
Dodge the Bullet
By Christy Hayes
Smashwords Edition
Text Copyright©2011 Christy Hayes
All Rights Reserved
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author. No part of this book may be reproduced by any means without the prior written consent of the author.
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Table of Contents
"Why the hell would I want to do that?" Dodge stretched his legs in the club chair of Thornton's cramped insurance office. He'd taken off his hat, a fifteen-year-old Stetson coated with dirt and grease, and ran his fingers through his hair.
"Don't make me remind you of our agreement." Tommy Thornton straightened in his seat behind his desk. "I've come to expect a certain amount of bucking on your part, but this isn't one of those circumstances. You can whine from now until doomsday and I'll still need you to help me out."
Andrew Jackson Dodge contemplated the seriousness of Tommy's threat. The fact that Tommy had brought up their "agreement" meant Tommy needed a favor bad.
It's not that he disliked Tommy or felt threatened by the man who sat looking at him with a hint of fear in his eyes. Dodge had nearly four inches on Tommy and the kind of body that twenty years of hard work in the cattle ranching business produced. But he'd stepped up to help Dodge back when nobody else in his hometown of Hailey, Colorado, would have pissed on him to put out a fire. Tommy had paid a hell of a price for the simple act of kindness.
"What kind of person owns a cattle ranch and doesn't know a damn thing about ranching?" Dodge asked.
Tommy shifted in his chair and took a deep breath. "You know I wouldn't ask you if I didn't feel you were the only one I could trust."
"Quit blowing smoke up my ass and tell me who's got your balls in a vice."
"Senator Burwick called this morning." Tommy slumped in his chair. "Apparently that family from Atlanta who bought the old Storey ranch is moving to town. They've been through the ringer, according to Burwick, and he wants to ensure that the community welcomes them and provides them with all the assistance they need."
"I'm not exactly the Hailey welcoming committee," Dodge said through gritted teeth. "And I don't have time to hold some guy's hand while he learns how to lose his ass in ranching."
"The guy in question is a woman, and her husband was a good friend of Burwick's. The reason I'm asking you is because I personally guaranteed Burwick she wouldn't lose her ass in the ranching business, as you so eloquently put it."
Dodge stood up and slapped his hat on the now empty chair. "You've got to be kidding me. A woman? You expect me to teach a woman--a Southern city woman--how to be a cattle rancher?" He paced the office in two long strides. "And the only reason you asked me is because you knew I couldn't say no. Don't you dare waste your breath denying it, Thornton."
"I was reasonably sure you wouldn't say no. But," he continued with a throat clearing cough. "Senator Burwick could make my life and the lives of everyone in this town a living hell if I can't accommodate him on this little request."
"This may seem like a little request to you, but I know from personal experience that woman are genetically incapable of ranching. I grew up with a house full of women and none of them--not one out of six--could handle the responsibility. Trying to teach a city woman to run a ranch would be like trying to teach a bull to play poker."
"Are you done having a tantrum?"
Dodge kept pacing, pleased to see his work boots leave a dirty trail on Tommy's freshly cleaned rug. "No, I'm not done. If her husband is such a good friend of Burwick's, then why isn't he down here learning to ranch? Why send his wife? Is he afraid to get a little dirt under his nails?"
"She's a widow. Her husband was killed in a plane crash two years ago." Tommy scowled at the rug. "You know there's a boot scrape at the front door."
Dodge stopped pacing and faced Tommy. "That ranch is over a thousand acres in the middle of nowhere. It's not safe or practical for a woman to live there by herself."
"She owns the ranch so I'm assuming she's prepared to live there. She won't be alone, though. She's got two kids."
"I sure hope she knows how to shoot a gun, because if the bears don't come down to see what's going on, the snakes will surely provide one hell of a welcome," Dodge said.
"It's my understanding that she's not trained in any way. She can't shoot a gun, run a tractor or rope a calf."
"You're enjoying the hell out of yourself, aren't you? What the hell am I supposed to do with some Junior League, country club-pampered widow?"
Tommy stood up and glared at Dodge. "I don't have the foggiest idea what kind of woman she is, but Senator Burwick wants her taken care of and that's all I'm trying to do. She'll be coming into town Friday and I expect you to drop by for a friendly visit before the weekend's out."
Dodge gathered his hat from the seat he'd vacated and pointed it at Tommy's chest. "After this we're even. You hear me, Thornton? Dead even." He headed out of the office into the bright spring day.
Damn. He was knee deep in shit with his own ranch, running cattle all over the county, and now he had to coddle some woman from across the country just because she had friends in high places. He could feel the hairs on the back of his neck prickle, something that happened only when he knew he was in for a world of trouble. And any situation involving Dodge and a woman usually ended up causing a whole truck load full of trouble.
Sarah Woodward pulled her old Ford pickup to a stop along Highway 278, otherwise known as the Rifle Range. It had been almost three years since she'd last been in Colorado and her memory was failing. Had she already passed the road that led to her ranch? Every street seemed indistinguishable from the next.
Todd had always driven when they came to Colorado and she realized now how little attention she'd paid to directions. Like so many things in her life with Todd, she'd floated through with the confidence that he'd handle every detail. And he had, to the point where she'd spent the last two years trying to figure out how to run her life without him. After finally tackling their estate back home, she was ready to deal with her future in Colorado.
Selling the house in Atlanta and moving to Colorado meant making a clean start, and was something she did as much for Todd as for the boys they'd made together. He'd loved the quiet valley they'd stumbled across five years ago and talked incessantly about putting roots down in the sleepy town of Hailey. It hadn't been Sarah's dream at the time. Everything they'd built together, pieced together since college, was in Atlanta. But she felt buried under the memories of him there, floundering in a sea of happy couples and well-meaning neighbors. Out here, in the wide open space he'd loved, she thought she could remember him at his best, full of life and promise. She wouldn't sell the ranch that meant so much to him or allow it to sit idle.
Sarah made a U-turn at the Dairy Barn, thankful her kids weren't there to pester her, and backtracked along the Rifle Range. Coming from the opposite direction, the turn-off was easier to spot and she soon turned onto the property. As dust swirled around her truck like seagulls chasing a breadcrumb, she noticed the caretaker's house had fallen into disrepair. It had been almost a year since the land had been leased and the house occupied. Several windows appeared cracked and the shingled roof needed replacing. Sarah could only imagine the state of things on the inside. She continued along the drive and bounced along the bumpy road gnarled with potato rock the valley was famous for, and came to a stop at the cabin she and Todd had built almost three years ago along the banks of the Rio Grande River. Stepping out of the truck felt like stepping back in time. Todd had planned every detail of the cabin and she could almost hear his voice calling her over the howling of the wind.
She unlocked the door and walked inside the garage of the small cabin. The family's four ATV's and the trailer they used to haul things, as well as a sundry of fishing rods and floatation devices, sat neglected in the dusty space. The far wall contained shelving that held water shoes and work boots, baseball bats and balls, horseshoes, life vests and all the things necessary for both fun and minor emergency repair. The valley's spring winds had coated everything with a heavy layer of dust, the evidence of which was left on the abandoned vehicles.
She moved beyond the garage to the door to the interior of the cabin. After punching in the security code, she stepped inside. The first thing that hit Sarah was the smell. The scent of wood and sand and newness slapped her in the face. She left footprints on the grimy mudroom floor and the adjoining bath.
Sarah climbed the stairs slowly, savoring and dreading the appearance of the main living quarters. Everything was just as they'd left it, covered with sheets and waiting for their return. The three bedrooms off the hallway past the kitchen lay waiting for happier times and tired vacationers. She moved through the den to the deck that over looked Todd's favorite patch of river. From the deck she could hear water rolling in an endless stream over the rocks and boulders of the riverbed, the musical score in the background of her life to come. The sun was trying to peek through the billowing white clouds that came into the valley most afternoons from beyond the surrounding mountain peaks. The brilliance of it took her breath away. She wondered if the people of the valley ever took the time to appreciate the beauty of their surroundings.
With a heavy heart, Sarah turned away from the view and walked back inside the cabin and down the hall toward her bedroom. The rust-colored walls enveloped her like a warm blanket and the bed called out to her weary soul. She opened the deck door and the windows of the room, tried to pour fresh air and life into the closed off space. She had no more tears to shed, but the familiar pain in her chest was there, brought on by the sight of Todd's things scattered around the room. His desk sat waiting and the dresser was filled with Todd's clothes. It hadn't occurred to Sarah that the cabin still held so many personal items.
Cleaning out his things from their home in Atlanta had been the hardest task for Sarah since Todd's death. The thought of facing it again, although on a much smaller scale, made her heart ache. She quickly stepped out of the room and continued opening windows and removing the sheets from the furniture. She had a lot to do before the kids came out with her sister and they began the task of getting on with their new life.
Sarah had one week to get the place ready for the boys. She wanted the kitchen stocked, the bags unpacked and the cabin as homey for them as possible. Because the schools in Colorado ran longer than in Georgia, they would have a chance to attend their new school and get a feel for what the next year would be like.
At thirteen, Kevin wasn't happy about starting his last year of middle school in Colorado. Eleven-year-old Lyle wasn't thrilled to be moving away from his friends, but he couldn't hide his eagerness for adventure on the ranch. Their life in Atlanta was so different for Hailey. One of her reasons for leaving was to reign in her eldest son before he gave in to the peer pressure of some of his less-than perfect friends. She knew it would be daunting to raise her two boys alone, but raising them in rural Colorado seemed simpler. She thought it would teach them, and her, the value of family and hard work.
Her first order of business after getting the house ready was to make a plan for the ranch. She thought she'd call her real estate agent on Monday and see if she could recommend a partner or even a ranch hand that could teach her the business. But for now, there was a truck full of stuff to unload and supplies to purchase.
Dodge's new pickup was the only vehicle on the Seven North late Sunday afternoon. There wasn't a cloud in the sky to block the three hundred sixty degree mountain views that made the valley seem destined to move beyond its agricultural foundation. The giant aquifer just below the valley surface was drying up faster than an un-milked udder. Without water to support the farmers, the valley needed a new direction, a new focus.
Dodge hated to see tourism take over as the town's primary industry. People would come and pillage the land just as the farmers had pillaged the water. Tourists and vacationers raised the price of land so high that people like him, homegrown cattle ranchers, couldn't afford to own the land their cows grazed. Dodge had seen more than one family give up ranching for the sheer reason they could make more money selling the land than they ever could ranching.
He squinted against the sun and thought about the current vacationer who thought she wanted to move to Hailey. Ha. Nobody moved to Hailey. Vacation here, sure. But moving to a town where winter temperatures routinely dipped to twenty below, with two kids and no husband, seemed absurd.
As he passed the rundown caretaker's house at the entrance to the Woodward place, he envisioned the new woman in town. He had a mental picture of Sarah Woodward as Vivian Lee with milky white skin and a sassy attitude. He half-expected her to greet him wearing a hoop skirt. He stopped his truck behind an old Ford pickup that had seen better days and walked through the open garage doors to the only entrance he could find that would lead to the interior of the house. The house had been designed for vacationing, made with only one way in, allowing a certain measure of security when left deserted for months on end. When no one answered his rather forceful banging, he wandered around the side of the house toward the river and admired the peaceful view.
"May I help you?" a woman called from the second story deck.
Dodge turned around and held up his hand to block the sun from his eyes. The woman was merely a shadow in the blaze. "I'm looking for Mrs. Woodward."
"Who's asking?"
"The name's Dodge." He didn't think he was talking to Woodward because she didn't have a southern accent. "Do you know where I can find her?"
"It's your lucky day, Mr. Dodge."
She disappeared into the house. Dodge shook the sunspot from his eyes and looked up to see a slender woman come around the side of the house from the garage wearing jeans and a t-shirt. He guessed her age at mid-thirties.
"I'm Sarah Woodward."
Dodge extended his hand and wondered if his face showed surprise. Her deep green eyes were a dead on match for the grass growing in the pasture over her shoulder. Her strong grip and skeptical smile had illusions of apple pie cooling in the window disappearing with an almost audible pop in the air. She didn't look capable of ranching, not with her slight frame and soft hands, but she clearly wasn't the helpless southern widow he'd imagined. She raised her brows as if encouraging him to speak.
"I, uh..." Dodge hadn't planned to find the widow Woodward so attractive. "I'm Dodge."
"So I heard."
"Tommy Thornton asked me to stop by and make sure you were settled in okay, see if you needed any help with things." Dodge tried to settle into the prepared speech he'd decided to use.
"Who?"
"Tommy Thornton."
"I'm sorry, but I don't know a Tommy Thornton. You're going to have to be a little more specific."
Of course she didn't know Tommy. Thornton was a small fry compared to the likes Senator Burwick. Dodge didn't like name dropping and he certainly didn't like dropping the name of a no-good, sometime farmer and slick-as-a-pig-in-mud politician like Burwick. "Tommy's a friend of Senator Burwick."
"Burwick sent you?"
"Tommy Thornton's an insurance agent in town. He's a friend of mine. Apparently your friend Senator Burwick asked him to check on you, Mrs. Woodward."
"I'd hardly call Senator Burwick a friend. While I do need some help around here, I can't say I'd trust anyone who came at his request."
"I couldn't agree more. I wouldn't trust Burwick any farther than I could throw the man."
"Are you interested in the ranch hand job?"
Dodge laughed. "I'm afraid I've got a full plate running my own ranch right now, but thanks."
She eyed him under the cover of thick lashes. "So if Senator Burwick asked Mr. Thornton to check on me, then why are you here, Mr. Dodge?"
"Just Dodge, ok? I'm not that much older than you, sweetheart."
"I doubt you're older than me, period." She furrowed her brow and her hands flew to her hips. "And don't call me sweetheart. So why are you here, Dodge?"
"I'm here because I owe my friend Tommy a favor."
"Must be a big one."
The hairs on his neck started prickling again and he wondered what to take of the prickly Mrs. Woodward. Dodge found it best to place women in one of a series of categories he'd come up with in his thirty-eight years of dealing with the opposite sex. The fact that each of his six sisters and every woman he'd ever dated fit neatly into one of his categories proved that he was smarter than the average male.
Sarah Woodward was pretty enough to be in the "eye candy" category, but she downplayed her looks too much. She hardly wore any makeup and dressed in old jeans and a t-shirt. But thanks to the wind, Dodge was able to appreciate every delectable curve of her body.
He didn't know her enough to know if she belonged in the "never satisfied" category. She obviously wasn't "low class" because she had enough common sense to recognize Senator Burwick as a dickhead. He didn't think she was his least favorite, a "man hater"--her eyes were too gentle. But the only other choice, the "I'll make you want to touch me but you never will" category didn't fit either because she wasn't showing off her assets: a great body, full lips, beautiful green eyes and thick brown hair that called out for a man to run fingers run through. Dodge realized that he'd let his thoughts wander away from the conversation and he couldn't remember what they were talking about.
"Why would slick Be --er, Senator Burwick want to make sure I was doing okay? Sarah asked. "And if you already have a ranch of your own to run, it doesn't sound like you have the time to help me even if you wanted to."
"I'm just here because of Tommy," he said, looking around. "So, what can I do for you?"
"Short of finding someone to teach me the business, I don't know."
"You're the one with friends in high places, Mrs. Woodward. Why don't you get someone to run the ranch for you?"
"I don't want someone to run the ranch for me. I'm looking for someone to teach me the business."
Dodge tried not to smile at her naivety. "Mrs. Woodward---"
"Sarah."
"Okay, Sarah. Anyone who knows anything about ranching is too busy trying to make ends meet with his own business to bother helping another future competitor. I realize the South is known for its friendliness, but around here it's pretty much every man for himself."
"I'm willing to pay someone for their help."
"That's good, because the only kind of help you'll find around here is the hired kind. But the kind of help you need can't be bought."
"What do you mean?"
Dodge tried to think of a way to explain with a certain political correctness the nuances of life in a small southern Colorado town. But he couldn't think of a single p.c. way to do it. "You can hire a helper, but he'll need instructions and pretty regular supervision. And a working knowledge of Spanish wouldn't hurt."
Sarah kicked loose a potato rock with the toe of her shoe. "I hate to ask, but what do you suggest I do?"
Dodge moved a few steps closer to Sarah and scratched the hair at the base of his neck. "Well, what I'm trying to say is that you should probably consider selling this place and going back home to Atlanta where you belong."
Sarah let out a sarcastic chuckle. "How very welcoming of you, Dodge, but I think I'll ignore your oh-so-helpful advice. I've got 1200 acres of ranch land. I think I can find someone."
"I'm glad you find this funny, because if you're serious about staying and going into the cattle business you're going to have to have a sense of humor. This ranch is so run down that if I were you, I wouldn't know whether to laugh or cry."
"What are you saying? The ranch isn't worth running cattle on?"
"Lady, what you've got here is a whole lot of potential. You've got very senior water rights, not to mention almost three miles of river on the place." He'd already done enough research to learn her place was too rich for his blood. "That's about as good as it gets around here."
"I know I'm sitting on prime real estate. I've had more than one offer in the last few years to sell. But this ranch is for cattle, and I want to run cattle on it. I'm not going to be talked out of this, so if you're not interested in helping me than I'll find someone who is." Sarah lifted her chin in the air. "It was nice to meet you, Dodge."
When she turned to walk back toward the house, Dodge bit his tongue and gently reached for her arm. "Now hold on just a second. I didn't say I wasn't interested in helping you. I'm just trying to be straight with you about how hard it's going to be."
"If you're too busy with your own ranch, how can you help me?"
"There's no real way to learn the business without jumping in and figuring it out as you go. Or you can spend four years at the University getting a ranch management degree and then have to start all over anyway because all the crap they teach you doesn't apply in the real world." Dodge was getting off on another sore subject and stopped himself while he could.
She narrowed her eyes at him. "So I should just buy some cattle and see what happens? I don't operate that way. I need a plan."
"I'm not suggesting you buy some cattle and let them lose on the ranch. Hell, with the shape of your fences and the pastures, they'd either starve to death or end up all over the county."
"Then maybe you can help me make a list of what needs to be done and prioritize."
Dodge felt like he'd been maneuvered. She wasn't the weak pushover he'd imagined she'd be. "You got some paper and a pen?"
"I'm sure there's some in Todd's desk."
"Why don't you run inside and get it? We'll hop in my truck and you can jot a few things down while we take a look at the property." He ushered her along with the impatient wave of his arms. As she disappeared into the house, he rubbed the back of his neck and figured a quick drive around the property should get him off the hook with Tommy and put him on his merry way within the hour.
Sarah eyed Dodge warily before turning to go inside the cabin. She knew the ranch had been neglected, but to hear it confirmed was like getting kicked in the teeth. She'd pinned all her hopes for the future on the ranch. She'd expected a learning curve, but not to have to start from scratch.
Dodge obviously didn't like slick Benji Burwick, as Todd used to call him. The senator had approached Sarah on more than one occasion since Todd's death about buying the ranch that 'must be a burden to her and the kids with everything that's happened.' He couldn't even hide the false sympathy in his voice. The fact that the people of the state couldn't see past his façade and voted him into the senate was more than a little frightening.
After locating a pen and pad of yellow legal paper, Sarah stole a look at Dodge out the bedroom window. He wore the usual uniform of the valley, jeans and an un-tucked t-shirt with well worn boots and an old cowboy hat. He was tall and lean, with muscular forearms and unusual golden eyes. His calloused hands proved he was used to hard work. She could tell by the earlier tone of his voice and his uncomfortable stance that he didn't want to help her. While she could admire his looks, she had to wonder about his motives.
As they bumped along the overgrown roads of the property, Dodge found himself enjoying the beauty of a piece of land he hadn't seen in almost a decade. The Woodwards had bought the old Storey place when Storey died and his kin were more interested in money than ranching. It was one of the last large river properties in the valley that hadn't been bought and divided into 35 to 50 acre parcels and sold as mini-ranches. When Dodge first learned a family from Georgia had bought the place, he'd assumed they'd do the same. Then he'd heard that Denton Frazier had been running his cattle here for awhile, long enough to forage the land and add to its decay before leaving it in worse shape than before.
"This is a nice truck," Sarah said as she fiddled with the paper in her lap.
"Thanks. I was just thinking the opposite about yours."
She gave him a scornful look and sniffed the air. "Interesting smell."
"Its cow shit, but it smells like money to me." "Dodge didn't want Sarah Woodward to like him or forget he didn't want to help her. There was something about her that made him want to keep his distance.
"You've got a real way with people. About the ranch..." She gripped the pen and tapped it annoyingly on the pad. "I've already put fence repair on the list. Denton Frazier used to lease this place for his cows. He stopped about a year ago because the fences needed work and I couldn't deal with it at the time."
Dodge stole a sideways glance at the legal pad. "I agree the fences would be a good place to start. But repair may be just as costly as replacement. You should talk to a few companies and get some quotes. Replacement would give you the chance to reconfigure the pastures."
"Do the pastures need to be reconfigured?"
"Well, Storey didn't run cattle. He had a few sheep and mainly grew hay. Frazier never rotated his cattle and the land paid a price. It's had some time to rest, but you'll need to divide the property up so you can rotate the cattle from pasture to pasture. It's a little too choppy right now."
"Will the fence people be able to advise me on how best to divide the pastures?"
Dodge knew that the fence companies would say whatever it took to increase her costs. Damn it, he was getting in over his head. "Do you have any aerial views of the land?"
"I'm sure there were some with the survey when we bought he place. Nothing has really changed since then."
"If you can get me a copy I can help you with the pastures."
"I'd appreciate your help, but if you don't mind, I'd like to go over the pastures with you. I need to understand the reasons behind any changes made to the property."
Dodge could see just how involved his offer of help could get him and he didn't like it one bit. He was going to have to get someone marginally competent out here to answer her questions or else he'd see no peace in his future. "That's fine, Sarah. Wasn't planning on taking over. I thought I'd made that pretty clear."
"You did. I just want to understand about the fences. Do you see anything else I should put down?"
"Well," he pulled the truck to a stop by a large slew that ran about fifty yards from the river. "You've got a lot of good land that can be grazed in here that isn't fenced at all. Do you own any of the land across the river?"
"Yes, quite a lot of it actually. But we don't have access. I'd always assumed there was nothing we could do over there."
"You can graze that too, as long as the property boundaries are fenced and you run a river gap to keep the cows from wandering down beyond your property."
"Can the fence company run a river gap across the river?"
"Yep." He started the truck along the narrow road. They bounced over rock and through divots filled with water from the afternoon storms. Dodge stopped suddenly as he rounded a bend overgrown with grasses and wildflowers. "Is that your pivot?"
"You mean the sprinkler? I don't even know if it works. As far as I know, Denton never even turned it on."
He pulled the truck to where the end of the pivot had come to a rest a few years ago, its tire crusted in mud in the rutted hollow of its track. "It's a good brand," he said peering through the side window. "These things are like old tractors---they usually run forever."
"Aren't these used for growing hay or crops? I wouldn't need it if I'm just going to use the land for the cows."
"Well, I wouldn't say that. You're going to have to buy hay to feed the cows in the winter anyway. You may want to think of seeding it and cutting it to keep. Does it make a full circle?"
"I have no idea," Sarah said. "I'm sure we can tell from the aerial photos. But growing hay sounds kind of complicated considering I don't even own a hay baler."
"You could pay someone to bale it for you." He could only imagine her trying to operate a hay baler. "And if you didn't want to fool with it you could lease the circle to someone who did."
"Would it be hard to find a leaser?"
"Hell, I may be interested if it's a full circle."
"Oh. Do you normally lease circles to grow and bale hay?"
Dodge reached over and pulled the pen from her hand where she'd been tapping away on the pad. He tossed it into the cup holder. "No, I normally just buy it, but it's cheaper to lease and do it yourself. It was just a thought."
"I'd be open to discussing a lease."
He just bet she would. What was wrong with him? With every word out of his mouth, he was getting more involved with the woman. Maybe his brain had fogged from the scent of her perfume as it subtly filled the cab.
Dodge stopped the truck when he reached a side road with an old wooden gate held together by crisscrossing wires. "Is this the end of the property?"
"On this side it is. You have to go back to the main road to access the back half or we could try to start up the ATVs and do it that way."
Dodge felt a stab of unease as he looked at the flimsy gate that stood between her property and a nearly deserted side road leading to a small cabin, tucked away in the shade of some old cottonwoods. "Who lives in that place over there?"
"I don't know."
The stab became a dull ache. "Tommy said you've got kids. Where are they?"
"My sister's bringing them out next weekend. Why do you ask?"
"I'm just a little concerned about you being out here all alone for another week."
The foolish woman had the nerve to laugh.
"I'm sorry, but I don't think I'm in any danger out here. Do you?"
"Everybody in town knows you're out here alone. Doesn't that concern you, even a little?"
"No. The house has a sophisticated security system. My husband wanted the place protected even when we weren't here. Besides, I hardly think crime is an issue in Hailey."
He turned to face her in the truck and tried again using a different tactic. "You're a young woman out here on this big ranch all alone. Don't you think you should be concerned for your safety?"
"I'm a middle-aged mother of teenaged boys. And I'm getting pretty used to being alone."
"Your kids are teenagers?"
"Just about," she said. "Why are you so surprised?"
She'd led him like a cow to slaughter. "You just don't look old enough to have kids that age."
"Thank you, Dodge. Believe me I'm old enough to have kids twice their age, biologically speaking." She looked him dead in the eye. "And I'm not afraid to be alone."
An awkward silence fell in the small cab of the truck that only moments ago had seemed so spacious compared to Sarah's old Ford. As Dodge pulled into the drive of her cabin, she studied his profile. His hand draped lazily over the steering wheel and his hat perched back on his head. His face was all sharp angles, with a straight nose and a deep dimple in the center of his stubbled chin. It felt strange to find him so attractive, considering his grumpy attitude and atrocious interpersonal skills. Everything she said seemed to rub him the wrong way. But since there wasn't anyone offering an opinion on how to fix the property, she knew she ought to listen to him, especially considering he'd given her more insight into her land than she'd gotten in the five years since they'd bought the place.
"Do you want to see the other side of the property using the ATVs?"
"It's getting kinda late. I'd better be heading back to town. Why don't you give me a call when you find those aerial pictures and we can take a look at the other property then?"
"Okay." She stepped out of the truck. "I appreciate your help, Dodge. Really. Any suggestions you offer I'd consider."
"It's no trouble." He scratched his number on the back of a napkin. "Call me when you find those photos. Oh, and Sarah?"
"Yes?"
"Lock your doors and use that fancy security system. I'll sleep better knowing you're safe."
The buzzing woke Sarah. Not the buzzing of her alarm clock that usually started her morning routine. She'd get up earlier than the boys to have a cup of coffee in peace before waking her sleepy children for their hurried breakfast and mad dash to the bus. This buzzing sounded different. It had a tone and melody that rose and fell, but not in any kind of timed rhythm. It peaked and grew louder, then seemed to stop all together only to suddenly begin again in the distance.
Sarah first lifted one eyelid, then the other. The clock read 6:34 and for a moment she felt a panic that the alarm had been late and she sat up abruptly to wake the boys. Only when she pulled back the heavy duvet cover did reality hit her like the cold blast of air that touched her body.
The air felt cold against her sweaty skin. She'd been mired in the heavy duvet and the weight of her dreams. Todd had been with her in the night in a way she hadn't felt him in a long time, maybe even a year.
She lay back against the bed and stared at the ceiling, so relieved that the boys were back in Georgia. She'd told herself and everyone else that she wanted the week, needed it, to get the house ready for them and their new beginning. On some level, one she didn't dare face until last night, she knew there was more.
The night had begun with a search for the survey. With one glass of wine and an unsteady breath, she began looking through Todd's desk. She'd waited a full twenty four hours since Dodge had left to begin going through her husband's things. Every drawer and file she opened held his essence, from the slanted words he'd scribbled on a piece of paper to his illegible signature scrawled on a legal document. She could feel him around her in an almost palpable way.
The buzzing, she now realized, came from the crop duster flying over the nearby farms. The sound had always made her happy and reflected the difference between life in rural Colorado and life in suburban Atlanta. On clear winter mornings at home she could hear traffic from the interstate as though it were just beyond the trees of their backyard. But in Colorado, the crop duster was the only sound she could hear above the babbling of the river.
The quiet provided a kind of tranquility that should have been lonely, but felt oddly peaceful, even after last night when her dreams had been so restless. She'd found what she'd needed and boxed up the rest, determined to call Dodge and set up a meeting to go over her future.
But not without coffee. She trudged into the kitchen ready to start her day and nearly jumped out of her skin when the phone rang. Who would call at 6:30 in the morning? She raced for the phone in the den.
"Well, I thought you might be up by now." Her sister Jenny had the ability to warm and terrify her with a single phrase. Sarah had spent her entire childhood looking up to and fearing her older sister. With her sharp tongue, the classic beauty would give Sarah an honest answer about anything.
"You know its 6:30 out here, don't you? You scared the hell out of me."
"Its 8:30 here and your boys are driving me crazy. I haven't been this frustrated with men since dealing with my ex-husband and his blood sucking divorce attorney."
Sarah rolled her eyes at her sister's flair for the dramatic. "What have they done, Jenny? Is there something I should be concerned about or are you just calling to complain?"
"I've been alone with your kids for almost a week and you don't think I have anything to complain about? It's time for you to take off those rose-colored glasses and see how they really are."
Sarah knew Jenny was exaggerating, but since Todd's death, Sarah had gotten pretty soft on them and Kevin, in particular, was using it to his advantage. "So it's general complaining you called to do?"
Jenny sighed. "It's no fun to complain if you're not going to take me seriously. How's it going out in the wild west? Met any cute cowboys yet?"
The golden eyes and strong jaw of one cowboy in particular came to mind, but she didn't have the energy to explain. "The week is young."
"Well, if you don't have any gossip, then I may as well tell you Kevin told me he doesn't want to move to Colorado."
"That's no surprise. He's been saying that since I first announced I was selling the house almost six months ago."
"He didn't say it angry like he shouts it at you," Jenny explained. "We had a heart-to-heart last night. He's afraid Todd wouldn't approve of you moving out there to live full time." Jenny paused as if waiting for Sarah to argue. "He's like you, Sarah. He's afraid of change and being in this house makes him feel closer to his dad."
"I know it does, but I can't stay there any longer. Todd and I talked about moving the boys out here eventually. With that new crowd Kevin's been hanging around with I'm sure Todd would be the first to suggest we move to the ranch if he were still alive. Kevin's thirteen, Jenny. There's nothing I can do to please him now anyway. Staying in Atlanta feels like a big mistake. Sometimes you just have to follow your gut."
"I understand your reasons, but that doesn't mean your sons do."
"Does that mean Lyle agrees with Kevin?"
"You know Lyle would be happy anywhere the sun rises and his mom is in the world. That's one hell of a mama's boy you raised."
Sarah smiled at the thought of Lyle. He had Todd's sunny disposition and ability to cope with change. She'd worried about leaving Kevin alone for the week with Jenny. He'd internalized Todd's death much more than Lyle and he and Jenny generally rubbed each other the wrong way. Although it sounded like she'd made some headway with him that Sarah hadn't managed to do.
"What else did you squeeze out of Kevin?"
"He's got a girlfriend."
Sarah gasped. "What? Who is she? Where did he meet her and...what have they been doing?" The sound of Jenny's laughter over the phone made Sarah cringe. It really pissed her off that Jenny didn't have children for Sarah to seek revenge upon.
"Just calm down. Her name's Jessica and they go to school together. I don't think they do anything except hang out during lunch and text."
Sarah slumped into the nearest barstool and let her eyes slip closed. Her boys were growing up too fast. "How long has he had a girlfriend? Since I left?"
"He said it's been about two weeks and he knew you'd be surprised. He thought you were too busy with the move to care about what was going on with him."
"That's ridiculous. I'm never too busy for him. My God, his first girlfriend and I find out through you."
"It sounds harmless enough so I wouldn't worry."
"That's great advice from someone who doesn't have children. Do you think they're having sex?"
"They're in seventh grade, for heaven's sake. That won't happen until at least eighth."
Sarah wanted to reach through the phone and strangle her sister. "You can't possibly be that naïve. Do you have any idea how many times I've found him with his door locked? Puberty has hit him like a ton of bricks. You wouldn't believe how young kids are having sex and doing drugs. I've got friends with older kids and I've read a couple of books." Oh God, she was totally unprepared to deal with her hormonal teenaged son having a girlfriend.
"Don't you think you're jumping the gun? Two weeks is a little fast and I doubt they're doing it in the bathroom at school. Hell, Kevin may be testing the waters a little bit, but he's too afraid of getting in trouble to do anything stupid. Especially when you're not here to punish him."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Maybe you don't know this because you're not the oldest, but the whole point in doing stuff to piss your parents off is for them to be around to get pissed off. Why would he waste his time screwing up with me?"
Sarah rubbed her temple with her free hand. "Do me a favor and try to get more information. I don't know why he'd confide in you instead of me, but I guess I should be grateful he's talking to someone."
"Like you were hot to talk about boys with mom and dad? That's what I was for and Kevin doesn't have an older brother to talk to. I'm doing the best I can here, Sarah, but I'm not going to pry. If he wants to talk, I certainly won't turn him away."
Sarah groaned. How was she going to handle her boys without Todd? "I appreciate your help with everything, I really do. You know I have to give you a hard time so you're sure it's me you're talking to, right?"
"You've got good kids, Sarah. Just don't freak out. At least the move will bring a swift end to the girlfriend."
"Yeah, and give Kevin another reason to be angry with me. Give them both a kiss for me, will you?"
Sarah hung up the phone and, after a moment of brooding, returned to the kitchen to make coffee. As it brewed, she opened the deck doors and stepped out into the cool morning.
She didn't blame Kevin for being afraid of change. Facing the past, facing the future... she was scared to death. But she couldn't let the fear take over because then she'd be sunk. She had to accept the truth: it was up to her to succeed in Colorado. She really hoped she didn't screw up.
"Senator, we'll be arriving in five minutes," Kimberly Weston whispered to her boss as he sat next to her in his chauffer driven Lincoln. He nodded his head without glancing her way or even pausing in his conversation with a constituent. The warm Colorado sun felt good on her arm through the darkened glass and she fought the urge to roll down the window and let the breeze rustle through her short blond hair.
Kimberly touched her fingers to the back of her neck where her thick mane used to hang. Although Benji loved to twist her usually long hair around his fingers, Senator Burwick had insisted she cut her hair into a more professional pageboy style. How the length of her hair affected her ability to keep track of his schedule and generally keep his life in order was beyond her.
But whatever Benji wanted Benji got. Kimberly learned that being a young assistant who attracted more than her share of attention didn't sit well with the senator's wife and some of his supporters. So she got shuffled to the most prestigious and most expensive stylist in Washington DC for a makeover that included the shearing of her long hair and a quick death to her wardrobe of stylish clothes. Kimberly needed her job, her family needed her to have this job, too much for her to object.
The wool in her skirt that rubbed beneath the lining itched like hell. It took every effort to recall the focusing lessons she'd learned in Miss Margaret's School of Etiquette, another DC institution, not to rip the skirt up and itch away like a dog with fleas. The shrill tone of Benji's voice brought Kimberly back to attention.
"Damn, if that man weren't worth millions I'd never have to listen to his drivel again."
Benji placed his now free hand on Kimberly's upper thigh while she echoed a similar thought about not having to put up with the Senator's increasing sexual advances, only in her head of course. She glued the familiar sympathetic smile on her face--another learned habit from Miss Margaret. She'd initially found all the things she'd learned at etiquette class insulting, and implementing them on a day-to-day basis exhausting. But her reactions were becoming more rote now and, as much as she hated to admit, rather helpful in a number of situations.
When his cell phone rang, Senator Burwick watched his assistant reached to get it, undaunted by the fact that he'd placed the phone directly on his crotch. He took advantage of every opportunity to make Kimberly touch him whenever possible. Having the phone vibrate on his crotch and watching her cup it with her delicate fingers was one of the few pleasures of his day. He knew he was crossing a line with her, and he knew if her daddy were alive and saw the way he treated her he'd put a boot in his ass.
Danny Weston hadn't done a whole lot with his short life since graduating from Hailey high school where he and Benji had been inseparable. But he'd certainly produced one hell of a looker in his youngest daughter. Thanks to those etiquette classes, she didn't even put up a protest or flinch anymore when his hand casually touched her breast or rubbed her behind. Benji's daughter was just a year older than Kimberly, but he didn't think there was anything wrong with showing the girl how things worked in the big city.
His long time assistant Meryl was getting ready to retire when Danny's widow had called asking to take him up on his offer. He'd initially regretted his off the cuff condolence that Mary Beth Weston had taken as a genuine offer of help. She'd asked him to hire her daughter, Kimberly, fresh from two years at Junior college with an associate's degree in bookkeeping that seemed to be the equivalent of lip pouting and gum smacking. Fortunately for Mrs. Weston, the good Senator had a soft spot for grieving daughters with perky breasts and a nice, tight ass. With a little grooming she'd turned out to be a real asset in the last few months.
"Senator, its Tommy Thornton from Hailey returning your call," Kimberly said softly while cupping her hand over the mouthpiece.
Benji's jaw clenched as he reached for the phone. He couldn't believe the dimwitted Thornton had hooked the widow Woodward up with A.J. Dodge. The man had been a thorn in Benji's side for years, and now he was butting his nose into something that didn't concern him. Dodge's involvement could ruin his carefully laid plans. Benji had already counted on Mrs. Woodward being ready to sell.
"Senator Burwick," Tommy said with exaggerated enthusiasm. Speaking with the Senator made his indigestion kick into high gear. "I'm assuming you called about Mrs. Woodward?"
"You know I am, Thornton. How's she getting along down there?"
"Well, Sir, it's only been a few days, but she seems to be adjusting just fine. She's a real nice lady and the town has kind of taken her under their wing since word of her husband's death got around."
"Good. Ranching is no business for a single woman, Thornton. Her husband and I were close friends and I kind of promised him I'd look out for her. You be sure to call me first if she's having any trouble at all."
Tommy wondered how Senator Burwick would have promised Mr. Woodward he'd look out for Sarah when her husband had died unexpectedly in a plane crash, but dismissed the thought when he heard an impatient cough on the other end of the line. "I've got someone taking real good care of her, Senator. Don't you worry."
"Really? Anyone I know?"
"A.J. Dodge. His family's been in the business a long time. He'll make sure she doesn't make any mistakes."
"You're not talking about the A.J. Dodge who was run out of town a few years back? Because if he's the same man, I'd have a real problem with a hoodlum like him helping poor Mrs. Woodward, no matter how long he's been in the business."
"Well, now Senator, Dodge wasn't run out of town. He left on his own. I happen to know for sure he wasn't responsible for what happened to that poor girl." Tommy hadn't had to defend Dodge in a long time and he'd forgotten how frustrating it could be convincing someone of his innocence, especially since Dodge never bothered to defend himself to anyone.
"Thornton, I don't want someone with a questionable background anywhere near Mrs. Woodward. You be sure to tell Dodge thanks but no thanks and let me worry about helping Mrs. Woodward."
"But..."
"No buts, Thornton. Just keep Dodge away from Mrs. Woodward and that ranch. Do you understand me?"
Tommy sighed and held up his middle finger to the base of the phone sitting on his desk. A grown man shouldn't have to put up with that kind of talk from anyone. "I understand, Senator."
"Good. Keep me posted."
When he hung up the phone, Benji looked at Kimberly. "Get me Fred Saxton on the phone."
Damn Dodge for messing up an already messed up situation. Saxton was getting antsy. He'd promised him the Woodward ranch months ago and had yet to deliver. When every other door had slammed in his face and he seemed to run out of possibilities for water near Cooper, he'd thought of the Woodward place. With Todd Woodward six feet under and his widow as the sole owner, he thought buying the ranch out from under her would be no big deal. But every time he'd gotten in touch with her about selling the ranch, she'd been too busy grieving or doing whatever rich widows do to give him the time of day.
He'd been about to put on the full court press before she realized the gold mine she was sitting on when he'd learned that she intended to move to the ranch full-time. His first reaction had been to laugh, but damn if she didn't up and do move to Hailey and now he was in a real pickle. But Benji was used to having to do things the hard way. He didn't get to be a United States senator without a few tricks up his sleeve. He'd come up with something to get her to sell.
Mrs. Woodward didn't know one end of a cow from the other, as far as his background check on her could surmise. So he'd let her struggle with ranching for a few months and then be there with his checkbook open when she came to the obvious conclusion ranching wasn't the way to move on with her life.
But he needed her to fail soon. The last election had cost him most of his daddy's fortune and Benji was running on empty until his development with Sarah started to pay off. But it wasn't going to pay off until it got off the ground, which is why he had to get Dodge away from Mrs. Woodward.
Kimberly passed him the phone. "Saxton here."
"Fred, how are you?"
"Well now, Senator, I'd be doing a hell of a lot better if you called to tell me you've got that ranch under contract like you promised. The State's coming down on my ass about the water. I can't even get the permit to start on the clubhouse."
"You let me worry about the State. I'll make a few calls to get them off your back."
"What'll get them off my back is having a property with enough water to supplement the whole development. What's the latest on the Woodward place?"
"Unfortunately, there's been a snag. Seems Mrs. Woodward intends to move to Hailey and ranch the land."
In the moment of silence that followed, Benji could feel beads of perspiration form on his brow. He wiped them away with his clammy hand. "Burwick, you told me you'd take care of this. I can't sell the home sites without the clubhouse and equestrian center at least partially under construction. We made a deal. I never would have wasted my money on dry pasture land if you hadn't assured me you could get your hands on plenty of water."
Benji noticed Saxton's Midwestern accent grew stronger as his anger intensified. He was pretty damn angry. "I've got a plan, but it's going to take some time."
"Time's what we don't have. I need results from you, Burwick, and I need them now."
"Thanks for coming over on such short notice," Sarah said to Dodge as he entered the cabin that evening. He immediately took off his old Stetson and looked around before handing her a heavy package. "What's this?"
"Steaks from my cows." He glanced around her home. The place wasn't very big, but it sure was nice, with a potato rock fireplace between a set of French doors that led to the deck. The den had tan walls, a new leather couch and a couple of mismatched chairs. The adjoining kitchen's granite countertops and new appliances made the whole place a lot nicer than any other cabin he'd ever been in.
"That was very kind of you."
Dodge shrugged. "I was hungry and it seemed rude to show up empty handed."
"Oh." She sounded surprised. "I guess I can light the grill."
Dodge turned his attention back to Sarah. She wore a pair of faded jeans, a button-down blouse that gaped open with white tank top underneath. He noticed the small silver medallion that hung from a leather rope cord around her neck. The hair around her face was pulled back and the light from the overhead fixture brought out the amber flecks in her green eyes. She was pretty, too damn pretty to spend a cozy evening with and walk without wanting more. Damn Thornton for getting him involved.
He'd been worried about her ever since he left her two days ago, all alone with no one to protect her. He knew he should say no, he'd just take a quick look at the photos and be on his way. But he hadn't eaten all day and he knew she'd have a thousand questions about anything he suggested. "Why don't you point me in the direction of the grill and I'll light it for you?"
When she smiled back at him, the relief he saw in her eyes had the hair on the back of his neck tingling. He had to remind himself that he wasn't happy about being at her ranch. He enjoyed being alone, or being alone around others like when he ate almost every night at the diner in town. He was out amongst the people but not mixing with them, just the way he liked it.
Sarah led him to the deck and showed him the grill. "I hope it still works." She watched as he took the cover off the grill and looked over the propane connection. He flipped a switch after turning the dials to high and it fired right up.
"Good as new." He looked out over the railing to the view from the deck. "God, this is a beautiful piece of property," he said more to himself than to her. From the deck, the river seemed only a few feet away and the sound the water made cascading over the boulders and rocks of the riverbed was so peaceful he had to fight the urge to close his eyes and rest his tired bones in one of the deck's many Adirondack chairs.
"Can I get you a beer?"
"That'd be great." He didn't look away from the river and the mountains in the distance. She surprised him with a good beer and a tray of assorted cheeses and crackers.
"Let me guess," she said. "You don't eat cheese."
"I eat cheese." He smiled, took the tray from her, and set it on the table next to his chair. "It's been awhile since any meal I've eaten was preceded by an appetizer."
"I'd hardly call cheese and crackers and appetizer, but if that's your way of saying thank you, you're welcome." Sarah took the seat opposite him, looking ready to jump out of her skin.
Dodge sighed. It was the first time he'd had a chance to sit down all day. "So tell me about your kids."
When she grinned, Dodge watched her face relax. "Well, Kevin's 13, and according to my sister's update this morning, he now has a girlfriend."
Dodge was glad to hear she had a son big enough to keep her safe when others weren't around. God knew he would have killed someone who'd threatened his family when he was 13. "You don't sound too happy about that."
"It'll obviously be short lived since he'll be living here in less than a week. But it seems weird to think of him dating. I guess I never thought I'd have to go through this kind of stuff alone."
"You'll be glad to know that the moment he gets a girlfriend around here you'll probably hear about it before he gets home from school. You're all going to have to get used to the change."
"I'm looking forward to the changes. Things are complicated with Kevin. We don't have the easiest relationship. Jenny, my sister, she says we're too much alike."
"And you don't agree?"
Sarah shrugged. "He knows how to push my buttons and I know how to push his. Todd was always the one who kept the peace, and now Lyle's taken over his role."
"Lyle?"
"He's 11 going on 25." Sarah beamed at him as she sat back in the chair. "He's Todd's greatest legacy. I swear that boy has none of me in him, but God help me, I'm so glad he's around to keep the peace between me and Kevin. Don't get me wrong, I love my sons equally. They're very different and my relationship with them isn't the same."
"So Kevin is like you and Lyle is like Todd, who I'm guessing was your husband."
"Yes." She let out a sad sigh. "Kevin's determined, stubborn and resistant to change. He's loyal to a fault, and if you earn his respect he'll defend you to the end of the earth. But he's a hard nut to crack. And Lyle, well, he's the easiest kid you'll ever meet. He has a thousand friends, all his teachers love him and his older brother can do no wrong."
"It must have been hard on them, and you, when your husband died."
"You have no idea how hard." She stared out into the sky. They both turned to watch three geese fly overhead. Her eyes flew back to his. "I'm sorry, Dodge, you may know exactly how hard. I don't know a thing about you."
"Not much to tell." Dodge shifted in his seat and filled his mouth with an unusual cheese he didn't recognize and enjoyed the way the flavor of it blended with his beer. He'd been pleased when Sarah had handed him a microbrew from Oregon instead of one of the light beers everyone seemed to drink. His family teased him unmercifully about buying high dollar beer. His dad said all his travels had made him too big for his britches and his sister's said he drank expensive beer just to prove he was better than everyone else.
Truth was, he didn't drink that much anymore and when he did, he wanted a drink with flavor. All the guys he knew who drank the cheap national brands still drank beer just to get drunk. He looked up and saw Sarah studying him. "What?"
"I just gave you the unabridged description of my family and all you have to say is 'there's not much to tell?' Surely you can give me more than that."
He didn't like talking about himself. The truth wasn't pretty. He didn't know her well enough to tell her the whole sordid story of his checkered past in Hailey. But if he told her the basics and left out the sordid part, when she heard it from the locals, as she was bound to do, it would seem like he was avoiding the truth and make him seem guilty.
But she was looking at him like she wasn't going to leave it alone so he decided to start with the basics and let the inevitable gossip find it's way to her on its own. "I was born and raised here. My dad still ranches, although he's sold most of the land we grew up on. My sisters are scattered all over the valley."
"How many sisters do you have?"
"Six."
Sarah's eyes grew wide. "You have six sisters? My God, seven children? Your poor mother."
Dodge chuckled. "My poor mother loved having babies. She probably would have had more if she hadn't gotten sick when I was little. She died when I was three."
"I'm so sorry."
"Don't be. It was a long time ago and from what I've been told, she had a great life up until the end.
"What was it like growing up in such a big family?"
