Distrust

by Lisa Jackson

  “Land o’ mercy,” Marcella Anders said to Dani as she carefully repacked the meats into the remaining, still-cold display case. “And every repairman in town working overtime. I hope to heaven this meat doesn’t spoil.” She was a large woman, big boned and heavyset. She wore her graying hair piled high on her head and a starched white apron over her clothes. For nearly as long as Dani could remember, Marcella had worked in the meat department of her husband’s store.

  “It’s been incredibly hot this year.”

  “Don’t I know it?” Marcella grumbled. “Brings out the worst in people, ya know. Just yesterday, Jenna Peterson came in here fit to be tied.”

  “That doesn’t sound like her,” Dani remarked, thinking of Caleb Johnson’s kindly housekeeper as she eyed the packages of frozen fish.

  “No, indeed, it don’t. But she was in a regular tizzy, let me tell you. Something about one of Caleb’s men . . . a new man he’d hired. Jenna seemed to think that this man was no good, just on Caleb’s payroll to cause trouble.”

  Dani felt her face go pale. “Did . . . did she tell you the man’s name?” she asked, looking Marcella square in the eyes.

  “Nope. I think she wanted to tell me more, but she thought better of it, ya know. Jenna needs her job; she practically supports her daughter and grandson and she never was one to gossip much.”

  “Loose lips sink ships,” Dani said to herself, thinking about Chase and finding him in the creek in the middle of the night. And now he was gone...

  “Pardon?”

  “Nothing,” Dani said, and forced a smile. “You were right, it was probably just the weather.”

  Marcella’s face pulled together in a thoughtful frown. “I hope so,” she said aloud. “I wouldn’t want to think that any of Caleb’s men are dishonest. The people of this town, we’re all countin’ on that resort of his. My husband thinks it’ll triple business in the next year. He’s already had the plans drawn up to expand, put in a delicatessen and a garden department.” Marcella chuckled to herself as she placed the last package of meat into the full display case. “This is his big chance, he thinks. Just like most of the rest of the folks in this town.”

  “Except Mom,” Cody said.

  Marcella nodded curtly. “Well, we’re all entitled to our own opinion, aren’t we?” she said, still smiling as she wiped her hands on her apron. “It’s a free country.”

  “Yes,” Dani said, pushing her cart forward.

  “See ya around,” Marcella said, and moved down the meat counter to help another customer.

  Dani pushed her cart down the crowded aisles and tried to concentrate on shopping, but found it nearly impossible. She came out of the store with only half the items she’d planned to pick up.

  “You think Mrs. Anders was talking about Chase, don’t you?” Cody said once they’d climbed back into the pickup with Runt.

  “I don’t know.”

  “I can tell it’s what you think.”

  She eased the truck into the sparse traffic of the main street of the small town and pushed the hair from her eyes at the one stoplight near the gas station. “I didn’t say that.”

  “You didn’t have to.”

  Dani sighed and looked at her son. “How about getting those school clothes now? We can drop Runt and the groceries off and run into Butte, maybe eat dinner in the park.”

  “If you really want to,” Cody replied.

  “I really want to.”

  “Okay,” Cody said without much enthusiasm.

  Later, once they’d managed to finish the necessities, Dani and Cody sat on the grass in the park and watched as children ran and played on the various pieces of equipment.

  The bustle of the city was in sharp contrast to the sleepy little town of Martinville. In Dani’s estimation, Butte was a major metropolis. She laughed to herself when she thought what people from New York or Los Angeles would think of her perception.

  “Somethin’ funny?” Cody picked a blade of grass and tore it into small pieces.

  “Not really,” Dani said with a smile for her son. “But what about you? ls something bothering you?” Dani asked. “Looks like you’ve got something on your mind.”

  The boy shrugged. “I guess,” he said, looking away from her.

  “What is it?”

  “Chase McEnroe.”

  Dani let out a long sigh. Here it comes, she thought. “What about him?”

  “You’re serious about him aren’t you?”

