Cowboy Secrets

by Alice Sharpe

  Had she really broken things off with Pike last night? Silly question—she knew she had. And she also knew he would not push or cajole her into rethinking her decision. For better or worse, the deed was done.

  And yet the thought that he wasn’t hers anymore to touch or kiss was hard to swallow and impossible not to regret. She got out of bed, washed up and brushed her teeth, gathered her hair in a ponytail and put on the green sweater. Her first priority of the day was to make sure Tess was safe and then make arrangements to fly home using the open-ended ticket Pike had purchased when she came here days before.

  The smell of cake was too sweet for so early in the day. She comforted herself by thinking of the deli down the block from her apartment. The day after tomorrow, she’d feast on bagels and lox and drink coffee so strong it had the power to kick-start the lousiest day. She’d have to settle for toast this morning, though she couldn’t fault the ranch coffee. It was as strong as the stuff she bought. But how did these people survive the afternoon without a cappuccino or espresso?

  Tess was seated at the counter eating cereal and doodling on some paper as Grace took the first of three round cake pans from the oven. “Sleep well?” she asked as she set each on a rack.

  “Yes, thanks,” Sierra said.

  “Liar,” Tess said. “You tossed and turned all night.”

  Sierra sat across from her sister. “I was having dreams.”

  “About falling?” Tess asked, her eyes suddenly fearful.

  “No. I dreamed a bald guy was poking a stick at me through a window blind. I tried to stop him and he bit me. Stupid stuff that just made me restless.” She looked at the paper upon which Tess had doodled. “What are you doing?”

  “Grace said I could decorate Kinsey’s cake. I was thinking of flowers with little silver balls in the center. Or we could bake sugar cookie hearts and frost them and then stick them on the cake. I saw it in a magazine and it was cool.”

  “You have an artistic streak so whatever you decide will be perfect. Listen, honey, we need to talk about what you want to do on a long-term basis,” she added. “It’s time for me to go home and get back to work.”

  “You’re leaving?” Tess asked.

  “I have a job to get back to. I was thinking you could come with me.”

  “To New York? I don’t know.”

  At the sink, Grace leaned forward to peer out the window. “Who’s that?” she murmured. She turned to look back at Sierra. “A car just pulled in. I know Harry got up early and plowed the ranch road, but I didn’t know the roads from town were clear.”

  “Maybe a neighbor,” Tess said.

  Grace looked out the window again. “I don’t recognize the car.”

  Tess craned her neck to look, but Sierra touched her sister’s hand to reclaim her attention. “I want to book a flight as soon as possible. If you want to come with me, I need to get you a ticket.”

  “I don’t know,” Tess said.

  “The other option is you stay here with Pike,” Sierra added.

  “I guess I should talk to him.”

  “That’s a good idea.”

  “The man getting out of the car looks vaguely familiar,” Grace said as she continued staring.

  “Maybe he’s with the local police,” Sierra offered. “Pike said they would come out here to investigate when the weather cleared.”

  “It’s not a police car and the man isn’t dressed like an officer. In fact, his clothes are all wrong.”

  Sierra popped to her feet. All she could think was that it must be trouble. A knock sounded on the door. She fought the urge to grab a butcher knife and went to open it.

  For a second she just stared at the familiar features, almost unable to reconcile this man’s presence on the Hastings Ridge Ranch. He was dressed in pressed jeans and alligator loafers—no socks. His concession to the cold seemed to be a blazer and his graying blond hair was slicked back from his tanned face. “Doug?”

  “I thought I’d never find this godforsaken place!” he said under his breath. “It’s freezing out here. How do people live like this?”

  “Does Tess know you’re coming?”

  “No, I wanted to surprise her.”

  “Dad!” Tess squealed from the kitchen, obviously recognizing his voice. “Is that really you?”

  Doug smiled broadly, his dimples all but twinkling as he stamped the snow off his loafers and sidled past Sierra. “Do I hear my girl?” he called as he strode through the mudroom.

