Sweet Home Montana

by Lisa Mondello

  “I thought you had to work?”

  He shrugged. “I wasn’t sure how long this was going to take so I switched to a later shift.”

  “You’re not afraid of talk?”

  He frowned. “This is home, Katie. Everybody talks. Everybody. Even when there isn’t anything to talk about.”

  She giggled. Yes, she actually giggled as if she were fourteen. She didn’t know whether to be annoyed with herself or question her sanity further. But when she looked up at Caleb’s expression, she didn’t see teasing or mocking or anything like she did to herself. He was just waiting for an answer to his invitation.

  “I’d love to.”

  * * *

  “This is a far cry from arresting me,” she said, sitting in a booth across from Caleb in the local diner on Main Street.

  “The day’s not over yet,” he said with a teasing grin that warmed her insides like melted butter.

  They ordered their meals. She ordered a salad and a bowl of stew and he had a steak and potatoes. When the server delivered her salad, she smiled.

  “What’s that for?” he asked, taking a sip of his coffee.

  “When I was living in California they served everything with avocado on it. And I mean everything. It took me a long time to get used to it. I’m not sure I ever became a fan though. A salad without avocado is a nice change.”

  “I didn’t know you lived in California,” he said. “When was that?”

  “When Bruce was going to school. We had a deal. I’d work full-time and he’d work part-time while he finished school. Then he would work full-time and I would work part-time while I went to design school.”

  “Ah, the picture is coming into view.”

  She stabbed a cherry tomato with her fork as her stomach turned. She didn’t often talk about her life with Bruce. It was too humiliating to think about.

  “What picture?”

  “The reason you want to renovate the chapel. You have a passion for design.”

  She smiled. “I guess.”

  “So what did you focus on in school?”

  She fiddled with her fork. “Nothing. I never went.”

  “No?”

  She shook her head as her cheeks flamed. And then she remembered what Caleb had said earlier. Fear was just a state of mind.

  “It took Bruce a long time to finish. It was expensive living in California, paying for living expenses and tuition.”

  “You put Bruce through school.”

  “Yeah. He didn’t have much growing up. He’d worked as a ranch hand at different ranches before I met him. I met him when I was riding down at the Lone Creek Ranch.”

  “With Julie.”

  She nodded. Caleb smiled when he said his sister’s name, but it was melancholy just the same.

  “Bruce worked there for a while. He had these dreams and I bought into them. He wanted to do something big with his life and get out of ranching. To me, California seemed so grand and wonderful.”

  “Was it?”

  She sputtered but continued to play with a pepper in her salad. “It wasn’t anything special where we were. We couldn’t afford to live anywhere grand and it was a college town. It was mostly kids who were there for school and most of the businesses catered to visiting parents and such. It was quiet. A lot like Sweet.”

  “And then…what happened?”

  “You mean the divorce?”

  He shrugged. “You don’t have to talk about it.”

  “He used me and then left, taking all the money that I’d saved for design school with him. It’s no big deal. Well, it was a big deal. It was a rotten thing he did. It’s just something I’m trying to move on from.”

  “And you think buying a chapel with a ton of acreage around it is moving on?”

  “How did you know the property had a lot of acreage? I didn’t even know that until I went searching for the deed.”

  “I did some checking myself.”

  “Oh.” She drenched a piece of lettuce with some salad dressing and then popped it into her mouth. The server placed Caleb’s meal in front of him and her stew in front of her.

  “So tell me the plan?”

  Katie was glad the subject moved on from her failed marriage to Bruce to what was current in her life.

  “The plan is to turn the chapel into a home and then sell the whole thing. Once it’s sold, I’ll have money to leave and start my life again.”

  “Go to design school?”

  “Yeah. Or something else. I’m not sure. I mean, I know I could do that now. I didn’t have to buy the chapel. Lord knows Kas offered to pay for my schooling enough times. But that’s not the same thing as me doing it myself.”

