by Lacey Baker
Heaven laughed. “Are you really looking for a sex partner at the Bay Soiree?”
“Honey, you just stay in Sweetland awhile longer. You’ll learn there’s no better place to find a sex partner. Unless you’re down at Charlie’s drinking a beer. Then you don’t know what you might end up with. At least here you get to pick one that’s all dressed up and ready to party.”
“I don’t know about all that,” Heaven was saying as Preston came to stand behind her.
“Oh, really. Well, I guess you wouldn’t since you’ve already set your sights on Preston Cantrell,” Delia said with a knowing smile as she took her seat.
“Have you set your eyes on Preston?” Savannah asked, taking a seat right beside Delia.
“Be careful,” Preston leaned forward and whispered in her ear. “I think they’re setting you up.”
Heaven turned quickly to look up at him. She blushed and Preston couldn’t resist rubbing a finger over the pretty pink tinge to her cheek.
“Hello,” she said in a soft whisper.
“Hello to you,” he replied letting his fingers whisper down her arms.
“Hello, Heaven.” Another voice entered the conversation. A cold and stern one that had Heaven stiffening in his arms.
“Mother?” Heaven whispered as she looked over Preston’s shoulder.
Preston turned and found himself face-to-face with someone he could only assume was Opaline Montgomery. A very angry, but elegantly polished, Opaline Montgomery.
* * *
“Look who pulled up at the inn just as soon as I was about to leave,” Michelle said, moving from around the Montgomerys and coming to stand beside Preston. “These are Heaven’s parents, Opaline and Mortimer Montgomery.
“Mr. and Mrs. Montgomery, these are my brothers, Quinn, Parker, and Preston,” Michelle continued. It seemed the entire Cantrell clan had come together in the last fifteen seconds as if there were power in numbers.
“And these are my sisters, Savannah and Raine,” Michelle finished.
“I’m Delia and I need another drink,” Delia said, coming from where she’d taken a seat to saunter right past the Montgomerys.
Opaline did not take her eyes off Heaven, not even to acknowledge the people who had just been introduced to her. Mortimer, however, followed Delia’s retreat until the act had turned him completely around.
“It’s time to go, Heaven,” Opaline said solemnly.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. and Mrs. Montgomery,” Preston said, stepping just a little in front of Heaven to extend his hand.
To Heaven’s horror, her mother looked down at Preston’s outstretched hand, then back up at him in utter disgust. She wouldn’t shake his hand, and she wouldn’t speak to him or the rest of the Cantrells. She’d seen this look in her mother’s eyes before. She obviously thought she was better than the Cantrells, that Heaven was better than them. From here it would only get worse.
“Of course. We can find another place to have dinner,” Heaven said, moving so that Preston was now standing behind her.
“We will not be having dinner in this place. Our driver is right outside waiting to take us back to the airport,” Opaline told her.
She’d known this moment would come. Hadn’t in her wildest dreams thought her parents would come all the way to Sweetland, Maryland, to find her, but she’d known she would have to tell them about her plans.
“Okay, well, we can step outside and talk on our way to the airport,” Heaven said. She went to take a step and felt Preston’s hand at her elbow.
“I’ll come with you,” he said into her ear.
“That’s not necessary,” she whispered over her shoulder.
“Really, Heaven, I cannot believe that you have been hiding here for weeks. You left your job without any notice and you have not returned my calls. Geoffrey is simply beside himself,” Opaline finished with a flourish of the handkerchief that had mysteriously appeared.
Actually, it wasn’t mysterious at all. Her mother always carried a handkerchief. It was the one thing that kept Heaven believing that her mother really was human versus being some computer-generated warden who ran her household with more of an iron hand than the real thing at the penitentiary. Opaline wore a dove-gray pantsuit with a frost-colored camisole beneath the single-button jacket. In the pocket was no doubt where the handkerchief, which her mother had told her once before reminded her of her father, would have been. The fact that Opaline had despised her father was the only strange thing about this keepsake.
