Until the End of Time (12 page)

“I’m sure I could use some help around here sometimes, giving me a hand to fix things or get ready for church. If you ever want to come over and hang out, or do some chores, feel free to drop by anytime. And I’m sure Gus would love to see you.”

“Okay.” Timmie smiled brightly, and Bill had the distinct impression
that Timmie was hungry for male companionship, particularly if he’d lost his father the year before. There had been no mention of an uncle, just an aunt.

He followed Timmie’s directions, to a slightly battered-looking ranch house with a barn behind it. Bill could smell horses and hear them in the distance. There were several in a corral, and there was a little girl in pigtails playing out front. When they got out, and she smiled at them, Bill saw she had no front teeth. She was wearing overalls, a pink T-shirt, and sneakers, and her hair was the same color as her brother’s. And a few minutes later a small thin woman came out of the house in jeans and an apron looking to see who was there. She looked nervous when she saw Timmie with a strange man, and Bill was quick to introduce himself and explain who he was, and to thank her as well for the gift of the Lab puppy. She relaxed as soon as he said it.

“I told him you might not want a dog. You can give him back if you want,” she said, smiling. “By the way, my name is Annie Jones. Timmie is my nephew.” She looked about thirty years old, young to be bringing up two kids, one of them Timmie’s age.

“I know. He told me.”

“We’re not big churchgoers, but we came to see you last week. Your sermon was pretty good,” she said, and then told her niece to get down off the fence. Her name was Amy. She got into mischief while they were chatting, and then she ran up and tackled her brother, who pushed her away with a groan. Bill couldn’t help laughing at her antics. She found a small pail by the water trough and put it on her head like a hat.

“Thank you.” Bill was pleased at the compliment about his sermon.
“That young lady must keep you busy,” he said as Annie laughed.

“Yeah, she does, but it’s nice to see her running around again. She was in a body cast all last year, after …” Her voice trailed off, and Bill nodded.

“Timmie told me. My wife will be here in a week or so. Come by and visit us sometime at the house.” He had a feeling they would have a lot of visitors once Jenny was there. The locals were friendly people, and curious about them. “And thank you again for the puppy,” he said, and then he left them, and got back in his truck and drove home. When he got there, Gus was happily gnawing one of the kitchen cabinets and had eaten a small rug Bill had put in front of the sink, and he had unsuccessfully tried to overturn the garbage.

“So that’s how it’s going to be, is it?” he said, patting the dog and straightening up the kitchen. He hoped Jenny would like the puppy. He thought it was an awesome gift. And as he looked at the chaos in the kitchen, he decided to surprise Jenny with it and not tell her till she came out and saw him. He didn’t want her to make him give the puppy back, which made him feel like a kid, and he laughed as Gus barked and wagged his tail.

Five days later Jenny boarded a plane, after leaving Azaya a ream of instructions, and calling her clients to say goodbye the day before. She had given them her phone number in Wyoming, and their address. Their address for Federal Express was “Fifteen miles north of Moose, Wyoming.” Her clients laughed when she told them.

She closed the apartment, and their cleaning lady said she would
come once a week to check everything, dust, and make sure that there were no problems. The post office was forwarding their mail. Everything was done.

She followed the same route Bill had, with a flight to Salt Lake City, and a second one to Jackson Hole, and instead of Clay Roberts, Bill was waiting for her at the airport, wearing a cowboy hat and a heavy coat. And he had a hat for her, which he put on her head after he hugged her. He was thrilled to see her after nearly a month. She noticed that he looked relaxed and happy, and he said he had a surprise for her at the house. He pointed out things along the way and seemed totally at home, and she laughed watching him drive his new truck.

“What are you laughing at?” he asked her. There was still an aura of New York about her, in black slacks, alligator loafers, and a fancy black down coat.

“You look like a cowboy.” She chuckled. “You went native pretty quickly.”

“I like it here,” he said honestly. “It feels like home.”

She was impressed when she saw the church, and pleasantly surprised by the house. He had added some more furniture and it was cozy and warm when they walked in. And as soon as they did, the puppy leaped at them, put his paws on Jenny’s legs, barked, and wagged his tail in greeting as she stared at him in surprise.

“What’s that?”

