The Comeback Girl (8 page)

“How much beer you got?” Donnie joked. They both knew Donnie had given up drinking years ago. A quick temper was only aggravated by alcohol, and Donnie had learned a long time ago that he wasn’t a
happy
drunk.

Sam’s chuckle was just the therapy Donnie needed. “How ’bout a fresh-squeezed lemonade? Greta just made a batch.”

Once Sam had disappeared into the two-story cedar log home opposite the arena, Donnie weighed the benefit of spilling his guts to his friend. He didn’t doubt Sam’s discretion, but Donnie was hesitant to mention the proposal until he’d talked to Kristin.

If the whole thing blew up in his face, the fewer people who knew about it the better.

The twenty-something cowboy in the arena—apparently sensing an audience—looked over his shoulder. He acknowledged Donnie’s presence with a cocky grin and tip of the hat. Donnie felt a small jolt of envy. He’d almost forgotten what it was like to work at a job you loved.

“Donnie,” a woman’s voice called.

He turned to greet Jenny O’Neal. It still amazed him how different the Sullivan triplets were from each other in looks. Jenny was the tallest and carried herself with willowy grace. Her long hair fluttered in the wind. Dressed in denim jeans, a neatly pressed blouse and sneakers, she held hands with two toddlers—one in boots, diapers and a T-shirt asking, What’s a Guy Gotta Do To Get a Horse Around Here?; the other in patent-leather shoes and a ruffled pinafore.

Donnie gave Jenny a peck on the cheek before squatting to greet the children. “Hi, guys, how are you today?”

A rush of one-year-old babble washed over him, making him smile. Lara offered him the rag doll she carried, then snatched it back before burying her face against her mother’s leg. Tucker dropped to the ground butt first.

“How’s it going?” Jenny kept her eyes on her son. “Did Maureen get off?”

“Yes. Early. Sandy dropped her at the airport.”

Jenny’s look of mock horror made him laugh.

“So, what are you doing out here? Does it have to do with my sister?”

Was she a mind reader?

“Andi said Kristin gave you a massage after work yesterday.”

Gold Creek—where gossip flies at the speed of sound.

Donnie shifted slightly. “No. We just talked.” His response sounded innocent enough to his ears, but Jenny suddenly blinked, eyes wide. “Oh my God. You and Kris? Again?”

He tried to protest, but a movement near the ground caught her attention, and she suddenly swooped down and snatched up her son. “Tucker, what did you just put in your mouth? Show Mommy. Open up, sweetheart.”

The little boy’s mouth was ringed with dirt. He opened wide and a beetle scrambled off his tongue and dropped to the ground. Jenny let out a horrified squeal. “Water,” she shouted.

“Will lemonade do?” an amused voice said from behind them.

Jenny swiped a plastic tumbler from the tray her husband carried. “Bugs. Yech. We don’t eat bugs, Tucker. You know that.” The child resisted her efforts to clean his mouth and tongue, finally wailing in distress.

Donnie took a slug of the tart drink Sam offered then returned the glass to the tray, which Sam had set on the tailgate of a nearby truck. “Let Uncle Donnie hold him.”

The child was heavier than he looked and twice as squirmy, but he calmed down after Donnie set him on his shoulders. Tucker’s gleeful cry made his sister look up and demand similar treatment.

“Now see what you’ve started,” Sam said, picking up his daughter.

Although most people believed Sam had adopted the twins and married Josh’s widow to keep the family intact, Josh had told Donnie the truth. Sam was the twin’s biological father. He’d donated sperm when Josh discovered he was infertile. Donnie had kept the information to himself. These four were a family, period. That was all the world needed to know.

In a way, that was how he viewed his proposal to Kristin. What they did was
their
business, right? But he knew it wasn’t that simple.

A birdlike twitter made Jenny reach for the cell phone sticking out of her hip pocket. “I brought this along in case Ida Jane needed me. I hope everything’s okay,” she said before pushing the talk button.

“Hello?”

She nodded and smiled, letting her husband know it wasn’t anything serious. “Hi, Kris. What’s new?”

Donnie automatically took a step closer to eavesdrop on Jenny’s conversation.

“Right now? Let me ask.” She covered the phone and looked at her husband. “Kris is calling
a family meeting. She says it’s important. Can you come with me?”

Sam looked at Donnie, who said, “Don’t worry about me.”

“Tell her we’ll be right there. Did she say what it’s about?” Sam asked.

