Before long, he went around with a pot and ladle, offering refills. “Yes, please,” she said as she moved the bowl to the side.
Very close to her ear he said, “You look lovely.” He ladled her soup. “I won’t say tonight because that would imply you haven’t before.”
She glanced around and up at him. Their gazes met and lingered for a moment. “Thank you,” she said and slid her bowl over in front of her, wondering if anyone else at the table heard. But Jim, Clara, the preacher, and his wife were listening to Greg, on the other side of her, telling them about Turkey Trot. But so what if they heard? That was only the kind of casual comment anyone might make.
Gloria picked up her spoon and inhaled the wonderful aroma that quickened her pulses. Never would she have suspected she could become so enthralled by. . . by. . .soup.
twenty-one
Monday morning, Gloria stayed busy with follow-up e-mails from some of the representatives who had further questions or needed information. A landscaper wanted to know how capable a couple of the residents were since she could use some men to do clearing and lifting. Some business wanted to make donations of goods or money. The job fair had been a tremendous success, and she began to believe Jim and Clara were right. She was needed. That was a good feeling.
Busy alone wasn’t as much fun as with someone else. What she had resented when she and Thomas began working together, she now missed. She still shuddered at the thought of dishes and tablecloths and aprons that could very well belong to a hotel. But she kept thinking he might at least pop in and mention the. . .soup.
Maybe his temporary status ended and he would move on to another volunteer project among the homeless.
She jumped when her phone rang. She started to reach for the desk phone and realized that it was her cell. She rarely got a call on it anymore. Her cell number was on her résumé form, which she managed to give to a couple representatives although she didn’t sit for an interview. That probably explained the call.
She took the phone from her tote and stared at it while it rang. Raymond.
She thought about not answering. Surely he wouldn’t call without a reason. Maybe the bookstore burned down and he suspected her. She’d been hot enough when she’d stalked out.
But that was then. This was now.
“Hi, Ray. What’s up?” She did that just fine, but Jim walked in at that moment and, hearing her say “Ray,” his brows formed their straight line.
Strange, she didn’t have to deep breathe, steady a racing pulse, or have a stroke as she had imagined after he dumped her. The familiarity of his voice brought memories, mostly good. The last one had been the shocker.
“Chesapeake Bay area, huh?” she repeated for the benefit of Jim who sat in his chair looking relieved that she hadn’t fallen apart.
“Well, I’m at work.” Jim gestured toward the door, and she knew that meant she could leave if she wanted. “Are you really calling to find out where I work?”
He said not necessarily but would like to see her. “When? Okay. You remember where Aunt Clara and Uncle Jim live, I guess?”
He said of course.
Well, who knew? He hadn’t remembered who his girlfriend was. Last Thanksgiving she’d visited at his parents’ home. They all adored each other. At Christmas he visited with her at Clara and Jim’s. He’d seemed a little uncomfortable at times, and she’d thought he might be nervous about giving her a ring. He didn’t, so maybe Valentine’s Day would be the time. After all, the gift of a ring usually follows talks about marriage and children and the best location to live considering their jobs.
Well, she got a shock when she went down to the storage room to get a box of books and instead encountered Raymond and Stephanie bringing to life a kissing scene taken right out of a romance novel. Her gasp tore them apart, and Gloria tore out of there. They followed, with Raymond pleading for her to let him explain. She stopped, wondering if he’d make some lame explanation like Stephanie attacked him and he’d been surprised, but that wasn’t what he said at all. He said, “We didn’t mean for this to happen.” Well, who forced them into the storage room?
Gloria stormed up the stairs. She would get no ring. She got the boot. And she kicked with it. Made a huge scene. Accused them of exactly what she’d suspected but had refused to believe.
It all became clear. After she told them off, with customers and workers listening and watching, she quit. Raymond pleaded. “This was one of the busiest seasons. . . .” Which set her off again. Yes, it was hearts and flowers season.
