Shadows darkened Zach’s gaze as he met her look of question. “Because they were wrong, Piper. When things got so bad that Dad was a danger to himself and others, we found a nice nursing home for him. Ethan lives downstate, Julia was pregnant and crazy busy with her midwife practice and Martin, so I was appointed power of attorney to take care of things. We had to liquidate everything to pay for Dad’s care once his insurance ran out.”
“So you had to sell the farm.” She leaned closer, held tight, and let her fingers warm his. “It’s not like you had a choice, Zach.”
“I did, though.” He studied her hand. A tiny muscle clenched in his left cheek. He breathed deep and gave a slight shrug. “I could have taken a leave and run the farm. We had plenty of help. And like yours, our farm was a family enterprise. Dad was the third generation. I could have been the fourth, at least long enough to see how things would go.”
“But you had no reason to believe he’d get better, right?” She paused, puzzled, then asked, “How did he get better? Because there’s no cure for Alzheimer’s.”
“The doctors here discovered the error and rediagnosed him.”
“Oh, Zach.” Concern and empathy flowed through her. She could envision the whole scenario, the grief and sadness surrounding a grim diagnosis and prognosis, the hard decisions that had to be made...
And then to find out it was all a mistake?
Piper couldn’t imagine the stress that put on Zach’s heart. His soul. Men like him took a great deal on themselves. She could see he’d internalized the guilt of being the decision-maker. “I’m so sorry this all happened.”
“Me, too.” He squeezed her hand and frowned. “Two months ago we got Dad an opening in Kirkhaven, the long-term care facility near Clearwater. We’d been on the waiting list there, it was so much closer to me and I knew it was a good adult care facility. I was ready to close on my house, Dad would be moving closer. Everything seemed ideal. We no sooner got him there than the doctor called me and said he thought Dad was misdiagnosed. That he had something that looks like Alzheimer’s, but was correctable. He called it ‘normal pressure hydrocephalus’ and said a fairly simple operation to shunt excess fluid away from Dad’s brain would clear things up.”
“I’d have been over-the-top angry at the first medical center,” Piper said. That misdiagnosis had robbed Marty of more than time. It had taken a family legacy and ruined a relationship between a father and son.
So this was why Zach looked so guilt-ridden around his father. Why he watched him quietly when he thought no one was looking. “So what’s the prognosis now?”
“He’s going to be fine,” Zach told her. The appetizers arrived, and he waited until the waiter had left again before continuing. “And we’re all grateful for that, but we feel so guilty for making decisions that took his whole life from him. And then to find out we were wrong just makes a bad situation worse.”
“Can he start again?”
Zach shrugged. “I brought it up once and he just about bit my head off.”
“He needs time.”
Zach nodded. “And being stubborn, he won’t go for therapy.”
Piper looked at him, surprised. “What’s therapy going to do besides cost him more time and money?”
“Therapy can be life-saving.”
“It can, but in his case, Marty just needs to be busy. Handling cattle and tractors and big machines that make him feel like he’s in charge.”
“Farm therapy.”
“Exactly!” Piper smiled. “He’s getting that for free at my place. You can see how much more relaxed he is by hanging out at the farm. Helping. Working. Getting things in some semblance of order.”
“Yes.”
“Zach.” She ignored the savory-smelling clams casino and the chilled plate of shrimp and laid her hand against his face, his cheek. “Your mistake was due to someone else’s error. Not yours. But your dad’s recovery, regardless of the farm sale, is the stuff dreams are made of. He’s got a second chance to do whatever he wants to do. And so do you.”
“Me?” He straightened a little, perplexed.
“To fix things between you. To mend old fences. Right old wrongs. A second chance, Zach.” She smiled right at him and hoped he read what she couldn’t exactly say, that second chances were a wonderful thing and not everyone got that opportunity. “Grab it. Run with it. Take full advantage of a God-given gift to make things right.”
Her words softened his face. Brightened his eyes. “Can we eat first?”
She laughed. “Yes, because I starved myself all day worrying. But, now. Here. With you?” She hoped her sincerity lightened the gravity of the moment. “I’m ready to grab hold of the next chapter in my life. Whatever it might be.”
He smiled, then slid the wooden trivet holding the plate of hot, seasoned clams her way. “I believe it starts with these. But first—” he raised his glass of lemon tea and tipped his gaze to hers “—a toast.”
Piper smiled, raised her glass and waited.
“To new beginnings.”
Her heart sang. But her conscience pinched. A fresh start. It was a lovely concept. But he had no clue what he was getting into. Nevertheless, she touched her glass to his and smiled. “Here. And now.”
His look deepened as he grabbed a shrimp. “Okay, you’ve heard my story. Now, what about yours?”
She savored a clam, decided that clams and bacon should always be served together, and said, “You got the gist of it today. The farm’s been shortchanged emotionally and financially since my mother took off eighteen years ago.”
“Does she have any contact with you?”
