Lilac Wedding in Dry Creek

by Janet Tronstad

  “Well, let’s go, then,” Jake said as he reached an arm out to help his mother get to her feet. He was relieved it wasn’t his father’s inscription. “The dishes can wait while you show us.”

  “I just want it to be you,” his mother said as she looked at him. “No one else. It’s private.”

  Wade turned around to stare at that. Jake didn’t blame him. They seldom talked about important things in their family, but when they did, they always did it out in the open where everyone could hear. Well, except for their secrets. Those they never talked about to anyone at any time.

  “Don’t worry about the dishes. We can get them,” Cat said as she waved the two of them off.

  “Yeah.” Wade’s voice was a little funny, although he rallied with a grin. “We’ll want to have them done by the time Amy gets here. She’s got enough on her mind without looking at our dirty dishes.”

  Jake nodded. “Thanks, then.”

  He hoped his mother didn’t plan to show him her will or anything.

  “Where do we need to go?” Jake asked as his mother took her first step.

  “It’s in my bedroom,” she said as she took her second step.

  “Could I bring it into the living room?” he asked. He was feeling a little curious now that she was making such a big deal about this.

  “I’ve waited a long time for this day. You can wait a little longer,” his mother said as she looked up and gave him a smile.

  Jake was totally bewildered by her words. Then he figured she must be going to give him some remembrance of his father. A watch or something like that. He couldn’t imagine what that would be. The man’s last watch had broken. His father went so few places he decided it was a waste of time to buy a new one when they had the clock in the kitchen that kept perfectly good time. Maybe his mother still had the old one and wanted him to get it repaired, though. Or maybe his father had something else.

  As near as Jake could remember, the man hadn’t owned any ties, so that was out. He had those pair of expensive cowboy boots, but they were almost worn out before he was killed and he thought Wade took them when he went off to the rodeo.

  Jake gave up guessing when they were midway through the living room. Whatever it was, he’d pretend it was the best present anyone had ever received in the history of the world. And then he’d get it repaired as best he could and cherish it. Not because of his father, but because his mother had returned from prison and wanted her son to have something to remember his family by. He had to admire her determination to make the best of everything life threw at her.

  Jake pushed open the door to the dark bedroom. Only the light from the door made it possible to see the shapes of the furniture inside.

  His mother ran her hands against the wall next to the door until she found what she wanted.

  “Here it is,” she said as she flipped on the overhead light. Like in the kitchen, there was no light fixture. It was simply a bare bulb hanging down in the middle of the room showing everything up with a yellow glow.

  “I could buy you some covers for the lights,” he said as they started making their way to the bed. “Just let me know what you want and I’ll have them delivered. Wade can get the ladder and put them up. Don’t you try to do it, though. We can’t have you falling again. Come to think of it, we should just get an electrician out and have the house rewired.”

  “I’m waiting to finish the kitchen before I do the lights,” she said as she sat down on the bed.

  “Well, I could help with both,” Jake assured her as he sat down in the chair he’d used earlier. He could feel the wooden spindles across his back.

  “You don’t want to be wasting your money,” his mother said as she reached over and patted his arm. She was sitting on the side of the bed right across from him on top of the same denim quilt he remembered being on the bed when he was a boy.

  “Don’t worry about the cost. I can…” He stopped. If he told her just how many electrical jobs and light fixtures he could buy for her, she wouldn’t believe him. “I can get some secondhand globes really cheap and someone local can do the work.”

  “Once we’ve finished talking, you’re going to need every penny you have saved,” she said mysteriously. “I guarantee it.”

  “Okay,” Jake said slowly. His mother didn’t look upset. “If it’s dad’s watch, I can have it rebuilt inside. I’m sure there are places that do that kind of work.”

  She shook her head. “Now, why would we fix that old thing? He got it at some pawn shop in Billings. It wasn’t worth anything when he bought it. It kept running longer than anyone expected. I don’t even know where it is anymore.”

  “Okay,” Jake repeated. He was officially out of clues.

  “Bring me that picture sitting on the dresser,” his mother said after some time had passed. “The small one in the brass frame at the back.”

  Jake stood up and walked over to the dresser. There had to be twenty framed photos sitting on the top of the thing, all well dusted and arranged neatly. Only one of them had a brass frame, though, so he picked it up and brought it back to his mother. He glanced at the photo when he first grabbed it, but he didn’t get a good look because he didn’t want to stare at it while his mother waited.

  “Here.” He held the picture out to her as he sat back in his chair. Suddenly, he thought he’d figured it out.

  “You want me to find some old relative, is that it?” He’d always been told they had no aunts or uncles or cousins, but maybe there had been someone that no one ever talked about. A black sheep in the family. “A picture’s not much to go on, but they have detectives now who can find anyone, even if they don’t want to be found.”

  They had a lot of detectives like that looking for people in Las Vegas. Some of the investigators liked to play a little poker while they waited for their clues to come through. He couldn’t imagine that anyone from either side of his parents’ families could be that hard to find.

