Twilight, Texas

by Ginger Chambers

  Bette nodded proudly. “You bet it is. Why don’t you get Karen to tell you about it? Show you the well. She knows the story.”

  Martin grinned and tightened his arm around Karen. “Sure. I’ll do that.”

  At that moment a group came in through the back door. John, Lee, Manny and Diane. They all stopped abruptly when they saw Karen enveloped by Martin’s arm. But none so abruptly as Lee.

  Karen’s gaze flew to his. He stared back at her blankly.

  Bette took charge. “This here’s Karen’s friend Martin. I’m sorry, Martin, what was your last name?”

  “Frederick,” Martin supplied promptly.

  “My husband, John Danson, Lee Parker, Manny and Diane Cruz. The last three are the crew for ‘Western Rambles.’ They’ve been covering the town for the last two weeks as we get ready for our big premiere.” In an aside to the others, she added, “We’ve already told him about our excitement.”

  Karen felt Martin stiffen slightly when told that the crew had been there for two weeks. Still, he was politeness itself as he nodded. “Good to meet you. ‘Western Rambles’...is that a television show?”

  Diane glanced at Lee, and when he didn’t answer, she did. “Yes. Public broadcasting.”

  “Ah,” Martin said.

  There was a short, awkward pause. Then John said, “Hotel looks great. Can’t see another thing needin’ done.” He delivered a quick kiss to Bette’s cheek. “’Specially the wallpaper. You and Pepper did a great job.”

  Bette preened. “Thanks.”

  Karen felt Martin watching her. He wanted to talk to her alone. But she still wanted to talk to Lee. Now more than ever.

  It wasn’t going to happen, though. Martin would never countenance her telling him to wait. He’d come a long way to see how she was. And Lee didn’t seem particularly pleased with the world in general. Was he regretting having removed the headstone? She groaned to herself. She didn’t want anything to disturb the delicate balance. He could easily dig it back up again.

  She forced a smile. “Well, uh, we’ll see you all later,” she said, then went out the front door with Martin.

  Once outside, as subtly as she could, she separated herself from his hold. At the antique shop she took the key from around her neck—she’d started locking the place since so many strangers were in town—and let them inside.

  “I knocked earlier,” he said, “but I guess you weren’t here.”

  “I’d only just left. The apartment’s above, actually, but the stairs are out back. Come on, I’ll show you.”

  He took in the shop’s crowded conditions as he followed her. “Wow. No wonder you had to stay awhile.”

  “There’s more in the storage shed out back.”

  Inside the apartment he tried to pull her into his arms, but she evaded him. “What do you think of Twilight?” she asked, busying herself with clearing a second chair while filling the space between them with words. “It’s not normally so busy. The population’s probably tripled with the studio workers, and it’s only going to get worse. The movie’s having its first showing tomorrow. Of course, there’ll be the bigger, official one out in Los Angeles in a couple of weeks.” She sat down and motioned to the cleared chair next to hers, but he remained standing.

  “Karen,” he asked, “why didn’t you call?”

  “MARTIN.” DLKNE MURMURED the name, watching Lee out of the corner of her eye. “Martin Frederick. Very nice looking. Seems to know Karen pretty well. I wonder—”

  “She called someone the first night she got here,” Bette remembered. “To let him know she’d arrived safely. I wonder if it was him. I asked her if it was serious, but she didn’t say.”

  “He looked serious,” Manny said.

  Lee listened to the conversation taking place around him but didn’t participate. He’d been stunned to see Karen held by someone else. Shocked at his immediate and intense response. He’d wanted to go over, jerk her away and push the other guy’s face into the wall.

  “What do you think, Lee?” Diane asked.

  “I think it’s none of our business,” Lee said tautly, then turned to John. “John, I need a minute.”

