Trusting Drew: Burlap and Barbed Wire

by Shirley Penick

  He rolled his eyes. “So, she ran off before she changed them?”

  “But most cabins don’t check people in until later in the afternoon. So, if she spent the night she got up and put on the same clothes.”

  He shrugged.

  Alyssa continued. “Including underwear.”

  It finally sunk in and Drew looked up. “That’s not normal.”

  Alyssa crossed her arms. “No, it’s not.”

  He looked back toward the kitchen. “None of the foods she would like have been opened, not even the tea. But the foods she wouldn’t like, are open.”

  Drew came into the room and sat in the chair. Lily and Drew watched Alyssa repack the bag to take to the bedroom. The sexy nighty caused his eyebrows to raise, but he didn’t mention it.

  Alyssa got the charger and the phone and plugged them in. She opened the front of the bag and found shoes. A pair of worn sneakers and two pairs of fancy high heels. “All right, well we have certainly confirmed the sky-high heels question. You do have them, but the most worn ones are the sneakers. The heels look pretty new. That could be due to the fact that after you wear these killer heels your feet need comfort, which they would find in the sneakers.”

  Lily agreed with that statement, just looking at those shoes made her feet hurt.

  “I’ll leave the sneakers out, since your healing feet will be better in them. I’m going to go put the suitcase and clothes in the room you’re staying in. Unless you’re ready to face the world.”

  Lily shook her head, no, she didn’t feel up to others, yet. “Maybe tomorrow. After my phone charges I want to look through it. It will most certainly have clues.”

  “Sounds reasonable. I’ll put these things away then. Taking the rest of the day to heal would be best anyway.”

  Chapter 6

  Drew was alarmed at the disappointment he felt knowing Lily had planned a getaway with someone, that included seduction wear. Clearly, she was involved with someone, and that sucked. He’d not really realized that he was feeling drawn to her in a sexual way. He knew he wanted to help her, but the level of disappointment he was feeling went far beyond normal.

  This was the first time since high school that he’d been attracted to a woman. He was glad to know that part of him hadn’t died with Monica, but couldn’t he have felt it for someone not already taken?

  “So, what do you want to do while you wait for your phone to charge? We’ve got books, or we could play cards.”

  “If you don’t mind I just want to lay down here on the couch for a few minutes and think about things, if I don’t fall asleep that is. It’s been a lot of revelations and maybe if I just let my mind mull them over, my memories will return.”

  “Fair enough. I’m going to go check on my horse, I’ll be back in a little bit.”

  Drew went out into the fresh air, where he could think better, too. He needed to see how all the pieces fit together. His horse greeted him, and Drew took a brush down and started grooming.

  Lily had clearly been in that cabin with someone else, even though that person had cleared out. Why would someone leave her like that? Unless they’d done something wrong and didn’t want to get caught. Lily running away without her shoes or coat didn’t make sense either, since they were in the cabin, again unless something untoward had been going on.

  Had someone threatened both her and her boyfriend? So, Lily had run one way and he’d gone the other? But if that had happened, his clothes would have been in the cabin too, unless he’d snuck back to get them. But then why had he left Lily’s clothes behind?

  None of this made much sense. And her having no dirty clothes was also a mystery, had she slept in the clothes she’d had on? They hadn’t looked very comfortable for that. Maybe the two of them had arrived really late or early in the morning and they’d simply crashed rather than getting undressed. He supposed that was possible.

  But then why was some of the food opened? This was the strangest set of circumstances he’d ever run across. Maybe he needed a fresh perspective. He wondered if he should call in the sheriff.

  Drew filled the water trough with fresh water and gave his horse both hay and grain, then walked out to lean against the fence post. His brain whirled with all the clues he had, but he didn’t get any closer to a reasonable explanation.

  Lily needed her memories back. They both needed to get on with their lives.

