“I’m so sorry, Ma. I never had a clue about any of this.”
“Well, good. You’re a guest. You’re not supposed to.” Ma wiped her eyes again. “Though why I’m breaking down and yapping your ear off is a mystery to me. I’m the one who should be sorry.”
“Please don’t apologize. I asked about Emily.”
“Well, though that baby’s up in Heaven, she still drives a lot of what’s going on around here. Just like she did when she was alive.” Ma chuckled softly.
“Decker’s dad really did a number on him, didn’t he?” Jess frowned as she ran through Decker and Kyla’s pathway over the past two weeks. Things were becoming more and more clear as Ma talked. “I can’t imagine what he went through.”
Ma shook her head again. “No, you can’t. I can’t, either, and believe me, I’ve done my damnedest to try since my husband died. But right at the time of his life when he should have been preparing his son to be a man, Decker’s father made him feel like a worthless, undependable piece of trash he could just ship off with a couple of twenty-dollar bills. And I’ll do my best to undo all that poison until the day I die, but it’s going to take a long time before that boy believes in himself again.”
“I know someone who believes in him.” The words slipped out of Jess’s mouth almost before they’d formed in her head. Oh, Kyla was going to kill her.
“I know you do, honey.” Ma looked up and smiled as she patted Jess’s hand. “And I fear she’s just as broken as him right now. I just wish this vacation had been better healing for her.”
“It was, Ma. I think it really was. Hayley and I were saying at the hospital that she hasn’t looked this … alive, I guess, not for a long time. She’s been walking around the city like a ghost of herself for months now. When she could finally walk. That was a long time coming.”
“I’ve seen the color come back into her cheeks.” Ma nodded as she got up and placed dish towels into a drawer. Then she stilled as she looked back out the window. “Aw, honey. I’ll be damned if those two aren’t head-over-heels for each other, but both of them are too burned and beat up to believe it.”
Jess smiled. “I think you’re right.”
Ma lifted one eyebrow. “So … maybe we could do something about it?”
“What do you have in mind?”
“I don’t know, but it looks like we’ve got about twenty-four hours to convince them that they’re perfect for each other.”
“That would be a feat, but I’m game. So where do we start?” Jess got up and paced to the window to see if Kyla might be up yet, maybe sitting on the porch. She didn’t see her, but she also didn’t see her rental car. Jess’s stomach squeezed. Hayley wouldn’t have gone anywhere without telling her. “Ma? Did someone move my car?”
Ma joined her at the window. “I just got back from town about half an hour ago. I don’t remember if it was sitting there or not.” She turned to Jess. “You don’t think—”
Jess was already at the door. “Oh, I do think.” Dammit. Kyla had left. She’d tricked Jess and Hayley into taking a walk, and then she’d packed up and left.
Jess wanted to kick herself for being so stupid. How could she have fallen for Kyla’s little I-need-a-nap routine? Kyla never slept on purpose. She pulled her phone from her pocket and dialed Kyla’s cell. It went straight to voice mail. “She either turned it off or she’s in a dead zone.”
Ma nodded slowly, grabbing the house phone. “Dead zone’s an hour south, just about. Okay, honey. Our mission just got shorter. After I make this call, you and me and Hayley are riding after Decker. It’s high time these two see each other the way they were meant to. If it takes a little motherly intervention, well, they’ll thank us for it later. You up for a good fast ride?”
“Absolutely.” Jess grinned. “But who are you calling?”
Ma raised her eyebrows, then winked. “I’m calling Roscoe.”
* * *
“Oh no. No, no, no, no. No cops this time.” Kyla glared at the rearview mirror, where a blue flashing light was gaining on her quickly. She half-expected to see Roscoe’s beat-up old truck, but instead it looked like a sleek sedan behind her. “Shit. This is why they call this color ticket-me red.” She put on her blinker and eased to the shoulder as the blue lights gained on her, but blew out a huge breath as the state cop went flying by.
