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“There you go assuming things. I only said that’s what I was doing now.” Reaching the trucks, Laredo lifted a crate of canned goods from the back of his and hoisted it onto his shoulder, then hauled out the tent sack. He paused. “Any more questions? Because I’m likely to be puffing carrying this up the hill. I may not have enough air for talking.”
“Just one. Is Laredo Smith your real name?”
He gave her a wry look and shook his head in mock amazement. “Do you really think any mother is going to name her son Laredo? I don’t think so. But you keep asking questions. That’s how you learn things.” He started up the hill.
“I would learn more if I got straight answers,” Jessy countered, lifting her voice to make certain he heard her. She was almost certain she detected a low chuckle from him.
After two trips, Laredo decided that they had carried up everything they would need that night. The rest of the items were loaded into the back of his truck to be hauled up later after he had cleared away the deadfall.
Preparing to leave, Jessy slid behind the wheel of her pickup. “Tell Chase I’ll see him. I may not be able to make it back tomorrow, but I’ll come as soon as I can slip away again.”
“I’ll do it,” Laredo replied. “By the way, were you able to find anything on that Brewster fellow?”
“Not yet. I did check the hotel bill. There were several local calls on it and a few long-distance ones, but most of those were to the Triple C. I’ll keep trying to find something,” she promised and shifted the pickup into reverse, backing up and making a tight turn to make the bumpy trip back to the old fire road.
When Jessy arrived at the Triple C headquarters nearly two hours later, she was quick to notice Cat’s vehicle parked in front of The Homestead. Trey was on the veranda, demonstrating his rope skills to Quint while Laura sat in one of the rockers, playing with her doll.
The minute Trey saw her pull up to the house, he abandoned his miniature lasso and ran to the steps to meet her. “Hi, Mom. Quint’s here.”
“I see that,” Jessy said and playfully pushed the brim of Trey’s cowboy hat down over his face, then glanced at Quint. “Where’s your mom?”
“Inside with Sally.”
With both arms wrapped tightly around her doll, Laura hopped out of the rocker and scampered to Jessy’s side. “Sally’s cryin’,” Laura declared, attaching a high degree of importance to the news. “She misses Grampa a lot.”
“Grampa’s gonna buy me a horse,” Trey stated and immediately galloped away, tossing his head and whinnying in his best imitation of the animal.
Jessy went straight to the kitchen to let Sally know she was home.
As expected, she found Sally seated in one of the kitchen chairs, a balled-up handkerchief pressed to her mouth in an attempt to smother the sobs that shook her shoulders. Cat was crouched beside the chair, a comforting hand resting on the housekeeper’s arm while tears ran down her own cheeks.
When Sally caught sight of Jessy, she swallowed back her tears and mopped at the wetness on her face. “I’m sorry, Jessy,” she sniffled. “I know I shouldn’t carry on like this in front of the children, but”—her lip quivered—“I miss Chase so much.”
“We all do, Sally.” Cat’s voice trembled with feeling. “But you know he would want us to be strong.”
“I try. I really do,” Sally insisted tearfully. “But when you said you wanted to—” She pressed the handkerchief to her mouth again as if the rest of the sentence was too painful to speak.
“Forget it,” Cat told her. “We won’t clean out his room today. Okay?” she said with quiet encouragement, and Sally nodded in mute agreement. “You look exhausted, Sally. Why don’t you go lie down for a little while?”
“But the twins—” Sally began in protest.
“I’ll watch them for Jessy. You go get some rest,” Cat urged.
“I’ll try.” Sally pushed out of the chair and moved toward the doorway, a pronounced heaviness in her movements.
Jessy was grateful for Cat’s silence as she waited for Sally to leave the kitchen. Jessy needed time to collect her wits. Cat’s statement may have reassured Sally, but it had alarmed Jessy.
Right now the task of clearing Chase’s room of all his clothes and personal belongings had merely been postponed. Jessy had to come up with a logical reason to keep it that way.
“I’m worried about Sally,” Cat said the moment the woman was safely out of earshot. “Have you noticed the circles under her eyes and the weight she’s lost?”
“I know. She admitted to me that she hasn’t been able to sleep much,” Jessy replied.
“She can’t keep this up, not at her age, not without damaging her health,” Cat murmured with concern. “Maybe she should make an appointment at the clinic. Perhaps Dr. Brown could prescribe a sedative to help her sleep.”
“See if you can convince her of that,” Jessy agreed. “In the meantime, it won’t hurt to leave Chase’s room as it is for a couple months, not only for Sally’s sake but Trey’s as well. He still goes in there a lot.”
“You’re right,” Cat agreed and sighed heavily. “I just wanted to be useful. You and Sally have so much to do. This was something I could do to help.”
