Читать книгу: «A Home of Her Own», страница 2

“Good night,” he said coldly and walked out, carrying his hat. If Lucky had turned out as much like Red as he suspected, she could certainly take care of herself.

CHAPTER TWO

LUCKY COULDN’T SLEEP. Her presence had been discovered by Morris’s first family. Already. Before she could even settle in and begin her research. She didn’t peg Mike Hill as much of a gossip, but he was loyal to his family. Now that he’d seen her, he was sure to mention it to his mother, who would mention it to her sister and brothers, and so on until half the town rose up against her. After all, practically everyone in Dundee was a friend or relative of the original Caldwells.

Not that Mike or any of the people in his circle could do anything about her return—except make it unpleasant. Morris had seen to that. Considering what he believed her mother had tried to do to him, Lucky couldn’t understand why he’d still loved her and why he’d provided for her, especially so well. He’d left her brothers each a sizeable chunk of land, but he’d given her a little more than anyone else when he bequeathed her the house and a living allowance. Besides being grateful, she still missed him terribly. He was the best man she’d ever known, one of the few who had room in his heart for a fat, ugly little girl.

Ironically, Mike, one of her greatest rivals, reminded her of the man she’d loved so dearly. There was something about the way he carried himself, the way he smiled. Not that he’d ever smiled at her. When she was a teenager, she used to daydream that the rugged cowboy next door would strike up a conversation, but she couldn’t remember his even acknowledging her. Which was probably why she’d become so determined to get a reaction out of him. She’d even flashed him one day while he was riding past on a horse and she was swimming in the pond. She’d doubted he could ignore that—and had felt mildly exultant when an expression of displeasure had flickered across his face.

Pulling her knees to her chest, she tried to shut out the terrible craving she’d always felt for any crumb of approval or acceptance—especially when it came to Morris’s first family—and concentrated on staying warm.

She was tempted to leave this house, leave Dundee. But the list of names she’d found in her mother’s journal was reason enough to stay.

AFTER A MISERABLE night’s sleep, Mike stared at the phone, wondering whether or not he should call his mother. It was possible that Lucky didn’t plan on staying for any length of time. She moved around a lot. He knew because he was in charge of mailing off the monthly check she received from Morris’s trust, and she was forever sending him a new address. If she saw this as a stopover, if she was only going to move on in a few days, mentioning her sudden return would upset his mother, his entire family, for nothing.

But if Lucky was going to stick around, it’d be better to give everyone some warning.

He’d called his brother, Josh, already, but Josh was in Hawaii with Rebecca and Mike hadn’t been able to reach him.

“Mike?”

Mike glanced toward the door. Plump, fifty-year-old Rose Hilman, who handled the accounting, had just poked her head into his office.

“Yes?”

“Gabe Holbrook is here to see you.”

Forgetting about his mother, his brother and Lucky Caldwell, Mike sat taller in surprise. He’d grown up with Gabe. They’d been best friends since they were kids, but ever since the accident, Gabe rarely came around.

“Send him in,” he said.

As Mike waited, he felt a surge of guilt and remorse. Over the past few months he hadn’t made enough of an effort to see Gabe. The man had had a tough two years, the worst imaginable, but he’d become so remote and moody, it was difficult to connect with him anymore. There didn’t seem to be anything safe to talk about. The subjects they used to enjoy—football, rodeo, women—had all become painful reminders of Gabe’s loss.

Mike stood as Gabe wheeled himself into the room, slightly heartened that his friend looked so healthy. A long-sleeved T-shirt covered the corded muscles in his broad shoulders and arms, which bunched as he forced his chair over the thick pile of the carpet. Obviously he’d been lifting weights. His face was leaner and harsher in some respects, but he possessed the same thick-lashed blue eyes and wavy black hair that had always made him a favorite with women. At least he’d been a favorite before the accident….

“Gabe, good to see you, man.” Mike rounded his desk to shake hands.

Gabe’s grip was firm. “It’s been a while.”

Too long, and Mike knew it. If only the sight of Gabe in that damn wheelchair didn’t make him feel so…heartsick. He shoved his hands in his pockets, because he suddenly didn’t know what else to do with them, and sat on the edge of the desk. “You look good, buddy. You must be drinking more of that wheatgrass juice you made me taste last time I came up to the cabin.”

