Detours (13 page)

“I’m sorry you were sick.” Mary was glad to hear a hint of genuine compassion in Ellis’s words.

Mary knelt at eye level in front of Ellis. “From the minute I left my driveway last Saturday morning, you are the only happy thought I’ve had. I missed you so much I thought I’d shrivel up and die. I kicked myself all the way to Clarkesville for turning down your offer of a kiss in front of my house because I was afraid one of the neighbors might see us. When I saw my sisters with their husbands and Nathan’s brothers with their wives, all I could picture was you next to me in my bed.” She rubbed Ellis’s upper leg. “I know we haven’t talked about you and me—long-term you and me—and I sure as hell didn’t think we’d have to talk about long-distance you and me.”

“Me either.”

“When I found out Nathan was moving to Clarkesville and he basically said I’d better think about moving, too, my brain went numb.” Mary caressed Ellis’s cheek. “One of the first things that flashed in my mind was, ‘Oh, God, my mother will have a stroke when I tell her I’m living with a woman.’”

“But you’re not living with a woman.”

“Thanks to two unfortunate spills on LaVista Road, one by the beer truck and one with you hurting your ankle, I have been living with a woman for the past month, and I can tell you sure as your name is Gretchen Alina VanStantvoordt, it’s what I was born to do.”

Mary couldn’t decipher the look on Ellis’s face. She waited, hoping some of what she was trying to say was registering with Ellis. She stood and paced.

“I’m not much of a catch, Ellis. I don’t know how to make love to you, and heaven knows if I’ll ever learn. I’ve got a child. I’ve got an ex-husband who’s still a big part of my life because of that child. Let’s not even talk about my mother, who would make Jesus Christ himself consider becoming a Hindu if it would spare him her Baptist preaching.” She stopped and rubbed her face with both hands, then clasped her hands together beneath her chin. “Can’t we at least talk about trying to make this work?”

Ellis left her chair and crossed the room. “C’mere.” She opened her arms and Mary rushed into them. “I was afraid I’d lost you. A month ago, I didn’t even know who you were, and then just when I thought we were falling in love, you tell me you’re moving away.” She hugged Mary hard. “I’m sorry I’m such a big baby. I’m the one who’s a lousy catch.”

“To quote your earlier eloquent observation, ‘Bullshit.’”

Ellis released her hold on Mary and they sat down on the sofa. “Have you had anything to eat?” Ellis asked.

“I had some crackers on the drive over here. My stomach and I still aren’t on very good terms. Have you eaten?”

“I grabbed a chicken biscuit on my way back from your house this morning.”

“My house?”

“I thought I needed to check on Swiffer, but when I saw your Xterra in the driveway, I came on back here.”

“You could have come in, you know. You’ve got your own keys.”

“I didn’t feel like I was welcome.”

“Oh, Ellis,” Mary said, her voice cracking, “I can’t believe how screwed up everything is. That’ll teach me to think I’ve got things figured out.”

“What do you mean?”

“I was sure Natalie and I would live in our house on Wilson Woods Drive until she went to college, and then I’d stay on there until I needed a wheelchair. I figured Nathan and I would stay friends, which is all we’ve ever really been, and he’d find someone new, while I withered away, lonely and alone in my bed. Eventually, my assorted unused parts would atrophy and rot, and then I wouldn’t care anymore.” She took Ellis’s hand. “I spent the last five years running scared from every woman who acted like she might be interested in me. I was sure if I ever finally found one I didn’t want to run from, she’d run screaming from me when she discovered what a lunatic I am.”

Ellis dropped Mary’s hand and put her arm around Mary’s shoulder. “But then one Saturday on your way to a book discussion group, life threw up a roadblock.”

“I always thought roadblocks were bad things. Now I understand that it’s all in how you look at them.” Mary leaned in against Ellis’s body. “Nothing like a good roadblock to make you think about whether you’re heading in the right direction and if the journey you’re making has the right destination.”

Ellis pulled Mary closer to her. “Where are we going, Mary?”

“I don’t suppose I know for sure. I just hope wherever it is, we’ll go there together.”

Ellis put her fingertips under Mary’s chin and lifted her head. The muted light in the room gave her eyes that gray-green hue that Ellis found so alluring.

