Even the Nights are Better

Vernon felt a startling quick stab of pain, wondering what it must be like to be J.T. McKinney and have such a rich legacy, to have all this family loving and fretting for you, these tall handsome sons weeping over you….

He looked up to find Carolyn’s blue eyes resting on him with mute appeal. He began to rise, to move toward her. But just at that moment the room fell silent and everyone turned to the door where Nate Purdy stood, weary and somber in his crisp white lab coat.

Immediately all eyes were fastened on the doctor’s face and there wasn’t a sound in the room except for a few quick ragged intakes of breath. The group waited tensely, watching Nate as he moved into the room and stood by Cynthia and his wife, dropping a hand onto the shoulder of each.

“Well, I think we’re through the worst of it, Cynthia,” he said. “And we’d better thank the good Lord that we’ve got one tough hombre in there, or he wouldn’t still be with us.”

Cynthia looked up at him, her brown eyes widening, her cheeks as white as the pale walls all around her.

“Is he…did he…?” she faltered. Carolyn gripped the younger woman’s hand and slipped her free arm around Cynthia’s shoulders, holding her close, cuddling her like a child.

“He had a massive coronary,” Nate said, “just a few minutes ago. The first attack at home this morning was actually a precursor. As soon as I examined him at the ranch I expected a more serious cardiac event to follow shortly, and we were real lucky that we got him here in time. If we hadn’t had the equipment and the medication available, I think we just might have lost him, tough as he is.”

The room stirred and settled. There was a clearing of throats, a restless shuffling of boots, a flurry of hands dashing furtively at tear-filled eyes.

“The worst is over,” Nate Purdy repeated, turning to address the room in general. “He’s resting comfortably now, but he sure won’t be if this gang descends on him. Only two visitors at a time, and nobody but immediate family. The rest of you good people, y’all go on home now, and come back to visit him when he’s feeling stronger. And thanks for coming,” he added with a warm tired smile. “I’m sure Cynthia appreciates all the support.”

Cynthia nodded blindly and struggled to her feet, supported by Carolyn and Rose. She managed to smile and nod her agreement with the doctor. “Yes,” she whispered. “Thank you all. Thank you so much. I’m sure that J.T. would…”

With these words Cynthia’s poise deserted her and she choked, then leaned gratefully on Tyler who had crossed the room to stand beside her.

“You and me first, Cynthia, okay?” he murmured huskily, putting his arm around her. “Let’s go see Daddy.”

Nate Purdy turned to follow them out of the room, then paused and looked back at Carolyn. “By the way, Carolyn,” he said, “I certainly consider you immediate family, if you’d like to wait and see him for a minute.”

But Carolyn shook her head. “No, Nate,” she said in a low voice. “That’s all right. Too many of us right now will just tire him. Cal and Lynn can go in next, and I’ll come back tomorrow when he’s stronger.”

People began to file out, still murmuring to one another in hushed tones. Vernon took advantage of the general exodus to cross the room and sink down beside Carolyn.

“Hi, Vern,” she said, giving him a small bleak smile. “It’s nice of you to come.”

“Oh, Caro,” he murmured, deeply moved by her evident pain and weariness. “How could I stay away, girl? Is there anything I can do for you?”

She shook her head automatically, then paused. “Actually, there is, come to think of it,” she said. “I drove over to the Double C this morning as soon as I heard, and left my car there. I came in with Tyler and Lynn. Now Lynn’s giving Beverly a ride home later this evening and she’ll be bringing my car back then, so I guess I’m on foot. Could you…could you give me a ride home?”

“Nothing would please me more,” Vernon told her with warm sincerity. “That is,” he added solemnly, trying to make her smile, “if you don’t have any moral objections to riding in a Camaro.”

“It’ll probably wreck my reputation completely,” Carolyn said, responding gallantly to his effort at humor, “but what the hell. A good reputation’s a dull kind of thing, isn’t it, Vern?”

“I NEVER THOUGHT it would be J.T.,” Carolyn murmured, gazing blindly out the window as Vernon’s car skimmed along the curving country roads. “Of all the people in my life, I’ve always looked on him as the strongest, the most indestructible, somehow.”

“I guess we all have,” Vernon said. “I remember looking up to J.T. as a boy, way back when he was a football and basketball star at school and a rodeo star in the summertime, everything a kid could ever dream about.”

“I know,” Carolyn said with a distant smile. “He was ten years older than you and me, Vern, but I had such a crush on him when I was little. I envied Pauline so much when she started going out with him, I could hardly talk to her for a year or so.”

She stared out silently at the trees shimmering in the afternoon sun, recalling the vivid agonies and delights of that long-ago childhood time.

