by Lauren Marie
Kate looked up at Frank. “So, that’s it?”
“That’s it.” He looked past her shoulder and smiled. “You’ll just need to sign the agreement, but we’ll wait a few minutes for the others to do it and leave the room so you won’t have to see them.”
Kate felt a hand on her elbow and was turned around. The judge stood in front of her. He took her hand and held it with both of his.
“Miss Beck, when Mr. Donnelly presented your case to me, I have to admit I felt very moved by your courage. I applaud you and wish you the very best.” He winked at her.
“Thank you, sir.” Kate felt shocked he’d spoken to her and didn’t know how to react.
He shook hands with Frank. “Tell your dad I’ll be up for golf next Sunday.” He turned and went back to his desk.
Frank led her to the notary next door and after they signed the papers went down a hallway. They walked out of the courthouse into the noon-time sun.
“Do you want to go get some lunch and celebrate?” Frank asked and opened the car door for her.
“No, I have to work tonight. We’d better get back.” Kate slid onto the seat.
Frank leaned on the door. “I could always call Harry to let him know you might be late.”
She looked up at him and smiled. “I don’t do late, Frank. Maybe we can celebrate another day.” Kate put the seatbelt on and sat back.
Frank maneuvered the car onto the highway. “What about your dad, Kate? Are you ready to talk to him?”
She looked at Frank and almost started to cry. “He’s really the only family I have left. I suppose that would be good.”
“Can I tell Jay the good news?”
Kate bit her lip and then the water works started. She looked away from Frank and pretty much cried all the way back to Canon City.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Two weeks before Christmas 2014
Kate slept until late that afternoon and got up in time to go to work. She stayed in Canon City and decided to wait out the winter and move on in the spring. She called Frank and let him know she planned to stay for now.
Since Kate’s mom decided not to fight the lawsuit and accepted banishment from Colorado, Frank felt there would be nothing further to worry about at this time. He confided to Kate that he felt very much that her mother needed mental health help. The fact that she’d given up so easily made him wonder if she wouldn’t try something else in the future, but then laughed and said Kate would probably have five kids by then and be too out of shape to appear in any films. When Kate asked him who the supposed father of the five kids would be, he’d just smiled and tweaked her chin. He did say that now that Edna no longer existed, the time had come for her to live in the present and enjoy the fact that she didn’t need to run anymore.
Frank set up a visit with Kate’s father and in the second week of November, he arrived in Canon City. They’d met for lunch and talked until late in the evening. He explained a lot of what happened between him and her mom as Kate grew up. Her parent’s relationship was stormy and her father felt extreme guilt at not being more attentive to the way things went for Kate. After he explained about her mother’s infidelities, which he didn’t know about until after Kate left for Colorado Springs, he apologized and told her that he should have stepped in more when Edna got on one of her rolls, but he never knew how to handle or control the woman. They spent a week talking off and on. Then he left to return to Portland. He invited Kate for Christmas, but she said she’d already been scheduled to work.
She’d told Harry she would be happy to work the week of Christmas and let the other wait staff be at home with their families. She’d told her father she would try to go to Portland in the spring. Maybe she would move back to her hometown.
She stayed away from the rink. She didn’t want to get in Jay’s way or make him think she stalked him. She missed keeping track of the young figure skaters when they practiced with their coaches and she missed the Saturday morning hockey matches. According to Frank, the Mighty Red Rockers were doing okay in the league. Jay turned over the main coaching duties to one of the assistants and very seldom showed up for the games. There weren’t any Broom Ball games scheduled until after the New Year.
Mrs. Hager and Lark Stone turned up at the diner at least once a week. When she first saw Mrs. Hager after her case got settled, the woman gave Kate a hug that threatened to last a couple of minutes. When she pulled back, she saw tears in Mrs. Hager’s eyes and wanted to know if she was all right. She told Kate that Jay explained some of the story to her and Mr. Hager and it broke her heart to think a parent could treat a child so poorly. She then insisted Kate learn how to cook and wouldn’t take no for an answer. Kate would either ride the bus or walk out to the Hager’s house and spend an afternoon learning the ins and outs of the culinary world. Mr. Hager became her test subject and never seemed to object to anything she made. Kate had a lot of fun and ended up buying a food processor.
