Mending Fences (17 page)

Victoria’s heart leapt, lighter than it had been in days. “Me, too! I haven’t had a close girlfriend since before Nate cut off all my outside acquaintances. And I like you, Kelli, I really do. I hadn’t realized how much I need another woman I can confide in until we started talking.”

Kelli laughed. “Oh, thank God. I was so terrified to talk to you. I was certain you’d turn me away.”

Victoria sobered somewhat. “You’re a braver soul than I for making the attempt. I wouldn’t have dared come out to your house.”

The teapot whistled, and Victoria went into the kitchen to make up a tray. She set the tray on the side table, started the teabags steeping, then folded her legs under her on the couch. “I’m a little surprised, though, Kelli. You’re such a nice, fun person, I expected you to have dozens of friends.”

The other woman shook her head. “The canyon is pretty sparsely populated. Only a few of these homes up here are year-round residences, and most are older couples or people with teenagers.”

“Aren’t you close to the mothers of Rob’s friends?”

“No, not really. Most of them have the perfect lives, perfect families—”

“Perfect hair.”

Kelli giggled. “Oh, you’ve met some of them? I don’t fit into that world. Frankly, I’m not sure I want to try.”

Victoria waved a hand at her friend. “My mother is the same way. I’m uncomfortable with anyone that perfect, because I am so very not. On that note, since you know how my imperfect life as altered in the past week, fill me in on yours. How is Jamie?”

Kelli sighed, wistfulness darkening her eyes. “He flew back to L.A. on Monday.”

“He flew back and…what, end of story?”

“I don’t know. He was very quiet Sunday after skiing. He dropped by on Monday before he left for the airport, gave me a kiss and said he’d call. That was it.”

“Is this typical Jamie behavior?”

Kelli lifted a shoulder, let it drop. “He has a reputation for being flighty with relationships. I knew that, I just sort of hoped I’d be different. The only woman he ever totally committed to was his wife, Alexa, and she died of leukemia just before their second anniversary.”

“Poor guy.” Victoria reached for the teacups, passing one to Kelli.

Kelli stirred a bit of sugar into her tea then leaned back. “I know I said I wasn’t expecting this thing with Jamie to go anywhere, but now that it clearly isn’t progressing, I’m—”

She coughed and blinked hard, but Victoria noticed the tears glimmering in her eyes. She gave Kelli’s arm a gentle squeeze.

Kelli’s laugh sounded somewhat forced. “This is what I don’t understand. I knew full well this was just a fun little fling, right? So why does it bother me that it might be over?”

Victoria nodded and sipped her tea. “Just because you expect the outcome doesn’t make it sting any less.”

“True. What’s strange, though, is the fear. On one hand, I’m afraid to care about Jamie, but on the other hand, I’m afraid to not care. I don’t know if I can take the misery of another relationship failure, but at the same time I’m afraid the perfect man is there for me, and I’ll pass him up out of fear he’ll be like Jonas.”

Now that she understood. “I know exactly how you feel.”

“Do you think men experience this much mental anguish over relationships?”

Victoria snorted. “Hell, no!”

She finished her tea then changed the subject. “Where is Rob today?”

“My brother, whom we shall not mention, took him to Salt Lake after school to check out the Children’s Museum. Hey, do you want to get some lunch? I was so nervous about coming here, I couldn’t eat this morning, and now I’m starved.”

In response to the suggestion, Victoria’s stomach growled. “Come to think of it, I haven’t eaten yet today. Let me throw on some shoes, and we’ll go.”

They laughed and ate and ended up talking most of the afternoon. When Victoria finally waved goodbye to Kelli and walked back into the house, she realized how much the anguish inside her had lifted, at least for a while. Hopefully, she helped ease Kelli’s misery in return.

Another thought occurred to her as she went to play with Sassy. As glad as she was for Kelli’s friendship, spending time at her house wasn’t an option. The last thing she wanted to do was run into Curran again. Ever.

