Chapter Six
Dana
T he tail end of Levi and Dallas’s truck buried itself inside the scattered thickets of larch, blackjack, and lodgepole fringing the road, leaving Dana alone with the horses, the wind, and a dying man.
She’d grown up in Billings, the largest city in the state of Montana. Other than rodeo towns, her experience with the more rural areas tended to consist of just passing through . Otto’s homestead was about as rural as it was possible to be.
As for her experience with death… Her brain shied away from that. She cradled her chest with her arms and tried to think about how to make herself useful until Levi returned instead.
She started with the barn, which had to date back to the late-nineteenth century, at least. It was an older-style red two story with a hip roof. Hinged double doors under the roof opened into a mow that likely hadn’t seen bales of hay since the mid-twentieth century.
The sliding door to the main part of the barn rolled easily on its track when Dana pushed. Inside, the barn smelled of horse dung, molasses, and age. A storm lantern, complete with clear oil and a neatly trimmed wick, dangled from a heavy, low beam cracked with age near the door. A box of matches perched above it, on the beam. It was dark and dusty and dry, and a fire hazard at best.
A wooden grain bin in a corner explained the smell of malt and molasses. It also explained the fat, indolent tabby sitting on it, emerald eyes narrowed to slits, its tail swishing idly. Grain bins attracted rodents and most barns kept cats.
“Hey, kitty,” Dana crooned, rubbing its cheek with a cautious knuckle. Cats could be temperamental, but this one leaned into her caress, its body thrumming like an old diesel engine.
Otto kept a clean barn. At some point he’d gone so far as to sweep the cobwebs off the windows and beams and out of the crooks and nannies. But an air of neglect had begun to seep in. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it, but she got the sense that he hadn’t spent much time in here lately. How long had he been sick? How fast had it hit him?
Overall, however, everything appeared in order. She slid the door closed, then eyed the log cabin. She couldn’t put it off any longer. She should check on Otto.
She knocked softly, in case he was asleep, but he wasn’t.
“Come in,” he called out, his voice unexpectedly strong.
She pushed on the door, braced for the worst. She hadn’t taken much note of his home after she’d found him collapsed on the doorstep earlier and helped him to bed. She’d been far too panicked.
But if asked what an old hermit’s living quarters might look like, this was not how she’d have described them. Clever storage spaces, shining windows, neatly swept, polished floor…the cabin was spotless. Even the wood stove shone like new.
And now she knew why she’d gotten the sense of neglect in the barn. The same sense struck her here. There was no clutter. No task in progress to occupy his spare time. He’d puttered and tidied, but nothing appeared to have been used. She couldn’t say in how long.
He looked so frail.
“Can I fix you something to eat?” she asked.
“Not hungry. But I wouldn’t mind if you sat with me a while. No need to talk if you aren’t interested,” he added. “But it’d be nice to have an angel close by. Scares off the devil.”
The sturdy, handcrafted table owned one equally sturdy chair. She kicked off her boots and left them by the door, then dragged the heavy chair to Otto’s bedside and sat down. “I’m happy to talk, if that’s what you want. But not about the devil. I doubt if he even knows you exist,” she said.
That earned her a smile.
“Then let’s talk about Tanoa and get that out of the way.” He gathered his breath. The colorful quilt covering his chest rose and fell a few beats. “I’ll let George know she’s yours. But she comes at a price,” he warned her. “I never give them away.”
“Nor should you,” Dana said, not about to haggle with him. She didn’t know how she’d make the payments, but she’d take that up with the lawyer. “Thank you. You don’t need to worry about how well I’ll treat her. I love her already.”
Otto ran out of steam and closed his eyes. Dana watched until he appeared to have fallen asleep, then rose and searched for something useful to do. She peered around a half-opened door near the head of his bed. At some point, he’d added a tiny extension to the cabin that contained a compostable toilet. It resolved one issue she’d worried about, since an outhouse was out of the question for him.
