by Sharon Sala
“I can’t say that I have,” she mumbled, and began searching the card catalog for the title, although she’d bet every penny she’d ever made at The Old South that it wasn’t on the shelves of Tulip Public Library. Effie Dettenberg was on the library board and there was no way anything like that would ever have passed her approval.
Amelia shuffled cards, her fingers trembling as she tried not to shriek at him for what he’d done to her last night. And then she nearly fainted when his hand slid forward and gently brushed across her hair. She jerked and looked up in shock.
“You had a bit of leaf in your hair,” he explained.
To Amelia’s dismay, he winked. She glared. How dare he flirt with someone else when her back—that is, Amber’s back—was turned? Just look what he was capable of!
He leaned forward, his voice just above a whisper. “So…have you ever had it here?”
Amelia had lost her train of thought and had even forgotten for a moment why he was here.
“Had what?” she muttered.
“You know…The Joy of Sex.”
She blushed furiously. He was implying a hell of a lot more than reading material and they both knew it. With a tilt of her chin, she began to search the place in the card catalog where her fingers had stopped, and then looked down, trying to figure out why she was in the Xs. She sighed with dismay. Where else would I be? My feelings for Tyler Savage are strictly X-rated.
“All we have on the subject is back here,” she muttered. “Follow me.”
Gladly, my darling.
As Amelia turned away, Tyler made a quick dash to the front door. Before she knew that he’d moved, he’d turned the lock and the Open sign to Closed.
“Back here,” she called.
“I’m coming.” He followed her through the stacks.
She had two separate books in her hand when he walked up behind her and then nearly dropped them both as he pinned her between his body and the shelves.
His quick breath feathered the wisps of hair dangling down the back of her neck. She closed her eyes, shuddering with longing as his fingers traced up and down in the space between her hair and collar.
“Warm back here, isn’t it, Amelia?”
“What do you think you’re doing?” It was a stupid question. She knew full well what he was doing. She just wasn’t certain what she was going to do about it.
“Your skin is so soft,” he whispered. “Does it taste as good as it looks?”
She whirled around in panic, unwilling for him to test his theory.
“Tyler Savage!”
It was all she could say. He’d ignored her existence for her entire life and now this? It was a puzzle she couldn’t decipher. And what was worse, she had liked what was happening. She was letting this two-timing cur have his way with her.
“How dare you be so familiar?” she hissed. “We’ve hardly ever spoken.”
With a sigh, he reached up and pulled a single hairpin from her topknot. “I know, but it’s hardly all my fault. You won’t even look at me when we meet on the street.”
“Even so,” she mumbled, and tried to push past him.
He stepped to one side, blocking her retreat with little effort as the hairpin fell to the floor. Then he cupped her face in his hands and leaned down. His nose bumped on the edge of her glasses and a soft, unintelligible curse slipped from his lips as he lifted them from her face and placed them on the shelf behind her.
Amelia was in panic. He was taking her apart at the seams and when he was finished, she would have no defenses behind which to hide. “Stop this, right now,” she whispered. “You have no…”
The word “right” would have finished her sentence. But when his mouth closed over her lips, pressing gently and persistently, “right” was the only thing that came to mind. Loving this man was right. Holding this man was right. Amelia was in love and had been for so long right was all that mattered. And then she remembered. Where did this leave Amber?
“Amelia?” Tyler’s soft question slipped out between their lips.
She staggered as he released her. “What?”
“Would you do me the honor of going out to dinner with me tonight? I’d like very much to get to know you better. Maybe if you’d give me a chance, you could learn to care for me. What do you think?”
Oh no! I have to work tonight! This is getting to be a comedy of horrors! I can’t go out with him as Amber, and now I can’t go out with him as Amelia, either! Life is not fair!
Trying to kill time while searching for a reasonable answer, she bent down to retrieve her hairpin. “I can’t. I have to…I mean I’ve already promised to…”
She shoved her glasses back up her nose and tried not to remember how it felt to be held in his arms.
