She dressed and went to the kitchen to make coffee. Kevin came out of his room while she loaded the maker with grinds. He nodded at her, his usual morning greeting. With him, at least, she felt the air was clear.
Sarah surveyed the view from the kitchen window. Off in the distance she saw Dodge’s truck come to a stop by the barn, saw him get out and disappear around the front of Miguel’s house. She turned away from the window and watched her son flick channels on the television.
“You’re up early,” she said.
“We told Miguel we’d help him with some stuff today.” His voice sounded scratchy from disuse. “We got any frosted flakes?”
Sarah smiled and felt relieved he didn’t want to rehash the night’s events. “Yeah, they’re in the cupboard. I’m going to work on the computer for awhile. Come tell me before you guys head out.”
“Hey, Mom,” Kevin said as she turned toward the hall. “Bang on Lyle’s door. If I have to do slave labor, so does he.”
###
The phone rang around lunchtime, the sound of which brought Sarah back from the Caribbean island where her characters had started a vacation. She clicked save on the computer, satisfied with the way the book had progressed, and reached for the phone. Her pleasure lessened when she heard the voice on the other end.
“Senator, so interesting to hear from you again.”
“Mrs. Woodward, call me Ben. I just heard you’d had some trouble at your ranch. Of course I had to call and make sure you’re okay, see if you needed anything.”
Sarah rolled her eyes as he spoke, annoyed that he’d actually think she’d confide in him. “No, no trouble really.” Who’d told him about her ranch and had encouraged his calls? Tommy Thornton?
“Well, I’d say a few hundred cows escaping through a hole in your fence would constitute some trouble. And before you try to downplay what happened, let me assure you I know full well how hard it is to run a ranch of your size. My family’s been ranching for many years and a scare like that can make you want to throw in the towel and give something else a try.”
Oh, he’d just love that now, wouldn’t he? “We managed. Where’d you say you heard about our trouble?”
“Oh, here and there. Now, Mrs. Woodward.” He cleared his throat. “What happened the other night isn’t out of the norm. I know this may sound a little old fashioned, but ranching is no business for a woman, especially one as pretty as you. I’m willing to give you a fair price in cash whenever you’re ready to sell. A woman like you doesn’t need to concern herself with the dirty business of ranching.”
“Senator, I appreciate your concern, but I rather like the ranching business. You needn’t worry.”
In the long pause before he spoke, Sarah thought she heard him mumble under his breath.
“Just promise me if you change your mind you’ll call me first. No one can get you out from under that ranch faster than I can, Sarah. Just think about it.”
Oh, she’d think about it all right. Slick Benji was up to something and it was past time she figured it out.
###
Sarah felt guilty calling her friend because she needed information instead of to catch up, which she’d meant to do for months now.
“Sarah Woodward,” Senator Jack Carnes said in his polished southern voice. “How’s it going out in the Wild West?”
“Good, Jack. Very good. How are Cathy and the kids?”
“Cathy’s enrolled in grad school at Georgetown. She said we spend so much time in DC she’d rather go to school than play the politician’s wife. I think she wanted an excuse to get out of the parties and fundraisers.” He chuckled and Sarah could imagine him using that excuse every time he bowed out of a social event early. “Of course juggling her school work with Rachel’s gymnastics and Brandt’s football schedules have been hard.” Sarah heard him shoo away an assistant. “But enough about us. How are you, Sarah? And I want the truth.”
Jack knew her too well to lie. “You and Cathy are my oldest friends.”
“Hey, leave my age out of it.”
“We’re doing well, Jack.” She looked out the window at the stunning view of the mountains. “It’s taken the boys some time to adjust, but I think they’re coming around.”
“Even Kevin?”
“Yes, even Kevin. He’s got a girl he’s interested in and that seems to help.”
“Damn, our kids are getting old. It’s great to hear your voice, Sarah. Cathy and I think of you often. She’ll be relieved to know you’re alive and kicking.”