  Dani thought for a moment and decided her son was entitled to the truth. “Yes, I am.”

  Cody hesitated a minute. “You gonna marry him?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe.”

  “And what about Dad?”

  Dani leaned back on her elbows, watching as the late afternoon shadows darkened the grass. “I don’t really know, I guess. I haven’t thought it all through yet.”

  “He’s comin’ home, ya know.”

  “Oh, Cody,” she said on a long, wistful sigh. “Just because you got a couple of letters—”

  “It’s more than that, Mom,” Cody cut in angrily, confusion clouding his brown eyes.

  “Cody—”

  “He called.”

  “What!” Dani’s world seemed to stop spinning. For a minute she couldn’t speak. “When?”

  “When I got back from the Anders’ house the other day. You and Chase were on that picnic at the homestead house . . .”

  Catching her breath, she nodded to her son. “Go on.”

  “I’d only been home a little while. The phone rang and it was Dad. He said he was on his way.”

  Dani was stupefied. “He can’t come home, not now,” she whispered.

  “Why not? He is my dad.”

  Sitting upright, she let her head fall into her open palms and tried, for Cody’s sake, to pull herself together. “But why . . . why now?” she wondered. “And why didn’t you tell me when I got home?”

  “Chase was there. I didn’t think it would be a good idea.”

  “But that was two days ago!”

  Cody looked away. “I know. But I didn’t want you to get mad at me.”

  “I’m not mad at you, honey. I just wish you would have told me about this sooner.” And then seeing the wounded look in his eyes, she touched his hand and offered him an apologetic smile. “Look, honey, I’m sorry I overreacted. Okay? It’s just such a shock.”

  “But he wrote. Twice. I told you he’d come back.”

  “That you did,” she said with a sigh.

  “You didn’t believe it, did you?”

  “No, not really. Not after this long,” she admitted, bracing herself and managing a worried grin. “But it looks like I was wrong. When will he get to Martinville?”

  “He didn’t know.”

  “So what’s he going to do when he gets into town?”

  Cody bit at his lower lip and dropped the shredded blade of grass. “He said he’d call.”

  “Good.”

  “You will let me see him, won’t you?”

  Dani let out a long breath and fought the worry in her heart. “Of course I will,” she said, trying to keep all of her worst fears at bay. “He’s your father.”

  Cody’s face split into a wide grin and impulsively he hugged his mother. “It’s gonna work out,” he said, his brown eyes sparkling. “And we’ll be a family again. Just you wait and see!”

  * * *

  Three days later, Dani was up to her elbows in blackberry juice.

  She finished cleaning the spatters of juice from the kitchen counters and then tossed the stained rag into the sink and glanced out the window at the freshly turned earth stretching from the house to the road in a dark swath. Rubbing her tired muscles, she wondered what had possessed her to plow the front field because now she was faced with the prospect of harrowing it and getting it ready for the October planting of wheat. The ground had been nearly rock hard and it had taken hours to turn the sod.

  Her back and shoulders ached and the tip
of her nose was sunburned. “This is no life for a princess,” she scolded herself, and laughed as she finished sealing the small jars of blackberry jelly she’d made earlier in the morning.

  After washing her hands, she walked onto the back porch and noticed that there was no activity on Caleb’s side of the fence. Some of the heavy equipment was still parked near the stream, but it was much farther upstream and Dani couldn’t see any men working in the creek.

  “Chase is probably just about done,” she murmured. And then what was she going to do? Marry him? Sell the farm to Caleb? Pull Cody out of school and move to Idaho or stay where she was? And what about the rumor in the grocery store that Caleb’s new man was trouble?

  Shaking her head as if she could dislodge the doubts from her mind, she frowned to herself and wondered when Chase would return and if he’d been able to confront Caleb about the herbicide.

  “Stop it,” she told herself, jerking off her apron and tossing it over the back of a chair. She walked down the two steps of the porch and leaned over the top rail of the fence, watching the horses trying to graze or find a shady spot in the open fields.

  “We sure need rain,” she murmured to herself, looking upward at the clear blue sky.