"It was loud."
Dodge gave Sarah the impression that he didn't want to discuss himself any longer. He unfolded his lanky body from the deck chair and sauntered over to the grill, a clear signal that Sarah was to fetch the steaks.
As he monitored the grill and looked around the property from the deck, Sarah busied herself setting two places at the kitchen bar and putting together a salad from her sparse collection of fresh food. She'd stocked up on canned goods and things for the freezer, but had only bought a few fresh items since she hadn't expected dinner companions for another week. Before joining him on the deck, she retrieved the photos and survey materials she wanted to show Dodge and set them on the counter near his seat.
The two place settings looked cozy, almost date-like. She didn't want there to be any confusion about her motives for inviting him over. He was very attractive, in a rough and tumble kind of way, and she hadn't expected him to bring dinner. Although he hadn't given her any indication that he found her anything other than annoying, if her kids walked in and saw them, she'd feel uncomfortable.
She got another beer from the refrigerator and went to the deck to join him, but stopped at the threshold of the door and just stared. The sun had slipped behind the hills to the west and daylight had faded to dusk. Dodge stood at the edge of the deck, his big hands braced on the cedar rail. Sarah could tell that his eyes were closed and he appeared to drink in the sounds of the river. The peacefulness that the bubbling flow brought to his face took years off his usually hardened expression.
His brown hair didn't have even a hint of gray and while it was short, it had the shaggy appearance of a man who couldn't be bothered with regular haircuts. And that was kind of how she thought of Dodge, as someone who couldn't be bothered by much of life's little inconveniences. Yet there he stood, ready to grill steaks that he'd brought for dinner and help her plot out a future for her ranch.
He was a complete stranger. What had she learned from him other than that he grew up in the valley and came from a big family? Besides his cell number, she didn't even know where he lived or how to find him if she needed to. On some instinctual level she trusted him. She still hadn't researched Tommy Thornton or his connection to Senator Burwick, and she intended to. But the reticent man on her deck didn't threaten her and in some way his presence was oddly comforting.
Was Sarah attracted to him or was she lonely all the way to her core? She never minded being alone, even before Todd's death. Unlike her sister, the family's gregarious child, she preferred solitude to the company of just anyone. Lately, quality company was much harder to find.
Dodge opened his eyes and turned to see Sarah staring at him. She felt her cheeks blush as she stepped onto the deck.
"The steaks are almost ready."
"Great." Sarah could feel Dodge studying her curiously. "I can tell you want to ask me something," she said to break his stare. "You may as well just spit it out. If I don't want to answer, I'll tell you to mind your own business like you did a few minutes ago when I asked about your family." What was it about him that made her so sassy? Why did talking to him without a concern for what he thought feel so liberating?
"Are you sure you're from the South?"
"Why do you ask?"
Dodge laughed and shook his head. "You've just about ruined every stereotype I've ever had about southern women."
"Sorry to burst your bubble, but I'm a born and bred southerner, although my family's never owned a rebel flag. Not everyone from the south has southern accents, you know."
"You've got a little flavor to your voice, but not much."
"I'm from the suburbs. Metro Atlanta's a melting pot of northern subcultures."
"So the south is full of yankee implants? How delightful."
"Spoken like a true southerner. Where'd you get your southern state of mind?"
"I've traveled in the Northeast enough to know I don't ever want to live there." Dodge moved to the grill.
"You don't like talking about yourself much do you?" She noticed for the second time that he'd stopped talking the moment the conversation moved in his direction.
"How do you like your steak?"
Sarah just stared at him. Why did he keep everything so close to the vest?
"Too late for rare," he said as he poked at the smaller of the two. "I hope medium's okay."
"Medium's fine." She went inside to get a plate for the steaks.
When Sarah turned her back and to go into the cabin, Dodge let the smile he'd been trying to hide creep across his face. Damn, that was one meddlesome woman. Most women simply bored or annoyed him to death, but there was something her he found very amusing. Maybe it was because he frustrated her so much. She couldn't seem to hide her displeasure with him and for some reason he felt highly entertained by her reaction. He wasn't usually so ill-mannered with women, but she seemed to see right through the malarkey he fed most people to keep them at a distance. He'd gotten kind of used to being smarter than most of the people around town. He needed to be on his toes around the alluring Mrs. Woodward.
"I'm sorry," she said as she emerged from the cabin and handed him a plate, "for being rude to you." Dodge looked up but said nothing. "People at home have been patronizingly nice to me since Todd's death. I've gotten in the very bad habit of being disrespectful to people to break through their pity." She fidgeted with her hands before shoving them in the back pockets of her jeans. "Please don't take my behavior as a personal insult."
Dodge smiled at her over the rim of his beer. "Sarah, I'm pretty used to being talked down to by most of the folks here in town. I don't take any offense to the way you talk. I'd much rather someone speak honest than sugar coat the truth any day." He ushered her inside the French doors and set the plate brimming with steak down on the counter.
Sarah took the bar seat that Dodge pulled out for her before taking his own seat. "Why do the people here talk down to you?"
Damn, he shouldn't have let that slip. He needed to watch his tongue. "No reason in particular." She'd hear all about it soon enough and he was too hungry to ruin a good meal with talk of his sordid past.
Sarah cut her steak into a fourth its original size and placed the remainder on the platter. She did seem to be enjoying what little was left on her plate. He looked down to see he'd demolished most of his meal without much thought or appreciation.
"What is this you put on the steak?" he asked.
She looked up from her plate, glanced at his and laughed. "You're almost done and you finally realized there was a marinade on the meat. It's good, isn't? I picked it up at some hole in the wall place I stopped to eat at outside of Oklahoma City last week. The guy at the counter promised it'd be the best I'd ever tasted. He may just be right."
Dodge carefully placed his knife and fork on the plate. "You drove out here from Atlanta by yourself?"
"Yes, it was a very peaceful two days."
"I don't know what's more shocking, that you drove all that way by yourself or that that old truck of yours actually made it this far without breaking down." He wondered how in the world her family had let her drive practically across the country unaccompanied. He figured she'd probably come up through Amarillo, and that meant she'd gone through some areas that didn't even have cell coverage. As much as she tried to project an image of someone who could take care of herself, her behavior proved the opposite. The possible pitfalls she could have encountered along the way were staggering.
He reached over and started looking at the photos and survey she'd laid on the counter as she cleared their plates and refilled his water glass.
"I have multiple copies of the survey and photos, so feel free to write on those if you want to," she said over the hum of the running water.
As he studied his copy, he could see the value of her property. Did she have any idea? Almost three miles of river and over a thousand acres of natural grassland would fetch more money than she could ever need in her lifetime. Why did she want to ranch her place instead of living like a queen anywhere her heart desired?
He looked up and watched her slender hips sway as she scrubbed a dish. She turned around and caught him staring at her.
"Everything okay with the papers?"
Dodge straightened in his chair and cleared his throat, tried to disguise the fact that he'd been gawking at her. "Yeah, it's all here. Some of these areas near the river look like they may be slews in the spring. Were these photos taken in the fall?"
Sarah moved around the counter and peered at the photos over Dodge's shoulder. Her hair edged close to his collar. She smelled like lemons.
"Yes, that's about right."
"The underbrush on the other side of the river is pretty thick. Is there any way to get across there and take a look?"
Sarah came around the counter and faced Dodge. "We've used the four wheelers to cross when the river's down, but it's so high now I'm not sure we could make it."
"That's what I thought." He rubbed the stubble on his chin. "I can trailer a couple of my horses over here this week and we can take a look."
"Horses?" Her fingers tightened around the leather cord of her necklace.
"You do know how to ride, don't you?"
"Well, I've been on a horse before." She lifted her shoulders in a helpless gesture. "Is it absolutely necessary for me to go with you?"
Dodge fought the urge to slam his forehead into the counter. She wanted to run a ranch and she didn't even know how to ride. Why was he surprised? "I assumed you'd want to know what was over there. I've got a real gentle horse that shouldn't be a problem for you to ride. Unless you're afraid." He imagined she was the kind who wouldn't back down from a challenge, but he wanted to know for sure.
"Of course I'm not afraid." She stammered and nearly pulled the cord around her neck to shreds. "I just...just thought there'd be another way to get across, that's all."
Dodge tried not to snort. "Ok, how does Thursday afternoon work for you? I've got to be out this way then anyway."
"Thursday's fine." Sarah unclenched the necklace and pointed to the papers he held in his hand. "Should I go ahead and set up some appointments with the fence people for next week?"
"Once we get a good look at the other side of the river, I'm sure I can give you an idea of what you may need in terms of fencing."
He continued blocking off parcels on the aerial photo. He'd arranged a series of pastures in 50 to 100 acre parcels that included most of the land except the main entrance, caretaker's house and storage barns. The cabin had been fenced during the building process and abutted one of the largest pastures he'd drawn. Once she got the fences up and had the grass seeded and weeded, she'd have a fine piece of cattle property.
He sighed wistfully. Hers was the kind of ranch he'd been raised on. His family's property had been almost twice the size, with the river running along the northern border and a few ponds near the house and barn. He'd always thought his family would own the land forever, but his dad had had to sell most of it when times got bad and his health declined. He'd always wondered if maybe his dad wouldn't have sold out like he did if Dodge had been around to help.
No one ever expected him to come back to town. The icy reception he continued to receive from the old timers sometimes made him wonder why the hell he stayed. But he was tired of running from the past. He needed to face his demons and learn to live with what had happened years ago because whatever distance he put between himself and his sleepy hometown hadn't helped.
Sarah put the last dish away and closed the cabinet just above her head. "Looks like you've made some progress here." She slid into the seat next to him.
He straightened and passed the papers to her. "It's just a start, but I think getting a look at the other side of the river will bring it all together."
A small smile crossed her face as she studied his work. "I like it."
"That's it?" he asked. "No questions?"
"Nope. I think I can tell what's what from what you've done."
"Good." Dodge stood and stretched his back, moved toward the stairs that led to the garage and picked up his hat and jacket. "Thanks for dinner. I'll call you when I'm on my way out Thursday, probably late afternoon."
"You brought dinner and cooked it yourself so I'd hardly say you owe me thanks. I appreciate all your help with this, Dodge, I really do."
With a nod, he placed his old Stetson on his head and started down the stairs.
His cell rang as he climbed into his truck. He flipped it open when he saw Tommy's name on the display.
"Where the hell have you been?"
"Have you missed me?" Dodge maneuvered the rutted road and gunned the engine when he finally hit pavement.
"In case you can't tell, I'm not really in the mood for games."
"You're not in the mood? I'm the one who should be complaining." But he couldn't muster much energy with his stomach full.
"That's why I've been trying to reach you. Burwick wants you away from Mrs. Woodward."
"What do you mean?" Dodge pulled the truck off road that led to the Rifle Range. "He's the only reason I'm out here in the first place."
"You're there now?"
"I'm just leaving. The place is a mess. I told her I'd help rearrange the pastures a bit."
"Well, you've got to stop and I mean stop now. I don't know what you did to Burwick, but when he found out you were the one looking after Mrs. Woodward he ordered me to get you away from her. I swear Dodge, you've got more enemies than I've got friends. And I've got plenty of friends. Burwick isn't someone I'd want as an enemy."
Dodge thought about the Machiavellian Senator and the tract of Wyoming pasture land he'd bought before Burwick could get his hands on it for development. It had been nearly a decade since he'd put the tract under easement to protect it from development and Dodge wasn't surprised the Senator hadn't forgotten.
"Why the hell did you tell him I was helping Sarah?"
"Who's Sarah?" Tommy let out a breath so loud it sounded like a hiss. "Don't tell me you're interested in Mrs. Woodward. That's the last thing you or I need right now."
Dodge tightened his grip on the wheel. "Why would you assume I'm interested? Because I used her first name? She's a widow, for God's sake."
"She's also a woman. Look, I don't care if you're interested or not, I just need you to leave her alone. I can probably get her up and running myself."
Dodge could feel anger boiling away in his gut that only moments before had been pleasantly full. He didn't have any intention of walking away from her just because Burwick demanded. If helping Sarah out made him mad, well, that was just an added bonus. "You don't know any more about the business than she does. You can tell Benji to mind his own damn business. I've already made promises to Mrs. Woodward that I don't intend to break just because he's got his hackles up."
"Damn it Dodge. You're putting me in a bad spot."
"I'm sorry you're in the middle, Tommy, but you're the one who asked me to help her in the first place. I won't go back on my word."
"You're asking for a shit-load of trouble, you know that, don't you?"
"What the hell else is new? I'm not talking about forever here. Once she gets her fences up and I can find a good man to run the day to day, she won't need me at all."
Sarah sat on the couch reviewing the photos of her property Dodge had divided into pastures. It made sense. Rotating the cows through pastures, letting each section recover before turning them lose to graze again. Unfortunately, the more she thought about all the things Dodge had said, the more she realized she didn't have a clue what to do next. She reached for the phone.
"Paula, hi, it's Sarah Woodward." Sarah felt relieved to reach the agent who'd helped her and Todd close the deal on their ranch five years ago.
"Sarah, I'd heard through the grapevine you'd moved to Hailey. How's it going?" Paula Hamilton spoke with the same Midwestern lilt that had patiently guided her and Todd years ago. Her knowledge of the area and pragmatic advice had been an invaluable asset to the Woodward's when they'd started looking for property in the valley.
"It's coming along, but I have to admit my inattention over the last few years has caught up with the place. The ranch is almost as run down as when we bought it."
"I'm sorry to hear that. You know I think that property of yours is a diamond in the rough. I'm sure with a little TLC you'll have it up and running in no time." Sarah could hear the fax machine buzzing in the background and visualized Paula in her cramped office working on a dozen things at once.
"That's sort of why I'm calling. I've gotten someone to help me with the initial plans, but I need to find someone who'll be willing to work for me and teach me the business of ranching. Dodge seems to think that's impossible, but I thought if there was someone around here to fit that bill, you'd be the one who'd know."
"Dodge? You mean A.J. Dodge?"
"Yes, that's right."
"How did you hook up with Dodge?"
The hesitation she heard in Paula's voice sent a chill up her spine. "Well, I don't really understand it much, myself. Apparently his friend Tommy Thornton asked him to check up on me at the request of Senator Burwick. Todd had met the senator a few times and he's inquired about buying the land. I'm not sure why he'd ask anyone to help."
When Paula didn't respond, Sarah asked, "Is there something I should know about Dodge? I have to say he's been extremely kind, although he's a little rough around the edges."
"I...I don't like to pass along rumors, but..." She hesitated.
Sarah felt goose bumps rise along her limbs and suddenly wished she'd made the call earlier. "Paula, if you think there's something I need to know, please don't hold back. The kids are coming on Saturday and I don't want them around anyone who may put them in danger."
Paula cleared her throat. "There's really no danger, Sarah. I didn't mean to scare you. It's just that, well, he doesn't have the best reputation around town. Something to do with him and some girl when he was younger. I personally don't know him very well. He mostly stays to himself, but his sisters and dad are well known and liked in the valley. I guess I shouldn't have said anything, but most people don't seem to...trust him."
Sarah tried to let Paula's words jibe with her own impression of Dodge and couldn't quite make a match.
"Just forget I said anything," Paula filled the silence. "I don't know of anyone offhand who'd be good to work with you, but I'll give it some thought and ask around."
"I'd really appreciate that Paula, thank you."
She hung up the phone and fell back against the couch. Could she have misjudged Dodge so completely? He was boorish and blunt, but she'd never, not once, gotten the sense he was someone she couldn't trust. If anything, he seemed overly concerned for her safety. Her instincts about people were usually right on target, with a few memorable exceptions. She picked up the photos he'd altered the night before. Whatever made people gossip had happened a long time ago. She couldn't turn away from the only offer of help she'd received just because of some rumors. Her gut told her she could trust him and she had to trust her gut.
By mid-day Thursday Dodge's head throbbed and his patience was shot. His hired man had gone on a binger the night before and hadn't shown up at the feed lot. And his hay delivery had been delayed because of 'transportation issues.' He should have known the price he'd been quoted was too good to be true. He intended to talk to Sarah about leasing her circle for hay next year in order to avoid future 'transportation issues.'
He looked at his watch. He'd promised her he'd bring his horses and look over the other side of the river that afternoon, but his stomach was grumbling and he had enough work to do before sundown that he might not even be able to grab a quick snack at the convenience store, much less trailer some horses and take a look at her land. He reached for his cell phone to call her and set a time to do it in the next few days.
When Sarah answered, Dodge imagined her standing in the kitchen, wearing the same tank top as the night they'd had dinner, but this time she didn't have a shirt on over it and she'd forgotten to wear a bra. She was fingering that medallion that hung around her neck. He shook his head and reminded himself to get some food in his stomach and maybe find some time to get laid before seeing or speaking to her again.
"Sarah, its Dodge. Listen, I'm not going to be able to come out this afternoon with the horses. I've had some things go to hell in a hand basket today, and--" He stopped speaking when he heard her giggling.
"I'm sorry," she said. "I haven't heard anyone use that expression since my grandfather. You were saying?"
He'd lost all concentration after hearing her breathy laugh. Damn, he needed to get laid. "I was just going to suggest I bring the horses over sometime on Saturday."
"I'm afraid Saturday won't work. I'm going to Denver to pick up my sister and the boys at the airport. Maybe Sunday, if you're free? I'm sure the boys would like to meet you. And Jenny's going to love you."
"What am I, a side show?" He wasn't offended. In fact this was the first time all day he'd felt anything other than pissed.
"The boys think I'm crazy for moving us here to ranch. Maybe meeting a successful rancher might inspire them. And my sister's a sucker for a good-looking cowboy."
He was momentarily distracted by the good-looking comment when it suddenly hit him she intended to drive another eight hours in that old sorry excuse for a truck. "Are you renting a car to drive to Denver?"
"Why would I rent car when I have a perfectly good truck?"
She was damned attached to that old clunker. "How do you expect to fit four people and their luggage in that thing?"
"I admit it'll be tight, but we're all related and the luggage can go in the back."
"Sarah, I was almost six feet tall when I was your son's age. And I can't see your truck making it on an eight hour round trip drive."
"I'm getting pretty tired of defending my truck. Trust me, we'll be fine."
Dodge sighed. Damn woman was stubborn to the core. "Listen, I have an idea. Why don't you borrow my truck to get them from the airport? I've got a king cab in the back and room enough for the luggage." When he heard her about to object, he added, "I'm afraid I won't take no for an answer."
"My truck can make the trip, but if you're going to get your hackles up, I suppose we would be more comfortable in your truck."
"Good. Tell me when you plan to leave and I'll make sure it's there. You'll just have to put up with the smell," he said, just to get her goat. Irritating her was turning out to be the most fun he'd had in a long time.
When Sarah saw Jenny, Kevin and Lyle come down the escalator toward baggage claim she felt a lump form in her throat. She'd been anxious for them to arrive. Seeing them here, in Colorado, walking toward her felt like starting act one, scene one of the play she'd written, the play she'd cast with her family as reluctant stars. Kevin had a scowl on his face, as usual. Lyle's smile lit up when he saw her. Jenny stumbled behind them, weighted down by the items she imagined the boys insisted they needed on the plane and then refused to carry. For such a tough woman, Jenny could be a real sissy with her kids.
"Mom!" Lyle shouted as he made his way through the crowd to greet her with a hug that almost knocked her over.
Sarah held him at arms length. "Let me look at you. I feel like it's been a year since I've seen your handsome face." Lyle had Todd's thick dark hair and warm brown eyes. He kept it close cut like his dad. When he smiled, dimples appeared that were destined to make the ladies swoon as soon as he set his mind to catching their attention.
Kevin ambled over and raised his brows in greeting. He didn't even take the earphones out of his ears. Sarah moved to hug him awkwardly and he tried his best to move away, embarrassed by the attention. Sarah's eyes moved to Jenny, who'd witnessed their attempted embrace. Jenny shrugged.
Kevin seemed taller, a fact she would have pointed out to him if he'd taken the damn earphones out, and his light brown hair was shaggier than usual. Longer hair on boys had been around awhile, but Kevin had mostly ignored the trend, until now apparently. Maybe the girlfriend liked it longer. While Kevin had Sarah's lighter hair and green eyes, he was the spitting image of his father with his broad shoulders, straight, almost aristocratic nose and fair skin.
Jenny dropped the carry on luggage at Sarah's feet. "Hope you've got room for the luggage." She gave her sister a firm hug and a glad-to-see-you smile.
"You look like you're ready to get back on the plane for the return ride."
"I'm not, but I'm ready to be just an aunt again. This mothering stuff is not for wimps." She rubbed her aching shoulder. "Or those with bad backs."
"Put those things in here." Sarah pulled the luggage cart forward. "We may need another cart, but we can load this one up first."
With two luggage carts filled to overflowing, they padded through the parking lot. Sarah tried not to let the weight of the cart drag her into one of the hundreds of cars squeezed into impossibly tight parking spaces. She'd had a hard time finding a spot for Dodge's large truck that would allow her to open the side door more than just a crack.
As they walked, Lyle happily relayed their last days in Georgia. She heard sadness in his voice as he told her about leaving his friends and with wicked glee he told of Kevin's tearful goodbye to his new girlfriend. Sarah had to roll her eyes as he over exaggerated the drama of their parting.
She felt a part of her settle with her kids back within arms reach. When she'd led them to the spot where she'd parked Dodge's truck, she had to call Kevin as he'd passed it in search of her old clunker. "We're right here, Kev." She lowered the back and began heaving the luggage into the truck bed.
"Whoa, don't tell me you finally upgraded the old truck." Kevin stood gaping at Dodge's nearly new Ford F250.
"Get rid of my truck? No way." Nobody appreciated a classic.
"Whose truck is this?" Jenny asked.
"A guy whose been helping me make some plans for the ranch. His name's Dodge and he insisted I take it." Sarah knew Jenny would read more into Dodge's offer than she should.
"Oh really," Jenny said with a smirk. "You haven't mentioned him before."
Sarah ignored her sister. It was a good thing Dodge insisted she bring his truck because they never would have fit themselves and the luggage into hers. They filed into the truck, the kids in the back and she and Jenny in the front. Before long they were heading along Denver's highway system back south toward Hailey. The kids settled in for the long haul after giving half-hearted answers to Sarah's questions. They were soon plugged into their iPods. Normally she would have insisted they turn off the gadgets, but this gave her and Jenny a chance to catch up without the boys listening in.
"So, tell me about this Dodge character."
"Not much to tell," Sarah hedged. "He came out to the cabin the weekend I arrived as a request of some friend of his and he's been helping me out ever since."
"That's not what I'm asking and you know it. Is he young? Old? Hot? Married? Missing a limb? What?"
Since her divorce almost five years ago, Jenny couldn't have a conversation about a man without asking about his physical description, marital status and possible average yearly salary. "He looks to be around my age and he's not married, or at least he doesn't wear a ring and never speaks of a wife."
"Is he hot?"
"He's attractive, I guess, if you like tall, dark and chauvinistic."
Jenny looked at Sarah between narrowed eyes. "I'm sensing some hostility. Is there something you're not telling?"
"He's just old-fashioned in his views about women. He worries about me being at the ranch alone and questions most of the decisions I've made. He has a lot of sisters and I think he views women as helpless." Sarah shrugged. "It's just a guess because he doesn't like to talk about himself."
"Will I get to meet him before I go home?"
Sarah watched tumbleweed cross the highway. "I'm pretty sure he hasn't grown so enamored with my truck today that he won't be interested in switching back." Sarah could feel Jenny's eyes on her. "What?"
"God, you're being sarcastic again. Being out here has helped you already."
"Is that a compliment?"
"You sounded more like the old Sarah just then, that's all. I wonder if it's Colorado or this Dodge fellow that's got your spunk level back to normal."
Sarah shook her head and snorted. "I knew you were going to blow this way out of proportion. I just knew you would."
The afternoon sun beat down on the balding head of Fred Saxton. No wonder everybody around here constantly wore a hat of some kind. In the winter, a hat provided protection from the bitter cold and biting wind that always blew through the valley. In the other, more pleasant seasons of the year, a hat provided shade from the sun that had a tendency to blister the head of any fair-skinned mid-westerner who ventured to higher ground. In every direction he peered, mile after mile of dry land sat covered in sage brush and hard dirt. The spring thaw had filled the nearby creek to capacity, but it still didn't affect the desiccated land adjacent the worthless town of Cooper.
"Damn," he said to no one in particular and kicked a potato rock with the toe of his $3000 ostrich skin boots. The development he'd been working on in outskirts of Cooper had turned into a debacle. He never thought he'd see the day when the Idaho project would seem like a cake walk compared to this calamity. He'd made a fortune turning barren land into gentlemen's ranches, catering to the whims of the rich and fancy who wanted to vacation in the wild west in the lap of luxury. He'd risked everything on his first development, nearly eight years ago. Now he stood at what felt like the same precipice where success meant more money and failure was not an option.
Back then, when he'd started his first development, all he'd had to lose was his standing with a few commercial lenders. As his reputation for shrewdness and risk-taking grew, the small town banks, his traditional source of loans, became ever risk adverse; forcing him to seek what some would call questionable sources of money. And gambling with other people's money, it turned out, was a perilous game of cat and mouse. He usually felt like the fat cat in most scenarios, but with the tightening of the water laws in Colorado, he'd started feeling more like a mouse. He didn't like it one bit. The only reason he decided to bring in Senator Burwick was to help him skirt around some of the government regulations that were the most formidable obstacle of the project.
"You'd think a damn United States Senator could push this water project through," Fred said to Carlos Irajos, his part-time driver and full-time body guard. "If I'd known two years ago that we'd be this far delayed on the project, I'd never had brought that good-for-nothing son of a bitch in on the deal in the first place."
"You wanna wait in the car boss?" Carlos motioned to the jeep parked in the middle of the three thousand acre future development site. The lots had been marked into 50 to 250 acre home sites. Each boasted spectacular mountain views, a year round creek---a highly debatable fact that may or may not be included in the marketing material, and a lodge house with gourmet restaurant. Also included in the bargain price of your retirement fund would be a twenty stall horse barn, eighteen hole executive golf course and hundreds of miles of trails for riding and hiking.
The dust created by their entrance had settled and the jeep sat perched near the only shade for miles, under an old spruce tree that had somehow survived the drought. Saxton slapped the black Stetson back on his head after beating the dust from the brim on his jeans and stalked back to the jeep for his phone. "The least he could do is be here when he says he's going to."
Just as Fred reached in the jeep for his cell, a cloud of dust announced the arrival of the Senator and his hot little assistant. Fred considered her an unwelcome distraction, but Benji insisted she stay within spitting distance at their meetings. He'd assured him of her fidelity, all the while coping a cheap feel whenever he could manufacture an opportunity. Fred didn't know why, but there was something about the girl, something in her eyes, that made him question her loyalty. But as was typical, Benji thought with his crotch instead of his head. Fred only hoped she proved as discreet as Benji had promised.
"This where the clubhouse is going to be?" Benji asked as he squinted around at the dry ground. Fred noted with disgust the Senator's uncomfortable walk in his ironed jeans and flashy shirt. "You got landscaping in your budget, Saxton, because this is as barren a spot as the rest of the property. I still think you should've put the clubhouse near the creek. At least the cottonwoods would give the impression of lushness."
Fred tried to keep his patience with the man who'd promised him water. Water would make every acre of land fertile. He wondered for the millionth time if Burwick could deliver. But until he knew for sure, he needed to keep his cool. But keeping calm wasn't one of Fred Saxton's strong suits. "We've been over this before, Senator. This site offers the easiest access for residents and provides the best views. Not to mention the fact that we need every acre of creek front property for the higher end lots. Now, listen," Fred said. They could discuss landscaping over the phone, but the face-to-face meetings were reserved for things of a more delicate nature. "What progress have you made on the land acquisition? Last time we talked, you assured me that land in Hailey would be under contract within three months and I haven't heard about your merry widow packing up and leaving town. Tell me you've got some good news, because my creditors are getting antsy."
"There's been a glitch."
"That's what you said last time. You said you'd take care of it."
"Well, I thought I had it covered, but my guy in Hailey messed up. But," Benji said with his hands raised, "I've made changes to the plan. I'm implementing them as we speak."
Fred moved to stand behind Benji, spoke into the starched collar of his cotton shirt. "Senator, you've got one month to get that property under contract or I'm taking matters into my own hands."
Benji whipped around to face him. "Now, Fred. Don't go getting all worked up over this. I told you I was going to take care of it and I will. You've just got to be patient."
"I'm fresh out of patience. I've done my own research. There are less than a handful of properties that would allow us to augment the water use of a project this size. The Woodward place is the best choice and by some accounts our only option. I've given you plenty of time to wrap this up. In one month I'll see to it myself that she agrees to sell. And when she does, it'll be to me, not to you."
"So if I don't have her place under contract in a month you're cutting me out?"
"If I garner this deal on my own, you'll have been no use to me, Senator. And a smart businessman like yourself knows the one who pays gets to play." Fred turned to walk back to his jeep and Benji grabbed his arm.
"Saxton, we had a deal."
Benji dropped his hand when he recognized the threat on Saxton's face.
"One for which you haven't delivered. I'll be in touch."
"Hey, what are you doing?" Lyle asked Kevin. He'd slipped away when they'd returned to the ranch from the airport and been gone for the better part of the afternoon. Lyle had found him near the eastern edge of the property, skipping rocks in a spot where the water ran deep and still.
"What does it look like I'm doing?"
Lyle picked up a small flat rock and watched it skip across the water toward the farthest bank. "Mom sent me to find you. The guy who lent her the truck is coming over. She wants us at home to meet him."
"My home's in Georgia." Kevin could feel the anger simmering through his body. He'd never think of this place as home or forgive his mother for dragging him away from everything he knew and loved.
"You know what I mean," Lyle said. "I've been looking for you for awhile, so she's probably pretty pissed by now. We'd better get back."
"You run off and seal your fate as her favorite. I'll go back to the cabin when I'm ready."
"What do you want me to tell her, Kev?"
"I don't really give a damn." He turned to search the riverbank for the perfect skipping rock. He used to skip rocks with his dad in this spot when they'd visit in the summer. His dad had taught him the perfect kind of rock to look for---flat and small. He'd showed him how to throw it side arm and catapult it across the tranquil surface. It was weird, driving back on the property knowing his dad wouldn't be around to throw the football, ride ATV's or skip rocks along the river. Kevin had learned to fish their first summer in Colorado before the cabin was built. The summer his dad died was when he'd promised to teach Kevin to shoot a gun.
Being in Colorado without his dad felt like betraying his memory. The cabin had always felt so warm and cozy, but now it seemed to strangle the breath out of his chest. He couldn't stay inside for more than a few minutes before feeling an overwhelming need to get outside. He wasn't staying there, he knew that for sure. He'd thought of nothing else on the plane ride but how he'd get back to Georgia. He didn't know how exactly, but he was going back in a few days with Jenny no matter what his mom said. She didn't care about what he wanted anyway. All she cared about was getting as far away from home and all the stuff that reminded her of dad. All the stuff that brought him the greatest sense of comfort. He hated his mom for making him come out here. And as mad as he was at her, he was even madder at his dad for leaving them alone.
He was the only kid he knew who didn't have a father. Lots of his friends' parents were divorced and their dads didn't live with them anymore. But they still got to see them and hang out and stuff. And Lyle didn't count because he didn't seem to be upset about dad much anymore. He'd been sad at first and a little angry, but maybe he wasn't old enough to realize all the things they were going to miss out on without a dad. Or maybe he just didn't care because he'd always been mom's favorite, now more than ever.
He had to find a way to convince Jenny to take him back with her. He needed to live in Georgia and go to school with his friends and keep seeing Jessica and just forget about all the bad stuff that'd happened in the last two years. If he could get Jenny on his side, she could talk mom into it because mom always said she was a little bit afraid of her. He heard Lyle sigh and turned to see him walk slowly back toward the cabin, listened to the crunch of leaves and twigs under his feet and the lonely call of a hawk in the distant sky.
Lyle heard gravel spray the underbelly of his mom's old truck as he emerged from the woods near the cabin. He could hear his mom and aunt talking on the deck. The smell of the clean air and woods filled his heart with memories of the laughter and love they once shared as a family in the wide open space. They'd always come here to escape what mom called their unmanageable schedule at home. As crazy as it was, home had included a father who always had a smile and time to share when he wasn't out of town. It also included a brother who could speak to people without trying to make them feel stupid for trying.
Lyle had always felt free on the ranch, kinda like Huck Finn, and he didn't worry about school and sports like he did at home. He thought he'd get that feeling again when they'd gotten here, had hoped being here again would help him not feel so sad all the time and help his brother not be so angry. But if he thought moving here could change the way of things in his family he'd been reminded moments ago just how wrong he'd been.
Dodge pulled to a stop next to his truck, relieved to know he'd be going home in it instead of Sarah's. Her truck ran like a charm, but wasn't built for anyone over six feet. He'd just come around the hood when Sarah emerged from the cabin.
"Lyle, come meet Dodge, sweetie" she said to the boy who'd walked out of the woods. "Where's your brother?"
"Hey." Lyle stuck out his hand to shake Dodge and looked him in the eye. "You've got a sweet truck, Mr. Dodge. Sure you don't want to keep mom's a little while longer?"
Dodge looked down at the kid's friendly face. He had a surprisingly strong handshake for an eleven-year-old and a quality about him that put Dodge at ease. "You think your mom would consider a trade, young man?"
Lyle's quick smile showed a set of boyish dimples. He knew right away Lyle would be beating the girls off with a stick.
"I can talk her into just about anything, Mr. Dodge. And I like your truck a heck of a lot better than ours."
"Call me Dodge, kid. I think my truck is safe." He winked at Sarah. "Your mom's very loyal to her clunker."
Dodge stiffened when another woman walked from the cabin onto the drive. She was roughly the same size and shape as Sarah, but her hair was bright blonde and her eyes were a dark, almost midnight blue. She had a hard look about her. He pegged her as either a cock tease or man hater.
She cleared her throat by way of introduction.
"Where are my manners," Sarah said. "This is my sister, Jenny. Jenny, A.J. Dodge."
Jenny sauntered two steps forward and stuck out her hand and her chest and batted her lashes. Dodge took her outstretched hand in his own and gave Jenny the once over.
"Jenny," Dodge said. "It's a pleasure to meet you."
"Ummm," Jenny purred. "The pleasure is all mine, I assure you."
He looked over at Sarah and had to fight not smile. He recognized the look on Sarah's face--he'd seen it a million times on the faces of his sisters whenever a boy was around. She was jealous. It pleased him more than it should have, seeing Sarah sneer at her sister.
Sarah turned to Lyle. "Did you find Kevin?"
Lyle looked at his feet and shrugged. "Yeah, he's skipping rocks down by the river. Said he'd be back in a little while."
Dodge watched disappointment wash over Sarah's face. He knew just what it felt like to disappoint the ones you love the most. He wanted to comfort her. What was it about her that brought out every protective instinct?
"It's just as well," she said. "He's more than a little angry about being here, so I don't imagine he'd make the best impression anyway. We're just heading into town for dinner, whenever Kevin decides to grace us with his presence. Would you like to join us?"
"That's a tempting offer, but I'll have to pass. I need to trailer one of my tractors over to my dad's place. I'm sure he's expecting me to stay. But another time."
"Tomorrow then, after the horses? Will you plan to stay for dinner? I'd really like Kevin to meet you and to properly thank you for letting us borrow your truck. It pains me to say you were right--we never would have fit in mine."
"Of course I was right. Do you want me to bring more horses for Jenny and the boys?"
Sarah's smile waffled. "Two horses should be fine. The boys can ride after we check out the other side, if that's okay?"
"Yeah, I'm sure they'll be fine. I'll see you around noon?"
"Perfect."
"It was nice to meet you, Lyle," Dodge said, and then turned to face Jenny, tipped his hat. "Jenny."
Jenny eyed him with open appreciation. "Dodge."
He chuckled all the way back to his truck and wondered how two sisters could look so much alike and be so different.
It was almost dark when Kevin came back to the cabin. He walked in as though nothing were wrong, even though he knew his mom would be worried. When he climbed the stairs, he found only Jenny and Lyle playing cards on the coffee table by the indoor fireplace.
Jenny glanced over her cards and her eyebrows rose in warning. "You're not making a really good start out here, you know."
Kevin threw his jacket on the back of a stool and shrugged. "Where's mom?"
"Out looking for you. She's worried and you will be in trouble." She discarded an eight of clubs into a pile on the table. Lyle picked it up with a smile.
"Gin," Lyle said. Jenny grimaced as he fanned out his card for her to admire. She watched Kevin sit on the couch and pretend to look around for his iPod.
"Aren't you even going to try to get along with her?" Jenny asked. "She can't be the only one who makes an effort, Kev. You're going to have to meet her in the middle."
"Why are you defending her all the sudden? I thought you understood how I felt about moving out here."
"She's my sister and she's been through enough without you throwing your anger in her face every time she turns around. You need to cut her a break. She's doing the best she knows how."
"She's been through enough? What about me? What about us?" He swung his arm around to include Lyle into the argument. "She's the one who insisted we move here without even asking us if we wanted to, not that she'd care. Then she gets mad when we aren't overjoyed to be here. Well, tough. I'm not happy about being here and I'm not going to pretend to be just to make her feel better. This was her big idea and she's going to have to live with the consequences."
"Are you through?" his mom asked from the top of the stairs. Her cheeks were red from the cold.
Kevin looked up, still breathing hard from his outburst with Jenny.
"You're right," she said. "I don't care if you don't want to be here. It hurts me to see you upset because we had to move, but it was my decision to make and I wouldn't change my mind even now. You're going to have to get used to the idea that this is our home and that's all there is to it. I'm the only parent you've got and I won't tolerate you talking to me or about me like you just did. And I won't have you speak to Jenny that way, either."
"We didn't have to move, mom. The only reason we did was because you couldn't stand to see us moving on without you."
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"I mean Lyle and I still had friends and school and a life. Since dad died, everybody's been keeping their distance from you because you're a big downer all the time. So just because your friends couldn't stand to hear you whine anymore you up and move us to the middle of nowhere so we can all be miserable. Well, I hope you're happy because it worked--we're miserable!"
"It's going to take some getting used to," his mom said. All the color had drained from her face and she looked really mad. "All I ask is for you to give it a chance and try to keep an open mind. Because we aren't moving back."
Sarah sat on the deck, sipped her wine and let the peacefulness of the night air fill her lungs and the empty places in her heart. Dinner had been a disaster, with Kevin sulking and Lyle and Jenny trying to lighten the mood. Sarah could feel herself slipping into the void of space where she'd spent much of the last two years, half present, going through the motions of every day life, but not really involved.
That's what Kevin had meant, her being a downer. He was right. She suspected he and Lyle, Jenny and everyone else knew she was only partly in the moment most of the time. That's why people kept their distance. Being in Colorado this past week had her feeling alive again. But she could feel herself backpedaling and she didn't know how to stop the momentum.
So many people had advised them to seek counseling after Todd's death. She'd resisted, thought it would be too weird, too weak, too slippery a slope to go down and ever get back up. Maybe her insistence on handling things herself, within the family, had been a mistake. Now that they were in a small town where the kind of therapy they needed probably wasn't even available, she began to wonder if it might help. Typical.
"What are you sitting over there moping about?" Jenny asked.
Sarah sighed. Just the sound of it made her feel pathetic. "I'm just wondering if I should have put us all in therapy like everybody suggested."
"Oh, pooh. That's all you'd need is for Kevin and Lyle to use their dad's dying as an excuse for everything that goes wrong in their lives. You don't need therapy now any more than you did back then. You're just a little lost at the moment. You'll find your way. Hell, I'm starting to think being out here is just what you all need."
Sarah looked at her surprised. Jenny had been supportive of her decision to move, always told Sarah to follow her instincts, that she was a good mother and to trust her gut. But at the same time, Sarah knew she'd been worried. This was the first time she'd heard Jenny admit the move was a good idea.
"Sarah, I know its hard hearing Kevin say what he did, but you can't listen to him. He's angry and upset, but he still loves you. He needs to know you're sure about this and I think that's why he's pushing you so hard."
Sarah watched the play of firelight flicker over Jenny's features, her big soulful eyes and the button nose that softened the hard edges of her often biting personality. She could see her sister trying to organize her thoughts carefully so as not to say the wrong thing. She trusted the advice Jenny offered because she knew it came from her heart and intuitive mind.
"Don't you remember when we were teenagers and we were mad at mom?" Jenny asked. "I don't mean mad because she wouldn't let us go to the mall or dumb stuff like that, but really mad."
"Like the time I overheard her telling Mrs. Johnson you'd gotten your period?" Sarah asked. "You flipped out when I told you."
"Exactly." Jenny laughed. "I was furious with her for telling my personal business to a neighbor. She didn't think it was a big deal. I thought she didn't understand, couldn't understand how humiliating it was for me to know that Mrs. Johnson knew something like that about me. I kept thinking, what if she tells Brad? What if Brad Johnson, the hottest guy in the seventh grade, knows I started my period?"
"You and mom didn't speak for almost a week after the big blow up."
"Do you know what I said to her during the big blow up?" Sarah shook her head. "I threw everything in her face I knew would eat away at her self-esteem. I told her she looked fat, she was the worst-dressed mother in school, she was an embarrassment to me, and I topped it off by telling her I hated her pecan pie."
"What did any of that have to do with her telling Mrs. Johnson about you getting your period?"
"Nothing. I said it all to hurt her and make her feel small just the way she'd hurt me and made me feel small." Jenny turned and looked Sarah in the eye. "That's what Kevin's doing to you. He's hitting on every insecurity you have about this move to punish you, like he feels he's being punished. But I also think, deep down, he needs you to stand up and convince him this is the right thing for all of you. If he sees you wavering about this he's going to feel like the rug's been pulled out from under him. He's scared. He sees the uncertainty in your eyes and its making him worried."
"Damn," Sarah said. "You should have been a mother. That was good."
Jenny smiled. "It was good, wasn't it?"
"I am sure about the move. But when he's like that, so angry and hateful, I don't know how to convince him I'm doing this for him--for us--and not to punish him. We've all been through enough. I'm not trying to make it harder on him and Lyle. I knew this would be tough, but it's harder than I thought." Sarah reached out and took Jenny's hand. "You sure you don't want to move out here with us?"
Jenny squeezed her hand. "If this town's full of Marlboro men like your Dodge, I may just have to put some serious thought into it."
"He's not my Dodge. You were the one he couldn't take his eyes off." Sarah almost winced when she heard the jealousy in her voice. She'd expected Jenny's reaction to Dodge the moment she'd laid eyes on him. What she hadn't expected was for it to bother her so much. Jenny raised her brows curiously. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to sound like that. I'm not sure where that came from."
"I know where it came from and I'm damn glad to hear it. He's hot. I'd hope you'd take an interest in a hot guy who's taken an interest in you."
Sarah snorted. "He's not interested in me. He's helping me with a few things because of some obligation. Then he'll be gone."
"He wasn't obligated to lend you his truck or bring his horses out tomorrow. But he did, and he is. He was flirting with you earlier." Jenny raised her hands when Sarah tried to protest. "I know flirting when I see it and he was flirting. And there's not a thing in the world wrong with it."
"I don't want to talk about this."
"Sarah, your husband was a wonderful man. I know you can't replace him because I don't think there's another man alive who can walk in his shoes. But that doesn't mean you have to wither away with nothing but your memories of him keeping you warm at night."
"I'm not interested in replacing Todd. I'm not interested in anything with anyone. I can't imagine ever being interested in someone like that again."
"That's because you won't let yourself think about dating and moving forward. You've already moved yourself and the kids damn near across the country. Why won't you even consider starting over in another way?"
"You've got to be kidding me. With all the hostility I'm facing from Kevin right now, you expect me to start dating again. That would send the kids right over the edge."
"You wouldn't be dating for the kids, Sarah. You'd be doing it for you."
Sarah snuggled deeper into the blanket she'd wrapped around her shoulders. "I'm not dating at all. And Dodge is the last person I'd consider dating anyway."
"Oh really?"
"Yes, really. Can you honestly see me with him?"
"I'd actually like to see me with him. But he's not interested in me, he's interested in you."
"Where do you get that, Jenny? I just don't see it. I think you're trying to plant a seed in my head to get me back on the dating wagon. All you're going to end up doing is making a fool of me."
Jenny reached over and squeezed Sarah's arm. "I'm going to bed. I'll leave you to your thoughts."
Dodge let lukewarm water splash directly in his face before he shut off the shower and reached for a towel. He hadn't slept well the last few nights. He'd hoped the nearly cold water would allow him to wake up enough to shake off the dreams that had haunted him at night. He'd fall into bed exhausted from a day's hard labor. Sometime after midnight, he'd sit up with a start, jolted awake and gasping for breath. His skin would be coated in a slick sheen of sweat and Wendy Hawkins angelic face the only recollection of his nightmare.
He could see her as clearly as if she'd been seated on the bed next to him, her golden blonde ringlets shining in the moonlight. She always wore the same wide eyed look on her face when she'd silently begged him to go along with her story and change the course of his life forever.
While he'd aged appropriately in his thirty-eight years of living, she'd remained the same, frozen in his memories as a shy nineteen-year-old. She used to run around in the shadow of his older sister, Isabel, sneaking glances his way when she thought he wasn't looking. There were very few occasions when he hadn't been looking and wondering how the soft roundness of her body would feel against all the hard planes of his.
He'd been eighteen, a senior in high school, and willing to jump on anything remotely female. There'd been something about Wendy, the way she'd pretend to ignore him and then go out of her way to rub against him or flash a bit of skin in the most innocent way. He'd endured almost a year of her harmless flirtation. He'd wanted her as badly as he'd wanted Mary Lynn Fletcher, the first of many girlfriends who'd finally agreed to let him have her when they were both fifteen.
Wendy was a tease. One night at the local pub, a place where the legal drinking age depended on how much money you slipped the bartender, he saw a golden opportunity with Wendy. She was there alone, or appeared to be when he first saw her. With the help of several beers, he'd decided to give her what, in his mind, she'd been begging to have for months.
As he sauntered to the table where she sat nursing a bottle of Miller Lite, intent on picking the label off with her hot pink fingernail, he was stopped dead in his tracks at the sight of the most intimidating man he'd ever seen. Dodge was big at eighteen, measuring in at near his present six-three, all sinewy muscle and lanky limbs. But he had nothing on the massive man who seemed to pound across the smoky bar and take the seat opposite Wendy in the dimly lit booth. Wendy smiled at him, that shy smile Dodge thought she'd reserved for him. She reached her hand across the table to link their fingers. His hands were big enough to crush her skull in his palm. Dodge stood there, right in the middle of the bar, flanked by feeble dancers and posters of exotic women in beer ads, just watching his innocent Wendy offer herself up to another.
And that's where his friend Tommy Thornton found him, staring into the booth.
"What's up, man?" Tommy'd asked, then let his gaze follow Dodge's stare. Wendy and the monster were not only joined at the hands but were making serious attempts to molest each other with their legs under the table. "Whoa. Is that Wendy Hawkins? Damn, who's that guy she's with? He's not from around here."
Dodge couldn't answer. He and Tommy stood rooted to their spots, gaping as Wendy and her new friend eased out of the booth and out the back door toward the parking lot.
"Do you think we should follow her? Make sure she's okay?" Tommy asked. He was as innocent as any sheltered Hailey boy. Watching one of its better known young girls ushered out the back of a bar in the arms of a leather-clad unknown didn't sit quite right.
"Yeah, I guess," Dodge said.
They went out the same door the man had pressed Wendy's back against when he pushed her outside. It had just swung closed when they saw Wendy in the passenger seat of an old Chevy Malibu, dented from one end to the next, snuggled up against the stranger. She spotted Dodge watching from the back alley and actually blew a kiss in his direction and laughed as the car pulled away from the lot.
"Damn, I never thought I'd see the day sweet Wendy Hawkins took a walk on the wild side," Tommy said as he emerged from Dodge's shadow. "Do you think she knows what she's doing?"