He pretended to wilt. “Never mind. I understand. You don’t trust me, and I suppose it’s my fault. But I swear that my reputation is based on unfounded rumors. Truth got lost somewhere in the telling, I promise.”
Amelia tried to be angry. It was only last night that he’d held her…held Amber…and begged for something entirely different. What was with this man? She couldn’t trust him. He was two-timing them both.
“I thought you had a girlfriend in Savannah,” she accused, and then gulped nervously as a strange, dark gleam appeared in his eyes. She would have sworn his mouth twitched, but she could have been mistaken.
“I thought I did, too,” he said softly. “But she obviously didn’t want anything to do with me. I guess we weren’t right for each other. I obviously wasn’t her kind of man.”
“That’s not true!” Amelia shouted, and then nearly fainted at what she’d almost revealed. “I mean…well, I don’t know what I mean, but I can’t go out with you tonight and that’s that. Do you want these books or not?” She shoved them beneath his nose.
Tyler was fighting his instincts. They told him to simply swing her up in his arms and demand an explanation. But there was obviously more to this woman than pure beauty. She was loaded with brains—and a fair amount of deceit. It was an intriguing combination he had no intention of losing.
“I guess not,” he said, and headed for the door. “I don’t really know what I want, Amelia. It’s obvious that the women I seem to be attracted to don’t feel the same way toward me. Maybe I should just call it quits.”
She was dumbstruck. If she read him right, and she was desperately afraid that she had, he’d just dumped both her and Amber.
“Just because I can’t go tonight doesn’t mean I never could,” Amelia said suddenly.
Tyler stopped but he didn’t turn around. He didn’t dare. The smile on his face was too wide and too knowing. He managed to nod, as if giving her statement its due consideration, and then turned the lock on the door.
“That’s good,” he said quietly. “Maybe if I get up enough nerve to face being turned down again, I’ll give you a call. Have a nice day, Amelia.”
He turned the Closed sign to Open and walked out the door, taking care not to let it slam, then drove like a bat out of hell until he was three miles outside Tulip’s city limits. He stopped and got out of his pickup truck and started to grin. The more he thought about it, the funnier it got. He didn’t know why, and he didn’t know how, but as God was his witness, he was going to marry those women if it killed him. The thought was so incongruous that he began to laugh aloud, slapping his knee and then leaning against the side of his truck to catch his breath.
A short time later a neighbor came driving by and started to stop, thinking that he’d broken down. He waved them on as he crawled back in his truck and headed for home. Loving a woman like that just might kill him. And then he grinned. But what a way to go!
Six
Amelia was running, but for once, not down an alley. She was through with deceit. Wearing a sweatsuit, tennis shoes and a determined look that Wilhemina would have called defiant, she ran toward the corner where Raelene Stringer was waiting.
Effie Dettenberg stood at her front window, peeking t
hrough the lace curtains. To her amazement, Amelia waved as she jogged past the house. Effie dropped the curtains back in place, disgusted at being caught spying.
“She doesn’t fool me,” Effie muttered, and headed for the upstairs window with her new binoculars in hand. She was going to see for herself just what Amelia Beauchamp was up to, certain it would be to no good. Maurice wound himself around her ankles, slowing her ascent, but not her determination.
“Get,” she scolded, and frowned as he hissed and then sauntered away.
Amelia’s heart was pounding. She felt as if she’d run a mile when it had only been around the corner. But it wasn’t because she was winded. She was exhilarated. She’d made a decision about her life that was long overdue. Now all she had to do was tell Raelene the news.
“You’re early,” Raelene said, as Amelia jogged up.
“I’m not going,” she said shortly. “I’ve made a decision. Would you tell the boss that I quit, or moved, or died. Something…anything, I don’t care which. I just can’t go back there again. Okay?”
