Chapter 7
Millie walked back upstairs after a few minutes of silence in the kitchen with a cup of tea. She hadn’t wanted to disturb Mariah and Clayton in the parlor, so she had stuck to the table. While flipping through the newspaper, she had ran across a headline that the same gang that had robbed Casden’s bank had struck again. The thought of them taking another life turned her stomach, and she needed to divert her mind.
Trey was still on his hands and knees in his study, scrubbing at the floor with the brush. She couldn’t believe there was hardly a mark where the stain had been.
“I can’t believe it!” she smiled.
“Just a little elbow grease was all it needed” Trey said.
“I’m a little short of that” Millie giggled.
Trey looked up and down her 4 foot, 2 inch stature. “A little short on something’ else ain’t ya?” he teased.
Millie gaped at him, trying not to smile. “Are you calling me short?”
“You said it, not me” Trey shrugged.
Millie shook her head at him. In her mind, she was already thinking of ways to retaliate.
She shook her head and sat down in the overstuffed chair behind Trey’s desk. She looked up at the family portrait behind it.
“Is that your family?” She asked.
“Uh huh” Trey replied.
“What were they like?”
Trey sighed. “Well, Pop was a moonshine runner. Momma was a God-fearing woman. They didn’t mix too well”.
Moonshine. Is that was Trey did for a living?
“What happened to them?” Millie asked.
“Momma died later on in life in childbirth. Lost the baby, too. Pop resisted arrest and pulled a gun on the wrong man” Trey continued to scrub the carpet.
He sounded so nonchalant about the whole ordeal.
“Do you miss them?” Millie asked him, her feet dangling from the chair she sat in.
“Sometimes. Momma mostly. Pop wasn’t around much. Bein’ an only child had it’s advantages that way. Momma doted on my by day, Pop yelled at me by night” a hint of a smile came with Trey’s words.
Millie’s heart went out to him. She couldn’t imagine her father yelling at her and what it would have done to her.
“I’m sorry” she said.
“It’s over and done with” Trey stood and threw his brush into the pail of warm soapy water. “It’s getting late”.
Millie looked out of the window. The sun had closed it‘s eyes on the world and left it cold and dark. She was glad Quinn had gone to bed early, otherwise she would have forgot all about him.
“I’m going to go ahead and go to bed. Let me dump this water out” Millie reached for the pail of water, but Trey’s hand caught hers before she grabbed it.
“Let me get it” he said.
Millie nodded, but she didn’t mover her hand away, and he didn’t release it. She stood there for a moment, staring into each other’s eyes. Trey blinked a few times and released her hand.
“You go on to bed” he said.
“Thank you” Millie walked toward the door, but turned around once she reached the doorway. “Trey?”
Trey looked up at her. “Hmm?”
“Thanks for the ride today. It felt good to get out for a while. I know I can be a lot of trouble” she said shyly.
Trey drew his eyebrows close together. “Trouble? You were no trouble at all”.
Millie smiled. He had a way of making her feel good.
“Good night” she said.
“Sweet dreams”.
Millie had a feeling there would be. As she walked back to her room and shut the door behind her, she felt her heart skip a beat or two. It had been a strange day. So many mixed emotions she didn’t know what to make of herself.
It dawned upon her as she stood in front of the window, staring at the quarter moon.
Am I falling in love with him?
*****
Trey threw out the dark colored water from the pail and headed back inside the house. The wind cut through his shirt and chilled him to the bone, and he wanted nothing better than to crawl under the covers and sleep. But he hadn’t seen Quinn all day and figured he’d better stop by the nursery and at least watch his son sleep for a few minutes.
Silently, he crept into the nursery and over to where his son was peacefully sleeping.
What if Millie was right and he needed to put in more time with his son? Though it wasn’t fair for her to compare him to her father. Her father probably possessed a great deal of patience, whereas Trey did not. Her father had probably had a good father to give him advice when Millie was younger. That was another thing Trey didn’t have.
So basically the only thing Trey had that Millie’s father did have was a kid, and any fool could have one of those.
Trey sighed and looked out of the window. Blue streaks flew across the sky like shooting stars. He hadn’t seen a meteor shower since he was a boy. He wondered if Millie had ever seen one.
“Hey Quinn” Trey tapped on the boy’s foot.
Quinn’s eyes fluttered open, and Trey lifted him out of the crib and carried him to the window. Quinn slowly became aware of the blue streaks in the sky. Trey grabbed a blanket and wrapped Quinn up with it before carrying him outside. They blue streaks were everywhere across the clear, starry sky. He lightly tapped on Millie’s window, hoping she didn’t come out wielding a boot and a sharpened pencil again. She appeared at the window and stared at him, confused. She yanked up the window.
“Please tell me you haven’t been drinking again” she said.
“No. Come out here” Trey said.
