Bittersweet Surrender (26 page)

“This is hardly the place to discuss Magnolia's financial status, C. J.” Carly gave him a look that let him know the discussion was closed. “Besides, I think Magnolia is doing just fine.” She had to set the record straight since Belinda was there. She wouldn't have people thinking ill of her stepmom.

Speaking of Belinda, she and Scott didn't seem to be hitting it off all that well. They were hardly talking that Carly could see. She needed to help them along.

“So Belinda, anyone special in your life?” Okay, maybe that was a little blunt, but Carly didn't have time to dillydally. Melissa was closing in for the marriage altar, and Carly had to do what she could to save Scott.

Belinda blinked. Scott nudged Carly under the table, but she didn't so much as flinch.

“Uh, not anymore. My husband and I recently divorced. That's another reason I moved here.”

A slight groan bubbled in her throat. Belinda was pining an ex-husband? It would have been nice had she mentioned that in the produce department. Carly had the overwhelming urge to clean the table and tell everyone the party was over.

“Oh, I'm sorry,” Carly said.

“Yeah, me too.” Belinda smoothed the napkin on her lap, then looked back to Carly. “But I'll get through it—with the help of great friends like you.” She glanced at Scott, who made such a dramatic gulp that it took him three swallows to get his Adam's apple moving again.

“People can't get you through some things. You just have to work it out yourself,” C. J. said with a sneer, his words showing the tiniest hint of a slur.

Had he been drinking?

“Yeah, but friends make it easier. Still, people can't help if you don't let them,” Rita countered.

“And what if they're given the chance to help, but they don't?” C. J. turned and stared at Carly.

She knew exactly what he meant by that. She had denied him the five thousand dollars he needed. Maybe she should rethink this matter. He was obviously in over his head. But when would this end?

“Sometimes people need to learn to stand on their own two feet, and the best thing someone can do for them is to let them stumble till they get there,” Scott said.

“I was talking to my sister, Scott,” C. J. said.

Sudden tension.

“C. J., that's uncalled for. Scott's right. Sometimes people need tough love. I'm sure it's not easy for them to make that decision.” Carly held her ground, though she hated that C. J. was making this a public matter.

“Yeah, that's like when Dad spanked us and said, ‘This hurts me more than it hurts you.'” C. J. gave a bitter laugh. “We both know that wasn't the case.”

“Friends can't always fix it, C. J. But they can stand beside you,” Carly said. This conversation had definitely taken a wrong turn.

A deep shade of pink now stained Belinda's cheeks, and she shifted uncomfortably in her seat. They needed to change the subject and fast.

“Some things people can't forgive.” C. J. glanced at Scott, then on around the table. “Not that it matters. I don't have to account to anyone but myself.” With that C. J. banged his napkin on the table and stormed into the house.

Rita's eyes welled with tears. She put her napkin down, then rose and walked after C. J.

“Anyone care for more potato salad?” Carly asked, lifting an apologetic smile to Belinda.

Small talk followed, and soon Rita surfaced, her face tear streaked and stained with red splotches.

“We have to go, Carly. I'm so sorry. I'll talk to you soon.” With that, she and C. J. called the evening to an abrupt end.

The others stayed a respectable amount of time. Belinda was the first to leave. “Thank you for inviting me. It was good to see everyone again. Give me a couple of months. I'm sure I'll be better company by then.” Carly didn't miss the subtext,
I'll consider Scott after I've had time to heal.

“Carly, can I see you a moment?” Scott asked as he prepared to leave.

She wasn't thrilled with the idea, but she knew it was coming so she walked him to the door.

“You realize you owe me for this one.”

“Whatever do you mean?” she asked, hand on her heart, eyelashes aflutter.

His eyes penetrated hers to the point she almost gulped. He put his hand on her arm. “Carly, I'll let you know when I'm interested—really interested—in dating, all right?”

Something in the way he said that made her heart stumble. “O-okay.”

“See you later.” Scott gave her arm a squeeze and left. She stared after him and wondered where that left him and Melissa. He obviously wasn't too interested or he would have said so.

Carly shrugged. Obviously, she wasn't doing so great with the matchmaking stuff. She'd let it ride. For now.

Jake was the only one still there. Carly rejoined him in the living room and plopped on the sofa beside him.

“Well, that was a total bust,” she said, running her fingers through the side of her hair.

Jake looked perplexed. “Why do you say that? I thought it was nice.”

Was he serious? Totally clueless? On drugs? What?

“You didn't notice C. J.'s little performance?”

Jake waved his hand and chuckled. “Aw, he'd just had a little too much to drink before he came.”

“And you think this is acceptable?”

He blinked. “What's the big deal?”

“Did you happen to notice his attitude?”

“Not really.”

Okay, she didn't want to go into this. She could feel her blood pressure rising. “Maybe it was just me.”

He yanked her next to him in that irritating way of his. In fact, her arm hurt where his fingers crushed into her skin. Why wasn't he more careful?

And when had she decided it was irritating rather than endearing?

“So what's Katelyn doing tonight?”

Jake noticeably stiffened and took his arm down from her shoulders. “She's at home watching TV.”

He needed to talk about this. Carly wasn't going to let him off so easily. “Has she made any friends at school yet?”

“How would I know that?” He was clearly on the defensive.

“I just thought maybe she'd had phone calls or friends over, that sort of thing that might let you know. Have you asked her?”

He scooted away and glared at her. “What's with you tonight?”

“What do you mean?”

