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Jolie left the sheriff’s office in a rush. She barely had time to stop by the grocery store before going back to the ranch to start supper. She breezed through the aisles, picking up the items she needed. At the cash register, she heard the female employees chattering about the robbery Jake had told her about.
“How much money was stolen?” she asked Suzanne, recalling that Jake hadn’t mentioned an amount.
“Lucky said around fifteen hundred,” Suzanne answered.
Jolie willed herself not to catch a breath. Good Lord. With that much money, no telling what Billy would be up to. She suddenly felt an overwhelming urge to be at home with Danni. She had already arranged for Reuben to pick Danni up from the school bus, but all she could think of now was how much she wanted to be home.
“I’ve got to get back to the ranch,” she said, now in a hurry to get out of the grocery store.
“Let me help you with those bags,” Suzanne said, grabbing a couple of the plastic sacks and walking beside her to the front door. Suzanne followed her outside. “I saw you with Jake the other day,” she said, lifting the sacks of groceries into the Circle C’s pickup bed.
Jolie felt a clench in her midsection. Damn! She concentrated on loading her own bags into the pickup bed and didn’t reply.
“Hey, I’m not criticizing,” Suzanne said. “I’m just being nosy. Jake’s a great guy.”
Jolie turned to her antagonist. “I was, uh, just having a hamburger with him.”
“Jolie, I can’t remember the last time Jake Strayhorn took anybody in Lockett to have a hamburger. I’ve thought he needed a steady woman in his life ever since I met him. When I first came back here, I even wished I might be that woman for a while, but I can see that he and I would never hit it off. He’s too black-or-white, too right-or-wrong. But you know what? I can see you with him.”
“Really?” Jolie asked, bewildered. “You see me as being that way?”
“That wasn’t a negative comment. You strike me as being a patient person. What I see is you being able to put up with a man as hardheaded and iron-willed as Jake is. That’s why he’s still single, you know. There aren’t many women who could live up to his standards.”
“Oh,” Jolie replied, unable to keep from smiling. Nothing would make her happier than “putting up” with Jake Strayhorn and “living up” to his standards. “I suppose I sort of am a patient person. I did live in a bad situation for longer than I should have.”
Suzanne grinned. “Well, he’s a sexy-looking devil and he’s tougher than boot leather. Not a guy you’d ever want to cross. I’ll tell you this much. If anyone ever asked me to describe a true man of the West, the first person who’d come to my mind is Jake Strayhorn.”
“You won’t say anything, will you? It probably wouldn’t be good for him or me, either, if people were talking about us.”
“Honey, you don’t have to worry. I won’t even say anything to Jude. After all, it’s really nobody’s business, right?”
“Right,” Jolie replied, relieved, but still worried.
Suddenly Suzanne embraced her in a hug. “Go for it, Jolie. Grab him and hang on. I hope you land him.”
Jolie blinked back a tear. “Thanks. Thank you for being my friend.”
“You, too,” Suzanne said, smiling. “We’ve got to get together sometime for some girl talk.” Shrugging, she backed away. “Well, I gotta get back to work.”
After Suzanne disappeared back into the grocery store, Jolie stood for a few minutes, taking stock of the conversation that had just occurred. She had never had a “friend” with whom she could “girl-talk,” had never felt comfortable inviting women she knew to her home, had never had the time or the freedom to go out with girlfriends.
Then she remembered the time.
She found her keys, opened the pickup’s driver’s-side door and felt a presence. She jerked around, knowing who was behind her before he said a word.
“Hi, Jolie.”
Jolie’s heart almost stopped and a wave of nausea slammed into her stomach. “Billy!”
“Thought you got rid of me, didn’t you?” he said with an ominous sneer.
Her mouth had gone dry and her pulse was racing so fast she was light-headed, but she managed to assess his appearance. He was filthy. And he was high. That much she could tell from his eyes. “What—what are you doing here?”
“Now, what the fuck would I be doing here? I wouldn’t be trying to find my bitch of a wife who ran off with the goddamn car, now, would I?”
She scanned the street for his pickup, but didn’t spot it. “How did you get here?”
“Hell, Jolie. A big-ass bird brought me here. Picked me up and dropped me right behind you.”
