Gabe had had one damned job—take care of Raylene—and he’d failed the mission. Miserably. And if that didn’t piss off Logan, the fact that Gabe was pretty sure he was in love with his best friend’s sister was going to set Jenk off real good.
“Hey.” Logan met them on the front porch. “Where’ve you been? We got in an hour ago. I’m never flying commercial again.”
They’d been waylaid by weather, and then overbookings, finally managing to get a flight out that morning.
“Whoa, shit.” Logan bit down on his knuckles. The swelling on Raylene’s face had gone down since Sunday, but it was currently every color of the rainbow. “Aw, come here.” He gathered his sister in a hug.
“Gabe saved my life,” she blurted. Bless her lying heart.
“Nope,” Gabe said. “She saved herself, whacked ’em with a pickax. By the way, we owe you a new one.”
“Let’s go inside.” Logan still had on some jacked-up Hawaiian shirt and it was forty degrees outside. “Tell Annie and me everything that happened.”
An hour later, Raylene and Gabe told them about Ray bragging about Levi’s Gold in prison and Rufus Hawkins and his two psycho friends.
“The dude’s actually wanted in a Utah homicide?” Logan asked, and Gabe saw him walk through the what-ifs in his head. Gabe had done it a thousand times and could safely say it wasn’t productive. The truth was it made his blood run cold.
“On a good note, you’re roughly three hundred dollars richer,” Gabe said.
“According to Donna Thurston, Raylene donated her share of the gold to the railroad museum,” Annie said, and once again, Gabe was reminded how fast news traveled in Nugget. Like a Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird. “We want to do the same.” Annie looked at Logan, and they shared a sloppy love-struck smile that made Gabe throw up a little in his mouth. “Right, hon?”
“Whatever you want to do, babe.”
“Ah, Jesus, the honeymoon’s over, folks.” The whole love thing was making Gabe feel on edge.
I don’t ever want to be responsible for someone’s happiness. Ever.
“I’m going to take off and let you all have some family time.” Gabe rose, even though Raylene’s blue eyes implored him to stay.
What did she care? She was leaving anyway.
“I’ll walk you out,” Raylene said, but Logan blocked her way.
“I’ll do it, you stay warm.” Logan gave Raylene a gentle squeeze.
Logan grabbed a coat off the hall tree and followed Gabe outside. “Anything else I ought to know?”
“Like what?” I’ve got feelings for your sister.
There was a long pause while Logan shuffled his feet in a patch of semi-melted snow. “Uh…anything else happen to her in that fishing shack?”
It took a few seconds for Gabe to absorb what Logan was getting at. “Ah, jeez, Jenk. No. Hell no!”
Logan sagged against Gabe’s truck and let out a breath. “Thank God. Ray and his goddamn big mouth. Why do you think he just left the gold in the safe like that? Why didn’t he tell Flynn about it…make it part of his estate? Hell, he could’ve cashed it in and put the money on his prison books.”
Gabe hitched his shoulders. “To a guy like Ray Rosser, it was chump change. He probably forgot about it. Or he liked the idea of the legend so much he wanted to preserve it for the next generation. Who knows? There was a picture of you in one of the safes…BUD/S graduation. I don’t know if he shot it himself, but it clearly meant something to him. Raylene took it to give to you.”
“I made my peace with the late SOB a while ago,” Logan said. He toed the dirt. “Still, there’s no love lost. But if it hadn’t been for Ray I never would’ve met Annie…or my half sister. Thanks for taking care of her, man.”
“Yeah, I didn’t do so good with that.”
“She’s here in one piece.” Logan turned away so Gabe wouldn’t see him choke up.
“She’s tough. Reminds me of an ex-SEAL I know. She saved Emily’s kid, Harper, who was able to flee the barn unscathed.” Gabe opened his truck door. “People sure are less pissy about her now. Donna and Emily made her soup, and Cecilia has been clucking around her like a mother hen. Who knows if it’ll last.” Gabe suspected that once the sale to Moto Entertainment was final, Raylene would go back to being public enemy number one. “She’s leaving town soon anyway.”
Logan nodded. Gabe considered telling him that Raylene was broke and had promised a good portion of her earnings from the sale of her property to a woman’s shelter. But he’d sworn to keep her secret. Besides, she was perfectly capable of taking care of herself. He supposed he was looking for an excuse to get her to stay, then tried to convince himself that he was merely sleep deprived.
