Jessie could tell that Winona wanted to say something to her, so she encouraged her with her eyes.
'I wanted to meet you,' Winona said while Kier talked to the woman on the phone. 'Everyone does. The only woman I know that ever managed to give my uncle a hard time.'
'Who told you?' Jessie asked.
'Uncle Kier's mother.'
Kier stopped talking for a moment and turned his attention to the two women, looking first at Jessie.
'I didn't hear about this.' Jessie returned Kier's glance and noticed that he looked as cool and steady as ever.
'Your husband really needs to go to the clinic. It's safe now… ' Kier was saying to the lady on the phone.
'Yeah, she told us about all your talks with Kier,' Winona said. 'I think you've made stirring the oatmeal a forbidden task for women of the Tilok tribe. Did Kier tell you that Willow doesn't stir his oatmeal anymore?'
Kier was hanging up, but obviously still paying attention to Jessie and his niece.
'Kier told you all this?' Jessie said.
'Oh, Kier didn't tell me. Willow told Kier's mother when Willow went off to be with her new boyfriend. A white man.'
'Willow went off with a white man?'
'Well, that's her new boyfriend. He's nice.'
'I notice your uncle hasn't told you to stop talking,' Jessie said, acutely aware of Kier's 6'4' frame now hovering over them.
'Yeah, but he'd sure like to. But that wouldn't be cool. It wouldn't be Kier.'
'So what do you suppose Kier will do now that he doesn't have a girlfriend?'
'We're all waiting to find out. You know some of us think a white woman wouldn't be so bad.'
'Winona, let me see your young son,' Kier said, reaching down to take the baby in his arms.
'Uncle Kier is dying, can't you tell?' Winona said.
'Kier, would you like your niece to stop telling stories?'
'Maybe if somebody stopped encouraging her, she might devote herself to some more interesting topic.'
''To a Tilok nothing is more interesting than Kier Wintripp's love life. Jessie seems Tilok enough in that regard,' Winona said.
'We better be careful, Winona. Kier's afraid of things he can't control. Right now I'd say you fall squarely into that category.'
'Why don't I take the baby back to the house and feed him?' Winona said.
'Good idea,' Kier said, handing the child back to Winona.
Glancing over her shoulder, Winona said, 'I think Uncle Kier wants to go with that knocking-the-bed-down stuff.'
'She has no respect,' Kier said.
'Evidently, you must have told Willow a whole lot.'
''I was trying to explain what you were saying. I was telling her how wrong you were.'
'Obviously, she agreed with you.'
Kier looked at her with a half-mad, half-puzzled expression, while she returned a clear-eyed stare.
'Trust me. Everybody loves you,' Jessie said. 'Is Willow serious about this new man?'
'I don't know. She's not serious about me.'
She twirled the strap on her handbag around her finger.
'There's a job managing the Mountain Shadows Clinic,' he said. 'The government has taken it over. It's a big deal. It will serve all three tribes in the area, plus Johnson City and all the gentleman farmers. They need an administrator. Computer background is really important.'
''That's an interesting bit of news.'' There was a long silence while she continued to twirl the strap. 'You know, I'm scared to death. How about you?'
'I'm nervous,' he said with a half-smile.
'So we're two very nervous people sitting in your lobby. You know we've been talking quite a bit these last weeks. And then we have these awkward silences. I was just wondering if you've said the things you really wanted to say. I mean if you boil it all down to its essence, have you said it?'
'No. Except just now about the job.'
'I haven't said what I came all the way to California to say either. So why don't we talk about what we really would like to say, but never quite get around to. You first.'
Kier shifted on the couch as if he couldn't get comfortable.
She felt uneasy and part of her wanted to erase the pregnant pause and make the conversation easy. But she didn't.
''You could be really good at this job here in Johnson City,'' he said.
'So you think I have job skills,' she said haltingly. 'And that is what you wanted to say?' She leaned back. Then in a soft voice: 'I could go first, but then you'd have to remember that you didn't.' She sought his eyes and resolved not to look away. He returned her gaze.
'I love you, and I don't know what to do about it,' Kier said at last.
She could imagine Grandfather's face softened by a near smile.
'I think it will come to you.'
