by C J Murphy
“So, tell me about Kendra’s past. How did she end up with Maggie and Dee?”
Chance sighed. “I don’t have enough time to tell you the whole story. Let’s just say when deputies were called for an overdose, they found five-year-old Kendra fending for herself. Her mom wasn’t fit to take care of a hamster. Her dad tried to burn the house down with them in it. She came to Maggie and Dee when child services called them to see if they’d be willing to do an emergency foster. Eventually, after a long court battle, they were awarded full custody and eventually adopted Kendra as their own. I’ll tell you more about it sometime, when she’s out of earshot. She knows the whole story. Unfortunately, it brings up really bad memories for her. It messes with her sleep for months when we talk about it.”
Jax shook her head. “It always makes me sad. So many people out there that want kids and can’t have them. People like Kendra’s parents have them at the drop of a hat and don’t take care of them. Thank God for people like Maggie and Dee.”
“They’re the only real parents Kendra has ever known. She’s one tough cookie.”
“And wants to be just like her big sister.”
“I’m younger than the moms. I can keep up with her.”
Jax laughed. “I think it goes much deeper.”
Once they were back in the warm and well-equipped kitchen, Jax helped Chance and Kendra fix dinner until the crunch of gravel alerted her to visitors. Jax looked out the window. “They’re here.”
She turned in time to see Chance and Kendra standing at the sink. The image nearly took her breath. Both women were tall, although Chance towered an inch or two above Kendra. They both have to be just under six feet. Gunmetal-blue eyes to Kendra’s sky-blue ones. Definitely the same cocky attitude and swagger. Jax noticed they even stood alike. She could envision a younger Kendra studying Chance’s every action to copy it to her own internal hard drive. That’s what Uncle Marty had always been to her, a hero she wanted to emulate. The opening of the door drew her from her musing to greet Dee. Maggie followed closely behind with a covered pie pan.
“Kendra Jo Fitzsimmons, how long have you been here?” Maggie set the pie down and looked at the clock on the wall. Dee walked over to hug her. “You shouldn’t be arriving for another hour since your last class should have ended at three.”
Jax chuckled, as Dee mumbled “busted” just behind Kendra’s left ear.
Kendra hid behind Dee and pulled Chance’s arm to form a barrier, using Jax to secure the right flank. “Mom, before you lose your cool, Professor Ross gave me permission to miss class. He was interested in hearing how Chance was doing, and I promised to give him all the details on Monday.” She peeked out between the shoulders of her protectors. “Come on, tomorrow’s Chance’s birthday, and I stayed when you told me to. Can you cut me a little slack?”
Maggie’s arms were crossed over her chest, and one eye was nearly squinted shut. “Only if you stop cowering behind your human force field and give your mother a proper hello.”
Kendra’s grin smothered her face and she came out behind from Dee to wrap Maggie in a bear hug. “Missed you, Mom.”
Maggie clung to Kendra while looking at Chance. “You’re forgiven, if you feed me.”
Kendra tickled Maggie, then ran back behind Dee. “Five Points has that covered.”
Chance held up her hands. “Bullseye did most of the work.”
Maggie’s hands were now on her hips. “You two do remember you were given proper names?” She pointed to Dee. “The nicknames were all your fault.”
Dee stepped forward and pulled Maggie into her arms. “Yes, my little steel magnolia, I remember.”
Maggie slapped her on the shoulder. “You are incorrigible.” She kissed Dee softly then pushed her away. “I need wine, and you’re closest to the refrigerator. Fill the order.”
Dee laughed and turned to follow her wife’s directive. Jax watched it all with amusement and hadn’t noticed Chance sliding closer to her until she felt an arm around her waist.
“Welcome to what life’s been like around here. Aren’t you glad you missed it?”
Jax turned to her. “No, the exact opposite. I wish I’d have been here for every second.”
Chance pulled her tighter. “Well, you don’t have to miss another minute. You’re one of the family, so expect to be duly initiated. Maggie will have plenty to say about the rest of your life, trust me.”
