Montana Morning (16 page)

“It’s very nice to
meet you, Adrianna.  Is Jack around?”

“He’ll be back at
noon.”  She had made a mistake.  She knew it the minute she turned to
hand him a cup of hot coffee.  He was smiling, but it wasn’t the smile of
a friend. She prayed Jack would come back early.  ‘
Housekeeper, yeah
and a lot more, I’d bet judging from the looks of her,’
Randy
surmised. 
‘I’ve got to hand it to old Jack, didn’t think he was the
type to buy a woman but looks like he’s got himself a prize.’

“Do you take cream
or sugar?” Addy tried to make polite conversation despite the knots forming in
her stomach.

“No, thanks, I
like mine black.”  His eyes followed her every move. As the timer went off
and she removed the rolls from the oven, he jumped up and reached around her to
place a potholder on the counter.

“Thank you.” Addy said, her voice shook and she
swallowed hard.  He was not backing away.  His hands were on her
waist.  He was stepping closer.  If she turned to face him, she would
be in his arms. “Mr. Mueller, please!” she attempted to sound firm but civil.

“Oh, come on now,
‘Annie’, don’t tell me you want to save all this softness for Kilbourne.” 
Suddenly Addy was not only frightened, she was furious.  She grabbed a
butcher knife from the counter.  “If you don’t take your hands off me this
instant, you’ll be going back to town a gelding!”

Addy would never
know if her bluff had worked.  Just then the kitchen door burst open and
Mueller turned to see Jack descending on him - his face a mask of pure
rage!  She clung to the counter top for dear life, certain she was going
to pass out.

“Mueller!
Outside!” Jack’s voice was hard as nails.  The men left the house in
silence . . . low voices . . . truck door slamming . . . gravel flying . . .
more silence.

Jack reentered the
house to find Addy still clinging to the sink.  As he reached out to touch
her shoulder, she jumped like she’d been hit by a bolt of lightning. 

“Easy, Honey.” He
turned her around into his arms.  She didn’t mean to cry; the tears just
came.  He kissed her hair and held her tight against his chest. Minutes
later, she sighed and then gave a tiny giggle. 

“What’s so funny?”
Jack smiled down at the eyes still wet with tears.

“Seems a girl just
isn’t safe in her own kitchen anymore.”  She smiled sheepishly up at him
and he knew she was remembering a kiss not long ago in this same spot.

“Seems not.” He
bent to kiss her softly on the forehead.  “Are you okay now?”

“I’m okay. 
He just surprised me, I guess.” She bit her lip as he backed away from her to
take off his coat.  “I’m sorry . . .”

“I’m the one
that’s sorry, Addy.” He ran his hands through his hair and walked to the
window.  “Damn it, I should have known not to take a chance on his getting
here when you were alone.”

“Why?” She started
dishing up lunch as they talked.

“Because I’ve
heard stories about him trying to mess around with some of the rancher’s wives,
and I didn’t pay any attention.”

“You didn’t have
any reason to.” She smiled softly across the room at the men coming through the
door.

“I do now.” 

She turned just in
time to get a glimpse of his shy grin.

“Mueller didn’t
show up?” Andy asked as they sat down to eat.

“Came and went,”
was Jack’s stern reply.

“What about the
yearlings?”  Will knew how bad they needed this sale.

“We won’t be
selling anything to Western Pacific until they can Mueller,” Jack said, as Addy
sat down.  Will and Andy knew that tone, and knew the discussion was over.

***

“Want to tell me
about it?” Andy asked, as he and Jack rode back to the north pasture. The man
riding beside him had been a friend since Vietnam and he knew if they ever
needed to sell those yearlings, it was this year. 

“Not much to
tell.”

“Mueller made a
pass at Addy, didn’t he?”

“Yep.” Jack could
feel Andy watching him.

“Son of a . . .”
Andy started to spout.

“Yeah,” Jack cut
in.  “You’d have been real proud of her.”

“How’s that?” Andy
stopped his horse up short.

“By the time I got
there she was threatening to geld him.”  Jack had to laugh at the look of
pure shock on Andy’s face.

“What did he have
to say for himself?  Did he try to talk his way out of it?”

“Nope, just said
he couldn’t imagine why I was so darn ‘het’ up over a housekeeper.”

