Mr. Congeniality

by Sherry Lewis

  Nessa gave that a moment’s thought before disappearing into the shower again. “Gary says he can have me riding like a pro before the end of the summer,” she said after a long time.

  Annie let out a silent sigh. “And you want to learn?”

  “Yeah, I think it’ll be cool.”

  Annie shuddered at the thought of climbing on the back of one of those huge animals, but she loved hearing the enthusiasm in Nessa’s voice. “Dean offered to teach me, too.”

  Nessa’s face appeared again, this time scrunched with concern. “Why don’t you let Gary teach you?”

  “Dean offered.”

  Nessa’s frown deepened. “Are you going to do it?”

  “I haven’t decided yet.”

  “Well, if you do, you should have Gary teach you. He’s a whole lot better than Dean. And nicer, too.”

  “If I decide to do it,” Annie said, turning back for one more try with the toothbrush, “I’ll keep that in mind. But why are you suddenly anti-Dean? Weren’t you the one who said he wasn’t so bad just a few days ago?”

  “He stares at you too much for one thing.” Nessa slipped back behind the curtain. “For another, Tyler thinks he’s a jerk. And Tyler ought to know, don’t you think?”

  Annie nodded slowly, but she hadn’t moved past Nessa’s first objection. And it took a long time for her to get her toothbrush into her mouth after that bombshell.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  WEDNESDAY MORNING, DEAN pretended to be hard at work on a stack of firewood beside the kitchen door while he waited for Tyler to finish breakfast. The first wave of guests were scheduled to arrive on Friday, and Dean wanted to lessen the hostility between Tyler and himself before they got here.

  This seemed like the perfect time to do it. Gary had already gone down to the stables. Les had taken the truck to pick up another load of firewood in town. Irma and Annie were both busy inside, so it looked like he wouldn’t have any interruptions.

  Dean shifted another couple of logs into place and stopped to run his sleeve across his forehead. According to folks in town, the temperature had been running unusually warm for this early in the season. He just hoped that would eventually translate into increased bookings during the summer.

  When the sound of chairs scraping against the floor warned him that the kids had finally finished eating, Dean turned toward the door to make sure Tyler couldn’t slip past him. Nessa came outside first, wearing a pair of baggy overall shorts over a pink tank top. She’d twisted her hair away from her face and secured each twist with a hot pink elastic.

  Tyler stepped onto the porch behind her. The blond tips on his spikes caught the morning sunlight. His mirrored sunglasses reflected it. He wore a pair of black biker boots, black jeans and a tight black T-shirt under a black leather vest.

  Dean smiled, wondering if there were two more unlikely candidates to work in the stables. Surprisingly, even Tyler seemed eager to get busy. He shot a glance at Dean as he jumped from the porch, then turned his back and swaggered down the hill toward the stables.

  Nessa spared Dean a smile before heading the other way, but the smile was thin and tight and Dean wondered if Tyler’s attitude was beginning to rub off on her. Suddenly nervous, Dean called out before the kids could get more than a few feet away.

  “Hey, Tyler. Come here for a minute, okay?”

  Tyler drew to a reluctant halt and turned partway around, but he made no move to actually retrace his steps. “What?”

  Dean ignored the challenge in his voice and kept his own tone neutral. “I’d like your help with something.”

  Tyler glanced at the stables as if they might disappear if he didn’t get there. “What?”

  “I need you to give me a hand with this firewood. Nessa can tell Gary that you’ll be there in a little while.”

  Nessa nodded and started on her way again, but Tyler still made no move to come back. He gave the stack of wood a long, slow once-over and trailed his gaze back to Dean’s as if he recognized the excuse. “What do you need me to do?”

  “If you’ll come here, I’ll show you.”

  Tyler hesitated for a few seconds more, then closed the distance between them—but he sure took his time doing it. “Okay,” he snarled as he drew closer. “I’m here. So, show me already.”

  Dean refused to let the kid’s hostility get to him. “We need to straighten this stack so that when Les brings in the next truckload of firewood, we can get it unloaded quickly.”

