Waking Up in Charleston (16 page)

She gave him a puzzled look. “Right here,” she said, retrieving it from beneath the counter. “Why?”

“I’m programming my number in here, along with Dinah’s. If these boys come back and you start getting any kind of bad vibes, you call the police first, then me and Dinah. Do not try to handle them on your own. And
you’d better warn Willie Ron about them, too. You don’t want him to be caught by surprise.”

“You’re scaring me,” she said.

“I mean to,” he replied. “I don’t want you to take this lightly. I know these punks. They’re not happy unless they’re stirring up trouble.”

“How come you showed up here in the first place?” she asked. “I don’t think I’ve seen you in here before in all the time I’ve worked here.”

“I was hoping you could put me in touch with Danny,” he said.

She stared at him. “Danny? How come?”

“Caleb—Reverend Webb—told me he’s interested in historic preservation. I’ve got a couple of jobs coming up I thought he might be interested in.”

“Really?” she asked excitedly. “That’s so cool.” She grabbed a piece of paper and jotted down Danny’s number, then glanced at the clock. “He’s at work now and his boss doesn’t like him getting personal calls, but he should be off in about an hour.”

“Then I’ll wait to call him,” Cord promised. “You want me to hang around a while in case those kids come back?”

A part of her wanted to say yes, but she refused to give in to cowardice. “Nah, I’ll be fine. They’ve more ’n likely had their fun for the night. And Willie Ron should be here any minute. He’s been coming in early lately. He claims he likes to get a head start on things, but I know it’s because he wants to get me off my feet.”

Cord chuckled. “Sounds like he’s a good friend. I wish Dinah would listen to me when I try to get her off her feet.”

“She’s having a baby, too?” Mary Louise asked. She didn’t know the TV reporter that well, but she was fascinated by her. Dinah Davis Beaufort was famous. She’d been all over the world. She’d even covered war zones for a big cable network. Mary Louise didn’t know how anyone could do that. She’d pee in her pants if she ever saw someone getting killed or a car bomb going off.

“Our baby’s due around the same time as yours,” Cord told her. “Maybe you and Dinah can compare notes.”

She grinned. “Sure. I’d like that. My mom had me so long ago, she’s practically forgotten everything.”

“Oh, I imagine she remembers the important stuff,” Cord said. “You take care, Mary Louise.”

“You, too.” She smiled shyly. “Thanks, you know, for what you did tonight.”

“No problem. Just remember what I said. Give Willie Ron a heads-up and call the police if those boys come back around here.”

“Sure.”

“And think about looking for a different job.”

She couldn’t imagine another job she could get, especially with a baby on the way, but she nodded. “I will.”

As soon as Cord was out the door, her knees seemed to give way. She sat down hard on the stool behind the counter and thought about just how close a call she’d had. It wasn’t so much that Parnell might have stolen several six-packs of beer right in front of her eyes. It was the nastiness in his voice when he’d talked about Willie Ron and her. As much as she hated to admit it, Cord was
right. There could be trouble and she’d inadvertently dragged Willie Ron right into the thick of it just by being his friend.

Caleb left Amanda’s and headed to his office. There was no point in going home. He’d just toss restlessly, kicking himself for turning her down. What kind of idiot said no to the chance to sleep with a woman he was in love with?

The kind of idiot who knew that it would only complicate things, he reminded himself wearily. Much as he tried to tell himself he was taking the moral high ground, though, the more a little voice inside his head howled with laughter.

The truth wasn’t half that noble. Ever since his divorce, he’d turned into an emotional recluse. All the bitterness and recriminations had taken a toll. No matter how many times he’d smoothed things over for couples going through a divorce, he’d been completely inept when it came to his own.

It didn’t seem to matter that his wife’s fury had been an extreme reaction under the circumstances. It wasn’t as if he’d set out to deny her the child they both wanted. Hell, he hadn’t even known till they’d been trying for three years that the fault was his. When the test results had come back, he’d been as shattered as she had been.

But Tess had acted as if he’d done it deliberately. Until then he’d only had an inkling of how spoiled and self-absorbed she was, but after the diagnosis, he’d borne the full brunt of her selfishness. She’d ranted for hours, demeaning him, oblivious to the pain he was
suffering. She’d done everything she could to strip away his self-esteem on her way out the door.

