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Jack’s arms tightened around Alice, and he gave himself up to the sensations her proximity was arousing. Like parched earth opening to water, he found himself soaking in the feel of her—the wonder of her in his arms.
He wasn’t sure what he’d thought it would be like to come to Chance Creek and meet Alice. He supposed he thought it would be like fulfilling any other mission, a matter of going through the proper sequence of steps to reach an objective.
This was nothing like the other missions he’d run. Being with Alice was like being handed a fascinating enigma wrapped in the most stunning package he could ever have imagined. To put it mildly, Alice was his type. His body responded to hers with a desire so strong it made him struggle to control it. He’d known that would be the case from the first time he’d seen Alice’s photograph, and if he was honest, back at USSOCOM, he’d consoled himself that maybe that physical connection would get him through marrying her if they didn’t click on a deeper level.
He’d been sorely mistaken. Jack doubted he could have agreed to a life with a woman he couldn’t love, but the glorious thing was he didn’t have to learn the answer to that.
He could love Alice.
He couldn’t quite explain it. Her insistence on having mystical abilities should have made it impossible for them to be together. Still, there it was. She intrigued him with her ability to take the barest hints and turn them into predictions. She was his match for that, and there was something more.
Alice was a woman who loved her family, who had opened her heart to her sisters’ husbands, too, even if her estranged father was the one who’d sent them to Two Willows. He had seen how gentle she was with her cat—and Jo’s dogs. How often she checked in with the other inhabitants of the ranch to make sure all was well with them—even in the middle of her panic about getting her dresses done. She loved her family the way his birth mother had loved hers. Her face brightened when she saw the people she loved.
Would she ever brighten like that for him?
Alice broke the kiss this time, staring up at him through eyes so lovely he wanted to look into them for hours.
“What was that for?” Jack asked her slowly, afraid to break the connection between them.
“You’re… yummy.” She smiled, and his heart constricted.
“Yummy?” He’d been called a lot of things in his life, but never that before.
“Yummy in a dumb way,” she amended, her tone turning tart. “I wonder if you’ll taste better when you smarten up.” She strode away and left him standing there.
Yummy in a dumb way?
“I’m not dumb,” he called after her, but he didn’t bother to try to catch up. He had a feeling Alice could run rings around him.
Alice was halfway to the house when the vision overtook her, and she staggered a few steps before sinking to her knees. Images sliced through her mind like so many knives thrown through the air, every painful snapshot of past and future intersecting mid-flight. In her mind, she ran through the maze as a child, first aware of the power of it; she walked through its passages slowly, stiffened by age; she cried out and pushed a baby into the world; she stood over her mother’s grave; she crossed a stage to receive an award; nursed Lena’s black eye after her ex-boyfriend Mark hit her; watched Jo grab a knife and stab a man; danced under the stars—
All the visions, all the snapshot images, all coalesced into one continual thread that both led to and branched from something coming at her right now.
No, not something.
Someone.
“Alice?”
Dimly she heard someone call her name. She was panting for breath, her heart throbbing like it was being wrung out to dry.
“Alice!”
A touch brought her out of it, and she stared up into Cass’s frightened face. Wyoming was close behind her, eyes wide with concern. Neither of them wore jackets. They must have seen her from the kitchen and run outside.
“What is it?” Cass hissed.
“The General. He’s here.”
“But—” They both turned at the sound of an engine and watched a large black car pull around the house and park between it and the carriage house, near the other vehicles.
“No,” Cass breathed, but Alice knew she was right, even when the driver’s door opened, and a man she didn’t recognize got out. He had short-cropped dark hair and a bearing she recognized.
Military.
But when he took a few steps forward, he was limping.
“Who is that?” Wyoming asked.
Alice just shook her head. “I don’t know.”
He looked the house up and down until an angry bellow from the interior of the vehicle had him spinning around to duck back into the car.
Alice stiffened. Cass did, too. They’d know that voice anywhere.
“He’s not supposed to be here yet! Why didn’t anyone warn us?” Cass asked.
