Ambushed #2
“Better ask her.” Colt pointed at Ivy, grabbed his beer, and took a long strategic drink.
“Ask him,” Ivy replied, sweet as frosting, batting her lashes, a look shared between them that said this had been covered many times before without resolution.
“My family is all back east,” Colt explained to the table. “My mom, my sisters and their husbands. A herd of nieces and nephews. Her people are here. My brother-in-law Rex is well to do and has offered to fly all of Forest Grove out to Holly Creek for a wedding.”
“Like that’s a normal thing a person offers.” Ivy shook her head. “Besides, I always pictured a Montana wedding,” Ivy lamented.
“So we’re stuck.” Colt reached out and squeezed her hand on the table.
“We’re not stuck, just…” Ivy searched for the word.
“Stuck,” Colt quipped. Ivy laughed it lightly off. “We’ll figure it out at some point.”
“Yes. Until then, I guess I have some time on my hands now that this wedding is done.” She ended in a sigh.
“On that note.” All eyes turned to Willow. “I might have an idea. Eldon was in a state this week realizing he’d gotten carried away with the pumpkin planting this year. Come fall he’ll have too many pumpkins. Which got me thinking—oh, never mind. It’s a silly thought.”
“Out with it. I want to hear,”Ash encouraged.
“What if we put on a pumpkin patch at the ranch for the kids and families around here? Nothing fancy—let them pick their own pumpkins, do hayrides, serve up cider and pie and pumpkin treats.”
“Don’t forget apples, too,” Ivy winked.
“We could have a Copper Cup booth, and get Avery and her friends serving pumpkin-spice lattes,” Harper suggested.
“We could make the best use of the fall weekends September through October before the weather completely turns. And some of the proceeds could go into a special fund to support our veterinary costs for the horses.” Willow watched the idea take hold around the table.
Beside me, Autumn smiled into her glass. “Is it always like this here?”
“Pretty much. Careful or Ivy will put you on the planning committee,” I chuckled, leaning in, the floral fragrance she wore going right to my head.
A DJ took over making announcements. “It is time for the best man to make a speech.”
No one jumped up to take the mic from him. Knox looked around, as did most of the people in the room. The best man had famously become one of the Montana Frostbite’s top players. He’d be easy to spot.
“Maddox? Maddox Alexander? Speech time,” the DJ prompted into the mic. But still he didn’t show up.
“Where is he?” Ivy stood, glancing around the room.
Poppy rushed over to her. “You sat Maddox next to me on the seating chart, but he’s been MIA since the ceremony.”
“He’s not here?” Ivy grabbed her hand and off they went to deal with it.
“Well, Knox. You’re off the hook. Guess your brother didn’t want to embarrass you in front of everyone with funny stories about your childhood.” The DJ volleyed and everyone laughed. “Change of plans. Put your hands together for our happy couple who will now have their first dance.”
Out on the floor, the lights dimmed, the music swelled, and the whole tent enjoyed Knox and Daisy two stepping around. People tapped their glasses for them to kiss. The song faded into the next, and the DJ invited everyone to dance.
Knox and Daisy left the floor and came up to our table, flushed from two-stepping, but clearly concerned. “Has anyone seen Maddox? I can’t believe he’d disappear on us like that,” Knox said.
“Ivy and Poppy went to look,” Colt stood. “Need help?”
“I should go with them. I’ll be back,” I turned to Autumn.
“Me, too,” the Sheriff offered.
“Autumn and I will be here.” Harper waved us off.
A while later, our search turned up no sign of Maddox, car gone, and texts and calls unanswered too.
“Incredible,” Knox shook his head. “If he’s off fucking around with some woman somewhere…
I swear I hardly know my brother anymore, not since he let his success in hockey go to his head.
He acts like he’s unbreakable. I don’t want to wish this on him, but maybe it’d be a good thing if he got taken down a notch or two somehow. ”
I left the group of them to get back to Autumn. I caught the tail end of the discussion she was deep into with Harper.
