Under the Open Sky (Montana Heritage Series) (47 page)

             
“Sterling! What are you doing up?” Naomi rushed to his side.              

             
“Reclaiming my manhood,” Sterling leaned on the table but looked determined. After dinner, Amanda stood and cleared the table. Sterling, holding the wall for support, insisted on moving to the living room.

             
They were going to have to get him a cane or something, Amanda realized.

            
 
“Go on home, Amanda; you’ve been here all day,” Naomi ordered after she had made certain Sterling was situated in his recliner.

             
“I think I will,” Amanda nodded; she felt as though she could go on to bed. Amanda gathered her and Cadey-Lynn’s things and walked the distance between the main house and her own little corner of the ranch. The night was chilly, prompting her to make certain Cadey-Lynn’s blankets were firmly over the child, and to pick up her pace. She soon had Cadey-Lynn in the tub, her little arms splashing as she squealed happily. When water splashed into her eyes, she blinked in shock and Amanda laughed as she reached for a rag to wipe the water from her daughter’s face.

             
“Oh, Cadey-Lynn, your daddy would love you so much,” she leaned forward to kiss her daughter’s forehead. “Can you believe Mommy will be a whole twenty years old, next week?” Amanda lifted her daughter and wrapped her in a towel. “And I’m already mommy to the best little girl in the whole world.”

             
Amanda dressed Cadey-Lynn for bed, fed her, and put her down for the night. Amanda took the baby monitor to the couch with her and found an old romantic comedy on one of the movie networks. She laughed as she watched the interplay between Katherine Hepburn and Carey Grant. If only life were as neat and tidy as the movies, she mused wistfully. Sometime later Amanda woke and wiped tears from her eyes. She had been dreaming of Cade. Amanda stood and moved to the kitchen to pour a glass of juice before she returned to the couch. A knock on her door brought her back to her feet.

             
“Jenny? What are you doing here?”

             
“I left for your house right after your brother dropped me off,” she admitted.

             
“Come in,” Amanda smiled. “How was it?” she asked, though her friend’s bright eyes suggested it had gone well.

             
“Oh, Mandy,” Jenny sighed, her eyes dreamy. “We had a wonderful time.”

             
“Good, was my brother a gentleman?” Amanda asked, and watched her friend scrunch her face up.

             
“Yes, though given it was our first date, I’ll forgive him,” she joked. Amanda picked up a pillow from beside her and walloped her friend.

             
“Didn’t you learn anything from me?” Amanda demanded.

             
“Yes, grab life while you can.”

             
“Well, not exactly what I was thinking but I suppose there is a grain of truth in that,” Amanda smiled at her friend. “So tell me all about it,” Amanda invited. She listened for the next hour as best friend poured over the events of the evening and began analyzing and over thinking everything until she was pacing the floor.

             
“He wanted to marry my sister; do you really think it could work for us?” Jenny stopped to question Amanda.

             
“I think it could,” Amanda nodded.

             
“I hope so,” Jenny sank onto the couch.

Twenty-Eight

              Amanda watched her father gain strength as Cadey-Lynn gained mobility; first rolling herself over to smile brilliantly at anyone who would take notice. Then scooting, her long skinny legs pushing her off the edge of her blanket as little hands reached for items Amanda didn’t see until they were on their way to a curious mouth.

             
“The bug doesn’t taste good does it?” Amanda asked of her daughter as wiped her mouth free of bug. “Yuck, Cadey-Lynn.”

             
Cadey-Lynn shook her head and tried to avoid her mother’s hands.             

             
“She’s as stubborn as you ever thought of being,” Sterling accused.

             
“I don’t doubt it,” Amanda placed her daughter back on the blanket.

             
“She’s growing fast,” Sterling noted.

             
“Yes, she is,” Amanda smiled and grabbed Cadey-Lynn’s favorite stuffed animal to place it next to her daughter. “Dr. Connors seems pleased with your progress,” Amanda commented.

             
“It’s slower than I would like.”

             
“Daddy, you had a stroke; you don’t just bounce back from that,” Amanda informed her father.

             
“I need to be running my ranch,” he growled.

             
“Trent does very well because you taught him well.”

             
“He’s stubborn and hot headed,” Sterling accused.

             
“Well, now, I wonder where he got that from?” Amanda demanded. Her father’s words were barely slurred now; Amanda felt relief every time he spoke.

             
“Girl, you are twice as sassy as your mother ever thought of being,” Sterling shot at her.

             
“It comes from living with two stubborn, hot headed mules,” Amanda claimed and watched a smile tug at her father’s mouth, though he was trying to stop it.

             
“Cadey-Lynn, what do you have now,” Amanda scooped her daughter off the blanket. “I swear child, you have microscopic vision. I keep thinking she’s going to take off crawling at the rate she’s going.”

             
“She does seem to want to be mobile,” her father agreed.

             
“Hey, Mandy, Naomi and I are back if you need to get going,” Trent offered. He and Naomi had gone for groceries. They were no longer sitting with Sterling around the clock, but they weren’t leaving him all alone either.

             
“Thanks, Trent; you have a date tonight?” she asked as she started gathering Cadey-Lynn’s things. Trent entered the room to scoop his niece up before he answered.

