Wide blue eyes moved avidly over Cassie, then with reluctance, returned to her children, who were still misbehaving.
Lynette looked essentially the same as Cassie remembered her, except for a certain unkemptness as well as a little more weight.
Lynette smoothed a hand over her flyaway blond curls and attempted to wipe a chocolate ice cream stain from the front of her blouse. "You look so different," she said, as if marveling that it could be true. "So—"
"Lynette," Cassie murmured. She'd wanted to be friends with Lynette all those years ago when they were children, and they had been friends for a few short weeks one summer when Cassie was eleven or twelve. Then school had started and Lynette had pulled away.
"Um—" Lynette made another visual search for her boys and discovered that Mr. Riggins had corralled them. "What have you been doin' with yourself?" she asked, laughing uncomfortably. "I guess you can see what I've been doin'—havin' babies. I'm married to Donnie Parks. You remember Donnie? He was a couple of years ahead of us in school. Do you have any ba—" She laughed uncomfortably again. "My goodness, my mother isn't gonna believe that I've seen you! How long will you be in town?"
"I'm not sure," Cassie said.
"Well, well...isn't that somethin'." Lynette seemed to want to continue the conversation, but was too rattled, either by her children's bad behavior or the unexpectedness of their meeting, to find a suitable subject to talk about. Finally, she said, "I suppose your mom's happy to have you visit. You know, maybe tomorrow evenin' I could stop by and we could go over to Reva's. I can't do it tonight because Donnie—"
"I'm not sure what I'll be doing tomorrow," Cassie said, interrupting her, "or if I'll even be here."
"Oh." Lynette replied, nonplussed. "Then maybe I can get Donnie to change his plans for tonight and we can—"
"I'm not staying in town. I'm at the Taylor's ranch on business."
"Oh," Lynette said again. Now totally confused.
Mr. Riggins oofed loudly as one of the children kicked him in the shin, and Lynette hurried to resume her motherly duties. Gathering her children and the boot box, she headed for the door. But not before sending Cassie an uncertain smile and a little wave.
Mr. Riggins, who had to be nearing eighty, looked ready to collapse. But he wouldn't rest until he'd assisted his waiting customer. Cassie quickly made her request—a good pair of athletic shoes—and gave him her size. He trotted out of the back room a few minutes later, box in hand. Cassie tried on the shoes, paid for them, and then wishing the old man a good rest of the day, stepped back out onto the sidewalk.
A quick check showed that Will's truck still wasn't in any of the parking slots. Though it seemed longer, she had probably spent only about fifteen minutes in the shoe store. If Will's possible hour estimate held true, she had more time to spend.
With bags in hand, she strolled up the sidewalk, remembering the barber shop with its red-and-white striped pole outside the front door, and the ice cream parlor where she'd sneaked an occasional treat outside of her mother's strict food program. And farther down, standing off on its own, she came upon the post office where Will had long ago rescued her. She swung around, checked again for the truck's arrival. It still wasn't there.
But someone else she recognized was walking toward her. One of the neighbors on the street where she'd grown up. The woman glanced at her, looked away, and then her head snapped back again. She'd obviously heard the news, too. But Cassie walked on, and the woman, who had not been happy to have the Edwards family as neighbors, didn't stop her.
The sun was warmer today, a promise of what was to come in full summer. The air was so much drier here than in Houston, though. To her, it made the heat more bearable. She'd almost forgotten.
"Cassie?" A familiar voice called her name.
Cassie shut her eyes for several seconds before turning. "Hello, Bonnie," she murmured.
Her mother looked her typical self, but her smile wasn't as bright as it had been the day before; the expression in her eyes was uncertain. "I didn't expect to see you again."
"I told you I'd stop by before I left."
Now some of the people in cars were slowing to look at them. Bonnie, as always, didn't notice. Cassie did.
"What a person says and what a person does can make an interesting puzzle," Bonnie stated.
