Song of the Road (26 page)

It had been hard to face Jake at breakfast after what her mother had said. When he and Deke came in, there was another couple at the table. Deke’s chatter made it easier than she had expected.

“Mornin’, darlin’. You look fresh as a buttercup this mornin’.”

“Thank you, Deke, and good morning to you too.”

“Thanks, sugarfoot,” he said when Trudy poured his coffee. “You musta had a hard night. Ya got black all ’round them pretty eyes of yours.”

“ ’Course I have, dumbbell,” she retorted. “It’s my eyelashes.”

“Is that what it is? Golly damn!”

Trudy shoved a plate of biscuits across the table. “Eat and hush,” she hissed.

Mary Lee had looked at Jake. He was smiling. He caught her eyes and winked.

“What did the sheriff want?” Eli’s words brought Mary Lee back to the present.

“He had a warrant for your arrest,” Trudy said. “We told him you had flown the coop.”

“Why’d ya tell him that for . . .
darlin’
?” Eli skipped out of the way when Trudy ran at him. “Isn’t ‘darlin’ ’ your new name?” he teased.

Trudy dropped the clothes basket and chased him around the house. When they came back around the porch where Mary Lee was waiting, they were laughing like two ten-year-olds.

“When I catch you, you little dirt ball, I’m goin’ to put a knot on your head.” Trudy shook her fist.

“Who’re ya callin’ ‘little,’
darlin’
?” he yelled back.

“I’ll get ya. Just wait. We Benders never forget our enemies.”

A cloud of steam drew their attention to a truck loaded with furniture that had pulled off onto the shoulder between the motor court and the highway. A man in overalls and a straw hat got out. He carefully unscrewed the radiator cap and jumped back. Steam and water gushed out. He spoke to the woman in the truck, then took a bucket from the back and walked up to where Mary Lee, Trudy and Eli stood beside the porch.

“Howdy, ma’am.” He spoke to Mary Lee. “Would ya mind if I got a bucket of water?”

“Help yourself. Would your family like to get out, stretch their legs and have a cool drink of water?” Mary Lee asked, seeing the woman and two boys in the cramped cab of the truck.

“They’d be plumb pleased to, ma’am. Thank ye.” He walked back toward the truck. “Marthy . . . ,” he called, and motioned and waited. As the woman lifted one little boy down, another scrambled out. Both ran to their father. The woman followed. She was slender and obviously pregnant.

“Hello,” Mary Lee said. “Come back to the pump and have a cool drink. It’s good to move around, isn’t it?”

“It sure is. The boys are good, but they get tired sittin’ so long.”

“Let’s see if we can run a little steam off them.” Trudy touched the older one on the shoulder. “Bet you can’t catch me.”

“Bet . . . I can.” He looked at his father for permission, and when he nodded, he took off after Trudy. She ran around the washhouse and down to cabin number one before she let him catch her.

“You won.” She pretended to gasp for breath. “Guess you get the prize.” She took his hand, and they walked back to the house. “We’d better let little brother in on it, don’t ya think?”

“What is it?”

“Come on in and you’ll see. You, too, snookums.”

The younger brother looked at his mother, then ran to take his brother’s hand. The three disappeared into the house.

“She loves little kids,” Mary Lee said with a smile.

“I can tell.” The woman watched her husband carry the bucket of water to the truck and drank her second dipper of water. “The water in our well back home was hard as a rock before it dried up.”

“Where are you from?”

“Kansas. Just above the Oklahoma panhandle. We got tired of fighting the dust.” She looked wistfully around. “It’s pretty here. Pretty and green.”

“We’re a little higher up here. It cools down at night.” Trudy came out of the house with the two boys. They were eating biscuits that had been hollowed out and filled with strawberry jam. It was already smeared on their little faces.

Trudy smiled guiltily at the mother. “They’re goin’ to be a mess. I brought a wet rag so you can wipe them off.”

