by Lisa Jackson
Chase looked as if he were about to argue, but kept quiet. Instead he jumped down from the Jeep and held his jacket over Dani’s head as they ran to the house. Once they were on the porch, Chase wiped the raindrops from his hair. “Caleb certainly is a cool one, isn’t he?”
“As ice.” Dani held the screen door open with her body to allow Chase to pass. “It’s spooky.”
“Spooky?” he repeated with a laugh.
“Laugh if you want, but that man gives me the creeps. I’ve never met anyone who can talk out of both sides of his mouth the way that Caleb can,” she said while rubbing her arms before shaking her head at the impossibility of the situation. “I hate to admit it, you know, but I suppose I owe you an apology.”
“Probably,” Chase agreed. “But let’s call it even.”
“Fair enough.” Dani flashed a quick smile and then walked to the window near the fireplace and stared across the fields and past the creek. “I wish I knew what Caleb was up to,” she said, idly brushing the dust from the windowsill with her finger. “But then, I wish I knew what Blake wanted, too.”
“And me?” Chase asked, standing beside her.
“Yes,” she admitted with a thoughtful frown. “I’d like to know what you really want.”
“It’s simple,” he said. “I just want out of the yoke of this mockery of a partnership with Caleb and I want you to come to Boise and marry me.”
“You make it sound so easy.” Sighing, she leaned against him, grateful for his strength.
“It could be, if you’d let it.” He reached into his pocket and withdrew a small black jeweler’s box. “Open it,” he instructed as he wrapped her small hand around the velvet case. Dani felt tears in her eyes as she snapped open the case and viewed the dainty gold ring with a large pear-shaped diamond.
Her throat was so swollen, she couldn’t speak.
“I was going to wait until tonight, when we were alone and Cody was in bed . . . but I hadn’t counted on Blake showing up or all your suspicions about my being involved with Caleb.”
“I don’t know what to say,” she whispered, eyes brimming with unshed tears.
“Just say yes.”
Pausing only a moment, she extracted the ring from its case and slid it onto her finger. “Yes,” she murmured, closing her eyes and letting the tears drizzle down her cheeks.
Chase took her face in his hands and kissed the salty tracks on her skin. “I love you, Dani. And no matter what happens, we’ll pull through this together.” Kissing her gently on the lips, he silently promised her a future of togetherness and joy.
Dani slid her arms around his neck and listened to the comforting beat of his heart. Desperate for the security and love he offered, she returned his kiss and managed to forget, for a little while, all the problems still plaguing her.
* * *
Cody and Blake hadn’t returned. Dani was worried, but Chase insisted that she calm down. “Every good fisherman knows that the best time to catch fish is just as the sun sets,” he said.
“But it’s after nine! And it’s been raining off and on all afternoon. And the wind—” As if to add emphasis to her words, the wind picked up and banged a branch of the apple tree against the back porch. “Oh, God,” she whispered, still pacing back and forth. “Something’s wrong. I can feel it.”
“Do you want me to go looking for them?”
“No—Yes—No, I don’t know what to do,” she moaned, running her fingers through her hair. “Damn!” Perching on the edge of a chair, she rested her chin on her hands and tried to ignore the worries nagging at her. “You know, before this all started, I used to be a competent woman—”
“I remember,” he said, smiling and glancing at the empty rifle hanging over the fireplace. “Look. Cody knows the way home. He’ll be back soon—”
Just then, they heard Runt’s familiar bark. Dani leaped out of the chair and opened the door to allow a drenched dog into the house. He ran into the kitchen, shook his coat and checked his bowl for dinner scraps.
Dani walked out to the back porch and though it was dark, she saw Cody running up to the house. Blake was several yards behind the boy.
“Thank God,” Dani whispered.
“Hey, Mom,” Cody cried jubilantly, “we caught a million fish!”
“A million?” she repeated.
