by Remy, Cate
Angie’s annoyance reached another level. What made him think he could butter everyone up with sweets or steak? He sounded shallow. “She’s cutting down on sugar. See you tomorrow night.” She got out of the limo without waiting for him to open the door or walk her to the front porch.
* * *
Max exhaled as he drove to the rural outskirts of town the next morning. He wished he could tell Angie why he was unable to say goodbye to Detrick before her brother deployed. Instead, what he said to her sounded like a weak excuse for not showing up.
Raindrops fell on his shoulder. He pressed a button to put the top on the convertible. The weather mirrored his mood. He took a gulp of Cheerwine soda from the cupholder and checked the other can of soda next to the flowers on the passenger seat.
The gates to the Harper Cemetery were open. A car drove out. Max moved his Jag closer to the shoulder of the road to give the other vehicle more room. As the vehicle passed, he recognized Angie in the driver’s seat. An elderly woman sat in the passenger’s seat. Max gazed out his rear window and saw the outline of a small child in the back of the Chevy Cruze.
A tiny pain pricked his chest when he thought of Angie. One year ago today, he lost his good friend, but Angie lost a brother. He couldn’t imagine how she dealt with the grief while also caring for her grandmother and little boy.
He drove to the gravesite marked on the map he printed out at the hotel. Max parked the car. His hands shook as he grabbed the flowers from the passenger’s seat and the second can of Cheerwine, a favorite of Detrick’s when they were teens.
No one else was present in this section of the cemetery. He approached the headstone and placed the flowers and soda beside it. Angie and her family left a floral wreath and an American flag on Detrick’s headstone. He stood, silent, while he read the engravings and saw the military honors carved into the headstone.
The town of Harper may know him as a hometown football hero, but Detrick Franklin made the true sacrifice. Angie was right to be irritated with him for not paying the respect and honor her brother deserved. He wanted to do something about it one day. He hoped Angie would be there with him when he did.
* * *
Angie took her son and grandmother home after the cemetery visit. She thought she recognized the car she passed on the way out the gate, but she was so focused on the visit and what the day meant, she didn’t pay attention to the driver.
“Mommy, can I go play with Lou and his brothers across the street?” Raymond asked.
“After lunch, honey.” Angie helped him and her grandmother out of the car. Raymond ran inside the house once she opened the door. “What did I say about no running?”
“Sorry.” He slowed down to walk up the stairs and go to his room.
Grandma gripped her arm as they went into the kitchen. “Poor baby. He’s had a tough morning.”
Angie agreed, recalling his sad face when he viewed his uncle’s grave. “We all did. I’m going to make Raymond’s favorite soup for lunch. You sit down and rest.” She pulled out a chair from the kitchen table.
“I’ll chop carrots while you get the water boiling.”
Angie got a knife and took ingredients from the fridge. She put them on the table for her grandmother.
“Little Baby Ray has the right idea, Angie.” Grandma started chopping. “We could all use a little playtime today. You should go out tonight with friends and see a movie.”
Angie almost chuckled. Sometimes her grandmother talked as though she were still a shy teenager in need of coaxing to go out and socialize. “Actually, I’m seeing an off-Broadway play in Atlanta tonight with friends. I already scheduled a sitter to come watch Raymond.”
Grandma nodded her approval. “I invited two girlfriends from the senior rec center to come over for a little game of poker tonight. Just popcorn and chips. Potato chips, not the gambling kind.”
“I wouldn’t judge you if you won a hand, Grandma.”
“Don’t fuss over me, either. Go out and make friends. You’ve been working so hard. Don’t think I haven’t noticed.”
She hugged her grandmother. She crossed her fingers and hoped Grandma wouldn’t notice her new arrangement with Max Kelly. At least not yet.
* * *
Evening arrived. Angie received a text. Max was a block away from the house. She handed the babysitter a couple twenties and hugged her son. “Mommy’s going to watch a play tonight, but she’ll spend all day with you tomorrow.”
“Can we go to the new playground?”
“Sure can. Bye, sweetie. Be good for the sitter and G.G.” She used Raymond’s nickname for his great-grandmother.
She waved to her grandmother on her way out the house. Grandma’s friends were already in the kitchen. They chatted at the table as they opened bags of potato chips and shuffled cards.
She straightened her dress on the way outside. She bought it a couple years ago after her grandmother convinced her every woman needed a go-to little black dress in her closet for nights out. Angie had to admit the dress didn’t get any wear. She just cut the tags off this afternoon, but thankfully, it still fit. She walked across the driveway in flats. Her toes were still crying after being shoved in those heels last night.
Max parked his Jag in front of the driveway. The top was up, thank goodness, Angie opened the passenger door before he could get it for her. “I was going to get out and ring the doorbell.”
“No. My grandmother has company tonight.”
“You don’t want her to see your company. I see how it is.” He gave her a joking smile before driving up the street.
“I haven’t told her about our engagement. I’m going to. I just need to find the right time.”
“You need to do it soon. The Landers and the Prestons know. It won’t be long before they tell their friends and other business partners.”
