Sweet Tea at Sunrise

by Sherryl Woods

  Her expression remained bleak. “How can I believe that?”

  “Because I’ve never lied to you,” he suggested. “Not about my past, not about anything.”

  He thought for a minute he’d reached her, but he could see the second that doubts started crowding out facts.

  “This was a mistake,” she said softly. “I’m sorry. I need to go.” She slid out of the booth. “Stay. Finish your dessert. I’ll catch a ride home with someone.”

  Travis’s temper kicked in. He wasn’t sure if his exasperation was directed at his father for showing up, at Sarah for having so little faith in him, or himself for believing that they might have a real chance.

  “You came with me,” he said quietly. “I’ll take you home. And don’t you dare create a scene. It’ll be bad for the station if the two of us are seen fighting in public.”

  Her eyes, which had been dull with resignation, now sparked with fury. “That’s what you care about? That we don’t do anything that will reflect badly on the station?” Despite her scathing tone, she did lower her voice. “Maybe everyone was right about you, after all, Travis. I thought you had integrity and depth, but now I have to question that if your only concern is for your precious public image.”

  “It’s the station’s image that concerns me,” he corrected. “And since that’s where you’re employed, I’d think you’d worry about it, too.”

  She sighed and closed her eyes. “Okay, you’re right. Let’s just go, please.”

  They made the drive to her place in silence. By the time he parked in the driveway, his temper had cooled. He turned to her, hoping maybe she’d cooled down, too.

  “Look, I’m really sorry about how this turned out. If only my father hadn’t showed up—”

  “If he hadn’t showed up, I might not have seen what you’re going to be like in a few years.”

  Travis was horrified by her assessment “Bite your tongue. I’m not going to be anything like him.” He considered his pursuit of Sarah proof of that. Since meeting her, he’d started believing himself capable of making a lifetime commitment. Of course, his father had once thought that, too, when he’d married Travis’s mother. Travis wanted to believe when he promised forever, it would mean just that.

  Sarah continued to regard him with skepticism. “What is it they say—past behavior foretells future behavior?”

  Though her words cut right through him, he managed to keep his voice calm. “If I believed that, I wouldn’t be here,” he said quietly. “I would have picked a different town, a totally different lifestyle and a different kind of woman.”

  Something in his voice must have reached her, because her hand on the door handle stilled, and she actually looked at him for the first time since they’d left the restaurant. “Meaning?”

  “Serenity’s the kind of place a man can build a real life with a wife and kids, the kind of life that will last,” he said with feeling. “You’re the kind of strong, complicated woman who’s worth having for the long haul, not some easy one-night stand. Whatever else you believe about me, please believe that’s how I see you.”

  She seemed to be letting his words sink in. Eventually, she said, “You almost sound as if you mean that.”

  “Because I do. Trust me, Sarah, I might have flirted with you from day one, but I thought long and hard before I pushed you to go on a real date with me. I needed to know it was right, not just for me, but for you. I wouldn’t have asked if I thought it was a given that I’d wind up hurting you.”

  He dared to reach over and touch her cheek, felt the surprising dampness of tears on her skin. It was like a knife twisting inside him. “Just think about what I said, okay? Don’t rule us out because of one bad date.”

  “You said you’d stop pestering me if the date was bad,” she said with a hitch in her voice.

  “I changed my mind. I think it’ll take at least a couple of bad dates before we know anything for sure. What do you say?”

  She lifted her watery gaze to his. “I’ll have to get back to you on that.”

  He nodded. “I’ll be waiting.”

  And, amazingly, he knew he’d wait forever, if he had to, because Sarah was definitely worth waiting for. He’d never been more certain of anything.

  Things had not been going well with having Rory Sue back home. She was bored to tears by the real estate books Mary Vaughn had given her. She wasn’t interested in any kind of lessons on the subject either. Her list of complaints about being back in Serenity was endless.

  “Mom, I’ll happily bring you meals, take care of the house, get you to doctor appointments, whatever you need, but I don’t want to be a real estate broker,” she told Mary Vaughn emphatically.

