Age Before Beauty

by Virginia Smith

  Eric heaved a sigh. “And my mother.”

  Allie laughed at the resignation in his voice. “I have a feeling that situation is going to work itself out soon.”

  “I hope so.” His arm tightened. “She’s my mother and I love her, but I miss being alone with my girls.”

  Allie could have stayed in that moment forever.

  26

  The phone rang Tuesday afternoon, shattering the peaceful stillness that permeated the house. Allie tried to jump up from the couch to grab it, but Betty glared her down.

  “Don’t move an inch. I’ll get it.”

  For a quiet little woman, her mother-in-law could be pretty fierce looking when she tried. Allie settled back into the pile of pillows and adjusted the fuzzy blanket around her legs. As Mom had warned, her body was stiff and sore today, but at least the throbbing in her head had ceased and the yucky gunpowder taste in her throat was gone. She picked up her novel, a Christian romance Joan brought by on her way to work this morning.

  Betty appeared at her elbow as she opened the book. “It’s someone named Sally Jo Campbell.”

  “Thank you, Betty.” Allie took the cordless phone from her and covered the mouthpiece with her palm. “You really don’t have to wait on me like this, you know. I’m fine.”

  Betty raised her chin. “I promised my son I’d keep you quiet today, and that’s what I intend to do.”

  She returned to the kitchen as Allie held the phone to her ear. “Hi, Sally Jo. I guess Darcy told you about my run-in with the milk machine.”

  Allie had resigned herself to living with cow jokes for a while, so she figured she might as well face the issue head-on. So to speak.

  Sally Jo’s laugh sounded in her ear. “She sure did. Honey, if you wanted a hamburger, you could have just asked before you left my house.”

  “Yeah, but you would have cooked it. I’ve never tried steak tartare before.”

  “Eeewwww! I never did see how anybody could eat raw meat.” Her voice became serious. “How are y’all feeling? How’s your baby?”

  “We’re fine, really.” Allie tucked a bookmark into her book and slid it onto the coffee table. “I’ve got a nasty bruise on my arm and a blister on my collarbone where the seat belt rubbed me, but that’s about it. Joanie doesn’t have a mark on her.”

  “Thank goodness!”

  Allie smiled. No, thank God.

  Sally Jo’s tone took on a businesslike professionalism. “I had another reason for calling. After you left here, I got to looking at your list and thinking about your computer program. I could really use a program like that to help me stay organized. With all my records on the computer, tax time will be a breeze.”

  Allie plucked a few loose pieces of lint off the blanket and rolled them absently between her fingers. “I’ll be happy to give it to you and show you how to use it.”

  “Oh, I don’t have time to learn something like that, much less keep it up.” She cleared her throat. “I would never have dreamed of asking while you were working so hard to establish your business, but now maybe you’ll consider an idea I had.”

  A flicker of excitement tickled inside Allie. She glimpsed where this was leading. “Go on.”

  Sally Jo hesitated. “Would you do it for me?” She rushed on. “I would pay you, of course. We could agree on a fair amount. I’d give you all my customer receipts and sales records, and you could scan them in like you talked about. Then if I wanted to send announcements or postcards, you could print address labels for me like you said.”

  Allie couldn’t stop a grin from creeping across her face. This might be the perfect solution, a way to stay home with Joanie, generate a little income, and do something she really enjoyed. Her mind zipped through the process she’d follow to configure her system to handle Sally Jo’s customers and inventory. After the initial setup, it wouldn’t take much time to keep it up-to-date. Allie straightened on the couch, her eyes going wide. She might even branch out, offer to keep other people’s accounts. Darcy’s, for instance. Maybe if she did a good job, Sally Jo would recommend her to those thirty consultants who worked under her. It wouldn’t take much to set up a database for email addresses, so they could send product announcements that way. Maybe—

  Slow down, girl. Don’t get in over your head. Again.

  She realized Sally Jo was waiting for an answer. “I’d love to do that for you.”

