The Weekday Brides 04 - Single by Saturday (12 page)

Karen usually managed three, but four wasn’t undoable. “I don’t think one car has passed us.”

“Traffic here is when two cars pass at the light.”

“It’s quiet. I’m not sure I could live here.”

“My mom swears it’s the best place to raise kids.”

Karen slid her a glance. “Was it a great place to grow up?”

“Yeah. I can’t complain. It’s nice to come home and visit.”

Karen heard an unspoken
but
. “But?”

“I’m not ready to settle down and raise kids.”

“Of course not. You’re not even out of college yet.”

“But my dad expects me to come home and help with his business when I’m done.”

The more Karen heard about Sawyer Gardner, the more she disliked the man. Talk about mapping out your children’s futures without letting them have any say.

“Let me guess…the thought terrifies you.”

She huffed out a strangled laugh. “More like strangles me.”

“You should talk to your brother. Life is much more fulfilling when you’re living it for yourself than for someone else.”

Judy stared at her now; her tight lips were in a thin line. “You’re deep.”

“Naw…I’m as shallow as they come,” she teased.

Judy slowed her pace and turned around. Karen glanced at the empty fields and followed. “I thought we were going to Beacon’s barn?”

She waved a hand in the air. “Oh, Beacon’s barn burned down over ten years ago.”

“So why do you still call it Beacon’s barn if it doesn’t exist anymore?”

“It’s a small town, Karen. Every street, every burned-down barn, every inch of this town is married to some memory from the past that no one ever forgets. The bench outside the sheriff’s station is the bench where Millie Daniels told her daddy that she was pregnant right before she jumped on a bus and never came back. Everyone calls it Millie’s bench.”

“Poor Millie Daniels. How long ago was that?”

“Six years ago.” Judy ran for a while without talking. They both ran a little slower and talking became less difficult. “There’s a lamppost where Steven Ratchet was caught puking his guts out after an all-night binge.”

“That’s an unusual occurrence? Seems small towns are magnets for underage drinking just like anywhere else.”

“Steven was from a long line of Mormon families. Drinking alcohol is right up there with having premarital sex in the eyes of the church. Poor Steven didn’t have a chance to hide his indiscretion in this town.”

“Puking in public is hard to hide.”

“Especially when half the town is Mormon and the other half is quick to point out who the ‘good Mormons’ are and who the ‘bad ones’ are.”

Karen wiped her forehead with her arm. It was starting to warm up as they crossed over Main Street a second time. “What do you mean good versus bad?”

Judy grinned. “How can you tell a good Mormon from a bad Mormon?”

“This sounds like a joke.”

“You ask them if they drink their caffeine hot or cold. They don’t drink caffeine, or at least, they’re taught not to. Bad Mormons drink coffee, and the good ones drink soda. Most of the kids I grew up with didn’t give a crap and drank what they want. Steven bucked his family most of his life. Left town the day he hit eighteen.”

Karen frowned. “Where did he go?”

“I think he went to Vegas.”

Karen couldn’t help but cringe. An eighteen-year-old in Vegas was wrong on many levels.

“Oh, don’t worry…he came home. Just took him a few years. He has a wife and three kids now.”

That made Karen feel better.

“That’s what’s kind of crazy about this town. Seems a lot of kids run off only to come back when they have a family of their own.”

Karen thought of Michael and how that would never be him.

They turned onto the Gardners’ street just as Zach was pulling out of the driveway with Michael in the passenger seat.

Karen ignored the sweat that was running down the soft T-shirt and the way some of her hair had fallen out of its binding when the two pulled up alongside them and rolled down the window. “Enjoy your run?” Michael asked. He was dressed more casually than Karen could remember. He wore an old T-shirt she’d never seen before, and when she glanced inside the car, she noticed faded jeans. She leaned against the car and peeked inside. Zach gave a wave and then quickly diverted his eyes to his sister.

“Hardly know what to do with the fresh air.”

He laughed. “Call if you need anything.”

Judy looped her arm in Karen’s as if they were old friends. After the run, she had to admit she knew Michael and Zach’s sister a whole lot better. “We’ll take care of her, Mikey. We’re taking her to Petra’s today, then showing her off in town.”

“You are?” Karen sent a puzzled look to Judy.

“Yeah, we have to get you ready for the parade.”

The smile on Karen’s face slipped. “The parade?”

Judy shifted her face to Michael. “You didn’t tell her?”

Michael squirmed in his seat. “You and Mom can give her the details. We’re late…right Zach?”

Karen felt Zach’s gaze before she confirmed with her own eyes that he was looking at her.

Karen pulled her sticky shirt away from her body.

“Yep, we gotta go. See ya later, girls.” Zach pulled away.

She watched the car leave before turning to Judy. “What parade?”

Chapter Nine

“How was it after everyone left?” Zach asked Mike as they left Karen and her nearly bare shirt that acted as a second skin. He really did need to get this ridiculous attraction to his brother’s wife out of his system. He had a girlfriend for crying out loud. He’d suggested Tracey return to her house the night before instead of staying over with him at his. Zach told her that he anticipated Mike and Karen coming over that night and didn’t want to complicate matters. The excuse was lame, but it worked. He’d been dating Tracey for nearly six months. She lived in Monroe, the next town over, but nearly everyone knew her in Hilton before Zach started dating her.

