The Husband School Read online

  “Which ones?”

  “You tell me.” She stopped dancing and let him lead her to the side of the dance floor where the bear stood ready to attack. “Golf course? Engaged to the daughter of a senator? What?”

  “Nothing so dramatic.”

  “You’re selling out? Some movie star make you an offer you can’t refuse?”

  “Not yet. I hadn’t planned on living here,” Owen said. “I hadn’t planned on anything.”

  “I thought this was what you always wanted.”

  “It was,” he admitted. “A long time ago, I wanted the ranch. I wanted that life.”

  The music faded, and the sound of a fiddle vibrated one last sad note.

  “Well,” Meg said. “It’s yours now.”

  “It’s too late,” he countered.

  “So I’m not to be forgiven after all,” she said, seeing past his career issues, knowing full well that with his family money he didn’t need to work—never had. “Do you remember what you said that day you came to my house, when your father was in the hospital?”

  “Yes, as a matter of fact, I do.” His words were clipped, and a muscle tensed in his jaw. “You wouldn’t go away with me. And I asked you what you wanted.”

  “And I said, ‘I want you, but I don’t have the rest figured out.’”

  “I did,” he said, ignoring the people around them. “I wanted you, the ranch, a family, a life there. And you said no.”

  “That’s right. I said no. Was that the first time in your life you couldn’t have what you wanted?”

  “Pretty much,” he said, but she was already moving away from him. He felt like an idiot standing there on the edge of the dancing crowd.

  * * *

  SHELLY HOPED THERE’D be a prize for the best costume. Lin, Amy and Cane had talked Al into letting them borrow three of his chef jackets. Lin held a tinfoil butcher knife, Amy wore an old metal muffin tin as a hat and Cane had shaped a long, tapered candle so that it fit over her head and stuck out on the sides. She looked like a warped Statue of Liberty. Shelly couldn’t figure out what Tracy was supposed to be. Maybe a black cat. Her drawn-on whiskers hadn’t survived the evening.

  She wanted to go home and crawl into bed. Les had been flirting with the baker for the past hour. Hip hadn’t shown up, though he’d told her he was coming as Paul Bunyan, complete with beard and overalls, just to aggravate Jerry.

  Shelly didn’t think anyone would notice if she left really early. Well, no one but Loralee. Shelly waved at Loralee and mouthed the words going home when she caught her eye. She exchanged her sandals for winter boots and dug through the hooks by the door until she found the down jacket Loralee had given her. With her purse slung over her shoulder and her new gloves on, she set out for home.

  She hoped the walk would get rid of her headache and the fresh air would help the sick feeling. She felt as if she’d eaten a large plate of fries for supper. Which she couldn’t do, not with Loralee and Meg constantly supervising healthy prenatal meals.

  Snowflakes, big fluffy ones, hit her cheeks and caught in her eyelashes. They were few and far between, but Shelly loved the chill they left on her face. Tracy had worried about a storm coming in tomorrow and fretted about getting to the airport in the morning, but Meg had assured her that snow flurries weren’t as bad as they sounded. Shelly knew the last thing Meg wanted was a storm that kept Tracy and her gang in town a few days longer. Despite enjoying the increase in business, her boss was tired.

  Later Shelly would realize that if she had taken the shortcut through the alley she wouldn’t have seen the familiar jacked-up truck with the splash guards and the distinctive bumper stickers waiting at the town’s only red light, just a couple of blocks from the café and what had become home. The driver was looking down as if checking his phone. Otherwise she doubted he would have sat at the light, patiently waiting for it to change, when there wasn’t another car to be seen.

  She waved, walked faster along the sidewalk, called out his name and hurried toward the intersection. But the light turned green and he turned south on the empty road. She recognized Sonny’s profile, the tilt of his cap, the casual way he draped one arm over the steering wheel.

  But Sonny didn’t notice her. Trying desperately to memorize his license plate, she ran alone in the dark watching her baby’s father drive away.

  * * *

  “LEAVE HER ALONE,” Les snapped. “You’re too old for her.”

