The Bluff (Calamity Montana)

“BEFORE WE GO TO DINNER, I need to run an errand.”

“Okay.” Everly pulled her coat and purse from the hook beside the door in my office. A hook I’d hung up yesterday.

In the past two weeks, she’d transformed the gallery. The storage room had never looked better. I could actually see how many pieces I had completed, all organized by size. The couch in my office was free of clutter and usable for a change. Not that I spent much time there, but last night after Katie had left for the evening, Ev and I had broken it in. An orgasm was the least I could give her for all her efforts.

When I’d asked her about a salary, she’d waved it off, saying it was her contribution to the Huxley household. Still, I’d called the bank and ordered her a debit card to my account. And her own company credit card. She’d mentioned running low on savings, so if she needed more, she could take it.

Given all she’d accomplished in only two weeks, I was getting the better end of the bargain. She’d done more around the gallery than I had in a year. While she’d bustled around, I’d spent hours going through the piles on my desk. I was about done, sick to death of paperwork, but with it somewhat sorted, she’d have an easier time taking over the books. It had all been a welcome distraction, preventing me from harassing Aiden hourly about the petition.

We hadn’t heard back yet from the court as to when my proposed amendment to the parenting plan would be reviewed, but we hoped it would be scheduled soon. Until then, I would work.

Everly and I came to the gallery every morning after it opened at ten. At first, she’d insisted on hanging the shelves and hooks and whatever else she’d wanted on her own. But after those first couple of days, she’d announced she wasn’t handy and forked over the drill. So I’d taken over installation while she’d organized and filled a spiral notebook with inventory notes ready to be keyed into my bookkeeping program.

I’d gladly hand over control of that nightmare. If she thought this building was a mess, just wait until she opened my laptop.

It would keep her busy though while I spent some overdue time in the studio at home. Katie had lined up three more custom pieces for me to do in the next six weeks. Then there was getting ahead on inventory for summer.

“Tomorrow, I’m probably not coming down,” I said as Everly shrugged on her coat.

“Good. That will give me time to get familiar with your books without you hovering.” She nodded to the desk.

“You good to drive my truck?” I hadn’t missed how Lucy had been the one to drive my truck on Ev’s first trip to the hardware store. And since, she’d paired her shopping trips with our lunch hour so she could drag me along—all in the name of public appearances.

“Uh . . .” The look of panic on her face made me chuckle.

I dug the keys from my pocket and handed them over. “You can practice tonight.”

She frowned but took the keys, then led the way to the back door, going outside for the truck while I went to talk to Katie.

It hadn’t escaped my notice that the two of them didn’t get along. Yet. But they’d figure their shit out eventually. At least, I hoped. I sure as hell wasn’t stepping in the middle to play referee.

“We’re taking off,” I told Katie. “You good?”

“I’ve run this place for years, Hux.” There was a bite to her tone. It had everything to do with my wife.

“Ev’s just trying to help, Katie, find her place here.”

She shot me a flat look.

“She’s doing stuff we both hate. Might be nice to take some off your plate.”

Katie had never complained about the hours here. I’d offered to hire someone years ago, to spare her some time off, but she’d insisted on being here herself, that it gave her the chance to connect personally with buyers. So six days a week, she was here from ten to seven.

In the winter, we were closed on Sundays, giving her a day off. But once the tourists rolled into town, we were seven days a week. Sometimes I’d man the place, though normally it was Katie’s domain. She might not clean and organize beyond the showroom, but the showroom was immaculate.

If Katie would chill, she’d see that Everly’s contribution was a good thing for the gallery.

“Give Ev a chance,” I said.

“I have been nothing but polite.”

If polite meant cold and unwelcoming. “Be polite-er.”

“Okay, boss,” she muttered.

“Hey.” I sighed. “Don’t be like that.”

“You don’t even know her, Hux.” Katie threw out a hand. “Why would you marry her? I’ve heard you say on more than one occasion you’d never get married again, that you didn’t want a relationship. Then she shows up and has a monster ring on her finger. The entire thing screams gold digger.”

