A Rich Man for Dry Creek / a Hero for Dry Creek (19 page)

Nicki heard Lester's footsteps on the porch. Fortunately, the door was already unlocked. “Come on in.”

Garrett felt the cold air rush into the kitchen, but that's not what made the back of his neck tingle. Something was wrong. He heard the door slam. It was followed by the quick hissing indrawn breath of an angry man.

“What the—?” The bellow coming from the doorway made Garrett turn as the man charged toward him. The man was small, but wiry—and red enough to explode.

Garrett had been in enough street fights as a kid to know what was coming, but he'd never had someone in his arms before. If he had even a second longer, he could have slid Nicki down to the floor. But the man was coming too fast. All Garrett could do was protect her as best he could. He pivoted so that Nicki was not between him and this madman.

“Lester,” the woman squealed.

Garrett only had time to bend his shoulder so he could hide Nicki in the hunching of his shoulder. The man's fist caught him high on the right cheek.

“Lester!” Nicki tried to twist out of Garrett's grasp so she could slide down to the floor and get her broom. What had gotten into him? She'd always assumed Lester was shy and that was why he was so patient with her about kissing and things like that. But the man in front of her wasn't shy. He was acting like a deranged man. “Stop that! What do you think you're doing?”

Garrett's hands held her to him like steel.

“What do I think I'm doing?” Lester exploded. Garrett wondered how the vein in the man's head could throb that hard. “Just what do you think you're doing here with some man and you in your nightgown?”

Ah, so that's the way the story went, Garrett thought to himself. Well, he supposed the woman had to have a boyfriend. Even in a remote area like this, the men would be foolish not to notice the—Garrett stopped himself. It wasn't beauty he noticed. It certainly wasn't stylish clothes. What was it about the woman?

“I've got a robe on—not just my nightgown,” Nicki corrected him. “And if you'd bothered to notice, you would see everything is perfectly innocent and—” she could hear her voice rising “—just what do you think is going on anyway?”

Nicki had lived by the rules all her life. Lester should know that.

Lester flushed. He was so red already that he actually grew less red when he flushed. Now he looked mottled as he mumbled. “Duane at the café told me some guy stopped last night at midnight and asked how to find the Redfern place. Some guy in a tux. Everyone knows Reno took those steers down to Billings and that you're here alone.”

“What's Reno got to do with—?” Nicki stopped and then realized what he was implying. “Lester Wilkerson, you have your nerve!”

Garrett felt the swelling start on his cheekbone. He hadn't had a bruiser like this since he'd stepped between two fighting truckers once. He supposed it was safe for Nicki to slide down to the floor now, but Garrett didn't want her to leave his arms. Some primitive part of him figured he was entitled to carry her now that he'd taken a fist to his face on her behalf.

Nicki heard her mother's footsteps as she came back down the stairs.

“Did I hear something about Reno?” Nicki's mother stood in the doorway and asked. “Reno still lives here?”

Everyone in the kitchen forgot Nicki's nightgown and the bruise on Garrett's cheek.

“Let me get you your coffee.” Nicki slid to the floor and tested her foot. Garrett let her rest against him until she was steady and then she stepped away. “I put the clean cups on the counter.”

“Why would Reno be here? Charles said the kids had both left.” Nicki's mother walked over to the counter. “He said he would let me know if he heard from them.”

By now the older woman had picked up one of the clean mugs Nicki had put on the counter and was rubbing the side of it almost unconsciously. She had stopped smiling and her face seemed to age ten years as she stood there. “I know Charles was angry with me. But if Reno's here and he didn't tell me, that's not fair. When Charles wakes up, I'm going to have to tell him that's not right.”

Nicki felt her face was so tight, it would rip. She refused to cry in front of this woman. “There's nothing you can tell him. He's dead.”

The woman dropped the cup and no one noticed. “Oh, dear.”

For the first time since she'd recognized her mother, Nicki had a glimpse of the woman her mother used to be. “I'm sorry. I shouldn't have blurted it out like that.”

