Page 13 of Three-Inch Teeth

“I didn’t want to say no to him,” Sheridan said while dabbing away tears on her face with the heels of her hands. “Now I won’t have to.”

Joe looked at her, puzzled.

“Nobody understands this because Clay Junior was … Clay Junior,” Sheridan said. “All the guys wanted to be like him and all the girls wanted to be with him. And for reasons I’ll never understand, he chose me. But I’m not ready, not with Clay Junior, anyway.”

Marybeth said to Joe, “I told her Clay said he had an engagement ring with him.”

“Ah, yes,” Joe said.

“I knew he was going to ask me,” Sheridan said. “Probably tonight. He said he wanted to take me to dinner and that he had an important thing he wanted to discuss. I knew what it was going to be, and I just dreaded it. I dreaded it. I told him I was coming over here tonight and he said he’d come by and we could go out later. Now none of that will ever happen and I feel just horrible. I feel horrible about what I was going to do to him, and horrible because I’m a little relieved that I won’t have to tell him no. But this—this is so horrible I can’t even wrap my mind around it.”

Joe wasn’t sure how to respond. He hadn’t wanted his oldest daughter to marry Clay Junior unless she was as wild about him as he apparently was about her. But it had all seemed so inevitable for the past year. It had all seemed like a fait accompli. Sheridan’s sisters thought she was nuts not to reciprocate Clay Junior’s feelings, and Marybeth seemed okay with having him as a son-in-law. Now all of that was off the table.

“Please don’t tell his dad what I just told you,” Sheridan said to Joe. “It would really upset him.”

“I won’t.”

“What’s so awful about this, along with everything else, is that everyone will look at me like some kind of tragic victim,” Sheridan said. “The sad fiancée.” Then, after a moment, she said, “I don’t know why I’m telling you two all of this. We should be talking about Clay Junior, not me. We should be mourning him instead of me yammering on about my feelings. I feel so … pathetic.”

“We’re glad you can talk to us,” Marybeth said, pulling Sheridan into her. “Please don’t feel guilty. You have nothing to feel guilty about.”

Sheridan let out a sob that broke Joe’s heart. “He died thinking there was a future for us,” she said. “He had no idea there wasn’t.”

Marybeth gave Joe a wan smile and rubbed Sheridan’s back. He could go. He should go.

“I’m just so sorry this happened,” he said as he left the room.

*

NATE SLID A tumbler of bourbon and water on ice across the table toward Joe like an Old West bartender and Joe grabbed it. “Thank you,” he said.

Liv was in the living room wrapping Kestrel in a blanket so she could sleep for a while on the couch. Liv mimed Shhhhh to the two of them.

Nate kept his voice near a whisper when he asked, “Is Sheridan going to be okay?”

Joe shrugged. “This is hard on her.”

“She’s tough,” Nate said. Then: “I was going to send her out of town with some birds for a job in Colorado. Do you think she’s up for that?”

“I think so,” Joe whispered back. “In fact, a change of scenery might help her get over this. But you should ask her if she’s okay with it.”

Nate agreed. “We’ve got more work than we can handle right now. Liv can barely keep her head above water.”

“What about Geronimo?” Joe asked. “Isn’t he working to expand the company? Hire more falconers?”

“Eventually,” Nate said.

Geronimo Jones had become a partner in Yarak, Inc. in the past year and had taken on the challenge of growing the company to include additional locations and more master falconers. His idea of financing the expansion via cryptocurrency mining had hit a snag when the market tumbled the previous winter. Although the crypto mines he’d built hadn’t gone completely bust, they were barely breaking even.

“Geronimo is home being a new dad,” Nate said to Joe. “It’s more than he bargained for. I know the feeling.”

“So do I,” Joe said.

“He’s got some other ideas he wants to run by me, but for now we’re just doing our best to keep the business running. That’s one of the reasons Liv and I want Sheridan to take on a bigger role.”

“I think she can handle it,” Joe said.

“I know she can,” Nate said. “I’ve taught her everything I know. She’s an excellent master falconer now, and she’s better with people than I am.”

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