She hated to let Raelene down when she’d been such a good friend, but she’d reached the limit of her endurance with regards to deceit. Raelene had kept Amelia’s secret like a true friend and she felt she owed her some sort of explanation.
Raelene crawled out of her car with a grin on her face. “I’ve been expecting this, honey. Is it about to hit the fan?”
Amelia shrugged. “I don’t think so, but I think it’s time I stopped before it does.”
“Shoot! Anything’s okay with me. You ought to know that by now.”
Amelia threw her arms around Raelene’s neck, ignoring the fact that they were standing in plain sight of anyone who chose to drive down the street.
“I can’t thank you enough,” Amelia said, her voice shaking as tears threatened. “And I think I’m going to miss driving to work with you, even if I don’t miss the job. You’ve been a true friend to me.”
“Well, hell, honey,” Raelene sniffed. “I’ll miss you, too. But you better get on back before someone else misses you.”
Amelia shrugged, knowing she was referring to her aunts. “They’re already asleep. But you’re right. I’d better get back. It’s almost dark, and you know what they say. A lady isn’t safe out after dark.”
They looked at each other and then burst out laughing, remembering the countless hours they’d shared in the darkened club and then driving back to Tulip alone in Raelene’s old car.
“Well now, I’d better hurry or I’m gonna be late,” Raelene said, and got back in her car.
Amelia waved and then winced as Raelene ground the gears. The car belched once for good measure and then popped and hopped its way out of Tulip.
Amelia watched until the taillights of the car had disappeared, then turned toward home. For the first time in months she was going to get to bed before 2:00 a.m. One secret was over, but she was still filled with regret over the loss of Tyler.
Thinking about him made tears come to her eyes. She could just see Tyler coming into The Old South in search of Amber and then leaving with no idea of how to ever find her. Amelia wanted Tyler with every ounce of her being, but he wanted Amber. For all intents and purposes, she no longer existed.
Her footsteps dragged. Yes, he had flirted with Amelia, but she didn’t believe he’d meant it. She’d come to the conclusion that he’d done it just to prove to himself he was still desirable after Amber had turned him down. She sighed. What must he be feeling now when even the old-maid librarian of Tulip, Georgia had told him “no”?
She kicked at a rock on the sidewalk and sniffed. He couldn’t be half as miserable as she felt. The only thing she’d gained out of this entire mess was enough money to finally buy her car. However, it wasn’t nearly as attractive a thought as it once had been. It faded perceptibly in her mind. A big man with dark hair and blue eyes and a smile that could start fires kept getting in the way.
A short time later, she walked back into the house and closed and locked the door. Amelia Ann was home for good.
Across the street, Miss Effie set her binoculars down onto the table with a thump.
“Well, I saw it for myself,” she muttered. “She actually hugged that…that woman…in broad daylight. They were giggling and laughing as if they were bosom buddies. But I wonder why she didn’t go? I wonder…”
Maurice howled loudly downstairs, begging to be put out.
“Coming, dear,” Effie called. For the moment Amelia’s business was set aside as Maurice’s needs were met.
Tyler ached. In every joint. In every muscle. He’d worked himself to the point of exhaustion three days running just so that he could sleep at night and then defeated his own purpose by dreaming about the same woman he was desperately trying to avoid.
But he had a plan. He knew Amber had quit work at the club because he’d made a point of calling to find out. Now all that remained was to give Amelia time to digest the fact that Tyler would no longer be seeing Amber, therefore leaving Amelia an open field. At least he hoped Amelia saw it that way. It was all that kept him going.
He stared out across the fields, green and rich from the abundant crops growing beneath the ground. It was nearly dark. Time to call it a day. Reluctantly, he turned back toward his house, but the thought of going inside alone was almost more than he could bear. Tonight maybe he’d allow himself one concession to the plan. Maybe…just maybe…he would make a phone call. And maybe…just maybe…after he heard her voice, he’d know whether or not his plan was working.
“You seem sad, dear,” Rosemary remarked, as they finished the evening meal. “Are you well?”