Andy shook his
head in dismay. 
‘It’s a wonder, given how Jack feels about Addy, that
he didn’t beat the fool to a pulp.’
Andy wondered if, in fact, his friend
had finally admitted to himself how much he had come to care for her.

***

Jack had been
expecting Simpson’s phone call and the man was obviously furious.  “Why,
Kilbourne, after all these years, did you decide to sell those yearlings to our
competitors.  You know how bad we’ll be needing them.” Jack could hear him
slamming something on his desk.  “And not even give us a chance to bid on
them . . .”

“Now hold on,
Mike,” Jack had wondered what kind of excuse Mueller would come up with before
he got back to town.  “Is that what that idiot told you?”

Mike Simpson
calmed down and took a very deep breath.  “Jack, what really went on up
there this afternoon?”

“He made a pass at
our housekeeper and I threw him off the place.  I told him I wouldn’t sell
one more head to you as long as he was on your payroll.”  There was a long
pause on the other end.

“Isn’t that a bit
harsh, Jack?   Randy knows his cattle and he’s made us good money.”

“Maybe sounds
harsh to you, Mike, but that’s the way it’s going to be,” Jack answered calmly.

“Did you see this
so called pass, or is this woman just after some attention?”

 Jack slammed
the phone down so hard  on the desk, Addy was sure it had broken.  He
hadn’t seen her enter the office; he was standing with his back to the
door.  Whatever the person on the phone had said, it had made Jack angrier
than she’d ever seen him.  Sensing her presence he spun around, fists
clinched, and eyes black with fury.  “What do you want now?” 

She stammered, “I
thought you might want a drink.”  She sat the glass on the desk and
hurried from the room.

“Addy, wait!” Jack
started to follow her to explain.  The phone rang as he watched her
disappear down the hall.  He’d talk to her later.  Mike Simpson was
no doubt on the other end of the line, and this couldn’t wait.

The sun filtered
through the window for the first time in two weeks.  The spring rains had
started the night following the cattle buyer episode.  Addy had expected
Jack’s mood to stay black, but after his apology at breakfast the next day, he
had gone on like nothing had ever happened. 

Scotty was looking
forward to seeing new faces at Easter and had helped her with the spring
housekeeping. ‘It was much too nasty to be outside anyway,’ he had
explained.  The whole house shone from top to bottom when they were done.
They had spent yesterday, baking pies and making salads for Easter dinner. 
Addy hoped Maggie and Mark would still be able to come. The road had to be
awful with all this rain and the spring thaws.

“Dear Lord, thank
you for the gift of your risen son, Jesus Christ.” Addy began her morning
prayers as she sat in the window seat and watched the sunrise.  “What a
special day this is for all those who believe.  Thank you for the many
blessings of family and friends, food and shelter, health and happiness, which
you shower upon us each day. Please bring our guests here and home again safely
this day. Amen.”

***

“This is the day
Jesus came up out of the grave, isn’t it?”  Scotty asked at breakfast.

“Yes, this is
Easter Day.” Jack smiled across the table at his grandson. “You kind of liked
the story Pops read to us Friday night, didn’t you?”

“I didn’t care
much for how mean and dumb folks were about who he was and stuff,” he said, as
he reached for his fourth cinnamon roll and Addy rolled her eyes.  “But it
sure had a great ending.”

“When Mark gets
here today, maybe if you ask real nice he might tell you about how it wasn’t so
much an ending, but a new beginning,” Addy told him.  Will and Jack nodded
approval and looked over at Andy who hadn’t said a word all morning.  He
cleared his throat and got red in the face.

“Ah, Addy . . .”
he paused and started again.  “Addy, I kind of fixed up . . .” He wasn’t
much for speeches, and the other men weren’t being any help.  “Just come
with me, okay?” 

Addy looked around
the table.  Every last one of them was grinning like the Cheshire
cat. 

“What’s up here?”
she asked, as she pushed back from the table.

“Just follow the
man like he says.”  Will guided her into the living room.  Jack was
unlocking the door under the stairway.  He disappeared under the door
along with Scotty and Andy.  Several moans and groans later, out they
came, pushing a beautiful old upright piano.  Addy could not believe her
eyes.  She turned to Will and he had a grin plastered across his face.

