by Connie Mann
Eve heard a vehicle pull up and walked to the sagging front porch to see Cole exit his black pickup truck. “What are you doing here?”
He shrugged and walked up the steps until they were eye to eye. He was still two steps below, but she found she liked looking into his gray eyes.
“I saw your car turn up the drive and wanted to be sure everything was OK with Celia and the baby.”
“They were both holding their own when I left there a little while ago. Celia is hoping Glory will be released soon, so that’s good.”
Eve turned and walked back into the kitchen, with Cole on her heels. He eyed the empty box, the food neatly stacked on the shelves. “That was nice of you.”
Embarrassed, Eve turned and closed the cabinet door. “I’ve been there. I just wanted to help, that’s all.”
“There’s far more to you than meets the eye, Evie the Crusader.”
She turned in surprise and saw something that looked very much like admiration in his eyes. Unsure how to react, she shrugged and scooped up the box. “Celia has had it rough. Just giving her a bit of hand up, that’s all.”
“Yes, but you didn’t have to. And you did it when no one else was around to see it.”
Why did he keep talking about it? It made her uncomfortable. This was how she’d been raised. Mama Rosa and Pop were always taking food over when there was a birth, or death, or medical emergency in town. Why would he assume she wouldn’t follow that example? “Didn’t your mama raise you to do the same when you see people in need?”
A slow flush passed over his skin. “She did, though I admit I haven’t always been as diligent about it.”
“Then you should be. It’s part of that whole ‘love thy neighbor’ thing.”
One side of Cole’s mouth tipped up. “Yes, ma’am. Now you sound like my mama.” He stepped closer. “You’re good people Eve, no matter what they say.”
Her eyes widened, and she planted her hands on her hips. “Really? And just what are they saying about me now?”
Cole scrubbed a hand over the stubble on his jaw, and Eve forgot her irritation with him long enough to wonder what it would feel like to run her palm over his cheeks, feel that stubble against her skin. Then she remembered what he’d said and pierced him with a look. His discomfort reminded her of a little boy caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
“That didn’t come out right at all.”
Eve laughed; she couldn’t help it. “No, I don’t expect it did. But I want to know, what are they saying about me in town this time?”
The tips of his ears reddened, and Eve’s smile faded. He didn’t even have to say the words. She knew. They were talking about her past and her mixed-race looks, and her meddling ways. Just like they always had. She couldn’t say why the small-minded attitude still pierced her heart so deeply, but it did. Some things, it seemed, never changed, no matter how much time went by.
Eve waved a careless hand. “Never mind. I’m pretty sure I know. Same song, second verse.”
“It’s not true, though. None of it. You’re good people.”
She met his gaze head-on. “I appreciate the words, but they don’t change a thing. Besides, you don’t know me at all. For all you know, everything the gossips are spreading around town is absolutely true.”
Before she realized he’d moved, he’d taken two steps across the small kitchen and placed both palms on the counter, effectively caging her in. His gray eyes stayed steady on hers, and in them she saw the same pull of attraction she was fighting for all she was worth. She couldn’t get involved with anyone. She was only here in Safe Harbor for a little while. She’d promised Mama Rosa she’d figure out what made Glory sick—and then she’d make those responsible pay before she headed home. She couldn’t let Cole’s killer smile, rock-hard body, or, more importantly, everything that made the man himself so attractive derail her from her path. Her life and work were in DC, where she’d made it her mission to keep what had happened to her mother from happening to anyone else. In the nation’s capital, working with Braddock Environmental, she could make a difference on a large scale, bring national attention to issues and lawbreakers, get lawmakers involved in changing things for the better. That kind of change couldn’t happen from a little town like Safe Harbor.
She knew, deep in her heart, that if she righted enough wrongs and blew the whistle on the bad guys enough times, the guilt over her mother’s death would finally stop gouging her heart like a sharp spike. But she wasn’t there yet. She hadn’t done nearly enough to make up for letting her die.
“I may not know everything that’s happened in your life since you left Safe Harbor, but I know you, deep down where it counts.”
“I, uh—” She had no idea how to respond. Back in high school, he’d been the jock who ignored her and had girls flocking around him. She didn’t know anything about his life since then, but she knew the way he treated his mama, and the way he treated his animals.
Their eyes met and held, and Eve found herself leaning toward him just the slightest bit, wanting him to wrap her in his arms again as he had that night at the ranch. She’d felt safe there, like she never had before in her life. Which was fanciful and ridiculous, but there it was. His eyes, when they searched hers, touched something deep inside her, an answering loneliness she understood too well.
His look intensified, and she knew he was going to kiss her. She panicked and blurted out the one thing she knew would push him away. “I’m not sure I know you at all. The guy I knew in high school didn’t impress me much.”
He stepped back, and Eve saw a flash of pain in his eyes that vanished so quickly she was sure she’d imagined it.
“I guess I deserved that. I was a cocky kid for whom everything came too easy.” He paused. “Until it didn’t. Then I grew up fast.”
