Welcome to Last Chance (13 page)

Juanita stopped to talk to Fayette when they got up to leave, but Russ held back a moment.

“You know, Lainie, I wouldn't be too put out by what Juanita says. She doesn't mean things to sound the way they come out sometimes.”

Lainie shrugged. “No big deal.”

Russ placed the exact change, including tip, on the table. “Probably not, but I wish you would think about joining the choir. We're starting our Christmas music pretty soon, and we could sure use you.”

Lainie smiled. “I'll think about it.”

“You do that.” Russ took his hat off the rack by the door, walked outside, and got behind the wheel of his truck. Juanita didn't stop
talking until the pickup slowly started backing out of its parking place.

“So you're thinking of joining the choir, huh?” Fayette began making another pot of coffee.

“No, actually, I'm not. I went to practice last night, but that's it. But if Juanita wants to get all torqued over it, that's her problem.”

“Oh, Juanita. No, everyone who heard you last night has commented on what a nice voice you have. Lurlene stopped in for a minute before you got here, looking for you. I know she wants to talk to you about it.”

Lainie raised an eyebrow. “Really? Are they that desperate?”

“Desperation has nothing to do with it. She said you have an outstanding voice and wonders how long you're planning to stay in town.

Lainie shrugged and began clearing Russ and Juanita's table. “I guess I don't know myself. I'm just taking it as it comes.”

“Well, you'll give me some notice if you decide to take off, won't you?” Fayette gave her a look. “I'd like to know I can count on you being here if you're on the schedule to work.”

Lainie walked past Fayette with the bin of dirty dishes and shouldered her way through the kitchen door. She didn't need to be afraid of Nick anymore, and things in Last Chance were getting complicated. She didn't usually stick around for complications, but this one might be different. At any rate, she was making no promises.

T
he crisp cool of dawn stretched further into the morning as summer faded into early fall, and by the time the sun crested the hills and warmed the windows of the Dip 'n' Dine, the diner hummed with customers.

In the weeks she'd been working with Fayette, Lainie had learned the ebb and flow of the diner, and after the breakfast crowd had thinned, there was usually a minute or two for a break and a cup of coffee. She had just grabbed a cup when she saw Rita's car sliding into a parking space with a spatter of gravel. Rita started waving before she got out of the car, elaborately mouthing something Lainie couldn't begin to decipher. She gave a weak wave in return.

“So what do you hear from Steven?” Rita was already talking as she pushed through the front door.

Lainie shrugged. “Nothing, as far as I know.”

“Well, that's just the strangest thing I ever heard. It's been weeks since we heard he's on his way home. You'd think a boy would let his own family in on his plans.”

“Oh, you know Steven.” Fayette joined them from the kitchen. “He always did dance to his own tune. He'll turn up.”

“I'm just saying it would be a whole lot easier to plan a big ol' ‘welcome home' parade for him if we knew when he'll get here. That's not the kind of thing we can pull together in an hour, you know.”

“Tell you what. Why don't you just go on and make your plans? Pick a day, say between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and go for it. Even if you find you have to move the date around a little bit, you'll still have all the hard part done.”

“Well, you sure make it sound easy. Do you know how much work is involved in doing something like this? I'm talking about a full-blown parade—Boy Scouts, FFA, 4-H, mounted sheriff's posse, and I don't know what all.”

“Rita, I've seen you work. You can do this kind of stuff in your sleep.”

Rita shook her head and rolled her eyes before she left with the same whirlwind of bustle with which she had entered. “You call me the absolute first minute you have any news from Steven, you hear me?”

Lainie threw her hand up in a mock solute. “Yes ma'am!”

Fayette winked at Lainie. “Now you're catching on.”

