FIFTEEN

 

 

The e-vite for Avery’s birthday party had arrived in Reese’s inbox bright and early the next morning. Everyone in his family had been invited, including his mom. He’d picked up the phone to call Avery, but then answered the e-vite instead. Yes, he would be attending, but he couldn’t answer for the rest of his family.

By the time Sunday afternoon rolled around, Reese and his siblings still hadn’t made amends, and if it wasn’t for the fact that the livestock had to be attended to, Reese would probably have saddled up his horse and rode out alone for a couple of days to get away from the tension.

He’d had no idea Avery’s birthday was coming up so it caught him by surprise. He thought they were getting closer, but apparently not close enough for her to tell him about her thirtieth birthday.

It was the little things that drove him crazy. What else hadn’t she bothered to tell him?

He couldn’t really pinpoint why not knowing about her birthday had been such a big deal to him, other than he was sick of secrets, that even something simple stuck in his craw.

Part of him wondered if the last time they had been together it had been almost too raw, so deep with emotion that it may have scared her away. After all, they came from two different worlds. How would they ever resolve that and make this a lasting love affair? He didn’t have the answer to that, nor did he have the answer to a lot of things.

He knew his agreement with Chuck Starr was the only way to save the ranch, yet his siblings hated him for it. He simply didn’t have any other option and if any of his siblings had any ideas about how to save the Cooper Ranch, they weren’t offering them up. Instead, all they offered was hostility and defiance, two traits his dad had wallowed in for most of his life.

Well, Reese refused to let bitterness take control. Avery had taught him that much, and he was grateful for the lesson. Which was why he’d just pulled his truck up and parked it on the gravel with all the other cars and trucks on the Circle Starr property. Hell, he’d even brought Avery a present . . . earrings that matched the necklace he’d bought her at the kite festival in Flagstaff. His sister had made them especially for Avery soon after the festival, but he’d forgotten all about them until that morning when he was getting ready for the party.

Shiloh told him she’d be attending the party, but she didn’t know about the others.

Hunter had apparently decided to go and drove their mom over earlier. She’d baked a couple pies for the occasion and wanted to offer her help to Kaya. Mom loved parties, especially birthday parties. When they were kids, theirs were the best parties around, complete with old-time cowboys who would come in with their kids and grandkids just for the event. They’d tell stories of the Old West, recite funny poems, and tell scary stories around a roaring fire at night. Reese never really thought about it until that moment, but his birthday, and that of his siblings, all took place in late summer. He wondered if his parents had planned for that, or was it simply a happy coincidence?

He didn’t really want to know.

As he walked up the path to the house, he could hear voices booming through the air, and he could smell roasting meat. The scent made his mouth water, but the sound of strangers made him want to turn around and go back home. He wasn’t sure he was in the mood for socializing with Chuck’s friends on this fine Sunday afternoon, but he couldn’t very well turn his back on Avery.

He had a feeling Draven and Chase wouldn’t be showing up, and part of him couldn’t blame them. Attending a party at the Circle Starr, even if it was for Avery, was something their dad would have fought against. Like father, like sons.

Looking positively heavenly, Avery had already spotted him as she stood on the sprawling front lawn, drenched in sunshine, reminding him of the other day in the meadow. He wanted to rush right up to her, kiss her, and whisk her right back to that meadow, that blanket, and that tantalizing moment. His body reacted to his thoughts until he told himself to calm the hell down. This was not the time.

But seeing her walking toward him, her soft cotton dress caressing the curves of her delicious body, her lovely crimson hair gently swaying around her face, he had no idea why he’d stayed away from her for the past few days. If he’d ever needed her before, he needed her even more now, when everyone in his family, except his mom, seemed to be hellbent on making him out as the villain in all of this.

“You came,” she said as she approached and smiled, her lips a shimmering pink.

The many guests, a good twenty feet away, milled around the side porch and under the white canopy that had been set up off to one side of the house. Reese couldn’t see where the food was being cooked, but from the white smoke that curled up and around the canopy, he figured the barbecues must have been set up somewhere close by.

“Was there a reason why I shouldn’t?” he said, knowing that nothing could have kept him away from her.