Vernon grinned. “You got over it, though, I hope. Just look at the bluebonnets in that field, Caro. I’ve never seen them so spectacular so early.”

“I know,” Carolyn said absently. “I was thinking the same thing, just this morning. Seems like a century ago. Yes, I got over it,” she added, returning to their earlier topic. “But after I recovered from my crush, J.T. turned into one of my best friends. I’ve always depended on him, and more than ever since Frank’s been gone. I just can’t bear the thought of…”

She choked and fell silent. Vernon gave her a quick glance. “He’s going to be all right, you know, Caro,” he said. “Nate sounded optimistic, and you’ll notice that he mentioned several times how tough the man is. Nate’s a square shooter. He doesn’t say things like that just to hear himself talk.”

“You know what I keep thinking?” Carolyn said as if Vernon hadn’t spoken. “I keep thinking it’s my fault, that I should have seen it coming. I noticed lately how gray and tired he’d been looking, and how

he’s been rubbing his left arm a lot. I actually teased him once about old cowboys and arthritis, but I never thought about heart attacks. You’d think that of all people, I would have been alert to warning signs like that.”

“You were just like the rest of us,” Vernon told her calmly. “J.T.’s always seemed indestructible, so we all just chalked it up to stress. After all, there’s been a lot of that in J.T.’s life lately, even though most of it’s happy stress. He’s got a brand-new wife, and a new business venture starting up at the ranch, and a whole crew of prospective new family members, considering the way his kids are all getting paired up these days.”

“That’s not all,” Carolyn said, her voice bleak as she stared out the window.

“Not all what?”

“Not all the new family members,” Carolyn said miserably. “Vernon, don’t tell a soul because nobody knows yet, okay? Cynthia’s pregnant.”

Vernon gripped the wheel and stared at Carolyn, his square cheerful face reflecting his stunned amazement.

“Oh, my God,” he muttered aloud.

“You bet,” Carolyn said grimly. “I thought this morning that Cynthia wasn’t looking well, and wasn’t dealing with this whole thing as well as I would have expected her to, either. I managed to corner her at the ranch before the ambulance came and asked her if anything else was wrong, and that’s when she told me. Nobody knows yet but Nate Purdy.”

“And J.T., of course,” Vernon said automatically.

Carolyn shook her head. “Not even him. She’s just about a month pregnant, Vern. In fact, she only found out for sure yesterday, and she was going to tell him tonight. They were planning to go out to a romantic candlelight dinner at the country club, just the two of them, and she was going to tell him then.”

“The poor kid,” Vernon murmured, gazing straight ahead through the smoky curved windshield, his face deeply troubled.

“I know,” Carolyn said. She brushed absently at the slow tears that trickled down her cheeks. “And now, on what should be the happiest day of her life, she’s got this to deal with. And I know she’s blaming herself, Vern, thinking that she’s the cause of all this because she’s brought so much upheaval into J.T.’s life, first with her opposition to Tyler’s vineyard, and then the wedding and the renovations to the house… she feels just awful.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Vernon said. “She’s been damned good for J.T. He may have an ailing heart, but he’s looked happier these past few months than I’ve seen him in years.”

“Tell her that, Vern, if you get a chance,” Carolyn said, wiping her eyes and trying to smile at him. “She really needs to hear it.”

“You bet I will,” Vernon said. “You know,” he added haltingly, “it sounds ridiculous, but I almost envied J.T. this morning, while I was sitting there in that hospital waiting room.”

Carolyn stared at him. “You envied him? Why on earth, Vern?”

“I don’t know,” he said awkwardly. “I just thought what a lucky man he is to have so many people who love him, all those pretty women crying over him, and those two big tall sons….”

“You would have liked a family, wouldn’t you, Vern?” Carolyn said softly, looking with affection at the man beside her. “Why didn’t you? Ever get married, I mean? Lots of girls were after you when we were in high school. You were considered quite a catch.”

His mouth lifted in an engaging lopsided grin, and he swerved skillfully to avoid a little cottontail rabbit scuttling across the highway. “You’re kidding. Me, a catch?”

“Well, sure,” Carolyn said. “Remember Sally Thompson? She was crazy about you. She wrote your name all over the walls in the girls’washroom.”

Vernon gave a theatrical sigh. “Now she tells me,” he commented sadly. “Thirty years too late. Actually,” he added in a more serious tone, “I guess that the years when I might have been interested, Carolyn, I was running around in the jungle carrying ammunition clips. And then when I came home, everybody was kind of settled already and I was odd man out, and I just decided to stay that way. Less complicated,” he added.

