Blackbird Lake (17 page)

“Got you something, Emma.” Jake pulled a soft baby doll out of his jacket pocket. He’d driven all the way to Livingston to get it at a major toy store that morning, and he handed it to Emma with a seriously hopeful look in his eyes. “Approved for one year and up,” he told Carly quickly.

But Emma grasped the doll for only an instant, then dropped it without looking at it—and dropped Bug, too—as she leaned down to pat the mutt’s head.

“Bribery, Jake? Really?” Carly lifted an eyebrow, but she was fighting a smile.

He had the nerve to grin. And shrug those broad shoulders. “Hey, it usually works with my nieces and nephews. I’m desperate here. I need to learn the ropes. I’m hoping you’ll cut me some slack here, Carly.”

She felt the magnetic pull of that seductive cowboy charm, and against her will, some of the wariness inside her softened. “I can…try.”

He didn’t
look
like a man who would willingly break a little girl’s heart. He looked surprisingly at ease and very determined. Despite all her misgivings, he did seem intent on getting to know his daughter….

Setting Emma down, she listened to bubbly laughter as Emma buried her face in the mutt’s furry neck.

“Emma, this is Bronco,” Jake said easily, not the least bit upset that she’d ignored the doll.

“Bwonco,” came the muffled sound of Emma’s reply.

He knelt down beside her. “He likes it when you scratch a little bit right behind his ears. Like this.”

Emma plopped her little fingers beside Jake’s on the dog’s fur and scratched.

“Good job. There you go.”

Suddenly the mutt turned his head and licked Emma’s face. She drew back, screeching in surprise, then the screech turned to a giggle.

“Bronco likes you,” Jake assured her, still kneeling. He stared at her, seemingly taking in everything about her, from her pink cheeks to her eyes—the exact same color as his own—and the wind-blown curls and tiny jacket with pink hearts sewn on the cuffs of her sleeves. His expression was intent, difficult for Carly to read. But Emma was focused only on the dog.

“Bwonco Bwonco Bwonco.”

“Finally. Some progress—of a sort.” Jake straightened to his full six-foot, two-inch height and met Carly’s gaze, a wry smile lighting his face. “She just said something to me besides ‘Bug.’” He pushed his Stetson back on his head. “It’s not much, but I reckon it’s a start.”

“Whoa, look who’s here.” Sheriff Teddy Hodge set down a slice of pizza as Madison breezed into his office in a one-story building in the center of the town square.

“Hey, Gramps.” Grinning, she leaned across his desk, and kissed his leathery cheek. She’d had a weird feeling for a second or two as she left the park and made her way here. But once she was inside, greeting her grandfather’s secretary and striding past the deputy’s cubicle, it had faded away like yesterday’s rain.

That same odd tingle had come over her once or twice before over the past few days. A creepy crawly chill up her back, like someone was watching her. She’d even turned around once or twice on her way here from the park just now, sure she’d find someone staring, but she didn’t spot anyone except for some older guy talking on a cell phone as he settled on a park bench, near where Carly had set up the picnic lunch. She’d shaken off the crazy feeling the moment she stepped
over the threshold of the sheriff’s department office, though. Now she pulled the spare chair up to her grandfather’s desk and eyed the open pizza box beside his computer.

“This is the best part of my day so far,” Hodge said, gazing at her fondly.

“Must be a pretty slow day, Gramps.” She laughed.

“You’re right, nothing much going on to speak of. Matter of fact, been a slow week.” He pushed the pizza box with the remaining half of the still-hot pizza toward her as she settled into a chair across from his desk.

“Few nights ago someone tried to break into the medical center, probably some kid looking for drugs. Yesterday there were just a couple of speeding tickets on Highway 19 and a domestic dispute way out on Pebble Road. And today, so far, only a shoplifting attempt at Benson’s Drugstore. Henry Blakemore tried to steal a pack of condoms while Lem was ringing up candy and toothpaste for Gloria Cartright. Gloria spotted Henry snatch the condoms and yelled.”

“Did Henry get arrested?” Madison reached for a slice of pizza and a napkin. Henry Blakemore was fifteen, an honor student. He and his mom, Susan, a waitress at the Lucky Punch Saloon, lived on the first floor of Madison’s apartment building.

“Nope, but Zeke put him in a cell and gave him a good talking-to. Scared the hell out of him, if I do say so myself. By the time Susan got there, he was bawling like a baby. I don’t think he’ll try stealing anything again real soon.”

“Someone say my name?” Deputy Zeke Mueller poked his head in the door, but rushed on before Madison could even say hello.

“Sorry to interrupt.” His gaze was locked on his boss. “Sheriff, the wife just called. Her water broke. All over the kitchen floor. Her mom’s got her and the triplets in the car. I gotta take off for the hospital—”

“Well, what are you waiting for? Get the hell out of here, Zeke! I’ll hold the fort. Let me know if you need anything.” Teddy Hodge waved him away and the deputy spun and disappeared at a run out the door. “Poor man. He’s
already got three girls and another popping out any minute now. I’m going to have to play with the budget and see if I can give Zeke some kind of a raise.”

“How is he doing otherwise, Gramps? I…I hope Zeke doesn’t have any ill effects from…from Brady hitting him. Does he?”

The deputy had gone down like a ton of bricks and struck his head on the sidewalk in front of the hardware store.

“Well, the concussion is gone, with no lasting effects. But I wish Zeke had pressed charges.” Hodge shrugged broad shoulders. “He said he felt sorry for Brady, because of his brother and all, and that’s not to say I didn’t, but assault is assault and no one should get away with that.”