Her face darkened. “I’m sorry I haven’t contacted you. Been out of it for the last few days. Trying to cope with some news that hasn’t been easy to digest.”

Now that he saw her up close, she looked pale and worried, as if she was deeply troubled by something. He hated seeing her this way. It was the same way she’d looked that night in the rain after she’d gone through the box of her mom’s photos.

He stood right next to her now, reveling in her scent of lilacs and honey. “You know you can come to me with anything.”

She leaned into him, arms held tight against her chest, elbows at her waist, fists under her chin, as if she wanted him to hold her, but couldn’t quite give in to his touch. He encircled her with his arms, with his body, trying to shelter her from whatever sadness that had obviously consumed her. “What’s happened? What’s wrong?” He ran a hand over her head, brushing some of her hair off of her face, gazing into those smoky blue eyes of hers, seeing a deep sadness as emotion began to overtake her. He wanted to whisk her away from this place, get her alone and try to find out what was tormenting her. He felt like an ass for having stayed away from her. He’d allowed his own family drama to overtake his thoughts when he knew she’d been going through some rough times. “Let’s get out of here,” he told her.

She nodded and just as they were about to leave, Chuck appeared, his voice thundering around them. “There you are. I thought I saw you pull up.”

“Later,” Avery whispered as she quickly dried her eyes and moved away from Reese’s embrace.

Chuck strode up to them, his hand out to greet Reese, looking trim and healthy in his jeans and white shirt. Today he wore a brown Western hat with a turquoise and silver band, his mustache and eyebrows looking recently trimmed, and his white hair poking out around his ears. He looked like the rich rancher he was, put together for effect more than comfort.

Reese took his outstretched hand without hesitation, as if he’d been shaking Chuck’s hand for his entire life. Ironic how a change of perspective had transformed years of animosity into acceptance and tolerance.

“There’s a few people I’d like you to meet, Reese. I think you might know some of them or at least know of them. Now that you’re part of the Starr family, it’s important that you can put a face and a handshake to a name.”

“Chuck, does he have to do this now?” Avery asked, sounding as if she was almost pleading. “I’d like to keep him to myself for a while. Besides, I thought we could go into your office and look over the new agreement before the party really gets started.”

At this point Reese felt he might do anything to get her alone. She looked as if she was about to collapse.

“If the paperwork is ready, I’m ready to sign. Let’s do that first and get it out of the way.” Not that he was all that eager to sign on the dotted line, but he thought that would at least get him out of having to meet anyone. His lawyer still needed to look over the agreement before he signed anything so, in reality, it was merely a stall tactic.

“That’s fantastic, Reese, but this is important. We’ll have plenty of time for that after dinner. Right now, it’s essential we use this party to meet everyone. No better time to cozy up to your contemporaries than at a party with a drink in your hand.” Chuck gave Reese a quick once over, then patted him on the shoulder. “We need to get you a beer, Reese. What kind is your poison? Got most of them on ice on the back porch near the pool. Just follow me.”

Chuck tried to guide him, but Reese pulled back. He didn’t like to be bossed around by anyone, much less Chuck Starr. “My future can wait a little longer, Chuck. Right now, I’d like to honor Avery’s birthday and spend some time with her . . . alone, if you don’t mind.”

Chuck was about to argue when five men completely decked out in stylized, expensive cowboy gear descended on Reese and Avery, all vying for Reese’s attention. Reese noted that one of them was the guy from the County Recorder’s Office. Simultaneously, several women encircled Avery and swept her away like a raging stream swollen from the melting snow in spring.

 

 

AVERY BARELY KNEW any of the women who had managed to whisk her away, and from what she’d seen so far, she doubted she wanted to spend any real time with them. Still, Chuck had wanted her to meet them. But then there were several things Chuck had wanted her to do today, one of them being giving Reese the new partner agreement and to have him sign it. It had been delivered early that morning, but she hadn’t been in the mood to even glance through it, much less set up a time so Reese and his mom could sign all the documents. Chuck had more or less demanded that she present the new agreement to both Reese and his mom at the party and “make sure they sign it,” he’d said. “Today.”

