Chapter Eleven
On Wednesday afternoon, Calhoun shoved his truck in park but made no move to get out.
“You’re in pain,” Jory said softly. “I told you it was too soon for you to be up and about. We can drive along over the old property lines when you’re feeling better.”
“My body, my choice.”
“You’re lucky you’re injured, Mr. Not Funny, or I’d poke you in the ribs for saying that.”
He still didn’t get out of the truck, and Jory, the chain of her brother’s medallion woven through her fingers, bent her head like she was praying. Dumb. Whatever they were trying to discover had happened over two decades ago. And how could there be any clues on a rarely used ranch access road? The Quinn and McBride cattle runs were buried in decades of dust.
She felt her own medallion warm against her flesh.
Did she really want to know?
“You don’t have to do this with me, Jory.” Calhoun’s voice was soft with compassion. “It’s my vow, not yours.”
Briefly she flirted with the idea of asking him to let it go. Drive away. But Calhoun had as much quit in him as she did, although she would have rather stayed at the house this afternoon and made him an early dinner before heading into work, blanking out the past and her missing father and brother.
Even though injured, he looked invincible, compassionate, and everything inside of her wanted to press against him and be held, be told that everything was going to be all right, and she’d believe it if he said it.
But she hadn’t gotten this far by being a coward. Blindly she reached for the truck’s handle and hopped out gracelessly. Calhoun swung himself out on the other side, Kai jumping out smoothly next to him.
She wanted to pet Kai. She always did. But he was a service dog. Jory wasn’t sure if it was all right to touch him. But she loved watching them together. Attuned. The hole in her heart deepened. She kept telling herself that once she reached her financial goals she could have a home, a garden, a kitchen, a dog, friends.
But when? The goalposts kept moving.
“Kai is so majestic.”
“He is. At rest and working.”
“I know he was injured. He seems fully recovered,” Jory noted. She’d seen the scars, but with his fur grown back they weren’t that visible, and then Calhoun’s last word, pinged on her consciousness.
Awareness rushed over her, startling in its harsh brutality.
“Is Kai a…a…corpse-sniffing dog?”
“No, not really,” Calhoun said after a long moment where the early afternoon breeze hurtled down Copper Mountain with enough force to send Jory’s soft waves and curls bouncing into her eyes.
Impatiently she pushed her hair out of her face.
“Your hair’s beautiful.” He reached out and speared a curl with his finger. “I love the color—so midnight yet with touches of indigo in the sun, and the curls are so playful as if hinting at a nature you try to deny.”
Jory’s throat closed. Helplessly she looked up at Calhoun, but the sun was behind him, shadowing, yet haloing at the same time, like he was concurrently an angel and a devil.
“We weren’t going to do this again,” she whispered, helpless against the longing that swept through her much like the afternoon breeze.
“Weren’t we?” he murmured, distracted, and his voice went through her like heated honey, and she shivered, even as her body woke up. “I’d forgotten why.”
So had she—well, she remembered the initial reason. But he’d been injured, and she’d been his doctor briefly. And now they were improbably staying in the same house. There must be reasons, but Jory couldn’t dredge up one beyond the low buzz of alarm that she didn’t know what she was doing.
“I’m way out of my depth,” she admitted.
“Keep swimming.”
She wanted to laugh—take life as lightly as he seemed to.
“I’ve always been cautious,” she admitted.
“That’s no way to live, Jory.”
His smile broke her heart a little.
“I know.” She looked at the toes of her boots. Tried to picture her mom as a confident, starry-eyed teenager, beautiful, determined, swinging herself up in the saddle to guide a thousand pounds of champion animal speedily around a course of barrels.
“That’s why I went out that night I met you instead of staying in the hotel room like I always do.”
“I’m glad you did.” He cupped her face in his rough hands and his voice went gravelly. “But I don’t want to hurt you.”
“I know.” She covered his hand. There was so much more she could say, probably should say, but instead she turned her cheek and kissed his palm. “But now we’re looking to see if…” She didn’t want to say it.
“What do you remember about the day your dad disappeared?”
“My dad and brother were having a boys’ day.” Jory frowned. Her dad and brother had often done things together—‘boy things,’ her brother would tease her. Never once had her father taken her out to do something special.
“They dropped me off at the school. They never picked me up. They ate lunch at the Main Street Diner. The server Flo said my dad seemed preoccupied and rushed. He kept looking at his watch. He didn’t eat but bought my brother a burger and fries and an ice cream sundae, which was really a big splurge, then they left. My dad gave her a big tip, which considering we were always poor and often had nothing in the house to eat but bulk cereal, was totally out of character.”
