The Calamity Janes: Cassie & Karen

7

“Mom, Grandma says there are going to be fireworks tomorrow night for the Fourth of July,” Jake said eagerly over breakfast two days later.

The class reunion had bumped smack into the town’s annual holiday festivities, so people had lingered after the weekend. Unfortunately, the one person Cassie wanted most to avoid lived right here in town. Cole wouldn’t be going anywhere, not anytime soon. And unless times had changed, he would be at the fireworks. His father, always a benefactor of the event, would no doubt be grand marshal of the parade. Avoiding the two of them would be next to impossible.

“Can we go, please?” Jake pleaded. “And there’s a parade, too. There will be hot dogs and all sorts of neat stuff. Grandma told me all about it.”

Cassie cast a startled look at her mother, who shrugged.

“He asked if anything special was going on for the Fourth,” she explained. “I guess I got carried away.”

“Mom, can we go?” Jake begged. “The Fourth of July is my very favorite holiday.”

Cassie chuckled at that. “And right before Thanksgiving you always say that’s your favorite because you love turkey and pumpkin pie. And then there’s Christmas with the tree and Santa and all the presents.”

“But they’re not for months and months. This is my very favorite because it happens now. We’ve gotta go. Maybe I’ll meet some other kids. If we’re gonna be here even for a little while, I’ve gotta have friends.”

Cassie hated the thought of denying him, but what about Cole? How could she manage to keep them apart? Or was it simply time to get used to the idea that she couldn’t, not and stay here in Winding River?

“Give me a little time to think about it,” she said, praying she could come up with a reasonable solution that would balance Jake’s needs and her fears.

Jake’s face fell. “You’re going to say no, aren’t you? You never want me to have any fun. You’re still mad about what happened before we left home. You said when we came here I wouldn’t be grounded anymore, but I might as well be if I can’t do anything and I don’t have one single friend to play with.”

“Sweetie, it’s not that,” Cassie told him. “I swear it. I would love to take you. And I do want you to get to know the other kids in town.” She thought desperately, trying to come up with a believable excuse for her hesitation. She could hardly tell him the truth—that she didn’t want him anywhere near his father.

“It’s just that your mother knows I haven’t been feeling all that well,” Edna broke in, throwing Cassie a lifeline. “It might have to be a last-minute decision.”

Worry immediately creased Jake’s brow. “You’re sick?” he asked, wide-eyed.

“Nothing serious,” Edna insisted, keeping to her agreement with Cassie to keep the truth from Jake for as long as possible. She fell back on the incident he had seen for himself. “But the heat bothers me some. You saw that in town the other day.”

He scrambled off his chair and snuggled close to her side. “I’m sorry. We don’t have to go,” he said bravely, though his chin quivered ever so slightly as he made the concession.

His grandmother gave him a fierce hug. “You are such a thoughtful child. Thank you. Now why don’t you go on out to the garage and see if you can get that old bike in shape to ride. Once you’ve got some wheels, you’ll be able to get around and meet those kids.” She gave him one last squeeze. “Now, go on.”

Jake gave her one last worried look, then left.

“Thank you for bailing me out,” Cassie said, breathing a sigh of relief when he’d gone.

“It was my fault he got his heart set on it in the first place. I just remembered how you used to love the parade and the hot dogs and the fireworks, and the next thing I knew I was feeling nostalgic and telling him all about it.”

“I wish I could take him,” Cassie said wistfully.

“Then do it,” her mother said staunchly. “Maybe we’ve been going about this all wrong, keeping him from Cole. If you’re determined to stay here, you can’t keep Jake locked up in this house. He shouldn’t be punished because of something that’s not his fault.”

Cassie had been thinking the same thing herself just moments earlier, but the fear the idea stirred was tough to conquer. “You know all hell will break loose if Cole adds two and two together and figures everything out.”

“It might,” her mother conceded. “But that child needs a father. He could do worse than Cole.” Her mother seemed to be oblivious to the fact that her attitude was a major turnaround.

“That’s quite a change of heart,” Cassie noted.

“Not really,” her mother denied, looking guilty.

“Oh? You’ll have to explain that to me.”

“I always thought he was a fine young man. What you told me after he left the other night, that he’s willing to pay my medical expenses is proof of that. Back then I just thought things got a little out of hand between the two of you, especially with you being so young. Then when he left and you turned out to be pregnant, naturally I blamed him.”

“There were two of us to blame,” Cassie said, finding herself taking Cole’s side as well.

“Well, of course, but he was older. I thought he took advantage of you. And, then...” She shrugged and fell silent.

“Then what?”

“Nothing. It’s water under the bridge now.”