“You should have brought good ol’ Geoffrey along with you, Mrs. Montgomery. I would have loved to meet him,” Preston said with a smile that looked good on the outside but Heaven suspected was 100 percent lethal.
From behind, Heaven heard a snicker.
“Look, Mother, they have a band.” Mortimer finally spoke up.
He’d come to stand beside Opaline again. He was five inches shorter than her, dressed in his favorite tweed jacket and black slacks. “Nobody uses a real live band anymore,” he said staring toward the front of the tent nostalgically.
“Quiet, Mortimer. Young man, I would ask you to take your hands off my daughter. She is an engaged woman,” Opaline said to Preston.
“No. I’m not,” Heaven told her mother.
“What did you just say?” Opaline asked.
Mortimer snapped his fingers to the tune the band had just begun to play. “I said nobody uses a real live band anymore,” he repeated.
“Not you, Mortimer,” Opaline scorned, giving her husband a look that stopped him just before he could snap his fingers or shake his bottom once more.
Heaven cleared her throat. The last thing she’d wanted was to create a scene—and at the Bay Soiree at that. Already out of her peripheral vision she could see people stopping and pointing in their direction.
“Let’s just go outside, Mother,” she said, and reached for her mother’s arm.
Opaline looked like she might actually make Heaven stand right there and talk, but with a huff she clamped her lips tight, so tight it looked like someone had drawn a straight line across her face. With some relief Heaven watched as her mother turned, her perfectly coiffed salt-and-pepper hair pulled into a neat bun. Mortimer gave another bounce and smiled at Heaven before following his wife.
Preston touched the small of her back, guiding her to the entrance.
“So these are your parents?” he whispered from beside her.
“Not by choice,” was her reply.
She was shaking, she was so nervous. Whenever her mother didn’t get her way things could get really bad. Tonight, with Heaven planning to tell her she was moving to Sweetland, she was bound to explode like those fireworks the town had enjoyed a few days ago.
The moment they were outside the tent, Opaline whirled around to once again face Heaven. Her mother was usually a shade or so darker than Heaven, her skin carrying a naturally tanned tone. But the foundation she’d used forever made her look lighter, much lighter, almost dead, Heaven thought with a start. There wasn’t a wrinkle in sight on Opaline’s face, and her hazel eyes were as sharp as ever. But for one quick second her mother had seemed old and maybe tired. She was fifty-six years old, but reported herself as being forty-eight. Her father was short and a bit stout, much to Opaline’s dismay. His jovial smile had turned to a confused frown as they both stood looking at her.
“I’m not returning to Boston,” Heaven said immediately, figuring prolonging the inevitable would only make things worse.
“You’re not returning tonight, you mean?” Opaline asked with a frostiness to her tone as she folded her arms over her chest.
Heaven shook her head. “I’m going to move to Sweetland,” she said, then added, “For good.” Just in case her mother wanted to misconstrue those words as well.
“You are doing no such thing. You have a job at Larengetics and a fiancé to return to.”
Rigid and unyielding had always been words she’d used to describe her mother, in private.
Right now those traits were coming through loud and clear, and she was embarrassed that Preston was seeing it firsthand.
“With all due respect, Mrs. Montgomery, Sweetland is a very nice town,” Preston chimed in. “It’s one of the safest places to live in Maryland, and it’s made up of folks who would do anything for one another. Heaven would be a welcome addition to the community that’s already embraced her.”
Really? Heaven thought. Was this really how Preston felt about her moving to Sweetland? If so, why hadn’t he just said so two days ago?
If it was said simply for her mother’s benefit, he might as well have recited the Bill of Rights in Portuguese for as coldly as her mother was regarding him.
“Young man, I have no idea who you are or who you would like to be in my daughter’s life, but I assure you it is all a mistake. She should never have come here, and the thought of staying here forever is preposterous. Now let’s get your things so we can leave,” her mother told her, and turned to walk away as if the conversation was finished.