And even though in the rational part of his mind he’d known her accusations were absurd, they’d found their way into his heart and left him feeling ashamed and inadequate.

And it was all over something that wasn’t even his fault. The doctor had assured him that nothing he’d done—or hadn’t done—had caused his infertility. Sometimes a low sperm count was just the hand a man was dealt. That diagnosis had given Caleb scant comfort when his marriage—and all of his dreams for a family—had been ripped apart because of it.

When his supposedly perfect marriage blew up, he’d struggled to endure the whispers of gossip, the pitying looks. Even those who didn’t know what had happened—and few did—seemed to regard him differently. He’d withstood it as long as he could and then sought a transfer to a new parish. He’d hoped a fresh start would enable him to forget and move on with his life.

And slowly, since coming to Charleston, he’d healed. He’d felt more like the confident, optimistic man he’d once been. And in Amanda’s family, he’d found the one thing that had been missing from his life.

Then he’d heard her offhand comment about wanting more children and he’d run headlong into reality. If he told her the truth—that he couldn’t give her a child—would she regard him with the same disdain Tess had? He wasn’t sure he could bear it if she did.

He was glumly pondering that when Big Max walked into his office. Caleb stared at him with surprise.

“What on earth are you doing here at this hour? It must be almost midnight.”

“Time doesn’t mean much these days,” Max said. “I couldn’t get to sleep, so I decided to test my luck and take a drive.” He regarded Caleb with the pride of a kid who’d accomplished a brand-new feat. “Made it here without a hitch.”

“Good for you,” Caleb enthused, hiding his concern. Max desperately needed these triumphs to feel like a man. Caleb could relate to that. “What made you decide to come by the church? You normally wouldn’t find me here at this hour.”

“Just driving around, to tell you the truth, and saw the light. Figured you must be having trouble sleeping, too.” Max studied him knowingly. “Want to tell me why that is?”

Tell Max about his quandary over loving Amanda? Not a chance, Caleb thought. He had a healthy instinct for self-preservation.

“I had a lot of paperwork piling up,” he said instead.

Max gave him a chiding look. “I thought preachers didn’t lie.”

Caleb gestured toward the papers on his desk. “What lie?”

“Oh, I’m not saying you don’t have paperwork, but I don’t see much evidence you’re doing it. Looked to me like you were staring into space when I got here.”

Caleb deliberately changed the subject. “How did your visit with Amanda go?”

Max gave him a long, speculative look. “She tell you her version?”

“Briefly,” Caleb acknowledged.

“That’s pretty much how it was,” Max grumbled. “Brief. One minute she was sitting there with a glass of tea, the next she was running away and bursting into tears.”

“It had to be emotional for both of you,” Caleb said. “How did it feel to you having her back?”

“She’s too skinny,” Max observed. “She could use some of Jessie’s baking.”

Caleb bit back a grin. “That’s what you noticed about the daughter you’ve hardly seen for ten years, that she’s too skinny?”

“Well, it’s not like she gave me much time to get into anything important.” He regarded Caleb warily. “You think she’ll come back?”

Caleb nodded. “I think the ice has been broken now. She’ll be back.” He regarded Max intently. “Or you could visit her.”

“And let her have the satisfaction of slamming the door in my face?” Max scoffed. “No, she’ll have to come to me.”

“Spoken like the unyielding man we’ve all come to know,” Caleb commented.

“A man has his pride,” Max countered.

“Some would say pride’s the last thing you can afford these days,” Caleb responded. It surely hadn’t done much for him.

Max frowned. “I suppose. Okay, if she doesn’t show her face around there in another week or so, I’ll think about going by her place.” He shook a finger at Caleb. “Remember now, I said I’d think about it. Don’t go nagging me if I don’t do it fast enough to suit you.”

“It’s not about me,” Caleb said. “Or my timetable.”

“Ha!” Max snorted. “If you’re gonna set wheels in motion, boy, you’d better be prepared to accept responsibility when the train starts barreling down the track.”

Caleb laughed. “Maybe I’ll just jump out of the way.” He stood up. “Come on, old man. I’ll follow you home.”

“I don’t need you trailing along behind me like some baby-sitter,” Max complained.

“Maybe I’m just hoping for a midnight snack,” Caleb countered. “Jessie bake today?”

