Til There Was U

by Dianne Castell

  He picked up the mug about architects and angles Effie had given him for Christmas and felt his delirious state vanish like .. . like fog over the Mississippi.

  Dammit-all! She should be here. She should be going to dinner with him and moving into the big office across the hall. What the hell was wrong with that girl? This was the good life, why the two of them had busted their butts for a year and a half to draw up a set of plans that came in under budget, was mindful of the environment and was incredibly beautiful.

  ———

  And where was Effie now? In some mangy river town. The woman was fucking insane, he was sure of it. What the hell was Effie Wilson doing there?

  “What the hell am I doing here?” Effie asked more to herself than Sally while studying the blueprints spread out on the bar at Slim’s. “I forgot to put in the electricity. I’m losing my flipping mind.”

  Morning sun and fresh air poured through the open windows and doors as Sally bustled about, airing the place out and getting the bar ready for the day’s business soon to follow. Blind Boy Fuller’s “It Doesn’t Matter, Baby” hummed low and sweet from the jukebox.

  Sally stopped drying a glass and leaned over the plans for the town renovations and proposed residential housing. “All I know is whatever you’re doing it looks great to me. I really love the fountain and park in the middle of town and the white frame houses with touches of steamboat Gothic architecture and all overlooking the river.”

  “We’ll add lighted footpaths down to the bank and put in docks for fishing and picnicking. That the Landing is on a cliff and not at river level saves us from flooding.”

  “If I market this right, we’ll have no trouble selling houses. We’re only an hour from Memphis, and I’ve been talking to the banks about special financing.”

  Effie tapped her pencil on the plans. “I need to start interviewing contractors. We want this right, no hackers.”

  Sally sipped her coffee. “So if everything’s looking great, why are you in a tizzy?”

  “Infrastructure.”

  “Meaning?”

  “I’m not great on laying out water lines, sewers, electricity.” Effie dropped her pencil onto the sketch and parked her chin in her palm, her elbow braced on the bar. “Ryan O’Fallon, on the other hand, is the king of infrastructure. He’s the one who makes all these designs work flawlessly. And since we’re presenting these specs to the town tonight at the high school gym, it would be nice to tell them they’ll have electricity and sewer. I hate figuring that stuff out, takes me forever. Ryan waves his magic pencil, and everything is hooked up, powered up and flushed away.”

  “You’ll get it nailed down by next week when I go to Nashville and talk to the suits to get us grant money for rehabing the Landing. You don’t have to worry about putting infrastructure on the plans for tonight.”

  “Think Nashville will give us the grant? The Landing’s not rich enough to afford renovations on its own.”

  Sally fluffed her hair and tipped her head. “Girl, you’ve never seen me in my Chanel black power suit and Harvard MBA mode. The grant is as good as ours.”

  “Going to stop by and see a certain detective while you’re there?”

  Sally stopped fluffing and fumed, “That man thinks he’s Diek Tracy when he’s really just a plain old dick.”

  Thelma walked in and sat down on the bar stool beside Effie. “You talking about Conrad?”

  Sally wagged her head. “Not this time. I was ragging on Demar.”

  She looked from Effie to Thelma. “Aren’t we a sorry sight. We should get awards for doing the worst job of picking men on God’s earth. I fall for a lying, scheming, opportunistic jackass of a cop who used me and my friends to get the information he needed. Heck, if I wanted that kind of treatment, I could have stayed in New York and gotten paid for it.”

  She nodded at Thelma. “You go loopy over a guy trying to swindle you out of your money, and Effie here’s nutty about a man who’s clear across the country and chooses the perfect job over the perfect woman.”

  “Well,” Thelma sighed. “Then I must be the sorriest sight of all because I love Conrad, warts and all. I really do and . . . and we’re engaged.”

  Effie snagged Thelma’s left hand. Diamonds and rubies in a vintage filigree setting of what had to be platinum sparkled in the light. “Ohmygosh. It’s gorgeous.” She hugged Thelma. “You’re gorgeous. I’ve never seen you happier. This is so exciting. I’m thrilled for you.”

