Sid put the coffee down in front of Dakota. “And that’s at least the second dinner she hasn’t paid for. Maybe third. That’s quite a racket—get your feelings hurt and storm out. Without paying.”

“Glad I parked under the light out front,” he said. “Your car. Where is it?”

She chewed her lip. “I left it at Rob’s and walked to work. The boys are home. The sun will be up for another hour. All the neighbors are out on their porches and in their gardens. Surely everything will be all right?”

“Her confidence is chilling,” he said. “She’s got a story for everything and then a story for every story. What the hell does she really want?”

“You, I think.”

“Nah, that’s too simple. With her looks and apparent money, she could find a guy who has a lot more to show for his life than I do.”

“Oh, Dakota,” she said with a headshake and a smile, wondering when was the last time he looked in the mirror. “I’m not going to flatter you.”

“Good, then could I have a club sandwich with chips and a cold beer?”

“Yes, you can. And I told Rob a little about her. I told him it appeared she was stalking you but there didn’t seem to be proof.”

“Any chance he’s going home to have dinner with his boys?”

“I could ask,” she said.

“You might want to tell him that I just pissed her off and to check on your car.”

* * *

As July passed, Tom and Lola planned a family gathering—Lola’s sons and parents and her sister’s family; Tom, his kids, his parents, brother and brother’s family. It was a very large group and there was a purpose. So they put out two grills and Lola made extralarge salads and a big pot of beans and got the families together. And made their announcement. They planned to combine their households in the fall.

“Why the fall?” Tom’s mother asked.

“Once all the kids are in school and we have a good fix on where everyone is headed for the year, we’re going to reconfigure bedrooms. Jackson is going to be living in an apartment in Denver, Cole is taking a dorm room at the university, Nikki is saving for a dorm suite with her girlfriends, Trace is starting at the community college and Brenda is entering her senior year of high school. We think we can combine households here without crowding too much,” Tom said.

“Except it won’t be our house,” Trace muttered under his breath.

Tom seemed to be the only one who heard him, but Tom was an expert and well practiced in hearing the mutterings of kids even in a noisy house. He heard Trace say he didn’t want to live in a big house with a ton of people and at some point maybe he’d go live with his dad.

Other than that, there seemed to be a real air of celebration. The families had known each other for years. They hadn’t been close exactly, but when you grow up in a small town, you tend to know at least a little bit about a lot of people. Tom’s parents and brother were delighted that at long last he was settling down with a woman he could actually share his life with. Lola’s parents were thrilled that after so many years of raising her sons on her own, working two jobs and managing her home, she would have a partner she could hopefully grow old with. Tom’s family liked and admired Lola; Lola’s family liked and admired Tom.

Everyone seemed to have a wonderful time; there was a great deal of laughter and a few stories were told about Tom and Lola growing up. When the guests had all departed, when the kids finished their chores and Cole and Trace had gone back home to Lola’s house, Lola and Tom finished the dishes that were left.

“We have a small problem, I think,” Tom said.

“Trace,” she replied.

“So you know?” Tom asked.

“There’s been a little grumbling. I can’t really explain it because I know he likes you. He doesn’t disapprove of us.”

“Then let me handle this. Just let me try, and if I run into trouble I’ll back off.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I’m not sure. I think he has some anxiety about a lot of things. Starting college. His brother leaving home. You giving up your house, which has always been his home base. Not just his home, but his security. He might be asking himself, what will happen if you give up your house, move in here and it doesn’t work out? Then what?”

“I told him we’ve talked about that—that I’m not going to be without a home. That I’ll never be without a home. That we hope to buy and sell more homes, maybe keep my house as a rental. That when we combine households we combine everything and you would never leave me broke and homeless. And he asked me how I knew that and I said that I knew you. And sadly, I didn’t really know his father that well. I thought Trace was adjusting to the idea.”

“Well, the kids come first,” Tom said. “Let me talk with Trace. Maybe I can put his mind at ease.”

“I’m sorry, Tom,” she said.

