The Way Back to You

by Sharon Sala

  The line began to move, and they were soon at the window ordering their food. After it arrived, they took off to the park with Melissa directing the way.

  “This is nice,” Sully said as they parked and got out. “That table is in the shade. Is it okay with you?”

  “Absolutely,” Melissa said.

  She took some of the extra napkins to wipe off the tabletop and benches, then Sully took out the food.

  “A chili dog and fries for you. Fries and cheeseburgers, minus pickles, for me. Here’s your chocolate shake and my vanilla shake. Enjoy!”

  They ate a few bites, and then conversation started as they began playing catch-up on each other’s life.

  “Tell me about your wife,” Melissa asked.

  “Ex-wife,” he said, and shrugged. “Her name is Karen. She’s on her third husband, last time I heard. We didn’t fit. I got over her a long time ago. Tell me about Andy. He had to be a smart guy to be with you.”

  Melissa smiled. “Andy was smart and quiet. He liked being home, so there wasn’t a lot of partying or hosting dinners. But we were happy.” She glanced off into the trees for a moment, then added, “And then he died.”

  “Was it an accident?” Sully asked. “I mean, you two being so young and everything.”

  Melissa shook her head. “No, it was a brain aneurysm. The doctors said it was something he’d been born with. No warning. No way to prevent it or treat it.”

  “I’m sorry. That’s rough,” Sully said.

  Melissa nodded. “Yes, it was. I didn’t deal with it well, as you can imagine. I withdrew. Literally. Coming here to Blessings was my saving grace. I don’t know what it is about this place, but nobody suffers in this town for long. Once they learn someone had a hardship, the town sort of pulls together to make it right. And quite often, Ruby and Lovey are the ones who organize us all. They’re like fairy godmothers. Always looking for a way to bring happiness.”

  “That’s an amazing tribute,” he said.

  “It’s an amazing place to live,” she said.

  A little bird flew down to the other end of their picnic table and began to chirp.

  “We have company,” Sully said.

  A couple of minutes later, it was joined by two more, perched in the tree over their heads. She pointed up into the branches.

  “He’s calling in his buddies. Probably hoping we’ll leave a few crumbs,” Melissa said.

  “Then we don’t want to disappoint them,” Sully said, and pulled a piece of bun off his last cheeseburger and crumbled it onto the ground.

  Melissa added a few french fries to the feast as she and Sully gathered up their trash. She got up to stretch her legs as he carried the sacks to a nearby trash bin, then came jogging back.

  Before she knew it, he’d swung her off her feet and into his arms. She laughed at the unexpected joy.

  “You’re my dessert,” he said, and gave her a quick kiss before putting her down. “Do you have business to tend to this afternoon?”

  “No. What do you want to do?”

  “I want you to show me around. Show me where you used to live. Where you worked. Show me where Peanut and Ruby live. Where Lovey lives. I am getting to know the people, but seeing where they live always says a lot more.”

  “I would love to,” Melissa said, and slipped her hand in his as they walked back to the car.

  The first place she took him was across the tracks to the other side of town to point out the little house she used to live in.

  As he pulled over to the curb, he felt the stark absence of home. There were no flower beds, no landscaping. Just a small white house with a gray roof. Nothing over the front door that even pretended to be a porch, no garage, and no carport. Just a driveway that stopped beside the house.

  “It’s the one with the black Toyota in the driveway. A young couple lives in it now. It’s a rental. I never thought I’d be able to buy a house, and then Elmer Mathis passed away, leaving everything to me. It was a life-changing gift I will never take for granted.”

  Sully held her hand as she talked about losing part of the roof once in a tornado, and when the water heater went out and flooded the whole kitchen.

  “You want to know the irony of this? My landlord was Niles Holland. The man who ran into me. I liked him.”

  “In a small town like this, I can see how that would happen. I’m sorry,” Sully said.

  “Okay, enough about me. As you can see, we’re on the poor side of town. If you’ll go back toward Main, I’ll show you where Peanut and Ruby live.”

  And so they drove, and Melissa talked, and little by little Sully began to feel the vibe of the place in a whole new way.

  “I already showed you where Lovey is living now, but it’s not her home. It belongs to Ruby. Lovey is just living there while hers is being remodeled. Her home was severely damaged during Hurricane Fanny. If you’ll take a right at the next corner, then go two blocks down, I’ll show you.”

  “Got it,” Sully said, following her directions, then saw it before she’d even pointed it out. “Is that it? The one where the carpenters are working?”

  “Yes. They had to put a whole new front on the south half of the house. There used to be a huge tree in her yard there where that backhoe is parked, but the hurricane blew it into that side of the house. The horrible part was that Lovey hadn’t boarded up the little window in her bathroom, and the town was flooding, so she went into the bathroom to look out the window. She was worried about how close the floodwater was, and as she was looking out, the tree hit the house, pushing all of that inward, right where she was standing.