“Chance Raylynn, are you over there bad mouthing me?” Maggie stood with her hands planted firmly on her hips.
“No, ma’am.”
Jax laughed, as Chance pushed her between Maggie and herself then ducked behind her left shoulder. “Coward.”
“And proud of it.”
Maggie rolled her eyes. “How long before supper? I’m going to go sit on the deck and listen to Kendra tell me how school is really going. Come on Dee, she might need you for backup.”
Chance let her laughter peel out into the room. It was like music to Jax’s ears.
“Let me throw the steaks on the grill, and I’d say we can eat in about fifteen minutes. Kendra threw the baked potatoes in the pit about fifteen minutes ago.”
Maggie waved them off as she herded the other two out the sliding door. Jax wiped away tears of laughter. “Chance, you have no idea how I’ve missed those two. Laughter at Mom and Dad’s house was always severely lacking.”
“How about your own home, no laughter there either?”
Jax pondered the thought for a moment. “To be honest, no. I think that stopped the minute I said ‘I do.’ Life changed, she changed. Eventually, so did I.” Jax leaned back on the dark granite kitchen counter.
“Interesting that I don’t really see the change. You’re still the beautiful, intelligent woman you were then. I’m glad you found the smile you lost out there. Let’s get these steaks on before the natives get restless.”
Chance carried the meat, and Jax brought two beers with her. She used the bottle opener attached to the porch post with Coke stamped into the metal. Remembering an old, red-and-white cooler Chance had during their summers on the river, Jax pointed to the bottle opener. Chance’s smile lit up her face as she nodded. “Yes, that’s off that old cooler.”
Jax nodded. “I thought so.”
“That opener and I are old friends. The cooler met an untimely death. Putting the opener there seemed right.”
A loud sizzle rose when the thick cuts of beef hit the grill, and every head turned. Within minutes, the smell of seared steak filled the air and had Zeus sniffing from his place by Chance’s leg. With the steaks nearly done, Kendra retrieved the baked potatoes from a small fire pit near the deck and unwrapped them from the foil. Jax and Maggie put plates and utensils out for everyone. Dee jumped up and helped Chance distribute the steaks, as the group found their places at the table. The chatter stopped as everyone took their first bite. One by one, groans of pleasure escaped each diner.
“I think I’ve died and gone to heaven,” Dee confessed.
“I’d enjoy that slowly, because that’s the last beef you’re getting for a month.”
Dee went slack jawed as she looked at Maggie, who continued to chew with a smile. Kendra sliced another piece of her steak and rolled her eyes in pleasure. Chance tried to hide a smirk behind a drink of her beer.
Dee wagged a finger back and forth at her daughters. “You two wait. Your time will come. Enjoy that metabolism now.”
Maggie leaned over and kissed Dee’s cheek. “I’m just trying to keep your words from becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. You’ll die and go to heaven when I’m damn good and ready for both of us to walk through the gate together. Got it?”
Dee shook her head and kissed her wife. “From your lips to God’s ears.”
Jax watched the slow smile and the look of absolute devotion on Dee’s face. When she turned to look at Chance, she saw a gaze nearly as intense staring back at her. Deep in her chest, Jax’s heart skipped a beat and her center pulsed. Her desire for Chance gre
w every moment they spent together. She wanted what Maggie and Dee had. After a lifetime of never being enough, she wanted to be everything to someone. Not just someone, she wanted to be everything to Chance. A soft touch on her forearm brought her attention to the eyes that drew her in.
“Where’d you go?” Chance asked.
Jax let the smile she felt inside show. “A little trip to the future.” Jax covered Chance’s hand. “I’ll tell you later.”
They finished dinner and listened as Kendra told them about her classes. “Professor Ross is tough. He’s also an awesome instructor. And just so you both know, he let me go early to come home since he knows Chance. He told me you saved his ass one time.”
Maggie pinched her lips tight. “Language, young lady.”
Kendra rolled her eyes. “He said Chance saved his butt. Is that better?”