  Sierra closed the door. In the kitchen, she found Doug kneeling in front of his daughter, examining her foot without touching it. He looked like a handsome doctor on a soap opera. “Does it hurt?” he asked. “Has it been X-rayed?”

  “We’ve been snowed in. It really hurts, though.”

  “It appears to be a bad sprain to me,” Grace said from the sink. “I wrapped and iced it but now that the roads are clear and you’re here, maybe you could drive her into Falls Bluff to the urgent care center.”

  “Of course I will,” he said as he stood.

  Sierra realized Doug and Grace had never met and performed introductions. “I remember your TV show,” Grace said. “I was a big fan.”

  “Thank you,” he said graciously.

  “Are you doing anything right now besides those clever insurance ads?”

  “I have my fingers in a few things,” he said, then hitched his hands on his waist and looked around the kitchen. “This is such a cozy cabin. And that cake smells delightful.”

  “It’s a wedding cake,” Tess said. “Gerard and Kinsey are getting married tonight.” She showed him her doodling and added, “I’m going to decorate it.”

  “Very cute,” he said and turned back to Grace. “How do I wangle an invitation to this wedding?”

  She laughed. “We’d love to have you. In fact, where are you staying while you’re here?”

  “I’ll get a room in town—”

  “Nonsense, you’re Tess’s father. There’s plenty of room here.”

  This rambling house was no more a “cozy cabin” than a cruise ship was a rowboat, but saying there was plenty of room right now was something of a stretch. With four people in the film crew, her and Tess and now Doug, even this big house was popping at the seams.

  “Why are you in Idaho?” Sierra asked, alarmed at how chilly her voice sounded. Her experience with this man had led her to believe he did very little that wasn’t self-serving, but there was no reason to be rude to him, especially when she knew her current bad mood had more to do with herself than with him.

  “How could I not come when I heard how distraught Tess was? A girl needs her father after an ordeal like the one she suffered, right, honey?”

  Tess smiled and Sierra began a slow thaw toward the man. Maybe he’d come to his senses and realized the very real danger still looming over Tess. For her sake, Sierra sure hoped so.

  Doug looked toward the swinging door. “I heard there was a film crew here,” he said.

  “The movie people are setting up for the wedding out in the barn,” Grace said. “All except for Gary, the producer, who’s still in bed because he tore his rotator cuff and he’s having trouble sleeping.”

  Doug nodded. “You mean Gary Dodge. Fine man.”

  “Are you friends?”

  “Never met him, but I pride myself on thorough research. So the others are outside, huh? Maybe I’ll go shoot the breeze with them.”

  “But what about my foot?” Tess asked. “I think I should get an X-ray now so I’ll have time to decorate the cake when we get back.”

  “Sure, sure,” he said. “We will, but there’s no rush, is there?”

  “Well, there kind of is because of the cake and everything. I was hoping we could talk about things.”

  “Lots of time
for that.” He tousled the top of his daughter’s head, smiled at Grace, avoided Sierra’s gaze and left the house.

  Grace’s gaze shifted to Sierra. Sierra glanced at Tess, who had turned on the stool to watch her father’s retreat. Her furrowed brows and down-turned mouth made her appear older and more jaded than she had just a few minutes before. Longing to see Tess smile, Sierra trotted out her cheeriest voice. “Have you decided how you’re going to decorate this cake?”

  “No,” Tess said.

  Sierra bit her lip and brought her voice down a bit. “Listen. I know you want to catch up with your dad, but I’d be happy to drive you into Falls Bluff to have your foot X-rayed and you guys can visit later.”

  “No thanks,” she said listlessly.

  “I thought your foot was killing you.”

  She shrugged.

