As she headed back with the lamp, she looked up and let out a startled cry. Lost in thought, she hadn’t heard anyone approach. She took an instinctive step back as, out of the shadows, an older, gray-haired mountain of a man appeared.
“Emery.” Her voice broke. It had been years since she’d seen him, but she recognized him at once. He had a craggy face and blue eyes that seemed bottomless. She’d heard her grandmother describe him as an overgrown kid more than once.
He smiled, clearly amused that he’d frightened her, even as he said, “Didn’t mean to startle you.” His hair was longer than she remembered but just as disheveled. He’d aged but still looked strong and fit.
She remembered all the times as a girl that he had sneaked up on her, laughing when she’d jumped. She’d told her grandmother about it.
“Emery has to have something to do,” she’d said and chuckled. “I clearly don’t keep him busy enough. He doesn’t mean anything by it. He just likes to get a rise out of you.”
“Emery,” Casey said now, “what are you doing here?”
“Heard you were back and that you had guests. Thought I might be of help. Didn’t Vi mention I’d be stopping by?”
“It must have slipped her mind,” Casey said, groaning inwardly. “Thank you, but we’re fine. I’ve sold the place. I believe everyone is leaving by Monday.”
“Is that right?” He rubbed his gray-stubble jaw and looked around with those watery, pale eyes. “Heard you were selling. Wouldn’t mind working part-time for the new owner. Maybe you could put in a good word for me.”
She noticed the man’s gnarled hands, his worn canvas pants, his faded flannel shirt. She wondered if he had fallen on hard times and that was why he’d come back from Arizona to live with his sister.
“I don’t think the new owner will be keeping the hotel open. I expect he will demolish it and do something else with the land.”
Emery didn’t look any more glad to hear that than his sister had. “Shame. Damn shame. I thought this building would always stay in the Crenshaw family. I know that’s what Anna always told me.”
“Times change.”
He nodded, those eyes on her. “I really should check the boiler while I’m here.”
“Not necessary, but thanks for asking,” she said. “If you’ll excuse me, I have things to do. I believe you know your way out.” She turned and walked down the hall. She could feel that gaze boring into her back.
Her grandmother would have let him check the boiler and then written him a ridiculously large check to cover his thoughtfulness. Casey felt for the man and his situation.
At the end of the hall, she didn’t have to look back to know he was still standing there. She could almost hear her grandmother saying What would it have hurt to let him check the boilers?
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
SHIRLEY TRIED TO hide her shock at seeing pregnant Tina pushing open the motel-office door. The woman looked as if she might deliver right here, right now. Shirley had heard that Tina had gotten big, but that, too, came as a shock. It probably wasn’t that surprising, as small as Buckhorn was, that she and Shirley hadn’t crossed paths before now. The two of them didn’t travel in the same circles, even though the circles were very small in this Montana town.
She could see that her surprise gave Tina some satisfaction. What if she’d come here for some kind of confrontation? As she watched Tina reach into her purse, Shirley froze. She’d expected the woman to pull out a gun, point it at her head and fire.
“I was hoping you’d be working,” Tina said cheerfully as she pulled something out of her purse. “I wanted to give you this.” She held a small envelope and waddled forward to hand it to her. “It’s an invitation to the baby shower.” Was the woman joking? “My mother and my friend Sunny are handing them out all over town, but I wanted to bring you yours personally.” She smiled as she said it, even though it looked like it hurt her face muscles to do so.
Shirley and Lars had been having an affair ever since Tina had walked out on Lars and then come back allegedly pregnant. Or maybe, Shirley reasoned, Tina had come back to him because after she’d left she’d realized she was pregnant with his baby. The affair had continued. Just as Lars hadn’t moved out of the apartment he’d shared with Tina—and still shared.
So she’d been expecting Tina to confront her ever since. It was a recurring waking nightmare. But even in it, the name-calling and accusations led to violence with hair-pulling, head-banging and ultimately lost blood.
Shirley had expected some kind of ending when Tina had returned. But nothing had happened. Tina had to have known about Shirley and Lars, and yet she seemed to have just ignored it.
Or maybe she thought that Lars’s preoccupation with Shirley was only temporary—just until the baby was born.
“The shower is next Saturday,” Tina was saying in a too-sweet voice, like some rich drink that was laced with poison. “Sorry for the short notice.” She patted her belly. The baby must have moved, because it seemed to give her a twinge. “Please, baby, just wait a couple more days,” Tina pleaded and laughed. “I knew putting off the shower was a mistake. I hope you can come.”
Shirley realized she was still holding the tiny envelope. Was this Tina’s way of telling her she knew and that it didn’t matter? It was a message, of that Shirley was sure.
“Please don’t feel you have to bring a gift,” Tina said. “Your attending will be gift enough.” She smiled and headed for the door.
Shirley hadn’t said a word, had barely taken a breath. She watched Tina go before she tore open the envelope. She wasn’t sure what she’d been expecting. It was just a baby-shower invitation.
But she knew it was a lot more than
