A Winchester Homecoming

David didn’t usually dwell on the past, but Kim’s arrival had stirred up a slew of memories. For a long time he had blamed the move to Waterloo on his parents’ divorce, and he had blamed that on his mother. Eventually he’d figured out that a combination of things had brought them here and that David himself had been at least partially responsible.

Mothers tended to freak out when you got expelled for taking a gun to school, even when it belonged to your father and you’d only borrowed it for self-protection after being shot at by someone you refused to identify when you were out jogging.

It hadn’t been his fault that some dude from a different high school thought David had been hassling his girl, which he hadn’t. Before he knew what was happening, his mother had decided L.A. was no longer safe, so she had bought the Johnson place, a baby-blue pickup truck and a Stetson with a flowered band.

Well, maybe he was wrong about the hat.

What followed was too-cool teen rebel meets rural hicks and hayseeds. The local kids had taken one look at David’s dyed orange hair with the sides shaved, his pierced ear and retro wardrobe, and avoided him like a bad case of hoof rot.

While he put aside the memories and drained the last of his beer, one of his mares moseyed close enough to see if he’d brought her any carrots. Polly was marked like one of Adam’s Appaloosas, but she was actually a breed called Colorado Rangers.

“Sorry, girl.” He rubbed her outstretched nose. “Maybe next time.”

Her colt, a miniature copy of its spotted dam, approached David warily, its scruff of a tail flipping comically while its ears swiveled back and forth.

Lulu started to rise, so David signaled her with his free hand. She obeyed instantly, haunches lowering back down to the ground, but the slight movement had already spooked the colt. With a squeal of apprehension, Bandit spun away on spindly legs, followed at a more matronly pace by his mama. She looked back at David reproachfully.

“See what you did?” he teased Lulu. “Come on. Time for dinner.”

After he had fed his furry roommates, putting Calvin’s dish up where Lulu couldn’t reach it, he set about microwaving the casserole for his own dinner. Usually eating alone didn’t bother him, but tonight when he sat down at the table, the silence seemed hollow instead of peaceful. Refusing to analyze his feelings, he got up and turned on the TV news so that voices filled the room while he finished his meal.

Kim glanced around self-consciously as she followed her father out of the school auditorium where Sunday services were being held until the new church on Dammer Road was completed. She’d forgotten how most of the congregation always stayed around outside afterward, weather permitting, in order to show off their nice clothes and visit with their friends while their kids ran loose.

The Winchesters were no different. All of them, right down to Uncle Charlie’s new baby in a pink lace dress and booties, were slicked out in their Sunday best.

While Kim stood hugging herself and wishing she was back in her room, unchanged since she’d been a teenager, an elderly rancher in a Stetson and a bolo tie approached her father. He had reminded Emily twice on the drive over that he had a doctor appointment first thing tomorrow, and Kim knew he was counting on being able to ditch his crutches.

“Not without a written note,” Emily had retorted as she parked the car.

A pregnant woman with two toddlers in tow greeted Emily as Jake and Cheyenne joined a group of children in a noisy game of tag. After an hour of sitting still, they had energy to burn. Kim’s cousin Steve and another boy his age were ignoring two girls who strolled by in minis and cropped tops. One of them tossed back her streaked blond hair and they both giggled.

How was it possible that little Stevie was old enough to be interested in girls?

Kim raised tentative fingers to her own short hair. The last time she’d been here, it had been long and straight. She’d worn it that same way all through school.

Despite her father’s strictness, she’d always had a lot of friends, taking her popularity for granted. When David came along, so different from the kids she’d known all her life, she’d felt sorry for him. Soon the two of them were friends and allies.

Now that was all changed, their friendship, her ability to fit in and certainly her confidence. Seeing Steve and his buddies made her feel old and worn-out at twenty-five.

She resisted the urge to touch the scar she had covered with concealer, fiddling instead with the belt of her rose-pink dress. At least the fitted style turned the weight she’d dropped into an asset, but she still felt a wave of unexpected shyness as she darted glances at the knots of people scattered across the expanse of dry brown lawn. Most of them she remembered, of course, but she wondered if anyone recognized her behind her trendy sunglasses.

