Cowboy Tough

by Stacy Finz

  * * * *

  Charlotte was fitting her slipcover when the call came. She climbed over the couch and grabbed her cell off the window ledge. She’d given the barn a good cleaning and the place had proven to be a great workshop. Jace had hooked up a light for her. In the daytime, with the sun beaming in, it wasn’t too cold.

  She quickly scanned the number that flashed, assuming it was Meredith. But it was a local area code, the same one as Jace’s.

  “Hello?”

  “Ms. Rogers? This is Leslie from Dry Creek High School. We can’t reach Sheriff Dalton and Travis needs to be picked up.”

  Charlotte glanced at her watch, fearful that she’d somehow gotten lost in her work and had missed pickup time. But it was still early, only one. “Is he okay?” She grabbed her scarf and started back to the house at a jog.

  “He’s fine, but he’s been suspended for two days for fighting. He said to call you.”

  “Fighting?” That didn’t sound like Travis. He could have a smart mouth at times, especially when his father wasn’t around, and he liked to challenge her. But he struck her as a fairly gentle boy.

  “Yes, ma’am. Can you come or should I keep trying the sheriff?”

  “I’m on my way.”

  On the drive to town, she contemplated whether to call Jace’s assistant. He’d given her the number, saying Annabeth could always find him in an emergency on the police scanner. But Charlotte wasn’t sure Travis’s suspension rose to the level of emergency. Jace was used to the boys and their mischief, after all.

  The high school was on the outskirts of town, near the fire department and a park where a lot of the kids hung out after school. She pulled into the visitor parking lot and went in search of the office. It was her first time inside the building. The smell—a combination of cleaning solution and floor polish—brought her back to her own high school in Portland. Though Dry Creek High was a fraction of the size, the walls, covered in student artwork, still looked the same.

  The office was down a long corridor and Charlotte heard her boot heels clicking on the terrazzo floor. Travis sat on a bench right outside the principal’s door, his face glued to something on his phone. Charlotte sat beside him.

  “You have to check in with Hagatha before we can go,” he said without looking up.

  “Okay.” She went inside the office, looking for whoever this Hagatha was and was about to ask the woman at the front desk when Charlotte saw the principal’s name plate. Agatha Roletti.

  Hagatha. She shook her head.

  She introduced herself to the receptionist and signed a form to take Travis home. He was still playing on his phone in the hallway.

  “Time to go,” she said and nudged his arm.

  He got into her CR-V without saying a word.

  “What happened, Travis?” she asked, stealing a glance at him. He was being unusually quiet.

  He shrugged. “My dad’s gonna be pissed.”

  “Probably.” No sense lying. She started the engine and nosed out of the parking lot. “What was the fight about?”

  “Ruben was being a jerk, so I decked him.”

  “Ruben, the boy we gave a ride to school the other day?” The one who was antagonizing Grady?

  “Yeah, he’s a dick.” He slid her a look. “Sorry.”

  She hid a smile. Jace had raised his boys to have good manners. “How did he go from friend to dick?”

  He looked at her again, trying to contain his surprise. See, she could say it too.

  “He picks on people. Lately, it’s been this girl who everyone kind of makes fun of. She’s got a big bald spot on her head. I don’t know, maybe she has a disease or something. Cancer even. Usually, she wears a hat to cover it up, but everyone knows about the bald spot. They call her Eagle. You know, like bald eagle. Today, Ruben pulled her hat off and threw it across the cafeteria. Everyone was laughing while she tried to cover her head with her arms.” He shrugged. “It pissed me off.”

  “I can see why. That was really mean what Ruben did. And humiliating to that poor girl.” Charlotte had to tread lightly here. She didn’t want Travis to think she was condoning fighting. At the same time, she was proud of him for standing up for the girl. “Is that why you hit him?”

  “First I told him to knock it off. That just made him do more. He started rubbing her head like a Buddha stomach and everyone was laughing. She started crying and I just lost it.”

  “And that’s when the fight started?” Charlotte stopped at the light and pulled onto the highway.

