Tender Mercies

by Mary Manners

  “Yeah. Sorry.” She shook her head to clear the memory and focused on the sandwich that was dripping tomato juice onto files strewn across her desk. “Maybe I should have just a bite.”

  “Yes, you should. And while you’re chewing, tell me what’s got you so distracted lately.”

  She nibbled a bit, chewed, drew a cool sip of bottled water to wash it all down. “It’s not just Cooper, or the worry over losing Thursday’s Child, Renee.” She hesitated. Saying the words would make the problem reality. And she didn’t know if she had the patience—or the fortitude—to deal with one more problem. She sighed. “It’s...Terri, too. She called last night. Things didn’t work out as she planned in New York—”

  “No surprise there.”

  “I know. Anyway, she’s coming home...soon.”

  “How soon?”

  “She didn’t say. It could be today—or next week.”

  “Have you told Andy?”

  “Not yet. I want to be sure...sometimes she says things and doesn’t follow through. And he’s going to be...”

  “I know. If she does come, it’s going to rock his world, good or bad—and from past experience, it’ll most likely be bad.”

  “I hope not. She sounded...”

  “How?”

  “I don’t know. Just...different, calmer.” Lexi took another bite of the sandwich, had trouble chewing through the dryness that had taken hold of her mouth. “Do you think she might finally have her head on straight? Do you think...?”

  “Anything’s possible, Lex. You know that as well as I do.” Renee’s gaze met hers, held. In the clear green eyes, Lexi found the concern of a true friend. “But don’t get your hopes up. I don’t want to see you hurt again.”

  “I have to tell Andy...soon.”

  “Yes, you do...before he finds out from someone else.”

  ****

  Cooper wiped beads of sweat from his forehead with the hem of his T-shirt. Two hours until the press conference he’d asked Stan to schedule with ESPN—plenty of time to finish this workout and change into something camera-worthy.

  He had things to take care of—unfinished business.

  He pedaled the recumbent bike harder. Pain still laced his knee, but it nibbled instead of gnawed...whispered instead of shouted. He’d heal to play another day—if he wanted.

  Stan had bought him an extra couple of weeks to make his decision. Sure, the wolves in Seattle were pacing at the door, but he kept them at bay—for now.

  He’d seen another segment for Thursday’s Child on the Evening Edition of Knoxville’s Channel Ten News last night. The building’s lease was nearly up, and a plea went out for funds to keep the doors open—at least for a while longer. The sight of Lexi—her chocolate kiss eyes bruised with shadows from lack of sleep—made his gut clench with remorse. There was nothing he could do. He had to be careful to make the right decision.

  No way will I hurt her again—ever—but I have to take care of things here before I’ll be any good to anyone.

  The timer beeped, and he slowed the pedals of the bike. His heart raced, but the sweat that pooled along his spine made him feel invigorated and renewed. He slipped off the bike and took his cell phone from his pocket to punch the speed dial.

  “Are they set up yet?” he asked Stan.

  “The reporters are waiting, just like you asked. They’re pacing like caged animals.” His voice lowered. “Care to share what you plan to say?”

  “You’ll hear it when the rest do. Just make sure everything’s ready when I get there. I don’t want this to take all day.”

  “I’ve got it taken care of, Cooper. Now, about the contract—”

  “Not now, Stan. Let’s get the press conference out of the way first.”

  ****

  “I won’t go with her!” Andy’s cry reverberated off the kitchen walls. “You can’t make me.”

  “Nobody’s making you go anywhere.” Lexi reached for him, but he backed away like a frightened animal. “She’s just coming for a visit, that’s all.”

  “That’s never all.” His voice cracked with the first hint of manhood, and tears filled his eyes. The pain in his voice tore Lexi to pieces inside. “She’ll find a way to mess things up. She always does.”

  “That’s not—” Her voice caught. That’s not true, she’d begun. But it was true. Terri did always seem to find a way to throw a wrench into the mix. She tried another tack. “Just give her a chance, will you? She misses you, Andy. She just wants to see you.”

  “If she really missed me she’d call once in a blue moon.”

