The Lucky Heart

by Devney Perry

She smiled and toyed with her keys on the table. “Our separation didn’t last long. He came and found me at the motel the next morning. He promised to go to counseling if I came home and that he’d stop drinking. He’s kept his promise and things have been good. I think our marriage will come out stronger because of it all.”

  “Oh.” This time I tried to sound hopeful instead of disappointed. “How did my visit make a difference?”

  “I hated that you saw me so low,” she said. “That you were judging me. I decided that day that I didn’t want to have Felicity Cleary’s pity ever again.”

  Ouch. She didn’t think much of me at all, did she? What could I say that would convince her that I wasn’t the bratty adolescent that she had once known?

  “Khloe, I never judged you,” I said, “or pitied you. I just wanted to help. I just wanted—want to be your friend. I hope you will believe that.”

  She studied my face for a minute, then looked to her lap. “Maybe I needed to think you were judging me. Then I could judge myself.”

  I could give her that.

  “I never thought I’d be a woman whose husband abuses her. It just . . . happened. Derrick and I have been married for eleven years. Most of them have been great, and I don’t want to make excuses or anything, he shouldn’t have hurt me, but he only ever did it when he was drinking. These last couple of years have been hard. He turns into a different person when he’s drunk.”

  I nodded but kept quiet. I knew what it felt like when a partner treated you differently when they were under the influence. Wes had turned into a different person when he’d been high. So I wouldn’t judge Khloe for forgiving her husband. I would, however, judge Derrick for being a rotten piece of shit that beat his wife.

  “Maybe I shouldn’t have given him one last chance, but I love him.”

  “I understand that.” I patted her hand.

  “Anyway, enough of that. If you still want to be friends, I’d really like that.”

  “Me too.”

  We chatted over the next hour and gossiped a bit. When I told her that Andrea Merkuso had left town to marry my ex-boyfriend, she stood up and did a happy dance. Apparently, the teasing I’d done to her in high school paled in comparison to how Andrea had treated her behind my back.

  “Thanks for letting me interrupt your work,” Khloe said, standing to leave. She smiled, maybe the most genuine smile she’d ever given me, and waved good-bye. “See you around.”

  I waved back. “Bye.”

  I wished Khloe the best with her marriage, and I truly hoped that we could become friends. She was sweet but had a hilariously dry sense of humor.

  Derrick had just better watch himself. Nobody messed with my friends. If he stepped over the line again, I wouldn’t be quite as hesitant about my involvement or pulling my brother, the sheriff, into the loop.

  I hurried to finish up my work so that I could leave the coffee shop and call Sabrina. She had promised me that she would be free all night long and we could have a long talk. Between Khloe, Paxon and Silas, we’d need at least an hour. That, and I was keeping my fingers crossed that tonight she’d finally spill on this super-secret story she had been investigating.

  When I got her voicemail, my heart sank. I left her a quick message and held my phone tight, willing it to ring.

  Something was wrong. I’d heard Sabrina’s voicemail more these last few months than I had in the past ten years combined. I was tempted to do something drastic, like fly to Seattle and track her ass down, but instead, I drove to the ranch to spend the night with Silas.

  I kept my phone close all through dinner and the movie we watched together on the couch, but Sabrina never called.

  It took her a week to finally return my message.

  With a text.

  “Lis!” Silas called.

  “I’m in the kitchen!” I was making us beef tacos with homemade salsa and guacamole for dinner. Reheating, actually. I’d made the same thing at Mom’s house on my lunch break and saved half for me and Silas.

  “Smells good.” He had taken off his boots but his clothes were splattered brown. I had learned over the last couple of weeks that I couldn’t assume anything brown was mud or dirt. That, and not to wash my clothes with his.

  “How did fencing go?”

  He pulled a stool out from beneath the island and slumped into the seat. “Long. It was a fucking mess down there.”

  Silas and Paxon had spent the entire day repairing a section of fence that had been washed away. This spring had been wet. So wet, there were days when I’d felt like I was back in Seattle. It was great for the grass and the land, but it had wreaked havoc on the ranch. The creek that ran from the mountains through the ranch had been at record levels.

