CHAPTER FIFTEEN
BY THE TIME the nurse was finished, Lucy had walked in the door. J.C. touched Colie’s cheek with his fingertips.
“Do what the doctor says. I’ll bring Ludie to see you later, okay?”
“Okay, J.C.,” she said with a sleepy smile.
“I’ll phone you if she tries to escape,” Lucy promised him.
He chuckled as he left. But this time, he turned at the door and looked back at Colie, his pale silver eyes alive with pleasure.
“That’s a first,” Colie remarked when he was gone.
“What is?” Lucy asked, putting down her purse and coat in the second of two chairs by the bedside.
“He used to never look back,” she explained.
Lucy smiled. “He’s not the same man he used to be, Colie. Not at all. Imagine the old J.C. shopping at a child’s boutique!”
“I can’t.”
“Honestly, neither can I.” She moved close to the bed. “How are you? I almost had a heart attack when I heard about the shooting on the news. I was rushing to the hospital when I saw J.C. outside the shop and pulled over. I figured he’d know more than the news about what happened.”
“He always did,” Colie recalled with a wan smile.
“What happened? It was that friend of Rod’s, wasn’t it?” the other woman asked belligerently.
“Exactly,” she replied on a short breath. “I saw something three years ago that put him and Rod into a panic. Rod and his friend Barry had a suitcase of drugs. I went away partly to show Barry that I wasn’t going to tell what I knew. But he thinks I’ll do it, now that the law firm where I work is going after a distribution network. He said he could beat that rap, but what I knew could put him in federal prison for conspiracy to distribute illegal drugs. I was expendable. So was my child.” Her eyes closed and she shivered. “He was going to kill us both. He got us in Rod’s car at gunpoint and drove us to a lonely stretch of road. I opened the door and pushed Ludie out and told her to run, just as he pulled the trigger. God bless her, she did exactly what she was told, or she likely wouldn’t be alive now. If it hadn’t been for Rod, I imagine I’d be dead, too.”
“What do you mean?”
“J.C. said that someone put an emergency bandage on me that saved my life. Barry wouldn’t have cared, but Rod would, and he was in combat. He knew how to treat wounds.”
“He ran and left you on the porch,” Lucy said icily. “I heard that from my coworker, whose cousin is one of the EMTs who went to your house after you were shot. They said you were barely coherent, but you knew you were in Rod’s car, and afterward it was gone. They put two and two together.”
“How did they know to go there?” she wondered.
Lucy hesitated. “I guess Rod called them. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have known until it was too late.”
“That’s what I was thinking.”
“Rod may have good points, but there’s no way he’ll avoid jail time if he’s ever caught, you know,” Lucy said gently as she dropped into a chair. “At the least, they’ll get him for conspiracy to distribute drugs. That’s a tough sentence.”
“I know.” Colie closed her eyes. “Rod was always so easily led. He never learned.”
“That’s a shame,” Lucy said. “He’s the last living close relative you have.”
Colie agreed. “We can’t choose our kinfolk.”
Lucy’s lips pursed. “Pity.”
Colie managed to laugh.
* * *
J.C. HAD TO help the men get the pregnant heifers to pastures close to the house. It could be dangerous work, but he took Ludie with him, cautioning her to stay in the SUV until he came to get her. She could watch through the window.
Willis rode up on his sorrel mare and paused by the truck. “I see you have help today,” he said with a chuckle.
“Wolf!” Ludie exclaimed, having powered the window down. “Wolf man. Can I see the wolf? Oh, please?”
Two men stared at the child with changing expressions. “You told her?” Willis asked.
J.C. shook his head. “No.”
Willis whistled through his teeth. “You’ll have to tell Tank’s wife about that,” he said.
J.C. smiled. “I will, as soon as they get back from that conference they went to.”
“Yes, young lady, you can see the wolf. J.C., want to drive her up to my cabin? She can look at him through the screen. They’re sort of unpredictable,” he added warily. “I’ll ride up with you.”
