Chapter 15
Willa Rose left the door open for Tripp, kicked off her boots, and hung her coat on the rack in the corner. Was she really teasing Aunt Bernie, or did she want to spend some one-on-one time with him? she asked herself.
“Come on in,” she yelled when she heard him on the porch.
He closed the door, left his boots on the mat, and removed his coat.
He glanced around until he found the rack and hung it beside hers.
There was something very personal about their coats hanging side by side, the sleeves touching as if they were holding hands.
She felt a little heat in her cheeks at the silly idea.
“Coffee, hot chocolate, beer, wine from Ophelia’s business, or sweet tea?” she asked.
“Maybe a glass of wine,” Tripp answered. “Having anything with caffeine this late will keep me awake half the night. What can I do to help?”
“Last I checked, I was able to pour a couple of glasses of wine all by myself,” she teased.
He sat down on the couch and leaned his head back. “I’m impressed. Most women don’t master that art until they are a lot older than you.”
“They lied when they told me that you were the quiet, almost shy Callahan brother,” she said as she brought a bottle of wine and two stemless glasses to the living room.
“Who told such a thing?” he asked.
“All seven of your sisters.”
“Guess I got them fooled.”
She poured the wine, handed him a glass, and sat down on the other end of the sofa from him. “Well, you certainly have not pulled the wool over my eyes. I see you for what you are.”
“Oh, really, what is that?”
“A big flirt hiding behind a shy man.”
“Busted,” he said with a grin. “What kind are we drinking tonight, and to what are we toasting?”
“It’s strawberry, and why would we toast anything?” she asked.
“My favorite,” he replied and touched his glass to hers. “To our first date. May it fool some of the people some of the time.”
“Like Bernie?” she asked.
“Like whoever thinks I’m the quiet, shy brother,” he answered.
“Why would they tell me that?”
Tripp took another drink of his wine. “That’s the way most people see me.
Brodie was the oldest and the hero. He went off to the military, did a couple of tours overseas, and got into some stuff that was classified.
Knox was the good-looking wild, rebel son who didn’t let anyone tell him what to do.
He wanted to be a carpenter and build houses, so that’s what he did. ”
Willa Rose thought of Erica, her wild sister who left home at eighteen and apparently never looked back. “And that left you to be the quiet one?”
“I felt like I had to pick up the slack and be what my parents wanted me to be—the next CEO of Dad’s oil company. So that’s what I did instead of putting in a leather-working shop. After all, they had adopted me and Knox. We owed them something for loving us and taking care of us all our lives.”
Yasmin’s words about Willa Rose having five sons came back to her mind. “How did you feel when you found out you were adopted?”
Tripp shrugged and finished off his wine.
“It was no big deal. My folks set me and Knox down before we started kindergarten and explained adoption to us. They said that we were as much their sons as Brodie, and how we came into the family didn’t matter at all.
I didn’t feel one way or the other. I was glad none of us was in trouble and that we could go back out and play on the jungle gym in the yard. Why are you asking?”
“My sister had problems with being adopted,” Willa Rose said, and wondered if that was the reason behind Erica not wanting to give her child to strangers.
“She left home when she finished high school and swore that she would never come back to Poetry. Sometime after that she changed her name from Thomas back to her birth name, Williams. That broke Daddy’s heart because he really loves Erica. ”
“Does that mean you would never consider adopting a baby?”
“That’s a tough question,” she answered and clamped her mouth shut.
She still wasn’t ready to say the words because when that child was born, Erica would probably change her mind—even though she swore that she wouldn’t.
“Erica was already a little girl when Daddy married Mama and adopted her. I would give some serious thought to a newborn. How did we get on this topic anyway? I thought we were going to watch reruns of Justified .”
“The character, Raylan Givens, is not adopted, and he hated his father as much as you say Erica hated Hank,” Tripp said.
“But he had good reason to be at odds with Arlo,” Willa Rose argued. “Erica didn’t.”
“I’m just saying that each situation should be studied carefully. Maybe Erica loved her biological father even if he was a bad husband to Vada.”
She picked up the remote and turned on the television, only to find that the storm had knocked out the cable, so all her streaming stations were gone. “Mama never talked about him, but Erica made him out to be a hero, so you are probably right.”
“Guess we won’t be watching reruns of anything tonight,” Tripp said.
“Don’t give up yet. I’ve got a box full of DVDs.” She stood up and everything spun around a couple of times before she could focus. “I guess Ophelia’s wine has a little more kick than what I’ve had before.”
“Yep, it does,” Tripp said with a grin. “Need some help?”
“Nope, I’ve got it.” No way would she let him think she was a total lightweight when it came to drinking—even though she was. “What’ll it be? Old western? Romantic comedy? The first season of NCIS ? That show is one of Daddy’s favorites.”
“What have you got in westerns?”
She pulled out Quigley Down Under and held it up.
“I haven’t ever seen that one.”
“Then Tom Selleck it is.” She slipped the disc into the player and went back to the sofa.
***
Fifteen minutes into the show, she had slumped down and fallen sound asleep.
Tripp remembered the story about her sleeping so soundly that a tornado—or even Knox getting into bed with her—hadn’t wakened her.