  Hip blinked. “Man, you don’t—”

  “What?” the younger man asked. “I don’t understand. I know I’m too old for her, too, I guess. Maybe. She’s just a kid.”

  “A pregnant kid,” Owen interjected. “What’s going on?” He’d never seen Les lose his temper or Hip look so miserable. He was sober, too, and ignored Aurora’s offer to get him a beer.

  “I need to talk to Shelly about something,” Hip said slowly, keeping a wary eye on Les. Owen was surprised. The kid looked as if he wanted to punch someone, all right. “Is she here?”

  “She went home quite a while ago.” Which was where he should have gone after Meg had left, but he’d been hoping to knock on Meg’s door and try to explain. Then he’d wonder exactly what it was he wanted to explain. Did he love her? Or had the trip down memory lane finally come to a screeching halt?

  But at the moment he felt sorry for his old friend, a man who looked as miserable as he himself felt. He took Hip’s arm and led him over to a corner where there were empty chairs around a table piled high with beer bottles and glasses. It looked as if everyone in town with two working legs was on the dance floor, whether or not they could dance.

  Les took the hint and stayed where he was, next to two of the Californians.

  “What’s going on?”

  “I needed to talk to the girl, that’s all. There’s something—” He glanced at the pager hooked to his belt. “Darn.”

  “What?”

  “Accident.”

  “Where? Who is it?”

  “Not around here. North of Great Falls, up by where my sister lives, but she’s here for the weekend.”

  “Do you have to go?”

  “No. The info goes out to every— Sorry.” He studied the message. “Gotta call in.”

  “Stay away from Les until I get him to cool off.”

  “Yeah.” He pulled his cell phone out of his jacket pocket and headed for the door. Owen saw Loralee leading Les around the dance floor. So at least his attention wasn’t on Hip. The party was winding down and Owen thought he’d better head straight home and leave Meg be tonight. He’d retrieved his jacket and gloves when Hip came back inside.

  “Get Loralee,” the man said.

  Owen froze. “What’s going on?”

  Hip looked distraught. “Come on. Gotta go.”

  Owen did as he was told, hustling Loralee off the dance floor, with Les following them. Aurora handed the woman her coat and managed to get a few details from Hip before they left. He explained there’d been an accident north of Fort Benton, on Highway 87. Three vehicles, one of them belonging to Meg, were involved. Two women had been transported by ambulance to the hospital in Great Falls. No fatalities.

  “But why— That doesn’t make any sense,” Loralee sputtered. “She can’t be—”

  Owen hustled her out the door, Les promising to follow. Theo waited at the curb in front of the bar, and once they were inside he put the car in gear and peeled out of the lot. His conversations weren’t any more extensive than those of his cousin.

  “Theo, turn the heat up,” Owen said. Theo fiddled with the buttons. “Take deep breaths, Loralee. We’ve got a couple of hours to go.”

  Hip was on his phone again. “Shelly’s in Benefis. There’s a neonatal intensive care unit there.”

  “The baby. Not even six months—”

/>   “Breathe,” Hip said. “We’ll handle it.” He punched numbers on his cell phone. Loralee leaned her head back against the seat and stared out into the darkness while Theo made short work of the drive to Lewistown. From there they’d head west.

  Loralee took a deep breath and asked what they all wished they knew. “What was Meg doing so far away from here? Where were they going?”

  “They must have seen Sonny,” Theo replied.

  Owen swore under his breath. “It’s the only thing that makes any sense.”

  * * *

  IT WAS TWO before they reached the hospital. There, in the waiting room inside the emergency center, they tried to find someone who could tell them how Meg and Shelly were.

  Owen would have stormed past the reception area and into the E.R., except Loralee clung to his arm as though she was strapped to him. Not even Hip could coax information out of anyone at the hospital, and thirty minutes passed like thirty hours.

  It was nearly three before a nurse could give them an update on Meg’s condition. She was going to be fine. She’d had an X-ray. There were stitches on her forehead. She’d be released shortly.

