As if she was afraid Mike might change his mind, Trish pulled Betty Sue out the door into the heavy snow that was now falling. Betty Sue had always loved to watch it snow. She’d never seen that much of it growing up in central Texas.
Trish snorted. “You’ll be tired of it soon enough. By the way, where’d you come from before you came here?”
Betty Sue grew frightened. She didn’t want to be rude to this kind, loving woman but she also didn’t want Dave to find her ever again. She’d already had to leave two places in the middle of the night. She didn’t want to have to do that again. And besides, she thought she was going to love this little town and at least one of its residents.
She leaned down to speak so that no one else might hear. “I came here from Springfield, but I’m from Dallas originally. But please don’t tell anyone any of that. Okay?”
Trish gave Betty Sue a hard look. “You’re not in trouble with the law are you?”
Betty Sue quickly shook her head emphatically. “Oh no, Trish, I swear it.”
Trish smiled but then a frown quickly replaced it. “I’m guessing you’re running from a man but I won’t say any more about that right now. When you’re ready to talk to me about it though, I’ll be ready to listen. Okay? You never know. Maybe I can help.”
What did she ever do to deserve this kind of friendship from a woman who was a total stranger to her less than twelve hours ago?
Betty Sue reached out her hand and Trish clasped it. “Thank you Trish . . . not just for that but for everything else you’re doing for me too.”
As they made their way back to the restaurant side of the parking lot, Trish pulled a remote out of her purse and Betty Sue was surprised when an Escalade’s lights lit up and the door locks popped up. She realized that there was a whole lot about this woman that Betty Sue was yet to learn.
As Betty Sue was marveling at the leather seats and trying to adjust her seatbelt, Trish giggled like a schoolgirl. “I can tell that you’re surprised to see a waitress, even if I am the manager, driving a fancy car like this one. Well, I think I’ll just put you out of your misery as soon as we get to my house and we can sit down together for a little chat.”
Betty Sue finished with her seat belt and turned to watch as Trish drove in the direction the bus had been going the other night, which had to be north. She hadn’t realized before how close to that edge of town they’d been.
After turning off the highway and then going down a hilly, curvy road for a while, Trish turned onto a road that had high arches over the entrance, pulled up to a gate, waved a card at the control box and the gate opened.
Oh my, this was getting more and more curious by the minute.
After driving past several large houses set back about a hundred feet from the street, Trish pulled into a drive leading up to one of them. The garage door opened and suddenly they were inside.
Trish didn’t say anything as she led Betty Sue inside, through a big beautiful kitchen, a formal dining room, and into a large living room. But she didn’t stop there, she led Betty Sue down a wide hall and opened the first door on the left.
When Trish stepped inside then to the side, she said, “This will be your bedroom while you stay with me.”
Wow! That was all that Betty Sue’s mind could come up with. It was a very large room with a sitting area and a huge canopy bed plus a walk-in closet and a private bath.
She dropped her suitcase to the floor and turned to Trish. “This isn’t your room is it? It’s so big.”
Trish laughed. “No, my room is only a little bigger. I wanted all the bedrooms to be like this so I could have company any time I wanted it and they would be comfortable.
Trish then left and Betty Sue followed her back into the living room where they both sat on a couch facing each other.
Betty Sue looked at Trish in anticipation of what this surprising woman might say next.
“Well, I told you my husband died five years ago but what I didn’t tell you was that he died in a commercial airplane crash and all the insurance and other things added up to almost a million dollars.”
Betty Sue was blown away now. What could she possibly say to that?
Trish laughed loudly at Betty Sue’s reaction then sobered up. “I decided I couldn’t stay in the old house Richard and I shared . . . just too many memories.
Later, when Betty Sue was lying in that huge bed, which by the way fit her perfectly, she just couldn’t believe her luck that she had a good job and such a fantastic place to stay . . . temporarily. Yes, she had to keep reminding herself that this was only temporary.
Still, she couldn’t help but stop right then and thank God for all of these blessings He’d given her.
* * *
For some strange reason, Matt had been in no mood to party that night so he wound up sitting in his dinky little apartment watching TV until he had to rouse himself from his dozing and go to bed.
The next morning, he woke up with that new waitress on his mind. Betty Sue! That was strange. He’d been with several women the other night and he couldn’t even remember what they looked like much less any of their names. But no, he remembered Betty Sue all right. She was different for sure and he could tell that the moment she had turned toward him and met his eyes. There was a whole lot behind those beautiful brown eyes and he was determined to discover all of it.
With all that in mind, he rolled out of bed and jumped into the shower. He had somewhere that he needed to be right now and he suddenly couldn’t wait.
Matt saw her as soon as he walked into the diner. She was at the register ringing up an elderly couple’s bill. She didn’t see him just yet, so he slid onto his usual stool and just sat there watching her while she worked and was still unaware of his presence.
He hadn’t been able to do that yesterday. Every time he’d tried to study her, she caught him and got mad at him. But no, right now he could really study her.
