The Cowboy Lawman (3 page)

“No, that’s good.” He slid out of the booth and waited for Mia to join him. “I’ll give you a ride home.”

Mia stood. “You’re real funny.”

“You’re the one who said I need to start dating. Now if anyone in town is thinking it’s time, they’ll be satisfied to think that you’re the one I’m dating.” He winked and a streak of red crawled up her neck. Embarrassed or mad? He guessed he’d find out.

When they walked out the door of the Mad Cow, she slugged his arm. “That’s great. I tell you not to start rumors, so you go ahead and start the biggest one you can think of.”

Slade led her to his truck. He opened the passenger-side door and turned to face her. “I date.”

“Fine, you date.” She had that mad look on her face—one brow shot up as her eyes narrowed. “But you don’t date me. That’s not the way it works.”

“She’s been gone five years, Mia.” His heart still ached when he said it. Man, five years. Caleb was in kindergarten. Slade had a few gray hairs. He’d bought new furniture, finally.

They stood behind the open door of the truck. Mia’s eyes watered and she touched his cheek. A snowstorm at that very moment couldn’t have surprised him more. It surprised him for a lot of reasons he didn’t really want to think about.

“I still miss her,” she whispered, leaning close.

“I do, too.”

“She would have wanted you to move on.” Mia’s hand slid off his cheek. “I’m home now, so I can watch Caleb if you want to go out.”

“Thanks.” He cleared his throat and tried not to think about her offer. “We’d better go. I have to pick Caleb up in thirty minutes.”

“Sure, okay.”

She climbed in. He pulled the seat belt around her and buckled it. He knew that she held her breath as the buckle clicked. He was also aware of her breath soft on his neck, and the fresh-washed scent of her clothes.

He stepped back.

“Thank you.” She gave him a gentle smile and he closed the truck door.

They drove to her house in silence.

“If you want to go to church tomorrow, I can pick you up.” He offered as they pulled into her drive and parked.

She didn’t answer right away. He shouldn’t have offered. If people saw them showing up to church together, the rumors would definitely fly. He figured she had to be thinking the same thing.

“I’m not sure.”

“You’re not sure if you want me to pick you up or if you’re ready to go?”

“Both.” She reached for the door handle. “It isn’t easy, being this angry. I’m afraid I’ll go to church and the message will be directed at me, telling me to forgive myself, forgive God. Or, worse, forgive Nolan Jacobs.”

“That’s a whole lot of forgiving.”

She sighed and the door opened a few inches. “I’m going to find the leak.”

“I figure you probably will. But don’t get yourself hurt.”

“Little late for that.” She stepped out of the truck.

Slade followed her to the front door. She stuck her key in the lock and turned the knob. As she pushed the door open she turned to face him.

“I’m going in with you.” He reached past her and pushed the door the rest of the way open.

“Slade, Nolan Jacobs is a free man. Do you really think he’s going to show up here and ruin that for himself?”

“He might, if he thinks you have information that could put him back in jail. Or if he thinks you have that money.”

She stood in the doorway, blocking his entrance. “I’m good, Slade. You have to go.”

“Right.” He backed away from the door. “Mia, be careful.”

“I will. And you be careful, too.” She gave him an easy smile, the way she used to.

He wished they could go back in time, just for a little while, and remember what it was like to be young and think the world couldn’t hurt them.

She’d be tough, a fighter who rode hard and played hard.

He’d be the guy in love with Vicki, knowing they would be together forever.

Instead they were facing each other as if those other people were strangers, that other life a dream. And dangerous thoughts were going through his mind. The most dangerous of all—what would it be like to kiss Mia Cooper?

In all the years growing up together, they’d never kissed. Not even when they played Truth or Dare. He figured if he ever tried, she’d knock him down.

He’d been Reese’s best friend. She’d been Vicki’s best friend.

Now they were both alone. He didn’t know what that meant but he couldn’t let the thought go. Fifteen minutes later when he stopped at the house where Caleb had spent the night and he saw his son running out to greet him, the thought was still there.

He got out of the truck and met Caleb at the edge of the Martins’s drive. Mrs. Martin came out to tell him the boys had had a great time. Slade thanked her and picked up his son to put him in the backseat of his truck.

“Dad, I missed you.”

“Missed you, too, Cay.”

