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  Table of Contents

  Also By Bonnie R. Paulson

  Unbridled Trails

  The end of Unbridled Trails, book #3 of The Montana Trails series, Clearwater County Collection.

  Dear Survivor,

  Lonely Lace series

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  The Montana Trails series

  About the Author

  Acknowledgements

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  Also By Bonnie R. Paulson

  Unbridled Trails

  Book #3

  The Montana Trails series

  By

  Bonnie R. Paulson

  http://bonniepaulson.com

  Chapter 1

  Summer 2002

  Sherri

  Insects expected so much less than humans.

  “Rachiah, I’ll try to make it down, but no promises, okay?” Sherri leaned toward the phone base secured to the ornate side-table Cyan’s mother had picked out at a farmer’s market. “I gotta get going though. Cyan is taking me to Billings. Gotta get there tonight.” She hadn’t purchased her own car yet. First on her list since she’d secured a solid job.

  They hung up, Sherri more irritated than before.

  Thrusting her hands on her hips, she stormed into the foyer where Cyan stacked their bags. “Look, I’m fine with Rachiah heading to Wyoming to find her dad. I get that. But why do you have to stay here? Come with me. We can go visit ‘Chiah on long weekends.” Sherri’s last ditch attempt to make an old argument sound fresh missed its mark. And she knew it.

  Everything paled for Cyan compared to the chance to see Jareth more. Heck, Sherri couldn’t even offer the prospect of hot entomologists because one, Cyan wouldn’t care, and two, Cyan wouldn’t believe her.

  Sherri didn’t blame her.

  Sighing, Cyan straightened and pushed her blue-streaked dark hair to the side. “You’re the one who has to work for the forest service in Billings – chasing those cow maggots.”

  “Beetles.” Sherri grinned, hefting her tarantula cage with Tommy inside into her arms with extreme care. She’d have to get him a traveling case.

  Cyan waved her hand, pursing her lips into a semblance of a scowl. “They’re all gross.” She faked gagging.

  But bugs weren’t gross and Sherri didn’t feel like explaining once again how important studying the migration pattern of the invertebrate population in the Billings area was. Cyan only cared about the wolves or anything else endangered. What she didn’t seem to understand was that without the insects, there wouldn’t be any species to protect.

  Cyan sobered and bit her lip. She shuffled her feet. “I wish it wasn’t so far away.”

  “I know.” Sherri refused to give in to the melancholy of leaving her second childhood home with its comforting aromas of burning herbs and easy access to essential oils and all things vegan. Not to mention the easygoing attitude of Mr. and Mrs. Burns toward Sherri’s multi-legged pets. They never freaked out over a misplaced tarantula or a curious rhinoceros beetle crawling around the kitchen. She didn’t want to leave.

  But at the same time, she needed to get out on her own. She needed to do something, anything, on her own.

  “Promise you’ll be back.” Cyan pierced Sherri with a glare. “That can’t be your forever home.” She would hold Sherri to her promise, even if it was made under duress.

  The promise wasn’t a difficult one to make. “Of course. You’re my family.” Sherri reached for Cyan with her empty arm, embracing the girl she’d do anything for. As much as Sherri loved her real family, there was something to be said for her girls, who would do anything for her – even live with her bugs.

  Billings wouldn’t hold her there forever.

  She’d be back.

