Chapter Two

Chapter Two

“Jace! Jace, stop!”

But Jace continued to race down the corridor to Grady’s classroom.

“Jace, for God’s sake, Doreen saw her get in a car and drive away and Grady’s teacher has been notified.” Marta was right behind him. “Slow down, please. He’s fine. Grady is fine. And if you barge into his classroom, you’ll scare him and the other kids.”

She was right, of course. But Jace needed to see Grady for himself. It was visceral, not because he was a cop but because he was a parent.

It was after eleven. Freshman Spanish. Jace knew where it was because he himself had taken Spanish in this very high school when he was fourteen.

He got to Grady’s classroom, slid to a stop, and peered inside the door’s glass window. There was Grady, sitting in the fourth row with his head bowed, taking a quiz. He’d studied hard for it, practicing vocabulary words with Jace and Charlie the previous evening.

He ducked away before his son saw him and let out a long breath.

“You know we would never release a student to the care of anyone who isn’t authorized, right?” Marta had her hands on her hips and was chastising him like he was one of her students.

“I know the protocol, Marta.” Hell, he’d helped write it.

“What’s going on, Jace? Do you know who this woman is?”

“What did she look like?”

“Gosh, it happened so fast. The only reason I saw her at all is because I happened to come in off the quad while she was talking to Doreen.”

“Let’s talk to Doreen, then.”

The moment they walked into the office together, Doreen rose from her chair behind the counter and held out her arms to Jace for a hug. “What’s going on, Jace? Who do you think she is?”

“I need a full description, Doreen. Anything you can remember, any little detail, is important.”

“Now you’re scaring me.”

From the moment he’d talked to Marta, he had his suspicions. It was like an instant premonition; he could even feel his ex-wife’s presence. But for Mary Ann to show up after more than six years of radio silence . . . well, it didn’t make sense. Of course, he couldn’t rule out that it was someone else. Although Mill County was relatively small and peaceful, being sheriff came with a fair number of enemies. And although Charlie’s ex was safely locked up, Corbin could have friends on the outside willing to exact revenge for him.

“Let’s start with the car and work backward,” Jace said. “Marta said you saw her drive away. Any chance you got a license plate number?”

Doreen covered her mouth and shook her head. “Oh, dear, I should’ve taken a picture. It just happened so fast.”

“Don’t worry about it. Most people miss it.” He gave her arm a reassuring squeeze. “How about a description of the car?”

“It was white and compact. Other than that, I didn’t think to look at the make or the model. Nothing like this has ever happened before. It’s Dry Creek, for heaven’s sake.”

“I know. White and compact is good.” He tried to be encouraging, but it sure would’ve been helpful if she’d gotten a license plate number. “What did she look like?”

“Uh, pretty. Blond, blue eyes. About my height. Thin build. About your age, maybe a little younger. It’s hard to tell.”

Mary Ann.

“Did she give you a name?”

“No, only that Grady Dalton was her son and she wanted to speak to him.”

“What happened after she asked to talk to Grady?” Jace asked.

“I said Charlie was Grady’s mother and I think I said something about calling the police. But I can’t remember for sure. All I know is that she left and something told me to follow her outside. That’s when I saw her get in the white car and drive away.” Doreen looked ready to collapse. “I’m sorry, Jace. I should’ve done more. She just caught me off guard.”

“You did great, Doreen. Really, you’ve been extremely helpful.”

It had to be Mary Ann. The matching description and the fact that she’d said she was Grady’s mother. Too many coincidences. And Jace didn’t believe in coincidences.

He turned to Marta. “It sounds like it was my ex-wife, Mary Ann. I don’t know if she still goes by Dalton or uses her maiden name, Culbertson. She’s Grady’s biological mother. But she’s been absent from both my sons’ lives for a long time. I have full custody. And for now, under no circumstances is she allowed to have any contact with Grady. If she comes around here again, I’d appreciate you calling me. I’m sorry for the inconvenience.”

He started to leave, needing space to wrap his head around the fact that Mary Ann was here in Dry Creek after leaving him, Travis, and Grady without so much as a glance in her review mirror. In the beginning she sent the boys an occasional birthday card or a small trinket from wherever she happened to be. Mexico, Costa Rica, Portugal, Spain. Last he’d heard, she was living with some dude in the French countryside. But who really knew with her?