Right before the party started, she’d taken the time to read over the parts she knew had changed and everything looked fine. One element stuck with her, however. It was the fact that Chuck would lease Cooper’s mineral rights, all of them. That meant essentially the Circle Starr could more or less do anything they wanted to the land in order to get at those minerals, and Circle Starr would make all the profits . . . if there were any profits . . . and the Cooper family would only get the money from the lease itself. She had asked Chuck about this and he assured her that Reese would be on board with this because of the upfront cost.

“Does he know what he could be giving up?”

“He’s not giving up anything, and he knows it. There’s nothing under his land, and even if there was, it would take years to get it out. This way, his family gets upfront money from a very lucrative lease, probably too lucrative. I did it that way, against legal advice, to ensure the Cooper siblings always have an income.”

She didn’t know whether to believe him or not, especially coming off of the lie he and her dad had perpetrated about her mom. In the end, she blamed her dad for that lie more than she blamed Chuck, but that didn’t make her feel any better about the new agreement. She’d gone over it in her bedroom, and left it on her desk. Before she did anything for Chuck, she’d have to be certain it was in Reese’s best interest.

“I’m sure Reese’s siblings will appreciate your generosity,” she’d told him, unable to really focus on anything other than her mom’s situation. It all had so caught her by surprise that she still had trouble coming to terms with it. Her dad had asked her to wait a few days before she went to see her mom due to her mom’s state of mind. Avery had tried to get more information out of him, but he kept telling her that it would be best if she heard the details of her mom’s condition from her doctors.

Her dad used the excuse of driving back to Phoenix the very next morning due to an emergency with the case he was on, rather than admitting he was leaving because she didn’t want him there. He promised to return in a few days and escort her to Bell House. Avery had reluctantly agreed.

All she wanted to do now was to get the hell out of there. She really needed to clear her head, and getting away from the Circle Starr with Reese seemed like the only way she could do that.

“I hear you and Reese Jr. are in a relationship. Is that true?” a woman in her late forties, with blond hair, screaming red full lips and dazzling blue eyeshadow, asked.

“He’s always been such a loner. How’d you ever get him to open up?” another middle-aged woman asked. She wore a shamefully low-cut T-shirt, and jeans the color of flesh. Avery thought she recognized her as someone she’d seen before in Phoenix, but couldn’t quite place her.

“I’ve always wondered about him,” said a woman with a voice so high it could break glass. “I knew he was too good for that Cooper family.”

“I heard their ranch is in foreclosure. Good thing Chuck came along when he did.” This lady reeked of cigarette smoke, and wore a white dress that had to be two sizes too small. She looked a lot like a judge she had once argued a case in front of, but Avery couldn’t be sure. Her thoughts had been muddled for two days now.

“Are you related to Chuck? Because if you are, that would make you and Reese related. That might be fun in a kinky sort of way, but you might want to consider adopting.”

Avery thought about slapping the woman, but she looked as if she could take Avery with one simple swipe. Her shoulders were the size of a diesel truck.

Who were these women, and why the heck did Chuck think that Avery would like them at her birthday party? All she knew was she didn’t care who they were or about playing nice with them or anyone at this so-called birthday party, and that went for Chuck as well.

She felt as though she was being swallowed whole. She could barely move, and before she knew it, more women had surrounded her, each of them barking questions and issuing statements that required her to verify some fact or another. She wanted to scream, or at the very least kick one of them in the shins and run away.

When she looked around for Reese, she could see he was in the same situation. This was not how she’d expected to celebrate turning thirty. It wasn’t right. It wasn’t fun. It wasn’t what her mom had taught her about commemorating a zero birthday.

Her mom.

She needed to see her mom, to talk to her, touch her, look into her kind eyes. She ached for her mom’s touch. Suddenly Avery didn’t want to wait for her dad, not another minute. She would go to Bell House now. Today. With Reese.

“I have to go,” Avery said in her best lawyer voice. Then she turned away from the group and tried to make her way through the tangle of women who seemed determined not to allow her to leave.

“Go where, sweetheart?” the blonde with the screaming red lips asked. “It’s your birthday. You can’t go anywhere.”

“I’m sorry,” Avery told them, “I really am, but I have somewhere I need to be.”

“But we’re just getting started, honey,” Low-cut T-shirt said. “One of Chuck’s parties usually goes on until dawn. We haven’t even gotten to the good part yet.”

