She went right to it and pulled it out for Amanda’s inspection. “What do you think?”
“I think those society women will need their smelling salts if you walk into a room in that dress,” Amanda said honestly. “They’ll gather up their men and run.”
“It’s the neckline, isn’t it?” Nadine said, wistfully eyeing the low cut.
“And the hemline,” Amanda told her. “It’d hit you at mid-thigh, which I understand is your preferred length, but I think something that skims the knee would be a better choice.”
“Who gets to wear a thing like this?” Nadine inquired, reluctantly parting with it.
“Someone twenty-one and leggy going out with her sugar daddy,” Amanda said.
Nadine grinned. “Too bad it’s wasted on anyone that young. They can’t possibly know how to flaunt it.”
“Nadine, Southern girls grow up knowing how to flaunt their assets,” Amanda said as she culled through the hangers till she found the red suit she’d remembered. “Now this will work for you. Try it on.”
Nadine regarded it doubtfully. “It’s just a plain old suit.”
Amanda shook her head. “It’s a plain old red suit with a classic cut. You’ll be able to wear it forever. Come on. Be daring, Nadine. If I’m right, you can take me out and buy me lunch. If I’m wrong and you don’t look like a million bucks, I’ll buy lunch.”
She waited outside the dressing room while Nadine changed into the suit. Nadine’s usual line of chatter slowly died out.
“Oh, my,” Nadine murmured a few minutes later.
She emerged from the room looking as if she’d stepped out of the pages of Vogue. With her hair up and a discreet amount of gold jewelry, she’d command any room she entered.
“I look…” Her voice trailed off.
“Amazing,” Amanda supplied.
“And classy,” Nadine said with wonder. “I actually look classy.”
Amanda smiled. “Does that pleased look on your face mean I get a free lunch?”
“Honey, you can have lunch on me for a month,” Nadine responded, her gaze still locked on her image in the mirror. “I don’t want to take this off.”
“Then don’t, but you’re going to be a little overdressed for the coffee shop on the corner.”
“Right,” Nadine agreed. “And I’d hate to spill ketchup on it, especially since buying it is going to bust my budget wide open. Give me two minutes, then we’ll ring this up and go out to eat.”
A few minutes later they strolled into the coffee shop and found a booth open by the window. Though the atmosphere was fifties diner, the menu had evolved. In addition to the grilled cheese sandwiches and burgers, there was an extensive listing of fancy salads and even Amanda’s favorite chicken quesadilla with salsa and guacamole.
After they’d ordered and their iced tea had been served, Nadine sat back and studied Amanda.
“You want to tell me how things went when you saw your daddy?” she asked.
Amanda should have known it wouldn’t take long for word to get around, especially with Nadine involved with one of Big Max’s oldest friends. “George told you?”
Nadine nodded. “He stopped by to visit with your daddy yesterday. He said you could have knocked him over with a feather when Big Max told him you’d been by. Said you didn’t stay long, though. Didn’t things go the way you’d hoped?”
Amanda shrugged. “It was a little overwhelming. I mean, for years now I’ve hated my father for what he did to me, for how inadequate he made Bobby feel. All of a sudden I was sitting there drinking tea as if nothing had happened. A part of me wanted to throw that tea right in his face and scream at him for being so hateful to my husband, but I couldn’t do it.”
“Because he’s sick,” Nadine guessed.
Amanda regarded her with amazement. “You know about that, too?”
“Your father confided in George. The only reason George told me was because he thought you might need a friend to talk to, someone besides Caleb.” Nadine’s gaze was filled with sympathy. “Sweetie, it’s okay that you’re still angry with him, even if he is sick. That doesn’t wipe the slate clean.”
“But I feel like I’m the one being mean and hateful if I don’t let it all go now,” Amanda admitted. “We sat there making small talk, Nadine. It was ridiculous. I felt like such a hypocrite when there were so many things left unsaid.”
