Hearts Crossing Ranch Anthology

by Tanya Hanson

  Ma turned with a deliberate glare. “There’s a lot you don’t know about the nightmare she’s lived. Give her a chance, Pike. Just give her a chance.”

  She shut the bedroom door, but he shouted after her, “Not a chance, Ma. Not a chance.”

  6

  Sunset burned behind the mountains, touching the summer world with a warmth Daisy couldn’t feel. All that simmered in her was anger against Pike.

  “You and…Pike seemed to enjoy those craft ideas.” Mom filled the silence in her tense way after they’d put two miles between the Mustang and Hearts Crossing. “Maybe you two can help us with our classes come August.

  For a flash, the thought tantalized—Pike’s big callused hands tussling with paper flowers and baby food jars, but it was a silly dream, nothing more. He hated her and wanted nothing to do with her. “I don’t think so, Mom,” she said finally. “He’ll be back with the wagon train tours and me, well, I better be working by then.”

  A sudden image of his laughing face as they chased split peas touched her heart before it hardened again—at him, at everything. And she had no one to take it out on but her mom. “What is it with you, Mom? And the Martins. You setting up shop at their ranch. I don’t get you at all.”

  “They’ve never been my enemy, Daisy,” Mom said, her lips, her words, her voice stiff as nails.

  The accusations she actually meant slugged at Daisy’s throat as she tried to swallow. She had no choice but to reveal something she’d wanted to keep secret. “Just so you know. I apologized to Mrs. Martin before we left. When you were using the bathroom.”

  From the surprise lifting her mother’s eyebrows, Daisy realized with a twinge of triumph that Elaine Martin had kept it a private matter between them, because Daisy left the house first to start up the car.

  “Well, I should hope so.” How could Mom’s words be harsh and soft at the same time?

  Daisy pounded the steering wheel as they approached the four-way stop at Shield Nickel Road. “What do you want from me, Mom? I’m trying. I truly am.”

  “I’m glad. The Martins are respectable. It doesn’t hurt to be on their good side. After...everything.”

  Daisy all but swallowed her tongue. The Martins’ good side? Hah.

  Why did it hurt as much as it did, Pike treating her off and on like she carried the plague? She closed her eyes before she accelerated from the stop, remembering the night at the hoedown once again behind her lids. The softness in his voice, his eyes, his touch. The same softness that warmed her through right now just thinking of it. She tingled as she shifted into third and sped toward home, almost giggling hysterically as Mom stomped on an imaginary brake.

  It hadn’t been a romantic embrace at all, that night she’d passed out in Pike’s arms, but ever since then, she‘d longed for the feel of his fingers, his arms holding her tight.

  But all they did was bicker, attack, and counterattack. All she did was doubt and distrust and accuse.

  “Maybe you ought to go to that singles Bible study tonight, Daisy. It can’t be any fun at all, sitting around watching TV with Dad and me.”

  She forced a chuckle. Dad’s tastes ran to rodeo and Wheel of Fortune. “It’s not so bad.” Daisy meant it. She didn’t really want to gainsay Mom right now and blow off Bible study. For some reason, Mom seemed a little less edgy as she talked, but Daisy tensed herself. No doubt Mom feared for Daisy’s eternal soul.

  Too late, Mom. For some reason the Easters and Christmases of her childhood began to play in slow-motion through her head, leaving something missing. All those tales of salvation and redemption hadn’t worked.

  Mom moved restlessly in the original bucket seat. “You said some of your old chums on that Facebook thing, whatever it is, are glad you’re back in town. Likely some of them attend. You could reconnect…”

  Daisy shook her head, the cheap knock-off sunglasses bouncing atop her nose. “No. I just can’t. I just can’t.”

  “Is it because Pike will be there?”

  Her fingers grappled the steering wheel as though she hung on for dear life. What was it with everybody saying Pike’s name all the time? She might as well tell the truth.

  “Yeah. Him and Scott and everybody else who was at the hoedown when I…” She couldn’t finish. The only good thing about that awful night, well, other than Pike’s embrace, was her folks not being there. “Everybody knows I…I tippled. Not my proudest moment.”

  Heat flamed beneath her skin, and Daisy turned her head just a fraction to watch her mom’s face cloud up. “And too many of them remember Tony.”

