*Jack had become a hero whether he wanted it or not, and the trouble was, Pepper knew he wouldn’t want it. Even though he was the greatest hero in the world as far as she was concerned and she wanted to tell him so, but she hadn’t seen him since they let her out of the hospital two days ago. Not even a glimpse. Mr. July had become Mr. Reclusive. According to Ralph, he hadn’t left the ranch house.
She’d predicted that. She’d predicted a lot of things, like tumbling in her high heels as she stood on a chair at the party. Like the house burning down—granted, she was relieved the flames hadn’t been real, but still—she’d predicted it. Like she’d predicted Jack locking himself in the ranch house.
She put a protective hand over her charm bracelet.
They’d made her take it off at the hospital. Boy, had she been annoyed about that. Jack had given it to her the very night she needed it.
“I just want to know why he won’t talk to me,” she said to Marie and Aurora.
“We keep telling you,” Marie said, picking up an empty cardboard box. “He’s sulking.”
They were in Pepper’s cabin where she’d stayed since being discharged from the hospital. She’d had to spend a whole night at hospital after she’d flown from the attic window, being monitored and poked and prodded and answering silly questions from a psychiatrist who obviously hadn’t had the first clue what it was like to be a soothsayer kicking a dead great-grandfather’s ass back to hell.
“He won’t even answer his cell phone.”
“Try texting him,” Aurora suggested.
“I have!” A dozen times, and all she’d gotten was one response from the very first message and nothing from the others…
I’ve got a lot of things to sort out, Pep. Just need some time alone. Glad you’re okay. Jack.
Two whole days and nights without sight of him.
She hardly remembered what he looked like. Tall, dark hair, brown eyes, with an annoying assumption she’d just stand back and willingly let him take over her life, like hiding the keys to her truck, like forcing her to live in a tent.
She couldn’t even pinpoint the first moment she’d begun to take notice of him as a man and not someone who’d been asked to protect her. “I didn’t expect him to walk off the job.”
“You don’t need protection anymore.”
“That’s not the point. The point is he’s not speaking to me and I can’t figure out why.”
“You’re a fine one to talk,” Aurora said, taking a small box off Marie and piling it on top of the other packed boxes. “You’ve stuck yourself in this cabin and haven’t engaged with anyone. You slink around the back when you need to get to the Tack & Feed, and you make all your new business people come to you instead of going to them.”
“That’s different.” She’d already spoken to the press and given them a brief rundown on what had happened, smiling it off, mostly, and remaining tight-lipped when they brought up the subject of Jack. But they were still sniffing around and it felt like they were hounding her. What the heck must Jack be feeling? He was in a much worse position than she was. Maybe that was why he was hiding out at the ranch but it still didn’t account for why he didn’t want to speak to her.
“He’s not talking to the press,” Marie said.
“He doesn’t have to,” Aurora added, putting Pepper’s cast-iron Dutch oven into a cardboard box. “They’re taking it all from the blog posts.”
The valley was notorious now, the impact of the local blog sites enormous, already reaching all around Texas and beyond. Even the disbelievers were keen to read and hear more. Genuine tourists were starting to trickle back to the valley, and the businesses beginning to thrive again. Everything was back to normal at Daybreak Lodge. No broken light bulbs, no fire damage—just an incredible story in the newspapers.
The new valley bloggers had focused on the curse and had made it appear like a fable and a miracle all at once. They had written about believing in it, how their lives had been stalled because of it, and how they’d banded together to overcome it. They were deflecting attention from Pepper; they were looking after her and she was grateful because she had so much on her mind.
Like her immediate problem. Jack.
“Do something useful and pass me those thermometers,” Aurora said, holding out her hand.
“Be careful with them,” Pepper said as she handed them over. “They’re expensive.”
“You could always pack them yourself. Not as if you’re doing much else standing around watching us.”
“I’ve got a lot going on up here,” Pepper said, tapping the side of her head.
They were packing up all the pots and pans and cooking equipment she’d used for the picnic so Mr. Watson could fit the cabin out with shelves and prepare the ceiling for the candy-striped tent affair Miss Matilda insisted on for the ice cream parlor. All the cabins were being prettified now, ready for new business. And unless she got Jack to speak to her, it looked like the tent was where Pepper would be sleeping from now on. Except it wasn’t her tent. It was Jack’s.
