Montana Morning (24 page)

Jack grinned, and
looking down, pushed the hay back and forth with the toe of his boot.

“Judging by the
pained look on your kisser, and knowing how protective you are of your mom, I’d
say the question goes something like . . . Mister, are your intentions towards
my mother honorable?  Is that fairly close?”

 Chad sat
down in the hay across from Jack and grinned back.  “Fairly close.” He
watched the horses playing in the corral below. “I don’t want her hurt. A fellow
would have to be blind not to see you care about each other, but that doesn’t
always . . .”         

“I don’t just care
about her, Son.”

“Does she
know?”  Chad watched silently as Jack wrestled with his question.

“I hope not. Not
yet.  I can’t tell her, ask her to share my life, the way things are right
now.

Chad jumped up,
the fury written all over his face.  “Damn you to hell!” He turned and
stomped towards the ladder.

“Hold it right
there.  We’re not through!” Jack stood up.

“Oh yes, we are!”
Chad spun around, his fists clenched

“Punch me if you
want, but it won’t change the fact that I love Addy.” Jack stood his ground
with his hands in his pockets.

“Love her? 
You don’t even know the meaning . . .” Chad was red in the face and trembling.

“Just suppose you
explain it to me.” Jack sat down calmly and stuck a piece of hay between his
teeth.

“If you cared at
all, if you knew the kind of woman she was, you wouldn’t think she’d care about
how rich you were or how many cows . . .”

“What on earth are
you talking about?  I know she doesn’t care about those things.” Jack knew
now what had riled Chad. “I’m the one who cares about what I can or can’t give
her.  I may not even have a place by the end of the summer.  How can
I ask her to share what I haven’t got?”

Chad paced up and
down the loft shaking his head, cooling down.  Finally he came to a halt
right in front of Jack. Jack stood up and looked him in the eye.  They
stared each other down and at last Chad walked away.  When he picked up
his shirt, he turned to find Jack watching him.

“Jack,” Chad chose
his words carefully, “If you love my mom, I mean, love her just as she is, no
changes . . . that’s all she’ll ever need from you . . . EVER.” He climbed down
the ladder, leaving Jack alone in the loft.

The first day of
August was hot and the wind was blowing out of the south.  Chad had been
gone for just over two weeks, and the second cutting of hay was about ready for
harvest.  Jack figured Scotty’s foul mood might be caused by overworking, and
had told him to take the day off and play lazy.  He and Will would check
out the hayfields; Andy would fix the fence in the upper range.  Addy was
canning the beets she and Scotty had pulled, and was surprised when Scotty hung
around the kitchen.

“Thought you’d be
heading for the creek on a dead run when Jack said to take it easy today,” she
said, as she watched him slouch down in the chair.

“Sorry, didn’t
mean to get in your way,” he yelled, as he stomped out of the kitchen and up
the stairs.   ‘
Jack is right, he needs a nap’
. . . she
grinned. Soon he stomped back down the stairs and started for the kitchen door.

“Scotty, where do
you think you going with the rifle?” She spun around to face him.

“Target
practicing.” He gave her a look of pure defiance and headed for the door.

“Absolutely, no
way, young man.  Your grandpa said you were not to leave this house with
that gun, unless he was with you.”

“Well, he isn’t
here right now and I want to practice,” he yelled at her.

“That’s enough,
Scotty,” she said calmly.  “Put it back upstairs, right now.”

“You can’t tell me
what to do.  You’re not my mother. You’re not anybody!”  He saw the
look on her face and stopped dead in his tracks.  She looked like he’d hit
her. He should apologize and he knew it, but he was still too mad.  He
threw the gun down in the window seat and ran outside.

He could see his
grandpa and Will on the far side of the meadow riding the fence line and went
in their direction.  The closer he got to them, the more he thought it was
a mistake to have come this way.
  ‘Grandpa is going to be really mad if
he finds out what I said to Addy, and he will find out.  No one on this
place ever keeps a secret.’
  He decided it would be better if they
heard it from him and walked towards the men on horseback.  When he
reached them, they were off the horses stretching a section of fence.

“Thought you were
checking the hay.”

“Thought you were
taking the day off,” Jack answered, as he pulled on the fence stretcher.

“What’s up?”

Scotty sighed and
plopped down on the ground.  “Addy and I had a fight.” Will and Jack
stopped what they were doing in mid-stride.