  Lexi cringed. How can I argue with that?

  “I wish Cooper was here.” Andy paced the floor, slapping a hand against his thigh with each step. “He’d know what to do.”

  She wished it, too. Cooper always did seem to have a way with her sister, even though he was a few years younger. He could make Terri laugh when no one else could, and more often than not, he’d draw her out of the deep funk she sometimes slipped into without warning in the years following their mom’s death.

  But he wasn’t here, so Lexi would have to find a way to wade through this mess on her own. Andy was counting on her, and she wouldn’t let him down.

  “I’m sorry.” She drew a sip of lukewarm hazelnut coffee. The brew had cooled while she tried to reason with Andy, and now the once-smooth flavor turned bitter as it raced down her throat. “I should have told you sooner. I just...”

  “How long have you known?” His gaze met hers, held, and in his wounded charcoal eyes she found all of her insecurities reflected back.

  “A week. But—”

  Tears spilled over to slide down flushed cheeks. “You don’t want me here, do you? That’s why you didn’t say anything ’til now.”

  Her heart caught, tore just a bit. “Yes. Oh, Andy, yes, I want you here.” And she realized just how much she’d grown to love him. “Don’t ever think anything different.”

  The sound of a car coming up the drive silenced them both. Andy froze still as a block of carved ice.

  A car door slammed, and Terri’s voice rang out. “Lexi! Andy! Hey, I’m here! Anybody home? Put on a pot of coffee.”

  Andy made a sound that was a cross between a whimper and a growl. His eyes grew wide and wild, and he spun on his heel. He flew through the kitchen, past the living room, and the slam of his bedroom door shook the house.

  Lexi trembled.

  “Hey, sis.” Terri strode through the kitchen doorway. “What’s going on with the kid? Why the fireworks?”

  “Hello, Terri.” She crossed her arms and plastered on a lopsided grin. “I thought you were coming tomorrow.”

  She shrugged. “What’s a day here or there?” She sniffed the air and settled into a chair at the table. “Is that hazelnut I smell? Pour me a cup, will you? The interstate is worse than a racetrack. I need to take a load off.”

  ****

  Cooper never got used to the glare of the spotlights and the crowd of reporters that seemed bent on shoving microphones into his face as they battled to edge in a question. Most of the questions were sports-related, but a good chunk were personal...and none of their business.

  “What’s the bottom line, Cooper?” One shouted over the rumbling of the crowd.

  “The bottom line is...I’m retiring.” A flurry of activity ensued. Questions came like machine gun rapid-fire.

  “Is it the knee?”

  “Is it because you were traded?”

  “What—you don’t like Seattle?”

  “Is it your father? It’s no secret he’s been plagued by health problems.”

  “Is it a woman?”

  “Hold up.” He raised a hand to silence the crowd. “Give me a minute.”

  The reporters shifted feet and turned from side to side to gawk at each other. Papers rustled in the breeze coming off the river, and a flurry of nervous coughs pockmarked the air.

  “My knee is pretty much healed,” Cooper continued when he’d gathered his thou
ghts. “And I like Seattle well enough...but my heart will always be in Jacksonville. That’s where I started my NFL career, and that’s where I’d like to end it. As for my dad, he’s doing great. I appreciate your concern.”

  “And the woman?” A reporter jockeyed for position from the rear of the crowd.

  “No comment.” He plastered on a grin for the flurry of cameras that clicked and whirred. “I’d like to thank all the fans who’ve supported me so faithfully over the years. It’s been an amazing ride. I’ve been blessed to be a part of this team—this community—for so many years.”

  “Wait!” The short, stout guy who reported for the Jacksonville Sun nearly skewered him with a microphone. “Is it the woman you helped with that camp—Thursday’s Child, wasn’t it?”

  Cooper shifted feet and cleared his throat. “I have to go now. Thank you all for coming out today.”

  “Where are you headed, Cooper?”

  The question gave him pause. Where would he go next?

  He grinned mysteriously at the sea of reporters and kept walking.

  I’m not sure where I’ll end up, but I know it’s not here.