Melinda Snodgrass, a girl Kim had never liked, was walking purposefully in her direction. Before Kim could figure out an escape, one of her aunts headed Melinda off. The same thing happened when a young couple from her class approached with a towheaded boy riding on the man’s shoulders. Uncle Travis drew them into a conversation before they reached her.

Slowly Kim realized that the other adults in her family had formed a protective ring with her in the center. Apparently they’d somehow gotten the impression that she was still too fragile to deal with people.

Why would they think that unless her dad had been talking to them about her? She stared at him, still deep in conversation. As if he could feel her gaze, he glanced over and raised his eyebrows.

She ought to be annoyed, but instead she felt as though she were standing on the prairie circled by wagons guarding against a renegade attack. Somehow she didn’t figure the people here would appreciate the comparison, but the image made her want to laugh. Quickly she pressed her fingers to her lips before anyone could notice her grin and wonder about her.

“What’s so funny?”

The question, muttered directly into Kim’s ear, spun her around to see David lurking there. Unlike most of the men present, he was bareheaded, the bright sun bringing out the auburn streaks in his dark hair.

“You missed the service,” she said. “Do you always sneak up on people or just me?” Still feeling embarrassed by her melodramatic collapse two days before, she had breathed a sigh of relief when he didn’t join them earlier in the family pew.

“I got caught up in something, but I figured you’d all still be here,” he replied. “Now fill me in on what you were grinning about just now, and don’t try to tell me it was old Mrs. Baker’s new flowered hat.”

For some reason Kim found herself blurting out her impression of the Winchesters circling their wagons against their marauding neighbors. If David thought she was being ridiculous, he managed to hide it behind an attractive grin.

“Oh, yeah?” He lifted his head to glance around with a considering expression while she took the opportunity to study his profile.

He looked nothing like his mom except for his brown eyes. Kim had always thought they were his best feature, set beneath arching brows and framed by dark lashes as thick as a girl’s. He topped six feet, and the reason he’d been able to carry her up the stairs so easily was evident in the way his shoulders filled out the white dress shirt he wore tucked into snug black jeans.

“Are you feeling better today?” he asked her.

She blinked, disconcerted that he’d turned and caught her staring, but at least she hadn’t been checking out his butt as she’d been tempted to do.

“Yes, thanks. I just needed some rest.”

He raised his brows skeptically as though he might wonder how someone who didn’t even have a job could be so tired, but he didn’t challenge her reply. Not that the state of her health was any of his business.

A burst of laughter from two couples standing nearby gave Kim the excuse to look away from David’s probing stare.

“How did you scratch your face?” he asked.

Realizing that her habit of touching her scar must have drawn his attention to it, she immediately dropped her hand to her side.

“I got cut by flying glass from a broken window,” she responded automatically.

Most people were too polite to mention the scar in the first place, but those who did usually accepted her explanation.

Not David, of course. He leaned closer and peered at her cheek. “You were lucky your eye wasn’t injured.”

“Yes, I was.” Refusing to elaborate, she took a step back, wishing that someone, anyone, would come along and interrupt them. Of course no one did.

There was a real downside to a protective circle.

“How come you missed church?” she asked bluntly. If he could be nosy, so could she. “Did you oversleep? Late date last night?”

When she’d been back before, he was seeing Joey Parker, but that was a long time ago and Kim had heard that Joey got married. Perhaps she had gotten tired of waiting for David to make a commitment, or maybe they hadn’t been serious.

David hooked his thumbs into his wide black belt and stuck out his chin. “I’ve been doing some remodeling on my house and I guess I lost track of the time.”

His comment didn’t give her a clue as to whether he was seeing someone, but his love life was of no interest to her anyway.

“What are you remodeling?” She’d only been in the house once or twice and didn’t remember much about it, but she was just trying to be polite.

“I’m redoing the master bath, and I put in a jetted tub.”

“Really?” She managed to lace her tone with innuendo as she let her gaze slide over him. “Sounds like you’ve turned into quite the party animal.”

