Small Town Girl

by Ann H. Gabhart

  “Heartless Kate.” Evie was still smiling.

  Kate dropped her head so Evie wouldn’t see how those words hurt her.

  Evie put her arm around her shoulders and gave her a little shake. “I didn’t mean it, you nut. You have the biggest heart of anybody I know. Except Mike, of course. But you, Kate, you love everybody. Just look at Lorena still thinking you’re an angel half the time. And what about Graham? Anybody who can love that old man and his mangy dog has to have a big heart.”

  “Graham’s a great guy.”

  “Yeah, I know. You’ve been telling me that for years.” Evie rolled her eyes. “He needs to take more baths, is all I’m going to say.”

  “Well, that could be. But he says Poe doesn’t care how he smells.” Kate stared down at her hands and pushed out her next words. “Do you think that’s the way I’ll end up? Never finding somebody to love?”

  “Good golly, no. You’ll find somebody right for you someday, Kate.” Evie stood up and pulled Kate to her feet. “And then you’ll know what I’m talking about. How loving somebody can make you feel like you’re floating on butterfly wings.” She laughed again and spun Kate around with her. “Divine. I think that’s going to be my new favorite word.”

  Just then Lorena pushed open the bedroom door and ran in, her face lit up with excitement. “Kate! Kate! Tanner’s here. Mike brought him home with him.”

  “Tanner?” Evie looked puzzled. “Have you gotten a dog?”

  Lorena put her hand over her mouth and giggled.

  “What’s so funny?” Evie asked.

  “No dog, although Lorena would like that. She means Jay Tanner, Mike’s friend. His best man at the wedding.” Kate tapped her finger against Evie’s forehead. “Remember? Dark hair, brown eyes.”

  “Devil-may-care look. Not the kind of guy I thought would show up as Mike’s best friend, I have to admit. I guess I didn’t remember his name.” Evie frowned a little at Lorena. “Why are you calling him Tanner?”

  Lorena slid her eyes over to Kate as she said, “He told me to.”

  “And I told you Mr. Tanner would be better.” Kate gave her a stern look.

  Lorena ducked her head, but her grin didn’t disappear.

  “What’s he still doing here? I thought Mike said he was on his way to Chicago or somewhere to look for work,” Evie said.

  The men’s voices were drifting back to them from the porch where they must have settled down to talk. Kate’s father laughed, and then there was the familiar sound of Mike’s voice and the lower tones that belonged to Jay Tanner. Kate’s heart did a funny little chug at the sound. She’d been avoiding him all week, but she couldn’t very well slip out the back door and run away from her own house. She’d have to sit at the supper table with him looking at her and remembering how she’d almost let him kiss her.

  “He found work here.” Kate kept her voice casual. “He’s helping Graham paint Mrs. Harrelson’s house.”

  Lorena laughed again. “Tanner says he doesn’t think Graham’s too interested in getting the job done. He says Graham must be sweet on Mrs. Harrelson. Either that or he likes the sugar cookies she’s been baking for them.”

  “I’d bet on the sugar cookies,” Kate said. “Graham’s not about to let any woman catch him.”

  “No,” Evie agreed, wrinkling her nose up. “He might have to take a bath.”

  The screen door slammed and then Mike was calling, “Where’s my beautiful wife?” He came back into the bedroom, his face lighting up at the sight of Evie. He grabbed her close to him and dropped a kiss down on her lips as though they’d been apart for days instead of less than an hour.

  She pushed him back. “Mike, the girls.”

  He looked at Kate and Lorena and then lowered his voice to a stage whisper as he turned back to Evie. “You did tell them we’re married, didn’t you? Oh that’s right. They were there.”

  “Oh, stop being silly.” Evie hit him lightly on the arm.

  “Never will I stop being silly over you.” He was staring straight into Evie’s eyes.

  Kate could see Evie almost melting against him. She put her hand on Lorena’s shoulder. “Maybe we’d better go see if Mama needs help setting the table. Did you tell her we had an extra guest or is Jay staying to eat?” Kate looked at Mike.

  “Of course he’s staying,” Mike said. “I told him your mother might have made a brown sugar pie.”

