Sure, Jenna had a reputation as a gossiper around town, but not with secrets of any grave importance. She liked to know the private business of people, but nothing harmful, just tidbits about who’d been seen playing grab-ass at church or who was sporting a gaudy new hair color. Indulging in secrets like that hurt no one. It was no different from watching a celebrity gossip show on TV.
Though she was having the time of her life with Matt in Santa Fe, there was information she couldn’t get any other way but to return to Catcher Creek in time for Bunco. Information like, what was Carson waiting for with his vengeance plot? Had he contacted his family yet, and to what end? What were his plans for Bucky, Lance, and Kyle’s families? She had a good feeling that tonight she was going to get the answers she needed, especially since Bunco was being hosted this month by none other than Patricia Parrish herself.
After dropping Tommy off with Rachel and Vaughn, she swung through the grocery store for a prepackaged platter of veggies and ranch and a bottle of wine, then headed to the Parrishes’ house on the east side of town.
What she hadn’t mentioned to Rachel was her plan to spend the night on the sofa in the big house, rather than in her cottage. She couldn’t take a chance on Carson cornering her alone again. Friday and Saturday night, Matt would be with her; then, on Sunday, she was leaving Catcher Creek in her dust once and for all. Jake would be leaving for his partner’s memorial service the next day, so Kellan’s dog would have to stay with Rachel because it was high time for Jenna to move on.
It was a solid plan, but also one that hinged on her getting Rachel alone to come clean about college and her move to Santa Fe, which terrified her to no end. She’d have to worry about that tomorrow. Tonight, navigating the Bunco minefield was going to take all her concentration.
The Parrish family owned a modest spread, with a pair of old horses under a lean-to and chickens running through the yard. Jenna pressed the doorbell, painted a smile on her face as the knob turned, and stepped into the fray.
“Why, Jenna, hello! Marti told us you’d be here. Don’t just stand in the doorway, come on in.” Patricia took the wine and veggie platter off her hands and ushered her into the room full of women standing amid the Bunco-prepped card tables.
“There she is,” Gayle Kopec said, wrapping a wineglass-holding arm around Jenna’s shoulders. “That was some wedding you threw last weekend. When my Kyle gets married, we’ll have to send his bride to talk to you for advice. Maybe you can lend her a hand, like a wedding planner would.”
Not if my life depended on it, Jenna thought, offering Gayle her most saccharine smile. “I didn’t realize Kyle and Brenda were engaged.”
Patricia twittered by. “Not quite yet, but my cousin Madge saw him at a jeweler in Tucumcari buying a ring last week. We think he’s going to propose at the rodeo on Wednesday. I can’t wait to see my boy in action. Makes me so nervous to watch him on those bulls, but so proud at the same time, if you know what I mean.”
The rodeo. Of course. That was what Carson was waiting for. He wanted a big display and there wasn’t anything bigger or more well attended in Quay County than the annual rodeo. Bucky, Kyle, and Lance would all be there. The local boys’ heroic homecoming.
The thought gave Jenna chills. If Carson got his way, if he chose to levy eye-for-an-eye vengeance onto Kyle, would Kyle survive to propose to his girlfriend? If Carson came in with guns blazing, would he be arrested—or worse? Had he taken collateral damage and civilians into account when planning his attack of revenge? God, she hoped so. But with so much hatred in his heart, she doubted he was thinking clearly about the consequences of his actions. She made a mental note to lodge another anonymous call with the sheriff’s department to tip Vaughn off to the potential trouble.
The last player to arrive was Charlene Delgado, who, besides being Catcher Creek’s best babysitter, held the dubious unofficial title of the town’s number-one gossip maven. With Charlene present, the games got under way. Jenna found herself sitting across from Carson’s sister, Kate, and next to Patricia and Marti.
The sound of dice crashing onto the room’s tables did nothing to deter the conversations. Patricia tapped the score-keeping pencil on the table and squinted thoughtfully in Jenna’s direction. “Your sister Amy had some big news at the wedding. I’d make a smart comment about the bride wearing white except that I know I’m excessively old-fashioned about matters such as that.”
