Julie halted in her tracks bringing them both to a sudden stop. "Is that your way of telling me I'm getting on in years?" They had been together less than three hours and already they were bickering.
"It's my way of telling you that you've matured." Max let his eyes slide the length of Julie's slim, taut figure.
Julie wasn't sure what he meant by that remark either and she didn't dare ask. "I'm going home and see what's happened to Shannon."
Max lifted one dark eyebrow. "So Mitzi won the first round?"
Julie forgot about Shannon. "This has nothing to do with Mitzi."
"It has everything to do with Mitzi. Are you going to let her keep you from the dance and a good time?"
Julie moved in the direction of Max's car, thinking as she went that Mitzi would be furious if she showed up at the dance with Max. "Do you think I'm afraid to go to the dance?"
Max stopped beside his car and felt around in his pocket for his keys. "Are you?"
"Most certainly not!" Julie got into the car and fastened her seat belt.
As he backed from his parking space Max asked, "When did you and Robert Morgan become such good friends?"
Julie was sure he was only making polite conversation--still she resented the intrusion. "I've dated Robert for years."
Max eased the car into the steady flow of traffic. "So it's serious?" He turned to glance in her direction before pulling his eyes back to the road.
Julie stared out the window. "Max, you've been in Summerville less than two days. In less than a week, you'll be gone again. Don't waste the time you have here by nosing into things that don't concern you."
Max slowed for a traffic light. "My, aren't we touchy. I was curious, that's all."
"Well, don't be. It's none of your business."
The light turned green and Max shifted gears. The car moved forward with a lurch.
Julie put her hand on the dashboard to steady herself. "Your car seems to be having problems."
"This is not my car. I rented it in San Antonio."
Julie had assumed that Max had driven from Dallas. "How did you get from Dallas to San Antonio?"
"I flew in the company jet." Max turned off Main Street and drove toward the Summerville Community Center.
Julie could think of no answer to that. She stared out the window and let her mind rehearse the dozens of details she must attend to before the wedding. She should make one last call to the caterer and the florist. She'd better make sure that Shannon had Dan's ring. And she should remind Father Thomas of....
Max interrupted her train of thought by asking, "Does Royce approve?"
Julie blinked. "Approve of what?"
"Of your--I'm searching for the right word, I don't want to offend you again--relationship with Robert Morgan."
Julie could have told him the truth, that she had no relationship with Robert Morgan. She couldn't quite bring herself to do that. "I don't know what Royce thinks. I never bothered to ask." Her icy tone should have been a warning.
It wasn't. Max had the audacity to say, "I thought you shared everything with Royce." He made a right turn and pulled into a slot marked: 'Reserved for city officials'.
Julie refused to be baited by his sly insinuation. "You can't park here. This spot is reserved."
Max took his keys from the ignition. "I was here first. That gives me prior claim."
"And a traffic ticket if you insist on thumbing your nose at the law."
"Let 'em try it." Max unfastened his seat belt. "Let's go."
Slowly, the thought dawned, Max was angry. Over the click of her seatbelt, Julie asked, "What's eating you?"
"I don't care for little one-horse towns."
No one knew that better than Julie. Max had never liked living in Summerville. When they moved to Dallas shortly after Shannon's birth it had been over Julie's protests. Max had loved the big city but Julie had never been happy in that huge, impersonal metropolis.
Finally, after four years of living in a second-floor apartment and trying to adjust to the fast pace of city life, Julie located a tiny house in the suburb of Mesquite. That night over supper, she quietly told her husband, "We're moving to Mesquite. I've found a house there that we can afford. It's small, but it's perfect for us. It even has a fenced yard."
Her timing couldn't have been worse. Max was tired after a hard day's work and tense because of their many pressing financial obligations. He reacted with typical arrogance. "Even if we could afford the house we can't afford the move or the gasoline it would take for me to commute every day. Forget it, Julie we're staying here."
Julie shot back, "Maybe you're staying here, I'm not."
"And just where the hell do you plan to go?"
"Back to Summerville if I can't move to Mesquite. I can live with Mamma."
"So this is your mother's idea?" Max asked and then added, "I should have known."
Mamma had never liked Max. Even though, when she learned of Julie's pregnancy she had been more than insistent that the two of them be married. "Mamma has been sick. She needs me." The inference was that Max did not.
