The Ties That Bind (6 page)

I caught her gaze, not sure whether she was kidding or not, but glad to think about something other than weird warnings. Her eyes seemed to sparkle and she smiled, sheepish. Good. She was past the conversation we'd just had with Tamara Kee. Sage leaned closer. "I'll be the first to admit that the way you look in those jeans is a better view than most people get in a month. And far be it from me to put a stop to someone's appreciation of a hot woman." She took another sip of wine and heat built under my collar. "But I'm a little territorial when it comes to you." She shrugged. "I know. It might be a character flaw." She watched me over the rim of her glass, a come-hither expression in her eyes that could melt ice in Greenland. From here.

Must. Not. Ravish
. "Feel free to claim this territory any time," I whispered near her ear.

"I knew you'd see things my way." Sage ran her hand up my arm and squeezed my shoulder just as a man who reminded me of my dad accosted her with a bombastic "Sage Crandall, your work is unbelievable!" Compact, loud, but endearing. This guy was the Hispanic version of my father. I left Sage to her animated conversation with him and made my way through the crowd, catching snippets of various discussions. I checked my watch. Almost six. We probably wouldn't get out of here until around nine, if not later. But it was well worth it. Chris was standing out on the front patio and I went to join her, putting Kee out of my mind.

Chapter Three

I SAT OUT on our covered front porch, enjoying a cup of coffee. The Sunday paper lay on the floor next to my feet, but I ignored it, deciding instead to revel in the morning cool before the late summer heat moved in. Our front yard consisted of New Mexico dirt and a mixture of native plants like yucca and sage and drought-resistant foliage like lavender, purple coneflower, and Texas hummingbird mint, whose raspberry-colored flowers harmonized with the lavender. Sage had xeriscaped the area when she moved in four years ago. I watched a hummingbird approach a jumble of coneflower and valerian just as a small red Honda CR-X pulled up in front and Jeff got out.

"Hey," I said in greeting as he started down the path along the side of the house that would take him to the small faux-dobe cottage behind it. We had sort of an amenable compound kind of thing going on here. Kara would definitely appreciate it. "Late night?" I asked, teasing.

He stopped and shrugged, grinning.

"You want some coffee?"

"Love some." Instead of continuing down the path to the back yard, he came up the steps. "Where's Sage?"

I motioned toward the house. "River called."

"Ah," he said and opened the front security door. "Be right back."

I leaned back in my chair and watched the neighbor across the street watering her rose bushes. Jeff emerged from the house and took one of the other plastic lawn chairs. He had that "just rolled my happy ass out of bed" hair.

"So how's Amy?" I asked.

His smile was so wide I worried it hurt his lips. "I might need to talk to you guys about that."

"Oh?" I rested my cup on the arm of my chair.

"We're thinking about--" He paused and cleared his throat. "We're thinking about moving in together."

"Wow. This is good, right?"

He studied his coffee. "Yeah. I think so. But I'm not sure yet. We just started talking about it."

"Good. Don't rush into things. But you've been seeing her for...what? Over a year now. Seems you talk about things as they come up, don't you?"

He nodded and sipped his coffee.

"So what are you worried about?"

"I don't know. Guy stuff, I guess. I don't want to feel like I'm moving in with her just to make her happy." He looked at me, searching.

"That's definitely not the right reason to move in with somebody. If you're going to do it, make sure it's something you both want. And if she makes you happy, then why wouldn't you move in together?"

His expression softened. "I really like being around her."

I hid my smile in my cup just as his cell phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket, goofy before he even looked at the ID. He must've programmed different rings into it for different people. "Thanks for the coffee. I'll bring the cup back." He stood.

"No worries. Say hi to Amy. And you know, Sage might have some insight for you."

He nodded as he answered the phone and walked down the steps, headed for his place in the back. Love bustin' out all over the place, I thought. I reached for the paper just as Sage opened the security door and came out onto the porch.

I looked over my left shoulder at her. She was wearing surf shorts and a tank top. "How's River?"

