A Dry Creek Courtship. Janet Tronstad

He almost wished he had a spiritual crisis—that would be easier to talk about than what he had troubling him.

      “How’s your grandson doing? He getting along okay with Doris June?” the pastor finally asked.

      Charley stepped inside the pastor’s office.

      “He worships her. She makes him those sour-cream raisin cookies that Edith makes. Doris June is pretty near as good a cook as her mother.”

      It was silent for another minute before Charley cleared his throat. “Speaking of Edith—I—ah—”

      Charley couldn’t think of how to say it so he just stopped.

      “She’s a fine woman,” the pastor prodded. “Not perfect, of course, but—”

      “She’s closer to perfect than any woman I know,” Charley snapped. He decided next time he wanted to talk he’d go into Miles City and see that dentist who didn’t believe in using Novocain. “Just because a woman has a few opinions and doesn’t know anything about cars doesn’t mean she’s not, well, perfect.”

      The pastor nodded.

      Charley nodded back. He was glad they had that settled.

      Charley was starting to turn to the door when the pastor said, “The two of you have been friends for a lot of years.”

      Charley turned back. “That’s it right there.”

      The pastor frowned. “It’s good to have friends, isn’t it?”

      “I don’t want to be friends anymore.” Charley spit it out and then took a breath.

      Pastor Matthew looked bewildered. “Did you have an argument? I hope I wasn’t responsible. I truly thought someone should help her with her battery. She was trying to jump-start her car using the motor on her lawn mower.”

      “Well, that would never work.”

      “I know, that’s why…” he trailed off. “Please, don’t be upset with her about what I did.”

      “I’m not upset with her,” Charley said. “I’m—I’m…”

      For the life of him, Charley couldn’t say he wanted to have a romantic relationship with Edith. In his own defense, though, he did have to say that the dentist in Miles City would have guessed the truth of everything by now. Of course, that man dealt all day long with people in pain who couldn’t talk so he was good at understanding the unspoken agony in a man’s eyes.

      “Well, don’t give up on your friendship,” Pastor Matthew finally said. “I know all of us are a little annoying at times. But you and Mrs. Hargrove have been friends almost your whole lives. You don’t just throw that kind of friendship away.” The pastor stopped as though something had just occurred to him. “She’s not mad at you, is she? I know she’s awfully protective of that car of hers. Maybe you shouldn’t have told her to get a new one.”

      “She only likes that car because Harold bought it.”

      The pastor nodded. “I’m sure the two of you will work things out. Just be patient with one another. Who knows? If you give her some time, she might even buy a different car.”

      Charley doubted that, but he nodded anyway. He sure wasn’t going to reveal that it wasn’t the car that was bothering him. It was that Edith kept that beat-up old vehicle like a shrine to her dead husband. And she knew all along that the man didn’t deserve it. Harold had betrayed her. Most women he knew would have taken a hammer to that car years ago. All of which must have meant Edith had a powerful love for Harold that just wouldn’t let go.

      Charley hoped he lived long enough to see Edith give up that car. If she would even do that much, he would have reason to hope that she could break away from the past and begin a new future. He’d asked his nephew to give her a call and see if she was interested in a new car, but he told him not to expect to make a sale.

      “Well, I better get the rest of these hymnals moved,” Charley said as he started toward the door again.

      “I’m glad you stopped by to talk,” the pastor said.

      “I wasn’t really stopping to talk,” Charley said as he stood in the door. “I was just moving the hymnals. If we don’t move things around, we get in a rut.”

      The pastor nodded.

      Charley left to stack the hymnals. He suddenly wished time would go back to last Sunday. Or better yet, two Sundays ago. That would be before Edith got the letter that had her so upset. And it would be well before she’d turned to him for beauty tips. Him! What kind of a man did she think he was? She wouldn’t take car advice from him but she wanted to know what he thought about the way she looked?

      Charley decided he was losing his touch with women. That was the only explanation.

      Of course, he still had to help her. Maybe he should drive out to Elmer’s place and try to talk to him there. It might be better than waiting for him to come to the hardware store anyway. He’d want to ask his questions in private, just in case Elmer did have anything interesting to say.

      Elmer lived with his dog in the bunkhouse on his old ranch. When he’d retired, he’d leased the land out to the Elkton Ranch and, since his wife had died, he’d decided the main house was too big to clean and too hard to heat in the winter. Besides, Elmer, apart from that old Cadillac of his, was a simple man. The bunkhouse suited him fine.

      Charley drove his pickup down the lane leading into the yard and parked it next to the Cadillac right in front of the bunkhouse. The dog started barking and Elmer came to stand in the doorway.

      Charley reached over and picked up the pint jar of fresh-squeezed orange juice he’d gotten from the café on his way out of Dry Creek. He opened the door to his pickup and stepped down.

      “Didn’t see you this morning so I thought you might be sick. Brought you some orange juice,” Charley said as he held up the jar.

      “There was a day when you’d have brought me a bottle of whiskey if you thought I had a cold,” Elmer grumbled.

      Charley smiled. “Well, we’ve changed, haven’t we?”

      It seemed like a lifetime ago since he and Elmer were young and wild together. His wife’s faith had brought Charley to the Lord when he was in his thirties and he’d never regretted giving up his old habits. He wasn’t opposed to using the past to move Elmer into the right conversation, though.

      “I bet the last time you really let loose was that winter in Billings,” Charley said as he handed the jar to Elmer. “Never did hear the stories of those days.”

      “Man, it was something else,” Elmer said with a shake of his head.

      “Oh?” Charley sat down on one of the wooden chairs that stood on the low porch to the bunkhouse.

      Elmer followed him and eased himself into a chair as well. “We used to go to this place where they had wrestling. If you’ve never seen live wrestling, you’re missing something.”

      “I thought you would be out painting the town red,” Charley said. “You know, wine, women and song.”

      Elmer grinned. “I was a married man back then.”

      So was Harold Hargrove but that didn’t stop him, Charley thought.

      “You expect me to believe you all walked the straight and narrow?” Charley asked as casually as he could.

      “What does it matter?” Elmer looked at him suspiciously. “It was a long time ago.”

      Charley nodded. He would bet money that Elmer knew some secrets from those days, but he wasn’t going to give them up easily.

      “Just curious, that’s all,” Charley said as he stood. “That car of Edith’s had me thinking of Harold. I wondered what he’d say if he knew she was still driving it.”

      “He’d