For as far back as Sunny could remember, Grandmother’s garden had grown back here. Tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, garlic, peppers, and pumpkins had always grown in the raised beds, and herbs like lavender, mint, and parsley had filled the beds around the house. Flowers were reserved for the front yard—for show. But during the years following Grandmother’s death, this space had been neglected. Busy with work and life, Sunny had turned her back on the yard until it was so forlorn that she could barely stand to see it outside the kitchen window.
But last spring, after losing her job, she had thrown her energies into restoring the garden and herb beds, and now the yard looked better than ever. She knew Grandmother would be pleased. While this was a comfort, Sunny knew Grandmother would not be pleased to know Sunny was returning to Pendleton. And, as weird as that sounded, since Sunny had never been in Pendleton, it did feel as if she were returning.
“Please, forgive me, Grandmother,” she said quietly. “But I need to do this. Not only for me, but for you…and for my mother. I need to see where I came from, what made me who I am.”
Then she closed her eyes and committed her way to God, just as her grandmother had taught Sunny to do long ago. Grandmother had been firm in her faith, believing that God, the good Creator, had given them life and that the way they thanked Him was to let Him direct their paths. Sunny believed that God was directing her path now—leading her to the roots of her people.
She finished her coffee, picked up Grandmother’s old harvest basket and shears, and headed for the garden. After cutting a few cucumbers, tomatoes, banana squash, peppers, and a couple of zucchinis, she walked to Mrs. Purdy’s house next door and knocked.
“Oh, hello, Sunny.” Mrs. Purdy, still in her robe, smiled as she stepped back, waving Sunny into the house. “Come in, come in. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen you.”
Sunny followed her in. “The garden is coming on really well now.” She unloaded the produce onto the counter. “I hope you can use these…or give them away.”
“Oh, thank you.” Mrs. Purdy picked up a ripe red tomato. “Just beautiful, Sunny. As good as Mary ever grew.”
“Thank you.” Then Sunny explained she was going to be gone for a while. “I wondered if you would mind watering for me if it gets real hot again.”
“Oh, not at all.”
“The system is set up. All you need to do is turn on the spigot by the backdoor and let it run about thirty minutes. I meant to get a timer on it, but—”
“Never you mind about that. You know I love that little garden. It’s so nice that you got it back to its old self again. Your grandmother would be so happy.”
“Thank you. And, of course, help yourself to any of the produce. It’s all coming on right now. Share some with the neighbors if you like.”
“Yes, I’m sure that Misty and her little boys would enjoy some of this.”
Sunny handed Mrs. Purdy a small card. “Here’s my cell phone number if you need to reach me about anything.” She smiled. “Not that I expect the house to burn down while I’m gone. It’s just that I’ve never really left the house alone for more than a day or two.”
“How long will you be in Pendleton?”
“I’m not sure exactly. But more than a week, anyway.”
“Well, don’t worry about a single thing, dear. I’ll have my eye on your little house for as long as you need me.”
Sunny hugged her and thanked her, then went back home to finish her preparations for the trip. Oh, she felt a bit silly for making such a big deal about what someone else (like Aubrey) would consider a short three-hour car trip, but the truth was, except for her big trip to Arizona during college, she’d never really gone anywhere. And she’d rarely spent more than a night away from this little house. Grandmother always fretted over the idea of Sunny being gone or traveling far from home, and most of all, she worried about a plane going down. Consequently, Sunny had never been on a plane. And at this stage of the game, she had no intention of getting on one. Reuben had teased her about her phobias, saying there was a paranoid old woman trapped inside her. He’d always been certain he could exorcise that old woman. For a while, she had believed him. But now she knew better.
Sunny stood at her closet, not sure how she should pack for this trip. As she looked at her usual teaching clothes, she wondered how suitable they’d be for a cowboy town like Pendleton. What would the weather be like? And what did one wear to a rodeo? Aubrey had made it clear that Sunny had to go to the rodeo, even if only for one day. Her parents always had a row of reserved seats, and Aubrey had already told them to save two tickets for her.
