HE ENDED UP driving Lindy back to her house. He waited downstairs, half dozing while she went up to shower and get dressed. She returned a few moments later with a little bag packed, and a determined look on her face.
“I’m ready,” she said.
She sounded like she was riding into battle, not going home for a visit.
“Okay,” he said.
They drove slowly away from Grassroots Winery, down the winding two-lane road lined with pines that led into Gold Valley. Through the main street with its vintage brick buildings, where the lunch traffic was starting to appear, the little parking lot of Mustard Seed packed full as people went to get their burgers. The curb in front of Belissima packed out as well, the restaurant full, people chatting over their lunch, visible through the windows.
It was amazing what a normal day it was, when nothing else was normal.
And somehow... In all of it... Lindy had decided to lean on him.
Him.
The man that all of his siblings would say was apparently a bad bet.
This wasn’t sex. This was something else. And yet...here he was.
He had no idea what in the hell he was doing.
But he drove, all through the main street of town until they exited out the other side, past the winding hillside drives that led to the mountaintop homes that overlooked the entire valley with million-dollar views and matching price tags.
“Turn here,” Lindy said, directing him the opposite direction of those fancy houses.
They took a narrow, pothole-filled road, down in a flat spot, surrounded by fields. Eventually, it grew more and more unkempt, sections of fence downed, ripped up barbed wire everywhere.
There was a sign, beat up and peeling, that said Boulder City.
He knew what Boulder City was, but he hadn’t realized Lindy was from there.
The trailer park was little more than a shantytown, the place barely habitable. And trailer park was a stretch as a descriptor. There were no neat rows of mobile homes, no kept-up lawns—Astroturf or otherwise.
The collection of dwellings was haphazard at best, half of them covered in bright blue tarp, to cover up holes and keep moisture out, he imagined. The porch on the first house was collapsed, the step up to the front door treacherous. They continued on the gravel road, and Lindy didn’t say anything.
“I didn’t know this is where you were from,” he said.
“I told you I was trailer trash,” she said, turning to him and forcing a smile. “I wasn’t kidding.”
“I wish you wouldn’t say that,” he said.
“Well, I wish it hadn’t been said to me.”
“I guess if you say it enough times yourself...”
“In theory it quits hurting,” she said. “But... I’m still testing that out.”
She blinked, and for the first time since he had pulled her out of Dane’s room earlier, he saw tears in her eyes.
“Right here,” she said, her voice scratchy.
They pulled up to the front of a dilapidated blue structure, with peeling metal siding, a strange yellow substance exposed beneath. It looked like someone had tried to use expanding foam to hold the place together and it hadn’t worked.
“I hope she’s here,” Lindy said.
He couldn’t tell if she meant that or not. He had a feeling that she would be relieved if her mother wasn’t here, if she had tried, but hadn’t succeeded.
He didn’t know what call he had to make that kind of judgment. He only knew he was pretty certain he was right.
He didn’t ask if she wanted him to come with her or not. If she hadn’t wanted him here, she could have driven herself. He was going to go ahead and assume that he was welcome all across the board. Because why in hell not.
He had a feeling that his rationale wouldn’t go over well with her, so he didn’t bother to give it to her. Didn’t bother to ask. He followed her, up the depressed front steps and to the door.
“Okay,” she said. She looked at him like she was thinking about offering an explanation, and then didn’t. Instead, she raised her fist and knocked.
The door opened almost immediately, and Wyatt was struck by the similarities between Lindy and the woman standing there in the doorway. She wore her years on her skin, hard and cut deep, grooves around her mouth that indicated years spent smoking cigarettes. She was wearing an oversize sweatshirt and loose-fitting pants, but even so, he could see the resemblance between her and Lindy. Her blond hair was graying, pulled back in a bun almost exactly the way Lindy wore it. And they had the same blue eyes. Wary. Reserved.
“Why are you here, Melinda?” Lindy’s mom asked without preamble.
The way she said Lindy’s name brought a few things into startling clarity for Wyatt.
“Your phone is turned off.”
“I changed my number,” her mom said. “Rick took off with the phone,” she added. “I was not going to give that bastard the satisfaction of having me pay for a red cent. I cut off the service. Got a new number.”
“I have the same number I’ve always had,” Lindy said, her tone faintly accusing. “You could have called me and let me know.”
“That happened two years ago, Melinda. If you’re just now noticing that I have a new number I’m not sure you have a leg to stand on when it comes to being angry with me.”
Lindy rubbed her forehead. “No. But then... I never do.”
“You came here for something.” She looked at Wyatt. “Are you getting married again?”
“No,” Lindy exploded with the response. Wyatt, for his part, tried not to look surprised by the question. He tried not to have any reaction at all.
“This is just...a friend.”