“No, no—” Nicki's mother waved the apology away. “I just wasn't expecting this is all. Does Nicki know? Did anyone find her to tell her? She'd want to know.”

“She knows.” Nicki swallowed. She'd never thought herself to be a coward, but she found that the words to tell her mother who she was wouldn't come without forcing.

“But—” Lester started to speak until Garrett put his hand on the man's arm to silence him.

Nicki looked at both men. There was nothing to do but say it. “I'm Nicki.”

Nicki wished her mother had another cup to drop. Anything would be better than the silence that greeted her announcement. The other woman just stared at Nicki.

Nicki reminded herself that she didn't need fairy tales, not even ones that involved mothers coming home again to their daughters.

“Well—” Nicki finally found her voice. The silence was unnerving. “Let me pour you some coffee before you go.”

Nicki was proud of the fact that her face didn't crumble. No tears came to her eyes. Even the anger was gone. She would give her mother a cup of coffee and that would be that.

Nicki didn't even limp as she walked toward the coffeepot.

G
arrett was losing his touch. He would have bet Big Blue that Lilly would melt into a puddle of sentimentality at the fact that her daughter was standing before her. Aunt Rose would have been crying into her tissue by now.

But the woman stayed dry-eyed. He thought her hands trembled and her face did grow paler, but she certainly wasn't smiling with joy. She looked over at Garrett. “We're going to have to leave. I didn't know she was here.”

Garrett felt a clutch in his stomach at her words. Something was going on here and he had a feeling it was something worse than anybody's sore toes. He took a step closer to Nicki just in case she needed him.

“I'm in the room. You can talk to me,” Nicki said as she gripped the handle on the cup she had pulled from the dish drainer.

“Oh, dear—It's just that I'm surprised. Your father's letter said—Well, I just didn't expect you to be here,” Lillian said as she walked over to the sink.

Garrett knew people didn't always say what they meant the first time around. He turned to Lillian. “Maybe if you told her why you're here. Surely there's a reason.”

The older woman hesitated. “I just came to see Charles, that's all.”

The man's question brought Nicki back into focus. Why was her mother here? Nicki turned to face the woman. If you took away the powder and the makeup, you could see traces of the woman she had once been. “You could have come to see him years ago.”

The clock ticked and the old refrigerator gurgled.

“And what's he doing here?” Lester finally spoke and jerked his thumb at Garrett.

“I'm Garrett Hamilton. I'm a trucker. I drove Lilly Fern up here.”

“And why did you come again?” Nicki turned from the man and addressed her mother.

“I came to talk to your father,” Nicki's mother said defiantly. “There's no harm in that.”

“You can't possibly think he would want to see you now even if he were alive. You left him years ago.”

“He was my husband. I never did divorce him.”

“That's it? You came to ask him for a divorce after all these years?”

“Of course not. I don't need a divorce.”

“Then what is it—is it money?”

Lillian laughed. “Charles never had any money. All he ever had was this ranch of his.”

“He loved this ranch—”
And he loved you.
Nicki almost said the words and then choked them off. What did it matter now?

Lillian wasn't even looking at her any longer. “I know we can't always go back, but I have unfinished business in Dry Creek and I needed a place to stay for a little bit—”

“You're in trouble?”

Lillian shrugged. “In a way, I guess.”

“And you need a place to hide?” Strangely enough, Nicki was relieved. Her mother really hadn't come looking for her father because she missed her father or had any fondness for him. She'd just come looking for a safe harbor in some storm she was facing.

“Your father would want me to be here now. He'd feel he owes me that much.”

Nicki felt her world click back into place. Everything was as it had been. It felt good to know her way around once again. The fact that her mother had come to her father hoping for comfort in some crisis didn't surprise her. Her father never turned away anyone in need. He might not talk to them much, but he'd let them stay.

“Nobody here owes you anything.” Nicki wasn't her father.

