Читать книгу A Winchester Homecoming - Pamela Toth - Страница 12

A burst of masculine laughter from the back deck and children’s shouts from the yard blended with the familiar sounds of women’s chatter, drawing Kim reluctantly to her stepmother’s large kitchen. After church Kim had changed out of the rose-pink dress into her usual uniform of khaki pants and long-sleeved shirt. This one was light blue with thin white stripes. In deference to the heat of the afternoon, she had rolled up the sleeves and left the top button undone.

The women of the Winchester dynasty were of course grouped in the kitchen, setting out the food. The men were outside supervising their progeny, Kim’s siblings and cousins.

Feeling like the star attraction or, more likely, the star witness, and braced to field a slew of questions, she sucked in a deep breath, licked her dry lips and stepped into the arched doorway.

Predictably, all conversation died as her uncles’ wives stared. Emily was the first to greet her, followed by statuesque Aunt Rory of the blazing red hair, the green thumb and the angelic voice, then Aunt Robin, a diminutive and dark-haired veterinarian from Chicago. For the first time, Kim realized that all three Winchester brothers had chosen brides from other states.

Kim waited for the inevitable questions: Why are you home? Where’s your husband? How long are you staying? When are you going to start a family of your own?

Aunt Rory, the mail-order bride from the Bronx who had come out to see Uncle Charlie and married Uncle Travis instead, came forward with a big smile and open arms.

“Hi, sweetie. Welcome back.”

“Thank you,” Kim murmured, taking comfort in Aunt Rory’s enveloping embrace and the familiar scent of her perfume. As a teenager, Kim had spent many hours baby-sitting Rory’s kids.

After a final squeeze, Rory released her so she could greet Robin, the aunt she barely knew. While Rory’s height dwarfed her, Robin made Kim feel oversize and gangly.

“It’s nice to see you again,” Robin said. Her midnight-black hair was cut as short as Kim’s and her smile was a little shy.

“Thanks,” Kim replied, feeling awkward. “Where’s Amanda?”

At the mention of her baby, Robin’s elfin face brightened. “Charlie’s got her. He hardly lets her out of his sight.”

“Well, he’s always been a bit of a ladies’ man,” Rory reminded her with a wink.

“Listen to you,” Emily exclaimed, waving hands that were encased in flowered oven mitts. “As if Travis hasn’t taken to fatherhood like a kitten to cream.”

“Winchester men,” Rory replied with a grin. “You gotta love ’em.”

Watching the interplay between the other three women, all friends and all happily married, stirred a mixed brew of feelings in Kim—envy, resentment and a dash of self-pity. It wasn’t fair. She had tried so hard to do everything right, so why had it all turned out so badly?

Dismissing the silent question, she turned to the woman she had blamed for a long time for usurping her own place in her father’s life and heart.

“Anything I can do to help?” Kim asked.

The counter was lined with bowls of salads—pasta, potato, mixed greens and shimmery jello for the kids. Next to a large platter of fried chicken on the center island was a bowl of baked beans.

“Everything’s ready, so you could start carrying the dishes outside,” Emily replied with a sweep of one hand. “Rory, would you tell your hubby to get the kids settled? Robin, why don’t you help Kim with the food?”

“And just what are you going to be doing while we’re all slaving away?” Rory returned with a mock glare.

She had married Travis when Kim was ten, an alien goddess from New York who worked briefly as the bunkhouse cook. Now she sang at Charlie’s dinner club in town when she wasn’t raising children and flowers.

Robin had moved to Waterloo and married Uncle Charlie five years ago. She seemed to be as quiet as he was outgoing. Maybe opposites did sometimes mesh, rather than grinding against each other until only one was left whole.

Pushing her blond hair off her forehead, Emily made a sweeping gesture toward the open French doors. “I think I’ll go mingle with all that prime male Winchester beef waiting outside.” She added a shimmy of her hips for emphasis.

“In that case, dab some salad dressing behind your ears and take this with you,” Rory drawled, thrusting a bowl of greens at her as the others hooted with laughter. Even Kim had to grin at their antics.

“Jake, quit picking on Chuckie!” Adam called out as David dug a cold soda from the cooler.

As Jake looked up at his father, his chubby redheaded cousin took the opportunity to push him.

“Hey!” Travis shouted at his younger son. “Any more of that and you’re benched.” He grinned over at his own older brother. “Tough little suckers. Probably future football stars.” He looked back at the two boys, who were now both scowling fiercely. “Play nice.”

“Yeah, like your dads never did,” Charlie added with a sly wink at David. Charlie was holding his two-month-old baby in the crook of his arm. Oblivious to the sounds around her, Amanda slept soundly.