Angie recalled the men’s plans to visit the hospital site. “How’d your afternoon with them go?”
Max moved his head in the negative. “No real business talk. Just a visit to the field and listening to them share golf stories.” He drove to the highway.
She could tell he was frustrated with the business partners’ old-fashioned way of doing things. “Are you going golfing with them?”
“If I have to. I learned to play because it’s practically a requirement in the corporate world, but you know my favorite sport.”
Angie knew he received a football scholarship to UGA. “Why did you give up football?”
“I injured my leg on a bike ride sophomore year of college. It required surgery. Doctors said I wouldn’t be able to play at a professional level, so I was cut from the team.”
“That has to be tough.”
“At the time, but my dad talked me into going to business school.” He shrugged. “Things worked out well another way. I don’t have a right to complain.”
He shut down the conversation by turning on music. Angie stared at the cars on the highway. Something about the pretty pink-orange sunset and the wide road ahead lifted her spirits. Even if this was all part of Max’s plan to get his land deal, she could still enjoy herself at the theater. She wondered what the evening would bring.
Chapter Five
The drive to Atlanta lasted an hour. Angie always wanted to see a production at the legendary Fox Theatre. When they arrived, she didn’t count on the huge crowd of people waiting to get inside. “Looks like we’re going to be waiting in line.”
Max pulled into a section for valet parking. Angie observed a valet race to the car. “We’ve been expecting you, Mr. Kelly. Go right in.”
He handed him the keys. “Ready, Angie?”
He escorted her past the line at the ticket counter. Local celebrities and well-to-do people in suits and cocktail dresses walked through the main entrance. Photographers stood ready to snap their pictures. Angie thought Max intended to use one of the other doors to get inside. Instead, he led her right to the flash-happy paparazzi. She blinked as cameras went off in rapid
succession.
“Max Kelly, who are you taking to see Hamilton?” A female anchor from an Atlanta news station stepped out from the throng.
His hand landed on the small of her back. She couldn’t tell if he was supporting her or preventing her from running away. “She’s Angie Franklin, my fiancée.”
He made the declaration in front of so many people. She compared it to a searing spotlight burning a hole through her head. She channeled her focus the way she used to do when she took drama class in high school.
The anchor shoved a cell phone in Angie’s face. The recording app was on. “Miss Franklin, tell us about yourself. Are you a local?”
“Georgia-born and raised, but I’m actually from the town of Harper.”
Max put his arm around her waist and pulled her aside. “We have to go. The show’s about to start. Thanks.” He gave a friendly wave to the anchor, who still asked questions even as they entered the crowded theatre lobby.
Angie rubbed her arm. “I hate to think how many pictures they took of us. Do you know who those photographers work for?”
He straightened his suit jacket. “Could be anyone. Local news, an editor for those high society magazines.”
“Swell.”
“Why so upset? It’s just a photo. There’s nothing wrong with how you look.”
“It’s not my appearance I’m worried about. Somebody could be uploading those photos to social media right now.”
Max lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “And?”
She lowered her voice, hoping he either had very good hearing or could read her lips. “I thought you wanted the engagement to be low key since, you know, it happened yesterday.”
“Two days ago, to be exact, and I never said that. The more people see us engaged and enjoying life, the more Steve and Charley will want to do business with me.” He signaled to a worker at the concession stand. Like magic, someone raced over to them with two bottled waters. He handed one to her. “Remember, we’re a young and ambitious couple.”
“A pretend couple.”
He raised his water bottle to hers in a toast. Max then looked over her head. “I see Steve, Charley, and their wives now. Let’s start heading over.”
Angie unscrewed the cap on her water bottle and took a swig for her dry mouth.
The rest of the evening went well. She enjoyed the musical. On the way out, she talked to the Prestons and the Landers about her time as part of the stage crew in Harper High’s production of Phantom of the Opera. “I dropped the chandelier too early during the ‘Masquerade’ number. They made me apologize on stage.”
Her little memory got a chuckle from the two couples. Phyllis told her goodbye. “We enjoyed meeting you this weekend. Don’t forget to tell us when you set a wedding date.”
The men shook Max’s hand. “We’ll contact you in the next couple weeks,” said Steve.
Max acted friendly to them, but Angie could tell from his constrained expression that he didn’t want to have to wait another two or three weeks to talk to them about buying the land for the hospital. On the drive home, she asked, “What are you going to do while you wait to hear from Steve and Charley again?”
“I have a business to run in Atlanta. I’ll leave Harper on Monday after meeting with the town council. They’re also interested in the project.”
He came to Angie’s house. She saw the cars were gone and one light was still on in the living room. Grandma was still up. “I better get inside.”
Max drove away as soon as she got out. With no deed and no one to perform for at the moment, she guessed he was ready to zip out of town. She stepped inside the house and continued into the living room.
“Hi, Grandma. What are you watching?”
“The old Star Trek show I used to watch when your daddy was little. The sitter you hired for Raymond taught me how to, what did she say, stream it on Netflix.”
Angie made the Live Long and Prosper sign. “Have fun binge-watching. I’m going to bed.”
