Just Like the Ones We Used to Know

by Brenda Novak

  “You might not be living here either, right?” Lewis called to him. “Maybe you’ll want to move to Denver instead of Arizona.”

  Matt cursed under his breath.

  “What did you say?”

  “Now I’m really tempted to fire you.”

  Lewis stood in the doorway. “You don’t want to do that.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because I have your best interests at heart.”

  Matt slumped into his chair. “Yeah? Even my mother isn’t as meddlesome as you are.”

  “It’s time for you to settle down. Being a father is awesome. You’re missing out, my friend.”

  Matt said nothing. He wanted a family. He’d just never cared about anyone the way he’d cared about Danielle.

  “Besides, wouldn’t you like to know what happened that night?” Lewis went on. “You’ve always said you don’t remember how you ended up in that room with Stephanie.”

  “I remember bits and pieces, but mostly it’s a blur.”

  “Well, Angela might be able to explain it.”

  Matt shoved a hand through his hair. Even if she could provide the answers he’d long craved, what was done was done. They couldn’t go back and change anything.

  Lewis came into the room and leaned on the desk. “So, what do you say?”

  Matt still felt a little resentful despite the passing years. But maybe he was overreacting. Angela seemed nice enough as an adult. And there was a slight chance she hadn’t been a party to his downfall. Stephanie had certainly never needed her help to try and corner him before.

  But every other time, he’d managed to get away. That was the difference!

  “Something about Stephanie chilled me to the bone,” he said, recalling her overeager smile, the way she brushed up against him at every opportunity, her attention-hungry eyes.

  “Angela isn’t Stephanie.” Lewis bent lower to peer questioningly into his face. “You’re not going to back out on me, are you?”

  Matt sighed. What the hell. He could survive one dinner. And, as Lewis said, maybe she’d be able to tell him what had really happened so he could finally understand why he’d let Danielle down so badly.

  * * *

  ANGELA SHIFTED NERVOUSLY as she waited next to Kayla on the doorstep of Lewis’s wooden A-frame. Set a couple of blocks off C Street, the main business district, it looked like so many of the other homes and businesses in Virginia City—as if it had been built in the late 1800s. It probably had been. But it was recently painted, a muted yellow with white trim, and obviously well-maintained.

  She wondered where Matt lived. While they were growing up, his parents had owned a jewelry store called Comstock Silver and Turquoise. She’d watched for it when she and Kayla had driven through the slushy streets—the weather had warmed enough to melt some of the snow that had fallen the day before—but if his parents still had the store, they’d changed the name and the location. An old-fashioned soda shop now resided where the jewelry store had been.

  The door opened and a child of about five, with bright red hair and a few freckles, gazed out at her.

  “Hello,” Angela said.

  He continued to stare, but Lewis’s voice rose from behind him. “Derek, those are our dinner guests. Invite them in, okay?”

  The boy stepped back and opened the door wider just as Lewis crossed the room, obviously intent on making sure his son followed orders. “Hi,” he said when he saw them. “I’m glad you could make it.”

  Dinner smelled like roast turkey. “Thanks for inviting us.” She handed Lewis the bottle of wine she’d bought.

  He checked the label, smiled as if it met with his approval and asked to take their coats.

  Kayla removed her parka and Angela shrugged out of her trench coat. “Thank you. It looks like the weather’s clearing up,” she commented.

  A short, slightly plump woman with hair the same color as the little boy—and lots more freckles—stepped out of the kitchen. “I think we’ll have a white Christmas. They’re expecting a big storm next week.”

  She sounded relieved, and Angela guessed that a white Christmas was very important to her. Judging by the many decorations adorning the yard outside and the two Christmas trees—one in the living room and one in the adjoining dining area—she took her holidays seriously.

  “Angela, this is my wife, Peggy,” Lewis said from the coat closet.

  “Nice to meet you.” Angela didn’t recognize her, but she seemed friendly.

  “And this—” he turned and grabbed the boy who’d answered the door, pushing him to the floor in a playful tussle “—is Derek.”

