by Carol Finch
“I’m not calling the sheriff,” Lester muttered, then scowled.
“But you said—”
“Forget what the hell I said!” Lester spouted. “Just get off my property!”
“Okay, but the crowd down at the Coyote Café sure is gonna be disappointed to hear that you assaulted a minor.”
“More ’n likely his drunken daddy did it,” Lester jeered. “Kid probably deserved what he got, too.”
Nate stared deliberately at the bottle in Lester’s fist. “On second thought, maybe we better get the sheriff out here to give you a sobriety test. That was real mean-spirited of you to knock around this kid who’s half your size, Lester. And here he was, coming out to tell you that we’ve decided to paint and spiffy up this dump you call a house.”
“What?” Lester stared owl-eyed at Nate.
“Yup, we scheduled you for next Saturday. This place is a real eyesore. You’d probably have time to fix it up yourself if you didn’t camp out at the café most of the day.”
“Get out of here!” Lester bellowed.
“Sure, whatever you say, Les.” Nate held up his hand in mock surrender. “Just take it easy. Don’t blacken Jake’s other eye in one of your fits of temper. He won’t be able to read from the Bible at church tomorrow.”
With extreme satisfaction, Nate watched Lester slam the door. Dust fell from the woodwork. The porch light flickered.
Jake dropped his head and kicked a rock across the driveway. “Guess I just about screwed up, didn’t I?”
“Yup,” Nate confirmed as he laid his arm around Jake’s slumped shoulders and turned him toward the car. “If you had landed a blow in Lester’s big mouth, he would have used the incident against you, against me. I learned the hard way that throwing punches only makes a situation that much worse. You have to learn to channel your anger and frustration into a positive outlet. Otherwise, you do nothing but confirm people’s low opinion of you…. Come on, kid, let’s put your bicycle in the trunk of my car and I’ll drive you home.”
“Don’t wanna go home. The old man probably hasn’t passed out yet,” Jake mumbled.
Nate winced, remembering instances when he hightailed it to his hiding place near the pond, then slept in the barn when his dear old daddy went on a rampage. Jake didn’t have a barn to hide out in. He barely had a house.
“How’d you avoid getting clipped by your old man?” Jake asked as he plopped on the bucket seat.
“I learned to recognize the signs and count the beer and whiskey containers in the trash. My dad got real mean and nasty after a six-pack. When he had the eighth bottle of beer under his belt he came up swinging, and I knew it was time to hightail it out of the house,” Nate said, without an ounce of emotion in his voice. He had gotten past the hurt, anger and confusion, and could recite the unpleasant incidents as if he were a news reporter. “You can press charges against him, call the Department of Health and Human Services, or stick it out until you turn eighteen.”
“I got nowhere to go,” Jake murmured as he brushed his hand over his swollen cheek. “And there’s my kid sister. Can’t leave her to defend herself.”
Nate’s heart went out to the kid. He knew Jake felt trapped in an intolerable situation, and every day was another exercise in torment.
When Nate had returned to Coyote Flats, he never imagined that he would find himself involved in so many lives. He had planned to win acceptance and earn a little respect, then sit back and enjoy his financial success. Instead, he had taken on five young charges, a former sheriff who could talk a man’s ear off, a feisty cook and an elderly aunt he didn’t even know he had. Furthermore, he had dragged Katy into the thick of what had become constant turmoil with Lester Brown and John Jessup.
Nate sighed tiredly. At what point, he wondered, had he lost control of his life?
He fished out the cell phone to inform Katy that he had defused the situation—temporarily, at least. The sound of her voice had a calming effect on him. But it didn’t do a blessed thing for the King Kong-size headache pounding at his brain. Nate knew what would relieve that, but he wasn’t going to be able to make a repeat performance at Katy’s house tonight. Nate had an angry, hurting kid to take home, and he had to ensure the boy wasn’t in further danger from being pounded flat by his old man’s doubled fists.
