The Woman for Dusty Conrad Read online

  Dusty quietly stepped toward her, stopping mere inches away, the crisp autumn breeze bringing her subtle, irresistible scent to his nose. “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be. You did what you had to.” She cleared her throat. “It’s funny, while Elva makes it very easy to pinpoint blame, it was shortly after she said what she had that I realized it wasn’t that she was smarter than everyone else. It was that she was the only one willing to speak the truth. That no matter what I said, what I did, they all knew. Every last person knew you had left me.” Her head tilted forward as she dropped her chin to her chest. “I was the only fool who thought you might come back.”

  Dusty was filled with the urge to touch her. To let her know without words what he was feeling. He wanted to tell her that he almost had come back. Countless times. Once he’d even climbed into his truck, driven the hour and a half to Old Orchard and spent an entire night sitting outside on the street watching the house, wanting to go in so badly it hurt.

  But he hadn’t gone in. He’d known that had he come back like that, nothing would have changed. That after a blazing honeymoon, the cycle would start back up, leaving him right back where he started.

  Now he damned that pessimistic belief. It was so easy to come up with these great ideas when you were alone, when the other person involved wasn’t in front of you, her shoulders trembling. So damn easy…

  A car came up the street, then pulled into the driveway. Dusty’s hand froze in midair and he noticed Jolie give a shiver, as if in anticipation of his touch. A car door slammed, followed by another, breaking the moment in two.

  Dusty slowly took his hand back and cursed under his breath. Until he turned and saw his widowed sister-in-law, Darby, crossing the yard, her twin girls—Erick’s girls—beside her.

  Jolie felt Dusty’s withdrawal and her heart twisted in her chest as Darby climbed the front steps, hugging her.

  “I would have come sooner, but I had to run one of the animals out to the vet.” She pulled away, then turned to hug Dusty. Only Dusty had backed up, gazing at his nieces as if unsure what to do.

  Jolie’s heart hiccupped.

  Then the twins took the uncertainty right out of his hands as they rushed their uncle, each clutching a side of his hip with their skinny arms.

  “Uncle Dusty!” Erin said.

  “We’ve really missed you,” Lindy added.

  Jolie’s throat grew tight with emotion as she watched Dusty instantly bend down and catch a twin in each arm and lift them off their feet, eliciting squeals of delight. “Not half as much as I’ve missed you.” He kissed them both on the top of their tawny heads. He pulled back and looked at them, his eyes filled with a mixture of pride and sadness. “Is it, um, just my imagination, or have you two put on a couple pounds since the last time I’ve seen you?”

  Lindy lifted her chin. “I’ve grown a whole inch since summer,” she announced.

  “Have not,” Erin countered.

  “Have, too.”

  “Have not.”

  Dusty lowered them one by one back to the porch, resting his large hands on top of their heads. “Let me see if I can help out here.” He pretended to measure them, then heaved a huge sigh. “I don’t know, Erin. Looks like she might be just a tad taller than you.” Jolie bit her bottom lip to keep from smiling. As the firstborn, Erin liked to pretend she was the larger, smarter and faster of the two girls. And at her uncle’s pronouncement, she glowered. Dusty snatched her back up, catching her unawares. “But don’t worry, sweet pea. You’ll catch up in no time at all.”

  Darby smoothed back Lindy’s hair. “Maybe. If she eats all her vegetables like I ask instead of feeding them to Arnold under the table.”

  “Arnold?” Dusty cocked a brow as he put the girl down. “Don’t tell me you still have that old porker.”

  “Yes, we do,” Lindy confirmed with a serious nod of her head. “Sheriff Sparks calls him Pork Chop. What do you suppose he means, Uncle Dusty?”

  Dusty met Jolie’s eyes and her stomach flipped at the teasing light in his. “Oh, it’s just an endearment, Lindy. Like sweet pea. And lamb chop. And sweetheart. And princess.” He crouched down and cuddled both girls close again until they begged to be set free.

  Darby stood next to Jolie, her arms crossed over her chest, her eyes suspiciously moist.

  Dusty got up. “Hey, I’ve got an idea. Why don’t we go inside and tell Ellie all about Arnold.”