  Sally took Thelma’s hand. “Let me see! Let me see! Oh, my Lord, it’s beautiful. I take back everything I said about the jerk ... I mean Conrad. I think the man’s truly trying to redeem himself. Not only does he rescue you from those gun-toting punks who were after Bonnie, but he sold you Hastings House at a real steal and now he’s given you this. Mercy!”

  Thelma beamed. “It was his mama’s. We haven’t set a date. Conrad’s working like a maniac down at the dry dock and won’t even talk wedding ‘til he’s got the place in the black and making money again.”

  Sally winked. “That’s okay as long as he’s moved in with you and keeping your big soft bed warm at night.”

  Thelma put her hands over her face and moaned, “Oh, I so agree, but he won’t do either ‘til we get married. Says he doesn’t want to ruin my fine reputation and wants to keep me respectable.”

  She looked between her fingers. “You all are looking at the horniest woman east of the Mississippi.”

  Effie and Sally laughed, and Sally said, “I know that feeling. Nothing like a good man at your side, but for me and Effie it’s not happening this time around.” She looked at Effie. “Do you miss him?”

  Effie almost said, I miss Ryan putting in the ductwork, pipes, lines and electricity, and that’s all. Except that would be a huge lie. Instead she said, “After presenting the renovations and proposed residential housing to the town tonight at the high school, I’m going back to San Diego.”

  Chapter 19

  Sally sighed. “I knew this would happen. I knew Effie would cave and go back with Ryan, especially with Keefe home. Nothing like one twin to remind you about the other.”

  Effie rolled her shoulders. “Trouble is I don’t need reminding. I think about him all the time. I have to give it a try, see if we can make things work. We’re so different there than here but maybe, just maybe ...”

  “You love him,” Thelma stated.

  Effie shrugged. “And I can’t help it. I’ve tried to get over him but... I’ll fly back here once a week to check on the renovations and new buildings. Get a local architect to help out and keep in touch with him to make sure our project goes smoothly. I can draw up the plans, but I have to do them in San Diego.”

  Sally patted Effie’s hand. “We understand.” She looked at Thelma. “Don’t we?”

  ———

  Effie turned off her computer from the power point presentation as the high school gym began to empty, and Thelma walked over. “Well, we had some turnout. Everyone wanted to see what was going on.”

  “They sure had enough questions, and now they understand that the updates won’t change the Landing and the construction will create jobs, get cottage industries and start-up businesses going and keep people here instead of them leaving for work in the city. Notice how everyone wanted to add their two-cents’ worth.”

  “And you did a bang-up job convincing them to leave their paws off your work.”

  Effie pointed at Thelma. “So, you heard it, too.”

  Thelma’s eyes grew large, and she suddenly busied herself getting papers together. “Heard what, too? I didn’t hear anything, too.”

  “A cat. Meowing from somewhere in the back.”

  She tisked and waved her hand as if shooing off a fly. “Now, who would bring a cat to a meeting? Makes no sense at all. You must be hearing things, and at your age, too. Who would have thought?”

  “You’re the one who said paws. I’m just following through.”

  “I’m heading over to Slim’
s as I suspect most of the others are. We need to tell Sally how things went.”

  “And you’re meeting up with Conrad?”

  Thelma grinned and gave a sassy smile. “You bet. Come with me. I’ll buy you a farewell beer since you’re hell-bent on leaving us tomorrow.”

  She shoved her papers into her briefcase and closed her laptop. “It’s not that I want to leave; it’s just that—”

  “You want to leave,” Thelma finished as they headed out the door. “I understand, and so do Sally and Rory and Slim and everyone else around here.”

  “I can’t stay here with Ryan there,” Effie said as they crossed the road, heading for Slim’s. “The two of us may not ever get together permanently, but I’ll be near him, spend time with him, and that’s got no time beat by a mile. You know, I thought I’d get over him.”

  “And then you didn’t.”