  Then Loralee told the woman in charge that she was Shelly’s grandmother and only living relative. Owen doubted the nurse believed her, but she shared the most recent information, anyway: Shelly had a broken ankle and some bruising. There was some concern about the baby. There’d been an ultrasound. She was hooked up to a fetal monitor and would be admitted to the maternity ward shortly, where they would be able to see her. A doctor would be out soon to give them more information.

  “Would one of you gentleman be the father?”

  The nurse sighed her disapproval when none of the four men replied. “Does anyone have her medical information? Health insurance?”

  “She went to the clinic in Winifred, and at the center in Lewistown,” Hip answered. The nurse handed her a clipboard with a thick layer of forms attached to it.

  “Fill these out the best you can, please.”

  “What about the others?” Hip leaned forward, his face a study in misery. “In the accident. There were two other cars.”

  “You can talk to one of the deputies, but as far as we know there have been no fatalities. The driver of the truck has a broken nose and facial cuts. We have four banged-up teenagers from the first car, but nothing life threatening, from what I’ve heard. And as they say on the news, alcohol might have been a factor.”

  “Thank you for letting us know,” Loralee said, weeping softly.

  Owen thought he’d pass out from the relief.

  * * *

  MEG WANTED TO weep right along with her mother. She wished she could feel the warmth of Owen’s chest under her cheek and be comforted simply because he was there with her.

  But instead she felt cold and distant, as removed from Owen as she’d been when he’d walked into the restaurant for breakfast weeks ago. Meg followed an aide into the waiting room, where she joined her mother on the vinyl sofa. She felt so isolated, despite the people surrounding her who were also worried about Shelly. The waiting area was large, its wide doors admitting distraught fathers and tense, pale mothers. But no matter how many people filled the room—arriving, leaving, returning with coffee, pacing—Meg had never felt so alone. She kept worrying about Shelly and her baby. She couldn’t let anything else in.

  “What were you doing?” Loralee looked at Meg. “What on earth possessed you?”

  “She saw Sonny at the stoplight. I’d just come home when she ran into the parking lot and wanted to borrow the car. I couldn’t let her go by herself, so I drove her.”

  “The boyfriend,” Owen replied. “I knew it had to have something to do with the boyfriend.”

  “Hip,” Theo said quietly, “you want me to tell it?”

  Hip shook his head. He sat, his elbows on his knees, his large hands holding his head as if he was in terrible pain. “Here’s what happened. I have three younger sisters. Youngest is Portia. She’s married to Sonny. Sonny Nance.”

  Meg leaned forward. “Sonny? The Sonny?”

  He nodded. “Yeah. Shelly showed me the picture of her so-called boyfriend. It wasn’t real clear, but I could tell. Plus, he’s a player.”

  Owen leaned forward. “How long has he been married to your sister?”

  “Two years. They have a kid. A little boy. Almost two.”

  “Married,” Loralee muttered. “Married? Where is he? Where does he live? Does your sister know what a creep she’s married to?”

  “Yeah. She left him. Got here last night. With the boy.”

  “And Sonny?” Meg waited for Hip to look at her. “He was in town tonight?”

  “He followed her home. To Willing,” Hip admitted. “That’s how I know it’s the same Sonny. He made a big scene at the house, but he left the house after Portia said she’d call the sheriff. I guess he was hanging around hoping she’d change her mind and talk to him.”

  “Jail would be a good place for that guy,” Les muttered.

  Meg agreed. If he was behind bars, he’d be safe from Loralee, Lucia and a number of other women whose hearts would break for Shelly and who would want to inflict revenge and pain on the man who’d hurt her.

  “Shelly must have seen him leaving town. Maybe they talked, maybe she couldn’t let him go, I don’t know,” the big man said. “I didn’t know what to do. I figured it was him—who Shelly was looking for—all along. But my sister...”

  “You didn’t want to hurt her.”

  “Thought she might make it work, you know?”

  Meg could understand. But Hip’s sister was married to a man who cheated on her. That wasn’t the kind of thing that went away just because no one talked about it.

