PUZZLED and irritated, Holly watched Dax and Gary square off like a pair of prize fighting roosters. What was all the fuss about? Why did Gary care about Dax’s intentions? He certainly hadn’t cared how Lyle treated her or what people thought of Shannon, so what gave him the right to interrogate Dax?
“Testosterone.” Shannon rolled her eyes and giggled.
Holly forced a stiff grin, not amused in the least by Gary’s interference. She resisted the urge to fire a glare his way. Barely. Starting their visit with an argument would only serve to make things awkward for everyone.
Seated, Dax leaned back, an arm behind her on the booth. His fingertips caressed her nape light enough to raise goose bumps on her arms. She glanced at him. A puzzled frown touched his face. She shook her head slightly. He nodded and allowed his fingers to linger. She leaned into the touch, reassured by his presence. He smiled and turned to their companions.
As lunch wore on, pain down her arm increased. She tried to relax the muscles in her neck and shoulders. A losing battle. The longer she sat there, the more her shoulder hurt. Pain radiated down her arm and up into her head.
Dax stopped mid-sentence in a discussion with Gary when she raised her right hand to massage her temple. “Do you have meds with you?” Concern filled his green eyes.
She shook her head. “My purse is in the car.”
“I’ll get it.” He moved to slide out.
Her hand on his arm stopped him. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll take it when we leave.”
He frowned. “I’ll run and get it now. The longer you wait, the worse the pain will be, and the harder it’ll be to get it under control again.” He eased away and pushed to his feet.
Gary rose, and the two left together.
“You’re hurting. He doesn’t like it.” Shannon faced Holly after watching the men leave. She smiled softly, a knowing gleam in her eyes. “That’s a man in love if ever I saw one.”
“I wish,” Holly muttered more to herself than to Shannon. Did I really say that? She winced. Yeah, and I meant it.
“You love him.”
Holly shot her a surprised look. She could deny it, but that would be pointless, so she nodded dejectedly. “So much it hurts.”
“You don’t believe he loves you?”
“It’s not that simple. This relationship is a complex mess.” She shook her head. “Besides, he’s never said he loves me.”
“Have you told him that you love him?”
Holly shook her head.
“Does that mean you don’t?”
Holly grimaced. “I know what you’re doing.”
“Is it working?” her sister asked with a wide grin.
She sighed. “Point taken.”
Melanie cleared their plates with practiced efficiency then brought pie for Shannon and Gary.
Dax and Gary returned and slid into their seats. Dax handed Holly the purse he’d carried under his arm.
“Thanks.” She opened it and dug for the pills Dale had given her that morning. Before she had the bottle open, Melanie came by with a glass of water, setting it on the table with an understanding smile before wandering away.
Pill taken and bottle put away, Holly stared at the remainder of the apple pie. Could she finish it? Dax had polished off most of his cream pie before lunch, eaten a huge burger with fries, and picked up his fork to finish the pie without any sign of hesitation. The man sure could eat. She set her fork aside.
“Okay, you two, enough idle chit chat. Spill it.” Shannon unwittingly echoed Melanie’s earlier words.
Holly hoped her sister hadn’t meant what she thought. Surely Shannon wouldn’t ask in front of the guys.
“What?” Dax’s brows drew together in obvious confusion.
“Holly knows what I mean.” Her twin gave her a pointed look.
Dax’s perplexed gaze slid from one to the other then to Gary, who shrugged and shook his head with an equally bewildered expression.
Holly sent her sister a warning look, which Shannon completely ignored.
“The last time you mentioned Dax, you said the two of you couldn’t get along if your lives depended on it.”
Dax shot Holly a smirk that clearly said, “You’ve been talking about me, huh?”
She wanted to crawl under the table but scowled at Shannon.
Her sister continued, unconcerned. “Yet, here you are, thick as thieves and a long way from home. I don’t see any sign of bloodshed yet. What changed?”
Dax glanced at Holly, one brow raised in question. “May I?” he seemed to ask without opening his mouth.
She debated briefly, afraid of what he’d say. On the other hand, she didn’t know how to explain all that had happened the last few days and the changes occurring in their relationship. Dax couldn’t possibly do worse than she would. She shrugged then nodded.
His fingers wrapped around the hand lying in her lap and gave it a reassuring squeeze.
“I assume Holly told you about me acting like a royal jerk New Year's day.” Dax waited for confirmation from Shannon.
Holly caught her breath. Had he really just taken the blame for what had happened that morning?
