“That thing ain’t cheap,” stated Jake. “I guess you’re doing pretty good then.”
“Yeah,” answered Dani as another gust of wind blew her blonde curls across her face. “A few months ago, Momma and Daddy helped me open an antique store in Dallas. In fact, it’s doing well enough that I’m looking to open another one in Fort Worth in the fall.”
“Nice,” said Jake. “Does that mean you’ll be traveling back and forth to Childress quite a bit?”
“Once our divorce is final.” Dani laughed. “No offense, but ever since you moved down here, I’ve been giving this town a pretty wide berth.”
“Can’t say I blame you,” said Jake. He shook his head as he added, “I went out of my way to ask you to come home but, based on your last statement, I guess that ain’t happening.”
“You guessed right, Jake.” A small tear welled in her eye. “I’m sorry. I can’t.”
Jake sighed as he asked, “You still seeing Brandon? I heard he got married.”
Dani shrugged as she looked away. “He did, not too long after you and I split up.” She glanced back at Jake and added with a laugh, “I tried, but he turned me down flat.”
Jake grinned as he said, “The son of a bitch must have finally found some morals.”
“Don’t you hate that?” Dani said, wiping the tear away as she changed the subject. “So the boys are doing good, huh? I miss them.”
“Well, if you missed them, you’d think you’d come around here every now and then to see them,” said Jake, looking Dani in the eyes.
“I can’t, Jake,” said Dani, “there’s…just been too much.”
Jake took a deep breath. “I don’t understand that; I really don’t.” He scratched the back of his head and added after a long pause, “They’re fine, though. Chris is doing well in school, and Jason’s doing good in his job. Amanda really is a sweet girl, and she’s good for him. But I think Chris will follow in Adam’s footsteps and be the next big star. That young one is all business when he’s out there in the dirt. Reminds me of me when I was his age.”
“That’s really nice to hear, Jake.” A sad smile crept over her face. “I’m so glad you’re still close to the boys.” An awkward silence fell between them as she looked away, then added as she turned back to face him and unloaded the deepest secret she ever kept, “You know, Jake, I’m really sorry I fell asleep and wrecked the truck that night. I’m sorry it ended your career. Not a day goes by I don’t think about it.”
Jake dropped his chin to his chest and stood straight as if someone had punched him in the gut, took a deep breath, and exhaled deeply before answering, “That’s the first time you’ve ever said that.”
“Yeah, it is,” said Dani. She turned away, then gathered the strength to say the hardest thing she had ever said in her life, “But do you know what?”
“No. What?” answered Jake.
Dani covered her mouth and started laughing, which made Jake smile, too, before she finally was able to catch her breath. “You’d have fucked it up anyway,” she blurted.
Jake busted out laughing as well, then said, “Yeah, you’re probably right about that.” He looked off into the distance again, but this time as if he was gazing into the past, not in the present. Taking another deep breath, he added, “And I’m sorry for making such a mess of things, and I’m sorry for treating you the way I did. You didn’t deserve all that.”
“Jake, if you could change one thing, what would it be?”
Without hesitation, Jake answered, “I need two things.”
Dani chuckled and agreed. “All right, two things.”
Jake put both hands on the wooden rail and leaned into it as he said, “First off, I would have never laid a hand on you. God knows I regret that most of all.” He looked back at Dani and added, a tear in his eye. “And second, I wouldn’t have fooled around on you like I did.” A long silence followed before Jake finished, “I know I was a real asshole. I don’t blame you for leaving.”
“Well,” Dani said, shrugging, “I knew what bed I was lying in all along. It was a great ride…at least in the beginning, anyway.”
“And, since we’re asking, what would you have done differently?” asked Jake. “If you had the chance?”
Dani looked away for a moment before turning back to look Jake in the eyes. She answered calmly, “For one, I wouldn’t have fooled around on you, either.”
Jake looked away, exhaled deeply and scratched the back of his head as he said, “You don’t have to feel bad about that. God knows I deserved it.”
They stood for a moment before Jake asked, “And two?”
Dani answered, this time more seriously, “Two is I would have done a better job of keeping you away from all that booze you poured down your throat.”
Jake said soberly, “Yeah, that would have been a good one.” Then he smiled, “We had some good times, though, didn’t we?”
“We did,” replied Dani as she took a brief moment to replay a memory. “Remember that time in Frisco when you rode Chief out of the stadium into the parking lot at full speed, grabbed my arm and pulled me up behind your saddle? And then you took me back inside the arena, where you rode around for five minutes waving at the crowd while I was embarrassed as shit, beating you on the back of your head trying to get you to put me down?”
