by Diana Palmer
“Yeah, like an ice cream cone.” Carter gathered them awkwardly in his right hand. “I don’t suppose you have a hard hat in those saddlebags, do you?”
“You work in the offshore oil fields, you’re a badass,” Sam pointed out. “Even if you do fall off with your long legs, you won’t go far.”
Carter looked down and shuddered. “Looks a long way down to me, but as I’m not intending to fall off, I’m not going to think about it.”
“That’s the spirit!” Sam said brightly. “Is there anything else you need to bring with you from the car? Paperwork or anything?”
“I’m not getting down again until we reach the ranch, Sis,” Carter said. “So if you want to check out the car and make sure I haven’t left anything behind, be my guest.”
Sam stomped off toward the car, took the rental agreement and a pack of gum out, and handed them over to Carter. She returned for one last look and discovered a brightly wrapped present in the back seat.
“Is this for me?” Sam held it up, and Carter’s face broke into a smile.
“Yeah! I forgot! Happy Wedding Day thing!”
“Jeez, it’s heavy.” Sam shifted the box in her arms. “Maybe we should leave it here, and get it later?”
At Carter’s nod, she put it in the trunk, locked the car, and went to mount up. The sun made a brief appearance between the clouds, which Sam took as a good omen as she untied the horses and pointed at the far end of the parking lot.
“We’ll go back the way I came, okay?”
“Sure. Go slow and just don’t lose me,” Carter said.
“I promise I won’t.” Sam clicked to Dollar. “So, what’s in the box?”
“Your wedding gift.”
“Yeah, I know that, but what exactly is it?” Sam asked. She turned her head to see her brother grinning at her.
“If you get me there in one piece, I’ll tell you when we arrive at the ranch.”
“Okay.” Sam grinned back. “It’s a deal.”
* * *
HW was just finishing his chores when Chase, his oldest brother, came into the barn whistling and looked around as if he didn’t have a care in the world.
“Hey, HW, did Sam get back?”
HW stared at his brother. “Yeah, she’s hiding in one of the stalls.”
“Really?”
“Nope.” Sometimes it was way too easy to wind up his very literal, nerdy brother, but HW wasn’t into it today. “She’s not come back, Sugar’s missing as well, and I haven’t heard a peep from Sam.”
Chase let out his breath. “Okay, I have an idea, but you might consider it an invasion of privacy, so—”
“What?” HW demanded. “Tell me.”
“Do you happen to know how to get into Sam’s laptop?”
“Of course I do,” HW said. “We share a lot of our stuff.”
“Then you could find out where her phone currently is if she has the lost and found app.”
“Genius!” HW started toward Sam’s cabin. “Thanks, Chase!”
He was already knocking on the door before his brother caught up and silently handed him the key. He’d forgotten that Cam was up with January in the main house.
The place smelled of coffee and Sam. For a moment HW halted and just breathed her in. He went into the first bedroom, realized it was Cam’s, and backed straight out again. The second bedroom still had the shades drawn. He opened them up and stared at the unmade bed where his bride-to-be should’ve been sleeping.
Her laptop was plugged in and recharging up against the wall. He picked it up and set it on his knee. Sam always forgot her passwords, so he’d made her set up autofill on almost everything. He clicked on the Find My Phone app and waited a second for it to start up.
It took another second for him to ask the million-dollar question, and then a map flashed up showing a very familiar landscape.
“It’s here on the ranch.” HW let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. He squinted at the map and clicked on the satellite link, which showed the actual terrain. “It’s right next to Morgan Creek.”
“Maybe she’s up there just contemplating life before the big wedding?” Chase came and sat beside him. “By the way, you can ping her phone if you click on that icon.”
HW did what Chase suggested, but Sam still didn’t pick up.
“I’m going up there.” HW got to his feet. “I know you’re going to tell me I’m stupid, but I can’t just sit here and worry.”