“We’ll go right now.” He phoned Ren, explained Ludie’s request and got a laughing affirmative for the trip.
* * *
WILLIS’S CABIN WAS set back in the woods, like J.C.’s. All of Ren’s huge ranch bordered on the Wapiti National Forest, so it was far away from Catelow.
J.C. pulled up at the front door and lifted an excited Ludie down. “You can’t go inside,” he cautioned.
She looked up at him with his own eyes. “Please, Daddy?” she asked.
He felt the words all the way to his toes. Willis came up on the porch after tying his mount to one of the posts.
“He has moods,” Willis chuckled. “Let me go in and see if he’s sociable today.”
The man and the child waited on the porch. A minute later, the wolf came loping out from the back of the house to stand on his three legs near the screen. He sniffed Ludie and whined.
“Please?” Ludie persisted.
“Honey, it’s not safe...”
“Please?!”
“Colie’s going to kill me,” J.C. murmured under his breath, but he opened the screen door.
Ludie ran in and caught the wolf around the neck and hugged him and hugged him. The wolf laid his big head on her little shoulder and sniffed her and whined softly. He made no sort of aggressive move toward her.
“Pretty boy,” Ludie purred. “Sweet wolf.”
The wolf whined some more. His gray eyes were closed and he was almost purring himself.
“Not since Merrie came in here, and he did that, have I ever seen him so docile with another person except me,” Willis said, shaking his head.
“She has...gifts,” J.C. said finally.
“Oh, yes,” Willis agreed soulfully.
* * *
LATER, J.C. TOOK Ludie to the hospital to see her mother. Colie had just finished a light lunch. Her green eyes brightened with joy as her daughter ran up beside the bed.
“Careful, honey,” J.C. cautioned. “Mommy’s sore.”
“I know, Daddy,” she said, smiling up at him. “Mommy, I hugged the wolf! He liked me!” she exclaimed.
J.C. grimaced and waited for the storm.
But Colie didn’t jump at him. She just smiled. “She found a dog beside the road near Jacobsville, where we lived,” she explained. “It was big and known to be dangerous. I tried to stop her, but she ran right to it, sat down beside it and started talking to it. The dog stretched out, whining in pain, and didn’t even show his teeth. Cousin Ty helped us get it to the vet, and we adopted it. The vet said she had a gift. I’ve heard that Tank Kirk’s wife has one, as well. She picked up a rattlesnake and took it to a wildlife rehabilitator,” she laughed.
J.C. let out a sigh of relief. “How do you feel, honey?” he asked Colie, his deep voice soft and caring.
“Still hurts,” she told him. “But I’m getting better. Have you heard anything from the sheriff?”
“Not yet. I left a message with dispatch...” His phone rang. He paused to answer it. Sure enough, it was Banks. He put it on speaker so Colie could hear, too.
“We called in the feds and they tracked Barry Todd to the airport in Atlanta,” he told J.C. “He was apparently on his way to South America. They’ve sent federal marshals to transport him back to Denver for trial. We hear that Colie’s bosses in Jacobsville have enough to hang him.”
“I have something to help hang him,” Colie said. “Hi, Sheriff.”
“Hi, Colie. Getting better?”
“Much.” She drew in a breath, aware of J.C.’s big hand linking with hers on the bed. “I saw Barry give my brother a whole suitcase of illegal drugs and I heard him instructing Rod in their distribution.”
“Good God!” Banks exploded. “You actually saw it?”
“Yes,” she said, noting J.C.’s thunderous expression. “I went away so that Barry would think I was going to keep my mouth shut. I stayed away, to protect my father and my child.”
“I wish you’d come to me,” Banks said. “I’d have managed to get protection for you.”
“I was afraid,” she said. She lowered her eyes. “Besides that, I’d just had a sort of traumatic personal experience. I was reeling from it, and not really thinking straight. I just ran.”