“That’s Gus. He was a gift from one of our neighbors. Can we keep him?” he asked, sounding like a little kid, as she put her arms around Bill and kissed him.

“Looks like he got here first,” she said, smiling. “Will he let you keep me?”

“He’d better,” Bill said tenderly. “Welcome home, Jenny,” he said softly, and then took her upstairs to see their bedroom, her office, and her dressing room. And a minute later they were in their new bed, making love, and feeling as though they’d always been there. And Jenny knew, as she looked at him, that this was exactly where they were meant to be.

Chapter 7

Jenny spent her first day in Wyoming unpacking and settling in. Bill had created the perfect dressing room for her, although she had brought and sent ahead far too many things. Warm sweaters, ski clothes, down coats and parkas from Eddie Bauer, fur jackets, and an absurd number of high-heeled shoes. Having seen the place, she realized now that she would never wear them here. She was wearing slim black slacks and a simple black cashmere sweater and ballerina flats, her favorite work outfit, while she unpacked. Her shining straight dark hair brushed her shoulders and had been freshly trimmed before she left New York. She wore hardly any makeup but had had her nails done, and she was wearing a big gold cuff, designed by David Fieldston for his last runway show, and he had given it to her. She stood in their kitchen, watching Bill play with the puppy before he went out, and he smiled as he gazed at her. She looked straight out of New York, still. Even the cowboy hat would have made no difference. She was chic to the core, and even in flats, black pants, and a black sweater, she looked like what she
was, someone who had lived and worked in fashion for all of her working life. Bill loved everything about her, including her casual, sexy chic appearance. She was so sleek and elegant, in a totally natural, unaffected way.

“What are you looking at?” She noticed him staring at her as he stood up.

“You. I missed you so much.”

“Me too,” she said, and gave him a hug. She wanted to hang the pictures she had sent out, for their half-empty living room. Bill had done well with his purchases before she got there, but she wanted to get a few more things. She called her mother with the measurements for the windows and told her the kind of curtains they needed. She wanted to keep everything simple, bright, and clean. They both favored light colors, and she thought it would keep the house looking cheerful in the dark of winter. The few things she set around made the house look stylish and cozy. She had a great eye and a light touch and was as talented with decorating as she was with fashion. And she made Bill promise to take her to the mall later that day. He had three people to see first and went outside to saddle Navajo. Jenny followed him and fed the gentle horse an apple. She wanted to ride him when Bill didn’t need him for work.

Jenny waved goodbye at Bill from the kitchen door as he rode away, then went back inside to organize the kitchen a little differently, and she was hanging one of the photographs in the living room when she heard a knock on the front door. She set the photograph down, and the hammer she’d been using, and went to open the door. She found herself looking at a woman who appeared to be ten years older than she was, wearing a heavy plaid jacket, jeans,
and battered cowboy boots. She was slightly overweight and had dyed blond hair. She was wearing turquoise eyeshadow at ten o’clock in the morning, and she was holding a pan of brownies and a perfectly iced chocolate cake that said “Welcome” on it, as Jenny gazed at her in surprise.

“Hi, won’t you come in.” Jenny wanted to be welcoming to all of Bill’s congregation, and he said they had been dropping by, mostly with gifts of food, for weeks. He hadn’t had to cook since he’d been there. Jenny led the woman into the kitchen, and she set her offerings down on the kitchen table. The brownies smelled delicious, and the cake looked like something in a cookbook or a magazine. “Would you like a cup of coffee, or tea?” she offered, as the woman glanced around and then smiled at Jenny, noticing how slim and stylish she was.

“You sure don’t look like Wyoming,” the woman said, grinning from ear to ear. “We need to get you some cowboy boots. You won’t get far in those shoes around here.”

“I usually wear them to work,” Jenny said, embarrassed. She thought she was a mess by New York standards, as she realized how “done up” she looked here. The woman took off her plaid jacket and seemed like she was getting ready to stay.

“What kind of work do you do? Are you a dancer?” She had met Bill the previous three Sundays and enjoyed his sermons, but she didn’t know much about Jenny yet. Others had asked Bill about his wife, but she had only heard garbled things about Jenny. Some said she was a dancer, others thought she was an actress. Someone said she was a model. She looked like one to her.

