An Allegheny Homecoming

by T. R. McClure

  The sound of hoofbeats reached his ears. The cat’s ears pricked. Josh’s gaze shifted right. When he looked back, the cat was gone.

  “How you makin’ out, buddy?” Matt MacDougal trotted up on the other side of the fence and reined in his horse. A compact man, he looked right at home on the big ranch horse. He lifted off his cowboy hat and ran a hand over short-cropped red hair.

  Josh stood. His right knee cracked. “I just saw a mountain lion.”

  “No kidding? You have your rifle with you?”

  “It’s in the truck.”

  “Good place for it. You know a horse would’ve been able to carry you down that rocky slope, so you’d have your rifle handy. And Blue’s in the barn getting fat. He could use some exercise.”

  “I told you the first day of boot camp I prefer my horses under the hood. Just because you can ride anything on four legs doesn’t mean the rest of us can.”

  “If you say so, but the day is gonna come when the only way you can get somewhere is on one of these fellas. It’s not that hard. You just sit here and let the horse do all the work.” He ran a hand down the crown of the thick mane.

  “You make it sound easy.”

  “Riding is easy.” Matt grunted. “Aunt Steff wants you to come over to the main house for lasagna. She said tell him no arguments.”

  His stomach grumbled. He had been eating food out of a can for weeks. “I’ll be there in a bit.”

  “That’s what you said yesterday. You missed Sunday roast. You’re gonna lose your social skills if you stay up here in this cabin much longer.”

  “What social skills?” Josh grinned and stared past his friend into the valley below. He could just make out the roof of the large barn.

  “Got a point there, brother.” He leaned on the saddle horn and looked up at the screech of a hawk. His sweat-stained Stetson dangled from his fingers. “You know, we should cut the rest of these dead trees before they fall.”

  Josh rubbed his right knee, which only bothered him when he put weight on it for extended periods of time. “I can do it.”

  “Why don’t you wait until I can give you a hand? It’s a two-man job.” Matt fiddled with a rope hanging from the saddle horn. “You okay up here by yourself? You know, we have room at the house. Because there’s no signal up here. If you need a hand...”

  “Thanks, but I love it here in the mountains.” Josh filled his lungs with a deep breath of the cool, crisp air and released it before answering. He gave his friend a confident stare. “I’ll be fine.”

  “Well, you ever need to talk you know where to find me.”

  Josh met his gaze and nodded before glancing away. “Thanks.” If he talked to anyone it would be to Matt, a man he trusted with his life. But Josh had managed to stay quiet for eight years; no sense dragging up the past at this late date.

  Matt slapped his hat back on and tilted his head. “You know, you’re starting to look like a crazy mountain man. You ever gonna shave? I can hardly recognize you.” Matt’s grin dissipated the tension in the air.

  Josh propped an elbow on a fence post and ran a hand over the dark, bushy beard. Four months with no rules and regulations to follow with regard to shaving. For the first time in eight years, his hair touched his collar. “Maybe I don’t want to be recognized.”

  “Oh, I almost forgot. You had some mail at the house.” Matt pulled an envelope from inside the heavy duster and waved it in the air. “You keepin’ secrets from me, bro? You got a girlfriend back home?”

  “Nope.” A shiver ran down his spine at Matt’s timely question. He wished his secrets were as innocent as a girl back home. Taking the piece of mail from Matt’s outstretched hand, he stuck the envelope in the back pocket of his jeans, wondering who he knew who would write a letter in this day of texts and emails. “Thanks.”

  “So we’ll see you for dinner?” Matt leaned forward on the saddle horn and waited.

  Josh had promised twice already this month to come for dinner and had apologized by saying he had fallen asleep. He nodded. “I’ll be there.”

  “Sounds good.” Matt pulled on the reins, and his horse whirled around on his hind legs. The clatter of the hooves on the rocky hillside faded into the distance.