  “I see.”

  “Do you?”

  “I think so,” Caleb said.

  She proceeded to talk his ear off while they ate their lunch, telling him about where she planned to put the kitchen and how she hoped the plumbing wouldn’t be too cumbersome and intrusive on the design. It didn’t surprise her he was finished with his meal before she’d even started on her stew, which was now cold. But she was having too much fun with Caleb as her audience while she let her mind run wild with her ideas.

  “So what do you think? You haven’t said much,” she finally said.

  “I was hungry.”

  She picked up her napkin, crumpled it in a ball and threw it at him. “Stop that.”

  He grabbed the napkin, and put it aside. “I think…it’s an amazing idea.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes, really. Who’s your builder?”

  Katie’s shoulders sagged. “I haven’t gotten that far yet.”

  And then he laughed so hard that people in the diner turned to look at them.

  * * *

  The snow they’d feared would do some damage had turned out to be a monster. Over the weekend, they’d had a storm that had not only leaked inside the chapel, but it had turned the small hole in the roof into a wide hole giving them a clear view of the now blue sky above. It was as if God decided there needed to be a skylight in the chapel and ordered the snow to make one.

  “How many contractors do you have coming out to look at the place today?” Caleb asked, keeping his eye on the hole in the cathedral ceiling.

  “Just the one. Tomorrow I have a plumber coming to give me an estimate.”

  “What about the roofer?”

  “He can’t get out for another week,” Katie said, looking at her notepad with all the names, and numbers on it.

  “We need to get someone up there to secure that beam. The snowfall we had over the weekend really did a job in weakening the roof. I’m surprised it hasn’t caved in completely.”

  “Maybe we shouldn’t be in here at all,” Katie said, studying the gaping hole in the roof.

  Caleb looked at the blue sky and thought of how odd it was to be standing inside the chapel and seeing such color. Colors that were not a result of the beautiful stained glass windows.

  “I think you’re right. Those beams need to be fixed to give the rest of the roof some structural support until we can have somebody out here to assess the full damage. In the meantime, we can tape off the area below so no one walks beneath it.”

  He glanced at Katie and saw her biting her bottom lip as she looked at the floor.

  “What about saving these floors. The wood is so beautiful. I’d hoped to be able to save most of them. But if that roof continues to collapse before we have a chance to do anything, then the floors are gone.”

  “It can’t be helped. It’s lasted this long in disrepair. It’ll have to hang on for a few more weeks.”

  She looked around as if she were assessing the full scope of what she just said. But not before he saw the tears welling in her eyes, tears he knew were not because of the cold temperature outside.

  He sighed and tried to keep it to himself. Katie was already upset. What initially looked like an easy fix had now grown into something mammoth. That meant more money. Money she had already allotte
d for other things in this project. It would now have to be used to fix the roof.

  “This was a mistake,” she said quietly. “What was I thinking when I thought that I could take on a project like this. And alone.”

  “Hey, you have somebody here with you. At least, I thought I was helping.”

  Her shoulders sagged, but it was clear that it wasn’t what he’d said that gave her the defeated stand. “You’ve been a huge help. I know I wouldn’t have even gotten this far if you hadn’t been here to give me advice and some muscle.”

  He grinned and flexed his biceps. “You like my muscle, huh?”

  She tilted an eyebrow and glared at him, and then she laughed as he had hoped she would.

  “I have a friend at the station who just had his roof repaired. If the guy you called can’t get out until next week, maybe his roofer will be able to get out here sooner.”

  “It’s worth a try.”

  “I can give him a call to get the roofer’s number. And you might want to talk to Ash. He might have a few recommendations being that he’s working with construction people all day at the lumberyard.”

  Katie nodded. “I suppose I should hold off on ordering any more supplies. If this roof goes, then anything we bring in here will all get ruined, too.”

