At Home in Last Chance

by Cathleen Armstrong

  Kaitlyn dropped her gaze from Elizabeth’s piercing blue eyes to the freckled, blue-veined hand grasping hers. It was hard to imagine Elizabeth having regrets; she always seemed so content and at peace.

  “I’m talking to you, Miss Kaitlyn.” Elizabeth gave her hand another little shake. “Are you going to promise me?”

  Kaitlyn took in a breath and let it go with a long, slow sigh. “Yes, I’ll promise.”

  “That’s what I want to hear. And when you go to thinking about all those options that you do have, the best place to start is by asking the Lord what he has in store for you. Because believe me, darlin’, he has something wonderful planned for you. I know that as sure as I’m sitting here. You just watch for it.”

  “Watch for what? If it’s me, here I am.” Steven grinned as he appeared in the doorway. He gave a low whistle when Elizabeth turned her smile on him. “Hey, beautiful.”

  “It is most certainly not you, Steven Braden, but you can come give me a kiss anyway.” Elizabeth held her arms out to her grandson. “I’m so glad to see you, honey.”

  “So if it’s not me, what are you watching for?” Steven bent to kiss his grandmother’s cheek and stood to look from her to Kaitlyn.

  “What I need to be watching is the time.” Kaitlyn looked at her watch. “I have to be back in Last Chance by 3:00 to pick Livvy up. I should go.”

  “Oh, you don’t have to go yet, do you?” Elizabeth took her hand again. “You have lots of time. Sit down a minute. Steven, grab that chair over there and pull it up so you can sit down too. Now, tell me all the news.”

  “Well, I guess the big news is that Lainie and Ray are coming back.” Steven set the beige vinyl chair next to Elizabeth’s bed and plopped down in it.

  “You don’t mean it. To stay?” Elizabeth’s eyes sparkled.

  “It looks that way. And there’s more. Unless you want to move back to the ranch, they want to stay with you.”

  “Of course I’m not moving back to the ranch. Not yet, anyway. I thought I set your Uncle Joe Jr. and your Aunt Nancy Jo straight on that. But that doesn’t mean I need a babysitter if I stay in town, you know. I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself.”

  “I’m sure you are.” Steven managed to exchange a glance with Kaitlyn without Elizabeth noticing. “And it will be even easier after I get that ramp to the porch built and the grab bars put in your bathroom. I’m starting on that today. But Lainie and Ray have to live somewhere, and I think Lainie kind of thinks of your place as home. But I can tell them it’s not convenient if you want me to.”

  “You’ll do no such thing. Of course they’re going to stay with me. Where else are they going to go? Do they know I’m not going to be home for a while? They’re fixing to send me off to some convalescent home for who knows how long.”

  “They know, and it will give them some time to close things up in Santa Fe and get moved.”

  “Lainie and Ray back in Last Chance.” Elizabeth sat back against her pillow and beamed. “That’s just more than I could have hoped for. The Lord is so good.”

  “You know Ray and Lainie, right? Didn’t you meet them when they were here at Christmas?” Steven looked across the bed at Kaitlyn.

  She nodded. “Yeah, I really liked them too. Especially Lainie. I’m glad they’re coming back.”

  As far as Kaitlyn knew, Lainie Braden was the only woman she had met since she got to Last Chance with a past as patchy as her own. And everyone knew her story, and everyone loved her. Kaitlyn had even heard Juanita speak fondly of Lainie. Maybe she could get Lainie to share her secret.

  “I really do have to go.” Kaitlyn picked up her purse and stood up. “I have barely enough time to get to school to get Olivia now. And if there’s any traffic, I’ll be late.”

  “Oh, honey, you’re not in the big city now. There won’t be any traffic.” Elizabeth reached for her hand again. “You’ll be fine. And just because Ray and Lainie will be with me does not mean that Olivia is not to come to me after school every day, you hear? And you tell her that for me.”

  Kaitlyn smiled. “Well, maybe you can do that when you come home.”

  Truthfully, she had doubts that Elizabeth would be able to continue with Olivia, but there was no point in going into that now, just as there was no point in letting Olivia get her hopes up.

