Genesis: A Harte's Peak Prequel (12 page)

“It's always about you. You can't let go. You can't let me live my life. You have to be in every part of my business.” Lexi slammed the door to her bedroom.

Maggie was right behind her and the door almost hit her in the nose. “Lexi, open this door. I have something I need to tell you.”

“Go away!”

Great, she had no idea how to do this. A teenage daughter was a phenomenon beyond her mere human abilities.
Lord, I need You now. A little guidance would be nice. It's a good thing You make house calls.

The phone rang, intruding on her silent prayer. Maggie took a breath and answered it, only to find Paula on the other line. “How is everything? You both OK?”

The woman had some sort of honing radar when it came to Lexi. “Fine, Paula. What's up?”

Paula's voice was quiet and tentative. “I wanted to ask you if Lexi could spend the weekend with us. We don't see her often enough.”

“We've been over this. I don't feel comfortable given everything that happened.” How quickly Paula seemed to forget.

“Maggie, when are you going to forgive us?” Paula's voice grew harsh, tinny.

“I have forgiven you.” That much was true. She was required to forgive, and she'd done that. Reluctantly.

“In two weeks there is an art show in Sonoma, and Richard and I would love to take her. We'd make a weekend out of it; maybe take her to San Francisco, as well. You know she'd love it.”

Paula had pulled at the string of guilt perpetually attached to Maggie's heart. She knew full well how much her daughter would enjoy the show, but she had more important matters to deal with at the moment. None of which she would share with Paula.

“Of course she would enjoy it, but that's not the point. I'll have to talk to you about this later. I'll call you back.” Maggie hung up, unable to deal with Paula right now.
One fight at a time, Maggie, one at a time.

She'd given Lexi enough time to cool down. Taking deep breaths, she calmly opened the door to Lexi's bedroom. Her daughter lay on her trundle bed, ear buds in, back facing the door.

“Ready to talk?” Maggie nudged her.

Lexi pulled the ear buds out. “Are you ready to listen?”

Well, maybe she deserved that. “Sure.”

“Anton is mostly just my friend, but I think he likes me. Still, I don't like him. Not that way. Last Sunday he asked me if he could go to church with me, and I told him OK, that I'd meet him there. Because of all the kids I know, Anton needs church the most. And that's about it. Not that you'll believe me or anything.”

“OK. I believe you. Just be sure that you don't keep the truth from me just because you think I won't like it.” She had a strong sense of déjà vu since she'd done the same with her own mother and failed to confess that she and Matt were dreaming about getting married and spending too much time alone together. And then came Lexi.

Lexi stayed silent, and drew her lips into a nearly perfect pout.

“Lexi, are you OK with the Lord?” Right now, more than anything, she wanted to know that her daughter hadn't turned her back on everything she'd taught her to believe.

“You don't have to worry about that,” Lexi said.

Oh, how I want to believe that.

Maggie thought about Paula's invitation so that she could demonstrate that honesty went both ways, but if she shared that with Lexi right now she'd only have to deny her one more thing. Because she still couldn't trust Paula and Richard Bradshaw with Lexi. Not yet.

Maybe a breath of fresh air would do them both some good. “Let's go outside and figure out how to start the lawn mower.”

“Oh joy,” Lexi said.

 

****

 

The dirty mutt he'd taken to calling Chief liked tailgate rides. Jack tied his leash safely in the cab, and Chief stood in place and took in the scenery like he was a traveling dignitary. The citizens of Harte's Peak were probably all getting a good whiff of last week's trash, but at least he got a few smiles from the townsfolk as they waved at Chief from their vehicles. And maybe somehow Chief was getting aired out. One could hope, anyway.

Tomorrow he'd take the dog back to the station and prevail on Calhoun's sense of goodness and faith in mankind. Surely, that extended to the animal species. One night with a stray dog. He could handle that, but before Chief could enter his house, he'd have to be hosed down.

He pulled into his driveway only to find Maggie on his lawn dressed in shorts and a t-shirt, bent over a lawn mower while she jerked repeatedly at the cord. Then she looked at the machine, hand on hips, and pulled at it again.

