Chapter Nine
Breeze and Ridge talked the entire three-hour drive home. Ridge shared things with her that she wished she didn’t have to know, yet at the same time she was grateful he was trusting her. They came up with a plan for him to get a job at a garage in Logan that had offered him a good job before. He’d been too afraid to commit, worried he’d relapse into drugs. He promised her he was done using. Seeing Breeze working in Flint’s mansion, Rachel hurting like that, and knowing he’d put Breeze and all of the Jewel family in such a situation had sobered him up completely.
Breeze had faith in Ridge. She was going to put her schooling on hold and pick up more hours at the restaurant and find other odd jobs until she could work full-time at the elementary school in the fall. Together, they’d live even more frugally and put all their money aside until they could pay Seth back.
It had been so hard to drive away from Seth. He’d claimed that he blamed Flint, but he and his family had to naturally place some blame on her and Ridge. They had to. When the shock wore off, he’d be grateful that Breeze had blown out of his life. Like her name, she was no more than a breeze blowing out. She shook her head, probably more like a hurricane to Seth.
They finally made it home a little after two a.m. and they both wearily climbed in their beds. It was nice to be back in the familiar bedroom of the drafty trailer she’d grown up in. The memories here weren’t all bad. She and Ridge had made some good ones.
All she had of Seth was brief memories now. Thinking back through the day made tears trickle down her face. For a few blessed hours, she’d felt like she was worth something. Valued, attractive, safe … loved. Did she really dare go there? She touched her lips which still singed from Seth’s incredible kiss. She’d been in a fairy tale, and now she was back to reality. Yet she still had her brother, her self-respect, and her faith.
Rolling onto her knees, she poured out her heart to a God who she knew loved her regardless of her background and mistakes. Tears dropped from her eyelashes to her clasped hands as she shared her frustrations and her pains. She wasn’t ready to share any hopes or ask for anything beyond forgiveness for her own mistakes, and help for Rachel, Seth, his mom, and all of their family. She remembered to thank Him for her little home and her brother working to go down the right path. She couldn’t ask for anything for herself. She knew she wasn’t in a place to deserve it yet, maybe ever.
* * *
Seth and his family spent several miserable weeks in Billings, taking turns doing a vigil by Rachel’s bedside when she wasn’t being treated or doing therapy. The skin grafts they’d taken from her rear and the inside of her thigh for her face and neck were supposedly healing very well. She seemed to be in pretty good spirits and talked and joked with Seth when he was visiting. At first it had been hard not to cringe when he saw her singed skin but the skin grafts were healing well. He thought she looked great, but he knew girls were much harder on themselves.
When the family wasn’t with Rachel, they tried to occupy themselves with activities at the large rental house that Mar had found. Swimming, basketball, card games, or TV shows. There were no motorized vehicles to race and Seth was feeling very stir-crazy, yet he’d still opted to miss his race in Minnesota on the weekend. There was no way that he was he leaving until Rachel was released. Mar did find a nice gym nearby, so they spent a couple hours a day working out together, trying to schedule it at the same time that Rachel had physical therapy so she wasn’t alone in her room.
Seth spent a lot of time trying not to think about Breeze. Was she simply working an insane number of hours and helping Ridge stay clean and get a job of his own? What if she was dating someone else or had forgotten all about him? She and Ridge had both seemed determined to pay him back the twenty grand. If he’d known that they would be so caught up on the money and that Flint was going to strike back, maybe he would’ve swallowed his pride and kept the money. It would be a lot better than Breeze thinking she needed to pay him back. He didn’t care about twenty grand, he cared about her.
The police didn’t have much good news for his family. They’d found and detained Flint for twenty-four hours but had no conclusive evidence that he was the perpetrator. They had to release him. They also surmised that many of the Jewel family members were highly successful and in the spotlight, so they assumed a disgruntled ex-employee, a jealous competitor, a crazy fan, or any number of people might have stolen the dynamite and set the bomb.
Isaac had heard through the grapevine that some of the older police officers who’d been around when Seth and Caleb used to terrorize Jackson Hole with fireworks, pipe bombs, and oxygen-acetylene bombs, were theorizing that maybe some of the people who’d lived in fear of the twins may have been trying to get a payback. That would’ve been ironic and somewhat funny, if Rachel hadn’t been suffering.
After nineteen days in the burn unit, Rachel was released. She walked out of the hospital with her head held high, the left side of her face and neck covered in bandages. Reporters had somehow gotten wind of her release and were waiting. After Rachel graduated high school, she was hounded to accept modeling contracts. She’d done some modeling and become quite well-known for her beauty, but she chose to focus on her education. She’d recently graduated with her MBA from Stanford, ready to take on the world. And now this. Seth prayed the setback would be temporary while the skin grafts healed. He prayed she’d believe how beautiful she was, even if she inevitably had scars.
“Miss Jewel! Miss Jewel!” the reporters were calling.
The brothers formed a tight circle around Rachel, Eve, Mom, and Dad. They pushed through to their waiting vehicles. Paisley had stayed home with Mar, Cosette, and Jade, but Eve had come with them. She broke from the brothers and stormed up to the crowd of reporters being held back by security. “Yes?” she asked sweetly.
“We want a comment from Miss Jewel,” a reporter told her.
“I’m Miss Jewel.” Eve put her hands on her thin hips, looking feistier than Seth had ever seen her. “What kind of comment would you like?”
Seth smiled.
“The other Miss Jewel,” a snide blonde said.
Seth opened the door and escorted his mom inside the vehicle. “Go get my girl,” Mom said.
“I’m on it.”
He hurried back to Eve. “Let’s go, sis.”
“They want a comment.” Eve gave him a placid smile and whirled back to the reporters. “Here’s your comment. If Flint Brooks ever touches another person in my family, I will personally make sure he never walks again.”
She turned and stormed to the vehicle, slid in, and slammed the door. Seth’s face felt frozen. He wanted to take down Brooks, but you couldn’t just threaten a man in front of a swarm of shark-like reporters.
“Mr. Jewel, Mr. Jewel,” they were screaming in his face. “Do you share your sister’s aptitude for violence toward Mr. Brooks? What would you like to do to Flint Brooks, sir? Is Flint Brooks responsible for the bombing?”
Seth pivoted and hurried to the SUV, climbing into the front passenger side and slamming the door. “Drive, bro,” he muttered to Caleb.
Caleb put the car into gear, but said, “I’d rather hear Eve threaten Flint some more.”
Seth glanced back at his youngest sibling. Tears were tracing down her face. Mom sat on one side of her and Rachel on the other.
“Thanks, sis,” Rachel murmured.