The Sheriff Catches a Bride (16 page)

Maybe she should ask one of her female friends. Not Autumn—she was pregnant, and Claire and Morgan were out for the same reason. So was Mia. Hannah frowned. She was surrounded by expecting mothers now that she thought about it.

That left Bella, who was much too busy, and Hannah—just as busy.

On a hunch, she called Hannah.

Hannah answered her cell phone quickly. Rose explained what she was doing, and taking a deep breath, swore her to secrecy. Then she told her about the tree house. When she tentatively asked for help with the roof, Hannah eagerly agreed.

“We’re closing shop early today. Bella’s off looking at properties again, so I can be there in a half-hour. Will that work?”

Squinting at the sun that was already getting low in the sky, Rose agreed. “Hurry if you can, though. We don’t have much daylight left.” She gave her directions to the woods, and told her how to pull her car behind the trees to hide it from the road.

Hannah was there in less than half an hour and with very little preamble they got to work. Hannah didn’t seem surprised at all that Rose was building a tree house in Carl’s woods. Instead, she appeared intrigued. More than once Rose caught her scanning the area around them, and she wondered uneasily what Hannah was thinking about. She remembered her asking if she ever wanted to get away from it all. Hannah and Cody weren’t doing so well. Was Hannah planning an escape, too?

They struggled to lift the trusses into place, but with two ladders and a lot of swearing, they were able to do it. They braced each one and then attached them to the walls. Dusk was falling fast by the time the last one was in place.

“Do we leave them like this?” Hannah said, squinting up at the four triangles pointing up into the air once they’d climbed back down to the ground for the final time. They’d tacked on some clear plastic to hold out the weather, but otherwise the roof was unfinished.

“I guess. I wish we’d had time to put the plywood up, too. That would have made it solid,” Rose said.

“Why don’t we?”

“It’s getting dark and when Cab gets home to Carl’s he’ll be able to hear us hammering.”

Hannah checked her watch again. “In that case, we’d better head out.”

“Thanks for coming,” Rose said when they’d tidied up and returned to their vehicles.

“No problem. I love this.” Hannah seemed reluctant to leave.

“Are you and Cody all right?” Rose asked tentatively as she carefully placed her tools in the truck.

“I don’t know,” Hannah said. “I really thought he was the one, but there are some things about him…” She shook her head. “Maybe I’m too picky.”

“I don’t know about that. When you choose a husband you want to get it right. You probably should be picky.”

“What about you and Jason? Is that really over?”

Jason. She was supposed to be on her way to North Dakota right now. Rose grimaced at the thought of the trip ahead of her. “I don’t know, either. I think so. I’m having a hard time getting up the nerve to tell him about it, though. In fact, I’m hiding from Emory right now. If you see him in town, tell him I’ve gone to North Dakota. In fact, tell everyone that. I’ll head out as soon as I clean up.”

Hannah looked at her sharply. “You’re driving to North Dakota tonight?”

“I should.” She sighed. “I don’t want to, though.”

“Then don’t. Go get some sleep. Start in the morning. I don’t like the idea of you driving overnight.”

Now Hannah was going to tell her what to do? But Rose didn’t feel like getting worked up about it. Somehow her friend’s concern didn’t annoy her the way Cab’s would have. She chuckled. If he were here, he’d definitely agree with Hannah and that would piss her off enough to make her determined to do it anyway. She thought for a second, and decided she was determined to do it. She needed to get this whole mess settled.

“Rose?” Hannah said, looking shy suddenly. “Do you think… would it be okay if I built a tree house here, too? I could build it somewhere else in the woods—you wouldn’t even have to see me if you didn’t want to.”

Rose hesitated, all thoughts of Jason gone. Did she want company out here? This was supposed to be her hideaway, somewhere no one would bother her.

“Forget it,” Hannah rushed to say before she could answer. “It was a dumb idea.” She turned to go.

“No!” Rose found herself saying. “I would like privacy, but there’s plenty of room. You could build yours farther back from the road.”

Hannah’s face lit up. “Really? Thanks! I can’t wait!”

As she watched her friend climb into her car, pull out and drive onto the road, worry knotted Rose’s stomach. She hoped she hadn’t just made a big mistake.