“I’m not going anywhere with you,” Heaven said, her spine stiffening as she talked. In all her years she’d never spoken in such a tone to her mother, had never stood in front of her prepared for battle the way she was.
But that had been her fault. She should have stood up to Opaline much sooner.
“Heaven.” Opaline said her name in that warning tone that Heaven had only had to hear around three times in her life.
Hearing it while Preston was standing right next to her was more than a little demeaning and gave her yet another reason to take a stand.
“Everything you say I have in Boston is for you. I didn’t want to work at Larengetics. I wanted to teach.” Heaven had to pause and let out a whoosh of breath, as that was the first time she’d ever said it out loud. “You arranged for the job offer and probably made it so I couldn’t resist accepting it. You invited Geoffrey to that first dinner party, introduced us, and courted that relationship as if we were the prince and princess of Boston. My entire life has revolved around the things you wanted me to do.”
Behind her she could feel Preston’s hand going to the small of her back. A soft touch, a comforting and reassuring touch, a touch that only added to the inner strength she’d learned in the last couple of months to rely on.
“So, no, I will not be returning to Boston, to the life that you want me to have. I’m going to stay here in Sweetland and rebuild a new life, my life,” she said pointedly.
There was only a moment of silence between them. Heaven hadn’t really expected it to last that long. But when the outburst came, as frosty and chilling as it was, it instantly drew a crowd.
“You are not in your right mind! What have these people done to you? Have they hurt you? Threatened you? I will see the entire Cantrell family jailed for the assault of my daughter!” Opaline said, her gaze searing right past said daughter to land on Preston.
“Someone, quick, call the sheriff, this woman needs the police!” a loud female voice yelled from just behind Heaven to her right.
A glance over her shoulder, and Heaven’s blood boiled. Diana McCann stood with her arms folded over her chest, a smirk as big as the magnolia flower she had tucked into her hair above her left ear on her face.
In the next moments chaos seemed to break loose. A man in a tuxedo came pushing through the small crowd that had assembled, right behind him a younger man in a police uniform. Heaven gritted her teeth at the sight.
“All right, all right, what’s going on here?” asked the portly man who actually did sort of look like a penguin in his tuxedo.
His hair had been slicked back with what Heaven was sure had to be a half can of mousse or some other hair product, while his bushy eyebrows had been allowed to roam free in a gray-streaked mess across his face. The mustache that was too long and as bushy as the eyebrows didn’t help the overall image, but Heaven recalled seeing him before. The last time he’d had a jovial laugh and a lemon meringue pie in front of him. She doubted tonight was going to end on a sweet or happy note.
“The Montgomerys were just leaving,” Preston said, keeping Heaven close to his side.
“But not without their daughter, whom the Cantrells are holding against her will,” Diana added.
“Shut up, Diana!” Preston yelled. “She’s not going anywhere with them.”
“Are you an officer?” Opaline asked.
Beside her, Mortimer tapped her on the shoulder like a petulant child waiting for his turn to speak.
“Not now, Mortimer,” Opaline replied to him with clear exasperation.
“Yes, ma’am. I’m Sheriff Farraway. What seems to be the problem here?”
“The problem is that my daughter would like to leave this godforsaken town and these people won’t let her,” Opaline said.
Heaven rubbed her temples, her stomach lurching in revolt at the sudden turn of events. “That’s not true,” she said to the sheriff. “I’m staying in Sweetland because it’s where I want to be.”
“You’re being brainwashed by these people. There’s no other explanation,” Opaline continued.
“Sounds like a controlling mother to me,” a male voice yelled from the crowd to be followed quickly by guffaws and murmurs.
“She doesn’t belong here.” Diana spoke up again. “Look at her, wearing her diamonds and glittering all over the place. She’s trying to make us look bad, like she’s so much better than us.”
Was this really happening? Heaven couldn’t believe it. Her mother was causing a scene—which normally would never do for Opaline. And Diana was thoroughly enjoying the scene, which made perfect sense for the self-centered wannabe. And the townsfolk, well, they seemed to be taking the night’s entertainment in stride.
