The Lockwood Legacy - Books 1-6: Plus Bonus Short Stories

by Juliette Harper

  “Jake doesn’t seem like the kind of man who would saw the bit in your mouth,” Dusty said.

  “I don’t think he is,” Kate said, “but I don’t want him underfoot 24/7. I like it that he gets absorbed in his work. We’ll do better that way.”

  “I expect you’re right about that,” Dusty said. “God knows I’ve never stayed with any man long enough to let him get underfoot.”

  “I guess the best way to put it is that we’re a work-in-progress,” Kate said. “But according to Jenny, any progress at all with me is nothing short of a miracle.”

  They had reached the front porch of the hunting cabin and Dusty turned toward Kate. “I remember the way Langston talked to you, Katie,” she said. “The miracle is that you don’t spit every man you meet in the eye and tell him to go straight to hell.”

  “Jenny’s worse than I am,” Kate said, looking over at her sister’s studio. “I worry about her, Dusty. She thinks she’s broke to the saddle with this man, but he could still spook her and make her buck. She doesn’t see it, but I do.”

  Dusty’s eyes followed Kate’s. “Is Josh Baxter a good man?” she asked.

  “He’s a very good man,” Kate said, “and patient as hell with her, but Daddy hurt her more than the rest of us, and then that Marino bastard hurt her more.”

  “Which is why you put two bullets in his chest,” Dusty said in a level tone.

  “I did do that,” Kate said, “and I haven’t lost a single night of sleep over it.”

  “You shouldn’t,” Dusty agreed. “It sounds to me like he needed shooting.”

  “That he did,” Kate said, turning her attention back to the cabin. She dug in her pocket and brought out a key, handing it over to Dusty. “All yours. The door’s open right now. Jenny and I cleaned it up for you yesterday.”

  Dusty pocketed the key and reached for the door, which swung open to reveal a single room. There was a tiny living space in the front corner across from a wall-mounted flat screen and the kitchenette took up the whole right wall.

  “The bathroom is back there,” Kate said. “No tub, but you have a good shower. And there’s a stacked washer-dryer unit behind that folding door. I’m afraid you’ll have to sleep up there,” she said, pointing to a loft reached by a narrow staircase that did double duty as a shelf unit.

  “Oh my God, Katie, this is perfect!” Dusty said. “I love it!”

  “Are you sure you won’t be too cramped?” Kate asked doubtfully. “It’s awful small in here.”

  “I told you that I was simplifying my life,” Dusty said. “I’m a big supporter of the tiny-house movement. If I had stayed on at the Farber’s, they were gonna let me build something a lot like this.”

  “Well,” Kate said, “then I guess we’re getting off to a good start. We stocked the refrigerator for you with the basics and there’s sheets and towels here already. But really, do whatever you want to with the place. It’s yours. We have an extra pickup that was Daddy’s, so that’s what you’ll be driving. You want to take a little time to get settled in and then go for a ride with me? Have a look around?”

  “Sounds good,” Dusty said.

  “Great. Meet me up at the barn in an hour and I’ll have the horses saddled.”

  96

  Mandy watched as Joe put the last of their bags in the Range Rover. Sissy and Missy were already inside, raring and ready to get off for Houston.

  Joe turned toward Mandy, his hands hanging awkwardly by his sides. “Be careful on the road,” he said, looking down at the ground. “Let me know you got there. Okay?”

  She reached out and caught his right hand. “Joe,” she said softly, and waited until he looked up at her. “I love you,” she said simply.

  Tears filled his eyes. “I love you,” he answered, his voice thick.

  Mandy stepped into his arms, turning his face toward her and kissing him. When she tried to pull away to leave, he clutched at her desperately.

  “Joe, listen to me,” she said against his ear. “You can’t be terrified every time I’m out of your sight. I’m not going to fall apart and I’m not going anywhere. Don’t be scared. You’re not going to lose me. The girls need this trip, and I need to do it for them. We’ll be back Sunday night. Okay?”

  Joe nodded, cleared his throat, and struggled to regain his composure. “Promise?” he asked hoarsely.

  “Which part of it?” she said, leaning away from him and wiping the tears off his face with her thumbs.

