Promise Canyon (28 page)

“
Sir?
” Jack laughed. He poured a fresh draft for his new friend. “What kind of jobs, just out of curiosity?”

Denny accepted his beer. “Well, there’s a private school over in Redway that needs to replace its custodian and fortunately the old guy is still there, so he could give me some tips and training. Not that the Marine Corps didn’t give me some
fine
tips on getting things straight—I just don’t feel like using a toothbrush on floor tiles, if you get my drift. Thing is, it’s minimum wage and full-time—when would I look for something better? And I wouldn’t want to take the job and have them count on me, only to leave them in the lurch the second something better comes along. There are lots of jobs like that—good, hard, solid work that can’t pay the rent.” Then he grinned. “I realize I have a break right now and it totally embarrasses me that you won’t take rent money, but I do have to think ahead. If the police or fire departments were hiring, I’d qualify and I guarantee you I’d pass their exams and do great in their academies, but…” He shrugged.

“You might have to take a minimum wage job till this economy picks up a little. Hardly anyone’s hiring,” Jack said. He lifted his coffee cup. He was starting to
really like this kid. He liked the way the kid handled life. Liked his attitude.

“Yeah, I know,” Denny said. “But I’m holding out for the best low-paying job I can find before I settle in. But I have to say, my friend was right about this part of the world—very pretty. And the people are nice. Friendly.” He lifted his beer toward Jack. “Very accommodating. Especially you!”

“I got in a little trouble for that—offering up the guesthouse without even seeing your ID.”

“Oh, really?” Denny asked with round eyes. He went for his back pocket.

“Nah, we’re fine now. I guess Mel is right, I should at least check a person out before letting them on the property.”

Denny pulled out his wallet and flipped it open. “Seriously, she’s right! You should be sure about who you’re letting hang around your house and your family! Even if I am in a separate building. I mean, I don’t want any trouble with Mel. She’s so nice and all—”

Jack put a hand over the boy’s wrist. “It’s okay, Denny. We’re square. She’s fine about it now.”

“But look at it, Jack. Huh?” he asked, pushing the ID toward him. “That’s me, my face, my San Diego address, which I moved out of so I guess it’s not really my address anymore, but…”

“What about your mail?” Jack asked.

“General Delivery,” he said with a shrug. He grinned boyishly. “If the Marine Corps has trouble finding me, I’m okay with that!”

“Done with that, are you?” Jack asked.

“Oh, man—I am so done.”

Jack stepped back from the bar, chuckling. He lifted his coffee cup to his lips.

At that moment, the sound of tinkling glass emerged from the bar and the floor began to vibrate. Jack felt as if he was off balance, as if the earth moved beneath his feet. Liquor bottles on the shelf danced around; one fell. Glasses began to tumble off the shelf.

“Jack!” Denny yelled. Then the kid put a foot on his barstool, leaped over the bar and pushed Jack down, hovering over him, protecting him. He started to move him out of the bar area. “Get away from this glass! Hurry! Crawl! Front of the bar—come on!”

Despite the uneven feeling of the floor beneath him, Jack moved to the end of the bar, and not a moment too soon. Bottle after bottle smashed to the floor, glass flying, liquor splashing. In just seconds they were at the front of the bar, sitting under the overhang. The shaking went on and on; it seemed to last forever and the breakage continued. Then the vibration slowed to a stop.

From where Jack crouched he could see that the two men who’d been sitting at a table by the door had abandoned their beers and fled the bar.

“Whoa,” Jack said, trying to stand, but his balance was still impaired.

“Yeah, don’t stand up too fast. I grew up in earthquake country. It screws up your equilibrium for a while.”

“How’d you get over the bar like that? With everything shaking?” Jack asked.

“I dunno,” Denny said. “I saw a couple of bottles go and knew about fifty more would follow and I knew you had to get out of there. No offense, but you had a kind
of dumb look on your face, like you weren’t sure what was going on.”

Jack pointed a finger at Denny. “Do not tell anyone that!”

Denny put his hands up, palms toward Jack. “Absolutely not! But really, I didn’t want you to fall and end up crawling out of there on top of shattered glass.”

“Thanks.” Jack sniffed. He looked at his young friend. “Really smells like a bar now, doesn’t it?”

There was a loud bang and a shout as Preacher hit the swinging door and blasted through it from the kitchen. “Jack!”