  Tyler shrugged, watched Dean move a couple of logs, and nudged his sunglasses farther up on his nose. “Looks to me like a waste of time.”

  “You won’t think so when Les gets here.”

  Tyler’s lip curled slightly. “Yeah?”

  A trickle of perspiration ran down the side of Dean’s face. He swiped a sleeve across his forehead, rested his arm on a log and decided not to push his luck by lying. “Okay. You’re right. It’s a bunch of busy work. I just wanted a chance to talk without anyone else around.”

  Tyler’s shoulders stiffened. “Why?”

  “Because you’ve hardly said two words to me since I caught you smoking and we need to discuss what’s going on here.”

  Tyler nudged a log with the toe of his boot. “Oh, yeah. Like you really want to hear what I have to say.”

  “Well, I do.” Dean sat on a log and motioned for Tyler to join him. “I want to know why you think Randy wants to be rid of you.”

  Tyler folded his arms and held his ground. “Why? So you can tell me I’m wrong?”

  “No, because I’m curious. I’ve been trying to call your mom, but there’s no answer.”

  “Big surprise.”

  “Your mom sounds pretty happy with this guy. You seem to dislike him a whole lot. I’ve never met him, so I can’t form my own opinion. So why don’t you tell me what you don’t like?”

  “Gee, I don’t know,” Tyler quipped. “Maybe it’s because he hates me so much.”

  In spite of Tyler’s sarcasm, Dean felt a ray of hope. At least they were talking. “Randy hasn’t been around that long,” he pointed out. “Maybe you’re still getting used to each other.”

  “Dude, I told you. He wants to get rid of me. He knows what a pushover my mom is when I’m not around and he wants me outta there. So far he’s doing a good job of getting what he wants.”

  Dean didn’t like to admit it, but men had always been able to manipulate Carol without much effort. “What does he want from your mom that he can’t get when you’re around?”

  Tyler snorted a laugh and pushed his sunglasses onto the top of his head. “Everything.” He paced a few steps away and jerked one arm toward the west end of the valley. “The thing is, I know the truth about him. I know what he’s been doing—and he knows that I know. He’s afraid that my mom will actually listen to me one of these days and kick him to the curb. Not that he has anything to worry about. She hasn’t believed anything I say for a long time.”

  Dean stretched his legs out in front of him. “Maybe you should tell me exactly what you know about Randy.”

  Tyler’s gaze shot to Dean’s, lingered for a split second, then darted away again. “Well, for one thing, I know he’s not faithful to her.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Positive. I’ve seen him with a couple of different women since he and Mom got together.” Sweat beaded on Tyler’s nose and his cheeks flushed. “But don’t worry about her. She won’t be faithful to him for long, either.”

  It sounded as if some things in Carol’s world hadn’t changed, after all.

  “And I know what really happened to Grandma’s pearl ring,” Tyler continued. “And to the other stuff that’s missing. Randy’s the one stealing from my mom. I don’t know what he’s doing with the money, but Grandma’s ring is in a pawnshop down the street from my friend’s house. I saw it a couple of weeks ago.”

  The knot in Dean’s stomach grew spikes. Stealing was bad enough under any circumstances, but taking a family heirloom made the of
fense unforgivable in Dean’s book and he hoped like hell Tyler wasn’t the one responsible. “Have you told your mother that you saw the ring?”

  Tyler laughed bitterly and took a couple of steps away. “I’ve tried, but she won’t believe me.”

  Dean squinted into the glare of sunlight and tried to keep his anger in check. “Do you know the name of the pawnshop?”

  Tyler’s gaze narrowed. “Yeah. Why?”

  “It’s my mother’s ring, too,” Dean said. “I’d rather pay to redeem it than let some stranger walk away with it.”

  Tyler hooked his thumbs in the back of his waistband so that his elbows stuck out from his sides at right angles. “And then everyone can be grateful, right?”

  The question jolted Dean. “I have no idea. That’s not my first concern.”

  “Really? So you get the ring back and then what?”

  “Then maybe I’ll talk with your mom and tell her what you’ve told me. She deserves to know the truth.”

