“Yes, after the team won a game, and no when we didn’t.”
She popped the last piece of cheesecake topped with a strawberry into her mouth. Zoey did not want to envy Sutton’s college experience, which would be so different from hers. He’d left home to attend college at eighteen, while she would be thirty and much older than the average incoming student.
“Now that you’re retired, have you thought about writing a book about your life in the big leagues?”
Sutton sank lower on the rocker and stared down at the liquid in his cup. “If I do decide to write a book, it would be a definitive history of the Negro Leagues.”
Zoey listened intently as he told her about the formation of the first black professional baseball team, the Cuban Giants, in 1885. She was amazed with the wealth of knowledge and his ability to recall names and dates of every team and their players. It was then she realized he was able to combine his love of baseball with history.
“When are you going to start writing?”
“Once I’m settled where I can set up a home office.”
Zoey set her cup on a side table. “Have you looked at the model homes going up on the Wolfe/Remington land? I haven’t seen them, but folks claim they’re beautiful.”
“No,” Sutton admitted, “but Georgi told me about them. Right now, she’s renting a guesthouse on the property, and she’s seriously thinking about buying one of the new homes once construction is completed.”
“What’s the projected date for completion?”
Zoey was familiar with the property owned by the descendants of the most infamous family in Johnson County, because she remembered her father spitting on the ground whenever he’d mentioned the Wolfe name. James Allen would launch into a tirade about the mine owners who treated their pets better than their workers. His father had been one of the miners who’d been injured during a cave-in, and rather than install government-mandated safety regulations, the Wolfes absolved themselves of all injuries and loss of life when they closed all their mines in the county, leaving thousands unemployed and uncompensated. It was only later that Zoey realized her father had poisoned her mind against the Wolfes and the people who owned the property were not responsible for the actions of their ancestors.
“Early next year.”
Zoey moved off her chair and placed both coffee cups and dessert plates on a tray. “Don’t run away. I’m going to take these inside the house.”
Sutton stood and took the tray from her. “I’ll take it in.”
She held the door and let him precede her. Zoey knew she would remember the events of this day for a very long time. She’d been honest and forthcoming when Sutton asked what she wanted and needed from him if he were her lover or husband. And despite her limited experience with men, she did not have any preconceived notions about a fairy-tale romance. Yes, she read and liked romance novels with some plots that defied the imagination, yet it was that all-consuming happily-ever-after that she found most satisfying. The authors didn’t add an addendum or epilogue five or ten years into the couple’s marriage, which Zoey suspected was not without angst or conflicts, but because of the couple’s dedication, she knew their love for each other would endure.
When he’d posed the questions, she felt as if she was interviewing for a position in his life and future. She’d found it flattering because she was very attracted to Sutton, but then she was also realistic that if she did sleep with him it did not necessarily translate into her becoming his wife.
“Just put the cups and dishes in the sink,” Zoey instructed Sutton. “I’ll wash them later.”
The hand-painted china pieces were a wedding gift from her father to Charmaine, who would bring them out on special occasions and holidays, and wishing to keep the memories of their mother alive for Kyle and Harper, she would take the china out of the cabinet and set a festive table for their birthdays, Christmas and Thanksgiving.
She’d thought of the day as special because Sutton was the first person who made her question what she wanted from a man. She didn’t have a girlfriend in whom to confide, and all her clients were elderly and/or sickly and needed and wanted her more than she did them. Zoey kept them entertained by reading to them, and her other duties included light housekeeping, assisting them with bathing and making certain they ate their meals.
After the passing of her first client, with whom she had become very attached, Zoey grieved her death as if she’d been a family member. It was the first and last time she’d become that emotionally absorbed in a client.
Sutton turned, angled his head and stared at her as if deep in thought. “I’d like you to think of a few restaurants where you’d want to eat when we go up to Charleston, and I’ll select a few and hopefully we’ll be able to agree on one.”
Zoey’s last and happy memory of going to Charleston was with Charmaine, who’d insisted on shopping for a dress at a high-end boutique because her stepdaughter wasn’t going to prom with something that came off a department store rack.
“I’ll let you know midweek.” She had to go online and research restaurants in the capital city, but more important, she had to find something appropriate to wear for her date.
Sutton took a step, lowered his head and brushed a light kiss on her parted lips. “Thanks for everything.”
“And thank you for a wonderful afternoon.”
He kissed her again, this time on the forehead. “It’s only the beginning of many more to come.”
Zoey watched as he turned on his heel and walked out of the kitchen, leaving her staring at where he’d been. She’d discovered Sutton to be generous and easygoing, yet she wasn’t ready to go all in with him. She knew that he liked her the way a man liked a woman, but she kept asking, why her? Her life for the past ten years had been an open book. All he had to do was ask around and anyone in Wickham Falls would tell him that no one had ever seen her with a man, that she worked as a home health aide in Mineral Springs and that she doted on her brothers.
