Making New Memories (13 page)

"It is so nice to meet you Jesse. Bear spoke
so lovingly of you to me back in Montana. I am so happy to know
that you are finally getting married."

Jesse smiles, "Thank you Skye. You made quite
an impression on Clarence too. In fact, you probably don't realize
it, but you are one of the reasons he decided to seek help for his
PTSD."

"Really? ... I had no idea. What did I
do?"

Hesitantly Jesse says, "Well, even though you
never told him exactly what happened to make you afraid, he guessed
pretty quickly what had happened and he saw how you were letting
the fear control every aspect of your life. When he thought about
it, he realized he was doing the same thing. He just didn't know
where to go to seek the help he needed. When Stump showed up to
pick up your car and told him about the program in Phoenix where I
work, he jumped at the chance to seek help and to reclaim our love.
I owe you a great debt of gratitude Skye. It is because of you that
Stump found his father and because of you that Clarence found me
and sought help. Thank you."

A feeling of warmth flows through me, "You
are welcome. I'm glad everything worked out for you."

Blushing Jesse asks, "I was wondering, would
you be my maid of honor tomorrow? I know it would make Clarence
very happy if you would stand up for us."

Surprised and pleased I reply, "I will be
honored. Thank you for asking."

******

Later the same evening Bear seeks me out,
"Hey girl, how are you doing?"

"I'm doing fine Bear. Thank you for asking. I
started counseling and have overcome a large portion of my fears. I
even identified one of the men that raped me that night. After
Christmas Dylan and I are going to LA and file charges against him.
I'm hoping he will identify the other men," explains Skye.

"Dylan, that's Scoot right?" asks Bear.

"Yes, Dylan is Scoot. I love him Bear."

"I kind of had that feeling. Is he being good
to you?" asks Bear.

"Yes, he is wonderful. I never dreamed I
could be so happy."

"If you're happy, then I'm happy for you,"
says Bear and pulls me into his arms for a warm brotherly hug.

******

Jesse Williams and Clarence Kincaid Sr. are
married on Christmas Eve in front of a crackling fire in the great
room of Barry Farrady's home in rural Wyoming. His son, Clarence
Kincaid Jr. and I are the witnesses. The bride is given away by her
other son, Johnny Williams. All the residents and guests at the
Rock Springs Ranch are in attendance.

As I am standing in front of the fireplace as
a witness for Bear's wedding I daydream about my own wedding to
Dylan. Of course, I don't know if I will ever have a wedding, but
this is a daydream. I picture myself in a beautiful flowing long
white gown with pink roses in my hair and a gorgeous Dylan smiling
warmly at me while he repeats his vows to love, honor, and cherish
me forever. I glance over at Dylan and find him smiling warmly at
me and I blush from head to toe. I have the strangest feeling he is
reading my mind.

Dylan can't tear his eyes away from Skye. She
is so beautiful in that short pale blue dress and his heart is
overflowing with love for her. He pictures her standing before the
fireplace in a long white gown, smiling up at him while she repeats
her vows to love, honor, and cherish him forever. When she glances
over at him he can't help but smile at her and he sees her blush
from head to toe. They still have a long road to travel before they
can say their vows, but he is planning to travel that road as
quickly as possible.

On Christmas Day, Bear and Jesse fly in
Barry's private jet to Kalispell Montana to spend the next week at
his cabin in the mountains of Montana.

******

Dylan's sister, Evelyn Smith and her two
children, Janie and Jeff, fly into Cody on December 26
^th
to visit for a few days. Dylan picks them up at the airport in Cody
since Evelyn would not agree to accept Barry's offer to send his
jet.

On the drive back to the ranch Dylan broaches
the subject of her refusal to relocate to Wyoming. He asks,
"Evelyn, tell me what's going on? Why don't you want to move out
here? If you're not comfortable accepting my help, then we can get
you a home here in Cody and you can get a job and support
yourself."

