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“May we come in?”
Adora glanced at Jed, giving him one more chance to change his mind. But Jed only nodded. So Adora stepped back and pushed open the screen.
“We’ve heard the terrible news,” Charity intoned as she entered, followed at a respectful distance by her browbeaten spouse. “And we’ve come to take our poor niece home with us.” Charity caught sight of Jed right then. Her finely cut nostrils flared, as if she smelled something bad.
Jed and Tiff stood as one.
“Tiff is home, Charity.” Jed seemed to take pleasure in calling Tiff’s aunt by her given name, which few, if any, in Red Dog City ever dared to do. “And I’m here, so I’ll take care of her.”
One corner of Charity’s pretty upper lip lifted a fraction, in a sort of well-bred snarl. “That is the most absurd suggestion I have ever heard.”
“It’s not a suggestion. It’s a fact.”
Charity looked at Tiff, her expression turning marginally kinder. “Tiffany. Dear—”
Tiff hunched closer to Jed. “I’m staying here, with my brother.”
Charity emitted a harumph of impatience. “But that’s impossible, dear. Your brother lives out in the woods in that primitive cabin of his. And questionable men work for him. He’s not set up to care for an impressionable young girl.”
“We’ll manage, Charity.” Jed’s tone was deceptively gentle, as always. But his eyes gave away his true feelings. They were twin points of dry ice. “I’ve got my own room here, over the garage. I’ll move in there full-time. It can all be worked out.”
Charity drew her shoulders back so far it was a surprise she didn’t fall over backward. And when she spoke, it was with great care, as if she were putting everything she had into her effort to remain civil. “But you’re gone all day. The child will run wild.”
Tiff jumped in, insulted. “I don’t run wild.”
Charity sighed. “Now, Tiffany, I know how upset you are and I—”
“No. No, you don’t. You don’t know anything. You’re a mean, old—”
Jed coughed and gave Tiffs shoulder a squeeze. Tiff fell silent.
Charity drove her point home. “You cannot be alone all day long, and that is that.”
Tiff looked up at Jed, pleading with her eyes. But Jed said nothing. Adora knew what he must be thinking: that it wouldn’t be right for Tiff to go completely unsupervised all day, every day. It was a problem, one to which he had no immediate solution.
But Adora did. “Look. I’m just around the corner. I can keep an eye on Tiff during the day, the same as Lola did, from the shop.”
Charity drew in a sharp, indignant breath and focused her narrowed eyes on Adora. If looks could do harm, Adora would have needed medical attention on the spot.
Tiffany crowed in triumph. “See? Dory will help.” She looked up at her brother, her eyes full of fevered hope. “I’ll be with you, won’t I, Jed?”
He gave her shoulder another squeeze. “Damn straight. We’re family.”
Charity would not give up. “I beg your pardon. I’m every bit as much a part of Tiffany’s family as you are. And Morton and I are much more suitable as substitute parents than you’ll ever be.”
Jed didn’t waver. “Look, Charity. Tiff wants to be with me. And I can take care of her. And with Adora helping out, we’ll get along just fine.”
Charity glared at him long and hard, trying to break him with a look. It didn’t work. So she brought out the big guns.
“Let’s be frank here, Jed Ryder. You aren’t fit to raise a child.”
Tiff let out an angry cry. Jed soothed her. “Shh...” Then he met Charity’s venomous glare once more and advised, softly as always, “Don’t go too far.”
Charity’s nostrils had gone dead white. She sucked in a big breath through them and then announced sanctimoniously, “I most certainly will go too far. I’ll go as far as I have to go.”
Morton, looking anxious, actually stepped forward. “Charity, maybe we—”
Charity shot a murderous glance his way. “Shut up, Morton. This has to be said.” She rounded on Jed once more, her lip curling in disgust. “It’s an absolute outrage, Jedediah Ryder, that you could even imagine you’d be allowed to take care of my brother’s child. I’m warning you now—”
But Jed had heard enough. “That’s it. Get out.”