  “That’s great!” Sally Jo’s voice held enough enthusiasm for five people. “Maybe we could get together for coffee toward the end of the week. We can work out the details then.”

  When they’d agreed on a time to meet, Allie pressed the button to disconnect the call. She settled into the pillows again, a feeling of unmistakable awe settling over her. This was the answer to yet another problem. No doubt in her mind where the solution had come from.

  She raised her eyes toward the ceiling and let a giddy giggle bubble up from deep inside. “Thank you,” she whispered.

  “I still can’t believe we’re going to this thing.”

  Allie reached up to squeeze Eric’s hand where it rested on the gearshift knob of the pickup. “I want to go. Joan has worked so hard on this auction.”

  He scowled. “You should be home in bed, resting.”

  “I rested all day.” She rolled her eyes. “If your mother brings me one more cup of tea with a side order of celery sticks, I can’t be held responsible for my actions.”

  Eric steered the truck into the church parking lot. Allie was pleased to see cars crowding nearly every space. They were going to have a good turnout.

  “Hey, there’s Tori’s car beside Mom’s. I’m glad she got off work to come.” Tori had said on Sunday that Mom practically browbeat her into promising she would be here tonight. Looked like Mom knew how much Tori needed a break from the stress of her job too.

  Eric parked the pickup in a space two rows from the end. As Allie opened the door to climb out, he dashed around the front of the truck and grabbed her arm to help her down. She giggled at the serious expression on his face, then softened her voice. “Thank you. You take such good care of me.”

  She stood on her tiptoes to plant a tender kiss on his lips. His arms came around her to pull her close, and their kiss deepened into something way beyond tender.

  Allie pulled back reluctantly. “Not now, lover boy. They’re waiting for us inside.”

  Eric let out an exaggerated sigh. “Story of my life lately.”

  She leaned close to his ear and whispered, “Later.”

  Her step light, Allie glided across the parking lot hand in hand with the love of her life. As they approached the door, it opened and a familiar figure flew out.

  “Allie!”

  Tori stopped her mad dash forward just short of Allie, and then wrapped her in a careful hug. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine.” Allie returned the embrace firmly. “No cow’s going to keep me down for long.”

  Tori pulled back, an impish dimple creasing her cheek. “So you decided to bypass the middle man and go straight to the source for your T-bones. That’s taking the low-carb diet a bit far, don’t you think?”

  “Laugh all you want, but Mr. Dorsey called to check on me this afternoon and promised to fill my freezer with meat from the cow who got fatally intimate with the front of my car.”

  The elderly man had sounded so rattled on the phone that Allie felt sorry for him. The promise of fresh beef was no doubt a blatant effort to avoid a lawsuit.

  “He called me too,” Eric told Tori. “Said he was having a new fence put up so his cattle can’t cause any more problems.”

  Two couples passed them and went into the church.

  “We’d better get in there,” Tori said. “Mom’s saving seats at a table right up front.” She scrunched her nose. “Right beside the minister.”

  “Terrific,” Eric mumbled.

  Tori leaped in front of them and opened the door. She gestured inside with a graceful hand and flashed a dimple at Allie. “
Age before beauty.”

  Allie aimed for her toes as she walked by, but her sister was too quick. Tori leaped backward with a laugh, which Allie mirrored, shaking her head as they entered the church. She squeezed Eric’s hand as they followed Tori downstairs to the Fellowship Hall. Allie caught a glimpse of Joan in the kitchen through a serving window as she followed Tori up to the front of the room where Mom and Gram were already seated. Joan looked really busy, bustling around with about ten other girls and guys her age. Some of them looked familiar, like the girl who’d hosted the Varie Cose party where Allie met Sally Jo and Darcy.

  Dinner was lasagna and a green salad, served with a roll on paper plates. As Reverend Jacobsen stood to deliver the blessing, Allie felt Eric’s hand slip into hers. She risked a glance at him and saw that his head was bowed, his eyes closed. With a happy smile, she did the same.

  When they began to eat, Ryan Adams approached their table. “Hey, Eric. I thought that was you.”

