And Then You Fly Read online

  AND

  THEN

  YOU

  FLY

  Heather A. Buchman

  Volume 4 in the

  Crested Butte Cowboy Series

  Copyright © 2015 by Heather A. Buchman

  This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.

  Cover by Sparrow Marketing & Design

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  ISBN-10: 1-942200-02-1

  ISBN-13: 978-1-942200-02-4

  And Then You Fly

  is the fourth book the Crested Butte Cowboy series.

  Although you will enjoy this book on it’s own,

  I highly recommend you read

  And Then You Fall,

  And Then You Dance, and

  And Then You Kiss

  the first three books in the series,

  before this one.

  Coming soon…book five . . .

  And Then You Dare

  Thanks for reading!

  To Eileen, and the nineteen,

  who grew into the two hundred.

  Table of Contents

  Acknowledgments

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Acknowledgements

  Many thanks to my band of faithful beta readers. Each one of you are so different in how you read, how you comment, and the feedback you give me. I don’t know what I’d do without every one of you—Angelina, Carolyn, Claudia, Erlinda, Kym, Stacey and Vicki. And to Catie, for helping me find my way. Again.

  Special thanks to Eileen, who was the inspiration and impetus behind the character of Bree.

  Chapter 1

  It was another bad night, full of dreams about explosions, and fire, and pain. The nightmares were commonplace. She’d had the same dream so many times, yet it still rocked her to her core with the same intensity as it had the first time.

  In it, Zack was reaching out to touch her face, tears in his eyes. Bree could handle the horrific images far more easily than seeing her husband’s tears. It only made the longing worse when she spent the rest of the night tossing and turning, unable to sleep.

  She hoped a change of scenery would make a difference, but she knew better. No matter where she traveled, each place would have one thing in common with the place before—Zack wouldn’t be there. He wouldn’t be anywhere. He was gone.

  Jace was gone too. Not in the same way, but still…gone. Every day Bree told herself she shouldn’t let herself think about him. It wasn’t Jace she missed, it was Zack. Jace was a distraction, someone she allowed herself to think about when her subconscious refused to let her think about her dead husband. The way she felt about Jace wasn’t real; it was simply a manifestation of her real grief, over the loss of her husband. She understood this on an intellectual level.

  Zack Fox had been the light of her life, her soulmate. People threw that word around, but in this case, there was no better way to describe him. Zack made her laugh. He made her feel safe. Secure. Confident. Smart. Beautiful. All those things. With Zack by her side, Bree could do anything she set her mind to. It never occurred to her that one day she’d be forced to find out what she could accomplish without him by her side.

  Bree had just graduated with her master’s degree, something she started when Zack was still alive. He hadn’t pushed her into it, but he had encouraged her. He told her it was the right time to do it, before they started their family. He convinced her she’d be happy she’d done this for herself later, when there wouldn’t be time for it. Now she had all the time in the world.

  Perhaps she should consider getting her doctorate. It wasn’t as though having a family would stop her now.

  Bree offered to babysit her nephew, Cochran, while her sister Blythe, and Tucker, her sister’s husband, attended the opening of his show in a local art gallery.

  Tucker was an artist, who worked in many different mediums. He’d done sculpture, relief carvings, and block prints. Watercolor was his current passion.

  He’d been painting landscapes in Black Forest, outside of Monument, Colorado, before the fires earlier in the year destroyed part of the forest. After the fires, he continued to paint the same landscape. The series of paintings in the show was compelling, and heart breaking. Many of the vistas he’d painted days before, became charred remains of what they’d once been.

  Bree had asked as much as offered to babysit, even though her parents would have been more than happy to have their grandson to themselves for the night. She hadn’t seen Tucker’s recent work, Blythe had only told her about it. She was afraid seeing it would make the nightmares worse. Instead of seeing the Black Forest, Bree would see Afghanistan. Her imagination would replace the images of the burned out forest with that of a charred convoy, like the one Zack had been a part of, destroyed by an IED.

  ***

  “Where’s that sweet baby?” she asked Blythe as soon as she walked in the back door of her sister’s house.

  “Still sleeping, which means you won’t get a break tonight. He’ll be wide awake for his Auntie Bree.”

  “You won’t hear me complaining.”

  “I know, which is why I let him sleep. If we were going to be home tonight, I would’ve gotten him up an hour ago. Unlike you, I would want him to go back to sleep before midnight.

  “And before you ask, we’ll be home long before midnight,” Blythe laughed.

  There wasn’t much nightlife in Monument, Colorado. They’d probably be home by ten at the latest.

  Between May and September, the historic town hosted an art walk once a month. Tucker was showing his work in the winery that had recently opened. While the other businesses would close up shop early, most folks would end up at the winery, which would stay open later.

  “Stay out as late as you want,” Bree told her. “Take advantage of your last night with a regular sitter.”

