Surry lifted her hands in surrender. “Maybe I used the wrong word. I am simply suggesting that since you disappointed your father on the first campaign you worked with him on, you might have—” she spaced her index finger and thumb about a millimeter apart “—a teensy-weensy bit of fear about disappointing him again.”
Ian’s head was too fuzzy to process what Surry was trying to communicate to him. He’d eaten half of his steak and all of his potato. He was full and ready to sleep. But he didn’t want to go back to his room. So he asked, “Do you mind if I lay on my picnic blanket? I need to get some sleep.”
“Let me get you a pillow.” She jumped up and grabbed two pillows off the bed and then found another blanket in the closet. She handed Ian the pillows.
“Thanks,” Ian said as he lay down on the floor.
She bent down and put the cover over him.
He grabbed her arm, smiled and said, “I like the way you take care of me. Do you want to get married?”
Surry fell on her backside at Ian’s words. Her hand went to her mouth as tears glistened in her eyes.
Ian might have been drunk, but what he’d said had come from the heart. He wanted to grow old with Surry. But he also knew that he had to take care of some things before he’d actually make her a good husband, so he said, “I really should have waited on that, huh?”
Surry took her hand down. “Did you mean it? Or is that just the alcohol talking?”
Ian took Surry’s hand in his. “I’ve never wanted anything more in life than to be your husband. But it’s not like I have a job. My career just blew up, and right now it seems as if I need to give some serious consideration to what I want to be when I grow up.”
Her brows furrowed and she removed her hand from his. “You already have a career, Ian.”
He waved that suggestion away. “That’s my father’s career. Maybe I need to become a professor or something. What do you think?”
* * *
She thought the same thing that had been ingrained in her since she was a child. No thirty-something-year-old man who was still trying to find himself was good enough for Sylvia McDaniel’s daughter.
Surry sat in front of Ian, watching while he slept. He’d asked her to marry him. Even drunk, those words from Ian’s mouth sounded like music to Surry’s ears. But tears rolled down her eyes as she heard her mother say, “He’s still trying to find himself. Do you really want to hitch your wagon to a dreamer with no direction?”
“He has direction,” she tried to silently argue with her mother as tears continued to fall. She gently touched his hair and ran her hands down to the base of his neck. “You made me love you,” she said to his sleeping form.
“Do you want to end up like me, a bitter old woman because of living in poverty with a dreamer?”
Still fighting this battle with her mom in her head, she silently said, “But I’ve got money. And once my contract goes through, I’ll have even more.”
“He’ll squander it, Surry-girl. Listen to your mama. I’ve been where you’re going...run, don’t walk out of this man’s life, and don’t you dare look back.”
Closing her eyes as another tear dropped, Surry got up off the floor, put her suitcase on the bed and began packing her clothes. Her mother had won the battle once again. She needed to go home and get as far away from Ian as possible.
* * *
Ian grunted, rolled over and then grunted again. His eyes flickered as they began adjusting to the morning light that was streaming into the room. He lifted an arm and yawned. As his eyes opened and he wiped the sleep from them, he realized that he was on the floor. “What in the world?” He got up and stretched his stiff body.
Ian then looked around the empty room. That’s when he remembered that he’d stayed in Surry’s room last night. “Surry!” he yelled.
When he didn’t get an answer, he walked over to the bathroom, holding his pounding head. Ian knocked on the bathroom door. No answer. He checked the knob and found it unlocked. Opening the door, he peered in with a sneaky grin on his face. She wasn’t there, either.
Ian turned around and then stood in the middle of the floor with fists on his hips and a perplexed look on his face. Ian tried to remember exactly what happened last night. As his eyes continued to roam the room, he noticed that her clothes were no longer hanging in the open closet and her suitcase was gone.
He grabbed his cell phone and dialed her number. When it went to voicemail, he said, “Hey, I’m in your room, but the funny thing is, you aren’t here. Can you give me a call and let me know what’s going on?” He hung up and looked around the room again.
“She left me. But why?” His head was killing him as he tried to put it all together. He sat down on the bed, rubbing his temples as a thought came to him. “I asked her to marry me last night.”
Chapter 12
“Wake up and open the door, girl.”
Surry heard the banging on her door, but she remained on her couch, hoping that whoever was there would just go away. She’d spent the entire night crying and wasn’t up for company of any kind.
“We came over to celebrate with you.”
It was her girls. Ian must have told Noel that she had left Charlotte, because both Ryla and Danetta had called first thing this morning. She hadn’t answered, but she never expected them to show up at the house. Surry blew her nose and then wiped her eyes. She got up and opened her front door.
“Why weren’t you opening the door?” Ryla asked as they walked in.
“I was asleep. But y’all kept banging on the door and woke me up.” Surry went back to the couch, lay down and pulled the covers up to her shoulders again.
“What’s going on with you? Why are you sleeping out here on the couch?” Danetta asked.
“Why so many questions? Can’t I sleep wherever I want in my house?”
Ryla put her hands on her hips as she examined the living room. “Have you been crying?”
