Redwood Bend

Eighteen



It was just after lunch when Dylan phoned Katie at the cabin. “Hey,” she said, “where are you?”

“I just stopped by Jack’s to call you. I’m having a hard time getting everything I wanted to do done. Are you feeling okay?”

“Sure. Fine. I can’t wait to hear about all the things you’re trying to do.”

“Oh, you might be surprised. You aren’t wrangling a bear or anything, are you?”

“No, of course not. But, Dylan, your grandmother came by this morning. You missed her.”

“Add that to my list—I should see her,” he said. “Will you be okay till dinner time?”

“Well, I don’t know,” she teased. “I might lose my head and chop down some trees or something…”

“I’ll be satisfied if you stay away from the wildlife,” he said. “I’ll bring the boys home. I should finish everything by the time their program lets out. I can bring us dinner from Jack’s.”

“Are you sure? Because I don’t mind…”

“Take a nap or something. I’ll see you a little later.”

When Dylan went back to the bar from the kitchen he said to Jack, “I’ll need some more directions. I missed my grandmother this morning and she’s staying with Muriel St. Claire. Can you tell me how to get there?”

“Sure thing,” Jack said. He wrote out the route on a napkin. “You’re running all over the place today.”

“It’s turning out that way.”

He went first to Muriel’s to see his grandmother, happy to see how comfortable she was in Muriel’s home. Muriel was out riding with the man in her life, Walt Booth, which left Dylan to have a relaxing visit with Adele on the front porch. He didn’t have to say much—Adele went on at length about how much she enjoyed Katie. “I do hope you’re smart enough to see you have a winner there,” she said to Dylan.

Then Dylan headed for a home under construction in the mountains between Virgin River and Clear River…all these rivers…yet another thing this place had in common with Montana. The house appeared to be nearly finished and he recognized Conner’s truck parked outside. Unfortunately there were other vehicles as well and Dylan had hoped to catch Katie’s brother alone. But with no alternative, he went inside.

The house was filled with the sound of hammering, power saws, air compressors and the scraping and sliding of equipment and large slabs of building materials. There were men putting up drywall, installing hardwood planks and cutting ceramic tiles for the floor. He found Conner in the kitchen, fitting granite counters. “Hey,” he said. Conner looked up. “Got a minute?”

Conner’s first reaction was to frown. He wiped his hands on a rag from his back pocket. “Your face is looking better.”

Dylan almost laughed. “I think yours is improved.”

“Just don’t improve it any more. It hurt like a bitch.”

“I came to ask you a question. Want to step outside?” Dylan asked.

“Let’s just do it here,” Conner said. “In case I need backup.”

“You won’t. I hope we’ve made our peace for Katie’s sake. And for Andy and Mitch.”

“As long as you treat her right, I’ll be fine.”

“I’m going to try my hardest to, Conner, I give you my word. Did you know those boys have never been on a horse? Never had a dog? Never been for a ride in a small plane?”

Conner sighed. “What are you getting at?”

He shrugged. “I have a horse, a dog, a small plane…”

“Yeah? And how should this interest me?”

“If it wouldn’t make you go totally crazy, I’d like to take them back to Montana with me for a couple of days. I have things to attend to there—property, animals and a business. I think they might have fun—it’s a good place. I want them to see where I’ve lived the last twenty years. I want them to know me. The real me.”

“Twenty years, huh?” Conner asked.

“That’s right. It’s a great little town and it’s a good place for boys to grow up. Maybe a good place for tomboys, too.”

“Does Katie want to go?” Conner asked.

“I haven’t asked her yet. I’m asking you to go along with this before I ask her. Because after I show her my home, I’d like to ask her to marry me. If you give your blessing.”

“Seriously?” Conner said dubiously. “You’re asking my blessing? Why?”

“Because you’re the most important person in her life besides the boys. And because we started a family, which means we’re going to be family, you and I.”

“Are you saying you love her?”

