Love in a Small Town

by Curtiss Ann Matlock

  “My sister has reported his harassing her before. She told me. You should have a record.”

  “Yes, Ma’am.” He checked his little notebook. “Approximately three weeks ago, your sister reported that Mr. Pendarvis was following her and calling her. She didn’t swear out a complaint, though, and since that time we have had no further reports of any problems. We do not have a report of an assault, and we have no witnesses to what you are saying. We’ll also need your sister to press charges, Ma’am.” He glanced toward the hallway.

  “I’ll press charges,” Molly said, jabbing her chest with her finger. “I saw her with her ripped skirt and black eye. I made an ice pack for it.”

  “Yes, Ma’am, but we need to have a witness who saw Mr. Pendarvis assault your sister. We need someone who has seen and heard him threaten her. We’ll talk to him, and we’ll investigate to see if there are any witnesses that your sister may not know of.”

  That set Molly right on fire. “The entire aim of a stalker is to not let anyone see or hear him. It is a secret, single activity . . . not a group activity!” she said, very close to yelling.

  In Molly’s estimation, these men, who were sworn to protect and to serve, were not doing either very well. And she was also not really happy with the way Tommy Lee didn’t say a word in support of her. He propped himself on the back of one of Rennie’s expensive overstuffed chairs and seemed preoccupied. And Sam did nothing more than sit uneasily on the sofa.

  Molly was so wrought up that she told the policemen, “You are next to useless, aren’t you? This has been going on for two months, has escalated to the point he is threatening to shoot her, and you are still asking questions. Perhaps my sister should just plan on stayin’ in the bathroom for the rest of her life. She is safe there!”

  “Molly.” Tommy Lee, who had been dividing his attention between Molly and the policemen and the enormous bouquet of red roses setting on the dining table, stepped forward and put his arm around her. She had a wild look, and he thought she might hit the man. “They’ll handle it. They have to follow procedures . . . investigate first. They can’t just go up and arrest a man.”

  The young policeman looked grateful. He bobbed his head. “Yes, sir. We’ll investigate and we’ll talk to Mr. Pendarvis. Someone will be in touch. Please feel free to contact us if anything else comes up.” Both men were easing themselves toward the door.

  “What? You mean if anything comes up like my sister’s body riddled with bullets? Stalkers do kill, you know.”

  Somewhat afraid she would pounce on the policemen and end up arrested, Tommy Lee kept his arm tight around her until the door closed behind them.

  Only a few times in their lives had he seen Molly this worked up, and always it was brought on when there was a threat to the happiness and well-being of one of her own. She had once sat in the back of Savannah’s English class to monitor a teacher whom she believed did not like Savannah and was being ugly to her. Savannah had been mortified, but within two weeks of Molly’s scrutiny the teacher had quit and gone to another school in another state and Savannah had ended up finishing the year a happy child excelling in English. When Tommy Lee asked Molly if she didn’t feel a mite guilty for driving the woman off, Molly said, “No. Not only was she spiteful but she was no good at teaching. Children at the school where she went had better have parents as alert as I.”

  The doctor who had treated Boone when he wrecked his car suffered similar treatment. Molly followed the doctor around, making certain he did all he should for Boone and was unfazed by the doctor’s threats to have her banned from the hospital. God help the man who did not do right by those Molly loved.

  Molly swung around and glared. “Well, you two were a lot of help.”

  Tommy Lee glanced at Sam, and both of them remained silent.

  “Do you think she’s makin’ this up?” Molly demanded. “Rennie doesn’t make things up . . . and I did see her black eye. It was the night she and I went to Rio’s.”

  “No, I don’t think she’s making it up,” Tommy Lee said. Although now that she had said it, he did wonder. He certainly wasn’t going to give voice to that thought. “It’s just that the police have to abide by laws, Molly. They can’t just go haulin’ people off the street.”

  “Well, they have, you know,” she said, intent on getting in the last word, which Tommy Lee prudently allowed.

  Molly stalked off to the kitchen. Tommy Lee shared an uncertain look with Sam. It made him feel a little better to see Sam felt uncertain, too. Then Tommy Lee’s gaze again fell on the enormous bouquet of roses, and he glanced back at Sam. Sam just looked at him. Tommy Lee went off to the kitchen.

