“Abraham it is, then.” She smiled at him and went to refill her own coffee cup. Patrick made a note of the one she was using. A white mug with purple lupine painted on it. He’d be the one to put it in the sink later when he found it behind the television or on a closet shelf or on the hood of a car. “Patrick, did I overhear you saying my brother is cranky?”
He swallowed a slug of coffee. “That you did.” He cut off a healthy chunk of French toast and put it in his mouth. It was so good he wanted to let it dissolve instead of chewing and swallowing it.
She waggled her eyebrows. “He’s going to be even more cranky after Esme’s through with him.”
“Oh?”
“She’s at the hospital now breaking off their engagement.”
Patrick gawked. “But he nearly died.”
“She didn’t like hearing about his ex-fiancée from the woman herself, while on a girls’ trip and stuck together in a hotel room. Honestly, I wouldn’t have been happy with him if I were her, either. But it’s not like he cheated on her.”
Dian had left for Billings before Patrick had gotten home. He could only imagine how tense things had been between the women. “I did wonder why I saw her suitcases by the door this morning.”
“That would be it. She’s catching a Greyhound to Denver after she tells him. Which, according to Trish, is going to be a little less refined mode of transportation than Esme is used to.”
Patrick harrumphed. “And not even a goodbye to the rest of us?”
“I think we’ve all been tarred and feathered with the same brush as Barry. And after I’d committed to do all this women’s club volunteer work that she talked me into.”
“You said yes?”
She nodded. “But I limited it to five hours a month, no chairing any committees at this stage. I should be able to work that in.”
“It might even be fun.”
Abraham stood. “I hope to relieve you of the burden of hosting me soon, too.”
Susanne smiled at him. “You’re welcome here, Abraham. No need to rush.”
Patrick knew Abraham would be in a hurry now, running to something instead of from it. “I’ll make that call. With any luck, we can have you on your way whenever you are ready, although I second my wife and urge you to give yourself time to heal before you throw yourself into work. You’re welcome here, for as long as you need.”
Abraham bowed. “Thank you. I am forever in your debt.”
He turned on his heel. Patrick heard his footsteps climbing the stairs. Susanne shot Patrick a questioning look—he couldn’t tell her as much about Abraham as she’d like, but she hadn’t given up asking yet. The phone rang. She reached over the counter and lifted the receiver.
“Hello?” Her eyes went round. “Kelsey Jones? For Perry?” After a pause, she said, “He’s asleep. Does he have your number to call you back?” She picked up a pen and notepad and scribbled something down. “All right. I’ll tell him. Goodbye.” When she had hung up the phone, she shook her head. “Girls calling boys. What is the world coming to?”
Patrick laughed. His son was growing up. Of course, the boy still wanted a snowmobile more than a girlfriend. Or at least, that had been the lay of the land the day before. “You did ask me out first, you know, back in the dark ages.” It had been a Sadie Hawkins dance. Not that Susanne had needed an excuse to go for what she wanted. The woman had enough moxie for two.
“Details.” She winked at him, and his heart skipped a beat. How did she still do that to him after seventeen years of marriage? “I was hoping that would be the other Jones in our lives. Ben instead of Kelsey.”
“He still hasn’t called Trish?”
“Not a word. Vangie and Henry haven’t heard from him, either. Meanwhile, their attorney in Laramie confirmed that Ben’s fingerprints weren’t on the bag of drugs the cop confiscated from his pocket. Or the bags in the glove box. Not only that, but the awful roommate had multiple drug arrests. Laramie PD is dropping all charges against Ben.”
Patrick stood and walked over to her. “There’s no way for the Sibleys to even give Ben the news.”
“None. No one knows where he is. Trish swears he’s in Cody, gearing up to go to Alaska to work on a fishing boat. But that’s just a guess. Vangie and Henry searched for him in Cody, but they didn’t have any luck. So, Ronnie had them file a missing person report. I think they’re going to hire a private detective, too.” Susanne leaned her head on Patrick’s shoulder. “I’ve checked Trish’s room twenty times since dinner last night to be sure she hasn’t run off again to look for him. I’ve even thought about going after him myself.”