“One second” Millie ducked back inside and came back in a moment with a shawl and boots on, her long nightgown preventing her from exiting the window easily. “What is it?”. She looked up and gasped. “What’s going on?”
“It a meteor shower. Ever seen one?” Trey asked.
Millie shook her head, a small ringlet bouncing down in front of her face. She wrapped her shawl closer around herself and took a few steps to the railing, leaning against the sturdy posts. “Will they come down?”
“Nah. Those are hundreds of miles away from us” Trey smiled.
“It’s gorgeous” Millie whispered.
Quinn giggled at that moment as he looked up at the sky. The bright night shone against his face, illuminating his eyes. Trey smiled.
This was his son.
Quinn laid his head in Trey’s shoulder, keeping his eyes on the sky. Trey leaned his cheek onto the top of his son’s golden curls. Glancing toward Millie, Trey smiled bigger.
She rested her elbow on the railing, resting her chin on her fist, an awed look on her face.
“Why can you only see them now?” She asked.
“I don’t really know” Trey said.
“Have you seen this before?” Millie was full of questions.
“When I was a boy” Trey answered.
They were silent for the next few minutes until only a few more meteors flew across the sky, and further apart.
“I need to put Quinn back in bed. He’ll be grumpy tomorrow” Trey said.
Millie nodded.
*****
Millie waited until she saw the last of the meteors fly by, and then turned to go back to her room. She startled when she saw Trey leaned up against the house.
“I didn’t hear you come back out” she said.
“Sorry. I’ll be noisy next time” he said.
Millie yawned. “Well, good night” she muttered.
“’Night”
Millie clambered back through the window and into her room. Taking off her shawl and boots, she crawled under the warm blanket on the bed and lay back on the pillow. She shivered from the cold and wondered how Trey stood outside without a coat and didn’t freeze.
She lay there for quite some time, staring at the ceiling and thinking. She had come so far in such a short time. She had already been paid twice, and her money was safely tucked between her mattresses. She had a warm roof over her head and she wasn’t lonely with Quinn and Clayton around. Okay, so maybe Trey contributed to her non-loneliness, but she had a hard time admitting that to herself. There was so much she didn’t know about him. So much she had to know before she allowed herself to care for him any more than she already did. She should confront him, but confrontations were so hard for Millie. No, she’d just let him come to her if he wanted to. She had no right to know any secrets he didn’t want to tell her
The next morning, she got up early to tend to Quinn. Donning her robe, she went into the nursery and slowly woke Quinn up. After changing him and dressing him, she placed him back in the crib and went to get dressed herself.
Once she was dressed, she went back for Quinn and carried him downstairs. When she got down to the kitchen, Trey was nowhere in sight.
“Where’s Trey?” she asked Clayton.
“I don’t know. He was gone when I got up” Clayton said, sipping his coffee.
“Does he do this often?” Millie sat Quinn down in a chair.
“Ever‘ year. He’ll be along about noon-time” Clayton said.
“Where does he go?”
“Karen’s grave. Today’s the day she died two years ago” Clayton narrowed his eyes at her. “Trey hasn’t told you any of this?”.
“No. He doesn’t tell me much” Millie answered.
“Oh. Well, I just figured…” Clayton’s voice faded.
“Did you hear that the bank in Clayville was robbed?” Millie changed the conversation.
Clayton’s eyes grew wide and he choked on his coffee. “What did you say?”
“That bank in Clayville. Don’t you read the paper?” Millie asked.
Clayton leaned forward. “Don’t mention that gang while Trey’s around, okay?”
“Whyever not?” Millie didn’t like that Clayton was acting so strange.
“He’s touchy about that sort of thing”
Millie huffed. “You’re not making any sense”.
Clayton groaned. “His wife was killed because of that gang. Now, you can’t utter another word about them, hear?”
Millie nodded.
*****
Trey knelt in front of the worn grave that boasted a little makeshift cross. The inhabitant of the grave deserved so much more. He fiddled with the wild flowers in his hand.
“Well, it’s that time of year again, Karen. Two years is a long time” he said. “I still miss you just as much as I did at first. Quinn misses you too, I know it”. He stared at the grave for a moment. “I-I’m trying to learn to let you go. It’s just too hard. One would think it’d be easier than hanging onto a memory of what you can’t have back, but it isn’t. This is one wound time hasn’t healed yet, and I’m beginning to think it never will”. Trey blinked back moisture from his eyes. He missed her so much it hurt inside.
He stayed there for a good hour before finally placing the flowers on the grave and standing. Karen had believed in God and Heaven, so maybe she was there, safe forever. Then again, if there was a God in heaven, He wouldn’t have taken Karen in such a way. It wasn’t the right way for any woman to go, especially his Karen. Karen had never done anyone wrong. She was the perfect angel.
Thinking back, he recalled a conversation not too long before Karen died.
