Page 87 of Runaway for the Grumpy Daddy

"When visibility allows, we'll look."

"Not enough."

"It's what I have."

The phrase belonged to him. The complaint's what I've got. The evidence is what I've got. A fair man inside bad facts, updating one page at a time while the woman I loved drove into weather that could erase a full-grown cow at twenty feet.

I put both hands around the bars and held on.

Not because I thought they would move.

Because if I let go, I was going to find out what my hands did with no work in reach.

Just then, Cash came through the door with the storm on him and murder held behind his teeth.

Snow covered his shoulders and melted in dark tracks down his ranch coat. His hair was wet. His eyes had gone red around the green. No hat. No grin. He looked like he had been dragged behind the night and refused to let go.

He stopped in front of the cell. "You know she called?"

I nodded grimly.

"She wouldn't give me her address. Wouldn't let me come. Told me to stay at the ranch." Cash scrubbed both hands over his face. They came down shaking. "She said the storm needed me. Told me to tape my shoulder before I saddled. Told me the east fence drifts first. Told me about the south shelter and the generator regulator."

Even running, she had been counting calves.

"Then she hung up on me," Cash said. "Little menace actually hung up while I was telling her not to."

"She meant to come home."

"Yeah."

Not meant as in hoped.

Meant as in decided.

The distinction gave me one breath I hadn't had.

Cash moved closer to the bars. "I failed you."

"No."

"I could've—"

"No."

He flinched at the weight of it, though I hadn't raised my voice.

I reached between the bars. He looked at my hand like he didn't know what it was for. Then he stepped in, and I put it around the back of his neck.

Cash had spent his whole life moving. Dancing out of reach, talking around pain, turning every sharp thing into a joke before it drew blood. He stood still now under my hand.

"You stayed where she needed you," I said. "You did right."

His face folded once. He got it back fast, but I saw.

"Boo."

"You did right."