River's End (River's End Series, #1) (17 page)

He pushed the few twenties back towards her. “Save it. I mean it. Pay me when you can actually support yourself.”

She kept her hands out. “Please take it. I intend to pay you back for everything, and start to support myself soon. I just wish I could pay you all of it.”

He took it, wishing she would just keep it. But he respected the sentiment. And surprisingly, he was starting to respect her. “You are. Tomorrow at Charlie’s school.”

She looked up and smiled. “Noon.”

He turned and left the small space. Shutting the door behind him, he breathed deeply as he glanced up toward the hills above the ranch. The spot he rescued her from. He liked being in the open space, and the fresh air, after being suddenly unable to breathe right inside the trailer with her. What the hell was that all about?

Erin walked into the classroom at noon with her stomach churning in knots. She hadn’t been in a classroom in years, but never liked them. However, she didn’t want to do anything to draw attention or shame to Charlie, and by extension, Jack. Jack who had strangely become the most important person in her life. She would be alone, destitute and in serious trouble if it weren’t for Jack’s intervention. Not only was he saving her, but also being nice about it. He rescued her in every sense of the word, all the while teaching her new and exciting things. The horses and the ranch became something that made her wake up filled with energy and interest towards the coming day, where nothing in her entire life had ever interested her before. Previously, she’d woken up to work, to survive, and to make it through. She never had a hobby, or a passion, or whatever her love for the horses and ranch were to her now.

Charlie beamed when he saw her. She smiled back as she glanced around. The classroom seemed transformed with paper butterflies hanging from the ceiling, and the desks set into squares of four with pink butcher paper and plastic table settings. It was quite elegant and lovely for a third grade classroom. No wonder Jack didn’t want anything to do with it. It was all women; mothers and grandmothers encircling their precious students. There wasn’t a man in sight.

She walked over to Charlie, having carefully dressed as best she could with her spare wardrobe. Wearing jeans and sandals, she added a dressy, purple top, which she found at a thrift shop this morning in preparation for the Tea. She wasted precious tip money on it, but felt it was important to make a good impression on behalf of the Rydells.

Charlie’s smile was so shy, it twisted Erin’s heart. He looked relieved that she was there as she sat down at the desk next to him.

“Good afternoon. I’m Allison Gray, Charlie’s teacher.”

Erin glanced up. Before her stood a pretty woman who, to Erin’s surprise, looked to be about her own age. She was of average height with a curvy figure, which she carefully tried to minimize under well-made slacks, and a pretty, ruffled, pale pink blouse. Allison’s hair was a bright, glossy red color, and was startling and unusual, owing to the way she wore it slicked back into a tight ponytail at the nape of her neck, and which she tried to keep concealed. Erin almost told her to let it loose, so the beautiful, rare color could speak for itself. The red hue made her think of Jack’s dark red hair.

Allison smiled at her and Erin couldn’t help smiling back. She had a welcoming kind of face, with flawless, white skin and freckles, and beautiful blue eyes that sparkled with genuine interest and life.

“I’m Erin Poletti. Charlie’s… well, I’m a friend of the family.”

Allison leaned in towards Erin with a smile as she spoke softly so Charlie couldn’t hear, “I’m so glad you could make it. Charlie’s been upset for nearly a month now. He was adamant Jack couldn’t come. And poor Jack tries so hard with his boys. But sometimes, there isn’t anything we can do.”

Except to ask the only woman that Jack didn’t really want in his life to substitute for his dead wife. Erin kept the real relationship she had with the Rydells to herself. She also wondered how much Allison knew about Jack. She wanted to ask, and wanted to know so much more than she already did, but instead, she merely smiled back at Allison, and primly folded her hands on the desk, hoping to get through the hour without creating any drama or obvious blunders.

Soon, the classroom was overflowing with a crowd of women. Erin hated it. She had little contact with groups of women, and especially women like these. Motherly women. Respectful, responsible, loving women with passels of children and closely-knit families, as well as proper manners. They knew how to behave at a tea. None of them was on a break from the coffee stand where she stood around in a bikini all day.

