“Raiden certainly kept a calm demeanor when I butted heads with Cormac,” he said. “Which was probably more often that it should have been.”
“And the youngest?”
“Phoenix definitely got the wild-child gene, but nothing like our father. Phoenix marches to his own drum and never cared what anyone else thought about him. He’s grown now, but he sure ran with the wild mustangs, if you will, when we were younger. Not party-boy wild. More like a wild horse that didn’t want to be tamed. In fact, there was a stint when we thoughthe would run off to join the rodeo.” He thought about how different their mothers were. “All three of us come from different relationships, so I’m sure that influenced our personalities as well.”
“You’re how many years apart?”
“There’s two years between Raiden and me, then one between him and Phoenix.” Cormac was clearly “busy” in his younger days. Busy being a jerk who treated women like they were expendable. Blaize had learned how not to treat the opposite sex by watching dear old dad.
“Yikes.”
“Yep.” That was Cormac. “Classy, right?”
“It’s hard to forgive your parents, isn’t it?” Carys asked after a thoughtful pause. “They’re human, and you kind of remember that. But they can hurt you the most out of anyone else, and their actions shape you for better or worse.”
This sounded like more admission and commiseration than a comment about his life.
“It is next to impossible to forgive the bad ones,” he said. “No one expects them to be perfect. Not as adults anyway. I’ve seen it done right. Take Kit, for example.”
“She is close to perfection.”
He smiled. “I would agree there.”
“And easy to love.”
“It’s strange how her son came out so opposite,” he said. “All Cormac cared about was a good party. I’m still scratching my head as to why my grandfather left him the responsibility of the ranch.”
“Do you think it’s possible your grandfather believed his son might change with the right amount of responsibility or motivation? Grow into the role?”
“It’s hard to know what the man’s thoughts were. He was the silent type. We always knew he loved us, even though I can’trecall ever hearing him say the words. It was just his way. He did things like help Kit make our lunches before heading out for a long day working cattle. Or check in with us at night after we were ready for bed to ask if we’d eaten. We had and he knew the dinner routine. It was his way of making sure we knew he cared.”
“Kit is so outgoing,” Carys said. “Guess it is true what they say about opposites attracting.”
He barked out a laugh at that one. It had been true in his marriage. He’d been the steady stream while Lynn had taken the roll of hurricane. “That’s not always a positive.”
“I hear you,” she said, surprising him with her honesty. “I dated someone I thought was smart, maybe almost too smart, and he became clingy. Thought we were in a serious relationship when we weren’t. I gave his name to the sheriff when he asked, but I haven’t seen or heard from James in a couple of months.”
“What do you mean by clingy?” He had no right to be jealous of her ex. Yet there was an undeniable twinge.
“I would turn the aisle at a grocery store and he’d be at the other end, hiding and spying,” she said. “He wasn’t good at it. Other times he’d suddenly be standing beside me while I was distracted looking in the meat case. Used to freak me right out.”
“Did you file a complaint with the law?”
“No.” She shook her head. “He never tried to harm me or attack me in any way. Just left a rose on top of the hood of my car. Or a note saying he missed me and wanted to see me again. Small things like that, along with being in the same place at the same time. All of it used to creep me out. When someone says no, they mean no.”
“Some people need to be taught the meaning of that word.”
Blaize didn’t like the sound of this one bit. James might have been stewing in his anger, plotting, over these past weeks. And now, what? He showed up during a storm because he’d been watching her house? It was plausible. At least the sheriff hadJames’s name now. The man could be investigated and vetted. The sheriff would want to know if James had an alibi for yesterday.
Maybe Blaize could do a little more digging into James’s background now that he had a name to work with and possibly a motive.
Carys’s gaze shifted to the right, focused on something. A worry line creased her forehead.
“What is it?” he asked.
“I’m not sure, but I intend to find out,” she said, starting in the direction of the object that had her concerned.
CARYSSAW Aglint of metal on the ground in the tree line. She didn’t want to get too ahead of herself, but it looked like it could be some kind of sharp object. A blade of some kind. A weapon?