Cassie released a silent breath. More of her mother's gobbledygook. She shot another look down the lines of parked cars, desperate to see Will. And she did! He was just pulling into a slot about half a block away.
"I'm sorry, Bonnie, but my ride is here. I have to—"
Her mother caught her arm; her fingers cool on Cassie's skin. When Cassie looked down at them, her mother let go.
"I want to see you, Cassie. It's not a good thing for a mother and a daughter to be apart for so long. Come home. Let me make some of my special tea. Let me give you some of your favorite honey cakes. Remember how you used to love them when you were new? I baked them last night."
"I can't. Will is here and—"
"Will?"
"Will Taylor."
"Hello, Mrs. Edwards," Will said, coming up behind her mother, his long legs having covered the distance in no time.
Cassie hadn't been aware that he was so close. If she had, she certainly would have done everything in her power to prevent this moment from taking place.
Bonnie looked him up and down. "So that's the meaning of the force I was told to expect. It's you!"
Cassie intervened quickly. "We have to go. Will doesn't have time for this."
Her mother tilted her head and smiled up at him. "Would you like a honey cake, Will? And some of my special tea?"
Cassie wanted to curl up and die. Right there on the spot. Her mother had a way of making everything so much worse. A way of causing her, even in her grown up and confident shell, to lose sight of all but the horror of the moment.
"No, Bonnie," she said briskly, "he wouldn't."
Will seemed to contemplate her mother's invitation. Cassie was about to start pushing him toward the truck when he said, "I'm not sure I've ever had a honey cake."
"Then you're in for a treat," Bonnie promised.
There was an awkward moment when Cassie should have said something, but didn't. She was afraid that if she opened her mouth she'd scream No! so loudly that people would come running to see why.
They headed down the sidewalk toward the truck, Cassie on legs that worked of their own accord. But at the truck, Bonnie turned down Will's offer of a ride.
"I'll meet you at home," she said, and with a beatific smile continued on her way.
~~~~
CASSIE SAT IN the truck in complete silence. Will made no move to start the engine.
Finally, he asked, "Have I done somethin' wrong?"
A pained expression passed over Cassie's nicely-drawn features. "Oh, no," she said, "everything is just…wonderful."
"You don't want to go to your mom's house?"
"I thought you were so busy!"
"I am. But what's another half hour?"
Cassie ran a hand through her hair and looked away.
Will gazed out over the steering wheel. Suddenly he didn't want a honey cake either. Hell.
He looked back at her. She didn't seem aware of it, but some fine hairs had escaped from the earlier sweep of her hand. It reminded him of the way she'd looked that morning, when she'd peeked out at him through the crack in the bathroom door, with her hair all over the place from sleep and her makeup mostly missing. He felt a stirring in his body, just as he had then. She'd looked good from the moment she'd first returned. All buttoned down and collected. But if he had to give a preference, he liked the slightly mussed version and the face that went beyond pretty without artificial assistance.
"I heard your mom ask, but you turned her down. You said it was because of me. But it's not me, is it? It's you. You don't want to go."
Her head whipped around. "Do you blame me?" she demanded. "My mother is a lunatic, okay? Yo
u know she is. Everyone in town knows she is. I'm surprised everyone in the state doesn't know it!"
Will frowned, surprised by her ferocity. "No," he disagreed. "She's just…Mrs. Edwards."
"Uhh!" She expelled a disbelieving breath.
Will didn't know what to do. Inadvertently he seemed to have stomped on a raw nerve. He knew Cassie had left town as soon as she was able, but he'd had no idea that she and her mother were so alienated. But then, Bonnie Edwards was a little…unusual. It could stand to reason.
"She's expectin' us," he said quietly.
"She'll forget all about us if she sees what she thinks is a white crow, or hears something in the breeze," she answered, her voice brittle.
"I don't think she will."
Cassie was silent. "All right," she said. "But don't blame me if this gets weird!"
"I'd never blame you, Cassie," he said. "A person can't be blamed for the kind of parent they have. Junior can't make Uncle Ray different. And you can't change your mom."
