by Desiree Holt
“She looked like someone had just died. She’s pale as a ghost. I could barely coax more than a yes or no out of her, let alone a smile. And she couldn’t get rid of me fast enough.”
“It’s been three weeks,” Reenie reminded them. “She hasn’t even been in town in all that time.”
“I know you got Matt to send one of the hands over to help her finish getting the place ready to open. He’s apparently been doing her errands.” Amy looked at her sister-in-law for confirmation. “That was very nice of you.”
“Lord, Amy. I felt so guilty, I had to do something. She sent him back the first time.” Reenie tasted her tea and then added another packet of sweetener. “Matt had to go over there himself and practically force her to let the guy work. He said she looks like shit.”
“Why should you feel guilty, Jinx? I’m the one who made the scene. Not that the bastard didn’t have it coming.” She took a swallow of her coffee. “I guess I didn’t stop to think about Georgie, or whatever else might be happening or anything. Oh, God.” She massaged her temples with her fingers. “Crap, crap, crap. What a friggin’ mess.”
“I know you wanted your pound of flesh, and I can certainly sympathize with you,” Jinx pointed out in a soft voice. “But you’re right. You didn’t stop to think. Georgie’s not the bastard here and she got caught in the crossfire.”
“I was just so shocked to see him sitting there with her like a normal decent human being. With Georgie. Our new friend. And after we told her what a piece of crap he is. You’d think she would at least have asked us.”
“You don’t know what happened after Ed threw him out.” Reenie stirred her coffee. “What choices he had. How he got to her. What he told her. Or even what happened after that. And from just the little time any of us have spent with her or talked to her on the phone, she doesn’t seem like the stupid or gullible type to me.”
“In fact, she mentioned that she’d had some bad luck before she moved here,” Jinx added. “I’d think that would make her more cautious. Not easily snowed. So whatever he did to convince her to hire him—”
Jinx sighed. “I got the feeling she wasn’t just upset about losing a handyman or about the scene you made, Amy. She seems to have real feelings for Cade. And she may be what’s been helping him straighten up and fly right.”
Amy’s jaw dropped. “Feelings? For Cade? Holy shit.”
“Stranger things have happened,” Reenie reminded her.
“I understand you have all this latent hostility about him built up,” Jinx said, “but damn, Amy, that was two years ago. More actually. And you sure made it sound a lot worse than it was.”
“Matt said the guy was always a real asshole,” Reenie added, “but he doesn’t remember him ever beating up on women. And were those females in that bar really naked with him? In public?”
“No.” Amy shook her head. “And while he loved to throw his weight around, that incident at the post office wouldn’t have gotten that bad. Even if Buck hadn’t come along.”
“So what got into you?” Jinx asked.
“Yeah,” Reenie chimed in. “I’ve never seen you lose it like that before. Go off on anyone that way. And exaggerate the way you did. That makes it even worse. That’s just not you.”
“I know, I know. I guess I’ve been saving it all up since the confrontation at the post office. I wanted him to be embarrassed and humiliated the way I was.”
“Amy, don’t you realize he already has been? He lost everything. His so-called friends have kicked him to the curb. Ed Ramsey was the only person to even give him the time of day.”
“But—”
“No buts,” Reenie said. “I’ve never seen you behave like that. Ever. Your husband had some skeletons in his closet. If he hadn’t chosen to get his act together, he might have been in the proverbial gutter too.”
“That’s different,” Amy tried to insist.
“No, it’s not. And look how destructive that one act in the restaurant has turned out to be.”
“Georgie was with him,” Jinx pointed out. “She had to witness the whole thing. How do you think she feels? What do you suppose is going through her mind right now? Not just about Cade, but about you as a person. If you wanted to warn her again, why didn’t you just ignore him and go see her privately? I know you usually don’t give a rat’s ass about stuff, but this is way beyond anything you’ve ever done.”