  Eric stood and shook Ryan’s hand. “Good to see you again.”

  “Yeah, you too.” Allie noticed that Ryan’s gaze kept sliding to Tori, though he spoke to Eric. “Uh, do you play basketball?”

  Eric shrugged. “It’s been a while.”

  “Some of us have been getting together on Thursday nights with a few of the kids who live out at Shadow Ridge Apartments. If you ever want to join us, we could use another guy.”

  “Thanks.” Eric put a hand in his pocket. “I might do that.”

  “Okay. Give me a call. I’m in the book.” Ryan nodded at Tori. “Glad you could make it tonight.”

  Tori tilted her head and caught him in a flirtatious gaze. “I wouldn’t miss it. I just wish I could go to Mexico with you.” She batted her eyelashes just once as she drew out the last word.

  Allie hid a grin when Ryan’s jaw went slack. He looked like a fish on a hook.

  “It’s not too late.” He gulped. “I’m sure there’s still room in the group for one more.”

  Tori’s lower lip extruded in a pretty pout. “I can’t take off work that long. Maybe next trip.”

  Someone called his name from across the room, and he stumbled away, dazed. Eric sat down and continued his dinner.

  Allie punched Tori’s arm. “That was mean,” she hissed. “You have no intention of going on a mission trip, you little flirt.”

  Tori’s eyebrows arched. “I might. Someday.” She giggled. “He’s kind of cute, isn’t he? I never noticed before.”

  As they finished dessert—which Allie staunchly refused— the group who had been serving them filed up to the front of the room and stood in a row. Joan stepped up to a lectern that Ryan and Ken moved forward. She had been so busy Allie hadn’t had a chance to talk to her, but she smiled in her family’s direction as she waited for the chatter in the room to quiet down.

  “Thank you all for coming tonight,” Joan began, speaking into a microphone mounted on the lectern. “We’re really excited about the opportunity this mission trip will give us to work with some people in Mexico who desperately need our help. We’re going to build a house for a large family that is currently living in a broken-down bus that crashed in a ditch a few years ago.”

  The audience gave a collective sigh of sympathy.

  Joan continued. “We’re also going to take medical supplies and set up a temporary community clinic.” Allie’s gaze slid to Ken. “And we’re going to conduct Bible school for the children and teach them a little English. Most of all, we hope to show them how much God loves each one of them. We want to get to know them so we can love each of them personally, the way our heavenly Father does.”

  Everyone in the line behind Joan nodded. The hair on Allie’s arm stood up as she noted the determination in her sister’s eyes and saw it reflected on the face of every one of the people who stood with her. Behind Allie someone started to clap, and then someone else. Allie found herself joining in with enthusiasm. Even Eric, she noticed, applauded this group whose faces radiated with their shared passion.

  Joan raised a hand and the room fell silent. “Of course, we’d love to have each of you join us, but even if you can’t fit a trip to Mexico into your schedule, you can still participate. And that is why we’ve asked you here tonight.” She grinned. Several people in the room chuckled. “If you’ve enjoyed dinner, you’ll find a donation jar in the serving window. Whatever you feel led to give will be put to good use. And now, we’ll begin the auction. This is how it’s going to work.”

  She explained the details of bidding and payment. Beside Allie, Tori leaned forward and rubbed her hands together. “Here comes the good part. We get to shop!”

  Eric leaned sideways and whispered in Allie’s ear. “We’re just here as observers, right?”

  “I don’t know. They might have some good stuff.” Allie widened her eyes innocently. “Do you think they take credit cards?”

  That earned her a pinch on the leg beneath the table and a mock scowl from her husband. She laughed and linked fingers with him, then directed her attention to the lectern. Joan auctioned off her first item—a brand-new television set still in the box—like a pro.

  Ken and the others carried each item into the room and paraded it across the floor as Joan read details for the bidders from a stack of index cards. Tori really got into the action when the item up for bid was a silver tennis bracelet donated by a local jewelry store. Allie watched her sister exchange competitive glances with a woman on the other side of the room as the price rose higher and higher. Tori won the bracelet, but Allie was sure she ended up paying more than she would have if she’d bought it directly from the store.