  Her thoughts were disturbed by the sound of a truck rolling up the drive.

  Thinking Chase might have returned, Dani, her brow furrowed, walked around the outside of the house and frowned when she didn’t recognize the battered pickup slowing in the front yard.

  But by the time the driver had cut the engine and stepped from the cab, Dani realized that her life had just changed forever and the meeting she had been dreading for the better part of seven years was about to take place. She was staring face to face with Cody’s father!

  He didn’t look much different than the day he’d left all those years ago. Tall and rangy, with dark hair turning silver at the temples, Blake Summers was still a handsome, rugged looking man. With flashing dark eyes, a gaunt, weather-toughened face softened by a sheepish grin, he sauntered toward the house.

  “Dani.” He stopped a few feet from her.

  Knowing the blood had drained from her face, she managed to meet his wary gaze. “What are you doing here, Blake?” she demanded.

  “’Bout time I came back, don’t ya think?”

  “I think it’s probably too late.”

  “Still an optimist I see,” he said, with a knowing smile.

  “Don’t bait me,” she snapped, as the years seemed to slip away. She could still remember the day he had slammed the door in her face, leaving her crying for him to return to her and her young son. Shaking, she swallowed hard. “Why now—why’d you come back?”

  Ignoring her question, he took a seat on the top step of the porch and mopped his sweaty brow with a handkerchief. “God, this heat is miserable,” he said, and then chuckled as he gestured toward his old pickup. “The air conditionin’ is out.” Fishing a cigarette from his shirt pocket, he lit up and blew a long stream of smoke into the clear air. Squinting against the smoke, he looked around the place. “Been plowin’ I see.”

  “I asked you a question, Blake,” she said calmly, although her insides were churning with emotions she’d hoped were long dead.

  “Didn’t Cody get my letters?”

  “Yes—”

  “I said I was comin’ to see him.” Blake settled against the porch column and smiled engagingly. “And he told you I called?”

  “Just the other day.” She leaned against the hot fender of his truck for support, oblivious to the dirt and oil brushing against her jeans.

  “Well, like I said, I think it’s about time I got to know the boy, don’t you?”

  “I’m not sure it’s such a good idea,” she said honestly, fear squeezing her heart at the thought that Blake would take Cody away from her.

  Blake didn’t even blink. “Geez, you’re a suspicious thing.”

  Cocking a golden brow, she explained, “It’s been a long time—nearly seven years. Cody doesn’t remember you, not really. Now, all of a sudden, you’re interested in becoming a father. I’d just like to know what made you change your mind.”

  “Nothin’ special,” he said. “Maybe I just got tired of driftin’.” He took another drag from his cigarette.

  “So you drifted back here.” Dani’s eyes narrowed a bit. “I don’t know if I can believe that.”

  Blake shrugged. “Can’t blame you, I guess. But, in time, everyone grows up. Includin’ yours truly. God, Dani, I’m thirty-five years old.”

  “So you came all the way from . . . wherever you were in Oregon just to see your son?”

  “That’s about the size of it.” He tossed his cigarette into the dirt, grinding it out with the heel of his boot. “That and the fact that the job in Molalla gave out. I thought maybe I’d try my luck here, in Martinville.”

  Dani’s heart sank. Blake. Here. Wanting to be with Cody. “The talk is that there will be a lot of work soon as Caleb gets goin’ on Summer Ridge.”

  “So I’ve heard,” she said wryly, trying to disguise her fear. She refused to show any weakness to the man who had stripped her soul bare and left her to fend for herself.

  Blake pressed his lips together and looked over the hazy fields. Standing and stretching, he came up to Dani and grinned. “So where is he?”

  “Cody?”

  “Yep.”

  “At a friend’s,” Dani replied, an uncomfortable tightening in her stomach warning her not to trust Blake.

  “When will he be back?”

  “I’m supposed to pick him up before supper.”

  “I’ll do it,” Blake decided, with a sharp nod of his head. “May as well jump in with both feet.”

