Sage Creek (6 page)

Probably on their way to the Half Moon Campground off Big Timber Canyon Road,
Sophie thought.

Her mother had mentioned that more tourists were discovering Lonesome Way as they wove their way through the state headed either toward or home from one of the national or state parks, monuments, or campgrounds.

Suddenly, Sophie saw something that made her blink. One moment she was sitting in Roy’s with its picture windows and old vinyl booths, and everything looked just the same as it always had. Then, in an instant, another image flashed through her mind.

She glimpsed something fresh in this old, familiar western diner. A flicker of air, color, light, smells.

A possibility. Something new. Something
hers.

Then, as quickly as it had flickered in her mind, like a firefly, it was gone.

“Look who’s here.” Sophie was yanked back to the familiarity of Roy’s as the bell over the door tinkled and Mia Quinn stepped in. She swooped toward their booth with a grin.

“Well, take a look at you!” Mia hugged her excitedly. “I was planning to call and see if you wanted to head over to the Double Cross for a drink tonight. You too,” she told Lissie. “Except for the drink part.”

“I’ll have you know I’m rocking decaf sweet tea these days,” Lissie retorted. “Although by the time I get home and throw supper together tonight, I think I’ll have spent my daily quotient of energy.”

Sophie slid over on the seat so Mia could sit beside her.

“How can I help with the baby shower?”

“Let me count the ways. Starting with baked goods for the brunch. We can figure out the menu and other stuff later when a certain someone isn’t here.” Mia glanced pointedly at Lissie. She was a fifth grade schoolteacher now, but at just a smidge over five foot three, her figure was still as voluptuous as a stripper’s, and her short blond hair framed an adorably kittenish face. She waited as Lil arrived with Sophie and Lissie’s lunch, then ordered the tuna salad platter.

“We need to brainstorm games, theme, and decoration,” she told Sophie, ticking them off on her fingers. “I have a few ideas, but we can work out the deets at the Double Cross later.”

“Hold on a minute,” Lissie protested. “This shower isn’t a secret. Why can’t we talk about it now? Nothing needs to be a surprise.”

“Well, the sex of the baby isn’t a surprise, not these days—and certainly not in your case, so
something
has to be,” Sophie pointed out.

“It’ll be more fun this way,” Mia added as her root beer arrived in a cool frosty brown glass.

When Ivy came in, they waved her over.

Everyone wanted to see her purchases, and she produced them dutifully, but she was quiet, Sophie noticed. Much more quiet than she’d been this morning.

“Everything okay, Ives?” Lissie asked at one point as Ivy silently chewed a bite of her burger and washed it down with a gulp of Coke.

“Yeah, why?”

“For someone who just scored all these great clothes, you don’t seem too happy.”

Two spots of color tinted the center of the girl’s golden cheeks. “I’m fine.” There was a hint of defensiveness in her tone. She picked up her burger again, then set it down. “I’m just thinking about all the homework I’m going to have this year. Susie Tyler told me there’s going to be
tons
of homework.”

“If you ever need any help, call me,” Mia offered.

“Okay. Thanks.” A halfhearted smile, then Ivy ducked her head. Lissie and Sophie exchanged glances.

“Did something happen over at Top to Toe? I thought you were looking forward to sixth grade,” Lissie murmured.

“I was. I am.” Ivy pushed her plate away. “I’m not really hungry right now,” she muttered, not looking at anyone. “Can I wait outside, please, Aunt Liss?”

“Sure, honey bunch. Unless you want some dessert—”

But she was already scurrying toward the door, clutching her shopping bag. The bell above the door chimed once more as Ivy escaped onto Main Street.

“Oh, boy, here we go.” Lissie sighed. “The dreaded teenage years. She’s not even twelve yet, and already the moodiness is creeping in. Poor Rafe.”

Poor Rafe.
Sophie couldn’t begin to picture Rafe Tanner raising an eleven-year-old daughter. She tried to remember what had gone wrong between him and his ex-wife, but it had all happened while she was busy with her own life—married to Ned, living in San Francisco—and the details were vague. Something about the wife— Lynnette? Lynelle?—running off, abandoning him and their daughter.

How could any woman leave her own child?
Sophie wondered.
Or was it Rafe she was running from?

She had no idea what kind of man Rafe had become. In high school, he’d roamed from one girlfriend to the next like a horse grazing in a well-watered field. Immature and pleasure-seeking.

She’d seen him only that one time after he’d graduated from Lonesome Way High, the time when she was fifteen and trudging home from Cougar Rock in the heat of summer, wearing shorts and a tank top, sweaty and furious as she headed toward the main road and home.

She’d broken up with her high school boyfriend up at Cougar Rock that day, and he’d been such a jerk about it that she’d refused to get in his truck and let him drive her home.

He’d roared off, angrier than a grizzly with a sore tooth, and Sophie had begun the walk home beneath a broiling sun. It was only five miles, no big deal, but the sun was strong, and sweat trickled down her forehead and between her breasts, and she suddenly was thirsty. She’d lifted her hair off her nape for a cooling moment as she reached Squirrel Road, angling downhill finally—and had dug out a red plastic hair band from the pocket of her jeans, pausing a moment to secure her hair high off her neck.

She’d walked another two miles before Rafe Tanner sped past in his pickup. He blasted by in a blur, then, just as suddenly as he’d passed her, he slammed on his brakes and backed up.

“Sophie? What the hell are you doing out here in the middle of nowhere? You all right?”

“I’m fine. I like walking.” She brushed the sweat from her eyes with the back of her hand, wondering why it had to be Rafe instead of anyone else who happened upon her out here, a sunburnt, sweaty mess. He, on the other hand, looked more handsome than ever. Lissie had told her he was home on break from college. But what were the odds he’d be on Squirrel Road right now?

