The Coppersmith Farmhouse

by Devney Perry

  “Nice!” I said.

  “I thought he might ask me out because there was a lot of flirting going on. He didn’t so I was way bummed out. But I just bumped into him in the hall and he asked me out for drinks tomorrow night. Isn’t that the most amazing thing ever?”

  “Yeah it is! I really like him. He seems like a nice guy and not too hard to look at.” I winked.

  She did a girly clap in front of her chest and bounced up and down in her chair. The smile on her face was infectious.

  Over the last few weeks, she’d been trying to get Everett to notice her. Nothing too in his face or obnoxious. She just always made sure to include him in conversations and ask him how he was doing. It was sweet how she’d made her approach.

  “So what are you going to wear for drinks?” I asked.

  “Gosh, I don’t know.” Before she could continue, her phone chimed in her pocket. Taking it out, she looked at the screen and then her eyes shot straight to mine.

  “Hello?” she said, dropping her eyes to her feet.

  The other person was doing all the talking because Maisy didn’t say anything else.

  “Uh . . . okay,” she muttered before hanging up. She glanced up at me and scrunched her nose.

  “What?” I asked.

  “Well, that was, um, Jess,” she said.

  My blood boiled and I closed my eyes to listen to what she had to say next.

  “He said, um, I’m still on for spending the night with Rowen.”

  “What! He is dreaming!” My head was going to explode. “You know what? Fine. He wants a sleepover, he’ll get a sleepover. I don’t know what I’m going to do yet. But, oh boy . . . he is messing with the wrong girl!”

  “Sorry,” Maisy said.

  “Oh, sweetie, don’t apologize. I’m not at all mad at you. But I am absolutely livid with Sheriff Cleary.”

  Taking a deep breath, I fisted and un-fisted my hands a couple of times. With one final deep breath in through my nose, I said, “If you’re still okay with it, come on over at six?”

  She nodded.

  “Okay, perfect. If you want to come over at five-thirty, you can raid my closet for a date outfit on Saturday.”

  “Sweet! I’ll be there.”

  “I’m going to do a couple of laps around the parking lot to cool down before I head back to the clinic. Come find me if anything else awesome happens with Everett today, okay?”

  “You got it,” she said.

  I blew her a quick kiss, then headed outside, contemplating all the ways I could legally torture the Jamison County sheriff.

  I managed to get my anger under control in one parking lot lap instead of two and walked back to the clinic.

  It was located at the opposite side of the building from the ER. The clinic’s primary doctor, Dr. Seavers, specialized in family medicine. She held traditional business hours, Monday through Friday, and only worked outside the clinic if she was the on-call weekend doctor. Everett and Dr. Peterson rarely worked in the clinic. Instead, they were typically covering the rest of the hospital.

  The nurses rotated on a weekly basis through four different hospital units and the clinic was by far my favorite. I secretly wished I could work here full-time like Dr. Seavers.

  We didn’t have a lot of traffic through the clinic but it was far more active than any other rotations I’d completed. Today, I had seen a pregnant women coming in for a routine check-up, two different high schoolers getting their summer physicals for fall school sports and one toddler with a bad cold.

  I was wrapping up my charting for the day, having only thirty minutes left, when an older woman walked in the door.

  She was about my height and probably half my size. Her frame was skeletal and she had light brown hair with streaks of gray framing her face. Her eyes were a bright, ice blue.

  I knew those eyes. I’d spent a lot of time over the last three weeks staring into eyes just like hers. They belonged to the man who was currently at the top of my shit list.

  “Hi. Can I help you?” I asked.

  “I was wondering if I could see Dr. Seavers today,” she said in a voice so weak I had to strain to hear it.

  “Sure. She’s got some time open now. Let me get you all checked in. What’s your name?”

  “Noelle Cleary.”

  Yep, I was right. She was somehow related to Jess.

  “Okay, Noelle. Have a seat and I’ll call you back in a minute.”

  I walked back to the desk and checked her into the hospital’s system. Could she be Jess’s aunt, maybe? Certainly, she wasn’t his mother. She was far too frail to have such a big, strong son.