Jake chuckled. “Yeah, I do. That was a good one.” He paused, then added, “Or how about the time we got arrested in Denver for just throwing our shot glasses against the wall?”
“I remember! That manager was an asshole,” said Dani. “Thank God the cop was a big fan of yours.” She took a deep breath and added, “I really hate to tell you this, Jake, but, even though I really, really had a great time…you need to know that…”
Jake waved her thought away. “You don’t have to say anything.”
They paused a moment, but without either having anything else to say, Dani got to the point. “Do you have the papers?”
“Yeah, I’ll be right back,” answered Jake, a trace of relief in his voice as he turned to walk back inside.
Dani sighed as she turned to survey the landscape around her. Even though Jake and her two sons lived in a home that was nowhere near as opulent as their ranch once was, she was a little jealous of it because she was now forty-two years old and splitting her time living with her parents and the small apartment she kept in Dallas.
“Here you go,” said Jake as he stepped back out onto the deck.
“Where do I sign?” Dani asked, taking the papers.
“You already did.” Jake grinned widely. “The divorce has been final for six months now.”
Dani pushed her blonde hair out of her face again. “Am I missing something?”
“I signed them for you,” answered Jake. “Not that there was that much left to divvy up between us, but you didn’t get any of it.”
“You son of a bitch,” said Dani, shaking her head. Her first reaction was to get furious, but her anger quickly dissipated as a smile crept across her face. She asked, “You mean to tell me you’ve been sending me flowers and begging me to come back for almost a year now, and yet you got us divorced at the same time? And you didn’t tell me?”
Jake laughed as he replied, “Any good roper knows that every calf is going to turn right.”
“And?” asked Dani as if she didn’t get the point.
“But what if he don’t?” answered Jake. He held both hands up as he added, “I’m just saying…you got to be prepared.”
Dani thought for a moment that it was weird she wasn’t even slightly angry. Any normal person should be calling the police over the stunt Jake had pulled, but she found the idea funny and started laughing hysterically. When she caught her breath, she held the divorce papers in the air and said, “I tell you what, Jake, you tell Chris I’ll be back this afternoon. What time does he get home from school?”
“Now we’re talking,” answered Jake with a smile. “He’ll be rolling up here about three-thirty. I’m sure he’l
l be glad to see you.” Jake motioned toward the door as he asked, “You want to stick around here until he gets home?”
“Hell, no, I’ve had enough of you already,” said Dani, “but I’m coming back.” She opened her purse to put the folded divorce papers inside and added, “I was planning on getting back home as soon as I signed these but, you know what, I think I’m going to see if Jason and Amanda are home right now. How do I get to their place?”
Jake pointed back the way Dani drove in on Old Denton Highway and said, “You know how to get back to the freeway? Oh, hell, never mind, wait here, I’ll write you down the directions.” He went inside the house, then reappeared a couple of minutes later with directions to their son’s house scribbled on a piece of paper. He handed it to her. “It’s a white double-wide with a red Toyota Corolla parked out front. You can’t miss it. Amanda’s home for sure, but I’m not too sure about Jason.”
“Thanks.” Dani turned and walked down the steps. She said over her shoulder as she reached her car, “See you around, Jake.”
“Like this afternoon?” he asked.
She turned to him and said, “Yeah, Jake, like this afternoon. Tell Chris I can’t wait to see him, but don’t you get any ideas about us getting back together because that’s never going to happen!”
“Fair enough,” Jake agreed, a slow smile lighting his face as he walked across the deck to lean on the railing. He yelled, “Hey, Dani!”
“What?” she said.
“I got a question for you,” said Jake. “Why did you stay away from the kids for so long?”
Without hesitating, Dani answered, “Because of you, Jake. This is your world here in Decatur and the kids just happen to reside in it. I was so disgusted with you, and myself, that I didn’t want anything to do with you and your world anymore, even if my own kids were in it. I’m still seeing a shrink trying to come to terms with it.”
“Dammit, Dani,” said Jake, shaking his head, “there’s nothing wrong with you. Those head doctors are a waste of time.”
Dani pulled the divorce papers back out of her purse and held them in the air as she replied, “Stop it, Jake. You can’t control me anymore.” She shook her head. “You’re a control freak, Jake, you always have been. You’ve controlled everybody and everything around you your whole life, except your drinking.”
“Damn, that’s harsh!” Jake frowned.
“Okay, you asked me a question,” said Dani, “I have one for you.”
“Fire away,” said Jake.
“Are you still drinking?” she asked.