“Your brother would have kicked your butt,” Reenie told her.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. I guess I just saw him with Georgie, acting like his life was now hunky dory again, and I saw red. I wanted him to pay, and keep paying, for everything he did to me.” She raked her fingers through her hair. “I guess I was a little extreme. But I wanted to make sure she knew what she was getting into. And get in his face so he’d know I wasn’t going to let him play house with one of my friends. If that was what was going on.”
“No,” Jinx corrected. “Like I said before, you wanted revenge for what happened between the two of you. Only you went about it the wrong way. I know he hurt and embarrassed you, but come on. You’re better than that. You didn’t need to act like such a shrew. And in public.”
“She’s right,” Reenie agreed. “Matt told me when he looked around at the B&B it was obvious Cade must have worked his ass off at Georgie’s. He got the yard all cleaned up and ready for landscaping. He scraped and painted the entire outside of the house. And when Matt checked the ratty apartment in the barn Georgie had given Cade to use, there was no evidence of booze or anything else. He said the guy must have been working his ass off from dawn to dusk every day.”
“I saw that too,” Jinx said.
“Cade Hannigan?” Amy’s eyebrows lifted. “Are we talking about the same man? I can’t wrap my mind around the fact he actually might be turning into a different person.”
“People can change,” Jinx pointed out. “Maybe none of us thought Cade would, but just maybe when Ed threw him out and no one would give him a lifeline he had an epiphany.” She shrugged. “It’s happened to people worse off than him.”
Amy dropped her head into her hands. “Okay, okay, okay. I hear you. I’m sorry for the scene. Sorry for being a bitch, especially in public. Sorry for everything.” She looked up at her friends. “And you know what? It didn’t make me feel one bit better the way I thought it would. I was so sure if I ever got the chance to take a strip off his hide I’d do it with great satisfaction and feel as if I’d gotten back at him. But that didn’t happen. And now everything’s just in a big mess.”
“As long as you realize how destructive that little scene was,” Jinx told her, “we can try to move on from there.”
“We should go to Georgie’s and make her listen to us,” Amy said. “Try to make her understand that scene really wasn’t what I’m really like.” She twisted her lips in a grimace. “And I suppose try to accept the fact that even the devil can clean up his act.”
Reenie cocked an eyebrow. “Us? We’re your friends, Amy. You know we’re here for you, but this is really your mess to clean up. You’re the one who needs to talk to Georgie.”
“I’m not sure if she’ll even open the door to me.”
“Like I said earlier, she’s getting ready for her grand opening.” Jinx reached into her purse and pulled out an ad proof. “Look. It’s in two weeks. She’s running the ad in this week’s paper and next, and I helped her get a listing in the national directory. The chamber’s going to do a ribbon cutting. I even arranged some television coverage from the stations in San Antonio. I think she’ll have a big crowd.”
“She must be excited about that, at least.”
Jinx shook her head. “I think if she didn’t have so much money invested she’d just call the whole thing off. Maybe even sell the place.” She smiled at her friend. “I think she’s really in love with him. Like I said before, she had some bad stuff happen to her before she got here and maybe the two of them made a connection because of that. But for what it’s worth, I don’
t think she’d feel the way she does about someone who hadn’t changed a whole lot from what he was.”
Amy threw up her hands. “So what can we do? No, wait. Not us. Me. I need to fix this.” She made a face. “God, it’s going to kill me to do this. If we can get him to come back, I’ll have to look at him around here for the rest of my life.”
“So what?” Reenie demanded. “You’re so over him. You have an incredible husband who worships the ground you walk on. Can’t you finally let go of the past? Think about someone besides yourself here?”
“I guess.” Amy sighed.
“Do we even know where he is?” Jinx asked.
“Yes.” It was Reenie who answered. “Matt ran into the owner of the Silver Spur at an auction. He saw Cade loading horses in a trailer and asked the guy about it. Said the owner told him Cade came to see him, convinced the guy he’d cleaned up his act. He asked for a job, any job, said he didn’t care how dirty it was.”
“And?” Jinx prompted. “Apparently that’s working out or he wouldn’t have been at the auction.”
