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They even went to church the few times Jim was on leave.
Because of the vows she had made, she let herself believe his promises of a fresh start. She wanted her marriage to work. Her pregnancy was a result of her naïveté.
But she also found out that “never again” had meant “only a few weeks.” Jim’s words, like her father’s, meant nothing.
“He often talked about his family.” Nick’s deep voice broke into her bitter memories and his gaze landed on her. “He especially talked about you, Beth, and the baby. He looked forward to coming home and seeing you again.”
Beth realized this was said for her benefit, and coming on the heels of her own thoughts, the comment was like a knife to her heart.
“He missed you a lot, Beth.”
Beth shot Nick a puzzled glance. Once again a slender wisp of hope wafted through her mind. The same hope that had accepted Jim’s apologies after his infidelities. The same hope that had taken him back both times.
The refrain of an old song spun through her mind. “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” Except there was no line for “fool me thrice.”
She had been such a silly fool.
Nick looked at her with expectancy, but she could only muster a tight smile and Nick, thankfully, turned his attention back to Ellen and Bob.
“He loved you all so much,” Nick continued. “I’m really thankful I had a chance to meet you.”
“And I’m thankful you took the time to come down here and stay with us,” Bob replied. “It means a lot to hear stories about Jim. It’s all we’ve got left.” Bob’s voice broke a little, and Beth felt a surge of sorrow for her father-in-law.
It didn’t matter that Jim had never been the husband to her they thought. He was their only son.
“Oh, my goodness, where’s my manners? Nick, would you like some more pie? Or coffee?” Ellen hastily brushed away her tears and got up from the table.
Nick held up his hands as if surrendering. “I couldn’t eat another bite. Jim told me your pie was the best I would ever eat, and now I know he wasn’t lying.”
Beth choked down another bite of that same pie, then took a drink of tepid tea to help get it down. She’d struggled all through the meal to eat enough to keep her in-laws from commenting on her appetite. But each mouthful had been an ordeal.
Her emotions toward her husband were a tangle of pain, anger and confusion, which she struggled to deal with in front of her in-laws. Each time she was with them it grew more exhausting to find a balance between her sorrow over Jim’s death and her relief.
Jim’s parents didn’t need to see the relief.
Though Beth lived only a few hundred feet away from her in-laws, she tried to maintain a boundary and often kept to herself.
But today they’d insisted she come to see Nick’s friend. So she’d reluctantly accepted the invitation, then sat through dinner listening to Nick’s stories and keeping her feelings in check.
She finished her pie, picked up her plate and stacked Bob’s plate on top.
But Nick reached across the table and put his hand on hers.
“I’ll help with the dishes.”
She could feel calluses on his warm palm. The hands of a soldier.
She jerked her hand back, the plates she held clattering onto the table.
He frowned, obviously puzzled at her reaction. “I’m sorry. I hate to see a pregnant woman working.”
“You don’t need to look,” she said with a touch of asperity she immediately regretted.
She blamed her shortness on the headache she’d been fighting ever since she came back from Shellie’s craft store after her doctor’s appointment. She’d been working up enough courage all week to talk to her boss about carrying her handmade cards in the store, but when she got to work, Shellie had already left to go to a craft show. So she’d chatted with Isla, the other part-time employee, tidied up the paper racks, reorganized the stamps and set up a new display in the window.
Then, when her few hours of work were over, she’d made the trip back to the ranch, her briefcase still brimming with homemade cards and her nervousness translating into a headache.
“Now I’m sorry,” Beth replied, giving him a quick smile. “I’m just tired.”
His crooked grin seemed at odds with his rough and rugged demeanor, but obviously she was forgiven. “I think you’re allowed to be,” he said with a touch of consideration.
Beth held his gaze a moment, surprised at his tone. Not what she’d expect from a friend of Jim.
“You both just sit down. We’ll do the dishes later,” Ellen said. “Beth, why don’t you tell us what the doctor told you this afternoon? We don’t get to see much of you, so it’s nice to catch up.”
“Everything is progressing the way it should,” Beth reported, repressing another surge of guilt at her mother-in-law’s muted reprimand. “But he wants to see me in a couple of days again, though I don’t know why.”
“I’m sure he just wants to keep his eye on you, given what you’ve had to deal with.” Ellen gave her a gentle smile.
