Accidental Cowgirl (30 page)

“I think Kyla’s just in a really vulnerable place.”

“So is Decker, honey. So is Decker.”

Jess fiddled with a salt shaker. “Does it have anything to do with Emily?”

Ma kept folding, but a little faster. “See her gravestone, did you?”

“I did. There was a big bunch of daisies on it.”

Ma smiled softly. “Cole brings those up every couple of days. They were her favorites. She used to bring me bunches of ’em all summer long. So many that I ran out of vases.”

Jess stilled. Good Lord. Emily was Ma’s daughter. And she’d died at age ten, according to the gravestone. She felt tears prick the backs of her eyes as she watched Ma carefully, unsure of what to say. “I’m so sorry, Ma.”

“She was a treasure, that one. Full of piss and vinegar, always getting in trouble, always talking her way out of it. She had her father wrapped right here.” Ma held up her pinky finger. “That girl could do no wrong.” A cloud seemed to come over her face at those words. “She used to drive Cole and Decker crazy. She’d follow them around, mimicking their every move, ’til they hid on her or tossed her in the hayloft and took away the ladder.”

Jess laughed at the image of Decker and Cole swinging their little sister up into the scratchy hay. It was such a typical big-brother thing to do. “She must have hated that.”

Ma smiled. “Oh, she’d screech and squawk and yell for help, but she ate up every minute those boys paid attention to her.” She paused her hands on a pile of towels. “They loved her so.”

“Did she get sick?” Jess hated herself for asking, knew it was none of her business, but in her heart, wondered if Emily’s death might have anything to do with the way Decker’d been playing hot and cold with Kyla all week. He couldn’t have been more than seventeen or so when Emily’d died. That was quite a time to lose a little sister, and scars like that healed—or didn’t—in curious ways.

“No, honey. She didn’t get sick.” Ma sat down on a stool, eyes far away. “She got mad. She got good and mad and wanted some attention. So she snuck into the barn and decided to prove she could ride a horse that Cole’d been trying to break. A monster, that horse. Had a bad owner, and we were trying to get him better. But no one but Decker could do anything with him.” Jess put her hands over her mouth, dreading what was coming next.

“Well, it worked. She got herself on that damn horse. But he took off and she just held on for dear life when he ran.” Tears glistened in Ma’s eyes, and Jess got up to put an arm around her shoulders. “Decker tried so hard to get to her. Soon as he heard the hoofbeats, he lit out after her on Chance. But by the time he found them, that horse had dumped her in the pond, got her tangled in the lines. Decker dove in after her, but it was too late. She was already gone.”

“I’m so sorry, Ma. I had no idea. I never should have asked.”

“You didn’t do anything wrong by asking, honey. Anybody sees a ten-year-old in a graveyard, they’re gonna wonder what happened.”

“How did you ever go on afterward?” Jess had tears in her own eyes, and she hadn’t even known the child.

“We didn’t at first. We almost got swallowed by the grief of it. Emily’s father never really did go on. He just shut himself away and did some horrible, horrible things. Me and Decker and Cole leaned on each other as hard as we could. Decker blamed himself for a long, long time.” She blotted her tears again. “Aw, hell, what am I saying? That boy
still
thinks it’s his fault.”

“Is that why he left?”

“He didn’t leave, honey. He got chased off this land by his own damn father.”

Jess sat back down hard. “His father made him leave? Because of Emily?” Jess stared at Ma, trying to reconcile the woman she’d grown to know in the past two weeks with a mother who’d let her husband drive away her own child.

“I never knew, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

Jess shook her head. “Of course not.”

“Baloney. I saw that thought flash over your face.” Ma patted her hand. “But it’s okay. Shows you know how wrong it would have been for me to ever,
ever
stand for it.”

“I’m sorry.” Jess knew her voice was small.

“No apology necessary. Decker’s father had me believe he’d taken off of his own accord. Made up a story about some long conversation they’d had. Told me we needed to let him go, let him find his way in the world, stop torturing him with memories of his baby sister at every turn.”

Ma looked out the window, eyes angry. “And I bought it. I fell for it, even though I was good and old enough to know better. I should have seen through that … bullshit, should have known Decker would never have abandoned us like that.

