Georgia On My Mind

by Marie Force

  With her hand resting on the doorknob, she finally took a deep breath and turned it. Here, more than anywhere else in the big house, she found her mother. Her scent, her clothes, the framed photos on her dresser, her jewelry box, her bathrobe. The memories and the pain hit Georgie like fists to the stomach, and she had to pause to absorb them before she could step into the room.

  On an impulse, she took her mother’s burgundy chenille robe with her into the bathroom to turn on the Jacuzzi tub her mother had installed a few years ago when she renovated and updated the bathroom.

  Georgie soaked in the tub for close to an hour, and only when she began to doze did she rinse off the bubbles and snuggle into her mother’s robe. With her hair wrapped in a towel, Georgie emerged from the bathroom and eyed the big four-poster bed.

  So many nights as a child she had taken refuge there after bad dreams or thunderstorms. Before her mother had founded the center when Georgie was in first grade, they had whiled away many an afternoon in that bed reading Nancy Drew and Bobbsey Twins books that had cemented Georgie’s life-long love of a good mystery.

  Wondering if the bed would provide the same comfort without her mother, Georgie slid under the covers and pressed her face to the pillow where her mother’s fragrance still lingered. Georgie could almost feel her mother’s strong arms around her.

  Despite her best efforts to relax, her mind raced with worries about the center, her job and apartment in Atlanta, what would become of the seniors if she left them, and what to do about the big house that needed constant care. She needed to get in touch with the attorney about the probate hearing next week, needed to pack up her mother’s things, needed to do so much she was exhausted just thinking about it.

  Not wanting to think about any of that right now, she allowed her thoughts to drift to Nathan. All her worries seemed to disappear as she relived her night with him—his tender touch and gentle kisses, how he had seemed to know just what she needed without being told. As she finally drifted off to sleep, she hoped he would bring those earrings to her soon. Then she would tell him it was over, really over.

  Her ringing cell phone interrupted Georgie’s nap. The sound seemed to be coming from somewhere far away, and for a moment, Georgie couldn’t remember where she was. Then it came back to her in a rush of pain—her mother’s death, her mother’s room, her mother’s bed. In the days since her mother’s death, waking up and remembering it all over again had been some of the most painful moments.

  Clearing the sleep from her throat, she reached for her phone. “Hello.”

  “Georgie.”

  “Al?” At the sound of her sister Alison’s voice, Georgie sat up in bed. After what they’d been through together in the last few months, Georgie could tell with one word that something wasn’t right with her sister. “What’s wrong?”

  “Georgie…”

  “Are you crying? What? What is it? Is it Mom?”

  “The blood test.”

  Georgie’s entire body went cold, and she began to tremble. “No… No, I can’t hear this.”

  Ali’s sobs echoed through the phone from upstate New York to Newport. “I’m having the surgery. Next week.”

  “You need a second opinion! Maybe they made a mistake!”

  “It’s no mistake. Two labs have confirmed it.”

  “You didn’t tell me about the second test—or the results of the first one.”

  “You’ve had so much to deal with there with the house and the center. I couldn’t add to that.” Ali sniffled. “You have to have the test, Georgie. You have to.”

  “No.” She said the word softly even though she wanted to shriek. Since their mother’s diagnosis, the sisters had learned their family was cursed with faulty genes that made them much more likely than the general population to contract breast and ovarian cancer. If Georgie never again heard the BRCA acronym, it would be too soon for her.

  “Mom had it, I have it,” Ali said. “Grandma and Aunty Joan probably had it, too. Wouldn’t you rather know, Georgie?”

  “No! I would not rather know!” The thought of having her perfectly healthy breasts removed was so outrageous that Georgie had refused to even entertain the possibility. “Bonnie didn’t have it,” she said, referring to a cousin neither of them liked. “You shouldn’t rush into anything. Maybe if you wait a year, they’ll know more.”

  “I have two young children to consider. I’m not taking any chances that they’ll have to grow up without a mother.”