  His cell phone vibrated in the pocket of his khakis. He pulled it out to check the caller ID.

  Andy. He pressed the message retrieval and listened to Andy’s grief-stricken voice. His gut clenched, and he knew.

  Home...to Knoxville. That’s where I’m going.

  15

  He came when I needed him most. After a week without so much as a word, Cooper had turned the Mustang into her driveway and rushed up the walk to bang on her front door.

  And without waiting for her to open it, he’d stridden right inside.

  She’d been in the kitchen, scrolling through the contacts stored in Andy’s phone. When she glanced up at the sound of his feet pounding the floor, the worried look in his eyes turned her cold inside.

  “Is Andy OK?” The question brought everything home. The room turned dark and Lexi stumbled under the weight of his gaze. She felt him catch her, ease her down into a chair.

  “Whoa, there.” His hands were warm and gentle, his voice coaxing as he brushed tangled hair from her clammy forehead. “Breathe, Lexi.”

  She couldn’t. She began to choke, and he splayed a hand between her shoulder blades and patted until the coughing subsided and the scent of him—cherries mixed with a familiar outdoor, woodsy smell—filled her.

  “Better?” His gaze found hers when she lifted her head.

  “Yes...a little.” She drew a deep breath, fought the tickle that rose in her throat once more. The room came back into focus and the clamminess turned to heat. “Cooper, what are you doing here?”

  “Andy called me.”

  “What?” She leapt to her feet. “When?”

  “Just before two. He left a message, sounded pretty upset. I think he was crying.”

  “He’s gone.” Lexi told him. “I-I think he ran away.”

  “You think?”

  “No. I know he ran away.”

  “Why would he do that?”

  Just then, Terri strode in carrying a battered paisley suitcase she’d hauled from the car. “Well, if it isn’t Cooper Jackson, in the flesh.” Her voice rang sickly-sweet. “I heard your interview on the radio. Going to Seattle, huh?”

  “What? No.”

  “That’s not what the local radio station reported.”

  Lexi’s belly felt like a rock had just been dropped into it.

  Seattle...as in Washington? That’s clear across the country.

  “We’ll discuss that later.” Cooper dismissed the comment. “Have you heard from Andy?”

  “Not tonight.” She shrugged and dumped the suitcase against a cabinet. “Where should I put this, Lexi?”

  “Right there’s fine, for now.” Exasperation rocked her. “Terri, aren’t you worried at all?”

  “Uh-uh.” She gazed at her reflection in the glass of the microwave door and dabbed at the ripe strawberry-colored lipstick she’d just applied. “He’ll come back. He just does this for attention.”

  Lexi fought the urge to shake some sense into her sister. “I don’t think so.”

  “You go look for him if you want, but I’m staying here.” She slipped into a chair at the table. “Storm’s coming. It’s nasty out there.”

  “How long has he been missing?” Cooper asked.

  Lexi felt wrung out and an onslaught of tears dampened her cheeks. She longed to have him draw her in, to hold her and chase the worry away.

  “I don’t know, exactly.” Lexi’s voice was thick with grief. “I called him for dinner an hour ago, and when he didn’t answer I went in to check on him. That’s when I found his bedroom window propped open, and he was gone. But he’d been in his room for a while, Cooper. He got upset when...”

  “It’s my fault,” Terri tossed in. “I shouldn’t have come back here. This town...I can’t stand it.”

  “There’s no point in placing blame.” Frustration clouded Cooper’s gaze as he glanced at her. The room was filled with the faint odor of stale tobacco that clung to Terri’s low-cut rayon blouse and distressed, faded blue jeans. Years of hard drinking and late-night parties had not been kind to her. Streaks of gray salted dark hair twisted into a messy ponytail that framed puffy eyes and a mottled complexion. “It’s no one’s fault.”

  “Even so...” Terri picked at her nails, and flakes of blood-red polish fluttered to the floor to sprinkle the wood like confetti.

