B.J. Daniels - Rugged Defender

“Me either. I came home to be with my sisters for the holidays. I appreciate you calling though. It’s nice to know that if I was in trouble, you’d...” He hadn’t exactly said that he’d come running. “Call. It’s good to hear your voice.”

“Yours too. It’s been a long time.”

Too long. She wondered if he ever thought of her—and their kiss. Her sisters referred to Justin T. Calhoun as her high school boyfriend. But in truth, they’d barely gotten together before she’d had to leave for college. There’d just been that snowy-day kiss. He’d gone on to reportedly get engaged to Nicole “Nici” Kent, break up, and then get married to and divorced from Margie Taylor while Chloe had been busy getting her journalism degree and working her way up from one newspaper to another larger one.

While she’d dated some, none of the men she’d met stood up to what she called The Kiss Test. None of them had come close to Justin’s winter kiss.

“So how long are you staying in Whitehorse?” he asked, dragging her from her thoughts.

“Until the first.” The truth was, her plans after that were rather up in the air. Not even her sisters knew the real story. “Maybe longer.”

“So you’ll be there for the New Year’s Eve Masquerade Dance.”

It was only days away. Annabelle had been trying to talk her into going but Chloe had been adamant that she wasn’t. Her sisters had dragged her to the Christmas Dance and that was bad enough. Nothing could change her mind... Except Justin.

She hedged. “I haven’t made up my mind yet about going. Are you thinking about it?” she asked hopefully.

He laughed. “You and I never got a chance to dance.”

They’d never gotten a chance to do a lot of things. “No,” she said. “You dance?”

He chuckled. “You’d have to be the judge of that. Maybe I’ll see you there. It’s been nice talking with you, Chloe. You take care.” And he was gone.

“Maybe I’ll see you there”? Not, “I’ll see you there”? Not, “let’s make it a date and I’ll come back to Whitehorse”? But still her heart was a hammer in her chest. Just the thought of seeing Justin again...

She told herself that it had been years. He might have changed. The chemistry might not even be there anymore. How could she even be sure it had been there to start with? It had been just one kiss.

The doorbell rang, followed by the front door opening and excited voices. Moments later, she heard noisy chatter on the stairs. Chloe wanted to put her head back under the covers.

“I bet she’s not even up yet,” she heard TJ say.

“Well, we’d better wake her up otherwise we’re going to be late.”

Chloe didn’t like the sound of this. Before she could move, her sisters burst into her bedroom.

“Get up, sleepyhead,” Annabelle said. “We have a surprise for you.”

She didn’t like surprises and said as much. Also she suspected she’d already gotten one of her sisters’ surprises this morning.

“Annabelle volunteered us to work at the local soup kitchen today just like we did as kids,” TJ told her. It had been one of their grandmother’s pet projects. When their parents were killed in a car wreck, the three of them had moved to Whitehorse, Montana, to live with the grandmother they’d never met. Grandma Frannie was gone now, but she’d left Annabelle her house a few months ago, which their sister had readied for them for the holidays.

“It will make you a better person,” TJ said, sounding enough like their grandmother that Chloe had to laugh.

“Fine. Let me get dressed.” She watched her sisters start to leave. “Justin just called me.”

They both froze before turning to face her. “Seriously?” Annabelle said, clearly trying to keep her face straight. “What did he say?”

“That someone had called him from a bar telling him I was in trouble and that it was urgent. The person apparently gave him my cell phone number.” She looked from one sister to the next and back. “I know it was you, Annabelle.”

Her sister laughed. “Wrong.”

“It was Annabelle’s idea,” TJ said quickly. “But I made the call. Too much wine. I’m sorry. Guess you should have come to the bar with us the other night.”

She wanted to scold them both but could only shake her head.

“So how did the call go?” Annabelle asked, looking excited.

“He said he might see me at the Masquerade Dance.”

“Really? That’s great!” Annabelle exchanged a high five with TJ. “I told you it would work.”

“It didn’t work. It’s not like he promised to come back to Whitehorse or attend the dance. He said maybe.” She could see that this didn’t dampen either of her sisters’ spirits or their belief that their call was successful.

“Oh, I hope he comes,” Annabelle said. “It’s so sad. I’m sure his friend Cooper told you.”

“Told me what?”

“Justin’s older brother, Drew. He was killed. Justin found him.”

Drew had already been out of high school by the time Chloe was a freshman, so she’d never really known him. “That’s horrible,” Chloe said and saw from her sister’s expression that there was more. “What?”

“It happened five years ago. Drew’s death was ruled an accident but...” She looked at TJ.

“But what?” Chloe asked.

“Justin was under suspicion,” Annabelle said. Since returning home to Whitehorse, her youngest sister had gotten caught up on all the local gossip thanks to a bunch of nosy elderly neighbors. “No one who knew him thought he’d been involved, but his father...well, I guess he still blames Justin.”

Chloe couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “Poor Justin. I had no idea. So much tragedy. Why would his father blame him?”

Annabelle shrugged. “Apparently Bert Calhoun idolized his oldest son. Justin and Drew were often at odds. That day Drew and Justin had an argument. That’s all I know except that Justin left town and hasn’t come back. We’d better get going or we’re going to be late.”

TJ had picked up a newspaper that Chloe had left on a table by the bedroom door, before saying, “I’m surprised you were able to get so much time off from the paper. So you’re staying until after the New Year, right?”

“I thought we were going to be late?” Chloe said. “Let me get showered and dressed.” She shooed them out, but she could tell that TJ wasn’t going to let the subject drop. At some point, Chloe knew she would have to tell them the truth.

* * *

JUSTIN T. CALHOUN leaned back, his boots resting on the large pine stump he used for a footstool, and thought about the phone call. Just hearing Chloe’s voice had brought back the few sweet memories he had of Whitehorse. After everything that had happened, was it any wonder he’d been glad to leave it all behind?

But jumping feetfirst into a marriage to Margie Taylor had been a mistake, he thought as he looked out at the flat, white landscape of North Dakota. He could admit now that he’d been trying to put everything behind him. He’d worked her family ranch during their very short marriage. It hadn’t taken Margie long to realize that his heart wasn’t in it. Not in her or ranching her family’s place. They’d parted as friends and he’d gone to work for another rancher near the Montana–North Dakota border. He hadn’t even considered going home.

And yet the moment he’d heard Chloe Clementine was in trouble, he’d been ready to jump on his trusty steed and ride off to save her. He hadn’t been that man in years and yet, instantly, he’d wanted to be. Because as much as he tried to fool himself, he had unfinished business in Whitehorse.

He stretched out his long denim-clad legs and looked around the small cabin he’d called home for months. It kept the snow out, but that was about all he could say about it. He didn’t mind living modestly. Or at least he never had.