Charity barreled right on. “I will not stand by and let you ruin that child’s life.”
Jed took one step forward. “I said get out.”
Charity sneered. “You are a rude creature. A disgusting, irresponsible—”
Morton scooted between Charity and Jed and grabbed his wife’s arm. “Charity. We’ve been asked to leave.”
“Don’t touch me.” She slapped at his hands. “We have a duty to my brother’s child.”
Jed was through talking. He advanced on Charity.
She gasped, whirled and fled to the door, Morton at her heels. Once there, she couldn’t resist a parting shot. “This isn’t the end of it.”
Morton shooed her over the threshold and pushed her down the steps and along the walk. Adora slid forward and shut the door, resting her forehead against it once it was closed, thinking that she had never in her life been so relieved to see anybody go.
“Thanks.” It was Jed’s voice.
Adora turned to meet those cloud-colored eyes and felt warm all over at the pure gratitude she saw in them. “Hey, what are friends for?”
Tiffany looked up at Jed. “I don’t want to go with her. I couldn’t stand to go with her. She always treated Mom like she wasn’t good enough to be married to her precious brother. And she doesn’t really even care about me, I know it. She only cares that you and me don’t get to stay together.”
Jed shook his head. “There’s nothing she can do.”
“But she said—”
He waved her fears away. “Don’t stew about it, Tiff. With Adora looking out for you during the day, we’ve got it covered. Charity’s threats are empty ones, I promise you.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m dead positive. Now, we have enough to worry about as it is. So let’s forget about your Aunt Charity.”
Tiff closed her eyes and sighed. “I hope you’re right.”
“I am right. Stop worrying.”
Though no one felt much like eating, Adora stayed to cook dinner. As she put together the simple meal, friends and neighbors started calling to offer condolences and aid. Adora handled most of those calls, soothing people, telling them briefly how Lola had died and promising to call them back if there was anything at all that they could do.
After the dishes were cleaned up, Jed, Tiffany and Adora wandered into the living room. Jed and Tiff sat on the couch, and Adora took one of the easy chairs. They began to talk about Lola, remembering the best things about her: her laugh, her generous heart, how sensitive she’d always been to the way other people felt. Tiff and Adora cried some, as they all tried to deal with the fact that someone who had been so much alive that morning was now gone for good.
“I still feel like she can’t be gone,” Tiff admitted.
“Me too,” Adora agreed. “It seems like any minute she’s going to walk in that door.”
It was well after dark when Tiff rose from the couch. “I think I’ll just go on to bed now.”
Adora pushed herself out of the easy chair and held out her arms. Tiff ran to her.
“I’m glad you were here,” Tiff whispered as she hugged Adora close.
“Me, too.” She cupped Tiffs sweet face in her hands and looked into those soft, dark eyes. “I’m going home now.” Gently she smoothed Tiff’s silky hair. “But I’ll be back in the morning, to fix you some breakfast. Okay?”
“Mmm-hmm.”
Once Tiff had disappeared down the tiny central hall, Jed walked out to the porch with Adora. They stood for a few moments, there in the darkness, listening to the crickets and one lonesome frog croaking forlornly somewhere out on the lawn. Eventually Adora felt Jed’s pale gaze on her and turned enough to give him a smile.
He asked, “Do you think I did the right thing?”
She leaned against one of the four posts that held up the porch roof. “Deciding to keep Tiff with you, you mean?”
“Yeah.”
She thought of the Laidlaws, of their settled, middle-class life. They’d already raised two daughters, so it was a job they were familiar with. And Morton was a nice enough man, a retired dentist who had closed his practice in nearby Portola just a few years ago. Adora and her family, like most folks in Red Dog City, had always gone to Doctor Laidlaw when they needed dental work. He knew how to administer a shot of novocaine so you barely felt it.