Alice was already doing the calculations. Landon was coming on Saturday. She wasn’t done with her gowns. Now the General was here—
“Call Brian.” As usual, Wyoming was practical. “Get the men up here to help. Your sisters, too.”
Cass scrambled to pull out her phone, and Wyoming helped Alice stand. “You okay?” she asked.
“I guess.” But she found herself clutching Wyoming’s wrist and had to force herself to let go. “I don’t know. It’s been a long time—”
“And now it’s time for your family to sort this out—once and for all,” Wyoming said sternly.
Alice had no doubt if it was up to Wyoming, she’d solve all their problems in a jiffy, but it wasn’t up to Wyoming, and the Reeds were nothing if not good at prolonging a fight.
A moment later footsteps pounded up behind them, and Brian arrived from the barn. Connor, Hunter and Jack weren’t far behind. Jo trailed after them.
“The General’s here?” Brian asked. Cass pointed to the black car and the stranger who was straightening up again and looking around.
Brian waved to him and led the way forward. Alice held back until Jack took her arm. “Come on; best to get it over with,” he murmured. Alice wasn’t sure if that was true, but she walked with him. Jo caught up with them, her dogs following at her heels. Sadie opened the back door and came out on the porch, hugging her arms over her chest against the cold.
Cass twined her fingers through Alice’s free hand, and Alice knew she wasn’t the only one whose nerves were skipping and jumping inside her.
“I can’t believe this is happening,” Cass whispered.
“Me, neither.”
“No matter what happens, we stick together. This is our house,” Cass asserted.
“Our ranch. We have to stay strong for Lena, if nothing else,” Alice agreed. The knowledge stiffened her spine. Lena had waited years to run the cattle operation. Now that she was doing so—with the men’s help—Alice wouldn’t let the General mess with that.
What would he be like?
She hadn’t seen him in person since she was fourteen, since the last time she’d attended a military function. During the first year or so after her mother’s death, he’d commanded her and Cass to attend several such events, before Cass and the General had a major set-to at one of the functions and the General put an end to the exercise. A lot of water had passed under the bridge since then. She’d grown up.
Had he?
It struck her now, as an adult, that he’d let his grief overcome his better nature at her mother’s funeral, and maybe that was embarrassing, or awkward, but his refusal to come home since was downright childish, and she still found it hard to forgive him.
Had he ever thought what it had been like for them? He’d hidden himself away from his wife’s memory. Buried himself in work. They’d stayed in Amelia’s house, on Amelia’s ranch, tending all the things Amelia loved—immersed in her memory.
Alice thought they’d gotten the better end of the bargain. Yes, it had hurt back then to be reminded of her everywhere, but as time passed and their grief healed, her memory stayed strong.
The chance to be reminded of Amelia’s spirit was worth the occasional pain of a wayward memory or a longing to see her again. Alice’s mother was the kind of woman who made the world special, and Alice did her best to pattern herself after her.
She failed miserably, of course.
“There he is,” Jo whispered, coming up behind them. Alice strained to get a glimpse of the man. Jack squeezed her other hand, let go and went to help Brian and the others who had clustered around the passenger side of the strange car.
Brian was reaching in to help, and Alice’s breath hitched when she caught sight of the passenger’s face.
The General.
He looked… old.
He shrugged Brian off, bellowed something—Alice couldn’t make out the words—and took a step. When his legs buckled under him, Brian and the stranger caught him and steadied him between them.
“I’m not an invalid!”
Alice understood the General’s words that time, and despite the gathering sense of dread that was tightening her stomach, she bit back an aching smile. He never changed.
The men conferred, and a second later, Brian and Connor made a seat of their clasped hands. They picked up the General, climbed the steps and went right through the back door. Jack rushed ahead to open it as Sadie hung back. The stranger followed them past Sadie more slowly, with a pronounced limp. Alice wondered if he had been hurt in the missile strike, too.
Cass increased her pace, and the women caught up with Sadie on the porch.
“He’s home,” Sadie whispered. “Why is he home?”
