Black Heat (16 page)

She dug into her pocket and pulled out a small velvet pouch. "I'm so ashamed, Roan," she whispered. "I had it all along. Your mom's jewelry. But I only kept it because it was proof that he loved her so much. I couldn't bear to think that I would never have that, and I thought if I pretended that it never existed…well, it didn’t work."

She pressed the soft pouch into Roan's hands. "Anyway, I hope it's enough to take care of Angel. I have a little money, too—not much, especially since Patton owes me money and he seems to have flown the coop."

"Oh...I'm sorry," Roan said awkwardly. She hadn't liked Mimi's latest boyfriend, but then again she had barely given him a second thought. Much like Mimi herself—Roan had turned on Mimi long ago and never given her a chance. "This is all a lot to take in. I had no idea. I guess it wasn't always easy being with Dad."

"Some days it was wonderful," Mimi said forlornly. "Your dad could be so kind, and he was strong and good and thoughtful. He was never ever unkind to me. But I always knew his heart was somewhere else."

She started to fold the blankets, shaking them out briskly. "Anyway, that wasn't the only reason I came by."

"Oh?"

"No. I realize you're probably not going to want to see me after this, and I don't really blame you. But I thought you should know that your young man Calvin has never been late with his rent."

"Um…excuse me?"

"That might not seem like a big thing," Mimi said, not meeting her eyes. She set down the blankets, gathered up her purse and stood up. "But it says something about a man. He called me to offer to install motion lights on the back porch of the big house, too. Said it's one of the easiest ways to improve home security. He didn’t have to do that."

"Why are you telling me this, Mimi?" Roan asked.

Her stepmother was already halfway to the door. "Well, I just thought maybe one of the Brackens women ought to be lucky in love."

While Roan was trying to take that in, Mimi paused and gave her a fleeting smile. "If it wouldn't be too much trouble...would you let me know how Angel does after her surgery? She's a pretty nice dog."

And then she was gone.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

It was damn cold in the dining room of the old house, but at least it wasn't dark, especially with Jimmy directing a flashlight at the baseboards as Cal worked.

"You know Matthew and Jayne are thinking about buying this place from Mimi," Jimmy said.

Cal paused and surveyed the growing pile of baseboard trim in the center of the room. He was prying the sections off one by one, searching for a hiding place behind the walls. "No, actually. But it doesn't surprise me."

"Yeah, so, Matthew’s going to have to nail all of that back in place."

"Not if he's refinishing the floors," Cal said, thinking that the big house would suit the couple, especially since they were definitely straining the limits of the bunkhouse these days. "He'll have to take all the trim down. Probably replace a lot of it that was damaged in the fire."

"Interesting," Jimmy said, and Cal knew he'd lost his friend to musing over the mechanical process of replacing the trim. Odds were Jimmy would come up with some innovation for making the process simpler or easier or faster.

Cal kept working. They’d already done the hall. If they didn’t find anything in the dining room, the kitchen would be next. He was ready to stay all night if he had to—anything to find the treasure that Roan believed was there.

By the time he pried a bit of molding free from the window that faced the front lawn, Jimmy was muttering to himself and sketching on a scrap of wood. "Hey," Cal said. "I think I found something."

There was a space about two feet high and a foot wide between the studs under the window. Cal had noticed that the plaster appeared slightly raised there, as though it had been cut and patched. He reached into the dark cavity and touched paper. Very carefully, he pulled out a tissue-wrapped bundle secured with a faded ribbon.

"Could you swing that light over here?" he asked, but Jimmy was already kneeling next to him, shining the bright light onto the bundle.

Cal hesitated. "Should I look? Or should I just give it to Roan without unwrapping it?"

Now that he'd come this far, he was suddenly nervous. Asking for Jimmy's help had been hard enough, but Cal had taken Jayne's words to heart. His friends cared about him, and he might as well start acting like it. Reaching out was a start.

And putting everything on the line for Roan felt right, too. In a sense, the treasure hidden in her old house didn't matter. He was going to do everything in his power to try to make things right with her, to make her his. If that required patience, he would be patient. If it required apologizing, he would apologize. If it required loving her with all his heart, well, he was pretty sure he could accomplish that.

But it had occurred to him that helping her find the treasure would be a good way to start.

"Well, on the one hand it might be considered a breach of privacy,” Jimmy said. “But on the other hand, you have no way of knowing if this hidden object is the one that she was searching for. And if it is something upsetting or disappointing, you might want to shield her from that knowledge. I have noted that women can become rather emotional about unexpected outcomes."

"You think?" Cal said, smiling to himself. Jimmy was doing his best to help. Besides, Cal had already made up his mind. He slipped off the ribbon and pulled the tissue away.

Inside was a folded length of fabric in red, white, and navy. As he and Jimmy carefully unwrapped it, it became clear that they were holding an old American flag.

"This is incredible," Cal said, counting the rows of stars. "Thirty-nine stars for thirty-nine states...any idea when this would have been made?"

"Late nineteenth century?" Jimmy guessed. “Maybe 1870s or 80s?"

"Well, I hope it's valuable," Cal said, examining the tiny rows of stitches affixing the white stars to the blue background. "Someone put a lot of work into this."

"What are you going to do now?" Jimmy asked.

Cal started wrapping the flag back up in the tissue.

"I don't know. You think it's too late to take it to her now?"

Jimmy looked at his watch. "Almost one in the morning? On a work night? When you and she had it out just a few hours ago?"

"I see where you're going there," Cal said. "Guess I might as well get a few z's and shave first, huh."

"Well, it does seem like the logical course," Jimmy said. He shone his beam around the room, illuminating the old wallpaper, the cobwebbed windows, the oak floors. "This place must have been really nice once."

