Brave the Storm, Season 2, Episode 3 (Rising Storm)

by Lisa Mondello

  “Maybe. Maybe I’m just sensitive. Or maybe my hormones are just running wild. These days I never know.”

  Marisol came in from the kitchen. “Hey, when did you get here?” she asked with a smile when she saw Ginny.

  Marisol loved having her home again, although she wasn’t so happy about the reason. She looked at Ginny and then Max. “When you said you were waiting for someone, I didn’t realize you were waiting for my sister. Let me get you both something hot from the oven.”

  “Thanks, Marisol,” Ginny said.

  Marisol grabbed a mug from the shelf and turned around to ask, “So who’s your friend, Ginny?”

  “I’ve talked about Max before,” Ginny said. “You might have met him at Jacob’s funeral. Jacob, Brittany, and I were friends with Max at college.”

  “Right.” Marisol made a face that showed her embarrassment. “You were Jacob’s roommate. Honestly, there were so many people at his funeral, I don’t remember seeing you.”

  “That’s okay,” Max said.

  “What can I get for you, Max?”

  “A soda is fine.”

  “A muffin too? These are Ginny’s favorite.”

  “Sure thing.”

  Ginny licked her lips. “I swear I’ve eaten about a hundred of these since I found out I was pregnant. I can never resist them.”

  Marisol’s expression turned sympathetic. “You and Jacob were close?”

  Max looked at Ginny and then at Marisol. “I met Jacob the first day on campus. And then he introduced me to Ginny and Brittany.” He glanced over at Ginny. “We all thought it was a crazy coincidence that they came from the same town where my great-grandmother lived. I never came to Storm much when I was a kid but I do remember how much I liked it here. We were all pretty much inseparable. Became best friends. I planned on coming down here to visit over the summer. Then the accident happened.”

  “Then I’m sorry for your loss. So I guess you know that Ginny and Jacob were best friends for years.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  He looked at Ginny and gave her a bittersweet smile. “That’s why I’m glad I can be here for Ginny.”

  Ginny glanced over at Marisol, who was considering what Max had said. Max was a good friend. And Ginny couldn’t afford to take any friendships for granted. She’d lost so much due to her own immaturity and naiveté.

  Her mind immediately went to Logan. She’d lost a man she’d come to love and thought she might have a future with. Just thinking about Logan made her heart twist with pain. She’d loved Jacob. But as a friend. Logan was different. They’d grown so close and shared so many emotions that Ginny still couldn’t believe she’d managed to trash everything with her lies.

  “Earth to Ginny,” Max said, leaning across the table. She’d been so lost in her thoughts about Logan that she hadn’t realized Marisol had put a cup of hot chocolate in front of her along with a blueberry and raspberry muffin, one of her favorites.

  “Sorry. Thinking about Logan.” Ginny sighed, wondering if she’d made a mistake telling Max everything. But she so needed a friend. She reached for the muffin and immediately pulled off the top, loving the part with all the sugar and cinnamon on it. She popped a piece of it in her mouth. Usually one of her sister’s famous muffins was enough to ease at least some of the pain she was feeling. But this time, it just tasted like sugar. She swallowed hard and then put the rest of the muffin top on a napkin.

  “I take it you haven’t talked to him since everything happened?” Max asked.

  Ginny shifted in her seat uncomfortably. These days she no longer needed to use an excuse when she showed discomfort because people just assumed it was because she’d become so fat and pregnant.

  She leaned back and placed her hand over her stomach. “I’ve tried. He won’t talk to me. And I don’t really blame him. What I did was inexcusable. I don’t think he’s ever going to forgive me for not telling him the truth.”

  Max shook his head. “People aren’t perfect, Ginny.”

  She chuckled wryly. “Yeah? I don’t even come close. I messed up big time. And Dakota Alvarez was only too happy to tell the whole town about it. Although…I can’t blame her. She was…used by Sebastian Rush just as much as I was. It’s easy to look back and see how it happened. It humiliates me to even think about it.”

