Shepherds Abiding In Dry Creek, page 15
“I think that’s your protection now,” Les said as several deputy sheriffs came inside the barn.
The two youngsters saw the uniforms and would have run to the deputies if the horses hadn’t been in their way.
Les decided he needed to make the aisle in his barn wider. Between the horses and the deputies and the chickens that had been spooked and were flapping around, there wasn’t enough room for Marla to get through to the workshop where Sammy was.
“He’s all right,” he turned and yelled just in case she could hear him.
Les stepped inside the workshop and saw Sammy where he had been earlier.
“You are all right, aren’t you?” he asked as he walked over and squatted beside Sammy.
“God got them, didn’t He?”
Les nodded as he started to unknot the rope around Sammy’s hands. “He sure did.”
“I’m going to be a cowboy when I grow up,” Sammy announced. “And get me a hat and a rifle.”
“Oh, no, you don’t,” Marla said as she stepped into the workshop. “You won’t have any kind of gun.”
“Les?” Sammy looked up in appeal.
“Listen to your mother,” Les said as he moved to the knot on Sammy’s feet. “She knows what she’s talking about.”
Sammy wasn’t the only one who should have listened to Marla, Les thought to himself. He should have listened and believed a little more in the innocence of her son. He was going to apologize, but before he could get any words out, Marla had hurried Sammy up and rushed him out of the workshop. Les thought it seemed a little bit as though she couldn’t stand to be in the same room with him.
Chapter Fourteen
Marla wrapped the blanket tighter around Sammy. After talking to Les, the deputy sheriff from Miles City had asked her and Sammy if they’d like to ride home in one of their cars. She was sitting with Sammy in one car and the two teenagers were sitting in the other car. The men were all standing outside talking and remounting their horses. The dome light was on inside the car, so Marla didn’t have any trouble picking out the various men, even though the men who had been riding horseback were all wearing hats. She knew Les because of his coat.
Marla thought she should be content. She had her son sitting next to her and he wasn’t hurt or even pulling away from her. He was safe and, hopefully, he had learned his lesson. She should concentrate on that and not wonder what could have been between her and Les if he’d been able to trust her. Trust was very important. Maybe he still didn’t trust her. He certainly hadn’t seemed to want her to ride back with him on his horse.
Marla turned her attention to Sammy.
“Hopefully, you learned not to give out your address to people who shouldn’t have it,” she said. “Those guys shouldn’t have even known how to find you up here.”
“I didn’t give them our address. They got it from our old landlord.”
“Ah,” Marla said. “Well, I’ll have to call him.”
“They told him they needed to send me back my baseball.”
“Well, he shouldn’t have believed that.” She would think he would have been less gullible. Maybe he was and they’d paid him for the address.
“But they did have my baseball with my name on it and everything. More than one. Every time I got a baseball, they took it from me.”
Marla blinked. How many times had this gone on? “But why didn’t you tell me?”
“You were busy with Dad.”
“Ah,” Marla said. She probably wouldn’t have paid any attention to a missing baseball in those days, anyway. She put her arm around Sammy’s shoulder. “I’m sorry I wasn’t paying enough attention back then.”
Sammy shrugged. “It’s okay. Dad wasn’t there to play catch with me, anyway.”
Marla pulled Sammy closer. “You still miss your dad, don’t you?”
Sammy nodded.
“Well, we’re going to spend more time together. You, me and Becky.”
Sammy looked up. “I wouldn’t mind if we had other people around, too.”
Marla held her breath.
“Like Mr. Morales,” Sammy added. “He’s a good guy. And Les isn’t too bad. And I like Mrs. Hargrove. And the woman at the café who gave us those doughnuts.”
Marla nodded. “There’s lots of good people in Dry Creek.”
Marla told herself she needed to postpone moving. She knew small towns could be unforgiving, and she and her children had probably made the worst first impression they possibly could have. She did not expect the people of Dry Creek to want them to stay even when it became clear to them that Sammy hadn’t taken the sheriff’s rifle. They would still say he’d brought the wrong kind of people to their town, and they would be right. But not even the people of Dry Creek could get all that talking done overnight.
She’d have to give the kids a hint, but she could wait until after Christmas to start packing up their boxes. Maybe by then, Sammy and Becky would feel better about moving. She could even just move into Miles City, which wouldn’t be far away—and they would be going to school there even if they lived in Dry Creek, so it might not make too much difference to them.
Yes, Miles City would be a good place to go. It would be a fresh start. Of course, she’d have to rent a place for them to live in Miles City. She wondered if someone would be willing to buy the house in Dry Creek.
Her mind was still trying to figure out how she’d pull off a move when the deputy sheriff came back to the car.
“Well, we’ve got it all wrapped up,” he said as he slid into the driver’s seat “Ready to head home?”
“Thank you, Deputy—?”
“Sutter, ma’am. Deputy Sutter,” he said as he started the car.
“And you’re from Miles City?”
“I sure am,” he said with a grin in the rearview mirror. “I’ve lived there my whole life.”
“Well, then, you can tell us about it,” Marla said.
Marla saw Sammy listen intently to the deputy talk about how the kids in town played softball in Bender Park and every year went to the rodeo called the Bucking Horse Sale.
