The Maverick's Return

by Marie Ferrarella

  He frowned, confused as he tried to figure the situation out. How could Hank, after getting someone like Anne to marry him, throw all that away and actually divorce her? That just didn’t make any sense to him. In Hank’s place, no reason in the world would have made him do that.

  He put the question to Jamie. “Why would Hank divorce her?”

  “Well, I don’t know any of the particulars,” Jamie confessed, “but if I had to make a guess, off the top of my head I’d say that Hank finally came to terms with the fact that Annie was still in love with you and always would be. He didn’t want to continue in second place.”

  Dan thought back to the awkwardness of his first meeting with Anne after all this time, and the way she had pulled back when he’d tried to take her hand. He made a small, dismissive guttural sound.

  “I think you might have been kicked in the head by one of those horses you like to baby.”

  Jamie shrugged. “Make jokes all you want, but I have a very strong feeling that I’m right about this,” he told Dan.

  “I wouldn’t try to argue him out of that if I were you,” Fallon advised as she rose to clear away the dishes from the table. “Jamie might look mild-mannered, but once he gets something into his head, there’s no budging him.”

  “All right, then I won’t try,” Dan told his sister-in-law agreeably. “Even though he is dead wrong. Here, let me help you with that,” he offered, reaching for the plates Fallon had just stacked.

  “Don’t you dare,” she warned Dan, a smile belying the sharp tone she’d taken. She swatted Dan’s hand away from the dishes. “In case you’ve forgotten, you’re a guest here.”

  “I’m crashing at your place and taking full advantage of your kindness. That means I owe you—big time—and should do something to earn my keep,” Dan pointed out.

  Fallon sighed, surrendering the plates to him. “Looks like Jamie isn’t the only stubborn Stockton here.” Her smile grew wider as Dan cleared the table. “I think I could get used to this.”

  Just then, one of the triplets decided to make themselves known. “Uh-oh. Sounds like duty calls,” she told the two brothers, glancing toward the source of the cries. “I’d better see what’s going on before all three of them wake up.”

  “It was a wonderful dinner, Fallon,” Dan called after her. “Thank you.”

  “Jamie, make sure you tell your brother he can stay with us as long as he likes,” Fallon tossed over her shoulder as she walked upstairs to check on which of the triplets wanted to be fed or changed.

  “You know, Jamie, you’ve got it made,” Dan told his brother enviously as the latter followed him, carrying another large batch of plates and utensils to the kitchen sink.

  “I do, but I didn’t always,” Jamie responded. “I thought my life was over when Paula died, leaving me with three infants to raise. I felt like the bottom had completely dropped out of my world,” he confided.

  He looked at Dan, deliberately making his point. “But I hung on, determined to be there for my kids, to make them as happy as I possibly could. I wasn’t prepared to find love again, but somehow, it found me.” He gave his brother an encouraging smile. “And you’ll get there, too, Danny. Just hang in there and don’t give up.”

  Danny shrugged the advice away. “I missed my chance and I know it,” he replied, totally convinced of what he was saying.

  Danny might have been convinced, but Jamie didn’t see it that way.

  “You’re still breathing, aren’t you?” Jamie asked, rinsing off the plates before stacking them on the counter on the way to the dishwasher.

  “Yeah, but—” Danny began to protest.

  Jamie talked right over him, not wanting to hear any excuses. “And so’s Annie.”

  Danny sighed. “It’s not that simple, Jamie,” he insisted.

  “It’s not that complicated, either, Danny. Like they say, where there’s life, there’s hope.”

  For a moment Danny was silent, then he brightened as he turned to Jamie.

  “Tell you what, brother,” he said. “Instead of putting these dishes into the dishwasher, why don’t we just handle this the old-fashioned way? You wash and I’ll dry. This way, you can surprise Fallon when she comes back out into the kitchen to start the dishwasher.”

  Jamie knew what Danny was trying to do, but he’d said what he’d wanted to say and for now he let the subject drop. The Danny he had grown up with had been quick to smile and quick to lend a helping hand, but reaching out to his onetime love was something Danny would have to mull over before he finally decided to make a move.

  All Jamie could do was plant the seed in Danny’s head and fervently hope that with enough time, it would germinate.

  “Fallon’d like that,” Jamie said, agreeing to the suggestion.

  “Well then, let’s get to it,” Danny responded, turning up the water.

  Jamie’s comment to him about the situation with Annie not being as complicated as he felt it was kept replaying itself in his head until he finally fell asleep that night. And they were the first words that sprang into his head the following morning.

  Thoughts of Annie were temporarily put on hold, though when shortly after breakfast Dan heard the front door burst open, someone demanding, “Where is he?” and before he knew what was happening, he found himself enveloped in a huge embrace from behind.

  “You’re here. You’re really here!” an excited female voice exclaimed. When he managed to shift in his seat—and the embrace—he discovered that he was being hugged by his sister Bella.

  Sitting opposite him, Jamie grinned. “Told you she’d be happy to see you.”

  “Talk to me,” Bella cried, making herself comfortable in the chair next to his. “Tell me everything!”