“Oh, is that
right?”  Will said quietly, watching Jack out the corner of his eye.

“Yeah, I wanted to
go out target practicing and she wouldn’t let me,” he paused and, when neither
man said anything, he continued.  “I guess I kind of got mad and . . .
well, I said something I kind of shouldn’t have. I kind of, like, hurt her
feelings.” By now he was wishing he was any place but where he was. 

Jack put the stretcher
down calmly and walked over to where Scotty was sitting.  Jack didn’t look
mad, but Scotty knew he was, and his grandpa looked about ten feet tall when he
glanced up at him.

“Let’s see if I’ve
got this straight. You were doing something you knew you shouldn’t?”

“Right.” 
Scotty looked at the toes of Jacks boots and squirmed.

“And Addy told you
no?”

“Yeah.” 
Scotty said.  His palms were starting to sweat.

“So you kind of
got mad?” Jack stood patiently with his hands in his back pockets.

“Yeah.” Why didn’t
his grandpa just hit him?  Scotty knew it was coming.

“Then you kind of
said something you shouldn’t have said?”

“Right.” Scotty
could have sworn his life was going to flash before his eyes any minute.

“And you kind of
hurt Addy’s feelings?”

“Yeah,” he
whispered.

“I don’t believe I
heard you, Son.” Jack growled.

Oh, Man. 
This was it.  Jack was going to kill him.  Scotty swallowed hard and
took what he was sure was his last breath.

“Yeah, I hurt her
feelings . . . bad, I think.” 

Jack stood
towering over Scotty for what seemed like hours, and then he bent down on his
haunches and looked his grandson in the eye. 

“Tell you what
you’d better do, Son.” Jack rested his arms on his knees and studied Scotty’s
face.  He wanted to be sure he had his attention.  “You go right back
to the house, ask the lady to sit down and then you apologize to her, and you’d
better make it good!  Got that?”  Scotty nodded his head and looked
at the ground.

“Look at me, Son,”
Jack ordered quietly.  “Now then, after you’ve apologized to the lady, you
do whatever it takes to make up for the pain you’ve caused her.  You
understand?”  Scotty nodded once more. 

“What I’m telling
you is this . . . If she tells you to stand on your head in the pouring down
rain, you’re to do it.  Got that?” 

Scotty nodded and
sat quietly. Jack put his hand on the boy’s shoulder and gave it a
squeeze.  “Hop to it.   Waiting won’t make it any easier.” 
Jack stood up, grabbed the stretchers and went back to work.  Scotty ran
for the house.

Addy was standing
at the kitchen sink, peeling beets, the tears rolling down her face when Scotty
stepped in the back door.

“Addy?” he
whispered and saw her hastily wipe the tears away.  “Can I talk to
you?”  She nodded, but didn’t stop what she was doing. “Please?” She
straightened her shoulders and dried her hands on the towel. She wasn’t ready
to face him just yet.  She knew what he’d said had been said in anger, but
sometimes . . . She closed her eyes and asked God to help her through her hurt.
She turned to find Scotty sitting in the window seat, with the rifle across his
lap.

“What was it you
wanted to say?” she asked so quietly he strained to hear her.

“Addy, I’m
sorry.  I didn’t mean any of that stuff.  I was just mad and well . .
. “He knew she was listening, but she didn’t look like she understood a word he
was saying.  “You know how you always say to tell the truth and it will
set you free?”

Addy had no idea
where he was going with this, but she went and sat beside him, looking at the
wooden floor under their feet.  “Go on,” she whispered past the tears in
her throat.

“I guess I got
kind of jealous when Chad was here.  It was like you spent all your time
with him and not me,” he paused and shuffled his feet.  “Then Grandpa Will
took him horseback riding instead of me and Grandpa didn’t want my help . . .”

“Oh, Scotty. 
I’m so sorry.  I had no idea how you were feeling.” Addy pulled him to
her.

“Yeah well, I was
having what Mom used to call ‘a real pity party’ for myself and I kind of took
it out on you . . . I’m really sorry, Addy.”

“It’s okay, really
Scotty.  I understand,” Addy paused and gave it a lot of consideration
before she made her offer. “I’ll forgive you, if you’ll forgive me. 
Deal?”