“I want you to leave us alone, Billy,” she said weakly. “I’m through with you.”
“You’re as full of shit as a Christmas turkey if you think you’re through with me, baby. Now gimme those goddamn keys. I’m driving.”
“No!” She slammed the door. Her shaking hands fumbled with the key fob for the lock button.
He seized her upper arm in a painful clench and wrenched the keys from her hand. “You dumb bitch.” He dragged her around to the passenger side, ignoring that she stumbled on the curb, lost her shoe and skinned the top of her foot. “Get your ass in,” he said.
For the first time she thanked God for the tall step into the pickup. Attempting to step up enabled her to jerk free from his grip. “No! Get away from me!”
She tried to duck around him. He grabbed her arm again, slamming her against the side of the pickup and knocking her breathless. She fell to her knees on the sidewalk. As she struggled to get to her feet again, he grabbed her arm again and jerked her up, bringing her up against him and shoving his face close to hers. “You’re going back home,” he said through clenched teeth, his breath foul and repulsive. “You and that useless kid both. And if you don’t cut out the bullshit and get your ass in that truck, I’ll make goddamn sure she never sees you again.”
“What do you mean?” she said breathlessly. “Where is Danni?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know? Get in the goddamn truck!”
His words struck terror within Jolie, but before she could say more, Suzanne and Joyce, another grocery store employee, charged out of the store’s front door carrying plastic grocery bags. With a two-handed grip, Suzanne whacked Billy in the middle of the back with the sack of something heavy.
Billy’s back arched. He yelled in agony and turned on Suzanne, who was now defenseless. Her sack had broken and cans of food had scattered over the sidewalk.
Before Billy could reach Suzanne, Joyce swung her sack of something heavy and walloped him in the side. He howled and bent double.
Having no weapon, Jolie jumped astraddle his back and pummeled his head over and over with her fists.
Wildly flailing at the three of them, slugging with his fists and pulling handfuls of hair, Billy buckled to the ground.
Just then, they heard the blast of a siren and the squeal of tires. All at once, Jake waded into the fray, pulling each of them back and pushing them aside at the same time he latched on to Billy’s clothing.
Billy staggered to his feet, his rage palpable. With a roar, he slammed his shoulder into Jake’s midsection. In a matter of seconds, Jake had twisted his arm behind him, disabled him and had him in handcuffs. He marched him toward the backseat of his Willard County Sheriff SUV.
Jolie darted across the street behind Jake, still wearing only one shoe. A sob burst from her throat. “Jake, he’s got Danni somewhere! He said he’s got Danni.”
Jake’s jaw turned to stone; his eyes grew hot and fierce. He jerked the SUV’s back door open, but before he could say a word, Billy looked back at him wide-eyed with terror. “No, no. I’m lying, I’m lying. I don’t even know where the kid is.”
“Where’s she supposed to be?” Jake asked Jolie.
“At the ranch. I left her with Irene and Reuben.”
Jake yanked his cell phone off his belt. “What’s the number out there?”
Jolie said the number, her voice shaking. Jake keyed it in and handed the cell phone to Jolie. With shaking hands, she pressed the phone to her ear waiting for an answer. When Lola came on the line, Jolie schooled herself to sound casual. “Lola, is Danni in the kitchen?”
“I go see.”
Soon Danni came on the phone.
Jolie cleared her throat and tried to force her voice not to wobble. “Just calling to let you know I’m running a little late.”
“Okay,” Danni replied. “I’m helping Irene. Will you bring me some candy?”
“I’ll surprise you,” Jolie said, fighting back tears of relief.
“You okay?” Jake asked when Jolie disconnected. She handed his phone back to him. Still feeling blood rushing through her veins, she nodded. “I feel so much better.”
Across the street, Suzanne and Joyce huddled together jabbering and inspecting each other for injuries. Jolie walked back to where they stood with Jake behind her. Suzanne’s ponytail had collapsed and hung to one side. Joyce, who wore barrettes in her hair, had lost her barrettes and a mouse was beginning to rise on one cheek. Apparently, she had sustained a blow to the face. Jolie’s knees burned like fire from where they had been scraped when she hit the sidewalk.
