that since the secrets had come out, Kate had become a...friend.
So now, unable to keep what she’d done to herself any longer, Nettie stopped by the Branding Iron Café to see its owner. It was late enough that the first round of ranchers who sat at the large table at the front was gone. Only a few touristy-looking people were still having breakfast.
The old mining town and near-ghost town of Beartooth was seeing a revival of sorts. The general store had been rebuilt as it was before the fire that destroyed it last year and work was continuing on the old hotel. It would never be like it was back in the late 1800s when it was a gold boomtown. But now it had a post office, café, store, bar and hotel.
What few other buildings remained were deserted, standing empty, the window glass long gone, leaving black holes where windowpanes had once kept out the elements. On the way out of town there was evidence of an old gas station with two pumps under a hip roof. Next to it, a classic auto garage from a time when it didn’t take a computer to work on a car engine.
No one passed through Beartooth. It was as far off the road as a town could be. The pavement ended at the north end of town. From there a dirt road wound up into the mountains to fork off into numerous old logging or mining roads.
So it was amazing to Nettie and most residents that a few tourists were already trickling into town even though the hotel wasn’t up and running just yet. But the general store was busier than usual.
Kate saw Nettie come into the café and motioned her to a booth out of the way. Nettie had just sat down when Kate appeared with two cups, a coffeepot and one of her large homemade cinnamon rolls. She put the roll in front of Nettie along with a fork and poured them both coffee before sitting down.
Nettie took a bite of the cinnamon roll. It was still warm, butter and icing dripping off the sides. Kate knew that she liked the center cuts because they were the gooiest.
“How are you feeling?” Nettie asked, now not sure she could bring up the subject that had caused her so many sleepless nights.
“Good,” Kate said, grinning as she placed a hand over her huge belly. “Any day now. I’m trying to come up with names. Jack is no help. He wants to name her Falcon or River or Sunshine.” She shook her head, laughing.
“You aren’t working too much, are you?” Nettie asked in alarm. She knew that Kate had had several miscarriages in the past.
“I’m not working at all, really. I just can’t stay away from this place. That’s why I’m glad you came in to visit this morning.” She frowned. “Isn’t it your day off at the store?”
Nettie had once not only owned Beartooth General Store with her former husband, but also she’d run it for years. When it had burned down, she’d sold out, lock, stock and barrel, but before long she’d missed working there. Fortunately, a local benefactor was behind the rebuilding of the town and had offered Nettie a part-time job.
“So if you’re not working today...” Kate eyed Nettie. “What’s wrong?”
Nettie started to deny that anything was bothering her, but saved her breath. “I did something.” She glanced around to make sure no one was listening. “It’s about Tiffany.”
Like everyone else in four counties, Kate knew about Sheriff Frank Curry’s daughter, Tiffany. The seventeen-year-old girl had shown up to surprise the father who hadn’t known she even existed. The surprise was that she’d come to Beartooth to kill him after being brainwashed by her hateful mother.
“You know Tiffany is still locked up at the state mental hospital,” Nettie said, and Kate nodded, waiting for what she didn’t know. “The state did some testing when Tiffany was sent up there to see if she was competent to stand trial. They also did a DNA test and they sent Frank the results. I mean, his ex, Pam, was such a liar... What were the chances that she’d even lied about Tiffany being his child?”
“So is she?” Kate asked in a whisper.
“Well, that’s just it. Frank never opened the envelope with the results in them.”
“Nettie, what did you do?” Kate asked even though from her expression she already knew.
She sighed. “I found the envelope. I know I shouldn’t have—”
Kate held up her hand. “Don’t tell me. And you can’t tell Frank, either. If he wanted to know, he would have looked.”
“He’s always felt responsible since the child was Pam’s as far as we know and her hatred of him made Tiffany the way she is, so he didn’t care if Tiffany was his or not.”
“I know he feels guilty, but he shouldn’t,” Kate said. “Maybe Pam did poison the girl against Frank. But as psycho as Pam was, some of that also could be genetic in Tiffany.”
“It still doesn’t help my problem,” Nettie said with a groan. “I wish I’d never opened that envelope. I don’t know what I was thinking.”
Kate smiled and reached across the table to cover her hand. “We both know what you were thinking. You wanted to know the truth. Now you do. And now you’re going to have to take it to your grave.” She met Nettie’s gaze. “You know your husband. If the results of that test got out after he specifically didn’t want to know...”
Nettie nodded. “But he held on to the envelope. If he really hadn’t wanted to know, he would have destroyed it, right?”
“Where is Frank now?” Kate asked, clearly having guessed.
“He’s gone up to the mental hospital to see Tiffany—just as he does every week,” Nettie said with a shudder. “And every week that girl scares the bejesus out of him and breaks his heart just a little more.”
* * *
THERE WAS LITTLE conversation on the drive north. Cooper stared straight ahead, his large sun-browned hands on the wheel. He’d dressed in a chambray shirt and jeans, both worn, a straw cowboy hat on his head and scuffed boots that looked as old as his pickup.
She suspected he’d purposely dressed like the working man he was not just to show her but also the man he would be confronting. He wore his blue-collar background like a chip on his shoulder. What he didn’t seem to realize was how proud she was of him. While he’d never told her much about his family background, she gathered that he’d often gone to bed hungry as a child. She also knew that he’d never had much. It was one reason he took pride in the cabin he’d built shortly after going to work for her father. She loved him because of it, not in spite of his background that had made him the man he was.
A wave of nausea hit her. She concentrated on the scenery, surprised she hadn’t noticed how everything had greened up after the long winter. Nor had she realized what a beautiful day it was. The vast Montana sky was a deep blue, making the cumulus clouds over the mountains even whiter. The peaks were still snowcapped and would be through most of the summer months at high altitude. It was a sight she’d never tired of.
Livie breathed in the day, trying not to fidget. The thought of coming face-to-face with the man who’d rescued her last winter made her anxious, and not just because she feared what the man might do.
She looked over at Cooper. Just the sight of him always made her smile and her heart lift as if filled with helium. Her love for him was a constant ache that often left her feeling breathless. She wanted this man, needed this man, didn’t think she could live without him. What he didn’t understand was that she would have followed him to the ends of the earth.
It was her father who’d balked at the thought of her marrying him before the house Cooper was building for them was finished. Daddy had wanted her to have a brand-new house as a wedding present, which of course Cooper had refused. Her sisters had chimed in. That was the problem with having five sisters like hers.
“Seriously?” Kat had asked. “You won’t last a week in that tiny cabin before you come home. When is he going to have your new house finished?”
“I