“That
easy?”   His relief was written all over his face.

“Sure, why
not.  Besides, forgiving sometimes isn’t so easy.”

“Yeah, I know, but
I thought I was going to have to stand on my head,” he admitted, laughing.

“What?  Why
would you have to stand on your head?” Addy gave him a puzzled look.

“Because when I
went out and told Grandpa about our fight, he told me to make it up to you,
even if I had to stand on my head in the pouring rain to do it,” he explained.

“Sometimes your
grandpa says the strangest things!” She laughed and ruffled Scotty’s hair.

“I was just glad
he didn’t beat me to a pulp,” confided Scotty.  “Sure thought he was going
to.”

“He would never
beat you!  You know that!” Addy couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

“I do now, but for
a few minutes, I wasn’t so sure.  He was so mad and he got all quiet like
. . . it was spooky.” Scotty picked up the gun and started up the
stairs.   “Guess Grandpa will never hit me, no matter how mad he
gets, if he didn’t do it today.  I sure deserved it.”

“Scotty.” Addy
followed him up the first few steps and he stopped.  “Scotty, no one ever
deserves to be hit, no matter what.”  He turned and sat down.

“But Dad said . .
.”

“Honey, I don’t
care what anyone told you before, I’m telling you now. No one, ever! 
Understand?”

“Then how come
Grandpa said, he’d like to punch Mr. Mueller in the nose?”

“When did he say
that?” She couldn’t help grinning at the thought.

“Well, I guess I
wasn’t supposed to hear him.  He kind of said it under his breath when Mr.
Mueller was dancing with you.” 

“Oh, I see . . . I
don’t recall Jack hitting the man, do you?”

“Of course not.”

“Why do you think
he didn’t hit him, even if he wanted to?”

“Cause it’s not
right to hit people, no matter what?”

“Bingo. 
Class dismissed.  Wash up for lunch.”  Addy went back to the kitchen
and started setting the table.  She knew it shouldn’t make her feel good
to know Jack wanted to punch Mueller in the nose, but it did.  It felt
really good.

***

Jack was dreading
lunch.  He hoped Scotty and Addy had settled their problem.  He
wished now he had asked Scotty what he had said to hurt Addy’s feelings so
badly. When he got to the house Scotty and Addy were singing silly songs and
dishing up lunch.  He decided it was best to let sleeping dogs lie.
   

“Everything all
right?” he asked Scotty in a whisper out of the corner of his mouth.

“Yeah,” Scotty
said, glancing towards Addy. “She didn’t even make me stand on my head.”

“Lucky for you
she’s a softie!” Jack winked at Will. “But next time you deal with me. 
Got it?  Oh yeah, by the way, the gun stays on the wall for two weeks.”

“Yes, Sir.” Scotty
felt like he got off lucky, but wasn’t about to say so. 

Will made his way
over to where Addy was slicing the bread.  “Bad morning?”

“It’s okay now.”
She smiled weakly at him.

“Gone, but not
entirely forgotten, huh?” Will had a feeling whatever Scotty had said to her
was not forgotten at all.  “Just forgiven?”

“Forgiven,” she
admitted in a whisper.  “Time to eat.  By the way, Jack, Howard
called this morning.  He asked me to have you get back to him when you
came in for lunch.  He said he’d be at the law office until one.” 
Jack looked at the clock.  It was already twelve-thirty.

“I’d better see
what he needs.  I’ll eat after I talk to him.”

“What’s that all
about?” Will asked, as he dished up his soup.

“I have no idea.”
Addy had sensed it was important and probably not good news. Jack came back
through the kitchen and went out the back door.

“I decided I
wasn’t hungry,” was all he said and he went to the hay shed.

“Jack’s never too
upset to eat.” Andy sounded worried, and she could see the looks flying between
him and Will across the table.  Both men knew Jack well enough to know
when to leave him alone; this was one of those times.  After lunch Will
went to the hay shed where Jack was working on the baler.

“Want to talk
about it, Son?”

“No,” came the
answer from under the big machine.

“Didn’t think
so.  Think I’ll take the afternoon off and go fishing with my
great-grandson.”

“Fine.”  

As Will walked
back to the house, he passed Andy in the yard.  “Want to go fishing with
Scotty and me?” Will looked towards the shed, and then shook his head no. 
Andy could take a hint.