Dodge watched the trail of exhaust from the Malibu's tailpipe disappear into the cold spring night and shrugged his shoulders. "I would've wondered until she blew that kiss. I sure didn't see that one coming."
That was the last time he'd seen Wendy before she weaved a tale so contorted, so believable, it'd caught him like a fish on a line. Her lies broke every allegiance he'd formed with family and friends. Her one night's walk on the wild side had cost a lot of people their pride and faith, and had left Dodge wondering how his family could be so quick to turn their backs on him.
As he looked at his reflection in the mirror, Dodge felt that same hardening in his belly he'd felt that night. He kneaded his side from habit after all these years, and tried to ease the weight that had settled there, heavier now than he remembered.
He'd considered driving out to her gravesite one Sunday after he'd been back in town for a few weeks. The dreams had started up again as soon as he'd returned to Hailey. He thought maybe if he went to her gravesite he could somehow make things right between the two of them. Maybe she'd let him have his peace at night. But he hadn't done it, and knew he wouldn't. If anyone saw him at her grave, they'd assume he was guilty. He already felt enough guilt where Wendy Hawkins was concerned. Besides, his dad was getting on in years. He still ranched, but the years were wearing on him. Dodge didn't want old news rearing its ugly head again in what could be Donnie Dodge's last few years. He'd carried the burden around long enough.
Dodge dressed quickly and went into the kitchen he only used for making coffee and storing beer. He let the heat of the coffee mug fill his hands, leaned against the old Formica countertops and thought about the time he'd spent at the Woodward ranch the day before. He smiled as he remembered the way Sarah screamed when his gentlest horse had whinnied while she'd petted his muzzle. That woman sure was jumpy around horses. She'd pretend to be fine and all the while have that scared look on her face. She'd damn near rubbed a hole in her jeans wiping her sweaty palms. He'd tried to be exasperated with her but he was just too entertained to be annoyed.
It hadn't taken long to explore the property on the other side of the river, a vastly overgrown area ripe for grazing. Every time he stepped foot on the property he was surprised at its potential. He found himself itching to help her turn it into the showplace it was destined to become. He thought of Kevin, who'd done everything he could to irritate his mother. The kid was the polar opposite of his brother. Dodge saw shades of himself as a teenager in the gangly boy. The tension between Kevin and Sarah was so strong, he felt as though there was actual wattage in the air. He had to give Sarah credit, she certainly stood her ground with the kid. She had a long, hard road with that one.
And then there was Jenny. She'd watched him like a hawk, staring and making all sorts of sexual innuendos. She had an agenda, that was clear, but what she wanted he just couldn't put his finger on. They'd had a nice dinner and he'd let the boys ride his horses. Lyle even helped load them back in the trailer while Kevin sulked and watched from a distance.
He rubbed his hands over his face, dumped the rest of his coffee into a thermos and headed out the door for another day of work.
Sarah carefully placed the phone in the cradle and turned to face her sister as she put the milk from breakfast in the refrigerator.
"Who was that?" Jenny asked. "And why do you look so worried?"
Sarah let her body fall into a barstool and shook her head. "That was Luis, the guy Paula recommended for the caretakers job. He's changed his mind. He doesn't want it."
"So. Get someone else."
"It's not that easy. He was the only person Paula recommended and no one's even called about my ad in the paper." She shrugged her shoulders and rolled her neck from side to side to ease the tension that had settled there since Paula's call. "I just don't get it. He seemed real excited when we talked yesterday. He loved the house and said he'd be out today to do some repairs on the roof and fix the broken window. Now he's just changed his mind. Don't you think that's weird?"
Jenny came around the bar and sat down next to Sarah. "Maybe his wife wasn't as keen on the idea as he was."
"He wasn't married. He had a few cousins who were going to live there with him. Paula said they were good guys, that I'd be lucky to have them all working together. Damn it, now I don't know what to do."
"Why don't you call Dodge and see if he can help?"
"No, he's helped enough. I'll just have to run the ad again, maybe put it in a couple of the surrounding papers and see what happens. I guess it doesn't matter because the fences won't be in until next week anyway. But I was hoping to have someone settled and ready to go by then."
A loud horn blow from the garage had them both jumping in surprise. "I'm coming." Sarah shouted down the stairs. "I forgot the boys were waiting."
Jenny got up and placed a hand on her sister's shoulder. "Go on, Sarah. If you're going to get the kids to school this morning you need to get a move on."
Hailey Junior-Senior high school sat on another rural offshoot of the Rifle Range, nestled among surrounding farms with circular pivots and stacks of hay piled in fields as far as the eye could see. The school consisted of a series of average sized two-story brick buildings, reminiscent of the old Atlanta city schools that had been torn down or remodeled into urban lofts or office buildings. From the road, Sarah saw a football field with small bleachers, an adequately maintained baseball field and metal outbuildings that she assumed were used by the physical fitness department. There were a handful of busses unloading children. She watched them talk in small groups and wander into the main hall of the building. The school was a fraction of the size of their school back home, a fact Kevin groaned loudly about as they pulled into the parking lot.
"I don't know why you're making us start school now when we've already finished up the year at home. They'll be done in two weeks anyway."
"I just want you to get the lay of the land and maybe make some friends before the summer begins. I spoke with the school counselor and she agreed it was a good idea." When Kevin rolled his eyes, Sarah put the car in park and turned to face him. "Think of it this way. You don't have to do any homework or take any tests. You're just there to make friends and get to know your way around. Make the most of it," she said as Kevin and Lyle piled out of the truck and walked slowly toward the building.
She stayed in the spot until the metal door closed sharply behind Lyle. Maybe if Kevin met an attractive girl or two it would ease his acceptance of the situation. She'd tried several times to talk with him about Jessica, his mystery girlfriend back home. He'd shut her down with a look. She hoped Dodge was right about her hearing about his girlfriends before he got home from school, because otherwise she didn't think she'd ever find out.
The tension between them hadn't eased and would probably get worse when Jenny left in a few days. Sarah knew she needed to stay strong, as Jenny suggested. But with every new experience the boys faced, her apprehension worsened and hiding it was becoming really hard. She'd have to tuck it away, absorb it for awhile until her sons figured out they weren't going back to Atlanta and accepted life there for what it was meant to be: simple, quiet, and intended to bring them together as a family, not drive them further apart.
Benji sat in his office on the second floor of the renovated train depot building in southern Colorado's largest town of Westmoreland. He was sporting both a hangover and the sweet scent of revenge. He'd just gotten off the phone with Mac McGill, the Valley's principal land owner and A.J. Dodge's current landlord. What a stroke of luck. Benji sat back in the worn leather of his office chair and swiveled around to look out the window. He changed his mind when the afternoon light splintered through the cherry wood blinds.
He turned back to put his feet on his desk and thought about McGill. Benji had bailed the guy's kid brother out of some major trouble a few years back and Mac owed him big. It'd only taken a phone call to get Mac to agree to terminate the lease Dodge had on his biggest property, over a thousand acres, the home base of his cattle operation. Benji knew Dodge would struggle to find a place to lease when Mac gave him the boot. He only wished he could be there to see the look on Dodge's face when he got the news. Damn, it felt good to get even with that son of a bitch and at the same time keep Dodge so busy with his own cow operation he wouldn't have time to help Sarah Woodward.
With Dodge out of the picture, he needed to create a few more obstacles for Mrs. Woodward, speed along her decision to sell. He'd already arranged for her ranch hand to quit, an easy task considering the guy's cousins were all illegal. And he'd be able to think a lot clearer now if he hadn't downed nearly a fifth of Jack Daniels at a fundraiser last night. But with his wife in tow, it was easier to drown her out by drowning in liquor. A little hangover was nothing compared to listening to her whine all night. He reached inside the armoire for a splash of liquor to take the bite out of his throbbing headache.
"Hey there, handsome." Jenny approached Dodge after he'd crammed his cell phone back into his coat pocket. She'd spotted him right away, ranting and raving into the phone on the small downtown sidewalk, not caring or noticing that he was causing a scene. She'd been enjoying a scone and a latte at the only coffee shop in town. When two ladies came through the door, she could hear him screaming until the door closed and it was back to the show of arm flailing and boot kicking. Damn, that was one mad cowboy. Jenny was never one to mind her own business. She slipped the last bite of scone in her mouth, grabbed her purse and headed across the two-lane road. She drew near Dodge just as he'd ended the call.
"What do you want?" he said.
"Problems in hick town?" He was fun to poke at, and with him in a snit, she'd get a better handle on him as a possible partner for her sister. Sarah was interested in Dodge. Jenny knew her sister was attracted the moment she failed to mention him in the days before Jenny brought the boys to town. All Sarah had to do was mention his name once, just once, and she'd be able to believe her sister's claim she wasn't interested. But the fact that she kept him a secret was proof positive she was attracted and didn't know what to do. Hell, who wouldn't be attracted to the big man in front of her, so mad now she could almost see steam rising from under his dirty hat.
"I don't have time for you right now, Jenny. We'll have to play games with each other another time." He reached into his coat for the phone he'd just put away.
Humm, he was smart enough to know they were playing games. She watched him scroll through the numbers on his cell, his dark brows drawn tightly together, annoyance shooting off him like rays from a light bulb. "You seem a little stressed. I know a sure-fire way of relieving stress. If you're interested." That ought to get his attention.
"Are you kidding me?" He moved around her to get into his truck.
Jenny stepped off the curb and leaned into the open passenger window. "Could I bother you for a ride? Sarah won't be around to pick me up for an hour and your little downtown area isn't as entertaining as I'd expected."
Dodge pulled his phone away from his ear. "Sherry Barton gives a hell of a manicure, or so I hear. Go kill an hour of her time and leave me alone."
"My, my, you're testy today. While I do need a manicure," she looked at what was left of the nail job she'd gotten at the club before coming to Hailey, "I'm afraid the standards of hygiene there may be less than I'm accustomed. But I will take that ride." She hopped into the seat next to him and watched his jaw go slack before tightening into a scowl in a matter of seconds. He was too much of a gentleman to throw her from the truck. He was stuck with her and none too happy. Dodge ripped the truck into reverse and gunned it out of his spot.
Dodge had been just about to dig into the chili burger in front of him at the diner when his cell rang and he answered the call from Mac McGill. And now, less than ten minutes later, he hadn't had lunch and he didn't have a home. He still didn't understand. Why the hell would Mac break the lease they'd agreed on amicably only two months before? He'd even said he'd pay the penalty for terminating the lease agreement early. But what good did that do when, as of next week, Dodge wouldn't have a home or a place for his cattle?
Damn it, why now? Moving his cows would be a huge pain in the ass, and he had no idea where he'd move them. And Mac knew that. He hadn't even bothered to explain, just said it had to be done and that was that. Damn it. He needed to make some phone calls, figure out who had land for lease, do something, anything but drive little miss big city back to her sister's ranch. Women.
"So," she said. "Are you going to tell me what's gotten you in such a foul mood, or should I just chalk it up to small town boredom?"
Dodge shook his head and stared straight ahead at the pavement of the Rifle Range. Just a few more miles and he'd drop her at the front gate so she could walk the three miles back to the house in her ridiculous heeled sandals. Ha. It would serve her right after jumping in his truck. She was old enough to know not every man walked around twenty-four hours a day ruled by his dick. A good many men, yes, but not all. No wonder she wasn't married.
"You're a man of few words."
He screeched to a halt by the empty caretakers home and hit the unlock button on the door. "Here's a few words. Get out."
"Here? You've got to be kidding me."
"I'm pulling away in exactly five seconds, so if you don't want your walk home to get any farther, I suggest you get out now."
"Fine," she said. "But pissing me off is no way to get in my sister's good graces." She slammed the door and turned quickly to avoid the spray of gravel as he peeled away from the drive.
Dodge was exhausted. He'd spent all day on the phone, driving all over the valley looking for land to lease. The best he could piece together were several plots of hundred acre tracts from one end of the valley to the next. Not one of them was big enough for all his cattle and he'd end up spending all his time trying to be eight places at once. Nothing, absolutely nothing had worked out in his favor. He paced the small kitchen of the hundred year-old ranch house he could call home for precisely one more week.
In a desperate bout of frustration, he flung his papers from the kitchen table where he'd frantically worked. As he watched them flutter to the floor like leaves falling from an autumn sky, the survey of the Woodward property floated down and landed face up on the center of the table. A light bulb went off in his head.
Of course. She had the perfect size ranch, currently unleased and scheduled to be fenced by the end of the week. He could set up a feed lot for the calves using the old barns at the front of the property near the caretaker's house and pay her newly hired ranch hand to help him. It was perfect, and his only option. But even as his head cleared, he could feel the hairs on the back of his neck sticking up and he anxiously rubbed them away. He was attracted to Sarah. Really attracted. And he never, ever mixed business with pleasure. He'd never had to before and he wouldn't do it now. He just needed to remember his vow.
Sarah wouldn't want to lease her land, she'd already said she wanted to get her own cows and learn the business. But she didn't have a clue where to start. Luis was a competent a ranch hand and he'd help her muddle through. As much as he hated to ask a favor, he needed her to let him lease the land or he'd be sunk. Shit.
He thought about the way he'd dropped Jenny at the front gate and the furious expression on her face as he'd pulled away. He may need to grovel. Damn, he hated to beg. Fortunately he'd deal with Sarah and not her spoiled brat sister. He knew she would agree, but he didn't want to have to ask with Jenny around. But now that he'd made up his mind, he needed to talk to her and Jenny wasn't leaving until the next day. As he stacked the papers neatly on the table and made his way to the bathroom to shower, he decided a nice bottle of wine and maybe some more steaks would do the groveling for him.
Sarah heaved firewood into the wheelbarrow and carted it under the deck. She'd begun to stack the wood from some of the nearby cottonwood trees that had fallen during the valley's many wind gusts. She wondered if she'd ever get used to the feel of grit between her teeth when the wind picked up and carried the dusty earth careening toward anything that stood in its way. Her head reeled, but not from the physical exertion. She'd craved a physical outlet after the day she'd had and the resentment she'd encountered.
The hostility from the Kevin that morning, which only got worse after the bus had dropped them off at the front of the ranch. You'd think walking a few miles from the road to the cabin would be a welcome break after the miserable day he'd had at school. All she could get from him was that the kids were dumb, the girls were ugly and that he was smarter than everyone in his classes. If she thought starting school would help with his attitude she'd been wrong. Very wrong.
He disappeared a few minutes after he got home and only scowled at her after she'd gotten on the four-wheeler to find him. He'd been sitting on a log that had fallen into the river. When he heard the engine come up behind him his face changed from quiet reflection to completely rancorous. And she felt sick. Sick, sick, sick for she wondered if he'd ever get beyond his bitterness. First his dad died and now she'd dragged him here where he refused to even try to fit in. Sarah felt like an idiot for thinking a change of venue would help. Even Lyle seemed quiet after school, saying it would take some time to get used to the changes.
She threw the last of the wood on the pile and moved around the house to put the wheelbarrow back into the garage. Before going inside, she stepped out onto the small concrete drive to pound the dirt from her shoes. That's when she noticed a truck coming down the long gravel drive. Dodge. Her stomach did a funny little flip-flop as recognition. She wondered why he'd come and why she felt so relieved by the sight of him.
"Now, I can explain," he said as he came around the truck.
"What are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about making your sister walk home this afternoon from the front gate. She insisted I bring her home today and I didn't have time to drive her all the way back here so I dropped her at the front."
"She mentioned it. Why do you look so guilty?"
"I...she seemed pretty pissed, that's all." He turned back to the truck. "I thought an apology was in order so I brought some steaks and a bottle of wine." He held the label in her face.
She shrugged as she accepted the wine. "Thanks." Jenny's last night and he brought steaks and wine. Her stomach churned with jealousy and she didn't like it one bit. "Jenny will be pleased to know you're seeing her off in style."
"I actually have a business proposition for you. I thought we could discuss it over dinner."
Of course. The lease on the circle. He'd been excited to discover the full circle and said he'd get with her later about a lease. So later was now. "A juicy steak and some wine sounds pretty good after the day I've had. Come on up."
"You ok?" He reached for her arm.
Such a loaded question. "I'll survive." She tried to smile, but he didn't seem appeased.
"Want to talk about it?"
"I'm tired of whining." She could barely stand the sound of her own voice and desperately wished she could shut down her brain for awhile. Maybe the wine would help.
"Look who's joining us for dinner," Sarah announced to the boys as they sat on the couch watching ESPN. Sarah could see Jenny reading on the deck. She probably heard Dodge approach and waited to make a grand entrance.
Lyle waved and Kevin merely pursed his lips and looked back at the television. And then the deck doors opened and Jenny sauntered through, kicking Lyle's feet off the coffee table as she passed.
"Well, look what the cat dragged in. Or are you here to check on my blisters?"
"I brought a peace offering, Jenny, so you can tuck your claws back in."
Sarah rolled her eyes from the kitchen. The prospect of them flirting all evening didn't help her mood. "Can you two call a truce for one night?"
Jenny stepped around the barstool and picked up the wine Dodge had placed on the counter. "Hummm, this ought to do for an apology. You didn't buy this around here."
"It was a gift from a client in Chicago. He's a wine collector and sends me a bottle every now and again. Trying to fancy me up."
Sarah looked up from the steaks. Every time he opened his mouth it was like peeling away layers of an onion.
"Why would a cowboy have a client in Chicago?" Jenny asked.
Dodge took a seat in the barstool. Sarah added the marinade he'd enjoyed to the steaks and assembled the ingredients for a salad. She listened intently but tried to pretend otherwise.
"Former client. I used to be a futures trader. Made him quite a bit of money awhile back. He parlayed it into several million more. He shares the wealth with those who helped him along the way."
Jenny smiled and sauntered past him into the kitchen, searched the drawer for a cork screw and made a production out of opening the bottle. "Futures trader, huh? Got any more tricks up your sleeve?"
Sarah remembered Todd struggling with futures in college. Todd was the smartest person she'd ever known when it came to business and the fact that he couldn't wrap his highly evolved mind around the futures trade made her think that Dodge was, as she'd suspected, smarter than he let on. "Futures? You mean like cattle and corn and stuff? That's pretty risky, right?"
Dodge acknowledged her insight with a nod. "The risk is worth the payoff when things pan out." He took the glass Jenny handed him and set it on the counter. "You familiar with futures?"
Sarah laughed uncomfortably. "No, no. I remember Todd having to deal with it in college. He didn't like it. He was conservative with money, very risk averse."
"You can make a killing or lose your ass in futures. A lot of people don't have the stomach for it."
"Or the finances, I'd imagine." Sarah felt herself relaxing. She hadn't had meaningful conversation with a man or her boys in, oh...she didn't know how long. And she'd missed it. She enjoyed the insights and bluntness only a man could bring to a discussion. And this particular man intrigued her more than most. He had a look on his face, like he was studying her and she was a little too interested in what he thought.
"What did you do in college?" Dodge asked.
"Advertising." Sarah watched the play of light in those tawny eyes of his. He had a way of looking at her that made it impossible to forget he was male. All male. "I stayed as far away from business as possible."
"And here you want to run a cattle business." He pushed her glass of wine across the counter and stretched his legs in front of him. "How are the fences coming?"
"Great. They're scheduled to start tomorrow. As long as the weather holds, they should be done by next week."
Jenny leaned on the counter, offered a tantalizing view of her ample chest. "So I take it you haven't lived in the valley your whole life then, cowboy?"
"Been gone a long time. Just came back a few months ago."
"Do you plan to stay?"
He stood up. "There's no place like home, isn't that what they say? What's the score?" he asked the boys as he moved into the den.
He hadn't answered the question, Sarah noticed. Jenny passed her a look suggesting they thought the same thing. Even as girls, as different as they'd always been, their minds worked the same. She watched Dodge try to make conversation with Kevin and Lyle. She wanted them to get along. They needed a man in their life, although it seemed unlikely Dodge would be a regular visitor, especially with Jenny leaving town.
"It's six to four, Cardinals in the bottom of the seventh," Lyle said.
Dodge settled in the chair closest to Kevin. The kid had been clued into the adults' talk and not the game, which is why he didn't answer. The kid had an agenda. "Think this is the year the Rockies break out?"
"We're Braves fans," Kevin answered quickly, defensively. "Even mom's a die-hard. Location can't change that."
Dodge turned to see her smile at her oldest son. He heard affection from the boy and his mother sopped it up like a woman starved for love. He ached for both of them. "America's team, huh? I'm not surprised."
He recognized the undercurrent of sadness that ran through the family. It was all too familiar. Someone was missing; husband, father, peace keeper. That's how Sarah had described her dead husband. Those were some of the words used to describe his mother in the years after her death; wife, mother, soother. They were spoken lovingly and with a hint of wistfulness. He remembered feeling like there was a ghost in the room at all times. She existed for him through photographs and stories, memories weaved like a tapestry that hung on every wall of every house he ever lived in. Missing her, feeling like he'd missed out seemed comforting because it was all he'd ever known. But for these people, this family, they couldn't find comfort in his absence. He wondered if there ever would.
"Kevin, will you go light the grill please?" Sarah asked.
He huffed a big breath and then strode to the deck at a commercial. Dodge followed him out and leaned against the rail to enjoy the view. It wasn't hard with the sunlight slipping behind the clouds and the sky a pink swath that bathed the mountains and foothills before them in color so brilliant it almost didn't seem real. "You play any baseball, Kevin?"
"Used to."
Dodge turned from the rail and faced the boy. He'd come out on the deck to feel the kid out, pry loose a few details so they could be more comfortable with each other. If Sarah agreed to let him lease the land it would help if they got along.
He had to hand it to the kid, he was smart. Lyle was easy. Jenny was predictable and thankfully, leaving tomorrow. Sarah was...a distraction. But Kevin, he was an enigma. He didn't put himself out, probably in fear of being hurt or judged, and it worked at giving him leverage with others. Dodge knew he'd have to draw the kid out piece by piece, and with boys, sports usually provided the easiest path. "I've got a few nephews who play rec ball. They're about your age. You'll probably meet them at school. I could feel them out, see what their plans are for the summer.
"I told you I quit. I bet the rec teams out here aren't very good anyway," Kevin said. "Nothing's as good out here."
A hawk flew over the deck and swooped into the nearby cottonwood trees. The river babbled nearby providing a harmony that should have been peaceful. Dodge looked up, pushed his hands into the pockets of his jeans. "Smaller isn't always worse. Besides, it'd be a good way to meet some other kids, get out of the house this summer."
"You trying to get me out of the house this summer?"
Dodge let out a breath and looked Kevin in the eye. "Kid, you're obviously not real thrilled about living here. Just thought I'd suggest a way to make some friends." He walked back into the cabin wondering if he'd done more harm than good.
Kevin and Lyle disappeared to their rooms after dinner. Jenny and Sarah stacked the dishes to clean later and joined Dodge on the deck where he'd started a fire in the outdoor fireplace. He'd refilled the wood bin from Sarah's pile under the deck and the popping blaze took a bit of the chill off the approaching night.
Sarah brought another bottle of wine from the kitchen. "Sorry it's not up to collector status, but it's all I've got." She refilled their glasses. "So, you mentioned something about a business proposition earlier." She took a seat and curled into an Indian throw she'd brought out from the cabin. "I assume this is about the circle."
By the way Dodge sat on the edge of his chair with his fingers clasped between his knees Sarah could tell he was anxious to discuss business. "It's about more than the circle. I had an unfortunate setback today." He glanced at Jenny and Sarah watched at his mouth twitched in annoyance. "As witnessed by your sister. I've got cattle all over the valley, small tracts here and there that I lease on a year-to-year basis. The bulk of my operation is not far from here on a tract owned by a guy from Colorado Springs. He'd just bought the property when I came back to town. He called me today and broke the terms of our lease and gave me one week to get my cows off his property. I've spent the whole day on the phone and can't find a property big enough to work. I don't have the luxury of time on my side, so...as much as I hate to ask..."
"You want to lease my land for your cattle operation." When Dodge nodded, Sarah inclined her head and looked out into the darkening sky. What would a lease agreement with Dodge do to her plans? First, she didn't have concrete plans. She'd had Luis, until this morning, and now she had nothing. No ranch hand and next week she'd have 1200 acres of properly fenced grazing pasture and not a single cow to graze them. "For how long?"
Dodge rubbed his hands together. "I'm not sure. The length of the lease would depend on you. I've got 400 pair now that need fattening up, and they'll be contracted in July for December delivery. I'll A.I. the heifers in a few weeks. I'd like not to move them again until they calve in February or March of next year. And there's no telling when another tract of this size will become available. I need at least a thousand acres to support the operation I've got."
"What's A.I.?" Sarah asked.
"Artificially inseminate. We don't leave things to nature anymore."
"How long did you sign the lease for on the property you've got to vacate?"
"It was a year-to-year lease, and we'd discussed a multiple year lease if the first year went smoothly for both of us. I can't tell you how surprised I am that he backed out."
"And would you want the house?"
"The caretaker's house? No, I heard you'd hired Luis and I wouldn't make you kick him out. I can stay with my dad until I find a place to rent."
Sarah sipped her wine. "Luis called this morning with a sudden change of heart. Seems we've both had setbacks today."
Dodge stood up and stared down at her. "I know this isn't what you wanted and I hope you don't think I'm taking advantage of your situation. I just don't have many options right now. I own some land in Wyoming I could haul the cows to but it's leased and the expense of it would kill any profit I'd make this year. I'll understand if you say no, but I thought it wouldn't hurt to ask."
Sarah stared into the fire's blue and orange blaze, fidgeted when the dry wood popped bits out of the enclosure onto the deck near her feet. She took another sip of wine and let the heat of it slip down her throat. "Truth is Dodge, I'm not sure what I want to do with the land right now and I'm equally out of options." She set her wine on a side table and stood, let the throw pool around her ankles. "I assume I'll need an attorney to draw up a formal lease? I'll agree to the same terms you had with your current landlord, a year with the option for more if things go smoothly." She stuck out her hand so they could shake on her offer.
Dodge took her hand and the relief she saw on his face had her stifling a smile. He began rubbing the back of his neck, a habit she'd seen him do before. "I have to admit I didn't think you'd agree so easily."
"I told you before I like to have a plan. This gives me one." She took her seat and wrapped herself in the throw once more. "You know I'll have questions."
Dodge sat back in his chair. "I'd pretty much counted on that."
"Well, I guess I can leave with a clean conscience," Jenny said. "I'd appreciate your keeping an eye on my sister, cowboy. In fact," she raised her glass in toast, "maybe we can put that in the contract. If you fail to uphold your end of the deal, I'll be the enforcer of punishment."
"Have you always been this shy?" Dodge asked.
Jenny lifted her chin in the air and Sarah's stomach clenched. She knew the look on Jenny's face enough to worry. "I was a little shy, until my sister started writing her steamy little books. If she can have a wild side, I can too. Except I don't keep mine tucked away in packing boxes. I prefer to keep it on display."
"Why?" Dodge asked. "So you can bust some guy's balls when he tries to take you up on what you're offering?"
Sarah watched Jenny level a look at him that would have frozen hot coals, but Dodge didn't seem intimidated. He turned to Sarah, his brows knit tightly together. "Wait," he said. "What steamy little books?"
Jenny laughed. "It's her dirty little secret."
"Would you please shut up, Jenny." Sarah finally found her voice.
"My sister's an author," Jenny said with a smug smile. "She wrote a series of romance novels a few years back. You'd think she'd show some pride in her work, especially considering her books paid for this beautiful property, but no. She hides them away so they don't tarnish her reputation as the good sister." She raised her glass in toast to Sarah. "Well, secret's out."
"Romance novels?"
"I haven't written in years." Sarah hoped to dismiss the conversation with the wave of her hand. She didn't want to talk about her books around Dodge. Damn her sister was maddening, and working her way towards seriously drunk if Sarah didn't put a stop to it. God only knew what would come out of her mouth next.
"Well, I've had all the excitement I can stand for one night," Jenny said and sauntered to the door. "You kids have fun."
Sarah watched Dodge's eyes follow Jenny inside the cabin. "Why don't you two just have sex and get it over with," she blurted out. Hell. Maybe she was the one getting drunk.
"What?" Dodge turned back to Sarah. "I don't want to have sex with your sister!"
"Then why do you goad her like that?"
"She's asking for it and you know it." He stood up and paced in front of the fire. "God, she's a classic man-hater."
"Excuse me?"
"Your sister's a man-hater." He moved to take the seat Jenny had vacated. "She acts like she adores men but deep down she hates any guy with a set of balls between his legs."
"Got some experience with man haters, have you?"
"I'm just saying that's what she is. I didn't make her that way, but she defines the category."
Sarah sat up in her seat. "Category? As in there's more than just the one?"
Dodge sighed and leaned back in the chair. "You're not going to understand, so I'm not going to explain."
Sarah snorted. "You mean I'm not going to like what you say." She cleared her throat, leaned forward in her seat and folded her hands in her lap. "I'm listening."
"I'm not saying any more because you're just going to make fun."
"I'm about to see deep inside the male psyche. I'm going to have to insist."
"No."
"Yes."
"All right, I'll explain the categories, but only if you promise not to laugh."
Sarah lightly tapped her finger against her lips. "I can promise I'll try not to laugh, but sometimes laughter is difficult to control."
Dodge braced his hands on his knees and stood. "It's been fun, but I've got to be going now."
Sarah shot out of her chair and grabbed his arm as he tried to scoot by the fire and into the cabin. "Wait a minute. You're not getting out of here so easy. Tell me, I won't laugh, I promise. I'll probably be too insulted to laugh."
He sighed and sat back down. "I've found that all women fall into a series of categories. Its a little system I've devised and perfected through the years."
Oh, this was priceless. "How many are there?"
"Six."
"Six? All women fall into just six categories?" When he nodded she said, "Please go on."
"First there's the 'never satisfied with anything' woman."
Sarah considered and shrugged. "Okay, I get that one. What's next?"
"Next is the 'pretty but unintelligent eye candy' woman." Again she nodded. "Then there's the 'just plain low class' woman." She used her fingers to count along as he named them off. "Probably the least harmless is the 'book smart but no common sense' woman." As Sarah held four fingers in the air he seemed to relax and enjoy explaining himself. "Now your sister had me fluctuating between these last two, the 'I'll make you want to touch me until you can't breathe but you never will' category and the 'man-hater.' And as I stated before, she's the classic man-hater. Well?" he asked.
Wow. He looked like a normal person, sounded like a normal person most of the time, but his little classification system definitely wasn't normal. "I'm speechless," she said and rubbed her temples. He'd pretty much nailed Jenny with both of his last two categories, but the question of where she would fall into his demeaning and narrow-minded system made her want to hurl herself off the deck. No, actually it made her want to insist he tell her which category she fell into and then hurl him off the deck. "What am I?"
"Pardon me?"
"What category am I, just for conversation's sake?"
"I haven't been able to put you into a category just yet."
"Umm." Liar.
"You may be the first woman who defies my little system. I may have to come up with a new category for you."
"That's a rather convenient answer."
"Now, don't go making this personal. You insisted I tell you and I did."
"How can I not make this personal when you said all women fall into one of your six categories and you won't tell me which one I am?"
"I'm thinking your category might be called the 'totally condescending woman,'" he said and then laughed when she flew out of her chair.
"You think this is funny?"
"Well, I never imagined I'd be the one laughing at the end of the conversation, that's for sure."
She sat back in her chair. "Do your guy friends know about your categories?"
"Guys don't talk about women."
"Oh, please."
"We may mention an attractive body part or two, but we don't talk about women." And when she snorted in disbelief he said, "We talk about sports, cows, the price of hay, beer and our softball league. That's about it."
"Do any other women know about your categories? Your sisters maybe?"
"Are you crazy? I'm not stupid enough to let them in on my system."
"You're smart not to Dodge. It's a scary reflection of your personality."
"Is it scary to you?"
Sarah looked at him and shook her head. "No, but it explains a lot."
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"It means if you want to lease my land, don't put me in a category."
The days that followed were busy. Kevin and Lyle resigned themselves to going to school each day, and the taking down and putting up of new fences kept them interested in the changes in the property. Every afternoon after school they'd survey the progress and report back to Sarah what they saw and hop on their four wheelers to check out the rest. They both pitched in to help haul the old cedar posts back to the house. Sarah felt encouraged to see them taking an interest in the ranch, especially Kevin who seemed particularly fascinated with why Dodge had made the changes he'd made.
Dodge came by sporadically to assess the improvements and hammer out the details of the lease. He'd let her use his lease with Mac McGill as a point of comparison with only a few changes pertaining to her water rights. She'd asked Paula to recommend an attorney to look over the lease agreement and had scheduled an appointment with him early one morning after she'd dropped the boys at school.
As she entered the small office on a dead end street off Hailey's main thoroughfare, she smelled bad coffee and the musty fragrance of a hundred-year-old building. It reminded her of her dad's basement office in the house she grew up in. The receptionist greeted her with an appraising smile. Her dirty blond hair was going gray at the roots and her makeup looked a bit too colorful for the full glare of the light coming in from the tall windows.
"I'm Sarah Woodward. I have a nine o'clock appointment with Mr. Garrity."
The woman stood and stuck out her hand for a strangely formal handshake. Sarah took the woman's hand. "I've been wanting to meet you. I'm Regina Winslow." She pointed to her faux wood nameplate resting atop the otherwise barren counter. "My husband and I live off the Seven North, so I guess that makes us neighbors."
"Oh," Sarah said. "Whereabouts is your home?"
Regina smiled shyly, pushed the blonde ends of her frizzy hair behind her shoulder. "You can't see the house from the road, just our black metal gate with the decorative horses on each side."
Sarah thought of the long road that led to her ranch and the drive Regina had said was hers. The property appeared neat, with closed gates and the house hidden from view. "Oh, yes. I think your property abuts ours on along the northern edge."
"It does," Regina said. "I've heard you've got young boys. I think I've noticed them throwing rocks in the river. Or my daughter has. She's quite smitten, I'm afraid."
"Oh?" This was news to Sarah. "How old is your daughter?"
"She's 13, same age as your son. Her name's Shiloh--she's met Kevin at school." Regina waved a hand in front of her face. "Don't look so panicked, she's harmless, I promise. My husband won't let her date until she's 20 or later, I'm sure." Regina's face reddened and her self depreciating chortle made Sarah warm to her. "Besides, she'd have to wait in line from what she tells me. He's made quite an impression at school."
Regina must have been mistaken. Kevin hadn't said anything about making friends at school. He'd given her the impression he was miserable, sitting alone at lunch and sulking through his day. She was going to have to call the guidance counselor that afternoon and get an unbiased update.
"Well, I...I'm glad to finally meet a neighbor. We had much closer quarters back in Atlanta."
Regina came around the high counter and rested her body along the doorframe that led to the back of the office. "How are you settling in? Big change from back home?"
Sarah studied Regina as she sat in one of the waiting room chairs. Her slender face featured a straight nose and wide, expressive blue eyes. If it weren't for the overdone makeup and her exposed roots, Regina had the makings of a beautiful woman. If her daughter Shiloh held any resemblance to her mother, it's no wonder Kevin spent so much time by the river near their property. "We're just starting to feel settled in. It'll take some time to become acclimated to small town life, especially for the boys."
"I noticed you're putting up fences. You planning on setting up your place as a working ranch?" Regina took the seat next to Sarah.
"Long term, that's the plan. But for now we're leasing the land to A.J. Dodge until we get a handle on things." Sarah watched as Regina's face lost a bit of color when she mentioned the lease.
"Oh...I, I didn't realize you knew Dodge." Regina stood up and moved behind the counter, putting an end to their friendly chat.
"He's been very helpful since we've been here, and now his lease will ease our transition." She heard an edge in her voice, a defensive edge that she couldn't quite hide. She was confused by people's reaction whenever they learned Dodge was helping her. "Have you known Dodge long?"
Regina fussed with some papers on her desk, answered without looking Sarah in the eye. "His family's been in the valley for as long as I can remember."
Humm, an evasive answer. She knew she needed to figure out Dodge's history before she signed the lease. But for some reason, the more people slammed him, the more she wanted to defend him. She resented everyone insinuating he was trouble. Before she could question Regina further, an intercom on her desk buzzed and she told Sarah that Mr. Garrity would see her now.
Regina escorted Sarah to one of two offices down a narrow hallway and closed the door behind her when she left. Mitchell Garrity was a large man with thick silver hair and a neatly pressed suit. His handshake was firm, his voice a booming clamor.
"Mrs. Woodward." He took his seat and directed Sarah to take the visitor's chair opposite his desk. He rocked in the leather seat as he spoke. The squeaking provided a beat his voice followed like a song. "I understand you have a lease agreement you want me to look over, make a few addendums to."
"That's right." She slid the file across the desk. "It's pretty straight forward, but I'd like a legal document in place to keep it all above board. Paula Hamilton recommended you highly."
Mr. Garrity smiled like a politician, all grin and no teeth. "Paula's good people, Mrs. Woodward. I like doing business with good people." He tapped his fingers on the unopened file and studied her face before speaking. "You need to be sure of the people you're doing business with, wouldn't you agree?"
Sarah felt her face flush and could feel her oatmeal congeal into a sluggish brick in her stomach. What the hell had Dodge done?
"Of course I agree, Mr. Garrity. That's why I'm here. There's a survey of the property and a copy of the lease Mr. Dodge had with his former...landlord, I guess you'd say. I've written a few changes on the lease. I'd appreciate your professional guidance and an official document before proceeding further."
Mr. Garrity sat forward in his seat, brought the squeak to an unexpected halt. Without the rhythm of the chair, the room seemed ominously quiet.
"Mrs. Woodward--"
"Please, call me Sarah."
"Very well, Sarah. I feel obligated to warn you about any association with A.J. Dodge. The man's family's as good as gold, but he's been gone a long time and his reputation before he left town was..." he tilted his head back and forth, "shaky at best."
"Mr. Garrity, I'm not sure what Dodge did to warrant a suspect reputation, but I'm not altogether comfortable talking about him behind his back." She fidgeted in her seat, rubbed her suddenly cold hands together as if she were scrubbing them with soap. "I'd appreciate it if you'd draw up the lease agreement with the additions and make appropriate recommendations. If you're not comfortable doing so, I'm sure I can find another attorney who will."
Garrity sat back in his chair and gave Sarah a patronizing smile. "There's no need to find another attorney. I simply wanted to be sure you knew who you are getting in to bed with, so to speak."
Sarah stood up and ignored his hubris. "I'll worry about my bed partners, thank you. Do you have any questions that pertain to the lease or shall I assume this is a pretty straightforward matter you'll have wrapped up in a few days?"
"I can have it for you first thing tomorrow, Mrs. Woodward. Just don't say I didn't warn you."
She looked him in the eye and turned to leave without a proper goodbye. When she reached the sidewalk, she let out a shaky breath. She couldn't explain her anger, and didn't know who she was angry with--Dodge or the town for slandering him behind his back.
Dodge tossed his car keys on the Formica counter and paced through his dad's house. He passed the den that, thanks to his dad's former habit, still smelled of pipe smoke. He came to a stop in the foyer at the base of the old wooden stairs.
"Pop? You up there?"
His dad's truck, older than Sarah's, sat parked in the covered shed outside. Donnie had to be in the house or out checking on his cows. He was known not to wear his hearing aid when home alone.
"Why are you shouting, son?"
Donnie scooted around Dodge from the side bathroom and walked slowly into the kitchen, placed the newspaper on the table next to his stained coffee mug. He eased himself into the chair and looked up at Dodge. Dodge pulled out a metal chair, noticed the cracked vinyl cushion had been recently repaired with duct tape, and assessed his dad for signs of fatigue. He looked good today. His eyes were clear and he was dressed to head outside. That meant his arthritis wasn't so bad he couldn't leave the comfort of his recliner.
"You heading out?"
"Just finishing the paper. I got some repairs to do on that old culvert near the back pond. You gonna be here long enough to make yourself useful?"
Dodge laughed. Donnie Dodge wouldn't accept help from God himself if given the chance.
"You want me to help?"
"Hell no, I don't want you to help. What are you doing out here anyway? I heard you've got a new lease worked out with the widow. Shouldn't you be over there?"
"Well, good to know the grape vine's still going strong." Dodge scanned the local paper. "How'd you know about the lease?"
"Phone's been ringing off the hook. Regina Winslow told Isabelle that Mrs. Woodward's told Mitchell Garrity to mind his own damn business where you're concerned. Course that's not the spin Regina's put on it, but it's the gist all the same."
Dodge couldn't wrap his mind around the fact that Sarah had stood up for him. Had she heard about what happened all those years ago?
"What'd Garrity say to her?"
Donnie slugged the last of his coffee and folded the newspaper into a neat rectangle, ran his hand along the crease. "Just warned her about who she was doing business with, same old bullshit." He pushed his chair back, the sharp squeak against the linoleum found Dodge doing the same. "You tell that gal what happened?"
"No." Dodge walked to the sink and looked out the window to the barn and pasture beyond. The day was cool, and the branches of the stand of spruce trees planted near the fence swayed with the steady wind. He and his dad never talked about what drove Dodge away and what kept him gone for so long. "Guess I'm going to have to now, though."
Donnie moved to the kitchen door and took his flannel lined jacket from the hook, twisted his frail arms into the sleeves. "You give that gal a reason to defend you, son. I've never heard you defend yourself to nobody. Not right her having to do it on her own."
When Donnie opened the door, Dodge called after him. "Hey, Pop. You still got an extra bed upstairs I could stay in for awhile?"
Donnie turned to face him. "You not staying out at her place?"
"I'll get my hired hand to stay there, keep an eye on things." And when Donnie frowned, Dodge said, "I'm not putting any more on her than I already have. It'll be best this way."
"You can stay here as long as you like." He closed the door behind him.
Dodge turned back to the window and watched his dad unleash his hound dog and struggle to get into the seat of the tractor. Things around Hailey hadn't changed much. His dad's body didn't respond quite as quickly as it used to, but the motions were still the same. When he was gone he liked to picture his family just as they were when he left, adjusting the image every so often when news made it his way.
He hadn't come back for any of his sister's weddings or for the births of his nieces and nephews. He hadn't wanted to cause a stir and shift attention from the happiness they'd all gathered to celebrate. But he'd missed them, even his sisters, and enjoyed thinking of them safely tucked away in the place he'd made for them in his mind. But when loneliness had gotten to him, he'd come back to town. He thought enough time had passed so he and his family wouldn't have to face the shame and humiliation he'd caused them before. But here he stood, thirty-eight years old and still dealing with the ghost of the past. And when he thought about Sarah and her sons, he knew he was bringing more people into the line of fire. He scooped up his keys and headed back outside. It was time to tell Sarah about his past.
"Who was that?" Lyle asked.
Sarah stared quizzically at the cell phone she'd just replaced in her purse, and worried at a hole in the red vinyl of the diner booth. Good question. Who was Carl Coffee, why did he think her ranch was for sale? How the hell had he gotten her cell phone number? And why would an attorney from Denver even know about her place to begin with?
"I'm not sure," she said and then shook her head and turned back to study the diner's menu, what she'd been doing before the phone rang. She couldn't quite shake the weirdness of the call. He'd even thrown out a price only marginally more than she and Todd had paid over five years ago. With the appreciation of land in the area and the improvements she was making, the land would be worth a hell of a lot more than the number Mr. Coffee had offered. Strange. She put her thoughts aside and decided not to let it distract her from a rare meal out with her sons.
Tom Thornton was hungry. Good thing the diner's Wednesday night special was baked brisket with the spicy southwestern red sauce that made it the place to eat in Hailey most every night of the week. His mouth watered just thinking about the brisket as he pulled into a spot along the diner's back alley. He sauntered inside, his stomach welcoming the smell of food.
Damn, the restaurant was crowded tonight. He tipped his head at Manuel heading out to load the dumpster yet again and stepped inside the squeaky back door. He winked at Becky Hadley as she wrestled her way beside him in the small hallway that led to the seating area and tried hard not to upend the tray she carried filled with half empty plates and glasses.
"Hey, Tommy." She lifted the tray above his head, a testament to her upper arm strength and Tommy's shortness. "Your booth just became available. If you'll give me a second, I'll send Manuel to clear it for you."
"Thanks, Becky." Tommy moved into the diner, bustling with people both eating and catching up on the day's happenings.
He quickly surveyed the crowd, looked to see who he'd talk to while his table was cleared. He spied the usuals: Martin and Rebecca Howard, eating in companionable silence after forty plus years of marriage; the Reeder family with their four boys swatting each other with hands and straws, feet and napkins, anything they could get their hands on. With four kids under seven, Bill and Carol Anne couldn't care less about the commotion they caused as long as nothing got broken. Beau Franklin chatted up one of the Barstow twins who worked the register, Tommy never could tell one from the other, and there were an assortment of ranch hands speaking Spanish and keeping to themselves in the corner.
He turned to look towards his booth, nestled along the wall nearest the radio speaker. Above his favorite seat hung a framed clipping from the 1985 Hailey Spectator proclaiming the town's one and only state football championship. Tommy had seen most of his action from the sidelines, his small stature a problem even before most of his teammates had reached their full height.
Manuel stacked the cups and plates in an old bus bin as gray as the sky during a winter storm and flirted with the coal-eyed beauty sitting in the next booth. Tommy stifled a laugh and let the smile fade from his lips as he looked at the booth nearest his. Facing the back of the diner sat a woman he didn't recognize with two teenaged boys. Her brown hair and startling green eyes framed an angular face.
As he slid into his seat, her serious eyes found their way to his and then her attention beamed back in on the boys who sat brooding in their seat. He didn't want to eavesdrop on their conversation, but there wasn't much else going on in the diner that would be more interesting than ogling a beautiful woman.
"I talked with Mrs. Burdette today," Sarah said. "She's the guidance counselor at school." She was momentarily distracted by the man who'd sat down in the booth facing her. She could feel his eyes on her and had glanced over to see what he'd found so interesting. "You haven't exactly been honest with me about school, Kevin."
Kevin's head shot up and his shoulders moved back in defense. "What do you mean? What did she tell you?" He flicked a thatch of blond hair away from his eyes and Sarah wished he'd get a hair cut.
"She said you seem to be acclimating well, making lots of friends and flirting with all the girls. Nothing to be upset about. Certainly nothing to mope around about, giving me the impression school's miserable." Sarah waited for him to deny it, was surprised when he simply dropped his gaze and shrugged his shoulders. She reached over and tried to set her hand over his on the table top next to his empty plate. He ripped it away. "Is it more fun to torture me and let me think things at school are horrible?"
Kevin slammed his back into the booth cushion, jostled both their table and the one where the man sat obviously listening. She'd said it softly, without any anger, and was surprised by his furious reaction. "You said to make the most of the situation and that's all I'm doing. And now you want to punish me for it? God, mom you're schizophrenic."
"Kevin, I'm not punishing you for anything. I'm glad to hear school's going well, I just wish I could have heard it from you instead of the guidance counselor." Sarah looked at Lyle, sitting still in his seat, his eyes lowered to the table.
Kevin jabbed Lyle in the shoulder. "I've got to use the bathroom," he said, and was gone as soon as Lyle let him out of the booth. Lyle sat back down and continued staring at his plate.
"Mrs. Burdette said you're the one she's worried about, honey." Sarah reached for his hand. He didn't pull away, just sat staring a hole in the table, flipping his unused knife over and over on the fake wood surface. "Anything you want to talk about?"
Lyle peeled his hand from under Sarah's and slowly let his eyes lift to hers. "It's just different here, that's all."
His quiet resignation shot through her like a bullet, shredding away any doubt that she knew what her sons were going through. "You knew it would be. Is it not what you expected?"
Lyle sighed and ran a hand through his hair like his dad used to when he'd get frustrated. Watching him mimic Todd caused Sarah's heart to twist. "I just...I don't know how to describe it. The guys are pretty nice, but...everyone's known each other since they were babies and they don't seem to want another friend. And the girls, mom." His face was so full of agony she wanted to laugh and cry for him at the same time. "They follow me around and stare all the time. I've finally figured out I don't have food on my face and that they're just looking to look, like I'm a freak show or something."
