“I did say he’s rich, didn’t I?”
Liberty spoke to Sarge. “The ring is a family heirloom from my fiancé’s great-grandmother.”
“Well, it’s big. My Maggie, she didn’t get a ring right away, and when she did, she wouldn’t let me get a big one.” Sarge frowned, and his large hand pulled away from Jake’s to start worrying the hem of the blue blanket. “It was small, so small, but she really loved it.”
Jake touched his arm to get his attention. “Now, tell me what’s happening with you.”
Instead of answering Jake, Sarge asked his own question. “You still testing them fancy million-dollar jets?”
“Add a lot more millions to that and yes, I do it once or twice a year.”
“You should have gone into the air force, not the army, then you could’ve done it there and had regular work.”
Jake had joined the army right out of high school, and he’d only done that to figure out what he wanted to do in life. It hadn’t been his goal to stay in the military longer than he had to. “I do what I want to do, when I want to do it,” Jake said with a familiar ease that he knew smacked of a teenage boy who’d been cocky sometimes.
“Like you always did,” Sarge said on a sigh. “No ties, no bonds.”
“And no need to be told what to do, either.”
There wasn’t the expected smile from the man that should’ve come with the banter. Instead, Sarge turned to Liberty. “You know him well?”
She glanced at Jake, then leaned toward Sarge as if sharing a secret with him. “I’m getting to.”
“Let me tell you something about Jake. Same old, same old,” he said. “Jake stays with Jake. He’s on his own. He should have been a marine and learned to be a team player.”
“So, Jake’s a loner?” she asked with a smile.
But Sarge frowned. “Most of the boys are. It’s hard for them to trust anyone, you know. They never learned how. Me and Maggie tried, but it’s hard for them.”
Jake touched the man’s arm, but once again, the contact was ignored. “What’s your name?” Sarge asked Liberty, despite the fact that they’d just been introduced.
“Libby.”
“No, no, the other one.”
“Liberty?”
“Liberty, yes. That means freedom,” he said, looking pleased with himself. “Maybe you can help Jake get free.”
She gave Jake a look he couldn’t read at all and said, “Jake’s very free.”
“No, no,” Sarge said, shaking his head, slowly at first, then a bit faster as he turned to Jake. “You never listen to me, son, never. I told you, you need a Maggie in your life. Someone to be with, to…” He looked sad suddenly. “To make you not alone.”
Jake was holding the metal safety rail so tightly his hands were tingling. He felt tight in the chest, too, and just wanted to breathe cold air. Before he knew he was going to say it, he asked Sarge, “Whatever happened to Moon Dance?”
CHAPTER SIX
LIBBY LOOKED AT JAKE, and there was no doubt he hadn’t missed anything Sarge had said, nor was he confused by what was said. He wanted to leave. His face was taut, and his hands looked as if they would crush the metal railing he was gripping. “We should let you get some rest,” she said to Sarge. Unexpectedly, the man reached toward her and took her hand in his. She was stunned by his next words and the tight grip he had on her. “Maggie, please don’t go.”
She tried to think what to do. But one glance at Jake watching the big man with clear pain in his eyes told her she was on her own. Taking a breath, she prayed she was doing the right thing. “I never want to leave you,” she said. “You know that.”
Sarge spoke in a shaky whisper. “I just get so lonely sometimes, Maggie.”
Her heart ached. “You’ll always have me,” she promised with absolutely nothing to back that up. “But you need to rest. You need to get better.” She squeezed his hand gently. “Will you do that for me?”
He sighed. “Okay, I’ll try.”
“Thank you,” she said as she heard the door open. She turned to see a gray-haired man in casual slacks and a short-sleeved blue shirt coming into the room. He had a sprig of holly clipped to a gold name tag on the breast pocket of his shirt that read Dr. Clayton Miller, Director.
“Hey, Sarge, what’s going on?” the doctor asked as he approached the bed on Libby’s side.
Sarge let go of her, and Libby moved back to give Dr. Miller space. “Doc, you…?” Sarge screwed up his face with an intensity that came from nowhere. “I just…don’t know.”
In a soothing tone, the doctor said, “That’s okay. I’m not here for more tests. I’m here to get your order for dinner. We have great beef stew tonight or roast chicken.”
Suddenly Sarge was talking about what he wanted to eat and didn’t seem to notice Libby moving farther away. She glanced over at Jake and mouthed, We need to talk to the doctor before we leave. Then she spoke to the doctor. “Dr. Miller?”
He glanced up at her, and she didn’t have to ask her question. “I’ll meet you in the hallway in a few minutes,” he said.
Immediately Jake spoke to Sarge. “Sarge, I’ll be back soon.”
“Okay,” the big man said without looking up from the laminated menu the doctor had handed him.
Jake started across to the door with Libby following him, but they didn’t make their exit before Sarge spoke up. “Real sorry you went tail-over-head trying to get on that horse, Jake.”
Libby quickly touched Jake’s back to stop him, and when he turned to look at her, she mouthed what Sarge had just said. He understood and looked past her at Sarge. “Hey, you were the one who told me to push and pull as hard as I could.”
