Courting Trouble (30 page)

“If they don’t find Wilkes, I can make peace with the absence of knowing for sure. At least now I can.”

Emma and Jo looked at each other and then back at the screen. Tulsa saw the creases of worry around Jo’s eyes and the hint of concern around Emma’s mouth. Sylvia sighed. Tulsa loved her friends for their attention to her and her pain and her family, but she couldn’t think of any other way to reassure them other than to tell them that once she left Powder Springs she was putting the past to rest.

She wasn’t fleeing. Not this time. In fact, once she returned to Los Angeles, her partners would be surprised to learn of the new work schedule she’d already configured. She’d managed to keep up with her cases while she was away, so she intended to continue to work remotely for a major part of the year. And by remote she didn’t mean from her Beverly Hills home or Malibu beach house. By remote she meant in her mountain house, the same one in which she now sat. With some tweaking of her schedule and the internet Tulsa felt confident she could give both her work life and her family life fair time. It might be a surprise for Emma and Jo to know that the lead partner would be spending half her year in Powder Springs, Colorado, but it wouldn’t be a shock.

“So we’ll see you in the office soon?” Jo asked.

Tulsa nodded. “Yes, very soon.”

*

Tulsa folded her final cashmere sweater and placed it on top of her suitcase. There was a gentle knock on the door and Tulsa turned to see Ash slip into her room.

“Aunt Tulsa?”

“Hey, you,” Tulsa said and reached her hand toward Ash.

“You’re leaving tomorrow?”

Tulsa nodded and hugged Ash tight. “I’ll be back at Thanksgiving.”

“Dad’s coming home, too,” Ash said. She twisted up her mouth and perked an eyebrow. Her eyes held a question. “Do you think we could
all
have Thanksgiving together—you, me, Mom, and Dad?”

Tulsa heard the hopefulness in her niece’s voice and she wanted to say yes, but for Savannah to share a holiday meal with Bobby might be a tall order.

“I don’t know—that’s a whole lot of emotional distance to ask your mother to cover.”

“She’s actually had it pretty lucky, right? I mean, he’s been in Alaska my entire life and this is the first holiday she’s had to share me. Besides, when we start having the holidays at
my
house I’m going to invite both of them. They might as well get used to it now.”

The argument was fairly sound, but Tulsa didn’t know if even Ash could convince her mother and father to share a family meal—not even for their daughter. But then again, Tulsa hadn’t held out much hope that the custody case would settle and it had.

“You might as well give it your best shot,” Tulsa said. She winced inside at her unintended pun.

Ash’s iPhone rang and she slipped it from her pocket. She looked at the screen and her giggles met her blush.

“I gotta go,” Ash said. “I’ll be back for dinner.”

Tulsa got one more tight squeeze in before Ash bolted for the door and pounded down the staircase. Tulsa heard Ash yell bye to Savannah just before the front door clattered closed. Tulsa parted the lace curtain and peeked out her bedroom window. Dylan Conroy waited in the drive in his pickup. Ash bolted down the porch steps and he hopped out of the truck and opened up Ash’s door. Before she got into his truck, they stood close to one another. Ash’s face turned up and Dylan planted the softest of kisses on Ash’s lips. Tulsa’s heart fluttered with the sight of her niece in Dylan’s arms.

A half hour later, Tulsa walked into Savannah’s workshop. Savannah wore her welder’s mask and worked on an eight-foot bronze grizzly bear. Savannah cut the torch and flipped up her mask.

“You’ve got everything?”

“I do,” Tulsa said.

“You coming back any time soon?” She tore her welder’s mask from her head and set her mask and her torch on a workbench with a loud clatter. Was Savannah daring Tulsa to say yes or forbidding her to say no?

“The weekend before Thanksgiving.”

Savannah tilted her head and her eyes rolled up toward the ceiling. She planted her hands on her hips. “You’ll go back to LA, what? That Wednesday then? Before Thanksgiving day?”

“I thought I’d stay the whole week.”

The right corner of Savannah’s mouth kicked upward and she met Tulsa’s gaze. Her shoulder’s shifted and the stiffness that inhabited Savannah’s body seemed to relax out of her.

“You know, I’d like that.” Savannah said. She let out a loud breath and glanced around her workshop—her eyes bouncing from bear to eagle to deer to otter and finally her gaze, now open and vulnerable, rested on Tulsa. “I need to thank you.” The hard edge in her voice had melted into a softer tone. “For what you did. For being here this whole time. I…” Savannah’s voice cracked. “I don’t think I could have gotten through this without you.”

