Sweet Home Montana

by Lisa Mondello

  “I’m a police officer,” Caleb said, flashing the badge he still held in his hand.

  The man scrutinized the badge and then Caleb’s face. “Good for you. That don’t explain what you’re doing in my kitchen or my office.”

  “A girl just ran through the kitchen, and then came back here. Do you know where I can find her?”

  “Crystal?” The man’s bushy eyebrows narrowed, and then he muttered what sounded like a curse under his breath. “Is she doing drugs or something? Because I can’t have any of that happening in my honky-tonk, dammit.”

  “I just need to talk to her.”

  “Crystal!” he hollered from his chair behind the desk. His voice boomed in the room. “Where is that girl?” he complained, as he finally lifted himself from his chair, making it squeak from his weight. He adjusted his pants and then hollered again. “You out there, Crystal?”

  “What, Jerome?”

  Caleb heard the woman’s voice from outside the hallway. A few seconds later, a woman appeared in the doorway.

  “I could hear you yelling all the way out in the parking lot,” the woman said. It was the woman he’d seen. Her hair was the same color as Julie’s, and she was about the same height and build. But it wasn’t his sister.

  Her eyes flashed with anger at Jerome and then turned and looked at him suspiciously.

  “What were you doing out there when you should have been out delivering food to the customer?” Jerome asked.

  “It was my break. I had a smoke.”

  “Are you in some sort of trouble?” Jerome asked. He glanced at Caleb, and then back at her. “You got a cop here asking about you.”

  The woman’s eyes widened with panic. “Hey, are you trying to get me fired? I don’t know who you are or who you’ve been talking to, but I didn’t do anything wrong to bring cops after me.”

  “It’s okay,” Caleb said, trying to fix his mess up before it escalated into something explosive. “It’s a mistake.”

  “A mistake?” Jerome asked, his eyes narrowing.

  “She looks like someone I have been looking for. I apologize.”

  She shook her head. “You should be surer of yourself before ruining someone’s reputation. I didn’t do anything, Jerome.”

  “Get back to work,” Jerome said, waving her off.

  Crystal scowled. “I’m going.”

  Caleb sighed. “I’m sorry for the confusion. I’d better get back to the bar. My food is probably done.”

  Jerome grunted. “I don’t like trouble in my honky-tonk. It makes the customers twitchy.”

  Caleb walked through the kitchen feeling like an idiot. He’d left Katie all alone on the dance floor. He’d just left her after he’d told her he’d wanted to dance and hold her in his arms. What kind of idiot does that?

  * * *

  It had been days since he’d talked with Katie. Ever since he’d run off on her while they’d been dancing—holding each other—he’d felt like a jerk, embarrassed by his reaction to seeing that girl. What kind of man let’s go of a beautiful woman like Katie Dobbs and runs after another woman? He’d spun all kinds of lines in his mind of what Katie probably said and thought about him for what he’d done.

  Medical bills had come in the mail, and while he knew his insurance would cover most everything, Katie had said she wanted to know about anything that hadn’t been covered. Plus, she wanted a running total of expenses for her insurance company. He took a quick photocopy of the bills on his home printer and then took the original paperwork to put in his file cabinet in his home office.

  He pulled the drawer where he kept medical records and information on life insurance that he needed to keep on file, and sifted through the files until he found a blank folder to put the medical bills in. That’s when he saw a folder marked Julie that he’d completely forgotten he had.

  He pulled it out and looked at it. He remembered creating the file when he’d been discharged from the army and helped his parents empty out their house for their move to New Mexico. He’d kept the paperwork and remembered only giving it a quick glance at the time. With the eye of a twenty-two-year-old.

  One envelope stuck out like a sore thumb. He pulled the paperwork from the file cabinet and looked at it more closely. At the time, he’d thought Julie had gone to see a doctor for a routine physical. Most colleges require students to have them before attending school. But the name on the envelope was one he’d come to recognize over the years as a police officer. Dr. Lawrence Cross was an OB/GYN. He delivered babies.

