Where Azaleas Bloom

by Sherryl Woods

  Finally, she was starting to figure out who she might become in this new, upside-down world. In time, she knew that would be a good thing, but for now it was scary. Uncertainty had never been her favorite thing. Life with an unpredictable alcoholic had taught her that. She couldn’t help wondering if she’d chosen Ed for precisely that reason, because with his future in his father’s insurance business already carved out, he’d offered the security and stability she’d always longed for. The fireworks she’d read about in romance novels or heard about from her friends hadn’t seemed to matter.

  She forced a smile. “I think we’ve gotten way too serious all of a sudden.”

  He looked as if he thought maybe they were finally getting real, but eventually he nodded. “And here comes our food. I’ll go get the kids.”

  Once Lexie and Jeremy came back to the table, the conversation centered on sports and school. Though Jeremy didn’t play, he loved going to the high school games, tagging along with Lexie and her friends whenever they’d let him.

  Lynn noted how relaxed Mitch was with her kids. She couldn’t help comparing that to Ed, who’d seemed uncomfortable carrying on a conversation with them even before the separation and now barely paid any attention to them at all. Mitch seemed genuinely interested in everything they had to say.

  She was surprised when Jeremy asked about the construction next door.

  “Would it be okay if I came over sometime to see what you’re doing?” he asked shyly. “I know it’s supposed to be off-limits. Raylene said so. Mom, too.”

  Mitch reached over and ruffled his hair. “Absolutely, as long as I’m there. I’ll find a hard hat for you and show you around.”

  “Could I help?” Jeremy asked excitedly. “I like to build stuff. I mean I’ve just done it with Legos, not real wood or anything like that, but it must be way cool to look at a piece of paper and then put a whole house together.”

  “It is definitely way cool,” Mitch confirmed. “I’d be happy to teach you a few things.”

  “No saws,” Lynn said at once. “No nail guns. And—”

  Jeremy groaned, his cheeks pink with embarrassment. “Mom!”

  She glanced at Mitch, caught him grinning. “You see where I’m going with this, right?”

  “Got it,” he confirmed. “I’ll get him back to your place in the same condition you send him over.”

  “That’ll do,” she said, satisfied that she could take him at his word.

  And when, she thought in amazement, was the last time she’d felt that kind of confidence in any man? Despite all the doubts that had been stirred up tonight when it came to Mitch and his drinking, she realized with complete and total confidence that she could trust him, not just with her children but maybe even with her heart.

  As soon as that thought came to her, though, she put on her mental brakes. One step at a time, she warned herself. One day at a time. It was a way of life she’d come to appreciate, if not embrace.

  Clearly, it seemed, Mitch had as well for his own reasons. How could she not respect a man who saw himself clearly enough to anticipate a problem and then set out to correct it? That sort of self-awareness was rare. So was the strength of character needed to make changes.

  Tonight Mitch had gone a long way toward allaying her fears, but it wouldn’t hurt to keep at least a part of her heart safe a little longer.

  10

  Flo was a nervous wreck. How on earth could a woman get to be in her seventies and still get flustered over a date, especially when it was a date with a man she’d been seeing for months? She felt as if she were back in high school, a time that should have long since faded from memory.

  Of course, the issue wasn’t so much having dinner with Donnie, but being joined for the meal by Erik and Helen. When Donnie had left her apartment this morning, he hadn’t been the least bit rattled by the prospect of being cross-examined by her daughter, who’d made a career of dissecting witnesses.

  “You’re naive if you think she’s not going to try to trip you up,” she’d told him.

  He regarded her with amusement. “About what? I have nothing to hide. And my intentions as far as you’re concerned are honorable.”

  “Honorable?” Flo had scoffed. “Not in Helen’s book. They’d only be honorable if you put a ring on my finger, and we’ve agreed we don’t want to get married.”

  “If it would ease things between you and Helen, I’d be happy to reevaluate that,” he’d said, stunning her.

  “Do not go there,” she’d ordered. “Not when I’m already a basket case. We agreed, and that’s that.”

  “Stubborn woman,” he’d accused right before kissing her.

  “You know I’m right about this,” she’d called after him.

  And she was. They didn’t need marriage at their age. This arrangement they had was perfectly comfortable. It suited them having their own space to escape to. At least it suited her. Didn’t it suit Donnie, after all, she worried? What if he’d changed his mind and she’d cut him off? She groaned. Now there was one more thing to fret over.

  She called Liz, looking for a distraction. “You busy?”

  “I thought I’d head over to the community center and play cards,” she said. “Want to come?”

  “I’ll be there,” Flo said eagerly. “Have you spoken to Frances?”

  “She says she’s tired and wants to rest at home.”

  Flo didn’t like the sound of that. She was a little surprised that Liz had accepted such an answer. “That doesn’t sound right,” she told Liz. “I think I’ll stop by on my way to the community center.”

