Big Girls Don't Cry

Mr. Russell lifted his eyebrows. “Sounds like I’d better act fast.”

“Jennifer wasn’t accounting for the new tires.”

“I see.”

“It’s my daddy’s,” Angela volunteered.

“When will your daddy be home?” he asked.

“Not for a long—”

“Angela, that’s enough.” Mr. Russell seemed like a nice guy, but Reenie didn’t see any reason to tell him she and the girls were alone.

“What brings you to Dundee, Mr. Russell?”

He turned the key in the ignition and the engine roared to life. “I’m, um, here to do a little research,” he said above the noise.

“For what?” Angela asked.

He adjusted the seat and tried the windshield wipers.

“For what?” she repeated when he didn’t answer.

“I’m writing a novel.”

Jennifer brightened immediately, as Reenie knew she would. “What’s your book about?” she asked.

He turned off the stereo. “Small-town relationships.”

“Well, you’ve come to the right place for that,” Reenie said.

A brief smile indicated he’d marked the sarcasm in her voice. “I’m sure I have.”

“So you’re only visiting?”

“That’s right.”

“How long will you be staying?”

“In Dundee?” He shrugged. “A few days. Maybe a week. As long as it takes to get what I need.”

“Are you at the motel in town, then?”

“Not yet. I just got in. I was taking a drive to get a feel for the area, and that’s when I came across your Jeep.” He patted the dashboard. “I love these.”

“They’re versatile.”

“An absolute necessity in the jungle.”

“Did you say jungle?”

He chuckled. “Never mind.”

She pulled the girls away from the idling vehicle. “If you leave your driver’s-license number with me, you can take it out on the highway, if you like.”

“Not today, thanks. I’ll think about it and get back to you, though. Okay?”

“We want to buy a horse,” Isabella volunteered.

He smiled at her while turning off the engine. “That sounds like fun.”

“What kind of research do you do for a relationship novel?” Reenie asked as he got out and handed her the keys.

“Talk to people, take note of what they say and do.”

“Mention that you’re writing a book, and half the people in this town will be ready to tell you anything you want to know,” she said. “Gossip is their favorite pastime.”

He studied her for a moment, and she sensed his curiosity again. “Sounds like you’ve been a victim of that gossip.”

“My family has received more public interest than most.”

“You and Keith?”

“No. My parents and my brother.”

He cocked one eyebrow at her. “Want to talk about it?”

“I’d rather leave that subject alone. But if you want general information about the area, I can help. I’ve lived here all my life.”

“Thanks, Mrs. O’Connell.”

“Call me Reenie,” she said. “Everyone else does.”

“Okay, Reenie.” His unusual golden eyes seemed to absorb every detail of her face. “Since you’re willing to help, is there any chance you could meet me at the diner in town later?” He raised a hand and stepped back a foot, as if to assure her that his intentions were honest. “For an interview,” he added.

Reenie couldn’t see why not. He was acquainted with her husband, which made him an old friend of sorts. And the diner was a public place. She knew practically everyone in town, which meant she’d be surrounded by friends. “When?”

He checked his watch. “Seven? I’ll buy you dinner in exchange for your time.”

Reenie was hopeful he’d buy more than dinner. She wanted to sell him the Jeep. “It’s too bad Keith isn’t here,” she said. “He’s going to be disappointed he missed you.”

“I’m sorry I missed him, too,” he said. “See you at seven.”

“I’ll be there.”

ISAAC WATCHED the woman he’d just met hustle her children—and her elderly dog—back into the house.

Rena O’Connell had given her name as though she’d owned it for a long time and was comfortable using it. But she couldn’t be married to Keith. He was already married to Elizabeth.

Maybe they were only living together. This was a small community. Maybe Keith had met Reenie no more than a few months ago. When he moved in with her, she took his name to hide the fact that they weren’t officially married. It’d be a good way to avoid the criticism of a small, conservative community, right?

But the three girls…That was where his theory collapsed. Even though Reenie’s youngest daughter didn’t resemble Keith, there was no doubt that the two older girls were his. Which meant Keith’s relationship with Reenie must have predated his relationship with Liz.

