Chapter 22
Chapter Twenty-Two
L orna stared into the box. It was empty, except for the bottom half of a piece of pink paper which had been torn from the notepad on her desk.
Her hands trembled as she picked up the note and recognized Lyle’s handwriting.
A sob caught in her throat as she read the words. “ Whatever you have belongs to me too. ”
So, he had broken in.
What else had he done while he was inside her office? Her shop? Her space that she had so lovingly created on her own.
And that now was sullied by his very presence.
It appeared that all he had done was steal the money from the petty cash box. Oh, and left a terrifying note behind to let her know that he could get to her. No matter how many locked doors she put between them, no matter how many tall cowboys were in her life, he would always be able to get to her.
She stuffed the note in her pocket and slammed the box shut, her eyes madly searching the room to spot any other signs he had been there. Nothing else seemed amiss.
Forgetting about the money for the carnival, she hurried back outside, taking a few extra seconds to double-check that she’d locked the front door behind her. Although now she had to wonder if it even mattered.
She took a deep breath and tried to calm her racing heart as she walked toward the minivan where Mack was standing with the side door open and deep in apparent conversation with her son about why frogs were green.
He looked up at her, and his happy expression clouded. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” She’d tried to keep her voice steady, but it had come out hoarse.
“You’re white as a sheet. What happened?”
She cleared her throat and tried again for a calm nonchalance. It wouldn’t help anything for her kids to see her upset. “It’s nothing, really. But it seems like our friend did get into the shop after all. The petty cash box was empty.”
She would tell him about the threatening note later.
Now was not the time. Not in front of the kids.
She turned away and lowered her voice so her son wouldn’t hear. “We can talk about it later.”
“ And give Knox a call,” Mack said.
“Yes, but after the carnival. Max is so excited about tonight. I don’t want anything to take that away from him.”
He nodded. “Okay. I can respect that. What do you need from me?”
“Nothing. I’m good.”
His face fell. Then he pulled her to him. “Well, I’m giving you a hug anyway.”
She’d take it. In fact, she wanted to melt into him and have him take all this craziness and drama away. But she knew she couldn’t put that on him.
She had to figure this out on her own.
She had to decide how to stand up to this bully who had terrorized her for so many years. She had to do it for herself. But mainly for her children.
And to do any of that, she needed time to think. By herself.
She drew in a deep breath as she pulled away. “Thank you. I’d better get these kids home. We’ll see you in a few hours.”
“I’ll be there,” he said.
“Save room for a corn dog,” Max called to him as he headed for his truck. “And some funnel cake.”
Mack smiled at her son and waved. “Don’t worry. I’ve always got room for funnel cake.”
The carnival was in full swing as Lorna leaned over and picked up the three rings of the final toss of her and Max’s shift and passed them to the parent and child who were taking over for the next shift.
She’d tried to put Lyle’s threatening note—and the fact that he’d broken into her shop—out of her mind and keep her focus on the precious time she was getting to spend with Max.
They’d had fun running the booth together, taking turns on who had to pick up the rings and who got to hand out the cheesy plastic prizes, but she was ready to sit down and have one of those funnel cakes they’d talked about earlier.
They’d arrived at the school a few hours ago and had enough time to eat corn dogs and curly fries and wander around most of the booths before she and Max had to report for ring toss duty. But her son was far from being done with hanging out at the carnival.
He still had plans to try his hand at winning a prize in the cake walk, and doing the basketball shoot, the fishing game, and the balloon pop. And he’d talked Mack into running the parent/kid three-legged race with him later. Mack wasn’t his parent, but the rules were pretty lenient where the family member was concerned, and she was just thankful that it was Mack who had to make a fool of himself instead of her.
She scanned the crowd for the tall cowboy, and grinned as she saw him walking toward them, a happy Izzy strapped in the carrier on his chest. He had a large cup of lemonade in one hand and a funnel cake in the other.
