The Sheriff Catches a Bride (15 page)

Hannah came to sit on the edge of Bella and Evan’s couch. She held a glass of soda with both hands, balancing it carefully on her knees. Her frown told Cab she didn’t agree with Cody.

“But… you’ve got a gun, right?” Bella said. “So you’re far enough away that the bison can’t hurt you.”

Cody waved that off. “Plenty of things can go wrong on a hunt. All kinds of things.”

“Like what?” Cab asked conversationally. He didn’t mean to rile the man, but he also didn’t like letting him off the hook that easy. Something about Cody got under his skin.

“Like… your firearm could jam. Or you could… trip.”

Somebody snickered. Cab thought it was Bella. She shook her honey-blond curls. “It doesn’t seem altogether fair to me.”

“Well, I’d like to see you come face to face with a bison. See what you think is fair then,” Cody said. He shook his empty bottle and turned to Hannah. “Darling, you want to go grab me another?”

Hannah’s eyebrows shot up and Cab was sure she would tell Cody where to get off, but instead she took a deep breath, let it out and stood up. “Sure, honey. Anyone else need a refill?”

The rest of them shook their heads, but Cab stood up, too, and followed her to the kitchen. He wanted to see how Rose was faring. She glanced at him over the other women’s heads as he approached. “That’s when Cab arrived and stopped me from murdering Emory,” she said as if finishing up a long story.

“Thank goodness for Cab,” Autumn said and smiled at him, flipping her long hair over her shoulder before reaching into the oven to pull out another tray of appetizers. Cab had liked her right away when she came to Chance Creek from New York City, and he was glad she and Ethan had hit it off so well. Now nearly six months pregnant, she glowed with good health, her belly noticeably rounded. It was no coincidence that most of their get-togethers happened at the Cruz ranch. Autumn was a born hostess and she never seemed happier than with a roomful of guests.

“Thank goodness for you,” he said. “I didn’t like the thought of Rose going back to the carriage house last night.”

“There’s always a room for you here, Rose,” Autumn said.

“Have you talked to your parents at all about what happened?” Cab asked Rose.

She nodded. “They were pretty shocked. My Mom took Emory’s side at first, but she backtracked pretty fast. Even she couldn’t justify him burning my paintings. They don’t like it that I’m moving out, though. Dad said he’ll take Emory to see his family physician and
get it taken care of
. I told him you can’t get something like that taken care of. It got pretty ugly. I think they think that since I’m marrying Jason, I should be Emory’s nurse or something.”

“But you’re not marrying Jason, right?” Autumn said gently.

Cab flashed her a grateful look. Just what he wanted to say.

Rose looked down. “No, but I haven’t talked to him yet. I will, though—tomorrow. I want to be single again. I want to be on my own. I don’t ever want to be around a man who thinks he can tell me what to do again.”

Claire snorted. “Better not ever get married then.”

The other women chuckled.

Rose looked from one to the other. “Do you really believe that? Is it impossible to find a man who will mind his own business and let me mind mine?”

Autumn wrinkled her nose. “Would you really want that?”

“Yes,” Rose was adamant. “I mean, what does some… guy… know that I don’t know? Why should he have anything to say about what I do?”

“Well, maybe because he loves you?” Morgan said, leaning against the counter. She waved her Perrier. “Not that you have to listen to him or take his word for gospel,” she added, “but if he’s got nothing to say about anything you do, why be with him at all?”

Rose blew out an angry breath. “You don’t get what I’m saying.”

“Actually, I think we do,” Autumn said. “Or at least I do. You live in the same town where you grew up, your parents are still alive and you’ve been living on a property your fiancé’s father owns. Plus your fiancé’s father is a busybody who has just about lost his mind. You haven’t had time to discover who you are. You haven’t really been out on your own. Now that you’re ending things with Jason, you need to do that before you can become part of a couple again. Then you won’t feel so overwhelmed by it.”

