Lilac Wedding in Dry Creek

by Janet Tronstad

  “I didn’t mean they would be good for the present,” Cat said. “They’re really more something a bride would get for the ceremony. Or a good friend of the couple would give them when they got engaged.”

  Jake picked up the bride’s glass and turned it over. “Made in Ireland. Should be good quality.”

  “Be careful,” she cautioned. “They’re expensive. Maybe even Waterford crystal.”

  Jake didn’t slow down at that.

  “We could get them, even if it’s not a usual gift,” he said as he offered the glass to her, questioning whether she wanted to look at it closer.

  She shook her head. “I just like the way the artist made their heads turn to each other—that’s all.”

  At that, Jake picked up the groom’s glass, too, and brought them together as though he was toasting with them.

  “They’re kissing,” Lara whispered from below as she looked up

  Cat nodded as Jake made the lips of the glasses touch again.

  This time, when he held the crystal out to her again, she ran her fingers over the bride’s goblet. The glass was smooth and cool. It felt elegant.

  “We should definitely get them then,” Jake persisted. “They’re a work of art. The woman at the counter said that some of these things in here will be handed down from generation to generation. My brother is all into family these days. He’d like that.”

  “They are lovely,” Cat agreed.

  Jake looked into her eyes for a second, just long enough for her to think she should look away. His dark eyes always held secrets, but she didn’t want to know them. For if she did, he would expect to know hers, too. It was too soon to tell him everything.

  Suddenly, Jake turned to face a different aisle in the store.

  “I think it might be better to get one of those little crystal trays over there,” he said, putting the goblets back and turning away from the moment just as she had.

  He walked away, speaking as he went. “My brother and his wife can use a tray like that for all the children they’re planning to have. Holiday meals at their house will be something. And who doesn’t need a place to put their olives and pickles? Generations of the Stone family like olives. My dad was as anti-Christmas as they come, but we always had olives on that day.”

  Cat was relieved when Jake went over to look at the small tray. She needed to catch her breath. A wave of longing had started clutching at her when they were all looking at those goblets and it was almost too much for her when Jake was staring into her eyes. She wanted to live long enough to pass down some fine glassware like this to her daughter. In all of her possessions, she had nothing special to leave to Lara. Even more than leaving her an heirloom, though, she wanted to dance at Lara’s wedding. Was that asking for too much? Cat thought she had made her peace with what her life was to be or not be. It was in God’s hands. She knew that. She accepted that. But…

  She looked down and saw Lara staring up at her with concern in her young eyes.

  “I’ll buy the glasses for you, Mommy. I have my piggy bank back home. It rattles real good now. I have lots of money.”

  Cat pulled her daughter to her. “It’s not that, pumpkin. I’m just thinking about what a big girl you’re getting to be.”

  “I’m four and a half,” Lara agreed proudly. “Almost, anyway. Two more months.”

  Cat smiled. She wanted so much and she had no guarantee of anything. She squatted down and hugged her little girl. “I just want you to have a happy life. Remember, if anything happens, I wanted you to have a good life.”

  “Does that mean I get a puppy?” Lara said, her voice growing bright.

  Cat laughed as she stood up. “No, I’m afraid it doesn’t. We still have to go back to Minneapolis and live in our apartment and you know there’s no room for a puppy.”

  She sensed Jake behind her before he spoke.

  “Do you have to go back there?” he asked.

  She spun around to face him. “What?”

  He looked cautious. She knew that look. His shoulders hunched over a little and his eyes, black with emotion, didn’t hold hers for long. A ripple of tension showed along his jaw, but then he shrugged. “I’m beginning to think that an apartment that doesn’t allow pets might not be the best place for you and Lara. Maybe you should move closer.”

  “Closer to what?” Cat asked in bewilderment. He looked suddenly shy and she didn’t understand why. She couldn’t afford to drive much farther to work. And rent wasn’t cheap in Minneapolis. Her landlord gave her a break on the price because she’d been there for a few years now.

  “Closer to me,” Jake said quietly.

  At those words, Cat’s world flipped over. At first she thought he wasn’t going to meet her eyes, but then he looked at her squarely and she saw the tumult of emotions in them. For a wild moment, she wondered if maybe she and Jake had a chance to go back in time and be together again. She’d give almost anything to feel his arms around her again.

  “I wouldn’t try to push myself into your lives. I promise,” he said after a moment. “I just—well, if you were closer I wouldn’t worry about the two of you so much.”

  “Oh.” Cat felt all of her wild imaginings fall back to earth with a thud. She had somehow forgotten how responsible Jake felt for everything and everyone. Of course, he would want to do his duty by her and Lara. She had come armed with that knowledge. And, truthfully, she was hoping he did feel responsible for their daughter. She just knew that love was a far cry from duty and she had searched for love her whole life.

  She had looked away when she heard his words, and he stood still. She knew she had to force back her tears and answer him. He did care enough that he deserved a polite response. She looked at his eyes and saw the emotions had all been wiped clear from them. He was measuring her, but he was distant.