  “All of it,” he said, managing a little laugh.

  “I promise,” she said. “Now, what are you going to do this weekend so I don’t have to be worried about you worrying about me?”

  “Josh asked me to help him with some stuff in the barn,” Joe said. “Fixing some feeders or something.”

  “Okay,” she said. “That’s good. You two play with man toys while me and the girls go spend money. I’ll call you when we get checked into the hotel.”

  He nodded and gave her a half smile, but as Mandy pulled away, she looked in the rearview mirror to see him standing in the same spot watching them drive off.

  “Is Joe Bob going to be okay by himself?” Missy asked, casting a worried glance through the Range Rover’s back window.

  “Yes, honey,” she said smiling. “He’s going to be okay.”

  “Aunt Mandy,” Sissy said, looking at her suspiciously. “Mama would have said that right now you look like the cat that ate the canary. Are you up to something?”

  “Your Mama was a smart woman, Sissy,” Mandy said, turning out into the lane. “And she’d be exactly right about that missing canary.”

  Joe Mason’s jaw dropped when he saw the pile of lumber and pallets of rubber tiles stacked up in the barn. “What in the hell is all this stuff?” he asked.

  “Sissy and Missy’s new playground,” Josh said, moving up to stand beside him. “Or it will be as soon as we get it hauled down to your place, clear off a space with the Bobcat, put down the primary surface, compact it, build the damn thing, and lay these tiles down — by Sunday evening.”

  “Let me guess,” Joe said. “My wife.”

  “Your wife,” Josh agreed. “Now, we better get to work. Jake will be here with a truckload of gravel any minute.”

  “Gravel?”

  “That’s the primary surface. We have to smooth it out and compact it, then lay the rubber tiles on top of it.”

  “And the rubber tiles are because?”

  “Your wife will have our heads if those kids so much as scrape a knee playing on this stuff.”

  “Got it.”

  Josh took an extra pair of gloves out of his back pocket and handed them to Joe. “Let’s get to work, Mr. Mayor.”

  For the next hour the two men loaded materials into the back of Josh’s truck, finishing just as Jake pulled in the front gate, his own vehicle sagging under the weight of a full load of sacked pea gravel.

  Rolling down the window, Jake said, “Looks like I got here right on time.”

  “That you did,” Josh said. “I’m gonna let Joe drive this stuff down. You follow him and I’ll be right there on the Bobcat.”

  As soon as Mandy realized just how upset Joe was about her impending absence, she’d talked to Josh about constructing the playground as a weekend project. Together they’d selected a shaded area just beyond the pool, then Josh drove to San Antonio and bought all the components for the elaborate “sky fort” cedar play set she picked out online.

  By the time the men were finished, Sissy and Missy would have multiple swings, a two-person “glider,” monkey bars, a slide, a climbing wall, a covered area outfitted with a picnic table, and a raised clubhouse complete with a balcony.

  “Do you think I’m overdoing it?” Mandy asked anxiously, staring at the screen of her laptop.

  “Overdoing it?” Josh asked, grinning as he looked over her shoulder. “Not if I get to come play on this thing with the girls, you’re not.”

  When Mandy giggled, Josh put his hands on her
shoulders and said, “Little Sugar, you have no idea how good it is to hear that laugh again.”

  “I’m trying, Josh,” she said, reaching up and putting her hand over his. “I really am.”

  “I know you are,” he said, “and so does, Joe. He’s just scared, honey. He thought he was going to lose you.”

  “He’s not going to lose me,” Mandy said, her eyes moving to the scene through the kitchen window. Sissy and Missy were out in the yard playing with their jump ropes. “I have Jolene’s babies to raise. I’m not going to let them — or her — down. I want those girls to be happy here.”

  “They don’t need a fancy playground to be happy,” Josh said gently.

  “I know, but they’re used to being in town with their friends,” she said. “I want to be able to bring truckloads of kids out here.”

  “Well, hopefully the twins will have cousins one of these days,” he said, sounding a little wistful.

  Mandy twisted in her chair to look up at him curiously. “Are you and Jenny talking about children?”

  Josh scrubbed at his face and sighed. “I’m talking about children,” he said. “Jenny doesn’t have much to say on the subject or even setting a date to get married for that matter.”

