Green Calder Grass (Calder Saga 6)

“See if you can raise somebody at Tara’s place. Have them fly a doctor there right away. She’ll likely need to be sedated.” He made a grim study of the distraught woman. “As soon as we can get her to settle down, I’ll put her in the back of my squad car and take her there. Maybe Sally can ride along and keep an eye on her tonight. She is in no condition to be left alone, that’s for sure.”

After twenty minutes, Tara’s hysterical sobbing finally subsided to an incessant weeping and moaning. Logan half carried and half walked her to his vehicle and installed Tara in its back seat. Sally crawled in after her and gathered the sobbing woman into her arms.

With The Homestead quiet once more, Cat retrieved their overnight case, took Quint by the hand, and led him upstairs to bed. Jessy watched the pair until they disappeared from view.

“Poor guy,” she murmured to Chase, observing, “he is so tired.”

“Are you?” His gaze made a thoughtful study of her face.

Jessy reacted with a sharp shake of her head, her glance sliding upward in the direction of the master bedroom. “I can’t sleep. Not yet.”

“Good. We need to talk.” He started toward the den.

But Jessy was quick to reject it. “I’d rather not, Chase.”

His glance was full of understanding, yet insistent. “I don’t want to any more than you do, but these next few days will be hectic and there are things that need to be said. Right now may be the only time we have.”

Jessy didn’t renew her objection when he placed a guiding hand on her back and steered her into the den. She sat down in one of the wing-backed chairs, but she didn’t relax in it, tension showing in the line of her body. Chase paused at the drink cart, poured some whiskey into two glasses and carried one to her, then reluctantly made his way to the swivel chair behind the desk.

“It doesn’t seem real, does it?” he guessed astutely.

Her mouth twisted in a wry grimace of acknowledgment. “A part of me keeps expecting him to walk through the door.” Head down, Jessy stared at the glass in her hand. “I have to be honest, Chase. I’m not sure I can stand to live in this house.”

“Why?” He rocked back in his chair. “Because it’s nothing but a bunch of rooms, filled with familiar things yet empty and lifeless? Because it doesn’t feel like a home anymore?”

Jessy lifted her head, stunned that Chase could describe it so accurately. Until that moment it hadn’t occurred to her that the house might feel the same way to him. Why should it when he had lived in it all his life while it had been her home for only a few years?

“It’s a feeling that won’t go away anytime soon, take my word for it,” Chase told her, and Jessy immediately thought of Maggie and how difficult it must have been for Chase to live here after she died. “Eventually Trey and Laura will breathe life into it and make it feel like a home again. In the meantime, you have to hang on and wait.”

“I suppose.” She felt much too empty inside to care.

“You are a strong woman, Jessy. And a smart one, too. I’m counting on that,” he stated. “Take a good look at that map on the wall behind me.”

Responding to the authority in his voice, Jessy did as she was told even though she had looked at it a thousand times before. Every mark and line on its aged surface was as familiar as her own face in the mirror.

“There is no way any man can know if he will live two more days or twenty years. But we both know it isn’t likely that I will live to see Trey take over the reins of the Triple C. That means it will be in your hands.”

Jessy stared at the map, the length and breadth of its boundaries making a new impact on her. The possibility that she might one day shoulder the responsibility of its operation was not one she had ever imagined. But the truth in Chase’s words couldn’t be ignored, however much she might want to deny them.

As if reading her mind, Chase said, “Neither one of us expected this to happen, but it has. Maybe I should have waited a few days before telling you, but it has to be faced. You might as well know the Triple C won’t give us time to mourn. There is work to be done, Jessy. And it’s up to you and me to do it.”

Everything he said rang true. “I have a lot of learning to do,” she realized.

A small smile of approval edged the corners of his mouth. “Not as much as you think.” He nodded at the glass in her hand. “Drink that whiskey and go to bed. It’s going to be a long full day tomorrow.”

She bolted down the liquor and shuddered at that searing burn that banished the coldness within. She met Chase’s gaze, feeling closer to him than she ever had. Rising, she set the empty glass on his desk and crossed to the door.

Pausing there, Jessy glanced back. “When are you going after Buck?”

He studied her for a long measuring second. “You’ll have no part of that, Jessy.”

Calm as could be, she replied, “Yes, I will.”

Chapter Twenty-One

By 6 A.M. the following morning, Jessy had a hearty breakfast of steak, eggs, hash browns, toast, and oatmeal on the table, taking over the duty that would normally have been Sally’s province. When Chase walked into the dining room, his hair still damp from a shower, she was already seated at the table, spooning homemade strawberry jam onto her toast.

Chase glanced at the empty chairs before crossing to the chafing dishes on the sideboard. “Isn’t Cat up yet?”