Page 5 of Forever Finds Us (Wisper Dreams #7)

Chapter Four

Brand

I only met the Mannings once, yesterday at breakfast.

My whole family had gathered for lemon and berry crêpes and bacon at the picnic tables outside Abey’s house, since it was the closest residence to the cabin the Mannings had rented, and their twin eight-year-old boys helped harvest vegetables from Abey’s and Devo’s garden afterward.

Little Stuey followed after them with sticky fingers, trying to be a big boy too, and so many memories of his dad rushed through my head.

Stuey was just like Dixon had been when he was a little boy, inquisitive and enigmatic, and the sadness I felt when I thought about how that had all been stripped away from him when he was older made me sick to my stomach.

None of my family could understand why Dixon had given Stuey to Bax and Bea, but I did. Just like me, Dixon was trying hard as hell not to turn out like our father. He was trying to protect Stu from his failures and bad habits.

The missing girl, the Mannings’ daughter, Natalie, had taken the opportunity to utilize the strong Wi-Fi signal at breakfast and had spent the entire meal on her phone.

They seemed like a nice family. The dad, Xavier, was a warehouse supervisor for a beer distribution company out of Nebraska, and the mom, Angie, if I remembered correctly, was a dental hygienist. The kids had a long weekend off from school.

It was fall break, so Xavier and Angie had dragged them to the Tetons for some family bonding, fishing and hiking.

But now, that bright, happy breakfast filled with laughter and smiles seemed tainted in my memory as Tabitha and I met Deputy Roxanne and her partner at cabin five, also known as Cowboy Court.

Athena had insisted on naming each cabin with ridiculous monikers like Wilder West, Mini-Moose Lodge, and my favorite, Teton Taj.

Cabin five, Cowboy Court, was a mid-sized rental, bigger than cabin one but much smaller and half the square footage of cabin ten, Teton Taj.

“Hello again,” I said, trying not to notice the tight fit of Roxanne’s uniform as she stepped from her truck.

She looked pretty amazing in her dress at the wedding earlier, long legs flowing from the thigh-length skirt.

But damn, the way her uniform hugged those thighs had me imagining slipping my hand between them.

Shit.

“So, no one’s heard from Natalie?” I asked, trying to steer my brain back to rational thoughts while a shorter, fit man exited the passenger side of Roxanne’s truck and anchored his hands over his hips.

Along with his uniform, he wore a Teton County ball cap, and a pair of Ray-Bans hung from his vest pocket.

All the usual law enforcement tools had been clipped to his belt: small flashlight, pepper spray, Taser, and handcuffs, and his nametag was clearly displayed above his right vest pocket.

A holstered black handgun had been strapped around his thigh, and a metal sheriff’s department star shone over his left pocket.

Roxanne was dressed similarly, and the difference in the deputies’ heights was almost comical, but in my view only made Roxanne that much more stunning. I’d met her three times now, and each time, she was more beautiful than the time before.

Something about seeing her decked out in all her weapons again made adrenaline zing through my bloodstream like a very bad idea.

“No, sir,” the man answered. Roxanne’s partner extended his hand and we shook. “Deputy Dan Draven.”

“Brand Lee.” I motioned to Tab. “This is my office manager, Tabitha Ketterman.”

“Ma’am,” Deputy Dan said in a stiff greeting.

“Nice to meet you,” Tab said. “Wish it were under better circumstances.”

Dan nodded.

I addressed Roxanne and handed her a key.

“That’s the master key for cabin five. We asked around at the reception.

No one has seen Natalie this afternoon. Abey texted a picture she took yesterday to show the guests, but no one recognized her.

We did a quick search of the empty cabins, and I knocked on the occupied cabins’ doors, too, and asked anyone available, but no luck. ”

“Thank you,” Roxanne said, and she took the key from my hand. She smiled but there was a determination etched in her eyes, different than I’d seen from her before. She was taking Natalie’s disappearance very seriously. “Have you been inside?”

“No. We looked in the windows, but we didn’t touch anything, and we didn’t see anybody inside. If this turns out to be somethin’ more than a kid who got lost in the mountains, my sister will have my head if I mess up her crime scene.”

“Stand back, please,” Dan said as Roxanne slipped on a pair of thin, black gloves she’d had in her pants pocket and inserted the key in the front door’s lock.

Her right hand went to rest on the gun at her hip.

She flipped the catch on her holster with her thumb so the weapon would be accessible if she needed it.