Rose’s face fell. “Yeah. I guess that’s it. I tried to be independent before, though. I moved out from home, I got a job, but being engaged to Jason meant I lined up my whole life around his decisions, and with Emory being how he is I might as well have had a second set of parents living with me. I seem to attract people who want to tell me what to do.”

She flashed a glance at Cab, and a weight settled in his chest. Did she mean him? He wasn’t like that at all. Not usually.

Not all of the time.

“Oh, we all attract people like that,” Claire said, her black bob swinging. “It’s just some of us are better at telling them to go hang themselves.”

“Like you,” Morgan said to her. She turned to Rose. “If you want to learn from an expert, watch how she does it.”

Claire made a face. “I don’t think sticking up for yourself is easy for anyone, Rose. You just have to keep doing it anyway.”

Cab was beginning to regret he’d ever crossed the room. Felt like a lot of anti-male sentiment in this corner. The way he figured it, if you saw someone making a mistake you ought to tell them. You didn’t need to be mean about it, but a head’s up sure didn’t hurt. And if there was something you could do to prevent them from coming to harm, wasn’t it your duty to do it?

Autumn handed him a beer with a smile, but he thought he saw pity in her eyes. He didn’t like that one bit.

He retraced his steps to the opposite side of the room and took refuge among the men.

‡
Chapter Nine

I
n the end,
she stayed in Chicago overnight in a small hotel near the downtown area. Although she locked and bolted her door, and checked her windows several times, she found it hard to sleep more than a few minutes at a stretch. When she drifted off she saw Wahid, Abdul and Mehran again, walking down the aisle of the train, searching for her. In her dreams, she couldn’t hide. Instead, she felt compelled to draw attention to herself. She tried to whisper and raised her voice instead. Tried to shrink among the other chattering women and ended up standing on her seat.

Each time she lurched awake her heart pounded as she clutched the covers to her chin, scanned the room for intruders, listened for footsteps out in the corridor. Sometimes she heard them, and she waited, breath held, until they approached, passed and drifted into the distance. When her alarm rang in the morning, her eyes ached and her head throbbed. She wasn’t sure she could go on.

A hot shower helped. She unbraided her hair, washed it thoroughly, enjoying the spring scent of the hotel shampoo. She shaved her legs with the disposable razor she purchased the day before and used the blow dryer to dry her hair before neatly braiding it again.

She dressed in slim-legged trousers a shop attendant assured her were just the thing, pulled on an underwire bra a different attendant had held out for her inspection, and topped it with an eggplant-toned blouse and gray blazer.

“Something modest but classic,” she said to each shop clerk in turn, in memory of the woman from the train station.

She pursed her lips as she pulled out a new wig—soft brunette hair in waves that fell to her shoulders. Its tones were still far lighter than her own dark tresses, but it wouldn’t call as much attention to her as the blond wig had. She left the old one in the trash wrapped in a plastic bag and hoped no one would ever make the connection between the brassy blonde who checked in and the sober brunette who checked out.

“Hi Emory, it’s Rose.
I think we need to talk.” She paced across the bedroom Autumn had assigned to her and stared out the window at the gray November sky. It would be cold again today, but at least it wasn’t raining. Or snowing.

Emory sighed on the other end. “Let me guess. You’re not coming in today, either.”

“No, like I said yesterday, I won’t work for you anymore.”

“Some notice would have been nice.”

“I’d have liked some notice before you burned all my paintings.” She bit her lip and fought for composure. “I’ll pick up the rest of my things later today. I don’t feel I owe you any more rent since you destroyed my property. I won’t come after you for damages, though, for my parents’ sake.”

“Rose…”

She cut him off before he could finish his sentence. His condescending tone made her want to scream; no way would she listen to him blame her for the way things had turned out. “I don’t think there’s anything more to be said, Emory. We’re done now.”

“What about Jason?”

Rose tried to answer him but couldn’t find the words.

