The Son He Never Knew

He sent her a half-smile. “Yep. The place where the Wooleys made all the little Wooleys.”

He could have gone all day without mentioning that. “Let’s hope the mattress has since been replaced. And speaking of that, I noticed all the beds have been stripped.”

“Gabe said there’s clean linens in the hall closet.”

At least she wouldn’t have to bring those from the house. “Good. What about the washer and dryer?”

“Washer but no dryer. Nita hung her clothes on the line.”

Jess felt as if she’d unwittingly stepped back in time. “I suppose that’s why they invented coin-operated laundries.” And the nearest one happened to be five miles away.

“The washer’s in a small room off the kitchen,” Chase said as he stepped into the bedroom, making the adequate space seemed too cramped for Jess’s comfort.

She clapped her hands together enthusiastically. “Let’s go see the kitchen, shall we?” When Chase laughed, taking her by surprise, Jess asked, “What’s so amusing?”

“For a minute there I saw the head cheerleader coming out in you.”

She hadn’t had anything to cheer about in years. “That girl went away a long time ago. If you don’t believe me, take a gander at my backside.”

Chase raked his gaze down her body and back up again. “You don’t look all that different, Jess.”

“Try telling that to Dalton.” She regretted the acid comment the moment it left her mouth.

Chase scowled as he always did whenever she mentioned his archenemy’s name. “You shouldn’t care what that bastard thinks.”

Old verbal wounds were hard to heal. “I don’t care about anything but seeing the kitchen.”

He stepped aside and made a sweeping gesture toward the hall. “After you.”

Jess once more passed through the living room where Danny was rooted in the same spot, still wearing his gray down jacket as if he had no intention of staying. As soon as she had some alone time with him, she’d explain this was only a temporary home. Yet she wasn’t certain he truly cared one way or the other. And if his demeanor didn’t change in the next day or two, she’d be forced to seek professional help for him. She prayed she could wait at least until the current legal storm blew over. If not, she’d have to trust that a counselor would be bound by patient confidentiality should Danny decide to reveal the events leading up to Dalton’s injuries. Right now she had to concentrate on getting her bearings so they could begin to move in.

With that in mind, she found her way into the kitchen with a small dining area housing a wooden table, benches on both sides and a chair on each end. She began opening cabinets and drawers to discover myriad pots, pans, dishes, glasses and utensils. When she heard Chase approaching, she turned and leaned back against the well-worn butcher-block counter. “There’s enough equipment here to feed an army.”

“That pretty much describes the Wooley family,” he said as he entered the room, dropped into one chair at the table and stretched his long legs out before him.

Jess was suddenly struck by his undeniable presence and authority, from the top of his cowboy hat to the tip of his boots. He portrayed old-West lawman to a T. Oddly, everything about him kept her off balance, as if she didn’t really know him at all. In many ways, that was accurate.

She moved to the massive farm sink that provided a nice view of the pasture from the window above it. “This is really a pretty place.”

Before Jess even realized he’d left the table, Chase reached around her and turned on the faucet, his body flush against her back. “The well’s supposed to be working, but Gabe says to check the water since we’ve had a fairly long dry spell. I can sure relate to that.”

Jess glanced back to see his half-smile and a hint of the consummate charmer he’d always been. “I have a hard time believing that.” Even if for some strange reason, she hoped it were true.

“You know how it is around here, Jess,” he said. “Not a whole lot of people our age in Placid.”

She returned his smile. “Poor Deputy Reed. No one to irrigate his crops.”

He brushed a strand of hair from her cheek. “Don’t worry your pretty head over me. I get by.”

Getting by seemed to be the recent story of her life. Getting away from Chase seemed to be the better part of valor. The innuendo had begun to take its toll on her composure, especially when he remained so close she could trace a line around his lips with a fingertip with little effort. The fact that his proximity, his words, could affect her at a time like this was beyond explanation.

Right when she started to move away, Chase stopped her progress when he said, “Will you take a look at that?”

Jess turned her focus back to the window to see Danny seated on the ground, holding his hand out to a young tabby cat that stood a few feet away, back arched and tail sticking straight up. Not only had she’d not heard him leave the house, she’d inadvertently allowed him to come face-to-face with a wild animal. “Oh, heavens. That thing is probably feral and hasn’t had any shots. I need—”

“To leave him be,” Chase said as the kitten skittered away.

She sent him a look of sheer surprise. “Are you crazy? He could’ve been scratched or bitten and ended up with rabies.”

“But he wasn’t and he’s fine. Seems to me he just needs a little time to himself.”

Jess silently admitted Chase was probably right, but her motherly instincts at times commandeered her common sense.

“You know what else he needs, Jess?” Chase said.

“A friend?”

“A dog.”

Another memory, sharp as shattered glass, dug into her mind. “Danny had a puppy once when he was five. A Golden Retriever named Birdie. She chewed up a pair of Dalton’s Italian loafers, so Dalton gave her away to some hunter two counties over. Then he told Danny that she’d run away because he wasn’t a good boy.”

“That sorry son of a bitch,” Chase muttered, pure venom in his voice.

Jess had called him that very thing in her mind, but she’d never said it to his face…until last night.

Shoving aside the reminders, Jess planned to go to Danny just to make sure he’d been left unscathed, at least when it came to the cat. Yet when he took a stick and began drawing in the dirt, his mouth moving as if he were speaking to an imaginary friend, fascination kept her planted where she stood. At least that confirmed he could still talk, even if not to her. He could also still smile, she realized, when he grinned as he looked to his right to see the kitten had returned. A smile that always warmed her heart whenever his precious dimples came into view, the one on the left more prominent that the one on the right.

Overcome with the need to distract Chase, she side-stepped him. “I’m going to bring Danny in before he ends up on the wrong side of the cat.”

Chase checked his watch. “And I’m going to head out.”

Jess realized that after he left, she had no means to communicate with the outside world. “I left my cell phone on the charger at the house.”

“I’d give you mine but I need it for work. I’ll see if Sue can come up with a spare until we get yours in the morning.”

If Sue didn’t come through, that meant she’d spend the day wondering if Dalton’s condition had deteriorated. “Thanks again. For everything.”

“No sweat. That’s what friends are for.”

At least he still considered her a friend, or he could be playing nice out of pity. Only time would tell.

They walked side by side to the door and when they stepped onto the porch, Jess resisted the urge to throw her arms around him and ask him to stay a few more minutes. “Have an exciting day.”

He barked out a cynical laugh. “Sure. About the only excitement I’ll see is if I have to break up a bar fight.”

She shuddered at the thought of Chase throwing himself into the middle of danger, though that wasn’t unfamiliar territory. She’d had to live with that reality the whole time he’d been at war. “Tell Sue not to hurry on our account.”

“Sue doesn’t have any other speed.”