Caleb finished writing a ticket for a driver, a fifty-something-year-old man who was dressed to kill was probably a banker or investor from LA, who’d been speeding on one of the back roads. These days Sweet got a lot of snazzy people from out of town who wanted to scoop up all the land for an investment and build a “little” weekend getaway so they could escape the grind of the big city. It left many locals on edge wondering how their town was going to change.
A tow truck whizzed past him as he stood by the sports car and ripped the ticket out of his pad. The only investor Caleb knew who didn’t quite fit the same bill was Kasper Dobbs. His roots were dug deep in this Montana county. No amount of New York City living was going to change the local boy who’d done well for himself. He saw that firsthand over the winter when he’d come back to Sweet to invest in rodeo stock, and had fallen in love with the young rodeo barrel racer named Tabby Swanson.
The man in the Porsche glared up at him as he stared at the fine he’d just been levied. “Is there any way we can make this go away?”
Fingernails of irritation scraped up Caleb’s spine. The guy’s shoes probably cost more than the amount he’d written out for the ticket. He was in a hurry. They all were. But he’d sped right past him and then slammed on his brakes just as a school bus was stopping to drop off some kids. When Caleb had pulled up behind him, the man had shown his impatience by tapping on his steering wheel and glancing at his watch.
“Not unless you want to see me in court,” Caleb said. “You can pay the fine or fight it. Your choice. But just so you know, I always show up for court.”
The man’s plastic smile was slick and nauseating. “Aren’t you a little too busy with law and order to be appearing in court?”
He glanced over at the farmhouse about a hundred yards away. “You see that house over there?”
“Yeah?” the guy said without turning.
“That family has two sets of twins. Two boys and two girls. The girls got off the bus just as you were racing out of town. It would have been a damned shame if one of them had been hit as you were trying to weave around that bus in such a hurry.” He tucked his pad in his shirt pocket. “I take my job seriously. If you fight it, which is your choice, then you’ll see me in court. We’ll let the judge decide. Of course, that means you’re going to have to drive back to Montana to deal with this.”
The man scowled and shoved the ticket in the console between the seats. Without saying another word, he rolled up his window, and then he sped off down the road. He’d taken off faster than what Caleb knew the speed limit to be. But it was clear this joker didn’t care about a school bus or a speed limit.
Caleb let the man go. They were close enough to the county line to let him get another ticket from an officer in the next town. He walked back to his cruiser and climbed inside, and then waited for warmth to replace the chill that had settled in standing by the side of the road in the open wind. When it didn’t happen after a minute, he blasted the heat. He’d only do it for a few minutes or he’d end up sweating under his jacket.
As soon as the blast of heat pumped through the car, Caleb called into the station and let Harper, the dispatcher on duty, know he was done with his call.
Harper Madison’s voice came over the radio. “We got a call about a car stuck in the snow down at the old chapel on Lookout Ridge. The person calling in copied the license plate number down.”
Caleb’s shoulder’s sagged. “Let me guess. It came up as Katie Dobbs.”
“How do you know?”
“Lucky guess. I’ll head out there now.”
“Copy that.”
What the hell was Katie doing? Caleb drove the short distance down Lookout Ridge past the open fields that were now filled with layers of snow that had fallen since Christmas. Snow wouldn’t be gone fully until May, even at this elevation, unlike other places in the country where the roads became bare in March. Sweet wouldn’t see green grass or new wildflowers until June. That’s just the way it was here in Montana.
The old chapel came into view and there was Katie Dobbs’ car stuck in one of the ruts she’d made trying to get out of the parking lot. The small space where she’d parked the other night when he’d caught her trespassing was covered over with fresh snow from last night’s storm. As soon as he pulled into the chapel parking lot with his four-wheel-drive cruiser, he saw Katie poke her head up from behind the car as if she’d been shoveling and hadn’t heard him come until just now. Her shoulders sagged as soon as she saw him.
He took his time getting out of the cruiser, and then walked over to her slowly.
Using her fingers to shield the sunlight glaring off the snow, she asked, “Do they teach you how to walk like that in the police academy? Just wondering.”
That hadn’t been what he had expected her to say, and it threw him off guard for a few seconds, making him want to laugh. But he held himself back.
“Haven’t we been through this already, Katie?”
“Your schooling or my being here?”
“My schooling is none of your business.”
She picked up her cell phone and showed it to him, as if that meant anything or changed the situation.
“Katie,” he said, suddenly annoyed with her antics. “Don’t make me arrest you.”
“I got stuck on the side of the road, well, a little in the parking lot, but I was not in the chapel. I’m sure this old fart real estate investor won’t mind if I wait here for a tow.”
“What old fart…? Are you trying to call the owner of the property?”
She dialed a number on her phone and then waited for the call to go through.
“Why not?”
“You’re crazy.”