  The roaring water had pulled down hundreds of fence posts and the barbed wire in between. One of the culverts that had channeled the creek under a gravel road was now gone, requiring the road be completely rebuilt. And an old, empty barn had finally given way under the pouring rain and would now need to be cleaned up.

  “Sorry, baby,” I said.

  “We’ll get it all done eventually. This weekend, maybe you can help me fix a section of fence in the lower meadow.”

  “Definitely. I’d be happy to.” Silas had been hesitant to have me working out in the mud, so while he put in exhausting hours, I sat around and felt useless. I was itching to help him on his actual ranch work, not just the cooking and cleaning I’d been doing at his place.

  It had been a month since we’d moved from our unlabeled relationship to an actual relationship, and we hadn’t spent a night apart. We’d stayed at my place a couple of times early on, but with Silas needing to be up early, it just hadn’t made sense to make him stay in town and drive out to the ranch before dawn.

  So I’d hauled over my fancy kitchen gadgets, some clothes and my nice laundry detergent and made myself at home.

  “Did Sabrina call you today?” Silas asked.

  I shook my head. “I’m getting worried. It’s been, what, three weeks? She’s never gone this long without checking in. If I don’t hear from her by Monday morning, I’m calling her boss and her doorman just to make sure she’s okay. And if I have to take a couple of days and fly—”

  I whirled toward my ringing phone. It wasn’t Sabrina, but instead an unknown Prescott number.

  “Sorry. One second,” I told Silas. “Hello?”

  “Felicity? This is Dr. Faraday.”

  “Hi, Dr. Faraday.” I stifled a laugh at Silas’s jealous face.

  “I’ve got some good news,” the doctor said. “I’ve been able to get your mother approved for that drug trial I was telling you about.”

  “That is great news. Does she know?”

  “Yes, I called her first. She seemed a little hesitant and asked that I call you to explain the program details. Is now a good time?”

  “I’m actually just getting ready to sit down for dinner. Would you mind if I came to the hospital next week and we discussed it in person? Maybe Monday morning?”

  “Not at all,” he said. “Swing by whenever it works best for your schedule.”

  “See you then. Bye.” I hung up and looked to Silas. “Mom got approved for that Alzheimer’s drug trial!”

  “That’s great, babe.” He smiled and came around the island to give me a kiss.

  Kissing Silas always made my belly flutter, but this time I had another reaction too. “Baby, don’t take this the wrong way, but you stink.” I stepped back and plugged my nose. He smelled like stale water and stinky mud. I was pretty sure there was some cow shit mixed in there too.

  He chuckled. “That’s eau de ranch. My new cologne.”

  “Yuck. Throw that one out, smelly man.”

  He laughed and walked out of the kitchen and toward the front door.

  “Do you want a beer?” I heard him in the laundry room and I assumed he was changing into some clean clothes. When he strode down the hallway wearing only his dark-green boxers, I nearly dropped the plate
in my hands. “What are you doing?” I asked as he went to the fridge and pulled out a beer.

  “Getting my beer. What are you doing?”

  “You know that’s not what I meant. Why are you practically naked?” My eyes traveled over all that muscle and I had to fan my face.

  Forget milk. Ranch work does a body good.

  “I thought you’d prefer this over my stinky clothes.”

  “Obviously I prefer this look,” I said. “I’m just not sure how you expect me to eat with you sitting next to me like that.”

  He walked into my space and lifted the plate from my hands, setting it on the counter. A shiver ran down my spine when his hands came to the sides of my neck and he whispered, “Maybe we should—”

  “Silas?” Olivia called from the door.

  I let out a frustrated sigh at the same time Silas grumbled. He stepped away and called, “In here, Mom!”

  Her footsteps echoed down the short hallway and I did my best to stop panting so she wouldn’t know that seconds ago I had been about to jump her son. Who was I kidding? There was no way she would miss my flushed cheeks and Silas’s lack of apparel.

  When Olivia walked into the room, she gasped. “Oh, I’m interrupting. I should come back later.” She was looking anywhere other than at Silas and me in the kitchen.