  “She won’t believe you. She won’t believe anything bad about Randy. She’s in love.” He said the last two words as if they left a sour taste in his mouth. Considering the constant upheaval Tyler had lived through, Dean supposed they did.

  “Oh, she’ll believe me,” he assured the kid. “Don’t worry about that.”

  Tyler laughed sharply. “If you think that, you really are deluded.” Tyler pulled his thumbs out of his waistband and shoved a hand through the air. “Okay. The ring’s at Arrowhead Pawn Shop on Mariposa. The guy who runs the place is a drinking buddy of Randy’s, so don’t expect him to tell the truth about how it got there.” He kicked a log hard enough to send several others sliding off the stack, then strode off toward the stables.

  Dean watched until he disappeared over the hill, then let out a heavy sigh and wondered what was really going on at Carol’s house. Both Carol and Tyler seemed absolutely convinced that they were right. Maybe the truth was somewhere in the middle.

  DEAN SLIPPED AWAY after dinner that evening and climbed the stairs to his bedroom. He’d been itching to call Carol all day, but he’d made himself wait until the long-distance rates went down and he was reasonably sure she’d be home from work to take his call.

  It had been a long time since he’d had to watch his wallet this closely and he hated doing it, but with his shaky bank balance he had to think twice about every penny he spent. He just hoped it wasn’t long before money started rolling in and he could live normally again.

  Once upstairs, he shut himself inside his bedroom and turned on the radio to prevent anyone—especially Tyler—from overhearing his conversation. He wasn’t anxious to confront Carol, but he couldn’t ignore Tyler’s accusations. Carol answered on the third ring and Dean could tell immediately that she’d been drinking.

  So that had started again, too.

  Fighting disappointment and an inexplicable sense of failure, Dean dropped onto the edge of his bed. Talking to Carol when she was in this condition never did any good. But if she’d started drinking again, there probably wouldn’t be a good time for their conversation.

  A dull ache started in the back of his head and his shoulder twinged painfully. “It’s me, Carol,” he said quietly.

  “Dean?” Something clattered near the telephone, and when she spoke again he could tell she was making more of an effort to sound coherent. “I din’t know you were going to call. Whatsup?”

  “We need to talk about Tyler. How much have you had to drink?”

  Carol hiccuped softly into the phone. “Drink? I’ve only had iced tea after work. Honest.”

  Dean kneaded his forehead and bit back a growl of frustration at the obvious lie. He could call her on it, but they’d played this game too many times before. He knew the drill. He’d accuse and Carol would deny, and they’d end up dancing around the real issues and losing track of what was really important.

  He closed his eyes and took a couple of deep breaths in an effort to remember the reason for his call. “I’m worried about Tyler,” he said at last.

  Carol sighed heavily. “What’s he doing, stealing from you now?”

  “No. He’s angry and showing a little attitude, but he’s not doing anything wrong. Did you know that he’s been smoking?”

  “Yeah, I knew that.”

  She sounded so matter-of-fact about it, Dean had trouble remaining calm. “What are you doing about it?”

  “What can I do about it?”

  “You can stop him. He’s not an adult.”

  Carol laughed harshly. “If you think it’s so easy, why don’t you stop him?”

  “I will. Believe me.” Too agitated to sit, Dean stood and paced as close to the window as the cord would stretch. “Tell me what you’ve tried to get him to quit.”

  “We’ve tried everything.” Ice rattled in a glass near the phone. Carol swallowed and sighed softly. “We’ve grounded him from the phone and from his friends. We’ve grounded him from TV and his stereo. We’ve told him again and again that he’s not old enough to smoke, but he still takes Randy’s cigarettes whenever he feels like it.”

  Dean stared out the window at the mountain peaks. “It might be easier to convince Tyler to stop if Randy didn’t smoke.”

  “Oh, so it’s Randy’s fault?” Carol voice changed so quickly and sounded so protective, Dean knew that Tyler had been telling the truth about that, anyway. “Randy’s an adult,” she said in a cold voice. “Tyler’s not. There’s a world of difference.”