  But his mother shook her head. “I think I already know where the relative is that I’ve discovered.”

  She handed the picture to him then.

  “Well, that won’t be hard, then,” Jake said as he took it. “I’ll just…”

  He glanced down at the photo he held and everything stopped. It could have been a picture of Lara. The hair was shorter, of course, and not quite as curly, but the eyes had the same blue color and the hair was only slightly darker than hers. It was a boy, but he could have been her twin.

  “That’s your father when he was three,” his mother said when he looked up at her in shock. “You boys all took after my side of the family, but your father had some German blood in him. His hair grew darker as he got older until it was more brown than blond.”

  Jake looked back at the photo. “I’ll be.

  Then he looked closer. “He doesn’t appear to be very happy.”

  “It was his birthday,” his mother continued. “And he didn’t want to wear that little suit his mother had for him. She died the next year and that was the only picture he had of himself as a boy. His father wasn’t much for family photos.”

  Jake handed the picture back. “So now you know.”

  His mother nodded. “I wasn’t sure if you knew. That’s why I wanted to tell you in private.”

  “I just found out before we left Las Vegas. Lara doesn’t know and I don’t think Cat has completely decided about whether to ever tell her.” Jake’s voice was bleaker than he had thought it would be. “Of course, it’s probably for the best.”

  “How can that be for the best?” his mother asked indignantly. “Every child deserves to have a father.”

  Jake closed his eyes. “Sometimes kids wished they didn’t have one, though.”

  It was so silent that Jake didn’t open his eyes until seconds later.


  “You’re speaking of your father, of course,” his mother said when he finally did. “I know he was an abusive man, but he was still your father.”

  “That’s what worries me. There’s that old saying that an apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Well, he’s my tree.”

  “Oh, I see.” His mother exhaled and he believed she really did understand. She put her hand on his arm in sympathy and he appreciated it.

  They sat there together for a few more minutes.

  “I still think it’s worth taking a chance,” his mother finally whispered. “You can choose to be the kind of man you want to be. With God’s help, of course. I’ve seen people change when they turn to Him.”

  His heart broke when he saw her faith. She seemed to believe fiercely in what she said. He wasn’t willing to gamble on it, though. He knew the odds. And God had never come through for him in the past.

  “I’ll talk to Cat about whether she can at least tell Lara that you’re her grandmother,” Jake finally said. “I know she’d be excited to know that much.”

  “I’ll show Cat the photo, too, if you don’t mind,” his mother said. “There are people in Dry Creek who knew your father when he was a child. They might recognize his likeness in Lara’s face. I don’t want Cat to be caught by surprise if someone says something.”

  Jake nodded. “And everyone will be at the wedding tomorrow. Why don’t you just stay sitting there and I’ll go ask Cat to come in here? We might as well do it now.”

  He stood and walked toward the door. He didn’t want to pressure Cat into doing anything she didn’t want to do, but knowing how people in Dry Creek would all want to greet a little girl, he thought it was likely someone would spot her resemblance to the Stone family. He had not realized that his family’s legacy would touch Lara whether he decided it should or not.

  Cat looked over when Jake suddenly appeared in the doorway to the kitchen. She had a dishtowel in her hands and was drying a plate. “You’re back.”

  She took a step closer to him, away from the counter.

  Wade was running some more hot water into the sink to rinse the glasses they had used for supper. Lara had been assigned the task of wiping off the table with a wash rag. She was on her third pass by now, but it kept her busy, especially when she decided she needed to scrub the legs, too.

  Everyone was busy with other things and Cat had the luxury of just looking at Jake. She wanted to remember him like this. His hair was deep black in the half shadow of the doorway and he wore a slight smile on his face. Emotion flared in his eyes as he stared back at her. The stubble on his cheeks was more pronounced than it had been this morning. His white shirt was wrinkled by now, but he had it open at the neck and, after feeling his gaze upon her, she wanted to go closer and press her face into the space under his chin where his skin was bare.

  She turned to glance at Wade and assured herself he had his back to her and Jake. And Lara was still scrubbing.

  Maybe she should go over to Jake, she told herself as she turned back. Just to touch him so she could remember everything with enough clarity so she’d be able to wrap the moment around her when she was back in Minneapolis.

  She stood there, tempted and undecided.

  “I was wondering if you could come with me for a minute,” Jake finally said, his low voice carrying softly across the space between them.

  She blushed, even though there was no way he could have read her thoughts. She stepped back to set her dish towel on the counter before continuing the walk over to him. The living room behind Jake was in shadows.

  She did not know what to say when she got near enough to reach out and touch him.

  He held out his hand. “I wanted to show you something.”

  She smiled then and took his fingers. She felt his calluses as they slid smooth against the palm of her hand. With no further thought, she followed him into the darkness.

