I nodded and felt ready to cry. “Tina … I’m so sorry about everything … for how I treated you, and the way I ditched you for Alex. That wasn’t right. It wasn’t right at all.”
“No,” she said. “It wasn’t. But I always thought he was a sweet guy.”
“He was,” I said, glancing at the sidewalk. “We’re not together anymore, though.”
Tina was quiet, and I wondered if she was coming up with the responses I deserved—things like It serves you right and What goes around comes around. I braced myself as I stared at cracked concrete, but all I heard was a sigh and, “I’m sorry to hear that, Savannah.”
She knew me well enough not to push, not to ask questions, to just let me be. I shifted my gaze from the ground to her face. “You know what?” I couldn’t help but say. “Friends like you don’t come along every day … sometimes they never do … and I forgot that for a while.”
She stared at me, taking everything in. “I’m glad you finally remembered. I accept your apology, but I owe you one, too … I shouldn’t have let my father speak to you the way he did. I was so angry about everything that I let him. It won’t happen again, though.”
I smiled, feeling a gleeful rush of forgiveness. Mom was right when she said Tina and I could never stay apart for long. “Does that mean we’re back to being friends?”
“Yeah,” she said, “if you want to be.”
“Of course I do. And I’m not visiting, Tina. I moved back because some horrible things happened, and…” I stopped. I couldn’t even talk about it.
Tina took a step forward and squeezed my hand. “You don’t have to explain. I read the celebrity gossip blogs, remember? By the way … I think my dress looked fabulous on you. Yankees have no damn taste.”
Damn. Not GD or dang or darn. She’d really made progress. I laughed, she slung her arm around my shoulders, and we took Raylene with us to Wholly Cow across the road, where we escaped the heat with peppermint stick ice cream and lemon twist sorbet as we talked for hours. Then it was dinnertime and Tina had to take Raylene home, so we walked back to the strip mall and our cars.
Raylene slid into the BMW and Tina was just about to when I clutched her wrist to stop her. Everything had been mended and I didn’t want to risk ripping the stitches apart, but there was something I needed to say.
“Tina,” I began, “I want you to know you shouldn’t share any man. You’re too good for that. And there’s a wonderful guy out there somewhere who’ll treat you right. You just have to be patient until he comes along.”
The parking lot was bright and the asphalt was hot beneath our feet, but I saw in her eyes that she remembered a dark night and cold bathroom tiles, when she’d put herself in a position far beneath her. Tony wasn’t a concern anymore, but Charleston was filled with men who made me worry just as much.
“Yeah,” she said with a nod. “I know. It took a push—literally—for me to figure that out, but I have. As much as it hurt, I’m glad it happened. And I’ll find the patience to wait.”
She ducked into the BMW and promised to call me tomorrow. I stood there and waved as she drove away, wondering if saying that had felt as good as hearing it and thinking the simplest words sometimes mean the most.
*
When I walked across my porch, I heard voices in the house and followed the noise to the kitchen, where Mom was sitting at the table with a plate of fried chicken and Kitty Stone.
My jaw dropped. I stood frozen in the doorway. They didn’t see me at first—they just kept chatting while Mom swigged lemonade and Kitty nibbled a drumstick. The floor creaked beneath my feet, and Kitty and Mom glanced at me.
“Hey, darlin’,” Mom said, rising from her chair. She draped her arm around my shoulders and led me to the table, where she sat down and plunked me into the seat beside her. “We were just having some girl talk about a few things … including our experience with Stone men.”
“We’ve found that certain tendencies seem to be in their genes,” Kitty said, and she and Mom smirked at each other like they were members of an exclusive club. It was utterly surreal yet sort of poetic. “But like you, Joan, I won’t tolerate those tendencies. And I have Savannah to thank for bringing them to my attention. That’s why I’m here.”
