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He chuckled. “So are you, precious,” he replied, dropping a kiss on her blond head.
“You should have married and had kids,” Abby said gently, noting his fondness for her niece.
“I tried.” He sighed. “I have no luck at all finding women who want to live on a poky ranch in a small town.”
“It’s not poky,” she argued. “And you’re one of the nicest men I know.”
“With all due respect, Pockets, I’m about the only man you know.”
She laughed. “I’d forgotten that you gave me that awful nickname.”
“You were forever sticking things in your pockets when we were Lucy’s age and in school together. It was a natural assumption,” he said with a grin. “So. Coming home?”
She drew in a long breath and looked worriedly at the front door. She got glimpses of a sheriff’s uniform just beyond it.
“You’ll be safe here,” Bart persisted. “So will Lucy. You won’t find any violence in our local schools. Honest. And there are some very nice people at the law office.”
“They probably have a whole list of paralegals who’ll want that job once it opens up.”
“Tomorrow I’ll take you over there and introduce you,” he said.
She looked at Lucy, who was smiling and happier even at a funeral than she’d been at their apartment in Denver. The school there was so dangerous, and getting worse by the day. A teacher had been assaulted right in her own classroom, and something even worse had happened to a young girl, just a little older than Lucy.
“Okay,” she said.
Bart laughed. “Okay.”
THEFUNERALSERVICEwas nice, but it brought back terrible memories. Her parents had been buried in Catelow. She’d hated and feared her father, but she’d loved her mother. She still missed her. Lawrence and Mary’s funeral had been in Denver and they were buried there. She’d asked Lawrence about that once, at their parents’ funeral. He’d said that he had all he ever wanted of Catelow and didn’t want to return, even in a pine box. So Abby had honored that wish.
Still, the funeral brought back the sorrow and anguish of losing both Lawrence and Mary all at once. Little Lucy seemed to sense that feeling of loss. She slid her hand into Abby’s and squeezed it as the congregation rose to sing “Amazing Grace.” Tears rolled down Abby’s cheeks, and not just for her late cousin. She wept for her whole family, almost all gone, except for the precious child beside her, holding her hand, and her cousin, Bart.
She had a tissue in the hand Lucy wasn’t holding. She dabbed at her eyes. Her cousin, Charlie Butler, who’d been in such terrible pain, was surely in a better place. So were Lawrence and Mary, even her parents. But she was left to take care of Lucy and going back to Denver seemed a terrible prospect. Her cousin had left her a prosperous ranch. The attorneys had told her that, even before the reading of the will, which would come later. It was a surprise. She knew that the late Mr. Butler was also a relative by marriage to Cody Banks. It would have been more natural to leave it to him. But he hadn’t. She wondered why, but chances were that she’d never find out.
Now she had to decide what she was going to do. Bart had mentioned taking her to see the lead attorney at the law firm where Colie Calhoun worked. She supposed it wouldn’t hurt to at least apply for the job. If she got it, she and Lucy could live at the ranch and she could commute. She had a nice little car that got good gas mileage and she could get Lucy into the same grammar school where she’d gone herself many years ago. She knew most of the older families in the area. It would truly be like coming home.
They buried the old gentleman in the family plot, which was only three gravestones down from Abby’s mother and father. After the very brief service she and Lucy went to stand over them. It seemed unreal somehow to look down on the carved name and realize that her family was buried under them.
Lucy held her hand again. “That’s your mama and daddy, isn’t it, Aunt Abby?” she asked softly.
Abby nodded. Her throat felt full of pincushions. “And your grandparents, my darling.”
Lucy sighed. “So now I don’t have grandparents at all. Mama’s mother died when she was little like me, and Grandaddy died just after that. But I still have you, Aunt Abby,” she said.
“And I still have you.” Abby smiled down at her.
A tall man in a sheriff’s uniform watched them from a distance. He could feel the sadness. Abby hadn’t had an easy life, even as a child. Everybody knew her father had been brutal to his wife and daughter. It was no wonder she was wary of men. After what he’d done to her in the parking lot so long ago, she’d probably decided that all men were lunatics and she was better off without one.
His eyes went to the child holding her hand so tightly. His teeth ground together. He turned away, sickened by the memory of his own behavior. He’d have given a lot to go back and change what had happened. It was too late now.
THEDAYAFTERthe funeral, Bart came by the motel where Abby and Lucy were staying to take her to meet the attorneys at the law firm where Colie Calhoun worked. Lucy went along, left to sit in the waiting room while her aunt discussed a possible job.
The eldest partner in the law firm, James Owens, was friendly and kind, married and with three grandchildren. He liked what he’d already heard about Abigail’s paralegal abilities. Abby didn’t know that Bart had asked Colie to put in a good word for Abby at the law office.
“We can always use a paralegal,” Owens told her. “And we don’t have anyone with actual experience who’s applied. If you want the job, we’d love to have you.” He went on to mention salary and benefits. “There’s also a nice rental house going spare—”
“One of my cousins just died and left me a ranch,” she interrupted with a sad smile. “I hear he’s got a good manager and nice help, so all I’ll have to do is stand back and let them do what they do best. But I’m still going to work,” she added. “I’m not a stay-at-home person. Besides, my little niece lives with me. I’ll have to get her enrolled in school here.” She grimaced. There was another worry, what to do with Lucy between the time school let out and Abby got home.
“Your ranch manager is Don Blalock,” he told her. “His wife, Maisie, has a little girl just about Lucy’s age and she’ll go to the same school. I’ll bet you can arrange something there. Maisie is a sweet woman.”
