Detours

by Vollbrecht, Jane

  Ellis left her chair and crossed the room. “C’mere.” She opened her arms and Mary rushed into them. “I was afraid I’d lost you. A month ago, I didn’t even know who you were, and then just when I thought we were falling in love, you tell me you’re moving away.” She hugged Mary hard. “I’m sorry I’m such a big baby. I’m the one who’s a lousy catch.”

  “To quote your earlier eloquent observation, ‘Bullshit.’”

  Ellis released her hold on Mary and they sat down on the sofa. “Have you had anything to eat?” Ellis asked.

  “I had some crackers on the drive over here. My stomach and I still aren’t on very good terms. Have you eaten?”

  “I grabbed a chicken biscuit on my way back from your house this morning.”

  “My house?”

  “I thought I needed to check on Swiffer, but when I saw your Xterra in the driveway, I came on back here.”

  “You could have come in, you know. You’ve got your own keys.”

  “I didn’t feel like I was welcome.”

  “Oh, Ellis,” Mary said, her voice cracking, “I can’t believe how screwed up everything is. That’ll teach me to think I’ve got things figured out.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I was sure Natalie and I would live in our house on Wilson Woods Drive until she went to college, and then I’d stay on there until I needed a wheelchair. I figured Nathan and I would stay friends, which is all we’ve ever really been, and he’d find someone new, while I withered away, lonely and alone in my bed. Eventually, my assorted unused parts would atrophy and rot, and then I wouldn’t care anymore.” She took Ellis’s hand. “I spent the last five years running scared from every woman who acted like she might be interested in me. I was sure if I ever finally found one I didn’t want to run from, she’d run screaming from me when she discovered what a lunatic I am.”

  Ellis dropped Mary’s hand and put her arm around Mary’s shoulder. “But then one Saturday on your way to a book discussion group, life threw up a roadblock.”

  “I always thought roadblocks were bad things. Now I understand that it’s all in how you look at them.” Mary leaned in against Ellis’s body. “Nothing like a good roadblock to make you think about whether you’re heading in the right direction and if the journey you’re making has the right destination.”

  Ellis pulled Mary closer to her. “Where are we going, Mary?”

  “I don’t suppose I know for sure. I just hope wherever it is, we’ll go there together.”

  Ellis put her fingertips under Mary’s chin and lifted her head. The muted light in the room gave her eyes that gray-green hue that Ellis found so alluring.

  “Maybe we should make a day trip first,” Ellis said as she stood and helped Mary to her feet.

  “Where to?”

  “The bedroom.”

  “Do I need to pack?”

  “No. In fact, you’ve got too much clothing with you as it is.” Ellis tugged at the light jacket Mary was wearing and helped her shrug out of it. “It’s a warm climate, so this sweater needs to go, too.”

  Piece by piece, Ellis removed all of Mary’s clothing. Then Mary did the same for Ellis.

  “I’ve seen you almost naked dozens of times,” Mary said, her voice a coarse whisper. “Why do you look so different this time?”

  “Maybe because we know we’re doing it for real this time,” Ellis answered. “Come with me.” She offered Mary her hand.

  Wordlessly, they made their way to Ellis’s bedroom.

  Ellis wrapped Mary in a tight embrace. Skin against skin… silky feeling against her hands and breasts… quiet gasps… hot breath in her ear and the flood of heat throughout her body. She reveled in the feelings, her body on fire. She kissed Mary over and over, unable to get enough of her. And Mary was insatiable as well.

  They made love all afternoon, stopping only because fatigue overtook them, and then Mary curled softly against Ellis’s shoulder until she slipped into quiet slumber.

  Ellis held Mary against her, tenderly, unable to sleep. How could she feel so blessed and so doomed simultaneously? Her tired limbs sent a message of satisfaction while her busy brain screamed dire warnings. Could they make this work? What would happen to them if Mary moved to Clarkesville? Would it ring the death-knell for their newly formed relationship? Troubled, she lay there for what seemed like hours until she finally fell into a fitful sleep.

  She awoke to find their limbs entwined, much as she felt their lives now were and forevermore must be. Whatever else awaited them on the road ahead, they’d have to find their way home together.