             
“Yes,” he then turned his attention to Cadey-Lynn. “Hey beautiful, are you Uncle Trent’s girl?” Trent lifted her shirt and blew raspberries on Cadey-Lynn’s tummy. Cadey-Lynn’s laughter peeled through the house.

             
Amanda was folding Cadey-Lynn’s blanket and smiling at her brother.

             
“When are you going to start dating, Mandy?” her brother queried.

             
“There’s only one man I’m interested in dating,” Amanda reached for her daughter.

             
“Come on, Mandy; are you going to spend the rest of your life alone?”

             
“I can if I choose to,” Amanda grabbed Cadey-Lynn’s bag and left the house; she didn’t bother to say goodbye. She felt tears sting her eyes. It had been over a year since Cade left, she should be past this by now.

             
Amanda decided she had to get away, just for a little while and started packing Cadey-Lynn’s diaper bag. After loading enough that it felt as though she were moving, Amanda placed Cadey-Lynn in her car seat and drove to the mall in Haddon. She found herself wandering aimlessly around the mall with no real interest in shopping.

             
When she found herself watching a tall dark handsome cowboy she shook her head. He bore just enough resemblance to Cade to make her heart clench. Based on the way he kept glancing back at Amanda, he probably thought she was flirting. Amanda stood and grabbed the handles of Cadey-Lynn’s stroller. Cadey-Lynn had plenty of clothes, as did she; there really was no reason to be here.

             
“What are we going to do with our selves Miss. Cadey-Lynn? We can’t sit in the house the rest of our lives,” Amanda asked her daughter as she fastened her back into the Jeep. Back at the ranch she walked down to the barn and flipped the lights on.

             
“Hi, Dandelion, we don’t see as much of each other do we?” Amanda rubbed her horse with her free hand. Dandelion stepped closer and nudged Amanda lightly. Cadey-Lynn squealed in delight and reached for the horse. To Dandelion’s credit, she tolerated it well.

             
“Gentle, Cadey-Lynn,” Amanda flattened her daughter’s hand and rubbed it up and down Dandelion’s nose. Amanda walked around the barn telling her daughter all about horses, though she knew it meant little to her daughter.

             
“I have a lot of fond memories in this barn, Sweet Pea. Your daddy kissed me for the very first time in this barn. Well, I kissed him first, but he kissed me back. I knew I was in trouble then,” Amanda rambled. She finally closed up the barn and returned to the cabin and bathed her daughter for bed. After her daughter was down, Amanda turned the TV on and allowed herself to get lost in the plot of a movie.

             
The flash of headlights told her someone was there before footsteps sounded on the porch and Amanda stood to open the door as Jenny came up the steps.

             
“Hey, Jenny,” Amanda stepped back to let her friend in. It was nearly one in the morning; what was she doing here?

             
“Hi,” Jenny’s expression was an odd mixture of elation and hurt.

             
“What’s up, Jenny?” Amanda reseated herself on the couch as her friend paced the room.

             
“I slept with your brother,” she finally blurted.

             
“Okay, not a complete shock,” Amanda returned. “Are you disappointed? You don’t look altogether happy about this.”

             
“No, I’m not disappointed; I’m a little angry at him and I need you to tell me I am being unreasonable,” Jenny informed her as she finally settled into a chair.

             
“Perhaps you should tell me the problem first,” Amanda suggested. “Did he pressure you into it, did he hurt you?”

             
“No! Nothing like that. I was a very willing partner and he was…he didn’t hurt me.”

             
“Okay, so why are you upset?”

             
“He actually implied that he was surprised that I was a virgin!” Jenny came out of her seat. “What does he think I slept with every guy I dated? I thought he was teasing when he suggested I was a bad influence on you! If he thinks I’m that kind of girl why is he with me? Am I a nice distraction until somebody better comes along?” Jenny was pacing the floor again.

             
“I’m sure he didn’t mean it that way,” Amanda assured her friend. And if he had Amanda would kill him. When she presented the judge with the tally sheet of offenses that had finally driven her over the edge she was sure she would be acquitted. Still, for all of her brother’s short comings she couldn’t imagine her brother using Jenny that way.

             
“If he insulted you why did you sleep with him?”

             
“He waited until I was lying with my head on his chest thinking how nice it had been to go and make a comment like that! Then he says he has to be up early and he has to go and I’m left sitting in bed wondering if I just handed him something that meant nothing to him,” Jenny was starting to cry now.

             
“What did he say exactly?” Amanda demanded to know.

             
“’After the way you came on to me I wasn’t sure you were a virgin.’ What is that supposed to mean? I was trying to decide if I should be upset when he kissed me and said he had to go. I felt so brushed off,” Jenny sank onto a chair.

             
“He has to be in Missoula tomorrow morning, if that makes you feel any better.”

             
“I’m not sure it does.”

             
“Jenny, Trent has never been good at communication. He says stuff without thinking about how it sounds.”

             
“Cade seemed to communicate with you just fine,” Jenny sniffed.

             
“When he communicated. Most the time I was left wondering what he was thinking. He communicated more with me in letters than he ever actually said to me. I’m sure Trent wasn’t trying to brush you off, Jenny.”

             
“It felt that way.”             

             
Amanda sighed. She didn’t know what to say.

             
“I’ll be right back,” Amanda excused herself. She topped the stairs and went her room to call her brother. Jenny was going to be pissed at her but the only way Jenny would get answers was to ask questions. She checked in on her daughter and returned downstairs.