by Tina Leonard
Maxine started forward, but Dustin held up a warning hand. “Don’t do this, Maxine. You’re only going to regret it one day.”
“But…you can’t do this!” Maxine’s tone was astonished. “You just can’t…I’ll file more papers with the court! David, he’s…”
Her husband’s gaze was expressionless as he watched them leave the porch and get into the truck. “David!” Maxine protested.
He shook his head. No.
“We can’t let him…”
Again he shook his head. No. His eyes were sad as the truck drove away, but he turned his wheelchair and went inside.
Maxine followed. “We can’t give up like this. We nearly have Joey for our own. For always.” She went to stand beside him. He reached out and took her hand in his.
“David, I can’t stand losing him. I can’t bear this. Joey should be ours. They can’t possibly take care of him the way we can.”
David looked at her. “Love…you,” he said haltingly. “Be…happy.”
His eyes were huge as he pleaded with her to give in. She sank to the floor, resting her head in his lap to cry hot, furious tears. Nina was lost to them, and now Joey. Giving up the battle meant recognizing those harsh facts. They could have won; they had set the board up with all the pieces in the right places.
Inside herself, Maxine knew David was right. Bitterness poured out of her as she realized this. In the most peculiar way, it felt good to give up. Though she desperately wished some of Eunice’s good fortune had just once come her way, Maxine knew they had done the right thing.
David twined his hand into her hair, gently massaging her neck. She gave in to his comforting, telling herself that when she felt better, she was going to start helping him with the physical therapy he needed.
It was just the two of them from now on.
“Is Holly…Holly still at our house, Dad?”
Joey’s inquisitive face was turned his way. Dustin dreaded the answer—and the following questions he knew had to come.
“No, son. She got to go home with her mother. But we’ll get to see them often, I feel sure. Mrs. Benchley has been visiting your grandmother quite a bit, and she’ll bring Holly when she comes out to the ranch.”
“Oh.” Joey was very quiet as he thought about this. “Jill is…is at our house?”
The wide-eyed hope in his son’s eyes made Dustin ache. He thought over his reply carefully. “She went home too, Joey.”
“Why?”
“She just had to.”
“Will I get to see her again?”
“I…I don’t think so.” Dustin put an arm out to wrap around his son’s, shoulder. “Jill was helping us out for a while, but she had her own home to go to.”
“I knew it. I knew she…she not stay. She not my best friend.”
Well, she hadn’t turned out to be Dustin’s, either. He squeezed Joey, not sure what to say. The child was too young to understand that adult relationships didn’t always work out. Joey had become attached to Jill, just like Maxine had warned. Dustin liked to think they had all benefited by Jill’s presence, but now that he was trying to explain her leaving to Joey, he wondered if another important female being displaced from Joey’s life would leave an emotional scar.
“She didn’t want to go,” he heard himself saying. “She just…needed to be with her own family.”
It was such a lie, and look who was doing the stuttering now. Dustin pursed his lips, finding himself on the horns of a dilemma. Joey didn’t say another word as they pulled into the drive. Dustin stopped the truck, and Joey got out, dragging his little tennis shoes on the way to the house.
Dustin hurried to catch up.
“We didn’t string popcorn, Dad. She…she promised.”
“I tell you what, Joey,” he said, scooping his son up to his chest. “Your grandmother will be home tomorrow. Why don’t we plan on doing something special then?”
Joey wriggled down out of his arms. “It won’t be so fun.”
No, it wouldn’t. But they had to go on. “Joey, I’m not really in the know about stringing anything, and I don’t know that your grandmother will feel up to it. But I’d be happy to take you out for a ride on Rooster. Maybe we could even roast marshmallows in the fireplace tomorrow night. What do you say?”
Joey smiled wanly at him. “Okay.” He headed into the house and up the stairs.
“Where are you going, buddy?” Dustin called.
“Get my bear.” Joey went into his room and looked around. Holly’s basket wasn’t there. He went into the bathroom that connected to Jill’s room, slowly pushing the door open. The bed was neatly made; the room looked kind of empty. Jill wasn’t here anymore, just like his father had told him.