“We don’t know,” Cass told her. She straightened her shoulders, took a deep breath and followed the men inside.
Alice exchanged a glance with Sadie and Jo and shrugged helplessly. Her premonitions were going off like sirens. Whatever she’d dreaded was coming. Alice couldn’t understand it. The General had already been injured. Was already home. Why was she still feeling this sense of doom?
“Should I leave?” Wyoming asked in a small voice.
“I think Cass would want you to stay,” Alice said. Wyoming nodded.
They went inside, too, Champ and Isobel underfoot, and Jo shut the door behind them. As the men deposited the General on his feet in the kitchen, catching hold of him again to keep him upright, the General fumed, “You will treat me with respect! I just said I can walk!”
“Doctor’s orders, sir,” the stranger said. “You aren’t supposed to climb stairs. Not for a month, at least.”
“That doctor is a—” The General bit off his words when he caught sight of his daughters. He straightened. “Cass.” His gaze ran down the line of them. “Sadie. Jo.” His voice softened a little. “Alice.”
Alice fought the urge to curtsey. It all sounded so formal. Instead, she nodded.
The General’s gaze lingered on Wyoming. “You’re not Lena. I know because you aren’t trying to assassinate me.”
Wyoming laughed, startling all of them, especially the young man who’d accompanied the General and was hovering behind him. “I’m not Lena. I’m Wyoming Smith. Cass’s friend. I hope you don’t mind that I’m here; I’ve been staying for a couple of days to help her.”
“I’m Corporal Myers.” To Alice’s surprise, the young man stepped out from behind the General and shook Wyoming’s hand. “Pleasure to meet all of you.” His gaze stayed on Wyoming’s face, though.
The General elbowed him out of the way, but as he turned back to the women, his glance rested on Wyoming, and a cunning expression crossed his face. It was gone in an instant, and Alice wondered if she’d seen it at all, or if she was reading into the situation. Lord knew her heart was beating so hard she could barely think straight.
“Don’t leave on my account. Seems like there’s lots to do to clean this place up. Never seen a barracks so ramshackle in all my life.” His gaze traveled around the kitchen, and Alice could see what he meant. Poor Cass. It looked like she and Wye had just pulled everything out of the cabinets.
Cass’s chin went up. “We’re in the middle of pre-holiday cleaning,” she said. “You have to take everything out of those cupboards before you can scrub them right.”
“Besides, this isn’t a barracks,” Sadie pointed out. She had a stubborn look in her eye Alice recognized.
“We need to get the General to his room. Can you show me the way?” Myers asked.
Alice realized he’d directed his question at Wyoming. Wyoming deferred to Cass, but Alice noticed Wye’s gaze rested on Myers as they spoke.
“We’ve put you in your office,” Cass said to the General.
“Hmph.”
Brian moved quickly to the General’s side before he could say more. Connor joined him, and together they assisted him to his office, Myers trailing behind.
“He shouldn’t be walking yet, should he?” Jack murmured to her, coming to stand near Alice. “He’s had surgery. He needs to recuperate.”
“That won’t come easy to the General.”
“I need coffee,” the General bellowed from his office. “Myers, stop hovering around, and get me some! And where’s my briefcase?”
“I’ll get both of them in a jiffy, sir.”
“That’s my cue,” Cass said and moved to the coffeepot. “Wye, I understand if you don’t want to stay. I doubt we’re going to get much more done today.”
“I’ll stay,” Wye said cheerfully as Myers came back into the room.
“The General would like some—”
“Coffee. On it,” Cass said. “Then I’ll get the General settled in.”
“I’ll get the General settled, ma’am,” Myers said firmly. “I know what he needs.” He limped to the back door and let himself out. A few minutes later, he was back, a briefcase in his hand. “Good thing this made it through the blast,” he said. “Don’t know what he would have done if it didn’t.”
“The coffee will just be another minute,” Cass told him.
“Yes, ma’am.”