“Me, too. But we’ve got to trust law enforcement. And the P.I. They’ve got the resources. We don’t.”
“You’re right. I know you’re right.”
“But this is going to be tough on her.”
“It’s going to be tough on all of us.”
Patrick stroked her hair. “I’ve got a confession.”
“What’s that?”
“I really like that boy.”
After a second’s pause, Susanne burst into tears. She dropped her face in her hands. He turned her and pulled her into his arms.
“Me, too,” she said. “When does this parenting thing get easier? First, they were babies, and I thought they’d break if I dropped them or squeezed them. They wouldn’t sleep, so I couldn’t sleep. It was so hard. But now that they’re older, it’s their hearts. Their hearts. This is harder, Patrick. This is much, much harder.”
He couldn’t disagree with anything she’d said. But there was something she’d left out. “The greater the risk, the greater the reward.”
“What do you mean?”
“As a parent. You risk it all to love these little creatures, and the reward is exponential.”
She sniffled. “Yes, but—”
“Right now, with the stakes just getting higher and higher, this is when we forge the adult relationships with them that will last the rest of our lives. Trish is becoming a young woman. We need to be there for her, no matter how hard it is. Then, God willing, some day, she won’t need us to be anymore.”
Susanne pulled back and gave him the evil eye. “She’ll always need us. Perry will, too.”
He laughed. Over Susanne’s head, he saw snowflakes the size of dimes falling outside the window. Dendrites, maybe? But it didn’t matter what they were. They were just beautiful. “Yes, probably. And someday, we’re going to need them.”
“I don’t want to ever put them through anything like this. This pain. These feelings.” She wiped her eyes.
“Even a woman as determined as you can’t hold back the tides.” He wriggled a little. His broken ribs were hurting. An injury that wouldn’t have happened if he were younger and more malleable. But as much as he had loved his youth, he loved his life now and the people in it. His mind flashed on an image of the buck in the park, at the moment Abraham had been sharing his secrets with Cyrus and Patrick. Patrick didn’t want to be like that lonely stag in the wilderness, even if the price was broken ribs or a broken heart.
What small things those were, compared to all he had.
***
Next up: There’s more Patrick Flint and family coming in Sitting Duck. Get yours at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09BDFWFLF. A killer blizzard has hit tiny Buffalo, Wyoming, where Dr. Patrick Flint is trapped inside the hospital with his family, trying to save the life of a prominent local citizen. An injured drifter shows up at the door, and Patrick takes him in. When the power and communications go out that night, people start dying, and the drifter is nowhere to be found. Patrick is caught between his duty to his patient, his loyalty to his family, and his fear for all of their lives. With the storm still raging, will there be any survivors left in the hospital when help finally arrives?
Or you can adventure on in the What Doesn’t Kill You super series mystery world:
Want to stay in Wyoming? Rock on with Maggie in Live Wire on Amazon (free in Kindle Unlimited) at ht
tps://www.amazon.com/Live-Wire-Maggie-Romantic-Mystery-ebook/dp/B07L5RYGHZ.
Prefer the beginning of it all? Start with Katie in Saving Grace on Amazon (free to Kindle Unlimited subscribers), here: https://www.amazon.com/Saving-Grace-Doesnt-Romantic-Mystery-ebook/dp/B009FZPMFO.
Or get the complete WDKY series here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07QQVNSPN.
***
And don’t forget to snag the free What Doesn't Kill You ebook starter library—including a Patrick Flint short story—by joining Pamela’s mailing list at https://www.subscribepage.com/PFHSuperstars.
To Clark, the son who makes me question myself in the best possible ways.
And to Eric, the husband who convinces me he loves me just the way I am, past, present, and future states.