Joey went back into his room and sat on the bed, swinging his legs. Even his grandmother wasn’t here. It was just him and his dad now. He was glad to be home, and he was glad his dad was with him, but it sure didn’t feel the same.
With a sigh, Joey decided he must not have been a good enough boy for Santa to grant his Christmas wish. He wasn’t going to get Jill for his new mother.
“Jill, honey, is everything okay?”
Lana’s voice resonated with concern. “Everything is fine, Mother. How did you know I was here?”
For a second, Jill fervently hoped that perhaps Dustin had called her parents’ house inquiring as to her whereabouts.
“That sheriff from Lassiter called here. He said you’d left the ranch and gone home. Hon, are you sure you’re okay?”
“I’m fine, Mom.” Jill held in an impatient sigh. All she needed was her loving folks digging into her personal life. They would want to talk about everything in minutiae, which would be very painful.
“Your father and I are a little surprised, Jill. I’m sorry it didn’t work out in Lassiter, but is there any reason you didn’t come home? It’s hard to be there for you if we don’t know you need us.”
“I had to pack up the apartment. I couldn’t avoid it any longer. It’s not that I didn’t want to see you and Dad, it’s just that I really have a lot of loose ends to tie up.”
“Oh.” Lana’s word was a sigh. “I don’t suppose you need any help.”
Jill closed her eyes against the hurt she heard in her mother’s tone. “Thanks, Mom. But this is really something I have to do on my own.” There was too much pain occupying her heart right now. She needed silence to think, to plan her future. She needed silence to decide what she was going to do without Dustin in her life.
“Okay.” Lana sounded resigned, though unhappy about it. “Call us if we can do anything, Jill.”
“I will, Mother. Did Marsh happen to say what he wanted?”
“Um, to know if you were here, I guess. You didn’t leave without giving notice, did you?”
To say the least. However, she couldn’t tell her mother the reason behind her swift departure. “I believe the Reed family and I were in agreement that I come back to Dallas.”
“Oh, dear. None of this sounds very good. You’re not in any trouble of any kind, are you?”
“Mother!” Jill gritted her teeth. “It just didn’t work out, all right?”
There was a sigh of tried patience from the other end. “Fine, dear. Anyway, I simply told Mr. Marsh that you weren’t at our house, which was true. And that was the end of the conversation, except he did mention that my strawberry bread was as good as his mother’s.”
Lana sounded pleased about Marsh’s compliment. Jill grimaced. That sneaky lawman knew all the right buttons to push with her mother. “Thanks for letting me know, Mother. I’ve really got to get back to packing up these boxes though. I’ll call you later,” she said, trying not to make Lana feel rushed. She didn’t want to hurt her mother’s delicate feelings, but she had to get some serious moving done.
“Well, all right, then. Your father and I may swing by later and see how you’re doing.”
“Okay. ’Bye.” Jill shook her head as she hung up. No doubt her parents would be on he
r porch step soon. Taking a rubber band from the kitchen drawer, Jill pulled her hair into an untidy, but serviceable, ponytail. The first chore to start with was finding a rental truck to load the boxes into.
Sitting down at the kitchen table, Jill leafed through the phone book for the closest place that might have a truck. She read through several ads, finally deciding on one. Picking up the phone, she had started to dial the number, when the doorbell rang. Frowning, Jill hung up. All she needed today to really give her the crazies was for Carl to show up. For a second, she contemplated not opening the door. Of course, Carl had his own key, so he probably wouldn’t stand out in the hall and ring. She did need him to get his stuff out, though. Resigned to dealing with an unpleasant situation, Jill went to the door and peeked out the peephole.
Her jaw dropped. If she didn’t know better, she would think Marsh was standing outside her door.
The cowboy hat looked familiar, as did the square-faced, determined profile. Keeping the chain on the door, she cautiously opened it. “Marsh?”
“Hi, Jill.”
“What are you doing here?” she asked, her stomach somersaulting.
