It Had to Be Him

by Tamra Baumann

  “You mean this town—that’s named after her family?”

  Zeke laughed. “Probably just a coinkydink? Enjoy your meal.”

  A plate filled with chicken-fried steak and mashed potatoes slid in front of him, along with a scowl from Gloria. “Figured a slick-talking guy like you would like this better than fish and chips.”

  It was probably good Meg had people like this to protect her. And as much as he wanted to punch his fist into a wall in frustration with them, Gloria was right. He hated fish and chips. It reminded him of those frozen fish stick meals he ate as a kid. They served them every Tuesday at the orphanage disguised as a boys’ ranch where he’d grown up. He’d escaped the ranch on his eighteenth birthday, and hadn’t had a fish stick in the twelve years since.

  “See, I knew I could trust you, Gloria.”

  Her frown deepened. “Yeah, but can we trust you?” She sauntered away to top off more coffee cups.

  Digging into the best chicken-fried steak he’d ever had, he reevaluated his plan. He hadn’t counted on the secret club he’d have to infiltrate.

  Just as he finished off the last of his buttery, peppery mashed potatoes, the little bell above the glass door rang and in walked a cop. The man, built like a tank, could probably take down a hyped-up meth addict with ease. After scanning the busy diner, he made a beeline for the empty stool next to Josh’s.

  Maybe his luck was about to change.

  The man sat down and Gloria instantly appeared in front of him. “The usual, Sheriff?”

  The guy gave a quick nod, then turned his intense blue-eyed gaze on Josh. “Evenin’.”

  “Evening.” Josh glanced at the man’s name tag that read “R. Anderson,” and it became clear why his eyes reminded him so much of Megan’s. Another Anderson relative and another dead end most likely, but it was worth a try. He held out a hand. “Josh Granger.”

  The man slowly reached out, then returned a bone-crunching handshake. “Heard you’re asking after someone named Megan. What’s it to you?”

  Gloria returned with his pie and a chicken-fried steak dinner for the cop. After she handed everything out, she stood with her hands on her hips, apparently waiting for his answer too. The old guy next to him laid down his fork and crossed his arms, as the whole diner became Sunday-morning-Mass silent.

  How much should he reveal? Probably the lady at the hotel had already told them anyway. “Just want to have a friendly conversation with her.”

  He slid his fork into the pie and took a bite. The burst of creamy, rich chocolate that filled his mouth almost made him forget he was about to be interrogated.

  The cop dug into his meal, taking a few bites then pausing for a gulp of his soda. He thumped the glass down on the counter and finally said, “That’s what cell phones are for. Since there’s nowhere for you to stay, you’d be smart to move along, Granger.”

  Yep. Dead end.

  He finished off his pie and forced a smile. Throwing two tens onto the counter, he said, “Best meal I’ve ever had, Gloria. Thank you for the hospitality.”

  As he headed for the door, the old guy, Zeke, said loudly, “Sheriff, it’s legal to shoot a man for trespassing if a sign is clearly posted, right?”

  “Yep. And Grandma doesn’t miss.”

  That confirmed the cell phone tracking software on his laptop hadn’t steered him wrong. Megan was on the other side of the gate with the “No Trespassing” sign.

  He kept on walking as if he hadn’t heard them. Talking to Megan was going to be harder than he’d anticipated, but no way in hell was he going to be run out of town like the villain in a low-budget Western.

  Megan caught a fleeing Haley and scooped her up. “I know you don’t like the mask, but it’ll help you breathe better. If you’ll sit really still and take big breaths for Mommy, we’ll get pie after dinner, okay?”

  Megan carried Haley back to the couch and handed her a stack of her favorite books. “Choose which one and I’ll be right back.”

  “Nooo, Mommy. Pleeeeez?” The books ended up on the floor.

  Meg hated the nebulizer too, but Haley had been coughing after being outside all day. Probably the extra pollen in the air around the lake, but Meg wasn’t taking any chances. They’d go see Ben to be sure Haley’s meds didn’t need to be upped.