  “Hmm. Well, I wanted to tell you that if you decide to come to New York with me, we’ll turn my office into your bedroom. You can paint it any color you want. And there are lots of colleges and programs—”

  “Just stop!” Tess interrupted, anger flashing in her eyes. “Don’t worry about me, okay? I can take care of myself. I don’t need anyone else.” She grabbed her crutches and hobbled back to the bedroom, slamming the door behind her.

  Sierra looked after her sister with wide eyes.

  Grace squeezed her hand. “Give her time, dear. It’s not your love and acceptance that she’s looking for.”

  * * *

  AFTER RETRIEVING HER COMPUTER, Sierra made her way to the room with the fireplace, glad to find it empty. She desperately wanted to book a flight home. Until Tess made up her mind about her future, that wasn’t going to happen.

  Being stuck inside this house, where everything reminded her of Pike, was difficult. Part of her waited with bated breath for him to walk into a room and the other part of her dreaded the moment she’d look into his eyes. She knew she’d hurt him and even if it kept him from deeper hurt ahead, it felt lousy.

  No use thinking about that now. Instead she was relieved to find that the internet was working again, and she focused her attention on wading through emails, none of which were from Savannah.

  Wasn’t that kind of strange?

  Next she accessed a news website to catch up on what was happening at home. The garbage company was threatening a strike and two Yankees were accused of wife-swapping, but the big story had to do with the murder of a call girl named Giselle Montgomery and the burgeoning scandal involving evidence that she had been linked to one of the mayoral candidates. No surprise that it was the sleazeball candidate, Ralph Yardley. Sierra mentally patted herself on the back for supporting Jakes. No one had accused Yardley of the actual murder, as he had an ironclad alibi involving a fund-raising dinner he attended with his wife. The innuendo was that he could have hired someone to take care of Giselle if she had threatened to reveal an affair.

  The poor woman had drowned and her body had been found in the Hudson River. There was evidence she had been dumped, the report stated without going into details.

  There was also a tantalizing sidebar piece that linked the murdered call girl to the notorious Broadway Madame, who was only notorious because nobody knew exactly who she was. Sierra thought for a moment about the difference between her city’s news and the news out of Falls Bluff. New York City may have a seedy underbelly, but it was here in the country that she’d been thrown down a chasm and left for dead.

  She took care of a few loose ends with clients, made a lunch date for later in the week with a couple of girlfriends and wrote Savannah an email asking if everything was okay. She didn’t look up until Gary entered the room. He held his arm kind of funny due to his injury. “Morning,” he said, looking around. “Where is everybody?”

  “Grace said your crew is out setting up for the wedding in the barn.”

  “In the barn?” He looked surprised. “It’s cold out there. Why don’t they have the ceremony in this beautiful room?”

  “I don’t have the slightest idea,” Sierra said. “Gary, there’s something else. The police will be here pretty soon now that the roads are clear. They have to be told about your old employee on the off chance he’s somehow behind what happened. If you don’t tell them, I’m afraid I’ll have to.”

  “I’ll talk to them,” he said. “Damn.”

  “Sorry.”

  “Can’t be helped. Nothing good ever comes from trying to ignore reality, does it?”

  “No,” she said softly. “Not really.”

  A few seconds later, Doug waltzed into the den and did a double take when he saw Gary. He held out his hand and strode over to him. Gary looked nervous for a moment as though afraid Doug would jar his arm, but Doug seemed to recall the injury and dropped his hand. “Just the man I wanted to see,” Doug said. “I’ve heard good things about the quality of your projects, Gary.”

  “Thank you. Have we met?”

  “No, I don’t believe so. I’ve heard of you, though. My name is Douglas Foster.”

  “That’s why you look familiar. You were in that detective show years ago. What are you up to now?”

  “I’m the voice for Safer Insurance Company. Maybe you’ve heard my ads.”

  “Sure, yeah.” Gary narrowed his eyes. “They’re excellent.” He chewed on his bottom lip and added, “How coincidental that you’re here.”

  “Not entirely,” Sierra said. “Doug is Tess’s father. He came when he heard what happened to her at the mine.”