Even though David wasn’t really into babies, she was pretty cute with her tiny fist tucked under her pointy chin. It was plain to see that his uncle, the former sheriff, was a cream puff when it came to his firstborn.

“When are you going to tie the knot and raise a passel of little Winchesters?” Travis asked him jokingly.

“He’s not a Winchester!”

The heads of all four men seated around the picnic table swiveled to look at Kim, who was standing in the doorway with a platter of chicken. David couldn’t tell if the color on her cheeks was caused by annoyance or merely embarrassment from suddenly finding herself the center of attention.

David got to his feet as Adam broke the awkward silence.

“But David is family just the same,” he said firmly, his gaze steady on his daughter’s.

Kim’s knuckles were nearly as white as the platter she gripped so tightly. Somehow that tiny bit of vulnerability spurred David forward, that and the memory of a younger, gentler Kim pushing through a crowd of students to ask his name.

“Let me help you with that,” he offered, reaching for the platter. “It’s got to be heavy.”

Her gaze clashed with his and he thought she was going to refuse.

“Rory makes the best fried chicken in the state,” he added. “I’d eat it off the floor if I had to, but I’d sooner not.”

“Oh, Lord, don’t drop my wife’s chicken, Kimmie, or I’ll never hear the end of it!” Travis exclaimed dramatically. “Somebody set that plate down.”

His comment broke the tension. Kim blinked and then she thrust the platter at David. When their hands touched, he could feel her tremble.

“Thanks.” Her voice was husky. “I didn’t mean anything by what I said. I was just stating a fact.”

“No problem,” David replied. Adam didn’t deserve whatever resentment she felt, but that was for the two of them to work out. David had no intention of getting in the middle.

Kim flapped her hand in the direction of the kitchen. “There are some more things I need to get.” She turned abruptly, barely avoiding a collision with Rory, who was bringing the potato salad.

“Hey, kid, would you make yourself useful and help me move the tables?” Charlie asked, distracting him.

Adam reached for Amanda, his normally stern expression replaced by a goofy grin as he cuddled her. Like the Pied Piper, Travis had already led the other kids inside the house to wash up.

“What do you think is going on with Kim?” Charlie asked David after the two of them had put two tables together. “She sure seems tense.”

Charlie grabbed his beer. His observation didn’t surprise David as much as it might have if it had come from some other big macho guy. When he had served his term as the town sheriff, he would have had to be able to read people and to be observant. Not much got past him. David remembered that a few of his buddies had found that out the hard way.

He wasn’t about to admit that he’d even given Kim a thought. He no longer had any idea of what made her tick, and perhaps he never had.

“Who knows,” he replied carelessly. “Maybe it’s jet lag.”

“It’s a three-hour flight from Seattle,” Charlie pointed out dryly. “You’d think she would have recovered by now.”

David shrugged. The aroma from the chicken was making his stomach growl as more food was brought out to a long side table. “Have you met the missing husband? I never did.”

“Yeah, I have.” Charlie took a drink of his beer. “First time at the wedding, and once when I flew out to Seattle with Adam to surprise Kim.”

“Yeah?” David prompted, curious despite himself about what kind of man had managed to win her heart, and her hand.

“Piece of work,” Charlie said flatly. “Ritzy wedding and a reception straight out of the movies. Food, music, booze. More attendants than a president’s funeral and flowers everywhere. I heard the old man telling someone they’d flown the orchids in from Holland, and the roses from South America.”

He chuckled, making David shift impatiently. It wasn’t the wedding he was curious about, it was the marriage.

“When they released the white doves outside the church, I was braced for a shotgun blast,” Charlie added with a grin.

“What’s he like?” David asked.

“Good-looking, I guess, but cold.” Charlie looked over at Kim, who had come out with a pitcher of juice for the kids and a stack of cups. “She seemed happy at the time. I s’pose most brides are on their big day, Lord knows Robin was. But now, with Kimmie, I don’t know.”

“What about Christie?” David asked. “Are she and Kim still close?” Kim had first gone to live with her mother in Denver, but he’d been stunned when she moved with Christie to the Northwest.

“Didn’t you hear?” Charlie’s brows waggled in surprise. “That gold-digging witch finally managed to bag herself a rich, decrepit old husband. They moved to Italy not too long ago.”

“Huh. I didn’t know that.” David wondered if Kim resented her mother’s remarriage as much as she had Adam’s. At least Adam hadn’t left the country afterward.

Everyone was beginning to gather, drawn by the food like ants to a picnic. David’s mother clapped her hands together. “Okay, everyone,” she said briskly. “You all know the drill. Food’s on, so let’s eat.”