Had he never looked at himself in the mirror? Like Todd, his good looks drew people to him and his good nature held them there. "Honey, they're not looking at you because you're a freak. They're looking at you because you're nice to look at. You can't tell me you didn't have girls after you back in Atlanta. I remember several calling the house for you all the time."
"Yeah, but that was nothing. The girls would just dare each other to call guys, that's all. We were just friends." He shrugged his shoulders. "But here the girls are looking and making me uncomfortable, and all the guys think I'm trying to be a big shot and I'm not."
"Are there any boys who've been nice? Any at all?"
Lyle shifted in his seat, placed his hands safely under the table in his lap. "There was this one guy, he seemed pretty nice. We were talking about sports and we threw the football around a little bit before school. But then this girl made a big production of passing me a note during health class and ever since he's kept his distance. I don't know, mom. At least in the fall there'll be sports to play. I...I gotta use the bathroom, too." He hurried out of his seat.
Sarah shoved at her half-eaten plate of food and sighed. Kevin had made friends and acted like he wasn't and Lyle was miserable at school and pretending not to be. Her world had truly tilted on its axis. She looked up to see the same man staring at her again. Just when she was about to introduce herself so she'd know who was studying her so closely, she heard the deep resonance of Dodge's voice. It broke her train of thought and quickened her pulse. He sauntered past her booth and came to rest in front of the man who'd been staring at her.
"Tommy." Dodge slid into the booth. "How's the brisket?"
"Good as always." The man wiped his mouth with the small paper napkin and placed it back on his lap.
Sarah was tempted to sit and listen to the conversation between them. Maybe she'd find out a little bit about Dodge in the process. Kevin emerged from the rear hallway and headed back towards Sarah's table. Dodge stuck out his hand. "Kevin." Kevin took his hand and shook tentatively.
"Is your mom here?" Dodge asked twisting around in his seat to look.
"If she were a bee she'd have stung you." Kevin's voice dripped with sarcasm. He pointed over his shoulder to Sarah. Dodge turned in his seat and smiled when he saw her. She hoped she didn't blush.
"Hello, Dodge." She slid from the booth and walked to stand at the end of the table where he sat. Dodge gave her a look, a head to toe appraisal that made her look down at her faded jeans, work boots and t-shirt and wish she'd done more with herself before coming into town.
"Tommy Thornton," Dodge said motioning with his head toward Tommy, "Sarah Woodward."
"You're Tommy Thornton?" She watched as the man's blue eyes sharpened and his face formed a sly smile.
"Yes, I am. And you're Sarah Woodward." He directed his attention back to Dodge. "It's all making sense to me now."
"I wish I could say the same, Mr. Thornton. What exactly is your connection to Senator Burwick, if you don't mind my asking?"
"No different than anyone's, I suppose."
"So your arranging for Dodge to help me at Burwick's request was nothing out of the ordinary?"
Tommy sat his fork down and wiped his mouth again. "Ma'am, Ben Burwick is a United States Senator. When he calls and asks for a favor, I try to comply."
"Why did he ask for a favor on my behalf, Mr. Thornton? I'd hardly call Burwick a friend. Other than his occasional calls to buy the ranch, we've barely spoken."
"I have no idea, Mrs. Woodward. But he called and asked me to arrange for someone to help you. I called Dodge."
"Burwick's offered to buy your ranch?" Dodge asked.
"Yes, several times in fact. I've never understood why. Speaking of offers, do either of you know a Carl Coffee? He's an attorney from Denver." She watched as both men shook their heads no. "He called me earlier inquiring about my ranch. Said he'd be willing to pay top dollar and then threw out a ridiculous offer. I don't even know how he found out about me or the ranch, much less how he got my cell number."
Tommy picked up his fork again and moved the brisket around on his plate. "I'd bet you dollars to donuts, seeing as how he's an attorney, he's gotten wind of the augmentation bill that's coming down the pike. He's probably trying to get his hands on prime water property before prices go sky high."
Lyle came out from the restroom and said hi to Dodge before joining Kevin in the booth where they'd eaten. The boys picked up a pack of sugar from the plastic holder on the table and began playing a game of tabletop football Todd had taught them when they were little.
"What augmentation bill? What does that even mean?" Sarah asked. She nudged Dodge with her hip and he complied by sliding over in the seat.
"The whole valley's about to start charging farmers who suck the aquifer dry and don't have surface water," Dodge said.
"I don't understand."
"Your property has very senior water rights. You haven't even been using the water you're allowed to take in the last few years. Denton simply flooded the fields for his cattle and didn't use a fraction of the water you have the right to take. All the farmers who don't put any water back into the aquifer are going to have to pay for the water rights for those who do. If you never tried to earn a penny by working your land you could cover your note and then some on the water rights you could charge when this bill goes through." He fiddled with the salt and pepper shakers and then pushed them back by the wall. "I'm sure Mr. Coffee or Burwick would love to get their hands on your cash cow."
Tommy cleared his throat. "Coffee could be connected with the Cooper development, Dodge. Saxton's desperate for water property to supplement that place. He's been scoping around the valley for nearly two years now."
Dodge nodded and turned to face Sarah. "If that's the case, you're in for the full court press. His development won't go through without water."
Sarah looked between the two men confused. "What's the Cooper development? I've seen those 'Say No To Cooper' signs all over town."
"Fred Saxton is what they're really saying no to," Tommy explained. "He's a land developer who creates luxury ranches for the rich. He pretty much steals the land from five and six generation farmers. Problem is, the part-time residents he sells to aren't around enough to sustain a town. He's been responsible for ghost-towning more than one municipality in the last few years."
Sarah sat up in her seat. "That's awful. How does he get away with it?"
"Money talks," Dodge said. "If you won't sell to Burwick, maybe he's hoping you'll fail miserably or kill yourself trying and then take him up on his offer."
"If Burwick wanted me to fail, it doesn't say much about your ability as a rancher."
"How do you figure that?"
"If you're such a great cattle rancher, why would he approach you if his intention was for me to quit?"
"He didn't approach me, remember. He approached Tommy." Dodge swept his hand across the table to Tommy. By appearance alone Sarah could tell he wasn't a rancher. Not only were his shirt and tie a dead give away, but the softness of his hands when they'd been introduced served as further proof.
Tommy put the last of the brisket in his mouth and washed it down with a big gulp of coke. "And when Burwick found out Dodge was the one I'd asked to help you, he went ballistic. Told me to get him out of there, pronto. Course, big stuff here wouldn't budge."
Sarah turned sideways to look at Dodge. "This just keeps getting more interesting. And your connection to Burwick is...?"
"We had a run in a few years ago over some land I own in Wyoming. Guy's a dick head," Dodge said. "Guess he doesn't forgive and forget."
"Senator Burwick's loaded," Sarah said. "Why would he be interested in my ranch, even with the augmentation rights? It'd still be peanuts compared to his family fortune."
"That's a very good question." Tommy motioned for Becky to bring him another coke. "If you two will excuse me, I've got to use the restroom. It was nice to meet you, Mrs. Woodward." Tommy extended his hand after working his way free of the booth seat.
"Call me Sarah. It was nice to meet you, too."
Tommy gave Dodge a sly look, then turned toward the restrooms.
Sarah watched Dodge turn toward her, saw his tawny gaze move across her hair to her face. She suddenly realized how close they were sitting and could feel her pulse quicken. She'd never been attracted to anyone other than her husband. Why did her body have to pick now to wake up from hibernation? She could hear the boys arguing over their game and knew she needed to make an exit.
"The lease should be ready in the morning. Can you come by sometime tomorrow and make it official?"
"I'll try to come by around eleven. I have something I'd like to talk to you about anyway, when there aren't so many ears around to listen."
She stood up from the booth as Becky arrived with a menu for Dodge and a coke for Tommy. "I'll see you tomorrow then." She got her purse and the boys from the adjoining booth and ignored her insatiable need to insist he tell her now.
Tommy returned to the table, a gummy grin etched on his round face. "Well, now I understand your reluctance to leave the widow. She's nice to look at from the front...and the back," he said leaning to watch Sarah walk through the front door. Tommy shook his head and reached for his drink. "She's a feisty little thing too. How long's it been since her husband died? Two, two and a half years? Bet she's ripe for the picking."
Dodge grabbed Tommy's tie and brought his face across the table, almost nose to nose with Dodge. "It's going to be hard to pay attention to anything with my fist crammed down your throat." He let go with a push.
"Damn, Dodge, settle down." Tommy adjusted his shirt and tie. "Didn't realize she was spoken for."
"She's not spoken for, but she's a mother, for Christ's sake. Can't you show a little respect?" It sounded hollow even to his ears but it was the best he could come up with.
"That never stopped you from yapping it up about Missy Callahan after she popped out her third. I seem to remember you joking about taking a turn at her breast."
"Missy Callahan purposely flaunted her tits to anyone who'd look. Sarah's not flaunting a thing and I'd appreciate you keeping your eyes on her face."
"No problem there," Tommy said, then raised his hands in defense when Dodge reared up again. "I've never seen you like this before." He sipped his drink and pulled the fat leather wallet from his back pocket. "She know about your past?"
Dodge scowled at Tommy. He was damn tired of thinking about what'd happened all those years ago.
"I'm not sure what she knows, but I've got to tell her tomorrow before I sign the lease. She's got a right to know who she's dealing with."
"You say that like someone who's guilty of something."
"I've got fresh apple pie for dessert," Becky said smiled at Tommy.
"He's just leaving," Dodge said. "I'll have the special Becky, thanks for asking."
When she turned to leave in a huff, Tommy stood up and folded his suit coat over his arm. "You don't want to make any friends around here, do you?"
"Why?" Dodge said with a grin. "I've got you."
The place had taken shape, Dodge thought as his truck hiccupped over the rim of the blacktop and onto the gravel entrance of the Woodward ranch. The new fences looked good and set the foundation for a fine cattle ranch. Miguel had already started fixing the caretakers house. He hadn't been on a binger since the last time Dodge chewed his ass for not showing up at work. Dodge felt sure with living quarters nicer than the beaten down trailer he'd recently shared with God only knew how many relatives, Miguel would be just grateful enough to toe the line for awhile.
Besides replacing the broken window and patching the leaky roof, he'd let a few cows loose to eat away the overgrown grass around the house and barns. The place finally looked occupied, thank goodness. He'd never been comfortable with Sarah and the boys living at the back of the ranch when the front was so unkempt it looked abandoned.
His truck edged past a few scraps of old metal and crept down the long path to the house. It wasn't even half past ten, but Dodge couldn't wait any longer to purge himself of the sordid details of his past. He felt like an old piece of furniture waiting to be refinished; telling Sarah the truth would be like pealing away the old layers of stain and paint. He just hoped he didn't end up feeling naked and exposed when the truth came out.
The garage was open. The sky that perched above him blazed its glory through the whipped butter clouds of early summer. He paused on the concrete drive and listened to the sounds of the river before heading inside. He entered the garage and took a deep breath. He didn't want to tell her because what she thought of him mattered. He'd let it matter, and that really pissed him off.
Dodge took the stairs slowly after she'd called for him to come in. He grasped hold of the nearest barstool as he mounted the top step. The smell hit him first, the clean citrus of her damp hair and the mint of her toothpaste. What little blood was left in his head fell firmly south as she stepped into the light. With her back to the window, her robe was no better than a transparent film illuminating every delicate curve of her body: the slender hourglass of her torso, the tapered hips and long, long legs. Thank God, he almost said aloud, that her crossed arms concealed her breasts. A man could only take so much.
Sarah heard the banging on the door and glanced at the clock. It was too early to be Dodge and she hadn't expected anyone else. She ran her fingers through her damp hair and cinched the tie on her short cotton robe tighter as she walked apprehensively to the landing, wishing she'd gotten dressed after her shower instead of stripping all the beds of their sheets.
She felt relieved when Dodge opened the door. She asked him to come upstairs and wondered why his eyes had widened with alarm as he ascended, but then remembered her appearance. "I wasn't expecting you quite so soon." She felt exposed under the glare of his roaming eyes and as naked as she was under the thin robe. Standing inches apart wearing practically nothing, she felt gripped with an excited panic. Part of her wanted to rip off her robe and see what he'd do while the other, more practical part had her clasping her hands at the collar to hold the robe tightly together.
When he reached the top, he gripped the back of the closest barstool and just stared.
"I'll go put some clothes on." She scooted past him to her bedroom. "There's coffee in the pot," she said before shutting her door.
Sarah leaned against the heavy wood, her hand still gripping the handle, and closed her eyes. Think. Jenny always told her she wore every emotion on her face. Could Dodge see the desire she felt, the tumult of emotions that had caused her heart to race as fast as her legs in retreat? The way he'd looked at her, his tawny eyes burrowing into every corner of her body, every place she suddenly wished to be touched by his calloused hands. Get a grip, she told herself. And clothes. Get some clothes on.
Dodge sat at the bar, his hat removed and a mug of coffee cradled in his hands when she emerged from the back, dressed in jeans and a shirt. "Sorry to be so early," he said.
She shrugged and tried to ward off the weird tension in the air. She topped off her own cup of coffee and pulled the lease agreement from a stack of papers on the counter. Regina had been cool to her when she stopped by Garrity's office for the lease. She'd simply handed over the file with a quick nod. "I picked this up from Garrity this morning. It looks good, although I'm no expert." She flipped the cover of the file open and closed again, finally passing it to Dodge and started her questions while his attention was on the lease. "His receptionist, Regina Winslow, and even Garrity himself seemed...concerned, I guess you'd call it, about us doing business together."
Dodge looked up quickly, glanced back down at the papers. He closed the file before looking up at her again. "You're wondering what I did to make all these people warn you about me? Maybe thinking you shouldn't lease the land to me. Is that it?"
"No." She could hear the defensiveness in her voice. "I just...well, I keep telling people to mind their own business. But it seems to be on everyone's mind as soon as they hear your name." She moved around the bar and took a seat on the stool next to him. "I've no idea what you did in the past, but I know I trust you. If you don't want to explain about the rest I'll understand." He tilted his head slightly and the look in his eyes softened. "I do trust you, Dodge. Maybe I shouldn't, but I do, and that means more to me than whatever happened long before we ever met."
He rubbed his neck and ran his fingers through his hair. "I appreciate your trust, Sarah. And I'm sorry I didn't say anything sooner. I should have known---I did know that you'd be faced with the rumors." He looked down into his coffee, ran his finger over the lip of the mug, sighed deeply. "I was eighteen. There was this girl, Wendy Hawkins. She was nineteen, a friend of my sister, Isabel. She was always hanging around the house. She was real pretty. Short blond hair, curly, like that little girl on TV." He twisted his finger in the air around his ear. "Shirley Temple hair. Anyway, I was young, as I mentioned, and like all eighteen-year-old boys, I was...well, interested in her, I guess you'd say."
Sarah watched him, his eyes flickered between his hands and the mug of coffee on the counter. He didn't look at her while he spoke, didn't look at anything really. Her heart was pounding in her chest, anticipation kneading away at her like the coffee that burned in her gut.
"Hell, everybody in town knew I had the hots for her. She was real innocent-like, but she'd flirt with me too, when she thought nobody was looking. Anyway, one night I saw her at a bar and was going to make my big move when she up and left with a stranger. I followed them out, saw her drive away with the guy. She saw me too, even laughed at what must have been the stunned look on my face. She thought I was the only one there who knew her, but Tommy was there too. She didn't see him."
His voice was toneless like he was reciting a story he'd heard on the news. He looked up at her, seemed to register her face and frowned. Sarah wondered what expression she showed---panic, dread, fear--she hoped not fear.
"Seeing her with that guy kinda cured me of wanting her. Besides, there were more fish in the sea. One night she comes over during Sunday dinner and announces she's pregnant. Says I'm the daddy and acts like she'd already told me and I'd refused to take responsibility. Pretty smart when you think about it," he offered with a lift of his shoulder. "Nobody ever accused her of being stupid. Anyway, everybody thought I'd finally nailed her and then lost interest. At least that's what she was counting on. It worked. My whole family thought she was telling the truth."
"That's awful." Sarah wanted to reach out and touch him, but she could tell he wasn't close to being done.
"I refused to have anything to do with her. It wasn't my baby. Hell, I'd never even touched her and everybody was pushing me to marry her. I could see where it was heading and I panicked."
Oh God, here it comes. The look on his face was so strained, so pitiful, she knew it was going to be bad.
"I took off, just left town. Didn't know where I was headed or what I was going to do. I knew if I stayed I'd be forced to marry her and be her baby's daddy, and I was too pigheaded to do it."
Sarah rubbed her hands along the tops of her thighs. "That's it? You just left? I don't get what the big deal is."
"Wendy went off the deep end a little when word got out she was pregnant and that I'd taken off. Her family turned her back on her. She ended up staying at our house for awhile. It was bad for her, the guilt and the shame of it all."
The fact that he could think about her and how she felt after causing him to leave his home and family was a testament to his character. Sarah's heart broke for him, for the boy he'd been and the man sitting before her now.
"She took a bunch of pills. Everybody thought she was trying to get rid of the baby." Dodge looked up into Sarah's eyes. "She died."
Sarah struggled to unclench her fists and relax her shoulders. "Oh God, Dodge, you can't blame yourself for what happened."
"Doesn't really matter if I do or not. Everybody else does."
Sarah stood up with a jerk, touched his shoulder and gripped hard. "Yes, it does matter." She touched his face with her free hand, felt the stubble brush against her fingers and gently pulled his face toward hers. "It does matter. You're not to blame for her death."
"I didn't say I was."
"You didn't say it, but you feel responsible. I can see it on your face, hear it in your voice. Damn it," she all but shouted and forced her fist into the counter. "You didn't do anything to that girl."
He stood up slowly and paced away to the open deck door. Sarah followed him outside. "Didn't Tommy stick up for you? Tell the truth about the guy in the bar?"
"Yeah, but...his dad was a drunk." He shrugged. "I'd stood up for him at school a few times and people just thought he was paying me back with a lie. Besides," he turned to face her. "When your own family looks at you like mine did, like they know you're lying, you lose the gumption to fight. It takes the wind right out of you. It could've been me. If she'd have let me, I'd have had her that night or any other. It's a wonder I hadn't gotten anyone pregnant before."
"Why don't you tell people to go to hell? Why don't you defend yourself against the lies?"
"She's dead now. She paid the ultimate price."
"And you haven't paid? You left town to protect yourself and you've been paying for twenty years. Don't you think you've suffered long enough?"
"This is why I don't talk about the past. I don't want anybody feeling sorry for me."
"You'd rather they believe you a coward?"
"People believe what they want to believe. I'd rather they blame me than smear the reputation of a dead girl. I'm over it, Sarah. I only told you so you'd know what you're getting into, so you could trust me to do right by the lease."
"I told you before I trusted you." She stepped forward, closed the gap between them. "I do trust you."
All Sarah could see was him as a boy, with no mother and no hope. It could have been one of her boys and the thought of that made her insides turn bitter with rage.
Without a thought, she buried her face in his chest, wrapped her arms around him and held on as if he were adrift at sea and she were his life rope.
Dodge put his hands on her shoulders and pushed her back out of his reach.
"God help the next person who bad mouths you in my presence."
"No," he said. "That's not why I told you."
"But--"
"No, Sarah. I mean it. I don't want your pity and I won't have you getting in the middle of this. What's done is done."
She ripped her shoulders free with a fresh wave of anger. "I don't pity you, Dodge. Far from it. But if you expect me to sit idly by and let your good name be slandered, you never should have told me."
"Damn it," he said on a hiss. "Just let it go."
"You can't like the way people treat you. You can't tell me you enjoy being looked down upon."
"I don't give a damn what anybody thinks of me and neither should you."
"It's wrong. It's been so long..." She clenched her fists. "I don't understand."
"Her family's still here. My coming back to town has brought it all back to the surface. It's been hard enough on them and I won't do anything to hurt them."
"You may think you're being a martyr, but you're just a damn fool," she said. "What about your family? This is about more than just you."
He shook his head. "You're afraid of what this means to you and your family. I don't blame you. That's why I told you."
She laughed. "Oh, that's a good one. Don't turn this around on me." She poked him in the chest. "I care about you, like it or not, and you can't scare me away with that bullshit. Unlike everyone else who's ever cared about you, I don't give a damn what people in this town think. Hell, I don't know any of them enough to care. You go be someone else's martyr and let me deal with people in my own way."
Dodge turned, slapped his hands on the deck rails, and spun around again to face her. "You can't be that naïve. If you tie yourself to me in any way, lease or friendship...whatever, you'll be judged. Your kids will be judged. I should have told you when I suggested the lease, but I don't like to talk about it. And I'm serious. I don't want you defending me."
"Tough."
"I'll understand if you change your mind about the lease. You don't need this, nobody needs this. I can make other arrangements."
"I'm not changing my mind about the lease." She looked out at the river, watched the angry water churn over the rocks, and chuckled.
"What's so funny?"
"This certainly explains your views on women." She looked at him then. "Go sign the lease."
"You may be the most stubborn woman I've ever met."
"You have no idea." She pushed him back inside.
Kimberly Weston sat at her desk, a seriously outdated steel monstrosity she'd detested from the moment she'd laid eyes on her office. She knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that the only reason Benji had it in his otherwise stylishly furnished Westmoreland office was because it was too large and too heavy to be removed. It would probably stay in the office for as long as the building stood. She reached for the phone that sat on the edge of the beast, then pulled her hand away and played with the ends of her hair.
She needed to call her mom. She needed to tell her she was in Westmoreland, a mere 75 miles from her hometown of Bellingham, a whisper of a town that sat between the larger and more prosperous Hailey and the soon to be gentrified Cooper. Her mom would expect a visit, despite the nearly two hour drive, and a full accounting of everything she'd done in the last few months. She'd critique her hair, her clothes, her mannerisms, and feel betrayed when Kimberly didn't want her to fix the comfort foods of her youth. She'd find offense at everything that Connie Weston saw as evidence that her little girl had changed--and not in a good way. All the same stuff she'd dealt with on her last visit home, almost a year ago.
Kimberly had been back in Colorado since then, even as close as Cooper when they'd met with Saxton on several occasions at the site where he planned to build. Her mom would flip if she knew Kimberly had been so close and hadn't come by. But nobody knew Benji was involved in the Cooper project because of the grass roots movement against it, and Benji shied away from negative publicity. Besides, there hadn't been time, not with Benji on a tear about the property in Hailey some woman from Georgia owned. He was fit to be tied after their last meeting with Saxton and then he seemed to rebound again in a matter of days. But something had happened again, she wasn't sure what, but she kept hearing Benji rant and rave about that Dodge guy to poor Tommy Thornton.
Kimberly wondered if Tommy remembered her or even realized they were cousins. He was older, much older, like almost forty. Her mom always referred to the Thornton side of the family as "the drunks". Of course, teetotaler Connie Weston considered anyone who had more than a sip of wine at church during communion a lush. And since Tommy's dad died of cirrhosis of the liver a few years back, Tommy and his mom were left with the label, even though she knew it didn't fit either one of them.
She hadn't seen him since his father's funeral when she was only twelve. She'd been thrilled to finally get a look at the wild branch of the family tree. Her overactive imagination had turned him into a lean, mean Harley riding hell raiser with a take-no-prisoners attitude. In reality, he looked more like a bald nobody who might work at the local bank or even bag groceries at Safeway. The world was always more exciting in her mind's eye.
"Kimberly, get in here," Benji called from his adjoining office.
She jumped at the unexpected yell and braced her hands on the desk to stop her from falling out of her chair. She'd never gotten used to him cattle-calling her like he did when he was angry. Despite her best efforts to overlook it, it still pissed her off.
"Coming." She rose and grabbed her note pad to jot down his barrage of instructions.
From the doorway, Kimberly saw him pacing. The rhythmic flash of his Bluetooth made him look like a mad robot.
"He's done it again, by God, that man is my Achilles heel!"
She let him rant on and on as was required when he got flustered. He'd talk to her, or through her, as he organized his thoughts. When he'd first confided in her, it made her feel important. But she'd come to realize that in her absence a plant or coat rack could serve the same purpose; he simply needed to bounce his feelings around to someone who knew better than interject their opinion before he ever got down to what he wanted.
"I had him. I had his balls on a platter and he went and convinced that poor spineless widow to let him lease her land for a year, maybe more." Benji's face got all red and the vein that crossed the side of his temple stuck out like it did when he yelled. "I've only got three weeks to get that property under contract or Saxton's going to cut me loose. The lease is iron clad; Mitchell Garrity drew up the contract. Damn it!"
He stopped short of the swivel turn she'd seen him do a thousand times on the oriental rug--heel down, toe up, she'd say in her head and then time his steps across the narrow room. Heel down, toe up, one-two-three, and so it went.
"Who do you know in Hailey, Kimberly? And I don't mean from church. It's time for desperate measures. I don't have time to make discreet inquiries about who'd be willing to get their hands dirty for a few bucks."
Kimberly tried hard not to roll her eyes. Half the people he did business with would run stark naked through a crowded mall for the almighty dollar just to be in his good graces. She lifted her shoulders and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Depends on what you're looking to do, Sir." She didn't want to hear his answer. It was bad enough listening to the underhanded ways he snaked around the law. It was something altogether different to be part of it.
"I need to make some trouble for her, for Mrs. Woodward and for Dodge." He moved around his desk and braced his hands on either side of the inlaid leather top. "I guess I can look at this like killing two birds with one stone. He'll have most of his cattle moved to her place by end of the weekend, so I figure if I could get someone to cut the wires to a few of her fences...stir his cattle up and get them off of her property. Maybe mess with the caretaker's house...break a window or two, make it look like vandals." He eased into his seat, a small smile formed on his face as the aftermath of his impending destruction played out in his mind.
Kimberly stayed in the doorway, afraid if she entered he'd consider her a willing participant in his criminal antics.
"What are you doing standing all the way over there?" He waved her in with his hand. "And close the door. I don't need anyone around here catching wind of this."
"Senator," she said. This went above and beyond the call of duty. "I don't want to catch wind of this."
"Don't go weak on me now, Kimberly. It's time to rally the troops and I need all my generals lined up and ready for action."
Kimberly found his war analogies patronizing, especially considering he'd never spent a day of his life serving the country in any military capacity. "This little general doesn't want any part of illegal activity, Sir."
Benji rose from his chair and sauntered around to rest his hip on the desk directly in front of Kimberly, where she'd lowered herself into a seat after she'd begrudgingly entered the office and closed the door. "Sweetheart, I don't want to do this either. And I'm not asking you to arrange anything that'll endanger someone's life. I do have morals, you know."
That was questionable.
"All I need are the names of a few people who'd do something, not illegal really, but prankish, the kind of stuff teenagers do with too much time on their hands. Just a few people who don't have the same morals and values you and I were brought up with.
Now he was lumping her in with him.
"Don't you know anyone whose parents are in prison...or who drink too much...or who are so down on their luck they need some extra cash and don't care what it takes to get it?"
Kimberly leaned back in the chair and let the notepad rest on her lap. She pushed the pencil she'd brought through the spiral at the top of the pad because she was in real danger of breaking it in two. "Senator, I haven't been in Hailey for well over a year, and the friends I do keep up with are the law abiding type." She looked up at him and saw disappointment in his face as the lines between his brows drew together in a glower.
He began to back tread in a heartbeat. "I'm just talking now, Kimberly, you know that, don't you?" He stood and walked over to the bar, splashed some scotch in a crystal tumbler and took a swift drink. "You know I'd never do anything illegal. I just need to talk through stuff sometimes. I appreciate your listening and...humoring me for awhile. Go on back to your desk and start working on making those arrangements for our trip to Denver next week." He moved back to his desk and picked up a pen and a file, gave her a dismissive wave. "I'll want to stay at the Sheraton this time, Kimberly. No more Marriotts for me. My back's still sore from our last stay."
Kimberly rose and closed the door behind her as she made her way back to her desk. She had an uneasy feeling in her stomach. She had to wonder how much damage she'd done to her career by not agreeing to help him. But as sick as she felt refusing him, she knew she'd regret helping him with what she knew in her gut wasn't just talk. He intended to sway Mrs. Woodward one way or another and knowing it and not doing anything about it was almost as bad as helping do it in the first place. And there wasn't a charm lesson in the world that would make it settle right in her mind.
The kitchen light shone brightly through the windows and the air smelled of manure, dirty dog and motor oil. The sights and scents were a heady combination for a man who'd gone without that exact mix for two decades. Dodge would've known where he was by the smell alone if someone had dropped him blindfolded into the spot where he stood after a long day's work. He needed a shower and a beer almost as much as he needed his next breath, but his feet were firmly planted in the rocky drive of his boyhood home. He closed his eyes and let his senses come alive with an optimism he hadn't felt for a long time. He was home.
Living with his dad had never been a part of his plan, but there was something about it that felt like part of the reason he'd come back to Hailey. His dad was nearing eighty and he moved and talked like a man nearing the end of his life. Now more than ever Dodge needed his wisdom and guidance. Telling Sarah about what had happened with Wendy Hawkins felt like bathing in tomato juice after getting sprayed by a skunk. He knew most folks thought he still smelled like skunk, but the fact that she didn't smell it, well, that was something. Something he needed. Dodge hoped maybe his dad would be able to explain why he needed absolution from her in the first place.
"You gonna stand out there all night staring at the stars or are you gonna come on in and wash the stink off? I can smell you from here." Donnie sat on the porch swing with his dog asleep at his feet.
"Hell, pop, you scared the shit out of me."
"Wouldn't know the difference, the way you smell. What'd you do--roll in it?"
Dodge sauntered over to the porch and leaned against the post, kept a safe distance from his father's sensitive nose. "We trucked the last of the cows from McGill's to Sarah's place this afternoon." Dodge sat down on the stairs to take off his boots, the main cause of the smell. "I slipped in a pile and nearly threw my back out."
A faint smile passed over Donnie's lined face. "There's dinner on the stove. You'd better shower first or I won't join you."
Dodge looked over his shoulder, surprised. "You cooked?"
"That's usually what's involved when the end result's a meal. Go on, I'll fix you a plate." He eased out of the swing.
Once clean, the aroma from the kitchen brought a grin to Dodge's face and clutch in his stomach. Meat and potato pie. The only meal his dad had ever cooked with success. Donnie rarely had to bother with cooking because of Dodge's sisters, but on occasion he would, and the product was more likely than not meat and potato pie. He grabbed a beer from the fridge and took the seat across from Donnie at the table.
After consuming nearly everything on his plate in four bites, Dodge sat back in the creaky vinyl and took a swig of his beer. "You make this seven days a week?"
Donnie looked up from his plate and shrugged. "Isabel and Lissa bring some stuff over every now and again. Deb's husband has a big garden and they keep me in greens and fruit most of the year. Abbey, Mary Beth and Kelly send over their leftovers with the kids on Sundays." He rubbed a finger across his chin and leaned back in his chair, a mirror of his son. "Hell, if it wasn't for needing milk and ice cream, I'd never have to leave the house. And I swear your sister's would be happy to deliver it to my doorstep if I asked. They think I'm helpless."
"You're lucky to have them and you know it." Dodge felt uncomfortable. He needed to say some things and didn't know how to say them. "I haven't been much of a help to you."
"I don't need your damn help."
"I know you don't." Dodge carried his plate to the stove for seconds. "But if you did, I'd never have known. I'm sorry about that." He set his plate down and tried to avoid his father's stare.
"You were busy becoming a man. Wouldn't be the one you are today if you'd been around here looking after me." Donnie moved the food around his plate with his fork, shuffled his feet under the table. "I'm proud of the man you are." He looked up into Dodge's eyes. "Never said that before and for that I'm sorry."
In less than a minute the weight of twenty years dissolved like an effervescent cloud in the air. And the conversation was over.
"How's the set-up over at the Woodward place?" Donnie asked, digging back into his plate of food.
"Good. Better than good, actually. With the barns and corral at the front of the property, it's an even better set up than I had at McGills'."
"How's the woman. Sarah?"
Dodge looked up. "What do you mean?"
"I may be old, boy, but I'm no fool. I know you well enough to know you're interested. You tell her everything?"
"Yeah, I told her." He thought about Sarah throwing herself in his arms. He was more than interested. She'd gotten to him and it bothered him more than he could admit.
"You tell her the truth?"
"Yeah, I told her the truth."
Donnie moved his chair back, carried his dish to the sink and turned on the water. "You don't get much sleep for someone who works as hard as you do." Donnie filled the sink with suds and turned to face his son. "Thought maybe getting some stuff off your chest would help. I hear you at night."
Dodge carried his plate to the sink and shooed his dad away. "I'll clean up. Don't mean to keep you up at night."
"Hell, you're not keeping me up." Donnie reached into his shirt pocket for the cigar he liked to chew on. "Old body like mine doesn't need much sleep. If I'd been asleep I wouldn't have heard you."
Dodge lay awake that night under the thin sheet of the double bed in his old room. Things there hadn't changed much since he'd been in high school. His trophies still lined the bookshelf and the red and blue quilt covered the bed with a weight that was too heavy for the stale air in the small room. He sat up and raised the window, let the cool night air brush over his skin.
One of his sisters had lived in the house a couple years before when her husband had lost his job and they were getting back on their feet. Their son, his nephew, had stayed in the room and a few of his toys remained neatly stacked in the corner. If it weren't for those toys and his aching back, it'd be easy to close his eyes and feel like he was young and free again.
He wanted to sleep, his body craved it. But every time he drifted off, he saw Wendy Hawkins' face. He'd jolt awake and roam around only to disturb his father. He glanced at the clock when he thought about rifling through the medicine cabinet for something to help him sleep. He dismissed the idea when he saw it was one in the morning. Whatever good a sleep aid would do for the night wouldn't be worth it when he couldn't function the next day. The vibration of his cell phone caused a different kind of jolt.
"Sus vacas están fuera y fuera yo no puedo recuperar en." Miguel was talking fast and Dodge's brain was too sleep-deprived for him to realize what Miguel was explaining.
"My cows are out?" he said before remembering Miguel's English wasn't so good. "Cómo? Cuántos y cuán son lejos ellos?" He needed to know how it happened and how many had escaped.
"Necesito ayuda," the man pleaded for help.
"I'll be right there." Dodge reached for his clothes.
The drive from his dad's took only a few minutes, but in that time his cattle had wandered so far down the Seven North that Dodge had to swerve to miss a heifer and her calf just as he turned off the Rifle Range. "Damn it," he swore and swung the truck around to try to head off the pair and several others whose eyes he saw reflected in his headlights. If they'd gotten as far as the main road, there was no telling how many were out and how far the others had gone. Big rigs and cars traveled along the Rifle Range at all hours of the night. An eight hundred pound cow could do a lot of damage to a car or even cause a semi to wreck, not to mention the dent it would put in his bank account. He needed to get the herd back to the fences and fast.
The cows had worked themselves into a frenzy, scared by the headlights and the horn Dodge used to herd the cows back toward the ranch. He saw the lights of Miguel's pickup and together they managed to get the dozen or so cows headed in the right direction. They led the cattle to the corrals and locked them in tight. Dodge doubled back to the Rifle Range to see if he could find any stragglers. He came back to the barn for his four-by-four to scour the property for the remaining sixty pair that were still missing.
With only a sliver of moon and full galaxy of stars overhead, he'd be lucky to find any more cows tonight, luckier still if he didn't kill himself looking. The small headlight of the four-by-four barely reached a few feet in front of him. He found more cows, twenty or so, down by the river in the deep sector where they weren't tempted to cross. It took some time and a fair amount of cussing, but Dodge eventually got them back to the corral.
He met up with Miguel on the other side of the property where Miguel had spied tracks leading across the river to the newly fenced pasture he hadn't planned to graze for awhile. They jimmied a fence with some wire and a fallen tree log to hold the cows on the property if they decided to cross back over and then headed back to the original pasture from where they'd escaped. They found the spot where the wire had come lose and secured it back to the rod with fresh wire. Dodge passed out on Miguel's couch for the remainder of the night. He could have driven home, but he wanted to check the fence and get a head count on his cows come first light. He wouldn't have seen the first break of daylight if his cell hadn't started vibrating in the hand that held it firmly even in the throws of sleep.
"Hello?" Dodge tried to sit up and let his eyes focus enough to find a clock.
"There're cows in my flower beds." Sarah's irritation came through loud and clear. "What the hell is going on?"
"Shit." Dodge flipped the phone closed to find his shoes and rustle up the remainder of his cattle.
"There're going to town on your plants, mom," Lyle called up from the driveway when he spotted Sarah peering through the window in her nightshirt. "What'd Dodge say?"
Sarah held her head out the window and tried to angle her body to see around the side of the house to appraise the damage herself. "He said a lovely cuss word and hung up on me." Her voice drifted off as she saw the dust from his approaching truck careening toward the cabin. "Well that was fast." She grabbed her robe and slippers to join him outside.
Dodge quickly skirted the front of his truck and came to a stop by Lyle. Sarah saw at least fifteen cows eating away at the pansies and wildflowers she'd planted.
Dodge slapped a hand on Lyle's shoulder. "Can you fire up the four wheelers and give me a hand getting these guys back in the pasture? And grab your brother," he called to Lyle's back as he ran inside the garage. "I need all the help I can get."
Lyle side-stepped around Sarah as she stomped her way through the vehicles toward Dodge. "You're supposed to keep the cows off my little section of the property." She'd worked her butt off the past few days on her flower beds and potted plants. Ever since she'd heard the cows less than half an hour ago they'd put enough of a dent in her work to force her to start over.
"Sorry," he said. He raised an eyebrow as he took a long, slow study of her attire. She tightened the sash on her robe. "How long have they been here?"
"It's been about twenty minutes since I heard mooing and took a look. That's twenty minutes too long." She set her anger aside long enough to take a good look at Dodge. His heavy eyes and slumped shoulders made him look older. "You look like hell. What happened?"
"The fence wire must have broken loose from the metal post. We did our best to get the ones we could find back in last night, or early this morning." He ran his hands down his face. "I need to get these guys in the corral and do a count to see who's missing."
Kevin and Lyle bounded down the stairs and suited up in their protective gear for cow wrangling.
"You two listen to Dodge and do what he says." It was almost worth the destruction of her flowers to see them so happy. She turned to Dodge as he tossed Kevin and Lyle their helmets and started the engines on the four wheelers. "I've got coffee brewing upstairs," she shouted to him over the whine of the engines. "I'll get dressed and bring a thermos to the pasture."
He nodded his head at her. "Kevin, you take the white one and Lyle, if you can do the gears on your mom's, we'll take hers. It'll do better in all this mud."
"Let's go," Kevin said.
Sarah watched them peel out of the drive and around the front of the house by the river. Dodge shouted directions for them to fan out around him, the effect of which would push the cows back along the road toward the pasture. What little of her lawn that remained was churned to bits by their tires. The smiles on their faces were worth a few stems of grass; her sons were rustling cattle and loving every minute of it. She went inside to get dressed and watch the show from the comfort of her kitchen with the much needed zing of caffeine.
The first spray of mist began to fall from the overcast sky on a day that was quickly going from bad to worse. Cows of all sizes packed the corral, mooing noisily after their night on the loose and frantic capture. Lyle and Kevin put out hay in the narrow troughs that lined the outside of the corral while the cows pushed and shoved their way to reach the golden meal.
Dodge and Miguel huddled around the post speaking conspiratorially in Spanish as Sarah approached from the cabin. She'd pulled on some old jeans and a sweatshirt and had poured the coffee into the only thermos she could find. Dodge looked like he needed to inject the caffeine directly into his veins. He leaned against the post, his Stetson high on his head and his boots and jeans covered with mud.
"Did you get them all back?" She handed Dodge a Styrofoam cup of hot coffee and screwed the lid on when Miguel politely declined and walked away toward the boys.
Dodge took a long sip from the small cup that looked like a shot glass in his large hand. "I've got ten or so over at the Winslow's. They've got them cornered and are waiting for me to come get them. That should be it." He looked over at the corral and shook his head. "I'm damn lucky."
"Do you need the boys to help you get them from the Winslow's? I'm sure they'd love to." She watched him absently rub the back of his neck. He looked exhausted and she wished she had more to offer than coffee.
"Yeah, with the four of us it shouldn't take long." He took his hat off, ran a hand through his thick hair, the ends of which were beginning to curl in the light mist. When he placed the hat back on his head he looked Sarah in the eye and took a deep breath. "The fence didn't break." He picked up the sheared edges of a wire that hung from a post. "This wire was cut. Deliberately."
"Are you sure?" She moved in to examine the ends of the wire.
"The wire isn't frayed, as you'd expect if it'd pulled loose. It's a clean cut. And all the cattle escaped, like someone pushed them out the opening." He dropped the wire and lightly grabbed her arm, pulled her toward his truck when the boys made their way around the corral within listening distance. "I don't want to frighten you, but I thought you should know someone cut the wire on purpose."
"Why should I be frightened? Seems to me whoever did this, did it to you. I'm more than a little relieved I didn't pay thousands of dollars for fences that are going to break after one week."
"It's your property." He kneaded his neck. "Damn it. I don't like you being out here all alone."
Why would he think of her safety when he'd spent all night getting his cows back? "Dodge, I didn't hear a thing until the cows starting singing this morning. I don't think anyone came near the cabin. Did Miguel hear or see anything?"
Dodge sighed and leaned his body against the truck. "No, he just heard the cows moving out toward the road and called me." He pushed himself upright. "Guys, that's money you're throwing around there," he said when Kevin and Lyle started throwing hay at one another. "Fire up the four wheelers. We've got a few more to bring in." He looked back at Sarah, reached down to run his hand over her hair. "You need a hat."
"And you need some sleep. I'll start on breakfast for you and the boys. Come on around the cabin when you're done."
"Kevin, can I talk to you a minute?" Dodge asked the teenager who was all but rubbing up against the Winslow's daughter.
"What is it?" Kevin asked.
Dodge led him to the four wheelers after he'd briefly spoken to Bob Winslow. Son of a bitch could hardly look him in the eye. The cows were tucked inside the Winslow's small corral and he wanted to talk to Kevin before they got back to the ranch. "Like it or not, you're the man of the house and I need you to know what happened." When Kevin straightened Dodge realized he was right to tell the boy. "The fence didn't break, it was cut."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, I'm sure. I don't know who'd do it or why, but I want you to tell me if you see anything unusual at your place or if you see anyone lurking around where they shouldn't." Dodge kicked a tire in a futile attempt to loosen some of the caked on mud from his boot. "I've got Miguel doing the same, but I don't want anyone messing with you boys or your mom."
"Yeah, sure." Kevin set his shoulders, cleared his throat. "Shiloh's dad doesn't like you much and, well...." Kevin shoved his hands in the pockets of his jeans. "How do you know the fence wasn't cut because of you?"
Dodge had to give the kid credit for having the guts to come right out and ask. "I'm pretty sure it was, but either way, you all could be in danger. I don't want anybody getting hurt."
"Does this kind of stuff happen to you a lot?"
"No."
"What'd you do, anyway?"
Dodge slung his arm around Kevin's shoulder. "That's for another day. Go say goodbye to your pretty girl and let's get these cows back. Your mom's working on breakfast."
Dodge ate every bite of the bacon and eggs, drop biscuits and strawberry preserves Sarah put in front of him. He was too tired to work up a really good mad, but he knew it was there, simmering underneath his skin waiting to come to life. His past had done more than include Sarah and her kids in gossip mill, it'd put them in the line of danger. What if one of them had heard something last night and tried to confront whoever cut the fence? Did Sarah have protection for herself and the kids? Would she even think to use it if she did?
"All right," Sarah said sliding his plate away and refilling his coffee mug. "You look like the walking dead. I'm going to drive you home and let you get some sleep."
Dodge rubbed his tired eyes. He could almost feel the blood draining from his head and working its way to his stomach, leaving his mind a foggy mess. "You don't have to drive me home. I've got my truck up by Miguel's house."
She turned off the faucet and dried her hands on a towel. "You're in no condition to drive." And when he opened his mouth to argue, she said, "I insist. Whatever needs to be done about the cows while you rest the boys can do, or they can help you once you've gotten some sleep."
"They did great today. Really great. Now that school's out, I wonder if they'd be interested in doing some work." Dodge turned around in the barstool and looked at the two boys lounging on the couch battling each other in a video game. "I'd pay them."
Sarah moved around the counter and joined him at the bar. "I'd love for them to have some responsibility around here. I'd like to help as well, if you've got enough patience to teach me." She looked over at the boys before zeroing those green eyes back at Dodge. "I've been writing again. Just a little, mostly in the mornings when it's quiet. I get pretty sick of being inside by midday. I'd love an excuse to get outside and play in the dirt. I'll have my hands full for the next few days getting the yard back in order."
"I'm sorry about that. I'll have Phil come out from the nursery and replace your stuff."
"You'll do no such thing. It wasn't your fault the cows got out." She stood and reached across the counter for her keys. "Guys, I'm driving Dodge home. I'll be back in a few minutes."
Neither boy looked up from their game or replied.
"Kevin? Lyle?" she said louder. When they both turned she pointed her thumb at Dodge. "I'm taking him home. I'll be right back."
Sarah listened as Dodge told her to turn East on the Rifle Range. When he tried to lean his head back against the seat rest and knocked the back window he cursed her truck again.
"You'll need to tell me where to turn," she said.
"I'll tell you when you get there, don't worry. I want to sleep as much as you seem to want me to." Dodge turned in his seat and Sarah felt his eyes watching her drive.
Her cheeks flushed. "I'm worried about you, Dodge."
"I was going to say the same about you. I want you to be careful. Call me anytime night or day, even if you just feel a little spooked."
"I don't spook easy. Besides, I think whoever cut the fence was trying to hurt you."
"I agree, but I can't take the chance you'll get caught in the crossfire."
Sarah sniffed and glanced at him. "You make it sound like a gun battle."
"Speaking of guns...do you own one?"
"No, I don't own a gun." Her grip tightened on the wheel. "And I don't plan to."
"I think that's a mistake. Barring what happened last night, on a ranch of your size with wildlife all around, I think you should get one. I can show you how to use it, and show the boys."
"The boys? Are you crazy?"
"Take the next right, just past the curve in the road," he said. "And no, I'm not crazy. This isn't the suburbs. Your kids need to know how to use a gun. It's a way of life out here, not just a means of protection. I'm not talking about an automatic weapon, but a shot gun is a pretty handy thing to have around. Bear can wander down from the mountains and I know you've heard the coyote."
He was trying to make her nervous and she hated that it was working. "A bear? Don't you think you're overreacting just a bit? What am I supposed to do if I hear a bump in the night? Grab a gun and start shooting?"
"No, I expect you to call me, then get the gun and wait until I get there to help you. Here's the drive on the left, the one with the black mailbox."
She maneuvered the truck down the long rock drive, past a line of spruce trees whose tops waved in the wind and driving rain. Just beyond a small bend in the road sat a farmhouse.
"Just because your cows live on my property doesn't mean you're obligated to defend us."
"I want to take care of you, Sarah. I feel...responsible for you."
She shook her head and shoved the gear stick into park. The last thing she wanted was for him to feel obligated. "You shouldn't. I'm an adult, Dodge, not a child. I may not recognize the danger we face at the ranch, but it's my responsibility to take care of us, not yours."
Dodge rubbed his eyes. "Ok, maybe responsible was the wrong word." They sat listening to the methodical clicking of the windshield wipers and the pitter patter of the rain. "If anything happened to you or the boys because of me..."
Sarah placed her hand over his where it rested on the bench. His fingers were long and tan and felt surprisingly warm as she wrapped her fingers around his, felt the calluses on his palm. He squeezed her hand and when she looked up into his eyes she felt startled to see his tired gaze had sharpened.