  “But you’re only thirty-five! Mom was sixty. Come on, Al! It doesn’t have to happen right now.”

  “You heard the oncologist say that it’s striking decades earlier in every generation of our family. I’m not risking it.”

  Georgie wiped tears from her cheeks. “What does Joe say?”

  “That he’d rather live without my breasts than without me,” Ali said, her voice catching on a sob.

  “Are we ever going to wake up from this nightmare?” Georgie whispered. Ever since she’d gotten the call about her mother’s diagnosis of advanced breast cancer three months ago, Georgie’s life had spun out of control. And now this…

  “Yes, we are. We’re going to wake up and go on with our lives knowing we did everything we could to keep it from happening to us, too.”

  “It’s different for me. You have a husband who worships you. What guy will want me if I have to have my breasts removed?” Georgie finally gave voice to her greatest fear—ending up sick and alone. She refused to allow herself to think about Nathan and what he might have to say about the matter.

  “Any man who would value your breasts over your health isn’t good enough for my baby sister.”

  “I’ll come there,” Georgie said, resigned. “When you have the surgery. I’ll come and take care of the kids.”

  “No, you won’t. I have Joe, and his mother will be with the kids. You’ve got enough to contend with there. I’ll be okay.”

  “Ali…”

  “It’s all going to be fine,” Ali said firmly. Georgie wondered who her sister was trying to convince. “I promise.”

  Georgie wished with all her heart that she could believe her sister. She had a feeling that things were going to get a whole lot worse before they got better.

  “You’ll think about having the test?” Ali asked.

  “Yes,” Georgie said, telling her sister what she needed to hear. She planned to put it out of her mind the minute they hung up.

  “I’ll have Joe call you after the surgery.”

  “I’ll be waiting,” Georgie said. “I love you.”

  “Love you, too.”

  Nathan sat at his desk, asleep with his eyes open. The day had been a total disaster, and all he could think about was going home for a quick nap before he went over to Georgie’s to let her know this was not going to be a one-time thing.

  Despite the intimacy they had shared, he barely knew her. But he wanted to. He wanted to know why she had come home to Newport, why she was working at the center, what her life was like in Atlanta, and if there was another man in the picture. No. If she was seeing someone else, she wouldn’t have slept with me. Well, slept is not exactly the operative word here.

  As a detective, he knew he could find the answers to many of his questions by making a few phone calls. After all, he worked for the same city that ran the senior center. But as he reached for the phone, he stopped himself. He wanted her to tell him herself.

  He had felt something different for her the first day he ran by the big white house and saw the four women having coffee on the porch. Construction on Lower Thames had forced him to alter his usual route, and the detour led him right to their doorstep. He never had gone back to his old route. Since he was trained to notice everything and file away pieces of information that could be used to make cases later, the four lovelies had caught his attention right away. He liked knowing that they thought he never looked at them. Hell yeah he looked, and hell yeah he liked what he saw.

  Thanks to Georgie’s
descriptions of them over dinner the night before, he could now put names to the other three. On his morning runs, Cat had caught his attention first with her spiky red hair, pierced eyebrow and well, those breasts were quite something. He was only human. He had also caught a hint of a tattoo. Fascinating. Tess had an almost ethereal beauty about her, and Georgie’s sister Ali was striking, too. But he hadn’t spent much time looking at any of the others after his eyes landed on Georgie. Remembering that first moment of impact—for that’s what it had felt like—Nathan tried to recall the last time he’d had that kind of reaction to a woman.

  Never, if he was being honest, just like he’d never had sex quite like what he’d had with her. He hadn’t known he could be so free and uninhibited—nor had he ever encountered such a generous and willing partner. It was like he had found his perfect match. The thought made him sit up straighter in his desk chair. What if she was his perfect match? What if he discovered she was all that and more? What would he do when she went back to Atlanta?

