admission. He glared at Adam. “But you’re buying.”
“Just be there.” Adam finally turned to look at the man who’d tried to drug Trisha. The coward had his hands on the truck while the newly arrived deputy frisked him. Adam took his microphone off the dashboard and his voice blared through the loudspeaker, silencing everyone in the lot. “Okay folks, that’s a wrap. Time to go inside.”
“Show off,” Caleb muttered as Adam drove off across the lot to help arrest the guy. “Come on. I could use another drink. And we should check on Trisha.”
“Hang on.” Jace put a hand on his arm to stop him, jerking it back when Caleb whirled to face him.
“What? Are you gonna give me a lecture too? I’m pretty sure Adam will take care of that tomorrow.”
“C’mon. I’ve known you forever. What is wrong with you?” Jace looked tired all of a sudden, and Caleb remembered everything his friend was dealing with at home. He’d lost his rodeo career, his entire life, when he’d taken on his sister’s kids.
“Nothing’s wrong.” Just saying the words felt like effort. The rage that had powered him into overdrive was fading. Now even the air felt heavy, weighing down muscle and bone.
“Nothing’s wrong,” Jace mimicked. “You sound like a teenager. And I’ve already got one of those in my life. Seriously, what happened? Why are you so angry all the time?”
Where the hell to start? All the problems on the ranch that he couldn’t find the money to repair? The nightmares that stole his sleep? Or he could always blame Afghanistan, and everything that went down in that dusty hellhole.
Talking about that kind of stuff was impossible. So he’d blame the most immediate issue. “A mountain lion has been killing off my sheep. I got a permit, and last night I went out to shoot it. I ran into Maya instead.”
“Maya Burton?” Jace stared. “What was Maya doing near your ranch?”
Haunting him. A beautiful, brainy, scientist-ghost. “She’s some kind of expert on mountain lions. She said she was tracking them.”
“Sounds like she can’t be as smart as we all thought if her job involves chasing lions.”
“Maybe.” Caleb glowered, too much feeling coursing through him to appreciate the lame joke. He’d almost killed her. Almost shot her out there, on that trail. “She wants to come by my ranch and tell me how to keep them away.”
Jace blew out a breath. “That doesn’t seem like a great idea. You could tell her you’d rather not.”
“Trust me, I tried. But there are new laws, and apparently listening to her is one of them.” But there was more. Maya wasn’t the only reason to lose it. “Then Trisha tonight...well, it felt almost like someone was trying to hurt Julie.” Caleb ran a hand through his hair, trying to bring his thoughts into some kind of order. “Coming home, being on the ranch, seeing Maya and now Trisha, it just brings it all back.”
“I get it,” Jace said quietly. “I really do. But you’ve got to find a way to keep the past from messing up the present.”
Caleb eyed this new, mature version of his friend. “Not too long ago you would have landed a punch or two yourself.”
“Not too long ago I didn’t have three kids to think about,” Jace countered. “I’ve had to change. Maybe it’s time you grew up too.”
The old sorrow knotted in Caleb’s stomach. “I kind of feel like I grew up a long time ago. But I skipped the fun part and went straight to being the bitter old guy hunched at the end of the bar.”
“You’ve got to get over the things that are eating at you. Adam isn’t going to let you off with a chat over breakfast if this kind of thing happens again. You’re not a Marine anymore. You can’t deal with your problems via combat.”
Jace was right. But sometimes it was hard to stop fighting, after he’d spent so many years doing just that.
Caleb looked over at Adam, still across the parking lot, talking to the other deputy. His old friend had locked him up once already, a few months ago, the day Caleb realized that his dad had stopped paying taxes and the state was about to take possession of the ranch. Caleb had gotten drunk and disorderly at Dex’s as he tried to absorb the news—that his beloved Bar D Ranch, which he’d held in his mind like a precious prize to claim once he’d finished his final tour, was about to slip out of his hands.
He’d never told Adam or Jace the reason for his binge that night. He was too ashamed of the poverty, the way that his family, once respected and influential in Shelter Creek, was about to lose the very ground beneath their feet. Instead he’d sobered up in the drunk tank and gone home to figure out how to save the ranch.
And he had. Sort of. He’d worked out a payment plan with the state that could save the Bar D, eventually. But making those payments was a challenge, especially when the ranch also needed so many repairs. So when a mountain lion had taken a couple of sheep last week, it had felt even more personal than it might have otherwise. Those sheep were Caleb’s only hope of income, his chance to get himself out of this financial mess.
Jace cleared his throat. “Want to see if we’re up at the pool table yet?”
Good old Jace. Knowing when to stop lecturing and have some fun. “Okay.” Caleb clapped his friend on the shoulder. “Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it.” Jace pulled his phone out of his pocket and glanced at it. “I’ve got to be home in an hour. And you should go home then too.”
“Yes, Dad.” Caleb winced as Jace landed a punch to his shoulder. “Ouch. I thought you were a pacifist now.”
“Mostly. But as your friend, it’s still my duty to hit you when you’re being an idiot.”
“Then I guess you’ve got yourself a new punching bag.”
“You’ve got to grow up. I’m serious.”
“I’m grown. I promise.” Caleb followed Jace back into the bar, knowing his friend was right. Adam was right. He had to stop fighting. He had to stop drinking so much. But if he did, what would he have left?
Nothing but troubles he didn’t know how to solve and memories he didn’t want to face.
MAYA HEAVED HER backpack through Grandma’s front door, inhaling the scent of the lavender sachets Grandma put in every drawer. It was the same smell Maya had noticed when she’d first come to live here as a scared, sad five-year-old. Peace. Comfort. Safety.
Funny how Maya hadn’t noticed the lavender when she’d stopped by briefly on Monday. She’d been too busy trying to figure out how to get away from town again, as fast as possible.
She unlaced her dusty hiking boots and set them back outside on the porch before stepping inside and closing the front door behind her. “Grandma, are you here? I’m home!”
“In the living room!” Grandma Lillian’s voice was light
