Zach thought, Stayed away from each other. But he didn’t say it. It would have done no good.
Starr had more to say. “Oh, Daddy, Beau is different than other guys. He understands what it’s like to have everyone making judgments on you, deciding you’re a certain way. Because of how you dress. Or because of what your family is like. He hasn’t had an easy life, you know. He lost everything. And his father’s always drunk now, since they lost their ranch. And his brothers get in trouble all the time. That’s not easy for a man to live with, you know?”
“It seems like you’ve learned a lot about him.”
Starr studied her thumbnail, which was coated with a thick layer of purple polish.
“Starr, you said you’d been sneaking out to see him.”
She began chewing on her cuticle. “He cares about me. He really does.”
“Starr.”
She pressed her lips together, recrossed her legs, shoved at the magazine pile again.
Zach tried to think of a way to reach her. He imagined what Tess might do. It came to him that Tess would get closer to her.
He moved toward Starr. She stopped chewing on her cuticle and watched him suspiciously. When he stood right before her, he dropped to a crouch, so he was the one looking up. “Starr. How many times have you sneaked out at night to...talk with Beau?”
She just stared at him. He waited. Finally she admitted in a small, lost voice, “I don’t know. Six or seven.”
He swallowed and sucked in a breath. “Look. I’m not judging you. I don’t have the right. I haven’t been...around enough to go judging you. But I have to know, if the two of you have...” He coughed He was a reserved man. A conservative man. “I hate asking this.”
The tears were there, now, in those beautiful blue eyes. “We haven’t, Daddy. I swear. I...do care for him. And I probably would have. Soon. But not yet. Honest.” She looked at him long and hard, as though willing him to believe her. Then, with a sad little hitch of her breath, she hung her head and swiped her nose with the back of her hand again.
He dared to reach out, to smooth her spiky hair. “It’s okay. It’ll be okay.”
She only shook her head and kept looking down toward her bare toes that were painted the same intense purple as her fingernails. Outside, someone started banging on the dinner bell. Zach rose.
Starr looked up at him then, desperation in her eyes. “Don’t fire him. I’ll keep away from him. He needs this job, Daddy.”
“What he’s done is wrong. He’s a grown man. And you’re under eighteen. I can’t trust a man like that. You have to see that.”
“No. Please. You said you wouldn’t judge me. Well, don’t judge him, either. Give him a chance. Talk to him. You’ll see. He does care for me.”
“That’s not the point.”
“Just talk to him first Please.”
He studied her face, not knowing what to say to her.
“Please?”
He couldn’t completely refuse her. “All right. I’ll talk to him first. But I really can’t see how anything he could say would make me willing to keep him on.”
“Just give him a chance.”
“Starr—”
“All right, all right. As long as you listen to what he tells you. As long as you do that much.”
“I said that I would. Now, why don’t you go on down to dinner?”
“No. I’ll just stay here. I couldn’t eat. Not tonight.”
He didn’t argue with her. “We’ll talk more later.”
“Yeah. Okay.”
Tess heard Zach come out of Starr’s room. He went on down the stairs. She rose from the chair in the corner and almost followed him. But to what purpose? If he wanted to talk to her, Edna would tell him she was still upstairs. And if he just aimed to deal with Beau and get it over with, she didn’t want to slow him down.
She sank back to the chair. She knew she probably ought to go ahead and join the others at the table. But she just wasn’t quite up to that prospect right then. No, she’d just sit here for a bit, in the quiet room that had so much of Zach in it. She’d take some deep breaths and say a little prayer or two. And in a few minutes, she’d be ready to face the world again.
She was on the third deep breath and the first prayer when she heard Starr come out of her room.
Chapter Fifteen
Zach found Beau sitting at the kitchen table in the trailer he’d been assigned when he’d first hired on at the Rising Sun. His duffel was packed and waiting beside him. The trailer itself looked spotless—ready for the next man Zach hired to move right in.