“When Em died,
Andy pushed it under there, never thought we’d have a reason to use it again. 
Andy has a pretty fair ear for music, so he tuned it up a bit the other day
while you helped us clean the barn.” Will smiled, as she ran her hands over the
satin wood finish.

“I wondered since
when it was my job to help clean the barn,” she laughed.  “May I?” she
asked touching the keys softly.

“By all that’s
holy, you’d better after all the work we went to arranging this,” Jack said, as
he brought the piano stool from under the stairway.  Andy did indeed have
an ear for music.  The piano was beautifully tuned and Addy spent most of
the morning playing songs she knew by heart.

“Addy, could you
help me for a few minutes?” Scotty yelled from the top of the stairs. 

“Sure thing, Red!”
She bounded up the stairs.  “What have you been up to all morning, anyway?” 
She asked, following him into the attic classroom.

“I wanted to get
the battlefield all perfect, so I could show Maggie and Mark what you’ve been
teaching me,” he said with pride and pointed to the tabletop.

“Wow, this is
wonderful.  You’ve done a great job.  I notice you also hung up the
drawings you did to show the battle plans.” She walked around admiring the
walls.  “Oh, Scotty, this is great!” she said studying the chart on the
wall.  “When did you find time to do this?”  The chart showed all the
percentages of wins and losses, and men lost in each battle, north and south.

“I worked on it
every time you weren’t looking,” he admitted.  “I wanted to surprise you;
I finally got math graphs through my thick head,” he bragged.

“You sure did.”

***

Jack had been
watching for Maggie’s rig, and hoped Addy hadn’t seen it arrive.  She was
sure going to be surprised by the extra guests. 

“Come on in!” He
motioned for them to hurry as they came up the walk.

“Jack, you
remember my husband, Red,” Maggie began the introductions, “and this young lady
is Amy.”

“Nice to meet you
at last, Amy.  Your mom talks about you all the time.”  Jack smiled
at the young version of Addy standing before him.

“Does she know I’m
here?” she whispered, looking around at her mom’s new home.

“Nope, and is she
going to be surprised.” Jack grinned from ear to ear.  “This is my dad,
Will and Andy, my right hand.”  He put his finger to his lips, shushed
everyone, and went to the bottom of the stairs.  “Addy, we’ve got
company!”

Amy looked at
Maggie and Maggie shrugged her shoulders.  They both turned to Mark and he
was as lost as they were.  Adrianna had always been Adrianna, no nickname,
formal like the lady herself. 

Will saw the looks
of surprise and wonder.  “Addy is what he calls her.  I guess we all
do now.  It fits her fine, you’ll see.”

“Amy!” Addy flew
across the room and hugged her daughter, tears running down her face. Amy
hardly recognized her mom.  The woman before her was dressed in jeans and
a flannel shirt, no makeup, and her hair in a long simple braid . . . she was
beautiful!

“When did you . .
. how did?”  Addy’s questions came pouring out. Suddenly she turned on
Jack who was standing quietly taking it all in.  “You stinker, you knew
all along she was coming!” she scowled.

“You can certainly
tell who the favored guest is here!” Red pouted.

“Red, you look
wonderful!”  She reached over to kiss his cheek, glancing at Maggie. 
“You’ll never know how glad I am to see you.”

“We needed someone
trustworthy to drive us up this horrific road,” Maggie joked. 
              
‘Trustworthy.’
  That one word told Addy everything she needed to know
about Maggie and Red.  They were mending.   She closed her eyes
and gave a short prayer of praise. 

“Who’s this young
man with the right colored hair?”  Red reached out to shake Scotty’s hand.

“My name is
Scotty,” he said grinning up at the big man whose hair was as red as his, maybe
redder.   “But Addy calls me Red sometimes,” he added proudly.

“Red always has
insisted red heads are God’s favorites, and the rest of us get the reject
colors!”  Maggie snorted. 

“Really?” Scotty
had never thought of his hair as special.

“Really, and I
have plenty of other words of wisdom too.”  Everyone burst into laughter.

Dinner was full of
good food and fun.  This was turning out to truly be a celebration of
life.  Mark shared the story of the new beginning. Andy and Red took turns
playing jazz and honky-tonk tunes on the piano.  Scotty invited everyone
up to the ‘Civil War Room’ and was pleased by all the ‘ohs’ and ‘ahs’.