The House on Sandstone

by KG MacGregor

  The boy looked away. "I…I’m sorry."

  "That’s what I wanted to hear. And I don’t ever want to hear about you sneaking in the movies again. If you and your friends don’t have enough money, you need to find something else to do. And if they insist, then you need to find new friends. Do you understand what I’m saying?"

  Trey nodded solemnly.

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  "Now would you be so kind as to thank my friend Carly for a ride?"

  The teenager opened the passenger door and stuck his head inside. "Thanks a lot for the ride. Sorry I was such a pain."

  "It’s all right. Maybe we’ll meet again another time."

  "Sure. So long."

  Justine got in and Carly backed out the driveway.

  "I thought you handled that pretty well."

  "I still can’t believe my own son did something like that."

  "It’s not a big deal. Lots of people sneak in the movies, and I don’t even think they realize it’s the same as stealing."

  "I was madder at him for how rude he was to that manager."

  "Well, I think you proved your point. And it looked like he was seeing the light by the time you got finished with him. Tough love and all."

  "Lord, it took me a year of therapy to get so I’d tell them no when they asked for something. I was scared they wouldn’t come over at all if I didn’t give them everything they wanted."

  "That must have been hard."

  "It was, but you know, Valerie–that’s my therapist–helped me understand that I can’t ever stop being their mother. No matter what, I’m still supposed to teach them right from wrong, and help them make the right decisions. I just can’t believe that Trey’s nearly eighteen and he’s pulling stuff like that."

  "Well, like I said, I think you handled it right. I believe he learned his lesson."

  "I hope so, because we aren’t going to have much more opportunity with him. He’ll be gone and on his own before we know it."

  "So you want to get something to eat?"

  "What did you have in mind?"

  Thud! There was something about the way Justine had uttered that simple little question that sent Carly’s thoughts to something very intimate. Shaking her head, she tried to concentrate on the subject at hand. "Um…what are our choices?"

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  "Pizza…the steak house…fast food…the drug store closes at six on Sundays."

  "What about that new coffee house? Maybe we can get a muffin or something."

  "Nah, they’re not open at all on Sundays." Justine checked her watch. It was already after eight. "Well, I know a house on Sandstone where we could get a grilled cheese sandwich."

  **********

  "It was fine, Justine." The redhead congratulated herself as she got ready for bed. "Two friends went to the movies and had a little bite to eat." As she took stock of the day, she was almost overwhelmed at everything that had happened. She and Carly had gone out together where people could see them, and she hadn’t worried the whole time about what others would say. She did, however, catch herself looking around the darkened theater to see if there was anyone she knew, or if they stood out…two women together. That was paranoia, she knew, and she was working on keeping that tamped down.

  There had been that one little moment when Carly mentioned running into Sara, but since the local gossip hadn’t really seen them together, she wasn’t going to have to deal with the rumors. Of course, for a worrier like Justine, a close call like that caused almost as much anxiety as if they’d actually run into the woman face to face. "But it didn’t happen," she told herself aloud.

  And then there had been the thing with Trey. The irony of that whole scene was that she would have been beside herself with anxiety had she and Carly just run into him under normal circumstances. But the trouble he’d made at the theater had so occupied her emotions that she forgot to be concerned with what her son might think at seeing her out with a woman. And if Trey was bothered by it, he sure hadn’t let on. Of course, he had been more worried about saving his own tail at the time.

  And then she and Carly had come back to the house. They hung out in the kitchen and talked about the day, and then Carly had dropped a kiss on her cheek and was gone, just like that. Justine raised her hand to touch the spot where the blonde woman’s lips had been. It hadn’t been like those air kisses she used to trade with her friends. It was firm, and her lips had rested there for a second or two. It was nice.

  Valerie was going to be proud of her for having such a good week. She’d been an emotional mess lately, but now she was starting to feel like she was back in control.

  Chapter 11

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  "Morning, Daddy." Carly poured herself a cup of coffee and took a seat opposite her father at the kitchen table. "Who won the game last night?" She was only asking because she’d found him sound asleep in front of the TV when she’d gotten home just before ten.

  "I don’t rightly know." He looked up to see the sly grin on his daughter’s face and realized that he was being tweaked. "You must not have had a very good time last night.

  Your head isn’t in a bucket this morning."

  Touché. "As a matter of fact, I had a very good time…and I remember every minute of it," she added with a wry grin.

  Nadine joined them at the table. "Your daddy and I talked about the store yesterday."

  "And?"

  Lloyd smiled at his wife and took her hand. "We’ve decided that we’ve got better things to do with our time than hang around a furniture store."

  "Aw, that’s great news!" Immediately, she got up and gave each of her parents a big hug.

  "So have you told Perry?"

  "Not yet. We thought we’d tell him when we close the store on Christmas Eve. We’ll all come over here for lunch afterwards like we usually do."

  "So what’s your timetable?"