“Don't worry. I couldn't possibly stay here now anyway.” Lillian Redfern reached out her hand for a cup of coffee. “Once I've had a cup of coffee, Garrett will drive me back to Dry Creek and we'll stay there for a few days.”

“Dry Creek?” Nicki didn't like the sound of that.

Garrett wasn't sure he liked the sounds of it, either. He frowned. “No one said anything about days. I thought we were planning to leave tonight.” Garrett planned to be in Las Vegas tomorrow night so he could pick up Big Blue and hit the highway.

Lillian looked up at Garrett. “I'm sure you won't mind. It's just going to take longer than I thought.”

Garrett did mind, but he didn't have time to speak up before Nicki was talking.

“You can't just stay. Not around Dry Creek,” Nicki said.

“No one would deny a widow the right to stand by her husband's grave.”

“You're going to tell them you're going to the cemetery?”

“Of course. And I will be. It's the respectable thing to do. I have a black dress with me. I always travel with at least one black dress. And I'm sure someone in Dry Creek will let me stay with them.”

“After what you did when you left?” Nicki's hand shook ever so slightly as she poured another cup of coffee into a hardware store mug. “I wouldn't think you'd be very welcome.”

Lillian sat down at the kitchen table and took a sip of coffee. “Oh, yes. The money. I suppose they still remember that.”

Nicki looked at her mother incredulously. “Of course they remember the money. You stole over eight hundred dollars from the church building fund. I don't know how many bake sales the women of the church had. How could you possibly think they might have forgotten?”

Lillian smiled slightly. “I thought they might have had other things on their mind at the time.” Lillian took another sip of coffee and then looked at Nicki. “My leaving was hard on you, wasn't it?”

“No. I did fine.”

Nicki could feel Lester looking at her. She glanced up at him. Even now that he was calm, he looked odd. She'd never seen him look like this. His face looked blotched. But he was her Lester. She could count on him. “Haven't I done fine?”

Lester grunted and jerked his thumb at Garrett. “You're sure you don't know him? Jazz at the café said he had a ring and everything ready to propose.”

Garrett felt his heart stop. He'd thought the teenager had looked at him strangely when the ring fell out.

Garrett cleared his throat and looked Nicki in the eye. “You did just fine. I can tell.”

Nicki was annoyed. Lester should have been the one to say that. “Thank you, but you don't know me well enough to judge.”

Garrett grinned. He rather liked the vinegar look on Nicki's face. “It's early. I've got time.”

“What's he talking about?” Lester mumbled.

“Oh, for Pete's sake, he's not proposing,” Nicki said firmly as she smiled at Lester and glared at Garrett. This was all Garrett's fault. Everything had been fine—until he came up here. Who went around carrying an engagement ring and wearing a tuxedo in the middle of Montana farmland? No wonder poor Lester was confused. “Look at him. He's not even from around here.”

Garrett frowned at that. “Good people come from other places, too.”

Nicki took a deep breath. “What I meant is that you don't know me and I don't know you so there's no reason to think you'd be proposing. We're strangers.”

“I've seen your toes.”

“What's he talking about? And what's he doing here anyway?”

Nicki wondered why she'd never seen Lester like this before. What had happened to his hair? She hadn't noticed how his light brown hair was starting to thin and the pink of his scalp showed through, making him look old. And when he squinted like that, his eyes made him look like a ferret. Maybe it was only the cold weather that had scrunched up his face like this. She'd need to get him a warm cap for Christmas. That's what she'd do, she thought. A warm cap would make him look better.

“He brought me here,” Lillian said graciously to Lester. “I don't believe we've met. Were you here when I was around? I'm Nicki's mother.”

Lillian held her hand out to the man.

Lester had his hand halfway out to meet hers and he stopped in midair. “That's what Nicki's talking about—I remember hearing about you—you're the one who stole the church's money?”

Nicki saw her mother's polite smile tighten. “Is that what they say about me?”

“Yes, ma'am,” Lester agreed doubtfully.

“Well, then, I'm getting off easy, I guess.”

