“Where’s the paint for your room?” Maegan asked. She’d meant to ask earlier, but they’d gotten into a different discussion.
“Oh, Lilly’s never in there,” Clint said, dismissing the question as he picked up the stool and headed for the door.
“But—” Maegan protested. “You are and what if Lilly doesn’t—”
Clint turned to look at her and she let her words trail off. She couldn’t remind him that Lilly might not stay, that he might be living alone in this house. Besides, that wasn’t really the point. “You deserve a nice room, too.”
He turned and grunted at that. “I don’t need anything fancy.”
“It might be time for a change though,” Maegan muttered as she followed him into the hall and down the stairs. One of the main things she had learned from her times with Mrs. Hargrove was that God wanted people to be willing to change—to give up their old patterns that were not working and try something new.
“Oh, I’m fine,” he said again as he stopped at the bottom of the chair and looked around. “This old house never was much of a showcase.”
Maegan could see that for herself. The sofa had a brown blanket thrown over it and a metal trunk stood in for a coffee table. The windows were wide and the view outside was stunning, but the curtains were too short and faded to do any of it justice. “If it’s money, I—”
“Oh, there’s plenty of money,” Clint protested. “I’ve had some good years recently. The bank account is almost fat.”
“I was going to say I could make some curtains,” Maegan continued. “I sew pretty well and drapes are not that hard to do.”
She had to admit it was a bold offer. Most men didn’t want a woman decorating their house. “I mean, since we’re painting some of the rooms anyway. You could pick out the fabric, of course.”
Clint looked around again. “I guess a new paint job will make the rest of the house look pretty shabby unless I do something. But I wouldn’t want to take your time. Or I could pay you. I hate to let you use all your vacation time unless I pay you. That way it won’t be so bad that you’re not working.”
Maegan hesitated. She hadn’t told him the latest. “Actually, my job called and they have me working on some projects while I’m here.”
“Really?”
She nodded. “I made a lot of connections in the social services area when I was looking for my sisters. Turns out some groups on the internet found out about what I did—these are people who want to find their families, too—and they called the law firm I work for and they got me started on it.”
“And you can do it all from here?” Clint asked intently, an odd note of something she couldn’t identify in his voice.
“Pretty much. It’s phone work mostly. I called around for an hour or so before I came out here this morning.”
Clint nodded in seeming satisfaction. “That’s good. Real good. I— Well, that’s good is all. I—”
Maegan had never seen Clint stammer before. She hadn’t thought he was the type to fumble anything. Now, he might refuse to answer something. She’d encountered that a few times in the days they’d spent together. And sometimes he said something was okay when it clearly wasn’t. He’d rather suffer than complain. But she’d never seen him choke on his words before.
“I’m not going to charge you for the curtains,” Maegan finally said. That was the only thing she could think of that might be giving him trouble.
He shook his head like that wasn’t where his mind had gone. “I’m just glad you can work from Dry Creek. That’s all.”
“Oh, yeah, that should work out fine for now,” she said.
Clint stood there, facing her and ignoring the questions in her eyes. He needed to get the knots out of his tongue before she thought he’d gone daft. He’d almost stepped over that precipice without even thinking about it. He’d been going to say that maybe she could have a job in Dry Creek long-term. He might have even asked about them having a future together.
He was a fool sometimes, but he hoped he had enough sense to know that a woman like Maegan didn’t make a snap judgment when it came to her future. They’d known each other a week now. People didn’t fall in love in that little time, did they?
When he didn’t say anything, Maegan looked at her watch.
“Shouldn’t we go get Lilly?” she asked and the moment was gone.
Clint thought he’d be relieved. He’d avoided the plunge into embarrassment. But it didn’t feel as good as he thought it would.
Of course, Maegan was right. It was time to head into town and get Lilly.
Clint had picked Maegan up when he’d taken Lilly to the bus this morning so they both rode in his pickup to meet the bus at the café.
The gravel road leading into town was packed solid now that the rain had stopped. The sun had been bright for most of the day, but it was still chilly. Maegan was quiet for most of the ride and Clint had let his cautious nature guide him.
Driving into the small town of Dry Creek though, he remembered other times—all those times as a boy when he hadn’t reached out and asked someone to help him and Joe have a better life. He knew the town here didn’t look like much, but people took risks every day. The old men who gathered in the hardware store could swap tales about times when they planted crops that had been wiped out by drought or hordes of grasshoppers. They’d suffered loss. But he knew that, if he asked them, they’d tell him there were times in a man’s life when he needed to risk everything on the chance that he would find something precious.
Clint pulled his pickup to a stop near the café and looked over at Maegan. A strand of her hair was escaping the bandana she still wore. She had a smudge of lavender paint on her cheekbone. She had none of the makeup she’d worn when they first met and she looked tired. Yet, she was more beautiful than he had ever seen her.
All of a sudden the precipice he thought he was facing turned into a gentle hillside, the kind he used to roll down as a boy. Those times had been refreshing and sweet. He reached out and tucked Maegan’s hair behind her bandana. He left his thumb there, resting on her cheek. She was so still he thought he could feel her pulse.
