Kaitlyn reached over and rubbed a strand of hair between thumb and forefinger. “Your hair is pretty damaged from all the processing. We’d have to get something really gentle, and a good conditioning treatment wouldn’t hurt either.”
“You two do realize that this is a restaurant, not a beauty parlor, right?” Chris had joined the conversation and he did not look happy. “Go wash your hands, both of you. What if we had customers in here right now? They’d be totally grossed out, and I wouldn’t blame them.”
“Well, if we had customers in here, Chris, we’d be waiting on them, wouldn’t we?” Juanita slid off her stool and smoothed her apron. “And in case you’re worried about it, I do not have cooties.”
Juanita disappeared into the restroom, and Chris turned to Kaitlyn. “Come on, Kait. Give me a break here. Don’t make things harder on me than they are already.”
He pushed through the door into the kitchen, and through the window Kaitlyn could see him settling at his desk. She wasn’t quite sure what he was talking about, but she certainly hadn’t intended to make things harder on Chris. She hadn’t intended to offer to do Juanita’s hair for her either, but it looked like she had managed to do that as well.
She crossed the room and stood looking through the glass door at the highway that briefly turned to Main Street as it passed through Last Chance. A tumbleweed bouncing down the center of the street in a gust of winter wind disappeared under the wheels of a passing eighteen-wheeler. She couldn’t see the driver well, but he looked young, and Kaitlyn followed the truck with her eyes as long as she could see it. What if she had run outside and flagged him down? Would he have stopped long enough for her to climb in? And if he had, where would they be off to now? For a moment she let herself imagine leaving everything behind—all of it—Last Chance, the Dip ’n’ Dine, Juanita, those judging looks that seemed to follow her everywhere she went. She wouldn’t even stop for her coat. But even as the image of flight filled her with exhilaration, another image supplanted it—that of her daughter whom she had promised never to leave again. She turned from the window. She wasn’t going anywhere.
5
The wind was still blowing when Elizabeth pulled up outside the Dip ’n’ Dine but did little to disturb the helmet of tight white curls that now adorned her head when she got out of her car and came inside. Olivia, who had been sitting in a back booth doing her homework since Kaitlyn had picked her up from school, ran to meet her at the door.
“Here’s my girl.” Elizabeth smiled over Olivia’s head as she enveloped her in a hug. “I’m sorry I’m so late, but Linda was running behind. She can talk or she can do hair, but she doesn’t seem to be able to do both at the same time. It doesn’t take long before things start to just back up.”
“Well, guess who my new hairdresser is?” Juanita started to pat her hair but caught Chris’s eye and dropped her hand. “Miss Kaitlyn over there is going to cut my hair and give me a perm next Sunday afternoon. Sunday’s okay, isn’t it, Kaitlyn?”
“Um, I guess.” Kaitlyn hadn’t been sure until that moment that Juanita even wanted her to do her hair.
“You don’t mean it. Well, aren’t you smart? I wish I’d thought of that.” Elizabeth watched Olivia run to the booth where she’d been sitting and start stuffing her papers in her backpack. She smiled back at Juanita and Kaitlyn. “Remember when you had energy like that this late in the day? I don’t.”
“Are you okay? Can I get you a cup of coffee or something?” Kaitlyn had come to think of Elizabeth as eternal as the hills around Last Chance, but today she looked frail as she rested her hand on the back of the booth nearest the door for support.
“Oh, I’m fine.” Elizabeth waved Kaitlyn’s concern away and stood a little straighter. “Just a little weary, that’s all. That trip to San Ramon takes more out of me than it used to. Linda’s a sweet girl and all, but listening to her go on and on about absolutely nothing just wears me out. I’ll just grab my girl here, and we’ll go home and both of us have a cup of tea.”
“Are you sure?” Olivia, pink backpack thumping along behind her, had skidded to a stop next to Elizabeth. Kaitlyn smoothed a wayward strand of her hair. “If you need to get some rest, Livvy can stay here with us this afternoon.”
Olivia gave her mother a look of mild outrage, and Elizabeth slipped an arm around her shoulders. “No, we’ll be just fine, won’t we, Olivia? She’s the highlight of my day.”