Calhoun listened and it felt strange to tell him anything about her childhood. No one had ever asked her about her family, and she hadn’t confided.
“My dad had been a rodeo cowboy. He was pretty good, but…” She pulled away, but he reeled her back in, and she let him. It felt weak to let him hold her, and yet she didn’t have the will anymore to pull away.
He smelled awesome. And if felt wonderful to be held.
“He’d disappear for weeks, supposedly competing but not always. He was a bit of a…” She dragged in a shaky breath trying to remind herself that she wasn’t defined by her father, by her family, but the childhood shame still squeezed her heart. “Hustler. He gambled. Did other things. Rode bulls brilliantly but lacked discipline and focus and often lost his earnings slinking home with less money than he’d left with.
“The police didn’t take my mom seriously when he disappeared. They knew his reputation. He’d spent more than a few nights in the county jail. They told her to go home, that he’d turn up again like a bad penny.”
Calhoun hissed a breath. “Jerks.”
“The police weren’t the only ones who thought they’d turn up again,” she said. “No one was worried but my mom. Even I thought they’d come back. I was mad. He missed our musical.” She frowned. “I wasn’t worried until later. Much later.”
“Thank you for telling me. I wish my father had pulled a disappearing act,” he said. “Sorry, Jory. I don’t mean to minimize the pain for your father’s disappearance.”
“It doesn’t make sense,” she said looking across a field. “My dad’s truck was never found. And they wouldn’t be here,” she said. “I mean why? This wasn’t our land.”
She dragged in a deep breath.
“It was a long time ago,” she said. “I don’t think I really want to try to find them,” she admitted, ashamed. “But maybe it would bring peace to my mom and oma, to know that they weren’t deliberately left behind, but…”
Her mom was finally forward-facing. Excited about her future. Starting over.
“What if finding out what happens puts my mom back in a dark place? She missed my dad and brother so much I think she forgot I existed.” Jory tried to keep her voice neutral. “That’s why my oma moved in with us. She was worried about my mom and me.”
He didn’t say anything.
“I don’t think they’re here,” she said. “Not that I’ve ever had a vibe about anything—I don’t know, ghosts—before.”
“That’s right.” He smiled, but his eyes were dark with emotion, and she had a feeling he was thinking a lot of things he wasn’t willing to tell her yet. “You’re my scientist.”
Like hitting a nail with a hammer. She wished she were his. And that was not going to work in her favor. Never once had wishes or hopes delivered, only determination and working hard.
“I am, and I’m also aware that you promised your friend,” she said sadly. “A promise is a promise. And I don’t think I can let this go either, but Calhoun.” She looked up at him, strong jaw, sensuous but firm mouth. He looked as alone as she felt. “I don’t want you to have to do this alone.”
“I…” A shadow crossed his face and he shut up.
She wondered what he’d decided to hold back.
“I’m just not sure where to start my search,” he said frustrated. “I need a plan.”
He was probably anxious to get out of Marietta and start the rest of his life post military.
“We need a plan,” she reminded him.
“I promised you dinner,” he said, taking a last visual sweep of the land, and Jory bit back a sigh.
She’d defined the rules of their not-a-relationship. She couldn’t change her mind now, but for a moment, just a small one, she let herself pretend that the dinner was a date.
*
At the MainStreet Diner, Jory ordered the pasta primavera with roasted chicken and a salad for later in her shift, but Calhoun’s order of chili and a grilled cheese sandwich made her mouth water.
“I’ll give you a bite.” He smiled after the server, Flo, tucked her pen behind her ear and the order pad into her apron pocket and walked off to get their drink order of ice tea—on the house for first responders and vets.
“How did she know?” he marveled, looking at the woman who had been a diner institution when Jory had been a kid.
“She knows everything. I can’t believe she still works here,” Jory said. “Or that she recognized me.”
“You didn’t swarm into the diner with your friends following a Grizzly football game?”
“No, never.” Jory looked around the diner, almost awed to be here. She’d forgotten the high school team had been ‘the Grizzlies’—that’s how much school spirit she’d had.
“I didn’t have any friends. We were poor. But worse, my family had a bad reputation. As far back as anyone remembers, Quinn men were in trouble and in and out of jail and other dubious scrapes. Kids were warned to steer clear of us—not that it bothered Josiah all that much. He was smart. Funny. Athletic. Popular. Everyone loved him.”