Acknowledgments
When I got the call from my father that he had metastatic prostate cancer spread into his bones in nine locations, I was with a houseful of retreat guests in Wyoming while my parents (who normally summer in Wyoming) were in Texas. The guests were so kind and comforting to me, as was Eric, but there was only one place I wanted to be, and that was home. Not home where I grew up, because I lived in twelve places by the time I was twelve, and many thereafter. No, home is truly where the heart is. And that meant home for Eric and me would be with my parents.
I was in the middle of writing two novels at the time: Blue Streak, the first Laura mystery in the What Doesn’t Kill You series, and Polarity, a series spin-off contemporary romance based on my love story with Eric. I put them both down. I needed to write, but not those books. They could wait. I needed to write through my emotions—because that’s what writers do—with books spelling out the ending we were seeking for my dad’s story. Allegorically and biographically, while fictionally.
So that is what I did, and Dr. Patrick Flint (aka Dr. Peter Fagan—my pops—in real life) and family were hatched, using actual stories from our lives in late 1970s, Buffalo, Wyoming, as the depth and backdrop to a new series of mysteries, starting with Switchback and moving on to Snake Oil, Sawbones, Scapegoat, Snaggle Tooth, Stag Party, and Sitting Duck, with more to come. I hope the real life versions of Patrick, Susanne, and Perry will forgive me for taking liberties in creating their fictional alter egos. I took care to make Trish the most annoying character since she's based on me, to soften the blow for the others. I am so hopeful that my loyal readers will enjoy them, too, even though in some ways the novels are a departure from my usual stories. But in many ways they are the same. Character-driven, edge-of-your-seat mysteries steeped in setting/culture, with a strong nod to the everyday magic around us, and filled with complex, authentic characters (including some AWESOME females).
Each book starts with a memory of something incredibly, well, dumb, that my dad did. It’s amazing how each of us, no matter how brilliant, is still completely fallible, with our blind spots and bad decisions. With Stag Party, that mishap was the time my dad broke a few ribs riding a horse he shouldn’t have, despite my mother’s stringent objections. How this story evolved from there is the magic of imagination, I guess!
I had a wonderful time writing these books, and it kept me going when it was tempting to fold in on myself and let stress eat me alive. For more stories behind the actual stories, visit my blog on my website: http://pamelafaganhutchins.com. And let me know if you liked the novels.
Thanks to my dad for advice on all things medical, wilderness, hunting, 1970s, aeronautical, and animal. I hope you had fun using your medical knowledge for murder!
Thanks to my mom for printing the manuscripts (over and over, in their entireties) as she and dad followed along daily on the progress.
Thanks to my husband, Eric, for brainstorming with and encouraging me and beta reading the Patrick Flint stories despite his busy work, travel, and workout schedule. And for moving in to my parents’ barn apartment with me so I could be closer to them during that time.
Thanks to our five offspring. I love you guys more than anything, and each time I write a parent/child (birth, adopted, foster, or step), I channel you. I am so touched by how supportive you have been with Poppy, Gigi, Eric, and me.
To each and every blessed reader, I appreciate you more than I can say. It is the readers who move mountains for me, and for other authors, and I humbly ask for the honor of your honest reviews and recommendations.
Thanks mucho to Bobbye Marrs for the fantastic Patrick Flint covers.
Patrick Flint editing credits go to Rhonda Erb, Whitney Cox, and Karen Goodwin. The proofreaders who enthusiastically devote their time—gratis—to help us rid my books of flaws blow me away. Thank you all!
SkipJack Publishing now includes fantastic books by a cherry-picked bushel basket of mystery/thriller/suspense writers. If you write in this genre, visit http://SkipJackPublishing.com for submission guidelines. To check out our other authors and snag a bargain at the same time, download Murder, They Wrote: Four SkipJack Mysteries.
p.s. My dad is defying his diagnosis and doing fantastic now. It’s my prayer we’ll be collaborating on this series for many years to come.