  He’d seen movies about people losing their memory and wondered how much of what they showed was true. Movies showed people regaining their memory instantly when something triggered it and wondered if that really could happen or if it was more subtle than that. If he took Lily to see the cabin, would if help?

  Thomas had gotten a card from the owner of the cabin. Drew decided to call the owner to ask about taking Lily to see the space. After a quick phone call, it was confirmed that Drew could take Lily in two days. The people currently staying in the cabin where only there for a short time, if Lily’s memory was not back in two days he would drive her out to the cabin.

  He still probably needed to bring the sheriff in on it. There was a reason she’d been running and maybe with two heads it would be easier to figure out. His mom, dad and Grandpa K could be counted on for good ideas, too. He would broach the subject with dinner and see if she was ready to move to the big house.

  That would also bring a close to the intimacy of the cabin and help him get his head on straight. She was taken, and having more people around would help him to remember that.

  Lily dozed fitfully on the couch while her mind ran around and around with the information she’d just heard. Being a contestant in a beauty pageant just flat seemed odd to her. But even odder was the scantiness of the nightgown she’d packed. It was clearly not made for sleeping.

  With the slight indent on her finger it appeared she was with someone, which made her attraction for the hunky cop off limits. A total bummer. Maybe they should move to his parents’ house as he’d suggested. It would put more people in their path and keep her from getting too close to the man. Maybe tomorrow.

  She could rest the remainder of today and keep off her feet, then after Alyssa came to check on her they could all go together.

  Lily also needed to check her phone and see what interesting information that might bring to her mind. There certainly should be pictures and phone numbers of friends, maybe even a calendar of events. Emails would give her itineraries for the pageant, which was supposed to be next weekend.

  When she drifted off, she had weird thoughts, they weren’t quite dreams, because she wasn’t fully asleep. Her mind wouldn’t let her relax enough to sleep, it was thinking too much. But she wanted to give her phone enough charge, so she didn’t have to sit right by the wall.

  She’d decided to leave it plugged in until Drew came back in. He was such a nice man and she felt safe with him. Who was this guy she was with, was he a nice man? She didn’t feel very favorably towards him and that made her wonder. Why would she have that scanty nighty if she didn’t feel positive towards him? Maybe they’d had a fight. But her running out of the cabin in her bare feet seemed a little extreme for a fight. She sighed, nothing made sense.

  When she heard Drew come back in the door she sat up. He’d brought fresh air in with him and his hair was tousled. “Is it windy out?”

  “No, actually it’s very pleasant.”

  Lily sighed.

  “Are you feeling cooped up?”

  “A little, or maybe it’s just restlessness, wanting to know what’s going on. Nothing makes any sense to me.”

  “I was thinking about that. It might be a good idea to bring in a few more people to help us figure that out. Unless your phone reveals all.”

  Lily nodded. “I was thinking the same thing, maybe tomorrow after Alyssa checks on me we should go to your parents’ house.”

  “Yeah, talking things over with mom, dad and Grandpa K would be good. We could also have the sheriff come out to the house. He’s one of my dad’s buddies.”<
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  It all sounded like a good idea, but she would miss this little cabin and having Drew all to herself. She cleared her throat from the lump that was forming. “That’s probably a good idea. Do you think my phone is charged enough?”

  “Most likely.” He unplugged it and brought it to her. The lock screen showed her with a guy. Lily wondered if she would remember her password, but as she took it from him, she realized she had biometrics programmed in because it immediately unlocked.

  He sat in the chair to the right of the couch and pulled out his own phone. She started with the pictures. She flipped through a few of them, but without context they were no help. She had apps for both Facebook and Instagram. She pulled up Facebook, rather than look at the feed she went to her profile and started with her own posts.

  There was a post about her taking a few days off to go to an undisclosed location for the weekend. It was going to be a surprise and she’d been excited about it.

  When she got to the post where a guy named Ronald Duvall had proposed she’d felt an irrational anger and had actually wanted to throw her phone across the room. She resisted doing that and looked carefully at the post and all the comments. She’d been happy at the time. Lots of hearts and happy faces. What had changed?

