Love Finds You in Treasure Island, Florida (29 page)

Two miles on the treadmill, a half hour on the elliptical, and a couple dozen sets of weight lifts later, Jerry finally settled into the stretching segment of his routine. And Amanda was still front and center in his mind. There was simply nothing he could do to get rid of her image.

Maybe he should talk to someone—but who? Most of his friends were married, and they would love nothing better than for him to find a nice Christian girl and settle down—even if it meant picking up and moving. He knew exactly where his parents stood on the subject. They loved Amanda, and they wanted him to be happy. But how could he, considering their age and medical conditions? They were okay without him most of the time right now, but their doctor had said that over the next couple of years, both of them were likely to experience some deterioration.

They needed him. There was no way he’d ever abandon the people who’d always been there for him—no matter what, even if it meant sacrificing time and the prospect of a future with Amanda.

He picked up his laptop and tried to focus on his latest round of orders from Korea, but he couldn’t concentrate. So he finally gave in, picked up the phone, and punched in Amanda’s number at the shop. She didn’t answer, so he tried her house phone. Lacy picked up.

“Hey, Jerry,” she said in her squeaky little-girl voice. “How’s Atlanta? Crazy, I bet.”

“To be honest, I don’t get out much, since I do most of my work on the computer in my den. But you’re right—Atlanta generally is a little crazy with the traffic and all.” He paused for a moment. “May I speak to Amanda?”

“Amanda isn’t here right now. She and Matthew ran down to a warehouse in Pinellas Park to look at some new bicycles.”

Jerry felt as if he’d been kicked in the chest. Amanda almost had him convinced that she and Matthew were just good friends, but it still bugged him that they spent so much time together.

“Want me to have her call you when she gets in?”

“Sure, that’s fine.” He gave her his home number then hung up feeling much worse than before he’d called.

By ten o’clock that night he figured it was too late for Amanda to return his call, so he finally crawled into bed and clicked off the light. His mind still raced, and he had a hard time going to sleep. When he awoke at the crack of dawn, he remembered looking at his clock shortly after midnight. When he wasn’t even sleepy.

All he could think about was Amanda not calling. He downed a couple of cups of coffee and tried to get some work done, but his mind kept buzzing with all the possibilities of what could have happened to Amanda.

Finally, when the hall clock struck ten, he picked up the phone and called her store number. She was breathless as she answered right away.

“Hey, Jerry! What’s up?”

“I waited for your call last night.” The instant he said those words, he knew he probably sounded like a jealous boyfriend, so he tried to laugh it off. “Let me rephrase that. I called to see how you were doing, and Lacy said she’d have you call me back when you got in.”

Annoyance flooded Amanda. Even though Lacy had been improving and maturing lately, she still didn’t relay messages.

“I’m sorry, but I didn’t know you called. Is everything okay?”

“Yes.” She heard him sigh. “Everything’s fine. I just wanted to see how everything’s going. How’s business?”

“Steady.” She sensed some unspoken thoughts, but she didn’t want to push.

“I understand you were looking at new bikes. See any good ones?”

“I’ll probably pick up a new line soon. So how are your parents?” She wondered if he was aware that his mom had called her.

“Now that you mention it, they’re up to something.” He paused before adding, “Something seems strange.”

No doubt. “Why do you say that? What are they doing?”

“I’ve been to their place a few times since we got back, and when I mention anything about Florida, they give each other a look and then giggle.”

“Sounds like a typical married couple thing to do.”

“Not my folks.”

“Maybe you should come right out and ask if they’re up to something.”

“I tried that,” Jerry admitted. “Dad told me that if I needed to know something, he’d be the first to tell me.”

“Then I guess there’s nothing else you can do but wait until they decide to let you in on their little secret.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” He cleared his throat. “Oh, there’s one more thing. On the way home from Florida, we talked about coming down more often.”

Her pulse quickened, but she squelched the urge to let him know how happy that made her. “Just let me know when so I can have the bicycle ready.”

“Yeah, I’ll do that.”

After they said their good-byes and got off the phone, Amanda felt like there was something else he wasn’t telling her. He was as bad as his parents.

Later that week, Jerry’s mom called and said she was coming over with some food. “I’m worried about you.”

“You don’t have to worry about me,” he said. “I can cook my own food.”

“Are you saying you don’t want me to come over?”

“No,” he replied quickly, “I’d never say that. Come on over, but don’t think you have to bring anything.”