“Well, I don't know about that—taking money is pretty serious.”

“Well, they'll just have to forgive me,” Lillian said firmly. She lifted her chin up slightly. “Once an apology is given, it is their Christian duty to forgive.”

Lester looked at Lillian, frowning slightly. “I must have missed hearing about the apology.”

Nicki could have gone to Lester and hugged him. Now this was the Lester she knew. Unswayed by flattery. Polite and logical, with his feet firmly planted on the earth and no hint of sentiment about him. Not at all like Prince Charming who stood looking at her like she needed some kind of rescuing.

“Well, I haven't given an apology yet,” Lillian admitted with a hint of reproach in her voice. “I haven't even finished my coffee.” Lillian took a slow sip from her cup. “What do you suppose they'll say?”

“What do you mean?” Nicki felt a small ball of dread starting to roll around in her stomach.

“Why, when I go into Dry Creek and apologize, of course.”

“You don't really need to apologize,” Nicki said. The last thing she wanted was for her mother's name to again be the primary topic of conversation for Dry Creek. “That's all over and done with.”

“I can't do that. You two convinced me of that.” Lillian nodded at Lester. She took another sip of coffee. “I can't have people saying I didn't apologize.”

“You could write a note,” Nicki offered in desperation. People never got as worked up over a letter as they did when someone talked in person. Besides, who knew what her mother would say when she opened her mouth. Nicki could correct a letter.

“What kind of a lady would write a note about something like that?” her mother asked.

The same kind of lady who would steal from the church on the way out of her children's lives, Nicki thought, but she held her tongue.

“No, I'm right,” Lillian said firmly. “I'm going to apologize and put an end to all of this. All I need to do is find the minister of that little church. We'll all drive into Dry Creek and find him.”

“All of us?” Lester shuffled his feet and looked at Nicki before glancing at Garrett. “You're sure that guy's not proposing?”

“Absolutely.”

“Then I'm going to get back to my place. I still have some cattle to feed.”

“I could come help you,” Nicki offered.

Lester brightened. “You could?”

“She's coming with me.” Garrett interrupted them. It was one thing for Nicki to reassure the man that no one was proposing to her, it was another to run off for a cozy drive with her boyfriend while she left her mother with Garrett.

“Nicki and Garrett will take me to Dry Creek,” Lillian said airily, as if she was in charge. “They won't need anyone else.”

Lester looked at Nicki and shrugged before heading toward the door.

Nicki tried again. “It's early morning. The minister won't be up yet.”

“Then we'll wake him up,” Lillian said as she stood. “It's his duty to hear confessions.”

“You're thinking of priests.” Nicki groaned. “Priests hear confessions.”

“Priest, minister, it's all the same,” Lillian said as she adjusted her skirt and turned to Garrett. “Would you mind bringing the car closer to the door this time? The snow is so slippery and in these shoes—”

Garrett could tell from Nicki's face that her Lester had disappointed her when he made his exit without her. Garrett shouldn't be happy about that fact, but he was. To make up for it, he turned to Nicki and asked, “How about it? Would you like me to bring the car closer so you don't have to walk in the snow?”

“Me?” Nicki breathed lightly. Her Prince Charming was worried about her feet. That's when she remembered she was in her slippers. “Oh, I can't go. I'm not dressed.”

Nicki had been searching for a reason not to go, and when she found one she realized she was oddly disappointed.

“Well, I can't leave you here.” Garrett didn't want to drive Lillian back into Dry Creek all alone.

“And put on a dress, darling,” Nicki's mother called out as she walked toward the kitchen door. “We have time for you to look nice.”

Nicki couldn't believe she was hearing those words again. The only time Nicki had worn a dress since her mother left was to her father's funeral. And she certainly wasn't going to wear that dress for her mother's return, Nicki told herself as she limped up the stairs again.

Nicki did have some nice pants outfits that she wore to church. She pulled one of them off its hanger before she reconsidered and hung it back up. No, she wasn't going to fall into the trap of trying to please her mother.