  Bree was leaving the next day for Stanley, Idaho, where she’d be for at least a month. In the fall, she’d be taking over a junior teaching position at the Air Force Academy while the tenured professor was on maternity leave.

  They heard Cochran stirring through the baby monitor sitting on the kitchen counter. As big as the house was, they always seemed to be in the kitchen. The back door led straight into it, and with windows on two sides, the views of the dense forest on one, coupled with that of Pikes Peak on the other, were jaw-dropping.

  Today was a perfect blue-sky day, referred to as a bluebird day by most everyone. The clouds billowed below the peak of the fourteener, only one of the fifty-three such peaks in the state of Colorado.

  “Do you mind if I get him?” Bree asked.

  “Of course I don’t.” Blythe started to tear up.

  “Oh honey, please don’t start crying. I won’t be gone that long.”

  Blythe waved her hand in front of her face. “I know, but I’m going to miss you so much.”

  “Sweetie, I need to d
o this.”

  “I know you do. I’m being selfish. Now go get your nephew before he climbs out of the crib on his own.”

  “Is he doing that? At seven months?” Bree gasped.

  “Not yet, but I expect him to any minute. That boy is his father’s son, and Carol told me Tucker and Jace started walking the day they turned ten months old. She said the twins skipped crawling entirely.”

  Bree’s shoulders tensed, as they did whenever anyone mentioned Jace. She walked across the distressed wood floor that covered the surface of the great room, over to the carpeted curved staircase that led downstairs to the bedrooms. Built into the stairwell was one of Tucker’s sculptures, made of bronze and copper. The two separate yet identical pieces sat on a base of river rock. Water bubbled softly out of the top of the twin formations. She stopped on the stairs for just a moment, willing the tension in her shoulders to release before she opened the door to her nephew’s bedroom.

  Cochran was her and Blythe’s maiden name. Given there were only girls in their family, Bree loved that Blythe and Tucker chose the name for their baby. It would carry on this way.

  “Any news?” Bree asked when she came back with Cochran in her arms.

  “Only that he’s settling into the life of a rough-stocker. I’m glad Carol and Hank are up there with him…”

  The twins’ parents told Tucker several weeks ago that they’d partnered with Jace on a ranch in Montana that specialized in raising cattle and rough stock.

  The 12,000-acre ranch had been part of the Beiman family ranching business for years, but after the death of their father, the two Beiman sons decided to sell the Montana property to focus on their larger operation in Alberta, Canada.

  “Lyric said there was more to the story though. Something about them having to sell.”

  Lyric Simmons was the host of RodeoChat, and often heard industry news before anyone else. Blythe had been working for Lyric for close to a year. She’d become more than a boss to Blythe, she became part of their family.

  “What did she say?”

  “She said the Beiman brothers got into trouble smuggling Canadian bulls from Alberta into the States. Consequently, they made a deal to sell their US holdings, which included the Montana property. She heard Jace and his parents got a sweet deal because of it.”

  Bree hoped so. Jace deserved to have something good happen in his life. It hadn’t been an easy year for him. The estrangement between Tucker and him was the worst of it.

  Last year the brothers had a falling out. No one expected Tucker to stay as mad as long as he had, but now it seemed as though he might not ever forgive his twin.

  “Does Tucker ever talk about it?” Bree asked her sister.

  “Not really, but I know he thinks about it. I mean, he and Jace have always been so close.

  “I can’t imagine not having you in my life, Bree. The truth is, as hard as it’s always been to get along with Brooke, it wouldn’t matter what she did. I couldn’t stay mad at her as long as Tucker has been mad at Jace.”

  Bree understood. Brooke, their older sister, had never been easy to get along with, but she felt the same way. She was still their sister. Their love for her was unconditional.

  It was so much more than Tucker being mad at Jace though. Jace betrayed his brother with another woman. And after that woman’s death, Jace kept the secret of their affair from Tucker for years. Bree understood that Tucker’s forgiveness might be a long time coming.

  “He needs time.”

  “Have you talked to him?” Blythe whispered, even though Tucker wasn’t anywhere near.

  “I haven’t. I texted him a few times, but he never answered.”

  “Oh. I’m sorry.”

  “There isn’t anything to be sorry for. I thought someone should send Jace a picture of this sweet baby.” Bree kissed Cochran’s forehead, who sat on her lap quietly playing with her beaded bracelet. “You’re such a sweet boy, aren’t you?”

  “He really is. I’ve been blessed with a very happy baby,” Blythe smiled.

  Bree never would’ve predicted her little sister would fall into motherhood as easily as she had. Tucker was a good match for her.

  When they were growing up, Blythe was a pain when she didn’t get her own way. She was the baby of the family, and she played it well. Until she met Tucker. He loved her just the way she was, and instead of behaving like the spoiled brat she had most of her life, she didn’t feel the need to when he was around. He calmed her, settled her, centeredher. He was her soulmate.Just as Zack had been hers.

