Carolina Girl

by Patricia Rice

  He had the insane urge to find her a million dollars and solve all her problems. She looked as if he were marching her to the guillotine when he opened the door to usher her in.

  The gathering inside slipped away from the back windows and pretended they were setting the table as he and Aurora entered. Clay thought this was the moment to make his exit. He wasn’t the kind of social animal who fit well into his own family’s get-togethers, much less someone else’s. But Aurora took a stack of plates from her sister and handed them to him, and he didn’t know how to escape her expectations.

  He’d never set a table in his life, but he placed a plate in front of each chair while Aurora stirred her pasta and haltingly explained how the bank could be hoping to stop her rezoning petition by buying their land.

  She explained how the state could use the same tactics to auction off the Bingham land right out from under Grandma Iris, giving the heirs almost nothing. After she told them the buyer could pave the marsh clear down to the state park line and cover it in condos, the silence from her audience filled the room and threatened the seams holding the house together.

  “Bastards,” Jake muttered when she was done. He crumpled his beer can and flung it at the wastebasket. Aurora automatically leaned over and picked the can off the floor where it fell.

  Cissy remained silent as Clay helped her into one of the chairs at the table. There were only four, but Jake seemed more comfortable at the counter with his purple cast stretched out to one side.

  “If you agree not to sell, will you trust me to make this up to you?” Aurora asked, placing the bowl of pasta and shrimp in the center of the table. “I’ll pay you back.”

  Mandy glanced anxiously from mother to aunt and intelligently reached for the pasta rather than speak. Clay thought he’d rather sit at the counter with Jake, but Aurora handed him a beer and indicated a chair. Awkwardly taking his place with the three women, he tried to stay out of the argument.

  “I can’t make the home-equity payments without a job or ask you to spend all your money on us.” Cissy poked listlessly at her salad. “They’ll do whatever they want anyway. You can’t change anything.”

  That had been Clay’s belief, but Aurora didn’t strike him as the type to give up without trying. Viking blood, he decided, watching all her pretty feathers ruffle and the gleam of battle light her eyes. She could almost make him believe anything was possible, including waking his slumbering concern for the world outside his.

  Cynicism had slammed the doors of his world long ago. Aurora battered holes in the doors, giving him glimpses of new views. Scary, but interesting.

  “Don’t you see?” Aurora demanded, her graceful fingers flying in forceful gestures, her face lit with animation. “Someone is already running scared if they’re trying these tactics. They don’t need our lot if they can have the Bingham acreage. They’re doing this in hopes the money will shut me up.”

  “But if they turn the Bingham land into condos, it won’t be worth living out here. Why shouldn’t we take the money?” Cissy was practically pleading, although she didn’t lift her gaze from the plate.

  “Mama, I’ll get scholarships. I don’t need the money for college. We can’t let them sell out Grandma Iris. And what about Grandpop? Where would he put all his stuff?” Mandy reluctantly came down on Aurora’s side.

  Clay watched the frailer sister struggle with her conscience and her hopes and her needs, and couldn’t bear the pain in Aurora’s eyes as she watched it, too. Even Jake kept his mouth shut, but his face looked ashen and old for the first time since Clay had known him.

  Before he could bite his tongue, Clay pointed out the obvious. “Once the state park is built, the value of this land will skyrocket. It could be worth a few million in a few years, or you could develop a profitable commercial business here with the right zoning.” He couldn’t believe he was saying this. The state park was an extremely bad idea, in his opinion. Commercial businesses were worse. But he hated seeing anyone looking so downtrodden.

  Damn Aurora, but she was twisting his head around to see her side. Her face lit with surprise and pleasure at his new position on their argument. It was almost worth the trouble he was getting himself into just to see her look at him with admiration and approval. He usually got that from women only when he handed them jewelry.

  Cissy looked hopeful for a moment, then shook her head. “That’s years away. We’ll starve before that happens. And it takes money to make money. We don’t have it.”