  “Yeah, in front of the whole cafeteria. I would’ve shoved his face into the table, but Mr. Colby broke it up and sent us to the office.”

  “You know you can’t change people with your fists, right, Travis? Ruben’s a bully. I saw that the day he sat in the back seat of the car with your little brother. Violence isn’t the way, otherwise you’re just like him.” Ruben sounded like a Corbin-in-training and she wasn’t exactly sad that Travis had hit the boy. Still, she wasn’t about to tell Travis that.

  “My dad’s gonna kill me, especially when he finds out that I’ll be missing my algebra final on account of getting suspended.”

  “Did Ruben also get suspended?” If there was any justice the kid should be out for the rest of the year.

  “He got five days because of what he did to Shelby and has to go to sensitivity training. Mr. Colby saw the whole thing.”

  Then why the hell hadn’t Mr. Colby stopped Ruben from teasing that poor girl? That’s what Charlotte wanted to know. “What’s sensitivity training?”

  Travis shrugged his shoulders. “I think it’s like when they teach you not to be a dick to people, but I’m not really sure. What should I tell my dad?”

  “The truth.” Charlotte turned off onto Dry Creek Road. “Tell him exactly what you told me.”

  From everything she’d learned about Jace Dalton, he’d know exactly what to say to Travis. She would also bet that he would cut the boy slack for standing up to Ruben to protect a bullied girl. It showed character, even though Travis had used his fists. Getting suspended from school…well, she didn’t know how Jace would respond to that. The thing was, she knew he’d handle it right because he was a wonderful father.

  The best thing about her stay at Dry Creek Ranch was being reminded that good men still exist in the world.

  When they pulled up to the ranch house there was an old Volvo station wagon in the driveway and a woman sitting on the front porch. One of Jace’s admirers, Charlotte supposed, and a tingle of envy ran up her spine.

  Travis got out of the car and waved. “Hey, Aunt Aubrey.”

  “Hey, good looking. What are you doing home? I hope you’re not sick.”

  “Nope.” Travis didn’t say more, just brushed by her and went inside the house.

  “Hi.” Charlotte stood at the base of the porch and shielded her eyes. “I’m Charlotte…the boys’ babysitter.”

  “So great to finally meet you.” Aubrey came down the stairs. “I’m Aubrey, Cash’s fiancée. He said you were working on some pretty interesting projects and that I should come check them out.”

  “Oh…right…you’re the designer.” Charlotte prayed that Aubrey had never been to Refind. Her store had been popular with decorators and designers across Northern California. But Aubrey didn’t seem to register any kind of recognition, so Charlotte felt safe. “Come on in. How about a cup of coffee?”

  “I would love one.”

  They went through the front door, which in the short time Charlotte had been here rarely got used. Everyone entered and exited through the mudroom.

  Aubrey gazed around the living room as they walked to the kitchen. “Whoa, I don’t think I’ve ever seen it this neat.” She paused at Travis, who’d wasted no time playing video games, and messed up his hair.

  “Hey, Travis,” Charlotte said, and pointed to
the TV screen. “This probably won’t help your cause with your dad, if you know what I mean. If I were you, I’d do something to butter him up, like maybe clean your room. Just saying.”

  As they crossed through the dining room Charlotte heard the game go off.

  “What’s that about?” Aubrey asked.

  “Travis had a run-in with a bully at school. He got suspended for a few days.”

  “Uh-oh.” Aubrey made a face. “Jace won’t be too happy about that.”

  In the kitchen, Charlotte put a pot of coffee on and found some of her leftover rocky road cookies and arranged them on a plate. Aubrey sat at the kitchen island and, like in the front room, gave the place a once-over.

  “You’ve really whipped the house into shape.”

  “It wasn’t anything,” Charlotte said. “For the most part Jace and the boys keep it pretty neat.”

  Aubrey snorted. “Pretty neat? Jace has been my best friend since elementary school. Not neat. And the boys…please. Oink, oink is more like it.”

