Montana Creeds: Tyler by Linda Lael Miller Page A

promise.”
    Mollified, though barely so, Tess sighed a little-girl sigh. Relaxed visibly.
    Lily kissed her again. “Want me to leave the light on for a while?” she asked. Tess had never been afraid ofthe dark, but the house was strange to her, after all, however much she claimed to love it, and she’d had a very big day.
    â€œI’m not scared, Mom,” Tess said. “I told you, this is a hugging house.”
    A hugging house.
    For a moment, Lily yearned for the innocence of youth, ached to feel the way Tess did about the old place. As a child, she had—she’d loved living there. Until her parents had torn the concept of home into two jagged pieces, each taking half and leaving her scrambling in midair.
    Lily simply nodded, not trusting herself to speak without crying again, and stood. She switched off the bedside lamp, with its time-yellowed, frilly shade, and headed for the hallway.
    â€œYou can leave the door open, though,” Tess volunteered gamely, from the darkness.
    Lily smiled, knowing she was visible to her daughter in the light from the hall. “Good night, pumpkin.”
    â€œNight,” Tess murmured, in a snuggling-in voice.
    A few moments later, Lily joined her father in the living room at the front of the house. He was seated at his ancient rolltop desk, going over what appeared to be a stack of bills.
    Lily, who had a bone to pick with him, swallowed. Was her dad all right for money? He ran a small-town veterinary practice, after all, and if she remembered correctly, collecting his fees wasn’t a high priority with him. Especially if his clients happened to be hard up.
    Times being what they were, folks were scrambling just to hold on.
    â€œI could help,” she heard herself say. “If you’re a little behind or something—”
    Hal smiled and again, something moved in his eyes. Something that seemed to hurt him. “I appreciate the offer,” he said, his voice sounding a little hoarse. “But I’m solvent, Lily. No need for you to fret.”
    Lily nodded, embarrassed now. Kept her face averted as she sat down in an overstuffed armchair that was probably older than she was. “Tess is talking about staying in Stillwater Springs for good,” she ventured. “Is that your doing?”
    Hal chuckled, sounding wistful. “It’s still a fine place to raise a child,” he said. “Safe to trick-or-treat at Halloween. You can say ‘Merry Christmas’ to folks without somebody getting in your face for being politically incorrect, and every Fourth of July, there’s a big picnic and fireworks in the park.”
    Lily’s face heated. “So is Chicago,” she said, unable to meet her father’s gaze, even then. “A good place to bring up a child, I mean.”
    Hal blew out a breath. “ You were happy here,” he reminded her.
    â€œYes,” she retorted stiffly. “Until I suddenly became persona non grata.”
    The moment the words were out of her mouth, Lily regretted them. Truthful or not, Hal was recovering from a major heart attack. This was no time for digging up and rattling old bones.
    Hal didn’t speak for a long time. When he did, his words made Lily’s throat tighten painfully. “You were never a ‘persona non grata,’ Lily,” he insisted, his toneragged and weary. “Your mother and I loved you very much. We just didn’t love each other anymore, and you took a lot of the fallout. For that, I am truly sorry.”
    She wanted to ask him right then why he’d shut her out all of a sudden, soon after her breakup with Tyler, but she wasn’t sure she was strong enough to hear the answer.
    â€œI guess divorce is never easy on anybody,” she said, conceding the obvious. “Adults or children.”
    With a sigh that snagged at Lily’s heart, her father hoisted himself up from the desk chair, crossed the room and sat down in