Max shrugged his indifference. "There's the door." He bolted from the table and out of the apartment. He didn't come home that night.
The next morning Julie packed her belongings and with Shannon in tow, caught an early bus to Summerville.
A hand on her shoulder brought Julie back to the present with a start. "What?"
Max had opened her door and was waiting for her to get out of the car. "You're a thousand miles away."
"I was thinking about Shannon's wedding." Julie soothed her conscience by telling herself that wasn't a complete lie.
Lights blazing from the Community Center gave the low, modern building a festive look. As he took Julie's arm Max asked, "How long has this been here?"
"Three or four years." Julie held on to Max's arm as they made their way up the steps.
"It's an improvement over the gymnasium." Max smiled. "But it won't stir half the memories. Remember the year we were both on the committee to decorate for the homecoming dance?"
Julie didn't want to remember. Recalling that brief, happy period of her life was like pulling the scab off a festering wound. "I hadn't thought about that in years."
Max held the door open for her. "I find myself remembering those bygone days more and more as time passes."
Julie's guard went up. This man could break her heart again if she let him. "I always thought it was best to let sleeping dogs lie." She looked around the room. "There's Royce. I'm going over and say hello to him."
Max guided her toward a table for two in a secluded corner. "Why don't we sit down first?"
They were scarcely seated when Mitzi appeared from nowhere, demanding that Max dance with her. Pulling a chair from another table, she sat down between Julie and Max. "You don't mind, do you, Julie?"
Mitzi was being totally obnoxious. "Max doesn't need my permission to dance with another woman."
"I'll be back," Max promised as he followed Mitzi onto the dance floor.
Julie was staring at the crowded dance floor and cursing her own stupidity when Robert tapped her on the shoulder. "May I sit down?"
Julie waved her hand. "Feel free."
Robert eased into the chair Mitzi had vacated. "Would you like a drink?"
Suddenly that seemed a damn good idea. "Yes I would."
Robert signaled for a waitress. "I know you like champagne. Let me buy you a glass."
Julie couldn't pull her eyes from the dance floor. Mitzi was pressing her long slim body against Max's tall frame and staring up into his eyes. He didn't seem to mind in the least. He was smiling back at her as his lips moved in conversation. "I'd love a glass of champagne."
Julie was sipping champagne and carrying on an animated conversation with Robert when Max returned. Without so much as a greeting he sat down in his chair and nodded in Robert's direction. "Get rid of your friend."
Julie set her glass down hard. "I beg your pardon."<
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Max turned a scurrilous gaze on Robert. "Goodbye, Morgan."
Robert stood and swallowed the last of his champagne. "I was leaving anyway." He smiled at Julie. "I'll call you next week."
A small gust of anger shook Julie as she watched him walk away. "That was rude and uncalled for."
Max's eyes narrowed. "Tonight you're with me. I don't intend to share you."
"But you want me to share you," Julie accused testily. "It's all right for you to dance with Mitzi, but I can't have a drink with Robert? What kind of double standard is that?"
"If you didn't want me to dance with Mitzi all you had to do was say so." Max put his elbow on the table and rested his chin in his hand. "She did ask."
Julie thought they could have been in a time warp. They sounded, for the world, like the teenagers they had been twenty years ago
With typical Anderson arrogance, Max asked, "Is Robert somebody special to you?"
Julie glared at him. "Is Mitzi someone special to you?" Before the words were out of her mouth, she repented of having said them. "I'm sorry, Max."
He grinned. "Me too, do you want to dance?" Standing, he extended his hand.
Julie stood and pushed her chair back. "I'd love to."
Chapter Four
Julie held onto Max's arm as they paused outside the front door of the Community Center. "Isn't it a lovely night? She lifted her head and stared toward the heavens. Now and then a stray star spiked through the murky darkness. "Look, there's a lovely star." She swayed as she turned to ask, "Isn't it lovely?"
"Yes, lovely," Max agreed and then warned, "Watch your step."
A cool night breeze ruffled Julie's hair and blew across her flushed face. "That's good advice." She danced down the steps. "I've had a lovely time." Her unsure feet missed the last step causing her to stumble.
Max caught her just in time. "Julie, sweetheart, I do believe you're tipsy."
Maybe she was a little. She was also more relaxed than she'd been in a long time. "I'd forgotten how lovely it is to forget your worries and go out and have fun. I could almost...." Julie stopped. Even in her present euphoric state, she realized it would not be wise to let her defenses down with Max so near.