They got along well enough, liked the same movies, and laughed at the same jokes. Yet neither of them had ever suggested the other move in or elevate their relationship to anything more than what it was. He cared for her, but there wasn’t a zip of chemistry that ignited with a look.

His mom had asked once if he saw himself settling down with Tracey long term. He hadn’t considered moving toward forever with Tracey. Somewhere in the back of Zach’s head, a tiny voice kept asking three little words.
Is this it?
Is this the kind of relationship one looks for all one’s life and can’t imagine living without?

Zach knew his life wasn’t on track. He woke up an hour before he was scheduled to and stared at the ceiling in his room. He’d lain there and contemplated life as if he were a fucking poet or something. At thirty-one, he had the routines of a much older man. He went to work every day, traveled the same roads, and took predictable vacations with the same people year after year. After he returned from California, he hadn’t been the same. The drive alone across the desert on the back of a bike was enough of a James Dean moment to remind him of the days when he’d been young and felt as if the entire world was in front of him.

Now he was taking his brother to his latest job site to show off his accomplishments as much as to relieve his brother of the confines of their childhood home.

“Dad went to bed early.” Mike answered his question. “Mom tried to help Karen understand him.”

Zach offered a joyless laugh. “We’ve known him our entire life and we barely understand the man. I wouldn’t expect Karen to understand the great and powerful Sawyer Gardner.”

Mike’s gaze traveled to Zach’s side of the truck. “I always thought you got him more than any of us.”

“Just because I worked with him more, doesn’t mean I get him.”

“Karen has his number. She has this way of figuring out what makes someone tick within an hour. And then if pushed, she has no qualms with pushing that person against the wall with whatever bugs them most to get them to have a light-bulb moment.”

Zach had noticed that about her. He’d felt a strangely proud moment when she told their father that she wasn’t sure if she liked him either. Rena had it right. Karen had balls. Zach heard the admiration in Mike’s voice when he spoke about his wife. His sexy, smart, and ballsy wife.

Zach hated the itch inside him that made him acknowledge the deep roots of envy when it came to his brother. Never once had
Zach begrudged Mike any of his success or his fame. He knew Mike worked his ass off, and Karen was right…he did it because he was taught to. Both of them had learned a strong work ethic from their dad, not a bad trait to have, unless it kept you from enjoying life.

“Dad could have used a light-bulb moment long before now,” Zach said as he pulled onto the highway and headed toward the next town.

“Does he still insist on staying at the hardware store like he’s the only one who can run it?”

“Mom has him coming home for lunch most days, but yeah…he thinks he needs to open it up and close it down. Monroe has been expanding, bringing in more business. He can’t compete for the big jobs. The builders order from St. George and have their shit delivered.”

“The store has never been a cash cow.”

“More a means of survival,” Zach agreed.

Mike stared out the window as Zach pulled off the highway only a few off-ramps from where they’d gotten on.

“I’ve tried to give them money.” Mike blew out a sigh. “Dad won’t have it.”

Zach thought as much. “Dad has a hard time if I’m buying lunch. Best way around that is to give them gifts.”

“I don’t think Dad will drive the McLaren.”

They both laughed at the thought.

“You can always front Judy a little money. She’s always hitting them up for more at college. And Hannah will be out in a year. Putting all of us through college had to have taken a hit on their retirement.”

“Does Hannah know where she wants to go?”

“She’s aiming for Colorado. Judy wants her to go to Washington.”

“But Judy will be graduating next year.”

“Maybe.”

“Is she behind in her credits?”

“No. It’s not that. I think she’s considering a shift in her major.”

“To what?”

Zach shrugged. “I’m not sure. The last time we really talked, she said she wasn’t excited about going into business of any kind after college. The thought of moving back to Hilton to work with Dad was depressing her.”

Mike glanced at Zach. “What did you tell her?”

“I told her to use her next year of college to study what made her smile and screw what Dad thinks.”

“Seriously?”

It had pissed Zach off that Judy was afraid and lived her life as if she were still fifteen and in need of their parents’ approval to date a guy. If any of them understood what it felt like to be held down by family obligations, it was him.

“Why didn’t you follow your own advice?” Mike asked quietly.

The question stiffened Zach’s spine. “What makes you think I didn’t?” He couldn’t keep the defensive tone from his words. “Having a contractor’s license can take me anywhere.”

“Yet you’re still in Hilton.”

Instead of defending why he was still in Hilton, Zach decided to be honest with his brother. “I’m considering a move.” As the words escaped Zach’s mouth, he realized how much he liked them.

A warm smile spread over Mike’s face.

Hannah and Judy dragged Karen around town and introduced her to nearly everyone, or so Karen thought. Her mind fluttered with names and faces…none of which she remembered. Apparently, Sawyer Gardner had a sister who lived in Monroe, and she had a
handful of children as well. Seemed everyone Karen met was someone’s cousin, aunt, or uncle.

They were on their way to Petra’s, one of only two hairdressers in town. The short walk down Main Street brought out many new faces.

Have you met Mike’s wife? This is Mike’s wife
…
Mike got married last year. This is his wife
…

Karen was sure that no one in town would know her as Karen. No one here called Mike, Michael, and no one in Hollywood called Michael, Mike. Occasionally Hannah would use the pet name Mikey. The name had brought a smile to Michael’s face the night before.