“Well, maybe twelve or thirteen,” Cody corrected, pushing his hair out of his eyes and streaking his forehead with mud. Then he clomped onto the back porch and tried to knock the mud from his shoes. He set his pole and creel against the rail.
“I was worried about you,” Dani said softly.
“Aw, Mom—”
“Why?” Blake asked, finally catching up to the boy.
“It’s late and the storm—”
“Just a little rainshower, Dani. And it’s not that late—only a little after nine—”
“Nearly ten,” Dani corrected. “And Cody has school tomorrow.”
“He’ll make it, won’t ya, boy?” Blake asked, kicking off his boots as if he intended to stay, and then seeing Chase in the doorway, changed his mind. Swearing to himself, he put the boots back on his feet “So ya still got company, huh?”
“That’s right.”
Blake ran a hand over his beard-roughened chin. “I thought maybe you’d let me stay the night—” Then, seeing the fury blazing in Chase’s eyes and the way the man’s shoulders bunched, as if he’d like nothing better than to whip the tar out of one Blake Summers, Blake added, “On the couch of course.”
“Other plans?” Blake asked, eyeing Chase as he walked through the door and stood beside Dani.
“That’s enough, Summers,” Chase warned, his lips thinning menacingly.
Blake shivered and stood.
“Cody, I think you’d better go upstairs and get cleaned up and ready for bed,” Dani suggested, smelling the fight that was brewing between the two men.
The boy stood his ground, though he chewed anxiously on his lip. “But. Mom—”
“Now.”
Swallowing hard, Cody looked to his father, but Blake just slowly shook his head. “Listen to your ma, boy. It’s time I was shovin’ off anyway.” He stood and scowled darkly at Chase as he brushed his hands on his jeans.
“You can stay,” Cody blurted out, his boyish, confused eyes darting from one adult to another. “I have an extra bed in my room and—”
“Not tonight, son,” Blake said after reading the warning in Dani’s eyes and the set of determination in her jaw. “Another time, maybe.”
“And maybe not,” Dani said.
Smiling briefly at his son and then sending Dani a threatening glance, Blake walked off the back porch and around to the front of the house. A few seconds later Blake’s pickup roared to life.
Cody, who’d stood stock-still throughout the argument, ran through the house to the front porch where he waved frantically at his father as the taillights of the pickup faded into the night.
Without another word, the boy dashed up the stairs and into his room. A few seconds later he stomped to the bathroom and took a shower.
“Do you want me to talk to him?” Chase asked.
Dani shook her head. “No. I think this one is between Cody and his mother.”
“Then maybe I should go.” He took her into his arms and kissed her gently on the mouth.
Warmth invaded Dani’s body, coloring her face. “ You can stay,” she whispered.
Groaning and hazarding a glance at the stairs, Chase shook his head. “You need time to sort things out with Cody, and besides, I still need to check on Jenna Peterson. I don’t buy Caleb’s story. My guess is that he fired her. Now the only question is why?”
“Not the only question,” Dani said with a sigh.
“First things first,” Chase said, releasing her. “You deal with Cody and I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
She watched him leave and slowly closed the door when his Jeep was out of sight. Then, ignoring the loneliness settling ov
er her, and with renewed determination, she mounted the stairs to tell her son that she was going to marry Chase McEnroe.
Chapter Eleven
The next morning Dani still hadn’t talked to her son. After Chase had left the night before, Dani had tried to talk to Cody, but he’d refused to speak to her. Now, nothing had changed, she thought ruefully as she swept the kitchen floor and waited for him to get up.
He waited until the last minute before dashing down the stairs and pausing at the table for breakfast. While she put the jug of milk on the table, he sat, avoiding her eyes, his fingers nervously drumming on the polished wood.
“Slow down a minute,” Dani said with a warm smile. “I think we’ve got a few things we should discuss before you take off for school.”
“But I’m already late—”
“I know. But I can drive you. I want to talk.”
“’Bout what?” He poured milk on his cereal and started eating.