“Thanks, Jack. I’ll call soon.” She hated to end the banter that had characterized their relationship since college. “Jack, I’m calling to pick your brain. For some reason, Ben Burwick has taken an interest in my ranch. I was wondering if you had any idea why.”
“Sweetie, it’s pretty well known monogamy’s not his strong suit.”
“That’s not the kind of interest I’m referring to. He’s called several times about buying my land, even before we moved. Now he won’t leave me alone.”
“Just tell him you’re not interested in selling.”
“I’ve already done that. As a matter of fact, I think I’ve made myself clear. He doesn’t seem to want to take no for an answer.” Sarah’s eyes moved toward the window, checked for Dodge. “It’s weird, Jack. When he’s not trying to talk me into selling, he’s offering all kinds of help to keep me afloat. I don’t trust the man--you know what Todd thought about him. I guess I just wanted to know if you could think of any reason why he’s become so insistent?”
“I haven’t seen much of slick Benji for awhile, to tell you the truth. Rumor on the hill is he’s working some big development deal with a guy whose reputation is a little suspect.”
“You aren’t talking about the Cooper development are you?” Sarah felt her skin prickle in anticipation of his answer.
“I don’t know what it’s called, but the guy’s name is Fred Saxton.”
Sarah almost let the phone slip out of her hand as Jack implicated the man and the development that threatened the valley she’d come to love. “That’s the Cooper development. People here are all up in arms about it, but I didn’t know Benji was involved. I don’t think anybody does.”
“Well, I don’t know for sure, but the rumor mill’s pretty accurate. Sarah, you be careful.” Jack sounded like a protective brother. “Benji’s an idiot, but Saxton’s not. I’ve heard him described as ruthless.”
###
Dodge sat at a booth in the diner finishing the last of his food when Sarah found him. She slid into the booth across from him.
“Don’t worry,” she said. “I’m not going to attack you.”
Dodge let out a snort. The waitress appeared at the table and asked Sarah if she wanted anything to eat or drink. Her service certainly improved when he had company.
“Coffee, please.”
“Me too,” Dodge said as she grabbed his empty plate and turned to leave. “What are you doing here?”
“I need to talk to you.” She tucked her purse against the wall of the booth and looked up into his eyes.
“There’s nothing to talk about.”
“Ben Burwick called me this morning. He’d heard about your cows escaping the other night and wanted to know if I’d changed my mind about selling.” Sarah rubbed her hands together anxiously as she talked. “He wouldn’t tell me how he’d heard, but I guess it could have been anyone. Anyway, I got to thinking and called my friend Jack Carnes. He’s a Senator from Georgia and one of Todd’s best friends. He told me word was Benji’d hooked up with a shady land developer named Fred Saxton.”
He connected the dots in his mind and slumped against the seat. “Damn. The Cooper deal. He wants your place for water.” Dodge rubbed the back of his neck. “Damn, I should have figured this out sooner.”
The waitress brought their coffee, placed a small container of milk on the table and walked away again without a word.
“What do you think this means?” Sarah aske
d.
Dodge took a deep breath, let it out. “It probably means he’s getting desperate. I’ll bet he was the one who cut the wire at your place, or arranged to have it cut.”
“Why now? And why would he be desperate for my place and not another?”
“Saxton’s been trying to get Cooper off the ground for years. My guess is he’s run out of patience.” And Dodge knew enough about Saxton to know that he didn’t want to be around when the man ran out of patience. “There aren’t any other river tracts like yours for sale in the valley, none big enough to support what he’d need. The ones that are,” he shrugged. “They’re expensive. Really expensive”
“So you think he’d rather strong arm me into selling than fork over the cash for the other places?”
Dodge remembered what he’d thought about Sarah when they’d first met. Small, pampered, weak. “I’m sure he underestimated your determination and your stubbornness.” He wasn’t the only one.
“You think he’ll do something else, try something drastic to convince me to sell the land?”
Dodge looked into his coffee, then up into her eyes, wide with an innocence he couldn’t stand to shatter. He wouldn’t lie to her. “Yes, I do.”
