So Meredith did, explaining how she’d met Chas, fallen in love, and developed a relationship with him that had come to a screeching halt when she discovered he was really the senator’s husband and a father of three beautiful, impressionable kids. “I was blindsided, but it was my own fault for being so stupid. Thinking I was so cool. So together. It went beyond naïveté to outright stupidity. And totally my bad.”
Dana shrugged. “I can’t disagree. We should bear culpability for our actions, Mere. You know that. But our actions are also generated by those around us. He lied to you. Made you promises he couldn’t keep. Changed his identity and then fed on your belief in him. The guy’s a pig, plain and simple, and he should be called out on his behavior.”
“If I’d done that, his kids would suffer.” Meredith met her mother’s gaze and let the past speak for her. “You and I know what that’s like. I couldn’t do it. But then the hotel owner’s daughter decided she wanted to run the spa last fall. She threatened to go public with my indiscretions if I didn’t leave my job. Evensong Resort is one of those old-guard establishments. They protect their clients at all costs. A whisper of scandal would have sent me packing anyway. I thought if I left of my own accord, I could put it all behind me. Jude Anne would get the job, and life would go on. And I’d be back home, with you.” She turned her gaze to Dana and returned her mother’s gentle finger pressure. “But then I saw today’s paper.”
Heather released a tight hiss of breath. “In the garage.”
She nodded Heather’s way. “Yes. A little headline that announced how Sylvia Bellwater has thrown her hat into the Florida governor’s race.”
“Which means the current governor will dig deep to uncover anything he can.” Dana’s face showed chagrin and understanding. “So it will all come out anyway.”
“Which infuriates me totally.” Tears she hadn’t allowed welled in Meredith’s eyes. “I’d like to punch somebody. Kick things. Stomp around like a little kid and throw stuff.”
“You could still have at it.” Her mother waved a hand around the pretty, cozy, comfy living room. “Everything here is replaceable. Except you.”
“I can’t wreck stuff.” Meredith sighed, swiped a hand to her cheeks, accepted the wad of tissues Heather held out, and blew her nose. “It’s not in me. But it’s frustrating to realize it’s out of my control. There’s nothing I can do.”
“Sure there is.” Dana sent her a practical look. “We ride the wave. Okay, you had a relationship with this guy. It’s over. Done. Been over for a long time once you found out you were lied to. So if people ask, that’s all we need to say.” She leaned forward. “Honey, come on. Do you think you’re the first woman to get duped this way?”
“Of course not, but—”
“There are no buts.” Dana tipped her chin up. “If you’d gone back for more, then I’d feel differently, but this is me you’re talking to. I had my share of ups and downs with your father’s excursions outside our marriage. I get it.”
Tears welled again, because Meredith had witnessed her mother’s embarrassment. Her chagrin. Her anxiety over her husband’s illicit and immoral choices. “See that’s just it. I hated what Dad did, I will never understand how he made those choices over us, and I turned out just like him.”
Dana’s mouth dropped open. Her eyes narrowed. She leaned close, very close, and spoke in soft, stern words that left no room for doubt. “You. Are. Nothing. Like. Your. Father. Not in that regard, anyway. If anything your behavior is like mine. You trusted too easily and got hurt. We have that in common. But honey—” She reached forward and hugged Meredith, a warm, embracing hug that made Meredith feel like a little girl again. A beloved child in her mother’s arms. “You got out when you saw the writing on the wall. You’re not the first young woman to be fooled, you won’t be the last, but you recognize the choice and the sin, and you’ve worked to make amends. Now you have to forgive yourself and move on.”
Meredith caught Heather’s eye over her mother’s shoulder, and knew the moment Heather understood the crux of the problem.
“She doesn’t think she’s good enough for Cam Calhoun.”
Dana sat back.
Meredith scowled at Heather as she swiped the clutch of tissues against her face again. “I’m not good enough. He’s got two gorgeous little girls. They don’t need to have this kind of thing hanging over them if things were to progress with Cam.”
