by Jodi Thomas
Wilkes was figuring out the gaps. “Granny Stanley knew your name. She thought her son was dead, so who else would she have left the house to?”
Yancy shook his head. “Are you saying I own that old falling-down house?”
“Yes,” Angie said. “The house and the five acres around it.”
Yancy stood, leaving the photo and birth certificate on the table. He pulled on his work coat and hat.
“Where you going?” Wilkes asked.
“To have a look at my land,” Yancy said as he walked out. “I’ll be back for lunch.”
Wilkes hugged Angie close. “I don’t know how you did all this research, but I wanna tell you right now how great you are.”
She laughed. “I think Yancy’s in shock. Maybe I should have broken it to him a little at a time. He has his father’s middle name and his great-grandfather’s first name. The house is his.”
“He’ll be all right,” Wilkes said. “For a man who owns nothing to suddenly find out he has land must be a lot to take in.”
“Until he hears the rest,” she added.
Wilkes pushed a curl away from her forehead and asked, “What rest?”
“Even with the taxes coming out every year, Granny’s account still has over two hundred thousand dollars in it.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Wilkes
WILKES GOT UP to pay Dorothy for his and Angie’s lunch. Yancy had returned but hadn’t stopped asking questions long enough to eat. He asked Angie the same questions over and over as if he couldn’t quite get his brain around the facts. Had he really been named after his father and great-grandfather? Was the house really his? When could he start working on it?
Wilkes’s phone beeped and he picked up as the waitress handed him his change.
“Hello, Sheriff,” Wilkes said. “Have I got some news...”
Dan didn’t let him finish. “I’m headed to the museum, Wilkes. Is there any way you could leave Angie with Yancy and meet me there as soon as possible? We’ve got an emergency on our hands.”
“I’m on my way.” Wilkes didn’t have to ask, he knew there was big trouble. He also didn’t bother to ask how Dan knew he was with Angie and Yancy. The sheriff could see the café from his window.
Wilkes walked slowly over to the booth and leaned in between Angie and Yancy’s conversations. “Angie, if you’ll stay here, I have to run an errand. I want to hear all about the plans when I get back, so don’t you two go anywhere.”
They both nodded and went back to their plans of what Yancy should do next.
Wilkes took off for the museum.
When he walked in, all the little volunteers looked upset.
“Your uncle’s in the kitchen,” one said. “The sheriff’s with him.”
Another little lady pointed. “Just follow the blood.”
Wilkes ran to the back area. What if Vern had fallen or had a stroke or... Wilkes couldn’t breathe. He’d thought it was a great idea to have Vern come up here a few days a week. The old guy needed some rest. But obviously Wilkes needed to rethink his plan.
As he opened the door, he saw Vern sitting in a chair, his head back, a bloody hand towel across his face.
“What happened?” Wilkes rushed forward.
“I don’t know. I only beat you by three minutes,” Dan snapped. “You’re uncle isn’t talking.”
Vern waved his hand as if pushing them away. He lowered the towel and looked at them with bloodshot eyes.
Wilkes saw the bruise on his cheek and the blood still dripping from his nose.
“I’m all right, boys, don’t fuss over me. I had to come in here to keep the ladies from smothering me.” Vern dabbed at his nose. “I think the bastard must have broke my nose. Double damn. I’m not ready to lose my good looks.”
Wilkes relaxed. If Uncle Vern was cussing and fussing, he wasn’t too hurt. “Tell me what happened. And this better not involve a fight with any of the O’Gradys, Uncle Vern.”
“No, it ain’t the O’Gradys. Half the ones I used to fight with are dead and the two still living can’t hear nothing even if I did insult them.”
“Mr. Wagner,” the sheriff said. “Start at the beginning and tell us what happened. Who hit you?”
“One question at a time,” Vern complained as he dabbed his nose along the towel, making red circles.
Wilkes and Dan waited.
Finally, Vern stopped dabbing. “I was up in Angie’s office taking a little nap. I’d turned her chair around and propped my feet up on her file cabinet.” He looked at them both as if expecting them to say something. “I’ve done it before.”
“Go on.” Dan frowned.
“Well, I thought I heard the door, but I wasn’t sure. I didn’t turn the chair around for a minute, then I heard movement over near the safe. Ain’t nothing of value in it, so I wasn’t thinking a robber might be sneaking up on me.
“When I swiveled around, one of my legs slipped off the cabinet and hit the floor. This stranger dressed in a suit and looking like someone hit him with a fence post jumped me. Before I knew what was happening he had his hands around my throat demanding I tell him where some necklace was.”
Wilkes glanced at Dan and knew they were both thinking the same thing.
Vern didn’t notice. He went back to dabbing.
“What happened next?” Wilkes shouted.
Vern frowned. “What do you think, son? Ain’t nobody man enough to put his hands on me. I jumped up ready for a fight and told him I didn’t know where his necklace was.
