Chapter 12
T wo days later, Bailey received a package.
“You get more ammo?” Jinx asked. In addition to changing up their routine, she had instituted a policy that sent cowboys in pairs when they had to go to the south pasture. She also added target practice to their daily routine. The men were fair shots, but their guns were hardly used, only to frighten away the occasional mountain lion or coyote intent on poaching a calf. Last year Jinx’s son, Corrie, shot a rattler, and it was still a topic of great interest for the men as there was some debate over how close he’d come to shooting out the toes of his brother, Jonah.
“No,” Bailey said, not bothering to explain as she knelt and cut open the box. She unfurled a dress and held it aloft before stuffing it quickly back into the box and removing a pair of shoes. Then she held onto Jinx’s arm for balance while she whipped off her combat boots and socks before slipping into the new shoes.
“If this is some kind of new uniform, the men ain’t going to be happy,” he said.
“Not breaking in new shoes before a dance is a rookie move,” she said and then took Jonah’s rifle, checked the sight he complained was misaligned, and shot through the heart of his target.
“Sight’s fine, it’s your aim that’s off,” she told him, patting his back to soften the blow.
She finished the rest of the day in the new shoes, and it was a testament to how well the men were beginning to know her that no one thought twice about it. In fact no one seemed to notice them much at all besides Cal who did a double take at supper.
“Those for the dance?” he guessed.
“Yes, sir.”
“So you are planning to wear a dress,” he said.
“It’s a dance, sir,” she returned.
“Huh.”
“Is there a problem?” she asked.
“No. I’m sure Sully will be thrilled with the transformation.” He took a bite of his stew, chewed and swallowed. “I have to say I was a little surprised he roped you so easily into the dance.”
She shrugged.
“He didn’t exactly trick you, did he?”
“I spend a lot of time in a man’s world. Sometimes it’s nice to put on a dress and remember I’m a woman,” she said.
“Strange, I’d be hard pressed to forget it,” he replied.
They shared a smile until she finally dropped her eyes to her stew.
On the day of the dance, she worked like usual. She and Cal ate supper together and then she disappeared while he retired to the porch with a glass of tea.
Sully arrived in his personal vehicle instead of his work truck so basically he had traded the white pickup for the red one. He wore khaki pants and a button down shirt and his ubiquitous white hat.
“You look good enough for church,” Cal called.
“Thanks, but I already have a date,” Sully returned. “Where is she?”
“Dunno, haven’t seen her in a bit,” Cal said.
“I’m here,” Bailey said, appearing in the doorway.
Neither man replied because neither could. For a few beats, they were rendered speechless. Since her arrival she had worn some variation of jeans and a t-shirt with her hair in its tidy ponytail, her face free of makeup. Now she wore a gray dress, fitted at the waist and flaring to her knees, the spaghetti straps up top showcasing her tanned, toned shoulders and arms. Her hair hung in soft waves and she wore enough makeup to highlight her eyes and lips.
“Goodnight, Cal,” she said softly, alerting him to the fact he was staring.
“Goodnight, little bit.” He should probably tell her to have fun, but he couldn’t make the words emerge.
She faced forward, toward Sully. “Am I allowed to tell you how good you look?” he asked.
“No,” she returned.
“All right then,” he said. He opened her door and took her hand to help her up, closing the door when she was safely inside. He tipped his hat to Cal, jogged to his side of the car, and took off.
They drove a few minutes in silence until he spoke. “I feel I owe you an apology.” When she didn’t reply, he continued. “No response?”
“It seems ungracious to agree with that statement,” she said.
“When women show up in my office, they’re usually either crackpots or something altogether different.”
“Predatory,” she guessed.
“It seems ungracious to agree with that statement,” he said and she laughed. “I admit I didn’t quite know what to make of you, and you caught me off guard. Since then I’ve done some checking on you, and you’re the real deal, Major Dunbar. I apologize that I acted so rudely and unprofessionally.”
“Apology accepted, Ranger Langford, thank you,” she said, relaxing a bit. Maybe he was a normal guy after all. And he wasn’t too shabby to look at either, with sandy blond hair and eyes that were neither green nor blue but somewhere in between. Not like Cal with his devilishly dark hair and eyes.
“Why did you leave the marines?” he asked.