“Then you need to clear the air,” Nadine advised. “Say your piece, Amanda, and let him say his. That’s the only way there won’t be this big ole elephant in the room every time you see each other. From everything I’ve heard about your daddy, he can take it. Any man who can dish it out the way he has…”
“Did you and Josh ever sit down and have a conversation like that?” Amanda asked curiously, recalling how tense things had been between mother and son when Nadine showed up unexpectedly in Charleston the year before. “I know you two had a lot of old issues between you when you first came back to town.”
Nadine chuckled. “We’re talking Josh, honey. Until he got involved with Maggie, ‘stoic’ was his middle name. He didn’t discuss anything that went below skin-deep. If I’d started picking at the scabs on all those old wounds, he’d probably be living in Memphis by now or points even farther west. No, with Josh, things came to a head bit by bit.”
“But you all get along great now,” Amanda said, unable to keep a note of envy from her voice.
Nadine beamed. “Yes, we do. I think he actually likes having me for a mama almost as much as I admire the man he’s become. I wish I could take credit for how terrific he is, but he did it all on his own and I couldn’t be prouder of him for that.”
“But if waiting it out was right for you and Josh, why do you think I need to get everything on the table with my father?”
“Time, sweetie,” Nadine said quietly. “You might not have that much of it. Get the battle over with, so you can have as many peaceful days as possible. You want to start storing up some good memories. The holidays seem like the perfect time to start. I imagine your daddy would be real happy to spend Christmas surrounded by his grandkids.”
Amanda couldn’t imagine such a scene. “Couldn’t I just pretend none of it ever happened?”
“I don’t know. Could you?” Nadine asked, regarding Amanda with a penetrating look.
Amanda thought about how all that pent-up anger would eat away at her and destroy whatever time she had with her father. It had already taken a toll during that first visit.
“No,” she admitted at last. “But I have to tell you, Nadine, given how I feel about confrontation, you just made the prospect of paying another visit to my father shoot straight to the bottom of my to-do list.”
“Have a piece of double-fudge cake, then,” Nadine said. “I find you can swallow almost anything as long as it’s accompanied by chocolate.”
Amanda had a hunch there wasn’t enough chocolate in the world to make the inevitable confrontation with her father go down easily.
Caleb looked at the nervous young man seated across from him and had to fight a smile. Danny looked every bit as scared as he had the day he and Mary Louise had come to talk to Caleb about marrying them.
“What’s on your mind, Danny?” Caleb asked, leaning back in his chair.
“I had a meeting with Cord Beaufort yesterday,” Danny said.
“Really?” Caleb said, feigning ignorance. “What was it about?”
Danny’s expression brightened. “He offered me a job for the summer. Can you believe it? It would be helping on his historic preservation project over in Atlanta.”
“That’s great,” Caleb said. “It will give you a real taste of that kind of work. Maybe it’ll help you decide if it’s what you really want to do.”
“That’s what I thought,” Danny agreed.
“Okay, then, what’s the problem?”
“I was thinking I ought to be here,” Danny explained, his excitement fading. “You know, because of Mary Louise. The baby will be he
re this spring and I probably should help out as much as I can over the summer. I don’t want her to think I’m abandoning her.”
“Have you talked it over with Mary Louise?”
Danny shook his head. “Not yet. I already know what she’s gonna say.”
“Really?” Caleb said, amused. “You can read her mind?”
“Pretty much,” Danny said seriously. “She’ll say I have to do it because it’s exactly the kind of work I want to do someday and Beaufort Construction is one of the best.”
“If she said that, she’d have a point.”
“But come on, Reverend Webb, what about the baby?” Danny asked earnestly. “I owe it to Mary Louise to stick around, at least when I’m out of school for the summer.”
Caleb looked directly into his eyes and saw the confusion of a young man torn between doing what he perceived to be the right thing and doing what he’d dreamed of doing his whole life.
