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Jenna glanced at him with kind blue eyes. “You have to remember that Caleb hasn’t got a family. No sons or grandsons to carry on his name. He needs something to be remembered by.”
“So that’s the purpose—immortality?”
“Maybe a little. Besides, a man has to do something to keep busy. Just ’cause you reach a certain age is no reason to curl up and die.”
“I suppose not,” Chase thought aloud, taking a long swallow of beer. “But, tell me, do you think that he would do anything . . . underhanded to get the resort going?”
“Illegal, you mean?”
Chase didn’t answer.
“I doubt it.”
“Not even bend a few rules?”
Jenna’s countenance became stern. “You don’t like him much, do you?”
Chase’s brows drew together thoughtfully. “I don’t think it’s so much a question of liking the man; I’m just not sure I can trust him.”
Jenna sighed and shook her head as she placed the top crust over the sugared apples in the pie pan. “All I know is that he’s been a fair employer. And—” she paused in her work to look Chase straight in the eye “—you’re special to him.”
“I don’t think so—”
Jenna waved off his thoughts. “I’ve seen him with a lot of men. He treats you different.”
“Different? How?”
Jenna thought for a moment, trying to find just the right words. “Like you was kin,” she finally said, nodding as if in agreement with her thoughts. “That’s it. He treats you like he would a son, if he had one.”
Chase experienced a strange tightening in his gut and he forced a smile. “Fortunately
, I already had a father. He died a few years back, but I certainly don’t need Johnson to fill his shoes.”
“I don’t think Caleb would want to try.”
“And I don’t think Caleb thinks of me as anything but a business partner,” Chase said, taking another swallow of his beer and sauntering out the back door.
Flies and wasps were trapped in the hot back porch. They buzzed in frustration against the old screens as Chase passed through. He stopped to adjust the brim of his Stetson and walked out into the late afternoon sun.
Caleb was leaning over the top rail of a fence, staring out at the dry pasture where his herd of horses was grazing on the sun-parched grass.
Chase felt the anger ticking inside him like a time bomb. How much of Dani’s story was true—that Caleb had done everything he could to run her off her land? And how much was just her imagination running wild? Did Caleb know about the drum of dioxin poisoning the water? Just how far would the old man go to achieve his ends? Stomach tight from reining in his anger, his jaw clenching rigidly, Chase approached the older man.
“We sure could use some more of that rain we got the other night,” Caleb observed, spotting Chase.
Rain. The other night. Dani. “Weather service predicts another shower in the next couple of days.”
“Good.”
“How was the trip?”
“’Bout what I expected.”
Chase put his foot on the bottom rail of the fence and tried to appear congenial. An actor he wasn’t, but he could remain calm if he had to. And right now, he had to. Dani’s future was on the line. If he believed her. Things just weren’t black and white anymore and gray never had been Chase’s favorite color. “Sounds good,” he remarked.
“Could’ve been better.”
“Or worse.”
