Surprise Inheritance

by Charlotte Douglas

  “If bank robbers are all we’re dealing with.”

  “What else is there?”

  Luke’s gut tightened as he considered the possibilities. “People with big bucks are targets for kidnappers, blackmailers, scam artists. Any lowlife who wants to get his hands on someone else’s money.”

  “Kidnappers,” Jennifer said with a gasp. “You don’t think Vickie’s children are in danger?”

  He flashed her a reassuring smile. “I tend to err on the side of caution. That’s why I want another deputy, to help keep track of the comings and goings of any strangers or new people in town. I figure if troublemakers know they’re being watched, they’ll be less likely to try something, and will eventually move on to easier prey.”

  “Will you get your deputy?”

  “They’re thinking about it,” he said with a scowl, “which essentially means no.”

  “I’m sorry, Luke.” Her face brightened. “Maybe you could deputize a few of the townspeople—unofficially, that is. Nobody passes down Main Street without Dean Kenning and Finn Hollis spotting them and taking note. They could be your extra sets of eyes and ears.”

  “Not a bad idea,” Luke said, throwing her an admiring glance.

  The stunning smile she cast him in return dazzled him, sending his memories spinning back over the years.

  The early summer of the year he’d fallen in love with Jennifer, he’d taken his two weeks of vacation and spent every waking moment with her. One day, they’d left before dawn and driven to Glendive, where the Chamber of Commerce offered guided boat tours on the Yellowstone River, specifically designed for agate hunting.

  Ever since Jennifer had begun visiting her grandparents as a child, she’d shown an intense interest in her adopted state. Luke could recall her pumping Vickie for details of state history that his sister had learned in school. Vickie had hated the subject, but Jenny had always lamented that the only state she knew anything about was Connecticut, where her fancy boarding school was located.

  As a special treat that summer day, Luke had decided to teach Jennifer about the famous moss agates of Montana, found along the banks of the Yellowstone River.

  “If you remember your geography,” he explained, “the Yellowstone starts at the mouth of the Bighorn and runs northeast until it joins the Missouri. It passes through gravel beds rich with semiprecious stones, especially sapphires and moss agates—”

  “The official gemstones of Montana,” Jennifer said with a complacent expression. “I’m not totally ignorant about the state.”

  “The moss agates are hard to spot in the rough because of their matte, yellowish exterior,” Luke said. “You don’t see their translucence until they’re sliced open.”

  “And we’re up at the crack of dawn and headed for Glendive because…?” Jennifer asked sleepily. She had admitted when he picked her up in the early-morning darkness that she wasn’t a morning person, more of a night owl than a lark, and that anything that early except a warm bed left her grumpy and testy.

  “To find agates,” Luke said patiently.

  “There’s a basketful on the counter at the Mercantile,” Jennifer said. “All you have to do is buy one.”

  “That takes all the fun out of it,” he replied.

  “Getting up in the dead of night, then enduring blazing sun, backbreaking searches of riverbeds, sunburn, insect bites…” Jennifer grumbled drowsily. “Did I really agree to this yesterday?”

  “Yes, you did, and while you were complaining just now, you left out the glory of the hunt and the triumph of success.”

  Jennifer yawned. “Find a place that sells hot, black coffee by the gallon, and I may forgive you for cutting short my sleep.”

  “Trust me,” Luke said, “you’ll thank me for this one day.”

  Jennifer made a face at him, but laughter sparkled in her eyes. “Isn’t that what parents say just before punishing their children?”

  After a stop at the hotel restaurant in Wibaux for breakfast and a much-needed infusion of caffeine, her usual sweet nature returned. By the time they’d headed on toward Glendive, her enthusiasm for their day trip had returned, too.

  “How did you become interested in agate hunting?” she asked.

  “My college roommate was a walking encyclopedia on the subject,” Luke explained. “Did you know that moss agates occur almost exclusively in the Yellowstone Valley?”

  “I do now.” She grinned at him. “And I have a feeling I’m about to learn more about moss agates than I ever wanted to know.”

