One More Last Chance

by Cathleen Armstrong

  Sarah was considering a nap of her own when there was a tap at her front door, and she opened it to find Lainie on her front porch.

  “Hi. Are you busy?”

  “Lainie.” Sarah smiled as she opened the screen door. “I’m not a bit busy. Come on in.”

  “Elizabeth’s taking her nap, and Ray’s gone to check on his studio at the ranch, so I thought I’d pop over and see if anyone else in town was awake. I’d almost forgotten how quiet things can get in Last Chance on a Sunday afternoon.”

  “I’m glad you did.” Sarah led the way to the kitchen. “Want some tea? I was just about to make a cup.”

  “Love some.” Lainie followed and slid into a chair at the kitchen table. “I really love how you’ve done your house. It’s so bright and happy.”

  “Thanks. Bright and happy was what I was going for.” Sarah looked around her kitchen in satisfaction. Her newest find, a black cat clock with a pendulum tail and eyes that moved from side to side with each tick, hung on the wall over the table. “I’m afraid most people around here think it’s just odd.”

  “Well, I like it. We’re still coming to a meeting of the minds at our house. If Ray had his way, our place would look like a museum. You know, old carvings, pottery, weavings and stuff.” She rolled her eyes. “But my heart just sings when I go into the housewares section of Target. Everything is so cheerful and colorful, and you can decorate the whole house for what one of those carvings Ray loves would cost. I know. That makes me pitiful.”

  Sarah laughed and put a plate of cookies on the table. “No, it doesn’t. I like Target too. But I can see the problem.”

  “Well, right now the problem is being solved by finances. Ray’s paintings are doing well, but not so well yet that we could afford to buy one.”

  “And you? What are you doing these days?” The teakettle whistled, and Sarah got up to brew the tea.

  “I’m working part-time at a restaurant near the plaza. And I’m going back to school.”

  “Are you? Well, good for you.”

  “Yep. I had more or less promised Elizabeth I would last winter. That idea had to be shelved when I had to run the Dip ’n’ Dine for Fayette, but now, if I can keep up with the program, I’ll be a high school graduate within two years.”

  Sarah held up her hand for a high five. “Couldn’t be prouder, cuz.”

  “Thanks. So, what about you? Do you love teaching as much as you thought you would?”

  “I sure don’t have all the answers like I thought I did, but I do love it. The kids are great, most of the time, anyway.”

  “Yeah, when they’re not pounding the stuffing out of other kids on the playground.” Lainie smiled.

  “Oh, Olivia. Well, that was a onetime thing, and I hope it stays that way. For all our sakes.”

  “Hey, I love Olivia. I was Olivia. I can’t tell you the number of fights I got into. It sure wasn’t a onetime thing with me.” Lainie sipped her tea. “Of course, I didn’t have an uncle like Chris either.”

  “Ah, Chris. Yes, he’s good for Olivia, all right. He really cares about her.” Sarah tried to keep her face expressionless as she changed the subject. “Tell me more about your classes. What are you taking?”

  It didn’t work. “No, you tell me more about Chris. What’s going on between you two?”

  “Nothing’s going on. We share a concern for Olivia, but that’s all.”

  “Come on, Sarah. I’ve only been in town three days, and even I can see that you’re way more than just his niece’s teacher to him. You really don’t see that?”

  Sarah sighed. “Well, it’s complicated. He took some getting used to, but, yeah, he’s nice. Really nice. But there’s Brandon.”

  “Brandon? Is he still in the picture? I thought he was moving back east somewhere.”

  “Chicago. He’s there now, although he was supposed to be here this weekend. As for whether he’s still in the picture, I don’t know. Maybe. I guess we’re trying to figure that out. At least, I told him that I’d give it another try.”

  Lainie was quiet for a few minutes while she considered all Sarah had said. Finally, she shook her head. “Well, it’s your life.”

  “That sounds ominous.”

  “Sorry. I didn’t mean to sound all voice-of-doom-ish.” Lainie grinned. “I really don’t know either of them that well. But Chris seems like such a nice guy. He really, really cares about that little girl. I can tell he cares about you. And he can cook.You can’t beat that.”

