Читать книгу The Lawman's Christmas Proposal - Barbara White Daille - Страница 13

Chapter Three

“Did living in LA turn you off your mom’s good cooking?”

At his dad’s question, Mitch started. He looked up to find everyone at the table sitting with their eyes trained on him. The combined stares of his parents, two brothers and two sisters added up to way more attention than he needed.

“Are you kidding?” He forked up a chunk of onion, chewed and swallowed it. “I’m just trying to draw out the pleasure. You always did tell me I ate too fast.”

“You both do that,” Nancy said.

“Hazard of the profession,” his dad agreed.

Mitch nodded and tried to ignore the elephant in the room. Since he’d been home, he’d had plenty of hugs and kisses from the girls and lots of slaps on the back from the boys. He couldn’t deny his family’s happiness at having him here again. He just hated to see them all suffering on his behalf.

Everybody wanted to comfort him for his loss, he knew, but no one wanted to be the first to bring it up. His dad insisted on acting as though nothing much had happened. Even his mom hadn’t cornered him yet, as he’d expected.

And he didn’t want to think about recent events at all.

He glanced down at his plate. The roast Nancy had made for supper, always his favorite, tasted dry as dust. It wasn’t Mom’s good cooking that had him distracted, though. It was the vision of a slim woman with long blond hair and sad eyes.

“Your mom said you were out to Jed’s place this afternoon.” His dad passed him the meat platter. “How’s everything at Garland Ranch?”

“And how’s Daffodil?” his younger sister Laurie asked. Daffodil was an old mare living out her days at the ranch.

“I didn’t go near the corral,” he had to confess.

Like the typical teen she was, Laurie rolled her eyes. She loved anything that walked on four legs, but especially horses.

“You need to drop by the office,” his dad said, “and say hello to the boys.”

He nodded. He knew most of the men in Cowboy Creek’s sheriff’s department. Heck, he’d grown up with them. Considering what had happened, seeing them didn’t rank high on his list. Then again, stopping by the office gave him something to do.

It might help keep his mind off Andi and his decision not to visit the ranch again.

“Oh, Mitch,” Nancy said. “I forgot to tell you. You hadn’t made it home yet when Jed called. He wants you to go back out to the ranch tomorrow. He seems to have something important on his mind.”

Again, he had to appreciate the work that had trained him to keep his reactions hidden. He also suddenly found a lot more to like in his dad’s idea. “Thanks for passing the message along. I’ll probably be a while at the department tomorrow. But I’ll get out there again one of these days.” On another trip back home. When Andi wasn’t there.

“From what your mom says, maybe you ought to make the trip a priority,” his dad suggested.

“I can go with you after school,” Laurie offered. “I can see Daffodil and then go for a ride.”

“And,” his mother said, “I told Jed I’d send along some more vegetables for Paz.”

His brothers volunteered to help her box up the canning jars.

As he considered the conversation, Mitch sat back in his chair and shifted his leg to make himself more comfortable.

Nothing had been mentioned about what had brought him home. No furtive looks had been exchanged between anyone at the table. Yet somehow, he felt certain every member of his family had given the elephant in the room a strong, steady push in the right direction.

At least, from their perspective.

* * *

LATE THE NEXT AFTERNOON, accompanied by nonstop chatter from Laurie, Mitch drove up the road to Garland Ranch for the second time in two days.

She went on about her classes and friends and riding and the holiday open house Jed held every year at the hotel. He hadn’t made it back for one of those parties since he’d left town to go to school. Maybe he’d be gone for this one.

He thought again about his family ganging up on him over today’s trip. Something had made them all suddenly think the return to Garland Ranch would do him good.

Sure, they wanted him to relax and unwind and go back to being the son and brother they’d always known. That wasn’t going to happen, no matter how much they tried. He would never be the man he was before the incident. The incident...

He’d trained himself to use that cop-speak every time he thought about the day. To put a professional spin on an event leaving more than one man dead. To keep from obsessing over the knowledge his partner’s death was personal and a memory he would always carry with him.

He ran his hand over his face, then opened the window all the way, hoping the fresh air would chase away the images filling his mind.

“Hey,” Laurie yelped. “It’s December. You want me to catch pneumonia and miss the party?”

“You’d go to that open house if you had both legs and one arm in a cast.”

“Sure would.” She laughed.

He thought again of his family’s efforts to get him out to the ranch. Their methods had sent up a red flag. Something wasn’t right about their determination.

“You do much riding out at Jed’s?” he asked.

“Not as much anymore,” she admitted.

“Mom says you spend weekends there, though.”

To his surprise, her cheeks turned red. “Well, I go to see Daffodil. She’s old, you know.”

“Yeah. She had been getting up there even when I worked the ranch. She always thought she should be treated like a queen.”

“Jed said she earned that right. And Eddie... I mean, Pete thinks she likes when I visit.”

“Sounds like Eddie-I-mean-Pete knows a thing or two about horses.”

Laughing, she smacked his arm, the way she had done a hundred times before. It surprised him to realize he’d missed that, along with roughhousing with the boys.

“All right,” she said, “I meant Eddie. He takes care of the stables.”

Just the job he’d had the first time he’d seen Andi. The luckiest day of his life till then.

It looked as though his little sister might have the same kind of good fortune. Maybe hers would last. “Am I going to have to play biggest brother and give the guy a warning about being good to my sister?”

“Show him your gun. That’ll work even better.”

