Across the road to the west, the land still smoked. Small fires kicked up when they found a mesquite tree sapling still left on the buffet table. Two rattlesnakes slithered from her yard into the underbrush to the east. A cottontail hopped to the pasture on the other side of Julie's five acres and a feral cat carrying a kitten in her mouth followed it.
"I should've stayed home," she mumbled.
Griffin sat down beside her. "You ain't that powerful. You couldn't have stopped that fire no matter how mean you are."
"Why in the hell didn't Marita call me? I left my cell phone number on the answering machine." Julie leaned toward him and he wrapped an arm around her shoulders.
"You ever been in the ranch house?" he growled.
"You know damned well I haven't," she snapped.
"Hey, don't be hateful to me. I didn't start the fire and barely got it put out before it leveled your place. I didn't know if you'd been over there when I was out in the fields on some other day, but if you had been, you'd know."
"Know what?" she asked.
"Answering machine is on the phone in the library. Marita seldom goes in there except to clean."
Julie groaned. "Then if something had happened to Annie she wouldn't even have known where to find me. I should've stayed home."
It was the last straw. She broke down and wept, burying her face in his shoulder.
Julie crying was almost more than he could bear. Fighting him, arguing with him, tempting him—that he could endure. But to see her broken tore his heart apart.
"It's all right," he said as he patted her back.
"No, it's not," she moved back, putting distance between them.
"Your house is saved," he said.
"But I was gone," she said stiffly.
Griffin's phone rang. He fished it out of his overalls and put it to his ear, hoping all the while that no one was calling to say that the fire had jumped the road on down the section and the trucks were returning.
Marita was crying. "Griffin, come home right now. I don't care where you are."
He sat straight up and started the engine. "Lizzy?"
"It's Carl. The boys brought him in from the field where he went to check on the break. The ambulance is on the way. I can hear it. I think he's had a heart attack."
All the color left Julie's face. "What is it?"
"It's Carl. Marita says he's had a heart attack. I've got to get home. Get in. You are coming with me until we see what's going on, all right?"
The truck was already moving by the time she rounded the front end and hopped inside, ignoring her vehicle parked on the side of the road. "Is she sure?"
"No, but the ambulance is on the way." Griffin's face was a map of worry. All places led to his eyes, which were a study in anxiety. What would he do without Marita or Carl? Granted they were both in their mid-sixties, but he'd never thought of them aging. Carl was his right arm on the ranch; Marita more than that in his house.
When they arrived, they met the paramedics taking Carl out of the house. Lizzy was crying. Annie was trying to comfort her. Chuck was white as fresh snow as he watched the men take the stretcher to the ambulance. Marita had a bag in one hand and her purse in the other. She told the men about to shut the ambulance doors to move over, she was going with them. When they started to argue she slung one leg up and was sitting beside Carl before they could finish the first sentence.
Marita pointed at them as the doors closed. "I'll call. Don't be rushing over there until I do. Run this ranch. You help him, Julie. That's an order, not a request."
Julie stood there speechless and dumbfounded. Everything in her world was supposed to be laid back and calm in sleepy little Saint Jo, Texas. It had been anything but that and right then everything was happening too fast for her to digest.
"Momma, we're scared," Annie said behind her.
"Daddy, you stink," Lizzy said.
One turn and three steps later Julie had three children gathered up in her arms consoling them, saying that Carl would be just fine and Marita would bring him home as soon as possible. Tomorrow everything would be back to normal but for now they needed to go play in Lizzy's room. There had been a big fire up north and the smoke was still in the sky.
Lizzy popped her thumb in her mouth. "Come with us?"
"She does that when she's afraid or nervous," Griffin whispered.
"Annie twists her hair," she whispered back.
Chuck fidgeted with his hands. Julie had seen that trait in the classroom, but not since he'd moved in with Griffin.
Julie reached out to them. "Of course, I'll come with you, but you'll have to show me the way. I've never been here before."
Griffin followed them inside. "I'm taking a shower. I've been wading through smoke all day. Afterwards I'll expect my hugs."
"From all of us?" Lizzy said around her thumb.
Griffin felt heat crawling up his neck. "From the kids."
"Come on Momma, I'll show you where everything is," Annie took her hand and led her inside.
The front door opened into a foyer, which had a massive staircase leading up to six bedrooms, and a doorway to the left that led into a great room with a den and kitchen all in one big area. Whoever had built the house had intended to raise lots of children in it. The downstairs had a formal living room, dining room, and library in addition to the great room. The laundry room was beyond the kitchen with a full bathroom off it. Julie was given the grand tour.
The den had thick plush carpet the color of milk chocolate, making it mud- and kid-friendly. The sofa and two chairs flanking the stone fireplace were micro fiber: soft, inviting, and very cleanable. Behind the sofa, a big Barbie doll house had been set up and at least five Barbies were in various stages of dress for a ball of some kind. Ken was wearing camouflage, so evidently he wasn't invited to the ball.
The kitchen was pristine white: painted cabinets, Formica tops, tile flooring, appliances, and sink. Except for the curtains above the sink. They were pale yellow sheers. Julie could imagine the rising sun coming through that window and casting a warm glow over the whole room. She wasn't intimidated or even impressed, just in awe that there was so much house for one man and a little girl until Chuck came to live with them a couple of months before.
Griffin took a fast shower and made grilled cheese sandwiches and frozen French fries heated in the oven on a cookie sheet for supper. Julie did manage to get into the kitchen long enough to make iced tea and open a package of store-bought cookies for dessert.
They ate in the kitchen instead of at the table in the big formal dining room.
Lizzy barely nibbled at her sandwich. "Is it eight o'clock yet, Daddy?"
