Mr. Congeniality
Page 19
“What about him?”
Dean rubbed the bridge of his nose and spoke slowly, knowing that he had to broach the subject in just the right way or he’d lose her. “He’s a great kid, Carol. I like having him around.”
“Really?” She laughed uncertainly. “He’s not lying and stealing and cheating and swearing at you and threatening to run away? Because that’s what he does here.”
“He did at first,” Dean admitted, “but he’s settled down a lot.”
“How’d you manage that?”
“I don’t think it was me. I think the setting agrees with him. The Eagle’s Nest is a great place to be a kid his age. He spends a lot of time with the horses and there’s plenty of space so it’s pretty hard to feel hemmed in.”
Carol sighed wistfully and the slur in her words suddenly seemed less pronounced. “Just like what you used to dream about, huh?”
“Did I? I don’t remember.”
Carol laughed sharply. “You don’t? Are you serious? You don’t remember that summer we spent in Iowa before Grandma died?”
“I remember being there, but not much about it.”
“Well I do. All you could talk about was how you were going to be a cowboy and live on a ranch someday. I remember because I decided I wanted to be a cowboy, too, but I was too little to get on a horse so Grandma cut a branch from her tree and I rode that thing around for a week.”
Dean sat back in his chair and tried to remember. “I couldn’t have been older than nine that summer.”
“That’s about right. I was four or five.”
An image of Carol as a little girl skipping around their grandmother’s yard using a tree branch as a hobbyhorse flashed through Dean’s mind. Sudden tears blurred his vision and stung his eyes. He wiped them away with the back of his hand and tilted back his head, filled with longing for the children they’d never be again, for the innocence they’d lost along the way.
“I’d forgotten that summer,” he said when he could get words out around the lump in his throat. “I wanted to stay at Grandma’s forever.”
“Yeah, so did I.”
“Well, the Eagle’s Nest is the next best thing,” Dean told her. “You can stay here if you want to.”
“I really don’t think I’d fit in there now.” Her voice changed subtly. “But Tyler’s doing okay?”
“Tyler’s doing fine, and that’s why I’m calling.” Dean rubbed his eyes and cleared the rest of the lump from his throat. “I’d like him to stay, Carol.”
“Forever?”
“For as long as he needs to.”
“Why?”
Dean took a deep breath and spoke carefully, trying not to offend Carol with his explanation. “He seems happy here, and from what you’ve told me that’s unusual for him.”
“Only since I met Randy.”
That was a subject Dean hoped to avoid entirely. “Whatever the reason, you’ve both been having a rough time. If his being here takes some of the pressure off your relationship, I’d be more than happy to let Tyler stay.”
“You make me sound like a horrible mother.”
Dean shook his head quickly. “That’s not what I’m trying to do. I’m just…” He broke off, searching for a way to explain that she’d accept and understand. “We’re family, Carol, and I’m just starting to figure out what that means. Tyler’s well-being isn’t only your responsibility, it’s mine, too. If he’s unhappy, I can’t just turn my back and pretend not to notice. I’ve done that for too long and it’s not fair to either of you.”
“So you’re going to save him?”
The question brought Dean up short. He tried to figure out how to turn the conversation back around. “That’s not what I’m saying.”
“Sure it is. It’s Dean to the rescue all over again, isn’t it? Just like it was after Mama died. Has it ever occurred to you that we don’t need you to rescue us?”
“I’m not trying to rescue anyone,” he protested. “I didn’t come to you and ask you to send Tyler for the summer. You’re the one who begged me to take him. And I did. I’ve spent the past six weeks with him, watching him and learning about him because that’s what you asked me to do. So you can’t blame me if I have a few opinions about what would be best for him.”
“You know what, dude? If I’m such a pain in your ass, I’ll leave.”
The unexpected male voice brought Dean’s head up with a snap. Tyler stood in the doorway, arms folded, eyes flashing with anger. Dean had been so intent on his conversation with Carol, he hadn’t even heard the door open. He stood quickly, then froze while he tried to decide what to tell Carol and what to say to Tyler. “That’s not what I meant,” he said earnestly.