She didn't answer right away and instead stood in front of the door, arms crossed.

"What's up?" I let the paper drop back onto the floor. "Honey? Is everything okay?" I started to stand but she moved and put her hand on my shoulder.

"River's fine. But something strange is going on."

More strange than that letter?
I waited, watching her face, a twinge of foreboding skittering along my spine. She released my shoulder and walked around me to sit in the chair Jeff had vacated. She drummed the fingers of one hand on the plastic armrest. She rarely did that. Something was really bothering her.

She took a breath and relaxed a bit. "River said he talked last night to a woman who claimed to be Dad's girlfriend."

I set my coffee cup on the floor and reached over to take Sage's left hand with my right.

"She wanted to know if Dad had tried to contact River recently."

"Did he tell her about the letter?"

"Yeah." Her tone said that she wished he hadn't. "And he of course wanted to know why it's her business."

Sage started drumming the fingers of her right hand on the armrest again. "She said that he didn't come home last Saturday. He went to work as usual, but after his shift, she didn't hear from him.

She wasn't too worried because it was the end of a long stretch of work days for him and he had a couple of weeks off and sometimes, she said, he'd go out drinking, especially since his work schedule had been rearranged." Sage made a disgusted sound in the back of her throat. "He obviously hasn't gotten that problem resolved. He's such an asshole about it. Anyway, I guess a friend of his called the place they shared on Monday wanting to know where he was because they were supposed to work on some plumbing together. That's when the girlfriend--Tonya--thought something might be up because even though he's a drunk, she said, he never bailed on his friends. I'd give him props for that, but he never showed up as a dad when River and I were kids. And when he did, he was usually drunk and an absolute prick."

"How come she didn't wonder why he didn't call her?"

"She said if he was drinking, he wouldn't call her for a day or two because he felt guilty about it." She rubbed her forehead with her other hand.

"She said that to River?"

Sage nodded. "He asked the same question."

I squeezed her hand. "So how'd she get River's number?"

Sage sighed, still rubbing her forehead. "She didn't. She went through his things and found River's name next to the number for the company he guides for in Montana. She called them, they contacted River, and he decided to call her back, since he figured it must be sort of serious if she's calling her boyfriend's estranged son..." her voice trailed off.

"Wait a second," I started. "If this Tonya says your dad's been gone about a week, how did he mail the letter?"

"River was leading a guide trip until Saturday--yesterday. The letter was in the pile of mail he had waiting for him and the postmark on it was a week ago Friday."

She extricated her hand from mine and reached into her shorts pocket. She pulled out a scrap of newspaper and handed it to me. I recognized it as the article I'd ripped out of the
Journal
yesterday and taped to my computer. I looked at it, then at her and that thought I'd filed the day before popped right back to the front of my mind.

"You don't think--" I started.

Her fingers drummed on the armrest even faster. "The timing's right. And the description of the body seems to match, too."

"Fuck," I muttered. "If it is--honey, I'm sorry."

"For what?" She seemed puzzled. "Given his past, his choices most likely put him out there."

"We don't know that for sure. It could have been a random crime. Maybe he was on his way home from work or something and--" I caught myself. I'd already decided that Sage's dad was the dead man found on the Navajo Reservation. The evidence isn't in yet, I remonstrated myself.

"Doubtful." Sage smiled, a little sad, emotions I couldn't read flickering through her eyes. "You didn't know him. He was not a nice man. River and I don't have good memories of him and it's a very good thing that Mom threw him out of the house when she did. The only tie I have to him is genetic and that doesn't mean shit to me, no matter what he said in that letter." She stood and leaned in to kiss my cheek. "Thanks for the sentiment, but there's nothing to be sorry about."

I hugged her close and rested my head on her belly as she stroked my hair. Her voice held finality. She, too, had already decided the dead man on the Rez was her father. "Doesn't matter what you thought of him," I said. "If he
is
dead, it might still bring shit up for you and River."
Like that damn letter obviously did.