What she didn’t want was for Sutton to think of her as a charity case. She knew she’d shocked him when she’d rejected his offer to underwrite the cost of her nursing school tuition. There had been a time when she’d accepted money from the residents and businesses in her hometown, but that was in the past. Zoey had pulled herself up by her bootstraps and with astute planning, she had managed to become self-sufficient. She didn’t live extravagantly, and the only big-ticket item on her agenda was getting a new vehicle.
Zoey hand-washed the cups, saucers and dessert plates, leaving them on a rack to dry before she went upstairs to change into a pair of shorts and tank top. Global warming was apparent. Wickham Falls was in a valley surrounded by forests and lakes and was experiencing temperatures that broke decades-old records and had most people complaining about the heat.
* * *
Zoey opened her eyes when she heard an approaching car to find Harper pulling into Sutton’s driveway. Picking up her cell phone, she glanced at the time. It was a little after eight, and she’d spent the past two hours dozing on the porch. Sitting straight, she raised her arms above her head to relieve the stiffness in her shoulders.
“How was it driving the Jeep?” she asked as he came up the stairs.
Harper grinned like a Cheshire cat. “Nice. Mr. Reed said I could keep his spare fob in case I needed it again.”
“When do you think you’re going to need to drive his car again?”
The teenager lifted his shoulders. “I don’t know. But I’ll hold on to it just in case.”
Zoey didn’t want to come down too hard on him, because the Jeep was Sutton’s property and responsibility and if he wanted to entrust it to a sixteen-year-old, then she had no say in the matter.
“I hope you appreciate his generosity,” she said instead.
“I do. I’m going to shower and turn in.”
“I’ll be in once the bugs
start biting.” Leaving the love seat, she folded her body down to the rocker and pulled her knees to her chest. If Sutton trusted Harper with his late-model SUV, then she had to learn to trust her brother enough to make the right decisions for his own well-being.
Chapter Eleven
Zoey sent Georgina a text message and seconds later the door to A Stitch at a Time opened, and Georgina pulled her inside. “There have been a few folks tapping on the door to see if I’m here because I made the mistake of parking my car outside instead of behind the stores on Main Street.”
She smiled at the woman with a profusion of curly hair framing her face. “Do you think they’re your regular customers or lookie-loos?”
“They can’t be my regulars because they know when I’m closed.” She looped her arm through Zoey’s. “Come with me and I’ll show you the kit I’ve put together for everyone who has signed up to knit the caps and scarves.”
Zoey saw the glass-topped table filled with skeins of yarns in every conceivable shade of pink, the official color of the fight against cancer. “Did you have all of these shades in your inventory?”
“No. I had to go online and order from different manufacturers. I still have some on order waiting to be shipped. Please sit and select the shade you want. The medium yarn will be for older children and adults and the baby yarn will be for small children.”
“I think I’m going to begin with a kit for a small child because it will go faster than if I had to knit for an adult.” Zoey pointed to a skein that reminded her of a blush wine. “I like this one.”
Georgina smiled. “Good choice. Can you read a pattern?”
“Yes. It’s just that I don’t know how to cast on.” She watched as Georgina checked the dye lots on the skeins to make certain they matched and took out the number she needed for a cap and scarf.
“You’ll use a smaller needle for the kids.” She selected a set of knitting needles from a supply in a wicker basket. “I always tell my knitters and those that crochet to work up a swatch to make certain the gauge is right for the number of stitches. Some folks knit tight and others loosely.”
“I remember my stepmother taking time to wind a skein into a ball before she began knitting.”
Georgina pulled her chair closer to Zoey’s. “A lot of people still do, but I have a spinner that will do that for you. I’m going to show you how to cast on, then once you knit a swatch, I’ll spin up the skeins you’ll need to complete your project.”
Zoey watched as Georgina tied yarn around the needle, making the first stitch, and then looped lengths of yarn over her thumb and forefinger, and then inserted a needle under her thumb and around the forefinger to cast on the second stitch. She repeated the action until there were ten stitches on the needle. She handed it to Zoey. “Now you try it.”
Zoey executed the motion as if she’d tried countless times before. “It’s easier than I thought.”
Zoey thought of Charmaine, who’d boasted that she came from a long line of women who knitted, crocheted and quilted during their free time. Her stepmother would sit down in front of the television once she’d cleaned up the kitchen and knit while watching her favorite programs. She never bought a sweater for Kyle or Harper because she claimed she could make them for her sons.
“Do you believe needlecrafts are a dying art?” she asked Georgina.
“Not around here. When my father had the crafts section at the store, we sold well. But when he decided to expand sporting goods, I saw my chance to take the inventory and open this place.”
“When I came in the other day, I noticed you were busy.”
“There are some days when I barely get a chance to take a break with people coming to sign up for lessons and buy yarn. There’s been an uptick in an interest in quilting, so I’d be glad to say it’s not a dying art.”
Zoey spent the better part of an hour in the shop, working up a gauge before casting on with a set of round needles and completing three rows of a cap for a small child, while Georgina spun the skeins into balls and put them in a large plastic resealable bag along with the patterns. She handed Georgina her credit card for her purchase.