Alice, not knowing what to do with herself, climbed up onto the refrigerator. At least up here she was out of the way. Tabitha joined her a moment later, and she lifted the cat into her lap, grateful for her calming presence.
She still couldn’t believe her father was home, an event she’d half hoped for, half dreaded for years.
“Think I’ve got a read on the problem,” Will said, appearing suddenly in the kitchen and startling all of them. He caught sight of the gathered crowd and hesitated. “Sorry. Is something going on?”
“I forgot you were here.” Cass pressed her hand to her heart. “The water’s back on.”
“That’s right. I’m going to need some parts to get things fixed up. Thought I’d come back tomorrow if you don’t mind.” He winked at Wyoming, who flushed a little.
“Oh,” Cass said. “The General—my father—just arrived home a few days early. I’m not sure what kind of recuperation he’ll need. He was injured.”
Corporal Myers was assessing Will frankly.
“Your father’s here?” Will asked. His smile slipped for once. “The Army general? I’ve heard about him.”
“That’s right.” Cass visibly gathered her thoughts. “I guess it’s fine if you come back tomorrow. Just don’t come too early.”
“I won’t.” Will’s voice was gruff. “Don’t worry; I’ll keep out of the way.” He frowned, and Alice realized he was watching Corporal Myers, who was now watching Wye.
Myers must have felt his gaze. He looked up, noticed Will’s expression. Alice thought the younger man might blush, but Myers held firm, and her estimation of him rose a notch. If she wasn’t mistaken, Myers had just issued a challenge, and Will seemed ready to take it.
May the best man win.
Neither of them had spoken the words aloud, but somehow they were hovering in the room.
Cass had noticed. Wyoming, too. She was pretty sure Sadie had. What about Jack?
Yes, he’d noticed. Standing quietly to one side, observed by no one but her, he was watching the little drama play out around him. But then he saw everything—or thought he did.
“Well, I’ll be off then. See you tomorrow,” Will said to Wyoming.
“See you.”
Will left. Myers took the cup of coffee Cass handed to him. Wyoming didn’t seem to know what to do.
“The General is going to need to rest now,” Myers said on his way out.
“I guess I should get back to work, then,” Alice said. Tabitha jumped down when she shifted, and Alice followed her more slowly, sliding down to stand on the countertop before leaping to the floor.
“Guess we should, too,” Cass said to Wye.
Jack touched Alice’s arm when she reached him. “The worst is over, right?” he asked in a low tone. “The General’s home.”
Alice laughed out loud. She had a feeling the worst was yet to come.
Jack was relieved to hear Alice laugh. He’d been afraid the General’s homecoming would upset her far more than it seemed to have done.
“Let’s get back to work,” Brian said to him and the other men, coming into the kitchen again, followed by Connor. “Myers kicked us out. He’s got the General in hand. Smells good in here, by the way.” He went to give Cass a peck on the cheek. “What’s cooking?” He was trying to normalize things, Jack knew, but it was going to take a lot more than a kiss to do that.
“A nice roast pork.”
“Yummy,” Brian said.
“Yummy in a smart way or in a dumb way?” Jack asked before he thought better of it. He looked up, caught Alice looking back at him from where she was tugging on her outer things. A wry smile quirked the corners of her mouth.
Cass turned on Jack, her hands on her hips. “My pork roast is not dumb.”
Corporal Myers reappeared in the doorway and cleared his throat. “The General—”
“You calling my wife’s pork roast dumb?” Brian swaggered up to Jack, puffing out his chest. “Them’s fighting words, Soldier.”
“Knock it off,” Cass said when Jack puffed his chest right back and the two of them slammed together, then careened off each other, Jack bumping into the counter and upsetting a glass of water. “Out of my kitchen, both of you! Come back later. There’s enough going on here today without you two acting up.”
“The General wants you—”
“Why are you calling Cass’s pork roast dumb?” Brian asked Jack conversationally as Jack grabbed a dish cloth and began to clean up the spilled water. Wye took the cloth from his hands and pushed him toward the door.
“Out of here. You all are a menace.”