  The only reason why Caleb would know that is because he’d gone on a call where one of the women in town went into labor fast and Dr. Cross ended up delivering the baby in the parking lot of the medical center in town.

  His sister was young at the time, barely eighteen years old. There were lots of reasons why a girl of eighteen would go to an OB/GYN. Caleb certainly didn’t know everything about the female body, much as he was fond of it.

  But when he slipped the paperwork out of the envelope, he quickly learned that the procedure Julie had was a pregnancy test. It was positive. The date of the test was days before she’d left town.

  * * *

  Katie wasn’t at home, Caleb soon learned when he drove by the house and found Kas and Tabby alone. He swung by the bank to see if she’d decided to go back to work and use her vacation time later on when she cleared up the dispute over the chapel property. But when he didn’t find her at work, he knew where she’d be.

  His nerves already on edge and ready to explode, he drove out to the chapel on Lookout Ridge. Sure enough, Katie’s car was in the parking lot.

  Caleb swerved into the parking lot and slammed on his brakes, parking his truck right next to Katie’s sedan. The cease and desist order notice was still clearly visible on makeshift door. Katie was nowhere to be found outside.

  Dammit! Didn’t that woman have any regard for the law at all?

  Feeling like a locomotive as he climbed out of the truck and slammed the door, he walked to the plywood door he’d made with Katie and pushed it open. Despite the noise he’d made, he’d surprised her when he walked inside.

  She bolted upright from sweeping dirt into a dustpan and dropped the contents all over the floor again.

  “You’re going to need a shovel, not a dustpan to clean this place up.”

  Rubber barrels were placed throughout the chapel. Caleb could tell already that Katie had been here for hours as it looked much tidier than it had on the day the roof collapsed. He glanced up to the ceiling and saw plywood was now covering the big hole that had let all the snow in and weakened the beam. A brace had been put under two sections of the beam to help shore up the roof and prevent it from caving in again.

  The snow on the floor had been shoveled away or melted. He felt heat coming from somewhere, since the windows were open a few inches, he quickly decided there was most likely a propane heater somewhere tucked in a corner that he couldn’t see. The large beams that had hit him on the back and the head were no longer inside the chapel.

  When had she had time to get this done?

  “Katie, you’re making a habit of this, and I don’t like it. What part of cease and desist don’t you get?”

  Katie still looked startled by being found inside the building. Still, she propped her fists on her hip and lifted her chin. “I’m not letting that Hollywood guy keep me from getting this job done. The court date to lift the cease and desist order is in a few days. I wasn’t going to let another snowfall cause any more damage, so I called Ash and he and a few of his friends came down and took care of shoring up the roof. It’s only a patch. The whole roof needs to be replaced. But until that happens, at least I’ll be able to save these floors from being ruined.”

  “Do you think that rules don’t apply to you?”

  “You’re not one for following rules much yourself. I know for a fact the doctor said you weren’t supposed to drive yet. Don’t tell me you hitched a ride with someone. Because I won’t believ
e you.”

  “Believe what you want. I’m here. And so are you. And neither one of us are supposed to be because that sign to cease and desist is still on the door.”

  She waved him off. “That’s just a technicality. We’re working on that.”

  “Well, while you working on it, you can’t be working in here. You know that.”

  “You’re not working at all right now so you can’t arrest me.”

  “Someone else can. Someone who isn’t as nice as me.”

  “I’m not working, per se. I’m just cleaning up. I want to get rid of a lot of this debris. That way when I get out of court and the judge throws Mr. and Ex-Mrs. Callahan off my back, workers can get in here and we can hit the ground running.”

  “You still shouldn’t be here alone. You never know if that Hollywood lawyer or one of his lawyers will stop by to see if you’re complying.”