She drops her eyes to her hands in her lap,
"Look Dylan, I don't want to fight about this, please. I just can't
let myself depend on any man ever again, not even you. It nearly
destroyed me when Jack left. I am proud of what I've accomplished
since then. The kids and I may not have a lot, but it is all ours.
I've finally re-established good credit and even have some savings.
We are comfortable. I will think about moving to Cody. I'll check
out the job opportunities and the cost of living but I can't
promise you anything."

Dylan responds, "All right, Evelyn, I
understand. What about Goose? Is there any hope for him? He really
wants to get to know you better. He's a good guy and one you can
count on. He would never do anything to hurt you like Jack
did."

She looks up at Dylan doubtfully, "He's a man
Dylan. I like him, but I am not interested in a relationship with
any man right now."

Dylan asks, "Not even friendship?"

She answers, "Well, maybe friendship. I'll
think about it."

When they drive up to the front gate, Janie
asks, "Uncle Dylan, who are all these people? What are they
doing?"

Laughing Dylan says, "That's the Paparazzi
Sweetie. They follow Barry everywhere. It comes with being famous.
They won't bother you while you're here."

Jeff says, "Wow, I don't think I would like
people following me everywhere. What do they want from him?
Money?"

Dylan answers, "Pictures mostly. They can
sell a picture of him for a lot of money, especially if there is an
interesting story behind it."

As they pull to a stop in front of the house,
Evelyn's mouth falls open. "Oh my, is this where we're staying?
It's huge!"

Jeff squeals, "Uncle Dylan, can we ride the
horses?"

Dylan answers, "I'll take you riding this
afternoon as long as the weather doesn't turn bad. Are you guys
ready for the tour?"

As soon as the car stops, Eric and Damian
come running out of the house. "They're here! They're here!"

Grinning, Dylan gets out and introduces
everyone. Then he grabs the suitcases and they head into the house.
As soon as Evelyn steps in the house I greet her. I met her in
Texas at Dylan's trial. Taking her hand, I introduce her to
Melanie, Barry's wife, Virginia, Barry's mother, and Patricia,
Melanie's mother, while the boys take Janie and Jeff up to Eric's
room to play. Looking around Evelyn says, "This place is
magnificent. I've never seen anything like it!"

Melanie laughs, "I know just how you feel.
The first time I was here I had just escaped from a very primitive
camp in Idaho where we didn't even have running water and we cooked
on wood stoves!"

Evelyn asks, "How did you end up here?"

Laughing again Melanie, holding her infant
son, says, "It's a really long story that I'll tell you when we
have more time. We all have our own stories but let's suffice it to
say none of us were use to this opulence when we first came here.
It grows on you pretty quickly. We are all just regular people not
any different than you."

Seeing the baby Evelyn's heart melts, "Oh,
what a precious baby! How old is he?"

Beaming Barry says, "Jonathan is not even a
month old. He was born just before Dylan's trial."

"I love babies. I would love to have a whole
houseful more," says Evelyn wistfully.

Wisely Barry says, "Who knows what the future
will bring? I never expected to have a son of my own and look where
I am now."

******

The week passes really quickly. Evelyn really
likes everyone she meets and is sad when the time to leave arrives.
Goose has been around but hasn't made any effort to spend time with
her and to be honest she is disappointed about that too. Oh well,
what did she expect? She wasn't exactly nice to him back in Texas.
What's the old saying, once burned, twice shy? She is going to keep
her promise to Dylan though and look into the job opportunities in
Cody. She has enough money saved to maybe start the little boutique
she has always wanted.

As they are headed back to the airport, Dylan
makes a side trip to a nice neighborhood on the outskirts of Cody.
Pulling up in front of a cute ranch style home, he says, "Come on.
I want to show you this."

When she walks in the front door, Evelyn is
amazed at how nice the inside of the home is. It would be the
perfect place for her to settle down. It has three nice size
bedrooms all with walk in closets, a beautiful kitchen, and the
master bedroom is huge.

Dylan says, "Evelyn, this house is priced way
below market and if you like it, I will buy it and you can make
payments to me. The junior high is down at the end of the street
and a ton of kids live in this neighborhood. What do you
think?"