“Jace, is she dangerous?” Marta asked as he made it to the door.

“No. Just flaky.” And a crappy mother, but Jace kept that to himself. “Still, I don’t want her ambushing Grady. He should hear about her from me first.” Both his boys should hear it from him before Mary Ann decided to crash into their lives on one of her misguided whims.

He drove back to the sheriff’s department, sat in his truck, and decided he needed a couple of mental health hours or whatever the hell they were calling it these days. On his way home, he called Annabeth and told her he was off the clock but available by phone.

It wasn’t until he drove through the Dry Creek Ranch gate that he could breathe again. This place had always been his refuge. Even as a kid, when has parents and baby brother had been killed by a drunken driver, it was the ranch and his grandparents who had salved his grief and made him whole again.

Grandpa Dalton had loved the ranch as if it was his fourth son and built it into a profitable cattle enterprise. But when California suffered drought after drought he’d had to cull the herd. Without the revenue stream, the ranch had fallen into decay. By the time Grandpa Dalton died, the ranch, all except for the beautiful home he’d built for Jace’s now late grandmother, was on its last legs.

That was where Jace, Cash, Sawyer, and Angie came in. Instead of selling to a hungry developer, who would’ve turned the Daltons’ five hundred acres into a planned community of minimansions, swimming pools, and golf courses, the four of them had turned things around. And although his cousins had grown up elsewhere, they all called Dry Creek Ranch their homes now.

He pulled up to the sprawling ranch house, the place he’d called home since his parents’ deaths, and cut the engine. The dogs, Sherpa and Benson, greeted him with their usual slobbery exuberance. Scout, his favorite hound, had gotten cancer last year and they’d had to put him down. He was buried by the big oak tree down by the horse barn.

The TV was on in the house and Jace followed the sound to the family room, where he found Travis lying on the couch.

“How you doing, kiddo?”

Travis shrugged but looked miserable just the same. “How come you’re home?”

“Wanted to check in with you and Charlie. Where is she?”

“Down at the barn.” That’s what they called Refind because Charlie and Cash’s wife, Aubrey, had commandeered one of the old ranch barns to use for their furniture store and design business.

“You eat?”

“Mom made me a sandwich.” There was a half-eaten PB and J on a plate on the coffee table next to a glass of milk.

“You going to eat that?” Jace grabbed the uneaten half and took a bite.

“Guess not,” Travis said.

“You okay here while I drive down to the barn?”

“Go for it. But bring me back one of those big cookies from the Dalton Market.”

“I see you’re milking this poison oak thing for all it’s worth.”

“Don’t forget,” Travis called as Jace headed out the door.

He’d get Travis his cookie and one for Grady too. He’d also be waiting for his younger son when Grady got out of school today. Jace wasn’t leaving anything to chance.

He found Charlie behind the barn, painting an old china hutch, making it look new again. She’d made a lucrative business out of upcycling old furniture pieces she bought at garage sales, antique markets, craigslist, even stuff she rescued from the landfill. She and Aubrey had made quite a name for themselves in the Sierra Foothills and had furnished and decorated homes from Lake Tahoe, an hour up the road, to three hours away in San Francisco. They even had clients as far away as Vail and Park City who wanted to hire them to dude up their vacation homes.

“Should you be painting?” He came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her swollen belly.

“Hey, what are you doing home?” She turned in his arms and kissed him.

“It’s been a day.” He huffed out a breath. “I’ll tell you about it. But first more of this.” He draped her arms over his shoulders and finished what she had started with a much deeper kiss. Man, he loved the taste of her and the sweet way she hummed her pleasure as his mouth devoured hers.

The kiss was over too soon, but if he kept going like this, he’d never make it back to work.

“Can we go inside for a few minutes?” He wanted privacy, but he also wanted his wife off her feet and away from paint fumes.

They took the back door that bypassed the store and followed the hallway to Charlie’s office. It was a closet-size room with a desk, a laptop, two chairs, and walls that were covered in magazine pages, paint chips, and fabric swatches. Charlie called them her inspiration walls.

“Where’s Aubrey?” He loved his cousin’s wife, who also happened to be one of his best friends, but she had a big mouth. It was only a matter of time before the whole family found out about Mary Ann and how she’d surfaced at Grady’s school. But for now he wanted to keep it under wraps until he figured out his next move.