And then she looked up at him. Her eyes shimmered with emotions. He didn’t suppose she liked being shut out any more than he would have liked it if she was holding back.
He smiled and softly moved his thumb down her cheek until he rested it beneath her chin. “What I meant to say earlier was that I would like it very much if you came to live here in Dry Creek. I know the job might take some doing, but people here have legal problems, too. Between that and the work you’re getting from your current firm, you could have a practice.”
She blinked and he knew he couldn’t stop there. “It’s about you and me, too. I want us to have a future together.” He could feel her pulse quicken. “I don’t want to pressure you. There’s nothing to worry about. I just want you to know the thought of being with you doesn’t make me worry that I’m jumping off a cliff.”
She blinked again and her eyes crinkled with amusement. Her pulse steadied and she put her hand up to his to hold it in place.
“I thought you might be afraid of heights,” she said solemnly.
“Now how would you know that?” he asked, content now that she was curving her face into the palm of his hand.
“Because I’m scared of heights, too,” she whispered.
“Well,” he said. “We’d make quite the pair then, wouldn’t we?”
He felt her nod with her head against his hand. He curled his hand under her chin and tipped her face up slightly so he could bend down and kiss her. The first one was quick and much too fleeting. But as he angled his head to kiss again, he heard his heart start to pound in an alarming way. He stopped and realized it wasn’t his heart that he was hearing.
He turned his head and saw that Lilly was knocking on the window of his pickup. He saw the bus in the background and the other children running to other cars. He and Maegan had been in lost in their own world. He
glanced over at her and saw she was adjusting her hair.
“The window,” she whispered at him.
He opened the door instead. Lilly was standing there with her backpack slung over her shoulder. “We were just—” he tried to think “—I mean, we were waiting for you and—”
“Please,” Lilly said as she rolled her eyes. “I’ve seen kissing before.”
“Oh, yes, I suppose.” Clint wondered what the rules were for foster parents. He pulled his seat forward so she could slip into the backseat of his pickup.
“My dad kisses women all the time,” Lilly declared with indifference as she threw her backpack inside and slid in.
Clint frowned slightly as he turned to face the girl. “I really don’t think you ought to be—”
Lilly was getting a belligerent look on her face.
“We finished painting your room today,” Maegan interrupted with cheer in her voice.
Clint realized that now wasn’t the time to question Lilly on the morals of her father. Besides, he didn’t need to ask her much. He knew his brother. That’s why he’d devised a proposition for Joe that the man wouldn’t turn down.
“Is it lavender?” Lilly asked, not quite relaxing yet. “Did it come out looking like the color it’s supposed to be?”
“It’s perfect,” Maegan assured her.
The smile on Lilly’s face made Clint content. He wished he’d taken out a paintbrush when the girl first came to his house. He’d do anything to see that the girl was happy. He hadn’t told anyone yet, but he’d figured out what he could do for Lilly. He was going to offer the ranch to Joe in exchange for him raising Lilly. He had already bought Joe’s portion of the ranch from him ten years ago, but Joe might be ready to settle down and he liked owning things.
Unfortunately, if he gave his brother all of his money, he would be starting over himself. He knew a couple of jobs that were open in Dry Creek and he’d get by. He figured it would sour his chances with Maegan, but he was going to ask her to be his wife anyway when everything was settled with the girl. If a man couldn’t risk his pride for love, then he was a poor man indeed.
Clint started the pickup again and backed out of the spot where he’d parked. Maegan was going to have dinner with them tonight and then he was going to drive her back to her room over Mrs. Hargrove’s garage. They all had a routine these days and it was one that satisfied him. It was five more days until his brother’s birthday and he’d called Joe yesterday reminding him he was expected for dinner that night. Lilly planned to make him a chocolate cake with candles and Maegan promised to make a chicken enchilada recipe that Mrs. Hargrove had shown her.
Clint planned to call his brother on Monday and remind him again. As bad as it would hurt to have Lilly ask to go with Joe, he could deal with that better than the hurt Lilly would feel if his brother didn’t bother to show up. That’s why Clint was going to drop a hint or two that there was money involved for Joe. Significant money. That would bring his brother running.
Chapter Eight
Maegan lay in bed the morning of Joe Parker’s birthday and wondered if the promised thundershowers were going to come this morning. She didn’t need to look out the windows to see everything was unusually dark. Besides, the air felt heavy and the glass in the windows appeared damp. She should be getting up, but she didn’t want to move. She was trying hard not to be depressed.
Then, again, why should she bother being happy? Clint had finally told her that he was planning to offer his brother money to raise Lilly, on the condition that he would move to the ranch so Clint could keep an eye on the girl. At first, Maegan thought the idea had some merit. But then Clint explained he would probably not be living on the ranch with Joe and Lilly; he didn’t think his brother would compromise that much. Besides, the ranch would be the bulk of the payment to Joe.