“Long story,” Jack told Brian. “Involves a girl and a maze.”
“Don’t they all,” Brian said.
“The General wants you all to muster in the office—NOW!”
Everyone turned to Myers, who filled the doorway. “Now,” he said again, more quietly, and stepped back.
Jack exchanged a look with Alice. She shrugged and began to take off the jacket she’d just put on.
“I’ll clean up here,” Wyoming assured Cass.
“You, too,” Myers said implacably.
“Me?”
“That’s what the General said.”
Jack followed the others as they filed toward the office. It was a tight fit with the General’s bed in the room. He sat on it, a mass of pillows at his back and a few more under his knee. The General was in his fifties, his hair peppered with gray, but his eyes clear and bright. His face held more lines than Jack remembered, but the pain from his injuries might be exacerbating that. He watched them from under bushy eyebrows as they took their places. Soon all of them stood in a semi-circle around his bed.
“From now on, I expect to see you all first thing in the morning,” the General said.
“We have chores,” Jo began.
“Right after breakfast.”
“We’ll make a point of it, sir,” Brian said.
Jack couldn’t interpret the look Cass sent him. From what he’d seen, Cass liked things to be peaceful, and he was pretty sure she would work for a rapprochement with the General, but like all the women, he knew she harbored a lot of anger toward her father for the way he’d acted these past eleven years.
“Was there something you wanted to say?” Sadie was more challenging. Jack thought he knew why the rancor between her and the General was worse. From what Brian and the other men had told him, unlike Cass and Alice, after their mother’s death Sadie hadn’t ever received an invitation to accompany the General to a military event. According to Connor, she took the slight personally.
“Seems to me there’d be something you all need to say to me.” The General waited, but no one spoke up. He sighed. “Lake, status report.”
Brian straightened, and understanding rippled around the room. Jack caught Sadie’s flare of anger, Jo’s surprise and Cass’s consternation. If Lena had been here, Jack figured she’d have probably exploded. Just as she’d feared, the General was taking over. They all reported to him now.
“The ranch is doing well, sir. We rebuilt the stable, and the horses are all home. We’re working with Lena to improve the cattle herd and making plans for spring.”
“O’Riley, you’re up next.”
Connor shrugged. “Same as Brian. Doing my chores, keeping my wife happy.”
“Keeping my wife happy, sir!” the General said reprovingly.
“Yes, sir.” Connor looked sheepish.
“Powell?”
“Why are the men going first?” Sadie asked suddenly.
“Drawing up plans for Jo’s house, sir,” Hunter said. “We’ll build come spring.”
“Sanders?”
“Why are the men going first?” Sadie repeated. She stepped closer to the bed, positioning herself between the General and Jack.
The General scowled. “It’s how it’s done. Sanders?”
“Why is it done that way?” Sadie demanded.
“Because it is. Sanders?”
“Started building the surveillance system, sir,” Jack said hurriedly. Sadie shot him a disgusted look.
“Cass?” the General said.
“I think Sadie has a good question. Why do the men go first?”
The General crossed his arms and waited until Cass blew out an irritated breath and said, “Fine. Everything’s fine. House is fixed. Baby’s fine. You’re home for the first time in eleven years. It’s all fine.”
“Fucking fine,” Sadie said. “Jo, you’re up.”
Jo was caught off guard. “Uh… Isobel had some nice puppies this year. Oh, and I killed a guy. Alice?”
The General was scowling again.
Alice shook her head. She looked pissed. “I keep seeing visions. Some of them are kind of nice, like the ones where Jack’s naked—” Sadie laughed. Jack choked. He was pretty sure the General growled. “But the others are pretty rough. I think trouble’s coming again.”
The General held her gaze a long time, then turned to Wyoming. “Your turn.”
“Me?” Wyoming squeaked. “Uh… well… no one’s sent me a husband, so my life’s been kind of boring. Except for the plumber. He’s sort of cute.”
Corporal Myers frowned, but Jack saw the General’s mouth twitch. Had he just suppressed a smile?