  Josh clambered up the bank to the old ranch truck, a forty-year-old mechanical miracle. A sturdy wooden bed had replaced the original, which had probably rusted away years ago. His own truck was parked in the garage at the main house. After years of owning a vehicle for a year at the most, selling and then moving on, he had purchased a new dark green truck with an extended cab to store his things, and a short bed for anything else he might have to carry.

  The job here at the MacDougal Ranch, as much as he appreciated working in the outdoors, was temporary. He just hadn’t decided on his next step.

  He looked around. The big cat had disappeared. He maneuvered the truck up the hill, washed in the stream, changed his shirt and jeans for the only clean pair he had and settled down by the empty fireplace to read his mail.

  He ripped open the envelope. A news clipping and a piece of pink notepaper fell out. The pink paper was decorated with a picture of scissors, the Hair Today logo and Megan Martin’s name.

  Hi Josh, I thought you would want to see this. Text or call if you want to talk. Megan.

  Josh smiled, thinking of the woman with the curly ponytail who could argue sports statistics with him all day. Neither had a romantic interest in the other, but when they had worked together backstage on the senior class play, they had discovered a common interest in sports of all kinds. He unfolded the newspaper clipping. A group of people stood in front of a business. Why would Megan think he cared about this?

  He brought the paper closer and peered at the faces. He still didn’t recognize anyone. He had been gone from home too long. He read the caption: Local Businesses Plan Holiday Party. Holly McAndrews, proprietor of The Wildflower. Now he remembered. She had been a few years ahead of him in school. Three years in a row she and her bay quarter horse had won the barrel racing contest at the county fair. He grinned at the sight of the pregnant belly. Didn’t look like she was doing any barrel racing these days.

  Next to Holly was Megan. And next to Megan...he did a double take, before reading the caption beneath. Suzanna Campbell, proprietor of The Cookie Jar. He almost didn’t recognize his own mother. Her formerly bright yellow hair was more of a platinum blond, and she must have lost at least forty pounds. And she was using her maiden name. What was going on?

  He took a deep breath and stared into the ashes of the old stone fireplace. He had stayed away, focusing on his own demons. Eight years as a medic, patching up his fellow soldiers, had done little to assuage his guilt about what had happened in Bear Meadows. He’d even finally gotten out of the military, hoping to find the answers elsewhere.

  But the picture indicated something else was wrong. Was his mother sick? The weight loss... The white hair...

  He was only half joking when he told Matt he didn’t want to be recognized. He had no desire to return to Bear Meadows, especially after his last visit. He had burned that bridge. What he wanted was to be left alone to sort out his thoughts. How did the last eight years figure into the direction of the rest of his life? How would he move on from the incident that kept him away from his hometown?

  But something had happened at home. Maybe he wasn’t the only one having trouble figuring out what to do next. His parents had been married twenty-five years. Didn’t they know by now?

  Apparently they didn’t. He had to get back to Pennsylvania.

  But first he had a date with a plate of lasagna.

  CHAPTER TWO

  “NONFAT VANILLA LATTE. And make it a double.” She deserved it after the morning she’d had. Standing at The Wildflower counter, Wendy swiped her debit card and studied the woman behind the cash register.
“Are you still working out? You don’t look like you’ve gained an ounce.”

  Holly Hoffman McAndrews grinned as she pushed Wendy’s latte across the counter. The sweet scent of vanilla wafted from the ceramic cup. “I can do limited exercise. And I walk a lot.” She patted the round protrusion underneath the brown apron. “But I gave up riding horses for a while.” Her smile got wider as the bell jingled over the door. “It’s all his fault.”

  “What are you blaming me for now?” Mac McAndrews, the chief of police and Holly’s husband, strode across the floor.

  Wendy looked from one to the other. She may as well have been invisible.

  She’d never spotted the love affair coming, what with Mac having a little girl from his first marriage and Holly thinking she wasn’t the maternal type. But somehow things had worked out for the couple and, two years after they laid eyes on each other, they were a happy family, with Mac’s seven-year-old daughter, Riley, and a baby on the way.

