by KG MacGregor
"I talked with Trey after you left. He didn’t mean what he said."
"Sure he did. What I want to know is why he said it…more specifically, why he said it now."
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"I don’t know, Justine. He wanted to hurt you because you were hurting him."
"I was hurting him?"
"That’s what he said. He says that he knows he’s screwing up, that things really are his fault, but he doesn’t know how to stop it. He says that sometimes he feels like things are just out of control. I think all the changes with graduation, and Melissa going off to Georgetown…that stuff’s just getting to him. Anyway, the more we piled on this morning, the more frustrated he got, and he just blurted that out to get you to back off. He didn’t mean anything by it."
"JT, I’m seeing somebody…a woman." She turned back to face him when she realized that he’d stopped in the middle of the track. "But Trey couldn’t possibly know about it for sure, because I haven’t even told her yet."
JT looked at her in confusion.
"That sounded kind of silly, didn’t it?"
The man cocked his head in amusement. "Not for you, Justine."
She answered his smart remark with a punch in the arm. "It’s Carly Griffin. Her family owns the furniture store. We went to high school together, and I’ve had a crush on her about as long as I can remember, even when I was married to you." She added that last part just to tweak him for all the running around he’d done while they were together. "But I told her everything that happened, and that we couldn’t see each other, because I didn’t want to risk having something come between me and my kids again."
"So…are you seeing each other or aren’t you?"
"Sort of, but it’s complicated. She’s playing it cool because she doesn’t want to cause me any problems, and I’m playing it cool because…well, because I’m a chicken."
"What are you afraid of?"
"What am I afraid of? JT, where have you been for the last three years?"
"Justine, I think the kids might be past all that. If you’ve met somebody you like, you shouldn’t have to hold back on account of them."
"That’s easy for you to say, JT. You ran around on me for ten years, and the kids never once held that against you." As soon as she said it, she felt terrible. There never had really been any hard feelings between them, and the last thing she wanted was to hurt him. "I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. None of this is your fault."
"It’s okay." He looked away, trying to act as though her remark hadn’t bothered him. It was true that he’d never been taken to task by the children for his part in their divorce.
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"I guess I just did to you what Trey did to me."
"Justine…it wasn’t fair the way everything happened. You were a great mother, and you still are."
She nudged his arm with her shoulder, right where she’d punched him earlier. "You’re a great dad, JT. And you’ve been a good friend to me, too. I don’t know what I’d have done without you."
After all the things they’d been through together–losing their first baby, raising two wonderful children, their infidelities, and Justine’s breakdown–JT felt like he owed her his friendship. She probably knew him better than anybody, and she’d always accepted him and forgiven him his lapses. Nothing would make him happier–nor alleviate his guilt more–than to see her fall in love with someone who would love her back. "So where do you think things are going with this woman…Carly?"
She started walking again to loosen her stiffening calves. "I don’t know. She works overseas, and she won’t be here much longer. But if we could find a way to have something…I’d like that."
"Do you want me to talk to the kids? I think they’d handle it okay. Both of them are a lot more mature than they were back then."
"I don’t know, JT. Like I said, Carly’s leaving soon. It might be better just not to say anything." No sense rocking the boat. "Heck, it might not even amount to anything. Why put everybody through something that’s not going anywhere?"
"Well, let me know if I can help. But don’t give up on the idea just because you’re worried about how they’ll react."
As they finished the cool down lap, she hooked her arm in her ex-husband’s and walked him to his car. "Thanks for coming to find me."
"I was worried about you. I imagine Trey will come around in a couple of days."
"Yeah, well…he hurt my feelings."
"I know." He laid his free hand on hers. "Make him grovel."
"You know I won’t do that. But he needs to start paying more attention to how he makes people feel. Folks remember that kind of thing about somebody."
"Sometimes I think that Emmy got the sensitivity for both of them."
"I know what you mean. By the way, did she say anything to you about staying with me this week?"
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"No, she didn’t mention it. But I’m not surprised…that she didn’t say anything, I mean.
We haven’t exactly been the Brady Bunch at the dinner table this week."
"Yeah, she told me things were kind of…tense at home."
"Did she say anything else?"
"She said you and J2 were fighting about something, but she didn’t know what it was."
Justine could see that the man was anxious to hear what she knew. "JT, you know I don’t pry into your business with your wife. But it was bothering Emmy, and I wanted to make sure it didn’t have anything to do with her or Trey."
"It doesn’t."
"Fine." And you better not be poking another paralegal.
JT stared out over the track to avoid making eye contact with his ex. "It’s really personal, Justine."
"I said it was fine."
"Justine wants me to have a vasectomy so she can quit taking the pill."
The redhead couldn’t get her hands to her ears fast enough to keep from hearing that. "La la la la…this isn’t my business, JT."
"I know she’s right, but it’s–"
"Please don’t tell me this. This is between you and your wife."
