Showdown at Lizard Rock (14 page)

“Oh, King,” she murmured, half asleep. “That’s no problem. We have the healing springs. Sooner or later I’m going to make you believe.”

Much later King was regretting that he hadn’t given those springs a chance. Even in sleep Kaylyn was a nymph. She squirmed closer, rubbing herself against him like a newborn kitten nuzzling its
mother. He waited as long as he could. But then he never did have much patience.

For the next few days Kaylyn gave up any attempt to conceal her involvement with King from the community. Her protest was still in evidence, for her tent was still pitched at the springs. But she spent every night in King’s bed.

Luther was right about the VFW hall. It was dark, and the dancing was fun. But so was the fine restaurant that King took her to in nearby Atlanta, and the concert in Chastain Park. One night they met Sandi and Mac, Tom, and some other friends at the Waterhole Restaurant. They spent the evening discussing the serious problems of the world amid great joking and laughter. Having friends like that was something new to King. He was beginning to realize how narrow the scope of his life had become.

By the time King accompanied Kaylyn to the Homecoming Services at the Pretty Springs Methodist Church, the foundations for the houses surrounding the golf course had been poured. The tennis courts were being graded and readied for finishing.

“Yes, it was a nice sermon,” King said to Homer Langley, the mayor, after the service.

“Matilda hasn’t given birth yet?” Esther Hainey asked, inserting herself between King and Kaylyn.

“Not yet,” Kaylyn answered. She felt the familiar touch of King’s hand on her shoulder as he circled Esther and moved back beside her. “She seems content to stay in her little yard as long as King comes by to check on her daily.”

“Really fond of him, isn’t she? Donkeys don’t usually
form that kind of attachment.” She aimed a coquettish smile at King. “He must have a special way with all the ladies.”

“Only the smart ones, Esther,” he said. “And Pretty Springs has a couple of very smart ladies.”

Esther beamed as he leaned down and gave her a good-bye kiss on the cheek.

“I’ll send the boys over one afternoon to replace that broken section of fence over at the shelter. Then you’ll be able to keep any large animals that you collect.” He waved as they moved on.

“You know,” Kaylyn said to him, “that Esther, Minnie, and half the women in the church are ready to join my protest at the springs just to be near you, don’t you?” She leaned against him. Either his hand was resting possessively on her shoulder or gently at the small of her back. He seemed to have a constant need to touch her, to reassure himself that she was there. And she found excuses to stay close to him.

“Too late for them,” he said. “I’ve already been staked out by the most exciting woman in the county. What’s all this?”

They had reached the yard adjacent to the church. Wooden sawhorses had been arranged beneath the trees and covered with planks of plywood, making a long table. In no time, white sheets were slung over the table and the women were unpacking huge baskets of food.

“Dinner on the grounds,” Kaylyn explained. “Everybody comes from miles around. First there’s the church service, then dinner. Afterward there’ll be an old-fashioned gospel singing session that will last until late afternoon. This has been going on every summer for over a hundred years.”

“Really? These people don’t look that old.” Despite his humorous remark, King knew that Kaylyn was accomplishing what she’d set out to do. He could see now that Pretty Springs
was
more than just land and potential. It was the people, and their ancestors, and the past. He was slowly being drawn into it all.

A two-year-old darted across the sidewalk and toward the street, but Kaylyn caught him in her arms. She spoke to the smiling child and excused herself for a moment to return him to his very pregnant mother, who was searching the crowd anxiously.

King stood beneath one giant oak tree watching Kaylyn and the child. He thought of Jack, Joker, and Diamond, and how they’d struggled to work their way out of a low-rent housing project by cutting grass and delivering papers until they were old enough to find work at the local fast-food establishments. They’d never even heard of dinner on the grounds, or been to a dance on the town square, or swum in a natural spring. They’d been too busy trying to buy food and keep their father from drinking up their rent money.

Now he drove a Ferrari, Jack had a Mercedes, and Joker wheeled about in the most elaborate van that anybody had ever seen. Only Diamond didn’t display her success.