Jenny shook her head. “No, but I’m thinking Tyler. Do you want details?”

Yes.

“No. We’ll find out soon enough.”

Jenny conveyed Sam’s words then listened for a minute. Her eyebrow shot up, and she looked at Donnie. “Actually, he’s right here.” Both friends eyed him intently. “No, I’m not kidding. I’m looking at him as I speak. He has Tucker on his shoulders.”

Donnie looked up and Tucker grabbed his nose. One finger hooked a nostril, making Donnie yelp.

“Okay, I’ll tell him. Gotta go before the poor man loses his nose. See you soon.”

Donnie bent over so Tucker’s mother could grab him. “Tell me what?” He straightened with care, heeding Kristin’s advice to avoid back strain.

“To come with us. She wants you there, too.” She stared hard at him. “Donnie, you’re blushing. What’s all this about?”

Jenny obviously expected an explanation. He lifted his shoulders and said, “Well, it might have something to do with the fact that I asked her to marry me.”

“You what?” Sam sputtered, choking on his lemonade.

“You’re kidding,” Jenny exclaimed. A second later she was hugging him—squishing Tucker between them. “It’s about time.”

“T
HANK HEAVENS
for cell phones,” Kristin told Ida Jane after hanging up on Jonathan.

“Why are they all coming again, dear?” Ida Jane asked, watching as Kris set out plates and silverware. “Is it Thanksgiving already?”

Kristin had picked up a bucket of take-out chicken and a couple of side dishes, because feeding people helped her feel in control of a situation. Her cousins always knew when Kris had had a bad day because they’d come home to a complete meal.

“Nope. Just a late-afternoon picnic. Without the ants and meat bees.”

Ida fussed with the arrangement of marigolds Kris had plucked from the flower bed. “I remember a picnic at Lake Tullock, and the bees were so bad one of you girls got bitten on the tongue. Andi, I think. I took a couple of wieners from the package and set them out on a rock a few feet away so the bees would leave us alone. Remember that?”

“Vaguely. Was that the time we water-skied with some friend of yours? I can picture his boat, but I can’t remember his name.”

“Horace Shelton,” Ida said with confidence. At times her distant memory was so clear, it shocked
her nieces. “He was sweet on me for the longest time.”

Kristin smiled. She slowed her frantic pace and looked at her great-aunt. “How come you didn’t marry him, Auntie? He was a nice man as I recall. Was it because of us?”

“In a way,” Ida Jane said. “He
was
a nice man, just not the right man.” Kristin had heard the story of Ida Jane’s true love—a man who’d fallen in love with her sister, Suzy, then been killed in the war.

Kristin took Ida’s thin, withered hand. “But it couldn’t have been easy raising us alone. If you’d married Horace…”

Ida squeezed Kristin’s hand. “He was a friend, dear. I didn’t love him. Love is the only reason to get married.”

Her aunt’s words—innocent as they were—nearly made Kris groan aloud. What could she possibly have been thinking when she’d agreed to marry Donnie?

Ida looked around. “Who’s coming, again?”

Kristin kissed her aunt’s forehead then repeated the list. Andi was less patient with Ida’s memory problems, but Kristin had been through this effect of aging with her uncle’s mother so she knew what to expect.

A few minutes later, the first of Kristin’s guests arrived—Jonathan.

“Hi,” he said, setting his briefcase on a stool in the adjoining mudroom. “Where’s Andi?”

“Upstairs lying down. She had a rough day.
Computer problems. I told her she could skip this if she wanted, but she said she’d be here no matter what.”

Jonathan snatched a bun from the basket and headed toward the door. “I’ll check on her, then be right back. For some reason, I feel like I’m to blame. If I hadn’t lent you—”

Kristin grinned ruefully. “Letting me use your cell phone doesn’t obligate you, Jon. I would have gone to Gloria’s anyway.”

“Gloria?” Ida Jane asked. “Is she coming? I can’t stand that woman. She’s had it in for this family ever since Art Harrison made eyes at Suzy one Christmas.”

Kristin almost dropped the bowl of coleslaw she’d been carrying to the table. “I beg your pardon? Gloria’s hubby had the hots for Grandma Suzy?”

Ida waved away the suggestion. “My sister attracted men like the color red draws hummingbirds. Art and Suzy were
socializing
one Christmas Eve. Nothing happened, but Gloria got her knickers in a knot.”

Kristin shook her head. Gold Creek was a labyrinth of old intrigues and secret agendas. She lowered the flame beneath the kettle of beans then returned to sit down with Ida Jane. “Ida, can you remember what happened to Mr. Harrison? His suicide?”