  Wendy carried her cup to the low table in front of the picture window and settled into an overstuffed chair. Brown-and-yellow plaid, the colors of the local high school. Rather than go home to an empty house, Wendy had decided to research job opportunities on her laptop in the comfort of the cozy coffee shop. She would do the noon report from the bridge, with a couple shots of a still unfrozen creek, and then go home.

  She sipped her latte as she waited for her laptop to connect. Ever since Holly had opened the coffee shop the previous year, Wendy had been a steady customer. She had watched Mac date a series of women, looking for the perfect partner for himself and mother for his daughter. He had even taken Wendy out to dinner, but they both knew before they finished their salads they were going in completely opposite directions.

  Wendy watched the two former military members hold hands across the counter. Holly had been a great choice for Mac and vice versa. It just took them a while to figure that out.

  Glancing down at the computer screen, she typed television news jobs in the search bar. How long would it take for her to figure things out? She couldn’t stay at WSHF past January. She had to find something else. A year was long enough to wait for an opportunity. She clicked on the first listing. Broadcast Technician, Shipboard, Worldwide. Get ready for an exciting life at sea!

  She skimmed the job requirements—which she met—and then the long list of responsibilities. The any other job-related duties assigned moved her finger to the delete button. She pictured herself swabbing the deck with a smelly mop. She was reading about a TV Spot Producer in Burbank when the bell jingled over the door.

  “Hello, all, what a nice day out there with the sun shining. And there’s our own weather girl to give me the latest weather report.” Mrs. Hershberger, first-grade teacher to half the town, beamed her a sunny smile as she closed the door.

  Wendy bit the inside of her cheek and gave the teacher a tight grin. Two times in one day. First Walt, now the teacher. The funny thing was, she believed they thought they were paying her a compliment. Local girl makes good, and all.

  “Hello, John.” The plump, recently retired teacher was one of the few in town, besides his mother and wife, to refer to the chief of police as John. Dropping her big purse onto the floor, she plopped into the chair opposite Wendy. “I’ll try one of your special lattes, Holly. The one with pumpkin.”

  With a last glimpse at the Burbank job, Wendy clicked off the screen and shut her laptop. She would get no more work done with Mrs. Hershberger nearby. “Terrible storm coming in later this week, Mrs. Hershberger.”

  “Oh, dear, I was hoping the snow would hold off until Christmas.” The sound of the steamer filled the shop.

  “Six weeks?” Wendy glanced at the coffeepot clock over the counter. If she wanted to get the remote to Walt by noon, she had better get moving. “No such luck.” Her phone dinged with a message. A picture popped up on the screen. Central Park. View from Katie’s window! Having a great time! The message was from her father. The photo was taken from high above the park. Obviously, her sister had an expensive apartment. She had made the big time at twenty-five, as her father never ceased to remind her.

  “Wendy?”

  She looked up to find the teacher staring at her expectantly. “Did you say something?”

  The woman’s gaze dropped briefly to the phone in Wendy’s hand.

  Wendy slipped the phone into her briefcase. She would save her father’s exclamations of joy at being with his older daughter for later, when she had a full glass of red wine in one hand and a slice of pizza with everything but the kitchen sink on it in the other. Her mouth watered at the thought.

  “I asked if Mark Murphy had done the long-range winter forecast yet.”

  She shook her head, partly in answer and partly to dispel the pizza image. “He’s skiing in Vermont this week. The winter forecast is scheduled for next Monday’s six o’clock report.” Guilt over ignoring the older woman prompted her to stick with the conversation. “Are you enjoying retirement, Mrs. Hershberger?”

  “I suppose.” The wide smile faded. She twisted a band around her left ring finger. A single diamond winked on each rotation. “I miss the kids, and my retirement check doesn’t seem to go as far as I thought it would, so I substitute when they need someone. That’s why I was hoping the bad weather would hold off. My little car doesn’t get around in the snow very well.”

  Holly chose that moment to deliver the latte. “One pumpkin spice latte. Maybe you should go to Florida, Mrs. Hershberger. My mom and dad talk about it every year but never seem to make it there.”