Cassie folded her arms and looked pointedly out the side window. "If we're going to do this, can we just…go?"
~~~~
CASSIE FELT AS if she were in a waking nightmare. Short of pretending that she was suddenly violently ill, she couldn't see a way of getting out of it. And even if she could, Will would see through her ploy in a second and she would be even more humiliated than she was at this moment.
He didn't understand. How could he understand? He had Sylvia for a mother, not Bonnie.
They slowed to a stop in front of a small wood-frame house where amulets hung from the eaves, and crystals, sparkling like raindrops in the sun, dangled from numerous tree branches. Like Sylvia, her mother had a garden, only Bonnie's took up the entire front yard and was filled with anything and everything that her mother might consider held some kind of magical power. To the neighbors, it must have been an eyesore, with the various large and small objects that Bonnie had found in her wanderings painted in bright colors and with mysterious decorative designs to guide a path to the front door. The high thin notes of a flute floated on the air. Home, Cassie thought.
She chanced a look at Will. The chaos he saw didn't seem to bother him in the least. He just sat there as she did, waiting for her mother to show up.
"I don't think she's going to come," Cassie said, her hands pressed tightly together in her lap.
"It takes a little while to walk."
"She knows all the shortcuts."
More time passed, increasing Cassie's tension.
"Let's go," she directed. She'd lost all semblance of her new-found confidence, and she was sure it showed. But for the moment she didn't care.
Will gazed at her steadily, then reached to turn the key. But before he could complete the action, her mother stepped into view, and the opportunity for escape passed.
Like a wraith, Bonnie walked past them without acknowledgment and went up the path to the house. She paused only long enough to drop what looked to be a small rock into a collection of others in a glass bowl on the narrow porch. She didn't even turn to see if they were following her as she went into the house.
Cassie took a bracing breath, opened the truck's door, and feeling something like a wraith herself—or maybe it was a leaf being blown along in a furious wind storm—she traced her mother's steps, with Will right behind her.
The interior of the house was just as oddly eclectic and strangely put together as the exterior. Fringed scarves and candles and symbols from various eastern religions mixed with Bonnie's own interpretations of ancient beliefs and lore. Incense sweetened the air as the flute continued its haunting notes. The room was filled with furniture. Old, overstuffed, and ranging from pieces that might be prized to those that belonged on a trash heap. Flowers filled various vessels. And, Cassie noted, there were still no time pieces of any kind. Her mother hated clocks.
Cassie avoided looking at Will. She didn't want to see what he might be thinking. While growing up, even when she'd found a friend to play with for a time, she'd never invited the friend here. She was too ashamed.
Her cheeks were flushed as she watched her mother come out of the kitchen carrying a plate of cookie-sized honey cakes in one hand and an oddly shaped teapot in the other, both of which she set on the low table in front of the couch. Bonnie then gathered three cups from the tall cabinet by the front door and, smiling tranquilly, motioned for Cassie and Will to seat themselves on the couch while she sank to her knees before the low table.
As she offered the plate of honey cakes to Will, she explained, "I gather the honey in late spring. It's the best time, I think. The bees tell me it is."
Will sampled the cake. "It's delicious," he pronounced.
"Cassie?" her mother prompted, offering the plate to her.
Cassie took a cake and nibbled it. It was good; she remembered they had been her favorite throughout her childhood. "It's good, Bonnie," she murmured.
Her mother seemed to sense when the water for tea was about to boil because she disappeared with the teapot, only to reappear a moment later, the teapot full. Why she hadn't left the teapot in the kitchen earlier was a question only Bonnie could answer.
A minute later she poured a cup of weak tea and tasted it herself before pouring for her guests. "I think you'll like this, too. I found it just the other day."
Cassie was unsure what the word "found" could mean. It could be anything. She thought to warn Will, but he'd already taken a sip and was smiling. Cassie cautiously tried it herself and identified it as Earl Grey.