Tears in her eyes she says, "Oh Dylan, I love
the house but what about a job?"

"You can open that boutique you were telling
me about. I saw a vacant building on Main Street that is an ideal
location. If you need more cash, I'll loan it to you and you can
make payments to me. Please, I want you and the kids to be close.
You can do this and still maintain your independence."

Janie and Jeff have been very quiet during
the conversation between their Mom and Uncle Dylan but now they
both look at their Mom and say "Please Mom. We love it here."

"Oh all right. We'll fly back, pack our
things and drive the car back. We should be back in about two
weeks."

The kids are ecstatic running around and
jumping up and down in the family room of their soon to be new
home.

Dylan is grinning with satisfaction as he
loads everyone back in the car and drops them at the airport. At
the entrance to security he gives his sister a warm hug and
says,

"I love you Sis. I'll see you in a couple of
weeks. Let me know if I can help you in any way"

******

Ever since returning to Wyoming from his
trial in Texas, Dylan has been spending every spare minute
researching Benjamin Reynolds. He has read every newspaper article,
every file he has found on the internet, and even had Pinky dig for
unpublished files hidden on the internet. After all the research he
is more convinced than ever that Benjamin Reynolds was murdered. He
just has to figure out why and by whom.

Dylan and Skye are going to LA on Monday to
officially file charges against Richard Thomas for the rape that
took place after the rock concert. While they are in the city,
Dylan wants to do some research into Benjamin Reynolds' death but
first he has to tell Skye about the research he has already done.
He is not looking forward to the conversation because he's not sure
how she will feel about his looking into it without telling her.
The trip to LA is going to be trying enough for Skye because it
will be her first trip back to LA since she left nearly four years
ago and the Paparazzi are sure to be a nuisance.

It has been three weeks since Dylan has spent
time alone with Skye and he would like nothing better than to
recreate their last encounter. However, the conversation about her
father has to be his first priority. He calls her before dinner,
"Skye, I need to talk to you. Will you go for a walk with me after
dinner?"

"Of course Dylan, but you could just come to
my room," I offer hopefully.

"Believe me, I would like that a lot, but I'm
afraid it would be too much of a distraction. I really need for us
to talk first then maybe we'll go back to your room."

Worried, I say, "You sound serious, should I
be worried?"

"No, I just need to tell you something before
our trip on Monday."

"All right, I'll be waiting."

******

After Dylan puts Damian to bed he puts on his
parka and gloves and heads to the house to pick up Skye. She opens
the door when he knocks ready for their walk. Taking her hand in
his they head off toward the river. Nervously he says, "Skye, I've
been doing some research since I got back from Texas and I believe
that your father was murdered."

Shocked at his words, I ask, "Why do you
think that? The police seemed quite convinced that he committed
suicide. Don't you think that they looked at it from every
angle?"

Picking his words carefully he says,
"Actually, no I don't. I think they took the butler's statement and
never looked at the facts. I think if they had, they would have
come to the same conclusion that I have."

"All right, why did you want to talk about
this tonight?"

"Well, I am hoping we can do a little nosing
around while we are in LA. One of the questions I have is what
happened to all of your father's things after he died?"

"Well, I packed everything in the house and
put it in storage. It should still be in the storage unit. When I
left for Montana the only thing left in the house was some of the
furniture."

He says, "I would like to go to the storage
unit while we're in LA. Maybe even ship the stuff here so we can go
through it."

"There is a lot of it. Is there somewhere
here to put it?"

"We can probably make room in the barn. I
really would like to have time to thoroughly examine all of your
father's papers. Maybe he left some clues about what he was working
on. Also, I would like to check out the butler. Maybe we can find
information in the papers about who he is. After your father died,
did the butler continue working?"

"No, he left almost the next day. I wasn't
comfortable having him in the house."

Smiling Dylan says, "Good, are you ready to
go back to the house now?"

Returning his smile I ask, "Are we going to
talk some more?"