  “Brandon has his good qualities too, you know.”

  “Really. So tell me about Brandon’s good qualities. I just met him once at the ranch last Thanksgiving, and to tell the truth, they didn’t exactly shine forth. He seemed a little standoffish, like nobody was quite up to his standards. But maybe he’s shy and just comes across that way.”

  Sarah laughed. “Brandon shy? Uh, no. I don’t think I’ve ever known anyone more confident or sure of what he wants. And he likes my family and all. He just doesn’t think he has a whole lot in common with them.”

  “Has it occurred to him that if you guys do get married, your family will be his family, like for the rest of your lives? That’s a whole lot of Christmases and Thanksgivings spent playing solitaire on his phone while everybody else has a good time.”

  “Well, I’m sure things would change with time.”

  “Oh, Sarah, you don’t plan a life with someone hoping things will change with time. Even I know that.”

  Sarah avoided answering by refilling their mugs of tea.

  “Okay, I’ll mind my own business.” Lainie sat back in her chair. “But I want to say one thing first. Last Thanksgiving was the first time I met you too. And, sorry, but I thought you were timid and a little short on personality. It wasn’t until I saw you without Brandon around that I realized those were the last words to describe you. I’m just saying don’t do anything without putting a whole lot of prayer into it. This is not something you want to mess up.”

  “You thought I was timid?” Sarah stopped in midpour.

  “Well, let’s just say awfully concerned about whether Brandon was enjoying himself or not. Any time he blinked twice, you were there to see what he wanted, laughing at any lame comment he made as if it were the wittiest thing anyone had said all day.”

  “You make me sound pathetic.”

  “Not pathetic. Just worried about making him happy. And truthfully? He seemed to think that’s the way things should be.”

  “Well, we’ve talked about it and he recognizes that he was a bit controlling. He’s asked me to give him a chance to prove himself, and that’s all I’ve done—given him a chance.”

  Lainie swirled the tea in her mug and stared into it. Finally she looked up at Sarah. “I know control. I lived with it. And even though Brandon and Nick, the guy I tried to leave behind in California, are miles apart in every other way, I see that same need to hold the strings. And what I see is you here in Last Chance doing things the way Brandon, who is in Chicago, wants you to do them.” She smiled, as if to soften her words. “I started out by saying I was going to mind my own business, didn’t I? Sorry. So I’ll just repeat what I said earlier. Pray and keep praying. Marriage lasts a long, long time. And frankly, you don’t do timid all that well.” Lainie looked at her watch and got to her feet. “I’ll bet Elizabeth is awake and wondering where I am. Are you coming over for waffles this evening?”

  “Of course. The edict was issued today after church.” Sarah tried to smile as she walked Lainie to the door, but she was feeling more than a little shaken. Timid? Short on personality? Was that how people saw her when she was with Brandon?

  “Good. But you should know that Elizabeth has talked Chris into coming and bringing Olivia so she can show Ray her drawings.”

  “Oh, I’m so glad that Ray’s going to look at her pictures.” Sarah couldn’t help smiling. “She’s so proud of them. And they’re good too. I hope he encourages her. I know Chris does, but Ray’s the artist. It will mean so m
uch coming from him.”

  “I’m sure he will.” Lainie leaned over and gave Sarah a hug. “And I have just one more observation before I really start minding my own business. We talked a whole lot about Brandon, but the first time your face lit up was when I mentioned Chris and told you Ray was going to look at Olivia’s pictures. Think about that a little bit.”

  Sarah watched Lainie head back down the sidewalk to Elizabeth’s. Her face didn’t light up when Chris’s name was mentioned. She would know if it did. If Lainie noticed anything, it was just Sarah being pleased that Ray was looking at Olivia’s pictures. That’s all it was.

  When her phone rang late that night as Sarah was getting ready for bed, she was almost surprised. She and Brandon had not ended his last call last Wednesday on the best of terms, and she had not heard from him since.

  “So am I out of the doghouse yet?” She could hear the coaxing smile in his voice.

  “Is that where you’ve been?”