Thank me? I thought she hated me. I shook my head, baffled. “But you said—”
“I know.” Kitty looked guiltily at the floor. “I know what I said, and I regret it. I was caught off-guard, Savannah. What you told me was a total shock … and people say things they don’t mean when they’re upset.”
That was true, but I was still surprised she’d come all this way just to see me. And she looked good, so much better than she had when she stormed out of The Plaza’s ballroom. She seemed relaxed and refreshed, dressed in white Capri pants and a sleeveless red top.
“You were trying to be a friend,” she said. “Ned put you in an impossible position, and you didn’t deserve any blame for it. It took some time for me realize that … but as soon as I did, I asked my father’s pilot to fly me down here. I couldn’t wait to tell you that I’m sorry.”
I sighed, feeling as relieved as I had when Tina and I patched things up. “I’m sorry, too. I never meant to take advantage of you at work. I just got wrapped up in so many new things that I wasn’t myself.”
She nodded, touching her left hand where her wedding ring used to be. “I understand,” she said. “And it’s all forgiven. So when are you coming back to Femme?”
I was surprised again. “Are you still working there? I mean … you and Ned…”
“… are getting divorced. But we’re ironing things out maturely. I’ll still have Femme, and you know I can’t keep it going without the best assistant I’ve ever had.”
Mom’s eyes moved between me and Kitty, and I didn’t know what to say. I’d thought New York wasn’t an option anymore, but Kitty had lit a tiny spark of hope. It made me think I actually did have something left in that city. But then I remembered everything that was wrong, the things Kitty couldn’t fix, and that little spark fizzled out.
“You’ll have to,” I said. “I can’t afford New York anymore. As you know, I broke the deal. The inheritance was contingent on my staying there, and I didn’t. All the money is gone.”
“No, Savannah,” she said. “It isn’t.”
I lifted an eyebrow, perplexed. “Of course it is. What are you talking about?”
Kitty leaned forward, clasping her hands against Mom’s vinyl tablecloth. “After I found out that you left, I called Ned to salvage the situation. I convinced him that I sent you down here on assignment for an unspecified period of time. So as far as he knows, you’re still an employee of Stone News … and you haven’t broken the deal.”
My mouth fell open and stayed there for a moment—not only because I hadn’t lost my inheritance but also because Kitty had still been looking out for me in spite of what happened between us. But even though the cash was back, there was no way I could show my face in New York. “I still can’t go back, Kitty. I’ve been publicly humiliated.”
“Oh, come on,” Kitty said. “Are you going to let that blog nonsense get the better of you? I’m sure you’re not the type to hide from this sort of thing.”
I thought of junior high, Eva Lee, my story on the Internet. I’d locked myself in a bathroom stall while my classmates laughed, but I didn’t stay inside forever. I’d crawled away for a while, but then I got right back on that football field and cheered.
“Is that your biggest reason for not coming back?” Kitty asked.
“No,” I said, glancing at Mom. “It’s the smallest.”
Mom didn’t say anything. She just got up from the table and started washing dishes at the sink. Kitty sighed and sat back in her chair.
“Well,” she said, “as much as I wish you’d reconsider, I can’t pretend I don’t understand why you want to stay here. And I respect you for it, Savannah.”
I smiled. Kitty reached for her purse and stood up from her c
hair.
“Even so,” she went on, “I’ll get a temporary assistant and hold your spot open for a while. It’ll be there until the end of September … in case you change your mind.”
*
Before Kitty left, she put something on the kitchen table—an advance copy of Femme’s October issue that I couldn’t bring myself to open. It reminded me of everything I’d abandoned—including Alex, who wasn’t easy to forget. So I just left it there, and even though I didn’t explain anything to Mom, her maternal radar must have kicked in, because the magazine was gone in the morning.
That night, I sat with her and Tina inside a booth near the front door of Melvin’s Legendary Bar-B-Q—a restaurant that had been around forever and served the most delicious chopped-pork sandwiches and fried okra. I normally would’ve devoured my dinner, but tonight I just pushed it around my plate. I wasn’t hungry, and my rash was flaring up. It was bumpy and warm and spreading toward my elbow.