For some crazy reason, “missing” made him think of Mia again. He hadn’t realized until she came home that he had missed her.

Chapter Three

T
he doorbell chimed early Sunday morning. Not exactly sunrise, but Mia hadn’t been up long. She had a cup of tea, her computer and a shady spot on the back patio. No one would bother her on Sunday morning.

She left her tea and headed back inside through the house. Before opening the door, she peeked out. She didn’t know whether to be relieved when she saw the familiar car in the drive or run for cover.

A face peered in the window at her and she jumped back. Granny Myrna waved and then laughed.

“Open up, Sugar. I need a cup of coffee,” Granny Myrna yelled through the window and Mia nodded.

She clicked the dead bolt, turned the lock and opened the door.

“You’ve got this place locked up tighter than Fort Knox. My goodness.” Her grandmother pulled off white lacy gloves and her Sunday hat. “I ran out of coffee and since you’re the only Cooper smart enough to live in town, I thought I’d come over here and bug you for a cup.”

“You also know that I don’t drink coffee.” Mia hugged her grandmother, slipping an arm around her waist as they walked to the kitchen.

“Well, I do know you have a coffeepot and I’m willing to bet you keep some coffee in the house.”

“I do have coffee.”

“Well, then, I’ll just make a pot real quick and how about some breakfast?”

“Gran, you don’t have to cook for me. I had yogurt.”

“That isn’t enough to keep a bird alive. No wonder you’re so thin.”

“I’m fine.”

They reached the kitchen, and Mia’s grandmother had coffee going in a matter of minutes.

“I already feel better just smelling the coffee.” Granny Myrna gave her the once-over. “You’re not dressed for church.”

“No, I’m not.”

“And why is that?”

Mia glanced away from her grandmother’s piercing look, the look that always saw far more than the average person.

“Gran, I’m not ready to go. I can’t fix my hair or put on makeup. I can’t...”

“Face your pain?” Granny Myrna got right to the heart of things, the way she always did.

“I’m not sure.”

“Of course, you are. You know that you’re angry. You know that you’re hurt. You called out to God and you think he didn’t answer. That’s understandable. What isn’t understandable to me is how the strongest young woman I know could sit in this house and give up.”

“I haven’t given up.”

“No?”

“No.” Mia pushed the coffeepot because it was tilted on the heating element and about to spill out over the lid. “I’m not hiding. I’m just trying to get my head on straight.”

“I know that I can’t convince you that God was there that night, Mia, but He was. He didn’t leave you or ignore you. It just feels that way right now. You might never know why things happened the way they did. You might always feel a little angry, a little confused. But God can get you through the anger, too.”

“I love you, Gran.”

“Of course you do. I’m very easy to love. And I’m almost always right. Now don’t tell people I confessed to the ‘almost’ part. I’m just sharing that with you, and I’ll deny it if you tell anyone.”

“I won’t tell a soul.”

“Then come to church with me. You can take your anger there. It’s safe. And you might find a little peace to go with the anger.”

“You’re pushy.”

“It’s one of the perks of being eighty-five. And we have plenty of time. I’ll have coffee, you drink that nasty tea of yours and then I’ll help you get ready.”

Mia leaned to kiss her grandmother’s softly wrinkled cheek. “I am so glad you’re my grandmother.”

“Oh, honey, I’m so very glad you’re my granddaughter. And by the way, now that you’re home for a little while, maybe you can do something about Slade McKennon.”

“Why?”

“He’s far too good-looking to be eating alone at the Mad Cow. Don’t you think?”

“I’ll try to think of someone to fix him up with.” She smiled as she wiped up the counter. She knew that wasn’t what her grandmother meant, but it was all she could handle right now.

“You would want him to date someone else?”

“Gran, Slade is my friend—nothing more.” She thought about his hand on hers, and the memory took her by surprise. She and Slade had always been just friends. They’d shared a childhood, shared memories, shared grief.

The thought of anything more with Slade... She shook her head. Slade belonged to Vicki.

She led her grandmother to the patio and the two of them sat down. The sun had climbed higher and their shade wouldn’t last much longer. Mia closed her computer to keep her grandmother from seeing too much. Not that Mia had found anything. Breezy didn’t seem to exist.

What if something had happened to her sister? What if...