Chapter Nine

Curran came into the house through the back door, pausing in the mud room to shed his coat and gloves. He kicked out of his boots and stripped off his wet, freezing jeans. He tossed the soaked denim into the utility sink, then grabbed a pair of black fleece pants from the shelf and pulled them on. Damn, he hated being so cold.

Peg-leg was possessed. That was the only explanation for the three fences the beast ripped down in as many days. How he managed to break off fence posts and go on walkabout without hurting himself again, Curran couldn’t figure.

He passed through the kitchen into the entertainment room, backtracking to the front door when the bell rang. A delivery for his sister—the Express guy said she wasn’t home. He signed for it, then set the box by the door and made his way to his recliner.

Three times since his blowup with Victoria, he’d ended up wading through hip-deep snow, wet and freezing his ass off. The worst part of mending those fences was the memories of her that surfaced and ate at him, killing him one bite at a time.

He thought about the way her eyes lit up when she laughed, and the way they glowed like gold after he kissed her. He missed the slips of paper with smiley faces drawn on them, spritzed with her perfume. She used to tuck them into his coat pocket, or into the cushion on the recliner, or in one of the cupboards, for him to discover long after she’d gone.

It took hours to shove the memories back down in the depths of his mind where they belonged, every time he had to repair a fence. If he didn’t know better, he’d swear the damned bison was doing it to him on purpose.

Curran settled onto the recliner where he’d left the murder mystery he was reading. The warmth of the house soothed him, melting both cold and tension from his body. He re-read a page in his book to get back into the story. Shortly, he was fully engrossed in the characters.

“Uncle Curry!”

He sighed and closed the book. His nephew had a talent for interrupting.

Rob barreled into the room at full speed, fresh from his half-day of kindergarten. He flung his backpack on the floor beside the recliner and dropped down next to it. “I got cool stuff at school today, Uncle Curry.”

“Really? What sort of cool stuff?” The joy radiating from the boy made him smile. Rob’s zest for life always rubbed off on him. He put the foot rest on the recliner down so he could sit forward and examine the treasure trove his nephew dumped from the backpack.

Envelopes, mostly small white ones with a few reds and pinks mixed in, cascaded from the backpack as Rob turned it upside down. Curran snagged one from the pile and examined it. “What’s all of this?”

Rob rolled his eyes as if Curran had suddenly dropped a few IQ points. “It’s Valentine’s Day, of course. And, see, these are all my valentine cards from my class.”

Something inside him twisted and compressed like a tourniquet around his heart. Valentine’s Day. His mind filled with the plans he’d made—and subsequently canceled. A fabulous dinner in Deer Valley, dancing, a sleigh ride. He still hadn’t gotten around to returning the pearls he’d intended to give her.

How long was he going to hurt over her?

Rob waved a pink heart backed by a frilly white doily. “This one is my favorite.”

In a painstakingly perfect child’s writing, the card said
To Robby, Love Melissa
. “Why is this your favorite?”

Rob ducked his head and a bright blush stained his cherub cheeks. “Because it’s pretty. It’s from my favorite girl.”

He missed her smoky voice, and the tiny lines beginning to form at the corners of her eyes. The tourniquet cranked harder. “Do you like Melissa?” He missed the way her fingertips circled lightly on his wrist when he put his arm around her.

“Yeah, she’s my friend, and she’s funny. She burps louder than I do.” The clear respect in Rob’s voice kept Curran from laughing.

“She sounds like quite a girl.”

Kelli walked in from the kitchen. “Rob Taran Davenport, haul your backside back home. It’s almost time to go to the dentist.”

Robby made a face. “Okay, Mommy. I have to give Uncle Curry his valentine first.”

“Make it quick.”

Curran waved at her. “Kel, an express mail came for you. It had to be signed for, so they brought it here. It’s by the front door.”

Kelli left the room and Rob opened another compartment in his backpack. He pulled out a folded piece of red construction paper. “I made this for you. I hope you like it.”

