“Oh, that won’t be necess—”
“Trust me,” Wyatt broke in, shooting a fast grin at Tory, then looking back to Hannah. “It would be better to just nod and say ‘sure thing.’ Save yourself a lot of time. Or she’ll just start shoving checks under your door.”
Tory laughed but nodded. “He’s not wrong.”
Hannah laughed with them, and the tension eased a bit more. “We’ll work something out.”
“This place is amazing,” Tory told her, gesturing to the house and the fields beyond. “I can see why you all have fallen in love with living here.” Her smile softened then. “It means a lot, this welcome. Thank you.”
“We’re happy you’re here, too,” Hannah said. “I know this means a lot to Chey. We’re her family, so if you belong to her, then you belong to us, too.”
Tory stepped in and gave Hannah another hug, surprising her again, then let her go and stepped back. “Sorry, I’m a hugger, and I just—” She wiped at her cheeks and let out a self-deprecating laugh. “It’s been a long couple of months combined with a long drive here. I’m a bit punchy. I’m not usually a blubberer. Just . . . thank you. For saying that.” She glanced at Wyatt. “We were just talking about family and bonds.”
“I meant it,” Hannah said, but didn’t ask any of the questions Wyatt could see in her expressive gray eyes. “Were you heading in or heading out?” she asked, nodding toward the house.
“In,” Tory said. “Vivi invited us to dinner after this morning’s excitement.” When Hannah frowned, Tory added, “Oh, I guess she hasn’t told you that part yet.”
“She just called and said we needed to powwow and could I please come out to dinner. Avery is coming, too. And Ben, I think; though I’m sorry, Will and Jake aren’t able to come. They’re up at the winery with Seth, pruning the vines in preparation for the coming season. The recent wet weather has them behind and I didn’t think this was vital. Chey had let me know you’d arrived, so I thought I could get you settled while I was here.” She looked between the two of them. “So, is there something else going on? What don’t I know about?”
“I’ll leave that to Vivi to tell,” Tory said. “I wasn’t there with them this morning, so—”
“There, where?” Hannah asked, looking more confused by the moment.
“At the lake,” Tory said, then pasted a bright smile on her face. “You know, why don’t we head in together and Vivi can fill you in. Then we can go up to the loft and do what needs to be done before dinner.” She looked at Wyatt. “You were just heading out, so I won’t keep you,” she said, rather pointedly. “We’ll see you and Chey back here for dinner, okay?”
“Where is Chey?” Hannah asked, then let out a short laugh. “You know what? I’m sure this will all be sorted out shortly. I won’t hold you up,” she said to Wyatt, then held out her hand again. “It was nice meeting you.”
She met his gaze directly as she shook hands with him, and Wyatt saw untold depths there. He’d met a lot of people from more walks of life than most folks knew existed. He’d spent long hours talking to people who had seen and done things that he could only try to comprehend. Hannah’s eyes had the same look of hard-earned wisdom in their soft gray depths. He wasn’t sure what had happened to put it there, but he suspected she saw a lot more than most people did when she looked at him. And that wasn’t even taking into account whatever it was Chey had told her about him.
“The same,” he told her. Whoever this woman was, she’d been part of the group that had helped put Chey back together after losing Cody. For that alone, he’d forever think of her as an ally and friend. That he hadn’t been there to do the same for Chey was likely at the root of all those questions in Hannah’s eyes.
“I’ll head on inside,” Hannah said. “Sorry again for interrupting earlier.” She left them with a quick smile and a nod.
Wyatt looked after her, wondering what Chey had told her about him. And why. Especially when he knew she’d never once mentioned him to Vivi.
He noticed Tory watching him as he watched Hannah’s retreating figure. He thought she’d comment on the odd, underlying tension that had been there, even when they’d laughed together. Instead, she surprised him by changing the subject entirely. “I was in the kitchen with Vivi before you got here,” she said. “She was still waxing rhapsodic over your stint as Tarzan, by the way.” She shifted her stance, arms still folded, gaze directly on him. “I also heard you’re going to bring the Wyatt Reed dog and pony show to little Blue Hollow Falls. Don’t you think that’s overkill?” She smiled. “Or is that the llama and koala show? I’ve lost track.”