  “I do need to get some pictures before I go, though.” Kaitlyn dug for her phone. “Livvy’s going to be mad enough that I got to come see you and she can’t.”

  She took photos of Elizabeth smiling as she crocheted, smiling as she blew kisses, and glaring sideways in startled irritation as Steven threw his arm around her and leaned into the shot at the last instant.

  “Steven, what in this world are you doing?” Elizabeth slapped at his shoulder. “You scared the life out of me.”

  He laughed and gave her a squeeze before standing up again. “Sorry, Gran. I thought you might like a picture of the two of us.”

  “Not with me sitting in a hospital bed, I don’t.” Elizabeth still looked miffed. “Those pictures were for Livvy only.”

  “Don’t worry. It’s already deleted.” Kaitlyn settled her bag on her shoulder and blew a kiss from the doorway. “Bye, now. I’m really going this time.”

  “Wait. I’ll walk you to the elevator.” Steven caught up with her just outside Elizabeth’s door and fell in beside her. “Did you fix Gran up like that? She really looks nice.”

  Kaitlyn nodded. “A little blush and mascara can go a long way toward making someone feel more like herself. And then her personality did the rest.”

  “Well, whatever you did, it worked. She really looks happy. Thanks for being so nice to my grandmother.”

  “My pleasure. And I mean that.” They stopped in front of the elevator and the Down button glowed yellow when Kaitlyn pushed it. “She has been so good to Livvy, and Chris, and even me from the day any of us got to Last Chance. I’d do anything for her.”

  “Then how about going out with her favorite grandson?” Steven leaned against the wall and flashed his dimple.

  “What? Where did that come from? No. Just no. We’ve gone over all this before. No.”

  The elevator arrived and Kaitlyn stepped inside. As the doors slid shut, Steven stood in the corridor with his hands shoved deep in his pockets, grinning at her. Just before he disappeared from view and the elevator began its descent, he gave her a long, slow wink.

  Kaitlyn shook her head in disbelief. Who goes from showing such tender concern for their grandmother to hitting on someone without taking a breath? The question answered itself, of course. Steven. She found herself almost smiling as the elevator opened again and she walked through the lobby toward the parking lot. He really was as much of a mess as everyone warned her he was, no doubt about that. But there was another side she kept seeing as well. She had heard about him taking on his aunt and uncle to keep Elizabeth in her own home. And he had thought to take pictures of Elizabeth to show Olivia she was going to be all right. And then there was that ridiculous little white dog he had rescued and took with him everywhere. The teasing she had seen him take over the boot-sized dog didn’t seem to faze him a bit. He’d just pull his hat a little lower over his eyes and say, “Careful now, you don’t want to get her riled.”

  She giggled at the image as she walked across the hospital porch, causing a couple heading inside with a vase of flowers and a balloon to look at her with mild alarm. She smiled, wished them a good day, squared her shoulders, and headed out across the parking lot.

  She was still smiling when she reached the Jeep and climbed in. And her good mood went beyond Steven and his foolishness. Truthfully, she had forgotten what fun it was to see someone’s eyes light up when she handed them a mirror to view her handiwork. In the exclusive salons where Kaitlyn had worked in Scottsdale, the clients were much more likely to scowl slightly and demand this little change or that before they finally nodded their approval and left. Not since cosmetology school when she would go to the nursing home
to do hair had she seen such appreciation. Okay, to be honest, when she gave Juanita her perm, Juanita had been delighted and had even bragged about her in the Dip ’n’ Dine. Too bad that hadn’t lasted.

  She pulled out onto the highway and headed for Last Chance. Maybe that was the whole problem, though. Maybe she was a great hairdresser but a lousy waitress. She’d have to think about that. In fact, she had a lot of things to think about now. The image of Steven standing in the doorway of the elevator giving her that long wink came unbidden to her mind, and she smiled. He was so cocky. But she was beginning to suspect that there was more to Steven than attitude. And maybe it was time to find out just what that was.