“Last night, for starters,” she replied, leaning on the broom. “And then maybe just about us—you and me—and how we’re going to handle dealing with your dad now that he’s back in town.”
Cody’s eyes flashed. “I can handle dealing with him just fine.”
“You think so?” she said gently, trying with difficulty not to sound like a dictator.
“You’re the one with the problem, Mom.”
“Believe it or not, Cody, I’m trying to be very open-minded about this and work it out so that we’re all happy.” After putting the broom back in the closet, she poured a cup of coffee and took a chair opposite him.
“Humph,” Cody said stubbornly. “I suppose you think you’re gonna try to tell me when I can be with him.”
“No, but—”
“Sure you are!”
Dani held up her hands to ward off the battle, and Cody stared straight at her left hand, his mouth dropping open and his eyes reflecting an inner pain at the sight of her engagement ring. “Where’d you get that—from Chase? You’re gonna marry that guy aren’t you?” he said, balling a fist and pounding it on the table, his face flushing red and contorting in a battle against tears of outrage. “Dammit!”
“Cody!”
“Well, are you?” His brown eyes pierced hers and though she ached to soften the blow, she had to tell him the truth.
“Okay. Yes, Chase asked me to marry him and I agreed, but I was going to talk it over with you before we made any definite plans.”
“It looks pretty definite to me!” he shouted, pointing at the ring angrily before pleading with her. “Mom, don’t do this! Not now.” And then a look of new horror spread over his face and his tears began in earnest. “Oh, I get it. You’re doing this because of Dad, aren’t you?”
“Your father has nothing to do with the fact that I want to marry Chase—”
“But Dad loves you! He told me so, just yesterday!” Cody cut in.
“He doesn’t love me, Cody—”
“He does! I asked him and he told me he never stopped loving you or me! He wants to come back and you . . . you’re marrying a man who works for Caleb Johnson just to keep Dad and me apart!” Livid, he pushed his chair back, grabbed his backpack from under the table and flung open the front door.
“Oh, Cody, I would never—”
“You would! You have!” he screamed. “You couldn’t even give Dad a chance, could you?”
With that, he ran outside and raced down the hill to the bus stop.
“That does it!” Dani said, thinking about chasing him down and even following the bus to school if she had to. She’d reached for her keys and purse and taken a step toward the door before she thought better of her plan and sagged against the wall. Following Cody would only end up in another bitter argument that would probably embarrass them both in front of his friends and teachers. He would never forgive her.
Knowing that she had to give him time to cool off and think rationally, she hung her keys back on the hook in the kitchen and watched him anxiously through the window. The bus stopped at the end of the lane, honked and waited as Cody ran the final few yards and climbed aboard.
“When he gets home, we’re having it out—all of it!” she promised herself angrily. “I’ve got to make him understand that I’m marrying Chase for both of us.” And no matter how much it hurts, I’ll get used to the fact that Blake is back and Cody needs to spend time with him, she added silently to herself.
* * *
When Cody didn’t get off the bus after school, Dani tried not to panic. Several times in the past, Cody had gone to a friend’s house without telling her. Though she’d made him promise never to go anywhere without calling her, she rationalized that he’d left in a huff in the morning and was probably childishly attempting to punish her by staying away from home.
And it was working. She glanced at the clock every two minutes and listened for his step on the back porch while folding clothes in the kitchen.
Where was he? She thought about calling Chase, but didn’t. “Stop it, Dani,” she told herself. “Don’t depend on him too much. This is your problem. You can handle it.” But deep down she yearned to pour her troubles out to him. Absently, she toyed with her new ring. “It’ll all work out,” she told herself and looked out the window, wondering where the devil Cody was.
After a half an hour of waiting, she couldn’t stand the suspense and dread beginning to settle on her shoulders. She started calling all of Cody’s friends, beginning with Shane Donahue. Twenty minutes later, she replaced the receiver slowly and felt her insides begin to quiver in fear. No one had seen her son.