“None.” Piper wasn’t sure she’d want to see her mother if she did initiate contact after all this time. How sad was that?
“With your brothers?”
“Not that I know of.” Piper sipped her water, frowning slightly. “She wanted a new life, free from the constraints of the farm. And her family.”
“I’m sorry.” Zach’s face said he couldn’t imagine that pain, but Piper had realized something as she matured. Her mother had left the family emotionally years before leaving physically with her boyfriend. That had made understanding the separation easier.
Accepting it? Another matter entirely.
“The plus side is I inherited Lucia and Berto. I love them.” She had no problem admitting this to Zach. “Lucia’s not like having my own mother. More like an older best friend. I can talk frankly with her, we can make farm plans together, we work well together and she loves me the way I am.”
“I kind of like you the way you are, too.”
She laughed at the puppy-dog expression on his face. “Well, thank you.”
“And now tell me about Reilich.”
She’d sensed the question was coming, and she thought she’d prepared herself, but every time someone mentioned Hunter’s name the term epic fail swam before her eyes. She hauled in a breath, looked anywhere but at Zach, then hiked a shoulder. “I was young and stupid. Thank God there are no laws against that, or I’d be doing time right now.”
* * *
“I don’t know him.” Zach watched her as he spoke, studying her reaction. He didn’t want to ruin the night with old war stories, but he wanted her to feel comfortable around him. Able to share anything. “I came to Troop A before he was put in jail, but I was stationed in Fillmore, and his crimes were centered in the Clearwater area.”
“How did you know about him?”
He didn’t hesi
tate. “Luke told me.”
“Snitch.”
He smiled. “He knew I was interested when I offered to punch him for smiling at you and he wished me luck. Or something like that.”
“Luke’s a good guy.”
“He is. And he’s had a bunch of rough breaks, but when he told me about Reilich, I realized why the uniform might be a deal-breaker for you. And yet...” He leaned forward and grazed her chin with his right hand. “I was hoping you’d see beyond the uniform eventually.”
“Oh, I did.” She smiled. “But I also saw an already tenuous neighbor relationship going down the tubes if this attraction went bad, and farmers have enough hard times with neighbors these days. And you picked on my roosters.”
“Which I’ll never do again,” he promised, laughing. “Although with Julia and the boys at my place, the roosters will be drowned out by the sound of two brothers wrestling. Puppies yipping. And country music playing in the background.”
“That’s not a bad scenario, Zach.”
“It isn’t, but don’t change the subject. You were engaged to Reilich.”
“I hate to admit it, but yes. And before you decide that I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed, let me assure you he was very good at what he did.”
Bingo.
He’d hit the exposed nerve again, the intelligence issue. He leaned closer. “Piper, you’re one of the smartest, most ambitious and innovative women I’ve ever met. Why don’t you see that about yourself?”
“Having detectives second-guess your intelligence as they grill you multiple times about how you could have had a close, personal relationship with a man who engineered a racketeering payback scheme in the local towns leads one to question her judgment. And find it sadly lacking.”
Zach could see how that played out. The detectives wanting to ferret out all the information they could, thinking Piper might have had a clue. Seen something. Been involved.
But Zach had met guys like Reilich before. They loved leading two lives. He was only sorry Piper got caught in the guy’s schemes, but that was the past, and truth to tell, he had a few relationships that never should have gone beyond date number two, but did. “Let’s level this playing field. Start fresh. I’m beginning to like farms a lot more than I ever thought possible.”
Her heightened color said she read the meaning behind his words and his smile.
“And I think you’re losing your aversion to cops as we speak.” He grinned, picked up a shrimp and handed it to her. “While these are amazing, my budget thinks pan-fried fish fresh from the lake are some mighty good eats.”
“Perch.”
“And walleyes.”
“You guys need to take the boat out.” Piper finished the shrimp, sighed and refused his offer of another one. Today’s drama had postponed Zach’s outing with Julia and the boys. “The boys would love to go out on the water. I’ve got half a dozen kid-sized life preservers in the shed by the shore and four adult-sized.”
“Can we take the girls sometime, too?”
“They’d love it, so yes.” Piper smiled at him. “I know I work too much. I know I should do more things with them. And Lucia and Berto are both nonswimmers, so they wouldn’t think of stepping foot in that boat, but I was brought up on the water. I can sail, row, troll, fish and I’m pretty good on horseback, so I’m carrying a trailer-load of guilt that I can’t make time to offer the girls that same kind of experience.”
“They’re five. There’s time yet. And now there are more grown-ups around.” He hoped she’d realize that he intended, one way or another, to stay around. Hopefully as more than a neighbor.
“If Palmeteer has his way, I’ll have plenty of time on my hands in two years.”
“He won’t, Piper.” Zach leveled a direct look her way. “I’ve talked to Ethan—”
“And he says they don’t have a leg to stand on, right? Please agree with that statement wholeheartedly.”