Tulsa stepped forward and circled her arms around her sister. She pressed her face into Savannah’s curls. “You could have and you would have,” Tulsa whispered. “You’re the strongest person I know.”

“Yeah right,” Savannah sniffled. “Maybe the craziest.”

“That too,” Tulsa said.

They laughed. Savannah pulled away from Tulsa and dug a tissue from the pocket of her overalls.

“But strong. So, so strong. You raised Ash and managed to create an amazing career.”

“I wish you were here more,” Savannah shot out. And then, as if embarrassed by her admission, she shoved her hands in her pockets. “We miss you and Ash won’t be here forever.”

“I promise I’ll be around more.”

Savannah’s eyes brightened. “Really? Swear it?”

“Swear it,” Tulsa said.

“Then I won’t send that to Los Angeles,” Savannah said and jerked her head toward the far wall of the workshop.  Tulsa’s eyes landed on the girl picking wildflowers. Tulsa’s hand flew to her heart. She walked toward the sculpture. The beautiful girl that contained bits from every McGrath of the last four generations. Grandma Margaret’s forehead, Connie’s eyes, all their curls. And the cherubic smile that was Ash’s and Connie’s.

“I made her for you,” Savannah said.

“For me?” Warmth rushed through Tulsa’s limbs and her heart filled with a solid feeling—a pure feeling of contentment and joy. “It’s perfect.”

Savannah’s smile was pure—a rapture in giving her sister a gift that she dearly loved. “Thank you,” Tulsa said and Savannah slung her arm over Tulsa’s shoulders.

“Good thing you’re coming back more because that thing would be a bitch to ship to LA.” Tulsa ran her fingertips along the girl’s arm. “She belongs here,” Tulsa said. She could think of no more perfect a place for the sculpture than in the Victorian’s backyard. “With all of us.”

Savannah walked back to her workbench and picked up her mask. “So what’re you gonna do about Cade?” she asked.

Tulsa pulled her eyes away from the sculpture to her sister. “I don’t know,” Tulsa said.

“He knows you dug up Wilkes?”

Tulsa nodded and stuffed both her hands in her jacket pockets.

“Does he know about the other?” Savannah asked.

Tulsa shook her head no. Her eyes dropped to the concrete floor. “Not unless Hudd told him.”

Savannah snorted as she pulled her welder’s mask onto her head. “That old SOB? Not likely. But then again, his marbles are fallin’ out of his head. I think you should tell Cade.”

Tulsa closed her eyes. She wasn’t certain Cade would believe her—his blind spot with Hudd was impenetrable. His biggest flaw was his Montgomery loyalty. But then, family grounded you. Made you feel whole. Gave you a sense of who you were and the foundation to become all you wanted to be.

“He’s loved you for more than half his life—I doubt you telling him what Hudd did when you were eighteen will shake Cade’s feelings,” Savannah said.

“It’s more than that,” Tulsa said. “We find Wilkes, then what? What if Hudd did hit Mom? And what if he didn’t? Either way, Hudd was there. Then I left without a word. Plus what happened with Ash? It’s like…” Tulsa looked toward the rafters and searched for words amongst the iridescent dust that caught the last light of day from the skylights. “How many signs do we need before we figure out we’re not supposed to be together? That our timing is off? All these obstacles keep getting thrown in our path. Cade and I just aren’t meant to be together.”

“Or,” Savannah said, “maybe you’ve got the strongest bond in the world. Most people, their love would have died from all those hits, but you and Cade?” Savannah planted her hands on her hips. “I’ve never met two people more made for each other.”

“What are you talking about? You don’t want us to…” Tulsa’s phone vibrated in her jacket pocket. “…be together. You and your shotgun made that pretty clear.” Tulsa slipped the phone from her pocket.

“That was before I realized Cade got assigned Ash’s case. And I do believe him that at first he didn’t realize Ash was my daughter. So I’ve decided to forgive the sorry son of a bitch, if only because I don’t have enough room in my heart to hate him.”

Tulsa glanced at the number on her phone. Her eyes widened and she looked up at Savannah.

“It’s Kyle,” Tulsa said. “I need to take this.”

Chapter Thirty

The air felt thick around her—muffled and still as though she had stepped through a fog when she entered the district attorney’s office. She clutched her pocketbook, which hung from her shoulder. Anxiousness coiled and filled Tulsa’s gut. Her jaw was tight as though it wouldn’t, couldn’t, move. She’d waited nearly a lifetime for this moment. This moment that held the truth.