“She’s not a gold digger.” Everly didn’t need my money, right? She’d said she had her reasons to get married, but could money be one of them?

No. No way. When she’d offered to marry me, she hadn’t even known I had money. No one, including Katie, knew how much I’d stashed away.

“Look. I appreciate that you’re looking out for me. But there’s no need. Ev’s not the bad guy here. Just . . . be nice. Please. She’s important.”

The depth of that statement startled me. Everly was important, and she was doing more for me than Katie would ever know.

“Fine.” Katie waved me off. “We’ll avoid each other.”

Not exactly what I’d hoped for, but this thing was still new. It would take time. “Have a good night.”

Katie nodded. “You too.”

I hustled outside and found Everly in the truck, adjusting the seat and the mirrors.

She gave me a sideways glance as I climbed into the passenger seat. “If I wreck your truck, will you divorce me?”

“Yes.”

“Good to know that’s all it’ll take to get rid of you.”

I chuckled as she put the rig in reverse and backed out. “Head to First, then take a left.”

“Okay.” She drove, both hands clutching the wheel, and followed directions as I gave them.

We drove out of town as the sun was beginning to drop below the horizon. It darkened the mountains, tinging them purple, while the valleys shined gold with the lingering rays. The foothills were still covered in snow, but the evergreens had shaken off their white winter coats.

“It’s pretty,” Everly said, her gaze alternating between the road and the view.

“Sure is.”

“Where are we going?”

“You’ll see.” I pointed to a turnout coming up on the highway. “Take that left.”

Soon we were off pavement and on gravel, the mountains drawing closer and closer as she drove. We traveled past flat wheat fields and over rolling pastures until we reached the tree line and disappeared beneath towering pines and furs.

Soon the road was nothing more than two tracks through the forest.

“This is mine,” I said as she slowed to a crawl.

“What is yours?”

“This land.” I jerked my thumb at the window. “I bought the property about five years ago. Don’t do anything with it, but I like to check on it every month.”

“It’s beautiful,” she said as we climbed a small hill and emerged into a wide meadow.

“Just wait until you see it in a couple of months.” The grasses would be green and lush, spotted with wildflowers of fuchsia, purple and yellow. They’d stay until fall, when the colors would change on the trees.

“Go ahead and park.”

She nodded and stopped. “Will you put a house here?”

“Don’t know. That was the plan when I bought it, but then I couldn’t bring myself to build. I guess I thought when I bought a place, Savannah could live with me. That never happened so neither did construction. I think when Savannah leaves for college, I’ll leave Calamity too.”

“You don’t like it here?”

“No,” I admitted. “When she’s gone, there’s nothing for me here.”

“What about the gallery?”

I shrugged. “Katie can run it. I can paint anywhere. Or we’ll close it down.”

“You grew up here, right?”

Everly probably didn’t realize that was a loaded question.

The fact that most people in Calamity knew my story was a curse—and a blessing. I didn’t have to talk about prison. Or my parents.

We’d been lucky so far. People might be curious but they’d stayed away, not poking into our marriage. But the more Everly insisted on us going out in public, the more she’d become ingrained in Calamity life. It was just a matter of time before she heard about my family.

And I didn’t want her getting the shit version from other people. The version where I had betrayed them.

No, I wanted her to have the truth.

“Born and raised. My parents still live here. So does my older brother. My grandparents on my mom’s side live in Billings. My grandma on Dad’s side is in the Calamity nursing home.”

Everly let that sink in. “But you don’t see them?”

“We don’t run in the same circles. Do you know why I went to prison?”

“Sort of.” She gave me a sheepish smile. “Sorry. People talk.”

“Yeah.” Goddamn people. “Then you know I put a guy in a coma. The minute I got arrested and the story hit the town paper, my parents disowned me. My mom wrote me a letter saying not to call them again. They were ashamed their son had turned into a thug, and that they’d always known I was a bad apple.”

