by Lisa Jackson
Dani laughed and winked at him. “Maybe I should have held out,” she said. “Sounds like I missed out on a lot of fun.”
Chase pulled her close and traced the angle of her jaw with his finger. “I’ll make it up to you, I promise.” His lips captured hers in a bittersweet kiss filled with the promise of the future.
“And what will Caleb say about this?” she asked.
“Let’s not worry about Caleb,” he said. “We’ve got better things to do.”
“Such as?”
He released her slightly and let his arms rest on her shoulders. “Well, I can think of a lot of things . . .” His eyes slid suggestively down her neck to the fluttering pulse at the base of her throat. “But they can wait . . . for a little while. How about a picnic?”
“A picnic—now?” She was surprised.
“Sure. Sort of a celebration. You could show me around this place.” He straightened. “I’ll shower and you can throw some things into a basket.”
Dani laughed. “You’re starting to sound like a husband already.”
He arched a thick brow. “On second thought, you could shower with me . . .”
“Then we’d never leave.”
“That would be okay.”
He leaned closer, but she pushed against his shoulders with her flat hands. “Later, cowboy. Right now, you hit the showers, and I’ll pack and leave a note for Cody.”
They walked into the house, arms linked, and Dani felt as if she were on top of the world.
The only trouble with being on the top, she told herself cynically when she heard the sound of the shower running and had begun making sandwiches, was that there was only one way to go.
Chapter Eight
The easiest way to get to the site of the original homestead house was on horseback, so while Dani fixed a lunch that could be carried in saddlebags, Chase saddled and bridled the horses. The ride across the creek, through a series of fields and finally into the wooded area surrounding the old buildings, took about twenty minutes.
Dani pulled Traitor up short and the rangy buckskin, his ears flicking backward, responded with a toss of his head. Chase rode Whistlestop, a heavy-boned bay mare. At the top of a small knoll he held his restless horse in check beside Dani.
“So this is where it all started,” he said.
“At least for the Hawthornes,” she replied. Indicating the surrounding hills with a sweeping gesture, Dani looked lovingly over the sprawling acres of farmland and pockets of timber. “This—” she pointed to what had once been a large two-story farm house “—was the spot my great-great-grandparents chose to homestead.” Dropping the reins over Traitor’s head, Dani heard the bridle jingle as the horse grazed on the dry grass and weeds.
Chase still sat astride Whistlestop, leaned forward and squinted into the late afternoon sun. With a backdrop of virgin-growth timber and the craggy Rocky Mountains reaching up to the Montana sky, the ancient house looked pitifully neglected; a skeleton of what had once been a grand old farm house now surrounded by thistles and brush.
The main timbers sagged, all of the windowpanes had long been broken, and the roof had collapsed on the second story, exposing the interior to the rugged elements of the harsh Montana winters. Blackberry vines, now laden with heavy fruit, had crawled over what had been a broad front porch and clung tenaciously around the doorway.
Some of the wallpaper, bleached and stained, was still visible where part of the second story walls had been torn away by the wind.
“It was beautiful once,” Dani said, eyeing the sad, dilapidated structure.
“I can see that.” Chase got off the mare and let the horse graze. Pushing his hands into the back pockets of his jeans, he continued to study the old house while he walked toward Dani. He placed an arm around her shoulders and some of the poignant desolation that had crept over her disappeared.
“The hot springs are over there.” She pointed to the stream seeping through the earth near the back of the house. “And since there wasn’t hot and cold running water when the house was built, the spring was a real luxury. Hot water could be carried into the house.”
“So what happened?” he asked. “Why wasn’t the house kept up?”
“Money,” Dani said with a frown. “When my grandparents were young, sometime in the thirties or forties, I think, they built the cabin that Cody and I live in because it was so much closer to the road. It was cheaper to build and make modern with gas and electricity and running water than to rebuild this place. And they always thought that if they got enough money together, they’d restore the old house.”
“But it didn’t work out.”
“No.” She walked up to the porch, touched one of the rotting timbers at the corner of the house and sighed. “It’s a shame, though. I’ve seen old pictures of it. This front porch ran the whole length. It really was very grand . . .”
“Let’s look inside.”
“I don’t think it’s safe.”
“I’ll make sure it is before we step on any rotted out boards.”
“But the berry vines; the door is nearly blocked off—”
“Come on. Where’s your sense of adventure?” He took her hand in his and gently pulled her forward. With his free hand he managed to push the undergrowth aside and break a path to the front door. Bees buzzed in the berry vines overhead and the thorns caught in Dani’s hair and blouse, but Chase, bending over slightly to protect himself, was finally able to lead her through the open doorway.
It had been a long time since she’d been inside the house and the years and weather had taken their toll on the place. The wooden floors were scarred and dulled by a thick covering of dirt. Though the stairs were still intact, the banister had long since fallen away and lay in scattered pieces in the entry hall. Cobwebs hung in dark corners and broken glass littered the floor.
Chase reached down and picked up one of the hand-carved balusters, cleaning off the dust to stare at the once beautiful spoke that had helped support the railing. “How old is this house?” he asked, looking around. On either side of the main hall were two large rooms, each with a blackened fireplace on the outside walls.
