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“I hope you’re right. Sometimes I have my doubts.” Jess suppressed the urge to ask whether Cooper had stopped by the bakery. Even if he had, she’d instructed her friend not to tell her. To Wynette’s credit, she hadn’t asked why.
Nobody knew the reason Jess had moved out of Cooper’s house—not unless Cooper had told them. But Branding Iron was a small town, and sooner or later the rumors would start flying. When they did, Jess knew she would have to be prepared.
“So, Wynette, are you ready for your bridal shower tonight?” she asked, changing the subject.
“Ready as I’ll ever be.” Wynette grinned. “I can’t believe Buck’s sister would do this for me. So kind. Are you coming?”
“I wouldn’t miss it.” The shower would be a nice break, as long as she could dodge any personal questions that might come up—but never mind that. Tonight was all about Wynette and her wedding. Her own problems could wait.
Jess had almost finished her coffee when Buck walked into the bakery. He looked rumpled, red-eyed, and exhausted, as if he’d been awake all night.
“Hi, honey.” He leaned over the counter to give Wynette a quick peck, then turned toward Jess. “Hi, Jess. I saw your car outside and figured you might want to hear this.”
Jess rose to offer him the single chair, while Wynette poured coffee into a porcelain mug. Shaking his head, Buck declined both. “I can’t stay,” he said. “But I wanted to tell you that I’ve got Ed McCoy locked up in the jail again. Ruth’s pretty beat-up. Nothing broken, but she’s got a cracked rib and a lot of bruising where the bastard worked her over. I’ll be picking her up at the clinic and taking her home. Skip, her boy, is watching the little girls. He might not be in school today.”
“I’ll tell Skip’s teachers he has family responsibilities,” Jess said. “Blast that Ed. He needs to stay behind bars. But you know the old story. Ruth will show up tomorrow and take him home.”
“Not this time,” Buck said. “Ruth told me to file charges and keep him in jail long enough for her to get away. She’s leaving him and taking the girls to her sister’s house. While she’s there, she says, she’ll be talking to a lawyer.”
Jess’s throat tightened. This was what she’d told Ruth to do. “What about Skip?”
“As long as Ed’s in jail, Skip should be all right in the house. If there’s a problem, he says that Abner would take him in. The house belongs to Ruth. She wants to come back when it’s safe. But she’ll need a lawyer to make sure Ed stays away for good.”
“So what’s going to happen with Ed?”
“Right now he’s sleeping it off. Once he sobers up, he’ll be charged and get his bail hearing. I’ll advise the judge to set bail high enough to keep him in lockup till his trial. That should give Ruth a few weeks to get everything in place.”
“And the trial? What happens there?” Jess asked.
“Ruth will have to testify. The photos I took of her should help. Assuming he’s found guilty, the sentence could be anything from time served to a couple of years. The important thing is keeping the family safe.”
“In that case . . .” Jess took one of her business cards from her purse and scrawled the number of the motel on the back. “Take this, Buck. If anyone in the family needs help, will you give me a call?”
“Sure.” He took the card. “Right now, I’ve got to go.” He glanced from Jess to his fiancée. “Not a word about this, you two. I don’t want anything getting out that could set that scumbag free. Understand?”
Jess nodded. Wynette crossed her heart over her pink smock. She loved a good story, but she knew how to keep a secret, especially where her future husband’s work was concerned.
Jess left right after Buck did. She needed to get to her office at the high school in time to clear Skip’s absence with his teachers. She wouldn’t give them any details, of course. Telling them that he was needed for an emergency at home should be enough.
Skip was showing signs of becoming a responsible young man. But with his home life in chaos, he was walking a tightrope. Keeping the boy headed straight was her job, Jess reminded herself. She needed to support not only Skip but his mother.
What if Ruth had threatened to leave Ed because of what Jess had told her? Could that have been the reason Ed had beaten his wife again?
Could Jess’s own words have set this current crisis in motion?
She drove up Main Street, toward the high school at the far end. The strings of lights that crisscrossed overhead lent an unnatural cheer to the bleak morning. But Jess wasn’t feeling any Christmas spirit today. She had too much on her mind.
She passed the intersection with the street that led to her house. With Ed McCoy in jail, the contractor should have other people working on it. But she wouldn’t have time to check until after school. Then she’d have three hours to kill before Wynette’s bridal shower. Since it wasn’t worth driving to her Cottonwood Springs motel room and back, she would do a little shopping, maybe get a snack, and spend the rest of the time in her office.
As she drove, images of the people whose lives she’d touched with a few well-meaning words clicked through her mind like an old-fashioned slide show.
She pictured Ed McCoy in his cell, waking up in a post-alcoholic rage. Did he know his wife was planning to leave him, or was he expecting her to show up and take him home? He’d controlled Ruth for years with threats and abuse. The idea of losing that control could make him even more dangerous than he already was.
She imagined Ruth, battered and broken, facing a crossroads in her life. Had she finally had enough? Or, as Buck drove her home, was she already having second thoughts?
And Skip, waiting at home with his frightened little sisters, doing his best to be a man. What was going through his mind? If his mother left, would he be all right on his own? Would he be safe in the house?
Whatever was about to happen, Jess knew one thing—if she were to turn her back on this troubled family, she would never forgive herself. With Christmas so close and the father in jail, someone would need to see that their needs were met. Maybe it would fall to her to be their Santa.
