The Way Home (57 page)

Loving him, she took the decision from his hands and rose on her toes, balancing herself with one hand on his shoulder, and brought her mouth to his. There was a moment, but a moment only, when she felt him resisting the pull of what lay between them. But it was too strong for both of them. It always had been.

With a sound halfway between a sob and a groan, his arms were suddenly around her and his mouth crushed hers with an avid hunger. Patsy melted against him, feeling herself complete for the first time in more than five years. There’d be hell to pay later, but she’d gladly pay the price for these few minutes of heaven.

CHAPTER 24

Jack didn’t show up at the farm the day after Patsy’s visit. Meg debated about calling her sister but decided, reluctantly, that Patsy would probably be justifiably annoyed to have her younger sister check up on her. But that didn’t prevent Meg from worrying.

She and Ty had carefully
not
discussed what had happened between Jack and Patsy, if anything had happened outside her own imagination. Whatever he knew was something private between him and Jack and Meg wouldn’t have asked him to betray a confidence. Still, she couldn’t help but wonder .. .

Perhaps Ty sensed that she needed a distraction, because instead of going back out to the fields after lunch, he suggested a trip into Regret. He’d said he had some things to pick up at the hardware store, but he seemed in no particular hurry to get them once they’d parked the car.

Linking her arm through his, Ty strolled down the sidewalk as if he had all the time in the world. Meg found herself relaxing. Whatever Patsy had done in the past or chose to do in the future, sitting around worrying about it wasn’t going to change anything. The sun was shining, it was a beautiful late spring day, and Ty was with her. It just wasn’t possible to worry about anything.

When Ty turned into Barnett’s Drugstore and headed for the gleaming soda fountain, it seemed exactly the right touch to the afternoon.

“Well, look who’s here.” Eddie Dunsmore leaned against the tall marble counter and grinned at them as they sat down. “Haven’t seen you two in a while. Not since you got married and left for sunny California. Heard you were back but wasn’t sure I believed it. Who’d leave Hollywood for Iowa in the middle of winter?” Meg smiled at his exaggerated shiver.

“Hello, Eddie. It’s good to see you.”

“It’s good to see you, too, Meg.” He grinned at her and Meg felt Ty shift abruptly on the stool next to her. She glanced at him questioningly, wondering if something was wrong, but he was looking at Eddie, frowning.

Eddie must have noticed his disapproving gaze because he straightened and swiped a damp rag across the already spotless counter. “What’ll you have? No, wait. Don’t tell me.” He held up his hand, narrowing his eyes in concentration. “Let me guess. “Cherry Chopped Suey Sundae for the lady, right?”

“You read my mind,” Meg said.

“And a coffee soda for the gentleman,” Eddie finished, glancing at Ty.

“Exactly.”

“Coming up.” Eddie sent Ty a pitying glance as he turned away. Ty mumbled something under his breath but when Meg asked him to repeat it, he shook his head.

“I’m so glad you thought of this,” she said, smiling up at him happily.

Ty threw a doubtful glance in Eddie’s direction before agreeing. “It is nice.”

“It reminds me of last summer,” she said, her voice warm with memories.

“A lot’s changed since then.” Ty reached out and smoothed a loose strand of hair back behind her ear. It was a simple, husbandly gesture and served to point up just how much things had changed in the last year.

Meg smiled her thanks at Eddie when he set her sundae in front of her. He looked as if he might linger but then a customer sat down at the far end of the counter and he departed, sped on his way by a less than friendly look from Ty.

“Don’t you like Eddie?” Meg asked, having caught this last look.

“Sure I do.” Ty pulled his soda close and took hold of the straw.

“Then why did you scowl at him just now?” Meg picked up her spoon and waited expectantly for his response.

“He’s a nice kid but he’s a little too friendly sometimes,” Ty muttered into his drink.

Too friendly?
Meg dipped her spoon into her sundae and pondered the thought. Odd that Ty should think Eddie was too friendly. She’d never noticed it herself. Perhaps Eddie sensed that Ty didn’t appreciate his company, because he kept himself occupied while they were enjoying their treats.