  “Don’t push her, Josh,” Mandy warned. “It won’t go the way you want it to.”

  “I’m a patient man, and I love her with all my heart, but goddamn it, how long is it going to take for her to know I’m not going to hurt her?”

  “I don’t know how to answer that question,” Mandy said. “Have you talked to Katie about it?”

  “Katie says the same thing. Don’t push.”

  “Then listen to her,” Mandy advised. “Katie knows Jenny better than anyone in the world. Jenny loves you. I’m sure of that.”

  “I know she loves me,” Josh said, “but she’s afraid to love me all at the same time. That’s what I don’t understand.”

  “Because you see love as the most trustworthy emotion on earth,” Mandy said. “That’s not how Jenny sees it. You have to let your walls down to love someone. That makes you vulnerable.”

  “She’s not afraid to love you and Katie,” he said defensively.

  “We’re her sisters, and besides, we saw it all. Or at least Katie did, but I saw enough,” Mandy said.

  “What did you see?” Josh asked. “Katie’s talked to me a lot, but I’d really like to hear what you have to say about all this.”

  “Sit down,” Mandy said, pointing at the chair across the table. She got up and took two coffee cups out of the cabinet. “I want to tell you a story.”

  She returned with their coffee, sliding one cup across to him, and then slowly stirring sweetener into her own drink. Finally she said, quietly, “You know about Jenny leaving home as soon as she graduated?”

  He nodded.

  “Well, what she probably hasn’t told you is what happened the night when I think she made up her mind to go.”

  Langston Lockwood was holding a full cup of coffee and glaring at his middle daughter. “I’m not wasting a goddamned penny sending you to some fancy art school,” he growled. “Talent my ass. You’re nothing but a spoiled brat who wants to play with her crayons. You’re just gonna wind up married to some worthless son of a bitch anyway.”

  “You mean someone like you, Daddy?” Jenny asked defiantly, her eyes flashing.

  A flicker of shocked indignation registered in Langston’s eyes before his face darkened. He made a dangerous sound low in his throat and moved toward her, drawing his hand back, only to stop when Kate stepped between them.

  “Get out of the way, Sister,” he growled. “She needs to be taken down a peg.”

  “No, Daddy,” Kate said quietly. “I won’t. If you want to hurt Jenny, you’re going to have to go through me to do it.”

  Their eyes locked, but Kate never blinked. When it was clear he wasn’t going to be able to stare his oldest daughter down, Langston swore at the top of his lungs and hurled the cup in his hand against the foyer wall. It struck a hanging mirror that shattered, sending glass shards cascading across the floor.

  “Fine,” he said. “The two of you have it your way, but I’ll tell you one goddamned thing, Jenny, you’re the only woman I’ve ever wanted to hit in my whole life. God help the man who ever takes up with you. You’re poison. Now you two clean this mess up.”

  Neither of the girls moved until they heard his truck engine start and the sound of the tires fade away up the rocky drive. When Kate did look at her sister, Jenny began to shake uncontrollably.

  Quiet footsteps from the hall signaled that Mandy had joined them. “Is Daddy gone?” she asked in a small voice.

  “Yes,” Kate said. “He’s gone. Be careful. There’s broken glass everywhere.”

  “I’ll go get the broom,” Mandy said, her eyes wide with fear.

  Silently, Kate held out her arms to Jenny who sagged against her, still shaking. Kate held her, rubbing her back comfortingly until a shiver wracked her sister’s frame. “Come on,” Kate whispered. “It’s cold in here. Let’s get you by the fire.”

  Keeping one arm around Jenny’s waist, Kate led her to the hearth. They sat down together and Jenny rested her head against Kate’s shoulder. “Shh,” Kate murmured, stroking her hair. “He’s gone now. You can’t get in his face like that, honey. You know that. You can’t say anything when he’s in that kind of mood.”

  From the hallway they could hear the soft whoosh of the broom as Mandy began to clean up the broken mirror.

  “Seven years,” Jenny murmured.

  “What, honey?” Kate asked.

  “Seven years bad luck,” she said. “The mirror.”

  “That’s just a superstition, Jenny.”

