by Amy Lillard
She looked up from writing, her eyes snagging his. “It’s no trouble,” she said.
“See.” Mallory gave a self-satisfied nod.
“That’s a lot to ask,” he grumbled.
Elizabeth shook her head. “It’s not so bad.”
“I can help.” Mallory slid her arm through hers.
“You’re going to cook?” JD asked.
His daughter nodded.
“That would be great,” Elizabeth patted Mallory’s hand affectionately. How great it would be to have a daughter of her own to teach how to cook. She shook the thought away.
“That’s going to take too long to make,” JD protested. “And you have school tomorrow.”
“Then we can eat at our house,” Mallory suggested.
“I’ve got an idea,” she added. “I’ll run by the store and get the ingredients for dinner, then I’ll meet you out there.”
“Perfect.” Mallory turned her gaze to him.
He seemed like he wanted to say something, maybe concoct some new protest, but he stood and pulled some money from his wallet.
Elizabeth shook her head. “This one’s my treat.”
****
He should have begged off when he had the chance.
It wasn’t just the pork chops grilled to perfection or the tender, creamy potatoes, but Bethie Grace and wondering how different their lives would have been if he’d not made the mistakes that he’d made.
That was a useless exercise, wondering about a life he would never have. But sitting across from the first girl he’d ever loved, perhaps the only girl he’d ever loved, remorse swamped him. Regret took his breath away.
He turned his attention to his daughter. She was the only reason he could live with the choices he had made, the pain he had caused Bethie Grace and even himself. If he had it to do again, he’d have to do it all the same, if only to bring Mallory into his life.
“I’ll clean up.” Mallory sprang from the table and started gathering dishes like a seasoned busboy.
“I’ll help.” Bethie Grace started to stand, as Mallory shook her head.
“No, you don’t. You cooked.”
“You helped.”
Mallory shook her head. “Pulling the rolls out of the oven can hardly be considered helping.”
“You did more than that.”
“I got this.” Mallory gave an emphatic nod, then marched to the kitchen with her arms full of dirty dinner dishes.
JD watched the play between his daughter and Bethie Grace.
They seemed to enjoy each other’s company so much. It was the type of relationship he had always wished for Mallory to have. But Bethie Grace was leaving in a few days.
The image of her asking what would happen if she stayed, flickered through his mind, closely followed by the kiss they had shared and her declaration of love. What would happen if she stayed in Loveless?
He studied her from across the table. The face he’d known once almost as well as his own had matured and grown into a lovely woman. Even with the changes, she still made his heart pound a little faster and his soul feel like it was home.
“Do you want me to make some coffee?” Mallory’s voice filtered in from the kitchen.
“Sure.” Bethie Grace smiled.
“Go on into the living room, and I’ll bring it in with your dessert.”
Bethie Grace rose to her feet, but JD merely sat and watched. “Are you coming?” she asked.
He pushed himself back. “I guess,” he said as he tossed his napkin onto the table. “What has gotten in to her?”
Bethie Grace smiled and led the way to the living room. “I think she’s trying to set us up,” she said once she had made herself comfortable on the couch.
“Why would she do that?” Surely Bethie Grace hadn’t…
He purposefully sat down in the worn-in recliner halfway across the room from her. Right now, distance was the best policy.
Before she could answer, Mallory swept through the door with two saucers topped with French silk pie. “Your dessert.” She gave them each a mocking bow as she presented them with the treat. “I’ll have the coffee out in a jiff.” She bowed again before leaving the room.
Once she was out of hearing range, Bethie Grace smiled. “She’s something else.”
He nodded. “I think she’s trying to wheedle her way out of her grounding.”
“Or she thinks it would be a good idea if we were back together.”
JD stopped smoothing the peaks of whipped cream atop his pie and allowed himself to focus on her once again. He hadn’t thought about that.
He looked back toward the kitchen. “I suppose I should set her straight.”
“Would it be such a bad thing? Us together?”
He didn’t know how to answer that. Together they had made the perfect pair, but that was before. Before Heather. Before Mallory. Before everything that was his life now.
“You’re leaving,” he said, the protest weak even to his own ears.
“And you’ve made all these promises to yourself. I know. I know. But would it be so bad, the two of us?”
It would be fabulous, a slice of heaven on earth. But for how long?
He was saved having to answer as Mallory came back into the room with two cups of coffee. “I made decaf because I know the other stuff keeps you awake,” she said to him. “And I figured you for a cream and sugar kinda gal.”
Bethie Grace smiled and nodded.
Had they spent that much time together? So much that Mallory knew how Bethie Grace liked her coffee?
He had wanted to keep them separate from the start and now…
Suddenly, he understood. That was why Bethie Grace was having such a hard time leaving. It wasn’t him or Mallory or the memories trapped in her grandmother’s house, but Loveless itself.
The town was real. People had moles and freckles and made mistakes. In Loveless, people were bitten by dogs and sucked in pepper spray during a prank at the field house. That was what drew her in. Nothing more, nothing less than real, small town life.