Pretty soon, a card was passed out to each woman from their respective student. Erin looked at the handmade card with a drawing of stick-Charlie, standing in a grassy pasture with a rainbow, and the sun, clouds and trees all around him. Next to him, was a hastily added girl figure that Erin suspected must’ve been she. She assumed Charlie must’ve snuck it on sometime this morning.

“All the students wrote a little poem to their mothers, or grandmothers, or special friends, whatever applies. I’d love to hear some of them.”

Erin’s heart froze as Allison spoke to the group and she stared at the white card. There were words across the front of it, as well as inside it. They were hand printed in crayon with the penmanship of a typical third grader. Allison wouldn’t call on her.
She couldn’t.
They didn’t know her. She’d call on people everyone else knew.

Charlie glanced at her. “Don’t you like it, Erin?”

She looked down at Charlie’s hopeful face. Caught in her own horror for not being able to read the elementary school card, she never imagined how her reaction would appear to Charlie. She forced a smile onto her face. “Oh, Charlie, I love it. I’ll treasure it. No one’s ever made me a card before.”

“Never?”

“No. Never.”

Charlie beamed in appreciation, then happily raised his hand. Erin’s smile faded as she realized what Charlie was doing. “Mrs. Gray, we can read ours.”

Allison turned at Charlie’s waving hand and small voice over the crowd’s murmur. The attention of the entire room was fastened on Charlie, and therefore, Erin too, who held the card. She quickly handed it to Charlie. “Go ahead, Charlie.”

He nodded. “Oh yeah; you can’t read, can you? I’ll read it to you.”

She felt every eye shifting towards her. Her face was bathed in red as she blushed uncontrollably. She stared at the desk in front of her without lifting her head. Charlie’s voice rang out over the classroom as he easily read the poem he composed. It was a lovely little poem, a “roses are red” variation. Allison’s gaze was kind toward her as she thanked Charlie for his poem. Finally, the class moved on to the next reader. Erin sunk down into the small chair as low as she could get. She’d had numerous embarrassing situations, when she couldn’t hide her stupidity, but nothing that equaled the humiliation of that very moment. She didn’t taste the cookies or the tea that was served. She didn’t raise her eyes again to look at anyone. She barely mumbled thanks when Allison came around to the tables, chatting to each student and parent again. She accomplished that, at least; Charlie seemed totally clueless that he managed to mortify her in such a way that she vowed to never show her face around the school or valley again.

After the tea and cookies were served and cleaned up, Erin followed and did what the other women around her did, like tearing up the butcher paper and helping to tidy up the classroom.

“Excuse me?” A voice said behind Erin.

She turned to find a tall, pretty brunette in a long skirt and sweater standing there. “You’re Erin? Joey’s girlfriend? Or are you Jack’s? Hard to tell. I’m surprised Jack let you come here with Charlie.”

Erin stepped back. The woman was staring at her and her mouth puckered in disdain.

“I’m sorry; who are you?”

“Who am I? I’m Kara Fisher. I was Lily’s best friend. You know… Jack’s wife. We had our kids together. Charlie and my son, Anthony, are best friends. We were over at the ranch just the other day.”

“I didn’t know Lily.”

“Who are you then? Charlie said you live there now?”

“I don’t live there. I’m staying there for now. My brother worked for the Rydells. He caused some trouble for me, and the Rydells are only helping me out.”

Kara let out a breath with a nod. “Oh. Okay. I didn’t think someone like you would be Jack’s type. Joey’s maybe, but never Jack’s. He and Lily… they were together since we were fifteen, you know. There was never anyone else for either of them. It broke his heart when she died.”

“I honestly don’t know anything about it.”

Kara eyed her up. “Well, I’d just hate to see Jack not do what would be in Charlie’s best interest. He’s had a hard run of it, you know. His mother dead. His grandmother dead; and Jack’s so busy with everything on the ranch that he’s responsible for. I’d hate to see anything else go wrong for them.”

Erin got the insinuation. As in
she
. She would be wrong for them.

Erin was the first guest to leave. She quickly made it out the corridor with her heels clicking rapidly on the vinyl floor. She opened the door to the school and hurried to her borrowed truck, where she leapt inside and peeled out of the school parking lot. When she reached her coffee stand, she let her head fall onto the steering wheel.

