Cole frowned up at her with feigned indignation. "Hey, lady, are you questioning my mechanical skills?"

She forced a grin. "You bet. I seem to recall an electric coffeepot that blew up after you'd tinkered with it."

Cole tapped the wrench against the bike. "No electricity involved here, just nuts and bolts and chains."

"True, but I'm sure you didn't stop by to do bike repair," she said. "I'll help Jake later."

"But, Mom," Jake wailed.

"I said I'd help later. Cole, why don't you come on inside? I know Mother is anxious to thank you for what you're doing for her."

"Is she really?" Cole asked, his expression skeptical.

Ca.s.sie did grin at that. "Well, she will thank you right after she tells you how she can't accept, that Edna Collins doesn't accept anyone's charity, et cetera, et cetera."

Cole got to his feet. "Now that sounds more like it. I guess I'll just have to dust off my charm."

That ought to do it, Ca.s.sie thought as he held out his hand to her son for a grown-up handshake. Certainly one member of the Collins family was under his spell. Okay, two, she conceded reluctantly. She might not hold out any hope for their future, but that didn't stop her from indulging in the occasional fantasy, the one in which she, Jake and Cole somehow put aside all the lies and deceit of the past and became a happy family.

As soon as Cole left and she could get away, Ca.s.sie invited her mother to come into town with her and Jake to have lunch at Stella's. Eager for an outing of any kind, Jake had already raced ahead to the car.

"I need to talk to Stella about that job," she explained to her mother. "This is as good a time as any. And maybe it will pacify Jake. He's still smarting over the fact that I didn't let Cole spend the whole morning helping him with that bike."

"Then you're determined to stay?" her mother asked. "Even with Cole showing up here earlier and sending you into a tizzy?"

Ca.s.sie couldn't deny that she'd been thrown, but a promise was a promise. "I told you I would. Besides, there is nowhere else I could be right now. You need me."

Her mother nodded, and what might have been relief pa.s.sed across her face. "That's that, then," she said giving Ca.s.sie's hand a squeeze. "It'll be good to have the two of you here. The house gets awfully quiet sometimes."

"I thought you'd be grateful for that after all the ruckus I raised as a kid."

Her mother smiled. "I was for a time, but no more. Having Jake running in and out, having you to talk to now that you're a grown-up woman yourself, it's a real blessing, Ca.s.sie. I'm grateful."

"I don't need your grat.i.tude, Mom. I belong here, especially now. Go on and get your purse. I'm going to buy you the biggest sundae Stella can make."

"Oh, my, I couldn't possibly," her mother said, but she looked tempted as she followed Ca.s.sie to the car.

"Of course you can," Ca.s.sie said as she checked to make sure everyone had fastened their seat belts. Then she grinned at her mother. "And you can have it before lunch."

Her mother looked horrified. "Heavens, no. It will ruin my appet.i.te."

"So what?" Ca.s.sie said as they made the quick trip to Main Street. "Why can't we have dessert first every now and again on a special occasion?"

"And what occasion would that be?" her mother asked as Ca.s.sie pulled into a parking spot in front of the diner.

"My homecoming, of course."

A rare and full-fledged smile spread across her mother's too-pale face. "Now that really is worth celebrating."

She said it with such genuine emotion that Ca.s.sie had to blink back tears. Maybe she'd had it wrong all these years. Maybe her mother really had missed her.

"Can I celebrate, too?" Jake asked from the back.

"Absolutely," Ca.s.sie agreed.

"And we're really going to stay here?" he asked. "You're not going to change your mind again?"

"I'm not changing my mind," Ca.s.sie said firmly.

He pumped a fist into the air. "All right!"

When they were settled into a booth at Stella's, Ca.s.sie beckoned her old boss over. "We need three large sundaes, two hot fudge." She glanced at her mother. "Caramel or strawberry?"

"Definitely strawberry," her mother said.

Stella reacted with shock. "No main course? Not even a burger?"

"Not yet," Ca.s.sie said.

"Anything else?"

"How about a job?"

Stella's mouth gaped. She stuck her order pad in her pocket, then scooted into the booth next to Ca.s.sie. "You're looking for work?"

Ca.s.sie nodded.

"Well, hallelujah! That must mean you're home to stay."

"I am."

"Then you can start tomorrow. With the parade and all, it's going to be a zoo in here, and the teenage girl I had working for me announced today that she intended to spend the Fourth with her boyfriend whether I liked it or not."

"Did you fire her?"

Stella chuckled. "I will now. Irresponsible kids need to be taught a lesson." She patted Ca.s.sie's hand. "Didn't take long for you to catch on, did it? One warning had you in here right on time every single day you were scheduled."

"I liked the perks," Ca.s.sie said with a grin. "All the ice cream I could eat."

"It was a small price to pay for a reliable worker," Stella replied.

After she'd gone off to fix their sundaes, Jake left his grandmother's side to squeeze in next to Ca.s.sie. "If we're gonna stay, that means I can spend more time with Mr. Davis, doesn't it? My friends back home will be so jealous when I tell them I know him. I mean, he's almost like a celebrity."

"In that case you should understand that you can't go bothering him. I'm sure he has lots and lots of work to do," Ca.s.sie said.