  “Just stop me if you’re bored,” he said, “but I don’t think you will be. It’s fascinating how agates are formed. They originate in volcanic ash and lava beds. Gases form bubbles in the cooling rock, and these holes fill with water carrying silica solutions tinted with mineral traces. As these solutions harden, they form bands of color. Moss agates are special, because as they harden, small fractures allow plumelike formations of silica in the stone, creating the appearance of a mini-landscape, with images of trees or sunsets or lakes. That’s why they’re also called picture agates.”

  “I think my eyes just glazed over from information overload,” Jennifer said, pretending boredom, but he could tell she was interested. She had an insatiable curiosity for new experiences.

  A few hours later, those same eyes widened with delight when they located their first agate, which Luke cracked open to reveal the exotic beauty of its translucent interior.

  At noon, they withdrew from the others on the tour into the shade of the cottonwoods and settled on a large boulder to eat their boxed lunches. Overhead, a golden eagle floated on an updraft, watching for rabbits and mice, and a breeze off the river cooled their skin, alleviating the summer heat.

  “Having fun, sunshine?” he asked.

  “Absolutely,” Jennifer answered immediately, quelling any doubts generated by her early-morning grumblings. “It’s a gorgeous day. The company’s terrific. And the agates are spectacular.”

  “That big one is yours, to remember today by.”

  Her slender hands caressed the agate, not only the biggest but also the most impressive stone that he’d found. The silica tracings had created the image of a weeping willow by the side of a lake.

  “We’ll find us a spot just like that, build our house and raise our children.” Hope and anticipation filled him. “We’ve got our whole lives ahead of us, sunshine.”

  “Luke?” She’d tilted her head and gazed at him with questioning eyes. A tiny frown creased her fore head, and he resisted the urge to smooth it with his finger. “Why do you call me ‘sunshine’?”

  Because you light up my life. You make me happy when skies are gray. You warm my heart. You brighten my days.

  The phrases were obvious clichés, but he felt every word of them in his heart. He’d never met another woman like Jennifer, who made him feel as if half of him had been missing until he’d found her, making the two of them one perfect whole. But how could he tell her all those things without sounding foolish? And especially with a boatload of tourists yards away who might overhear.

  “Your hair reminds me of sunlight,” he’d said, and changed the subject.

  But he’d told her later, one night while they lay in the bed of his pickup truck on the prairie, snuggled in the warmth of a blanket while they watched the stars. He’d almost held his breath for fear she’d laugh at his sentimentality, and her reaction had stunned him.

  She’d cried. Tears of happiness.

  If he’d had any doubts about whether they were meant for each other, when she wrapped her arms around his neck and shed warm tears of joy on the front of his shirt, not the slightest misgiving remained.

  That’s why her ultimate desertion had blindsided him, left him reeling and confused.

  And angry.

  Had he been so infatuated, so crazy in love that he’d missed obvious signs that Jennifer hadn’t been sincere? He wondered now. And if not, what the hell had happened?

  He squelched the urg
e to stop the SUV and shake an explanation from her. Not a wise move for any man, and certainly not for the sheriff of Jester.

  Her next questions distracted him from his anger. “Who are the other Main Street Millionaires? There’re so many I can’t keep them straight. And do you think any of them are particularly vulnerable to the lowlifes you’re worried about?”

  He exhaled slowly to ease his repressed anger before replying. “Besides Nathan and Vickie, there’s Shelly Dupree. Shelly O’Rourke now.”

  “Shelly deserved to win,” Jennifer said with an emphatic nod. “She’s worked hard at the diner ever since she was a little girl. And you probably don’t need to worry about her. Shelly’s too smart to be taken in by con artists, unless she’s changed a lot from the way I remember her.”

  “We all change.” He couldn’t keep the sharp edge from his voice. “But you’re right, Shelly’s a bright woman, and her husband didn’t get to be a pediatrician without plenty of equipment in the brains department.”

  “Finn’s no slouch either when it comes to smarts,” Jennifer said, “but he does have all those grandchildren.” She shivered, as if imagining the same scenarios that had kept Luke awake nights since the Big Draw win.

