Circle on Home (Lost in a Boom Town Book 5)

by MJ Fredrick

  She broke the kiss and eased back to look at him. “This is what I want right now,” she repeated, her eyes solemn. “What about you?”

  What he’d wanted for years. He stroked his hand down her back. “It’s been a while since I’ve been in a relationship. I don't know how good I’ll be.”

  She chuckled. “My last one was a disaster, so maybe we can figure it out together?”

  “I’m willing to try.” He stroked a finger across her cheek, and the smile that pulled at his mouth almost felt alien. When had he last been truly happy? And was that what this lightness in his chest meant?

  A knock on the outside door startled them both, and their hands fell away from each other, like teenagers who’d been caught. They exchanged a look and he motioned for her to stay put while he checked it out.

  “I’m sorry to bother you,” Trace McKenna said, a little winded when Noah opened the door. “But Noah, Ben got in a fight and the deputies broke it up. They’re arresting him for disorderly conduct.”

  Chapter Nine

  “How did you know I was here?” Noah asked, following Trace, his closest thing to a friend, down the stairs that felt a little more rickety now.

  “We could see y’all through the window.” Trace pointed up as they reached the sidewalk.

  Noah’s stomach dipped. Great. Now, even if they wanted to, he and Miranda couldn't deny what was going on between them. They’d made their relationship clear, in front of the whole town.

  “Who is he fighting with?”

  “Some cowboy I didn't know,” Trace said. “They were drinking at the Coyote and it went from a shouting match to a full-on brawl in a matter of minutes.” Trace grimaced. “There were some damages, and I’m sure Vonda is going to hold Ben accountable.”

  Noah blew out a breath. “So Ben started it.” He wasn't surprised, just disappointed. “I guess I should be glad it’s the Coyote and not the Sagebrush.”

  Trace let out a humorless laugh. “Sage would be pressing charges, that’s for sure. She doesn't want her place to have that reputation.”

  “Where’s Ben?” Noah asked as they crossed the street to the Coyote, pressing through the crowd drawn by the shouting and flashing lights of the deputy’s cruiser.

  But before Trace could answer, Noah saw his brother sitting in the back seat of the cruiser. He circumnavigated the vehicle and approached Deputy Wyatt Jordan.

  “Is my brother under arrest?”

  Wyatt, a young deputy, tucked his thumbs in his belt and set his feet apart, but still had to look up at Noah. “Public intoxication, disorderly conduct and property damage.”

  Noah winced. “What’s his bail?”

  “The judge has to decide that.”

  “So he has to go to jail?”

  “I’ll take him in to process him, but the judge won’t hear the bail until Monday, I’m thinking. Will do him good to have a sit and think. I’ve had to talk him down from more than one incident.”

  Yeah, Ben was getting really good at the self-destructive behavior, following their father’s footsteps. Couldn't he see that? Or did he think that since he didn't have a wife or kids that it didn't matter?

  “So you’re going to take him to County? Don't you want to save a few steps and just release him to my custody?”

  The young deputy shook his head sadly. “Noah, I hate to tell you this, but you can't control him, any more than you can control that father of yours. And the other guy went to the emergency room bleeding like a pig, maybe with a broken arm.”

  Noah grimaced and swore beneath his breath. “That idiot.”

  “Is Ben injured?”

  He turned at Miranda’s question, in a tone he’d never heard before. She wasn’t looking at him, but at Wyatt, and her expression matched her tone, cool and professional. Ah. He was looking at lawyer Miranda now. He’d never thought he’d see it in action.

  Wyatt was looking at her with some confusion as well. “I’m sorry?”

  “I’m asking if Ben was also injured in the fight. I know him well enough to know that he took a few hits himself. Did you ascertain that he’s uninjured before you cuffed him and put him in the back of your car?”

  “He’s bleeding some, but…”

  “Let Noah look at him. He’s not a doctor, but he’s trained enough to know if he needs to go to the doctor instead of jail.”

