Montana Creeds: Tyler (34 page)

“Quite a night,” Logan remarked, like it had been a party or something.

Easy for
him
to be cheerful—Dylan, too.
They
still had their trucks.

Stepping over the threshold into the kitchen, Tyler once again marveled at how much the place had changed. It was the love, he supposed. Logan and Briana were
happy
in that house, and their feelings for each other and the kids had somehow seeped into the walls, the floors, the ceilings.

If houses could be healed, that one had.

Reflecting on all this, Tyler figured he must be in shock or something, since he didn't usually think in lines from greeting cards.

Nevertheless, the bad mojo was gone.

The old man had been exorcised—for good.

Naturally, Davie had already told Briana what he knew about the one-man demolition derby, before he and Kit bedded down in Tyler's old room for the night. He'd guessed, being a sharp kid, that they'd find Roy Fifer at the wheel when they uncovered the truck.

Half rummy from the night's adventures, Tyler ate the fried eggs, potatoes and ham Briana cooked up for all of them. He swilled coffee, but it didn't wake him up. Finally, he accepted the loan of some sweatpants and a T-shirt from Logan, took a hot shower and crashed on the living room couch.

Even under these circumstances, it was good to be home.

 

“I
S HE DEAD
?”
a young voice asked, breathless. Alec, no doubt.

Sunlight glowed, orange, through Tyler's eyelids.

“No, dumb-ass, he's just
sleeping
like he is.” That would be Josh, the older and more serious of the two. “If you'd
pay attention
once in a while, you'd know that Logan said he was
sleeping like a dead man,
not that he is one!”

It struck Tyler then that he
could
have been a dead man, with Davie lying on the next slab and Kit Carson a goner, too, if he'd been able to shut his mind off last night and drift off. He and Davie would have heard the truck coming, given the god-awful racket it was making, but as for getting out of the cabin before the crash—probably not.

Tyler opened his eyes, glad he still had the option.

Josh and Alec were standing next to him, like mourners at a viewing, while Davie sat in a big leather chair nearby, looking a little the worse for the busy night just past but grinning that trademark Creed grin.

“Miss Lily called,” he said, nodding toward Tyler's jeans, which lay in a heap at the other end of the couch. “Hope you don't mind, but when your pants pocket rang, I answered.”

Lily. Sweet, chronically orgasmic Lily.

He hoped the gap in her schedule hadn't closed, because he'd been looking forward to that phone sex he'd promised her.

“What did she say?”

“That you're a hunka-hunka burnin' love,” Davie joked.

At least, Tyler
hoped
he was joking.

“Woooowwww,” Josh and Alec chorused, in unison, their eyes wide with admiration.

Davie made a smoochy sound, and the younger boys broke up laughing.

Tyler, not quite as amused as his nephews, scowled a warning at Davie.

Briana popped her head in from the kitchen, smiled at Tyler with sisterly fondness and said, “Boys. Chores. Now.”

Alec and Josh left, groaning.

Briana ducked back into the kitchen.

“What,” Tyler repeated, sitting up and pinning Davie with a look, “did Lily say?”

“Before or after I told her what happened to the cabin?”

Tyler closed his eyes.

“Just kidding,” Davie said cheerfully. “Basically, she said don't call her, she'll call you. Oh, and she's cutting the trip short, too. Because her car is boring.”

“What?” Tyler asked.

Davie grinned, and he grinned Creed. “She's going to sell it there and fly home. Because it's boring, and she wants to buy another one when she gets back here. Something snazzy. She has a severance check, and it's burning a hole in her pocket.”

Tyler liked the change in plans—a lot. He'd wait until Lily called if it killed him, and do his damnedest to be alone when she did. Get her all hot and bothered and send her right over the edge.

When she flew in from Chicago, he'd be there to meet the plane. As soon as they'd dropped Tess and Hal off at the house in town, he'd take her somewhere private and make love to her for real.

Then, and only then, he'd break the news that they had to postpone the wedding.

T
HE PHONE SEX HADN'T HAPPENED
,
and Lily was feeling the loss of it, a sort of vague, disjointed ache, centered more in her heart than in her body, as she drove alone toward the mansion in Oak Park. She'd put off the meeting with the real estate agent until the next day, after packing the surprisingly few things she wanted to take back to Stillwater Springs with her, and sent her dad and Tess off to a matinee at the neighborhood cinema.

Getting squared away with Eloise, she figured, was more important than sorting books and dishes, sheets and towels, deciding what to give away and what to keep. There had always been a wide breach between her and Eloise, although they'd managed it better than they were now, but Lily didn't want the problem to become Tess's.

Pulling up to the massive iron gates at the bottom of Eloise's long, crushed-clamshell driveway, a lot of old memories, accompanied by a rush of corresponding emotions, welled up inside Lily.

She remembered her first visit to her late husband's ancestral home, after someone she'd gone to high school with in Stillwater Springs e-mailed her about Tyler's marriage to a pretty blond barrel-racer named Shawna.
In a fit of frantic optimism, and because Burke had been shoving his great-grandmother's diamond engagement ring under her nose at regular intervals and telling her how happy they'd be together, she'd accepted his proposal.

