True Colors (18 page)

“Hey,” she said.

He barely acknowledged her, just tilted his chin a little.

She sat down on the seat beside him, her heart aching for how hurt he felt right now. It was the same pain she’d felt since he first turned to Vivi Ann. “I’m here for you.”

He didn’t answer, didn’t even look at her, and something about that made her nervous.

She started to put her arm around him. “It’s all for the best, really. If she didn’t love you, you had to know that. Now you can go forward.”

He pushed her arm away.

“Luke?”

“Why did you tell me?”

“What? You had to know. What she was doing with that man was wrong. I knew how hurt you’d be.”

“Exactly.” He got up and walked over to the porch railing, putting as much distance between them as was possible. With his back to her, he stared out at his land.

“It’s not
my
fault, Luke. I wasn’t sleeping with him. I didn’t cheat on you and break your heart. What she did was wrong. Of course she got caught. I’m the one who is trying to help you. Look at me, Luke.”

He didn’t turn around. “Just go, Winona. I can’t talk to you now.”

She didn’t know how to react. None of this made sense to her. “But—”

“Go. Please.”

It was the
please
that grounded her. She’d come to him too soon; that was all. Of course he wasn’t ready for comforting yet. But he would be. Time healed all wounds. She just had to be patient. “Okay. I’m available anytime, though. Just call me if you need a friend.”

“A friend,” he said, putting a sharp, strange emphasis on the word.

She was halfway to the door when his voice stopped her.

“Was she at the parade?”

“No,” she said bitterly, looking back at him. “She chickened out.”

“Did she? You think?” He sighed, and still he didn’t turn around. “You shouldn’t have told me.”

“It broke my heart,” she said quietly, “seeing them in bed together. I knew what you’d think.”

“I love her.”

“Loved,” she corrected, reaching for the door. “And you didn’t even know her.”

Vivi Ann and Dallas got married in the Mason County Courthouse, with a justice of the peace presiding and a law clerk as witness. After the ceremony, they climbed into the truck and turned on the radio. The first song that blared through the speakers was Willie Nelson’s “My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys,” and Vivi Ann laughed and thought:
That will be our song.

All the way out of town and deep into the Olympic rain forest, they talked. When the sky turned dark and the road began to twist and turn, thrusting deep into the old-growth trees, they came to the lodge at Sol Duc, and there they rented a cabin.

“I guess we’re just a cabin couple,” Dallas said as he carried her over the threshold and into the piney-scented room. For four days they stayed in bed, making love, caressing, talking. Vivi Ann told Dallas everything there was to know about her—when she’d lost her virginity and to whom, how it had felt to lose her mother, why she loved Oyster Shores so much, and even what foods she despised. The more she talked with him, the easier he laughed, and it became a new addiction for her, this needing to make him smile.

On the fifth day, they hiked up the beautiful, rugged trails to the famous Sol Duc Falls. There, completely alone in the wild old-growth rain forest, with the sound of the falling water thundering around them and the air full of spray, they made love in a small clearing at the base of a two-hundred-year-old cedar tree.

“I’m wise to you, you know,” she said when they were done, resting her back on the mossy nurse log behind them.

He pulled out his pocketknife and began idly carving a heart in the tree’s ridged bark. “Oh, really?”

“I’ve told you everything there is to know about me and you haven’t told me a thing. Every time I ask you a question you kiss me.”

“That’s all that matters.” He carved his initials, then began on hers.

“But it isn’t. We’re married now. I have to be able to answer questions about you.”

“Are we signed up for
The Newlywed Game
or something?”

“Don’t make a joke. I’m serious.”

He finished the carving and put down his knife, looking at her finally. “If you saw someone standing on the edge of a cliff and you thought they were going to jump, what would you say?”

“I’d tell them to back away before they got hurt.”

“Step back, Vivi.”

“How can it hurt me to know you?”

“You might not like what you find out.”

“You have to trust me, Dallas, or we won’t be able to make this thing work.”

“Okay,” he said after a long silence. “Ask your questions.”

“Where were you born?”

“Big surprise: Dallas, Texas. My mom and dad met at a diner down there. She was living on the reservation with her sister.”

“What’s her name?”

“Her real name was Laughs Like the Wind. Her husband called her Mary. She’s dead now.”

“And your dad?”

“Alive.”

She touched the scars on his chest. In the fading light, they looked silvery, like skeins of broken fishing line embedded in his flesh. “How did you get these?”

“Electrical cords and cigarettes. The old man didn’t like to look for weapons.”

Vivi Ann flinched at that. “And your mom, did she—”

“That’s enough for now,” he said quietly. “How about we talk about something that really matters?” he asked when she leaned against him.

“Like?” She stared up through lacy evergreen fronds at slices of the purple sky.

“Winona.”

Vivi Ann sighed. They might not have talked about this in the past few days, but she’d thought about it. “She couldn’t stand what we—what
I
was doing to Luke and she snapped. Win’s always been a very black-and-white, right-and-wrong girl. I know I should be mad at her, and I am, but in the end, she helped me. How can I stay mad at someone when I’m married to you?”

“So you want to go back,” he said.

“It’s where I belong,” she said quietly. “Where I want you and our children to belong.”

“It won’t be easy. People will talk.”

“They always do, and I’ve finally given them something to talk about.”

“I love you, Vivi,” he said, and in his voice was a surprising intensity. It scared and thrilled her at the same time. “I won’t let anyone hurt you. Not even Winona.”

She laughed. “Don’t worry, Mr. Raintree. We Greys are ranchers. We know how to mend our fences.”

On the first Saturday in September, Winona woke well before dawn and dragged her tired ass to the ranch. On the way there, she picked up Aurora, who managed to look completely put together at this ungodly hour.

