Leading him into the arena, they came to a stop by the first square. “I want you to warm up. Stretch your arms out and swing left then right.” She took him through several simple arm swirls and movements. “Feel all warmed up now?”
“You could say that.” He flashed that impish grin.
Hannah felt her cheeks warm. “Let’s start walking. Patience has a lateral gait. She’ll be good for those sore back muscles.”
“It’s not my back I’m worried about.” Sparkling eyes filled with humor turned away from her.
It was in her best interest not to let her gaze wander to his rear in the saddle. “Yeah, well, no pain no gain.”
“Ha ha.” He didn’t look at her, but she could see his smile expand nonetheless.
Not wanting to overdo it, they walked around a few more minutes before returning inside for him to dismount.
“That wasn’t as bad as I expected.”
“You’ll feel it tomorrow, but the day after you can ride again. We’ll do this till you leave. You’ll be surprised how much better your muscles will feel.”
Dale didn’t look all that convinced, but the way he helped remove the saddle and clean Patience up, she had the feeling he was teasing her just a little.
With Patience in her stall for the night, Hannah climbed onto the bottom rung of the nearest fence, one hand at the top and the other hand to her mouth, she whistled loud and strong for Maggie.
Not far ahead the horse lifted its head, pawed at the dirt and turned away.
“Little stinker,” Hannah muttered and ignored the chuckle coming from Dale. Both hands to her lips she blew out the familiar call for the horse, shifted her weight to blow one more time, and felt her balance give way. Arms flailing and letting loose a loud squeal, she moved her legs to find a foothold, only to be scooped and cradled in strong arms for the second time in two days.
“You okay?” Dark narrowed eyes filled with concern drilled her.
“Thanks to you, yes.” Her words did little to ease the concerned gaze taking her in.
Was it totally ridiculous that she had an overwhelming urge to lay her head on his shoulder, wrap her arms around his neck and stay curled in his arms till, oh, whenever? She actually had to consciously keep from pouting when one arm fell away from underneath her, letting her legs reach the ground. When she was standing steady on her own two feet, his other hand eased away and that high wattage smile reappeared. “We really should stop meeting this way.”
****
Dale was thankful that Hannah was so easy to talk to. Finished brushing the horse down, putting her back in the stall, and taking the short ride back to the Farraday ranch, he’d asked her everything and anything he could think of to keep his mind off how much he had wanted to keep her in his arms.
Even now the urge to reach out and snatch her hand in his was surprisingly strong. He hadn’t felt like this about a girl he barely knew since he was a teen crushing on the head cheerleader. “How old were you when you sat your first horse?”
“Too young to remember.” She sprouted a cute grin that told him she remembered more than she was willing to share.
“When did you know you wanted to do equine therapy?”
The car rolled to a stop. Hannah shifted gears and popped the door open. “I’m not really sure exactly when it made sense to mix my degree with my history with horses.”
“So you were already in college?” Dale climbed out of the car.
“Oh, yeah, for sure.”
The front door flung open and her aunt filled the doorway. “This, I’m sure, is not what Brooks meant by take it easy.”
Hannah shrugged. “I’m not a doctor. But even I know people get blood clots from laying still.”
“I’m not a doctor either, and I know that people throw clots by moving around.”
Dale didn’t dare get in the middle of this one, even if it was about him. One thing he had learned early in life was when to stand his ground and when to take cover. Right now, diving for the nearest recliner and taking it easy as the woman wanted seemed the safest move.
Aunt Eileen ushered him into the other room. “Come on inside and let’s get you settled. Brooks will be here soon, and DJ won’t be far behind.”
“Twice in one day is a lot for Brooks to come out here.” Hannah grabbed the cushion out of the recliner and tossed it onto the sofa. “What can he do that we can’t?”
Aunt Eileen stood by the chair, fists on her hips, clearly waiting for Dale to settle in, but staring down her niece. “Blood clots are a serious matter. Which is why,” she turned to face Dale, “you are going to stay put until Brooks arrives.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Dale almost saluted before dropping into the nearby recliner.
