McKettricks of Texas: Garrett. Linda Miller Lael

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      Let’s see. She could move in with Paige, who was in the process of renovating the small house they’d all grown up in, rent by the week at the seedy Amble On Inn on the edge of town, or make an offer on the Arnette farm, which was almost as much of an eyesore as the Wilkes’s junkyard.

      A fixer-upper, Suzanne would call it.

      In Julie’s opinion, the only hope of making that old dump look better was a bulldozer.

      For the time being, she’d have to stay on at the Silver Spur.

      Darn.

      Remembering the time, Julie checked her watch and turned to head back to her car. Calvin was in another mood, and she’d had to cajole him into getting out of bed, eating his breakfast, finding his backpack.

      By the time she’d dropped him off at Libby’s, so he could ride to school with the twins, Julie had been working on a mood of her own.

      “You think about making an offer, now!” Suzanne called after her.

      Julie waved, got back into her car and headed for Blue River High.

      Okay, so the day was definitely going in the downhill direction, she thought, as she pulled into the teachers’ lot and spotted a shiny blue SUV over in visitors’ parking. Things could still turn around, if she just looked on the bright side, counted her blessings.

      She had a wonderful, healthy son.

      She had a job she loved, even if it was a bummer sometimes.

      And, yeah, someone might come along and buy the cottage right out from under her and Calvin, but given the economic slowdown, selling would probably take a while. In the meantime, she and her little boy had a roof over their heads, and for the first time in Julie’s life, thanks to a fluke, she had money in the bank.

      A person didn’t have to look far to see that a lot of other people weren’t so fortunate. The Strivens family, for instance.

      Julie parked the Cadillac, grabbed her tote bag and her lunch, and got out.

      While she was locking up, she saw the driver’s-side door of the strange blue SUV swing open.

      Gordon Pruett got out.

      She barely recognized him, with his short haircut, chinos and polo shirt. A commercial fisherman by trade, Calvin’s father had always been a raggedy-jeans-and-muscle-shirt kind of guy.

      Julie’s stomach seemed to take a bungee jump as she watched the man she’d once loved—or believed she loved—strolling toward her as though they both had all the time in the world.

      Like Calvin’s, Gordon’s eyes were a piercing ice-blue, and both father and son had light blond hair that paled to near silver in bright sunshine.

      “Hello, Julie,” Gordon said. He was tanned, and a diamond stud sparkled in the lobe of his right ear, making him look something like a pirate.

      “Gordon,” Julie managed, aware that she hadn’t moved since spotting him moments before. “What are you doing here? Why didn’t you call?”

      “I did call,” Gordon answered mildly, keeping his distance, squinting a little in the dazzle of a fall morning. “I’ve e-mailed, too. Multiple times, in fact. You’ve been putting me off for a couple of months now, Jules, so I figured we’d better talk in person.”

      Julie sighed. Her throat felt dry and raw, and her knees were wobbly, insubstantial. “Calvin isn’t ready to see you,” she said.

      “If that’s true,” Gordon responded, “I’m more than willing to wait until he is ready. But are you sure our son is the reluctant one, Julie? Or is it you?”

      Tears of frustration and worry burned in her eyes. She blinked them away, at the same time squaring her shoulders and stiffening her spine. “Calvin is barely five years old,” she replied, “and you’re a stranger to him.”

      “I’m his father.”

      Julie closed her eyes for a moment, drew a deep, deep breath, and released it slowly. “Yes,” she said. “You’re his father—biologically. But you didn’t want to be part of Calvin’s life or mine, remember? You said you weren’t ready.”

      Gordon might have flinched; his reaction was so well-controlled as to be nearly invisible. Still, there had been a reaction. “I regret that,” he said. “But I’ve taken care of Calvin, haven’t I? Kept up the child support payments? Let you raise him the way you wanted to?”

      Julie’s throat thickened. She swallowed. Gordon wasn’t a monster, she reminded herself silently. Just a flesh-and-blood man, with plenty of good qualities and plenty of faults.

      “I have classes to teach,” she said at last.

      “Buy you lunch?”

      The first-period bell rang.

      Julie said nothing; she was torn.

      “I could meet you somewhere, or pick up some food and bring it here,” Gordon offered.

      Already hurrying away, Julie finally nodded her agreement. “The Silver Dollar Saloon makes a decent sandwich,” she called back. “It’s on Main Street. I’ll meet you there at eleven-thirty.”

      Gordon smiled for the first time since the encounter had begun, nodded his head and returned to the SUV.

      Julie normally threw herself into her English classes, losing all track of time, but that day she simply couldn’t concentrate. When lunchtime came, she grabbed her purse and fled to the parking lot, drove as fast as the speed limit allowed to the Silver Dollar.

      Gordon’s SUV was parked in the gravel out front; she pulled the battered Caddie up beside his vehicle, shaking her head as she looked over at his ride. Although he’d made a good living as a fisherman, Gordon had never cared much about money, not when she knew him, anyway. Instead of working another job during the off-season and saving up to buy a bigger boat, or a starter house, or—say—an engagement ring, as some of his friends would have done, Gordon had partied through every nickel he earned. By the time he went back to sea, he was not only broke, but in debt to his father and several uncles besides.

      The SUV looked fairly new.

      His clothes, while nothing fancy, were good.

      Obviously, Gordon had grown up—at least a little—since the last time Julie had seen him.

      Now, reflecting on these things, she steeled herself as she walked up to the door of the Silver Dollar, started a little when it opened before she got hold of the handle.

      Gordon stood just over the threshold, in the sawdust and peanut shells that covered the floor, acting for all the world like a gentleman.

      Maybe he truly had changed. For Calvin’s sake, she hoped so.

      She swept past him, waited for her eyes to adjust to the change of light.

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