Chapter 14
Violet was up and on her way back to Santa Rosa before dawn on Saturday, and promised to keep Lily informed as soon as she knew anything. A full two days had passed since, and other than a few sporadic texts saying the doctors were examining Lawrence and to pray for him, Lily hadn’t heard much from her sister.
She and Camellia had spent most of Saturday and Sunday looking at charts and assigning people to various jobs for the charity rodeo coming up the following week. She’d never realized how much work went into planning an event like that. During her time married to Scott, she’d attended her share of fundraisers, but Scott had preferred she keep her distance and take care of the kids and him. Honestly, Lily had preferred it that way, too. She liked her spot away from the limelight and in the background.
She’d woken up early that morning, unable to sleep, worrying about her brother-in-law, and found herself wandering around the big old house listlessly. She stopped in the library to peruse the books but was unable to concentrate on any of them. She’d always known that with Lawrence being almost ten years older than Violet, the odds were he would be the first to pass, but she feared for her sister when the time did come. She’d spent the morning praying it wasn’t time yet.
“I brought you some coffee.”
Startled, Lily jumped, turning quickly to see Camellia holding a cup in her direction.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you. Have you heard anything yet?”
She shook her head. “Not much more than what I already told you yesterday. They think he had a mild heart attack and are keeping him for further testing. Violet says she has a feeling they don’t like the way the EKG is looking, and she’s afraid they’ll want to go in and operate.” Lily sank down into an oversized chair, setting down her untouched coffee cup. “I’m worried for him, Camellia. A man his age might not survive such an invasive surgery.”
Camellia came over to perch on the edge of the chair next to her. “Try not to worry too much, Lily. The doctors can do amazing things nowadays. Sometimes they barely even need to open you up anymore. I’m sure Lawrence is going to be just fine.”
Lily smiled weakly, wanting to be brave but finding it hard. “Violet finally found someone who really loves her and makes her happy. I don’t think she’ll be able to handle it if something happens to Lawrence.”
“Your sister is strong, Lily. Stronger than you give her credit for. And don’t forget, she has you to help her through anything that happens. For now, all we can do is pray for him and for the doctors helping him. In fact, I’ve sent out a special prayer request to the rodeo community, and trust me, it’s a large group.” She smiled at Lily reassuringly. “With that many people praying for him, he’ll recover for sure.”
Lily smiled gratefully just as her cell phone started to ring. Her eyes changed from gratitude to worry in an instant. “It’s Violet,” she mouthed.
Camellia nodded, patted her on the hand, and stood up. “Meet me in the kitchen when you’re done,” she whispered.
A very short time later, Lily came to the kitchen feeling much lighter and relieved.
“You look better,” Camellia said, watching her face. “I take it that Violet had some good news for us?”
Lily nodded. “Better than what I was afraid she would say, but he’s not out of the woods yet. They want to place some stents in his arteries to help keep them open and clear, but Violet says when they’re done, he should make a full recovery and be as good as new.”
“That is good news,” Camellia agreed. “I’m guessing that means Violet will be staying in Santa Rosa for the next few days?”
Lily nodded. “They’re doing the operation tomorrow. Amazingly, Violet says that if all goes well, Lawrence could even come home by Friday.”
Camellia smiled. “That’s great. Of course, we’ll strike her from our volunteer list, though. She’s going to have enough to deal with taking care of Lawrence without us adding anything more to her plate.”
Lily nodded again, but a bout of nausea forced her to sit down quickly. The thought of facing all these new people she was about to meet without Violet at her side was overwhelming, and her mind scrambled with ways she could extricate herself. “Maybe I should go home and help Violet with Lawrence. What do you think?” she asked Camellia, looking up hopefully.
“Well, I mean, it’s up to you, of course, but from my experience, there’s not a lot you can do as long as Lawrence is in the hospital. I’m sure Violet intends to stay there with him, and you’d be just hanging around in Santa Rosa by yourself. Your apartment is still being worked on, right? So, you’d have to stay at your sister’s condo alone.”