Sarah eased back into her seat and started chewing on her bottom lip. A woman’s voice lifted from a nearby table. Sarah’s eyes narrowed and then flew open wide when she realized what she’d overheard. “That…that woman just said you…she called you a…a murderer.”
Dodge gave the woman a seething glance before looking back at Sarah. “You don’t have to repeat it, Sarah. I heard what she said.”
“Aren’t you going to say something?”
Dodge just looked at Sarah with his brows lifted.
She tried to leave the booth. “Well, I’m not going to let her get away with tha--”
Dodge grabbed her leg and held it like a vise under the table.
“What are you doing?”
“You’re not going to say a word to that woman. I thought we talked about this.”
“Why do you perpetuate the idea that you’re responsible for what happened to that girl?”
“I’m not perpetuating anything. I just don’t feel like trying to convince people I’m not a monster. If they can’t figure it out themselves, then screw ’um.”
Sarah sighed. “Oh, that’s mature. You don’t let people get close enough to you to make up their own minds. You make yourself look guilty by not defending yourself.”
“How many times do I have to explain this to you?”
“I know, I know, you don’t care what people think.” Sarah paused, considered. “What about the girl?”
“What girl?”
“Wendy…what’s her name.” She brushed her hand in front of her face as if her name didn’t matter. “What if she’s up in heaven, or not quite in heaven yet--”
Dodge cut her off by slamming his fist on the table and fixing her with a lethal stare. She ignored him.
“From what you said,” Sarah continued, “she was a decent person who probably got scared and tried to keep the truth from getting out. Maybe she never expected you to marry her. Maybe she was just trying to keep everyone from thinking she was a slut.” She opened two sugar packets and added them to her coffee, clinked the spoon against the edges of the cup and placed it back on the table. “What if she’s up there, trapped between earth and heaven and she can’t get into heaven because of all the stuff you’re still going through down here because of what she did all those years ago?”
“What the hell are you talking about? Have you totally lost your mind?”
“Look, I know I sound like a loon, but…when Todd first died, I could feel him around us. I felt him everywhere, watching out for me and the kids. I haven’t felt him lately and I think it’s because we’re moving on with our lives without him.” Sarah dropped her voice to a whisper. “For the first year or so I was so angry at him for leaving us.” Her eyes flicked to his face and back down again. “Believe me, I know this sounds like I’ve got a screw loose, but I feel like he’s okay now because I’m not angry and sad all the time.” She looked up at him. “Maybe Wendy can’t move on either. Maybe you even feel her around you, haunting you almost, because you won’t set people straight. You keep the rumors alive by not telling the truth.”
Dodge sat perfectly still, stared at her through narrowed eyes, his hands clenched into fists. It was as though she’d described his nightmare and he needed to make her stop talking. “I don’t need you psychoanalyzing me. I never should have told you about this in the first place.”
“I’m sorry, Dodge.” Sarah reached for his arm as he moved to free himself of the booth. “I didn’t mean to make you so upset.”
He didn’t look back as he thundered out of the diner.
###
The afternoon sun stretched across the mountains, peeked through the patchwork clouds and created shadows that emphasized the power and magnitude of the surrounding crests. On her drive into town, Sarah took a deep breath of fresh Colorado air and marveled at the view. If only it could lift her spirits. She’d seen signs of Dodge around the ranch, but she hadn’t heard from him since she’d made that awful scene in the diner the day before and he’d left so angry. While she wasn’t sorry about wanting to defend him, she felt like she needed to apologize. Again.
At least things at the ranch were going well, despite her constant worry about Benji’s next move. She’d thought telling Dodge about Benji and Fred Sarah would prod him into working with her to keep the ranch safe, or at the very least force them together so they could work out the feelings she couldn’t manage to shake since he’d touched her. She missed him. Even when they fought with each other it was better than not talking to him at all.