His hands clamped onto the steering wheel so tightly, he could barely make the turn into the drive. The flash of memory that hit made him wince.

PTSD, the psychiatrist assigned to him after the shooting had labeled it, the body giving way as remembered trauma took control. According to the shrink, the stress showed up in different ways.

Yeah, he’d dealt with that, right after the...incident. It had eased up a lot since then. He was fine. Fine, except for those nights he woke up in a sweat. And those times he paced his apartment to outrun the demons chasing him.

And, so it seemed, when he heard his baby sister joke about his weapon.

He parked near the corral on Garland Ranch and shot a glance at the woman who stood outside the fence, her back to them. Andi. He thought of all the drugs the shrink had offered him and he had refused. Seeing Andi again made him feel better than any drug ever could.

With one boot planted on the lowest rail, she watched a blond-haired little boy on a small Shetland. Her son, Trey, he had no doubt.

“That’s him,” Laurie said, as if she’d read his mind. But one glance told him her mind was on the teenager leading the horse. He’d wager he knew who that was, too.

By the time he had eased out of the truck and made his way around it, Laurie had left him far behind.

Either Andi had no interest in newcomers or she hadn’t recognized Laurie as his sister, because she hadn’t moved from her spot near the rail. He had time to notice the fall of blond hair around her shoulders and the way her jeans hugged her curves. He even had time to remember how it had felt to hold those curves. By the time she turned to look his way, he’d broken into a sweat brought on by the memories. That was the kind of healing meds he needed.

Dragging his shirtsleeve across his brow, he took a deep breath. Then he moved forward, cursing his knee brace and every halting step she had to see.

She clung to the top rail the way he’d gripped the steering wheel. Her gaze shot toward the barn.

“Eddie and Laurie are with the boy. Your son?”

She nodded.

“Tell me about your kids.”

The light in her face told him he’d said the right thing. The same light he once saw when she looked at him.

“Trey is two, almost three.”

“Ah. The terrible twos?” When her eyes widened in surprise, he shrugged. “I remember my brothers and sisters going through them.”

“Well, I’ll admit my son has had his moments.” A smile lit her face even more. “It’s been good for Trey to be here on the ranch and around Tina’s son, Robbie, and Pete’s two kids. You remember Pete Brannigan?”

He nodded. “Jed said he’s ranch manager now. And he did mention the kids.”

“Yes. He has a girl and boy of his own. All three of the kids are just old enough not to take any interest yet in my daughter, Missy.”

“She’s...?”

“Six months.”

“Yeah, she’s young.” He did the math. By rights, he and Andi could have started a family of their own before either of her kids had been born. But she had left him, and they had lost their chance.

The sudden faraway look in her eyes prompted him into speech. “Jed tells me you’re staying at the hotel.”

“Temporarily,” she shot back.

He winced at the echo of his response when Jed had mentioned his coming home. Hopefully, he hadn’t sounded as defensive. Looked as if Andi didn’t plan to stay around Cowboy Creek. Neither did he.

“I’m only here through the holidays,” she added.

“This is just a short visit for me, too.”

“And then you’ll go back to Los Angeles.”

She sounded as if what he did concerned her. He couldn’t trust that he’d read her right. But he would bet good money she hadn’t forgotten their summer.

He would never forget that day he’d looked across the barn to find the hottest girl he’d ever seen standing in the doorway, a blonde angel in a T-shirt, jeans and riding boots. He’d fallen head over heels and would have sworn she’d done the same.

Every day, once his work at the ranch was done, they had spent as much time together as they could. Until that one day she had just up and left without saying a word.

But here they were.

He had the feeling she was about to repeat history and walk off. “I belong in LA,” he said, half to remind himself and half to keep her with him, as pathetic as both of those felt for him to admit. “I’m with the police department.”

“That’s a dangerous job. A tough one for you, and just as hard on your wife and kids.”

As she ought to have seen by her own husband’s death, in the right—or wrong—circumstances, any job had its risks. He shook his head. “I don’t have a wife. Or any family there. It’s just me.”

Alone at home. On his own on the job.

And now standing here beside the girl who’d started him down that road.

He couldn’t stop himself from reaching up to gently stroke the fine, lined skin near her eye.

“I’m not wearing well,” she said with a forced laugh.

“We’ve all gotten older.” But maybe not wiser. He cupped her cheek with his palm. The warmth spreading through his hand more than made up for the risk he’d taken in touching her. For a brief moment, she tilted her head, resting against his hand. Her reaction closed the gap left by all the years they had lost. It finally chased away all his resentment.

Her eyes misted. She turned away. “I’m sorry about not contacting you. Everything was just too much for me. I had to focus on my mom.”

She looked toward the barn, as if planning to head over there. He didn’t want her to leave.

“That’s a big load for an eighteen-year-old to handle,” he said.

“For anyone to handle, believe me.” She sighed. “Sometimes, life doesn’t seem fair.”

“That’s because it isn’t. We all get the luck of the draw—and sometimes it’s bad luck.”

Just what he’d heard from everyone back in LA.

After a quick nod, Andi walked away.

He leaned against the rail, easing the pressure on his knee, and watched her go. That summer afternoon years ago, he’d had no idea he wouldn’t see her again. Would the same thing happen now? Was he simply destined to have bad luck when it came to her?

Though he could parrot the words his buddies on the force had told him, that didn’t mean he wanted to accept their verdict about the situation.

And though everything in him said he should keep his distance from Andi, that didn’t mean he had the strength to heed his own warning.