  Aurora started to speak, but Clay plowed ahead before she could offer to pay her sister again. For whatever reason, he was willing to dismiss her MBA and her hidden agenda and believe that she worked for what was right. He needed to do this. He wasn’t much on examining motivation, but he figured doing something because it was right might clear some of the bad taste from his mouth left by the greedy tactics of his corporate experts. This was a simple problem, one he could handle.

  “I can teach you how to use the computer,” he told Cissy. “There are all sorts of jobs you could do with a little training. You won’t have to rely on anyone else or wait for windfalls if you have a little knowledge to sell.”

  The way they all looked at him, Clay thought maybe the roof had come off and God had entered on a sun-beam. Uncomfortably, he reached for his beer. He’d only made a suggestion. It wasn’t as if he’d achieved world peace. But Cissy looked as if he’d offered her gold, and Aurora...

  Ah, hell. Aurora’s approval would have him walking on coals if he didn’t watch out. You’d think he’d learn to quit jumping into things feet first. It was always a mistake to get involved. She’d have expectations, and he didn’t have any way of satisfying them.

  “Could you really?” Cissy whispered, as if not trusting she’d heard him right.

  His tight T-shirt bound his shoulders, and he twitched uncomfortably. “Computers aren’t all that difficult. Some basic word processing would give you a foot in the door anywhere. Add graphics and you’ll be hot property once people learn what can be done with them. I’ve been doing some work for several area businesses that you could easily take over. There’s not much computer expertise out here.”

  The silence stretched thin, and Clay thought maybe he ought to leave. He wished he had Jared’s gift of gab, or his brother Tim’s obliviousness, but he didn’t. He could feel the power of all the emotions bursting around the room, and he itched to escape. He didn’t feel competent enough to be all they expected of him. Anyone could learn a damned computer, after all.

  “You think you could teach her how to do one of them bookkeeping things?” Jake asked unexpectedly, breaking the silence.

  Clay enjoyed the astonishment lighting Aurora’s face. He could watch her light up like that for the rest of his life and never cease to admire it.

  The oddly buoyant feeling in his chest at her reaction caught him by surprise. It was as if all the emotions in the room had coalesced in his middle. He didn’t recognize the feeling at first, but he thought it might be happiness. He was feeling happy because an old man had agreed to do what his daughter wanted?

  The laughter and chatter that erupted would have normally shut him out. His usual mode of operation would be to pull back into his shell, finish his food, and mosey on to his empty house and his computer screen.

  But Aurora’s family wouldn’t let him retreat. Aurora leaped up and kissed her father’s cheek, then for good measure kissed Clay’s. He wanted a hell of a lot more than a kiss on the cheek from her, but Mandy was jumping up to hug his neck, and Cissy sat there looking worshipful, and all the questions bouncing around had to be answered somehow.

  “Are you sure this is what you want to do, Ciss?” Aurora asked as the excitement wore itself out. “It’s not the same thing as having all that money in hand. It’s kind of like gambling on the lottery.”

  “No, it’s not.” Excitement still burned bright in Cissy’s eyes. “They can rob me of money, but they can’t rob me of knowledge. Clay’s right. There
’s no limit to what I can do once I have some salable skill. I can buy my own house and lot. Will you let me use your computer to learn until I can buy one of my own?”

  “You can have the thing if it will help you get Pops organized. I can always buy another when I’m working again.” Aurora swung around and pinned her father with a stare. “You did mean it, didn’t you? You’ll let Cissy put your stuff on paper? You’ll get a bank account?”

  Clay watched with interest as the older man squirmed, but they had him firmly nailed. Jake grunted and nodded.

  “Reckon it’s time. If you’re giving up that kind of money cause of me, then I guess I’d better get my act in order. But I ain’t gonna like it,” he added for good measure.

  “We’re not giving it up for you, Pops. We’re giving it up because the whole island will be better off if we do. It will take some time to see the benefit.” Aurora leaped up again, cleared her plate off the table, and asked, “Anyone ready for strawberry shortcake? I think we should celebrate.”