“I don’t know exactly. Over a hundred years.”
“At least.” Walking into what must have been a dining room, Chase stopped at the fireplace. “It looks like the mason knew what he was doing.” He placed a hand on the ancient bricks and noted the few places where the mortar had begun to crumble. With a frown, he went through an open archway.
Following, Dani walked through the big dining room and down one step into the kitchen. It was a lean-to room, only one story, with a fireplace all its own. There was a huge black pot still hanging from a hook over the hearth. The hinge groaned when Chase tried to wipe the cobwebs from the ancient kettle.
“I’d love to rebuild this house,” Dani thought aloud. Chase looked up at the sagging ceilings and broken walls.
“You’d have to start from the ground up.”
“I know. It’s just a pipe dream, I suppose.”
Chase took hold of her hand. “Don’t ever give up your dreams, Dani.”
She laughed and shook her head. “But I’d never be able to afford to restore this place.”
“If you think that way, you’ve lost the battle before it’s even begun.” He kissed her on the forehead and wrapped his arm protectively around her shoulders. She leaned her head against his chest as they walked through the splintered back door and into the bright afternoon sunlight.
“You do see why I love this land, don’t you?” she asked suddenly, biting her lip and staring at the stark mountains jutting up against the brilliant blue sky. “My family has been here for generations . . . I just can’t stand the thought of these beautiful hills covered with asphalt, burger stands, condominiums and hotels. Is that selfish?”
“I don’t know,” Chase admitted. “Seems like there should be a way to compromise.”
She nodded and walked over to Traitor to get the lunch from the saddle
bags. Chase grabbed the rolled blanket from his horse and spread it on the ground under a rough-barked pear tree.
After sitting down, Dani placed the sandwiches, apples and oatmeal cookies on the old quilt and then poured Chase a cup of iced tea. “Maybe I should just sell out to Caleb Johnson,” she said distantly, but then shook her head. “Maybe if it were anyone else—but it’s just Caleb’s damned take-it-all attitude that drives me out of my skull. The man is poison.”
“I’d like to disagree with you,” Chase said as he took the cup Dani offered. He leaned on one elbow, unwrapped a sandwich and started to eat as Dani poured another cup of tea for herself.
“But you can’t argue the point, can you?”
“Not unless he had nothing to do with the drum of dioxin.”
“Have you asked him about it?”
“Not yet But I’ll have to soon,” he answered, finishing his sandwich.
“What are you waiting for?”
“The right time, I suppose. When I’ve got all the information I need to back me up.”
“Such as?”
He shrugged and reached for an apple, polishing it on the tail of his shirt. “Such as knowing for sure that the dioxin belonged to him and that he had it placed in the creek himself; that it wasn’t the accident of a careless hand who worked for him. There’s still a chance that Caleb told one of his hands to get rid of the herbicide and the guy thought the best place to store it would be to bury it in the creekbed.”
“You don’t believe that.”
“Nope. I think it’s pretty obvious Johnson isn’t on the up-and-up. I just don’t know why he dragged me in to it.”
They ate in silence and slowly the black cloud that had settled over Dani disappeared. The late afternoon sun was warm as it filtered through the branches of the pear tree to dapple the ground in bright splotches of light. The late summer air was fresh and clean and a few leaves had already turned yellow with the promise of autumn.
Finished with his lunch, Chase stretched out on his back and clasped his hands under his head to stare through the leafy branches to the sky. “Come here,” he suggested.
“I am here.”
“No, over here,” he said, patting the blanket beside him.
“I want you right here.”
“Any particular reason?”
“Quite a few, actually. But the most important is that I’m going to be gone for a few days.”
“Gone?” she repeated, her head jerking up. The thought that he wouldn’t be near hit her full force.
“I’ll be back. Promise. There’s just a couple of loose ends I have to tie up back in Boise.”
“No one else can handle them?”
He sighed and shook his head. “Apparently not.”
“Don’t you have a supervisor or vice-president or something.”
“Nope. I tried that once. A man by the name of Eric Conway worked with me.” Chase scowled at the thought of Eric’s betrayal. Personally and professionally Eric had managed to cut him to the bone. “We were best friends until he decided to form his own company, take all my staff and techniques and hightail it.”
“Oh.”
“Since then I haven’t trusted anyone to do some of the work. So, I’ve got to go home for a couple of days.”
“Just as long as you come back,” she whispered, hiding the disappointment that tugged at her heart. She put the remains of the lunch into the saddlebags and sat next to him, her hands folded over her knees, her eyes mere slits as she squinted west toward the mountains. Tendrils of hair escaped unnoticed from the braid she wore down her back.
Chase reached upward and brushed one of the locks of honey-brown hair away from her face. The caress of his fingers against her cheek made her tremble.
“Until I met you, I’d never wanted a woman to spend the rest of my life with me.”
“Have you changed your mind?” She looked down at him, saw the twinkle in his eye and felt his fingers against her back as he tried to unwrap the band that held the single plait of hair in place.
“Nope.”