After Kim had gone through the buffet line, she carried her plate to an empty place at the end of one table, right after her father, David and Emily sat down at the other with some of the kids. Kim wasn’t avoiding them, not really, but someone was bound to start asking her questions she didn’t feel like answering today.

Robin sat down across from Kim and glanced at her plate. “Is that what you’re having?”

Kim hadn’t even realized that all she had selected was green salad, jello and a few olives. “I’m just getting started,” she replied, feeling defensive.

“I’m sorry.” Robin looked remorseful as she unfolded a gingham checked napkin. “I’m the last one to grill you about what you’re eating.” She indicated her own loaded plate with a jab of her fork. “I’m still trying to lose weight from my pregnancy, but today I’m splurging.”

For a few moments they talked about babies and dieting. Robin was short but more curvaceous than she had been at her wedding to Charlie.

“Are you back to work yet?” Kim asked to fill the lull before Robin could ask her anything.

Robin was a veterinarian, specializing in large animals despite her diminutive size. Kim remembered that she had first come to town at the same time someone was poisoning Winchester cattle. It turned out that a huge corporation had hired a couple of thugs to help persuade her dad and uncles to sell them the ranch. Charlie had gotten shot during the chase and subsequent arrest, but not seriously. The corporation had paid a large settlement, but Kim didn’t know the details.

“I’m only working at the clinic part-time so far,” Robin replied after she’d swallowed a bite of potato salad. “Doc Harmon was nice enough to wait to retire until after I had Amanda, and we’ve hired two more vets. So far they’re working out pretty well.”

“Are they both straight out of school?” Kim asked, pushing around the food on her plate. Who else would come here, besides Winchester brides and greenhorn veterinarians looking for experience?

“Todd’s a young guy, but great with animals,” Robin replied. “Sophie is older. She went back to school after her divorce.” To Kim’s surprise, Robin blinked away sudden tears.

Kim nibbled on an olive while she waited for her aunt to compose herself.

“Sorry,” Robin said with a sniff. “I’m just so proud of Sophie.”

“So you two have gotten to be pretty good friends?” Kim asked.

Robin nodded. “I don’t know if you heard from anyone in the family, but I’ve been going to a support group over in Elizabeth for a few years now.”

Kim shook her head, curious and yet reluctant to pry. Especially since she wasn’t willing to reciprocate.

“When Sophie joined the group, she had just bailed out of a horrible marriage,” Robin continued. “She had left with nothing. She was living with her kids in a shelter.”

“That’s awful,” Kim said. She felt bad for women who were so desperate that they had nowhere else to go, especially when there were children involved. It had to be heart-wrenching to see your children going through that and know it was because of choices that you made. “Sophie must be a very determined woman.”

Robin broke a piece off her roll, staring at it thoughtfully for a moment. “Not when I first met her. She had no self-confidence, no self-esteem and no fight left in her. It can’t have been easy, but she’s come a long way.”

“That’s great.” Kim was beginning to feel a little uncomfortable that Robin was telling her so much about someone else’s life.

Rory, who was sitting next to Robin, must have been listening, even though she had been talking to a couple of the kids. Perhaps Rory already knew Sophie’s story.

Robin touched Kim’s hand, distracting her. “I’m not just passing on idle gossip,” she said quietly. “I would never break a confidence that way, but Sophie is proud of her accomplishments and so am I.”

Kim nodded, not sure what Robin expected her to say. “So your support group is mostly social, a group of friends?” she asked.

Now Robin’s smile was rueful. “I wish.” She glanced at Rory, who surprised Kim by giving her sister-in-law an encouraging nod. “I started going to the group after I got involved with your uncle,” Robin said. She glanced over at Charlie, her face softening. He was deep in conversation with Steve and his sister.

“You see,” Robin told Kim quietly, “I had been raped by a date back in college, but I never really dealt with it before I started seeing Charlie. I’d shut myself off, but he’s a very persistent man.”

“Some would say stubborn,” Rory drawled.

“They’re entitled to their opinions,” Robin replied. She turned her attention back to Kim, who was still trying to deal with the way Robin had said the word raped, as calmly as if she were talking about being involved in a minor traffic accident. “Since he was the sheriff, Charlie knew about the group. After I told him what had happened to me, he encouraged me to go. He wouldn’t give up until I did.”

“I’m sorry.” Kim wasn’t sure how to respond. “That’s awful.” Her comment was so inadequate that she bit her lip. Having someone you went out with force himself on you must be a hundred times worse than just having your husband demand sex when you weren’t in the mood, even if he did lose his temper when you tried refusing.