“I’ll talk to you later.” He climbed into the driver’s seat and watched through his rearview as Logan went back inside the house.
Instead of going home, he headed to the Ponderosa for a beer, a decision he reevaluated after four people in succession plied him with questions about Raylene’s abduction and Levi’s Gold.
“Heard that gold didn’t turn out to be much.” Owen took the empty stool next to Gabe’s.
“Nope.”
“Ray always did like his tall tales. How’s Raylene?”
“She’s okay.”
Owen let out a whistle. “Who knew the girl was hero material?”
“I did,” Gabe said. He was pissed at how everyone sounded so surprised. The Raylene he knew was giving half her inheritance to a woman’s shelter. Should it really come as any big shock that she’d protect a thirteen-year-old? He called to the other end of the bar. “Hey, Mariah, forget that beer.”
He got up and left, bumping into Clay McCreedy on the way out.
“Hey, where’s the fire?” Clay called as Gabe made a beeline for his SUV.
He needed peace and quiet and time to reconnoiter. Alone time. Yep, that’s exactly what he needed.
* * * *
The next morning, Raylene had breakfast with Logan and Annie and went to town to see Dana.
“I got your text, and was frankly surprised you were ready to do this.” Dana took one look at Raylene’s face and grimaced. “Shouldn’t you be resting?”
“I’m okay.” Raylene had put this off long enough.
“Let me print it, then.” Dana brought up Moto Entertainment’s offer on her computer and walked to the back of the office, waiting for the printer to cough up the contract. “Everyone is talking about what you did for Harper.”
Apparently, people thought she was such a bottom feeder that protecting a thirteen-year-old had instantly elevated her to Martin Luther King Jr. status.
“Let me ask you something. What’s the likelihood of getting another offer…like, soon?”
Dana grabbed the paperwork and came back to her desk. “Well, there haven’t been any showings since Christmas, as far as I know. Are you having second thoughts?”
“Yes…no…I have to do this.” Raylene took a pen from a mug on Dana’s desk that read: “Everything I touch turns to sold.” At least it wasn’t gold. “Where do I sign?”
“Let’s go over it first.” Dana started to explain the terms of the offer, stuff she’d already told Raylene having to do with environmental studies, etc., etc., etc. “We can certainly ask for different terms but—”
“The thing is, I promised two hundred thousand dollars to a women’s shelter where I volunteer,” Raylene interrupted. “It’s a non-profit that runs on grants, and this year a lot of those grants didn’t come through. In other words, they’re pretty desperate for money.”
“Uh…okay.” Dana seemed at a loss. Either she was shocked that Raylene wasn’t one hundred percent Satan, or she’d been thrown by the non sequitur. “This is none of my business, but don’t you, uh, like, have a lot of money?”
“Butch got a lot of it in the divorce, and to tell you the truth I’m not the best with money.” Raylene let out a long breath. That she was confiding in her real estate agent, a woman she hardly knew, showed how desperate she’d become. “Anyway, I’m not as rich as everyone thinks. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be selling to a motocross company. That land has been in my family for generations. To see it desecrated like that…I don’t know why I’m telling you this. It’s not your problem.”
“Maybe you don’t have to sell it to them to still get the money,” Dana said.
“But you just said there are no other buyers.”
“What about taking out a second mortgage on the land? It’s valuable real estate.”
“I’m afraid it would put me further into debt, and I wouldn’t be able to manage the payments.”
“Then you want to accept the offer.” Dana pushed the stack of papers closer to Raylene.
She toyed with the pen for a few seconds, started to scribble her name on the dotted line, but froze. “I can’t.” She dropped the pen onto the desk. “I just can’t. Tell them no.”
The one thing she’d learned in that horrid little fishing shack, as her life flashed before her eyes, was that regardless of whether she lived here or not, Nugget would always be her home, and these would always be her people. She couldn’t put a motocross track in their backyard.
Raylene got up and walked out. A short time later, she found herself sitting in Gabe’s driveway, deliberating knocking on his door. He must’ve heard her engine, because he came to her instead. Just opened her truck door, picked her up, and carried her like a bride into his duplex apartment, straight to his bed.