“Okay, let’s go.” Olivia tried to edge Elizabeth toward the door as if she was afraid that further delay might result in someone deciding she should stay after all.
Elizabeth squared her shoulders and settled her handbag on her arm. She looked as eternal as ever, leaving Kaitlyn wondering if she had imagined the frailty. Olivia raced past her, as far as her oversized backpack allowed her to race, but Elizabeth stopped at the door. “You know, I don’t know what you’re charging Juanita, but if your prices are at all competitive, I’ll bet you could get yourself a nice little business right here in Last Chance. I know I’d come to you in a heartbeat.”
From the expression on Juanita’s face, it was clear that she hadn’t given actually paying Kaitlyn much thought, but Kaitlyn just smiled and shook her head. “I’m not charging anything. My license is in Arizona.”
“I don’t know how hard it would be to get a license in New Mexico, but you might think about looking into it. It sure would be handy to have a shop right here in town.”
Through the window they could see that Olivia had climbed into the passenger side of Elizabeth’s pickup truck and from her stare was willing Elizabeth to stop talking and come drive her home.
“That’s an awful big truck, Elizabeth. Don’t you think you’d be happier with something easier to handle?”
Elizabeth shook her head as she started to push her way through the door. “I just waited too long, I’m afraid, and now I’m between a rock and a hard place. I’m not about to go get me a new car at this stage of the game, so I’ll just drive that thing until it’s too much for me, and then I’ll hang up my keys, I guess. I’m sure not looking forward to that.”
She opened the door and waved as the wind made another unsuccessful assault on her white curls. Kaitlyn watched her pause at the open door of her pickup for a moment as if to gather her strength. But when she did hoist herself inside, it was with one smooth and practiced move. Elizabeth looked up as she fastened her seat belt and smiled and waved again when she saw Kaitlyn watching her.
“Chris, are you sure Elizabeth is up to keeping Livvy every afternoon?” Kaitlyn turned to Chris, who had just come up behind her. “She can be such a handful, and I’m not sure Elizabeth is as strong as she’d like us to think she is.”
“Hmm? I think she’s okay. Elizabeth’s one tough lady. She pretty well knows what she can and can’t do. She’d tell us if Livvy was too much for her, and if she wouldn’t, Sarah would. She’s real protective of her grandma.” Chris was taking advantage of the afternoon lull to check his phone messages, and he scowled at the screen. “Mom called. I wonder what she wants.”
He wandered back to his desk in the kitchen with his phone pressed against his ear, and Kaitlyn poured herself a cup of coffee and slid into a booth by the window. There would probably be a few more diners before they closed, but the day was for the most part over. Afternoon shadows faded into early winter twilight, making the boarded up High Lonesome Saloon across the road look even more abandoned. It had been Steven’s once, so Kaitlyn had been told, or it would have been if he had wanted it. But when it came right down to staying in one place and going to work every day, even at the bar he and his dad had dreamed of running together, he had taken off. So boards had been nailed across windows, and weeds pushed through and then took over the gravel parking lot in front. His cousin Sarah said he claimed it was because his dad died and he didn’t have the heart for it anymore. But Kaitlyn guessed the reality was that anything that threatened to hold Steven in one place just put him on the road again.
“Looks like we’re getting some company.” Chris broke her reverie by sliding into the booth across from her. “Mom and Dad are coming down next week for a couple days.”
“Why? Don’t tell me they miss us.”
“Actually, I think they do. Especially Olivia. But they say they’re coming to bring you your stuff. Remember? You left an apartment when you took off with Jase. I guess mom finally got it cleaned out.”
“Oh, this is going to be a fun visit, I can just tell.”
Chris stood up as the flash of headlights cutting through the gathering dusk announced the arrival of customers. “Well, you’ve got to face the music sometime, baby sister. Might as well get it over with.”
Kaitlyn watched a tumbleweed the size of a bushel basket bounce across the deserted parking lot of the High Lonesome Saloon before it lodged in the fence that bordered the property. That was the trouble with thinking yourself rootless and fancy-free. Just when you think nothing can stop you, you hit that barbed wire fence.