  Molly stood with the coffeepot in hand, and as he watched, her head slumped downward. Going to her, he took the coffeepot and set it on the counter and pulled her into his arms. She resisted, but then gave way and sank against him.

  “It’ll be okay, honey. Rennie’s safe, you’re safe . . . It’ll be okay.”

  He was glad to hold her. When he and Sam had come racing up to the apartment, he’d been really scared that something may have happened to Molly. Seeing her fuming around Rennie’s living room had brought him great relief. He had been equally relieved about Rennie, too, because as long as Rennie was okay, Molly would be okay. Since they were both okay, he’d calmed down considerably and had begun to wonder if the women weren’t blowing everything out of proportion.

  “Oh, Tommy Lee”—she spoke in a hoarse whisper and pounded a fist on his chest—"I’m sorry I was so ugly a minute ago. I’m just so upset.” She raised teary eyes to him. “How dare that man do this to her. How dare he!” Then she cried against him, and he did the only thing he knew, which was to hold her until she could calm down.

  When she did finally stop, it seemed her tears shut off like a faucet. She lifted her head. “Something has to be done. This cannot go on.”

  She turned from his arms, and he sensed her gearing up again. Thinking to divert her, he said, “The first thing is that we need to get Rennie out of the bathroom. Find something to heat up. The smell of food will bring her out.”

  She cast him a dark look but went to the freezer, pulled out a box of honey buns, and put them on a plate for the microwave.

  Sam was just walking into the living room when Tommy Lee appeared again. “She’s still in the bathroom,” Sam said. “How’s Molly?”

  “Better,” Tommy Lee said. He went and looked out the front window.

  Sam sat again on the edge of the sofa. He couldn’t help but admire the room, nicely put together, comfortable and pleasing to the eye. He always noticed things like that. Then he fell back to thinking about the reason he was there. He felt totally out of his depth, as experienced as he was with women. He wondered if perhaps that was because he had never experienced a crisis with anyone he truly cared about. Seeing Molly so upset really upset him. He had never seen her this distraught, and then there was Rennie in the bathroom. That upset him, too. He really wanted to do something, but he wasn’t certain what to do.

  Rennie took a shower before she came out of the bathroom. She wasn’t coming out until the policemen were gone, and when she heard Sam’s voice with Tommy Lee, she decided she had to get a hold of herself. She did not want Sam to see her as some weak wacko. As a matter of fact, while she washed and made up, thoughts of Sam became more numerous than thoughts of Eddie Pendarvis. By the time she did emerge, she had clean, shiny hair and fresh makeup on and was thinking about and anticipating Sam. She noticed he looked appreciatively at her.

  Molly had made honey buns, and Rennie ate one and started to take another but refrained, not wanting to look like a pig. Finally, her nerves getting the best of her, she took half of it. It took a lot of energy to appear calm in the face of a threat from one man and possible attention from another.

  Molly came up with the wild proposal that they all go over and beat Eddie Pendarvis up. When Rennie laughed and tried to make light of everything, Molly pointed out that Rennie had proposed bea
ting up Annette Rountree only the week before and for much smaller infractions than Eddie Pendarvis had committed.

  Tommy Lee’s and Sam’s eyebrows went up, and Rennie was immediately embarrassed. “I was only kidding,” she said.

  “No you weren’t,” Molly said. “And something’s got to be done. You cannot remain at the mercy of this man, Rennie. It’s too dangerous.”

  Molly saying that brought Eddie Pendarvis back into sharp focus in Rennie’s mind. She had made wrong decisions and now she was going to have to pay for them. The trouble was, she tried so hard to make the right decisions. Depressed, she looked at Sam and wished things would straighten out. It seemed in that moment that her life had never been straightened out.

  Molly said, “I’ve seen features about this sort of thing on television, and the consensus is there is no dealing with people like Eddie Pendarvis. The only thing that works is what they understand—force. Maybe we could hire someone to go over and threaten this horrible man, make him leave town. Can’t people be hired for that sort of thing, even around here?” She was looking at Sam.