  Wyatt squared his shoulders as if he was going to argue, but then gritted his teeth and opened the back door of the cruiser, motioning for Noah to inspect his brother.

  Ben sat silently in the car, facing forward, leaning a bit because his hands were cuffed behind him, when Noah crawled beside him, and the smell of beer filled the small space. Jesus. Was this kid never going to grow up?

  “How bad are you hurt?”

  “You should see the other guy,” Ben muttered without looking at him.

  “I heard about the other guy. I’m asking about you. If you’re hurt, we can delay you going to jail.”

  “I’m not hurt,” Ben muttered.

  “Let me at least have a look at you.” He gripped his brother’s chin and turn his head toward him, saw what was going to be a crazy black eye blooming on the left side of his face.

  “Can you take off his cuffs?” Miranda was asking in the same clipped voice. “For a more thorough exam?”

  “Are you kidding me?” Wyatt’s voice rose. “You know how hard it was to get him into those cuffs? He gave me a hell of a time. He’s lucky we’re not adding resisting arrest to the list of charges. He’s pretty drunk.”

  “Just the same, I’d like to be sure before he spends the rest of the weekend in jail.”

  Wyatt turn to the car and motioned Noah out, then he reached in and grabbed Ben, pulling him out. Noah turned away, having seen Sheriff Trevino do the same thing to their father years ago. Ben stood sullenly while Wyatt uncuffed him, but Noah stood at the ready, not willing to allow his brother to deck a cop on top of everything else.

  But though Ben tensed, he didn't move, his hands falling to his sides. Noah did a cursory exam, checking arms, ribs, collarbones. Yeah, his brother had taken some shots, but nothing that would send him to the doctor. Even the cut above his eyebrow was already scabbing over.

  He looked over Ben’s shoulder at Miranda, who was waiting for him to declare his brother needed to go to the hospital. He straightened and took a step back from him brother.

  “He’s all right.”

  Ben snapped his head up, and behind him, Miranda’s mouth dropped.

  “We’ll meet with the judge on Monday and bail him out then.”

  Wyatt hesitated, looked at Miranda as if for verification. When she said nothing, he shrugged and cuffed Ben again, then tucked him back into the police car.

  “What are you doing?” Miranda asked.

  Noah set his jaw, unwilling to accept her interference. “It won’t hurt him to stay in jail for a couple of nights. He needs to face the consequences. Dad never did, until it was too late.”

  “So you’re teaching him a lesson. He won’t thank you for it.”

  “I know that.” All too well. He watched the car drive off, his brother inside, and set his feet apart. “I’m sorry this ruined your evening.”

  She gave him a look he didn't understand, but before she could say anything, he said, “I need to go find Selena and get her home. Good night.”

  Her shoulders slumped as he turned away to go find his sister.

  *****

  When Jolie came in that night, Riley and Miranda were drinking wine at the kitchen table. Jolie looked from one to the other and sat down across from Miranda.

  “What did I miss?”

  “Noah kissed her, Ben got in a fight and got arrested, and Noah took off when Miranda was trying to help.”

  “Oh, that was the fight?” Jolie got up to retrieve a glass for herself, then sat back down and poured in almost the same motion. “I treated that guy.”

  Miranda set her wine glass hard enough to make Riley wince.
“Oh, God. Don't tell me. Or do. Was it really bad?”

  “He was pretty bloody. Turns out he smashed into a broken bottle when he fell and he cut up his arm and cheek pretty good. And he broke his arm here.” She tapped her upper arm. “It’s been broken before, since he was a rodeo cowboy, but he’s not going to be able to work for a while. It’s just bad all around. How is Ben?”

  “Not too bad, though I tried to get the deputy to take him to the ER instead of jail, and I think he would have gone along, but Noah decided that Ben deserved the night in jail.”

  “That’s harsh, from a brother.”

  “I thought so, too.” Miranda sighed and splashed a bit more wine in her glass. “He’s so protective of Selena, but not of Ben. I guess he thinks Ben should be able to care care of himself.”