“I’m not going to tell you anything, Bro.” Chase looked up at him. “If that were January out there? I’d do exactly the same thing.”
HW was halfway to the barn when something else finally registered in his brain. In Cam’s bedroom her wedding finery had been hanging up on the door of the closet, her shoes set underneath. There hadn’t been anything in Sam’s.
He stopped walking. Had she already gotten dressed? He tried to imagine her mounting a horse dressed like a bride and couldn’t make it work. Had she changed her mind?
Realizing that worrying about it was just making him feel a whole lot worse, HW went into the barn and saddled up Messi, his brother BB’s favorite horse. He was just about to head out when Ry shouted his name.
“Wait up! I’m coming with you.”
HW didn’t bother to stand around while his twin got himself organized. If he insisted on coming, he’d find HW by the creek.
* * *
Sam pulled up Dollar for the umpteenth time and glanced over her shoulder to find Carter a long way behind. Sugar had obviously realized that the person on her back was not in charge and was having a lovely time dawdling along at minimum speed. Sam had no idea what the time was, but as the day brightened around her, it felt like the return journey was taking hours.
Carter also tended to stop and ask questions about the landscape whenever something occurred to him, which wasn’t helping at all. Sam was trying to keep her nerves in check, but her answers were getting shorter. If she didn’t get back to the ranch soon, HW would find out she wasn’t there and probably suspect the worst, seeing as his own mother had run out on him.
Carter finally came alongside her. “This place is weird. Why aren’t there any trees?”
“They cut them down for fuel and to expose the mine workings,” Sam said. “Do you think you could increase your pace just a little bit?”
“I dunno.” Carter patted Sugar. “Ask the horse.”
“I could tie your reins to the back of my saddle, and you could just sit there, and let me do the driving,” Sam offered.
“No thanks. I’ve seen you drive.” Carter shuddered. “And I hate not being in control.”
Sometimes it was a real shame that he was so like her. . . .
“We’ve still got hours, Sis, so take a chill pill,” Carter reminded her.
“I have to get ready,” Sam reminded him.
“How long does that take?” He studied her carefully. “It’s not like you’re one of those high-maintenance women.”
“I will be on my wedding day—if I get back in time, and my bridegroom hasn’t given up on me, and left for a life of sin and debauchery in Las Vegas.”
Carter frowned. “You sound a bit stressed, Sis.”
She glared at him. “I wonder why?”
He raised his eyebrows. “Then maybe you should stop talking, and we should get moving?”
For a second, Sam contemplated abandoning him to the local coyotes, and then gathered her reins. “Okay, let’s get going.”
* * *
“It’s somewhere around here.” HW dismounted and walked over to the bank of the creek. There were only a couple of places where it was safe to cross, and all the ranch riders used them. “She definitely came this way. I can see Dollar’s hoofprints.”
Ry joined him. “And it doesn’t look as if she came off or anything. There’s no sign of a disturbance in the rocks or in the creek bed.” He spoke into his cell. “Chase? You there? Can you activate that signal on Sam’s cell?”
“There!” HW got back on his horse, forded the creek, and spotted Sam’s pink phone case wedged in between two of the rocks. He dismounted and gingerly picked it up. “It doesn’t look in bad shape. I wonder if it slid out of her pocket when she was coming up the side of the creek bank?”
“That’s certainly happened to me before,” Ry said. “Crossing the creek can be a bit of a roller coaster.”
They retreated to level ground, HW guarding the cell phone like a priceless jewel.
“Do you know her password?” Ry asked.
“Yeah.” HW stared at the phone, his reluctance growing.
“Then punch it in,” Ry suggested.
“What if she was texting someone to come and get her?”
The rushing water of the creek filled Ry’s silence.
“You won’t know that unless you look,” Ry suggested carefully. “It’s way more likely she was texting you or Cam.”
“Okay.” HW took a deep breath and typed in her password. Her last two text messages to someone with the name CKOilz5 flashed on the screen.
