Page 6 of Deacon (Men of Clifton, Montana #52)

Ava’s fingers hovered over the keyboard as she stared at the glow of the spreadsheet on her laptop, the numbers blurring behind her exhaustion.

On the large rug, beside her, Ellie sat cross-legged with a tower of pastel wooden blocks.

Each block was painted a different color, sunny yellow, robin’s-egg blue, vivid red, and etched with a letter or a simple picture of a cat, a tree, a star.

The toddler then sent the whole thing crashing to the floor.

Her giggle light and utterly unrestrained.

Ava smiled despite herself. Ellie was such a bright little girl.

Her phone buzzed against the desktop, jolting her back to the present. Ellie paused mid-giggle and turned her cherubic face toward Ava, her mouth forming a perfect ‘O’. The sight tugged at Ava’s heart, but duty came first. She picked her phone up and pressed it to her ear.

“Hi, Dad,” she said.

On the other end, her father’s voice rumbled through. “Well, it looks like Deke is on top of things. He said he’s on his way back tomorrow morning.”

The name prickled at her skin. She wasn’t sure she was ready to see him again so soon. “He is?”

“Yes,” her father continued, his tone firm. “And once he solves this case, you are to sit down and talk with him. Do you understand?”

Ava closed her eyes. “Yes, Dad. I know.”

“Good. He’s already missed two years of her life.” There was a pause before he added, softer, “I get it, Ava. But she needs a father, too. ”

She nodded, even though he couldn’t see. “I’ll talk with him.”

“I’ll see you later.” The line went dead.

Ava exhaled; her chest heavy with anticipation. She forced herself back to the spreadsheet, entering employee hours for next week’s payroll, but the rows of figures swam before her eyes. She needed coffee, or a nap, or both.

When dinnertime rolled around, she opened the fridge to find nothing appealing.

She scooped Ellie into her arms, grabbed her keys, and after buckling Ellie into her car seat, steered the SUV toward town, the late August heat shimmering off the pavement.

The air conditioning struggled against it.

She texted her father for requests; he declined.

In the drive-thru line, Ellie jabbered in her babble, her dark curls bouncing as she tried to say “truck.” Her laughter was infectious; Ava found herself giggling, too.

The tray of burgers and fries came with a paper cup sweating condensation.

She groaned at the greasy aroma and couldn’t wait to eat once she got home.

Once there, she settled Ellie before the TV with her fries and burger that Ava had broken into smaller pieces. Bright cartoon animals danced across the screen in bubblegum colors, and Ellie clapped at every flip and flop.

Ava organized receipts and invoices for her father’s cattle ranch, each weekly sale meant more checks to log, more ledgers to balance.

She stared at the numbers, her mind drifting to Deacon coming back.

Her own father tried to spend as much time with Ellie that he could, but the ranch demanded a lot of his hours.

At least working from home let her keep Ellie close.

That night, Ava tucked her daughter into bed, smoothing soft curls from her forehead. When she finally lay down herself, sleep was elusive. What would Deacon say when he saw Ellie again? Would he push for custody? She pressed her hands to her eyes as she prayed.

“God, please let him understand how much I love her. I can’t bear to lose my little girl.” Her heart pounded in the darkness as she also prayed for courage to face tomorrow.

The next morning, she woke up feeling as if her eyes were filled with sand, but she had to get up because she could hear Ellie calling for her. When she entered her bedroom, Ellie was standing up in her crib with her little arms reaching out.

“Mama,” she said.

“Hi, sweet baby girl. How are you this morning,” Ava said as she lifted her, then placed her on the changing table to put on a fresh pull-up diaper. “Are you hungry?”

“Yeah,” Ellie said as she clapped her hands. She was saying more every day.

After getting them breakfast, Ava got to work while Ellie sat on the floor playing with her dolls. Once in a while, Ava would go sit on the floor with her.

“You’re going to meet your daddy soon and Mama is scared to death.”

Ellie looked at her and grinned. “Mama.”

“Yes, and soon a daddy.” Ava shook her head. This had to go well. It just had to.

*** *

As Deke walked into the hotel lobby the following morning, the woman behind the counter greeted him with a smile that quickly turned into a frown. He chuckled at her reaction as he set his bag on the floor.