She didn't respond right away, just continued stroking my hair with one hand while the other rested on my shoulder. "I love you," she said after a while and I hugged her even closer.

"Right back at 'cha."

She chuckled. "I'll call Mom. See if she's heard anything."

I reluctantly released her. She leaned down and brushed a kiss across my lips before she went inside. I sat staring at the article from yesterday's paper but I didn't see the words.

I HEARD THE front door open and close and I washed my hands in the kitchen sink and wiped them on the dish towel. I finished just as Sage appeared in the doorway.

"Hey," I said, smiling. "How was the studio?"

"Good," she responded. She closed the distance between us and wrapped her arms around my waist. "Mmm. My sexy girlfriend is making dinner."

I kissed her forehead. "Thought we'd grill out. I invited Jeff."

Sage's eyes lit up. "Cool. I haven't seen him in forever."

"Amy keeps him busy." I grinned. "You want a beer?"

"I would love a beer."

I stepped away and opened the refrigerator, crouching to pull a bottle of Rio Grande Pale Ale off the bottom shelf. I stood and removed the top with the bottle opener I'd left on the counter. Sage took the bottle and sipped. She leaned back against the counter as I continued working on the burgers. I'd stacked six patties on a plate and set to work slicing roasted green chile.

"Jeff told me this morning he and Amy are thinking about moving in together." I kept my eyes on my work.

"I figured it was a matter of time. He's probably freaking out."

I glanced at her.
My psychic girlfriend
.

"Jeff's always been commitment-shy. Which cracks me up, because he gets so wrapped up in the whole idea of it." Sage giggled. "Remember when we first met and he was seeing Robin? He
so
wanted her to be 'the one'. But I told him he didn't want that. He picks emotionally unavailable women so he can pretend he tried a commitment and it just didn't work." She took another sip of beer.

"So you're saying that Jeff is basically a lesbian?"

Sage laughed and almost choked on her beer. "Something like that. But I think it might be different with Amy. Maybe he figured something out."

I started slicing tomatoes. "I did." I stopped and looked at her. "When I met you."

She looked at me for a while, a little smile twitching at the corners of her mouth.

"I really wanted to be the kind of partner you were looking for. Which requires that I show up game-ready. Every day."

She cocked her head at me. "How do you think you're doing?"

I started slicing again. "It's hard sometimes to get out of my head. But I think I'm doing pretty good." I flashed her a grin.

Sage moved closer and kissed my shoulder. "Better than good." She watched me slicing for a while. I finished the tomatoes and started working on the lettuce.

"The situation with Dad is bothering me," she announced.

"How so?" I left the lettuce to soak in a pan and gave her my full attention.

She took a sip of her beer. "My mom admitted that Dad had been in contact with her over the years and that she'd kept him posted on what River and I have been doing."

I didn't say anything for a long moment. "Did that piss you off?"

"A little. I asked her why she'd do that, given that she had to kick his ass out of our lives when I was sixteen."

"What'd she say to that?"

"She said that he'd contact her every once in a while wanting to make amends to us so she'd give him our addresses and she told him it was up to him. She wouldn't facilitate." Sage pursed her lips. "Which is better than telling me and River that poor Dad was so sorry and couldn't we just call him once in a while and give him a chance." She paused. "Notice how he never called. Some fucking amends, Dad." She looked up at me. "Maybe I'm not pissed at her. Maybe I'm pissed at him, still." Sage sighed. "Shit. I'm always telling people to let things go and I haven't taken my own advice."

I hugged her and she rested her head on my shoulder. "He did send a letter."

"Because he fucking wanted something," she said, irritated. "That wasn't about amends. It was about digging into another mess that he got into."

I hugged her closer.

"Why the hell would he tell us about his job if he didn't want us to maybe look into it if something happened to him?"

"I don't know." Maybe he
was
scared. Whether his fear was based on reality was another question.

"Regardless, he didn't end up on the Rez by accident," she said as she stroked my back.