J.C.’s eyes closed. He knew what she meant. He’d thrown her out of his life on the word of a thief and a drug lord. He’d have to live with the memory of his betrayal all his life.
“I can understand that,” Banks was saying. “Would you be willing to testify to that in court?” he added. “I can assure your safety.”
Colie knew that it was wind, air, that nobody could save her if Barry wanted retribution. But she was certain that J.C. would keep Ludie safe, whatever happened. And it was time to stop running. “Yes,” she said. “I’ll testify.”
“I’ll tell the feds,” he replied. “You’ll also have to testify to the shooting. You understand?”
“Yes, sir,” she said respectfully. “I’m just sorry that my brother got mixed up in this. Has he been found?”
“No,” Banks said, his voice gruff. “But we’re tracking him. We have an investigator who’ll follow a suspect all the way to hell to get him. Your brother won’t escape. I’m sorry, Colie, but we break the law, we have to pay the price.”
“I know that,” she said. “It’s just that he’s my only living relative. Besides Ludie.”
“I had a cousin who went up for murder one,” Banks replied. “It hurt me, because we were best friends. But the law is the law.”
“Yes. I’ve worked for lawyers for several years,” she reminded him. “You do get a good picture of the criminal justice system.”
“Indeed so. I’ll be in touch when I learn more,” Banks promised.
They thanked him. J.C. put the cell phone back in its holder.
Ludie was looking from one parent to the other with soft, loving eyes. “Gonna be okay,” she said softly. “Bad man won’t hurt us ever again.”
Colie looked up at J.C. “Oh, I hope you’re right, Ludie,” she said. She held out her arm and Ludie got as close as she could.
“I love you, Mommy.”
“I love you, too, honey.” Colie was fighting tears. The pain was still bad, and she was fighting nausea, as well.
“We should go and let Mommy rest, okay?” J.C. asked, bending to lift the child with the strawberry curls into his arms. He kissed her little cheek. “My very own living Shirley Temple doll,” he teased.
“Who’s Shirley Temple?” Ludie wanted to know.
“I’ll find a movie on YouTube and you can watch it and see,” he promised.
“J.C., thank you. For everything,” Colie said.
He bent and kissed her softly. “I have to take care of my own,” he said in a husky whisper. His eyes said more than words.
Colie reached up, grimacing as the action pulled the wound, and touched his hard face. “So many years,” she said.
“After the cut, the kiss,” he replied. He smiled tenderly. “Think about it.”
She understood. Life taught painful lessons, but they were almost always followed by periods of great joy. She had a feeling that she was headed for one.
“Something else to tell you,” J.C. added with twinkling pale gray eyes. “I’ve been reading books!”
“Books.” She stopped, looked at him, realized what he was telling her, and flushed.
“Good books,” he added, and showed perfect white teeth as he grinned at her. “We can discuss that when you’re better.”
“Well...” She grimaced. “My bosses!” she exclaimed. “They won’t know what’s going on...!”
“I’ll call them today and explain. I need the number and the name of someone I can talk to,” he added.
“It’s in my cell phone, in the drawer, in my purse.” She directed him to the chest next to the bed.
He pulled the phone out of her purse and gave it to her.
“It’s this one,” she said, pulling up a contact. “That’s Mr. Copeland. He’s head of the law firm, now that...now that Darby’s gone.” It was still hard to remember Darby without tears. He’d been so kind.
“I’ll explain everything,” J.C. promised, copying the information and putting her phone and purse back in the drawer.
“You be good for J.C.,” Colie told her little girl with a warm smile.
“I’ll be good, Mommy. That nice lady drew us,” she added suddenly.
“Drew us?” Colie asked.
“Merrie sketched us when I first brought Ludie over,” he replied. “She has a masterful touch. She’s doing a painting. It will be a revelation, I promise. She saved her own life by painting a mobster from back East,” he added, chuckling. “He actually gave her away when she married Ren.”
“I like Merrie,” Colie said. “She’s always been kind to me.”