"But I asked him if he would explain to me about computers and how they work and stuff, and he said he would." Jake regarded her with an earnest, hopeful expression. "He said he wouldn't mind at all."

Ca.s.sie exchanged a helpless look with her mother. Leave it to Jake to take matters into his own hands.

"We'll see," Ca.s.sie said evasively.

"I think we should go after lunch, before he forgets," Jake said.

"No, not today," Ca.s.sie told him firmly.

"When?"

"I'll talk to him and work something out," she said, grateful when Stella appeared with their sundaes.

The ice cream distracted Jake for maybe five minutes before he began to badger her again.

"If you don't drop this right now," Ca.s.sie said finally, "you won't see him at all."

"But-"

"I said to drop it."

Tears welled up in Jake's eyes, but he fell silent, shoving the rest of his sundae away in protest. Ca.s.sie's appet.i.te disappeared, as well. Only her mother continued to enjoy her sundae, or at least pretended to.

Was this what it was going to be like living in Winding River, a constant tug-of-war with her son over his hero worship of a man he didn't even realize was his father?

By the time they left for home, Ca.s.sie had a splitting headache and a knot the size of Wyoming in her stomach. At this rate she was going to wind up in a hospital bed right next to her mother's.

Naturally Jake didn't take her decision as final. Nor did the concession she made, allowing him to attend the parade and fireworks, appease him. She had to admit that had gone well enough. If Cole had been around, she hadn't spotted him. And Jake's delight had been worth every second of nervousness she'd experienced.

But by the next morning the treat had been forgotten, and Jake was back on the subject of going to see Cole. Her repeated warnings that she didn't want to hear another word about it seemed to fall on deaf ears.

He continued to pester her for the rest of the week about going out to the Double D. He'd gotten his stubbornness and willfulness from her, no doubt about it.

She steadfastly continued to refuse to take him to visit Cole, making up excuse after excuse, but Ca.s.sie could see that they were wearing thin. Even so, she was stunned when Jake disappeared on Sat.u.r.day morning. She searched high and low, but finally had to admit there was no sign of him.

"Mom, have you seen Jake?"

"Not since breakfast. Why?"

"He's not in the house. He's not working on the bike, and n.o.body on the block has seen him. I've looked everywhere I can think of."

"You don't suppose he's gone out to Cole's ranch, do you?" Edna asked, as aware as Ca.s.sie of her grandson's obsession.

That was exactly what Ca.s.sie feared. "How would he get there, though?"

"I imagine it wouldn't be all that difficult to get somebody to give him a lift. Half the ranchers in town on a Sat.u.r.day take that road back home. All the boy would have to do is ask one of them."

"Should I call out there?"

"Why not ride around town first and see if anyone's seen him," her mother suggested. "No point in getting Cole involved if the boy's just wandered off to get an ice cream cone or something."

But no one in town had seen Jake. Ca.s.sie was about to reach for the phone to call Cole when it rang.

"You looking for Jake, by any chance?" Cole asked without preamble.

"Oh, my G.o.d," Ca.s.sie murmured. "He is is with you. Is he okay?" with you. Is he okay?"

"He looks fine to me, but I thought you might be worried. He was pretty evasive at first when I asked how he got here and whether he had your permission to come. I got the feeling he didn't tell you before he hitchhiked out here."

"He what? what?"

"Pete gave him a ride on his way back from Stella's," Cole explained. Then he a.s.sured her, "He's okay, Ca.s.sie."

"That's not the point. I'm going to wring his scrawny little neck. I'll be there in twenty minutes."

"Take your time and cool off a little. Keep reminding yourself that there's been no harm done."

"Don't tell me what to do where my son's concerned," she snapped, and slammed down the phone.

"He's with Cole?" her mother asked.

"Oh, yes."

"Should I come with you?"

She shook her head. "No. Cole was right about one thing. I do need to calm down before I get out there. No telling what I might say."

Ca.s.sie made it to the Double D in less than the twenty minutes it usually took. The front door was standing open as if she were expected, so she went straight in. Oblivious to the grandeur of the antiques that generations of Davises had collected over the years, she went in search of her son.

When she finally found the two of them in Cole's office, heads bent over the computer keyboard, her blood ran cold. Jake looked happier than she'd seen him in ages. Just thinking about the bond the two of them were obviously forming made her knees go weak. She had to lean against the doorjamb for support.

"Look right natural together, don't they?" Frank Davis remarked, slipping up quietly to stand at her shoulder in the doorway.

Something in his voice alerted her. She stepped away from the room and turned to study the man who had probably come between her and Cole.

Frank Davis had a powerful build. His shock of dark-brown hair was streaked with gray now, but there was still plenty of spark in his blue eyes, and he wore that same arrogant, superior expression that had intimidated her as a girl. Oddly she discovered that he didn't scare her now. She met his gaze without flinching.

"What are you saying?" she asked in a cool, deliberate tone.

Her reaction seemed to amuse him. "I'm saying I know."

"Know what?"

He smirked. "One look is all it takes to know that boy is my grandson. Even if your mama hadn't told me the truth years ago, I would have seen it right off."