He’d set up a long folding table and folding chairs in the middle of the living room and had decorated it with Thanksgiving-themed paper tablecloths and napkins.
When he heard the Wrights drive up, he opened the front door and stepped out onto the veranda, forcing the dogs to stay inside until the cars stopped moving.
The weather had warmed—slightly—and the sun shone. A light breeze blew golden yellow leaves from the big old cottonwood beside the stream and the poplars lining the drive.
The Wrights arrived in Janey’s minivan. Behind them Shannon drove up in her Fiesta, with Sierra Wright beside her in the passenger seat, and Connie and Austin in the backseat.
To Connie’s credit, she’d tried to spruce up a bit in a dress and cheap high heels, but her skin was still sallow and her face lined.
Shannon looked like a model in a red dress and black heels. She and Sierra walked toward the house with their arms around each other and Cash was struck again by how good she was with children, how natural.
She caught him watching her and smiled. Something passed between them that he couldn’t quite name, but that felt like harmony, maybe, or understanding. By the slight frown that appeared on her forehead, she felt it, too. She bent low to talk to Sierra, firmly ending the moment.
When she neared, she handed him a white box from the bakery in Haven. Unless he missed his guess, she’d brought doughnuts.
“Okay, everyone,” he said, “sit down while I let the dogs out. I don’t want anyone getting knocked down.”
The crowd sat on the steps or on the few chairs Cash had on the veranda. Janey put Ben on her lap.
Danny and Paddy ran out of the house, insane with excitement, sniffing everyone and moving from one to the other so frenetically that they didn’t get the attention they craved.
Danny stood in front of Janey, sniffed Ben’s mouth then licked his face.
“Eeew, Mommy, he made my face wet.”
“What did you have for breakfast, Ben?” Cash asked.
“Toast and peanut butter.”
“That explains it. That’s Danny’s favorite food.”
Paddy curled up against Austin where he sat on the bottom step. Cash couldn’t see the boy’s face, but his hand curled over the dog’s head and Cash made a pretty good guess that Austin was happy.
Cash took the doughnuts inside and Shannon followed him in with four bottles of wine in a cotton bag.
“I brought a couple each of white and red.”
“Great. Thanks. Would you mind finding out what everyone wants?”
“Sure.”
Cash got wine glasses out of a cupboard. He owned only cheap ones he’d picked up a few weeks ago, but they would work.
Shannon came back with a bag of juice and canned pop. “This is from C.J. and Janey.”
“There are plastic cups for the children on the table.”
Why did this seem so natural, doing these mundane chores with Shannon as though she belonged here with him?
Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Slow down those insane thoughts. You’ve got some kind of witchy connection to this woman, but she’s not for you and you know it.
Shannon slowed her actions and became quiet. She stopped filling the cups with pop and juice and looked up at him.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“This.” She gestured between the two of them. “It feels too good being together, working together. What’s— what’s happening between us?”
“I was just trying to figure that out. There sure is something going on”
“It’s not right. We’re not right for each other.”
“Then why are we both having the same thought at the same time?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know.”
She pulled herself together and made an effort to sound natural. “Do you have any trays for carrying these drinks outside?”
He opened a bottom cupboard and pulled out a couple of cookie sheets. “Only the best for my guests.”
Shannon smiled, but it looked sad. She put a bunch of the children’s drinks on one cookie sheet and Cash loaded the adults’ drinks onto another.
Before they left the kitchen, he said, “Come back inside for a minute after you hand those out.”
She frowned. “Okay.”
When they both re-entered the kitchen, she said, “There’s nothing more to say.”
“I know. I want to talk about the meth.”
She perked up. “You found out something?”
“No. It’s just an update.”
Cash opened the oven and checked the turkey.
“How come you know how to cook stuff like this?” she asked.
“When I was a kid, my dad was gone a lot and my mom wasn’t real…strong. If I hadn’t made an effort on the holidays we would have never celebrated them.”
He closed the oven door and leaned back against the counter. “I checked out the high school in Haven yesterday. No one’s heard anything about meth. They had three kids arrested a few months ago for possession of marijuana they’d gotten from one of the bikers.”
“Doesn’t necessarily mean there’s meth there just because there’s marijuana. This is so frustrating.”
“This is police work—investigating until something sparks.”
“I know. I’m tired of how slow the process is. I’m tired of waiting for this to be resolved.”
“I hear you.” He placed a hand on her shoulder and squeezed. There was nothing sexual in the action, only commiseration.
Austin ran into the kitchen. “Hey, there’s a football game out front. You guys should come.”
Cash smiled. “You’re right. Let’s go.”
The two of them followed Austin outside. Shannon kicked off her high heels on the veranda.
“You’re gonna play in that dress?”
“Sure. Why not?”
Cash shrugged. Shannon didn’t behave like the females he knew.
“Touch or tackle?” she asked.