“They’ve got your room ready, as soon as you’re able to come home,” J.C. assured her. “I’ll bring Ludie back tomorrow. We’re having another storm, so all the hands are working against the clock to get the pregnant heifers and cows close to the barn.”
“You be careful,” she said.
He smiled. “Yes, ma’am,” he replied.
She felt born anew as she looked at him. It was different than before. There was less violent physical attraction, more deep and tender affection. She couldn’t wait to see how things went.
Then she remembered her brother and her face fell.
“Uncle Rod coming back,” Ludie piped up. “Gonna tell on bad man, Mommy.”
Colie looked at J.C. If Ludie was right this time, things might work out well. At least, Rodney might be able to make a deal for a lesser sentence. Only time would tell.
“Get better,” J.C. told her. “I’ll take care of Ludie.”
She smiled drowsily. “I know that.”
“Bye, Mommy,” Ludie called back from the doorway.
Colie was asleep before they got to the elevator.
* * *
COLIE WAS WELL enough to leave the hospital three days later. J.C. and Ludie went to get her.
“They were good to me, but I’m happy to get back to normal,” Colie said as they drove away. Ludie was in her car seat in the back seat, while Colie was strapped into the passenger seat beside J.C.
“Still feeling okay?” he asked as they drove off.
“A little sore,” she said. “The doctor said that was normal.” She was holding a sheaf of papers in a folder in her lap.
“We’ll stop by the pharmacy and give those prescriptions to the pharmacist on the way home,” he told Colie. “I’ll go back and pick them up when they’re ready.”
“Medicine is so expensive,” she began.
“Honey, I can afford most anything you want,” he said gently. He smiled at her as he glanced in her direction when they came to a stoplight. “Anything at all.”
“Can you buy me a peaceful life without any wild-eyed drug lords roaming around it?” she wondered.
He chuckled. “The criminal justice system will take care of that.”
“It doesn’t always work,” she replied. “Juries cut people loose sometimes.”
“You do something bad, something bad happens to you,” J.C. said simply. He shrugged. “Your father rubbed off on me,” he added quietly.
She fought tears. It was so much. Her father’s death, the anguish over Rodney, the shooting...
She felt J.C.’s big hand clasp her own. “Something else he taught me. You have to have faith, Colie,” he said softly.
She could almost hear her father saying the same thing. She returned the soft pressure of his hand. “Okay,” she said simply.
* * *
SHE WAS SURPRISED when J.C. pulled up at his own cabin instead of Ren’s big house.
“But...” she began.
He put a soft velvet-covered box in her hands. “Story’s in the newspaper already. I expect when you check your cell phone, you’ll have a lot of messages.” He grimaced. “Probably the first one will be from Lucy, raising Cain because you didn’t tell her first.”
“Lucy...?”
She pulled her cell phone out of her purse while J.C. was getting the luggage into his cabin. There was a message from Lucy. Congrats! And why in the world didn’t you tell me?!
She looked up as J.C. was getting Ludie out of the back seat. “Why didn’t I tell Lucy what?” she asked.
“Open the box,” he said simply.
She did. Inside were a diamond-and-emerald engagement ring, and an emerald-studded gold band that matched it exactly. The stones were inlaid. It was a very expensive set.
He deposited Ludie inside and came back to get Colie. She just stared at him.
“I bought those three years ago,” he said quietly. “They were in my pocket when your brother and his friend met me at the airport.”
She bit her lower lip. J.C. had never made any declaration of love, any hint of what he had in mind for the future. This was a revelation. If. If. If!
Tears ran down her cheeks.
He picked her up gently in his arms. “I screwed up, Colie,” he said softly. “I was running scared. I wanted you, but my own home life was the pattern I judged the world by. I didn’t have a normal childhood. Mine was violent and tragic.” He drew in a breath as he carried her to the cabin. “I’ve kicked myself mentally a dozen times for ever listening to Rod in the first place. But we can’t go back, honey. We have to try to move ahead.”
