Chapter 2
CHAPTER 2
K arlene angled Cavalcade higher into the hills, racing against the approaching night. Her heart lifted as the cabin’s faint outline, surrounded by oaks at the crest of a hill, became visible. The fifty-year-old, open-windowed log cabin was one of her favorite spots.
As she slid off the horse a couple of snowflakes, tiny and cold, fell from the sky. Not enough to stick to anything, but enough to warn her not to waste time in building a fire.
The cabin had a fireplace and there was plenty of fallen dry wood beneath the oaks that she could collect with the flashlight from Joey’s star bag. Often, when she and Joey came up here, they’d forego the cabin and sleep under the stars. They’d survive the weekend on whatever Joey had stocked in his aptly named under-the-stars bag which they now referred to as the star bag.
Tonight, though, she wanted that roof and four walls around her to reflect back whatever heat she could create in the cabin’s fireplace.
When she and Joey slept outside, they’d stretch out beside each other, the stars twinkling above as they’d talk about ranch life and the constellations, the weather and things they’d heard on the radio. No topic was off limits and she’d often forget the six-year age gap between them. Over the years, she’d never once considered coming here alone, but tonight she appreciated having the spot all to herself.
After ensuring Cavalcade was okay in his spot under the trees, Karlene grabbed the star bag and went about collecting wood in the enveloping night, her almost-wedding already feeling like a different lifetime.
As she dropped her first load of wood in the fireplace, a pair of squirrels zipped out from the chimney and past her boots, startling her.
“Oh, no.” She slipped to her knees, sending the flashlight beam up the chimney. Wasn’t it too late in the season for a nest? As she shone her light across the brick, she spotted something nestlike as the squirrel duo stood behind her, scolding loudly. She backed away from the fireplace, hands raised. “Sorry, sorry.”
The parent squirrels moved in jittery leaps toward the hearth, their dark eyes on her. Then, quick as the night, they were back up the chimney and Karlene was without fire.
She sighed and laid out her bedroll in a corner, climbing halfway into her own little nest of bedding while digging for snacks in Joey’s bag. Tomorrow would be better. Tomorrow all of this would be in the past.
She checked her watch, then turned off her flashlight, snuggling into the bedding. Right now she was supposed to be at the Sweetheart Creek Community Barn enjoying her wedding reception and filling up on succulent Wagyu beef.
She was supposed to be dancing with her new husband.
She was supposed to be changing out of her dress and heading to the city to stay in a hotel.
She was supposed to be getting on a plane at dawn for their whirlwind three-day, placeholder honeymoon, the real one to happen after calving and the Dragons hockey season had ended.
With tears in her eyes, Karlene rolled over, wondering if she was stupid to have run. She was hiding away, freezing her butt off like a big old chicken.
She shuddered, thinking how she hadn’t even provided Thomas with the dignity of an explanation before she’d run away.
She pulled the blankets up further, contemplating how she was going to forgive herself for this one.
Karlene rolled over and felt around in the nearby star bag, digging out Joey’s radio. She turned it on, its tiny green light casting a faint glow. She longed to press the Talk button, to hear a steady voice on the other end.
She wanted to talk to somebody who understood her, her dreams and fears, but most of all, wouldn’t be angry with her. The man who’d given her permission to run away. The man who must see the bigger picture she was failing to grasp right now. The man who knew that somehow it was all going to be okay.
She turned the radio off again, knowing Joey wasn’t the only one who used the open airways. People would be worried, angry and confused, and anything she said to Joey wouldn’t be private.
After little sleep, she re-saddled up Cavalcade and rode through the predawn light and over the frosted land, back down out of the hills. With the blanket from her bedroll wrapped around her shoulders like a shawl, she let the horse pick the best route, and soon Joey’s barn was a welcoming sight on the horizon.
As the horse picked his way through the yard, Joey emerged from the large red structure in a checkered shirt and jeans as though he’d been expecting her.
She felt like she was coming home.
Joey watched Karlene slide off his horse, his clothes curving around her body in a way that would distract any man. She led Cavalcade to the barn, and it took him a moment to catch up with the fact she’d returned from the cabin so early.
“You look cold,” he stated.
She nodded. There were circles under her eyes, and he was certain it was more than just smeared mascara—a sign that yesterday’s actions were weighing on her. He slowed his steps, hating that he was soon going to add to that weight.
“Get any sleep?”
She shrugged, her messy hair fluttering in the morning breeze.