“I’ll never be able to undo what happened to your arm. But I’ll always be so sorry it happened.”
“I know. It wasn’t even losing the scholarship that was the worst.”
“You mean when your father kicked you out.”
“Yes. I lost his approval along with everything else.”
“He kicked you out for getting Candy Blackwell pregnant.” She didn’t believe it, but watched his reaction.
“No, he kicked me out because I wouldn’t marry Candy the day she and Blackwell showed up at the ranch with that story.”
Eve heard what he wasn’t saying. “Was it true?”
“That Candy was pregnant?” Regret filled his expression. “The autopsy confirmed it.”
Eve’s instincts went on high alert. “But were you the father?”
“That was the consensus.”
“Just answer the question, Sutton. Were you the father of her baby?”
He rubbed a hand over the back of his neck, then met her look head-on. “No.”
Eve scrambled to process the implications. “Then who was?”
He sighed. “I tried to get her to tell me. She wouldn’t say.”
“But your father still didn’t let you come home?”
“It never came up. As far as he was concerned, the fact that I didn’t immediately agree to do my duty made him ashamed of me. He said I was no son of his.”
Eve thought of all the years that had passed since then. All the missed opportunities for father and son. “What made you come back?”
“Ma needed me.” He said the words flatly, as though no more information was needed, and apparently, nothing more was forthcoming, either.
“What are you two doing in here?”
Eve spun around, surprised to see IdaMae standing in the doorway, arms folded over her ample chest.
Eve wondered how long she had been there, how much she’d overhead. “IdaMae, I didn’t hear you arrive. I was just at the hospital and Celia said they may be releasing Glory soon, so I came by to make sure she had a few essentials.”
IdaMae straightened, eyes narrowed. “We don’t take no charity. We take care of our own.”
�
��Of course you do. I was thinking this was more on the lines of a welcome-home gesture is all.”
IdaMae nodded once. “Then thank you kindly for stopping by. Now, if you’ll excuse me.”
“Ma’am.” Cole tipped his hat and held the door so Eve could precede him back to their vehicles. Eve tried to remember the last time a man had held a door for her. Except for Pop or Mr. Braddock? Never. She’d thought the gesture had ended with their generation. It was nice to know chivalry wasn’t entirely dead.
Cole leaned over her car’s door frame while she waited for the air conditioner to cool things off a bit. He looked up at the house, where IdaMae leaned against a porch post, watching them.
“Not throwing out the welcome mat, is she?”
Eve shrugged. “I’m not really surprised. If they’re trying to sell off this property, contaminated water is not helping their chances. And since she thinks I’m the problem, well . . .” Eve let the thought drift away.
Cole’s expression changed, became unreadable. “You certainly do turn things on their head, Evie the Crusader.” He paused. “And not always in a bad way, either. Drive safely.”
He slammed the door and slid into his truck. Eve spent the whole drive back to town trying to figure out what he meant by that, exactly. And whether it had anything to do with the look in his eyes when he said it.
Chapter 15
Eve headed back toward Safe Harbor, her mind whirling. She had no idea what to do about Cole and the way he made her feel. So she did what she always did when she was unsure: she focused on her work.
She needed answers, and the best place in town to catch up on all the news had always been Beatrice’s Hair Affair.
Main Street wasn’t busy this time of day, so Eve parked two doors down and walked over. Her always-out-of-control curls could use a quick trim. With a side of information.
When Eve walked through the door of the old-fashioned beauty shop, all conversation stopped. Miss Beatrice, who’d been old when Eve first came to Safe Harbor, looked up from the perm she was rolling. Next to her, two white-haired ladies were getting their hair cut, and at the far end of the shop, another woman was getting shampooed.
“Help you?” Beatrice asked.
Eve fluffed her mop of curls and smiled. “I could use a quick trim, if you can squeeze me in.”
Beatrice looked uncomfortable. “We’re pretty busy right now.”
Undaunted, Eve forged ahead. “I understand. I can wait a bit.”
“She can wait until you-know-what freezes over,” one of the customers muttered.
Another customer chided the other woman, and Beatrice scowled in the woman’s direction. “Sit, then, and I’ll get to you when I can.”
“I appreciate it,” Eve said. She selected an outdated magazine and plopped into one of the uncomfortable plastic chairs, pretending to read.
The other voices carried clearly. “I don’t know what she thinks she’s doing, stirring up trouble again, right here in our town. Wasn’t what she did to Cole Sutton bad enough?”
Eve heard every word as they discussed her in low tones, but she wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of letting on that she’d heard them. Instead, she said brightly, “Did you hear that little baby Glory Daughtry has been moved out of the ICU?” Eve figured that was common knowledge, but it might get the old biddies to talk about something that might actually help her.
“My niece’s sister-in-law works over at the hospital and said the little one’s color is much better.”
“Thank you, Jesus,” another lady murmured, and Eve wondered how Jesus felt about the way they gossiped, but decided that was between them and God.
“Celia said they may be letting her bring baby Glory home soon,” Eve said instead.