“If?” Heather’s eye roll said there was no if involved. “Name me three women involved with political scandal in the last year.”
“Huh?”
“Do it.” Heather sat back, all know-it-all cute and raised three fingers. “Name me three women involved with married politicians or their spouses in the past year.”
“I can’t.”
“Exactly.” Heather nodded, pleased. “Neither can I. The point is, the famous person gets remembered because he broke a vow to the people and his family. The other woman? Not so much.”
“Heather’s making perfect sense,” Dana declared. “Yes, there will be a storm when this breaks, but storms pass. Your life will go on here with your family and friends surrounding you, while Charles and Sylvia need to pick up the personal and political pieces of their lives.” She hugged Meredith and her warm, common sense, her quiet inner strength, her Mary heart in a Martha soul made Meredith feel safe. Whole. Accepted.
Yes, it would be hard when the news broke. She knew that.
But it wouldn’t be impossible, and that was a big step up. “Do we have any chocolate left?”
“Absolutely.” Dana rose, went into the dining room and returned with a white box. “I got these for us. Two pounds of Grandma Mary’s finest with a few extra caramel pralines thrown in.”
“My fave.”
“And mine.” Heather reached, hesitated, then took one. “One of these tonight and I’ll stay away from all things chocolate tomorrow.” She raised the chocolate in salute. “A toast. To family and friends and may we always appreciate good fathers because they’ve been a scarcity in our lives.”
“I agree. Which means we need to be especially careful picking a mate. And I don’t know about you, my dear—” Dana took a bite of her chocolate and smiled as the taste blossomed in her mouth “—but I think Cam Calhoun is just about the cutest thing ever with his glasses on. How adorable would he be if he took them off?”
Heather laughed out loud.
Meredith couldn’t deny she’d wondered the same thing far too often. Maybe her mother was right. She might be letting the past have too much power over the present. But right now it was a wait-and-see game because protecting those little girls came first and foremost. No matter what.
* * *
There should be a commandment against a woman looking that good in church, Cam decided on Easter morning. He paused on the steps of Good Shepherd, shook the older reverend’s hand, but his attention was drawn across the Park Round to the White Church at the Bend where a drop-dead gorgeous Meredith was shaking hands for too long with a thirtysomething guy.
He needed to nix that pronto, so he assembled his top two weapons. “Sophie. Rachel. I see Meredith.”
“You do?”
“Where?
He jerked his head left, nodded and winked at Reverend Hannity’s knowing grin, then ushered the girls down the steps. “Over there. The White Church. Shall we say—”
He didn’t need to finish the sentence. Both girls raced across the town center, their pretty dresses puffing in the cool breeze, the ground still damp from yesterday’s rain.
They didn’t care. They trained their sights on Meredith and raced up the walk, vying for her attention, which in turn drew her attention away from the guy.
Cam put a mental plus in his score column and approached more leisurely. “They found you, I see.”
Meredith smiled f
rom the midst of a three-person hug. “So it would seem.”
“Daddy, you told us she was over here.” Rachel’s voice scolded. “You saw her first.”
Meredith’s grin increased. Her eyes had a “gotcha” look that only made her prettier. More appealing. And he hadn’t thought that possible, but he’d always loved her humor, that hint of snark. When it wasn’t directed his way, of course.
The guy laughed, clapped a hand to Meredith’s shoulder, and nodded Cam’s way. “Effective ploy.”
“Thank you.” Cam reached out a hand. “Cam Calhoun. I’m doing the work on Meredith’s spa.”
“Si MacDaniel.” He gripped Cam’s hand and jerked his head toward the small church. “I get to work on her soul.”
The new pastor. Cam wanted to gulp, but didn’t. How could he compete with a man of the cloth, a man of God? He took a step back, but Dana interrupted from the side. “Cam, good morning. Happy Easter. Isn’t it a glorious day?”
Her gaze embraced the two girls, each one tucked beneath one of Meredith’s arm, safe and sound. Protected. Loved. Cherished. Cam met her look. “It is. And don’t the girls look lovely?”
