The Cowboy Lawman (13 page)

* * *

Slade had a funny feeling about Mia. He had kind of guessed she was up to something, so on the way to his house, he asked Caleb a few questions. What he got were bits and pieces of a phone conversation his son had overheard. Which was why he had dropped his son off with his mom and headed back to town.

Mia walked out the front door as he drove in. She had changed into shorts and a T-shirt. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail. And she didn’t look at all happy to see him. If she asked why he was there, he didn’t know what he’d tell her.

What she did wasn’t any of his business. She’d tell him that no matter what excuse he came up with for butting into her business. He should be telling himself exactly the same thing. She was a friend, but he wasn’t her keeper.

He got out of the truck, pocketing his keys.

“I didn’t expect you back so soon.” She looked past him and she looked more than a little worried.

“I know.” He walked up the steps. “So why the big hurry to get me out of here earlier?”

“I wasn’t in a big hurry.”

“Really? That isn’t how I saw it.” He had to keep his focus. He had to look at the situation and not at her. That wasn’t easy to do, and he’d had years of practice when it came to keeping focus.

“Well, I’m sorry if I seemed to be rushing you. I had a big mess to clean up and the mare needed my attention.” Her eyes darted to the road again.

“Mia, I don’t have time for you to try to bulldoze me. Caleb told me you got a call from Tina.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah, oh.”

“She did call.” Her eyes darted away again and then back. She smiled sweetly. “Look, Slade, I really can handle this.”

“Handle what?”

“I told Tina to come and stay with me for a while. I might put her up at the ranch. But she needs to be somewhere safe.”

“And what about you? Does it jeopardize your safety if you bring her here?”

“That’s compassionate.”

He brushed a hand through his hair and sighed. “Mia, I’m compassionate. I’m also aware that she’s in trouble and until she tells everything she knows, there’s no way to help her.”

“Right, I get that. I know she’s in trouble. But I also know that I held her husband when he died and I promised I’d take care of Tina and the kids. I can’t take care of them if they’re in Tulsa.”

“There are police officers in Tulsa who can take care of her.”

Mia let the screen door close behind her. She stepped down so that she was directly in front of him. She wasn’t a tiny little thing who needed to be protected. She was Mia. She could probably take him in a fair fight. And that was hard to swallow.

But for a moment he saw the softness in her eyes, the lack of objectivity. Steely resolve quickly took its place. Her dark eyes sparked with stubborn pride.

“Slade, I’m better than they are.”

“Oh, really?”

She shrugged a little. “Yes, really. And I’ll be with her all the time, not patrolling once an hour.”

“And you’ll put yourself in harm’s way.” He let the words out and ignored that they were the real reason he had a problem with this. He didn’t want her hurt.

He had lost his wife because she decided to run an errand for him that he should have done himself. He should have been there and stopped her. The guilt had almost killed him. He’d kept going for Caleb’s sake.

“Slade?” Mia touched his arm. “What is it?”

“Nothing.” He shook it off and focused on her. “I know I can’t talk you out of this.”

“No, you can’t. She’s here.” She nodded in the direction of a car coming up the road. “And she’s going to stay here until we figure out who is doing this and why.”

“Then I’m calling county and state. They need to know what’s going on.”

“Do what you have to do. But first, help me get them in the house and settled.”

“Fine, I’ll help you get her settled. At the ranch.”

“What?”

“My place, Mia. We’ll take her out to the trailer on my mom’s place. Gray hasn’t been home in months. He’s got a girl out in Colorado he’s in love with and he’s found a job on a ranch there. We might as well have someone living in the place.”

“And put your mom in the middle of this?”

“My mom is as handy with a shotgun as you are with your service revolver.”

“Yes, but the point of bringing her here is that she’s scared. She’s been having contractions. She doesn’t have family.”

“And if she’s at the Circle M, she’ll have my mom. She’ll have me. She’ll have you trespassing every chance you get.”

“I’m a trespasser now?” She vaguely smiled and he flicked her chin with his finger and thought about kissing her.

“No, you’re not trespassing.”

Her smile faded and the light in her brown eyes dimmed.

“I think maybe I’m trespassing on very private property. A place I have no right to go.”

“Oh, Mia.” He shook his head and glanced toward the car with the woman and two kids. “We can’t talk about this right now.”