“You girls okay?” Jake asked. “How bad are you hurt?”
“We think we’re okay,” Suzanne said.
“Bastard!” Joyce said, scowling and wiping her face against her shirtsleeve.
“Asshole!” Suzanne said, breathing hard, her fists jammed against her hips.
Jake began picking up the cans of food from the sidewalk and looking at the labels. “Corn?” he asked.
“Six cans of corn in a sack makes a damn good weapon,” Suzanne said smugly.
Jake chuckled and thumbed his hat back.
“Or green beans or pork and beans,” Suzanne added.
“I don’t doubt you,” Jake said, still smiling.
Jolie turned to Joyce. “What was in that sack you hit him with?”
“A frozen chicken,” Joyce answered, wiping her forehead with her palm.
“Frozen chicken?” Jake said.
“A three-pound roaster,” Joyce said.
Everyone broke into laughter.
Jake looked each of them up and down. “You’re sure you’re not hurt? You don’t need a doctor?”
All three women shook their heads.
***
JAKE HAULED HIS PRISONER to jail. With Chuck and Amanda both out of town, he had to process Billy Jensen himself. He was unable to drop everything and take Jolie home, but being the trouper she was, she had assured him she could make it alone.
When Jake asked Jensen why he was in town and not on the job with AmDril Drilling, he learned Jensen had been fired and driven back to his truck after the foreman realized he was stoned. The last thing any drilling crew needed was a stoned roustabout. He also learned that Jensen didn’t know where Jolie lived, but had just happened to see her walk out of the grocery store. As jaded as Jake had become, irony and coincidence still had the power to amaze him.
Billy confessed to vandalizing the drilling company’s trucks as well as to robbing the grocery store. Even if he got off for some reason for those crimes, the ones in Dallas County still awaited him.
Now that the Billy Jensen matter was settled, Jake felt free to pursue what he wanted, which was a more serious relationship with Jolie. To make up for being unable to take her home after such a traumatic experience with Jensen, Jake called a florist in Abilene and ordered a dozen roses to be delivered to her at the Circle C Ranch.
His relationship with Jolie grew. It turned him into a kinder, gentler man. She was so giving, so open and honest, he couldn’t bring himself to do something that would hurt her in even the tiniest way. At the same time, while she wasn’t highly educated, she had so much common sense, he couldn’t keep from admiring her ability to cut to the heart of any matter and express it in a way everybody around her understood.
On Memorial Day weekend, the Circle C held a picnic every year in the tiny park downtown, honoring Ben Strayhorn and other Willard County war dead of all ages. Locals played music, Buster Wardlow and his kitchen crew barbecued a steer and a pig and laid out a fabulous picnic on the two concrete tables in the tiny park. It was something the Circle C did every year. Everybody in the county would be present, including Jolie.
Jake and Jolie were no longer a secret and no longer had to sneak around. They spent every moment she had free together. Chuck and Amanda both went out of their way to make sure the sheriff’s office was covered when Jolie had time off so Jake and she could spend time together.
A week later, Jake was finishing up the paperwork related to a fender bender in front of the courthouse when he heard a voice he didn’t quite recognize but instinctively knew he should. He dropped his glasses on his desktop and got to his feet, but before he could round the end of the desk, J. D. Strayhorn walked into his office.
Jake’s adrenaline spiked. Emergency! was his first thought.
His uncle stood there, his arms hanging loose at his sides as if he didn’t quite know what to do with his hands. Finally, he placed them on his hips. “Jake,” he said.
“What’s up?” Jake asked, looking eye to eye with J.D. He hadn’t seen the man except from a distance since boyhood, had never considered that he and J.D. were about the same height. He knew J.D. wore glasses, though he hadn’t when Jake was fourteen.
J.D. calmly walked over and took a seat in front of Jake’s desk, as if he had been invited to sit and as if he dropped in for regular visits. His attitude annoyed Jake at first, but he quelled it, accepting that J.D. was a man accustomed to power, a quality that had adapted him to sitting anywhere he wanted to without an invitation.