It had probably been two months since that visit, but if Gabe resented the neglect, he didn’t let on. “There’re more vitamins and minerals in a tablespoon of wheatgrass juice than—”

“I know—a whole grocery sack of fresh vegetables,” Mike broke in, chuckling. “And I still couldn’t force it down.”

Gabe’s eyes swept over him. “From what I can see, you’re doing okay without it. For an old guy.”

Two years younger, Gabe had skipped a couple of grades in school and always teased him about his age.

“Forty’s right around the corner,” Mike said, “and you’re not the only one who won’t let me forget it. Josh has been giving me hell for months. So what brings you out to the ranch on such an ugly day?”

Gabe’s eyes cut to the window, where snow was falling so thickly Mike could barely make out the barn.

“The roads aren’t impassable yet. But your driveway could use some shoveling. How do you expect a cripple like me to get around?”

The way he tried to make light of his situation made Mike more uncomfortable. Gabe’s body had been his whole life. Now he was a broken man, could never be fixed, and was living out in the hills like some kind of hermit.

“You seem to get anywhere you want,” he said, which was true. If Gabe didn’t go out much, it wasn’t because he couldn’t.

He shrugged. “I manage. Especially when I have a good reason.”

“Sounds like something’s up.”

“I wanted to tell you that my dad’s running for Congress in the next election.”

“Really?” Mike nearly stood at this news, but remained sitting on the corner of his desk to lessen the height difference between them. He hated towering above Gabe when Gabe was really taller by a couple of inches. “That’s great. He’s got the background for it. He’s been a state senator for…what? Nine years now?”

“Ten, but it’ll still be a tough race. Butch Boyle’s been in office forever.”

“An incumbent is always difficult to beat. But your father’s well respected in this state. I think he has a good chance.”

“We need some new blood in there. Butch’s been in Washington so long I don’t think he remembers he’s from Idaho.”

Mike had to agree. He’d never been impressed with Congressman Boyle. But Mike would’ve supported Gabe even if Gabe had just announced that his father was running for President of the United States. This was the first sense of purpose he’d felt in his friend since the car accident.

“Fund-raising’s critical,” Gabe continued. “That’s the other reason I’m here. I was hoping you’d help me.”

“If you’re asking me to contribute, you know I will.” Mike leaned over and shuffled through some papers on his desk, looking for his checkbook, but Gabe’s voice stopped him.

“I was hoping you’d be willing to do a little more than give me a donation.”

Mike raised his eyebrows. “What, for instance?”

“I’d like you to put together a committee. I want to meet with Conner Armstrong and the rest of the investors in the Running Y Resort, and Josh and your uncles and a few other folks in town.”

“You don’t need me for that.”

“Actually, I do. I’m not sure they’ll take an ex-football player seriously enough.”

Mike suspected Gabe meant they might not take a crippled ex-football player seriously enough. No one thought Gabe any less of a man now than he was before, but Mike didn’t bother trying to convince Gabe of that. He knew from experience that Gabe wouldn’t listen. “Boise is where the money’s at, not here.”

“Boise is split between the two congressional districts. We’ve got the more conservative part, which we’ll probably lose to Boyle,” Gabe said. “As far as grassroots efforts go, we’re going to have to do what we can here and up in the panhandle.”

Mike rubbed his chin. He’d shaved when he got up this morning, but he could already feel the whiskers that would create a shadow across his jaw by dinnertime. “What kind of money are we talking?”

“Half a million, at least. I’m sure Boyle can easily raise that much, what with Political Action Committees and donations from the timber industry.”

“We can’t raise half a million from private individuals, no matter how successful our grassroots efforts are,” Mike said. “We live in a state that’s nearly half-rural.”

“I realize that. But there are other avenues.”

“Like…”

“The American Federation of Teachers, the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the Teamsters Union…”

“You’ve been doing your homework.”

Gabe gave him a rare smile. “Damn right.”

Mike considered the request. Maybe getting involved in Garth Holbrook’s campaign would give him and Gabe something in common again, help them both adjust to who and what Gabe was now.

“Sure,” he said. “Josh is out of town with Rebecca for a few days, an early Christmas present. But I’ll set up an appointment with him, Conner and the other Running Y investors as soon as he gets back.”