  “Or maybe that Ben has got himself into enough binds that Noah has washed his hands of it.”

  “Maybe.” Miranda thought maybe it had more to do with their father, but she didn't say. Mostly she was hurt by the way he’d turned away from her after the deputy had driven off with Ben, after the kiss in her office, the decision they’d made to try to have a relationship. Then he’d given her the cold shoulder at the first bump they encountered?

  She pushed her half-full glass toward Jolie. “Finish this. I have some work to do, and I need to be up early in the morning.”

  She had a plan.

  *****

  Noah was coming in from the barn when he saw the compact car bouncing up the road to the house, dust swirling behind it. He frowned, wondering who would come out here on a Sunday, saw two people in the car and one of them was a woman.

  Miranda.

  Ah, hell. And the other person in the car was Ben.

  She pulled in front of the house and opened her car door before Ben did. Noah was aware of his father and sister stepping out onto the front porch to see what was going on. Noah had told his father what had happened last night, and the old man had accepted it with a solemn nod, but no words. Now Ben sat in Miranda’s car while Miranda stood beside it, dressed in a business suit that might be run-of-the-mill in New York, but looked starkly out of place in front of his run-down house.

  She didn't belong here. He wasn't sure that was the message she meant to send, but that was the one he received, loud and clear.

  She pushed her hair, blown into her face by the unrelenting breeze, behind her ear and smiled at him.

  “I met with the judge this morning after church and he agreed to let Ben out, on your recognizance, if he promised to show up in court tomorrow for his hearing.”

  “Miranda, seriously, what the hell?” Noah stepped toward the car, and stopped when Ben finally got the balls to open the car door and get out. “Everything was fine.”

  She cocked her hip. “You were seriously going to let your brother sit in jail another night when he didn't have to?”

  “Another night wouldn't have hurt, and he could have used the time to think about the consequences of his actions.” He addressed the last to his brother before turning back to Miranda, who was looking at him as if he was a stranger.

  “You can’t mean that.”

  “Miranda, he sent a man to the hospital. We don't even know why.”

  “Why don't you ask him?” Miranda asked softly, and he suspected she knew, but he was in no mood to indulge her.

  “I wish you hadn't butted in, had let me handle it. I’ve been handling it for the past twelve years.”

  She was standing on the gravel driveway, trying not to let the heels of her no-doubt-expensive shoes sink, in front of a house he’d be ashamed to let her into, her expression crestfallen. His first instinct was to wrap his arms around her, ask for her forgiveness for his brusque words. But everything he’d thought last night, that she was home, that they might have something between them, vanished at the sight of her in front of his dysfunctional home.

  He wished he wasn't so angry. He understood that she was trying to help, and she stood there, so beautiful, and all he could think about was how she'd tasted last night, and how he'd hoped maybe she could be the bright spot in his life. But seeing her here, in the yard filled with junk and his felon of a father and his idiot of a brother and his sister who would always need him...it wasn't fair to her to bring her into this mess of his life. It was selfish of him to even want to.

  "Look, thank you for what you did, but no one asked you to do it."

  She squared her shoulders. "I know no one asked me to do it. I took the initiative. That's what I do. And I'll be by Ben's side tomorrow when he has to face the judge.” She turned her gaze to his brother, and her expression softened. “Do you want me to pick you up?”

  “I’ll have him there,” Noah said brusquely.

  She opened her mouth to say something else, but instead she opened her car door, and rested her hand on the top of it. She looked at him, and the defensiveness returned. Damn, he'd hurt her, and he hadn’t wanted to. But maybe it was best, put that wall back up between them, where it should have been all along.

  “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  “Thanks, Miranda. I appreciate your help,” Ben said the words Noah should have said but didn’t.

  She gave him a smile and slipped into her car. Noah watched her as she drove off.

  Then he followed Ben into the house.

  “You could have been nicer,” Ben said.

  “You want to tell me what happened last night?”