She played with the condensation on her water glass, hating to review the past, but when Calhoun suggested he drive her into work since he was going to meet up with his friend Ryder, before he pulled out of town for a couple of days, she’d said yes. Calhoun promised to pick her up in the morning—a hassle, she’d argued, but he’d been unbending. She figured he had as much trouble doing nothing as she did.
Kai, who lay under the table on a folded blanket, sighed and rested his head on her foot, and Jory felt a spark of triumph.
“Did you talk to your mom about your dad’s disappearance when it happened?”
Of course he wasn’t going to let it go. She played with her water glass. “It was all she talked about. She haunted the police department and the sheriff’s office trying to get information. No one took her seriously, at least not for a while, but then one deputy helped Mom a little. I thought it was because he was sweet on my mom, and maybe he was. My mom was beautiful.” Her lips twisted. “So was my dad, but…”
She shrugged and remembered something Carol Bingley had said to her once when trembling, she’d brought in her thin résumé into the pharmacy hoping for a part-time job.
“Sometimes an apple does fall from a peach tree,” she recounted derisively.
Calhoun, a muscle ticking in his granite ledge of a jaw, shifted his focus to her just as Flo bustled up, with two ice teas.
“Let’s hope that’s true,” he muttered, his hand, on the table, briefly brushed over hers, and it took all her willpower not to link her fingers with his.
“Welcome home to Marietta, Jory,” Flo said. “Heard your mom and grandma are living in California now. Bad timing now that you’re back.” She smiled sympathetically.
Jory didn’t know much about Flo except what she’d overheard from kids: “Be careful at the Main Street Diner because Flo has ears big as a rabbit and knows everything that happens in town.” But Flo had always been well liked because she didn’t gossip too much and had always had a generous spirit, especially to kids.
It was Flo who’d recommended she apply at Monroe’s when the diner didn’t have any openings, and Flo who had given her a sandwich and a cookie more than a time or two—‘left over from the lunch rush’—when she’d been loitering on Main Street waiting for a ride home.
“The timing works out fine,” she said. “My mom and oma are happy. They have a big lot close to the town so they can walk to a lot of places and still have a few fruit trees and large vegetable garden for their canning.”
“Your mom’s corn salsa and tomato and tomatillo salsa were delicious. We carried it in the diner for years.”
Jory stared at her, astonished. She remembered her mom, crying, sitting by the window and staring blankly down the long, empty, pitted gravel road. But then, she’d been away from home for over two decades.
“We’re going to miss it, but I have their business email, and I’m hoping that once they get settled in, we can order a few of their products as garnishes. Your linner…” She paused and looked at her watch. “Well it’s almost five so I guess I can call it dinner, will be up shortly.”
“I didn’t know my mom and oma had a small business,” Jory said softly. “When my dad and brother left, she just crumpled in on herself after six months had passed and the police finally started looking but found no clues.”
Calhoun drank deeply from his ice tea, his gaze bright and laser-honed on her.
“Have you thought about the repercussions if you join in the search?”
“No. Yes. No.”
“Thank you for your straight answer.” She squeezed some lemon in her ice tea. “So what do you think—that my dad had a car accident and he and my brother died, but no one found the truck or their bodies?”
That seemed impossible to believe. “I mean Highway89 goes over the mountain range into Bozeman, and it can be treacherous in winter, but they took off in April.”
“If they took off.”
She unwrapped her straw and methodically folded up the paper, not meeting his knowing gaze. “My dad was in and out of our lives,” she said softly. “No one was surprised he left. Taking my brother with him was new. A kid on the road is a hassle, but he and my dad were tight.”
“Carjacking gone wrong?”
Jory’s mouth dropped open. “In Marietta?”
“You mentioned your dad got into a few scrapes with the law and that Flo said he seemed in a hurry. Maybe he…”
“Committed a crime with my brother riding shotgun?” Jory stared at him.
“Lotta open country out here. Rohan mentioned his ranch and a few others are experiencing an increase in cattle rustling—high-tech. Organized. That was part of the reason they bought the property from your mom—to have a presence at the north end of the ranch near the highway.”
“And you’re the presence? You’re not fully healed. You just had major surgery. You can’t tackle cattle rustlers.” Fear speared her, the outrage at his suppositions about her father forgotten.
“Jory, I’m a soldier. I have training. But I’m not going vigilante. I’m used to working in a team. The Telfords have high-tech surveillance equipment, cameras, drones, which I’ve used before. Kai’s trained, but I think they’re more worried about wildlife, and that it’s a pity hire.”
She’d started to relax “Yeah. Pity. I’m sure that’s it.”
“But I will help them while I’m here.”