Everybody looked at her like she was the villain and had lost her senses. Didn’t they know or care she’d lost the rest of her life she’d so carefully planned?
“You all right, honey?” Jim said after she told Raymond she’d meet him at the house.
She thought about that. “So far.”
He’d be remembering her outbursts and crying jags. “I’ll be praying for you,” he said.
“Thank you.” She left the office, thinking he’d prayed for her all her life. But Raymond still broke up with her. Was Raymond coming to ask forgiveness? Say Stephanie was a flirt, which Gloria knew, and he’d fallen for it? He’d had a weak moment? Why hadn’t he had a weak moment with Gloria in the storage room?
She went inside the house and drank a cup of coffee with Clara and talked while waiting. Waiting for her emotions to boil over. What happened to those feelings? She and Clara talked mainly about the job fair since they’d already discussed her jilted situation for months up one side and down the other. Clara had always said, “Let God choose your mate.” She really thought he had in the form of Raymond. She thought about changing clothes but decided she was lovely enough in her jeans and T-shirt and ponytail.
Raymond arrived in his nice car. Got out in his nice suit and nice tie. He looked nice, respectable, appealing, successful, like always. Clara came to the door, and they spoke politely. “I just wanted to talk with you, Gloria.”
She went outside, and they walked along the sidewalk toward the church. She waited. “I want to apologize for the way things went down,” he said.
“I accept,” she said readily. “I don’t want someone who doesn’t want me.” She glanced over at him. She wasn’t angry about that. It was a fact. “It’s the way it went down that hurt and angered and shocked me.”
He glanced at her and nodded.
“Aunt Clara says I’ll be stronger for it. I’m not sure why I must be stronger.” She laughed lightly. “But Clara seems to think it an asset.”
“Of course it is. And I’m not good enough for you.”
“Oh, that’s what all my friends said.” She and her friends had called him inappropriate names and made up a few besides. She gave a little laugh again and he smiled, probably glad she wasn’t ranting.
“But seriously, Raymond. It’s not a matter of being good enough. Like the pastor said, we can’t be good enough for God, just accept His love and blessings. Maybe when two people are meant for each other, that’s what they do. Each one accepts and loves the other.”
“We used to say we were meant for each other. You still think that?”
She was amazed at how calm and even. . .wise. . .she was feeling. Perhaps time and church and Clara and Jim had rubbed off on her.
“Yes.” She watched his face turn troubled. That wasn’t what he wanted to hear. He watched his shoes. “Raymond.” He looked, and she smiled at him. “I think we were meant to meet, enjoy each other, and learn more about life and love. I don’t regret our time together. And if Steph hadn’t come along, maybe marriage for us would have been right. I don’t know.”
“Gloria, you’re—”
She interrupted. “I know. You told me many times how wonderful I am.”
He nodded and spread a hand as if helpless. She motioned, indicating they should walk through the church parking lot.
“I wanted to tell you that Steph and I plan to marry.”
She waited for the anger or the tears. They didn’t com
e. “I’m glad, Raymond.” She really was. Glad it was serious between them and not just his floating from one girl to another or trying to further his own career. He was a nice guy.
“She’s going to quit her job and stay home. I’ll move into her position as regional manager. We’ll need a district manager and a store manager. The assistant has handled the store since you left. Either job is yours if you want to come back.”
The job, in which she’d felt secure, had enabled her to pay bills and generate a small savings. She could be promoted to district manager in this area. She could get a place close enough to be near Jim and Clara and get a substantial raise in pay. Since she’d be traveling a lot she could even live with them and pay rent.
“I won’t be in the way,” he said. “You might see me pop in a store occasionally and at meetings. But that’s it.”
She was doing fine seeing him now. “That wouldn’t be a problem.”
