Stay
Authors: Julia Barrett,J. W. Manus,Winterheart Designs
Stay
Copyright © 2012 J. R. Barrett
Cover Artist: Winterheart Designs
Interior Design: JW Manus
All rights reserved. Except for the use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means is forbidden without the express permission of the author.
This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and settings are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events, names, locales, organizations, or persons living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Table of Contents
Dear Reader:
I intended
Incorporeal
(Book I: The Soul Series)
to be a stand-alone book, however by the time the story took shape I realized an important secondary character had his own life to live. Thus,
In the Flesh
(Book II: The Soul Series)
was born. However,
In the Flesh
didn’t end the way I anticipated and I realized there was more story waiting to be told.
Stay
(Book III: The Soul Series) is that story. Thanks for
staying
around.
Julia
Plato believed in metempsychosis, the transmigration of souls from one living thing to another.
Pythagoras heard the cry of his dead friend in the bark of a dog.
Genesis 6: And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives, whomsoever they chose.
This is the theory of the Zohar, which says: "All souls are subject to transmigration; and men do not know the ways of the Holy One, blessed be He! They do not know that they are brought before the tribunal both before they enter into this world and after they leave it; they are ignorant of the many transmigrations and secret probations which they have to undergo, and of the number of souls and spirits which enter into this world and which do not return to the palace of the Heavenly King. Men do not know how the souls revolve like a stone which is thrown from a sling. But the time is at hand when these mysteries will be disclosed" (Zohar, ii. 99b).
hat do you think, Bodacious, time to move on?” Lucas pounded another nail into the fencepost and shot a glance at his horse, not that he expected an answer.
Head down, Bodacious snorted. Lucas watched the horse use his sensitive nose to brush aside a thin layer of snow in search of the tender spring grass.
Dragging his bag of tools, Lucas stretched a length of wire to the next post. He looked over at the horse again and shook his head.
“I’ve never been in a situation like this.” He reached for his hammer and another nail. “A woman who I swear is temptation personified, no man in sight, a ranch that needs running… Everyone ‘round here seems to think I’m the one knocked her up only I don’t remember a thing.”
He missed the nail. “Damn it!” Lucas popped his thumb into his mouth. Disgusted, he tossed the hammer onto the leather bag and walked off a few paces. “I wish to hell I did remember. I wish it had been me. I wouldn’t have left her. Only the worst kind of idiot walks away from a woman like Sydney Blake.” Lucas shook his hand, studying the red mark under the thumbnail. “Christ that smarts.”
He threw an arm over the horse’s rump. “How the hell did I get mixed up in something crazy like this?”
Bodacious snorted again and moved away to a likely looking patch of green.
“Sick of hearing me repeat myself, are you?” He knelt to grab another handful of nails.
“I’ve heard worse.”
Lucas spun around. “Where the hell did you come from?”
Cass retrieved the hammer and held it toward Lucas. “Left my truck down by the river. Hiked up over the ridge. I figured I’d find you here. This stretch of fence takes a beating every year.”
Lucas reached for the hammer. “Thanks.” He fitted a horseshoe nail around the barbed wire and pounded it into the fencepost. “What can I do for you, Sheriff?”
Cass stretched the roll of wire to the next post. “I hear tell you’re thinking of heading back to Nebraska. Any truth to this rumor?”
Lucas stopped his arm, the hammer in his hand poised in midair. He turned to look at the sheriff. “Who you been talking to, my horse?”
Cass shook his head. “Don’t need to. I pay attention. Comes with the job description.”
Without a word, Lucas returned to his task.
“Son, I asked you a question.”
“And I don’t have an answer for you.”
The men worked in silence. After the last section of torn wire was repaired, Lucas retrieved his tools, wrapped them, and stowed them in his saddle bag. He turned to the sheriff. “Thanks for your help.”
“You’re welcome, Wolf.”
Biting back a curse, Lucas stomped right up to the man. “That’s another thing. It pisses the hell outa me that everyone around here seems to think he knows me, like I been here all along. You don’t know me. You don’t know a damn thing about me, and neither does she.”