  With the mention of the senator’s name, Max winced. “How did that even happen?”

  She sighed. “I really don’t want to revisit it. Do you mind?”

  “We don’t have to talk about it ever again.”

  “Thanks. Do you remember that time we were all supposed to go to that mixer at the frat house off campus?” Ginny chuckled as the memory came back to her. It was their first semester on campus. “Jacob had just started dating that crazy girl. Oh, what was her name?”

  Max laughed. “How could you forget? Fifi. Jacob said her curly hair made him feel like he was dating a poodle.”

  Ginny chuckled. “He never told me that.”

  “Okay, maybe it was me who said it. But he never disagreed.”

  “That one didn’t last long but I sure remember that night of the ‘almost’ mixer.”

  “And the flat tire in the car with no spare tire and no jack stand.”

  Ginny laughed louder. “In the middle of nowhere and Fifi not being able to get service on her cell phone and yelling at Jacob to push the car until she was able to get some bars on her phone so she could call AAA.”

  Tears filled Max’s eyes as he laughed. “It’s a real shocker they didn’t last that long.”

  “Yeah, I was happy when she was no longer around.” Ginny played with her muffin top. “Do you remember you and Jacob and me and Brittany watching The Twilight Zone every night sitting on that old, ugly sofa you brought to the dorms with you?”

  “The one with the springs popping out under the cushions?”

  “How could you forget? I kept having to shift positions to keep from getting poked by springs.”

  Max’s lips tilted to one side. “I never minded. You sat closer to me.”

  Ginny took in his words and quickly dismissed them. Jacob had told her once that Max had confided in him that he thought of Ginny as more than a friend. But nothing had ever happened between them, and Ginny had never had those kinds of feelings for Max.

  “That sofa was ridiculously ugly though, huh?”

  “What did you do with it when you moved out of the dorms?”

  “We had it in the apartment we rented, but then it got so bad we had to burn it. Me and a few of the guys cut it up in about a hundred pieces and had a big bonfire.” Max reached across the table and picked up a piece of her muffin, then quickly ate it. He made a face that showed his approval. “These are good.”

  Ginny pulled her plate with the muffin toward her. “Eat your own. This one is mine. You had a bonfire? You could have gotten arrested for that.”

  “Almost did. Someone called the fire department and when they showed up, we told the fire chief that we’d been studying late for finals and one of the desk lamps fell into the sofa cushion. It caught on fire so we had to take the sofa out to the backyard to save it from burning down the house.”

  Ginny laughed. “And he believed you?”

  “I don’t know. He seemed impressed. I just think our story was so brilliant that he gave us a pass.” Max smiled and took a sip of his drink. “Those were the good old days.”

  A feeling of sadness enveloped Ginny as she felt the baby move inside her. Little Bit could be Jacob’s baby. She so wanted it to be. Maybe. But she wouldn’t know for a while.

  Max reached across the table for her hand.

  Leaning forward, she gave his hand a squeeze in thanks.

  “What is it?”

  “I just really miss Jacob. I wonder sometimes what he’d be saying to me now after everything that’s gone on.”

  “He’d be there for you no matter what. I’m just really glad you called me. I’m glad I can be here for you.”

  The
bell over the door rang. Both Ginny and Max turned to see who was coming through. As soon as Ginny saw Logan’s face, she snatched her hand away.

  “Logan!”

  His eyes were like ice as he glared at her from the doorway. It was all deserved. He’d opened himself to her completely about his struggles and she hadn’t done the same. She’d held back. She could argue that she truly believed that the baby she was carrying was Jacob Salt’s. She had no idea that Jacob was infertile.

  But that was beside the point. She hadn’t been honest. She realized now that it wouldn’t have been easy for Logan to hear about her affair with Sebastian Rush. Things may not have moved in the direction they had between them. But she should have at least given Logan the chance to hear the truth and come to terms with it. Her omission was a lie even if she hadn’t uttered the words.

  His eyes remained fixed on her for a moment and then turned to Max.