  “I’ll put a bug in Finn’s ear,” Luke said. “Warn him to have his family be on the lookout for anyone suspicious.”

  “Dean Kenning won, too, didn’t he? I remember seeing him in the newscasts in Chicago.”

  Luke nodded. “Dean can look out for himself. And he doesn’t have any family. Although there have been a few rumors….”

  “What kind of rumors?”

  Luke pictured the jovial, heavily built barber, who was in his mid-sixties, with dyed-brown hair. He hoped the stories he’d heard were true. Dean was a great guy. He deserved someone special in his life. “Folks say he did more than just play the lottery on his weekly trips to Pine Run. According to the local gossip mills, he has a lady friend there.”

  “Does he still live above the barbershop?”

  “As of now. I haven’t heard how he plans to spend his windfall, but he’s lived so many years with the same lifestyle, I can’t picture him changing his ways now, in spite of all that money.”

  Luke gazed at the road ahead, the shoulders piled several feet high with drifts left by the snowplows. The thick blanket of white on the adjacent fields gave a monotony to the landscape that left him disoriented for a moment, wondering where he was. Then he spotted a familiar barn in the distance and regained his bearings.

  “Will Devlin is another winner I guess I don’t need to worry about,” he said, returning to his list of Main Street Millionaires. “Dev’s not the hell-raiser he once was, but he’s used to handling trouble in his business. The only person likely to give him grief is Amanda Bradley. Dev can look out for himself.”

  “I remember,” Jennifer admitted. “No one messed with him, not even when he was a kid.”

  Wondering what else she remembered, Luke added another name to the millionaire list. “Jack Hartman also won.”

  “I don’t know Jack Hartman.”

  “He’s a relative newcomer. One of our resident vets.”

  “Is he the one about to be married?”

  Luke nodded. “He’s a widower. His wife died in a car accident five years ago. No children. Now he’s about to tie the knot again.”

  “I heard his fiancée’s name at the boardinghouse, but she isn’t anyone I know.”

  “His associate, Melinda Woods. She’s new in town, too.”

  Luke had named over half the millionaires, and as he discussed them with Jennifer, some of his fears faded. They were a savvy group, not the type likely to be duped by scam artists or caught unawares by criminals. Still, he’d feel a lot better about security with an extra deputy.

  “And, of course, you know that Gwen Tanner was a winner,” he added.

  Jennifer nodded. “Gwen’s so down-to-earth. Except for new kitchen appliances, you’d never know she’s just come into a fortune.”

  “Then there’s Kyle and Olivia Mason.”

  “Does Olivia still teach?” Jennifer asked.

  “Yep, and still ranks up there as everybody’s favorite grade school teacher in Jester. Has for almost twenty years.”

  “Everyone knows how much she loves children. Did she and Kyle ever have kids of their own?”

  “Never did.” Her question set off a flood of sadness in Luke, reminding him of the children he and Jennifer had talked of having.

  Children who would never be born.

  Luke abandoned his painful thoughts. “Honor Lassiter was a winner, too.”

  “I remember her. She’s just a few years older than me. I always thought she was gorgeous. She’s never married?”

  Luke shook his head.

  “The boys were always lining up at her door,” Jennifer said. “I figured one of them would have proposed by now.”

  Luke had gone out with Honor a few times after Jennifer left him, but he and Honor had been good friends, nothing more. “Seems she’s been unlucky in the relationship department.”

  “Let’s just hope some jerk out for her money doesn’t steal her heart,” Jennifer said forcefully. “Even an extra deputy can’t protect her from that.”

  Lordy, that brought up a problem Luke hadn’t contemplated. If he let Jennifer know he still cared for her, would she think he was just after her fortune? No problem, he reminded himself. The woman obviously wanted nothing to do with him, regardless of his motives.

  Jennifer was counting on her fingers. “That’s ten winners. Who had the other two winning tickets?”

  “Sylvia Rutledge had one.”

  “What’s Sylvia up to these days?”