“Want to share some banana pudding for dessert?” Tina asked.
Mom rubbed her hands together. “Share?” she said with a laugh. “I want my own.”
“None for me,” I said as I glanced across the restaurant and saw Eva Lee. She was holding a grease-stained doggie bag and heading in my direction with her usual Mount Pleasant entourage.
I looked away and stared at the remnants of Tina’s sweet potato soufflé, but it was too late. Eva Lee had spotted me, and she stopped at my booth on her way to the door and put on her very best Melanie Hamilton Wilkes act. She asked her friends to wait outside, and she was all sweet and polite and innocent when she stuck out her hand to show off the gold band that matched her engagement ring.
“We’ve been newlyweds for three weeks,” she told us.
“Congratulations,” I made myself say, keeping my eyes on Tina’s plate. I could barely stand Eva Lee’s flowing red hair and her cute freckles and the giddily prideful smile on her face.
“I heard you fell into some luck and moved to New York. How’s it going up there?”
I looked at her. Her smile had turned into a smirk. She’d probably also heard that I was back for good, and I was sure she’d seen my online bashing and couldn’t have loved it more. But that probably wasn’t enough. She seemed to be aching for me to admit I’d lost in every possible way. Oh, things just didn’t work out and it’s all for the best. That’s what I’d always been afraid of, what I’d never wanted to say, and I couldn’t say it now. I couldn’t say anything. All I did was scratch my rash.
“Savannah’s doing just fine,” Mom answered, glancing at my nails clawing my wrist.
“She couldn’t be better,” Tina added.
I was grateful for that, but my guardian angels couldn’t shadow me forever to protect me from Eva Lee and her kind. The thought of dodging nosy questions for the rest of my life made everything feel like it was closing in on me—the walls, the booth, Charleston in general.
I made it through dinner, collapsed into bed early that night, and slept late the next morning. When I woke up, the house was quiet except for the sound of birds chirping and our porch swing creaking. I went outside in my nightgown and my bare feet and found Mom sitting on the swing, staring across the street through the hazy air. I plopped down beside her.
“What are you doing?” I asked. “Don’t you have any customers today?”
“I canceled all my appointments,” she said, and turned toward me. Her curls framed her face, and the lines in her forehead creased as she stared into my eyes. “Last night, I told Eva Lee that you’re doing fine. But the thing is … you’re not. You’re not fine at all.”
“Of course I am,” I said, scratching my wrist.
She grabbed my arm. “Savannah, when have you ever had a rash like this?”
“I don’t know … maybe when—”
“Never, that’s when. This is a nervous condition caused by anxiety and depression and stress,” she said assuredly, like she was a dermatologist with a bonus psychology degree. But I didn’t argue, because she was probably right. I shrugged, and she moved closer to me. “You’re pretending you’re okay to make me feel better … and to make yourself feel better. The truth is you’re in the same spot you were before you left … only now it’s worse because you’ve had a taste of something more.”
I wasn’t sure how to answer, but I didn’t have to. She sprang off the swing and went into the house, slamming the screen door behind her. She came back a moment later with the October Femme in her hand.
“I always knew you could do this, Savannah.”
I sighed and looked across the street at one of our neighbors hosing down her driveway. I didn’t take my eyes off her until Mom sat next to me and put the magazine in my lap.
“I’ve always told you not to settle,” she said. “And that’s exactly what you’re doing now. It’s partially my fault, but I’m going to fix that by telling you to go back to New York. You’ll never have an opportunity like this again.”
“I know,” I admitted, staring at Spanish moss hanging from a tree branch. “But I can’t.”
“You only think you can’t. You think you have to stay here with me because I didn’t approve of you going up there in the first place. But I was wrong about that. I was selfish and stubborn and completely wrong.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I shifted my eyes from the moss to Mom.
