The prints are clean. Those four words had played through her mind since Caleb Samuel had come to Sweet Sensations while she’d been cleaning up the mess made during the break in.
She couldn’t fathom how that was possible. Caleb had told her Brody Whitebear’s fingerprints registered in the Montana criminal database. Of course, they would be given his arrest and conviction. But they were not a match. The person who’d broken into her shop was not in the criminal database. Caleb had insisted they would continue to search for the person responsible. But it definitely wasn’t Brody Whitebear.
And now, Tara not only felt like a fool for jumping to conclusions, but she felt awful for the problems she most likely caused for Brody out at Lone Creek Ranch. From what she knew, Trip Taggart was a fair man. But everyone had their limits and she hated to think she might have caused some irreversible damage for Brody. Regardless of how she felt about him, targeting him the way she had made her no better than the person who’d broken into her store and caused all that destruction.
The only way to remedy the situation was to face it head on. That meant going out to the Lone Creek Ranch again and facing Brody with an apology. She found Brody in the arena just as a few of the barrel racing students were finishing a session with Trip. Brody was sitting in the stands watching, so she waved to him when he caught her standing by the door.
She’d expected him to be upset with her, but she wasn’t prepared for the slap of anger that hit her with his cold gaze. He quickly got up from his seat and made his way over to where she was standing. Trip was still talking to the students in the arena while they sat on their horses and listened to every word. He glanced over as Brody made his way toward her, but said nothing.
When Brody reached her, he took her by the arm. “Let’s take this outside,” he said quietly.
She’d expected his grip to hurt given his obvious anger. But to her surprise, he was quite gentle. Tara wasn’t quite sure she’d be able to restrain herself.
Once outside, he spun around and glared down at her. “What are you up to now, Tara? Nearly having me arrested on the first week of employment didn’t work so you’re back to finish the job with some other lie?”
“I came to apologize,” she said, taking a step back. “I know you’re angry with me and you have every right to be. In this instance.” Guilt slid up her chest and threatened to choke her.
“You’re damned right I have a right to be angry. You have no idea what kind of trouble you nearly caused me.”
“I have no defense except to say that I was caught off guard, and I’m sorry.”
“You were caught off guard? What about me? My first week of work, at a job I really love by the way, and you sent the cops after me over a bogus accusation.”
“I said I was sorry.”
“Weren’t you the one who said sorry doesn’t cut it?” he charged back, and then he stalked off toward the barn.
She followed him, but found it hard to keep up with his long stride.
“I suppose I deserve that,” she said, following him into the barn and down the center aisle. “Please stop so I can apologize.”
“Why? So you can accuse me of something else, get me fired from my job, and have me hauled down to the police station for no reason? No, thank you. I’ve had my fill of that for this lifetime.”
She stopped walking, and then leaned against one of the stall gates. The horse inside the stall poked its head out from above the gate and started sniffing her so she pulled away and chuckled at its playfulness.
Turning back to Brody, she saw that he wasn’t amused. “I said I was sorry. I came out here to apologize. What more do you want me to say?”
“I’d say you could tell my boss that this whole thing was a huge misunderstanding and that you were out of your mind on some wild mushrooms or something like that.”
She frowned and stood up straight. “I will not.”
“You won’t tell Trip that you made a big mistake in accusing me of something I didn’t do?”
“You know damn well I meant the part about the mushrooms. I don’t take drugs and I never have.”
“That’s good to know,” Brody said quietly. He paced down the aisle a few paces and then stopped and turned to her. “Look, let’s just agree to stay away from each other if we can. I am not looking to make things difficult for you.”
“Neither am I.”
He rolled his eyes. “Next time, please try harder.”
She huffed. “Anyway, I already called Trip and explained what happened. I told him the truth.”
His eyes narrowed in anger again. “You did what?”
“I told him there was no proof that you were anywhere near my shop and the fingerprints didn’t match. Trip said that you’d been here the whole time.”
Brody shook his head and glared at her. “Can you imagine if this had gotten out of hand and I had to call Trip to come down and bail me out of jail for something I didn’t do?”
“But you didn’t have to be bailed out. Caleb told me they didn’t even press charges. They just questioned you.”