  “Why not?” Mary Vaughn asked in frustration. “You’d make a good living. I certainly have, haven’t I?”

  “Sure, but you worked really, really hard. You barely had any life after Dad left.”

  Mary Vaughn regarded her daughter with impatience. “What do you have against hard work? That’s how most people support themselves or their families. They don’t do it by sponging off Mommy and Daddy forever. Did your father and I ever lead you to believe that was an option?”

  “Daddy was willing to help me out with rent in Charleston till you had to go and stop him,” she said, a whining note in her voice that sent a chill down Mary Vaughn’s spine.

  “That’s not how you learn to be responsible, Rory Sue,” Mary Vaughn said flatly. For once she was not going to cave in just to keep peace with her daughter. “It’s about time you make your own money and live within your means. Either you learn the real estate business and help me while you’re here, or you’re going to be very short on funds.”

  “What about just helping out around the house?” Rory Sue asked. “Aren’t you going to pay me for that?”

  “What are you, twelve and in need of an allowance?” Mary Vaughn stared at her incredulously, wondering when her daughter had become so selfish and entitled. “You’re helping out around here because you’re family and that’s what families do. They pitch in during a crisis.”

  “Well, that just sucks,” Rory Sue retorted, flouncing out of the room just like she had when she was a teenager who hadn’t gotten her way.

  “Get back in here right this second,” Mary Vaughn shouted after her. “I have some papers that need to be delivered this afternoon.”

  “Call a courier,” her daughter replied.

  Mary Vaughn counted to ten, then dialed Rory Sue’s cell phone, the only thing she was likely to respond to.

  “What?” her daughter snapped.

  “You may be twenty-one, but you are still my child and you will treat me with respect.”

  “Or what? You’ll send me to my room?” Rory Sue asked sarcastically.

  Off the top of her head, Mary Vaughn actually couldn’t come up with anything threatening enough to scare Rory Sue when she was in this belligerent mood. Before she could think of a thing to say, she heard a door slam, then the low murmur of Sonny’s voice, followed by Rory Sue’s defiant tone.

  Within minutes, a contrite-looking Rory Sue walked back into the bedroom, a scowling Sonny on her heels.

  “I’m sorry,” she murmured, though she didn’t sound terribly convincing. “Where are those papers and where do they need to go?”

  “They’re right here,” Mary Vaughn said, handing them to her. “And they need to go over to the new radio station on Azalea Drive. They’re for Travis McDonald.”

  For the first time all afternoon, Rory Sue’s eyes lit up. “Travis McDonald the baseball player?”

  Mary Vaughn regarded her with surprise. As far as she knew, her daughter had never shown much interest in sports. “He played for the Red Sox, yes. Do you know him?”

  “Only that he’s a hottie,” Rory Sue said. “What’s he doing in Serenity?”

  “His cousin’s the town manager,” Mary Vaughn told her. “Travis bought the old newsstand, turned it into a radio station and now he’s buying a house. O
r at least he will be if I can get these contracts signed today.”

  “I’ll make sure he signs them,” Rory Sue said, suddenly sounding a lot more eager. “I’ll wait around to make sure he does.”

  She snatched up the envelope and took off, leaving Sonny and Mary Vaughn staring after her.

  “I don’t like that gleam in her eye one little bit,” Mary Vaughn said.

  Sonny looked blank. “Why not? Everything I hear about Travis is good. Maybe it’ll do Rory Sue good to be interested in a man here in town.”

  “Not if he’s already involved with Sarah Price,” Mary Vaughn reminded him, her tone dire. “You saw them at Liz’s. Since then, Jeanette’s filled me in. Apparently Travis is pretty serious about her.”

  “Then he won’t give Rory Sue a second glance,” Sonny said.

  She regarded her husband with a pitying look. “Have you ever known our daughter not to go after whatever she wants? We’d better start praying she takes an instant dislike to Travis or vice versa, because anything else is going to stir up more trouble than this town has seen since I went after Ronnie Sullivan.”