  She stood up from the table. “Logan, have you met Max?”

  “I’m not here to see you, Ginny,” he said flatly. “Or your friend.”

  Her breath caught in her throat as she stifled a sob. When was it going to get easier to see Logan? Would there ever be a time when he wouldn’t hate her as he did now?

  Logan walked to the counter where Marisol was busy putting out pastries she’d just taken out of the oven.

  “Hi, Marisol,” Logan said. “My mother sent me over to pick up something special you were making for her?”

  “It’s in the refrigerator out back. Someone having a birthday tonight?”

  “Just a customer from out of town. I don’t know who it is. She wants to have a little family party at the pub tonight and you know my mother. She volunteered to organize it.”

  “Well, that was nice of her. Give me a second and I’ll be right back with the cake,” Marisol said, pasting on a smile for Logan. As Marisol slipped into the back room, Ginny could see her sister struggling to remain professional even though she knew Logan’s brush-off was killing Ginny.

  Ginny had done this. She’d been the one to create this. She’d brought this on the family and now her sister’s business could suffer because of it. Sure, Sonya Murphy wouldn’t hold it against Marisol that Ginny had lied to her son. But Sonya Murphy couldn’t buy enough cakes and pastries to keep Cuppa Joe afloat.

  The tension in the room was palpable and more than Ginny could stand.

  Look at me, Logan. But he wouldn’t.

  When it became too much for Ginny, she blurted out, “I’ll see you at home, Marisol.” Logan didn’t turn to look at Ginny or Max when they both stood up to leave. “I’ll see you, too, Logan?”

  He didn’t answer. It was as if she wasn’t even there. And maybe that’s what it had come to.

  “Come on, Ginny,” Max said, holding the door open for her.

  She looked back once, just to see if he would turn to look at her. Then she let Max lead her out the door and walk her down the street to her car. She’d wait to cry, because she knew the tears would come again. She just wouldn’t do it in the middle of Storm where people could see her. She wasn’t about to give them more talk. She’d already given them enough to last a lifetime.

  Chapter Eight

  Logan felt the rush of hot air against his back and willed himself to keep from turning around. Who the fuck was this guy with Ginny? Had she already found someone else to lie to?

  Marisol came in from the back room with a sheet cake in her hand. “What do you think?” she asked, showing him the cake.

  He didn’t care about the damned cake. He wished he hadn’t even come here to pick it up. “It’s fine.”

  “Fine? Since when has one of my cakes been just fine?”

  Logan shrugged and pulled his wallet out of his back pocket. “How much do I owe you?”

  “I’ll just put it on your mother’s account.”

  “Fine.”

  He watched as Marisol carefully placed the cake into a box.

  “It’s good to see you, Logan,” Marisol said, closing the box. She reached for the tape dispenser on the counter, cut a small piece, and secured the box.

  Then she pushed it closer to the end of the counter.

  He should say something. But Logan didn’t really know what to say to Marisol. She was Ginny’s sister.

  “I’ve been busy.”

  “That’s bullshit and you know it. You’re avoiding Ginny because you’re hurt.”

  He drew in a deep breath and reached for the box, but Marisol put her hand on his, stopping him.

  “She’s hurting, too, Logan,” she said. “I know you don’t believe that because you think she somehow did this on purpose. But she didn’t. I know she loved you. She still loves you.”

  “Really? It didn’t look that way to me,” Logan said.

  Marisol frowned. “You mean Max?”

  “I don’t care who the guy is. I don’t want to know anything about it.”

  “He was Jacob’s roommate and Ginny’s friend from college. As far as I know, that’s all they are.”

  She let go of the box and Logan quickly retrieved it from the counter. “Well, we don’t always know everything. Do we?”

  His heart pumping, Logan pushed through the door to the sidewalk and started walking back to Murphy’s. Ginny was a damned liar. There was no way to move on from that. But no matter what Marisol said, it looked like she already had.

  Logan just wished it didn’t feel like a kick in the gut.

