Sweet Town Love

by Maggie Ryan

  “He’s right, Morgan. Let’s leave your brother to get some rest, so he’s back in shape to deal with whatever you have up your sleeve next.”

  “Mommy! Not fair. This really wasn’t my fault. I wasn’t trying to tell or stir up trouble, honest.”

  As wild and impulsive as the kid could be, she didn’t have a mean bone in her body. Whatever happened in that hallway was likely an accident of her big mouth and not malicious intent. Still, he had no problem letting her stew. She had to learn discernment.

  “You need to go with Mom, Morgan. I love you, but you never learn. No more talking tonight. I’ll see you both in post op.”

  “Give the kid a break,” Mrs. Martin told her son as she squeezed him extra tight. Routine or not it was surgery, and she would worry until she saw his eyes open tomorrow in recovery. He didn’t want them there at the crack of dawn following the gurney down the hall, which was why they’d been hanging out with him most of the day.

  “She’ll live, Mom. I love you.”

  Gathering her things, she gave her offspring a moment.

  “You, come here.” Jake was pretty proud of his little sister, who wasn’t so little anymore, and even though he didn’t let her slack off or get away with much, he knew she’d become the young woman he’d always wanted her to be.

  “I’m really sorry, Jake. I’ll… I could—Look, I don’t know what to do to make this right, but whatever you say, I won’t get all pouty about it.”

  His little Morgan. She wasn’t so little anymore and she kind of wanted him to have as a good a life as he wanted for her. Love. Marriage. Babies. The thing was he knew more about the world than she did. He did things a certain way because of that knowledge and he couldn’t have her meddling in his personal life.

  “Here’s the deal, kid. I don’t know if you did it consciously or subconsciously, but you had no right to say anything and on some level you wanted to. Don’t make that face at me. I know you and Mom talk and you’ve decided it’s time to do something about my love life. You’re not wrong.” And this next part he dragged out. “But it’s my business, period. Any more sticking that cute little nose where it doesn’t belong and we are going to have serious issues.”

  “Yes, Jake.”

  He pulled her into a single armed hug and walked her to the door. Another round of hugs and kisses were exchanged and they were through the door. Just as their mom was out of earshot and Morgan had almost cleared the threshold, Jake’s arm flew out and a searing swat landed on her backend, her thin dress doing nothing to mask the impact. She turned on him with wild, wide eyes.

  “What was that for?”

  “Fair play. You were a pain in my butt and now I’m a pain in yours. Later, kid.”

  Morgan had no time for a pithy retort. She heard the elevator ding and her mother called down the hall for her to hurry.

  Seek and Find

  Her parents had sent her home hours ago but Belle couldn’t make herself leave the hospital. First, she circled the building after picking up a double order of French fries doused in ketchup, shoveling in what she was pretty certain was her five thousandth calorie for the day.

  Once the sun was completely down, she parked in a manner that went against all basic safety rules. She was far from the entrance and three spots over from the nearest light. She wasn’t sure who or what she was hiding from, but running into folks felt like it would be working against her ultimate goal. Reflecting on that goal was what was making her crazy. What was she going to do about Jake? She knew she couldn’t just ignore the fact that the man was giving her father one of his vital organs, nor could she reconcile the feelings she’d harbored over the many silent years they spent away from one another. A silence she admittedly had done nothing to change.

  Sucking the last bit of salt and ketchup from her fingers, Belle started to slide down from her carbohydrate high. It was now or never. The automatic doors closed behind her, and she was assaulted with the crisp cold air-conditioned air.

  “Hi, is it too late to visit?”

  “No, ma’am.” The perky hospital worker answered.

  “Can I get a pass for room— Sorry, I have been back and forth running so many errands I totally forgot the room number. Um, it’s Jacob Martin’s room.” Belle leaned on the counter with the practiced nonchalance of a semi-professional liar. It wasn’t the first time she’d talked her way into someplace she shouldn’t be.

  “Of course, he’s in room 306-A. You only have about half an hour or so, but it takes Ryan a while to do rounds and clear stragglers out. If he does catch you, promise not to rat me out.”

  “Of course not. Thanks, and I love your manicure.”

  Even as the elevator doors closed, the joy from her accomplishment was fading quickly for Belle. Peeling off the hospital visitor’s sticker, she hit two and got off at the chapel. Thankfully, she had the small room to herself. It was all wood and very calming. The room was clearly meant for all denominations even though it was ninety percent Baptist fifty miles from Tucker, in every direction.

  Although far less concerned since seeing him, her first round of prayers was focused purely on her daddy. She said amen aloud and listened to the sound of her own voice move through the quiet and return to her own ears. Then she sat back and waited. Too quiet, too still, too long and thoughts always went back to Jake. She had no reason to believe the chapel would produce a different effect. Belle had decided long ago that even happy memories weren’t always good, especially when they came rushing back at you all tangled and mangled with the heaviness of history and present day realities.