Stay put and I’ll come to you x.
On my way. See you in 20. x
HW stared at the screen and then read the messages aloud to his brother, stumbling over the words as it suddenly hurt to breathe. “She’s gone, hasn’t she?” He slapped his Stetson against his thigh. “Goddammit.”
Ry tried to take the cell out of his hand, but HW wouldn’t let him. He stuffed the phone in his pocket and went back to his horse.
“HW . . .” Ry said.
But he was done listening. Wheeling Messi about, he set off. As soon as he gained level ground he just rode until the landscape became a blur, and nothing else mattered.
Chapter Six
“Oh, thank goodness!” Sam gasped as the ranch and barn finally came into sight. “We made it!”
“I’m not sure my ass did,” Carter grumbled. “It’s so numb I can’t tell if it’s actually still there or I left it behind in Morgansville.”
“Don’t worry, you’re still an ass,” Sam reassured him. “Wow, look at all the cars. I wonder what time it is?”
She dismounted outside the barn, helped Carter down, and left him wobbling around complaining his legs were like Jell-O. She set about taking the tack off the horses and rubbing them down. For once the barn was completely quiet. She assumed that everyone was off getting spruced up for the wedding. A glance at the barn clock showed her it was almost ten, which meant she had two hours to get ready for the wedding.
Cam and January were not going to be pleased with her. . . . But she was back, and considering everything that had gone down that was an achievement in itself.
She took Carter up to the main house and went through into the kitchen. There was no sign of Ruth, who was probably getting ready, but Chase was sitting at the table, his laptop open while he talked on the phone. He glanced up as she appeared, and then startled and did a double take as if he’d seen a ghost.
“Sam!”
He held up his hand, as is she was going to do a runner, and then spoke into the phone. “Yeah, she’s here. Where is he?”
Sam pulled out a chair for Carter and helped them both to a mug of coffee, which her brother gulped down with all the fervor of the caffeine addicted. She studied the back of the laptop, which looked remarkably familiar, and stiffened.
“Why are you on my laptop, Chase?”
He set his cell down on the table and stared at her. “Where have you been?”
Slightly put off by his unusual intensity, Sam blinked at him. “I went to pick up my brother.” Carter waved at Chase over the rim of his second mug of coffee. “He’s an idiot. He ended up in Morgansville with a flat tire.”
“You didn’t drive up there,” Chase stated.
“No, I took Dollar and Sugar. I stupidly thought that would be quicker than driving on the proper road past the silver mine, and round the back of the ghost town.” Sam raised her eyebrows. “What’s going on? I lost my phone somewhere so I couldn’t get in touch with anyone.”
“Jeez.” Chase let out his breath. “What a mess.”
“What do you mean?” Sam asked slowly. “And why are you using my laptop?”
“We didn’t know where you’d gone,” Chase explained. “We were trying to ping your phone.”
“When you say ‘we’ who exactly are we talking about here?” Sam asked.
“Me, Ry, and HW.”
Sam groaned. “Oh, no.”
“Oh yeah.” Chase sighed. “I was just talking to Ry. He and HW rode out to see if they could locate your phone. They found it by the creek.”
“Did HW think I’d fallen in the water?”
“No.” Chase grimaced. “HW read your last texts out to Ry. I guess HW misread them or misunderstood the context.”
Sam frowned. “I can’t even remember what I said.”
“Something along the lines of you going to meet someone—which I now assume was your brother, but apparently HW didn’t make the same connection.”
“He thinks I’ve gone off with another man.” Sam didn’t make it a question. She knew HW would immediately imagine the worst. She shot to her feet. “Where is he? I need to talk to him.”
“That’s the other thing I was going to tell you.” Chase sat back and looked up at her. “Ry said HW pocketed your phone, and then rode off on Messi. We haven’t heard or seen him since.”
Sam set off for the barn again, ignoring Chase’s plea for her to wait. She had to find HW and explain. Just as she reached the barn, Ry and his horse arrived back, and he rode toward her.
