by B. J Daniels
The only place open at this hour was a convenience store on the west end of town. She went in and got herself a cup of coffee and a sweet roll. It was too late to head for Billings, even if she could leave.
She knew she should go back to the motel and get some sleep, but she couldn’t rid herself of the image of Eve’s face peering at her through the pouring rain. That startled look haunted her.
What had Eve seen? A resemblance to her own face? How long had Eve looked for that in every older woman’s face, hoping to see her mother looking back?
Mary Ellen paid for the sweet roll and coffee and went back to her car. She forced herself to choke down the roll, knowing she needed sustenance, but unable to taste a bite. Washing down the last of it, she told herself she had to end this.
For years she’d lived with the lies and deceit. She couldn’t do it any longer. But telling the truth would mean not only confessing to what she’d done, but also reliving her sins. She’d never been able to face those horrible memories, and yet she’d never been able to escape them, either.
Mary Ellen stared out through the rain, chilled at the sound of it drumming on the car roof. It was too late to do anything tonight. But if she waited she might lose what little courage she had.
She pulled out her cell phone and called Eve Bailey Jackson’s number.
The phone rang once. Mary Ellen’s hand shook and she almost snapped the cell shut as the phone at the other end rang a second time.
“Hello?” A woman’s voice. Eve’s?
Mary Ellen swallowed, her throat almost too dry to make a sound. “Eve Bailey Jackson?”
“Yes?”
“My name is Mary Ellen.” She swallowed. “Mary Ellen Small. Your mother was my sister.”
Chapter Eight
Jud had thought about calling ahead to let his family know he was bringing Faith to dinner.
But he didn’t want anyone making a big deal of out it. If he made it sound like a spur-of-the-moment invitation, maybe his family wouldn’t try to read anything more into it.
He’d told Faith the truth: he didn’t like leaving her alone on the set. What he hadn’t told her was that he thought he’d seen something right before the team of horses had been spooked. Movement on the fringe and something flying through the air. A rock? He couldn’t be sure. And that’s what worried him.
But his gut instinct told him that someone had intentionally caused the horses to spook. Had they known, though, that the team would take off and nearly kill Faith? Or had they thought it was Chantal sitting on the wagon, since that’s who was supposed to be there at that moment according to the call sheet?
He didn’t want to believe the accident had anything to do with Faith. Whoever was deliberately causing the accidents on the set had to be trying to sabotage the film. Why anyone involved in the movie would want to sabotage it was anyone’s guess.
Or maybe it had been just a few unlucky accidents and he was making too much of it because he’d gotten Faith into this and now felt he had to keep her safe.
As he and Faith drove through the rain toward Trails West Ranch, Jud was glad to lose himself in the landscape. It was July, the wet grass was still a vibrant green that ran from horizon to horizon.
It surprised him how the land up here had gotten into his blood. When he’d thought of Montana, he’d always thought of snowcapped mountain peaks and towering pine trees—not the prairie with the only mountains in the distance and few if any pines.
But he liked that thousands of buffalo used to race across this expanse of earth and that outlaws holed up in the Missouri Breaks badlands. One of Butch Cassidy’s and the Sundance Kid’s alleged last robberies took place just outside of Whitehorse. Sometimes he thought he could feel the history as if it was entrenched in the landscape.
He noticed that Faith seemed content to stare out at the country, as well. Probably had a lot on her mind. He didn’t mind not talking. He liked the sound of the rain on the roof of the pickup, the steady slap of the wipers, the sound the tires made as they churned up rainwater from the puddles.
“Where will you go after this?” Faith asked after a while. She’d been gazing out the window, looking at the land with a longing he recognized only too well.
“Wherever the next film takes me.” Her gaze had shifted to him. He didn’t tell her that he had a few months to kill. The downtime was the hardest. He tended to get into trouble, and that trouble usually involved a woman because, ultimately, he always left them to pursue his stunt work.
“What about you?” he asked, glancing over at her.
She shrugged, a secret smile turning up her lips. “I never thought I’d be doing what I am now, so who knows?”
She wore jeans, boots and a Western blouse that made him too aware of her curves. Her blond hair was pulled up into a ponytail and there was just the faintest touch of makeup, a brush of mascara to her lashes, a little gloss to her lips. The high color of her cheeks was all her own, he thought with a smile.
While Faith had earlier resembled Chantal enough to play her body double, right now she looked nothing like the leading lady.
There was an innocence about Faith that Chantal couldn’t even act—and a peace, a self-assurance that he’d seen that first day when he’d caught her doing horse tricks on the back forty.
Now he realized too late that this was exactly the kind of woman his father would like to see him marry. Taking her home could be a huge mistake.
“There’s something I need to tell you,” he said, and cleared his throat. “I…the thing is, about my family…”
“I’m sure they’re no worse than mine,” she said, humor in her voice.
“Yeah.” He smiled at that. “I just need to fill you in before we get there.”
“Will I need a scorecard to keep track?” she asked, turning in the seat to face him.
He gave her a quick rundown of the family, from Juanita, the family cook who his father had convinced to come to Montana with them, to his four brothers, Russell, Dalton, Lantry and Shane.