“Uh, me and China were in the neighborhood and we thought we’d stop by.”
She could see someone standing behind Marsh. Jill held back a groan. “I’m not really in a position to have company,” she said, trying desperately to think of a way to keep the sheriff out of her apartment. She had a funny feeling he was here on business, courtesy of Dustin.
“Come on, Jill. At least let me say my piece. The old lady’ll be disappointed if I come home without talking to you.”
At the mention of Eunice, Jill slid the chain off the door and opened it. Marsh made his way in, limping a bit. China offered her a sympathetic smile as she followed.
“How is Eunice doing?”
“Much better, I think. Ready for her life to get back to normal, anyway.”
“I suppose my mother told you where I lived.” Jill closed the front door and pointed toward the kitchen. It was the only place with chairs and no boxes.
“Nope. Lana told me you weren’t there, and since I knew she wouldn’t lie to me, ’cause she thinks I’m such a nice guy, I looked in the phone book. Sure enough, there was a listing for a Jill McCall.” Marsh shrugged, as if it were no big deal.
China socked him in the arm. “Whose idea was that, again?”
He grinned and jerked a thumb at the beautiful woman. “China looked you up.”
“I see.” Jill sent a smile China’s way, though she wasn’t entirely grateful for her intervention. “You mentioned Eunice. I hope she’s doing okay.”
“She’s fine.” Marsh had sat down slowly and now he kicked his leg out to the side, trying to find a comfortable position. “Worried about you, though.”
“We talked.” Jill ran a fingernail across the Formica of the table. “I believe she understood my situation.”
“Did she, now?” He glanced around the apartment for a moment, his sheriff’s eye missing nothing. “This place is a dump, isn’t it?”
Jill stiffened. It was brand-new, with a rent of a thousand dollars a month—more than most folks would want to pay. “Not exactly. It’s touted as one of the finer apartment complexes in Dallas.”
“Yeah, maybe. It’s got no heart, though.”
She glanced at China, who merely shrugged and gave her another smile. Jill looked around the room, trying to see it through their eyes. Everything was white, of course. She and Carl had not planned on having children right away, with both of them being occupied with climbing the corporate ladder. The paint on the walls was white, the plush carpet was white, the heavy drapes were white. It was very contemporary, and nicely complemented the slate-gray leather sofas and chairs they’d purchased.
Jill’s gaze swung to China’s for a moment. The flame of her hair stood out against the white wall, vivid in the stark contrast. Marsh’s face, browned by hours in the hot sun, looked the color of saddle leather next to the white curtains. Dustin’s would look the same way. She thought about Carl and his rather pasty appearance next to Dustin. It showed a striking contrast in their lifestyles: corporate versus country.
She had agreed with Carl’s selection of black lacquered furniture for their bedroom, which they had accented with large mirrors. A picture of her bedroom at the ranch blossomed in her mind: yellow-striped wallpaper and white eyelet curtains and the cabbage rose seat cushion in the window seat.
Marsh was right. This place lacked heart. Actually, her relationship with Carl had lacked heart, and it showed in the way they were planning to live their lives. She had gotten out in the nick of time.
“Perhaps Tommy means that your apartment will look much nicer once the furniture is in place, Jill,” China said kindly.
Jill looked at her and smiled. “He means just what he said. And he’s right. It’s exactly why I went to Lassiter.” She leaned back in the wooden chair and tried to relax. “I appreciate you two coming out here to check on me, but you can tell Eunice I’m fine.”
Marsh snorted. “I think we better help you organize a garage sale. I thought you liked Victorian antiques.”
“I do,” Jill said softly. “I mean, I don’t suppose I did until I fell in love with Eunice’s parlor.”
“Jill, let us take you back,” China pleaded. “We can help you finish up what you’re doing here, but you need to come back with us.”
She knew what they were trying to do, and it touched her heart. Unfortunately, she couldn’t go back. “It’s not that simple, you guys. It’s not really even me. Being the catalyst for Dustin losing Joey this week made me realize how much I’m irritating Maxine. She’s just going to fight harder if I’m there. That’s not fair to what Dustin and Joey are just now starting to enjoy with each other.”