  The smile returned when Holly sank into the chair between them. “Winters in Pennsylvania usually aren’t too bad. This is my second winter being retired, and I’m just not accustomed to having so much free time.”

  Finishing her latte, Wendy slipped her laptop into her briefcase. She remembered the school had honored the older woman for forty-five years of teaching. Mrs. H had to be in her late sixties. Why had she worked so long? Everyone Wendy came across always talked about retiring as soon as possible. Didn’t Mrs. H have family? Grandchildren? She thought everybody around here had grandchildren.

  Mrs. Hershberger focused on Holly. “I read in the paper you and the other merchants are planning a holiday party and I want to hear all about it, but first...how is Riley adapting to the idea of having a baby brother or sister?”

  Holly let out a burst of laughter, her green eyes dancing. She launched into a story about Riley insisting on decorating the nursery in a superhero theme.

  Shaking her head, Wendy drummed her fingers on the arm of the heavily cushioned chair. At one time, Holly, world traveler, barrel racer, independent woman, had been a resource for discussing issues facing trailblazing women in the workplace, but now she was firmly entrenched in motherhood. Holly had gone over to the dark side.

  * * *

  JOSH DIDN’T HIT snow until Pennsylvania. Almost a week had gone by since he’d received the letter. He wanted to finish things on the ranch before taking off, and to thank Matt’s aunt and uncle for everything and to let them know he’d be back soon. Driving for twenty hours straight out Interstate 80 from Montana, he’d stopped only for coffee, snacks and gas. And once for ice cream. Water he carried in a gallon jug behind the seat. He planned to continue on with no breaks, but by the time he reached Chicago his eyes were drifting closed. He pulled off at a roadside rest stop, unwrapped his sleeping bag and pillow, and crashed for a couple hours in the cramped backseat of his truck cab.

  He reached Bear Meadows late Friday. Dusk had fallen. High winds heralded the approaching storm front. The streets were dark, indicating power was out for most of the town. He considered going home, seeing his father, but concern for his mother kept him going through town to the east side, where the bakeshop listed in the newspaper article anchored one end of a five-store strip mall. He hadn’t even known his mother had gone throug
h with her plans to open a bakery and thought belatedly he should’ve called home more often. Once he made sure she was okay, he would stay at the family’s cabin a few miles away. Facing his father would be easier after a night’s sleep.

  Both sides of Main Street were dark, although emergency lights in the hardware store and the bank lit the interiors. The hardware store held happy memories. Every April he and his father descended on the place, list in hand for supplies for the first day of trout season. They’d gather up their equipment, and then, with bologna sandwiches made with his mother’s homemade bread and her perfectly round sugar cookies for dessert, he and his father would be on the stream at the crack of dawn. He angled his truck into the space in front of the bakery and glanced at the window in the second floor. Dark. Maybe she hadn’t moved out of their home. Maybe she was using her maiden name for business purposes.

  The last time he had been home his mother had mentioned taking an early retirement from the university and opening a bakery. Whenever she had brought up the subject, his father had laughed and told her to keep her day job. Obviously his mother had gone forward with her plans. Had his father’s opposition forced a separation? How did the sudden weight loss enter into the equation?

  For the umpteenth time, Josh weighed the possibility that his mother was sick. He would find out soon enough.

  As he got out of his truck, the door was almost pulled from his hand by the gusting wind. Slamming the door, he stared at the hanging sign. The Cookie Jar. Black letters on a white background. Black and white—that was his mother. A no-nonsense kind of person.

  He stomped up the snow-covered steps to the wooden porch stretching the length of the strip mall, his footprints the only disturbance in the pristine snow. He knocked lightly on the pane of glass and then turned the door handle. It was unlocked. His soldier’s internal alarm sounded as he opened the door into a quiet store. The faint scent of just-baked bread filled the room. He pulled his cell phone from his inside coat pocket and turned on the flashlight app. A long pink counter filled the half of the store to his right. To his left, racks filled with loaves of bread and boxes of baked goods filled the shelves. “Mom?”