When she was twelve, and he’d gone off to college, she’d dreamed of running into Rafe when she was older, not a kid anymore. She’d seen herself wearing a sexy, low-cut top, snug-fitting jeans, and killer red heels.

Now instead of the annoying child who’d spied on him and his girlfriends, he was seeing a weird, sweaty girl whose nose was probably red and peeling, whose pale peach lip gloss had all but melted away, and whose faded blue top was sticking to her chest.

Go away,
Sophie thought miserably.
Just go away.

He was leaning out the driver’s side window, frowning at her.

“Get in, Soph.” Rafe reached over, pushed open the passenger-side door. “Come on, don’t argue. It’s hot as hell out here. I’m taking you home.”

“I like walking. It’s not that far.”

“Are you nuts? It’s another two miles to your place. You’re my sister’s best friend. If you think I’m leaving you out here in the middle of nowhere, you’re dead wrong. Get in.”

Those midnight blue eyes had pierced right through her, dissolving all of her willpower, and so she had. She forced herself to stare straight ahead as he put the car in gear and took off to the sound of Clint Black’s voice blasting from the radio.

If it had all stopped there, it wouldn’t have been so bad, but she’d made the situation worse. Much worse.

Rafe had driven her all the way to the Good Luck ranch, cruising up Daisy Lane until they were twenty feet short of her front door.

He’d only asked her one more time what she was doing all the way out there alone on Squirrel Road, and when she hadn’t answered, he’d let it go.

If she’d just climbed down from the pickup with a simple thank-you, it wouldn’t have been so bad.

“See you around, Sophie.” His voice had been easy, calm. And she’d made the mistake of looking at him just as he reached across her and opened the passenger-side door.

Something wild and daring broke loose inside her. Maybe it was all those fantasies she’d had about him when she was younger, but all Sophie knew was that the way she felt at that moment was not the least bit childlike.

She was intensely aware of Rafe beside her, of that long, sinewy, powerful body, and the clean grass and leather scent of him. Dark stubble fringed his jaw, and his dark hair was just long enough to brush the collar of his faded old black T-shirt.

But it was his eyes that drew her in, breaking down all her common sense and natural defenses.

They cut through her like blue razor wire. Later, she was certain they’d hypnotized her, because without thinking, she did the craziest thing she’d ever done in her life. She leaned over and kissed Rafe Tanner on the mouth.

For one surreal instant, his lips molded warm against hers. She felt lightning sizzling through her skin. And she could’ve sworn he felt it too. Then he must have remembered the age difference between them, or what a brat she’d been all the years he’d known her.

His entire body tensed and he jerked back suddenly, as if she’d burned him with her mouth, staring at her as if she’d dropped down through the roof of his truck, an alien from a faraway planet. His big hands gripped her arms, holding her at arm’s length and so tightly there was no chance she could move even an inch closer.

“Whoa, Sophie. What are you doing? That was real nice and all. But you’re fifteen. You’re just a kid—”

Mortification seared through her. She didn’t wait around to hear the rest. What she’d just done, and the expression of baffled sympathy on his face, brought her crashing back to reality, and she wrenched free, backward, scrambling out of the pickup so quickly she fell onto the gravel and scraped her knee.

She couldn’t remember later if she’d ever thanked him for bringing her home. She only remembered running, her legs pumping like pistons as she darted across the dirt, not looking back as she stumbled up her porch steps and burst into the house.

It was cool and quiet inside, and she was grateful with every fiber of her being that no one else was home.

No one would ever need to know what a fool she’d made of herself by kissing Rafe Tanner.

Except Rafe.

Now Sophie studied Rafe’s daughter as she dropped down onto the sidewalk outside of Roy’s, her shoulders hunched, her shopping bag from Top to Toe beside her, and her knees drawn up.

“Where’s Ivy’s mother?” she asked Lissie suddenly.

A dark look entered Lissie’s usually sparkling eyes. “Who the hell knows? Or cares?”

“Does she ever see her?”

“Not since the day Lynelle left.” Lissie stabbed the last of her coleslaw with her fork. “And for Ivy’s sake, let’s hope she stays away.”

Sophie wondered what had happened. Lissie was the kindest person she knew. The split must have been pretty ugly to get this kind of reaction.

It was none of her business though, she told herself. Rafe Tanner, his daughter, and his ex-wife were not her concern. Lil came up with their bill just then, and the moment was gone.

Chapter Five

It was Sophie who spotted the dog.

Lissie was tired by the time they drove home, and Ivy was quiet, locked in her own thoughts. Sophie had just turned the Blazer onto Thunder Ridge, only a half mile from Lissie’s house. She’d been thinking about Roy’s Diner closing. And about needing a job.

And was musing over the possibility that had come to her in a momentary flash.

Thanks to California’s divorce laws, she’d had to give Ned fifty percent of the money from the sale of Sweet Sensations.

There was enough left to last her for a while, but not forever.

She needed to work.

But not just for the money. She missed baking and she missed the little shop she’d opened years ago, all by herself. Sweet Sensations had evolved into something much bigger and very different by the time she sold it. It had been so long since she’d talked to customers, learned their names, actually fed people, instead of dealing with contracts and managers.

She missed the cozy warmth of a place where people came to meet and relax or to buy themselves a treat before going to work or school.

She wanted that again. The smell of fresh dough and chocolate and cinnamon. The hustle and bustle, chatter and laughter.

Something more and bigger in her life than the sum of her own problems.

That’s when she saw the dog.

He was small, a black and brown mutt with white feet and a sad little stump of a tail, walking all alone. His head was hanging down as he trudged aimlessly down the center of the road.