  Mom reached for her hand in such a tender way Daisy’s heart almost melted. It might be best just to get it all out. “Almost from the day we said our vows, Tony and I had nothing together, Mom. Meant nothing to each other. I know now he pursued me just to spite Kenn. Him leaving me last year…well…” Her eyes filled with tears of shame. “…I was glad he was gone.”

  “Did you seek the Lord in all this?”

  Daisy snorted. “What for? I learned long ago He considers marriage holy, sacred. That divorce is a dreadful thing. Too many black marks on the page of my life.” She sighed so deep it hurt and then gnawed on her right thumbnail as the highway sped them past the pretty town of Mountain Cove.

  When Mom laid her hand on Daisy’s shoulder and started a little massage, Daisy almost pulled away from the unexpected gentleness.

  “I wanted Kenn back, Mom. The way we were. Oh, not that I still love him. I had nobody else, and just like you said, he symbolized decency, respectability. So I went on about Tony doping the athletes when he was swim coach, about Tony swearing Kenn knew all about it and did nothing. I defended Kenn, saying of course he didn’t. But turns out, yeah, he did know. Knew his own brother Bragg used the performance-enhancing drugs. I remember him pale and shocked, stumbling out of the barn just as I passed out.” In Pike’s arms, she finished silently.

  Not her proudest moment either, but one she re-dreamed over and over—being in Pike’s arms. Lifting her right hand from the steering wheel, she grabbed her mom’s tight. “I’ll be apologizing to Kenn when he comes back from California. I think…I think I’d like to meet his new fiancée.” She breathed out. “I owe her an apology, too.”

  “There’s no doubt.”

  Daisy held off an eye-roll, wondering what had let her get this up close and personal with Mom just now. Mom’s eyes glistened in the sunset. “Our God is a God of love, Daisy. A God of forgiveness. Sounds like you’re on the right path, so why don’t you go tonight? Hold your head up high.”

  On the right path? That was a good one. A God of love? That was even better. Daisy held back a sardonic laugh. She still had a big apology to do. Well, she was a big girl. She could gut it out.

  “Mom? I need to apologize to you, too. To Pops. I never meant to hurt you.”

  The air around her supercharged with change, and Mom shifted uneasily in the bucket seat. Daisy grimaced. This wasn’t going to go down well, not when hurt ran deep to the bone. Not with mistakes impossible to mend.

  Mom’s voice was almost a wail. “It’s so hard, honey. What’d you think? You run off with some man we don’t even know? You leave us a voicemail that you got married? And then…” Mom choked. “And then you come back here and flaunt it.”

  Daisy tried to keep her feathers from ruffling. Mom was right about everything except the flaunt part. “I know you can’t ever understand. I don’t myself. I…somehow I just got caught up in Tony. He was elegant, charming. Big ambitions. Eloping seemed the right thing to do at the time. He was…he was…”

  The words were hard to say. Her birds and bees talk with Mom years ago hadn’t gone down easy either. “He was…pressuring me...to become intimate. Running off was exciting. Forbidden somehow. But we were entirely legal when we…when it finally happened. I am so sorry, Mom. I ask you to forgive me.”

  With a loud sniff, her mom dug in her purse for a tissue, and in the setting sun, Daisy watched tears drip down her mom’
s cheeks. Her heart panged. Mom’s disappointment and embarrassment must run deep. Pops’s words about Mom planning Daisy’s wedding since the day she was born hammered inside her head. Shame pounded in her heart. No. Better she stick with her plans to save up some money and move on so she could let them get back to their calm, well-ordered life with her sensible brother.

  “Of course, Daisy. It’s what the Lord commands.”

  Daisy clenched her teeth. The Lord again. And a command didn’t sound all that loving and free.

  “About that job.” Mom hesitated. “You could help me out. I’m—expecting big changes at the shop.”

  Daisy’s headshake was quick. “No. You’ve already cut Kayla’s hours. You don’t need me there.”

  Which was true. What Daisy had longed to hear was Mom inviting her to stay as long as she needed, not to rush off. Something like Pops had said. But Mom didn’t. Daisy’s heart panged.

  “And I do think you should go tonight,” Mom said instead. “Show your face.” Her voice came soft enough for Daisy to reckon her mom had at least sort of forgiven her, deep down all by herself, no matter the Lord’s order.