  Bree wished Blythe could convince him to talk to Jace. But her reasons for wanting it to happen were selfish. The truth was, she missed Jace Rice.

  “I’m sure Grandma Carol shows Uncle Jace plenty of pictures of his nephew. I should have thought of that.”

  “I’m sure he appreciated the photos Bree. I don’t know why he never answered you.”

  Bree would never know. If she did see him again, which at this point appeared doubtful, she wouldn’t dream of asking why he hadn’t.

  ***

  It was a beautiful day for a ride. Most every day was in Montana in the summer. The blue sky stretched on forever. When he rode the ranch, Jace was content. He felt peace—even though it was solitary.

  The ranch had two main houses. When the Beiman family owned it, old man Beiman lived in one, and Beiman’s son lived in the other. When the deal went through, Jace’s parents insisted he move into the house that had belonged to the old man. It was closer to the center of the ranch, and it was the bigger of the two.

  Jace’s mom said she felt more comfortable in the smaller house. After all, she told him, they were finished raising their family. She hoped one day soon Jace would fill the bigger house with a family of his own.

  Jace didn’t see that happening soon, if ever. He hadn’t had the best luck with women. It seemed he only fell in love with women who were in love with someone else.

  There was one woman, but she wasn’t as interested in him as he was in her. Not that it would have made a difference if she had been. Her sister was married to his brother, and his brother never wanted to see him again.

  Jace and Tucker shared a tragedy when they were younger. After which, Tucker would often disappear for months at a time. Tucker’s part in the accident was public, he’d been as much of a victim as the girl had been. Jace’s role wasn’t only private, he’d intentionally kept it a secret. When that secret came to light, it was Jace’s turn to disappear.

  He traveled the rodeo circuit for a while, but his heart wasn’t in it. After a few months, he knew he needed somewhere to settle, at least for a while. Even he didn’t know what that meant, he only knew he was tired of running.

  The truth was, he’d been running since that horrible night, all those years ago. He ran from himself, afraid of what he might see if he let himself take a good long look in the mirror.

  Owning up to what he’d done had been the first step. If he was ever going to be the man he knew he wanted to be, he had to take that long look, and figure out what was inside of him that made him betray his brother in the first place.

  Montana was where he settled. He heard the Beiman family was looking for help with the rough stock end of their ranching business, but in the end, it was more than help they were looking for. They wanted to sell. In under two weeks, he’d gone from having virtually nothing, except money in the bank, to having a lot less money, and a lot of land.

  Jace spent most of his time learning the lay of the land, while his daddy got a handle on the ranch’s rough stock business.

  They had fifteen bulls, and were looking to add more. It was common for their numbers to be down in the winter, when there were fewer events, but they were behind the curve for the spring and summer.

  Jace offered to go out on the road with his dad, but Hank insisted he be the one to go. He was glad to stay put. He knew it wouldn’t be long before he wouldn’t be able to. If they were going to make a go of this business, both he an
d his daddy would have to be out there, delivering bucking bulls to the rodeos that contracted them.

  For now, he had 12,000 acres of land to cover, and six hundred head of cattle under his care.

  As he rode up to his parents’ place, he saw his mama waving at him from the front porch.

  “Join me for breakfast?” she called out to him.

  “Would love to,” he answered, leading his horse into the corral. “Whatcha’ cookin’?”

  “Huevos Rancheros. Go get cleaned up and I’ll make you a plate.”

  “You got any coffee brewin’ Mama?”

  She laughed and shook her head. Yeah, that was a stupid question. Carol Rice almost always had a fresh pot of coffee going. His daddy was addicted to the stuff.

  “It’s good to have you in my kitchen,” she said when Jace sat down at the table.

  “Good to have your kitchen so close.”

  Carol put her arm around her son’s shoulders, and kissed the back of his head. “I love you sweet boy.”

  “You might be the only one who does these days. You and Daddy.”

  She swatted his head, the place she’d just kissed. “Oh Jace, that’s a load of nonsense and you know it.”

  “I don’t know ’bout that Mama,” he muttered.

  “You got some amends to make boy. Once you have, your life will come back together the way it’s supposed to.”

  It wasn’t just his estrangement from his twin brother, Jace was beginning to think he’d never find the kind of love his parents had. For a long time Tucker believed he wasn’t worthy of love. Maybe it was Jace who wasn’t. And that was the reason he kept falling in love with women who fell in love with someone else.

  “Would you like to see some pictures of sweetest grandbaby in the whole world?”

  “You know I would.” Jace took the phone from his mother’s hand and started scrolling through the latest photos from Blythe. His nephew was getting so big. As he swiped his finger across the screen, one photo made him stop. Blythe’s sister Bree held the baby on her lap, her head rested against his, and her eyes were closed. Her arms were wrapped around him, and he leaned back into her, as though it was the most comfortable place in the world for him to be.