He put her down inside the cabin and looked into her soft green eyes. “Can you forgive so much hurt?” he asked. “Can you move past what I did to you?”
She drew in a breath. Tears were still threatening. “I can,” she said.
“You won’t ever have a reason to distrust me again,” he promised.
“Daddy, want cheese,” Ludie piped up, looking at him with his own pale gray eyes.
He chuckled. “Cheese fanatic,” he murmured. “My fridge is full of it, every kind under the sun. She discovered it and now it’s cheese every meal.”
“I like it, too,” Colie remarked, moving slowly toward the kitchen. “Honestly, I’m so tired of gelatin!”
J.C. laughed out loud. “I’ve been in the hospital a time or two. I know exactly what you mean.”
He got out dishes and started slicing cheese. He put crackers of all sorts out with them and poured milk for Ludie and soft drinks for himself and Colie. He remembered the cold ginger ale she liked.
She smiled as she sipped it. “This was my favorite.”
“I know,” he replied. He leaned back in the chair, his eyes on his child. “She’s very bright,” he remarked.
“Almost too bright,” Colie laughed. “She scares people sometimes with those things she blurts out.”
“She’d be right at home here in Catelow, with Tank Kirk’s wife not too far away.”
“The clairvoyant,” Colie recalled. “I’d love to meet her.”
“I’ll make a point of introducing you. Ren bought some livestock from him just recently. Tank’s a good guy. He was border patrol a few years back. Got shot up pretty badly. But he recovered. And his brother Mallory is married to a Texas girl—King Brannt’s daughter.”
“Goodness, I know about her from cousin Annie,” Colie told him. “She knows everybody in South Texas. Or sometimes it seems so.”
He cocked his head and studied her. “Could you live here, Colie?” he asked.
She paused with her ginger ale halfway to her mouth. It was a profound question. It went with the set of rings she still had, clutched tightly in her free hand. She looked at the only man she’d ever loved, and felt the old hunger burning deep down inside her. Except that this time, it wasn’t raw passion. It was deeper. Sweeter. He was offering her a new life. If she had the will to take it.
“Yes,” she said finally, and watched his face light up with the words. “Yes, I could live here, J.C.”
“John Calvin,” Ludie corrected as she munched cheese.
J.C.’s high cheekbones colored.
“You told her?” Colie asked.
“No,” he said flatly. “I’ve never told anyone. My mother was Irish, but her parents were from Scotland. They were staunch Presbyterians who revered John Calvin, one of the founders of the Protestant faith. I was named for him. My mother converted to Roman Catholicism when she married my father.”
“It’s a noble sort of way to name someone,” she remarked. “I was named Colleen Mary, for a great-aunt who was a pioneer newspaperwoman in Wyoming.”
“I never knew your real name,” he remarked with a smile.
“We didn’t talk much. Not really,” she said.
“We have all the time in the world to talk now,” he told her. “But first,” he added heavily, “there’s a sad duty to perform, for both of us. I talked with the assistant minister and he agreed that Saturday would be a good day for the service. He thought it would give you enough time to get out of the hospital and rest for a day or so.”
She nodded. “He’s a good man. Daddy loved him.” She looked up. “He and his wife came by to see me last night, after you left. They’re a cute couple.”
“She plays tennis,” he said. He laughed. “Beats her husband every single match.”
“I know. He thought it was awesome.”
He sighed. “But you should always let the man win, you know,” he said with pursed lips. “It feeds his ego and makes him feel important.”
“Bull.”
His eyes sparkled. “Okay, no more propaganda. Do you still like the new Sherlock series?” he asked.
“Oh, yes!” she exclaimed.
“In that case, when little bit goes to sleep, I’ll play the instant video shows for you.”
“I’d love that.”
“Who’s little bit, Daddy?” Ludie wanted to know.
He bent over and kissed her little nose. “That’s you, tidbit.”