C.J. held Ben in one arm and the football in the other. “Touch. The kids are playing and the women are wearing dresses.”
He tossed the ball to Cash and a formless, no-rules game followed. Cash wasn’t even sure who was on whose team. At one point, when he tried to throw to Austin, Shannon jumped to take the ball from him. He wrapped an arm around her waist and lifted her off her feet.
She threw her head back and giggled, her ponytail streaming over her shoulder.
She looked like heaven on earth, and holding her felt like the thrill of victory.
“You laugh like a girl,” he said.
“That’s because I am a girl.” She panted, still trying to get that ball that was just out of her reach.
“You’re so sexy, I thought you’d have this low husky Kathleen Turner laugh.”
“You think I’m sexy?” Her eyes were wide and green, framed by lashes darkened with mascara, and for a minute he couldn’t breathe.
“Hey, throw the ball, Cash,” Austin called, breaking the spell.
Cash tried, but Shannon managed to snag it before it got any real air.
“Put me down,” she squealed, gripping the ball. Cash dropped her and instantly missed her warmth against his hip. She nearly toppled over, righted herself and ran to the far end of the front yard for a touchdown.
Her dress was tight and her firm behind did interesting, wonderful things when she ran.
* * *
AFTER DINNER, CASH carried a couple of plates to the kitchen and stopped dead on the threshold.
Shannon stood at the counter eating a jelly donut and staring out the window.
He must have made a sound because she looked his way. “It’s beautiful here. You have a great piece of land.”
He carefully set the plates on the counter and approached her. She stared at him, puzzled at first, but then her eyes widened when she realized his intention.
He leaned toward her, slowly, to give her time to pull away. She didn’t.
He touched his tongue to her upper lip.
“Sweet,” he whispered.
He licked again, cleaning off the rest of the sugar, getting down to her skin, and she sighed. Her breath smelled sweet and warmed his chin.
Moving to the corner of her mouth, he scooped up jam with the tip of his tongue, swallowed it and then kissed her.
She parted her lips and Cash slipped inside. She tasted better than the last time he’d kissed her, after she’d left the bar and ended up at his house.
That night she’d smelled of cigarette smoke. Tonight, she smelled like vanilla and tasted like sugar cookies, and he remembered thinking about nibbling cookies from each of her erogenous zones.
This kiss… This was somewhere between that cool, analytical one she’d given him after staring at his bed the other night—making some kind of point he hadn’t been able to decipher—and the passion-laden one he’d given her before sending her home in her car—that had left him lying in his big bed alone thinking about her for hours.
This kiss… Was perfection. Pure and simple.
The silk of her mouth cradled his tongue. He wrapped his arm across her back and pulled her close, flush with his own body.
His hand slipped to her breast and it filled his palm perfectly. She moaned, softly, and he swallowed it, thought about taking her to his bed and sprinkling icing sugar all over her body and licking it off, but that was an X-rated daydream and this was a G-rated family celebration. He was pushing his luck. One of the children could walk in at any moment.
He nibbled his way toward her ear and whispered, “You sure you don’t want to live here with me and make babies?”
Shannon laughed and stepped away from him. She took a big bite from the leftover half of the donut now mangled in her hand. She shook her head.
“Darn,” he joked. “No harm in asking.” But his body and psyche weren’t laughing. He wanted this woman.
A commotion in the living room caught their attention. Austin yelled, “Mom!” with panic in his voice.
Cash ran out of the kitchen.
In the living room, the crowd was gathered around someone lying on the floor.
“What happened?”
“My mom fell down.” Austin sounded on the verge of tears.
Cash squeezed his shoulder. “Don’t worry. There are a lot of us here to help her.”
C.J. lifted Connie to her feet. “How do you feel?”
“Okay,” she replied. “I just got real light-headed when I stood up.” C.J. walked her over to an armchair.
“Connie,” Cash said, squatting in front of her. “Have you considered seeing a doctor and having a checkup?”
She waved a hand. “I’m fine. Really. I’ll be good in a minute once I catch my breath.”
Cash looked over his shoulder. Shannon stood in the hall doorway. “Can you put on the kettle? Make her some tea, okay?”
“You got it.” She hurried back to the kitchen.
“Hey,” Cash said to Austin to distract him and wipe the worried frown from his face. “Go help Shannon bring in the dessert. Ask her to start a pot of coffee.”
Austin hesitated for a second, glanced at his mom to make sure she was okay and only then left the room.
“Make sure she doesn’t finish off the doughnuts,” Cash called. “I caught her filching one a minute ago.”
“What’s filching?” one of the twins asked. He thought it might be Hannah. Or was it Sarah?
“Stealing. Sneaking a donut while no one was watching. Go protect them or there won’t be any left for the rest of us.”
Hannah and Sarah squealed and ran for the kitchen. Ben followed on shorter legs.