LUCKY LEANED against the wall of her old bedroom and rubbed an itch on her forehead with the back of her hand. She’d been knocking down cobwebs and sweeping out the house all morning and didn’t want to touch her face with her fingers. The physical exertion of cleaning helped her stay warm, so she’d kept at it while waiting for the snow to let up. But it was already noon and the weather didn’t seem likely to change any time soon. If she wasn’t careful she could get stranded out here another night.

She was determined not to let that happen, but she didn’t have too many options. There wasn’t any cell phone service because of the surrounding mountains. She was fifteen miles from town and didn’t have anything remotely resembling a shovel with which to dig her car out of the snow. And Mike Hill was her only neighbor.

Mike Hill… God, she couldn’t ask him for help! He’d always resented her, and she’d—

She’d nothing. Most of the time, she didn’t even exist for him. It was better to pretend he’d never existed for her, either.

Deciding there wasn’t anything she could do until it stopped snowing, she headed downstairs for her suitcase so she could hang up a few of her nicer clothes. She’d packed carefully, filling her bags to maximum capacity just in case she stayed awhile, but her belongings were no longer neat and tidy. After Mike had left last night, she had trouble getting warm again and she’d rummaged through them, searching for layers.

Shoving her clothes back inside her biggest suitcase, she sat on the lid to close it, then pulled it over to the stairs and started hoisting it up one step at a time.

“Come on,” she grumbled as she strained to keep moving. She made the first curve of the stairs and rounded the second, but the corner of her suitcase hit a spindle, nearly jerking it from her grasp, and the latch gave way. With a curse, Lucky watched in frustration as everything spilled down the stairs.

“That’s it, I give up,” she said, and dropped the suitcase, too. It banged its way along, hitting the wall and the railing several times before finally crashing to the floor.

Sinking onto a step near the top, she glowered at the wreckage. What was another mess? She was already alone in a house with no utilities, stranded by a terrible storm….

I should leave Dundee as soon as the storm lifts. That thought had been drifting in and out of her mind all morning. She’d already put this place behind her once, along with its ghosts and memories. Why had she bothered to come back?

The black journal that had fallen out of her suitcase, along with everything else, served as a quick reminder. Studying what she could see of the fanning yellowed pages, she wondered once again whether reading it had been a mistake.

Would finding her father really make any difference?

She had no idea. Her brothers hadn’t grown up with their father, but they knew his name. According to Red, he’d been a handsome young man named Carter Jones, who’d spent two years in Dundee before breaking her heart and following the rodeo circuit. Except for the money he’d occasionally sent when he was working, they’d never heard from him again.

Her brothers didn’t seem to have a problem with that, but she was different. She’d grown up without knowing so much as a name. Until now. Suddenly, she had three possible candidates. She’d come here with the goal of narrowing it down to one. And why not? What better things did she have to do? She’d been traveling from place to place, volunteering at hospitals and food banks and shelters for six years—ever since she’d graduated from high school. There really wasn’t anywhere left to go, at least anywhere she’d find the peace she’d been seeking in her volunteer work. This small town hated her for being who she was, but it held all the secrets she needed to gain some perspective on her life.

With a sigh, she retrieved the journal. Maybe returning to Dundee wasn’t a mistake, but she should’ve waited for spring. She might have waited, except that she’d wanted to be here for Christmas. The memory of that one holiday, her first in this house, had tempted her back.

She chuckled sadly. God, she was still trying to relive it. How pathetic…

Stepping past the shoes and underwear on the stairs, she went back to her mother’s bedroom to confront the vulgar graffiti on the wall. This room, those words, brought back so much of what she’d experienced when she lived here. Her friends’ parents’ disapproving glances and hushed words: Julie’s brought home that Caldwell girl again. We need to have a talk with her…. Lucky’ll turn out to be just like her mother, you wait and see…. We’re law-abiding, churchgoing folk. We can’t have that kind of influence in this house. The suggestive whispers of the boys in school: Is your hair that red everywhere? Let’s go behind the bleachers and take a look…. With a mother like yours, you ought to know all the tricks.

All the tricks? Growing up, Lucky had known more about sex than she should have, but certainly not from her own experience.

