“Let’s take a break, Becca.” It wouldn’t hurt to get to know her, and as a mother Elizabeth had felt an immediate instinct to nurture her. Pretty and petite, with clear blue eyes and a satiny complexion, Becca struck Elizabeth as a rather wounded soul, with which she could empathize. They sat in Olivia’s office with cups of tea. Becca curled her legs under her in one of the two chairs, and Elizabeth perched on the other. “Do you like working here, Becca?”
“My dad thought I would. Olivia doesn’t like me, though.”
Elizabeth’s heart sank. “That’s not true. She hired you.”
“Because he talked her into it.” That jibed with what Olivia had said, but Elizabeth was surprised Becca was that aware. “I’ve been a waitress at the café, a stock clerk at Earl’s Hardware, an online customer service rep for a software company, a teacher’s assistant at the elementary school. One summer I helped answer phones at Doc and Sawyer’s medical office. But I never last anywhere. I guess I’ll be putting this one on my list soon.”
“Maybe you’re trying too hard to please Olivia.” Elizabeth smiled. “She can be...difficult. I was afraid of her myself years ago when we were in school. Olivia has her standards—though not as rigid as my mother’s. And thank goodness, she’s mellowed over time, especially since she married Sawyer and had a second child. You wouldn’t believe how overly protective she was of her older boy.” The aforementioned Nick, a friend of Jordan’s.
Becca said, “Your mom is tough like Olivia?”
Elizabeth touched her hand. “Yes, and I’m obviously older than you. Thirty-three.”
“I’m twenty-three.”
“I shouldn’t offer advice, but try to believe you can make it here, and that attitude could change everything. Goodness, I might be talking to myself.” She paused, not wanting to belabor the subject. “Olivia mentioned that you have a boyfriend.”
Becca’s gaze turned softer. “He’s the greatest, but my dad doesn’t like him.”
Elizabeth didn’t want to pry. She wasn’t here to become anyone’s counselor, yet Becca’s apparent vulnerability spoke to her as if it were her own. When Becca toyed with her spoon and remained silent, Elizabeth finished her own tea then started to stand. “I hope your boyfriend wins him over. We should both get back to work.”
Becca dropped the spoon. The words burst from her, and her chin quivered. “Calvin...has a record. He and two of his friends stole some cattle. The judge may send one of them to prison, but he gave Calvin community service, and he has a job now.”
Elizabeth sank back onto her chair. There were few people in town who didn’t know his story. “You mean Calvin Stern?”
“Yes, ma’am. Isn’t he the cutest thing?”
He might be adorable, but there was more to any relationship than that. Elizabeth ought to know. She had a handsome ex-husband, and she’d certainly made a mistake with Dallas, not that they had any sort of relationship. Becca seemed immature. Perhaps, beyond befriending her at work, Elizabeth might do a bit of counseling after all.
SOON AFTER HER talk with Elizabeth, Becca drove home, but to her surprise, her father wasn’t out in the fields. Their farm was nowhere near as big as the Circle H, for instance, and he still worked it himself, but he must have finished his chores. She found him in the garden, gloves on, spraying the roses. For years, her mother had nurtured them, but since last fall he’d taken over the task.
Becca fretted about him. Poor Daddy, kneeling as if to pray for a different outcome to his life rather than the loss of the woman he loved. She slipped up behind him, wrapped her arms around his too-thin frame, then kissed the top of his head. His hair was the same flaxen blond as her own.
He turned to her and beamed, as he did whenever he saw her. The apple of his eye, he always said. “You’re home early.”
“Olivia didn’t need me.” Becca had thrown out those papers by mistake, thinking they were duplicates of charge slips, but instead they’d been store copies. She’d left Olivia, just back from lunch, red-faced with anger. “I thought I’d spend the afternoon with you. Need help with the flowers?”
She knew better. He wouldn’t let anyone else care for them. They were like children, spoiled with attention, but that didn’t surprise Becca. As his daughter, she received similar devotion. If only her mother hadn’t gotten sick, but now it was only Becca and her dad. That hadn’t been a problem in itself until a few months ago.
“I’m fine, baby.” He rose, knees popping. He’d always been a big man but looked as if he’d lost height while she was in town. “How was work?”
“Fine. Great. Olivia says I’m learning more every day.” Olivia had said no such thing. “Let’s make lunch. I haven’t eaten.”
Mentally, she crossed her fingers about her job. Becca didn’t want to let her father down. He worked so hard to provide for them, even when she guessed he’d rather spend his days in bed with the covers over his head. Sometimes the sadness in his eyes made her want to cry. Yet she’d rarely seen him shed a tear. He held his grief inside, so as not to upset her.
In the kitchen, Becca spread mayonnaise on their bread, then tore freshly washed Bibb lettuce from the garden into pieces. “The corn’s already up to the fences,” she said, watching her father turn bacon in the skillet. “Maybe we can sell some here, open the farm stand again this summer. These tomatoes would be awesome too, Daddy. What do you think?”
“I don’t have time to work the stand. Neither do you.”
If she didn’t start doing better at Olivia’s, she might have all the time they needed. She’d try to take