“More terrorists on the loose
in Chance Creek?” Cab asked Tracey as he settled in a booth at Linda’s Diner, sending a significant look toward the table where Kevin was holding court. It was dinnertime—did the man eat here three times a day? Well, why not? He practically did.

Tracey filled his coffee cup. “According to Kevin, they’ll infiltrate the woods and hills first, then come into town when they’ve secured the high ground.”

“What is it exactly that they want from us again?”

Tracey paused, hand on her hip. “I’m not sure. Our cattle? Do terrorists eat steak?”

“Sure. Everyone eats steak.”

“You don’t really think there could ever be terrorists in Chance Creek, do you?” Tracey asked. “I mean, that would be far too weird.”

“No, I think we’re safe from that particular menace,” Cab assured her. He wasn’t worried about terrorists at all, although come to think of it he should make sure his office’s disaster manual included instructions for explosions. You never knew…

Rose worried him far more than the idea of some crazy foreigners running around the woods. He’d found it hard to sleep last night, thinking of what she’d said at Ethan and Autumn’s place the other day.

She attracted people that liked to tell her what to do
. That didn’t describe him one bit. He just knew what the world was like and wanted to protect her. How was that bad?

“Hi, Cab. Mind if I join you?” Morgan paused by his table, shrugging off her thick coat.

“Go right ahead. How are things at the ranch?”

She shrugged. “Slow. There’s not a lot for us to do now that the weather’s turned cold. Next spring we’ll be working like crazy to get the vineyard up and running, though, so I’ve decided to appreciate the time off. We helped Rose move her stuff yesterday. She’s got some of it piled in an old barn for now. Poor thing. That Emory is really a character, isn’t he?”

“That’s one way to put it. How did she seem?”

“She’s keeping herself busy. She was out all day. Now she’s on her way to North Dakota.”

“North Dakota?” Cab put down his coffee.

“She didn’t tell you?” Morgan’s eyebrows shot up. “I kind of wondered. Emory kept telling her to hurry up and get going when we were loading up her stuff. I guess she decided to get the whole breakup thing over with.”

Cab didn’t know which scenario he liked least: the one in which she went to North Dakota, or the one in which she didn’t go. He didn’t want Jason to get the chance to change her mind, but until she broke things off with the man, she wouldn’t be free to date him.

“Is there something going on between you two?” Morgan asked.

“I wouldn’t know,” he said testily.

He and Morgan dropped the subject after that, and he managed to finish up his day without letting his feelings get the better of him, but when he pulled in to Carl’s house it was all he could do not to kick to pieces the first Ming vase he came across. Rose hadn’t even called to let him know she’d be gone.

She might arrive there with the best intentions, but would she be able to keep firm to her resolve when Jason took her to dinner, poured her a glass of wine and sweet-talked her? Was that why she didn’t say anything to him before she left—because part of her still wanted to make it up with Jason?

The man would be an idiot to let a woman like Rose go. Look at all she’d put up with so far for him. Where else was he going to find someone so loyal? If he’d managed to string her along for this many years, what were the chances he’d let her go now?

Rose shouldn’t have gone alone, either. She shouldn’t have gone at all—not at night. For one thing, it was November. What if a storm hit? What if she went off the road? What if she stopped at a rest area and got attacked? Somebody ought to strangle Emory for even putting the idea into her head. Maybe he should put out an APB…

All right, now he was getting as crazy as Emory. Cab took a breath and tried to look at things objectively. Was Rose right? Was he too controlling?

When his phone rang, he grabbed it out of his pocket with relief, uncomfortable with that last bit of soul-searching. He didn’t recognize the number and he hoped it was Rose. “Hello.”

A young-sounding female voice answered him. “Is this Cab Johnson?”

“Yes.”

A pause. “This is Mia Start. Is Rose there by any chance?”

Mia? He recalled the night he’d joined the two women for dinner at the Burger Shack. “No. I think she’s in North Dakota, actually. I think she’ll be back in a day or two.”

“Oh,” Mia said. “Really? We were supposed to have dinner tonight.”

Right. He remembered them setting up the date. Rose must have forgotten. Just like she’d evidently forgotten their date to go shooting tomorrow.