“Wait a minute. Is that the black dress I told you to buy two years ago?”
“It is.”
Grandma gave her a knowing look. “You look too nice to only be hanging out with friends tonight.”
Angie clenched her toes in her shoes. “It was premiere night at Fox Theatre. I couldn’t go in jeans and sneakers.”
“Sure you could. Folks do it all the time these days.”
“You always say to be presentable, so I took your advice.”
“Mm-hmm. Who were you presentable for?”
Grandma’s expression made her laugh. She got to the stairs. “Goodnight.” She hurried to check on Raymond before her grandmother could ask more questions.
* * *
Max got a call from Rob on his way into the town council meeting on Monday morning. “I’m about to meet with the Harper Town Council. Let me call you back in an hour.”
“It can’t wait. Your picture from last night made it on the theatre’s website.”
He stopped in the hallway of the town hall building. “So? It’s a good thing, right?”
“You introduced Angie as your fiancée, but she’s not wearing a ring.”
“I didn’t get one for her yet.”
He could practically hear Rob grating his teeth on the other end. “You need to do it ASAP. Her naked ring finger makes you look cheap and not committed to the engagement. I’m surprised Landers and Preston haven’t said anything.”
Was that why they were stalling on the next meeting? Max attempted to adjust his tie with one hand. “We told them we recently got engaged, but I get it. Angie will have her ring today. I hate to look cheap.”
“If you want the land deed, you can’t afford to.”
He put the phone away. He thought for a second, and then took it out to send Angie a text. We’re having lunch. Pick you up at noon.
He didn’t wait to see her reply. He was running late to his meeting.
* * *
Angie received Max’s text after leaving a successful job interview with an auto parts store and garage. He wanted to have lunch with her. She thought he was heading to Atlanta after his morning meeting. What made his plans change?
She bit her tongue as she replied OK to his text. She didn’t like being summoned, and it seemed like Max was planning out her day without asking if she had other priorities. Then again, maybe this was what life was like with him. He was a billionaire. He made the terms. She signed the contract. Therefore, she didn’t get to make the decisions.
She hoped that wasn’t his attitude.
She went home to pick up her grandmother for a doctor’s appointment, which lasted an hour, and then to physical therapy at eleven. “How long is your session today, Grandma?” She wondered how she was going to take her home and be ready to go to lunch with Max on time.
“Two hours.” Grandma squinted in a show of fatigue. “If you have somewhere to be, I’ll get a ride home on the van.”
Angie disliked putting her grandmother in a tight spot. “I don’t think so. Let me text and say I’ll be late for lunch.”
“Go to your lunch. If it’s for a job interview or lunch date, I want to hear all about it when I get home.”
“I’ll see you this afternoon.” Looks like today was the day she was going to spill the beans about her engagement to Max. For the past couple days, Angie considered how she would tell her family, particularly Raymond.
She drove home to change into a pair of nice dark wash jeans. She kept on the green blouse she reserved for job interviews. The blouse had a classic look to it. She figured it would be presentable for any of the restaurants in Harper, unless Max was taking her to the restaurant at the Kleghorn again. She reached for a pair of earrings in case.
The doorbell rang. She opened it to greet Max. He wore a polo shirt and chinos. Good. She wasn’t underdressed. “Where to for lunch?”
“We need to make a stop on the way.” He all but jogged to his car. The engine was still running.
“I t
hought you were leaving for Atlanta.” She shut the car door one millisecond before he drove away from the house.
“I am, after our little lunch date. What’s your favorite cut of diamond?”
“Huh?”
He headed for Main Street and continued driving up the road. “Don’t look surprised, Angie. You need a ring if you’re going to be my fiancée.”
She looked at her ring finger. A tiny scar resided under the lower knuckle from a minor work accident. “Can’t we just swing by a dollar store and get a costume ring?”
“Sure, if you want to make it obvious the engagement isn’t real.”
He took her to a jeweler on the north side of Harper, where most of the town’s affluent lived. Angie felt out of place as they walked inside and were greeted by an old-fashioned gentleman with a white mustache and a three-piece suit.
“Mr. Kelly, what a pleasure to see you in Harper again. I heard you were at the town hall today.”
“Good afternoon, Mr. Swanson. This is my lovely fiancée Angie. We’re here to look at your fine selection of engagement rings.”
Boy, Max was laying it on thick. But it worked. Mr. Swanson’s eyes lit up like a Christmas tree. “Congratulations. Your father purchased your mother’s jewelry here. Let me show you our diamond selection.”
The jeweler led them to a glass counter. He unlocked it to pull out a velvet case containing gold, silver, and platinum diamond rings. “What do you wear most often, Miss, gold or silver?”
Angie decided not to share that she hardly wore any jewelry on a regular basis. It was a safety risk in the auto shops. Instead she pointed to the ring with the smallest diamond. “I like that one.”
Both Max and Mr. Swanson gave the ring doubtful looks. “Gold complements your skintone, Angie.” Max pointed to a band with a solitaire diamond. “May we see this one?”
