The Stolen Suitor (24 page)

Jeremy’s toes curled inside his shoes and his mouth filled embarrassingly with saliva. He laughed at himself. Lord, he had it bad.

Chris stood beside the car, watching Jeremy’s face with one smug eyebrow cocked.

Right. He was supposed to get out of the car now.

Jeremy smoothed his new sweater down one more time. He’d splurged for the occasion. It was a thin, creamy V-neck that set off his hair and skin tone, Jeremy thought. The yarn was nice and soft. He’d washed his hair real good too and blown it dry, pulling the long locks straight with a brush. He’d even shaved off the little bits of fuzz he tended to accumulate on his chin and over his lip.

He opened the door, got out of the car, and stood there, not knowing what to say. Why was he so nervous? He’d been with Chris lots of times.

But not like this. This was him and Chris, in public,
together
. Chris Ramsey and Jeremy Crassen, a couple in front of all of Clyde’s Corner. Like Romeo and Juliet, Bonnie and Clyde, Kim Kardashian and Kanye West….

“You look amazing,” Chris said as he stepped close. He put his hand on Jeremy’s arm and gave him a kiss. It wasn’t a sexual kiss, but it wasn’t fast and nervous either. It was a statement.
Relax. You’re with me. And we’re going to do it up tonight
.

Jeremy felt a rush of such goddamned bright excitement and happiness, he could do nothing but grin like a fool. “You look like a grape man-sundae in that shirt. I’m already looking forward to dessert.”

Chris smiled slyly and winked at Jeremy. “In that case, we’d better get moving on dinner. Ready?”

Jeremy was. He was so goddamn ready his face hurt from all the smiling. “Yeah.”

Chris took Jeremy’s hand in his, and they started walking down Main Street.

THE
town was quiet for a Friday night, probably because of the incoming storm. Jeremy’s hair was whipped by the wind, and it felt exhilarating and a little bit dangerous. They wanted a bit of a stroll, so they turned left out of the Mercantile, walked to the end of the business part of Main Street, crossed the street, and walked back on the other side, taking the long way to the diner. They saw Mayor Thomas and his wife, though, who both did a double take and then greeted them politely. Henry and Lloyd rode by in Henry’s red truck and honked and hooted at them—in a surprisingly friendly way. And Jeremy didn’t even care about the ugly, pinched look on Mrs. Temple’s face as she walked past. He just squeezed Chris’s hand tighter.

Then the rain started—cold, fat drops—and he and Chris ran the rest of the way to the diner and burst inside.

“Well, my stars, aren’t you two the handsome devils?” Nora said when she brought menus to their booth. She looked pleased as punch, even though her words were scolding. “You been holdin’ out on me, Jeremy Crassen.”

Jeremy squirmed under her teasing. “I don’t kiss and tell.”

“Um-hum. Well it’s about time I see you out on the town. I swear, I was about to snatch you up myself.”

“Nora!” Jeremy protested halfheartedly.

“And you, Chris Ramsey. You’d best be good to my favorite employee. I know where you live, honey.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Chris said seriously.

“What can I get you two fine young men?”

They both ordered the special and then Nora left them to their evening.

The chicken-fried steak was good, but Jeremy was so wound up, he didn’t have much appetite. He delved into the mashed potatoes and made a show of licking the spoon.

Chris narrowed his eyes and played with his straw. Up. Down. Up. Down.

Jeremy figured he was in over his head when it came to flirting, and he should stop before someone got hurt. He ate the rest of the meal meekly. They talked about fishing, about books and movies, and local hiking trails.

It was a nice, slow meal, and several tables came and went while they lingered. Over after-dinner coffee, Chris leaned forward, looking serious. “Hey. You didn’t reply to my text about whether or not I should print out the DU application and the financial aid forms.”

“Nah, that’s all right. I can print them out at home.”

“Okay. Do you want me to come over and help you fill them out? Tomorrow maybe?”

The delight of being on his first date faded a little. Jeremy looked down at his coffee cup, wishing they could change the subject. “There’s no hurry. The website says early admission doesn’t start ’til November first. It’s only August.”

“Yeah, but that’s for admission for fall of next year. That’s too far away. I think you should strike while the iron’s hot and Professor Optner is interested in you. His recommendation might get you a hefty scholarship. Even if you don’t get in this September, you might get in for winter term.”

Jeremy looked up at Chris from under one fallen hank of bangs, trying to gauge his expression. Was Chris that anxious to get rid of him? But Chris just looked sincere.