She tensed again. The ticking clock.
But I’m leaving too.
The reminder didn’t provide any comfort. She was already in too deep even as she told herself she was only dipping her toes in.
Their food arrived and Calhoun tucked into the chili that was fragrant and heaped with melting cheddar cheese. Jory smiled, and Calhoun tore off a hunk of his grilled cheese sandwich—pepper jack and cheddar—dipped it into the chili and held it out toward her to take a bite.
Jory looked at the food and into his eyes.
She leaned forward and took a bite, savoring the blend of tastes as much as the moment and the brush of his fingers against her lips.
She chewed, swallowed and sat back, her heart pounding, and judging by Calhoun’s expression, the moment had significance to him.
“I feel like we are crossing a line,” she said when she could speak.
“Jory, we blew across that line the night we met.”
*
Ryder was alreadyin the parking lot of the May Bell Center, the place where he’d served Jace’s community service hours. Ryder had completed the commitment, but still volunteered one afternoon a week. He’d parked his rig—a truck and a large trailer—sideways in the lot.
Kai shivered with anticipation; his gaze targeted on Ryder.
“Yeah, you get to say hello.” He rested his palm on Kai’s head, needing the contact.
Ryder was looking down—at his phone maybe—and hadn’t acknowledged him yet, but Calhoun was convinced Ryder knew he’d arrived. You didn’t last a decade in the army—more than a handful of those years in Special Forces—without being totally aware of your surroundings.
Calhoun steeled himself—his body hurt less than yesterday, but he still felt like crap. Jory had urged him to return to the house and rest, and it was embarrassing how much he wanted to do that. But no, he owed Jace and his brothers his best.
He pulled the chain out of his pocket and looked at the flat medallion—some kind of coin with two stones in it and something etched on the back. Not much of a clue, but still he’d asked Jory if he could hold on to it, and he promised he’d take care of it and give it back so that she’d have both, no matter what they—no he—discovered.
“Gonna say hello or just stare at a shiny object?”
Ryder stood beside him, aviator-style glasses protecting his eyes from the still-bright sun and Stetson angled down hiding his features.
“Talk about losing my instincts.” He was shocked that Ry had gotten the drop on him.
“Kai clocked me.” Ryder stroked along Kai’s back, scratching him under his red service vest. “Edi’s ready.”
“For what?”
“She’s going to introduce you to Mrs. Johanson. It might be nothing. She’s in the early stages of vascular dementia, but she’s still mobile and Edi’s got her eating better and socially engaged and attending the exercise classes. She and Edi’s gran, Lydia, are a pair.” Ryder’s deep voice was warm with affection.
“You’re really happy?” Calhoun asked, and it sounded more like an accusation.
A tall, slim woman in royal-blue scrubs exited the building out of double glass doors and jogged over to them. Kai quivered, and he moaned in excitement. The woman’s ponytail swung drunkenly behind her, catching the rays of the sun.
“Hey.” Without hesitation Ryder swept her up in his arms and kissed her. “You and mini behaving?”
“I am, and we are not calling our daughter Mini Me.”
Calhoun stared, feeling like he was in one more foreign country where he didn’t speak the language—and he spoke several. He could see now what looked like the beginnings of a pregnancy in Ryder’s wife.
“We had an ultrasound. It’s a human.”
Edi lightly whacked him on the chest with her palm and then held out her hand. “Hi, I’m Edi.”
“Calhoun. Congratulations.”
She glowed, and her gray-green eyes sparkled with happiness and her mouth that looked a little too big and plush for her narrow face seemed to be fixed in a permanent smile.
“The final Coyote Cowboy is home,” she said softly. “I’m so happy for you all, Ry. And you, Calhoun. The Coyotes have all been checking their phones like teens waiting for word from you.”
Guilt slapped him. He hadn’t bothered to try to get in touch. He hadn’t wanted to leave the army. But he hadn’t wanted to stay. It wasn’t the same without Jace and Kai and the others. He’d felt one misstep away from death.
“It’s good to be here.”
“You come out to say goodbye?” Ryder tugged playfully on Edi’s ponytail and then wrapped it around his wrist to reel her back into his arms.
“Yes, but then I’m heading to the hospital in a bit. I have two clients there, and I’m going to meet with the new hospitalist about a couple of her patients who are in the orthopedic wing and another who had a stroke, and they’re rehabilitating hoping to release to the May Bell Center in the next few days.”
A shadow crossed Ryder’s face. “Babe, you need to take care of yourself and our mini. I told you I got this. I’ll earn the extra money we need.”