She sat up straight. “I’ve been thinking about it, and it seems to me that Edward felt you’d bring some fresh blood into his company and turn it around. I know you’ve started off small and his other kids are in charge, but that could change. You’ve got a whole lifetime ahead of you for things to change. And maybe by leaving you his money and bringing you to New York, he was trying to make amends. He wanted to do the right thing … and I do, too. I think you should let us.”
It was the first time my parents had done something together, something especially for me, and that meant something.
“I know you won’t let all that Internet stupidity keep you down,” Mom went on. “You’re gutsier than that. You’re stronger than I ever was … I never had enough courage to even visit New York. I should’ve admired you for going the first time … but at least I do now. I called Kitty, and she’s arranging for her father’s plane to pick you up tomorrow. So go back up to that city and show everybody what you’re made of. Let them see that a Morgan is stronger than a Stone.”
She was right. I couldn’t let anything keep me down. I had to go back.
I nodded, Mom squeezed my hand, and we sat quietly for a few minutes, staring across the street and rocking the swing together as mourning doves cooed in the trees. A young boy sped past on a bicycle and I remembered when I used to zip around Charleston like that, on my bike that had been left for so long in its lonely corner.
“Mom,” I said finally. “Did Aunt Primrose really have a good heart?”
She stopped rocking and stared blankly at the boy disappearing down the street. Then she turned toward me, and her lips spread into a wistful smile. “Yes,” she said. “He did.”
I was relieved to hear that from someone who knew for sure. “When Kitty was here,” I went on, “you were laughing about what Stone men are like.”
She reached out and gently pushed my hair behind my shoulders. “It’s a choice, darlin’. We can laugh or we can cry.”
That was so true. “But your relationship with Edward wasn’t a joke,” I said cautiously, feeling like I was digging into a part of her life she’d never wanted me to touch. “Was it?”
Her face turned serious, but she didn’t get angry or storm off like I’d feared. “No, Savannah,” she answered after a moment. “It wasn’t. I loved your father. He was just … so real.”
My throat tightened. Your father. She’d loved him. I’d never heard those words come out of her mouth until now, and they sounded like the prettiest song.
“That’s what he said about you,” I said, and she gave me a quizzical look, deepening the lines in her fore
head. “At least … that’s what his lawyer told me.”
“Really,” Mom said. “Well … then maybe it’s time I told you a few things, too.”
I wasn’t sure if I should be excited or terrified. “Okay … like what?”
“Oh,” she said, moving her eyes toward the thin white clouds that streaked the blue sky. “Like how many good times Edward and I had together … and that before or since I met him, I’ve never felt happier with anyone … except you.” She looked at me again and smiled. “He and I were both looking for something … and I hadn’t expected to find it in a bar, of all places.…”
I laughed. “Did he give you a smooth come-on line or something?”
She shook her head. “He wasn’t that way. It was very innocent, actually. He was in Charleston on business and I was having a girls’ night out with some friends from cosmetology school … and he just stopped in for a drink. We started talking, and he was respectful and funny and so interesting … and that gorgeous hair didn’t hurt,” she said, touching mine again. “Letting him go was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, Savannah. But I couldn’t turn against everything I believed in just to hold on to that man. I wouldn’t do that for anyone.”
“Yeah,” I said slowly. “I know what you mean.”
She smiled and rested her hand on mine. “I guess I was wrong to keep him from you. But he was so busy with his work—it was like an addiction—and I thought it would be better for you to have no father at all than to have half of one. I didn’t want him coming in and out of your life, splitting what little time he had to spare between two families. I thought it wouldn’t be good for you, but … maybe I made a bad choice.”
I shook my head. Who was I to judge her choices? She’d been a few years younger than me when everything happened, and she’d probably been confused and scared and it would have been tempting to take the easy way out. And if she’d done what Edward had wanted and moved with me to New York, I would’ve grown up with everything that money could buy, but I might have turned out as screwed up as Jack and Ned.
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