Dylan noticed that the place had gone kind of quiet. Not so much drywall, hardwood or tile was getting done. He was afraid to turn around and find a gallery of workers hanging on his answer. “You know what, Conner? I’ll tell you about anything you want to know, but that thing? I’d really like to tell her before I tell you. All I want is your permission to show her my home and propose. And I want the boys to go, too.”

Conner took a step toward him. “Listen, if you’re not in all the way, you don’t have to do this, marry her. Because I can take care of my family and I will…”

“Let her decide, Conner. I’ve never been married, never been a father. But I have an idea what it takes and I’ll do my best.”

“Do you have any idea how important Katie’s happiness is to me?”

“I can guess,” Dylan said. “Do you have any idea how sorry I am that her father is deceased? Because I can’t imagine he’d be any tougher to please than you.”

Conner gave a huff of laughter. “You might want to take that back—my dad was a pretty grumpy old coot, even when he was young.”

“Big surprise,” Dylan said. “I guess the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”

Conner thought for a minute. “We should probably go have a beer. Talk about some particulars. Like how you’re going to take care of her with a business that isn’t doing too well. And what you’re going to say if she doesn’t like where and how you live.”

“I don’t hear a lot of pounding or sawing,” Dylan said. “Does most of Haggerty Construction now know I want to marry my pregnant girlfriend?”

“I’d have to say yes, if they don’t know now, they soon will. Let’s go. You’re buying.”

“Fine,” Dylan said. “Jack’s?”

“The only game in town. See you there. I’ll pack up my tools.”

Dylan walked toward the door. He turned back and faced about six men, all very large, all wearing tool belts, all looking like they’d prefer more gossip than a chance to beat him up. “Get back to work,” he said to them. “That’s all I’m giving you.” And then he left and drove back to Virgin River.



Dylan was nursing a cup of coffee when Conner finally showed up. The bar was still empty, the dinner crowd not yet arrived. Conner sat up on the stool beside Dylan and said to Jack, “Give him a beer. And run him a tab.”

“I’m picking up the boys and taking them home.”

“No, you’re not. I checked in with Leslie—she’s going to take the boys home for you.”

Dylan stiffened. “Hey, I haven’t run this plan by Katie yet. I’d rather Leslie not fill her in on our discussion.”

“Relax. Les is going to tell Katie that we’re having a beer together. Hopefully she’ll see that as a good thing.”

“Leslie is a nice lady,” Dylan said. “So here’s a pertinent question—you planning on marrying Leslie?”

“That’s between us. And by the way, she’s not pregnant…”

Jack stepped in front of them, delivering a couple of beers. “I have some experience with this if you’re interested.”

“No,” they said in unison.

“Jeez,” Jack said. “Have it your way.” And he moved away and went into the kitchen.

Conner turned toward Dylan. “I take it you’ve never found yourself in this position before?”

“Nope,” Dylan confirmed. “You?”

“Nope,” Conner said. Then he shrugged and added, “Can’t say why. I’ve never proven myself to be all that smart.”

Dylan laughed in spite of himself. “Katie thinks you walk on water…”

“She’s biased. So, what’s your plan, big shot?”

“Well, it’s simple. I have a meeting in L.A. tomorrow night—should be quick. Then like I said, I have to go back to Montana—I think the kids will like it. It’s a lot like here, but rougher sometimes, like in winter. Winters can be brutal. It’s small, nice people, good schools, clean air, very big sky…”

“Right. So—suppose they like it?”

“If they like Payne and like me, that could make life pretty easy since we should all be together.”

“In Montana…”

“Where to live is up to Katie, all right? If she can’t stand the idea of being away from you, we’ll work with that. I can probably find some kind of job around here…”

“What’s this crap about you being some kind of big star?” Conner asked.

“A long, long time ago. I’m a has-been, and frankly I like it that way. I wouldn’t want to raise the twins in Hollywood. Or this new one, either. I’d rather raise them on egg and milk money.”

“And what the hell does that mean? Egg and milk money?”