“He invested big in a housing development near the lake—and used other people’s money to do it.
The lots didn’t sell, and the bank investigators were coming for him. He probably would have gone to jail. The boy found him, I believe.”

Kristin shuddered. There was so much she didn’t know about her son’s father, and now they were poised for battle. She’d gone to his mother’s with an olive branch only to have it snapped in two by a man who looked every bit as powerful and unforgiving as she’d feared he might be.

The back door opened again and three people entered. Kristin’s gaze never made it past the first in line. Donnie. His broad shoulders beckoned like a haven, but she walked to the stove instead.
This is my problem and I can handle it. I’m not going to fall apart.

Jenny’s chatter and Sam’s deep voice blended into the background when Donnie appeared at her side and asked softly, “Are you okay?”

“A little freaked-out, but I’ll survive. I saw Tyler. And now that I know where I stand, I need to make plans.”

He nodded. “I kinda figured that was the case. What can I do?”

She handed him a pot holder. “Please take the beans to the table. I’ll call Andi and Jonathan.”

“We’re here,” her sister said from the doorway.

Jonathan guided his wife to a chair then went to the refrigerator and filled two glasses of milk. “Milk, anyone?”

“Water for us,” Jenny replied from the sink.

“Something stronger, Kris?” Donnie asked. “Iced tea?”

“Yes, please. The pitcher’s on the table.”

She piled the chicken, which she’d kept warming in the oven, on a platter and carried it to the table. Donnie pulled out a chair beside him. Kris felt her family watching as she sat down.

She cleared her throat. “Thanks for coming on such short notice. Jen, who’s watching the twins?”

“Sam’s mom is visiting for a few days,” Jenny said, folding a napkin in her lap. “Diane’s turned into quite the loving grandmother.”

The word made Kristin shudder as she pictured Gloria’s chilly greeting.
Nothing grandmotherly about that woman.

“Besides,” Jenny added as she passed the rolls, “this sounds like adult talk. I notice your son isn’t here.”

Kristin’s throat closed and she said softly, “That’s because he’s with his father.”

Her sisters gave identical gasps of surprise. The men exchanged looks. Donnie shifted his chair a little closer to hers.

“It’s about time, right? Eleven years. I took Zach to meet his grandmother, and Tyler was there. What could I do—run and hide? Been there, done that.”

Andi waved her fork. “Okay. We’ve engaged the enemy. Now, we need strategy, people.”

Kristin smiled. Andi had served in the U.S. Marines and she reverted to the old lingo every once in a while.

Jenny spoke before Kristin could reply. “Do we know for sure that Ty is the enemy? What did he say, Kris? Is there going to be a court battle or will he work out some kind of shared custody with you?”

Kristin took a sip from her glass. “No, Jen, I don’t think he’s amenable to compromise. He made it quite clear that he will do whatever it takes to be named Zach’s custodial parent.”

Sam sighed. “Is that what Zach wants? A judge will be the one to decide, and there’s no judge around here who would take a child away from his mother without a legitimate reason. What Kristin did was wrong, but she was eighteen. We’ve all made mistakes at that age.”

Something in his tone and the look he gave his wife made Kristin wonder if there was more to the story, but Andi diverted her attention. “I don’t know why we’re acting like a bunch of cowering sissies. So she raised Zach alone. She did a damn good job, and she had no reason to believe Ty was anything more than a hoodlum.”

“And mental instability runs in the family,” Ida added.

Kris’s attorney had mentioned the possibility of raising this defense as well, given Arthur Harrison’s suicide. “And we all remember what a temper Ty had,” Jenny said. “Look what happened with Donnie.”

All eyes turned to the man beside her. Donnie touched his napkin to his lips, even though Kris
hadn’t seen him eat a bite. “That wasn’t the finest hour for either of us. But I don’t think there’s anything on his record.”

Jonathan said, “I realize I’m coming into this saga late, but didn’t Harrison leave town before graduation? And he never made any attempt to reach Kris.”

Donnie looked at her, an apology in his eyes. “A moot point, I’m afraid. By not letting him know about Zach, Kristin violated Tyler’s rights. If he finds a sympathetic judge—”

“Which is why I need your advice,” Kristin interrupted, looking at each member of her family. “Last night, Donnie and I discussed an option that could be beneficial to us both. But it’s a bit extreme, and I’m open to other suggestions.”