“I don’t want to hear it. It just pisses me off that I was actually starting to believe you.” Tyler spun away and disappeared down the hallway before Dean could move.
Dean started after him, realized he was still holding the phone and that Carol was still on the line, demanding to know what was going on. He didn’t waste time on explanations. “Carol? I’ll have to call you back.”
“Was that Tyler?”
“Yes, it was. And I really have to explain to him what he just overheard.”
“Wait a minute, Dean—”
“I’ll call you back,” he said again, and hung up before she could argue any further. There’d be time enough later for explanations. Right now, Tyler was nursing a misunderstanding that could ruin everything.
THANKS TO GARY, DEAN FOUND Tyler sitting on a rock near Wolf Creek, tossing pebbles into the water. Sunlight streamed through a break in the trees onto the boy’s slumped shoulders and spiky hair. He appeared so dejected, Dean could only watch in silence for a long time while he tried to decide what might convince Tyler that he’d misinterpreted Dean’s conversation.
Finally, aware that the minutes were ticking by, Dean stepped into the shady copse of trees. “Tyler?”
The boy spoke without turning around. “I wondered how long you were going to stand there staring.”
“I should have known you heard me coming. I’m not the quietest person in the world.” Dean hunkered down beside him. “We need to talk about what you just overheard.”
“What about it?”
“Well, for one thing, you didn’t hear the whole conversation—again.”
Tyler glared at him from the corner of one eye. “I heard enough.”
“If you’re thinking that I don’t want you here, then you couldn’t have.”
“Yeah? You said my mom had to beg you to let me come. What’s that supposed to sound like to me?”
Dean sat on the rock beside him. “I won’t deny I said that, but you didn’t hear it in context. I called your mom this morning to ask if she’ll let you stay here.”
“Why?”
“Well, for one thing, because I like having you here and I’m going to miss you when you leave. We had a great time together yesterday, didn’t we?”
Tyler’s gaze narrowed, but he didn’t say anything.
“The other reason I’d like you to stay is that I’m not comfortable with sending you back to your mom’s house while she’s drinking and Randy’s there.” Dean picked up a pebble that had been smoothed by the water and ran his thumb across it. “I had my first chance to talk with Randy this morning.”
Tyler’s lips curved. “What did you think?”
“He’s a piece of work, I’ll tell you that much.”
Tyler’s smile turned into a smirk of distaste. “Yeah, he is. And you haven’t even seen him yet.”
Dean shook his head and kept running his thumb across the stone. “Well, don’t feel too sorry for me. If he marries your mom, I might get to see him.” He made a face that left no doubt how much he looked forward to it, and Tyler’s quick grin warmed him clear through. “For what it’s worth, I believe you’re right about him.”
Tyler tilted his head and regarded Dean intently. “Is that because you believe me, or because you don’t like him?”
Tyler shook his head and stared at something in the distance. He sat that way for a long time without speaking and Dean forced himself to wait while he worked through his emotions.
“I just don’t understand why my mom sticks up for him the way she does.”
“Neither do I,” Dean admitted.
“If love makes you that stupid, I don’t want any part of it.”
“That’s not love,” Dean said sadly. “It’s something else. Obsession, maybe. Or weakness. I love your mother, but I’ll be the first one to admit that she’s not the strongest woman in the world. Part of that is because your grandmother died when your mom was so young and I didn’t know what to do afterward. I started a long tradition of hiding from the really tough stuff behind my career, and I’m only now learning how to stop.”
Tyler shook his head slowly. “My mom’s problems aren’t your fault. Neither are mine.”
“What made you come to that conclusion?”
Tyler shrugged. “Nessa, I guess. She’s pretty smart.”
“So’s her mother.” Dean picked up his stone again and skipped it across the creek, three times before it sank to the bottom. “So what do you say? If your mom agrees to let you stay here, are you interested?”
