memory. “It wasn’t pleasant for either of us.”
Jack’s mother nodded slowly. “I suspected as much at the time, but I wasn’t sure and I didn’t want to pry. Jack took on so much after Russell left. I helped out where I could, but there were six other children claiming my attention, including Wyatt, who was so young. Jack did such a good job. My blame lies in the fact that I would forget that he was a young man with a young man’s dreams. It was so easy to have him step in and take charge.”
One of the puppies stirred. Hattie reached down to pet its head. “When he met Melissa, I was happy for him,” she continued. “He’d been restless for over a year, but with her he seemed content. I was wrong.”
Katie was surprised. “What do you mean? I know he loved her. Jack wouldn’t marry anyone he didn’t truly care about.” Except possibly herself, if she was pregnant. But she didn’t want to think about that.
Hattie leaned back in her lawn chair and stared at the sky. Clouds piled up at the horizon. A big storm was expected to move in sometime that night or early tomorrow.
“Melissa was a lovely young woman,” Jack’s mother began slowly. “At first they seemed very much in love. Although Melissa’s travel took her away for several weeks at a time, she was always happy to be on the ranch. Once she confided in me that she was thinking of quitting her job so that she and Jack could have more time together and start a family.”
Katie fixed her face in what she hoped was a polite, concerned and interested expression. However, her insides felt as if they were being ripped apart by a giant set of sharp claws. Jealousy tore at her, making her ache. She wanted to scream that she didn’t want to hear any of this. She didn’t want to hear the details of Jack loving someone else. It was one thing to know intellectually that he’d been married and therefore must have been in love, it was another to have that intellectual knowledge made real.
“If that’s how Melissa felt, why did she leave?” Katie asked.
“I don’t know,” Hattie admitted. “That never made sense to me. Melissa adored him-she would have done anything for him. I think, in the end, Jack wasn’t willing to give her his heart.” Hattie smiled. “That sounds melodramatic, I know, but it’s what makes the most sense. He’s so worried about being-or rather
Katie understood that frustration intimately. “I know Jack has some reservations about his past,” she admitted. “We’ve talked about it a little. Russell’s leaving had a big impact on him.”
Hattie sighed. “You’re right. I don’t think I saw it before, but he and I talked recently, and I realize that he’s never made peace with what happened. He can’t accept the consequences of Russell’s actions, so he’s rejecting the man by turning his back on him and his memory. Unfortunately, that makes his father into a one-dimensional devil. Russell was much more than that. I’m sure Jack’s happy memories from when he was young conflict with what he feels now.”
“That makes sense,” Katie said, turning the idea over in her mind. If Jack thought his father was a horrible man, he wouldn’t want to be anything like him. Yet as a boy, he’d adored Russell. Love and disdain collided in his heart. He wouldn’t know which side of his father was real, or how to act.
“Do you think Jack chased Melissa away?” she asked. “So on the surface he got to say that she was the one who left, when in fact he’d been the one to make her leave?”
“Maybe. You’d have to ask him that yourself.”
Katie smiled at the thought. “That would be a most uncomfortable conversation.”
Hattie laughed. “I would love to eavesdrop, so warn me when you plan to bring up the topic.”
“Don’t hold your breath.”
Jack wouldn’t be excited to have a detailed conversation about his subconscious motivations during his marriage. No doubt he would point out Melissa had been the one to physically walk away, just as she, Katie, had.
Katie sucked in a breath. The two most significant romantic relationships in his life had ended when the woman he loved had disappeared. Is that the real reason he was so reluctant to get involved again? Maybe his fears about being too much like his father were little more than a smoke screen. But if that was true, was it good news or bad?
A breeze swept across the yard. The wind was cool and damp. Katie shivered. “We’re going to have rain tonight.”
Hattie nodded. “I’ve asked Shane to fix up one of the empty stalls for the puppies. A thick nest of straw will keep them nice and comfy.”
For the past couple of nights it had been warm enough for the new additions to the family to sleep in a tangle together in a gated part of the yard. But tonight would be too cold and wet. Katie pulled the girl puppy close and rubbed her soft fur. Puppies were safer to think about than Jack.
“We’ve got to name these three,” she said. “I guess I should let Shane have his way.”
“You don’t like Muffin, Rover and Spot?” Hattie asked, her voice teasing.
“I was hoping for something with a little more dignity, but we can’t keep calling them ‘here, boy’ or ‘here, girl.’ They need an identity.” She gazed into the female puppy’s big brown eyes. “You look like an Elizabeth to me, but I doubt Shane is going to like the name.”
A pink puppy tongue swept across her cheek in agreement.
Hattie leaned over to pat the two dogs at her feet. “I started raising guide dogs when Wyatt entered first grade,” she said. “The house was empty with all the kids gone, and I was lonely. Russell had been gone nearly seven years then.”
Katie thought about that time. “Jack should have been off at college. Instead he was here.”
“I know.” Hattie gave her a sad smile. “My son became a man too quickly. But he’s a good man. Better than his father.” Her smiled faded. “I knew Russell wasn’t a paragon of virtue when I married him. My parents warned me there would be trouble. They were right. I found out he was having an affair the same day I delivered Jack.”
Katie pressed her lips together, not knowing what to say. There had been rumors of Russell’s infidelity, but she’d never known if they were true or just idle gossip.
“I loved him,” Hattie said simply. “I didn’t want a divorce and I didn’t want to be with anyone but him. So I looked the other way. It hurt every time I found out about another woman, but I chose to stay in the marriage. I could have divorced him and forced him out, but having him around was better than having him gone. In the end he left anyway. The truth is, I wouldn’t trade those years with Russell for anything. Even knowing he was going to leave me, I would do it all again. I doubt that Jack would agree.”
“As you said, you can see Russell as a flawed man,” Katie said. “But to Jack, Russell is his father. Fathers are always supposed to be perfect. Every child is shocked to find out that isn’t true.”
“Then you came along and complicated everything,” Hattie said.
Katie thought about her late period. Things were more complicated than Jack’s mother knew. “We’ll figure it out,” she said with a confidence she didn’t feel. “One way or the other.
“Tell me about Josie,” Katie said as she peeled the paper wrapper off her straw. “What have you heard?”
Suzanne, dressed in jeans and a blue sweater, her hair still damp from the short walk from her truck to the diner, smiled. “It’s all good news. Dallas says the first reconstructive surgery on her face went great. There are going to be at least three more major reconstructions. Her legs are healing, as well. I’ve spoken with her on the phone a couple of times, and she seems to be in good spirits.”
They sat in a window booth at the downtown diner by the hospital. Katie had asked Suzanne to join her for lunch the next time she was in town. The two women hadn’t seen each other since Katie had moved out, nearly four weeks before.
“I’m glad to hear it. I haven’t had a chance to call her for a few days,” Katie said. “I’ll make sure I do that tonight.”
Rain splattered the windows as heavy winds buffeted the glass. Spring weather in Texas could be volatile. Several more storm fronts were due after this one.
She leaned forward and touched her stepmother’s hand. “How are you doing?”
“I’m fine,” Suzanne said with a dismissive gesture. “We’re going crazy at the ranch. Your father is complaining about the weather. If he’s not worried about too much rain, he’s complaining there won’t be enough. Blair has her junior prom a week from Friday and is already in a panic. She can’t decide how to wear her hair. Up or down. Which