She pulled into the parking lot of the hardware store, gathered her purse and wondered if an apology would help Dodge move beyond their stalemate. She had to find him first, which had proved no small feat despite the small town and close knit community. Dodge spent so much time at her ranch where he kept two steps ahead of her that she didn’t know what he did or where he went when he wasn’t there. Maybe she’d get the courage to go to his dad’s house and corner him. As she stepped onto the sidewalk, she noticed his truck across the street in the parking lot. She looked at her watch. Lunchtime; of course he’d be at the diner.
Sarah jogged across the street and then hesitated before opening the door to the place where everybody knew everybody and nobody’s business was sacred. She didn’t want to confront him in a public place and on his turf. Hailey had never felt as much like his turf as it did today when they hadn’t come to town together and she knew he’d be less than thrilled to see her.
Her stomach felt tight with anticipation and nerves, but she couldn’t back away. Better to apologize and let him deal. She pulled on the door and heard the familiar jingle of the bells that hung from the hinges.
Most times the sound of the jingle had everyone in the restaurant looking to see who’d come. But today, the bells didn’t attract any attention because there seemed to be some kind of commotion by the register. Without even realizing she’d moved, Sarah stepped inside and stood gaping at Dodge, his shoulders back, his face flushed, his voice a loud boom of disputation.
“I’m sick to death of all of you.” He waved his arms around to encompass the whole restaurant. “I wasn’t the father of that girl’s baby. I didn’t have anything to do with her death and you people need to get over it.”
He turned and stormed out of the diner, all but knocking Sarah out of the way in his haste to leave. She followed him out. Although she thought he hadn’t noticed her standing in the doorway, he stopped on the sidewalk and turned to face her, pushed his finger in her face. “Not one word,” he said in a voice she’d never heard him use. “Not one single word out of you.”
Chapter 16
“Tom Thornton.” Tommy answered his phone late Friday afternoon. His receptionist had left for the day at 3:00, as was their deal on Fridays.
“Tommy?” said a voice he couldn’t place. “It’s Kimberly Weston, Connie Weston’s daughter. Do you remember me?”
It took a moment for Tommy to connect the sexy voice with that of his young cousin, but he figured it’d been a few years since he’d seen her. She’d obviously matured. “Yeah, yeah, Kimmie. How’s it going?”
Kimberly chuckled into the phone. “It’s Kimberly now. No one calls me Kimmie but my mom.”
Tommy felt old thinking of his cousin out in the world known as Kimberly. It seemed too sophisticated for a young farm girl from Bellingham. “Kimberly,” he said and tried not to let the snotty undertones hang in the air. “What can I do for you?”
“Well, I…I’m not sure how to begin.” She cleared her throat. “I can be in Hailey within the hour and I’d like to meet with you. It’s important, Tommy, or I wouldn’t ask on such short notice.”
“Ok,” he said. He wondered just what his cousin could sound so serious about. “Do you want to come here, to my office?”
“No. There’s a place just outside of town, a little bar called The Stand. It’s a hole in the wall near the--”
“I know where it is.” Tommy interrupted. Was she old enough to get in a bar?
“I’ll meet you there in one hour. And Tommy, don’t tell anyone we’re meeting.” When Tommy didn’t respond, she added, “Please Tommy, I promise I’ll explain.”
“Ok, Kimberly. I’ll see you in an hour.” He hung up, gingerly placing the phone on its base, and sat back into the leather chair. As he rocked back and forth he had to wonder what the hell his little cousin Kimmie wanted to discuss with him that was so secret they couldn’t talk on the phone or tell anyone about their meeting. The world just kept getting stranger and stranger.
###
Tommy hadn’t been to The Stand in years. He didn’t have much use for bars, between working long hours and keeping a watchful eye on his mother. The only thing he felt when his dad finally passed had been relief. Ever since his death, he’d made it a practice to visit his mother every other night. Depression hung over her like a thunder cloud and threatened to rain down on her when he spaced his visits out any more than had become his routine. He figured his mother was as much the reason he remained single as his receding hairline and expanding belly. But he certainly didn’t feel as though visits to The Stand would increase his chances of finding someone to love.
Dodge the Bullet Page 16