“She’s in Sacramento, doing a bid for a couple who want to redo their pool house.”

“Who’s minding the store?” Sometimes his cousin Angie helped out. She was better at keeping confidences than Aubrey, but in this instance it was best to keep her out of the loop too.

“That nice girl who sometimes works at the floral shop. Kelly. She and her boyfriend are saving for a wedding and she can use the hours.”

Jace had no clue who Kelly was, but as long as she wasn’t one of his busybody family members, he didn’t care. “So Marta Martinez called me today.”

“Uh-oh, what did Grady do?”

“Nothing. There was a woman at the school today claiming to be Grady’s mom and wanted Doreen to get him out of class so she could talk to him.”

“What?” Charlie’s eyes grew large. “Who was she, Jace?”

Jace let the silence stretch between them, giving her time to figure it out.

“Oh, no, you don’t think it was Mary Ann?”

“Doreen’s description matches. And who else could it be?”

“I don’t know, some psycho. It’s not like you don’t hear or read every day about some awful person going into a school and—”

He cocked his brows. “You trying to protect my delicate sensibilities?”

“I can’t bear to say it. My point is how do we know it’s Mary Ann?”

“We don’t for sure. But if it walks like a duck . . .”

“Why would she show up after all these years without calling or somehow notifying you? It doesn’t make sense.”

“Nothing about her ever made sense.” Who leaves their children? He could forgive her for leaving him, but Travis and Grady? Never.

“What are we going to do?”

It meant a lot to Jace that Charlie always used “we” when they were talking about the boys. Ever since she’d come into their lives, she’d fixed a part of them that Jace hadn’t even realized was broken. And the boys had welcomed her into the family with open hearts. They loved her as much as Jace did.

“I don’t know. A part of me hopes this is a one off, that she was in the area and showed up to the school on impulse. She’s got family in Roseville, so it wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility. And maybe she’ll just go away. Also not out of the realm of possibility because leaving is her MO.”

Charlie looked skeptical. “I’d say that’s wishful thinking. Extremely wishful.”

“Probably. But before I go off half-cocked and tell the boys, I’d like to check it out first. Do some nosing around.”

“Okay. But what if she shows up again? Grady’s got all kinds of activities outside school. What if she comes to one of his Little League games or a 4-H event? It seems like we should give both Travis and Grady a little warning.”

She was right of course. But he wasn’t ready to shake up their worlds for a woman who was as unreliable as his grandfather’s old John Deere tractor.

“Just a day or two,” he said. “I’m not going to let Mary Ann wreck them again.”

“Wrecked” was an understatement. After Mary Ann left the boys were complete shells of their former selves. For years they worried themselves sick that Jace wouldn’t come home, that he would up and leave them like their mother did. Grady slept with a sock puppet Mary Ann made him until he was nearly ten years old. And poor Travis believed he had to assume the role of second parent until Charlie came along. If it hadn’t been for Jace’s aunts, uncles, and cousins, who loved his sons like they were their own, the boys wouldn’t have the sense of security they had now.

And Jace would be damned before he let Mary Ann blow it up again.

“But don’t wait too long, Jace. I would hate for either Grady or Travis to be broadsided by Mary Ann.”

“I won’t. I just want to get a bead on the situation, a little background.”

“You think she’s moved back to the States?”

“I have no idea. I lost track of her years ago. But that’s what I’m hoping to find out.”

“I still don’t understand why she wouldn’t have called you first.”

He held her gaze. “It’s pretty obvious to me. What’s that saying? ‘It’s better to ask for forgiveness than it is to ask for permission.’ Because she wasn’t getting any permission from me.”

He pulled Charlie up from her chair. “Come here and kiss me before I go back to work.”

She leaned in and touched her lips to his, teasing. She never failed to drive him crazy.

“Please don’t work too hard.” He rested his hand on her stomach. “And leave the painting for someone else.”

“It’s perfectly safe, Jace. But I will take it easy, I promise. Same goes for you.” She poked him in the arm. “I know it’s difficult, but please don’t work yourself up about Mary Ann. Whatever happens, we’ll work through it as a family.”

He nodded but wasn’t so sure it was that easy. Mary Ann had the power to rock the hard-won balance he’d managed to maintain these last few years. And his gut told him she was about to shake the ground out from under him.