“Clearly, you’ve got stuff on your mind. What do you say we talk about it later?” He unzipped her jacket.
“Works for me.” She helped him take off her clothes and then his, and for a long time they lay there naked together in each other’s arms.
Then he moved over her, tasting her lips and caressing her breasts. She held on to him, wanting to take their time so she could imprint this moment on her heart forever. Gabe, like her, didn’t seem in any rush. He went slowly, touching, tasting, feeling.
She would miss this, the special kind of intimacy she had with Gabe and no one else. The way he put his whole body into making her feel good. He was the only man for whom she’d never had to wear a coat of armor. With Gabe, she was safe to be herself.
By the time he entered her, she was a jumble of raw emotions. “I love you,” she whispered, so softly that he couldn’t hear the words. It was better that way, she told herself. Leaving him would be hard enough.
His strokes became needier, more powerful, and she urgently rose up to meet each thrust. Gabe rolled her on top, cushioning her ribs, which were still sore from Sunday. She moved steadily with his hands on her hips, guiding and controlling the pace. Slow and easy. Both of them swaying to the rhythm of a primal dance as old as time. Both of them so lost in each other that nothing outside of them existed.
Their breathing had become heavy, and Gabe’s face strained in the sunlight that had seeped through the blinds and left striped shadows on the wall.
“Ah, Ray, I’m not going to make it much longer.”
“Try.” She leaned over him and dragged her long blond hair down his chest.
“That tickles.” His hands clasped her arms and he propped her up. “Are you trying to kill me?”
She laughed, and their eyes met and locked. Raylene traced his lips with her finger and something moved in her chest.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“Looking at you. Memorizing your face.”
He reached up and ever so gently rubbed his thumb along her bruised cheek. She shrugged up her shoulder, holding his hand in place so she could revel in his soft touch.
“Does it still hurt?” he whispered.
“Nothing hurts…all I feel is you.”
His eyes heated and he flipped her onto her back, careful not to put pressure on her ribcage. Then he re-entered her in one fluid thrust. Increasing the tempo, he plunged deeper with long, powerful strokes, making her call out, “Gabe, oh, Gabe.”
He reached one hand under her butt and used the other between her legs. And all at once she felt herself break into a million pieces as she clenched around him, waves of pleasure washing over her. Gabe let go of the tight grip he’d had over himself and matched her as his own climax stole his breath away.
“Ray…ah, baby.” He caught her mouth and kissed her hard.
Afterward, they lay there, tangled up together, gulping for air. Eventually, he found one of the pillows that had been knocked to the ground, fluffed it, and placed it under her head.
“I backed out of the deal with Moto Entertainment,” she said, breaking the silence. “I couldn’t go through with it.”
Gabe rolled to his side and faced her. “What are you going to do now?”
“Get a job, I guess.”
He let out a soft chuckle. “What about your women’s shelter?”
She exhaled. Another one of her failures, and another name to add to her long list of people she’d let down. “I don’t know. But I couldn’t sacrifice my hometown. I’ll think of something.”
“I believe you,” he said. “You’re just stubborn enough to get the money.”
“I’m hoping in spring, Dana will find another buyer. A rancher or a farmer.”
“Lucky said you offered to sell it to him for less than half the price.”
She didn’t say anything for a while, ashamed that the man hated her so much he’d pass up the deal of a lifetime so he wouldn’t have to lower himself to take something from her. “I was trying to make amends.”
He tipped up her chin with his finger. “That’s a hell of an amends. You’re a good person, Raylene, who made some mistakes. I think people around here are starting to see that.”
“People around here are riding high on what happened a few days ago. As soon as the adrenaline rush subsides, they’ll go back to hating me. That’s the way it is in Nugget.”
“Maybe.” He rested his forehead against hers. “Or maybe they’re over it. Who can say? But you can leave with a clear conscience.”
She wondered if she’d ever be free of the constant guilt that gnawed at her, or if she even wanted to be. Carrying it around was a good way of keeping her honest and off the booze.
Somewhere in the mess of clothes on the floor, a phone rang.
“Is that yours or mine?” she asked Gabe.
“Not my ringtone.”
“It’s probably Butch calling to tell me he wants half the gold.” She rolled her eyes and hung over the edge of the bed to find her cell. “It was Dana. What do you suppose she wants?”