“Whoa. It’s really that serious?” Tab whispered to me, leaning closer, but Dan heard her and answered.

“We don’t know the circumstances, ma’am, so until we do, it is that serious. Yes.”

Tab slipped her arm through mine and leaned against me, watching the deputies, and a little hum sounded in her throat. Seriously? She was into this short, brusque deputy, Dan? But I supposed I couldn’t talk. The uniform on Roxanne was doing things to me too.

But we were here for way more important reasons, so we waited like that, listening to the deputies clear the cabin’s rooms, until a couple minutes later, they exited and stood on the porch.

“Empty,” Roxanne said.

“That’s not good, right?” I asked.

“It’s not bad,” she answered. “We were just hopin’ Natalie had caught a ride with someone and maybe they’d dropped her off here. It sure would be nice to be able to call her parents and tell ’em we found her safe and sound.”

Tab let out a little whimper. “What can we do?”

“Just be on the lookout, ma’am,” Dan said. “If you see the girl, call us immediately.”

Roxanne’s eyes darted from my face to Tab’s, then they brushed quickly over Tab’s arm still holding onto mine.

It wasn’t normal for my employee to be so informal, but technically, she was my plus-one at my brother’s wedding, and we’d kind of been thrown into uncharted territory with the move and the changing business, but there were zero romantic feelings between the two of us.

Tab was more like a little sister to me.

“Do you have a card or somethin’ with your number?” I asked Roxanne.

Roxanne shook her head, but Dan nodded and slipped Tab a card from his pocket with the local sheriff’s logo printed on it. “Both our numbers are on there. We’ll let you know if there’s anything further,” he said.

“Sure. Thanks.” I smiled at Roxanne, and she gave a curt nod and one more glance at Tab’s hand on my arm, then they left.

“You got a thing for Deputy Dan?” I asked my friend as we watched them drive away.

“What!” Tab said, astounded I’d put her on the spot like that. She smacked my forearm playfully. “Are we talking about boys and girls now? And for your information, I was just admiring his professionalism.”

That earned my office manager a snort from me as we headed past the cabins to the trail that would lead us back to the party by the lake.

But she was right that since she’d come to work at Lee Construction, we hadn’t been the kind of coworkers or friends that talked about our dates or love interests.

Like I’d said, things were changing, and I didn’t hate it.

“Is that okay?” I asked. “If you’re not comfortable, please let me know.”

Tab laughed. “Boss, we’re friends, aren’t we? Isn’t that what friends do? So tell me.” She squeezed my forearm. “What about you? Could you be any more obvious you were into Officer Fitts?”

“I was just admirin’ her work attire.” It felt nice to relate to my friend and poke fun at each other. Why had it taken me moving back home to relax enough to joke with her?

Tab giggled. “Or more like how she fits into it.”

“The woman is fine.”

“You really are old, you know that?”

“What? The kids don’t say ‘fine’ anymore?”

“No, old man, they don’t. Speaking of, I hope they find Natalie. I’m so worried she’s hurt. What if they can’t get an ambulance up there when they find her?”

“Depends on where she wandered off to, but they have helicopters. They use them when people get stuck in avalanches during ski season.”

She lifted her hand to her chest. “Oh my.”

“Ha! Who’s old now?”

“It feels right for Bax to be married again,” Merv said later that night as she relaxed into her recliner and grabbed her TV remote.

It still felt weird seeing her lounging on brand-new furniture.

My mother had owned one couch for the last twenty years until I built this house for her and bought her all new furniture.

She cried when she opened the high-end set of ceramic pots and pans I’d picked up for her after I saw her eyeing them at the home goods store the last time I’d come home.

“They seem happy,” I agreed, leaning against the counter in her kitchen, sipping a beer and admiring my crews’ handiwork. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d enjoyed a beer. Not at a work dinner or a fundraiser, but just because I wanted one and had the time to drink it and taste it.

The three houses we’d built last year for Merv, Abey and Devo, and Rye had turned out really well.

Merv seemed happy to be in a house again, as opposed to the beat-up trailer she’d sequestered herself to after my father died.

She also loved the picture I’d shown her of the SUV I’d bought for her, and hopefully she’d get to drive the damn thing when the dealership delivered it.

The engine had some defect that had triggered a recall, but my standing and name had earned me a brand-new vehicle.

I didn’t have to wait for an appointment with the Ford service guys, and someone would register the new truck at the DMV for Merv and deliver it personally, free of charge.