Yesterday's Embers (15 page)

He’d set something in motion with Mickey tonight that would change his life forever. And not just his, but his kids’. And Mickey’s.

D
on’t take your eyes off her for one minute.” Kayeleigh eased Harley off her hip onto Miss Valdez’s deck. She straightened and rubbed her achy hip-bone. “I mean it, Landon.”

“I won’t.” He glared at her. “Just don’t take forever.”

“I won’t. I’ll only be a minute.” She went to the sliding door and tested the latch on the screen. It slid open easily, and she stepped into the kitchen. It took a minute for her eyes to adjust from the bright sunlight, but when she became accustomed to the dim light, she froze right where she was standing.

Dad and Miss Valdez stood at the stove, tangled in each other’s arms, breathing hard and making out like a couple of characters in the stupid soap operas Grandma watched.

She tried to clear her throat, but no
sound came out. She couldn’t catch her breath and, in spite of the voice in her head telling her to run, she couldn’t make her feet move. But Miss Valdez must have heard something because in the middle of messing up Dad’s hair with her fingers, she looked over at Kayeleigh and gave a strangled gasp. Pushing against Dad, she tried to get loose.

For a few seconds Dad kept pulling her closer, trying to keep kissing her, but finally Miss Valdez practically screamed his name. “Doug…Doug!”

Dad’s head came up, and when he saw Kayleigh, he blew out a heavy breath. His face turned forty-six shades of red. The only time she’d ever seen him blush like that was when he was mad.

Miss Valdez straightened her clothes and acted like she was all busy pouring hot water into teacups.

Dad moved to the opposite side of the kitchen. “What do you need, Kayeleigh?” He sounded like he was mad at her.

Well, she wasn’t too happy with him right now, either. “I need to use the bathroom.”

“Oh!” Miss Valdez put on her bright-and-cheery teacher’s voice and pointed down the hallway. “Go right ahead. You remember where it is…last door on the right.”

Kayeleigh finally got her feet to work and all but ran down the hall.

“The light switch is right over the sink, honey,” Miss Valdez called after her.

Kayeleigh shut the door on the fakey, chipper voice. “Don’t call me honey.” She hissed the words between clenched teeth, wishing they’d hear her, but knowing they couldn’t. She stood in the dark, trying to think what to do. Her own cheeks grew warm, then hot.

She groped for the sink, turned on the cold water, and splashed her face. What did
she
have to be embarrassed about? She hadn’t done anything wrong. They were the ones who should feel guilty.

Through the door she could hear them talking, their voices low and
hurried. Like they were trying to figure out how they were going to explain everything when she came out of the bathroom.

She was no dummy. She knew what they’d been doing, and it made her want to puke. Maybe she’d just stay in here forever. It was pitch dark in the bathroom, but she held her hands out in front of her. She couldn’t see her fingers, but she could feel them trembling.

She fumbled around on the wall, looking for the light switch. What was Dad
doing
? Why was he acting like this with that dumb woman? She was so mad at him she thought she might explode. Had he forgotten about Mom already?

She wanted to hit something. Instead, she finally located the light switch and used the toilet. She washed her hands twice and dried them on the fancy towel that wasn’t much bigger than a washcloth. She turned off the light again and stood by the door trying to listen for Dad and Miss Valdez. They were quiet now. Maybe they’d gone outside.

She opened the door a crack and looked down the hallway, listening again. Silence. She crept down the hall and peeked into the kitchen. Empty. The curtains covering the sliding doors had been pushed all the way open, and she could see Dad and Miss Valdez sitting on the deck with their tea, acting like nothing had happened.

She wasn’t about to go out there. Harley was playing on the steps to the deck, singing and talking to herself. Miss Valdez was keeping an eye on her, and Dad was right there. Kayeleigh tiptoed away from the doors and walked through Miss Valdez’s house to the front door. She let herself out and walked to the Suburban parked at the curb. She climbed into the backseat and sat there, her back stiff against the dingy upholstery, her thoughts totally messed up.

She heard a noise across the street and saw some kids come out of the house across from Miss Valdez’s. She slunk down in the seat, praying they hadn’t seen her.

When her muscles ached from the awkward slumped position, she slowly eased her legs up onto the bench seat and curled into a fetal
position. She closed her eyes and forced herself to think about other things—allowed herself to daydream about Seth Berger kissing her the way Dad had kissed Miss Valdez.