“He loves this land more than I do, if that’s even possible. There was no way he’d have
left by choice. But I was too blinded by grief still to see it. All I could do was hit my knees every night and ask the Lord to please let me at least keep Cole, if I wasn’t fit to have the other two.”

“Oh, Ma. I don’t understand how he could do such a thing.”

“In his mind, it was the only solution. He blamed Decker. Blamed him for losing track of his little sister long enough that she had time to get on that horse. Blamed him for not saving her once she was in the pond. And he made no secret of it. So every time he looked at Decker, he was just consumed by the rage of it. I couldn’t make him see reason, no matter how hard I tried. But I never,
never
thought he’d do what he did. Never knew a human could be capable of it. Never knew a father could write off his own son.”

“When did you find out?” Jess whispered.

“Not ’til the night he died. He was in a bad, bad place. He’d been drinking for hours. Said he had to get something off his chest before he went to bed. He told me what he’d done. He cried, he swore, he all but handed me a gun to shoot him with. And it’s a good damn thing there wasn’t one in the house, or I might have taken him up on it.”

She folded her hands in her lap, wringing them gently. “I went upstairs afterward, thinking I did not
know
this man I’d married, thinking I couldn’t be with him one more moment on this earth, and then I heard his truck start. I looked out the window and saw his taillights heading down that driveway, and somehow I knew I wasn’t ever going to talk to him again.” Her voice hushed to a bare whisper. “And I was right.”

“I’m so sorry, Ma. I never had a clue about any of this.”

“Well, good. You’re a guest. You’re not supposed to.” Ma wiped her eyes again. “Though why I’m breaking down and yapping your ear off is a mystery to me. I’m the one who should be sorry.”

“Please don’t apologize. I asked about Emily.”

“Well, though that baby’s up in Heaven, she still drives a lot of what’s going on around here. Just like she did when she was alive.” Ma chuckled softly.

“Decker’s dad really did a number on him, didn’t he?” Jess frowned as she ran through Decker and Kyla’s pathway over the past two weeks. Things were becoming more and more clear as Ma talked. “I can’t imagine what he went through.”

Ma shook her head again. “No, you can’t. I can’t, either, and believe me, I’ve done my damnedest to try since my husband died. But right at the time of his life when he should have
been preparing his son to be a man, Decker’s father made him feel like a worthless, undependable piece of trash he could just ship off with a couple of twenty-dollar bills. And I’ll do my best to undo all that poison until the day I die, but it’s going to take a long time before that boy believes in himself again.”

“I know someone who believes in him.” The words slipped out of Jess’s mouth almost before they’d formed in her head. Oh, Kyla was going to kill her.

“I know you do, honey.” Ma looked up and smiled as she patted Jess’s hand. “And I fear she’s just as broken as him right now. I just wish this vacation had been better healing for her.”

“It was, Ma. I think it really was. Hayley and I were saying at the hospital that she hasn’t looked this … alive, I guess, not for a long time. She’s been walking around the city like a ghost of herself for months now. When she could finally walk. That was a long time coming.”

“I’ve seen the color come back into her cheeks.” Ma nodded as she got up and placed dish towels into a drawer. Then she stilled as she looked back out the window. “Aw, honey. I’ll be damned if those two aren’t head-over-heels for each other, but both of them are too burned and beat up to believe it.”

Jess smiled. “I think you’re right.”

Ma lifted one eyebrow. “So … maybe we could do something about it?”

“What do you have in mind?”

“I don’t know, but it looks like we’ve got about twenty-four hours to convince them that they’re perfect for each other.”

“
That
would be a feat, but I’m game. So where do we start?” Jess got up and paced to the window to see if Kyla might be up yet, maybe sitting on the porch. She didn’t see her, but she also didn’t see her rental car. Jess’s stomach squeezed. Hayley wouldn’t have gone anywhere without telling her. “Ma? Did someone move my car?”

Ma joined her at the window. “I just got back from town about half an hour ago. I don’t remember if it was sitting there or not.” She turned to Jess. “You don’t think—”

Jess was already at the door. “Oh, I
do
think.” Dammit. Kyla had left. She’d tricked Jess and Hayley into taking a walk, and then she’d packed up and left.