  “That’s so thoughtful of you,” Cat said and forced herself to smile. She concentrated on the faint stubble on Jake’s cheeks. “I appreciate it. But my job is in Minneapolis and our apartment is comfortable.” She wondered if she had stretched the truth on that. “It’s small, of course, but we manage.”

  “I see,” Jake said as he partially turned away.

  She resisted the urge to reach up her hand and run her fingers down the length of his cheek like she had with the goblets.

  “I’ll just go pay for the olive tray,” Jake said. His back was facing her fully by now and he was going down the aisle.

  “I’ll go out and get Lara buckled into her car seat,” Cat said as she reached over and took her daughter’s hand.

  “The pickup’s not locked,” Jake said from where he stood, looking at the crystal trays.

  Cat nodded even though he couldn’t see her. She let her daughter lead her out of the store and into the sunlight in the parking lot. Tears were nothing more than a nuisance when a woman needed to walk somewhere. If she kept blinking back the tears, though, she assured herself, they would go away. She hadn’t expected Jake to want to be closer when she came so she had no cause for disappointment.

  She needed to remember she had come here for Lara. Her own feelings didn’t matter.

  She looked down at her daughter. Cat needed to be strong for her.

  Chapter Five

  He had blown it again, Jake told himself as he waited at the counter for the woman to ring up his purchases. He never knew when to keep his mouth shut around Cat. He hadn’t meant to practically propose to her. It’s just that, when he heard her say their apartment didn’t allow pets, he knew that she and their daughter should move closer to him. He hadn’t said any word about marriage, but that’s where his mind had been going. He wanted to take better care of them. Cat must have known what he was going to say next. She turned so white he had been afraid she was going to faint on him again.
/>   “Four hundred and twenty-three dollars,” the clerk informed him with a brisk smile.

  Jake pulled his credit card out of his pocket and handed it to the woman.

  Cat had always known his intentions before they were clear to him. That was probably why she had bolted all those years ago. Of course, if he had known she was pregnant he would have tracked her down until he found her. If she didn’t want to get married, he had told himself, he’d be content just knowing she was okay.

  It would have been a fool’s compromise, he admitted as he signed the credit-card slip. Even without Lara in the picture, the thought of Cat disappearing again was painful. They needed him—this woman and his child. If nothing else they should have his money in a more settled way. What if he died? Who would take care of them then? His blood ran cold at the thought. No, he needed to be able to picture them in his mind with a house of their own and a backyard with a little black-and-white puppy.

  “Sir?” The clerk’s voice interrupted his daydream.

  “Oh, thank you,” he said as he took the large silver bag the woman had been holding out to him.

  Several white boxes were nestled inside. He had bought the olive tray for his brother and new sister-in-law, a strand of what the clerk called “starter” pearls for Lara and the wedding goblets for Cat. As he walked over to the door of the store, he wondered if he’d ever be able to give the glasses to her, though, as nervous as she was about any talk of the future.

  The sunlight made him blink when he stepped out of the jewelry store. He could see his pickup in the corner of the parking lot and Lara and Cat were inside. The sound of his boots on the concrete sidewalk kept pace with his thoughts as he walked over to his vehicle.

  Lara smiled at him through the side window as he got close and he grinned at her before glancing over at the front passenger seat. Cat tilted her head back and it seemed as if she put a pill in her mouth. She followed it by lifting her water bottle to her lips.

  He opened the driver’s door then. “Headache? I can go to one of the other stores and get some aspirin while we’re here.”

  Cat waved his suggestion away, although her color was still pale. “I’m fine. I just took something.”

  “I’ll be ready to go in a minute, then.”

  Jake stepped back and opened the large toolbox that stretched across the truck bed under the back window. He quickly tucked the bag in the corner right next to his new set of screwdrivers. Then he closed the top and put the key in the padlock. He didn’t want Lara to peek if he left the bag on the backseat of the pickup.

  He hadn’t closed the cab door completely and he realized the temperature of the air inside the vehicle had gone down by ten degrees while he was stowing his bag of gifts.

  “Sorry,” he muttered as he swung himself up into the seat and pulled the door closed behind him. “I let more of the heat out than I thought I would.”

  Cat didn’t answer.

  “It won’t be long to Dry Creek now,” he assured Cat as he turned the key in the ignition and started his pickup. He was worried about her.

  A grateful murmur came from the passenger side this time, but Cat didn’t move her head to look at him. She kept looking down at the floorboard and her hair formed a shield that hid her face.

  “You’re sure you’re all right?” he asked as he let the pickup idle. Maybe she was still sleepy, but it seemed more was wrong. “We can stop and get a hotel room for a few hours if you need to lie down for a bit. I’m sure Lara could use a nap, too.”

  Cat shook her head. “I’m fine. We need to keep going.”

  “We’ll stop and have breakfast in a minute.”

  Cat nodded at that, so he figured that’s what he needed to do. He had noticed a bright red billboard when he drove into the parking lot. It had invited people to have breakfast at the café ahead and, once he had driven the pickup out to the main street, he followed the sign’s arrow to the next intersection. Eggs and bacon would do them all some good.