  “This is crazy,” he muttered. “She said one night, and you’re thinking about chasing her to Atlanta?”

  “Talking to yourself, Caldwell?” his partner, Andy Hughes, asked as he plopped a file on Nathan’s desk.

  “What’s up?”

  “We’ve got a possible runaway. Sixteen, history of beating feet, but the parents claim she’s turned over a new leaf lately. They don’t think she went wherever she is willingly.”

  Nathan swallowed a yawn as he flipped through the report.

  “What’s with you today?” Andy asked. “You’re like a zombie.”

  “Didn’t sleep well last night.” Since the happily married Andy was forever after Nathan to get a love life, he wished he could tell his partner the truth. But if there was one thing Nathan Caldwell didn’t do it was kiss and tell.

  “Why don’t you head out? I’ll go talk to the parents. It’s on my way home.”

  Nathan looked up at him. “You’re sure you don’t mind?” Normally, Nathan would have jumped all over the case, but tonight he didn’t have the energy.

  “Nah. The uniforms said it sounds like a runaway, so I can handle the parents myself and then pass it to second shift. I’ll let you know what comes of it.”

  “Thanks. I’m about to drop.”

  “I can see that. Talk to you in the morning, if not before.”

  Nathan didn’t waste any time getting out of there. Unlocking his dark gray hybrid, he decided he was too old, even at just thirty-three, for an all-night sex fest. Without some sleep—and soon—he would probably keel over in the street.

  On his way home, he tried to call the cell phone he had gotten his brother Ben so he could keep closer tabs on him, but as usual, Ben didn’t answer. Frustrated, Nathan closed his phone and tossed it into the passenger seat.

  The phone rang, and thinking it might be Ben calling him back, Nathan lunged for it. “Caldwell.”

  “Hey,” his brother Ian said. “Any word from Ben?”

  “No,” Nathan said, dejected.

  “What time was he due back?”

  “I think they were taking the three-thirty ferry.”

  “I’m sure he’ll turn up in the next couple of hours.”

  “I hope so.”

  “If he doesn’t, give me a call. I’ll help you look for him.”

  “Aren’t you playing tonight?” Nathan asked.

  “Nope. I’m off the next few nights to give my voice a rest. I’ll be around if you need me, Nate.”

  “Thanks. I’m beat, so I’m gonna crash for a while. If you don’t hear from me, he’s home.”

  “Got it.”

  “Later.” Nathan ended the call but kept the phone in his hand. He appreciated Ian checking in. Their whole family was worried about Ben, who had been badly injured in Iraq just over a year ago and was having trouble getting his life back together.

  Nathan resisted the urge to drive by Georgie’s house on his way home and trudged into his own house, unclipped the badge from his belt, and shrugged off his shoulder holster on the way upstairs. In his bedroom, he stashed the gun and badge in the bedside table drawer and found Georgie’s earrings. He picked them up and let the metal slide through his fingers, remembering the way they had dangled from her delicate earlobes.

  As he put them back on the table, he wondered if she’d discovered yet that she had left them. He had known women who would leave a souvenir behind to ensure a follow-up call, but Georgie wasn’t like that. Besides, she had been adamant that theirs was a one-night stand, so why would she bait him by leaving her earrings?

  He reached up to unbutton his shirt, and the memory of her doing it for him the night before stopped him in his tracks as it became clear to him that one night with her wasn’t going to be enough. In fact, he feared a month of nights might not be enough to work her out of his system.

  Still absorbing the realization, he stripped down to boxers and went into the bathroom, where he once again stopped short. The cover was off the toilet and sitting on the floor. What the hell? And what the heck is that hanging from the ceiling? Is that . . . He leaned in for a closer look. Dental floss? And then he laughed, a deep belly laugh that made his sides ache and brought tears to his eyes. The damned toilet acted up on a regular basis, but he had forgotten to mention it to her. Suddenly, sleeping wasn’t as important as it had been a few minutes earlier. He simply had to see her. Right now.