She started to touch her cheekbone, but then she stopped herself.

Robin waved her hand dismissively. “It’s okay. It was a long time ago, and your family has been wonderful in helping me to deal with it.”

So everyone knew? Kim couldn’t imagine telling everyone about something so personal, so devastating.

“Do you ever go back over it and wonder what you could have done differently?” she blurted without thinking.

“Of course I have,” Robin replied calmly. “I must have played back a thousand times in my mind everything that happened. For a long time I blamed myself.”

“But it wasn’t your fault,” Kim protested. “You didn’t ask for it.”

“Of course not. No one ever deserves to be raped.” Robin took another bite of potato salad, as though they’d been discussing the weather.

“Sometimes a woman just flat-out makes a dumb decision about something, and then she’s got no one else to blame if it ends up a disaster,” Kim mused without thinking.

Robin glanced at Kim’s plate and the food she’d barely touched. Her expression was compassionate. “Don’t be too hard on yourself. Sometimes all we can do is learn from our mistakes and move on.”

“That’s what I’m trying to do,” Kim admitted, “but even though my divorce was my idea, moving on afterward is hard.”

As soon as the words were out, she covered her mouth with her hand and wished she could stuff them back inside. The decree had only been final for a couple of weeks, but she hadn’t meant to make a general announcement until after she had a chance to talk to her father.

“You’re divorced? Why didn’t you tell me?”

Even though she’d been talking quietly, she hadn’t heard the sound of his crutches clumping up behind her. From the surprised expressions around her, her father’s comment had been overheard. Embarrassed, Kim ducked her head and stared at her plate.

Hers certainly wasn’t the first divorce in the history of the mighty Winchester dynasty. Her parents had split up, as had David’s. Aunt Rory had been married before she came out here from New York, but she, too, appeared stunned by the news of Kim’s divorce.

Embarrassed, Kim stuck her bare left hand above her head, waggling her fingers for everyone to see.

“Okay,” she cried out, knowing she wasn’t being entirely fair, but past caring. “For anyone who missed my father’s big announcement, yes, I’m divorced, okay? Any other personal questions I can answer while we’re on the subject?”

“I didn’t realize you were having problems.” Aunt Rory’s voice was low as she leaned closer. “Honey, are you holding up okay?”

Kim bobbed her head, feeling immediately ashamed of her outburst.

“What can we do to help?” Aunt Robin asked.

Her aunts’ sympathetic smiles and her father’s firm hand on her shoulder were almost more than Kim could deal with. She looked around, her gaze meeting Emily’s.

Afraid she would cry and humiliate herself further, Kim shot to her feet, bumping into her father so that he staggered before he caught himself.

“I’ll be right back,” she mumbled.

“What’s wrong with Kim?” she heard one of the kids demand in a piercing voice as she fled through the French doors.

Feeling like a fool, Kim kept her head down as she walked quickly toward the powder room. She wished she could hide out for a while, but where would she go? She was staying here at the house, and she didn’t even have a car.

Blinking away tears, she turned the corner of the hallway and barreled into David, who was coming from the opposite direction. Colliding with his chest felt like slamming into a concrete wall.

“Whoa!” He gripped her upper arms to steady her. “Where’s the fire, princess?”

One second David had been walking down the hall, minding his own business and looking forward to his mom’s chocolate layer cake, then the next instant he was nearly taken out by a human dynamo.

Kim twisted out of his grip. He was about to say something sarcastic about people who didn’t watch where they were going when he saw the tear tracks on her cheeks. Like most rough, tough cowboy types, he wasn’t scared of much, but flash floods and crying women probably topped the list.

“What’s wrong?” he asked as he looked down at her bowed head. Even hacked boyishly short, the strands of her hair caught the light like threads of silk.

“Nothing! I’m fine.”

He grabbed at her reply with the same sense of relief he might a life ring that had been tossed to him in a rip tide. He had done his duty, now it was on to dessert before the cake was gone.

“Good. Okay, whatever.” He backed quickly away.

Ignoring him, she bolted into the powder room and slammed the door. An instant later he heard water running.

David was eager to get back outside to the company of people who weren’t showing awkward emotions or having embarrassing meltdowns. Kim had told him she was okay and she could have asked for his help if she wanted it. Besides, no one had ever died from crying, not as far as he knew. So how much more reassurance did he need before he could make himself walk away?

The silent argument he was conducting with himself wasn’t working. His feet stayed rooted in place, refusing to move. Knowing that his stepsister, his former best friend and love of his life was in some kind of distress, his conscience just plain wouldn’t allow him to leave.