“Yeah, we’re fine,” he said, slowly leaning over the bar to get a glimpse of the mess. “Paige and the kids?”

“I checked them first. They’re okay. Mel?”

“She’s at the clinic with the kids. I gotta get over there.” He turned to Denny. “Stay here, will you, buddy? Help Preach with anything he needs? I’ll be right back.”

“Sure,” the kid said, standing up slowly. He peered over the bar. “I’ll get a broom and trash can. Lotta glass back there.”

“I’ll be back to help in a bit.” Jack looked over the bar. “Um, you’re gonna need a shovel.”

Mel and the kids were outside by the swing set when the earthquake hit. She had huddled with them on the ground, so they were fine. Cameron had been in the clinic and reported a couple of broken glasses that had fallen from the kitchen counter to the floor, but that was all.

“The bar’s a disaster,” Jack told Mel. “I don’t want
you or the kids over there—it’s covered in glass. Denny happened to be there, having a beer—he’s going to help us with the cleanup.”

“We’ll button things down here, but I think Cameron and I will have to wait here for a while, see if anyone calls with an injury. What will I do with the kids if that happens?”

“Preacher’s place is stable, just not the bar. I’ll check with Paige and let you know. In the meantime, if you need me, I’ll come over here.” He leaned forward and gave her a kiss. “That kid, Denny—he jumped over the bar and pushed me out of the line of falling bottles.”

She tilted her head and lifted an eyebrow. “Good boy,” she said. “I guess behind the bar isn’t a good place to be during an earthquake.”

“I’m going to have to think about that when we get around to repairs. Some kind of guardrail for the bottles and glasses.”

There was very little damage in the kitchen; Preacher was fastidious about having dishes put away unless he happened to be creating. There were only a couple of bowls and platters on the work island. He had a big pot of soup on the stove top and as soon as the shaking started, he slid it into the sink where it was safe from falling and burning him. All they lost was one large mixing bowl.

By the time Jack got back from the clinic, Denny already had a large trash can at the end of the bar and was scooping up broken bottles with a flat-edged snow shovel. Preacher had donned his thigh-high fishing waders and was standing in a cleared space behind the bar, moving bottles and glasses off the shelves, putting
what he could in closed cupboards, ready for aftershocks that could be as bad as the first earthquake.

“Good idea, Preach,” Jack said. “We’d better tape those cupboard doors shut for the time being.”

Jack went to the back of the kitchen for an industrial-size broom and began to sweep glass and liquid toward Denny, where the younger man scooped it up with the shovel. A half hour of this work saw them with a lot of cleanup left, but things were at least under control. When the door to the bar opened, Jack reflexively yelled, “Sorry—bar’s closed.”

“Jack,” Buck Anderson yelled. “Lou’s stupid old dually went off the road during the earthquake, right at that soft shoulder—same place the school bus went down a couple of years ago.”

“He okay?”

“Split his lip on the steering wheel, but he got out and climbed back up to the road. Thing is, that dually is about all the guy has. That oughta teach him to put all his money in a fancy truck.”

“How badly wrecked is it?”

“Looks to be in one piece,” Buck said. “If it doesn’t slide any farther down the slope. How long you reckon it’ll take to get a tow out here?”

“Why wait for a tow? Let me see what Paul has available. We’ll go out there—maybe we can pull him up.”

“Wouldn’t blame you if you let it just slide down the hill,” Buck said. “Lou hasn’t exactly been a pal to you lately.”

Jack rinsed the grit and liquor off his hands, dried them on a handy towel and just shrugged. “I think we better try to get out there before someone drives past
that soft shoulder, slips down and lands on top of that truck. Denny? Want to lend a hand?”

“You bet!”

They locked the bar door on their way out so no one would get inside and hurt themselves on the broken glass. It only took a half hour to find a bunch of guys to help and one of Paul Haggerty’s biggest trucks. Paul used heavy cable to attach the frame of the pickup to the back of his flatbed. It took a lot of doing; a lot of cable, big hooks, and Jack and Paul both had to rappel down the hill wearing safety harnesses to get it all attached. Once that was done, Paul drove the truck slowly as far across the road as possible, inching that big pickup up the hill. When it was about twenty feet from the road, Jack worked his way down the slope to it, got in and revved up the engine. The dual rear tires were powerful, caught traction and began to slowly climb up the hill. When it cleared the surface of the road, all the men standing around cheered.