  “Not without me, you won’t,” Liz said. “To be honest, I’ve been debating with myself about going over there ever since I spoke to her. I don’t want to start treating her as if she’s incapable of making a decision for herself.”

  “That’s not what we’re doing,” Flo insisted. “She’s our friend. We know the situation. Of course we’re going to be concerned when something seems a little off-kilter. With her family still in the dark about this cognitive disorder, it’s up to us to pay close attention. We agreed on that, Frances included.”

  “Right,” Liz said. “You’ll pick me up? I hate to ask Travis to drop me off over there.”

  “Give me ten minutes,” Flo said. “I have to put my face on.”

  “And you can do that and still be here in ten minutes?” Liz teased.

  “At this stage, mascara and lipstick will get me out the door looking presentable. Everything else is pretty much a waste of time. These wrinkles of mine can’t be covered up. Your skin’s still smooth as a baby’s bottom. One of these days I’m going to figure out what you did to accomplish that. You must have slipped off to Columbia or Charleston for a face-lift sometime or another.”

  Liz laughed. “Clean living,” she countered. “Never smoked. Don’t drink much. And the blessing of good genes.”

  “Well, it’s too late for me to claim any of that,” Flo said. “See you shortly.”

  * * *

  Twenty minutes later they arrived at Frances’s apartment. After pounding on the door, Frances finally opened it looking half-asleep and disheveled.

  “What on earth are the two of you doing here?” she demanded. She frowned at Liz. “I told you I was going back to bed.”

  “And I got worried when I heard that,” Flo told her unrepentantly. “Sue me.”

  A smile tugged at Frances’s lips. “Not if you have Helen on yo
ur side in court. I suppose, since you’re here, you might as well come on in. I’ll put on a pot of tea. Maybe that will get my blood stirring.”

  Liz and Flo followed her into the kitchen.

  “Are you feeling okay?” Flo asked worriedly.

  “Other than being exhausted because I stayed up half the night watching a marathon of Fred Astaire movies, I’m fine.” She sighed. “That man was one very smooth dancer.”

  “Even better than my Donnie,” Flo agreed.

  Liz shook her head impatiently. “That’s it? That’s why you’re so tired, because you were awake watching movies till dawn? Why didn’t you just say that when I called?”

  Frances gave her a defiant look, as she poured boiling water into a teapot she’d already filled with Earl Grey tea. “It never occurred to me I had to fill you in on my every activity. If you want to live vicariously, Flo’s life is much more exciting than mine.”

  Liz looked momentarily taken aback, then chuckled. “No, I suppose you don’t have to report what you’re doing, though it might have been nice if you’d invited me over. I’m a big Fred Astaire fan myself.”

  “Next time I will,” Frances promised, the tension gone from her voice.

  Flo looked from one friend to the other, grateful to have them in her life. “Since we’re all here, I could use some advice.”

  Liz grinned. “Is this about that double date you’re having soon with Helen and Erik?” She shook her head. “What were you thinking?”

  “That it may be insane to need it at this stage of my life, but I’d like my daughter’s approval,” Flo said. “Helen and I have been closer since I came back from Florida. I don’t want my dating Donnie to change that.”

  “Do you really think she has any right to have a say?” Frances asked.

  Liz gave her a chiding look. “No more than my kids had a right to decide I needed to move out of my own home. I could have put my foot down. There isn’t a judge in this region who would have declared me incompetent,” she said feistily.

  “Not if they were in their right minds,” Flo agreed, smiling at the idea of it.

  “But,” Liz continued, “out of respect for their feelings and their concerns, we found this compromise. The guesthouse on my old property is the perfect size for me, to be honest, and having Travis and Sarah right there in my old house to look out for me is a comfort to all of us.”

  Frances looked at her skeptically. “And you think that’s the same as Helen butting into Flo’s social life?”

  Liz nodded. “Helen’s concerned, just the way my kids are.”

  “No,” Flo contradicted. “Helen’s embarrassed, though why she feels that way is beyond me. I’m hardly the first senior citizen to date.”

  “I don’t think it’s the dating that makes her crazy,” Frances said. “It’s the image of your sharing a bed with Donnie.”

  “Well, she just has to get over that,” Flo said emphatically.

  “And you think having a dinner together will ease her mind?” Frances asked.

  “I think when she sees how well Donnie treats me and what a thoughtful man he is, yes,” Flo said.

  “And if she’s not reassured?” Liz asked. “What then, Flo?”

  Flo sighed. “To be honest, I haven’t let myself think that far ahead. Donnie’s bright idea would be to get married.”

  Frances’s eyes lit up. “Then do it.”

  Flo frowned. “Just to please my daughter? No, absolutely not.”

  Liz gave her a penetrating look. “Are you saying it wouldn’t please you? Do you care about Donnie?”