  * * * *

  Anna Mae glanced out the window once again at that fool of a man who still sat in the truck. He had the windows down, which meant that he wasn’t running the a/c, but it was unseasonably hot today, and she knew he had to be melting in the cab, especially since he was used to Nashville weather, and it tended to be at least ten degrees cooler than central Texas this time of the year.

  Still, his comfort was hardly her problem. She’d kicked the habit of worrying about Chase Johnson years ago and she wasn’t about to start up that addiction again.

  She grabbed a rag and started wiping down the counters.

  Then again, it would be terribly inconvenient if he got heat stroke. After all, if she let the man die right there in front of the house, that would be terrible for the business she and her sister worked so hard to build.

  Telling herself she was only watching out for the B&B, she grabbed a bottle of cold water from the refrigerator and then headed out the kitchen door. The chrysanthemums she’d planted last week in the side garden patio had taken root and were starting to grow. But she couldn’t appreciate the fruits of her labor until she got rid of Chase.

  As she approached the truck, she saw that now the driver’s side door was open and one of his boots was on the pavement. The closer she got to the truck, the more he came into view. The passenger side window was open and he was fiddling with something in the front seat of his car.

  Well, at least she wouldn’t find him dead. The sooner Anna Mae could get him to close the truck door and drive away, the better she’d feel.

  “What the devil are you doing outside my house?” she said when she finally reached the truck. She peered in the passenger’s side window and immediately was taken aback by what she saw. It was a little kitten, probably no more than a couple of months old. Her heart melted.

  “Yours?” he asked.

  “What? No. We don’t have any cats here. Where did you find him… her… whatever?”

  He picked up the kitten and pressed his lips to its nose. Then he inspected its parts before placing it back in the cowboy hat. “I think it’s a her. But I’m not sure. I found her running back and forth in the road a little ways down the street. If I’d been driving any faster I would have hit her.”

  “What was she doing in the road?”

  “Chasing a field mouse that was intent on not being caught. She wasn’t paying attention.”

  Anna Mae’s irritation gone, she opened the passenger side door and inspected the little kitten who was curled up inside Chase’s cowb
oy hat.

  “Is that bottle of water for me?” Chase asked.

  “Uh, yeah, I brought it out for you. I thought maybe you were… Oh, it doesn’t matter. Here.” She handed him the bottle of water, which he opened right away. But instead of taking a sip of the water himself, Chase poured a few tablespoons in the palm of his wide hand and offered it to the kitten. The kitten stood up inside the overturned hat and went straight for the water, lapping at the liquid until it was gone.

  “What are you going to do with her?” Anna Mae asked.

  “I don’t know. Why don’t you take her?”

  “Me? I can’t have a cat here. Some of our guests are allergic to cats. Beside, Rita Mae will have a fit if she starts scratching the furniture.”

  Chase poured a little more water in his hand and offered it to the kitten. “Well, I guess I’m just going to have to take you home with me, little one.”

  Feeling the sun beating down on her head, Anna Mae said, “You? What do you know about taking care of another living creature?”

  He glanced up at her and smiled. “I grew up on a ranch, didn’t I?”

  She shrugged, feeling slightly foolish for her quick judgment. “It’s been years since you worked on a ranch, Chase. Did you have a dog or cat when you were in Nashville?”

  He shook his head. “I couldn’t. The hours I kept were too crazy to know when I’d be home to take care of a pet. Maybe my brother’s grandkids will have fun playing with her out in the barn. I’m sure they’d like that.”

  Chase picked up the kitten again. She looked impossibly lost in his hands. She was so tiny. So vulnerable. And he held her so gently.

  Oh, Lordy, Anna Mae, he was just holding a cat.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked.

  He put the kitten on his shoulder. “I should think it’s obvious. I came to see you.”

  “Again? Why do you keep doing this, Chase? I don’t know how to make myself more clear than I’ve been. What we had was over a long time ago and there is nothing left for us to say to each other. We’ve lived a lifetime without each other. I don’t want to see you.”