“Did you thank the lady?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“They did. Both of them,” Trudy said, and ruffled the hair on the young one. “He told me his name is Jeffy.”

“Is this Calafornie, Mama?”

“No, honey. We’ve got a long way to go to get to California.”

“We’d better be goin’, honey. We need to get to that campground ’fore dark.” The man stood beside his wife, his hand rubbing up and down her back. “Thanky kindly for the water, ma’am, and the treat for the boys.”

“You’re welcome. Good luck. I hope you reach your destination safely.”

The family went back to the highway. The man hugged his wife for a minute and kissed her on the forehead before he helped her into the truck and lifted the young one in.

Mary Lee suddenly felt alone and teary. The couple didn’t have as much as she had materially, but they were far richer. They had each other.

Chapter 18

E
LI CAME OUT OF THE WASHHOUSE
wearing clean clothes, his cowboy boots and a big smile. Mary Lee went to him before he reached the group waiting beside the back porch.

“One of these days soon you’re going to have to have a haircut,” she said softly, and pressed something in the hand between them.

“Ya don’t need to do that . . . ,” he whispered.

“Yes, I do. You’ve earned that and more. I want you to be able to pay your own way.”

“Well . . . thanks —”

Mary Lee kissed him on the cheek. “I’m proud of you.” He clung to her hand tightly. “Ya’ll let Jake stay with ya?”

“If he wants to.”

“Oh, he’ll want to.”

“What do you mean . . . ?”

“Come on, kid,” Deke called. “The little squirt’s gettin’ antsy. She’ll be gettin’ on her broomstick and flyin’ off if we don’t get goin’ soon.”

Eli and Trudy were going to the picture show with Deke. There had been a lot of teasing about it. Deke had said that he was afraid to be alone with the “little squirt” in a dark picture show and needed Eli to protect him. Trudy’s face had reddened; and in order to hide the excitement of going to the show, she had snatched off his hat and hit him with it.

Since Deke’s arrival three days ago, Trudy no longer came to the motor court wearing a faded old gingham dress but one that had been freshly washed, starched and ironed. Her mop of curls was tied with a ribbon, and her cheeks were flushed. It was plain to Mary Lee that her friend could see beneath the homely face of the little man who teased her. He was as sweet and caring and as vulnerable to hurt because of his size as she was.

Mary Lee watched the trio walk across the field behind the motor court and then turned to Jake.

“He’s awfully nice. I’ve never seen Trudy so happy.”

“They seem to like teasing each other.”

“I wish he wouldn’t leave, but when he does, she’ll be heartbroken,” Mary Lee said with a sigh.

“You like him?”

“Sure. I can’t help but to like him.”

“Are you tired,
madrecita
?”

“Why do you call me things in Spanish?”

“Why? So you won’t slap me.” They walked around to the front of the house.

“I wouldn’t slap you for calling me little mother.”

“How about
‘querida’
?”

“What does it mean?”

“ ‘Stubborn little mule.’ ”

She cast an accusing glance up at Jake, whose green eyes were dancing with unconcealed mischief.

“It does not! I’ll ask Mr. Santez.”

“Better not. You might hear something you don’t want to know.” He shook his head. When he extended his hand, she put hers in it. “Shall we sit here on the edge of the porch, or do you want to walk down to my place, sit on the step and listen to the radio?”

“I’ve missed the radio,” she said wistfully. “But I’d better stay here where I can keep an eye on things. Mama is out there with Yancy. Frank will be released tomorrow.”

Jake reached for the straight-backed chair on the porch. He placed it on the ground. After she was seated, he sat down on the edge of the porch.

“You don’t have to stay with me.”

“I want to. Besides, I promised Eli that I’d not let you out of my sight until he got back.”

“Bless his heart. I’m getting awfully fond of him.”

“He obviously feels the same about you.”

“School starts in another month. He won’t want to go and leave me here alone, but he must.”

