She took a final sip of coffee as realization, accompanied by a jolt of disappointment, dawned. He didn’t remember her after all. “That sounds like the picture on the back of my book jackets.”
His dark blue eyes widened. “You’re an author?”
“I write and illustrate children’s books.”
“Of course! You’re Kate Abbott. Meadow Creatures. Swamp Animals. Sea Shore Wildlife. I have all your books. They’re terrific.”
Her lips quirked in a half smile. “Don’t get me wrong. I’m always pleased to discover a fan of my work, but my books usually appeal to the eight to twelve year old crowd.”
He grinned. “I bought your books for my daughter. She’s ten, but I must admit I enjoy them as much as she does. Your drawings give the animals you write about real personality.”
That explained the photo in his wallet. She hadn’t known he had a daughter, and she was guilty of reading all the tabloid articles about him she could find back when he was still recording. She wondered if he was married.
“Thank you. You can tell your daughter my next series will be about mountain animals. I was busy doing research when the storm hit.”
“Now I understand why you’re in the middle of nowhere Montana.” He picked up the second half of his sandwich. “Did you call your family while you waited for our food and tell them about the accident?”
“I texted my son.”
One dark brow rose. “Not your husband?”
Kate smashed her Styrofoam container and dropped it in the trash can. “Josh is with my ex-husband. They’re backpacking in Alaska.” She met his gaze across the room. “How about you? Did you call your wife?”
“I’m not married.”
Her heart skipped a beat. “Did you call someone to come get you?”
“Nope. If my mom found out I crashed my Harley, she’d have a heart attack, and there’s no reason to worry her. I left home this morning, intending to take a vacation. No one is expecting me anytime soon.”
She paused, her hands hovering over her suitcase, and glanced up. “Alone?”
Tyler slid off the side of the bed and limped to the sink carrying the dripping bag of ice. “I don’t mind my own company. I’d planned a road trip to see some of the country.” He dumped the ice and turned. “Mostly, I wanted a change of scenery.”
She stood, her nightgown and robe clutched to her chest. “How odd.”
“What?”
“My plans were similar, though I’m having more of a working vacation, taking photos and drawing pictures of this gorgeous countryside to use in my books.”
He picked up the elastic bandage and sat down with it at the foot of the bed. “No special destination in mind?”
Kate hesitated. She didn’t want to mention the reunion. She wanted Tyler to remember her on his own. It was prideful and silly, she knew, but she couldn’t help the way she felt. “Not really.”
“Are you on your way back to Seattle?”
“No, I’m headed east.”
His gaze held hers. “Me, too.”
She cleared her throat. “I’m going to go take a shower.”
“I’ll probably turn in. My head is throbbing.”
“Do you want some more Ibuprofen?”
“The doc gave me a couple of packets of sample pain killers. I’ll take one of those.” A quick smile lit up his face, and she drew in her breath. “Hey that old battle axe forgot to charge me for them. What do you know?”
Shaking her head, Kate headed for the bathroom. When she emerged twenty minutes later the room was dark. Feeling her way to the bed, she tripped over a furry lump and swore.
“You can turn on a light. I’m not asleep.” The voice was soft and low. It flowed through her like a melody.
“That’s okay,” she said breathlessly. “Come on, Lucy. I forgot to take you out earlier.”
Kate hugged her robe around her waist while she stood on the sidewalk, waiting for the dog to do her thing. Overhead the clouds had cleared and stars filled the night sky. In the silence of the country evening she heard the swish of an occasional car passing on the freeway.
She had never been a risk taker. She had married a man who offered her comfort and security not excitement. She lived in a quiet neighborhood and found more pleasure curling up with a good book than going out on the town with friends. So why was she tempted by a man like Tyler North?
Lucy wandered back across the parking lot, and Kate quietly opened the room door. After locking it, she slid into bed and lay perfectly still, listening to Tyler’s even breathing from the other side of the room. She may be tempted, but she wasn’t stupid. His easy charm screamed casual hook-up, and she had never had a one-night stand in her life. She wasn’t going to start now.
