Always Dakota - Debbie Macomber [91]
Calla ignored him. “Is Maddy around?”
Jeb walked toward her. “She’s visiting Margaret Eilers. She shouldn’t be long. You can wait if you want.”
Looking disappointed, Calla headed for the house, then apparently changed her mind. With her hand on the railing she scowled at Dennis. “I hope you’re happy.”
“Thrilled,” he snapped back, although he had no idea what she was talking about. Not that she needed any excuse to start an argument.
“You finished up here?” Jeb asked, clearly wanting to usher Dennis on his way and thereby avoid a confrontation.
“Yeah,” he muttered.
“Oh, Dennis is more than finished,” Calla sneered.
Dennis shook his head. “What the hell is your problem?” he asked angrily. “Where do you get off talking to me like that?”
“I don’t think right now is the time for this,” Jeb muttered, glancing anxiously from one to the other.
Dennis knew Jeb was uncomfortable, but he’d had it with Calla. Had it with her gibes and her attitude. Had it with her altogether. If she wanted to be miserable, then fine, but leave him and Sarah out of her sick little world.
“If anything happens to my mother, you’ll pay.”
“You think I’d hurt Sarah?” he yelled. “Are you insane?”
“You got her pregnant, didn’t you? She told me how much you wanted a family. Well, I hope you’re happy when you have your precious son. If the pregnancy kills my mother, why should you care?”
Dennis saw red and would have started for her if Jeb hadn’t spoken. “Don’t be ridiculous, Calla,” he said sharply.
“Why don’t you go back and live with your father?” Dennis suggested. The months Calla had lived in Minneapolis had given him the only peace he’d had in years.
“Dennis!” Jeb looked at him as if stunned.
Calla went pale.
Knowing what had happened at Willie’s, Dennis regretted the outburst. If not for his uncontrolled fear and his lack of sleep, he would never have said something so immature, something so worthy of Calla herself.
“I think it’s time you both cooled your tempers,” Jeb said, not hiding his distress at the exchange between them.
Dennis agreed. He needed to remember who was the adult here. “That last comment was uncalled for,” he muttered. “I apologize.”
“You’re an ugly, cruel man, Dennis Urlacher,” Calla shouted after him as he walked toward his truck.
“You might take a look in the mirror yourself,” he shouted back, then leaped inside his cab and gunned the engine.
Margaret could no longer avoid a trip into town. She had an appointment in Grand Forks with the gynecologist, where she discovered her weight was down five pounds. Dr. Leggatt wasn’t pleased with her, but seemed to sense that her weight loss had little to do with the pregnancy and everything to do with her state of mind. She left after the brief examination.
In no rush to return to the ranch, she went to Hassie’s for a soda first. No one, other than Maddy, knew she was pregnant. However, she couldn’t help wondering how many people in Buffalo Valley knew about Matt and Sheryl.
She hadn’t told anyone. Couldn’t. It was too mortifying, too humiliating. Married less than five months, and already she was sure she’d made a terrible mistake. Matt claimed his affair with Sheryl had taken place before the wedding. That was supposed to make her feel better? Well, it didn’t. He should have told her!
Maybe she was being unfair, but she couldn’t help how she felt. He was right about one thing: they’d eventually have to deal with this, but just now Margaret was too caught up in her own disappointment, her doubts and fears. She hated the things she’d said to him yet she couldn’t seem to stop herself from saying them, from thinking them.
Hassie greeted Margaret as warmly as always. “You look like you could use one of my sodas,” the older woman said.
“That’s why I’m here.” Margaret slipped onto the stool and glanced out the window. People had begun to gather outside 3 OF A KIND. “What’s going on at Buffalo Bob’s?” she asked. She hadn’t seen that big a crowd since the night of Bob and Merrily’s