An oak icebox lurked in a corner behind the front door. She opened it up to find a block of half-melted ice in one side, and an almost-empty container of milk, two loaves of bread, a brick of home-churned butter, a jar of mayonnaise, and some sliced, packaged meat in the other. A drain pan in the bottom of the icebox held enough water that she pulled it out and took it outside to empty, where she dawdled in the warm sunshine, admiring the horses while killing time.
Lady was restless and the penned stallion turned his head in her direction often enough to make Dana think it might be wise if she moved Lady to either the barn or the trailer. She wasn’t in heat yet—most riders were aware of their horses’ cycles—but she would be soon, and a fence wouldn’t stop an intrigued male, no matter how quiet he seemed.
Once Levi returned, she’d load Lady up and they’d be on their way.
She was sliding the cleaned drain pan into place on the icebox when Otto spoke again. “How did you and Tanner come to be together, anyway?”
Dana’s brain froze for a second, along with her motions. Then she checked to make sure the drain pan was secure while she contemplated her answer. The sex was fantastic was hardly appropriate, even if it was honest.
“We went to a lot of the same Pbr-sanctioned rodeos,” she said carefully. Once they’d both made pro, they often ran into each other because his sister Tate had been a barrel racer too.
“There were better bull riders than him, though. What set him apart?”
“He was so sweet and good-natured.” Her heart started to pound. The chemistry had been…too good to be true, and everyone knew the saying about that. She shook it off and continued, choosing a less intimate route for her response. “So full of life. He had tons of self-confidence, but there was no ego to him.” She pretended to tidy the icebox’s sparse tenants, rearranging them in alphabetical order. Anything to keep her hands busy.
“He was good-natured, alright,” Otto said. His weak voice managed to carry a frown. “And full of life—I’ll give you that. Good-looking, too. As for the ego… How long before you figured out the self-confidence was an act?”
Too long.
She closed the icebox and avoided the question. “You’d know more about any insecurities than me. You knew him better.”
“I knew him longer, and in a different way,” Otto corrected her. “Although it didn’t take much to figure out the two of you weren’t gonna last, the first time I met you. He was a good boy and a hard worker. Don’t get me wrong. I was fond of him. Ford and Levi, too. But self-confidence isn’t a problem for you, while Tanner’s was directly related to how successful his parents told him he was. He would have disappointed them sooner or later, and he knew it. The boy was a dreamer who never once thought anything through to the end. Worst decision-maker I ever met. He had to rely on Levi to keep him out of trouble. And Ford and that feisty sister of theirs. He was always jealous of them, even though on the outside looking in, he was the one who seemed to have the most going for him.”
He’d definitely made bad decisions. She packed those memories away and returned to her chair at Otto’s bedside.
“I don’t want to talk about Tanner,” she said quietly, but with finality.
Otto, however, persisted. “Why not?”
Because she got far too much satisfaction out of having someone who’d known him agree with her that he hadn’t been perfect. “Because there are two sides to every story and Tanner’s not here to defend himself.”
“You aren’t grieving for him, then.” He stated it, but it was more of a question.
“I am.” And she was—underneath all the anger. She drew air deep into her lungs and then let out her breath slowly while she picked through her words. “Just not in the way people think. He loved life and I’m sad for all the things he’s missing, and the things he might have accomplished. But he would have done them without me, because you’re right. We weren’t going to last.”
She only wished she hadn’t told him so on the same day he died. The guilt over that might have crushed her by now if her anger with him hadn’t outweighed it. Maybe that’s why she clung to it so hard.
“I guess I can understand that,” Otto said.
Whatever information he’d been fishing for, he appeared to have gotten. Or else he’d exhausted himself, because he dozed off again.
Dana sat by his side for the next thirty minutes, wishing Levi would return.
But shifting her thoughts to Levi stirred up even more conflicting emotions. The chemistry was right with him, too. It lingered under her skin, like an itch that refused to be scratched. Maybe she should embrace late-night loneliness, take matters in hand, and give up on men for good. Living alone had worked well for Otto.