Sliding down the wall to the bare floorboards, she opened the weathered book she’d found when she finally went through the boxes her brothers had sent her after Red’s funeral. The list of male names scrawled in her mother’s hand brought back fragments of memory Lucky had tried for years to suppress. Men, coming in and out of their ramshackle trailer while Lucky was small, ruffling her hair or handing her a shiny quarter. Men moaning behind the closed door of her mother’s bedroom.

Despite the terrible cold, sweat gathered on Lucky’s top lip. She wanted to burn the journal, obliterate the proof. But she couldn’t. Dave Small, Eugene Thompson and Garth Holbrook were all listed as having “visited” her mother twenty-five years ago, right around the time a man would’ve had to visit Red for Lucky to be born. Unless Red was seeing someone she didn’t write down, which seemed unlikely given her scrupulous records, one of these men was probably her father….

Lucky recognized Dave Small’s name, and Garth Holbrook’s, too. Both had been prominent citizens of Dundee, giving her some hope that she could identify with or admire her father at least a little more than she did her mother. They might have visited a prostitute several times, but Lucky knew from watching Red that being faithful wasn’t easy for a lot of people. It was even possible that they hadn’t been married when they’d associated with her mother.

She thumbed forward to the blank pages that represented the year Morris had come into their lives. He’d put a stop to the male parade going through Red’s trailer. For a while, anyway. Until Red forgot what it was like to scratch for a living and grew bored with being an old man’s wife. Then, while Morris was away on his many business trips, everything had started up again. Only now her mother didn’t keep a list, the men didn’t leave any money, and Lucky was old enough to have a clearer understanding of what was really going on when her mother said she needed to speak to Mr. So-and-So alone for a few minutes.

Briefly, Lucky closed her eyes, shaking her head at all the times she’d begged Red not to risk their newfound security. As Lucky grew older, Red had quit pretending that Lucky didn’t know the truth and started threatening her instead. You say anything, Lucky Star Caldwell, and I’ll kick your ass right out of this house.

Her mother’s voice came to her so clearly, so distinctly, that Lucky glanced up, toward the entrance of the room. But she saw nothing—nothing except herself as a young, insecure girl, peeking into the room in response to her mother’s shrill call, “Bring me some damn aspirin.”

When things at home became unbearable, Lucky would sneak over to the Hill brothers’ barn to be with their beautiful horses. There, for an hour or two at a time, she managed to forget the sick feeling that, by her silence, she was betraying Morris as badly as her mother was. Or the knowledge that, even if she’d had her mother’s permission to tell what she knew, which she most certainly did not, she wouldn’t have breathed a word of it because she couldn’t bear the thought of Morris disappearing from her own life.

Snapping the book closed, Lucky climbed to her feet. She’d tried so hard to distance herself from all that. Once she’d graduated from high school, she’d left Dundee and never looked back. Even when Morris had died and her brothers sent word of her inheritance. Even when, two years later, her mother had a stroke and passed away. Even when Mike Hill contested the will, forcing her to hire an attorney. She’d let the attorney go to court for her and when it was all over, she’d simply petitioned Mike, as executor of Morris’s estate, for the check he was supposed to send her each month and left the house to rot.

Until now. Now she realized she could never run far enough from the past and she’d come back do something about the house. But first she had to ask Mike for a favor before she froze to death. She doubted he was going to be very happy about it.

CHAPTER THREE

LUCKY SHIFTED from one foot to the other as she stood at Mike’s door. He might be chief among her rivals, but he was also one of the handsomest men she’d ever known and, without running water in the house, she hadn’t even been able to shower. She was soaked and shivering from wading through snow, and her nose and cheeks felt so raw she was sure they were bright pink.

Pink had never been a good color on her; pink wasn’t good for most redheads. But at this point, Mike Hill was her only option. No one else lived nearby.

A middle-aged woman came to the door. Her brown hair, full of gray streaks, was pulled into a bun with a pencil jammed through it. “You don’t have to stand out in the cold, honey. This part of the house is only offices. You can come in.”

“Th-thanks.” Lucky was so cold she could barely speak.

“You’re going to catch pneumonia if you don’t get out of those wet clothes and put on something dry as soon as possible,” the woman said, her gaze traveling over Lucky’s soaked jeans.

Lucky blinked the last vestiges of snow from her eyelashes and managed a smile. “I’m f-fine. Is Mr. Hill around?”

