“Damn it!” Derek pounded the steering wheel. “Can’t anyone in this town mind their own?”
“Listen, I know you don’t want to hurt me. But this isn’t the way. I don’t know how I can help you, but I’ll certainly talk to Pamela Ann if that’s what you want.”
Suddenly, he revved the engine and accelerated. “That’s exactly what you’re going to do. As soon as I lose these guys.”
The sudden jolt of speed made Sadie nauseous. Or maybe the fact that Derek hauled her out of the classroom with a knife. His desperation, she imagined. She didn’t want him to get hurt, but if he thought she wouldn’t fight back, he’d chosen the wrong teacher.
All of her life men had protected her, taken care of her. First her father, then her brother, and if either of them missed their chance, there were all the men of Stone Ridge. No wonder she’d gone to college and slid right into a relationship with a man who wanted to love and take care of her, as long as she’d ignore his many indiscretions. Well, she didn’t need a man, even those currently following them, all with the best of intentions. She’d take care of this herself thank you very much.
She believed Derek wouldn’t hurt her, unless he did so accidentally. And that could very well happen if he continued at this rate of speed.
“Slow down,” she said, as he blew through a stop sign. “You’re going to hurt us both.”
“I don’t care what happens to me anymore.”
Oh, God, no. Don’t say that. She swallowed hard.
“Jimmy Ray cares.” She hoped that would sink in as Derek executed a turn that made the truck spin on what felt like two wheels.
He headed to Lupine Lake.
“When we get to your cabin, you’re going to call Pamela Ann and tell her you made a mistake.”
“What mistake?”
“Introducing her to that high falutin’ doctor in town.”
“What? No, no, I didn’t. He’s left town. Derek, she’s not dating anyone. She’s still your wife.”
“Ha! I’m supposed to believe that? She thinks I cheated on her, so this is how she’s payin’ me back. Well, it won’t work. Maybe I’ll have you call that slimy doctor, too. Tell him to find his own damn woman!” He hit the steering wheel.
“He was just tryin’ to be a friend to Pamela Ann. He doesn’t want to date her.”
“Likely story.”
“You do know that Jimmy Ray went after you and got lost, don’t you? Judson checked him over that night, because he’s a doctor. And that’s all there is to this.”
Derek screeched to a halt and pulled into the frontage road leading to her cabin. Parking, he jumped out of the car and pulled Sadie across the seat, nearly yanking her arm out by the socket.
“You’re hurtin’ me.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, didn’t mean to.” For a moment, it seemed Derek regained his senses, and he walked her swiftly to her cabin, pulling her along a bit more gently. “Let’s go inside and you can call Pamela Ann.”
Sadie unlocked the front door. She didn’t have a plan but for now she would simply indulge Derek.
She went right to the phone, not wasting any time. “What if she isn’t home?”
“Then we wait until she is.”
“But what if she won’t listen to me? I’m not the authority on her.”
“You’re the teacher!” Derek yelled. “I don’t know if you realize this, but every parent respects you. She’ll listen to you.”
“And I’m sure she’d listen to you, too, if you talked, instead of ordered.”
“Dial.” Derek sat on the sofa and splayed his legs, holding the knife steady.
Sadie dialed and no one picked up. “No answer.”
Derek glanced at his wristwatch. “Try again in ten minutes.”
“Are we going to do this all night? Why don’t you just go home, and I’ll keep tryin’ to call her.”
“Nice try. If I leave here, you’ll call to tell her what I’ve done, how crazy I am, and that she should never give me another chance.”
Apparently, it hadn’t occurred to Derek that she could always do that later. Or that Pamela Ann wouldn’t be impressed by the way he’d treated Sadie or inclined to give him a second chance.
“I promise that I won’t do that.”
She heard several vehicle doors slam outside one right after the other, and then Lenny’s voice just outside her cabin.
“Now son, don’t be a shit for brains. C’mon outside and stop actin’ like you done lost all your marbles.”