  After about forty minutes, Allie started to fidget. She glanced down the table and caught Gram covering a yawn with her hand. Allie checked her watch. Eight twenty. Gram was normally in bed by nine, so she had to be about ready to leave. In another ten minutes Betty would bathe Joanie and feed her a nighttime bottle. If they hurried, Allie could nurse her instead. How many items was Joan going to auction? Surely they’d showed enough support for one evening.

  To her relief, Joan answered her question as a box of used dishes was delivered to the new owner. “That’s it for me, folks. I’m going to hand the gavel to Brittany now. Thanks for—”

  “Wait a minute, Joan.” Ryan stepped into the room with something small cradled in his hands. “You’re not finished yet. There’s one more thing here you need to take care of.”

  Joan shuffled through the stack of index cards, confusion creasing her forehead. “I don’t think so. Maybe someone else has the details on that item.”

  Ryan’s little-boy grin was so wide Allie wouldn’t have been surprised if he’d started skipping. “Oh, this one’s yours, alright. It has your name on it.”

  Allie looked at the small black box in Ryan’s hand. She sucked in a loud hiss of air. She knew what that box held. She had one just like it at home. Beside her, Tori had recognized the item herself, and her eyes went round as blue saucers. Allie’s gaze connected with Mom, who wore a knowing smile. On her left, Eric straightened in his chair and grinned as he, too, recognized the box. Allie clutched his hand beneath the table and squeezed.

  “My name is on it?” Joan shook her head, clearly confused.

  “That’s what it says right here.” Ryan practically danced across the room and deposited the box in her hand, along with another index card.

  Joan looked down at the card. “It says here . . .”

  Her voice trailed off as she read. She grew very still. A movement at the doorway drew Allie’s attention. When Ken stepped into the room dressed formally in a black tuxedo, tears filled her eyes. She had to brush them away so she could watch.

  Ken crossed the floor to stand in front of Joan. Allie saw the love shining in his eyes as he gazed down into her sister’s face. He gently took the box from her hand, sank onto one knee in front of her, and opened it. The diamond nestled on black velvet inside caught the light and twinkled with a flash of icy fire.

  Ken he
ld the box toward Joan. “The card says that this ring is yours, if you will do me the honor of becoming my wife.”

  Allie’s tears slid freely down her cheeks as Joan bent to throw her arms around Ken’s neck. She caught him in a kiss that rivaled the one Eric and Allie shared in the parking lot.

  When Ken came up for air, he grinned toward the audience. “I think that’s a yes.”

  Joan nodded, her face alight with more joy than Allie had ever seen. “That’s definitely a yes.”

  The entire room erupted into applause.

  27

  Allie stood in the dark parking lot surrounded by her family. The night air held the unmistakable touch of winter. She hugged Eric’s arm and snuggled close, trying to capture as much warmth as she could from his body.

  Joan tore her gaze away from her fiancé long enough to beam at her family. “I am so glad you were here. That made tonight even more special. Were you all in on the surprise?”

  Everyone except Mom shook their heads.

  “I knew,” she said. “Ken shared his plan with me a few weeks ago and enlisted my help in getting Tori here.”

  “Well, he didn’t tell anyone else.” Allie pretended to give him a sour look. “Just kept saying we needed to be here because it would mean a lot to you.”

  Joan cast an adoring glance upward at him. “He was right.”

  Gram shuddered visibly. “I’m happy for you, Joan, but I’m cold. I need to get home.”

  Tori stepped close to Gram and put a sheltering arm around her shoulders. “I’ll take you on my way back to Lexington.” Allie didn’t think Tori looked overly pleased about Joan’s engagement, but that was to be expected. She wasn’t crazy about Ken because of how much he talked about his faith. Allie would corner her after their family dinner on Sunday and outline all the reasons Ken was perfect for Joan. Though one look at the joy on her sister’s face should be convincing enough.