Though Jake now knew no emergency existed, his stomach still felt as if it had a butterfly in it. He returned to his own desk chair and sat down across from J.D. Behind the lenses of J.D.’s glasses were penetrating brown eyes that looked like Jude’s.
“Are you planning on stealing our cook?” J.D. asked.
He was, of course, speaking of Jolie. She and Jake were spending most of her free time together and without a doubt the whole county was discussing their relationship. But Jake didn’t believe for a minute Jolie was why J.D. had come to his office. “Not until you can find another. Jolie wouldn’t leave you in a lurch like that.”
“I appreciate that.” He lifted off his hat. “Jude’s still looking for someone to replace her. Finding the right person isn’t that easy. We were lucky with Jolie.”
“I agree. It’ll be hard to replace her.”
A few beats of silence passed. J.D. rubbed his jaw with his palm. His discomfort was as glaring as neon. “I heard you bought the old Petry place,” he said finally.
Jake nodded.
“You and Jolie planning on setting up housekeeping out there?”
“Maybe.”
“I thought I heard you’re running for sheriff again.”
“I am. One more term. Then I want to do something else.”
“You’re thinking of raising some cattle? Or horses? I could—”
“Not my thing,” Jake said, not letting him finish his offer.
This time, it was J.D. who nodded. “My daughter’s been talking to me.” He leaned forward and braced his elbows on his thighs, his hat dangling from his fingertips between his knees. “She wants to have a wedding reception for her friend out at the ranch. She thinks you and I are an obstacle to that.”
At last. J.D. was getting to the real reason he had come here. Jake suppressed a groan. “I don’t know why. I’ve told Pat Garner he doesn’t need me at a reception. For that matter, I’ve told him to feel free to ask somebody else to be his best man. To tell the truth, I’m not quite sure why wedding ceremonies and rituals are such a big deal.”
J.D. chuckled. “We can agree on that, but the women think it’s important. Aren’t you planning one of your own?”
“Jolie and I haven’t made a firm plan.”
J.D.’s gaze came at Jake with intensity. “The wedding reception isn’t the issue, Jake,” he said softly.
“Then what is?”
“Family. That’s the issue.”
Shit, Jake thought. “J.D., let’s—”
“I want you to know something.” J.D. looked down, his chin close to his chest. Now he was fooling with his hat brim. “A few weeks ago, I visited your father’s grave. It was the first time I’ve done that since he left us. As I stood there reading his stone, I thought of him as he was the last time I saw him. I thought of your mother. And the next person I thought of, Jake, was you.”
At this late date, Jake didn’t want to get into a discussion of “family” and all that it entailed, especially with a relative he scarcely knew.
Or did he?
Jake wasn’t big on psychobabble. He believed he knew himself well. He liked the man he saw in the mirror every morning. In spite of that, more than once he had wondered if reuniting with his blood kin was the real, but sub-conscious, reason he had returned to Willard County. “If you’ve been to his grave, J.D., you’ve done more than I have.”
“A man’s brother is his brother, Jake,” his uncle said, his tone still subdued. “That’s an unalterable fact no matter what went on in the past.” J.D. paused and looked up pointedly. “And a man’s father is his father.”
Jake the Cynic didn’t buy it. He had arrested men who had murdered their wives and children. “Fatherhood is more than a biological fact. I’ve run into lots of fathers who weren’t worth the bullet it’d take to kill ’em,” Jake replied.
J.D.’s head bobbed in a nod.
“My mother’s buried in Dallas,” Jake said.
“Until Dad died, I didn’t know,” J.D. replied, now looking at something behind Jake’s shoulder. “I found that information in his records.”
“I guess I oughtta say thanks to your grandmother for sending Mom money. Things were hard for Mom. The money made her life easier.”
“Penny Ann cared about all the family. I’m sorry to say I didn’t have her strength or compassion. I was too...” He heaved a great breath. “She’s your grandmother, too, you know. Your great-grandmother, that is.”
“I barely remember her.”
J.D. looked up. “How about it, Jake? I’m extending a personal invitation—no, it’s more than an invitation. It’s a plea for you to come to the ranch. You can use Suzanne’s wedding reception as an excuse....Or you don’t have to wait for that. Come for supper some evening. I know you’re still friends with Brady. And we both know how Jude feels about you. The fact is, I’m going to have her on my back until you show up.”
