Blue Willow (60 page)

Thinking about Joe getting out of prison in two months sent a dark chill through Hopewell. He knew what he had to do. He’d help Joe any way he could, but not at Lily’s expense. As long as she stayed away from that Colebrook bunch, Hopewell couldn’t ask her to leave the old farm.

He heard a car crunching along the gravel on his driveway and hurried to the front door, expecting Little Sis. Instead, he found a rusty old van with duct tape plastered over a hole in the passenger-side windshield. The driver, sporting a long, ragged beard and dirty-looking hair, flicked a cigarette butt out the side window. The passenger door opened and someone got out, but the van was angled
so Hopewell couldn’t see who it was. “Thanks for the ride, man,” a startlingly familiar voice said.

The van’s driver crunched the gears and backed up the driveway.

Joe stood there, a smirk on his face, a canvas tote hanging from one hand, tight trousers and a shiny wind-breaker emphasizing a bull-necked, lean-hipped body that had been built in a prison weight room. “Hello, old man,” he said. “Shit, you don’t look too happy to see me.”

“How—how come you’re out?”

“They let me go early. Had to make more room for no-accounts and niggers. Don’t worry—I ain’t lying. I got papers from my parole officer.”

An invisible fist closed around Hopewell’s throat. Terrible images flashed through his mind—Lily and Little Sis learning the kind of deal he’d made with Artemas Colebrook’s lawyer, hating him for it, of his life reverting to its miserable, lonely state. No.
No
. He’d talk to the lawyer—tell him he’d changed his mind. He’d help Joe some other way. Joe wouldn’t know the difference.

Hopewell walked numbly into the yard and hugged him. “Welcome home, boy.”

Joe draped a beefy arm around his shoulders and smiled. “Goddamn, you’re a smart old thing, ain’t you? Twistin’ the knife. Cuttin’ a piece right out of Colebrook’s guts.” Hopewell staggered back and stared at him. Joe laughed and nodded. “That lawyer come to see me. Told me all about it. Said he’d get me out early, if he could.”

Hopewell nearly strangled. “It doesn’t seem trashy to you to take handouts from the man who set the police on you and got you put in jail?”

Joe’s eyes narrowed to slits. “Don’t you get righteous on me. Colebrook owes me for what he done.”

“You don’t care that he’s doin’ it to put Lily MacKenzie off her own homeplace?”

“
Her
homeplace? Old man, that bitch hasn’t owned the place for years.
You
own it. And I’m your flesh and blood, and you better do what’s right by me. You get her ass off that land, and you tell Colebrook to pay up.”

“Her lease isn’t up till February. I never said I’d kick her out before then.”

“Well, you just break that lease. I’m not sittin’ around here for two months.”

“Joe, this is your home. You got a place to live. I can get you a job. Hell, I’ll pay you to work for me and Lily—”

“You think I’m gonna break my back for chickenshit, when Colebrook said he’d give me anything I want? You set this deal up for me. Why are you bitchin’ about it now?”

“I can’t do it! I was wrong. This isn’t no way to get you straightened out. You’re worse than you were before you went away.”

Joe shoved him, then snapped a hand around his shirt collar and looked down at him with calm menace. “I’m gonna be rich, old man,” he said softly. “If you fuck it up for me, you’ll be sorry.”

Hopewell jerked Joe’s hand from his shirt. “You can’t do nothing worse to me than you’ve already done. I’m tellin’ you, it’s
over
. You either live with what I say, or get out of my sight.”

“You don’t want to mess with me. Ill give you a few days to get that through your head.” Joe strode into the house. Hopewell charged after him. Joe went to the desk in the living room, pulled a bottom drawer open, and smiled thinly. “Still got your little cash stash, don’t you?” He snatched a wad of twenties from the drawer and shoved them in his pants pocket. Hopewell grabbed the fireplace poker and drew it back. Joe pulled a pistol from the drawer. The hammer clicked back with a soft, deadly sound as Joe pointed it at him. Joe grinned. “Still keep your gun in the same place too.”

“Put all of that back. Put it back, damn you.”

“I’ll pull the trigger, Daddy.” Joe’s voice had a taunting lilt. “I got nothing to lose but Colebrook’s money. And I ain’t gonna lose that.”