“Good. Would you like something to drink?”
“No, ma’am. Thank you.”
“All right, I’ve got a little more work in the kitchen. Just took a couple of pumpkin pies out of the oven.”
Hannah whiffed the air. “Is Meg coming?”
“How did you know that?” Aunt Eileen asked.
“Seriously? Even I know Meg’s favorite is anything pumpkin. That’s the only reason I can think of you would bake a pumpkin pie out of season.”
Aunt Eileen smiled at her niece, patted her cheek with one hand and kissed the other cheek. “You always were a smart kid.”
“Need help in the kitchen?”
“Nope. Just make sure this guy stays put.”
Hannah took a seat on the sofa closest to him. Dale chose to wait until the aunt was out of sight. “She really is something, isn’t she?”
“Oh yeah. And when she and my mom get together, heaven help us all.”
“Really? Two peas in a pod?”
“Two crazy peas in a pod.”
He took a minute to consider that. The woman was caring, perhaps a little over the top, perhaps not. Loving, kind, a little bossy, but from love obviously. All those qualities said a lot about Aunt Eileen, but so far he hadn’t read crazy. “How crazy?”
“Well,” Hannah blew out a small huff, “maybe crazy isn’t quite the right word. Maybe silly is better. They always break out in song. You don’t want to be behind them at Wal-Mart if a song they like starts playing. They wind up dancing down the aisle and embarrassed you’ll duck behind the displays.”
Dale laughed at that one. So far he’d pictured Aunt Eileen more like a drill sergeant than a chorus girl.
“They tell jokes no one else gets, spit old movie quotes back and forth at each other.”
“That seems rather harmless.”
“In the living room of course it does, but at restaurants, grocery store, and other places where waitresses and cashiers are trying to do their job, except the two of them aren’t paying attention because they’re reciting word for word scenes of dialogue from movies. Whatever you do, don’t ask her to recite the What pants should I wear scene from My Cousin Vinny.”
Another burst of laughter escaped from deep in his chest. At least Aunt Eileen had good taste. The woman sounded like a firecracker. He really liked that—a lot.
“Of course when she gets all the friends together you’ll want to hide the rifles.”
Okay, that sounded more serious, teetering on dangerous, but before Dale could inquire further the front door creaked open.
“Glad to see you’re still with us.” Brooks came in
“Alive and kicking,” he confirmed.
The door still open, Meg and Adam crossed the threshold. The redhead had barely made it into the house when, nose to the air, she sniffed like a bloodhound following a scent. “Oh please tell me that’s Aunt Eileen’s famous pumpkin pie I smell.”
“Two of them.” Hannah grinned.
Adam turned to close the door and stopped midway. “I see brother Declan has arrived.”
“Looks like we’re going to have a full house.” The pregnant woman settled her hands on her rounded tummy.
Boot heels clattered down the wooden steps. The first pe
rson to emerge from the second floor was the family patriarch. By the time DJ made it into the house, the youngest brother Finn was descending the stairs. Brooks’ wife wasn’t kidding. Adding in siblings and houseguests and in-laws and cousins, this family was as big as a church. Sort of ironic. After all, churches offered sanctuary too.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
DJ had hoped for less of an audience when he got to sit down with Dale. Not wanting to accidentally set off any red flags in Dallas, he’d resisted checking into things, but he did call the hospital to follow up on his friend the same as he done every few days for the past weeks. As soon as he’d been informed that Officer Dale Johnson had died, DJ understood better some of what was going on. What he needed to figure out now was if keeping Dale here was putting his family at risk.
“Where’s Becky?” Hannah asked.
“My wife and her grandmother are helping Kelly make new slipcovers. Though I’m a little concerned how much progress they’re going to make.”
Meg sidled up to her brother-in-law for a quick kiss on the cheek. “What makes you say that?”
