Chapter 5
NOELLE
When she returned home she sat in her car for a few minutes waiting for her head to stop spinning.
It was one thing to get a new opportunity to show her talents, it was something else to be on site at a police investigation.
It was even more exciting to get a chance to breathe the air at the King homestead. Living in San Antonio it was sometimes hard to remember that there were big open spaces like that so near to the city.
Finola was overwhelming, but she was also sweet and reminded her a lot of her own mother.
Loving.
Pushy.
Very… very pushy.
Noelle lifted her hands to her face and laughed into them.
Goodness.
The way she’d pushed her toward McCrae was… something.
Finola was certainly in a rush to marry her son off.
McCrae King.
Noelle shook her head and smiled, relaxing into the driver’s seat of her car.
Tall.
Built.
His voice…
She swore she could hear it.
“Noelle?”
It sounded like he was right there beside her.
Even with her eyes closed, she rolled them at herself.
Talk about wishful thinking, right?
“Noelle?”
A knock at her window startled her.
Her hands crossed over her heart and she leaned back, staring out the window.
The man she’d just been mooning over like a fangirl was standing beside her.
“McCrae? What are you doing here?”
He shook his head, smiling a little and rolled his finger in the air, asking her to put down the window.
She pursed her lips together and frowned a little.
Then she poked her finger at the window.
He looked down and frowned before lifting his chin to look back at her.
He raised an eyebrow and she felt her heart speed up, fluttering in her chest.
Boy, she must really be… silly. Hard up? Yeah that was the better description.
She used her whole hand and gestured for him to back up and saw when he understood the gesture.
His eyes widened a bit and he took one step back and then another.
As soon as she was sure she could open the door without hitting him in the nuts, she opened the door and stepped out.
McCrae King was standing there, still handsome as sin in his uniform, his arms folding across his chest.
That simple gesture made the muscles in his arms even more… muscly.
If that was a word.
Whatever exercises he did to build those muscles?
They were good ones.
Very good.
“You’re staring pretty hard there.”
It took her a moment to lift her gaze up to his face.
“It’s fascinating,” she explained and saw him smile.
A brash smile where he didn’t show any teeth.
He smile said he was sure of his appeal.
And he had every right to be.
A moment later when she spoke, she saw his expression change a little.
“I wonder what those muscles look like under your skin.”
That smirk that he’d had on his lips seemed to melt away.
His skin which was warm and tanned by the sun turned a little pale.
“That…” she sucked in a breath through her teeth. “That probably sounded a little creepy.”
He shook his head and stared at her with widened eyes. “A little creepy?”
She shrugged. “Sorry. It’s a thing. There’s a reason why I do what I do. The stuff under the skin is what fascinates me.”
He nodded and his eyes lowered to the side. “Ahhh… Okay.”
She lowered her face into her hand. “I’m a mess.”
“No,” he chuckled, “you’re just… different.”
Different, she mused, is another way to say creepy.
“I uh… I came by to bring you your pass.”
She frowned at his words. “Pass?”
He reached into his pants pocket and took out a lanyard with a plastic rectangle at the end of it.
When he held it up the wind caught it and turned it around. She saw that one side had a Texas Ranger badge on it. The other side had a picture of her face and her name under it in bold font.
“This will let you into the room we set up for you in the Ranger office. When you come in to work, you can present this to the staff in the evidence room. They’ll bring the skull out for you.”
She nodded slowly. “This all seems really… official.”
“That’s because it is.” McCrae laughed, a silent laugh that shook his shoulders. “Official. You’re now an official consultant to the Texas Rangers.”
He held the pass out to her and she took it in her hand.
The lanyard was soft and smooth against her palm. She reached out her other hand and took the plastic part of the pass in her hand and looked from one side to the other.
NOELLE GARCIA
When she looked at her picture, she cringed a little, her upper lip curling on the right side. “Where did you get that picture?”
McCrae reached out and turned it so he could see.
Noelle tried to snatch it out of his hand, but he had a good hold of it and wouldn’t let it go.
He looked at the picture and she avoided looking at his face.
She knew how bad that photo was. It looked like it was almost a decade old.
“Huh,” he sounded a little confused himself. “Maybe the DMV?”
Noelle pulled it away and looked down at it again.
OMG.
It was her DMV photo.
Back when she’d straightened her hair and had to use a headband to keep it out of her eyes.
She pulled it closer to her face and squinted a little at it.
She had a pimple.
A pimple!
On the side of her forehead.
It was close to her hairline but it was visible.
