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  “Let me see the puppet, Grady.” She held her hand out and assessed the damage. Not too bad. The hat needed to be reshaped, but other than that a few strategical stitches would put it to rights. “I need to make another trip to the car, and I need an iron. Who’s going to get me the iron?”

  “I will,” Grady said.

  Travis walked out with her to the CR-V and waited while she gathered up her basket. She’d need to replace both eyes now and reinforce a small tear. The machine wasn’t necessary, but she needed a darning needle, a matching button, and some interfacing for the hat. Over the years of working on upholstery projects, she’d amassed a collection of sewing notions. There was bound to be something in her basket she could use.

  Sock puppets didn’t come up too often in her line of work. But she’d do her best for Grady because the puppet obviously held a great deal of sentimental value. Travis took the basket from her and carried it to the mudroom door. He reminded her of his father.

  Charlotte had proven to be a lousy judge of character, but from all outward appearances, Jace Dalton was a gentleman. A caretaker.

  “You shouldn’t fight with your brother,” she said, not that he had any reason to listen to her. Besides the fact that Charlotte was an outsider in his home, she was hardly the voice of authority.

  Travis stopped before going inside. “She’s never coming back, and the sooner he gets that through his dumb head, the better.”

  “Your mom?”

  He didn’t answer, just trudged inside, leaving her basket on the table.

  “Thank you, Travis.”

  He rolled his eyes and went to the living room where the TV went on. Grady returned with an iron.

  “Do you need the board?”

  “Uh—” Charlotte searched the kitchen. The granite countertops would probably be fine with a towel as a cover, but may as well be safe. “Sure. Why not?”

  He dashed out of the room and returned a short time later with an ironing board and set it up next to the table. She caught the time on the oven clock and cringed. She should’ve been on the road an hour ago. It was a nine-hour drive to Salt Lake City, the first stop before Kansas. At this rate, she’d be driving well into the night.

  She focused on stitching up the small tear first, careful to keep the threads from unraveling more. It was a simple job, but she was intent on erasing any trace of the tear. The next step was finding two matching buttons in her bag of tricks.

  “What do you think of these?” she asked Grady. They were silver instead of black, but she had two of them.

  “They’re good.”

  She grinned because he was easy to please. He also couldn’t stand still. He was constantly moving or climbing things, or bouncing up and down.

  She snipped the remaining threads holding the puppet’s cowboy hat and put it to the side while she sewed the eyes on. The felt cowboy hat would require a little more work, including some blocking with the iron.

  “When did your mom make the puppet?” she asked. Since he’d been the one to bring it up, she didn’t think it was a taboo subject.

  “When I was a baby. She made one for Travis too, but he hates his.”

  “Does she come to visit often?” Now she was probably sticking her nose where it didn’t belong, especially given all her own secrets.

  “She lives in France.” He sat in the chair next to her and pulled it so close they were bumping elbows. “Have you ever been there?”

  “Once.” It was a long time ago. She’d been on summer break from college and had backpacked across Europe with two girlfriends. One Paris flea market, and that’s all she wrote. Charlotte came home filled with plans to open a store complete with everything from home furnishings to handmade linens.

  “How about you?” she asked Grady.

  “No. My dad says I can’t go until I’m older.”

  Charlotte was betting it had nothing to do with Grady’s age. “Well, that’ll be nice.”

  Grady hitched his shoulders. “She might come visit here soon.”

  “That’s great, Grady.”

  He didn’t say anything and she returned to working on the sock puppet. Charlotte found an outlet for the iron, waited for it to get hot, and began reshaping the hat.

  “The mail’s here.” Grady jumped up and shot outside like a bullet.

  Out the window, she watched a UPS truck chug up the driveway but remained focused on the hat. The shape was coming back, and if she tacked the side with a small stitch it would hold better than it had before. She turned off the iron and sat down at the table to sew the hat on the puppet. Then her work here would be done.