“I think Avery walked by ten months old. Austin won’t be far behind her. That little bugger will probably run by the time he’s one,” she laughed at the boast.
Autumn winced. “Stetson’s fourteen months and still not walking. I think Jake carries him around too much.”
“Can’t blame me. The kid is too darn cute. He loves it when I put him on my back and trot around the room like a horse,” I jumped right into the conversation and sat back down.
“But you must let kids develop naturally,” Harper continued, like a walking encyclopedia for baby development, moving on from there to booster shots to when to feed solids. “If you need the name of my pediatrician, let me know. He set up a new practice in Lewistown.”
“Oh. I’m sort of between insurance right now.” She looked down at her hands. Harper meant well, but I needed to save Autumn from this. With a softer tune playing on the dance floor, now was my chance.
“Dance with me?” I asked, hand out, palm up.
“You don’t have to.” She hesitated.
“But I want to.”
“Oh. Go on. Kick up your heels a little,” Harper encouraged.
Autumn finally slipped her hand into mine. Always protective, I curled my fingers around it. I guided her toward the floor, chest out proudly with her beside me.
She settled a palm on my shoulder, while her other hand I held close to my heart. Eye to eye, we swayed at first, gaining confidence in her body in time with mine. Closer still, her lips reached my ear.
“You’re full of surprises. You dance well,” she observed.
“With the right partner.” True. Every word. I got tongue twisted around other women. Never with her.
“I think everyone’s staring at us,” she chuckled.
“They’re staring at you, at your beauty.” I held her closer, her ribs against mine.
My hand spanned the small of her back, and I kept it exactly where a gentleman keeps it, which took roughly all of the military discipline I owned.
Through the satin, the heat of her skin burned, every breath moving her ribs against mine, and when she tipped her chin up, her mouth ended up close enough that one bad decision would have finished me in front of the whole county.
So I filed it all away instead. The dip of her waist under my palm. The hitch in her breathing when I drew her in. Evidence, a man might call it. I was building a case for how not to be a “good friend.”
“I’m an outsider. Sometimes I don’t feel like I belong here,” she admitted.
“You belong more than most.”
“Why do you make me feel so safe, Jake?”
“As long as I’m here, you can be by my side. You don’t have to run. You don’t have to hide.”
“Oh, I hope that’s true.” She held on, her arms going around my neck, letting me truly in for the first time as her body melded with mine.
Every second of the song could have lasted an eternity, and I would have been fine.
But we coasted to the end, the music faded, and couples broke apart and clapped.
Autumn stepped back, eyes up at me, cheeks flushed, guard down enough, until she blinked out of the spell
“It’s getting late.” And the guard was back up again.
Harper found me at the truck while Autumn was inside the farmhouse, getting Stetson from Avery. I knew before she said one word that this wasn't a goodnight.
She'd been seated next to Autumn all evening, warm as ever, and none of that was on her face now. She glanced back at the farmhouse door once, then kept her voice below the music still drifting from the tent.
“This is probably nothing.” Which is how every something starts. "But a man came into the Copper Cup earlier this morning. He ordered coffee he never drank and asked some of the regulars a lot of questions." Her eyes came up to mine. "About a woman with a baby.”
"What'd you tell him?"
"That Forest Grove's got a lot of women and a lot of babies, and we don't answer questions about either.
" Harper's jaw set, and underneath the landlady I saw the woman who'd once run from a dangerous man herself, so I’d heard.
"Gavin's aware. He’s put an extra patrol on the street for the next week between the Copper Cup and the Sapphire. I thought you should be aware too."
“Yeah. Thanks.” We parted on a nod of understanding.
Then Autumn came out the farmhouse door with our sleeping boy against her shoulder, laughing at whatever Avery had said, green dress catching in the moonlight. I took the diaper bag, and buckled them both in tight.
I checked the mirrors the whole drive home for any sign of trouble.