“I thought you’d be ready for this,” he told her, leaning down to brush her cheek with a kiss. He smelled sweet and the dusting of powdered sugar on his face suggested he might have already sampled a piece.
She tickled the toes and nuzzled the neck of Izzy, who was facing forward in the baby carrier. Mack seemed to always know what she needed. “Thank you. I am so ready. That ring toss business is hard work.” She took a sip of the lemonade then brushed the sugar from his cheek, and tried not to think about how comfortable she was doing both acts that were so intimate in nature. It had been years since she’d so casually touched another man’s face or shared a straw. “Looks like you might have already tried the funnel cake.”
He grinned again. “Guilty. But I swear I didn’t give any to Izzy.”
She laughed. “That’s a relief. Funnel cake is not usually on the approved list of solids for infants.”
“But it is on the list for six-year-olds,” Max said, squeezing between them. “So, pass me a piece, would ya?”
Lorna laughed again—she sure had been doing a lot of that in the last several days—as they found a place to sit at one of the lunch tables in the center of the cafeteria, which also served as the gymnasium.
“Izzy and I have been having a great time,” Mack told her, palming the baby’s tummy in his large hand and jiggling it to make her smile. “Haven’t we, baby girl? We checked out all the booths again and took a walk outside. They’ve got a little petting zoo set up by the playground we missed when we were walking around earlier. And we won a chocolate cake and two dozen peanut butter cookies in the cake walk.”
“Oh shoot. How many times did you do it?” Lorna asked.
“And where’s the cake?” Max wanted to know.
Mack laughed. “It made Izzy giggle, so I think we did it five or six times, and I ate three of the cookies then put the rest of them and the cake in the minivan to share when we get home.”
When we get home.
The words hit her like a punch to the chest, and she put her head down and took another sip of lemonade—not quite sure why the tears had just sprung to her eyes. They had come so easily out of Mack’s mouth, and even now, as she stuffed another piece of funnel cake in her mouth, they were sitting in her gut like a stone she had swallowed.
This pretend relationship sure brought up a whole lot of real feelings.
Thank goodness there were funnel cakes and kettle corn to stuff them down with.
“Let’s go,” Max said.
“Yeah, we need to go if we’re going to get through all these tickets,” Mack said, pulling a stack of tickets from the pocket of the baby carrier.
“Oh no,” Lorna said. “You didn’t have to buy all those.” She’d scrounged around her house that afternoon and had come up with a ten-dollar bill, several singles and six quarters, so she had enough to buy at least a few tickets that night.
“I know I didn’t have to,” Mack said. “But I wanted to. All the money goes to support the school, and I’m having fun. I love all this stuff.”
She frowned, weighing her guilt for letting him treat them to all those tickets with the joy Max would get from spending them.
Mack nudged her shoulders. “I never got to go to a school carnival as a kid. And if I had been able to go, I never would have had the money to buy handfuls of tickets. Let me do this. Please.”
She hadn’t weighed Mack’s happiness or the reasons behind his generosity into her decision. She did now.
“Okay, let’s go blow a buttload of tickets.”
Max’s eyes went wide as he clapped his hand over her mouth. “You said butt .”
She laughed then let her son drag them all over the gymnasium, where he won four cheesy plastic toys and a small stuffed cow he said reminded him of his new calf.
“Hi, Aunt Maisie,” Max called, running up to his favorite librarian, who was running a booth for the library.
She stood in front of a wide bookshelf, painted bright pink and stuffed with picture books. In front of her was a large shallow plastic tub filled with water and about twenty-five rubber ducks floating around in it.
“Hi, Max,” Maisie said. “Do you want to pick a duck? If there’s a picture of a book underneath it, then you get to choose one of these books as a prize.”
Mack handed over five tickets.
Max picked a neon blue duck, and his face lit up as he turned it over. “There’s a picture of a book.”
Maisie clapped her hands with delight. “Wow. You won a prize, Max. Great job.”