“And compared my fingerprints to the prints they found in the shop.”
“So? That’s their job.”
“I’m lucky they didn’t bring me down to the station in handcuffs. I’m the ranch manager here. What kind of example would I be to this crew if I had the law on my back all the time and they saw me in handcuffs? Have you ever felt handcuffs around your wrists?”
“I don’t have an answer that question.”
He laughed. “It’s a simple yes or no question. But if you have to plead the fifth then don’t bother answering at all.”
She scowled at him. “I came here to apologize, and now I’ve done that. Have a nice day and have a nice life.”
Tara turned to walk away and heard him chuckle. Irritation worked its way right up her spine until she couldn’t take it. She snapped around and saw him staring at her.
“What?”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“You’re laughing,” she said.
“You’re mistaking laughter for appreciation.”
Her mouth dropped open. “Are you ogling over me?”
“You’re feisty. That’s where the appreciation comes in. You can take that any way you want.”
He started to go back to his task, and she should’ve left but she found herself having difficulty pulling away from what felt like some sort of a challenge.
“For your information, I’ve had to be…what was it that you said? Feisty? What I have here in Sweet was built brick by brick. When my brother died, I was left with a whole lot of debt and a whole lot of responsibility to take care of my family. It took a long time for them to get over losing my brother. In the end, the only way to move on was to leave this area completely. Sweet Sensations helped them do that because I was able to provide a little extra for them to move. I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished.”
He frowned. “You should be. Did you think I was making fun of what you do, and what you’ve accomplished?”
“Weren’t you?”
He shook his head. “I understand brick by brick. I’ve been there. This job, this ranch, is my first brick after all the others I’ve laid have been torn down for one reason or another. If you don’t mind, I want to keep stacking bricks that won’t fall on top of me. One at a time.”
Tara’s shoulders sagged. She hated Brody and what he’d done to her family. But for some reason it didn’t feel as intense as it had been these last ten years. And maybe that was because she done him wrong and she hated that nearly as much. She hated being wrong about something that then turned around and affected someone else.
“Fine.”
She turned around and started walking away. Her insides were shaking. It amazed her that her hands weren’t trembling and her voice hadn’t shook with anger the way she thought that it might. She was the one who’d done wrong this time. He was owed the apology because she wouldn’t sentence him for something that she knew he didn’t do.
She walked back to her car, biting her lip and kicking at the dirt as she went. Something was nagging at her, and she knew what was.
There were years after Doug died the people looked at her strange. They looked at her in a way she didn’t understand and didn’t want to understand. She didn’t know those people. That they had already formed an opinion of her and she didn’t know why.
She opened her car door and climbed inside listening to the ding from the dashboard because she’d left her keys in the ignition. Then she slammed the door and turned the engine on, pausing as she looked over at the main house of the Lone Creek Ranch.
She hadn’t known about Doug’s drug use until it was too late. She only learned about it in court when she sat in the back and listened to every word of testimony from people the defense had called. They’d still convicted Brody Whitebear of manslaughter when in her heart it had been murder.
But it was manslaughter. She could say that now after years of healing and years of reading through the testimony and coming to terms with what she couldn’t believe when she was in the throes of dealing with her brother’s death. Brody hadn’t meant to kill her brother. He’d been protecting his sister. She would have done the same thing for Doug.
But she hadn’t known her brother at all. She’d missed all the signs of trouble. Some days that hurt more than anything else did. More than losing him. More than learning the truth.
But she still hated Brody. It didn’t seem fair, but it was because of him that Tara didn’t have the opportunity to make amends with her brother or help him.
As she pulled out of her parking space and began her drive back to town, she glanced in the rearview mirror. That was her regret. That was her mistake. She couldn’t blame Brody for that. She could accept that now that Doug’s death had been a stupid accident. It had taken her years to get to this point. Her denial had been born of anger, stupidity, and a destructive lifestyle that her brother had chosen.
And Brody had paid his debt for his part in it. There was no use making him suffer more because he still had to live with his part for the rest of his life. Anything that she did now to hurt Brody only served to be a cancer inside of her. It would continue to grow until it killed her.