She was like a rag doll in his arms when he picked her up and carried her to the bedroom.
He laid her gently on the bed and covered her with a quilt that had been draped over the back of a chair.
He tiptoed back to the living room, turned out all the lights, shut down the DVD player, and locked the door behind him as he left.
The story he would spin tomorrow would involve lots of making out before she went to sleep.
After all, he had to live up to the image she had of him—and that was not shy and quiet.
Tripp stomped through what snow the sun hadn’t melted across her yard and got into his truck.
The distance from the parsonage to his house was only a couple of city blocks, but driving on still-slick roads took a little longer.
He had just pulled into his driveway when his phone rang.
Thinking that it was probably Willa Rose, he didn’t even check to see who was calling.
“Tripp Callahan, where are you?” Bernie asked.
“I’m at home,” he answered.
“I need you to come to the Paradise. I can’t find Pepper.
I’ve looked in the barn and he’s not there.
I’m afraid he’s got some bad notions from Pansy or from those animals in the barn.
I found him humping one of his toys yesterday,” she moaned.
“If you find him, I’m going to take him to the vet and have him neutered.
I swore I wouldn’t embarrass him that way, but he’s got to stop running away like this. ”
“I’ll drive out to the farm. I bet he’s headed that way to find Pansy,” Tripp told her. “You stay by the phone, and I’ll call if I find him.”
“Not if , Tripp, when ,” she said, and the screen went black.
“Why does she call me every time?” he grumbled as he backed out of the driveway and headed south.
When he passed by the lane to the Paradise, something Remy had said clicked in his mind.
One of his cow dogs had come in heat, and after he’d had her bred, he had penned her up in one of the barn stalls.
Tripp made a right turn and then another one at the next lane leading back to Ursula and Remy’s house.
The place was dark and he didn’t want to wake anyone, so he left the truck door open. Then he hopped over the fence and headed out to the barn. He heard yipping before he even opened the door and found Pepper trying his best to dig his way under the stall.
“Come on, old boy,” Tripp said as he picked him up. “You’ve got great ambitions, but that’s all you have. That lady dog is too much for a little fellow like you to handle.”
Pepper whined all the way across the pasture and almost wiggled free when Tripp had to crawl through the barbed-wire fence with the dog in his arms. “Be still, or I’ll take you to the vet myself right now and pay for emergency surgery on you.”
Tripp didn’t let go of the dog until the truck door was closed. Pepper snorted a few times and finally curled up on the passenger seat.
“Snorting like that means you’ve been around Pansy too much. I wouldn’t be surprised if Aunt Bernie grounds you and that pig disappears when the carnival leaves,” he said and picked up his phone.
“Did you find him?” Bernie answered on the first ring.
“Yep, I did and we’re on the way to bring him back to you.”
“Where was he?”
“In Remy’s barn trying to dig under a stall door to get at Remy’s cow dog.”
“Good God!” Bernie gasped. “That animal could chew him up for breakfast.”
“I don’t think he was looking for a fight.” Tripp chuckled. “The dog is still in heat. Remy had her bred before the snowstorm hit. Once she has puppies, he’s going to have her spayed.”
“Why has he started all this now? He’s got to be several years old.”
“Maybe he’s got a dose of middle-aged craziness,” Tripp answered. “He’s got to prove that he’s still got it.”
“Well, he’s going to lose it as soon as I can get him in for an appointment. I see your headlights coming this way. Want to come in for a good, stiff drink?”
“No, we’ve all got a big day ahead of us tomorrow. I better get on home,” he answered.
“Well, thank you again!” Bernie said. “It was a good day when you boys appeared at the Paradise last Christmas.”
Tripp parked but didn’t turn off the engine. He got a firm hold on the dog, carried him up on the porch, and handed him off to Bernie. “We’ve got to stop meeting like this, ma’am. People will talk.”
Bernie threw back her head and laughed. “Now, that’s funny, and you’re supposed to be the introverted twin.”
“Sometimes it just takes the right woman to bring out the inner man.”
“I’ll find one who will do just that,” Bernie told him and closed the door.
He could hear her fussing at Pepper the whole way back to his vehicle. He was parking in his driveway for the second time that evening when his phone rang again.
“If that damn dog got out again, then you can hop the fence between the Paradise and Remy’s ranch and get him yourself,” he muttered as he answered it with a gruff, “Hello.”
“Hello, Brother,” Brodie said. “Where are you?”
“I’m not chasing down Pansy again,” Tripp answered and went on to tell him about Pepper’s escapades.
Brodie’s laughter was so loud that Tripp had to hold the phone out from his ear. “What’s so funny?”
“Pansy is locked down really tight,” Brodie replied when he got control of himself. “Audrey and I came over to your house after the supper at the barn. You weren’t home so we visited Knox a little while. I was just being a nosy big brother and wondering where you had gone.”
“I had some wine and watched a movie with Willa Rose at her house,” he answered.
“Good for you,” Brodie said. “Good night, then.”
“Good night to you,” Tripp said and hurried inside the house.
“Aha,” Knox said as he came out of the hallway. “Is this a walk of shame?”
“Nope, it is not, but I do have a story to tell you about poor old Pepper who wishes he got to take the walk of shame.”