At Home in Last Chance

by Cathleen Armstrong

  Steven tried to take his hand back, but Gran held fast. She didn’t often try to talk to him about God, and that suited him just fine. It was bad enough knowing she was praying for him all the time. When Gran prayed, things happened.

  9

  Steven turned the collar of his coat up and jerked the rim of his hat down as he walked around the car after closing Kaitlyn’s door. His spirits were considerably lower than they had been all week as he thought about tonight and his plans with Kaitlyn, but that had little to do with the cold wind that had picked up at sundown.

  He slid behind the wheel and glanced in the rearview mirror. “All buckled in back there?”

  “Wait a second. Okay. Yeah.”

  “You’re sure you don’t mind?” Kaitlyn smiled at him across the front seat. “She’s been so excited.”

  “Mind? Are you kidding?” Steven pulled out onto the road and headed for the highway. “Olivia and I are old buds, aren’t we?” He glanced in the rearview mirror again.

  “It’s just that the new Pixar movie is out, and Chris and Sarah already had plans, and—”

  “Hey, it’s fine. Really.” He stopped at Last Chance’s only traffic light and looked over at her. Man, she looked amazing. Everyone he had seen all day had been wearing jeans, but no one, no one wore jeans like Kaitlyn Reed. And the way her super short hair fell across one eye just did him in. A short beep behind him reminded him that the light had changed, and he dragged his gaze back to the road.

  “Where’s Fluffy?” The question was accompanied by a light kick to the back of his seat.

  “She’s home.” Steven decided to ignore both the kick and Kaitlyn’s muffled snort of laughter. “I asked her if she wanted to come, but she said she already saw it last week.”

  A moment of silence, then, “She did not!”

  “Yeah, she did. She also said she’s not real crazy about being called ‘Fluffy’ either.” He sneaked another glance at Kaitlyn, who was trying pretty unsuccessfully to hide a smile. “The other dogs on the ranch are laughing at her.”

  “Sadie and Beau are nice. They wouldn’t laugh at her.”

  “Well, they’re nice to you and they like each other, but you know how dogs are. A new dog comes around and they have to kind of prove who’s boss. Fluffy is just not a very tough name.”

  “Oh, I don’t know. I kind of like ‘Fluffy.’ It suits her.” Kaitlyn was laughing now. “Besides, with all her attitude, I’ll bet she can get Sadie and Beau to fall in line in no time.”

  Steven meant for his scowl to be forbidding, but he got distracted by her smile. It changed her face completely, made her look really young and just plain happy. He liked that smile . . . a lot. And if calling his dog Fluffy kept the smile there, well, Speed Bump was just going to have to deal.

  “No, Mom. It’s not fun being new and having everyone make fun of you. We can’t let Sadie and Beau be mean to her.”

  Kaitlyn’s smile faded, and she turned away to look out the side window. Steven sighed and pulled his gaze back to the road. “You know I was kidding about Sadie and Beau, right? Dogs don’t really laugh, and they really don’t care about what people name them.”

  “But I don’t want them to be mean to Fluffy. It’s not her fault someone left her on the side of the road.” Olivia’s voice was beginning to quaver, and Kaitlyn was still staring out the side window.

  Steven blew out a gust of a sigh. This was not going well at all. He tried again. “Well, she’s got a good home now, and that’s what counts. I’m going to introduce her to Sadie and Beau tomorrow. Do you want to come make sure they are nice to her?”

  “Can we, Mom?” Even Steven was touched at the eagerness in Olivia’s voice. He glanced at Kaitlyn for confirmation. A smile had returned to her lips, but that’s where it stopped. The rest of her beautiful face held that air of sad resignation she had carried since her return to Last Chance.

  “It would have to be after church. Uncle Chris likes for all of us to go, you know.”

  Steven found himself wondering what it would take to get that happy, carefree expression back. “Why don’t I meet you there? I’ll get Gran and we can all come back to the ranch for lunch.”

  “You might want to check with your aunt before you start inviting people to Sunday dinner.” Kaitlyn still had that sort of wry smile going.

  “I will, but she’s one of those people who starts trying to feed you before you even get in the house. I’m sure she’ll be fine with it.”