He'd brought her here, excited to tell his mother the good news.

The big gates whirred open, just as they'd done that long-ago day.

Lily had been beyond intimidated back then, and nothing in Eloise's coolly polite reception had helped the situation. It had been all she could do not to run across those Italian marble floors, out through the eighteen-foot hand-painted front doors, and scramble over the high stone walls to jump on the first bus out of the neighborhood.

Do not pass go.

Do not collect $200.

She'd have done that, headed straight for Stillwater Springs and taken a job at Skivvie's if the new Wal-Mart wasn't hiring, except that Burke had held tightly to her hand, and whispered that his mother would come around if they just gave her a little time. But that, Lily saw in grim retrospect, was only part of the problem—she hadn't gone home, let herself be the small-town girl she really was, because she wasn't getting along with her dad
and
because she was terrified that she'd run into Tyler and the barrel-racer once she got there.

She'd really believed, deep down, that she didn't have a home anymore.

Why not try to
make
one, with Burke?

The clamshells crunched under the wheels of Lily's sedate sedan—Burke had chosen it for her—with its hand-lettered For Sale sign in the back window.

She smiled as the latest in a long line of gardeners stopped to watch her go past. Turnover was high at Chez Eloise, and he was a stranger—probably thinking she'd come to apply for a job. Maid? Social secretary? Personal assistant?

Emotional punching bag?

Pulling up in front of the Grecian portico, Lily shut off the engine and unclamped her fingers from the steering wheel. It was silly to feel so much dread, she told herself sternly. She'd been to this house a thousand times with Burke, and later, after his death, dropping Tess off for visits, picking her up again when some long, lonely weekend or foray to Nantucket finally ended.

It wasn't the house, of course—Lily was way past feeling like an out-of-place country kid mistakenly invited to high tea at the garden club. She and Eloise were about to have a confrontation, that was the fact of the matter, and it probably wouldn't end well.

Lily got out of the car, drew a deep breath and marched up the beautifully chiseled limestone steps to the front door. The place was a far cry from the trailer she and Tyler would be living in after the wedding, that was for sure.

Oddly comforted by that contrast, Lily relaxed enough to ring the doorbell.

Stately chimes sounded within the hallowed halls, and one of the doors swung open. Eloise herself stood in the entryway, pale and stiff-shouldered.

Either it was the maid's day off, Lily concluded, or Eloise had been watching for her through one of the tall mullioned windows at the front of the house. Quite possibly, after Lily had called an hour before and asked if she could stop in, Eloise had dismissed the staff for the duration.

“Come in,” Eloise said stonily, stepping back to admit Lily.

The place was mausoleum-silent, and ridiculously grand.

Lily paused to take in the frescoed ceilings of the two-story entry hall, the graceful curves of the twin staircases, the elaborate grandfather clock, hand-made in Switzerland for one of Eloise's distant ancestors. No quartz-movement there—the thing had been tick-tick-ticking for over a hundred years.

“I thought you'd bring Tess,” Eloise said, standing there in yet another pair of high heels, yet another suit. This one was funeral-black.

“We agreed that I wouldn't,” Lily reminded her mother-in-law. Eloise had the home-court advantage, but that didn't mean Lily was going to be backed into any corners.

Eloise let the comment pass. Led the way into the “parlor”—which would have been the living room in a regular house. A silver tea service gleamed on the elegant antique table situated between two snow-white suede couches, set to face each other, perpendicular to the imposing fireplace.

“Please sit down,” Eloise said.

Lily took her usual seat.

Eloise perched across from her, on the other couch, leaned a little to pour tea. Someone—definitely not Eloise—had prepared small, crustless sandwiches, scones and tiny bowls of diced fruit.

As if.

“Your Tyler,” Eloise said, cutting right to the chase, “has quite a family history.”

Lily straightened her backbone. “Yes,” she answered. If Eloise had expected to take her by surprise, she was bound to be disappointed. “Did you use a search engine to check him out, Eloise, or just hire a detective?”

Eloise's hand trembled slightly as she lifted a delicate china cup to her mouth for a sip, but otherwise, she didn't react. She didn't answer, either. She might even have been a little embarrassed, though that was probably a reach.

It struck Lily, not for the first time, but with more impact than on previous occasions, how lonely this huge house must be in common hours. No husband, no Burke, and now, at least as things stood, no Tess.

“I love him, Eloise,” Lily said. How strange to say that to a woman she barely liked, when she hadn't even told Tyler yet.

“Oh, your sort always thinks they're ‘in love,'” Eloise said smoothly.

“‘My sort'?” Lily inquired.

“Small-town girls,” Eloise expanded generously, trying hard to smile but falling far short. “People from a certain—well,
unsophisticated
background.”

“There is nothing wrong with my background.”
And if this is “sophistication,” you can stick it where the sun don't shine.