  She just didn’t know when.

  ~~~

  Sherri

  2003

  Midsummer

  Nothing was more appealing than the scent of dirt after a much-needed refreshing rain.

  Sherri knelt, one knee resting on the damp mosses on the forest floor outside of Billings, Montana. The summer had taken its toll, the crust dry even under newly dampened needles.

  Dark specks littered the green underbellies of leaves on the lower brush.

  Somehow Sherri always spotted the telltale signs of the insects she sought. She’d much rather crawl around in the dirt of the forest floor than sit at a desk or talk to people.

  Just thinking of the latter sent a shudder through her. Her offer to teach and research at the university hadn’t been big enough to overrule the desire to stay away from the idiot students. She’d graduated and hadn’t returned for her doctorate for a reason.

  She snapped some pictures and recorded information. She wasn’t there to interrupt the habitat, just observe.

  The radio clipped to her waist crackled. “Sherri, you ‘bout done? Over.”

  Yanking the radio toward her lips, Sherri searched the surrounding woods. She pushed the button as late afternoon sunlight shafted through the sparse branches. “Copy. I’m coming in. Over.”

  Man, she was going to miss that place. Her last radio call with the Billings Park and Recreation didn’t satisfy her need for connection. No one there had. They didn’t need her expertise on Western Pine Beetles anymore. The drought in that part of the state ended earlier that spring and now she had to move north. Plus, she’d sufficiently trained the rest of the staff so she wouldn’t have to return that way.

  She’d made a promise.

  “Had to” was the wrong connotation for what she would return north for. If she’d taken much longer than a year, Rachiah and Cyan would’ve been after her to get home anyway and they would’ve been much more forceful than the Bureau of Land Management.

  And their compensation package wouldn’t have been as persuasive.

  The short drive to the office didn’t cater to her melancholy. She’d packed up her last box at the apartment that morning. After she dropped her report off at the office, she could start her drive north.

  To Taylor Falls, Clearwater County.

  Sherri pushed through the double-doors to the office building. She wouldn’t miss the smell of burned popcorn that constantly pervaded the lower floors. But she would miss the easy access to the mulch for Tommy, and the constant access to crickets for his meals.

  “Hey, girl. I’m going to miss you so much.”
Linda, with her shortly bitten nails and long stringy hair, rushed to throw her arms around Sherri’s waist. “I brought in some doughnuts and milk with orange juice as a going away party. But... well, I think the guys got into them. There’s only a couple maple bars left.” She pulled away and shrugged apologetically. “Oh well, right? Us thick girls gotta watch our sugar.” She winked, her garish mauve eyeshadow obliterating any hopes at being coy.

  Smiling in agreement, Sherri swallowed her groan. Thick. Only women thought of her as fat or big-boned. The guys didn’t have a problem with her curves.

  Maybe that was the issue for the ladies.

  Linda glanced over her shoulder as she returned to her receptionist desk. Tossing out a small laugh, she pointed at Sherri. “I mean, seriously, who ever heard of a fat vegan?” Her continued laughter scratched an already sensitive spot.

  “Ha ha. Yeah.” Sherri hurried on, transferring her clipboard from her hand to under her arm. Hopefully, no one else was in the office. Sherri needed one of those doughnuts like she needed a warm blanket in the middle of summer. But at the same time...

  She needed to get home. The stress was lower, nothing pushed her, nothing challenged her. No one tried to make her fit into a specific spot.

  Her cell rang as she dropped the data-laden clipboard to the chipped desk in her soon-to-be-ex-boss’s empty office. She didn’t want to see anyone right then anyway.

  Cyan’s number flashed on the caller ID. Sherri would have to slip out the back to avoid Linda and anyone else.

  She flipped open the phone and muttered, “Having cold feet yet? I’ll be there in eight hours, I can spring you free.” Only half-joking, Sherri ducked out the door, nothing left in the office for her to pack.

  “Ha. Ha. Very funny. No, I wanted to make sure you’re still coming. Rachiah tried canceling on me. I don’t think that’s funny.” Cyan sounded less than amused.

  “Why would she cancel? You’re never getting married again – at least for a first time.” Sherri smirked. She had to tease Cyan. If she didn’t, who would?

  Rounding the building and climbing into her small Nissan pickup, Sherri clenched her jaw. She’d drive through the night and barely get enough sleep the next day only to have to go out for Cyan’s bachelorette party. She forced a smile. “I’ll be there before you know it. We’ll have lots of fun and I promise Rachiah is going.” If I am, she is.

  “Okay, thanks, Sher, I can’t wait to see you. Drive careful.” Cyan hung up her briskly. She’d rather talk to Jareth anyway, than waste time with anyone else.

  Sherri popped Tim McGraw’s latest album into the CD player and buckled her seatbelt. She loved her truck. Her first sign of freedom. Of responsibility. She’d held down a job.

  The fact that she didn’t feel anymore “adult” had to be in her head. She didn’t need to jump into marriage like Cyan, okay, Cyan wasn’t jumping into anything. She and Jareth had been dating a while. Sherri got that. But she didn’t need anyone to save her. She could take care of herself. She’d done it so far.

  Plus, she couldn’t wait to get home.

  Heck, yeah, and she missed her friends. She just wasn’t sure that the job and her friends were enough to liven up the small town feel of Taylor Falls.

  The small town feel Sherri couldn’t seem to shake.

  ~~~

  Sherri grabbed her last box and carried it into the small house she and Rachiah were renting together on the reservation from the Two-Claws.

  Rachiah was supposed to arrive that afternoon. She better or Sherri would have to fill her throat with some fire ants. Okay, maybe she would just imagine doing it.

  “Wow, you have your vindictive look on.” Cyan climbed the three cement steps to the front door and peeked inside. Her blue and yellow tie-dyed peasant shirt hung loosely over jeans and a collection of pearly beads dangled from her neck. She tucked a shock of blue hair behind her ear.

  “Yeah, well, Rachiah’s cutting it close.” Sherri didn’t feel like being magnanimous toward her friend. She hadn’t slept at all due to the road construction on I-90 causing a horrible traffic jam before the turnoff to Clearwater. She’d been stuck in that dang black trap for three hours.

  “She’ll be here.” Cyan smiled, swinging with one hand from the pole holding up the mini porch awning.

  “Wow, your mood changed.” Sherri’s surly tone suggested she didn’t like the adjustment at all. “I’d been counting on you being cranky with me.”

  “Nah, we’re going out with the girls tonight. It’s going to be so fun.” Cyan tapped her watch. “You need to get dressed. We have to meet Emma, Hannah, and Stefanie for dinner.”

  Sherri paused with her foot half on and half off the top step “Wait, what? They’re too young and that’s really early. We weren’t supposed to go out until later.” There went her chance for a nap.

