Chapter 34
Chapter Thirty-Four
Claire
“Claire, I’m so glad you’re here tonight. I’ve been dying to tell you something,” Mom said. She dished some salad onto her plate, then passed the bowl to Travis. He shot me the kind of grin that said he was glad I was the one on the receiving end and not him.
“Oh yeah?” I reached for the mashed potatoes and plopped a giant scoop onto my plate, then passed them to Vance. His fingertips met mine as he took the bowl from me. My breath caught from that brief moment of contact.
I forced my attention back to Mom, hoping my face wasn’t as red as it felt. If it was, she ignored it, too eager to tell me her news.
“Do you remember Rhett’s best friend from high school?” She beamed.
“Um, yeah,” I said, giving her a strange look, then cutting my eyes toward Cheyenne. “She’s sitting right there. Hard to forget her.”
Mom rolled her eyes. “No, not her. Rhett’s other best friend, Cody.”
My eyebrows shot to the ceiling. Best friends? That was news to me—and apparently to Rhett, too, based on the look on his face.
I poured a generous amount of gravy over my potatoes. “You mean that scrawny kid that used to follow Rhett around and always tried to dress just like him?”
“He wasn’t scrawny,” Mom scolded. Then she sighed. “Well, maybe he was. But he was a kid back then, and that’s beside the point.”
Vance coughed beside me, clearly trying to cover the laugh that had slipped out.
“What is the point, Mom?” I asked between gritted teeth.
“Well, Cody still has family here and I found out he’s in town this week visiting.
Rhett and Cheyenne said it was okay, so I invited him to the wedding.
He said he’d love to come, and I thought it would be nice if you sat by him and made him feel welcome.
You know, since the four of you used to run around so much. ”
“Mom,” I groaned. “Seriously?”
“Rhett and Cheyenne will be busy, obviously, and someone needs to keep him company. Besides, you might enjoy reconnecting with him. He’s a dentist now. Very successful, from what I hear, with his own practice in Billings. You two might have a lot to talk about.”
“You’re right. There’s nothing I love more than talking about dental hygiene,” I said, keeping my face straight. “Flossing, brushing. Types of toothpaste. It’s riveting, really. Is there a drink limit at the open bar? Asking for a friend.”
Mom shot me a look that made me feel like a heel.
But I just couldn’t. “Why can’t Beth hang out with him?” I protested.
Beth blushed and looked down, fiddling with the napkin in her lap. “I, um, sort of already have a date for the wedding.”
My jaw dropped—along with everyone else’s at the table.
“Well, that’s wonderful,” Mom said, smiling. “Who is it?”
“I–I’d rather not say. Not yet, anyway,” Beth said, blushing furiously.
Unfortunately for Beth, that only made my brothers want to tease her—and made Mom more curious.
But for me, it created an opportunity.
“Eat faster,” I whispered to Vance. “That way, we can get out of here.”
Half an hour later, Vance and I sat on the wooden fence overlooking my favorite pasture.
Neither one of us had been ready to get back to work, but he had followed my lead and gotten me out of the house as quickly as possible.
I’d snagged a bottle of whiskey and two glasses on the way out, and now, I poured him a shot as thanks for telling Mom I had to work.
My shot was to take my mind off the fact that Mom had set me up with a wedding date I had zero interest in.
“It’s gorgeous out here,” Vance remarked, oblivious to my inner turmoil.
Only a faint hint of light remained on the horizon. The first stars had already popped up over the mountains, but we could still make out the silhouettes of the horses who preferred the pasture over the barn at night.
“Prettier in the summer,” I said, refilling our glasses.
He took a sip of the whiskey and made a low sound of appreciation. “Is that your favorite season?”
“Definitely. I’d love to be one of those people who spends their summers up here but heads to Florida for winter.”
“Florida, huh?” There was a touch of humor in his voice.
“Sure.” I shrugged. “Or any place warm, really. Somewhere with sunshine.”
“Wyoming winters can be brutal,” he agreed. “The wind, the snow. Temps so cold it hurts to breathe.”
“Yeah. I hate the cold,” I said, sighing unhappily.
“But I also hate how everything here just kind of slows down. Roads close, the tourists stop coming. The nights feel way too long. Search and rescue slows down—for a couple of months, anyway. Then it picks up again when you’re rescuing stranded snowmobilers or skiers, but you’re doing it in the suckiest weather possible. ”
“So you like warm weather and a fast pace, huh?”
“Yeah.” I looked over at him and held my glass up in toast. “To sunshine and fast living. Just eight months to go.”
He clinked his glass to mine and grinned. “Speaking of toasts. When are Rhett and Cheyenne getting married?”
“Saturday.”
His eyes widened. “ This Saturday?”
“Yeah.” A wave of nerves hit. “That won’t be a problem, right? I mean with the investigation. I know it comes first, but…”
He waved me off. “Of course not. We’ll make sure you’re there.”
“I also have the rehearsal Friday night. And Thursday night, we have SAR training. I have to be there—it’s part of my official job duties.”
“So you’re saying I only have a few more days before I have to start sharing you.” His voice was low, and his eyes suggested he didn’t want to share me at all.
I didn’t want that, either.