Jack got out of the truck. “There’s a time those dual tires make a difference,” he said. Then he touched his lower lip as he looked at Lou. “If you’re fine to drive, I suggest you show that split lip to Cameron, see if it could use a couple of stitches.”

“Aw, I don’t need no stitches,” Lou said.

Jack grinned at him. “Yeah, I guess you can’t get much uglier.”

“You coulda just left me down there, Jack. I mean, the truck. Left me to wait for a tow.”

Jack shrugged. “You wouldn’t have left me down there. Even if you don’t much like the way I manage the town money. Now, before we leave, we gotta put up
some blinkers or something around this soft shoulder. Paul, you bring anything?”

“Do I look like just another pretty face?” he asked with a grin. Then he proceeded to set up road construction blinkers around the soft shoulder, closing off one lane.

Jack was shaking his head thoughtfully. “We gotta get this taken care of.”

L
illy took Blue Rhapsody up a narrow trail into the foothills. They reached a plateau from which she could see the entire valley below. She was so happy to be on this horse again, so relieved to feel that even if she didn’t have a future with Clay, she’d manage to have a future with Blue. It was one of the best days of her life when she stumbled on that horse. And if she wasn’t mistaken, Blue was thrilled to be with her again, too.

They’d been out for over an hour and the sun was lowering over the western mountains. It was breathtaking. The air was cool, the leaves in glorious fall splendor and the sky clear except for those few puffy white clouds along the coast, turning the setting sun pink.

Once she’d wrapped her head around the idea of talking to Clay and listening to him, things had begun to look better. From a new perspective it seemed pretty simple—they would either come to an understanding and move forward or they would learn they weren’t meant to be. If it was the latter, would she cry? Feel hurt? Absolutely! Would it kill her? Keep her from her horse? Not a chance! Lilly was nervous about the confrontation,
but she was determined. She was no longer a pitiful little girl.

She turned Blue back toward the clinic; surely Clay would have returned by now. She wanted to get off the plateau and down the narrow trail before it was almost dark.

The horse began to dance a little beneath her. “Easy, my love,” she said gently, taking a firmer hold on the reins, tightening her knees. The horse relaxed, but in a moment she danced again. Just ahead a small flock of birds shot out of a bush and Blue shied again. “Birds, baby. Nothing but birds.”

The horse was spooked; she threw her head, fighting the bit, and bounced on her front legs. Blue never acted like this! She was the calmest horse in the stable. “Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Lilly said. She looked around for something that frightened the horse, something she hadn’t seen yet, a snake or small animal, but she saw nothing. These nervous reactions went on every few moments. “Okay, it’s okay, we’re heading home,” Lilly said. “No more acting up… Shhh. Shhh.”

Lilly calmed the mare and continued down the trail. It wasn’t too narrow and was made up of a series of switchbacks on the way down so if Blue was skittish, they’d still manage. They’d barely begun their descent when she noticed a white plastic grocery sack stuck to a bush and fluttering in the breeze just ahead of them. “Easy, easy,” she said softly, using her legs and a calm but firm grasp of the reins.

It all happened at once. Lilly felt a shaking travel up the legs of her mount; what sounded like a distant rumble accompanied the vibration and the horizon seemed to blur. Blue began to dance backward, away,
rearing slightly. At that moment a brisk gust of cool wind snapped that plastic bag off the bush and sent it flying right past Blue. The horse took a fright, whinnied and reared suddenly, unsteadily, throwing Lilly off her back.

Lilly hit the shaking ground with an
ooomph!
She bounced! She rolled away from the horse as quickly as she could to avoid getting trampled and in doing so rolled to the edge of the trail. Blue had trouble getting her footing and Lilly went off the edge and down the hill. She grabbed at a thorny shrub as she rolled by it, cutting her hands, but she couldn’t hold on.

While the ground shook violently, she heard her horse scream in fear and take off like a shot, running from whatever danger there was.

And Lilly rolled out of control down the hill, her head bouncing off rocks, until she came to a stop against a big, thick, unforgiving tree trunk. She lay there, still, while the ground shook and gradually calmed beneath her.

Although she was banged up, her hands bleeding, and she had a big knot on her head, her first concern was Blue. If the horse lost her footing on that trail and fell down the hill she could break bones. And for a horse that could be catastrophic.