He put his arms around her and she rested her head on his shoulder. “Shh. You don’t have anything to be sorry about. Six kids, Lola.” He laughed. “If you think they’ll stop throwing us a curve now and then after we get married, you’re naive.” He kissed her cheek. “I’m surprised it wasn’t Brenda.”

“Why Brenda?”

“Oh, she’s the most like her mother and a little spoiled. Fortunately for us, Brenda’s dying to share space with Nikki. Nikki has great clothes. And Trace is a handsome kid. Great selling point.”

“Oh God, what if—”

“Don’t borrow trouble.”

“I just had a shudder run through me,” she said, leaning against him again.

“They’re fourteen to twenty-one. We’re going to shudder a lot for about ten more years. Then we get to start shuddering over the grandkids.”

Make yourself necessary to somebody.

—RALPH WALDO EMERSON

15

FOR A WEEK or two, Neely seemed to have disappeared. She didn’t come in the bar, didn’t bother either Sid or Dakota, wasn’t seen around town. Dakota wondered if all that had been required was for him to be very stern, very unapproachable. He did check around his cabin for signs of footprints, tire tracks or other disturbances, and he looked through his surveillance video. He looked quickly, but he looked.

“She doesn’t live in Timberlake,” he said to Sid. “Maybe she’s wandered off to greener pastures.”

“Didn’t she say she was invested in businesses around here?” Sid asked.

“Yeah, she said that,” he answered, smiling. “So what? She said a lot of things.”

“I’m going to look up business licenses in Timberlake,” Sid said.

“Would that necessarily show you investment partners?”

“I’m very good,” she said. “If there’s a record, I can find it.”

“Let’s not obsess about this. I just want her to go away without leaving a trail of destruction.”

“And I want to be ready, if she happens to come back. She hasn’t bothered your sister, has she?”

“I’ve only seen Sierra twice since the Fourth. She was fighting off some stomach thing and said not to come near her in case she was contagious, but she’s fine now. You ask me? I think she’s exhausted. Sam is awesome but he’s a handful. He’s crawling. And waking up very early in the morning and not wanting to go to bed at night.”

“We all need to get together,” she said. “Maybe on the weekend?”

“Sure. But I have to tell you, I really like being in a routine with you. We can both work, see each other regularly, there haven’t been any surprises...”

“It’s only been a little while.”

“But it’s been good,” he said. “What would you say if I told you I don’t need much more than this to be completely happy for the rest of my life?”

“I’d say, I’m not ready to talk like that,” she said.

“All right. But can I talk like that?”

“You said you weren’t ready to put down roots.”

“I’m pretty surprised by how much I enjoy being around Cal and Maggie and Elizabeth as well as Sierra’s sudden family. I kind of feel like this place is peaceful enough to calm the inner beast. I could live and work here. I’d like to see this place in winter. Do you ski?”

“Me?” She laughed. “You saw the leg, Dakota. I missed that stage.”

“I could teach you. I bet Rob and the boys ski.”

“You want to haul trash for the rest of your life?” she asked. “Because I don’t want to be a bartender forever.”

“What do you want to be?” he asked.

“I have a few other skills. In fact, my old boss called me. I’ve been trying to help him with a programming issue long-distance but I think I should go back to my old lab, work with him for a few days. It would be good in a number of ways. It would tell me some things about myself—like how over it am I? Do I really want to move on to something new? Am I fully healed from my bad experience and my awful divorce?”

“Tell me the truth, Sid—do you need to find out if you should run away from me?”

“Oh, Cody, no,” she said. “You’re the best guy I’ve ever had in my life! Not that there were many. I’m so crazy about you. It’s just that... Well, there’s just this one thing. I don’t want you to rescue me.” She put her palms on his cheeks. “I want to rescue myself.”

He was quiet for a moment. “I’m not sure I get it.”

“I know,” she said. “I can’t really be with you until I’m sure of who I am. And who I am is more complicated than you realize.”

“Try me,” he said. “I come from a wacko family, my sister is in the hospital on drugs to calm her frazzled head, I’ve been in military jail—you have no idea how much I can understand.”