Blame It On Texas (23 page)

“Gran, I don’t think—oh, hello, this is Kate Mc-Intosh out at the Lazy K. Yes, she called a few minutes ago…yes, she’s still here. Lisa Gallagher, I mean, Lisa Jones. She’s causing a real scene and we’re not sure what to do.”

“Speak for yourself,” Gert muttered, loading the rifle with stiff fingers.

“Great. Thank you.” She hung up and eyed her grandmother, who was now heading toward the back door. “Put the rifle down, Gran. Someone’s on the way. Besides, I think Lisa’s gone.”

Gert peeked out the kitchen window. “I don’t see her. Check and see if the car’s still out front.”

It was. Kate saw Lisa sitting on the steps, her head on her knees and her shoulders shaking. She didn’t know why she felt sorry for the woman, but Kate opened the front door and went over to her. She didn’t dare look up at the front bedroom window, because she knew she’d see her grandmother’s
rifle. Kate didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

“Lisa?”

She didn’t lift her head. “Go away,” she mumbled, or at least that’s what Kate thought she said.

“You don’t have custody of Danny, do you,” Kate said, sitting beside her on the wide step.

“No. I’m a lousy mother.”

Candid, too. “So why are you here?”

“I just wanted to tell him I was sorry for everything. I’m going to California,” she said, raising her head to look at Kate. “A friend there’s gonna give me a job in his bar.” She sniffed and wiped her face with the edge of her shirt. “I’m sorry I lost my temper. I do that sometimes and it gets me in trouble.”

“My grandmother called the sheriff, Lisa. You scared us.”

“I just wanted to see my kid.”

“He’s afraid of you, especially after all that yelling.” Kate thought for a moment. “Would you like to write him a note? I’ll see that he gets it.”

“That’d probably be better, I guess.”

“I’ll be right back.” Kate went inside and grabbed a legal pad and a pen from Gert’s desk, then hurried back outside. She handed them to Lisa and then returned to the house to assure Danny and Gert that everything was okay. Danny was under her bed and didn’t want to come out, so Kate left
him there while she convinced Gert to unload the rifle.

Three minutes later she went back outside to find Lisa waiting by her car and the notepad and pen on the front steps.

“Thanks,” Lisa said, pulling her hair back into a ponytail and securing it with a leather strip. “Tell Danny I won’t be back.”

“I will.”

“Dusty will be really pissed when he finds out I was here. Can you explain it to him?” She opened the car door and slid in behind the wheel.

“Sure. If you explain something to me.” Lisa nodded. “You weren’t pregnant with Dustin’s baby nine summers ago, were you?”

Lisa’s eyebrows rose. “Not me. I had the hots for Darrell, his older brother. We got married.” She grimaced. “What a mistake that was. When we weren’t trying to drink ourselves to death, we were doing coke.”

“And what about Danny?”

“When we got arrested, that’s when Dusty found out what was going on and took Danny. He’s not a bad kid, but when you’re a junkie, having a kid around is a real pain in the ass.” With that, she turned the key in the ignition and Kate backed away and let her leave.

When Kate looked back at the house, sure enough, Gert still had the rifle in the window. Sheriff
Jess Sheridan, arriving five minutes later, turned out to be the only person who could get Gert to put down the gun once and for all.

“W
HAT DO YOU WANT
to do?”

“I dunno.”

Kate lay on her stomach beside Danny underneath the iron bed that used to belong to her mother. The boy stretched out beside her, his chin resting on his folded arms. She wished she knew the magic words that would comfort him. He’d been under the bed for an hour, even after being reassured that his mother had gone away for good. “Want to go for a walk?”

“Nope.”

She slid the plate of cookies closer to him. “Help yourself.” The boy hesitated, then reached out to take one.

“I’m glad I cleaned under here,” Kate said, hoping to make him smile. “Otherwise you’d be eating dust bunnies.”

He didn’t smile, but at least he still had his appetite. “When’s my dad coming home?”

“Tonight. After supper, I would think.” She’d thought about having the sheriff find him at the auction, but maybe this way was better, with Danny having a chance to calm down and the three of them going on with their afternoon as they’d planned.

“You still making ice cream?”

“
We’re
still making ice cream,” she said.

“When?”

“When we get out from under the bed.”