“Oh, now. Sinning women have been wearing white on their wedding days for centuries. It’s not like Amy Sorentino invented the cover-up,” Marti said.
“I think it’s romantic that Kellan announced it like that,” Kate added. “Did you see how in love he was? I didn’t think he had it in him to settle down until Amy came along. Now, I’ve never seen him so happy.”
“I’m happy for them,” Jenna said. “Kellan’s a good man, the best.”
“What about you?” Marti said. “The rumor going around is that you were kissing a man at the wedding reception. Wasn’t it you who told me that, Patricia?”
Patricia stiffened and rolled the dice, as though attempting to conceal that same disapproval she’d worn on her face after Jenna and Matt had kissed in the civic center lobby. “I only mentioned it because I didn’t recognize the man from town. He was in the wedding party, though, and I wanted to know if you knew who he was.”
“So who is he?” Marti pressed.
As much as Jenna loved learning other people’s secrets, she considered herself the most tight-lipped of the bunch. She’d learned after much practice that there was an art to making the women in town feel like she was sharing her personal business without actually revealing anything private. “His name is Matt Roenick and he’s friends with Kellan from way back.”
“Where’s he from?”
Jenna rolled the dice. Two ones. “Santa Fe. His parents breed horses.” That appeased the women. Horse breeding was a worthy occupation indeed. After scooping up the dice, she rolled again, got nothing of consequence, and passed the dice to Marti.
“Santa Fe is quite a haul from Catcher Creek. He must think you’re something special. Will you be bringing him to the rodeo?”
Jenna wouldn’t get within a hundred miles of the rodeo grounds, and she was going to make sure Rachel didn’t either. She gave a noncommittal smile and shrug as she passed the dice to Marti. Enough about her and Matt. She was wracking her brain for a change of topics when Marti spoke up.
“Speaking of out-of-towners, I’ve been seeing a black truck I don’t recognize parked in front of your house a few times this past week, Patti. Relatives visiting?” Marti asked.
Kate and Patricia froze, their eyes on each other. So they knew. Carson had been to see them, too. But to what end?
“Bunco!” Charlene hollered from the head table. Jenna startled and shot to her feet. Kate followed, along with two of the pairs of players who rose to switch tables. The volume of talking ramped up.
“Well?” Marti pressed. “Whose truck was that?”
“Yes, I meant to ask you about that earlier,” Gayle said, coming up next to Jenna to assume her old seat. “I saw that truck, too. In fact, you’ll never guess who I thought was behind the wheel when I saw it coming down Main Street.” She chuckled like she couldn’t believe how crazy the notion was. “It looked like Carson.”
Patricia blanched.
Gayle waved it off. “But I thought to myself, Patti would never keep something as big as Carson coming home a secret from her closest friends. Besides, it only looked like Carson in the face. This man was bigger, beefier. I figured he was one of your cousins’ kids since the family resemblance was so strong. So who was it?”
The conversation had caught the attention of everyone in the room. Kate averted her eyes. Jenna followed her line of sight to a photograph on the wall of Carson in full military dress.
Like a mallet whacking Jenna on the head, her hatred of the Parrish family crashed down on her. They were still covering his presence up. Like he
didn’t exist. Like the shame of having him as their son rendered him invisible. As much as she hadn’t wanted Carson to return to Catcher Creek, a part of her was glad about it. He was going to make his family take notice. She could well imagine the type of violent public shaming he was planning for Wednesday night.
In the wake of Patricia’s silence and Kate’s obvious discomfort, Gayle’s face fell. “It’s true, isn’t it? That was Carson I saw. He’s home. Well, I never. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Now, Gayle, don’t be too hard on her,” Charlene said, “He’s been gone for, what, five years? No wonder she wanted to keep her boy to herself for a little while.”
“Six.” Patricia’s voice was strained. She cleared her throat before continuing. “He’s been gone for six. But he’s not staying with us. I don’t know where he’s been sleeping.”