Joey opened the barn door and wordlessly they went inside. He removed the saddle and placed the star bag in its spot, making a mental note to restock it, while Karlene brushed down Cavalcade. While he waited for her to be done, he did chores nearby, trying to get a read on how she was doing. He’d never seen her quite like this before, moving as though her body felt too heavy to bear.
Finally she turned, her dawdled and overly-perfected jobs completed.
“Hungry?” Joey asked.
“Yeah. A bit.”
He headed back to the house, knowing she’d follow.
As she fell into step beside him, he changed directions and purpose. “There’s the tiny house.”
“I know my way around your yard, Joey,” she said, her tone slightly unforgiving.
She’d always been able to read him well, and right now seemed to be sensing the bad news he had in store. Her shoulders were already pushing back, her face becoming a stony mask. This felt like those times when her brother Blake would make Joey pass on the message that Karlene wasn’t welcome to tag along with them.
He veered toward the tiny home, directly across the driveway from his sprawling ranch house. It mimicked the style with a sharp peak above the front living area, giving the space a vaulted feeling. They were both a yellowish-orange log color and had big windows.
However, where Joey’s home expanded out to the sides with five bedrooms, a massive kitchen and loft he’d made into his man cave, the tiny house went straight back. It was fifteen feet deep and thirteen feet wide, the entire living space compacted into three rooms. The living room and entry flowed into the galley kitchen, and at the rear was a bedroom and bathroom. One and done, as he liked to say.
“My hired hand moved out,” he said, opening the door. “Got a modeling job in Cali.”
“Did not.” Karlene scoffed.
“That’s the story he’s sticking with.” The ranch hand was decently handsome, but not what Joey figured a model should look like.
“He went to jail, didn’t he?” she joked, her tone flat.
Joey chuckled, low and deep. “Let me show you what’s what.”
She narrowed her eyes, arms crossed, but cautiously followed him inside. She’d been here when the tiny home had first arrived on the truck. They’d even raided the local second-hand stores together to get it outfitted for staff to stay in. It had been surprisingly fun, Karlene finding it all a grand challenge of balancing cowboy practicality, homey warmth and necessary minimalism.
“Why are you talking like I’m going to be living in it?” she asked.
He flicked on lights, taking in the small space. The air was colder in here, the night’s chill sticking to the unheated interior. Their shoulders pressed together as they stood in the entry.
“It’s yours for as long as you need.”
“You mean if I decide to be a chicken and hide away forever?” She stared at him through narrowed eyes, waiting for the penny to drop. “Because that’s not my style as well as a pretty terrible plan.”
Joey’s gaze slipped from hers, and she was on him in a second. “What happened?” she demanded.
Joey scratched his chin with a thumb. “Your mom called looking for you. Guessed I’d know where you’re at.”
Karlene’s eyelids drifted lower as she winced. “How bad was it?”
He walked further into the small home, cranking up the thermostat on his way by. He opened the fridge; the light illuminating the empty white cavern.
“I should go talk to her.” Karlene sighed. “To everyone.”
“I’d let them cool down a bit. Nothing good’s going to be said today.”
Karlene’s expression dropped, and he hated the way he was hurting her, adding to the pain she was already carrying. He’d argued with Mrs. Spragg to no end. But Kar’s mom had insisted the family needed time, and it was best if her daughter stayed with him while they cooled down and wrapped their head around it all so they didn’t hurt her feelings. Could she stay with him until they got over the shock? That had been last night.
“If I keep hiding, it’s not going to make anything better.” Karlene straightened her spine, that fiery look of determination he loved so much flitting across her face. “Can you give me a ride into town?”
Joey stood in the back bedroom’s doorway, facing her.
“What?” she asked, concern in her expression.
“I’m sorry, Kar, but your mom said it would be best for you to stay here for a bit. She doesn’t want to fight.”
“How long?”
He shrugged.
“But tomorrow’s Christmas!” Karlene dropped onto the edge of the nearby armchair, sliding off Joey’s big boots, blinking back tears.
Joey, at a loss, focused on practicality.
“Bedding’s clean.” He flushed the stale water out of the toilet, then tipped a head toward the door. “Let’s get you fed.”
“I just took off my boots.” She looked at the boots, coated with dust. “Your boots.” She sagged off the armrest and into the deep cushions.
He turned his back to her at the door, jerking a thumb over his shoulder. “Come on.”
Without hesitation, she came to life, leaping the few feet between them and launching herself onto his back. He gave her a piggyback ride across the driveway and into the big house. Her legs were wrapped around him, her body warm against his torso. If she had to be exiled, he was glad he was the one she’d come to.