  “Got drunk, got mad, got in a fight.”

  Of course his brother would be defensive. Noah gritted his teeth. “Damn it, I know what you did. What I want to know is why. Who was that guy, and why did you break his arm?”

  “He was a cowboy, and he just kept making these comments as we were playing pool, and making these innuendos, and I finally had enough and smashed my fist into his face. It was what he wanted, see, and he tore into me just as much as I tore into him.”

  “Making innuendos? What are you talking about? About you?”

  Ben set his jaw and looked away. “No, I was playing with some other people.”

  “Who? Who were you playing with?” Noah got the feeling he wasn't getting the whole story.

  “Someone, all right? Don't worry about it.”

  “You might call some of those people to be witnesses to the fight.”

  “I’d rather keep her out of it.”

  Her. Of course a woman was involved. His brother was a handsome man. The ladies liked him, and he liked them—for a day or two. “Who? Why do you want to keep her out of it? Is she married? Christ, Ben, are you screwing around with a married woman?”

  His brother turned on him with a snarl.

  “Jesus, you too? I guess I shouldn't be surprised.”

  Noah rubbed his hands down his face and blew out a breath. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I just want to know what's going on, and I don't want to be blindsided by whatever else is going on.”

  Ben blew out a long breath. “It’s Allison.”

  Holy hell. Of course it was. “Miranda’s sister? Does Miranda know?” Was that why she was helping? Protecting her sister the way he protected his? “What were you doing with her? Jesus, Ben.”

  “I told you. We were just having fun. And I want to keep her out of this, if I can.”

  “I bet. Jesus, Ben, you’re going to rain all kinds of hell down on yourself. Because you were playing with her in a public bar and someone saw you together. Is she the reason you got in a fight? Showing off for her?”

  “He said something about her.”

  Ah, Christ. And how could he get mad at his brother for defending the honor of a woman? “We’ll do what we can to keep her out of it.” As for Miranda’s reaction, well, hell.

  Ben relaxed, slightly. “Thank you.”

  Noah nodded and turned away. He had work to do in the barn, and would think better as he worked.

  “It was nice of Miranda to come down. She brought the judge with her. He said he didn't usually come in for drunks but he came in beca
use she asked. It was nice of her to ask.”

  Noah thought Ben would be more upset that Noah had left him to dry out in the jail cell, and maybe he was. Maybe he would be. But right now they were allies.

  And right now he needed to apologize to Miranda.

  *****

  Miranda slammed her purse down on the bottom step and cursed the lack of furniture in the house that allowed for a satisfactory tossing of her purse and keys.

  “Of all the ungrateful…” she muttered, stomping up the stairs.

  Belatedly, she remembered that Jolie was probably still sleeping after her late shift, and she reached down to slip her shoes off. Probably too late, but she stopped herself from slamming her door in frustration too.

  She had gotten dressed up, gone to church and encountered Judge Olivares after the service. She’d told him about Ben and watched his frown deepen. Even thought she knew she was going to have to face this man across the bench in the coming months and years, she’d pursued the conversation, until he agreed to meet her at the sheriff’s office and release Ben on the condition he return for a hearing in the morning.

  She was putting a lot of faith in Ben. But she had enough in Noah to make sure he got there.

  Boy, she was putting a lot on the line. And did Noah appreciate it? She’d thought he was going to throw her off his land.

  She changed out of the suit she probably would never wear again, too formal for Evansville, and into jeans and a t-shirt. Maybe she’d go to the office and see what she could get done. But what she could actually do until her books came in….

  The knock on the door reverberated through the house, scaring the bejeezus out of her. It was a firm, commanding knock, and she had no idea who would be stopping by on a Sunday afternoon.

  Crap, and Jolie was sleeping and Riley wasn't here. She hurried down the stairs—minding her steps so she wouldn't make too much noise on the stairs, and opened the door just as the knocks started again.

  Noah stood on her porch, hand raised to knock again. His jaw tensed when he looked down at her.