Shannon nodded. “I remember it well.”
“We finally made peace this past Sunday evening. Good thing, too, since things turned rather… ugly before I got off shift Monday morning.”
His fingers tightened on Holly’s hand even as his other hand toyed absently with his coffee cup. She returned the pressure.
~~~
“I was involved in a shooting early Monday, along with a couple of other officers.” Dax lowered his voice. “I killed a drug smuggler. Another was wounded. A DPS officer was shot. Thankfully, he’ll recover. My vehicle was shot up pretty bad. I’m not sure that will recover. All in all, it was a really bad morning.”
“Forgive me for interrupting, Dax, but I’d say it was a very good morning, not a bad one,” Shannon said gently. “A bad one would’ve ended with that officer dead instead of wounded, and you wouldn’t have walked away unscathed.”
The memory of matching bullet holes in his windshield and headrest, and how shaken he’d been after seeing them, still stole his breath. “I wouldn’t say unscathed.” He may have walked away physically unharmed, but emotionally? Not so much. Those feelings stirred again, rising from where he’d pushed them days before. He glanced at Holly, which nudged the dark emotions away. “Anyway, Holly stuck around most of the morning to check on me after I finished a pile of paperwork and talked to the lieutenant.”
She smiled and ducked her head, a lovely blush coloring her cheeks. “Then we got into a fight, and I stormed out,” Holly added before he could continue.
“You did?” Shannon’s expression fluctuated between surprise and laughter, as though torn on how to respond. She settled on laughter.
Holly nodded.
“Then we got into another argument in a parking lot about me driving,” Dax added, unable to stifle a chuckle. The whole thing was pretty ludicrous after the fact. How had either of them taken it so seriously at the time?
“Good grief.” Gary grinned. “You two will fight about anything, won’t you?”
“Just about,” Dax admitted sheepishly.
“Who won?” Shannon wanted to know.
Dax pointed at Holly. “She drove me to my parents’ house. I wanted to get away for a couple of days. When I feel that way, I go into the mountains to escape distractions so I can think.” He threw Holly another amused grin.
“Then we argued about him going into the mountains alone.”
Gary rolled his eyes. “Oh, good Lord in Heaven, save them from themselves.”
“Right in the middle of my parents’ kitchen.” Dax didn’t mask his amusement. It all sounded so ridiculous.
“Did your parents witness this?”
“Yep.”
Shannon laughed. “What in the world must they think?”
Dax chuckled. “Well, based on the pure adoration I saw on their faces, if I don’t marry Holly, they’ll probably try to adopt her.”
~~~
Holly could’ve sworn something besides humor dashed through the wide grin Dax had given her. Sincerity that went beyond mere silliness. Her heart jumped, and she dropped her gaze. Stop being foolish. The man was joking around, like the two times he’d mentioned marriage at the hospital. No need to let the imagination rev into overdrive. It would only end in disappointment.
Gary cocked his head then asked, “So, who won that argument?”
Dax’s eyes narrowed in thought. “I suppose she did.”
“Not exactly,” Holly mumbled.
“Well, I didn’t go up on the mountain alone, now did I?” His green eyes sparkled with amusement.
That smug tone normally raised her hackles, but she wouldn’t let him bait her. She glared at him. “No, you didn’t.”
He grinned at Shannon and Gary. “She put up such a fuss, I decided she must be volunteering to go with me.”
“Are you serious?”
“Yep.”
He didn’t have to be so cocky. Man, he could be annoying.
“You went with him?” Shannon’s brows nearly reached her hairline. “Alone?”
“He didn’t give me much choice.” Holly shrugged and sighed. “It worked out though. It gave me time to catch up on some of my Bible reading. When you called Wednesday morning, we hadn’t been back very long.”
“So you two stayed up on a mountain, alone, for two nights?”
Holly nodded, not sure what Shannon found so unbelievable. It wasn’t a big deal. They hadn’t done anything wrong. She glanced at Gary, who ineffectively hid a smile behind a coffee cup, his gaze on his wife.
“Did you argue at all?”
Dax nodded. “A couple of times.”
“Wow….”
“What’s so ‘wow’ about it?” Did she want to know? Probably not.
“I can’t believe you two spent about forty-eight hours alone together on a mountainside and neither of you ended up pushed off a cliff or something.” Humor lit her sister’s eyes.
“Very funny.” Holly’s wry tone caused Shannon’s humor to spill over into renewed laughter.
“The Lord truly works in miraculous ways,” Gary grinned. “Turning enemies into allies is something only God could arrange.”