He shared her smile. “Just trying to help.” He shoved his hands in his pockets and took in the view once more. “Seems like a view worth preserving.” He shot her a fast grin. “Surely you agree.”
Tory laughed and shook her head. “Here for five minutes and already making a place for yourself.” She unfolded her arms and knuckled him in the side. “I thought that was what I was supposed to be doing.”
“Looks like there’s plenty of room,” he said. “And you seem to be doing just fine. Hannah has already adopted you.”
“So,” she said, a considering note in her voice, “does that mean you’re staying?”
Okay, so she hadn’t changed the subject after all. She didn’t sound hopeful, or even guardedly optimistic. Mostly just guarded. “Tory, you know I’m not trying to wedge myself in here, or take up the space they’re carving out for you. I didn’t even know I was coming to Blue Hollow Falls.”
“I was teasing. That’s not remotely what I’m asking, and you know it.”
He sighed. “I know. And you know my life isn’t here. It’s not even on this continent. I’ll be heading back to the UK sooner rather than later. I have a lot of work to do.”
“I seem to recall your telling me after I picked you up at the airport that you were looking forward to taking a break.”
“From the travel and livestream productions, yes. I have a ton of postproduction work to do from the Nepal trip and preproduction work for the next one. I haven’t even decided which proposal I’m going to take. I’m simply going to do all that at home, instead of on the road. It will keep me busy for a good while, and frankly, I am looking forward to staying put for a bit.”
“If you’re going to stream something live from here, draw attention to the situation at Firefly Lake, that means you’ll be staying on at least for the immediate future, though, correct?”
“I suppose. I’m not, as you put it, bringing the dogs and ponies.” He smiled. “Or the llamas and koalas. This isn’t going to be a full-scale Reed Planet production.” He lifted his hands. “Actually, I shouldn’t say that since I don’t know what it will be. But I’m not planning to fly the whole crew here. I’ve just given them the summer off. Or well, sort of. But they’re all working from home this summer, too. I think. Or wherever they want to work from. We don’t even know what we’re trying to do here yet. Just what we’re trying to keep the town council from doing. I can bring enough attention to bear on the situation to at least make the council and chamber of commerce act responsibly and take all angles into consideration before they make a decision. The thing is, Vivi and her friends are going to have to come up with some kind of alternate solution, or I don’t think the council will turn down the one they have in hand, no matter how good a case the townspeople make.”
She smiled sweetly. “Sounds like you’re the perfect person to help them figure all that out.”
He shook his head. “I’ll do something short, bring the heat of social media attention to the situation, then leave it up to the residents here to take it from there.” He accepted her hug, and hugged her back, then said, “This is a one off. A favor for a friend.” He smiled at her. “A best friend,” he amended. When she gave him the Queen Victoria look, he rolled his eyes, then added laughingly, “Friends. Plural. Okay?”
She nodded, then stuck out her hand. “Speaking of which, hand me your phone.�
�
He frowned but slid his phone out of his pocket and handed it to her.
She turned it on, then tapped on the screen for a minute and handed it back.
He looked at the screen. “What did you—”
“Directions to Dr. Campbell’s place, all loaded and started for you. The vet,” she clarified. “Where Chey is at present.” She reached up on her tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek. “Go get our girl, will you please? She’s had her alone time. We need her here. She’s part of this.”
Wyatt heard what she was really saying. We need her here. She’s part of us.
Chapter Five
Chey lifted up the ramp on the back of the now empty two-horse trailer and latched it closed, opting to leave the top half doors latched open. She waved to Ben—Dr. Campbell—as he headed from the huge, red and white, gambrel-roof barn and the offices that were attached to it, back toward the white clapboard house he called home. Avery spent most of her time out here with Ben now, but apparently Chey had just missed her as she was heading back to the farm for dinner.
