High-Riding Heroes (10 page)
A band played on a newly constructed stage-dance floor as couples whirled and swayed. Lights were strung waiting for dusk. Food. Food enough to feed an
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entire city was loaded down on dozens of picnic tables. Meat sizzled on twenty grills. Children ran everywhere, soaring on swings, jumping in and out of small wading pools. Katie stayed close to her father, rejecting the other children when they begged her to come play.
At dinner, Wes bounced Katie on his knee, trying to cut his steak at the same time. Victoria laughed and took his plate from him. “I’ll cut it. That way we can be sure we won’t end up calling nine-one-one for excessive bleeding.”
Katie munched on a juicy hamburger, ketchup squeezing out to roll down into the cuff of her white sleeve. All the while her head was pressed back against Wes’s shoulder. She would look back and up from time to time and just smile at him. He would plant a kiss on her nose or the top of her head.
She could never remember that kind of open affection being showered on her when she was little. First of all it wasn’t proper to be out of one’s chair while eating. Second, her father hadn’t lived long enough for her to know if he would have done that. She couldn’t remember. She didn’t think so.
Her mother would have objected, saying it wasn’t proper to display affection in public.
Victoria slid Wes’s plate back in front of him. As a thank you, he scooped up a forkful of salad greens and offered it to her. She wasn’t much for the blue cheese dressing he had poured so lavishly over top but she opened her mouth and took his offering.
He watched as her mouth closed around his fork and listened closely as she sighed contentedly. He’d had only a brief taste of her the night before but it had rocked him. And he wasn’t sure he wanted to be rocked. The last time he had been, the result had been disastrous. Well, not entirely. Wes pulled Katie close to him and hugged her. He had his little Katie and he couldn’t imagine life without her.
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There was something different about Victoria. Today. Today, he saw it even more. She seemed more relaxed and happy than he’d ever seen her. Even though he knew she loved Glory Town, he had picked up on certain reservations that she held close to her. Right now, she was pulling on an emotion of his that he couldn’t quite name, that he hadn’t quite figured out yet.
Needing to move around, to divert his thoughts, Wes set Katie’s little feet on the ground and took her hand. “Now, Katie, let’s take Victoria on a tour of the stables.”
“I’ll show her the debil stallion.”
“I told you, my sweet girl, that he’s not a ‘debil.’ He just needs special handling.”
Katie looked up at her father with certainty. “Doc says he’s a debil. Says he’s mean and nasty.”
Wes winked at Victoria. “Doc’s our foreman. He’s not big on diplomacy.”
The three of them made the rounds of the stalls with Katie skipping out in front of them. The barns were clean, neat, and organized.
Wes disturbed a very old, mangy dog when he stopped in front of the stallion’s stall. “This here’s Moe.” He crouched down to scratch the lazy dog’s ears.
“He’s appointed himself watchdog and company to Skipper’s Cool Cash Two, one of our studs. On down there is the Three Bars stallion. All the horses in this barn are sired by one or the other.”
And each one was a beauty. Victoria took the time to see them all.
“Conformation is beautiful. Strong and sturdy.”
“They train well for the speed events. Good hindquarters. Not like that sleek thoroughbred of yours.”
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She knew he was teasing and countered, “Only part thoroughbred. Enough quarter horse to make him passable.”
Katie turned back to them, a half-wild cat squeezed to her chest. The cat wiggled to get away, claws catching Katie’s dress. Concerned, Victoria went to Katie and lifted the cat from her arms and quickly set it down when the claw made contact with her flesh.
Katie giggled and Wes smiled at the two of them. “Don’t worry. It’s had its rabies shot.”
Before Victoria could retort, Katie was off down the aisle streaking after the elusive cat.
“They’re used to her.” Wes patted her shoulder. “Katie is every cat’s nemesis around here. They won’t hurt her.”
“I like seeing you here in my barn, fretting over my daughter.”
“Hadn’t we better be getting back to your guests?” They were in the open now and Katie was climbing up on the fence, her dress blowing in the breeze, her impatient feet bouncing up and down.