“No, you’re right. That was wrong. And yes, the trailer is good. No one will think to look for her there.”

“Let’s go tell her. Lock your doors, because I know you’re going out there with us.”

“You guessed right. And on my way home, I’m picking up my new dog. Or my new stray.”

“You do know how to bring home strays.”

“It’s who I am, Slade. It’s the only way I know how to be.”

“I know.”

Slade had to let it go. This was Mia. She would always be this person, putting her own safety on the line to protect and serve. It was the way she’d been wired from early on, a result of her childhood. He’d either have to accept it or keep his distance.

Chapter Thirteen

T
he trailer was an eighties model, decorated in shades of dusty-rose and powder-blue. It also had a collection of crazy posters featuring television beauties, old rodeo stars and rock bands. Mia took one look at the living room and laughed.

Slade stepped in behind her, carrying one of Tina’s sleeping children, Jackie. Mia had spent hours discussing Butch’s family with him. Even though she hadn’t met them until the funeral, she knew them. She knew that Jackie was four and loved to color pictures of princesses. Mia had even bought her a stack of coloring books for Christmas last year. Jason was three and loved fire trucks like every little boy. The louder, the better. Butch had not thanked her for that gift, the one that had the siren and the horn that would make you check your rearview mirror if you had the toy in the car.

“What’s so funny?” Slade placed the sleeping child on the hunter-green-and-burgundy-plaid sofa that clashed with the powder-blue carpet.

Mia pointed at the walls. “Hey, Tina, do you love what we’ve done with the decor?”

For the first time Tina cracked a real smile. Butch had met her in college. She had a teaching degree but had given up her career when she realized his job would keep them separated so much of the time. She’d told Mia a few weeks ago that she planned to go back to teaching.

“It looks like early-American teen,” Tina offered.

“My brother Gray. He’s matured slower than most. Go ahead and take them down. I don’t think you want the kids to have nightmares.”

Tina shook her head, her light brown hair swinging. “No, I don’t mind. It’s his place and he should come back to it the way it is.”

“If he comes back, he’d better be grown up enough that he doesn’t want these posters on the walls.” Slade growled and Mia gave him a look. Gray was in his mid-twenties now and she hadn’t seen him a lot, but he couldn’t be that bad.

“I’ll take them down,” Mia offered. She started removing tacks, tossing them in a cup on the counter. “Tina, we can run into Grove tomorrow and stock up on groceries. And my brother Jesse is a doctor. He can get you an appointment with an OB friend of his.”

“Mia, I don’t know how to thank you. I already feel better, just being far from Tulsa. Maybe I just needed to get away from the apartment and the memories.”

Mia looked at Slade when Tina made that confession. She knew that he would understand. He would get where Tina was coming from. And for a moment she felt jealous. The emotion tasted like bile and she forced it down.

“Mom is going to bring over some leftover meat loaf and mashed potatoes.” Slade carried in the laundry basket filled with what looked like dirty clothes.

Mia smiled at Tina, because she had listened to Mia’s advice. If anyone saw her leaving her apartment, they would have thought she was going to do a load of laundry. Slade looked at the clothes and at Mia.

“Your idea?” He set the basket down on the tiny kitchen table.

“Of course.”

He shook his head and smiled. “Mom also has some lunch meat and bread in the freezer. She freezes everything. She’ll be over here soon and you’ll probably have enough to last several days.”

“I don’t know how to thank you.” Tina hugged herself tight and for a second her face tightened.

“Contractions?” Slade asked.

“Yes. I’ve been keeping track. I’m having them every thirty minutes. They should go away when I put my feet up.”

Mia pointed to a rocking recliner. “Then put your feet up because we have a lot to do before you can have Junior. I’m going to put clean sheets on the beds and make sure the bathrooms are somewhat clean.”

“I can help,” Tina offered and started to follow.

Slade stepped forward. “I’ll give her a hand.”

Mia laughed at that. “Good thing, because mine doesn’t really work.”

He gave her a look and then followed her down the hall. She found clean sheets in the closet and blankets. The tiny second bedroom had a twin bed and a dresser. The main bedroom had a queen bed that filled up the small room and a private bathroom.

Slade stripped the sheets that were on the bed.

“We’re doing the right thing,” Mia said as she flipped the sheet his way.

“I know.”

“You could stop looking so growly.”