“Look, Squirt, I know you mean well, but Katelyn is not your problem. She's mine.”

“I don't see her as a
problem
at all,” Carly quipped. “She's a kid who needs encouragement.”

“I've provided well for her. I've been there for her. She misses her mom. We both do. I can't bring her back. She can't bring her back. It's just the way things are. There will never be another who can replace what we've lost.”

His last comment hit her like a punch in the stomach. She stared at her hands. “I see.”

He sighed. “Look, I didn't mean that the way it sounded.”

“It's all right.” She stood. “Listen, Jake, it's been a long night. We're both tired. I think you'd better go.”

He stood. “I'll call you later.”

Carly shifted on the park bench where she'd
met Rita after work. The aged wood felt hard and uncomfortable beneath her. Either she was getting old or she needed more padding on her backside. Yeah, that was it.

“I can't take it anymore. I've tried to make it work and it's just not happening.” Rita discreetly dabbed at her tears.

“Is it the money, Rita? If that's all it is, I can help.”

“No, no, no. A thousand times no. You have helped us far too much—and that's just from the times I actually know of where you've helped us. By the way, I love you, Carly, but you're not helping matters when you keeping bailing C. J. out of trouble. He needs to grow up.”

“I know.”

“He acts as though we're still in high school and life is just one big party. He's not committed to me or our marriage.”

Carly wanted to argue the point, to encourage Rita that everything would be okay, but she knew Rita was right, and the only one who could fix this was C. J.

“I love him dearly, but I can't enable him any longer. I'm hoping that if I leave him, it will bring him to his senses.”

“But what if it just makes things worse?” Carly asked, afraid for her brother, afraid for her sister-in-law, afraid for their marriage.

Rita looked at her. “It's a risk I have to take. As it is, he has no reason to change. I'm here for him. You're here for him. He's truly miserable, you know. He has nightmares. Wakes up in a cold sweat. I don't know if he's in debt so far that people are after him or what. But to be honest, Carly, I'm afraid not only for his safety but for mine as well.”

“Have you decided where you will go?”

She shook her head. “Not yet. I thought I'd go to my folks for a few days, but after that, I don't know. They live too far away for me to drive to school from there every day. I'll have to make a decision before school starts again.”

“You have to stay with me.”

She shook her head again. “No, I can't do that. It could cause more trouble between you and C. J.”

Carly put her hand on Rita's shoulders. “Listen to me. You are family too. It's not your fault that my brother is making wrong choices. You will stay with me and that's all there is to it—unless, of course, you can't handle Magnolia.” Carly chuckled.

Rita hiccupped a laugh. “She'll be easy after what I've been through with C. J.”

“It's settled then. When do you want to move in?”

“I'll gather my things while he's at work tomorrow. I'll just bring my clothes. I'd like to move a few things, like my mother's antique bookcase, hope chest, that sort of thing, just in case C. J. gets mad and in a drunken stupor decides to damage them.”

“Good idea. Scott has a truck. I'll ask him to come over to your house tomorrow and help you get those.”

Just as she started to say she'd find a storage unit facility for her, Rita piped up.

“Thank you so much. Just having those items with me will be a comfort.”

Carly felt her place getting smaller by the minute. But that's what friends were for, right? She reached over and covered Rita's hand with her own. “I'm sorry things have gotten so bad between you two, Rita.”

Her sister-in-law shrugged. “When things are out of our control, that's when God can do His best work.” She lifted a weak smile. “Let's just hope C. J. is listening.”

“Thank you for helping us, Scott. You get
dibs on my chocolate stash—I mean, when I get one again.”

He wiped the sweat from his brow as he put the mahogany bookcase against the wall of Rita's new bedroom in Carly's apartment. “Oh, you're gonna do better than that. You still owe me from Friday night. I think you owe me a steak dinner. In fact”—he scratched his jaw—“I'm thinking Tony's.”

Carly gulped. Audibly.

“I'm thinking this Friday, before we let it slip through the cracks.”

He was serious about this. Oh well, she did owe him that much, so she might as well agree. Besides, after her little situation with Jake last night, she figured she'd have Friday night free.

“Oh, all right, you win.”

He lifted a satisfied grin. “Well, I'd better get back to work.”

Once they had Rita's things moved in, she decided to go to her parents' for a few days. Give C. J. time to think things through before he came looking for her—if he did.

After dinner Magnolia and Carly settled in the living room together. Magnolia watched her favorite program,
Murder, She Wrote
, while Carly flipped through a couple of magazines with half of her attention on the program.

Carly was thankful Magnolia hadn't brought up Scott and that whole coffeehouse thing for a while. The mission trip seemed to occupy her thoughts presently.

“So, Magnolia, you never did tell me how the mission trip meeting went. Do you think it's something you want to do?”

Her stepmother's eyes positively sparked to life. “Oh, it sounds wonderful. I'm definitely planning to go, Lord willing.” She looked up with a start. “You know, if I can gather the funds and all.”

Somehow Carly couldn't help wondering if that was thrown in for her benefit. Something told her Magnolia wasn't as destitute as she wanted to appear. There was more to this woman than met the eye. Probably had thousands of dollars under her mattress. Maybe Carly should start cleaning. No, that would make Magnolia suspicious. Carly only cleaned when dust balls threatened to carry off her furniture.

And what about the healthy food regime Magnolia followed? In a foreign country, she would be at the mercy of others. Carly wasn't about to bring the matter up. It could upset Magnolia and cause her to whip up a dish of brussels sprouts.