Oregon Outback (3 page)

Darcy stood. “Give me ten minutes.”

“You get two because after that you’ll show me up.”

In the same bedroom where she’d spent her entire life, Darcy changed into jeans and a floral cotton shirt. Minutes later, Emily was driving Darcy around in the Camaro that she’d gotten for graduation ten years ago. At the last light in town, she punched it, speeding north along the highway.

“Where are we going?” Darcy asked.

“Out of town.”

Darcy nodded, allowing Emily the reins, and stared at the scenery racing by. Maybe she and Emily could leave town together for real and go to nursing school somewhere. Unable to sleep at night the last few weeks before her father’s death, Darcy had stayed up late and researched nursing schools and other occupations.

She’d opened her small store in town to please her father. He wanted her near, and she needed something of her own.

The car slowed and sputtered a few times.

“Uh-oh,” Emily said. “I don’t believe this.”

“What’s the matter?”

Emily pulled onto the shoulder, where the car died. “I ran out of gas.”

“You what? How could you do that?”

“Relax.” Emily blew out a breath. “I’m sorry. I guess I was so anxious to get you out of that house, I forgot to look at the gauge. But the ATV shop is up the road. We can get gas there.”

Emily climbed from the car. Darcy did the same, and glared at Emily over the top. “You did this on purpose.”

“Why would I do that? It means I have to walk.”

Emily was a real piece of work. She knew exactly what she was doing. “You and I both know the ATV shop belongs to Lucas Love. This is your little prank to get me to his shop.”

If Jonas was still in town, he was probably staying with his brother. Darcy stared into the distance at the sand dunes. To the west was Fort Rock—a volcanic tuff ring resembling a fort. “I don’t want to see him.”

Why stir up the past?

“I’m sorry about running out of gas. But that doesn’t change that we need to walk to Lucas’s shop to get some more.”

“You go. I’m walking back to town.”

“What are you afraid of?”

“Jonas and I were over years ago.” Darcy pushed past her friend, wishing she’d worn running shoes.

Jonas borrowed Lucas’s four-wheel drive and peeled out of the Oregon Adventure parking lot. While Emily was inside the shop flirting with Lucas, Jonas intended to give Darcy a ride. Lucas could help Emily with the gas for her Camaro.

This was the sign he’d been looking for. He needed some way to break the years of silence between them. He floored the pedal, intending to reach her before she made it back to town. The truck’s glass-packs announced his arrival long before he drew near, but he doubted she was expecting him. He slowed up next to the slim figure walking on the road.

Ash-blond hair pulled tight in a ponytail, it bounced as Darcy walked with purpose. She didn’t look at the truck. Did she know it was him, or was she expecting Lucas?

Driving next to her, he hung his arm out the window. What did he say to her after all these years? “Can I give you a lift somewhere?”

Brilliant.

She ignored him. So … it was going to be like this. Jonas wasn’t prepared to be ignored. Oddly enough her reaction gave him hope that she still cared. Otherwise, she would have smiled and made small talk because his presence wouldn’t have done a thing to her—good or bad.

Jonas gassed the truck and pulled off the road, directly in front of Darcy. He hopped out before she could walk around, and stood right in front of her, crossing his arms. She stopped and drew her posture up to meet his gaze.

Pain and hurt lingered in her eyes. Had she really hung on to those emotions after almost a decade? No. She had to be grieving for her father. Jonas was nothing more than a jerk from her past.

“Darcy.” He nodded.

“Jonas.” She glanced away.

“You look good.” And she did except for the dark circles under her misty hazel eyes. Brought on from her loss, he was sure. She was too skinny. Again, her father had been ill for months before she finally lost him—the man who had driven them apart. His long illness and subsequent death had to weigh on her.

Her face had a good healthy sheen to it. Jonas hated that he hadn’t given her more time and space.

“I heard you ran out of gas. Can I give you a ride somewhere?”

“No, thank you. A walk is good. I need the fresh air.”

Jonas pursed his lips, wanting to say so much more to this woman he’d once asked to marry him, but he couldn’t force her into the truck. Now it was his turn to gaze into the distance.

Why couldn’t he just say everything that was on his mind? Get everything out in the open? How did he tell her that he’d changed? Why he’d left in the first place?

The things her father had told him before he’d died?

Then again, he had no right to push himself into her life like this, especially mere days after her father’s funeral.

Frowning, he nodded. “I’ll leave you to it then.”

Feeling like an idiot, he climbed up into the truck, and drove back to Lucas’s shop so he could give Darcy’s scheming friend a ride to her car with a couple gallons of gas.

By ten that evening, he’d worked himself into a mood while he and Lucas sat in the small bachelor-pad living room, watching the evening news.

They were like two lonely, old men.

So far, Lucas hadn’t said a word to him about the chance he’d blown. But in the dim light he could see his brother working his jaw. It was only a matter of time.

The news went to commercial break. “Dude, why don’t you just call her?”

“What’s the point? She doesn’t care about me. It’s been too long. I thought she’d be married by now. Besides, she wouldn’t talk to me today.”

“Her best friend said she still likes you, maybe even loves you. Just call, you know, like an old friend. You can work your way up from there.” Lucas grinned. “Maybe.”

“What makes you think I’m interested in her anymore?”

Lucas contorted his face. “Come on. She’s the one, bro, don’t let her get away. You got nothing standing in your way this time with her old man gone. Practice what you’re going to say in the mirror if you have to.”

“Don’t talk about him like that. It’s disrespectful.” Jonas hadn’t shared with Lucas what her father had told him in the hospital before he died. No one knew that Jonas had visited the man. At last, he had the permission he’d sought years before. The only person standing in his way now was Darcy.

“Sorry,” Lucas said, surprising Jonas.