She picked up her cup and took a drink of the now-tepid tea. The thought that Breezy might be gone, perhaps had been gone for years without Mia knowing, continued to haunt her.

“Mia?”

She opened her eyes and smiled at her grandmother. The confession slipped out. “I’m searching for my sister.”

Granny Myrna set her coffee down with a thunk, slopping the brown liquid over the edge of the cup onto the table.

“Well, that wasn’t what I expected.”

Mia half smiled. “I know. I’ve tried over the years but now that I have plenty of time, I’m really digging.”

“But not finding her?”

“No.”

“You will. You’re the best detective I know.”

“Do you know a lot of detectives, Gran?”

“Well, not many, but you’re the best.” Her grandmother glanced at the delicate watch that had been her eightieth-birthday present from Tim and Angie Cooper. “We need to get you ready to go.”

Mia looked down at her sweats and the T-shirt she’d pulled on that morning. “This doesn’t work for you?”

“Let’s see if we can’t find a skirt to pull on with that shirt and not the sweatpants that I think you wore for gym class a dozen years ago.”

“They’re comfy.”

“They do look comfy, but no.” Granny Myrna stood and gathered up their cups. “Let’s get this show on the road.”

Mia left the house fifteen minutes later looking what her grandmother called “presentable” in a peasant skirt, flip-flops and the dark red T-shirt she’d put on that morning. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail and Granny Myrna had even done a decent job with lip gloss and mascara.

When they pulled into the church parking lot, Mia felt a sense of coming home mixed with a healthy dose of nerves. She looked up at the steeple and thought about all the angry words she’d screamed the night Butch died in her arms. She thought about bargains she’d made, bargains that God had ignored.

“Time to go in.” Her grandmother pulled the keys out of the ignition. “All to Jesus, I surrender.”

Mia gathered her purse and Bible. “Even anger?”

“Even anger.”

They walked up the steps of the church, her grandmother holding the rail. Mia slowed her steps, realizing with an ache that her granny didn’t move as quickly as she used to. In the spring she’d even had a few ministrokes.

At the top of the steps stood Slade McKennon and his little boy, Caleb. She smiled at the five-year-old boy with the blond hair because it was easier to look at him than at his father. Caleb, Vicki’s baby.

She remembered holding him at Vicki’s funeral, cuddling him close. When she looked up from Caleb to meet Slade’s gray eyes, she knew that he’d gone back in time, too. He managed a smile. Hers was slower to return.

“Good to see you here.”

“Thank you.” She looked past him into the church. “It’s good to be here.”

Behind her, Granny Myrna prodded her forward. “Slade and Caleb are going to ring the bell. We need to find a seat.”

Find a seat? Mia smiled at that. The Coopers sat on the second pew from the front. It wasn’t their pew. If visitors showed up, the Cooper clan moved. But most of the time, you’d find them there, sitting together. A few of the kids missed church from time to time. Heather went to church in Grove. She liked the anonymity of going to a big church. Blake Cooper, second to the oldest of the kids, sometimes had business that kept him out of town.

Gage and Dylan traveled a lot, bull riding or providing livestock for rodeos and bull rides. Bryan, the youngest brother, was in South America on a mission trip.

Mia called it his “guilt trip.” He had made a mistake, like so many other kids, and now he felt he had to pay for it.

Caleb reached for her hand as she eased past father and son. “Do you know I’m in school now?”

She smiled down at him. “I heard that. Do you like it?”

Vicki had always wanted half a dozen kids. Caleb should have been one of many. Mia had always groaned at the idea of six kids. She’d grown up as a Cooper, surrounded by siblings.

Caleb nodded. “We’re having a class party and the moms are bringing cupcakes.”

“That’s going to be great.” Mia looked up from the little boy to his dad.

“Let Mia go, Caleb. We’ll talk to her later.”

Caleb released her hand. Mia knelt next to him and wrapped her left arm around him in a quick hug. “I think I know how to make cupcakes.”

He smiled at that but Slade cleared his throat. “We’ve got it covered.”

Mia got it. Slade didn’t want her that involved in his life. She stood and followed her grandmother down the aisle to the second pew from the front.

* * *

Slade watched Mia walk down the aisle toward the front of the church. He didn’t know why it hurt him so much to watch her with Caleb. He guessed because it had hurt five years ago when she sat behind him at Vicki’s funeral, holding their baby boy. But today was different. Today something else had happened when he saw her hug his son. This was a different kind of ache.