  “So you’ve known Jace since childhood, huh?” Charlotte was curious about their relationship. It seemed unusual for a man like Jace—cowboy sheriff—to be best friends with a woman.

  “Played in the same sandbox and sat next to each other in kindergarten. His mother was one of my mother’s best friends. When his parents and baby brother died, the whole town went a little crazy with grief. Jace was just a kid, maybe six at the time. In one fell swoop, a drunken driver took away his whole family.”

  Jace had had a significant amount of loss in his life. His parents, his brother, his grandfather, and his wife. It was enough to make Charlotte’s heart fold in half.

  “Did you know Mary Ann?” Charlotte let the question slip out, instantly realizing how audacious it was. She and Aubrey were strangers, not BFFs.

  From the expression on Aubrey’s face she was just as stunned Charlotte had asked. “He told you about Mary Ann?”

  “Just a little. I shouldn’t have said anything. It’s really not my business.”

  “No, it’s fine. I’m just surprised is all. He never talks about her. And we all tiptoe around the subject as if on eggshells. I knew her as much as anyone could know Mary Ann. She didn’t like me much, and quite frankly the feeling was mutual.”

  The coffee was done brewing and Charlotte poured them each a cup and put the plate of cookies between them.

  “Why not?” Charlotte asked. If Aubrey wanted to dish, who was Charlotte to stop her?

  “I didn’t like her because she broke Jace’s heart. The man treated her like a queen and that wasn’t good enough. Nothing—not this house, not this ranch, not Jace’s job—was ever good enough. Me? She didn’t like me because Jace did.”

  “She viewed you as a threat?” Aubrey was a beautiful woman.

  “Nah, I wasn’t. And Mary Ann didn’t suffer from low self-esteem. Far from it. Plus, I was living with Jace’s best friend at the time and despite the rumors, Jace has always been like a brother to me.”

  “What rumors are those?” Charlotte was probably asking too many questions, but Aubrey didn’t seem to mind.

  Aubrey let out another snort. “After I dumped Mitch, my former fiancé, there was a crazy rumor that Jace and I were having an affair. Ridiculous, because I’m totally in love with Cash. It was a smear campaign and unfortunately I think it might hurt Jace’s bid for reelection.” She looked Charlotte up and down as if she was thinking something but was forcing herself to keep quiet.

  Charlotte remembered Jace’s hush-hush conversation with his campaign manager the day they went to her home to pick up his campaign signs. Maybe this is what they’d been talking about. She supposed gossip was a way of life in a small town, but it would be tragic if Jace lost the reelection because of it. “Is there anything he can do to better his chances of winning?”

  “He needs to up his profile. Tiffany wants him to do more community events but Jace is deluded. He thinks being a good sheriff is enough. He’s a great sheriff, but unfortunately his opponent has out-raised him in campaign contributions and shows up to every festival and livestock auction in Mill County to ingratiate himself. It doesn’t hurt that he also owns the local hardware store, which everyone goes to.”

  Charlotte wished there was something she could do to help. Jace had done so much for her. But she didn’t know a lick about politics, or law enforcement for that matter. Besides, she was a nobody around here and needed to keep it that way. Any day now, Meredith was going to call with Charlotte’s marching orders. It was important that she lie low until then.

  “What a shame,” Charlotte said. “He’s such a good guy.”

  “Yes, he is.” Aubrey gave her that odd assessment again, then briskly changed the subject. “Show me what you’re working on.”

  Charlotte brightened. It had been a long time since she had a project to show off. “It’s down at the barn. You up for a walk?”

  A short time later, they crossed the field, careful to avoid the mud. It had rained the night before and a gorgeous rainbow streaked across the sky. She still couldn’t believe she got to wake up to this kind of beauty. Everything—the trees, the grass, the hills—was so green it was a visual wonderland. Sometimes, especially on days like this, Charlotte wanted to spin around like a child with her arms held out. Dry Creek Ranch was so vast and beautiful it made her feel free.

  Free from the chains of Corbin Ainsley.