Before Cassie could press her, she heard a masculine voice outside. “Oh, my God,” she said, leaping up. “What if that’s Cole?”

“Then you go out there and act perfectly natural,” her mother advised. “Anything else will make him suspicious. Until you decide you’re going to admit the truth to him, you have to keep those two apart, but you have to do it as subtly as possible. He won’t see what you and I see when we look at Jake, because he won’t be expecting it.”

Cassie knew she was right, but that didn’t stop the panic from clawing at her as she stepped outside and saw Cole bending down to help Jake tighten a bolt on the bicycle he’d retrieved from the garage. Her heart slammed to a stop at the sight, then resumed beating at a more frantic pace.

Jake looked up at her with shining eyes. “Mom, Mr. Davis is helping me fix the bike.”

“I see that. Does Mr. Davis actually have any idea what he’s doing?”

Cole frowned up at her with feigned indignation. “Hey, lady, are you questioning my mechanical skills?”

She forced a grin. “You bet. I seem to recall an electric coffeepot that blew up after you’d tinkered with it.”

Cole tapped the wrench against the bike. “No electricity involved here, just nuts and bolts and chains.”

“True, but I’m sure you didn’t stop by to do bike repair,” she said. “I’ll help Jake later.”

“But, Mom,” Jake wailed.

“I said I’d help later. Cole, why don’t you come on inside? I know Mother is anxious to thank you for what you’re doing for her.”

“Is she really?” Cole asked, his expression skeptical.

Cassie did grin at that. “Well, she will thank you right after she tells you how she can’t accept, that Edna Collins doesn’t accept anyone’s charity, et cetera, et cetera.”

Cole got to his feet. “Now that sounds more like it. I guess I’ll just have to dust off my charm.”

That ought to do it, Cassie thought as he held out his hand to her son for a grown-up handshake. Certainly one member of the Collins family was under his spell. Okay, two, she conceded reluctantly. She might not hold out any hope for their future, but that didn’t stop her from indulging in the occasional fantasy, the one in which she, Jake and Cole somehow put aside all the lies and deceit of the past and became a happy family.

* * *

As soon as Cole left and she could get away, Cassie invited her mother to come into town with her and Jake to have lunch at Stella’s. Eager for an outing of any kind, Jake had already raced ahead to the car.

“I need to talk to Stella about that job,” she explained to her mother. “This is as good a time as any. And maybe it will pacify Jake. He’s still smarting over the fact that I didn’t let Cole spend the whole morning helping him with that bike.”

“Then you’re determined to stay?” her mother asked. “Even with Cole showing up here earlier and sending you into a tizzy?”

Cassie couldn’t deny that she’d been thrown, but a promise was a promise. “I told you I would. Besides, there is nowhere else I could be right now. You need me.”

Her mother nodded, and what might have been relief passed across her face. “That’s that, then,” she said giving Cassie’s hand a squeeze. “It’ll be good to have the two of you here. The house gets awfully quiet sometimes.”

“I thought you’d be grateful for that after all the ruckus I raised as a kid.”

Her mother smiled. “I was for a time, but no more. Having Jake running in and out, having you to talk to now that you’re a grown-up woman yourself, it’s a real blessing, Cassie. I’m grateful.”

“I don’t need your gratitude, Mom. I belong here, especially now. Go on and get your purse. I’m going to buy you the biggest sundae Stella can make.”

“Oh, my, I couldn’t possibly,” her mother said, but she looked tempted as she followed Cassie to the car.

“Of course you can,” Cassie said as she checked to make sure everyone had fastened their seat belts. Then she grinned at her mother. “And you can have it before lunch.”

Her mother looked horrified. “Heavens, no. It will ruin my appetite.”

“So what?” Cassie said as they made the quick trip to Main Street. “Why can’t we have dessert first every now and again on a special occasion?”

“And what occasion would that be?” her mother asked as Cassie pulled into a parking spot in front of the diner.

“My homecoming, of course.”

A rare and full-fledged smile spread across her mother’s too-pale face. “Now that really is worth celebrating.”

She said it with such genuine emotion that Cassie had to blink back tears. Maybe she’d had it wrong all these years. Maybe her mother really had missed her.

“Can I celebrate, too?” Jake asked from the back.

“Absolutely,” Cassie agreed.

“And we’re really going to stay here?” he asked. “You’re not going to change your mind again?”

“I’m not changing my mind,” Cassie said firmly.

He pumped a fist into the air. “All right!”

When they were settled into a booth at Stella’s, Cassie beckoned her old boss over. “We need three large sundaes, two hot fudge.” She glanced at her mother. “Caramel or strawberry?”

“Definitely strawberry,” her mother said.

