“You guys want something to drink?”
Willa, Ryder and Nate didn’t look up as I stood from the dining room table. All I got were three slight headshakes as they stared at the cards in their hands.
They’d been playing three-handed pinochle for an hour. I’d helped Ryder out at first, but he’d gotten the hang of it quickly, so I’d just been watching them.
I pushed in my chair, then bent to kiss the top of Willa’s head. “I’m going to see if your mom needs some help.”
She gave me another absent nod before I left them for the kitchen. It was Saturday, over a week since my name had been cleared, and Betty and Nate had invited us all over for the day. We were going to play games, watch college football and then have Betty’s famous pot roast for dinner.
“How goes the battle?” Betty asked as I walked into her kitchen.
I chuckled. “If Willa wins this game, it’s tied at one win apiece. But I’m thinking Ryder might beat them both.”
“Good.” She smiled. “How’s he doing?”
“Better.” I went to the fridge for one of Nate’s cans of Sprite. “Yesterday was rough, but I think he’s just glad to know what happened to her.”
“I’m sorry it was difficult, but I hope you both can find some closure now.”
“Me too, Betty.”
Magee had personally come over yesterday to break the news.
Because of Ryder’s information, they’d found Mom’s killer.
“What else did Sheriff Magee tell you yesterday?” Betty asked, taking a seat by their kitchen island.
I slid into the chair next to her, then glanced over my shoulder. Willa and I had decided not to give Ryder the dirty details about Mom’s murder. We’d explained to him that Christopher, her ex-boyfriend, had killed Mom just as he’d suspected. But we hadn’t told him even half of what the sheriff had explained.
We were protecting him, at least I hoped, because it wasn’t a pretty story.
But it was one I felt comfortable sharing with Betty.
“Christopher was basically supporting Mom and Ryder for the year they lived with him in Las Vegas. Mom met him through a mutual friend. They hooked up. Two weeks later, he moved Mom and Ryder from Iowa to Vegas and right into his house.”
I don’t know if he really loved Mom or not. My guess was yes and the reason she was dead now was because she’d betrayed him.
“Christopher was a bookie,” I told Betty. “And he kept a lot of cash around the house. Mom decided to relieve him of some of that cash when she and Ryder left Vegas for Denver.”
“And that’s when she started to look for you, right?” Betty asked. “Just because she needed a place to drop Ryder?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. Probably. I think she was also running out of money while they were in Denver. She’d been spending it like crazy, buying a car and living out of a hotel. Plus Ryder was sneaking it away from her. Either way, I’m glad she came looking. Who knows where Ryder would be if she had decided to keep him along.”
I hated to think that he could have faced Christopher’s wrath too.
“So after she dropped off Ryder with me, I guess she went back to Vegas. I assume it was to blackmail Christopher for more money.”
That was what Magee assumed too. He’d been working nonstop to find evidence, though the most condemning pieces were the recordings she’d stashed with Ryder. Once Ryder handed those over, Magee found enough puzzle pieces to make sense of the picture.
Christopher had been skimming from his clients. Mom had found out. Just like she’d probably done with countless other people, she’d made recordings of Christopher admitting to taking extra “fees.”
“It backfired on her,” Betty muttered.
“Yes, it did.”
Instead of getting more money from Christopher, he’d threatened to kill her. She’d fled Vegas again. That could have been the end of it, except Christopher had followed her.
Magee had gotten transcripts of the text messages sent from the phone Mom had falsely registered under Ryder’s name. They showed an exchange between Christopher and Mom, further proving she was alive after I’d left her at the bar.
Thanks to the exchange, Magee knew Christopher had followed her to Montana. He’d likely promised to pay her off for her silence. Mom had sent him instructions of where to meet, down Old Logger’s Road. But instead of giving her a payday, he’d strangled her with his bare hands, then driven her car into a ditch.
We didn’t have proof that Christopher was the one who’d broken into my house. But based on his credit card activity, it looked like he’d been hanging around Montana ever since he’d killed Mom. He’d probably been watching, waiting to see if they’d find her body. And when they did, he must have panicked. He waited for the right time and broke into my house, likely in search of the recordings he’d known Mom had taken.