  She glanced at the clock again. If she didn’t report to Meredith soon, her friend would send in the National Guard. With a few more stitches, she tied off her thread, snipped all of the loose ends, and held the puppet up to admire her handiwork.

  “Pretty good, if I do say so myself.” Charlotte packed up the rest of her supplies and went off to find Grady so she could show him the end result.

  “Grady,” she called from the door. “Come see the puppet.”

  She slipped outside and walked around the house to find him. The UPS truck was gone and on the front porch were two packages. But no Grady.

  Charlotte opened the front door and called to Travis, “Have you seen your brother? He went outside to greet the delivery driver and now I can’t find him.”

  Travis begrudgingly got off the couch and wandered over to the door, where he cupped his mouth and yelled, “Grady!” He slipped his bare feet into a pair of cowboy boots that had been sitting in the entryway and joined Charlotte out on the porch. “Grady!”

  He gazed out over the yard and let out a snort. “God, he’s such a dork. He’s over there.”

  Charlotte turned in the direction Travis pointed and saw Grady by the split-rail fence, rolling on the ground with one of the dogs. At first glance, she thought he was playing with the pup. But something about his position didn’t look right. He was balled up in the dirt and rocking from side to side as if he was in pain.

  “Grady.” She ran down the porch stairs and sprinted toward him. “Grady, are you okay?”

  Travis followed her and they reached Grady at the same time. He was clutching his arm and moaning.

  “What happened?” She crouched down to have a closer look. “Move your hand away so I can see.”

  He moved it just enough for her to see that his arm was bent and swollen.

  “I’m going to call my dad.” Travis raced back to the house.

  Charlotte didn’t know whether it was okay to move him but it appeared that only his arm was injured. “What happened?”

  “I was climbing on the fence and fell off. It hurts.”

  “Show me where.”

  He pointed to his arm and tried to sit up. The dog was licking his face and Grady grabbed it around the neck with his uninjured arm to hoist himself up.

  “Does it hurt anywhere else?”

  He shook his head and she brushed his hair away from his forehead. He felt hot and she was starting to panic. What if he had a concussion or was hemorrhaging?

  Travis came jogging back with his phone in his hand. “Dad’s secretary is trying to find him. Uncle Sawyer and Uncle Cash aren’t answering their phones.”

  They needed to get Grady to the hospital. At the very least his arm looked broken. She considered calling 911 but suspected it would take forever to get an ambulance out here. The drive had taken thirty minutes or more from the emergency room the other night. Granted, there’d been a storm, but it was still a haul.

  “Are you okay to get in my car?” She looked at Travis and together they were able to stand Grady up. “Is Auburn the nearest hospital?”

  Travis nodded. His face was so pale, she worried that by the time they got there, both brothers would need urgent care.

&nb
sp; “Let’s get Grady to the car. Then, Travis, I need you to run inside and grab my purse.”

  They were able to walk Grady the few yards up the driveway and help him into the passenger seat. The back seat was cluttered with luggage. Charlotte cleared out enough stuff to make room for Travis and shoved it in the cab of Jace’s truck. Someone had dropped off his police vehicle in the morning and he’d taken the SUV to work. Thank goodness he’d left his pickup unlocked.

  Travis came back with her purse and they took off to the main road.

  “Do you know how to go?” She looked in her rearview mirror and again Travis nodded. The other night she’d been too out of it to remember the directions.

  “Turn right here. At the stop sign ahead make another right. I’ll tell you what to do after that.”

  “In the meantime, leave a message for your dad and tell him we’re on our way to the emergency room.”

  She could hear Travis in the background as she concentrated on the road. Grady was hunched over, holding on to his arm, quietly sobbing.

  From her purse on the floor came the ring of a telephone. Meredith. If she didn’t answer, she’d officially be MIA.

  Charlotte let it go to voicemail.