Well, that was right. She’d almost forgotten that in the flurry of events from the past few days. She didn’t have anywhere to go home to, and the last thing she wanted to do right now was burden Violet further by asking to stay with her. “Believe it or not, I’d almost forgotten about that,” she admitted.
Camellia smiled. “You’re better off staying in Sacramento for now. We could certainly use your help with the fundraiser, and Ray and I have plenty of room in this old house. Feel free to come and go as you please.”
Lily swallowed down her trepidation. You can do this, she assured herself. After all, she’d been living on her own for almost two years without any help from her sister. It was just odd how quickly she’d fallen right back into her little sister role, relying on Violet again.
“Okay, great. Where do we start?” she said, trying to sound a lot more self-assured than she felt.
“Well, the first thing I actually wanted to do today was go by the courthouse and look for the original copy of the marriage certificate my mother told me about. You can come with me if you want?” Camellia said.
“Sure, why not? I’ve got nothing better to do today, and I’m just as anxious as you are to solve this mystery.”
A short while later, the two women were dressed and walking into the courthouse. Lily still wasn’t sure what it was that Camellia thought she would find, but she was willing to come along and help if it would clear things up for her. As far as she and Violet were concerned, the circumstances were already clear. Their father had married their mother, Daisy, and shortly after, Daisy had given birth to Violet, his first daughter. Somewhere in between Daisy having Violet and then herself, Dad must have met Camellia’s mother, Mary Ann, who then got pregnant with Camellia. Why he had pretended to marry the woman, Lily couldn’t imagine. All she could think of was how times were different back then, and he may have felt the need to protect her reputation.
“Well, here we are,” Camellia said, suddenly appearing nervous. “The clerk’s office is right there. If you want, you could maybe just wait for me out here?”
Lily sighed. She hadn’t really come all this way to just sit out in a hallway. However, she supposed if she went in with Camellia, the clerk was bound to ask questions, and it was apparent that Camellia preferred to avoid that.
She sat down, waiting patiently, while she checked her emails, tapped her foot restlessly, and then checked her emails yet again. Since Lily wasn’t some important businesswoman anyone really wanted to contact anyhow, she didn’t have too many emails to check. Finally, unable to sit still any longer, Lily stood up and walked quietly through the doors she’d seen Camellia enter.
She found her sister leaning over the clerk’s desk, looking into a computer screen with a frown. When she touched her arm, Camellia jumped and turned toward her.
“Oh, Lily. Sorry. This is going to take a little longer than I thought, I’m afraid. It looks like we may need to start looking through some actual paper files. The certificate I need doesn’t seem to have been entered when they updated their system.”
Or it never existed , but Lily kept her thoughts to herself.
Camellia smiled apologetically. “I’m sorry I dragged you all the way down here like this. There’s a coffee shop down the street if you want to wait, or you could just Uber back to my house if you’d prefer?”
“I could come on back with you and help you look?” Lily offered.
Camellia quickly shook her head. “No, no. The clerk says it’s dusty back there and could take a while. You’d be better off just taking an Uber back home. If you could check the volunteer charts on my desk, that would be super helpful.”
Lily got the impression that Camellia was afraid she wasn’t going to find anything, and she didn’t want Lily to know if she didn’t. She supposed she understood why Camellia needed to hold on to the belief that her mother was the first to marry their father a little longer, but she was nonetheless annoyed at having made the trip downtown for nothing.
“Sure.” Lily smiled to hide her aggravation. “I think I might just grab a coffee first, and then I’ll head back to your house and look over that list.”
As she walked back out the door, she wondered if, maybe instead of spending the week with Camellia and Ray, it was time for her to head back to Tahoe and take a look around. She didn’t like being excluded from Camellia’s search, and she had started to feel like a third wheel around the two of them anyway. They were nice enough to her, but she got the impression that there were a lot of things they were still keeping from her.
When she reached the door, she absently thanked the person holding it for her without looking up, and was surprised to hear the man chuckle.
“I see that you are the typical city dweller, after all. Head down, not paying attention to the people around you.”
She looked up to see the imposing figure of Dakota Clifton standing in front of her. Despite the chuckle, he looked as unamused as ever.
