Ranch were all I had. She’s a good kid. Maybe a little wild, but she needed her father and I wasn’t there for her."
Gracie watched Calen stumble to a halt. She had always assumed he had no deep sorrows in life. She knew tonight that she’d been wrong.
“You can’t argue with the courts in those custody battles,” the sheriff said as he stood up. “Back then they almost always gave it to the mother. There wasn’t much you could have done.”
Gracie saw another flash of headlights coming down the road to her house. “That must be the ambulance now.”
They were all silent as the ambulance came close to the house and parked with the other vehicles. Two male paramedics jumped out almost before the driver had stopped. Renee made a soft sound, and Gracie figured the pounding of their footsteps had reached her unconscious.
Tyler and the sheriff stepped aside as the paramedics both knelt down, one reaching out to take her pulse and the other feeling for broken bones.
“She’s got a gunshot wound in the side,” Tyler said from the corner where he stood.
The paramedic taking the pulse looked up at the sheriff.
The lawman shrugged. “Medical problems take precedent. We don’t know for sure how she got shot.” He looked at Gracie as he talked to the young men. “A gunshot wound does not prove a crime has actually taken place.”
The other paramedic was removing Renee’s shoes when she winced and seemed to wake up a bit more.
“Looks like a sprain, too,” he said.
“I’ll get the stretcher,” the other paramedic said.
Gracie took a step closer to Renee and knelt down again, reaching over to brush the brown hair back from her face. Her eyes fluttered open and, again, the night deepened their searching violet color.
“These men are going to help you,” Gracie said, trying to gauge whether her words were penetrating. “The ambulance will take you to a clinic where they can get you all fixed up.”
“No,” the young woman gasped, as she looked around frantically and tried to sit up. “I can’t—”
Calen knelt on the other side of her, and it did not take long for Renee to see him. Her eyes focused on him and she quieted down. “Daddy?”
She lay back down.
“I’m here,” Calen said as he touched her shoulder.
“Please,” Renee said, and then gulped. “Please—Tessie—”
“I’ll do whatever I can to help you,” Calen pledged, his voice filled with emotion. “I don’t know about your partner, but—”
By that time, the paramedics were back. “Excuse us.”
Gracie and Calen both stood and moved so the men would have room to load Renee onto the stretcher. Just the lifting seemed too much and she passed out again. The driver of the ambulance had backed the vehicle as close to the steps as possible.
“If I get my hands on that Tessie of hers, I’ll give him a piece of my mind,” Calen muttered, his voice so low only Gracie would hear him. “What kind of a grown man goes by Tessie anyway?”
He turned then and Gracie put her hand on his arm. “Renee is probably in shock. She might not even know what she is saying. Tessie could be anyone.”
The two paramedics carried the stretcher down the steps toward the open door of the vehicle.
Calen followed them off the porch and to the rear of the ambulance as they were loading his daughter. “I’m going to follow along behind you.”
“I’ll be there, too,” the sheriff said as he stood at the base of the steps. “Keep a good eye on her.”
“Give us a few minutes first,” one of the paramedics said before he climbed into the ambulance behind his partner. The driver put the vehicle in gear. “It’ll take some time to get her unloaded and triaged. No point in you getting there before that.”
The paramedic closed the door. Calen walked back to the porch and stood by Gracie.
Together they watched the vehicle turn around and start down the lane, carrying his daughter. Gracie knew he was distressed, but she couldn’t think of any words to ease his troubles.
“They’ll take good care of her in Miles City,” she finally said.
She knew what it was like to see a child suffer and not be able to do anything about it. She glanced sideways and saw the shadows on Calen’s face. “I’m sorry.”
Her words made him flinch and Gracie knew she’d made a mistake. She wasn’t offering pity, but it likely sounded that way. Another apology wouldn’t help anything though, so she turned to go back into the house. She had forgotten that darkness made strangers into friends too quickly. Calen probably already regretted sharing his troubles with her, and she didn’t intend to force him.
Tyler stepped closer to the steps, and Rusty ran back to sniff his boots. Gracie had not yet reached the door to the house when she heard the dog and turned around.
“Rusty is sure wound up,” Tyler said as he crouched to greet the canine, then glanced up at Gracie before looking down again. “Are you still keeping him inside at night? Remember, he’s a barn dog. Always has been. He needs to be where he can get out and run if he wants.”
Tyler paused a moment as though suddenly unsure of himself. The light from the house shone softly on his face as he looked at his mother. “It’s not like you to need him inside. Do you? You sure you’re all right?” He hesitated. “You could come spend your nights at our place if you’d sleep better. Angelina would love to have you with us. And you know we’ve got plenty of room.”
“You also have that security system that rivals Fort Knox—” Gracie said. “I’m afraid I’d make the alarm go off if I got up in the middle of the night to get a drink of water.”
“That was Angelina’s father’s idea,” Tyler protested. “You know he’s used to living in a big city where that kind of thing is common. We don’t even turn the alarm on half the time.”
“Well, I sleep just fine where I am,” Gracie said before she realized it wasn’t true. “Well, usually.”
She stepped over and knelt down to give her dog another rub on its back. He was better than any expensive security system. And it was nobody’s business if she wanted him inside at night. She didn’t want to intrude on her sons’ lives. She loved her daughters-in-law, each one of them, but she felt a new bride needed time to set up her home without a mother-in-law sleeping over every night. It was enough that they all got together on Sundays after church for dinner. That was her time.
“That’s quite the guard dog you have there,” the sheriff said as he came back to the porch and bent down to pet Rusty, too. The canine responded by increasing his barking.
Gracie thought Rusty was showing off, begging for more attention, and she was happy for him to get it. He was a good dog.
“He