“Shane’s engaged to Maddie Cavanaugh, right?” Faith said.
“Yeah. But I’m not sure Maddie will be there tonight,” he said, wondering how much he should tell her. “I believe this will become common knowledge soon enough…Kate, my dad’s wife, is Maddie’s birth mother.”
“She’s adopted? I had no idea.”
“Not even Maddie knew. So things have been a little tense between Maddie and Kate.”
“And Shane?”
“They’ll work it out. They’re perfect for each other, and since I’m the one who got them together…”
“I can’t see you playing Cupid,” Faith said, grinning.
“Well, that’s another thing I need to tell you.”
She laughed. “I need to know all this before having dinner at the ranch with your family?”
He was glad she found humor in it. He wished he did.
“Yeah, actually, you do. You see there’s a chance my family might get the wrong idea about you and me.”
She cut her eyes to him.
He held up a hand. “Not because of me. It’s because of these letters my mother left before she died.” He explained about his mother’s dying wish that her sons marry before the age of thirty-five and marry a Montana cowgirl.
“You drew straws?” She sounded as incredulous as he’d been at the suggestion at the time.
“You had to have been there. The letters, Dad’s recent marriage, the move to Montana, this family code we have, it put a lot of pressure on us. I know Dad just wants us all to settle here so we can be closer as a family.”
“Realistically, do you see that happening?”
“Hell, no. Nor do I have any plans to get married anytime soon.”
“But you drew the shortest straw and there’s that family code of yours.” She smiled, clearly having fun with him.
“Laugh if you will, but I just wanted to warn you so you know what you might be walking into.”
&nb
sp; “You’re afraid they’ll think I’m your date—or worse, your girlfriend.”
“I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself at my expense.”
“I had no idea dinner with you and your family could be this…interesting,” she said, smiling at him as the ranch came into view.
Trails West Ranch was nestled in a valley of green, the badlands of the Missouri Breaks in the distance. At the center sat the ranch house.
Jud slowed, glanced over at Faith and wondered if it would be so bad if the family thought Faith was his date.
EVE BAILEY CLUTCHED the phone in her hand. “Mary Ellen Small? If this is some kind of joke…”
“You called my mother, Mary, looking for a woman named Constance Small. She called me after she hung up with you.”
Eve was at a loss for words. “I don’t understand.” Her voice broke.
“My younger sister was your mother.”
“How do I know that’s true?” she asked, even as she remembered the woman she’d seen at Packy’s earlier, that feeling of seeing someone she knew, a stranger with a face that had seemed so familiar…
“I brought all the proof you’ll need with me, but are you sure you want to know? You may not like what I have to tell you.”
Eve felt as if her heart might burst. After all this time, could it be true? “Yes, I’ve waited for thirty-four years. I’m sure.”
“It’s late. Perhaps we could meet in the morning.”
“No, I need to see you now. This can’t wait any longer, please.”
“All right. I doubt either of us will get any sleep tonight anyway. Do you want me to come there?”
“I’ll come to you.”
“I’m staying at the Riverview Motel. Number six.”
“I’ll be there in ten minutes.” Eve hung up, her heart pounding. Was it possible she was finally going to find out the truth?
But if so, then why hadn’t Constance Small come herself? Why send her sister? Your mother was my sister. That’s what the woman had said. Did that mean her mother was dead?
There was only one way to find out. She had so many questions. Eve grabbed the keys to her pickup and headed for the door. Ten minutes. In ten minutes she knew she would be facing the woman she’d seen at Packy’s earlier.
Her aunt Mary Ellen Small? Finally someone from her birth family. Someone who resembled her.
Eve knew better than to get her hopes up. She’d been disappointed too many times before. As she drove the five miles into town to the Riverview, she wondered if she should let Carter know where she’d gone.
No. He’d be suspicious and want to come along, and this was something she had to do alone. She didn’t even want her brother there, didn’t want to get his hopes up until she knew for sure. In truth, she just needed this desperately for herself and had for as long as she could remember.
The rental SUV she’d seen earlier at Packy’s was parked in front of room six, just as she knew it would be. Eve braced herself as she pulled in beside it and, cutting the engine, she got out and ran through the rain.
She was trembling with excitement and anxiety and cold dread. For so long she’d feared she would never know what happened the night she was born. Nor would she ever see another person who looked like her, who shared her blood, her coloring, her DNA.
Then her twin brother, Bridger, had come into her life. And she’d told herself it was enough. But she couldn’t smother that need in her to find her birth mother. To know why the woman had given them up.
Eve feared Mary Ellen Small was right, that she wasn’t going to like the answer, as she tapped at the motel room door, terrified.
The woman had asked her if she was sure she wanted to know the truth. Without hesitation, she’d said yes.
But now that Eve was this close to it, could she take the truth? What could hurt more than knowing your mother gave you up?
Nothing, she told herself as the door opened and she came face-to-face with a woman who looked so much like her that Eve began to cry.
FAITH FELT AT HOME right away. The Trails West Ranch house was warm and beautiful inside, the decor keeping with the area and the history of the ranch itself. The walls and floors were rich wood, the fireplace stone and the furnishings Western.