  “Noelle? Come on back,” I called into the waiting room.

  She followed me back to the exam room and climbed up on the table while I sat opposite her in a rolling black stool.

  “All right, Noelle. My name’s Gigi. Can you tell me what brings you in?” I asked.

  “This afternoon I went into the bathroom and I tripped and fell into the shower. I think I’ve sprained my wrist,” she said.

  “Oh, no. I’m so sorry to hear that. Let’s take your blood pressure and then I’ll get Dr. Seavers to come in.”

  Dr. Seavers was quick to attend to Noelle and while she finished her examination, I perused Noelle’s hospital chart.

  I scrolled through injury after injury. She appeared to be Jamison Valley Hospital’s most frequent visitor.

  So far just this year, she’d been in to see Dr. Seavers three times, all for different ailments. One visit was to treat a bad burn on her hand. Another, a sprained ankle. The most recent, a bruised tailbone.

  What the hell was happening in this woman’s home? And how was she related to Jess?

  “Gigi, will you call in a prescription for Mrs. Cleary?” the doctor asked. “I want her to take a painkiller while her wrist recovers. I’ve wrapped it but it’s likely to hurt for a while.”

  “Sure thing, Dr. Seavers. Anything else?”

  “A neighbor brought her here and dropped her off. Can you help make arrangements to get her home?”

  “Yes, no problem,” I said before walking back to Noelle’s exam room.

  “I’m sorry you hurt your wrist but that wrap and the painkillers should help,” I told Noelle.

  She gave me a small smile but didn’t speak.

  “Dr. Seavers said a neighbor dropped you off. Is there someone I can call to come and take you home?”

  “Well . . . I’ve been trying to get ahold of my son all day but he’s not answering his phone.”

  “Would you like me to try him again for you?”

  “If you don’t mind,” she whispered.

  “Not at all. What’s his name?” I asked, even though I was ninety-nine point nine percent sure I knew the answer.

  “Jess Cleary,” she said and then rattled off his cell number.

  Should I tell her Jess and I were together? No. I wanted to talk to him first. There was absolutely a story here, one he hadn’t been comfortable sharing with me yet.

  Never in a million years would I have pictured Noelle as Jess’s mother. Everything about him was sturdy. Solid. His personality, his voice, his body. Everything about her was the exact opposite. He had said she was sick a lot but I had not expected her to be so fragile.

  I left her to collect her things while I headed to the back hallway of the clinic, pulling up Jess’s name on my phone as I walked. His phone rang three times, and I was starting to get worried I’d hit his voicemail again when he answered.

  “What, Georgia?” he snapped. I knew he’d gotten my messages but now I knew he didn’t like them very much.

  “Jess,” I said gently.

  He was obviously expecting me to be pissed, so my quiet tone took him by surprise. “You okay?”

  “Yeah, I’m fine. But I’m in the clinic and your mother just came in.”

  “Fuck. Did she hurt herself? She okay?”

  “She sprained her wrist but she’ll be fine. The thing is, a neighbor dropped
her off but she needs a ride home. I guess she’s been calling but couldn’t get ahold of you.”

  “Damn it,” he said. “Just drove out to the Drummond place. I’ll be at least a half an hour. Probably more like an hour. She’s gonna have to wait at the hospital for me. Or walk over to the station. That means by the time I get her home and settled, cook her some dinner, it’s gonna be late.” He let out an audible breath. “Fuck. I guess Maisy didn’t need to babysit after all.”

  “It’s almost five,” I said, checking my watch. “I’m leaving here in a few minutes to get Rowen. Maisy’s coming over at five-thirty. Why don’t I take your mom to the farmhouse with me? She can wait with us until you get back. We can all eat together, then we’ll go from there.”

  “Don’t want you to have to take care of her. Especially if she’s hurt,” he said.

  “Ah, Jess, you do realize what I do for a living, right?”

  “Georgia, she’s . . . she’s not right.”

  “It’s a couple of hours. It’s no big deal.”