“If that’s true then it’s the best thing I’ve been called all day. You have no idea how hoity-toity some of these out of town people get when you can’t cash an out of state check for them. You should have seen the guy who’d come into the bank today. His suit probably cost more than my—oh, hello? I’d like to speak with Henry Callahan.”
Caleb thought about the out-of-towner in the Porsche and knew Katie was talking about the same person. He’d made it a point to know who the residents of Sweet were, especially the new people who’d moved into town. This guy was definitely not from Sweet.
Katie covered the phone as if shielding her voice from the person on the other end of the line. “It’s the secretary,” she mouthed. “He’s in a meeting.”
“Let’s go, Katie,” he said, forcing himself to see Katie as a nuisance who was trespassing, not a sweet girl who was his old friend’s baby sister who just happened to be incredibly pretty standing out in the cold with her red nose and cheeks.
He glanced around. Katie’s car was only ten feet into the parking lot. She could have easily slid off the road ended up there if she’d hit a patch of ice.
Caleb shook his head as frustration flared through him. He couldn’t believe he was making excuses for Katie being here when he knew damned well this was no accident.
“When will he be out?” She was silent for a few seconds while she listened. “Well, he has a property over in Sweet, Montana that is abandoned. I’m here with a police officer and we wanted to look at it. Oh, he has many properties? This one is empty. It’s very run down. Do you think he’ll mind if we take a look?”
“Katie, let’s go,” Caleb mouthed. If it were anyone else, he would have called a tow truck and insisted she call the owner when she got home. He didn’t know why he hadn’t already. But this was Katie Dobbs, a friend of his sister’s from long ago.
She pressed the button on the cell phone to disconnect the call. “He’s expected to be out in an hour, but the secretary said we could take a look around and call back later seeing as it’s abandoned and I’m—”
“Crazy?”
She chuckled as if giddy with excitement. “—with a police officer.”
He sighed. “Let’s just see if we can get your car out of this rut first.”
“And not take a quick peek at the chapel before we lose sunlight? I got permission.”
“From a secretary. Did you come here hoping I’d help you break in again?”
“News flash. I broke in by myself the other night. You didn’t help me. But since you mentioned it—”
“No.”
She looked at him as if she were studying his face for a test. “Well, if we want to be technical about this. I’m a taxpayer and as a taxpayer I—”
“No! Let’s just cut it out, Katie. I told you not to come back here the other night. This is private property. You know, as in someone else owns it and that someone is not you.”
“I told you—”
“You know I can arrest you.”
She huffed. “Yes, you can. But you won’t.”
“You seem awfully confident about that.”
“I am.”
“What makes you so sure I won’t arrest you for trespassing?”
She pointed a finger at him. “Because I saw the look on your face the other night when I was talking about what this chapel could be. You were curious.”
“I was cold.”
“You pretended that it was a crazy idea. But you were curious. Admit it.”
She had read him right. But maybe not for the reasons she thought. “I’m curious about a lot of things, Katie. My curiosity doesn’t make me forget my job.”
She took a few steps and met him at the end of her car. “Fair enough. But weren’t you at all curious about seeing what the chapel looks like during the day? I mean, that stained glass is still intact. Most of it anyway. Aren’t you wondering what it looks like with all this sunshine pouring in? I know you are because why else would you have even told me about the memory of the stained glass window? I mean, that was practically an invitation.”
He forced himself not to smile but it was still pulling at him. “You know very well that was not an invitation.”
“Okay, so it wasn’t. But now that we’re here and it’s a sunny day, don’t you want to see it again? You could give me an escort through the building.”
He couldn’t help himself. He chuckled and shook his head. “You know, there are laws against these things.”
“Yeah? Well, there should be a law against some rich person from LA coming out to Sweet, Montana and buying up property like this old chapel or old homestead homes just to have as a tax write-off. I looked it up, you know. Callahan has owned this property for ten years and he hasn’t done a thing with it.”
Caleb thought of the guy he had just given a ticket to. She was probably talking about someone very much like him.
“That’s not the point,” he said.
“It should be. I want this chapel. I want to see how I can save it. If it continues to deteriorate like this much longer nothing will be salvageable.”
“I can’t believe you looked up the records on this property.”
“It’s not like it was hard. Okay, I was confused, but then I called my brother and he helped me out a little bit. I don’t win points for that. Even though I was very appreciative, Kas will throw that in my face for the next ten years. And don’t you dare tell him how grateful I am the next time you see him.”
“He’s coming to town?”
“Yes, he and Tabby are coming back for a few weeks.”
“Fine. Mums the word.”
“Thank you.”
“But we still can’t go in there, Katie. Even as a police officer, I cannot go into the building without permission. We shouldn’t even be in the parking lot.”
“I told you—”
“The secretary doesn’t count.”
She huffed. “But when I was here the other night, you came in.”