  “Who’s Ellie?” Erin asked.

  Darby almost imperceptibly shook her head, indicating she hadn’t told them.

  “Oh, she’s this little girl about your age who’s going to be staying with us for a while. Would you like to meet her?”

  “Yes,” Lindy said.

  “No,” Erin objected.

  Dusty chuckled good-naturedly and opened the screen door. “How about we find an answer that falls somewhere in the middle…”

  His voice faded off as the threesome trotted inside the house.

  Jolie smiled after them, a flush of relief and warm gratitude swirling through her veins like the colorful autumn leaves in the front yard.

  Darby leaned against the railing next to her, apparently feeling a measure of that same relief. “God, for a minute there I was afraid he was going to run.”

  “Me, too,” Jolie admitted quietly.

  Darby turned her head, taking in Jolie’s appearance, then smiling. “Well, don’t you look good.”

  Jolie rolled her eyes and stared at her good friend. “Considering I just had a run-in with Elva Mollenkopf downtown, I’ll take that as a compliment.”

  Darby’s expression sobered. “Elva has a way of eclipsing even the sunniest day, doesn’t she? Sometimes I wonder if Angela was right. The woman has to be a vampire.”

  Jolie jerked her head to look at Darby, her breath snatched away from her. “It’s so peculiar you just said that. I saw…at the store the other day, I ran into Angela. Before…” She swallowed hard. “She saved me from Elva and said the exact same thing you just did.” She briefly closed her eyes, then forced herself to exhale. “I still can’t believe she’s gone.”

  “Neither can I,” Darby agreed.

  They lapsed into silence and Jolie wondered how much her sister-in-law was thinking about Erick’s death, the gap in her own life that had been caused as a result.

  Darby quietly cleared her throat. “You know, the day of Erick’s funeral, Elva came up to me and said that it was better that he’d been taken from me now, while I was still young enough, pretty enough to find someone else.” She gave a visible shiver. “I wanted to punch her.” She moved her lips from side to side, thoughtfully. “At the time I couldn’t imagine even wanting anyone else again.” She shrugged down a little further into her coat. “I still can’t.”

  Jolie quickly blinked her eyes.

  “Speaking of funerals,” Darby said quietly, looking at her. “You’re not taking care of that, too, for Angela. Are you?”

  Jolie shook her head. “No. The Old Orchard Women’s Club is seeing to the arrangements. Something quiet. A brief memorial the day after tomorrow.”

  “I’m glad. Maybe I’ll stop by this afternoon and see if there’s anything I can do to help.” She reached over and picked up a bag she’d brought with her. “I was going through a few of the girls’ old things. God, can you believe I’m using the word old in conjunction with anything having to do with the girls?” She sighed. “Anyway, I thought maybe you could use some of it for Ellie.”

  Jolie accepted the bag. “Thanks.” She glanced down inside, spotting a frilly purple something or other lying on top. She fingered it, then pulled the tiny scrap of material and lace out.

  “It was Erin’s Halloween costume last year.” She frowned. “Well, almost costume. She wanted to be a ballerina until five minutes before we left the house for trick-or-treating and she changed her mind and went as Britney Spears. She never even wore it, except for fitting sessions. I thought…well with tomorrow being Halloween and all…I thought
maybe Ellie might like to have it.”

  The shiny, stretchy fabric was so soft, so tiny, in Jolie’s fingers, she found it amazing that the leotard could fit anything larger than a doll. She smiled, blinking back the sudden moisture flooding her eyes. “Thank you. I wasn’t…I didn’t know if I should get her anything. This way…well, you made the decision much easier for me. It means so much more what with the connection to you and the girls.”

  Darby draped an arm over her shoulders and squeezed. “Ah, the emotional roller coaster begins.” She smiled warmly. “I swear I’ll be in the middle of doing something as mundane as making one of the girl’s beds, or folding their socks, and I’ll just burst into tears.”

  Jolie laughed, the sound choked and soft.

  Darby squeezed her shoulders again, laying her head against hers. “By the way, if I didn’t tell you on the phone this morning, I just wanted to say that I think it’s great. You know, what you and Dusty are doing for Ellie.”