“I know about your friends, Melinda,” her mom said, the words clipped. “He looks exactly like the kind of friend I would expect you to have.”
“We’re not having this particular discussion, Mom. I need to come inside for a minute.”
Lindy’s mom shrugged and stepped away from the entry, allowing both Lindy and Wyatt in.
“Why don’t you sit down?”
For the first time, Lindy’s mom showed a flash of serious concern. “You’re not sick, are you?”
“No,” Lindy said. “Dane is in the hospital. He had an accident yesterday during a ride.”
Wyatt didn’t miss the flash of horror that streaked through her mother’s eyes. The instant paling of her complexion, the way her lips went waxen. But then, she recovered. Her expression held tight and firm. “I never did like him riding those animals. Is he going to be okay?”
“They don’t know. He’s not conscious. Right now, he’s in a medically induced coma. They don’t want him to wake up, because his brain is swollen. If he woke up now... Anyway. He’s really bad. I couldn’t call you to tell you. But I thought you needed to know.”
“He’s not awake?”
“No,” Lindy said.
“So there’s not much...not much point in going to see him.”
“I can give you a ride, Mom. If you don’t have a car that can make it that far. He’s a couple of hours away.”
Lindy’s mom shook her head. “No. I wouldn’t want... If he’s not awake anyway...”
“Mom, if you want to go, I’ll pay for your lodging. I’ll get you there. You don’t even have to ride with me. I’ll rent you a car.”
“I don’t need you to hand me money, Melinda. Just because you have some, doesn’t make you the lady of the manor.”
This wasn’t the first time they’d had this conversation. Wyatt might not be the most insightful or emotionally intelligent guy, but he knew enough to realize that. That this was an old wound, not a new one.
“I was never trying to be the lady of the manor, Mom,” Lindy said. “Maybe I wanted you to not have to live in a trash heap if you didn’t want to.”
“What I have, I earned,” her mom shot back. “I don’t take handouts. I taught you better than to take them too.”
“Well, if what you said about me is true, Mom, that I work for what I have too. Just not in a profession that you approve of.”
Wyatt knew he was in the middle of a hell of a lot of hard feelings. And he wasn’t sure quite what to do about them. In the Dodge family, you stuffed those feelings down deep. You certainly didn’t end up yelling at each other in a small living room, with an audience.
Hell, if you were a real good Dodge you didn’t even use yourself as an audience for your bad feelings. You simply had another drink.
“If you were wondering, Wyatt,” Lindy said, her neck arched. “My mother thinks I’m a whore because I married a man with money. Who couldn’t possibly love me.”
“He left you, didn’t he?” The words were sharp as knives. Wyatt felt them cut.
“That he did. And I got his money. So... I’m a smart whore at least.”
“Lindy...” Her mom started to speak, but Lindy held up her hand.
“No. That’s what you think I am. Because why would anyone love me otherwise? I was trading it for money. But at least I had the good sense to take money when it was there. Unlike you. You’ll just die miserable and alone in this horrible house because you won’t take help from anyone. Because you won’t let your boyfriends help you, you won’t let your kids help you. You can tell me how that’s better, Mom. I’ll listen.”
“I didn’t say it was better. But I have pride.”
“So much pride you won’t let me take you to see your son that’s laying in the hospital? That’s how much pride you have? What’s the point of that. It doesn’t keep you warm. It keeps you away from the people that love you.”
“Because people leave,” her mom said. “Pride is all you have at the end of the day. You’re not here. Dane hasn’t been by to see me in God knows how long, Rick left. Your father left. What I have is mine. Don’t ask me to feel guilty about that, Melinda Parker. I will not. What you have... That’s not yours.”
“No. It is mine. My name is on it. And you know what? Maybe if you acted like you wanted someone to stay they would. Dad would have stayed if you would have... Dammit, Mom, you let us live in poverty rather than let him support his own children.”
“How long would that have lasted if I had let him in? Then we would have gotten dependent on him, and he would have left. I wasn’t going to change my life around just to suit him or even you kids. You left too.”
“That is what people do when they grow up. They go make their own way,” Lindy said, her tone stiff.
“Is that what you think you did? Made your own way? There’s not a lick of truth to that. You married rich, and you took his money. If the judgment had gone another way, it could’ve been taken from you. This...” her mom said, gesturing to the dilapidated building around them “...this is mine. Nobody, not the government, not a man, can take this from me. I don’t live a life that can be taken from me.”
“Dane could be taken from you. He could die. Mom, he could die. And your pride would have kept you from seeing him one more time. Your pride can take a hell of a lot from you. It already took me away from you. But this... This is serious. This might be it. And if you can’t set it all aside for a bit... If you can’t just put it all away so that you can see your son while he’s injured like that... I don’t know.”