****
Kate pushed open the door to the diner and held it while Tyler maneuvered through with his crutch. The place was crowded with a combination of locals, tourists, and truckers. They sat in an empty booth near the back of the restaurant, and she picked up the laminated menu.
“I bet you’re pleased they can get your car repaired today,” he said, leaning into the corner of the booth.
Gloria stopped by their table with two cups of coffee and took their breakfast order. Kate wiped a spot of jelly off the table with a napkin and nodded. “I’m ready to get the heck out of here. What about you?”
“I talked to my ranch foreman about picking up my Harley while you were in the garage with the mechanic. He’ll be down tomorrow to haul it home.”
“So you’re spending another night in town?”
“I’d rather not.” He looked at her across the table and smiled. Kate felt like a mouse staring into the eyes of a cat and wondered if any woman had ever been able to resist that grin. “I was wondering if you’d mind giving me a ride to a town big enough to have a rental car agency. My Harley’s totaled, but there’s really no reason I should scrap my vacation plans.”
She let out her breath. She hadn’t been sure what he was going to ask but giving him a ride was the least she could do under the circumstances. “Of course I don’t mind. There should be a rental office in Butte or Bozeman. If my car is ready before it gets too late, I was thinking of staying in Bozeman tonight.”
“Bozeman it is.” He smiled as Gloria put a plate full of pancakes in front of him and topped off his coffee cup. While he poured syrup with a liberal hand, Kate took a bite out of her whole grain muffin.
“What about your ankle? Do you think you’ll be able to drive?”
“It doesn’t hurt nearly as much this morning as it did last night, and my headache is completely gone. By tomorrow I should be able to lose the crutch.”
“I’m glad you’re feeling better. Is the swelling down?”
He nodded, forking pancakes into his mouth. “Anyway it’s my left ankle, so driving won’t be an issue.”
“Well, that’s settled, then. After breakfast I think I’ll hang out in the little park across the street and work on my drawings. I took some nice photos of a hawk before the thunderstorm started, and I want to get my impressions down on paper.”
“I can probably manage to entertain myself for a few hours while you work.” He edged out of the booth and stood. “I’ll be back in a minute.”
Kate watched him make his way toward the men’s room, wielding the crutch with ease. At the end of the counter a big man with bushy black hair shifted on his stool and pulled a cell phone out of his pocket. His pants sagged alarmingly, and she cringed as they dropped lower still. She pushed away the rest of her fruit and yogurt.
“I tell you it’s him,” the man said, his voice rising slightly. “He’s with some stuffy looking blonde chick. No, I can’t keep my eye on him. I’m on a schedule.” His voice dropped. “I think they’re sticking around town for a while. You may be able to get here before they leave.”
Kate glanced over, wondering if the man was talking about Tyler. She’d seen a couple of people give him a second look and whisper to their compa
nions. She imagined he was still recognized everywhere he went, though it had been years since he’d last performed on stage. Music fans were a loyal bunch.
The heavy man slid off his stool and passed Tyler on his way up to the cash register. Tyler paused beside the table and looked down at her. “Ready to go?”
She picked up her purse and tote bag and nodded. He paid the bill, and they left the diner. It was a gorgeous day with sunny skies and a warm breeze blowing. Kate released Lucy from the tree she’d tied her to, and they crossed the street. In the little community park she found a picnic table in the shade and settled down to work. Tyler stood a short distance away, watching two young girls on the swing set. Their happy laughter carried on the morning air.
He turned away abruptly. “I’m going to take a walk.”
“Don’t overdo it with your ankle.”
“I won’t.”
Lucy watched him limp away and whined. Kate reached down and patted the dog, knowing exactly how she felt. Resolutely she immersed herself in her drawing, trying to clear her mind of thoughts of Tyler. He was a chance encounter, a blip on the radar screen of her life. She couldn’t imagine him exchanging Christmas cards or e-mails with her in the future. They would go their separate ways at the end of the day, and that would be it. The knowledge left her feeling hollow.