And Kaylyn? As far as King knew, she didn’t even have a car. If she’d ever had one, she’d probably given it away to someone who needed it more. She wouldn’t measure up in the Vandergriff Blue Book of Success. But, hell, she wouldn’t even care. She measured success on a different scale.

“She’s something, isn’t she?” Tom said, appearing beside King.

“She’s more than something,” King agreed. “She’s probably the most unselfish, giving person I’ve ever met. She makes me ashamed of my own success.”

“She makes us all better people, King. You’re no exception. I hate to bring this up. Please don’t think I’m being a busybody, but I wanted to make sure you know how very special Kaylyn is.”

“I think I know.”

“No, this you don’t know. Kaylyn’s mother was a … well, to put it politely, she was a lady of the evening. Kaylyn was a mistake that she didn’t take care of soon enough. Kaylyn was placed in a foster home when she was ten. Her mother died six years later. And Kaylyn has spent most of her life trying to right the wrongs that a society imposes on those who can’t change their station in life. She’s never done anything for herself before you came along.”

“Why are telling me this?” King didn’t want to hear about Kaylyn. He simply wanted to watch her talking with people, smiling at the children, moving among everyone with ease. Occasionally, she would look up at him. Then, as if reassured, she’d turn back to whomever she was speaking to, only to glance up at him again a minute later. He remembered that first day in the jail cell when he’d thought the flush on her face should come from having spent the night making love with a man. He now knew firsthand the truth of his observations.

“You’re the first man Kaylyn’s been involved with,” Tom said. “I wouldn’t want to see her hurt.”

“Neither would I.”

“Good. She doesn’t know how to play games. She’s
full of love, and she could never hold back caring for someone. So be sure of what you’re doing, King.”

King swore silently as Tom walked away. His comments were making King question his own motives.

He reflected on Tom’s words as he remembered the young minister’s sermon about roots and belonging and faith. He had looked around the church and seen entire families filling pews that were designated by little nameplates dating back fifty years. As he’d stood beside Kaylyn singing the closing hymn, a warm feeling of belonging had crept through him. He wasn’t the outsider anymore.

Disturbed by his thoughts, he rejoined Kaylyn. They filled their plates with crisp fried chicken, potato salad, fresh vegetables still warm from their insulated containers, and corn bread dripping with real butter. Thick slabs of chocolate cake and icy sweet tea finished off the monster meal.

Afterward, sitting on a blanket spread beneath the pine trees, they listened to the happy sounds of gospel singing inside the church. Neither of them was inclined to talk. Their silence was warm and comfortable.

If only it could always be like this, Kaylyn thought as she watched a fat yellow wasp circle their blanket and fly off into the hot summer afternoon. If only she could convince King to save the springs and stay in her small town. If only she didn’t have this sweet, hurting question inside her, this question that she didn’t dare put into words.

“Well, what did you think of the Pretty Springs Founders’ Day celebration?” Kaylyn asked.

They were on the way home, pleasantly sleepy and filled with the warmth of their day together.

“I’m impressed,” King said. “Do all those folks really come back here every year from wherever they’ve moved?”

“Yep. The crowd gets bigger every summer. But the format is still the same. Gives you a feeling of stability, doesn’t it, to know that some things remain constant?” Even if other things, like the springs, are changing, she couldn’t help thinking.

“Oh, I definitely agree. There are some things I’d like to remain the same—like us.” He broke the camaraderie between them with a question he hadn’t planned to voice. “And then there are other things I’d like changed. Why don’t you give up this protest, take down that tent, and move in with me, Kaylyn? I want us to be together—all the time.”

Even without looking, he could sense her stiffening.

“Give up on saving Pretty Springs and move in with you? Why should I do that? We’re practically living together now.”

“That’s what I’m saying. Let’s be practical. The springs are going to be capped, Kaylyn. I can’t do anything about that. But that needn’t have anything to do with us. If the trailer isn’t large enough, we can get another one. We’re good together, you and I. I’ve never asked a woman to live with me before.”

“Live with you.” The words weren’t a question. Her mind couldn’t assimilate the information to compose a question. It seemed to have turned into solid mush that could only echo what it heard.

“Kaylyn, did you hear me?” He parked beside the trailer.