Kyle exited the conference room and nodded toward Tulsa. His face was pinched, but a softness filtered from his eyes.

“This whole thing is a little unorthodox.” Kyle’s voice was low. “But since the sheriff is Hudd’s stepson, I thought it best if I talked with him instead of letting Wayne handle the interview.”

“Where’d you find him?” Tulsa asked.

“I didn’t,” Kyle said. “He did.” Kyle looked past Tulsa, down the office corridor, and she turned to follow his gaze.

Her eyes landed on Cade and he acknowledged her with a nearly imperceptible tilt to his chin.

“Cade brought Wilkes in. He didn’t want to come. He didn’t want to call you or me. But when Cade showed up… Well, Cade convinced him to head this way.”

Cade walked toward her. His eyes were bright, but the corners of his mouth pulled down. He looked sad, perhaps resigned to the finality of this moment.

She turned her face up and gazed into his eyes. “Why?” Tulsa asked.

“Because whether we’re together or not, you deserve the truth,” Cade said. “We both do.”

They did, both of them, after this many years of not knowing exactly what had happened, and how the events of that forever-ago night had kept her and Cade apart, they deserved to hear the details. They deserved a confirmation or a negation of the story they had each chosen to believe, and they both deserved the closure that would hopefully follow.

“Thank you,” Tulsa whispered.

She hadn’t expected Cade to find Wilkes but somehow she wasn’t surprised. Cade was a man who tried to live his principles. A man whom she’d loved once upon a time long ago and still did. A man she might never get to share more of her life with—but a man she wished could be hers.

“You’re welcome,” Cade said. He tilted his head and met her gaze.

In his eyes she saw love, but there was more. There was also pain and frustration and perhaps even anger. Emotions that neither of them could erase with the truth.

Tulsa entered the conference room. Wilkes was an outdoor type of man. He wore a flannel work shirt and jeans. His hair was brown and well-kept, short. His face was lined from hours in the sun and wind, and his hands were callused and worn. Even with the signs of hard work on his body, his eyes were soft and kind. Wilkes shifted in his chair and nodded toward Tulsa and Cade.

“My daughter gave me your card,” Wilkes said. His voice was low. “She kept after me to call, but…” Wilkes looked away from Tulsa, toward Cade. He pulled in a deep breath of air and then let it release. “Well, I just didn’t want to open up this mess all over again.”

Tulsa understood Wilkes reluctance—this “mess” had wreaked havoc on her life, her family’s lives, and Cade’s too.

“Mr. Stevenson,” Kyle said, his tone brisk, “this is an informal meeting, and as I mentioned, you are welcome to have an attorney here.”

“Seems like there’s plenty of lawyers in this room,” Wilkes said and softly smiled.

“Yes, sir. Seems like there is. But if you want one for yourself, you can have one. And you can leave any time. Don’t have to talk to any of us at all. Just so we’re clear.”

“I’m here because I want to be.” He set his jaw and looked at each of them in turn. “What I saw that night. Well it affects everyone in this room and a bunch a people that aren’t.” His eyes landed on Tulsa.

The lump in her throat that had been slowly building since Kyle’s call hardened. She pressed her tongue to the roof of her mouth and willed herself not to let the tears building behind her eyes fall. She forced the muscles in her face to remain lax, for her eyes to remain clear.

“Okay then,” Kyle said. He leaned back in his chair. His hands rested on the conference room table. “Why don’t you tell us exactly what you remember?”

Tulsa forced herself to breathe.

“It was a bad night,” Wilkes said. “Every way ‘round.” His eyebrows, big, bushy, and gray, like fat caterpillars, shifted upward while his lips pursed together and then straightened into a hard, grave line. “Wasn’t nothin’ good about that night. First off…” Wilkes leaned back from the table. “Hudd, he managed to get himself into a real fight at the tavern, and second, he shouldn’t have been driving.”

Tulsa looked at Cade but he didn’t flinch, didn’t move, didn’t return her gaze. Instead, his eyes were locked on Wilkes.

“But he did drive and we was nearly home when Hudd rounded that corner on Yampa Valley Road. That’s when we both saw her.”

Tulsa closed her eyes and pressed the palms of her hands tight together under the table. Finally. Finally after all these years of waiting and wondering, finally she’d know what really happened the night her mother died.