As they walked back to the old bunkhouse, Cal found himself hoping that, for Roan's sake, it had been beautiful and full of love. Who knew? If Matthew and Jayne had their way, maybe it would be again.

#

Roan was standing in the lane, watching a pair of chickadees skitter around pecking at the seed someone had cast out on the lawn for them, when the bunkhouse door opened and Matthew came out. He was wearing a pale green apron with smiling tomatoes embroidered on the pockets, and holding a pan, which he dumped into the frozen turned earth of the flower garden. He noticed her standing there and put up his hand to shield the glare of the rising sun. "Roan? Is that you?"

Roan didn’t think she could get much more self-conscious than she already was. She'd worn an embroidered cotton tiered skirt her father and Mimi had brought her from their honeymoon trip to Mexico, so beautiful Roan had never thrown it out, despite her feelings about Mimi.

Well, those feelings just might be changing. Along with a lot of other things.

Roan had also washed her hair and let it dry into ringlets, and put on makeup and her favorite old cowboy boots and a pretty soft blue coat she'd bought at a thrift store. She might not be everyone's idea of pretty...but she was hoping she might be Cal's.

"Good morning, Matthew," she said, hugging herself and shivering.

"You, uh, want to come in and have some coffee? I made Irish oatmeal, too. With dried blueberries."

"I'm not really hungry," Roan said. "But coffee might be nice."

"Huh." Matthew appeared to be trying not to smile. "Well, Cal's in there shaving and getting all dressed up to come and see you at work, so you might be able to save him a trip."

"Oh!" Roan blushed deeply. Apparently everyone was going to know her business with Cal—assuming she managed to patch things up. Maybe Cal was coming to yell at her some more, or—

"Poor guy's pretty torn up over you," Matthew said, holding open the door. "You'd be doing us all a favor if you'd come get him settled down."

"Well, in that case..." Roan took a deep breath and followed Matthew into the house.

Inside were the usual sounds of laughter and delicious smells issuing from the kitchen. Matthew led the way, picking up the coffee pot and a mug from the counter. "Look who stopped by!" he said heartily.

Just then Cal burst into the kitchen, a dress shirt unbuttoned over a pair of pressed khaki pants. "Hey Zane, did you borrow my brown belt?"

He saw Roan and stopped short, his expressing going from harried to anxious to hopeful in the space of seconds.

"Roan."

"Hi, Cal," she said shyly.

"I, uh, had something for you. I was going to bring it by the store. I mean, if you're working today. Or I could bring it by the house. Whatever's convenient."

Zane reached over and smacked Cal on the back of the head. "Quit talking," he muttered.

"Why don't we give them some privacy?" Regina said. She was wearing a sateen robe and fluffy heeled slippers, her lipstick in place despite her hair being wrapped in a turban, the picture of screen legend elegance. She winked as she led the rest of them from the room, Matthew grabbing the coffee pot as they filed into the living room.

"I wanted to let you know that Mimi found my mother's jewelry," Roan said. "I'm going to see Dr. Raj later today. I'm hoping I can sell Mom's things quickly and get Angel on his surgery schedule."

"That's—that's great news," Cal said. He didn't look all that happy, however. "Wow."

"Yes, I know." For a moment the two of them stared at the floor. Roan began to wonder if she should have come. Or at least worn a more normal outfit, and maybe tried to do something with her hair.

"You look beautiful," Cal blurted.

"I do?"

"Wait here."

He dashed down the hall and was back in seconds with a tissue paper package.

"I found this in the house."

"You did?" She barely registered the lumpy object, unable to take her eyes off his hopeful, handsome face. He'd gone looking for the treasure—he’d done it for her. He still cared about her, at least a little bit.

"Yes, and I think—"

She ran to him and threw her arms around him, hugging him hard. After a second he hugged her back, burying his face in her hair, kissing her neck, her jaw. "Roan," he groaned. "You make me crazy. I need you."

"You have me," she whispered, and then they were kissing, the package forgotten on the table where Cal dropped it. There was longing and need in the kiss, fire and heat and urgency, but there was tenderness, too.

When someone cleared their throat loudly from the other room, Roan broke the kiss reluctantly. "I think your friends want to come back and finish their breakfast," she said.

"I think you're right," Cal admitted.

"And I need to get to work."

"Of course."

"I really only came by to say hi."

"Hi..." He kissed her once more, softly. "Could I come by after work? Maybe take Angel for a walk with you?"

"Yes," Roan said. "It's a date."

She didn't blush this time, even when all of Cal's friends started cheering.

EPILOGUE

Roan was invited to Thanksgiving dinner at the bunkhouse, a grand affair that concluded with Matthew’s pumpkin ginger pies and a stolen kiss as Roan and Cal pitched in with the dishes. Dr. Raj was able to schedule Angel for the following week, and she was home recovering comfortably by the time Cal got the news that he’d passed the departmental exam with flying colors. They celebrated with champagne—and a meaty bone for Angel.

It turned out that very few thirty-nine star American flags had ever been made. In 1889, everyone believed the two Dakotas would be admitted as one state, and the next year a forty-three-star flag was made to celebrate the statehood of not just the Dakotas but Montana, Washington and Idaho.

Which made Grandpop’s flag extremely valuable. An appraiser estimated that Roan might get fifteen thousand dollars for it. But by then, she'd sold her mother's jewelry for more than enough to pay for Angel's surgery, even after keeping a delicate pearl ring for herself.

On a cold December morning, all of Cal’s friends attended the swearing in of the three new Conway police officers. After they took the oath and Chief Byrd shook each of their hands, he took the podium once again and looked out over the audience gathered in the crowded conference room. The room was overflowing with the new officers’ friends and family. In the center of them all, Mimi was resplendent in a zebra-striped suit and towering heels.