He shook his head and finished tucking the corners of the sheet. “No, I can’t. How am I supposed to be calm about your putting yourself in danger?”

“She’s in danger, not me.” Mia tossed him the pillowcases. “Sorry, I can’t do them. I can spread a blanket but pillowcases are still tough.”

“How’s the physical therapy going? Are you doing your exercises?”

“Of course. Jesse stops by from time to time to check on me and help out.” She held her hand out and made something resembling a fist. “See, I can almost do it.”

But it hurt and it was weak and sometimes the weakness made her want to cry. The pain she could deal with, the weakness she couldn’t. Slade placed the pillowcases on the bed and then he was at her side, his arms were around her waist. She leaned into him, breathing in deep of his scent, holding on to the moment so that it would be a memory later.

“You make me crazy,” he whispered, his breath soft on her neck.

“Yeah, well, join the club.” She thought about listing the ways he wreaked havoc on her world.

Her phone beeped. She pulled it out and walked away from Slade. Her hands trembled as she pushed the button and retrieved the message.

“Something important?” He had walked up behind her.

“Kind of.” She read the message and her insides shook.

“Mia, what’s wrong?”

She held up a picture. “Slade, this is my sister Breezy. I’ve been looking for her and now, maybe I’ve found her.”

“Be careful.” His low warning took her by surprise.

“What?”

“There are people on those sites who pose as people...”

“Slade, I know all that. I’ll be careful. But I need to find her. She’s part of my heart. I’ve spent years worrying, wondering where she went to.”

“You never knew?”

She shook her head. “No. Mom tried to find her for me, but they vanished, she and her grandmother. You know, don’t you, that my siblings and I had different fathers? Breezy’s grandmother lived out of state, but she drove to Oklahoma and picked her up. We never heard from her again.”

“Where is she?”

“Somewhere in California. This is from an agency out there.”

“Agency?”

“I found a website and they help bring separated siblings together.”

“I see.” He looked again at the page she showed him on her phone.

“But you’re skeptical, Mr. Detective.”

“I’m always skeptical. But I want this for you.”

She kissed his cheek. And then someone knocked on the door and his mom yelled, “Yoo-hoo,” from the living room.

Saved by the mom. Mia let out a breath and walked down the hall.

* * *

Slade smiled at the two little kids who had woken up. Caleb had them engaged in animated conversation about the puppies a stray dog had given birth to under the front porch and then he started telling them about the horses and cows and asking them if they liked animals. The kid barely took a breath before he rushed on to a discussion about school.

Slade’s mom, Marty, smiled at her grandson and placed a calming hand on his head. “Take a break, Caleb.”

“Mom, this is Tina. Tina, my mom, Marty McKennon.”

“It’s so good to meet you, honey.” Slade’s mom walked to the kitchen with the bags she had carried in. “Now you tell me if there’s anything at all you need. I see someone already took down those horrible posters of Gray’s.”

“Mia did that,” Slade explained as he walked up behind his mom and kissed her cheek. “Thanks for bringing things over.”

“No problem. Now I can’t stay because I have a show I’m not going to miss tonight and my DVR isn’t recording. But if Tina needs anything at all, I’m just a shout away. And from the looks of you, honey, you might be needing a ride to the hospital anytime.”

Tina’s eyes filled with tears as his mom poured sympathy on her. His mom was good at that, and he’d been right to bring Tina here. He could tell from the look on Mia’s face that she agreed.

“Thank you, Mrs. McKennon.”

“Now, you call me Marty. We’re all just family around here.” Marty sat down on the edge of the couch and rested a hand on Tina’s arm. “Have you been timing the contractions?”

Tina closed her eyes and nodded. “Every thirty minutes. But the last one didn’t seem as strong. I think resting helps.”

“Do you think she should be here alone?” Marty looked at Mia, not at him.

“I’m not sure.” Mia had taken a seat on the end of the old coffee table and Caleb gravitated to her, crawling up on her lap as if he was meant to be there. Slade saw his life getting more complicated by the minute.

“Well, I suppose we’re all right here, but I’d feel better if someone stayed the night here with her.” His mom sounded like the final vote.

“Slade was going to take me home. He can run me home to get clothes and bring me back.”

“That’s a good idea.” Marty patted Tina’s arm and stood. “Honey, you’re going to have that baby in the next week. Mark my words.”

Tina closed her eyes and nodded.