A car pulled up outside. A door opened and closed and opened again. She went to the front step, thinking it might be Levi at last, a little disturbed that the level of anticipation she experienced couldn’t be brushed off as relief.
Instead of Levi, a middle-aged man with combed-over hair, and dressed in a lightweight gray suit, dragged a soft leather briefcase from the back seat of a silver sedan. He wore western-style ankle boots rather than dress shoes and looked so much like the definition of a small-town, country lawyer that Dana had no doubts as to who he could be.
“You must be George Cooper,” she said.
He walked toward her and extended his hand. “You have me at a disadvantage. Are you family?”
“No.” She introduced herself as they shook hands. His smile warmed to that of a teddy bear instead of a shark, and she liked the change. “Otto’s asleep,” she added.
“I’ll sit with him until he wakes up,” George said. “I’m waiting for Ryan O’Connell. He should be here any minute. Could you send him inside when he arrives?”
He entered the cabin and closed the door, leaving Dana on the outside of it, impressed and bemused with how easily and politely he’d taken charge.
*
Levi
Grand was a pretty little town conveniently located at the point where the Tongue and the Yellowstone rivers hooked up. Once a major trading post for steamer ships churning up the Yellowstone, Grand had long since been displaced by the railway from its position of glory, and its trade traffic rerouted to Billings. Not that the settlers’ descendants were bitter about it.
Levi swung the Endeavour half-ton he’d borrowed onto Helena Street. Dallas had recommended the small pharmacy on Yellowstone Drive rather than the one in the big box store on the outskirts of town because the prescription was for a narcotic. The proximity of the sheriff’s office and the county courthouse made it safer to stock them and kept the pharmacy’s record for robberies almost at zero.
He parked in the lot nearest the courthouse and walked to the pharmacy, where he handed over the prescription.
“Come back in forty-five minutes,” the pharmacist said.
Forty-five minutes…
He reined in his dismay and impatience, neither of which did any good. George had to do his business with Otto first, anyway.
He wandered onto the street, wondering how he was going to kill time, and bumped into his mother and his sister coming out of the Razor’s Edge hair salon next door.
Wren Harrington was tall and blond, majestic more so than pretty, and by all accounts he favored her, at least as far as looks went. She taught history at the local high school. His sister Gloria was a mixture of both parents and the combination worked well for her. She was blond, pretty enough he supposed, although in no way majestic, because her height genes had been washed in hot water. The top of her head leveled off an inch above the crook of his elbow. She hadn’t yet decided what she wanted to be when she grew up. For now, she liked playing house with her new husband.
Here was the perfect distraction. “Don’t you ladies look lovely,” he said.
His mom’s eyes lit up with the kind of warmth and joy only a mother could show. It didn’t matter that she saw him on a regular basis. All her children knew how much they were loved.
“Thanks go to Simone Parker. That girl is a genius.” Wren smoothed her freshly cut hair. “What are you doing in town?” Without calling me , her eyebrows added.
“Ranch business.”
That sounded cagey, but while he loved his mother and his sisters to bits, there wasn’t one of them who could keep information about Otto dying to themselves. They would have Grand’s church groups and book clubs marshalled within minutes and Otto would find himself the recipient of every casserole known to mankind by the end of the day.
“We’re headed to the Wayside Café for coffee,” his sister chimed in. “Why don’t you join us? Your treat, of course.”
“Of course.”
In truth, he’d love nothing more than to treat his mom and sister to coffee. Since he had forty-five minutes to kill, why not spend them with two of his top favorite women?
Gloria had her phone out and was texting while they walked, leaving Levi to chat with their mother.
The Wayside was moderately busy midmornings. It catered to the downtown office crowd, and people often conducted casual meetings or took their breaks here. The Harringtons were in luck and found a recently vacated wooden table on the patio overlooking the water. Sun-sparkled eddies swirled languidly underneath them as the river went about its own business, boat traffic thicker than the cars and trucks on Yellowstone Drive.