  Which was how Dan wound up spending the rest of the day, talking to his sister and catching up on her life. A life which he was happy to learn had ultimately fared better than his had.

  Dana, taking a quick trip from Portland, came to see him the day after that, and although there was less squealing, it almost an instant replay of the day before.

  Both days were filled with the stuff that emotional, happy reunions were made of.

  But all those stirred-up emotions caused thoughts of Annie to creep back into his brain, haunting him during the late evening even though he tried his best to ignore them.

  Dan sought refuge in work. He volunteered and worked beside Jamie on the range, doing his best to forget about Annie.

  At breakfast the fourth day Jamie leaned over the table toward him and said, “You know, I’ve got an awful lot to take care of on the ranch today—”

  The admission was like music to Dan’s ears. Keeping busy was the best way he knew of to keep from thinking and torturing himself with would-be scenarios that all began with “what if.”

  “Just tell me what you need done and I’ll do it,” Dan was quick to offer.

  Jamie got up from the table and went to the writing desk that was nestled in the alcove between the kitchen and the small dining room.

  “This will be a real time-saver for me,” Jamie told him.

  Dan was still seated at the table, finishing the last of his second cup of extra-dark coffee. He heard a drawer being opened and then closed again. Half a beat later, Jamie walked back into the kitchen holding an envelope in his hand. The name of the veterinary clinic in town was written across the front: Dr. Brooks Smith’s Veterinary Clinic.

  “I need to make a payment on my vet bill,” he told Dan, holding out the envelope. “Would you mind very much bringing it into town for me?”

  “Wouldn’t I be more useful helping you out here, on the ranch?” Dan questioned.

  “Trust me, this’ll take a big load off my mind. You know how I feel about owing someone,” he reminded his brother.

  A smile played o
n his lips as fragments of distant childhood memories returned. “Vaguely,” Danny said, tongue in cheek.

  “Well, I’ve only gotten worse.” He pressed the envelope into Danny’s hand. “Do you mind?”

  It really seemed important to him, Dan thought, so he took the envelope and slipped it into his shirt pocket.

  “Of course not. Consider it done.” Habit had him checking his pocket for the keys to his Jeep as he rose from the table. “I’ll be back as soon as I can,” he promised.

  “Take your time,” Jamie told him. “The work’s not going anywhere.”

  Dan took his jacket off the hook by the front door. Putting it on, he gave his brother a quick wave and left the house.

  “You’re terrible,” Fallon told her husband the moment Dan closed the door.

  Jamie gave his wife a wide-eyed look. “What makes you say that?”

  Fallon rolled her eyes. “Don’t play innocent with me. You could have just as easily put that check in the mail.”

  Jamie pretended to find the suggestion lacking. “I’ve always found the personal touch to be the better way to go,” he told his wife.

  “Ha! You just want Danny to walk into the vet clinic so that he can see Annie when he hands your check to her.”

  “Well, that’s definitely the personal touch, isn’t it?” he asked her, daring his wife to possibly suggest otherwise.

  “There’s no arguing with that,” Fallon agreed. “But I’m not sure if Danny’s going to appreciate being manipulated.”

  “He will,” Jamie said confidently. “Once he comes to his senses,” he added. He looked at Fallon, wanting his wife to side with him. “Someone’s got to make the first move.”

  “Don’t you think it should be one of the two people involved in this?” Fallon asked.

  “It should,” Jamie readily agreed. “But when that doesn’t look like it’s about to happen, sometimes a little divine intervention is necessary.”

  “Divine intervention?” Fallon repeated, laughter in her eyes. “Meaning you?”

  “Hey, if the description fits...” His voice trailed off as a whimsical expression played hide-and-seek on his face.

  Fallon shook her head. But he knew there was no way she could be exasperated with him. Not when he was obviously attempting to do a good thing for his brother.

  “I love you, Jamie Stockton,” she said.

  His eyes softened as he looked at her. “I know,” he told her. “And I love you, too.”

  Just then, not one, not two but all three very loud, plaintive voices blended, creating an indignant, highly unhappy chorus.

  “Sounds like our children are calling,” Fallon said as she got up from the table.

  “Calling?” he echoed. “I’d say that it sounds more like they’re bellowing,” Jamie told her. “C’mon,” he urged his wife. “I’ll help. There’s supposed to be safety in numbers.”

  “Safety?” she laughed. “Not hardly. In case you hadn’t noticed, it’s two to three. That means that those little critters still outnumber us.”

  “We can brazen it out,” he told her as if they were actually planning strategy to use against their babies. “Remember, when we enter the room, don’t make any eye contact. They can detect fear a mile away. It’ll only go downhill from there if they do.”

  Fallon shook her head. “You should write a book on raising triplets,” she teased.

  “Maybe I will,” Jamie responded, pretending to mull the idea over. “All I need to do is to learn how to type.”

  “That would mean that you would have to change and I don’t want you to change even a single thing about yourself,” Fallon told him with a great deal of affection in her tone. “I love you just the way you are.”

  “Good to know,” Jamie said as he kissed her. It was all the fortification he needed to deal with their brood.