The sun was riding high overhead when she heard the first cords of music wafting on the breeze. She glanced over her shoulder and saw Tyler sitting on a bench a few yards away. He strummed a couple more notes and stopped to scribble something on a piece of paper. Her pencil stilled over her drawing of a bushy tailed squirrel, her concentration destroyed. Giving up any pretense of work, she closed her eyes, turned her face to the sun, and listened as the melody took shape under his clever fingers. After a longer pause than usual, she opened her eyes and found him watching her.
“That’s really beautiful,” she said.
He shrugged. “It’s coming along.”
“You still write music?”
He nodded. “Now and then.”
Kate opened her mouth, closed it, and opened it again. The words stuck in her throat.
“Out with it. You’re obviously dying to say something.”
“All right, I will.” Gathering her courage, she looked him square in the eye. “Why did you quit? You have an incredible voice, and you obviously still love music. You took your gift away from all of us. Why?”
His lips tightened. “I had my reasons.”
His abrupt reply stung. She stared down at Lucy, asleep on the grass in a patch of shade. “I shouldn’t have asked. It’s not my business.”
The picnic table creaked as he sat on the bench next to her. A tingle of awareness shot through her when he touched the back of her hand. “It’s a long, ugly story.”
She looked up when she heard the raw edge of pain in his voice. Her heart contracted. “You don’t have to talk about it.”
“Maybe I should. It might be cathartic telling my sorry tale to a complete stranger.” His lips curved in a hint of a smile. “The thing is, you don’t feel like a stranger anymore. You seem more like a friend.”
Kate met his gaze and looked away, feeling like a fraud. She hadn’t lied to him about who she was, but she hadn’t been straightforward, either. Maybe it was time for the truth.
“Actually, Tyler, we aren’t exactly strangers.” She took a deep breath. “I have a confession to make.”
Chapter Four
Kate ran her hands up and down the sides of her pale blue Capri pants and flipped her ponytail over her shoulder. Even white teeth worried her bottom lip. Tyler wondered what she could possibly have to confess that made her so uncomfortable. While he waited for her to come clean, his gaze strayed to the drawing of a squirrel she’d left lying on the table. He grinned. A hawk circled above its head, and the look on its chubby face closely resembled Kate’s expression.
For some odd reason his thoughts flashed to a comic strip he used to read in his high school newspaper. The funny little cartoon animals with pithy captions underneath had been the only reason he’d bothered to pick up that rag.
“Look, Tyler, I probably should have told you sooner, but—”
Her voice trailed off as a young man wearing grease stained, gray coveralls hurried across the park toward them. Lucy rose to her feet and growled.
“Mrs. Abbott,” the man called. “I came to tell you your car is fixed.”
She stood and hushed Lucy. “So soon? I wasn’t expecting it for another couple of hours.”
“The parts truck that brought the new headlight over from Butte arrived early.”
“That’s terrific. Thank you for letting me know.” The young man left, and Kate smiled. “I guess we can leave right away.”
She turned and stuffed her drawing pad into her tote bag. Leaning forward, she reached for a stick of charcoal that had rolled across the table. Her pants stretched tight across her firm backside, and Tyler swallowed. Kate’s clothes were as neat and functional as the lady herself, but they didn’t hide the fine package they covered. Shifting uncomfortably, he went to get his guitar.
While Kate paid her bill at the garage, he ordered sandwiches and iced tea to go from the diner. She was waiting in the parking lot when he left the restaurant. The top of the convertible was down; Lucy perched on the back seat, tail waving. Kate wore sunglasses and a Mariners’ cap, her blond ponytail hanging out the back. He guessed she was close to his age, but she looked about twenty.