  Dani’s heart dropped through the floor. Whatever Blake’s game was, he intended to play out his hand to the end. “It’s hard for me to believe that you really want to see him,” she said furiously, “since you wanted me to have an abortion when I turned up pregnant and then walked out on us barely three years later!”

  “I know. I know,” he cajoled, lifting his hands in the same patronizing manner he’d used when she’d been his wife. “But can’t you believe that I’ve had a change of heart?”

  “It’s hard.”

  “Let me go get my boy, Dani,” he begged.

  Dani wavered, but only for a minute. “I . . . I think it would be better if I picked him up,” she said cautiously. “You can see him here when he gets home.”

  Blake ran a hand over his chin and smiled lazily, his dark eyes regarding Dani with practiced seduction. “Is that an invitation to dinner?”

  Clenching her teeth against her impulsive response, Dani studied the man who had once been her husband. He’d aged in the past seven years. Features that had once been boyishly charming were now gaunt and grizzled. “I think it would be okay if you ate here tonight. Cody’s been anxious for you to return.”

  “What about you, Dani?” he asked, stepping closer to her.

  “I think it probably would have been better if you’d stayed away.”

  He reached up to touch her hair, but Dani, still holding her ground pushed his hand aside. “Haven’t you missed me?”

  “Not for a long time,” she stated.

  “Ya know, there’s still a chance that we could work things out,” he suggested, his brown eyes saddening a little. “I could make it up to you.”

  “Never.”

  “You’re sure of that?”

  “More sure than I’ve been of anything in a long while,” she said, her hazel eyes focusing on his face, her jaw jutting with renewed determination. “And since you’re Cody’s father and he wants to see you, I won’t get in the way. But I’m telling you this straight out, Blake: Don’t try to make trouble. Not for me. Or Cody. We’re happy here and we don’t need you.”

  “A boy needs a father,” he contradicted.

  Dani bit back the fury on her tongue. “Maybe that’s true. But he needs a father he can depend on, a man who will stick by him no ma
tter what, not someone who abandoned him when he was barely two years old then plans to waltz back into his life when he’s half grown. Think about it, Blake. And before you entertain any thoughts of ruining what Cody and I have together, think how it will affect your son!”

  “I never said I wanted to make trouble.”

  “Good. Then I’ll try to remember that.”

  “You’d do that much for me?”

  “No. For Cody.” Her lips tightened. “I’m not giving you back your son; you threw away that right a long time ago when you took off without a backward glance. But I won’t deny Cody the right to know his father unless you do something I don’t approve of.”

  Blake’s smile twisted appreciatively. “That almost sounds like a threat, Dani.”

  “It is.”

  He shook his head as if in utter amazement. “You sure have changed.”

  “You made me change. I learned to depend on myself.”

  “And I respect ya for it.”

  “Don’t try to flatter me, Blake. It won’t work. If you want to see Cody, come back here at six-thirty. Otherwise get out of my life.”

  He took one step closer, looked deep into her eyes and saw the sparks of ready-fire in their depths. “I’m stayin’ at Bob’s place, but I’ll be back,” he said softly, touching her on the underside of her chin.

  She jerked away from him. “Fine,” she retorted and watched as he climbed back into his pickup and drove away.

  Chapter Nine

  “Hey, Mom, somethin’ wrong?” Cody asked on the way home from his friend’s house.

  “Not really,” Dani lied, her fingers sweaty around the steering wheel, her teeth sinking into her lip as she drove the pickup out of Martinville.

  Cody shrugged and stuck out his lower lip thoughtfully. “You looked kind’a worried.”

  “Don’t I always?” she teased, but the joke fell flat. She tried to lighten the mood by ruffling his hair, but Cody moved his head to avoid contact.

  “Come on. Somethin’s buggin’ you. I can tell.” He slid down in the seat and propped his knees against the dash of the pickup while glancing at his mother. “Caleb Johnson did something again didn’t he?”

  “Not that I know of,” she said with a sigh. “Okay, Cody, I guess I’ll have to level with you.”