Jeannie Watt - Crossing Nevada

Her face had been slashed before she heard.

Tess rubbed her hand over her cheek, testing to see if it still ached as much as it had yesterday. Yes. The torn muscles were slow to heal, though the stitches had probably dissolved long ago.

Her face would eventually heal, but she would never be able to make money as she had only a few months ago. Eddie had taken that away from her.

Tess tried hard not to think about that, mainly because she was afraid that if she stopped feeling numb about her career, if she let herself think about how much she’d lost, she wouldn’t be able to move past the bitterness.

She turned off the computer monitor, having had enough depression for one day, then jumped a mile when Mac let out a loud bark. Blossom instantly joined in and once again they raced to the back door.

Right on schedule.

Tess walked into the kitchen just in time to see the three girls traipsing along the path by the barn, one tall and dark-haired with glasses, one just a few inches shorter with long brown braids and the last a small little thing with a short blond pixie cut.

“Stay,” Tess said sharply, not being able to recall the Dutch command. But the dogs obediently held as she opened the back door and slipped outside. She’d debated about covering her injury then decided what the hell? People were eventually going to see it. Covering it only seemed to draw more attention.

“Hey,” she called after the girls. They instantly stopped, whirling around with surprised looks on their faces.

Tess marched through the tall grass toward them. The littlest girl, who had a red coat bundled under her arm even though it was quite chilly, took a small step backward, her eyes fixed on Tess’s scars.

“This is private property,” Tess said. “You can’t just cross it any time you please.”

Three pairs of eyes widened then the ones behind the glasses narrowed again. “We’ve always used this path to go to school,” the oldest girl said with a touch of indignation.

“For years,” the middle girl added, nervously flipping one of her braids over her shoulder.

“Because that property owner didn’t care,” Tess explained matter-of-factly. “But I do.”

“Why?” the oldest girl asked.

“It doesn’t matter why,” Tess snapped. She hadn’t expected to get an argument. She’d expected to lay down the law and have the girls comply. “If you persist in using the trail, I’m going to call the police.”

“Sheriff,” the older girl said dryly, negating the effect Tess was aiming at.

“Whatever,” Tess said. “I will contact the authorities.”

The littlest girl continued to stare at Tess’s face. No, she was more than staring. She was doing an in-depth study, tilting her head and wrinkling her forehead, and it made Tess feel ridiculously uncomfortable. She cleared her throat. “Of course, I don’t want to do that, so please, take the road from now on.”

“But—” the girl with the braids started to say before the tall girl touched her shoulder. She instantly closed her mouth.

“Is this property posted?” glasses girl asked.

Tess raised her eyebrows at the unexpected question. “Excuse me?”

The girl tilted her chin up. “Posted. If you don’t have No Trespassing signs, then technically you can’t accuse us of trespassing.”

“I most certainly can.”

The girl shook her head. “No. You can’t. Look it up.”

Tess let out a breath, thinking she was so not prepared to do battle with a know-it-all preadolescent when the youngest girl asked in a hushed voice, “What happened to your face?”

“I got caught trespassing.” Tess grated the words out. “And trust me...you wouldn’t want this to happen to you.”

The little girl gasped, her eyes growing wide as she backed up until she was plastered against the older girl, who put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. The little girl’s lower lip quivered, her eyes still fixed on the scars, and Tess felt bad for all of a split second. “If I were you,” she said coolly, “I’d take the long way home from now on.”

And then, since she’d made her point and didn’t want to risk crossing verbal swords with the oldest girl again, turned on her heel and stalked through the tall grass back to her house.

* * *

ZACH PULLED TO a stop next to the shop feeling more exhausted than if he’d spent the day digging fence posts by hand. He hated going to town, and dealing with the hospital made it worse.

He was halfway to the house when the door opened and Emma and Darcy raced out.

“What happened?” he automatically asked. Neither of them had any visible injuries, but Lizzie wasn’t there.

“We didn’t know we were trespassing,” Darcy announced from the top step.

“What?”

“Honest, Dad.” Emma jumped from the top step to the sidewalk just as he got there. “We thought that anyone could take the shortcut to school. We used to take it all the time.”

“Slow down and start from the beginning,” Zach said, not liking the sound of this one bit.

Emma and Darcy exchanged glances and for once it was Emma who did the talking. “Tia had to leave early this morning.” Translation: his daughters were late so she left without them. “We had to walk because of Lizzie’s bike, so we took the trail along the creek to school this morning. On the way home that...lady...who lives there came out and yelled at us. She almost made me cry.”

“More than that,” Darcy said in a low voice, with a quick glance over her shoulder at the front door, “she scared poor Lizzie to death.”

CHAPTER FOUR

THE ENCOUNTER WITH the trespassing girls had left Tess feeling edgy and unsettled. She tried to go back to her internet search, but eventually gave up and sketched, which she usually enjoyed more than being reminded of how hard it was going to be to earn a living. But today not so much. Her eye was off, the designs lackluster. She finally tossed the pad aside and told the dogs it was time for a walk. She needed to move.

Who was she kidding? Moving wouldn’t solve anything. What she needed was someone to talk to, someone to pour out her mishmash of fears and concerns to. Someone to ask for advice.

But she had no one, so physical activity would have to suffice. A car on the county road slowed as she approached her field and Tess automatically froze in place, even though she recognized the car as the one driven by the dark-haired woman who lived at the ranch across the road. The wife of the cowboy who’d wanted to lease the pasture, no doubt. The rather fine-looking cowboy.

Tess touched her injured cheek, then lowered her hand, closed her fingers. There’d be no men in her immediate future—fine-looking or otherwise—and not because her face was ugly. Tess would be alone because her life was ugly.

As soon as the car turned into the driveway opposite her own, Tess climbed through the fence. Her path was always the same—across the field on the other side of her driveway, the one the cowboy had wanted to lease, and toward the mountains that flanked the west side of the valley. Once in the field, she was far enough away from the roads to feel safe, so she allowed the dogs to run. Heaven knew they spent enough time cooped up in the house with her. They needed the opportunity to stretch their legs, run and do dog stuff.

Tess walked through the knee-deep grass, the breeze at her back. The sun was starting to sink behind the mountains, casting long rays across the valley and enveloping her in golden light. A couple of months ago she might have closed her eyes and raised her face to enjoy the warmth of the rays on her skin. Let her cares go. Of course, a couple months ago she also walked fearlessly wherever she wanted, within reason. Being raised as she’d been, in a tough neighborhood where one learned to watch their back, Tess had felt as if she could handle anything.