She was leaving, and when she did, she would take a hunk of Mal’s heart with her. He had to put a stop to this and now.
He sat his dessert plate on the end table and stood, coffee in hand. “I think it’s time for you to go.”
Bethie Grace looked at him in surprise. “I’m sorry. What?”
“I said it’s time for you to leave.”
“But she hasn’t finished her pie and coffee,” Mallory protested as she came back into the room.
“Stay out of this, Mallory.” He didn’t bother to look at her. She might not ever realize that this was for her. Everything he had done, all the sacrifices he had made, everything had been for her.
Bethie Grace rose from her seat and stared at him. Her eyes glimmered with hurt, but her defiant chin pointed out at an angle that said she had been expecting this all along. “If that’s what you really want.”
“It is.” He scarcely recognized the voice as his own.
“But—” Mallory’s voice held the thick quality of suppressed tears.
“Mallory, go to your room.”
She looked from one of them to the other as she debated on what to do. JD understood that indecision well. Bethie Grace had that effect on people. She was able to make him rethink his values, his best interests, and all the promises he had made to Mallory. Even promises he had made when his daughter was far too young to know what gift he was offering her. Bethie Grace McGee could make him forget all of that in a single instant.
“So much for being friends.” Bethie Grace’s tone was cool, manipulative. But she knew as well as he: this was necessary. They couldn’t be friends.
“That plan was flawed from the start. It would have never worked.”
She picked up her purse and slipped the strap over her shoulder. “I guess we’ll never know.”
“You’re really leaving?” Mallory’s voice trembled.
“I thought I told you to go to yo
ur room.” Even to his own ears, he sounded rock hard and cold.
“I’m sorry, Mallory,” Bethie Grace said.
Tears rose in his daughter’s eyes. “Will I see you before you leave?”
Bethie Grace shook her head. “I don’t think so.”
JD grabbed his daughter by the shoulders and directed her toward the hallway. “Room. Now.” Somehow he managed to make the words gentle. He knew how she felt. How heartbreaking the thought of never seeing Bethie Grace McGee again could be. That was why it needed to be stopped as quickly as possible.
He waited until Mallory trudged down the hall, and her door shut behind her.
“You want to tell me what this is all about?” Bethie Grace asked.
“You know.”
“I thought we were working past all that.”
“Do you really think that’s going to work? Pretend like we’re friends and that we don’t want more? How long will that last, Bethie Grace?”
“It’s Elizabeth. I go by Elizabeth, remember? Bethie Grace, she’s the one who belongs here. Elizabeth? She’s from LA.” She turned on her heel and started for the door.
JD had to concentrate on not following behind her. “I’m sorry, Elizabeth.”
“I’m sure you are, JD.” She wrenched open the door and stormed out into the night, slamming it behind her.
JD stared at the door until his eyes watered. “More than you will ever know,” he whispered to the empty room.
****
Elizabeth fumbled with the car door having trouble getting it open through her anger and tears. And the worst part of it all? He was right. Where were they taking this relationship? The longer they dragged this out the harder it would be for her to leave.
But what if I don’t leave?
She shook away the voice in her heart and started the car. Her life was in…in…well, it wasn’t in Texas. That was for sure.
Spending time with Mallory the last couple of days had been so joyous. But it was best to sever those ties now, before it became too hard to leave. JD had made it clear from the beginning; there was no place for Bethie Grace or Elizabeth in his life.
That didn’t make the pain any easier to bear.
She drove through town, back to her grandmother’s house. She’d left the porch light on and the lamp in the front room gave off an inviting glow.
She had almost gotten used to coming in to the house, seeing the changes that JD had made. The new paint, polished floors. And nights like tonight, she wanted to drag out those boxed up treasures and scatter them throughout the house, back to their proper places.
But she was taking those keepsakes to California, sharing them with her brothers and sisters. There was no cause to do anything but leave them in their boxes, waiting for her to make the decision to leave.
She climbed the stairs to the third floor attic room. Everything had been tagged with instructions on whether it was to go to charity or be shipped to her place in California. Her car was gassed up and ready to go.
She took off her clothes and pulled her nightgown over her head. With a resigned sigh, she padded down to the second floor bathroom and washed her face.
She had no reason to stay, no reason not to leave. Tomorrow. No reason other than her love for a man who had been clear from the beginning. There was no place for her in JD’s life.
Chapter Sixteen
After Bethie Grace left, JD found it impossible to concentrate on anything other than the fact that she was leaving him again.
Mallory refused to come out of her room, and honestly, he didn’t know what to say to make her understand. It was for the best, he knew. He could only hope that one day she could see the logic of his decision.
With a sigh, he turned off the television without watching the news and made his way to his bedroom. Rosie had long since come in from her church ladies meeting and gone to bed. Still her words played over and over again in his mind.
Was he alone because he chose to be?
Of course, his pragmatic side responded. He had chosen to not remarry. And he had done it for Mallory. She deserved to believe that her mother and father had a wonderful relationship. And that’s what this was all about. Wasn’t it?