Or the last of his cash.
I actually thought the break-in was a good thing. Without that incident, we might never have pushed Ryder as hard in the interrogation room.
“So what happens now?” Betty asked.
“Magee arrested Christopher at the hotel he’d been staying at in Kalispell. They’ve already pressed charges.”
“And the phone registered under Ryder’s name? Did they find it?”
“No. I’m sure Christopher destroyed it. But they got the text history from the phone company, so at least there’s that.”
Betty sighed. “What are the chances he’ll get away with this?”
“According to Magee, slim to none. I hope to hell he’s right.”
Christopher hadn’t confessed to the murder, and I doubted he would. His conviction would all come down to the evidence. But Magee was a good cop and would find enough to put that asshole away for the rest of his life.
“So that’s it?” Betty asked.
I nodded. “That’s it. Now we move on.”
“Yes, we do.” She stood from her seat and looked around the kitchen. “All right. What do I need to do before dinner? The meat’s ready to go in. I need to peel some potatoes. Run the dishwasher. Take out the garbage.”
I smiled as she continued with her verbal reminders. Willa did the same thing when she was planning. Her to-do lists came out in a whisper as she thought them through.
I stood from my seat and went to the garbage, opening the lid and tying up the bag. “I’ll take this out.”
“Oh, thank you. Once upon a time, Nate and I made an agreement. I’d do all his ironing if I never had to take out the garbage. Let’s just say I haven’t ironed one of his shirts in twenty-five years.”
I chuckled. “I’ll make you a deal. If I’m here, I’ve got the garbage. Just ask.”
“Willa’s a lucky woman.”
“Nah.” I grinned. “I’m the lucky one. I don’t know if I deserve someone as good as your daughter. She’s had to put up with a lot of my bull—er, crap lately.”
“Yes, but dealing with the bullshit is how you know it’s real.” Betty smiled. “It’s easy to love someone when times are good. Real love is about holding on to one another when times aren’t.”
I nodded, letting her words sink in.
Somehow, the timid woman who’d occasionally come into the bar—the girl whose name I’d fucked up for years—was the only person who’d made it past my barriers. She’d broken them down, one by one, and given me a love I’d cherish always.
“I do love her.” For some reason, it was important to me that Betty knew I was truly committed to her daughter.
Her eyes softened and her mouth opened, but before she could respond, Ryder came bounding into the kitchen.
“I won!” He clapped and went right for the fridge, taking out the SunnyD that Betty kept stocked for him.
Nate and Willa came into the kitchen too, smiling at one another.
“Oh, I’ll take that garbage, Jackson.” Nate went for the bag, but I waved him off.
“No worries. I’ve got it.”
“Thanks.” He clapped my shoulder. “I hate garbage duty. I guess it’s good that Betty and I made a deal years ago. I do my own ironing and she takes care of the garbage.”
“What?” Betty’s mouth fell open.
Willa giggled. “Uh, Dad? I think you might have that backward.”
“No, I don’t.”
“Yes, you do!” Betty shouted.
I laughed, escaping the kitchen with the garbage bag in hand as the two began arguing over when and where they’d made the deal. When I got back inside, I hovered in the hallway outside the kitchen, just watching.
Willa and Ryder were doubled over, laughing hysterically. Betty and Nate were still arguing, though both had smiles on their faces. I bet they hadn’t had a knockdown, drag-out fight in a decade.
They made marriage seem like the best damn idea in the world.
It was hard to believe that just a few months ago my life had been so lonely. Worse, I’d been okay with it.
I hadn’t even known what I’d been missing.
Willa’s laugh seeped into my heart, filling the last remaining cracks until it was whole.
From the corner of his eye, Nate caught me watching his daughter. He grinned, then went right back to arguing with his wife.
He knew why I was watching, and he knew why I was smiling.
Tomorrow, Willa would too.
“What about that one?”