  "We’ll hand him the keys just as soon as he gets things taken care of at the bank," Lloyd answered. "I might work with him a little bit to help him out, but it’ll be his headache instead of mine."

  "And he’ll be signing your paycheck instead of the other way around," Carly added. "Do you have a lawyer that can draw the papers up?"

  "I guess I ought to call Aaron Cobb. Shouldn’t be much to it."

  "Probably not, but this is a pretty big deal, so you want to make sure all the details are taken care of."

  "I’ll give him a call this morning when you and Perry go out. You’re riding on the truck today, aren’t you?"

  "Sure." Carly still hadn’t stopped smiling. "I’m really glad you guys are doing this.

  You’ve worked hard for a long time and you deserve it, both of you."

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  "And you’re sure you don’t want to run a furniture store?" Lloyd had to ask one more time.

  "Positive."

  "All right. Well, I ought to get down there and open up. I’ll see ya’ll in a little while."

  **********

  Perry pulled the truck into the alley behind the store, their morning run finished. They had only one delivery in the afternoon, and both of them would spend the rest of the day in the warehouse taking inventory. He slung his arm around his cousin’s shoulder. "So what do you say we go get a couple of those four dollar coffees?"

  "I thought you didn’t want to get hooked on that."

  "Consider it a Christmas present."

  Carly still hadn’t made it to Leland’s new coffee house. "All right. Let me stick my head in the door and tell Mama."

  Ten minutes later, the pair walked into Daniel’s Coffee Stop and joined the line at the counter. "This is a nice place, Perry. I never expected a place like this in Leland."

  In the short time it had been open, Daniel’s had already become a trendy gathering place for downtown workers. There were small tables along one wall, where a wooden be
nch ran from the back of the store to the front. On the opposite wall, a fire roared in a large stone fireplace. In the front by the sidewalk, bay windows on either side of the entrance held tall tables and stools. The floor and wainscoting were knotty pine, and the walls were painted a warm blue, with murals that reminded her of a turn of the century mercantile.

  "They do a pretty good business. Debbie likes those cappuccinos."

  "Ah, I was wondering how long it would take to bring the conversation back around to Debbie," Carly teased.

  "She liked you. She thought you were real nice. I should have set her straight, and told her what a cruel woman you can be."

  Carly laughed and chucked her cousin’s arm. "I liked her too. I thought you guys made a really nice couple."

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  "What did you think of Kevin?"

  "He’s an all right kid. He really looks up to you."

  "Oh yeah? How can you tell?"

  "Well, he ordered the exact same thing you did; he even got his steak cooked the same way. And just about every story he told started with ‘Perry and me’ this and ‘Perry and me’ that."

  "He was good yesterday. I know he was just trying to get his mom to tell me to bring the Play Station back, but I guess that was the idea all along."

  They stepped up to the counter and gave their order to a man about Carly’s age. This was Daniel himself, according to his nametag, and it was obvious to Carly that he wasn’t from Leland. The first clue was a gold stud earring, not exactly a popular fashion among Kentucky men. The second clue was his Boston accent, which Carly recognized from one of the men she had worked with in Jerusalem. And if she had to bet, she’d lay odds that Daniel was gay.

  So how does a gay man from Boston end up running a coffee house in Leland, Kentucky?

  "You want to sit over by the window?" Perry pointed to one of the tall round tables.

  "Sure."

  "So you really liked Debbie?"

  "I was a little concerned when her eyes turned yellow and those long teeth came out. But other than that, yeah, I thought she was pretty nice."

  Perry rolled his eyes. "A person just can’t have a serious conversation with you, can they?"

  Carly leaned against the back of her stool and folded her arms. "Okay, I’ll be serious. I think Debbie’s a great girl, and I thought the two of you both looked like you belong together. And I don’t know what you’re waiting for, you big chicken shit."

  That brought a fat grin to her cousin’s face. "So you think I should go ahead and ask her?"

  "Yes." Especially since you’re going to be a business owner soon. "I think you ought to give the lady a ring for Christmas."

  Perry blushed and nodded. "Yeah, I think so too."

  Carly lifted her ceramic mug in a toast. "Congratulations, Perry. I really mean that."

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  "Thanks." He drank the last of his regular coffee. "Being in love is just about the nicest feeling in the world. I wish you could find somebody and settle down, Carly."

  Though they were as close as siblings, she had never talked to Perry about her sexual orientation. As much as she liked her cousin, she’d kept her private life to herself because he hadn’t seemed very open-minded about that sort of thing. It wasn’t anything specific; she just had a feeling that he wouldn’t be very accepting. The last thing she wanted was a rift in the family. It was enough for her that her parents knew; it just wasn’t anyone else’s business. "Eh, love will come along if it’s meant to."

  "Yeah, but you can do things to hurry it along. I’ve got a friend I go fishing with who’s a really nice guy. He’s a little bit younger than you, but–"

  "Oh, no. Thanks, but no thanks."

