A Winchester Homecoming

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He wasn’t about to admit that he’d even given Kim a thought. He no longer had any idea of what made her tick, and perhaps he never had.

“Who knows,” he replied carelessly. “Maybe it’s jet lag.”

“It’s a three-hour flight from Seattle,” Charlie pointed out dryly. “You’d think she would have recovered by now.”

David shrugged. The aroma from the chicken was making his stomach growl as more food was brought out to a long side table. “Have you met the missing husband? I never did.”

“Yeah, I have.” Charlie took a drink of his beer. “First time at the wedding, and once when I flew out to Seattle with Adam to surprise Kim.”

“Yeah?” David prompted, curious despite himself about what kind of man had managed to win her heart, and her hand.

“Piece of work,” Charlie said flatly. “Ritzy wedding and a reception straight out of the movies. Food, music, booze. More attendants than a president’s funeral and flowers everywhere. I heard the old man telling someone they’d flown the orchids in from Holland, and the roses from South America.”

He chuckled, making David shift impatiently. It wasn’t the wedding he was curious about, it was the marriage.

“When they released the white doves outside the church, I was braced for a shotgun blast,” Charlie added with a grin.

“What’s he like?” David asked.

“Good-looking, I guess, but cold.” Charlie looked over at Kim, who had come out with a pitcher of juice for the kids and a stack of cups. “She seemed happy at the time. I s’pose most brides are on their big day, Lord knows Robin was. But now, with Kimmie, I don’t know.”

“What about Christie?” David asked. “Are she and Kim still close?” Kim had first gone to live with her mother in Denver, but he’d been stunned when she moved with Christie to the Northwest.

“Didn’t you hear?” Charlie’s brows waggled in surprise. “That gold-digging witch finally managed to bag herself a rich, decrepit old husband. They moved to Italy not too long ago.”

“Huh. I didn’t know that.” David wondered if Kim resented her mother’s remarriage as much as she had Adam’s. At least Adam hadn’t left the country afterward.

Everyone was beginning to gather, drawn by the food like ants to a picnic. David’s mother clapped her hands together. “Okay, everyone,” she said briskly. “You all know the drill. Food’s on, so let’s eat.”

After Kim had gone through the buffet line, she carried her plate to an empty place at the end of one table, right after her father, David and Emily sat down at the other with some of the kids. Kim wasn’t avoiding them, not really, but someone was bound to start asking her questions she didn’t feel like answering today.

Robin sat down across from Kim and glanced at her plate. “Is that what you’re having?”

Kim hadn’t even realized that all she had selected was green salad, jello and a few olives. “I’m just getting started,” she replied, feeling defensive.

“I’m sorry.” Robin looked remorseful as she unfolded a gingham checked napkin. “I’m the last one to grill you about what you’re eating.” She indicated her own loaded plate with a jab of her fork. “I’m still trying to lose weight from my pregnancy, but today I’m splurging.”

For a few moments they talked about babies and dieting. Robin was short but more curvaceous than she had been at her wedding to Charlie.

“Are you back to work yet?” Kim asked to fill the lull before Robin could ask her anything.

Robin was a veterinarian, specializing in large animals despite her diminutive size. Kim remembered that she had first come to town at the same time someone was poisoning Winchester cattle. It turned out that a huge corporation had hired a couple of thugs to help persuade her dad and uncles to sell them the ranch. Charlie had gotten shot during the chase and subsequent arrest, but not seriously. The corporation had paid a large settlement, but Kim didn’t know the details.

“I’m only working at the clinic part-time so far,” Robin replied after she’d swallowed a bite of potato salad. “Doc Harmon was nice enough to wait to retire until after I had Amanda, and we’ve hired two more vets. So far they’re working out pretty well.”

“Are they both straight out of school?” Kim asked, pushing around the food on her plate. Who else would come here, besides Winchester brides and greenhorn veterinarians looking for experience?

“Todd’s a young guy, but great with animals,” Robin replied. “Sophie is older. She went back to school after her divorce.” To Kim’s surprise, Robin blinked away sudden tears.

Kim nibbled on an olive while she waited for her aunt to compose herself.

“Sorry,” Robin said with a sniff. “I’m just so proud of Sophie.”

“So you two have gotten to be pretty good friends?” Kim asked.

Robin nodded. “I don’t know if you heard from anyone in the family, but I’ve been going to a support group over in Elizabeth for a few years now.”

Kim shook her head, curious and yet reluctant to pry. Especially since she wasn’t willing to reciprocate.

“When Sophie joined the group, she had just bailed out of a horrible marriage,” Robin continued. “She had left with nothing. She was living with her kids in a shelter.”

“That’s awful,” Kim said. She felt bad for women who were so desperate that they had nowhere else to go, especially when there were children involved. It had to be heart-wrenching to see your children going through that and know it was because of choices that you made. “Sophie must be a very determined woman.”

Robin broke a piece off her roll, staring at it thoughtfully for a moment. “Not when I first met her. She had no self-confidence, no self-esteem and no fight left in her. It can’t have been easy, but she’s come a long way.”

“That’s great.” Kim was beginning to feel a little uncomfortable that Robin was telling her so much about someone else’s life.

Rory, who was sitting next to Robin, must have been listening, even though she had been talking to a couple of the kids. Perhaps Rory already knew Sophie’s story.

Robin touched Kim’s hand, distracting her. “I’m not just passing on idle gossip,” she said quietly. “I would never break a confidence that way, but Sophie is proud of her accomplishments and so am I.”

Kim nodded, not sure what Robin expected her to say. “So your support group is mostly social, a group of friends?” she asked.