Maggie nodded.
“Anyway, he said it was when you were with Fish and Wildlife. He didn’t elaborate much. He told me that he’s still alive to teach me how to become a good officer, because you stopped the bleeding. What happened?”
Chance took a drink of her beer. Something told Jax reliving the memory wasn’t going to be easy. She watched for any sign of distress. When Chance tugged at her earlobe, Jax had her confirmation.
Chance ran her hand down her face. “We’d done some aerial reconnaissance in our marijuana eradication program. During one of our passes over the refuge, we saw that telltale color we look for. The visible footpath told us it was a tended growth.”
Jax was surprised. She’d seen the helicopters fly over in California. None of her experiences gave her a clue how they helped locate illegal drugs.
“We made a notation of the GPS points whenever we found patches. We had ground teams ready to go in and do the eradication. When we landed, I joined up with Ross to make our way to the location. These guys were no amateur growers, and it wasn’t a personal use patch. This had all the earmarks of a distribution operation. We managed to avoid a few booby traps. We weren’t expecting something like a claymore buried in the path. Scott Ross stepped on one, and the blast took his leg off below the knee.”
Jax, drew in a sharp breath and grabbed Chance’s hand. It could have been her.
“He was losing a lot of blood. I pulled him back and threw a tourniquet on it. A few years before, I’d taken a continuing ed course on how to stop major hemorrhaging. I’d started carrying a few tourniquets with me in my tactical vest. I threw one of those on and called for his evacuation. We were about a mile back in the refuge and completely inaccessible by vehicle. Sarah and her crew brought a collapsible litter that we used to carry him out to a clearing, where they loaded him for the flight to the hospital. There wasn’t enough of his lower leg left to save. Fortunately, he’s alive to teach punks like you.” Chance threw her balled up napkin at Kendra, who caught it easily.
“He has an awesome prosthetic. He has a habit of putting his leg up on a chair and leaning on his thigh. That’s how I saw it the first time. I asked him a question about it, and he told us part of the story. I didn’t know all of it until now.”
Kendra dropped her head. Jax recognized the hero worship Kendra had for Chance. She knew a little about that feeling, as she was carrying a great deal of adoration in her own heart for the strong woman whose hand she held.
“I honestly didn’t know if he was going to live or die that day. When we got back to base, most of us wanted to head to the hospital. I’m not saying I didn’t. My focus was to get the guys who injured him. I knew he would want that more than anything, so I made it happen. We brought in a couple of ordnance guys, who took care of the rest of the explosives. There were four more in different areas around the grow site. I turned that place over until we found a single, faded gas receipt. When we busted down the door to Fred Wendell’s place, they were none too happy to see us. We arrested five of them with enough cash, weapons, and drugs ready for distribution, that we didn’t have any trouble getting a conviction. We put them away for a long time for the attempted homicide of a federal officer. After we added the narcotics trafficking charges, they’ll be lucky to see the outside of a prison before they need a walker.” Chance abruptly rose. “I’ll be right back.” Zeus followed at her side.
Kendra rose to follow until Maggie put a hand on her arm. “Jax, I think maybe she needs you, more than any of us.”
Dee got up and walked over to Jax and knelt beside her. “There is very little that bothers Chance more than having a fellow officer injured on her watch. When she was burned, one of her crew tried to outrun the burn over and didn’t make it. She blames herself each and every time someone working with her is injured. Even if she isn’t in charge of the operation, it digs into her gut. Chance is a leader, and a leader like that wears her honor on her sleeve. I think you understand that part of her.”
Jax nodded and followed in the same direction Chance had gone. She found her in the front yard throwing a tennis ball for Zeus. She joined Chance without speaking. After the third throw, Zeus brought the ball to Jax and dropped it at her feet. She bent and scratched his ears before she let the ball sail.
Chance whistled. “You’ve got quite the arm.”
“I played intramural softball at UC Davis.” She tapped her knees. “Catcher. That’s why I don’t have any knees and have this spike mark on my calf.”