It wasn’t a reassuring thought.

Isaac needed to investigate a little more, figure out when and how this whole thing had started.

He circled the Jeep to convince anyone who might be watching that he was really interested in it. Then he started toward the car he’d rented in Boise.

The front door of Reenie’s house opened before he could reach the curb, and her youngest daughter stepped out. “My mommy said I can give you a cookie,” she said, and began clomping toward him in snow boots at least four sizes too big.

He met her halfway up the driveway so she wouldn’t trip and accepted an oatmeal cookie. “Thank you.”

She shaded her eyes so she could look up at him. “Can I go to the diner with you and Mommy tonight?”

He quickly swallowed a mouthful of cookie. “That’s not up to me, honey.”

“But my mom said no.” She grimaced and put a hand to her belly. “And I’m hungry.”

“I’m sure she’s planning to give you dinner.”

“She’s making chicken potpie.”

He took another bite of cookie. “You don’t like chicken potpie?”

“She puts peas in it!”

Isabella said “peas” as though she meant “bugs.”

“Can’t you pick them out?” he asked.

She shook her head. “Mommy won’t let me.”

“Green vegetables are good for you. They make you strong.”

Her shoulders slumped. “Don’t tell me that. I already know.”

Isaac couldn’t help grinning at her. He thought about Mica and Christopher, who very likely had three half siblings they knew nothing about. The news would rock their world along with Elizabeth’s. But this little imp was particularly appealing. Not only was she pretty, she had a flare for the dramatic that made him laugh.

“What’s so funny?” she asked, eyeing him warily.

“You are,” he admitted, enjoying his cookie.

Her eyebrows shot up. “I didn’t say a joke.”

“I know. You’re just very cute.” He glanced beyond her to the bassett hound that waited dutifully on the porch. “What’s your dog’s name?”

“Old Bailey.”

“Did you name him?”

“No, my daddy did. He gave him to Mommy for her birthday.”

“When was that?”

“Oh…a hundred years ago.”

He chuckled. Reenie couldn’t be much older than thirty. “That many, huh?”

“No, wait. Maybe it was…two hundred.” She nodded as though she was now positive about her answer.

“Then, it’s definitely been a while.”

“He’s a good doggy.”

“I bet he is.” Tights covered the thin legs that disappeared into her oversize footwear. “Nice boots,” he said.

She grinned proudly. “They’re my mom’s.”

“I see. So…” He lowered his voice, even though he highly doubted anyone inside could hear them. “Where’s your dad?”

“At work.”

“Where does he work?”

She seemed to have difficulty with this one. “Far away.”

Isaac swallowed the last of the cookie. “What’s your daddy’s name?”

“Keith, silly.” She added a giggle for his ignorance. “You know that.”

“Right, Keith.” Considering the fact that she’d just told him Reenie had received Bailey two centuries ago, he wasn’t sure how reliable her answers were. But she was the only one of Reenie’s children who wasn’t old enough to consider his questions in a critical light. “Is he your only daddy?”

She wrinkled her nose. “What?”

“Have there been any other…grown men in your mother’s life?”

“My Uncle Gabe comes to visit. He can’t walk.”

“That’s too bad.”

“If I tease him about it, he dangles me upside down.” Another smile.

“Are you sure it’s nice to tease him?”

“He doesn’t mind. He likes it.”

“Really. That’s difficult to imagine. But I’m not talking about Uncle Gabe.”

Her expression reflected her confusion.

He checked the house and saw Jennifer peering out at him but continued to question Isabella. “Don’t some of the kids at school have a dad and a stepdad?”

“My friend Glenda does. But I don’t. Duh.” She rolled her eyes and laughed again. “Don’t you know anything?”

He pinched his lip. “I admit that I’m a little puzzled.”

“About what?”

The whole situation. His brother-in-law seemed to have built two complete families. Two families that existed in different parts of the country. And, from what Isaac could tell, they were completely unaware of each other. How had Keith managed to get away with it for so long?