Lexi stood nearby, arms folded across her chest, the picture of teenage disinterest. That is, until she saw the back of his cab. That's when a smile began to spread from ear to ear that gave her the appearance of a much younger kid. All that teenage surliness seemed to have taken off for parts unknown as she rushed to the back of his truck.

“Mom! Look at this. Oh, the poor thing. What did you do to it?” She shifted her gaze to Jack, eyes blazing.

“What did
I
do to it?” Jack asked. “I rescued this beast. Don't blame me for the way he smells. Blame his trash gorging habits.”

He untied the leash, and the dog jumped down and sat next to him as though he'd issued a command.

Maggie joined them though she almost immediately backed away, no doubt at the rancid smell. Why the smell didn't seem to affect Lexi was a mystery. “What happened to him?” Maggie asked.

“Mrs. Jones brought him in today and wants us to find him a home. I'll bring him back tomorrow when Sheriff Calhoun is there, and I'm sure he'll figure something out.”

“You're just going to give him away to some stranger?” Lexi stared daggers at him. She was actually petting the thing, which made his opinion of her ratchet up several degrees. The kid had guts.

“Well, what do you suggest?” he asked.

“Let me wash him for you. I'll make him shine and smell so good you'll never want to give him away!”

He liked that grin on her much better than the usual scowl. Made her seem almost human.

“You would do that?” He'd been prepared to do the honors with the hose's spray nozzle and the benefit of some distance, but soap and TLC would probably work much better.

“Yes, as long as I can skip mowing your lawn today. My mom and I were getting ready to do that, but we can't figure out how to turn it on. Anyway, I'll get your lawn all wet washing him. By the way, what's his name?”

“He doesn't have a name, so I call him Chief.”

“That's a perfect name for him,” Lexi said.

Great. Had he just inadvertently named a dog? It wasn't supposed to be his name, it was just temporary. A place holder. Before he could protest, Lexi had the hose, and Maggie had brought a big bucket of soapy water out of her house.

Maggie stepped back and let Lexi do the honors. The teenaged hellion tenderly let Chief guzzle water from the hose which he did as if he hadn't had a drink in weeks. Before long, the mutt was wet and sudsy, and Lexi cooed like he'd once heard a mother talk to her newborn.

“She loves dogs,” Maggie said. “When we moved, one of my promises to soften the blow of leaving all her friends behind was that I'd get her a dog.”

“She can have this one.” Problem solved.

“No, she can't. Why are you always trying to give things away? Anyway, my landlord won't allow pets. If I'd had any sense at all, I wouldn't have made a promise that I wasn't sure I'd be able to keep.”

Jack had promised Robert that he'd have his back, but that hadn't worked out quite the way he'd planned. The way he saw it, human beings were lousy at keeping promises.

“She's like a different kid,” Jack said as they watched Lexi rinse the soap off.

“This is the daughter I know, the one you've never met. Jack Butler, meet Lexi Bradshaw when she's human.” Maggie turned to him and waved her hand in Lexi's direction.

It wasn't just the smile, but the way her shoulders relaxed, and for the first time since he'd met her he heard the sound of Maggie's laughter. That girlish giggle woke something up inside of him, and he wondered what he'd have to do to hear that sound more often.

“Tell you what I'll do. I'll ask the sheriff if maybe there's a way we could keep him down at the station as a mascot, and that way Lexi can at least visit him.”

“Is there any end to your generosity, Jack Butler?”

“Uh, what?” If he wasn't mistaken, that was one adjective that had never been used to describe him. Robert maybe, but not him.

“First you want to give us your computer. You help me sort through our boxes. Then you give us a ride to church, and now you want to make sure my daughter gets her dog-fix.”

While that didn't sound like him, he couldn't deny facts. “Just call me Dudley Do-Right. Speaking of which, how is your car? Any luck starting it today?”

“Nope. I'm afraid it's gone to that big junkyard in the sky.”