Surry hopped up and grabbed all of the used tissue she’d thrown on the table and the floor around her. “I’m just a little upset,” she said as she rushed the tissue to the trash can in the kitchen. When she came back into the living room, Danetta and Ryla had removed her cover and were sitting on her couch, giving her the eye.
“We’ve seen you upset, Surry. But you’ve never cried until your eyes were puffy and red or been so disheveled—” Ryla pointed at Surry’s hair and clothes “—as you’re looking right now.”
Surry couldn’t help herself. The tears just kept coming, as unwanted as ever. Wiping them away again, she said, “I’m not having a good day.”
“Ah, sit down and tell us what’s going on.” Danetta took hold of Surry’s arm and seated her between her and Ryla. “This should be a good day for you, hon. John Michael recanted his lies, and I’m sure your contract will go through now without any problems.”
“I know. You’re right. But I’m not upset about anything John Michael did. This cuts so much deeper.”
“Oh, honey, what’s wrong?” Ryla put her arms around Surry and hugged her.
“I fell for him.”
Her words came across as mumbles. Danetta handed her some tissue as she asked, “What did you say?”
Surry blew her nose again and wiped away her tears. “I’m in love with Ian,” she shouted.
“That’s no reason to cry. Ian is crazy about you. I’ve heard him and Noel talking, and trust me, Surry, you have nothing to worry about.”
“I wish that were true, Ryla.”
Danetta waved her hands in the air. “Hold on. I’m confused. When you and I spoke on the phone yesterday, it sounded as if you had come to terms with your feelings for Ian and you were happy about it.”
“I was.” Surry wiped the tears from her face again as she added, “Then Ian changed on me.
”
“What do you mean?” Ryla asked.
“I didn’t know that loving someone could hurt this much,” Surry said as she leaned her head back against the couch. Her friends were silent, allowing her time to get her thoughts together. “I’m sorry for acting like such a freak.”
“Just tell us what happened,” Danetta cajoled.
“He found out that his dad helped him get a client and he totally flaked out on me. Got drunk and started talking about giving up his business to become a college professor or something else. It didn’t sound like he was sure what he wanted to do anymore.”
“And?” Ryla questioned.
“And that’s it. I can’t be with someone who isn’t serious about his business and wants to follow one new idea after the next.”
“Ian is very serious about his business. He has been managing political campaigns since leaving college. From what Noel told me, this is the only job Ian has ever really wanted,” Ryla told her friend.
“It sounds like Ian is trying to cope with some issues he has with his father,” Danetta said.
“Aren’t we all,” Surry said bitterly.
The look on Ryla’s face clearly indicated that she didn’t understand what her friend was going through. “Surry, I don’t mean to upset you, but it sounds like you bailed on Ian just because he had a bad day.”
“My father put his family through a lifetime of bad days. He’s always trying out new business ventures that do nothing but fail. My mother has lived a miserable life because of him.”
“What does that have to do with you and Ian? He’s a good man, Surry. Don’t let him go like this.”
“Ryla, I wish it was that simple. But I can’t be with a man who has no direction.” Surry jabbed at her head with her index finger. “My mom put it in my head that any man on a quest to find himself is just a bum like my father and he’s only going to make my life miserable.
“I have tried so hard to stay away from men like that. I even stopped dating altogether because no one ever seemed to measure up to my mother’s standards.”
Danetta put a hand on Surry’s shoulder. “You can’t live your mother’s life, Surry. What she and your dad had might not have worked, but that doesn’t mean that Ian’s going to make you miserable.”
“Ian is passing up a chance to work on a presidential campaign, an opportunity he’s worked his whole life to obtain, simply because he’s mad at his father. If that isn’t screwed up, I don’t know what is.”
“Yeah, but if you love this man, you need to help him figure out who he is during the good times as well as the bad,” Ryla said.
Surry’s head rocked from side to side. “I don’t have time to fix anybody. I’m too busy trying not to live in poverty so I can continue providing for my mother.”
“But you love him, Surry,” Danetta reminded her.
“I don’t know what to do. I can’t deal with irresponsible, fly-by-the-seat-of-their-pants men.”
“It sounds to me as if you first need to deal with the issues you have with your father and this fear you have of not being provided for,” Danetta said.
“That’s great armchair psychology. But I don’t know what to do about my father, either.”
Danetta said, “I have learned to trust God to see me through any problem that I face. So, what I think we should do is pray about this situation.”
Surry believed in the power of prayer, so she held out her hands so that she and her friends could join hands and pray.
* * *
Ian stepped into his office like a man on a mission. He’d allowed his father to turn him into a blubbering buffoon of a drunk. And Surry had ripped his heart out, after he’d gone so far as to ask her to marry him. He’d called her countless times, practically begging her to respond to him, but Surry wasn’t answering his calls or returning his messages.
Ian needed to resurrect his career, so he didn’t have time to chase after a woman who didn’t want to be caught. The last thing he wanted was to look at Surry like a lovesick pup as that guy in the airport had done. He just hoped that a whole lot of work would ease the ache in his heart.