  His curt command was met with silence. He felt everyone’s eyes on him. He knew he’d been rude, knew they were curious, but he couldn’t deal with their questions right then. Or their speculations. It hadn’t entered his mind that Karen could be serious about someone. Could have someone serious about her. Which was true stupidity on his part. She was a beautiful woman! What did he think? She existed in a vacuum?

  Bette broke the silence. “Why don’t the rest of us go up and take an early lunch? Lord knows if we’ll have the opportunity to later. To hear Melanie tell it, the place is going to be overrun. And it could start at any time. You two come up when you’re ready.”

  Diane and Manny agreed with the idea, but not without uneasy glances at Lee as they started for the stairway.

  John made himself comfortable on a bar stool, a self-satisfied little smile tugging at his lips. “We did it,” he said. “All we have to do now is sit back and let it happen.”

  “There’s one thing,” Lee said. “Something I need to talk to you about... Nate Barlow’s headstone. Someone must have carried it off as a souvenir, because it’s not there anymore. You don’t want to make a fuss, though, do you? Not with the press coming so soon and all?”

  John’s smile disappeared as he absorbed what Lee said. He was startled, outraged, then alarmed, all within the space of a few seconds. “It’s gone?”

  “Uh-huh. And there’s something else. Another headstone seems to be missing, too. For someone in the Harlon family. I thought it might be nice to have it replaced. What do you think?”

  John stared at him. Now he knew for sure that Lee knew what he’d done. And that, so far, Lee seemed willing to look the other way. “Sure,” he said slowly. “Sure, I do, too. I’ll get on it first thing Monday.”

  “I’ll even throw in a few bucks myself, to help out,” Lee offered.

  It was almost painful to watch John restrain himself from asking if Lee was the “someone” who’d carried off the headstone. He managed it, though, saying instead, “Right nice of you.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  A tight smile and a clap on the shoulder signaled to the older man that all was well. Then Lee said, “I’m going out for a drive. Tell Manny and Diane I won’t be gone long.”

  Driving felt good to Lee. He hadn’t been behind the wheel since the day they’d gotten here. It felt far more than two weeks ago. It felt a lifetime’s journey, so much had happened. He remembered his thoughts going in, hoping to get Karen to listen to his apology, hoping to reclaim the Parker name. Now his goals had changed, shifted. He wanted Karen for himself. And now this interloper had shown up. To claim her?

  He’d listened to instinct about the headstone, about keeping Twilight’s secret. If he listened to his present instinct, the arriving press would have a lot more to report than a movie review. So what did he do? Wait and see? He wasn’t very good at waiting.

  KAREN DIDN’T THINK it fair to string Martin along, yet she didn’t want to hurt him. “Would you like something to drink? Something cold, something hot? I can do either.”

  “I’d rather you answer my question.”

  She looked away and murmured, “That’s the hardest thing of all.”

  Martin knelt at her side, taking her hand. He reached into his shirt pocket and brought out a ring case. “I’ve carried this with me, close to my heart. I’d like you to accept it, Karen.” He opened it to reveal a diamond set with two dark blue sapphires on each side.

  Karen looked from the ring to his face. He was such a nice man. “It’s beautiful, but—”

  “I come along with it,” he stated starkly, and stood up, snapping the case shut before sliding it back in his pocket. He walked to the window overlooking the street.

  Karen came up behind him and hesitantly rested her fingers on his arm. “It’s not the way you make it sound.�
�

  “What is it, then?” He pivoted to face her.

  “It’s—”

  “Rachel said something about an outlaw. An outlaw from your past. Was it one of those men in the saloon? The tall one with the dark hair and the pale eyes? He was certainly looking at you hard enough.”

  “I don’t love you, Martin. Not enough. You deserve more...much more. Someone who’ll love you the way you love her.”

  “But you love me some.”

  “I love you like a friend.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me this before?”

  “Because I didn’t know it before. I didn’t understand.”

  “And you do now.”

  “Now I—”

  “It’s him, isn’t it? That man from your past. You’ve loved him all along. That’s why you can’t see beyond him to me.”

