Читать книгу Second Chance in Dry Creek - Janet Tronstad - Страница 11

Chapter Three

Gracie felt the girl snuggle as close as she could to her in the backseat of the car. Even then, the poor thing was shivering, and Gracie didn’t think it was from the cold alone because the girl had the blanket wrapped around her when she climbed over to Gracie.

“What’s your name?” Gracie whispered as she put her hand on the child’s head in much the same way as she soothed Rusty. She’d guess the child was two, maybe three years old.

The girl looked up at her, her eyes filling with tears.

Gracie felt her start to tremble more and she drew the little one closer to her. “That’s all right. You don’t need to talk right now. We’ll figure it out later.”

The words soothed the girl and she nestled back against Gracie, drawing the blanket over her head.

Gracie wished, and not for the first time since she had come back to Dry Creek, that she was more accepted in this community. She’d have more to offer this little one if she could call up a neighbor and ask how to help her talk. Her sons thought she needed a husband, but what she really needed was friends. The young mothers at church led their children away when she came near, and conversations stopped when she entered a room. She understood, of course. No one knew what to say to her now that she was an ex-con and, no matter how much she tried, she couldn’t seem to make it any better.

Mrs. Hargrove and her husband, Charley, accepted her, of course, but they were more like a kindly aunt and uncle than friends. For almost a year, Gracie had hid from what was happening, just as this little girl was doing now with her blanket. It was time to pull the covering away from her eyes and admit that she might never be accepted in this community. The people here acted like prison was a germ they could catch by being near her, and that was foolish. But they were right that she was different from them in ways they might find impossible to ever accept.

Looking down, she gently wiped the tears off the girl’s cheek. Gracie might not know as much about little girls as the women in the church did, but she knew how this poor child felt. Prison had taught her one thing. She recognized fear when she saw it.

After the child was breathing deeply in sleep, Gracie looked back at the men standing just outside the car. They had been watching her and the girl. Gracie shook her head slightly at them to show she knew nothing more than they did.

After a minute or so had passed in silence, Calen pulled the single sheet of paper out of the envelope and unfolded it.

Gracie could see it was written in pencil, and Calen squinted, probably having a hard time making out the faint letters in the wan light coming from the interior of the car. Then the sheriff stepped over with his flashlight and shone the beam on the letter.

“Oh.” Calen pulled back at the sudden light. Then, he began to read.

“Dad.” He cleared his throat, his voice heavy with an emotion that made Gracie blink back tears. A good parent always wanted to protect their child. She looked down at the little girl she held, thinking of how forlorn her sons must have been when she was in prison. She had missed them. During those years, seeing women grieve for the lost time with their children forged her strongest bond with the others, especially when she realized that their grief, like hers, was filled with guilt as well.

“Dad,” Calen began to read the letter again. “I’m in trouble and I don’t have anyone to take care of Tessie, my daughter—”

Calen broke off reading and looked over to where Gracie held the girl.

“This must be Tessie,” he whispered in wonder.

Gracie nodded. She saw the hope in Calen’s face. His whole face changed when he realized the girl was his daughter’s child. His mouth relaxed, his eyes lifted in a smile.

“Well, what do you know?” the sheriff said then as he looked at Calen. “You’re a grandpa. What else does your daughter say?”

Calen looked back at the letter. He sounded eager now. “It says here that Tessie is a special child, and Renee doesn’t want her to go into the foster-care system if something happens.”

Calen paused at that and looked at the sheriff. “Is that what they’ll do? Send her away?”

The sheriff thought a minute. “I need to call family services in when I arrest someone and they have a child with them. Of course, until the arrest, I don’t have much need to. As long as I know the child’s safe.”

“You can’t let Tessie go into the foster-care system,” Gracie protested. “The poor thing is terrified already.”

She could feel how fragile the child was.

“Foster care is no place for a toddler,” Tyler added as he stepped around the sheriff and moved closer to the car. His voice challenged the lawman.

“I don’t know what the courts will do,” the sheriff said defensively. “But sometimes foster care is for the best.”