“Well, my show isn’t that important.” Marty smiled sweetly. “Slade, take Mia home so she can pack a bag. I’ll wait here and I’ll warm up something for supper.”

Slade had been the master of his own life just a few short weeks ago. Or at least he’d thought that was the way it worked. Now he stood in a two-bedroom trailer very much not in control of a thing, as far as he could tell.

Mia had turned to face him and she looked as if she might start laughing at any minute. “Ready to go?”

“Cay, are you staying here with Gram or going with me?”

“Staying!” He had opened his backpack to reveal toys he must have shoved in before coming over to meet the new kids.

“Mom?” Slade had to ask.

“Of course he can stay.”

Slade walked out the door with Mia. His hand went to the small of her back as they walked down the narrow steps of the trailer.

“You should have left her at my house.” Mia walked with him to his truck.

“You think you’re always right.” He opened the door for her and she climbed in. Out of habit he reached for the seatbelt and pulled it across her. She sucked in her breath and waited for him to click it into place.

And then his face was close to hers and she shook her head.

“Let it go, cowboy.”

“Making. Me. Crazy.”

“That makes two of us.”

He pulled onto the main road a few minutes later and reached to turn up the radio. Kenny Chesney sang about his tractor and Mia sang along.

“You’re okay with this?” he asked as they turned into Dawson.

“With staying at the trailer tonight?” She shrugged. “I would prefer my house. I know the lay of the land and where my...”

“Weapons are?” He grinned at her.

“A girl does like to be prepared.”

“Of course she does. And that’s what every girl thinks of when she thinks prepared. Weapons.”

“A certain kind of girl does think that way.”

He laughed with her and they pulled up in front of her house. “Mia, what are we going to do?”

“Shoot him if he comes close to her?”

“I mean about us.”

“I don’t know.” She didn’t make a move to get out. “Do we have to talk about it now?”

“It’s the elephant in the room, don’t you think?”

She shook her head and reached for the door. “No, it isn’t. What’s going on with us is not the elephant in the room.”

“Then what is?”

She sighed and looked at him. “Vicki. I’m not Vicki. I’ll never be Vicki. I’m wild and reckless. I have a career that annoys you. And every time I kiss you, I feel like I’m betraying my best friend.”

“You sure know how to fight dirty.” He got out of the truck because he didn’t know what else to say to her.

Mia rounded the truck and grabbed his hand. “I’m not fighting and this isn’t dirty. This is reality. Us. Vicki. My job. It’s the way it is and until we figure it out, there’s just sweet kisses and heartache.”

He cupped her cheeks in his hands and brushed his fingers back into the thick brown hair that smelled of honeysuckle and springtime.

“I don’t know what to do, Mia.” He rested his forehead against hers.

“Then let’s just take a deep breath and back up.” She stepped away from him. “I need to pack a bag. Can you feed and water the mare?”

“Yes.”

“Slade?”

He stopped and looked back. “What?”

“It’s okay, that you still love her. It’s understandable. What the two of you shared was special. It was forever. That’s not something you get over.”

“No, it isn’t.” He had more to say, but not now. He had loved Vicki. They would have loved each other forever.

Vicki had filled up his whole heart. He didn’t know how to open that heart up, or even if there was room in it to love someone else the way he’d loved her. Mia deserved to be loved completely.

The front door closed. He walked around the house and out to the barn. The mare trotted up to the fence but stopped when she saw him. Obviously, the horse had expected Mia. He talked in low tones and she walked up to the fence, dipping her nose in the water trough and then swishing it around and dipping it again.

“No wonder Caleb likes you.” He turned on the water and opened the gate to walk out to the barn. “He likes your owner, too.”

After all these years of it being just him and Caleb, something had changed since Mia came to town. She was different than having his mom as the third person in their lives. Mia filled a different spot in Caleb’s life. She laughed and hugged and played.

It had been safe letting her into their circle. She hadn’t been a woman he was dating who would be around temporarily while he tried to enjoy an evening out in adult company, pretending to move on.

Mia had been safe. He laughed at that as he filled a can with grain and dumped it in a rubber feed pan for the mare. Mia could never be considered safe. He should have known better. She was in and out of their lives. She didn’t know how to be cautious.

He fed the mare and watched as she slid the grain around the pan. She lifted her head and looked at him with a long stare before going back to her feed.