“High blood pressure.”
He clicked his tongue in sympathy. “What do you have planned after you leave here?”
“I’ll probably take a nice, long bath, get the dust and humidity off me, and then I have no idea,” she said, turning to gaze out the window.
“Uh oh, I’ve bumbled into negative territory. I’m sure you’ll figure something out.”
“What would you do, if you had to leave the rangers?” she asked.
He opened his mouth, closed it, and shook his head.
“Exactly.”
“It’s different for women though, isn’t it?” he asked.
“Haven’t we been over this?” she said.
“Don’t you want kids?” he asked.
“Lots of women have kids in the military,” she said.
“Lots of women like you? Whose jobs demand physical performance and the high likelihood of not returning home again? I mean, say you’d stayed in, wouldn’t you have had to come to some kind of crisis moment anyway? Would you really want to stay in and have to sit behind a desk?”
She grimaced.
“I’m not saying it’s an easy thing for you, don’t get me wrong. What I’m saying is maybe it’s a blessing in disguise. A chance to take the reins of change before they’re forced on you. This way you won’t have to resent some man for getting you pregnant and thereby forcing you out of a career you love. Your own body already did it for you.”
She stared at him, eyes narrowed. “I’m not sure if that’s sexist or brilliant.”
He tapped his temple. “There’s a lot going on under the hat, and I have a lot of time to think about things, driving around in my truck.”
“Yours must be an interesting job,” she noted, ready to change the subject away from herself. “How’d you come to be a ranger?”
“A long shot dream and a lot of hard work,” he said.
It came as something of a surprise to Bailey when they arrived in town. The drive had seemed short, the conversation with Sully enjoyable. She began to believe her initial impression of him had been incorrect. He wasn’t a self-important moron after all.
Sully introduced her to several people in the town who all seemed to know her already. “Oh, Cal’s girl. You clean up nice. Where is Cal?” she was asked so many times the faces and voices began to blur.
Finally enough people were on the dance floor it wouldn’t be awkward to join them. Sully led Bailey onto the floor for a line dance that proved to be fun, once she got the hang of it. The dancing was mostly either line or contra, fast and in groups that left little chance for touching or conversation. Every once in a while they threw in a waltz. Bailey found to her further surprise she didn’t mind dancing these with Sully, either. He was a good dancer, and he never held her too closely or pressed her for more than she was willing to give.
“You really do clean up nice,” he said during one such dance.
“I’d say you do, too, but I’ve never seen you messy,” she said.
“See that kind of sounds like a put down coming from you,” he said.
“It’s not, I promise.”
“I don’t know you well enough to know what a promise is worth,” he said.
“I’m a marine; it’s worth everything,” she said.
“Are you flirting with me?” he asked.
“About as much as you’re flirting with me, never more,” she said.
“Well then I’m definitely going to have to step it up,” he said.
“I can’t promise I’ll follow suit,” she said.
“A chance I’m willing to take,” he said, easing her a tiny bit closer.
When that dance ended, they paused to grab something to drink. Sully ran into someone else he knew and became ensnared in a conversation. After the initial greeting, Bailey stood beside him, bored and trying not to show it. It was hard for her to relax, even at a dance. So when the environment of the room shifted, she noticed. She straightened and turned, expecting to see danger. What she saw instead was Calhoun Ridge, tall, dark, foreboding, and impossibly handsome, wearing a suit and making his way toward her. She told herself to turn around, to look away, but she couldn’t. She remained rooted to the spot, staring at him as he stared at her, easing closer and closer, winding his way through bodies until at last he was right beside her. He clasped her hand.
“Sully, you mind if I have this dance?”
“I’ll say yes, seeing as how I don’t seem to have much of a choice,” Sully replied.
A waltz began to play. Bailey had the suspicion it was on purpose, as if whoever controlled the music was doing them a favor. Cal was a good dancer, and he made no pretense of keeping a space between them, as Sully had done. He tucked her close and clasped her hand, resting it on his chest between them.
“Thought you weren’t coming,” she said.
“Sully rightfully pointed out I haven’t been to one of these in a while. I don’t want people getting the mistaken impression I’m standoffish,” he said.
“I don’t think anyone watching you right now would think that,” she said.