“No, it’s not,” Tyler said swiftly. “Not by a long shot.”

Gracie’s heart broke. Her two youngest sons had never complained to her about being sent to that state home when she went to prison, but she knew in that instant she could never do enough to make it up to them.

She looked up at Tyler. The light from the sheriff’s flashlight was directed at the letter in Calen’s hands, but it caught the expression on Tyler’s face as well. He was looking at the girl in her arms as if he dared anyone to take the child away.

Gracie forced herself to remain calm. Tessie was still asleep, her head lying on Gracie’s shoulder. She looked up then and saw the ranch foreman staring at them.

“I suppose you think I let my sons down, too,” Gracie said to Calen.

“I’m not one to judge,” he said.

* * *

Calen had too much pride to beg, either. He’d been bucked off a horse once, but he had walked back to camp without asking for help even though his leg bone was splintered. Seeing Gracie with his new granddaughter made him want to fall to his knees and plead with her to tell him what she had done to give peace to the girl.

“Tessie will live with me as long as she needs,” Calen said, the decision made in his heart before he spoke the words. “And no one is going to send Renee away for long. She’ll get well and be on her feet again in no time. She’d want Tessie to be with me.”

“I don’t know,” the sheriff cautioned him. “Renee could be looking at four counts of robbery. I wouldn’t go making any plans right now. Besides, the family-services folks are going to ask you how you’re going to take care of that little one if her mother doesn’t get out for a while.”

“She’ll live with me,” Calen repeated.

“I know that,” the sheriff answered with some irritation in his voice. “But they’re going to want to know if she has a bed to sleep in and a doll to play with—that kind of thing. They’re not going to be too impressed with her growing up in some bunkhouse filled with ranch hands and dirty socks.”

“The men at the Elkton Ranch keep the bunkhouse neat,” Calen said stiffly, as he realized he didn’t know the first thing about how to take care of a little girl. He could protect her, sure. Rattlesnakes or flash floods would be no problem. But he didn’t quite know what she would eat. Did she have teeth yet? He supposed she was past needing baby food.

The sheriff grunted. “Have you ever held a child in your arms?”

“I held Renee.”

The sheriff gave him a look. “Recently, I mean.”

“Babies are babies. They haven’t changed in the past twenty years.” Calen resolutely stepped closer to the car and crouched a little, holding out his arms to where Gracie sat with his granddaughter. “If you slide her out, I should be able to take her without even waking her up.”

It would come back to him, Calen told himself, hoping no one noticed the sweat forming on his forehead. He saw the mothers at church picking up their toddlers all the time. No one seemed to have a problem holding one. Even the fathers managed.

Gracie had barely let go of Tessie, laying her gently in his arms, when the girl jerked awake and screamed. She turned to Gracie so quickly and with such force that Calen almost dropped her.

“I’m sorry,” Calen said, as his granddaughter wrapped herself around Gracie’s neck and clung to the woman as if she was her only security in this frightening storm. “My hands must be cold.”

Gracie managed to give him a sympathetic glance while she began to rub Tessie on her back. “It’s not that.”

“Family services is not going to be impressed,” the sheriff muttered as he walked a little closer, too.

Calen was feeling a touch of panic.

“Maybe she’s hungry.” He should have thought of that earlier. Children liked to eat. He patted his shirt pockets. Sometimes he had a piece of hard candy there.

He found nothing.

Calen looked over to ask if anyone else had candy, but what he saw left him silent. It was like looking at one of those old masterpiece paintings of the Madonna and child. Gracie was humming a tune as she soothed Tessie. The girl had a good hold on the woman’s braid and had pulled it around to the front. But they were both calm, and Tessie had given up her terrified grip.

“I think—” Gracie said softly as she motioned for the sheriff to come closer. “Here—let’s see if she will go to you.”

Calen stepped back and watched as the sheriff confidently held out his arms to the girl. The sheriff had young daughters of his own and no doubt knew a few tricks.

No sooner had Gracie started to slide Tessie toward the sheriff than the girl started to screech even louder than before. The lawman stepped back in surprise.