  As if waiting for her cue, as soon as Meg walked back in the room with the machine, Haley flopped onto the couch and kicked, cried, and wailed. A tantrum deserving of an Academy Award.

  Crying wouldn’t help Haley’s breathing, so Meg forced herself to remain calm and got everything set up. Then she sat quietly until Haley realized she wasn’t going to win. After a few more last-ditch protests, Haley grew still, so Meg pulled her against her side. She picked up Goodnight Moon from her feet, placed it on her lap, and then adjusted the mask across her pouting daughter’s face. “Breathe deep until all the medicine is gone. Then we’ll go eat.” She placed Haley’s hands on her stomach so she could feel the air as she drew it into her lungs. “Fill the tummy balloon as big as it can get, then let it all out. Remember?”

  Haley’s little nod just about broke Megan’s heart. Her kid was tough to the core.

  They were almost finished when Casey slammed through the front door at a full run. One look at Haley stopped her in her tracks. “What’s the matter? Did she have an attack?”

  Meg begged with her eyes for Casey to chill out. She didn’t want to scare Haley. “No. Everything’s great! We’re just reading.”

  She couldn’t blame Casey. It had taken Meg a while to get used to seeing that contraption strapped to her baby’s face too.

  “Oh. Good.” Casey slowly nodded and then sat on the other side of Haley. “I need to tell you something as soon as you guys are done, okay?” Casey’s gaze tilted to the top of Haley’s head and then up to Meg again in a “not in front of the kid” gesture.

  They were close enough to done anyway. Freeing Haley from the mask, she said, “You did such a good job, Haley-Bug, you deserve an extra treat.” Meg dug her cell from her back pocket and did something she usually avoided, but Casey’s intense gaze convinced Meg to make an exception. “You can play any game you’d like for a bit while I talk to Aunt Casey.”

  Haley’s face lit up and she morphed back into her happy little self. “Yay! The birdy one, Momma!”

  “You got it.” Meg set Haley up with the game and then gathered the nebulizer and all the tubing before heading to the kitchen to clean the parts out. Casey followed right behind. “So what’s—”

  “He’s in town. Josh. He tried to check into the hotel. It was just luck we don’t take walk-ins. He’s at the diner now.”

  The air whooshed from Megan’s lungs. “Are you sure it’s him?”

  “Had you ever told me his name I would have known for sure, but how about tall, blond, built, killer smile, Haley looks just like him, Josh Granger?”

  Crap!

  How had he found them so quickly? Panic rushed through her at the thought of seeing him again. But then determination steeled her spine. She had to protect her daughter. Keep her away from him so Haley would never have to feel the rejection and heartbreak Meg still hadn’t fully recovered from. She might not be in the best of circumstances at the moment, but she’d always been sure Haley had everything she needed. They didn’t need him.

  She rushed toward her bedroom to pack, but Casey grabbed her arm and stopped her. “Let go,” Meg said. “We have to leave. I don’t want him to—”

  “Isn’t that what the old Meg would have done?” Casey pulled her back into the kitchen. “You said you’ve changed. Time to prove it.”

  Meg’s head snapped up at her sister’s words. That’s what she used to do. Run when things got tough. It seemed easier than confronting the people always so quick to judge her. Like her father and the Three Amigos.

  But the problem rarely solved itself and running mostly only made it fester and get worse. Best to make a stand right up front and be sure Josh knew no matter what he planne
d, she’d shield her daughter from him.

  Haley appeared in the doorway. “Pie, please!”

  Casey lifted Haley up to her eye level. “After my chef met you this morning he made all sorts of treats just for you, my little pie piggy. Let’s go. We’ll eat pie while Mommy does some serious thinking.”

  Her sister didn’t know the half of it.

  Meg slowly followed behind them down to the sandy shore and toward the hotel. They couldn’t take the road and risk running into Josh.

  Maybe he wasn’t going to ask for custody. Maybe he just wanted to meet Haley. Which could be just as bad. Josh would be so busy working, wrapped up in some big project like before, he’d soon forget he had a daughter, but Haley wouldn’t forget him.