“That surely is good news,” Miss Beatrice said as she led her customer to the back and sat her under the drier. She came back and motioned Eve to her chair.
Eve let out a little sigh of relief when Beatrice snapped the cape around her shoulders and spun her to face the mirror. Their eyes met in the glass, and Beatrice touched the end of Eve’s cloud of hair. “Ah, how much did you want me to take off?”
Beatrice had cut Eve’s hair since she first came to Safe Harbor, but she’d always seemed ill at ease, even though she did a great job. Eve hid her frustration. Her hair, like everything else, was a hybrid of her mother’s African American genes and the no-doubt Caucasian genes she’d gotten from the man who’d had sex with her mother. She couldn’t call him her father, since that gave him a place in her life he’d never held. From what her mother had said, his sperm was his only contribution to her life. Eve had no name, nothing but Unknown on her birth certificate where the father’s name should be. In her mind, Pop Martinelli was her father, strained though things were between them right now.
Eve took pity on the hairdresser. “How about you just trim half an inch all the way around. Enough to get it a bit more under control.” She smiled at the other woman, trying to put her at ease enough to go back to talking.
Beatrice nodded and got to work. “Heard you caused quite a stir at Sutton Ranch, getting all up in Cole Sutton’s face,” she commented as she started trimming.
This wasn’t exactly what Eve wanted to talk about, but she’d go with the flow. “I was trying to get information, that’s all.”
“Heard you was making accusations is what I heard.” This from the station next to them.
Eve met the other woman’s eyes in the mirror. “A little baby almost died. I want to know why; don’t you?”
The woman shrugged. “Things happen, sad though it is. But we don’t need no outsiders stirring up trouble.”
“We’re talking about a baby’s life here, and that should merit more than a shrug from us, I think. Besides, I grew up here. I don’t consider myself an outsider,” Eve returned, irritation growing with every word the woman uttered. Really? Nothing more than a shrug?
“Shows what you know. We don’t need you here. Never did. All you’ve ever done is stir up trouble.”
Now she’d crossed the line. Eve had opened her mouth to put the woman firmly in her place when Beatrice laid a hand on her shoulder and gripped it, hard. A warning that Eve really didn’t want to heed.
“I think what Dora is trying to say is that we’re all concerned about little Glory,” Beatrice said. “Have the doctors figured out what caused her to get sick?”
“I heard it was her heart.” This from Dora. With a superior sniff.
Eve exchanged a glance with Beatrice in the mirror. “Actually, they ruled that out. They believe the cause is water contamination.” She glanced around the shop. Apparently, word that Celia’s well tested clean had not made it here yet. Time to get a reaction. “Does anyone know if somebody in town would have a reason to contaminate the water on Miss Althea’s property?”
A collective gasp went up, though whether it was from the question or her audacity in asking such a thing, Eve could only guess.
“Contaminate the water? This is Safe Harbor. Nobody would do such a thing here,” Dora exclaimed.
“I wouldn’t put it past that Sutton boy,” another woman called from the back of the shop, sitting up after her shampoo while the beautician wrapped her wet hair in a towel. “He might have been the quarterback, but the way he treated that poor Blackwell girl . . . well, you just can’t trust somebody like that.”
Eve wanted to set the record straight so badly her teeth itched, but that wasn’t her story to tell.
“Heard his ranch is in trouble, too,” said the other customer, fluffing her newly teased do.
“I know Alice’s brother has offered to buy the ranch, but his nephew claims he ain’t selling,” Dora added, looking smug as this news brought raised eyebrows all around. “Alice mentioned it at Bible study the other week. Duane says the land should be his, that Alice’s husband should never have been able to get his hands on it, even though her daddy sold it to her and Hank, fair and square, years ago.”
Eve
digested that news while Beatrice kept snipping. Apparently, IdaMae and Leon weren’t the only siblings in town disagreeing about family property.
The woman from the shampoo bowl settled into the only empty chair and kept talking while the hairdresser rolled her hair onto curlers. “I think maybe Leon Daughtry might have done it.”
Dora scoffed while the other ladies gasped. “Leon? Why would he do that? I heard he and IdaMae got an offer from a big-box store that wants to build a distribution center on the property. He wouldn’t do a thing to jeopardize a deal like that.”
Eve focused on the woman getting her hair rolled. “Why do you suspect Leon?”
All eyes turned the woman’s way, and she flushed. “I didn’t say I suspected him, just that I thought he could have done something like that. I’ve heard he has a mean streak when he doesn’t get what he wants.”
Several ladies dismissed that, but it caught Eve’s interest. She wanted to question the woman further, but by the time her hair was done, the other woman was long gone.
As she stood at the register to pay, another woman came in, saw Eve, sniffed, and then spun on her heel and walked out. Beatrice grimaced as she handed Eve her change. “They have long memories—and football is like a religion in this town. Just give them time to figure out you’ve grown up.”
Since Eve wasn’t sure she’d ever “grow up” enough to stop being passionate about things she believed in, she simply shrugged. “I’ll try.”