“Maybe we should make a day trip first,” Ellis said as she stood and helped Mary to her feet.

“Where to?”

“The bedroom.”

“Do I need to pack?”

“No. In fact, you’ve got too much clothing with you as it is.” Ellis tugged at the light jacket Mary was wearing and helped her shrug out of it. “It’s a warm climate, so this sweater needs to go, too.”

Piece by piece, Ellis removed all of Mary’s clothing. Then Mary did the same for Ellis.

“I’ve seen you almost naked dozens of times,” Mary said, her voice a coarse whisper. “Why do you look so different this time?”

“Maybe because we know we’re doing it for real this time,” Ellis answered. “Come with me.” She offered Mary her hand.

Wordlessly, they made their way to Ellis’s bedroom.

Ellis wrapped Mary in a tight embrace. Skin against skin… silky feeling against her hands and breasts… quiet gasps… hot breath in her ear and the flood of heat throughout her body. She reveled in the feelings, her body on fire. She kissed Mary over and over, unable to get enough of her. And Mary was insatiable as well.
They made love all afternoon, stopping only because fatigue overtook them, and then Mary curled softly against Ellis’s shoulder until she slipped into quiet slumber.

Ellis held Mary against her, tenderly, unable to sleep. How could she feel so blessed and so doomed simultaneously? Her tired limbs sent a message of satisfaction while her busy brain screamed dire warnings. Could they make this work? What would happen to them if Mary moved to Clarkesville? Would it ring the death-knell for their newly formed relationship? Troubled, she lay there for what seemed like hours until she finally fell into a fitful sleep.

She awoke to find their limbs entwined, much as she felt their lives now were and forevermore must be. Whatever else awaited them on the road ahead, they’d have to find their way home together.

“I can’t believe I agreed to do this.” Ellis fidgeted in the passenger seat. “When we dropped Sam off at your house this morning, I should have been smart and stayed there with her.”

“It’ll be fine,” Mary assured her. “We’ll swing by Mother’s and collect Natalie and all her loot from Christmas and be on our way back to Atlanta by noon.”

“Unless your mother summons the Baptist brigade to disembowel me.”

“We’re not going to tell my mother what we’ve been doing for the past twenty-four hours.”

Ellis temporarily forgot her discomfort as she remembered the ecstasy of the previous day. “Then just make real sure you stand at least ten feet away from me, or I make no promises about being able to keep my hands off you.” Ellis sighed contentedly. “For a rookie, you make one helluva lover, Ms. Moss.”

Mary changed lanes on Interstate 85. “You should talk. And here I thought I didn’t like sex.” Mary chortled. “Poor Nathan. All those years he presumed he was married to an ice maiden. Turns out, the maiden melts rather quickly. It’s all in who’s holding the torch.”

“Don’t you dare use the words ice, melt, or torch while we’re at your mother’s, either. Maybe I’d better stay in the car when we get there.”

“Don’t be silly. We’ll be perfectly circumspect in our conduct. I’ll introduce you as the new friend I met the day my Xterra got rear-ended. She knows the basics of that story. I’ll tell her she forgot that I’d told her you stayed with me while your ankle healed.”

“I thought Natalie had already spilled that can of worms.”

“Yes and no. Nat never missed a chance to mention you to her grandmother, her cousins, her aunts.” Mary laughed lightly. “Now that I think about it, she fell in love with you as quickly as I did. Anyway, your name was always on the tip of her tongue, and whenever Nathan came by, Natalie got him talking about you, too. Between them, they left little doubt that you’d been a very prominent fixture at our house lately.”

“So everyone knows I’ve been staying with you?”

“Pretty much.”

“And that’s not cause for alarm?”

“I saw my sisters exchange a couple of raised eyebrows when Nat said something about how happy I’ve seemed since you’ve been living with us.”

“How did you handle that?”

“I made some remark about your not having any friends who could help you out while your leg healed.”

“Terrific. Now they think I’m an unlikable, colossal loser.”

“Not at all. You’re from the South. You know doing good works for the less fortunate is what fine southern women do.” Mary fluffed up her pretend bouffant hairdo.