“Can I ride in the rodeo?” Sammy demanded.
“Maybe someday,” the deputy said. “But you have to grow taller first.”
Sammy nodded. “I grow pretty fast.”
Marla relaxed back into the seat as the deputy’s car climbed up the slight hill leaving Les’s place. Sammy would make the move to Miles City just fine. It made sense to move, anyway. There weren’t very many other children for him to play with in Dry Creek. Miles City was a much bigger town. She was determined her children would have a fresh start and not have a negative reputation dogging their footsteps through their childhood.
When they got to the top of the rise, Marla looked back. All the lights were still on in Les’s barn. She could even see the horses outlined in the light. She wondered if she’d ever see that barn or house again.
Les was standing by his barn, watching the tail-lights of the deputy’s car as it drove away.
“Humph, so the great Lester Wilkerson is finally bitten,” said a voice to his left.
Les didn’t need to turn around to know who it was. “You should talk, Byron. You wine and dine them all.”
Byron chuckled. “Maybe so. But you don’t see me standing there looking like the dog someone left behind. All alone at home.”
Les turned and looked at the man. “No, we don’t see that, do we? Makes me wonder which one of us is the sorriest, though.”
“Hey, don’t take it out on me,” Byron said as he raised his hands in surrender. “I’m on your side in all of this.”
That fact made Les feel even worse. How had he ended up on the same side as Byron?
“Everybody’s leaving,” Les finally said. The truth was that the other riders had already gotten a couple of yards’ head start on Byron. Les had promised them all a free piece of pie at the café the next time they were in town; he’d call Linda tomorrow and give her a deposit.
Byron took the hint and saddled up. “Remember, if you get lonesome, we’ve always got the coffeepot on in the bunkhouse in the winter.”
“Thanks,” Les said. There was a time when he’d enjoyed hanging out in the Elkton ranch bunkhouse. Maybe that time would come again. At the moment, though, all he wanted to do was go inside his house and sit.
The next day the Suzy bake set deluxe edition came in the mail for Les. He’d forgotten that the other night he’d ordered it online and checked the rush delivery box. Les had one of the ranches that were far enough outside Dry Creek to have actual mail delivery. Places that were close in were expected to pick up their mail at the hardware-store counter. Les had never been as grateful for the privacy of individual mail delivery as he was when he saw that box. He didn’t want anyone to know he’d just gotten a Suzy bake set. Especially because he was suddenly unsure of what to do with it.
Oh, he knew he was going to give it to Becky. But should he just knock on the door to the Gossett house and hand it to her? He wasn’t even sure he was still welcome there. And if he handed something to Becky, he had to have something for Sammy. It had occurred to Les sometime in the night that Sammy might have been leaving him those gang symbols as a warning.
If Sammy hadn’t left them, Les wouldn’t even have known what he was up against. He owed the boy for that. So he definitely needed to get a present for Sammy. And, of course, if he gave something to the kids, shouldn’t he give something to Marla?
It was a good thing, Les told himself, that he had his chores all done before the mail came, because he sure wasn’t getting anything done after it was delivered. Finally he decided that if he was going to waste the day, anyway, he might as well drive into Miles City for supplies. If he happened to find a present for Sammy while he was there, so much the better.
The fact that he would have to drive through Dry Creek to go to Miles City was not important. Of course, as reserve deputy sheriff, he should check that the lights were still on in the Gossett place. He might even ask Linda at the café if anyone had seen the family today. After all, it was his duty to be sure that all the citizens of Dry Creek were safe.
Marla saw Les’s pickup go by her house. She’d expected him to do his usual walk through Dry Creek this morning, but he hadn’t. He’d stopped at the café, but then he just got back into his pickup and drove out of town. She had been waiting for him, too, because she’d realized last night when she got home that she still had the gloves he’d lent her. She wanted to return them.
She also realized she hadn’t thanked him for untying Sammy last night. Her hands had been so cold she wouldn’t have been able to do it. Of course, the fact that her hands were frozen was partially his fault. He’d left her to hold those horses’ reins, and she hadn’t been able to keep them straight with the gloves on, so she’d taken the gloves off.
She hoped she never had to see a horse again as long as she lived.
And she could have told Les all of that if he’d walked down the street so she could go out and talk to him.
Marla looked down the street. Maybe Linda knew when he was coming back. Maybe he was just going to do his walk a little later in the day because last night had been so, well, exciting.
It took Marla fifteen minutes to get a coat and mittens on Becky. Sammy had them both beaten. The children were anxious to go to the café—Marla had told them they could have a cup of cocoa. She decided they all needed to go out some. She hoped Linda would still treat them the same after all that had happened last night.
The cocoa was made with real milk. Marla couldn’t remember the last time she’d had cocoa with real milk. She looked up at Linda. “This is great. Usually it’s just from those packets.”
“Growing kids need their milk,” Linda said.
Marla tried to detect some difference in the way the café owner was treating them today. So far, she couldn’t find any, but she had figured it would take the gossip and nervousness time to grow in Dry Creek, anyway. People hadn’t had time to cluster together yet and decide they didn’t want anyone in their town who might bring in gang people.