A bang drew Isaac’s attention to the house. Isabella’s older sister had thrown the door open. “Isabella, it’s your turn to put the silverware on the table!”

The little girl sighed dramatically. “I’m coming,” she said, and started back up the driveway.

Isaac watched her go. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do about the mess Keith had created. He didn’t want anyone to be hurt. Not the attractive woman he’d just met. Not her sweet little girls. And certainly not his sister and her children.

In two hours, he’d be having dinner with Keith’s other wife, the mother of his other family. At some point, Isaac would have to tell her—and Elizabeth, too.

God, what was he going to say?

CHAPTER SIX

ISAAC ARRIVED at the diner early. He’d already explored the area and found that there weren’t a lot of things to see in Dundee. After about three blocks of businesses, the town fell to quasi-rural residences like Reenie’s, where the people enjoyed small acreages and often owned horses or other animals. Once he started climbing into the mountains, he saw mostly large ranches.

“Would you like anything else to drink?” A waitress, wearing a badge that identified her as Judy, set a glass of water in front of him. About forty-five years old, she had a smoker’s voice and bleached hair with dark roots.

“Maybe in a minute or two,” he said. “I’m waiting for someone to join me.”

“Who?”

He’d never had a waitress ask him for the name of the party he was waiting for, at least not as if she had a personal interest. He glanced up to see Judy putting her order pad in one of the pockets of her apron. “Excuse me?”

“Who are you waiting for?”

“Reenie O’Connell.” Reenie’s last name tasted bitter on his tongue. He didn’t want to believe she could be married to Keith. Surely there was some other explanation. He wasn’t sure about the ramifications of bigamy, but he knew it was illegal. He needed to do some research, maybe call his friend in Chicago who worked for the Attorney General’s office. Part of him wanted to see Keith behind bars. The other part realized that putting his brother-in-law away wouldn’t help either family. Which might be the reason, besides the few sensational polygamy cases coming out of Utah, he’d never heard of anyone going to jail for marrying two people at one time.

“How do you know Reenie?” she asked, seemingly unaware that he might consider it rude for her to be so inquisitive.

“I used to work with Keith.” He repeated the lie he’d told Reenie while trying to remember what he’d read in the paper about Tom Green. The State of Utah had put Tom Green in jail for bigamy. But, if Isaac remembered right, there’d been other charges as well. Keith hadn’t married anyone underage. And what he’d done had nothing to do with collecting welfare. He maintained two relatively “normal” but separate lives, and he seemed to be a good father to his children. Did the state send bigamists like Keith to jail?

“Hel-lo?” The waitress snapped her fingers in front of him, and Isaac belatedly realized that she’d asked him another question.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “What’d you say?”

“Did you meet Keith at that computer company?”

“Yes.”

She shook her head. “Good thing you got out when you did. Keith’s sure gone a lot. If you ask me, he needs to stay home and take care of his family.”

Which one? “How well do you know Keith?”

“Well enough. Everybody knows everybody else around here.”

“How long has he been living in Dundee?”

“Let’s see.” She rolled her eyes, which were caked with blue eye shadow, toward the ceiling. “Seems like…gee, his folks must’ve moved here at least twenty years ago.”

Twenty years was a long time. Her answer certainly didn’t make Isaac feel any better about who might have come first in Keith’s life. “Are his folks still in town?”

“Sure are. They don’t live more than a couple miles from Reenie.”

Interesting. Apparently, Keith’s parents were alive and well, and hadn’t been killed in an automobile accident, as Isaac had been told. Keith also purported to be an only child. Elizabeth was always saying how terrible she felt that he had no family.

Me and the kids…we’re all he’s got, Isaac.

Isaac smoothed his eyebrows with a thumb and finger. “Does he have any siblings?”

He wasn’t surprised when she immediately responded in the affirmative. “Two brothers.”

“Do they still live in town?”

“No. One’s away at college. Baylor. The other married and moved to Boise several years ago.”

“I see.” He hauled in a deep breath. “When did Keith marry Reenie?”

Her trust gave way to skepticism. “I thought you were waiting for Reenie. I thought you were friends.”

