Whispers Under a Southern Sky

by Joanne Rock

  Couldn’t.

  She shut down the guilt and looked around the parking area behind the shop. It was mostly vacant except for a large custom RV with the store name stenciled on the side. A door to the motor home was open, and the lights were on in the back. Rock music and laughter filtered into the parking area.

  “Erin?” Bethany called, leaving the fire exit open so she could see inside the store. “Someone’s here for you.”

  She grinned at Amy.

  How strange to be here, waiting for a glimpse of the sister she hadn’t seen in ten years. Her stomach jolted with nerves as she wondered if Erin would hold a grudge—no matter how nice of a face she put on her feelings. Erin and Amy were actually more alike in temperament than her other siblings. Heather alone had a sunny disposition.

  “Well, hello, stranger. We’re just finishing up in here.”

  Amy halted in the doorway to stare at her. With reverse highlights in her hair and a pink headband to hold it off her face, Erin didn’t seem to have aged a minute since Amy had seen her last.

  Despite the stern-looking black lace-up boots she wore and the tough-girl jean overalls, her smile was friendly. Genuine.

  Amy felt herself return the smile as Nina Spencer leaned out the rear window of the RV.

  “Look how gorgeous you are! Amy Finley, you may be the only woman on the planet who does not have a single picture of herself posted on the internet,” she chided, retreating through the window to follow Erin out the door and into the parking lot. “You know how often we’ve cyberstalked you through the years?”

  “Atlanta didn’t make me any more sociable, I’m afraid.” She wasn’t used to so much scrutiny at once. But standing in the middle between Bethany, Nina and Erin, she searched her emotions and realized she didn’t feel awkward. Or resentful.

  Erin hugged her fast, the scent of rose potpourri permeating her clothes. Nina squeezed her like a favorite rag doll.

  Behind them, Amy noticed a younger woman step down from the RV, a bright blue suit over one arm, her short brown hair covered by a yellow cap with a fast-food restaurant logo.

  “Feel her hair, Erin!” Nina exclaimed, her fingers smoothing over the strands on Amy’s shoulders before she pulled away. “You must have never colored it in your life.”

  Amy had forgotten how effusive Nina could be, but it was no surprise, as her grandmother, Daisy, was just the same way. Erin winked at Amy behind Nina’s back before noticing the quiet brunette in the uniform.

  “Faith.” Erin moved toward the other woman, tugging a plastic bag that had been trailing from her back pocket. “Let me put this around the suit to keep it clean for you. And if you need another suit for an interview down the road, you should come to us again, okay?”

  The woman—Faith—nodded, saying nothing. Amy noticed how pale her skin was, how dark the circles beneath her eyes, like she’d been up for too many hours and was too tired to put one foot in front of the other. She’d been that woman once, when she’d first moved to Atlanta and didn’t even have a high school diploma to land a good job. Waitressing had carried her through a lot of lean years. She’d only recently started to build a client base for her private accounting business, and her best two clients were the restaurants where she’d waitressed.

  “You’re giving a statement against Jeremy Covington?” Amy asked Faith, shamed to think this tired lady was giving a court deposition while Amy kept her own knowledge on lockdown.

  Scared. Guilt-ridden.

  “Yes.” She passed the outfit to Erin to bag, her pale blue eyes meeting Amy’s. “I don’t know how helpful my testimony will be since I can’t identify the man who...assaulted me.” She swallowed with an effort. “But the sheriff said it might lead to more people to testify.”

  “Thank you.” The words came out fiercer than she’d intended, enough to make Erin turn from what she was doing to study Amy’s face. “Our sister is testifying, so the case has been on my mind. You’re brave to come forward.”

  The barest hint of a smile showed in the quick flash of a dimple.

  “I’m not brave. It happened a long time ago, and I’m only just giving the police a statement.” She smoothed the polyester work shirt that was part of her uniform. “It’s long overdue, but I have a younger sister and I’m trying to... I don’t know. Model better behavior for Patience’s sake, I guess.”

