Chapter Thirty-Seven
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
BLACKWOOD RANCH IS brEATHTAKING. Black wrought iron letters spread across the top of the gate spell out the family name as I pass through. The bed and breakfast becomes visible in the distance with the rest of the farm. Based on looks, I’d say this place was built in the late 1800s, and normally that thought alone would excite me. I’d salivate at the chance to learn its history and hear all the stories from its lifetime, but not today. Today my focus remains on the words Jace Powers said. We found him . Those three words led me to walk away from Beau and Alex without any explanation other than: “I have to go.”
Since I left them on the side of Main Street, Beau has called my phone repeatedly, and so have Alex and Kai—almost like the three of them are sitting together, calling in rotation to see who I would answer first. After the fifth rotation, I turned my phone off. If they wouldn’t take the hint, I’d make them.
My hand grips the gear shift long after I park the car in front of the beautiful two-story farmhouse.
My heart feels like it’s going to beat out of my chest. Is this really happening? Am I moments from seeing my husband for the first time in over a year? It feels like a dream I’ll wake from at any moment.
There’s another car parked next to me, a black Escalade, and I can only assume it belongs to Jace. The others under the carport don’t have the same look as the sleek black SUV. They’re more suitable for life on a farm. Before I kill the engine, the Escalade’s driver’s side door opens and Jace jumps out. He shakes out his leg and wipes some invisible dust off his jeans before his attention turns to me. He waves me forward.
No going back now…
My finger presses the ignition button and Jace rips open my door, pulling me out of the seat. “Nina, you made it!” He pulls me in for a hug and whispers in my ear, “Play along.”
“What are you talking about, Jace? Where is—”
“Play along.” He drags me toward the Escalade where his partner, Ben, and an older gentleman now stand. Jace says, “Mr. Blackwood, I want to introduce you to someone. This is Nina. She’s one of the best designers in the country and I thought she could lend a hand with some ideas for the ranch.”
What in the hell is going on? I’m not here to help them develop this fucking ranch, I’m here to find my husband. Jace didn’t say anything about this on the phone. He didn’t say anything other than he and Ben had seen Nick— alive —at a ranch in Bezer.
“It’s nice to meet you, Nina,” Mr. Blackwood says, extending his hand toward me. Who is this man?
Jace gives me a look that says, Play. Along.
“You as well, Mr. Blackwood,” I say, still trying to gather my thoughts.
“Joseph, please.”
It’s hard not to offer the older man a genuine smile before my gaze sweeps over the house. It’s a beautiful home. Well-maintained, with a lot of charm. Black shutters shoulder each window. A wide porch extends the front of the house and wraps around the right side, with six steps up to it. Mountain-blend stones layer the foundation, climbing up the chimney on the far-left side, a warm contrast to the pure white siding. It could use a new roof, but it doesn’t look to be in terrible shape. Rolling hills of the mountain extend past us on all sides, and I can imagine the sunsets here are otherworldly. I can’t imagine why he’d want to sell to Jace. Knowing Ben, Jace’s partner, the whole thing will be torn down and they’ll slap a resort on it.
“Have we done a tour yet?” I ask.
“You want to see the house?” Joseph’s shock tells me he figured the same thing.
I meet Jace’s annoyed glance and smirk. If he wants me to play along, that’s exactly what I’ll do. Turning back to Joseph, I say, “Jace told me a little, but I’d love to see for myself. Being here…I have some ideas of how we can maintain it.”
Joseph raises a brow to Jace and Ben, extending his arm to me. “Right this way.”
The inside is even more charming than the outside. Original hardwood floors flow throughout each room, intricate wallpaper designs line the walls in some rooms while a mix of white and colored paints decorate the others, cozy furniture dots the living room and bedrooms, and knickknacks from years of travel and gifts from returning visitors rest in various places throughout the house. This is not the same kind of farmhouse aesthetic you see nowadays—it’s the real deal, and I’m in love with it. A warmth radiates from the inside out, making you feel like part of the family, and I can tell Joseph is a big part of it. The second we walk inside, he offers each of us a cup of coffee—which I happily accept, but Jace and Ben decline.