She laughed. “Oh, you’re funny, Daddy!”
“I’m happy,” he said. He touched her strawberry curls. “My sweet girl. Daddy’s girl,” he added proudly.
She linked her little arms around his neck and held on tight. “I love you, Daddy.”
“I love you, too. Time for bed very soon.”
“I’ll go get into my jammies,” she said, climbing down from the chair.
“I never knew a child her age could dress herself, until she came along,” J.C. remarked.
“She’s precocious,” Colie laughed. “She constantly amazes me. She knows her alphabet and her colors and numbers already. She’s in prekindergarten back in Texas...” Her voice trailed off. There were so many connections back there.
“They have a very good Presbyterian preschool right here in Catelow,” he pointed out. “And you can Skype with your cousins.”
“Yes. I can do that.”
He caught her hand in his and kissed the palm hungrily. “I’ll never let go again, Colie,” he said huskily. “I promise you that!”
She touched his lean cheek with the tips of her fingers. “It’s been so long, J.C.,” she said sadly.
“Too long,” he agreed. “Your father missed you, too. He thought I was the reason you wouldn’t come back, at first. But then, he paid more attention to Rodney and what he was up to, and he came up with another scenario. He thought you’d been threatened, and that’s why you didn’t come home.”
“He was right. I couldn’t tell him,” she said, her eyes sad. “It would have put him right on the firing line. I would have told you, if things had been different. That’s what I planned to do, but Rodney made sure I couldn’t.”
J.C.’s silver eyes flashed. “I did finally realize that you’d never have sold me out like that.” He winced. “But by the time I came to my senses, you were already married. If it hadn’t been for your father, I think I’d have gone mad.”
“Playing chess with Daddy,” she said, and laughed. “I didn’t believe that, at first.”
“He figured I wasn’t a complete lost cause, and he got to work on me.” He shook his head. “I never knew anyone like him. He was the closest thing to a father I’ve ever known. I’d have done anything for him. Anything in the world.”
“He was very special,” she agreed.
There was a brief silence of shared grief. He pulled her up into his arms and held her as closely as he dared. He didn’t want to make her any more uncomfortable than the wound already did.
“We start over, right here,” J.C. said softly. “And from now on, if you tell me the sky is green with cherry blossoms in it, I’ll believe you without proof.”
She grinned. “Okay.”
He bent his head and brushed her soft lips with his hard ones. “And I will love you,” he whispered into her mouth, “until the stars go out. And forever after, Colie.”
Tears rained down her face. “I never stopped loving you,” she whispered back. “I couldn’t. It was only you. Only you, my whole life...!”
His mouth stopped the words. He held her face between his warm hands and kissed her until her mouth was sore and her face flushed.
He lifted his head and looked into her eyes, the tension so sweet and thick that it was almost tangible.
And in the middle of that soulful exchange, a little voice called from the next room, “Mommy, I dropped my sock in the cubbymode!”
“So now you know all about parenthood,” Colie teased him.
He shrugged. “It’s just a sock. We can buy her lots of new ones.”
“Last week, she flushed two washcloths down the ‘cubbymode,’” she informed him. “It took the plumber fifteen minutes to get the toilet working again.”
“Scientific curiosity,” he said, defending his child. “She likes to experiment.”
She grinned. “In that case, since you’re in a nesting mood, suppose we go to the courthouse in the morning and get one of those license thingies?”
“I would love that,” he said.
She sighed, pressing against him. “I would, too. But before we can get married, we have to have a funeral. And somewhere out there is my brother, running from the law. There’s also a drug lord who may have a very long reach, even in prison.”
“Worry about tomorrow, tomorrow,” he advised, kissing her forehead. “Tonight, we have a sock in the cubbymode to handle.”
“You first,” she offered.
He laughed and went to fish out the offending object. Inside, he felt like a man who’d won the lottery. He’d never expected her to feel the same way she had about him, much less agree to take a second chance on him. He was never going to fail her again, no matter what!