“He needs to be here. I need him here,” Emory said. “Since you’re abandoning me, I need my son. You’re the one who drove him away; you need to bring him back.”

“I didn’t drive him away.” That was rich, even for Emory.

“Why do you think he’s been gone so long? Because you haven’t acted like a fiancée should. Have you shown any interest in him? No. Have you made a home for him? No. All you’ve done is slouch around and play with your finger paints. No wonder he never wants to visit. You’re a lousy housekeeper, a lousy cook and not fit to be in the same room as him.”

“But…”

“I saw the way you mooned over the sheriff. You’re probably two-timing my son along with everything else. You’re humiliating him, that’s what!”

Rose couldn’t believe her ears. Emory was truly losing it. “None of that’s true! You know…”

“All I know is that it’s time to grow up, Rosie. Get rid of your little girl hobbies and go get my son. If you don’t, I’ll get right on that phone and tell him exactly what I saw happen between you and the sheriff.”

Nothing happened
, she wanted to say, but a memory intruded—Cab’s arm tight around her shoulders. Her desire for him to kiss her. Her desire for more than that.

“I knew it,” Emory said, seizing the chance her hesitation gave him. “I knew you were cheating on Jason. I’m going to call him right now.”

“No!” Rose said. “No, wait. Emory, don’t call him. You’re right, I need to go and see him. I’ll do it right away—tomorrow. We’ll get everything sorted out, you’ll see.” She’d break up with Jason but she’d do it on her own terms. No way was she going to let Emory screw this up, too.

“Go today,” Emory said to her.

Rose opened her mouth to contradict him, then changed her mind. Once she cleared out of the carriage house he wouldn’t know what she was doing. She’d pack everything she could fit in the truck and haul it back here to the Big House, then spend the rest of the day finishing her tree house. She could drive overnight to North Dakota and confront Jason first thing in the morning.

“I’ll come get my things right now,” she said.

Four hours later,
she handed the keys to the carriage house to Emory and prepared to leave. As soon as she’d told Autumn about Emory’s ultimatum and that she wanted to retrieve her possessions as soon as possible, Autumn sprang into action, located a number of boxes and rounded up Ethan, Jamie and Rob to help her. Morgan volunteered, as well, and with four pickup trucks and a car between them, they made short work of the job.

Rose didn’t bother to try pack neatly. She figured there’d be time to sort through her things later. She didn’t have a ton of possessions, anyway. The kitchen table and chairs at the carriage house were Emory’s, as was the sofa, easy chair, end tables and coffee table in the living room. Even the bedroom set was his. Apart from her desk and some bookshelves, she didn’t own any large furniture. Everything else fit in boxes and bags.

Ethan offered her a space in one of the barns to use for storage. She labeled the boxes as best as she could and kept those things aside she thought she’d need during the next few weeks. Sooner or later she’d get a new apartment and settle in. Until then she’d live lightly in the Big House bedroom Autumn had assigned to her.

There were still a couple of hours of sunlight left when they finished, so she said thank-you to each of them and headed out to the tree house. Eager to make progress and forget all about Emory and Jason, she decided to tackle the roof.

Unfortunately, it proved harder than she’d thought.

First she had to build the trusses. She was gratified that by following the directions she’d found on the Internet, she’d managed to make all the angled cuts right on the lumber she needed to build them. One by one she assembled the triangular supports. Only then did she consider how she would get them on top of the walls.

Cursing beneath her breath, she lifted one experimentally. Much too heavy for her to perch up there all by herself and then hold in place while she attached it. She would need help. Cab would love to do it. So would Ethan, Jamie or Rob.

But that was just the point, wasn’t it? She didn’t want to ask them for help. She didn’t want to be beholden to anyone anymore. And she sure as heck didn’t want any of them to know what she was doing. Thank goodness none of them had questioned her about the so-called shed she’d been building, for that matter. She hoped they’d forgotten all about it.