“I can take a look at it. I know a little about cars.” What he knew about cars could probably fit on a postcard, but he didn't trust mechanics and something told him Maggie couldn't afford one.

“You know about cars, too? I was going to have Joe over on Main Street take a look at it. I can't afford much, but anything would be better than taking on a car payment.”

“If I can't figure it out, you can take it to Joe's. In the meantime, how are you guys getting around?” He should have asked about that earlier.

“We walked today. One of the perks of a small town: everything is close by.”

“Any time you need a ride, just let me know.” One favor had led him to another one, and suddenly it wasn't all that hard to be social again. Especially with Maggie.

Lexi had run inside her home for a towel and then dried Chief, and Jack had to admit the dog looked like a real dog. Still, the damp fur hung from him and revealed his scrawny form. Jack would probably dig through trash cans, too, if he were as hungry and desperate as Chief must have been.

“I want to finish drying him inside with my blow dryer. Is it OK, Mom?”

“I guess he can't do much damage to the house if he's in there only a few minutes and you watch him. Sure, why not?” Maggie shrugged.

“If you want to keep him tonight, well, it would be difficult for me, but I'd consider it.” Jack held a hand to his chest and tried more of this generosity thing on for size.

Maggie whipped her head around in the direction of her house. “Don't say that in front of Lexi. She'd take you up on it.”

“The dog is good therapy for her.” This was his story, and he was sticking to it.

“Really? Well, who knows? He might make a good police dog, too.” Maggie elbowed him.

“That might be stretching things a bit.” His lips felt odd, as if they were convulsing, and then he realized he must be smiling. An odd, though welcome, sensation.

“Something tells me that you also believe in lost causes.”

“Also? Does that mean you're a sucker for a lost cause?”

“The lost are some of my favorite people,” Maggie said. “It doesn't feel like that long ago that I was one of them.”

So Maggie liked a lost cause. Without a doubt, it probably meant that she could certainly learn to love him.

 

 

 

 

9

 

Who knew that a motley looking stray dog like Chief could cause a young girl an afternoon of joy? Lexi had put real effort into making Chief presentable, styling his fur using some of the hair products that Maggie used in her own hair. Later Lexi insisted on feeding him scraps from their leftovers.

Chief did look like a loving and pampered pet when Lexi was done with him and walked him reluctantly back to Jack's place late in the afternoon, complaining out loud that she wasn't sure Jack could handle taking care of a dog.

It was a good thing that Jack had pushed the lawn mower into her backyard, since Maggie required help figuring out the contraption. Somewhere in this house lay some kind of instruction manual on the machine.

In a way, she welcomed the distraction that the dog had provided, at least for tonight. It meant that she could avoid mention of Paula's phone call for a bit longer.

Sooner or later, she'd have to face letting Lexi spend more time with Paula and Richard, but for now that possibility didn't feel safe. And Maggie had to do what was best for everyone concerned. Even Matt would agree.

If anyone understood his father, it had been Matt. Richard Bradshaw thought Matt should be a lawyer, even though Matt was a born teacher. Richard didn't hide his disappointment when Matt had insisted on taking a position at a private high school in Colorado straight out of college.

“A private school?” He'd shouted at Matt. “If you insist on teaching, at the very least you'd get more money at a public school. They're union, and you'll get great benefits. Better pay, even. Where's your sense, Matt? You have a family to support.”

“Their basketball team won state three years in a row, and when Lexi gets old enough to go there, we'll get a great discount,” Matt had shouted back. And yes, it made sense to Maggie, too. Of course, Matt could never have imagined that by the time Lexi was old enough for high school he wouldn't be in this world any longer.

Now she was a widow at thirty-one, facing spending the rest of her life alone. Slipping into bed, Maggie stared at the empty place beside her.
Lord, I feel so alone. Please help me to fill this empty place in my heart with something else.
It couldn't be love, a romantic relationship, because who would want her baggage? No, she'd have to wait until Lexi was away at college. That is, if she could ever afford to send her to college. Not likely. Maggie fluffed her pillow.