With tears in her eyes, she pulled onto the main road. She had to let this go. She could’ve messed up Brody’s life because of her bitterness, something he didn’t deserve. It made her look like a fool in her own community. But if there hadn’t been physical evidence and if Trip hadn’t stepped up to vouch for Brody, he would’ve gone to jail for something he didn’t do. They would have believed her over him, a convict. She couldn’t live with that any more than Brody deserved it.
* * *
Brody watched the dust fly as Tara drove down the driveway and turned onto the road leading to town. He should still be angry with her. And he had been. But he knew full well how toxic anger could be.
Yes, what she’d done was wrong and it could have done major damage to his life. But he couldn’t help but think about how fired up she’d been in defending her position. He hadn’t wanted to notice just how pretty those dark eyes were when they were full of fire. Or the way her nose turned up just a bit, punctuated when she lifted her chin in defiance.
He could still see the way her hips swayed as she’d waltzed out of the barn, not once but twice. Brody didn’t date much at all. He wasn’t any place long enough and when he did manage to stay some place for a few months at a time, there was always an element of fear and mistrust as soon as a woman learned of his past. He still had a lot to work on in life without having to bring the trouble of a woman into it.
He smiled as he turned back to the barn and walked inside. He had no business in there except to remember. He walked up to the first stall and saw the little foal that was now standing strong on four legs.
Life ends and then there is rebirth. That’s what he was feeling. And for once, it felt good.
* * *
She’d given it a few days of work and dealing with insurance forms and phone calls before Tara couldn’t stand it anymore. Dixie was back at work, but Norma was now calling her on her cell phone to make sure she was at the store before she came with the bakery items. She’d been too shook up by the break in to feel comfortable waiting for her in the back parking lot to deliver the baked goods.
Tara couldn’t say she blamed her. More than a few times she’d been alone in the store, moving displays to fill in the empty space until new items arrived and she’d been overcome with fear at the thought someone might be there. She’d started locking the back door during the day and had given Dixie a key.
But things were getting back to normal. There was a rodeo this weekend in the next town which meant there’d be customers in her store again, something she desperately needed not only for money but also for her sanity. She needed normal again.
“You got some new stuff delivered,” Dixie said as she breezed into the store. “I brought into the stockroom. It’s from that Native American artist you like so much.”
“Shana was here?” Tara asked.
“Yeah, she was sitting in her car when I pulled into the back. She said she knocked but no one answered. I don’t know how long she’d been sitting there.”
Tara’s shoulders sagged. This was too much. How was she going to do business if she lost her vendors? “Guess the next thing I’ll have to do is install a doorbell out back. Thanks for taking care of it, Dixie.”
“You look like you’re still brooding,” she said, looking inside the pastry case at the goodies.
“Norma made triple fudge brownies,” Tara said, reading Dixie’s mind.
Dixie gasped. “Really? Where?”
“Last case. Take one. They’re good.”
“You had one?”
She lifted her hand and showed two fingers.
Dixie’s mouth dropped open. “That good?”
“I skipped lunch. And yes. Norma made them so they’re that good.”
Dixie was doing a happy dance as she searched the bakery case. “You know, you should just get over this thing of falsely accusing that guy.”
“If only it were that easy.”
“You said you were sorry. If you still feel bad, make a peace offering. Bring him some of Norma’s pastries. Guys love food. It solves so many things.”
She chuckled. “Is that right?”
Dixie shrugged. “It works for me all the time.”
“Do you mind taking care of things out here while I check what she brought?”
“No problem, boss,” Dixie said with a smile as she walked and danced behind the counter as if listening to a pop song in her head as she searched the case. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail, making her look younger than she already was. When she found the triple fudge brownies, she let out a little squeal of delight.
Tara smiled as she walked past her into the stockroom. She found the boxes of pottery that Shana had brought, immediately regretting having missed seeing her. As always, the pottery was amazing. She loved Shana’s work. But one particular item caught her attention. Shana loved to write little notes about her work to include with each sale. Customers loved it because it gave more meaning to each piece.
She pulled out one of the pieces and read the note. It was as if it were meant for her. And then she had an insane idea she couldn’t get out of her mind before she acted on it.