Redwood Bend

deliberate.”
“What in the world happened?” she asked, holding open the door for him. He was inside before she realized that if his face weren’t banged up, she wouldn’t have let him inside at all. She would have asked, “What are you doing here?”
He stepped inside. “I came back,” he said. Then with a hand on his chin, he worked his jaw a little bit, clearly uncomfortable. “I was getting up my courage to come and see you, to talk to you about…I don’t know. Our relationship and the way I left you… That was wrong. We should’ve had some discussion about how we’d stay in touch, when we’d see each other or… Your brother happened into Jack’s. And he obviously has some issues with my departure, also.”
“Conner did that?” she asked, aghast.
Dylan nodded. “And he wasn’t quite done, either.”
Katie had not heard the rumble of the Harley. She glanced past him and saw a big white truck sitting in her clearing, the motorcycle loaded into the back.
“I rented a truck,” he explained. He tilted his head, listening to the sound of Avatar in the loft. “Can we talk?”
“I guess so,” she said. She curled up on one end of the sofa, pulling her terry robe around her legs, and he took the other end. And she waited.
“I don’t really know where to start,” he said.
She said nothing. Waiting.
“It wasn’t my plan to get involved and then leave the way I did. With so many things unsaid.”
She shrugged. “You said you were leaving all the time, that you had to go back to work. And I thought your explanation was thorough—that I was the best time you ever had and you were going to make a movie…”
He winced. “See? That was done badly.”
“Well, I said I understood. You had to make some money.”
“That’s not the part I should’ve explained better—I should’ve told you how much you meant—for a little while, we were really close…really good friends.”
“Not good friends, I think,” she corrected. “Lovers, but not really friends. Friends would’ve been a little kinder to each other. And I don’t need any more sweet talk as you’re on the way out the door. It’s inconsiderate.”
He slid a little closer. “Katie, the decision to leave was sudden—the producer I’d been talking to finally came through with something. I hate the business, but I like acting, I’m good at it and I like the kind of money it can pay. It’s just that there was money involved and it was the perfect opportunity to take a big payday back to Montana… If the whole movie deal could be worked out and it looks like it can be—”
“I know,” she said.
“You know?” he asked.
“Even though you’ve been away from it for a long time, apparently the name Childress still gets people all excited in Hollywood and…” She reached over to the coffee table trunk and lifted the lid. She pulled out a few tabloids and tossed them on the sofa. “I figured that out pretty easily.”
He glanced at the pictures idly. “This is what I hate,” he muttered. “This is all B.S. This one here, with Jay Romney, this is the only one I actually posed for. The rest of them? I didn’t even know there were photographers present. They might have even been taken with a cell phone and retouched with Photoshop for all I know. This one, I remember this,” he said, showing her the picture with the pretty blonde. “But the caption is bogus.”
“Hmm,” Katie said. “So that one’s real.”
“It’s a hug,” he said. “I was so happy to see her. Lindsey. I hadn’t seen her in about twenty years. She was offered a chance to test for a part in this film.”
Katie lifted her chin a notch. “How lovely for you.”
“Seriously,” he said, catching her sarcasm. “She’s one of the few people I trust. She’s good people. We didn’t exactly keep in touch, but I’ve known her since she was thirteen.”
“I recognize her,” Katie said. “Lucky you.”
“Katie, she’s married with two kids. A nice person…”
“Well then, I guess we’re all caught up,” she said, standing up.
“Come on, sit down. I just want a chance to explain. I think you know most of what I’m going to say—I tried to say it before. I was feeling kind of serious and I told you how nervous it makes me to feel serious. That long history of family members who just can’t—”
“Blah, blah, blah,” she said.
He frowned, then grimaced because it hurt his face. “Okay, I guess you don’t buy that.”
“Oh, I buy it,