“Which one?”

“Mike.”

“He’s in his office. Can I tell him who’s looking for him?”

Lucky hesitated to state her name. She didn’t want to send shock waves through the community just yet. But Mike already knew she was back, which pretty much ruined her low-profile return. “Lucky Caldwell.”

The woman’s eyebrows shot up to her hairline. “Did you say Lucky?”

Lucky clenched her jaw and nodded. Her hands, feet and nose burned as they thawed, but the prickling sensation was the least of her worries. How was Mike going to react to having her appear at his office?

“You’ve grown up,” the woman said. “I didn’t recognize you.”

Lucky didn’t recognize her, either, and it must’ve shown because the other woman frowned. “I’m Polly Simpson—Mrs. Simpson to you, at least in the old days. I used to work in the attendance office at Dundee High, remember?”

“Oh, of course,” Lucky said. But she still couldn’t recall Polly Simpson’s face. Probably because she’d never missed a day of school in her life. School had been her refuge. She’d rarely visited the attendance office and had probably only passed Mrs. Simpson in the halls.

“I’ll tell Mike you’re here.”

“Wait.” Lucky caught her arm. “Is there a Mrs. Hill I could talk to?”

“If you mean Josh’s wife, she’s out of town. Mike’s not married.”

“Still?”

Mrs. Simpson chuckled. “Still. Do you want me to get him?”

Evidently, she had no better choice. “Yeah.”

With a final curious glance, Polly headed the other way, her panty hose rubbing as she walked. A moment later, she poked her head out of a room at the end of the hall and waved. “Mike says you can come on back.”

Lucky quickly removed her boots because the caked-on snow was beginning to melt and create puddles on the plastic protecting the entryway carpet. But when she saw her feet, she wished she hadn’t been so polite. There was a hole in her sock, which made her look like the white trash everyone here already thought she was.

“Miss Caldwell?”

Lucky straightened. “I’m coming.” Ignoring the hole, along with the wetness of her jeans and her generally haggard appearance, she refused to acknowledge the curious stares of the office personnel and walked down the hall as if she and Mike had been friends for years.

Mike had a large office with a mahogany desk, four soft leather chairs, a wet bar in one corner and several horse pictures hanging on the walls. Huge windows revealed the storm, but Lucky knew that on a clear day, they’d show the barn and the beauty of the land sweeping away from the house.

“Lucky.” Mike stood. Cool curiosity filled his hazel eyes, but he didn’t come to meet her, and he didn’t smile. “Is there something I can do for you?”

Lucky resented having to ask him for a favor, even a small one. But unless she wanted to turn into a Popsicle by morning, she had to. “I was hoping you wouldn’t mind letting me use your phone.”

“Of course not.” He paused briefly, studying her, and she stood completely still, forcing herself to bear the weight of his gaze. She had no doubt that he wouldn’t like what he saw. She’d lost a lot of weight since she’d lived here, but her hair color was too light to be the rich auburn everyone seemed to admire, and her skin was too pale.

“You’re soaked,” he said. “Don’t tell me you walked over here.”

She didn’t want him to know how desperate she was for the basics in life, so she shrugged carelessly. “It’s only half a mile or so.”

“It’s storming.”

“I guess I could’ve dug my car out of the snow, but the closest thing I have to a shovel is a broom.” She chuckled, hoping to elicit a smile from him and ease the tension between them, but it didn’t work.

“In that case, I think you made the right choice.” He brushed past her as he dragged a chair across the carpet to a small table in the corner, where there was a phone.

As he swept by, Lucky caught the scent she’d noticed last night. Mike had been in his midtwenties when she was growing up, fifteen years her senior, but she’d always respected him—almost idolized him. And now that she could see him more clearly, she decided he’d changed for the better. Where he’d once been tall and lanky, he was well-muscled and perfectly proportioned. Faint laugh lines bracketed his eyes and mouth, and the skin of his face, hands and neck showed how often he worked outdoors. She liked Mike’s rugged virility, his light eyes and brown hair, the aura about him that said he’d been around awhile and knew how to handle life. But last night was the first time she’d ever gotten close enough to connect a specific scent to him. He smelled like the outdoors, like a wintry forest….

“Sit down and make yourself comfortable,” he said, but she knew his words were only a polite facade.