“Wouldn’t you be helping Mary Louise most if you had a good job and could give her some money to help support the baby?” Caleb asked.
Hope flickered in Danny’s eyes. “That’s true.” He shook his head. “But I don’t want to let her down, not any more than I already have. I missed her first sonogram. I haven’t even heard the baby’s heartbeat yet.”
“And you want to do that?”
Danny nodded slowly. “At first, I didn’t think I did. But when she told me about it, I realized what I’m missing. It’s gotta be amazing to see your own baby growing inside its mama, you know what I mean?”
Caleb wished he’d had that experience, but he could imagine it. “I’m sure it is. Why don’t you talk to Mary Louise and make plans to go with her to her next doctor visit? Maybe she has one during the holidays.”
Danny brightened. “Maybe she does. I’ll check with her as soon as I leave here.” His smile faded. “You don’t think it would make it harder for her, having me around like that?”
“What do you think?”
“She’s said it would be okay.”
“Then I’d take her at her word,” Caleb said. “And, Danny, remember this. In the long run, you’ll let her down more if you’re not true to yourself,” Caleb said. “Talk over this summer-job offer with her. Mary Louise is a very mature young woman. I think you can count on her to give you good advice and to support whatever you decide.”
“Yeah, she will,” Danny agreed. “That’s why I have to make the best choice for both of us. I can’t have her letting me off the hook all the time.”
Caleb frowned. He was beginning to sense that there was more going on here than a quandary over a summer job. “Danny, are you regretting the decision you made to wait to get married?”
“I guess,” he said, still looking uncertain. “I know it would be really hard and all, but we do love each other. Maybe that’s enough.”
“I think you need to be more confident than that before you get married,” Caleb said gently. “You’ll know when the time is right. Don’t rush into anything until you’re absolutely certain you can make it work and are ready to make whatever sacrifices are necessary. You have your whole lifetime ahead of you.”
“I guess,” Danny said, his tone skeptical.
“You’re a fine young man, Danny. I believe wholeheartedly that you and Mary Louise will be together when the time is right for both of you.”
Danny stood up. “Thanks, Reverend Webb. I wish I could talk to my mom and dad the way I can talk to you. Before, I used to talk things over with Mary Louise. I really miss that.”
“There’s nothing to stop you from talking things over with her now. And try talking to your parents, too. Perhaps they’ll surprise you.”
A grin tugged at Danny’s lips. “I’m pretty sure I’m the only one in the family who’s full of surprises, and mine don’t seem to be working out too well.”
Caleb laughed as the boy left his office, his step a lot lighter than when he had entered.
Caleb sighed. He wondered how Danny would feel about his advice if he knew just what a mess Caleb seemed to be making of his own life.
Amanda was so terrified of facing down her father once and for all that she actually considered—if only for a fleeting second—taking the kids along to serve as a buffer. That would guarantee that she’d never raise her voice and might even stifle Max’s desire to fight back. Obviously, though, it was a terrible idea. She didn’t want her children anywhere near her father until he was ready to embrace them as family. She was far from certain that Max was ready.
This time when she drove out to see Max, she kept her foot pressed determinedly to the accelerator, whipped into the driveway and braked to a sudden stop right beside his car. She thought she saw him wince as she cut the engine, but his expression was neutral as she climbed the porch steps.
This time she actually took a minute to look around. The grounds were as well tended as ever with masses of azalea bushes bordering the porch, dormant now with winter just around the corner. In early spring, the colorful display was impressive. The porch’s tongue-in-groove floorboards had been painted a glossy forest green to match the shutters on the house. The beadboard ceiling was a sparkling white, the ceiling fans a recent addition. In the old days they’d relied on breezes to cool the sultry temperatures.
“You look as if you’ve come barreling out here ready for a fight,” Max said. “What’s on your mind?”
Amanda regarded him with astonishment. “What on earth do you think is on my mind?”
“You want to drag out every sin I’ve committed against you and make sure I pay, is that it?”