Now Robin’s smile was rueful. “I wish.” She glanced at Rory, who surprised Kim by giving her sister-in-law an encouraging nod. “I started going to the group after I got involved with your uncle,” Robin said. She glanced over at Charlie, her face softening. He was deep in conversation with Steve and his sister.

“You see,” Robin told Kim quietly, “I had been raped by a date back in college, but I never really dealt with it before I started seeing Charlie. I’d shut myself off, but he’s a very persistent man.”

“Some would say stubborn,” Rory drawled.

“They’re entitled to their opinions,” Robin replied. She turned her attention back to Kim, who was still trying to deal with the way Robin had said the word raped, as calmly as if she were talking about being involved in a minor traffic accident. “Since he was the sheriff, Charlie knew about the group. After I told him what had happened to me, he encouraged me to go. He wouldn’t give up until I did.”

“I’m sorry.” Kim wasn’t sure how to respond. “That’s awful.” Her comment was so inadequate that she bit her lip. Having someone you went out with force himself on you must be a hundred times worse than just having your husband demand sex when you weren’t in the mood, even if he did lose his temper when you tried refusing.

She started to touch her cheekbone, but then she stopped herself.

Robin waved her hand dismissively. “It’s okay. It was a long time ago, and your family has been wonderful in helping me to deal with it.”

So everyone knew? Kim couldn’t imagine telling everyone about something so personal, so devastating.

“Do you ever go back over it and wonder what you could have done differently?” she blurted without thinking.

“Of course I have,” Robin replied calmly. “I must have played back a thousand times in my mind everything that happened. For a long time I blamed myself.”

“But it wasn’t your fault,” Kim protested. “You didn’t ask for it.”

“Of course not. No one ever deserves to be raped.” Robin took another bite of potato salad, as though they’d been discussing the weather.

“Sometimes a woman just flat-out makes a dumb decision about something, and then she’s got no one else to blame if it ends up a disaster,” Kim mused without thinking.

Robin glanced at Kim’s plate and the food she’d barely touched. Her expression was compassionate. “Don’t be too hard on yourself. Sometimes all we can do is learn from our mistakes and move on.”

“That’s what I’m trying to do,” Kim admitted, “but even though my divorce was my idea, moving on afterward is hard.”

As soon as the words were out, she covered her mouth with her hand and wished she could stuff them back inside. The decree had only been final for a couple of weeks, but she hadn’t meant to make a general announcement until after she had a chance to talk to her father.

“You’re divorced? Why didn’t you tell me?”

Even though she’d been talking quietly, she hadn’t heard the sound of his crutches clumping up behind her. From the surprised expressions around her, her father’s comment had been overheard. Embarrassed, Kim ducked her head and stared at her plate.

Hers certainly wasn’t the first divorce in the history of the mighty Winchester dynasty. Her parents had split up, as had David’s. Aunt Rory had been married before she came out here from New York, but she, too, appeared stunned by the news of Kim’s divorce.

Embarrassed, Kim stuck her bare left hand above her head, waggling her fingers for everyone to see.

“Okay,” she cried out, knowing she wasn’t being entirely fair, but past caring. “For anyone who missed my father’s big announcement, yes, I’m divorced, okay? Any other personal questions I can answer while we’re on the subject?”

“I didn’t realize you were having problems.” Aunt Rory’s voice was low as she leaned closer. “Honey, are you holding up okay?”

Kim bobbed her head, feeling immediately ashamed of her outburst.

“What can we do to help?” Aunt Robin asked.

Her aunts’ sympathetic smiles and her father’s firm hand on her shoulder were almost more than Kim could deal with. She looked around, her gaze meeting Emily’s.

Afraid she would cry and humiliate herself further, Kim shot to her feet, bumping into her father so that he staggered before he caught himself.

“I’ll be right back,” she mumbled.

“What’s wrong with Kim?” she heard one of the kids demand in a piercing voice as she fled through the French doors.

Feeling like a fool, Kim kept her head down as she walked quickly toward the powder room. She wished she could hide out for a while, but where would she go? She was staying here at the house, and she didn’t even have a car.

Blinking away tears, she turned the corner of the hallway and barreled into David, who was coming from the opposite direction. Colliding with his chest felt like slamming into a concrete wall.

“Whoa!” He gripped her upper arms to steady her. “Where’s the fire, princess?”

One second David had been walking down the hall, minding his own business and looking forward to his mom’s chocolate layer cake, then the next instant he was nearly taken out by a human dynamo.

Kim twisted out of his grip. He was about to say something sarcastic about people who didn’t watch where they were going when he saw the tear tracks on her cheeks. Like most rough, tough cowboy types, he wasn’t scared of much, but flash floods and crying women probably topped the list.

“What’s wrong?” he asked as he looked down at her bowed head. Even hacked boyishly short, the strands of her hair caught the light like threads of silk.

“Nothing! I’m fine.”

He grabbed at her reply with the same sense of relief he might a life ring that had been tossed to him in a rip tide. He had done his duty, now it was on to dessert before the cake was gone.

“Good. Okay, whatever.” He backed quickly away.

Ignoring him, she bolted into the powder room and slammed the door. An instant later he heard water running.

David was eager to get back outside to the company of people who weren’t showing awkward emotions or having embarrassing meltdowns. Kim had told him she was okay and she could have asked for his help if she wanted it. Besides, no one had ever died from crying, not as far as he knew. So how much more reassurance did he need before he could make himself walk away?

The silent argument he was conducting with himself wasn’t working. His feet stayed rooted in place, refusing to move. Knowing that his stepsister, his former best friend and love of his life was in some kind of distress, his conscience just plain wouldn’t allow him to leave.