Page 24 of Colorado Christmas Carol
“I can ride really well,” Mellie told her. “Daddy taught me. We used to live on a ranch.”
Nobody said anything. It was obvious that it was a painful subject, because talking ceased for a few poignant seconds.
“Where did you go riding?” Mellie asked her friend.
“Around here,” Essa said. “I grew up in Benton. Well, near Benton.”
“It’s pretty rural,” Duke replied.
“Yes, and small towns are like big families,” she said, smiling. “I’ve always loved living here.”
“No inclination to go to Denver and find some great fancy restaurant with a name nobody can pronounce?”
“None at all. I don’t want to live in a city. Not ever.”
“Why?” he wondered aloud.
She sighed. “I watch television occasionally. Detective shows, CSI, stuff like that. It seems to me that the best of the cities these days is the worst of humanity.”
Duke’s pale eyebrows lifted.
“I’m just one opinion,” she pointed out. “Everybody’s entitled to one.”
“Why aren’t you married?” he shot back.
She drew in a breath. “I’m not the sort of woman who attracts men,” she said with a shrug. “I don’t move with the times. I don’t watch much television, the subjects I’m interested in aren’t exactly party talk, and there’s a real limit to single men around here,” she finished.
“The streets are full of men,” he retorted.
“Sure. But most of them are married. The divorced ones run if you even look in their direction. The single ones mostly have two or three obliging friends, and the rest are gay.” She smiled. “I adore gay men.”
“They won’t marry you.”
She shrugged. “Big deal. They’re good company, and I don’t have to fight them off at my front door. Figuratively speaking. And should we be discussing this in front of you know who?” she added, jerking her head toward a fascinated Mellie.
“Are you kidding me?” Mellie burst out. “You should come to school with me. We got into a vivid discussion of sex right in my classroom until the teacher came back in and called the police! Daddy came and got me, and I got transferred to another school!”
Essa’s mouth was open. “You have got to be kidding me!”
“I wish she was,” Duke muttered. “Before that happened, one teacher corrected a student and wound up in the hospital fighting for her life.”
“This is not how things happen in Benton,” Essa said on a harsh breath.
“Not when I went to school, either.” He laughed. “My teacher kissed her boyfriend outside the classroom and my dad called a conference with the teacher and the principal. She was disciplined. That’s how school worked when I was in grammar school. These days, it’s unreal what kids go through to get an education.”
“He tried to put me in a private school, but I wouldn’t go,” Mellie said with a grin. “I need to be street smart to live in the modern world!”
“Not that street smart,” he muttered, glaring at her.
“I don’t blame you,” Essa told him. She shook her head. “I still can hardly believe what’s going on in the world today.”
“My grandfather said that people born at the turn of the last century would run for their lives in any modern city. I guess he was right. It’s not the world that generation grew up in.”
“Times are just a lot harder,” Essa ventured. “It’s because we’re so connected. I mean, look at the tables next time you’re in our restaurant. Half the people there are staring transfixed into their cell phones. They come in with other people and never speak to them.”
“I have to agree,” Duke said. “The internet and social media have been both a blessing and a curse.”
“Mostly curse,” she replied.