“You can bunk with me,” Aurora said.
“I don’t want to bunk with you.” She wanted to bunk with Jack.
“You can’t bunk with me,” Marie said. “Because I’ve got Ralph staying. But you could ask Molly or Lauren.”
“I don’t want to bunk with anyone.” Except Jack. “I’d rather remain homeless!”
“Have a chocolate bar,” Marie said. “Perhaps the sugar rush will get rid of your bad humor.”
“Have two,” Aurora said.
“I’m not hungry.” She hadn’t been hungry for two days and two nights.
Aurora paused in her task of wrapping the thermometers. “If you won’t stay at Daybreak Lodge then you will be homeless.”
“I can’t stay in the house. It’s not a home. It’s not meant for me. I’ve got to open all the windows and let the fresh air blow through before anyone can stay in it.” She’d turn the downstairs rooms into bedrooms like she’d said, and then rent it out. There was already a heap of interest in the place. She’d make a fortune. And that was a genuine prediction.
“How come I can’t predict what Jack’s going to do next?” She’d accepted the gift, albeit unwillingly, so why wasn’t it working?
“Now she wants the inside intel on the Mackillop gift!” Aurora said.
“You have to do your own figuring out,” Marie said. “We’re over you.”
“Very funny.” She was trying to figure out so much she was turning herself inside out. “I mean, apart from being known all over Texas as the sexiest rancher on the planet, and being hounded by people wanting to know how he managed to catch me, and where all that strength had come from, what is his real problem?”
“Could be you,” Aurora muttered.
“That’s what I’m thinking,” Pepper said, the worry of it gnawing at her gut.
Did Jack know he was her would-be?
“It always takes a Mackillop longer to figure out stuff that’s pertinent to themselves,” Marie said, gazing at her sparkly diamond engagement ring.
Pepper recalled the look on Jack’s face, his arms held out to her, willing her to jump.
“He knows, doesn’t he? He knows he’s the would-be.” He’d known for some time and that was why he’d presented himself to her that day of the picnic, which any rational person would perceive to mean he liked her—so why wasn’t he coming around to tell her he liked her?
Had he changed his mind?
If he had, Pepper had news for him. It was going to happen. He was going to fall in love with her. He was just stalling.
It was the why about that which made her feel nauseous.
She understood about her gift; that she had it, that she owned it. It was still a big aggravation she hadn’t been allowed to make the decision herself but it was typical of her to be difficult. Look how she’d responded when Aurora said she’d fall for the would-be. If she’d been told back then that it was Jack, she’d have laughed in everyone’s face.
She wasn’t laughing now.
She’d argued it would take years for the would-be to fit in with her family and the folklore about the Mackillops, which could drive a person crazy—take herself as an example. Jack hadn’t batted an eye. He’d told her not to be so flippant about the gift. He hadn’t denounced it as absurd. He’d known she had it. He’d known she was fighting it.
He was meant for her. But she had to somehow explain to him because he obviously wasn’t getting it.
She was always telling people to sit down and talk it out and was now ignoring her own advice. Had been ignoring it for two days and two long nights. But she hadn’t wanted to do the wrong thing.
She drew a mental breath. When had that ever stopped her?
“Right,” she said and picked up her keys. “He deserves the truth.”
“Who does?” Marie asked.
“Problem number five,” Pepper said as she marched to the door.
If Jack was thinking he might skip out of town in the dead of night so as not to be chained to her side, he ought to be told it wasn’t going to happen. They were meant to be together and that was that.
*
Jack poured himself a coffee and replaced the pot on the range, then paused.
There was no heat on the stove.
He slammed the mug down, cold coffee spilling over his fingers. He must have switched it off more than an hour ago and forgotten he’d done so.
He couldn’t remember having so many problems and cold coffee was the least of them but it might be the straw that broke that camel’s back.
The press was making his life look ridiculous. Goddammit, he felt ridiculous.
His photo had made the rounds in Texas and had landed in Tucson. The Tuckers had called him. Cindy had called him, wondrous that he was being called a hero. Even the newly ensconced manager-cousin had called him, but only to warn him that if he returned to Tucson, he should know that Cindy already had a hero in her life and didn’t need Jack’s farfetched tales of glory from some dumb place in Calamity Valley.