“Go away.” Derek opened the curtain and Sadie could see that there were three trucks outside. “Sadie is fine and no one’s goin’ to get hurt.”
“Gonna need proof of life,” Lenny said.
“Oh, for crap’s sake! Sadie, tell them you’re okay.”
“I’m okay, guys,” she said loudly enough to be heard. “He just wants me to call his wife.”
“Gee, son, you sure like to put on the drama,” Lenny continued. “Kidnapping our schoolteacher to get her to make a phone call?”
“I didn’t kidnap anyone!” Derek shouted, but for the first time since she’d seen him, he looked uncertain. A trickle of sweat formed on his brow and he rubbed his knee.
Someone rattled on the doorknob of the locked door.
“Guys, he didn’t kidnap me,” she shouted, earning her a surprised look from Derek. She spoke a little more softly to him. “I don’t want you to get in trouble. But, really? I think this qualifies.”
“Aw, damn.” He wiped his brow, put down the knife, and gestured to the phone. “Try again.”
Still no answer. She shook her head and hung up. “Derek, what happened between you two? Want to talk about it?”
“What are you, a psychologist?”
“No, but I’m a great listener. Why don’t you try me?”
“What do you think happened?” he said roughly. “I lost my job. Then I was no good to her at all. Anyone could tell that Pamela Ann regretted marrying me a long time ago, but losing my job just made it worse.”
“And the drinking.”
He nodded. “Yeah, sure. The drinking. Which started after I lost my job, and when she stopped…when she stopped touching me.”
“I can see why that would hurt your feelings.”
He winced, as if having feelings was not something he could admit.
“There were a lot of men after Pamela Ann when we met. She could have married any one of them. She married me because she got pregnant. Too bad, because it was the last time I did the right thing. Jimmy Ray is the best thing that ever happened to me.”
“And he adores you.”
“But Pamela Ann doesn’t. Not anymore. If she ever did.” He shook his head sadly, looking defeated.
Her heart filled with sympathy for poor Derek. He looked so lost. He just needed a little bit of guidance to get on track, just like his son did. To know that someone in this town would take his side. Sure, he’d gone about it the wrong way, but he needed her to help him. And after the scene at the school when he’d shown up tanked, he hadn’t imagined she’d do him any favors. He would have been right.
Sadie took a deep breath. As it happened, she’d recently gained a ton of experience when it came to matters of the heart.
“I know how you feel because this happened to me, too.”
“What happened?”
“I love someone who doesn’t love me back.”
Derek scratched his temple and narrowed his eyes. “Lincoln?”
She nodded. “But you know what? I don’t regret our time together for a minute. Whether or not someone loves you back, you can still love them. Sometimes it has to be from a healthy distance.”
“I don’t like that idea.”
“No one does. But Derek, I’m going to ask you something and listen carefully. How much do you love Pamela Ann?”
“Well, a lot, I guess.”
“Someone that I love, and respect, recently told me that love isn’t all that hard. All you have to do i
s open up a vein and bleed.”
He blinked. “That sounds pretty hard.”
“It’s a different kind of difficult, isn’t it? But if you love Pamela Ann, and you really want her back, you’re going to have to clean up your act. Then you’re going to have to open up that vein and bleed. Tell her how you feel. Everything that you told me here today. It might hurt, but on the other hand it also might be the most wonderful and freeing thing you’ve ever done.”
Again, someone yanked on the doorknob. This time it sounded like Riggs Henderson. “Open up! You want me to call 911? Might take a while but they’ll send out a county deputy. You’ll want them to get here before Lincoln does.”
“Shit fire!” Derek said.
And of course, Lincoln would show up. Not because he loved her, but because he was a solid man of Stone Ridge, born and bred. When the community needed him, he’d be there. Someone obviously alerted the phone tree just like on the first day of school. Now, they were coming to rescue her from a depressed husband and father who probably drank a few more cold beers than he should. And she appreciated it very much that everyone cared what happened to her, but she would take control of this situation.
