Aspen Gold by Janet Dailey Page A

generation does. We were never afraid of our emotions and never troubled ourselves greatly over our sins."
    His smile faded just a little. "Must have been nice."
    Laura broke into their conversation. "I wish we had a swimming pool."
    "We've got one," Old Tom asserted.
    "The best kind--"
    "Not that hole down in the creek, Gramps,"
    she said with exaggerated patience?. "I'm talking about a real swimming pool, a heated one like Aunt Sondra's got. And Buffy, too.
    Then I could swim all year round."
    "Swimming pools cost money," Bannon said.
    "I know." She sighed. "I wish we were rich."
    "Life is rough, isn't it, short stuff?"
    Bannon pushed at her hat, shoving it down on her head.
    "Sometimes it's a bummer. A maximum bummer," she insisted, moving out of his reach.
    Bannon let her complaint go without comment, an easy silence falling, marked by the differing rhythms of three sets of strides and the muted jangle of his spurs.
    "I'll tell you one thing," Old Tom grumbled. "I don't feel like going to that fancy dinner tonight. Never did like getting all duded up."
    "That's not true, Grandpa," Laura stated with conviction. "You like getting dressed up."
    "Now how would you know?" he challenged with mock gruffness.
    She sent him a knowing smile. "Because I've seen you standing in front of the mirror admiring the way you look."
    Her words opened up a door to the past, and Old Tom saw his wife's reflection join his in the mirror, her look teasing as she said, "You think you're a fine figure of a man, don't you, Tom Bannon?" She turned him around and adjusted the knot of his black tie. "The truth is--you are." Just for a moment, he let himself think about his wife--and the malignant brain tumor that had taken her life with such swiftness years ago. The pain of losing her had dulled with time, leaving him free to treasure the memory of the years they'd had together.
    As they approached the sprawling ranch house built of hand-hewn logs, Old Tom lifted his eyes to it. Set on a foundation of solid rock, it faced the valley and the range of mountains, its steep-slanted roof rising sharply like the peaks. A porch wrapped itself around three sides of the house, hooding its night-darkened windows and deepening its shadows.
    At first glance, it looked like any other big log house, yet it gave evidence of care in its framing and fitting. His father, Elias Bannon, had built it a century ago, and he'd built it to stand for a hundred more. The logs were solid and fitted to one another without a crack or crevice. No chinking here, each log had been faced with an adz until it lay cheek to cheek against the other, creating a wall two feet thick or more.
    Old Tom eyed it with pride. That big old house had withstood many a blizzard, winds howling around it like raging banshees. It had known its share of good times, when the surrounding mining towns had needed the beef, hay, and draft animals it raised. It had known its hard times, too, when the mines shut down and the town died. The Great Depression had been a lean time as well, but the house had weathered them all, the good times and the bad.
    And through it all, it had known many a rake of a cowboy's spur, many a swish of a pretty dress, many a tear and many a laugh.
    This had been home from the time the first timber had been cut. His father had built a house in town, but it had never been more than a place to stay, a place to practice as a lawyer. This was where his heart was, right here in Stone Creek.

    Old Tom knew it was the same for him.
    He'd been born in the bed he slept in.
    Forty-odd years later Beauty had delivered their son in it. The Good Lord willing, he'd die in it. The thought was a pleasing one.
    "The phone's ringing." Laura broke into a run for the front door, charging up the stone steps and across the porch, her boots beating a rapid tattoo on the rough-planked floor.
    The storm door banged shut behind her.
    She paused long enough to hit the light switch on the inside wall and throw a