  He took another deep breath. “I hate that you have to deal with this shit.”

  “And I hate that you are dealing with my barn. How about we get my daughter and your mother settled for the night and then we can discuss all the things we’d rather not have the other person in this relationship deal with.”

  Another deep breath. “Okay, Freckles.”

  “Can you call your mom and let her know the plan? I didn’t tell her about us. I wasn’t sure if you’d want that or . . . well, I just wasn’t sure,” I said.

  “Georgia, I didn’t intentionally not tell her about you. Just haven’t had the chance to talk to her in person. As soon as I hang up with you, I’m calling her. Give me five minutes and she’ll know what you mean to me.”

  “What I mean to you?” I whispered.

  “Yeah, baby. What you mean to me.”

  I stayed in the hallway for a minute, thinking about Jess’s words and their hidden meaning.

  Jess meant something to me too. More and more every day, and it had only been three weeks. Not even a month since our first Friday dinner together at the café.

  He’d proven not to be the jackass I had originally expected.

  But I was learning that Jess wanted things done in his way. And so far, all of our arguments had ended with him winning. Was I letting him walk all over me? I wondered what would happen when he pushed me too far.

  When he crossed the line and I didn’t let him get his way.

  “Hello?”

  We all looked to the hall as Jess’s deep voice called into the house.

  “Jess!” Rowen screeched and ran out of the kitchen.

  Two seconds later she was back, this time perched on Jess’s hip.

  He looked tired and worn out. His eyes were bloodshot and his shoulders were hunched. He was still utterly handsome, but I could tell he’d had a long day.

  I was at the stove, stirring the sauce for dinner. We were having spaghetti and meatballs, garlic bread and a tossed green salad.

  After ending my call with Jess at the clinic, I had rushed to close everything down for the weekend. Noelle had just hung up her phone when I walked out to the waiting room. She’d kept her eyes to the floor as she apologized for being a nuisance. I had assured her it was no problem and that I was looking forward to spending time with her. She had relaxed a bit but not entirely. But by the time we had picked up Rowen and made it back to the farmhouse, she had seemed much more at ease.

  While Rowen had entertained Noelle in the living room, I had changed and started working on dinner.

  Maisy had arrived right on time and thoroughly raided my closet. She had a stack of five different outfits as options for her date with Everett the next night.

  Then we’d all congregated in the kitchen. I had buzzed around, preparing dinner, while Maisy and Noelle stood at the island, watching Rowen run in and out with different books, toys or stuffed animals to show our guests.

  When Jess hit the island, he set Rowen down on her bum and kissed the top of her head before moving over to me at the stove.

  “Hi.” In bare feet, I had to tip my head way back to look into Jess’s eyes.

  “Hey, baby.” He bent down and gave me a soft, short kiss on the lips.

  Next, he went to his mother, throwing his big arms around her small frame in a long embrace. “Hi, Ma. Are you feeling better?”

  “Yes. Much better. I’ve been in good hands here.”

  He released the hug but kept her tucked under an arm. “Hey, Maze.”

  “Hi, Jess. Looks like you’ve had a rough day.”

  “You could say that.”

  “Did you catch any bad guys today, Jess?” Rowen asked.

  “No,” he said, shaking his head. “Not today, little bit.”

  “I had lunch with Milo today. He told me you were going out to the Drummond place?” Maisy asked. “Are you still looking for the guy that stole Jack’s fertilizer?”

  “Yeah,” he said but didn’t expand. Instead, he turned his attention to Rowen. “Have you showed my mom your room yet, Roe?”

  When it dawned on her that she hadn’t, her face broke out into a big smile. “Mommy, can I show Noelle my room?”

  “Of course. And while you’re up there, how about putting away some of those toys you took out?”

  “Ohhh-kaaay,” she said, her excitement fading a little.

  “Come along, Rowen. Show me this room,” Noelle said, grabbing her hand after Jess lifted her off the island.

  After they left the kitchen, Jess said, “I went to the Drummond place to see if Jack would finally talk to me about his missing fertilizer. He knows more than he’s telling.”