I followed Willa’s finger to the fir tree she was pointing at, then shook my head. “Too small.”
“Too small. Too big. Too many pine cones. Too thin.” She huffed. “You’re the pickiest Christmas tree hunter in the universe.”
I chuckled and stopped hiking. “Don’t you want the perfect tree for our first Christmas together?”
“Yes.” She stopped by my side. “That’s why we should have bought one from the church’s fundraiser. Those are grown to be perfect.”
“What’s the fun in that?” I put my gloved hands on each side of her face, then bent to kiss her forehead. “How are you doing?”
“Good.” She smiled. Her nose and cheeks were pink from the cold and her chest was heaving as she breathed. “I didn’t realize I was so out of shape.”
“You’re doing awesome. It’s just because the snow is so deep.”
“Should we look around here?” Her gaze ran over all the trees around us. “Or keep going?”
“Let’s keep going. Just a little farther.”
She didn’t know it, but we were following the trail I’d left here this morning.
“It looks like we aren’t the only ones who have been up here,” she said. “There are tracks everywhere.”
I grinned. “Yeah. Popular spot.”
Ryder and I had hiked up here at first light to find the perfect tree. We’d told Willa that we were going ice fishing when we’d really come up to the mountains. So while she’d spent a quiet Sunday morning at my place, Ryder and I had trekked all over this area of forest in search of the perfect tree.
When we’d finally found it, we’d spent two hours setting everything up before hiking back down the mountain. Along the way, I’d made sure to make note of landmarks and leave a few of my own markings behind to guide us back to the spot.
I turned on the trail and took a couple more steps.
Behind me, Willa followed. “Can I ask you something?”
“Sure, babe.”
“What’s up with Hazel and Sheriff Magee?”
“Caught that, did you?”
“They either hate each other.” She giggled. “Or don’t hate each other at all.”
“Hazel would never admit it, but she’s got a thing for him. When I first moved here, he used to come into the bar all the time when she was working.”
“Really? Did they ever date?”
“No. She turned him down every time he asked.” I shot a look over my shoulder. “Kind of like someone else I know.”
The red in Willa’s cheeks got brighter. “I eventually gave in.”
“It was the sticky notes, wasn’t it?”
“And the Snickers.” She wagged her eyebrows. “So what happened with Sheriff Magee?”
“I don’t know.” I shrugged. “He just stopped coming in to see her one day.”
“Nooo,” she groaned. “They’d be so cute together.”
“He’s like ten years younger than she is. I think the age difference freaked her out at first.”
“That’s too bad. I like him.”
“So do I. Did you know I bought my house from him?”
“You did?”
I nodded. “When I moved here, I rented it from him. Hazel set it up. I didn’t have shit at that point and I was broke all the time. There were a couple of months where I wasn’t going to make rent by the first and he worked with me. I did improvements for him. He cut me a break. After I got on my feet, I told him I wanted to buy my own place. He said he’d sell me that one so I didn’t have to move.”
He’d given me a fair price and had been patient while I’d gotten a loan. It wasn’t much of a payback, but when Dakota had moved to Lark Cove and needed a job, Thea and I had hired Magee’s nephew immediately.
It was a win for the bar too. Dakota was good at his job, and as a bonus, he entertained the single ladies who used to drool over me.
“I’m glad you bought that house,” Willa said.
I paused and looked back. “You are?”
“Yeah. It’s got such great potential.”
“Potential, huh?” I asked. “Does that mean you want to help me do some remodeling?”
“I might have a few ideas brewing.” She smiled, excitement dancing in her blue eyes.
If she wanted to redesign the entire house, I’d let her. I couldn’t afford to build her some fancy house on the lake or a lodge in the mountains. What I could give her was a nice home in town, someplace we could call ours.
“Come on, babe.” I reached back for her hand.
She took mine immediately and I held it tight, my gloves to her mittens, as we walked around the last bunch of trees on the trail toward the clearing where I was taking her. When we rounded the evergreens and hit a flat spot, I stopped and turned around.