Danny sighed and closed his eyes. “Not yet, okay?”

“Okay.” Kate was more than willing to wait until the little boy wasn’t afraid anymore. And oddly enough, lying on the floor under the bed, a curtain of white chenille fringe surrounding them, made a good place to think.

So Dustin had been lying to her all along. Well, maybe he’d never come right out and said it, but he certainly hadn’t explained that he was the child’s uncle. He’d let her think he got Lisa pregnant. But why? Because that was an easy way to break up with her so many years ago? An easy way to get rid of the gawky girl who thought he was her first love?

Kate looked over at Danny, who had fallen asleep with a half-eaten cookie in his hand. She wanted to smooth the hair from his face, but was afraid she’d disturb him. He was a sweet boy who needed a mother. Maybe that’s what Dustin wanted this time, a mother for the boy and—as a bonus—his own ranch. Not bad for a man who never had much of anything of his own.

She wanted to be angry, but she felt more like crying.
Loves of Our Lives
was simple compared
to the goings-on in Beauville. She’d return her boss’s phone calls later on. She’d book herself a seat on the first flight to New York Saturday and from now on she’d never look back. Gran would finish her book; Mom could have her mysterious nervous breakdowns, her real estate developer and her new apartment; Jake would have more babies; Emily would have her tubes tied; and life would go on.

Kate didn’t think she’d be taking many more vacations in Texas.

CHAPTER TWENTY

D
USTIN ARRIVED BACK
at the ranch feeling pretty good about the heifers he’d bought. Gert was going to like the price, too.

“Hello?” he called at the back door, but there was no answer and the door was locked. Good thing the animals weren’t going to be delivered until Saturday, or he’d be herding cows all by himself tonight.

There was a note tacked on the bunkhouse, informing Dustin that the women and Danny had taken food over to Jake and Elizabeth’s ranch and would be back later, before dark. He would clean up and get some paperwork done before they returned.

He was pleased with the way the afternoon went. Danny was going to get a large pony named Boomer, outgrown by his previous owner. Kate was going to get a marriage proposal. And poor Martha McIntosh was going to get a cowboy for a son-in-law, if Dustin was lucky.

And he felt pretty damn lucky.

“Y
OU’RE LUCKY SHE
didn’t hurt you,” Gran said, still fuming over Lisa’s invasion of the home place. She waved goodbye to Danny, who had paused at the door of the bunkhouse as Dustin held the door open for him to go inside.

“I told you, I felt sorry for her,” Kate said, turning the car around. The headlights swept across the windows she knew were part of Dustin’s bedroom. She wouldn’t be spending any more time in that room.

“Better she should have seen my gun.”

“Gran, for heaven’s sake. You’ve got to get rid of that thing. At least get it out of the closet and put it in the attic.”

“I keep the bullets locked up,” she muttered. “But all right, you can put the rifle away. I guess you’ll know where it is when you need it.”

It would have been a good time to tell her she wasn’t staying, but Kate figured her grandmother could wait another day to be disappointed. She hadn’t come up with the right way to tell her yet, either. Hopefully, after a long night thinking about this, she would think of the least painful way to leave.

“Jake’s baby is beautiful,” Kate said, hoping to change the subject. “She looks just like Elizabeth.”

“She does,” Gran agreed. “She’s a good little
thing. Snuggled in my arms like she belonged there.”

“How does it feel to be a great-grandmother?”

“I’m glad I lived long enough to see it,” she said. “Jake will be a good father.”

“Yes.” Her cousin was as devoted a husband and father as she’d ever seen. Jake had always been the steady one, the man everyone depended on in a crisis. The last man in the family.

“I didn’t know Dustin was that little boy’s uncle,” Gran said, shaking her head. “But I knew something wasn’t quite right.”

“Why?” She parked the car and opened the door to illuminate the interior, then gathered up the empty casserole dishes.

“He’d never had a chocolate milk shake.”

“What?”

“Never mind. It was just something that struck me as odd at the time. And he said those strange things about his family, remember?”

“Yes.” And Dustin hadn’t explained. Not a word. He’d let her go on thinking he’d made Lisa pregnant, let her go on assuming that he had married and divorced the woman, that he had a son. He hadn’t been honest. Again. And she supposed that’s what hurt the most. He’d let her into his bed but not into his life.

It was exactly what happened nine years ago.