The autumn sun had already dipped below the horizon when Lainie slipped her arms into her sweater and stepped out the door of the Dip 'n' Dine. She watched a pickup pull into the parking lot across the road and two cowboys she didn't know get out and go into the High Lonesome. Ray still had said nothing about leaving Last Chance. And truth be told, she had avoided the subject as well. It was so much easier to take each day as it came, to just enjoy a Sunday drive to Silver City, or a movie in San Ramon, or even a quiet talk on a slow night at the High Lonesome. The future, with all its complications, could wait in the shadows. But with Steven coming home soon, that future was getting harder to ignore.

“Okay, Ray, what are you thinking? Are you going to let me know
your plans, or will you just be gone one day?” Lainie shoved her hands in her pockets and started home.

She was about a block from Elizabeth's when a pickup pulled up alongside her.

“Hey, pretty lady, need a ride?” Les Watson brought his battered truck to a near stop in the middle of the road and leaned out the cab window, squinting red-rimmed eyes in an effort to focus.

Lainie kept walking. “I'm good, Les. Nearly home. You just come from Ray's?”

“Naw, I been up to San Ramon. That nanny-goat Ray's gonna lose hisself his best customer if he don't watch out. I don't need a wet nurse when I stop by to unlax a little after work. If I wanted someone to nag me half to death, I'd just go on home.” He laughed. “You sure I can't give you a ride? You gotta be dead on your feet.”

“Tell you what, Les. Scoot over and let me drive and I'll take you home.”

“Shoot, Lainie, not you too. You been spending way too much time with Elizabeth, or Ray, one. You're gettin' to be as bad as they are.”

Lainie stopped at Elizabeth's gate. “Well, I'm home now anyway. Are you sure you can make it the rest of the way?”

Les flapped his hand toward Elizabeth's door. “You go on in. It'll be a sorry day when Les Watson can't get his own self home and it's not even Friday night.” He gunned the engine and his truck sped toward the corner. Lainie watched the pickup disappear in the distance, clipping a hedge and narrowly missing a stop sign as it careened around the corner. For the first time she was grateful that Last Chance rolled up its sidewalks at sundown. No one needed to be on the streets till Les was safely home.

Elizabeth stuck her head out of the kitchen when Lainie came in and smiled. “Just in time. I'm about ready to put dinner on the table.

As Lainie headed to her room, she called over her shoulder. “Does Les Watson live far from here?”

“About three blocks. Why?”

Lainie called down the hall as she unbuttoned her uniform. “I just saw Les on his way home and he was in no shape to be driving.” She dropped her voice as Elizabeth appeared in her bedroom door. “I'd like to think he got home okay.”

“Tsk. I think I'll go call Evelyn, just to make sure.”

Lainie snapped her jeans and pulled a T-shirt over her head, still mulling her future in Last Chance. Did she even have one? And what did it look like if she did?

Elizabeth was hanging up when Lainie joined her in the kitchen. “Well, Les got home okay, thank the Lord. He's already in bed asleep.” She put a bowl of creamed corn on the table. “Grab the tea from the icebox, will you, Lainie?”

After Elizabeth offered thanks, Lainie picked up a platter. “If it's all right with you, I think I'll walk on over and see Ray after dinner.”

Elizabeth placed her napkin in her lap in silence.

“Don't worry. I just need to talk to him a little. I'll be back before you go to bed.”

Elizabeth looked up and sighed. “I just wish you didn't have to find him at that place. You can take my truck if you want to. Of course, I'll have to ask you to park across the street at the Dip 'n' Dine. I can't have my ‘Follow me to Sunday school' bumper sticker sitting outside a honky-tonk.”

“Thanks anyway, but I'll walk. It will feel good to stretch, and it's a nice night.”

“Well, you be careful. You know better than I do what kind of drivers are out there. Wear a light-colored wrap and walk against traffic.”

“Yes, mother.” Lainie leaned over and kissed Elizabeth's cheek before she knew she had done it.

Elizabeth smiled. “Well, that was nice.”

Lainie felt her cheeks warm as she busied herself filling her plate
. Where did that come from? I must be getting soft.

