Chapter Nine
T he Creighton wedding happened that next weekend. There was a lot of frantic, last-minute setup that happened the morning of. But in the end, Shay surveyed the reception that was in full swing under the pretty lights Cooper and his father had untangled and strung up and breathed a contented sigh of relief. The happy couple were dancing under the stars on the wooden dance floor, the weather was holding and still balmy enough in the evening to require only a few gas heaters dotted around. The barn—she had to admit—looked beautiful, the guests, delighted. Even the affable minister, Mr. Gleason, who’d driven down from Billings to perform the ceremony, had gushed about the locale and how lovely everything was.
The bride had cream-colored roses and lilies everywhere. The whole night seemed scented with them. The local four-piece band they’d hired to play during the reception had a bluesy-country sound with a slide guitar player who gave her chills. Shay made a note to recommend them again in the future.
Cami wove through the crowd, making sure everyone had everything they needed. Liam made sure the bartender, parked under the barn’s eaves, had plenty of ice and alcohol. The bussers they’d hired were busy cleaning up after the meal. At this point, the hard work was done. All that was left was to watch the guests enjoy the night.
Sarah and Ryan had disappeared around nine along with Will and Izzy, who’d shown up for any last-minute glitches. Ray and Cooper made themselves scarce. She hadn’t seen them all evening—which she’d expected. Weddings weren’t part of Cooper’s job description. In fact, Ray had taken charge of the puppies, who had come back from the vet with a clean bill of health.
“It will be good for Ray to have something to focus on besides his health,” Sarah had said, when she’d turned the pups over to Cooper. For the past few days, that was exactly what happened. The pups were a handful, but despite his initial reluctance, Ray was smitten. He even named them Pippa and Poppy.
Shay smiled at the four-year-old flower girl and the ring bearer, dressed to the nines and dancing amidst the older couples. At nearly ten p.m., they were still going strong; the current subject of the wedding photographer who happened to be the groom’s sister. Shay was thinking how it seemed like yesterday that Ryan was that little when Cooper walked up behind her.
“Looks like you pulled this one off without a hitch,” he murmured out of the hearing of the guests. “If those two are any indication, looks like the wedding was a success.”
In response, she couldn’t help but laugh at the little ones. “Aren’t they adorable?”
He grinned. “Siblings?”
“I don’t think they knew each other before tonight.”
“Ah. That explains why he’s been putting his best moves on her for the last few minutes.”
The little blond boy, who’d been dancing up a storm, wrapped his arms around the flower girl right at that moment, as if to prove Cooper’s point.
Shay laughed. “I expect one or both of them to fall dead asleep any minute. At that age, they go until they drop.”
Cooper folded his arms across his chest, enjoying the music and the dancing. He wasn’t dressed up, but he’d definitely upscaled from his work clothes. His long legs were sheathed in dark blue denims—not the kind cowboys wore, but city denims, and a plain white shirt rolled up at the sleeves. She rarely saw him without his hat, but his dark hair was short, sexy, and edged with strands of gray that made her want to run her fingers through it.
She blinked back the impulse.
“What are you doing out here?” she asked. “I thought you two would be settled in for the night by now.”
“I was checking on the horses and got waylaid by the music. And... frankly, that dress.” His appreciative gaze took in the blue, ruffly silk dress she’d worn tonight. It was one of her three go-to event dresses, which made her feel pretty, but no one had ever noticed before. She felt herself blush. Tucking her hair behind her ear, she focused on the kids.
He leaned closer. “Is it out of bounds for me to say you look pretty in that color?”
“Wildly out of bounds. But thank you.” She flicked a smile up at him. “You look nice, too.”
“Well, thanks. The horses mentioned it, too. Asked who I was dressing up for.”
“Must have been She-Ra. She’s a terrible flirt.”
“I noticed that about her,” he said, his playful gaze fixed on Shay’s mouth.
The band started playing an old-time Ry Cooder song called “Boomer’s Story,” that she remembered her mother playing on the CD player when they were young. A song about lost love.
“Wanna dance?” Cooper said.
Her eyes widened. “ What? No, I... I can’t. Dancing is for guests and I’m—”
“All dressed up with nowhere to go,” he finished. “I meant right here, back behind the barn. Just you and me, a little dance. Nobody has to see us.”