“I thought you were breaking and entering, which you were. Don’t make me regret not arresting you that night.”
“What if I call him again? I’m not leaving until I get this guy on the phone.”
“You’re serious.”
She nodded. “Why would you doubt me? I just called his office. I’m calling back in an hour.”
“The sun will be gone by then.”
Her shoulders sagged and she pouted in a way that made his insides stir. Geesh, this was just Katie Dobbs. He could handle her.
“Can’t we take a quick peek just this once? Don’t you think it’s criminal to let this chapel die a slow and painful death?”
“Katie, it’s a building, not a bison.”
“It’s still painful.”
* * *
He thought she was crazy. A week after that confrontation with Caleb at the chapel, Katie was still revisiting the conversation. Luckily for her, she’d persisted in calling Henry Callahan while Caleb was still arguing with her and he gave them verbal permission to tour the property. In that same conversation, it was clear he had no idea which property she was talking about.
His secretary underestimated the statement that he had several properties. The man was a movie mogul, doing most of his work behind the scenes as a producer, and invested in real estate most likely to make it look like he was operating under a loss for some projects. That much she’d gotten from Kas when she’d called him…again.
But now that her busy week of working at the bank, research, and signing papers was over, she was excited to get to the real work.
It became quickly apparent she needed to get a truck. Or to become fast friends with someone who had a truck. She had lots of friends in Sweet, but she couldn’t count on them to drop everything they were doing just to come rescue her at the lumberyard.
For so long Katie balked at the idea of driving something monstrous big, a vehicle that most of the guys she knew in high school had insisted on having. A truck was necessary for many things when working on a ranch. It wasn’t just for show. Sweet was certainly ranch country. Trucks weren’t just cool, they were tools. She knew that now. It’d only taken her twenty-eight plus years to buy into the argument. And only now because she had to haul a piece of plywood and a two by four strapped to the roof of her sedan.
Katie thought she’d been smart when she bought her car. She’d learned to drive on these winding roads when she was a teen and had taken her driving test for her license during a snowstorm. She’d made sure her sedan had all-wheel-drive so she could navigate safely. But as good of a choice as she’d made, it still wasn’t a truck.
This ride across town was a test run from the lumber yard to the chapel and she’d failed miserably, especially after she’d hit a pothole halfway there and she feared her sunroof would get smashed and glass fragments would come raining down on her as she to drove. But luckily that hadn’t happened.
Ash Dennison over at the lumberyard had made sure that the one board was tied down well enough that it wouldn’t go flying off her car. Of course, that was after he’d spent fifteen minutes trying to talk her out making the trip at all. He’d even offered to drive the few things she had over to the chapel himself after work, but then relented when she lifted her chin and insisted on doing it herself.
Okay, she could admit that she was more stubborn than smart sometimes. She should’ve listened to Ash. Lesson learned.
But going slow, Katie had made it to the chapel. And now that she was here, stubbornness and anxiety faded and were replaced with excitement again.
Just as she was untying the stubborn bit of rope that wouldn’t come free easily, she heard the sound of an engine growing louder as it came into the parking lot. She glanced over the roof of her car and saw Caleb Samuel’s cruiser.
Groaning under her breath, she said, “Here we go again.”
She kept at her task until the rope came free and the board fell to the ground. But not before it bounced off her mirror on the journey down. She held the piece of plywood in place, but all it would take was a good gust of wind and that would go flying like a sail.
Caleb got out of the cruiser and walked slowly over to her as he did the other day. “Need help again?” he asked.
“I got it,” she said forcing herself to smile. On the last two occasions Caleb had been pleasant, even a bit nostalgic when they spoke. This time, the scowl on his face showed he was clearly annoyed.
“I warned you before, Katie. You can’t keep coming here. If you don’t have permission from the owner—”
“You’re looking at her.”
He stopped dead in his tracks and frowned with confusion and maybe even a bit of shock.
“That’s right,” she said. “After we had our little tour last week, I called up that old fart and found out he had no intentions of doing anything with the chapel or the land. At least for now. And since he hadn’t done anything with it in the last ten years, I’m pretty sure he wasn’t planning to do anything. I’m not even a hundred percent sure he knew which piece of property I was talking about. So I took my brother’s advice and made him an offer.” Excitement filled her as she told Caleb the story of her negotiation. “He accepted just like that.”
“You already signed the papers?”
“Yes! Just after lunch. I bought the property and now my name is on the deed. I have a nice hefty mortgage that I can barely afford to go with it. If you need me to show you the papers, we’ll have to go back to the house because I locked them in the house safe. But I’ll do it if you insist.”
A slow smile lifted his lips to a grin that she found irresistible. It made something inside of her burst until her body hummed and her fingers tingled. What the hell?
“That won’t be necessary,” he said, rubbing his chin. “How in the world did you pull this off?”
