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“There was a time when I would have argued with you....”
“No, this is on my tab. It’s a thank-you Wish I could do more.”
“No need, buddy.” Daniel headed out to his truck. “Give me about an hour.”
Joshua watched him leave. That card was his only credit these days. It had to last until he was back on his feet again, and he had no idea how long that would take.
He’d sent out a lot of résumés and his application for a license in New Mexico, but he’d yet to get an interview in or out of state. He guessed that some employers didn’t want to hire a guy who’d failed to hang on to his own company. No matter, he’d figure something out. Joshua knew he was a good architect. All he needed was the chance to prove himself.
He walked around the house for a while, remembering old times, like reading on the sofa while his father snoozed in his recliner, supposedly watching the baseball game. But memories belonged in the past.
This place had been fine for his dad, but it would never be enough for him. He still wanted it all—success, and more importantly, the kind of respect it commanded. For him, it wasn’t about money, it was about recognition for his work and achieving the American Dream.
No one in his family had even come close to that elusive brass ring, but someday he’d claim it. As far as he was concerned, it was meant to be.
* * *
JOSHUA EASED HIMSELF onto the back porch bench beside Daniel and took a long pull of a cold one.
“I know you’re planning to fix up the house, but be careful not to waste your money,” Daniel said, chewing on his after-dinner toothpick, staring at the grazing sheep across the way. “Houses are on sale around here for practically nothing and still no one’s buying. We may go down the same road as Soledad.”
“The base shut down there, right?” Joshua asked, wondering what he’d do if he couldn’t sell the house. This was going to be seed money to start up a new business. Finances could get tough in a hurry and he was living on a shoestring as it was. A businessman with lousy credit didn’t have much of a future. Even potential employers might shy away.
“Yeah. It’s all gone. Used to be a nice little town, too. Now, without the Air Force test facilities, it’s nothing more than empty homes, a natural gas field and a pumping station. Not more than fifty people left. That could happen here, too.”
“Well, I need to keep busy,” Joshua said, knowing that he couldn’t afford to sit around and wait for things to happen. “I figure I’ll start by cleaning the place from the ground up and giving it a fresh coat of paint. Like you suggested—sweat equity.”
“Is it tough for you? I mean, being here at the house without your dad around?”
Joshua shrugged. “It’s not the memories that bother me most. It’s the feeling that I’m back to square one. I never thought I’d return empty-handed.”
“Maybe you took a wrong turn somewhere and destiny wants you to start over—here. Ever consider that?”
“You sound like Grandma Medeiros,” Joshua said. Daniel’s grandmother.
“Her words exactly.” He reached for his jacket and fished out the keys to his truck. “I’d better get going. I’ve got to help her close up the store.”
Joshua set his beer on the side table. “Your grandma’s still working? She’s got to be...what? Close to eighty, if I figure it right.”
“Seventy-seven, and she still works a forty-hour week to supplement her social security. I can’t get her to slow down. I swear she’s got more energy than I do.”
Joshua walked Daniel to his truck, which was parked behind the rental in the driveway. “Feel free to come by anytime, Dan. It was good to shoot the bull with you again.”
After his old friend drove off, Joshua wandered to the woodworking shed he and his dad had built—a concession to the workshop/garage that remained a faded drawing in his dad’s file cabinet.
Memories crowded in around him as he looked up at his own first project, a small sign that hung over the doorway. He’d used a woodburning set to carve out the words Adam and Joshua Nez in a piece of scrap pine.
He stepped inside and turned on the shop light. As a cloud of dust settled, his gaze fell on the yellowed designs tacked to the wall. The one in the corner was his own scale drawing for a treadle spinning wheel he’d worked at in secret for nearly six months. He’d wanted to give it to Myka for graduation, but he’d run out of materials and it had remained unfinished by the time he’d left for college.
He glanced around for the wheel, wondering if his dad had kept it. Adam almost never threw things like that out, so chances were it was still here someplace, maybe taken apart and stored in a box. Perhaps now, with everything in the world just a mouse click away, he could get the flyer assembly and bearings he needed on the internet.
Out of curiosity, he decided to look inside the big storage cabinets first, but to open them, he’d need to find the keys to the padlocks. All he’d found so far was the key to the shed itself.
He was rummaging through the workbench drawers when he heard a soft knock behind him.
Myka stood there, holding something. “I don’t mean to intrude, Josh. I know you’re busy.”
“Come in. It’s been a long time since I’ve set foot inside this workshop, and I’m trying to remember where everything is.”
“Your dad said you spent the night here once.”
“Yeah, I fell asleep waiting for some varnish to dry,” he said, chuckling. He’d been working on her spinning wheel.
She looked up at the spinning wheel design tacked to the wall. “Cool. Was that one of your dad’s projects?”
“Something like that,” he said but didn’t elaborate. She was standing in the place where he’d first fantasized about kissing her.
“Life was so much simpler when we were kids, wasn’t it?” she mused. “I sometimes wish we could turn back time.”
“I can’t say I do. I don’t care much for the kid I used to be,” he said, admiring the way she looked in the glow of the overhead light.
“Any sign of Bear yet?” she asked.
“The only animals I’ve spotted are lizards and a bunch of daddy longlegs spiders on Dad’s shelves,” he said. “I kept Bear’s dog bed and dishes, though. You’ll need those if he shows up again.”
“Thanks. I just wish he’d come back.”
“He found his way here once before,” he said.
“That sounds like something your dad would say.”
He nodded. “Navajo teach that everything is connected and forms a pattern. We all have a place within that, the dog included.”
She avoided his gaze, stepping outside. “He can jump the fence or dig under, so if it’s okay, I’ll be walking around the back of your property from time to time looking for Bear.”
“You don’t need permission, Myka. You’re always welcome.”