Katy’s mouth dropped open when a troop of men, carrying armloads of boxes, filed into the library at midmorning on Monday. The foreman of the crew smiled cordially at her, then gave her the once-over. For the first time in years Katy didn’t cringe when a man showed interest. Amazing what the Nate Channing School of Confidence had done for her. She no longer tried to downplay her femininity, no longer felt threatened by no more than a masculine glance. It was grand to be okay with herself as a woman, as a person, again.
“Ma’am, where do you want us to set up these computers?” the foreman asked.
“Computers?” Katy repeated stupidly. “But I didn’t order any computers.”
“No, ma’am, the electronic equipment is being donated to the library by the Sunrise Oil Company.” He glanced at the picnic tables and grinned. “Oops, I guess we better bring in the conference tables and chairs first. While we replace your picnic tables, you can decide where to set up the computers.”
“New tables and chairs?” Katy tweeted, bewildered.
The good-natured foreman, who looked to be hovering around the age of forty, grinned at her dumbstruck expression. “I’m told this is part of Sunrise Oil’s public relations program. Our next stop is the school to deliver the other computers.”
Katy sat down before she fell down. Nate had arranged all this? He was donating the electronic equipment and furniture to the library and school, even when the citizens of Coyote Flats still treated him like an unwanted case of the plague?
Katy was incensed at how unappreciative folks around here had been while Nate carried on his community service and beautification crusade. Everybody was suspicious of Nate’s hidden agenda, thanks to Lester’s motor mouth. But did that stop Nate? Goodness no. The generous, community-minded man, who was treated like public enemy number one, continued doing his good deeds, despite public criticism and suspicion.
Blast it, if folks around here didn’t appreciate Nate’s efforts pretty damn quick, she was going to knock their collective heads together!
Katy watched the foreman motion for his crew to stack the boxes in an out-of-the-way corner, then he wheeled around to haul off the picnic tables. Katy beamed in satisfaction when the men carried in four expensive oak tables and matching chairs. Suddenly this Podunk library looked classy. With a fresh coat of paint this place would take on a cheery, inviting atmosphere.
“Oh, before I forget, the boss asked me to inform you that his paint brigade would be here about four o’clock, if that’s okay with you, ma’am.”
“Okay? Okay! That will be wonderful,” Katy said enthusiastically.
“The Sunrise computer guru should arrive about two o’clock to get your systems up and running and tie you into the Internet,” the foreman reported as he positioned the last computer on the table. “Have a nice day, ma’am.”
Katy flashed him a grateful smile. “Thank you so much! I’m going to order a plaque that credits Sunrise Oil with these wonderful donations. I can’t begin to express my gratitude, but please relay my deepest thanks to your boss.”
The foreman and his crew stood there staring at her. Katy couldn’t figure out why she had left them so stunned, until the foreman said, “Ma’am, that smile of yours is appreciation enough. I swear you have the kind of smile that lights up a room.”
She did? Still grinning with excitement, Katy watched the men troop out. Well then, she decided, she would have to flash a smile more often. Her expression must have displayed the extreme pleasure that was rolling through her…
All because of Nate…
Katy wanted to track him down and kiss him breathless for his donations, for…well, just for being him! The man had turned
her life completely around, and she couldn’t thank him enough for that. If only she could find a way to express the full extent of her appreciation, to repay him for his unending kindness. Katy promised herself that she would reciprocate, somehow or another.
Chapter Ten
Katy’s elation remained with her throughout the day. It must have showed, too, because folks stopped and stared when she strode into the Coyote Café at high noon. Even Lester Brown shut his big trap long enough to appraise her colorful sky-blue business suit with its hiked-up hem, her curly ’do and her delighted smile.
For once, Katy didn’t withdraw from the attention she received and slink to the corner booth. She parked herself in the middle of the crowded café without a second thought. She considered herself living proof of the magic Nate Channing could work on her and the other folks around here, if they would respond rather than crawling into their shells like leery turtles.
Forty-five minutes later, Katy exited the café, unaware of her limp. She didn’t feel less than whole or handicapped because of it. She felt…fabulous, rejuvenated, ready to take on the world.