Grayson Corbett was as charming as his son and equally as handsome. He greeted her warmly and then introduced her to his wife, Kate.
She was a striking woman and Faith immediately saw the resemblance between her and Maddie Cavanaugh.
“You brought a date?” asked a male voice as Faith was led into a large family room that looked out over the ranch. It was furnished with soft, deep leather chairs and a bar stocked better than any saloon in town.
“My brother Dalton,” Jud said with a sigh. “Meet Faith Bailey. She’s a local who’s doing stunt work on the film.”
Faith shook hands with Dalton and saw three other brothers rise to their feet for introductions, all of them equally gorgeous.
“I heard the other stuntwoman was bitten by a rattlesnake,” Kate said. “Is she all right?”
“She’s fine. She’ll be helping with the stunts,” Jud was saying behind her.
“Lantry Corbett. I’m the smart, good brother,” he said, shaking Faith’s hand. “And this is Shane and Russell.”
Faith recognized Shane. Now that she thought about it, she recalled seeing Shane dancing with Maddie Cavanaugh at a rodeo last month at the fairgrounds.
Russell seemed the most reserved of the brothers, as Grayson asked what she’d like to drink and Faith found herself in the middle of all the Corbetts sipping an ice-cold margarita rimmed with salt and laughing at the antics of the “boys,” as Grayson called his five sons.
Later, as she was led into dinner, the dining room smelled of corn tortillas and a wonderfully spicy sauce. By then, she’d warmed to all the Corbetts. Her only misgiving was that they did indeed believe she was Jud’s date. She felt as if she were auditioning for a role in a Corbett film.
The worst part was that she knew by the end of the evening that she had the role if she wanted it. And that gave her more pleasure than it should have. But it also made her a little sad since she wasn’t up for the part.
“I had fun tonight,” she said on the drive back toward the movie location. “I like your family.”
“They certainly liked you,” Jud said, not sounding all that happy about it.
“I’m sorry if that causes you trouble.”
He laughed softly. “Maybe I should try to line you up with one of my brothers. Just kidding,” he said almost too quickly.
“Want to keep me all for yourself, huh? I don’t know if I like that. That one brother of yours…”
“Don’t even think about—” He broke off abruptly as he realized somewhat belatedly that she was only joking. “Not that one of them wouldn’t love you,” he said with a shake of his head. “But I’m through playing matchmaker.”
They fell into a comfortable silence, the narrow two-lane road seeming endless. Faith felt close to Jud, the cab of his pickup pleasurably intimate. She still couldn’t believe the twist of fate that had brought her to this moment in time.
“The stunt early tomorrow is an easy one,” Jud said, as if wanting to get back on more secure footing. It had felt like a date tonight and she was sure that made him uncomfortable.
“I’m not worried,” she said of the upcoming stunt and looked out at the night. The stunt was part of the love scene sequence. The heroine tries to outrun the hero on a horse. He catches her, drags her off her horse and into his arms for a passionate kiss. Faith’s part would end once her feet touched the ground—just before the kiss.
As Jud pulled into Packy’s beside her pickup, he said, “I’ll follow you. Just in case you have any problems.”
“I don’t need you to protect me.” Although she was touched.
“Too bad. Until this film is over, I’m stuck to you like glue.”
Until the film was over, which wasn’t long.
True to his word, he followed her out to the set. As she topped a rise, the lights of Jud’s pickup right behind her, she spotted the film’s base camp through the now drizzling rain below her and felt disappointed. In a few short minutes, this night would end.
When Jud turned off the charm, he was quite…well, charming, and seeing him with his family, he’d gotten to her tonight.
She drove down the hill and parked. He pulled in beside her and climbed out. They hurried to duck under the awning of her trailer, which was closest to where they’d both parked. She breathed in the damp scent of the rainy summer night as if she could hold on to it and this moment forever.
The night was cool enough that she would have been grateful to be in his arms. But Jud stood away from her, looking out at the dark circle of trailers, the light rain pattering on the awning over their heads.
“If for any reason you need my help, day or night—”
“Don’t worry about me,” she said, hugging herself. “I’ll be fine.”
“Just do me one favor,” he said, turning toward her, keeping his voice low. “Please don’t ask any more questions about the accidents.”
The rainy darkness settled around them. Faith hadn’t realized how late it was. Not a light glowed in the encampment, not a sound could be heard from any of the other trailers.
“Faith, please. Promise me.”
Not wanting to spoil the evening, she said, “Trust me, I’ll be good.” She didn’t say what she’d be good at. Nor did she completely understand why, like her sisters, she’d never been able to turn the other way when there was trouble. Or better yet, run.
“Thank you for a very enjoyable dinner,” she said, but didn’t move. Nor did Jud.
They stood staring at each other. For one incredibly prolonged moment Faith thought he might kiss her good-night. Her heart was pounding so hard she feared it alone would rouse the whole place.
Jud took a step back, looking nervous, actually awkward, a strange sight considering the grace of the man.
Faith hurriedly opened her trailer door, realizing he was merely waiting until she was safely inside.