Sarge looked up at him with a slight smile. “Yeah, I did, son, but it was still pretty darn funny. You should have told me you’d never ridden anything but a bike before. Lies can bite your back end sometimes.”
“Yeah, they sure can. Now, I’ll be back after you get some rest,” Jake said, and turned to head out of the room.
Libby nodded to the doctor and stepped into the hallway after Jake. A few minutes later, Dr. Miller came out, and he didn’t say anything until the door was shut behind him. Libby made sure that she was facing Jake when Dr. Miller spoke. “He’s doing well, considering his other issue, but right now, he’s tired from the transfer and needs rest. His leg is healing faster than expected, so we’re getting him into physical therapy after he settles in.”
“He’s confused and thought I was his wife, Maggie,” Libby said. “I let him believe it. I hope that wasn’t wrong.”
“Indulging him to make him calmer and feel better is never wrong.”
“Thank you.”
Jake finally spoke up. “I’ll be back to see him in a few days.”
“He needs rest, so call before you come to see how things are, but it will do him good to see familiar faces. If you have any questions, feel free to call me or Julia.”
When the doctor went back into Sarge’s room, Jake and Libby headed to the reception area, then stepped out into the wind and cold. Jake went directly to the passenger door of the truck and got in while Libby went around to get behind the wheel. When she started the engine and heat began to flow into the cab, she reached to pick up her cell phone off the console. One glance at the screen and she saw a text from Roger’s mother. She ignored it the way she had the other two she’d noticed earlier. She wasn’t in the mood to talk about wedding plans, not after this visit. She’d do it later. She tapped Jake’s arm to get his attention.
“Do you want me to call Seth, maybe do a video call so you can talk to him?”
He took out his own cell and quickly wrote a text, sent it, then looked back at her. “Just messaged him,” he said, then asked, “Where do we go for the car battery?”
She put in a search on her phone and found an auto supply store
they must have passed coming to see Sarge. When she glanced up, Jake was looking at her. “Found one,” she said. “It’s right on the way back to the highway.”
“Okay,” he said. “Let’s go.”
Putting her phone back in her jacket pocket, she glanced at Jake and could see him taking slow, measured breaths. His head was back against the headrest, and his eyes were closed. She reached across the console to tap his arm. As he opened his eyes and slowly turned toward her, she asked, “Are you okay?”
“Sure,” he said, cutting off any more discussion by turning to look out the side window.
“Okeydokey,” she muttered to herself and drove back toward the highway. When she spotted the auto parts store, she pulled into the parking lot and found an empty spot right by the entry doors. “You want to come in?” she asked Jake.
“No, I’ll stay here.”
She left the truck idling and hurried into the store. A clerk found the right battery for her, then she spotted a section of the store dedicated to artificial Christmas trees and decorations. As quickly as she could, she picked up everything she was going to need to decorate her and Roger’s future real Christmas tree. Maybe there would even be enough to decorate a bit in the great room. She picked up several boxes of her favorite decoration—candy canes—and had a full cart by the time she went back outside.
Jake got out of the truck and came around to her. He frowned at the full shopping cart, and she thought he might say something, but he didn’t. He didn’t meet her eyes, either. He just opened the large security storage box in the back of the truck bed, emptied the cart into it, then closed it.
“It looks as if we’re in for snow soon. Let’s get back to the ranch.” He opened the passenger door and climbed into the truck, and she followed.
“Did you really go tail-over-head off of Moon Dance?”
He exhaled heavily. “Yes. I flew right over the saddle and did a face-plant on the ground. Now can we go?”
She wanted to take the tightness out of his expression. “I bet you got back on, didn’t you?”
“I had to get back on or risk looking like a coward.”
“My parents had a friend who had horses, and I rode a twenty-year-old horse named Old Dan.”
He seemed impatient. “I bet you were really good at it.”
“I didn’t go tail-over-head when I tried to get up in the saddle for the first time.”
Jake actually chuckled skeptically. “Sure, because girls are much more cautious and proper.”
“Should I add that to your list?” she asked, wishing he could hear her sarcasm.
“Add what to what list?”
“The list with only stupid jerk on it right now, but I can add sexist.”
He laughed this time and she loved the sound. “Sure, why not. So, you were a natural rider from the get-go?”
She crinkled her nose in a grimace. “No. I didn’t get back on that horse or any other horse ever again.”
He smiled at that. “Okay, the score for following through is Jake, one, Liberty, zero.”
She shrugged. “Gloat if you must, but being up on that horse was terrifying. He was huge.”
There was still a smile shadowing his lips, and it made him look younger and less tense. “You’ll never know what you missed.”
She shook her head. “If I’ll never know, then it doesn’t matter, does it?”
“Touché,” he murmured, and she started the truck and pulled out onto the road heading south.
The trip back was silent until they were just past the blind curve on the county road. That’s when it started to snow. “I’ll get the battery changed before we go inside.”
With a quick glance, she said, “It can wait until tomorrow.” Then she focused on the road ahead and finally saw the boulders. They were already topped by clinging snow that was being driven by the wind. She took it easy driving between them and up to the house. When she stopped the truck by her Jeep, she laid her hand on his arm to keep Jake from getting out.