If someone had threatened David with a hot branding iron, he wouldn’t have admitted to Kim that his main intention in adding a bigger tub was to soak away the aches from a long winter day in the saddle chasing strays. If she wanted to picture him surrounded by women in bikinis, he wasn’t about to disillusion her.

Let her think he had an active love life. Someone in the family was bound to let it slip sooner or later that he hadn’t been on a date in months. He’d look like even more of a chump if he tried to explain that his current celibacy was voluntary.

The loose circle of family members that had surrounded Kim when he first arrived was beginning to break up, as though her overprotective relatives expected David to watch out for her. The idea that he could be trusted with Adam’s precious princess, even now, carried with it a certain amount of irony. At one point, Adam’s overprotective attitude had nearly derailed his own romance with David’s mother.

David was about to ask Kim why her husband hadn’t come with her this time, but someone crashed into him from behind and distracted him.

“David, David, save me!” shrilled Cheyenne as she ducked between him and Kim.

“Hey, take it easy.” He grabbed Cheyenne before she could knock Kim over. “Why don’t you take your game over by the swings where there aren’t so many people.”

“Okay.” She darted a subdued look at both of them. “Sorry.”

“That’s okay,” David admonished her gently. “Just be a little more careful.”

Kim remained silent until after Cheyenne had run off again. “She’s gotten so big, and so has Jake,” she murmured. “Your mom sent pictures, but I still wouldn’t have recognized either of them.”

“Kids grow in five years,” David replied dryly. As soon as the words were out, he wanted to suck them back in.

Kim’s expression grew mocking, and she cocked her head to the side. “Been keeping track?”

“No,” he snapped, annoyed with himself. “But I’ll bet Adam has.” Although the older man had never shared his feelings, at least not with David, he must have been devastated by her choice to go and live with the mother who had walked out on both of them. What a slap in the face that had to be to the father who had raised her by himself.

Now Kim’s eyes flashed with the first spark of real emotion David had noticed since she’d come home. “You don’t know anything, so don’t judge me.”

Anger surged through him and he leaned closer, gratified when her eyes widened. “I wouldn’t waste my time.”

Leaving her gaping, he turned on his boot heel. He didn’t want their exchange to turn into a full-blown argument. Before he could stalk away, his mother touched his arm, her concerned expression making him wonder how much she might have overheard.

“We’re leaving now,” she said with a glance over at Adam, who glared back. “Iron man needs to rest his leg. We’re all getting together for dinner at our house later. You’re coming, aren’t you?”

David shot a look at Kim, who was studiously ignoring him as she examined her nails. Knowing she didn’t want him around, and feeling perverse, he grinned back at his mom. Making her happy and annoying Kim at the same time was too good an opportunity to pass up.

“I wouldn’t miss it. What can I bring?”

Kim couldn’t help but overhear his reply. She had been hoping he would be too busy ripping up his house to accept, but of course he considered himself one of the family now. After his last dig about how long Kim had been away, it was clear he figured he had more right to be here than she did.

He was probably correct. One bad choice had led to another and then another, until she’d ended up feeling trapped and powerless. She wasn’t about to tell David, who obviously had no use for her, how much she had longed to come back sooner.

About six months after she’d first left, if her mother hadn’t begged her so hard to stay with her. And if Kim’s father hadn’t already been married to David’s mother by then.

Chapter Three

A burst of masculine laughter from the back deck and children’s shouts from the yard blended with the familiar sounds of women’s chatter, drawing Kim reluctantly to her stepmother’s large kitchen. After church Kim had changed out of the rose-pink dress into her usual uniform of khaki pants and long-sleeved shirt. This one was light blue with thin white stripes. In deference to the heat of the afternoon, she had rolled up the sleeves and left the top button undone.

The women of the Winchester dynasty were of course grouped in the kitchen, setting out the food. The men were outside supervising their progeny, Kim’s siblings and cousins.

Feeling like the star attraction or, more likely, the star witness, and braced to field a slew of questions, she sucked in a deep breath, licked her dry lips and stepped into the arched doorway.

Predictably, all conversation died as her uncles’ wives stared. Emily was the first to greet her, followed by statuesque Aunt Rory of the blazing red hair, the green thumb and the angelic voice, then Aunt Robin, a diminutive and dark-haired veterinarian from Chicago. For the first time, Kim realized that all three Winchester brothers had chosen brides from other states.

