Susan Mallery - Only Yours

“That’s true.”

“So you might like to go with me.”

“I might.”

“Will you?”

She would, she realized, go with him anywhere. But that wasn’t the question he’d asked and this wasn’t the time to tell him that.

“I would be delighted to come with you. I’ll do my best to protect you from the worst of it.”

“Even you are not that good.”

She laughed. “We’ll see.”

“EXPLAIN THAT TO ME,” Max said as he walked Cupcake, one of the newer service dog candidates, on the sidewalk by the park.

Montana looked where he pointed and saw several of the Fool’s Gold cheerleaders practicing.

“What’s to explain? I know you watch football. You’ve seen cheerleaders before.”

“There’s a lot of them.”

“We encourage participation here in town. You should see them at Christmas.”

Max glanced at her. “Christmas?”

“They do holiday cheers as a fundraiser so they can go to cheerleader camp in the summer. You hire them to go cheer at someone’s house. They appear at business events, as well. The tourists love them.”

“Fool’s Gold has gotten weirder in the past few years.”

“It’s wonderful. Don’t be such a cynic.”

They walked next to each other, each with a service dog. Buddy walked next to Montana. This time his primary function was to show Cupcake how it was done. Along with her unfortunate name, Cupcake had a bit of Border collie in her. She was one of the smartest dogs they had, but a bit prone to getting into trouble. Max wasn’t sure if she would make it through the program.

“You’re happier today,” he said. “Win the fight?”

“There wasn’t a fight and there wasn’t a win. You were right—he didn’t ask me to the fundraiser for reasons that had nothing to do with me. He was being nice. In a weird, twisted guy way.”

“Gotta take the good with the bad. But you still won.”

She groaned. “No. If you want to win, then someone inevitably loses. That’s not the way to have a good relationship. Both parties have to feel good at the end of the day, or what’s the point?”

“Very wise, little grasshopper.”

She laughed. “Not yet, but I’m getting there.”

For once the streets were quiet. Hardly any tourists and only a few residents were out. They’d passed the cheerleaders, and stillness filled the air.

“Max, did you used to know my mom?”

He kept his attention on Cupcake. “Why do you ask?”

“She has the name Max tattooed on her hip and I wondered if that was you.”

He was quiet for a long time, then came to a stop and faced her. “You should ask your mother.”

She felt her mouth drop open. “That means yes.”

Montana knew what Nevada had told her, what her sister believed, but she’d dismissed the possibility. There was no way her mother had ever dated Max Thurman. But it looked like Montana was wrong.

“You guys went out. You were involved! What happened? Why did you leave town? Was it because of my dad? Were you there first or was he?”

Her mind swirled with possibilities. “Were you in love with her?”

“Kid, I’m not answering any of your questions. Like I said, if you want to know more, ask your mother. It’s her business.”

“And yours?”

He raised his eyebrows as if asking her if she really thought he was that stupid, then continued walking Cupcake. Montana moved with him.

“You’re not going to say anything else?” she asked.

“On that topic? No.”

“So I should change the subject?”

“That would be my suggestion.”

MONTANA SPRAWLED IN A CHAIR in Dakota’s living room while Hannah played on a quilt on the floor. Nevada and Kent were digging chips into salsa. Dakota sat on the sofa, her feet propped up.

“Ethan said we’re making too much out of nothing,” Nevada announced after she’d chewed and swallowed. “Sometimes he’s really a pain in the—” She glanced at Hannah. “A-s-s,” she spelled, then rolled her eyes. “I think he’s too happy with Liz and all their kids. It’s making him sanctimonious.”

“I know,” Montana said. “He was all about us leaving this alone. I can’t. It’s too weird.”

“Mom didn’t just fall to earth, fully formed, the day she married Dad,” Dakota said reasonably, then she leaned her head against the back of the sofa. “Who am I kidding? I’m totally freaked by this. I don’t want her to have had a life before Dad. It’s not right. I always knew about the tattoo, but tried to tell myself it was a very strange birthmark.”

Kent sat on the floor with Hannah and pulled the baby onto his lap. “I remember years ago, when I was Reese’s age, seeing one of my teachers on a date, at the movies. It was the strangest thing. Until then, I’d never thought about teachers having lives outside of school. I guess I thought they were shut down and put in a box until it was time for class.”