  Chapter 4

  Jace ran across the parking lot and nearly collided with a man in a walker. “Sorry, sir.”

  He tipped his hat and kept going. By the time he’d gotten the message about his kid’s accident, Grady had already been seen by an emergency room doc and an orthopedist.

  Jace was in charge of the well-being of an entire county, yet he couldn’t keep his nine-year-old out of harm’s way.

  Kay was manning the front desk again. She didn’t bother with a greeting or pleasantries, just ushered him through the double doors. There were a few familiar faces at the nurses’ station. Usually, he stopped to shoot the breeze and flirt a little. This time, the charge nurse pointed at a room and Jace lengthened his strides.

  Behind the curtain, he found a crowd.

  “Dad!” Grady sat at the edge of the exam table with Travis hunkered over his arm. “Sign my cast.”

  Jace wrapped an arm around him and pulled him in for a hug. “How’s he doing, Doc?”

  The doctor rolled closer to the exam table on his stool. “Just waiting my turn to sign the cast. Looks like bull riding is out this year.” The doctor winked. “It’s a clean break. Should heal just fine as long as this young gun follows my instructions, which includes not climbing fences or trees. Right, Grady?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Travis handed the doctor a marker and he scrawled something on Grady’s neon-green cast.

  “Look what I have.” A nurse wandered in with a basket of stickers and a blow-dryer. “Every cast needs a Casttoo. Pick one and I’ll set it for you.”

  Grady pawed through the assortment, settling on a decal with red and yellow flames. “Can I have it here?” He pointed to a spot high on his forearm.

  “You bet.” The nurse removed the adhesive back and stuck the tattoo on the spot, then used the blow-dryer to heat seal it.

  The doctor shook Jace’s hand and went off to see the next patient. While the boys focused on Grady’s new cast art, Jace locked eyes with Charlie, who sat tensely in the corner.

  “I’m sorry,” she mouthed as if this was somehow her fault.

  As of this morning, she’d been in a hurry to get far away from whoever was chasing her. Yet, she’d put the plan on hold to take care of his kid. His ex-wife couldn’t be bothered to be there when her sons needed her. But this haunted waif of a woman, a virtual stranger, had.

  The knowledge of that made something move in his chest.

  He nudged his head to signal for her to follow him outside, where they could have some privacy. She trailed behind him to the waiting room.

  “He went outside to greet the UPS driver,” she said in a rush. “I should’ve been paying more attention. I can’t believe I let this happen. I—”

  “Whoa, slow down. This isn’t your fault. Grady could have the Secret Service guarding him and he’d still get himself into trouble. Besides, it wasn’t your job to watch my kid. I’m sorry you had to deal with this, but I’m sure the hell glad you were there. Otherwise, with me out-of-pocket all day, it would’ve fallen to Travis. That’s a lot for a fourteen-year-old to handle.”

  She let out a long breath, the strain of the day evident in her face. Drawn and tired.

  It was almost four thirty. A little late to head out to wherever it was she was going.

  “Why don’t you stay another night?” he said. “Traffic will be bad, everyone heading up to the snow for the weekend. You’d be better off leaving Saturday morning.”

  She didn’t say anything at first and Jace got the impression she was contemplating her options.

  “Thank you for the offer, but I’ll have to check with my friends in Colorado. Excuse me for a few minutes.” She disappeared around the corner and appeared to be heading for the restroom.

  Jace stood there for a beat, staring after her. She was beautiful to be sure, but there was more there, starting with the fact that she’d put a nine-year-old’s well-being above her own.

  Substance.

  The least he could do was look out for her another night.

  “Dad?” Travis tugged on his shirt. “Can we go home now?”

  “Yep, just have to wait for Mrs. Rogers to come back from the bathroom.” He draped his arm around the back of Travis’s neck. “Then we can blow this joint. How’s your brother doing?”

  “He’s a dork, like usual. But Grady didn’t break the rules, Dad. He stayed in the yard.”