Kim waited for the inevitable questions: Why are you home? Where’s your husband? How long are you staying? When are you going to start a family of your own?

Aunt Rory, the mail-order bride from the Bronx who had come out to see Uncle Charlie and married Uncle Travis instead, came forward with a big smile and open arms.

“Hi, sweetie. Welcome back.”

“Thank you,” Kim murmured, taking comfort in Aunt Rory’s enveloping embrace and the familiar scent of her perfume. As a teenager, Kim had spent many hours baby-sitting Rory’s kids.

After a final squeeze, Rory released her so she could greet Robin, the aunt she barely knew. While Rory’s height dwarfed her, Robin made Kim feel oversize and gangly.

“It’s nice to see you again,” Robin said. Her midnight-black hair was cut as short as Kim’s and her smile was a little shy.

“Thanks,” Kim replied, feeling awkward. “Where’s Amanda?”

At the mention of her baby, Robin’s elfin face brightened. “Charlie’s got her. He hardly lets her out of his sight.”

“Well, he’s always been a bit of a ladies’ man,” Rory reminded her with a wink.

“Listen to you,” Emily exclaimed, waving hands that were encased in flowered oven mitts. “As if Travis hasn’t taken to fatherhood like a kitten to cream.”

“Winchester men,” Rory replied with a grin. “You gotta love ’em.”

Watching the interplay between the other three women, all friends and all happily married, stirred a mixed brew of feelings in Kim—envy, resentment and a dash of self-pity. It wasn’t fair. She had tried so hard to do everything right, so why had it all turned out so badly?

Dismissing the silent question, she turned to the woman she had blamed for a long time for usurping her own place in her father’s life and heart.

“Anything I can do to help?” Kim asked.

The counter was lined with bowls of salads—pasta, potato, mixed greens and shimmery jello for the kids. Next to a large platter of fried chicken on the center island was a bowl of baked beans.

“Everything’s ready, so you could start carrying the dishes outside,” Emily replied with a sweep of one hand. “Rory, would you tell your hubby to get the kids settled? Robin, why don’t you help Kim with the food?”

“And just what are you going to be doing while we’re all slaving away?” Rory returned with a mock glare.

She had married Travis when Kim was ten, an alien goddess from New York who worked briefly as the bunkhouse cook. Now she sang at Charlie’s dinner club in town when she wasn’t raising children and flowers.

Robin had moved to Waterloo and married Uncle Charlie five years ago. She seemed to be as quiet as he was outgoing. Maybe opposites did sometimes mesh, rather than grinding against each other until only one was left whole.

Pushing her blond hair off her forehead, Emily made a sweeping gesture toward the open French doors. “I think I’ll go mingle with all that prime male Winchester beef waiting outside.” She added a shimmy of her hips for emphasis.

“In that case, dab some salad dressing behind your ears and take this with you,” Rory drawled, thrusting a bowl of greens at her as the others hooted with laughter. Even Kim had to grin at their antics.

“Jake, quit picking on Chuckie!” Adam called out as David dug a cold soda from the cooler.

As Jake looked up at his father, his chubby redheaded cousin took the opportunity to push him.

“Hey!” Travis shouted at his younger son. “Any more of that and you’re benched.” He grinned over at his own older brother. “Tough little suckers. Probably future football stars.” He looked back at the two boys, who were now both scowling fiercely. “Play nice.”

“Yeah, like your dads never did,” Charlie added with a sly wink at David. Charlie was holding his two-month-old baby in the crook of his arm. Oblivious to the sounds around her, Amanda slept soundly.

Even though David wasn’t really into babies, she was pretty cute with her tiny fist tucked under her pointy chin. It was plain to see that his uncle, the former sheriff, was a cream puff when it came to his firstborn.

“When are you going to tie the knot and raise a passel of little Winchesters?” Travis asked him jokingly.

“He’s not a Winchester!”

The heads of all four men seated around the picnic table swiveled to look at Kim, who was standing in the doorway with a platter of chicken. David couldn’t tell if the color on her cheeks was caused by annoyance or merely embarrassment from suddenly finding herself the center of attention.