“I noticed the deputy sheriff didn’t do his usual walk this morning,” Marla finally said between sips. She kept looking at her cup so it would look as if she was only making an observation that anyone could make.
“He’s going into Miles City to do some Christmas shopping,” Linda said. “At least, that’s what I’m assuming. He kept asking me what kind of present a young woman would want.”
“Oh.” Marla knew it was nothing to her if Les bought Linda a present. The two of them had known each other forever, in any event.
“I told him he had to listen for himself. Most women will say they want this or they want that. All a man has to do is pick one.”
“Well, that’s good advice.” Marla sipped her cocoa. Linda was really a very nice young woman. If Les was looking in that direction, she would have to congratulate him on his good taste.
Not that he would have a quick courtship. Linda had been too supportive of Les when she thought he was going to propose to Marla to make anyone imagine the café owner was romantically inclined toward Les.
“I want a Suzy bake set,” Becky announced as she set her empty cup down on the table.
“I have a cupcake pan at home I can give you,” Marla said. “We can make cupcakes in that.”
“I have a jar of Christmas sprinkles in the back,” Linda offered. “You could make some pretty Christmas cupcakes.”
Marla noticed the disappointment in Becky’s eyes.
“They’ll be grown-up cupcakes, then. Won’t that be fun?” Marla said.
“Yes, Mommy.”
“I’d like to see your cupcakes when you have them all made,” Linda said softly. “I bet they’ll be beautiful.”
Becky nodded.
Linda went into the kitchen and Marla set four dollars down on the table. She knew from the menu that a cup of cocoa was a dollar. She left the fourth dollar as a tip.
Linda gave Becky the bottle of sprinkles, then looked at the dollar bills. She gave three of them back to Marla. “There’s a junior special on cocoa.”
Marla frowned. “It doesn’t say anything about that in your menu.”
Linda waved her hand. “We never put our children’s specials in the menu. We just tell people that come in with children. We don’t want to make our regular customers feel bad.”
“I see,” Marla said. “But I’m not a child.”
“Don’t worry. I gave you all the junior special. It’s my reward for you bringing in new business.”
Marla looked at her.
Linda nodded cheerfully. “Children like yours will grow up to be my future customers.”
“We’ll come back,” Sammy assured her as he set his empty cup on the table. “Even if we’re moved to Miles City. We’ll come back for cocoa.”
“What?”
Marla blushed. “It’s just that the children will be going to school in Miles City, anyway. And it’d be more convenient if we were there.”
“And I broke the shepherd here,” Sammy said as he wiped the cocoa off his face. “He’s broken so bad even Les can’t fix him.”
“Well, yes, but it’s only a plastic figure,” Linda protested. “Surely you wouldn’t move because of that.”
“We’re not doing anything before Christmas,” Marla assured the woman as she stood. That would give the nervous ones in Dry Creek time to voice all the reasons why it would be just as well if the Gossett family did move someplace else. “And Sammy’s right. We will still come back and say hello.”
“Thanks for my sprinkles,” Becky called as they walked toward the door.
“Yes, thanks for everything,” Marla added as she opened the door.
The air outside was warmer than it had been yesterday and Marla kept a steady pace with the children as they crossed the street.
“There’s where the shepherd should be.” Sammy pointed to the Nativity set as they walked past the church. “Right there by those sheep of his.”
“Les is taking care of the sheep,” Becky said with a worried look on her face. She looked up at her mother. “Isn’t he?”
“I’m sure he is, sweetheart.”
Marla wondered how long her children would continue to think that Les could fix all the problems in the world.
Chapter Fifteen
Les looked at the presents on his table and wondered if he’d made a mistake. He’d wrapped Becky’s Suzy bake set in red paper and the junior-size Stetson he’d gotten for Sammy in green paper. All the wrapping paper only made the pork loin roast for Marla look worse than it had when he’d started his wrapping, though.
Not that the roast looked bad. He’d talked to the butcher himself and gotten a prime piece of fresh meat.
It’s just that he was starting to wonder if Linda’s advice had been so good. She’d told him to buy something the woman in question had said she wanted, and the only thing he could remember Marla saying she wanted was a pork roast to use in her tamales. Looking at the roast, though, he was beginning to think he should have bought her a gold brooch instead. His mother had always liked a gold brooch for Christmas.
Of course, he hadn’t noticed that Marla wore any jewelry, so she might not like any kind of a brooch, either. And jewelry meant a bigger thank-you than a roast. Les didn’t want to make Marla feel uncomfortable with his presents.
He’d already caused her to have to sit through that circus at the café the other night when people thought he was going to propose. Les wanted to save her further scenes. He wanted her to know he intended to court her in a quiet, respectful manner. He didn’t want her to think he was pushing her to make a decision.
After all, Les told himself, he couldn’t expect her to have the same certainty that he felt about them getting together. He’d always been someone who knew right away what he wanted. It could be because he’d seen his parents bend and sway so much over the years. Whatever it was, he knew he wanted to have Marla at his side in his life. So the first Christmas present was important.
Maybe it was too soon to even give a present, though.
