by June Faver
Roger rolled his eyes. “Yes, we know. Drama queen to the max.”
Scott appeared to be livid. “I can’t believe you just let him come over and—” He smacked himself on the forehead with his open palm. “Wait! Just what is your relationship with Cowboy Bob? Please tell me you didn’t let him—?”
Dixie shrugged. “I’m afraid so. Trust me. I know he loves me, and he’s crazy about Ava.”
“Who wouldn’t be?” Roger regarded her steadily. “But if you’re truly happy, and you seem to be, then we’re happy for you.”
Scott made a scoffing noise and folded his arms across his chest.
Dixie heaved a sigh. “Thank you, gentlemen. Have you eaten?”
“We grabbed a bite on the drive here. I wanted to take a look at those books as quickly as possible. Come on. Time’s a-wasting.”
“Thanks a lot.”
Dixie climbed in the Audi with Scott in the backseat, still pouting. They chatted on the way into Langston, arriving at the feed store just as Pete was sweeping the front entry. He looked surprised when she emerged from the sleek black car and even more so when the two men climbed out.
“G’mornin’, Miz Dixie.” Pete’s brow furrowed. “I was just tidying up out here.” He glanced up and down the street. “Ready for some customers.”
Dixie wondered why he might be nervous but greeted him with a cheery smile. “Good morning to you too, Pete. These are my friends, Scott and Roger. Roger is a certified public accountant, and he’s going to try to help me understand the bookkeeping system my dad used.” She shrugged, trying to look like a brainless female and not a suspicious business owner. “I’m hoping he can set up a simpler system that will be easier for both of us to use.” She brandished a bright smile.
“Oh, well. That’s good. I don’t understand it at all. I’ve just been counting the daily receipts and writin’ ’em down.” He ducked his head. “Y’know…since your daddy…um—”
“Was murdered. Since he was murdered in cold blood.” She heard the anger in her own voice and released a deep breath.
Roger put his hand under her elbow as though she needed help ascending the steps, but with Roger doing it, the gesture was sweet and not crippling. “Let’s get to it, shall we?” he said.
She nodded and led the way to the small office.
“You two knock yourselves out,” Scott said. “I’m going to look around.”
“Just avoid the baby bunnies,” Dixie warned. “Ava fell in love with two of them, and now, thanks to Beau and his father, we have a rabbit hutch in the backyard.”
Scott flapped his hand at her. “Don’t worry about that.” He chuckled. “No room for rabbits at our place.”
Dixie and Roger spent the next few hours sequestered in the small room. It held a desk and a chair and an old-fashioned ledger in which Vern had kept careful records up until the time of his death.
Finally, Roger closed the books and gathered all the paperwork together. “I’m done,” he announced. “I’m going to take this back to your place and reconcile everything. Then I’m going to install a simple electronic bookkeeping program that you’ll be able to access online.”
“That would be wonderful, Roger. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your help.”
“My pleasure, darling.” He rubbed his eyes wearily. “Right now I have a headache and I’m starving. Is there a decent place to eat in this quaint town?”
“Yes. We have three quite nice restaurants. One Mexican, a steak house, and a diner that has mostly home-style meals. Take your pick.”
He rubbed his temples. “Anything. Just get me out of this little cave. I probably need some fresh air.” He followed her into the store. “Could you please round up Scott and bring him out front? I’m going to wait in the car.”
“Sure. Be right there.” She walked Roger to the front and watched him descend to the street level before returning to search for Scott. She checked the entire store, but he was nowhere to be found. “Pete, do you know where my friend Scott went?”
Pete looked up from his task and nodded. “Yes’m, Miz Dixie. Big fellah with lots of muscles? He went out back an hour or so ago. I ain’t seen him since.”
Dixie nodded and exited by the back door leading to the cavernous shed and loading dock. “Scott?” No response, so she called again. “Hello? Anybody here?”
An eerie silence greeted her. She couldn’t imagine where he had gone.