Amelia jerked into an upright position, realizing that she’d been as slumped as her spirits, and made herself smile.
“Of course I’m well, Aunt Rosie, but you’re a dear for asking. Here, have some more pie. Aunt Witty outdid herself tonight, don’t you think? Custard was always one of her specialties.”
Rosemary nodded and accepted another tiny sliver of the delectable dessert. Wilhemina stared pointedly at her sister’s second helping and then even more sharply at her niece.
Amelia was rambling and she knew it. She just hoped the aunts didn’t catch onto the fact. It was fairly easy to put Rosemary off the track. In fact, her aunt Rosie’s track was often off course. But Aunt Witty was another matter altogether. She didn’t live in the past and daydreams. She had both feet planted firmly in the present, and if anything, was more astute with each passing year.
“I noticed you’re wearing your hair down again,” Wilhemina said. “Are you having more of your headaches?”
Amelia wanted to cry. Headaches were only the beginning. Her heart hurt in so many places it was a wonder it still beat. She missed seeing Tyler. She missed hearing his voice and seeing that teasing smile. And most of all she missed being held. And it was all her own fault.
She sighed and finally answered. “Not really, Aunt Witty. I just felt like a change. In fact, I think change is good for the soul every now and then, don’t you?”
Rosemary brightened considerably as her sister’s frown increased.
“Oh, I do,” Rosemary chirped. “Don’t you, Sister? Remember when Momma wanted to change the rug in the parlor and Poppa had a fit about the colors. Wasn’t that the funniest thing? They didn’t speak for weeks and it was all because you mentioned that the pink in the flowers was the same color as the bald spot on the top of his head.”
Wilhemina rolled her eyes and tried not to smile. It had been humorous. “Yes, well, I was only five or six, but it was an unintentional slight that Poppa never got over.”
“That’s because his bald spot kept getting bigger,” Rosemary said.
Amelia laughed. No matter what else she’d lost, she still had her precious family and she’d die before she’d lose them, too.
And then the phone rang.
Silence reigned. Everyone stared at the other as shock spread into the room. No one ever called them after dark! In fa
ct, it was rare that they received a call at all.
Rosemary couldn’t have been more excited if General Lee had just announced himself at the front door. “It’s the phone!”
“I know it’s the phone,” Wilhemina muttered. “But who could be calling at this hour?”
Amelia was in shock. She couldn’t remember the last time the phone had rung. “It’s just seven-thirty, Aunt Witty. And there’s only one way to find out. I’ll get it!”
“No, you don’t,” Wilhemina ordered, and headed for the table in the hall. “I’ll do it. And I’ll give whoever it is a piece of my mind for calling so late, too.”
Rosemary looked crestfallen. If her sister yelled at them they’d never call back. And having a phone call at night seemed so sociable. Rosemary liked socials. She wished they’d come back in style.
“Hello!” Wilhemina’s greeting was full of accusation, but her disgust turned to dismay as she listened to the man and his request. She turned and stared at Amelia as if she’d just grown horns. “It’s for you. It’s that Tyler Savage!”
“Oh, goody,” Rosemary gushed. “I just love that boy. He reminds me of…”
Amelia was dumbstruck. She took the phone from her aunt’s hands and then tried not to smile as Tyler’s deep, familiar voice reverberated in her eardrum.
“Hello?”
Tyler smiled, then relaxed. At least she’d come to the phone. That meant she was still willing to talk. He stretched his long body across the bed and held the phone just the least bit closer to his mouth. If he couldn’t have Amelia here in bed with him, the least he could do was lie in the damned bed when he talked to her. It was better than the silence with which he’d been living.
“How have you been?” he asked.
“Fine, I guess.”
He heard more than what she intended for him to hear. He recognized the pain and longing in her voice. He should, it was an echo of his own feelings.
“Have you given any more thought to what I asked you the other day? About going out with me sometime?”