  “What are you doing here anyway? You’re supposed to be resting.”

  “I’m sick of resting. I’ve been looking for you.”

  “How long? What, you got dizzy when you were driving? You should have called me and I’d have come over.”

  “Yeah, about that.”

  He stopped himself short. What was he going to say to her? She’d come over every day until that night he’d bolted on her at the honky-tonk.

  “I’m sorry about the other night,” he finally said, fighting for words that were there but he had a hard time forming.

  “You were upset,” she said quietly. “You could have called to say you were sorry, even though there wasn’t a need.”

  “I wanted to see you.”

  “But you’re not—”

  “I’m not going to get woozy while I’m driving. I’m fine.”

  He wasn’t fine. He was a mess. But it had nothing to do with the bump on his head.

  She fluttered her fingers. “Woozy is not what I’m worried about. I’m worried about that big crash that happens when you get woozy while you’re driving and then you hit a big tree.”

  “Don’t worry. I’m not going to sue you.”

  She offered him a smile. “That’s a relief. My days are already filled with the Hollywood guy and his soon-to-be-ex right now. At least sit down so I know you’re not going to fall down and hurt yourself again.”

  He did as he was told, not because he felt dizzy at all. He was just tired. Tired of the way he felt deep in his heart a longing for something he didn’t have. Of wanting something, or someone who was ten feet away from him and yet, felt so far out of his reach.

  Katie continued to stare at him. “Are you okay? Do you want me to drive you home?”

  “I want some answers.”

  She frowned. “About what?”

  “You and Julie used to go riding together your last year of high school, right?”

  “Yeah. Lots of people did. There were a few of us who would go down to the Lone Creek Ranch after school. Sometimes on weekends. After a while, Julie and I just kind of went riding together.”

  He carefully chose his words. “Did you see Julie outside of riding?”

  She shrugged and then thought a minute. “A few times. We saw each other in class, but we mostly hung out at the ranch.”

  “Was she seeing anyone?”

  Katie blinked. “I…don’t know. She never mentioned anything.”

  “Never? You spent all that time together and didn’t talk?”

  Katie laughed. “You really want to hear about all the things that Julie and I talked about?”

  Did he? He was beginning to think he didn’t really know his sister very well, which was shocking since he’d always considered them close.

  “Yeah, I kinda do.”

  Her mouth dropped open and she stared as if she didn’t understand. Hell, he didn’t understand a lot of things. He mostly didn’t understand how his little sister could get pregnant at eighteen and then take off.

  “We talked about stuff that teenage girls talk about. You know, makeup, the boys we knew, and clothes, and boys, and more boys. Stuff like that. You know just teenage girl stuff.”

  “Did she ever tell you why she left?”

  Katie shook her head. “Those few months before she left, I was dating Bruce. He started working at the ranch. I didn’t see her because I was with him.”

  He nodded but it still didn’t make things clearer.

  “Who else was working at the ranch then?”

  “Levon,” she said with an air of sadness. Levon had died over the winter when a disgruntled ranch hand had been hell-bent on destroying Tabby and her horse, Tenterhook, over an ownership dispute. “Some of the other hands. And of course, Hunter.”

  “Hunter Williams?”

  Katie laughed as if it were an inside joke between her and Julie. Then she shrugged. “Yeah. I do remember Julie talking about him. A lot.”

  “What did she say?”

  Katie frowned again. “What is this all about?”

  “Just answer the question. What did she tell you about Hunter Williams?”

  “This is starting to sound like an interrogation.”

  He drew in a deep breath. “No, just a conversation between two friends.”

  “She talked about him. We both did. He’d started coming out to the ranch to shoe the horses. Julie and I used to say we needed to schedule our time for when he was there. We both thought he was, you know, good looking.”

  “You thought he was good looking?”

  She frowned. “You sound like you’re jealous.”

  Maybe he was. But he was still a little angry. Maybe even a little crazy after what he’d seen in that file.