“Great.”
“I think it’s kind of cute.”
She looked up at him and McCrae smiled at her.
Ugh.
Noelle wanted to hang her head.
Or melt into the ground.
She’d come a long way since that photo.
In fact, it was a lifetime ago.
Before she married.
Before she had her daughter.
Before she became a widow and a single mother.
She felt her whole soul sink.
It had been some time since the last time she’d felt like this.
Since the passage of time kicked her in the gut.
“Noelle?”
She felt his hand on her shoulder, but she didn’t trust herself to look up.
She wasn’t about to break down in tears in front of McCrae King.
How weak would she look?
How weak would she feel?
“Noelle, are you-” “Mama!”
* * *
DUVAL
“Mama!”
He knew that she was a mom.
She’d told him as much.
He’d seen that life changing photo of her daughter, sitting on the floor, her father’s blood on her.
It was quite a different child than the one who called out to her mother from the porch.
Holding onto one of the posts, her hair, dark chocolate brown like her mother’s, swished around her chin.
“You’re home!”
Beside him, Noelle lifted a hand to wave. “I’ll be there in a minute, chachetona!”
The little girl giggled. Letting go of the post, she clapped her hands against her cheeks. “My cheeks aren’t chubby, Mama!”
Duval smiled at the interaction.
There was an ease between mother and daughter that spoke of love, bottomless love.
The front door of the house opened wider and an older woman stepped out.
It was easy to see the resemblance between the three.
This was obviously Noelle’s mother.
He turned to greet her and raised his arm in a wave.
Two unforgettable things happened in that moment.
The sun dropped down beneath the lowest branches of the cottonwood as sunset rapidly approached, hitting him square in the chest and Noelle’s daughter began to wail.
Duval was stunned, but Noelle launched into action.
Pushing him back, she rounded the front of her car and ran up to the porch.
She grabbed her daughter up, holding her tight to her chest.
Duval stood there with his heart pounding in his chest as Noelle’s mother opened the door and held it for her daughter.
Noelle disappeared inside, but the child’s wails still filled his ears, making him a little weak in his knees.
Noelle’s mother took her hand away from the door and it slowly swung closed, but didn’t latch. He didn’t hear the click of the door catching in the frame.
He felt his heart pounding in his chest and lifted a hand to cover it, pressing the heel of his hand against his breast bone.
What the hell happened?
He heard the soft creek of the porch steps and looked in that direction.
The woman walking toward him had a drawn expression. Her eyes were filled with anguish.
And understanding.
“Hello, Ranger…”
“King, Ma’am.” He put out his free hand as he lowered the other to his side. “I’m Ranger McCrae King.”
She nodded slowly as she shook his hand.
He could feel that her palm was cool and damp.
Her granddaughter’s emotions had greatly affected her.
The love she felt could easily be seen in her eyes and felt in her hand.
Duval felt horrible.
“I… I’m sorry… I don’t know what happened.”
Missus Garcia gestured at his chest.
He looked down and she shifted to the side.
The sun that hit his chest wasn’t as bright as it was moments before, but it was enough to make the silver of his badge flared like the signal at a lighthouse.
“Your badge,” she confirmed. “When Ciela’s father… when he died, the first person to approach her was a Texas Ranger.”
He didn’t ask for details, but she continued on and he let her. If she needed to talk… to process her thoughts, he was happy to listen.
“Apparently, he was nearby when the call went out and he drove over to see if he could help.”
He nodded. “So my badge…”
She nodded. “It’s not you. Just that silver badge.”
Duval lifted his hand and covered it with his palm. “I’m sorry, Ma’am. I didn’t know.”
She touched his arm, giving it a gentle squeeze. “You couldn’t know. We didn’t either until she saw a news story on TV and she burst into tears.”
He nodded, thinking through her words. “I… Is there anything I can do to help?”
Before she said a word, he reached behind the badge and unpinned it from his shirt.
She saw what he did and gave him a watery smile as he put the badge in his pocket. “That might help.”
Her lips pressed into a thin pale line, taking all the color away. “I would invite you in… but-”
Duval held up his hand, shaking his head. “Oh no, ma’am. I wouldn’t dare…”
Her expression eased a little. She nodded and gestured back toward the house. “Do you need Noelle for something? I can go in and see if Ciela will let me take her for a bit.”
“No.” He gave her a single, decisive shake of his head. “I just wanted to drop off something to Noelle for work.”
She smiled at him. “Ah… I see. Well, thank you for coming back, Ranger King.”