Karlene knew she looked a fright in her slept-in borrowed clothes, and no doubt sleep and tear-smeared makeup and messy hair. But the way Joey was looking at her with his sweet, dancing eyes as well as how he was fighting a grin as he let her down off his back and opened his front door… Well, she wasn’t sure how to feel.
Self-consciously, she wiped the skin under her eyes. “What are you laughing at?”
“Your hair looks worse than when you sleep out all night.” The corner of his mouth crooked upward, his tone fond as he allowed her to go past him into the warm home.
She ran her fingers through her tangled locks, then stole the hat off his head. She pulled it down low over her own brow and marched off to the bathroom.
In front of the mirror, she removed the hat and flinched. Yesterday’s mix of hairspray, teasing, straightening and curling to give her a fancy do had not traveled well. Today it looked more like a toddler had styled her hair. She borrowed Joey’s brush, hacking at the knots as though they were solely responsible for her aching and confused heart.
Satisfied with the way she now appeared less like someone insane, she returned the hat to her head and went back to the kitchen, snagging a cup of coffee and a piece of toast from an abandoned plate by the sink.
Joey appeared from another room, pocketing his phone, his dog Brody at his heels. Joey eyed her half-eaten dry toast.
“Savage,” he declared, pushing the butter dish her way. “Try it with butter.”
She ignored him and finished the toast.
He opened the fridge, waving a carton of eggs. “Want some?”
She shook her head, her nerves chasing away her hunger. “What chores are up first? I need to earn my keep.”
“You don’t.” His tone was soft, his gaze tender with something she didn’t like or appreciate.
“Joe McCall doesn’t do pity and right now…”
She blinked back the dampness in her eyes and marched to the front door, determined to stay moving so she could stay ahead of her thoughts and feelings about running away from marriage, and how Joey hadn’t given her a single look of heat since. At the door she turned to see what Joey’s hold up was. He was standing where she’d left him.
“Amber left you some clothes,” he said gruffly, pointing toward his room.
He eyed her in his outfit and she could have sworn she saw a flicker of hunger in his gaze, a precious flit of possessiveness that made her entire being feel light as air.
“Amber Wylder?” She worked as an assistant in the town’s boutique, Blue Tumbleweed. How did she know Karlene needed clothes?
She groaned internally. Everyone knew. It was a small town. As well, April had been in the church and had no doubt seen her run.
But did everyone know she was hiding out with Joey? She didn’t even want to imagine what the rumors were saying about the two of them. Poor Thomas.
“She thought you might need something to wear.”
Karlene blinked away the wetness in her eyes over the woman’s thoughtfulness. And a few minutes later, she reemerged from Joey’s bedroom, properly outfitted in jeans, a sports bra and checkered shirt a lot like Joey’s as well as a thick jacket.
“How do I look?” She gave a spin, delighted that April had pegged her size correctly.
“Like a cowgirl.”
“That all you got, Joey McCall?”
“Yup.” But there was a hint of humor flashing in his brown eyes as he swiftly took her in. If she didn’t know better, she’d say he liked what he saw.
“Your dad called while you were brushing your hair earlier.”
She sighed. So much for staying ahead of her thoughts and feelings.
Joey met her at the door, wiping a thumb under one of her eyes.
“What did he say?”
“He was just checking in.” His thumb gently stroked her cheek as though following a smear of dust.
“Does he want me to come home?” she whispered, longing to lean into the heat of Joey’s body, the solid security of him.
“He didn’t say.”
“Are they still mad at me?”
“Didn’t say.”
Her parents had been elated Karlene was getting married, and especially to ranch royalty like the McNaughtons. They’d been counting on signing the research agreement with the McNaughtons after the wedding and getting the massive grant that would have gone with it. Now both were gone. Plus, they had a house full of relatives and likely were facing a lot of gossip and judgment.
At least Karlene’s phone was still in the church. She could only imagine the number of missed calls and texts that were piling up.
She inhaled deeply and spun, checking her surroundings for hints as to what was next. Anything but think about how her family was feeling about her and her actions right now.
And why hadn’t Thomas come looking for her? Didn’t he care? Or was he that mad at her?
She cleared her throat, stepping onto the front porch. “Where do you usually start with morning chores? The barn? Did you already finish in the barn?”
Joey shook his head and fell into step beside her, his dog trailing behind, its whip of a tail dancing through the air like a metronome.