She was pretty sure the wattage of her smile was still generating on high power when Nate and his teenage charges showed up at four o’clock, because Nate skidded to a halt and drank in the sight of her. Without the slightest hesitation, Katy marched right up to him, flung her arms around his neck and kissed the breath out of him, despite the audience of attentive teenagers. She decided she was right in thinking these boys needed to witness positive affection, a healthy man-woman relationship, because the examples seen in their homes were distorted.
“Thank you a thousand, gazillion times for the tables, computers and the soon-to-be paint!” Katy told him.
Tired though Nate was—what with working double days without taking time to rest—he smiled in return. It was impossible not to. Katy’s dazzling smile, which cut an adorable dimple in one cheek and made her azure-blue eyes glisten with inner spirit, was contagious. Her metamorphosis was nearly complete, Nate mused in satisfaction. This was the Katy he remembered, the one whose image had been floating around his mind for sixteen years.
“If I tell you that you look absolutely breathtaking and that killer smile puts my head in a tailspin, you won’t think I’m shallow or superficial, will you?” Nate asked while she hugged him a second time. “Truth is that I’m as crazy about your dazzling good looks as I am about your sharp mind.”
“There is nothing shallow or superficial about you, Nate,” Katy quickly assured him. “And thank you for the compliment.”
“And you’re welcome for the donation,” Nate replied, then glanced sideways. “Are the computers functioning properly? Is your Internet service working?”
Katy nodded excitedly. Curlicue curls bounced around her bewitching face. Nate wanted to return her hug, to draw her shapely body against his, and to assure her that one look at her was equivalent to a feast of aphrodisiacs. But he held the handle to a can of glossy white paint in each fist. If he dropped them, they would probably land on her feet.
Nate forgot about the irritation of exiting from the bank a few minutes earlier to see that someone—as if he couldn’t guess who—had written Get Out of Town in white shoe polish on the windows of his car. Drug Lord had been printed on the hood and trunk. Apparently, Lester had aggressively accelerated his crusade to run Nate out of town before Nate spread the word that the old coot had blackened Jake Randolph’s eye—not that Nate would have actually stooped to Lester’s level and spread an outright lie. But obviously Lester wasn’t taking any chances.
Lester didn’t know how to handle counterpropaganda, except to heap more suspicion on Nate’s head. But Nate’s ongoing problems with Brown and Jessup seemed tolerable when Nate found himself basking in Katy’s radiant smile. In fact, he swore the new Katy was more electrifying and endearing than the one he’d known sixteen years ago. She truly looked as if she had regained interest in living, in herself. She had reconstructed her life and was making giant strides with each passing day. The changes Nate saw in her bordered on phenomenal.
“I have one request, though it’s short notice,” Nate said after he put the boys to work placing protective covers over the furniture.
“Name it,” Katy insisted.
“I wondered if you and Tammy would drive to Odessa with me for a shopping spree. I talked to Tammy earlier and she told me she doesn’t have homework tonight. Since she is fashion-conscious, I would like her to select some clothes for my crew. Sort of as a bonus for their cooperation and hard work. You know, a couple of pair of trendy jeans and shirts for each of the boys.”
“Oh, Nate, how considerate of you! What a wonderful idea. I’ll be happy to go with you, but you have to let me pay for half the purchases,” she bartered, then flashed another knock-you-to-your-knees-and-keep-you-there smile. “Can’t let you have all the fun and satisfaction, Channing.”
“I wasn’t trying to maneuver you into—” he tried to object, only to be cut off in midsentence.
“I know you weren’t. You should know that I’m not the least bit influenced by Lester’s ridiculing propaganda. I’m simply irritated with myself for not thinking of it first.”
Nate glanced over the top of her shiny blond head to see the boys working industriously. “Yo, guys, I need to make a run to Odessa. Can I count on you to finish this job and clean up? Fuzz said he would stop in later with sandwiches and colas, then close up the library. Katy and Tammy are coming with me.”
The boys nodded simultaneously and continued working.
“Thanks, fellas. I appreciate it.”
“And I appreciate you,” Katy told the boys. “This dreary old place is going to look terrific when you’re finished.”