  “It’s not as simple as that. Yes, it’s him, but it’s not him.”

  Martin seemed not to hear her last statement. “Nothing’s ever simple when you don’t want it to be. I love you, Karen. I’m willing to marry you with just the tiniest spark of hope.”

  She took his hand and pulled him back to the chairs. After they both sat down, she explained quietly, “I’ve wanted to love you. I’ve tried to love you. You’re a very good man, Martin, besides being quite wonderfully nice looking. If it was only that... But I’ve learned something. The kind of love I’m talking about isn’t a fix-it project you can do yourself. It either is, or it isn’t. And it isn’t for us.”

  “I’m willing to take that chance.”

  “I’m not. I deserve better, too, Martin. Not a better person than you, but the person I can love as much as I’m loved. Can’t you see? I’m not trying to hurt you, even though I’m sure I’m doing it. I’m not the right person for you. And the sooner you accept that, the better off you’ll be.”

  His words were tight. “I can’t just turn off the way I feel about you.”

  She smiled slightly. “No. I understand.”

  “I’ll have to live with it a little while.”

  She nodded.

  “Rachel said this was going to happen,” he murmured.

  “Did she have another dream?”

  “I’m not sure. She just said you were going to marry someone else.”

  That made Karen a little nervous. It was a few too many steps ahead.

  She patted Martin’s hand. “Would you like a tour of Twilight? It’s particularly interesting with all the hustle and bustle going on. If you like, you can stay the night. Either here or at the hotel. We have one now. You can be my guest at the premiere.”

  He was silent a long moment. “I might just do that,” he said quietly.

  And Karen knew he was agreeing with the hope that a new day might bring a new answer.

  All she could do was give him a sad smile.

  THE WHIR OF BLADES and the roar of an engine cut through the afternoon quiet of the desert.

  Everyone in town piled out to watch as a large helicopter settled delicately to earth and perched, with the blades still turning, while a group of well-dressed men and women disembarked.

  Melanie waited to greet them, dust and dirt and loose bits of grass swirling around her. Once the people were at a safe distance, the helicopter lifted into the air again, and Melanie took the group to one of the newly arrived travel trailers on the outskirts of town.

  With the excitement over, the townspeople went back to what they’d been doing and waited for more.

  Then, shortly, more people started to arrive in airconditioned jitneys that were to ferry the media around. Melanie had explained that most were flying in, at studio expense, to a private landing strip, where they would then be picked up and delivered to Twilight. From that point all their needs would be attended to by studio employees accustomed to putting on these types of junkets.

  Lee, Manny and Diane were kept busy recording the arrivals and talking to the new visitors. Lee’s mind didn’t want to focus. All he could think of was Karen and that man. But professionalism won out and he did his job.

  Late in the afternoon Lee, along with the invited media journalists, attended a meeting called by Melanie and her boss, Raymond Armstrong—Cryer Studio’s top publicity specialist—in one of the large tents that had been set up by the studio for that purpose. They, along with the film stars’ publicists, went over the ground rules for what could and couldn’t be asked of the actors during their interviews the next day and what could and couldn’t be expected from the studio and the townspeople. Handouts containing Justice at Sundown sheriff’s badges were distributed, along with materials about the original movie and its doomed star Henry Ives and the “true” story about Nate Barlow, the child and the pursuing posse. Refreshments were served, then those who wanted to were taken in small groups to tour Twilight.

  Everyone from town got into the act from that point, meeting and greeting the visitors and talking up Twilight’s special qualities.

  The visiting media ate it up. They loved the town, loved the townspeople, even loved the T-shirts and caps and pens and pencils—everything that John had ordered. Seeing this, Melanie bought large quantities as extra gifts for the participants. The media especially loved the Lady Slipper Saloon, the magnificent old-fashioned bar, the player piano, the quaint wall decorations...and Pete! With his scruffy desert-rat looks and loyal canine companion, he was a huge hit.