  They were in the middle of the room when she squeezed his hand and he stopped. He turned toward her, but the only way she knew was because she suddenly felt her hands curled up against his chest. She hadn’t realized how fine the cotton was that he wore, even though he’d been wearing the shirt since Las Vegas. Sometimes it took a touch to know the value of things, she thought, as she lifted her hand up to his face.

  “I could be blind,” she whispered as her fingers traced his face. “And I would still know you.”

  His jaw trembled as she ran her fingers over it. And then, suddenly, his hands were holding her head, smoothing back her hair, and she knew he was going to kiss her.

  His lips pressed against hers softly and then deepened until it filled every empty space in her heart. They were bound together for a moment. And then he moved to lean against her forehead, his breath coming hard.

  As they stood there, she remembered then how often she had begged him to tell her stories of this house—and the lilacs. She’d dreamed of both. The lilacs were not in bloom, but they needed to kiss inside this place. His memories had been as close as she had come to having a home in her youth. In her mind, she always shared this place with him.

  “I don’t want to pressure you,” he said finally, his voice rough.

  She almost said she loved him, but she brought herself back from the brink. She didn’t want to burden him with that when she might not have any future to offer him. And he had never made any declarations of love to her. He always said he would take care of her, but he never spoke of deeper feelings.

  He found her hand again even though she’d dropped it to her side.

  “Come,” he said. “This is important.”

  She let him lead her to his mother’s bedroom. The door was shut, but a strip of light showed around the bottom, and when he turned the knob and opened it, a soft light came out into the hallway.

  Gracie was sitting on the bed and she looked up with a worried expression on her face. “Did you tell her?”

  Jake shook his head. He had released her hand when they walked into the room and he stood several feet away from her now. She supposed it was only natural. He wouldn’t want his mother to think he was connected to her more strongly than friendship would warrant.

  Finally, she realized he had the same frown on his face as his mother wore on hers.

  “What is it?” she asked, wondering suddenly if they had heard about her medical condition.

  His mother held out a small framed photograph that looked as if it had been sitting on her dresser for decades.

  “I know.” The woman gestured for Cat to take the photo.

  “I don’t understand,” she said, but she took the photo anyway.

  And then she looked down. The only light in the room came from the bare bulb almost directly over her head. At first she thought the glare on the glass was distorting the image, but she turned it slightly and saw that the photo didn’t change that much.

  “It’s my father,” Jake said as she kept staring at the picture. “The reason my mother wanted you to see it is because he was born in this house. There will be people around who will remember what he looked like at that age and they’ll likely be at the wedding.” He paused for a moment and then continued. “I know you wanted to spare Lara all of this. I don’t know if there’s a way to hide her face. Maybe get her a big hat. Or a scarf.”

  Cat felt the first tear trickle down her cheek before she even knew she was crying.

  “It’s my fault,” Jake said as he stepped closer and put his arm around her shoulders. “I never should have brought you here until we had it worked out. I don’t want you to feel forced into anything. It’s your choice whether you tell her anything.”

  She shook her head as she leaned into his embrace. “It’s not your fault. We sort of dropped at your feet from the sky. It just wasn’t very good timing, I guess.”
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br />   “I’m glad you came,” Jake said, his voice sincere.

  Gracie cleared her throat and Cat looked over at her. “The decision is yours, but I think a child deserves to know who her father is.”

  Cat was standing close enough to Jake that she could feel the ripple of tension move through him.

  “And then what?” he said to his mother. “Lara might like me better as some distant uncle who sends her presents.”

  “You don’t need to send things.” Cat stepped away from him. “Lara and I will be all right. We do fine—just the two of us.”

  “You don’t do fine,” Jake said fiercely, turning from his mother to her. “And it’s my responsibility to help you. You have my financial support regardless of what you tell Lara. But remember, she thinks her father is some fairy-tale prince off doing important things. I’m a two-bit gambler who’s been lucky at the tables. There’s no magic dust in my life. I don’t want to fail her.”

  She and Jake were quiet for a few minutes and finally his mother stood up.

  “You two need to talk,” Gracie said as she reached for her cane. “And I’m going to go out and have some ice cream with my granddaughter.”

  “You can’t—” Jake started, but his mother interrupted him.

  “I’m not going to say anything,” his mother promised as she started walking to the door. “Besides, if you do decide to tell her now, you need to be able to answer the one question she’s sure to ask.”

  Cat looked up. “What’s that?”

  “When is Daddy going to marry Mommy?” Gracie stepped through the door into the hallway. She grinned as she reached back and shut the door behind her.

  The question paralyzed Cat. She looked over at Jake. “I’m sorry. Lara won’t really ask that. It will never even occur to her.”

  She went over and sat on the bed. “She won’t expect anything.”

  Jake just stood there and suddenly he started to grin. “Oh, she’ll expect a wedding, all right. I know that much about my girl. The prince always carries the princess away to his castle and they live happily ever after.”