“I’ll find a way to get to see him. I have some money in savings. I can borrow a truck from a friend if need be.”
“But you can’t borrow my car? You can’t take a ride from me?”
“It’s different,” her mom said.
“It’s not,” Lindy said, her tone rising, her shoulders shifting back and forth in an agitated motion. “You’re just stubborn for the sake of it. And you hang on to baggage you don’t need to hang on to so that you don’t ever have to admit you were wrong. You can make it about money, and about security if you want, Mom, but I actually think that it would make you break in half if you had to admit you needed someone. That you love someone. That it hurts you to know that Dane is injured. He’s your son.”
“Of course I’m upset that he’s injured,” her mom shot back, her voice hard. “Whatever you think about me, I’m not a villain in a movie. But how does falling apart help anyone? It doesn’t. It doesn’t get anything done.”
“Neither does this. You have my phone number if you decide you want my help. Chances are, I’m going to be at the hospital. But I will help you if you want to get there. All you have to do is ask. That’s all you ever had to do.”
Lindy turned and walked toward the door. “Come on, Wyatt.”
Wyatt was experiencing some kind of strange, out-of-body experience. Where he almost identified with the wooden, angry-faced woman sitting on the couch in front of him. Wanting to handle it all. Wanting to be an island. But in this instance, it was ridiculous. Flat-out ridiculous.
“I’m a friend of Dane’s from the rodeo,” Wyatt said. “And I know how much it sucks to ask for help. But sometimes you have to. Sometimes even I need help. Lindy has been helping me with my ranch. Because she’s good at business. She’s smart. However she got the winery that she has now, she’s running it better than her ex-husband ever could have. Even he admitted it. She helped me figure out how to get my business off the ground in a way that I couldn’t have done without her. She’s the one with the head for this, not me. And if I hadn’t taken her help when it was there on offer, I would have been a damned fool. I would probably be losing my ranch about now. There’s no shame in needing help. But there is shame in stiff-necked stupidity. And I’ve had my share of that, but not this time.”
Lindy walked out of the trailer, not waiting for him. That was fine. But he wasn’t done.
“Call me,” Wyatt said, scribbling his number down on an old business card in his wallet. “If you decide you want to get over to the hospital. And if you don’t want to accept help for you, do it because it will help Dane. Because it will matter to Lindy. This? This brand of independence is nothing but pure selfishness, whether you can see it or not.”
He turned and walked out of the trailer, not waiting for a response from Lindy’s mom. Not waiting to see if she tore up the offered number, or kept it.
“You didn’t need to get in the middle of that,” she said, marching to the car and getting into the passenger side.
He got in beside her, starting the engine. “Right. I didn’t need to help?”
“Shut up,” she said.
“She’s definitely your mother.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Lindy asked, practically growling.
“I think you know.”
“She wouldn’t let me help her,” Lindy said. “When I got married to Damien, he offered a bunch of money to help get my mom out of the park. He’s an ass, there’s no denying that. But, he had his moments. I wanted her to take it. To take the money. To have a better life. She wouldn’t do it. That was when she... When she said I was a prostitute. Because I was sleeping with him, and getting money. And she sure as hell was never going to be a man’s prostitute. She’s always done that. Kept everything separate. She never married our father. She never took a damn thing from him. He would come by and visit sometimes until he stopped coming at all... Dane... Dane was crushed. We lived a harder life because of her stubbornness. And I reached a point where I couldn’t deal with it anymore. And what the hell is wrong with a woman who doesn’t think a man can love her daughter unless it’s a transaction?”
“I don’t know,” Wyatt said.
He heard her draw in a sharp breath, a shocked, pained sound. “Well, she never really did. She loves herself more. Her sense of security. All that stiff-necked pride she talked about. So no. I don’t suppose I ever did. She was never happy for us. Never gloried in our achievements. She was...distant. Like that. All the time. For one second I thought... It looked like she cared. Like she was going to go right to his side. But she shuts it down. She doesn’t let herself have it. She doesn’t love her own children all that much. So no, I don’t suppose I ever thought my husband loved me all that much either. And then... He didn’t, did he? That’s actually the worst thing about him. He’s not awful. He’s not a mustache-twirling villain. He’s not a completely morally bankrupt human being. He didn’t love me enough.”
Wyatt put his hand on her shoulder. “It’s his loss, Lindy. It always was.”
She smiled, small and a little sad. “I think I actually, finally believe that.”
“Are you ready to drive back over to the hospital?”
She paused for a moment, and then sighed heavily. “I think I’d rather go back to Get Out of Dodge. For just a couple of hours.”
“Okay,” he said, not quite sure what to make of that.
“Yes,” she said, sounding determined. “I need to... I want to go back to Wishing Well Falls.”