“See the babies. See the babies!” she squealed.
Joining her at the fence, Victoria looked out over the fields. The foals were running and bucking while the mothers grazed in the shade of the trees.
They leaned arms on the fence. “The buckskin paint, none other like him. I call him Snake. Over there is Bandit, Vegas, and Cheyenne.
The yellow mare there is Honey, that one Holly.” Pointing to the others, he identified each one.
Victoria was impressed that the man knew the name of each and every horse in such a large-based stable and breeding operation. She liked a man who cared.
And he did.
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Wes turned to Katie and she launched herself off the fence. “Swing me, Daddy. Swing me.”
Wes obliged. Kicking up dust as he turned in circles, holding Katie under her arms, they laughed and the sound of it carried out across the sweet meadows.
Victoria felt the yearnings from her own childhood drape over her. If she’d had the untethered love she saw before her, would her life have been different?
Would her father have loved her with the freedom Wes loved his daughter? A faraway memory pushed to the front of her mind, but it was hazy, fuzzy, and unclear. It lingered at the edges, challenging her to remember. If her father had lived, would he have let her mother have all that control? In that very instant, Victoria learned that it was no one’s fault but her own. She, and she alone, had allowed her mother to control her. It had been easier. God. It had been easier.
Katie’s squeals of delight stopped the moment Wes leaned against the fence in mock weakness. She pulled his face toward hers and kissed him on the jaw.
“Again, Daddy. Again.”
“Time we got back.” Still holding Katie on his hip, he extended his hand to Victoria. With only a moment’s hesitation, she took it.
Later, Victoria had Katie sitting on her lap while they watched Wes pitch horseshoes with his dad and two other men. All four of the men bragged and teased and laughed. What a perfectly happy family. So open. So together. So at ease with each other. So close. Contented, Victoria rubbed her cheek against Katie’s soft hair.
Wes’s mother joined them on the grass and handed Victoria a glass of tea and Katie a small cup of milk.
“The men will be at this for hours.” She smiled at Victoria. “Katie doesn’t take to strangers very quickly but she sure seems to like you.”
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“I hope she does, Mrs. Cooper. She’s a delightful child.” Victoria looked around. “You certainly have a beautiful spread here. It’s a wonderful place for her to grow up.”
“You haven’t seen the house yet, have you? Men don’t think of things like that. Katie, let’s show Victoria Grandma’s big kitchen. I saved a whole plate of gingerbread cookies for you and your daddy and they need the icing put on for the face.”
Katie jettisoned out of Victoria’s lap, milk sloshing from her cup, to take Grandma’s hand, pulling her to a standing position. Victoria took the cup from her, holding the two glasses between her fingers.
“Tory can help, too, Grandma?” Katie held hands with both women and swung their arms as she walked with stiff-legged, purposeful strides.
Grandma laughed. “Of course, Tory can help, too.” She cast Victoria a wink.
They walked across a huge patio and through one set of the three sliding glass doors.
“Your turn, Wes.”
Busy watching his mother, Katie, and Victoria ambling across the lawn, Wes forced his attention back to the game.
They stepped into a huge, gleaming kitchen. It was almost as large as all of Glory Town. All Victoria could do was gape. “Wow!”
“Big it is.” Mrs. Cooper looked around proudly. “We started out in a small log cabin on the back forty with one stallion and six mares. That was a long, long time ago. The one thing Tom promised me was that someday I would have the largest kitchen in Oklahoma. I held him to it.”
The walls were painted a creamy white, the curtains were a handsome burlap-type material done in yellow, brown, and turquoise stripes. The floor was simply black and white linoleum. Three wagonwheel chandeliers hung over a 78
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massively done center island where three ovens and four stoves and acres of countertop sat. Pots and pans, gleaming copper and stainless steel, lined three walls. A huge fireplace took up the other wall.
Mrs. Cooper folded back four wooden slatted doors that opened into the dining room. Victoria counted fourteen chairs, six down each side of the mahogany table and two unique armchairs at each end. Candles and large paintings decorated the walls done in blue satin paper. “Beautiful.”