Jake shook his head and answered, “Nope, I stopped right after I made such an asshole of myself at Jason’s engagement party. Haven’t had a drop since.”
The answer caught Dani off guard. She smiled as she replied, “Good for you, Jake, good for you.”
“Yeah, it was about time, I guess,” said Jake, shrugging.
Dani put her hands on her hips and asked defiantly, “All right, can we make it two questions?”
“Okay, one more each, but that ought to do it for now, don’t you think?”
“Fair enough.” She took a deep breath before asking, “I’ve always wanted to know; what did you tell those cowboys in Tucson the night Willie got beat up so bad?”
“Hmmmm,” replied Jake as he suddenly looked off into the distance of time. After a brief pause, he looked back down at Dani and solemnly answered, “I asked them to watch after my sister.”
“You told them Stephanie was your sister?” asked Dani.
“Yeah, I did,” said Jake. “I told them I’d appreciate it if they could keep an eye on her because Willie was a convicted child molester.”
Dani looked away, but she bit her lip and turned back to Jake and replied, “I guess it’s true then. There were lots of rumors, but I never wanted to believe them.”
“Yeah.” Jake sighed. After a brief moment, he pointed a finger at her as he added, “You can’t say anything about this to her, though, ’cause if you do, I’ll make sure Willie finds out about that black guy she slept with when we were in New Orleans.”
Dani shook her head, disgusted at him. “Don’t worry, Jake, I won’t. But, even if I did, you wouldn’t be more of a son of a bitch to my family than you’ve already made yourself.”
“Yeah,” said Jake, “I guess that trip Trey and I took to Dallas a few years ago took care of that, didn’t it?”
Dani turned to leave. Jake stopped her by asking, “Hey, I still get one more question.” Dani didn’t say anything, but the look on her face made clear she wanted Jake to hurry and get it over with, so he asked, “I had a buddy of mine call me up a few months ago and said he could have sworn he saw you dancing in some strip club down in Houston. Said if it wasn’t you, it could’ve been your twin. Was it really you? Was that how you got the money to open the furniture store?”
“No,” said Dani with as much sincerity as she could muster. Without saying anything else, she shrugged, then got into her car. She didn’t bother to wave at Jake before starting the engine, or when she did a U-turn as she drove out of the driveway back onto the two-lane asphalt road. Even though the answers to her questions opened a few old wounds, they didn’t trouble her long because today was the day she was finally going to see her two sons. Her mood brightened considerably before she even made it to the end of Jake’s property line.
For months, she had blocked the boys from her thoughts, and went out of her way to not see them, even though her self-imposed exile caused her a very heavy heart. Dani talked to them on the phone every other week or so but, until today, she never had the courage to visit them. She didn’t know if she would have the courage to do it today because she thought chances were certain that she would have to visit her boys with Jake in the same room. That had all changed, however, when she found out she was already divorced, just a few minutes ago.
She laughed out loud as she started the drive to Jason’s modest house because, now that she was single, Jake no longer had any control over her. From now on, she could come and go from his world without consequence. While most women would have been upset that their ex-husbands didn’t give them a dime in their divorce, Dani didn’t care one bit. Her freedom was far more important than that and, because Jake had forged her signature, she now had something on him that allowed her to always keep him in his place. For the first time ever, she was now the one in control.
As Dani came up to speed on the two-lane farm road, she passed an old, run-down wooden house on the right, noticing a small Shetland pony grazing in a pen. The pony looked remarkably like that of her childhood steed, Tiny Tim, and her thoughts immediately drifted off to the past. Without thinking, Dani rolled her window down and stretched her left arm out into the wind. Over and over she waved her hand up, then down, as if her fingers were the wings of an airplane. For the first time in years, she vividly recalled the sensation of racing her horse toward the lights and how it felt to dream that she was about to embark on spectacular adventures to unimaginable locations. Over the years, she had completely lost the feeling of what it felt like to be truly free, but small tears of joy crept into her eyes as she welcomed the feeling like she would an old, dear friend.
Dani kept her arm out the window until she finally turned right onto a gravel driveway leading to an unassuming, double-wide trailer home sitting on a small plot of land. There was a red Corolla parked next to an older model Chevrolet pickup. As she made her way up the fifty-yard drive, she saw the front door open. Jason and Amanda stepped out to see who was coming. Amanda’s hand rested on her pregnant belly.
Dani slammed the car in park without bothering to turn the ignition off, then kicked off the small, red heels that matched the dress she wore. She exited the vehicle and started running as Jason and his wife started toward her. She couldn’t remember ever running so fast.
The End
Roped & Tied Page 28