  Her stomach ached at the thought of seeing him again. She’d finally allowed herself to fall in love for the first time and then Josh had turned around and ripped her heart out. And yet, she didn’t hate the man all the way like she should. She needed to remember the pain he’d caused her and stay strong.

  Walking beside the serene water, Meg drew a deep breath, desperately digging for some of the lake’s calm for herself. She was going to stick this time. So what she needed to do was figure out what Josh wanted, and then get rid of him.

  Josh stared through his truck’s windshield, tapping his fingers on the steering wheel. Meg’s phone was still just a few feet away, according to his software. The gate was shut, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t hop the wall and walk down there. All he wanted was a chance to talk to her. To convince her he wasn’t the jerk she thought he was. Unfortunately that would require another lie, but it’d be the last lie he’d ever tell her.

  He wished he could tell her the truth about why he’d left. That he’d had to leave for their safety, not because he’d wanted to. Especially because they’d just found out Meg was pregnant. It had been the happiest day of his life. He looked forward to being part of a family, something he’d always longed for after growing up without parents. But then a week later he’d had to make up a new lie and leave Meg. He still hated himself and the FBI for that.

  They hadn’t found anything to make charges stick in the online gambling investigation against Meg’s father three years ago. Hopefully, for Meg’s sake, the FBI wouldn’t find any new ones. The truth would come out soon, but not until the agency finished tying up loose ends by reinvestigating some of the smaller players in the scheme.

  What would Meg’s reaction be when she found out he’d been investigating her and her father when they’d first met? And would it make a difference to her once he explained how he’d opted out of the case as soon as it had become clear she hadn’t had any clue about her father’s activities, so they could pursue a relationship? Hopefully she’d be able to understand that even though he lied about his identity for his job, he hadn’t lied about loving her.

  He’d turned in his badge yesterday and now he was ready to do whatever it took to get Meg and Haley back. But when all the facts were finally revealed, would Meg be able to get past the betrayal of being spied on and lied to?

  Josh studied the locked gate again, debating if he should wait some more or just jump the damn wall. Meg surely knew he was in town by now. What if she tried to run during the night? Now was the best time to make his move.

  He pulled himself up, swung his legs over the stucco wall, and landed softly on the other side. He’d stick to the trees on the side of the gravel drive.

  The cop had said his grandmother lived here. Would an older woman really shoot him? They were probably just trying to warn him off.

  He hoped.

  After a few feet, a break in the pine trees revealed a huge, stunning lake. The lowering sun sent long streaks across the water’s smooth surface, producing prisms of color. A few Jet Skis and a speedboat bobbed serenely alongside a long dock.

  Why hadn’t Meg ever mentioned how great her hometown was? Such a contrast to where he’d spent his childhood after he became an orphan at six. That damned boys’ ranch in New Mexico. To think he and Meg had been living only a few hours away from each other all that time when they were kids. It was probably a karma thing that his case had caused their paths to cross . . . if he could shake off the cynic he’d become and convince himself to believe in that kind of stuff.

  The FBI had recruited him out of college, promoting the organization as a pseudo-family of men and women all focused on doing good for the world. And it could be at times. It didn’t hurt that orphans made the best agents—no one to miss them if they didn’t come back from a mission.

  To live somewhere like Anderson Butte might have made all the crappy things he’d had to do for his job worth it if he’d been able to come home after an assignment to someplace as beautiful as this. And to someone as beautiful as Meg.

  What had made her leave? If he’d grown up here, he’d have put down deep roots. Never joined the FBI to move past his unfortunate childhood.

  Hopefully he’d be able to stay.

  As he moved closer to the lake, a house with a big wraparound porch and a short, yellow picket fence surrounding a garden came into view, but the glint of sunshine off mostly rusty metal made Josh change course. Megan’s car stood beside a shed not too far from a smaller building with its own little front porch.

  She was still driving that piece of junk? That would be the first thing he’d do. Buy them a safer car.