They’d invited her for Thanksgiving, but Kate begged off. She knew that would be a family occasion and if Jay intended to be there, she didn’t want to make him uncomfortable. She’d stayed home that night and half-ate a turkey TV dinner. The thing tasted wretched and she only ate a little before she tossed it into the trash.
One afternoon, Mrs. Hager asked Kate if she would help her serve at the Community Christmas Festival. Kate heard some noise about this at the diner, but asked Mrs. Hager what the evening was all about. She explained that just before Christmas, every year, the community came together for a night of good food, dancing and friendship. There would be several tables with salads, breads, and pasta dishes. A gentleman name Dave Taylor always manned a huge barbeque outside the center with ribs, burgers, and steaks. Some other women, a Mrs. Metcalfe and Mrs. Bickens always fought a dessert war with pies and cookies. Mrs. Hager was in charge of some salads and cake. They charged nominal prices for the food and all proceeds went to the Children’s Auxiliary. She looked at Kate and said she knew she begged, but really needed the help.
When Kate broke down and agreed, she found out that on her next day off, Mrs. Hager and Lark were going to take her over to Pueblo to buy a dress for the party. While they shopped Kate asked Mrs. Hager if Jay would be at the festival. His mom wasn’t sure. She said he usually attended, but he’d been in such a snit since their break up, that she just didn’t know if he planned to come out or not.
After she tried on about fifteen dresses, Kate found one that looked acceptable to her and the other women. It was a black eyelet lace, fitted at the waist and belted. It came just above her knees but flared out a little. It also had straps on top and Kate found a pretty waist-length royal blue sweater to wear on top so she wouldn’t freeze. The front dipped down and Lark said she’d need a good push-up bra to accentuate her cleavage. Kate blushed, but found herself in another dressing room and tried on a bra that she could barely breathe in.
They stopped for lunch and Lark told Kate how her husband, Charlie, proposed to her at last year’s festival. He done it in front of the whole community and Kate thought it was the most romantic thing she’d ever heard. Charlie got up onto the stage with the DJ and used a microphone to surprise her.
After lunch, when Kate stopped to pick up a pair of pantyhose, Lark took her hand and dragged her over to the thigh-highs. Kate looked at the women and asked what they were up to. Both looked shocked that she would think they plotted behind her back and Mrs. Hager explained that they just wanted her to be the envy of every single man in the building. Then they took her to a shoe store and she bought a pair of three-inch heels that according to them matched her dress beautifully.
On the night before the big festival Kate worked. It was late and Harry didn’t know why he’d decided to stay open. There’d only been a few customers in the late afternoon, but it was after eight in the evening and the diner stood empty. He told Kate she might as
well change into street clothes and stay warm. If someone didn’t show up in the next forty minutes he would close at nine. When Kate tried to volunteer to work the next night, Harry explained he only closed three days a year. Christmas day, New Year’s Day and the day of the Christmas festival were those days and he told her that most of his customers were home, cooking up things for the party and didn’t have time to go out to eat.
She went into the locker room and took off her uniform. She put her jeans on over her white tights and pulled a turtleneck on. She tucked it into her pants and put on a navy blue sweatshirt. She sat down on the bench to put her shoes back on when she saw the door open a little.
“Are you decent?” she heard Harry ask.
“Yep.” She smiled as he walked into the room.
“Wouldn’t you just know it, we have a customer. You can leave your jeans on; it’s Christmas time, for Pete’s sake. I’ll get the grill ready.” He turned around and went out.
Kate finished her shoes laces and picked up her order pad. She couldn’t remember if there was any coffee left in the pot.
