Page 12 of River Wild

Stuart almost laughed. He didn’t even know what “this” was. “Coffee?” he asked as he turned and headed into the kitchen, realizing he couldn’t carry on this particular conversation without the caffeine jolt.

“I don’t want coffee,” Holden bellowed, but followed him into the small kitchen.

“I do.” He began to put on a pot, knowing that he was stalling. How could he possibly explain his relationship with Bailey—if he could even call it that—when he didn’t understand it himself?

“I asked you what’s going on with you and my daughter,” Holden said behind him in the kitchen doorway.

The coffee on, he turned to the rancher. “Bailey and I are friends.”

“Friends?Stuart, I’ve known you since you were born, and you understand damned well how worried I’ve been about my daughter. Is this where she goes at all hours of the night? Are the two of you—”

“We’refriends. She stops by to talk occasionally. Sometimes she stays over—in my spare bedroom. I can’t tell you any more than that.”

“Can’torwon’t? If you know what’s going on with Bailey, you have to tell me.”

“Maybe you should talk to your daughter.”

Holden let out a curse. “I can’t get more than two words out of her. It’s like she’s...angry about something I must have done. Or didn’t do. I have no idea.”

Surprised at the rancher’s candor, Stuart’s heart went out to the man. Holden was right. He’d known Stuart his whole life. He’d known Stuart’s parents. He realized there was something he’d wanted to ask him for a very long time but hadn’t found an opening.

“You knew my mother.” The rancher stared at him as if blindsided by the question asked so out of context. “What really happened to her?” Holden blinked and took a step back as he raised a hand to rub the back of his neck.

“You’re right. You’ve known me since I was born. You knew my mother. You knew my father,” Stuart said, realizing that he couldn’t leave Powder Crossing without knowing the truth about his mother. He’d heard whispers. The few people he had asked about her hadn’t wanted to talk about it. All he knew was that there was some mystery about her leaving. “I’ve never gotten a straight answer about what happened to her. If anyone knows the truth, I figure it’s you.”

“We’re talking about my daughter.” When the sheriff said nothing, the rancher shook his head. “Son, that deal with your mother was long ago.”

“Not so long ago that you don’t remember. How about you be truthful with me, and I’ll be the same with you about your daughter.”

Holden’s eyes narrowed. “So, you do know what’s going on with Bailey.” Stuart said nothing. “Fine. Your mother left town in the middle of the night and was never seen again.”

He shook his head as he turned back to the coffeepot and poured them both a cup. He motioned to the table as he set a cup down in front of his chair and another across the table in front of the only other chair. “Seems like quite a few people leave here in the middle of the night and are never seen again.” He pulled out his chair and sat before picking up his cup and taking a sip of his coffee, watching Holden over the brim of his cup. “Like Charlotte Stafford’s second husband. No, that’s right, he was found in that large old abandoned well on the property next to her ranch.”

“She didn’t have anything to do with his death,” the rancher snapped.

“You’re missing the point. People don’t just leave in the middle of the night, never to be seen again, unless they’re dead. Be honest with me. Is my mother dead?”

“Did you ask your father?”

“He lied too,” Stuart said. “I had hoped you would be more honest.” He’d never been this candid, but since he was quitting his job and leaving town, he had nothing to lose, right?

Holden pulled out the other chair and sat, but he didn’t reach for the coffee. “I don’t know if she’s still alive. I do know that she had some...emotional problems, and that your father did the best he could with her, taking her to doctors to try to get her help. I don’t think I have to tell you that she wasn’t cut out for motherhood. Your father worried about you constantly. Other than that, all I know is what he told me. That she left in the middle of the night and never came back. Now it’s your turn.”

It was and wasn’t what Stuart had hoped to hear. He’d known there was something very wrong with his mother. Holden had just confirmed it, now making him wonder how many people knew about her. And why Holden McKenna, a local rancher, had been asking his father about her. He’d never gotten the impression that the rancher and his father had been friends.

“You asked about me and Bailey. I’m in love with her, have been for a long time. Can’t tell you how she feels about me because I don’t know. Right now we’re friends. Sometimes she just needs someone to talk to so she stops by, often in the wee hours of the morning. Eventually, I fall asleep. When I wake up, she’s always gone. We aren’t lovers, but I hope like hell that someday we are. I want a marriage and even—why not—kids.”

Holden looked at him in surprise. “You and Bailey, married with kids?”

“Do you have a problem with that?”

The rancher shook his head, but it was clear he had a problem with it.

“Is it because of my mother?”

Holden looked confused for a moment before he waved that off. “If I hesitated, it was because I can’t see Bailey settled down being a wife—let alone a mother. She’s hardly dated that I know of. I was beginning to think—”

“I can see her as a wife and mother,” Stuart said, wondering if that was true or just his wishful thinking. “Right now, she just needs time and space to figure out a few things on her own.” He hoped to hell that was all that was wrong with her. He was still worried, especially after telling her about Willow. Bailey knew something. He wasn’t sure how, and maybe that worried him the most.

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