She started to make her way up the hill on her hands and knees, pulling with her injured hands on a tree or shrub here, bracing a foot against a rock or tree there. Even though it wasn’t a real steep hill, her progress was very slow. It had been a long time since she’d been thrown. Her whole body hurt, though nothing seemed broken. By the time she got to the trail at the top, not even a puff of dust from her horse remained. Blue could
be in Arizona by the time she stopped being terrified of the moving earth and the ghostly white bag.

The sun was lowering behind the western mountains. The temperature was already dropping. And it was a long damn walk back to the stable.

“Crap,” she said. “If I didn’t have bad luck, I’d have no luck at all!”

Clay had returned from the coffee shop to the clinic by 4:00 p.m., before the earthquake hit. They kept a very strict feeding schedule, but one of the first things he noticed was that Lilly’s Jeep was there. His chest immediately swelled with hope that must have shown all over his face. When he found Annie in the barn the first thing she said was, “She took Blue out for a ride and will be back before long. She wants to talk to you. I hope you can make things right with her.”

“I hope so, too, Annie, and I’ll try. Because I love her, too.”

“The last few days have been torture,” Annie said, “I don’t know all the details about what happened with you two, but she said you made her crazy.”

He smiled. “Is that so? Well, she did her part to make me crazy, too. I went to see Dane. He helped me as much as he could without completely betraying her trust.”

“Good for you,” Annie said with a slight smile. “You’re going to fight for her!”

“Of course I am, though she hasn’t made it real easy. When do you think she’ll be back in?”

“I thought by now—she knows we feed on a schedule. Soon, I would expect.”

“Do you know where she went?”

“She just said she was going out on the trail. I assume
one of the ones that lead around the back pasture and into the foothills, but she didn’t say. You’re going to hang around and wait, aren’t you?”

“Absolutely,” he said. “I’ll finish up with these horses and turn them out. I know you want to get to the house and draw Nathaniel’s bath and chill his beer mug while he lounges around tonight.” Then he grinned. “Go ahead. Leave Lilly to me.”

“Cute,” she said, turning to go. Then she turned back and said, “Try to do something productive tonight, like get our girlfriend back!”

She was already gone when he said, “I’ll do all I can.”

Gabe had football practice and wasn’t coming to the stable today, so Clay busied himself cleaning stalls, sweeping out an already swept barn, even organizing the tack room, waiting. He frequently looked out the back doors and down the road that led around the east pasture. The sun was setting earlier and earlier now that fall was full on the land and by five-thirty it was turning to dusk.

Then he noticed the horses in the stalls getting restless; in the paddock where they kept him, Streak started dancing around. Out in the back pasture a flock of birds bolted out of the tall grass and flew off. There was an uneasy feeling in Clay’s gut that he was getting from the animals. Something wasn’t right.

Then he felt a vibration that turned into a rumble that became a wave beneath his feet, almost toppling him to the ground. He steadied himself in the frame of the tack room door while he watched equipment fall off the wall hooks and tools and small appliances dance across the countertop and crash to the floor. The hanging light
from the ceiling swayed. He could hear the horses that were inside crying out and kicking at their stalls; he could feel Streak’s terror as he tried to run, his gait awkward and legs spreading in a crazy effort to stay balanced.

Whoa, Clay thought. This is a big one. He looked at his watch and saw the second hand move around the face—a big one that lasted a long time.

He was no expert, but either this was bigger than the last one at 5.5 or the epicenter was right beneath them. It seemed as if a long time passed before things stopped moving and falling to the floor and the ground stopped rolling, but as was typical with earthquakes, it upset the balance enough so that walking seemed uneven and wobbly even after it had passed. Clay’s first thought was that if a human who had the capacity to understand what was going on felt that way, how must the animals feel?

And where was Lilly during this?

Within a few moments, Annie was in the barn. “Clay! Everything all right out here?”

“Minor damage, stuff to clean up. As far as I can tell, no structural problems.” He looked around the ceiling of the barn. “That wasn’t little. How about in the house?”

“A little glass breakage, but almost everything was put away in cupboards so it’s minor. How are the animals?”

“Upset. The best thing to do is leave them in the pastures. They get a little freaked out in a stall, ground moving and all.”

“Clay…” Annie attempted.

“She’ll come right back now,” he said, as if saying it could make it happen.

An hour later, after two very minor aftershocks, Clay was saddling Streak and speaking to him softly. “I know you’re a little upset, but I think we’d better go find your girl. I’m going to need you—you seem to gravitate to her and if anyone can—”

“Clay, let’s leave Streak in the pasture and take the quads out,” Nathaniel said from behind him.