“I’m going to charge you ten percent because now that you’re dating my cousin I consider you family.”
Zoey froze. What was Georgina talking about? She and Sutton hadn’t had their first official date and meanwhile his cousin... Her thoughts broke off and she wondered if he told Georgina they were involved with each other.
“Why would you say that? Sutton and I and neighbors, and we haven’t dated, so that doesn’t translate into you considering me family.”
Georgina made a sucking sound with her tongue and teeth. “Come on now, Zoey. It’s all over town that folks saw Sutton kissing you outside the shop.”
The rush of heat starting in her chest moved up to her face and Zoey felt as if her head had caught fire. She swallowed a curse. Folks in the Falls didn’t need a tabloid newspaper when gossip spread faster than a lighted fuse attached to a stick of dynamite.
“Does he know about the gossip?” she questioned.
“Yup.”
“What did he say?”
“‘Let them talk.’”
Sutton’s reaction was to ignore the gossip. After all, he’d spent half of his adult life in the spotlight, while her being linked to a former superstar athlete would take some getting used to. “It was a friendly kiss.”
Georgina looked at her side-eyed. “I happen to know my cousin well enough to know that he isn’t prone to public displays of affection, so you may think of it as friendly, but it was anything but for Sutton. Do you two have something going on I should know about?”
“We’re just friends.”
Georgina’s eyebrows lifted. “Me and Langston Cooper were friends before it turned into relationship.”
Zoey’s jaw dropped and when she tried to speak, no words came out. “You and Langston?” she finally asked. The editor in chief of The Sentinel had left Wickham Falls and become an award-winning war correspondent before coming back to take over ownership of the then-failing biweekly. There was no doubt she was truly out of the loop when it came to goings-on in her town.
“I suppose you haven’t heard, but yes,” Georgina said proudly. “I had a bad relationship some years ago and I told myself I never wanted to get involved again, but Langston proved me wrong. He’s the opposite of every man I’ve known, and I’m not ashamed to say I’m totally in love with him.”
“You’re like a character in my romance novels.”
“I’m a romance novel and fairy-tale heroine, Zoey. And you can be one if you give Sutton half a chance to make you happy.”
“I’m not saying he doesn’t make me happy but...”
“But what?” Georgina asked when her words trailed off.
Zoey wondered if she could confide in Georgina and not have her go back and tell Sutton. “I need to tell you something, but I don’t want it to go beyond this shop.” A flush suffused Georgina’s face and Zoey realized she’d embarrassed her.
“I don’t repeat gossip, Zoey, and believe me when I tell you that I hear a lot of it around here. I only mentioned Sutton to you because he happens to be my cousin.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to insult you.”
“You didn’t,” Georgina said quickly. “Come on, girl, give me the deets.”
“I’ve only slept with one boy and that was when I was in high school. But it’s so different now. I can’t believe it’s taken me ten years to feel desire so strong that I fantasize making love with a man.”
Georgina’s toffee-brown eyes were brimming with tenderness. “What you feel is normal for a woman your age. Some of us go through long periods where we’re celibate but by choice.”
“Are you speaking from experience?”
“Yes, Zoey. I didn’t date any of the boys in high school becaus
e they talked openly that I was a good catch because my father owned Powell’s and after my brother died they knew I was next in line to inherit everything.”
“So, it was all about money.”
“Bingo,” Georgina drawled. “I dated a few guys, but it ended as quickly as it’d begun because I was still living at home. Then I got involved with a man from Beckley and it reached a point where we talked about marriage and children until our relationship imploded.”
“What happened?”
“He asked me to lend him money to cover his gambling debts.”
With wide eyes, Zoey said, “You’re kidding?”
“I wish. His father owned a successful used car business, so I figured he was someone who was solvent. But I was wrong. He was embezzling from the business and his bookie was pressuring him to repay his debts. That’s when I walked away and never looked back. I swore never again until Langston and I were seated at the same table during a fundraiser earlier this spring. He’s intelligent, mature, erudite, and he doesn’t need my money.”
“He sounds like the total package.”
Georgina nodded, grinning. “Believe me, he is.”
“Money isn’t an issue with me and Sutton because I don’t want his and I have enough to take care of me and my brother.”
“What happened to make you split up with your boyfriend?”
“After my parents died and I became the legal guardian for my brothers, he claimed he was too young to take on the responsibility of raising two school-age kids. I ran into him the other day and he was with his wife and son.”
“Did you speak to him?”
“No. We see each other in passing but we never speak. He said enough ten years ago when he broke up with me when I needed him most. I didn’t hold it against him when he said he wasn’t ready for kids at eighteen, but when he said he didn’t want to raise someone else’s kids that’s when I knew it was over between us.”
“What a loser,” Georgina said under her breath. “There are a few men in the Falls who marry women with children and vice versa. There are so many blended families in town that you wouldn’t be able to count them on both hands and feet.”
A Winning Season Page 14