She had short brown hair that was so shiny that it almost glowed. It was cut in what he thought he’d heard was called a pixie cut and with the hair in front of her ears and down her long narrow face, it looked good on her. She might be very tall, but she couldn’t have weighed very much. As he continued to look, he realized she was probably a little too thin but all in all, he still thought she was put together quite well. Great, in fact.
Just then, two things happened at the same time. When the elderly couple left, Betty Sue looked up, caught him staring at her, and frowned. Then a big hand clasped his shoulder.
His first reaction was to turn around swinging but just in time, he realized he wasn’t in a bar and on top of that it was probably Hal. And that would only land him in jail, again.
He turned around then, fully expecting to see Hal standing there smirking at him with his thumbs hooked in his duty belt. But no, it wasn’t Hal. It was his dad, which was probably far worse than the town’s police chief would have been. At least right then it was for Matt. All he’d wanted to do was to get a chance to talk to Betty Sue and get to know her better.
Letting out a huge sigh, Matt said, “Hey Dad, how you doing.”
Out of the corner of his eye, Matt saw Betty Sue’s clearly startled reaction to his calling the man who was dressed in his usual suit, his dad. He almost laughed . . . almost.
Henry Livingston wasn’t returning his son’s smile and Matt knew from experience that that didn’t bode well for the next hour or so of his life. Here in front of him was the man who was solely responsible for making Matt’s life miserable so much of the time over the past ten years.
But what difference did it really make? The guy was his dad after all. He had to be relatively nice to him, didn’t he? He couldn’t actually belt him one, could he? No, he’d tried that once when he was eighteen and his dad who was only a couple of inches shorter than Matt but outweighed him back then, tore him apart. He never would have thought the old man had it in him. Needless to say, he’d never tried that trick again. And he wasn’t about to now even i
f he did now have two inches plus fifty pounds on the old man.
His dad seemed to take in Matt’s faded jeans and sweatshirt before he tilted his head toward the other end of the diner. “Why don’t we sit for a spell. I’ll even buy your breakfast.”
Matt was really in a dilemma just then. He was exactly where he’d wanted to be ever since he woke up this morning but there was no way that he wanted to be spending his time here with his dad. He looked back at Betty Sue who hadn’t moved from her spot behind the register. She still had that puzzled look on her face.
Matt grinned back at her, shrugged his shoulders as if to say ‘Can’t be helped,’ then followed his dad over to a table in the front corner of the diner.
Matt had barely sat down when his dad began. “I was more than a little disappointed when Mom said you came into the school yesterday looking like you’d been out doing who knows what the night before.”
Matt was about to get his righteous anger up when his dad floored him with one sentence.
“You’re killing your mother, Son. She’s worrying herself sick over you.”
Before Matt could wade his way through the shock, anger, and something else that he couldn’t define, Betty Sue was standing next to their table with her order pad ready.
Matt almost laughed when his dad switched from his know-it-all, scolding father mode to his pastor seeking new members mode in a millisecond.
The old man stood smiled big and stuck out his hand. “Good morning, I’m Henry Livingston, pastor of First Baptist Church here in Strawberry.”
Matt was thrilled to see Betty Sue actually blush. He didn’t think he knew any women anymore who actually blushed.
She placed her hand into the large hand and smiled up at Matt’s dad. “Good morning Pastor, my name is Betty Sue Farris. And as I’m sure you know I’m new here in town.”
Matt’s stomach turned over as he watched his dad go through his welcome to town, come join us at First Baptist Church, speech that he’d heard a thousand times. But what was worse was that Betty Sue seemed to be eating it up. Oh brother! Maybe she wasn’t as smart as he’d originally thought she was. He sure hoped she wasn’t a Bible thumper too.
* * *
Betty Sue liked the big, soft-spoken pastor immediately. Simply seeing him and hearing him talk, she just knew that he had to be a good pastor. Then she looked over at his son. His son? How could Matt be this man’s son? Well she guessed that stranger things had happened. They were both very big.
She listened as the pastor finished telling her about his church and smiled back at him. “I appreciate your invitation Pastor, but I’m so new in town right now that I really don’t know what I’m going to be doing tomorrow much less Sunday. But I’ll think about it. Okay?”
He didn’t seem to be the least bit fazed by her putting him off. He just smiled and said, “That’ll be fine Betty Sue.”
Then when she thought about it, she was sure he probably invited a lot of people to church who never came. So he must be used to it.
She took their order and hastily retreated to the kitchen before Matt could say anything to her. But then, by the look on his face, he didn’t really seem to be too happy right then. When she thought about it, if she compared the two men, she could probably see why there seemed to be so much tension at that table.
Matt looked and dressed rather scruffy with his long hair tied back in a ponytail, his beard, and his faded jeans and sweatshirt. On the other hand, his dad was very neat and well dressed. That was quite a contrast indeed.
She gave their order to the regular cook, Terry, who’d been out sick the day before, turned around and almost bumped into Trish. She could tell by the look on her face that Trish wanted to talk to her, so she followed her back to the office.
On the way, she wondered if she’d done something wrong for Trish to be taking her into the office. She felt like a little kid on her way to the principal’s office.
Trish closed the office door behind them then turned to face Betty Sue. “I didn’t want Terry to overhear anything we said. You’ll find out soon enough that he’s Mike’s spy on this shift. He reports everything that goes on to Mike.