Avery didn’t feel like arguing anymore. She simply pushed her way free, slipped into her bedroom from the private door, grabbed her purse, and walked back outside to look for Reese.

As soon as he spotted her, he said something to the group of men who were slapping him on the back and talking at him, and walked right for her.

She never stopped walking. Instead, she headed straight for the parked trucks and cars.

“I need you to take me somewhere,” Avery said as Reese came up behind her. “No questions asked. I just need you to drive.”

“Sure,” he told her. “I’ll take you anywhere you want to go.”

They were walking so fast they were kicking up a cloud of gravel behind them.

Reese beeped his truck open just as she reached for the passenger door and hopped in. When he got in and turned over the ignition, he stopped and looked at her, his face showing both confusion and concern. “Just so I know what direction to drive in, can you at least tell me where we’re going?”

“Bell House,” she told him. “All these years, my mother has been locked up in Bell House.”

Reese didn’t move. He didn’t even blink. He merely stared at her, then slowly he turned away. He shoved the stick shift into reverse, then turned the truck around and drove off the Circle Starr Ranch, heading in the direction of Bell House, a place she never thought she’d want to visit.

 

 

AVERY’S STOMACH FELT as tight as a drum. Bell House had come into view and all she could think of was how, after all these years, all this time, she wished with all her heart, that her dad had simply told her the truth in the beginning. She couldn’t begin to imagine the crushing pain and loneliness her mom must have gone through thinking her only child had completely abandoned her. That thought tore Avery apart, and kept her from sleeping or really eating. What her dad and Chuck had done was unforgivable.

It seemed as if she’d been cast out to sea without any idea of where she was going, or what direction to head for. It was one thing for her to think that her mom had passed away, but quite another to learn that her mom was still alive and had been institutionalized because she was a perceived threat not only to herself, but to Avery.

How was that even possible? Her mom had been kind and gentle to her, never raising a hand or her voice to Avery. She tried to think of one time, other than the movie theater, when her mom had put her in any kind of jeopardy. There was nothing. And even at the theater, Avery had been ten years old. Not exactly helpless. Avery had chosen to stay in her seat, had chosen to wait for her mom. That incident was hardly a reason to put her mom away and throw away the key.

Avery simply didn’t understand, and she was in no mood for excuses from either her dad nor from Chuck.

She’d been cool towards Chuck and hadn’t spoken to her dad since that night when he’d told her the truth about her mom. She’d asked him to leave, and he had the very next morning. She’d actually thought of leaving herself, going back home or to a motel in town, but abandoning the situation wasn’t the answer. Instead, she merely locked herself in her room and only spoke briefly to her dad before he’d left, and then this morning to Chuck when she’d gone out to the kitchen looking for coffee.

She’d driven to Bell House yesterday by herself, determined to see her mom, but couldn’t go through with it. Her dad had been successful in convincing her to wait for him. Fear of her mom’s state of mind had turned her away. Instead, she’d decided she needed Reese by her side.

Reese found a parking spot on the side of the building and turned off the ignition. “What’s our next move?” he asked, his voice tender and supportive. “Whatever you want to do, I’m here for you. Consider me stuck to your side.”

She’d hoped he’d stand by her side, but she didn’t want to get her hopes up. Lately, everything in her world was upside down and inside out. Why would she expect Reese to be any different . . . but thank goodness he was.

“I don’t know what to expect when I go in there.” Her stomach shook and the back of her neck once again felt as if it was in a vise. She could barely move it.

“All the more reason for me to be with you.”

“I’m scared what I’ll find.”

Reese reached out for her hand. She willingly weaved her fingers through his.

“Did Chuck say why your mom was in here? Did he give you her diagnosis?”

Avery shook her head as tears cascaded down her cheeks. Reese handed her a tissue from the stack he kept inside the console. She supposed he kept them there for his own tears for his dad.

She dabbed at her eyes and her face. “It wasn’t Chuck. My dad drove in to tell me.”

“Why now? Why did these guys decide to tell you the truth now?”

“I think it was because of the pictures Kaya gave me. I also think Kaya told Chuck about the date-stamped picture and that brought it all to the forefront. There was no way they could ignore that or try to convince me it wasn’t real.”