“Trudy will be here, won’t she?”

“I’m . . . not sure. But regardless, Eli has to go to school.”

“I agree. Maybe things will have settled down by then.”

“I don’t know. Mama is drinking more. It’s affecting her mind or she wouldn’t have said the things she said the other day.”

“Are Yancy and Frank furnishing the whiskey?”

“They must be. She’s already sold everything she could carry out of the house.”

“Someone is giving them money,” he said thoughtfully. “Yancy’s a cowhand. They get thirty a month and board. Frank couldn’t be making much digging ditches.”

“Could it be Mr. Clawson?”

“No. Ocie isn’t sneaky. He wouldn’t use deadbeats like Yancy and Frank to do his dirty work.”

“Who, then? And for goodness’ sake, why?”

“Maybe someone who thinks the motor court belongs to your mother.”

“They should know better than that by now. Mama wanted Trudy and Eli to clean the cabin Frank claims to have rented. I told them they didn’t have to do it, so they made themselves scarce. Mama threw bottles, boxes and all kinds of trash out the door along with the sheets and towels. Eli picked it all up, and I didn’t even ask him to do it.

“Then she took clean sheets and towels off the clothesline. She’s getting the cabin ready for Frank.” Mary Lee suddenly cried and stretched out her leg.“Oh, oh . . .”

“What’s the matter?”

“I’ve got a . . . cramp!”

Jake grasped her leg, laid it across his lap, and with strong fingers massaged the hard muscles of her calf while holding her foot with the other hand. When the muscles refused to loosen, he got to his feet, grasped her beneath her arms and lifted her.

“Put all your weight on it.”

Clinging to him weakly, she did as she was told. When he walked backward, she was forced to take a few steps. Then, with his forearm beneath her armpit, he urged her to walk. They made their way slowly around to the back of the house.

“Does this happen often?”

“Every once in a while. It usually happens at night. I get up and hold on to the end of the bed until it goes away.”

“How much longer?”

“Until the baby comes? September twenty-eighth is the due date. It could be a week sooner or a week later.”

“Are you anxious to get it over?”

“Not really. I have a lot to do between now and then.”

“Like what?”

“Well . . . I’ve got to make enough here to pay off the loan. I need to make baby clothes, although Mrs. Santez lent me some things. I need to get a basket for the baby to sleep in and —I’m worried about Mama. I don’t think she would hurt the baby, but she wouldn’t look after it either.”

“Do you have names picked out?”

“Yeah. Gaston.” She grinned up at him.

“If it’s a girl will you call her Gastonia?”

Mary Lee’s chuckle turned into a nervous giggle that kept on and on. Her head fell forward, her forehead resting on his chest.

Jake felt an urge to hold her. He couldn’t resist. He put his arms around her, pulled her up to him and held her firmly but gently. His cheek was against the side of her head, his nose in the hair above her ear, breathing in the sweet scent of her.

Oh, God. I’ve got the whole world right here in my arms . . . this precious girl and her baby. Dear Lord, I’d give ten years of my life if the baby growing inside her was mine.

When he felt the miracle of movement against his lower abdomen, he whispered, “I feel the baby moving.” She started to lean away from him. “No, please . . . stay still,” he said quickly. His hand moved soothingly up and down her back. “Gaston likes me. That’s the second time he’s kicked me.”

She tilted her head to look at him. “When?”

“The night you took the starch outta Frank. I was holding you like this.”

“Sometimes he really gets rambunctious.”

“He’s going to give his mama fits.” Jake chuckled, then stilled when she took his hand and placed it on her stomach, keeping her hand over his.

“Feel that?”

“Yeah.” There was a trace of awe in his voice.

Instead of being embarrassed at sharing this intimacy with him, Mary Lee felt a surge of elation.

Jake Ramero, this sometimes aloof man with eyes that can turn as cold as a frosty morning, a convicted rustler, hardened by years in the pen, truly cares about my baby.