Stella reacted with shock. “No main course? Not even a burger?”

“Not yet,” Cassie said.

“Anything else?”

“How about a job?”

Stella’s mouth gaped. She stuck her order pad in her pocket, then scooted into the booth next to Cassie. “You’re looking for work?”

Cassie nodded.

“Well, hallelujah! That must mean you’re home to stay.”

“I am.”

“Then you can start tomorrow. With the parade and all, it’s going to be a zoo in here, and the teenage girl I had working for me announced today that she intended to spend the Fourth with her boyfriend whether I liked it or not.”

“Did you fire her?”

Stella chuckled. “I will now. Irresponsible kids need to be taught a lesson.” She patted Cassie’s hand. “Didn’t take long for you to catch on, did it? One warning had you in here right on time every single day you were scheduled.”

“I liked the perks,” Cassie said with a grin. “All the ice cream I could eat.”

“It was a small price to pay for a reliable worker,” Stella replied.

After she’d gone off to fix their sundaes, Jake left his grandmother’s side to squeeze in next to Cassie. “If we’re gonna stay, that means I can spend more time with Mr. Davis, doesn’t it? My friends back home will be so jealous when I tell them I know him. I mean, he’s almost like a celebrity.”

“In that case you should understand that you can’t go bothering him. I’m sure he has lots and lots of work to do,” Cassie said.

“But I asked him if he would explain to me about computers and how they work and stuff, and he said he would.” Jake regarded her with an earnest, hopeful expression. “He said he wouldn’t mind at all.”

Cassie exchanged a helpless look with her mother. Leave it to Jake to take matters into his own hands.

“We’ll see,” Cassie said evasively.

“I think we should go after lunch, before he forgets,” Jake said.

“No, not today,” Cassie told him firmly.

“When?”

“I’ll talk to him and work something out,” she said, grateful when Stella appeared with their sundaes.

The ice cream distracted Jake for maybe five minutes before he began to badger her again.

“If you don’t drop this right now,” Cassie said finally, “you won’t see him at all.”

“But—”

“I said to drop it.”

Tears welled up in Jake’s eyes, but he fell silent, shoving the rest of his sundae away in protest. Cassie’s appetite disappeared, as well. Only her mother continued to enjoy her sundae, or at least pretended to.

Was this what it was going to be like living in Winding River, a constant tug-of-war with her son over his hero worship of a man he didn’t even realize was his father?

By the time they left for home, Cassie had a splitting headache and a knot the size of Wyoming in her stomach. At this rate she was going to wind up in a hospital bed right next to her mother’s.

* * *

Naturally Jake didn’t take her decision as final. Nor did the concession she made, allowing him to attend the parade and fireworks, appease him. She had to admit that had gone well enough. If Cole had been around, she hadn’t spotted him. And Jake’s delight had been worth every second of nervousness she’d experienced.

But by the next morning the treat had been forgotten, and Jake was back on the subject of going to see Cole. Her repeated warnings that she didn’t want to hear another word about it seemed to fall on deaf ears.

He continued to pester her for the rest of the week about going out to the Double D. He’d gotten his stubbornness and willfulness from her, no doubt about it.

She steadfastly continued to refuse to take him to visit Cole, making up excuse after excuse, but Cassie could see that they were wearing thin. Even so, she was stunned when Jake disappeared on Saturday morning. She searched high and low, but finally had to admit there was no sign of him.

“Mom, have you seen Jake?”

“Not since breakfast. Why?”

“He’s not in the house. He’s not working on the bike, and nobody on the block has seen him. I’ve looked everywhere I can think of.”

“You don’t suppose he’s gone out to Cole’s ranch, do you?” Edna asked, as aware as Cassie of her grandson’s obsession.

That was exactly what Cassie feared. “How would he get there, though?”

“I imagine it wouldn’t be all that difficult to get somebody to give him a lift. Half the ranchers in town on a Saturday take that road back home. All the boy would have to do is ask one of them.”

“Should I call out there?”

“Why not ride around town first and see if anyone’s seen him,” her mother suggested. “No point in getting Cole involved if the boy’s just wandered off to get an ice cream cone or something.”

But no one in town had seen Jake. Cassie was about to reach for the phone to call Cole when it rang.

“You looking for Jake, by any chance?” Cole asked without preamble.

“Oh, my God,” Cassie murmured. “He is with you. Is he okay?”

“He looks fine to me, but I thought you might be worried. He was pretty evasive at first when I asked how he got here and whether he had your permission to come. I got the feeling he didn’t tell you before he hitchhiked out here.”

“He what?”

“Pete gave him a ride on his way back from Stella’s,” Cole explained. Then he assured her, “He’s okay, Cassie.”

