by JM Dragon
†
Thea paced up and down the lobby. It was nearly eleven. She wasn’t sure if Joanna had overslept, forgotten her, or decided against the invitation. What should she do? Should she go and knock on the door and ask? Maybe she should go out and work in the garden?
She stopped pacing and stared at the empty corridor that housed her guest’s room, shaking her head. She gave a bitter laugh to the empty lobby. “Why would she want to spend any time with me anyway? She is obviously popular with the men in town and that isn’t surprising. After all she is a very beautiful woman.”
Her stomach was grumbling and Thea felt a little sick. Normally she had eaten by eight in the morning, but she’d been far too nervous about this breakfast date that she had been unable to eat anything and had only managed one cup of coffee.
Finally making a decision, she retrieved a coffee from the lobby’s coffee urn and went to a door marked private, which led to her office and the outer door to the yard. After putting the coffee cup on the small table close by a wrought iron chair, she sat down with a heavy sigh and looked around the yard. It was full of blooming flowers and the sounds of birds singing. It created an area for her to relax and enjoy some peace in a place away from her problems. Closing her eyes, she tried to rid herself of the hurt she felt at the rejection, for that was exactly how it felt.
Jo skidded to a halt in the lobby and was disappointed that Thea wasn’t around.
“Shit, I’m too late,” she murmured.
She couldn’t help but feel angry with herself. She had awakened around ten and decided to snooze ten minutes more. That ten minutes had turned out to be forty-five and a quick shower and dragging on clothes still hadn’t made up any time, for it was now eleven fifteen.
The enticing aroma of the always freshly brewed coffee in the lobby made her wonder why Thea would provide the service. To the best of her knowledge, she was the only person staying at the motel. There had been less than five overnighters in the place in the three weeks she’d been a resident there. Coffee appeared to be a luxury that Thea could well do without if the circumstances that John-Henry had briefly explained to her the first night she performed at the bar were anything to go by. She moved to the coffee machine and poured coffee into a cup and added sugar.
While sipping from the cup and relishing the taste of her first drink of the day, her eyes caught the blonde head of Thea sitting outside in the yard. It looked like she was also drinking coffee. Jo looked around for the door that led to the yard and became frustrated not seeing one. She decided that her only option was to knock on the glass pane that overlooked the yard. Jo rapped sharply on the pane of glass, hoping that Thea would hear her. No luck.
“Knowing my luck, if I hit it any harder it will break,” she muttered.
†
Thea, feeling deeply melancholy about her aborted breakfast with Joanna was contemplating what to do next. The singer had certainly gotten under her skin and in a big way. It brought memories of her life to the forefront.
Her early upbringing had been reasonably stable and happy. Her mother had left her father when she was ten years old. She ran off with a ‘salesman’ as her father always called him. Her father had loved her dearly and he’d tried to make up for his only parent status. He sent her to private school until she was fourteen and finances became tough. Going to a university wasn’t an option even though she had the grades. His gambling and drinking had brought about his ruin by then and they had quickly lost everything but the motel.
When her father died, there was a hefty mortgage on the motel. Her one hope had been—as calculating as it sounded—the insurance money from the life insurance policy that her father had taken out. Yesterday the insurance company informed her that they would not pay the claim since there was strong evidence that her father committed suicide. Now what would she do? She couldn’t counter the claim since she had no money.
The sound of rapping on the glass of the lobby brought her head sharply around. For Thea it was like the sunshine coming out after a rather gloomy dark start. She was staring into the eyes of the most improbable protector you could possibly hope to have. It brought her heavy heart soaring. She rapidly moved out of her chair, went back through the exit of her private office, and into the lobby.
“You’re here,” she gushed.
†
Jo had watched the sadness on the blonde’s face leave as soon as they locked glances. It was a profound feeling of relief that went through her chest at the sweet smile Thea gave her. Her eyes followed the blonde as she left the yard and within seconds appeared in front of her.
“Hey, I’m sorry I’m late. I overslept.” Well that had been a partial truth anyway. She didn’t exactly want to look stupid by saying she’d been lazy and decided to go back to sleep.
“That’s okay. That’s fine. I kinda wondered if that was the case. I did keep you awake after all,” Thea said happily.
“I guess.” Jo smiled before drinking the remains of her coffee. “Yours is the best coffee I’ve ever had.”
“Thank you. Would you still accept my invitation to eat? It might be more like lunch now, but I’m sure that’s more in keeping with your routine anyway.”
Jo looked at the nervous woman in front of her closely. Something that was familiar was drawing her to the woman. She wasn’t exactly sure why, but it wasn’t an unpleasant feeling. It was as if she’d always felt a protective mode concerning Thea. It was weird, because she certainly hadn’t met Thea before. What was even stranger was her offer to protect another human being.
“Lead the way, Thea. I could eat a horse.” Jo smiled engagingly and watched in fascination, as the blonde seemed to lose her nervousness and gain confidence at those few words.
“Lucy’s Diner is three doors down. How about there?” Thea turned anxious eyes toward Joanna.
“Great idea. I go there every day. I think Lucy knows all my likes and dislikes in the food area by now.” Jo chuckled and went to stand next to Thea.