“Thanks.” She reached into her pocket. “There’s something I should return to you. Your dad gave me his extra set of house and truck keys when you went off to college.” She tossed them to him through the open door.
He caught them with one hand. As he did, he saw the inscribed cedar stick attached to the key ring. “I made this for Dad in eighth grade shop. I didn’t realize he still had it.”
“You were his son. He was proud of you. You could have chosen a career as a sheepherder and he would have bragged about you to his friends.”
“I just wish—” He stopped and turned away, staring at the drawings on the wall. She was too easy to talk to.
“I know it’s hard for you to be here, Joshua. I think what you really need is a distraction. I’ve got the perfect idea.”
CHAPTER THREE
MYKA HAD JUST finished getting dressed for the meeting when she heard a knock on the door. Thinking it would be Joshua, she finished dabbing on some lipstick and answered it.
Tanner’s sister, Betty, stood at the threshold with her daughter, six-year-old Evelyn, beside her.
“Aunt Myka! You look so pretty,” Evie said, reaching up to give her a hug.
Myka bent down to hold her close. “Thanks, sweetie.” Evie was such a terrific kid. With golden locks and the face of an angel, she could charm her way into anyone’s heart.
“I hope you don’t mind my dropping by unannounced, Myka. I know about the meeting tonight, but I was out running errands and I needed to ask you a favor.”
Betty, her sister-in-law, was a stunning blonde with vibrant blue eyes. “Need me to babysit this week?” Myka asked, guessing at the request.
“No, but I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your help. You’ve been a real lifesaver. Shameless that I am, I need to ask you a different favor.”
“Come in and have a seat.”
“Aunt Myka, do you have any cookies?”
“Evie!” Betty said.
Myka laughed. “They’re in the cookie jar in the kitchen. Take as many as you like.”
“No, just two, do you hear me Evelyn?” Betty said.
“Three! Mom, please?”
“They’re small,” Myka said softly. “And I bake a supply of chocolate chip cookies mostly for her. Come on, let me spoil her.”
Betty smiled. “Okay, three,” she told Evie.
As Evie hurried off, Betty focused on Myka once again. “I have a question for you about the inn.”
“You don’t have to clear anything with me, Betty. I may own a third of it, but it’s your baby.”
“I know that restoring the place sounds nuts, Myka, but all the inn needs is some TLC to start attracting paying guests again. Come hunting season, we’ll have lots of people looking for lodging or a base camp. I want to be ready, but I’ve run into a snag.” She lowered her voice and in a barely audible whisper, added, “Tony’s out of prison.”
Betty’s husband had almost destroyed her, physically and mentally. He’d been convicted of assault and battery against a former employer. “Is he still refusing to give you a divorce?”
“Yeah, and I don’t want him to find out about the inn.”
Myka’s face hardened. “You inherited a stake in the inn, not him. He has no legal claim whatsoever.”
“Legalities won’t matter to him, and the fear of prison obviously hasn’t stopped him in the past. If he decides I’m trying to cheat him, he’ll make trouble, and he can do a lot of damage when he’s angry.”
“Did you know he was trouble back in high school?”
“I guess, but whenever I was with Tony, I felt...invincible. Being Tony’s girl meant no one ever gave me a hard time.”
“It’s hard to believe how wrong things went,” Myka said.
“After Evie was born everything fell apart. He lost his job and started drinking when he couldn’t find another. His rages...” She shuddered.
“Will’s still staying with you, right?” Myka asked. Tanner and Betty’s older brother was also the town’s police chief.
She nodded. “I’ve filed a restraining order against Tony, so he’ll go back to prison if he comes within three hundred feet of me. But he still scares me.”
“Will’s a trained officer and almost Tony’s size. You shouldn’t worry.”
Evie ran back into the room and offered Betty a cookie. “These are great, Mommy. Myka makes the best chocolate chip cookies ever.”
Betty smiled as she took the cookie.
“Can I watch TV?”
Betty looked at Myka, who nodded. “Go ahead, it won’t bother us,” Myka said.
Betty waited until Evie’s favorite cartoons popped on screen, then she changed the subject.
“How’s Josh doing? I heard he’s back in town.”
“He’s fine, I guess,” Myka said. “He wants to sell his dad’s house, but I warned him about the real estate market these days.”
“I’m going to ask him to look at my renovation plans for the inn. I’d like to knock out some walls, and since he’s an architect, I thought he might tell me where it’s safe to do that,” Betty said. “I don’t think we should mention that Will’s part owner, though.”
“You think Josh still carries a grudge? He and Will had fought over Sophie back in high school. That was a lifetime ago.”
Betty laughed. “No, not at all, but Josh and Will have always been like oil and water. They’ve already had a run-in.”
“What happened?”
“Josh missed a stop sign as he was coming into town.”
“Let me guess. The one on Orchard Lane that’s buried by the house-high tumbleweeds?”
Betty nodded. “The town doesn’t have a weed and litter crew anymore. Heck, if the rest of us didn’t know the stop sign was there, we’d miss it, too.”
“Did Will give him a ticket?”
“Yeah. All he said was that Josh was pushing his buttons.” Betty rolled her eyes, then glanced over at her daughter. Seeing Evie engrossed in the show, she continued in a low voice. “I think the real problem is that he doesn’t want Josh back in town.”
“That’s none of his business. Why does he care?”
“Will may not actually say it, but he thinks it’s his duty to look out for you, his little brother’s widow. He’s convinced Josh has always had a thing for you.”
“No, that’s not true. Besides, I choose my own friends. Your brother needs to butt out.”
“I agree. Getting back to Joshua, I haven’t seen him in ages. Can we go over there and say hi?” Betty asked.
“No need. He’s coming over in a few minutes.”