  “Glass was everywhere, and the hurricane-force winds that were now blowing straight into the bathroom blew the door shut, leaving Lovey badly injured and unconscious on the floor. She came to later with the rain in her face, bleeding and in horrible pain. The roar of the wind was so strong and so loud that during the time she was trapped, she lost hearing in one ear. Her arm was broken, her shoulder injured, and she was cut all over and couldn’t get out.”

  “Trapped?” Sully said.

  “She couldn’t open the door against the force of the wind.”

  “Oh my God,” Sully said. Now he was looking at that house with a different view, imagining Lovey fighting for her life.

  “How did she get out? With no power, how did anyone even know that had happened?”

  “It’s a crazy story. As it was told to me, Elliot Graham, an elderly man who lives here, had a vision. People say he’s something of a psychic, and so far none of his predictions or warnings have been wrong. Anyway, Elliot had a vision that she was trapped and in danger of dying. Somehow he got word to the right people, and the police chief found out, and then someone else was contacted who owns a dozer service. In prep for after the storm passed, he had his biggest dozer here in town at his house.

  “When the chief told him about Lovey, he left the safety of his own house and made his way to the massive dozer, drove it through floodwaters to this house, and then managed to get inside the house without blowing away. He figured out she was inside the bathroom, and when he shouted at her, she shouted back. He couldn’t open the door, so he chopped his way into the bathroom with a hatchet to get her out.

  “He’d found her, but the danger was only half over. She could barely walk, so he carried her out into the storm, somehow got them both up inside that huge dozer, and took her to the ER. He saved her life. His name is Johnny Pine, and he’s twenty-two years old. That’s the kind of people who live here, Sully. He’s only one of a half dozen I could name right now, men and women, who have saved lives and made differences in the way people live.”

  Sully was speechless. He’d lived a life of rescuing people, and he knew the guts it took for a person to put their own life at risk for someone else. He was in awe, and the more he thought about it, the more convinced he was that thi
s was the place he wanted to live for the rest of his life.

  “Thank you for today,” Sully said.

  “I loved doing this with you,” Melissa said.

  “Are you ready to head back?” he asked.

  “Sure,” she said.

  She dozed off on the way back, then woke when Sully pulled into the drive.

  “Want to come in for coffee? I have all kinds of food that Ruby and Rachel brought over, remember? And some of Mercy’s pecan pie left, as well,” Melissa said.

  “If you’re sure you aren’t too tired, I’d love to,” Sully said.

  “I’m not too tired for you,” she said.

  They got out together, went up the walk side by side, and then into the house. The cool interior was such a reflection of Melissa—peace personified. It felt welcoming. And it was beginning to feel like a place he could call home.

  “Make yourself comfortable. Bathroom is just down that hall if you want to wash up. I’m going to take my things upstairs. I’ll be right back,” she said, and then gave Sully a quick kiss before running up the stairs.

  He took her up on the offer to wash up. After he came out, he began wandering through the first floor, looking in all the rooms, marveling at the rich wood features, the wide-plank hardwood flooring in some rooms and white marble tile in others that went well with the elegance of the draperies and furnishings. He couldn’t imagine how it must have felt for her to go from that little box of a house where she was living to this place. It must have felt like moving into a palace.

  He was in the kitchen, looking out at the rock walls surrounding the perimeter of the back property. The trees were huge, and the shrubs were tall, bushy, and looked like they’d been there since the house was built.

  He recognized the crepe myrtles and the rose of Sharon bushes, but there were others he didn’t know. He wondered if she did any gardening herself, or if someone did it for her. Then he heard her coming through the hall and turned around just as she entered the kitchen.

  “Well, what do you think of the place?” Melissa asked.

  “It suits you. It’s beautiful, elegant, even graceful, like you.”

  Melissa stammered, a little taken aback by the unexpected compliment as she went to the counter to start the coffee.

  “I can’t take credit for any of it except the clean part. I cleaned this house once a week for Elmer for the past fifteen years. He wanted it just like his sweet Cora left it, and so that’s what we did.”

  “Cora was his wife?” Sully asked.

  Melissa nodded. “But she’d already passed before I knew him.” She measured coffee into the filter, filled the carafe with water, then poured it into the tank and started it to brew. “What sounds best to you? Cheesecake, pecan pie, or a slice of apple praline bread?”

  “Oh wow, that’s a hard decision to make,” Sully said.

  “Then I guess I’d better get out all three and let you sample all of them.”

  He grinned. “I won’t say no.”

  She smiled. “You still have that sweet tooth, don’t you?”

  “Yes. The way I like sweets, I think I must have a whole mouthful of sweet teeth,” Sully said.

  Melissa pointed to the cabinet. “Dessert plates are in the first cabinet on the right on the second shelf. Forks in the drawer below.”

  So while she was getting out the desserts, Sully got down the plates and brought them to the table.

  She went to get cups, then joined him at the table. They were as comfortable together as if they’d been doing it for years.

  “This is nice,” Sully said as she settled in the chair across the table from him.

  “The desserts? They do look amazing.”

  “No. I meant you—me—together like this. You’re so easy to be with. I’m surprised some man hasn’t already snatched you up, but selfishly, I’m glad he didn’t.”