“Not exactly.” Zach couldn’t appease her dishonestly, but he actually liked what Ethan did say better. “He told me we should come out fighting early and strong. Get people fired up. He said it’s much easier to stop or thwart an effort like this at the beginning than once it’s gone to the court system. Politicians want to be reelected. If we can rally the town around us and protest this in a big way, Palmeteer’ll be more likely to back down and throw the idea out.”
“He doesn’t like to back down,” Piper warned him. “When he ran his home remodeling business, he loved taking over smaller companies, incorporating them into his own, and then letting people go. His big picture has only one viewpoint—his. And he’s not afraid to hang folks out to dry.”
“Which means you’re concerned he’ll air your personal family business to gain leverage.”
“There’s plenty of it to go around.” Piper ticked off her fingers. “My mother took off with another man, the farm’s in shaky financials, although improving annually, the boys hate the farm and would think nothing of undermining me and the supervisor knows that. I had an eighteen-month-long relationship with a man who is now a convicted felon, and my sister did time for holding up a convenience store at gunpoint when she was seventeen. If that’s not bad enough, she then ran off and left twin toddlers six years later for no reason. If airing dirty laundry is on Palmeteer’s to-do list, the McKinneys have given him ample ammunition.”
The list sounded intimidating, even to Zach, and not much intimidated a state trooper. “We’ll figure this out. I promise.”
She smiled at him, and he read the joy in the smile, but he also recognized acceptance. Piper understood the cards were stacked against her. She’d fight, but she was willing to acknowledge that Palmeteer’s methods might hurt a lot of people she cared about. And no way would she let that happen.
Neither would Zach, but as a cop, he’d been privy to a wealth of maneuvers in his eleven years on the force.
Palmeteer didn’t stand a chance.
Chapter Eleven
“So.” Chas looked up from the line of rapidly filling glass bottles of 2 percent milk. “You got served by the town yesterday, same as we did, right?”
There was no mistaking the note of triumph in his voice, and that meant he and Colin had already jumped on the supervisor’s bandwagon. “If you mean did Ron Palmeteer and his cronies send me legal notice that they’d like to illegally seize part of our historic family farm, then yes, I did. But you and I would see that differently, Chas.”
“Always have, always will,” he agreed, then shrugged. “It’s useless to go on resisting, Piper. You can chase rainbows on your own time and your own dime, but it’s not fair to Colin and me to hang on to this place year after year.”
Piper made note of the temperature readings on her computerized tablet. “I’ll say. You take a generous paycheck and do almost nothing.”
“I get things done,” he retorted. “I’m just not manic like you. Obsessed. And I’d rather be doing anything else.”
“Then do it.”
Zach’s voice interrupted their midday conversation. Piper turned, surprised.
So did Chas. The college gal working the cooler area stopped midstep.
Piper recovered first. “Off to work?” Tension thrummed in the thin space separating the two men. Piper ignored the rise of emotions and centered herself between them purposely.
“Yes. I just wanted to stop by and say how much I enjoyed our evening together.” He smiled at her with a kind, gentle gaze of affection, then addressed Chas directly. “I was raised on a farm. I hated it. But
I didn’t stay there and make everyone else’s life miserable. I got an education, got a job and worked my way up. Staying here to annoy everyone around you isn’t going to cut it forever. You might want to start thinking about that. Sooner rather than later.”
Chas started forward, but Piper held up a restraining hand. “Zach—”
He silenced her with a look, stepped to her right, squared his shoulders and aimed a laser-beam look at her brother. “We respect women where I come from. We work hard. And we follow the Thumper rule. From where I stand, you’re 0 for 3 and that’s not putting me in good humor, McKinney.”
“You’re threatening me?”
Piper was tempted to jump in, but it actually felt good to have someone else take her side. Someone big, strong, smart and well-spoken.
Of course, his Glock carried its own special brand of backup.
“I’m actually making you a promise that from this point forward your sister will be protected from abuse, including emotional, physical and verbal. Got it? Chas?” Zach stretched out Chas’s name as if challenging him, but Chas had the good sense to back down.
“Generally we occupy separate work areas, so your big bad cop act means nothing to me.”
“Then we understand each other.” Zach shifted his attention back down to Piper.
She met his look, half-ready to scold him for butting into family business, but his expression made her reassess.
In two sentences, he’d gotten Chas to be quiet. That could be a new record because Chas almost never stopped grumbling. If Piper had the cold, hard cash, she’d buy him out just to enjoy the silence.
She owed Zach thanks, but knew his methods could backfire. Getting Chas and Colin riled up would only put them more solidly in the supervisor’s corner. But they were already on Palmeteer’s side, so did it really matter? Maybe she’d been too careful in standing her ground. Of course, having a big, stern, weapon-carrying cop on her side wasn’t exactly a bad thing. She walked to the back door of the dairy room with him. “Have a good first night back.”
He nodded and gripped her shoulders. “I will. But if you need me for anything while I’m gone—” he raised his voice just enough for it to carry over the sound of the processing equipment “—call me. Okay?”
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