  Jolie put the adorable costume back in the bag and set the bag by her feet. “I can’t imagine not doing it.”

  “I’m not surprised to hear you say that.”

  Jolie wiped her damp cheeks with the back of her hand.

  “How are things going, anyway? Vampire Elva aside?”

  She nodded. “They’re…going. Ellie and I went out and picked out a pumpkin at Old Man Peterson’s patch a little while ago.”

  Darby groaned. “The girls and I went yesterday. Don’t tell me, she wanted that monster pumpkin in front, didn’t she?”

  Jolie nodded.

  Darby laughed in response.

  Jolie lapsed easily into silence, happy just to enjoy the moment of peace with her friend. Bask in the unique bond that had always existed between them. As only children, their relationship was as close to sisterly as Jolie ever thought she’d get. Or believed she deserved. There wasn’t a day that went by that she didn’t thank God for having Darby in her life.

  “Anyway, that’s not what I meant when I asked how things are going,” Darby said quietly.

  Jolie pulled her head away to look at her, smoothing back her hair from where it had stuck to Darby’s. “How do you mean?”

  Darby crossed her arms, her eyes full of mischief. “I want to know how things are going between you and Dusty.”

  She felt her cheeks flame hotter than any fire she’d ever faced. “Ah.”

  “Yeah, ah,” Darby said. “Come on. You can tell me.”

  Jolie stared down at her hands.

  “Both you and I know you’ve got to talk to somebody, Jolie, or else you’ll burst.”

  She cleared her throat. “I visited Gramps yesterday.”

  “Uh-uh. Doesn’t count. The person you talk to has to be able to talk back.”

  “Ouch.”

  Darby shrugged. “If you had wanted tact, you would never have chosen me as a friend.”

  Jolie couldn’t help a smile. “I guess hoping some of mine would rub off on you was too much to wish for.”

  “Uh-huh. Now give.”

  Jolie averted her gaze, unsure of what to tell her about her and Dusty. Unsure if there really was anything to tell. Despite their having given themselves over to temptation two days ago…sleeping on the couch together last night…the first snatches of real conversation they’d had since before Erick died…when all was said and done things stood the same between them. The divorce papers were still tucked under the knives in the silverware drawer, and Dusty still planned to leave.

  “I wish there were something to tell you, Darb,” she said quietly. “The truth is, I don’t know how this thing is going to turn out. But if I had to wager a guess I’d have to say not good.”

  The teasing light vanished from her friend’s eyes. “Do you want me to see what I can do? Try to knock some sense into him?”

  Jolie smiled sadly. “No. If there’s anything to be worked out, Dusty and I are the ones who are going to have to do it.” She drew in a deep breath, then let it out. “Right now I’m just taking it one minute at a time.”

  “And?”

  “And what?”

  “What do you have planned beyond that?”

  Jolie frowned at her, not sure she understood what she meant.

  “Come on, Calbert, you have to have something planned. You know, some sort of seduction scheme to tempt him back into your life.”

  Jolie felt herself flush all over again. “I’m not the seductive type.” Not that she needed to be, if the other day was anything to go by.

  “Don’t tell me you’re just going to sit back and let him go?”

  Jolie’s throat tightened to the point of pain as she eyed her friend’s shocked face. “If it comes down to that…yes, that’s exactly what I’m going to do, Darby. I can’t make him stay. Not without resolving whatever problems exist between us.”

  “The guy loves you, Jolie. Surely you have to know that.”

  She didn’t have to know anything. But she did know that. “Maybe. But maybe that’s not enough. Maybe that’s something he needs to figure out by himself.”

  “With no help from you.”

  Jolie glanced toward the open front door, listening to the sounds coming from the direction of the kitchen. The peal of the twins’ laughter, the clanking of something metal. Then Dusty shouted to them that lunch was on and that they’d best get in there unless they wanted a specially commissioned posse sent after them.

  She caught herself smiling. “Well,” she said quietly. “I wouldn’t exactly say without any help from me.”

  Darby curved her arm over her shoulders again and laughed. “That’s more like the Jolie Calbert Conrad I trained…er, remember.”