“C’mon out, Scott. We’re hungry, and Roger has a headache.” She was vacillating between anxiety and anger. Was he playing some kind of game? Or had he connected with that grungy Josh guy? Maybe he was holed up in a corner somewhere, bored out of his mind, waiting for the business tasks to be over. She was pretty sure he wouldn’t be having scintillating conversations with Josh.
Cautiously, she climbed the stairs to the loading dock and peeked into the yawning maw of the so-called shed. Total silence.
A coil of fear spiraled around her spine. Her heart was trying to beat its way out of her rib cage. “Scott?”
Dixie sucked in a deep breath, inhaling the intermingled odors of grains, fertilizer, and an incredible amount of dust. She crossed the concrete floor as silently as she could, peering both ways as she went. No sign of Scott or, for that matter, Josh. She huffed out a sigh and planted her fists on her hips as she surveyed the space. There didn’t appear to be anyone on the second floor either. Just bales of hay and lots of bags of grain stacked up to the ceiling. What the heck am I paying Josh for, anyway?
“Okay, guys. I’m getting pissed off. Where the hell are you?” Her voice sounded small in the immense warehouse area. She noticed a door in the far wall and made her way toward it, picking her way around various products in bags and boxes. Jerking the door open wide, she found a narrow walkway outside lining the back wall. It was a couple of feet down to the ground level, and she spied an old-model Chevy sedan parked at the far end.
She glanced in the other direction and almost lost her balance. There on the ground below her lay a crumpled body and a lot of blood.
Scott…
She wanted to scream, but it clotted in her throat, constricting her ability to breathe. Frozen in place, she struggled to remain upright as the horizon seemed to tilt. She closed her eyes, stepping back from the doorway, and took several deep breaths. When she regained her equilibrium, she spun around, retracing her steps back through the shed, down from the loading dock, and across to the store.
Lips clamped together, she reached for the old wall-mounted phone behind the checkout counter. Remarkably, it had a rotary dial. Stunned, she stared at it, trying to remember what her fingers were supposed to do.
Nine-one-one got her to a cheery-sounding woman. “Sheriff’s office. How can I help you?”
“Please—come to the feed store—the shed behind the store.” She swallowed hard. “There’s a dead person back there.”
Pete stopped sweeping. “What?”
Dixie gave her name, and before she had hung up, she heard the sound of sirens screaming through town and winding down behind the store. She raced back outside and down the stairs to meet the somewhat-corpulent sheriff struggling to emerge from behind the wheel. Two deputies peeled from the second vehicle.
“I’m Sheriff Rollins. What’s this about dead people?” the red-faced man huffed out.
Dixie gestured to the shed. “My friend… He’s—behind this building. Back there…”
The sheriff and deputies ran around the shed with Dixie bringing up the rear and Pete a distant follower.
She drew up short, keeping her distance from the bloody and crumpled form.
“This man’s still alive, Sheriff,” one of the deputies shouted.
The sheriff called his office, asking for an ambulance and Dr. Ryan, the local doctor.
Dixie covered her mouth with both hands, afraid to look…af
raid not to…
“Gosh! What a mess.” Pete stood beside her, shaking his head. “What coulda happened?” He squinted, frowning. “Is that Josh a-layin’ there?”
She stifled a shudder, managing to whisper a single syllable. “No.”
A car came around the back corner of the building and screeched to a stop near where they stood.
Dixie recognized the blonde woman who leaped out carrying a small bag. Dr. Ryan knelt beside Scott. “Help me roll him over,” she ordered the deputy. When Scott was flopped onto his back, his cast was covered with bright-red blood. Placing her stethoscope on his chest, the doctor sighed and turned to the sheriff. “How far out is that ambulance? We need it now.” She rolled up the instrument and stuffed it in the bag before concentrating her efforts on Scott, inspecting his wound and using gauze pads to stanch the blood.
The sheriff squatted down on one knee nearby. “So, what’s going on here, Dr. Ryan? How’d he get so cut up?”
She shook her head. “There is a gunshot wound in his chest. Right now, he’s bleeding out if we don’t get him to the hospital quickly.”