She motioned and they walked along a path near Wild-wood leading to the creek. “And look, Gloria. I know I’ve said some crazy things. I joked about hooking up with Steph and that I knew she came from a wealthy family. It’s not that. And she’s not the snob we thought. That’s a facade because of some tough times which left her with insecurities. But we want to make this work. Thanks to you, we may know how.”
“Me?” She helped her boyfriend fall in love with another woman?
He looked at the treetops as they entered the wooded area. Then at the path. “You told me we couldn’t have a successful life without God. I didn’t mind acknowledging God but didn’t take it too seriously. But Steph and I are going to start going to church and pursue this God thing.”
“That’s great, Ray. I’m really, really pleased for you.”
They came out of the woods along the path next to the creek.
“Okay, any thoughts about the job? It will be a few months yet. Probably the first of the year.”
She stopped, and he stood in front of her. After a silent moment he said, “Think about it, okay?”
“Yes. Thank you. I appreciate the offer.”
“By the way, you said you were working.”
“At that little church we just passed. It’s a residence for homeless men.”
His eyes held concern. “Is that safe?”
Safe? She looked at the creek, not as full and swirling as it had been in April, but still dangerous enough. “One of the residents got drunk over by that tree.”
That tree. Somebody was sitting over there, leaning back against it, with a tablet propped at his knees. “He fell in, hit his head, and almost died. He has hallucinations.”
“Aren’t you afraid?”
When she first came to the center, she had been at least apprehensive. So much had changed. “Ray, I’m honored. That man served his country and his fellow Americans, me and you, in Iraq. He watched his buddy get blown to pieces.” She hadn’t analyzed it this way or felt the full impact until now. “He’s in danger of losing his wife and son because of it. I’m afraid. . .I may not deserve the sacrifice he made.”
Raymond looked contrite. “I’m sorry.”
“I understand,” she admitted. “When I rarely thought about them, I had all the stereotypical ideas about the homeless. And they weren’t commendable.”
He nodded. “I never imagined you doing something like that.”
“Neither did I.”
“Is it. . .my fault?”
“Yes.” She looked him straight in the eyes. “And I’d like to thank you.”
He shifted uncomfortably from one polished black shoe to the other. Gloria reached out and touched the sleeve of his suit coat. “No, really. I mean it. This is good for me. Thank you for the years we had together. And for being honest with me now.”
“I did—”
She put out her hand to stop his words. “You can find your way back, can’t you?”
He said he could and she said, “You’ll make a wonderful husband for. . .Steph.”
“Thank you.” He took her hand in his and held it while taking slow steps away, and then let it go.
She watched what she once considered her future walk away and disappear into the woods. The entire time they talked she had not felt. . .devastated, or. . .enthralled. Turning, she looked at a figure leaning against a tree and walked toward it. He looked up at her and said, “Hello.”
She smiled. “That was my former security,” she said. “He offered me my job back or a promotion with a raise in pay.”
twenty-two
Thomas figured the safest question to ask was, “He’s your former boss?”
“That, too.” She gave a small laugh. “I haven’t thought of him as my boss since changing my major from English to business management so he’d hire me to manage the bookstore. But for at least two years he was my. . .” She studied the sky as if it might give her the word. “Steady. Yes, we went steady. Until. . .”
She began with the storeroom, her conniption fit, walking out, the inability to find another job, spending her savings, being forced to live with Clara and Jim, the despair, and having pity parties for weeks.
“Losing those you love is no picnic,” he said, watching her walk toward the drop-off.
Her face turned toward him. “I loved who and what he was. Like Greg in a way, only more mature. A great guy, fun, intelligent, successful, nice-looking, decent.”
Was she now falling for Greg? He hadn’t thought so. But she had seemed more accepting of her work and him in the past weeks. “Sounds ideal,” he said.
She nodded. “Right. Like heroes in some of the romance novels in the bookstore.”
He wondered if she meant her steady was ideal or had been fantasy.