“That doesn’t make any sense. Why wouldn’t he stay with you?” one of the other women in the room standing behind Jenna said.
Looks were shot in Jenna’s direction, like they thought perhaps Carson was staying with her. Jenna backed away from her chair. She didn’t think she could stand to play through until the Bunco game ended. Now that she was ruminating on how despicable the Parrish family was, how egregiously they’d wronged their son—if they hadn’t had a hand outright in his attempted murder—she felt like the walls of the Parrishes’ house were closing in on her.
“Jenna.” Gayle set a hand on Jenna’s arm. “You and Carson were best friends back in high school. Have you two gotten reacquainted since he’s been back?”
This was the woman whose son had nearly killed Carson. The woman who’d raised a bigot, probably because she was one herself. She jerked her arm away from Gayle’s touch and met Patricia’s searching gaze.
In the woman’s eyes, Jenna read panic. That’s when Jenna knew—Carson hadn’t just paid his parents a visit. Like he had with Jenna, he’d threatened them and given them a taste of what was to come. Had Patricia figured it out about the rodeo? She was probably worried about the effect it would have on her business. The idea sickened Jenna even more. Patricia looked like she was hoping Jenna would throw her a lifeline.
Too bad Jenna didn’t feel like playing along. Lou and Patricia Parrish had made their choice. They’d been so worried about their business that they’d denied their son medical care and the loving support Carson had deserved when he’d come out to them. They rejected him so completely that he’d turned violent. They deserved to panic. They deserved to have their business suffer when the town figured out what they’d done. They were so damn worried about appearances and money, Jenna wanted to make them suffer tonight. Why wait until the rodeo?
A tendril of outrage unfurled inside her. Yeah, she wouldn’t mind stirring things up. She and Tommy were out of there in a few days anyhow.
“Yes,” she said to the captivated audience. “Carson came to see me last week. He’s been through a lot, you know.”
“You mean, overseas, during his deployment?” Charlene asked. “I’ve heard terrible stories about what the soldiers go through over there. They’re all coming back with that PST, or whatever it’s called.”
“That’s not what I meant.” Jenna projected her voice. She wanted everyone to hear this next part. “I was talking about what he went through before he left Catcher Creek.”
Patricia shot to her feet. “That will be quite enough. I don’t feel right talking about him when he’s not here. Why, I’m sure his ears must be burning.” She made like she was headed to the kitchen, but Jenna cut her off.
“I’ve been meaning to ask you something, Mrs. Parrish. Something that’s been on my mind for six years. Why didn’t you take Carson to the hospital after Kyle, Bucky, and Lance tried to kill him? It was because you were ashamed, wasn’t it?”
The room hushed graveyard quiet. God, it felt good, calling these hateful women out, spilling secrets that had no business staying buried.
“What is she talking about?” Gayle asked.
Patricia shook her head. “I didn’t have a choice. Our business, our church . . .”
The last of Jenna’s composure snapped.
She swept a hand toward the women in the room. “Y’all are unbelievable. Kyle, Bucky, and Lance tried to kill Carson and all you cared about was what your church friends would whisper behind your back? You were worried about losing business because, what—people would’ve stopped frequenting the town’s only feed and grain store because of who the owners’ son was? What the hell is wrong with this backward town?”
“That’s enough out of you, young lady,” Patricia whispered. “You’re a guest in my house.”
“And I’m about to leave, trust me, but you have to answer me first, Patti,” Jenna spat. “When did you figure it out about Carson and who did you tell? Because someone told Bucky, Lance, or Kyle, and it sure wasn’t me.”
“Tell them what?” someone whispered.
Patricia’s spine straightened. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Jenna swung her gaze to Kate. “It was you, wasn’t it? Somehow, you figured out about Carson’s secret and let it slip to one of the good old boys you were hot for back then.” Kate’s face blanched. “It really was you. I can see it in your eyes. Didn’t you care what happened to your brother? You knew what would happen to him if you told the wrong people, didn’t you? Or is that what you wanted?”