“I think enemies is a rather strong word,” Holly objected weakly, her gaze down.
~~~
“Maybe, maybe not.” Dax frowned thoughtfully, amusement vanishing. “It was my fault.” When he considered all the times he’d been snippy and irritable when Holly hadn’t done anything to warrant it…. He sighed.
Holly’s surprised gaze flicked to his.
He gave her a wan smile. “I haven’t been the easiest person to get along with.” He focused on Gary and Shannon, needing to explain though not really sure why. “I’ve been angry with myself for a long time. It never occurred to me that it overflowed onto other people.” He glanced briefly at the woman sitting at his side. Unfortunately, she’d taken the brunt of his bad attitude. Well, her and his family.
Holly’s eyes widened. He’d clearly surprised her.
Gary ineffectively covered a chuckle with a cough. Shannon shot him a reproachful look, and Dax suspected she smacked the man’s leg under the table. He cleared his throat. “So. What opened your eyes?”
“Holly.” Tread very carefully here, dude, or you’ll be in hot water. If Holly found out he’d read her personal journal, she might have his head. He chose his next words with caution, stuffing guilt. “It’s complicated, but suffice it to say, she made me realize what a jerk I’ve been. I think I’ve apologized more in the last three or four days than I have in the last fifteen years.” He shot Holly a slight grin.
“It’s good for us. Keeps us humble,” Gary said with a sincerity that seemed to surprise Holly nearly as much as Dax’s confession had.
She blinked at the man, her eyes even more round than before.
“Well, on that soul-building note, we better get home.” Shannon laid a hand on her husband’s arm. “I told Mrs. Riley we’d only be gone a couple of hours.”
A familiar name. Dax keyed in on it. “Riley? Any relation to Chief Riley?”
“His wife.” Shannon’s smile broadened. “They live next door.”
Gary and Dax dropped money on the table and slid to their feet, the women right behind them. The foursome waved to Melanie on their way out.
~~~
“The guestroom’s ready,” Shannon said once they were outside. “Dax, I hope the couch is comfortable enough.”
“Considering some of the places I’ve slept over the years, including on rocky ground and in the back of a pick-up”—he grinned at Holly—“I’m sure the couch will be more than adequate.”
“We’ll be there in a little while. I want to show Dax the town.” Maybe a walk would clear her head, help her make sense of her brother-in-law’s odd behavior.
“So we should see you in about ten minutes,” Gary joked.
Dax chuckled.
Shannon laughed.
Holly looked away, confused. Gary didn’t act like the man she remembered.
“We’ll see you at home in a little while then,” Shannon offered as laughter faded. Her next words were solemn, amusement gone. “The service starts at six. The pastor would like us there a quarter ’til.”
“We’ll be there in plenty of time.” Holly swallowed the lump in her throat. For a while, she’d actually managed to forget why she was back in Oklahoma. Would her father be permitted to attend the funeral? Dread tightened her stomach.
Gary and Shannon drove away moments later.
Dax cocked his head and watched their car head down the main street then turn a corner. “He seems like a nice guy.”
Holly glanced at him then started slowly down the street.
He easily matched his stride to hers. “Why don’t you like him?”
“It’s a long story,” she mumbled.
A half-grin played at one corner of his mouth. “Ten minutes or so?”
She scowled, but the warmth and concern in his eyes abolished irritation. She sighed. He was no fun to argue with when he acted friendly and caring. Why can’t he be a jerk right now? I could use a good argument.
It is better to live in a desert land, than with a contentious and vexing woman.
Holly grimaced. Okay, okay, I get it, Lord. I shouldn’t even think that way. She sighed. I’m sorry. Now I’m the one wanting to pick a fight.
~~~
They strolled for a few minutes without saying anything. Dax wanted to push for answers but restrained the urge. She’d trust him, or she wouldn’t. He couldn’t force it. Dad had warned him about that.
“As I told you before, Gary was best friends with Lyle Wells when we were growing up. They were in the same class, two years ahead of me, and they pretty much did everything together. Lyle was an abusive jerk as far back as I remember.”
“Did Gary participate?”
“No, but he never did anything to stop it either.” Anger tainted her voice. “When I was in ninth grade, Lyle cornered me after a football game by the concession stand and tried to force himself on me. Gary was with him. He didn’t say or do anything to discourage Lyle, just stood back and left me to my own devices.”