“But you’re feeling okay?” Bob asked, a touch of concern in his voice.
“I saw your light on at twelve o’clock last night,” Ellen said. “Were you having a hard time sleeping, my dear?”
“I usually do,” was all Beth said.
They didn’t need to know she stayed up until two o’clock taking apart the cards she had already made, rethinking designs and colors all to impress an absent boss. Like Jim, Bob and Ellen didn’t understand how she could spend so much time on her “little hobby,” as Jim had called it, so she didn’t talk about it in front of them.
Bob leaned back in his chair, his arms crossed over his worn plaid shirt. “So things are okay for you, Beth?”
“Just fine.” An awkward silence followed her brief comment and Beth looked down at her clenched hands resting on her stomach. She felt Nick watching her and wished she could leave.
During the entire meal he’d been giving her sympathetic smiles. Poor dead Jim’s pregnant widow.
A surefire combination for pity. But she didn’t want his or anyone else’s pity. She just wanted to get on with her life. And having Jim’s friend around wasn’t helping. Especially a friend who constantly talked about Jim as if he was a devoted husband and excited father-to-be.
Beth shot a nervous glance at the clock. Her brother had told her that she had to call him at seven-thirty on the dot if she wanted to connect with him. It was seven-fifteen. Time to go.
She pushed her chair back and ponderously got to her feet. “I’m sorry, but you’ll have to excuse me,” she said, shooting a quick glance around the table. “I have to make an important phone call.”
Ellen frowned her curiosity, but Beth wasn’t about to tell her that her conversation with her brother was about her moving off the ranch and into his apartment in Vancouver.
She knew the Carrutherses expected her to stay on the ranch indefinitely, but she couldn’t. Especially now that Jim was gone. She had to get on with her life and away from the memories.
“I’ll walk you to the house,” Bob said, making a move to get up.
“No. There’s no need.” Beth raised her hand to stop him. “You keep visiting with Nick. I’ll be fine.”
“I’ll walk her to the house,” Nick said, standing up and pushing his chair under the table.
She should have quit while she was ahead, Beth thought. She did not want to spend any more time with Nick than she had to. She was tired of smiling at his stories about Jim, tired of how impressed Nick was with Jim’s supposed devotion to her.
“I’m okay. Really,” Beth protested again.
“I’m sure you are, but it’s dark and slippery,” Nick said, coming around the table. “And I promised Jim I’d look out for you.”
Beth stifled another protest. Going along with his chivalry was the best way to get through this. He would be gone tonight. Soon she’d be living in Vancouver and Nick and Jim and the Carruthers family would be part of her past.
“Thanks so much for dinner,” she said to Ellen. “It was delicious.”
“You can come anytime, you know,” Ellen said, a hopeful note in her voice.
“I don’t want to impose.”
And before they could tell her yet again that her presence would never be an imposition, she walked out of the kitchen. Waddled, more like.
All the way to the entrance she was far too aware of Nick looming behind her. She quickened her pace, but in spite of his limp he moved surprisingly quick. He had moved past her, pulling her coat off the rack in the entryway. A protest sprang to her lips, but it was probably better, for now, to simply put up with all his hovering.
As he lifted her coat up over her shoulders, his fingers brushed her neck. A tiny shiver danced down her spine and Beth jerked away.
“I’m sorry,” he said, his voice gruff. “Just trying to help.”
“It’s okay.” She murmured her automatic reply, wondering why she felt so jumpy around him. Probably because she fell short of his expectations of the grieving widow.
Not much she could do about that. She had shed more tears before Jim died than after.
A brisk wind howled around the yard as they stepped out from the shelter of the trees. Beth pulled her coat closer around her, shivering.
“Are you warm enough?” Nick asked as he walked alongside her, his footsteps crunching on the dry snow.
She wasn’t, because her coat was too small and could barely close around her stomach. She didn’t want to spend money on another one when she would be moving to a warmer city soon. So she just shivered through the cold.
“I’m plenty warm enough.”
They walked in silence toward her house. In the distance a coyote sent a howl up to the sliver of moon hanging just above the mountains. Stars were scattered bits of light in the inky-black sky above them. She felt her tension ease away in the presence of all this peace and beauty.
As much as this place held bad memories, she knew she would miss it. The peaceful quiet was a welcome antidote to the emotions warring in her soul.