Which is where you should be right now, chicken little.
It was true that she needed to get both of the horses over here for a full checkup—they were recent arrivals to her growing menagerie of rescues—and she’d kept them quarantined away from the rest of the herd. It was a pain, but she could have gone another day. Or week. Neither horse was in a bad way or needing specific medical attention; she just wanted to get a full bill of health on them before introducing them to the herd.
And you needed an excuse to get away from Wyatt.
“That too,” she muttered. She’d like to think she was better at rolling with things now that she’d settled down in the mountains. For the most part, she was. “So, go on and roll your sorry ass—behind—home again, and be part of the solution.” She smiled at herself for self-editing. I don’t need no stinkin’ mason jar, she thought. Yeah, you do, her little voice added, and she chuckled. “Yep, I probably do.”
She turned on her phone and sighed. She’d dawdled as much as was humanly possible and she’d still be home in plenty of time for dinner. She’d hoped to spend some time with Avery. All Chey had to do was get her started on any one of the numerous topics Avery was studying at any given moment, and she’d have been good for an hour’s distraction at least.
Chey walked around the trailer to the driver side of her truck and reluctantly climbed in. She tossed her hat on the seat and raked her fingers through her hair. She really didn’t have anywhere else she had to be or errands that needed running, and, frankly, she didn’t want to be hauling an empty trailer all over God’s creation just to kill time. And being alone wasn’t really helping her think things through. What she needed was a sounding board, someone who would listen to the whole tale, then help her figure out what to do with all the things she was feeling.
She pulled on her seat belt, then picked up the phone and called Hannah, who was the only person who knew about Wyatt, knew about her past, and why they’d lost touch. She might have needed to make another deposit to the mason jar fund when her call went to voice mail. She turned on the ignition and started down the drive when she heard the ping of an incoming text. She stopped the truck, put it in park, then looked at the screen. It was from Hannah, and it wasn’t subtle.
I’m at the farm. WE NEED TO TALK.
All caps.
Ah. So, she’s already met Wyatt. Chey swore under her breath, then found herself fighting a wry smile. “We’re going to need a bigger jar, Wy.” She let her head tip back against the headrest, closed her eyes for a long moment. Why wasn’t this easier? He wasn’t having any issues with seeing her. Not at all, as far as she could tell.
She opened her eyes, picked up the phone and texted Hannah back.
We do. I’ll call you later.
She waited, then got a thumbs-up emoji. “Great.” She tossed the phone back into the cup holder. She knew Hannah would have called her if she could have. Naturally the one person who could help her was in the one place Chey didn’t want to be. She put the truck back into gear and rumbled on down the long, rutted drive that led to the main road, the horse trailer bouncing along behind her. Once there she paused, looked both ways, even though she knew maybe three cars a day traveled down that road. She wasn’t looking for traffic. She was looking for divine intervention. Or at least a sign. “Any sign would be nice.”
Her phone buzzed again. Another text. She glanced skyward before looking at the screen. “Thanks,” she said. “I think.” She scooped up the phone. This one was from Tory.
Come on back. I’m going to fix this. Promise.
Wow, Chey thought. Tory must be feeling the weight of the world for the stunt she’d pulled. She never wheedled or cajoled. She was more the delivering ultimatums, telling it like it is kinda girl. Well, maybe you can stew a bit longer, Chey thought. It was only fair. Decision made, she turned on the main road, heading away from the farm.
Twenty minutes later, she was driving down the bumpy, pothole-riddled road to Firefly Lake. Once she got all the way back to the closed ramp road, she parallel-parked truck and trailer across the end of the ramp road, then picked up her phone again and texted Tory back.
At the lake. Research. Start without me.
It was the truth. More or less. If she was going to sit somewhere and think, then this seemed like a good place to do it. And if she couldn’t figure out what to do about Wyatt, then maybe she’d figure out what they could do to save the lake. And Blue Hollow Falls. Sure. No problem.