“Let’s go then. I can’t have you starving to death. You are my only paying guest.” Thea chuckled.
Jo noticed Thea turn a faint shade of pink as she held open the door that led to the outer street. Wow, not only was she being protective now she was being chivalrous also.
What am I coming to? Inwardly she laughed.
†
As they walked amiably to the diner, Thea saw several locals, mainly men, looking in their direction. One of them seemed to be especially interested in watching their progress to the diner. As they entered, Thea saw him out of the corner of her eye as he moved with speed toward the bank. She sighed heavily.
That’s all I need. Another visit from George Andrews. It would only give me indigestion.
“You okay?”
Thea gave her a weak smile. “I’m good…” she paused for a moment. “I saw someone I’d rather not see today…ever actually.”
“Good thing that you are with your protector then.” Joanna gave her a warm smile. “Smells good in here, as always.”
“Yes, it does and I’m famished.” Thea pointed to a booth in the corner. “Let’s sit there.”
Joanna nodded and guided Thea to the empty table.
†
Lucy Evans, a plump motherly woman, was the sole owner of the diner ever since her husband Kent died of a heart attack ten years earlier. They never had children, so everyone who used the diner frequently became a member of her family. She watched as the newest member of that family came into the diner with one of the oldest members.
When Jo had appeared in her establishment three weeks earlier, Lucy’d sized up the younger woman as arrogant with the self-confidence to match. Normally that type of person didn’t do well in towns like Danvers. John-Henry had hired her to sing and from what she heard from others, the woman was certainly good at that. In a town starved of young women, she certainly did offer a stunning sight. Within a week, Jo’s eating habits had been deciphered and during the following weeks, the
y had developed a friendly rapport.
Now, the woman who had all the young men champing at the bit to take her out on a date was talking amiably with Thea Danvers, the motel owner. They obviously would know one another since the motel was the only place for out-of-towners to stay. What surprised Lucy the most was that the two women were socializing. In all the years, she had known Thea, she’d never seen her socialize with anyone. It was common knowledge that the banker George Andrews had staked a claim on her and warned off the other men in town.
Obviously no one told Jo that.
She beamed at the two of them as she headed for a table. “Hi, girls. What can I get you today?”
“Hi backatcha, Luce. I’m having an early lunch with Ms. Danvers here,” Jo said.
Lucy saw Jo’s hand resting on Thea’s shoulder and gave her a friendly smile.
“Well, I have the steak special that’d I’d recommend, but if you girls need something lighter, well, I can….”
“No. No, that sounds good to me,” Thea jumped into the conversation.
“Then count me in also,” Jo said.
“How do you want the steak, Thea?” Lucy asked. It was rare she came into her diner. When she did, she always sat away from prying eyes and scribbled in a notebook as she ate two helpings of apple pie and drank coffee.
“Well done for me, Lucy.”
“Well done it will be then. I don’t need to ask you, Jo. Medium rare about cover it?”
“Yep, that about covers it. If you need me to help with the serving, give me a holler.” Jo grinned at her.
“Comin’ right up.”
†
Thea was astonished at the friendliness that emanated between the two women. She was surprised, but happily so when she felt Joanna’s hand rest with what seemed a natural occurrence on her shoulder.
“You know this is the same table I sit at every time I come in here,” Joanna said.
“Why this table?” Thea asked, intrigued.
Joanna seemed to be scanning the occupants of the room.
Thea looked, too. There were four men eating. She didn’t know any of them by name.
“Ah, well, I like to see everyone in the room. I don’t like surprises, but I also like my privacy and this affords both.”
“That’s exactly why I sit here when I come in for a meal.” Thea grinned at Joanna.
“Great minds, then.”
“Can I ask you a question?” Thea asked tentatively.
“Sure. I can always refuse to answer if I don’t like the question.” Steel blue eyes captured her.
Thea cleared her throat. “How old are you? When did you become a singer? Where are you originally from? Have you any family? Have you ever—”
A slim finger rested on Thea’s lips and she looked into twinkling eyes.
“I thought you said a question, not twenty?” Joanna laughed softly.
“Sorry, I guess I got carried away.” Thea could feel her face heat up and she looked away.
“Yep, you sure did.” Joanna’s finger traced a pattern on the cotton tablecloth. “No need to be sorry.” A gentle smiled filled her face. “You know, you’re cute when you blush.”
Thea could feel her face get hotter.
“I’m thirty-five. I’ve been singing since I could talk. Probably before then, if you listen to my mother. I was born and raised in a suburb of New York City and both my parents are living and I have a younger brother. I’m single, never been married and never likely to be either with my track record,” Joanna answered in a lighthearted tone.
Thea grinned. “Thanks.”
“No problem. Now it’s your turn. I’m still waiting for why you’re named Thea.”
Thea chuckled. “It will sound crazy but I’m kind of named after a silent movie actress who was quite famous in her time. Theda Bara. They got rid of the d and here I am.”
“Wow. Okay, I’m going to go all nerdy on you now. Wasn’t she in the early movie version of Cleopatra?”