“If you’re joining our ranks, I suppose I’ll have to look into that husband oversight. You don’t need a plumber. You need a soldier. Dismissed.”
No one moved, then everyone moved at once, creating a bottleneck in the doorway.
“Who does he think he is?” Jack heard Sadie say.
“Going to be a rebellion if he keeps that up,” Connor was muttering to Hunter.
“He’s not really going to send me a soldier, is he?” Wye was asking Cass.
“I wouldn’t put anything past him at this point.”
Dinner was a quiet affair, with everyone conscious of the General in the office nearby. Corporal Myers served him his food and seemed to anticipate the General’s needs before the man himself. In between times he sat at the table with the rest of them and ate up Cass’s roast like he’d been starved for months.
When the General bellowed for him again, and he excused himself to see what was needed, Cass sighed. “Thank goodness Corporal Myers is here. I don’t think I’d have the patience to fetch and carry the way he’s doing.”
“Do you think he was with the General when the missile struck?” Jo asked. “The way he limps—”
“Must have been,” Alice said.
“He’s certainly devoted to him,” Cass said.
“Always has been. Was his shadow back at USSOCOM,” Jack said. “Pretty sure the General is some kind of hero to him.”
“More like father figure,” Alice said.
“That one of your hunches?” Sadie asked.
Jack rolled his eyes. “Doesn’t take a hunch to see that.”
“You didn’t see it,” Alice said.
“Course I did,” he asserted. “But that’s personal. Just because he lost his own parents—” Jack broke off. Alice looked up to see Corporal Myers in the doorway again.
“The General needs more coffee,” he said grimly and limped across the room to fill the cup he was carrying.
Jack pinched his lips together. Cass looked desperate to change the conversation. Wyoming was tracking Myers’s movements with her eyes.
When Alice’s phone rang, she grabbed the excuse to push back her chair and run upstairs to her room. It was Landon. Of course. With all the hubbub around the General’s arrival, she’d forgotten about him.
“Hello?”
“Alice, it’s me. Just wanted to give you my information for Saturday.”
“Oh.” Should she tell him about the General? Alice figured she had to. She didn’t know what was going to happen now that he was home. “I have some news on my end, too. Remember I told you about the General? That he’d been injured and was coming home?”
“Of course.”
“Well…” She took a deep breath, hoping he’d understand and not think she was asking for an extension. “He came home early. He’s here now. I’ll still be ready for you on Saturday,” she hastened to add, “but—”
“You said he wasn’t coming home until next week.” It sounded like an accusation, and not for the first time Alice realized that managing Landon’s moods was going to be one of the harder aspects of the job if she got the contract.
“He wasn’t supposed to, but he did. My father is impatient.”
“So am I.” Landon paused and seemed to pull himself together. “He’s staying at the house?”
“That’s right.”
“Then we won’t want to meet there.”
That was considerate, Alice thought. “You said you wanted to see my workshop.”
“Of course I do. It’s critical you have the facilities to pull this off. But everything’s changed now, hasn’t it?”
She was losing him. Landon didn’t like changes once he’d made his plans. “I can come to you. Where will you be staying?”
“I’ll get back to you.” He hung up, leaving Alice to stare at the phone. She was the one having to juggle her obligations to the General with her need to finish her costumes. How did it impact Landon at all?
“Something wrong?” Jack asked from the doorway.
She shoved her phone back in her pocket. “Just Landon. He’s… cranky tonight.”
“Sounds like your boyfriend rather than an employer.”
“He’s neither… yet.” She knew she should qualify that. Landon would never be her boyfriend. She was sick of men, though. Sick of the General’s high-handedness. Sick of Landon’s temper. And sick of not knowing how Jack fit into her life. Now that the General was home, she couldn’t pretend he wasn’t trying to force her to marry the man. “Excuse me, I’ve got work to do.” She was relieved to escape to her studio in the carriage house. If only life could go back to what it used to be, when she’d known exactly where everything fit.
There was no going back, though, was there?
All she could do was muddle forward the best she could.