  “I suggest you get a dumpster first and maybe a trailer to hold supplies until you can bring them inside. Let’s head out. I’ll just make sure this area below the hole is taped off with caution tape before we go. I don’t want anyone coming in here thinking they can look around and then get hurt.”

  She nodded again. Then she walked away with her head hung low. It pained him to see the defeat in her after so much enthusiasm.

  Caleb couldn’t deny that he’d had plenty of reservations about Katie Dobbs taking on this project. Lots of women worked on construction. That wasn’t the issue at all. But Katie had no experience in it even though Caleb knew her brother had made a fortune investing in real estate. But Kasper was in New York City and that meant things fell on Katie’s shoulders until Kas came to visit.

  Caleb heard the sound of boards being dropped on to a pallet outside and he smiled. That was Katie. She’d been defeated for the moment, but she wasn’t going to leave her property looking like a war zone with boards and materials thrown about the property.

  She had heart and she had vision. He could see it now even though he questioned it plenty going back to that first night he found her sitting in the chapel alone.

  One of the windows that had broken was big enough and low enough to the ground for someone to crawl inside. So Caleb picked up a leftover piece of plywood and brought it over to the window. He had just a few nails in his pocket to bang the board in and prevent someone from crawling through the window and injuring themselves. It wouldn’t hold up to any major kicking if anyone really wanted to get in. But the few nails he’d used would hold them back and possibly change their mind.

  For a split second he questioned nailing into the window molding. But there was some dry rot there, so the wood would need to be replaced anyway. Once he was satisfied the board was secure, he took a few steps back and glanced around the room to see if there were any other new openings someone might be able to climb in through.

  A few clumps of snow hit him on the head and he glanced up to see where it was coming from. He realized he was standing directly beneath the hole in the roof. He hadn’t had a chance to go out to the truck to get the caution tape so he hadn’t realized where he was standing. Before he could move, a large chunk of snow slid off the dangling beam and came down upon him. He quickly dropped the hammer and shielded his head with his arms from the onslaught of the heavy, wet snow. The cold seeped through his sweatshirt and chilled his skin.

  He was just about to move toward the door when he heard a snap. Glancing up quickly, he saw the beam that had been hanging precariously above him let loose and was now falling. He bolted toward the door but only got a few feet before something hit him in the back of the head and forced him to the ground. He didn’t know how long he’d been out, but as he blinked he turned to the doorway and saw Katie standing there. Her mouth was agape and her hands flew to her face in horror as she saw him on the ground.

  “Stay there,” he forced himself to say. “Katie, don’t come in...” His head became fuzzy and he felt a sharp pain on his head. And then in his world went black.

  # # #

  Chapter Four

  Katie heard the crack in the beam from outside the chapel. She dropped the wood she’d been carrying to the pallet and raced to the side door that she and Caleb had just built. There she watched in horror as the large beam from the roof fell down with a cascade of snow right on top of Caleb. Caleb collapsed beneath weight of the snow and broken beam, and lay on the cold floor on his stomach, buried beneath the debris.

  “Caleb!” she screamed.

  He’d tried to warn her to stay back, and she knew it was dangerous. More of the cathedral ceiling could collapse. But she couldn’t help it. She needed to get to him.

  Caleb had been knocked out and then regained consciousness for only a few seconds before his eyes drifted closed again. His lifeless body was spread out on the floor like a rag doll.

  With her heart in her throat and her body trembling from what she just witnessed, Katie reached into her pocket and pulled out her cell phone. Cellular service was always spotty in this part of town. She dialed the number for the local police as quickly as her trembling hands could manage and then put the phone to her ear waiting for someone to connect. Harper Madison answered on the fifth ring.

  “Dispatch. What is your emergency?” Harper asked in her professional voice.

  “Oh, thank God you answered! Caleb is down. Caleb is hurt.”

  She gulped back a sob as she spoke and gingerly made her way over to where Caleb was laying on the ground. Every so often, Katie lifted her eyes to the gaping hole in the ceiling to make sure nothing else would fall down on them.