Willa’s eyes were on the ground, watching her steps. But when she looked up, the happiness on her face nearly blew me over. “Need a break?”
“Yeah.” I smiled at her, then jerked my chin so she’d look past my shoulder.
When she did, her smile fell. Her eyes got big and she looked between me and the tree. “What’s going on?”
I kept her hand and pulled her toward the tree in the middle of the clearing—the tree that Ryder and I had decorated with silver and gold Christmas ornaments this morning.
In the sunny afternoon, the bulbs shone brightly. Along with the snow, they made the entire tree sparkle. And they made the single red bow tied right in the center of the tree nearly impossible to miss.
I led Willa right to the bow and waited for her to notice.
“Jackson, what is . . .” Her hand came to her mouth as she saw the ring I’d tied to the red velvet.
I shucked off my gloves, tossing them into the snow, then untied the bow, careful not to drop the ring I’d bought in Kalispell the day after Magee had cleared me of Mom’s murder. Two days after that, I’d gone to the school and asked Nate for permission to marry his daughter.
“Willa Doon.” I held the ring between my thumb and index finger, then dropped to a knee. “I love you. You’re the reason I smile every day. You’re the best friend I’ve ever had. You’re my everything. And I want to be yours. I want to make every dream you’ve ever had come true. Will you marry me?”
Tears filled her eyes. “I thought you didn’t want to get married to anyone.”
“I don’t. I want to get married to you.”
“Are you sure? Because I don’t want you to feel pressured to do—”
“Willa.” I stood up swiftly, capturing her face with my free hand. “It’s cold and I’m worried I’m going to drop this ring and then we’ll have to spend the rest of our day digging for it in the snow instead of celebrating in the backseat of my truck. So I’m going to try this again.”
She sniffled, a smile stretching across her face as I went back down on my knee.
“Marry me?”
“Yes.”
“Now that wasn’t so hard, was it?”
She laughed as a tear dripped down her cheek.
I stood again and wiped it away before taking off the mitten on her left hand. With steady fingers, I slid the delicate band to the base of her knuckle. “Do you like it?”
“I love it,” she whispered, not taking her eyes off the ring. The center diamond sparkled in the sunlight. So did the halo of smaller white diamonds surrounding it.
The jewelry store would be receiving a monthly payment from me for a few years and I’d be delaying the purchase of a new truck, but it was worth it. Whatever I could give her, I would. Even kids.
Willa looked up from the ring. “I love you.”
“Love you too, babe.”
She smiled wide and a squeak escaped her lips. She giggled again, then launched herself into my arms.
I scooped her up, slamming my mouth down on hers. Then I kissed my fiancée long and deep. I explored her mouth with my tongue and nipped at her top lip. I sucked at the bottom. By the time we broke apart, we were panting, our breaths forming a frozen cloud around us.
“Do we need to take these ornaments down?” Willa asked, her eyes dark with heat. “Or can we celebrate?”
I grinned. “Fuck the tree. I’ll come back up tomorrow.”
“Okay, good. Let’s go.” She jumped out of my arms and started jogging down the trail.
I laughed, following close behind to catch her if she slipped.
The second we spotted the truck parked at the trailhead, Willa stripped off her coat. Her hat came next. She was bent over, untying her boots as I dug the keys out of my pocket and unlocked the doors.
She hopped into the backseat first and I followed, slamming the door to keep out the cold. Then we spent an hour fogging up the windows before we got dressed to drive back home.
As I pulled my truck onto the highway, Willa laughed out her passenger window.
“What?”
“I was just thinking.” She smiled at her ring, then looked over. “When I was seventeen, I wrote in my diary that I was going to marry you one day.”
My heart skipped. “You did?”
She nodded. “Seventeen-year-old Willa is doing a victory dance right now.”
“Do you still have your diary?”
“Yeah. They’re in a box at my parents’ place. Why?”
“Research.” I took her hand and kissed her knuckle, right above her ring. “Need to see what other dreams seventeen-year-old Willa had for her life.”
I’d start with those, ticking them off one at a time, until all her dreams had come true.