  Effie pushed open the door to the bar, and Sally waved a telephone at her from behind the bar, pointing to it and mouthing Ryan. Effie stopped and said to Thelma, “This is the first time he’s called. Least he still remembers me. Think it’s a good sign?”

  “It can’t be a bad one.”

  Effie took the phone as Rod Stewart played from the jukebox. “You better get Rod off there or this place is going to mutiny, and it won’t be pretty.”

  Sally groused, “Will you just answer the damn phone and quit with all the suggestions?”

  “Don’t be so grouchy.” Effie took the receiver. “Hi.”

  “Hi yourself. What are you doing? I hear you don’t like to figure in power plants and sewers in your plans.”

  “Somebody tattled.” She laughed. It felt so good to laugh with him as she listened to his banter and teasing. She missed him, missed him more than she thought possible. “Guess what, I’m coming to San Diego. I’m leaving the Landing. Staying here was a .. . mistake. You were right. I’ll be—”

  “You don’t want to come to San Diego.”

  Her heart stopped. She couldn’t breathe. She covered the phone with her hand and said to Sally, “Oh God! He’s found someone else!”

  “What?”

  “That’s why he called. It’s like that show where the guy calls the gal that’s his best friend to tell her he’s getting married. Ryan’s getting married.”

  Sally took Effie’s hand from the receiver. “Talk to him.”

  Effie swallowed, then said to Ryan, “You’ve fallen for someone, haven’t you? A woman?”

  “It’s not a man.”

  Her heart dropped to the floor. She’d waited too long. “I... I...”

  “Turn around.”

  “Why in the world should I—” Sally turned her head, and she gasped. Ryan sat at the end of the bar. He grinned and pointed to the blue pet carrier. A familiar meow drifted her way. “Wally?” she squealed.

  She dropped the phone and ran past Ryan to Wally and petted him through the metal grating on the front. Then she faced Ryan, who had a dopey smile on his very handsome face.

  “You never make things easy.”

  “Me? You scared me to death. I thought you were marrying someone—”

  “Else,” he finished as he snagged her into his arms. “God, I missed you. I love you, Effie Wilson.”

  She bit her bottom lip, and her breath caught. “You ... You do? You really do?”

  “Yes, and now would be a great time to say, T love you, too,’ so I didn’t kiss off a really good job for nothing.”

  “You quit the firm? That was your dream.”

  “You’re my dream. I really need that I love you.”

  Laughing, she threw her arms around his neck, knocking him off balance and into Conrad, who said, “Effie, for crying out loud, tell the poor man you love him so we can get rid of this sappy godawful music.”

  She laughed and looked into Ryan’s wonderful blue eyes that she’d missed so much. “You played this music just for me?”

  “Like anyone else around here would appreciate it?”

  She kissed him. “I love you. I was on my way back to California to be with you.”

  “And I was on my way here when Sally called and told me what you were planning. Why would you come to San Diego? We’re terrible there.”

  “At least we’d be terrible together. I don’t want to be without you, Ryan. Ever. For any reason.”

  “Then marry me, Effie Wilson. Say you will and we’ll figure out the future together.” He brought his lips to hers. “I didn’t know what happiness was, ‘til there was you.”

  Hi Romance lovers,

  You’ve just read about Ryan, Effie, steamy nights, the wail of a soulful sax, moonlight on the Mississippi River and a baby left on a doorstep in the first installment of the Four O’Fallons and a Baby series.

  Now soap opera star Keefe O’Fallon’s on his way to the Landing hounded by the tabloids and Callie Cahill in The Way U Look Tonight. Keefe wants no part of the press invading his privacy until the resourceful Callie offers him the deal of a lifetime, along with fulfilling sensual fantasies and proposing a few surprises of her own.

  Return to O’Fallon’s Landing with Keefe and Callie where fun, sass and a whole lot of romance are just around the bend.

  See you there, Dianne

  Visit me at DianneCastell.com

  E-mail DianneCastell@hotmail.com for bookmarks and newsletters