Shay looked around. No one at all was paying attention to them. She swallowed hard. She hadn’t danced with anyone in years. But it would be a mistake. Definitely. There was no way she should say yes.
However. “Okay. Just a quick one?” was what came out of her mouth instead.
With a grin, he took her hand and pulled her behind the barn. “I prefer slow.” He tugged her closer, fitting his hand in hers, then wrapped his other arm around her waist.
Shay thought surely he could feel her heartbeat thudding against him as they started to move together. She couldn’t help but inhale the delicious scent of him—soap, fresh air, and some indefinable scent that belonged only to him. She tried not to focus on how his shoulder felt under her hand—so strong and muscular—or the way he held her just so, not too tight or too loose. Just right. She felt his hips sway against hers as she tipped her forehead against his shoulder feeling ridiculously happy. When her heels started sinking into the soft, grassy earth there, she kicked her shoes off and felt instantly more balanced. Or rather less off-balance.
At the chorus, he let loose of her and twirled her. Shay laughed at the unexpected move, but he pulled her back against him with a smile. She forgot to worry about the space between them and let him hold her. God, it felt good to be held. To dance. To just be.
“Anybody ever tell you you’re a good dancer?” he whispered against her hair. “Especially barefoot.”
“If they did,” she replied, “it was so long ago, I’ve forgotten it.”
“Now, that’s a shame. A woman like you should be danced with on the regular.”
“A woman like me,” she said, “is generally too busy for dancing.”
“Ah, but you should never be too busy to dance,” he claimed, rocking her to the music with a slow and steady skill that made her insides tumble.
“Funny, I would never guess that about you. A dancer.”
“Oh,” he said, “there’s probably a lot about me that would surprise you.” Spinning her around again, he dipped her low until she laughed out loud.
When he pulled her into his arms again, he stopped dancing, simply holding her close for what seemed like forever but was probably no more than a few seconds. The band wrapped up their song. She thought he meant to kiss her again. She held her breath, but when he began to pull away, she tightened her fingers around his and held him for a long moment.
She was about to possibly embarrass herself by kissing him. Instead, a ruckus behind them in the wedding reception caused her to freeze. The sound of dishes crashing to the ground and glass breaking and shrieks of laughter—
“What in the world?” She broke away from him and followed the sound of chaos breaking out as wedding guests tried to dodge little blurs of movement that wound through the crowd, heading straight for the flower girl and ring bearer, whose eyes were wide with what was quite possibly terror.
“Oh, no!” She gasped.
The puppies had somehow gotten loose from Cooper and Ray’s apartment and were making a beeline for the shortest, most lickable people on the floor. The flower girl shrieked as Pippa jumped up to swath her face with her tongue, but knocked her over, exuberantly bathing her face in kisses. Poppy, the skinniest of the two, collided clumsily with the little boy, who let out a delighted shriek of laughter as he dropped to the ground to allow the dog to have his way. Adults were scrambling to catch the dogs who eluded capture while climbing over the little ones and doing what puppies do. Cami was chasing them with her arms spread wide but couldn’t seem to contain them either. Cooper tried and failed as well.
As adults snatched the children up, the puppies turned their attention to licking bare ankles on the fly and generally stirring up chaos. Even the band had stopped playing to laugh and watch.
“I’m so sorry,” Shay said as she chased the dogs in circles. “Really, I don’t know how this happened!”
But most of the guests were laughing at the puppies’ cuteness, not upset at the disturbance and some were trying to help corner the pups. Then Ray—who had appeared in the middle of the madness—and Cooper managed to corral and catch them both. Panting with excitement, Poppy slobbered all over Ray’s face as Cooper apologized for the disturbance. But the newly married Creightons had waved the photographer over to capture the moment and the bride couldn’t stop petting Poppy once he was in Ray’s arms. Even the flower girl had stopped crying and was laughing, teary-eyed, at the puppies now.
After checking that everyone was okay, Shay addressed the crowd. “I’m so very sorry. We just rescued these two little miscreants. Obviously, manners are not high on their priority list yet. Although, suddenly, they are on ours. But clearly, Elizabeth and Daniel,” she added, addressing the bride and groom, “these two are ecstatic about your beautiful marriage and wanted only to give you a puppy blessing. With their wet little tongues. So, consider that accomplished. Now, the puppies bid you good night. Please, please get back to your celebration.”
The crowd laughed appreciatively and broke into a round of applause as they carried the puppies back toward the apartment.
