Chapter Fourteen
Dan propped hisstiff leg on the sectional sofa facing Ryan’s office in the common room that joined their private homes.
He wasn’t quite as offhand about his friend’s interference as he’d let on to Jazz. Something was eating at Ryan and a team meeting seemed the best way to sound him out. They were long overdue for one, anyway. Between his job, Jazz, and getting shot, he’d lost track of what his best friends were up to in their personal lives.
Ryan sat next to him in an overstuffed chair. Dallie parked himself at the bend in the sectional, but only after satisfying himself that Dan hadn’t done any damage to his leg by driving himself to the base.
“I’m good with having a personal physician,” Dan said, slapping Dallas’s probing fingers away, “but I’ve gotta be honest. You always checking my junk the second you walk into the room is freaking me out.”
“I don’t care what women tell you. Your junk is nothing special,” Dallie replied. “I only have to look down to see the real deal.”
“Why do doctors have such huge egos?” Ryan mused to himself.
Dallas flipped his shaggy curls out of his eyes. He was in need of a haircut. As usual. “It’s not my ego that’s huge.”
They spent the next hour on business. Dallas’s new clinic would be up and running in the new year. Construction of the facility, which would be located not far from the air base, had already begun. Ryan’s group home was scheduled to open next summer. The bunkhouses were ready.
“My background check is holding up the paperwork,” Ryan said, as if they hadn’t all known that was likely to happen. He perked up. “I bought ten more Tennessee Walkers, though.”
His plans for the group home included getting the kids involved in either horse showmanship or rodeo riding. He claimed he’d chosen the Tennessee Walker for them because William Shatner was a fan, but in reality, he intensely disliked the banned practice of soring—intentionally causing pain to create their famous, high-stepping gait—and in his own way, was trying to improve breeding practices.
This was why Dan had no major concerns as to his motivation for offering to buy off Jazz’s family. He was incapable of physical cruelty. Insensitivity, yes. He had that in spades. A giant dose of obliviousness, too. His respect for the law was sometimes a cause for concern, although not so much anymore now that Dan was a sheriff.
But cruelty? Or violence?
Never.
It puzzled him, however, that a man who believed in giving teens second chances had apparently decided Jazz’s brothers were a lost cause. To Dan, that was the one thing that didn’t make sense.
With business out of the way, the three friends relaxed. Dallas took three beers out of the mini fridge in Ryan’s office. They came from the new local brewery. Business for the pretty brew master must be booming.
Dallas passed one beer to Ryan. “Are you still taking pain medication?” he asked Dan, holding his back.
“No. I don’t like them.” They clouded his thinking.
Dallie handed over his beer. “And yet, you’re okay with alcohol.”
“I am in small doses.” Dan cracked open the can. “What have you guys been up to while I’ve been glued to the couch?”
“Work,” Dallas said. “As usual. How’s chasing the hot base manager while nursing a groin injury working out for you?”
“Funny you should ask about Jazz.” Dan glanced at Ryan. “She’s coming to dinner with my parents tomorrow night. They want to get to know her better. Any comments? Complaints?”
Ryan didn’t pretend not to know why he was looking at him. “No complaints here. I like Jazz. But I could save you a fortune if you’d tell her to take me up on my offer. Just sayin’.”
“I’ve missed something,” Dallas said, hazel eyes sliding between them before settling on Dan.
“Ryan tried to pay her family to stay away from me.”
Dallas slung his arms along the back of the sofa and relaxed into the cushions. “Either one of you could pay mine to stay away from me. I’d love to save a fortune. I’d love to save the suck on my time even more.”
“Jazz doesn’t want you giving them money,” Dan said to Ryan.
Ryan shrugged. “Okay. I’ll leave that to you. She didn’t tell you about the rest of the conversation though, did she?” He carried on without waiting for an answer. “I suggested she turn the Custer County airport into a full-fledged training base. That would be quite a challenge for her, especially if she wants to give McCall a run for their money. It would be a permanent position, too. She said she’d think about it. So, has she?” He threw that last down like a challenge.
Dan knew where Ryan was going with this. He was reminding him of their conversation in the garage the night of the open house, when he’d warned him Jazz didn’t seem all that into him and Dallie suggested she was really looking for a place to belong. If she was into him, and also looking for a place to belong, then turning Custer County into a training base would resolve both of those issues.
Why hadn’t she said anything about it to him?