Avery filled him in with the information she knew. When she’d finished, Reese’s jaw hung open, as if he truly couldn’t believe what he’d heard. “I want to see my mom on my own, without my dad. I want to make sure she’s all right. My dad told me she won’t know who I am or that she even has a child, but I don’t care. She’s my mother. I want to see her.”

He nodded, a warm smile spreading on his face. “Are you ready?” He squeezed her hand in his and she knew she’d done the right thing by asking him to accompany her. He gave her the right amount of strength to get through whatever she may encounter.

She took in a deep breath and let it out. “Yes.”

“Then let’s do this,” he told her while slipping on his black cowboy hat, then opening his door and walking around to her side to help her out. She needed his help to actually stand. Her legs felt like rubber, and her arms felt weak, matter of fact, everything about her felt weak, even her resolve.

Reese must have sensed it because he said, “We can do this . . . together. I’ll be right by your side, holding your hand the whole way.”

Avery grabbed her bag, slipped out of the seat and placed her booted feet firmly on the ground. With Reese by her side, she felt as if she could do anything. She felt as if some of his determination would rub off on her merely by holding his hand.

They walked toward the ornate front door in silence, Avery holding on for her very life. She’d done a lot of tough things, overcome a lot of fear, pushed through a lot of places where even her friends had said she wouldn’t succeed, but nothing compared to this moment, to this one event.

As she came closer to the front stairs on the massive porch, she thought she might pass out or vomit or worse, die right there on the spot and never see her mom.

“It’s okay,” Reese told her, a smile teasing his lips as his lips gently brushed hers. “We’ve got this.”

At once her shoulders relaxed and her stomach eased up a bit.

“We’ve got this,” she repeated, staring into his emerald eyes. She stood with Reese at the bottom of the steps for a moment while she composed herself. When she twisted up her resolve, she grinned and nodded.

“That’s my girl,” he said, and they walked up the steps to Bell House, together.

 

 

“I’M SORRY, BUT your name isn’t on the list. You can’t see Mrs. Templeton without authorization,” the terse fifty-something woman said from behind the large wooden desk. Her short blond-streaked hair stuck up in little spikes. Obviously an attempt at some kind of style, but Reese only saw an unruly hairstyle on a face that seemed to lack any kind of emotion.

“There’s a list?” Avery asked, sounding almost childlike.

“Yes, there is, and I’m afraid your name isn’t on it,” the woman assured her.

Reese had had a feeling that waltzing into this place, unannounced, without an appointment was going to be difficult. He didn’t know much about Bell House, only that they were very strict about their rules.

“But I’m her daughter,” Avery countered, apparently hoping that would make a difference. “I’ve given you all my identification. What more do you need?”

The woman shook her head. “I’m really sorry, but unless your name is on the list, I can’t allow you to visit with Pamela today.”

“Pamela is my mother. I haven’t seen her in twenty years. There must be someone I can talk to about this.”

“Unless your name is on the list, you can’t go inside.” The woman kept repeating the same tired tune.

Reese leaned in. “Tell me”--he glanced down at the nameplate on the woman’s desk--“Janice, how does she get onto this list?”

“She needs to be approved by the doctors and Pamela’s guardian.”

“And, just who is Pamela’s guardian . . . Daniel Templeton?” Avery asked. “That’s my father, her husband. Do you need identification to prove I’m his daughter? A note from my dad? What? Tell me and I’ll get it.” Reese could hear the desperation in Avery’s voice.

“Daniel Templeton is not the guardian.” Janice picked up Avery’s driver’s license and held it out for her to take, which she did not.

“Well, who is?” Reese asked.

“I’m not at liberty to say,” Janice told him, looking smug and unmoved by the situation. The woman was a brick wall.

“Then, how can she get on the list if we can’t even know the name of Pamela’s guardian?”

“I wish I could be more help to you, but as I said, we have rules.”

“If I guess, will you admit that I’m right?” Reese asked, trying his best to break this woman. He didn’t understand all the secrecy. Why no general visitors? Was Avery’s mom that bad or were Chuck and Avery’s dad hiding something?

“This isn’t about guessing. It’s about rules.”

