There’s nothing as empty as a big house after the family all goes home in the middle of the afternoon after Thanksgiving dinner. Katy had invited Fiona to ride with her to take Irene back to the facility in Wichita Falls. Allie had insisted that she go home with her, and Fiona had been tempted to go over to the Lucky Penny and hold that precious baby all afternoon. Lizzy had wanted Fiona to go see her new house, which was now part of the Lucky Penny also. But Fiona begged off every offer, saying she wanted to put her things away.
She stood in the middle of her old room, where not one thing had changed since she graduated from high school. She opened a few drawers to find them still organized with scarves in one, pajama pants and knit shirts in another one. Things that she’d left behind when she went to college. The closet was the same—jeans, shirts, boots, and a couple of heavy, warm coats.
“A fresh start,” she murmured.
She’d left everything behind for a purpose: so she wouldn’t be reminded of home. It had worked. She hadn’t been homesick like the other girls—not one time. She’d lost herself in classes, in the social life, in living on a shoestring budget and working as a waitress at a steak house. And now here she was back, with the same old third-wheel attitude that had made her want to leave Dry Creek.
She sighed and stretched out on the bed. Allie had been the smart one. She’d always been Daddy’s girl because of her love for carpentry. Lizzy was the pretty one and had been Grandpa’s favorite because she liked the feed store business. It wasn’t that Fiona didn’t feel loved; God, no! Her mama and granny loved all three girls as equally as humanly possible. And it wasn’t that she was jealous of her sisters and their ambition or their inheritance.
Lacing her hands behind her head, she stared at the ceiling. “It was the belonging that I had trouble with,” she whispered.
While Allie and Lizzy put down deep roots, Fiona had grown wings. And now she was right back in the same place with the same feelings as she’d had then. She popped up to a sitting position and shook her head. She wasn’t eighteen anymore. She’d flown the coop and even if she was back in it temporarily, that did not mean she had to clip her wings and settle down in Dry Creek.
“Hey, anybody home?” a deep voice yelled right before someone started up the steps.
She hopped off the bed and opened her bedroom door. “Deke?”
“No, Jud. We got that old rattle trap of a truck hauled out behind the barn on the Lucky Penny and fixed the fence.” He stopped at the top of the stairs and hiked a hip on the railing. “Hey, it looks like my bedroom is right across the hall from yours. That going to be a problem?” he asked.
“Not one bit. I forgot that you were staying here. Everyone coming back over for supper after a while?”
“Wild horses couldn’t keep them away. I’m going out to check on one of the heifers before they get here, though.” He smiled.
Blake was the wild cowboy and Toby had been dubbed the hot cowboy, but Jud had gotten the reputation of being the lucky one. Did that mean fortunate in ranching, oil, or women? Or maybe all three? Probably it had to do with that crooked little grin and that swagger.
Katy had barely gotten her coat off that evening when the family started to arrive for leftover supper. Allie, Blake, and Deke came through the door with baby Audrey all bundled up inside a carrier. As soon as Allie took her out, Deke reached for her.
“Give me that baby, Allie. I haven’t held her yet today. I’m sure she’s grown a foot since this afternoon,” he said.
“Not quite but she’s working on it.” Blake removed her little pink hat and kissed the baby on the top of her red curls.
Fiona slipped past Deke and took the baby from Allie’s arms. “Not so fast, cowboy. You got to hold her a whole bunch of times already.”
She sat down in the nearest rocker with the baby in her arms and all her anxiety disappeared. It didn’t matter if she had to start all over. She’d made it home, where no one cared if she was penniless or had a million bucks in the bank.
“She looks like Allie, has your hair, and is already showing signs of my temper,” Fiona said.
“Hey.” Lizzy and Toby pushed into the house, stomped the snow from their boots, and hung their coats on the hooks on the hall tree. “You are hogging the baby. I haven’t held her at all today.”
Lizzy was the outspoken one for sure. She might look all sweet with those pecan-colored eyes and dishwater-blond hair, but folks around Dry Creek knew better than to cross her. The only time Fiona had ever worried about her was last year when she had been engaged. It was downright scary to see the feisty Lizzy turn into a submissive prim-and-proper woman who was going to be a preacher’s wife. Thank God that didn’t work out.