“Gunshot?” The sheriff turned his fierce gaze on Dixie. “Did you hear gunshots, young lady?”
She shook her head. “I didn’t hear a thing. We were in the little office working on the books.”
Pete shifted from foot to foot, his hands gripped tight together. “I—I don’t think so. I was cleaning the cages. You know…the chicks and baby rabbits?” He looked at Dixie hopefully. “I wonder where Josh got to. Maybe he heard something.”
Sheriff Rollins stood up, hands on hips. “Well, where the hell is Josh? He must have heard the sirens.”
“I don’t exactly know. It’s not his break time, and his car is still here.” Pete pointed to the old car at the far end of the building.
“Hellooo?” Roger had entered the shed and appeared in the doorway above. “Oh, my precious,” he gasped before his eyes rolled up in his head and he took a header off the platform and onto the walkway below.
Now, two men were laid out on the ground, with an anxious doctor hovering over the two of them. Roger, a gash open on his forehead, lay bleeding beside Scott.
In a few minutes, another siren approached, finally ending when an ambulance pulled up behind the doctor’s vehicle. Two attendants emerged with their own bags. All three healthcare professionals worked over Dixie’s two friends until they were loaded into the ambulance and driven away.
The doctor started to get into her car, but Dixie stopped her.
“Please tell me about my friends. Are they going to be all right?”
The doctor shrugged. “I need to go. The man in the suit may have a concussion, and the other has lost a lot of blood.” She got in the car and peeled out after the ambulance.
Dixie stood shaking as she watched the doctor’s car disappear.
* * *
Beau was determined to give Ava a great day on the Garrett ranch. He had called ahead to be sure everyone would be expecting the little princess and be on their best behavior.
When they arrived, his sister-in-law Leah had prepared a sumptuous breakfast, including her incredible light and fluffy biscuits.
Ava seemed to be delighted with everything, especially the fact that there were other children living at the ranch. Leah’s daughter Gracie was eight, and Misty’s little brother Mark was twelve. After eating, the kids took her out to show her the baby animals.
Beau, Leah, and Big Jim stood together watching the children interacting.
“I just can’t believe you didn’t know about this lovely little girl, Beau,” Leah said. “How did you lose touch with Dixie?”
Beau shook his head. “Beats the hell out of me. One day we were together. Just two happy high school seniors, planning to go to college and then get married. That was the plan.” His chest swelled with an ocean of pain. How the hell did I lose her?
Leah tilted her head. “So, what happened?”
He blew out a frustrated sigh. “Damned if I know. She just disappeared. Her crazy mother took off with her somewhere. It was completely nuts. They left her father and didn’t look back. I never could figure out what happened…or why it happened.”
Leah’s brow furrowed. “I don’t understand. You mean Dixie’s mother just abandoned her husband and left town with her pregnant daughter? That sounds deranged.”
“Tell me about it.”
“That’s not the half of it,” Big Jim supplied. “Her mother filled her head with all kinds of nonsense about us.”
Leah shook her head. “Well, I’m glad you’re back together. I hope everything works out between you two.”
Big Jim adjusted the brim of his Stetson, tilting it just a bit to the right. “You for damned sure better marry that girl, Son. I can’t lose that little ray of sunshine.” His gaze followed the bright-red crop of curls as Ava romped around with the other children.
“Doing my best, Dad.”
After lunch, Beau saddled up one of the horses and took Ava for a ride around the ranch, showing her just a part of the vast property. He drew up beside a stream that ran through the property and lifted his daughter down.
“I like this horse, Beau. He’s pretty.” She turned to look up at him.
“It’s a girl horse.” He led the horse down to drink from the creek. “Listen, sweetheart. Did your mommy tell you that I’m your father?”
Ava nodded her head seriously.
It felt as though his heart swelled double its normal size. He swallowed hard. “Do you think you could call me Daddy instead of Beau?”
She stared at him, wide-eyed. “You mean like a mommy and a daddy?” she whispered.