“This is bigger than seeing a teacher eating buttered popcorn,” Nevada told them. “This is Mom and Max Thurman. The tattoo is a big deal. Back when she was what, nineteen or twenty, nice girls didn’t get tattoos. It’s not like it is now. So there was something going on between them.”

Montana had a feeling that something was a lot of hot monkey sex. “Whatever it is, it ended and she married Dad. Isn’t that what’s important?”

“Why did it end?” Dakota asked.

Montana completely understood the significance of the question. It was one thing if their mother had met Ralph, fallen madly in love, then dumped Max. The story had a very different flavor if Max had been the one to end things, or if somehow he had stolen her away from their dad. But that wasn’t right, because she’d married Ralph and not Max.

“We could ask her,” Nevada said tentatively. “You could ask her,” Montana said. She drew in a breath. “I’m trying to tell myself I’m making too big a deal out of this. So she had a boyfriend.” Except she couldn’t reconcile the word boyfriend with the reality of her middle-aged mother with a tattoo.

“You don’t suppose…” Dakota’s voice trailed off.

They all looked at her.

“What?” Nevada demanded, then shook her head. “No. No way. I don’t accept that.”

“Accept what?” Kent asked.

Montana was about to ask the same question, when she realized where Dakota’s mind had gone.

If Max had come first, was it possible their mother had been pregnant when she married Ralph? Pregnant with Max’s baby?

“I don’t believe that,” Montana said.

“Believe what?” Kent demanded. “I hate it when you guys do this.”

“What if Mom was pregnant with Max’s baby when she married Dad?” Montana asked. “That would make Ethan our half brother.”

“You three are crazy.” Kent continued to play with Hannah. The baby grinned happily as she bounced on his lap. “Ethan is not our half brother. Have you seen him? He looks exactly like Dad. Whatever was going on with Max, it has nothing to do with the six of us. You’re searching for trouble where it doesn’t exist.”

The sisters looked at each other. “He has a point,” Dakota said. “It’s just Max is kind of dangerous and sexy, even now. Imagine what he was like thirty-five years ago.”

“Do I have to?” Kent asked.

“She’s right.” Nevada shifted in her seat. “Max is the kind of guy who sweeps a woman off her feet. They have to have been together first. I can’t believe Mom was dating Dad, left him for Max, got a tattoo and then went back with Dad.”

“We have to figure out what happened between them,” Dakota said.

“Not necessarily. We don’t consider Dad a sexy guy, but we weren’t dating him,” Montana pointed out. “They were always crazy about each other. Maybe it was love at first sight. Maybe Dad came between Max and Mom.”

“One of you should talk to her,” Kent said.

Nevada raised her eyebrows. “One of us? Why one of us? Why not you? Or is this a girl thing?”

“It’s exactly a girl thing. The only thing Mom and I talk about is how much she hates Lorraine.” He sighed. “Okay, that’s not fair, but I can see it’s on her mind. I am not asking our mother about her love life when she was a teenager.”

“Coward,” Dakota said with a grin. “You men are so emotionally delicate.”

“I’ll do it,” Montana said. “I haven’t been to see her in a while. I’ll talk to her about Simon and then ease the conversation into past loves and Max.”

“Do you really think she’ll be fooled? Nevada asked.

“No, but I can pretend she will be. I’ll ask and report back.”

SIMON FOUND HIMSELF at a large table at the Fox and Hound, surrounded by women. Some were younger, like Charity Golden, the town’s city planner. Others were well past the age of consent, as one of his favorite nurses used to say. Women able to get a senior discount without showing ID. Mayor Marsha fell into that category, as did several other city council members and a rather stern-looking seventyish woman in a bright yellow tracksuit. Her name was Eddie something and she was the one who had told him he needed to make an honest woman of Montana.

So far the conversation had been pleasant. The women had chatted about various things happening around town. He’d been brought up to date on Pia’s twins, Dakota Hendrix’s pregnancy, the upcoming groundbreaking for a new casino resort north of town, and the fact that the Castle Ranch had finally been purchased by a family who seemed as if they were going to stay.

On the ranch front, someone had said something about a woman named Heidi who raised goats and lived with her grandfather, but he figured they had to be making that up.