  “Come on, Mom. Can we?” Olivia probably didn’t even realize she was kicking the back of his seat.

  “I guess it would be all right.” Kaitlyn spoke after a few seconds of consideration. “If you’re sure it would be okay with your aunt, and if you’re sure that there won’t be any trouble introducing Fluffy to the others. I don’t want Olivia in the middle of a bunch of doggie drama.”

  “Drama? Nah. Sadie and Beau are pretty mellow. They’ve already been checking each other out as I’ve carried, um, Fluffy from my car to the house, anyway. I’ll tell you what. After we get to San Ramon, I’ll call Aunt Nancy Jo and ask her about lunch. How would that be?”

  “Okay, thanks. I’d feel better if you did that.”

  “Yay!” If Kaitlyn’s response was a little tepid, Olivia’s enthusiasm more than made up for it. Steven hoped he wasn’t going to have to ask her to stop kicking his seat.

  Steven was waiting in the hall when Kaitlyn ushered Olivia out of the restroom at the theater after the movie. He slipped his phone in his pocket and smiled.

  “Aunt Nancy Jo said she’d love to have you for lunch tomorrow. Looks like we’re having a party, in fact. She said Sarah had just called and she and Chris are coming too. See? What’d I tell you?”

  “Wow.” Kaitlyn shook her head. “She can go from, what, two or three for lunch to a full-fledged party just like that? You’re sure it’s not going to be too much trouble for her?”

  “Aunt Nancy Jo could probably feed the county on a day’s notice, and since she doesn’t get into town that often, she loves the company. She’s looking forward to this.” Steven fell in beside them as they walked through the lobby of the theater. Olivia, holding her mother’s hand, positioned herself between them.

  Kaitlyn was beginning to wonder what she had allowed herself to get into. She’d never been the sort of girl that guys took home to meet the family, and though this couldn’t be construed by anyone as that sort of meeting, she did feel awkward and on the spot. Knowing Chris and Sarah, and even Elizabeth, would be there made her feel safer. Maybe she could just fade into the crowd or something.

  “You look so serious.” Steven grinned at her over Olivia’s head. “You’re not still worried, are you?”

  “No, not really.” Kaitlyn returned his smile as she tried to shake off those old feelings of defectiveness. “I was just thinking that your aunt must be pretty amazing. My mom never had people over for a meal—she had dinner parties, and she obsessed over every last detail from guest list to menu, even to the height of the centerpiece, for days.”

  “Well, Aunt Nancy Jo’s amazing, I’ll give you that. But she does take a few shortcuts. The centerpiece is likely to be mashed potatoes, and the guest list is anyone in the house at mealtime. Saves a lot of wear and tear.”

  “I’m hungry.” The voice came from below their line of vision and was accompanied by a tug on Kaitlyn’s hand.

  “With the popcorn, and the candy, and the slushie? How can you be?” Kaitlyn looked down at her daughter.

  “Well, I am.”

  “You read my mind, Liv.” Steven pushed the door of the theater open to a gust of cold wind. “There’s a place just around the corner that serves terrific burgers and shakes. How does that sound?”

  “Great.”

  “Olivia.” Kaitlyn’s voice was little more than an exasperated whisper as she buttoned her daughter’s coat to the top and tugged her hat over her ears.

  “It’s just down this way. We’ll be out of this wind in a mi
nute.” Steven turned his own collar up and jammed his hat further down on his head as he led them down the street.

  Warmth and the sound of the Everly Brothers met them when they entered the burger joint, and the aroma of potatoes sizzling in hot fat made Kaitlyn’s mouth water. Since she had foregone the candy and taken only a small handful of Olivia’s popcorn, she had to admit that a burger sounded really good.

  “I know you can find retro diners all over, but this is the real deal.” Steven led them to a booth and slid in on one side while Olivia and Kaitlyn took the other. “This place looked just like this when my folks would bring me here after a movie when I was a kid, and as far as I know, it was the same when my dad brought my mom here on dates. Not even the music has changed.”

  “What’s this?” Olivia had found the booth-side jukebox and was flipping the tabs.

  “That lets us choose what music we want to listen to.” Steven dug in his pocket for quarters and placed them on the table. “Let’s order first, and then I’ll show you how it works.”

