“Hello, Jesse,” his mother said. “We were surprised you weren’t here when we arrived.”
“I went over to Chick Grady’s ranch. He let me ride a few of his bulls.”
“How’d it go?” his dad barked.
Aware of Mark and Nicki sitting on the couch, Jesse shrugged. “Okay. I’ll be going back tomorrow, get a little more loosened up.” He surveyed the room, nodding to his brother Dex and his new wife, Josie, who were also part of the group. “Where’s the rest of the family? I haven’t seen Elly or Dusty or Walker since I got here. Not to mention the nephews.” Dusty’s son Matthew and Clay, Walker’s wife’s little boy, were two of his favorite people in the world.
“Dusty and Walker took the youngsters to the indoor pool,” Josie told him. “Elly’s working her horse and Maryanne went shopping at Cowboy Christmas.”
His next questions would, no doubt, start up the fireworks. “Why didn’t everybody go?” His gaze fell on Janie again as he asked the question, though she was the only one who didn’t try to give an answer.
“Janie’s talking about going home,” he heard Mark say. “We’ve been trying to change her mind.”
“That’s her decision,” J.W. declared. “She knows what’s best.” Trust his dad to take the easiest way out, for him, anyway. Having his ex-mistress down the hall would have to be awkward, even if his wife was being a saint about the whole situation.
“Don’t you think Abby was better this morning?” Nicki appealed to Mark and then to Janie. “She seemed calmer at breakfast.”
“Who knows what might happen in the next ten days?” J.W. pushed himself out of his chair and crossed the room to stand beside Jesse. “You don’t have time to fly back, but we can hire a pilot.”
No wonder Janie looked so stressed.
Jesse noticed that his mother hadn’t contributed to the argument one way or the other. She sat without moving, staring down at her hands, folded in her lap.
As J.W. opened his mouth to make yet another ill-considered comment, Jesse held up a hand. Somewhat to his surprise, the room fell silent. Even J.W. paused.
“Seems to me,” Jesse said carefully, “that Janie is capable of deciding what’s best for her mother and herself without being harassed by folks with their own agendas.” He glanced at Mark, to be sure he got that message, and saw the other man flush. “So why don’t we all just let her have the time and space to consider her options? We can work out what needs to happen when she’s made up her mind.”
No one seemed to understand what he meant, because they just sat or stood where they were, staring at him. “That means you should all go back to your own rooms.” He nodded at Nicki, and then at Josie and Dex. “Or go shopping. Whatever. Mom and Dad, you probably need to put your feet up for a while before dinner. After your long drive, that is.”
His mother raised her head, met his gaze with her own cool blue stare and then nodded. “That’s a good idea,” she said quietly, getting to her feet. “We’ll see you at six, Jesse.” She withdrew to the master bedroom of the suite.
Jesse looked at his dad, raising his eyebrows in question. After a moment, J.W. followed his wife, muttering under his breath.
Dex and Josie left easily enough, and Nicki finally managed to get Mark to give up and go away. With the close of the door behind her brother, Janie’s shoulders lifted on a deep breath.
“Thanks,” she said, abandoning the window and coming into the center of the room. “I know they all meant well, but—”
“It felt like the inside of a pressure cooker when I walked in. I’m surprised you aren’t as limp as a green bean.”
“I might have been if you hadn’t showed up.” Her grin lacked its usual energy.
“Your mom had a really bad night?”
“Once I got back, she calmed down.” Janie shrugged. “But what’s the point of staying in Vegas if I have to be with her all the time? I might as well take her home and get back to work. I could use the paycheck.” With her hair returned to its usual braid and her face pale from lack of sleep, as well as an absence of make up, she seemed like a different person from the girl who’d hugged him in the Wynn lobby last night.
Jesse wondered how to reverse the change. “Maybe she just needs some time to adjust.”