Katy barely got the words out of her mouth when Millie Kendrick, wearing a new straw hat with shiny new plastic birds and greenery attached to the brim, came up the handicapped ramp and pushed her way through the double doors with her shopping cart.
“You aren’t putting my boys to work without their after-school snacks,” she said with her usual gruffness. “Boys! Get over here and take these cookies and colas off my hands before I’m tempted to eat them all myself.” She tilted her head back, and there was a playful sparkle in her eyes. “Gotta watch my figure, ya know.”
The boys converged on Millie like a pack of starved coyotes. “Thank-you-ma’ams” filled the room.
“And I’ve had just about enough of that ‘ma’am’ stuff,” Millie harrumphed. “You call me Aunt Millie, ya hear?”
Nate stood aside, watching Millie dole out three varieties of homemade cookies and a selection of soft drinks from her shopping cart. Instinctively, Nate reached for Katy’s hand, giving it a gentle squeeze. For the first time in his life Nate thought he understood what a real family bond felt like. These neglected kids, this tenderhearted old woman who put up a gruff front, and Katy, who had regained her vibrant spirit, were as important to him as Fuzz Havern. Together, they had given Nate something this community hadn’t—a feeling of appreciation and acceptance. This community might never welcome him, but this unlikely family of his made him feel as if he had come home.
Although it hurt to know that he might always be rejected by his hometown, Nate tried to tell himself it didn’t matter. He was still giving something back to his birthplace because he felt obliged and inspired to do it. If he was putting forth the effort selfishly hoping to be offered the key to the city and to be crowned King of Coyote Flats, then his motivation was entirely too self-serving, anyway, he reminded himself. But still…
Nate cast aside the whim and followed Katy through the front door. She gasped in outrage at the sight of shoe polish and hate messages printed on his car.
Nate shrugged. “It’ll wash.”
“Damn that Lester Brown,” Katy huffed as she stamped down the steps. “He is really asking for it.”
“Yeah,” Nate agreed. “And if you let him have it, the same way Jake tried to do, I’ll have to defuse another
volatile situation.”
Reluctantly, Katy settled her ruffled feathers. “Fine, I won’t pound the jerk flat and mail him to Antarctica, but I want you to know that I’ve had it up to my eyeballs with him.”
Wheeling around, Katy dashed back to the library and returned a moment later with wet paper towels to remove the shoe polish from the windows.
Nate slid beneath the steering wheel, then watched Katy plunk down, still steaming like a clam after witnessing Lester’s latest prank. “You really do look gorgeous,” he complimented her, marveling at her animated features, the spirited sparkle in her eyes.
“Thank you, but don’t think you can flatter me out of my fit of temper,” she warned, despite her pleased smile. “Maybe you have developed the patience of a saint, but Lester makes me feel like the devil!”
“I’m nowhere near saint status,” Nate contended as he backed from the parking space.
“In my eyes, you are. In the eyes of those boys, and of Millie and Fuzz, you are. Apparently, the rest of the folks in this town are legally blind and terminally stupid!”
Nate smiled in amusement. “Is there any chance of you calming down before we reach Odessa?”
“Maybe.” Katy crossed her arms over her chest and tipped up her chin. “And maybe not. I may decide to blow the lid off this town if folks don’t wise up. The mousy little Katy Bates is gone, vanished.”
“Whatever you say, Dr. Jekyll. When you and Mr. Hyde get your act together, let me know.”
Katy slumped back in the plush seat when Nate pulled into her driveway and honked the horn to notify Tammy they had arrived. “I called Fuzz this afternoon and asked for advice on the best way to handle the situation with Jake and the abuse he’s taking from his father,” she said solemnly. “Fuzz told me you had discussed the matter with him yesterday and that he was already making contact with the proper authorities.”
Nate nodded. “Fuzz would like to handle that situation. He has the experience and professional connections and contacts. Jake is afraid to leave home because of his kid sister. I get the impression that Jake runs interference for her, and he would rather be his dad’s whipping boy than let his sister endure what he’s been through.”