“What are your demands?” This from Lenny, who’d apparently read the hostage situation manual in the last few minutes.
“I don’t have any demands because this isn’t a dagum hostage situation!” Derek shouted, peering through the curtains.
“Then why won’t you open the door so we can all discuss this like rational men?” Riggs pressed.
“Because this is none of y’all’s business!”
While this exchange went on, Sadie kept pushing buttons on the phone over and over again, and finally, thank you Jesus, Pamela Ann picked up the phone.
“Hello?”
“Derek! I’ve got her on the phone.”
He moved away from the window toward Sadie and the phone, tucking the knife in his back pocket.
“Derek is there with you?” Pamela Ann hissed. “What is he doin’ there?”
“Well, honey, that’s a long story. I’m going to let Derek tell you all about it.” She handed him the phone.
He stepped back, tossed his hands up. “You tell her for me. I don’t know what to say.”
Sadie continued to hold the phone out. “Yes, you do. Just tell her what’s in your heart. Everything you told me. How you’re hurtin’. That you don’t think you deserve her. And what you’re willin’ to do to be able to come back home.”
Derek took the phone and with a deep sigh put it to his ear. “Pamela Ann, baby. Please listen to me.”
And Sadie heard the man who wanted his family back finally make his case.
Chapter 25
“Well, Albert, I’ve failed,” Lillian said.
“Tried to warn you. You’re terrible at this matchmaking thing,” Albert said from where he sat perched on the kitchen counter. At this point, she could see him anytime of the day and didn’t have to sit down to write to him. Good thing because her arthritis was getting worse, not better.
She’d seen poor, sweet, Sadie at the General Store last week dropping off some of her Mama’s jam. Her eyes were red-rimmed and she hadn’t worn a lick of makeup, her hair in a braid, making her appear far younger. Looked like she didn’t give a hoot what she looked like. That’s when she’d understood.
Her Lincoln failed to recognize that everything he’d ever wanted and needed existed in the form of Miss Sadie Stephens.
“It would have worked. Somethin’ just went wrong. I blame Maggie Mae. That woman left those children of hers a hurtin’ somethin’ fierce. And Lincoln, worst of all three. He blames himself. It’s goin’ to take a miracle, or at least some pretty fast thinkin’ on my part.”
“Well, get to thinkin’, then.”
“What do you think I’ve been doin’, old man?”
The phone rang and Lillian picked it up.
“Hello, Lillian. I’ve activated the phone tree,” said Beulah Hayes. “Tell Lincoln and Hank to get on over to Lupine Lake. Sadie’s cabin. Stupid Derek kidnapped Sadie and has dragged her over to her cabin.”
“What on earth?” Lillian clutched her chest and she didn’t do that often.
Even Albert blinked in surprise.
“Stupid is as stupid does,” Beulah said, as if discussing the weather. “Will you tell your men?”
“Yes, I’ll tell them! When did this happen? How many men are on their way?”
“Quite a few. Ol’ Derek don’t stand a chance. Lenny was the one who called. He and his brother-in-law saw it happen.”
“He kidnapped her?”
“That’s what he said. Right out of the schoolhouse in broad daylight. Boy don’t have the sense to come in out of the rain.”
“Maybe you should call the law. This sounds serious.” For once the men of Stone Ridge would need assistance.
“By the time they get here, we’ll have taken care of this on our own.”
But Lillian couldn’t be sure.
“Oh, lawd.” She hung up the phone and felt the salty sting of tears. “Albert, I think I may be comin’ to be with you soon.”
He snorted. “Woman, you’re goin’ to outlive ’em all.”
Sadie! Kidnapped. What if that horrible man hurt her? And Lincoln, her poor lamb. He’d feel responsible, Lillian felt certain, even if he’d nothing to do with this. The way he’d been for most of his young life, sweeping up problems, taking on all of the family baggage.