“What happened?” Bile rose. For someone to put their hands on Holly in violence was bad enough. The thought of someone just standing there, watching…. What had Gary been thinking, passively allowing her to be treated that way?
“I planted my knee as hard as I could right where it counts. Left Lyle squirming on the ground like the worm he was. He walked funny for a week!” Anger hastened her steps.
He lengthened his stride to keep up.
“I tried to warn Shannon when she started dating Gary. She wouldn’t listen. I told her he and his friends were nothing but trouble.” Her spine straightened. “Needless to say, it didn’t shock me when he got her pregnant our senior year. Only the fact he actually married her surprised me. I expected him to cut and run when she told him, but he stood by her to face Daddy.” A thoughtful, puzzled frown crossed her face. “Come to think of it, Gary knew what kind of man Daddy was. He’d seen him in action a time or two. Still, he stayed at Shannon’s side instead of abandoning her to tell Daddy alone.”
“That took guts.”
“Yeah….” Her frown deepened, then she muttered, “Why didn’t I think of that before?” She shook her head. “Anyway, Daddy was furious, yelling about how Shannon had embarrassed the whole family.”
That sounded familiar. Mr. Randall had said something similar to Holly at the hotel. If the man had been so worried about the family’s public image, why hadn’t he behaved better? Surely others knew he was a drunk and abusive to his family. That hadn’t gone unnoticed by townspeople, had it?
“Daddy took a swing at Shannon, but Gary stepped between them and protected her.” Tears filled her eyes. “Why didn’t he help me like that when Lyle came after me?”
“I don’t know the answer to that. You’d have to ask Gary.”
She sniffled and mumbled, “I guess it doesn’t really matter now. It was so long ago.”
“You’re still hurting over it, so it definitely matters.” He forced the next words out, suspecting they would be less than welcome. “Perhaps you need to sit down and have a heart-to-heart with Gary.”
Holly shook her head.
“Holly.” Dax grabbed her hand, gently pulling her to a stop in front of an old store. He cupped her cheek and stepped closer, concerned about the tears in her eyes. “You and Gary need to talk. Clear the air between you.” Good grief. He sounded like his parents. Focus. “I can’t say why Gary let Lyle hurt you, but we need to come back to the other thing you’re holding over his head.”
She frowned in obvious confusion.
“It takes two to get pregnant.”
Her face cleared.
“Shannon played a part in it as well. You can’t blame it on Gary. At least, not entirely.”
“You don’t understand. I was the defiant, rebellious kid. Shannon was the compliant, easy-going one. I fought everything. She did what she was told without question or argument. She’d convinced herself that she loved Gary. She would’ve done anything to keep him. Whatever he wanted.”
“Maybe that’s true, maybe it’s not. I don’t know. But Shannon had a choice, and she made it. For better or for worse.”
Irritation flashed across her features.
Was she truly that determined to think of her sister as an innocent victim in the whole deal? Shannon hadn’t struck him as anyone’s victim. He’d dealt with enough battered women over the years to know. Victims of spousal abuse exhibited certain recognizable mannerisms, especially when they were in the presence of their abusers. Shannon showed none of them. Her willingness to chide her husband, even playfully, would’ve dispelled any suspicions. Throw in the rest? No. She wasn’t a victim.
He tightened his grip on Holly’s hand and slipped his other hand behind her head when she moved to step back, holding her gaze. “Shannon’s just as culpable as Gary in the decisions that were made. You can’t lay all the blame on his doorstep.”
Dax watched the battle rage. Her eyes flashed. She wanted to argue. He saw it as clearly as if he could hear her thoughts.
“I really don’t like you when you’re reasonable,” she finally said, her tone biting. “It’s annoying.”
He laughed. “I think that’s the first time I’ve been accused of being annoying for that.” Keeping hold of her hand, he started down the sidewalk again.
She fell into step beside him.
As they wandered up one side of the street and down the other, Holly gradually opened up and told him about the various businesses along the way, sharing memories of growing up in a small town. She waved to some people in passing, spoke briefly with others. Some were happy to see her, calling out for her to stop by and visit while she was in town. Others were more cautious, watching her with suspicion, he assumed because of her teenage antics. Still others seemed indifferent. People viewed him either with curiosity or suspicion, maybe a bit of both. He didn’t care either way. His focus was her.
As he listened, he pondered. What would it take to convince her he was serious about marriage? She didn’t seem to get it. How could he make her realize he wasn’t joking? Good thing he had time to figure it out. She had too much on her plate already for him to move too quickly. Once life slowed down though….