“Hey, learnin’ to drive isn’t easy,” Cash said. “She’s doin’ great.”
Boston agreed, because Liesl was doing great. In fact, the door opened in the next moment, and Uncle Gabe held it for Liesl to walk in.
“We made it,” she called, pumping both fists up into the air.
“And no one died,” Uncle Gabe said, and he grinned at his daughter.
“We’re just heading out,” Mav said. “We’ll grab lunch on the way back; I’ll text you to get orders.”
“Sounds good,” Gabe said.
Liesl lifted up a big, embroidered bag. “I brought curtains,” she said. “I’ll work on getting them set up while you’re gone.”
Boston moved over and drew her into a hug. “Thank you so much,” he said.
“They’re nothing special,” Liesl said. “I just used some leftover fabric I had, so it’s almost like a patchwork quilt.”
“I can’t wait,” Cash said. “Maybe this place will look like someone actually lives here.” He chuckled, and Boston realized for the first time that he hadn’t hung art or pictures anywhere—not that he would have hung any up either.
Liesl and Gabe moved further into the apartment while Boston and his daddy went out. This time, he handed the keys to his father and said, “Will you drive?”
“Sure.” Daddy watched him as he got in the passenger seat, and then he climbed behind the wheel. “How are you feeling?”
Boston drew in a deep breath, wanting to feel and experience everything authentically. “You know what?” He looked over at his father, a genuine smile curving his mouth. “I feel really good. I don’t know if this is the exact thing that I need to do or how long this job will last, but right now, it feels really good to be here with Cash.”
Daddy pulled out of the parking space and paused before he turned onto the highway that led back to town. “I’ve had a feeling that you being here might be more for him…than you.” He cut a glance at Boston out of the corner of his eye.
“Really?” Boston asked. “He seems so confident.”
“Looks can be deceiving,” Daddy said, and Boston thought of the job he’d been hired to do.
Boy, that sure was true, and he hoped he would be able to learn his new role and settle into it quickly once he started at Elk Ridge Lodge.
CHAPTER
THIRTY-ONE
Cash Young stayed on the couch as his daddy groaned and pushed himself up. “I’m coming, girly,” he said to Liesl, who’d just asked for his help to put up the curtain rods in Boston’s room.
Cash already had blackout curtains in his bedroom, because he didn’t have to be at the training facility until ten a.m., and he saw no reason to get up sooner than he needed to. It wouldn’t take long to get a curtain rod up, but Daddy would stay upstairs and help Liesl hang the curtains as well, giving Cash as much time alone with Uncle Gabe as he possibly could.
He glanced over to his uncle as he came out of the kitchen and paused on the threshold of tile and carpet that marked the entrance to the living room. “You want to come in here?” Uncle Gabe asked. He held two cans of root beer, and Cash got off the couch with a groan of his own.
He reminded himself he’d already done the hard work; he’d already made the awful phone calls; he’d already confessed that things had gone wrong.
“Hey, I really appreciate you coming,” he said as he joined his uncle at the small dining room table that only had three chairs. The fourth was set up in the living room at a desk that held Cash’s computer. He could have put that in his bedroom, but he’d learned at a young age to keep his computer out in a public area, and that habit had come with him to Jackson Hole.
He sat down at the table, honestly not sure what to expect.
“Did you get your bank statements?” Uncle Gabe asked.
“Oh, right,” Cash said, and he hurried back to the desk to get them. “I wasn’t exactly sure what you needed, so I just printed out the regular statements.”
Uncle Gabe took them and set them inside a blue folder. “You’ve contested the withdrawals with the bank?”
“Yes,” Cash said. “They said it could take up to ninety days to make a decision.”
“Yeah, that’s what they always say,” he said. “Did you report Linus to the police?”