“Plus I needed to tell you somethin’ and ask you somethin’.”
“Go on,” she urged.
“You’re beautiful. You’re beautiful when you’re like this, and you’re beautiful when you’re not.”
“Thank you,” she said, the words a croaky whisper. They danced in silence a few beats before she spoke again. “What did you want to ask me?”
“Do you ever think you want to settle down and have children, Bailey?”
The question was so close to the conversation she’d had with Sully it felt eerie. “Yes.”
“How many?”
“Four or five ought to do.”
The corners of his mouth tugged slightly. “That ought to do just fine.”
She glanced at his left hand, the one holding hers, and noted he was still wearing his ring. He followed the line of her gaze as the dance came to an end. “I should go.”
“So that’s it? You drove an hour to show up at a dance, tell me I’m beautiful, ask me about children, and drive away again?”
“I’m only human, Bailey, and I wanted one dance with you in that dress.”
She stepped out of his embrace. “You’ve had it. Goodnight, Cal.”
“Goodnight,” he said. He lingered a few beats longer and then turned and walked away, out of the hall, into the moonless night.
Bailey waited until he was safely gone and turned the opposite direction. She found a door that led to the back alley and took it, stepping through and inhaling the heavy air. It was a close night, oppressively so. For a moment it felt hard to breathe. She leaned on the wall and tried to force air into her lungs.
The door beside her opened and closed and then someone was leaning on the wall beside her. “You want to talk about it?” Sully offered.
“No, thank you,” Bailey returned.
“You want to cry?” he asked almost hopefully.
“I’m not so good at crying,” she said.
“Shame. I’m ridiculously good at comforting crying women,” he said.
She laughed a bit. “I could guess that you are.”
He took a deep breath and let it out. “As it seems any sort of romance between us is doomed before it gets off the ground, what do you say to being friends?”
“I’d say it sounds spectacular,” she said, surprising him by linking her arm through his and giving it a squeeze.
“Good. As your friend, I have something to tell you, something worrisome and important. It’s about Isabel.”
Bailey tensed. “What about her?”
“Cal won’t hear a word about who she’s dating, but I think you need to know. She’s been seeing the head of the cartel.”
Bailey looked at him, stunned. “What?”
Sully blew out another breath and swiped his hand over his face. “Isabel has always been difficult, hard to like, standoffish and a snob. Why Cal married her, we’ll never… Anyway, about a year ago I began to notice some changes in her, bigger mood swings, more erratic decision making. I became suspicious, so I started keeping an eye on her.”
“Drugs?” Bailey guessed. That had been the missing thing she hadn’t been able to put her finger on, the strange affect in Isabel’s concerning behavior.
“Drugs,” Sully confirmed “After she blew through all the money Cal gave her, she began offering other things in exchange for them. Eventually that turned into some sort of relationship, such as it is. I mean, you’ve seen her. She’s a beautiful woman, exactly the sort a drug kingpen would like to have in his keep.”
“She threatened Cal. I thought it was all talk,” Bailey said.
“It wasn’t,” Sully said.
They were silent a minute, each of them digesting the conversation. “What did you say when she said that?” he asked at last.
“I told her if she ever said it again, I’d kill her, and I meant it,” she said.
He paused a few beats longer, staring at the far wall. “Do it in Mexico. I have no jurisdiction there.”
He sounded half joking, but Bailey thought he was fully serious.
“I got in a shootout with some gang members. I took out their tires. Since then, I’ve been waiting for the other shoe to drop,” she said.
“Girl, you know how to make friends, don’t you?” he said.
“It’s going to get worse before it gets better,” she said.
“Their idea of worse might be far more than what you’re thinking,” he said.
“Then I’ll have to make plenty sure my idea of the worst is more than they’ve ever dreamed,” she said.
He blinked at her. “I can honestly say this is the most interesting date I’ve ever had.”
“As dates go, it’s not half bad.” She clasped his hand and tugged him toward the door. “Let’s dance more.”
“Okay, and if anyone asks, Cal and I fought for you, and I won.”
She smiled up at him. “The first rule of telling a lie is to keep it believable, Sully. Let’s say you fought, and I beat you both.”
“The longer I know you, the more believable that sounds,” he said. He opened the door for her and allowed her to precede him inside.