“I didn’t mean any harm,” he sputtered. “Kids like me.”

“It’s not you,” Gracie said confidently. “The girl is just afraid of men in general.”

“But—” Calen started to protest. How was he going to take care of her if she was panic stricken around men? There were over a dozen men who lived in the bunkhouse. He might be able to get a trailer and park it near the ranch, but then who would watch Tessie while he worked? Would she learn to trust him? He suddenly realized this was all going to be more complicated than he had thought at first.

And then he saw the answer.

“She likes you,” Calen said to Gracie in relief. “Maybe I could hire you to come with us and help me take care of her—just while Renee is in the hospital.”

Gracie looked at him in astonishment. “Me? It’s been years since I had little children around. The mothers do everything different now. Diapers are different. Baby food—I don’t even know what has changed there. I think they puree their baby food now.”

“Looks like you’re doing fine to me,” the sheriff said staunchly.

“I’ll lend you a book if you need one,” Tyler offered as he stepped over. “In fact, I think Angelina just got another baby book.”

“But she’s not due for five months,” Gracie protested, at least momentarily distracted from Calen’s offer.

Tyler shrugged and grinned. “She believes in preparation.”

Gracie’s face softened.

“So, you’ll do it?” Calen pressed. He figured he better take advantage of the sentimental moment. If the woman had time to think, she’d refuse. “Ten dollars an hour sound okay?”

“I can’t take your money.”

“Well, I have to pay you something,” Calen insisted, feeling a little frantic. He knew that if Gracie made a deal with him, she would honor it. She never went back on her word; she’d even stayed married to Buck Stone when anyone with any sense would have left.

“I could go up to twenty dollars an hour,” he offered. Now wasn’t the time to look for a bargain, he told himself. He’d go to fifty if he had to, but it would only make her suspicious if he put that figure out right away.

“I really couldn’t—” Gracie began.

Tyler interrupted then, with a glance at them both. “What my mother is trying to say is that you shouldn’t have to pay for a favor like this. Not when you need help and we’re set up to give it to you. But if you want, you could always take her to the harvest dinner at church instead to—to reciprocate, as it were. Neighborlylike.”

Calen watched Gracie’s mouth open and close and then open again. He figured she was as speechless as he was. Then Calen felt a slow grin spreading across his face. Tyler always did have a good head for when to throw a hook into the water.

“I’d be more than happy to take you to the harvest dinner,” Calen said, crouching down so he could look inside the car and make direct eye contact with Gracie. He didn’t want any misunderstanding. “I’ll even get you a corsage to wear.”

Gracie tried to say something, but only a squeak came out.

It sounded as though Tyler choked back a laugh, but Calen wasn’t sure because the man sounded perfectly solemn when he said, “Well, it’s a date then.”

Gracie’s face was reflected in the light from the side of the barn, and she looked a little flustered as she shot Tyler an indignant glance.

Then she cleared her throat and looked right at Calen. He remembered she had a certain regal way of holding her head when she was embarrassed, and he was seeing it now.

“We can talk about that later,” she said, then pressed her lips together for a second. “First, we have to figure out whether I should keep Tessie out here at my place, or if we should take her in to see her mother now at the hospital.”

As soon as Gracie took charge, Calen knew everything was going to be all right.

He stood up. “We need to take her in. It might be her only chance to see her mother for a while. I don’t know how much the tyke knows about what’s been happening, but I think she’ll want to see her mom.”

Gracie nodded. “I agree. But tomorrow, we’ll call Mrs. Hargrove and ask if she can keep Tessie until we sort everything else out.”

With that, Gracie swung around, preparing to get out of the car with Calen’s granddaughter in her arms.

Calen didn’t nod, but he didn’t protest, either. He wondered what he had gotten himself into. In the various times he’d thought about going up to Gracie since she’d been back, he had never imagined anything like this. There was going to be no way he would look good in Gracie’s eyes if she saw Tessie shriek every time he tried to hold her. After a while, the woman was bound to ask herself if there was something wrong with him. Maybe it would be best if Mrs. Hargrove was the one to help him after all.