“Until after the wedding, anyway. I’m sorry. I know the timing is terrible with an investigation like this. I’m surprised Sheriff McGrath didn’t consider that before choosing me to work with you. I’d already put in to have those days off of work.”
“It’s fine. I’ll let you know if anything breaks on the case. Though I’d hate to distract you from entertaining Cody.” He winked. “How did you describe him again?” He tipped his glass up and emptied it.
I groaned and joined him in downing my whiskey. “I can’t believe my mom. She’s never going to give up.”
A smile tugged at Vance’s lips. “You know what you need to do?”
“What?”
“I had this buddy in college. When his parents were harassing him about settling down, I told him he should make them think twice about it. One of my friends was a theater major who loved drama. I paid her to pose as his fiancée. Only we purposefully made her act like the worst fiancée ever—to his family at least.”
I grinned. “How so?”
Vance laughed, low and deep. Warmth spread through me at the sound of it.
“Well, his parents were highly conservative, so she showed up with blue hair, ready to argue politics. She hinted that she was an ex-stripper with four kids by three different dads. She gave backhanded compliments to everyone in the family and called their house ‘ironic.’ Covered her ears and hummed loudly every time the family prayed over dinner. Stuff like that. Funny thing is that she’s the opposite of all that in real life, but she had a blast playing the part. ”
My jaw dropped. Then a grin spread across my face. “Why, Vance Weston. You’re not as straight-laced and uptight as I thought you were.”
He let out an even louder laugh that echoed across the pasture. “No, I think you may have misjudged me.”
“What did the family do?”
“Well, he and the girl kept up the charade for a few weeks. When he finally broke things off with her, the family was so relieved they never hassled him again. I guess his mom decided there were worse things than being single.”
I mulled it over. “Hmm. Maybe I should do something like that.”
“Do you have any friends who get a kick out of being deliberately annoying?”
I shook my head. “No. And I don’t think that part of it would work anyway.
Trust me, I’ve brought home some terrible boyfriends.
That won’t get Mom off my back. If anything, she’ll just start trying harder to set me up with someone else.
But if she thought I was with someone awesome, someone she’d totally approve of… ”
“There you go,” Vance said, shrugging. “Get her off your back by thinking the problem is already solved.”
“Exactly.” Although, for the life of me, I couldn’t think of anyone awesome to invite—except Vance. And while everything in me wanted him next to me that day, I knew there was no way I would be able to pretend it didn’t mean anything.
With him, I couldn’t pretend at all.
He cleared his throat. “You know, I could go as your wedding date. Keep you from having to hang out with Cody, at least.”
I swallowed hard. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Why?” He kept his eyes focused on the dark scene in front of us.
“Because I want more than just a date with you,” I said softly.
He turned toward me and stared into my eyes.
Then his hands were in my hair, pulling me to him.
His lips crashed onto mine in a kiss that was as demanding as it was arousing.
The taste of him mixed with the whiskey we’d shared was intoxicating, and all I could think was more, until I found myself whispering it against his mouth.
“Define more,” he said roughly, his lips still tantalizing close as he repeated the question I’d asked him what somehow felt like a lifetime ago.
I closed my eyes and put my hands on his chest, pushing away, trying to get a moment of distance from him so I could put together a coherent sentence. Then I put my hands beside me on the fence, gripping the rail like my life depended on it.
Nothing else could make me lose my head the way Vance Weston could. Not wine, not whiskey, not another man. Nothing compared to the pure intoxication of his hands on my body while he teased me with his tongue.
If just kissing was this good, I couldn’t even imagine what it would be like if we went further.
His hand came to my chin, gently turning my face toward his. “I asked you a question,” he said, his piercing eyes holding my gaze.
“I don’t have an answer. My version of more doesn’t work for you.”
“Because of New York?”
I nodded.
He released my chin, putting his hand over mine on the fence rail. “It’s great there. You might like it. You could visit, give it a try. You never know, you might fall in love with the energy of the city. There’s lots of fast-paced work you could do there.”
I forced a smirk. “The winters are still cold, but without the beauty of Wyoming to make up for it. And me, living in a place with millions of people and no wilderness?” I pulled my hand away. “I don’t see that working.”
“Yeah, I guess I don’t, either,” he said slowly.
He started to say something else, but my phone buzzed. I pulled it out and read the text with a sinking heart.
“What is it?” He nudged me, a concerned look on his face.
“I–I have to go.” My brain felt fuzzy from the whiskey—from him —but I jumped off the fence, knowing I had to pull myself together. Quickly.
I fired off a couple of quick texts and began to formulate a plan in my head. Coffee. I needed coffee.
He stared at me. “What do you mean?” When I didn’t answer him, he jumped off the fence and grabbed my arm. “Claire, what is it?”
I looked up at him and took a deep breath. “There’s a missing girl. I have to respond.”
“Okay.” He grabbed the whiskey and the glasses. “Let’s get back to the house so you can go.”
“Vance.” My heart thudded, knowing the potential ramifications of what I was about to tell him.
“What?” He turned and gave me his attention.
“Her car is parked at Lost Creek Trailhead.”
“Okay…”
I took a deep breath. “That’s the trail I told you about when we were talking about ways someone could have gotten into the park last March. It’s the one I would have taken if I were going to dump Katelyn’s body.”