“I’m a stylist, in fashion. I advise dress designers about what they do, and organize fashion shows for them,” Jenny explained, and
then introduced herself to her guest. “Actually, I guess I’m a minister’s wife now. That’s new for me.”

“I’m Gretchen Marcus,” the woman said, as Jenny poured her a mug of coffee and handed it to her, and then put some of her brownies on a plate. “You must not eat a lot of cake,” Gretchen said, laughing. “We have hard winters, and sit around and eat too much when it’s cold outside. And I have five kids. I’ve never lost the weight.”

“How old are they?” Jenny asked with interest, wondering how many of these visits she would get. Gretchen seemed friendly and warm. And the brownies were so good that Jenny had a second one.

“My youngest is five,” Gretchen answered. “My oldest turned fourteen in June. He just started high school, and he’s driving me insane.” Both women laughed, and Jenny would have been shocked to know that she and Gretchen were exactly the same age. But the dyed blond hair and turquoise eyeshadow aged her, as well as the excess weight. She had worn makeup just to impress Jenny, since she was from New York. But Jenny looked surprisingly plain to her.

They sat in the kitchen and talked for a while, about people in the community, whose names meant nothing to Jenny, about their children, and Moose itself. Gretchen’s husband Eddy was a car mechanic and owned a garage in Moose that did all the local repairs. She managed to fill Jenny in on all the local dirt, faster than she could absorb it. The librarian who was having an affair with the owner of the coffee shop. The woman from Laramie who had come through town and stolen someone’s husband. Clay Roberts, who was the local catch, and everyone thought was secretly in love with a married woman in Cheyenne, although no one had ever seen her, but they’d heard about her. She told Jenny about the women whose
husbands were drunks, and the women who drank too much. And two teachers at the high school who everyone thought were gay but didn’t know for sure.

“Wow, it sounds like a busy place,” Jenny said, more than slightly overwhelmed. It struck her how many husbands Gretchen said were alcoholics, although she spoke in glowing terms of Eddy, who sounded like a saint, and who Gretchen said helped her with the kids when he wasn’t working. “Is there an AA group here?”

Gretchen shook her head. “There’s one in Jackson Hole. No one ever bothered to start one here.”

“Maybe someone should,” Jenny said, helping herself to another brownie, and Gretchen looked pleased. She had been looking forward to meeting Jenny, and she liked her a lot. She seemed honest and open and funny, and she wasn’t stuck up because she came from New York. And Gretchen said something to that effect.

“I’m actually from Philadelphia. I went to design school in New York, to study fashion, and I just stayed. I was born in a little mining town in Pennsylvania called Pittston. My father died when I was five, in a mine accident, and my mother moved away.”

“Your father was a miner?” Gretchen looked impressed. She had thought Jenny would be some fancy debutante from New York, but instead she was a simple, unpretentious person. It was Bill who had the fancy background, which Jenny didn’t say, and Gretchen didn’t know.

“Yes, he was. And my mom is French. She and my grandmother made beautiful clothes for society ladies in Philadelphia, which is how I got interested in fashion. I wanted to be a designer, but I didn’t have the talent. I’m actually much better as a stylist.”

“I wish I were as thin as you are,” Gretchen said wistfully, “and I like the way you dress. You should wear a little makeup, though.” She thought Jenny looked too pale, but was beautiful and had a natural elegance. And she had noticed the big gold cuff. She would have loved to have a bracelet like it.

“I’ve been thin all my life, and I work too hard,” Jenny confessed. “I’m always stressed. There’s a lot of tension in the fashion industry. It’s going to be nice being here.” She almost said “for the next year,” but she and Bill didn’t want people to think that they were temporary, so the fact that they were trying it out for a year was something they planned to keep to themselves.

Gretchen stood up regretfully after they’d talked for about an hour. “I’d better get back. I left my two youngest with my neighbor, and they’ve probably destroyed her house by now. I’ll come back and visit soon. Come over and see me sometime. Everyone knows where I live. Just ask,” she said, and gave Jenny a warm hug.

“You’ll have to give me a refresher course about who’s sleeping with whom,” Jenny said, laughing, as she walked her to the kitchen door. “And thank you for the brownies and the cake. My husband will be thrilled.” Gretchen thought he seemed like a nice man too. She liked them both. They seemed like honest, wholesome, warm people, and she was impressed that they had come out from New York.