It took him by surprise and he stood there for a full minute trying to make sense of it. A hand reached for his and pulled hard.

He looked down at Caleb and smiled.

“You going to hand me that rope?” Caleb stood steady in his new boots and his best shirt.

“I sure am.” Slade unhooked the rope from the hook on the wall and handed it to his son. “Ring the bell, Caleb.”

Caleb pulled hard, swinging a little on the rope and then pulled again. The sound of the ringing bell filled the Sunday-morning silence. It was a constant, that bell. It ranked with Sunday lunch, good friends, Vera’s fried chicken and weekends at the rodeo.

After Caleb finished ringing the bell, Slade followed his son down the aisle to the empty spaces they’d left behind the Coopers. Slade’s mom hadn’t shown up yet. He glanced at his watch. She was never late. Caleb slid into the pew and Slade sat next to him. He glanced at his watch and then at his silenced phone.

In front of him Mia reached to smooth her dark hair. He watched as she settled nervously, waiting for the service to start. He remembered the day he returned to church. It took him a month, maybe six weeks after Vicki’s accident. Looking back, he shouldn’t have waited. He’d avoided the place and people he had needed most.

His mom had tried to tell him that. He hadn’t wanted to listen. Now, with Caleb next to him, he realized they had survived. It still hurt, but they were making it. They were good, the two of them.

Lately his mom had been telling him that no one could take Vicki’s place, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t find room in his heart for love. Caleb squirmed next to him, digging in his pocket for something, distracting Slade from uncomfortable thoughts. He looked down at his son, frowning as the kid pulled something from his pocket.

No way. He shook his head at the half-eaten piece of taffy. It had lint stuck to it and probably bacteria that would light up a microscope. Caleb gave the candy a wistful look and handed it over. Now what in the world was he supposed to do with it? Slade sighed and fisted the candy. A tissue got tossed over his shoulder. He smiled back at Ryder Johnson and his wife, Andie. She grinned and blew a kiss at Caleb. Their twin girls were in the church nursery.

Life in Dawson was changing. Slade had come to terms with the reality that he and his friends were now the adults in town and there were new kids sitting on the tailgates of trucks parked at the local convenience store.

His phone buzzed in his pocket. He ignored it the first time. It rang again. A slow, bad feeling slid into his chest. He put a finger to his lips to silence Caleb and pointed for him to stay. He reached up, tapping Miss Myrna Cooper on the shoulder. When she turned he showed her his phone and pointed to Caleb. She nodded.

The congregation started to sing and Slade hurried down the aisle to the doors. His phone was ringing a fourth time as he stepped outside.

“Slade McKennon.”

“Slade, it’s Janie, on the ambulance. Hon, we’ve got your mom here. She’s having chest pains. We’re going to head for Grove Hospital if you want to meet us there.”

The tightness that had grabbed hold of him when the phone rang twisted a little tighter. “I’ll be right there.”

“Now, Slade, your mom says for you not to drive like a maniac. She’s fine. I agree with her. Don’t rush. She’s going to be in the E.R. and getting good care, so you take it easy.”

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “I’ll take it easy. Tell her I’m going to find someone to watch Caleb and I’ll be there in twenty minutes.”

Janie laughed a little. “Your mom said it better take you longer than twenty minutes.”

He slid the phone back into his pocket and stepped back into the church, where he nearly bumped into Mia Cooper. She wasn’t smiling.

“What’s up?”

He slid a hand across her back and followed her back outside. “They’re taking my mom to the E.R. She’s having chest pains. I need to make arrangements for Caleb and go.”

“Do you want me to take care of Caleb or go with you?”

“Mia, you don’t have to...”

She cut him off with a glare. “I’m either taking care of that little boy or I’m going with you. It’s your choice which one I do.”

“Can you watch Caleb?” He looked away, just for a minute, needing to ground himself.

“I think I can manage one five-year-old boy, Slade.”

“I know you can.” He glanced at his watch. “I’ll call you later.”

“That’s good. And Slade, I’ll pray for her.”

It took him by surprise, the softness in her voice, in her expression. It drew him in and he leaned to kiss her cheek. “Thank you.”