  “It takes a lot of courage to call up unhappy things from the past.” Amy knew that for a fact. “I’m sure other people will follow your example when they see what you’re doing.”

  “Yeah?” Faith took the bag from Erin and pulled her keys from a worn leather satchel slung over one shoulder. “I hope so. And at least I have this suit to wear. It makes me feel more confident. I really appreciate it.”

  “It looks great on you,” Nina supplied.

  “I’m so glad we got to help you choose it.” Erin fussed over the suit bag, smoothing it so the plastic lay flat over Faith’s arm. “Good luck.”

  Giving an awkward wave, Faith hurried away toward a tan sedan parked on the far side of the back lot. Amy watched her hang the suit in the rear seat before she climbed in the car to leave. The muffler was loud and needed replacing. Amy found herself wanting to run after the other woman and offer to fix it. She’d replaced most of the exhaust system on her old car using YouTube videos and junkyard parts since for years she’d had no extra money to pay a mechanic.

  Besides, Faith was her new hero.

  “I can’t believe you’re really here, Amy.” Erin’s words called her out of the past, forcing her to focus on her family.

  That was why she was in town, right? To smooth over old relationships? Time to start trying.

  An hour later, the store had been closed, the security system switched on, and the four of them sat in the back room where Erin had a private office and consultation area for clients. The round table had been cleared of fabric swatches and reference books so they could make themselves comfortable to visit over bottles of sparkling water Erin had pulled from an under-counter refrigerator.

  After touring the Dress for Success mobile unit, Amy had updated them on her renovations at the cabin. She was more interested in learning about how Erin had done most of the remodeling work on the store herself, but her family seemed determined to keep Amy in the hot seat. They questioned her about life in Atlanta, her plan to go into business as a private accountant and how she was spending the upcoming weeks in Heartache.

  “So tell us about Sheriff Reyes.” Nina leaned forward, elbows on the table. She wore a gold necklace, and the long chain pooled around the heart-shaped pendant as she leaned forward over the table. “Rumor has it you were in his truck today when he broke up a fight.”

  With her shoulder-length dark blond hair and gray eyes, Nina was a lovely woman. She had a ready smile and a warmth that drew people in. Amy could see why Mack loved her. Even if she did enjoy putting people on the spot.

  “Sam is determined that I remember more about the summer when Gabriella was attacked. He drove me around Heartache today in the hope of shaking loose old memories.” She wasn’t going to reveal that the best memory they’d relived was a kiss, and that kissing him had been on her mind ever since.

  “That’s not his usual method of police questioning.” Erin tapped her phone screen a few times, and the action seemed to lower the volume of the speakers behind them on a small coffee bar.

  “No? I guess he hasn’t forgotten we were once good friends.”

  “How about you?” Bethany sat closest to her. She reached over to lay a hand on Amy’s arm for a second, her wedding diamond reflecting the light from a pendant lamp above the table. “Any hope of continuing that friendship?”

  “I think Sam has too much on his plate right now to think about that.” She gave an honest answer, even as it occurred to her this was the most girl talk s
he’d had since high school. Or, more accurately, it was the most girl talk she’d had about her own life. Because while she’d made a few casual friendships in Atlanta, she hadn’t let anyone too close to know much about her private life.

  She hadn’t actively missed that kind of thing; she’d craved independence when she’d first moved to Atlanta. But she couldn’t deny this felt...nice. These women might not have seen her in a decade, but they quickly zeroed in on things that were important to her. Things that weighed on her mind.

  “Men don’t ever have too much on their plate to think about ‘that.’” Erin sipped her water coolly while both Bethany and Nina swung around to look her way. “What? It’s true. Remy was still grieving for his wife when he showed up in Heartache. Neither of us was searching for a relationship, but we can’t choose when the right person comes along.” She stirred up bubbles in her water with a striped straw. “It just happens.”