  She must have made some noise because Drew looked up from his phone. “What’s wrong?”

  “I just don’t know. I’m looking at Facebook and I came across a post where a guy named Ronald Duvall asked me to marry him. The post is all happy, with smileys and hearts, but when I saw it, I wanted to throw my phone across the room and scream.”

  Drew was taken aback by that. “Not what one would expect looking at that kind of post.”

  “Right? So, what changed?”

  “The million-dollar question. Do you feel fear when you look at him?”

  “No, actually I don’t, but I am totally pissed off when I look at his ugly lying face.”

  Drew snorted. “If he’s the same guy on your lock screen, he’s not ugly. As to the lying comment, I can’t say.”

  She still felt like the guy was a weasel. “Well he looks like a lying rat in sheep’s clothing to me.”

  “Do you feel like you were running away from him when I found you?”

  Lily looked back at the picture of Ronald on her phone. Was she running away from him? She didn’t feel fear, she only felt anger, so if she had been running away, then why? Dammit only more questions. “Maybe, but I don’t know why, I really don’t feel any fear looking at him.”

  “Do you want me to run him?”

  Like through the criminal database? She didn’t think he would find anything, but it wouldn’t hurt to know. She looked back at the engagement post and noticed it had only been a few weeks ago. So that’s why there wasn’t much of an indention on her finger and why she didn’t feel engaged. “Sure, go ahead.”

  While he did that, she continued to scroll back through her profile posts. Prior to about a year ago there was no mention of any pageantry. In fact, there wasn’t much of anything, she was not a very avid poster. She did see a post where she had shared that a friend of hers had begged her to join the pageant, but she couldn’t see why.

  She clicked over to that friend’s profile and there was nothing at all on it recently, that didn’t sound good, because that friend had been an avid poster prior to asking Lily to join the pageant. Then she just kind of faded away. It made Lily shiver.

  Drew huffed, which thankfully pulled her attention from Facebook. “Nothing, at all. It’s too empty.”

  “Are you saying it’s a fake name?”

  Drew rubbed his hand around the back of his neck. “I suppose that is a possibility. But why?”

  Lily glanced back at her phone. “This is not helping as much as I had hoped. I’m just finding more questions.”

  “Maybe leave where you are and check email or your calendar. If you’re in a pageant next week, we need to know about it.”

  Hopefully she would have more luck with that. She clicked over to her email and found a folder labeled Pageant. There was a ton of information in that folder. The most pressing was that she needed to be in New York on Wednesday next week. Her flight was out of Billings, Tuesday afternoon, which gave her eight days to get her feet healed, her memory back, and her butt home and then to Billings.

  Lily glanced through a few more emails in the folder and then decided she knew enough about that for now. She went back to her inbox and didn’t see anything significant. So, she opened up her text messages and saw a bunch of messages waiting from “Mom”.

  Scrolling down to the first unread one she started there and read going forward in time. The first one just mentioned having a good weekend with Ronald, then there was some about her pageant dresses being back from the seamstress and that her mom was looking forward to having her try them on when she got back.

  The most recent mentioned that her mom and dad would pick her up at the airport tonight, since Ronald was going on to New York. Knowing they would worry when she didn’t get off the plane, a phone call was in order, but she didn’t even remember her mother, what would she say? “I need to call my mom, she thinks she’s picking me up at the airport tonight.”

  Drew looked up. “Want me to leave so you can talk?”

  Did she? No, not at all. “No need, you know as much about this as I do.”

  She scrolled through her contacts to find the one that said mom and pushed send. A woman answered the phone. “Hi honey, are you boarding your flight?”

  Lily said, “Mom?”

  “Well of course, what’s wrong, honey?”