“About time I catch a break,” she muttered to herself as she looked in the rearview mirror and pulled back out. At least this time, if it had been Roscoe, she’d know how to handle him. She flipped on the radio, but couldn’t seem to find any stations. She looked around and realized she was just south of where he’d pulled her over on the way into town. The dead zone again.
Two minutes later, she checked the speedometer and eased up quickly as she realized she’d hit eighty. These long, empty roads invited speed, and she certainly didn’t need the next cop to pull her over.
As if she’d summoned one with that very thought, her eye caught a flash in the mirror and she swore again. More blue lights, and this time she’d been speeding. Dammit. The blue lights were coming fast, and for a moment she wondered what might be going on ahead of her that had attracted two state troopers in a five-mile radius.
Once more, she pulled to the shoulder, but this time, the trooper didn’t cruise on by. This time, he pulled up right behind her bumper and jumped out of his truck. She sighed as she checked the rearview again. Double dammit. This time it was Roscoe.
He adopted a perfect trooper-pose against her door. “You been drinking, young lady?”
“Are you kidding, Roscoe? We’ve been through that one before.” She paused. “I mean, no, sir, I have not been drinking.”
“Kyla, don’t you go no, sir-ing me, woman. Get out of that car and come with me.”
“Roscoe, I’m not getting out of the car. I need to get to the airport.”
Roscoe laughed out loud. “Is that so?”
“Yes, that’s so.”
“Kyla, honey, ain’t no planes leaving that airport ’til tomorrow.”
“Not true, Roscoe. My flight’s scheduled for takeoff at two-fifteen.” She’d gotten the last seat on a flight to St. Louis. It wasn’t Boston, but it wasn’t here, either.
“Not anymore, it isn’t.”
Kyla sighed. “Roscoe, I’m really in a hurry, so I’m going to go now. You have a nice day, okay?”
Kyla put the car in gear and reached for the button to close the window, but Roscoe stuck his hand through and stared her down. “Kyla, there’s a tornado warning. You can’t drive any farther south.”
Chapter 30
“Tornado warning?” Kyla leaned her head out the window to check out the sky. It was clear blue. Not a cloud in sight. “Roscoe, it’s beautiful out.”
“You ever seen a tornado, Kyla?”
She shook her head. “No, I haven’t. I live in Boston.”
“Then you don’t know what the sky looks like just before one, do you?”
Kyla got a little nervous flutter in her tummy. Tornado? Seriously? No, she’d never seen one, but didn’t people talk about heavy air, greenish-yellow skies, low boiling clouds on tornado days? She’d never heard about tornadoes sprouting up on perfectly gorgeous blue-sky days. “Roscoe, are you serious?”
“Dead serious, honey. Now get your stuff and get in my truck.”
Ha. Right. No way was she riding with Roscoe. “And where would you take me?”
“Somewhere safe, Kyla. We can’t stay out here on the highway. We’re sitting ducks.” Roscoe looked around like he expected to spot a funnel cloud any second.
Kyla looked into his eyes, but they were as clear as could be. Dammit. He wasn’t lying. Right under bears, lightning, and a broken ankle, she was about to add tornado. Unbelievable. “Why can’t I follow you, Roscoe?”
He guffawed, pointing at the little red sports car. “You serious? You drive this anywhere near a tornado, you’re just gonna be a tiny red flag swirling around and around in the funnel.”
He came around the passenger side and opened the door for her, handing up her carry-on after she’d muscled herself into his seat. He slammed the door and hobbled around to the driver’s side to haul himself in. With a quick glance in the rearview mirror, he whipped the truck around and headed back north, light flashing on the dashboard.
“Roscoe, where are we going to go?” Kyla asked, holding on to the grab bar for dear life.
He smiled over at her, then glued his eyes to the road. “Somewhere safe, honey. Somewhere safe.”
Kyla looked at him out of the corner of her eye, afraid it was one of his bad days, but his eyes were as clear as could be and his hands were steady on the wheel. Twenty minutes later, the scenery was starting to look familiar again. “Roscoe, how far north are we going to go? The sky is still crystal clear.”