  “I’m a long way from having the right person come along,” Amy said. She had thought she’d found something special with her last boyfriend, and he’d bailed on her almost as soon as she’d shared her pregnancy news. “Sam is just very committed to this case. And he knows I’m in town to support Heather while she testifies. That’s half the reason I came back.”

  The table went quiet for an awkwardly long moment.

  Making Amy realize that the women here might feel shunned that she hadn’t come home for other milestones in their lives. Bethany had almost gotten divorced, and her daughter had graduated. Nina had returned to town and became engaged to Mack, starting a restaurant along the way. Erin and Heather had opened this store. Erin had gotten married. And, of course, all of them had been here to help their mother after the death of Amy’s father. That had to have been a traumatic time.

  But as she cringed inwardly, her sister-in-law leaned closer.

  “We’re glad you’re home.” Bethany’s hand returned to her arm. This time, her hand stayed for a long moment. “And Heather is, too.”

  “I know someone else who is glad she’s in town.” Erin stared down at her phone screen for a moment before flipping it around for the rest of the table to see.

  An image of Sam—taken from a security camera—showed him standing just outside the front door of Last Chance Vintage. He pushed a buzzer or maybe an intercom button, his square jaw flexing as he glared at the closed entrance.

  Had he come out of a sense of duty? she wondered. Or was he anxious to see her? His eyes gave away nothing.

  “He’s here for you, Amy Finley.” Nina gloated as if she’d predicted it. “And he’s the talk of all the single women in Heartache.”

  “I’m letting him in,” Erin announced, stabbing at a button on her phone. “Because I can hardly lock out a lawman.”

  “That’s some high-tech security system,” Amy observed, hoping to steer the conversation away from Sam.

  Erin’s expression shifted, softening somehow. “Remy installed it all to keep me safe.”

  After another silent exchange of gazes around the table that didn’t include her, Amy wondered what she’d said this time.

  “His first wife died during a home invasion,” Bethany said softly as Erin jumped up to flip on a light in the store. “It made him very protective.”

  How awful. Amy hadn’t heard that, but then, she and Heather had exchanged a limited amount of information over the years, a dialogue that she’d deliberately kept to a minimum. As much as she wanted to embrace her family now, she didn’t know if they would ever understand.

  “I should go.” Rising from her spot at the table, she tossed her empty water bottle into the recycling bin under the coffee bar. “Sam will want to finish up our discussion.”

  It was as good an excuse as any to retreat. And besides, he was her ride.

  “Of course he will.” Nina draped her arm over Amy’s shoulder as she walked her toward the office door. “How good of you to do your civic duty.”

  She didn’t bother arguing. She smiled instead and let it go.

  “I was the mayor’s daughter, you know,” Amy reminded her.

  Nina tossed her head and laughed as they paused in the back hallway near the fitting room. “You were at that.” She squeezed her once before she let her go, her attention shifting to where Erin was greeting Sam near the cash register. “Good luck.”

  “You ready?” Sam seemed to notice her as soon as she stepped onto the sales floor. He turned at once, jamming his hands in the pockets of dark pants.

  Tall and broad shouldered, he was a fine-looking man. No wonder all the single women in town were talking about him.

  Too bad for them, he’d kissed her today.

  As their gazes connected over the racks of rock-band Ts and floral skirts, she felt a ping of electricity. A shock of awareness that bolted straight through her. Maybe he’d been thinking about that kiss, too.

  “I’m ready.” She was ready to follow where he led. Ready for a replay of this afternoon and maybe more.

  Was he?

  He gave brief nods and greetings to Nina and Bethany, but he moved closer to Amy. Put a hand at the back of her waist. The warmth of that touch seeped through her sweater. Her dress. It branded her skin and heightened her awareness of him.

  Her nerve endings twitched to life.

  And as he steered her toward the exit, she realized she’d developed one hell of an attraction for him. All over again.