“Besides, you expect me to take advice from you? You go through women like you go through four-wheelers.”

Standing to stretch, Lucas tossed his soda can in the trash. “That’s because I haven’t found the one.”

He left the room, leaving Jonas to ponder his brother’s words. Maybe he was right. Jonas called the Nichols’s house, hoping the number was still good. She didn’t answer the home phone. That could be for any number of reasons. How did he get his hands on her cell number? He should have gotten her number from Emily.

Before he could call Emily, his phone rang. Jonas frowned at the number. Tom Jennings was one of his coworkers at the bureau. Dreading the reason that Tom would call, Jonas answered.

“Tom. What’s up?”

“Watch your back. Gambini is threatening you from behind bars.”

“He has no reason to come after me.” Jonas pressed his head against the chair back, wishing his words were true.

“Keep telling yourself that.” Tom sighed. “Look, I just thought you should know. We’ve got a surveillance team watching his cronies, just in case.”

Great. So much for decompressing.

“Everything going okay there?” Tom asked.

“As well as I expected. I appreciate the heads-up. Keep me apprised of any new developments.”

“Will do.”

When the call ended, Jonas thought about Robert Gambini, the crime boss he’d helped put away. The man couldn’t do much from behind bars, and his associates were being watched. Jonas should relax. Forget about it for now. He was here to recoup. He tried to shove the thoughts aside, but it was difficult.

After the events that led up to his time off, Jonas had allowed himself to dream, if only a little, about a life with Darcy, living in Carnegie, the small town where they’d grown up. Here in the Oregon Outback where two of his brothers still lived.

But everything looked different now. He couldn’t recapture the past, what he’d lost. Nothing ever stayed the same. Darcy didn’t want to see him. Nor would he ever be free from the threat of criminals he’d helped to incarcerate.

Even if Jonas resigned, leaving the FBI, it was unlikely that would make any difference to a man like Gambini. If he found Jonas, then another innocent victim could die.

This time, Jonas could endanger someone he loved.

T
ourists mingled in the aisles, perused Darcy’s photographs and sketches, and examined cheap junk from China—gifts to take home to friends and family. The late afternoon sun beamed through the glass front, warming the store and creating rainbows from the hanging prisms that sold for $19.99.

The busy day should have helped her forget yesterday as she assisted customers and answered questions, but her mind was far from today, insisting on living in yesterday.

What are you afraid of?

Emily had cut to the heart of the matter, asking a question Darcy couldn’t answer. Darcy’s friend had simply exercised her muscle as a friend in her efforts to bring Jonas and Darcy face-to-face. As Emily’s friend, Darcy would forgive her.

Eventually.

Then Jonas himself had appeared on the lonely highway to rescue her, riding in his brother’s big noisy truck like some kind of hero.

Darcy’s heart had beaten desperately against her chest, demanding to be let out. But she’d held on with all her strength, and in the end, kept her heart imprisoned. She’d not been able to look at him for long. The way his dark eyes searched her soul, she imagined him looking for remnants of the love they once shared. Her fantasy had almost set her heart free.

But that was all it was—a fantasy.

Trim and muscular, he looked even better than he had at eighteen. She didn’t appreciate his attempt to jockey himself back into her life. Had she done the right thing in giving him up back then? Her father had thought so.

What was she afraid of?

Loving him again. Losing him again. There. She admitted it. Releasing her pent-up breath, she grabbed the counter, steadying herself.

Her father’s death. Jonas’s reappearance. It was too much, too fast. The walls were closing in around her.

“Are you all right?” A woman stood at the counter, facing Darcy.

Smiling, Darcy focused her thoughts on the bright sun pouring into her spacious shop.

The woman’s teenage daughter placed their merchandise on the counter. Darcy rang up three small plastic dinosaurs and a dolphin wind chime, boxed and bagged the items, and thanked the woman and her daughter for their visit.

Next in line was an elderly woman, Mrs. Olson, one of her father’s parishioners. She placed one of Darcy’s framed sketches on the counter.

The ancient gnarled juniper … her father’s funeral … Jonas, leaning against it
.

Her breath caught. All she could do was force a smile and pretend the sketch wasn’t suffocating her.

“I’ve always thought your sketches were lovely. My great-granddaughter wants to be an artist. She lives in Idaho. I’m taking this to her for her birthday.”

Darcy made the appropriate small talk, and then Mrs. Olson reached across the counter and pressed her hand, aged with liver spots, over Darcy’s. Her wrinkled smile was kind. “I don’t care what anybody else says, I think it’s good that you’re back at work and keeping busy so soon after your father’s funeral.”

Resisting the urge to ask what people were saying, Darcy thanked her. Several impatient customers standing behind Mrs. Olson peered at Darcy, frowning.

“Was there something else?” Darcy asked.

Mrs. Olson leaned in. “Maybe now God has given you another chance with that handsome Love brother.”

She winked, then removed herself from the line, carrying the packaged sketch with her—and all the air in the room.

Darcy’s gaze sifted through the customers and gifts until she spotted her help, making eye contact. “Julie.”

Her assistant sidled in behind the counter. “What’s wrong?”

“I need a minute.”

“No problem.” Julie smiled and turned her attention to a young couple.

Darcy excused herself and, once she was alone in the employees’ back room, she sucked a deep breath into her deflated lungs.

After so much time, people moved on with their lives, didn’t they? But even dear Mrs. Olson, one Darcy counted as a true saint of the Lord, thought Darcy and Jonas were meant to be together.

Once Darcy gained her composure, she forced herself back into the busy shop. Near closing time, Darcy found herself alone with Julie. The crowd had made the day pass quickly, but she was exhausted. She still needed to close out the register.

Julie approached her, still looking energized. “Everything all right?”