Eddie peeled into the tavern parking lot. He’d screwed up. Big-time.
He owed Laura a big apology. What he should’ve done was greet her news with congratulations. She’d apparently been offered some plum job, but instead of telling her he was proud, he’d acted pissy.
Sure, he could’ve asked questions, maybe raised doubts—hell, they could’ve had a little debate and resolved it back at his place. So why hadn’t he? If he really thought about it—and there’d been little else he had thought about last night—it was jealousy that’d made him act like such a giant baby.
He loped up the steps. The real truth was, he’d follow Laura all the way to New York City, if that was what it took to be with her. He’d tell her so, immediately and in no uncertain terms.
“You just missed her,” Helen said as he came in.
Still, he looked around, as if she might be mistaken.
“You came looking for Miss Thang, right?”
He finally focused on her. “Hey, Helen. Yeah, I’m looking for Laura. ” He needed to get himself together, act like a normal human being. “Sorry…you said she left?” He checked the clock—he’d barely slept and felt situated somewhere out of time—but it was still early, just past eight. And he thought he’d be too early. What time had she left to beat him out the door? “What time?”
Helen resumed clearing a table of its plates, cutlery, and empty cups. “I got in just after six. It was a little after that. ”
“Where’d she go? She’s not gone gone, is she?” Maybe she’d run out and would be back in a minute. But at the crack of dawn? He couldn’t wrap his mind around the notion that she’d simply disappear overnight. She’d need to say good-bye to people. She wouldn’t just leave without a trace.
Helen shrugged. “She looked pretty gone to me. ”
He plopped into the nearest chair. He was numb. “Got it. Thanks, Helen. ”
Of course she was gone for good—it was Laura they were talking about. The great disappearing woman. Master of the getaway.
She came over with a carafe. “You look like you could use some coffee. ”
“Why not?” Maybe she’d hit him over the head with it—sure would hurt less.
“Sorry, Eddie. ” She filled up his cup and brought him creams and sugars.
“Me, too, Helen. ” He couldn’t believe it. He’d spent his life bemoaning how elusive the pretty Bailey girl was, and this time, he’d been the one to send her packing. “Looks like I screwed up big-time. ” Every nasty thing she’d ever said about him—a Neanderthal…a delinquent…an unsophisticated, uncivilized brute—he’d proven it all true. In front of a crowd, no less.
He realized Helen was still standing there. Had she said something? He was like the walking dead. “Sorry, what?”
“I said, can I get you something to eat?”
“Sure. ” He scrubbed a hand through his hair, considering it. He had to eat—if he’d eaten something last night, he didn’t remember it now, and neither did his stomach. “How about some eggs. ” He needed a plan, and food would help. “Three, scrambled hard. Side of bacon. ” He tore open a bunch of sugar packets and dumped them into his coffee. It was shaping up to be one hell of a morning, and he’d throw everything he could at it. “Maybe some home fries. Toast, too. What else…”
“Kitchen sink?”
“Huh?” He looked up and she was smiling down at him. He sighed. “Yeah, throw in the kitchen sink, too, would you?” He’d need to claw his way out of this hole if he was going to be any good to anyone.
When Helen came back with the first of several plates, he forced himself to make small talk, which was clearly what the woman wanted. He asked after Ellie. She asked after the ranch. They avoided talk of Laura and Rob and fistfights.
His eggs and toast were up, and as she brought him a bottle of ketchup and a little bowl filled with jellies, she asked, “So, you off to the ranch today, or is the project dead for good?”
He spread a big gob of strawberry jelly on a triangle of toast. “What do you mean?”
“The owls. I heard about Timber Creek having some nesting thing. I just assumed…” She began to look panicked.
What the hell? He made a split-second decision to play along. “Oh, that. Yeah. ” If she knew something she wasn’t supposed to know, he didn’t want to scare her off. Ever since Rob called the ranch project sketchy, it’d nagged him. “The nesting thing,” he repeated. Whatever the hell that meant. Rob had overheard something—was this it? And had he discussed it with his wife? “Where’d you hear about it?”
“Laura and Sorrow were talking about it,” she said. “I guess your ranger brother was the one who found the nests?”
“Something like that. ” His mind raced to put it all together. Had Laura discovered something about those owls? But it couldn’t have been Scott who’d told her. His brother would flip his lid if he thought they were doing construction on some endangered habitat.
“I’ve never seen baby owls before,” Helen went on. “Do you think I could bring Ellie by when she’s better? It seems crazy that something like a few nests could stop a whole hotel from being built, but Laura knows, I guess. And, I tell you, I’d be pissed, too, if I were you. ”