Chapter Thirty
C al wrapped her in a big flannel blanket. What had taking his place cost her?
“You did a great job.” Unable to stop himself, he dropped his head for a kiss, alarmed at how cold her lips were. He pulled the blanket closer around her and chafed his hands up and down her shivering back.
“I can’t believe we did that. Here. In front of everyone,” she said.
He pulled back. “Kissing? Are you okay with it?” he asked.
She tucked her head into his neck and burrowed into the blanket. “Depends.”
“On what?”
“What it means.”
The time was now. Cal cleared his throat and leaned back. “It means that I—”
A booming voice cut through the noise. “Is this what you bumpkins do for fun?” Randy strode through the crowd, hitting Lee’s shoulder and knocking her off-balance.
Two other people followed him. Cal’s gut dropped to the temperature of that damned dunk tank. His head throbbed. He recognized the other two people from the attack at his parents’ place.
Right on time. He scanned the crowd. No. Not yet.
Maverick yanked Lee to his side and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. Then he bared his teeth. “Folks have been looking for you. Friend.”
Cal tightened his hold around Deirdre and rotated so they were sideways to the newcomers. Randy and his friends would have to come through Cal if they wanted to touch her.
“When I’m done with this town, you’ll all be working for me.” Randy sneered.
“Not likely,” Maverick said.
“So you think.” Randy strolled up to Cal and pulled out folded paper from his coat pocket. “Here it is, like we agreed. I have the check and the paperwork to sign over the property. No one else has to get hurt.”
“What?” Deirdre gasped.
In his peripheral vision, Cal spied the twin slack-jawed expressions of Mom and Pop, along with others in the crowd that had grown dead silent. Cal kept his arm around a gaping Deirdre. The color rose in her face, turning her into a spitting-mad Deirdre.
He squeezed her shoulder, hoping she’d trust him. “So, you want me to hand over the family’s homestead so you can dig up our mountains and ruin our town.”
“What’s there to ruin? It’s already backward here. Look around.” He lifted his hand to somehow encompass the colorful decorations, craft vendors, and community service booths. “Besides, we had a deal.”
Cal pivoted to keep Randy and his friends in his sights and protect Deirdre. He also needed to keep Randy talking for a few more minutes. “Why aren’t you giving this deal to the other property owners? To the corporation?”
“Corporation?” Randy laughed. “Oh, you mean the Indian tribe ?”
Tuli’s dark expression was mirrored by other native Alaskans present. He took his phone back from Lee and turned it on Randy.
“I only need one point of entry to access the range.” Randy waved the check. “You said that your parents would be out of here soon. Less to deal with. You’re gone soon, too, right? This money will pay for you all to take a nice vacation.” Sniffing, he scowled at the gray skies. “Not here, though.”
Pop glowered.
Mom’s mouth dropped open. “Calvin?” she said.
“Calvin?” Deirdre said pushing away from him, still shivering.
Silence fell all around him.
His head pounded. This town and these people were his home.
Randy said again, “We had a deal.”
Cal glanced down at Deirdre, her wet hair and droplets in her eyelashes making him want to warm her inside and out. This woman was his home. He would do anything to remove the shock and disappointment on her face.
“Is this true?” she asked.
“Sure is,” Randy said.
Maverick took a step forward. “You. Shut it.”
Randy snorted as his two partners closed ranks with him.
Everyone believed Cal had betrayed his parents and the entire town. So be it. “He’s right. We did have a deal.”
No one moved in the crowd.
Randy sneered and lifted his chin.
“How could you do something like this?” Deirdre’s words fell like physical slaps against his face.
She pushed back against him, but he didn’t fully let go. Not yet. He shifted so she stood next to him, his arm draped over her shoulders.
Cal blew out a breath and fought to remain calm and take his time. “It’s true. I met with Randy recently, hoping to understand what it was he wanted and to see if there was a way to work together. Before that, I had come back to Yukon Valley to encourage my parents to move to a bigger town where there were more services for their health. Where it wouldn’t be so difficult for them to keep up with their property. Where they’d be safer than in Yukon Valley.”
“Son,” Pop said. “That’s low.”
Lifting his hands as if he could hold back the waves of disappointment coming from his friends and family, Cal swallowed a hard lump and said, “You’re right, Pop. Doesn’t matter that I only did it because I wanted what’s best for you and Mom. It was a low thing to do.”
Deirdre’s blue eyes pinned him in place. “So, when I saw with you and Randy in the diner? You really were meeting with him and making a deal.”
“Yes, he was,” Randy said.
Right as Cal said, “No.”
Randy pulled his chin back. “It’s all right here.” He held out the envelope.
Cal killed a little more time while he planted his feet shoulder-width apart and put his free hand on his hip. “Here’s my final offer. You and your investors can go to hell. Good luck ruining another town.”
“You said that you didn’t care about this one-horse town,” the guy growled. “Said you might as well make a buck from it.” Randy’s eyes shifted as he stepped back.
With subtle movements, the crowd formed a semi-circle around him. Randy and his friends were going nowhere.
