Page 13 of She Autumn Be Mine

I sighed into the phone. “He’s kind, and patient. He shows up. I keep waiting for him to mess up but he never does. He’s almost... too perfect.”

“And you’ve always gone for the bad guys. Look where that’s gotten you. A bunch of bruises and a baby⁠—”

“I will never regret Stetson.”

“Sorry. I know that. But you get my point.”

“Loud and clear.” Jake’s own words floated back to me—Not all men, did you need to run from. “But at this point, we’re such good friends. I’d hate to lose that.”

“Because friendship doesn’t require you to be brave. It’s comfortable. It’s what you’ve needed. But there’ll come a day when you might desire more. And every time you send me a photo that has Jake in it I wonder if your desire is dead. Are you even looking at the same man I am?”

I giggled with her. “I know he’s good-looking. Maybe there is something wrong with me. I’m broken, because I want to see scars on him. A flaw or two. Something that makes me go, hmm?” I shook my head. “But there’s another problem. Jake clearly adores Stetson. And my baby calls him Dada.”

“What?”

“Jake didn’t teach him that. It just happened. I can’t ruin our friendship because I can’t break the two of them up.”

“Okay, hun. Listen. Here’s what we’re going to do. Tonight you wear the green dress, get gorgeous, and let Jake get a good long look at you. You’ll dance as friends, and have a good time. You are not deciding the whole rest of your life tonight. Save it for the end of the summer when I come to visit. Believe me, I will grill Jake McCall personally. If he survives me then you can think about being brave and seeing if friendship can survive more. One step at a time. How’s that sound?”

I snickered. “I’d like to see you try to interrogate a Navy SEAL.”

“Oh honey, come on. I’m a bartender’s daughter from Wyoming. He should be terrified of me,” she cackled.

A notification of another call coming in flashed across my screen: Montana State Prison.

“Nanette, I have to go. Trig’s calling.”

“Wear the green. Send pictures. Have fun with your friend,” she laughed, clicking off the call.

I answered the prison line, and accepted the collect call charges.

“Hi, Trig.”

“Hi, sis. Are you two doing okay? Kid sleeping all right? Keeping cool in that upstairs apartment of yours?” He sounded tired, prison tired. Like he stayed on alert every night in his cell.

I hated this for him, but honestly, he’d always had a wild side. This might be the thing that got him to take a good long look at his life and set it right when he finally got out.

“We’re fine. Harper let Jake install a new window unit. Keeps us good and cool up here,” I explained.

“Jake, huh? Is he there a lot?”

“He babysits so I can work nights. You know that.”

“Been several months now, hasn’t it?” His voice remained low; he’d commented before that there were always ears listening around him. “A man doesn’t put in that kind of time without wanting something.”

“As a friend. You asked him to watch over me ”

“Yeah.” A breath went out of him, hard. “And I once trusted my last best friend with you too. Look what that brought you.”

What happened in Wyoming sat between us on the line, everything neither of us admitted out loud.

“You had no idea he would be so cruel,” I said, trying to absolve Trig of any wrongdoing.

“I knew the type of person he was better than you. And yet I introduced the two of you. Gave him my blessing to date you. Went off to the military and never came back. Then you show up in Montana with bruises that still make me sick thinking about them.”

“None of that was your fault.” My coffee was ready. but something about this call and his tone of voice made me too shaky to pour.

“Listen. I need to tell you something, but don’t go spiraling off. My lawyer was here and said that his family reached out to him about you. The Eatons are looking for you.”