Reese wasn’t about to give up. “Janice, I respect the position that you’re in, but I have a hunch who this mysterious guardian might be and Avery here needs to ask to get on the list. If I say the right name, you don’t have to say yes or no. Believe me, the last thing we want to do today is cause any trouble for you.” His voice went down another octave, to a low whisper. “If I’m right, maybe you could give us some sort of sign that I’m right. Then Avery, Pamela’s only child, might be able to get on that sacred list and visit with her mom, who she didn’t even know was alive until a couple days ago. I’m sure a warm-hearted woman like yourself can appreciate the shock and the surprise Avery has already gone through hearing this news. And now you’re telling her she can’t see the woman she’s been denied for most of her life because she’s not on a list. Surely you can’t condone such a rule. All we need is a sign that I’ve guessed the right name, and we’ll leave. I promise.”

Janice stared into Reese’s eyes, finally lighting on his identity. “Aren’t you Reese Cooper Jr.?”

“Yes, I am.” He hoped this recognition would make a difference.

“Didn’t your daddy recently pass?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“I knew your dad. Went to school together when we were teens. He was two years ahead of me, but I had the biggest crush on him ever. Of course, he never knew it. I was too shy to tell him. He was one of the kindest boys I ever knew. Walked me all the way home once when I made a fool out of myself and fell in front of a bunch of the more snooty kids in school. I skinned my knee so bad it was bleeding. He took off his T-shirt and wrapped it around my knee. No one ever did anything like that before for me. I cried when I learned he’d passed. My condolences to you and your family.”

Reese knew his dad had many admirers in this town, and at the moment, he was glad to learn that Janice had been one of them.

“Thanks so much,” Reese told her. He had a hunch whose name was listed as the guardian of Avery’s mom and he was determined to find out. “Is Chuck Starr her guardian?”

Janice didn’t hesitate. Instead she whispered, “Yes, but you didn’t get that info from me.”

Reese figured as much, but the news still startled him. Why the hell would Chuck be Pamela’s guardian and not her own husband? Something stunk about this whole thing, and he hoped in the coming days, he and Avery could figure it out. But right now, she had enough of a problem trying to cope with the fact that Chuck and her dad had lied to her for twenty years.

He knew exactly how she felt, and if it was anything like he’d felt when he learned about Chuck being his bio dad, Avery was in for a whole lotta hurt . . . especially with the latest news. Reese knew she idolized Chuck Starr, maybe more than her own dad, and now what? He’d lied about her mom for twenty years. It was enough for Reese to want to rip up any and all agreements with Chuck Starr. The man was everything his dad had said he was, and more . . . much more.

Avery didn’t react. Instead she stood there like a statue, not even breathing. Reese grabbed her hand and led her back out of Bell House.

“How could Chuck do this to me?” Avery asked, as he guided her down the front steps. “How could he be my mother’s guardian? What the fuck is going on, Reese? What are they covering up?”

“Like I said, Chuck isn’t who you think he is.”

“But he knew Kaya gave me those pictures and he didn’t fire her for it. That has to mean something. That has to mean he wanted me to know the truth. Doesn’t it?”

“I don’t know. Maybe you should ask him, and get more info on that date-stamped picture.”

“It all makes sense now. That horrible picture, and the file he had on Bell House. Why didn’t I connect it sooner? Why didn’t I put it all together? It’s what I do for a living. I get paid to find these things, to put the facts together. Why didn’t I see this?”

“Wait. You saw a file that Chuck had on Bell House?”

“Yes, it was in his office and when he knew I saw it, he immediately put it away.”

At once Reese knew there was something much bigger going on here. “You’re too close to this, and you love both your dad and Chuck equally. I’m sure you never for one second thought either of them would perpetrate such an elaborate lie for twenty years. What the hell, Avery . . . this has to all be somehow tied together. Chuck being my bio dad . . . your mom. Something reeks in all of this.”

“And I intend to find out just where the fuck that smell is coming from.”

“You sound angry.”

“Damn straight I’m angry, at both of them. You were right about Chuck. Machala warned me. You warned me. Hell, this whole town tried to warn me in one way or another. But I refused to listen. Well, believe me, I’m listening now. Let’s get out of here,” she said, now leading the way back to his truck. “I’ve got a zero birthday to celebrate, and I think I know exactly how to do it.”