The women took seats under a striped sun umbrella while Levi went inside to place their orders. He then carried a tray loaded down with coffee and enormous muffins to their table, along with a chocolate croissant in a paper bag for Dana. He didn’t know when she’d last eaten or if Otto had food in his house.
It didn’t take long to find out that not much had changed in the Harrington household in the few weeks since he’d been home. Two of his brothers weren’t speaking. Nothing new there. Drama queens. Both of them. Their mom had lost patience and was expounding on her plans to smack sense into them when a fourth party arrived.
The newcomer juggled a pink wallet, an extra-large to-go paper cup, and an expectant smile that gave Levi a chill. Suddenly, he knew who his sister had been texting. And why.
“Shauna!” Gloria bounced from her seat, so Levi stood too. “Mom, Levi, Shauna Walsh is a friend of mine. She’s the new lawyer at Grand Cooper and Nash , just moved here from New York City.”
Gloria wore a smug, satisfied smile while Levi and Shauna shook hands. His mom was smiling now, too. Obviously, she’d also caught on.
“Why don’t you join us?” his mom said to Shauna.
“As long as you don’t mind.” She glanced at Levi, a question in her direct hazel eyes, leaving him no choice but to pull out a chair for her so that she could sit.
“Levi studied at Columbia University, too,” Gloria said. “He has a master’s degree in animal genetics,” she added, with enough pride in her tone to make Levi’s face overheat.
“Really?” Shauna’s eyes warmed as they settled on him. She took a sip from her paper cup. “Ever check out the dive bars around Frederick Douglass?”
“Maybe a little too often,” he confessed, which led to a lively discussion surrounding the night life in New York, which in turn led to a good-natured mom scolding.
“Why Grand?” he finally asked.
Shauna had graduated from Columbia. She could have gone anywhere.
“I could ask you the same question and get the same answer. Family. Plus, I specialize in real estate law, and look around you.” Shauna swept a hand at the landscape, which from this viewpoint only captured the river, the odd boat drifting past, and a bit of the far bank, but he got her point. “Angus McKillop is my grandfather.” She took another sip from her cup and waited, as if curious as to what his reaction might be.
Angus McKillop owned a good three-quarters of the business real estate property in Grand, so he could see why she’d chosen that field—no pun intended. It also made her Dan McKillop’s cousin, connecting her to the Endeavour Ranch.
Interesting.
Overall, he had to appreciate Gloria’s excellent taste in women. She’d once tried to fix him up with Hannah Brand, now Dallas’s wife, and Hannah was gorgeous. Shauna was, too—but where Hannah could be classed as wholesome and sweet, Shauna was more polished, in a geared-toward-professional-success kind of way. Everything about her—from the sweep of brown hair streaked with artful highlights to the lightweight business jacket, matching skirt, and white blouse, as well as the discreet makeup—spoke of ambition. She was smart too. His sister had really nailed what he liked.
But there was something missing between them, the same way there had been with Hannah. Shauna didn’t spark any interest in him beyond the typical male response to an attractive woman. He’d tested the waters with women like her while in New York, and although he’d learned a few things from them, and about women in general—things that he liked—he’d also learned what he valued.
His sister and mother were wasting Shauna’s time, and she seemed too nice to lead on with false expectations. Since he’d satisfied the Harrington women as far as pleasantries went, he let them pick up the conversational ball while he checked the time on his phone under the table.
Ten more minutes until he could pick up the prescription and return to Dana.
Otto. Return to Otto .
Dammit.
He kicked back his chair and rose abruptly, picking up the bag with the croissant. He kissed his mom on the cheek. “I’ve got to get back to work. It was nice to meet you,” he said to Shauna, and he meant it. She was intriguing, no doubt about that.
His heart, however, had committed itself elsewhere a long time ago, and even though his head knew it had made an unwise and futile decision, that decision appeared to be final.