She wondered if Seth ever thought about that night they’d danced together at Vienne Kenney’s wedding. Did he think about it as much as she did…which was pretty much all the time? He’d been flirting with her at school. At least Rudi called it flirting when Seth starting acting crazy any time she was around, making jokes and even getting in trouble with the teachers because he was trying to make her laugh in the middle of class.

She
got in trouble with the teacher once when he was goofing off, making her laugh. She couldn’t help it. The guy was funny. Seth had been really nice to her after class that day, like he was trying to let her know he was sorry for getting her in trouble. She didn’t care about that. Mrs. Lawson was stupid anyway.

She wished Mom were here to talk to. That thought brought back the image of Dad kissing Miss Valdez, and her stomach went all queasy.

A tree branch brushed the roof of the Suburban. Back and forth, back and forth. She felt herself drifting toward sleep in the quiet warmth of the vehicle. A part of her wished she could just go to sleep and never wake up.

D
oug pulled into the garage and turned off the engine. Barking orders to the kids, he opened his door and got out, then slammed it, hoping it would wake up Kayeleigh. She’d scared him half to death disappearing like that. He and Mickey had searched for her for ten minutes before he’d thought to look in the Suburban. He hadn’t chewed her out because he knew why she’d gone into hiding.

She crawled out of the backseat now, shooting him a look of contempt as she swept past. He sighed. He’d have to talk to her about what
happened…what she’d seen. Well, of course. He’d have to talk to all the kids. He was engaged. They needed to know that. And the sooner the better since he’d pretty much given Mickey permission to tell the world. Oh brother…that meant he’d have to call Harriet, too. Well, fine. Now she had a legitimate reason for running off to Florida.

Engaged
. It had sounded like such a good idea when Mickey was in his arms and they were making plans. But now, in the dim light of the messy garage, with Kayeleigh glaring at him, it didn’t fit quite so comfortably.

A sinking feeling gathered in his gut, and he yanked Harley’s seatbelt harder than necessary. She jammed a thumb in her mouth and looked at him from beneath a rutted brow.

“Come on, punkin, let’s get you to bed.” He tried to make amends with his voice. It wasn’t Harley’s fault he was out of sorts.

Forty-five minutes later, with all the kids in bed, he sank down on the sofa. He kicked off his boots and, with one stockinged toe, nudged a stack of dirty dishes to one corner of the coffee table before propping his feet on its sticky surface. He needed to regroup. He’d set something in motion with Mickey tonight that would change his life forever. And not only his, but his kids’. And Mickey’s.

There were a million questions to be answered. Would she come here to live? Her house wasn’t big enough for all of them, but he couldn’t imagine her giving up the garden she’d worked so hard to create. Looking around their house…
his
house. He had to quit thinking in terms of
they
and
we
, meaning him and Kaye.

Trying to see this house through Mickey’s eyes, he cringed inwardly. The place was in shambles. Kaye never would have earned any “world’s tidiest housekeeper” awards. With six kids and a part-time job, he’d never expected her to. But without her to do even a modicum of housekeeping, things had gone beyond “cluttered” and straight to “filthy.” With the crazy schedule he was keeping between the farmwork and the pressroom, he’d let things go.

He would have to do something drastic—and soon—if he didn’t want Mickey to run screaming from the house next time she was here. She’d only been to the house that one time she brought the kids home. Looking back, he thought that was the night he’d first started thinking of her
that way
. She’d made him realize how desperately he’d missed a feminine voice in the house, in his world, at the end of a long workday.

Was he disloyal to have felt that way so soon after Kaye’s death? But it was his very belief in God, in an eternity in heaven, that never allowed him to entertain thoughts Kaye could come back—or would even want to. Wasn’t that a healthy attitude? Wasn’t he just being realistic?

And he had his kids to think of. Except for Kayeleigh, they’d had a special place in their hearts for Mickey—Miss Mickey—for half their lives. And he had no doubt Mickey would win Kayeleigh over eventually. They needed a mother—Kayeleigh especially—and Mickey was already as close to being “Mommy” as anyone besides Kaye could ever be. The other details—the wedding plans, their housing situation, Kayeleigh’s attitude—those would all work themselves out with time.