“Right—and maybe she’ll get adjusted just in time for the whole thing to be over. Then we’ll have a hard time getting her used to being at home again.”
Suddenly, she covered her face with her hands. “Oh, that’s a terrible thing to say. Don’t listen to me, Jesse. I’m really not bitter. I don’t mind taking care of Mom, honest, I don’t. It’s just—”
Without thinking about it, he moved close enough to put his arms around her shoulders. “You carry a heavy load,” he told her. “I know it’s not easy, always being responsible for somebody else.”
She leaned against him slightly. “I never expected to be my mom’s caretaker. Her…her parent.”
“I think most people in your situation would feel the same way. And handle it with less grace, less strength.” Jesse realized now that he’d been listening over the past several years as his sister described Janie’s struggle with her mother’s deteriorating condition. He knew the things she’d had to cope with, though the two of them had never discussed the problem.
Only at this moment did he recognize how he admired her for the way she bore this burden without complaining or asking for help.
Janie took a deep breath and let it go, which seemed to ease her even closer against him. Jesse opened his hands against her shoulder blades, absorbing the size and shape of her body. She really wasn’t very big, despite the curves. Her personality made her seem larger, some how.
He lowered his chin, bringing his face close to the top of her head. The exotic scent of her hair made him smile and he pressed a kiss at the point where her bangs fell down across her forehead.
“Oh, I am sorry.” A third voice broke the moment.
Instantly, Janie jumped away and whirled to stare at the intruder—his mother, standing at the doorway to her room.
Jesse clenched his teeth for a second. Could the day get any worse? “Hey, Mom. Janie and I were…talking about her mother.”
“I thought everyone had left,” Anne Cody said, looking straight at him. Janie might as well not have been there.
“I do have to go,” Janie said. “Thank you, Mrs. Cody. For…for everything.” She brushed by Jesse and walked behind him to the door. In a low voice, she said, “I’ll let you know what’s going on.” The lock clicked twice and she was gone.
His mother came into the living room and sat down in the same place she’d occupied before. Her stern expression warned Jesse what was coming. “Don’t you think we have enough complications in our lives right now?” She pleated the sash of her robe between her fingers, but kept her eyes fixed on his face. “Don’t I have enough to worry about?”
He sat down on the sofa across from hers. “What particular complication are you referring to?”
“What I just saw in this room.”
Jesse rubbed his eyes with his fingertips. “I was offering Janie comfort, Mom. God knows she could use some, with all the trouble in her life.”
“You kissed her.”
He rolled his eyes. “Yeah, like I might kiss a little girl who dropped her ice cream cone.” Not quite accurate, but he was too old to have to justify his kisses to his mother. “Maybe if somebody else gave her a little sup port, I wouldn’t have to.”
She understood his point. “I’ve conceded about as much as I can over this whole trip. Am I supposed to nurse the woman, too?” Unspoken but heard were the words the woman who slept with my husband.
“No.” Jesse shook his head. “But you don’t have to give me grief for trying to improve the situation a little. You’re the one who told me I had to fly them down here.”
“Because your father committed us before I could say anything about it. I’m just trying to make sure our family stays together.” She p
ut a hand to her forehead, concealing her face. “All I’ve ever wanted to do is keep my family safe.”
Once again, Jesse moved to put his arm around a woman in distress. “We’re fine, Mom. You don’t have to worry about any of us. We know where we belong.”
His hug seemed to reassure her. She sat up and put a hand to his cheek. “I know you do, son. You’re all great kids.” She sighed, then got to her feet. “Maybe now I can rest. I just couldn’t seem to settle until I’d talked to you.”
He nodded. “I’ll see you later, then.”
She walked back to the bedroom door, and turned to give him a smile before going inside. Once the door shut, Jesse dropped his head back against the couch and closed his eyes. A sense of unease washed through him.
Something about his mother’s anxiety hadn’t quite rung true. Did she know about J.W.’s plans, about some kind of pressure he meant to put on Mark Hansen? Was she trying to warn him, or put up a smoke screen for his dad?