“Sweet-potato pie,” Max said, his grim expression brightening at the memory. “Wouldn’t mind having some of that myself. Come on, boy. Seems to me there might be some cold roast beef in the refrigerator, too. It’d make a mighty fine sandwich to go with that pie.”

“Now you’re talking,” Caleb said, leading the way.

For all his blustering and his contrary ways, Max was the perfect antidote to the sour mood Caleb had been in earlier. Maybe he could even win a few hands of poker before the night was over. That would turn the day around.

W
hen Amanda looked up after wrapping a package for one of the boutique’s more demanding clients, Nadine was next in line. She had two incredibly sedate outfits in hand.

Amanda regarded the black linen pantsuit and lightweight pastel-blue wool dress with surprise. “Changing your style?” she asked.

“George insists on taking me to all these stuffy restaurants and country club parties,” Nadine complained. “Even I’m bright enough to figure out that the clothes I like are unsuitable for that crowd.”

Amanda bit back a grin. Nadine had the fashion sense of a Vegas showgirl. With her huge hoop earrings, display of cleavage and short skirts, she’d probably shocked the dickens out of some of Charleston’s society matrons. In Amanda’s opinion, it was probably good for them, something to keep their blue blood flowing.

“Has George complained?” Amanda asked, though she doubted he had. He seemed to have fallen for Nadine exactly as she was, probably because she was a refreshing change from the women who traveled in his usual social circle.

“No, he’s never said a word, bless his heart, but I’m getting enough stares that it’s embarrassing,” Nadine admitted. “It might not matter a bit to me, but I don’t ever want tongues wagging about his taste in women. He’s been too good to me.” She held up the clothes. “What do you think? Are these conservative enough?”

“They’re conservative and boring,” Amanda decreed. “Come on, Nadine. Let’s see if we can’t improve on those. You can be more conservative and still be yourself. I’m thinking something in red, especially with the holidays coming up soon.”

Nadine’s eyes lit up. “Red? You think so? There was a dress over on the rack that caught my eye.”

She went right to it and pulled it out for Amanda’s inspection. “What do you think?”

“I think those society women will need their smelling salts if you walk into a room in that dress,” Amanda said honestly. “They’ll gather up their men and run.”

“It’s the neckline, isn’t it?” Nadine said, wistfully eyeing the low cut.

“And the hemline,” Amanda told her. “It’d hit you at mid-thigh, which I understand is your preferred length, but I think something that skims the knee would be a better choice.”

“Who gets to wear a thing like this?” Nadine inquired, reluctantly parting with it.

“Someone twenty-one and leggy going out with her sugar daddy,” Amanda said.

Nadine grinned. “Too bad it’s wasted on anyone that young. They can’t possibly know how to flaunt it.”

“Nadine, Southern girls grow up knowing how to flaunt their assets,” Amanda said as she culled through
the hangers till she found the red suit she’d remembered. “Now this will work for you. Try it on.”

Nadine regarded it doubtfully. “It’s just a plain old suit.”

Amanda shook her head. “It’s a plain old
red
suit with a classic cut. You’ll be able to wear it forever. Come on. Be daring, Nadine. If I’m right, you can take me out and buy me lunch. If I’m wrong and you don’t look like a million bucks, I’ll buy lunch.”

She waited outside the dressing room while Nadine changed into the suit. Nadine’s usual line of chatter slowly died out.

“Oh, my,” Nadine murmured a few minutes later.

She emerged from the room looking as if she’d stepped out of the pages of
Vogue.
With her hair up and a discreet amount of gold jewelry, she’d command any room she entered.

“I look…” Her voice trailed off.

“Amazing,” Amanda supplied.

“And classy,” Nadine said with wonder. “I actually look classy.”

Amanda smiled. “Does that pleased look on your face mean I get a free lunch?”

“Honey, you can have lunch on me for a month,” Nadine responded, her gaze still locked on her image in the mirror. “I don’t want to take this off.”

“Then don’t, but you’re going to be a little overdressed for the coffee shop on the corner.”

“Right,” Nadine agreed. “And I’d hate to spill ketchup on it, especially since buying it is going to bust my budget wide open. Give me two minutes, then we’ll ring this up and go out to eat.”

A few minutes later they strolled into the coffee shop and found a booth open by the window. Though the atmosphere was fifties diner, the menu had evolved. In addition to the grilled cheese sandwiches and burgers, there was an extensive listing of fancy salads and even Amanda’s favorite chicken quesadilla with salsa and guacamole.

