When Snow Falls (Whiskey Creek #2)(64)
Author: Brenda Novak

“I appreciate your concern,” Cheyenne said. “And…we’ll do what we can.”

The sheriff made a point of checking his watch. “Look at that. It’s almost six. Do you think you can sleep? I’ll sit and watch TV in the living room until your sister returns if you’d like. I don’t want to leave you here alone.”

Cheyenne kept tightening that ball of hospital gowns, adding a set of extra sheets that had been sitting off to one side, clean and neatly folded. “That’s very nice. But there’s no need. Thank you, though.”

“I can’t leave you—”

Dylan cleared his throat, attracting their attention for the first time. If they’d heard him come in, they hadn’t reacted. They’d either been too engrossed in what was happening or they’d assumed he was one of the men removing the body who’d come back in for some reason, maybe a glass of water. “I’ll take care of her.”

“Is this…a friend?” The nurse’s eyebrows, drawn by a black pencil, nearly hit her hairline.

Cheyenne looked so relieved to see him he almost went over to her, even though the room was already crowded. “My neighbor,” she said. “I’ll be in good hands.”

That statement was spoken with conviction, which confused Dylan. He’d just concluded that she wanted Joe. But if that was the case, why hadn’t she called Joe? Why wasn’t Joe here? Because he lived farther away? Because she felt more at home with someone she considered beneath her and she didn’t want Joe to be part of this terrible process?

The sheriff squinted at him as if his long hair and leather jacket implied that he couldn’t be trusted, but there were lines of fatigue in his stern cop face. No doubt he was eager to head home to his family. His shift was probably about to end. “Call if you need anything,” he told Cheyenne.

She nodded and kept up with the platitudes and thank-yous until she’d walked them out.

When they were finally gone, she locked the door and turned to face him.

“Any chance you’d be willing to start a fire?” she asked.

“Of course.” He didn’t question why. He guessed what she wanted to do and wholeheartedly supported it. He also guessed what she’d already done and knew he would’ve done the same.

While the flames were beginning to lick at the logs he’d brought from the porch, she carried in a bundle from out back.

“Where’d you hide that?”

“In the shed.” The plastic bag contained the bloody pillow and some of the bedding he’d seen earlier that hadn’t been in Anita’s room when he came back.

She shoved it in the fire. Then she piled on the hospital gowns, towels, washrags, extra catheters and other hospital supplies, even her mother’s regular clothes.

“Are you sure you want to get rid of all that?” he asked when she threw in hairbrushes and combs and makeup bags and jewelry.

“Yes,” she replied with absolute certainty, and stood back to watch it burn.

22

“You get some sleep,” Dylan said. “I’ll sit out here until Presley returns.”

Cheyenne couldn’t believe he was willing to stay. Not after seeing her with Joe earlier. She knew that incident had made an impact on him. Although he’d been kind, he hadn’t touched her since they took away the body and she could tell he didn’t plan to. “What about the shop?”

“I’ll call Grady, have him open.”

“Can your brothers manage without you?”

“They’ll be okay for one day.”

She twisted her hands in front of her. Suddenly, she didn’t seem to know what to do with them. “You found no sign of Presley?”

“None.”

She’d guessed but had to ask. Where had her sister gone? Could she have driven off the highway and down a ravine in that old car of hers?

Cheyenne feared that might be the case. She even worried that Presley might’ve veered off the road intentionally. Drugs made people do things they otherwise never would. The possible pregnancy might’ve been too much, coupled with Anita’s decline and—

Refusing to continue that thought, she changed the subject. “Aaron came by while you were searching. Did he find you?”

“Yeah. He did what he could to help.”

“I think Presley might be in love with him.”

“I get that impression.”

She wondered whether or not to tell him about the baby. He hadn’t been too complimentary of Presley when they’d first talked in the park so, in the end, she didn’t divulge her sister’s secret. It felt like too great a breach of trust. He already knew more than he probably should about the night Anita died.

The memory of going into her mother’s room made her feel queasy. “Do you think I’m terrible for…for hiding what Presley did?”

His eyes were steady on hers. “No.”

“I just couldn’t see…couldn’t see getting her into trouble when Anita was days away from dying, anyway. That’s no excuse, but—” But she couldn’t figure out how else to handle the situation, how to remain on stable, moral ground and still love and care for her less-than-exemplary family. “I’m sure she just…snapped or…or she was on drugs or…something. She loved Anita.”

“We don’t know what happened. You had to give her the benefit of the doubt. Otherwise, you would’ve had to trust the system and I don’t think that’s any more reliable than she is.”

True, but it didn’t bode well that Presley hadn’t even called to explain. Cheyenne was afraid she’d lost both her mother and her sister on the same night. “I hope she’s okay.”

The sympathy in his eyes made her crave his arms around her. She felt so cold, so estranged from the regular world. She knew he could be the anchor she needed. He’d done it before, although she hadn’t wanted to acknowledge his profound effect on her. She wished she could ask him for that physical comfort now, but a divide stood between them that hadn’t been there before. And she was to blame for it. She’d made him question everything he’d felt when they were together. Suddenly, he was as leery of her as she’d always been of him.

“I’m sure she is,” he said.

She stared down at her phone. How could so much have happened since Eve left? The holidays were never easy. She had too many troubled memories of Christmases past, had learned very early that there was no Santa. But this Christmas was harder than it had been in years.