“My little airport can probably support a couple of families just on plane storage, maintenance, a few charters, the occasional instruction. The airport is on my ranch, which is about sixty acres—a few cows, some chickens, some goats. I have a hand who likes taking care of the animals. We sell eggs and stock—he bought us a bull several years ago. The little bit of laying and breeding we do just about covers his salary. I lease some grazing land to a rancher but Ham, that’s my hand, he has a big summer garden at my place. We hunt and fish. We process our kill and eat it all winter.”

“You’re not rich?” Conner asked.

“Nope.”

“No big star money?”

“Nope. But I get by pretty well. The way I live—it’s healthy.”

“And you fly? Leave home a lot?”

“Less often than a commercial pilot. And it’s a tight community—we all look out for each other. I live in the valley and we have lots of wildlife—ours can be a little more challenging. We have the occasional grizzly—a lot more aggressive than black bear, but they tend to like the mountains. We have moose, deer, elk, coyote, mountain lions, bobcats, wolves. We have dogs who wake us up if the wolves or cats start pestering the chickens or goats. We keep the barn and pens secure against predators. Why buy a chicken or goat to feed to wolves?” Dylan took a drink of his beer. “Boys and girls grow up strong and healthy.”

Conner put his elbow on the bar and leaned his head on his hand. “I think I want to see this place.”

“Fine,” Dylan said. He smiled. “Summers,” he suggested. “Maybe every other Christmas.”

Conner just laughed. “You going to leave pretty soon? If she agrees?”

“I bought tickets. I took Katie up in a little plane and she puked, so I bought tickets. I think she’ll be okay on a jet. We’ll have to drive to Redding and fly into Butte. My best friend’s wife will pick us up. So…after I get back from L.A. in a few days,” he finished.

“A few days?” Conner asked.

“I’ll get back from L.A. Wednesday afternoon. I have tickets to leave Friday, be back Monday. Can you live with that?”

“We better have another beer. You can tell me more about your plans.”

Dylan smiled. “I guess we better.”



Dylan pulled into the clearing at the cabin and found that Katie was watching the boys on the jungle gym. She sat on the porch with her air horn beside her chair.

The boys ran to him, shouting his name, grabbing on to his legs. “Play catch?” Mitch asked. “No, soccer,” Andy said. “Or kick ball.”

“First I want to talk to your mom and put this dinner in the house, all right? Go play for a little while.”

They reluctantly let go of him. He grinned as they went back to the swing set. He couldn’t help thinking, They like me. He mounted the porch and bent to give Katie a kiss on the forehead.

“What in the world is going on?” she asked. “Having a beer with Conner? Leslie bringing the boys home? What are you up to?”

“Surprise,” he said. “I’ll tell you in a second.” He took the brown paper bag with Preacher’s fried chicken in the house and came back outside, sitting in the chair beside her. He pulled a folded piece of paper out of his pocket and presented it to her.

She unfolded it—it was a ticketless travel voucher to Butte. “What is this?”

“Well, Katie, I want to take you and the boys to Montana. I want to try to show you what my life there is like. I want to introduce you to my best friend and his wife and kids. I want you to see the town. I think the boys would like to meet the animals.”

“Four tickets,” she said. “Coming back to California after just a couple of days?”

“I want to check on Lang and the company, too. I didn’t think you had anything else you had to do.”

“You have our names spelled exactly right for travel. The birthdates are correct. How did you know I was Katherine Marie Malone?”

“That was dicey—I had to look at your driver’s license. I figured if you caught me in your wallet, I’d get the air horn, or worse. And you keep the birth certificates in the trunk along with Charlie’s medals.”

“Hmm. And this has to do with Conner how?” she asked.

“If Conner and I are going to be friends, I didn’t dare take you out of town without talking to him—he’d have the Feds running me down. Here’s what I have to do,” he said, pulling out another piece of paper, another ticketless reservation. “I have to make a quick trip down to L.A. for a meeting with those movie people I’ve been working with. Jay Romney, the producer who made this offer, is an old friend and when he wants to meet, it’s the least I can do. The man has tried to help me in any way he can. One meeting—and it should be quick. I’ll be gone one night. When I get back, we’ll pack some bags. You won’t need much—the weather is about the same as here. And I can get booster seats and whatever from Lang.”