Mack leaned close to Lorna’s ear, his warm powdered sugar-scented breath sending a pleasant shiver down her spine. “Why do I have a feeling every one of those ducks has a picture of a book underneath it?”
Lorna grinned as she gave him an affirmative nod.
Max picked a book about dinosaurs. “Can we read this one at the library next week, Aunt Maisie?”
“Sure. That’s a great idea,” she said. “And I have a few others already set aside that I think you’re gonna love.”
“We’re so grateful to have Maisie in our lives,” Lorna told Mack. “When she found out about Max, she took a course on how to help kids with dyslexia, and she’s offered to tutor him and another little girl this summer to help them with their reading, so they don’t fall behind going into school next year.”
“That’s really cool,” he said.
“A lot of it is just spending time listening to him read. It takes a surprising amount of patience.”
Mack shrugged. “If there’s anything I’ve learned in the life of a cowboy, it’s how to be patient. So, I’m happy to listen to him read anytime, too.”
She didn’t know what to say. “That’s a kind offer,” she finally managed, then turned to see Ford and Elizabeth walking up to them and waved.
Elizabeth had the same stuffed cow as Max, and he set his new book down to pull it from his pocket and hold it up to show her. “Look, Aunt ‘lizabeth, we have the same one. Did you hear that Mack gave me my very own calf? I decided to name him Kevin, ’cause that’s my favorite minion’s name, so this one is Stuart, because that’s my second favorite minion’s name. And I can sleep with this one at my house. My mommy said I can’t bring my real calfhome because it won’t fit in my bed.”
“Your mommy is very smart,” Elizabeth told him. “And Kevin is a great name. I’m looking forward to meeting him.”
An announcement blared through the gymnasium letting everyone know there was still kettle corn left, that the parent/ child three-legged race was about to start, and that if anyone was missing a black lab wearing a red collar, to please collect him at the corn dog stand.
Max made some corny joke about a dog eating a corn dog, and Lorna was laughing until she turned around and ran into Lyle.
“Well, isn’t this a nice little family outing?” he said, the disdain evident in his tone as he raked his gaze over the four of them, pausing to sneer at Mack and the baby strapped to his chest. “Does she make you carry the diaper bag, too? Or do you put her things in your man-purse?”
The fact that Lyle would compare carrying his child to a diaper bag made Lorna want to hurl. How could she have ever been married to this man?
“Hey, kid,” he said to Max, but made no move to hug him or Izzy. “Whatcha got there?”
Max held up the stuffed toy. “It’s a cow. But Mack just gave me a real calf. His name is Kevin, and he’s all mine.”
“Yeah? That’s cool. When he gets big and fat, you can sell him for steaks and make a nice chunk of money.”
Max looked horrified and moved closer to her. “I’m never selling him. He’s gonna be my best friend.”
Lyle raised a judgmental eyebrow at Lorna. “You’re letting the kid have a cow? The way I remember, you wouldn’t even let him have a dog in the house.”
No. Lyle was the one who wouldn’t let any pets in the house. He hated any kind of mess and never wanted to spend the extra money to feed an animal.
But she wasn’t going to argue with him. “It’s staying out on the ranch.”
Mack’s family and a few other people were gathered around them, not actively eavesdropping but for sure paying attention to their conversation. Two exes and the new boyfriend having a conversation would be a hot gossip topic in this town.
“We gotta go,” Max said, pulling on her arm. “The three-legged race is about to start.”
“I just heard the announcement for that,” Lyle said, then looked down at Max. “It’s for parents and kids, right? You want me to do that with you instead of your mom, kid?”
Max took a step back and pushed against Mack’s leg. “No, thanks. I’m doing it with Mack.”
“Mack? You mean this guy?” Lyle jerked a thumb at the cowboy. His voice held the barely concealed rage Lorna had heard so many times as he said, “But he isn’t one of your parents.”
“It’s fine,” Lorna said, trying to head off an argument.