The kitchen, painted a bright yellow like sunshine on a warm, summer day, houses a four-seater handcrafted wood table in front of the window overlooking the side yard. White cabinets, tan countertops, and white appliances fill the space. Square, white tile backsplash lines the walls behind the stove, and utensils and small pans hang from black hooks on two rails on either side. It’s exactly what you’d imagine walking into a farmhouse untouched by modern society and its call to rid homes of what makes them unique.
Joseph hands me the coffee in a ceramic blue mug with a hummingbird, and I try to hide my surprise. Surely, he didn’t see my tattoo—it’s hidden beneath my shirt sleeve. “I love hummingbirds. How’d you know?”
“I saw your necklace.” He smiles, and my left hand instinctively reaches for the small bird resting on my collarbone. The hummingbird hangs a few inches above the second chain holding Nick’s wedding ring above my heart.
A gift from Nick for Christmas years ago—the second Christmas we spent apart when he was in Boston—the hummingbird necklace arrived with a handwritten note. The note reminded me of what Nick and I had talked about two months prior when we’d secretly seen each other in Boston. We didn’t speak for five months after that. Not until another note arrived with a bouquet after one of my speeches. A few days later, he found me in Central Park and asked me to marry him…We got married at the courthouse the same day.
“You got lucky. Normally, it’s in the sink. Our guest who’s been with us uses it every morning before work. Guess he didn’t have any coffee this morning.”
“He had a to-go mug when I saw him leave with your daughter,” Ben says from the hallway.
“Oh, right, they had to run into town and grab some things. They should be back at some point, hopefully before you leave. I’d love to introduce you.”
Jace stares straight at me and offers a subtle nod, confirming the “guest” is Nick. I do my best not to react when my heart does a flip, trying to escape the confines of my ribcage.
“Well, c’mon, let’s see the rest of the house,” Joseph says, offering me his arm again.
The house has just as much history as I imagined, probably more than Joseph could know. His family restored it to its former glory when he was a child. While he’s done his best to maintain the property, it has become hard to manage with his declining health. As we walk through the house, Joseph tells me stories from his childhood and of his daughter, and I fall more in love with it. I can’t fathom the thought of tearing it down. A lot of love and hard work has gone into this house over the years, and the idea of losing such craftsmanship seems unthinkable.
My fingers graze over the wall of the upstairs hallway. It’s stark white with a smooth and even texture that only comes from a fresh paint job, confirming what I already knew from the smell in the air. “Did you recently have some work done?”
“How can you tell?” Joseph smiles.
I point to my nose. “I can smell the fresh paint on the walls.”
“That guest I told you about, he’s been lending a hand around the ranch.”
“You put all your guests to work, Joe?” Jace laughs.
“Poor kid came wandering into town ’bout a year ago without a dime to his name—or a name, for that matter. Needed a place to stay. I’ve been letting him stay here and help me get some work done around the property.”
Or a name, for that matter . What does he mean?
“Awful kind of you, sir,” Jace says, meeting my gaze briefly.
“Hard worker, too. Been a real help around here since Doctor Sanders said to lighten the load after my health scare.”
“Well, let’s look at the barn,” Ben suggests. “You said you had some work done in there recently.”
“Oh yes!” Joseph’s face splits with a bright smile. He begins ushering us toward the stairs at the other end of the hallway. “Xavier has done some great work in there.”
Xavier? Who the hell is Xavier?
I hang back a few steps. “Do you mind if I use the restroom? I’ll be right out.”
“Course, darlin’. Right through that door.” Joseph points at the door over my shoulder at the furthest end of the hallway.
I smile in thanks and walk to the bathroom, but don’t go in, gripping the handle until their voices disappear and I hear the front door close. When I see them through the window overlooking the front of the house, I go to the bedroom door directly to the left of the bathroom. When I turn the handle, I’m happy to find it unlocked. Joseph wouldn’t let us in this room earlier, saying he wanted to respect the privacy of his guest, and I knew I had to get in there. It may be my only chance to figure out what in the hell has been going on.
The door swings open, smooth as butter, and I smile, because I know it’s something Nick is a stickler for. If there is so much as a creak in a hinge, it will be gone the same day. While I never thought it was a big deal, it came in handy with a sleeping toddler.