  She slid open the barn door and heard Aubrey let out a little cry of delight.

  “I want it.” Aubrey circled the sofa Charlotte had been working on for the past couple of days, admiring the patchwork of vintage denim and ticking stripe fabric she’d used for the slipcover and the grain sacks from Mr. Maitland’s farm she’d repurposed into pillows. “I don’t know where we have room for another sofa in our little cabin, but I want it.”

  Charlotte laughed. Aubrey’s reaction was exactly what Charlotte strived for. It’s why Refind had been such a success before she’d begun neglecting the store to accommodate Corbin. Eventually, business had gotten so bad she’d had to close the doors.

  “I don’t know what it looked like before, but it’s fantastic now.” Aubrey walked around the couch to view it from all sides.

  Charlotte pulled her phone from her pocket and began swiping through before-and-after photographs. “It was pretty rough.”

  Aubrey expanded the picture for a better look. “You’re not kidding. You’re a miracle worker. Those flour sacks…what you’ve done with them…you can get a lot of money for something like this.” She ran her hand against the back of the sofa.

  Thousands in the city. But Charlotte didn’t know what kind of prices her furniture could fetch around here.

  “It still needs some alterations. The cover is a little looser than I’d like it.”

  “What else do you have?” Aubrey wandered around the barn, taking inventory of various projects Charlotte had started, including an old window she’d turned into a picture frame and was still waiting for the chalk paint to dry. There was a rusted milk bucket that was serving as a flower vase. “I have clients who would die for this stuff. You mind if I snap a few pictures?”

  “No, go right ahead.” Charlotte didn’t have a lot of time left in Dry Creek, but maybe Aubrey could sell the pieces for her.

  Without even thinking about it, Charlotte began walking around the barn and creating little tableaus with some of the more finished pieces. She propped an old paint-splattered ladder against the wall and hung some of her fabric remnants in such a way as to make them look like blankets. In another corner, she leaned a wagon wheel against the wall. “I’m going to do something with this eventually, but for right now I think it looks kind of cool like this.”

  “Whoa, you’re really good at merchandising, aren’t you?”

  “I owned a store for many years,” Charlotte said.

 
; “Really? Where?”

  She stuck with the same story she’d told Jace, which was probably still risky. Aubrey, being a decorator, might do a little research. And while Charlotte hadn’t given the name of the store, someone skillful on the internet could narrow the shop down to Refind in Noe Valley.

  “I can see you’re really good at it.” Aubrey continued to shoot photos with her phone. “If any of my clients are interested, this stuff is for sale, right?”

  “Absolutely. I also do custom wo—” She stopped, realizing she didn’t have time to take commissions. Not unless she worked out of her car. “I’ve got my hands full for now.” Charlotte gazed around the barn.

  “Just keep doing what you’re doing. If this stuff goes over the way I think it will, you’ll be plenty busy.”

  It was a nice visit and under better circumstances Charlotte could see herself being friends with Aubrey. Besides their mutual love for home décor, Aubrey struck Charlotte as completely genuine. She reminded her a little of Allison, which made Charlotte miss her sister even more.

  Perhaps one day, if and when she stopped running, she could call her family and make amends.

  Chapter 11

  “After dinner, you mind if we have a talk?” Jace asked Charlie as she set the table.

  They were eating later than usual because he’d had to respond to a car versus tree on Peninsula Court. No one had been seriously injured, but the teenage motorist who’d caused the accident had been driving a group of high school seniors home after a “study session” and had blown an .08 on a Breathalyzer.

  It made Travis’s suspension pale in comparison, though Jace wasn’t too happy about that either. He was proud that his son had put a bully in his place but wished Travis hadn’t resorted to fighting to do it. Even if he himself had been tempted a time or two to knock Ruben on his ass.

  Tomorrow, first thing in the morning, he planned to drive Travis to Ruben’s house for a conversation about bullying and fighting. Ruben’s mom had her hands full working two jobs and raising that boy and his brother on her own. She didn’t need the extra worry.