Cal lifted his chin. “That’s what you thought I said. What you wanted to hear.” He sniffed. “As far as I’m aware, Yukon Valley and the land around it are not for sale. At least not by me. This is my family and friends you’re talking about. People I care about. You’re not going to terrorize anyone else.”
Randy and his two friends took threatening steps toward Cal, but the sheer mass of pissed-off people surrounding them checked their movements.
“We had a deal,” Randy said. “We shook on it. You signed a paper.”
“Did we now? Sorry, can’t recall. My head injury caused memory loss.”
“You’re going to regret this,” Randy yelled over the grumbles of the angry crowd.
“I regret talking with you in the first place. Look, I made a mistake in thinking there could be some scenario where everyone benefits from working together. You’ve made it clear that’s not possible.”
“The contract! It’s right here!” Randy yelled.
Mom put her hands over her mouth. Pop glared holes into both Randy and Cal. The crowd waited.
Deirdre’s sharp gasp next to him scared him more than all of the other reactions combined.
Calmer than he had ever been in his life, Cal said, “See, here’s the problem, friend. I can’t sign over something that isn’t mine to give. Even if you have something with my signature on it, the paper is worthless.”
Randy’s face turned beet red. “What?” The envelope crumpled in his fist. “You said your folks weren’t making decisions anymore, that you were the legal power of attorney.”
“Did I give you that impression? Huh, guess I made a mistake there, too.”
Pop kept his eyes on Randy as he strode ten paces to where Cal stood. “As you can see, I have no problems making decisions here. Aggie, honey, how about you?”
Mom joined them, mad as a hornet, nearly vibrating, and whipped around to face Randy, whose red face turned white. For a second, Cal worried about Randy’s wellbeing. Pop snaked an arm around her waist, ostensibly affectionate but more keeping her from killing the speculator.
“Decisions are no problem for me. I feel completely clearheaded. Too clear, in fact,” she said.
“But our meeting today.” Randy whipped his head around. “You made me come out here to finalize the deal.”
Deirdre pressed her shoulder more firmly to Cal’s side. His heart swelled at her lifted chin and blue glint as she glared lasers at Randy.
“I got tired of you insulting and hurting people and the town I care about,” Cal said. “You had gone to ground, and the only thing that would flush you out was your greed.”
“But—”
“Lieutenant Kate? Are you here?” Cal shouted.
“I’m on it,” the trooper said with a tip of her navy-blue hat as she stepped through the back of the crowd.
The lieutenant and three troopers—the sum total of Yukon Valley’s Alaska state trooper detachment—emerged from their positions behind the warming tent and from the next booth over. With big, friendly Yukon Valley smiles, the troopers rescued Randy and his friends from the swarming mad spectators that had trapped them.
Kate was all business. “I don’t get to do this very much in our ‘one-horse town,’ but today I’m going to read your rights, sir. You are being arrested for attempted murder, conspiracy to murder, intent to defraud, and criminal trespass.”
“Murder? No.” Randy’s face turned red as he pointed. “Hey, I didn’t hit him. Jacob did.”
Kate’s expression could generously be described as unimpressed. “You planned it. But sure, maybe Jacob will testify that this was all his idea and get you off the hook.”
Jacob, now in cuffs, sputtered and denied that accusation.
The lieutenant’s tight smile would make the most crooked criminal walk a straight line. “You’re done terrorizing the fine people of this town.” She paused and the click of his handcuffs echoed loud in the dead silence. “Take them away.” Then she high-fived a nearby teenager whose mouth gaped open and eyes were huge. “I always wanted to say that.”
Randy, his friends, and the three troopers left.
Lieutenant Kate turned to the kids gathered around her. With a wry expression and a shrug, she started answering their chattered, rapid-fire questions about being an Alaska state trooper.
Mom and Pop faced Cal.
Maverick and Lee walked over to him.
He loved his family and Deirdre’s, but he truly cared about the woman in his arms and wanted to get her warmed up and clear the air between them.
“Calvin?” Deirdre looked up at him. If he could memorize that beautiful awestruck expression, he’d be a lucky man. “What did you do?”
“I wanted to be a good enough man for you.”
“But—”
He raised a finger. “Wait. I need to say my piece. Randy was partially right about some of it. I made some mistakes. However, I realized some important things over this past month, and I promised myself that I’d fix my errors.”
“I can’t believe you baited Randy into showing his face here.”
“Greed is that guy’s catnip. He couldn’t resist the chance of closing the deal.”
“I’m sorry I jumped to conclusions when I saw you meeting with him.”
“You weren’t exactly wrong, Deirdre.” He dropped his hands on her blanket-covered shoulders, and he hauled in a shaky breath. “I made other mistakes. With you.”
She studied him for a beat. “We both did.”
“Listen, I can’t fight a ghost.”
“I never asked you to,” she said. “Never once.”
“I know that. It was me. I was the one fighting to be better than your best memories of Elijah. Now I realize that it doesn’t matter. We can both love Elijah and remember his life. I finally got it through my hard head that I measure up on my own.”
“Calvin.” Her eyes turned watery. “What are you saying?”
“I want to be the man for you. Not in the past. In the present. I want to be the right man, right now, and maybe for years to come. What do you say?”
The blanket fell to the ground as she kissed him.