The Cowboy's Return. Linda Warren

accepted her for the woman they knew her to be.

      Last year they had encouraged her to run for a seat on the city council and she had. She’d won without a problem, which had been a big surprise to her. Then again, she had spent a lot of years building a good reputation for her daughter. Most of the town now saw her as a good citizen and an asset to the town, and she was glad. She never wanted Jilly to be ashamed of her.

      She stretched her aching shoulders. “Do you mind locking up?” she asked Millie. “I’d like to spend some time with Jilly.”

      “No, sweetie, you go ahead.” Millie poured a round of coffee for the men. “I’m giving these old coots thirty more minutes then I’m kicking them out.”

      Joe Bob held a hand over his heart. “Aw. You’ve wounded my manly pride.”

      “Yeah, right,” Millie laughed, then she turned to Camila. “Got the party all planned?”

      “Yes,” Camila answered, her tiredness easing at thoughts of her daughter. “I told Jilly she could do something special for her twelfth birthday and I’m sure she wants to have a slumber party. She’s going to be really surprised that I’ve planned a party here for all her friends. Thought we could push back the tables and they could dance.”

      “Do I get an invite?” Slim winked.

      Camila patted his gray head. Slim was the youngest of the group. His wife had died of cancer about five years ago and he was lonely. “You’re always invited. Now I’d better call and see if my daughter’s ready to go home.”

      Picking up the phone, she dialed Kerri’s mother. “Hi, Betty Sue, I was just checking to see if Jilly wants a ride home.”

      There was a long pause on the line.

      “Betty Sue, are you there?”

      “Yes, I’m just a little shocked.”

      “Why?”

      “The girls are supposed to be working at your house.”

      Camila was at a loss for words, but she recovered quickly. “What are those girls up to?”

      “I don’t know, but it makes me nervous.”

      “Me, too,” Camila admitted. “It’s not like Jilly to lie to me.” She’d never had a problem with her daughter. She made sure she was involved in her life and that she knew where Jilly was and what she was doing at all times. But something had slipped by her. Jilly wasn’t where she was supposed to be today. She’d really be worried if this weren’t Bramble, where everyone knew each other.

      “I’m going home, Betty Sue. I’ll call you when I get there. Maybe they just wanted to be alone. They’re almost twelve, but Jilly assures me she’s grown.”

      “I don’t like them lying to us.”

      “I don’t, either, and I will definitely get to the bottom of this.”

      Hanging up, she grabbed her purse and headed for her Suburban parked in the rear of the shop. Within five minutes, she was driving into her garage.

      The house was quiet and the lights weren’t on. Jilly wasn’t there. She ran to her daughter’s room. Button wasn’t there, either. That meant Jilly had come home after school and gotten her, but where did they go?

      She ran back to the kitchen and before panic could take root, she glanced out the kitchen window and saw Jilly ride into the garage on her bicycle. Camila took a deep breath, trying not to get angry. Jilly had thought that she’d be home before Camila and Camila would never have known she hadn’t been at Kerri’s today.

      Camila busied herself at the sink and turned to Jilly with a smile, like always, as she entered with Button in her arms.

      “Hi, baby,” Camila said and kissed Jilly’s warm cheek. Her daughter’s face was red and she looked flustered. Camila held the back of her hand to Jilly’s forehead. “Do you have a fever?”

      “No, no, I’m fine,” Jilly replied nervously. Button jumped from her arms and scurried for her bed in Jilly’s room.

      “What’s wrong with Button?”

      “I took her for a bike ride and I guess she didn’t like the wind.” Jilly avoided eye contact and Camila knew she was lying. Whenever Jilly had done something wrong, she couldn’t look at her mother.

      Jilly grabbed some bottled water out of the refrigerator and drank thirstily.

      “Did you and Kerri finish your project?”

      “What?” Jilly looked at her with rounded eyes.

      “The solar system you were working on, did you finish it?”

      “Ah…ah…I…” Her bottom lip trembled. “I’m sorry…Mama…I’m sorry.”

      Camila guided her to a chair at the table, then she sat beside her. “What are you sorry about?”

      “I did something and…” She leveled a teary glance at Camila. “You know I wasn’t at Kerri’s, don’t you?”

      Camila nodded, glad her daughter wasn’t going to lie further, and wondering why she’d had to in the first place. They were always able to talk about anything. But evidently there was something bothering Jilly that Camila didn’t know about. “I called to see if you wanted a ride home.”

      Jilly winced. “Were you mad cause I wasn’t there?”

      “No, just worried. Why did you lie to me?”

      Jilly twisted her hands. “You’re going to be mad now.”

      “Why?”

      “Because I did something and I should have told you first.”

      “Why didn’t you?”

      “I knew you wouldn’t let me do it.”

      “I see,” Camila murmured, getting a bad feeling in her stomach. “What did you do?”

      “Remember you said I could do something special for my birthday?”

      “Yes.”

      “When I saw Mr. Daniels’s picture in the paper, I wondered if my daddy looked like him and the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to see…to see what my daddy’s brother looked like in person.”

      “Jilly, you didn’t.”

      “Yes. I went to see Mr. Daniels.”

      That bad feeling exploded into tiny pinpricks all over Camila’s body, leaving her nauseous and weak, but she had to concentrate on her daughter and not a past that she’d managed to put behind her. Yet sometimes that past had the power to make her feel frightened and alone, as she had when she was seventeen.

      She gathered herself. “You should have told me what you were thinking.”

      “I didn’t want to upset you,” Jilly mumbled.

      “It upsets me more when you lie to me.”

      “I’m sorry.”

      Camila scooted closer and caught Jilly’s hands. “If you wanted to see your father’s family, I wouldn’t have said no. But they’ve made no attempt over the years and my only concern is you getting hurt.”

      “I wish I hadn’t gone,” Jilly mumbled again.

      The pinpricks turned to a cold chill, but she had to know what her daughter meant, “What happened?”

      “Kerri and I rode over there on our bikes and the place is really run down and kind of spooky.”

      “I heard the Danielses are having a difficult time.”

      “It’s like nobody lives there and I was so scared, but I knocked anyway and Morris answered the door. I had to ask three times if I could speak