  The boy squealed and giggled as he struggled to get free, and Lewis finally released him. “He’s the youngest of the kids. The older two are with their grandma tonight.”

  “I wanted to go, too,” Derek sulked.

  “Grandma takes gingerbread houses to a professional level,” Peggy confided, her voice a half whisper. “According to her, he’s not old enough.”

  Hearing this, Derek climbed to his feet and folded his arms. “I can do it!”

  “Next year, honey,” she promised and returned to the kitchen.

  “Have a seat.” Lewis motioned to an antique floral couch and matching chair. The living room resembled a Victorian parlor. “Matt isn’t here yet, but he’ll be along soon. Can I get you a drink?”

  Angela accepted a glass of wine; Kayla asked for a soda. “Are Matt’s parents still in town?” Angela asked.

  “Yeah. But they’ve upgraded the store. It’s now called Virginia City Treasures and Gifts and is located closer to Taylor Street.”

  Angela opened her mouth to ask about the rest of Matt’s family. As much as she believed Betty had done the right thing in taking Stephanie away when she had, the decision affected many more people than just Matt. Would they be angry to learn they had a twelve-year-old granddaughter/niece? In a way, Angela felt they had a right to know. And yet—

  A knock interrupted her thoughts. Tensing, she waited for Lewis to answer the door. But he didn’t bother. He was setting the table, so he merely barked out, “Come in!”

  Matt strode into the room as though he’d done it a thousand times. And he probably had. He and Lewis had been friends forever.

  “Hi, Matt,” Peggy called from the kitchen.

  “Uncle Matt!” Derek charged him and threw his arms around his knees.

  “Whoa, hold on, buddy. Let me set this pie down,” Matt said.

  The mention of pie brought Peggy hurrying into the living room. “Did you say pie? What kind?”

  “What kind do you think?” he teased. “Your favorite.”

  “Pumpkin?”

  “Of course.”

  She rose up on her toes to give him a hug. He put one arm around her and used the other hand to pat the head of the boy who was squeezing his leg. It was very apparent that he loved these people. But when his eyes met Angela’s curious gaze, she could tell those warm feelings didn’t extend to everyone.

  Clearing her throat, she looked away.

  “Can I help?” he asked Peggy.

  “Yes.” She waved him toward the couch. “You can sit down and entertain our guests while I finish up. Lewis will pour you a glass of wine in a minute.”

  Instinctively, Angela slid over to allow him more room, but it wasn’t necessary. He sat at the far end and focused on Kayla.

  “How old are you?” he asked.

  “Twelve.”

  His eyebrows went up, and he glanced subtly at Angela. She knew he had to be doing the math, thinking she’d gotten pregnant awfully young. But he didn’t say anything. He let Derek climb into his lap and addressed Kayla once again. “Do you like school?”

  Angela sat there, rigid with tension, as father and daughter conversed. She’d been crazy to bring Kayla here, she decided. The truth suddenly seemed so obvious. She could see the similarities in their faces—the slightly square shape to Kayla’s chin, the high cheekbones, the broad forehead.

&n
bsp; But Matt didn’t seem at all suspicious. He did seem reluctant to get to know her, and even more reluctant to like her, but he had no qualms about Kayla. Of course, she’d said Kayla was her daughter, they’d bumped into each other during a chance meeting, and Lewis had instigated this dinner. It wasn’t as if they’d appeared on his doorstep or rung him up out of the blue.

  “Not really,” Kayla said, answering his question about whether she liked school.

  “Why not?”

  “It’s—” her eyes shifted momentarily to Angela “—it can be tough to fit in.”

  “For someone as pretty as you?”

  She blushed. “Sometimes,” she hedged, and Angela guessed she didn’t want to appear too pathetic.

  “It’s tough for everyone sometimes,” he said, even though, as far as Angela could remember, it had never been very tough for him. He’d always been one of the most popular boys in school. “What do you want for Christmas?” he asked.

  “I’d like to find my dad.”