Her gaze fastened on the tree under which he sat. “He traveled a lot so we always looked forward to being together again. We confirmed how right we were for each other, talked about the best location for a house considering our jobs, what kind of home we wanted, having children, saving enough money to get a good start, stuff like that.”
“Sounds serious.”
She nodded. “It was, at the time. That’s why Raymond felt he needed to come and say his official good-bye.”
“Sure you’re all right?”
Her glance met his, and he shifted his gaze from her standing there on the high part of the bank down to the fast-flowing creek and back at her.
She laughed lightly and stepped back. “Oh no. I no longer think my life is over. Just a time for a new beginning.” Her gaze moved to the little white clouds drifting away from them across the blue sky as if her past was doing that. She spoke softly and reflectively. “When I began to get over the shock and anger, I realized my grief was over my loss of security and what Raymond represented instead of Raymond himself.”
She stepped away from the bank. “I can remember the story. But I’ve. . .closed the book.”
He knew that feeling, too. “Are you thinking of taking the job offer?”
“It’s not available until first of the year. I need to support myself, so I’ll think about it. Oh, in the meantime, I need to keep this job. I’d better see if I can scrounge up a sandwich and get back to work.”
Thomas stood and brushed off the back of his jeans. “I could use a sandwich myself. Mind if I join you?”
“I’ll even make the sandwich for you. After the way I told my life story. I didn’t really mean to—”
“Don’t apologize, Gloria. I’m glad you did. No one heard you but me and the birds and the squirrels and the snakes.”
She grimaced at that then smiled.
“You can trust me.”
She laughed then, and her eyes were touched by the same sunlight that put that reddish-gold sheen on her hair. “Anyone who can be trusted to turn soup into a successful dinner may be trustworthy in other things.”
They walked along the path that Raymond had taken. She must have thought about him since she became reflective again. She sighed. “I didn’t know that one could really fall in love witho
ut meaning to, that it happened without one’s intending it.”
His glance was quick. Was she falling for. . .Greg, after all? Just as quickly she spread her hands and color came into her cheeks. “That’s what happened with Raymond and Stephanie. Just, ping, out of the clear blue sky.” And ping, she asked, “You ever been in love?”
“Depends on what definition one has of it, I suppose.” She’d been so open about Raymond, he should respond with a little honesty of his own. “That occurred to me after I began dating a gorgeous brunette in college. But later, my wanderings became a priority. And love can be confused with something else.”
Her eyes questioned. “I mean, like kisses,” he said. “They can be a physical thing, not necessarily a love thing.”
She didn’t dispute that, and he refused to look at her lips as if he didn’t have a photographic memory or an imagination.
They reached the church, went into the kitchen, raided the refrigerator, and made their sandwiches. “We can sit at a table,” she said. “Jim had said I could take today off if I wanted, but I’m anxious to see what comes in about the job fair.”
“We did all right with that.” He sat in a chair adjacent to her. “We should celebrate.”
Gloria had shared some of her innermost thoughts. Maybe he should reveal a few things about himself. It might not go over well if one of these days he acted like Clark Kent who would fling off his eyeglasses, rip his shirt open, and shout, “Guess who and what?” He doubted anyone would see a Superman emblem on his T-shirt.
“Let’s go out to dinner somewhere. Really, Gloria,” he said sincerely. “You helped me more than you know. I’d like to do something for you.”
She didn’t balk, but she did take a while chewing her sandwich. She swallowed and sipped her tea. “Thomas, you’ve helped me equally, if not more than I helped you. But I don’t know if this would be allowed.”
“Allowed?”
“I’ll ask Jim.”
Then he understood. She’d confided in him as if he were a friend or a confidant. Or maybe she’d been talking to the tree where he happened to be sitting. She was an employee, and he a homeless man. He’d forgotten that for a while. She hadn’t. He thought a moment. “I’m not a resident. Not staying here overnight. Seems I’m more a volunteer, don’t you think?”
A Knight to Remember Page 10