“We entertain quite often now. There are several clients from out of town, buyers from overseas.”
“It’s magnificent.” And it was. Victoria had always thought her sprawling home in the Virginia foothills was rambling, but it was a guest house compared to this. It was open and airy and not the least bit pretentious.
A thick gray carpet covered most of the floor but hardwood gleamed from the edges. They moved through another set of doors and into the living room. It was sunken, the backs of the sofas and chairs coming only to the top of the floor they now stood on. Another massive fireplace of fieldstone stood beneath a portrait of the young Coopers. The furniture was dark pine, polished to blind.
Huge windows, floor to ceiling, went unadorned with curtains, exposing an expansive view of the rolling, extensive fields and barns below.
Going down the steps, Victoria stopped to admire the hand-woven Indian blankets that were spread along the tops of the sofas and hung on the walls. A warm room. Very warm. Love was here in every nook and cranny. Pictures in small Victorian frames snugged family members. Knickknacks, expensive and not, sat here and there on end tables and shelves.
Huge brass lamps with night-lights in the bases sat on shiny cherry tables.
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Katie was getting bored. Victoria could tell because she had quit jabbering and was chewing on the hem of her skirt, which she had pulled into her mouth.
Victoria bent down to her and asked, “Where’s Katie’s room?”
The child brightened and ran up the steps from the living room, into a hall, and up a wide sweep of staircase, the banister just calling for Victoria to slide down. She remembered doing that at home every time she thought the coast was clear…and getting caught more times than enough.
Katie’s room was large, too, with windows opened to the front drive. Lacy curtains billowed in the breeze. Beneath a ton of stuffed animals stood a double bed with a ballerina spread and a canopy on top. A miniature table with chairs was set with tiny teacups and a pot. Raggedy Ann patiently waited for her playmate to return and join her. Toy boxes, overflowing to the ridiculous, lined the walls papered in Disney characters.
Katie jumped on her bed and pushed a switch on a box nearby. Victoria recognized the voice. It was Wes singing “Hush Little Baby.” A surge of passion pushed through her heart. What a lucky little girl to have a father so attentive and loving. And his voice was beautiful. And the fact that he had actually taken the time to record this, to be sure his little girl had part of him even when he couldn’t be there, left her mind reeling. She had thought she was beginning to know this man. She hadn’t even pierced the surface.
“When Daddy can’t be here at bedtime, I play this. It’s not as good as when he’s here though. Daddy has to work sometimes.” She was tapping the toes of her black patent leather shoes together.
“All daddies have to work, Katie. But I know he’s here with you when he can be. He loves you very much.” Victoria sat on the bed beside the sweet little girl.
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“Does your daddy work all the time?” Katie asked, large eyes round and deep brown.
Victoria picked up one of the stuffed animals, a fat fuzzy bear with black eyes and a sleepy smile. Hugging it to her without even realizing it, she told Katie, “My daddy is dead, sweetheart. He died when I was a little younger than you. So see, you’re a lucky little girl. Even though Daddy has to work, you can always see him later.”
Mrs. Cooper watched from the doorway. It did her heart good to see Katie warming up to this woman. Wes had never mentioned her but she had seen the way her son looked at this one. And she liked her. Hope sprang in her aging heart. Maybe soon Katie would have a real family.
“I don’t have a mommy.” The child was tiring and she laid her head back on the animals and stuffed a thumb in her mouth. “Would you be my mommy?”
The child’s words nearly moved Victoria to tears.
Mrs. Cooper saved Victoria from trying to come up with an answer to that one. “Come on, little one. Let’s show Victoria the rest of the house. We have guests to entertain and cookies to put faces on.”
Katie made a move to take Grandma’s hand, but before she did, she reared up on her knees and threw both arms around Victoria’s neck and laid a sloppy, wet kiss on Victoria’s cheek. It knocked the wind out of her. Such an abandoned display of affection for a virtual stranger. This child missed her mother more than Wes could know. She made a mental note to talk to Wes about it, even though it was none of her business. How could a person be untouched by the situation after spending time with these people?