“That’s not the point. I’m going to wring his scrawny little neck. I’ll be there in twenty minutes.”

“Take your time and cool off a little. Keep reminding yourself that there’s been no harm done.”

“Don’t tell me what to do where my son’s concerned,” she snapped, and slammed down the phone.

“He’s with Cole?” her mother asked.

“Oh, yes.”

“Should I come with you?”

She shook her head. “No. Cole was right about one thing. I do need to calm down before I get out there. No telling what I might say.”

Cassie made it to the Double D in less than the twenty minutes it usually took. The front door was standing open as if she were expected, so she went straight in. Oblivious to the grandeur of the antiques that generations of Davises had collected over the years, she went in search of her son.

When she finally found the two of them in Cole’s office, heads bent over the computer keyboard, her blood ran cold. Jake looked happier than she’d seen him in ages. Just thinking about the bond the two of them were obviously forming made her knees go weak. She had to lean against the doorjamb for support.

“Look right natural together, don’t they?” Frank Davis remarked, slipping up quietly to stand at her shoulder in the doorway.

Something in his voice alerted her. She stepped away from the room and turned to study the man who had probably come between her and Cole.

Frank Davis had a powerful build. His shock of dark-brown hair was streaked with gray now, but there was still plenty of spark in his blue eyes, and he wore that same arrogant, superior expression that had intimidated her as a girl. Oddly she discovered that he didn’t scare her now. She met his gaze without flinching.

“What are you saying?” she asked in a cool, deliberate tone.

Her reaction seemed to amuse him. “I’m saying I know.”

“Know what?”

He smirked. “One look is all it takes to know that boy is my grandson. Even if your mama hadn’t told me the truth years ago, I would have seen it right off.”

Despite her determination not to let the man get to her, Cassie felt faint for the second time in just a few minutes. This time she had to will herself not to lean against the wall for support.

“My mother told you?” Her mother had never said a single word to Cassie about her suspicions, but she had discussed them with Cole’s father? What had she been thinking?

“She thought I had a right to know.”

More likely her mother had been desperate for advice from the one person she’d assumed had as big a stake in keeping the secret as she did. Oh, Mom, what have you done? Cassie thought as she stared into that confident gaze. And why didn’t you warn me?

“Does Cole know?”

“Not unless he’s figured it out in the last half hour.”

“Why haven’t you told him?” Understanding dawned. “You haven’t hold him because even now you don’t think I’m good enough for him, because you don’t want him to know that I had his child. You’re afraid he’ll insist on marrying me. That’s why you came between us years ago, sending him back to school, then getting someone to write him a note saying I was breaking it off for good. That was you, wasn’t it?”

Color rose in Frank’s cheeks, but he didn’t deny the accusation. “You two were way too young to get involved. Your mother and I did what we thought was best.”

His words delivered yet another blow. The two of them had conspired, even before they had known about the pregnancy? She felt as if she were standing on a slippery slope and beginning to skid. Nothing seemed certain anymore.

“My mother?” she repeated, needing to understand, praying she was mistaken. “What did she have to do with it?”

“Who do you think wrote the note that Cole got? And who kept his note from you? No way I could keep Berta Smith from delivering it. She takes her duties at the post office real serious. But your mama got it out of the box and ripped it up.”

“Oh, my God,” she whispered, brokenhearted at the thought of the betrayal that had changed not just her life and Cole’s but their son’s, as well. Maybe they wouldn’t have married if Cole had known about the pregnancy, but they’d never had a chance to decide things for themselves. Each had been convinced of the other’s betrayal. As a result the choices had been taken out of their hands.

“Well, the lies are over now,” Frank said, a complacent expression settling on his face. “Cole will know about his son soon enough, and if I know my boy, he’ll be furious that you kept such a secret from him. He’ll fight you for custody.”

Cassie felt sick to her stomach as she realized that even now the man was scheming against her. “That’s what you’re counting on, isn’t it? That he’ll reject me but claim Jake?”

His eyes glittered with satisfaction. “That’s exactly right. You won’t stand a chance of keeping the boy, not in this state.”

If she hadn’t been filled with such white-hot fury, Cassie might have been chilled by his threat or by the triumphant expression on his face. Instead, poking him in the chest, she backed him up against the opposite wall, oblivious to the difference in their sizes, oblivious to anything beyond the outrage that his smug remark had stirred.

“You will never take my boy from me,” she said in a low tone, praying it wouldn’t carry down the hall. “Never. Not if I have to see you in hell first.”

She must not have gotten the right note of warning in her voice, because she could still hear Frank’s chuckle echoing after her as she stormed into Cole’s office to claim her son.