Page 71 of Silent Deception
“Do you know why we failed with each other? Do you know why you and Ryan are forever at odds?”
She and Ryan had both been defiant. Outspoken. Independent to a fault, but it would do no good to dredge up those flaws now. She was dying and Ryan was leaving, and soon there would be an empty place in his life that no one else could fill.
“It’s because the three of us areexactlyalike. Too strong, too opinionated, too intelligent to be fooled. Too unwilling to bend. Indomitable forces that were never in agreement about anything.”
Adelfa brought in a tray of coffee and set it on a side table, then quietly shut the door as she left.
Charlotte went over to the tray and gave Clint a cup, then took one herself. “Do you remember Ryan when he was a little boy? If he set his sights on doing something, he couldn’t be swayed. He lost a new kite up in a tree one spring. You’d just bought it for him and you werefurious.You ordered him to the house, but he went right back outside and worked at getting that kite down for over an hour, because it was too far out on those high, fragile branches for him to reach. He wouldn’t give up, and when he fell out of the tree with the kite in his hands, he broke his wrist. He was six years old.”
“Why didn’t you stop him?”
“I was making supper at the time and didn’t realize he’d gone back outside. Trevor spilled the beans while we were waiting at the ER” She set her coffee aside. “It was always like that—you making demands, Ryan being defiant. I heard about what happened with the Cantrell girl back when he was in college, by the way, so I know why Ryan left Texas and never moved back.”
The room felt warmer. The collar of Clint’s shirt felt itchy and tight. “I did the right thing then, too. She was wrong for him. Wrong for this family.”
“Wrong for you and your political ambitions, you mean.” You thought Kristin wasn’t good enough for Ryan because of her father, yet you hired the man later.”
“Being hired on is hardly the same as forming a permanent family connection,” Clint snapped.
Charlotte sighed wearily. “I need to go lie down awhile. But think about what I’ve said, because whether you want it or not, I’m going to set the record straight for our sons before I die. And if you’re man enough, you’ll be there to help me tell them.”
* * * *
“HI, SWEETIE. IS YOURmomma there?”
Cody smiled at the sound of RaeJean’s voice on the phone. She had weird hair and fingernails like an assassin’s weapons, but she was funny and nice, and she’d baked his favorite cookies every time he’d been to her house. “She’s out feeding the horses.”
RaeJean fell silent for a second, then chuckled. “You can write her a note so you won’t forget this, right? I decided to take Friday off and spend a three-day weekend in Fredericksburg with some friends. I’ve got to leave in a few minutes.”
He reached for a pad of paper and a pencil on the kitchen counter. “Yes, ma’am.”
“Okay. Your momma asked me about a car—shiny blue-green. I knew I’d seen one like that around here, and I just remembered where. I saw it once on Main Street. It was such a glittery, gorgeous color—like the deepest water of the ocean—that I watched and watched for it to come back through town again. One day it did, and it parked right down the street in front of Leland Simpson’s office. He’s that lawyer in town, you know. Tall, good-looking man.”
Cody chewed on the end of the pencil and fidgeted, realizing that this could take a very long time, and hereallyhad to go to the bathroom fast before Trevor and Hayden came to pick him up.
“...so I just trotted over there, quick as a jackrabbit,” RaeJean continued, “because from a distance I thought I saw a For Sale sign in the back window. Only it was just a stack of papers. Turns out the driver was the lawyer’s nephew, which is why I saw that car in town a time or two, and I fell in love with it more each time. I haven’t seen it in ages, though. That boy said he liked to race it on the back roads, so I expect it’s long gone by now—probably totaled. And of course, it might not have been the right shade of green after all.”
“Uh-huh.”
“So, did you get that written down, honey? I know your momma wants to know.”
A race car, here in this little town. Cool.Cody stared down at the blank piece of paper, unsure of what he ought to write down and afraid she’d say every word again if asked. So he said goodbye then dropped the pencil and raced for the bathroom.
He’d tell Mom about the car when he got home from Hayden’s house.
* * * *
HE AND HAYDEN HAD STARTEDbeing friends because of football, but both of them had gotten sorta tired of it and now they mostly got together just to hang out. When Ryan was around they tossed the football back and forth with him, but there were other cool things at the ranch.
He and Hayden played explorers in the barn’s huge loft sometimes. Alien invaders. There were all those kittens, too. Today was the day Target—because of the bull’s-eye on her side—would be old enough to take home, which was why Trevor and Hayden had offered to pick him up after school.
But right now, the kittens had all disappeared.
“I’ll check the next barn if you want to look in here,” Hayden called out. “Then we can go search the cattle sheds.”
There were two huge barns with horses in box stalls, but this was Cody’s favorite, with its fancy office, and the big glass window that looked out into the riding arena. Ryan was usually easy to find because he was either working in the office or on a horse in the arena.
Down both sides of the long aisle in the barn, the front of each stall was polished wood paneling halfway up, topped with iron bars so the horses could look out and people could look in. Cody hopped up and down in front of each stall, trying to see if the kittens were inside. No luck. Not in the feed room or the hay storage area, either.