  “Why would he keep it from you? Wouldn’t he want to get it back? Or at least find out who did it?” I asked.

  “Wes,” Maisy said.

  Jess nodded. “That much chemical could make a fuck load of meth. And if Wes took it, Jack wouldn’t turn him in.”

  “I’m confused,” I said.

  “Wes is Jack’s son,” Jess said. “Wes has been into drugs for years. Mostly just hanging with that crowd. Getting high. But recently he’s started dealing meth. Started taking over production too. For the last year, I’ve been trying to pin something on him but he’s been careful. I was hoping Jack might finally be willing to give me a lead so I could bring Wes in.”

  “Did he?” Maisy asked.

  “No.” Jess sighed. “He’s just as tight-lipped now as when I went out to investigate the theft the first time. Which tells me it was Wes.”

  “Why did you go out there again? Did something else happen?” I asked.

  “Yeah. Last night, Sam busted up another meth deal. The dealer he picked up hinted that the valley’s about to get flooded with product. So I went back out to the Drummond place to see if I could reason with Jack. It was a long shot that Jack would talk but I had to try.”

  Jess raked his hands through his hair.

  “Word from a couple of sources is Wes built a cookhouse tucked away in the mountains. Never been able to find it and I’ve had guys looking all summer. If Wes is planning a big cooking bender, that’s where the flood will come from.”

  “Oh my god,” I whispered.

  Spokane had a lot of meth addicts and I’d seen some come into the ER. Their bodies were so wrecked with the chemicals they were inhaling it was a wonder they could even walk. I did not want that for Prescott.

  “Don’t worry. We’ll stop it before that happens. I just have to find Wes’s cookhouse or catch him in a mistake.” Jess turned to Maisy, his look stern. “You keep all this under wraps. Last thing I need is Wes getting jumpy because he thinks I’m getting close. Got it?”

  “Of course, Jess. I won’t say a thing,” she promised.

  “Not even to Milo.”

  She nodded in agreement and did her zip-the-lip-and-swallow-the-key gesture.

  “Don’t want Ma knowing about this either. Once they come back down, we don’t talk
about it again,” he ordered.

  Maisy and I nodded simultaneously

  As I set the table, I said a silent prayer that Jess would stop Wes before he could inundate Prescott with meth. Drugs were horrifying and with them came desperation. Addicts were willing to cross any line necessary for their next fix. I just hoped that when lines were crossed, Rowen and I would be safe.

  “Time to talk, honey. Before we get back to the farmhouse.”

  Jess and I had just left his mother’s place, an old rundown trailer on the edge of town.

  Maisy was hanging with Rowen until we got back to the farmhouse and then she was taking off, likely to start prepping for her date with Everett. While raiding my closet, she had gone on and on about exfoliation, hair removal, nail painting and such. With all she had planned to do, I figured she’d need every minute of the next twenty-four hours to get ready for her date.

  Jess and I had originally planned for an evening alone. We were going to eat at the café and then I’d have my first sleepover at his house while Maisy stayed with Rowen.

  And I really wanted that. All of the making out and groping we’d been doing for the last three weeks had me so hot and bothered I was about to combust.

  But this day had not gone as planned. Not even close. Starting with Ryan and his construction crew and ending with my first trip tonight to Jess’s childhood home. And now we would be delaying a night alone together again.

  “I know you’re mad about the barn, Georgia. Wasn’t a big fan of you telling me over voicemail.”

  “Sorry. I should have waited to talk to you but I couldn’t keep it in. I was too angry and your voicemail was all I had,” I said.

  “Maybe next time try and contain it until I answer the damn phone, huh? At least yell at me when I can fucking respond.”

  “I’ll try but can’t make any promises.”

  “Good enough,” he muttered.

  “Jess, I am not okay with you tearing down the barn.”

  “Don’t know if you noticed, Freckles, but it’s almost done. Ryan’s crew probably has half a day left, tops. Next week, it’ll be gone. Besides, isn’t that what you wanted? You’re the one that was willing to risk lung cancer to burn it down.”