Sierra had tucked herself into an armchair in the corner and was reading a chapter book she’d brought with her. Paddy was curled up beside her with his head in her lap.
Nothing would break her concentration now, no matter what happened in the room.
He caught C.J.’s eye and they smiled.
Man, he loved these people. His family.
CHAPTER TEN
THE CALL CAME at 9:17 on Friday morning, while Cash sat at his desk reading the latest updates to the State’s Policies and Procedures Manual for Police Officers.
He answered the phone with only half of his attention. “Sheriff Kavenagh.”
“Is this Cash Kavenagh?” The woman’s voice was husky and smoke-ravaged.
Cash’s focus immediately sharpened. “Yes.”
“Your father is dead.”
He didn’t understand the words at first. He’d only just seen him two weeks ago. He hadn’t found him yet.
He still had to help him get decent medical care, had to keep him alive longer.
On the tail end of that nonsensical thought, the news sank in. He wasn’t going to find him. Dad was gone.
“When?” he asked, wondering why this woman had been so blunt, why she couldn’t have softened the news.
“This morning at eight. He asked me to notify you when it happened.”
Cash noticed what he hadn’t at the beginning. Whoever this woman was, she was emotionally affected by his father’s passing. She was blunt because she was holding herself in. He wasn’t sure how he knew, but he’d swear it was so.
“What did he want in the way of a funeral?”
“He wants to be cremated. There will be two visitations. Tonight and tomorrow afternoon. He wanted you there.”
“I’ll be there.”
She gave him the details.
Cash hung up with the intention of making plane reservations. First, though, he just sat, trying to absorb the implications. He’d had precious little to do with Frank for the past twenty years, but somewhere in the back of his mind, he’d known that his dad was still on earth.
He’d had no idea Dad would be gone so quickly. So crazy fast.
Dad was dead. He knew it was going to really hurt at some point, but at the moment, he felt hollow.
As though watching himself in a movie, he turned on his computer and made plane and hotel reservations online.
He called Wade Hanlon and told him he’d be away until at least Monday. Hanlon would have to come in on days and then be on call in the evenings.
He called Timm Franck next to ask him to keep an eye on Main Street—easy enough to do from his newspaper office—when Wade was called out to Sassy’s, as he surely would be.
He called Police Chief Mike Gage to warn him that he wouldn’t be available and that Deputy Hanlon might need help if anything happened in Ordinary. Cash had helped out Mike so many Saturday nights at Sassy’s, he figured Mike owed him.
He knew he needed to call his mom, but not yet. Not quite yet.
After Wade arrived to take over, Cash went home and packed, then sat on the sofa and stared at the cold fireplace.
He couldn’t put it off any longer. He dialed his mother’s number.
“Mom,” he said when she answered, because he couldn’t get out anything else.
“He’s gone?” Her voice sounded flat. Probably matched his own.
“Yes.”
He heard a small sigh on the other end of the line.
“Are you attending his funeral?” she asked.
“Yes. I have to leave soon.”
“That’s good, Cash. It’s the right thing to do.”
“Will you be going? It
’s in San Francisco.”
“No.” Her voice cracked, confirming what Cash had suspected all along—that she’d never stopped loving her first husband, despite him being the rat that he was.
You shouldn’t speak ill of the dead.
I wasn’t. I was just telling the truth.
Before driving out of Ordinary to catch his flight to San Francisco, he stopped at C.J.’s ranch.
The yard was empty. The children were out playing somewhere and C.J. would have Ben in the stable with him, no doubt.
Cash walked along the side of the house toward the back, but a movement in a window caught his attention. Shannon—probably checking to see who had arrived.
They stared at each other and need filled him. A need for her.
She must have seen something in his expression because her smile faded and she left the window. A second later she burst out of the back door.
“What’s wrong?” She jumped down the steps and raced toward him. “What’s happened?”
“It’s my dad.”
She knew right away. “Cash, I’m so sorry.”
“I—” He had this irrational desire to hold her, to drink in her vitality. To hold on to life and people with both hands because it could all be gone so quickly.
* * *
SHANNON STARED AT Cash, wishing this bad news hadn’t come today, that there wasn’t this big dark thing suddenly between them. She wanted yesterday’s fun carefree ease back.
She wanted to hold on to that illusion of him as a strong man, a man who needed no one. Certainly not her.
Don’t fall apart on me, Cash. I’m tired of taking care of men.
When she said no more, he nodded and walked away toward the stable, a wisp of disappointment painting his features.
There was nothing she could do about that.
He needed comfort, but she just wasn’t the right woman to give it to him.
He turned back to her. “Can you do me a favor?”
No. She didn’t want him to need anything from her. “Sure.”
“How would you feel about taking Austin to the movies tonight?”
Yes, that she could do. “No problem. He’s a great kid. I can do that.”
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