He mulled over the words as he brushed his teeth and undressed. He contemplated it even more as he slid beneath the covers and tried to go to sleep.
He was doing the right thing. It was what they all needed. Mallory needed him, he needed to know that he was providing for her, and Bethie Grace—Elizabeth, he corrected—deserved to have the restaurant she had worked so hard for.
But the image of her when he’d kissed her, when he made love to her, kept reappearing before his mind’s eye. It mixed there with the memory of how she looked that night fifteen years ago when she told him that her father was moving the family to Chicago.
They had both been so heartbroken. He’d never felt so helpless in his life. Other than how he felt that very moment.
He sat up in his bed, covers falling to pool in his lap. He couldn’t watch her walk away again. He wouldn’t.
Fifteen years ago he had been a helpless teenager, unable to stop the forces that pulled them in opposite directions. But now…well, now he wasn’t so helpless. He could stop her from leaving. He could…he could ask her to marry him.
The thought didn’t fill him with trepidation, but joy.
His father and Rosie had wasted their lives and their love for each other because of him. They’d thought their union would be detrimental to his well-being. But he would’ve loved to have Rosie as a step-mom. She was perfect for the role. In fact, she had lived that life without the benefit of the wedding ring and the security that should have been hers.
He wasn’t about to live his life the same.
Mallory would get used to the idea. If her actions from their talk tonight had any truth to them, then she might even be happy for the two of them. He’d talk to her first thing in the morning.
The bedside clock read four a.m.
JD laid back in the bed, adrenalin pumping. First thing in the morning couldn’t come soon enough.
****
As the first rays of the sun stretched across the sky, JD was up and dressed. He made his way downstairs not surprised that he was the only one awake. Mallory had just over an hour before she had to get up and go to school.
He switched the coffee maker from automatic to brew and was pouring his first cup as Rosie shuffled into the kitchen.
“Johnny, what are you doing up already?”
He smiled at her over the rim of his cup. “I’m going over to ask Bethie Grace to marry me.”
“That’s awesome.” Mallory skipped into the room and flung her arms around him. Somehow he managed not to spill his morning joe as he returned the hug.
“It’s okay with you?” he asked.
“Okay?” she asked. “It’s fantastic!”
Rosie smiled and bobbed her head in agreement. “I was hoping you would come to your senses.”
“Can I go too?” Mallory bounced on the balls of her bare feet. “Please.”
JD shook his head. “You have school.”
“Da-ad. This is important.”
“So is school, Mallory Jane.”
She stuck out her lip in a pout, but her blue eyes sparkled as she released him and sat at the table. She propped her chin in her hand and sighed. “It’s just so romantic,” she said, then straightened. “That’s not what you’re wearing.”
He looked down at himself. He had on his favorite jeans and a plaid shirt. “Looks that way.”
“You can’t wear that.”
Rosie gave a small chuckle. “I’ll fix you something to eat.”
“I’m not hungry.” Actually his stomach was in knots. What if Bethie Grace turned him down? She loved him, he knew. She had even told him as much. But that didn’t mean she was willing to give up her life in California and move back to Texas.
“You can’t wear that,” Mallory protested.
“You
have to eat something, mijo.”
“You should wear a suit,” Mallory continued. “Yeah…or a tuxedo. That’d be perfect.”
JD closed his eyes. He was nervous enough at going back to Georgia McGee’s house and asking Bethie Grace to marry him.
Then again, did he want another meddling female in his life?
“Just a couple of eggs then,” Rosie said. “And some toast.”
“Do you have a tux?” Mallory asked.
JD smiled. He was positive.
****
After managing to choke down enough eggs to satisfy Rosie and somehow managing to convince Mallory that what he was wearing was perfectly suitable for an early morning proposal, JD hopped into his truck and headed toward Georgia McGee’s house.
His heart beat painfully in his chest, faster and faster the closer he got to Lady Bird Lane.
But it fell into his stomach as he pulled into the empty drive. Her car was gone. He shoved his truck into park and willed himself to take a deep breath to calm his nerves. Just because her car wasn’t there didn’t mean that she had left town. But he knew.
He knocked on the recently painted front door. He rang the doorbell, knocked, then rang it again. No answer.
His hands trembled as he cupped them over the windows and peered through. Nothing stirred inside the rambling old Victorian.
What was he expecting to see?
With a shake of his head, he pulled his keys from his pocket and thumbed through them until he found the one to the house.
He took a deep breath to calm himself once again. Just because her car was gone and she hadn’t answered the door didn’t mean…
She could be in the shower. Or upstairs in the attic. Or even out back under the big apple tree.
But he couldn’t hear any water running when he stepped into the foyer. And there was no plausible excuse as to where her car was.
Well, only one: halfway to San Antonio.
JD propped his hands on his hips, his heart stuttering a beat before continuing at a normal tempo.
She was gone.
He blew a breath out his nose and turned in a half-circle taking in all the taped up boxes each labeled with its final destination. Goodwill, the women’s shelter, even those marked to be shipped to Bethie Grace’s apartment in Los Angeles.
