the Breckenridge Foundation back in the black.” Katherine adjusted the cell phone headpiece as she hightailed it west. She felt a small smile, despite the panic in Cari’s voice.
“I don’t know where we’re going to dig up the money. But I’ll go over our donor sheets, see if we forgot to contact anyone.”
“Did you go over our short list?” Katherine hoped that the Rafe Noble she’d read about in the newspaper so many years ago still had a soft spot for the hurting. In fact, she had poured all her plans into that idea.
“I have a call in to a couple of other foundations that might be willing to cut us a one-time check. But we’re down to the dregs.”
“I’m not giving up. Not yet.”
“I can’t believe you’re driving in San Francisco. Who drives anymore? What’s wrong with going first-class?”
It wasn’t exactly how she was traveling but where that Cari should be asking. She’d be shocked to know that in the last three days, Katherine had planned her flight to Nowhere, South Dakota, where she rented a car and started driving to Montana. She’d read an interview a year ago about how Rafe had rented out his ranch while he went on tour this year. Please, please let her hunch be right and let him be in Phillips.
She didn’t want anyone talking her out of her insanity. Thankfully, Angelina didn’t seem to think it insane when she caught Katherine packing. Not only did the woman swear to secrecy, but she gave Katherine a sort of divine blessing with her “May God’s grace and peace go with you.”
Please, God, let this trip be fruitful. Katherine harbored a crazymix of fear and hope as she’d landed in Rapid City, rented a Jeep Liberty, and picked up an atlas.
As if to add visual credence to her jumbled emotions, the landscape in this stretch of Montana was at once harsh and beautiful, jagged rock pushing through lush carpets of field grass that rolled over hill and beyond, dotted with purple and white flowers, and bordered by miles upon miles of fencing. A perfect big blue sky told her that she had pointed her Jeep in the right direction coming out of the airport.
Maybe this wasn’t insanity after all. Her ever-present headache had nearly subsided, and for the first time in months, she suspected she was thinking clearly.
She would talk Rafe Noble into helping her, even if she had to hog-tie herself to his truck until he said yes. She wasn’t leaving Montana without a check written out to Mercy Doctors. Or, if he wouldn’t give her the money, a thumbs-up to the plan she’d concocted to raise the cash. Even she had to admit her plan had facets of brilliance.
“I like to drive,” she finally answered Cari. “What is the latest on our insurance claims?”
Katherine passed a car piled with luggage and two children with headphones staring out the passenger windows. She waved at them and they waved back. Her heart gave a small tug. Bradley didn’t want children—they would stand in the way of his political aspirations. But deep inside, Katherine wanted at least one. A little girl, with long braids, who would wear red cowboy boots.
“Your grandfather’s insurance company is suing the Breckenridge Foundation and Noble for the damages, but his people are saying he isn’t at fault—”
“He drove the wrong way—”
“They called it reckless driving, and his insurance only covers it so far. They’re claiming it was an honest mistake. Our insurance company will go after them, but we might have to eat the damages.”
“It’ll wipe us out. We don’t have coverage for this kind of thing.” She kicked the AC on high, seeing heat ripple against the highway. “Besides, it wasn’t an honest mistake.” An ace that she planned on using, should Noble put up a fuss.
“Despite what you smelled, Katherine, according to the police reports, he wasn’t legally drunk.”
Katherine had done her research on Rafe Noble over the past three days, and everything she read screamed trouble.
“I don’t know where we’re going to dig up the money. But I’ll go over our donor sheets, see if we forgot to contact anyone.”
“Did you go over our short list?” Katherine hoped that the Rafe Noble she’d read about in the newspaper so many years ago still had a soft spot for the hurting. In fact, she had poured all her plans into that idea.
“I have a call in to a couple of other foundations that might be willing to cut us a one-time check. But we’re down to the dregs.”
“I’m not giving up. Not yet.”
“I can’t believe you’re driving in San Francisco. Who drives anymore? What’s wrong with going first-class?”
It wasn’t exactly how she was traveling but where that Cari should be asking. She’d be shocked to know that in the last three days, Katherine had planned her flight to Nowhere, South Dakota, where she rented a car and started driving to Montana. She’d read an interview a year ago about how Rafe had rented out his ranch while he went on tour this year. Please, please let her hunch be right and let him be in Phillips.
She didn’t want anyone talking her out of her insanity. Thankfully, Angelina didn’t seem to think it insane when she caught Katherine packing. Not only did the woman swear to secrecy, but she gave Katherine a sort of divine blessing with her “May God’s grace and peace go with you.”
Please, God, let this trip be fruitful. Katherine harbored a crazymix of fear and hope as she’d landed in Rapid City, rented a Jeep Liberty, and picked up an atlas.
As if to add visual credence to her jumbled emotions, the landscape in this stretch of Montana was at once harsh and beautiful, jagged rock pushing through lush carpets of field grass that rolled over hill and beyond, dotted with purple and white flowers, and bordered by miles upon miles of fencing. A perfect big blue sky told her that she had pointed her Jeep in the right direction coming out of the airport.
Maybe this wasn’t insanity after all. Her ever-present headache had nearly subsided, and for the first time in months, she suspected she was thinking clearly.
She would talk Rafe Noble into helping her, even if she had to hog-tie herself to his truck until he said yes. She wasn’t leaving Montana without a check written out to Mercy Doctors. Or, if he wouldn’t give her the money, a thumbs-up to the plan she’d concocted to raise the cash. Even she had to admit her plan had facets of brilliance.
“I like to drive,” she finally answered Cari. “What is the latest on our insurance claims?”
Katherine passed a car piled with luggage and two children with headphones staring out the passenger windows. She waved at them and they waved back. Her heart gave a small tug. Bradley didn’t want children—they would stand in the way of his political aspirations. But deep inside, Katherine wanted at least one. A little girl, with long braids, who would wear red cowboy boots.
“Your grandfather’s insurance company is suing the Breckenridge Foundation and Noble for the damages, but his people are saying he isn’t at fault—”
“He drove the wrong way—”
“They called it reckless driving, and his insurance only covers it so far. They’re claiming it was an honest mistake. Our insurance company will go after them, but we might have to eat the damages.”
“It’ll wipe us out. We don’t have coverage for this kind of thing.” She kicked the AC on high, seeing heat ripple against the highway. “Besides, it wasn’t an honest mistake.” An ace that she planned on using, should Noble put up a fuss.
“Despite what you smelled, Katherine, according to the police reports, he wasn’t legally drunk.”
Katherine had done her research on Rafe Noble over the past three days, and everything she read screamed trouble.
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