She got a worried look on her face. “Is your movie deal all put together?”

“That’s what we’re going to find out.”

“Do you hope…?” she asked.

He gave her cheek a soft caress and smiled. “What I hope is that you and the boys have fun with me in Montana. I’m kind of proud of it.”



This time Dylan didn’t wear business meeting clothes to see Jay Romney in L.A., although he now had them. He did wear decent jeans with his boots, however. And he had asked specifically to meet in the office, not in a restaurant or at Jay’s lavish Brentwood home. He also asked if it could be just the two of them, sans directors, lawyers, agents or administrative assistants.

When he walked into the office at four in the afternoon, hopefully the last meeting of the day for Jay, he couldn’t help but appreciate the rich decor—the Moroccan leather furniture, the polished rosewood, the original art and the view—Jay sat on top of Hollywood, overlooking the lesser movie gods. It made him smile; there was a time Dylan aspired to something like this.

Jay stood from behind his desk. For someone who worked and lived in this modern opulence, Jay was a pretty simple man. He was the father of grown children, he was bald with a ring of brown hair around his dome and even though he surfed, ran and worked out, he had a bit of a paunch.

What the majority of the glittering city didn’t understand about Jay—he was a genuinely decent guy. That didn’t make him a patsy; he was a fierce negotiator. But he had unshakable ethics and his values ran deep—the only reason Dylan ever talked to him at all.

“Something about this meeting feels wrong,” Jay said.

“Not at all, not at all,” Dylan said, approaching, putting out his hand. “Good to see you.”

“Drink?” Jay asked, moving from behind the desk to the buffet that doubled as a bar.

“I think so, yes,” Dylan said. “What’s the special tonight?”

“A very expensive, aged single malt or a cold beer,” Jay said.

Dylan laughed. “That cold beer sounds pretty good. Do you know how many planes a person has to board to get from Virgin River to L.A.?”

Jay opened two cold bottled beers and handed one to Dylan, without the chilled glass, without the linen napkin. Then he half leaned, half sat on the front edge of his desk, facing Dylan. “What’s going on?” he asked.

Dylan tipped back the beer first. “I want to start by telling you how grateful I am. Not for a potential movie deal, Jay, but to have you for a friend. You’re one of the very few people in the business I’m proud to have call me. It must be hard sometimes, dealing with all the stuff you deal with, when you’re driven by such rigid scruples.”

Jay laughed. “All right, all right. You could’ve just sent flowers. Or a case of that single malt.”

“I came to tell you that I’m not an actor. I’m a pilot and a rancher.”

Jay took a moment to absorb the shock. Then he said, “You might be a pilot and rancher, but you are by God an actor. One of the few naturals I know. I saw you when you were ten—”

“You saw a kid who couldn’t read but could memorize anything, but I wasn’t sure what was going on around me, I just wanted to please people. Do you have any experience with dyslexia, Jay? Mine wasn’t too serious—I now realize it was moderate. But I wanted to make my mom and dad happy, and while all the other kids could read what the teacher wrote on the blackboard and snap out answers, I had to fake it. I had to manipulate people into telling me what I was attempting to read. Since I realized the rest of the world was way ahead of me, I’ve had a terrible fear of failure. You’re right, I became a very good actor. Did you know the scripts for Rough Housing had to be read to me? That I memorized them from hearing them?”

Jay leaned away from him a bit, surprised.

Dylan laughed. “Isn’t it just typical—the celebrity news managed to capture every single incident of me drinking underage and getting with a girl, but they never knew I could barely read. I could almost read if you gave me a lot of time, but who had a lot of time?” He shook his head. “Sometimes I think those were funny memories, sometimes tragic. But the bottom line is—I don’t act anymore.”

“I thought you were into this idea?” Jay said.