  The best memories she had of herself and Jake were a constant reminder that he wasn’t in her life now. That hurt more than anything. She had to remind herself that the only reason he wasn’t in her life was because she couldn’t accept things on his terms. She’d allowed a temporary situation to become permanent. She also couldn’t forgive him for kissing Kasey. They weren’t in a relationship at the time, but he knew how she felt, he had to. They’d only been teenagers, but he was the most important person to her. Jake was the one she had wanted to lose her virginity to, but instead it was some drunken frat guy in a trashed dorm room. Yeah, there was plenty to be pissed with him about. The kidney donation had thawed her some, but revisiting a hurt, even one a decade old, was harder to get past than she thought.

  “I have to get out of here. Hurt or not I have to see…” she started out loud.

  “What’s behind door number two?”

  Grabbing the pew to steady her footing, Belle began rapidly swallowing in an attempt to generate enough saliva. She tried the repeated blinking thing that characters on television often used, but every time they blinked open she was still staring into the eyes of Jacob Martin. The temperature in the room seemed to plummet as a chill raced through her body causing a full body shiver that made her unsteady on her feet again. How in the world was he standing in front of her?

  “I have to say I’m hoping you’ll just stay here and not continue whatever quest you were about to start.” Jake used all of his self-control to maintain a physical distance. He had his hands shoved deep in the pockets of his sweatshirt. The temptation to reach out and touch her in some small way was palpable.

  “I was going to—Not important. I’ll leave you to it.” Belle was a mere step away from the threshold. Maybe this was the way God was answering her prayers, so she just blurted out her question.

  “Why didn’t you want me to know you were my dad’s donor?”

  “Look, Morgan had no right to blab in the middle of the hallway, but I thought you had enough to worry about without all of our stuff coming up.”

  Jake slid into the back pew that Belle was using a moment earlier to hold herself up. Watching him ease in, Belle wondered if he was feeling all right. He did look tired.

  “Look, I’m going to go. You obviously didn’t know I would be in here and I certainly don’t want to disturb your chat,” she said looking up at the ceiling.

  �
��Sit with me.”

  “What? No.”

  “Isabelle, sit with me, please.”

  “Okay. So, what? We’re going to hold hands and push out a few prayers and hallelujahs? I think the only one I remember well from Sunday school is the prayer before meals.”

  “Does this seem like the appropriate place for prayer humor?”

  She knew he was right. Her grandparents would’ve scorched her ears. Sliding into the spot beside him, Belle kept her eyes forward. The silence dragged on. Belle was sitting on her hands, trying to avoid looking at him, and tapping her feet against the kneeler in front of her. Every movement she had going all ceased at once as his hand rested on her knee. All she could do was look down at it in silence.

  “There is nothing to be nervous about. It’s just you and me sitting in a chapel.”

  On the exhale, Belle whispered. “I seem to remember us just sitting together getting us in all sorts of trouble when we were kids.”

  “Because you would get the giggles so badly that even silent you were a distraction. Your whole body would shake.”

  “You used to make all those silly faces at me. No one ever seemed to catch you though.”

  “They were too busy listening to you try to unwrap candy in the noisiest way possible.”

  “It did make Sunday services more fun.” Belle couldn’t resist the giggle that escaped her mouth. Jake’s hand never left her knee.

  “Oh, wow. That’s a sound I’ve missed.”

  Suddenly their moment was doused with ice water. The spell broken, Belle deftly removed his hand, and created a bit of space between them. She wasn’t there to stroll down memory lane, but there wasn’t anyone with whom she shared more history.

  “You almost done? I was on my way out, remember?” Proximity was getting to her more than she liked and she couldn’t be sure they wouldn’t dive head first into all of their issues, if she kept sitting this close to him.

  Taking her hand, he guided her out of the pew, behind him, right out of the little chapel, across the hallway, and into the elevator. Belle never pulled away. She knew she should, but looking down at their connected hands stopped her. It wasn’t a moment she wanted to break.

  “We don’t see one another for a decade and you think you can just bring me back to your hospital room for some pre op good time.”

  Jake gave her butt a light tap to move her through the door. “Maybe I just want some company until I fall asleep.”

  “You just keep your hands to yourself, Jacob Martin. I thought your mom and Morgan would’ve stayed.”

  “I sent them home.”

  Jake’s room was exactly like her father’s. The only thing missing were all of the monitors and equipment. She supposed tomorrow Jake’s room would be filled with similar stuff.

  “Well, I’m sure being well rested is a pretty high on the priority list, so I’ll let you get to that.”

  “I’ve been lying around all day. Keep me company, princess.”

  Belle tried to keep the look on her face neutral, but he wasn’t making it easy. A huge part of her had so many questions and a lot of anger, but both were warring with the side of her that was also in deep gratitude. It was like the battle was taking place in her gut, because her fries had been threatening to reappear from the moment he opened the chapel door.

  “I haven’t been anyone’s princess in a long time. I’ll sit for a minute, but I need to make the drive back out to the house. I want to get back early. Daddy’s part isn’t as easy as yours, you know. Sorry. That wasn’t fair.”

  “It’s okay. I know what you mean and you’re right. I do have the easier end of things. Try not to worry too much. We’ve been going through this process for months and I can assure you we wouldn’t be here if the doctors weren’t as close to one hundred percent certain of the outcome as they could be.”