  Clay figured he would eat anything stuck in front of him if it brought him closer to spending a few minutes alone with Aurora. She looked positively radiant right now. She could switch from tears and anger to joy and laughter as simply as flipping a light switch.

  Sailing around the kitchen with confidence, she produced strawberries and an enormous cake and miraculously created fluffy whipped cream out of a frozen bowl and beaters and what looked like the stuff he poured in his coffee. It was like watching a marvelous new video game unfold. He was dying to push her buttons to see what happened next.

  Instead, she pushed his.

  The homemade cake Aurora set in front of him melted in his mouth and tasted like heaven. He’d eaten in L.A.’s hottest restaurants and hadn’t tasted a thing while negotiating investments and talking software. He didn’t think he’d ever tasted anything that could compare with this dessert prepared in a two-bit trailer in the backwoods of nowhere. The people around him didn’t seem to think it an unusual event. They chattered on while spooning up strawberries as if this were an everyday occurrence instead of a religious experience.

  He never wanted to go back to his diet of beer and french fries again.

  Clay knew he was in trouble, but surrounded by all this feminine energy, he simply didn’t care. It was akin to living inside a Christmas tree. Aurora sparkled, Cissy shined, and Mandy chimed. Lights glittered off red hair and blond. Floral fragrances mixed with the mouthwatering scents of food. Clay figured Jake would start hoho-hoing any moment now, develop a red nose, and climb up the chimney. He hadn’t felt this included even when he’d joined Jared and his family at Christmas.

  The women showered him with questions, handed him a towel to dry dishes, unself-consciously brushed by him to reach for cabinets in the narrow kitchen, and teased him with their perfumes and laughter. Aurora wrapped a towel around his waist so he wouldn’t get his cutoffs wet. Jake handed him another beer. Mandy showed him the graphs she’d created on the school’s computer.

  By the time everything was put away and he knew it had to be time for him to go home, he didn’t know if he wanted to leave. The beach cottage would be dark and lonely and silent. He’d never noticed that before. A computer had always offered him music, companionship, and intellectual challenges, and that had been enough.

  With Aurora slipping her hand around his elbow and accompanying him into the night, Clay thought a computer would never be enough again. He wanted to hold the warmth of her against him, feel the brush of her breasts against his side, listen to her laughter. Take her home with him.

  “A miracle happened here tonight,” she murmured, echoing thoughts he hadn’t put into words. “I don’t think I can thank you enough. You meant it, didn’t you? That you could teach Cissy?”

  “I’m probably not much of a teacher,” he warned. “I expect people to know what I know, and I get impatient when it doesn’t come naturally. I hope you’re not setting your hopes too high.” He felt a little better spitting that out. He wasn’t God. He’d favored the Clay part of his name for good reason. He was all too human and earthbound.

  What if he opened the door to step into her world, and she slammed the door in his face? Was it worth the pain and hassle? He didn’t have enough experience with real relationships to calculate the risk factor.

  “It can’t be as bad as me trying to teach her,” Aurora asserted. “We fight, and she won’t listen to me. I’m not that great at it, anyway.”

  “She’ll still need a car to find a job,” he reminded her, treading cautiously. “And she’s probably right when she says the bank will do what they want. This place won’t be the same if they turn the island into a sea of crackerboxes.”

  “It’s okay. Once I go off to Chicago knowing they don’t need me any longer, I can pay her back. You are a saint.”

  Chicago. She was going to Chicago. Of course she was. She didn’t belong here. Oddly enough, that relieved some of the pressure. Whatever was happening between them wouldn’t be long-term. They’d let it play out and both would go back to their own worlds when the time came. Kind of like the summer vacations he’d never really taken as a kid.

  Relaxing, Clay caught a fist of sunset hair that had fallen from its pins. He couldn’t hold Aurora still. It was like trying to trap a rainbow. Her eyes flashed, her mouth curled upward, her soft curves moved closer, and his lips were on hers before he knew what he was doing.