“Sam. Thank goodness. I told HW he was being a fool, but he wouldn’t listen to me.”
“Of course he wouldn’t listen.” Sam choked back tears. “He’s as stubborn as the rest of you. Which direction did he go in?”
“Hold your horses,” Ry said. “What are you planning to do, go haring after him so we lose both bride and groom?”
“Yes, you big dope!” Sam actually stamped her foot. “You know what he’s like. I have to make this right with him!”
“How about we try it my way?” Ry smiled, which didn’t help, and only reminded her achingly of HW. “I’ll send him a text to get him coming back this way, and then you can ride out to meet him.”
“Will he stop to read a text from you?” Sam asked suspiciously.
“Seeing as he’s probably still hoping you’ll show up, then yes.” Ry held her gaze. “Despite what you think, he can’t really believe you’d do that to him.”
“Why not? You of all people know how much losing his mother hurt him.”
“Yeah, but I also know you’re nothing like her. HW just needs to calm down and remember that,” Ry said.
“Okay.” Sam nodded. “Send him a text.”
Ry took off his gloves, extracted his phone from the back of the pocket of his Wranglers, and typed away, his smile widening.
“That should do it.”
“What did you say?” Sam asked.
Ry read it out to her. “Sam at ranch. Wants to speak to you. Come back now before it is too late.”
“Do you really think that will work?” Sam said dubiously. “It sounds super dramatic.”
Ry shrugged. “It’s worth a shot. He’s had half an hour to cool off and start thinking things through. That’s usually enough time to get some sense into his thick skull.” He dismounted and walked his horse toward the barn. “How about we cool this guy off, and wait and see if HW’s the man I think he is.”
* * *
HW stared at the text from Ry and couldn’t decide whether it was relief he was feeling or something much more complicated that he couldn’t even begin to untangle. He stared out across Morgan Valley toward the Sierras noting how utterly small and insignificant he was in the big scheme of things. Should he go back and face Sam? If she’d had the nerve to come and find him, surely he owed her the
same favor?
He tried to run through all the possible scenarios of how it might go, and almost drove himself crazy. If he loved her—and he did with all his heart—he had to at least hear her out. She might just have gotten scared again. Maybe there was something he’d been missing, and she had good and valid reasons for dumping him on their wedding day.
“Bullshit,” HW muttered. “She loves me!”
It dawned on him that in his heart he had already decided to go back and have it out with her. Sam was nothing like the mother who had walked out on him and she deserved better. Whatever happened between them next, at least this time he’d get closure.
With one long, last look at the mountains that surrounded and protected the valley he loved and called home, HW mounted up and turned around.
He was just coming into the fenced home pastures when a rider approached him waving frantically. He slowed to a stop and waited. The only sign of his tension translated into the fidgety sidestepping of his horse.
Sam rode up to him. She’d lost her hat, her face was red, and her hair all over the place, and she looked absolutely frantic. She slid down from the horse, grabbing onto the saddle to steady herself, and looked up at him.
“I lost my phone! I had to go and pick up my really stupid baby brother who ended up in Morgansville of all places, with no gas, and a deflated tire! And then he wouldn’t get on the bloody horse, and I had to make him, and then he took hours to get back, and I didn’t know what the time was because neither of us wears a watch, and—”
HW dismounted, walked up to her, and pulled her roughly into his arms. The feel of her pressed against him made him bury his face in her hair and just breathe her in. He didn’t pray often, but he was making up for it now. After a little while, she thumped on his chest, and he eased back just a little so he could see her face.
“Aren’t you going to shout at me?” Sam asked.
“Maybe later.” HW swallowed hard. “At the moment I’m just . . . glad you’re here.”
She cupped his chin. “You thought I’d walked out on you.”
“For a little while, yeah, I did.” He sighed. “But somehow I couldn’t convince myself of it, even when all the signs pointed that way.”