After they’d ordered and their iced tea had been served, Nadine sat back and studied Amanda.

“You want to tell me how things went when you saw your daddy?” she asked.

Amanda should have known it wouldn’t take long for word to get around, especially with Nadine involved with one of Big Max’s oldest friends. “George told you?”

Nadine nodded. “He stopped by to visit with your daddy yesterday. He said you could have knocked him over with a feather when Big Max told him you’d been by. Said you didn’t stay long, though. Didn’t things go the way you’d hoped?”

Amanda shrugged. “It was a little overwhelming. I mean, for years now I’ve hated my father for what he did to me, for how inadequate he made Bobby feel. All of a sudden I was sitting there drinking tea as if nothing had happened. A part of me wanted to throw that tea right in his face and scream at him for being so hateful to my husband, but I couldn’t do it.”

“Because he’s sick,” Nadine guessed.

Amanda regarded her with amazement. “You know about that, too?”

“Your father confided in George. The only reason George told me was because he thought you might need
a friend to talk to, someone besides Caleb.” Nadine’s gaze was filled with sympathy. “Sweetie, it’s okay that you’re still angry with him, even if he
is
sick. That doesn’t wipe the slate clean.”

“But I feel like I’m the one being mean and hateful if I don’t let it all go now,” Amanda admitted. “We sat there making small talk, Nadine. It was ridiculous. I felt like such a hypocrite when there were so many things left unsaid.”

“Then you need to clear the air,” Nadine advised. “Say your piece, Amanda, and let him say his. That’s the only way there won’t be this big ole elephant in the room every time you see each other. From everything I’ve heard about your daddy, he can take it. Any man who can dish it out the way he has…”

“Did you and Josh ever sit down and have a conversation like that?” Amanda asked curiously, recalling how tense things had been between mother and son when Nadine showed up unexpectedly in Charleston the year before. “I know you two had a lot of old issues between you when you first came back to town.”

Nadine chuckled. “We’re talking Josh, honey. Until he got involved with Maggie, ‘stoic’ was his middle name. He didn’t discuss anything that went below skin-deep. If I’d started picking at the scabs on all those old wounds, he’d probably be living in Memphis by now or points even farther west. No, with Josh, things came to a head bit by bit.”

“But you all get along great now,” Amanda said, unable to keep a note of envy from her voice.

Nadine beamed. “Yes, we do. I think he actually
likes having me for a mama almost as much as I admire the man he’s become. I wish I could take credit for how terrific he is, but he did it all on his own and I couldn’t be prouder of him for that.”

“But if waiting it out was right for you and Josh, why do you think I need to get everything on the table with my father?”

“Time, sweetie,” Nadine said quietly. “You might not have that much of it. Get the battle over with, so you can have as many peaceful days as possible. You want to start storing up some good memories. The holidays seem like the perfect time to start. I imagine your daddy would be real happy to spend Christmas surrounded by his grandkids.”

Amanda couldn’t imagine such a scene. “Couldn’t I just pretend none of it ever happened?”

“I don’t know. Could you?” Nadine asked, regarding Amanda with a penetrating look.

Amanda thought about how all that pent-up anger would eat away at her and destroy whatever time she had with her father. It had already taken a toll during that first visit.

“No,” she admitted at last. “But I have to tell you, Nadine, given how I feel about confrontation, you just made the prospect of paying another visit to my father shoot straight to the bottom of my to-do list.”

“Have a piece of double-fudge cake, then,” Nadine said. “I find you can swallow almost anything as long as it’s accompanied by chocolate.”

Amanda had a hunch there wasn’t enough chocolate in the world to make the inevitable confrontation with her father go down easily.

Caleb looked at the nervous young man seated across from him and had to fight a smile. Danny looked every bit as scared as he had the day he and Mary Louise had come to talk to Caleb about marrying them.

“What’s on your mind, Danny?” Caleb asked, leaning back in his chair.

“I had a meeting with Cord Beaufort yesterday,” Danny said.

“Really?” Caleb said, feigning ignorance. “What was it about?”

Danny’s expression brightened. “He offered me a job for the summer. Can you believe it? It would be helping on his historic preservation project over in Atlanta.”

“That’s great,” Caleb said. “It will give you a real taste of that kind of work. Maybe it’ll help you decide if it’s what you really want to do.”