“Can’t make grown folk do what they don’t want,” Sheriff Farraway finally told Opaline. “Take my son Carl here. I want him to find a good woman, settle down, and give me some grandkids. But he’s hell-bent on gallivanting around town with every pretty tourist he can dig up. For all I know, with his track record, I might have some grandkids on the other side of the country.”
Laugher erupted, with some men patting Deputy Carl Farraway, who was dressed in uniform standing right behind his father, on the back good-naturedly.
“I don’t care what goes on in this rock-bottom town. I came to bring my daughter home,” Opaline told them sternly.
Mortimer touched her shoulder once more, this time saying, “Maybe we should just get a room for the night and talk about this in the morning.”
“I’m not staying in this town, in one of those houses,” Opaline continued with disgust.
“Good, because The Silver Spoon is completely booked.”
Heaven hadn’t seen Savannah arrive, but she wasn’t surprised to hear her smart retort.
“Let’s get out of here,” Preston said, taking her hand.
“All right, all right, back to the party,” the sheriff told all who had gathered. “Nothing to see here. Just a little misunderstanding.”
Yeah, right. Opaline didn’t misunderstand, she just didn’t listen. Especially not to Heaven, she never had.
* * *
They arrived back at the B&B in what Heaven thought was record time. As Preston pulled up in front of the inn she finally let the emotions that had been whirling around inside her go. Covering her face, she breathed in and out heavily to keep from crying. When Preston reached over to pull her close for a hug, she couldn’t hold back.
She cried.
She sounded like a blubbering idiot, but damn did the release feel good. In truth, it felt more than good, it felt cleansing. She’d stood up to her mother and she’d walked away with the last word. Whether or not her parents were still in Sweetland at this moment Heaven didn’t know and she didn’t really care.
“It’s not your fault, you know,” Preston told her as his hands moved over her back.
Warmth spread wherever he touched. Not the sexual kind, just the reassuring kind. It was so comforting sitti
ng here with him, knowing she could fall apart and he wouldn’t be appalled and he wouldn’t criticize. No, Preston would soothe and he would coax, he would do whatever was in his power to make her mood better. She knew because he’d been doing it since she came to Sweetland. And on some unconscious level, Heaven thought with a start, it had been exactly what she was looking for.
“I know. I didn’t think they would come here. They’ve never done anything like that before,” she told him honestly.
Preston pulled back, a slight chuckle escaping. “I’m guessing that’s because you’ve never run away before.”
She couldn’t help but smile in return. “No, I guess I haven’t.”
Heaven sighed then, and sat back against her seat. “I told her I was staying here. I said it and I meant it,” she whispered, mostly to herself. She hadn’t expected a reply from Preston.
“You sounded pretty certain of your decision,” he said quietly.
She looked at him. “I am.”
He nodded. “So you’re looking for a house. What are your other plans? Are you going to find a job here as well?”
“No one from Larengetics has contacted me since the explosion. I have to assume since that was six months ago that I no longer have a job there.”
“Have you still been getting paid?” he asked, looking at her strangely.
“Yes,” she said with a nod. “I was on a monthly pay schedule, and each month since the explosion the deposit has been made into my account.” She hadn’t thought of it before, but that certainly seemed strange since she hadn’t been allowed back into her office, nor had she spoken to any of the board members.
“So they’ve been paying you for not being there?”
“I guess so.”
“How long do you think they’ll continue that?”
Heaven shook her head. “Not much longer. I’m going to contact them so that I can officially resign.”
There was silence.
“I wish you all the best,” were his next words.
Heaven didn’t know what she’d expected to hear. This conversation had come so quickly on the heels of another emotional event that she was a little off when it came to comprehending and letting all this register. Preston hadn’t spoken to her in two days. Tonight the conversation about her staying had sort of forced itself upon them, all things considered. So she wasn’t prepared for his questions and subsequently did not have all the answers.