Karlene waited while Joey opened a door on the side of the barn before walking inside, the familiar scent filling her. Animals. Old wood. Straw. Feed. History and a sense of belonging. She sighed, feeling her stress levels drop a notch. “I love a good barn.”
She glanced over at Joey who was smiling a quiet smile, his eyes drifting over the open rafters, taking in the place alongside her. “There’s something peaceful and wonderful about them, isn’t there?” he said, his tone slightly wistful.
They let the horses out to pasture, then mucked out the stalls, falling into an easy rhythm she loved so much. Thomas was always in such a rush to get through chores, preferring to work in the ranch’s big office. But Joey was like her, happy to take a moment and enjoy the tender sniff from a horse’s velvety nose, or to pause and watch kittens race and tumble as they took each other down.
“Why couldn’t I have found it in me to let go of him sooner?” she asked suddenly, turning to Joey, who was in the stall beside her.
He exited the enclosure with three long steps, his shovel balanced level as he eyed her, dumping the contents into the waiting wheelbarrow. He dropped the end of his shovel into the clean straw at their feet, leaning against the handle.
“He represents the dream you want.”
She inhaled a shuddery breath and nodded.
It was true. She wanted the ranch life as well as working with the Dragons in San Antonio several days a week. She wanted to start a family, have pets, horses and other animals, her routines determined by the sun and weather and seasons. There was something calming about the solidity of it all.
“But?” Joey asked. “Something was missing?”
“Tom’s a great guy.”
Joey grunted.
She paused, angling her head at Joey. Was it weird that he and Tom had never become friends? Never gone for a beer?
She dropped onto a bound bale of straw, collapsing her face into her hands. “He’ll never forgive me.”
“Do you want him to?” Joey sat beside her, his shoulder almost touching.
“I didn’t intend to hurt him. And I did. As well as humiliated him and his family.”
“What’s worse? That or marrying him and not meaning it?”
She sniffled.
“They wasted so much money on the wedding. On everything.” She sniffed again, fearing she was going to outright bawl. Joey was steady and a wonderful friend, but he was her brother’s best friend and a stoic cowboy. She considered him one of her closest friends, but she couldn’t ugly cry on him. She had to be tougher than that. Show him she was mature and had grown up. Except for the part where she’d run away from the most grown-up thing in her life: marriage.
“I hear everyone had a party last night,” Joey said. “Ate the food, danced, drank the wine.”
She nodded, gratified that it hadn’t all gone to waste. But then the gates that had been holding back her tears released. Joey had her in his arms in less than a beat, pressing her body against his. He rocked her slowly, his large hand smoothing her wild hair.
“Let it out, Kar.”
“Nobody’s going to let me forget yesterday, are they?” From now on there’d be jokes at her expense, awkward pauses in conversations, possibly even the McNaughtons crossing the street or giving her fake smiles and excuses whenever they bumped into each other.
“Depends if you stay in Sweetheart Creek.” Joey winked and her heart crashed with the truth of what she’d done and her tears returned. He wrapped her in his arms again, his cheek against the top of her head. “But so what, Kar? So what?”
“I want to live out here,” she muttered. “Not in the city.”
He held her out, studying her with such seriousness she laughed. “You afraid of some gossip?”
“Yes! And I don’t know the rules. Do I still have to break up with Thomas? Or is that implied? And where am I supposed to live now? How am I going to get my stuff back from Thomas’s? It’s going to be so awful.” Her head returned to Joey’s chest.
And what would it take to get this man holding her to see her as more than a lost kid?
“You can stay in the tiny house as long as you want.”
She perked up with the idea of rarely having to go into town or see anyone else. And the little home was small, simple, and without clutter. Did she actually need her old belongings? Living with nothing in the tiny house would be like a stripping down to find out what she truly needed and wanted in her life.
Did she still want to work for the Dragons?
Maybe.
Did she still want the ranching lifestyle?
She inhaled the barn’s scents, the calm quiet. Heck yeah. She’d always want this. It was in her blood, in her bones. Even more than working with the Dragons, which was a job she absolutely loved.
They stood, ready to get back to chores.
“Can I stay here for Christmas?” She swallowed, thinking of her family’s rejection, her broken plans. The scheduled honeymoon. The family Christmas filled with wedding guests who were staying at the ranch for the holiday, making it also a family reunion.
“Kar, you can stay with me until the end of time.”
The seriousness of his words and the heartfelt way in which he delivered them gave her a lift she didn’t think possible.