“I was, I definitely was. I have a little airline that’s limping along and it looked like easy money. I figured I could probably hang by my toes for six months—or put up with the gossip and insanity that can get so mean in this town. But then something that has nothing to do with airlines or movies happened to me—the last thing I expected. I met a woman.” He could feel the silly, boyish look on his face. “She has twins and now she has one on the way. I don’t want to make a movie, Jay. I want to go home. I want to take care of my family the best I can in a safe place.” Then he laughed at the absurdity. “A safe place full of blizzards and grizzlies. Much safer than Hollywood.”

Jay looked at Dylan for a long moment, then he tipped back his bottle of beer and took a deep swallow. “Sounds romantic,” he said with sarcasm.

Dylan laughed. “Yeah, doesn’t it? I hope she doesn’t tell me to go pound sand. But she likes me, I know she does. She doesn’t have a lot of faith in me yet, I’m working on that angle. I might’ve talked a little too much about not being the marrying kind.” Dylan leaned toward Jay and said, “Jay, I’m not an actor anymore. I’m a pilot, rancher and father.”

“How you going to stay afloat? Adele?” Jay asked.

“She offers all the time, but we have an understanding—we both work and try to take care of ourselves. If she ever needed me, I’d move heaven and earth for her—she’s my only real family. And I know she’d do anything for me. But what I hope will keep me above water is a little boost in the charter business. Just enough to let the economy recover. See, there aren’t many businesses who still hire air charter. There’s professional sports teams and there’s the entertainment industry.”

Jay lifted an eyebrow.

“Bells and whistles went off when you offered to send a jet for me—I realized I could’ve brokered that deal. I’ve spent so many years avoiding this place, I forgot how much money is thrown at services. You need a really competitive charter contract? I’ll cut you a deal.”

“You’re in Montana,” Jay said.

“I can put an airplane in L.A. Better still, I can put an airplane at Burbank or Long Beach, crew ready, convenient and low stress. What’s your pleasure? Will a Lear make you happy? If you want something bigger, I just let a BBJ go—bet I can get her back. That would be sixty seats in a luxury jet. We could tear out seats and put in a screening room or pool table. Or, maybe you want a charter contract out of Montana—we’re pretty flexible about where we can pick up and deliver.”

Jay thought about this a moment. “What have you got for equipment?”

Dylan smiled. “What do you need for equipment? Six seats? Twelve? Sixty? It’s a buyer’s market, Jay. Whatever you need, I bet I can get cheap right now and operate your charters at a better price than you’re getting now. And I bet you have friends with similar needs.”

Jay just smiled slyly. “Pilot and businessman,” Jay said.

“And, with any luck, family man.”

“But no matter what you say, you are an actor. A natural. I think you got it in the DNA.”

Dylan smiled because it was nice to hear about some positive stuff in the genes. “Thanks. My dad smiled down on you for saying that. But I’m not acting right now. I’m looking for work. I love what I do and want to keep doing it. So, if you have any ideas…”

“Feel like a pizza?” Jay asked. “We could go to my favorite pizza dive. I could bring my BlackBerry. There won’t be any stars or photographers.”

“Perfect. Before we go, I think we have a couple of phone calls to make. Like the agent, the lawyer, the director, all the folks looking to get into a new film....”

“You call your agent—”

“Adele’s agent,” he said with a laugh.

“Good,” Jay said. “That’ll cut down on the screaming. I’ll have my assistant get in touch with the rest of them tomorrow. We’ll still get a movie out of this and you’ll be jealous as all hell.”

“I feel bad, bailing out on everyone like this,” Dylan said.

“Yeah? Well don’t. They wouldn’t feel bad if they bailed on you.”

“There’s just one thing you have to know before we break bread,” Dylan said. “I was never really into the idea of a movie. I wanted to be—I thought I could be. My heart’s in another place. But I’ve operated my company successfully for fifteen years and if you book a charter, I won’t be breaking it to you over pizza that I’ve changed my mind. It’s what I do. And we’re real proud of our little company.”

Jay slapped him on the back. “I get it, Dylan. I get it. Let’s see if we can scare up a little business over pepperoni and sausage.”