  “Nope,” Lorena said. “Apple dumplings.”

  “Even better. He’ll think he’s died and gone to heaven,” Mike said. “He says he’s been living on bologna and beans. I figured he’d been down here begging supper every night, but he says not. Says he’s just been hanging out with Graham and his old dog. But Graham was headed out to the woods to sit on a log somewhere and pretend that Poe wasn’t too old to track down a raccoon tonight. So Jay was at loose ends.”

  “He didn’t want to go hunting with Graham? I can’t imagine why not.”

  “Me either,” Kate said, with none of Evie’s sarcasm. She wished she were sitting on that log beside Graham, listening to his stories while they waited for Poe to start baying somewhere in the woods.

  Mike laughed. “Jay never was one much for hunting four-legged creatures. He was more interested in girl chasing. Come to think of it, I’m surprised some girl hasn’t already made eyes at him and talked him into taking her somewhere. Jay’s never had trouble getting girls. Keeping them maybe, but not getting them.”

  Lorena piped up. “Oh, the girls have been after him. Graham says they’ve been parading past Mrs. Harrelson’s house every afternoon, but Alice Wilcher is the worst. Graham said he had to drop paint on her head the other day to get rid of her.”

  “Drop paint on her head? How did he manage that?” Kate tried not to laugh, but the thought of Alice with paint running down her head was too much. Alice’s father was a lawyer in Frankfort, and she was always letting everybody else know how much better her things were than anybody else’s. So maybe she had some better shampoo.

  “I don’t know. But he did. Said she was a mite upset.” Lorena laughed too.

  “You two are terrible,” Evie said. “Poor Alice.” But she couldn’t keep from laughing with them.

  “Girls, girls,” Mike called them down with a smile that gave lie to his words. “Show a little compassion. Alice isn’t that bad.”

  “Oh yes, she is,” Kate and Evie said in concert.

  “I hear compassion has been in short supply this week around here anyway.” Mike looked straight at Kate.

  “Oh?” Kate knew what he was talking about, but pretended not to. If it had been anybody but Mike, she would have said she didn’t want to talk about it, but you couldn’t tell a preacher that, or a new brother-in-law.

  “I hear you gave poor Carl the old heave-ho. His mother ran me down at Mr. Blackwell’s. She says he’s feeling pretty low about leaving for the Navy and other things too, I’m thinking.” Mike lifted his eyebrows in a kind of unspoken question.

  “I’m sure he’ll tell you all about it, and if he doesn’t, plenty of others here in Rosey Corner will be delighted to let you know all about your heartless sister-in-law.” Kate couldn’t keep an edge of bitterness out of her voice.

  “Maybe I’d better squeeze out some time for a talk with you too.” Mike had his pastor face full-on.

  “I’m fine, Mike.” The last thing Kate wanted to do was talk about her love life or lack of one with her new brother-in-law. “Really.”

  “She is, Mike,” Evie said. “And if she needs to talk, I’m here.”

  “Me too,” Lorena added, wrapping her arms around Kate’s waist.

  “The Merritt sisters. Arms linked, an invincible force against the world.” Mike shook his head as he turned Evie toward the door. “Come on. Jay will think I got lost. Then again, he might not have even noticed. He and your dad were talking H. G. Wells.”

  Evie groaned, but Kate hoped they’d keep talking science fiction books. Creatures from the deep or outer space
were better than everybody wanting to know about Carl. Or her.

  She started on back to the kitchen, but Lorena grabbed her arm and pulled her toward the porch. “You’ve got to say hello. Tanner asked about you as soon as he got here.”

  “That he did.” Mike’s smile faded a little as he looked at Kate like he’d just thought of something that was worrying him. Like maybe there might not be enough apple dumplings for everybody.

  Kate lifted her chin. She wasn’t afraid to look Jay Tanner in the face again. She had no idea why her throat was feeling tight and her heart was beating up in her ears. She had absolutely no reason to feel nervous. For one thing, she had no intention of being alone with him again. That way she couldn’t be tempted the way she’d been the day of the wedding. The best way to stay out of trouble was to avoid it. That’s why she’d been doing a disappearing act every time she caught the first glimpse of Jay Tanner all week. That’s why she hadn’t been to see Graham once even though she missed talking to him. That’s why she was plastering a smile across her face now when she couldn’t go out the back door and stay out of sight of his laughing brown eyes. She’d never been around a guy who made her feel so uneasy.