“He hit me when I wasn’t looking and probably broke my nose. Then he shoved me back in the chair and said he wanted Angela’s necklace. Before I could fight, he pulled a gun and I decided I’d be wise to sit still. I probably could have taken him but only a fool fights a man with a gun.”
Wilkes began to pace. “You’re lucky to be alive. What happened next?”
“Well, I’d seen Angie wear an old coin necklace once or twice and I’d noticed it was on a shelf in that open safe in her office. So I told the guy where it was.”
“You what?”
“You hard of hearing, boy? I said I told him where it was.”
“You let someone get away with stealing her necklace.” Wilkes was thankful that Vern was alive but just letting a thief walk off with something didn’t seem like Vern’s style.
“Yep. He’s got it. I’d bet it’s in his hand right now.”
Dan picked up his cell. “Do you know what kind of car he’s driving? What way he went when he left the parking lot?”
“Nope,” Vern said. “Didn’t see his car and he didn’t leave the parking lot.”
“Where is he?” Dan lowered the phone.
“I’m not sure, but when I left Angie’s office he was in the safe. When he stepped in to grab her jewelry,” he said proudly, “I simply closed the door and turned the dial!”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
Wilkes
A LIGHT SNOW danced in the wind as Wilkes stared out the kitchen window of his home. He loved his land. It had taken him six years to figure out he was living right where he wanted to live for the rest of his life. Though his parents had signed the deed to the Devil’s Fork over to him, he knew he wasn’t the owner but the caretaker of this slice of Texas. For as long as he lived, he’d take care of it so that someday he could pass it down to his kids.
“Wilkes,” Uncle Vern yelled from the dining room. “Where’s the gravy?”
Wilkes reached for the gravy bowl and walked into what had been his game room a few weeks ago. The big-screen TV was gone. The pool table. The leather couch and chair had been better suited to one of the bedrooms that Angie now called the media room. The big room now had a long dining table that could seat a dozen.
Change was happening. The house was turning into a home. He took a deep breath thinking that he’d missed the smell of home cooking all his life.
He looked to the other end of the table and saw Angie laughing with Lauren and her roommate home for Thanksgiving.
Angie had done a great job of putting this all together. The meal, the friends, even the flowers on the table. And strangely enough everything she moved or tossed out Uncle Vern followed right behind saying he’d thought that needed to happen.
The loneliness that had settled in Wilkes’s soul years ago was gone now. The friends had always been there. He just hadn’t appreciated them, as he hadn’t seen the beauty of the land until he showed it to Angie.
“So,” Lauren was saying to Angie, “you had the real necklace all along?”
“Right, and my uncle didn’t even know it.” Angie laughed, touching the Greek coin set in diamonds around her neck. “It seems he wanted me to come back home and put the money my father transferred over to me the night he died into the business account. Only, one of the men who worked for him discovered the necklace on display was a fake. He decided I must have had it, so he came after me.”
“And that was the man who kidnapped me?” Polly giggled. “I made a lasting dent in him.”
Vern patted her hand. “Don’t you worry, little darling, I took care of him. When I finished beating him up, I tossed him in the safe at the museum. By the time we got him out he was so desperate for fresh air, he confessed to everything.”
“Are you going to keep the necklace or sell it?” Lauren asked as everyone began passing the bowls and platters around for second helpings.
“I think I’ll pass it down to my children.” Angie smiled.
The conversation turned to other things, but Wilkes couldn’t take his eyes off Angie. He was still staring at her when they walked down the hallway to her room hours later.
“You know, it took me a while, but I’ve discovered something.”
“What’s that?” She giggled, always excited when he was close enough to kiss her.
“All my life I thought there was one type of woman I was attracted to, but I was wrong. There is only one woman I’m interested in. She’s not my type, but she’s the one. The only one I’ll never get enough of touching.” He moved closer and leaned down, loving the way she came so easy into his arms now.
His hands moved over her body, craving the feel of her. Loving the way she reacted every time to his touch.
“Angie, we need to give some thought to who you’re going to pass that necklace down to. A daughter, or a son.”
She kissed him for a while and then whispered, “That’s not something I have to think about tonight, Wilkes.”
He moved the fingers of one hand through her soft hair. “I was thinking we could get started on the plan tonight, but you’ve got to answer one question first.” His hand moved up from her waist to just below her breast. He knew she’d let out a little sigh and open her mouth just wide enough to welcome one long kiss.
Over the weeks he’d learned her well. The kiss would grow deeper when he covered her breast, then she’d melt into him.
When he finally broke the kiss, he pushed her against her bedroom door with his body, loving the feel of her rapid breathing and the way she closed her eyes and smiled. He lowered his mouth to her throat while she whispered how she loved the feel of him.
As he pulled her blouse open so he could continue down her throat, he whispered, “Answer my one question, Angie.”
“What question?” She giggled.
“If we have this talk on which we’ll have first, a boy or a girl, you have to promise to marry me come morning. I don’t ever want to think there is any chance you might disappear again.” He shoved the lace of her bra aside as he kept raining light kisses. “I think we should start on getting at least one baby on the way.”