“Did you know that crazy old woman’s been poking around the Reeds’ business most of their lives? I don’t think Dustin’s going to let her win now.” Marsh drummed his hand on the table.
“Don’t you see, Marsh? Maxine was absolutely livid that I didn’t have Joey ready on time. Even something that small irritated her about me. She said terrible things about me. And Dustin isn’t going to ask me to leave because of Maxine, just like you said. With Eunice under the weather, they don’t need any more stress at that ranch.”
“Eunice is going home. That gives the three of them something to be happy about.”
“The three of them? Did Maxine relent?” Jill couldn’t believe that would have happened.
“Nope.” Marsh shook his head. “Over my advice, of course, Dustin went to get Joey. Don’t know that he managed it, but I know Dustin well enough to know that when his mind is in that tactical mode, he’s prepared for combat. Hope Joey’s prepared for his daddy to lasso him and pull him up through the chimney if he has to.” Marsh sighed heavily.
“Oh, no! You don’t really think…” Jill glanced at China. “Is he breaking any laws? Can he get himself into any trouble doing that?” She couldn’t bear to think of what Maxine’s reaction to Dustin’s determination might be. It was two strong wills going against each other—hard.
“I think Dustin will do anything he’s put his mind to, and hang the consequences. The old lady was tired of Maxine jabbing at her all these years for no reason and told Dustin to go get her grandson. Actually, she didn’t tell him to since he was already going. But she gave her permission, never mind what my opinion was on the matter.”
“He’s playing pissed,” China said, “because he’s afraid he’s going to end up having to arrest Dustin.”
“Oh. I hope not.” Jill knew that would bother Marsh greatly.
“So, best as I can see it, Christmas is up to you, Jill. ’Cause it’s pretty much gone to hell in a handbasket at this point.” Marsh looked at her expectantly.
“Up to me?”
He nodded adamantly. “Joey wants you. Eunice wants you. Dustin wants you real bad. So, if they’re gonna get any Christmas, you gotta get back where you belon
g.” He sniffed as he glanced around the apartment. “Looks like you ain’t gonna have much of one here, anyway.”
“I can’t do it, Marsh. As nice as it is of you two to care, and Eunice, too, it’s too heavy of a burden with the custody battle. I’m the worst possible thing for Dustin’s chances of winning.”
“Yeah, but see, you gotta let the man decide how he wants to roll the dice. Did he ask you to leave?”
“No.” He’d never remotely hinted at it.
“Then you’re doing him a disservice by not coming back. Why should Dustin be punished because of Maxine? My Lord, she’s tortured Eunice all these years, now Dustin has to lose, too?”
“Maybe she’ll cool off in a few years, Marsh. Maybe Dustin will find someone who doesn’t upset Maxine so.”
“Why should he care if she cools off? After all these years, she needs to learn to mind her own business. But there’s something else you should think about, Jill. Though I’ve stepped over the line in saying that, I’m also going to tell you that Dustin is not going to come here like we have and ask you to come back.”
Jill didn’t reply, but she kept her gaze trained on Marsh.
“Right or wrong, Dustin has a bunch of pride. If he felt like you two had something special, and I believe he did, then you walking out on him is going to tear into that pride. He is not the kind of man to go chasing after a woman and do the ‘Honey, please take me back’ thing.”
She closed her eyes for a second, wondering how to reply to that. It wasn’t that she wanted Dustin to come after her at all. She hadn’t discussed the problem with him because she knew him too well. He would have said “to hell with Maxine” but Joey’s grandmother was hell-bent for matters to turn out her way. Jill sparked that determination.
She shook her head. “Marsh, I made the best decision I could under the circumstances. I don’t want Dustin to come here. I don’t need him to call me. I’m just as satisfied with my choice now as I was when I left. Yes, it hurts. Yes, I wish very much that it could have been different. But Dustin needs more than a housekeeper right now. He needs a huge amount of luck and a sympathetic judge.”