He pulled a pair of black Ray-Bans out of his pocket and climbed into the Mercedes. “This is a terrific car but I pictured you as driving a minivan filled with kids.”
Kate waited while an old Ford pickup with a camper on the back slowed to turn into the diner parking lot. “Occasionally I surprise even myself,” she said, pulling out onto the street. “The convertible was an impulse purchase after my divorce, but I haven’t regretted it.”
“The car or the divorce?”
She laughed. “Either. Ben is without doubt the best friend I’ve ever had, but we weren’t great as a couple.”
Tyler stuck the iced teas in the cup holders and handed her a turkey sandwich once they were on the freeway. “Can you eat and drive?”
She deftly unwrapped the sandwich with one hand. “I’m a mom. I can juggle a lot more than lunch and a steering wheel.”
“I bet.” He ate a few bites of his own sandwich, his gaze on the distant hills. Finally he looked over at her. “Are you going to tell me what you wanted to confess?”
She sighed. “We knew each other, in a manner of speaking. We went to school together our senior year at Summerville High.”
He stared at her. “You’re kidding.”
“No, I’m not.”
He stared harder, but her dark glasses hid the expression in her eyes. “I don’t remember a Kate Abbott.”
“Abbott is my married name. I was Katie Stevens back then, and I was infinitely forgettable.”
His eyebrows shot up. “That I find hard to believe.”
“I was the new girl in town and painfully shy. You never looked twice at me.”
“You can thank your lucky stars for that. In high school I was a total loser and a complete ass when it came to girls. For a minute there I was afraid you were going to say I had—” His voice trailed off. “No, I would remember if we’d ever hooked up.”
Her smile held a hint of irony. “That’s one sin you didn’t commit.”
He studied her profile, the short nose and angled jaw, the blond ponytail. Her figure was nicely curved but still slender. He pictured her thinner, verging on skinny, with longer hair, and an image from the past clicked in his mind. “Your locker was just down the row from mine. You drew the comics for the school paper. I can’t believe I didn’t put it together sooner.”
She glanced away from the road. “You remember the strip I drew for Cougar Tales?”
“I thought about it when I saw the picture you were working on earlier. Your comics
were like that squirrel, quirky, clever, and revealing.”
Kate smiled. “Thank you, Tyler. That’s a beautiful compliment.”
“Why didn’t you say something sooner?”
She lifted her shoulders. “I guess I was afraid you’d think I was some sort of weird-o stalker.”
He snorted. “I don’t take myself that seriously. I did wonder why you agreed to let a complete stranger share your motel room last night. Not that I wasn’t thankful, but it didn’t seem to fit your personality.”
She glanced over at him again. “I realize I don’t know you at all, but there was that tenuous connection. I let nostalgia override my common sense.”
He grinned. “Now I have a confession. I am on a very loosely planned vacation which I intend to finish at our class reunion. I imagine you received an invitation in the mail.”
Kate glanced at him, tried to hide a smile. “Me, too.”
“What are the chances? Of all the people I could have run into, literally, it turned out to be someone from my past.”
“Kismet, karma, fate.”
“Our paths were destined to cross.”
“Now you’re sounding like a bad county western song. We would have met, anyway, at the reunion.”
“Maybe so, but it wouldn’t have been the same. Speaking of music, and I don’t mean country western,” he said with a shudder, “shall I put in a CD?”
She hesitated. “Sure.”
He picked up the case off the car floor and flipped through her collection. His hand stilled, and he glanced over at her. Color rode high on her cheeks, and her eyes were directed straight ahead. “You have all my albums.”
She shrugged. “Guilty. I’ve always loved your music.”
He smiled and chose an old Fleetwood Mac CD. They finished their lunch, and he stuffed the trash into a bag and dropped it at his feet.
“You know, since we left early, we could go a lot farther than Bozeman today.”
Kate passed a big rig before glancing his way. “I thought you wanted to stop there to rent a car.”
Lonely Road to You (Class of '85) Page 4