“Daddy took us shopping yesterday!” Rachel exclaimed as she tipped her gaze up. “We bought these pretty Easter dresses and my fancy shoes for church.”
The look Meredith settled on him made him feel like the biggest man in town, and since he’d felt like a loser a few days before, the change was remarkable. “You look wonderful, girls. Tights, too?”
Sophie nodded and leaned against Meredith’s torso, her head just shy of Meredith’s chest. The image evoked mother love, trust, a joined empathy.
Cam’s heart jogged faster, then readopted a nice, steady rhythm, the kind of beat that grasps God’s plan and hangs on tight. “We had fun, didn’t we?”
Sophie’s soft smile of appreciation charged his heart a little more. “Yes. Thank you, Daddy. Oops, there’s Grandma.” She pointed across the park. “I think she’s looking for us.”
“Well, then…”
Cam waved his mother over with an easy hand, then swung back. “We’re doing the Easter brunch buffet up at The Edge. We’d love for you to join us. Both of you,” he added, shifting his gaze to Dana.
“I’d love to, but I can’t.” Dana cradled Sophie’s soft cheek for just a moment, long enough to show she enjoyed the child’s company. “I’ve got the others coming over for dinner so I have to get a few things done.”
“I should help.” Meredith locked gazes with her mother in a silent tug of war as Cam’s mother drew near. Cam understood the inference, but he wanted Meredith to join them of her own accord. Not because he guilted her into it.
“Evelyn.” Ever-gracious, Dana stretched out her hand to his mother, and to Cam’s surprise, his mother accepted the gesture with unusual grace.
“Dana, hello.” Back straight, she surveyed the scene, the girls snuggled into Meredith’s side, the image pretty enough for an Easter card. She didn’t smile, but she didn’t glower either, and Cam was grateful for small steps forward. “Meredith.”
“Happy Easter, Mrs. Calhoun.”
The older woman considered her salute before looking at the girls. “You were very good in church. Both of you.”
Sophie’s soft voice interrupted everyone’s shared surprise. “Thank you, Grandma.”
“I was just checking to see if Meredith could join us for the buffet.” Cam directed the words to his mother, but kept his gaze intent on Meredith. “If she can’t drum up an excuse in the meantime.”
“I’d be honored.”
Cam smiled his pleasure at the positive answer and tapped his watch. “We’ve got midday seating so we should head over there. I’ve heard this buffet is amazing.”
“Expensive.”
Evelyn bit the word out, and Meredith expected Cam’s customary chagrin.
Didn’t happen.
Instead, he slung an arm around his mother’s shoulders and kissed her temple, sweet as could be. “Doesn’t matter since I’m paying. I got this nice-paying extra job, you know.” He winked at Meredith, nodded to Dana and Si MacDaniel, then turned his mother toward the opposite side of the town circle. “She’s paying me well, you need to rest and I’m a lousy cook.” He turned, teasing, to look at Meredith. “How ’bout you, Miss Brennan? Have you learned to cook?”
“I can find my way around a kitchen.”
“Great.”
“As long as it has a microwave,” she finished.
Cam grinned. “The girls and I love takeout.”
Meredith half expected a cutting comment from Evelyn along the lines of women knowing their place, women taking up outside the home, women getting all gussied up, but, no. Evelyn just walked alongside her son, as if fighting the urge to be ill-natured and winning.
Chalk one up for Easter, Meredith decided, then realized her assumption was mean. Determined to do better, she took the backseat with the girls. Cam caught her eye in the rearview mirror as he turned the car around. “So, that new young preacher?”
“Simon?”
“Yes.”
“He’s a doll.”
Evelyn harrumphed. Obviously calling pastors “dolls” didn’t make the cut.
“How long’s he been here?”
Meredith considered the question. “Over a year. Maybe two. Matt and Jeff told me about him, and Mom and I like to church-hop, so we got to meet him along the way.”
“Married?”
She held his gaze while the car was paused at the stoplight heading out of the village. “Single.”