  Chapter 6

  “I can’t believe I agreed to do this.” Ellis fidgeted in the passenger seat. “When we dropped Sam off at your house this morning, I should have been smart and stayed there with her.”

  “It’ll be fine,” Mary assured her. “We’ll swing by Mother’s and collect Natalie and all her loot from Christmas and be on our way back to Atlanta by noon.”

  “Unless your mother summons the Baptist brigade to disembowel me.”

  “We’re not going to tell my mother what we’ve been doing for the past twenty-four hours.”

  Ellis temporarily forgot her discomfort as she remembered the ecstasy of the previous day. “Then just make real sure you stand at least ten feet away from me, or I make no promises about being able to keep my hands off you.” Ellis sighed contentedly. “For a rookie, you make one helluva lover, Ms. Moss.”

  Mary changed lanes on Interstate 85. “You should talk. And here I thought I didn’t like sex.” Mary chortled. “Poor Nathan. All those years he presumed he was married to an ice maiden. Turns out, the maiden melts rather quickly. It’s all in who’s holding the torch.”

  “Don’t you dare use the words ice, melt, or torch while we’re at your mother’s, either. Maybe I’d better stay in the car when we get there.”

  “Don’t be silly. We’ll be perfectly circumspect in our conduct. I’ll introduce you as the new friend I met the day my Xterra got rear-ended. She knows the basics of that story. I’ll tell her she forgot that I’d told her you stayed with me while your ankle healed.”

  “I thought Natalie had already spilled that can of worms.”

  “Yes and no. Nat never missed a chance to mention you to her grandmother, her cousins, her aunts.” Mary laughed lightly. “Now that I think about it, she fell in love with you as quickly as I did. Anyway, your name was always on the tip of her tongue, and whenever Nathan came by, Natalie got him talking about you, too. Between them, they left little doubt that you’d been a very prominent fixture at our house lately.”

  “So everyone knows I’ve been staying with you?”

  “Pretty much.”

  “And that’s not cause for alarm?”

  “I saw my sisters exchange a couple of raised eyebrows when Nat said something about how happy I’ve seemed since you’ve been living with us.”

  “How did you handle that?”

  “I made some remark about your not having any friends who could help you out while your leg healed.”

  “Terrific. Now they think I’m an unlikable, colossal loser.”

  “Not at all. You’re from the South. You know doing good works for the less fortunate is what fine southern women do.” Mary fluffed up her pretend bouffant hairdo.

  “So now I’m a pity case?”

  “If it shuts my mother and sisters up, why not?”

  They spent the next part of the drive to Clarkesville strategizing for what they should and shouldn’t say in hopes of minimizing Mary’s mother’s and sisters’ suspicions.

  When Ellis got her first glimpse of the mountains, she veered from the topic. “You told me it was pretty up here. I had no idea. This is amazing.”

  “I didn’t appreciate it when I lived here as a child, but now that I’ve been away from it for a while, I really think it’s one of the most beautiful places on earth.” Mary took her hand from the steering wheel and gave Ellis’s leg a squeeze. “Welcome t
o my part of Georgia.”

  “How far is Athens from here?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe sixty or seventy miles.”

  “Sixty miles in distance, but light years in topography. I can’t believe all these folds of mountains and valleys.” Ellis drank in the view as they rolled closer to Clarkesville. “If I had known this was what it looked like over here, I wouldn’t have spent all those boring weekends while I was in college looking at the flat, dreary landscape around UGA.”

  “It is nice, isn’t it?”

  “Rumor has it everything is twice as potent when you’re in love,” Ellis said. She looked around a bit more. “I’m really glad my first experience with this incredible scenery is with you.”

  “Me, too, El. If we have time, I want to drive you through the Sautee-Nacoochee Valley before we go back to Atlanta today. It’s spectacular.”

  Ellis gazed appreciatively at Mary. “So are you.”

  “I’m glad you think so.” Mary accepted Ellis’s outstretched hand. “Sorry to say it’s almost time to straighten up and fly right. We’re only a little ways from Mother’s place.”

  “You sure know how to ruin a moment.” Ellis kissed the back of Mary’s hand before relinquishing her hold.