“Kate?”

“Oh, sorry,” she said, and hurried over to help Gran out of the car. “I guess I’m tired.”

“I guess we both are,” Gran said, “but your cowboy is heading our way, so you’d better perk up. He’s going to want to know what happened here today.”

“Danny must have told him.”

“You’re going to give him the letter?”

Kate nodded and helped her grandmother cross the gravel drive and negotiate the path to the kitchen door. “He can decide what to do with it.”

“He’s not going to like any of this,” Gran warned.

“I don’t either,” Kate said and braced herself.

“Danny told me Lisa was here,” Dustin said, following them into the kitchen. “I can’t stay long,” he added, with a glance toward Kate, “but I wanted to thank both of you for taking care of him this afternoon. I’m really sorry she scared you. She has a mean temper when she gets going.”

“We wouldn’t let anything happen to that boy. And we were fine, didn’t even need the sheriff,” Gert said, patting his arm. “I’m off to bed. Come over in the morning and tell me all about our new cattle. I assume you bought some?”

“I sure did,” Dustin said, standing close to Kate. She moved away from him. “Good night, Gert.”

“Good night, Dustin. That boy of yours did just
fine,” she said, before she left the room and headed for her bedroom.

“What a mess,” he said, turning to Kate. “I’m really sorry you had to deal with it.”

“Lisa wrote a letter to Danny.” Kate moved away and reached on top of the refrigerator for the legal pad. “Here. I suggested she write to him instead of trying to talk to him, so I hope you don’t mind.”

He took the pad and glanced at the brief note. “Fair enough. Danny said she’s going away?”

“Yes.” She took a deep breath. “We both are.”

His eyes narrowed. “You want to explain that?”

“Not necessarily. I don’t think you’ve wanted to explain things to me either. Not about Danny’s father and mother. Not about who he really was, or who you really are. So I guess we’re even.” She managed to keep her voice from trembling.

“Just like that,” he said. “You’re going back to New York?”

“Yes. I’m flying out first thing Saturday.” She looked away, hoping that he wouldn’t see how much she was hurt. “Gran will sell you the ranch, I’m sure.”

“Yeah.” She could hear the anger in his voice. “When you decide to leave, you don’t waste a hell of a lot of time, do you?”

She didn’t know how to answer, but then again, she didn’t think he expected her to say anything.

“I should have learned the first time,” he muttered and walked out the door.

“Me, too,” Kate said, and this time she let herself cry.

“T
HIS IS ALL WRONG
.” Gert rearranged her papers again, then poured herself another cup of coffee to take back to her chair. “I don’t like this a bit, young lady.” She didn’t understand young people. How foolish could they be? Didn’t they know how quickly time passed?

“I’m sorry, Gran.” Kate finished washing the breakfast dishes and dried her hands. “But I have to leave.”

“Nonsense. You and that young man can patch things up.” Kate didn’t fool her grandmother. The girl wasn’t leaving because of her fancy job. Why, she’d only returned a couple of the dozen or so phone calls she’d gotten from New York. And she’d stopped watching the show on TV after the first couple of days.

“I don’t think so.”

“Where’s the boy this morning?”

“George Bennett picked him up. He’s taking the boys fishing for the day. I guess John’s gotten tired of having a new sister.”

“Sounds nice,” Gert said. “Means Dustin’s free to talk some sense into you.” She leaned forward to look out the window. “Oh, dear. Here comes
your mother with that Jackson fella. I sure hope she isn’t having one of her fits.”

“Me, too.” Kate stepped into the living room and eyed the piles of paper. “What decade are you in? I’m going into Marysville today to buy you your own laptop and printer so you can take your time finishing the book.”

“Aw, hon, that’s real nice, but—” She looked out the window again. “They’re raisin’ a lot of dust, and the sheriff is right behind them. Do you think it’s one of them high-speed chases like they have in California?”

Kate hurried over to the window. “Is that
Jake
’s truck?”

“It’s a regular parade,” Gert declared, hauling herself out of her chair. There was no reason getting upset until there was something to get upset over. “I’d better make a fresh pot of coffee. Looks like we’re getting company.”

Before she fixed the coffeepot, she hung the red rag in the back window to summon her foreman. She might need some help and Kate might need a man. A woman never knew when one would come in handy.