  Lily didn’t exactly recognize her mother’s voice, but she did recognize the feelings it gave her. Comfort and security and love. Her throat closed up and tears threatened. She tried to speak through her tears, “Everything mom, everything is wrong.”

  “What? What’s happened, Lily?”

  She started to cry harder and looked at Drew. He was instantly by her side, wrapped one arm around her, and took the phone. He pushed speaker, so they could both hear. “Mrs. Smith? This is Drew Kipling, I’m a sheriff’s deputy in Spirit Lake Colorado.”

  They both heard her mother gasp.

  Drew hurried on, “Now don’t worry, ma’am. Lily is fine, nothing a couple of days won’t cure.”

  Her mom shrieked, “What?”

  Shit, he was making things worse, but Lily was still sobbing too hard to help.

  “Now don’t worry, ma’am. Lily has had a few challenges, but really, she is fine. Just a bump on her head and a couple of stitches in one foot. But well, she also lost her memory, my brother says it’s probably from the bump and once the swelling goes down she’ll remember everything. It only happened yesterday.”

  Her mom harrumphed. “Why am I talking to you? Instead of Lily?”

  “Lily was overcome when she heard your voice and started crying. She’s been very stoic up until now.”

  Lily was finally starting to calm down, when she heard her mom yell out. “Howard, start packing, we’re going to Colorado.”

  Lily choked out, “No, wait mom, you don’t need to do that.”

  “It’s only a ten-hour drive to Denver. We’ll be there tomorrow. Drew was it? Where is Spirit Lake?”

  Drew said, “It’s two hours west of Denver in the mountains, when you hit interstate seventy turn west and follow the signs to Rocky Mountain National park, our town is right before you get to the park. Call when you hit the town and we’ll guide you to the ranch. The Rockin’ K ranch.”

  “Very good. Lily honey, we’ll talk when we get there. I have to go help your father, now. We’ll see you tomorrow.”

  Lily sighed, she hated having her parents drive so far, but she needed her mom and her dad. She said, “All right mommy, drive carefully. Don’t drive straight through, there is no emergency, I’m fine.”

  Her mom harrumphed again, but said, “Don’t worry. We’ll stop in Casper for the night. Love you, see you soon.”

  “Bye.” Dre
w pushed end and Lily put her head on his shoulder and sucked in his warmth and strength. He curled his arm tighter around her and she felt safe and protected.

  Chapter 7

  Drew held Lily for a long time. He thought she was still crying. Not the wracking sobs from before but quiet, cleansing tears. There was nothing wrong with that, so he didn’t say anything just held her close and let his hand draw circles on her arm. He enjoyed the closeness, and the idea that he was bringing her comfort, it had been a long time since he’d felt this way.

  Since before Monica had died, they had been to prom and it was just a few weeks until graduation. He’d thought about asking her to marry him, but they were both going away to college. She was going to be a nurse and he was going for a business degree. He’d planned to use that for the ranch. Her crazy mother had ruined their ‘after the prom’ plans with a single text. Monica had been devastated that she hadn’t been accepted into the college she’d wanted to go to, so he’d held her, much like he was holding Lily.

  Monica had let all her frustration and sadness pour out of her while he held her and spoke soothingly. Then she’d been tired, so had decided to go home rather than spend the night like they’d planned. He didn’t mind, not too much anyway. So, she’d given him a goodnight kiss and that was the last time he’d ever seen her.

  A drunk driver had T-boned her car pushing her into the side of a mountain. The dumb ass was so wasted he never even took his foot off the gas just kept right on going forward. He’d been in a huge truck and Monica’s little car hadn’t had a chance and neither had Monica.

  That’s when he’d changed his mind and had gone into law enforcement. Hopefully to keep drunk assholes off the roads. He’d gone to the police academy after high school graduation and took classes at night to get his degree. He’d been so focused, he’d finished his four-year degree in three and a half years. He’d not been interested in doing anything but getting his degree. He’d helped at the ranch as needed, but that had been the extent of his life.