  After the waitress left, Kaitlyn watched as Steven helped Olivia read the titles of the songs and punch in the numbers. He tried to steer her toward a romantic ballad or two, but when Olivia’s preference clearly leaned toward novelty songs and those with an animal in the title, he gave in with grace. Kaitlyn smiled to herself. Olivia seemed to have taken over both Steven and the date, but that was okay. It took a little of the pressure off.

  “Oh my gosh, Steven. Is that you? I haven’t seen you in, like, forever.” The dark-eyed brunette who stopped at their table was obviously addressing Steven, but her eyes kept flicking to Kaitlyn.

  “Jen, how’s it going?” Steven slid out of the booth to give her a hug. “Yeah, not since high school, huh? What’ve you been up to? Thought you got married and moved away after graduation.”

  “I did, but I’m back. Divorced, no kids, working at the bank. But look at you. Married and with a little girl even. I never would have guessed it.” She extended a hand toward Kaitlyn. “Hi, I’m Jennifer. Steven and I go way, way back. Don’t we, Steven?”

  The knowing smile Jennifer sent Steven’s way did not escape Kaitlyn’s notice. Nor was it supposed to, she suspected. She returned the smile but said nothing. Let Steven deal with this.

  “Nope, not married.” Steven took a step back, putting some space between himself and Jennifer. “This is my friend Kaitlyn and her daughter, Olivia.”

  “Oh? Good friends?” How could a smile look catty one second and predatory the next and really not change all that much? Maybe it was the eyes.

  “Mere acquaintances.” Kaitlyn tried to make her own smile benign, but Olivia didn’t even try.

  “Steven, I need you to help me. I still have two more quarters.” The look Olivia gave Jennifer was easy to read: Go away. We don’t like you.

  “And here’s our dinner.” Steven stepped further out of the way as a waitress appeared with their order. “Jen, it was good seeing you. Hope we bump into you again sometime.”

  “Oh, me too. Wait a second.“ She fished in her purse for a pen and wrote something on a slip of paper. Tucking it into his hand, she moved in for another hug, which Steven returned with an awkward pat on her back.

  She gave Kaitlyn that toothy smile and wiggled her fingers at Olivia before she left. Steven looked at the paper in his hand and wadded it up, but Kaitlyn noticed that he did shove it in his pocket before he sat down.

  “Old friend?” Kaitlyn tore the paper off her straw and took a sip of her Diet Cherry Coke.

  “I knew her in high school. I haven’t seen her since we graduated, though.” Steven’s voice was casual, but Kaitlyn noticed he seemed a lot more interested in getting mustard on his burger than he was in meeting her eyes.

  “I gathered. And what a long and painful fifteen years it must have seemed for her.” Kaitlyn couldn’t help it. Hassling Steven was becoming a favorite pastime. “Finding you seems to have given her life new meaning.”

  Steven’s brow furrowed, and Kaitlyn bit the inside of her cheeks to keep from grinning. “It hasn’t been fifteen years. How old do you think I am, anyway?”

  “You know, I really hadn’t thought about it. But when I saw Jennifer, I guessed fifteen years. At least.” Kaitlyn made her smile sweet and innocent.

  Steven sat back and looked at Kaitlyn. He looked so frustrated that Kaitlyn couldn’t help laughing. “I’m just teasing you. She is awful pretty, though, and I think running into you just made her day.”

  The look Steven gave her made her laugh even more, but he did seem to relax as he picked up his burger. “She was cute in high school. And she sure knew it too. She just sort of expected crowds of admirers to form wherever she was.”

  “And were you in the crowd?”

  “Nope.” He took a bite and shifted it to his cheek. “I had my own crowds.”

  Kaitlyn grinned and shook her head as she picked up her own sandwich. “I’ll just bet you did.”

  “Let’s pick another song.” Olivia claimed Steven’s attention again, and as he turned away to help her read the titles on the jukebox, Kaitlyn felt surprisingly at ease, if a bit disappointed.