"But who else am I going to talk to? You already know how shallow I am…and you can imagine how I feel about having somebody get that close to me with scissors." He winced as the image filled his head.
Justine shook her head and sighed. JT wasn’t going to like what she had to say about it.
"Do you two want to have any more children?"
"No. The doctors think the autism is genetic, and we don’t want to risk that."
And you’re nearly fifty years old, Stud. "Then stop being such a baby. Do it for Justine and show her how much you love her."
"You’re supposed to be on my side!"
"Sorry, but I’m with J2 on this one. And you know she’s right."
JT’s shoulders slumped in defeat. "Damn."
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"And we never had this conversation. Understand?"
"Oh, definitely." A vasectomy was nothing compared to what J2 would do to him if she learned that his former wife had been the one to sway him on this. He got into his Mercedes and closed the door, rolling down the window to say goodbye. "Oh, by the way…Justine said it was okay for Alex to come over sometime with Emmy, if you’re still sure you want to do that."
"Great. We’ll do it after the holidays, okay?"
"Sure. And good luck with your friend. I hope that works out the way you want it to."
"Thanks." Justine smiled as she watched him pull away. JT Sharpe was a pretty good guy…for a snake.
Chapter 17
"Okay, then you open the air valve by turning this knob." Daniel buried the steamer into a stainless steel pitcher of cold milk. "When it starts to froth, you know it’s hot enough.
Leave it in another few seconds and you’ll get more foam."
Carly was bored with the cash register. She wanted
to learn how to make the coffees, since Daniel seemed to be having more fun. "Don’t they make thermometers that you can stick in the pitcher?"
"Yeah, but that would be cheating. Do you want to be a coffee artist or a robot?"
"Well, since you put it that way…."
Daniel finished the coffee order and handed it to the waiting customer. The wave of customers they’d just served was probably their last rush for the day. "Here you go. Why don’t you make one of the coffees you like? Start with the espresso."
Carly walked through the process slowly, measuring and packing the coffee, and positioning the cup beneath the spout. As the water streamed through the press, she filled the pitcher with milk. "Okay, I just open the air valve…." The milk made a whirring sound until it began to froth, at which point the whir changed to a whoosh.
"Don’t forget to–"
Oops! Too late. She removed the pitcher before closing the valve and sprayed milk all over herself and everything within five feet. Lucky for Daniel that he was out of range.
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"That’s okay. Everybody does that the first time. But nobody does it after they have to clean up the mess."
"Gotcha!" She finished making her coffee and began to wipe down the machine and the counters. "Did anybody call about the ad in the paper?"
"Yeah, but so far, it’s just school kids, and they want to work in the afternoon and on weekends. The hours aren’t convenient for most people. I’ve had a couple of moms call, but they don’t want to work on Saturdays. I might have to hire two people just to cover all six days."
"At the rate your business is growing, you might have to hire two people anyway."
"From your lips to my financial planner’s ears."
"You’re gonna get rich, I tell you."
"Well, somebody is…."
There he goes again. Why does he keep–?
"Hey, Carly!" Perry burst through the door, his smile as wide as his face.
"How are you doing, Per?"
"Got something to show you." He fished a small box out of his pocket. "Tell me what you think."
Carly opened the box to find a small diamond solitaire, set in gold. "Wow! For me?"
Perry shook his head and sighed. "You drive me crazy! It’s for Debbie."
"Well, I think she’s gonna love it."
"You don’t think it’s too little, do you?"
"Naw, it’s perfect. You can get her a nice wide band to go with it. It’ll look great!" It was obvious to Carly that her opinion mattered a lot. "So when are you going to ask her?"
"I was thinking I’d do it on Christmas Eve…you know, after Kevin goes to bed."
"That’ll be sweet. Can I be there too? I’ll hide behind the couch."
"I don’t care if everybody’s there. All that matters to me is whether or not she says yes."
"Perry, Perry, Perry. Have a little faith, man. What woman wouldn’t want you? Take a shower; shave that scraggly beard off…."
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"My beard’s not scraggly!"
"She’s going to say yes. She practically swoons whenever she looks at you." Carly turned to her friend. "Hey, Daniel, think you can manage?"
"Yeah, thanks for staying so long today. I’m going to figure out how to pay you, even if I can’t get you to take any money." All he had budgeted was minimum wage, and that was insulting to a person like Carly. She’d already told him she was just doing it as a favor.
Carly turned back to her cousin. "So I’m done here. You got any more deliveries today?"
"Are you kidding? You should see the business they’re doing down at the store. I’ve probably got two runs this afternoon, and full days on Monday and Tuesday."
"Well, let’s go." She dropped her apron in the bin and grabbed her coat, stopping at she reached the front door. "Hold on a sec, Per." Turning back, she took just a moment to give Daniel her best wishes for Rich’s father. "You guys hang in there this weekend, and call me if you need anything."