  “Did they…ever go out on a date?”

  “I think she mentioned they’d gone out a few times, but I didn’t know any details.”

  “You rode together all the time and she didn’t give you any details?”

  “Caleb, you’re not making any sense. Just ask me what you want to know. If I know what it is, and if I know the answer, I’ll tell you.”

  “Did you know she was pregnant?”

  As Katie sat down next to him, her mouth dropped open. It was clear Katie hadn’t known anything by the look of shock on her face.

  “No. I knew she liked Hunter. But we never talked about that. And I never asked because I never had any reason to suspect.”

  “It’s funny you would offer that type of information when I didn’t ask you if you suspected.”

  “You’re trying to get at something and I figure you thought I had the answers. I don’t. I’m sorry.”

  “Me, too.”

  He got up from the pew and looked around the chapel, feeling as if he were in an episode of the Twilight Zone.

  “All this time we’ve spent together. You should have told me, Katie.”

  “Told you what? That Julie had a crush on a farrier in town?”

  “What else haven’t you told me? I need to know.”

  “I don’t know anything else. I mean it. I was so busy with Bruce and graduating and getting out of Sweet that I…I guess I wasn’t paying attention.”

  “Seems everyone was getting out of Sweet then. Well, I’m not. This is my home.”

  He started walking toward the chapel door as his head began to swim.

  “Caleb, I don’t know what else I can say that would help you.”

  He turned to look at her. “If you had known she was pregnant. Would you have told me?”

  She opened her mouth to speak, but he turned away from her. The emptiness he felt in the pit of his stomach was hard to bear.

  # # #

  Chapter Seven

  He needed his head examined. Not only did he leave the chapel after talking with Katie in a huff, but he also allowed his emotion to overrule logic. He drove over to Hunter Williams place and had confronted him. That confrontation had commenced with Caleb slugging the guy before uttering a single word.

  Aside from the fact that Caleb had arrested other men for brawling the way he’d done with Hunter, pol
ice hadn’t gotten involved. If they had, he probably would have been suspended. But even if they had gotten involved, Hunter told him he refused to press charges seeing as he probably deserved a good punch in the jaw from Julie’s brother.

  Hunter confirmed that he and Julie had been dating. No, he hadn’t seen or heard from her since she’d left town. And no, he hadn’t known she was pregnant. But if she had been, he was sure it was his baby.

  And Caleb believed him. By the dejected look on his face when he’d learned Julie was pregnant, it was clear he hadn’t known. He also had the look of a man who’d been in love and had lost. It only made it harder to understand why Julie would have left Montana.

  It only made Caleb feel like more of a heel when he’d driven back to his house alone and collapsed on the sofa in the dark and cried. Alone. He missed his sister. He was afraid for her. But he longed for Katie and the joy she’d brought to his life with her silly antics and stubborn determination. He knew just being with her would ease the sense of loneliness consuming him.

  That was days ago and the loneliness was still there. Caleb had treated Katie so badly that he found it hard to find words that would make an apology even remotely believable. It had been a week since he’d seen her, and still the look on her face when he’d left the chapel haunted him.

  He’d been approved to go back to work on desk duty, which he hated. But it was a far cry better than being alone in his house thinking. Before his shift, he drove out to her house, knowing she might still be upset with him for driving, especially after it had snowed the night before and the roads were slushy and slippery. When he got to her house, she was outside shoveling the walkway of her family home. She barely looked at him when he got out of the truck and walked over to her.

  “Let me do that for you,” Caleb said, reaching for the shovel in Katie’s hand.

  Katie pulled back. “I’m not an invalid,” she said, using the same words he’d used on her. She was angry with him. That much was certain. She couldn’t possibly be angrier with him than he was with himself.

  “I know you’re not an invalid. I know that you’re a very capable woman. But the way you’re shoveling this snow path, it’s like you’re out for revenge.”