“I guess I’d like my pay, sir,” Beau said. “And then I’ll be on my way.”
Zach stared at the younger man, torn by opposing urges. He wanted to break every bone in his body for what he’d tried to do with Starr. And yet he felt sorry for him. Starr had been right. Beau hadn’t had it easy. Once, his people had been proud folk. And now he was reduced to working another man’s cattle to get by.
Zach remembered what he’d promised his daughter. “Starr asked me to hear what you have to say.”
Beau looked right at Zach. “There’s nothing. Just give me my pay and I’ll go.”
Zach gave it one more try. “Look. You’d better get a little honest with me here. You’d better tell me what the hell you thought you were doing with my daughter in the barn today.”
Beau’s jaw twitched. He looked away. “I kissed her. And unbuttoned her shirt. That’s all that happened. All that ever happened.”
Zach spoke with slow precision. “My daughter is sixteen.”
“Yeah. I know.”
“And you’re what?”
“Old enough. Twenty-one.”
“Then what the hell were you up to?”
Beau stared off into the middle distance. “Sometimes a guy gets hungry for more than he’s ever gonna get. And then he sees something real pretty, something he knows it’s wrong to take. But he’s hungry. So he goes and acts like a fool. That’s me. A guy who got hungry. A guy who isn’t real bright.”
Beau let out a long breath and turned his gaze toward Zach once more. “So, you want to beat me around a little or something?”
“Yeah,” Zach said softly. “I suppose I do.”
Beau got to his feet. The floor space in the trailer wasn’t much, so when Beau stepped out from behind the table, he stood right in front of Zach.
“Okay,” Beau said. “Do it.”
Zach punched him square in the jaw, good and hard. Beau grunted and fell back against the table. Zach waited. The younger man gained his feet again and braced himself for another blow.
Zach considered, then shook his head. “That’s all.”
“You sure?” Beau rubbed his jaw.
Zach wasn’t sure, not at all. Still, all he said was, “Meet me by the back door of the house in ten minutes. I’ll have your money in cash for you. Then you can get the hell off the Rising Sun.”
Tess caught up with Starr just before she began to descend the stairs. “Starr.”
The girl froze and whirled on Tess. “What?”
“Where are you going?”
“What’s it to you?”
Tess looked down at Starr’s feet. “Where are your shoes?”
“In my room.”
“Go back and put them on. Then wash your hands and we’ll go down to dinner together.”
“I don’t want dinner.”
“Then where are you going?”
“Just mind your own business.”
“You are my business.”
“No, I’m not. You’re no one to me.” With a toss of her head, the girl started down.
Tess stood on the landing for a moment. Then, with a weary sigh, she followed Starr down.
At the foot of the stairs, Starr turned and gave Tess a fierce glare. But she didn’t say anything—probably to avoid attracting the attention of everyone in the kitchen. She hurried on tiptoe out to the great room and through the entrance hall beyond. Tess foll
owed close on her heels, closing the door behind them when they reached the front porch.
Starr whirled on Tess then, and hissed, “Stop following me!”
Tess looked at the girl levelly. “No.”
Across the yard, the door to Beau’s trailer opened. Zach emerged. He started down the driveway, heading for the back of the house. But when he saw them on the porch, he changed direction and strode to the foot of the front steps. “What’s the matter?”
Starr leaned on the porch rail. “Daddy, what happened? Did you talk to him? Did he tell you—”
“Starr.” Zach looked so weary and sad. “I thought you said you’d stay in your room.”
“I couldn’t. I had to know. Did he tell you how we have something special between us? Do you understand now that he never meant anything wrong to happen, that he—”
“Starr. Beau is leaving. I’m going to go get his pay and then he’ll be gone.”
Starr gaped at her father. “What? No. You can’t do that. That’s not right, not fair...” She started down the steps.
Zach blocked her path. “Go back upstairs.”
“I have to talk to him.”
“No, you don’t. Just let the damn fool go.”