"Getting close," he said.
Tears began to stream down her face.
"What's the matter?" Julie asked.
"I don't want it to be eight o'clock. I don't want Annie to go away. I'm afraid she'll burn up and never come back and I'm scared Nana Rita is going to leave us and please don't let Annie go and make Julie stay with us, too. Please, Daddy."
"But…" Griffin raised an eyebrow at Julie.
She shook her head ever so slightly.
"Julie has to go home. Did you know that she didn't even take her things out of the truck yet? She might have milk in there that is spoiling," Griffin said.
The thumb went back into her mouth. "Then you go get it, Daddy, and put it in our fridge."
"Please," Chuck whispered.
"Children, if you are going to play together, you have to know there is a time when the day has to end. We need to make the rules right now. Okay?" Julie said.
Annie began to sob very loudly. "I'm afraid the fire will burn me up. Nana Rita said if it got any closer that we'd have to run away to Monster. I'm afraid of monsters, Momma."
"That's Muenster. Not Monster," Julie said.
Lizzy stopped sucking her thumb and turned a faint shade of minty green around her mouth. She jumped up and barely made it to the bathroom before everything she'd eaten that day came up.
Julie was the first one in the bathroom and held her black hair back.
Griffin was close behind her. He wet a washcloth and wiped her face.
Annie continued to sob.
Chuck stood to one side and wrung his hands.
"Okay, okay. Griffin, would you please drive down to my house and bring all the bags in my truck to me. Here's the keys. Please park it in the driveway and get it off the road. There's everything we need to spend the night here if the invitation is sincere. Lizzy, do you hurt anywhere? Is your side hurting or—?"
"No. Just my heart hurts," she whispered.
"That's what she says when she's upset," Griffin said.
"Annie, stop crying. We'll stay over and go home tomorrow."
Both girls wiped away the tears and went back to the supper table, where they barely ate anything at all. The whole trauma hadn't hurt Chuck's appetite, but he was unusually quiet. Julie had trouble finishing her sandwich but she did manage to get two glasses of tea down.
"Will she be all right?" Julie asked when the children had gone back to the den to play again.
"Not tonight. If she gets hungry she'll get something bland like yogurt or Cheerios. Tomorrow morning she'll come up out of bed screaming for sausage and eggs with the appetite of an Angus bull."
"How often does she do that?"
"Maybe once a year. It's always if there's turmoil in her life. I was surprised she didn't have an episode with the Rachel ordeal," Griffin said.
"I should've beat the shit out of that woman just to make myself feel better," Julie narrowed her eyes.
"Put the claws away and tell me again what it is you want out of that truck and I'll go get it," Griffin's tone left no doubt he was running on raw nerves.
"Number one, I want everything that's in a bag. Number two, if I want to bare my claws and leave them out for a week, I will. I've lived with a man who told me what to do, when to do it, how to dress, and when to speak. It won't happen again."
"Don't compare me with your bastard of an ex, and all I'm asking is for you to spend the night in my house, not live with me," Griffin said. One night of knowing she was in the next room was the limit of what he could endure, anyway. He had to shake off a vision of her curled up in one of his guest rooms, her red hair splayed out on the pillow and her lashes fanned out on her cheeks.
"Thank God for that. The answer wouldn't be no, but hell no," Julie said.
"The question would never be asked. I wouldn't live with that smart mouth of yours one hour much less a lifetime."
"Right back atcha," Julie pointed but she did not smile.
That night she tossed and turned for an hour, beating at the pillow, getting up finally to check on the children, and then going back to bed. Griffin was in the next room down the hall and she couldn't shut her eyes without feeling those strong arms around her when she fell apart. It felt so good and right and yet there was no future in it. All because of one stupid mistake she'd made with his brother, Graham. She beat at the pillow some more and finally went to sleep only to dream about him again.
Chapter 10
JULIE AWOKE WITH A HEADACHE AND ALL THREE KIDS IN their pajamas sitting on the bed staring intently at her. For a moment she thought she was seeing double but a blink or two brought her into reality. She was in a spare bedroom at the Lucky Clover and there really were three children on her bed and she had to get them all to school that morning. She looked at the clock. Six thirty. At least she hadn't overslept.
"Good morning," she said.
All the kids shook their heads in unison.
"It's not a good morning?" she asked.
"Daddy is sad," Lizzy said.
"He won't tell us why. Can you come downstairs and find out?" Annie asked.
Chuck picked up her hand and pulled. "Griffin is almost cryin', Miss Julie. Come and make him all better."
Julie sat up and pushed the sheet back. She reached for her jeans and jerked them on over her bikini underpants and didn't bother with a bra under the tank top she'd slept in. All the way down the stairs she prayed that Carl hadn't died during the night. The last phone call Marita made was to tell them to stay home, the doctors were still ordering tests, Carl really didn't feel like visitors, and their daughter was on the way from Austin.
Griffin sat at the kitchen table, a cup of cold coffee in front of him, elbows on the table, face in his hands. Julie came to a halt inside the room and eased down in a chair beside him. He looked as if he bore the weight of the galaxy on his broad shoulders.
"The girls are worried. Lizzy says you won't talk and that you're sad. You're scaring them, Griffin. Tell me what's going on?"
"You want the bad news first or the good news?" he asked.
"With or without the children? They are right behind you," she said.
"Could you go up to your room, Lizzy, and please take Chuck and Annie with you? Julie and I need to have a big people talk. I'm just fine but I'm very, very tired," Griffin said.
They sounded like elephants thundering up the stairs.
"Good news. I want that first," Julie said.
"I talked to Marita a little while ago. Carl isn't dead and the kittens are in the barn. I saved every one of them and the momma cat."