Chapter Fourteen
Jarrod was sitting behind his office desk when a loud knock came on the door. Since he had a client stop him on the way to his office, saying he'd drop by later, Jarrod thought it may be him. "The door's not locked!" He called out as he hurried to finish reading the last few sentences of the paperwork he'd been working on. Although, Jarrod had his head down, the moment the door opened and his visitor entered the room; Jarrod knew it wasn't the client he'd been expecting. No, the cologne and the sound of spurs hitting the floor told him Nick had arrived. Sure enough, when Jarrod raised his head, he saw Nick making himself comfortable on the brown, leather couch he'd purchased the month before. However, his heart skipped a beat as he also saw Heath doing the same.
"Who's with Shelly?" Jarrod asked a bit sharper than he meant to, knowing his brothers couldn't exactly guard her if both of them were in his office. Then, due to the upset look in Nick's eyes, Jarrod felt his heart racing. Had something happened to Michelle?
"Mother and McColl are both on the ranch with her." Heath spoke up, a bit taken back by how forcefully Jarrod asked the question. "Fred had his deputy ride out to tell us you wanted to see one of us. What's this all about?"
If nothing had happened to Michelle, why did Nick look upset? Jarrod didn't know, and he didn't have time to ask about it at the moment. He opened his top drawer and pulled out the telegram that had him catching the first train home. He stood up and, walking around his desk, handed the paper to Heath, who happened to be sitting closest to him. "I would have just wired you, only I couldn't." Jarrod went on to explain his reasoning. "I'm sorry too." He leaned back against the desk. "When I saw you both here, I feared the worst had happened."
"And you couldn't come out to the ranch and tell us this?" Nick asked his own voice on edge. Not knowing about the conversation their brother had had in the barn with Michelle, and other talks they'd had, both Heath and Jarrod were puzzled by the anger they heard in Nick's voice.
"I'm sorry, Nick. As you know, I've been extremely busy lately. I really should have stayed in San Francisco and worked on this there." Jarrod pointed to the papers on his desk, still unwilling to admit that he feared he might make his desire to court Michelle himself known if he returned to the ranch, thus causing a rift in the family...more importantly a rift between him and Nick. "Only, as I just said, you had to be warned. This office was closer than the ranch. It was simply easier to send word out to you." The hope he had that Nick would accept the explanation was thrown out the window when the look in Nick's hardened up even more and asked Heath if he would ride hard and fast back to the ranch, just in case Michelle and the other women wound up needing the extra help. Heath might not have said yes, only he had liked Mr. Peters from the moment he'd met him. If the man said there was a high possibility Michelle was in danger of being found, she was. The moment Heath was gone, Nick stood up and turned on Jarrod.
Still seeing the hurt in Michelle's eyes, he barked at his brother, "What is going on, Jarrod? What has happened to make it so you are avoiding Michelle like the plague? She thinks you don't want her to be a Barkley. I've tried to tell her different, only your actions of late are making it almost impossible to convince her of that!"
Jarrod's eyes widened in surprise at his brother's question and statement. He had thought that, with the work load he'd purposely taken on, it would simply send the message he was extremely busy. He'd never guessed for a moment that the purpose for the extra work would come across as what it really was…a way to avoid being around Michelle. "I'm sorry, Nick. It was never suppose to come across that I didn't want her to be a Barkley. As you know, I haven't had the time to slow down." Jarrod was more than relieved Nick hadn't said that they thought he didn't like the idea of her becoming Nick's wife. He hated the idea of trying to word an honest answer to that one. He found himself holding his breath as Nick studied him closely.
While Nick could tell Jarrod was being honest about his work load, he couldn't help but feel there was more to it than that. "That's all there is to it? You're not simply using the work load as an excuse to avoid us for some stupid reason?"
"I wouldn't call it stupid" Jarrod thought as the memory of how jealous Nick had gotten when he thought *Heath wanted Hester. With that memory on his mind, Jarrod scrambled to come up with an honest answer, one that would stop Nick from questioning him any further. "I…" Jarrod started to speak only to be interrupted when the front door open and he and Nick heard Fred calling for Jarrod. Relieved for the reprieve, Jarrod hurried to the main part of the office building. Fred was standing towards the front window which put his back to Jarrod and Nick, who had followed his brother.
"What is it, Fred?" Jarrod's asked as the lawman turned around to face him and his brother.
Thinking on the gentleman who had visited him in the law office, Fred looked at Nick. "I was actually going to ask Jarrod if he would save me a trip out to the ranch. I didn't know you were already in town."
"You have, or have had, someone approach you about Shelly?" Nick asked, seeing no other reason for Fred to want to talk to him.
"No, I've had some approach me concerning about Michelle Lecaise." Fred scoffed as he related everything else the detective in his office had said concerning the Marquee's claims. "Because of your acquaintance with the Marquee and his daughter during that fire, he wanted to talk to you. I convinced him it was too late to head out to the ranch tonight and suggested he get a room, and then maybe head out in the morning."
Nick, who wasn't about to chance having the detective seeing Michelle and talking to her, thus putting Michelle the pressure of having to either fess up or flat out lie, nodded towards the door. "We'll see you in the morning, Fred."
Fred didn't have to ask why Nick was cutting the conversation short. After all, he might not have graduated from school, but he could still figure things out. "Just remember," Fred said as he reached for the door knob, "I can't do anything for you unless he does something illegal."
"We know that, Fred." Nick said as he door closed behind the sheriff. Once the door was completely shut, he turned around and made a request of Jarrod that made his brother feel as if Nick had just pulled the rug out from under him.
Refers to the Episode "By Fires Unseen"