“He is not a fool! He...he cares for me, that’s all. He just wanted to be with me, like I want to be with him.”
“Starr. Go upstairs.”
She dodged to slide around Zach. He anticipated the move and stepped in her path once more, grabbing her by both arms as she ran square into his chest.
She cried, “No!” shouting now, a child denied some longed-for treasure, not caring in the least who might hear. “Let me go! Let me talk to him!”
“Starr, listen.” Zach tried to hold her gently, though she kicked and squirmed and beat on his chest “Starr. Settle down.”
“No! I won’t! I won’t! Let me go!”
Right then, across the yard, the trailer door opened again. Beau stepped out.
Tess said, “He’s coming.”
Zach swore. Starr froze and glanced beyond Zach’s shoulder. “Beau! Beau, he won’t let me talk to you!” She tried again to break free, catching Zach off guard and almost succeeding that time. But somehow, Zach managed to catch one arm as she flew by. He hauled her back, against his chest, grabbing the other arm, too.
Beau came toward them, his stride long and swift. He stopped a few feet from where Starr stood, with her father holding her arms right behind her. Tess saw the bruise on Beau’s chin—a big bruise, fresh and livid.
Starr noticed it, too. She gasped. “Beau. He hit you!” She shot an outraged glare over her shoulder at Zach.
Beau said, “Forget it. It’s nothing.”
Starr’s gaze swung on Beau again. “No. He had no right to hit you! You didn’t do anything. He can’t—”
“Starr. He had a right.”
She went still. “No!” It was a cry of pure distress. Though Tess stood on the porch, behind them all, she knew that Starr would be watching Beau’s face, willing him to call her sudden, ugly doubts unfounded.
But Beau only smiled, a knowing smile. And then he actually chuckled.
“Tisdale,” Zach warned in a growl.
“Zach,” Tess said. “Let him tell her.”
Zach turned his head and gave Tess a long, probing look. Then he released his daughter and stepped back.
Freed, Starr staggered a little, then righted herself. “Beau, please—”
Beau cut her off, his tone like a caress, “You thought you’d heard every line, didn’t you, big-city girl? Heard ‘em all and never fell for a one. But the lonesome cowboy routine got you goin’, didn’t it?”
“Wh-what are you saying?”
He made a low, smug sound. “You know damn well what I’m saying.”
“No...”
“’Fraid so.” Beau lowered his voice, as if sharing a secret. “Come on, you know how guys are.”
Starr shook her head frantically. “No! You wouldn’t. You couldn’t. All those things you said—”
He shrugged. “They didn’t mean squat. I was after one thing. And we both know what that was.”
“No.” The word was barely a whisper.
Beau went on smiling. “Yeah.”
Zach cut in then. “Okay, enough. Go on, Tisdale. Around back. I’ll get your money.”
Beau turned and walked away. Starr watched him go, her face as blank as a bleached sheet.
Zach’s gaze sought out Tess again, in the shadows of the porch. “Would you take her upstairs?”
Tess nodded and moved forward. Starr came to her numbly. Tess put an arm around the girl’s stiff shoulders and led her toward the front door.
Inside, Edna and the others were still at the table. Tess caught sight of her friend as she passed by the arch from the central hall to the kitchen. Edna frowned. Tess shook her head.
Jobeth must have started to rise from the table, because Edna said, “Sit back down, young lady. Finish your meal.”
Slowly, like very old people clinging to each other for support as they went, Tess and Starr proceeded up the stairs.
In Starr’s room, Tess left the girl at the door and went to the bed. She gathered up the magazines and stacked them back on Starr’s bookcase where they belonged. She set the headphones on the nightstand. Then she returned to Starr.
“Come on,” Tess said, pushing the door closed and pulling Starr toward the bed. “Sit down.”
The girl dropped to the edge of the bed. Tess sat beside her. They both stared toward the uncurtained windows for a time. Outside, it was still daylight, though to Tess it felt like it ought to be the middle of the night.