  “I imagine so, Molly,” he said. “But I don’t know anyone."

  Tommy Lee didn’t like that Molly looked at Sam for a solution. “It’s late,” he said, getting to his feet, “and the best thing to do now is get Rennie on back to Valentine for a few days.”

  The women went off to pack, and Tommy Lee felt relieved to have set them on a course that kept them occupied and not crying or hiding in the bathroom. It was also fortunate that Molly drove an El Camino because of the amount of stuff Rennie insisted on bringing. She insisted, too, on bringing the enormous bouquet of roses, although she decided that she could cut the bouquet down a bit. Some had died, so the rest would fit in a smaller vase.

  While Sam and Tommy Lee were loading the bags and trunks into the back of the El Camino, the telephone rang. Tommy Lee paid little attention to it, until he saw Molly’s face. She had answered the telephone. Rennie was staring from the kitchen doorway. Molly said, “You bastard,” and threw the receiver and sent the telephone to the floor.

  “It was him,” she breathed. Her terrified eyes caused Tommy Lee to drop the bag he carried and race across to pick up the phone.

  But he heard only a dial tone.

  Molly said, “He thought I was Rennie. He said the police had been to see him, but he didn’t use his own phone and that he could call her anytime he wanted. He just laughed this awful laugh.”

  This shook Tommy Lee up considerably. Until that instant he’d had a lot of doubts about the true seriousness of the situation. On occasion a woman could get wrought up about next to nothing. Now it came to him sharply that there was peril, and that it was as much for Molly as for Rennie. Molly could never stand for anything to happen to Rennie.

  “Let’s get goin’,” he said quietly. “Rennie, leave your cellular phone here.”

  When Tommy Lee declared that Sam would drive Rennie in the El Camino, and Molly would ride with him in the Corvette, Rennie worried about her car. Molly gave her a look that conveyed: We’re going with the men. Rennie shut up and got into the El Camino, all the while carefully holding her precious bouquet of roses.

  Each of them riding with a man made Molly feel safer all the way around, although she saw no need to admit the fact aloud. She also had a hard time looking at the rose bouquet and meeting Sam’s eyes. There was nothing to be done about that, so it was best to ignore it.

  Speeding down the state highway, the Corvette’s headlights illuminated the El Camino ahead of them, and the soft summer night blew around the windshield. Molly relaxed, feeling they were leaving the danger behind. Rennie had never taken Eddie Pendarvis to Valentine, nor spoken of where her family lived there; it would take a while for him to find them. And should Eddie Pendarvis come down to Valentine, Molly would be ready with Kaye’s ladies’ shotgun. That she had never used Kaye’s shotgun was a small matter.

  In the back of her mind she was considering hunting down Eddie Pendarvis and putting a stop to him herself. Her mind filled with an image of herself in black leather with a big gun confronting Eddie Pendarvis, whom she had never seen but pictured with greasy hair. No one would suspect her, she thought, good mother and upstanding citizen and lifelong member of the Free Methodist Church that she was. The fantasies comforted her, made her feel less helpless.

  She told herself that for now Rennie was safe and they were all going home. Mama would be waiting because they had called her. With a deep sigh, she leaned her head back against the seat. She looked over at Tommy Lee, at his profile lit by the silvery-green dash lights and his thick hair buffeted by the wind.

  She suddenly thought, He has been with me through every crisis in my life.

  Tears filled her eyes, and a panic came over her. What would she have done without him tonight? Oh, granted, he hadn’t done all that much—he hadn’t backed her with those policemen, which still irritated her. But he had kept her from smacking one of them, and she might have regretted that.

  He had been calm when she was losing it. That’s the way they had always played things. When one of them lost control, the other kept it. It was almost like an unspoken agreement: Only one of them allowed out of control at a time—and usually it was Molly out of control and Tommy Lee holding calm. She felt guilty because so often she was angry at Tommy Lee’s calmness. Sometimes the way he remained so steady made her grit her teeth. But more often it got them through. Oh, yes, Tommy Lee’s steady calmness had gotten them through so much.