  The book talk didn’t keep him from standing and fastening his eyes on her as soon as she stepped through the door. Lorena tugged her across the porch toward him.

  “See, Tanner. I told you she was here.” Lorena looked back at Kate. “He thought you might be off on a date or something.”

  “Not tonight.” Kate smiled politely as she met his eyes. She couldn’t just stare at the floor all night. “So glad you could come join us for supper, Mr. Tanner.”

  “Mr. Tanner?” Mike laughed behind her.

  Jay laughed too, but he didn’t shift his eyes from Kate to Mike. “Miss Merritt and I have a very formal relationship. Comes from meeting at a wedding all dressed up in fancy clothes, I suppose. But I did think we’d decided to be on a first-name basis.”

  “Just trying to set a good example for Lorena,” Kate said. “She seems to keep forgetting the mister in your name.”

  It got too quiet on the porch then. An uneasy quiet that matched the unease inside Kate. Even her father was looking at her like he was noticing something about her he hadn’t ever seen before. The only one who didn’t seem bothered was Lorena. “Daddy says it’s okay if Tanner says it’s okay.”

  “Birdie and I have an agreement on names.” Jay flashed a look between Lorena and Mike and then settled his eyes back on Kate.

  Lorena giggled. “Evie thought I was talking about a dog when I said Tanner was here.”

  Jay laughed, an easy sound that somehow reached out and made the uneasy feeling vanish. “Tanner. That is a good dog’s name. I’ll have to remember that if I ever get an old hound like Poe. Or could be, I’ll get a girl dog and name her Birdie.”

  “I wish I had a dog,” Lorena said. “I’d name him Scout.”

  “Maybe someday, Lorena,” Daddy said. “If we put up a fence to keep him off the road. Cars go by here too fast.”

  Lorena pulled a sad face. “Poe doesn’t get run over.”

  “Poe never leaves Graham’s shadow,” Kate said. “You know that.”

  “I could teach Scout never to leave mine.” She looked over at Daddy.

  Kate noted the beginning of a worried frown on his face. He didn’t like to deny Lorena anything. “Dogs aren’t always that easy to train, but like Daddy says, someday.” She put her hand on the girl’s shoulder. “We’d better go help Mama now.”

  Her mother put the extra leaf in the kitchen table to make it bigger, but they were still elbow to elbow as the nine of them sat around the table. Sammy and Tori had been over at Graham’s pond fishing, but showed up in time for supper. They didn’t have enough chairs, but her father brought in a milk can and Lorena perched on its top at the corner of the table right next to Jay Tanner. She was captivated by him. Completely captivated.

  Talk and laughter filled the kitchen. Nobody seemed to mind being a little crowded or that the heat from the cookstove lingered in the air. A kind of sparkle of happiness hung over the table. A growing family together. A visitor welcomed. Kate didn’t say much. She simply soaked in the good feel. There’d been times not too long ago when meals weren’t always easy. That was before her father quit drinking.

  Kate hardly ever thought about those times anymore. The times when she’d had to help her father into the house and to the couch after he’d been out drinking. She looked at her father at the head of the table now, smiling, proud, sober for good. Her parents had forged a new and stronger partnership of love after they’d taken Lorena into the family. And now they were taking Mike in, and not so far from now, Sammy would be marrying Tori. They were planning on the day after Tori graduated from high school.

  Tori would probably beat her to the altar. Maybe Lorena too. In spite of Evie saying that Kate would find the right man to love, Kate had no assurance that would ever happen. Not as long as she stayed in Rosey Corner, and how could she leave? She belonged in this place. She wasn’t someone like Jay Tanner, who could drift from place to place because he had no roots. She had roots. Deep roots.

  As if he knew she was thinking about him, his eyes settled on her. Then Lorena was slipping off her makeshift chair and coming around to put her hand on Kate’s arm. “Please, Kate. Say you will. Please.”

  Kate had been so deep in her own thoughts that she hadn’t paid attention to what was being said at the table. “Say I will what?”