  “Ma’am, you need to calm down. Where are you located?” Harper asked.

  “Harper, it’s me. Katie Dobbs. Caleb and I are at the old chapel out on Lookout Ridge. The roof just caved in on top of Caleb. He’s unconscious!”

  “Caleb’s hurt? How bad?” Harper asked, staying professional but now with worry since she had clear understanding of whom Katie was talking about.

  “I don’t know,” Katie said with a sob that made its way up her chest and lodged in her throat. She forced a big gulp of air into her lungs and continued, “One of the beams from the cathedral ceiling fell on him. He has blood on his head.” She examined what she could see without moving Caleb in any way. She pushed the snow away from his face and back. “Yes, his head is bleeding and it looks like there’s blood on his shoulder.”

  “Don’t move him, Katie,” Harper said.

  She touched her fingers to the wet spot that was growing underneath his hat. She lifted the knitted fabric just a little, saw the gash in the back of his head, and wanted to cry. But that would do no good for Caleb. He needed her now.

  “He has a gash on his head. He’s unconscious. You have to hurry. Please hurry.”

  Katie heard Harper say a few codes that sounded like they were coming from the distance. Most likely she was calling for help through another channel.

  “Harper? He needs an ambulance. Please call for an ambulance.”

  “I’ve made that call, Katie. Can you tell me if he’s breathing?”

  She felt cold right down to her bones as blood drained from her body. My God, what would she do if he weren’t breathing? She didn’t know CPR. She could make things worse!

  “Lean over his body and just check to see if he’s breathing,” Harper said evenly. “If you can stick a finger against his neck, you should be able to feel for a pulse.”

  Katie pulled of her gloves and tossed them aside. Leaning forward in the snow, she lowered her head so she could look directly at Caleb’s face. His skin was ashen and his lips were a light tinge of blue. Tha
t handsome face that had been so friendly to her, especially now, looked lifeless. “Hang on, Caleb,” she whispered as she touched his cheek.

  “Is he breathing, Katie?” Harper asked with more force and urgency.

  “Yes.” Katie put her fingers in front of Caleb’s mouth and felt just a little warm air escape his lips. Then she placed her index and middle finger against his neck and held her breath until she felt his pulse jump beneath her fingers.

  “He has a pulse,” Katie said as relief bubbled up her throat and made her want to weep.

  There was snow everywhere. Caleb was buried in it. The beam lay across his back so she tucked her cell phone in her shirt pocket and got to her feet. And lifted the beam off his body carefully and then slowly pushed it aside. Her worry over the beautiful floorboards being destroyed was gone. She didn’t care. Floors could be mended or replaced. But Caleb…

  “Katie, are you still there?” Harper asked firmly, but from a distance that sounded muffled.

  Had Harper been talking to her? Katie didn’t know. She was so busy trying to free all the snow and debris from Caleb so that he could breathe that she had forgotten she’d tucked it in the front pocket of her shirt.

  She grabbed the phone and placed it to her ear. “I’m here.”

  With her other hand, she brushed more snow way from Caleb and checked the back of his sweatshirt for tears in case a piece of wood had broken off and somehow stabbed him.

  “The ambulance is on its way. Are you in danger?”

  “What?”

  “You said the roof collapsed. Are you standing in a place that is dangerous? Can you tell me if the roof will collapse more?”

  Katie looked up and saw blue sky that seemed so surreal in the face of what was happening.

  “I…think it’s safe enough. A beam had come undone from the rafters from all that heavy snow from the weekend’s storm. Everything else looks okay but I can’t be sure.”

  Harper was talking to someone and it sounded in a distance as if she was muffling the phone. When she came back on the line, she said, “I want you to get out of the chapel, Katie. Wait for the ambulance outside.”

  Katie shook her head. “I can’t leave Caleb. I won’t.”