Calhoun’s attention pricked. Ryder sounded serious. Was there a problem? Did he need money? Was something wrong with the baby?
“We’ll take care of it.” Edi turned in to his body and kissed his jawline, and then her fingers lightly touched his lips. “I feel fantastic. All my energy’s back and then some, and I want to work extra and earn more when I can.”
Calhoun could tell Ryder didn’t agree, but he smiled anyway. “I got to get on the road. Short haul to Billings. I’ll text when I get there, and I’ll be home Sunday late afternoon. You’re coming to the ranch for dinner.” He gave Calhoun a hard look. “Bring Jory.”
“Jory?” Edi’s brows rose, and then her lips tilted into a classic smirk. “The new hospitalist? She’s who I’m meeting. You already know her? I should probably warn her that you Coyotes are potent.” Her fingers reverently brushed her abdomen.
“I got it hole in one.” Ryder’s hands covered Edi’s hands so that their hands were both protectively over their unborn child, and Calhoun wasn’t sure what he felt—too many things at once he definitely didn’t want to analyze.
He was not normally superstitious but learning that all of his brothers had found love when they were completing the task for Jace, had him antsy. And now Ryder was alluding to a condom mishap.
Edi laughed and kissed Ry’s cheek. “You’re not supposed to brag about an oops,” she said, her voice indulgent with love. “And you can’t compare making our baby to a round of golf.”
“It was not an oops. I was trying to play in the majors, way above my pay grade. How else was I supposed to catch you? Oldest trick in the book.”
“You are so bad.” Edi shook her head, smiling, her entire demeanor shouting that she not only thought Ryder was so good, but exquisitely perfect, and Calhoun wondered, just for a painful second, what that would feel like.
“Drive safe,” she said as she extricated herself from his arms. “I love you.”
“Can we talk for a second?” Calhoun said, his voice coming out more intense than he meant.
“What’s up?” Ryder asked alertly.
“I can take Kai into the lobby area. Some of the residents are waiting to greet him,” Edi offered.
“What?”
“Oh. It was part of his training,” Ryder said, looking a little bashful. “I used to have Edi hide around the May Bell Center and Kai would find her, and some of the residents wanted to play, and I thought it would be good for Kai to be familiar with their scents in case anyone wandered off, and it was a game but training and also the residents really enjoyed the contact.”
Ryder looked unsure for a moment, like Calhoun would be pissed that he had been using a highly trained military asset for an emotional support animal, but instead Calhoun choked up at Ryder’s gentle and generous spirit.
“I figured with us all starting a business together, Kai would be going out on the adventures in case any of the rich wannabe survivalists get lost out in the woods. And you’d mentioned wanting to volunteer for search and rescue. Edi and I are picking up our dog in June after Jace’s memorial service. We’re going to train him for search and rescue, and Edi plans to bring our dog—we’re calling him Copper, for the mountain—to work a couple days a week to engage with the clients.”
Ryder was serious about the business idea that Rohan and the others had briefly floated.
“Shall I take Kai?” Edi asked, and he realized he had Kai’s harness handle in a death grip.
“Yeah. I’ll be right in,” he said.
Edi snapped a leash on Kai and jogged back into the building.
“You need money?” he asked Ryder. “Is the baby okay?”
Ryder’s open, happy expression shuttered.
“Baby’s good. I can take care of my family.”
Yeah, he could have been more subtle. “Then why’s Edi working extra?”
Ryder scowled. “She doesn’t need to.”
Calhoun said nothing more. The breeze from Copper Mountain rolled down, chilly in the spring afternoon that was edging toward evening.
“Edi’s gran is in the early stages of dementia so we will need to move her into the memory care wing at some point, which doubles the cost. Edi gets a break on fees by working here. It’s still hefty, but with the new business starting up, we’ll be fine.”
He had to get that land for his brothers. Invest. They needed money, not him.
“She’ll take maternity leave,” Calhoun said, feeling like if he could use the money he had just sitting around in a trust earning more and more but with no purpose, it would ease his guilt over having it. “You’ll have childcare costs when she returns to work.” He thought physical therapists made decent bank, but she’d want to spend time with her kid.
“I can take care of my family.”
He put his hand on Ry’s shoulder, grip tight because Ry tried to shrug him off. Damn. He’d offended his brother.
“I know you can,” he said.
And Calhoun would make sure that Ryder and his new family and his other brothers and their families were cared for as well. He set his shoulders and breathed in deeply through his nose, even though his ribs screamed in protest.
“Tell me about the lady who asks you about the bodies,” he commanded.