Starr murmured, “I’m sorry. About the curtains.”
“They can be ironed again.”
“I think I might have broken the curtain rod.”
“It can be replaced.”
“I said rotten things to you.”
“Yes, you did.”
“Do you hate me?”
“No. Never. That would be like...hating myself.”
They’d both been sitting up as straight as soldiers. But then Starr let her head drop to Tess’s shoulder. “I don’t get it. You’re not like me.”
“Oh, yes I am. I’m a lot like you. Or I was. At one time.”
They were silent again. Tess put her arm around Starr and smoothed her hair.
Starr said, “That stuff about where you and my dad sleep. That was none of my business.”
“You’re right. It wasn’t.”
“I just wanted to hurt you.”
“I know. And you did. But I survived.”
“I hit my dad. And kicked him.”
“You behaved very badly. But it doesn’t have to be the end of the world.”
Starr sighed, a lonely, lost sound. “It feels like it is.”
“I know. But it’s not.”
“I...believed him, believed in him.”
“You mean Beau?” Tess felt Starr’s nod against her shoulder. She stroked the black hair some more.
“I think I loved him.” Starr let out another broken sigh. “I want to hate him now. But I don’t. I’m just...numb.”
Outside, they heard an engine start up. They both knew it would be Beau. Leaving.
After the vehicle drove off, when the sound of the engine had completely faded away, Tess asked, “Do you want to eat?”
“No. Not tonight. I’m just...so tired.”
“Bed, then?”
. “Yeah,” Starr said. “Bed.”
“Come on.” Tess stood, pulled Starr to her feet and helped her get into her pajamas.
“I want to brush my teeth,” Starr said, once she was all ready.
While Starr went to the hall bath she shared with Jobeth, Tess managed to hook the bent rod in place so the wrinkled curtains shut out the light.
“I really messed those up,” Starr, back from the bathroom, spoke from over by the door.
Tess got down from the stool. “I’ll fix them like new
tomorrow.” She noticed that Starr’s face was scrubbed clean. “Feel better?”
“Yeah. A little.”
Tess held back the covers. Starr climbed in. Tess tucked the blankets around her.
The girl sighed. “I’ll say I’m sorry to my dad. Tomorrow.”
“Good idea.”
“Maybe it’s kind of hard to believe, after today, but I really have been trying.”
“We know you have.”
“You’ll give me another chance?”
“Absolutely.”
“I’ll do better.”
“I believe you will.”
Downstairs, Tess found Zach at the table, eating alone. Edna and Jobeth worked around him, cleaning up after the meal.
Jobeth whirled at the sound of Tess’s footsteps, almost dropping the saucepan she’d been drying. “Mom. Where’s Starr? Is Starr all right?”
Tess felt that all eyes were on her, waiting for her answer. “Starr is fine. A little tired.”
“Will she eat?” asked Edna anxiously.
“No. She’s not very hungry. She decided just to go to bed.”
“Can I go up, Mom? And say good-night?”
Tess hesitated, unsure.
Zach glanced up from his dinner. “Let her go.”
Tess met Zach’s eyes, then turned to her daughter. “All right. Go.”
Jobeth dropped the pan and the dish towel on the counter and headed for the stairs.
“Just say good-night,” Tess warned. “Don’t hang around.”
Jobeth turned and held up a hand. “Just good-night. I promise.” And she took off like a shot.
Edna turned to Tess. “Sit. I’ll get you some food.”
“Not much. I’m not too hungry, either.”
“Some beans, a little salad. How’s that?”
“That would be nice.”
Jobeth kept her promise. She was back a few minutes later. She picked up the dish towel and started in where she’d left off.
Zach vanished into his office right after dinner, and later Tess heard him go outside.
Around eight, Tess walked Edna across the yard and stayed with her for a last cup of coffee. Quietly, as they sat at the table together, Tess related what had happened with Beau.
Edna shook her head. “The poor child. She acts so tough. But inside...”
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