  Steven checked the measurements on the scrap of paper he had pulled from his pocket as he wandered down aisles stacked high with four-by-fours and sheets of pressure-treated plywood at the building supply store. Building the ramp for Gran’s front steps was going to be a little more complicated than he had thought, but it was still doable. Carpentry was nothing new. He had handled a hammer since he was old enough to lift one and had spent a summer before he was even out of high school helping his brother build the cabin that now served as Ray’s local studio.

  Nope, building Gran’s ramp wasn’t the problem. And now that they had told him Gran was going to get better and he had seen for himself that she was as unsinkable as ever, Gran wasn’t even the problem. The problem was Kaitlyn Reed, and coming to grips with the inescapable fact that she was just not into him. And furthermore, she showed no signs whatsoever that she could ever be into him.

  It wasn’t that he hadn’t tried. He had, in fact, pulled out every surefire, never-fail, hundred-percent-guaranteed play in the playbook, and not only was every last pass incomplete, it didn’t even bounce. It just landed with a thud and laid there on the field like a brick. Finally today, when the elevator closed on her looking at him like he was a lunatic, he heard the final whistle blow. It was over.

  And that was really too bad. Because somewhere along the line, it had stopped being a game. He had begun to look for excuses to run into Kaitlyn, to talk to her, to try to make her laugh. He had even found himself wondering what a life with Kaitlyn and Olivia might be like. And he had never gone there before.

  “Earth to Steven. Hello?”

  It took a minute to realize someone was talking to him, but eventually he noticed the laughing brunette standing right in front of him.

  “Hey, Jen. Sorry. I was a little distracted here. How are you?”

  She laughed again and tipped her head to look up at him. “I’ll say you were distracted. I called your name three times. What are you building? A hideout? You look so grim.”

  “Nah, just a wheelchair ramp for my grandmother. I was concentrating, I guess. Sorry.” He blew out a breath and smiled. Shake it off, Braden.

  “So . . . you never called.” She peeked up at him through her lashes. “Lose my number?”

  “Oh, wow, yeah, I guess I must have. Sorry.” He grinned and tipped his hat back with one finger. “How many ‘sorrys’ does that make? Three?”

  “Well, you should be sorry.” Jen looked adorable when she pouted, and Steven knew she knew that. “I think you need to make it up to me, don’t you?”

  “I guess I do, at that.” Steven shoved the paper with his notes in his back pocket. The ramp could wait. “What do you have in mind?”

  “Well, first you can come home with me and put up these new towel racks I’m buying. And then you can take me out to eat.”

  “I think I can do that.”

  “And then you have to promise to come with me to a party on Saturday.”

  “Saturday too, huh? I really did get myself in trouble by losing that phone number, didn’t I?”

  “You have no idea.” There was that pout again. “And I’m not sure that your coming with me Saturday will get you completely off the hook either.”

  “Well, all I can do is try.” He draped his arm around her shoulder as they walked to the front of the store to pay for her towel racks. He and Jen had been good friends in high school, though they had never gone out. Maybe it was time to change that.

  The line in front of the school was down to the last few cars when Kaitlyn took her place at the end. Ahead, she could see Olivia with her pink backpack waiting for her.

  “I thought you were going to be late.” Olivia threw her backpack ahead of her and climbed in the backseat.

  “Nope. I’m right on time.” Kaitlyn waited for the seat belt click before pulling away from the curb.

  “But you were almost late.”

  “There’s no such thing as ‘almost late.’ You’re either late or on time, and I, my dear, was on time.” Kaitlyn glanced at Olivia in the rearview mirror. Her daughter seemed content to let the topic drop and gazed out the side window humming to herself.

  When Chris had turned the afternoon pickup over to Kaitlyn shortly after she arrived in Last Chance, Olivia’s distress had been loud and unrelenting. And truthfully? Kaitlyn didn’t blame her then. Why would Olivia think her mother would be there for her? Kaitlyn didn’t even believe it herself. Finally, Chris had dropped to one knee so he could look in Olivia’s face and told her she could count on it. Her mother would be there every day when she came out those front doors.