  Mary made the final turn into the yard of her childhood home. “I learned from the best. I only hope Mother isn’t in the mood to give you a demonstration of how she’s elevated ruining moments to an art form.”

  Two towering columns flanking the steps supported a wraparound front porch. The largish white house with its dark green trim struck Ellis as massive. The yard was manicured to a fare-thee-well. Half a dozen hundred-year-old oaks stood guard on either side of a front walkway that sloped gently toward the house.

  Ellis asked, “Is it just my imagination, or do I hear the opening strains of the theme from Gone with the Wind?”

  “It does have sort of an antebellum look, doesn’t it?”

  “If Olivia de Havilland comes skipping down those stairs, I’m outta here.”

  It wasn’t Melanie Hamilton who appeared at the front door and hastened toward them. Rather, it was Anna Moss, Mary’s mother, moving with what Ellis considered to be amazing speed, given her sixty-nine years and stout body.

  “Oh, MaryChris,” Anna gushed as Mary opened her car door, “Nathan told us about how y’all are moving back home. I just know once y’all are settled here in the hills, you’ll find your way back together so little Natalie doesn’t have to be torn between the two of you. Jesus answered my Christmas prayers.”

  “Hi, Mom,” Mary said evenly. She got out of the car and hugged her mother. “We still have a lot of details to work out about the move, and even if I do come back up here to live, Nathan and I will each have our own place, and Natalie will still go back and forth between us.”

  “Oh, that’ll only last for a little while. When we get you away from all those bad influences down in the city and you come to church with me again, you’ll see God has a plan for putting you and Nathan right. Next year at this time, you’ll be telling me my seventh grandbaby is on the way.”

  Ellis sat still as a yard ornament in the passenger seat. Mary leaned down and looked through her open door. “Come on, Ellis. I’ll introduce you to my family.”

  Hesitantly, Ellis opened her door and exited the SUV. Mary’s mother hurried around the front of the Xterra.

  “You must be Ellis. Our little Natalie has told us so much about you. Welcome, welcome. I’m so sorry about your ankle. Does it still hurt? Have you had anything to eat? I’ve got biscuits and gravy left from breakfast, or I could make you a ham sandwich from our Christmas dinner leftovers. And there’s pie. Apple, pumpkin, pecan. Maybe you don’t like pie. I’ve got cookies. The grandchildren love them. I bet you will, too. Who can say no to a homemade chocolate chip cookie? And I’ve also got sugar cookies. Or would you—”

  “Mom, slow down,” Mary suggested as she joined them on the passenger side of the vehicle. “We had breakfast at home, and that was less than two hours ago, so we don’t need lunch yet. Give us a chance to use the bathroom and say hi to Natalie, okay? And remember, we’re just here to pick up Nat and our stuff, and then we’re on our way.”

  Anna wrapped Mary in a motherly bear hug. “I am so excited about having you back where you belong. When Nathan told me, I dropped right to my knees to thank the Lord for bringing my MaryChris and sweet Natalie home to me. You know I fought your daddy tooth and claw when he said we should name you MaryChris. I thought it was mocking our savior, but now that I’ve got my own MaryChris Moss miracle, I see that Daddy was wise enough to know that God has a sense of humor.” A tear slipped down her face. “Law, how I’ve missed that man these seven years he’s been with Jesus, God rest his soul. I can just see him dancing in the streets of heaven, knowing his three angel daughters are going to be right here to help me in my last years before I’m called to join him in God’s holy rest.”

  “Let’s go inside, okay?” Mary trudged toward the front door. “Who’s here besides Nat?”

  “Just Kendall and Amber and Ashley.” Anna ushered Ellis along behind Mary. “Did MaryChris tell you about her nephews and nieces, Ellis? My daughter Naomi and her husband Barry gave me grandsons, Matthew and Kendall. My other daughter, she’s my baby, Gloria, she’s just nineteen months younger than MaryChris. She and Adam have three girls, Amber, Ashley, and Erin. I thought they should have picked another A name to go with Amber and Ashley, but they liked Erin, so Erin it is. And of course, you know Natalie. She is so mature for her age, don’t you think? I always thought an only child would be slowed down by not having brothers or sisters, but it sure hasn’t hurt Natalie.”