  But still…she’d be entering hostile territory, a church load of former friends and classmates. And Martins.

  “You trying to get rid of me?” Daisy asked lightly, hearing the shake in her voice.

  “What about that Maria Alomar?” Mom persisted. “You two were close once. She’ll probably be there. I bet she’d like to see you again.”

  I’ll just bet, Daisy said to herself. I’ll be the stuff of gossip for years. But with a kind of shame, she admitted to herself, I would like to see Pike. It was like a moth flying to its death but unable to resist the flame. The jerk hadn’t even asked about Elway. Still…

  “OK then. I guess I’ll go.” While she was on a roll, she needed to confess one last amend, but Mom beat her to it.

  “Daniel and his family are flying home on Saturday. I’ve invited him and Tessa and the baby for Sunday dinner.”

  “Oh, that’s good,” Daisy said, meaning it…half-way. She had yet to face her brother. Then she chuckled, ready to find ways to tease him a bit. Deep down he was a good guy. There was Dinosaur National Monument here in Colorado, but he and his wife had spent their vacation on an archeological dig in Syria, even hiring a nanny along to tend little Owen. Daniel had married a rich woman.

  Daisy had married Tony.

  Rather than let bad memories roil, she barged ahead with something else bound to rile Mom. “I’ve made an appointment with a vet in Sunset Hills for tomorrow morning. To get another opinion on Elway’s condition.

  Mom snarled—there was no other word—took her hand from Daisy’s shoulder and banged the dashboard, hard.

  ****

  Later after supper, Pike fumed all the way to town for Bible study, in full grump mode, and he knew Scott knew better than to bother him. Most times he got like this over an ailing animal he couldn’t help. Not because he was hot under the collar for some faithless troublemaker. He remembered he did have Elway, though, whom he couldn’t help, and his spirits lowered even more.

  Why did Daisy get to him? Why did he let her? He was almost like the kid on Easter whose belly couldn’t hold one more chocolate egg but who crammed another one down his gullet anyway. But…he was a big boy now. He sure didn’t need his ma to hide the basket.

  Turning onto the main drag into town, Scott floored it, and his Dodge Ram quivered for a second as gravel turned to asphalt. As they pulled up to the church, floodlights lit up the top of the steeple, and the cross glowed almost with a luminescence all its own. Fifteen cars or so scattered about the parking lot, and Pike admitted to himself he was checking for the presence of that bad-girl Mustang. With both relief and disappointment, he didn’t see it. Not sure why, he kicked Scott’s tire as he shut the car door.

  “Easy, bro.” Scott laughed as Pike recognized a shout from his long time pal Tim Lewis, improving his spirits right away. They’d had some fine times way back when. “I’ll catch up with you inside.” Scott jogged off as Tim caught up with Pike.

  They’d been good friends since sixth grade, but after high school, Tim had spent most of his time hiring out as a free-range cowboy for a wealthy rancher on the western slopes of the Rockies.

  “What brought you over the mountain?” Pike asked after a manly hand-clasp and half-hug, reckoning he knew the answer. The Mountain Cove All-American Alumni reunion picnic was a powerful draw. “The picnic?”

  “Nope. Didn’t even think about that,” Tim chortled as they headed into the brightly lit Fireside Room opposite Pastor Hale’s office. The room, cozy with a massive river-rock hearth and leather chairs had comforted Pike many times during life’s trials, such as his pa’s struggle with cancer and tough decisions about family finances. Tim went on. “But I guess I’ll stay long enough to hit it, now.”

  “Then what?” Pike asked. “Everything all right with your folks and all?” He wasn’t too worried. Bad news traveled fast in the little town, and he hadn’t heard anything.

  Tim hung up his Stetson soon as they entered, and Pike saw a sheepish pink spread across his tanned face. “Aw, once my ma heard about the proposal, she had to rustle up an engagement party.”

  “Engagement party? Proposal? Who?”

  “Me, doofus. Didn’t you get the Evite?”

  “No.” Pike snorted. He didn’t need to apologize again for not checking e-mail fifty times a day. Once a week if that. And mostly if he was expecting a medicinal shipment of some kind. So what he liked paper goods you could hold in your hand and the good old United States mail? But Tim engaged? What was that about? “Engaged? You?” He guffawed. “Didn’t think you had much chance to date out on the range.”