“Why do you stay with me, Karen?” Trey asked as he and his wife stood out on the balcony watching the sunset.
“What?” Karen looked confused.
“Of all the options you had, why did you pick this life. Why did you pick me?”.
Karen wrapped her arm around his bicep and leaned against his shoulder. “Because I love you” she stated simply.
“Why?” Trey asked.
“Love isn’t something you can just ask why about. I don’t think I had any control over who I fell in love with. But…If I had a choice, I think I’d still pick you”.
Trey grinned. “I’d pick you too, hon”.
“I know” Karen gave a girlish giggle. “You’d be lost without me”.
“That I would” Trey chuckled.
They were silent for a moment. Karen was the one to break the silence.
“Do you have to leave tomorrow?” she asked.
“You know I do” Trey answered.
“Can’t the guys do it by themselves?”
Trey groaned. “No. You know they couldn’t pull on their own boots without me, let alone pull off this job”.
“Then they need to learn. You have a family now, and a two-month-old boy. Priorities have to change now” Karen said.
Trey sighed. “Fine. After this job, I’ll wait a while”.
Karen smiled.
Karen had always got her way. And it ended up killing her.
*****
Millie had been sitting in front of Quinn for the better part an hour, trying to get him to say something. She had tried every little word she knew. He refused to say anything. Maybe the boy couldn’t speak. What if he was mute? Such a burden would destroy Trey.
Sighing, Millie gathered up Quinn and went out on the balcony for some fresh air, as it would do them both some good. She sat Quinn on the wide railing and placed her arms around him to keep him from falling. The railing was a little high for Millie, but then nearly everything was.
A chilly wind blew from the north, and it occurred to Millie that Christmas would soon be upon them. Did Trey celebrate? She would have to ask him later along with a few other things she needed to discuss with him.
A welcomed silence descended around the Shannon’s plantation, where only the gentle rusting of the leaves and the grass against the wind made a sound. Stroking Quinn’s soft hair, Millie knew she had come to care for the child, as well as everyone else around the plantation. She had tried to train herself against personal connections or attractions to prevent more heartache, but it seemed that the more she attached herself to these people, the more her heart seemed to heal. Though she still felt the pain from her father’s passing, it was more of a dull ache instead of the searing pain she had felt at first. Maybe God had brought these people into her life for such a purpose.
Her thoughts were interrupted my the sound of a running horse. She glanced over to where the sound was coming from and saw a man in the front pasture, Trey, by the looks of him, with a saddle and tack slung over his shoulder as he watched his buckskin running toward the other horses. He was nothing but a vague silhouette from where Millie stood, but she could still see his pride from the way he watched the galloping stallion. Slowly, he made his way to the barn, where he deposited his things and then came back out. He rubbed the back of his neck and rolled the tension out of it. He looked so worn.
“Well, guess now is as good of a time as any to ask him about you, Quinn” Millie said to Quinn.
Once downstairs again, Millie let Quinn meet Trey at the door. Trey smiled and scooped up his son.
“Hey, little man” he smiled
He looked around until he spotted Millie at the foot of the stairs.
“There you are. I was wondering if he ran off down the stairs by himself” Trey grinned and tickled Quinn.
“I keep my eye on him nowadays” Millie touched her hair and smiled.
“I don’t blame ya one bit”.
“Trey” Trey looked up as Millie hesitantly said his name. “Can I talk to ya about a few things?”.
“Sure”
*****
Trey sat down behind his desk as Millie took a seat in front of him.
“What on your mind?” he asked.
“Well, I know it’s sudden, but I’d like to have your permission to take Quinn to Doc Jacobs in Casden come Saturday” Millie said.
“What?”
Go to Casden? What was she thinking?
“Quinn refuses to speak. I want him checked out to see if he actually can” Millie explained.
“By yourself? That’s half a day’s ride away. What if something happened to you?” Trey asked.
“What if Clayton came with me?” Millie offered.
Trey thought. Well, no one would recognize Clayton or Quinn, but that was such a far distance away. Then again, Quinn did need to be checked out.
“Fine. But you are not to leave Clayton’s side, understood?” Trey said.
She stared at him funny, as if she knew that she didn’t have to promise such a thing.
“Deal” she said.
“You can take Hank if you want” Trey paused a moment. “Unless you want a smaller horse”.
“Hank’ll be fine, thanks. I’ll figure up something to carry the baby with” Millie stood.
“Was there anything else?” Trey asked.
“Oh, yes. I was wondering what you guys do for Christmas and Thanksgiving around here” Millie sat back down.
“Well, we haven’t celebrated those in a while” Trey said.
“Really? Why not?” Millie asked.
“Didn’t have time to fool with it, I guess” Trey said.
“So do you mind if I ‘fooled with it’ this year?” Millie asked, her eyes hopeful.
Trey shrugged. “I don’t guess I care”.
Millie giggled. “This is going to be so much fun!”