“How can you be so sure of yourself ?” she asked.
“Maybe because I haven’t experienced a bad marriage.” He pulled the band from her hair and watched in fascination as the tight braid loosened.
“Toss your head,” he said.
“Oh, Chase, honestly—”
“Come on.”
She laughed and shook her hair free. In glinting, sun-brightened highlights, it fell past her shoulders to her waist in soft tangled waves.
“That’s better,” he said with a crooked, charming grin, his hand sliding down her back.
“I think you’re just trying to change the subject.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it. What do you want to know?”
Smiling sadly, she pushed the hair from his eyes. “You said you haven’t been married.”
“That’s right.”
“But surely there have been other women . . .”
“A few.”
“And no bad memories?” she asked skeptically.
“None that I care to remember,” he said, thinking for a minute about the one woman he’d trusted; his secretary and lover, Tracy Monteith, the woman who’d run off with Eric Conway when Eric had started a rival company. Later Chase had learned that Tracy had only used him to gain information for Eric. Tracy and Eric had been married just about as long as Eric’s company had been in operation.
“What is it?” Dani asked; seeing the painful play of emotions on Chase’s rugged face.
“Nothing important,” he said, pushing himself up on one elbow and wrapping his other arm securely around her waist.
“So you can just forget any of the bad relationships you’ve had?”
“I try to. No reason to dwell on them.”
She couldn’t find fault with his logic.
“But then I don’t have a kid who reminds me of what happened.”
Dani forced her sad thoughts out of her mind and smiled at Chase. “I wouldn’t trade Cody for the world,” she said. “Sure, sometimes he reminds me of Blake, but that’s okay. I mean, Blake is Cody’s father and no matter how painful the marriage eventually became, I did end up with my son and managed to hold onto the farm. Some women aren’t so lucky.”
“Do you still love him?” Chase asked, his eyes delving into hers.
“Cody asked me the same thing,” she whispered.
“Well?”
“No. I did once. When I was very young, before Cody was born and when my folks were still alive. But that was a long time ago. . .” She avoided Chase’s eyes and slid away from him. “I don’t know why I’m feeling so melancholy. It’s silly really. Probably because of the old house. It looks so sad and lonely up here, falling apart and—”
Chase had taken hold of her arm and pulled her against him with such force that she was left breathless as she half lay across his chest, her golden hair streaming over them both. “All I want to do is make you happy,” he said slowly. “And I promise that I’ll never hurt you.”
She swallowed against the thick lump forming in her throat as he placed a hand behind her head and drew her face to his. “I love you, Dani,” he said slowly as he kissed her. “And I don’t want you to ever forget it.”
“I won’t.” She breathed softly into his mouth and he groaned, pulling her on top of him and kissing her face, her neck, her hair.
She felt the buttons of her blouse give way and her breasts spilled forward against his chest.
Groaning, Chase tugged at their clothes until they were both naked on the blanket, her white skin touching his tanned muscles, her beautiful dark-tipped breasts supple and ready for the feel of his fingers and mouth, her long hair streaming down to brush and tickle his skin erotically.
Taking her nipple between his lips, he felt her quiver and moan his name while her fingers worked their magic on his skin. He held her as close as he could, pressing urgently against her, feeling the need to protect her. For eve
n as he began making love to her, he felt a quiet desperation deep in his soul, as if forces outside his control would drive her away. Closing his eyes against the ugly thought, he moved against her until he was spent and then, cradling her head against his chest, whispered words of love in the shade of the tree, oblivious to the humming insects or the sweet scent of the honeysuckle and lilacs that filled the air around them.
* * *
The first warning that things weren’t going smoothly came just two days later. Dani hadn’t heard from Chase, but wasn’t particularly worried as she knew that he was back in Boise. She was still thinking about his proposal and the consequences of marrying him when she drove into Martinville for a week’s worth of groceries on Friday morning.
Cody was with her and not particularly pleased about it. Pouting, he’d propped himself against the passenger side of the pickup. Runt was standing on top of Cody, his black nose poked through the partially open window that allowed some fresh air inside the stuffy cab of the truck.
“I don’t want to go shopping,” Cody grumbled as Dani pulled into the parking lot.
“But you need some new school clothes and shoes,” she pointed out.
“Not today! School’s still a few days off.”
“And all the sales have just started.”
“Aw, Mom,” he grumbled, getting out of the pickup when Dani had parked between the faded lines tn the dusty asphalt. “Give me a break, will ya?” Angrily, he slammed the door of the pickup, nearly clipping Runt’s nose in the bargain.
“Be careful,” Dani reprimanded.
“Oh, sure.”
The dog paced and whined, sticking his head out the open window.
“We’ll only be a couple of minutes,” Dani said, patting Runt’s head and glancing pointedly at her son. Then, thinking the dog would be too hot inside the cab, she let Runt out and had him sit in the back of the truck. “Just don’t bark your fool head off, okay?”
The temperature seemed to soar as Dani walked across the hot parking lot to the store. Things were no better inside Anders’ Super Market. The air conditioning had gone out and one of the coolers had broken down.