“It might have something to do with the two bottles of white wine and a batch of Toni’s Chardonnay cake balls.” DJ smiled.
All heads turned to Toni. Patting her tummy, she grinned widely and hefted her hands in a casual shrug. “Hey, I had to do something to help liven up a Saturday night with slipcovers.”
High-fiving with her sister-in-law, Meg said, “If I had the slightest clue which end of a sewing machine was up, I’d have been there to help just for the cake balls.”
“Those suckers really are popular.” Brooks looked to his wife. “If you ever got a bee in your bonnet to open a cake ball business, I could probably retire.”
Toni patted her husband’s arm lightly. “Keep dreaming, sweetie. Keep dreaming.”
“I could eat the rear end of a rhinoceros at this moment.” Sean Farraday looked past his sons and their wives to Aunt Eileen entering the room.
“Me, too,” Hannah grinned.
The patriarch looked to Aunt Eileen. “Whatever’s cooking smells delicious.”
Aunt Eileen rolled her eyes at her brother-in-law. “After a long day like today, you’d say that if I were brewing leather and shoelaces.”
“That’s only because,” Sean smiled, “your culinary skills are such that even leather and shoelaces would be delicious.”
“Suck up!” two of the brothers hollered.
DJ slapped his dad on the shoulder. “What did you break?”
“Nope,” Adam shook his head “my guess is he bought something.”
“Lord I hope it’s new boots.” Aunt Eileen waved a finger. “You can only resole a pair of boots so many times.”
Sean Farraday shook his head at his sons. “Fat lot this bunch knows. I didn’t break anything. I didn’t buy anything. And your aunt is a great cook and y’all know it.”
Several heads in the room nodded at the woman now smiling from ear to ear.
“And I’d like to think,” Sean pointed from son to son, “that I have taught each and every one of you to give man, or woman, credit where credit is due and praise when warranted.”
His dad was right, but they all appreciated their aunt and what she’d done for them and no one minced words in this family. That left the detective in DJ a little surprised by the sternness of his father’s rebuke. Then again, after twelve hours working the ranch, the man had a right to be a little grumpy.
“Well,” Aunt Eileen blew out a light breath, “supper’s taking a little longer tonight. I think we’re going to be in the market for a new oven. Knob says 350, but I took a thermometer reading and it’s fifty degrees under. Y’all might as well grab a drink. It’ll be a bit longer.” She spun to face DJ. “And I’d like a few minutes with you when you have a chance.”
DJ swallowed and nodded. He knew what she’d want, but the whole reason Dale said nothing to him was about to be showcased. DJ couldn’t tell his aunt what he didn’t know. Taking advantage of the time till supper, he turned to his friend. “Why don’t you join me for a cold one on a country porch?”
“He can join you on the country porch,” Brooks got to his feet, “but no cold ones.”
Aunt Eileen turned to Dale. “How does some fresh squeezed strawberry lemonade sound?”
Dale’s face lit up as though she’d offered him the winning lottery numbers. “Like heaven on earth, ma’am.”
Adam followed Dale out the back door. Brooks remained seated by his wife. The guy might be a doctor, but when it came to Toni and her pregnancy, Brooks behaved more like a mother hen. His dad and Finn escaped to the office for a few minutes. Any paperwork done before supper meant one less thing to deal with before bed.
“Oh, man, the lemonade is out of this world.” Dale practically licked his lips.
“Dad wasn’t kidding,” Adam spoke up. “Aunt Eileen really is great in the kitchen. She’s probably the best cook in the county. Her jams and pies are always winning blue ribbons at the state fair.”
“I’ll make sure to leave some room for that pumpkin pie she baked.”
From the way Dale eyed him over the rim of his glass, DJ knew his friend recognized he was itching for a chance to talk alone. Taking another sip, Dale scanned from left to right across the horizon. “This is a lot of land.”
“Over 100,000 acres before we bought some of the Brennan land,” Adam said.
Dale shifted his attention toward the barns. “Is that for cows or horses?”