“Holy bail out, Batman.” Cami swooned as the four of them left the circle of lights. “That was some smooth talking back there, Shay.”
“It was either that or sob,” she said, scratching Pippa behind the ears. “Good thing they’re so dang cute.”
“It was all my fault,” Ray said. “I opened the door to take out some trash and they just scooted out past me—”
“Slippery little devils,” Cooper said as Pippa licked his face. “Yeah, you’re cute all right.”
“Disaster averted,” Shay told Ray, then stopped dead at the sight of a shadowy shape moving away from the office in the small barn. Running, actually. “Did you see that?”
“What?” Cami asked, oblivious.
“That,” she said, pointing at the open stretch of field beyond the small barn. But whoever it was, was already swallowed by the darkness there. “There was someone in the barn.” Someone who didn’t belong there.
Shay started running toward the open barn doors, and Cooper handed the puppy off to Cami and ran after her. “Wait. Don’t,” he called after her. “Shay, stop!”
She ignored him.
*
“Hold up!” Cooper said, chasing her down as she hurried through the barn doors. The horses were stirred up in their stalls, restlessly moving and whinnying. Cooper grabbed her arm. Pulled her to a stop. “You don’t even know what you’re running into here.” He fumbled for the light switch and flooded the barn with light.
That’s when they saw the office door wide open. Papers were strewn everywhere, and stuff was pulled off the shelves, lying broken on the floor.
“What in the world—” Shay sucked in a breath. “I was worried about the horses, but—”
Cooper held onto her, quickly assessing that they were alone in the barn. “Whoever it was, obviously they were looking for something.”
“For what?” she asked, staring at the mess. “And did they find it?”
“I don’t think we’ll know until this mess gets cleaned up. What do you keep out here? Anything valuable?”
“Just paperwork mostly, I think. Plans. This was my father’s office primarily until Liam took things over. There’s some personal stuff, too, like awards, certificates. Photos.” She bent down to pick up a broken picture frame with a photo of Tom Hardesty and Sarah standing in front of a penful of mustangs. Broken glass fell out of the frame. “Like this. And this.” She picked up a large fragment of what looked like old ivory. “Part of a woolly mammoth tusk. My father found it right here on the ranch. What could they have been after? More importantly, who was it? It couldn’t have been anyone from the wedding. Nobody would’ve—”
“More like they used the wedding as cover to break in, knowing no one would be back here,” Cooper suggested, still wary about the thief’s return. “Looks like they were looking for a safe.” The large painting of the nearby Absaroka mountains on the nearest wall was dangling by its wire, but there was nothing behind it. “We should call the police.”
“No,” she said. “Not with the wedding party going on. We’ll call in the morning. Let’s just leave it all as it is tonight.” She was shaking. Cooper put an arm around her, pulled her close. She didn’t resist. In fact, she leaned into him. Her skin felt cool to the touch and his only thought was to protect her.
“Call me crazy,” she said, “but even in the dark, I could’ve sworn it looked like a guy I’ve seen twice now in the last week. A guy who doesn’t belong here.”
“Say what now?”
She shook her head. “Probably just my imagination. It can’t be connected.”
With a frown, Cooper wondered if it was.
Cami and Liam appeared at the barn doors. “Oh. My—What happened here?”
“You tell her,” Cooper instructed Shay. “I’m going to camp out here for the night in case our unwelcome caller returns.”
“There’s a gun up at the house.” Shay closed the door to the office.
“A gun?” Cami threw her hands up. “What’s happening here?”
“I’ve got my own,” Cooper said.
“Cooper, I’ll stay out here tonight,” Liam said, “that’s not your job.”
Hesitating, Cooper frowned at the mess. “He’s still out there somewhere on foot in the dark. Stands to reason he’s got a vehicle parked somewhere down the road. Maybe I should—”
“No!” Shay pointed at Cooper. “Neither one of you is going to go chasing down whoever it is in the dark. You stay right here. Tomorrow, we’ll get the sheriff out here to figure things out. Meanwhile, just leave everything as it is. Maybe there will be a fingerprint or two left behind.”
Surely, there was no connection between what Trey had told him and this. Even if Evan Clulagher was foolish enough to return to Marietta, the Hard Eight could hardly be his destination. Could it?