The sound of Waylon Jennings poured out the front door as Lainie walked into the High Lonesome. There were only a couple pickups in the parking lot, and she was pleased to find no one at the bar and only a few quiet groups huddled in booths. Ray looked up when she walked in, and his smile lit up the dim room.

“Well, hey there. Haven't seen you in a while.”

Lainie grinned as she climbed on a stool at the bar. “Like maybe two days?”

Ray leaned across the bar on his elbow, bringing his face inches from hers, his smile never fading. “Only two days? Seems a lot longer.”

Lainie held his gaze for a moment before the frank interest of the other patrons caused her to lean back. Ray followed her lead.

“So what can I get you? Or did you just come in to distract me?”

“A diet soda, I guess. I made the mistake of telling your grandma I saw Les on the way home tonight totally plastered. She's none too happy about me coming over here and all but made me promise not to drink anything.”

“A wise decision, however it came about.” He set the glass in front of her. “And I even found a straw for you.”

Lainie took a long sip from her soda. “So, everyone's asking. Have you heard anything from Steven?”

Ray shrugged. “Not much. Just that he ought to be home by Thanksgiving.”

“And you? Are you still going to be here Thanksgiving?” There. It was out in the open.

Ray took a large can from under the bar and scooped peanuts into a bowl sitting on top before he said anything. “Oh, sure. I'll still be here then. I wouldn't miss Steven's homecoming for anything. And it'll take me some time to get him up to speed here before I can take off. If I do go back north, it wouldn't be before the first of the year, anyway.”

“
If
you go back north?”

“I don't know, Lainie. It's a good six, seven weeks before we'll see Steven, and another six weeks after that before I can even think about leaving town. That's a long time. It's way too early for me to start making plans. Anything can happen between now and then.”

Lainie's smile was a small one. “Haven't you been counting the days until you could go back to painting full-time? I'd have bet money that you'd have your bags in the car when he got here.”

“Oh, I'm going to paint again, that's for sure. I contacted some galleries as soon as I heard that Steven's coming back, and they want to see some digital shots as soon as I can put a slide show together. It's the moving I'm thinking twice about. Since I've been working at my cabin, I think I've done some of my best work. Most of my stuff is from photos I've taken right around the ranch, and working from life is even better. I'm thinking about how that might work. What about you? You made any more plans to leave town?”

Lainie shrugged. “And go where? It's not like I have any kind of life I need to get back to.”

“Oh, come on. No family? No friends anywhere? Someone somewhere must be wondering why you dropped off the face of the earth. You're not on the lam, are you?”

Ray's bantering grin slowly faded as he studied Lainie's face. She dropped her eyes and took a long sip of her soda.

“That was supposed to be a joke.” Ray waited while Lainie drained her glass to the slurping bottom.

“Well, it wasn't very funny. Half the people in the town look at me like they expect to hear sirens in the distance. I just didn't expect that from you.”

Ray put his hand over hers. “Okay, it was a poor joke. Sorry. But there's more to this than just me hurting your feelings. Want to tell me what's going on?”

Ray's hand on hers was warm, and his brown eyes made her feel safer than she had felt since she could remember. Lainie hesitated. She was filled with the longing to place her burden on his broad shoulders. It got so heavy sometimes. She shook the feeling off and squared her shoulders. Not a good time to start counting on anyone.

“Nope, nothing's wrong. I'm just touchy tonight, I guess. Sorry I overreacted.”

Lainie looked down at the hand covering hers. She could feel his long gaze on the top of her head. Finally, he squeezed her hand and straightened up. “Okay. Have it your way. But I'm here if you need me.”

He moved from around the bar and Lainie watched him cross the room to clear a table, stopping to trade a quiet joke with another group. Their easy laughter made Lainie feel even more the outsider. She picked up her purse and slid off her stool as Ray walked back to the bar.