  She had been so nervous since Steven had asked her out, even to the point of finding a reason why Olivia had to come with them. It wasn’t that everyone had warned her about Steven. The only guys she had ever been interested in were ones people warned you about. But she wasn’t looking for that anymore. And the Steven who she had seen carrying that silly dog around seemed to have changed too. But he had taken Jennifer’s phone number—what else could it have been?—and put it in his pocket. He was a lot of fun to be with, and he seemed to like Olivia, which was a plus, but he was not who she hoped he might be. And since she wasn’t completely sure she could trust herself yet, she wouldn’t be seeing Steven again—at least not as anything but the most casual of friends.

  Steven felt great as he got back in his truck after seeing Kaitlyn and Olivia to their front door. Kaitlyn hadn’t asked him in, but that was all right. There’d be time for that later, because he planned to see as much of Kaitlyn Reed as he could. Okay, he’d admit that it was her amazing looks that first caught his attention. She was, to put it plainly, drop-dead gorgeous. She looked almost exotic, like an orchid that had suddenly appeared among the cactus flowers. And that standoffish attitude of hers had presented an interesting challenge too. But she was funny! Who knew? And when she laughed, he found himself wanting to walk a fence or do a pratfall—anything to keep her laughing—just like he was in the fourth grade.

  A gust of wind rocked his truck as he turned onto the highway and headed to the ranch. His headlights picked out a coyote loping across the road ahead, and a tumbleweed blew under his wheels. This was a night to be home. He found himself wondering what sitting at home on a night like this with Kaitlyn would be like. Sitting on the sofa watching a movie, maybe, with a bowl of popcorn. He sighed as the picture completed itself: Olivia sitting between them, holding the popcorn bowl.

  Well, one thing was sure enough—any picture with Kaitlyn in it had Olivia squarely in the middle. Everyone in town knew that she had dumped her daughter with her brother and taken off last summer. And deserting your kid was a pretty hard thing to get forgiven for in Last Chance. But Kaitlyn didn’t seem to expect it or even look for it. She just came back and became one of the most attentive, loving parents Steven had ever seen. He didn’t know a whole lot about kids and parents, but if you could tell how a parent was doing by looking at the kids, Kaitlyn must be doing a pretty good job. The chip Olivia had worn on her shoulder since she came to Last Chance didn’t seem to be there anymore. She was pretty mouthy by local standards, but on the whole, she seemed like a normal, happy kid. And Steven, who’d never had much time for kids since he quit being one, liked her. That in itself came as something of a surprise.

  He could see Speed Bump, or Fluffy, sitting on the back of the sofa looking out the window when Steven drove up the gravel drive. Her ears perked up when s
he saw the truck, and she immediately disappeared as she jumped down. In a second, she was back, and then gone, and then back as she tried to monitor the front door and watch his arrival simultaneously.

  The wind really howled now, and Steven shrugged deeper into his sheepskin jacket and held his hat on his head as he hurried to the house. He jammed his free hand deep in his pocket as he went, and his fingers found the crumpled piece of paper he had left there in the diner.

  “Right. Like that’ll ever happen.” He pulled the scrap from his pocket and dropped it. A gust of wind snatched it up before it hit the ground and carried it away high over his head and into the dark night.

  10

  Steven had two choices when he stepped into church after the service had begun the next morning. He could slip unnoticed into the back pew, or he could clomp all the way down to the front where his grandmother sat in the pew she claimed over sixty years ago. He sighed and let his gaze wander down the row. There they all were. Gran on the aisle, her white curls barely visible through the crowd behind her, then Sarah’s dark curls; next came Chris, towering over them all, and finally Kaitlyn. And beside Kaitlyn, an empty seat. That made the choice a no-brainer. Holding his hat in his hands, he almost tiptoed down the side aisle and slipped in next to Kaitlyn.

  She looked up at him and smiled as Steven took one side of her hymnbook. He gave her a wink and turned his attention to the front of the church where Lurlene, the worship leader, caught his eye and beamed at him. Steven smiled back. When they finished the hymn and everyone sat back down, Rita Sandoval, sitting right behind him, patted his shoulder and whispered, “It’s good to see you!” He sent a brief smile over his shoulder, and when he turned back to the front, Gran was leaning forward so she could see him, her face a mask of delighted amazement. Good grief. You’d think he’d never been to church before.