Like an idiot, he’d promised Mickey they’d go ring shopping Saturday. She didn’t strike him as a woman with expensive taste, but even if she picked out the cheapest diamond chip in the store, how was he going to pay for it? He’d have to call tomorrow and see how much available credit he had on his MasterCard. He’d paid it off when Kaye’s life insurance check came. But since then he’d struggled to pay it off every month. If he maxed it out paying for a ring, then he had nothing for emergencies. Or the wedding. Who knew what that would set him back? Mickey’s parents were gone, and he didn’t get the impression she had a lot of money. And what if—?

No
. He snatched the TV remote from the cluttered coffee table, clicked the power button hard. The drone of a sitcom laugh track shut off the gush of thoughts, and he settled back on the lumpy cushion.

She was as down-to-earth as they came. He liked that about her. She was the best of all worlds.

O
oh, what about this one?” Mickey bent over the jewelry case and tapped a pink fingernail on the glass. She’d confessed that she paid thirty dollars for a manicure just for the occasion.

Doug shrugged. “It’s nice.”

She looked up at him over one shoulder. “But you don’t like it?”

“It’s whatever you want, Mick. You’re the one who’s going to be wearing it.”

“For the rest of my life.”

Why did those words unsettle him?

Because the rest of Kaye’s life was so short
.

He put a possessive hand on the small of Mickey’s back, reminding himself who he was with. Mickey looked beautiful today, her hair long and shiny around her shoulders. He was proud to have her on his arm. If she’d had any idea how beautiful she was, she would surely have thought
herself out of his league. Instead she was as down-to-earth as they came. He liked that about her. She was the best of all worlds. And he was blessed to be here shopping for a ring to place on her finger.

“Have you found anything you’d like to try on?” The sales associate who’d first waited on them was back after helping another customer.

Mickey dismissed her sweetly. “Not yet, thanks.”

The young woman spoke to Doug over Mickey’s head. “Let me know if you have any questions.”

“Thanks, we will.”

When she went to greet another customer, Mickey elbowed Doug. “They’re all so expensive,” she whispered.

He’d been thinking the same thing, but told her what he thought she’d want to hear. “You’re worth it. You pick out what you like. Within reason…”

“I don’t think anything in this case is within reason, Doug.”

“Well, you’ve got to have a ring. We need rings.” He never had put his wedding band—the one Kaye had placed on his finger thirteen years ago—back on since that day he’d taken it off at the bowling alley. He’d tucked it away in his dresser drawer with some other keepsakes. But his finger still bore an indention from the ring. He rubbed at the band of white skin encircling his tanned, leathery hands. He wasn’t sure if he should tell Mickey that the money for their rings would probably come from what was left of Kaye’s and Rachel’s life insurance, after the funeral costs, of course.

He brushed off the morbid thoughts. “You need a wedding ring,” he said again.

Mickey held out her left hand. “It doesn’t have to be a diamond though, Doug. What if I lost it out in the garden?”

“You’d wear it to garden in?” He wondered where she thought she was going to garden. But they hadn’t had the where-will-we-live conversation yet.

“Probably not, but what if I forgot? What if it slipped off in a
bag of manure and got buried with a barberry bush or something?”

He laughed. “You sound like you’ve already got it all planned out.”

“No, but if we spent two thousand dollars on a ring”—she nodded toward the jewelry case where that was one of the lower price tags—“I’d be scared to ever wear it.”

“Well…what, then?”

“We could just get wedding bands. Thin silver bands.”

The tightness in his chest eased a little. He wasn’t sure where two thousand bucks would come from. “Is that what you want?”

She bent and perused the jewelry case again. “I thought I wanted a diamond, but”—she tossed her head in the direction of the jewelry store—“that’s a lot of money. I can think of other things I’d rather spend it on.”

“Like what?”

She shrugged, looking sheepish. “Well, it’s not exactly my money to spend.”

He put an arm around her waist and steered her toward the front door. “Let’s go get a cup of coffee and talk some things through.”

She raised a questioning brow at him and trailed him out to the sidewalk. A Saturday’s worth of vehicles lined Santa Fe in front of the jewelry store. He shaded his eyes and looked across the street. “Isn’t there a coffee shop in the next block?”