"Nothing happened to us." Her voice sounded normal despite the tug of emotion the simple act of holding a man's hand had sent through her system. Without thinking, she reached her free hand across the small cab and rubbed it along his stubbled chin.
His need to protect her, while foolish, made something inside of her break apart. How long had it been since someone put her needs before their own? She leaned in and pressed her lips to his, a soft kiss meant to heal and thank. His eyes widened as she watched him through the slits of her own.
When she began to pull away, the realization of what she'd done came back with each centimeter of distance. She felt him tangle his hand in her hair and pull her back, saw his eyes drift close before she released the breath in her chest. It came out as a moan. She'd expected an assault, but the only thing rough about his kiss was the scratch of his beard against her skin. He rubbed his lips against hers enticing her lips to part and let him in. She tasted heat with an edge of impatience for more. She surrendered to him just long enough to draw a very detailed map in both of their minds about where it could lead.
"I'm sorry," she gasped and backed slowly away. What was she sorry for? Sorry she kissed him? Sorry she let him kiss her back? Or sorry it ended?
"Don't be sorry." He lifted their still joined hands to his lips, kissed the knuckles that gripped his and made her galloping heart turn over in her chest. "Thanks for the ride." He jumped out into the driving rain and made a quick dash to the porch.
Okay, thought Sarah. No need to panic. Just because her heart slammed against her chest at triple the beat of the windshield wipers, nothing unusual there. Hell. As she put the truck in gear and began the short drive back to her ranch, she considered the implications of what had just happened. She'd kissed him and he kissed her back. They were even. And it didn't mean anything because he was exhausted and she'd meant to comfort him. The fact that she'd spent quite a bit of time thinking about what it would be like to have him touch her and kiss her didn't necessarily mean that the line between friendship and something more had blurred. Did it? Hell. She needed to call Jenny.
So much for getting some sleep. Dodge stepped into the warm house and let the screen door bang closed behind him. He could still taste Sarah's lips on his, hear the throaty moan she'd let out and could've taken his pulse in his loins. This was the last thing he needed, the last thing he wanted. He couldn't tell himself she didn't mean anything more to him than a friend. He wanted her and from the look in those green eyes of hers he'd have to say she wanted him too. It'd taken every ounce of self restraint not to pull her into his lap and satisfy them both right then and there. But then where would they be? Probably right where they were now. Except a whole lot less tense. Fuck.
"I kissed him," Sarah whispered into the phone. She sat alone in her truck, parked in the garage. The boys couldn't hear her talking to Jenny through the sound of the rain hitting the metal roof.
"Finally you call with the good stuff. How was it?"
"It wasn't that kind of kiss, not at first. It was brief, but there was heat. I think he felt it too."
"Hell yes, he felt it too," Jenny said. "What'd he do?"
"Well, he seemed surprised, and then he grabbed me and kissed me back."
"My God, Sarah, are you in grade school? Give me the details."
"It was soft and then rough and thrilling, like being on a dangerous roller coaster. Oh, God, Jenny. What have I done?"
"You finally let yourself do something without thinking it to death, thank goodness. Why do you sound so hysterical?"
"Because... I can't believe I'm saying this, but I wanted more and I think he did too. I feel so guilty and...turned on and...confused." She knew she was babbling but couldn't stop herself. "Part of me feels like I'm cheating on Todd and the other part really wants...more than a kiss. A lot more."
"Sounds to me like it's out there for the taking. Why'd you stop?"
"It's ten in the morning. We were in my truck in his driveway and I...I don't know." She wound her hair around and around her finger. "I swear, Jenny, if he'd made one move, one little encouraging move, I would have melted all over him in that truck. Christ--his dad was probably inside the house and I would have let him have me in the truck, I just know it."
"What would've been so wrong with that, Sarah? He's a good man, you've said that over and over again. He cares about you and the boys. God knows that's a hell of a lot more than I get from the men I sleep with."
"I've never slept with anyone but Todd."
"I know that, sweetie."
"I don't know how to do this, Jenny. I don't know if I want to."
"You're a woman. You know how to have sex. Just because you gave Todd everything when you slept with him doesn't mean you have give it all every time. Sometimes sex is just sex."
"Just sex?" Sarah repeated and let the idea of it roll around her head for a second.
"Just sex. You need it and he needs it. Welcome to my scary world. It's not so easy to have sex without one of you becoming attached. That's why I love my vibrator."
Sarah dropped hair she'd spun tight around her finger. "Wait a minute. You try not to get attached to the men you have sex with? What's the point?"
"Sarah, Sarah, Sarah. Not everyone is looking for forever. And even if you are, you end up settling for Mr. Right Now."
"Okay, wait. You're getting a little ahead of yourself, and you're starting to sound like a country song. I don't want to have sex with just anyone. I want to have sex with Dodge." And when she heard the truth out loud her stomach did a queer little flop. "Oh shit."
"What? Don't say 'oh shit.' I'm proud of you. You want to have sex with Dodge, he wants to have sex with you. So go for it."
"Oh, God. I think I'm going to be sick," Sarah said and then jumped when Lyle knocked on the window of the truck.
"Mom? What are you doing in there?"
"Uhh, nothing, sweetie," she said through the glass. "I'll be right up."
"Sarah, listen to me," Jenny pleaded. "Don't be a chicken. Just do it. You can thank me later. And I'd better get a call after it happens."
Dodge walked into The Stand, one of Hailey's two bars and the only one he'd ever step foot inside, and set his hat beside him on the bar as he took a seat. "I'll have a Sam Adams."
Stan Trippington slid the beer in front of Dodge and perched his elbows on the grimy wood surface, settled in for an update on the life of one of Hailey's more scandalous citizens. "How's things out at the Woodward place working out?"
Despite the fact that he hadn't seen Stan in a week or two and rarely, if ever, discussed anything of a personal or business nature with the man, Dodge wasn't surprised or even offended at the question. Stan took pride in keeping up with everyone in Hailey. Dodge knew when he'd taken a seat that the questions would come not long after his beer. "Good enough. Had some cows get out a few days ago. We got them all back." Dodge sipped his beer, content he'd get around to the reason he'd come to The Stand. No better way to feel out information than from the man who considered himself the county's authority.
"Really? Yeah, I think I heard about that, now that you mention it." Stan reached for the damp rag hanging from a holder near the sink and wiped the once glossy surface. "Winslow thought he'd been real upstanding cornering your cattle 'til you got around to getting them. Thought it was mighty white of him considering he's not too thrilled to have you working so close."
Dodge shrugged and thought nothing of the fact that Stan told him Winslow didn't like him. No news there. "You hear anything else, Stan? Anyone bragging about getting back at me maybe?" Dodge reached in the peanut bowl and plopped a handful in his mouth, tried to sound as casual as he could.
Stan straightened, then bent down to whisper to Dodge. "No, can't say that I have. I thought that fence broke, thought it was an accident?"
Dodge raised his brows, ran his fingers through his hair. "I don't know about you Stan, but I've never heard of week old fence breaking lose from a post. Maybe decades old...maybe, but week old?" He shrugged. "Just gets a man to thinking."
Whatever Stan was about to say got interrupted by a howling shriek near the back of the bar where ancient pool tables sat and dart boards hung. A group of men, both young and old, had been playing pool. Even with his limited understanding of Spanish, Dodge could make out the beginnings of an argument over one of the tables. Hell, anyone could the way the men were squaring into two groups and puffing out their chests.
"Damn it," Stan muttered. "That's the third time this week." He grabbed a baseball bat and moved out from behind the counter toward the back, ready to ward off impending violence by heading the group outside.
Dodge glanced over his shoulder and sighed. If Stan knew anything about the fence at Sarah's, he'd be too busy to tell Dodge about it tonight. He finished the last of the beer, threw a five on the counter and had headed for the door when he caught sight of Miguel, tucked away in a corner, dead drunk and leaning against a pool cue like a bike uses a kick stand.
"Miguel." Dodge shouted over the fight about to take place within feet of where they stood. When he didn't respond, Dodge knocked away the stick and had to shove Miguel back with the heel of his hand to keep him upright. "What the hell are you doing here?"
Miguel turned his face to Dodge, his pupils huge black balls swimming in the equally dark sea of his face. "Mi amigo," Miguel slurred.
"You're supposed to be back at the Woodward's keeping an eye on the place." Dodge spoke in English, then tried to translate to Spanish. Miguel was so drunk Dodge knew he wouldn't be able to understand anything but his first language. "Por qué no está usted en el Woodwards?"
Miguel smiled and tried to glance around, his eyes unable to focus on anything. "La Senora Woodward está aquí?
"No, Mrs. Woodward isn't here." Dodge reached for a chair to set Miguel down. "Damn it." He wiped his hands off, ducked to miss a cue stick flying through the air and made his way to his truck.
The drive from the bar to Sarah's place would take about 10 minutes. With the looks of Miguel, he'd have to say the place had been without protection for at least a few hours. Damn it. This was exactly the kind of thing he was trying to avoid. He knew Sarah would be furious if she knew he was trying to protect her, keeping Miguel on alert for anything or anyone suspicious. Hell, he should have just done it himself, but he'd been trying to stay away from Sarah ever since he'd kissed her in the truck.
He knew it was childish, avoiding her, and probably hurtful for her too. But he couldn't help it; running had always been his first instinct with women. The last woman he'd let into his heart had proved that running was the safest course of action.
What had started between them was a mistake and unfortunately, he feared, inevitable. Keeping his distance had caused the image of her and Wendy Hawkins to merge in his head. He was sleep deprived, jittery and grumpy as hell.
He pulled onto the gravel drive and stopped at Miguel's house just outside the corral. He'd asked Miguel to patrol the pastures a couple times each night and to swing around the cabin. Miguel did his patrols in his truck, which was smaller and quieter than Dodge's big diesel, the sound of which might wake someone in the cabin. Miguel's truck was nowhere to be found and Dodge's only other option was the four by four. He pulled on his jacket, grabbed a flashlight and keys to the barn and headed out to do some sleuth work.
Sarah walked past Kevin's room, heard the muted sound of his iPod and his off-key singing and smiled. When they'd first come to Colorado he'd been too depressed and angry to sing. Things were looking up.
She'd left Lyle on the couch, covered in a blanket. He'd fallen asleep watching baseball and from experience, she knew it was better for everyone if she left him to wake on his own and stumble to his bed.
She cracked the door to her bedroom, tossed off her slippers and stared at her queen bed. The mattress was comfortable, the heavy duvet enough to ward off the cold nights when the windows were raised. Her pillows looked fluffy and inviting. But crawling in to bed at night had become her least favorite part of the day. She hated sleeping alone. She'd hated sleeping alone when Todd had been away from home on business, hated sleeping alone in the months after his death, and since a certain cowboy had reawakened her hibernating libido, her detest for bed had returned with a vengeance. With a heavy sigh she crawled into bed and after she'd stacked the pillows behind her back, reached for the book she'd been trying to read for the last few nights.
It had been three days since she'd kissed Dodge and Jenny had convinced her to go for it. And where was the man she planned to seduce? Nowhere to be found. Oh, he was around. She'd seen his truck in the mornings parked near the barns, back again sporadically throughout the day and sometimes around the dinner hour as well. The man was at her ranch practically all day long and she never saw him.
In the week or so it had taken him to get his cows transferred to her place, he'd made a habit of coming by for coffee some mornings, slipping in for a drink if the heat got too bad and staying for dinner on a whim. She missed him. The one time she'd actually worked up the nerve to go talk to him, he'd taken off like a shot when she'd gotten within two hundred yards.
There she sat, restlessly awaiting another night that stretched ahead of her, sleep and peace just out of reach. She tossed the book aside, threw back the covers and crossed the foot of the bed to the window. When she yanked the cord to the blinds and heaved the window open, she noticed what looked like small headlights and the beam from a flashlight off in the distance. She leaned down and pressed her nose against the screen to get a better look. The headlights appeared too small for Miguel's truck. Sarah had noticed he'd been checking things out at night, probably on Dodge's orders. But that definitely wasn't his truck. Even the sound the vehicle made was different and she'd never seen him use a flashlight. She straightened so suddenly that she scraped her nose on the raised window and yelped.
She turned away from the window, searched her room for something to use as a weapon, and decided to grab a baseball bat from the garage on her way to investigate. Her heart thundered in her chest as she checked the window again, saw the lights head back toward the barn and headed outside to investigate.
Sarah paused by Kevin's door and for a fleeting moment she considered getting him to come with her. He was as tall as a man, but he was still her little boy and she needed to protect him, not send him out to face an intruder. In the garage she grabbed the biggest bat she could find, one of Kevin's aluminum Louisville Sluggers, and went out the side door.
The night was very quiet, very dark and if she could've felt anything beyond the blood surging through the rapid fire beat of her heart she'd have frozen in the cold. She crossed the fenced yard and followed close to the road. She could hear her footsteps in the gravel even in her rubber-soled slippers and had to concentrate on not tripping in the irrigation grooves. The bite of the air against her exposed arms and ankles stung, and underneath the thin tank top and pajama pants her skin didn't fare much better. As she gripped the handle of the bat tightly, she wished she'd listened to Dodge and gotten a gun so she could fire a warning shot from a distance. She'd probably end up scaring the shit out of everyone and incite a gun battle, which she'd inevitably lose. Dumb idea.
Sarah stopped at the gate that separated the main pasture from the barns to catch her breath and to try and figure out what was going on. She could see the back end of a truck, too large to be Miguel's, but it was too dark to tell if it belonged to Dodge. And the headlights she saw were too small to have come from such a large truck. She squeezed between the razor sharp wires and jerked when she heard a noise from the barn. The razor sliced through the back of her tank top and, she felt sure, into her skin. She bit her tongue to stop from screaming and, crouched over like a thief in the night, ran toward the side of the barn.
Sarah pushed her back against the cinderblock structure and inched her way toward the corner of the barn nearest the door to try and get a look inside. The door was open in her direction and there was no way for her to see without exposing herself. Sarah was debating what to do when a tall shadow approached the opening and reached for the door that was only inches from her face. She didn't have time to think, barely had time to take a breath before she cocked the bat back and swung with all her mite.
For someone who had just swung a bat, Sarah couldn't quite figure out how her head had slammed against the barn wall with a strong arm pushed against her larynx. The bright beam of a flashlight shined accusingly in her face.
"Goddamn it, woman!" Dodge clicked off the light and dropped his arm, but didn't back up. "What the hell are you doing, trying to get yourself killed?"
Sarah tried to rub the back of her head, but couldn't lift her arms higher than her chest because he still had her pinned. "Get the hell off of me." She pushed him away with the heels of her palms.
Dodge stepped back, and in the dim light from the barn she could tell by the way the veins in his neck bulged he was spitting mad. He'd scared her to death and damn near given her a concussion and he had the nerve to be angry with her? She gave his chest a slap for good measure. "What am I doing? What the hell are you doing?" She rubbed her head in earnest. "I thought you were an intruder."
"So you came after me alone? With a bat? I thought I told you to call me if you saw anything suspicious. I made it clear you weren't to handle this on your own."
"You're not my keeper."
"Well somebody needs to be because you sure as hell could do with one."
"Urrrrr," Sarah growled and turned to stomp away.
Dodge grabbed her arm. "Whoa, wait a minute." He pulled her back.
"Let go of me." She tried to pull her arm away.
"Sarah, you're bleeding, honey, what happened?" He clicked on the flashlight to examine her wound.
"I am?" He'd startled her, the tenderness in his voice had blanked her mind. "Oh, I...ouch!"
"Hold still and let me get a look at this." She could feel him pulling her shirt away from the dried blood.
"That hurts. How bad is it?"
Dodge ran his finger along her back. "Not too deep. I don't think you'll need stitches, but it needs to be cleaned. You had a tetanus shot lately?"
"No."
Dodge took off his jacket and wrapped it around her gently before leading her to the barn. "Go have a seat. I've got a first aid kit in the truck."
When he returned to the barn, she turned and tried to smile through the shivers. "I couldn't find a place to sit."
"I probably need you to stand against the wall over here by the light." She carefully removed his jacket and turned her face to the wall, leaving her back for him to doctor. He set the first aid kit on a makeshift workbench he'd set up in the barn and lifted the back of her shirt. "Sarah, you're either going to have to take this shirt off or I'll need to cut it off. I can't hold it up and get this cleaned out at the same time."
"Oh." She tried to get the shirt off, but winced when the scrape pulled as she moved.
Dodge grabbed her midsection to stop her. "Just lift your arms up and I'll take it off nice and easy. That's it," he encouraged as he eased the tank from her head and tossed it on the table.
Sarah felt her skin heat even as the cold air hit her bare chest. She nearly jumped at the feel of his calloused hands on her back. As he cleaned the wound, he murmured soft words like "this may sting a little" and "that's better," "just a few more dabs, sweetheart." Sarah wanted to weep at his compassion. She couldn't feel the cut through the waves of desire brought on by the feel of his fingers on his back. Her breath came faster, her head hung as though too heavy to lift, and she wished with an unbearable need that he'd reach around her back and caress her breasts that ached for his touch.
Dodge's hands shook. He could see the swell of Sarah's breasts crushed under her arms, feel the warmth of her skin beneath his touch, hear her breath catch as he doctored her wound. When he put the last bandage in place over the ointment he'd smoothed over her skin, his hands began a journey of their own. He ran a finger up and down along her spine, back and forth over each bump and valley. He knew he needed to stop, knew where his exploration would lead, and kept right on going, up and down her back. Every stroke of his hand loosened his grip on sanity.
His mind screamed at him to STOP, STOP, STOP! This was madness. This was why he'd spent all week avoiding her. His hands kept on going. He paused for a moment when the echo of his order to stop had begun to breach his foggy, lust-clouded mind. When he heard Sarah moan, long and deep, while her back arched beneath his palms and his fingers brushed the sides of her breasts like a feather, he knew he'd crossed the point of no return. She pulled her hands from her chest, placed them against the wall in front of her face, and pushed her body back into the swell of his.
Dodge's hands crept around her small waist and up to her breasts. He felt her heart hammer against his palm, teased her hardened nipples with his fingertips and lost his mind when she dropped the back of her head against his shoulder and let him feast on her neck while his hands wandered everywhere. Her moans became whimpers, her scent, the lemon from her hair and arousal from the place he longed to bury himself, worked like a mystical drug on his mind. Her skin tasted like sin and he gloried in the flavor.
Sarah reached her arms around him. With one hand she laced her fingers through his hair and with the other she grabbed his thigh and tugged him closer. He could feel her heart pump, felt her knees go weak, and tasted surrender on the delicate skin of her neck. And her hands. God help him, the woman knew how to use her hands.
The low hum of a motor made Dodge's head jerk over his shoulder at the open barn door. He pushed Sarah upright and when she turned around, too surprised to hide her glorious breasts from view, he looked down and groaned. He'd unbuttoned his shirt before she could speak.
"Someone's here." He pulled the shirt from his waistband, then his shoulders, and quickly wrapped it around her small frame. When she was covered, he moved her behind a large metal waste bin while she held tight to the shirt with her trembling hands.
They turned toward the door with a jolt when they heard a mumbled, "Mom?" come from outside. Kevin peeked his head through the opening, saw Dodge in his undershirt and Sarah wrapped in his flannel and obviously assumed he'd stumbled into something he shouldn't have. He assumed right.
"Kevin," Sarah said on a sigh. "What are you doing out here?"
"I could ask you the same, but I think I already know."
Dodge saw the boy's face redden, watched his gaze shift between him and Sarah. Sarah shook her head and had taken a breath to explain when Dodge interrupted, pulled Sarah around the barrel. "Your mom snuck up on me tonight. She cut her back." He turned Sarah and raised his shirt as proof.
Kevin stayed in the doorway. "What's going on? Why are you both out here?"
Sarah handed Dodge his jacket. "I saw some headlights from my window earlier. They didn't look like Miguel's so I decided to come take a look. It was stupid. Dodge and I gave each other quite a scare." She tried to smile, but the weak attempt didn't seem very convincing.
"Why didn't you get me, tell me you saw something suspicious?" Kevin took a step into the barn, shoved his hands in the front pockets of his jeans. "You shouldn't have come out here alone."
"That's just what I told her," Dodge said. "And that's what I'm telling both of you now. From now on, especially at night, no one needs to be wandering around here alone."
Kevin snorted. "Thanks for the lecture, but I don't need a new dad."
"Dodge is right, Kevin. I could have gotten myself hurt much worse and so could you. Its good advice and we'll follow it from now on."
When Sarah reached out to touch him he jerked away. "I'm going back to the house."
Sarah took a step to stop him and Dodge grabbed her arm. "Let him go. He needs a few minutes to calm down." He watched her wide eyes blink as she stared after Kevin with a look of horror on her face. "You okay?"
Sarah nodded once and then dropped her face in her hands and sobbed. Dodge pulled her to his chest and gently rubbed her back. He held her, ran his hands along her shoulders when he remembered her cut and let her cry her heart out in his arms. He'd seen her before she broke down, guilt and shame ran like colors across her face, all because he'd let himself touch her, smear her with his dirty hands. This was what happened to women when they got involved with him. This was why they couldn't be together. He was the reason she cried and he could barely stand to watch her unravel like a child in his arms.
Sarah pulled her head up, took a few calming breaths and stepped out of his embrace. "I'm sorry." Her voice sounded raw. "I...I, I'm sorry."
Dodge stepped toward her, pulled her chin up until their eyes met. "No, I'm sorry, Sarah. This won't happen again. You have my word."
"No...that's not--"
"Shhh. I shouldn't have touched you. I won't do it again."
"Dodge, I didn't mean I was sorry about that. I'm sorry about crying all over you and about Kevin. I don't seem to know how to handle this. It's just...."
He dropped his hand from her face. "There's nothing to handle. It won't happen again."
Her eyes narrowed. "Don't."
"Don't what?"
"Don't back away from me. Do you expect me to act like this never happened? Christ." She wrapped her arms around herself and rubbed. "I can still feel your hands on me now, right now. I can't pretend I don't want you to touch me every time I see you. I was crying because I've taken a huge step backward with Kevin, no matter what he thinks he walked in on. Dodge, I haven't been with anyone, other than my husband, in over fifteen years. I've never wanted anyone that way. Until now."
Damn it. She wasn't going to let this go. Why wouldn't she let this go? They made a mistake they couldn't afford to let happen again. "You'll thank me for this in a few days when you've had time to think it through."
She laughed now, a high pitched whoop. "You think I haven't thought this through? It's all I've thought about for days. Every time we get close it's the same dance. One step forward, two steps back. And you." She moved forward, pointed a finger at his chest. "You're scared. This thing between us, it scares you and that pisses you off."
"You don't scare me." He'd clenched his jaw so tight it ached. Almost as much as his loins. He should have known she'd see right through his smoke screen like she always had. "I don't need this, Sarah. If you want to think I'm scared, if that helps you put this little experiment of ours in place, then go right ahead. But know this." He took a step to close the gap between them. "It won't happen again." He turned around and headed for the door, put his jacket on and ordered over his shoulder, "Get in the truck. I'll take you home."
"I'll take myself home, thank you very much."
Dodge was in her face in two long strides. "You stubborn damn woman. I could have shot you tonight, you cut your back all to hell, and its freezing cold outside." He grabbed her arm and led her to the door of the barn. "Go get in the truck."
She tried to rip her arm out of his grasp and Dodge, anticipating her anger, only held on tight and dragged her to his truck. "You let go of me right now, Dodge, or I'll...I'll..." She bent her knee and kicked him hard in the shin.
"Your slippers are no match for boot leather," he said and didn't loosen his grip. He yanked on the passenger side door, picked her up and bounced her onto the seat. Before he closed the door to walk around to the driver's side he pointed a finger in her face. "If you try to get out of this truck before I'm at your house, I'll hunt you down and shove you right back in the truck all over again. We can do this all night, I don't give a damn, but I'm taking you home."
Dodge drove in stony silence to her cabin while Sarah stewed beside him. The closer they came to home, the closer she came to having to face Kevin. When Dodge stopped the truck, she got out without a word or a glance in his direction and slammed the door in her wake. She'd deal with him later.
When she came into the den, she saw the blanket that Lyle had used on the floor and knew he was sound asleep in his room. Kevin was still up; she could see the light peeking through the gaps in his door. She knocked and heard a muffled reply she couldn't understand. Kevin looked up from his bed and scowled at her when she opened the door.
"I don't want to talk right now, mom."
The look on Kevin's face made her want to run to her bedroom and hide under the covers, but she proceeded to his bed and took a seat beside him anyway. "I have a few things to say to you and I don't think they can wait."
Kevin sat upright with a jerk. "You can say there was nothing going on out there all you want, but I know what I saw," he said. "Jesus mom, the guilty look on your face says it all."
Her little boy had become a man right in front of her eyes. No child wanted to think about their parents having sex, and they certainly didn't want to think about their mother having sex with someone other than their father. Sarah knew she needed to be straight with him. Anything else would be insulting.
"I can't tell you how much I want to lie and say you're wrong. Something did happen, completely unplanned, and I'm sorry you stumbled into to it. But I have feelings for him and you need to understand that I'm not cheating on Daddy."
Kevin's eyes closed and stayed closed. "It feels like it."
Sarah reached out, placed her hand over his, and felt encouraged when he didn't pull away. She didn't say anything for a few moments, but just held on to him as every ounce of love poured from her heart into her oldest son.
"I know it feels that way, Kevin. And if your daddy were still alive, we would never be having this conversation. But he's not here and he's not coming back." Kevin opened his eyes and looked at her, the green of his eyes dark like emeralds and older now than they were just moments ago. "I didn't go out there tonight to be with Dodge. I didn't plan to feel something for him, for anyone. It just sort of happened when I wasn't paying attention." She lifted her hand from his, pushed the hair back from his face and took a deep breath. "I will always love your dad. What happened with Dodge, whatever is happening with Dodge, has nothing to do with Daddy. Life goes on, Kev, and I know Daddy wouldn't want me to pine away after him for the rest of my life. I just hope you can accept that."
"I don't like it." But he looked her in the eye and he didn't sound sulky. He'd simply stated fact.
"I know that. I don't expect you to."
"What's going to happen now? Is he going to be living here with us? Staying here overnight?"
"Kevin." Sarah sighed. How could she explain what was going on with her and Dodge when she had no idea where they stood with each other? "No, to both of those. I don't know what's going to happen. Right now he's pretty mad at me and I'm not all together happy with him. But I'm an adult and you're my son and I'm going to tell you right now that most of what's going on is none of your business. The only reason I'm talking to you about it now is because I wanted to be straight with you." She patted his hand and stood up to leave. At the door she turned around and looked at her son on the bed. "I love you, Kevin. No matter what, you and Lyle will always come first."
Sarah stood in the shower, let the hot water pound on her head and winced when it slid beneath the bandages Dodge had applied the night before. What a mess. She didn't even know how to be around Dodge, or how she felt about him. But whatever she thought, whatever she felt, she knew they weren't finished. If she had to force the issue, they weren't through.
Hell, they'd barely gotten started, barely touched one another and she'd had to explain it to Kevin. Well, damn it, if she had to discuss it with her kids, had to feel guilty about taking steps to move on, then by God she was going to have the pleasure of actually moving forward. But she knew they'd stay stuck in place for awhile, this needy, edgy place where all the lines were blurred. He'd called her stubborn, but Dodge was as hard-headed a man as she'd ever met. If he had it in his mind that being together was a mistake it would be awhile before she'd get the chance to be alone with him.
She dressed and went to the kitchen to make coffee. Kevin came out of his room while she loaded the maker with grinds. He nodded at her, his usual morning greeting. With him, at least, she felt the air was clear.
Sarah surveyed the view from the kitchen window. Off in the distance she saw Dodge's truck come to a stop by the barn, saw him get out and disappear around the front of Miguel's house. She turned away from the window and watched her son flick channels on the television.
"You're up early," she said.
"We told Miguel we'd help him with some stuff today." His voice sounded scratchy from disuse. "We got any frosted flakes?"
Sarah smiled and felt relieved he didn't want to rehash the night's events. "Yeah, they're in the cupboard. I'm going to work on the computer for awhile. Come tell me before you guys head out."
"Hey, Mom," Kevin said as she turned toward the hall. "Bang on Lyle's door. If I have to do slave labor, so does he."
The phone rang around lunchtime, the sound of which brought Sarah back from the Caribbean island where her characters had started a vacation. She clicked save on the computer, satisfied with the way the book had progressed, and reached for the phone. Her pleasure lessened when she heard the voice on the other end.
"Senator, so interesting to hear from you again."
"Mrs. Woodward, call me Ben. I just heard you'd had some trouble at your ranch. Of course I had to call and make sure you're okay, see if you needed anything."
Sarah rolled her eyes as he spoke, annoyed that he'd actually think she'd confide in him. "No, no trouble really." Who'd told him about her ranch and had encouraged his calls? Tommy Thornton?
"Well, I'd say a few hundred cows escaping through a hole in your fence would constitute some trouble. And before you try to downplay what happened, let me assure you I know full well how hard it is to run a ranch of your size. My family's been ranching for many years and a scare like that can make you want to throw in the towel and give something else a try."
Oh, he'd just love that now, wouldn't he? "We managed. Where'd you say you heard about our trouble?"
"Oh, here and there. Now, Mrs. Woodward." He cleared his throat. "What happened the other night isn't out of the norm. I know this may sound a little old fashioned, but ranching is no business for a woman, especially one as pretty as you. I'm willing to give you a fair price in cash whenever you're ready to sell. A woman like you doesn't need to concern herself with the dirty business of ranching."
"Senator, I appreciate your concern, but I rather like the ranching business. You needn't worry."
In the long pause before he spoke, Sarah thought she heard him mumble under his breath.
"Just promise me if you change your mind you'll call me first. No one can get you out from under that ranch faster than I can, Sarah. Just think about it."
Oh, she'd think about it all right. Slick Benji was up to something and it was past time she figured it out.
Sarah felt guilty calling her friend because she needed information instead of to catch up, which she'd meant to do for months now.
"Sarah Woodward," Senator Jack Carnes said in his polished southern voice. "How's it going out in the Wild West?"
"Good, Jack. Very good. How are Cathy and the kids?"
"Cathy's enrolled in grad school at Georgetown. She said we spend so much time in DC she'd rather go to school than play the politician's wife. I think she wanted an excuse to get out of the parties and fundraisers." He chuckled and Sarah could imagine him using that excuse every time he bowed out of a social event early. "Of course juggling her school work with Rachel's gymnastics and Brandt's football schedules have been hard." Sarah heard him shoo away an assistant. "But enough about us. How are you, Sarah? And I want the truth."
Jack knew her too well to lie. "You and Cathy are my oldest friends."
"Hey, leave my age out of it."
"We're doing well, Jack." She looked out the window at the stunning view of the mountains. "It's taken the boys some time to adjust, but I think they're coming around."
"Even Kevin?"
"Yes, even Kevin. He's got a girl he's interested in and that seems to help."
"Damn, our kids are getting old. It's great to hear your voice, Sarah. Cathy and I think of you often. She'll be relieved to know you're alive and kicking."
"Thanks, Jack. I'll call soon." She hated to end the banter that had characterized their relationship since college. "Jack, I'm calling to pick your brain. For some reason, Ben Burwick has taken an interest in my ranch. I was wondering if you had any idea why."
"Sweetie, it's pretty well known monogamy's not his strong suit."
"That's not the kind of interest I'm referring to. He's called several times about buying my land, even before we moved. Now he won't leave me alone."
"Just tell him you're not interested in selling."
"I've already done that. As a matter of fact, I think I've made myself clear. He doesn't seem to want to take no for an answer." Sarah's eyes moved toward the window, checked for Dodge. "It's weird, Jack. When he's not trying to talk me into selling, he's offering all kinds of help to keep me afloat. I don't trust the man--you know what Todd thought about him. I guess I just wanted to know if you could think of any reason why he's become so insistent?"
"I haven't seen much of slick Benji for awhile, to tell you the truth. Rumor on the hill is he's working some big development deal with a guy whose reputation is a little suspect."
"You aren't talking about the Cooper development are you?" Sarah felt her skin prickle in anticipation of his answer.
"I don't know what it's called, but the guy's name is Fred Saxton."
Sarah almost let the phone slip out of her hand as Jack implicated the man and the development that threatened the valley she'd come to love. "That's the Cooper development. People here are all up in arms about it, but I didn't know Benji was involved. I don't think anybody does."
"Well, I don't know for sure, but the rumor mill's pretty accurate. Sarah, you be careful." Jack sounded like a protective brother. "Benji's an idiot, but Saxton's not. I've heard him described as ruthless."
Dodge sat at a booth in the diner finishing the last of his food when Sarah found him. She slid into the booth across from him.
"Don't worry," she said. "I'm not going to attack you."
Dodge let out a snort. The waitress appeared at the table and asked Sarah if she wanted anything to eat or drink. Her service certainly improved when he had company.
"Coffee, please."
"Me too," Dodge said as she grabbed his empty plate and turned to leave. "What are you doing here?"
"I need to talk to you." She tucked her purse against the wall of the booth and looked up into his eyes.
"There's nothing to talk about."
"Ben Burwick called me this morning. He'd heard about your cows escaping the other night and wanted to know if I'd changed my mind about selling." Sarah rubbed her hands together anxiously as she talked. "He wouldn't tell me how he'd heard, but I guess it could have been anyone. Anyway, I got to thinking and called my friend Jack Carnes. He's a Senator from Georgia and one of Todd's best friends. He told me word was Benji'd hooked up with a shady land developer named Fred Saxton."
He connected the dots in his mind and slumped against the seat. "Damn. The Cooper deal. He wants your place for water." Dodge rubbed the back of his neck. "Damn, I should have figured this out sooner."
The waitress brought their coffee, placed a small container of milk on the table and walked away again without a word.
"What do you think this means?" Sarah asked.
Dodge took a deep breath, let it out. "It probably means he's getting desperate. I'll bet he was the one who cut the wire at your place, or arranged to have it cut."
"Why now? And why would he be desperate for my place and not another?"
"Saxton's been trying to get Cooper off the ground for years. My guess is he's run out of patience." And Dodge knew enough about Saxton to know that he didn't want to be around when the man ran out of patience. "There aren't any other river tracts like yours for sale in the valley, none big enough to support what he'd need. The ones that are," he shrugged. "They're expensive. Really expensive"
"So you think he'd rather strong arm me into selling than fork over the cash for the other places?"
Dodge remembered what he'd thought about Sarah when they'd first met. Small, pampered, weak. "I'm sure he underestimated your determination and your stubbornness." He wasn't the only one.
"You think he'll do something else, try something drastic to convince me to sell the land?"
Dodge looked into his coffee, then up into her eyes, wide with an innocence he couldn't stand to shatter. He wouldn't lie to her. "Yes, I do."
Sarah eased back into her seat and started chewing on her bottom lip. A woman's voice lifted from a nearby table. Sarah's eyes narrowed and then flew open wide when she realized what she'd overheard. "That...that woman just said you...she called you a...a murderer."
Dodge gave the woman a seething glance before looking back at Sarah. "You don't have to repeat it, Sarah. I heard what she said."
"Aren't you going to say something?"
Dodge just looked at Sarah with his brows lifted.
She tried to leave the booth. "Well, I'm not going to let her get away with tha--"
Dodge grabbed her leg and held it like a vise under the table.
"What are you doing?"
"You're not going to say a word to that woman. I thought we talked about this."
"Why do you perpetuate the idea that you're responsible for what happened to that girl?"
"I'm not perpetuating anything. I just don't feel like trying to convince people I'm not a monster. If they can't figure it out themselves, then screw 'um."
Sarah sighed. "Oh, that's mature. You don't let people get close enough to you to make up their own minds. You make yourself look guilty by not defending yourself."
"How many times do I have to explain this to you?"
"I know, I know, you don't care what people think." Sarah paused, considered. "What about the girl?"
"What girl?"
"Wendy...what's her name." She brushed her hand in front of her face as if her name didn't matter. "What if she's up in heaven, or not quite in heaven yet--"
Dodge cut her off by slamming his fist on the table and fixing her with a lethal stare. She ignored him.
"From what you said," Sarah continued, "she was a decent person who probably got scared and tried to keep the truth from getting out. Maybe she never expected you to marry her. Maybe she was just trying to keep everyone from thinking she was a slut." She opened two sugar packets and added them to her coffee, clinked the spoon against the edges of the cup and placed it back on the table. "What if she's up there, trapped between earth and heaven and she can't get into heaven because of all the stuff you're still going through down here because of what she did all those years ago?"
"What the hell are you talking about? Have you totally lost your mind?"
"Look, I know I sound like a loon, but...when Todd first died, I could feel him around us. I felt him everywhere, watching out for me and the kids. I haven't felt him lately and I think it's because we're moving on with our lives without him." Sarah dropped her voice to a whisper. "For the first year or so I was so angry at him for leaving us." Her eyes flicked to his face and back down again. "Believe me, I know this sounds like I've got a screw loose, but I feel like he's okay now because I'm not angry and sad all the time." She looked up at him. "Maybe Wendy can't move on either. Maybe you even feel her around you, haunting you almost, because you won't set people straight. You keep the rumors alive by not telling the truth."
Dodge sat perfectly still, stared at her through narrowed eyes, his hands clenched into fists. It was as though she'd described his nightmare and he needed to make her stop talking. "I don't need you psychoanalyzing me. I never should have told you about this in the first place."
"I'm sorry, Dodge." Sarah reached for his arm as he moved to free himself of the booth. "I didn't mean to make you so upset."
He didn't look back as he thundered out of the diner.
The afternoon sun stretched across the mountains, peeked through the patchwork clouds and created shadows that emphasized the power and magnitude of the surrounding crests. On her drive into town, Sarah took a deep breath of fresh Colorado air and marveled at the view. If only it could lift her spirits. She'd seen signs of Dodge around the ranch, but she hadn't heard from him since she'd made that awful scene in the diner the day before and he'd left so angry. While she wasn't sorry about wanting to defend him, she felt like she needed to apologize. Again.
At least things at the ranch were going well, despite her constant worry about Benji's next move. She'd thought telling Dodge about Benji and Fred Sarah would prod him into working with her to keep the ranch safe, or at the very least force them together so they could work out the feelings she couldn't manage to shake since he'd touched her. She missed him. Even when they fought with each other it was better than not talking to him at all.
She pulled into the parking lot of the hardware store, gathered her purse and wondered if an apology would help Dodge move beyond their stalemate. She had to find him first, which had proved no small feat despite the small town and close knit community. Dodge spent so much time at her ranch where he kept two steps ahead of her that she didn't know what he did or where he went when he wasn't there. Maybe she'd get the courage to go to his dad's house and corner him. As she stepped onto the sidewalk, she noticed his truck across the street in the parking lot. She looked at her watch. Lunchtime; of course he'd be at the diner.
Sarah jogged across the street and then hesitated before opening the door to the place where everybody knew everybody and nobody's business was sacred. She didn't want to confront him in a public place and on his turf. Hailey had never felt as much like his turf as it did today when they hadn't come to town together and she knew he'd be less than thrilled to see her.
Her stomach felt tight with anticipation and nerves, but she couldn't back away. Better to apologize and let him deal. She pulled on the door and heard the familiar jingle of the bells that hung from the hinges.
Most times the sound of the jingle had everyone in the restaurant looking to see who'd come. But today, the bells didn't attract any attention because there seemed to be some kind of commotion by the register. Without even realizing she'd moved, Sarah stepped inside and stood gaping at Dodge, his shoulders back, his face flushed, his voice a loud boom of disputation.
"I'm sick to death of all of you." He waved his arms around to encompass the whole restaurant. "I wasn't the father of that girl's baby. I didn't have anything to do with her death and you people need to get over it."
He turned and stormed out of the diner, all but knocking Sarah out of the way in his haste to leave. She followed him out. Although she thought he hadn't noticed her standing in the doorway, he stopped on the sidewalk and turned to face her, pushed his finger in her face. "Not one word," he said in a voice she'd never heard him use. "Not one single word out of you."
"Tom Thornton." Tommy answered his phone late Friday afternoon. His receptionist had left for the day at 3:00, as was their deal on Fridays.
"Tommy?" said a voice he couldn't place. "It's Kimberly Weston, Connie Weston's daughter. Do you remember me?"
It took a moment for Tommy to connect the sexy voice with that of his young cousin, but he figured it'd been a few years since he'd seen her. She'd obviously matured. "Yeah, yeah, Kimmie. How's it going?"
Kimberly chuckled into the phone. "It's Kimberly now. No one calls me Kimmie but my mom."
Tommy felt old thinking of his cousin out in the world known as Kimberly. It seemed too sophisticated for a young farm girl from Bellingham. "Kimberly," he said and tried not to let the snotty undertones hang in the air. "What can I do for you?"
"Well, I...I'm not sure how to begin." She cleared her throat. "I can be in Hailey within the hour and I'd like to meet with you. It's important, Tommy, or I wouldn't ask on such short notice."
"Ok," he said. He wondered just what his cousin could sound so serious about. "Do you want to come here, to my office?"
"No. There's a place just outside of town, a little bar called The Stand. It's a hole in the wall near the--"
"I know where it is." Tommy interrupted. Was she old enough to get in a bar?
"I'll meet you there in one hour. And Tommy, don't tell anyone we're meeting." When Tommy didn't respond, she added, "Please Tommy, I promise I'll explain."
"Ok, Kimberly. I'll see you in an hour." He hung up, gingerly placing the phone on its base, and sat back into the leather chair. As he rocked back and forth he had to wonder what the hell his little cousin Kimmie wanted to discuss with him that was so secret they couldn't talk on the phone or tell anyone about their meeting. The world just kept getting stranger and stranger.
Tommy hadn't been to The Stand in years. He didn't have much use for bars, between working long hours and keeping a watchful eye on his mother. The only thing he felt when his dad finally passed had been relief. Ever since his death, he'd made it a practice to visit his mother every other night. Depression hung over her like a thunder cloud and threatened to rain down on her when he spaced his visits out any more than had become his routine. He figured his mother was as much the reason he remained single as his receding hairline and expanding belly. But he certainly didn't feel as though visits to The Stand would increase his chances of finding someone to love.
He parked in front of the dingy cinderblock building and took a quick survey of the cars and trucks in the lot early on a Friday evening. He recognized a few of the trucks, but none of the cars as they typically belonged to women. He raised an eyebrow at a sporty little convertible tucked between two Chevys that could have competed in the world's dirtiest pick-up contest.
The sun had just settled between the mountains when he slipped inside the gloomy bar and stood to give his eyes time to adjust. The place looked exactly as he remembered, dark and cheap, smelling of stale beer and cigarette smoke. Old Stan Trippington still worked behind the bar, after all this time. He'd just stepped to the bar to say a quick hello to Stan when a gorgeous blonde walked out of the restroom. Every person in the bar, man and woman, watched her amble with a feline grace straight for Tommy. He almost fell over when he recognized his cousin, aged like a fine wine to perfection.
"Uh...Kimberly?"
"Tommy, thanks for coming."
Her voice sounded even sexier in person; her breathy whisper spilled from the upturned lips of her porn star mouth. Hell. His cousin was a knock out. He needed to remember she they were cousins, blood relatives. He did recall a 20/20 special on married cousins with normal kids... He shook his head to clear his thoughts and followed her to a booth near the back, the most secluded spot in the bar.
Candace Downing sauntered over to take their order, curiosity written all over her sun scorched face. Kimberly ordered a white wine, a risky choice for The Stand, while Tommy went for the safe bet--bottled beer. Kimberly watched Candace walk away before speaking. Her clandestine moves had Tommy's interest peaked almost as much as the rest of the bar, most of whom stared from a distance.
"It's been awhile," Kimberly said and nervously chewed her bottom lip. Tommy nodded and wondered how they'd come from the same gene pool. Candace came back in a flash with their drinks, hoping to overhear their conversation. She drifted toward the closest table with a rag in hand and failed miserably at trying not to appear to listen. Kimberly, on the QT for eavesdroppers, lowered her voice.
"You probably don't realize we've spoken rather recently." Her large eyes, the color of the sea, blinked at an unusually fast rate.
"What do you mean?"
"I'm Senator Burwick's personal assistant," she whispered. "I'm the one who asks you to hold for him on the phone."
While Tommy was surprised to hear she worked for Burwick, he didn't see the need for the whispering and secrecy.
"Really?" he whispered back. Kimberly sat up, her mouth crimped with annoyance. She could tell he was mocking her.
"Look, Tommy...if you're not going to be serious then..."
"Hold on now, Kimberly. I just don't understand what all the mystery's about. Are you going to ask me to be a government witness? A spy maybe?"
"I'm putting myself on the line, coming here like this and talking to you. Do you know what Senator Burwick would do if he knew I was here?"
"I don't have the foggiest idea what you're talking about."
"Sarah Woodward. Senator Burwick promised her water rights to a land developer named Fred Saxton for a project he's building in Cooper. I'm sure you've heard of this--the locals have been fighting him tooth and nail."
"Yes." The acid in his stomach lurched up his into chest. She had his full attention now.
"Saxton's getting impatient. He's given Senator Burwick a few weeks to get the Woodward ranch under contract before he cuts Benji out of the deal. Burwick's frantic." She looked around, checked for eavesdroppers. "He's made several offers on Mrs. Woodward's land, but she's not interested. He needs her land and he's making plans to force her to sell."
"What plans?"
"He's already tried cutting the fence at her place. Apparently that didn't do much good."
Tommy sat up in his seat and thought about what Dodge had told him about the cut wire at Sarah's. Dodge had been so sure it was because of his past coming back to haunt him, as usual. But this explanation was worse, and his gut churned with the possibility of what Kimberly would say next.
"I overheard him on the phone a few days ago. He's trying something again with the Woodward place. He was vague on the phone, and I could only hear one side of the conversation, but from what I gathered he's meeting someone at a bar in Ft. Marland to finalize the plans."
"You're sure this is about the Woodward place?"
"I'm positive." She looked around again, tucked her hair behind her ear and leaned closer. "He asked me, last week in his office, if I knew anyone...shady...desperate...who'd be willing to do anything for money. He called it pranks, simple vandalism, but..." She shrugged. "He needs her ranch. And the Senator's not the smartest guy on the block, but he knows enough not to make promises to Saxton he can't deliver."
"Jesus." Tommy slid back in his seat. "When is he meeting this person in Ft. Marland?"
"Tomorrow night at nine," she said. "I won't be tagging along. But I thought someone should know. Mrs. Woodward has kids and her husband died and it just seems like something bad could happen. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if it did."
"You did the right thing, Kimberly, telling me about this." Tommy took the first sip of his beer, thought about what to do. "Have you considered going to the police? Seems like that might be a good idea."
"I thought about it, but who would believe me?" She crouched down, her hands gripping her untouched wine glass. "I don't have any proof of his involvement in the first incident and nothing but bits and pieces of an overheard conversation with whatever's coming next. He's a United States Senator. I figure the cops would just laugh at me." She watched him as she took a sip. "What are you going to do?"
Tommy took a deep breath, let it out slowly. "Well, first thing I've got to do is talk to Dodge."
"Burwick can't stand him," Kimberly said, her eyes huge. "Every time he tries to get to Mrs. Woodward, Dodge is there getting in the way. Or at least that's how he sees it."
Dodge stood in the way, all right. He'd set up his whole cattle operation at the Woodward place and despite his insistence nothing was going on between the two of them, Tommy could tell Dodge had feelings for the beautiful widow and her sons. The man was going to flip when he told him about Burwick.
"Damn it, Miguel," Dodge muttered to himself. Miguel hadn't put the gas welder back where it belonged in the barn. Sometimes Dodge felt like he spent more time looking for things in the dusty space than he did actually doing things. He'd nearly knocked the hitch off the trailer the last time he used it and he needed the gas welder to rig it back together, but damn if he could find it. He kicked the dirt floor in frustration.
"I see I've caught you in a good mood." Tommy stood in the doorway of the old cinderblock building.
Dodge frowned. "I can't find the damn welding machine. How does everything keep disappearing around here?"