  And she had been, watching the frantic expression Olivia wore as she searched the line of cars turn to one of almost palpable relief as she spotted the Jeep waiting by the curb. Today was the first time Olivia had to wait a few minutes, but it looked like she was finally ready to believe her mom wouldn’t let her down. Kaitlyn felt like singing. It had been a good day—after she left the Dip ’n’ Dine, that is.

  “I saw Elizabeth today.” Kaitlyn turned onto Elizabeth’s street.

  “When’s she coming home?” Olivia was only interested in one aspect of Elizabeth’s hospital stay.

  “Oh, honey, it’s going to be a while. After she leaves the hospital, she has to go to another place where they’ll help her learn to walk with a broken leg so she won’t fall again.”

  “But that will take too long.” This was clearly not the news Olivia was looking for.

  “I know. But the good news is that you can visit the new place, and she’ll be there in a few days. We’ll go after school.” Kaitlyn brought the Jeep to a stop in front of Elizabeth’s house.

  “Every day? And take Sam too?”

  Kaitlyn laughed as she and Olivia got out of the Jeep and joined Sam, who was waiting on the sidewalk. “You are something else, kiddo. But no, we won’t go every day. Elizabeth has work to do. That’s why she’s there. And you have basketball practice on Mondays and Thursdays, remember?”

  “And Sam? Can he come with us?”

  “We’ll check on that. Sometimes pets can come visit. But don’t say anything to Sam yet, okay? We don’t want to get his hopes up.”

  “Mom, he’s standing right there.” The look of patience pushed to the brink that Olivia gave her made Kaitlyn laugh again. “And he’s not deaf.”

  A few minutes later as Sam crouched over his food bowl and they sat at the kitchen table with their cups of tea, Kaitlyn let Olivia scroll through the pictures she had taken at the hospital.

  “She was really happy to get her crocheting. She told me to thank you for thinking of it. No one else did.”

  Olivia nodded without looking up. “Well, her and me crochet a lot.”

  “She and I.” The correction was automatic and completely ignored by Olivia as she kept scrolling.

  “Whose arm is that?”

  Kaitlyn took a look. “Oh, that’s Steven. He was there too.”

  Olivia nodded. “I like Steven. I used to think he was dumb, but he’s nice. And I like Speed Bump too.”

  “I know what you mean.” Kaitlyn took a sip of tea. “He does kind of grow on you. In fact, I was thinking. Uncle Chris is going out with Sarah Saturday night. What would you think of inviting Steven over for dinner and a movie?”

  Olivia shrugged. “Okay, I guess.”
/>
  “All right, then I’ll ask him. What do you think I should fix?”

  Olivia looked away from the phone while she considered. “I guess the best thing you fix is macaroni and cheese with hot dogs in it. And then maybe we can watch Pocahontas.”

  “Sounds like a perfect evening.” Kaitlyn laughed. If Steven wanted to be part of her life, it was best he knew exactly what he was letting himself in for. “I’ll give him a call this evening and ask him.”

  17

  Russ and I went up to see Elizabeth last night.” Juanita, as usual, was talking as she came in the front door the next morning. Chris glanced at the clock to remind her of the time, as he did every morning, and Juanita ignored him, as she always did. “My, she looked pretty. I was expecting the poor thing to look like something the cat didn’t want. She’s not that far from ninety, after all, and we nearly lost her. But there she was, sitting up in bed looking as fresh and pink-cheeked as a berry, crocheting and watching Perry Mason. I didn’t even know Perry Mason was still on.”

  Chris gave up and went back in the kitchen, but Kaitlyn just smiled a greeting and went on filling the napkin dispensers. Juanita rarely needed a vocal participant to have a conversation.

  “She said you fixed her up. And it took you about two minutes flat. Is that right?” Juanita stopped on her way to the storage room, her coat and purse over her arm.

  It took a second for Kaitlyn to realize Juanita was waiting for a response. “Oh. I just used a little mascara and blush and lip gloss. They don’t have a lot to choose from in the hospital gift shop. I think just feeling better is what made the real change.”