Chapter Two
The ride into town is a quiet one. The late-summer breeze is warm and soothing as I lean my head on the lip of the open window, my hair blowing like crazy as I let my eyes drift closed.
“You remind me of one of those dogs that sticks its head out the window.”
I turn and grin at Riggs in the driver’s seat. “I’m smart enough to keep my mouth closed. I don’t fancy catching flies.”
“Good choice. So, where are we heading first today?”
“How long do we have before the town meeting?” It still feels weird to think about being invited to a town meeting after how the last one turned out, but Sarah extended the invitation, and I find it increasingly difficult to say no to my friends.
“A couple of hours yet. Shepard mentioned last night that he was going to try to meet us there.”
“I figured he would.”
“Did Dawn tell you she was coming?”
I frown, not liking the idea of her being exposed, especially with my father out there, hiding somewhere. But I’m her friend, not her keeper. With Hannah spending the day with David and the girls, I can understand why she’s choosing today of all days to test the waters.
“No, but I get why she’d want to. Her voice was stolen from her. Now she wants to be heard, and I can’t blame her for that.”
“You worry, though.”
“You’ve met me. I worry about everything.”
“Not yourself, just those you care about.”
“I think you worry about me enough for the both of us.”
“Maybe,” he concedes with a grin.
“Let’s go to Jackie’s first.”
“Okay.” He makes the turn that leads to Jackie’s place as I take in the riot of colors we pass along the way. Crowhurst has clawed its way back from the brink of death, and I can’t remember a time when it looked better than it does right now.
Of course, there are plenty of places still looking worse for wear.
Yeah, it’s places I haven’t been, not because I’m being selfish, but because I haven’t been invited or because I know the people who live there will be hostile toward me.
I’m not going to put myself in danger for people who will never appreciate it.
Hope spreads, so eventually their little plots of land will heal too, but it will take much longer than it did for those who have taken the time to either mend bridges with me, like Jackie, or get to know me for the first time, like Sarah.
The car stops, but I stay in my seat. Riggs gets grumpy when I don’t let him open the door for me. I wait for him to come around and help me out, smiling when the door to Jackie’s place opens and she appears on the top step with a wide smile.
“Calliope, Riggs. It’s so good to see you. I was hoping you’d drop by.”
I grab the tote bag of goodies from the footwell before walking her way.
She pulls me in for a hug when I’m in reach.
I don’t tense now, used to the feel of her arms around me.
After everything that went down with Derek, I half expected her to hate me.
Instead, she’s been so horrified and apologetic that for a while I was worried she was going to have a damn heart attack.
I felt like shit that she’d been dragged into this, even though I knew it wasn’t any more my fault than it was hers.
I let her love on me a little, knowing she gets as much from it as I do.
She pulls away, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear, looking at me with wise eyes.
My actions over the last few months haven’t been lost on her.
I haven’t told anyone what happened. Not to spare Austin, but to spare me.
I couldn’t go down that road again, painted as some scarlet woman, and Austin of all people as some poor, unfortunate soul caught in my web.
For now, I need to let sleeping dogs lie.
Thinking about Austin is like touching a live wire, so I shake it off and grin when Riggs bends down for a hug, too.
“How are you doing, Jackie?” he asks.
“Better now.” She looks at me. “Where’s the rest of your handsome men?”
I turn away, but Riggs answers, covering for me. “Why, Miss Jackie, are you saying I’m not man enough for you?”
She slaps him playfully with the dish towel hanging from her shoulder. “Behave, we both know you are way too much man for the likes of me. You need someone strong like Calliope here.”
“I think you’re selling yourself short, but I won’t deny my heart beats only for my girl.”
She presses her hands to her chest and swoons, making me snort.
“Alright, Casanova, let’s get out of this heat. Jackie, I would love a glass of your lemonade if you have any ready.”
“If I have any ready?” She rolls her eyes at me like I just asked the most ridiculous question.
Riggs and I take a seat at the table as Jackie busies herself getting our drinks. The room hasn’t changed since our last visit, except for the large bouquet on the counter.
“Nice flowers.”
Jackie turns to look at me, her face flushed.
“Ooh, I’m sensing a story there.”
“Hush now. There is no story.”
“Hmm…if you say so.”
She huffs as she carries our glasses over to us and places them on the table. “Fine. I met a very nice man at the hospital, a doctor actually, who is on loan from a fancy hospital in Chicago.”
“Wait, why were you in the hospital?” I ask in concern, feeling a little pissed at myself that I lost sight of my friends while I was caught up in my grief.
She reaches over and pats my hand. “I accompanied Bettie. She caught the flu, which quickly turned into pneumonia, but she’s doing much better now. She’s due to be released next week.”
I cover my mouth with my hands. “But I’ve seen Christian at the ranch. Why the heck is he working? He doesn’t have to when his wife needs him. He knows that, right?”
“He knows,” Riggs assures me. “He’s there because keeping busy is the only thing that’s stopping him from falling apart.”
I look to Jackie, who has glassy eyes as she nods in agreement.
“Bettie doesn’t remember him at all. She’s violent toward him because, in her mind, he’s a strange man invading her home.
When he tried visiting the hospital, she reacted so badly that the staff had to ask him to leave while they sedated her. ”
I let my eyes slip closed, feeling Christian’s pain as if it were my own. “Oh, that poor man.”