Tommy moved inside, glanced around. "I've been looking all over for you. Your dad said you haven't been home in a few nights. I guess your non-involvement with the widow didn't work."
"I'm staying with Miguel." Dodge poked through a storage locker. "It's not what you think." Ever since Sarah discovered Burwick's involvement with Fred Saxton and the Cooper development, he'd decided to bunk on Miguel's couch to keep an eye on the ranch and do the nightly security rounds himself. If Burwick was desperate enough to cut the wire on her fence and to keep calling her to sell, he wasn't done by a long shot. Dodge wouldn't let anything happen to Sarah and the boys. Whether she liked it or not, he was there to protect her.
"I've got some information about the fence incident."
"What do you mean?" Dodge stopped rummaging through the locker. He knew Tommy wouldn't dangle bits and pieces of information in front of him without having real truth to back it up. "Do you know who cut the fence?"
Tommy slipped his hands in his front pockets. "I know who's responsible for the act, if that's what you're asking."
"Just tell me, Tommy."
"It's not about your past. It's bigger than anything you thought."
Dodge moved to stand in front of Tommy, all but abandoning his search for the welder. "You're talking about Burwick, aren't you?"
Tommy's brows rose in surprise. "You know?"
"Sarah found out Burwick's been working with Saxton on the Cooper development. Gotta figure he needs this place for the water. He's trying to scare her into selling." Dodge rubbed the back of his neck when he felt it prickle. "He's probably not done."
"I'd say not. And you're right about the water. He's promised this place to Saxton. It's time to pay the piper."
"How'd you know?"
"Turns out my cousin is Burwick's personal assistant. She called me this afternoon." He rocked back and forth on the heels of his work shoes. "Burwick's getting desperate. He's meeting someone in Ft. Marland tomorrow night to make additional plans."
Damn. Damn, damn. He'd been sitting around waiting for someone to make a move. He'd thought maybe Benji had chickened out since he hadn't seen or heard anything for a few nights. "Do you know where they're meeting and when?"
"Some dive bar on the outskirts. She gave me the address. They're supposed to meet at nine."
"Where's Ft. Marland?" Sarah asked from the doorway.
Dodge whipped around at the sound of her voice. "What are you doing here?"
"What kind of arrangements?" she asked Tommy.
Tommy glanced at Dodge, raised his brows and looked back at Sarah without answering.
"Somebody answer me," she said and stomped her foot. "This is my ranch and if Burwick is making threats, I want to know."
Dodge and Tommy stood where they were, Tommy's stare fixed on the floor. Dodge tried fruitlessly to scare her away with a withering glare.
"You don't need to be involved in this," Dodge said. "You don't even know what we're talking about."
"I heard every word Tommy said. Burwick's meeting someone in Ft. Marland tomorrow night to make plans to do something to the ranch, or to me and the boys. He's trying to get me to sell." Her voice rose to a squeal. "I hate to disappoint you, but I am involved."
Dodge hung his head, let out a sarcastic snort and sauntered to the doorway where she stood with her hands on her hips. "What you are is in the way. I think you proved the other night you can't handle trouble."
"What?"
"You heard me, slugger." Dodge carelessly lifted a shoulder. "This could be dangerous and I won't stand for you being in harm's way."
"You won't stand for it?" When Dodge stood his ground and said nothing, Sarah turned her attention to Tommy, who watched them with amusement flashing in his eyes. "Tell me where Burwick is meeting his henchman tomorrow."
Tommy sobered. "I...uh, Dodge?"
"No," Sarah demanded. "Answer me or I swear I'll call your cousin at Burwick's office and find out for myself."
Tommy looked at Dodge. "Is she serious?"
"Unfortunately, yes." Dodge grabbed her arm, pulled her outside the barn door, and squinted against the setting sun. "Are you trying to get yourself killed? Burwick's made promises to Saxton he intends to keep."
"That means my family's in danger. I won't stand by while he takes pot shots at us. You can't ask me to."
"I won't play Russian roulette with your life. Damn it." He kicked the dirt with his boot. "He's through with scare tactics, Sarah. Why can't you trust me to take care of this?"
"It's not your job to protect us, Dodge. There's nothing about guard duty in the lease." Sarah covered her face with her hands, pulled them back in frustration. "Why don't I just call him and tell him he can forget about my land, that no matter what he does I won't ever sell. We don't have to play this cat and mouse game. I'll end it with a phone call."
Dodge grabbed her shoulders. "You don't get it. It's too late for him to back down. Tommy's cousin was warning us for a reason. He's in too deep to renege." He saw the resignation in her eyes and loosened his grip and softened his voice. "Let me handle this, Sarah. I don't want you getting hurt."
She pushed his hands off her shoulders. "Do you seriously expect me to sit around and wait for you to rescue me? I'm not a helpless moron."
"You're pigheaded!"
"And you're a chauvinist!"
Tommy peeked his head around the corner. "Are you children done squabbling?"
"No!" they both shouted.
Tommy put a hand on Dodge's shoulder. "The name of the bar is Coasters, off Highway 128, just north of Ft. Marland. I'd offer to go myself, but I promised Kimberly I wouldn't show my face."
"I'm going with you," Sarah said to Dodge.
"No way. The man knows you. You don't think he'll get suspicious when you stroll in a dive bar nearly fifty miles from home?"
"I've never met him. I've only talked to him on the phone."
"He wants your land, Sarah. He probably knows what you ate for breakfast. He's trying to figure out where you're vulnerable."
"You pissed him off in Wyoming. Do you think he doesn't remember what you look like?"
"I think I can blend into a crowd a hell of a lot better than you can."
"Maybe, if you take that enormous chip off your shoulder."
Dodge's temper hung on by a thread. He stepped toward her, ducked his head so they were nose to nose. "You want to come with me, fine. But my 'I told you so' may come with a very big price."
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"You should let me handle this. Alone."
Dodge and Tommy pulled up to the cabin to get Sarah. Tommy had agreed to stay with Lyle in case anything happened while they were gone as Kevin had finally wrangled a date with Shiloh. Dodge had borrowed his dad's truck for their mission. That's how he thought of their outing: a duty, a responsibility to keep Sarah and the kids out of trouble. He also needed to keep his livelihood safe, but that was secondary to everything else. Sarah was too naïve to understand the danger of the situation, to fear what desperate men did when ran out of options. Burwick was no less dangerous than a wild animal backed into a corner.
As they stood on her doorstep he wished for the hundredth time that day that he'd followed his gut and left for Ft. Marland without her. Stubborn as she was, he knew she'd just come right along on her own.
When she opened the door, his jaw dropped in surprise. Sarah stood before him in a thin, tight blouse, form fitting jeans and heeled sandals that played peek-a-boo with her red painted toes. Her hair fell in soft waves around her shoulders and she had on more makeup than he'd ever seen her wear. After a cursory once over, her knowing smile made him wish she'd stay home for a whole new set of reasons. The woman had all but dared him not to touch her.
Tommy broke the silence with a whistle. "Sarah, you sure clean up nice."
"Thank you, Tommy."
"What the hell are you wearing?" Dodge said.
"What do you mean?"
"We're supposed to blend in with the crowd."
"What do you suggest I wear to a bar? My bath robe?"
The image of her in that short little nothing she called a robe didn't help his wandering thoughts. Damn it, this was not a good idea.
"Never mind. Are you ready?"
"Just let me get my jacket."
As they headed through downtown Hailey toward Ft. Marland, the tension in the truck seemed palpable. Dodge drove in silence with a scowl that mirrored Sarah's. She watched families enter restaurants, trucks pull into driveways after a long day's work and brooded in the bouncy cab of Dodge's borrowed truck. And he'd criticized her truck. All the bouncing managed to draw out the faint smell of his aftershave, cause it to drift over and mingle with the perfume she'd dabbed under her earlobes. She'd actually looked forward to spending time with him tonight. What a fool she was. He'd practically called her a slut when she opened the door to him earlier and now he sat stone-faced and silent.
She thought about Kevin, on his first official date with Shiloh. She'd walked him over to the Winslow's house, much to his embarrassment, and left him for Mrs. Winslow to escort to a movie. She had to hand it to Kevin; Shiloh was a pretty girl. And from the look on her face she was definitely smitten with Kevin. Sarah had lectured him on the walk over about using manners, opening her door, and treating the Winslow's with respect. He'd naturally rolled his eyes.
Her reminders were unnecessary, but she'd needed to fill the time talking about something other than her worries about the date. She'd wanted to remind him that girls were gross, like he'd said back in third grade when Mandy Holloway tried to kiss him at recess. She'd wanted to tell him to stop growing up so fast. "Look at me," she'd wanted to say. "Do I look like I'm having so much fun as an adult?" Male-female relationships were wrought with pot holes and curves in the road. Dating was a long and torturous highway to drive when you were never sure of the destination.
Sarah wanted to remind him to respect Shiloh's right to say no to a kiss, and, please, God, no more than a kiss. She'd even felt the slightest nudge of anger at Todd for leaving her to deal with teenaged boys and their urges alone. She needed to have a talk with Kevin about responsible sexual behavior.
"Wondering about the big date?" Dodge asked.
"How'd you know?"
"That you were wondering or about the date itself?"
Sarah wondered if Kevin had talked to Dodge about going out with Shiloh. For a fleeting moment she considered asking Dodge to talk to Kevin about being sexually responsible. "Both, I guess."
Dodge grinned. "I overheard Lyle teasing him about it the other day. Kid's nervous."
"Why do you say that? He sure didn't seem nervous when I dropped him off."
Dodge lifted a shoulder in half shrug, let his eyes linger on her face. "He yelled at Lyle when he teased him. If he wasn't nervous, he'd have ignored him."
Sarah felt herself relax. It was good to talk to a man about her feelings. "He's growing up so fast, both of them are. This whole dating thing..." She absently brushed her hair back from her face. "It scares me."
"You've raised fine boys. They'll have their ups and downs, but they love you. They don't want to disappoint you. I can see that already."
Sarah twisted in the seat to face him, waited until he looked at her. "Do you mean that, or are you just trying to make me feel better?" He moved his hand from the wheel and covered hers, but pulled it quickly away. Just that brief contact made her feel like she'd touched a live wire.
"They're not angels, no boys are. But they're grounded and responsible."
She stared out the front windshield at the passing yellow lines. "Thanks." Her throat tightened with emotion. Lately, she felt like all she ever did was disappoint her kids. It felt good to hear a compliment, especially from Dodge.
They pulled into the parking lot of Coasters at a quarter until nine. It sat right where Tommy had said, along a stretch of barren highway with nothing around but an old gas station that looked like it had closed sometime in the last century.
Coasters looked to Sarah like a mobile home in need of a power wash and a fresh coat of paint. An old screen door flopped open in the breeze at the main entrance and a set of double metal doors were on the side near the dumpster where Dodge parked. A smattering of cars littered the dirt lot, mostly old trucks and cars.
"Do you remember the plan?" He slid the gear shift into park and turned in the seat to face her.
Sarah sat up straight, recited the plan back like a student to a teacher. "We find a quiet table and order drinks. Keep our heads low and our eyes open."
"I'm serious, Sarah. If Burwick recognizes you or gets spooked, I want you to get out of the line of fire."
"Are you carrying a gun?"
"No, I just want you to get out of the way and keep yourself safe. I'm not locking the truck and we're parked right by the side entrance. If something happens, you come out to the truck and lock yourself in." He reached over, put a small key in a lock box between their feet on the floor and opened the heavy lid with a squeak. "I'll give you the keys so you can get at this if you need it." He lifted the corner of an old work rag to reveal the barrel of a shiny black gun.
"Are you nuts? I'm not using a gun, for God's sake. I'd probably shoot myself."
"It's not loaded." He closed the lid and secured the lock, handed her the key ring. "But if you need to flash it around to make someone go away, it'll do the job."
"Are you trying to scare me?"
"I want you to be prepared for anything." Dodge reached over, gave her knee a quick squeeze. "Ready?"
She took a deep breath, let it out with a sigh and got out of the truck.
If the outside of Coasters needed a good scrubbing, the inside needed an insecticide bomb from a hazmat unit. Sarah didn't want to touch anything, not a chair, a table top, a door handle and certainly not a glass. She'd landed as far from her suburban neighborhood back home as Dorothy in the Land of Oz.
Dodge surveyed the sparse crowd, didn't see Burwick or anyone particularly interested in the two of them and led Sarah to a small table near the back. They had a good view of the interior and the hallway that led to the restrooms and the side entrance.
"Stay here and don't talk to anyone," he said. "I'll get us a beer."
"Make sure it's in a bottle."
The moment Dodge walked away, Sarah glanced around to get a look at the people. There were only two other women in the bar. One worked as a waitress, a heavy set woman in her fifties with long gray hair pulled back in a loose braid. The other woman was with her date and stood between a large table and an old foosball game with missing handles. She and her gentleman friend appeared drunk and used each other to prop themselves up under the guise of dancing to the crackling jute box music.
Most of the handful of men congregated near the bar, making small talk and love to their drinks. The two or three of the younger men wore biker attire and sported long braided hair and ponytails with bandanas wrapped around their heads.
In the middle of the bar stood Dodge, his backside framed in his not-too-tight jeans, his boot resting on the metal pole that ran along the base of the bar. He looked like a living, breathing movie poster. His talk of danger and guns had distracted her from her overwhelming desire for him. He drew her like a magnet. As if he'd felt her stare, he turned his head, caught her eye and winked. She felt her stomach drop at what he'd probably intended as a reassuring gesture.
He walked back to the table with his casual gait as if he hadn't a care in the world. He slid into the seat opposite her, handed her a beer.
"It's cold,"
"And in a bottle, as requested." He clinked the neck of his bottle with hers and took a long swig.
She took a small sip, then another when it tasted good. "Do you see anything? Recognize anyone?"
"No." He glanced around the room. "But it's not quite nine."
Sarah twisted her hair in her fingers and he scowled at her to stop. She picked the label from the bottle and he reached over to still her hands. When her feet began tapping the floor under the table, he gave her a gentle kick on the shin. And still no one came into the bar.
Dodge took the last sip from his beer, set it on the table. He looked at his watch. "It's ten after nine. I'm going to take a look in the restroom, then pop outside." He stood up and paused, looked down at Sarah. "Do you want another beer?"
She felt the weight of her half empty bottle in her palm. "No, thanks."
She watched Dodge walk down the hallway and into the restroom. He came out a few seconds later and glanced her way before heading out the side entrance near where they'd parked.
She sipped at her beer and tried not to look anxious, sitting alone in a dimly lit bar with a bunch of strange men. When she saw two of the biker twins swagger toward her table, she fled down the hallway, bypassed the restroom, and exited the heavy metal side door where Dodge had disappeared.
The instant she'd cleared the door and it swung shut, Dodge pushed her against the wall and ducked his head, braced his weight against his elbow.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
"Burwick's here." He moved his face closer, whispered in her ear. "He got into the white Taurus a second ago."
"Why are you pinning me against the wall?"
"Unless you want to pee on the side of the building or pretend to have a lovers quarrel, this is the only explanation I have for us standing out here." He nuzzled her neck with his mouth.
Sarah braced her hands on his chest and tried to push him back. He didn't budge. All she could feel under his soft cotton shirt was a hard wall of muscle. The feel of his breath on her neck made her shiver.
"Sweetheart, we're trying to be inconspicuous here. If you act like I'm attacking you, you'll cause a scene."
"You're right, I'm sorry." Sarah relaxed against the wall. "Can you hear what they're saying?"
Even to her own ears, her voice sounded breathless with desire. Without thinking, she moved her head to the side and gave him more of her neck to nuzzle. When she felt his hand on her waist, a distant stirring swirled in the pit of her stomach. It spread lower and her eyes drifted closed.
She opened her eyes when she felt Dodge pull away. He stared at her face, his smoldering eyes fluttered between her eyes and her mouth. At the sound of a car door, they both looked back to the parking lot where Burwick slipped out of the Taurus and walked toward a Mercedes.
"He's leaving," Sarah whispered.
The Taurus started its engine, catching them in the headlights. Dodge ducked his head and brushed his lips against her ear. "Kiss me," he demanded and quickly turned to take her parted lips with a force that had her pushing against him. When the headlights starting backing away, Dodge gentled the kiss and Sarah relaxed against his body. He eased back to see if Burwick had pulled out of the parking lot just Sarah's hips arched and she let out a quiet moan. He pushed her back into the wall.
"Burwick's making a call from his car," he said.
"Huh?"
She heard the crunch of gravel under the Mercedes tires. "Here we go again." Dodge leaned down to take her mouth. She was ready for him this time and didn't try to push him away, but welcomed the invasion. When he ran the tip of his tongue along her bottom lip she opened her mouth and whimpered.
Dodge heard the Mercedes pull into the street and the German engine kick up to full speed, but he couldn't pull himself away from the body pressed against his while her tongue did wicked things to his mouth. The side door of the bar slammed against its hinges and Dodge and Sarah pulled breathlessly apart. The drunken couple stumbled past them. The man tried to gesture to Dodge with his head and only managed to head-butt his girlfriend. Dodge tipped his hat and grinned, then looked across the small alley to where Sarah stood motionless against the wall where he'd left her. She licked her swollen lips and yanked her shirt down from where his hands had inched it higher. She blinked at him as if she didn't know who he was or where they were.
"We should try to follow Burwick." He tried not to recall the feel of her body against his and the sweet way she'd tasted just moments ago as he led her to the truck. Dodge maneuvered out of the lot, but screeched to a halt at the road.
"What's wrong?" she asked. "Why aren't you going after him?"
He looked from left to right and back again before dropping his hands from the steering wheel and easing back in his seat. "I'm not even sure which way he went." Dodge stared at the dashboard. He didn't have to look at Sarah to know she'd turned a very bright shade of red.
"Oh." When Dodge reached across to open the glove compartment and brushed against her knee, she flinched. Their eyes met for a moment before they both quickly looked away. "What are you doing?"
"I'm getting a pen to write down the tag number of the Taurus. I'll get Tommy to ask the sheriff to run it through the system and see what he comes up with." He threw the pen in the ash tray. "I should get you home."
The first sound on the long ride home was the low voice of Patsy Cline's "Crazy" crackling over the radio. It felt like a hint from God and echoed her own thoughts. She stole a sideways glance at Dodge. The man sitting beside her in the eerie stillness of the truck cab, the same man who drove her crazy and who categorized women had kissed her silly and brought alive every long forgotten nerve ending in her body. He'd done it again; he'd turned her into a mindless pile of liquid yearning. But this time felt different. Kissing him face-to-face, body-to-body had made their connection much more personal. So many things she thought had died with Todd had awakened with Dodge. She wanted to rejoice and bang her head against the window at the same time.
When Dodge finally came to a stop in front of the cabin, Sarah reached for the door handle. "Let me know what you find out about the tag number."
He nodded. "Don't get your hopes up, it was probably a rental."
"Well...we tried." She took a fleeting look at his profile.
"We did." He sat staring at the dash. "Will you tell Tommy I'm waiting?"
"You're not coming in?" She didn't know what she expected after the long and silent ride home, but she hadn't thought he'd drop her and run. She jerked the door open and slammed it shut.
Dodge shook his head as he watched Sarah go into the garage and close the door behind her. Tommy came out moments later and slid into the seat beside him.
"Sarah said you saw Burwick, but didn't get anything but a license number from the guy he met."
Dodge backed the truck out slowly and caught Sarah's bedroom light illuminate the window with a gilded glow. He thought of her, peeling off that barely-there shirt and slithering out of her tight jeans. He was hard as a rock again.
"Do you think you could get Darren to run the number?" he asked Tommy. "Tell him it's about a claim?"
"Yeah, he'd probably run it." Tommy rubbed his forehead and yawned. "So, what do you think?"
Dodge shrugged, tried to concentrate. "The fact that Burwick is handling the details himself makes me nervous. Whatever he's planning will happen soon, I'm sure about that."
"You still staying at Miguel's?" Tommy motioned out the window as they passed the caretaker's house and the truck found it's bearings on the pavement.
"Yeah."
"Why don't you bunk up with Sarah? I'm sure she'd invite you in if you asked real nice." Dodge only grunted. "What the hell are you holding out for anyway? If I had a chance at that..."
"The woman's a distraction." She'd proved it conclusively earlier.
"Seems like a worthwhile distraction."
Dodge dropped off Tommy at his house and headed back to Miguel's for another sleepless night. Sarah had gotten under his skin, and thanks to Burwick and her own bullheaded stubbornness, she'd seeped into his blood. The attraction had gnawed at him for weeks. He'd admired the sweet sway of her hips, her easy laugh and quick wit with the foolish notion that he could resist her charms. He didn't turn back to her place, but veered eastward toward The Stand to see who was available to temper his need.
Stan looked up from behind the counter with a nod when Dodge entered and took a seat to scope the room. Barb Whitehead sat at the end of the bar, drunk as she always was about this time on a Saturday night. He couldn't even stomach the thought of talking to her. Mandy Smith worked the register at the Co-op. She sat in a booth with two guys he didn't recognize. He'd always thought Mandy attractive, if not a little young. Her daddy Stet was a three generation rancher known to drink too much a little too early in the day. Mandy had always been kind and pretty, but Dodge couldn't muster much enthusiasm for wrestling her away from the two guys at her side. He scanned the bar again and ordered a beer.
He considered calling Jenna Sweeny in the morning and inviting himself up to Colorado Springs for the day. They'd always made room for each other when their paths had crossed. It was past time he made their paths cross. But he couldn't leave the ranch unprotected for a whole day while he satisfied his needs. And just the thought of going to all that effort for someone he wasn't interested in made him feel tired. He just needed to keep his distance from a certain sex-starved landowner.
Dodge had just pulled the tractor into the barn when he saw Miguel, Kevin and Lyle head out to the water meter on the back side of the property to check the day's levels. Now was the perfect time to confront little Miss Smarty Pants. He knew she was there. He'd been watching to see if her truck had left all morning. Hell, he'd been watching her since she'd slithered that sweet little body all over him in the barn, then cried in his arms and made him vow never to touch her again. And he was doing a pretty good job of it until he'd kissed her--as long as thinking about her constantly didn't count. Of course, the guilt he felt whenever Kevin scowled at him helped steel his resolve to leave Sarah alone.
His plan had worked fine until he'd come out from the store late yesterday afternoon, still frustrated after Tommy had confirmed that the car they'd seen with Burwick had been a rental, and found a copy of one of her books sitting on the passenger seat of his truck. He thought it odd that someone had tossed it in, but he'd just shrugged and gone on his way.
As he climbed into his truck and made his way toward her cabin, his mind reeled with images of Sarah draped over him like a blanket. He groaned aloud. Damn it. It'd been hard enough trying to sleep on Miguel's uncomfortable couch, remembering the feel of her breasts and the taste of her lips. And then he'd picked up the book when he couldn't fall asleep. He'd read the story all right. All night long. Then he'd taken a cold shower while his head spun with a whole slew of images playing like a movie in his head while he should have been sleeping.
Sarah stood at the kitchen sink washing Lyle and Kevin's breakfast dishes. Although they'd both grumbled about having to get up early in the summer, they got up every morning and helped Miguel with his morning duties. They were learning first hand how to make a ranch run efficiently. As much as Sarah hated to admit it, she was jealous because they spent a good part of most days with Dodge.
She hadn't heard from him in over a week, but not because he wasn't around. She'd see his truck at the barn in the morning and all throughout the day. Kevin and Lyle would come home for lunch every afternoon with stories that began, "Dodge this" and "Dodge that." She wanted nothing more than to plug her ears when they started talking about him. They were bonding, her sons and the man she'd hoped to bed. She knew they respected him. He was fair with them and expected them to carry their weight around the ranch while he pitched in and did a lot of the grunt work himself.
Sarah had wondered if Kevin would be able to be around Dodge after what he'd seen and yet they worked together every day as though nothing had ever happened. If only she could act as if nothing had happened. If only she could turn her mind off and stop obsessively wondering if he was thinking about her the way she was thinking about him. It had to stop.
She had managed to channel some of her pent up anger and sexual tension into one hell of a return novel. She'd reached the halfway point and it was shaping up to be a very good story. Her agent seemed equally excited. She'd emailed a few pages after she'd gotten started and he was hounding her daily for more.
Sarah had just sat down at her computer when she heard someone banging on the door. She was surprised to see Dodge on the other side until she saw the look on his face. He scowled at her again.
"Hello." She tried to be casual, but she sounded pissy even to her ears.
"I found something of yours last night." He pushed past her into the house and left her to close the door behind him. "One of your novels."
Everybody's a critic.
"I wish I'd never seen it." He stood there looking at her with his nostrils flared and his brows raised in vexation as if she owed him an explanation.
She reached for the cover of the book that dangled from his hand. "I wrote that book six years ago. What do you want me to say? Sorry?"
Dodge sputtered and for the first time since they'd met, he seemed at a loss for words. "Aw, hell."
Sarah raised her brows and waited. He moved past her and stomped into the kitchen, threw the book on the counter.
"Do you know where I found this copy?" he asked.
She lifted her shoulders as he pressed on, more than a little grateful to have him in her house again.
"The passenger seat of my truck." He sneered at her as if she'd done it herself, then stepped to face her with his hands on his hips. "Somebody threw it in the open window of my truck when I was in town to getting supplies. Somebody wanted me to take a look."
He had a callous look on his face, the same one he got when she'd accidentally backed the tractor into the fence when he first let her take a turn, back when they spoke to one another.
"What's the big deal?"
His brows shot straight to the rim of his hat, which he'd forgotten to remove when he came inside, a gentlemanly habit she'd come to respect. "I can't believe you have to ask me that."
God, she'd missed fighting with him. She could almost see the steam coming from his ears. "Well, I'm asking and I'm waiting for an answer." It was high time he got everything off his chest. She wasn't sure she could handle his answer under the best of circumstances, but he was emotional and angry and hopefully too upset to censor his feelings.
"Everybody in this valley thinks that we're ... you know what they think." His brows knitted in irritation.
"You've never given a damn about what anybody thinks."
"I don't care what they think about me." Dodge sputtered and raised his arms in frustration. "I don't want people reading this book and thinking you like to be backed against walls and...and...dirty talk! Lord." He let out a big breath, let his arms fall back to his hips. "I can't believe you even wrote this stuff."
Sarah had to stifle a laugh. "Dodge, some women like to read about things they'd never actually do." She reached for the book. It had been a long time since she'd glanced at or thought about her old novels. She flipped through the pages and noticed that the sex scenes had been dog eared. "You make it sound like S & M or something. This is pretty tame. Believe me, there's a lot worse out there."
"That you wrote?"
"No, this is as wild as I ever got." She looked at him, wondered just what bothered him so much.
"I can't believe your husband let you write this stuff."
"He didn't let me do anything. He was proud of me. If you'd bothered to read beyond the dog eared sections you would've seen that there's a storyline that many people connected with. This was one of my best sellers." She threw the book on the counter, took a step closer to him.
"There are a lot of good books that don't have sex in them. Why'd you have to add it if the story was good on its own?"
"That's just the genre. And people like sex." She could almost hear Jenny's mantra in her head, It's just sex, he wants it and you want it...
"Well." Dodge tried to run his fingers through his hair, realized his hat was still on and quickly took it off. "Sorry about that. You know everyone in this valley thinks that we're having sex."
"If everybody already thinks we're having sex, including my son," her brows lifted in annoyance, "then maybe we should." She closed the gap between them and pulled the hat out of his hands, tossed it on the counter. "Maybe you should back me against the wall right here and end the confusion once and for all."
He sighed as his eyes searched her face. "This is going to get complicated."
Sarah reached out, grabbed the waistband of his jeans and pulled him flush with her body. "It already is."
Dodge couldn't think of all the reasons they shouldn't be together with the scent of her surrounding him and clouding his mind. Without knowing how, he'd backed her against the wall and pinned her body with his.
"Kiss me, Dodge." She threaded her hands through his hair, pulling his mouth to hers. "Kiss me, please, and end this torture?" The simple sincerity of the plea had all common sense flying right out the window.
With their eyes locked, his lips brushed hers. She whimpered, a needy, wildly enticing sound. He gave in with a crushing burst that knocked her head against the wall.
"Ouch." She pulled back and rubbed. When he started to back away she held tight to his shirt. "No, no, no. I'm okay." She looked up at him ran her tongue over her lips. "Where were we?"
That was a damn good question, and one he couldn't answer when her hands slipped under his shirt and her hips wedged between his legs. What had ignited the little firebrand before his eyes? She didn't give him time to think about where they were and who could walk in on them at any moment, but wrapped that smart little body around him and blanked his mind. He simply had to have her, as she'd demanded and then begged.
She tasted of freedom, wild, sweet freedom, and he couldn't get enough. He fumbled with the clasp on her bra after he'd whipped the shirt over her head. He jolted when she reached for his zipper, scraping her back against the wall. She whimpered in pain.
"Sarah, your back." He could feel the scab from her run in with the wire.
"It's okay," she said. "I'm fine."
He reached down, grasped her bottom and lifted her into his arms. "Where's your bedroom?" The look of happy surprise on her face made him grin.
She pointed with her hand. "It's right back here."
He reached the room in two long strides, dropped her on the bed and looked his fill. He'd mussed the hair around her face, he'd already managed to redden her neck with his beard, and her eyes appeared hazy with desire. Her bra hung open where he'd left it.
"Dodge, if you stop now I'll have to kill you."
He grinned and wondered what the hell he was going to do with the half-naked woman he couldn't escape. "I'm not stopping. I don't have that much self control." He sat on the edge of the bed and quickly discarded his clothes.
Sarah eased out of her bra, slipped off her pants and straddled Dodge from behind. She could feel the echo of her heart against the soft skin of his back. She wanted him, she needed him like she hadn't needed a man in so long.
"Thank God." She bit his lobe and grinned as he groaned in response. She felt empowered by reckless desire. He'd finally given in, tossed aside the pretense that there wasn't anything between them. He pushed her back against the bed and covered her with his body. And when she smiled at him, a little bit embarrassed, a little bit shy, he bit her lip with a wicked grin.
"Second thoughts?" he asked, his eyes on hers like a laser.
"I'm not a coward, Dodge. Give me everything you've got." Something flashed in his eyes, a challenge, or maybe resignation, but he didn't keep her waiting for long. He brought her to the edge, teased her with his hands and mouth, had her begging for him to take her, take her now, please, Dodge, now. And then he'd change course, try new tactics and leave her struggling to take over and end the torture, the sweet, sweet torture. He wouldn't surrender control. Being with him was all she'd thought about for weeks, having him plunge into her and clearing her mind once and for all. Now that the moment had arrived he seemed to want nothing more than to savor her desperate cries for him to have her, take her, fill her. With every touch he found more ways to pleasure her, more ways to watch her react until she could take no more and he finally entered her as he pushed her over the edge. He drove into her, his patience vanished and he bore down on her as if she were the keeper of life itself.
Sarah let out a cry of release, rising up to meet his hammering. She pushed him on his back and climbed on top to execute her own brand of torture. He made it so easy when he looked at her the way he was now, as if she were the frosting on the cake he'd been waiting to devour. She rode him and began to tumble again, drunk on the power and the sensations her body had so desperately missed. How could he know instinctively how to make her sing?
Dodge fell, they may have fallen together, he couldn't be sure in the haze of afterglow. He knew she'd...had a good time, if only by the fact that she lay gasping for air atop him. He had the strangest urge to bury his face in her hair and thank her. Dodge felt sure he'd had better, more satisfying sex, but at the moment he couldn't think when. And as he fought the urge to tell her, she seeped farther into the blood that still raged within him.
It was just sex, he told himself. Really, really good sex after weeks of fighting their attraction. But something about that didn't ring true. Just sex, his head repeated in the same rhythm his hands ran up and down her body and she let out a purr of satisfaction. She felt so small in his arms. Somehow it didn't seem possible for the feisty woman who'd just taken him on the ride of his life to feel so slight. Not just sex, his heart whispered.
He should be able to walk away now, pull himself away, but he couldn't. He lay with her, still inside her, and listened to her breathing return to normal. Something inside of him teetered as he caressed her into slumber. He wanted her again. He knew his need for her would only be worse now that he'd touched her, and yet they'd only scratched the surface of what they could be and do to one another. He wanted more with an intensity that left him spooked.
Sarah lay atop Dodge and listened to the steady beat of his heart, fast at first, so fast, and then slower, almost in rhythm with her own. She gloried in the feel of his hands on her, running up and down her body. She wanted to weep with the joy of having had him, having experienced something so powerful and so different.
Part of her expected him to have leapt off the bed by now, leaving her to wonder about the implications of what they'd done. Part of her felt amazed he laid as he was, touching her, caressing her with such gentleness. She stayed sprawled on top of him, afraid to lift her head and start the dialogue that was too soon in coming.
What would she say? Could she tell him how it had felt to be loved the way he'd loved her, with teasing and care and passion? Tell him how he made her feel like a woman worth desiring? How she hadn't felt that way in so long? Could she tell him that she wanted to stay wrapped in his arms and that no matter how he intended to deny the meaning of what they'd just done, that they would do it again, damn the consequences?
Dodge heard his cell phone ring, muffled in the pocket of the jeans he'd discarded on the floor. Sarah was awake now; he felt her stiffen in his arms when the ringing began.
"I need to get that." He gently pushed her aside and reached for his pants, thinking an interruption was as good a way as any for them to face the music of what they'd done. "Dodge." He listened as Miguel explained that he and the boys were on their way back to the barn and needed instructions for the afternoon. He had to get out of the house. Fast. "I'll meet you at the barn. Keep the boys with you until I get there."
Sarah sat up at mention of her sons. "Are they coming home now?"
"No, but they'll be at the barn any minute." He brushed her cheek with his palm, let his eyes glide over her. "I don't think they need to see my truck here, do you?"
She kissed his palm. "No. I don't."
Between the feline look in her eye and the feel of her lips on his hand he was hard again. He quickly shifted on the bed, grabbed his jeans and began dressing so she couldn't see how she'd affected him.
Sarah watched him dress, dared him to resist her as she lay sprawled naked on the bed. "Dodge, I ..."
He leaned down and kissed her, slow and soft, then gently nipped at her breast before heading out the door with a groan.
Benji paced the rug in his office while his fingers clutched the pen, whose glistening surface of cool metal had turned hot in his grip. He'd begun to regret his face-to-face meeting with the man he'd hired to execute his plans. In hindsight, the meeting sat like a brick on his chest. He'd never forget the look in the stranger's eyes; they were cold, like the eyes of a dead man. The memory of his eyes had Benji in a panic about what he'd put into motion.
He wanted to convince Mrs. Woodward it was too dangerous to live alone on a large ranch, show her the worst of what could happen. When she saw the light he'd swoop right in for the sale, no fuss, no muss. But he kept flashing back to the man with the dead eyes. He'd given him instructions, along with a hand drawn map of the Woodward place, and told him no one was to get hurt. Benji told him to scrap the whole thing if there was even a chance that someone might get injured. While the stranger had nodded in what Benji took as acknowledgement, the furtive look in his eyes betrayed him.
Benji searched his desk for the antacids that he'd downed like candy in the last few weeks. He found the bottle in his top drawer and washed a few down with what was left of his morning coffee. If everything went according to plan, tonight was the night he'd seal his fate as the new owner of the Woodward ranch, thereby granting Saxton all the water he'd need for the Cooper development and get the monkey off Benji's back.
Ever since he'd made implications to Kimberly about vandalizing the Woodward place, she'd been watching him and keeping her distance. He'd had a weak moment, going on about his plans in front of her like he had. He'd forgotten, as he so often did, her humble beginnings. She was too young and naïve to understand that sometimes he had to get his hands dirty in order to keep his constituents happy. In politics, keeping people happy by whatever means necessary was the name of the game. Trouble was, he'd gotten so used to Kimberly being his yes man that it never occurred to him that she'd have a conscience. Hell, he thought as he rubbed away the pain in his chest, it never occurred to him he'd have a conscience too.
Whether it was Kimberly's reaction or looking into the eyes of a man willing to do anything for money, he wasn't sure, but the combination of guilt and fear clung to him like a stench to a dog. Maybe with all the guilt he carried around, he'd give Mrs. Woodward an even better price than he'd intended. Maybe holding out would prove beneficial for her after all.
Sarah wandered the aisles of Hailey's new drug store that had opened on the corner of Main Street. She looked through the shelves trying to find a special cream Shiloh had told her about that would help keep her impossibly dry hands from cracking in the arid climate. Shiloh had started coming around the cabin in the afternoons looking for Kevin and often stayed to talk to Sarah. She'd fill her in on the gossip around town all the while keeping a watchful eye out for Sarah's oldest son. Sarah felt grateful to Shiloh for the company and for easing Kevin's transition to Colorado.
Sarah had floated through the last twenty-four hours in blissful exhilaration following her sexual reawakening. She'd made love with a man who wasn't her husband and she'd lived to tell. Although she hadn't told a soul. Oh, she'd wanted to tell Jenny. She'd even picked up the phone and had dialed part of her number when she stopped and thought about what she would say. "Hi, it's me. I had sex with Dodge." She knew Jenny would be happy for her, knew she'd understand what a huge milestone this was for Sarah. But she also knew the first question that would come out of Jenny's mouth. "How was it?" she'd ask.
The answer to that question had her putting the phone back on its base. She'd want to admit it had been mind blowing, in both intensity and tenderness. She'd want to say it was better than she remembered sex ever being. She'd want to say it was something she intended to do again, with him, as soon as possible. But those words, those joyous words of truth felt like a betrayal to the only other man she'd ever been with.
As she wandered into the baby section, the faint scent of diapers leaked out of the thick plastic coverings. She'd smiled wistfully, remembering the thousands of diapers she'd bought too many years ago and closed her eyes to savor the smell a mother never forgets. That's when it hit her. Her mouth dropped open and the small bucket cart she held slipped from her hand and crashed to the floor. Her hair products and deodorant rolled away on the slick marble surface. She'd had sex with Dodge and hadn't even given a passing thought to birth control.
A young woman came down the aisle, Sarah's shampoo in hand, and tapped her on the shoulder. She motioned to the mess on the floor. Sarah gathered her things with shaking hands in a slow motion fog as the resonance of her thudding heart rang in her head. My God, she thought. I could be pregnant.
The short drive home had been torture. The clouds had moved in, big billowing clouds whose shade varied from alabaster to gun metal gray. They moved quickly overhead and changed the feel of the landscape below. The grass and wildflowers swayed as the breeze kicked up the smell of the earth, well before a drop of rain hit the ground and set free the scents of a storm. Sarah rolled down the window, desperate for the cleansing gust of fresh air, and noticed the temperature change. She looked to the sky and thought it appropriate that it filled rapidly with storm clouds; they so perfectly matched her mood. She'd left the store in a panic. She needed to get home, find Dodge and tell him...what? That in her haste to have him she'd forgotten about using a condom. Not that she'd had one handy or had even seen one in the decade since Todd's vasectomy.
Sarah pulled her truck onto the gravel drive. When she saw light and movement coming from the barn, she parked near the side door. Christ, she thought as she sat in the truck just outside the barn as thunder beat a staccato melody overhead. She opened the door just as the first drops began to fall and made a dash for the musty barn.
Miguel, his hands coated in grease, worked on an engine of unidentifiable sort. Sarah could tell by the look on his face she'd startled him.
"Hola, Miguel." She felt ridiculous trying to speak a language she didn't have a knack for remembering. "Donde esta Dodge?"
Mercifully, Miguel answered in English. "He's in back pasture, by old road." He motioned with his hand in the direction. "Tractor broken."
"The boys?"
When he smiled, his perfectly aligned teeth gleamed in the dark interior of the barn. "Home."
Back in the truck, she used her cell to call home and told the boys to stay inside because of the storm. She set off toward the back pasture to locate Dodge and infest him with her latest flavor of neurosis. She found him just where Miguel had said, working feverishly under the hood of his John Deere tractor, rain bouncing like ping pong balls off his hat and jacket. She honked the horn, watched him jump and wince when the movement caused him to injure his hand. He scowled at her, looked down at the engine, squinted up at the sky and quickly made his way to her truck. Sarah reached over and pulled up the lock, her stomach fluttered with longing and dread as he climbed inside.
"What are you doing out here?"
"I need to talk to you." Something in her face must have given away her panic because he reached over with his damp hand and laced his fingers through her hair. Her mind instantly blanked at his touch.
Dodge pulled her closer across the small bench seat. The musty cab held her scent in the air, the rain infused it in his head. He'd spent the better part of the day driving to Westmoreland tracking down the one dealership this side of the mountain that had the belt he needed to get the tractor running again. And all the way there and all the way back he'd thought of her. He remembered everything about the hour they'd shared the day before. He'd catalogued in his mind every touch, every sound, every movement she'd made and was all but bursting with need for her again. But the tractor had a need for the belt and he wasn't quite sure how to proceed with Sarah after their first roll in the sheets. He'd been afraid an over-eagerness on his part would scare her, cause her to classify him as a typical male or worse, give away his insatiable need to have her again. He kissed her forehead, caressed her scalp with his fingers and waited for her to take the lead.
"I..." Sarah began, hesitated. He stared at her, his fingers making lazy circles on her head. What a disaster it had been not to have a condom the first time, and she could tell from the look on his face there would be more times, and here she sat, wanting him again. Had she thought to buy condoms at the store when she'd had her epiphany? Of course not.
"We didn't use protection when we..."
Dodge chuckled, his dimpled grin mocking her panic. "I know when you're talking about."
"How can you laugh about this?" She didn't know what to expect from him, but she hadn't expected laughter. "I know I'm old. It's been forever since I've worried about an unplanned pregnancy, but it can happen. Todd would just look at me and I'd get pregnant."
His hand paused on her head. "You don't have to worry about getting pregnant, Sarah. Not from me."
She slumped against the seat, the heat from his body warming the cab as the rain ran like teardrops down the windshield. "I don't understand. You're...you've had a vasectomy?"
"No."
His face changed, the coyness she'd seen there swiftly hidden behind a mask. He'd shut his emotions off like a curtain in a play and it fell with a swoosh between them. "I don't understand," she said when he just stared at her.
Dodge lifted his hand from the tangle of her hair and took off his hat. "I was married once before."
"You were married?"
"In Chicago. The former client, the one who sends the fancy wine? He was my father-in-law."
Dodge turned to face the windshield. The movement caused them to separate by inches, but Sarah felt like a great ravine had formed between them.
"We were married for three years, two of which she tried to get pregnant. Turns out I've been shooting blanks all along." He looked at her then and shrugged. "A little ironic. Anyway, the stress and the disappointment of it brought the marriage down."
"Jesus." All along she'd pegged him as the wounded loner, someone whose past had kept him at a distance from everyone. Everyone but her. The fact that he'd moved on from his past, had married and tried to have children, selfishly it hurt her pride and made her think less of what they'd shared. But when she looked at him, really looked at his face, she saw a wounded loner. Every part of his past was just as painful as what he'd endured before. "She blamed you."
"I was to blame."
"No. Lots of people can't have kids. It doesn't make you less of a man, less worthy of love."
"Love's not always easy, Sarah. You're a fine example of how much it can hurt. It wouldn't have worked out anyway." She could tell he'd shut off that part of his life, knew he didn't want not to talk about it. "She was...we were from two different worlds. She's happy now. Two kids and a banker husband. Probably even a dog and white picket fence."
Sarah put her hand over his, leaned closer until their knees brushed. "So, there's your proof. There's no way you could have gotten Wendy pregnant."
"Let it go, Sarah. I have. After my outburst at the diner, so have most of the people around town."
She shifted on the seat, took his hat from his hand, put it down beside her. She'd do anything to bring a smile to his face. "Any more revelations you'd like to share? More heartbreak?"
"I'm no angel, Sarah." Dodge ran his hand down her arm, laced his fingers with hers. "Don't confuse me with some movie star cowboy or one of your made up heroes."
"I'm not romanticizing about you. I haven't forgotten about your categories."
He shook his head and closed his eyes.
"Dodge, you shouldn't belittle what you've been through."
"It's just something that happened. And now it's over. It's why I don't do relationships."
She felt her heart slip. "You got married. You can't say you don't do relationships."
"It failed. I don't do them anymore."
"There were two of you in that marriage."
"I learned my lesson. Besides," he touched her chin with his finger, "you don't do casual."
"I've never had the opportunity for casual. Why do I feel like you're breaking up with me?" She heard the whine in her voice and tried another tactic. "Why do we have to put a label on this? This thing between us...it's like a roller coaster ride. We've strapped ourselves in, now we have a choice. We can either close our eyes and pray for the end, or we can wave our hands in the air and enjoy it." She shifted on the seat and straddled him, settled into his lap, laced her fingers through his hair. When his hands clasped around her waist and pulled her closer, she eased her whole body into his, her lips a whisper from his. "However long it lasts." She kissed him, slow and tempting. "What do you say?"
"You'd better hold on tight," he said as he made quick work of the buttons on her shirt. "This ride's about to start."
They made love in the small cab of her truck while the storm swirled around them. It was sweaty and cramped and heartbreakingly passionate. They could barely move, but she felt unspeakably moved by the quiet way he whispered her name, the tenderness of his touch, despite the amateurish location of their pairing. She eased the pain from his eyes with her words and gave him her body to heal him, the same way he was healing her.
It was the clinking. Kimberly Weston shook her head and sat up straight in her chair. That damn clinking noise was getting to her and she wanted to bolt from the room with an almost overwhelming absurdity. She looked at her watch. Again. Nearly midnight and Benji was still at it.
First he'd shocked her by insisting she accompany him to the fundraising dinner in the ballroom of one of Denver's finest hotels. He never took her anywhere even remotely social when his wife and daughter weren't present. And while they were off at some weight loss spa in the desert, Kimberly sat listening to the irritating clinking of plates and glasses, silverware and bar drinks while Benji downed another scotch and made the rounds of the room yet again.
Kimberly had never seen him like this. He hated fundraising dinners, especially dinners honoring anyone he felt beneath him on the political hierarchy. And Dalton Maddox didn't register a blip on Benji's radar as far as Kimberly knew. Yet here she sat, miserable and exhausted at a corner ballroom table littered with dessert plates and empty alcohol glasses. No wonder political fundraisers were so expensive; the bar bill alone probably came to more than her yearly salary.
She'd spent the last half hour trying to coax the Senator out of one conversation or the next, thought surely he intended to leave as soon as she'd whisked him free. But just as she'd wrangle him out of one boring discussion on subsidies and gas prices, he'd bound head long into another until Kimberly had given up. Sitting in the uncomfortable ballroom chair watching Benji work the room and wipe beads of sweat from his brow, Kimberly started to notice Benji's strange behavior. With broad smiles and a bunch of back patting, he worked the room harder than the Energizer bunny. But it didn't make sense. Most of the bills he'd signed on to support were either dead in the water or had sailed through committee. There wasn't a need for him to rush from conversation to conversation, stirring the pot, as he liked to call it when he needed to get support from one backer or another. And if Dalton Maddox was beneath Senator Ben Burwick, surely his supporters didn't merit his undivided attention.
Kimberly dropped the napkin she'd been worrying when the cold realization of what was going on tingled up her spine. Tonight was the night, it had to be. Benji wasn't working the room for votes or money, he needed an alibi. And there was no better alibi than a room full of political supporters and a public relations photographer. She reached into her clutch for her phone and, after making sure Benji slung his political shit around the room, stepped into the hall to make a call.
"Hello?" Tommy answered his rarely used cell phone. He'd been asleep on the couch. The news had ended and the laugh track on an old Seinfeld episode all but drowned out the voice on the other end of the line.
"Tommy, its Kimberly. I don't have much time."
He sat up on the couch with a jolt. "Kimberly? Is everything ok? I can barely hear you." He pressed the mute button on the remote.
"I think whatever is going down at the Woodward place is happening tonight. Benji dragged me to some fundraiser in Denver at the last minute. He's determined to stay much later than normal. I think he's using this party as an alibi."
"Are you sure?"