On her way out, Carly added Daniel to the growing list of things that had made this trip home different from her earlier visits…better. To a lot of people, going in to work six days a week at a coffee house without even getting paid might seem like a pretty stupid thing for somebody to do during a vacation, but Carly was having fun. In just the few days she’d been helping out, she’d run into dozens of people she had known from school, or from the years of delivering furniture all over Leland County. And they had all been nice, genuinely nice.
For the first time since she’d left this town twenty-five years ago, Carly reconsidered her long-held belief that there was nothing for her here in Leland. She’d been content to see her family when they traveled the world to be with her on vacation; but on her brief visits home, she rarely left the house or the store. This time, though, her old beliefs and her new feelings seemed out of whack.
And it wasn’t at all unpleasant.
**********
"Mom?" Emmy knocked again on the bathroom door. She could hear the jets running in the hot tub.
Justine sank deep into the pulsating water, the pile of bubbles growing higher from the powerful jets. Her legs, hips and back were screaming for relief from her punishing run.
What were you thinking, Justine?
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"Mom?"
"What? Come on in."
Emmy tentatively opened the door a crack. Seeing her mother submerged beneath the bubbles, she entered the steamy bathroom. "Are you going to fix dinner?"
Justine was so exhausted from her day that she hadn’t even thought about eating. And of course she’d have to fix dinner–Emmy’s friend Kelly was here for the day and it wouldn’t do to ask the girls to fend for themselves.
"Yes, honey…I’ll fix something." What’s in the freezer? Frozen stuff. "Why don’t you have a look in the freezer and see if there’s something you want? I’ll go to the store if I need to."
"Okay. Will you call Carly and see if she’ll come over too?"
"You want Carly to come to dinner?"
"Yeah. See, you know that report I had to do on China?"
"Uh-huh."
"Kelly has to do one on Peru, and Carly said the other night that she lived there too."
"Ah." Thank you, Kelly. "Why don’t you call her? Her number’s in the book under her daddy’s name…Lloyd Griffin, on Stony Ridge Road." Or you could just dial *6 on the memory dial.
**********
Justine sat mesmerized in front of the fire as Carly told the girls yet another funny story about her misadventures of living abroad. Kelly had gotten all the material she needed for her report on Peru, but Carly went on to add tales of how she’d butchered the language and made a fool of herself over the local customs.
"By the time I got to Johannesburg, I was afraid to leave my apartment."
"But at least you spoke the same language."
"That’s a matter of opinion. If you ask them, the English we speak in Kentucky is another language entirely. And there’s nothing worse than hearing your accent mocked by a foreigner."
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Justine studied her friend, noticing again the lines around her eyes that crinkled when she laughed. She had those wrinkles too, but she’d always thought them unsightly. They sure weren’t unsightly on Carly. Nothing was.
"Are you going to get an apartment in Madrid?"
Emmy hadn’t meant to throw a wet blanket on their conversation, but her mention of Madrid deflated Carly’s good mood. The labor coordinator was due to leave again soon, and she wasn’t ready. Now that she’d gotten a taste of it, Carly envied the daily routines that most people in Leland seemed to take for granted. All she had to look forward to for the next two years was change…and solitude. And the latter was what she dreaded most.
"I don’t know what I’ll do in Madrid. We usually all start out living in a ho
tel, but if the city seems friendly and comfortable after a couple of months, I’ll probably find an apartment or something."
"Maybe we’ll come visit you," Emmy offered. "Wouldn’t that be fun, Mom?"
"Huh?" Justine hadn’t heard her daughter’s question. She’d been lost in thought about how lonely she’d be after Carly left…and how empty her heart would feel.
"I said we should go to Madrid to visit Carly."
"An excellent idea," the blonde woman added.
"Hmmm…I don’t know about that. The way you two pick on me, I don’t know if I want to subject myself to being stranded in a foreign country just so you’ll both have something to laugh at."
"Would we do that?" Emmy and Carly struck their usual innocent pose, causing both Justine and Kelly to laugh in agreement.
Carly looked at her watch and pulled herself up from the floor. "I guess I should go. I have to sleep late tomorrow, and I want to get an early start."
Emmy and Kelly stood too. "Mom, is it okay if I stay at Kelly’s house tonight? I’ll be in church tomorrow." They had Kelly’s mother’s car.
"Are your–"
"My parents are home."
That was exactly the question on Justine’s lips. "You can both stay here if you want."
"Yeah, but if we do that, we won’t get to drive by Dale Farlowe’s house." Kelly gave away her friend’s most carefully guarded secret.
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"Kelly!" Emmy was mortified.
"Dale Farlowe, eh? That’s Daryl’s brother, isn’t?" Justine placed him as one of the boys on the football team.
"Yes, and he’s Emmy’s chemistry partner."
