Daisies in the Canyon(66)

At four thirty he gave up even trying and let Delores out, made a pot of coffee, let Delores back inside, and sat down on the sofa with her at his side. Two hours later he awoke to Delores whining and cold nosing his hand. Delores wagged her tail.

“Do you think she’ll come home?”

Her tail wagged faster.

“I hope that is a yes.”




Abby parked her truck and walked into the house with Martha right on her heels. It felt different now, even with her two sisters staring at her like she had two heads or maybe three eyes.

“Where have you been all night?” Bonnie asked.

“Was it good?” Shiloh asked.

“What?” Abby’s eyebrow shot up.

“The sex?”

“I didn’t have sex,” she said.

“Don’t lie to us. You are coming in at daybreak with a duffel bag in your hands. Where were you?” Bonnie asked.

“At a hotel, alone,” Abby said. “Y’all want to help me bring all my stuff back inside?”

“Why’d you take everything with you? Oh! Oh! You were leaving, weren’t you?” Shiloh gasped.

“I didn’t know, but I do hate good-byes, so if I had decided to leave, I might have called, but I wouldn’t have told either of you good-bye,” she said.

“I’ll help you unload your things, but first I want to know why,” Bonnie said.

“Everything. The ranch. The work. Having two sisters. Cooper. It all came crashing down on me yesterday and I needed to get out of the forest to see the trees.”

“So did you get it settled?” Shiloh asked.

“Some of it. I’ve got my mind made up firmly not to reenlist and to stay here until spring. I have my mother’s ashes and I intend to do something with them when spring comes and the flowers are blooming in the canyon. The thing with Cooper? I have no idea what is going on there.”

“You aren’t supposed to,” Bonnie said.

“But why?”

“Where’s the fun in knowing everything? Life has to have some surprises to make it interesting.”

“I talked to Rusty. It was his idea to put the daisies in Ezra’s casket,” she said bluntly.

“I’m not surprised. Were you?” Shiloh asked.

“I think I wanted it to be in the will. I wanted him to think we were strong and that at the end he wanted a little of each of us to go with him into eternity.” Abby sank down into the recliner and got a whiff of cigarette smoke. “Something, anything that would say we were something to him. I guess that’s what I wanted.”

“Let go of the past. Live today and look forward to the future,” Bonnie said.

“Who said that?” Abby asked.

“I did. It’s what I tell myself every morning. Now let’s go unload your things and make breakfast. We’ve got a corral to finish today. I’ll make sausage gravy and biscuits,” she said. “And Abby, I’m glad you came home.”

“Me, too,” Shiloh said.

“Thank you both. It is home, isn’t it.”

“Oh, yeah. It’s our home and it might take all three of us, but we’ll make it work,” Bonnie said.




Cooper alternated between whistling and worrying all day. Abby had sent him a text that morning just before daylight asking: Ice cream at six tonight, or are you too busy?

The answer he sent back was: Never. I’ll pick you up at six.

Had she come back to stay or to pack the rest of her things, tell everyone good-bye, and leave for good? It was a good sign that she was back and wanted to go out for ice cream. But he hoped it wasn’t only to explain to him her reasons or excuses for leaving.

“Got a date?” his deputy asked when Cooper looked at the clock again for the tenth time in less than five minutes.

Cooper nodded.

“I heard you were hot on the trail after Ezra Malloy’s oldest daughter. That old man was a pistol. Be careful you don’t get a feminine version of him.” The deputy chuckled. “Maybe if you take her a rose, it’ll help.”

“Maybe so,” Cooper said.

Abby was not a pink rose girl or even a red rose one. She struck him more as a wild daisy. With that in mind, he didn’t go straight home when he left the office. He went to the tiny little flower shop in Silverton and barely made it inside before the lady flipped the open sign over to closed.

“Do you have daisies?” he asked.

“Yes, sir, we sure do. I’ll get them out of the cooler. You almost didn’t catch me this late in the day.” She brought out a vase full of bright-colored flowers.

“I want a dozen of those right there.” He pointed at the bright yellow ones with yellow centers. “And tie up some sky-blue paper around them with a blue ribbon.”

“You sure about that? Yellow or white might make them more pleasant to the eye,” she asked.

“I’m sure,” he said.

“How long until you intend to give them to someone?”

He checked the time on his phone. “Less than an hour.”

“They’ll be fine for that long. I’ll just put them in a box. Why blue ribbon?” she asked as she rang up the charge.

“She’s a blonde with blue eyes.” He smiled.