“I’m not positive, but that’s what Morgan said.”

“Okay.” Mia sounded forlorn.

“Is everything all right?” Cab asked her.

The pause stretched out longer this time. “Yeah. It’s fine. I was just looking forward to it. Thanks for the information.” She hung up before he could say anything else.

She was such a coward.

Rose had packed her bags, announced her plans to Autumn and Morgan, but before she’d made it thirty miles out of town she’d lost her nerve.

Jason was going to be angry. Really angry. Even if he wanted to call the engagement off as much as she did, she knew him well enough to predict he’d hate being dumped. She pulled in to the first rest area she came to on the highway, parked her car and sat lost in thought. What was the use of confronting him in person? Driving all night was stupid. When she arrived, he’d be just getting up and she’d want to go to bed. First she’d have to find him, of course. He’d moved recently and she hadn’t visited him since. And what would she do after they hashed things out? Ask to stay the night?

No, she’d have one of two choices; find a hotel or drive straight back home. Neither one appealed.

Was it really so important they speak in person? Wouldn’t it be easier for both of them to break up over the phone? Why not? After all, when was the last time he’d bothered to come see her?

Before she could change her mind she pulled out her phone and called his number.

“Hello?” Jason’s deep, smooth voice caught her unprepared and for a moment she thought this was all a big mistake. Jason used to be her best friend—her rock—but that was so long ago. Things were different now, she reminded herself. They’d been different for months.

“Hi, it’s me,” she said.

“Rose?”

Why had he hesitated so long before saying her name? Was he expecting someone else to call? His other girlfriend? Probably. Jason Thayer was far too handsome to be lonely for long. She was naïve if she thought he’d really stayed celibate all this time.

“Yeah. Listen, I think we should talk.”

“About what?” He was instantly on guard and Rose realized he’d been like that a lot during their calls lately. When they actually spoke.

“About us,” she said softly. “This isn’t working.”

It hurt to say the words, despite her certainty it was the right thing to do. While she didn’t love Jason the way she used to love him, she still cared for him deeply. They’d been through so much together.

“Us?”

“Of course us.”

“Rose…” He hesitated. Gone was the hard tone he used so often these days. In its place was uncertainty. “I know it’s taking longer than I said…”

“It’s not that. It’s the distance between us. It’s not the same anymore. We’re not the same.” Now that she had started, the words spilled out of her. “You used to call every day, Jason. You texted me all the time. You told me everything that was happening to you and you wanted to know everything about me, too.”

“I still want…”

“Listen to me,” she said, cutting across his words. “I can’t wait anymore. I can’t put my life on hold like this and I don’t think we want the same things anyhow.”

Jason was quiet for a long moment. “Is there someone else?”

She waited a beat too long. “No… of course not.” But there was, and now he knew it, too.

“Hell.”

She tried to picture him in his apartment in North Dakota, but she couldn’t. She’d never been there. She’d gone to see him once or twice in the early days, but he’d moved several times since then. She’d always had the feeling he liked to keep her separate from his North Dakota life. Why was that?

“It’s been months since you’ve come to see me. I figured you’d be happy if I broke things off,” she said, putting all those feelings into words.

“Really? That’s what you thought?”

“Yeah,” she said, matching his anger. “What else was I supposed to think?”

“I hear about you from Dad, you know. So even if we don’t talk, I know what’s going on.”

What did he mean by that? Had Emory told him about Cab? “Did you know your father burnt up half my paintings?” She didn’t mean to lash out at him, but on the other hand she did, too. She was the one who stayed behind and worked day in, day out in his father’s store and put up with all of Emory’s craziness. Jason got to run around North Dakota answering to no one.

“He what?” The anger dropped from his voice, replaced by shock.

“Burned them. On a bonfire. After going through every last thing of mine. I moved out, by the way. I’m staying with the Cruzes now. I quit, too.”

Another long pause. “When did all of this happen?”

“A couple of days ago.”

“I told you not to move in with him, didn’t I? Now you see what I mean.”

She looked at the phone. Seriously? That was his response? Well, why not—it was about as helpful as anything else he’d said or done this past year.