“I’m sorry. I guess I was a bit lost in my own thoughts. I do appreciate your holding the door for me, though.” Lily’s smile was disingenuous, and she knew it.
“Are you here on rodeo business or private business?” he asked, glancing behind her to see if she was alone.
She wanted to say that it was none of his business at all why she was there, but she wasn’t Violet or Camellia, so she just smiled wanly. “Turns out I’m not needed here at all, so I guess I have no business here anymore.”
“Camellia’s here looking for documents, and she doesn’t want you around, huh?” he said.
How did he know that?
Instead of answering, she said, “Why are you here? It is quite a coincidence that we’re all here on the same day. Rodeo business?”
He grinned at her. “No, actually, I’m here on private business of my own. But as long as you brought up the rodeo, I heard you are going to be my assistant this weekend?”
“I’m what?” Lily looked at him utterly confused and aghast.
Dakota frowned. “Didn’t Camellia tell you? Since her daughter won’t make it back this year, she said you would be taking her place?”
Lily shook her head, the feeling of dread slowly rising from the pit of her stomach. “Yes, she asked me if I would be willing to take Autumn’s place, but she didn’t mention that Autumn had been your assistant. I thought she was just helping you organize a few things. I don’t think I’m ready for something like being anyone’s actual assistant. I was thinking more along the lines of selling entrance tickets or manning the hot dog stand.”
Dakota chuckled again. It was a warm, soft, rumbly sound coming from deep in his throat, and Lily decided she rather liked the sound. “I think you’re way more capable than you give yourself credit for. It’s not really that hard. You just help me keep track of the contestants, their names, and the events they’re competing in. Kind of help keep me on track.”
“What exactly do you do at the event?” Lily asked. She assumed he would be in the ring himself, wrangling up bulls or something equally as dangerous. She certainly had no intention of ever entering a rodeo arena.
“Don’t worry. I’m not asking you to come in and fight any bulls with me. For this event, I’m just the announcer. I thought Ray might have explained things a little better for you and your sister. This is just a small, shortened version for charity. All the money made, including entrance fees, goes directly to the foundation for the kids. The contestants are only there to earn a few points and practice. Since I’ll be in the ring, along with the contestants, on my horse, I just need someone on the outside to keep track of any changes or scratches—things like that.”
“Oh, I see. I’m not sure I’m the right person for that, though. I think maybe Ray or Camellia would be better off helping you. I’m not really very good with people.”
Dakota wasn’t having any of her excuses or letting her off the hook. “Ray is going to be busy with things of his own, and in case you haven’t realized it yet, Camellia wouldn’t be caught dead working with me on anything, not even this charity. It’s a little late to try to find someone else right now.”
She wanted to ask what on earth Ray was doing that would keep him so busy he couldn’t step in, but of course, she had no idea what it took to run a rodeo, so she kept her mouth shut. “Umm, I just don’t know. Maybe you should try to find someone. I’m sure I could trade places with the ticket lady or something,” she hedged. The idea of spending too much time around this intimidating man filled her with trepidation.
He chuckled at her nervous anxiety. “The ticket lady is seventy-five years old, needs a cane to get around, and can barely see her hand when she holds it up in front of her face. I’m afraid you’re stuck with the job.” He suddenly smiled at her, and to her annoyance, she felt a jolt of excitement. “It won’t be that bad, I promise, and I’ll be there to help you get through the night,” he assured her.
Dakota glanced down at his watch and said, “As a matter of fact, I have some time right now. It would probably be a good idea for us to get some coffee, and I can let you know more about what you’ll be doing.”
Lily felt her throat close and her hands start to sweat. Why hadn’t she just kept her head down and kept going? She could be sitting in a nice, safe Uber right now instead of facing the terrifying thought of having to make small talk with a man whose moods seemed to change without warning.
“I-I’m not sure. I really should be getting back,” she stammered, but before she managed to stutter out any further excuses, a shrill voice behind them shouted,
“My, my, if it isn’t Dakota Clifton and one of the mysterious new sisters!”