” Jane said. “You-know-who.”
“Yes.” She had had several texts from Sandra at the airport this morning, then another round this afternoon. She looked at her cousin, who sat at the desk in the suite checking place cards against Tina’s printout. “I can understand the bride stressing out as the wedding gets closer, but having her make so many last-minute changes is hard on all of us.”
“They wouldn’t be, if you’d put your foot down and remind her a non-family-owned reception hall wouldn’t provide this type of hand-holding.”
“You should be the one in this position, Jane. I won’t say I’m a pushover, but I do want the wedding to be what the bride wants it to be.”
“Like yours was?”
“Yes.” She smiled. Planning her wedding had been one of the happiest times of her life, right up there with the ceremony itself and the birth of her children.
“You’re such a romantic,” Jane teased. “A believer in true love, and a fan of happy endings.”
Sadly, the first two didn’t always lead to the last. “I’d say you were all of those yourself.”
Jane laughed. “You’re right. I guess it’s why I went along with Grandpa’s plans for the hotel in the first place. Besides wanting to help him, of course—which I know is why you’re in this, too.”
“Yes.” Though Jane also knew her other reason for coming to Cowboy Creek, Andi didn’t want to get into it again now. She picked up the notepad sitting beside her phone. A few weeks ago, she couldn’t have realized what her decision to stay at the hotel would lead to. But along with being a hopeless romantic and wanting to help Jed achieve his dream, she had had the overwhelming need to get away. To put some space between her little family and her many in-laws.
That reason needed to say hidden. How could she share all her feelings with Jane—or anyone else? She would sound ungrateful...would feel ungrateful...for all her mother-in-law had done for her and the kids.
At the party last night, she had felt more guilt than ever about leaving town with Trey and Missy to come to Cowboy Creek in the first place.
Long afterward, as she had tried falling asleep at Cara’s, she had felt guilty about the way she had left Mitch to spend the night alone.
“You haven’t said much about the party,” Jane said.
Startled by the connection to her own thoughts, Andi jumped, then stared down at the line she’d just slashed across the notebook. She imagined Mitch coming into the hotel room and finding that cold, emotionless note she had left for him. But she hadn’t known what else to say.
“The party was great. Trey loved all his gifts, and I had to bring a huge carry-on home with us.”
“So I heard. You should have let one of us pick you up at the airport instead of taking a taxi home.”
“I didn’t want to bother anyone to make that trip.”
“Oh-h-h,” Jane said, teasingly again, “and you didn’t mind bothering Mitch?”
“He—” Drove home alone. Swallowing the words along with a sigh of relief at her catch, she said, “He didn’t pick us up.” He had offered several times this morning to drive them home, but she had preferred to be on her own with the kids.
“According to Grandpa, Mitch took you to the airport. I just found out this morning. You never mentioned that to me, either.”
“It was a last-minute arrangement. Like Sandra with the additions to the seating chart.”
“Yes, but much more fun. I’m glad you’re giving the man a chance.”
“I’m not!”
Jane’s eyebrows shot up.
Andi flushed. But she had only spoken the truth. Besides, after their conversation at the airport this morning, she doubted she would ever see much of Mitch again.
* * *
JED STOOD SURVEYING the dining room, where Jane and Tina were busy transforming its “simple, Southwestern charm”—according t
o the new website Jane had put together—into something out of a science-fiction movie. Stars and planets and spaceships hung from every light fixture, and crepe-paper creatures climbed the walls.
“Looking fine,” he said. Their guests might not like the disruption to the dude ranch atmosphere, but nothing was too good for one of his great-grandkids.
“They do look great,” Tina agreed. “Robbie will want the same thing for his next birthday. We’ll leave them up for a day or so before we decorate for Christmas.” She handed a balloon to Jane, who stood on a stepladder in the center of the room.
“Thanks.” Jane tied the balloon to the light fixture above the family’s table and reached for the next one. “You know, Grandpa, I was just talking to Andi.”
“Yeah? And...?”
“I hate to say it, but I don’t think this plan of ours is working.”
He shot a look over his shoulder at the doorway. “Careful. She might come walking right in.”
“No, it’s okay, Abuelo,” Tina said. “She’s staying up in her room with Missy and the boys so Trey won’t see the decorations before time.”
He waited till Jane had climbed down from the ladder. “What’s going on, then?”
“That’s the problem. I don’t think anything is.” She gathered up the packaging from the balloons. “She’s not talking to me. Yet. But I get the feeling things didn’t go well on their trip to the airport.”
He swallowed a smile. Though he hadn’t shared the news with the girls, his idea to have Mitch see Andi off on her flight had paid off in more ways than even he had anticipated. And this afternoon at SugarPie’s, the boy had looked downright exhausted from what had to be lack of sleep—which he figured meant a promising sign of progress.
Mitch had gotten a little gun-shy about returning to the ranch. That didn’t worry him any. He knew the boy would do what he’d agreed to and help them with the Christmas tree.
“Andi hasn’t said much to me, either,” Tina said. “We tried chatting upstairs, but with the boys running around the room, we didn’t get very far. And truthfully, I don’t think she minded at all when I said I had to go down to help Abuela with supper.”
The Lawman's Christmas Proposal Page 11