Since her thoughts and feelings where Wyatt was concerned were just a big, indecipherable jumble, though, maybe it was better to focus her mind elsewhere and just back-burner him for a bit. She had no idea how Wyatt thought he could help.
The bigger question at the moment was what kind of help did they need? She popped open the center console and took out a spiral notebook and pen she used to keep track of business mileage and flipped to a clean page. Then stared at it. “So, how to keep the park from being sold to a glitzy resort developer. Go.” She tapped the blank page with her pen. Vivi had contacted Addie Pearl the moment they’d returned from the lake. According to Addie, with the advent of the music center and the mill, developers had been sniffing around for some time now. As of yet, the developers had been in the market to buy, but none of the folks they’d approached with an offer had been willing to sell. “So, knowing they were struggling, Hammond ever-so-helpfully steered one of them to property owned by the town instead.”
Clearly, the lake property couldn’t sustain itself in its current iteration. It was a drain on town resources with little on the positive side to balance the scales. Aside from the fact that it was a fabulous resource no one seemed to want to use. So, one of the problems to be solved was how to make the lake and surrounding park and wilderness area a vital, necessary attraction again. “That shouldn’t be too hard.” It might just be a matter of refurbishing worn out equipment and sprucing up the trails, maybe updating the Web site. She made a note to have Avery look into that. Heck, find out if Firefly Lake even had a Web site.
If the council members balked at spending the money to fix the place up with no guarantee of success, and they’d have a pretty good argument there, she conceded, she’d bet between Vivi and Addie Pearl, they could get a coalition of townsfolk willing to pitch in and do most of the labor, maybe donate new equipment. Surely it could be a tax write-off or something. After all, look what they’d done with the mill. She made a few additional notes and started feeling a bit more optimistic.
She reverted to tapping her pen on the notebook, and her enthusiasm waned when she realized it wasn’t going to simply be a matter of revamping the town’s recreational area. Vivi had said the businesses in town were suffering the same neglect. With the new tourist draws largely outside the town proper, folks didn’t have to drive through Blue Hollow Falls to get to the winery, the music center and mill, or even their lavender farm. She would have thought that the taxes b
eing collected from the new endeavors would balance the scales, but apparently those funds weren’t trickling down to the businesses themselves.
She picked up her phone and checked the time. Well, that had been a whopping ten minutes she’d spent not thinking about Wyatt. She let her head drop back against the headrest. “Go me.”
Her thoughts returned to his confident assessment that he could help turn the town around. He knew people. She stared at the dark screen on her phone for the longest time. She’d spent the past decade-plus actively and quite specifically choosing not to look for him. Not to see what he was doing, or where he was doing it. Or with whom. Be honest.
That was true, also. She wished him happiness. Always had. No one deserved it more than he did. She’d hoped he’d left Zachariah behind and had struck out on his own to find what made him happy. Her good wishes for him had been sincere and unwavering. She’d cared about him deeply. Always.
But that didn’t mean she had to torture herself by watching him while he was doing it. What did they call it these days? Self-care? Yes, she’d been well ahead of the trend, practicing self-care.
Only, now he was here. Where she could hardly avoid seeing him do . . . whatever it was he’d be doing. She put the phone down, then picked it up again. Her finger hovered over the screen, then finally she tapped it with determination. You’re going to find out anyway, she told herself.
Tory knew what he’d been up to, why he knew people. Why he’d changed so dramatically, and all for the good, at least as far as Chey could tell. Tory had known enough to figure out how to track him down and get him to travel halfway around the world to come get his horse back. And what had he been doing in Nepal, of all places? When Chey had thought about him and what he might be doing, she’d pictured him with some small spread in Montana, raising cattle, maybe still raising bulls, with a few horses. Maybe go wild and add in some free-range chickens, a few goats. She’d figured at some point he’d have met someone who would love him for the amazingly sweet, gentle, and kind man he was. Someone who’d be a hell of a lot smarter than you were and marry him when he asked.
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