  “It sure feels like it, and it’s not my favorite place, I’ll tell you that. But I did get a lot done this weekend.”

  “So it was all worth it?” Sarah wasn’t quite ready to let him off the hook.

  “Short term? Not even close. There’s no place I’d rather be than with you. You know that.”

  “Then why weren’t you? You had the plane tickets.”

  “Because I’ve got the long term to think about.” Brandon’s voice went from gently teasing to serious. Sarah could almost see the intense, eager expression he always wore when he talked about the future, their future. “Sarah, the level of commitment you have to have to get anywhere in this company is unreal. I was ready to work hard, but these guys are something else. I don’t think they know what a weekend is.”

  Sarah gave up with a sigh. She’d been trying to get her feet on the ground in a new job too. It wasn’t easy. “Well, you were missed.”

  “I’ll make it up to you at Thanksgiving. Promise. I’ll work so hard between now and then that they’ll be ordering me to take some time off.” Brandon sounded as if he were trying to inject some enthusiasm into his voice, but mostly what Sarah heard was exhaustion.

  “Well, don’t kill yourself. We’ll have plenty of opportunities.”

  This time there was no mistaking the relief Sarah heard. “That we will. So, other than you, what did I miss? How did the chile-jazz thing work out?”

  Sarah sat cross-legged on the bed. “It was amazing. Of course, things got really exciting, terrifying actually, when Olivia went missing. But, thankfully, she was found safe in Deming, of all places, after just a few hours . . .”

  As she went on, Brandon’s comments became fewer and shorter, and finally she realized he wasn’t responding at all.

  “Brandon?”

  Silence.

  With a half smile, Sarah hit End. She couldn’t blame Brandon for falling asleep. It was past midnight where he was, and he had worked hard all weekend, so he said. But one of these times, she was going to tell about her day first, just so she could finish.

  20

  Well, I have to say, ‘Hot Chile and Cool Jazz’ was a huge hit. Beyond my wildest dreams. Everybody’s talking about it.” Rita bustled through the door of the Dip ’n’ Dine midmorning Monday. “Congratulations, everybody!”

  “Thanks.” Chris smiled. Now that Olivia was home and his heart rate had returned to normal, he could take the time to think about how the night had gone, and he had to admit it had gone well. He doubted that it had exceeded Rita’s wildest dreams, though. The woman could dream, especially when it came to Last Chance.

  “Now.” Rita plopped her clipboard on an empty table and took her pencil from behind her ear. “Do you have a minute? I have some thoughts I want to run by you.”

  “Rita, I really don’t. We had to put the day-to-day business of the place on the back burner while we got ready for Saturday, and I need to spend the day getting things back on track. Could we set a time for later in the week?”

  “Not even five minutes?” When Rita was on a mission, she was hard to put off. The problem was, she was always on a mission.

  Chris gave up and sat down across from her. “Okay, five minutes, but that really is all the time I have today.”

  “Fine.” Rita had already gone to her clipboard. “First, it’s getting a little cool now, but I’d love to see us do this once a month once it warms up again—maybe May through September. What do you think?”

  What Chris thought must have been evident on his face, because Rita just flapped a hand at him and went right on. “The first one’s always the hardest. Once you get going, it flows like cream. Trust me on this. It’s going to be great. Now, if this takes off like I think it will, you might have to go to two seatings, so be thinking about how we’re going to do that.”

  Truthfully, Chris had come into the diner that morning just glad “Hot Chile and Cool Jazz” was behind him. Jumping right into planning a whole season of such events was a little more than he wanted to deal with at the moment.

  “Rita, that’s just more than I can get my head around right now. As I said, we’re just trying to get back to normal around here this morning.” He got to his feet and extended his hand. “But it does sound interesting, I’ll give you that. We need to schedule that meeting and go over this a little more carefully.”

  Rita ignored the hand and swept in for a quick hug. “Don’t worry about a thing. We’ve got more than six months before the next one, and as I said, it’ll be a piece of cake. Just leave it to me.”