“Just like that.” He leaned down to hear her.
She threw both her arms around his neck, whimpering softly.
He stood up straight, cradling her in his arms. “Oh, honey. I didn’t mean to make you cry. Please don’t cry. You don’t have to call me Daddy or anything if you don’t want to.”
She was crying full-out now, seemingly inconsolable. “Noooo,” she wailed. “I want you to be my daddy. I never had a daddy before.” She buried her face against his neck.
“Honey, I am your daddy. There’s no way I’m ever going to let you go. We’re family.”
She pulled away slightly to gaze into his eyes, her cheeks wet with tears. “We are?”
“Yes. You’re my little girl. You will always be my daughter. That means we’re family.”
“But Gramma says she’s my family…just Gramma an’ Mommy an’ me.”
A muscle in Beau’s jaw tightened as he contemplated Mamie Moore. “Well, sweetheart, we’ll have to let her know that all the Garretts are your family too. We all love you.” He kissed her damp cheek. “Especially me.”
By the time they got back to the ranch, it was late in the afternoon.
Big Jim stood on the porch, waiting impatiently. “See here, Son. You can’t hog all the time with my granddaughter. I got two storybooks down from the attic that used to be your favorites.” He reached up for Ava, a wide grin in place.
Beau helped her from the saddle and then rode the horse to the stable, confident his daughter was in good hands.
His oldest brother, Colton, was in the stable before him, tending the stock. “How’s it going, Little Brother?”
“Great. Ava just agreed to call me Daddy. I feel like my insides are flying.” He dismounted and set about removing the mare’s saddle and blanket.
“She’s a sweet little girl,” Colton agreed. “But the best thing is the way she’s got our old man wrapped around her little finger. I swear he’s mellowed a lot since you brought them together.”
Beau chuckled. “Yeah. Who would have thought it?”
“So, what’s going to happen if Miss Dixie decides to take off for Dallas after the year? You know it would break
Dad’s heart.”
“Mine too. I guess I’m going to do everything I can to keep them here. Whatever it takes.”
Colton’s expression told him that he didn’t for a minute trust that Dixie would stay.
Beau didn’t bother arguing because Colton always thought he was right and Beau didn’t feel like wasting his breath.
Beau rubbed down the mare and gave her a quick once-over with curry brushes. “Good girl,” he said, patting her neck. He led her to her stall and gave her fresh water and grain.
The two brothers walked back to the house together.
The minute they entered, Leah called out to Beau that his phone had been making funny noises.
He patted his pockets, realizing he’d left his cell behind when he’d taken Ava for a ride. He checked it and saw several messages from Dixie. He didn’t bother to read them but immediately called her. “Dixie? Are you all right?”
“Oh, Beau! I was so worried. Why didn’t you answer?”
“Sorry. I took Ava for a ride around the property and down to the creek. I stripped off my shirt and changed to a tee before we left, and my phone was in my shirt pocket. Everything is fine. My dad is reading to her now.”
She released a sigh that sounded like frustration.
“Is there something else going on?”
“There is. I’m at the hospital in Amarillo. There was a—a problem at the store.”
“What happened? Are you okay?”
“Yes. I’m fine, but my friend Scott is in the hospital. So is Roger.”
“What? How did they wind up in the hospital?”
“Oh, Beau. It was horrible. Roger was helping me in the office, and when we got ready to leave, I couldn’t find Scott.” She whimpered. “I went looking for him, and he was lying out back behind the shed, all bloody. Someone shot him.”
Beau’s gut tightened. He couldn’t stand the muscle man, but still…
“I called the sheriff, and he got Dr. Ryan to come out. She said Scott was alive but had lost a lot of blood.” She stopped to take a breath. “And then Roger came out and saw Scott, and he fainted. I swear he pitched off onto the walkway headfirst and gave himself a concussion. So now both my friends are here. I just don’t know what to do. Roger is supposed to be okay. He got a few stitches, but they’re keeping him for observation. Poor Scott is in critical condition.” Her voice ended in a wail.