She nodded and led the way south. A few minutes later they had pretzels on order, and she was sipping some fancy coffee drink while he nursed a mug of black brew that didn’t taste nearly as good as the Folgers he usually drank. Not to mention he could have bought three pounds of coffee beans for what he’d paid for their drinks.

Mickey rearranged her napkin under her coffee and angled her body toward him.

Pulling out the small notebook he kept in his back pocket, he repositioned his chair and leaned against the wall. “Let’s work out some details, okay?”

Her eyes lit and she nodded like an eager puppy.

He slipped a ballpoint pen from his front pocket and jotted the words “wedding date” across the top of the narrow page.

She leaned across the table to read them.

“And the sooner the better.” He touched her nose.

“Well…first we need to talk about where, and how many people, and what all we have to do before we can even have a wedding.”

“Okay, where?” He made a row of
W
s down the side of the paper, turning the first one into
Where?

“St. Mary’s?” She hunched up her shoulders as if she expected him to challenge that.

He rubbed his chin. “I wouldn’t have to…convert, would I? If we got married in your church?”

She shook her head. “I’m not sure. I guess we could ask Rick.”

“Yeah, about that…” They’d planned to stop off at her brother’s after they bought the rings to announce their engagement and reintroduce Doug to the brothers—Rick and Tony, anyway. Alex had called her cell phone on the way to Salina to say he couldn’t make it. From her end of the conversation Doug could tell that Alex Valdez knew something was up, and he was trying to get it out of her. She just kept saying, “Rick and Tony can tell you all about it.”

Doug had grown up knowing who the Valdez brothers were. Who didn’t know the stars of the basketball and baseball teams? Rick still held some records at Clayburn High, Doug thought. But he doubted the brothers remembered him. Rick and Tony were out of high school by the time he got there, and Alex had been a senior when Doug was a freshman.

Still, he was more than a little nervous to meet Mickey’s older brothers again under these circumstances. Mickey had told him she thought her brothers suspected the reason they were coming, but she wanted to keep them guessing.

“You don’t think they’re planning to kill me or anything, do you?”

She gave him a playful slug. “Quit worrying. They’re going to love you as much as I do.”

But he thought Mickey looked a little worried herself.

“Yeah, well, I guess we’ll find out,” he said.

She ignored him and went back to the topic of his conversion. “Maybe we can ask Angie about St. Mary’s. She grew up there. She’d know. And she’s a good Catholic.”

He broached a subject they should have talked about long ago. “I don’t think I could convert, Mick. And not the kids, for sure. Don’t you guys have to promise to raise your kids in the church?”

“It’s not really my church…not anymore. And I wouldn’t ask you to, Doug. Convert, I mean.
Any
of you. I-I guess I’m not a very good Catholic.”

He cocked his head. “What’s with the ‘good Catholic’ stuff all of a sudden?” Mickey had seemed to like the worship service when she’d gone to church with him and the kids. She’d always talked about God like she knew Him, had a relationship with Him. That was all that mattered to Doug. He didn’t care much about denominations. That was why he and Kaye had started going to Community Christian. It hadn’t made Harriet too happy, but Kaye put her foot down, and Harriet eventually quit trying to get them back to the First Baptist church Kaye grew up in.

Mickey took a sip of her coffee, obviously a diversion tactic. “I didn’t mean anything by it. I’m just thinking my brothers might not be too happy if I don’t get married in the Church.”

“They might not be too happy you’re marrying a widower with five kids, either.”

Her slow nod told him she agreed.

The waitress brought their pretzels and Doug squeezed mustard into the paper basket and took a bite before looking at the list again. “Okay, let’s move to something else for now.” He scooted the basket to one side and filled in the other
W
s on the paper.
Who, What, When
. “Hey,
here’s something we can fill in.” Beside
Who
, he wrote Doug DeVore and Mickey Valdez. “And this…” He wrote the word
wedding
beside
What
.

“Yay! We’re making progress!” She clapped loud enough to make the elderly women at the booth across the coffee shop turn to stare.

Laughing, he folded his hands over hers and eased them to the table. “Shhh!”

She looked embarrassed, but the twinkle remained in her eyes.

He dipped a hunk of pretzel in mustard and popped it in his mouth. “Okay, here’s one.” He hated to ruin the mood, but if he wanted to marry this woman, they had to get some things ironed out. “Where are we going to live?”