In his wildest imagination, Jake couldn’t see himself driving between those limestone stanchions at the gate on the highway, or through that wrought-iron gate that was closer to the house. He couldn’t imagine walking up to the front door of the Circle C ranch house. He shook his head. “I don’t know, J.D.—”
“Just think about it. Promise me you’ll think about it.”
Knowing he would be a first-class asshole if he said no, Jake blew out a breath. “I’ll try.”
“Good,” J.D. said, rising from his chair and smiling. “That’s a first step. All we can expect.”
The following morning before Jake had finished his first cup of coffee, Jude marched into his office and seated herself in front of his desk. “Daddy told me he came to see you yesterday.”
“Good morning,” Jake said. “Want some coffee?”
“Pregnant women shouldn’t drink coffee and I know you don’t have any apple juice. Daddy said you didn’t accept his personal invitation.”
Jake knew Jude’s reputation for speaking her mind. He didn’t reply, believing the best thing was to just let her vent.
“Do you know how hard that was for him?” she said. “What a big step it was for him to take?”
“Life’s hard for everybody.”
“But it doesn’t need to be. None of us have ever knowingly harmed you, Jake, including Daddy.”
“I know that.”
“Then what’s your problem? I’ve been wondering ever since you came back here.”
Jake sat back in his chair. “Jude, I’ve got a lot to do today. I don’t have time—”
She waggled a finger at him. “No, no. Don’t you dare tell me you don’t have time for this. I’ve wanted to get this off my chest for years. The whole family suffered a tragedy not of their making, Jake. The two responsible people have been gone since I was seven years old. It’s time to put all of it in the grave with them. You’re my cousin. You’re my husband’s friend. I want you to be a part of my child’s life. I don’t want to have to try to explain to her someday why we have this mysterious relative who doesn’t associate with us.”
Jake looked away, embarrassed, and feeling more than a little guilty. “Jude—”
“This is crazy,” she said. “You’re letting your stubborn pride rule your life and interfere with having a relationship with all of us.”
“My stubborn pride is part of who I am, Jude. And that’s that.”
“Has it ever occurred to you that we might care about you?”
In fact, that hadn’t occurred to him. Jake stared at her.
“Okay. Then tell me this. How long are you going to continue meeting Jolie away from where she lives as if you’re involved in some kind of clandestine affair?”
Taken aback by her aggressiveness on something that was none of her business, Jake was speechless.
Jude got to her feet. “You are the most stubborn man I’ve ever met.”
Jake stood, too. “Jude, let’s just—”
“I’m here to plead with you to agree to come to a reception for Suzanne and Pat at the Circle C. With the wedding only three weeks away, it’s almost too late to plan it.”
Jake shook his head as ghosts from the past swirled around him. “I don’t know, Jude. I just don’t know.”
His cousin made a growling sound and started for the door. “Men,” she said. “I don’t understand any of them.”
As soon as she left, Jake picked his cell phone off his belt and keyed in Jolie’s number. She answered right away. “Whatcha doing, sugar?”
“Just getting ready to put dinner on the table,” she answered. He loved the sound of her voice, loved the happiness he heard every time they talked.
“I just got a major ass-chewing from Jude.”
“About what?” Jake heard concern in her voice, as if she might be ready to defend him at all costs.
“About Pat and Suzanne’s wedding reception. Jolie, do you want me to agree to come to it out at that ranch?”
“Um, I think it would be nice. Everyone wants you here so bad. It’s all they talk about. Are you thinking about changing your mind?”
“I don’t know. Maybe.”
“There isn’t much time left. It’s only a few weeks away.”
“I’m thinking about it.”
Jake disconnected. Jolie was right. There wasn’t much time left for a lot of things. He keyed into Pat Garner’s phone number.
***
JUNE TURNED OUT TO be the most glorious month of Jolie’s life. Jake had asked her to marry him and she had said yes. Billy was out of her life.
Jake had agreed to come to the reception at the Circle C and Jude buzzed around the house getting things ready. She seemed to be on the phone constantly. Jolie and Irene helped her as much as they could. At the same time, Jude played hostess to a huge wedding shower for Suzanne at the school’s community room, for which Jolie baked dozens of cookies.