"Your uncle Ray had it in his store," Bonnie said to Will.
"That's a nice lamp you have over there." Will nodded toward a large clump of rock or mineral sitting on a console. It was glowing salmon pink and orange from the inside out. "What is it?" he asked.
"A salt lamp from the Himalayas. It brings calm to the evil winds. Don't you feel it?"
"Mmm…sure," Will hesitantly agreed.
Cassie felt no such calm. Evil winds abounded.
Bonnie leaned forward, looking at Will with luminous eyes. "I knew you'd feel it." She switched her attention to Cassie. "I told you he'd come, remember? Before you left. You were so unhappy, and you wouldn't let me help. But I told you he'd come one day. And he has!"
Cassie had all she could take. She looked at Will, beseeching him to put an end to this agony, uncaring that he would know the depth of her desperation.
He stood, pulling Cassie up with him. "We have to go, Mrs. Edwards. Thanks for the cake and tea."
Bonnie sank back on her heels, momentarily disappointed, before she jumped to her feet as well. "Here," she said, "take some of these with you."
She wrapped two cakes in tissue paper and held them out as an offering. "Eat them when the moon is starting to rise and you'll be together for the rest of your lives."
Tears of anger, humiliation, and frustration sprang into Cassie's eyes, and she almost ran from the house. Will, after again mumbling his thanks, followed her.
After all the embarrassments over all the years, she hadn't thought it could get any worse. Yet it had! How could she face Will again? How could she get into the truck with him and ride back to the ranch? The tears she'd held back inside the house poured freely over her cheeks. This was all too much! Jimmy would have to understand. She could no longer stay here. She had to leave!
But the ranch was too far away to walk. And since Love was too small to have a taxi service, the only way Cassie could get back there was with Will. Once they arrived, she'd jump in her car and drive back to Houston. She wouldn't tell Jimmy what she was doing until she'd done it. And if he wanted to fire her for it...well, he could!
She fumbled with the truck's door handle, trying to open it. She was still fumbling with it when Will came up behind her and covered her hand with his.
"Cassie," he said tautly. "Stop it!"
"I want to go, Will," she moaned. "Just…let me go!"
His voice softened. "I'm tryin' to help you, Cassie. Not stop you. Move
your hands away."
His calm assurance got through to her, eased a little of her distress. She stepped aside as the door opened, at the same time attempting to wipe away her tears. But fresh ones kept taking their place.
He leaned in to deposit the wrapped honey cakes on the dashboard, then, carefully and gently, settled an arm around her shoulders. Once she grew accustomed to that, he did the same with his other arm, until he was holding her.
The strain of the day, of the entire trip, was exacting its harsh toll. Cassie's uneven breaths turned to full-on sobs as she relaxed into Will's warm strength. Until, finally, her tears lessened and stopped, and she was able to push away. Almost reluctantly, he released her.
Reaching into the truck again, he produced a handful of tissues, which Cassie gratefully received.
"Hop in," he directed, "before your mom looks out and starts to worry."
"She won't worry," Cassie answered bleakly, but she climbed into the truck.
Will didn't argue. He just closed the door, climbed in himself, and got the truck rolling.
Cassie leaned her head back and closed her eyes. She knew she should be ashamed of the way she'd broken down. But she was too emotionally spent to find the energy. She couldn't feel much of anything, really. She was just waiting...to arrive at the ranch, to get in her car, to drive away.
Although she wasn't looking, she knew when they left the town behind, made the turnoff to the ranch, and bumped over the railroad tracks. But when, after the accustomed period of time, they hadn't made the left turn into the Circle Bar-T's drive, she sat up.
"Where are we going?" she demanded, looking around, raking up a bit of her old, hard-won inner confidence.
Will glanced at her. "I didn't think you'd want to meet the crowd at the ranch just yet. So we're takin' a little detour."
He was right; she didn't want to meet the "crowd", but her car was there and that was what she wanted.
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