  Judging from the horrified expression on Sonny’s face, he finally got exactly what she was talking about.

  18

  Sarah still couldn’t figure out how an evening that had started with so much promise had ended up such a disaster. Something about seeing Greg McDonald with a woman young enough to be his daughter had triggered every negative thought she’d ever had about herself. She hadn’t been able to hold on to Walter, whose father had been devoted to his shrew of a wife for thirty-five years. How on earth could she hope to keep a man whose primary male role model was a man who had apparently chased anything in skirts most of his adult life?

  Oh sure, Travis claimed he hated the way his father had lived his life, but he also acknowledged that some thought they were just alike. What was she supposed to believe? Even Travis didn’t seem to be a hundred percent certain that he’d made a successful transformation from the player he acknowledged having been during his baseball career.

  More important, how could she risk not only her own heart, but her kids’ affections on a man who might be gone tomorrow? They were having a tough enough time dealing with the divorce. They didn’t need to become attached to a man who’d only end up leaving them.

  On Monday she hoped to finish her show and get away from the studio before Travis turned up. Surely he would be considerate enough to allow her to make her escape and avoid an awkward confrontation.

  Then, again, she should have recognized he was a determined man who’d stated very clearly that he didn’t want things between them to be over. Naturally he turned up, not just at the station, but in the studio a half-hour before the end of her show. What was she supposed to do, cause a scene on the air? After the way he’d worried the night before about the damage a public argument might cause, an on-air battle was out of the question. Even she could see that. Should she go to commercial and try to kick him out? Neither option seemed like a good one, so she settled for ignoring him.

  “Hey, sugar, did you watch those country music awards being handed out last night?” he queried on-air, forcing her to reply.

  “You know, I didn’t haven’t a chance,” she said, shooting him a look that would have withered a man with less ego. Travis was clearly unfazed. “I was busy.”

  “Out having a good time?” he asked, a wicked gleam in his eyes.

  “Not so much, as a matter of fact. Did you want to talk about who walked away a winner at the awards show? Or were you hoping to pry into my private life?”

  “Oh, sweet thing, I know all about your private life,” he said in a low, sexy tone meant to stir the imagination.

  “You most certainly do not,” she snapped before she could stop herself. Nothing like treating the folks of Serenity to their lovers’ spat, she thought, humiliated. What on earth was he thinking by taunting her like this?

  Travis, darn him, chuckled. “Our Sarah seems a little on edge this morning,” he told the audience. “I wonder what that’s about.”

  “Be careful or I’ll tell them,” she retorted, locking her gaze with his in a dare-me expression. She’d had just about all she could take of this on-air game he was playing. If he wanted to spark fireworks, she was more than ready for them.

  Just then the phone lines started lighting up. She stared at the little blinking lights in dismay, terrified of who might be calling in and what they were likely to say. Travis clearly had no such qualms. He punched the first line.

  “Good morning. You’re on the air with Sarah and Travis,” he said cheerfully as if this were an everyday occurrence.

  “Didn’t I see the two of you at Sullivan’s last night?” the female caller asked.

  To Sarah’s ears, it sounded a lot like Mariah Litchfield, whose flirtatious exchange with Travis had stirred her jealousy back on the Fourth of July. Leave it to her to try to stir up trouble now.

  “Looked to me like you were on a date,” the caller who might be Mariah said. “With another couple, in fact.”

  Sarah could feel the color rising in her cheeks. If she could have reached across the desk at that moment and strangled Travis, she would have. He’d deliberately started this. Now the whole town was going to know their business. And what they didn’t know, they’d most likely make up.

  Travis laughed. “There you go. You caught us,” he said.

  “Did you all have a fight?” the woman asked. “Things looked cozy enough while I was there.”

  Sarah decided the game had gone on long enough. “Hon, Travis and I don’t have a thing in the world worth fighting over, except deciding whether to order the catfish or the meat loaf. He’s just in here this morning trying to cause a commotion. It must be just about time for them to start counting our listeners for the ratings or something.”