Instead, Clint would rent a place in Dry Creek. When he said that, she expected him to make some remark about her moving to the small town, too. But he didn’t. So she assumed he’d decided they had no future together. Of course, he’d probably expect her to visit Lilly sometimes, but that would be the end of it. The thought of a string of Christmas cards tying her to Clint and Lilly, year after year, seemed almost worse than no contact at all.
Almost, but not quite. In her deepest heart, she knew she’d take whatever scraps she was allowed. She had never come so close to having her dreams come true and that made seeing them crumble hard. But she still wanted whatever she could get. Her new Bible, a gift from Mrs. Hargrove, was sitting on the stand beside her bed and Maegan knew she only had to start to read its pages to feel her sorrows ease. Somehow, in all of this, God had a purpose.
So, she swung her legs around to the side of the bed and stretched her arms high. First, she would be thankful that God had blessed her with a niece like Lilly. Even if she wouldn’t be able to spend much time with her, she could pray for the girl throughout the years and maybe she would grow into a faithful woman of God. That was no small thing.
In the meantime, Maegan had cheese to grate and refried beans to cook. She was helping Lilly make a Mexican meal for her father and she insisted everything be ready for her to finish by the time she came home from school today. They’d baked the chocolate cake last night so it was ready to frost. Mrs. Hargrove was sending over some homemade flan and Maegan had bought a small can of chilies to put in the enchiladas and the beans. Clint claimed he could make a good Mexican rice so he was in charge of that. The rest was in Lilly’s hands.
Fortunately, Maegan thought, the paint had dried in the living room and yesterday she and Clint had driven to Billings to get a whole box of Mexican-themed decorations. The bold red-and-black stripes of some blankets they’d also bought would make the white room look festive.
If Joe didn’t fall down in astonishment at all the trouble his daughter had gone to—that all of them had gone to—Maegan figured she’d be entitled to have some words with the man, somewhere in private so she didn’t have to watch her tongue. She had no doubts that the man was used to getting what he wanted in life. He was a charmer from all she’d heard. But he didn’t know who he was up against if he thought she would give him a pass on manners. Especially not today.
Clint came to pick her up after he’d delivered Lilly to the bus. The two of them had fallen into the habit of going back to the café and having a cup of coffee or tea once Lilly was off to school, but they didn’t today. It wasn’t just that they had a lot to do. Things had been strained between them for the past few days.
“I found the cast iron kettle I told you about,” Clint said as he backed his pickup out of the driveway where she’d met him. “It cleaned up nice.”
The sky was still overcast and the road was slightly muddy. She’d set the covered dish of flan on the floor-board before she climbed into the pickup. Now, she bent down and moved it to the seat. “It’s going to be quite the party.”
Clint grunted.
She glanced sideways at him and tried to read his face. He didn’t seem as upset as she had expected, but she knew he didn’t always talk about what was bothering him. There was no betraying tightness to his lips or strained muscle in his jaw though. His eyes were looking straight ahead, and she didn’t think they’d show any distress.
“I got a few last-minute tips from Mrs. Hargrove for the enchiladas,” she said as the pickup left the small town.
It was silent for a moment and then he cleared his throat. “Lilly asked me if I had a present for her father.” Clint glanced over at her. “I’m planning to give him everything I have and she wants a present.”
“The ranch is—”
“I meant Lilly—she’s the everything,” he interrupted gruffly and looked over at Maegan a little ruefully. “I had this fantasy going about Lilly and me living on the ranch and then you came and I thought all of us—” He stopped.
She noticed his knuckles were white where they gripped the steering wheel. She waited for him to continue with what he was saying, but he was sile
nt. Maybe it was for the best. She suspected he wasn’t exactly thinking they would be together now, either with Lilly or without her.
“Have you made Joe your offer yet?” she asked.
He nodded. “He’s thinking about it.”
“What will you do if he decides to take the ranch?”
“They need some help at the Elkton place. And, if that doesn’t work out there, I can drive into Miles City and find something. They always need help at the grocery store.”
The thought of Clint selling deli meats or stacking cans didn’t seem right. “Surely, your brother can’t expect to take it all.”
“You don’t know Joe. Besides, he was making noise about some woman he’s met. He might be ready to settle down. He’ll need money to do that.”
The drizzle that had been coming down turned to steady rain. Clint turned on the windshield wipers and the steady rhythm they made filled the cab.
“Don’t worry,” Clint finally said. “It won’t take long for me to get on my feet again. I might even be able to save enough to make a down payment on another ranch.”
He said the last part in the hearty way people did when they knew it wasn’t likely.
“I hope you do,” Maegan said softly.
They rode the rest of the way to the ranch just listening to the rain.
By six o’clock that night, Clint had put on his white shirt and pulled the lace tablecloth down from the upstairs closet. He’d even rooted around until he found a white candle on the back of a closet shelf. Lilly had been home from school for over two hours and his brother should have pulled in thirty minutes ago. The sun had already set and there were no lights coming down the road.
“He probably just had some trouble with the traffic,” Maegan was telling the girl as they turned down the heat in the oven. She hadn’t bothered to say where Joe might have run into a bottleneck of cars. “He’ll be here soon, I’m sure.”
Small-Town Moms Page 8