*
If anything had been stolen last night in the break-in, the family couldn’t find it. Aside from the mess the intruder had made, there was seemingly nothing of value missing. Not even the computer was taken. While Deputy Dominic Braehill, a young, thirty-something new hire—had dusted for fingerprints the next morning, he wasn’t hopeful that he’d get much that was usable after eliminating all of theirs.
“I’ll admit, it’s odd that nothing obvious was taken, especially the electronics, but you said he was on foot and possibly just looking for something he could carry easily in his pockets to sell for cash. Y’ know how that goes. If he got spooked, it’s possible he didn’t have time to take what he wanted.” The deputy closed up his kit and headed back to his car with Shay and Cooper following behind.
“As far as the stranger you’ve seen around Marietta, I wouldn’t call that too unusual. It’s nearing the end of tourist season. We’ve got the autumn festival coming up in two weeks. We get all kinds of folks in town as that gears up. Cowboys. Tourists.”
Cooper exchanged a disconcerted look with her. “But you’ll keep an eye out for this guy she described, right?”
“Well, sure. But that could describe a lotta men in these parts, frankly. If you see him again, try to get a plate number or something like that.”
Shay refrained from rolling her eyes. It didn’t surprise her that he didn’t take her seriously. She was having a hard time with it herself. Maybe all of it was her imagination. Except for the break-in of course, which could be merely a coincidence.
They passed the newly acquired horses in the pen and he stopped to admire Kholá and her pretty Appaloosa coloring. “Hey, now, she’s a looker.”
“That’s my son’s horse.” Shay patted Kholá on the neck across the fence. “He’s entering her in the Youth Horse Encounter this year. She’s coming along well.”
Braehill stepped back admiring her with a whistle. “My boy’s got an entry, too. Havin’ the devil of a time with that crazy gelding he’s training, though. Finally got a saddle on him and a minute later, Kevin was flat on his back on the ground. But he’s got a never-give-up attitude. Gotta give him that.”
Shay mused that perhaps the investigation into their break-in could use a little of that never-give-up attitude.
“Well, if we learn anything from these fingerprints, we’ll be in touch. Meanwhile, y’all stay safe.”
“Thanks, Dom. We sure will try,” Liam said, walking up behind Shay and Cooper. As they watched him drive down their long road, he put his arm around Shay’s shoulders. “That was a plain waste of time.”
“Maybe. Maybe it was just a random break-in, and we’ll have to install a better security system. Better locks. Maybe we should consider moving Dad’s office back up to the house.”
Liam nodded. “Good idea. Let’s do it. We can use Will’s old room as the new office. Getting the house security upgraded makes more sense.”
“I can help with the move.” Cooper scratched Kholá under her jaw. “Back up the pickup to the small barn and we can just load it up. Shouldn’t take more than half a day.”
“That’s a half day we can’t spare right now. It’ll have to wait until we can find a minute. Meanwhile, I’ve hired a couple of guys to start bush clearing that trail you and Cooper took up to the spring and that starts today. Cooper, you and I will be finishing setting up the meadow glamping tent site. Shay, install is tomorrow. Truck should be here by eight a.m. with the furniture. Carolyn and Jess Brody arrive next weekend from New England for their mini-honeymoon to try out our first glamping tent experience. Brody is an old friend of mine,” Liam explained to Cooper, “from Marietta. He moved away a few years ago, but he and his bride wanted to be our test couple, trying out our facility. For them, it’s a free weekend with all the fixin’s. My wedding gift to them.”
He went on, “I have another construction crew working on Nuthatch Cottage down the road, that’s getting sheet-rocked today. I need someone to check the fences up in the north pasture, because our neighbor just called to say a few head of our cattle had found their way into his pasture. He rounded them up and drove them back home. But new fence needs to be strung. But after all that’s done, by about two o’clock, my head is scheduled to explode.” His graphic gesture of just such an event made them all laugh.
“Don’t worry about the fence,” Cooper said. “I got it.”
“I’ll go, too. Two of us should make quick work of it,” Shay added. “We can take the Gator up and be done quicker.”
Liam eyed the two of them with a knowing smile. “Yeah. Quicker’s better. Sure.”
Blushing, Shay silently dared him to say anything more. “See you later, little brother.”
“Yup.” He bid a knowing adieu to Cooper with a small finger salute. “Cooper?”
Cooper shook his head and followed Shay to get the supplies.