55
He parked behind the Colonel’s pickup and glanced around the yard as he got out. He didn’t have to wonder if the man was in the house, barn or pasture because the barn door was standing open.
His SUV might still smell new, but he was wearing ten-year-old jeans (his lucky jeans) and his boots—well, boots were scrapable. He ventured in.
“Colonel,” he called.
It wasn’t a very big building. The Colonel was entering through the rear pasture as Jesse came in the front.
“Hey, Jesse,” he said.
They shook hands, and got the silent conversation-in-a-glance out of the way. Was there any point saying anything aloud after that? Jesse didn’t really think so.
But it had to be said.
“I want to date Clara.”
This was met with stony silence. The Colonel wasn’t going to meet him halfway on this one. That was fine.
“I’m moving back. Going to be working at the practice.” The Doc, Jesse realized, might have talked to her husband during the half-hour it had taken him to drive to the house. At any rate, the man didn’t look any more surprised than his wife had. “I’m in love with her. If you don’t want me to tell her, I’ll stay in Austin.”
More silence. Jesse knew silence was an effective tactic, but he wasn’t worried about strategy right now. Stick to the truth and keep it simple.
“I’m grateful for what you did for me,” he went on, voicing it for the first time in his life. “Not just the money and the time you spent raising me. I don’t think I would have survived my childhood without you. The Doc gets the credit for making me a doctor, but you were the reason I could sleep at night. I was only on the streets for two months before I came here, but the fear and stress were almost unbearable. You—you were like a superhero. Knowing you had my back? Game changer for me.
“I don’t want to mess with your daughter. I want to marry her. But if you hate the idea, I’ll back off, I swear.”
And that was it. That was his piece. Now he would wait as long as it took.
The Colonel studied him for several long seconds, in no hurry to alleviate the suspense. Jesse understood; it was a big decision. Clara hung in the balance; the whole family did, in a way.
He’d been telling the truth. As much as he wanted to be the kind of guy who wouldn’t stop at anything to be with his woman, he would not proceed without the Colonel’s consent. That accounted for the fear twisting his guts into knots.
But then the man offered his hand in a second handshake. “Okay,” he said.
“Okay,” Jesse repeated, relieved. It felt like the best handshake of his life. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” Col. Wilder said. And the Colonel didn’t say anything he didn’t mean. Then, instead of letting go of Jesse’s hand, he used it to pull him closer, and the black eyes seemed to look straight into Jesse’s soul. “But if you hurt my daughter, I’ll bury you alive in my pasture with enough oxygen to last you a week.”
Jesse didn’t doubt it for a minute. “Yes, sir.”
The Colonel released his hand. “I’m glad you’re staying. This is where you belong.”
“It is?” Jesse asked.
“Get it through your thick head: you’re family.”
“Yes, sir,” he said promptly.
His hands were sweating on the steering wheel as he drove back toward town. All things considered, Phases One and Two had gone a lot better than he’d expected.
All he’d really wanted was permission to proceed, and instead he’d gotten—well, he’d gotten his family back, and permission to proceed. Two things that might well have been mutually exclusive.
Phase Three took place at the Gila Monster, and it was the most nerve-wracking of all the phases.
Hart’s information about Clara’s feelings was unreliable at best, especially now that he’d been just as wrong as Jesse about his mother’s motives. Clara might’ve had a crush on him in the old days, but anything beyond that was pure speculation.
Jesse knew that Clara liked him. Clara, he thought, was very fond of him. She’d even said she wanted to see him regularly. But love wasn’t a sure thing, and he had to consider the possibility that she’d be angry or take a lot of convincing. Caution told him to wait for a more private setting in case it didn’t go as expected.
He glanced down at the cowboy hat on the passenger seat—a silent, unexpected gift from the Colonel—and a small voice inside him whispered, Fortune favors the bold .
“Call Yoli.”
“ Calling…Yoli .”