DJ muffled a laugh. “Sometimes we have to keep a calf or a first-time pregnant heifer inside. But usually we keep horses in the barn.”
“I’d love to take a look. Want to show me around?”
And this was why DJ had loved working with Dale. That guy could follow a breadcrumb of a hint. Together their work sang. “Sure, we have a little time.”
Not until they’d crossed into the barn did Dale speak. “I appreciate what you’ve done. But I’m not sure this was such a great idea.”
“That’s what I’m about to find out.”
Dale nodded and stepped further inside, pausing at the first stall to scratch the chin of a horse whose head hung over the doorway.
“I called the hospital today,” DJ said. “Dale Johnson passed away two days ago.”
Remaining silent, Dale continued to scratch the horse’s chin with one hand, and stroked his neck with the other. “Who else did you call?” he finally asked.
“No one. It was one thing for me to check the hospital the way I’ve been doing all along, it was another to start poking under rocks. Never know which –”
“—snake will jump out and bite you.” It was an expression they’d used often when they were partnered on the Dallas PD.
“I think I can figure a few things out for myself.”
Dale turned sideways to face DJ, but continued to scratch the horse’s chin.
“The different name is obvious to any idiot. If Dale is dead it wouldn’t do any good to have people reporting that they’ve chatted with you after the funeral.”
“There is no funeral. Mom flew home when I was transferred out of ICU and into a regular room. As far as anyone in Dallas is concerned, Dale Johnson was sent home to his family.”
“And you’re sure nobody’s checking up to see that your family is burying a body?”
“Very sure.”
Something in the way Dale said that struck DJ as odd. They both knew in this business no one could ever be absolutely sure of anything. “What am I missing?”
Dale’s hand fell away from the horse. He blew out a heavy sigh and turned to fully face DJ. “Peter Mackinaw didn’t like people. You know the kind. The ones all the fighting changes, soon the wife leaves them, the parents don’t understand them, and anger and pain fester inside like a cancer.”
DJ knew too damn well what he was talking about.
“I had the bed by the window, Pete had the bed by the door. Sometimes he’d shuffle over to the window and stare
for hours. I offered to have the hospital switch beds on us, but he always said no. Until the other night. It was late and he’d been standing staring out the window at absolutely nothing for so long I expected him to just drop from exhaustion. This time when I said Hey man, why don’t you sleep here and I’ll take the other bed, he never answered. He merely turned, walked to my bed, and started to sit before I could climb fully out.”
Far-off look in his eyes, Dale’s mind had no doubt gone someplace very unpleasant. Whether he was thinking about Peter, or the murder-suicide he’d responded to weeks before the accident, or the accident itself, DJ had no way of knowing. But he understood nonetheless.
“I’d taken some meds for the pain and fell fast asleep. Had the craziest dream. I rolled over, opened my eyes, and saw a tall figure injecting something into Peter’s IV. Then, like the Grim Reaper, the dark shadow casually strolled out of the room, closing the door behind him. I thought for sure it was a sign that my days were numbered since Peter was actually in my bed. All of a sudden machinery started beeping. Alarms were going off, nurses and doctors were running through the room. The scene looked like a cartoon football huddle. Not till I woke up at six in the morning to an empty bed beside me did I realize it was no dream.”
“Damn it, man. I’m so sorry,” DJ said. “You think that was meant for you?”
“I know it was. I wasn’t pining over a breakup. Despite what you or anyone else might have thought, I could still compartmentalize life and work. Though it may drive me over the edge one day, it hasn’t yet.” Dale pushed away from the stall and took a few steps closer to DJ. “I didn’t drive off the road. I was run off the road.”
****
“You seem awfully quiet tonight.” Aunt Eileen handed Hannah another tomato to slice. “Something you want to talk about?”
“Just thinking about a new student.”
“For the new riding program?”
“Yes. Looks like starting Monday, we’re open for business.”
Aunt Eileen wiped her hands on a dishrag. “But I thought there was a long waiting list?”
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