“The owner told Matt he didn’t believe him at first. But, big shocker here, Cade really seems to have changed. Works all day and then sleeps in the bunkhouse at night. Never goes anywhere. Hasn’t touched a drop of any kind of booze. The other hands said Cade works twice as hard as any of them all day.”
“Well, there you go,” Jinx said.
Amy frowned. “I guess that makes my hissy fit even worse.”
Reenie laughed. “Honey, that was a whole lot more than a hissy fit.”
“It just kills me to admit I don’t want him to redeem himself.” Amy twisted her lips in a petulant grimace. “I want him to lose everything and be lying in the gutter. Crap. That sounds really awful.”
“Yes, it does,” Jinx agreed. “And in case you didn’t notice, that already happened to him.”
“What does Buck have to say about all this?” Reenie wanted to know. “I’m sure he’s got his own opinion.”
“He does.” Amy stared down at her empty cup. “I thought he’d sympathize with me. He saw how Cade acted toward me, not once but twice. But he reminded me how much he loves me and of everything we have together. That he had a past to live down too, and how he nearly ended up in prison because of lies people told. He said it’s time for me to get beyond this.” She sighed. “I hate to admit it, but he’s right. Listening to him and to both of you, I guess I don’t much like myself right now.”
“Then you need to fess up to the people involved,” Reenie told her.
“All right, all right. If I plan to fix this, or try to, and repair my fledgling friendship with Georgie, I have to go see her first.”
“Want us to go with you?”
“No. Unpleasant as it is, I need to do this myself.” She looked at her watch. “It’s not too late to get over there today. Then I can go home and have Buck tell me what a wonderful person I am and make love to me all night long.”
Reenie laughed. “Always a good cure for anything.”
“I don’t think we have anything to say to each other.”
Georgie stood in the open doorway, glaring at Amy, obviously not about to issue an invitation to come inside.
Jinx was right, Amy thought. She looks like hell.
“The place looks really nice,” she told her, hoping to soften her a little or bring a smile to her face.
“Thank you. Matt was kind enough to send one of his hands to help me finish up, but Cade actually did most of the outside work. The hard work.” She stressed the word hard.
“He, um, did a nice job.”
“Amy, I’m really very busy. I don’t want to shut the door in your face, but I will if I have to.” She brushed a stray hair back from her face. “Look. I understand you and Cade have a bad history. He told me all about it when he came to work here. But no matter how rotten he was, I don’t believe he was as extreme as you made him out to be. He’s not—”
“You’re right.” Amy held up a hand. “I’ve been waiting a long time to make him pay for the way he treated me. I wanted him to stay in the gutter where he’d fallen. And I was upset to see him with you, someone I hoped was going to be my friend.”
Georgie leaned against the doorjamb. “We really don’t know each other at all, but I want you to understand I’m neither stupid nor gullible. The school of hard knocks wipes that out of you. And I’d have liked to think you’d have enough respect for me to at least call me over privately and ask me about the situation.”
“I know.” Amy felt heat rush along her cheeks. “And I’m sorry. I could stand here all day and try to make excuses, but the truth is I never should have done it. That’s not really me. I’m very sorry this happened, Georgie. Reenie and Jinx and I are all coming to the open house and spreading the word. We want you to make a success of this place. Really.”
“Somehow it doesn’t seem quite as exciting as it did before, but thank you. I guess. Now if you don’t mind, I have things to do.”
This time Georgie really did close the door.
Amy sighed and trudged back to her truck. Her next stop was going to be a lot harder, but she hoped she’d have better luck.
Cade was doing one of his least favorite jobs, shoveling manure out of the stalls so he could put down fresh hay, when he heard one of the other hands call his name.
“Hey, Hannigan. Someone here to see you.”
He stuck the pitchfork in a pile of hay, pulled off his gloves and walked out of the barn. And stopped short. The last person he expected to ever see again, Amy Stark Montgomery, was standing by the corral. Even stranger, she had a very uncertain look about her. He’d never seen Amy look uncertain about anything.