  Angela nearly gasped at Kayla’s answer. She’d never heard Kayla admit this to anyone else. Until she’d read that essay, she hadn’t realized how deeply Kayla missed having a father.

  But the words were already out, and there was no mistaking Matt’s surprise. “He’s not part of your life?”

  She shook her head. “No, he—he left us a long time ago. He said he loved my mom, and he promised her they’d be together forever. But then he couldn’t handle a crying baby in the house and changing diapers and all that.” She wrinkled her nose, basking in Matt’s attention. “So he walked out, and left my mom to raise me by herself.”

  Angela had stiffened at “he left us a long time ago.” Kayla had never been told any such thing. This had to be some kind of fantasy, something she figured would be more acceptable than the reality.

  Angela wanted to stop her before she could embellish any further but couldn’t say anything in front of Matt. A correction might cause Kayla to make some remark that would give them away. She was the one who’d lied first, when she’d introduced Kayla as her daughter.

  But, in a way, Kayla was her daughter now.

  “He was older, then?” Matt asked.

  “Yeah, uh…a lot older,” Kayla said. “We have no idea where he is.”

  Matt seemed to look more kindly at Angela, probably because he felt sorry for her.

  Only sheer will kept Angela from dropping her head into her hands. How had she expected this to go?

  Certainly not the way it was going…

  “I’m sorry to hear that,” he said sincerely. “But he’s the one who’s missing out. You know that, don’t you?”

  “Time to eat!”

  Peggy’s announcement brought the conversation to an end, and Angela nearly cried in relief.

  * * *

  MATT COULDN’T BELIEVE that someone had taken advantage of Angela when she was so young. He knew she didn’t really have a family; everyone knew that. A foster child wasn’t common in Virginia City then or now, so her first appearance at school, when they were in the seventh grade, had caused quite a stir. If he remembered right, Betty Cunningham had given her a home because of some tenuous connection with Angela’s family, and Betty hadn’t wanted to see her become a ward of the state.

  But Betty, a widow herself, had already had her hands full. A bit eccentric, she’d taken in any stray animal that had crossed her path, so she’d had something like three dogs, a couple of cats, some hamsters and a ferret. Matt knew because Stephanie had lured him over to the house once with the promise of showing him the animals. When she’d come on to him, he’d gotten out of there right away, but he’d stayed long enough to see that the situation was unique. Besides caring for all those animals, Betty had had to deal with Stephanie, who’d always been getting into trouble, and Betty herself had been sick a lot.

  Suddenly, Matt felt guilty for being so hard on Angela. If Angela had helped to corner him the night he’d had sex with Stephanie, her involvement could only have been in a peripheral way, and it had no doubt been Stephanie’s idea. Anyway, Lewis was right—they’d all been so young.

  He caught her watching him from across the table and smiled. He hadn’t been very friendly to her so far, but it wasn’t too late. According to what she’d told him and Lewis, she was in town for two weeks.

  He had half a mind to make sure they were the best two weeks she’d ever known.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  “ANGIE!”

  Angela rolled over to find Kayla standing at the side of her bed. “What?” She squinted in the light streaming through the sheers at the hotel window. They’d chosen the Gold Hill Hotel because Angela remembered it so nostalgically from when she’d lived in Virginia City before. “What time is it?”

  “It’s only eight. But I just talked to Matt. He’s off work on Mondays, and he says we want to get an early start.”

  “Do we have plans with Matt?” she asked, confused. The last thing she recalled was the charming way he’d walked them to their car after the dinner party was over. She’d been terrified he was going to ask her out. Kayla’s story had really affected him, and she’d felt his eyes on her all night, had felt him shift closer to her while they’d been watching the movie after dinner. But at the car, he’d kept his hands in his pockets and had merely told them to get a good night’s sleep, then had waved as they’d driven off.

  She’d thought that would be the end of it, at least for a few days. They’d had an enjoyable night, established a friendship. And now she had a lot to think about. Matt wasn’t married, and as far as she could tell, he wasn’t involved in a serious relationship. He had a steady job, family in the area, a solid reputation—what appeared from every angle to be a very normal life.