Either way, Janie seemed pretty determined to take her mother home, which would help foil anything J.W. might try.
Considering the possibility, Jesse had to admit that the extent of his disappointment seemed way out of proportion. He and Janie were barely even friends. And he had seldom participated in the social side of the National Finals anyway. A night or two spent drinking with the guys, sure—once he was old enough to escape his dad’s supervision. But events like the shopping extravaganza called Cowboy Christmas, the parties and receptions for visitors and Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association members, the tours and autograph booths and shows…none of those had been part of his NFR.
As far back as Jesse could remember, these ten days had been about the sport of bull riding. He’d spent his time observing the competitors as they practiced, talking to them to get tips on performance, then watching the events to see who won. When Cody bulls and horses were part of the draw, the week included taking care of the animals, too. Dinners with his dad’s cronies and industry contacts usually occupied the evenings before each round of competition. His parents always threw a big party after the last show, which was their way of paying back a year’s worth of favors to everyone they knew in the business.
This year, of course, he and Elly were actually competing for their event championships. They each had assigned times for autographing sessions, plus promotional appearances and press interviews, all of which only intensified the pressure and the responsibilities…. Bottom line—for the Codys, the National Finals Rodeo had never been about having fun. If Janie went home now, this year wouldn’t be any different.
And that would be a good thing. Right?
WHEN JANIE RETURNED TO HER suite, she found Serena sitting alone in the living room.
“She’s been sleeping since lunch. Would you like me to try to wake her now?”
“Let’s see if she’ll wake up on her own.” They’d managed to get Abby through lunch without a dose of the sedative, and Janie would prefer to avoid more medication if at all possible. She felt bad enough at having dragged her mom across the country in this condition. The thought that Abby might spend the entire trip drugged into submission gave her daughter the shivers.
Going into her own room, Janie shut the door behind her and then leaned back against it, wondering what to do next. She’d heard the Codys discussing a dinner tonight with some of their business contacts. Mark and Nicki were going, along with most of the kids and their partners. She assumed Jesse, as head of the cattle operation, would be required to attend. Only Dusty, a screen-writer, was excused, since he had a meeting of his own with his agent and some film producers.
Maybe there was a good movie to watch on TV—just what she wanted to do on her first trip to Las Vegas.
At the thought, Janie squeezed her eyes shut to keep the tears from falling. She refused to resent her mother, absolutely would not give in to self-pity. Life offered opportunities and obstacles, and you just had to deal with whatever came your way.
“You could always study,” she told herself aloud. “You do have that genetics final coming up in two weeks.”
She’d been slowly working her way through courses at the community college, acquiring the credits she needed a few at a time until she could apply to the Colorado State University veterinary school. Their family budget had never allowed more than two classes a semester, and with her mom’s declining health, she’d dropped back to taking one class at a time. At this rate, she’d be forty years old before she actually became a vet.
Or her mother could die soon….
“No!” Janie wasn’t even going to think about the alternative. She stomped over to her bag, instead, pulled out her textbook and notebook and sat down in the armchair by the window. Where had she left off?
Oh, yeah. “Chapter Twenty-One—The Genetic Analysis of Populations and How They Evolve.” So exciting.
A couple of hours passed as she became absorbed in the material. The sky outside her window had darkened considerably when Serena knocked on her door. “Janie? Your mother is awake.”
Grateful to be released from her self-imposed study detail, Janie snapped her book closed and strolled into the living room, only to stop short when she saw her mom sitting on the sofa.
“Surprise!” Abby said. “It’s me.”
Janie grinned. “It sure is. You look great, Mom.” Serena had evidently spent some time grooming her client—Abby’s long hair was neatly braided, she looked like she’d had a bath or shower, and she wore yet another of the new lounge outfits Janie had purchased. Most important, she was actually, actively awake. And smiling.