“You’re awfully quiet,” Ty said as he paid for their ice cream.

“Just thinking.” Meg smiled and waved at Eddie as she slid off her stool. No matter what Ty thought, she liked him.

“Thinking about what?” Ty slid his hand under her elbow as they left Barnett’s, pausing on the steps for a moment to allow their eyes to adjust to the sunlight.

“About last summer. About all the times we went to the movie and then you took me to Barnett’s for a soda afterward. It was fun, wasn’t it?” She looked up at him, suddenly anxious for reassurance.

“Yes. And who’d have thought we’d end up a stodgy old married couple just a year later?” He grinned down at her and Meg could see no shadows, no regrets in his eyes.

She smiled and then lowered her head before he could see the gleam of tears in her eyes. One thing that hadn’t changed was how much she loved him. Nor her longing for him to love her in return. Meg wondered if there was something wrong with her, that she couldn’t be satisfied with what she had. But no matter how many times she told herself that it was so much more than she’d ever expected, than she had any right to expect, she still couldn’t stop herself from wanting the one thing that might remain forever out of reach.

While she’d been thinking of what might never be, Ty had led her across the street. To get to the hardware store, they had to walk past her stepfather’s hotel. Its doors were closed and the windows stared blindly out into the street. Looking at it, Meg had the odd feeling that the building was surprised to find itself empty and abandoned.

She was so busy staring up at the brick facade that she didn’t notice when someone stepped into their path. But she felt the quick tension in Ty’s arm the instant before she heard a familiar whine.

“Come to gloat over the remains?” Harlan Davis stood in front of them, his small eyes narrowed, his mouth twisted in bitter anger.

Despite what her mother had said about how hard he’d taken the hotel’s closing, Meg was shocked by the changes in her stepfather. He’d always prided himself on his neatness. From the perfect crease in his hat to the shine on his shoes, Harlan Davis was a neat man. Or he had been. The man standing before them was carelessly shaved and even more carelessly dressed. He looked as if he’d slept in his suit and combed his thin hair with his fingers, leaving the pink skin of his scalp to show through the poorly arranged strands.

“Get out of the way, Davis,” Ty said in a low voice.

“Don’t think I don’t know that you’re to blame for this,” Harlan said, waving one hand toward the empty hotel. “I should have known that you’d find a way to destroy me.”

“You’re a lunatic.” Ty started to lead Meg around him, but Harlan stepped into their path again.

“You told your friends at the bank to foreclose, didn’t you?” he hissed angrily.

“Maybe you haven’t heard, but there’s a depression. Banks don’t need anyone to tell them to foreclose.”

“I know what you did.” Harlan lifted his arm to point an accusing finger at Ty’s chest, swaying slightly.

Meg could smell the liquor on his breath even from where she stood, and she felt her stomach turn in automatic response to the sour smell. She was aware of the discreet and not-so-discreet glances coming their way. After the scene in the churchyard a few weeks before, there probably wasn’t a soul in Regret who didn’t know that there was no love lost between Ty and his father-in-law. From the iron tension in the muscles under her hand, Meg knew Ty was fighting the urge to punch the other man again.

“I don’t give a damn what you think you know, Davis,” he said, his voice low and hard. “If you’ve got the sense God gave a tree stump, you’ll stay out of my way and stay away from my wife. As long as you do that, you’re welcome to go to hell any way you damned well please.”

Without waiting for a response, Ty led Meg around the other man. But Harlan was determined to have the last word, even if he had to shout it at their backs.

“I know what you did, McKendrick. Don’t think you’re going to get away with it.”

Ty made a sound low in his throat and slowed but Meg’s hand tightened around his arm.

“Please,” she whispered, vividly aware that they were the cynosure of every eye. To her relief, Ty continued down the sidewalk. Meg had never been so happy in her life to step into the cool darkness of the hardware store.

“You go ahead. I think I’ll just wait here.” She was proud of the steadiness of her voice but Ty wasn’t fooled for a minute.