  “Well, y’all should have Evites in your inboxes,” Tim replied, smug. “Ma made me send ’em day before last. Check it out for this coming Saturday.”

  “All right, but who? How? When?”

  They shoved through the group of about twenty gathered around at a long table set with sweating bottles of cold water and frosty cans of soda. For something to do, Pike grabbed a Pepsi and felt like a girl when he saw it was Diet.

  “Met Tiffany at my cousin Trudi’s wedding on Memorial Day. Maid of honor, she was. We just hit it off.” Tim’s face glowed all sappy. “You know. Tiffany and Timmy sitting in a tree. K-i-s-s-i-n-g. First comes love. Then comes marriage…”

  Pike frowned at the childish poem. “What? That isn’t even a month ago. You’re already talking marriage?”

  Tim shrugged, ever the cowboy in a starched white Western-style shirt with bolo tie. “Can’t help it. First time I saw her, my heart hasn’t stopped pounding yet. It happened fast but it happened real.”

  Struck hearing the almost exact same words Kenn had used when describing his quick fall for Christy, Pike reckoned the Lord did work in mysterious ways. Neither man was a reckless kid. He raised his eyebrows. Maybe it would, could happen to him. Meeting somebody’s gaze and knowing right then and there.

  He shifted uncomfortably on his boot heels when an image of Daisy soft and vulnerable in his arms swept through his brain.

  “Yep.” Tim was going on to somebody else about his romantic entanglement. “I just knew. Looking at her, I just knew.”

  “Y’all take your seats, now,” Pastor Hale ordered smoothly, gesturing at the circle of folding chairs, “and we’ll begin our study of Second Corinthians twelve, verse nine, after a short gathering prayer.”

  A couple of soda cans popped, but soon a reverent quiet shadowed the small group. Second Corinthians twelve, verse nine? Pike couldn’t believe the coincidence, and a quick trickle of awe tickled him. Ma had quoted the same verse just hours ago. But the little miracle left him soon enough. She and Pastor had talked about Bible school; likely, it was no significance at all, them sharing some Scripture.

  “‘And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rat
her glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.’” Pastor grinned at the gathered group. “Now, who wants to try translating that?”

  “I think it means when we have problems, we should be glad in a way,” offered Tina Hogan, a high school pal of Kelley’s. “Because Christ uses the situation to make us stronger.”

  Pastor Hale nodded as somebody else broke in. Pike listened to the ensuing discussion for a while. It wasn’t like high school; he had no fears Pastor Hale would call on him, chide him if he didn’t know something, so his thoughts drifted. Peace and quiet rolled over him because the main reason lately for disharmony and disquiet hadn’t bothered to show her face. She thumbed her nose at him; she’d thumbed her nose at God for years. Why would she demean herself by attending Bible study? He let thoughts about her intrude on the word of God, loathing himself for his weakness. Same time, he tossed away a funny ache of longing inside.

  Aw, truth was, Daisy Densmore caused him disquiet even when she was miles away. Well, he believed at least, believed that Christ’s grace would rest upon him and turn his weakness into the strength he needed. Strength maybe she needed, too.

  Pike motioned with his hand to respond to another’s comment when the big oak door creaked open. Like for any latecomer, all eyes followed as Daisy Densmore entered the Fireside Room. A silky turquoise blouse set off the shine of her black hair, so attractive in the new feathery style. His heart constricted. More than anything, he wanted to rustle his fingers through the soft layers of her hair. Then draw her close against him. He reckoned his face flamed, and for some reason, he moved his jacket from the chair next to him to free it up.

  Just in case.

  7

  Daisy’s breath came fast as she entered the room full of executioners. Wearing a big smile that might well be a smirk, Maria Alomar caught her eye and waved at a vacant seat near her, but Daisy had to proceed with care, recalling from the past Maria’s good heart that often turned black.

  She was aware of Pike, so aware of him she couldn’t breathe. Aware of his gaze on her, of the empty seat at his side. Trying to act off-hand, she controlled her shaking knees and slunk to the chair and sank down next to him. Her leg brushed his denim-clad thigh as she settled herself, and his warmth almost had her gasp. Scents of a shower, the outdoors, and all man filled her nose. He grunted what she reckoned was a hello, and she nodded in reply.