Sunny picked up the phone, deciding that since Aubrey got her into this, she better help her out. “I’m sorry to seem like such a dummy,” she began after Aubrey answered, “but I have no idea how to pack for Pendleton.”
“That doesn’t mean you’re a dummy. I’m going through my own closet right now, and I don’t even have all the right things.”
“Oh, what are the right things?”
“Well, jeans, of course, and according to my family, that would be Wranglers. I have plenty of those. I could loan you a couple pairs since we’re the same size. But you really need a good pair of boots and a good hat—even a western belt would be nice.”
Sunny opened the wooden box sitting on her dresser and stared at the photo of Jackson Sundown, so resplendent in his cowboy regalia. “Sounds like this could get expensive.”
“We can probably borrow some of those things from my folks. My dad’s got lots of belts and prize buckles, not to mention a cool collection of old western shirts. I used to tease him that he never threw anything away, but now I can’t wait to get my hands on those retro cowboy shirts that used to be my grandpa’s.”
That all sounded nice for Aubrey, but it didn’t really help Sunny much. “So, seriously, Aubrey, what should I pack?”
“Tell you what—I’ll zip on over and look at your wardrobe. Then we’ll take it from there.”
Thirty minutes later, Aubrey was standing in front of Sunny’s tiny closet and shaking her head. “This is everything?” she asked for the second time. “You really don’t have stuff in another closet somewhere?”
“This is it,” Sunny admitted. “I’ve always been practical when it came to clothes. I stick to the classics and buy quality, but I’ve always felt less is more.”
Aubrey pulled out a gray blazer and nodded. “I can see how this is good for work, but what about the rest of your life? Don’t you have any fun clothes?”
Sunny just shrugged.
“Or jewelry?”
Sunny took Aubrey over to her dresser and opened her grandmother’s old jewelry box to reveal a few pieces of fine jewelry and pearls. “This is it.”
“Okay, you’re coming with me.” Aubrey grabbed Sunny by the arm. Before long they were at Aubrey’s condo, where Aubrey took Sunny into her bedroom and started pulling all kinds of things out of her walk-in closet, which was stuffed with clothes.
“Start trying on these jeans,” Aubrey commanded.
Sunny realized it was futile to resist. After a couple of hours, she thanked Aubrey and loaded her pile of secondhand clothes into the back of her car.
“We’re not done yet,” Aubrey informed her as she got into the passenger side of Sunny’s car.
“What next?” Sunny asked.
Aubrey directed Sunny to a western wear store, and before long, Sunny was trying on boots.
“We could do this in Pendleton,” Aubrey explained, “but I want us to arrive in style.”
Sunny was impressed by how much Aubrey knew about western clothes. She knew the makers’ names—what was good and what was not. After another long hour, she had helped Sunny find several “necessities,” including a beautiful pair of boots. Unfortunately, the boots were quite pricey.
“But they’re gorgeous,” Aubrey said persuasively. “Old Gringo is the best.”
Sunny looked down at the boots and nodded. “I’m not saying they’re n
ot gorgeous. I’m just saying I’m unemployed.”
“And that is why God invented plastic.”
Sunny frowned. “First of all, God did not invent plastic. Second of all, I do not use credit.”
“Are you joking?” Aubrey looked so stunned that Sunny wished she hadn’t said that.
“No.” She smiled awkwardly. “My grandmother taught me that credit was wrong…so I don’t even go there.”
“Seriously?” Sunny looked skeptical now. “But how about your house? Don’t tell me you didn’t take out a loan—”
“I inherited it from my grandmother.”
“Okay, then, what about your Prius? There’s no way you paid cash for—”
“Actually, I did.”
“Wow. And you never use credit cards?”
Sunny shook her head.