The room looks like the other three guest rooms—nothing special, nothing out of place. Only two things in the room indicate someone has been staying here: the folded pajamas hidden behind the pillow—something Nick always did—and the desk full of sketches, notebooks, and a file. A medical file. The name on the tag reads John Doe in scribbled penmanship. I flip it open to find a medical chart and a police report, neither filled with much information. I scan the file and find a scribbled note on the last page of the medical chart:
No memory of the incident or how he arrived in Bezer. Patient found by Bill Wyatt and Joseph Blackwood on April 10, 2028. Patient has amnesia. Definite cause is unknown, appears to be some kind of trauma to the head with a deep laceration, along with bruised ribs and a sprained ankle.
“Oh my God,” I whisper.
Amnesia.
Nick has amnesia. He doesn’t remember me or our life together. He doesn’t remember our daughter, our home…He doesn’t remember anything.
There’s a Post-it Note inside the file with five facts in my husband’s handwriting. The fifth one makes my heart ache: No one has come looking.
Closing the file shuffles a few drawings, and one catches my eye. I gasp, dropping it as soon as I free the drawing from underneath the others. Tears prick my eyes when I see the sketch of our home in Winchester—the house I built long before Nick and I were together. The house I had worked hard to pay for because I wanted something of my own without feeling like it had been handed to me because of my name. The one Nick moved into after we got married in New York and turned it from mine to ours, making it feel less like a house and more like a home. A tear drops down my cheek, falling onto the paper, and I smile.
Maybe he didn’t remember everything, but he remembered something…
And I could work with that.
When I find the others in the barn, they’re gathered in the stable area behind doors that look like they’ve been recently redone. “I’m sorry, I got caught up looking at the paintings in the hallway,” I say.
Not a total lie, I had been admiring them earlier when we passed by them.
“Nice, aren’t they?” Joseph asks, a sense of pride in his words.
“Did you do them?”
“Oh no!” He chuckles. “No, I’m no artist. My mother painted those. She had dementia, but painting gave her a way to express herself even when she couldn’t express herself.”
“I’m so sorry to hear that.”
“Oh, don’t be, sweetie. Mother lived a good life. Happy till the day she went to be with the good Lord.”
“Shall we?” Jace extends his hand farther into the barn. He and Ben are getting antsy, but Nick isn’t back from town yet…What’s the rush?
“Oh, yes, of course. Let’s start with the arena,” Joseph says, leading us down the main stretch. He begins in the tack room, recently renovated by Xavier . After bragging about the new indoor shower, Joseph pulls open a rolling door at the end of the long hall, revealing a riding arena where three barrels sit in the open space.
“You been barrel racing, Joe?” Ben chuckles.
“Charlie,” Joseph corrects him. “Finally got her back on the horse last year after her accident, thanks to Xavier. Remember, she competed at the Blossom Festival this past weekend and won. I’m not surprised, she just needed a little shove in the right direction.”
“She and Xavier close?” Jace asks the question I want to know.
“It’s a bit complicated.” Joseph laughs, scratching his beard. “I wouldn’t say they’re close, but definitely something goin’ on there.”
Not exactly the answer I wanted to hear. If he’s built a life here, how am I supposed to convince him to come home? What if he doesn’t want to come home?
“But enough about all that,” Joseph says as we walk out of the arena and back down the hallway. Two horses stand at the gates of their stalls, heads protruding through the open spaces. One of them is a chestnut brown with a white star extending down the bridge of its nose. The other reminds me of the horse Elena fell in love with on the property next to us. Not long after we moved to Haven for those ten months, our neighbors (if you can call them that when they live over a mile down the road) invited us for dinner. Their horses were out in the fenced portion of a pasture near the house and Elena was enthralled when she saw them. This one is a little darker than the one next door, its coat as dark as the shadows that move in the night, the kind of black that protrudes through darkness with each movement. The nameplate under him reads Shadow .
Fitting , I think, and our steps halt in front of the horses.
“Time to get down to business, don’t you think?” Joseph says.
“Actually,” I say, interrupting Ben before he can do what he came here to do. I have so many questions, some about the future of Blackwood Ranch, but most are about Xavier . For now, I’ll keep those to myself. “Joseph, can I ask you something a little personal?”