  “You’re fine,” Silas said. “We were just getting ready for dinner. My clothes were filthy so I stripped.”

  “Right,” she said, still not making eye contact. “I just need to borrow your keys and then I’ll get out of your hair. My car is at the shop and your dad isn’t back yet. I just wanted to run and grab the mail.”

  “Sure, but it’s a filthy mess right now.”

  “Do you want to take mine?” I turned and pulled the keys from my purse on the counter. “Here. It smells like vanilla, not poop.”

  She laughed and took the keys. “Thanks, sweetie. Be right back.”

  I smiled and went back to setting out the tacos. “We’d better eat. Otherwise your mom is going to come back to a locked door and you’ll have to go fetch my keys because I can never show her my face again.”

  He chuckled and leaned down to kiss my forehead. “You do realize she knows we’re having sex.”

  “Yes, I realize that, but let’s not make a spectacle out of it. She called me ‘sweetie.’ That means I’m on her good side.” And I intended to stay there.

  I desperately wanted his mother’s approval. There was already so much stress in their family dynamic, I didn’t need to add to it by being anything less than the perfect girlfriend for her son.

  We were halfway done with our meal by the time Olivia came back and returned my keys. She chatted with us for a while before she left to go home and cook her own dinner.

  “Dinner was awesome,” Silas said, carrying his plate to the sink. “I’m going to take a quick shower.”

  “Okay.” I stood on my tiptoes to kiss his cheek before he walked down the hall.

  Now that’s a view. I wasn’t sure which I liked better, Silas’s tight behind or his sculpted back. I planned on doing some research with my hands later to help me choose the winner.

  When the shower turned on, I busied myself with the dishes until I heard the door open again and slam shut.

  “Did you forget something?” I walked around the island, expecting to see Olivia. Instead, Silas’s dad, Elliot, came storming down the hallway, his muddy boots leaving a trail behind his angry footsteps.

  I had forgotten how much Silas looked like his father. Elliot’s blond hair was starting to gray but he still had the same build and height as his son.

  I opened my mouth to greet him but he snapped at me before I could.

  “Is that your fancy fucking car out there blocking the hay shed?”

  “Uh, I’m sorry,” I stuttered, shocked that Elliot had chosen to greet me this way.

  Not once in the month that I had been with his son had he come over to say hello, and Silas had never wanted to go over to their house in the evenings. I had remembered Elliot as being such a gentleman. Clearly, things had changed.

  “You’re sorry?” Elliot mocked. “Maybe you can be sorry enough to consider the fact that there are people here trying to work and make a living. But since you know nothing about running a ranch, I guess I can’t be all that surprised. Maybe I’ll just hope you realize soon enough that you don’t belong here and leave again. If I’m lucky, maybe you’ll stay gone this time.”

  All I could do was blink as Elliot spun around and left just as quickly as he had entered.

  I stood frozen, trying to process Elliot’s blow until I heard Silas turn off the shower. I came unstuck and walked back to the kitchen before he could tell I was upset. Nothing good would come from me telling him what exactly his father had said.

  “Did someone come over?” he asked.

  “Your dad,” I said, rinsing a plate. “He asked me to move my car.”

  “Oh, okay. Mom must have parked it in a bad spot. Let me throw some clothes on and I’ll do it.”

  “All right.” A few minutes alone would give me a chance to recover.

  “I see he didn’t bother to take his boots off,” he muttered as he walked to the stairs. “What an ass.”

  Yeah. He could say that again.

  “Are you okay?” Silas asked me the next morning.

  “I’m great!” I lied. “Excited to see what this fencing jazz is all about.”

  He chuckled. “That’s the most enthusiasm I’ve ever heard someone express toward fencing.” He tossed me a sweatshirt from his closet. “Here, pull this on. We’ve got one thing to do before we get to work.”

  I pulled it on and took a long breath. Silas’s scent filled my nose and went a long way toward easing the worry caused by Elliot’s harsh words last night. I’d been mentally replaying them on repeat, and I still couldn’t figure out what I’d done to anger him so much. I hadn’t even been the one to park in the bad spot! Jerk.