Betty Sue was glad to know that little bit of information. She would sure be careful what she said around Terry from here on out.
Trish smiled up at Betty Sue. “I couldn’t help noticing that you were talking to Pastor Livingston just now.”
When Betty Sue nodded, Trish said, “Well, if I know my pastor, he was probably inviting you to church Sunday.”
While Betty Sue was still processing that, Trish continued, “I haven’t been able to get around to it yet Dear but I’m a member of First Baptist and I would dearly love it if you’d go there with me on Sunday. He is simply a wonderful pastor.”
Before Betty Sue could respond to that, Trish added, “If you don’t want to, that’s all right. It won’t affect our friendship in any way. Okay?”
Betty Sue couldn’t help but smile at the expression on Trish’s face. “Well, Trish, with two such wonderful invitations how could I possibly refuse? I’d be glad to go with you Sunday. I was going to be looking for a church anyway. My Granny brought me up in a Baptist church back in Texas but I haven’t been for about ten years.”
She almost bit her tongue. Too much information Betty Sue! She waited for Trish to pounce on that little statement but was relieved when the older woman just smiled and placed a hand on Betty Sue’s arm.
When Betty Sue and Trish left the office, her order was up so she took it out to the two very different yet very similar men. She realized where Matt got his size. His dad was almost as big as him. That made her wonder what Matt’s mother looked like.
When she sat their food on the table, Betty Sue turned to the pastor and said, “Trish just told me that she’s a member of your church. I’ll be there Sunday with her.”
Somehow, Betty Sue wasn’t surprised when she heard a rude sound coming from Matt, but his dad smiled at her and said, “That’s just great. I’ll see you Sunday then.”
Betty Sue went back into the kitchen with several thoughts flying around in her mind all at once. First, was the drastically different reactions her announcement had received from father and son. Second, was what was she going to do about those almost hungry looks that Matt kept giving her when he apparently didn’t know she was watching him? She’d seen those before from other men.
On her way back into the kitchen, she almost bumped into Trish and the older woman had a look on her face that Betty Sue had not seen yet. It was at least a thoughtful look but if Betty Sue wasn’t wrong, there was also a bit of concern there too.
Well, she didn’t have long to wait before Trish told her what she was thinking. Terry was taking a break out in the dining room so Trish seemed to take that opportunity.
“Betty Sue, remember what I said last night about wanting you to be like the daughter I never had?”
When Betty Sue only nodded, Trish continued, “Well, I think that if you were my daughter, then I’d need to warn you about certain types of men who might be coming into this place.”
Betty Sue was beginning to get a pretty good idea of where Trish was going now.
“Well, I want you to know that Henry and Linda Livingston are two of the best people in this town, the salt of the earth, if you will. And their daughter, Grace, is just like her mother. She used to work for me back before she graduated from college, got married and moved to St. Louis.”
Betty Sue waited patiently for Trish to get to the point which she was sure was about to come now.
“If I was able to separate the man from his actions, then I think I could say the same thing about Matt Livingston. But that just isn’t possible.”
Trish now seemed to be waiting for some sort of comment from Betty Sue and she had no idea what she could say. Finally, Trish continued.
“Well, darn it, that boy is good deep down.” She blew out a noisy sigh. “But he’s been rebelling against his father for more than t
en years now. So he basically does everything he can to be just exactly the opposite of his father.”
Trish leaned up on her tiptoes in an attempt to look Betty Sue in the eye. But it didn’t really work. So she put her hands on her hips and said, “Am I making any sense Sugar?”
Betty Sue smiled then. “Oh yes you are Trish and I’m grateful that you care enough about me to tell me all this. Thank you.”
* * *
Matt sat back down at the table after his dad left. He still hoped he’d be able to talk to Betty Sue, at least for a minute or two. He wasn’t sure how she’d react to him since she knew who his dad was. She probably wouldn’t want anything to do with him now. That had happened so many times to him, ever since he’d started showing an interest in girls, probably in junior high.
He waited for her to come back out of the kitchen hoping he’d be able to get her to sit with him for a minute since there were no other customers in there just then.
When she finally came out, Trish was with her and he wasn’t sure if he should ask now or wait for Trish to go back into the kitchen.
When Betty Sue came over to his table to take a couple of plates, he got up enough nerve to ask.
“Betty Sue, you look like you could use a break. Why don’t you sit for a spell right here and rest?”
He could tell from the way her eyes darted over to Trish that she was about to refuse him, but he was shocked when Trish spoke.
“That’s a good idea, Betty Sue. You’ve been going nonstop for better than four hours now. You need a break.”
Matt couldn’t believe his ears and if the equally shocked look on Betty Sue’s face was any indication, she couldn’t either.
But she sat down across the table from him anyway. Before either one of them could say anything, Trish was beside them and placed a glass of iced tea in front of Betty Sue.
“Now have a cold drink and relax for a few minutes Dear.”
With that, Trish went back into the kitchen leaving Matt alone with Betty Sue in the otherwise deserted diner.
Walking Straight (The Walking Together Series Book 1) Page 3