It was nearly dark when Steven pulled the ranch pickup truck up behind the ranch house. Through the window, he could see his aunt Nancy Jo putting food on the table in the brightly lit kitchen.
“Looks like we made it just in time. Come on, Speed Bump.” He scooped a small, dirty white dog from the seat beside him and headed for the back door.
“You must have smelled dinner cooking.” Nancy Jo turned from the stove with a smile that faded when she saw what he was carrying. “What in the world do you have?”
Steven looked down at the scraggly bundle under his arm. “It’s a dog, I think.”
“I can see that. What I want to know is whose dog is it, and why is it in my kitchen?”
“I found her on the side of the road on my way back from San Ramon. She was running back and forth looking at every car that passed like she was waiting for whoever dropped her off to come back for her. The jerk.” He put the dog on the floor and got a cereal bowl from the cupboard and filled it with water. “I knew it wasn’t going to be long before she was roadkill or some coyote’s dinner, so I stopped and put her in the truck.”
Nancy Jo took the cereal bowl from him, dumped the water into the sink, and reached under the counter for a couple plastic margarine tubs. “Here. Use these, not my good dishes. You can put her there in the service room while we eat. Get a can of dog food from the cupboard over the washing machine. Poor little thing. Who would do something like that?”
Steven headed for the service room with the little dog at his heels. “Beats me. I’d sure like to have about five minutes to tell them what I think about it, though.”
As Steven opened the can of dog food and scooped it into the butter tub, his little companion fixed a stare on his hands and swallowed convulsively, barely able to keep all four feet on the ground at the same time. She had her nose buried in the dish almost before Steven set it on the floor.
“You were hungry, weren’t you, Speed Bump? Did they starve you before they dumped you?” He watched the little dog gulp down her food a moment before returning to the kitchen. “You know, some people need a whippin’ more than they need a dog.”
Nancy Jo looked at him and sighed. “Steven, we can’t have that dog in the kitchen while we’re eating. She’s filthy. Just put her back in the service room.”
Steven glanced over his shoulder. The service room was empty and Speed Bump, no bigger than Steven’s boot, sat right next to it. “Hey, I thought you were hungry. Come on, you.”
He led the way back to the service room with the dog at his heel, but this time the food held no interest. Speed Bump was going where Steven went. He bent down to scratch her ears. “Look, you need to stay in here, so eat your dinner and I’ll see you after I eat mine.”
She stayed right with him as he walked to the door and flipped on the light. After gently pushing her back and closing the door, Steven waited a minute, listening for scratching or whining, but there was only silence. He shrugged. “I guess she’ll be okay.”
“Of course she will. Now scrub your hands and we’ll eat.” Nancy Jo looked up and smiled as Joe Jr. came in carrying bags of groceries in each arm.
“Were you planning on leaving these in the back of the truck all night?” He set the bags on the counter.
“Oh, man, I forgot. I’ll go bring them in right now.” Steven headed for the door.
“That boy would lose his head if his hat didn’t hold it down.” His uncle was already at the sink scrubbing up for dinner.
“Oh, I think he just got distracted by the dog.” Nancy Jo intercepted his reach for the dishtowel by handing him a hand towel.
Steven made it out the back door before the puzzled look on Uncle Joe Jr.’s face found expression. When he came back with his first armload of groceries, Joe Jr. was standing with the service room door open looking down at the scruffy bundle of dirty white fur sitting in the doorway looking up at him.
He turned to Steven. “What in the world?”
“Just found her on the highway. I couldn’t leave her there for the coyotes.” He added his bags to the ones Joe Jr. had just put down.
“Well, what are you going to do with her? I don’t see how she can hold her own around here. This is a lap dog, not a ranch dog.”
The little dog, on seeing Steven come back in, made a wide circle around Joe Jr.’s boots and trotted up to Steven, who scooped her up. “Come on, Speed Bump, back in the service room.”