  “Go to the matinee tomorrow. Tanner says he’ll take me, but Mama says I can’t go unless you go too.” Lorena jerked on Kate’s sleeve. “You have to say yes. They’re showing that new movie, The Maltese Falcon. You said you wanted to see it and now you don’t have Carl to take you.” Lorena made a little face. “Guess I shouldn’t have said that. But please, Kate. Please, pretty please.”

  Kate looked across the table at Jay.

  “It’s just a movie.” He shrugged a little.

  She could feel the others watching her with some of that same uneasiness that had been out on the porch. She decided this time she’d be the one to make it go away. “Sure, why not? Sounds like fun.”

  Jay smiled and everybody started eating the apple dumplings again. The only one whose smile didn’t come back right away was Mike. He was looking at Jay with the nearest thing to a frown Kate had seen on his face for weeks.

  When they finally pushed away from the table and her father and the other guys headed out to the porch, Mike hung back to hand Kate his dirty plate. “Maybe we better have that talk after all, Kate. Think you can show up a few minutes early to church in the morning?”

  “I guess.” Kate stacked his plate on the others she was taking off the table. “But Mike, I couldn’t marry Carl. I know everybody feels sorry for him and thinks I led him on, but I didn’t. Not really. I kept telling him we were friends.”

  “This isn’t about Carl. There’s something else I need to talk to you about.” He kept his voice low, as though he didn’t want anybody else to overhear them.

  “Why can’t we just talk here?” Kate piled some forks and spoons on the plates.

  “Some things are easier to talk out when nobody else is around.”

  Kate gave in. “All right. I’ll be there.” Kate had been called in for stern lectures and prayers plenty of times while her Grandfather Reece was the preacher, but never before had Mike thought it necessary to pray over her. Then again maybe this was nothing to do with her, but something about Evie. Something he needed to know to keep Evie thinking divine thoughts.

  Could things get any more uncomfortably confusing?

  11

  I should have let Evangeline talk to you.” Mike shifted his eyes away from Kate’s face and ran his fingers over the Bible he was holding.

  Kate had shown up early for church the way he’d asked and found him waiting for her out by the rock fence between the church and the cemetery. Not exactly a private spot, but his church members knew not t
o bother Mike if he was under what they called his praying tree.

  Mike had on his pastor face, the one everybody in Rosey Corner loved. A kind face. Not condemning. Concerned. Mike loved his people. Faults and all. He worked hard to help them figure out ways to get past those faults and begin a better Christian walk, but he didn’t make anybody feel that a backward step was going to end any chance of God loving them.

  But now standing with her in the shade of the big oak, he seemed at a total loss for words. She’d heard him pray plenty of times, though not usually for her and her alone. His words were generally simple but sincere. Something like Aunt Hattie’s prayers but with a touch of preacher formality in them. Aunt Hattie had a way of raising her eyes toward the sky and talking to God like she could see him sitting right there on his throne chair, bent down listening.

  Kate was beginning to wish Aunt Hattie was standing there in the shade of Mike’s prayer tree with them. She’d get things going. Kate tried to think of what Aunt Hattie might say, what Bible verse she’d pull out to bring the Lord’s words into the conversation, but nothing came to mind. Instead Kate waited while Mike shifted uneasily on his feet and stared out toward the cemetery.

  Finally she couldn’t keep from prodding him. “Is it something about Evie? Has she been wanting to buy too much? She’s sometimes not too sensible about money.” Kate was fishing for something.

  Mike looked back at her and smiled. “No, no. I don’t care what Evangeline buys. I’d get her the moon if I could.”

  “Then what are you wanting to talk to me about? If it’s not Carl and it’s not Evie.” Kate frowned up at him. People were showing up for Sunday school and sending curious glances back their way.

  “I should have talked to Jay instead of you.” He let out a long breath. “This is making me feel like a heel.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean that I love Jay like a brother, but that doesn’t mean I’d want my sister to fall for him.” Mike placed his hand on her shoulder and fastened his eyes on her face. “Jay’s not your settling-down kind. I don’t want you to get hurt, Kate, and I think that could happen if you start going out with Jay.”