 

 

AVERY STOOD ON the top metal rail of the Navajo Bridge inside Marble Canyon, located near the Grand Canyon, harnessed and attached to a bright orange bungee cord, getting ready for her first jump. They had stopped at a clothing store on the way over, and she had outfitted herself in jeans, sneakers, and a fluorescent pink T-shirt that said BADASS.

Reese watched from the sidelines as the Jump Master told Avery what to expect and how to jump head first off the bridge. Reese figured if she dove off to her death, someone had to be able to drive back to Wild Cross and tell somebody. Of course, the real reason why he wasn’t able to join her was the Jump Master only had time to set up one more jump today, and because it was Avery’s thirtieth birthday, she won the spot. Not that Reese was all that upset to give up the adventure. The whole idea of it made him more than uncomfortable, despite Avery’s questionable enthusiasm for it.

“In honor of my mom, I need to do something to commemorate turning thirty,” she’d told him on the way over once she and Machala Livingston had made all the arrangements by phone while she was working the bar at Around The Bend tavern.

“Couldn’t we just blow out candles on a cake to commemorate the occasion?” Reese had reasoned. Unfortunately, Avery wasn’t in the mood for candles. Apparently, she was in the mood for something much bigger.

“That’s fine for regular digit birthdays, but when you celebrate a zero birthday, it needs to be life-changing.”

“And hurling yourself off a bridge will accomplish this life-changing goal?”

“Yes. Besides, I’ve been thinking about doing it ever since the day I met Machala.”

“I thought you said you could never jump off a bridge.” He had thought that reminding her of what she’d said might sway her to reconsider.

“That was before I learned that my mom is alive and Chuck is listed as her guardian.”

“I don’t understand. How did that make you think of bungee jumping?”

“I wanted to fly away from the situation, wanted to be in someone else’s skin, and all of a sudden it came to me in a flash. What better way to put all of that behind me for a while than to worry about jumping off a bridge.”

“And is it working?”

“Not yet, but I’m sure once I get there, it will,” she’d said.

They’d driven the rest of the way in relative silence, Reese listening to country music on the radio while Avery dozed. Apparently, after not having slept very much in the last few days, deciding to bungee-jump off a bridge had rocked her to sleep.

Now, as she focused in on everything the Jump Master said, Reese could tell she was operating on all eight cylinders.

“Are you in the moment now?” Reese yelled over the sound of the wind rushing through what seemed like an endless canyon. He must have snapped a hundred pictures with her phone already. He’d left his own phone in his truck since it was almost dead anyway. He’d forgotten to charge it last night, and of course, hadn’t brought the charger with him. She’d told him how she didn’t want to miss a second of it, and had asked him to take as many pictures as he could. Hell, he’d even take a video of the event.

There were actually two steel and suspension bridges that arched from one side of the deep canyon to the other. Just looking down at the river far below made Reese dizzy, and he couldn’t even imagine what he would be like if he was getting ready to jump down into the abyss.

“Yes,” Avery yelled back just before she leapt off the railing, arms outstretched, as if she had no fear whatsoever. He caught it all on video.

Reese stared over the railing, his adrenaline pounding his heart against his chest, his hands sweaty, a lump the size of a boulder in his throat as he silently prayed to every god in the universe that the cord was the right length, and the harness held.

In what seemed like forever, Avery flew out over the emerald green water of the pink rock canyon, screaming her way down, seeming as though she had taken flight, until at long last the cord bounced her up with her feet still tethered to the end of it, thank you very much.

At once his body let go of the tension it had been harboring, and his jaw actually ached as his entire body finally began to relax. Yes, it looked like fun if you were the type who liked that sort of extreme thing, but for Reese, give him a fast horse, and the wind at his back any day of the week.

As Avery was being pulled back up, she and everyone on the bridge sang a rousing version of Happy Birthday. Never had that song had more meaning than at that very moment. No way would he ever sing it again without remembering this moment. Avery and her mom were right about one thing, marking a milestone birthday with something that changed your life sure made it stand out from the rest of them.

Avery would never be the same . . . hell, he would never be the same again.