“Oh, for Pete’s sake, Steven, you just washed your hands. Wash them again, and hurry. This food is going to be stone cold by the time we get to it.” Nancy Jo slipped off her apron and seated herself at the table.
After Joe Jr. asked the blessing, Nancy Jo passed Steven a bowl of potatoes. “Did I hear you call that poor creature Speed Bump? That’s an awful thing to do, even if you only keep her long enough to find out who she belongs to.”
“The folks she belonged to dumped her out on the side of the road like an empty soda can. I don’t think they’re getting her back.” Steven helped himself to the platter of pork chops.
“You don’t know what happened. She might have jumped out of the car when her owners stopped to change a tire or something. Or she might have been taken from someone’s yard by somebody who decided they didn’t want her after all. You have to at least make an effort. She was someone’s pet, you can tell that.”
Steven turned his attention to his meal without answering. He could feel Aunt Nancy Jo’s gaze. Finally she spoke.
“Don’t you ignore me when I’m speaking to you, Steven. That is just not going to fly. Now promise me you’ll put an ad in the San Ramon newspaper.”
Silence while Steven chewed his pork chop. When he heard Uncle Joe Jr. clear his throat and push his chair back, he looked up. Not much riled his uncle, but lack of respect for his wife headed the list.
“Okay. I’ll put an ad in the paper tomorrow. First thing.” He smiled, but from the look on Joe Jr.’s face, he hadn’t done enough. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean any disrespect.”
Uncle Joe Jr. nodded, and everyone went back to eating and discussing the day’s events. Steven stifled his irritation at having his behavior called out like he was a kid. Though if he thought about it, he had to admit to himself that age really didn’t have anything to do with being set straight. He’d heard Gran, with a sharp word or two, call Uncle Joe Jr. back into line. It was just family. The younger generation had to answer to the older, and that was all there was to it. It lasted until there was no generation older than you to answer to.
After dinner, Aunt Nancy Jo looked at her counters and sighed. “I’m going to have to put all those groceries away before I do dishes. There’s no space.”
“Need my help?” Steven was ready to get back into her good graces.
“No. I’d never find anything if you helped. Why don’t you see to your dog? She probably needs to go out.”
Speed Bump was sitting just inside the service room door when Steven opened it. Her food was untouched beyond what she
had eaten when Steven first put it down.
“Hey, I thought you were hungry.” Steven scooped up the dog and set her in front of the food bowl. But though she swallowed a few times and her little tongue swept across her nose, her eyes were only on Steven, not the food in front of her. He sat cross-legged on the floor and leaned against the washing machine. “Eat up. I’m not going anywhere.”
The dog took a tentative bite, eyes still on Steven, and then another. Finally, as she became convinced that he might not disappear again, she buried her nose in the bowl and in seconds was licking the last specks of dog food from the empty bowl.
“There you go. You’ve got to feel better now.” Steven, still on the floor, scratched behind her ears, and she crawled into his lap. She was awful dirty and had more than a few stickers caught in her coat. He absently pulled them from her fur as he stroked her. “You need a bath, kiddo.”
He stuck his head in the kitchen where Nancy Jo was cleaning up. “Hey, is it okay if I bathe the dog in the laundry sink?”
“That wouldn’t be a bad idea. She can sure use a bath.” His aunt set an armload of dishes on the counter and cast a baleful glance at the dog. “Use that flea shampoo on the shelf next to the dog food. I’ll go find you some old towels to use. Oh, and don’t forget to rinse out the sink with bleach water when you’re done. No telling what she brought in.”
If the little dog looked scrawny when dry, she looked downright rat-like when wet. And miserable. Everything about her, from ears, to eyes, to tail, drooped. Even her back legs began to buckle as if she had nothing left within her to hold her upright. She trembled from the moment Steven lifted her into the sink until he was rubbing her dry with the towels Aunt Nancy Jo brought him.
“You’ve got to feel better now, Speed Bump.” Steven tossed a wet towel aside and reached for a dry one. “Although, I’ve got to say, you looked a little tougher before you cleaned up. I hope you don’t get your feelings hurt when the rest of the ranch dogs bust out laughing.”
At Home in Last Chance Page 5