“That is really amazing.” Aubrey glanced at the small pile of clothes they’d collected with a concerned expression. “So how do you plan to pay for all this?”
Sunny held her head high. “I’m not broke, Aubrey. But I don’t really want to tap into my savings either.”
Aubrey blinked. “So, let me get this right, Sunny. Not only do you have no debt and own your car and your house is free and clear, but you have a savings account as well?”
Sunny nodded, wishing this conversation would end.
Aubrey stretched out a finger to touch Sunny’s shoulder. “I just want to make sure you’re real.”
“Very funny.” Even so Sunny smiled.
“You are one odd girl, Sunny Westcott.”
“Thanks.”
“And you are getting these boots,” Aubrey commanded.
Sunny sat down to pull off the boots. She held one of them to examine it more closely. The stitching, the leather, the colors, the tooling—it was all exquisite. Deep inside, she really did want them. Yet, she could imagine her grandmother’s shock at the price tag.
“Listen, Sunny, you deserve these boots. The whole no debt thing aside…you’re a descendant of Jackson Sundown and—”
“We don’t know that for sure, Aubrey.”
“Let’s pretend, okay? What if you were Jackson Sundown’s great-granddaughter? Wouldn’t you want to honor his memory by arriving in Pendleton looking like someone he’d be proud of?”
Sunny knew this reasoning was flawed—that she could easily argue Aubrey down and walk out of this store without buying a single item. The problem was, she didn’t want to. As crazy as it was to splurge on clothes—especially western wear she might never wear again—she just couldn’t resist. And so she didn’t.
Chapter Five
As Sunny packed her bags, marveling at the western wardrobe she’d accumulated so quickly, something kept gnawing—blurry, yet persistent—at the back of her memory until finally she went upstairs to her grandmother’s room. The closet was tucked into the eaves of the roof and lined with cedar. Though bigger than the closet in Sunny’s room, the contents inside were even more sparse.
Sunny slid her grandmother’s few dresses and jackets aside until she came to a brown craft-paper-covered item pushed far to the end of the rod, clear against the wall. It was heavy enough to make her think it was exactly what she thought it was—although she only recalled seeing it once and then only briefly as her grandmother had quickly returned it to the depths of her closet, as if it were a skeleton or a shameful piece of her past.
As Sunny peeled the paper away, recycled grocery bags taped together with what was now very brittle masking tape, she saw the golden leather beneath and knew she was right. The paper shroud fell to the floor and she held up the fringed leather jacket—even more beautiful than she recalled. She fingered the intricate beadwork of red roses and small white flowers and green vines across the fringed yoke in wonder. The buttons appeared to be slices of antler. The garment was obviously handcrafted—and extraordinarily beautiful.
The smell of the garment was a mixture of musty lavender, from the sachets tied to the hanger, as well as cedar and wood smoke. As Sunny unbuttoned the soft hide, she wondered whose jacket it had been. Why had her grandmother kept something this incredible hidden away? The lining in the jacket was light brown satin, well worn, with a few tears here and there. But thanks to her grandmother’s training, Sunny could use needle and thread and knew it was repairable. Now, if only it would fit.
She almost reverently carried the jacket down the stairs, feeling like she’d uncovered a great treasure. A piece of her past—but whose had it been? Most likely, it was her grandmother’s…unless it had been her great-grandmother’s. That would explain Grandmother’s need to hide it away. In her room now, Sunny removed the jacket from the hanger and slipped it on before turning to look in the mirror. Not only did it fit, it looked like it had been made for her. That alone told Sunny it probably hadn’t belonged to her grandmother, because she was shorter than Sunny.
Sunny opened the box of memorabilia again, taking out the only photo of her great-grandmother and studying it closely. It was hard to estimate height based on a photograph, but judging by the graceful lengths of the fringed native dress or even her head-to-body proportion, Sunny suspected that Polly Wikiapi was taller than average— probably much taller than average for her generation and ethnicity. Sunny’s best guess was that her great-grandmother might’ve been close to Sunny’s height of five feet, ten inches.