  Glancing around to be sure the coast was clear, he jogged behind the little house and cupped his hands against a window. There were couches, a couple of stuffed chairs, and a pile of brightly colored books scattered on the floor. A cell phone lay on the coffee table. But no Meg and Haley.

  Just as he pulled away to try the front door, a deafening explosion assaulted his eardrums. Hot, searing pain made him clutch the outside of his left arm. He spun around to find a tall, older woman pointing a rifle at him.

  “Get off my land. Now!”

  He hated getting shot, dammit. That made three times now.

  Lifting the hand on his wounded arm to show he didn’t have any weapons, he said, “I don’t mean you any harm. I was just looking for Megan.”

  “I’d say now you best be looking for a doctor to take care of that. Get!”

  The pain made him grit his teeth. “I just want to have a conversation with her.”

  “Do you have a learning difficulty of some sort?” The old woman raised the rifle higher. “Because I’d hate to shoot a disabled person. If so, tell me now or start running.”

  It was like being in the freakin’ Twilight Zone, but she looked pretty damned serious. He glanced at his wound. Blood trickled steadily down his arm. It was just a flesh wound, but he’d have to find a doctor. He probably couldn’t stitch it up himself.

  He backed up. “Okay, I’m leaving.”

  Just as he stepped off the porch, the sheriff’s car came barreling down the drive. The older man from the diner got out of the passenger side and called out, “Heard the gunshot and figured Ruthie’d done it again. I tried to warn you, Granger.”

  The sheriff appeared by his side and took Josh’s uninjured arm. Without a word, the cop herded Josh into the back of his police car.

  The old lady called out, “Might as well give up. We won’t let you take Haley!”

  Take Haley? Is that what they all thought he was here to do?

  As they drove up the hill, a set of blue eyes met his in the rearview mirror. “You ready to leave town now?”

  “No.” Josh closed his eyes, fighting against the pain. “And I’m not here to take Haley. I just need to talk to Megan.”

  “Suit yourself. We’re almost there.”

  Wherever “there” was. For all he knew, the sheriff would throw him in a ditch and let him bleed to death. “Is that woman senile or something? She could have killed me.”

  “Nope. She holds state shooting records. If she’d wanted you dead, you’d be dead. Under our trespassing laws she had every right to shoot you.”

  Yeah, he knew that. But
he hadn’t counted on a sharpshooting granny with a cane. Now he knew why Megan never talked about her wacky family.

  When they pulled up in front of a building with “Anderson Butte Clinic” on the glass doors, relief washed through him. He looked for a handle to open his car door, but there wouldn’t be one because he was in the backseat like a damned criminal. He was usually the one driving.

  When the door flew open, he swung his legs out and stood, hating that he was a little lightheaded. Only a few more feet and he’d be good.

  The sheriff took his uninjured arm again.

  “I don’t need your help.”

  The sheriff kept tugging. “Can’t have you running off before I charge you with stalking and trespassing.” He pulled Josh along and then opened the door to the clinic for him.

  The cop led him to an examining room and guided him to the table. Just as he got settled, the doctor joined them.

  “Hi, I’m Ben Anderson. Hear my grandmother shot you. Any allergies to medications?” The doctor sat on a stool and slid closer.

  “No.” Another Anderson? If he’d had the strength to run, he would have. He started to unbutton his shirt, but the doctor saved him the trouble and cut it off.

  After the doctor poked around a bit he said, “It’s just a flesh wound.” Then he lifted up a needle.

  “That an arsenic injection, Doc?”

  “Nah. If I’d wanted to kill you, I’d just leave the air bubbles in the syringe.” He nudged Josh onto his back and went to work. “We’ll have you fixed right up. Hurts like hell though, right?”

  “Yeah.” But hell might be better than Anderson Butte. “So how are you related to Megan?”

  “I’m her oldest brother. Deputy Dawg over there holding my wall up is her other brother. You’ve met our sister Casey at the hotel. This may sting a bit.”

  He hissed as the needle pierced his skin. “Any others of you I should watch out for?”

  “Our father,” the doctor and the cop said in unison.