“Yes, I am and I don’t intend to stop. I can’t believe you named her Audrey.” Fiona kissed Audrey on the top of her head and inhaled the sweet smell of baby shampoo and lotion. “I’m going to rock this baby until dinner is ready. I’m already falling in love with her, Allie.”
“Enjoy it because we’ll be eating in five minutes. We just have to pull it all out of the refrigerator. Anyone wants their food hot can stick it in the microwave,” Katy said.
“How was Granny when you left her?” Fiona asked.
“You don’t want to know.” Katy blushed.
“Why?”
“Let’s just say she was on another Walter kick and thought I was her best friend. She went into explicit detail and comparison between him and my father. I thought I’d burn up with shame.” Katy fanned her face with the back of her hand.
“Just remember that she’s not herself and what she’s talking about might have happened or it might be something in her imagination,” Blake said.
When Fiona first saw pictures of Blake with his dark hair and green eyes, she’d thought he was the handsomest cowboy she’d ever laid eyes on. Then Lizzy sent pictures of Blake’s brother, Toby, and Blake took a backseat.
She chanced a sideways glance toward Jud. With that mop of blond hair and those pretty eyes and quick smile, why on earth wasn’t he married?
“Hey, Lizzy, I need some help out here,” Katy called from the kitchen.
The cowboys and her sister moved toward the kitchen, leaving Fiona alone in the corner of the dining room with Audrey, which was fine with her. Fiona rocked the baby and sang a lullaby. So what if she couldn’t carry a tune. Audrey didn’t care one bit.
Her stomach growled loudly, reminding her that the last meal, as big as it was, had long since been digested. Two huge meals a day was pure luxury, especially when she’d arrived in Dry Creek with exactly two dollars and thirty-nine cents in her purse. She’d been afraid to buy coffee or food with it in case she needed to put a tiny bit more gas in the truck. She’d been running on fumes and luck for the last ten miles.
Throw in a prayer and a bit of cussing to that mixture, she thought.
Audrey wiggled around until she was looking up at Fiona with big blue inquisitive eyes. Fiona put her finger in the baby’s hand and Audrey quickly closed her tiny fist around it.
“She’s pretty special, isn’t she?” Katy asked.
Her mother’s voice startled her. “You snuck up on me.”
“Supper is on the bar. Want me to hold her so you can eat?”
“I hate to give her up, Mama. I’d forgotten what it’s like to hold a baby,” Fiona answered.
“Then you’ve been gone too long. Maybe you should volunteer to do nursery duty at church.”
“If Allie lets Audrey go to the nursery, I just might do that.” She handed the baby up to her mother and went straight to the kitchen. As luck would have it, she fell in right behind Jud. Wide shoulders stretched the knit of his shirt and the remnants of his aftershave, mixed with the outdoorsy scent that he’d picked up doing evening chores, smelled heavenly. Probably because she’d been too busy keeping body and soul together to notice men at all, but dammit, why did he have to look so good?
That night, Fiona slipped downstairs right after her shower for another piece of pumpkin pie. Standing in front of a full refrigerator loaded with Thanksgiving leftovers was right up there next to having the pearly gates swing open for her to enter heaven. She removed a whole pie and set it on the countertop along with a container of whipped cream, but she held the door open with a toe. Next she took out the pitcher of sweet tea and the plastic container with the turkey leftovers.
Light flashed bright in her eyes and startled her so badly that she almost dropped the tea.
“Mama,” she gasped. “You scared the hell out of me.”
Katy sat down at the table. “Then you’re an angel now, right?”
Fiona smiled and then laughed. “It’d take more than that much of a fright to make an angel out of me. Couldn’t you sleep, either?”
“I heard someone out here. Didn’t know if it was you or Jud, but since I wasn’t asleep, I came out to talk,” she answered. “Sit down and tell me the whole story. You’ve lost at least ten pounds from when we saw you at the homecoming in July.”