Her jaw dropped. “Are you serious?”

“Didn’t even wait for me to give my side of the story. They believed every piece of bullshit spreading around town. That I’d been high. That I’d been selling drugs. That I’d been abusing April. Yeah, I beat that man. And I took responsibility. But the rest was all lies, and they believed it without question. And they couldn’t bother to talk to me. None of them did, not even my brother.”

“What about after you got out?”

“Not a word.” I shook my head. “I wouldn’t have stayed if not for Savannah.”

“Does your family have anything to do with her?”

“Nothing. They consider her Julian’s daughter.”

Everly huffed. “Assholes.”

“Pretty much.”

“Do you ever bump into them around town?”

“Not often. But as you know, I don’t get out much.”

Understanding crossed her features. “And I’m dragging you out everywhere, so you’re telling me this because it’s probably going to happen.”

“Yeah. Eventually you’ll cross paths with another Huxley. Mom and Dad are both retired now. Mom volunteers at a church in town. Dad spends a lot of time at the golf course once the snow melts. My brother is a financial planner. He’s married with three kids I don’t know. As square as they come. And I’m the black sheep.”

Everly turned her gaze to the windshield, watching as the light darkened on the meadow. It would be night by the time we got back to town. “My parents didn’t disown me, but we don’t have the best relationship. It feels like they’ve given up on me. They don’t understand me and maybe I disappointed them too much with my life choices.”

I was familiar with disappointment. “Why?”

“Because I didn’t go to college. Because I didn’t become a boring accountant. Because we’ve never had anything other than blood to connect us together. Take your pick. More, they just seem . . . indifferent.”

Damn. I think I had it better. At least I wasn’t waiting for my parents to throw me a bone.

“It’s lonely,” she whispered. “Not having the people who are supposed to love you in your life. But I have Lucy. We’ve been friends since we were kids.”

“Where’d you meet?”

“We lived in the same neighborhood. I don’t actually remember meeting her. She was just always there, like a sister. Her parents were like my second parents. My freshman year in college they were in a car accident. Died on impact.”

So Everly had lost them too. “Sorry, babe.”

“I miss them. They were wonderful people. I don’t think my parents ever realized how much their death broke my heart. I dropped out of school because Lucy got picked up by a record label. She wanted to move to Nashville and I hated everything about college except the parties and boys. When she asked if I’d go with her, it was a no-brainer.”

“What did your parents say about that?”

“Nothing. They’ve always been very good at communicating with silence. But I was—am stubborn and loyal to Lucy. Once I made the decision, I was all in.”

“And you are a singer too?” That was what I’d heard about her.

“I was. Most would say I had—have—talent. But the ones who make it in that industry are the ones like Lucy. It’s in her heart. Probably like your painting is for you. For me, it was just a job.”

“Do you still want to sing?”

“No.” Her face soured. “I’m done with that. How it ended was too tragic. Too hard. Too scary. After the farmhouse . . . no.”

I waited for her to continue, but she stared ahead and as the quiet dragged, I knew we wouldn’t be going there tonight.

That day at the farmhouse had tied her to Savannah, but the details of that day weren’t something Everly and I had discussed. If she wanted to talk about it, I’d be here to listen.

“If you built a house here, what would it look like?” she asked. Subject changed.

“Natural. Maybe log and stone on the exterior so it blends. Nothing too big.” When I’d found this spot, I’d imagined building a treehouse for Savannah. She was probably too old for that now.

Everly hummed and nodded. “That would be beautiful. If you decide to stay.”

“I won’t,” I said. She wouldn’t have to worry about bumping into her ex-husband around town. “What do you feel like for dinner?”

“Tacos.”

“At home?”

She laughed. “No.”

I groaned.

“If you want to change their perception, people have to actually see you.”

“They’ve seen enough,” I grumbled, though it wouldn’t make a bit of difference.