“Actually, I know Keith.” But certainly not as well as he had once believed. “I just met Reenie this morning when I stopped by to look at the Jeep she’s selling.”

“What brought you to town in the first place?”

“I’m writing a novel about small-town relationships. Reenie’s agreed to help me with some of the research.”

Judy pursed her lips and nodded as though grudgingly impressed. “Reenie’ll be a big help. I’m sure she’ll tell you all about how she and Keith met in high school. Got hitched almost as soon as they graduated.”

So what he’d suspected was true. Liz was the other woman. She’d met Keith on an airplane only eight or nine years ago.

“Reenie’s father is Senator Holbrook, you know,” the waitress said.

Isaac didn’t know. But neither did he care much about Reenie’s political connections. He was too busy trying to place events in their proper order. First Keith had married Reenie. Then he’d been hired by Softscape. The company had moved headquarters, and he’d started traveling extensively. Which is how he’d crossed paths with Elizabeth. They began to date, she got pregnant with Mica, they married right away. The only thing that made Keith’s extramarital affair so different from those of a lot of men was that he’d married the other woman without divorcing his first wife….

The waitress was still talking, but it took real effort for Isaac to concentrate on anything except his own grim thoughts.

“The senator had big plans for Reenie, hated to see her marry so young,” she was saying.

Had Judy just given him a brief history of Reenie’s early years? Yes…

“But there was no standing in the way of it,” she continued, smiling wistfully. “I’ve never seen two people more in love. And I gotta hand it to them. They started having babies after the first year, but they worked their way through college. They both graduated with some sort of degree. Even Senator Holbrook’s got to be happy with how their relationship has turned out.”

Isaac didn’t think anyone would be happy for long, but there was no time to catalogue the ramifications of what he’d learned from Judy. The bell rang over the door and Reenie walked in, wearing a pair of jeans cut fashionably low on her hips, boots that seemed more city than country, and a thin coral sweater that hugged the slim body beneath her brown leather coat.

As much as Isaac would rather have found her unattractive, he could see why Keith would be drawn to her. She had creamy, flawless skin, beautiful blue eyes, a mouth that was just a little too wide to be perfect, and an energetic, confident air that made him want to look at her much longer. If she was wearing any makeup, he couldn’t tell. With the healthy glow of her skin, and the contrast between her light eyes and rich dark hair, she didn’t need any.

“Getting started without me?” she said, sliding into the booth.

He forced his eyes to stay on her face as she stripped off her coat. He didn’t need to assess her figure. He’d already done that when he’d followed her to the Jeep. “Excuse me?”

The coral sweater had a wide neck that fell off her shoulders slightly—very feminine and appealing. “Are you interviewing Judy?”

He handed her a menu from the clip at the back edge of the table. “I was asking her a few questions.”

“Why didn’t you tell me you know a famous author?” Judy asked.

“Famous?” Reenie had knocked her purse over and was busy collecting all the stuff that had spilled out, but she raised an eyebrow at him when she heard this. “He left that part out when I met him this morning.”

“I try not brag,” he said with a grin.

She returned his smile as she finished with her purse, then glanced around the diner. “Busy tonight?” she asked Judy.

“Not too bad. I’ve been telling your new friend here how you and Keith got together.” Judy’s wistful smile returned, taking the harder edges off her appearance. “Love at first sight.”

Reenie shoved her bag and coat farther into the corner of the booth. “And what did he have to say about that?”

“Nothing yet.”

“What were you expecting?” Isaac asked.

She tilted her head in a challenging angle. “Most people think that kind of love is a fairy tale.”

“It’s not?”

Her shoulders lifted in a tiny shrug. “I’m proof that it does happen.”

Isaac knew he should say I’m happy for you, or some other such thing, but the words wouldn’t come. He couldn’t make a comment like that knowing what she was going to face in the very near future. “Maybe so,” he said.

She put the menu away without looking at it. Isaac figured she could probably recite the diner’s offerings from memory. “You sound like a skeptic, Mr. Russell.”

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