  * * *

  AT FIRST SHE wondered if she was back on a bus. She was sick and shaky and everything hurt, especially her right foot. And her chest felt as if Al had fallen over and pinned her to the kitchen floor.

  “You’re going to be all right,” she heard someone say, but she kept her eyes closed because that was easier than trying to open them.

  “We’ll take you home in a couple of days,” another woman promised, but Shelly couldn’t focus on whose voice was next to her head. Warm fingers held her right hand.

  “Try to rest.” The voice belonged to Meg. She recognized it now. “Everything is going to be all right. You’re safe. You’re in the hospital.”

  Shelly heard the murmur of male voices, too. The sounds grew more and more familiar. Meg, Loralee, Hip, Les, Owen. What were they doing?

  And then she remembered. It all came flooding back, the cold, the stoplight, the long drive trying to keep up with the speeding truck. Meg screaming to hold on. The crash.

  “The baby? The baby!” She untangled her hand and ran her palm over her abdomen. “Is the baby—”

  “So far so good,” Loralee replied in a soft voice meant to be soothing but that instead scared Shelly so much she could barely breathe.

  “The baby,” she insisted. “What about the baby?”

  Loralee stroked her arm. “Can you open your eyes? Just a little bit?”

  “The baby is fine,” Les assured her. He stepped close to the bed and touched her shoulder. “You’ve had all the tests and she’s okay.”

  “She?” With that, she forced her eyes open and attempted to focus on the man talking to her. Les, sweet Les, looked anxious.

  “Yeah,” he said. “It’s a girl.”

  “A girl,” she murmured, running her hand once again over her stomach. “There was...an accident,” she said, looking around the room. Meg, Loralee, Les, Hip and Owen sat or stood close to the hospital bed. “Meg? You’re okay?”

  “I’m good,” she said, but Shelly saw a bandage on her forehead.

  “Is Sonny—?”

 
“Has a broken nose, that’s all,” Hip told her. “They fixed him up and let him go home.”

  “Where’s that?”

  Les winced, and Hip responded, “Near Havre, north of Fort Benton, where you had the, uh, accident.”

  Her eyes filled with tears as she looked at Meg. “Your car! Is your car okay? Did it get wrecked? I’m sorry. I mess everything up.”

  “Please don’t worry about the car,” Meg said, blinking back tears. “It’s not what’s important now.”

  “Shelly,” Hip began, looking as pained as a man could get. “There’s something I have to tell you.” He took a deep breath. “Sonny is married to my little sister. He was in Willing to try to talk her out of leaving him.”

  “I...I am so sorry, Hip. I mean... I knew— Oh, not about your sister. But...I didn’t know he was married, I swear.... He didn’t even recognize me,” Shelly said. She blinked back tears and ran a shaking hand over her stomach. “He didn’t even recognize me. He helped me out of the car and he didn’t even know who I was. He told me he was on the phone with his wife—his wife—when the other car stopped and he couldn’t stop fast enough and then—”

  “Don’t think about the accident,” Meg said. She handed her a tissue. “Hip is going to explain a little more about Sonny. And the rest of us are going to step outside and let you get some rest.”

  “He kept saying he was sorry,” Shelly whispered. “That it wasn’t his fault. And he didn’t even know me.”

  “I’m sorry, sweetheart,” Loralee said. “But you have to put him out of your mind and concentrate on that baby now.”

  Much later, after Hip told her the rest of what he knew, Shelly lay quietly in her hospital bed. Loralee dozed in an oversize chair in the corner while Meg had gone to find coffee. They’d both offered to call her friends in Boise, but Shelly knew she was better off with the family she had right here.

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered to her unborn daughter. “I was stupid and you’re the one who will suffer for it.”

  But, she silently promised her child, from now on she would do the right thing, no matter how difficult. She would stop building fantasies in her head, stop thinking about herself all the time. Sonny had a child who needed him and a wife he’d made vows to. She wouldn’t interfere with that, and her daughter wouldn’t grow up being charmed by a man who would never really be there for her or her mother.