“What is it? Do you not want to go to DU? Is there someplace else you’ve been looking at?” Chris asked.

There was no place. There was no four-year college with a writing program within commutable distance from Clyde’s Corner—Jeremy had looked. There were other schools, sure, like the University of Montana in Missoula. But even that seemed out of reach financially—and too far from Clyde’s Corner.

“If I go to college,” Jeremy said slowly, rubbing his thumb on the polished wooden table, “I won’t be able to see you.”

Chris’s face fell. He opened his mouth but nothing came out, like he wasn’t sure what to say. Or maybe there was nothing he could say.

Ask me to stay
, Jeremy wished with all his heart.
Or at least tell me you’d miss me.

Chris started to speak, but his phone rang, spilling the sounds of “SexyBack” from his coat pocket. “Sorry,” Chris said with a regretful smile. He fished around in the coat and pulled it out. He glanced at the caller ID and paused, looking guilty.

“Take it,” Jeremy insisted.

Chris did. “Hello?”

Even across the table, Jeremy could hear the frantic pulse of someone’s voice.

Chris’s face grew pale. “I’m sure she’s all right, Trix. I’ll be right there. Just hang on.” He put the phone down, and Jeremy felt loose and empty, like he’d deflated from a high and was floating back down to earth, sad and flat.

“It’s okay—” he started, ready to excuse Chris from their date even without being asked. It was less humiliating that way.

“Janie is missing.” Chris looked scared. He glanced at the front of the diner, and Jeremy turned to look out too. By now the storm was fully on them. The tree on the sidewalk was whipping in the wind, and the rain hit the window in gust-thrown sheets.

Janie was four years old.

“Fuck! Do you think she’s out in that mess?”

“She must be. Trix says she’s not in the house. I told her I’d come over.”

“It’s fine. You should go.”

Chris shook his head. “You’re coming with me. I’ll get the bill.” He stood and signaled to Nora.

Jeremy grabbed his arm. “Chris… are you sure? It sounds like Trix has enough to deal with without… you know.”
You and me being tossed in her face
.

“Come with me,” Chris said, putting his hand over Jeremy’s and squeezing. “I want you there. Okay?”

Jeremy nodded. If Chris thought he could help in any way, he was there.

While Chris paid the bill, Jeremy got out his own phone and ran his thumb over the face of it. He knew Eric and Trix had had a falling out over the whole Mr.-Stubben-was-Eric’s-father thing. But he also knew his brother cared about Trix and Janie. A lot.

Jeremy brought up his favorites list and called him.

WHEN
Chris pulled his Jeep in at Big Basin, it was raining so hard there were currents of water running down the slightly sloped driveway. Thunder and lightning crackled and boomed in the distance. He saw the light in the stable and pulled up in front. Billy Stubben’s white truck was already there. Chris and Jeremy made a dash for it.

Inside, Trix was saddling a black-brown horse, and Mr. Stubben was arguing with her.

“You’re not gonna help anythin’, runnin’ off half-cocked,” he told her, holding on to her horse’s bridle. “And it’s too dangerous ridin’ Triumph out in this storm.”

“Janie’s out there, and she took Annabelle! Triumph is the strongest horse I have.”

Trix was beside herself, her face drawn and scared, more frightened than Chris had ever seen her, even at John’s funeral.

“Hey, we’re here,” Chris said. He went up to the stall where Trix and Billy were playing tug-of-war with the horse’s bridle. Triumph looked anxious, probably picking up on Trix’s stress.

Trix blinked at him as if forgetting for a moment that she’d called him. “Thanks for coming. Oh, Chris!”

“We’ll find her,” Chris said firmly. He tugged on the sleeve of Jeremy’s sweater, which he was not entirely surprised to discover he was holding. “This is Jeremy Crassen. I was having dinner with him when you called, so I thought he could help too.”

“Hi, Jeremy.” Trix nodded at him, a slightly puzzled frown between her eyebrows. But a moment later, her focus was back on Billy. “I need to
go
. I can’t just stand here.”

“You know as well I do,” Billy said with admirable calm. “There are a dozen trails out of this ranch and Janie knows them all. And there’s no visibility whatsoever in this rain. We need a
plan
, Trix.”

“Do you know how long she’s been gone?” Chris asked.

Before Trix could answer, there was the angry sound of brakes outside and a slamming door. A moment later, Eric burst into the stable. He looked wild, and not in the way Chris normally associated with Eric. His dark hair was soaked with rain, and it ran down his face. He apparently hadn’t even bothered with a coat, and his short-sleeved T-shirt was plastered to his skin. He clenched and unclenched his hands, his face open and raw.

