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“I won’t have you talk that way,” Drew fumed. “You’ve got me, Buster.”
“You don’t get to talk to me that way,” Andy shot back. “You don’t know what it’s like to be so weak. I hate being this way. Most nights, when I go to bed, I pray I don’t wake.”
“I don’t have to listen to this!” Drew scraped her chair back, lurching out of the room.
Andy stared after her, looking lost. There was something in his expression that struck a chord with Maisie, reminding her of her own father, and she felt drawn to talk with him despite the fact the rancher scared the heck out of her most of the time.
Maisie set a cup of coffee down in front of Andy, slipping into Drew’s vacated chair. “Whatever that was about, I’m sure once she settles down, she’ll say she’s sorry. Finding Bob like that—I think it scared her.”
He grunted, a slight upgrade from the usual shrug.
“Cord tells me you and Bob are friends.”
Another grunt.
At the rate they were going, Maisie wouldn’t get a word out of the man, but she was going to keep trying all the same. He needed to talk. That much was obvious. Anger mixed with the fear in his eyes.
“Drew said Bob never had children.”
“He wanted them. God knows why. Nothing but trouble.” Andy’s voice lacked conviction, and Maisie could tell that even though his daughter sometimes got on his last nerve, he was only grumbling to save face. He loved her dearly. “He used to dote on Drew when she was little though, even more of a fool about it than Cord was. Bob gave that kid a pony for her birthday when she was six.”
No wonder Drew was so upset. Maisie wished she could comfort her, but it would have to wait. This was the most Andy had said to her since she’d arrived, and she wanted him to open up more. None of the Campbells seemed to be able to talk to each other, so as long as she was around to do it, Maisie would have to play the go-between.
“I took it from something Drew mentioned that Bob had a wife?”
“Unfortunately.”
Ouch. As a wife herself, even if only in the most technical sense, that tone stung. Did every member of this family have such a low opinion of wives?
“Jolene wasn’t the right woman for Bob. Nothing he did was ever good enough. Despite the fact he loved her.” Andy’s eyes became misty, and Maisie wasn’t sure if he was upset on Bob’s behalf or whether it was his own failed marriage he had on his mind. “This is a hard life. It takes special people to stick it out.”
Maisie nodded, recognizing a sentiment Drew had echoed many times.
“I hope Drew doesn’t suffer the same fate. I’m not sure she’d recover.” Andy sipped his coffee, staring out the window into the darkness while Maisie tried to make sense of what he’d said.
Andy knew they were married, of course—he was the only one around here who did. Did he think Drew had feelings for her? Maisie couldn’t imagine what had given him that idea. It wasn’t like anyone knew what had happened at the cabin earlier that day. Even knowing it, Maisie didn’t think it necessarily meant Drew had feelings beyond the physical type. That woman’s emotions were a mystery.
“I think anyone who would break Drew’s heart would be a fool,” Maisie said carefully, not sure why she felt the need to speak at all since it didn’t seem Andy was paying attention anymore.
But she couldn’t shake the thought that maybe the man knew more about his daughter’s heart than Maisie did. If that was the case, were his words a warning? Maisie wasn’t sure how to feel about the possibility she had any power at all over the state of Drew’s heart.
“Can I get you some more coffee?” Standing, Maisie took her empty cup to the sink, returning with the pot to top off Andy’s cup before she headed to her room.
“You might be the best thing that’s happened here in a while.” Andy was looking at the dark liquid in his mug when he said it, but Maisie had a feeling he wasn’t talking about her skill at making coffee. At the end of a very long and confusing day, it gave her hope but also uneasiness. What if Drew’s feelings for her were deeper than Maisie thought? If that was the case, there would be decisions to make that Maisie didn’t feel prepared to face.
CHAPTERTWENTY-FOUR
Drew lookedup as Maisie entered the kitchen, an odd, giddy rush going through her at the woman’s presence. She’d been sitting at the kitchen table and scrolling through the weather on her phone, an unusual moment of downtime in what had been a hectic week since their grim discovery at Whetstone Ranch. The weather forecast had improved tremendously since that day, but Bob Davis’s future was very much up in the air.
“Hey, you.” Maisie strode with purpose toward her, swooping in to wrap her arms around Drew’s shoulders and give her a kiss on the back of the neck.
“Hey.” Drew took a quick breath, caught between the desire to sink into the embrace and the need to double-check no one was watching.
“Relax,” Maisie whispered. “Your dad’s gone out to the horse barn, Cord’s over at Whetstone with Lee, Karen went into town for groceries, and your sister’s at school, which means we’ve finally got the house to ourselves.”
“For at least another five minutes,” Drew said with a laugh, not that it was far from the truth. She and Maisie had barely enjoyed a moment alone since they’d left the cabin, and with the extra work of managing Bob’s livestock until the doctors could give anyone a proper prognosis, Drew had begun to despair of ever feeling Maisie’s arms around her again. “Maybe we should volunteer for the evening shift and swing by the cabin while we’re at it.”
“I wouldn’t say no.” Maisie planted one more peck on Drew’s neck before letting go and sitting beside her at the table. “I know we said we’d keep things under wraps while at the house and around your family, but I don’t think I realized how difficult it was going to be to get time alone.”