“You’d better watch your tongue, Jenna Sorentino. I had no idea.”
“What happened to Carson?” Marti said. “What secret?”
Jenna made fists, then flexed her fingers out. Her pulse was pounding like mad, but it felt too good calling these women out for her to stop. “A couple weeks after high school graduation, Kyle, Lance, and Bucky jumped Carson behind the feed and grain store. They beat him to within an inch of his life.”
A collective gasp vibrated through the room.
“You’ll shut your mouth about my boy,” Gayle said. “Kyle would never—”
“Oh, but he would,” Jenna said. “He did. And, to me, that’s not the worst part.” She paused for effect, meeting the eyes of each of the other eleven women. “The worst part to me is that Lou and Patricia, after they found him, beaten and bloody, decided not to take him to the hospital. They decided not to press charges. They decided that the town finding out their son was . . .” Jenna screwed her mouth up with wanting to finish that sentence. But it wasn’t her right to. Even if he never believed that she’d kept his secret, she’d never break her promise to him. Never. “They were more worried about their own bigoted asses than watching their son suffer.”
“Bigoted? What are you talking about?” Marti asked.
“Mom?” Kate said in a quivering voice. “Is that true? Is that why you sent Stacey and me to Aunt Gretchen’s house that summer?”
Patricia looked on her daughter with tear-filled eyes but didn’t answer.
“When your husband brought Carson home, a bloody mess, what was your first thought? Were you disappointed that Bucky, Kyle, and Lance hadn’t managed to kill him?”
Patricia lunged toward Jenna and, before she could back away, slapped her hard across the cheek. Jenna tasted blood where her teeth bit down on her tongue.
Gayle stepped between them, fury written all over her face. “My son would never beat up another person. You’re fixing to get yourself in a pot of hot water out of which you cannot climb, Jenna Sorentino.”
“Are you threatening me? What are you going to do?”
Gayle’s nostrils flared and her lips mashed together like she was weighing her options.
“I never meant for him to get hurt.” Everyone turned at the sound of Kate’s meek voice.
“What did you do?” Patricia asked breathlessly.
“Kyle and I were dating, sort of. I mean, I wanted to date him, but he was the most popular guy in my class. He came to our house one day and it was just me at home. We started hanging out, watching TV and stuff. At one point, I went to the bathroom and w
hen I came out, he was in Carson’s room going through his stuff.” Her face pinked. “He said he was looking for porn we could watch. And he found some under Carson’s bed.”
What had Carson been thinking, keeping his porn stash in such an obvious place? Of course Jenna wasn’t the only one who’d stumbled across it. It seemed so obvious now. But would Carson believe her if she told him the truth or was he too far gone in his hate to care?
“We raised Kyle to be a good, Christian man,” Gayle insisted, spearing a finger toward the ground. “He’s respected on the rodeo circuit, a regional champion. He’s going to ask Brenda to marry him and settle down in Catcher Creek to help us on the ranch.” Emotion made her choke on the last word.
Patricia put her arm around Gayle and leveled a desperate look at Jenna. “I just wanted it all to go away. I want my old Carson back, before he turned . . .” She closed her eyes and swallowed.
A sharp, angry laugh bubbled up from Jenna’s chest. “Before he turned violent? That’s what you were going to say, right? Bitter and angry like he is now? Because, honestly, do you think Carson is going to let Kyle, Lance, and Bucky get away with their crimes? Do you think he’s going to let you get away with yours? Why do you think he came back to Catcher Creek—to play nice with all the people who hurt him? You’d better watch your backs. All of you.”
She stomped to the door and slammed it behind her.
On Friday night, Matt picked up Jenna and Tommy at a quarter to eight, fifteen minutes before Tommy’s usual weekend bedtime, but Matt hadn’t been able to get off work any earlier. She and Tommy nearly always went to the Catcher Creek Café on Friday nights for dessert, and he’d discussed it with Matt at length throughout the week, so there was no way he would’ve gone to bed without a huge tantrum.
How to Rope a Real Man Page 23