  “Not in this house,” she said, burying her face against Kate’s neck and sobbing quietly.

  “Son of a bitch,” Josh said angrily. “Langston should have been turned into the law for the way he treated you all.”

  “Yes,” Mandy said, “he probably should have, but you know how things are in this town. Nobody airs their dirty linen.”

  “So what happened after that?”

  “Katie convinced Jenny to stop provoking Daddy, but the only way she could manage it was to go stone-cold silent. My room was across the hall from hers, and I’d hear her crying really late at night after Daddy was asleep. Then I’d hear Katie go to her,” Mandy said sadly. “That’s part of the reason Jenny goes to be with Katie now at night when her arm is hurting. They’ve spent a lot of bad hours in the dark together, Josh.”

  “Doesn’t that make you jealous?”

  “Of the relationship Katie and Jenny have?” Mandy asked. “Of course not. They’ve both spoiled me all my life. They protected me from Daddy’s anger and gave me a childhood. The next day after the broken mirror, Katie went in Daddy’s study and closed the door behind her.”

  “I thought you girls weren’t allowed in that room,” Josh said.

  “We weren’t, which is my point,” Mandy said. “Jenny and I listened to their voices rise and fall for a few minutes, and then no one was talking but Katie. When she came out of that room, her jaw was set hard. She told us to come with her, we were all going to town for a hamburger.”

  “Is that all she said?”

  “No,” Many said, smiling. “When we got in the pickup she said, ‘You all don’t worry. There won’t be any more broken mirrors.’”

  “And you have no idea what she said to your father?”

  “Actually, I do,” Many said, “but I’m not supposed to.”

  “Huh?”

  “Late that same night I heard Katie and Jenny talking in Jenny’s room and I listened at the door,” Mandy said, blushing. “It’s what little sisters do.”

  Josh laughed. “Understandably so. What did you hear?”

  “Katie told Jenny to just stay out of Daddy’s way and there wouldn’t be any more scenes like the one in the hall,” Mandy said. “And then she said, ‘I told him if he ever lays a finger on you
, I’ll kill him.’”

  Josh shook his head. “My God, Katie was like that even as a girl?”

  “She had to be,” Mandy said. “To protect us. I don’t know if she could have killed Daddy, but she made him think she would and that’s all it took. Things quieted down until Jenny graduated, and then she left.”

  “Her leaving must have been awful for the two of you,” he said.

  “I think it broke Katie’s heart,” Mandy said, “but she knew Jenny had to do it. Even when the two of them quarreled about Mama, they never stopped loving each other. Katie was lost without Jenny, and that’s when she really started working so hard. Then I left, and well, I realize now we kind of abandoned her.”

  “She doesn’t feel that way,” Josh said. “We’ve talked a lot out in the pasture. Katie is strong.”

  “Sometimes too strong,” Mandy said. “I’m glad she talks to you and that she has Jake. And now Dusty is here. Katie needs people more than she lets on.”

  “She and Dusty have known each other a long time, haven’t they?”

  “They started school together,” Mandy said. “Dusty left town right after they graduated in 1995, then Jenny left three years after that, and I was gone by 2004.”

  “And that’s when Katie got her own place?”

  “Yes,” Mandy said, “and she was all alone for ten years.”

  “None of you have had an easy life,” Josh said. “I’m sorry about that.”

  “Katie would say the point isn’t whether life is easy or hard,” Mandy said, “it’s just having a life. But can’t you see why Jenny is so afraid to open up? Especially after what that awful Marino man did to her?”

  Josh fiddled with the handle of his coffee cup. “Intellectually, yes,” he said. “And the more I hear these kinds of stories, the better I do understand. But, Mandy, I’d never treat anyone the way Langston and Marino treated Jenny. To tell you the truth, I’d like to get my hands on both of them.”

  “I know that, Josh.”

  “But does Jenny know it?” he asked, looking up with hurt in his eyes. “I’ve done everything I can think of to make her feel safe. I play by her rules. Sometimes she wakes up at night drenched in sweat from those nightmares, but I don’t touch her until she asks me to. And if she doesn’t want me to, I have to watch her walk out of that bedroom alone. Do you have any idea what that does to me?”