  Quite suddenly, Tommy Lee glanced at her. He reached out and took her hand and squeezed it. An electric warmth swept up her arm and into her chest.

  Molly averted her eyes, not wanting him to see her tears. But she held on to him, even when he had to shift gears.

  Rennie chose to stay at their mother’s house, up in the room that had once been her own. Molly had not lived in the house but a year before marrying Tommy Lee, so it had never been home to her the way it had been to Rennie. The men brought in the bags but didn’t linger.

  “Don’t you want some coffee?” Molly asked, surprised when Tommy Lee and Sam headed for the back door. “We’ve got a coffeemaker over at the cottage now—I’ll go get it.”

  His hand on the doorknob, Tommy Lee shook his head. “No, thanks. It’s late, and I need to get Sam back out to Rio’s for the Bronco. You women keep the doors locked, just to be on the safe side.” He opened the door and started out.

  Sam said, “Goodnight, ladies,” and his gaze lingered on Rennie.

  “Thank you for all you did tonight,” Rennie said, then called to Tommy Lee, “Thanks for comin', Tommy Lee,” but her gaze was still straight on Sam.

  Molly was somewhat startled by the manner in which Rennie looked at Sam. And the manner in which Sam looked back. Molly wondered exactly what had gone on between the two during the drive from Rennie’s apartment.

  She followed the men out the door. She met Tommy Lee’s gaze in the glow of the porch light. He slipped his arm around her shoulders as he started away for the Corvette. She wound hers around his waist. She couldn’t seem to let go of him, and she felt torn because she didn’t want to leave Rennie and Mama right now, either.

  “I thank you both for coming,” she said.

  Tommy Lee squeezed her shoulders. Sam said goodnight and walked on off to the Corvette. Tommy Lee stopped and looked down at her. She couldn’t see his eyes in the dimness, but she felt his warmth.

  “I think everything’s fine, but make certain you lock the doors anyway,” Tommy Lee said.

  “I will. I promise.”

  Molly’s heart swelled at his attentiveness. She looked at him, then laid her head against his shoulder.

  “I don’t know what I would have done without you tonight.”

  Tommy Lee said, “You’re my wife, and she’s your sister.” But he said more by putting his hand into her hair at her neck and pressing her against him.

  There were so many emotions swirling inside her. Mo
lly held on to Tommy Lee and willed herself to savor the bond that burned bright and shining between them in that moment. In that moment she experienced a feeling of total rightness, so pure and precious she wanted to stay in it forever.

  Then Tommy Lee put his hand beneath her chin and lifted her face and kissed her, sweetly and seductively. Her head was spinning when he drew back. They gazed at each other for a long minute.

  “You’ll be okay here,” Tommy Lee said. “Just lock the doors like I said. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  He slipped away from her. She reached for his hand. “Tommy Lee . . ." The words were confused inside her. She didn’t truly know what it was she wanted to say.

  He bent and kissed her cheek. She felt his smile in the darkness. “Me, too,” he said. “Now get on inside. Get some sleep.”

  She let him go reluctantly, squeezing his hand one last time before he broke away. She watched as he got into the Corvette and turned it around. Before the taillights disappeared, she walked back to the house. Mama was making them all hot chocolate. She had turned the air conditioner up, “So we can really enjoy his cocoa,” she said. Then, at Molly’s look, she added, “These packages have been in the freezer. I’m sure they are fine.”

  * * * *

  The way Tommy Lee saw it, he had little choice but to go up and do what he could to take care of Eddie Pendarvis, and the sooner the better. He didn’t think going the legal way was going to produce quick, satisfying results.

  His main worry was that Molly might take it into her head to go after Eddie Pendarvis. He knew Molly; once she got wrought up there was almost no limit to what she might do to protect her own. Also, if Pendarvis came after Rennie, he was likely to get Molly, too, because Molly was certain to stick to Rennie like stink on a skunk. Molly’s life was tied to Rennie’s; whatever harm came to Rennie would come double to Molly . . . and would turn Tommy Lee’s life more inside out than it already was. The more Tommy Lee thought about this, the angrier he got at Eddie Pendarvis for wrecking his life.