“The only reason she lets me close is because she thinks I’m her little sister. I haven’t got the heart to tell her that her sister died years ago. I don’t know how Christian does it,” Jackie admits.
“He does it because even though his wife has forgotten him, he’ll never forget her.
Right now, he’s carrying every smile, every laugh, every tear they shared.
Because if he forgets too, it will be like the life they led never existed,” Riggs says softly.
The lump in my throat feels impossible to swallow.
Jackie sniffs, dabbing at her eyes with one of the floral hankies she always seems to have handy.
“The doctors discussed her moving into a facility, but Christian refuses to hear it. Says she’s happy in her home.
I think he’s worried if she loses that one connection she has left to this world, he’ll lose her completely. But what about him?”
“Christian can move into the ranch. I’ll make sure Bettie has around-the-clock care— the best money can buy.
He can visit on the days when she’s lucid.
I don’t care if we have to cover for him or not.
He can drop whatever he’s doing and head over, but on the days when he needs to stay away, I don’t want him to feel alone. Not when he has us.”
Riggs tugs me around the neck and kisses my temple. “Fuck, I love you. Excuse my language, Miss Jackie.”
She waves him off with a watery grin. “I fucking love her too.”
A startled laugh escapes me, and Jackie and Riggs join in.
“I’ll talk to him,” Riggs offers.
I nod. “But if he argues, send him my way.”
“You got it.”
The phone rings, so we stop talking as Jackie gets to her feet and hurries over to the wall to grab it. Riggs looks at me in amusement, likely at the fact that she still has a landline.
She puts the phone to her ear and greets the caller a second before the smile slips from her face. “I don’t want to hear it. Don’t call back here again.” She hangs up the phone with a satisfying slam you can’t get with a cell phone.
“Everything okay?”
“That was Derek.”
I swallow as Riggs leans forward, his elbows resting on the table. I hadn’t given him much thought since Austin detonated my life. Hiding out at the ranch means I haven’t seen him or Porter, though I know Porter still comes to the ranch.
Jackie pulls her shoulders back and raises her head.
“I don’t know where I went wrong with that boy, but I won’t be one of those women who enable him, especially as he has such a negative view of women anyway.
And he has the audacity to ask for help while he hides out in his father’s old hunting cabin like a coward.
” She shakes her head, her expression one of disappointment as she takes her seat once more.
“What he did to you and poor Sarah is unforgivable. I don’t know who that man is, but it’s not the little boy I nursed or held when he was sick.”
“None of this is your fault, Jackie,” Riggs assures her.
“Logically, I know that. But the part of me that will love that boy until my last breath can’t help but look back and try to figure out where I went wrong.”
“Is he harassing you?”
“He wants money. He has no job now, and I refuse to pay for a lawyer for him. If I do that, I’m basically saying I support him beating women, and I don’t. I won’t. He’ll have to make do with a public defender.”
Riggs looks at me, likely trying to gauge how I feel.
I was in this situation once, though the circumstances were vastly different.
I could have had the best lawyer on the planet, and I still wouldn’t have walked away.
The game was rigged from the start. The difference between Derek and me is that I was innocent.
I shake my head to let him know I’m fine.
“I worry that the less help I offer, the angrier he becomes.”
“You think he’ll hurt you?”
“I’d prefer that to him hurting you, and that’s honestly where most of his anger is directed.”
“Why don’t you come and stay at the ranch too? At least until things die down.”
“It’s sweet of you to offer, but this is my home. It’s the first place I ever felt free. I won’t let him take that from me.”
“At least let me have my guy, David, come and update your security system.”
“She’s right, regardless of Derek, a woman living alone should always take precautions,” Riggs tells her.
“Okay. I can live with that. Can we change the subject now? I don’t want to talk about Derek anymore.”
“Sure. I’d ask how the lotion is working out for you, but I can see the results for myself. You look stunning. Don’t you think?” I ask Riggs.
He winks at Jackie. “If I weren’t so in love with Opie here, I’d be all over you.”
Jackie gets flustered, her cheeks going pink as she fans herself, but she really does look good. In the short time she’s been using my lotions, she looks ten years younger.
“I’ve been raving about it to all my friends.”
“That explains why it’s fast becoming one of my most popular items.”
She smiles, looking proud of herself. “Are you coming to the town meeting later?”
“I am. Sarah wants to go over the details of the festival. At least that’s what I’ve heard.”
“I’m sure that’s on the agenda, along with a million other things, as per usual.” She sighs—clearly not a fan of town meetings.
“Come sit in the back with us. Nobody will notice if you take a nap.”
She chuckles before taking a sip of her drink. “You always have the best ideas. Talking of ideas, Sarah said you are doing a burger stall as well as one for your lotions, and it inspired me to do a stall this year too. I’m thinking pies and tarts.”
“Sold,” Riggs tells her, making me laugh.
“You don’t think it’s silly?”
I shake my head, knowing full well it was her damn dead husband that put those ideas into her head. “No, I think it’s a great idea and so will Sarah.”
She takes a relieved breath, all the worry about Derek slipping from her face as she talks animatedly about the different flavor combos she’s going to concoct. As her happiness becomes infectious, a little more of the sadness that’s been my constant companion for the last few months slips away.