“Quads won’t work on the narrow trails where she might be, or on the downhill paths or overgrowth. You and Annie take out quads if you want to. It’s almost dark and I’m not leaving her out there in the dark.”

“Isn’t Streak a little jumpy for this job?”

“He is, but I can handle him now,” Clay said. “And he loves her. Have you seen him with Lilly? He loves her.”
I love her,
Clay thought.
If there’s a God, I’m going to find her and we’re going to talk about the mess we’re in and make sure it never happens again!

“I’m not sure this is safe,” Nathaniel said to his back as Clay tightened the cinch.

“Then shoot me in the back—that’s the only way you’ll stop me.”

Clay went into the tack room and came out with an extra blanket, an industrial-size flashlight, rope, a couple of bottled waters and some protein bars to fill the saddlebag. He pulled on his heavily lined denim jacket and was leading Streak out of the barn doors when the sound of hooves stopped him. Nate came up to his side and they both saw Blue Rhapsody running down the road beside the east pasture, headed for the clinic barn. She was saddled. And riderless.

“Shit,” Nathaniel said.

Clay put a foot in the stirrup and mounted Streak. “Call rescue. They’re probably getting a million calls and are too busy for us, but call anyway. Then go out on the quads. Take blankets and water—it’s cold tonight.” And then he urged Streak forward. He went out of the front of the barn and down the road that Blue had just returned on.

Nathaniel let the mare into the round pen as Clay and Streak galloped down the road and away.

Clay looked at his illuminated watch; at almost eight it was dark and cold out. He wouldn’t just get lucky and find her on one of the trails in the valley that Annie used for her new, young riders. He shouldn’t have wasted his time—Lilly would have taken the horse onto more challenging trails. So he decided to head northeast, shining the flashlight on the trail ahead of him, scanning the sides of the trail for an unseated rider as he went. He called her name in case she was huddled in some rocky crevice or within some bushy growth to keep warm.

He’d been searching for a couple of hours when he saw her coming down the road. He shone the flashlight on her, then kicked Streak into a gallop. He stopped the colt on a dime in front of her and dismounted. She had a big goose egg on her head, grass and leaves in her hair, a large, unfashionable tear in one thigh of her jeans… and a scowl on her face.

“It just had to be you,” she said, looking up at him. “Sometimes I think you’re always one step ahead of me. I was planning to see you back at the barn.”

He pulled off his hat. “I guess Blue dumped you in the earthquake,” he said.

“I don’t know where she is. We’re going to have to find her.”

“She went home, Lilly.” He went to her. “You’re hurt,” he said.

She touched her head. “I fell off the horse and down the hill. I’ll be fine.”

“Once we get you home.” He took off his jacket and draped it around her.

“I don’t need your jacket,” she said with an unmistakable shiver. She tried to wiggle out of it.

“Níwe!”
he said in Navajo. Stop! He pulled the jacket tighter around her. He reached for one of her hands, then the other, examining the palms. “Trying to break your fall?”

“It didn’t work exactly the way I wanted it to.”

He lifted his dark brows and couldn’t help but smile at her. “I think you’re in a very bitchy mood for someone who’s just been rescued.”

“I guess getting tossed down a hill made me cranky. Sue me.”

He pulled a bottle of water out of his saddlebag, a handkerchief out of his back pocket, and cleaned her palms. He closed up the water and stuffed the bottle in his front shirt pocket. “Isn’t it amazing how there’s always a bright side? Now we’re going to get some things out in the open.”

“Well, if you were looking for a captive audience, you managed that. But this isn’t how I planned it,” she said.

He wrapped the damp handkerchief around the hand that had suffered the most. “I’m sure you didn’t. I bet it’s been years since you’ve been tossed. I’m going to get on the horse and pull you up. I’ll try not to hurt your
hand. When I’m astride, put your boot on my foot for leverage. I have to get you back—Annie and Nathaniel are out on the quads, in the dark, looking for you. The sooner we can call them in, the better. Try to be as little trouble as possible.”

She made an insulted sound and looked away. “And you try to be nicer. This may not be ideal circumstances, but I did come out to the clinic to talk to you. And to listen to you.” She couldn’t deny she felt good in the folds of his coat. Good and warm, and the scent of him rising to her nose was beginning to intoxicate her, just as it always had. “Does my grandfather know people were looking for me?”