His blunt assessment pretty much took the wind out of her sails. “That’s exactly it,” she said, relieved to have the topic out in the open at last. “You hurt me, Daddy. And as much as I loved Bobby and he loved me, your behavior cost us something precious.”
“I hope you’re not going to blather on and on about how I ruined your wedding day,” he retorted defensively. “I regret that, but at the time I thought I was doing the right thing. I took a gamble that my opinion meant something to you and might keep you from doing something crazy. Then when I lost, I didn’t know how the hell to make it right.”
“I don’t imagine you gave the matter that much thought,” she said.
“You’re wrong about that,” he said. “Oh, I was mad as spit that day, but when you walked out of this house with your head held so high and your shoulders all stiff and proud, it near to broke my heart. You ask Jessie. She’ll tell you.”
He gave her a rueful look. “You were a Maxwell through and through at that moment, sticking to your guns in a way that would have made me proud if you hadn’t been defying me. Nothing I admire more than someone with the courage of their own convictions.”
“I wish you’d told me that, maybe not then, but later,” she said.
“And admit that the whole thing had been a desperate gamble and that you’d beaten me?”
She nodded. “Why not? Wasn’t our relationship worth it? Until Bobby came along, you were my whole world. I never wanted to have to choose, but you made me.”
“Only thing I knew to do,” he said. “The boy was all wrong for you, all wrong for the future you could have had if you’d listened to me. I had to try to stop you from making a mistake you’d regret.”
“I never regretted loving Bobby!” she snapped.
“Not even after he left you penniless?” Max taunted. “Wasn’t that proof enough that I’d been right?”
Amanda’s fury rebounded. “Don’t you dare blame all of that on Bobby!”
“Who else should I blame?”
“You’re the one he kept trying to prove himself to. Maybe if you hadn’t made Bobby feel so inadequate, he wouldn’t have taken so many financial risks.”
Her father stared at her incredulously. “You can’t blame me for your husband’s folly.”
“But I do, dammit. You cost me time with the man I loved.”
Max regarded her with shock. “You blaming me
for that boy’s death, too?”
Amanda knew better than that. “No, I’m talking about the hours in the day he should have been spending with me and the kids. Instead, he was driven to succeed, driven to prove you wrong.”
“If he felt inadequate, that was his problem,” Max said. “He wasn’t good enough for you, and that’s the truth.”
“That’s your truth!” she said furiously. “Bobby O’Leary was a kind, decent husband who was willing to do whatever it took to make up for the things he thought I sacrificed to be with him. Everyone should be loved that much.”
“Love,” Max scoffed. “You can’t pay the bills with love. Found that out, didn’t you?”
“Don’t you dare throw that in my face. Don’t you dare!” She was shaking so hard, she could barely speak. “Whatever made me think you might have changed, that you might have mellowed? You’re the same cold-hearted bastard you were on my wedding day.”
She whirled around and started down the steps. Only when she was halfway to the car did she hear him call her name. At first she wasn’t sure it hadn’t been her imagination. She turned slowly and saw her father struggling to his feet. To her astonishment, there were tears on his cheeks.
“Don’t go,” he said softly. “Please, Amanda. I deserve everything you said to me, even being called a bastard back then, though I’ll thank you not to use that word around here again.”
She almost smiled at that. He’d always hated it when she swore. He’d drilled it into her head that it was unladylike. Maybe that was one reason it had been so satisfying to call him a name that would make his hackles rise.
Still, it had gone against the grain of her own beliefs, so she apologized. “I’m sorry if I offended you,” she said. “But you make me so furious. If only you’d gotten to know Bobby, if only you’d given him half a chance, things might have turned out differently for all of us.” She approached the steps and met her father’s gaze. “Do you know something ironic? I think I fell in love with Bobby because he reminded me of you.”
“That boy was nothing in the world like me,” her father declared.
Waking Up in Charleston Page 20
