Montana Sky

that for a weekend in Vegas.”
    “She sure makes a statement.”
    Mortification aside, Tess squared her shoulders and prepared to defend her mother. “Meaning?”
    “Meaning she’s right there, no pretenses. It’s all Louella. After five minutes, I was crazy about her.” Curious, he angled his head. “What did you think I meant?”
    She moved her tense shoulders but couldn’t quite relax them. “People have varying reactions when it comes to my mother.”
    He nodded slowly. “Apparently you do. You ought to be ashamed of yourself.” And while she was gaping, he carried two of the suitcases past her.
    With a snarl, Tess hauled one up herself and followed him. “Just what was that supposed to mean?” She huffed her way up the stairs. Louella didn’t believe in packing light.
    “I mean you’ve got one in a million there.” He set the cases on the bed, turned, and walked out.
    Tess dumped the third case on the bed, flexed her arms, and waited. “I know what I’ve got,” she said the minute he walked back in with the rest of the luggage. “She’s my mother. Who else would come to a wedding shower in Montana wearing Capri pants and gold lamé? Oh, wipe that lipstick off your cheek. You look like an idiot.”
    She struggled with the straps of a suitcase, flipped the top back, and rolled her eyes at the contents. “Who else would pack twenty pairs of high heels to spend a couple weeks on a cattle ranch? And this.” She pulled out a sheer lavender robe trimmed in purple feathers. “Who wears things like this?”
    He eyed the robe as he tucked his bandanna back in his pocket. “Suits her. You’re too concerned with appearances, Tess. That’s your biggest problem.”
    “With appearances? For God’s sake, she paints her dogs’ toenails. She has concrete swans in her front yard. She sleeps with men younger than I am.”
    “And I imagine they consider themselves lucky.” He leaned against one of the bed’s four posts. “Zack flew her to my spread and nearly wrecked his plane, he was laughing so hard. He told me she kept him howling since they took off from Billings. She asked me if she could come back and see my horses later. She wanted to see them, but she couldn’t wait to get here and see you first. Thirty seconds after she hugged the life out of me, we were friends. She talked about you most all the way here, made me tell her half a dozen times that you were all right, safe. Happy. I guess it took her about ten miles to figure out I was in love with you. Then I had to stop so she could fix her makeup because it made her cry.”
    “I know she loves me.” And she was ashamed. “I love her. It’s just—”
    “I’m not finished,” Nate said coolly. “She told me she didn’t hold anything against Jack Mercy because he’d given her something special. And having you changed her life. It made her a mother and turned her into a businesswoman. She was glad to be coming back, to take another look, to meet your sisters. To see you here and know you were getting what you had a right to.”
    He straightened, kept his eyes on hers. “So I’ll tell you what my reaction is to Louella Mercy, Tess. Pure admiration—for a woman who took a kick in the face and stood right back up again. Who raised a daughter on her own, made a home for her, ran a business to see that her child never went without. Who gave that daughter backbone and pride and a heart. I don’t care if she wears cellophane to church, and neither should you.”
    He walked out on her. Tess sat on the edge of the bed feeling a little drunk and very weepy. Carefully she laid the robe over the bed, then rose and began to unpack for her mother.
    When Louella bounced in fifteen minutes later, the chorewas nearly half done. “What in the world are you fooling with this for? We’re having a party.”
    “You never finish unpacking. I thought I’d give you a head start.”
    “Don’t fuss with it now.” Louella grabbed her hands. “I’m working on getting Bess plowed. She’ll sing when she’s plowed.”
    “Really?” Tess set aside a sundress in eye-popping cerise. “I wouldn’t want to miss that.” Then she turned and laid her head on Louella’s shoulder. A shoulder, she thought, that had always been there, without question, without qualification. “I’m glad to see you, Mom. I’m glad you came.” Her voice hitched. “Really glad.”
    “What’s all this?”
    “I don’t know.” Tess sniffed and stood back. “Stuff.