“We gotta get high enough up to where folks got basements, Kyla. Can’t wait out a tornado aboveground.”
“I had no idea you even had tornadoes out here. Aren’t there too many mountains?”
“Used to be.”
Kyla pondered that for a second. “Did you lose some?”
Roscoe sent her an eyebrows-raised look across the truck cab. “No, we didn’t lose some, young lady. Before global warming started making tracks north, we never got these damn twisters. But now that the ice caps are melting and the weather’s getting stranger every year, yep, we get ’em. Not often, mind you.”
“Have you, um, talked to anyone at the ranch? Do they know about the tornado warning?”
“Oh, yes. They most surely do.” Roscoe looked out the driver’s-side window, and if she didn’t know better, Kyla would have sworn he was trying to hide a smile.
“Something funny, Roscoe?”
He looked at her, surprised. “Funny? No, ma’am. Ain’t nothin’ funny about a twister.” He drilled his eyes back to the road.
Kyla looked out her window, wondering how chaotic things were at the ranch right now. She was sure Ma must have a basement under the main lodge. Was everyone running around, putting valuables down in the cellar just in case? Were Hayley and Jess worried? Suddenly a pain clenched her gut as she thought of Kismet.
“What do they do with the animals, Roscoe? What about the horses?”
“Not much to be done. Just take them to the safest spots possible.”
Kyla imagined Decker and Cole trying to get all of the horses out of the stable and out to safer ground, and then she had a horrifying image of something happening to Decker. Oh Lord. What if a twister really did touch down? What if he got hurt, or worse?
Forty-five minutes later, they rattled by the WELCOME TO CAREFREE sign, and Kyla sat up straighter. “Where are you bringing us, Roscoe? We’re all the way back to Carefree.”
“Yup.”
Roscoe rolled through town, which looked suspiciously normal and relaxed for a village about to be socked by a tornado. Kyla looked around, confused. “Roscoe, people don’t seem all that concerned. Looks like they’re just going about their business.”
Roscoe frowned. “Well, you know how folks are. ’Til they hear that damn siren, they can’t be bothered to take anything seriously.”
“Roscoe, don’t be mad at me for asking this question, but did you take your medicine this morning?”
“Yes, I took my damn medicine. Lucky for you, it’s one of my good days. If it wasn’t, you’d still be driving right for a damn tornado.” He drove through the downtown area and kept going north, toward the ranch.
“Are you taking me back to the ranch?” Her stomach clutched at the thought, but what could she say to him? He had no idea what her story was, or why she’d taken off this morning.
“Would it be a problem if I was?”
Kyla blew a breath out of her mouth. “Aren’t there any cellars anywhere else around here? Do we have to go back to the ranch?”
Roscoe looked sidelong at her again, then eased off the gas pedal. “I thought that’s where you’d want to go. Your friends are still there, Ma’s there, Decker’s there.”
Kyla couldn’t help a pitiful sound from escaping when he said Decker’s name. “Roscoe, I can’t go back there. Please, can you please just bring me somewhere else? Or tell them you couldn’t catch up with me? Or that I took off on you? Anything?”
Roscoe checked the rearview mirror, then steered into a pull-off on the right and shut off the truck. Kyla looked down at her hands, clenched in her lap. “I’m sorry, Roscoe. I must sound completely unhinged right now. But I really, really can’t go back there, and it’s too hard to explain why.”
“Try me.” Roscoe twisted his body to face hers.
“I don’t think I can explain it.”
Roscoe reached under his seat and pulled out a newspaper, laying it down between them. “Does it have anything to do with this?”
Chapter 31
Kyla closed her eyes with a sigh, then opened them to peer at the front page. Under the headline PONZI PRINCE SENTENCED TO 50 YEARS was a full-color shot taken at some NYC gala Wes had attended with Alexis a couple of years ago. Nestled into the corner of the shot was a picture of Kyla, looking every inch the scorned accomplice. Apparently Wes’s sentencing was front-page national news this morning.