  “It’s getting late, and a storm’s brewing.” Cooper eyed the digital clock on the microwave above the stove. The darkness of night pounced in with a vengeance. “We need to find him—quick. I’ve dialed his cell phone a dozen times since he left the message. He won’t pick up. All I get is voicemail.”

  “That’s because I found his phone in the flowerbed beneath his bedroom window. It must have tumbled from his pocket when he climbed out and got lodged in the azalea bush.”

  Cooper brushed a hand across the rough stubble of beard that covered his chin. “Where would he go, Lexi?”

  “I-I don’t know. I called Brody, and he hasn’t heard from Andy since this morning. So I went through the contact list on his phone and dialed each number. No one’s heard from him. A bunch of the kids were supposed to play football at the park this afternoon. Andy didn’t show up.”

  “He’s done this before.” Terri poured a fresh cup of coffee and settled into a chair at the kitchen table. She kicked her flip-flops off, propped her feet in the chair across from her and sighed. “I wouldn’t get so worked up. He’ll come back. He always does.”

  “Aren’t you worried?” Lexi’s belly tightened with a mixture of shock and regret. “He’s out there somewhere, maybe hurt...at the very least upset and frightened.”

  Terri took a gulp of coffee and reached for the loaf of wheat bread Lexi kept on the counter. “You have any ham and cheese to go with this bread? I’m famished. I haven’t eaten since this morning, and that was just a cold, sorry excuse for a hotdog from the truck stop when I stopped for gas.”

  “Terri, please.”

  “A little mayo would finish things off just fine.”

  Lexi stifled her reply by pressing a fist to her mouth and turning away. The floor blurred beneath her feet as she rushed from the room.

  “Lexi, wait.” Cooper’s tennis shoes slapped the tile.

  She kept walking, through the doorway and onto the front porch. The air was cool with an approaching storm, and wind chimes that hung from a shepherd’s crook in the flowerbed beside the stairs danced and jangled. The scent of lilac mingled with rain, and on the horizon, she saw a curtain of the downpour rolling toward them like a dark wave in the sky. Angry clouds tossed and turned like restless giants, and wind hissed like a snake wrapping itself around them.

  “This is awful, Cooper. I have to find him.” Lexi scanned the storm-veiled Smoky Mountains beyond. “It’s been hours. Do you think he’s gone very far?”

  “No...I don’t know. D
id he take his bike?”

  “I don’t—I didn’t—” She ran to the garage, threw open the door. “No. It’s still here. Thank God.”

  “That’s good.” Cooper paced the length of the porch. “Would he get into a car with a stranger?”

  “I-I don’t think so.” Her belly roiled and the tears began to flow. “Oh, Cooper, I don’t know.”

  “Did he have any money?”

  “No. He left his wallet. I found it on his dresser.” She sobbed as rain began to splatter the roof. “He was wearing shorts and a T-shirt. He doesn’t even have a jacket.”

  The wind picked up, ripping through her light cotton T-shirt. Lexi hugged her arms tight to herself, her teeth chattering as a gust of wind forced the first bullets of rain onto the porch to bite them.

  “Cooper!” Her voice was pleading.

  He took her hand and led her down the front steps. “Let’s get in the car, drive around and see...”

  “OK.” Lightning electrified the evening sky, and Cooper sheltered Lexi beneath his shoulder as he opened the Mustang’s door for her and helped her in. Thunder crashed as she watched him slip into the driver’s side and crank the engine. The car rocked as the earth shook around them, and Lexi cried out.

  “It’s going to be OK, Lex.” He backed down the drive beneath a waterfall of rain. The car’s headlights barely put a dent in the growing blackness and Lexi’s eyes strained to see through the dark, soupy mess. “Sit back, put your seatbelt on.”

  “Be careful, Cooper.” Droplets of water dripped from her hair and ran down her back. She shivered under the blast of the defroster that fought to keep the windshield clear. “I’m scared.”

  This isn’t happening.

  Lexi gazed out the window through a curtain of rain that sluiced down the glass, turning everything she saw to a distorted illusion.

  “I don’t think he’d come this far,” she murmured as Cooper sped over the Henley Street Bridge. “At least, I hope not.”