  She tasted of strawberries and cream, and he died and went to heaven all over again.

  With a sigh of relief and gratitude, Clay hauled her into his arms and kissed her as if he’d never let her go.

  Chapter Ten

  “Is he for real?” Cissy whispered as soon as Mandy disappeared into her bedroom with the phone.

  Stunned and spinning from a kiss that had revealed the mysteries of life, Aurora sipped her bottled water and didn’t answer immediately. She thought that kiss might have melted the iceberg around her heart to Popsicle-sized chunks, and now she was sailing into uncharted waters.

  Only the slowly rising defeat in her sister’s eyes dragged her back from her daze.

  “I figure McCloud’s for real,” she hastily reassured Cissy. “I’m just not sure what he’s expecting to get out of this.” She added this more for herself than Cissy, but her sister grabbed it and ran.

  “You can handle him,” she said with confidence. “It will be like handling Dad.”

  Aurora threw her a scathing look. “Like Mama handling Pops, you mean. You know how well that worked out.”

  Regaining confidence, Cissy shrugged. “If you can handle the big-city fellas, you can handle a biker.”

  Rory wasn’t at all certain it worked that way. The “big-city fellas” wore suits and talked finance and operated on a safe turf she understood. They didn’t tilt her hormones into overdrive by wearing denim vests over naked chests and kissing her as if she possessed the key to their universe. It was mighty hard to resist the kind of power he offered her.

  She had to resist. She had goals here, and they didn’t include dallying with itinerant beach bums, even ones who could spin a computer faster than a motorcycle. “I think it’s more a matter of you handling him. He will make a lousy teacher unless you bop him over the head with a keyboard a few times.”

  Cissy looked blissfully radiant. “I can do that. Do you have any idea how much it costs to learn what he’s willing to teach me?”

  “Not a hundred fifty thousand dollars.” Gloomily, Rory sat down beside Cissy, picked up the TV remote, and switched on the news. “What if I’m wrong? What if I can’t get the zoning changed?”

  “It will still be better than before.” Undemonstrative by nature, Cissy gave her an awkward hug. “It’s not the money that counts, but what we do with it. If I can send Mandy to school on money I earn, it’s far better than selling out our neighbors for a pretty subdivision lot.”

  Tears prickled behind Rory’s eyes as she hugged her sister and prayed she’d chosen the right c
ourse.

  Clay’s heated kiss and the excited clamor in the vicinity of her heart made it impossible to tell whether she was thinking with her head or with her hopes.

  She was feeling so lucky, she ought to buy a lottery ticket.

  o0o

  Deciding he was in no mood to go home and get ragged on by Jared over that kiss in the park today, Clay motored down the road to the beach. If he was insane enough to antagonize the state, rile the local establishment, and become involved in the emotional chaos of the Jenkins family, he ought to at least have some understanding of why.

  He locked his bike to a wind-gnarled oak and strolled across the boardwalk to the beach. The surf was out, but a breeze rippled his hair as he gathered his bearings and judged the distance to the turtle nests.

  Aurora had said he’d be lucky to see a turtle at all. He’d run a search on-line, learned more about the primeval habits of loggerheads, but he needed to learn more. Right now, though, he wanted the real thing, not words. He wanted to know he was diving into a whirlpool for a reason, if only a symbolic one.

  Hurricane-ravaged trunks littered this part of the island. Driftwood, brittle pine needles, and decades of dried grasses and leaves gathered behind the roots of trees torn from their moorings. The drought of the last few seasons had left dead trees and shrubs scattered throughout the forested area. New growth interspersed the dead. A state park might revitalize some of the natural habitat. Or not.

  He strolled quietly in the gathering shadows of dusk, looking for a likely spot to watch without disturbing nature. How many turtles used this beach? How often did they nest? Was he talking a small population of animals or a large one? Was there any point in fighting for a few of the creatures?