Fiona fished a fork from the drawer and set the pie in front of her mother. “I love your pumpkin pie. Sometimes I craved it so bad, especially when they made pumpkin lattes at the coffee shop and the aroma filled the whole place.”
“You brought one suitcase and one box home. Where are the rest of your things?” Katy asked.
“That’s all I have left. I was serious when I said I’d taken them to a consignment shop. I didn’t need them and I did need money. I’m glad my room is still the same and I have a closet full of clothing up there. Some of it is a little loose but believe me with this kind of food, I’ll put the weight back on,” Fiona said.
“Did you go hungry?”
Fiona carried her pie to the table. “Let’s just say I ate a lot of ramen noodles. It’s amazing what you can do with those things.”
“I could kick your butt for not calling me. Not wanting to come back to Dry Creek was one thing. Doing without necessities is another,” Katy said.
“Pride.” Fiona said one word and then shoveled a forkful of pie into her mouth.
“That’s a dangerous thing.”
“But it’s stuck in my heart with something stronger than superglue.”
Katy nodded. “Comes from your grandmother and the Miller side of the family.”
“Finally I reached the end of my rope and came home.”
“Well, thank God for the end of the rope. What caused the divorce?”
Fiona nodded. “He wanted to climb the ladder to the top. I wanted to stay home and cuddle a few nights a week.” Fiona shoveled more pie into her mouth. “I hated all the dinners and parties. I think once Kyle saw Dry Creek after we were engaged, he realized I didn’t have the ‘breeding’ of a high-society corporate wife.”
“That son of a bitch,” Katy said.
“I know. I could feel him slipping away and knew deep down we were probably heading for divorce.”
“What was the final straw?”
“His old girlfriend came home from Philadelphia to join the firm. Sparks were relit. We were already fighting more than loving, and then he came home one night with his arm around her and told me he was divorcing me. He handed me the prenup, which I’d signed without even reading. After all”—Fiona pushed out of her chair and poured two glasses of sweet tea—“we were in love and the vows said until death parted us.”
“And?” Katy asked.
“And it said that I could take out of the house what I’d brought into it, which amounted to my clothes and personal things. My car was in my name, so that was mine for a little while. And I got a ten-thousand-dollar check. The end.” She sighed and sipped at the tea. “I started a checking account, paid for some therapy lessons, rented a cheap apartment, finally found a minimum wage job, and you know the rest.”
Katy wiped a tear from her eyes. “You went through all that alone. Fiona, I was here. Your sisters were here and we would have done anything for you.”
“I know, Mama, but…” Fiona paused.
“That independent streak that you got from your granny is a mile wide.” Katy picked up a paper napkin and wiped at more tears. “Now you’ve made me cry and I don’t cry, so I still may kick your butt.”
Fiona cut another piece of pie while she was up and topped it off with a layer of whipped cream. “I’ll be round as Santa Claus before I get full again.”
“You could use a little weight.” Her mother finally smiled.
“Let’s talk about the store. Why haven’t you hired some help or better yet someone to manage it for you since Granny got so bad?” Fiona asked.
“I must’ve been waiting on you. I still can’t believe you are here, Fiona.” She reached across the table and laid a hand on her daughter’s arm.
“Still using the bank in Throckmorton and going down there on Sunday afternoon to make a night deposit?” Fiona asked.
Katy nodded. “You remembered?”
“Sure I did. We always loved going there with you when we were kids. We got ice cream and you took us to the park.” Fiona smiled. “Memories kept me going, Mama.”
Katy pulled her hand back and shook her head slowly.
Fiona patted her on the shoulder. “Everything works out like it should. I’ll do whatever I can to help. I should have come back a year ago so I could have spent more time with Granny before things got like this.”
“Things do work out and at the right time for the most part,” Katy said stoically. “Now let’s go to bed and get some sleep.”
“I’m going to finish this pie and then put things away. You go on and I’ll see you at breakfast. Pancakes and sausage?” Fiona asked.
“Sausage gravy, biscuits, and bacon and eggs,” Katy declared.
“Yum!” Fiona smiled.
“Good night, sweetheart. I’ll see you at six-thirty in the kitchen. You can make the biscuits. You always could make them just like Mama.”