  “Of course, I do. But, seriously, what’s the sense of getting married at my age? Besides, it’s been so long since I lived with a man, I’m not sure I’d be able to tolerate all the changes I’d have to make.” She shook her head. “No, things are just the way they’re supposed to be. Donnie and I agreed.”

  “Did you really?” Frances asked. “Or did you state your case and ignore his? You did say he’d suggested marriage, right?”

  “Oh, he didn’t mean that,” Flo scoffed. “It was just a way to pacify my daughter.”

  “I’m not so sure about that,” Liz said. “Donnie’s a whole lot younger than any of us, so I don’t know him all that well beyond saying good morning and how are you at the post office. Seems to me, though, that he’d never have mentioned getting married if he didn’t want to. He doesn’t have the same negative recollections of it that you do.”

  “That’s true,” Frances confirmed. “I used to see him with his wife at church and they always looked happy as could be.”

  “That was then,” Flo insisted, more rattled than she wanted to admit by their impressions of the situation. “Let’s just focus on my date, okay? How am I going to make sure Helen behaves?”

  “Tell her not to come,” Liz said. “That’s the only way I can see.”

  “Maybe I need to have a talk with Erik,” Flo suggested.

  “And put him in the middle?” Frances said. “Don’t do it. It’ll only make matters worse.”

  “She’s right,” Liz said. “If you won’t call this off, then you’re just going to have to say a prayer and hope for the best.”

  That, unfortunately, was not the reassurance Flo had been hoping for from her friends. Even more unfortunately, they were probably right about disaster looming on the horizon.

  * * *

  Lynn had finally triumphed over Mitch’s payroll system. She’d finished the checks at midnight. They were all sitting on the kitchen counter now just waiting for him to stop by and sign them before distributing them to his crews. At his insistence and after some debate about his being overly generous, she’d even cut her own check for the agreed-upon amount.

  Yesterday, with the money Helen had loaned her in the bank and the promise of more later today from Mitch and Raylene, she’d done the first serious grocery shopping she’d done in months. This morning she’d gotten up at dawn to bake a coffee cake to share with Mitch when he stopped by. She’d brewed a pot of coffee, too. For the first time in ages, she’d felt like her old self.

  There was a familiar tap on the kitchen door and the knob jiggled. She smiled when Mitch couldn’t open the door. His second knock actually sounded impatient. She hurried over and unlocked the door, then grinned at him.

  “See, I can be trained,” she said.

  “I’m proud of you,” he said, then sniffed the air appreciatively. “It smells great in here. Have you been baking already this morning?”

  “A cinnamon pecan coffee cake,” she said. “Raylene gave me her recipe.”

  “What’s the occasion? You have a meeting this morning?”

  “No,” she said, then admitted, “I thought maybe you’d have time for a cup of coffee.”

  “I’ll make time,” he said eagerly. “Does that coffee cake come with it?”

  “Of course.” She cut him a generous slice and set it on the table, then poured the coffee and brought it over.

  “Any problems getting those checks finished?” he asked.

  “Nope. I finally got the hang of it,” she said proudly. “I don’t think I’ve disgraced myself or given anyone more money than they’re entitled to. They’re all on the counter awaiting your signature. I’d advise you to double-check them, though, at least this time.”

  “I trust you.”

  “It’s not me you need to worry about exactly. It’s my math and computer skills. I’ll feel better if you took a close look.”

>   “Will do, then. You’re a real godsend, Lynnie. I hope you realize that.”

  “Is that because I provided coffee and cake?”

  “No, because you took over a task I have no time to do these days. I just want you to know I appreciate it. Now tell me what you’ve been up to. I’ve been trying to wrap up a job across town the past couple of days. We hit a glitch with a permit, so I’ve been down at Town Hall trying to get that straightened out.”

  “I wondered why I hadn’t seen you next door,” she said, then could have kicked herself.

  He grinned. “You missed me?”

  “I like knowing you’re nearby in case there’s a crisis I can’t handle, that’s all,” she insisted.

  “You missed me,” he repeated, looking entirely too happy about it.

  “Okay, maybe a little bit,” she conceded. “Don’t let it go to your head.”

  “If I do, I know you’ll bring me straight back down to earth,” he told her.

  He looked as if he had something more on his mind, but the front doorbell rang.

  “I’ll be right back,” Lynn promised.

  When she saw Ed on the stoop, she sighed. “I wasn’t expecting you.”

  “What? You want me to call ahead now, too? Isn’t it enough that I turned over my key and can’t walk in?”

  “Sorry. I don’t want to fight with you. I’m just surprised. That’s all.”

  “I thought we could talk about the kids. Things have been kind of rough lately, especially with Lexie. I’d like to improve them.”

  Before she could stop him, he headed for the kitchen then halted abruptly.

  “Mitch,” he said tightly. “What are you doing here?”

  “He’s here to pick up the payroll checks I finished for him last night,” Lynn said defensively.