"I can't be sure, but my gut tells me I'm right. Have you heard from Mrs. Woodward?"
Tommy felt the sting of panic begin to rise in his throat. "It's almost midnight. I'll call Dodge. He's staying out at the caretaker's place. If anything's going on, he'll know."
Dodge had been sleeping like a baby. Ever since Sarah had guilted him into a public declaration of innocence, he hadn't had a single dream or nightmare involving Wendy Hawkins. His mind was finally as free as his conscience. Of course, part of the reason he slept so well had to do with the fact that Sarah had wrapped herself around him in the truck that afternoon. She'd seduced him, twice. And he couldn't have been happier.
Dodge had set the alarm on his phone to go off at one a.m. so he could get in his truck and make a sweep of the ranch. They didn't have any leads into what Burwick had planned and every morning when he woke to find that nothing had happened, he heaved a sigh of relief. But there was no way for them to know when Burwick would strike, so he continued his nightly watch and tried to head off the trouble that was bound to come their way.
When Dodge realized the phone rang from a call and not from his alarm, he sat up and reached for his cell. "Yeah?" He answered sleepily and didn't bother to check the id.
"Dodge, its Tommy. I just got a call from Kimberly. She thinks tonight's the night."
"How does she know?" Dodge dragged on his jeans and shirt.
"He's hauled her to some fundraiser in Denver and she thinks he's using the public appearance as a cover. Give him a room full of alibis."
"Shit." Dodge threw on his hat and jacket before heading out into the blustery night. Another round of storms assaulted him as he ran to the truck. "It's raining like hellfire out here, Tommy. I don't know if I'd see anything even if I knew what I was looking for."
"Do you want me to come over?"
Dodge tried to think as he maneuvered carefully along the muddy roads. "No, no, I'm so jacked up and with the weather I'd probably shoot you by mistake." The truck swerved sharply when the tire hit a deep rut. The phone dislodged from his hand. Dodge picked it up quickly and shouted, "I'll call you back if I find anything. Let me know if you hear from Kimberly again."
He needed to call Sarah. He stole a quick glance at the dashboard clock. She'd probably gone to bed, but he had to warn her to keep a vigilant watch around the cabin.
"Hello?" She answered on the second ring, sounding groggy. "Dodge, what's wrong?"
"Tommy heard from his cousin. She thinks tonight's the night. I'm out in this mess looking for anything suspicious. I need you to check on the boys, make sure you're locked up tight. Keep your eyes peeled for anything unusual."
"What...what does she think is going to happen?"
"She didn't say, but I don't want you to worry. Just check on things there and sit tight. When I've made a thorough sweep, I'll be by the cabin. I'm keeping watch near your place tonight. I'll have Miguel watch the front entrance."
"Dodge." Sarah sounded panicked. "If you see anything, anything at all, call the police. Please don't try to handle this yourself. I'm begging you."
Dodge frowned at the fear he heard in her voice. "I won't do anything stupid. Just lock yourselves in and stay put. Promise me, Sarah."
"I promise. Please," she begged. "Be careful."
Sarah's fear felt like a living, breathing thing. She'd lived for days with the fear of what Benji might do, but her fear for Dodge and his safety felt fathoms worse. She ran from window to window searching the rain clogged night for any sign of his headlights, any sign he hadn't run head-first into danger.
Guilt lay as heavy on her mind as fear. Dodge was out there, defending her land and her family, knowing the danger had nothing to do with him. She wanted to run out into the night and fight the battle with him instead of holing up in the safety of the cabin like a princess waiting to be rescued. But she'd learned her lesson the last time. She knew an impulsive move on her part could put her in harms way or worse, jeopardize Dodge and put him in more danger.
"Mom, what are you doing?" It was Lyle, still half asleep as he wandered out from the bathroom.
Sarah whipped around. "Nothing." She tried to be casual, moved from the window and began folding the afghan he'd left on the floor when he'd finally drifted off to bed.
Lyle yawned, shook the sleep from his face. "I heard the phone and then you, moving around like your butt's on fire. What gives?"
Sarah sighed, gripped the afghan in her arms. "I'm looking out the windows for Dodge." When Lyle's head cocked in confusion she dropped the blanket on the couch. "He's looking for someone who might try to cause trouble again. I'm looking for his truck."
"Like when the wires got cut?"
"Yes." Sarah moved to the side window, lifted the corner of the wood blind in search of him again. "Just go back to sleep, honey." She watched the window fog against her breath, felt Lyle beside her. She turned to catch the worry in his eyes as they scanned the dark, rain soaked night.
"What's he going to do if he finds someone?"
"I don't know. Call the police, I guess." Sarah hoped she was right, but knew the police would be an afterthought for Dodge.
Lyle grabbed her hand, squeezed hard. Her throat tightened in response. He was still the peace keeper, still able to gauge her moods and temper them with a look or a touch. A gift from his father. "He'll be ok, Mom. Dodge isn't going to let anything happen to us."
"I'm worried about him." She said it quickly, too quickly to think what the statement might reveal. She didn't want to have to explain their relationship to Lyle. "He's alone and in this weather..."
"He's been staying with Miguel because he figured there'd be more trouble. He can handle it."
They both jumped when Kevin cleared his throat. "Why is everybody up making so much noise?"
Sarah straightened, looked at her boys. "Dodge thinks there may be trouble tonight. He's out looking and I'm--"
"What kind of trouble? What's he looking for?" Kevin moved into the kitchen to stare out the window.
"He's not sure, maybe nothing." Sarah moved between her sons, touched their arms. "Why don't you two go back to bed? I'm sure it's nothing. There's no sense in you two staying up all night."
"No," they both said together.
"Mom." Kevin's voice caught reminding her of the boy he'd been and the man he was becoming. "Whoever's out there could be coming after us. I should be out there protecting us."
"What? No, absolutely not. Dodge is out there and he specifically asked us to stay put. No one leaves this house, do you understand me?"
A spasm of irritation crossed Kevin's face and his hands fisted at his sides. How many times since Todd's death had she asked him to do something responsible because he was the man of the house? She should've known those words would come back to haunt her.
They all turned to the window when Lyle announced someone had pulled up.
"Stay here," Sarah said and then ran down the steps to the garage. She waited by the closed door for a signal from him. She'd just begun to dial his cell number when she heard his voice above the pounding on the door. She undid the deadbolt and pulled his soaking wet body inside. She lunged into his arms. "Thank God. Are you ok?"
Sarah felt Dodge ease her back when Lyle and Kevin reached the bottom of the staircase. "You guys okay?"
They both nodded. Kevin stepped forward. "What'd you find?"
"Nothing in this mess. I've got Miguel in his truck by the front entrance. I just wanted to check on you before I take position between here and the back road."
"What can we do?" Kevin asked.
"Stay put and call me if you see or hear anything unusual. You should try to do shifts so you're not all up at once."
Sarah felt relieved Dodge didn't shut Kevin down or treat him like a kid.
"I'll keep a lookout," Kevin said. "Don't worry about things here."
Sarah clung to Dodge's cold hands. "Can I make you some coffee or some food?"
"A soda with caffeine would be fastest. I don't want to be in here too long, but I needed to be sure you were okay." He lifted a hand to her face and ran his thumb under her eye. Sarah saw Kevin nudge Lyle back up the stairs. "Don't worry. I won't let anything happen to you or the boys. You have my word."
She wrapped her arms around his waist, under his jacket and pressed her face to his damp shirt. She wanted to burrow in and not let him go back outside. "You'll call the police if you see anything, right? Don't try to play the hero, Dodge."
He pulled back as she heard footsteps behind her. "Come back to me," she whispered after Lyle brought him a coke and went back upstairs.
He squeezed her hand, their fingers drifting away as he moved to open the door. "Lock this door and call me if you see anything."
Lyle waited as long as he could, the nervous energy from the danger and the tingling along his spine from something he couldn't name tightened his insides into a fist. If he'd been forced to name his feelings, he'd have to call them confused. What the hell was going on between his mom and Dodge? And was he the only one who thought it was weird they were holding each other like...like his parents used to? It was all but killing him, the waiting to get Kevin alone and ask him questions.
"Hey, can I talk to you a minute?" Lyle found Kevin poised near the side window in his room.
"What is it?" Kevin didn't look away from the stormy night. His head turned when Lyle clicked the door closed. "Where's mom?"
Lyle sat on the bed nearest the window facing the river. "She's in the kitchen making coffee." He absently linked his finger through a wayward string that'd come loose from the patchwork comforter. "Did you see the way mom was with Dodge? The way she was hugging him?" When Kevin didn't turn, only raised a shoulder and continued to scan what little he could see through the rain Lyle pressed on. "Don't you think that was weird, her being so touchy with him?"
Kevin sighed, sounded annoyed. "They've got a thing going. Don't tell me you hadn't noticed."
Lyle felt his jaw drop and quickly pulled his lips together when Kevin turned. Lyle saw his superior smirk. "When...what do you mean a thing?"
"Sleeping together, I'd imagine." Kevin hitched his shoulder again, nudged his brother to the window he'd abandoned and took Lyle's place at the other. "I'm not sure." Lyle stared at Kevin. "You're not going to see anything if you don't look out the window."
"Mom is having sex with Dodge and you didn't tell me?"
"Since you closed the door, I'm going to have to assume you don't want mom to know what we're talking about. If that's the case, you'd better keep your voice down. Or you can always just ask her yourself."
Lyle turned from the window and stared at his brother. How could he be so nonchalant about their mom having sex with another man? "How do you know? I never saw this coming."
Kevin turned to face Lyle. "If you'll keep your eyes out the window I'll tell you." Lyle hated when his brother ordered him around, but he wanted information more than he wanted to fight. When he obeyed, Kevin told him about what he'd seen in the barn and what his mom had said afterward.
"And you're okay with this, with her dating him?"
"I don't see as we have much choice," Kevin said as he readjusted his position on the bed. "Mom's young, Lyle. I'm sure she doesn't want to spend the rest of her life alone. Besides, I like him. I didn't want to, especially after I found out about him and mom, but... He doesn't treat us like kids. He works hard and he isn't exactly nosing around here all the time like you'd expect." He turned to look at Lyle. "And she looks happy again. Have you noticed, in the last few days, how happy she seems?"
Lyle felt sick. He didn't want his mom dating anyone. He'd never even considered the idea. Now that it had happened, he wanted to bury his head in the dirt and pretend it was all just a bad dream. But he did want his mom to be happy. How could he not? "I don't know," is all he could say. "I'm going to lie down."
He left Kevin's room and went into his own, threw himself on his bed and stared at the ceiling. When his eyes drifted over to the picture on his nightstand he picked it up. The four of them--his parents, him and Kevin--on a ski trip the winter before his dad died. They all looked so happy to be together. His dad stood behind them and held them in a protective hug, a smattering of snow caked into his goggles from an earlier fall. Lyle loved the picture because it reminded him of what his dad had been, the protector of the family, the one who held them all together.
Now there was another man sitting alone in a truck on their property in the driving rain, putting himself between Lyle's family and a threat. He didn't know how to feel about it. Grateful, yes, but Dodge was also protecting his cows and his equipment. He thought of the way Dodge held his mother, the relief in his eyes when he'd seen they were all safe. He didn't act like he only cared about himself and his stuff. He cared about them, all of them. And Kevin was right, his mom had seemed happy. She was writing again, cheerfully clicking away on her computer every day, humming along to her chores. She was hopeful. As much as he hated the cold hard truth, his dad wasn't ever coming back.
The ground was a soupy mixture of churned earth and standing water. The sucking sound Sarah's boots made as she walked in the dawn light reminded her of the rhythmic licking of an animal grooming itself. The clear sky clear had turned a brilliant orange as the sun made its daily pilgrimage to its perch above the mountains. The fresh air filled her lungs and the chill of morning worked as well as a shower to lift the fog from her tired brain.
She shifted the thermos of coffee between her hands as her eyes searched the landscape for Dodge's truck. He'd said he'd be between the cabin and the side entrance to the property. As she made her way through rain clogged pastures, she questioned her decision to walk instead of taking her truck. She was just about to turn back when she came around a stand of old cottonwood trees and spotted the tail end of his bumper near the fence line that divided her property from the road beyond. It was a few feet more before she spotted him, crouched down by the gate, examining something on the ground with the intensity of a crime scene investigator. When he heard her footsteps, he rose.
"I brought you some coffee." Sarah felt a surge of relief at seeing him, although they'd talked on and off through the night. Dodge pulled her to him, clutched her tight against his still damp jacket, held her in an embrace that showed her the relief wasn't one-sided. When he let her down, for he'd pulled her off her feet, she saw how exhausted he looked. There were dark circles under both of his eyes and anger beneath his stare. "What're you looking at down there?" She motioned with the thermos to the spot he'd been eyeing.
"Tire tracks and footprints." His voice sounded scratchy from no sleep. "They're fresh, but filled with water. Best I can figure is some time after midnight but before I got out here around one-thirty." He walked to the gate, bent down to explain his findings. "They're too small to be from a truck, or at least a big one. The footprints are large, most likely a man's. Somebody got out in the rain, walked to the gate and decided not to proceed, at least not through this entrance. You can see where he backed up and turned around there. Probably scrapped the whole thing with the rain what it was." He stood, his knees cracked as he did, and took off his hat. He ran his hand through his hair before putting his hat back on. "Damn it, I wish I knew what he was planning."
"Has Miguel checked the front entrance for tracks and footprints?"
"No, I sent him in for some shut eye. One of us needs to be able to function today." He looked up at the sky as two geese honked overhead. "I was just going to check the perimeter on my way to the front."
"You need some shut eye, too." Sarah walked with him to the truck. "Mind if I come with you? The boys are finally asleep and I'm keyed up on coffee."
"How are they doing?" Dodge started the engine and began a slow trek along the fence line. The truck bounced slowly along the grooved pasture.
Sarah thought of her sons and their long, strange night together. "Kevin seemed almost excited by the danger. I swear he never took his eyes off the window." She braced herself between the seat and the door as the truck pitched in a deep rut. "Lyle was really quiet all night. It's not like him to hole up like he did. I'm not sure what he thinks or how he's handling this. I'm going to let him sleep and then try to talk to him."
"And you?" Dodge asked.
"I'm worried, and like you I wish I knew what to look for, what to expect." She pulled the visor down as the truck turned directly into the path of the sun. "I think I'm going to call Todd's parents and send the boys there for a visit." Dodge looked at her but said nothing. "Kevin's not going to like it, maybe not even Lyle, but I don't want them in danger. If anything happened to them..."
"I think that's the best thing for everyone. Whoever was out here last night's not through. I want them safe." He glanced out the side window and then back at her face. "I think you ought to go too."
"What?" Sarah sat up in her seat. "No. I need to be here."
"No, you don't. It'll be a hell of a lot easier for me to concentrate on protecting this place without worrying about you. I want you safe, too."
"That's ridiculous. Benji's doing this to make me sell. If I'm not here, who's to say he wouldn't just wait until I got back?"
"Because he's out of time. He can do damage to the property whether you're here or not. I'd prefer you not be here."
"I don't give a damn what you'd prefer. I'm staying."
"Damn it, Sarah. I can't guarantee your safety if you stay."
"Guarantee my safety?" She turned in the seat to face him and he stopped the truck. "My safety's not your responsibility. We've already established that we're not in a relationship."
"Do you honestly think I'd leave you to deal with this on your own?" He gripped the wheel tight between his fists before sighing and letting his hands fall to his lap. "Besides, he's seriously fucking with my livelihood."
"Exactly, and as the landowner, you should be pissed I'm not able to guarantee the safety of your cattle and equipment."
"I am pissed, but not at you. We know he's planning something but we don't know what. We know it'll be soon, but we don't know when. And there are two of us, me and Miguel, to protect 1200 acres. We can't go to the police with hearsay and innuendo and I'm not sure who we can trust to help. So yeah, I'm pissed. And I want you as far away from this as I can get you."
"I'm as upset about this as you are, but I'm not leaving. I'm getting the boys out of here, today if possible, and then we're facing this together. You can't talk me out of it."
"Sarah, you could get hurt if you stay, or worse. Your kids have already lost a father. They can't lose you, too."
"Okay," Sarah admitted. "You're scaring me, which I suppose is what you're trying to do. But you're not thinking this through." She took a breath, paused until he looked at her. "Benji won't hurt me. The boys...maybe, and that's why they have to leave. But me, no way."
"You sound awfully sure of yourself."
"I am. Benji's not stupid." She laughed when Dodge raised his brows. "He's an imbecile, yes, but he's not going to kill me because, think about it. If something happens to me, what happens to the ranch? It goes to the boys, who are minors. The estate would be handled by their legal guardian. And even if Jenny wanted to sell this place, she wouldn't be able to do it for months, maybe longer assuming there's no problem with probate. He'd never risk that kind of delay."
"That's still not a good enough reason to leave you dangling in front of him like a carrot."
"Dodge." She reached over to brush her fingers on his arm. "You don't get it. The one dangling like a carrot is you. There's nothing stopping him from hurting you. He hates you. Kimberly's already confirmed you're a thorn in his side." She let her fingers fall and braced for another bounce when he started the truck along the fence line. "I'll do whatever I can to keep you safe, and if that means sticking to you like glue, I will."
They sat in silence as he angled the truck toward the front pasture. "As soon as I check around the front entrance, I'm taking you home. You've got some calls to make and some explaining to do to Kevin and Lyle."
A faint smile formed on her lips. It was a small victory. He'd conceded he needed her and it felt good. But when she glanced at his profile, his jaw twitched with the gnashing of his teeth.
Dodge caught her looking. "I hope like hell you're still smiling when this is all over."
Everywhere Sarah glanced on the return trip from Denver, cows and horses grazed and aspen and spruce trees danced in the wind. Around every turn the view seemed more beautiful than the last. Thank God she and Todd had found the valley and river property before they'd ever made this drive. How could they have chosen just one place amongst such beauty? Slowly, with each mile toward home, she felt the tension of putting her kids on a plane by themselves seep out of her like a slow leak from a tire.
The drive up had been a different story. Kevin sat silently fuming. He felt displaced by Dodge, despite her telling him it was at her insistence they leave. Lyle seemed confused and still so quiet and unsure. She needed to talk to him, ease him out from behind this weird wall he'd put up, but there hadn't been time.
Sarah had spent a fortune on the last minute tickets to Charlotte where Todd's parents would meet them at the airport. Normally the kids would be thrilled with a visit back east to the expansive lake front home of the Woodwards. Their grandparents would let them lounge on the two story dock eating junk food when they took a break from the countless hours they'd spend on the water.
But this trip wasn't a vacation, but a forced exile. Neither boy was happy to go. Sarah could only hope they'd be able to relax and forget about the battle going on back at the ranch. The voice from the driver's seat startled her out of her thoughts.
"Why don't you lean that seat back and close your eyes for a little while?" Mary Beth McAlister spoke over the low hum of the radio. Sarah could only see a resemblance in the eyes, the slightly downward tilt of her eyes were the same as her brother. Mary Beth was seven years older than Dodge, a little wide in the middle, and much fairer skinned than her perpetually tanned brother.
Mary Beth had volunteered to leave her teenaged kids for the afternoon and shut down her at-home bookkeeping business for the day to escort Sarah and the boys on their drive to Denver. It had been Dodge's idea, of course, for someone to accompany them after what little sleep Sarah had had the night before. As Sarah's eyes drooped with fatigue, she knew Dodge had been right. The only problem was that Mary Beth wasn't someone she and the boys felt comfortable talking in front of. The whole ride to the airport, the tension between Sarah and her sons all but crackled in the air. Every few miles Mary Beth would make comments about the scenery or throw out some tidbit of history, but her presence just kept the hostility between them bottled up, sure to explode at another more private time.
"Um," Sarah cleared her throat. "I can't sleep in the car. Never could."
"Isn't it funny how that works for some people and doesn't for others?" She tapped her fingers on the wheel to the beat of a soft rock tune. "I can sleep like a baby. So can A.J. Sometimes, when he was a baby, Mama would strap him in tight to Daddy's truck and ride him around the property until he fell asleep. Only way he'd be still was when he was asleep."
A.J. It was odd to hear someone call Dodge anything other than his last name. But wasn't it odder still that she was sleeping with a man she referred to only by his last name? He wasn't her teammate, for Christ's sake, he was her lover. "What does A.J. stand for?"
Mary Beth smiled and let her eyes skim Sarah again like she'd done when Dodge had introduced them outside the feed store where her husband Shelton worked. "Andrew Jackson." Sarah heard pride in her voice. Whatever his sister had thought about Dodge when Wendy Hawkins made her big announcement, she sure thought the world of him now. "You two are sweet on each other."
It was more a statement than question. Sarah didn't know if she needed to answer, so she decided to ask a question of her own. "Anybody ever call him Andy?"
"My mother called him Andy, or more like, 'my little Andy.' No matter what he did, or didn't do, mama would go through the house saying, 'Who made my little Andy cry?' or they'd play peek-a-boo and she'd call out, 'Now where's my little Andy?' Mary Beth shook her head at the memory. "She loved having a boy. She was so happy to have him. I wonder if he remembers how much she loved him."
"It's a mother-son thing." Sarah said. "There's nothing quite like it. Of course, I don't have girls, so I guess I'm not the best judge."
"No, you're right. I've got both and the boys, well, they're only ours for a short time. Once a woman gets a hold of them they're gone. Girls," she shrugged. "They're with you forever."
The thought of her boys only being with her for a short time caused Sarah's eyes to close and little pictures of them throughout the years to swirl around her head like photos in the wind. When she opened her eyes again, they were pulling into the parking lot of Shelton's feed store.
"We're here," Mary Beth announced quietly as Sarah sat up in her seat and rubbed her hands over her face.
"I guess I dozed off there for awhile." She yawned. "Sorry."
"Don't be. You needed the sleep." Mary Beth pulled the truck to a stop and looked over at Sarah. "You awake enough to drive Dodge's truck back to the ranch?"
"Don't you need a ride home?"
"I can catch a ride with Shelton. It's quitting time."
Sarah started back to the ranch just as the sun began its journey behind the Mountains. She hoped Dodge had taken the time to get some sleep. While she'd slept, her dreams were of the boys, images of them at all ages, obscure thoughts of them as adults. But now, in the quiet of the dying day, her thoughts wandered to the man waiting at home.
She'd spent the whole day with his sister and was left with more questions than answers. Her image of him kept changing, shifting like sand in a bottle. The young son beloved by his mother, raised by a quiet father and a house full of sisters. They'd all let him down, but were there for him now. She wondered what he was like as a boy and growing up as a teenager. She wondered what his ex-wife was like, and why thinking of him married to someone made her feel curiously nettled.
And through it all was the need for him, so unmistakably a part of her now. The more he brought her into his life, showed sides of himself she hadn't seen before, the more she wanted to know. He intrigued her, challenged her and excited her in a way she hadn't thought possible after Todd. And yet it all felt so new and different.
They hadn't spoken all day. Cell coverage through the mountains was spotty at best and Sarah was anxious to learn if there'd been any discoveries made, either at the ranch or through contact with Kimberly. They needed to formulate a plan for the coming night. Her eyes searched the barn and house for Dodge or Miguel. Seeing no one, she preceded to the cabin.
After a quick shower, she heated up a bowl of canned soup and had reached for the phone when she heard the sound of an approaching vehicle. A quick glance out the side window confirmed it was Dodge. She made her way to the door to meet him. He looked tired. He'd obviously showered and caught maybe a small nap, but his gait was slower than normal and his eyes looked heavy.
"God, I love that robe." He flashed a grin she felt all the way to her toes and planted a loud kiss on her lips. "Did the boys get off okay?"
Sarah closed the door behind him and followed him inside the cabin. "Yes. What's in the bag?" She moved to the bar where he'd placed a brown paper sack.
"Night vision goggles," he answered while rifling through the refrigerator. "What's that smell?"
"Night vision goggles?"
"No, the food smell. I'm starved."
Sarah moved into the kitchen, nudged Dodge away from the microwave and placed the steaming bowl on the counter. "Chicken noodle. You can have it, I have more. I'll even make you a sandwich to go with it if you explain about the goggles."
"You sure?"
"Eat and explain."
Dodge sat at the bar, slurping the hot soup while he talked. "A high school buddy's ex-military. Why he still has these, I don't know. But I'm glad he did. They should make things a lot easier tonight."
Sarah placed thick slices of ham and roast beef on bread she'd spread with mayonnaise. "What's the plan for tonight?"
He dropped the spoon heavily in the empty bowl and reached for the plate Sarah handed him. "The plan, right now, is for you to let me have a look at what you've got on under that robe."
Sarah laughed. "Well, you're mood has certainly improved since I left this morning."
His mood had improved. He looked longingly at the woman who had a lot to do with his moods. After she'd left with Mary Beth, his head felt full of doubts about introducing her to his sister and opening another door of his life. He wasn't all together sure how he felt about his family and it seemed to muddy the water a bit to push Sarah into the mix. But there'd been no other choice.
Once the weirdness of the situation had passed, he felt damn grateful his sister was willing to drop everything and escort Sarah to Denver for the day, especially considering he'd been unwilling to define their relationship. He'd chosen to ignore the bond of family life during the years he was gone. Who else would drop everything when you needed them? Family. It felt good to know that after everything that had happened in the past they were there for him now.
When he thought about what Sarah had said earlier, that Burwick was too smart to do something to harm her, he knew she was right. And when her safety was no longer on the front burner of his concern, a giant weight lifted off his shoulders. Property, he could defend without emotions getting in the way. Sarah, no way. Now that Kevin and Lyle were safely tucked away across the country, defending the property seemed more like a boy scouts adventure than anything. Wouldn't it be just desserts to catch Burwick's henchman red-handed and watch the mighty senator fall?
"You could say that." He waived her over from around the bar. He loved to watch her move, watch the gleam in her eye when she realized the power she held over him, watch her enjoy the dance of seduction. She wore every emotion on her face, and right now her face showed desire, plain and simple. Dodge braced his hands on her hips and pulled her between his legs, let his hands wander her backside. "Ummm, nothing under here that I can tell. Only one way to be sure."
Dodge let the thin fabric drift down her shoulders. He fisted the thin material and used it to hold her in place while his eyes feasted on the wonder of her body. She was narrow from shoulder to hip to toe. He gazed at the fluttering pulse in her neck, the slow rise of her chest and the slim tapering of her waist. Her skin shimmered in the afternoon light. She was his for the taking. He itched to touch her, taste her, take her, but first he needed to see her and try to figure out why she'd led him to break every rule he'd ever made about getting involved with a woman. When he lifted his eyes to hers he saw her need and a flash of caution in her deep emerald pools. He moved to take her mouth with his own.
It was the first time he'd sought her out, drawn her toward the heat that bound them together. Sarah felt her stomach quiver as his fingertips brushed her skin, taunting her with his slow deliberate movements. He pulled the robe apart bit by bit. She watched approvingly as his lids dropped to half mast as he stared, felt the tight pull and loose give of her body under his scrutiny. Gone was her apprehension about being exposed to him, her questions about his past and their future. Her mind snapped shut like a vault.
"A.J." Sarah whispered his name, let her eyes flicker closed. Her robe fell at her feet and when she expected to feel him move into her she felt nothing but air. She opened her eyes.
"What did you just say?" They were centimeters apart and yet she felt him step back from her as if he'd moved physically.
"I said your name."
"Hummm." He straightened, added real distance.
"The man at the hardware store calls you Dodge. Tommy and Miguel call you Dodge. My sons call you Dodge."
"It doesn't feel right coming from you."
She picked up his hand and guided his fingers to her breast. "Touch me, A.J."
He stared in stony silence, his mouth set in a stubborn line, but his hands began to knead. She arched into his palm, and let out a shallow moan when he pinched. She moved into him and nipped his bottom lip with her teeth. "Kiss me, A.J."
"Sarah..." His voice was tight with aggravation.
She forced his hand down with both of hers, felt her need lick his fingers as she moved into it. "Make love to me, A.J."
"No one but family calls me A.J. Why are you doing this?"
She shuddered when his hand began a rhythm of its own. "I want to be someone different, someone special."
He reached for her hands as they tugged at his zipper, held them together between his, and stared intently into her eyes. "You are different. You are special."
She pulled hands free and clasped them around his neck. "Only in private, just between us." And when he scowled, she said, "I'm not your high school football coach, Andrew Jackson. Let me in, A.J. Please?"
He sighed. Irritation simmered just beneath the lust. "There's a price to pay, Sarah. A big one."
"Name it."
"You. Wherever I want, whenever I want."
"How about right here, right now?" She lifted his shirt over his head, felt the tickle of his chest hair against her skin and let out a gasp when he lifted her onto the counter and plunged. He was rough and insistent, her price for getting too close. She knew she'd spooked him. She relished his loss of control and the urgency of their joining. He couldn't command her with words so he'd punish her with his body. But his punishment was the sweetest torture she'd ever known. She came without warning, a violent twisting pinpoint of pleasure, a monumental ascent and a leisurely slide back to earth. And still he plundered. When she opened her eyes and found him staring at her, his eyes almost black, she understood what she'd cost him. She reached her hands up to stroke his face. He let himself go.
He pulled up, braced his weight on his elbows and studied her face. "Do you always get what you want?"
"No." Far from it. And she couldn't remember wanting anyone quite this much.
The black Towncar sped down the two-lane highway like a bullet, slowing only to pass the occasional tractor that meandered onto the road. With every passing mile, Benji's agitation grew and he feared Kimberly had noticed. She kept watching him with curious eyes as be blotted his sweat-soaked brow and methodically checked the time on his watch. Evening was fast approaching, swaddling the horizon in the golden fingers of dusk. The sky had opened up the night before, and rainwater choked the usually dry ditches. Even the sage brush acres of barren land held the freshly washed sheen of a shower.
He'd pinned all his hopes on last night being the end. He was supposed be able to relax today with Saxton off his back and guilt off his conscience. The rain had ruined everything. With a clear forecast the plans were back on for that night. The only thing that had changed was his alibi; he and his staff would be on a late night flight back D.C. He only hoped the cramped interior of the plane didn't suck the air from his chest like the backseat of his car did now.
"Senator, is everything ok?" Kimberly asked from beside him, her brow furrowed in concern.
"Yes, yes, I'm fine. Just organizing my thoughts for the meeting." He reached for his leather bound notebook with hands that were far from steady.
Kimberly turned her head to the window to hide her amusement at the sight of Benji wound tighter than drum. She'd talked to Tommy earlier and told him of their plans for the day and night. They both assumed things would proceed later that evening. Despite her worry, she couldn't help enjoy watching Benji struggle with the fear that he'd get caught. She hoped deep down in the pit of her stomach that a little part of his nervousness came from guilt, but after nearly eighteen months of daily contact, she couldn't be sure.
She knew Benji had planned something bad. She'd watched him excuse himself from one meeting after another with his cell phone clutched tightly in his fist. She'd never seen him so jittery. She'd even gone so far as to call her brother Roger to ask him if he'd heard anybody bragging about doing some work for the senator. He hadn't heard a thing. All she could do was wait like the rest of them and hope to be around to watch Benji implode.
Her job was over, as far as she was concerned. She couldn't work for a man who'd endanger a woman and her children for the almighty dollar. If she seemed a little joyful in watching him sweat it out the last few hours before his demise, well, so be it.
Dodge positioned his truck near the back entrance, tucked safely out of sight between some trees and a few carefully placed hay bales. The night vision goggles afforded him a hell of a lot better scope than the night before. Miguel had staked out the front, hiding inside the enclosed tractor between the barn and the caretaker's house. He had a bird's eye view of the main gate. Two of Miguel's cousins were stationed along a stretch of fence Dodge determined the most likely spot for someone to try and slip through undetected. Apparently the two needed money more than sleep. Dodge hoped the showdown happened soon before he lost any more money paying his help to stay up all night.
He'd insisted Sarah stay behind in the cabin and for once she'd listened, but not without arguing and pouting. He reminded her that the only reason he'd let her stay in town was because she'd convinced him she wasn't the target. She'd reminded him that he hadn't let her do anything and then tried to talk him out of being in the field alone. He'd held firm.
The thought of their argument brought a smile to his lips. Fighting with her was almost as much fun as making love to her. Almost. The woman was a firecracker, and a tricky one at that. She'd talked him up one side and down the other, pacing and flailing her arms like a teacher in a lecture hall. She was like a tornado once she got started. With all her energy focused on an issue, no wonder she got what she wanted most of the time. Many people, he suspected, weren't strong enough to stand up to that kind of intimidation.
Just past three a.m. when he'd tucked himself next to a tree trunk to relieve his aching bladder, he heard the slow crunch of gravel under tires. He reached for his gun and strapped the goggles to his face. Burrowed deep in the high grass, he caught his first glimpse of a car approaching with its lights off. With gun in hand, he tried to control his quickening breath.
The car stopped close to the gate. A man in a hooded jacket got out of the car, but kept the engine running. With deliberate movements, he opened the back door of the vehicle, extricated large wire cutters, and made easy work of the chain that held the gate in place. After tossing the cutters in the backseat, he closed the door without a sound. Dodge noted with disgust and an increasing sense of unease that the man's gloves would make it impossible to trace his fingerprints.
The whole operation reeked of a professional job and quickly dispelled Dodge's hope that an ill-prepared local would stumble into their trap. He needed to warn Miguel and the others, but couldn't risk using the phone. He stayed put and watched the car creep slowly along the road, a sliver of moon to guide the way. When the car was safely around the bend and heading toward the barn, Dodge moved to his truck and reached for the phone.
"Miguel? There's a car coming your way from the west pasture. Stay put. I'm coming in from behind about a hundred yards back." He only hoped Miguel understood as he didn't have time for questions or to repeat himself.
Dodge left his truck and took off on foot. He ran from hay bale to hay bale, grateful he'd left some in the field to use as cover. The car moved slowly and kept along a straight path when the road forked off toward the adjoining pasture. He was going for the barn, leaving Miguel in the line of fire. Dodge moved quickly as he knew Miguel wouldn't budge until Dodge had instructed him.
Dodge thought about the plan he'd formulated in his head. Once someone came onto the property he could have them arrested for trespassing. But trespassing was a minor charge and he knew whoever Benji had hired had more than simple trespassing in mind. He and Miguel had set out a plan to intercede only if things took a different turn. They wanted to catch the perpetrator at something more than a misdemeanor as it increased the chance for them of implicating Burwick.
But now that Miguel waited like a sitting duck, he questioned the plan from beginning to end. He clutched his phone, his hand gun tucked into the back of his jeans, and zigzagged his way across the field toward the barns. He made up his mind to call the police as soon as he had an idea of what was going on. At least Sarah was safely stowed away at the cabin.
The car pulled behind the empty corral and stopped. Dodge heard a squeak of the breaks but noticed the tail lights hadn't illuminated. It only added to his dread. He stopped behind an old tiller and pulled the gun from his waistband. The man got out of the car and opened the trunk where he seemed to assemble something. Dodge reached for his phone to tell Miguel to double back around the barns and wait by the side entrance, but before he could dial he saw the man lift two large gas tanks from the trunk of the car. Shit. Time to call the police.
"911 operator. Please state the nature of your emergency."
"Cheryl, its A.J. Dodge. I've got a potential arson about to be committed at the Woodward Place on the Seven North. I need you to send someone now," he whispered.
He disconnected before Cheryl could ask any questions and dialed Miguel, told him to get out of the tractor and move toward the house. Dodge placed the phone in his pocket and considered his options.
The sheriff's office was ten minutes away and it would take at least that long for the fire trucks to arrive. In ten minutes the whole barn could be nothing but ashes, not to mention the tens of thousands of dollars worth of equipment housed inside. He watched the man tuck a large flashlight into the waist of his pants and carry one of the large gas cans around the building. Dodge recognized the butt of a gun poking out of the man's belt.
Damn it. Dodge moved around the tiller, crept along until he could peer into the trunk of the car. There was a large rifle case, unopened and pushed into the far back. He saw two more gas cans, along with some lighter fluid and a box of new work rags. No doubt about it, the guy planned to torch the barn. If Dodge hadn't been so averse to using the gun in his hands, he would have shot him first and asked questions later. But he certainly didn't want killing a man on his conscience, so he needed another plan.
He ran back toward the tiller near a pile of old debris he'd started cleaning off the property. He found a scrap piece of metal sturdy and sharp enough to pierce through rubber. He slashed four quick gashes in the tires of the car, made sure he heard the whiz of air leaking out, and positioned himself along the side of the barn where he could inch toward the door and peer inside. Except for the beam from the flashlight, the barn was black as night. The man made quick use of the first can of gas. Dodge watched as he flipped it to the ground before turning to retrieve the other can he'd left by the car. Dodge lunged behind the open barn door and waited until the man was around the back of the barn before he let himself breathe.
Now what? The guy would catch him when he came back with the other can. He could escape inside the barn, but that didn't seem like the smartest idea. He needed to catch the guy outside before he set the fire which meant now, right now. Dodge took a deep breath, cocked his gun and inched along the wall like a crime show actor toward the back of the barn. A peek around the corner confirmed the man had noticed the tires as he'd crouched down by the driver's side wheel.
"Put your hands up where I can see them," Dodge said with his gun outstretched. "Nice and slow."
He seemed startled, but not surprised. He'd seen the tires and knew someone had sabotaged the car. He rose slowly but didn't raise his hands, undaunted by Dodge and his Colt revolver.
"I said put your hands up where I can see them. You're trespassing. I have no problem shooting first and asking questions later."
The man considered Dodge for a moment before raising his arms in the air. "You're making a big mistake here, pal."
"The mistake was yours, pal, when you came on the property. Now move to the front of the car." Dodge shifted his weight from foot to foot, eagerly listening for an approaching siren. Dodge never shied away from a fight, but a shoot-out with a professional arsonist didn't sound all that appealing. He felt the squeeze of a tight fist of fear when the man stood his ground and ignored his request. "I said move," he repeated firmly.
"One shot from that gun and this whole place goes up in flames."
Dodge stepped closer, positioned the gun to chest height. "Then you'd better listen."
Dodge heard footsteps behind him. He turned his head to see who'd approached and in the instant he saw Miguel knew he'd made a fatal mistake. The arsonist whipped the gun from his belt and aimed at Dodge. With no time to think and barely time to aim, Dodge let loose a quick shot and caught the stranger in the shoulder, flinging him back onto the car. Before Dodge could take a step to follow the stranger around the back of the car, a blast of sound and light pierced the night sky. Dodge went flying back, propelled by the force of the exploding car.
Sarah sat up with a start, clutched the phone and fingered the handle of the baseball bat laying across her lap. She'd fallen asleep on the couch and was momentarily disoriented. When reality slapped her in the face, she lunged for the kitchen window, pulled back the blinds and stared in shock at the fireball burning near the barn.
"Oh, my God." She quickly dialed Dodge's cell but only heard his message. He'd told her to stay put no matter what happened until he called but... He wasn't answering his phone and there'd been an explosion. She couldn't stay holed up in the cabin when he could be hurt or worse. She grabbed the keys to her truck and took off down the stairs, determined to find Dodge.
Sarah arrived at the scene at the same time the sheriff's car came bounding through the front gate. Sirens from the approaching fire engines rang out in the distance. She bolted from the truck and screamed for Dodge, her eyes stinging from the thick smoke.
"Mrs. Woodward? Are you ok?" The sheriff pulled her away from the flames.
"No, I'm fine, but Dodge... Dodge!" She searched fruitlessly through the billowing smoke.
"Was he in the car?" The sheriff shouted over the sirens of the fire truck coming through the gate.
"What?" Sarah didn't know how to respond, what to say. "Dodge!" She couldn't pull free from the sheriff's tight grip.
"You need to move away from here, Mrs. Woodward, please." He dragged her back toward his police cruiser.
"No, I need to--" She spotted two bodies on the ground, seared metal still smoking near their ankles. She tore free and ran, skidding to a stop near where Dodge lay unconscious with blood leaking from a gash on his temple. "Help! Somebody help him, please!"
She gingerly ran her hands over his body. There were cuts on his arms and a large gouge in his jeans with more blood, but she didn't see burns. She placed her trembling fingers to his neck, searched frantically for a pulse. She felt the faint fluttering of a heartbeat, saw the rise and fall of his chest. "Dodge." Fear for him leaked out of every orifice of her body. "Wake up, baby, please wake up."
Two men approached with medical equipment. She scooted back at their command but stayed crouched nearby. One man began working on Dodge while the other attended to Miguel. He'd regained consciousness and was trying to sit up while speaking in rapid-fire Spanish.
The sheriff hovered near Miguel, listening as he talked. She heard Miguel say a man with a gun shot into the car and caused the explosion. Sarah listened but nothing registered in her mind other than Dodge. The fireman working on his limp body used the radio to call for an ambulance.
"Is he going to be okay?"
"I'm doing everything I can. I need you to stay back please, Ma'am."
Sarah moved a step back and turned her head to see the scorched remains of a charred vehicle as it smoldered in the spray of water. The ranch was a bevy of activity; more police cars and fire trucks had arrived unnoticed. The ambulance, its bright lights mimicking a far off lighthouse, became the focus of her attention. She measured time in heartbeats, waiting for Dodge to open his eyes and yell at her for leaving the cabin.
Tommy Thornton raced through the emergency room doors of Westmoreland General, his tired eyes searching for a registration desk or someone to inquire about Dodge. An older woman with wiry gray hair and bright pink lipstick directed him to the waiting area around the corner.
He made the turn and wondered if there'd been any change since he'd last talked to Sarah. She'd called him over an hour ago, sounding like a hollowed-out version of herself. She was on her way to the hospital, following the ambulance that carried Dodge after an unexplained explosion had left him battered and unconscious. She didn't have any details and what she'd passed on had been sketchy at best. She'd asked him to contact Dodge's family, let them know he'd been hurt and was on his way to Westmoreland. She'd barely gotten the last few words out through the tears he could hear in her voice. He only hoped she'd be okay to drive herself there and wondered what idiot had let her take off on her own in the first place.
He cussed himself for not being there for Dodge and Sarah when they all knew trouble was heading there way. Dodge had insisted he stay away from the ranch which boiled down to Dodge's stubborn determination to protect those he cared about to his own detriment.
The antiseptic smell slapped him in the face as he rounded the corner, slowing his gait. His dad had died in this hospital. The smell and the blinding light opened a cavern of his memory he'd thought long buried.
Two nurses spoke in hushed voices at nurses' station, the mauve color of their uniform casting a deathlike pallor on their faces. He turned into the waiting area and saw Sarah. She sat curled in a chair along the wall, her head resting on her up drawn knees. He couldn't tell from the angle of her face if her eyes were open or closed. When he touched her shoulder, her head shot up in panic. When recognition hit, she slumped back against the wall in relief.
"How is he?" Tommy asked and sat down next to her.
She rubbed her eyes and let her feet fall to the floor. "Still unconscious, I assume. They won't give me much information since I'm not family. They've stitched him up and they're waiting on some test results. They won't let me see him." Her lip quivered when she spoke and Tommy didn't know what to do.
"I called Isabel. She'll call the others. Someone will be here soon." He patted her knee. "I'll talk to them, don't worry." He knew she wouldn't feel better until she saw Dodge with her own two eyes. How long had she sat there alone, waiting for any shred of information, unable to see the man who'd so obviously touched her heart? Damn hospital rules.
"So what happened? Do you know anything more?"
Sarah wiped her nose with a tissue. "I don't really know. I was in the cabin. I heard the explosion and found Dodge unconscious. Miguel was okay, a little spooked, but he said a guy tried to torch the barn." She rubbed her temples with her fingers before slapping them down on her jeans. "He'd spread gasoline inside the barn and was about to light it when Dodge pulled his gun. After that I don't know. The medics were working on the bad guy around the back of the car when I left. I'm not sure if he made it." She paused, stood up to pace. "I guess I should call the sheriff." Sarah chuckled. "You know Dodge is going to want to know what's going on when he wakes up."
Tommy watched her face crumble in an instant, like the laughter had cracked her heart wide open.
"I'm sorry," she said abruptly, swiped away her tears. "I don't mean to cry. I hate it when I cry."
Tommy stood up and handed her his phone. He couldn't stand to be alone with a crying woman. "Call the sheriff."
Sheriff Darren Farley looked down at his new leather shoes and cursed. Nothing ever happened around Hailey and then bam, out of nowhere, a dead body, an unconscious local and an attempted arson. Throw in a pair of ruined $80 shoes and he had one hell of a bad night.
The stench of gasoline and the stuff the fire department had poured over it proved a bitch on his sinuses. As bad as the scene looked, they were all damn lucky the car fire hadn't ignited the barn.
Farley rubbed his temples and tried to think. What the hell had happened? Miguel said they'd been on the lookout for someone they expected to cause trouble. Said Dodge had shot him, but in his arm and not enough to kill him. Then Miguel had heard another shot before the car exploded. The only thing for sure was that the stiff couldn't fill in the gaps.
"Sheriff, take a look at this." His deputy held what looked like a charred cell phone. "One of the firemen found it about twenty-five feet beyond the dead guy."
Farley placed a glove on his hand and took it from the deputy. "Looks like it's time for the dead guy to get a new phone." He sighed as he dropped it into an evidence bag. "We'll run it for prints, send it to the crime lab and see if we can get something. Anything else before they bag him?" He pulled his cell from his belt when he felt it vibrating. His deputy shook his head no as he turned away. "Sheriff Farley."
"Sheriff, this is Sarah Woodward. Do you have any information about the fire or the trespasser?"
"I should ask the same of you. You shouldn't have left before I'd cleared you."
"Does that mean you don't know anything, or are you going to hold the information over my head until I answer your questions?"
Farley sighed and rubbed at the throbbing nerve in his neck. "It would be in your best interest to answer my questions, Mrs. Woodward. We don't have much beyond an unidentified body, a burned out car, and attempted arson."
"So you don't know anything," Sarah said. She felt the extra weight added to her already burdened shoulders. "I'll be happy to answer your questions, Sheriff, when Dodge is conscious and I'm sure he's going to be okay. Until then, nothing else matters." She closed the phone, shrugged her shoulders and handed the phone back to Tommy before taking her seat again.
"Sarah Woodward?" A nurse came around the entrance to the waiting room.
She bolted from the chair. "Yes."
"Mr. Dodge is awake. He's asking for you."
Sarah gave Tommy a hopeful smile before following the nurse around the corner and down the hall. When she paused near a closed door, Sarah reached out and touched her arm. "Before I go in, what can you tell me about his condition?"
The nurse looked over the chart. "He's conscious and appears lucid. We've stitched up his head and the gash on his leg. The leg needs to be watched for infection. He had some minor burns on his arms, but nothing bad." She took a deep breath and smiled. "All in all, I'd say he's pretty lucky from how the paramedics described the scene."
Sarah nodded and cautiously pushed the door open. Dodge had four stitches over his brow. His eyes were closed and his bandaged leg, elevated over a pillow, lay under the thin white blanket. Her chest constricted at the sight of him, pale in the light of from halogen bulb. An IV dripped into his arm. She moved to the chair closest the bed, but couldn't sit down.
She stood beside him, watched his chest rise and fall in a steady rhythm and finally eased her hand between the bed and the rail to touch his fingers. They felt cold and she adjusted her arm so that her whole hand covered his. Why didn't they give him warmer blankets, she wondered. She felt his fingers move beneath hers and watched raptly as his eyes opened to slits.
"Hey." His voice sounded groggy. "Are you okay?"
Sarah's breath hitched. "Am I okay?" She squeezed his hand and brushed a patch of hair off his forehead. "Are you okay?"
"I've been better." The corner of his mouth tilted in a feeble attempt at a smile. "What happened?"
"Miguel said some guy tried to torch the barn and that his car exploded."
Dodge closed his eyes, rolling his head from side to side on the pillow. "Someone tried to torch the barn. I shot him." He opened his eyes and looked at her. "I don't remember an explosion. Miguel?"
"He's fine. Apparently you shielded him from the blast." She sat in the chair when she noticed his eyes struggling to look up at her face. "Do you know who he was?"
