Part 23 (1/2)
”Do you think your dad will be off work today? Since it's Sat.u.r.day?”
Mandy shrugged and pulled at the bottom of the t-s.h.i.+rt his mom had given her to wear as a nightgown over her knees. ”I donno. Sometimes he's off. But usually he's workin'. He's tryin' to catch those bad guys who stole our horses.” She puckered her brow again. ”Why?”
He swallowed and looked down at the Batman comforter covering him. ”Well, since my mom has to work at her shop today, I was wonderin' if I could come over to your place and he could teach me how to ride a horse. I liked it the other night when we got ice cream and he talked about his days in rodeo. He must've had lots of fun.”
”He must like you, because he never tells me anything about when he rode broncos. I think he's afraid Momma won't like it.”
”You said something like that before. That your mom wouldn't let your dad ride in the rodeo anymore. Why not?”
”I donno.” Mandy sighed and averted her eyes to her hands lying in her lap. ”I don't remember much about Momma now. Just things like her singing to me. She had a pretty voice. And us goin' to the park by our house before it got too cold. I remember more of bein' afraid of Daddy when he came back from the war. He always yelled at Momma and made her cry. I didn't like bein' at home when he was there. I liked staying with my Grammy and Pappy. They live on a ranch and have cows and horses and chickens.”
What kind of person was Zack? Bobby remembered his dad's warning about Zack acting nice when he really wasn't. Maybe Dad was right. ”How's your dad now?”
She perked up and smiled her gap-toothed grin. ”Oh, now he's a lot different. He's real sorry about how he yelled at Momma and that I got so scared. He had thatthat P...P...Dsomething or other.”
”P...T...S...D.” He said each letter slowly so he wouldn't mess it up. ”My uncle Dylan had it, too.”
”That's it. Anyway, Daddy was real messed up after coming home from the war. He almost died. At least that's what I heard my Pappy tell someone once.”
”My Uncle Dylan almost died, too. He was blown up. I've heard my granddad talk about it. Lots of soldiers get PTSD. I guess when they get over it they go back to being happy again. Uncle Dylan did after he met Aunt Charli.”
”Daddy did when we moved here. I don't think he liked Wyoming.”
”Why?”
She shrugged and pulled on her t-s.h.i.+rt again. ”Donno. I don't think Pappy and Grammy liked him. And I don't think GrandmaDaddy's mommaliked my momma much either. She called her a bad name one day to my Aunt Winnie. They didn't know I was listenin'. Grandma said, 'Lisa's still controlling Zack even beyond the grave.'” She tilted her head and met Bobby's gaze. ”I don't know what she meant, but that's when Aunt Winnie said Daddy needed a girlfriend.”
Bobby didn't comment. What kind of marriage did Zack and Mandy's mom have? He knew his granddad and grandma didn't like his dad. If no one wanted her parents to get married and they fought all the time, maybe they had the same kind of marriage his mom and dad had. His mom seemed so sad before she divorced his dad. Now since Zack started coming around, she'd hum to herself and often smiled even when no one was around as if she was thinking of something she liked.
Maybe no one should get married at all. But then there was his granddad and grandma Quinn. They'd been married forever and still seemed to like each other. He caught his granddad kissing his grandma the day before they left to go back to Was.h.i.+ngton. Dylan and Charli always held hands, just as he'd seen his mom and Zack do the other night at the football game. He'd never seen such things between his mom and dad, even before they got divorced.
Did that mean his mom and dad really didn't like each other? But then why did they get married?
Mandy broke into his confusing thoughts. ”Hey, do you wanna make 'em breakfast? Daddy likes Cheerios.”
”Mom likes them, too.” At the thought of Mandy and him making bowls of cereal and coffee for his mom and Zack like he'd seen in TV shows, he smiled. Maybe he could pretend Mandy was his little sister. He'd always wondered what having a little sister or brother would be like. ”Yeah. Let's go.” As they headed out the bedroom door, Bobby warned, ”Oh, don't mention anything about what I told you. Kids aren't supposed to know about what grownups do. So, let's keep it our little secret. Okay?”
She took his hand and squeezed it as she pulled him along the hall to the stairs. ”Okay.”
The clanging of dishes echoed from the kitchen as Tracy and Zack descended the stairs. She turned and faced him. ”Well, I think the kids are already up. Now what?”
He stopped in the foyer and glanced in the direction of the kitchen. ”I could always go outside and ring the doorbell and they'll think I just got here.”