“Probably not,” Eloise responded, in her own good time. “But there's plenty wrong with Tyler Creed's.”

“That's your opinion.”

“His mother committed suicide. His father was a drunken lunatic. And Tyler himself, along with his two brothers, was arrested for drunk and disorderly conduct following a family funeral. But I presume you know all that.”

“All that,” Lily said calmly, “and a lot more. Things that wouldn't mean a thing to you, but mean everything to me.”

“Frankly,” Eloise retorted, “I don't
care
if you want to marry a cowboy and live in a mobile home on Rural Route Whatever. That's your business. But I care a
great deal
about my granddaughter's well-being.”

Lily hadn't touched the tea, of course, or the little sandwiches. She sat rigidly on that pristine couch, her hands knotted together in her lap. Once, she'd have forgone the mini-meal out of a fear of spilling something and staining the couch or the exquisite rug beneath her feet. Now, it was because if she'd tried to swallow anything, she'd have been sick.

“I am perfectly capable of taking care of my daughter,” she said carefully.

“
Burke's
daughter, too,” Eloise pointed out.

Lily bit back a scathing reminder that Burke was dead. Obviously, Eloise knew that all too well—anybody could have seen that her son's absence was like a black hole at the center of the woman's life, always pulling at her, trying to drag her in.

“Eloise,” Lily said, in the most reasonable tone she could manage, “what do you want?”

“I want,” Eloise responded, with the most damnable attitude of entitlement Lily had ever encountered, “to raise Tess.”

Again, this was a development Lily had anticipated, but hearing Eloise actually say the words was a slap in the face just the same.

“No,” she said flatly.

“I thought you'd say that,” Eloise replied lightly, still bone-certain that whatever Eloise Kenyon wanted, Eloise Kenyon was supposed to
get.

“Then why did you ask?”

“It seemed kinder than simply having my lawyers get in touch with you,” Eloise said. “Don't force me to sue you, Lily—if only out of respect for Burke's memory. You and I both know Tess would be better off here with me, that she'd have every advantage—”

“Except a mother,” Lily broke in, rising to her feet to leave. Her face was hot and she was dizzy. “Go ahead, Eloise. Sic your attorneys on me—they'll be glad to rake in the fees, I'm sure. But you can't win and somewhere in that shriveled, selfish,
snobby
little heart of yours, you know it.”

Eloise stood, too, less confident now, but evidently determined to brazen the whole thing out to the bitter end. “Be reasonable, Lily. I have so much to offer Tess that you don't, and Burke would want it this way.”

Suddenly, furious tears all but blinded Lily. “Don't you get it, Eloise? I don't
give a damn
what Burke would want. He was a liar and a cheat and the
second
most self-indulgent person I've ever run across. And here's another news flash for you. For all of that, he
did
love Tess, and
the last thing—
the last thing,
Eloise—he would have allowed to happen was for her to grow up the way he did.” Lily stopped then, tried to regain her composure, but she was only partially successful. “
Think
before you call the legal eagles, Eloise, because if you try to take her away from me, Tess will
hate
you for the rest of her life!”

Eloise flinched; Lily had finally struck a nerve. Was it remotely possible that the woman hadn't even
considered
how Tess would react to all this? Was she
that
selfish?

Cracks began to appear in Eloise's facade. So much for the lady of the grand manor, hail Eloise, full of grace. “Lily, please sit down—Pull yourself together—”

Lily kept going. Her sneakers made no sound on the marble floor of the entryway, but Eloise's heels clicked rapidly, the sound echoing off the walls, as she gave chase.

Lily jerked open the door. “Go to hell, Eloise!” she cried.

“Please,” Eloise pleaded. “Wait—I've handled this badly. I—”

The words almost made Lily stay.

Almost, but not quite.

She stormed across the porch, down the steps, jerked open the door of her car to get in.

Eloise crunched after her, mincing through the clamshells in her spike heels. “Wait!” she repeated, more desperately this time. “Lily,
please
wait—”

It wasn't Eloise's pleas that made Lily sag forward in the car seat without turning the key, rest her forehead
on the steering wheel. It was her complete certainty that if she drove anywhere now, she'd be a danger to herself and others.

“I'm sorry,” Eloise said, standing beside the car now, reaching through the open door to touch Lily's shoulder. “It's just—Oh, Lily,
please
don't take Tess away from me—Give me another chance—”

Slowly, Lily raised her head, turned, looked straight into Eloise's face. “How can I?” she asked. “How can I ever trust you to be alone with my child after—after—”

A tear slipped down Eloise's cheek. Tears were rare with her—she hadn't even cried at Burke's funeral. “Lily, give me another chance,” she whispered. “I'm begging you. I lost Burke. I can't lose Tess, too.
I can't.
”

Lily dried her eyes, sat up straight, took a few deep breaths. “Visit anytime,” she said very quietly. “We'll be in Stillwater Springs, Montana.” She'd be all right now. All right to drive, all right for the rest of her life. “First trailer on your right.”