“Were you blocking the plate?”
Jax smiled and raised an eyebrow. “I was at the plate. She tried to slide in. Let’s just say she didn’t make it.” She slid an arm around Chance’s waist. “I tag what I’m going for.”
Chance reciprocated with an arm around Jax’s shoulder and pulled her into her chest.
“You okay?” Jax questioned.
Chance sighed. “I am. It should be me missing my leg. I stopped to tuck in my bootlace that kept snagging on briers. Scott Ross stepped in front of me to take the lead.”
Jax gripped Chance’s shirt tightly in her hands. “If it’d been him in the lead that stopped, would you have taken over for him?”
“Yes, that’s not the point. It should have been me.”
“You could fill the Blackwater Canyon with ‘should haves.’ All you can do is deal with the reality of what actually happened. From the sounds of it, that’s what you did. According to Kendra, he credits you with saving his life. You had the training to stop the bleeding. Did he?”
“I have no idea.”
“Well then, let’s look at the positive side of it. You knew what do to. In the end, both of you are alive to teach future officers how to save the life of their partner.” Jax waited without saying anything else and felt Chance relax in her arms.
“How do you do that?”
“What?”
Chance tipped up her chin. “Know what I need even when I don’t.”
Jax chuckled. “Magic.”
“Ah. You’re definitely bewitching.”
Jax pulled back and took her hand. “Come on, it’s family time, and that’s a pretty great one out there on the deck.”
“I’ll second that. You know I count you as family.”
Jax squeezed her hand as she led her back through the house. She prayed that someday she’d feel like a true member of the Fitzsimmons clan. “Remind me to give you your birthday present the next time we’re alone.”
“If it’s anything like my eighteenth birthday present, I’ll tell them all to get the hell out right now.”
“We’ll see, Sheriff. We’ll see.”
Chapter Fourteen
CHANCE SAT AT THE breakfast table with a cup of coffee and the newspaper in her hand, when Kendra plopped down heavily into a chair, a loud yawn nearly swallowing her face. “Coffee?”
Kendra sat zombie-like, rubbing her eyes. Chance couldn’t help but laugh at the strand of hair sticking straight in the air. When Kendra put her head face down on the table, Chance let out a snicker and Kendra flipped her the middle finger. Chance grabbed a mug and added an overgenerous pour of the flavored cream
er she kept for her sister.
The young woman grabbed it with both hands and greedily sipped.
“One of these days, you’ll realize that more coffee in relation to the creamer in that cup will be helpful in waking you up. How do you drink that stuff?”
Kendra mumbled something unintelligible, and Chance shook her head. After another sip and a stretch, Kendra finally spoke. “I don’t tell you how to drink your coffee. Leave me be. It’s too early in the morning for meaningful conversation.”
Chance looked at her watch. “Uh, it’s nine. Good thing I’m not allowed to run, or your ass would have been up at five to go with me.”
“Come on, Chance. Don’t make me adult yet.”
Chance could only laugh as she raised her cup to her lips. Sometimes when she looked at Kendra, she saw a younger version of herself. They were as close as any two siblings she knew, save the age difference. “Feel like dinner out at Sarah and Kristi’s? Daniel will be there.”
Another large yawn and a mumble covered Kendra’s answer. The nod of her head was the only indication of actual acceptance of the invitation. Chance took her cell phone and her cup of coffee to the deck and took a seat in one of the Adirondack chairs to call the Riker home. When the call was answered, Chance laughed at the immediate scolding she took.
“I know, I know. I’m sorry I haven’t been there in a while. Forgive me, Kristi. That’s why I’m calling. Is that invitation still open for dinner?”
“It wasn’t an invitation. It was an order and you know it. Daniel said Kendra is home, so drag her ass with you. Oh, and Jax better be on your arm.”
“I haven’t checked with her yet. If she’s free, I’m sure she’ll be with us.”
“Any requests? This is your birthday dinner, you know.” Kristi Riker asked.