Dodge tried to clear his throat, motioned for her to retrieve a cup of water from the side table. "No and I didn't recognize his voice." He took a long sip through the straw. "Did the sheriff take him in for questioning?"
"He's dead."
"Damn."
Just when she thought he'd drifted off to sleep, his eyes opened and he grasped her hand. "But you're okay?"
Sarah stood and leaned over the rail so she could move her face to his. "Yes, A.J., I'm fine." She kissed his lips and rubbed the tip of her nose against his. "Get some rest, baby. I'll be right here until they kick me out."
He tried to smile and let his eyes drift closed. A single tear slid from her eye and landed on his thin hospital gown. She watched, transfixed as the spot grew larger and then slowly, slowly disappeared. By the time the tear stain disappeared, Dodge was asleep. She settled into the chair and watched him sleep.
Sheriff Farley nearly fell into his chair in the tiny office of the Hailey Sheriff's department. He reached for the mug on his desk, hoping he'd rinsed it out the day before. "Damn" he said when the congealed goo at the base of the cup stared back at him. He put the mug back on the coaster and gave up the idea of having more coffee.
He'd come in to see if his team had lifted a fingerprint from the cell phone they'd found and to make a call to the hospital for Dodge's status. He'd just reached for the phone when the only woman in the department knocked on the door he'd left ajar. "Sheriff, can I come in?" Her high-pitched octave set his teeth on edge, especially after so little sleep.
Farley waved her in and hoped she'd have brought him coffee like a good female employee should. He leaned back in his chair and scowled when she stood before him holding a single sheet of paper.
"We got two prints off the phone and we're running them through the database now. What we thought was charring on the edges of the phone turned out to be soot. The damn thing rang while we were trying to get prints off."
Farley sat up in his chair. "Did you answer it?"
"No sir, that would have compromised the fingerprints, but we did get the number and a good sized call history."
Farley nodded his head like a damn bobble head doll, but couldn't seem to make it stop. "All right then." He took the list of phone numbers from her hand. "How soon will we know about the prints and the numbers?"
"As soon as we hear, you'll hear." The woman shifted her weight from one foot to the other. "Have you heard about Dodge yet? Is he still unconscious?"
"I was just about to call the hospital." He reached for the phone and began dialing. "If he's conscious, I'll need a ride to the hospital. Tired as I am, I'd fall asleep behind the wheel."
Kimberly sat at her desk in Senator Benjamin Burwick's Washington office frantically searching the internet. She'd wanted to call Tommy that morning to see if anything had happened at the ranch last night, but she'd dropped her cell phone as she'd exited the small aircraft. The phone bounced down five metal steps and suffered a quick and painful death when stepped on by Heratio Martinez, the Senator's press secretary. She didn't dare call from the office, so she searched the internet for hometown news. Finding nothing, she walked to the cappuccino machine in the corner of her office and contemplated calling her mom for information. Connie Weston was as good as the morning paper when it came to the latest news.
She heard the familiar pacing sounds from Benji's office along with a muffled curse. His behavior ratcheted up her apprehension considerably.
Kimberly jumped when the senator opened his door and poked his head into the reception area. "Kimberly? Have you heard from Fred Saxton?"
She nearly gasped at his appearance. He looked like a feral dog that'd gone too long without food. "No, Sir, I haven't." She swiftly moved behind her desk in search of safety. "Senator, is something wrong?"
He was so distracted, standing in the doorway fingering his phone as if a genie could appear if he rubbed hard enough. "Huh? No, no. Listen." He moved into the reception area and started kneading a pencil he'd pulled from the holder she kept on her desk. "I'm expecting a call from Colorado. It'll probably come in on my cell, but if it happens to be routed through the office, let me know. No matter what I'm doing."
"Okay," Kimberly said slowly. "Who will the call be from, Sir, so I'll know when to interrupt you?"
He hesitated a moment before answering. "An old friend."
"Okay, Sir. You've got a meeting with Senator Manning at ten to discuss the appropriations bill and I'll have your notes ready in just a minute."
Benji nodded and closed himself back in the office.
The ringing phone woke Sarah from a fitful sleep. She answered quickly, hoping to not to disturb Dodge. "Hello?" She cleared the sleep from her throat.
"Mrs. Woodward? It's Sheriff Darren Farley."
"Yes, Sheriff." Sarah stood up and stretched her back. "Do you have any information for me?"
"Actually, I was hoping you'd have some information for me. I understand Dodge is conscious. I'm on my way to question him now."
She looked at Dodge as his eyes fluttered open. He still seemed pale, but his gaze was clear and peaked with interest. She didn't want him questioned until he felt stronger. "I don't think now is a good time, Sheriff. He's awfully weak and--"
"Now's fine, Sarah," Dodge said. "Tell him to come on."
"Are you sure?"
Dodge nodded. Sarah gave the sheriff his room number and replaced the phone. "You look exhausted," he said and reached out for her hand. "Why don't you go home and get some rest. I'll have Farley put one of his men at the ranch until this thing's settled."
"I'm not going anywhere." Sarah sat down and threaded her fingers through his. "I'm not letting Farley interrogate you alone." She tried to stifle a yawn. "Besides, the nurse said you might go home this afternoon." When he tried to protest, she held up her hand. "Save your breath. I'm staying."
"When did they move me? The last thing I remember is the emergency room."
"You got some pretty good drugs in your system not long after they brought me back. It took about an hour for them to move you up here. I'm surprised you don't remember. You made a bit of a fuss about the bright lights in the hall."
He shook his head, rubbed his eyes with his fingers. "My head feels like somebody's used it as a soccer ball." He inclined his head to look at her. "I wish you'd go home and get some sleep."
"Can't. I promised your family I'd stay." She thought of them, all six sisters and a few of the brothers-in-law whose kids were old enough to be left alone during the night, and the quiet family patriarch who'd perched himself in the waiting room.
Dodge looked surprised. "My family's been here?"
"Most of the night. When they transferred you to this room and they each got a peek at you I talked them into going home for some sleep. I'm sure you'll have a steady stream of visitors once you're released. I doubt I'll have to cook for a month."
Dodge adjusted the bed to sit upright. "What do you mean you won't have to cook?"
Sarah stiffened at the tone of his question. She'd discussed it with his family and they'd all understood when she insisted he recuperate at her cabin. It made sense. The boys were gone for at least another week and he'd be right there to oversee the business. He wouldn't have to drive to the ranch every day and she'd be there to take care of him. She thought he might object and had planned to break it to him gently. Her lack of sleep made her tongue a lot looser than his brain. "You're staying with me. We all agreed."
"Who all agreed?"
"Your family agreed you staying with me would be best. They all have jobs and families to take care of and I'm at the house all the time."
"You have your own family to take care of."
"Not for another week I don't. By the time the boys get back you'll be good as new, or at least as good as you were before."
"I'm not imposing on you. I'll stay at Dad's. I don't need a damn babysitter."
She was too tired to keep the irritation out of her voice. "I don't intend to baby you. You need to rest, you're on a lot of medicine, and your wound dressing needs to be changed every day. I'm the only one with that kind of time on their hands. End of story."
"Well, with such a warm invitation, how can I refuse?"
She straightened the blanket over his chest. She didn't mind arguing with him, considering a few hours ago she didn't know when or if he'd wake up. She turned at the knock on the door and watched Sheriff Farley enter the room with a baby-faced deputy. Farley had cleaned up from the night before but his eyes were red and he trudged into the room like a man who hadn't had any rest.
"Dodge," he nodded. "Mrs. Woodward." He motioned toward the young man beside him. "This is Deputy Tanner. He was present at the scene last night."
"You'll forgive me if I don't remember seeing you, Paul." Dodge's sarcasm and his familiarity with the young man eased a fraction of Sarah's apprehension.
"You two know each other?" she asked.
Paul smiled and the glare of his clean shaven face made the other men appear worlds older. "I'm the clean-up batter for the Hailey Hornets."
"Our men's softball league," Dodge explained.
"Dodge almost beat my batting average. Almost," he added with a wink.
"This is a minor set back, Tanner. Don't count me out next season."
Sheriff Farley cleared his throat. "I've got some questions for you, Dodge." He glanced at Sarah. "If you'd excuse us, Mrs. Woodward. This shouldn't take long and then I'd like a few minutes with you."
When Sarah stood up to leave, Dodge grabbed her arm. "She can stay, Farley. You can question us both together."
Farley eyed the two of them suspiciously. "I'm not sure that's such a good idea."
"Sheriff?" Sarah said as dread began pooling in her belly. "Are we being questioned in an official capacity? Are we suspects?"
"Mrs. Woodward, we got a dead body with a gun shot wound and an explosion on your property. The victim's cell phone contained some interesting numbers. Right now I'm just trying to connect the dots. Why don't you both start by telling me what the hell happened last night?"
Dodge wished his head didn't hurt so damn much. He needed to protect Tommy's cousin at all costs and couldn't afford to let something slip. If Benji was twisted enough to torch Sarah's barn, there was no telling what he'd do to Kimberly if he thought she'd snitched.
"I caught a guy trying to set fire to the barn and pulled a gun on him before he could finish the job. He pulled a gun from his belt, so I took a shot. The next thing I know I'm in the hospital."
"How did you catch him? It must have been what, three, three-thirty in the morning?"
Dodge closed his fingers over Sarah's hand, alerting her not to speak. "We had a hunch somebody meant to do some harm to the ranch, thought maybe last night was the night. Turns out we were right."
"What tipped you off?" Deputy Tanner stepped forward, his hat in hand.
"Well, I don't know if you'd heard or not but some wires had been cut on the fence line a week or so ago." Dodge shrugged, looked from Farley to Tanner. "Got me to thinking. Then yesterday we found some weird tracks around the back gate of the property, dug into the mud when it'd rained so hard. Nobody at the ranch uses the back gate and the guy at the cabin has no reason to stop."
"So, some cut wires and tire tracks got you and Miguel worked up enough to stage an ambush?" Farley asked.
Sarah had a death grip on Dodge's hand. He pulled it away and patted her wrist. "Ambush is an awfully strong word."
"Since when is it against the law to protect your own property?" Sarah asked.
"It's not against the law, Mrs. Woodward." Deputy Tanner's mild manner made Dodge think he was playing good cop to Farley's bad. "Like Sheriff Farley explained, we're just trying to figure out what happened."
"Did you recognize the guy before you shot him?" Farley asked.
"No, not even his voice. You identify him yet?"
"We're running his dental records through the system. There was a phone, probably stolen, but...our John Doe had some interesting friends." His eyes flickered to Tanner, then back to Sarah. "Either of you know why the guy who torched your place had called and received numerous calls from Senator Ben Burwick?"
Dodge kept his face neutral. Farley had wanted to drop that bomb since he walked in the door. "Seems to me like you should be asking Senator Burwick that question."
"What the hell is going on? From the looks of it, the Senator tried to burn your barn and you two seem to be holding out on me? What gives? And don't bother to lie. I'm too tired to give a damn about propriety. I'll have you both tossed in jail until I get answers."
Sarah looked at Dodge.
"Burwick's in bed with Saxton on the Cooper deal," Dodge said. "He promised him Sarah's land for water rights and he's been trying to scare her into selling ever since. When she wouldn't budge, he upped the ante."
Farley rubbed his temple. "How do you know this? How do you know he's working with Saxton?"
"My friend, Senator Jack Carnes, told me about the connection," Sarah explained.
"Are you telling me that a United States Senator paid someone to torch your barn in order to scare you into selling your property? Got any evidence to back this up?"
Dodge didn't like the condescending tone Farley used with Sarah. "You've got the phone," he said.
"And his assistant can vouch for everything we've told you," Sarah explained.
Guilt nagged through Dodge's pounding head. "She's still with Burwick. Until she's out of his reach, I think it'd be irresponsible to confront Burwick with these allegations. There's no telling what he'd do."
"What do you expect me to do?" Farley's words dripped with sarcasm. "Sit on my hands while you figure out how to get her away from him? And how do we know she'll cooperate?"
Dodge sat up in the bed and adjusted the pillows behind his head. "She's Tommy Thornton's cousin and she's the one who alerted us to his plans. Give us some time to get her away from him before you question him."
Farley snorted.
"The cell phone alone connects them," Dodge said. "Kimberly knows about Saxton. She was present at their meetings."
"How do you plan to get her away from Burwick?"
Dodge ran a finger over the stitches on his forehead. "Tommy could call her brother and ask him to invent a family emergency. Once she's away from Burwick, you can question them separately."
Farley looked at the ceiling, considering.
"The guy's a pansy," Dodge explained. "He'll buckle under interrogation. It's Saxton he's afraid of."
Farley sighed and slowly extricated himself from the chair. "Call Tommy. Get the wheels in motion. I'll give you twenty-four hours to get the cousin away from Burwick or I'm proceeding with the investigation." He nodded toward the door for Tanner to head out. "Keep me in the loop, Dodge. I'll be in touch."
"I don't understand," Kimberly said to her brother. "I just talked to mom last night and she sounded fine. What happened?"
Roger Weston hesitated before starting into the prepared speech he'd practiced with Tommy only moments before. He wasn't all together comfortable lying to his sister, but Tommy had assured him it was a matter of life and death. Confirmation from Sheriff Farley made him place the call despite his reservations.
"She just collapsed in the kitchen this morning. I found her and called 911. She's in the hospital. They're running some tests."
"I'll be there as soon as I can," Kimberly said, her voice faltering. "I've got to arrange for a flight. Tell Mom I love her."
Kimberly knocked on Benji's door and didn't wait for his response before entering. "I'm sorry to interrupt, Senator, but my mom's in the hospital. I need to get to Westmoreland today." She ran her hands up and down her arms. "I'll call Hector and let him know I'm leaving." Benji sat up in his chair, relieved at the distraction. "Sure, Kimberly, of course. What happened?"
"I'm not sure. My brother said she collapsed."
Benji moved to the front of the desk and touched Kimberly's shoulder. "I'll call and have the private plane ready for you in thirty minutes." He dropped his hand when Kimberly nodded and headed to the door. "You be sure to call me and let me know how she is, okay?"
"Yes, Senator. Thank you, I will."
He watched her fold her suit coat over her arm, grab her purse and dash out of the office.
Benji sat down at his desk and made arrangements for the plane. His thoughts returned to Hailey, not an hour's drive from Westmoreland. He contemplated going with her, seeing for himself what had happened at the Woodward ranch, but knew it was best to keep his distance. He didn't need to go sniffing around Hailey.
The longer he sat in Washington, completely out of touch with what was going on in Hailey, the more he couldn't focus on anything at all. He reached for his suit coat, his cell phone and his briefcase. Like it or not, Kimberly was going to have company on her flight.
Sheriff Farley and Deputy Tanner sat in a cruiser on the tarmac of Westmoreland's only airport. The plane was scheduled to land in twenty minutes and Deputy Tanner fidgeted in his seat and checked the dash clock again. He didn't know if he had the jitters or if the spicy burrito he'd eaten for lunch had been a poor choice. They were going to question a United States Senator under suspicion for arson. This, he thought as he checked the safety on the revolver in his holster--a revolver he'd never drawn in the line of duty, was why he became an officer of the law. He stole a sideways glance at Sheriff Farley and couldn't stop himself from asking what he knew would sound like a stupid question. "Why are you so calm, Sheriff? Aren't you the least bit excited about confronting Burwick?"
Sheriff Farley sighed deeply and seemed to study the horizon. "Son, if Burwick's responsible for the attempted arson at the Woodward place, and I suspect he is, I'm not the least bit excited. The man's supposed to be molding legislation on behalf of the state, not risking the law to pad his pockets and help greedy land developers." He sucked on his front teeth and shook his head in disgust. "The whole thing makes me sick."
Both men gulped as a jet approached from over the mountains and made its way toward the runway. "Well," Deputy Tanner sighed. "Excited or not, here he comes."
When the staircase lowered, Farley moved to block the exit and shouted over the hum of the engine. "Kimberly Weston. Senator Burwick. I'm Sheriff Darren Farley and this is Deputy Paul Tanner of the Hailey Sheriff's department." He flashed his badge and Paul noticed the Senator's face blanch. "We're going to need to ask you both some questions. If you'd kindly follow me to the patrol car, Deputy Tanner will make sure your luggage is taken care of."
"Sheriff...Far--,Farley," the senator stuttered. "What in the name of heavens is this about? My assistant's mother is in the hospital. We really don't have time for this." He grabbed Kimberly's arm and tried to usher her beyond Farley to the waiting cab.
"I'm afraid I'm going to have to insist." Farley blocked his path. "If you'll both follow me, please."
Kimberly reached for Farley's arm. "Sheriff, please. I need to get to the hospital as soon as..." Her words trailed off as Roger Weston approached from the airport's terminal. "Oh, God Roger. What's happened? Is Mom...?"
Roger shook his head and pulled Kimberly away from the senator. Farley patiently waited while the senator ranted in his face, his voice booming.
"This is unconscionable," the senator shouted. "I won't be manhandled. I'm a United States Senator!"
"You can either come with me voluntarily or I'll issue a warrant for your arrest," Farley stated. He didn't seem the least bit surprised or concerned about the senator's demands. "The choice is yours."
"Arrest? On what charges?"
"Attempted arson, for starters."
Sarah woke to the steady beat of Dodge's heart. Each night when she joined him, she made sure to be considerate of his injuries and stay on what had become her side of the bed. But sometime during the night she'd shift, or he'd shift, and by morning their limbs tangled and her head rested comfortably on his fuzzy chest. The methodical whump-thump, whump-thump of his heart sounded like music to her ears. She had to suppress a sigh of pure happiness.
In the five days since Dodge was released from the hospital, they could wake and face each day knowing that her land and his cattle were safe. Kimberly had been questioned and released after backing up the information Dodge and Sarah had given the Sheriff. The last time Sarah spoke to Tommy, Kimberly had already arranged an interview with the small university in Westmoreland. Burwick confessed to setting up the arson and had negotiated a deal with police for cooperating in a federal investigation of Fred Saxton. Life on the ranch had settled down considerably.
The time she spent with Dodge felt natural and made her happy. They'd wake in each other's arms and often make love before breakfast. Miguel rode a grumpy Dodge around in his truck, careful to keep his leg elevated as much as possible while Sarah continued to work on her novel between housekeeping, grocery shopping and entertaining the frequent visitors from Dodge's family and various members of the community. He'd become something of a hero in Hailey for stopping the arson and implicating Senator Burwick. The resulting federal investigation put a halt to the Cooper development that had threatened the valley's livelihood. Seemingly overnight he'd gone from the town's punching bag to its most celebrated citizen. His newfound celebrity seemed as much a part of his moodiness as his general lack of mobility.
Often guests would bring by meals and stay. While Sarah enjoyed getting to know Dodge's family and the people of Hailey, she often found herself fighting back a wave of resentment for the intrusion on what had become their diminishing alone time. The boys were coming home in two days and Dodge planned to go back and live with his dad. Sarah couldn't imagine having to behave as they did before, sneaking around like a couple of love struck teenagers. Except now, in everyone's minds but her sons', she and Dodge were a couple. Addressing their relationship with Kevin and Lyle had caused her more than a little trepidation the last few days.
Mornings spent lying in Dodge's arms felt like borrowed time. She nuzzled her face against his chest and felt him stir beneath her. She wondered, as she often did, if he felt the emotional ties between them strengthen in the past week. They'd agreed to a casual, nostrings relationship that had slipped toward more with the forced intimacy of living together, however temporary. He didn't cringe when she called him A.J., but smiled when she whispered in his ear. In the glow of daybreak, he joined their bodies with unbearable tenderness. How in the world would she let him go?
Dodge had had it with the well wishers who'd spent countless hours talking mindless drivel to him over the last five days. He could barely get away from them of his own free will. He'd disappear with Miguel for a few hours, determined to escape the commotion and then somehow, when he'd least expect it, he'd feel a need to be with Sarah so strong it frightened him.
Maybe he felt drawn to her because he knew it was only temporary. Maybe it was because he hadn't expected to enjoy spending so much time together. He never thought he'd share his life with someone again and then, bam, there they were, sharing meals, longing glances over unwanted company and long, lingering hours of love making whenever the whim hit. The hardest thing to admit was that he didn't want it to end. When Kevin and Lyle came back in two days he had to pack up and go back to his dad's house and things would be back to the way they started. The way they were supposed to be. But if living apart was the way it should be why did he feel so damned depressed?
After one such afternoon of escaping with Miguel, he'd hobbled back into the cabin and found Sarah at her computer, a small furrow in her brows, her hands frozen over the keyboard waiting for the words to write themselves. Just the sight of her filled him with a yearning that almost took his breath away. He'd meant to touch her shoulder, let her know he was home. He found himself massaging away the tension in her neck. Her sighs and purrs of satisfaction urged him to use his mouth and teeth and then he just let his hands wander until they were in bed, just as they'd been a few hours ago.
"You're really good at this." Sarah said, the slick slide of her voice was music to his ears. "Much more thorough than last time."
"Yeah?" Dodge nuzzled his stubbled beard over her bare skin. She smelled good, like lavender and clean mountain air. "I've been doing some research."
"Research, huh? Anyone I know?"
Dodge chuckled and thought of the countless hours he'd spent reading after stumbling across a dusty box in the garage. "Quite well, as a matter of fact."
Sarah's head came up off the pillow, her eyes narrowed in an accusing gaze. "Care to explain?" Dodge fought a grin. Half the fun was getting her riled. Dodge slithered his body over hers and pinned her hands above her head.
"I'm waiting," she said.
He released her hand, leaned over, lingered when the movement made her gasp and slowly opened the drawer of the nightstand.
She glanced at the book in his hand and lifted her brows. "This is your research?"
"There's a lot of good stuff in here." He pulled out one of her novels from atop the pile he'd stacked in the drawer, moved to her side and pulled up a pillow to prop his head.
She yanked the book from his hands and looked at the cover, flipped through the worn copy. "Did you read these or just thumb through to the dirty parts?"
He took the book back from her and opened to a dog eared section. "I've read these, thank you very much. And I've decided I was right."
"I'm afraid to ask."
"That the stuff in your books is stuff you like, or at least that turns you on."
"For someone who was so embarrassed by this before, you certainly have changed your tune."
"It wasn't relevant then. Now it is."
"I see." She moved atop him. He lifted the book above her head but made no move to put it down. "So tell me what you've learned."
"Well, one thing's for sure." He laid the book aside and grabbed her hips to ease the ache that thrust against her. "When we get the chance, we're going to make love outside, possibly even in public."
Sarah threw her head back and laughed.
"Thanks to you, my reputation in this town is a little too clean." He continued after noting her sensual shiver at his suggestion. "I figure getting caught having my way with you ought to restore my image." She'd healed him. Not just his body but his reputation and his relationship with his family. Thanks to her, he was a damned upstanding citizen and he didn't feel right in his own skin. But he wanted her too much to work himself much past annoyed.
She moved to take him inside her, caused his mind to blank. He slowed her movements and started talking again, albeit not as steady as he was before. "Know what else I learned?"
"I think you can just show me now."
"I've got to tell you because there's an awful lot of talking going on in all these sex scenes you've written and I'm trying to see if that's necessary."
"You didn't pay attention." She sat up to pull him deeper into her. "The talking stops when the action gets good. And we're at the good part."
Dodge looked at Sarah, her hair disheveled and rolling over her shoulders that glistened in the light coming in through the half drawn shades. He plucked her nipples between his fingers and watched her green eyes drift closed as her head swayed back. How had he let her get so tangled up in his life?
Every time he was with her he wanted to touch her, every time he touched her he wanted to be inside her and when he was inside her he never wanted to let her go. And that scared the hell out of him. Somehow she'd become so much a part of his life that he couldn't remember what it was like before she was around. Except he knew it was going to be damn lonely without her now.
"What's wrong, Dodge? Now that you know all my secrets, you're not interested anymore?"
He threaded his fingers through her hair and pulled her face down to his. He could see his reflection in her eyes. "If only that were true."
Sarah dropped Dodge at his dad's before she set off to Denver to meet Kevin and Lyle at the airport. She snaked her arms around him and nestled against his chest. The moment she'd dreaded had come and she felt anxious for all the things they'd left unsaid.
Dodge scowled over her head at the farmhouse. "I feel like a sixteen-year-old sneaking back home." He lifted her chin with his finger.
"Hope your daddy's not watching," she said with a lightheartedness she didn't feel. When she touched her lips to his, she wanted to curl into his lap and never let him go. A deep, dull ache settled in the pit of her stomach.
Had she really thought she could enjoy his company without getting attached? She should have known better. She'd been attached even before she'd touched him and now that she'd touched him and lived with him, it was time to face the ugly truth. She wasn't the kind of woman who could have casual sex and not become emotionally involved. She never had been. Todd had been her only lover and she'd given him everything. She didn't know how not to give her heart along with her body. She'd given everything to Dodge without even realizing it.
She pulled back before she gave in to the overwhelming urge to cry. Dodge studied her face with a furrowed brow before flashing his crooked grin. She stroked his jaw and raked her fingers over his day-old stubble and fought against the lump in her throat. She leaned over and kissed him before turning back to stare out the windshield.
Dodge gave her arm a squeeze. "Be careful on the drive."
Dodge watched Sarah drive away with a clutch in his belly. As the dust from the truck settled back on the drive, he picked up his suitcase and limped inside his childhood home. His leg felt better, if not a little stiff. He had to remember to elevate it during the day now that Sarah wouldn't be around to nag him all the damn time.
The elephant they'd avoided all week had settled itself firmly in the center of his chest. He was in love with her. He should have told her, he thought maybe she felt the same, but he'd chickened out and let her drive away. He wished he could call her back and they could start over. Instead of the two of them clearing the air and facing their future together, she was off on her own, just as she'd come to town. He knew she was scared of her feelings and scared of how her sons would react. If he'd told her how he felt, they could have worked out a way to break it to her kids together instead of her driving all the way to Denver and hiding everything they'd come to mean to each other.
The screen door screeched and slammed behind him as he entered the house.
"A.J.?"
"Yeah, Dad, it's me." He rolled his suitcase to the bottom of the stairs and joined his dad in the den. He eased onto the couch in the same room he'd watched TV in for the first eighteen years of his life.
"Didn't think you'd be back." Donnie spoke over the drone of a cable news station. He wore faded overalls and a befuddled expression.
Dodge ran his hands over his face. "Don't really want to be."
Donnie methodically flicked through his favorite channels. "She kick you out?"
Dodge pushed himself from the couch that hadn't fit him since he was a teen. "Kids are coming home. I'm going to shower. You eat yet?"
Donnie looked up from the TV. "Can't wash away what you've got, son."
Dodge stopped in the doorway and turned around to face his father. "What?"
"Don't see why you'd want to. Woman like that, opens her home to you and her heart." He shrugged and cast his eyes on Dodge. "You've spent your whole life running, A.J. Just 'cause something's scary doesn't mean it's bad. Just means its worth enough to take note."
Wasn't it just like his dad, Dodge thought, to whittle everything down to its basic elements. Black and white. Right and wrong. Could it really be that simple?
Sarah wiped a tear from her cheek and felt like slapping her face. Why was she crying? It wasn't like she wouldn't see Dodge every day just like she always did. But now that she'd acknowledged that she loved him, she felt scared. He admittedly didn't do relationships, although she'd like to know what he'd call the last seven days. She'd just dropped him off at home...and he'd let her.
He didn't feel about her the way she felt about him. He cared about her, felt some weird sense of responsibility for her, but love? No. No matter how she approached their situation, she just couldn't see Dodge loving her and letting her love him. He'd given her his body and she may have managed to work her way under his skin, but there was a big difference between getting under his skin and getting into his heart.
As she approached the airport, she decided to stop pouting and focus on the positive. She'd loved and lost with Todd. Although losing him was the hardest thing she'd ever gone through, she had made it through. She'd not only lost her husband when he died, but she lost a big part of herself: her identity, her life partner, and their plans for the future. Thanks to their move to Colorado, she'd managed to forge a new life for herself and her kids. She knew she could love Dodge without losing herself the way she had with Todd.
The love she felt for Dodge was an unexpected second chance and she wouldn't feel ashamed at having feelings for him just because he couldn't return them. And she wouldn't pressure him to return her feelings. He'd been clear from the very beginning about what he was capable of giving. It wouldn't be fair to punish him because she'd broken her word and let her feelings slide into love. When he walked away, she knew the pain would recede with time and she'd eventually look back on what they had fondly.
She parked and made her way inside the sprawling complex. The only sticky part was the boys. While it might be okay for her and Dodge to have a sexual relationship, they couldn't flaunt it in front of the kids. But her kids were old enough to figure out what was going on between her and Dodge. She felt a ball of resentment form in her belly as she waited by security for any sign of her sons.
If Dodge had been open to having a relationship with Sarah--a committed relationship--there'd be no need for secrecy. They'd still have to be discreet, but they wouldn't have to conceal the physical aspect of their relationship. A sexual fling with a man she had no future with was, in her mind, paramount to condoning her kids to have sex with whomever they wanted, damn the consequences. And damn it, she'd raised her sons better than that.
"Mom!" Kevin shouted. He nearly plowed into an airport employee shouldering his way through the crowd. Lyle lagged behind with a contemplative look on his face. Kevin hugged her, a big bear hug that left her thrilled and slightly bewildered.
"Hey, I missed you two." She pulled Lyle into a hug when Kevin let go. "How was the lake?" She surveyed them from head to toe. "No injuries that I can see."
"The lake was great," Kevin said. "Grandad let us knee board every day and Lyle and I started doing jumps." He barely took a breath as she led them to baggage claim. "This one time, when I was boarding, I caught a big wake and got turned a little bit sideways, and then just went with the momentum and did a full twist. It was so cool."
Sarah felt encouraged by Kevin's reception. He was happy to see her and happy to be home, but Lyle acted so out of character she felt a stab of anxiety in her gut. She thought she'd heard some hostility in his voice each day but had brushed it off as his usual impatience with the phone. But now she knew she'd been correct and he zeroed in on her suspicions when he spoke.
"Where's Dodge? I thought he'd be here."
So like Lyle to get to the heart of every matter. "He's working. He's had to take it easy for the last week and the doctor finally gave him clearance to go back full time."
"Tell us about what happened again," Kevin pleaded. "The whole thing from start to finish. I still can't believe a senator tried to torch our barn for water. It just doesn't make sense."
Sarah sighed. "I've told you a thousand times what happened. Why do you want to hear it again?"
"It's just so cool. I talked to Shiloh a couple times last week. She said Dodge is like a big hero now. Even her dad agrees."
"BFD," Lyle whispered under his breath.
Sarah stopped and whipped around to face her youngest son. "What did you just say?"
"Nothing."
"Using that kind of language is not okay." Sarah lifted his chin so their eyes could meet. "Do you understand me?"
"Yes, Ma'am." He walked in silence to baggage claim and then on to the truck. The only thing that kept her from screaming was Kevin's constant chatter about their adventures on the lake. She was glad they'd gone. Not only did it keep them out of harms way, but it seemed to have kept them both highly entertained. Maybe if she couldn't get Lyle to admit his feelings, she could needle them out of Kevin.
"So how is Dodge?" Kevin asked when they hit the interstate. "His leg heal okay?"
"Yeah." Sarah glanced in the rearview mirror to see if Lyle was interested. "He's practically good as new."
"Is he still staying at the house with you, with us?" Lyle asked. He held her gaze in the mirror.
"I dropped him at his dad's this morning."
"Where'd he sleep?" Lyle asked.
Sarah stared out the front windshield as her pulse pounded in her ears. "What?"
"What bed did Dodge sleep in?" Lyle slowly enunciated every word in the sarcastic tone he'd learned from his brother.
Her fingers tightened on the wheel. "Why does it matter?"
"The man lived in our house for a week. I'm just wondering whose bed he slept in at night. It had to be one of the three of ours, right?"
Sarah considered her options. Tell the truth or lie. Tell the truth or lie? What horrific choices, but she wouldn't lie to her sons, not about this. "He slept in my bed."
"Will he be sleeping there when we get home?" The quietly serious question had come from Kevin, his face a study in...worry? Curiosity? Disgust?
"No, he won't be. And that's all I'm saying about the subject."
"I knew it," Lyle muttered from the back seat.
Sarah looked in the rearview, saw him tuck his chin to his chest as he sank against the seat. When she glanced back at the road she realized she couldn't remember the last ten minutes of their trip. The conversation needed her full attention.
"What are you doing?" Kevin asked when she pulled into a parking space of a fast food restaurant and cut the engine. She turned in the seat to face Kevin and Lyle.
"What do you want to know? I'll answer as best I can, and then we'll head home. But I'm not putting up with your attitude. So, ask your questions and I'll decide if they need to be answered."
"Are you sleeping with him?" Lyle spewed the question at her as if he couldn't hold it inside any longer.
"That's none of your business."
Kevin cleared his throat. "Why the hell did you pull over if you're not going to answer a simple question?"
"Because I'm your mother and who I choose to sleep with will never be any of your business. And don't use that language with me."
"That's convenient." Lyle said. He seemed relieved not to have to know the truth and her heart ached for him.
"It's conveniently true. Now," she sighed and tried to get her balance back. "As I've already explained to your brother, I have feelings for Dodge. What those feelings are and what I plan to do with them..." she shrugged "I'm not sure. But that's for me and him to work out. You don't have to like it. I expect you'd have a problem with anyone I became involved with after your father. No matter what happens, I love you both more than anything in the world. If you have questions or you feel anxious or worried about anything, I want you to talk to me about it and not sit around and brood until you explode." She looked pointedly at Lyle. Sarah felt unnerved to see him so reserved and angry. "Any more questions?"
After a moment of silence Kevin shifted in his seat. "Well, since we're already here, can we go ahead and get lunch? I'm starving." And with a blessed sigh of relief, she agreed.
Dodge couldn't get comfortable. He'd adjusted the pillows on the couch a dozen times, put his feet up, then down again, crossed his ankles, crossed his arms behind his head, spread his arms along the back of the couch. Nothing, absolutely nothing felt right. Damn it.
He had everything he needed, a cold beer he'd set carefully on the corner of a magazine, a habit he'd picked up from staying at Sarah's. "Why ruin furniture with glass rings," she'd said and then growled at him when he'd suggested it added character to her new furniture. His stomach was full of food from the diner and his Rockies, playing under five-hundred ball as usual, had just started off a game against the Diamond Backs with a two-run double. So what in the hell was his problem? He stood up from the couch, turned away from the game and headed outside in the cool night to clear his head.
He knew what was wrong; he was miserable. He missed Sarah so much he felt like he'd been zipped up inside out and now the zipper was stuck. He'd been moping around for days, watching her come and go from her house with a smile planted firmly in place, happy as a clam that her sons were home. He'd miscalculated with her. He'd been so sure she was in love with him and wanted to be with him, but her actions suggested otherwise.
Dodge had been all set to tell her how he felt, lay it on the line and let her deal, but when she got back with the kids they had a quiet family dinner alone. He'd worked at the ranch all that day, trying to shake off his mood and work up the courage to talk to her and the kids. He'd been in the barn when they drove up. Kevin had more questions than Dodge could answer. He wanted to see the barn and the charred earth where the fire had left the ground barren. He'd even made Dodge lift his pant leg and show him his stitches. Quite a change from the pissed off teenager who'd left a week ago.
Lyle hung back by his mom and said nothing, and hadn't said much since he returned. Dodge had tried to bring him around ever since, asking for his help with special projects. Sometimes he'd forget he was mad at Dodge and he'd loosen up a little. But then it'd hit him and he'd clam up again. Dodge knew why the kid was upset--he'd figured out something was going on between him and his mom and he didn't like it. Dodge wanted to talk to Sarah about their situation but she'd basically made herself scarce, and only came around when the boys were near. He couldn't get her alone for a second.
There'd been no dinner invitations, no conspiratorial looks, no nothing. It was like their time together hadn't even happened. So instead of enjoying his beloved Rockies and a cold beer, he moped around the deck, stared up at the stars, and wondered what Sarah was doing at the very same moment. She'd turned his whole life upside down to the point where he couldn't even enjoy baseball. He reached for his keys on the old rooster holder and headed outside to his truck. One way or another he was getting some things off his chest tonight.
Sarah had spent another painful day avoiding Dodge. She'd watched him like a hawk from the safety of her window, using binoculars no less. Every minute that passed without him she felt her heart splitting in two. Her need for him was eating her alive. She knew avoiding him was cowardly, but she still didn't know what else to do.
"Mom," Lyle called from the den. "Watch this replay."
She skulked over to watch the Arizona's short stop make a double play to end the inning. All she could think of was Dodge, watching the game and cussing his favorite team and their troubled year. "The Rockies can't catch a break, can they?"
Kevin stole a glance at Lyle as his mom went back to cleaning the kitchen. They'd talked about what was going on with their mom and Dodge incessantly since they returned home two days ago. Were they fighting? Did Dodge call things off because they were back? Or was she simply avoiding the whole situation because she couldn't deal? They didn't know, couldn't agree on a theory, but they did agree that they hadn't seen her this withdrawn in a very long time. Neither boy felt happy to see her slide back into depression.
Sarah tucked the last of the dishes in the dishwasher and stared as the evening breeze rustled the leaves of the cotton woods in the distance. She glanced at the clock. Seven o'clock and she wanted nothing more than to crawl into bed. The same bed where she'd lost her heart to Dodge and could lose herself in the only peace of the day, slumber. But it was too early to go to bed without alarming the boys, so she grabbed her sweatshirt from the back of the chair and announced she was going for a walk.
The gentle wind brushed her skin like a kiss. She closed her eyes and drank in the smell of clean air and cow dung. The air smelled as Dodge did after working with Miguel for a few hours. His clothes and even his hair held the scent of cows and working man. She remembered with aching fondness how the smell would waft strongly in the room when he'd first enter, then ease away with each layer of clothing he removed. She thought of the working man smell of his skin along his shoulders where she'd graze her teeth, his sweat scented abdomen, the scent of her shampoo in his hair. Stop it, she shook her head. Yes, the man was gorgeous, chivalrous, good with his hands and impossibly stubborn. But he was trouble, and most importantly, he didn't want her for anything more than a roll in the hay.
It wasn't hard to avoid someone who didn't want to see her in the first place. Had she imagined the bliss of the previous week? When he first saw her in the mornings she hadn't seen panic in his eyes, only lust and what she thought was affection. But now she had to wonder, was she so blinded by her emotions that she didn't recognize his signs of retreat? They flashed in her mind like road signs: slow down, sharp curve ahead, prepare to stop.
Sarah needed to pull herself together, and quickly. She'd seen the worried looks on her son's faces, heard their hushed conversations at night behind closed doors. They were afraid she'd slide back into mourning for things that could never be. She'd put them through enough already. She climbed the stairs to the house, into the quiet den and saw the light on behind Kevin's closed door. She knocked, heard muffled voices stop and a quick invitation to enter. Lyle sat perched in a bean bag on the floor tossing a rubber ball in the air and Kevin sprawled on the bed with his PSP.
"I'm back. I'll be out on the deck." When they barely acknowledged her she asked, "You two okay?"
Lyle studied the ball in his hand as if it held the answer to life's most important questions. "Yeah," he said and looked up at her with narrowed eyes. "How about you, Mom? Are you okay?"
Her smile faltered when Kevin glanced over his game to hear her answer.
She wouldn't lie to her kids. "I'm working on it."
Sarah closed the door, grabbed the phone and a throw from the back of the couch and strolled onto the deck. She needed to talk to her sister.
As he drove down the long drive toward the cabin, Dodge saw a light from Kevin's room, but Sarah's room and the rest of the house seemed dark. Damn it. He needed to get his feelings off his chest so he could figure out what to do next. He never thought she'd be asleep, or worse, not home. He didn't want to confront her with the boys around, but he could ask her to join him outside and out of their earshot. If she refused, he didn't care; he was in the mood for a good fight. He parked the truck along the side of the house and cursed when he realized the garage doors were shut. He picked up his cell phone and dialed her number. It went straight to voicemail. He got out of the car and paced in front of the garage doors while her home phone rang in his ear. Kevin answered.
"Hey. It's Dodge. Is your mom there?"
"She's out on the deck. I think she's talking to Aunt Jenny."
Great. Just what he didn't need. "I'm outside your place. Can you come open the garage doors and let me in? I need to talk to her."
There was a pause before Kevin said, "Sure. I'll be right down."
He heard Sarah's voice coming from the deck and moved slowly around the side of the house to listen.
Sarah settled into a chair facing the darkened river as Jenny explained her lack of contact in the last few days. "We're in Telluride shooting a commercial for my chocolate bar account. I'm sure no one will notice it's not the Swiss Alps. I'd have called sooner, but we've been slammed since filming began."
"Can you squeeze in a quick visit?" Sarah wrapped the throw tight around her shoulders when the wind picked up. "It'd be great to see you right now."
"Depends on how close we stick to the shooting schedule. What's going on with you and the local hero?"
"Oh, Jenny." Sarah sobbed. "I'm so confused."
"I should charge you for these counseling sessions. What's wrong, only three orgasms last night? My poor little sis."
She'd endured so many of Jenny's cries for help with men that she felt entitled to at least a dozen 'counseling sessions' in return. "If you're going to make fun I'm not saying a word."
"Don't get pissy with me. Do you know how long it's been since I've had an orgasm? With a man, that is."
"I never should have slept with him," she said. "I knew I shouldn't have but couldn't stop myself. God, Jenny, I feel like you, letting my libido lead me into trouble."
"What's going on? The last time we talked you were happily nursing him back to health. What changed?"
"Everything changed. I knew I couldn't do it, I knew it. Why did I listen to you in the first place? 'It's just sex,'" Sarah mimicked sarcastically. "'You need it and he needs it.' God what a fool I am."
Dodge ducked under the deck when he realized Sarah was talking about him and how she regretted their being together. Anger lurched up from his belly like a flame. She's the one who'd started it! He'd told her it'd be a mistake, but no, she wouldn't listen and now he was paying the price. Part of him wanted to walk away and lick his wounds in private, but the other part couldn't make his legs move. If he had to sit under the deck and eavesdrop to find out just how wrong he'd been to fall in love with her then he'd do it. She sure as hell wasn't going to be honest. The river, gurgling over rock and earth, made hearing difficult. He moved closer to her voice and found himself standing directly under where she sat on the deck.
"What the hell are you talking about?" Sarah could tell Jenny was losing her patience. "Just spit it out already."
"I'm in love with him! I knew I couldn't sleep with him and not get attached. I knew it. But no, you said, 'just do it' like it was no big deal to have sex and walk away. Well, here's a news flash for you, Jenny. I'm not wired that way."
Sarah heard a very deep, "What?" from somewhere outside. She stood up and looked over the rail. "Who's out there?" She called, still holding the phone to her mouth.
"Have you forgotten who you're talking to?" Jenny asked.
Dodge appeared from under the deck and stood with his hands on his hips. She couldn't see his face until the spotlight illuminated and Kevin came around the corner from the garage.
"Dodge?" Kevin called.
Dodge didn't turn, but stared up at Sarah. "You're in love with me?"
Sarah gazed over the edge of the railing at the man she loved, the man who didn't love her back. "I...what are you doing here?"
"I heard you," he said. "You said you're in love with me."
"Is that him?" Jenny asked. "Is he there?"
Sarah let the phone drop to her side. His stance was like that of a gunslinger about to take down his mark. Even in the dark she could see the fire in his eyes. He was spoiling for a fight. She threw the phone in her vacant chair, shrugged off the throw and gripped the railings.
"I...I...What do you care? I've given you a perfect reason to tuck tail and run. Not like you needed one. I can't even believe you're still standing there after what I said."
"You think just because you said you love me I'm going to take off?"
"No, I thought you'd just hide out in the barn like you've been doing, act like nothing ever happened between us. Maybe if you try hard enough to pretend nothing happened, you'll convince yourself its true."
"Oh, that's priceless coming from you." He kicked the gravel with his boot and spun around before glaring up at her again. "Who's been hiding out up here for days on end? Were you ever going to work up the courage to tell me to my face?" He cocked his head and waited for an answer.
At least she could barricade herself inside when she couldn't listen to any more hurtful words. She stared down at him with her lips tucked tightly closed.
"You turned my life upside down and then left me dangling in the wind like yesterday's garbage," Dodge shouted. "And now you have the audacity to say that you love me?"
"I didn't mean to fall in love with you," Sarah spewed back. "Why would I do this to myself?" She flailed her arms in the air. "I guess you get the last laugh. You were right, I can't do casual! But I won't be some cliché woman who tries to pin you down just because I was stupid enough to fall for you." She felt as deflated as a day-old balloon. "You're just as free as when we met, Dodge. My feelings are my problem."
He turned from her and walked around the side of the house, past Kevin and out of her view. She felt her knees buckle and had to stifle a sob in her throat. In the silence, she heard a distant voice calling her name. It was Jenny, she realized, still on the line. She put the phone to her ear. "Well, that went well."
Dodge entered the garage with the single-minded determination to face Sarah and end the madness once and for all. When he glanced up at the stairs, he realized he had an eleven-year-old to get through first.
"What are you doing here?" Lyle asked.
"I need to see your mom."
"She doesn't want to see you."
Kevin walked past Dodge to stand at his brother's side. "I think she does, Lyle."
"What do you know?" Lyle shouted at his brother. "You're so busy making kissy faces with Shiloh, you don't know anything."
A blush rose on Kevin's neck before he tucked his embarrassment aside and gently placed his hands on Lyle's shoulders. "She's in love with him. I just heard her." He jerked his head toward Dodge. "And so did he."
"That's not true. She loves Dad."
Dodge kneeled down so he and the boy were eye-to-eye. "You're right, Lyle. She does love your dad. She always will. I'm not trying to replace him or step into his shoes. No one could ever do that. My mom died when I was little and I wouldn't have let someone else try to be my mom."
"You'll never be my dad."
"I know that, son. I don't want to be your dad. I'd like to be your friend again. We've got a lot in common. Starting with the fact that we both love your mom."
Kevin patted his brother's shoulder. "You know she's been sad since we came back. If they love each other..." he shrugged, "it makes sense. I want Mom to be happy again, Lyle. I know you do too. He makes her happy and as much as I hate it, Dad's not coming back."
Lyle looked up at Dodge and twisted his mouth into a grimace to hide his quivering chin. "Alright. You can see her, but don't make her cry."
Dodge's knees cracked as he stood up and patted the boy's shoulder. "I'll do my best."
The doors to the deck flew open. Sarah turned and saw Dodge, his face lit with annoyance. Lyle and Kevin stood beyond him in the den, their eyes huge.
"Hang up the phone," Dodge ordered.
She stood in shocked amazement, but didn't move.
"Hang up the damn phone."
"Why?"
Dodge ripped the phone from her hand, slapped it closed, and threw it in a chair. "Because when I tell you I love you I'd like to have your full attention."
Sarah would have slipped to the floor if he hadn't grabbed her shoulders and yanked her against his chest. "Wait...what?"
Dodge leaned down and kissed her. Sarah could barely open her eyes when he'd pulled away.
"I love you, too. Damn it." He twisted his body toward the door to speak to Kevin and Lyle with Sarah tucked tight in his arms. "I'm in love with your mother," he announced in the same conversational tone he might use with a friend. "Do you two have a problem with that?"
Sarah watched in amazement as Kevin and Lyle, stunned into silence, shook their heads with matching baffled grins.
"Good." Dodge returned his gaze to Sarah. "Do you have a problem with that?"
"No. I don't have a problem with that."
He kissed her again. "Say it back."
Sarah held on to him with everything she had, stole a glance at her sons watching raptly from inside the den, and looked into the eyes of her future. "I love you, A.J."
The End
About the Author
Christy Hayes writes romantic women's fiction. She lives outside Atlanta, Georgia, with her husband, two children and two dogs.
Discover other titles by Christy Hayes
Angle of Incidence
Heart of Glass
Shoe Strings
Misconception
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