“Are you all right?”

“I’m fine.” Seeing the concern in his eyes, she summoned up a smile. “I’m not going to say I wouldn’t rather have avoided that scene, but I’m fine.”

He looked doubtful but when she made a shooing gesture with one hand, he reluctantly went to get the parts he needed. Meg waited until he’d disappeared toward the back of the store before allowing the smile to fade and her shoulders to sag a little.

Why was it that, just when everything was going so well, her past reared up to haunt them? Blinking back tears caused by anger as much as anything else, Meg turned to look out the front window, thinking that the sunshine didn’t look as bright as it had before the encounter with her stepfather. Why couldn’t he just leave them alone?

Jack was gone for two days. When he did show up at the farm, he looked like he’d been dragged through a knothole backward and so Ty bluntly informed him.

“Thanks.” Jack’s grin lacked its usual devilish edge. He cupped both hands around the mug of coffee Ty had poured him from the vacuum bottle Meg filled for him every morning. He’d found Ty in the bam, milking the cow he’d bought from a neighboring farmer the week after he and Meg moved to the farm, because, as Jack had pointed out, what was a farm without a milk cow?

The minute Meg had seen the Jersey’s soft brown eyes, she’d named her Molly, and she was well on her way to becoming a pet. Ty shuddered to think what would happen when Molly calved. He couldn’t imagine Meg being willing to sell a sweet-faced calf to be butchered and had visions of himself becoming a cattle rancher as well as a farmer.

Once he saw his friend’s hands securely wrapped around the sturdy mug, Ty reseated himself on the milking stool to finish the task Jack’s arrival had interrupted. For a little while, the bam was silent except for the rhythmic splash of milk into the bucket between his feet.

“I never thought I’d live long enough to see you become a farmer,” Jack commented.

“Not exactly where I thought I’d end up,” Ty agreed, thinking of his plans for starting some kind of flying service with Jack. But the old dreams caused only a brief pang of regret.

“Heard you had some trouble with Davis,” Jack said.

“Some. He thinks I had something to do with the bank foreclosing on his hotel. Made me wish I’d thought of it,” Ty said regretfully.

“Man’s crazy.” Jack shook his head. “How’d Meg take it?”

“She was upset.”

“Yeah, I guess she would be.” Jack’s voice was absent. When Ty glanced at him, he saw that Jack was staring at the wall, his thoughts obviously elsewhere.

Ty gave one last tug on the cow’s udder and stood up, pushing the stool out of his way. He bent to pick up the milk bucket and set it out of harm’s way before he loosened the knot that had held Molly’s head close to a post to keep her from moving while he milked her. Molly gave him an enigmatic look out of long-lashed eyes before turning and ambling off down the bam.

“You’re asking for trouble, you know,” Ty said, almost conversationally.

“I know.” Jack didn’t pretend not to know what he was talking about. “When I first saw her again, I just wanted to know what had happened five years ago, why she’d married someone else.”

Ty thought of what he knew about Patsy, of what her stepfather had done. Should he tell Jack why she might have been so desperate that she’d married another man rather than wait for Jack to come back from Europe?

“And then she told me,” Jack said, speaking more to himself than to Ty. “At least she told me part of it. But there are things I don’t understand about her.”

“I don’t think anyone ever completely understands another person,” Ty said. He’d never seen Jack like this. Never seen that bleak look on his face, the emptiness in his eyes. What good would it do to tell him everything? “Does it really matter what happened five years ago?” he asked quietly. “It doesn’t change the fact that she’s married. Are you willing to break up her marriage?”

“In a minute, if she’d have me.” Jack’s mouth twisted in a bitter smile as he met his friend’s gaze. “I suppose that sounds pretty terrible.”

“No. But it sounds like a way for a couple of good people to get pretty badly hurt.”

“Yeah. The question is: Who gets hurt the worst? Me, Patsy, or her husband? Damn. I’ve never even met the guy. Why do I feel as if I’ve just kicked a puppy?”