“I’ll just say this, and I won’t say it again. I really appreciate you staying another day or two. Without a phone, especially my cell, I’m kind of at a loss, and I’d feel better not to be here totally alone.”
He only nodded, then said, “I’ll get the battery in.” He got out of the truck into snow and looked back into the cab at Liberty. “I’ll get the battery and tools. You get in the Jeep to pop the hood for me.” He swung his door shut.
Fifteen minutes later, Libby met Jake on the front porch after he’d changed the battery, and they hurried into the house together. It was warm and quiet being out of the coming storm. Jake stripped off his jacket and tossed it onto the cowhide bench, then he kicked his boots under the seat. He turned toward her as she nudged her boots under the bench by his. “That should do it, but have the Jeep checked by Henry in Eclipse.”
“I will. I owe you big-time for the furnace and the battery.” She hesitated, but had to ask, “You really are staying longer, aren’t you?”
He shrugged. “I’m going to stay until the landline works and the storm’s over.” Libby was so relieved, she had to stop herself from reaching out to hug him again. He hadn’t responded that first time, and she didn’t want a repeat. So she clasped her hands together and said with feeling, “Thank you.”
Jake just nodded again and turned away to head into the great room.
The wind suddenly ran over the house like a train gone wild, and Libby felt herself tense. Wind brought bad memories from a part of her past that she didn’t want to revisit. She glanced out the window by the door. Large snowflakes swirled in the wind while the world outside turned white. She crossed to the great room and saw Jake standing by the couch unzipping his duffel bag. When he glanced toward her as she walked in, he was holding a rusted metal box about the size of a rectangular wallet in his hand. “You need something?” he asked.
She shrugged. “No, just…you know.”
He pushed the box into the duffel, then zipped it up. She watched his shoulders moving under his black thermal shirt before he looked back at her. “No, I don’t know.”
She didn’t want to be alone with the wind. She’d been alone one too many times as a child when the wind had come up and there was no one there for her. She didn’t imagine that Seth had told Jake about that part of her life in foster care, and she found she didn’t want to share it with him, so she shifted away from it. “I’m just wondering about something Seth told me to convince me to come here over Christmas.”
He tossed the duffel over the arm of the couch and onto the floor with a thud, then turned to her. “He told you Santa lived here?” There was a hint of smile on his face that she welcomed very much.
“Not quite, but he did say Roger and I could have our own Christmas tree.”
He took his time sitting down on the couch. “Sure you can,” he finally said.
She went over to him, then sat down on the braided rug on the floor facing up at him. Crossing her legs, she said to him, “Do you know where there might be an ax around here?”
That brought a chuckle. “You want to play lumber jack, or is it for a nefarious reason?”
“Nothing bad. I need to chop down a Christmas tree. What’s Christmas without a tree with candy canes, lights, tinsel and gifts under it?”
“Uncluttered,” he said.
“Translation? Bah humbug.”
He sat forward to rest his forearms on his thighs. “Your fiancé isn’t big on it, I’d guess.”
That took her aback. “Why would you think that?”
“You said he gave up the chance of coming here with you for Christmas.”
“No, I said he had to stay longer on the work site, but he’ll be here before Christmas.”
“Really?” Jake asked.
“Unless something unexpected comes up on the site.”
> He frowned slightly. “So he wouldn’t come then?”
His question was fair, but he sounded annoyed. “Does it offend you that Roger is dedicated to his work?”
“That’s a strong word. Why would it offend me? He’s your fiancé, and I sure don’t know him.”
“Yes, he is, and it’s between us,” she said, but that wasn’t really accurate. Roger hadn’t asked for her input about him staying on at the new site. She liked to think she would have probably agreed, if he’d asked her. She had to admit, he seldom asked for her input on his work or schedule. But it always worked out eventually.
Jake gave a wry smile. “He’s going to be at the wedding, isn’t he?”
She brushed that away, saying, “So glad you’ve agreed to stay.”
“Do you always get your way?” he asked with a touch of teasing in his voice.
“No, but I am glad you’re staying,” she said genuinely. “It’s better not to take chances like that.”
“You’re pretty cautious, aren’t you?”
She couldn’t deny being too cautious, too planned and too protective sometimes. She’d never admit to anyone that it scared her to think of just letting things happen. “I’m not usually very freewheeling. I’m a realist, and I like order. I might be a bit uptight.”
“A bit?” he asked with a lifted eyebrow.
So, he saw her as an uptight, overly concerned person who probably never let go. Her early years of having no control over anything had left scars. She knew that. Roger had been a godsend. He was dependable and safe, and she loved him for being so dedicated to his work. His parents had been pushing about wedding arrangements ever since the engagement, but she’d find a way to control that, too.
“What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done?” Jake asked. “Don’t say you’ve never had a crazy moment. Everyone’s done something unexpected, even people who don’t think they ever will. So, what was your moment?”
She wished she could tell him something that would knock him off his feet, but her life hadn’t been filled with crazy moments after she’d been adopted. She certainly wasn’t going to bring up how she’d tried to run away from her first foster home. That was over and done. “What do you classify as crazy?” she asked.
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