Madison was silent a moment. Then she lifted her gaze to her grandfather’s face. “I know that, Gramps, but Brady’s probably very sorry. He’s…he’s not a criminal. He just went through a bad period—”

“You making excuses for him, Maddy?” Her grandfather studied her from beneath his brows.

“Not excuses—of course not. I’m saying he wasn’t himself. Everyone deserves a second chance.”

“Well, not everyone. Serial killers don’t. Rapists don’t. But…young Brady Farraday, maybe. Judgment’s still out on that. I know you used to be friends with him, but I’d stay away from that boy if I were you.”

“I
used
to be friends with him
. True
. But it was a long time ago.” Madison felt her cheeks flame. She’d been considering the idea of warning her grandfather ahead of time that Brady would be the one winning a date with her at the auction next week, but now she decided it wouldn’t be the best idea to give him advance notice.

Not that he wouldn’t understand her reluctance to parade across the stage for any length of time.

Both he and her grandmother had opposed her mother’s determination to enter Madison in every pageant within driving distance. They sympathized with her stage shyness and her desire to be a “normal” kid. And they were convinced the pageant life wasn’t what their son would have
wanted for his daughter. But Sergeant Thomas Hodge had been killed in Iraq during Operation Desert Storm when Madison was seven, and his widow made all the decisions for her daughter after he was gone.

She didn’t care a whit that Madison’s grandparents objected to her dragging Madison all over the county and even the state, even pulling her out of school some days. She just insisted that the fun and glamour of the pageant life distracted her from her “grief,” and it quickly became an obsession for her. She didn’t want to stop, she told everyone who would listen. Not until Madison “won.”

First place or bust,
she used to say, especially to her second husband, a laid-back trucker who was on the road a lot and who had no objection to her filling her time with endless thoughts of gowns and tap lessons and runway rehearsals. Madison’s mother never quite forgave her daughter for never placing first—or for leaving home the day she turned eighteen, hitching her way back to Lonesome Way to live in an apartment near her grandparents. She’d consoled herself by becoming a private “coach” for girls who wanted to compete and win in pageants.

“What are you getting Grams for her birthday next week?” Madison wanted to shift the conversation away from both Brady and the auction. “I bought her a pair of opal earrings online. They’re very pretty.”

“I wanted to talk to you about that.” Hodge cleared his throat. “I had this little idea of taking her on a trip to Junction Falls. That’s where we had our first date, you know. There’s a little bed-and-breakfast there that’s gotten great write-ups online—figured she’d enjoy it. She always says I don’t take her anyplace. And while we’re there, I’m having something delivered to the house.”

“Something delivered? What?” Fascinated, Madison leaned forward. As far as she remembered, her grandfather always gave her grandmother the same gifts every year—a bottle of Joy perfume, a sweater from a knit shop in Livingston, and a new winter scarf.

He grinned at her, eyes twinkling. “It’s a piano. A good,
high-quality American piano. Brand-new.” At her gasp, he beamed with pleasure. “That one she’s been playing on for the past twenty years was secondhand when she got it and it’s been retuned too many times to count. This is a fine, brand-new American piano,” he repeated proudly. “I’m hoping you can arrange your schedule to be there when it’s delivered and set up and the old one is taken away. But it means we’re going to miss the big fund-raising auction that weekend—will that bother you? Should I plan on taking her away a week later, so we can be here and keep an eye on whoever bids for you in that auction? Some of the roughnecks around here who might think of it would think twice if I’m in the audience giving them the evil eye.”

“No, oh, no, Gramps. I’ll be fine. Believe me, I can take care of myself and I’m not the least bit worried. I’m sure someone really nice will bid on me. If anyone does at all.” Her eyes sparkled in the sunlight slanting through the window behind him. “And I’ll be happy to let in the delivery people. Grams will be so excited! Just tell me what time you need me to be there and I’ll make it work.”

A satisfied smile spread across his face as he reached for another slice of pizza. “She’ll be tickled, all right—she’s no doubt expecting another bottle of Joy—”

Then his desk phone rang, and he broke off, quickly picking it up.

“Yeah? Okay, then…hold your horses. I’ll be right there.” Teddy Hodge shoved back his chair and hurried around the desk. The smile had evaporated from his face and a grim frown took its place. The warm gleam in his eyes when he’d spoken about the gift for his wife had now transformed into the chilly glint of a lawman as he reached for his gun belt and strapped it on.

“’Course now that Zeke’s tied up all hell’s got to break loose,” he told Madison. “Got our first assault and robbery since last winter, honey. Someone just mugged Homer out at the gas station. Cleaned out the cash register and got away with two hundred thirty-six dollars. Feel free to finish this pizza, honey. I gotta go.”

That evening, after Emma fell asleep, Carly worked on her blossom quilt for the Thanksgiving fund-raiser—wondering uneasily, as she sewed, what kind of reception she’d receive from Lissie, Sophie, and Mia when they arrived at Zoey Tanner’s birthday party the following day. Suddenly she heard a light, persistent tapping on her front door.

Jumping up from Annie’s old sewing machine in the smallest and coziest of the Victorian’s bedrooms, she hurried to answer it before Emma woke up.

Then she immediately froze in surprise as Jake’s sister launched herself over the threshold. Before she even realized it, Lissie was embracing her in a fierce hug that stole her breath. Mia and Sophie stood right behind her.

“Jake made us wait until tonight to come see you. He wanted his half hour in the park with Emma first.”

“We’re here to officially welcome you and Emma to the family,” Sophie added. She stepped inside, carrying a white bakery box from A Bun in the Oven, and made room for her other sister-in-law to follow.