  Which made telling him about Kayla a real possibility.

  But Angela wasn’t sure he’d thank her for the news. His jaw tightened anytime Stephanie was even mentioned. What if he grew angry at the deception and rejected Kayla? Angela couldn’t subject Kayla to any more hurt. And Angela was equally afraid of the opposite possibility—what if he decided to take his daughter away from her?

  “He wants to know if we’d like to ride the train,” Kayla said. “And afterward, he said we could help him pick out his Christmas tree.”

  Kayla sounded thrilled. She and Matt had gotten along famously last night. He’d taught her how to play chess while Angela had helped Peggy clean up and had even given her advice about boys. How could Angela say no?

  She wouldn’t. She’d go and make sure he was everything he seemed to be, and then she’d figure out whether or not to tell him.

  * * *

  THE TRAIN RIDE HAD been fun, but short. It was a narrated thirty-five-minute ride through the heart of the Comstock mining region, after which they went to pick out Matt’s tree. Angela liked tramping through the snow; it was cold, and she was getting wet, but she felt so alive. She tried to convince herself that the flutter of excitement in her stomach was the result of returning home. But she knew it wasn’t just Virginia City. Every time she looked at Matt, she felt a sudden warmth.

  How long had it been since she’d kissed a man? she wondered as he tied the tree on top of his truck.

  Since before Betty’s death. Angela hadn’t dated in more than a year.

  She missed the male-female contact. She also missed the experience of feeling desirable and desiring someone else.

  “Are you staring at his butt?” Kayla murmured, her voice scandalized.

  Angela hadn’t realized that Kayla was watching her. She considered pretending otherwise, but she could tell by the knowing gleam in Kayla’s eyes that the girl wouldn’t believe it. Regardless of any embarrassment, she decided it was better to acknowledge the truth. “I’ve never seen a pair of jeans fit quite so well,” she said, using her mitten-covered hand to shield her mouth so Matt wouldn’t hear her.

  Kayla giggled. “You should go out with him.”

  “No, we leave in two weeks.”

  “Why
not have some fun while we’re here?”

  “We are having fun—”

  “Hey, what are you two talking about?” Finished, Matt faced them with one eyebrow cocked.

  It probably wasn’t too difficult to tell they’d been talking about him. But Angela refused to admit it. “What we want for Christmas?” she said as innocently as possible.

  He wiped his sleeve across his forehead as if he’d worked up quite a sweat. She and Kayla hadn’t been much help. They’d chosen the biggest blue spruce they could find and left him to it.

  Angela figured firemen liked doing tough stuff. She’d definitely enjoyed seeing him wrestle that tree into submission.

  “And what do you want?” he asked doubtfully.

  Angela shook her head. It was the first time she’d thought about sex in ages, but now that the idea had crossed her mind, she couldn’t seem to forget it.

  “I’m waiting,” he reminded her.

  “Um…a purse?”

  He scooped up a loosely packed snowball and hit her with it. “Come on, you just made that up.”

  She scooped up a snowball of her own. “Are you calling me a liar?”

  He grinned as if unconcerned about the threat. “I guess I am.”

  She launched her snowball, but he dodged it easily and hit her with another one. “Are you going to tell me what you were saying to Kayla?”

  “No.”

  “I’m pretty sure I can get you to change your mind,” he warned.

  “You couldn’t torture it out of me,” she said and laughed when Kayla managed to hit him while he was distracted.

  “That’s it,” he said and then snowballs began to fly from all three of them. Angela could hear Kayla laughing as she held her own in the battle, and quickly created a small arsenal of snowballs behind a fallen tree. Then, when Kayla drew Matt’s fire, Angela took careful aim and bam!

  He’d taken off his parka while cutting the tree, so when her snowball smacked him in the back of the head, it showered snow down the neck of his thermal T-shirt.

  It was more of a direct hit than she’d intended. As he turned toward her, the look on his face told her she was in trouble.