Not that he had time to worry about his pride now, he told himself. They needed to go into Miles City and see how Renee was doing.

“I’ll drive us there,” he said.

“I don’t see how you’re going to do that.” Gracie stood. “There’s no room for a child’s seat in your pickup. Not that you even have a child’s seat.”

Calen grimaced.

“I didn’t think of that,” he admitted. Then he looked in the window of the car. “But we can use that one. It buckles right in. We’ll go in—”

Calen looked around. Both Gracie and Tyler drove pickups, too.

“I’ll drive all of you,” the sheriff finally offered. “I’m set up to carry anyone in an emergency.”

“Well, this qualifies,” Calen said as he stepped close to Gracie. Tessie’s eyes grew wide, but she seemed to feel safe as long as she was in Gracie’s arms.

“Hold on,” he said as he swept them both up together. “Let’s get you to the house so you can get some shoes on. No point in anyone catching pneumonia.”

Calen liked the heft of the woman and child in his arms. Tessie’s face was so close he could feel her warm breath on his neck. He shifted them both slightly in his arms and thought he heard the girl giggle softly.

“You like that?” he whispered.

He regretted the question, because it made Tessie hide her face in Gracie’s shoulder. It only took him a couple more steps to reach the porch, anyway.

“I’ll go help the sheriff move the child seat.” Calen set Gracie firmly on the bottom step to the porch. Tessie wiggled in her arms, trying to avoid looking at him.

Calen quickly dropped a kiss on the girl’s head. She froze but didn’t make a sound. So he kissed the top of Gracie’s head, too.

He wasn’t sure which of the two was more stunned.

“I’ll get the door for you,” Calen said then, signaling both of them that he was stepping around them.

Two steps brought him to where he could reach the knob. A twist of the hand and the door swung open.

“I won’t be long,” Gracie whispered, and then slipped into her house still carrying the girl.

He closed the door after they were inside. He stood on the step a moment, rubbing his cold hands. Hopefully, Gracie and Tessie would take a minute to warm up while he and the sheriff got ready to go to Miles City.

A smile split his face then. He had kissed Gracie Stone. Well, sort of.

He walked back to the sheriff.

“You got a heater in your car?” Calen asked. The man had his flashlight shining around in Renee’s car still.

“Top of the line.” The sheriff nodded proudly as he looked up.

“I want to be sure my girls are warm enough.”

The sheriff grunted at that. “Gracie stopped being a girl some time ago.”

“Not to me.” Calen reached into the back of the car and unbuckled the car seat. Tyler opened the opposite door, and there was no missing the grin on his face. Gracie’s son must have heard him.

“We’ll have to go fishing again someday,” Tyler said. “I always did enjoy sitting on the creek bed with you.”

“I’ll be there the first warm day we have next spring. I haven’t been fishing the past year or two, and I miss it.”

Tyler nodded. “I think my old fishing pole is in the barn loft.”

Calen wished it was that easy to slip back into his early relationship with Gracie. Not that they’d exactly been friends in high school. She’d always been Buck Stone’s girl, and he’d been a little tongue-tied around her. He glanced over at the house. Why was it that a man like him couldn’t seem to get the words out of his mouth to impress a woman he cared about, when he could flirt with all of the others with ease?

He finished unbuckling the child’s seat and pulled it out.

“I guess this goes in the back?” Calen asked as the lawman opened the door to the county car.

The sheriff nodded to him. “You’ll sit up front with me.”

“Okay.” Calen figured that if he was in the front, he wouldn’t have to worry about impressing Gracie with his witty conversation during the trip into Miles City.

He felt his shirt pockets again. He wished he had one of those hard mints at least. But there was nothing there. In high school, he always had wrapped candies to give to the girls. He knew that was why they came around him so often, but he’d never told Buck that. He grinned just remembering it.

He glanced over at the porch again and his grin faded. He wondered what secret Buck had that had gotten him Gracie. Calen would have traded all the hard candy in his pockets back then to know what she had seen in his friend and not in him.