“I can’t believe she’s still not home,” Aurora said as they pulled up to the farmhouse.

“She wants us to sweat a few bullets. It’s working, too. Dad is realizing how much he needs her around here.”

“That’s not how she thinks.”

“You’re assuming she does think.”

Aurora rolled her eyes. “God, you can be a bitch. So, after all this, how’s Luke? Has he promised his undying love yet?”

Winona slammed on the brakes hard enough to shut her sister up. “The cookie dough is in the fridge. Make as many as you can, and then take all the food to the cook shack.”

“Aye, aye.” Aurora got out of the car and disappeared into the house.

Winona found her dad in the arena, grooming the dirt for today’s jackpot. She waved at him and headed up into the announcer’s booth, where she started setting up the PA system.

For the next few hours, she went through her list of tasks, making sure the barrier was set up, the timers were in place, the steers were brought in, their horns were wrapped, and the microphone worked. By ten o’clock she was in the announcer’s booth again, surrounded by entry forms, trying to organize the teams for the first go-rounds. Worse than all that was the handicapping. Each roper had a skill level, assigned by the roping association, and all those numbers had to be added up, handicapped, and assigned to the right team so that the roping results would be fair. You needed a damned Ph.D. in math to figure it all out.

The door to the announcer’s booth opened with a little puff of dust and her dad stood there, looking irritated. “What’s takin’ so long, Win? You got seven years of college. Do the danged math.”

“I can’t figure it out.”

“Them colleges are a waste.” He grabbed the cash box off the plywood desk and left the booth.

Winona followed him out to the parking area, where dozens of men on horseback were gathered.

“What’s up, Henry?” Deke asked, tipping the cowboy hat back on his head.

“We’re closin’ up today,” Dad said. “Everyone gets their money back. The handicappin’ is too much for Winona.”

She felt her face heat up.

He opened the cash box and had just begun to count out the money when another truck pulled into the lot. Winona was so focused on her own humiliation that it took her a second to realize that people were whispering Vivi’s name.

Winona looked up sharply, peered through the crowd.

It was Vivi Ann’s truck, all right.

The men on horseback twisted in their saddles to look. Winona’s first thought was:
Thank God
. Then she saw Vivi Ann and Dallas come forward, holding hands as if they were just an ordinary pair of lovers come to watch some team roping, and Winona knew this was going to be bad. In worn jeans and a wrinkled T-shirt, Vivi Ann managed to be so beautiful it almost hurt to look at her, and if she was sunlight, all glittering and golden, Dallas was shadow, cool and dark.

The crowd was eerily quiet, aware completely of what was going on. They were unsure of how to respond, especially the men, who tended to let women lead on matters such as these.

“Hey, Dad,” Vivi Ann said as if nothing were new. “Do you need my help?”

Dad paused just long enough to prove his anger, but not long enough to show a schism in the family. “You’re late,” he said, thrusting the cash box at her.

And just like that, Vivi Ann moved back into her place. The cowboys smiled down at her instantly, welcomed her home, while Dallas moved easily among them, giving advice to some of the younger guys.

Winona couldn’t believe it. All of that—the sex, the lying, the slap—and still Vivi Ann could waltz back into Water’s Edge and be welcomed.

Winona marched over to the cook shack, where Aurora was busy flipping burgers.

“You will not believe what just happened.”

Aurora turned to her. “What?”

“Vivi Ann came home. And she’s with Dallas.”

“Have they been together this whole time?”

“Who am I? Carnac the Magnificent? I don’t know, but they looked lovey-dovey.”

“This is going to be bad. Did you tell her you were sorry?”

“Me? She’s the one who started all this.”

“No,” Aurora said sternly. “You’re the problem.”

“How do you figure that? Did I fuck Dallas Raintree while I was engaged to Luke? Please, enlighten me with your superior brainpower, Aurora.”

“Luke is a friend, Winona. Vivi is family. When the chips were down, you chose Luke. The whole town knows it. How long did you wait before you told him and Daddy?”

“I’m not listening to this,” Winona said as she walked out of the cook shack.

In the arena, she felt suddenly conspicuous. As she looked around, she wondered what people were saying about her part in this. Once she began to worry about her reputation, she couldn’t stop. Climbing to the highest row of bleacher seats, she sat in the shadows until the roping ended and then went to the cook shack.

“That’s what the whole town is saying, huh? That I told Luke?”

Aurora turned off the griddle and wiped it down. “There are no secrets in a town like this.”

“It’s not fair. I did the right thing. People will see that in the end.”

Aurora sighed. “I’m going to find Vivi Ann. You coming? Or are you hiding out?”

Winona bit back a mean retort and followed her sister out to the parking area. The trucks and trailers were pulling out, moving up the driveway in a multicolored snake of traffic. When they were gone and the parking lot was empty of vehicles, Winona and Aurora were by the fence and Dad was standing near the loafing shed. All of them waiting.

Vivi Ann and Dallas strode toward them, hand in hand.

The five of them stood there, in the purplish falling night, surrounded by black fields and the sounds of horses moving back and forth along the fence and the tide ebbing back toward the sea.

“He ain’t welcome here,” Dad said.

Dallas moved closer to Vivi Ann, put his arm around her. “We got married.”

No one spoke; it felt for a moment as if time had stopped. Vivi Ann looked directly at Dad. “I want us to belong here, Dad, to keep running the ranch, but if you don’t want us . . .”

Winona knew then that Vivi Ann was far from dumb. She’d painted their father into a corner to get her way.

“I don’t suppose I have much choice now, do I?” he said. On that, he turned and went into the house, closing the door hard behind him.

Aurora moved forward and hugged Vivi Ann. “He’ll come around. Don’t worry.”

Vivi Ann clung to Aurora. “I hope so.”