“You can ask me anything, darlin’.”
“You love it here. You have so much history here. Your family practically built this place…Why are you selling?”
Joseph’s lips curve into a sad smile beneath his white mustache. “How’d I know you were gonna ask me that?” He chuckles, leaning against the door of an empty stall. “We’ve had a bit of a rough patch the last few years. From bad crops to disease spreading in the cattle…Then that big resort opened a few towns over. It took a good chunk of the B&B customers. Unfortunately, I had to let all my guys go, so it’s just been Charlie and me, now Xavier. Don’t get me wrong, he’s been a big help, but I’m not getting any younger, and I don’t imagine he wants to make less than minimum wage the rest of his life.”
If only Joseph knew who he was talking about. My husband might have grown accustomed to the lifestyle of a Villa, but Nick had continued to be the humble man who grew up in the small town of Bridgeport, South Carolina, working in his family car shop, making just enough to make ends meet.
“With the bank breathing down my neck to pay the loan I borrowed a few years ago, I can’t afford to keep going. I’d rather sell it to someone like Jace, who might keep it somewhat intact instead of someone who wants to build a skyscraper in its place.”
Shadow, the black horse, whinnies, catching my attention, before it nickers at me. When it catches my eye, it moves its head in a combination of up-and-down and side-to-side movements, and I close the gap between us. Reaching my hand out, Shadow nuzzles his muzzle into my palm, nibbling my hand affectionately.
“You shooed us off the first time,” Ben says.
“Damn straight.” Joseph laughs, his gaze falling on me briefly before he turns back to the boys. “You wanted a number right then and there, but I hadn’t accepted the truth yet. I wasn’t ready to admit defeat.”
“It’s not defeat, Joe,” Jace says.
“This place has been in my family for a long time, boy. I planned on spending the rest of my life here. It’s a little defeating to know I couldn’t keep it goin’ the way my parents hoped, but I think it’s time to let it go.”
I sigh, petting the bridge of Shadow’s nose. “This place is special. I hate to see what these two might do to it.”
“Which is why you’re here, Nin,” Jace says.
I hum in response, smiling at Shadow, who seems content with the affection received before I catch Joseph’s eye.
“Y’know, that horse doesn’t usually let many people near it,” he says with a twinkle in his eye. “The only one he’s taken a liking to besides you is Xavier.”
My heart constricts at his confession, but I try not to react, locking my jaw and returning my gaze to Shadow.
“Speak of the devil.” Joseph’s voice has a new level of excitement when a car door slams outside. “Sounds like they’re back. Come on, I’ll introduce you!”
I hold my gaze on Shadow, my fingers trailing down his nose. I could be mere seconds from seeing my husband, but I can’t make myself move. I’m scared—No, I’m terrified.
What if he doesn’t remember me? What if he never remembers me? Do I say something, or do I walk away? He’s made a life for himself here, but it’s a life that will soon be ripped out from under him. Where will he go when Joseph sells this place? And then there’s Charlie. Joseph said it was complicated. Are they together? Has he moved on without even knowing it?
“You coming?” Jace asks from the door.
Without looking, I ask the question that’s been on my mind since I got out of the car. “Why did you bring me here, Jace?”
“What do you—”
“You never said anything about all of this on the phone. You only said you found him. You forgot to mention the part about him having amnesia or that he had built a life here.”
“I didn’t know, Nina. When I called you…Joseph hadn’t told us anything until after we spoke. I figured it was better to ease you into it than to let you come in guns blazing. This is still a matter of business for us, Nin.”
“You sure about that?” I ask, looking over my shoulder. The second he asked me to play along, he brought me into this deal, and I’m not sure I want to see what he has in store for Blackwood Ranch. Jace stands there a moment longer before he sighs and leaves the barn.
Then it’s just Shadow and me. The horse offers a small huff in my direction. I rest my forehead against his nose, take a deep breath, and try to swallow back the tears that have started to build in my eyes. When I step back, I whisper, “You know, don’t you?”
Picking up one of the apples nearby, I offer it to him, letting him eat it from the palm of my hand before petting him a final time.
“Now or never, huh?”