“So how are you managing?” Nick asked as he limped alongside her, his hands in his pockets. “With Jim gone?”
“I’m okay.”
“And financially?”
“I’ve got my…widow’s pension and I work part-time in a craft store in town. I used to work as a waitress until my boss told me I had to quit.” She worked both places for minimum wage, but every penny was deposited into her escape fund.
Only, now she didn’t have to escape anymore. Jim had left her before she could leave him.
“I know I said it before,” Nick continued. “But I’m really sorry for your loss. I’m sure it’s…hard. What with the baby and all,” he said, his voice a rough sound in the quiet evening. “I know Jim looked forward to seeing you again and the baby, of course. Being a family again.”
Beth suppressed a burst of anger. Being a family hadn’t been high on Jim’s list of priorities before he left.
“I’m sure he was,” was her noncommittal reply.
They came to the darkened house and Beth shivered again, her steps slowing. She’d forgotten to turn on a light before she’d left for the Carrutherses’ house. She hated coming home to a dark place.
It meant no one was home and she would be all alone again.
She climbed the single stair to the front door and turned to Nick. In spite of gaining half a foot, she still had to look up at him.
He was good-looking enough and Beth wondered again why he was single. She knew from the few letters Jim had sent home that his friend was thirty-four and had never been married.
Why was she thinking about him? His life was none of her concern. He would be gone by tomorrow and in a week, if all went well, so would she.
“Thanks for walking me back to the house,” she said. “I think I can manage from here.”
Nick shifted his weight to his other foot and hunched his shoulders as he released a heavy sigh. “Beth…I feel wrong being here…just me. Jim always said he wanted to bring me to see his parents’ place, bring me to meet you…” His voice faltered. Then he coughed and composed himself. “I’m so sorry. I wish I could make things better. When…when Jim was dying, he asked me to tell you that he loved you. That he was sorry.”
Beth blinked back a sudden and unexpected flush of tears. Jim had said he was sorry so many times that the words had lost their meaning and their power to change her view of him.
“I appreciate you telling me this,” she murmured, sensing Nick’s need to know he had completed his mission. “Thank you.”
Nick cleared his throat again. “I wish I was good with words, but I’m not. I just can’t find the right ones to tell you how sorry I am.”
Beth looked at him, then released a heavy sigh. “Words are cheap and easy to throw out, so don’t worry about not having the right ones.”
Nick gave a jerk of his head that Beth supposed was a nod. “Before Jim died he asked me to make a promise to take care of you. And to take care of your baby. I’m not sure how I’m going to keep those promises—”
“Don’t say anything more.” Beth held up her hand. “I can manage on my own. So I absolve you of whatever promise Jim made you make. You can leave tonight knowing you’ve done your job. For the rest, I just want to start the next phase of my life on my own.”
When she saw the frown on his face she regretted the harsh note that had entered her voice. She’d been so careful to keep things under control. She couldn’t let herself be drawn into the uncertain area of words and emotions where she knew she would lose her footing and her way.
“I’m sorry,” she said quietly, pulling back from her anger. “Thanks for bringing me to the house. I appreciate you coming and telling me what you told me. As for what Jim told you…well…Jim tended to be kind of dramatic, so don’t take what he said too seriously.” She stopped, realizing how that sounded. Jim had made Nick agree to the promise while he was dying. Of course it would be dramatic. She sighed and tried again. “I guess I’m saying that it’s okay. I understand what Jim was trying to do, but it isn’t necessary. So thanks for delivering the message. And…well…goodbye.” Since there was nothing more to say, she slipped into her house and shut the door.
She leaned her tired head against the rough wood as Nick’s words resonated in her mind. Jim asked me to watch out for you.
She closed her eyes, then slammed her fists against the door, trying to find an outlet for the myriad of emotions tangling and twisting through her mind.
“Why did you tell him that, Jim?” she whispered into the dark, wishing her husband could hear her. “You never cared before.”
She waited a moment, trying to find equilibrium and trying not to let even the tiniest flicker of hope lull her into believing anything Jim told Nick.
Jim’s words meant nothing. They hadn’t before he died. They certainly didn’t now.
No matter what Nick thought.
Chapter Two
Nick spun away from Beth’s closed door, his hands clenched into fists at his sides as he limped down the sidewalk. Why had he offered to escort her back to the house? Why did he put himself through this?