Abby held out a hand to Janie and drew her to sit down on the cushion at her side. “What have you been doing all day?”
“I spent some time with the Codys this morning.” Janie watched closely to see her mother’s reaction. “I’ve been studying this afternoon.”
Abby’s eyebrows drew together. “The Codys. I know them, don’t I?”
Maybe her failing memory would prove to be a blessing at this point. “They’re friends of Mark’s and Nicki’s.”
“Ah. Where is Mark? I’d like to have dinner with my two children.” She squeezed Janie’s hand.
“Um…Mark had a dinner to attend for the rodeo.” Abby’s face fell, and Janie tried to buffer the disappointment with an explanation. “You know how they do these publicity events for the competitors. Maybe tomorrow at lunch would work better.” Unless they left town, of course.
Abby sighed, but didn’t disintegrate into tears. “Well, I’m sure he’s got a million things to do. When does he start riding bulls?”
“Tomorrow night is the first round.”
“Oh, good. I can’t wait to see him win.”
Her delight was almost childlike, but Janie didn’t doubt that Abby would love to see her son compete. She’d always supported his rodeo career, even when her husband—Janie’s father but not, they now knew, Mark’s—opposed the money and time Mark spent on the road.
Come to think of it, maybe Abby had approved of Mark’s career exactly because of who his father really was. J. W. Cody had been a bull rider, before a serious injury introduced him to a pretty nurse named Anne—the future Mrs. Cody.
“But I’m here,” Janie said, bringing her mind back to the present. “I’d love to have dinner with you. We can order room service and watch TV like we always do.”
“Wonderful.” Abby actually clapped her hands. “I want a steak.”
Speaking to Serena a few minutes later, Janie shook her head. “She never cares what she eats. I can’t believe she actually wants something specific.”
“She may not eat anything when it gets here,” Serena warned her. “Just enjoy the good moments while they last.”
That dinner turned out to be one of the best times Janie could remember with her mother in years. Abby did eat some of the steak, along with bites of potato and pieces of soft rolls. She commented on the images flitting across the television and laughed at commercials.
&
nbsp; But she kept coming back to one subject. “I wish I could remember the Codys.” She swirled a small piece of meat in a puddle of sauce. “Where have I met them?”
“Back home, Mom.” Janie tried to avoid as many of the danger points as she could think of. “They have a ranch not far from Cody.”
“It’s a whole family? Mother, father and kids? How many?”
“You’ve met the oldest son, Jesse. He flew the plane that brought us here.”
Again the puzzled look. “He’s a pilot?”
“Um…yeah.” Fortunately, another advertisement diverted Abby’s mind from the subject. But the animated spirit she’d been displaying had started to fade, sending her back into the lethargy Janie knew too well.
“Tired, Mom?” She pushed the rolling table away from the couch. “Maybe you’d like to lie down for a while?”
Serena assisted Janie in lifting Abby to her feet and walking her into the bedroom. Like a toddler, Abby crawled across the bed, but Serena had turned the covers back, so she was able to lie down and be tucked in without a struggle. “I’ll just sit with you awhile, Miss Abby,” Serena volunteered. “That way if you need something, I’ll be right here to help.”
Janie saw that her mother was already almost asleep. Somehow the sight demoralized her even further. They’d had a fun dinner together…but after such a short time, they’d slid back into the same sad place.
With a deep breath, she left her mother’s room and pushed the room service table into the hallway to be picked up. Returning to the room, she put out her hand to call house keeping just as the phone rang.
She jumped and snatched up the receiver. “Hello?”
“Janie? This is Jesse.”
Like she wouldn’t recognize his voice after all these years? “Um…hi.”
“You sound upset. Everything okay?”
“Sure. Of course. I just wasn’t…wasn’t expecting the phone to ring.” Wasn’t expecting a call from him. Ever.
Jesse: Merry Christmas, Cowboy Page 5