“I’m not going anywhere, Wilkes. I’m home. I think I knew that the first night Doc and I moved in.”
He loved the way her skin grew warm where he’d kissed. He loved this woman beyond reason. “If you’re home, open the door and invite me in.”
He moved a step back and studied her. Her hair was a mess. Her blouse open almost to her waist. Her face flushed. And her big eyes had a longing for him that almost drove him mad. “If you open your bedroom door, there will be no going back, no halfway. You’ll be silently saying you are running full out toward me and I’ll never let you go.”
She turned the knob.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
Angie
DAWN DRIFTED THROUGH the window. Angie lay perfectly still beside Wilkes. He needed sleep and she needed to relive every moment of their first night together. All her dreams could never measure up.
When she finally shifted to see his face, she found him smiling at her.
“Morning,” he said. “Today is our wedding day. You’re marrying me. That was the deal if you opened that door.”
Giggling, she whispered back, “We’ve already started out the honeymoon. Do you think we made a son or daughter last night, or maybe early this morning?”
He pulled her body against his. “I doubt it. We’ll have to keep trying, and trying and trying.” His hand moved along her body and she knew his hunger for her grew once more.
“It’s almost time to get up.”
He kissed her cheek. “Almost is enough time.” He gently pushed her against the pillows just as they heard Uncle Vern shouting from the barn.
In a flurry of flying clothes they dressed as they rushed down the hallway. Wilkes grabbed her hand as they ran to the barn thinking the old cowboy might have fallen or hurt himself or finally had one of his horses kick him in the head.
Vern was on the floor of the barn, kneeling low in a corner. Wilkes couldn’t tell if he was laughing or crying.
“What is it?” Wilkes slid down beside the old man.
“Are you hurt?” Angie asked.
“Look.” Vern laughed. “Doc Holliday just had kittens. Ain’t that something.”
Wilkes lifted Angie in his arms and headed back to the house. “Don’t bother us again, Uncle Vern. I don’t want to hear you or see you until noon and then you’d better be in your best clothes.”
“Am I getting married?” Vern yelled.
“No, I am. In case you didn’t notice, I love this woman and I’ve talked her into hanging around.”
“Oh, I noticed, son,” Vern crowed. “Ain’t a person for a hundred miles around who hasn’t.” He lowered his voice. “No surprise there, but what I can’t understand is why she’d pick you when I’m still available.”
* * * * *
Keep reading for an excerpt from LONE HEART PASS by Jodi Thomas.
From New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author
JODI THOMAS
comes a compelling, emotionally resonant series set in a remote West Texas town—where family can be made by blood or by choice.
Don’t miss these great titles in the new Ransom Canyon series!
Rustler’s Moon
Ransom Canyon
Winter’s Camp (novella)
“Exactly the kind of heart-wrenching, emotional story one has come to expect from Jodi Thomas.”
—Debbie Macomber, #1 New York Times bestselling author
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Lone Heart Pass
by Jodi Thomas
CHAPTER ONE
Washington, D
C
November
THE GEORGETOWN STREET outside Jubalee Hamilton’s office looked more like a river of mud than a beautiful old brick lane.
“Why does it always have to rain on Election Day?” she said to the life-size cutout of her candidate.
The few volunteers left in the campaign office were cleaning out their desks. The polls hadn’t been closed an hour, and Jubalee’s horse-in-the-race had already been declared the loser.
Or maybe she was the loser. Two months ago her live-in boyfriend, the man she’d thought she’d someday settle down with and have the requisite 2.5 kids, had said goodbye. David had called her a self-absorbed workaholic. When she’d denied it, he’d asked one question. “When’s my birthday, J?”
She folded her arms as if to say she wasn’t playing games. But this time her normally mild-mannered lover didn’t back down.
“Well?” He stared at her with a heartbroken gaze.
When she didn’t answer, David asked again. “We’ve been together three years. When is my birthday?”
“February 19,” she guessed, knowing in her gut his assessment of her was right.
“Not even close.” David picked up his briefcase and walked out. “I’ll get my things after the election is over. You won’t have time to open the door for me before then.”
Jubalee didn’t have time to miss him, either. She worked so many hours on the election she’d started sleeping at the office every other night. Sometime in the weeks that followed, David had dropped by the apartment and packed both their things. She’d walked in on a mountain of boxes marked with J’s and D’s. All she remembered thinking at the time was that she was glad he’d left her clean clothes still hanging in the closet.
A few days later the boxes marked D were gone and one apartment key lay on the counter. There was no time to miss him or his boxes.
Jubalee considered crying, but she didn’t bother. Boyfriends had vanished before. Three in college, one before David while she lived in Washington, DC. She’d have time for lovers later. Right now, at twenty-six, she needed to build her career. Work was her life. Men were simply extras she could live with or without. She barely noticed the mail piling up or the notice on the door telling her she had six weeks before she had to vacate the premises.