  The bedroom door opened slowly, and Tess poked her head in. “Oh, hey, you’re awake.”

  “Hey, what’s up?” Georgie had barely moved since the call from her sister. Despite her best efforts to push it from her mind, the dilemma weighed more heavily than ever after getting her sister’s grim news.

  “I heard you had a big night out,” Tess said with a grin that told Georgie she knew the whole story. “I made some dinner and thought you might be hungry.”

  Georgie realized she was famished. “That sounds good. Thanks. I suppose you’re going to want all the gory details in exchange for this dinner you made me.”

  “Well, yeah,” Tess said as she left the room. “Ready in five minutes.”

  Georgie puffed up the pillow and smiled. She adored Cat and Tess and felt like she had known them for years rather than months. It had been a long time since she’d had girlfriends she enjoyed as much as them. Her high school friends were scattered about the country, and her college friends had either left Atlanta or gotten married and had families. The women she worked with were fun, but she spent most of her work time with subordinates and didn’t hang out with them as a rule.

  The few women she did socialize with in Atlanta she had met through Doug, and he would no doubt get them in their breakup. Not wanting to think about him, Georgie got up and crossed the hall to her own room. Hanging her mother’s robe on the back of her door, she put on shorts and one of the soft cotton camisoles she slept in. She ran a brush through her hair, splashed some cold water on her face, and headed downstairs.

  “Oh, wow, something smells really good. What did you make?”

  “I grilled some chicken to go with that corn you brought home.”

  “Bad Gus at the center gave it to me.”

  Tess chuckled. “What does he think of that name?”

  “It’s well earned, believe me.” Georgie opened a bottle of chardonnay and poured them each a glass as Tess sliced Gus’s big tomato.

  Georgie fingered the soft petals of a stargazer lily in the bouquet Nathan had given her. “Thanks for doing this. I haven’t eaten all day.”

  The minute they sat down at the table, Tess sent her a pointed look. “Anything you want to tell me?”

  “Anything you don’t already know?”

  “It’s always so much better coming from the horse’s mouth,” Tess said with a wicked grin.

  Taking a long sip of her wine, Georgie glanced at her friend over the top of the glass. “The short story is—he chewed me out about not recycling at the center, apologized later with the flowers, asked me
to dinner, I went, we had fun, he asked me to come to his house so he could show me the work he’s done to it, we had sex—a lot of sex, really, really good sex—which I have never, ever done before on a first date, and I felt like a total slut all day today. That’s it.”

  Tess’s mouth hung open, her eyes agog.

  “What?”

  “All Cat said was you went out with Jogger Guy.”

  Georgie groaned. “Shit.”

  “Well,” Tess said, giggling. “This is an interesting development.”

  “Don’t get too excited. It was a one-night thing.”

  “Why?”

  “I’ll tell you the same thing I told Cat—in light of everything else that’s going on, I don’t need the complication.”

  “Why does it have to be complicated?”

  How could she explain that this had complicated written all over it from the moment she first saw him running by and wanted to lick the sweat from his back?

  “Why can’t you just have some fun with him while you’re in town?”

  “Come on, Tess. You know it never works out that way. People get their feelings involved, and it gets messy when it ends. I don’t need that, and I’m sure he doesn’t, either. Besides, I’ve already done, well, everything there is to do with him. How do we go back to just ‘having fun’ after that?”

  Tess raised an eyebrow. “Everything?”

  “No stone was left unturned.”

  “Wow.” Tess took a big gulp of her wine. “I need a cigarette.”

  Georgie cracked up.

  The doorbell rang.

  “I’ll get it,” Tess said.

  She left the room, and Georgie dove into the spicy barbecue chicken.

  Tess returned a minute later. “Georgie, you have a visitor.”

  With barbecue sauce smeared on her face, she looked up to find Nathan Caldwell watching her, his bright blue eyes dancing with amusement.

  “Hello, Georgie.”