  She cut off the call to avoid further observations, but Travis immediately punched another line.

  “Sarah, it sounds to me like Travis has gotten under your skin,” the next caller said. “Maybe you two need to kiss and make up.”

  “Sounds good to me,” Travis said. “What do you say, Sarah?”

  “You don’t want to know what I have to say to that idea,” she muttered, then glanced at the clock. Thankfully, it was just seconds away from noon. Bill was already waiting in the control booth to take over.

  “Okay, folks, that’s all for Carolina Daybreak on this Monday morning. I hope you’ll join me here again tomorrow when my guest will be Coach Maddox, who’s going to talk about the summer baseball program here in town. There’s still time to get your little ones involved, and there’s plenty you can do to support the program.”

  “Actually I’m going to be the one talking about that,” Travis interrupted. “The coach’s schedule got jammed.” He winked at Sarah. “So come on back here first thing tomorrow, folks. Sarah and I will be fussing at each other again, I’m sure.”

  Sarah punched the button to take them off the air, then glowered at Travis. “That was totally unprofessional.”

  He didn’t seem to be even a tiny bit intimidated or even worried by her comment. “But it was fun, wasn’t it? The phone lines haven’t lit up like that since we went on the air. I’m thinking we should make this a regular thing. You and me crossing paths in here will have people talking.”

  “Over my dead body,” she snapped.

  He gave her a bland look. “Do I need to remind you who owns this station?”

  “Do I need to remind you that I can quit?”

  The threat seemed to take the wind out of his sails for about a nanosecond, but then he shook his head. “But you won’t.”

  “Oh, why is that?”

  “Because, let’s face it, sugar, you have more fun on a bad day with me than you have on a whole string of good days with anyone else.”

  It was true, dammit, but she was not going to admit it. Travis got her adrenaline pumping in a way no other man ever had.

  “What happen
ed to worrying about the station’s image?” she asked, unable to keep a plaintive note out of her voice.

  He grinned. “Well, that’s the thing. It occurred to me that the two of us fussing and fighting on the air might stir up the kind of talk that could positively affect ratings, just the way you said. It’ll all be in good fun.”

  She frowned at that. “That’s how you see it? The two of us arguing is just for fun?”

  He gave her an innocent look. “Well, if we can actually work out a few of our issues along the way, so much the better.”

  “We’re only likely to do that if we bring in a mediator,” she said. “Or a shrink.”

  He nodded. “Something to think about.”

  She stared at him indignantly. “Are you crazy? I was joking.”

  Just then she noticed Rory Sue standing in the foyer looking absolutely fascinated. Since she probably couldn’t hear what was being said in the soundproof booth, her awed expression had to have something to do with Travis. Rory Sue was a lot like her mama in that way. She found bad boys fascinating.

  “Your public awaits,” Sarah said, gesturing toward Rory Sue. She was determined not to pay one bit of attention to the twinge of jealousy nagging at her to stay put. “I have to go. I have ads to sell this afternoon.”

  “Stick around. Let’s have lunch,” Travis said, not even turning to see who was waiting.

  “Not if I were starving,” she said, exiting the booth, nodding at Rory Sue as she grabbed her purse and then taking off before she did what she really wanted to do, which was lock lips with the maddening man who was turning her emotions inside out.

  Travis might have gone after Sarah, but the tall, long-legged young woman in the lobby blocked his path.

  “I have some papers for you,” she said. “They’re from my mom, Mary Vaughn Lewis. She says they’re important. I’m Rory Sue, by the way. You could look them over while we have lunch, if you have the time.”

  Travis had enough experience to know she was offering more than lunch. In another lifetime, he might have been interested. She was thin, in the willowy way of a supermodel. Her long hair had been stylishly cut to look perpetually tousled. Her lips were glossy and invited kisses. The smoky makeup she wore around her eyes might have been seductive in a bar in Boston, but it seemed way overdone compared to Sarah’s fresh-faced, wholesome appearance.