Roscoe looked out the front window, thoughtful. “This why you left? Or is this why you came?”
Kyla looked up. There was no point lying to Roscoe. Or herself anymore, really. “Yes to both, I guess.”
“You’ve been to hell and back, kiddo.” He tapped his fingers on the wheel as he shook his head.
Kyla was surprised at his gentle tone. “I’d have to agree with you there. And I imagine this article is a high-gloss version.”
“Oh, I know the whole story.”
Kyla cocked her head. “What do you mean? How do you know the whole story?”
Roscoe shrugged. “Old habits die hard, I guess. That and I’ve got way too much time on my hands. After I pulled you over a couple weeks back, I got curious.”
“Why?” Had she given off a scent of fear?
He shrugged again. “Couldn’t put my finger on it. Still can’t. I just knew you had a story.”
“You thought I was drunk.”
“Nah. I knew you weren’t drunk.”
“Roscoe! Why did you put me through all of that nonsense if you knew I wasn’t drunk?”
“I was trying to get a read, so I had to keep you doing stuff ’til I could figure out why you were ringing my alarm bells.” He pointed to his head. “Cop sixth sense.”
Kyla had no idea what to say. She twisted her hands in her lap wondering just how much Roscoe knew about her past year. Afraid to ask, but needing to know, she took a deep breath. “So what did you find out about me?”
He looked at her for a long moment, tapping thoughtfully on the wheel. “Enough to be glad for you that you chose the most beautiful spot on earth to escape to. Carefree’s a pretty good place to get better, Kyla.”
“I know. I did, a little.”
“Decker might be a pretty good doctor, too.”
Kyla looked up from her twisting hands. She shook her head. “I don’t know about that.”
“I do. He’s a good man, Kyla. A really good man. And he’s coming around to believing that again.”
“I’m sorry. I am. I know you love him, and you have lots of reasons to do so. I’m just not convinced, myself. I’ve only known him for two weeks, so I guess I just don’t know.”
“Maybe you should stick around and find out.”
Kyla laughed hollowly. “That’s not really an option.”
“Why not?”
; “Well, for starters, I’ve got a ticket home in two hours. Second, and more important, because he’s engaged.”
“Engaged?!” Kyla gave him credit for looking genuinely mystified. If he was trying to cover for Decker, he was doing a good job.
“Roscoe, cut it out. Even the nurses at the hospital know about it. Don’t tell me the news has escaped your cop sixth sense. I don’t believe it.”
Roscoe peered into the rearview mirror, then twisted the key in the ignition. “You’ve got it all wrong, Kyla. The Decker I know would never have slept with you if his heart was elsewhere.” Kyla almost choked. How in the world did Roscoe know they’d spent the night together? “Oh, don’t go getting all flustered. I know how you young people operate.”
Kyla could feel the blush creeping up her cheeks as she looked out the window, hoping Roscoe couldn’t see her face. “Well, I hate to be the one to tell you that you might need some new sources, but Marcy showed me their wedding invitation.”
Roscoe pulled out onto the highway, accelerating smoothly toward the ranch as Kyla’s stomach fell. “Kyla, I’ve known Decker since he was a tadpole in the pond. I know that boy, and he’s one of the good ones. And I’ll tell you something else. I been delivering bread and donuts to that ranch every damn morning since June. And all summer long, there’ve been a fair number of ladies making eyes at Decker. Any one of them would have been more than happy to keep his bed warm at night. But you know what? I know for a fact that you are the only woman who’s ever gone creeping down that pathway at the crack of dawn.”
“You saw me?” Kyla gulped.
“I did.”
So Roscoe had seen her sneaking back to her cabin. So what? It meant nothing. Maybe she was the only one Decker’d ever slept with in the stable, but who was to say he hadn’t been taking women back to his cabin all summer long?
Accidental Cowgirl Page 24