All the anger he’d been feeling since that day at the Bit and Bite came rushing back, and he had to force it back down inside of him. Getting mad wasn’t going to do any good. Amy might have exaggerated—a lot—but he couldn’t say she was completely wrong.
Schooling his features into an expressionless mask, he came to a stop about six feet from her.
“Aren’t you a little lost, Mrs. Montgomery? A little far from home?”
Her mouth curved in a sad attempt at a smile. “Mrs. Montgomery? Aren’t we on a first name basis anymore?”
“I don’t think we’re on any basis. You made your opinion perfectly clear the other day, so I can’t see that we have anything to talk about. I don’t know why you’re here, but you wasted a trip.”
He couldn’t even blame her for ruining his life, because he’d done that all by himself. His mistake was thinking people could see the effort he was making and get past it. What hurt him the most was its spillover onto Georgie.
Georgie.
Every time he thought of her, a pain stabbed his heart. They’d had something so special going. Something they were both almost afraid to acknowledge. But it had been there. And for him probably always would be.
“I’ve been angry at you for a long time,” she told him.
He snorted. “Tell me something I don’t know. But to be fair, you had every right to be.”
“I took great satisfaction in seeing you lying in the gutter, Cade.”
“I’ve had a lot of time lately to look back at how I lived my life, and I don’t much like what I see. I’m sorry for the way I behaved with you. If you came for an apology, you’ve got it. Now you can leave.” He turned to walk back into the barn.
“No, no, no. Wait,” she called. “Please.”
Against his better judgment, he stopped and turned around. “What? Make it fast. I have work to do.”
“I understand you’ve been working very hard. Not drinking or anything.”
“Yeah. Pin a medal on me.”
“I was wrong, Cade. I never should have made that scene. I’m…sorry for what I said, for the lies I told. And I’m sorry that Georgie got caught in it.” Her next words came out in a rush. “I was just so angry—” She shook her head. “Forget that. Buck told me I need to let go of all that rage, and he
’s right.” Her laugh was slightly manic. “He actually said I should thank you. If we hadn’t broken up, I wouldn’t have been in a position to be with him.”
Bitterness flooded him. “Glad I could be of some help. Now you really need to leave.”
“But Georgie—”
Anger rose in him, quick and hot. “Leave Georgie out of this. Don’t even say her name.”
“She needs you, Cade. I really think she loves you. And apparently you need her too.” She looked down at her feet, pushing her toe at the loose gravel.
Cade ground his teeth. Why wouldn’t she go away?
“Well, you made damn sure she and the entire town know I’m not good enough for her. Did I deserve it? Absolutely. But Georgie didn’t. The damage is done, so get in your truck and head on home.”
“I… She… That is, I guess you’re good for each other.”
“She’ll find someone else. Someone more acceptable to all of you.”
“Please,” Amy said again. “Just listen. I’m trying to make this right and it isn’t easy for me. Her grand opening is a week from Sunday. I know how much it would mean to her if you were there.” She looked down at her feet. “We’ll all be there too. To make sure everything goes, you know, smoothly. And show our support.”
“I’m sure she’ll appreciate it. Are you done?”
“Oh, Cade.” She wrung her hands. “I’ve made such a mess out of this. Buck told me how hard you’ve been working and Jinx said Georgie gave her an earful. Not all of us can get second chances, but it seems you did and you’re not wasting it. So if you’re really the man people tell me you are now, if Georgie really means something to you, then a week from Sunday get yourself cleaned up and go to her grand opening. I promise she wants you there.”
He stared at her for a long time. “I’ll think about it.”
Then he turned and walked back to the barn, images of Georgie dancing in his brain and emotions swamping him until he felt he might choke.
Georgie looked around at the people swarming everywhere. Thank goodness, the weather had turned really nice so she was able to utilize the yard. Every picnic table the caterer had brought was filled with people laughing and talking. More crowds were walking through the rooms of the Butterfly B&B. She’d chosen the name when Cade was still here, thinking how significant it was since she, Cade and the house were all emerging from a chrysalis as brand new butterflies.