Thea nodded vigorously. “Do you like…no, too many questions already unanswered.” She looked away suddenly conscious of being alone with Joanna. “I’m twenty-nine, my parents split up when I was ten. My father’s dead and my mother remarried and ironically, she lives somewhere in New York too. I’m an only child. I can’t sing to save my life. I’m single and have never married either.” Thea was surprised at her light tone, which reflected the ease with which she could talk to Joanna.
“That gets the preliminaries out of the way at least. So what do you do for fun around here?”
“Fun? Fun. Hmmm. Well, I…I suppose I write.” Thea looked down at her hands.
“Write about what exactly?”
Thea looked at the table, picked up a napkin absently, and twisted it. “Poetry and short stories. Nothing very good. I tinker at it more than anything else.”
“In that case, would you allow me to read some of it so I can be the judge of the quality?” Joanna asked.
Thea moved her head in neither a positive nor a negative way. She didn’t know what to say. This was all foreign to her.
Joanna’s hand reached out and stopped her shredding the paper napkin. “Can I take that as a yes?”
Thea felt the warmth and surprising comfort in the hand on hers and it felt right. “Yes.”
“How about I buy lunch tomorrow and you can bring something along for me to read? What do you say?”
Green eyes tangled with blue and a message passed between them that Thea didn’t understand—but felt it was nonthreatening in its content. “Okay. I’ll look forward to that.”
“So will I.” Joanna grinned.
Lucy chose that moment to deliver their meal. “Here you go, ladies. Enjoy.”
“Thank you,” Thea said. “It smells and looks wonderful.”
For the next hour, she chatted with Joanna as old friends did, or what she thought old friends did. She had never had a friend before. When they left the diner, it was clear to her that, no matter what happened next, she had found a friend—a good friend. In her heart, she knew that Joanna felt the same way.
Chapter Six
George Andrews sat down heavily on the worn, but comfortable sofa in what a stranger would find as a surprisingly elegant motel. He knew that with a lick of paint on the outside and a little renovation inside, it would be a fantastic place. Just that small attention to detail would bring more people into town to stay rather than pass it by. The motel in the next town twenty miles away was poor inside by comparison but it didn’t look like it was suffering from depression on the outside.
Some of the locals wanted to help Thea paint the place when her father had died but he’d blocked all attempts by using devious but effective methods. Once he had some of his friends indicate that the bank might call in all the loans if anyone helped Thea and the offers stopped. He smirked, remembering the faces of John-Henry and Lucy, two who had spearheaded the motion to help Thea. At first, others had agreed, only to gradually decline helping without explanation. He couldn’t touch either of them from the bank angle, but he sure could make it difficult for others in the town if they helped.
Thea was his. No one and nothing would get in his way to have her. What aggravated him further was when he saw her eating with that whore singer from the bar. Why John-Henry had employed a drifter was beyond him. No way would he let that bitch get in his way either. Thea would marry him and soon. Now that the insurance company had refused payment, it was only a matter of weeks before she acquiesced.
The door to the motel opened and he heard the harsher tones of the drifter before he heard the tinkling laughter of the woman he was waiting for. That annoyed him even more. What did that bitch say to make his woman laugh?
“Who told you all those jokes?” Thea had her face turned to Joanna.
George scowled as he watched them.
†
Jo had seen the fat man in the lobby’s expression aimed in her direction. From experience with others in the past, she knew exactly
what it meant. She looked at Thea and seriously doubted that she understood the feral look of possession. She smiled gently at Thea and shook her head. “That would be telling, now, wouldn’t it?”
“Oh, please, Joanna?”
Thea’s pleading green eyes made Jo want nothing more than to answer her. She knew who the man was, since both John-Henry and Lucy had pointed him out as the bastard banker.
“You have a visitor.” Jo pointed to the man and watched as Thea turned. Her smile froze. Instantly, Thea’s posture became apprehensive.
“Mr. Andrews, what a surprise,” Thea said politely.
Jo looked at the man, who rolled out of the comfortable chair before moving slowly in their direction. “Thea, my dear, I need to speak to you. Privately.” The last word resonated around the lobby as his voice moved up a tempo.
Thea looked at her with pleading eyes. They planned to have coffee in the yard together but Jo knew that her friend had little choice but to comply with the man’s request. Jo watched Thea’s body sag and she instantly wanted to protect her from the horrible man. She had no choice, knowing that to interfere would only make matters worse for Thea.
“Go ahead. We can take a raincheck on the coffee.”
Thea let out an audible sigh, her eyes still begging for a reason and it called to Jo. She turned away, only to make a swift decision and place her hand on Thea’s shoulder. She bent and whispered into the blonde’s ear. When she saw the smile she wanted, she left her to the bastard banker.
†
Thea watched Joanna’s receding back and smiled gently at the sight. Joanna’s words had made her feel safe and happier about the situation she was facing. All she said was remember you have a protector. The simple words soothed her troubled spirits when she saw George Andrews. In her heart, she felt that everything was going to be okay. If Joanna Lackerly was around, she knew she was safe and protected.
What else was missing? Love was the resounding answer.
“Mr. Andrews, please step into my office.” Thea closed her eyes briefly before heading for her workplace.
†