He didn’t say anything. He just stared at Trix, and she at him.

“Eric—” Billy began.

“Let me help,” Eric said in a gutted voice, his eyes still fixed on Trix. “I wanna help look for her.”

She nodded, jerkily. “Please. Thank you for comin’.”

It was a weirdly intense exchange, and Chris knew it meant something, but it wasn’t exactly the time to wonder about that.

“How long has Janie been missing?” he asked again.

Trix’s eyes left Eric, and she faced Chris and blew out a deep breath. “I’m… we had dinner and then she said she wanted to go to bed early. I should have known… I read to her and she was in bed, in her pajamas. That was around seven, I think. I watched a movie and had a glass of wine, and when I went to check on her, she was gone.”

Chris looked at his watch. It was quarter past nine.

“Did you have a fight? Was she upset?” Billy asked.

Trix glanced at Eric guiltily. “She was… not happy that I’d let Eric go. She was talkin’ about him again at dinner.” She turned to Billy. “Pops, did she say anythin’ to you when you took her ridin’ yesterday?”

“We talked about Eric, yes. She didn’t say anythin’ that would lead me to think she’d run away.”

“Does she know where we live?” Jeremy asked Eric. “Maybe she took off to visit you.”

Eric shook his head. “No, I never told her about the trailer or any of that. I don’t think she’d have the first idea where to find me.”

“Oh God.” This came from Billy in a moan. He put a hand on the stall door to steady himself, looking a thousand years old.

“What is it?” Trix asked, alarmed.

Billy looked haunted as he met her eyes. “I… I told Janie about Eric gettin’ those back acres. I’m so sorry. I never
dreamed
….”

Trix slapped a hand over her mouth in horror, her eyes huge.

“Oh Lord,” Eric said. “She’s at the river.”

ERIC
rode through the driving rain on Trix’s horse Scarlet. At the best of times, the horse trails around the ranch and over neighboring roads and fields were soft dirt with a sprinkling of dried pine needles from nearby trees. Tonight, all that soft earth had turned into slippery mud, and the tree limbs that had been cut back for riders let all that heavenly water fall right onto the trail and Eric’s head. What missed him likely hit Jeremy, who was riding behind him, smack in the face.

Fortunately, Scarlet wanted to follow Trix, who was riding Triumph. When both horses weren’t trying to turn around and go back to the stable, that was. Trix was struggling with the big stallion, but she’d insisted on riding him. She wouldn’t endanger any of their boarders’ horses riding in this, so she’d put Eric on Scarlet and Jeremy on an older horse named Apple, and taken Triumph herself.

That was the plan they’d all agreed to. Eric, Trix, and Jeremy had ridden out to look for Janie on horseback. Billy was going to drive around to the back part of the ranch the long way in case Janie had made it across the river. Chris was supposed to wait at the ranch in case Janie came back on her own. Trix wanted someone there who Janie was comfortable with, and, though she didn’t say it, she seemed to know Chris wasn’t a good rider. Jeremy wasn’t either, but Trix didn’t know that, and Eric figured he should at least be able to make it out to the river and back.

Lightning lit up the air, flashbulb white, and a second later, the thunder crashed so loud it shook the trees. Silhouetted against the fading light, Eric saw Triumph rear up. He shouted, his voice disappearing in the air. But Trix, she was damn good. She hung on until Triumph had his forelegs back on the ground and stuck with him, soothing, as he shuffled back and forth, terrified.

Beneath Eric’s thighs, Scarlet’s flanks were quivering. He kept up a low murmur to her, rubbing her neck. She seemed frozen with fear. But when Trix got Triumph moving forward again, Scarlet followed. He looked behind him. Jeremy was a dim shape in the postflash dark, but he was still on his horse.

If he were a better man, Eric thought, he’d have taken the more difficult horse instead of letting Trix ride him. John would have. John wasn’t a greenhorn cowboy like Eric.

Lightning forked again, the sound coming five beats later this time—farther away, thank heavens. This time, none of the horses reared or bolted, but Scarlet froze beneath him and refused to move. Eric remembered what Ben had told him about controlling a horse—not through fear or pain, but with absolute confidence and love. He leaned over the saddle horn and told Scarlet they had to find Janie, that she could do it, keeping his voice calm. She hesitated, splashing nervous feet in the mud, but finally, she started forward again.