  CHAPTER TEN

  “TELL ME EVERYTHING,” Megan demanded over the phone that night while Bailey searched the refrigerator for the ingredients to make a salad.

  Since her mother left, there hadn’t been much in the way of fresh food in the house unless Bailey remembered to stop at the grocery store herself. Her father could say what he would about her mom, but she’d run the house with precision. And made baked goods that were the first to sell out at school fund-raisers. Prepared healthy food with separate menus for newly vegan Bailey and her meat-eating father. There were always clean clothes and clean sheets. She’d always been available to proofread homework.

  But lately the McCord household had taken a decided downturn. After rejecting an old carton of wilting spinach, she closed the fridge with her hip and took the phone out onto the back screened-in porch, dragging a heavy wool blanket from the couch to take with her. She slept out here in the summer sometimes, listening to the crickets and the wind in the leaves. Now, even when it hovered around sixty, she liked the rush of fresh air. With her father out for his poker night and her mother banned from the house even though she’d apparently been sprung from jail today, Bailey had free run of the house to take Meg’s call. Well, except for Hazel, her father’s Irish setter, who thumped her tail on her dog bed for three swishes before she got to her feet to greet Bailey.

  “There’s nothing to tell.” Scratching behind Hazel’s silky right ear, Bailey thought back to the quiet car ride home with Dawson that morning. “He brought me home from school since I was so rattled about seeing J.D.”

  Thank goodness she’d left before the drama with her mother had unfolded in the school parking lot. She’d received a whole slew of texts reporting the news.

  She climbed into the porch swing that was actually a twin-size mattress on a flat frame to keep it level. The sheets that were normally on it in the summer had been traded for flannel—something her mom had done before her arrest. The rest of the cold-weather blankets were folded on the end of the mattress, including a down comforter with a denim duvet. She kicked her shoes onto the planked floor and then tucked herself between the piled blankets. Hazel leaped up beside Bailey despite the arthritis in her hips and the stepping stool that was there to help her onto the swing. Stubborn dog.

  “But how did he know to bring you home? Where did you see him?” On Megan’s end of the call, Bailey could hear electronic gunfire and explosions from whatev
er video game she was playing.

  “He was in a back room in the guidance office, filling out paperwork to go to school at Crestwood.” At first, it seemed like incredible luck to run into the boy she’d been crushing on. But after the quiet and awkward drive home, she wished she hadn’t accepted the ride. Had he regretted offering? “And he knew I was freaked out because we could hear Mrs. Covington yelling at everyone that J.D. had every right to be in school.” She’d started shaking as the woman got all riled up—remembering what it felt like to be around someone who could get angry so fast. “I told Dawson I needed to leave, and he offered to drive me.”

  It had been really nice of him. So why had he been so quiet after that? She doubled up a pillow behind her head, staring out at the purple streaks of twilight while Hazel circled her feet and tried to find the best possible spot to lie down.

  “Well, he’s not a taxi service. He must have wanted to hang out with you. Or help you. Or get your attention. Right?”

  “Wrong. He just happened to be stuck in the same room as me when he overheard me having a personal crisis.” She felt the dog freeze. “What guy wants to get involved with a girl whose ex-boyfriend will only stay away if she has a restraining order on him?”

  Headlights shone along the side of the house, and Hazel leaped off the bed to stand at the back door, her tail wagging. Was her father home early? It didn’t sound like his truck in the driveway. Bailey hugged the throw blanket around her shoulders and slipped off the swing to see who it could be, sliding her shoes back on her feet.

  “With all respect to guys, do you really believe they consider things that carefully? He’s eighteen, Bailey. He thinks you’re cute. End of story.” A happy electronic tune chimed on Megan’s end of the call, signaling a victory in her game.

  But by now, Bailey could see the outline of a figure coming around the side of the house. Toward the rear door.

  “Someone’s here.” Panic made her throat close. It couldn’t be J.D. Could. Not. Be. She backed up a step, closer to the door to the house.