It was time for him to get back to being Ian Duncan, man of the hour. He had just helped Noel Carter win a congressional seat when nobody thought it was possible. He might have just dropped the next president of the United States from his client list, but Ian was prepared to find other clients. Last night, he’d lamented about finding another career. But in the light of day, he realized that he wasn’t doing this just to follow in his father’s footsteps. Ian truly enjoyed his career. He had an eight-year plan that was designed to move him in the circles he needed to be in to get that top political client. Ian wasn’t a quitter. All he had to do was work his plan, starting now.
Seated behind his desk, Ian began reviewing notes on his iPad. Before Governor David Monroe contacted him, Ian had a list of six potential clients: one gubernatorial candidate, a senator up for reelection, three congressional races and one mayoral candidate.
The potential governor was gone; he’d found a campaign manager last week. The senator was still interviewing. From what Ian saw and heard about his last campaign, the manager had been arrested for soliciting a police officer, so the senator was being extra careful with his selection this time. Ian put a check mark next to his name.
Of the three congressional races, only one was a reelection. Guiding a candidate through a reelection was sometimes easier than introducing a new person to the field of politics. But Ian happened to know that the congressman would soon find himself defending a charge of misappropriation of campaign funds. Ian wanted nothing to do with it.
Even though he was interested in at least one of the two men running for Congress, those were still pretty much local races, so Ian decided to pass. The mayor, however, was a different story. He was Hispanic, a go-getter with political aspirations through the roof. After serving as the mayor of Houston, he planned to run for governor, and then he wanted to set his sights on the White House.
Demographics were changing in Texas, to the point where Ian actually thought that this particular politician had a shot at becoming governor...and then president of the U.S. of A. Ian put a check mark by his name and then said to himself, “Work the plan.”
He started making phone calls and setting up meetings. He didn’t need a handout. He was going to make his own success and change the world, one campaign at a time.
Chapter 13
After church on Sunday, Surry was supposed to do the normal brunch thing with her girls, but she was being led in a different direction, so she begged off and headed three and a half hours down Interstate 45. There was someone she needed to see in Dallas, and it couldn’t wait another day.
She parked her car in the shopping center, got out and started walking to her destination. So many of the shops that had once lined the street were now gone, replaced by other businesses, and based on the traffic she noticed at this shopping center, it didn’t seem that these businesses had much staying power, either.
Her father’s dress shop was around the corner. As she turned the corner and headed for Mt. Blue—she had no idea where he came up with the name—Surry thought about the fact that she had left home ten years ago and hadn’t talked to her father since except to say, “Can I speak to Mom?” He had failed her by not providing for his family and forcing her to depend on student loans to get through college.
The closer she got to her father’s dress shop, the more her heart began to ache for the way she’d treated a man who’d done nothing but love her. After praying with Danetta and Ryla, Surry did some real soul-searching, and that search led her to the door she was standing in front of right now. Taking a deep breath, Surry stepped inside the dress shop. The shop was half the size of her boutique, but it was nicely decorated, and where other shops in this shopping cen
ter seemed empty, customers were looking around in her dad’s place.
She didn’t know how many of them were actually paying customers, but he was obviously attracting shoppers into his store. She wasn’t sure how he was doing it, but, go Dad! Willy McDaniel was standing behind the cash register waiting on a customer. He looked up, glanced at Surry and then did a double take.
Surry was nervous. She didn’t know how to act around her father. She waved and smiled at him, hoping that was enough to let him know that she wasn’t here to start drama. He smiled back and then called to a young woman on the opposite side of the room. She walked behind the cash register and took over for her father. He then rushed over and wrapped his arms around her.
“Surry! Surry! I’m so happy to see you.”
It felt good to be in her father’s arms. As she lingered, Surry finally realized that denying her father love had also played itself out in other areas of her life. She was generally uncomfortable around people and refused to allow anyone other than Danetta and Ryla into her inner circle. And her love life was a total mess. Surry ran from every man she’d ever been involved with.... Let him sound too much like her father, and she was out of there.
“Can I talk to you for a minute, Dad?” Surry asked as the embrace ended.
“I’ll have as much time as you want in a few minutes. We’re about to close up, so if you just let me finish with a few of these customers, we can grab some dinner and talk for as long as you like.”
Surry nodded. “Sure, Dad. I’ll just look around while I wait.” She hated the fact that she felt uncomfortable around her own father. But ten years of barely speaking would cause a rift in any relationship. She stepped away from her father and began looking around the store. He had good taste, she could say that much for him. The dresses were quality material. Surry just wondered how long these outfits stayed in the store waiting on a buyer.
As she moved from rack to rack, Surry was surprised to discover that her dad had a section of Designs from the Motherland in his small store. Her mother had never told her that they were selling her designs. Surry wondered at that, and as she did she remembered how her mother had been ready to believe the worst of her in thinking that she had stolen those designs.
The Best of All Page 10