Jed was chuckling. “Don’t answer. I can tell by your face.”
She wrinkled her nose at him. “What?”
“You have your doubts about me.”
“Actually, I was thinking about Morton Laidlaw. That he’s a nice man, even if he is married to Charity.” She grinned. “You know what Reggie Kratt says about him?” Ancient Reggie Kratt ran Kratt’s Hardware, over on Commercial Row.
Jed knew. He put on a voice like Reggie’s. “‘That man is more than henpecked. He’s henhammered, and it’s a cryin’ shame.‘”
Adora laughed, and Jed did, too.
Then they fell silent. That frog started croaking again. Jed hitched a leg onto the porch rail. “So why did you volunteer to help me out?”
She looked out toward the street. “I don’t know, exactly.”
“Yeah, you do.”
“Well...”
“Tell it like it is.”
She met his eyes again. “Tiff wants to be with you.”
“And?”
“There’s more to raising a child than being respectable.”
“Good. ’Cause most people would say I come up zero in that department.”
“Charity’s...well, I’d hate to have to live with her.”
“And?”
She sought the right words, but didn’t find them.
He urged her on. “Spill it.”
“Charity reminds me of my mother.” It was out before Adora really considered how it would sound. She hastened to amend, “I mean, one side of my mother. The side that thinks she has to control everything. The side that’s always worried about what other people will think.” Adora looked out at the stars. The moon was no more than a sliver. It hung high above them, looking very far away.
She could feel Jed watching her. And when he spoke, she could hear the smile in his voice. “Are you a secret rebel, Adora Beaudine?”
She made a scoffing sound. “No way. You ought to know that, after the things I told you today.” Lord, was that only a few hours ago? It seemed like years, somehow.
He grunted. “Right. You wanna get married. To a guy in a Brooks Brothers suit.”
She had a silly urge to argue the point. But why? “You’re right. A guy in a Brooks Brothers suit is exactly what I want.”
“Still, I know you went with Dillon McKenna. Back in high school, when his reputation was almost as bad as mine.”
She kept her eyes on the faraway moon. “That was different. We were only kids. A crush. And in case you haven’t heard, Dillon’s married to my sister Cat now.”
“I heard.”
Adora thought about Dillon. Like Jed, he’d left town when he was barely grown. He’d returned to Red Dog City just last winter, an international celebrity whose career as a professional daredevil had ended after one of his jumps almost killed him. As soon as he’d set eyes on Cat again, he’d known what he wanted. Cat had taken some convincing. But in the end, Dillon had been more than persuasive enough to win her.
“Jealous?” Somehow, Jed made the question sound tender.
Adora looked at him then. “Of what?”
“That your first love belongs to your sister now?”
She stared at him, wondering how he managed to ask her such personal questions—and yet not offend her at all when he did it. And he’d hit right on the mark, too. She had been jealous. At first. There had been trouble between her and Cat. But it had all worked out in the end. Now Adora couldn’t picture Dillon with anyone but Cat.
She said, “No, I’m not jealous. And if I was, I’d be suffering for nothing. No other woman’s got a chance with Dillon. He’s crazy over Cat. And she’s nuts for him. They’re so in love, it’s embarrassing sometimes to be in the same room with them. They forget other people exist.”
The porch light caught on the diamond stud in Jed’s ear, making it glitter. “You wanna be loved like that?” His voice, always low, was lower than ever. And intimate.
She couldn’t help thinking of that afternoon, on the trail by Trout Creek. Of the impossible way she had felt then. Of the way she felt right now...
“Come on. Say it out straight.”
She gulped, and then she did it; she said it out straight. “Yeah. I do. I want to be loved like that. What woman wouldn’t?”
He grinned, white teeth flashing. The diamond stud gleamed. Right then he looked like a pirate from one of those old movies, that Cat used to take her to when they were kids. “You think Mr. Brooks Brothers Suit is gonna love you like that?”
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