  Jolie slowly picked up the bag and led the way inside the house, wondering if things could really be that easy. That if she decided to try to win Dusty back, she could. Just like an engine that needed some attention every now and again to keep it running smoothly, maybe all her and Dusty’s marriage needed was a tune-up.

  Her throat tightened and the smile left her face. Who was she kidding? Her relationship with Dusty needed an entire overhaul.

  Chapter 13

  Every time Dusty looked at his twin nieces, he felt as if his heart might burst. They were identical twins, but he’d never had a problem telling them apart. It all boiled down to what characteristics they had inherited from their father, his brother, beyond the blond hair and brown eyes. Erick’s competitive spirit and mischievousness shone clearly in Erin’s eyes, lending her an impishness that contrasted against her angelic features. On the other hand, Erick’s lopsided, easy grin was apparent on Lindy’s face, giving a quirky type of playfulness to her otherwise serene features.

  Darby laughed at a particularly ribald joke Erin had just shared, though it was clear the six-year-old hadn’t a clue what the punch line really meant. But Dusty’s mind was on the person who was missing from the cheery lunch in the sun-filled kitchen. Erick.

  His chest muscles contracted until it was difficult to breathe, and he felt he might suffocate if he didn’t get air into his lungs, and fast. His gaze scampered around the room, from the half-filled soup bowls, the half-dozen casserole dishes he’d put out on the table, to the faces of those who inhabited the room. But no matter where he looked, he couldn’t escape the panic spreading throughout his body and creeping up his neck.

  Someone poked his arm. He absently looked down to see little Ellie hesitantly stabbing a pudgy finger into his bicep, her blue eyes huge and translucent.

  Dusty finally took a needed breath and the panic threatening began to abate. He leaned down toward Ellie. “What can I do you for, El?”

  She pointed at the jug of milk he’d placed on the corner of the table. He automatically reached for it.

  “One refill coming right up,” he said, pouring the white, frothy liquid into Ellie’s empty glass.

  He was aware of the twin’s sharing a skeptical glance. Then Lindy shrugged and held out her glass. “Me, too, Uncle Dusty.”

  “
Well, if she’s going to have some, then I’d better, too,” Erin said in amusing resignation, pushing her glass across the table in irritation.

  Darby’s eyes crinkled at the corners as she smiled. “You’re a wise, wise girl, Ellie,” she said. “Milk does a body good.”

  Erin crossed her arms and flopped back in her chair. “You say that now. Just wait for the ride back to the ranch when Lindy starts farting and stinks up the whole truck.”

  The room went silent for a telling moment, then Jolie burst out laughing.

  Dusty found a grin breaking through as he watched Darby elbow Jolie. “Erin, what have I told you about using such words? Especially at the dinner table?”

  The six-year-old grimaced. “Okay, then, when she passes gas. Or is flat…flat…”

  “Flatulent.”

  “Yeah.”

  Dusty cocked a brow. “An awfully big word for such a little girl,” he said.

  “Flatulent,” Ellie said, her first and sole contribution to the lunch conversation.

  Laughter abounded anew.

  In the corner, the telephone let out a sharp chirp. Dusty automatically began pulling from the table, realizing Jolie was doing the same at the opposite side. Their gazes met and he froze. It was then he grasped that it was no longer his place to answer the phone.

  Jolie began reseating herself. “You go ahead,” she said quietly.

  “No, you really should get it.”

  Dusty was aware of Darby’s telling frown as she watched the quiet byplay. “Would you like me to get it?” she asked finally at the third ring.

  Dusty grinned at her. “Wouldn’t you just love to know who’s on the other end.” He rounded the island and plucked the receiver from the cradle, ignoring what his immediately getting up to answer the phone, and Jolie’s encouragement for him to do so, meant.

  “Yeah,” he said as casually as possible.

  “Dusty? It’s Jones. We got a four-alarm down on Main. The general store. Tell Jolie I need her. I need everybody we’ve got to help knock this one down. I could even use you.”

  Dusty’s fingers tightened against the warm plastic. “I’ll tell her.”