She shook her head. “I won’t sit, I’m too wet.”

He frowned at her soaked feet as if he’d missed them in his earlier perusal—and seemed to zero in on the hole in her sock. Her toes curled before he motioned her into the chair again. “I’m not worried about you getting anything wet.”

Clearing her throat, she did as he suggested so she could leave as soon as possible. “Um, do you happen to have a phone book I could use?”

He leaned into the hall and asked someone to bring him a phone book. “Can I get you a cup of coffee?” he asked, turning back.

Lucky longed for hot coffee. Without electricity, she couldn’t brew any for herself. But she wasn’t going to press her welcome long enough to drink it. She didn’t want to take anything more from Mike than absolutely necessary. “No, I’m fine.”

He opened his mouth to speak again but Polly Simpson interrupted with the phone book, which he immediately passed to her.

“Thanks,” she mumbled and tried to get her burning fingers to work well enough to turn the flimsy pages.

Mike shoved his hands into the pockets of his Wranglers and leaned against the doorjamb, then seemed to think twice about hanging around to watch. “I’m gonna grab a cup of coffee,” he muttered and left, and Lucky breathed a sigh of relief to find herself alone.

It took her nearly fifteen minutes to get through to the power company, and an additional five to reach the other utility companies, but when she finally hung up with her third customer service representative of the day, she had promises that the electricity and phone service would be restored at 215 White Rock Road. She just didn’t know exactly when. She’d been told it would happen after the storm, but the storm could last another day or two.

“All set?” Mike reappeared almost the second she closed the phone book.

Lucky took the question to mean that he was as anxious for her to leave as she was to go. “Yes. Thank you.” She stood and headed for the door, but knew she’d be stupid not to ask Mike if she could borrow a shovel. If she didn’t get power and water today, she’d have to dig out and drive to town. She was down to a small bag of sunflower seeds for food, only half a gallon of water and no more firewood.

Cursing herself for not being better prepared for the harsh Idaho winter, she paused on her way out. “I’m sorry to bother you again, but would it be possible to borrow a shovel? I won’t need it for more than a couple of days.”

He’d already started working on his computer. He glanced up—and hesitated long enough that she regretted asking.

“If you don’t have an extra one, I understand,” she said.

“No, that’s not it. I’m sure I can find something.” Getting up, he came around the desk and led her through the offices. When they reached the outside door, he told her he’d be right back.

She put on her cold, wet boots while he disappeared into the private part of the house. By the time he returned, she was dressed and ready to go, and he was carrying a fair-size snow shovel. “Here you are.”

“Thanks. I’ll get it back to you as soon as I can,” she told him and ducked out into the storm. She thought he said, “There’s no rush,” but the wind had kicked up so much, she could scarcely hear him.

LUCKY SPENT the next several hours shoveling snow in a veritable blizzard. The work warmed her body but did little for her fingers and toes. Soon her jeans were stiff with ice. She had to stop every few minutes to go inside, take off her boots and stick her frozen feet in her heavy sleeping bag in an effort to warm them.

As the temperature dropped and the sky darkened, she considered heading back to Mike’s. It was getting harder and harder to wield that darn shovel, but she had too much pride to beg him for any more favors. She’d get by on her own, like always. She just needed to figure out a way to reach town.

The shovel scraped the gravel of the drive as she jammed it through the snow for what felt like the millionth time. Her back and arms ached, protesting the strain as she tossed a scoop off to the side before digging in again. Who would’ve thought clearing the driveway could take so long?

She slumped against the car and tried to catch her breath. Shading her eyes against the flakes still blowing around her, she squinted toward the road. She had at least twenty feet to go.

“I had to pretend I was coming home for Christmas, had to see the old place in winter,” she grumbled, longing for the cup of coffee she’d refused earlier and a hot bath. She imagined slipping into a steaming tub and promised herself she’d do exactly that—as soon as she had some hot water to do it with.

After another fifteen minutes of sheer determination, she finally threw the shovel down and, completely winded, wiped her nose with the back of her gloved hand. She wasn’t making enough progress, and it was getting too dark to see.

Tramping into the house, she flipped the first light switch she found, praying that her electricity had been restored. As hungry as she was, she could get by without food for one more night if only she had heat.