After she finally got out, while wiping at her tears, she undressed down to her swimsuit and opened the stand back up. It wasn’t long before the first fifty-year-old man, towing a trailer full of cows, came through. His eyes never rose above her collarbone as he ordered and paid for the coffee he didn’t seem to care all that much about drinking.

****

Jack waited for Erin to show up that afternoon and got annoyed by how much it bothered him when she didn’t show. He kept glancing towards her trailer, waiting for her to pop out. Her truck was parked just in front of the trailer, so he knew she was there. Why, then, didn’t she come out? She came out to the barn every day, over the last three weeks. Today, she was due to get on the horse; so why wasn’t she there?

“You want me to get her?”

Jack glanced at Ben. He offered to help get Erin on the horse. Ben finally seemed to understand he wasn’t in her league, neither for winning her heart nor her body. He did, however, seem to genuinely like her as a friend. He liked helping her out a lot. She went to Ben with any reading she had to do. He helped her read through the menu at her coffee stand until she learned it by heart. She would have rather crawled into a hole than let Jack or any of his brothers help her. But with Ben? She found him comfortable to ask for help, now that Jack had given his permission for her to do so.

Jack failed to figure out why the hell she didn’t just learn to read. He thought it was incomprehensible that she made it this far in her life without learning to read anything, and worse, why did she never take the time to learn? But she remained closed-lipped about it, as she did with most of her life.

She wasn’t what he pictured, and turned out to be a hard worker. Also an avid listener, she tried with all her heart to obey whatever he asked her to do. She overcame all her own fears and weaknesses. Where Chance was a nothing, Erin turned out to be really something.

Charlie was spinning in circles and getting dizzy until he walked in a drunken shuffle, then giggled happily and started the process all over again. When Ben asked about Erin, Charlie stopped to glance at Jack. “She was okay at school today. I read her my poem and she liked it, even if I had to read it to her. No one else minded though.”

Jack glanced at Charlie’s spinning red hair. “You didn’t mention to anyone else that she couldn’t read it, did you?”

Charlie stopped and frowned, but shrugged, looking unconcerned. “I guess I did. Why? Was it a secret?”

Jack ruffled Charlie’s hair as he passed by him, and Charlie looked unhappy suddenly. “I hurt her feelings, didn’t I?”

“You didn’t know, bud, so it’s okay. I’ll talk to her.”

Jack crossed the driveway and passed around her truck to the door. He knocked, but got no response.

“Erin? Open the door.”

There was muffled noise and movements. Finally, the door opened, and she frowned at him, then turned and walked towards the couch, where she flopped down. She wore a sweatshirt over a pair of jeans and her hair was messed up, as if she’d been lying on it.

He stepped inside. It always felt like the trailer shrunk to a pop can size when he went inside with Erin. He wasn’t sure why, but guessed whatever energy existed between them wasn’t meant for small spaces.

He was aware of how attractive he found her. He didn’t react to her like most females of the valley. Kailynn came to his house nearly every day, and he never even looked twice at her as she moved around him while working. But with Erin, when she was anywhere near him, every cell in his body seemed to jump to attention and become aware of her.

Leaning back into the kitchen counter, he folded his arms over his chest. “Both boys are waiting for you. They wanted to help you learn to ride today.”

She grimaced as she stared down at the carpet. “I forgot. I’m not in the mood today.”

“You know, Charlie hasn’t quit raving about how much fun he had with you. It was the first time he’s ever gone to it with a female. It was huge to him.”

She smiled faintly. “Good. At least, I didn’t fail him.”

“You’re really going to skip the horses today?”

She finally looked up at him, with a hesitant gaze. “Can’t I skip one day?”

He shrugged. “Yeah. It’s your choice. It’s not like it’s mandatory for you to keep living here.”

“What is mandatory for me to keep living here?”

He frowned. “What do you mean?”

“I mean how long before I wear out my welcome? How long do I have left to get out of here?”

“I wasn’t aware you hated being here so much. But I guess, it makes sense; the ranch isn’t for most people. It’s an isolated, tough way of life. I’m sure you must miss the city.”

She laughed a hollow, bitter sound. “Miss the city? I don’t miss one thing about it. But this isn’t my home. How long will you let me stay? I need a timeline. I need to figure out what to do.”