  Cyan scrunched her nose. “I know. But Hannah and Stefanie wanted to do something and Emma can’t go out late. She hasn’t been feeling well. Remember, I told you about her? She’s been kind of run down lately, and Nate is nervous about her using too much energy.”

  Right, the sister-in-law with the cancer. Sherri didn’t mean to think so bluntly, but her fatigue wore at her. “I’m going to need some serious coffee. What are we doing after dinner?” She’d been counting on the free time to catch up on her sleep.

  “Drinks in Colby. Rachiah has a friend who works at the bar down there. Said we might be able to get some karaoke going or something.” She wiggled her eyebrows and smirked. “I know how much you love singing in front of others.”

  “Yeah, I’ll drive separate.” Sherri didn’t want to be a poor sport, but she might not make it to the wedding the next day, if she didn’t have enough sleep.

  Cyan stopped swinging around the pole and studied her friend. She nodded slowly. “Okay, I understand. We can follow each other. If you need to leave early, no stress, okay?”

  That would work. If Sherri left early enough, maybe she wouldn’t fall asleep at the wheel.

  ~~~

  Emma leaned across the orange vinyl table cloth and offered the cardboard party hat to Sherri with a sympathetic shrug. “You get to wear this now, Sherri. I need to get going.” She winked at Cyan and then Rachiah in turn. “It was nice seeing you girls again. I‘ll see you tomorrow at the ceremony.” She held up a finger. “Wait, are you all coming to my place still to get ready beforehand?”

  Cyan glanced at Rachiah and Sherri. “I believe so, I left the dresses at Rachiah and Sherri’s place.” She’d claimed a chair at the end of the booth rather than squeeze into one of the bench seats with the girls.

  “Sounds good.” Just go. Sherri smiled enough to agree but not enough to spark another conversation. The sooner Emma and Nate’s two sisters left, the sooner the rest of them could get on with their night and then head to bed.

  Sherri hadn’t even had a chance to make her bed at the new place. She’d stacked her bedding on the mattress and stared at it forlornly before leaving.

  “We’ll see you tomorrow, then.” Emma smiled softly as she scooted out of the booth behind Stefanie and Hannah. Sweet girls. In fact Sherri would love to spend time with them, when she wasn’t so close to passing out. Hannah was still too young to go to the bar.

  The bar right next door.

  Cyan pointed toward the adjoining door and spoke to the waitress. “We’re just going next door, can we move our tab?”

  Sherri tapped the table. “Aren’t they owned by the same guy? I bet the tabs transfer easily.”

  The waitress followed Sherri who followed Rachiah who was led by the over-confident bride—bedecked out in her toilet paper bridal shower dress and glittery tiara. No one could say the group lacked class, even if it was trashy.

  Sherri snorted at her inner dialogue. Oh, she was getting a little carried away. She had just eaten. A little coffee combined with over-fatigue. She wasn’t the smartest sometimes. Now she was going to add alcohol to the mix.

  “Oh, let’s sit at the ba
r. We always sit at booths or tables.” Cyan tugged Rachiah’s arm and the tall black-haired Native American woman sent pleading glances toward Sherri as she allowed herself to be dragged toward the seats at the end of the counter.

  Sherri scuffed her boots along the uneven planked flooring as she picked out a path behind them. There weren’t too many people inside the dark interior of the bar. A man with a stained flannel wiped at the inner perimeter of the counter with an even more stained white-ish towel. But he manned a glass countertop that sparkled. He may have seemed unkempt but his work space was immaculate.

  Sherri nodded shyly at his welcoming grin. She wasn’t into new people, hardly at all and being at a bar on a Friday night didn’t sit well with her introverted tendencies. She preferred bugs. Creatures with easy to understand needs and certainly fewer motives than the average person.

  Cyan and Rachiah finally slid onto a set of seats and Sherri followed suit, claiming the stool with a plop and a sigh. She rubbed her eyes and stared blearily across from her into the bottle-blocked mirror, ignoring the shadows under her own eyes or the droopy lilt to her softly curled hair.

  “Hey,” He sidled up beside her, like his sunglasses would introduce him in the dark ambience as somehow cooler, somehow more desirable. His voice rolled off his tongue like a dose of cod liver oil with the bitter aftertaste. “You and your friends haven’t been in here before.” He slid his shades down his nose, displaying his studying beady eyes as he trailed his gaze on her from head to foot and then on to Rachiah and then Cyan.

  Sherri glanced at her friends who were lost in conversation, bemoaning the loss of an autumn wedding and the fact that the temperature was supposed to be in the nineties the next day.

  With no backup at the moment, Sherri couldn’t get her mind to snap out of the haze her tiredness draped over her.

  And when was the last time a guy had been interested in her? When had she been away from work? She wrapped her fingers around the glass the bartender placed in front of her. When had Cyan ordered her a cranberry vodka? Sherri’s favorite. She smiled her thanks at the bartender and stirred the drink with the mini straw.