She walked down the hall, tied her apron around her waist and stopped dead in her tracks. Jay sat at the counter and looked at the menu. He looked thin and worn-out. Kate took a step back and then moved forward. There was no reason they couldn’t be friends.
She grabbed the pot of coffee, which was thankfully half-full, and made her way down to where he sat. She saw his incredible brown eyes glance up and her heart began to stutter in her chest.
“Hi, Jay,” she said. “Do you want coffee?”
“Yeah.” He turned the cup on the counter over.
She poured the coffee, put the pot down and bent over to retrieve a pitcher of cream from the mini-refrigerator. She couldn’t look at him. “What can I get for you?” She wanted to answer, Me?, but didn’t think this would be a good time to joke around, even if it wasn’t a joke.
“Bacon, Swiss cooked medium-well.” He put the menu aside and folded his hands on the counter.
She looked up at him. “Do...do you want fries?” she stuttered.
“Yeah.”
“Okay.” She picked up the pot and put it back onto the warmer and then put Jay’s order on the wheel. She kept her back to him and tried to figure out what she hadn’t cleaned for the day. She needed to keep busy or she would stare at him and make him uncomfortable while he ate his dinner. She remembered she needed to refill the salt and pepper shakers, grabbed a tray and started to walk around the tables. She collected the shakers and put them onto the tray. When it was full she went to the end of the counter and set it down. She got the big jars of salt and pepper and started to fill the containers. She quickly glanced at him, and saw he just looked straight ahead, over the counter. When she heard the bell from the kitchen ding, she saw Jay’s order in the pass-window.
She went up and pulled the plate down. She carefully placed it down in front of him and started to turn.
“Could I get some Ketchup?” he asked.
“Ketchup, right, sorry,” she whispered. She got a bottle from under the counter and then went back to the shakers. She glanced at her watch and would recheck his coffee in five minutes.
“I understand you went shopping with my mom,” he said and put a French fry into his mouth.
Kate froze for a second and bit the inside of her cheek. “Yeah, she and Lark invited me to go over to Pueblo to the Mall. I have six pairs of pants, a dress and four pairs of shoes now.” She continued to pour salt and thought that had to be the dumbest reply she’d ever come up with. Couldn’t she think of something just a little more clever to say?
“Did you tell her we’d broken up?”
She put the lid back onto the shaker. “No, she already knew.”
“She’s read me the riot act a couple of times about it. I told her to mind her own business,” he said.
“Oh.” Kate opened another shaker and began to pour. She felt surprised by his response to his mother. “Do you want some more coffee?”
“No.” He glanced up at her. “Why didn’t you press the charges against your mother? Why did you let Frank talk you into all that bullshit?”
“I don’t want to see my mother ever again. The deal to be banished from Colorado seemed the best way to get her out of my life. It’s finished now. If she comes back, the police will arrest her and the charges will be reinstated. I don’t think she’d be that stupid.” She didn’t want to discuss her mother ever again or think of her. She needed this discussion to change. “Your mom told me about what happened to Matt, with the bombing and all. I was really sorry to hear about it and I hope he’s doing okay. Are they still planning to go to Maryland after the New Year?”
“Yep.”
Jay’s brother, Matthew, had only another couple weeks left of his tour in the Middle East, when his squad got hit by the insurgents in the area they patrolled. A bomb went off near him and sent several pieces of a truck into his leg. The last Jay’s mom told her was that Matt might lose his leg, but it wasn’t certain. He’d been flown first to some hospital in Germany than over to the Walter Reed Military Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland. Mr. and Mrs. Hager had already flown back there once and planned to return the first week in January. Mrs. Hager tried very hard to be strong, but Kate could tell the woman worried for her son. It broke Kate’s heart.
Jay twirled a fry in the ketchup, but didn’t put it into his mouth. “Mom said you were going to help her at the festival tomorrow night.”