  “Poor kid was really roughed up,” Gary said. His gaze shifted to Sierra and she got the feeling he was willing her not to mention his disgruntled former employee and the possibility he’d been behind almost killing Doug’s daughter. Probably worried about attorneys and more lawsuits. She had no intention of saying anything so she produced a reassuring smile.

  Doug nodded. “Yeah, she sounded terrible on the phone. I just had to come and offer support. But it’s great that you’re here. I’m fascinated by your project concerning this ranch and its lurid past.”

  Gary stared at Doug for a few moments, assessing him, apparently, because Sierra saw in his eyes the moment he reached a decision. “It might be even better luck than you think,” Gary said. “Unforeseen circumstances with our voice-over talent have left us without a narrator.”

  “Nothing serious, I hope.”

  “Actually yes, he had a stroke.”

  “Oh, you’re talking about Patrick Nestle. Great guy. I heard about the stroke.”

  “His withdrawal has left us in a little bit of a bind. I need to check with my crew right now. Do you have time this afternoon to talk or would you prefer your agent be present?”

  “No need for my agent at this point,” Doug said. “Sure, I have the rest of this day. Just let me know when you want to sit down for a while.”

  “I don’t want to get in the way of you and your daughter—”

  Doug interrupted him with a laugh. “Tess? Oh, she’ll understand. There’s always tomorrow.”

  “Good.” They exchanged business cards, Sierra supposed so they’d have each other’s cell phone numbers, and Gary left to find breakfast. Doug shoved his hands in his designer-jean pockets, rocked back on his heels and smiled.

  “You know, I don’t think I really believed it till just now,” Sierra said, closing the laptop and shaking her head as she stood.

  “Believed what?”

  “You. Why you’re here.”

  “I’m here for Tess.”

  “Like hell you are. You’re here for you. You’re here on a job interview. Tess was simply your ticket in the door. And the worst part is that she knows it. You almost had me fooled, but she saw right through you.”

  “You don’t know what you’re talking about,” he scoffed and started to turn.

  “Don’t walk away just yet,�
�� Sierra said, and he paused. “You and I have never been friendly and that’s okay. I don’t need you or your reputation or your money. But Tess does. For better or worse, she is your kid and she loves you.”

  “Is that why she ran away with that druggie and didn’t bother calling?” he said with a sneer.

  “You know, it just may be. Danny was quite a bit older than her. Maybe she was looking for a father figure.”

  “That’s a bunch of mumbo jumbo.”

  “Doug, please,” Sierra said, lowering her voice and reining in her frustration. “Tess witnessed the cold-blooded murder of somebody she cared about. Whether or not the murderer was behind what happened here in the mine, she has to go back to Los Angeles and finger the man she saw kill Danny. After that, she’ll be the star witness at his trial and because she’s your daughter and you possess a certain amount of fame, she’ll be under scrutiny. She’s going to have to cope with all of this. I have offered to help her, so has Pike, but in her heart of hearts, she wants you.”

  “No, she doesn’t,” he said and damn if he didn’t look as though he actually believed it.

  “Sierra is right,” Tess said from the doorway, where she balanced on the crutches. Her face was blotchy, her eyes red. Sierra knew that the incident in the mine had terrified Tess even more than she’d let on and that dealing with the growing fear of another attempt wore on her mind. Sometimes she could shrug it off and pretend things were okay, but now and again, things just snapped.

  And then her dad had come and a leap of hope for his support had been dashed on the sharp edges of his ego.

  “Tess,” he said.

  “I thought you came here because you loved me but you really came for a job, didn’t you?”

  “You’re just saying that because Sierra said it.”

  She shook her head. “No, I’m not. I knew it the minute you couldn’t wait to ditch me so you could hang out with the film crew.” Her lips quivered. “It’s not like you haven’t done the same thing a hundred times before.”

  “Tess, you’re exaggerating—”