The sheriff backed off a few paces, leaned against a post, kicked a booted toe at the snow. “That’s what’s really eating at you, isn’t it?”
“Damn right it’s eating at me.” Lucas tore his hat off his head and smacked it against his thigh. “It wasn’t me.” He folded the worn baseball cap, squeezing it in his fist. “I wouldn’t forget her. I wouldn’t leave her on her own. I’m not that kind of man.” He paused, twisting his cap. “But it’s more than that.”
“Doesn’t feel quite right, does it?”
“No.” Lucas lifted his head. “Some days I feel like I’m losing my mind, like maybe I lived two lives at the same time, but that’s not possible, sheriff. A man can’t do a thing like that.”
The sheriff arched his eyebrows.
“I look at her and I see her, well, I see her through different eyes, through another man’s eyes. It makes no sense. I know things about her I have no way of knowing. I remember conversations we’ve never had.” Lucas rubbed a hand along his unshaven jaw. “Sounds crazy, doesn’t it?”
“Not to me it doesn’t, son.”
Lucas stared at the other man. “Then what the hell’s wrong with you? If you said something like that to me you can be dang sure I’d lock you up and throw away the key.”
Cass shrugged. “I’ve seen and heard a lot of strange things; some would sound pretty crazy to you. I’d tell you all about it, Wolf, but you wouldn’t believe me any more than you believe your own eyes and ears.”
Lucas snorted. “Is this whole county insane? The sooner I’m on my way, the better off I’ll be.” He stuck his cap back on his head.
“Well, I suppose you have to do what’s best, but I’ll say this, if you leave, Sydney’s stubborn enough to work this ranch on her own. She’s too proud to ask for help.”
“That’s not my problem.” Lucas lifted his bridle from the fence post and reached for the horse’s halter.
The sheriff put a hand on Lucas’s shoulder. “Will it make any difference if I tell you I heard from her father today? He says he won’t be coming back up here until August.”
Lucas shrugged the sheriff’s hand from his shoulder and closed his eyes.
Shit
. “Why not, what’s the hold up?”
“Sydney’s mother feels better in the warm weather. She’s not quite ready to come on home.”
“God bless it.” Lucas threw up his arms, spooking his horse. He grabbed for the lead rope. “Hush, boy. Hush.” Bodacious stomped his foot. “Look, sheriff…”
“Cass. You’ve been here a month. It’s about time you called me Cass.”
“All right, look here, Cass, I understand what you’re trying to do.”
“And what’s that?”
“Make me worry about her.”
The sheriff smiled, his eyes crinkling. “Is it working?”
Lucas tried hard not to respond to the smile. He knew the man was playing him. “You’re preachin’ to the choir. I never stop worrying about her. She’s all alone, trying to practice medicine and run a ranch. And have a baby. Can’t be done, at least it can’t be done well.”
“Then why not stick around?”
Lucas focused on bridling his horse. “If I stick around…” He paused to hook the throat latch. “If I stick around I’m asking for trouble.” He glanced back at the sheriff.
“What kind of trouble?”
Lucas tossed the reins up over the horse’s neck. “Everyone around already has a notion I’m with Sydney. I’ve never been with her, Cass. That doesn’t mean I haven’t…” He stopped the words from passing his lips.
The sheriff’s expression didn’t change. “Thought about it?”
Lucas shook his head. “I shouldn’t have said that.”
“Hey,” said Cass. “I’m not one to criticize.”
“Never said you were.” Lucas turned back to his horse to tighten the cinch. He made sure his tool bag was secure.
“Why not give it a chance?”
Damn it. Why doesn’t the man shut up already?
“What, Sydney? You mean Sydney and me?”
“That’s exactly what I mean.”
Lucas laughed. “You playing matchmaker now?”
“No.” Cass looked him straight in the eye. “I owe you a debt and I’m repaying it. You just don’t remember.”
“See?” Lucas wagged a finger at the sheriff. “This is what I’m talking about. All this crap about stuff I don’t remember. And that’s all it is, crap. I’ve never been here before. I don’t know you people. I don’t know her, and if she looks at me with those big eyes one more time…” Lucas grabbed for his stirrup and stuck his booted foot into it.