“I am, yes.”
“I’m surprised you’re still here. I thought you would have caught a bus by now.”
“I decided to wait until spring when the weather’s better.” She turned and put full shakers down on the closest table. This discussion made her frustrated and angry. She wanted to find a way to forget what happened between them and move on, but he seemed determined to keep pressing her on subjects that hurt her. It was enough and he didn’t need to keep it up. She thought about going back into the kitchen and heard him shuffle. She looked down the counter at him.
Jay put his coat on and took his wallet out of his back pocket. He threw a twenty on the counter. “Keep the change,” he said with his back to her.
Without looking back, he walked through the front door. Kate looked at his plate and saw it wasn’t even half-touched.
“Damn, I should have apologized,” she said and thought she should follow him. She’d rehearsed over and over the last few weeks what she wanted to say to him if they ever crossed paths, but, as usual, her mouth and brain weren’t on the same wavelength. She could have kicked herself all the way to Mars.
“What?”
Kate looked at the pass-window and saw Harry. “Nothing, I’m just mumbling to myself.”
“Where’d Jay go?”
“He left.” She went back to the shakers.
Harry came out of the kitchen and looked at the plate. “That’s weird. Jay’s always been a member of the clean plate club. He barely touched the burger.”
“Boss, why don’t you head home? I’ll finish this up and get the garbage out. Then I’ll lock up and go home, too.”
“Okay. You don’t need to worry about the cans in the kitchen. They’re already done. You just need to empty this one. See you tomorrow and save me some of Mrs. Hager’s macaroni salad. It’s the best, but she won’t give me the recipe,” he said and patted her shoulder. He handed her the keys. “Oh, don’t forget to lock the back door.”
“Thanks, Harry. See you tomorrow.”
As she finished the shakers, she thought about Jay. Not knowing what to say to him made her feel like an idiot. When she saw him it made the sorrow she’d felt since the meeting with the judge come back full force. She put her hands on the table where she’d just placed the refilled shakers. Her head sank down and she closed her eyes. She willed h
erself not to cry. She’d done enough of that. She needed to pull up her socks and stop thinking about him. She needed to get on with her life, just like Frank told her to do.
“Yeah, right.” She shook her head and straightened up. “Where do I start?” She put more shakers out on the tables. “I’m going to have to get a self-help book,” she mumbled. “Oh wait, I have a therapist now at the women’s center.” She walked back to her locker and got her jacket.
At the counter, she tied up the garbage sack and took it out the back door to put into the big dumpster. She looked down the alley and felt the cold down to her bones. She went back into the diner and locked the door behind her. She grabbed her purse and on her way out, turned off the coffee warmer. At the front door she hit the light switch and turned off the Open sign. She went out the door and locked the deadbolt, then pulled the iron-gate shut and locked it. She put the keys into her pocket and walked to the end of the building.
Turning left, Kate started to cut across the gravel lot, but stopped. Jay’s Jeep sat parked about fifty feet from where she stood. He sat under a tall, bright lamp and looked out at her. When her heart started to pound, she couldn’t figure out what she should do.
The door to the Jeep opened and Jay got out. He moved to the front and leaned against the bumper.
Kate’s first instinct was to run, but she knew the time for fight or flight was now and she decided she needed to fight.
“I know you lied to me because you thought it would protect me from your mom,” Jay said and ran his hand over his jaw. “I told you, but you don’t seem to remember that people who are close in small towns tend to protect one another. Even if we hadn’t told the team’s parents, your mom’s lies wouldn’t have done any good. I grew up and went to school with most of those folks. They never would have believed it.”
“First lesson,” Kate mumbled and didn’t move, but she wanted to run to him and feel the warmth she’d felt so many weeks ago. “I was going to apologize for the lie that night when I woke up in the hospital, but you left. So, I’ll say it now. I’m sorry. I know it doesn’t mean much anymore, but I am very sorry. It killed me to hurt you.”