“I’ll be there in a half hour.”

The second he got off the phone, he grabbed a laundry basket and ran through his apartment, decluttering. Normally he was neat, but lately he hadn’t been motivated to keep everything in order.

His mother arrived ten minutes early. He let her in and she made her way straight to the refrigerator, where she put bags of homemade food. After she had everything put away, he got them both glasses of tea and sat down in the living room across from her.

“Jerry, you can’t just sit around all day.” His mom crossed her arms and scowled. “You need to get out and get some fresh air.”

“Is that what you came over to tell me?”

“No, but now that I’m here, I can’t let you continue to mope around.”

“I work out at the gym three times a week.”

She rolled her eyes. “You know that’s not the same as getting fresh air and being around people.”

He grinned at her. “I have you and Dad.”

“Give me a break, son. You need more than anything your dad and I can offer. We want you to be happy.”

He stood up, crossed the room, and put a hand on her shoulder as he looked her in the eyes. “I’m very happy. I have two loving parents, a great job, more freedom than most people, and a great church.”

His mother narrowed her gaze then nodded. “Yes, you do have all those wonderful things, but I happen to know how you feel about Amanda. I can see it in your eyes whenever the two of you are together.” She gave him a pitying look. “I can only imagine how much you must miss her.”

Jerry paused then shrugged. “It’s obviously not meant to be. We live too far apart for anything to come of a relationship. Besides, I’m sure there are plenty of guys in Treasure Island she can pick from.”

“I don’t think so,” she said as she stood, shaking her head. “Look, I need to run while it’s still daylight. I hate driving in the dark.”

“Be careful and call me when you get home, okay?”

She chuckled on her way out. “Sure, I’ll do that. See you soon.”

He was more positive than ever that his parents were planning something. And based on history, he wouldn’t find out what it was until they were good and ready to tell him.

Harold greeted her at the door the instant she walked in. “Well, did you tell him?”

“No, I couldn’t do it.”

He chuckled. “I didn’t think you could. You always did feel like you had to walk around on eggshells with that boy.”

“You have to admit, Harold, he’s always been careful with us. I don’t know why he thinks we’re so fragile.”

“Maybe because we are,” Harold replied. “Face it, Rosemary, we’re a couple of old folks now, and we break easily.”

She playfully swatted at him with her magazine. “Speak for yourself.”

“I’m just sayin’, maybe I better go over there and just let him know we’re sick of living here in Atlanta and we want to join the rest of those old folks in God’s waiting room down in Florida.”

“Don’t put it like that.”

He grinned and pulled her in for a hug. “Well, it’s true.”

Jerry stretched and stood up from his small desk in the corner of his den. He’d tried to make an office out of his second bedroom, but he felt secluded all the way at the back of his apartment. He much preferred being in the den, where all his memorabilia from Florida were on display. He’d just polished off a heaping plate of his mother’s homemade baked chicken, sweet potato soufflé, and turnip greens, with cornbread on the side. After carrying his plate to the sink, he called his mom.

“Thanks for the food, Mom. It was good.”

“I’m glad you liked it. Here, let me hand the phone to your dad. He wants to talk to you.”

He heard the sound of a whispered argument, but he couldn’t make out what they were saying. Then his dad was on the phone.

“Your mother and I are worried about you, son.”

“I know. Mom told me. And I’ll tell you the same thing I told her. Don’t be worried. I just have a lot of catching up to do. I fell behind on a couple of things while we were in Florida.”

“If you ask me, you’re falling behind on something much more important than work. When was the last time you spoke to Amanda?”

“Why?”

“Just tell me.”

He glanced at the picture of his parents on the side wall. “Dad, I know you mean well, and you’re worried about me because you care, but you seriously need to get any notion of Amanda and me being more than friends out of your mind.”

“Your mother and I were talking—”

Jerry interrupted him. “You don’t need to keep discussing my love life…or lack of it.”

“Let me finish. We weren’t talking about you.” He paused. “We’ve decided to move.”

Jerry felt as though someone had cut a hole into the floor beneath him. “What?” He furrowed his brows. “Where?”

“There’s a place in St. Petersburg that we’ve been looking into. We saw some advertisements on the Internet. I think it’ll be much better for us than where we are now.”

“But I thought you loved your place. You always said it was convenient because they offer assisted living, and with you and Mom, well, you know…” Jerry couldn’t finish his sentence because the mere thought of either of his parents not being independent seemed unfathomable.