Danni was out of school, Brady’s son, Andy and his stepson Jarrett came for the summer. Andy and Danni became friends immediately.
Branding began. Mr. Strayhorn announced that they would brand approximately 3,486 calves, a number that made Jolie’s jaw drop. For most of the month the house was empty of men. Mr. Strayhorn, Brady and his sons were gone every day before daylight until after branding ended. Jolie and Danni accompanied Buster on the chuck wagon during branding now and then, but not every day. With so much activity surrounding Suzanne’s wedding, Jude needed Jolie’s help.
Off and on, Brady worked with Danni and Andy and Jarrett on horse care and horseback riding lessons.
Jolie couldn’t imagine how life could get any better. Seeing Jake every Monday had become routine. The Monday before Suzanne’s wedding, Jolie arrived at his apartment before lunch. He met her at the front door. He seemed uptight and nervous and instantly she began to worry.
“Come and sit here on the sofa.” He urged her toward it. “I want to talk to you about something.”
Oh, no. Something’s happened. She almost broke into tears at the thought something bad was going to intrude on her happiness. Her eyes grew large and worried. “Okay.” She sank to the edge of the sofa seat.
“Nothing’s wrong,” he said as if he read her thoughts. He dug into his jeans pocket and pulled out a tiny ring box. A flutter began inside her stomach. He sat down beside her and opened the box, revealing a ring with a beautiful diamond the size of a pencil eraser. Her breath caught and she couldn’t speak.
“If you’ll accept it and all that it entails, Jolie, this is for you.” He picked up her left hand and slid it on her ring finger.
She stared down at the ring. Her heart was pounding so hard she thought she might faint. “Oh, my gosh,” she whispered.
“Does it fit? Is it too big?”
She slid the ring back and forth on her finger, then broke into tears. “Oh, Jake.” She threw her arms around him and hugged him fiercely.
He hugged her back. “Don’t cry, sweetheart. I want you to be happy.”
“I am happy,” she said, sniffling. “Happier than I’ve ever been in my whole life.”
They parted and she stared down at the ring again, moved it back and forth on her finger again. “Does it fit?” he asked her again. “If it doesn’t, we can get it sized.”
“I think so,” she answered in a tiny voice, then looked up at him with teary eyes. “Is it real?”
“Real? What do you mean? Is it a real diamond?”
She nodded.
Jake chuckled. “God, I hope so. They told me it was.”
“Oh, my gosh,” she said again. “I’ve never had a ring. But I don’t need a fancy ring, Jake.”
“It isn’t fancy. It’s plain, but it’s real pretty.” He tilted her hand toward the sunlight. Tiny shards of blue and yellow light glinted off the stone. “See how pretty it is?”
“It’s big, isn’t it?”
“Kind of, I guess. But it’s not too big.” He took both her hands in his. “Jolie, this is just the beginning. I’ve got a plan for you and me and Danni.”
She gazed at him expectantly. She didn’t care what he planned as long as included her, Danni and him together as a unit.
“I’m gonna run for sheriff again, but I’m gonna quit after the next term. While I’m keeping order in Willard County, the designer that I hired and her construction are gonna work over that house I bought. I want it to be our place to come home to.”
“Are we going somewhere?”
“I’m gonna buy an RV. In the summer when Danni’s not in school, I figure we can cover the country. Go see everything. It’ll be a good education for Danni. And we’ll have fun. Then after we finish doing that, I figure we could get a summer place in Colorado. Of course, we’ll always come back to Lockett so Danni can go to school here.”
“Oh, my gosh. I’ve never been out of Texas.” She went into his arms again. “Oh, Jake, I can’t believe this. I never expected—”
“I never expected, either, Jolie. But here we are. So are you saying yes?”
“Yes,” she said, laughing and crying at the same time. “I love you.”
“I love you, too, Jolie. You’re more than I ever expected to find.”
They kissed a long time, leaning back against the sofa back. When they parted, they looked into each other’s eyes. “You are, too, Jake. Until I met you, I didn’t know someone like you could ever want me.”