“Yeah, I know. I checked out the other day, but I had to come back. Do you have any rooms available?”

“We do. It’s nice to see a satisfied customer return.” She smiled flirtatiously at him, but though she was very pretty, he wasn’t interested.

“It’s a great place.”

She nodded and checked her computer.

“Unfortunately, I don’t have the same room available. But we do have several vacancies. Would you like a king size bed since you’re a big man?” Her face flushed as she realized what she had said, and she quickly told him the price for the night.

“A king is perfect.” Deke tried not to grin as he swiped his credit card through the machine.

“Do you know how long you’ll be staying with us?”

“I’m not sure. It could be a few days or weeks, it depends.”

“I understand.” She handed him a keycard for his room. “Enjoy your stay.”

“I’m sure I will. Thank you.” He nodded and picked up his duffle bag before heading toward the elevator. As he stepped inside and pressed the button for his floor, he caught sight of the woman still watching him from behind the counter as the doors closed shut.

When the elevator stopped on his floor, he waited as the doors opened, and stepped out.

He strode in the direction of his room and stopped in front of the door, inserted the keycard and pushed the door open.

After making sure the door closed, he put the security latch on, then tossed his duffle bag onto the bed.

He unzipped it, removed his clothes, put them in a drawer, then he took the computer from the bag, sat on the bed, took off his boots, and swung his legs up onto the bed.

Opening his laptop, he looked into the Winchester family and learned quite a bit and it wasn’t all good.

Deke shook his head as he read about the family.

It seemed they were always in trouble with the local law.

Not that any livestock theft was mentioned but they were cited for destroying neighbors’ fences to move their own past their boundary lines.

Two of the sons, ages twenty and twenty-two were arrested for putting poison down a well on another neighbors’ property, though for some reason, the charges were later dropped.

Deke had a feeling their father got them out of it.

Luckily, no animals or people were hurt.

The well had to be closed and that might have been their purpose all along.

The oldest boy ended up in jail for getting into a fight with another neighbor. If the family had problems getting along with three of their neighbors, Deke knew it was not a stretch that they had problems with Hollister.

“Damn. How in the hell did they get away with so much shit?” Deke murmured as he looked up local politicians, judges, lawyers, and law enforcement.

He scanned his eyes through, what looked like a lot of names for such a small town, but he saw nothing that would tell him exactly why they got away with everything.

His stomach growled and he realized it was time for lunch. He set the computer on the bed, opened the drawer on the nightstand and pulled out several local menus. He was happy to see that a couple of them delivered.

He knew he could go downstairs and eat at the buffet, but he was too interested in getting through these names to leave the room.

After placing an order with a sandwich shop, he got back to looking into the names. He wanted to send a text to Mr. Hollister about getting here, but he’d wait until his lunch arrived.

Twenty minutes later, a knock sounded on the door, he stood, picked his wallet up from the nightstand, and got the delivery person a tip, then he peered through the peephole to see a kid standing there, so he opened the door.

“Hey, I can smell that already,” Deke said.

The kid grinned. “We have the best burgers in town.”

Deke smirked. Yeah, maybe in this town.

“I sure hope so, I’m starving.” He reached for the bag.

“Are you a cop?” the kid asked as he handed Deke the bag of food and nodded at his badge hooked to his belt.

“Livestock agent out of Clifton.”

“Cool. I’ve been there. It’s a great town.”

“Yes, it is. Here you go.” Deke handed him a twenty. He’d already paid for the meal online.

“Oh, hey, I don’t have any change.”

Deke grinned. “I don’t expect any. Have a good day.”

“Wow! Thank you. Enjoy your meal. Later, man.” The kid walked down the hall and Deke closed the door with a grin.

Walking toward the bed, he opened the bag, inhaled, and groaned at the wonderful smells coming from it.

Sinking down onto the plush hotel bed, Deacon released a contented sigh as he reached for the foil-wrapped burger and small bag of onion rings. Taking a bite of one of the crispy rings, he gave a nod of approval.

“Not quite as good as Connie’s, but still damn good,” he muttered to himself before taking a bite of the burger. It was delicious, but in his opinion, none could rival the mouth-watering burgers from the Clifton Diner.