Still holding the photo, Sunny stood in front of the mirror again— this time, comparing her features to her great-grandmother’s. She took in the high brow, large dark eyes, straight nose, high cheekbones, full lips. Sunny set aside the photo to pick up the beaded headband, tying it across her forehead. Now she picked up the photo and looked into the mirror once more. She wasn’t even surprised at what she saw. It all made sense. The resemblance was striking—she and Polly Wikiapi could’ve been sisters.
If Sunny had been boarding a ship bound for China, she couldn’t have been more nervous or excited than she was as she backed her car from the driveway the next morning. She knew her apprehension was unfounded, and she had no intention of revealing her true anxieties to Aubrey, but as she drove over the Burnside Bridge, she hoped this wasn’t all a big mistake. It wasn’t too late to change her mind, but she’d given her word, and Marsha was expecting both Sunny and Aubrey to meet her at the shoot location at one. No, she decided as she parked in front of Aubrey’s condo, there’s no turning back now.
Sunny was barely out of her car when she spotted Aubrey coming out of her unit loaded down with bags and luggage. “Do you need help?” Sunny called as she got out of her car and went over to the stairs.
“No, I got it.” Soon Aubrey’s bags were in the back of the car. Then she turned to Sunny and let out a low whistle. “Well, look at you, cowgirl.”
Sunny held up her hand as she looked down at her western attire of Wrangler jeans, retro shirt, and gorgeous boots. “I figured I might as well put my best foot forward.” She grinned at Aubrey. “You look like a cowgirl too.”
Before long, they were zipping down the road.
“Let ‘er buck!” Aubrey yelled just as Sunny entered the freeway. “What?” Startled, Sunny glanced at Aubrey.
“Let ‘er buck!” she cried again. “It’s the official Round-Up cheer.” “Oh.” Sunny turned her attention back to the traffic moving east on I-84.
“Come on then, cowgirl-friend, let’s hear you say it.”
“Say it?”
“Let ‘er buck!”
“Okay. Let ‘er buck.”
“Come on, you can do better than that. Let ‘er buck!”
Sunny took in a deep breath, then yelled, “Let ‘er buck!” “Woo-hoo!” Aubrey threw back her head and laughed loudly. “All righty then, you might be ready for Pendleton.”
“So people walk around town yelling let ‘er buck?”
“During Round-Up, some people do. And this is a big year—the hundredth anniversary. I’m guessing enthusiasm is going to abound.”
“But it’s five days until Round-Up offi
cially begins,” Sunny pointed out. She’d done her research and knew that Saturday’s Dress-Up Parade was the official kickoff.
“And it might take you that long to loosen up and get into a Round-Up state of mind.”
Sunny couldn’t really disagree with her on that account. Even under normal circumstances, loosening up didn’t come naturally to her.
“Hey, I took the liberty of changing our hotel accommodations with Marsha,” Aubrey informed her. “I hope you don’t mind.”
“You changed our hotel?”
Aubrey chuckled. “I changed our hotel to Lowenstein Ranch.” Sunny’s brows lifted. “We’re staying at your parents’ house?” “Sure. And Marsha’s going to reimburse us for the hotel expense.” She chuckled. “That might almost buy another pair of boots.”
Or at least it might make up for what she’d paid for the last pair, Sunny thought. “So your parents don’t mind having me too?”
“My mom can’t wait to meet you.”
“Really?” Sunny frowned. “Why is that?”
Aubrey didn’t answer.
“Did you tell—”
“It’s because you’re a model, Sunny. I told you my mom was nuts about that kind of thing.”
“I’m not really a model, Aubrey. I mean, you’re a model. I’m just trying to make some extra money until—”
“You’re modeling for the Pendleton catalog and that makes you a model, okay?”
“Okay.”
Love Finds You in Pendleton, Oregon Page 4