Books by the Author
Fiction from SkipJack Publishing
THE PATRICK FLINT SERIES OF WYOMING MYSTERIES:
Switchback (Patrick Flint #1)
Snake Oil (Patrick Flint #2)
Sawbones (Patrick Flint #3)
Scapegoat (Patrick Flint #4)
Snaggle Tooth (Patrick Flint #5)
Stag Party (Patrick Flint #6)
Sitting Duck (Patrick Flint #7)
Spark (Patrick Flint 1.5): Exclusive to subscribers
THE WHAT DOESN’T KILL YOU SUPER SERIES:
Act One (WDKY Ensemble Prequel Novella): Exclusive to Subscribers
The Essential Guide to the What Doesn’t Kill You Series
Katie Connell Caribbean Mysteries:
Saving Grace (Katie #1)
Leaving Annalise (Katie #2)
Finding Harmony (Katie #3)
Seeking Felicity (Katie #4)
Emily Bernal Texas-to-New Mexico Mysteries:
Heaven to Betsy (Emily #1)
Earth to Emily (Emily #2)
Hell to Pay (Emily #3)
Michele Lopez Hanson Texas Mysteries:
Going for Kona (Michele #1)
Fighting for Anna (Michele #2)
Searching for Dime Box (Michele #3)
Maggie Killian Texas-to-Wyoming Mysteries:
Buckle Bunny (Maggie Prequel Novella)
Shock Jock (Maggie Prequel Short Story)
Live Wire (Maggie #1)
Sick Puppy (Maggie #2)
Dead Pile (Maggie #3)
The Ava Butler Caribbean Mysteries Trilogy: A Sexy Spin-off From What Doesn’t Kill You
Bombshell (Ava #1)
Stunner (Ava #2)
Knockout (Ava #3)
BOX SETS:
(50% off individual title retail)
The Patrick Flint Box Set Series
The Patrick Flint Series Books #1-3
The Patrick Flint Series Books #4-6
The What Doesn’t Kill You Box Sets Series
The Complete Katie Connell Trilogy
The Complete Emily Bernal Trilogy
The Complete Michele Lopez Hanson Trilogy
The Complete Maggie Killian Trilogy
The Complete Ava Butler Trilogy
Juvenile Fiction from SkipJack Publishing
Poppy Needs a Puppy (Poppy & Petey #1)
Nonfiction from SkipJack Publishing
The Clark Kent Chronicles
Hot Flashes and Half Ironmans
How to Screw Up Your Kids
How to Screw Up Your Marriage
Puppalicious and Beyond
What Kind of Loser Indie Publishes,
and How Can I Be One, Too?
Audio, e-book, and paperback versions of most titles available.
Patrick Flint and Katie Connell also available in hardcover and large print.
About the Author
Pam
ela Fagan Hutchins is a USA Today best selling author. She writes award-winning romantic mystery/thriller/suspense from way up in the frozen north of Snowheresville, Wyoming, where she lives in an off-the-grid cabin on the face of the Bighorn Mountains. She is passionate about hiking/snow shoeing/cross country skiing with her hunky husband and pack of rescue dogs (and occasional rescue cat) and riding their gigantic horses.
If you'd like Pamela to speak to your book club, women's club, class, or writers group by streaming video or in person, shoot her an email. She's very likely to say yes.
You can connect with Pamela via her website
(http://pamelafaganhutchins.com)
or email ([email protected]).
Praise for Pamela Fagan Hutchins
2018 USA Today Best Seller
2017 Silver Falchion Award, Best Mystery
2016 USA Best Book Award, Cross-Genre Fiction
2015 USA Best Book Award, Cross-Genre Fiction
2014 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Quarter-finalist, Romance
The Patrick Flint Mysteries
“Best book I’ve read in a long time!” — Kiersten Marquet, author of Reluctant Promises
"Switchback transports the reader deep into the mountains of Wyoming for a thriller that has it all--wild animals, criminals, and one family willing to do whatever is necessary to protect its own. Pamela Fagan Hutchins writes with the authority of a woman who knows this world. She weaves the story with both nail-biting suspense and a healthy dose of humor. You won't want to miss Switchback." -- Danielle Girard, Wall Street Journal-bestselling author of White Out.
Stag Party: A Patrick Flint Novel Page 26