Reunited By A Secret Child. Leigh Bale
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still hear the reporters outside and Chief Sanders’s booming voice as he directed them to pack up their equipment. Maybe Reese should leave town, but he hadn’t gone to the cemetery to visit his mom yet. He wanted to stay at least long enough to pay his respects to her. So, what should he do? Where could he go?
“Thanks for that,” he said to Charlie and Katie. Highly conscious that Chrissy was still gripping his hand, he politely withdrew.
“They’ll just come back. What can we do?” Katie asked her father.
Charlie shrugged. “He’ll have to leave, of course.”
“But where will he go?” she said.
Reese chuckled. “You know, I’m right here. You don’t need to talk as though I’m not listening to your conversation.”
Katie licked her bottom lip. “I’m sorry, Reese. I’m just concerned, that’s all. I don’t want trouble.”
“Neither do I,” he said.
“What do you want to do, then?” she asked.
“You’re right. I can’t stay here, that’s for sure,” he stated.
“Don’t be sad,” Chrissy said. “Mommy says that things always have a way of working themselves out. We just need to have faith.”
“Yeah, thanks.” Reese gave a stiff smile.
He couldn’t believe that this little girl was trying to comfort him. He found the child endearing, but her clinging presence also made him uncomfortable. He didn’t know why she seemed to like him so much.
“What about Cove Mountain?” Charlie asked.
Katie glanced at her father, her eyebrows drawn together in a frown. “Are you sure?”
“Of course,” Charlie said. “It’s a great place to hide out. It’s rugged and isolated enough that most reporters would get lost trying to find it. Without four-wheel drive, their cars would bottom out on the washboard roads and they’d end up with a broken axel.”
“Cove Mountain? You mean your cabin up there?” Reese said.
He recalled that the Ashmores had a log cabin in the lovely mountains surrounding the town. Reese had been there a few times with his Boy Scout troop, before he’d become too wild to enjoy fishing and hiking. The times he’d been there had been idyllic. That was when he’d decided that he wanted to fight wildfires. About twenty miles outside town, the three-room cabin was tucked back in a forest surrounded by tall Douglas fir and pine trees.
“Yes, our cabin. You’ll go to Cove Mountain,” Charlie said with finality.
“Are you sure you want to do that?” Reese asked, conscious of little Chrissy listening intently to every word.
“I am,” Charlie said. “If we’re careful, no one will discover you. Katie can take you in the back way. There’s no cell phone service, but Martha Murdoch lives near the cabin and she has a landline you can use in an emergency. She’ll notice smoke coming from the chimney, but she’ll think it’s us. Even if she finds out you’re staying there, she hates gossip and won’t bother you.”
“That sounds fine. I’ll pay you rent,” Reese said.
Charlie shook his head. “That’s not necessary. It’s too rustic for us to charge a fee.”
“Why are you helping me?” Reese asked. He could hardly believe this generosity. After all, he’d done nothing to deserve it.
“Because you’re a Minoa boy, and we take care of our own,” Charlie said.
Once again, Reese was touched by this family’s kindness toward him. He had no idea how he could ever make it up to them.
“Thank you,” he said.
Speaking those words felt good. Mainly because it’d been a very long time since he’d said them to anyone.
“You’re welcome.” Charlie reached into a desk drawer and pulled out a set of keys, which he handed to Reese. “Katie will drive you up there. It’s a pretty deserted road.”
“Come on, let’s get going,” Katie said, her frown still firmly in place.
“I want to go, too,” Chrissy said.
“Not this time, bug. I need you to stay here and help me watch the front desk.” Charlie reached down and tickled the girl’s ribs.
Chrissy giggled and swatted playfully at her grandpa’s hand. “You don’t need me, Papa. I want to go with Mommy and Reese.”
“Not this time, sweetie,” he insisted firmly.
Katie met her father’s gaze. A flash of doubt filled her eyes and she looked away with a slight huff. Reese couldn’t be sure, but he sensed that Charlie had purposefully set Katie up so that she could be alone with him during the ride to the cabin. Nah! Surely he imagined that. What possible reason would Charlie have for them to be alone?
Turning, Reese followed Katie out the back door, watching her closely. The years had been kind to her and he couldn’t get over how gorgeous she was.
“Let me grab my things,” he said.
She nodded and he peeked outside the office. No media in sight. Chief Sanders had done his job.
Reese took the opportunity to quickly race to his room, snatch up his duffel bag and return to the office. He laid his room key on the counter.
Charlie smiled. “See you later.”
“Yeah, later,” Reese said.
Katie led him out the door to the alleyway. She looked back and forth, to ensure no one was there to watch them slip inside the garage. As she climbed into the driver’s seat of her father’s old truck and started up the engine, Reese felt suddenly light of heart. He was glad to get away from the crush of media. For some insane reason, he felt safe with this woman and her family. But if the stern set of Katie’s shoulders and the deep frown curving her lips were any indication, Reese didn’t think she returned the sentiment. She disapproved of him, just as he disapproved of himself.
“You sure pack light,” Katie said.
She shifted the truck into gear and eyed Reese’s duffel bag, which sat between them on the seat. Pulling out of the garage, she looked both ways, hoping to avoid being seen. She headed out on the old dirt road that would lead them to the outskirts of town and up toward Cove Mountain.
“I don’t need much.” Reese spoke in a subdued tone.
She took a deep inhalation and caught his spicy scent. The truck bounced against the rutted road. They drove in silence for some time, passing a green meadow of new grass and blue lupines. Tall willow trees swayed gently in the breeze.
“I’m surprised you stayed here in Minoa all these years. I thought you were planning to go to college,” Reese said.
“I was.” She couldn’t look at him. Sudden tears burned her eyes and she blinked fast to clear them away. A gloomy, lost sensation enveloped her. She thought she’d gotten over feeling sorry for herself. So why the unexpected emotion?
“You must have had Chrissy pretty young. Is she why you stayed?” he asked.
“Um, yeah,” Katie said.
The road climbed steadily in elevation, the terrain becoming rocky, the piñons and junipers giving way to tall evergreens.
“Why couldn’t you take her with you?”
When she didn’t answer, he looked at her. A flush of anger heated her skin. She didn’t owe this man any explanations. Not without blurting the entire story of how he’d left her pregnant