  “You his lawyer, now?” His sons fought like hell, but they always had each other’s backs, which gave Jace some solace. He was raising them right. He hoped.

  Mary Ann’s leaving had left them with scars. And not a day went by that Jace didn’t blame himself for that. What kind of husband must he have been for a mother to up and abandon her children and give Jace full custody without hesitation? Had life with him on the ranch been that unbearable?

  Jace dropped by the nurses’ station to see if he needed to sign any paperwork.

  “We’ve got you on file and speed dial, Sheriff,” the head nurse joked.

  Last winter, Travis had been in with a busted ankle. In June, Grady had tangled with a bee hive, puffing up like the Goodyear Blimp after being stung more than a dozen times. Nope, they were no strangers to the emergency room.

  “Okay, then I’ll round up my posse and get out of your hair,” he said.

  “You can stay as long as you like.” She winked and started to say something mildly suggestive, when Charlie appeared. Except for Kay, it was a different crew than Wednesday night, so no one recognized her.

  “We’re good to go,” he told her and gathered up Grady.

  In the parking lot, they made a plan to head back to the ranch. Travis went with Charlie so she wouldn’t have to drive alone, and Grady came with him.

  “Meet you there,” he said, noting that ever since Charlie had come back from the bathroom she’d seemed twice as distressed as when she’d left. Jace suspected it had something to do with that phone call to Colorado. The woman had secrets, that’s for sure.

  She confirmed his suspicions when they got home and said she’d take him up on staying another night. Apparently her friends weren’t waiting up for her.

  One more night, he told himself. It was only one more night. Why’d you ask her to stay if you didn’t want her to? It was a question he didn’t want to examine too closely.

  “How ʼbout dinner?” He grabbed a few steaks out of the refrigerator. Technically it was too cold to grill, but beef tasted better on the barbecue.

  “I’ll wash up and help,” Charlie said on her way to the guest room.

  “Hey, Travis, go feed the horses,” he called into the
great room where the boys had turned on the TV. “Hurry up, son, before it gets dark.”

  Travis grumbled but acquiesced.

  Grady came in the kitchen and hopped up on the counter. “Dad, can I go over to Uncle Cash’s and show Ellie my cast?”

  “Ellie and Aubrey are in San Francisco. You can show your cousin tomorrow, how ʼbout that? In the meantime, what did the doctor say about you climbing up on stuff?”

  “Oh yeah.” Grady got down, using his good arm. “Did you see my sock puppet?” Grady grabbed the old toy off the table and stuck it under Jace’s nose.

  Mary Ann had made each boy one when they were toddlers and used to put on little shows, making the boys laugh until they were doubled over. Jace would stand in the doorway of Grady’s nursery, watching while his throat grew thick.

  It had been years since he’d seen the puppets. “Where did that come from?”

  “Mrs. Rogers fixed it for me. She sewed on new eyes and made the hat better.”

  Jace hadn’t been aware the puppet needed mending. In fact, he didn’t know the boys still had them. “That was nice of her.” He examined the two silver buttons and remembered Charlie hunkered over that complicated sewing machine of hers, sewing Grady’s shirt, and grinned.

  “You still play with the puppet?” Jace would’ve thought Grady had outgrown sock puppets years ago. The only toys the boys seemed to care about anymore were video games and their minibikes.

  “No,” Grady said, and clammed up.

  Jace didn’t want to embarrass him, so he left the topic alone. Grady went back to the great room to watch TV and Jace rummaged through the pantry to find a side dish, settling on a box of mac and cheese. Not exactly adult food, but the boys liked it. So did he, to be truthful.

  Charlie joined him a few minutes later. She’d changed into a pair of exercise pants and another sweater, this one slightly more fitted than the last one. Her hair had been tied up in a haphazard bun with loose strands curling around her face. And those big dark eyes …

  He liked looking at her. Could probably do it all day.