“That’s what I thought,” Danny agreed.

“Okay, then, what’s the problem?”

“I was thinking I ought to be here,” Danny explained, his excitement fading. “You know, because of Mary Louise. The baby will be here this spring and I probably should help out as much as I can over the summer. I don’t want her to think I’m abandoning her.”

“Have you talked it over with Mary Louise?”

Danny shook his head. “Not yet. I already know what she’s gonna say.”

“Really?” Caleb said, amused. “You can read her mind?”

“Pretty much,” Danny said seriously. “She’ll say I have to do it because it’s exactly the kind of work I want
to do someday and Beaufort Construction is one of the best.”

“If she said that, she’d have a point.”

“But come on, Reverend Webb, what about the baby?” Danny asked earnestly. “I owe it to Mary Louise to stick around, at least when I’m out of school for the summer.”

Caleb looked directly into his eyes and saw the confusion of a young man torn between doing what he perceived to be the right thing and doing what he’d dreamed of doing his whole life.

“Wouldn’t you be helping Mary Louise most if you had a good job and could give her some money to help support the baby?” Caleb asked.

Hope flickered in Danny’s eyes. “That’s true.” He shook his head. “But I don’t want to let her down, not any more than I already have. I missed her first sonogram. I haven’t even heard the baby’s heartbeat yet.”

“And you want to do that?”

Danny nodded slowly. “At first, I didn’t think I did. But when she told me about it, I realized what I’m missing. It’s gotta be amazing to see your own baby growing inside its mama, you know what I mean?”

Caleb wished he’d had that experience, but he could imagine it. “I’m sure it is. Why don’t you talk to Mary Louise and make plans to go with her to her next doctor visit? Maybe she has one during the holidays.”

Danny brightened. “Maybe she does. I’ll check with her as soon as I leave here.” His smile faded. “You don’t think it would make it harder for her, having me around like that?”

“What do you think?”

“She’s said it would be okay.”

“Then I’d take her at her word,” Caleb said. “And, Danny, remember this. In the long run, you’ll let her down more if you’re not true to yourself,” Caleb said. “Talk over this summer-job offer with her. Mary Louise is a very mature young woman. I think you can count on her to give you good advice and to support whatever you decide.”

“Yeah, she will,” Danny agreed. “That’s why I have to make the best choice for both of us. I can’t have her letting me off the hook all the time.”

Caleb frowned. He was beginning to sense that there was more going on here than a quandary over a summer job. “Danny, are you regretting the decision you made to wait to get married?”

“I guess,” he said, still looking uncertain. “I know it would be really hard and all, but we do love each other. Maybe that’s enough.”

“I think you need to be more confident than that before you get married,” Caleb said gently. “You’ll know when the time is right. Don’t rush into anything until you’re absolutely certain you can make it work and are ready to make whatever sacrifices are necessary. You have your whole lifetime ahead of you.”

“I guess,” Danny said, his tone skeptical.

“You’re a fine young man, Danny. I believe wholeheartedly that you and Mary Louise will be together when the time is right for both of you.”

Danny stood up. “Thanks, Reverend Webb. I wish I could talk to my mom and dad the way I can talk to you. Before, I used to talk things over with Mary Louise. I really miss that.”

“There’s nothing to stop you from talking things over with her now. And try talking to your parents, too. Perhaps they’ll surprise you.”

A grin tugged at Danny’s lips. “I’m pretty sure I’m the only one in the family who’s full of surprises, and mine don’t seem to be working out too well.”

Caleb laughed as the boy left his office, his step a lot lighter than when he had entered.

Caleb sighed. He wondered how Danny would feel about his advice if he knew just what a mess Caleb seemed to be making of his own life.

Amanda was so terrified of facing down her father once and for all that she actually considered—if only for a fleeting second—taking the kids along to serve as a buffer. That would guarantee that she’d never raise her voice and might even stifle Max’s desire to fight back. Obviously, though, it was a terrible idea. She didn’t want her children anywhere near her father until he was ready to embrace them as family. She was far from certain that Max
was
ready.

This time when she drove out to see Max, she kept her foot pressed determinedly to the accelerator, whipped into the driveway and braked to a sudden stop right beside his car. She thought she saw him wince as she cut the engine, but his expression was neutral as she climbed the porch steps.