Fiona nodded and kept eating the pie. When her plate was scraped clean, she seriously contemplated another small slice. But then the turkey looked good and the only thing better than pumpkin pie was a turkey sandwich with a thin layer of leftover dressing between the layers of meat.
Everything in the world could turn around on a dime. Jud didn’t remember who said that. It could have been someone famous, infamous, or even one of his grandparents, but it came to his mind that night as he stretched out on his bed. The room was spacious with a queen-sized bed, a nice reclining chair, a small desk, and a big closet. It beat the hell out of living in a thirteen-foot cramped travel trailer.
The snow had finally quit falling and now a cradle moon surrounded by stars hung in the sky outside his window. It was the same as it had been last night and would be tomorrow night if it didn’t snow or rain. It took a while for the moon to go from full bright to nothing more than a sliver and then make its way back to a big round lover’s moon. But then most things took a while. Like getting used to a different bed or getting to know the squeaks and sounds of an old house. Or hearing another person on the second floor of Audrey’s Place. The sounds were faint but that was definitely Fiona in the shower; then the door hinges whined and she padded across the floor to her bedroom across the landing from his.
A vision of her naked in the shower tightened his chest and jacked up his pulse. He quickly adjusted the picture in his mind to include a towel wrapped around her body, but that didn’t help a hell of a lot. That vision was even sexier than the first one when he slowly let himself pull the towel away and bring her close to his chest, wet red hair flowing down her back, that tiny waist beneath his fingertips.
“God almighty!” He groaned as he jumped out of bed and paced from one end of the floor to the other. Just because they had bedrooms on the same floor did not mean he could go lusting after her. Katy would send him packing out to the trailer or shoot him graveyard dead if she knew what he’d been thinking.
He fought insomnia for half an hour before peeking out the door and tiptoeing down to the kitchen. If he couldn’t sleep, then he might as well make himself a turkey sandwich. A full stomach always made him sleepy.
“So you couldn’t sleep, either?” Jud asked Fiona when he found her in the kitchen. “You want a turkey sandwich with me?” He stepped into the light and started for the cabinet. “Where’s the leftover gravy?”
“What do you need that for?” she asked.
“I make a mean leftover sandwich. A piece of bread with mayonnaise of course—your mama has a loaf that she made at the same time she did the hot rolls. Then a layer of turkey, a layer of leftover dressing, a spoonful of gravy that I’ll heat up in the microwave beforehand, and another layer of turkey. I’ll be glad to make you one. If you don’t like it, I’ll eat yours and mine.” He reached into the cabinet for a small bowl to heat the gravy.
“Dressing is in the red plastic container on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator and, yes, I will try your famous sandwich,” Fiona said.
He nuked the gravy and then made two sandwiches, cutting each of them diagonally before putting them on the same plate. “No use in dirtying up extra dishes. Do you cook?”
“No one grew up in this house without learning their way around the kitchen. Is this your only specialty or do you make other things as well?” she asked.
“I can make a delicious bologna sandwich and a fair grilled cheese.”
She bit into the sandwich. “Sweet Jesus! The gravy adds a whole new dimension. I might even like this better than served hot for dinner.”
“Me too.” Jud nodded. “Fiona, if you’re uncomfortable with me being in the house or if you want time with your mama without a third wheel being around, I can move into the travel trailer.”
“Don’t be so nice. We’ll share a house but we won’t share stories and start bonding like my sisters did with your cousins.”
He chuckled and bit into his sandwich. “Well, I’m sure glad we cleared that up.”
He glanced across the table at her and Lord have mercy, in his mind she was wearing nothing but a towel. He blinked twice to delete the picture and focused on the sandwich. What he needed was a Saturday night in a country music bar with loud music, women coming on to him, and lots of beers. That would take care of his overactive imagination for sure.
They finished their sandwiches and he put the plate in the dishwasher before heading up to bed with her right behind him.
“I’m going to watch television but I’ll keep it turned down,” she said.
“Honey, don’t worry about noise on my account. A freight train coming right down the middle of my bed couldn’t wake me when I’m asleep.”