  Anna kept up a running discourse all the way up the walk, up the steps, and through the front door into the living room. Natalie and a young boy, who Ellis thought looked to be about Natalie’s age, and a slightly older-looking girl were playing a board game in the middle of the living room floor. All three looked up as the adults entered the room.

  Natalie launched herself toward Ellis. “Ellis! You came. I hoped Mom would bring you.” Ellis returned Natalie’s exuberant hug.

  “Hi, toots. Who’s winning?”

  “Who knows? Gramma Anna won’t let us play computer games at her house. She says it’s the devil’s handiwork and that we can’t use computers in her house, so we’re playing this lame stone-age game where you have to roll dice and move plastic thingies.” She unwrapped her arms from around Ellis’s neck, but kept a grip on Ellis’s hand.

  The boy, who Ellis guessed must be Kendall from what she’d extracted during Anna’s ramblings, spoke up. “Natalie says she doesn’t know who’s winning because she’s losing. I’m way ahead. I rolled a six and landed on her guy and said ‘Sorry,’ ’cuz that’s what you’re supposed to say when you hit a square where somebody else already is, and she had to go back and start over.”

  “So what?” Natalie shot back. “I could still catch up, but now I don’t have to play anymore because my mom and Ellis are here, and we’re going back to Atlanta, where I’ve got a dog and a cat. You and Amber and Ashley can stay here and play your dumb game.”

  “My mom says pets are too much work,” Amber said to no one in particular.

  Mary tapped Natalie on the shoulder. “Remember me? I’m your mother. Do I get a hug, or at least a hello?”

  “I saw you day before yesterday. I haven’t seen Ellis since forever.” Natalie dropped Ellis’s hand and hugged her mother. “Hi, Mom. You’re weird.”

  “Thank you, sweetie. I think you’re weird, too.”

  Natalie tugged on Ellis’s sleeve. When Ellis stooped down, Natalie cupped her hand around Ellis’s ear. “That’s our code so we don’t have to say ‘I love you’ in front of other people.”

  Ellis whispered in Natalie’s ear, “Thanks for explaining that. I’ve heard you do that before.”

  “Ready to head for home, Nat?” Mary asked.

  Anna took Mary’s elbow. “Oh, no, honey. You can’t
bolt in here like a hound after a coon and chase off down the road without so much as a bite to eat. Naomi and Gloria and them will be here around noon. I’ve got some potpies all ready to go in the oven and Naomi is bringing a green salad. Gloria said she’d fix some cornbread and collards, so we’ll be able to make a meal of it. You and Ellis sit right down, and I’ll get you some tea. We need to talk about where you’re going to live when you move home. I don’t know why you and Natalie don’t just take over the second floor of this house. Heaven knows I rattle around here like a June bug in a gymnasium. No reason in the world you two couldn’t share this big old house with me. That’s how it used to be, you know. All the generations under one roof.”

  When Anna stopped to draw a breath, Ellis wedged her foot in the conversational gap. “Could I use the restroom, please?”

  “Where are my manners? Of course, child. Natalie, show Ellis where the bathroom is.”

  “Back here,” Natalie said as she led the way out of the living room. She stole a look over her shoulder. “Don’t worry,” she said conspiratorially. “Me and Mom won’t move in with Gramma Anna. Mom always says one day with Gramma is about twenty-three hours too many.”

  Ellis dawdled in the bathroom. Listening to Mary’s mother was akin to being in a blender that was set to “auditory frappé.” So much for their plans to head back to Atlanta right away. If the entire Moss family was assembling for lunch, it would be at least two o’clock before they could load up and make tracks. At a minimum, that translated to four more hours of enduring Anna’s verbal wind sprints.

  Her thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door. “Almost done, Natalie. I’ll be right there,” Ellis said.

  “It’s me. Let me in.”

  Ellis unlocked the door, and Mary slipped through. “I came to massage your ears,” she said, slipping her hands along either side of Ellis’s head. “When my mom gets excited, she gets talkative.”

  “Gee, I never would have guessed.” Ellis rested her head on Mary’s shoulder while Mary gentle kneaded her earlobes. “Mmmm. That’s nice.”