Curran accepted the paper and unfolded it. Inside, he found crayon drawings of stick people skiing down a hill, decorated with silver glitter. His throat constricted as he read the crooked words.

You are my best friend cause you take me fun places like to ski. I love you, Uncle Curry.

Love, Rob Davenport

A rush of tears filled his eyes, and he swallowed them back. With all the good things he enjoyed associated with being an uncle, he imagined how much better it would be someday when he was a father.

“Is it okay? Do you like it?” Rob looked up, hope shining in his face. Curran swept images of curly-haired children from his mind and opened his arms. The boy leapt up from the floor and threw his arms around his neck. Curran hugged him hard. “Of course, I like it. I love it, Rob. It’s the best valentine I’ve ever received.”

Rob pulled back, his eyes alight, his mouth shaped in a wide grin. “Really?”

“Yeah, really. Thanks, mate.”

“Welcome.” Rob scrambled off his lap and went to work stuffing his cards into his backpack.

“Did you make a card for your mother, too?”

“Yes. I gave it to her after school. It was pretty nice. Wasn’t as cool as yours, though.” Rob zipped his backpack closed.

“Did she like it?”

Rob laughed. “She cried.”

Curran laughed too. “Then you did well, Robby. Making a mother cry happy tears is quite the accomplishment.”

Kelli returned to the entertainment room, holding the large brown box. “Rob, go home and brush your teeth.”

“I can use my toothbrush that’s here.” Rob trudged across the room, his head low, trailing his backpack along the floor. “I hate going to the dentist.”

“It’s a necessary evil.” Kelli sat on the couch and examined the box.

Curran didn’t know what it was, but the return address was Jamie’s. She frowned and picked at the edge of the packing tape until she could pull it up. She ripped off the tape and opened the box, spilling packing peanuts around her feet, then gasped and withdrew a figure covered in bubble wrap.

He smiled to himself. Jamie obviously knew the way to Kel’s heart was through the door of a porcelain doll shop.

Kneeling on the floor, Kelli carefully unwrapped the doll, then set it into its rosewood stand and placed it on the floor. She straightened the doll’s frothy lavender organza and lace gown and arranged the long blonde ringlets around the doll’s shoulders.

Rob ran in, a bit of toothpaste foam clinging to the corner of his mouth, and plopped onto the floor beside her. He gingerly touched his finger to one of the doll’s ringlets. “She’s pretty, Mom. Is she a Valentine’s present?”

Kelli nodded. “Jamie sent her to me.”

Curran grinned. Major score for his friend.

Rob turned his attention to the packing box and rummaged through the peanuts. “Did he send me something, too?” He tossed an envelope at his mother, then whooped and pulled out a small package wrapped in blue paper. “Look, this has my name on it!”

In three seconds, Rob destroyed the paper and jumped to his feet. “It’s a new game,
Mechazoid 3-D
! This is the best game, and even Chad in my class doesn’t have it! Look, Uncle Curry.”

Kelli glanced up. “Hold everything, Robby. What’s it rated?”

Curran examined the game box. “E for Everyone, Kel, it’s fine.”

Rob snatched the box from his hands and bit into the plastic wrap at the corner until he could rip it off.

Curran propped his elbow on the chair arm and rested his head against his palm, watching his sister slip a sheet of Jamie’s pale blue letterhead from the envelope. She sniffled, wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. Another point for Jamie. “Must be a decent letter if it’s made you cry.”

Kelli started, as if she’d forgotten he was in the room. She brushed her fingers across her wet cheek. “Yeah, it’s a good letter. He misses me.”

“I’m not surprised.”

She cocked her head at him. “You miss Victoria, don’t you?”

Curran tensed. Here he was bursting with pride over his best friend rising to the occasion. Why did she have to spoil it? “Don’t ask me that.”

Kelli sent Rob to get his coat from the bathroom, then stood, cradling her new doll in her arms.