He had a truck full of mail from scroungers wanting his cash, since they knew what his bank balance was, thanks to the Portal, and from women wanting to marry him.
Little did they know he’d likely never marry now. Especially if he stayed here in the kitchen for the rest of his life.
He wiped his hand on his jeans and wandered back to the pine table where he’d been trying to concentrate of the ranch accounts. But he didn’t sit. He hadn’t been able to sit for longer than ten minutes for the last forty-eight or fifty hours.
He rested his hands on the back of a chair.
He hadn’t slept much, either.
Marie and Aurora had said he’d know what to do—and if he’d been at Pep’s side, he might have. Instead, he’d forced her into jumping from a goddamn attic window. It was like a recurring nightmare, replaying in slow motion even when he was awake. The moment he caught her, his arms wrapping around her as he braced for the ensuing fall and the likelihood they both tumbled off the roof and landed in the fire that wasn’t real.
Close to two weeks of being by her side, almost every waking and sleeping minute in the days before the party, and he’d let his guard slip at the last, most dangerous moment.
What would have happened if he’d gone into the house with her? He didn’t know, but it stung that he hadn’t gotten the chance. Maybe, if he’d been with her, they’d have fought off the great-grandfathers together in some way. Instead, she’d been forced to jump from a goddamn attic window. Her heart must have been in her mouth, but she hadn’t been given any other choice—because Jack had let his guard down.
He was mostly pissed that nothing had been given the chance to happen naturally. Nothing. Now, he had no job, he was stuck in Reckless until something kicked his ass either back to Tucson to take up a role as an underdog or pinned him down here at Nightshade Downs in order to get it operational again. Because cash only went so far, and like most people, he needed to eat now and again.
He squeezed his eyes closed and gripped the back of the chair. Here. Where Pep lived.
It was going to kill him long before he needed to eat.
The door to the kitchen opened, and Ralph walked in, a backpack on his shoulder, the last of five pieces of luggage he’d packed this morning. “That’s me done,” he said as he dropped the pack to the floor and headed for the counter. “I don’t like leaving you here when you’re in this kind of mood though. Are you sure you know what you’re doing?”
“If you ask me that question again, I’m not going to be responsible for my actions.”
Ralph picked up a slice of the chocolate Hopeless sponge cake he’d brought with him three hours ago and bit into it. “You’re being stubborn.”
“Isn’t it a family trait?”
“Don’t sit around here feeling sorry for yourself too long.”
“I’ll do as I damn well choose.”
Pep was sure to discover soon enough that he was the chosen would-be. Maybe she’d just laugh it off. He paused to think about that, then decided he’d better not think about it. A guy only had so many heartstrings.
Ralph hauled the backpack over his shoulder again and headed off down the hallway. “Marie says you’re sulking,” he called a second before his chuckle filled the air.
Great. That would likely be all over the online news soon too. Sulking hero stuck in the kitchen. Too afraid to look into the eyes of the woman he loves in case it means his life is about to change for the worse.
“That’s it,” he said and thumped the back brace of the chair. “That’s the last straw.”
His intent the other night was to present himself. He’d been in a much better mood when he’d made that decision but he wasn’t going to have his life ridiculed by the goddamn press any longer.
He’d tell her outright, “I love you and don’t give me any bullshit about not knowing what I’m talking about because I’m not going to take it from you. Tell me straight—do you feel the same way?” If she did, they’d go ahead and have those kids. If she didn’t—
He didn’t know what he’d do, but it would undoubtedly involve engineering a quick getaway and a means to prop up his sorry, busted heart.
The sound of an engine made him turn to the window.
Dust kicked up beneath the tires of Pep’s truck.
Five seconds later, she screeched to a halt, got out, and slammed the driver’s door closed.
Looked like she was in a bad mood. Well, so was he, and he wasn’t going to let her take charge. Not this time. She could argue as much as she liked, but he was going to have his say.
The front door opened and then closed with a bang. “Jack!”
She hadn’t even knocked, she’d just come waltzing in, and whatever she wanted, she wasn’t going to get it easily. Not from him. Not until he’d had his chance to speak.
He braced himself for a showdown because this was Pep. The most inflexible, obstinate, exasperating, heart-paralyzing woman he’d ever met.