With a raised brow, she laughed. ”Zachery, that has to be the craziest thing you've ever come up with. How do you explain your wet hair or the fact you're holding your boots in your hand? It's almost as bad as the whopper you told my dad Christmas morning after bringing me home when we spent that night together.”
He chuckled and shrugged. ”I never figured he'd call my parents to check our stories. I only figured, if you called and told your dad and mom you were spending the night with my cousin Faith, they'd never question it. When he cornered me the next morning, I just spouted the first thing that popped into my mind, which was my truck broke down.”
Amus.e.m.e.nt of the old memory brightened the stubble-rough face, and small crinkles creased the corners of his eyes. The light coming in the entry windows played over his damp hair and picked out gold highlights. Darker honey-colored ringlets curled at his ears. She remembered a younger Zack standing in this very same foyer and facing down an angry Bob Quinn. ”What did Dad say to you, anyway? You've never told me.”
Zack groaned and he lost the smile, but not the humor in his bottomless blue eyes. ”He pulled me into the parlor and gave me the same speech he'd give to a new recruit.”
Her eyes widened. ”The safe-s.e.xAKA condomlecture?”
”You got it. That had to be the most embarra.s.sing conversation I've ever had.”
She covered her mouth, but the snort escaped, and she laughed so hard tears came to her eyes. She leaned her forehead on his shoulder.
”Sure, laugh at my expense. It was d.a.m.ned embarra.s.sing enough when my old man told me that stuffa year too late, mind you. But to have my girlfriend's father do it was excruciating to say the least.”
She wiped her eyes and looked into his contorted expression. ”I'm sorry. If it's any consolation, my mother gave me a similar lecture about birth control pills. She was all ready to make an appointment at the doctor until I told her I'd been on the Pill since that September. I swear, I thought Mom was gonna fall off the chair. She had no idea I'd lost my virginity long before that Christmas Eve.”
He chuckled and wrapped his free arm around her waist. His boots dangled at his side from his other hand. ”No wonder your mother watched us like a hawk for a month of Sundays after that day. When will the general and your mom be home?”
She groaned and laid her head on his shoulder again, drinking in the easy, comfortable feeling. ”They were going to leave Was.h.i.+ngton yesterday. She called me last night from Bristol, Tennessee. She said they should be here sometime Sunday afternoon, same day Dylan, Charli, and Annie are flying home.”
”You don't sound happy about the return of your parents.”
”I don't know how I feel. When Mom's here, she takes over. Not in a mean way and not even in a bad way, but she suddenly cooks every meal and does all the laundry and all the cleaning.”
Zack snickered. ”I figured you'd be loving that. You hate to cook, and I've never met a woman who likes to clean and do laundry.”
”That's what I meant by not in a bad way. I do hate doing those things, but when she takes over it makes me feel”
”Inadequate?”
She pulled back and met his gaze. ”Exactly. Like I don't already have enough to feel inadequate about. I love my parents, but sometimes I wonder how this living together is going to work. Sometimes I wish I'd just stayed in my apartment.”
He lowered his brow in thought, but before he could speak, the kitchen door down the hall swung open. Zack jumped back as Mandy came running out. She was still dressed in a pink t-s.h.i.+rt Tracy had given her to wear. Mandy took their hands and pulled them into the kitchen.
”Hey, you sleepyheads, we made you breakfast!”
”Hi, Mom. I'm making toast and brewed coffee.” Bobby stood on a footstool and bent over the counter to peer down in the toaster. ”You'll have to pour the coffee, then I think we can eat.” When the toast popped up, Bobby put it on a plate already piled high. He jumped off the stool and moved around the island to the table with the plate of golden toast. As he pa.s.sed them, he looked at Zack. ”Morning, Sheriff.”
Her eyes stung at the scene of him setting the plate on the table set with bowls of cereal, orange juice, and a jar of grape jelly.
Mandy pulled on her hand. ”You sit here.” Tracy obeyed and sat at the end of the table. ”Daddy, you're here.”
Zack put his boots beside the chair at the other end of the table. He looked across the meal their children had prepared and slowly sat in the chair. She sensed he was as overwhelmed as she was.
”This is really great,” Zack said after clearing his throat, but his voice was still thick.
”Thanks, Daddy.” Mandy beamed with pride. ”Did you have a nice sleepover with Tracy, too?”
Across the table, Bobby narrowed his eyes on Mandy and shook his head. What was that about?