Jess wanted to kick herself for being so stupid. How could she have fallen for Kyla’s little I-need-a-nap routine? Kyla
never
slept on purpose. She pulled her phone from her pocket and dialed Kyla’s cell. It went straight to voice mail. “She either turned it off or she’s in a dead
zone.”

Ma nodded slowly, grabbing the house phone. “Dead zone’s an hour south, just about. Okay, honey. Our mission just got shorter. After I make this call, you and me and Hayley are riding after Decker. It’s high time these two see each other the way they were meant to. If it takes a little motherly intervention, well, they’ll thank us for it later. You up for a good fast ride?”

“Absolutely.” Jess grinned. “But who are you calling?”

Ma raised her eyebrows, then winked. “I’m calling Roscoe.”

* * *

“Oh no. No, no, no,
no
. No cops this time.” Kyla glared at the rearview mirror, where a blue flashing light was gaining on her quickly. She half-expected to see Roscoe’s beat-up old truck, but instead it looked like a sleek sedan behind her. “Shit. This is why they call this color
ticket-me
red.” She put on her blinker and eased to the shoulder as the blue lights gained on her, but blew out a huge breath as the state cop went flying by.

“About time I catch a break,” she muttered to herself as she looked in the rearview mirror and pulled back out. At least this time, if it
had
been Roscoe, she’d know how to handle him. She flipped on the radio, but couldn’t seem to find any stations. She looked around and realized she was just south of where he’d pulled her over on the way into town. The dead zone again.

Two minutes later, she checked the speedometer and eased up quickly as she realized she’d hit eighty. These long, empty roads invited speed, and she certainly didn’t need the
next
cop to pull her over.

As if she’d summoned one with that very thought, her eye caught a flash in the mirror and she swore again. More blue lights, and this time she’d been speeding. Dammit. The blue lights were coming fast, and for a moment she wondered what might be going on ahead of her that had attracted two state troopers in a five-mile radius.

Once more, she pulled to the shoulder, but this time, the trooper didn’t cruise on by. This time, he pulled up right behind her bumper and jumped out of his truck. She sighed as she checked the rearview again. Double dammit. This time it
was
Roscoe.

He adopted a perfect trooper-pose against her door. “You been drinking, young lady?”

“Are you
kidding
, Roscoe? We’ve been through that one before.” She paused. “I mean, no, sir, I have not been drinking.”

“Kyla, don’t you go
no, sir
-ing me, woman. Get out of that car and come with me.”

“Roscoe, I’m not getting out of the car. I need to get to the airport.”

Roscoe laughed out loud. “Is that so?”

“Yes, that’s so.”

“Kyla, honey, ain’t no planes leaving that airport ’til tomorrow.”

“Not true, Roscoe. My flight’s scheduled for takeoff at two-fifteen.” She’d gotten the last seat on a flight to St. Louis. It wasn’t Boston, but it wasn’t here, either.

“Not anymore, it isn’t.”

Kyla sighed. “Roscoe, I’m really in a hurry, so I’m going to go now. You have a nice day, okay?”

Kyla put the car in gear and reached for the button to close the window, but Roscoe stuck his hand through and stared her down. “Kyla, there’s a tornado warning. You can’t drive any farther south.”

“Tornado warning?” Kyla leaned her head out the window to check out the sky. It was clear blue. Not a cloud in sight. “Roscoe, it’s beautiful out.”

“You ever seen a tornado, Kyla?”

She shook her head. “No, I haven’t. I live in Boston.”

“Then you don’t know what the sky looks like just before one, do you?”

Kyla got a little nervous flutter in her tummy. Tornado? Seriously? No, she’d never seen one, but didn’t people talk about heavy air, greenish-yellow skies, low boiling clouds on tornado days? She’d never heard about tornadoes sprouting up on perfectly gorgeous blue-sky days. “Roscoe, are you serious?”

“Dead serious, honey. Now get your stuff and get in my truck.”

Ha. Right. No way was she riding with Roscoe. “And where would you take me?”

“Somewhere safe, Kyla. We can’t stay out here on the highway. We’re sitting ducks.”
Roscoe looked around like he expected to spot a funnel cloud any second.

Kyla looked into his eyes, but they were as clear as could be. Dammit. He wasn’t lying. Right under bears, lightning, and a broken ankle, she was about to add
tornado
. Unbelievable. “Why can’t I follow you, Roscoe?”