“Yes, I heard you.” She opened the door, slid out, and stood looking around the campsite as if she’d never seen it before. “That’s like openly consorting with the enemy, isn’t it? But, of course, that’s what I’ve been doing. I’m sorry. I guess you’re asking for an answer, and I’m not sure how to say what I feel.”

King felt his insides, twist. She was turning to him, her face sad and filled with regret.

“No. Don’t say it, Kaylyn. Don’t.”

“I’m sorry, King. You don’t deserve my refusal. I should have known this would happen. But I didn’t. I told you that I had no real experience with men, but of course you found that out soon enough, didn’t you?”

He moved toward her, trying desperately to think of a way to call back the words he’d blurted out so thoughtlessly.

“No, please don’t kiss me, King. You know that when you touch me I can’t refuse you, and now I must.”

“I’m sorry, Kaylyn. I didn’t mean to say it like that.”

“Don’t be sorry. You never promised me anything except that I’d sleep in your bed one day. And you were right. I did.” She reached into the pocket of her dress and pulled out some money. “Let’s see, the way I figure it, my camping bill would be somewhere about fifty dollars. I don’t have quite that much here, but I’ll get it to you.”

“You’re leaving?”

“Not the springs, King, just your bed. You still don’t understand who I am. By moving in with you, you’d have won. It isn’t that I mind losing personally—I do that all the time. But the springs are more important than you and I, and if you don’t understand
that by now, then you don’t understand me. Please, don’t touch me, King—ever again.”

He watched as she ran past the springs and into her tent. What had happened? he wondered. Only an hour ago they’d been at the church, among friends who had accepted him and made him a part of their simple lives. And like a flash she was gone.

Damn! He sure as hell didn’t want to feel responsible for anybody except himself. He hadn’t planned on asking a woman to live with him. He hadn’t wanted to be a part of Pretty Springs. He’d just wanted Kaylyn. Suddenly he’d lost both her
and
Pretty Springs. He wanted to cry, something he hadn’t done in a very long time.

The next few days passed in a kaleidoscope of pain and confusing emotion. Kaylyn threw herself into her duties at the nursing home with a frenzy of exuberance. She spent time in the church kitchen feeding a dwindling number of the homeless. One by one the men had been adopted into the community and were working for the first time in years. Only two alcoholics were left, and Tom was trying to get them into treatment centers.

After a few attempts at interference from Luther, and offers of advice from Minnie, the residents of the nursing home stopped asking about King. Life settled back to normal, except that the residents began to wish Kaylyn weren’t quite so involved with their activities. She’d always kept them too busy to complain before, but now something new was being offered every night. They weren’t sure they would survive the pace being set by their recreation director.

“Aren’t you overdoing this recreation bit just a
tad?” Sandi asked Kaylyn one day. She was collecting paper cups and wiping spilled ice cream from the activities-room tables. “I mean, I like to churn ice cream as well as the next, and better than most, but ten-o’clock parties are a little late for all of us old folks.”

“Is it ten o’clock?” Kaylyn looked at her watch.

“It is. Seriously, Katie, you’re about to wear us all out. Now, we go to the springs in the morning, and I’ve been appointed to ask you not to plan another thing for tomorrow. Okay?”

“I guess I have been overdoing it, haven’t I?”

“You have,” Sandi said gently. “But we’ve understood. Most of us have been where you are once or twice, even our jolly geriatrics. But you can’t run away from the problem.”

“What do you mean, where I am?”

“Come on, Kaylyn Smith. You’re heartbroken and lovesick. There isn’t a man or woman in Pretty Springs who doesn’t know it. The men are threatening to tar-and-feather King Vandergriff and run him out of town.”

“No! I mean, this isn’t King’s fault. He’s not responsible. It’s me. I’m a dinosaur. I just don’t know how to be the kind of woman he wants.”

“I’m not so sure,” Sandi said mysteriously. “I think you’re exactly the kind of woman he wants. I think he just doesn’t know what to do about it, but he’s working on the problem. Give him time, and some of that faith you have in those mineral springs. Meanwhile you decide what you want.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that you’re in love with the man, and the sooner you realize it, the sooner we’re going to get back to normal around here.”