Tyler shrugged. “What would I do?”
“Go to school. Borrow my truck to go on dates. Get a job in town on weekends during the winter months, or just hang out here after school, do homework in front of the fire, and ask me for money—the usual stuff.”
Remembering his conversation with Annie, he dredged up his courage and said, “I love you, Tyler, and I want you to stay. If you do, we’ll work out the details as we go along.”
Tyler stared at him for a long time before asking, “You’d let me take your truck to go on dates?”
Dean laughed in relief. “I don’t see why not—unless you give me some reason not to trust you.”
Tyler looked interested for a few seconds, then the sparkle in his eyes died and his smile faded. “Yeah, but that would leave my mom alone with Randy. I can’t do that.”
Dean skipped another stone across the stream. “Your mom’s an adult, Tyler. No matter how much you and I might disagree with her choices, we can’t make her do what we think is sensible or right. I don’t like admitting this, but she’s been on a self-destructive path since she was just a little older than you are now. We can try to get help for her and encourage her to accept it, but we can’t force her to get better. And you can’t sacrifice your future for something you’ll never be able to change.”
“So I’m just supposed to turn my back on my mom?”
“I’m not saying that. But all of our choices come with consequences and sometimes we’re not the only ones who suffer. The woman who was driving the car that ran into me chose to drink and drive, and I lost my career because of that. I don’t want to see something similar happen to you.”
He shifted on the rock so he could see Tyler better. “Your mom’s making choices that could have a deep effect on your future, especially if you choose to stay on the same road she is. All I’m doing is offering you a detour. If you decide to stay here you can see your mom as often as we can arrange it, and call her as often as you need to. And if things get better at home, you can go back whenever you want.”
Tyler nudged a pebble from the dirt with the toe of his sneaker and plowed both hands through his hair. “Can I think about it?”
“Absolutely. Take as long as you need. I know it’s a big decision.” Dean pushed to his feet and stood looking down at his nephew. “I know you’re probably not in the mood for this, but I have a Little League practice in a few minutes and I’d really like you to come with me.”
Tyler lifted his head slightly. “Why?”
“Because I can’t do it alone. Believe me, I’ve tried. I need your help.”
Tyler slanted a glance up at him. “No kidding?”
“No kidding. I think you’d be great with the kids.”
Tyler jerked one shoulder and dipped his head. “I guess I could help.”
Dean grinned and waited for Tyler to get to his feet. “I’ve got to warn you, it isn’t going to be easy. But getting their attention is going to be the toughest part.”
Tyler stuck his hands into his pockets and fell into step beside Dean. And as they walked toward the shed for the equipment bag, Dean knew he’d just had one of the most important conversations of his entire life.
A FEW DAYS LATER, Annie walked slowly along the river path with Gary at her side. The woods were alive with the sounds of nature. A few visitors strolled through the trees, their voices soft as they wound down for the night. Nessa and Tyler were entertaining some of the kids around the campfire, and laughter echoed occasionally through the branches overhead. Dean had gone with Les to check on the wiring in one of the cabins, and Irma was chatting softly in the porch swing with Mrs. Gunderson from cabin five.
That left Annie a rare chance to spend a few minutes alone with her cousin, and she wanted to make the most of their time together. She sighed softly as the night breeze from the canyons set the leaves in motion, and zipped her sweatshirt closed. “I never would have thought the woods would be so peaceful at night. When I first came here, I expected to be nervous.”
Gary grinned, a flash of white in the darkness. “Why nervous?”
“Oh, you know. Lions and tigers and bears.”
“No tigers in these parts,” he said with a laugh. “That leaves mountain lions and bears, but animals rarely come down this low unless it’s a drought year. Still, it always pays to be aware. If you see a wild animal, give it respect and a wide berth, and you should be okay.”
“Not to worry,” Annie assured him. “Distance will not be a problem.” She took another deep breath and hooked her thumbs in her back pockets. “Thanks for suggesting me for this job, Gary. You may never know what a godsend it was to get out of Chicago.”