“Ah.”
Meredith could have let him suffer a while. He had been a first-class jerk the other night, but now she knew the underlying reasons and he had called to apologize. She angled her head and flirted right then and there, with his mother and girls close by. “He lost by default, Cam.”
Cam’s smile said he got her drift. “How’s that?”
“No glasses.”
He laughed out loud.
His mother sighed.
Rachel held out a round of yarn. “Can you do cat’s cradle, Meredith?”
“Reigning town expert, my dear.”
Rachel frowned.
Sophie leaned closer, her often somber eyes warm and appealing. Happy and calm. Seeing that expression on the quiet girl’s face made Meredith’s day. “That means she’s good, Rachel. But out of practice, I bet.”
Meredith refused to concede that. “Her first. You, next. If there’s time.”
“Plenty of that, I’d say.” Cam sought her gaze in the rearview mirror. “Traffic’s bottlenecked.”
Meredith deftly looped the yarn from Rachel’s splayed hands. “Perfect.”
And sitting there on a cool Easter morning, with Cam and the girls and one slightly grumpy cancer-fighting elderly woman, Meredith felt like things couldn’t possibly get better.
* * *
“It’s awful busy.” Evelyn’s grumpy tone admonished Cam as he hunted for a parking space. “We’ll probably be waiting a long time for a table.”
“Well, it is Easter.” Cam’s voice stayed matter-of-fact. Meredith envied him the lack of reaction, when she was more inclined to scold right back. “And we’ve got reservations, Mom.”
“Oh, that’s right.”
Meredith’s fingers paused over the intricate yarn web Sophie proffered. Once again, Evelyn’s reaction surprised her.
In a nice way.
And when they climbed out of the car and Sophie grabbed her right hand while Rachel commandeered the left, Evelyn took note and almost smiled.
Progress.
Cam put an arm around his mother’s shoulders. “Mom, what do you think about putting a patch of those daffodils along your back walk? Wouldn’t that be pretty
in the spring?”
“Don’t need more work, Cameron.”
“If they’re mulched properly, it won’t be extra work. But it sure would brighten things up, wouldn’t it?” He sent his mother a look that loosened Meredith’s heart further. “I’ll plant them for you this fall and you can enjoy them next spring.”
Evelyn’s expression confessed worry that there might not be a next spring, but she stood a little straighter and acquiesced. “Pretty enough, I guess.”
“Maybe a few lilac bushes, too,” Cam continued. “Then you’d have flowers in April and May.”
“Lilacs were always my favorite,” his mother revealed as they entered the hillside restaurant. Inside, white twinkle lights brightened vine-wrapped pillars, and tucks of flowers proclaimed warmth despite the cool, damp weather. Evelyn looked up as Cam held her seat out for her. “I’d like that, Cameron. Thank you.”
He planted a kiss on her hair. The simple gesture said so much about the man. His patience, his kindness, his generous spirit.
But he’d grumped at her more than once recently, and Meredith wasn’t a big fan of being reproached. Or contradicted. Or reprimanded. Not by him or his mother.
“Coffee?”
“Yes. Please.” Meredith smiled at the waitress, grateful for the interruption. She didn’t want to spoil a beautiful day by waxing negative. She’d take her mother’s advice and move forward, one day at a time.
“Me, too.” Cam tipped his gaze down. “Girls?”
“May I have orange juice, please?” Sophie asked.
“Me, too?” Rachel echoed.
“And you, ma’am?” The waitress shifted her attention to Cam’s mother.
“You got decaf?”
The girl didn’t miss a beat. “We do, yes.”
Evelyn huffed a sigh. “I’ll drink that, then.”
Cam frowned. “Why?”
The waitress hesitated.
The girls looked up, wondering.
“They say it’s better for you.” Evelyn muttered the words through tight teeth. “Claire Dennehy read it somewhere.”
“She’s wrong.” Cam turned toward the young woman. “Make hers regular coffee, too, please. And do you have flavored creamers?”
A Family to Cherish Page 17