  The café had cinnamon French toast instead, and Cat said that sounded good to her. Jake followed her lead and Lara wasn’t about to be left out. The waitress bought them three plates with toast topped with pats of butter and a packet of maple syrup on the side.

  Jake was the first to finish his. “That was good.”

  Cat nodded in agreement, but didn’t stop eating to say anything else.

  The silence was nice, in a way, Jake realized. This must be what it was like for regular families. No one was taking their plate out to the porch so they wouldn’t have to listen to the man of the house rant about everything from the waste in government to the dust a neighbor made plowing his field. And no one needed to stay behind in hopes of protecting their mother from the man’s fists when she didn’t bring him his whiskey bottle as fast as he wanted.

  Jake wondered if those kinds of scars ever left a man.

  He could come to welcome mornings like this. There was no tension between anyone at the table. If something needed to be said, they’d say it. But they didn’t need to worry about what would happen if someone wanted to pass the salt and accidently bumped their father’s hand as they tried to reach the shaker.

  “My mother will feed us again when we get to Dry Creek,” Jake said and Cat turned to him at that.

  Now that she’d had breakfast, her face had more color to it. It was still pale, but the pink was shining through. He’d always thought she had the most beautiful skin.

  “I don’t want your mother to go to any trouble.” Cat sat her fork back on her plate.

  “It’s too late to stop her,” Jake said cheerfully. Things had to be better at the old ranch house now that his father wasn’t around. “And she probably started airing out the bedroom upstairs after I called.”

  Suddenly, a knot formed in his stomach. He’d forgotten. He’d been in such a hurry when he told his mother he was bringing a couple of friends that he hadn’t said they were a woman and a little girl. He hadn’t pictured until this moment what a difference that made to the scenario in his mind. He’d warned Cat about Wade being likely to make a speech welcoming her to the Stone family. But he hadn’t thought about his mother’s reaction. She was likely to read more into Cat’s presence than his brother would. The combination might scare Cat so far away he would never see her again.

  “My family is a little different.” Jake figured he better do some damage control now. He shifted the knife on his plate nervously. “We didn’t grow up like everyone else. I thought you should know that before you meet them.”

  Cat sat up straighter at that news and actually looked over at him. “You’re not still talking about the murder charge, are you? Because you said your mother didn’t do it.”

  She stopped and glanced at Lara, but the girl didn’t seem to hear.

  It was silent for a moment as the waitress came by and gestured to Jake’s empty plate. He nodded for her to take it.

  “And I think she’s pretty remarkable for trying to save her children that way,” Cat said as she sat there looking troubled about something. “She must be some mother.”

  “She’s not a matchmaker like my brother,” Jake said. “You don’t need to worry about that. But she’ll fuss over you.”

  “I’m just wondering if I could do what she did.”

  Jake had never seen his mother as heroic. She had been too quiet for that, enduring rather than confronting things in life. “I think she felt guilty for not leaving my father when he turned so…” He glanced down at Lara, who seemed to be listening now. “When he turned into a bad man.”

  “Like a troll?” the girl asked.

  “Something like that, I guess.”

  Lara seemed satisfied and turned her attention back to her plate. “My father, the prince, should have been there. He knows how to fight tro
lls.”

  “Does he, now?” Jake said. Even the best of mortal men would disappoint his daughter, and he was nowhere close to being that.

  Everyone was quiet for a moment.

  “So, who did it, then?” Cat asked after a minute. “The—you know—the deed that—well, stopped your father.”

  Jake shrugged. “It seems like a neighbor was the one.”

  There wasn’t much else to say after that and it wasn’t long before they had left the restaurant and Jake was back on the freeway, driving. Soon the houses of the city were left behind and farmland spread out on both sides of the road. There were great endless swatches of dried grass and old wheat stalks that had been cut short in the harvest last fall. It was too early for anyone to be plowing the fields, so they sat empty, but Jake felt something inside him come to life.

  His brother had been right about one thing in their conversations lately. Jake did miss being on the ranch. There was nothing to compare with the feel of a horse under a man as he galloped after a stray calf. And, sometimes, when the sun set on him in Las Vegas, he missed the peace of an evening on the ranch in a way that was almost physical. It seemed as if the love of the land was something born into all of the Stone children.

  “I will say for my father that he never took out a loan against the ranch,” Jake said because the thought came to him in the silence.

  “Some alcoholics would have,” Cat agreed. “You have to give him credit for that.”

  “That’s about all he did right.”

  Jake wondered suddenly if his mother had been to visit the cemetery behind the Dry Creek church recently, where his father was buried. He’d asked Wade a couple of weeks ago and his older brother hadn’t gone by. His younger brother, Tyler, was nowhere in the area, so he clearly hadn’t looked in on their father’s grave. The last Jake had heard about Tyler, he was in a special-ops unit in the armed forces. No one even knew what country he was in.

  “There are no words on my father’s gravestone,” Jake confessed. Something about the vastness of this land made him want to share with her. “He’s been buried there for ten years now and no one has even bothered to put his name on the marker.”