  “I wasn’t snatched because I was not available for snatching,” Melissa said, and cut a couple of slices of the apple praline bread, then moved to the pie and cut a couple of slices there, too.

  “And now you are?” Sully asked.

  She licked a sticky spot on her thumb. “Only for you,” she said. “If it was anyone else, I wouldn’t have given him the time of day, even if he’d saved my life. You and me here in this place is because we have history. A good history. A history I trust. And a little love history, even if we didn’t go past first base.”

  Sully’s thoughts were spinning. “Now that we’re long past the age of consent, would you be interested in seeing what second or third base are like?”

  She looked up at him and grinned. “What happened to home runs?”

  Sully laughed. “I wasn’t going to push my luck.”

  “Don’t ever sell yourself short,” she said.

  “I’ll remember that,” Sully said, and when she cut the mini-cheesecake in half, he held out his plate.

  Melissa noticed the coffee was ready and got up to get the carafe and filled their cups before setting it back on the stand.

  “Cream or sugar?” she asked.

  “I drink it black,” he said.

  “Are you a fan of flavored coffees?” Melissa asked as she sat back down.

  “Not so much. You?”

  “I like mine black, as well.” Melissa ate another bite, then paused. “What happens when your search is over?”

  “What do you mean?” Sully asked.

  “I mean, will you be going back to Kansas City?”

  “Only to pack up my stuff,” he said.

  “Are you moving?” Melissa asked, trying not to be too inquisitive.

  Sully reached across the table and grabbed her hand.

  “Girl, stop playing around. You know where I want to be. There’s nothing in Kansas City for me anymore. I want to be near you. I want to make Blessings my home.”

  The joy in her eyes spread across her face.

  “If you want to be near-near me, I have many bedrooms.”

  He laughed. “Yes, near-near was the optimum destination I had in mind.”

  “So, while you’re waiting for new leads, if you want, you could stay here…but only if you want,” Melissa said, and then picked a pecan off her slice of bread and popped it in her mouth.

  Sully tugged at her hand. “That is a most generous offer, and I would be honored.”

  “Oh no, it wasn’t generous at all. It was pure selfishness,” Melissa said.

  Sully laughed. “I always did like a woman who spoke her mind. Is tonight too soon for my arrival?”

  Melissa’s heart skipped a beat. Oh my God, oh my God, this is actually happening. “Nope. I’d say it was perfect timing.”

  * * *

  Barb Holland was also surrounded by desserts and casseroles, but with no appetite to sample them. However, her family was due in from Texas sometime before dark, and they’d take care of that in no time.

  When she’d called them two days ago to let them know what had happened, their sincere dismay and the love she felt from their voices finally eased the pain she’d been feeling. Her daddy was nearly eighty years old, but he was on the way, riding with one of her brothers, while the other brother was bringing her aunt and another carful of cousins.

  When it came time for the family to be seated at the funeral, she would be surrounded by people who loved her, not the snide, catty people who’d destroyed, beyond repair, what she thought was friendship.

  They’d released Niles’s body to the local funeral home at just one o’clock this morning. Barb had gone in after sunrise to take clothes to bury him in and to set the day and time of the service. She’d walked in with his favorite suit on a hanger and was leaving with the receipt for his service marked Paid in Full. What she wasn’t going to do was bury him here. They would be giving her his ashes to take away with her. His funeral w
as scheduled for the day after tomorrow, 3:00 p.m. at Blessings Baptist Church, and tonight, her heart was breaking.

  * * *

  When Sully got back to the B and B, Bud was behind the front desk, dozing in his chair. He woke up as Sully approached.

  “Oops, you caught me,” Bud said as he got up.

  “Can’t fault a man for taking a rest,” Sully said. “I’m going upstairs to pack, so would you have my bill ready when I come back?”

  “Sure. Did you get another lead on your birth mother?”

  “No. Right now I’m on hold. All the leads have run out. But in the meantime, I’m going to be a guest at Melissa’s house.”

  Bud grinned. “That’s great. She’s a wonderful woman and deserves some happiness. I’ll have your bill ready.”

  “Thanks,” Sully said, and went upstairs to pack.

  About an hour later, he was on his way back to Melissa.

  * * *

  Melissa chose the best guest bedroom in the house for Sully. It had a king-size bed, a jetted tub and a separate shower in the en suite, and a mirror that ran the length of a very ornate vanity. All of the needed toiletry items were in one of the drawers.

  The fact that it was across from her bedroom was immaterial. Things would develop between them as they were meant to, or they wouldn’t. But she wasn’t going to turn her back on this twist of fate and was anxiously waiting for him to return.

  When the doorbell rang, Melissa ran to answer.

  “That was fast,” she said as Sully walked in with a suitcase.

  “I didn’t want to give you too much time to change your mind.”

  She grinned. “Follow me, and I’ll show you the bedroom I picked out for you. It has a king-size bed.”

  “Much appreciated,” he said, and followed the sway of her backside as she led him up the stairs.

  “This is my bedroom,” she said, pointing to the door on the right. “And this is yours.” She opened the door and walked in, turning on the light as she went.