Close Enough to Touch (Jackson Hole 1)

All the peace he’d managed to gather over the past days crumbled and slipped through his hands. He could almost hear it crash onto the wood floor. “Jesus Christ, Shane, do I have to beat it out of you? What the hell is going on?”

Shane took a deep breath. “Fine. Grace was arrested on Sunday night.”

“What?”

“I gather that whatever the charges were, they were dropped. She was released this morning. She packed up and left a few minutes later. That’s all I know.”

Cole cursed and headed for the door.

“I’m sorry, man,” Shane said, the words barely audible over Cole’s pounding heart.

Cole pushed out the door and rushed to the saloon. Jenny and Rayleen were both behind the bar, their backs turned to the room. Jenny was hammering a nail into the wall, but they both spun to face him when he called Rayleen’s name.

“Cole!” she said in surprise, nearly dropping the framed picture she held. She set it down carefully on the bar and crossed her arms. “What are you doing here? Thought you’d taken off for California.”

“What?” He shook his head, then squinted at Rayleen. She looked different somehow. Younger? He waved the stupid thought away with an impatient hand. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Where’s Grace? I need to speak to her.”

“Probably in Montana by now.”

“Montana? You let her go?”

“She wanted to leave.”

He ground his teeth together, unable to see the connection between those two things. “How did she get from here to Montana?” he made himself ask calmly. “She doesn’t have a car.”

“I dropped her off at Flagg Ranch thi

s morning for the Yellowstone bus.”

“So. You drove her. All the way up to Flagg Ranch. So she could leave. This morning.”

“Cole,” Jenny said. “Something happened with—”

“I heard about that. I don’t give a shit. I just need to talk to her.”

“The charges were apparently dropped, but she wouldn’t listen to us. Eve thinks it has something to do with an issue in California. Grace just wanted to leave. She didn’t—”

“Just—” He held up a hand to stop her from talking. “Hold on.” His heart beating too hard, he called up her number on his phone and hit Call. He couldn’t stop picturing how small she’d looked on the side of the road that day, when she’d been so worried about getting the car back to Eve. I can’t be late.... Not after that. She’ll think…

An arrest. Everybody knowing. She must be devastated.

He held his breath as the phone clicked. Then a mechanical voice told him the subscriber wasn’t available.

“Shit,” he ground out. “Where’s she going? Vancouver?”

“Yes,” Rayleen said quietly. “She said something about going through Bozeman.” She looked up finally, meeting his gaze. “I’d guess the bus follows I-90.”

The bus follows I-90. Right. Of course. It probably only left once a day. Bozeman wasn’t exactly a hot travel spot. Maybe he could…

“If she gets in touch, call me,” he tossed over his shoulder as he headed for the door.

“Tell her we miss her, okay?” Jenny shouted.

He should’ve come straight home yesterday. He should’ve at least called.

If Grace needed to run, he could let her. He was almost sure of it. But not like this. Not when she thought he’d been sleeping with Madeline. Not when she was convinced that what she and Cole had meant nothing.

Because it had meant something. Something so big that it filled him up until he could barely breathe.