  KAREN HAD PLANNED TO STAY inside as much as possible during this time, but with Martin here, and actually starting to enjoy himself, she couldn’t spoil his day further. She’d seen Lee several times, but he’d always been working.

  Now Manny wasn’t the only professional cameraman in town. Almost everywhere she looked, someone was videotaping something. The well was popular, the hotel, the mercantile...any where on the main street. They seemed to love taking shots down the length of it. With no cars and some of the studio employees dressed in period costumes, it might have been the late 1800s again, and Nate Barlow just moments away from riding up.

  As a surprise, an actor hired to help re-create the affair did ride up, go to the well, discover a “child,” help him out, then have to face the arriving posse, who, after a little overacting, tied a noose around his neck and pretended to hang him at the tree.

  The members of the local media, tipped off by John, turned out in force and intimated that the segments they shot were sure to make the national news.

  John was over the moon, already making plans to order more souvenirs, to move forward the planned room expansion of the hotel, to quickly open the museum.

  “I see what you mean when you say it’s been crazy around here,” Martin said when they at last went back to Karen’s apartment to rest. “These people are determined to make this place into something. John’s already made me promise to add some brochures about Twilight to the restaurant’s tour display. Once he gets them printed, he’s sending them on. The man’s a dynamo.”

  Karen chuckled. “I’ve known him since I was six and that’s never been my description of him: But I guess I have to change it now.”

  She collected fresh sheets and a blanket and glanced at her aunt’s old room. “Are you sure you don’t mind sleeping there? It’s not like Aunt Augusta passed away in the apartment. She wasn’t even in Twilight. But—”

  “I’ll be fine,” Martin assured her. It turned out that the new rooms in the hotel had been so nicely done that Melanie had reserved all three for her boss and his higher-ups from the studio. There had been no vacancy. “I’m the unexpected visitor, remember?”

  “Still...” Karen murmured.

  “If you’re offering me space in your bed, I won’t turn you down,” Martin said with a broken little laugh.

  Karen smiled gently and shook her head. He was trying so hard to make the best of everything.

  “I don’t stand a chance, do I?” he asked quietly.

  Again, Karen shook her head.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  LEE SPENT A NIGHT fit for the damned
. Never in his life had he thought himself the jealous type, and yet here he was, absolutely, totally and completely filled with green-eyed bile. He’d seen Karen and the boyfriend going upstairs to her apartment after being together throughout the day, enjoying all the events, and from that moment he’d been tortured by what might be happening.

  Consequently, his disposition the next morning was that of a disgruntled grizzly. He snarled and snapped, and by the time he’d bitten Diane twice about something insignificant, he was told in no uncertain terms to stop it.

  Good advice, when yesterday’s madness only increased as the movie’s stars, studio brass and numerous other invited celebrities began to arrive.

  KAREN SLEPT MUCH LATER than she’d planned and was amazed she had, considering the uproar going on outside. She also was amazed that Martin had managed to sleep through it—her aunt’s bedroom being so much closer to the street.

  After peering into the shadowed room, though, she discovered why. Martin was gone. He’d made the bed, fluffed the pillows and left a note on top of one.

  “Thanks for yesterday and all the days before. I hope your outlaw knows what a prize he’s getting.”

  Karen closed her eyes. She would’ve liked to say goodbye. But maybe this was for the best. So he could make a clean cut of it. She held the note close to her breast and again thought what a nice man he was. A prize for some lucky woman. If she had a wish, it would be for him to find that woman.

  She dropped down onto the couch and stared at the wall. What if she had another wish—one for herself? What would it be? She’d learned so much over the past two weeks. How easy it was to be mistaken, how silly it was to let that mistake rule your life, how running and hiding—in whatever form—from your true nature only set you on a course for mediocrity, how a passionate belief, even if it was only in a small town, could liberate you.

  Someone tapped on the door. It was Bette.