David got to his feet as Adam broke the awkward silence.

“But David is family just the same,” he said firmly, his gaze steady on his daughter’s.

Kim’s knuckles were nearly as white as the platter she gripped so tightly. Somehow that tiny bit of vulnerability spurred David forward, that and the memory of a younger, gentler Kim pushing through a crowd of students to ask his name.

“Let me help you with that,” he offered, reaching for the platter. “It’s got to be heavy.”

Her gaze clashed with his and he thought she was going to refuse.

“Rory makes the best fried chicken in the state,” he added. “I’d eat it off the floor if I had to, but I’d sooner not.”

“Oh, Lord, don’t drop my wife’s chicken, Kimmie, or I’ll never hear the end of it!” Travis exclaimed dramatically. “Somebody set that plate down.”

His comment broke the tension. Kim blinked and then she thrust the platter at David. When their hands touched, he could feel her tremble.

“Thanks.” Her voice was husky. “I didn’t mean anything by what I said. I was just stating a fact.”

“No problem,” David replied. Adam didn’t deserve whatever resentment she felt, but that was for the two of them to work out. David had no intention of getting in the middle.

Kim flapped her hand in the direction of the kitchen. “There are some more things I need to get.” She turned abruptly, barely avoiding a collision with Rory, who was bringing the potato salad.

“Hey, kid, would you make yourself useful and help me move the tables?” Charlie asked, distracting him.

Adam reached for Amanda, his normally stern expression replaced by a goofy grin as he cuddled her. Like the Pied Piper, Travis had already led the other kids inside the house to wash up.

“What do you think is going on with Kim?” Charlie asked David after the two of them had put two tables together. “She sure seems tense.”

Charlie grabbed his beer. His observation didn’t surprise David as much as it might have if it had come from some other big macho guy. When he had served his term as the town sheriff, he would have had to be able to read people and to be observant. Not much got past him. David remembered that a few of his buddies had found that out the hard way.

He wasn’t about to admit that he’d even given Kim a thought. He no longer had any idea of what made her tick, and perhaps he never had.

“Who knows,” he replied carelessly. “Maybe it’s jet lag.”

“It’s a three-hour flight from Seattle,” Charlie pointed out dryly. “You’d think she would have recovered by now.”

David shrugged. The aroma from the chicken was making his stomach growl as more food was brought out to a long side table. “Have you met the missing husband? I never did.”

“Yeah, I have.” Charlie took a drink of his beer. “First time at the wedding, and once when I flew out to Seattle with Adam to surprise Kim.”

“Yeah?” David prompted, curious despite himself about what kind of man had managed to win her heart, and her hand.

“Piece of work,” Charlie said flatly. “Ritzy wedding and a reception straight out of the movies. Food, music, booze. More attendants than a president’s funeral and flowers everywhere. I heard the old man telling someone they’d flown the orchids in from Holland, and the roses from South America.”

He chuckled, making David shift impatiently. It wasn’t the wedding he was curious about, it was the marriage.

“When they released the white doves outside the church, I was braced for a shotgun blast,” Charlie added with a grin.

“What’s he like?” David asked.

“Good-looking, I guess, but cold.” Charlie looked over at Kim, who had come out with a pitcher of juice for the kids and a stack of cups. “She seemed happy at the time. I s’pose most brides are on their big day, Lord knows Robin was. But now, with Kimmie, I don’t know.”

“What about Christie?” David asked. “Are she and Kim still close?” Kim had first gone to live with her mother in Denver, but he’d been stunned when she moved with Christie to the Northwest.

“Didn’t you hear?” Charlie’s brows waggled in surprise. “That gold-digging witch finally managed to bag herself a rich, decrepit old husband. They moved to Italy not too long ago.”

“Huh. I didn’t know that.” David wondered if Kim resented her mother’s remarriage as much as she had Adam’s. At least Adam hadn’t left the country afterward.

Everyone was beginning to gather, drawn by the food like ants to a picnic. David’s mother clapped her hands together. “Okay, everyone,” she said briskly. “You all know the drill. Food’s on, so let’s eat.”