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She thought of Spencer, bleeding somewhere. Maybe he’d had to go to the hospital, and her heart took a dive toward her toes.
“Sure, Daddy,” Travis said.
“Okay, then we—”
“Everyone stop talking!” Clarissa yelled. All four men looked at her, Lee blinking quite rapidly. She drew in a frustrated breath. “Someone better tell me where Spencer is right now.” Her chest heaved, and her fingers curled into fists. “Right. Now.”
The four of them exchanged a group glance, and then Travis put his arm around her shoulders. “Rissy, we don’t know where he is.”
“What do you mean, you don’t know where he is?” She looked up at her brother, one of her best friends. He wouldn’t lie to her, would he?
“He left, almost immediately after the fight. The cops want to talk to him too, but we don’t know where he is. He’s not answering his phone.”
Desperation rose through her, and she quickly pulled out her phone. Though she hadn’t talked to him in almost two weeks, she dialed his number without hesitation. “Maybe he’ll answer me,” she said, her voice the only thing shaking, and only a little bit.
His line rang and rang, with his voice finally saying, “Clarissa?”
“Spencer,” she said, relief rushing through her with the power of a herd of stampeding bulls. “Where are you?”
He did hesitate before asking, “Why? Where are you?”
“I’m at the farm,” she said, though she didn’t want to get into why. She met Daddy’s eyes and turned her back on the men in front of her. “My brothers told me what happened. Sort of.”
He sighed, and she could hear the unrest in his very soul. “The cops want to talk to me, I’m sure.”
“They did say that, yes.”
“I’m at Hope Eternal Ranch,” he said. “Ginger is going to feed me lunch, and I’ll call the cops right now.”
She nodded, her own hope spiraling up and down and around. After giving herself a few more feet of space to have a more private conversation, she said, “Would Ginger be able to handle another mouth for lunch?”
“I don’t see why not,” he said, his voice guarded.
“Can I come?” she asked outright. “I want to talk to you.”
He sighed, and maybe she should just tell him right now how she felt about him. “It’s fine with me,” he said.
She looked over her shoulder, where all the men in her family still watched her, silently. It might have been the first time they’d done that, and she gave them a small smile.
“Are you okay, Spencer?” she asked, her voice tender to her own ears.
“Ginger fixed me up for now,” he said, and if Clarissa hadn’t seen the friendship between him and Ginger, she might have been jealous. “I might have to go get stitches. We’ll see after lunch.”
Clarissa had no idea what time it was. She’d driven from San Antonio on a seat of pinpricks and anxiety. “I’m on my way.”
“You remember where the house is?”
“Yes, sir,” she said. “See you soon.” She ended the call and faced her family. “He’s going to call the police station. He’s at Hope Eternal. I’m going to go eat lunch with him.” She hugged her father again, so many more things to say that stayed in the back of her throat.
“Bring him home,” Daddy said, as if he’d heard all the things of Clarissa’s heart and understood them. “Dinner tonight. Six o’clock at the pavilion. Everyone—especially him—is invited. Bring the cowboys from Hope Eternal too.” He stepped back and smiled at her, and Clarissa tucked his confidence into her pocket and headed for Hope Eternal Ranch.
* * *
Twenty minutes later,her sedan bumped over the dirt road that went across the river. The big double-house came into view, with all that sparkling green grass around it. Spencer’s beat-up, white truck sat in the driveway, and Clarissa’s pulse went wild.
She drew in a deep breath and pressed her palms together. She only needed to do one thing at a time, and the first item was to get out of the car. After managing that, she looked toward the porch only to find Spencer already standing there.
She froze as their eyes met across the distance. With her pulse booming in her ears, she practically yelled, “I made a mistake. I want to take the leap of faith.”