“No, it’s not fine,” Lyle said, raising his voice. “That race is for kids and their parent , and last I checked, I’m this kid’s dad.”
Not that he’d acted like it at any point in the last few years.
“ This kid has a name.” Mack’s jaw was set, and his shoulders were back as he took a step toward Lyle. “And Max asked me to do the race with him, so that’s what we’re going to do.”
She didn’t think Mack would actually start something with Lyle, especially not with Izzy strapped to his chest, but there was enough of menace in his tone, that she worried her ex would feel threatened and try something stupid.
Lyle lifted his chin, that hard glint of meanness in his eye as he sneered at Mack. “You wanna take this outside?”
Yep. That was something stupid, all right.
Dodge and Ford stepped up to either side of Mack, and Lyle shrunk back.
“I think it’s time for you to go,” Mack told him. “This is a family event, and I’m choosing to respect that. Why don’t you do the same.”
“Why don’t you fuck off?” Lyle growled, but he turned and stomped away, sweeping a paper tray holding the remains of a hotdog off the end of a table and sending a red spray of ketchup flying.
Max’s bottom lip was trembling, and Lorna crouched down and pulled her son into a hug. “It’s okay, honey.”
“I didn’t mean to make him mad. Is he gonna hurt you now, Mommy?”
His words were like a knife to her heart. She’d always tried to hide as much of Lyle’s violence toward her from her son, but kids were perceptive, and apparently Max knew more than she’d thought.
“No, baby. And you didn’t make him mad. I think he was already mad and was just looking to pick a fight. But he’s gone now.” Maybe they should just leave too. But then that would be letting Lyle win. She pulled back and wiped her son’s tears from his cheeks. “And you have a three-legged race to run. We’d better get out there. And I’ll bet Uncle Ford and Uncle Dodge will even come out and cheer you and Mack on.”
“We wouldn’t miss it,” Dodge said, chuckling as he nudged Mack.
Elizabeth had already picked up the trash Lyle had thrown and found some napkins to clean the ketchup from the floor. “We’ll be right out,” she called.
Mack held his hand out to her son. “Come on, bud. Let’s go win this race.”
As it turned out, Mack and Max did not win the race. A mother-daughter team with a tall kindergartener and a short mother were apparently a better matched pair, and they easily stole the blue ribbon.
But Mack and her son sure had fun, laughing their heads off as they goofily walked and tried to jog and especially when Mack stumbled, and they both almost fell. They did each get a participation ribbon though, which Mack said he would put on the refrigerator as soon as he got home.
Lorna had taken Izzy from Mack, and the baby giggled along with her as she laughed and cheered for their two guys.
It was a good way to end the carnival, and Mack bought them a bag of kettle corn for the ride home. Izzy fell asleep on the short drive, and Mack carried her car seat into the house, while she unbuckled the tired six-year-old.
It was just after nine when they finally got both kids to bed, tucking Max’s new stuffed cow, Stuart, in with him, and they were coming down the stairs when a knock sounded at the door.
It was Maisie and Dodge.
The librarian held up a picture book with a dinosaur on the cover. “Max forgot his book.”
“We were walking by and thought we’d drop it off,” Dodge said.
Maisie offered her a gentle smile. “And make sure you were okay.”
Lorna was touched by their thoughtfulness. “I’m fine.” Her phone buzzed in her pocket, and she pulled it out to see Barb Johnson’s name on the screen. Barb and her husband owned a pet store across the alley from the coffee shop. It was strange that Barb would be calling her, especially this late, and a sense of foreboding filled her chest as she answered the phone. “Hi Barb, everything okay?”
She reached for Mack’s hand as she listened to her neighbor’s words, and his expression turned concerned as she imagined the color had probably just drained from her face.
He, Dodge, and Maisie were staring at her as she said, “I’ll be right there,” then shoved the phone in her pocket. She knew she needed to run out the door, but she felt frozen in shock. “That was Barb Johnson. She said the coffee shop is on fire.”