  "I know, you’re probably more interested in a guy who’s been to college, or somebody who’s traveled a lot like you have."

  "Actually, Perry…." What the hell. Just tell him. "I’m really not all that interested in guys."

  "Yeah, but–" All of sudden, he got an inkling of what she meant. "You mean…?"

  "I like women, Per. I’ve just always been like that."

  "Naw! No way, Carly. You’re pulling my leg."

  "Really, Perry. I’m serious. Mama and Daddy know. I told them about twelve years ago, but I’ve just never told anybody else."

  "That’s not right…I mean, I believe you think you are…like that, but I don’t think so.

  I’ve known you for thirty years, Carly."

  She nodded in agreement. "I know it probably seems weird, but I figured it out a long time ago. And I just never told people because I figured most of them wouldn’t like it very much."

  The bearded man had grown agitated with the conversation. "You’re not like that, though.

  You just haven’t met the right guy…a guy that treats you right and…knows what to do, and all."

  Carly sighed. She was deeply disappointed in her cousin’s reaction, and more than a little irritated at his response. "Do you have any idea what a ridiculous cliché that is? Every lesbian on earth hears that she hasn’t met the right guy yet…like he can come along with his little ‘magic wand’ and make her fall in love with it. It’s insulting."

  "Well, have you…" he lowered his voice, "Have you ever had a man…you know?"

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  "That’s none of your goddamn business." Carly had had enough of this. "You can accept it or not, Perry, but it’s not going to change. I happen to like who I am."

  Perry shook his head adamantly. "I just don’t think you are, Carly. I think you’re wrong."

  "And I think you’re a pigheaded bigot."

  The two stared coldly at one another for a good thirty seconds before the man finally got down from his high stool.

  "I’m gonna head on back to the store. I can handle the next run by myself."

  **********

  "I know, Mrs. Harper. It looks like a four-dollar aspirin on your bill. But there’s a whole lot of other stuff behind that. We have to cover the cost of having a nurse on duty all the time to administer medicine. We can’t just have people deciding for themselves what pills to take, and a lot of people would forget to take stuff if we didn’t have the nurses there to remind them." The Four Dollar Aspirin was Grace Hospital’s most common complaint.

  "That’s right. So we have to spread out the cost to all the patients who get medicine. If something should go wrong, you always want to have a highly trained nurse right there to deal with the emergency."

  Justine smiled her greeting to the man who stepped up to the counter. She held up a finger to let him know that she’d be just another minute.

  "I’m so glad you understand, Mrs. Harper. We’re really lucky that so many of the patients like you are intelligent enough to see that they aren’t just paying for something little like an aspirin, but for the security of having a top-notch hospital right in their own community…You’re welcome. Thank you for calling, and merry Christmas."

  "Hi, Justine."

  "Hi, Wendell. What can I do for you?" Wendell Kruenke was the director of the Grace Long Term Care Center, known by everyone in Leland as "the nursing home".

  "I was wondering if you might be able to help me out next Friday night–not this week, but the next. We’re having a little Christmas party for the residents and I need somebody to play the piano. I remember once that you did that for us."

  "Oh, I don’t know, Wendell. I haven’t played in years."

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  "That doesn’t matter, Justine. Heck, half of the residents don’t hear all that well, and the rest of us sing so badly that we’ll drown you out."

  "I tell you what. Let me ask my daughter if she can help out. She can play a lot better than I can. But if she can’t do it, I will."

  "That’d be just great. This is something everybody looks forward to. All the families come, and we sing carols and have refreshment
s. The kids from the day care do a little Christmas program."

  "That sounds so nice. Do you need any other help? My son needs a community service credit to graduate, and he asked me if there was anything up here at the hospital he might do."

  "We could definitely use some help decorating. Is there any chance he could come that afternoon?"

  "I’ll ask him, and I’ll try to be there too, if things aren’t too busy here."

  "And I hope you can all stay for the party. We need a few people to sit with the ones who don’t have any family there. Would you be willing to do that?"

  "Oh, I know I could. And after Trey helps with the decorating, I bet he can too."

  "Boy, I sure am glad I stopped in here. I had a long list of favors to ask, and you just took care of most of them."

  "I’m glad to help. And it’s a good thing for the kids to do…you know, helping out others that are less fortunate."

  "Then I’ll see you a week from Friday."

  "Okay, see you then."

  Justine watched the nursing home director leave, already feeling good about her offer to help. That kind of thing put you in just the right mood for Christmas. Now, she just had to get the reinforcements lined up. She dialed the number at JT’s.

  Emmy quickly agreed to help out by playing the piano, and promised to practice at home.

  Trey was more slippery, but Justine reminded him that he needed the credit for school, and they had already talked about him doing a project. This would probably meet that requirement, and Wendell would be more than happy to write a report for Trey’s guidance counselor. Reluctantly, he promised to be there at three to help her decorate, and to stay through the evening to keep one of the residents company during the party.