  If she’d been sober, Dean might have argued that point, but there seemed little reason to waste his breath. “I’ll take care of the smoking issue,” he said firmly. “The real reason I called is because Tyler said something today that concerns me.”

  “Oh?” Carol’s voice cooled considerably. “What was it?”

  “He says that Randy’s the one who’s been taking your things, that Randy pawned Mom’s ring and Tyler knows where it is.”

  “Well, of course that’s what he’d say. I told you how he feels about Randy. He’ll do anything to break us up.”

  “I want to check on his story, Carol. And if the ring’s there, I’m redeeming it.”

  “You will? Thank you.”

  “I’ll redeem it and have the guy ship it to me. You can get it later, when everything’s sorted out.” Listening to the distinct slur that only alcohol or drugs could produce made Dean nauseous. “Does Randy know that you’re a recovering alcoholic?”

  The question seemed to catch Carol off guard. She hesitated for a breath, then said harshly, “Yeah, he knows.”

  Dean turned away from the window and stared at the picture of his mother on the far wall. “Does he know how hard you worked to overcome your addiction?”

  “Is this why you called? To rip Randy apart?”

  Dean sat on the foot of his bed and rubbed a knot from his neck. He’d like to rip Randy apart, but the truth was, although Randy might have provided temptation, the responsibility for staying sober was Carol’s. “No,” he said at last. “I called because I’m worried.”

  “Why? I love Randy. He makes me happy. I know Tyler doesn’t like him, but what am I supposed to do? Tyler will be an adult in a couple of years and I know he won’t stay here once he’s eighteen. When he goes, I’ll be alone. I’ve devoted my whole life to raising him. Don’t I deserve a little happiness?”

  “Of course you do, but Tyler’s not gone yet, and if your relationship with Randy is leading you to drink again and making your son unhappy—”

  “My relationship with Randy is the only good thing in my life,” Carol broke in. “The only good thing. I’m not giving him up just because Tyler doesn’t like him.” She took another drink and set her glass on the counter with a bang. “I told you that Tyler was impossible. Maybe now you’ll believe me.”

  Like she’d done countless times before over the years, Carol hung up before Dean could respond. He replaced the receiver slowly, aching for the agony she insisted on causing herself, the pain and heartache her choi
ces inflicted on her son. In frustration, he picked up the bottle of pain medication he always kept on his nightstand and threw it across the room.

  No one, not even Gary, completely understood why he put up with so much pain before he succumbed to the need for a pain pill. But Dean had seen too many lives ruined because of addictions. After the conversation he’d just had, he could almost guarantee that he’d force his threshold of pain up a few more notches. He’d endure almost anything to escape the risk of becoming addicted.

  He paced the length of his room for a long time, but no amount of thinking changed the facts. He didn’t feel right letting Tyler go home as long as Randy was in that house and Carol was up to her old tricks. But he was the only other family Tyler had left and Tyler obviously didn’t want to be here.

  Somehow, Dean would have to convince Tyler to stay here—and Carol to allow it. But he knew damn well it wouldn’t be easy.

  ANNIE DIDN’T GET A CHANCE to think about hiking trails or spending quality time with Nessa until late the next night. Their first guests were scheduled to arrive the following day, and last-minute preparations had taken every spare minute she had. But as she helped Irma clean up after dinner, the need to spend time with Nessa hit Annie with a vengeance.

  She enjoyed keeping busy. She was grateful that she hadn’t been left with countless hours with nothing to do but think. And she was relieved that Nessa had stopped begging to go back to Chicago. But a whole week had slipped by and they still hadn’t spent any significant time together.

  When Irma went to find Les, Annie hung the dish towel she’d been using over a cabinet door and stepped onto the porch, trying to remember if Nessa had said anything about after-dinner plans. The lights were still on in the stables, and that seemed the most likely place to check, but there were also half a dozen other places she could have been.

  Annie spent a minute trying to decide where to check first. Crickets sang all around her, leaves whispered in the soft breeze, and the sound of water tumbling over rocks in nearby Wolf Creek almost convinced her that everything would be all right. The sounds of nature began to ease the heaviest concerns from her shoulders. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to unwind for a minute before she went in search of Nessa.