Gabe sat up and scrubbed his hand through his hair. “You think she found a new buyer already?”
Raylene sincerely doubted it. It had been less than two hours since she’d left Dana’s office. She hit the return call feature on her phone and held her finger against her lips to let Gabe know to be quiet. “Dana, it’s Raylene. I couldn’t get to my phone fast enough. What’s up?”
“I hope you don’t mind, but I told Gia about the situation with your land…how you turned down Moto Entertainment’s offer…about your financial situation, and about how you’re a benefactor for a women’s shelter. She’d like to meet with you.” Annie had once mentioned that Dana and Gia were BFFs, and in Nugget nothing was ever a secret anyway.
“All right,” she said. Why not? Other than Gabe, Wanda, and Dana, Raylene hadn’t told a soul about her money woes. She figured the folks in Nugget would only be too happy to see how far the mighty had fallen. But why not take advantage of her sure to be short-lived good standing while she could? Though Raylene had never watched Gia’s show—financial self-help programs weren’t her thing—she could use some good advice. And Gia was a millionaire ten times over.
“How about in my office in twenty minutes?”
“Sure,” Raylene said, and got there five minutes early.
A short time later, Gia swept into the room, a laptop case slung over her shoulder. For a former talk-show host, there was nothing fluffy about her. Her blond hair was tied back in a smooth ponytail, her face flawless without makeup, and her clothes tailored but not stuffy.
“What’s the name of the women’s shelter you told Dana about?” she asked by way of a greeting, then set up her laptop on Dana’s desk.
“Lucy’s House.”
Instead of responding, Gia tapped away at her keyboard. “This it?” She turned the laptop toward Raylene. When Raylene nodded her head, Gia continued typing. “It’s a 501(c)(3).”
Raylene had no idea what she was talking about.
“It’s legit,” Gia announced.
Duh. Of course it was legit. Did Gia think Raylene wanted to give two hundred thousand dollars to the Real Housewives of Santa Monica?
“I can help you with this,” Gia said. “I can help you with your own finances, too.”
“Why? Why would you do that for me?”
“Because you’re Annie and Logan’s family and I love Annie and Logan.”
Okay, that sort of made sense. And perhaps Gia thought if she didn’t help, Raylene would stay and mooch off her brother indefinitely. She had zero plans to do that. But if it meant Gia would help her with Lucy’s House, Raylene wouldn’t disabuse of her of that notion.
For the next two hours they stuck their heads together, and for the first time in Raylene’s life she had a strict budget to follow. It included getting rid of her beach house and moving into a cheap apartment with a roommate. Getting a full-time job, which wouldn’t be easy given Raylene’s lack of skillsets. And selling her truck and buying a used, more fuel-efficient car.
Gia emphasized that none of these cost-saving measures were going to save Raylene. The only thing that would do that was a career with good earning potential. My horse farm, she thought to herself. But without the land or the money, it was a fantasy.
By the end of their brainstorming session, Gia had given her an Iris Foundation grant application and a wink and nod that the fix was in for Lucy’s House. Apparently, the foundation was so flush, the board had begun awarding money to other women’s organizations around the state in addition to the good it already did in Nugget.
When she got back to the farmhouse, she found Lucky in the driveway, leaning against his truck.
What now? she wondered, exhausted from trying to paste together her freak-show of a life. She slid out of the driver’s seat. “You looking for me, or Logan and Annie?”
“You.”
“It’s cold out here. You want to come inside?”
“Nope. This won’t take long.”
Here we go. She was sure there must be some infraction she’d committed. Maybe he still wanted the money for Tawny’s dress. “What can I do for you?”
“Word’s all over town that you sent that Motocross operation packing. I just wanted to thank you, and let you know that I’m working on getting a consortium together to buy your land…for full price.”
She swallowed hard. This wasn’t what she’d been expecting. “Talk to Dana when you’re ready.”
“You leaving town?” Perhaps it was her imagination, but he sounded a wee bit wistful.
“Yep. Just have to close out a few things.” Rhys wanted her to check in before she left and Annie wanted to do a dinner.
She started to head to the house.
“Hey,” he called. “We’re even now.”
“Okay,” she said, not knowing exactly what that meant.
“Take care, Raylene.” He tipped his hat, got in his truck, and drove away, leaving her feeling lighter than she had in a long time.