Caleb’s grin was wide. Katie wasn’t sure if he was impressed or just teasing. She was going with impressed because she wasn’t going to let any teasing ruin her mood.
“I am an able-bodied woman.”
“I could see that,” he said, glancing at the two by four that had fallen to the ground.
She cocked her head to one side. “I work at a bank. I’m capable of purchasing a piece of real estate.”
His smile was wider, if that was even possible. He propped his hands on his hips and shook his head. “You called your brother again, didn’t you?”
With her back straight as a board, she said, “I don’t need to go to my brother for every little thing. He may be successful, but I still have the same genes he has.”
“Not exactly.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I’ve never seen Kasper Dobbs looking so pretty in a dress. And you can tell him that for me too.”
“I will not. Is that your way of flirting with me, Caleb?”
“Would it bother you if I were?”
Caleb Samuel was a damn fine man in so many ways that Katie was surprised some younger girl in town hadn’t snatched him up for marriage yet. There’s been plenty of talk both at the bank and throughout town about that very thing. And maybe if Katie hadn’t taken a wrong turn in her life, she’d be joining in that conversation.
But not today. She’d made a vow to herself when she signed the papers on the mortgage earlier. She was going to have something for herself even if everyone else, including her brother and Caleb Samuel, thought she was nuts. She was going to make money on this project and then she was going to go back to pursuing her dreams.
“I’m busy, Caleb.”
“I can see that. When I first pulled into the parking lot and saw that wood, I thought you had graduated from breaking and entering to vandalism. But as you say, you’re the owner. You can break anything you want.”
“Thanks for the confidence.”
“You’re welcome.”
“Well don’t just stand there, be some use and help me with this,” she said, tugging the rest of the boards off the roof of her car.
He walked slowly over to her side of the car and looked down at the board on the ground. Then at the setup she had on her car.
“Who did this?” he asked.
“Ash Dennison.”
“I should give him a ticket just for this.”
“It wouldn’t be his fault. I talked him out of delivering the boards. Come on. Help me.”
He lifted his hands. “I thought you said you’re an able-bodied woman.”
“So much for chivalry. I’m a woman in a dress.”
“I can see that.”
His face transformed right before her eyes. She saw mixture of desire and appreciation and she liked it, which surprised her. It had been a long time since a man looked at her with any kind of appreciation. But then Caleb retreated into professionalism as if he were panicked by his own reaction.
It was an awkward moment to say the least. They hadn’t been exactly friends in high school. He was a few years older than Katie. He was Kasper’s friend. But they did have a history growing up in the same town, knowing the same people, and getting into all the things kids in Sweet got into in their youth.
“What you plan on doing with one two by four?”
Embarrassed by her bright idea to handle the situation herself, she decided to forgo giving Caleb the real explanation why she was testing out her sedan. She’d figure out the truck situation later. Instead, she said, “I figured if it was easy enough for me to break in to the chapel dressed the way I was the other night, then it would a breeze for someone else to do it. Now that I own the chapel, I don’t want any more damage done, so I thought I should secure that doorway a little so that the teenage kids won’t come down here.”
He nodded, seeming satisfied by her explanation.
“I’m not quite sure what you will be able to do with just a few boards. That’s a pretty big opening. What do you have for power tools?” He glanced into the backseat of her sedan. “Are your tools in your trunk?”
Her shoulders sagged just a fraction. “I forgot them back at the house. I know my father and Kas had some in the garage. I just…didn’t have time to look through them. And…I wasn’t quite sure what I needed so I figured I’d get the boards here first and then figure it out and come back.”
He nodded. But he didn’t believe her. That much was evident in the slight twist of his jaw.
“If I had my toolbox in the cruiser, I could help you a bit. But you need a saw to cut some of these boards. Do you even know how to use a saw?”
“No. But that’s okay. I’ll learn.”
“I can show you—”
“It’s not your job to do that. I’ll figure it out.”
He seemed taken aback by her sudden stubbornness. The same stubbornness that had her insisting at the lumberyard she could transport this wood herself.
“I wasn’t offering because it was my job, Katie. I was just…offering to help. There is a difference.”
Warmth spread through her and mixed with a sense of guilt that was deserved. She’d hurt him. Or at least offended him, and that didn’t feel so very good given the breaks he’d given her over the past week. When had she gotten so suspicious of men and their intentions? She knew the answer to that. She just didn’t like it.
“Thank you, Caleb.”
Caleb looked up at the sky and then back at Katie. “It’s going to be dark in about an hour so there really isn’t much time to get tools, and get back here before we lose light. I’m not on duty until noon tomorrow. I can meet you here early and we get that door secure. That is if you want me to help.”
“I appreciate that. Thank you.”
“Don’t touch anything.”
“Why?”
He gave her a devilish smile. “Katie, you’re a storm. I’d like to think this chapel will still be standing when I get back.”