We were going out to dinner.

I’d eaten out more in the past two weeks than I had in ten years. On Friday, she’d probably drag me to the home basketball game again. Saturday morning she’d insist we go grocery shopping together. And on Sunday, we’d brave the coffee shop for whatever pastry she was craving.

Everly put the truck in drive and turned us around, heading down the lane. When we got to town, she parked in front of the Mexican restaurant, tossing me the keys. “I’m having a margarita. Or two.”

I followed her inside, bracing as we walked through the door. Showtime.

As she stood at the hostess station, I took Ev’s hand, threading my fingers through hers. It wasn’t like we didn’t touch often—our sexual appetite hadn’t dulled in the slightest since that first night. But this wasn’t foreplay. This was PDA.

I fucking hated PDA. It was too intimate.

The hostess had a bright smile as she led us to a booth where Ev ordered her margarita and I stuck with water. We browsed the menu and ordered our tacos, then we waited for the visitors to trickle over.

It happened every time we went out to eat.

Someone I’d known since childhood or seen around town would stop by our table and say hello. Someone who hadn’t wanted to talk to me for years, but now that I had Everly, I was interesting again.

This damn town. Now that I was married, I was worthy of a hello. It was all fake. They just wanted in on the gossip and to size us both up.

Tonight was no different. Except this time, I wasn’t the one doing the introductions.

“Everly!” A brunette slid out of a booth across the room and came over with a wide smile.

“Hey!” Ev beamed, leaving her seat to give the woman a hug. “I didn’t know you’d be here tonight.”

“Last minute invite from my dad.” The woman tossed her thumb over her shoulder to where the older man waved back. “Couldn’t pass it up.”

“Do you know Hux?” Everly asked.

“We’ve never formally met but I’ve been to your gallery,” the woman said with a wave. “I’m Kerrigan Hale.”

I stood and held out my hand. “Nice to meet you. Reese Huxley.”

Everly slid into my side, playing the role of newlywed to perfection. “How’s it going? I was actually going to pop down to the gym and check on the renovation project earlier, but I lost track of time at the gallery.”

“It’s good. Every day it seems like we’re getting closer, now that I finally have the permit approved and the crew has started. I can’t wait for it to open. I’m ready.” Kerrigan’s gaze darted to me as she spoke. She kept the smile on her face, but there was a wariness in her eyes. She was watching out for her friend. “I need more properties with bodies in them, not vacant ones.”

Everly winced. “Any possible renters for the studio?”

Kerrigan shook her head. “No, but I did have a couple of calls.”

“Want my keys back?”

“Of course not.” Kerrigan waved her off. “Since you won’t stop paying me, that’s your space.”

Wait. Everly was still paying rent? What the hell? We’d be talking about that later. Not only did the woman not have an income, but why did she need to keep the space? Was she planning on moving out?

“Any bites on the farmhouse?” Ev asked.

“No,” Kerrigan muttered. “We can catch up on all of it later. Let’s meet for drinks sometime soon.”

“That would be great.”

I stood to let Everly out again. She gave Kerrigan another hug, then waved at Kerrigan’s dad.

“Have a good dinner.” Kerrigan looked to me. “And it was nice to meet you.”

“Same.” I nodded, taking my seat as Everly returned to hers. I waited until Kerrigan was out of earshot. “She’s your landlord.”

“And my friend.”

Though Kerrigan and I hadn’t officially met, it was impossible not to be a member of the downtown business community and not hear her name tossed around like candy at a parade. Kerrigan Hale was making a name for herself in Calamity, buying some of the less desirable properties and turning them into something new and fresh.

The gym she was creating was going to cater to a female clientele. She had rental properties all over town, including Widow Ashleigh’s farmhouse.

The place where my daughter and my wife had watched a woman die.

If I were Kerrigan, I’d set a match to that place and let it burn.

“I can’t believe you haven’t met her before,” Everly said. “I thought everyone knew everyone in Calamity.”