She shuffled out the door fast as she could, in other words not fast at all, hopped in her truck, and drove up the hill. Once she could walk between their properties. Way back when she wasn’t seventy-five with arthritis in her hips. She saw Lincoln and Hank in the field. Hank drove the truck with the apparatus that deposited feed for the cattle every few hundred yards. Lincoln stood at a gate filled with cattle, locking it.
He looked up at the sound of her truck and sprinted over. “What’s up?”
“Something horrible! Sadie has been kidnapped by Derek.”
Even under the shadow of his Stetson, Lillian saw all the color drain out of his face.
“You and Hank have got to get on over to Lupine Lake, lickedy-split!”
Lincoln ran in the direction of his truck.
“Wait. Go tell your father,” Lillian called out.
“You tell him. I don’t have any time to wait for him.” With that he peeled down the hill, kicking up dust.
“Lord, let him get there in time,” Lillian prayed.
* * *
Lincoln gripped the wheel and drove viciously toward Lupine Lake. Of all the many thoughts of Sadie in the past two long weeks without her, not one of them were about her safety. But he should have remembered Derek. Should have remembered that he posed a threat. Shit for brains Derek thought taking the schoolteacher would somehow help his case with Pamela Ann.
Jesus, the things men did for love. Crazy, stupid, insane things.
Like backing down and “needing to take a step back” and “a break,” code for “I’m scared spitless of what I feel for you.”
The day after he’d broken it off with Sadie, Lincoln thought he might actually die. Just drop dead in the middle of the day. His chest stayed perpetually tight, his breathing short and shallow. Had he been an older man, he’d have self-diagnosed the onset of a heart attack. That’s how his grandfather had died, after all. Walking toward the barn one day and simply collapsing. He’d already been gone by the time Lincoln reached his side.
A quick, clean, natural, and swift death.
But this pain, this ache, felt unnatural. He’d thought he’d get past this after a few days. Didn’t happen. Sadie remained his first thought every morning and his last one at night. He’d missed just seeing her face, and the way she looked at him, like he was everything. During the days, he kept busy. He stayed away from town, preferring solitude. Even when he physically wore himself out he still couldn’t get her off his mind. Her wide hazel eyes always studied him with su
ch earnest, deep, and unconditional love. The utter sadness in her shimmering eyes when he’d broken it off. The resignation. She didn’t cry in front of him, didn’t scream, didn’t hurl accusations. Too bad because he could have handled that. But she’d simply accepted his words with a quiet strength.
She was stronger than he’d ever be.
And if Derek so much as laid a hand on a single one of her hairs, Lincoln might wind up in prison for a very long time. When he pulled in front of Sadie’s cabin, there were men standing around, shooting the shit, doing nothing. Riggs was here which usually meant results, so this didn’t make any sense.
“What the hell is goin’ on here?” Lincoln asked, joining the rest of them.
“He kidnapped Sadie.” Lenny pointed to the door.
“Now, calm down.” Riggs approached Lincoln hands held out to stop him.
“I’m not goin’ to calm down!”
“He ain’t hurtin’ her,” Lenny said. “Just wants her to make a phone call.”
“That’s ridiculous. And you believed him? Who does that?” Lincoln banged on the front door. “Open up!”
“We tried that,” Lenny said, not helpfully.
Then someone seemed to be talking behind Lincoln, possibly Riggs, saying something about cooler heads prevailing or some other such nonsense. That perhaps he needed to let them handle this. He barely heard the words, because his body buzzed with unbridled energy and raw fear. Lincoln thought he understood fear. The first time a horse threw him. The terror at not being able to find his brother for several hours the night he’d been jilted by Eve. The time Daisy didn’t come home after a date.
But there was nothing like the fear of losing someone you loved more than your own life, when you could stop it. Lincoln knocked the door down with one swift kick, bringing him face to face with everything inside.
“Holy Beelzebub!” Derek shouted, and then hid behind Sadie, who simply stared from him to the door, back to him again.
Lucky Cowboy Page 26