  She was almost out the door and Chris was just drawing a deep breath when she paused. “I just thought of our next theme. I don’t know how these things come to me, but what do you think of ‘Red Chile and Blues’?”

  She was gone before Chris could respond, but he had to admit to himself that it did sound pretty good. He had no idea where Rita got her ideas either, but she surely had no shortage of them.

  It was a slow morning, and for once, that was just fine with Chris. Juanita, when she came in, didn’t have a lot to say once she asked how Olivia was. And in the kitchen, Carlos just seemed pleased to have his domain back under his control.

  Just before noon, a car parked just outside the front door, and a man Chris didn’t recognize got out and came in. He let Juanita show him to a booth by the window and accepted a menu before asking to speak to the owner. Chris, sitting at his desk in the kitchen, heard him and met Juanita on his way into the dining room.

  “I have no idea who he is,” she said in her distinctive whisper. “I’ve never seen him before. But he does drive a nice car.”

  Chris had noticed. Most of the vehicles that parked at the Dip ’n’ Dine were pickups or SUVs, and the few sedans tended to be a bit worse for the wear. But you didn’t see many hybrids.

  “Chris Reed.” He smiled as he crossed the room and extended his hand. “What can I do for you?”

  “Nate Silverman.” The man handed Chris a card as he shook his hand. “I’m the food editor for Western Home and Garden magazine. I didn’t get to talk to you Saturday night and took a chance on swinging by on my way back to El Paso to catch my plane. Can you give me a few minutes?” He gestured at the seat across the table.

  “Sure, glad to.” Chris slid into the opposite side of the booth. “I hope you enjoyed yourself Saturday. It was the first time we’d done anything like it, so there were probably some rough patches.”

  “Everyone really seemed to be having a good time. That band was something else. Local boys?”

  “No, they came down from Albuquerque. Everything else was local, though. Carlos, our cook, makes his red and green chile sauces from scratch from chile grown in this area.” Juanita edged closer to the table, and Chris smiled up at her. “In fact, Juanita Sheppard here and her husband own the chile farm just outside of town that supplies most of it.”

  Nate smiled, nodded, shook Juanita’s hand, and returned to his menu. “What do you recommend?”

  “The special today is green chil
e stew, and you can’t go wrong with that. We serve it with either homemade tortillas or sopaipillas. But I’ll stand by anything on the menu.”

  Chris fought the temptation to fill the silence with babbling while Nate took his time with the menu. So what did you think of the chicken with mole verde, Mr. Food Editor? I’m glad you liked the band, but what about the food? Finally, Nate handed his menu to Juanita.

  “I’ll have a bowl of the stew, and I’ll have the same combination plate you served Saturday if you don’t mind my just taking a taste or two and leaving the rest. If I ate everything I wanted to, I’d be as big as a house.”

  Chris sat with Nate Silverman while he ate, telling him about the history of the Dip ’n’ Dine, his part in it, and what he hoped its future was. And while Mr. Silverman ate every bite of his green chile stew and a good deal more than just a taste or two of the combination plate, he said not a word about how he liked it. Finally, after stopping in the kitchen to meet Carlos and asking for a menu to take with him, he took his leave.

  “You’ve got a nice little place here.” He shook Chris’s hand at the door. “One of the things I like best about my job is discovering these little gems off the interstate. As soon as you get the schedule worked out for those food and music nights you’re going to be having next summer, you let me know, okay?”

  He waved as he got in his car, and they all watched him drive away.

  “Well, what do you know? He called us a gem, and we’ve been discovered.” Juanita brought a bin of dirty dishes into the kitchen where Chris had returned to his desk.

  “Yeah, like Columbus discovered America.” Carlos turned back to his stove. “How long have we been here? I know I’ve been here twenty years.”

  “What did he say, Chris? Is he going to put us in his magazine?”

  “I have no idea what he’s going to do. He didn’t say. He just ate, asked a ton of questions, and left.” Truth be told, Chris was a little annoyed with Nate Silverman. He could have at least mentioned the chicken mole he ate at the “Hot Chile and Cool Jazz” night. He didn’t have to say he loved it, or even that he liked it, but he could have said something.