“Your house.” She pointed to his list. “Write it down.”

He let the ballpoint hover over the paper. “You’re sure about that? You’ve been there, Mickey. You know what you’d be getting into.”

“Well, sorry, but you guys aren’t going to fit in my house. Unless you want to sleep in the garage.”

“Be serious.”

Her eyebrows went up. “Maybe I am.”

He scooted his chair back from the table and leveled a stern look at her. “Mickey, I don’t want you to regret this.”

Her expression turned serious. “Okay. I’ll admit I’d like…I wish we could find a house in town together. But we don’t have to do that right now, do we? We can live at your place for a while…while we look.”

“Fair enough.” She’d said in town. Did he dare tell her he and Kaye had scrimped and saved to buy the farm he’d grown up on? He couldn’t imagine ever leaving there. But now wasn’t the time to bring that up.

She jabbed at the list. “Write it down.”

He jotted
my house
at the bottom of the list and clicked the pen off.

But she nabbed it out of his hand, clicked it back on, and crossed out
my
. In its place she wrote
OUR
in big capital letters.

His chest swelled with warmth, and he reached across the table and ran a finger down the smooth plane of her cheek. “I love you.”

Smiling, she reached to dab at the corner of his mouth with her napkin. “Mustard,” she explained, kissing her fingers and transferring her kiss to the spot she’d just wiped.

“What would I do without you?” He made his voice light, but her simple action moved him more than he let on. In the same way Kaye had completed him, Mickey was the missing piece of his life. He’d always been a leader, a man’s man. But in so many ways, he needed somebody to take care of him. Someone to baby him a little. Mickey did that. And he loved her for it. He longed for the day they were married.

“Okay, what’s next?” Mickey poised the pen over their list again. “I know.” She added another
W
to the list and turned it into
Why
.

“Why?”

She nodded, then scratched something on the list. When she was finished, she rotated the paper and pushed it over to his side of the table.

Because I love you
, it said.

That did it. “Let’s get married.”

She eyed him suspiciously. “I thought that was the plan.”

“No. I mean now. Right now. Let’s go find a justice of the peace…or whatever it takes.” He stabbed at the list. “None of this stuff matters, Mickey. If we try to solve all these questions, we’ll still be trying to work out details a year from now. Let’s just do it.”

“Doug…” A deer-in-the-headlights look glazed her eyes. “You can’t just get married on a…a whim.”

“It’s not on a whim. We’ve talked it out. We’d just be skipping all the stupid stuff. The expensive stuff—” He held up a hand. “And don’t worry, I don’t mean the ring. I want you to have a ring. We’ll go back and get it today.” He took her hand and caressed her fingers. “But do we really need a big, fancy wedding? Especially if it’s going to cause trouble with your brothers and the Church…?”

He waited for her to respond, trying to read her thoughts in her expression.

“I don’t know, Doug.” She still looked a little shell-shocked. “You don’t mean ‘today’ literally, I hope.”

He did, but maybe that was expecting too much. “Not today, but soon. Next weekend if we can. I’ll call the courthouse and see what we need to do. Can you get a couple days off of work?”

She nodded. “But what about the kids?”

“What about them?”

“Would they—come with us?”

“Oh. No. Of course not. I’ll figure something out. Maybe Wren can watch them for a couple days. We couldn’t go to Hawaii or anything, but maybe we can plan a little getaway in Kansas City. Then next summer we’ll do a real honeymoon. I promise.”

She reached up and put a gentle finger over his lips. “Shhh. Don’t make promises you might not be able to keep. We’ll just take things as they come, okay?”

He nodded. She might really go for this. He was torn between relief and panic. If she was willing, they might be man and wife this time next week.

“I…I’d need to rent my house out…or”—she swallowed hard—“sell it.”

“You could rent it out for now. We can decide what to do later. There’s no need to rush into anything.”

The outline of her tongue puffed out her cheek. “Um…excuse me, but isn’t that exactly what you’re talking about? Rushing into things?”

“You know what I mean. The piddly stuff. We can figure that out later. For now let’s go pick out a ring. With what we’ll be saving in wedding expenses, you can choose the biggest honkin’ ring in the store.”

“Oh, Doug.” Her eyes lit up and she shivered with excitement.

He pushed back his chair and grabbed her hand. “Come on, babe, let’s do this.”