  “Was it awful? All the tests, I mean.”

  “Awful is pretty strong for my part. Some discomfort. Matt’s part is harder, trust me. He and your mom have been amazing. Such strength and love.”

  “No arguing with you there.”

  “That’s a first. You used to argue with me about almost anything.”

  “I don’t want to argue or stress you out before surgery, but please tell me why you didn’t want me to know.”

  “I will. You have to move from the door and stop clutching your bag like you’re two minutes from fleeing, though.” He patted the spot next to him on his bed.

  “The chairs are plenty comfortable and I’m not going to flee.”

  “You seem wound a little tight that’s all. I could give you a hand settling down, if you want.”

  Belle got that buzzy feeling in her stomach. His words used to do that to her in high school. She would be vibrating over one thing or another, and between his strong steady voice and sometimes a helping hand to her backside, Belle would settle down and pull back on whatever drama was pending.

  “No thank you, Jake. I don’t do—I don’t need that anymore.”

  “That? What’s that?”

  “I don’t let bossy boys or men help themselves to my rear end for sport.”

  “There wasn’t a lot of let involved. You got what you needed and deserved for some of the stunts you tried to pull, you and Kasey, the daring duo. It was like you two had a constant running bet on who could get away with worse.

  “It wasn’t that bad. I liked having fun. The edge is— fun.”

  “I never would’ve pegged your folks for the corporal punishment type. Your mom is so mild-mannered compared to mine and your pop was a teddy bear,” Belle said.

  “Yeah, well, when he found out I had been smoking, he was way more grizzly than teddy.”

  “I really liked your dad, even if he taught you everything you know about—”

  “You still can’t bring yourself to say it. Spanking. He taught me everything I knew about spanking, at the time. I’ve picked up some trade secrets of my own over the years. My offer still stands.”

  “Jacob Martin, I said no thank you. You want me to leave?”

  “No. No, I don’t.”

  Jake relaxed back on his bed and flicked on the television, which was conveniently turned to him exclusively. Belle kept craning her neck, but she could only see about a fourth of the screen. He watched her none too stealthy movements out of the corner of his eye. He didn’t want to spook her. She sat on the edge of the bed. He’d purposely left enough room for her. They sat that way through half of whatever cop drama was playing on screen, before she scooted back and reclined as well.

  “This doesn’t change anything.”

  “Kind of a long time to hold a grudge, but yeah, I know.”

  “Jake?”

  “Princess.”

  She rolled her eyes. He couldn’t leave that nickname in the past. “You’re really doing this just for my dad, right? It wasn’t some ploy to get me back in your life? A way to make me feel guilty?”

  “You think that little of me?”

  “No, but I ask the tough questions. It’s what makes me good.”

  “You’ve always been better than good.”

  “Don’t fall asleep, princess. I don’t want you driving back home late and groggy.”

  “I do much worse in the city, Mr. Worry-Much.”

  “I don’t want to know. Humor me.” Jake ran his hand down her side to tickle her. He knew how sensitive she was and her giggles soothed his soul.

  “No, no, no, no. Don’t you start that. I’m surprised security hasn’t already done a walk and booted me. My time is short, trust me.”

  “When’s the last time you spent the night in your folks’ home, alone?”

  “I don’t know. Not in years I guess. Why?”

  “The country still has all the same sounds that made you jumpy in the middle of the night.”

  Part of him felt like a heel as she ever so subtly snuggled in closer; the rest of him was feeling spectacular having her so close for the first time in years. Her curls were w
ild, soft and smelling like coconuts. She was using the same shampoo and conditioner. The skin of her upper arm lightly brushed against his much hairier arm and still the silky softness could be felt. He wanted to run his hand against it and remember every goose bump he raised.

  “Seriously, you bring that up now? I’m not fifteen anymore and you and Axe aren’t convincing me that my house is haunted.”

  “Axe isn’t convincing anyone of anything these days, except maybe his wife.”

  “Yeah, I heard he was married now. Three kids? I can’t imagine Axe fathering anyone. Well, beyond the biology of it all.”

  “He’s actually a really good dad. His wife is bit soul crushing, but he allows it, so—”

  “Allows it? Yeah, I guess he must’ve known what she was like, before he said I do.”

  “We talk, you know. He has regrets; not being able to make it work with Kasey is a big one. They would’ve been great together. But—”

  “He came to his senses and realized he’d rather a shrew to a liar any day of the week.”

  “No. No. We’re not doing this that way. You want to talk about whatever is on your mind, then be a big girl and ask your questions, Belle. No more off-handed comments.”

  “Well, that was fun while it lasted. I guess I’m going home to my scary house in the woods.”

  Belle swung her legs and was sitting on the edge of the bed facing the door. His hand on her arm wasn’t a surprise, but it did send that full body shiver through her that he always caused, when they were skin to skin. Five fingers on her wrist felt like being in a full embrace. She had missed his touches that much.

  “No more escaping, Isabelle. Not from me. Are you still angry about the Corp, the spanking, the fight with Kasey, or my being a coward and not seeking you out before now?”

  “I don’t think big emotional conversations are good for you the night before major surgery.”