Carolyn gave him a thoughtful glance. There was something strange and guarded in his tone and she was on the point of questioning him further, probing a little more deeply. But just then something came into her line of vision and she stiffened in annoyance, turning sharply to gaze out the window.

“Look at that!” she burst out, peering at a set of intricate wrought-iron gates adorning a low curving stone wall. “He’s even got it on the front gates now, for God’s sake.”

“What?” Vernon asked.

“The Hole in the Wall. He’s had those gates mounted since the last time I was by here. Look at them. Isn’t that awful?”

“Well, Caro,” Vern said reasonably, “it is the name of the ranch, you know. He’s entitled to put it on the gates if he wants to. I’ve heard that it’s easier for customers to find the place, you know, when you have the right name on the gate.”

Carolyn ignored this attempt at humor. “I hate it,” she said darkly. “I just hate it, Vern.”

“Why, Caro? What’s so bad about it?”

Carolyn repeated her grievances, telling Vernon all the same things she’d told Manny earlier in the day, while he drove through her own gates and parked by the house, listening in silence.

“Well, I agree with Manny,” Vernon said finally, turning to her and resting his arm along the top of the seat. “A lot of this could just be gossip and conjecture, Caro. You’ve never been one to pay much attention to gossip, far as I can recall. Why don’t you wait till the place opens and then judge for yourself?”

Carolyn tensed, irrationally annoyed by the calm reasonableness of his words and his tone. “Well, I sure don’t have much choice, do I?”

“I think it’ll be great for the community,” Vernon went on. “Bring in all kinds of new business.”

“Yeah, sure,” Carolyn said gloomily. “Thousands more dudes and rock hounds, littering and trespassing and bothering the cattle. Tyler says Cal and Serena are thinking of opening a boot shop out at the dude ranch. They’re expecting so much business that they feel it would actually be viable.”

“Well, don’t you think that’s good news?” Vernon asked. “Aren’t you glad to see the kids prospering?”

“Not at the expense of my ranch and my herds.”

“They won’t bother your herds,” Vernon said comfortably. “Besides,” he added with his wry grin, “just think how much business those greenhorns are gonna bring in to the hospital, what with all the rope burns and cactus spines and saddle sores and broken bones. Maybe the nursery will finally be able to afford those new baby incubators they’ve been lobbying for.”

Carolyn chuckled in spite of herself, then looked gloomy again. “I just wish I knew where he came from, Vern.”

Vernon glanced at her in surprise. “Everybody knows the man’s biography by now, Carolyn. He comes from Austin, grew up there and got his law degree from—”

“From Baylor,” Carolyn interrupted impatiently. “I know all that, Vern. And he’s a highly successful divorce lawyer who’s decided he wants a new challenge, some wholesome country life, etc. etc. I could recite the man’s pedigree in my sleep, I think. What I want to know is how he got to be my neighbor. Who told him the place was for sale? It was never advertised in the city. Who sold it to him? Where did he come from?”

Vernon was silent, gripping the wheel of his parked car and looking with apparent deep interest at the quiet deserted veranda of Carolyn’s sprawling stone ranch house.

“I know, I know,” Carolyn said, gazing at his quiet profile. “You’re not going to tell me, are you? Realtors stick together and protect one another just like any other profession. But believe me, if I ever get my hands on whoever sold that man the ranch next door without even so much as coming over to mention to me that it was for sale…”

She paused and her beautiful face tightened briefly with emotion. Then she collapsed against the seat, washed under by a sudden flood of dark misery.

Vernon turned to her, his face full of concern. “Caro? What’s the matter, girl?”

“Oh, I don’t know, Vern,” she said helplessly. “Somehow it all just seems too much to bear, you know? The place next door bringing disease and problems to my herd, and poor Cynthia and J.T., and everything…seems like this day’s been getting more and more awful ever since you came through the gates this morning with that pitiful little mop dog.”

As she spoke the words, her face twisted suddenly and she stared at Vernon, her blue eyes wide with wretched appeal.

“Vern,” she whispered. “The mop dog! Oh, God, when Cynthia phoned I forgot all about him till this moment! Oh, no…”

Still murmuring distractedly, she flung herself from the car and ran across the driveway to the barn. Vernon watched her for a startled moment and then hurried after her, his face drawn with anxiety.

“I was in the kitchen,” Carolyn said hastily over her shoulder, running through the wide double doors of the barn. “I was just getting something ready to feed him, and then Cynthia called and I forgot all about him. Oh, Vern…”

She paused beside the manger and looked up at Vernon who stopped beside her, a little out of breath from this unexpected exertion.

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