“So now I’m a pity case?”

“If it shuts my mother and sisters up, why not?”

They spent the next part of the drive to Clarkesville strategizing for what they should and shouldn’t say in hopes of minimizing Mary’s mother’s and sisters’ suspicions.

When Ellis got her first glimpse of the mountains, she veered from the topic. “You told me it was pretty up here. I had no idea. This is amazing.”

“I didn’t appreciate it when I lived here as a child, but now that I’ve been away from it for a while, I really think it’s one of the most beautiful places on earth.” Mary took her hand from the steering wheel and gave Ellis’s leg a squeeze. “Welcome to my part of Georgia.”

“How far is Athens from here?”

“I don’t know. Maybe sixty or seventy miles.”

“Sixty miles in distance, but light years in topography. I can’t believe all these folds of mountains and valleys.” Ellis drank in the view as they rolled closer to Clarkesville. “If I had known this was what it looked like over here, I wouldn’t have spent all those boring weekends while I was in college looking at the flat, dreary landscape around UGA.”

“It is nice, isn’t it?”

“Rumor has it everything is twice as potent when you’re in love,” Ellis said. She looked around a bit more. “I’m really glad my first experience with this incredible scenery is with you.”

“Me, too, El. If we have time, I want to drive you through the Sautee-Nacoochee Valley before we go back to Atlanta today. It’s spectacular.”

Ellis gazed appreciatively at Mary. “So are you.”

“I’m glad you think so.” Mary accepted Ellis’s outstretched hand. “Sorry to say it’s almost time to straighten up and fly right. We’re only a little ways from Mother’s place.”

“You sure know how to ruin a moment.” Ellis kissed the back of Mary’s hand before relinquishing her hold.

Mary made the final turn into the yard of her childhood home. “I learned from the best. I only hope Mother isn’t in the mood to give you a demonstration of how she’s elevated ruining moments to an art form.”

Two towering columns flanking the steps supported a wraparound front porch. The largish white house with its dark green trim struck Ellis as massive. The yard was manicured to a fare-thee-well. Half a dozen hundred-year-old oaks stood guard on either side of a front walkway that sloped gently toward the house.

Ellis asked, “Is it just my imagination, or do I hear the opening strains of the theme from
Gone with the Wind?
”

“It does have sort of an antebellum look, doesn’t it?”

“If Olivia de Havilland comes skipping down those stairs, I’m outta here.”

It wasn’t Melanie Hamilton who appeared at the front door and hastened toward them. Rather, it was Anna Moss, Mary’s mother, moving with what Ellis considered to be amazing speed, given her sixty-nine years and stout body.

“Oh, MaryChris,” Anna gushed as Mary opened her car door, “Nathan told us about how y’all are moving back home. I just know once y’all are settled here in the hills, you’ll find your way back together so little Natalie doesn’t have to be torn between the two of you. Jesus answered my Christmas prayers.”

“Hi, Mom,” Mary said evenly. She got out of the car and hugged her mother. “We still have a lot of details to work out about the move, and even if I do come back up here to live, Nathan and I will each have our own place, and Natalie will still go back and forth between us.”

“Oh, that’ll only last for a little while. When we get you away from all those bad influences down in the city and you come to church with me again, you’ll see God has a plan for putting you and Nathan right. Next year at this time, you’ll be telling me my seventh grandbaby is on the way.”

Ellis sat still as a yard ornament in the passenger seat. Mary leaned down and looked through her open door. “Come on, Ellis. I’ll introduce you to my family.”

Hesitantly, Ellis opened her door and exited the SUV. Mary’s mother hurried around the front of the Xterra.

“You must be Ellis. Our little Natalie has told us so much about you. Welcome, welcome. I’m so sorry about your ankle. Does it still hurt? Have you had anything to eat? I’ve got biscuits and gravy left from breakfast, or I could make you a ham sandwich from our Christmas dinner leftovers. And there’s pie. Apple, pumpkin, pecan. Maybe you don’t like pie. I’ve got cookies. The grandchildren love them. I bet you will, too. Who can say no to a homemade chocolate chip cookie? And I’ve also got sugar cookies. Or would you—”