“It was the perfect answer for both sides.” Gary stepped off the path to make room for a young mother carrying a sleeping toddler and tipped his hat as she passed. When they were alone again, he asked, “So everything’s okay?”
“Fine. Why do you ask?”
“No particular reason, I guess. Unless you count the fact that you and Dean are tiptoeing around each other lately.”
Annie slanted a glance at him, but she couldn’t see his face well enough to read his expression. Was that an innocent question, or did he know something? “We’re not tiptoeing,” she protested. “At least I’m not. I don’t know what he’s doing.”
“Uh-huh. You’re forgetting that I know Dean just about as well as I know myself. If something’s not going on between the two of you, I’ll eat bear grease for breakfast.”
Annie laughed, but the sudden urge to talk to someone nearly brought tears to her eyes. Her confusion over Spence’s offer, her growing feelings for Dean, her increasing panic over losing Nessa at the end of the summer and her rapidly increasing doubts about teaching at the culinary institute made it difficult to sleep at night and concentrate all through the day.
She could feel Gary watching her, but she was having trouble putting it into words. “It’s all so complicated,” she managed to say at last.
“Break it down, then. Whenever I have a problem to solve that’s what I do. Wipe away all the extraneous stuff, toss aside your preconceived notions and break it down to the basics.”
“That’s easier said than done.”
He lifted one shoulder in a lazy shrug. “At first, but it gets easier with practice. You want to start with Dean or start with something else?”
“What makes you think Dean’s the easy subject? He’s a pretty complex guy.”
“Not really. He’s just a man like any other. He’s got his strong points and his weak ones, but he’s honest. You gotta admire that.”
Annie nodded slowly and
studied a low-hanging branch. “He certainly doesn’t hide anything,” she said after a few minutes. “And maybe that’s what scares me. I’m used to peeling away the layers to find the core of a person. Dean’s just…there.”
Gary chuckled. “He is what he is, that’s for sure.”
“He’s so different from Spence, I don’t know quite what to make of him or how to react. Spence always had an angle. Dean doesn’t seem to understand angles.” Annie shook her head and took a deep breath. “My first instinct was right—let’s talk about something else. Nessa seems to enjoy the chores you’ve given her.”
Thankfully, Gary didn’t resist the change of subject. “She’s good at what she’s doing, too.”
“Is she?” Annie smiled softly. “I know she’s having fun, but it’s nice to know that you’re pleased with her work.”
“More than pleased. She has a way with the horses that’s really something to see. She can get ’em to do just about anything she wants.”
Annie slowed and glanced toward the stables, even though she couldn’t see them through the trees. “Well then, I’m really glad we came to the Eagle’s Nest. Otherwise, we might never have discovered her hidden talent.”
Gary pulled a few leaves from a willow and scattered them in the breeze. “What about you? Any hidden talents lying fallow?”
She laughed softly. “None so far.” The breeze swirled around them and carried Dean’s voice with it. She couldn’t make out what he was saying, but she’d have known his laugh anywhere. She turned abruptly and started walking again. “All right, cousin. I’ve talked for a bit. Now it’s your turn.”
He fell into step beside her. “What do you want to know?”
“You came out here when you married Shannon, and I thought the two of you were so in love. What happened?”
“I don’t know. I never thought we’d end up apart. First time I laid eyes on her, I knew she was the woman I was going to marry.” Gary’s posture changed subtly as he talked about her, and Annie knew that he was still nursing feelings for her. “The changes started happening after her dad died. I guess I wasn’t there for her like she needed. I did okay for the first six months or so, but I started resenting the fact that her whole life came to a crashing end when her dad had his heart attack. I guess I thought she should recover quicker than she did, or maybe that she’d care a little bit that I was still here, loving her.” He laughed without humor and hung his head. “Hell, Annie. At the time I thought I knew what was right, but it’s all jumbled up now and I’m not sure which of us was the bad guy anymore.”