“I’d rather be dead than see you this way.” The sound of a car made Hopewell jerk his arm down and glance out the window. Little Sis’s red Cougar was coming down the
drive. Joe followed his gaze. He hid the gun inside his jacket and kicked the drawer shut with one foot. “You got a visitor. Now you don’t want other people to know what we’re up to, do you? We’re gonna make this deal with Colebrook and keep quiet about it. Because if we don’t, if we don’t, old man—” Joe smiled and let his voice trail off. He went to a key rack by the door, flipped a set of truck keys into his hand, and said lightly, “I’ll be over at a motel in town,
Daddy.
”

Hopewell’s mute desperation was the only answer Joe needed. Laughing, he walked out of the house.

“That was
Joe
,” Little Sis said, standing over him and pointing back toward the front door, as if he didn’t know. “I passed
Joe
on the way in. What’s he doing out of prison? I called out to him, but he just laughed at me. Why are you sitting here on your bed, in the dark?”

“Be quiet, woman.” His voice shook. He pulled her down beside him and held her hand. She must have seen the despair in his face. “What happened?” she cried, stroking his cheek frantically. She would never be quiet. He should have known. He’d grown to love her chattering and her questions. Oh, God, he couldn’t tell her what was wrong. “He got out early. He come home. My boy came home, Sissy.”

“Lord, you look like it’s the worst thing that ever happened.”

“He’s bad, Sissy. He’s bad to the core, and I’ve lost him.”

She murmured something sad and pulled his head to her shoulder. “Don’t talk like that.”

He couldn’t tell her why. He could only wait and think, and then, when he was forced to, make the hardest decision of his life.

Snow began falling, a rare sight this early in the season, even in the mountains, where winters were mild and the occasional white blankets of January and February sent everyone into hibernation for a day or two. Lily stood in the
wintry new gardens of the Malloy Inn holding a plastic cup filled with champagne, snowflakes settling on her face like soft, wet kisses and giving a white patina to the bare shrubs and dormant flower beds. Aunt Maude and the sisters were clustered around her, with Mr. Malloy, Mr. Estes, Mr. Parks, and his sons, who had gulped their celebratory champagne with typical silent appreciation.

Mr. Malloy surveyed the finished work and nodded. “I can’t wait to see it in the spring.”

“You’re gonna love it,” Mr. Estes assured him. Though there was a subdued, almost bitter look on his face, he waved a champagne bottle with one hand and clapped the other on Lily’s back. “This lady knows her business. You’ll have the prettiest damned garden in Victoria.”

Lily smiled dully and caught Aunt Maude’s worried glance. Lily had told Aunt Maude and the sisters about her and Artemas. Little Sis was certain Mr. Estes had mellowed enough to accept their relationship, even if he never forgave Artemas for helping put Joe in prison. Knowing that Joe was back in town made Lily nervous. She wasn’t sure of anything.

The champagne created an acid taste in her throat. Artemas was waiting for her at the estate. By the time she arrived there this afternoon, his brothers and sisters would be at the house too. They had no idea why he’d asked them to come. Before this day ended, they would know. Her stomach churned, and she poured the last of the champagne onto the ground.

“I want to talk to you about a maintenance contract,” Malloy said to her and Mr. Estes. “I’ll call you next week to discuss the details. With the reputation your work is getting, I don’t want you to be too busy by spring to accommodate me.”

“Yeah, spring,” Mr. Estes echoed, his brows drawing together. He shuffled his feet, frowned, then shoved the champagne into Mr. Parks’s startled hands. Suddenly brusque, he said, “Well, let’s get this show on the road, before we all get covered in snow.”

Malloy pulled a check from one pocket of his overcoat
and handed it to Lily. “There’s your last payment. Merry Christmas. Thank you for a job well done. Here’s to the future.” Lily raised her empty cup. After Malloy shook their hands and hurried back into the inn, she tucked the check into Mr. Estes’s hand. “You can give me my part in a few days, after you pay Mr. Parks and his boys. I’ve got to run. I’ll see you later.”

Mr. Estes peered at her. “I thought you was goin’ to Maude’s with us. I mean, we got some celebratin’ to do. We ought to have
something
to celebrate,” he added in a grim tone. He took Little Sis’s hand awkwardly. His gaze skittered when she gave him a wistful look. “You can’t leave me alone all afternoon decorating a Christmas tree with this gaggle of pushy women.”

Big Sis spit tobacco juice. “Lily’s got better things to do than referee your social life.”

“Like what?” Mr. Estes demanded, alert and almost fierce.

“Sssh. She’s not welded to us old folks,” Little Sis interjected, tugging at his hand.

Lily managed a smile. “I’ll see y’all later.”