  I didn’t care if fencing was a miserable job. At least it would be something else to occupy my thoughts.

  “Am I going to get that sweatshirt back?” Silas asked.

  “It’s doubtful.” This would make the third sweatshirt now happily hanging in my closet instead of his.

  He smiled and wrapped his arms around me. “If I let you keep it, will you tell me what’s bothering you?”

  I dropped my forehead to his chest and let him pull me closer. Part of me wanted to brush off his question just to keep the tension between them from rising, but honesty was so important to me that I had to fess up. “Your dad wasn’t overly pleasant last night. He was actually kind of a jerk.”

  “Fuck,” he hissed and let me go. “I’m sorry, babe. I’ll talk to him.”

  “No, don’t do that.” I had a feeling it would just grow Elliot’s anger toward me. And really, I could take some rude comments. I’d dished out enough in my lifetime to know that maybe Elliot had just been in a bad mood and the next time we met, he’d be more pleasant.

  “No way. He doesn’t get away with it.”

  “I’ll be fine. He just rubbed me the wrong way. Please, don’t talk to him.”

  He shook his head. “No.” At his sides, his fists were clenched. If he lost his temper at his dad, Elliot and I wouldn’t have a chance at starting over.

  “Please, Silas.” I walked into his space and reached up to frame his face, forcing his eyes to mine. “Please. I know it goes against your alpha-male ways, but please, just let this one slide. For me?”

  He let out a deep breath and relaxed his fists. “Fine. Just this time.”

  “Thank you.” I dropped my hands from his face and wound them around his waist.

  He hugged me back. “Come on, sweatshirt thief. I’m taking you on a ranch tour before we get to work.” He let me go to grab my hand and lead me down the stairs. When we got outside, we bypassed his truck and headed inside the barn.

  “I thought you wanted to do a ranch tour.” I was looking forwar
d to it and hoped that he hadn’t changed his mind in the last two minutes.

  He started fiddling with a saddle. “We are.” He lifted the saddle off its post and slung it over a bench. “Come sit on this and see how it feels.”

  “Oh, uh, me on a horse doesn’t seem like the safest activity to do first thing in the morning.”

  “Just go with it.”

  I hesitated. He give me a look that said, “I’m waiting.”

  “Ugh. You have to drive me to the hospital when I fall off and break my ass.”

  “I’ll break every speed limit on the way,” he deadpanned.

  Swinging a leg over the saddle, I sank onto the hard seat. Silas poked around for a minute, and when he determined that it would fit—whatever that meant—I swung off to greet the dog that had just come into the barn.

  “What’s your name?” I asked, rubbing behind its ears.

  “That’s Dolly. She’s Mom’s dog.”

  “Hey, Dolly. Your name fits you perfectly. You are a doll.” She had a face that would melt your heart. Half of it was solid black and the other was a marbled gray, like the rest of her coat. Her dark brown eyes were friendly and complemented her gentle nature.

  “Okay, babe. Come on over and meet Lulu.”

  Hesitantly, I approached the stall where Silas was standing. Inside was a beautiful red horse with a thin white stripe on her nose. She was, thankfully, much smaller and less intimidating than Courage, who was glaring at me from the next stall over.

  “Hi, Lulu.” I touched her cheek like Silas had showed me.

  “She’s a sweet old mare,” he said, running a weird circular comb over Lulu’s back. “You’ll like riding her.”

  “You should know, Mr. Grant, that I’m not the kind of girl that would get bucked off a horse and get right back on. If she ditches me, my horse-riding days are over. Forever. You hear me, Lulu?”

  Silas’s hand froze as he stared at me blankly. Then he bent forward and burst out laughing.

  “He thinks I’m kidding?” I asked the horse.

  Still laughing, Silas stood and leaned forward to plant a hard and fast kiss on my lips. “Babe, if Lulu bucked you off, which she won’t, but if she did, you’d be so pissed off that the first thing you’d do is tell her to ‘fuck off, bitch’ and then climb right back on just to show her who’s boss. My Lis is not a quitter.”