“Blast it, Cody,” she whispered. “Where are you?”
Her heart beating double time, she called the school and was connected with Cody’s teacher, who explained that Cody hadn’t been in school all day.
Panic swept over her as she listened to Amanda Ross’s apologies and worries. Hanging up the phone with shaking fingers, Dani closed her eyes against the very real fear that Blake had taken Cody away from her.
She could imagine the scene: Cody, still brooding from the fight with Dani had gone to Blake’s brother’s house, had found Blake and told him that his mother intended to marry another man and move far away, taking Cody away from his father. Blake’s natural response would have been to comfort the child and take him away from the intolerable situation.
“Oh, no,” she whispered. “Please God, no.” Images of Blake and Cody rambling across the country in Blake’s battered old pickup filled her mind before other, more terrifying thoughts struck her. Maybe Cody wasn’t with his father. Maybe he’d taken off on his own, or started hitchhiking to God-only-knew-where.
Trying to think clearly, Dani called Blake’s brother, who lived in Martinville, but no one answered. She slammed the receiver down and held it in place before scrounging in the desk for the phone book and looking up the number of the company where Blake’s brother worked. No good. She was told politely by the receptionist that Bob Summers was out of town on a sales trip.
“What now?” she wondered. Then, trying to keep a level head, she hastily scrawled a note to Cody, hung it on the refrigerator and ran out the back door. “Come on,” she said to Runt, who took his cue and followed her outside. When she opened the pickup door, the dog leaped into the cab. “Let’s hope we can find him,” she confided as she started the truck and put it in gear.
Dark clouds swept over the sky, shadowing the land. The wind, hot and dry, blew leaves and dust across the road. “Looks like we’re in for a good one,” Dani said to Runt while eyeing the purple, roiling sky and praying that Cody was safe. “Oh, son, use your head and come home!”
She tore out of the driveway like a madwoman, and though she tried to calm herself, she could feel her heart in her throat. beating at twice its normal rate. Sweat dampened her arms and back and her fingers were clenched around the steering wheel as she drove into the quiet school parking lot.
“You’re sure he was never here, today?” Dani asked Cody’s teacher
once she’d dashed through the hallways to his room in the elementary school.
Amanda Ross was visibly distraught. “Yes, but I thought he was probably just ill. I had no idea—” Then, catching herself, she touched Dani on the arm. “I asked all the teachers; no one saw Cody—not even the duty teacher who supervises the playground in the morning before the final bell when the kids go into their classrooms.”
“But I saw him get on the bus—”
“I know. I called over to the bus barns and talked to the driver of the bus Cody rides. The driver remembers picking up Cody and bringing him to the school. So we know he got here, but from that point, no one’s sure what happened. From what I can tell, Cody never came into the building or even stopped at the playground. With all of the students arriving by bus and car, he could very easily have walked off the grounds unnoticed.”
Sick with worry, Dani sat on a corner of Cody’s desk and swallowed back her tears as she looked at the empty chair. “So no one knows where he is?”
“I’m sorry,” Amanda said. “Is there anything I can do?”
“I don’t know.”
The young teacher thought for a moment before broaching what she knew would be a sensitive subject for Cody’s mother. “I heard that his father was back in town,” she said gently.
“Yes, but not with me. And no one answers at his place.”
“Do you think Cody’s with him?”
“I don’t know,” Dani admitted, pressing a finger to her temple. “I hope this is just one of Cody’s pranks to get back at me; we had an argument this morning.” She pursed her lips together and stood. “I hope to God that Blake hasn’t taken off with him.”
“So Cody was pretty upset when he left the house?”
“Beside himself.” Her heart twisting, she looked at Cody’s teacher. “I—I was going to run after him, but I thought maybe we should both cool off before we got into another disagreement.”
“I see.” Amanda rubbed her arms and nodded. “He does have a stubborn streak.”
“Like me.”
“Have you gone to the police?”