His scowl deepened. “Something’s going on here. I want to know what it is. Why aren’t you coming to Maude’s?”

Aunt Maude stuck her jaw out. “Hush, you nosy old groundhog. Lily, you take off. This isn’t the time or the place to get into an argument.”

“Why, it damned sure is the time and place,” Mr. Estes retorted.

Lily felt the hopeless confrontation rising in her chest like a jackhammer. She leveled a troubled gaze at him. “You might as well know right now. I’m going to Blue Willow. Artemas is expecting me.”

Mr. Estes gaped at her. “You been seeing
him
behind my back?”

Before Lily could answer, Big Sis snorted. “How else could she see him? You’ve been holding your feud with him over her head all this time, making her think you’d turn your back on her if she so much as said a kind word
to the man. Artemas Colebrook’s not your enemy, you bull-headed coot. Joe’s problems are Joe’s own fault, and I thought you’d figured that out. He’s treated you like dirt since he got home.”

Little Sis pushed in front of Mr. Estes and gazed up at him. “Hopewell, Lily’s been good to you. She’s made her peace with Artemas Colebrook. She loves him, and he loves her—ever since they were kids, they were meant to be together. It’s finally come full circle. It was just a matter of time.”

“He don’t love her,” Mr. Estes retorted, his face livid. He stared at Lily. “Were you waitin’ until this job was finished to tell me the truth?”

“There wasn’t anything to tell, until recently.” Lily held out her hands, beseeching him. “Please try to understand. He and I have tried so hard to do what was best for everyone else. Now, we have to do what’s best for us too.”

“You listen to me. He’s just scheming to ruin you all over again.”

Lily continued to hold his outraged gaze without blinking. “You’re wrong. If you can put your stubborn ideas about him aside long enough to get to know him, you’ll see that. I’ve never asked you for anything but a fair chance. Will you give me that?”

“I’m trying to keep you from making a terrible mistake.”

“I want to keep working at my family’s home. I want to keep working with you. You have to tell me whether that’s going to be possible.”

Mr. Estes sputtered. “Just like that? You drop this news on me and think it don’t change anything?” Little Sis gave a soft cry of alarm and disappointment. “Hopewell, you
wouldn’t
trash what you and Lily have accomplished. You can’t. I know you’re not capable of that.”

“I don’t know what Colebrook’s up to, but I intend to find out. Y’all believe me, there’s more here than meets the eye. You’ll thank me for trying to keep Lily away from him.”

Lily felt the pulse jumping in her throat. “I’ve made my choice. Do you want me to move out of my house?”

“What do you care about your house? You’ll go live in that mansion of his and let him own you. Mark my words, he’ll make you sorry.”

“Why in the world would you say that?” Aunt Maude asked, throwing up her hands. “If I’ve learned one thing about Artemas Colebrook over the years, it’s that he’d give his soul to keep from hurting Lily. This talk about him scheming
against
her doesn’t make any sense.”

Little Sis leaned toward him, scrutinizing him desperately. “What makes you say such terrible things? Is it because Joe’s come back so much more hateful than he was before? Oh, Hopewell, don’t poison your mind because of your son.”

Mr. Estes swallowed hard and stared at Little Sis as if he were seeing the last beautiful sunset of his life. He shook his head. “Sissy, Artemas Colebrook is the coldest, most conniving bastard—”

“Stop,” Lily commanded, her throat tight. “I’m asking you again, Mr. Estes—I’ve got until February on the lease you gave me, but if you can’t accept my relationship with Artemas, then tell me now, and I’ll make plans to leave.”

Breathless tension hung in the cold, snowy air. Mr. Estes straightened. “We had an understanding about the Colebrooks, and you broke it.” His tone was anguished and bitter. “You done it to yourself. It’s not my fault.”

“Hopewell,
no
,” Little Sis begged. “I’ll never forgive you if you do this god-awful stupid thing.” She hurried to Maude’s station wagon at the street, got in, and slammed the door.

His mouth trembled. He jerked Malloy’s check from his coat pocket and thrust it at Lily. “Take it. It oughta cover the money you spent fixing up the house. Consider it a settlement.”

“You keep it. Pay Mr. Parks and his sons,” Lily answered, her voice low and controlled. “Throw the rest
down a hole, if that’ll make you feel better. I don’t want any money from you. I want respect and understanding.”

She walked away. He called after her, his voice hoarse, “It’s not me you’ll hate! It’s Colebrook!”