The Perfect Homecoming (Pine River #3)

Cooper held on to the dash as they began to bounce up an old pitted logging road. “So is that why she’s here?” he asked. “She came to claim her share of the ranch?”


“No, no, they did that last spring,” Jackson said loudly over the bump and grind of the Jeep. “After Grant died, they all came out to meet each other and have a look around. The ranch had been set up for some destination events—Grant’s idea to make some money, right? Family reunions, weddings, that sort of thing. And the girls decided they were going to make it work. That is, Madeline and Libby decided. Emma didn’t want anything to do with it. The next day, she took off back to LA with some guy she called her boyfriend. No one had heard anything from her until she showed up here again, out of the blue, sometime before Thanksgiving.”

So Emma was fond of taking off, Cooper thought.

“Not sure what her deal is,” Jackson said, “but she’s kind of interesting. I’ve got a buddy who works over at the body shop across from the city park. He says when the weather is good, she goes there in the afternoons and sits there watching the Wilson kids. They live on the other side of the park. He said she doesn’t do anything but sit there and watch them. Sometimes she laughs, but once those kids go in, she leaves.” Jackson shook his head and gunned it to get over some rocks. “I don’t know why anyone would watch the Wilson kids—little terrors, all three of them. Dani says they’re troublemakers at school. The dad works just shy of the law, and the mom, I hear, drinks her breakfast every morning. I don’t know what Emma’s fascination is with them.” He suddenly looked at Cooper. “Oh hey, man, I’m sorry, I’m just talking out my ass—are you and she involved?”

“What? No,” Cooper said quickly, thinking of her earlier today, suggesting she had somehow rejected him. “Nothing like that. She’s got something that belongs to a friend of mine. I told him I’d get it back while I was out this way.”

“Ah,” Jackson said, throttling down to take a treacherous turn in the old logging road. “So you and she aren’t . . . ?”

Cooper looked at him. Jackson shrugged. “Sleeping together?” Cooper drawled.

Jackson smiled faintly.

“No,” Cooper said, eyeing Jackson curiously. “Are you?”

Jackson laughed. “Nope. I think that shop is closed up tight. Every man in Pine River has tried and gotten the cold shoulder.”

That was interesting. From what Cooper had heard, that shop was anything but closed.

“So you’re out this way for recreation?” Jackson asked, thankfully changing the subject.

“You could say that,” Cooper said, and explained to Jackson what he did for a living.

Like most men, Jackson was enthralled by the idea of TA; it was every man’s daydream. “I know some people who would be totally into that,” he said. “Myself included. We should talk. I could hook you up with some potential clients.”

“In Pine River?” Cooper asked.

“No,” Jackson scoffed. “Back east. Guys with real money.”

Cooper found it interesting that this loafer-wearing, Jeep-driving lawyer in Pine River would know “real money” back east, but he didn’t have a chance to ask him about it, because they came to an abrupt halt. An iron gate closed off the road before them, a yellow triangle with a warning against trespassing hanging slightly crooked. Jackson hopped out, walked up to the gate, jiggled the lock, then swung it open and pushed it out of the way.

He climbed back into the Jeep and put it into gear.

“I thought you said the road was open,” Cooper said, noticing the sign on the gate that clearly marked the road as prohibited by the Forest Service.

“One man’s ‘closed’ is another man’s ‘maybe.’” He grinned at Cooper as he drove the Jeep through the gate and up the road until it became impassable. At that point, Jackson stopped, retrieved some hiking boots from behind his seat, and donned them. “Come on,” he said.

Cooper followed him up the road until they ran into snowpack. But from there, they could glimpse Cheyenne Canyon below them.

The view was breathtaking. A rush of adrenaline swept through Cooper; he could think of any number of things he would do in that canyon. It was narrow, with some interesting rock formations and, according to Jackson, a fast-running stream that poured into Pine River. Cooper had always been a lover of the great outdoors, and when he saw a vista like that, he felt he was standing as close to God’s perfection as possible. Yes, he would definitely look forward to late spring when he could come back here to check it out.

They poked around the logging roads a bit more, but finding their way blocked more than once, they eventually drove back down to town. Jackson dropped Cooper at Tag’s. “Thanks, man,” Cooper said. “I appreciate it.”

“Any time. Before you leave town, come around to my office and let’s talk business. In the meantime, if you need anything, let me know.”