  “Owns the Crowning Glory Hair Salon,” Luke said, “and has a steady stream of customers—when she’s not out of town at some hair convention. She and Gwen Tanner are good buddies, so you’ll probably run into her while you’re staying at Gwen’s.”

  Jennifer slid her fingers through her hair, triggering Luke’s memories of his own fingers entwined in that soft silkiness. “I may need to visit her shop if I’m here much longer. And who’s the final winner?”

  “Ruby and Sam Cade.”

  “They’re back in town? I thought Sam was in the army and they lived on base.”

  “Air Force,” Luke explained. “And he’s still on active duty. Ruby came back to Jester a few years ago. She co-owns the Mercantile with Honor.”

  “The Cades are separated?”

  Luke shrugged. “No one knows for sure, and Ruby doesn’t talk about it.”

  “I hope things work out for them, but there are some situations even a million dollars can’t fix.”

  Ain’t that the truth, Luke thought. All the money in the world wouldn’t explain why Jennifer had walked out on him, why the love he’d thought would last a lifetime had apparently fizzled overnight. “Can’t buy me love,” as the Beatles’ song went.

  Suddenly he had the urge to drown his problems in a good stiff drink, and thought longingly of the Heartbreaker Saloon. Aptly named. But all the beer Roy Gibson, Dev’s Willy-Nelson-look-alike bartender, could draw wouldn’t answer Luke’s questions, make Jennifer love him again, or ease the pain in his heart.

  But tying one on could lose him his job, so he abandoned the idea.

  He stole a glance at Jennifer’s profile, cool and elegant, and wondered if she had any regrets over leaving him. But such speculation was useless. The sooner he could lose himself in his work and push memories and longings from his mind, the better. With relief, he caught sight of Jester at the next rise of the road.

  In a few moments, he could drop Jennifer at Gwen’s boardinghouse, and his exquisite torture would be ended.

  Maybe.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  THE MORNING AFTER her trip to Pine Run dawned bright and clear and thirty degrees warmer, but Jennifer’s mind was still fogged with questions. Questions about Luke, and questions about her grandfather’s estate. As she dressed for brea
kfast, she ran through yesterday’s meeting with Hank Durham, wishing he’d had more answers about Grandpa Henry’s affairs.

  She had arrived at Durham’s office preoccupied with thoughts of Luke. During what had seemed an interminably long drive to Pine Run, Jennifer had found Luke’s following behind her in his marked sheriff’s vehicle both reassuring and unnerving. Reassuring because he could give her a lift if her car broke down. Unnerving because of the powerful emotions he generated in her, feelings that ran the gamut from anger and hurt to love and desire. With relief, she’d waved him away after pulling in front of the car dealership, hoping she’d have a few hours without emotional turmoil before she’d have to face him again on the ride home.

  Durham’s office was on the second floor of the building overlooking the courthouse, and reached by a steep set of interior stairs whose treads were scooped with wear. Not surprising, since the plaque on the corner of the building indicated the clapboard structure had been erected in 1903. The stairway opened onto an upstairs hall, with Durham’s office on the right behind an opaque glass door with his name and Attorney at Law in gilded letters.

  Jennifer entered the reception room, where an attractive blond woman with ringlets massed atop her head pecked at a computer keyboard. A glance at the stack of bridal magazines on the corner of her desk clued Jennifer to the fact that the typist must be Cassie Lou Carwise, the woman rumored to be engaged to Luke.

  Jennifer’s heart sank at the woman’s attractiveness, before she reminded herself she wasn’t in competition with Cassie Lou. She had lost that contest years ago.

  She scrutinized the paralegal carefully, searching for some imperfection in the blonde’s appearance, but found none. No wonder Luke was interested. When Cassie Lou lifted her head and greeted Jennifer, her voice and smile were friendly and seemingly genuine. She ushered Jennifer into Durham’s office and closed the door behind them.

  Durham, a short, squat man looking nothing like the rodeo rider she had imagined, except for his craggy, sun-weathered face, came from behind his massive oak desk to shake her hand and wave her into a seat.