  * * *

  Rust Creek Falls had done some growing since he had left it, Dan thought as he drove into the heart of town. The place had more stores than when he’d lived there, but the ones that he did recognize reminded him of the same sleepy little town that it had been.

  The town vet had been part of that expansion, going from what had been essentially a one-man show to a clinic. The word clinic suggested at least more than one vet, Dan mused. And that was a good thing, as he suspected that the ranches in the area had done their own growing. More cattle and horses meant that more of them needed looking after.

  There was a time when a rancher would do his best for his livestock and then just allow nature to take over, tipping the scales one way or another. Now ranchers relied on vets to keep the scales tipped in their favor, but there were fees for that, he mused, thinking of the envelope he had tucked into his pocket.

  He was surprised that Jamie had asked him to run the payment into town for him rather than just putting it in the mail, but then he gathered that mail service hadn’t kept up with growth quite the way other things had. Besides, he didn’t mind being useful. It was one thing to be earning a paycheck, and another thing to feel useful to someone who counted.

  He preferred the latter.

  Dan scanned both sides of the street as he slowly made his way through the town, taking note of a couple of new restaurants that had opened up. There was a new bar, too, but that held no interest for him, nudging at memories he didn’t want stirred. He kept his eyes peeled for the vet clinic.

  He finally spotted it after traveling more than halfway through Rust Creek Falls. In one of the older buildings in town, the clinic didn’t create much of an impression at first sight, but then, it didn’t have to, he thought. All it had to do was keep good veterinarians in its employ.

  There was parking for the clinic across the way and he chose a spot closest to the building. Getting out of the Jeep, he didn’t bother locking it. If anyone was going to steal a vehicle, Dan figured that they wouldn’t bother with one that had as many miles on it as his did.

  He made his way to the clinic’s front door and went right in. The receptionist’s desk was front and center, visible the second he stepped inside the building.

  There was no one ahead of him so he stepped right up to the desk. The greeting he was about to offer died on his lips as the receptionist turned her chair around to face him.

  Annie.

  Chapter Seven

  Annie was speechless.

  It took her more than a moment to collect herself. Her accelerating pulse, however, was a whole other story. But at least Danny had no way of knowing that it was currently going faster than a NASCAR racer, she thought, and all because of him.

  When she finally regained the ability to form words, she bluntly asked him, “How did you know I work here?” She was grateful that at least her voice hadn’t cracked at the last second.

  “I didn’t,” Dan answered.

  But obviously Jamie did, he realized. Now his brother’s unusual request to run into town and make a payment in person made sense.

  His younger brother had a lot of explaining to do once Dan got back to the ranch.

  Anne assessed his response. Taking a breath, she peered at him over the desk. “If you didn’t know I’d be here, then what are you doing here?” As far as she could tell, he didn’t have an animal in tow.

  “Jamie sent me,” Dan answered. Then, almost as an afterthought, he added, “He asked me to drop off his monthly installment on his vet bill.”

  “Monthly installment?” she repeated, looking at him in confusion.

  “That’s what he said,” Danny told her, handing over the envelope that his brother asked him to deliver.

  Annie set the envelope down next to her computer. He watched as her finely shaped eyebrows drew together in perplexed consternation while her fingers flew across the keyboard.

  “Something wrong?”
he asked Annie, already sensing that something had to be off.

  Unwilling to get specific just yet, she merely told Dan, “Just checking.”

  But she’d aroused his curiosity. There had to be a reason for that doubtful expression on her face. “Checking what?”

  She didn’t bother looking up. Instead, she evasively said, “If I made a mistake.”

  “A mistake,” he echoed, waiting for some more information. When Annie said nothing further, his curiosity doubled in proportion. “In the accounting in general,” Dan pressed, “or—?”

  Annie slanted a glance at him. This felt awkward all around. Why couldn’t he just back off like a normal person?

  Because he wasn’t a “normal” person, she reminded herself. He was Danny and everything that entailed. He didn’t just go along with things; he had to have them spelled out.

  “I’m afraid I’m going to have to go with ‘or,’” she told him.

  He laughed dryly as he watched her type on the keyboard.

  “I guess a lot of things have changed in the last twelve years,” he remarked. “When did you learn to talk in code like that?”

  The phone rang at that moment, preventing her from answering him. One eye still on the computer screen, she picked up the receiver.

  “Brooks Smith’s Veterinary Clinic,” she answered as she put her finger up, indicating to Dan that their conversation was temporarily on hold. “How may I help you?”

  For the next minute or so Annie questioned and advised the person on the other end of the call.

  She sounded so self-assured, Dan thought. When he’d left Rust Creek Falls with his brothers, he’d left behind a sweet, loving, shy teenage girl who’d just touched the edges of self-discovery. He was looking at a woman now, a woman who had obviously known love, and pain, and during all that, managed to raise a daughter who reflected well on her.

  “If you’re willing to wait until four,” Annie was saying to whoever was on the other end of the call, “I can have Brooks come out to your place to take a look at your mare.” She listened to the person’s response. “Good, I’ll let the doctor know. He’ll be at the ranch around four o’clock.”