I shook my head as the waitress delivered our drinks. “I know of her. But—”

“You don’t get out much,” she teased. “Hux, you really do need to stop scowling at people. You have a great smile. Use it. And don’t tell me not to say shit like that. This is purely to improve your reputation.”

“Huh?”

Everly sipped her drink, then lowered her voice. “When Kerrigan was talking, you were scowling.”

“No, I wasn’t.”

“Yes, honey. You were.” She pointed to my nose. “Just like you are now.”

“Maybe because I didn’t know you were still paying rent. Planning on needing a crash pad soon?”

She stared at me, her gaze blank. Then the corners of her mouth turned up and she laughed. “Don’t worry, my darling husband. I’m not leaving you anytime soon. But I felt bad for Kerrigan and technically I have a lease agreement. I’m honoring those terms. She offered to let me out, but I insisted.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah, oh,” she mimicked.

“Then you’re not paying for anything at home.”

“But—”

“No. You can pay your rent. That’s it.”

“For now. Until I find another job.”

“You have a job.”

“An unpaid one.”

“Then I’ll pay you.”

She frowned. “I don’t need to be paid. My savings will cover rent, just not much else. And I want to chip in with groceries or utilities or gas.”

“What you’re doing at the gallery is more than chipping in. If you’re going to take over in the office, then you should get a salary. I’d rather have your help than hire someone.”

“It feels weird that you’d pay me.”

“That’s a you problem,” I teased. “Because it’s not weird.”

She stuck out her tongue. “Well, it is for me.”

“Gotta pick, Ev. Either you get on the payroll or you give up the idea of chipping in.”

“Or . . . I get another job.”

“Are you too good for my gallery?”

“No.” She shot me a glare.

“Now who’s scowling?”

Everly rolled her eyes. “What about Katie? She doesn’t want me working there.”

“She’ll deal. You two can figure out how to split up the duties.”

“That’ll be a fun conversation,” she muttered. “Fine. You win. Can we be done talking about this?”

“Please.”

“How come you don’t know Kerrigan?”

I shrugged. “She’s quite a bit younger than I am. When I got out, she was probably still in high school or leaving for college. The Hales and I don’t exactly—”

“Run in the same circles.”

I nodded. “Yeah.”

The waitress arrived with our dinner and the two of us didn’t speak much as we ate. Unlike dating couples, Everly and I didn’t need to use meals as get-to-know-you time. Afterward, I paid the bill and escorted Everly outside. The margaritas had given her cheeks a faint ruby flush. Her lips were a darker shade of their normal pink.

“Let’s walk a little,” she suggested.

I gave her a sideways glance as she looped her arm with mine. “Why?”

“For show.” She rolled her eyes. “For fresh air. To walk off the tacos. For fun.”

I opened my mouth but she poked me in the ribs before I could talk. “What was that for?”

“Because there is that scowl again. Maybe with physical violence I can condition you to stop.”

“Don’t hold your breath.” The scowl wasn’t something I did intentionally. It was just . . . me. Maybe I’d smiled more as a kid. I remembered smiling more with April. But that was just before my world had been turned to shit and there hadn’t been a lot to smile about afterward.

“Come on.” Everly dragged me away from the truck and set a leisurely pace. Store lights and streetlamps lit the sidewalk as we strolled. Above us, the midnight-blue sky was dotted with diamond stars.

When we got to Kerrigan’s gym and Ev’s building, she let go of my arm to cup her hands to the windows, peering through a small slit in the paper that lined them inside. She didn’t linger long before linking us again, arm-in-arm, to continue the walk.

“I love it here,” she said when we reached the end of a block, deciding to turn us around.

“Do you miss Nashville?”

“Not really. I miss the fun Lucy and I used to have. We were so young and full of energy. The bars were a blast for a couple of twenty-one-year-old women who were so excited to be there. Then Lucy’s career took off and she traveled a lot. I was alone more often than not, which I didn’t mind. I was busy singing too. But the stalker stole that joy. Bit by bit.”

I slowed my steps, matching Everly’s strides because I wanted some time to hear about this part of her life. “How’d it start?”

“Letters. We actually didn’t know Lucy was receiving death threats for a long time but when it came out, we learned how crazy the situation really was. The texts came after that. Emails too. It was this onslaught and there was never a break. We’d go out to eat and come home to a picture of the two of us laughing over sushi. She watched us. All the time.”

A shudder rolled down Everly’s spine and she hugged my arm tighter.

“I still feel it sometimes. I know it’s not real, but I still find myself looking over my shoulder, wondering if I’m being watched.”

We passed the front window to the White Oak and the people seated at the booths along the window turned to stare. “Well . . . you are.”

“Touché.” Everly giggled. “They’re just curious.”

About her. About me. About us.

“Does it bother you that I drag you out in public?” she asked. “I guess I didn’t think of it as that uncomfortable. But—”

“It’s okay. It’s for a purpose. And these people are a known enemy. Can’t imagine what it was like for you and Lucy.”

“Terrifying,” she whispered. “After Lucy left, the stalker decided to switch targets. It was all an effort to drag Lucy from wherever she’d been hiding, but that didn’t make it any less scary. I don’t think I really understood what Lucy was going through until one of the photos arrived in my inbox and it was me in focus this time. They came daily. No matter where I went, she followed. It got so bad that I just stayed home. And then . . .”

Another shudder and her eyes stared unblinking down the street. The color she’d had earlier drained away.

“Then what?” I prompted.

“Then she shot at me. She fired twelve rounds through my balcony door from the building across the street.”

My feet stopped. “What the fuck?”

Everly looked up at me and nodded. “I ran to the kitchen and hid behind the island, screaming and crying with every bullet. My phone had been on the couch when the first shot had broken through the glass. I left it behind when I ran to hide. After the shots stopped, I was too scared to go and find it so I sat there alone, waiting until finally the cops showed up. A neighbor had called.”

“Christ.”

“After the shooting, the detective on the case thought it would be better if I was in protective custody. I went because I didn’t have a lot of other choices. It was awful. And I was stupid.”

“What do you mean?”

She looked up at me and tears welled in her eyes. “I’m sorry.”

“Sorry? For what?”

“What Savannah went through at the farmhouse was my fault. Reese, please know that I never would have come here if I’d known what would happen.”

It was the first time she’d called me by my first name.

A knife to the heart.

How long had she carried around this guilt?

“It’s not your fault.”

“Yes, it is.” She sniffled, blinking rapidly to stop the threat of tears. “I led the stalker here. I thought if I left Nashville, it would all go away. I was going stir-crazy in the safe house. I was selfish and dumb. They had me in this basement in Tennessee suburbia with nothing to do. After a while, I just said fuck it. I wasn’t going to live in fear in a cave. Turns out, I should have stayed right where I was.”

“It’s not your fault,” I repeated but she wasn’t listening.

“I didn’t think. I got on a plane and came here. I didn’t want to drag my parents into the mess. They wouldn’t have understood anyway. And I didn’t think he—I thought it was a man—would follow me all the way to Montana. But she’d shot at me. She’d tried to kill me. I should have known. That’s on me.”

For the first time, all pretenses were gone, the fake smile wiped clean. And the guilt eating her alive streamed through those beautiful caramel eyes. Guilt for bringing this to Calamity. For Lucy. And for Savannah.

Everly had said she had her reasons for marrying me. This was one. This was her way of atoning to Savannah.

Fuck, it all made sense. All of it.

“This was why you married me.”

“Huh?” Her gaze snapped to mine.

“You felt guilty about the farmhouse. For Savannah being there. So you married me to help her out.”

“Maybe.”

“You—”

“Shouldn’t have?” she finished. “Too late.”

And with that, my wife started down the sidewalk toward the truck.

Conversation over.