He laughed low in his throat. "You did have fun tonight, didn't you? So did I. It was almost like old times." He felt in his pocket for his car keys.
Julie waved her arms in an all-encompassing gesture. "This was a lovely party." Somewhere in the back of her mind came the troubling thought that she would be sorry tomorrow for some of the things she'd said and done tonight. Sobering, she asked, "Did you mind me telling Mitzi to get lost when she asked you to dance a second time?"
Max smiled as he helped Julie into the car. "I didn't mind at all. But I don't think Mitzi appreciated being told to find her own man."
Julie giggled. "Did I really say that?"
Max closed the door and came around the car. As he slid under the wheel, he chuckled. "That and much more."
Julie laid her head on the back of the seat. "She had it coming; she's been insulting me for years."
Max wheeled the car out of the parking lot and onto the street. "The town is deserted. Where has everyone gone?"
"Home, I imagine." Julie put her hand over her mouth to stifle a yawn. "We were the last ones to leave the dance. I think the band was about to ask us to go when we decided to call it a night."
Max shook his head. "You are a little out of it. They did ask us to go. They said their gig was supposed to end at one o'clock." As if on cue, the clock in the courthouse tower struck two.
"I have to get up in two hours." Julie giggled. "How can I get up if I don't go to bed?"
"That would present a problem." Max looked around the dark, deserted street. "Is there an all-night diner around here where we can get some coffee?"
"There's a place out on Highway Sixteen." Julie didn't know if she wanted coffee. Tomorrow seemed soon enough to face sobriety and remorse.
Max made a left onto Main Street and drove in the direction of the highway. "Remember when we used to sneak off from school and park by the gravel pit off Highway Sixteen?"
A flood of nostalgia swept over Julie. They had called that ugly, land scarred place their secret haven--and for them, it had been. "We missed a lot of classes parked on the side of that pit." It was beside that gravel pit that Max and Julie had first made love. "The place is deserted now but the pit's still there. It's full of water."
Max frowned in her direction before pulling his eyes back to the road. "Don't tell me you still go there."
Julie made an admission that wild horses couldn't have dragged from her if she had been sober. "I used to go there often."
"With whom?" Max's frown deepened.
"I went with Shannon sometimes. Mostly, I went alone."
"Why?" Max asked incredulously.
In her present state it didn't occur to Julie to lie. "I went to remember and to wish and to think, once in a while to pray." She sat up in her seat. "I just had a lovely idea! Let's drive out there now. I want to see if it still looks the same."
Max seemed uncomfortable with that suggestion. "I don't think we should. It's late."
"It's never late until two and then it's too late and it's already too late because it's past two." Julie's giggle surfaced again. "Does that make any sense?"
Max was still frowning. "How many champagne cocktails did you have this evening?"
Julie wagged a finger in his direction. "It's not evening, it's morning, remember?"
"I remember. Don't you have to open the restaurant tomorrow," Max corrected himself, "Today?"
"We can be back in time for me to do that."
Max shifted gears and pulled off the highway onto a deserted farm-to-market road. "Now that I think about it, I'd like to see the old place myself." He slowed for a curve in the road. "How long since you've been out here?"
Julie's euphoria faded as an agony that she thought she had banished forever revisited her with vivid clarity. Quickly, she closed her mind and her heart to a torment too painful to bear, even now. "I've forgotten."
Max leaned over the steering wheel and peered into the darkness. "I'm not sure I remember where to turn."
Julie looked out into the blackness. "Have we passed Randall's Farm?"
Max nodded, "Just a few moments ago."
"Then take the next left."
Max swerved suddenly. "You spoke just in time."
Once they were off the farm-to-market road the pavement narrowed and then disappeared completely leaving Max to maneuver over a bumpy, narrow surface that eventually became no more than a cow trail covered with debris and weeds. Finally he asked, "How much farther?"
Julie shook her head, trying to clear her mind. "I'm not sure. It's been almost ten years since I've been here but I think it's just around the next bend."
It was. Max sighed with relief as his headlights picked up the reflected shimmer from the water-filled pit. He switched off his headlights, plunging them into inky darkness. "This place is almost spooky." He swore under his breath. "Damn! What have I let you talk me into this time?"
Julie unfastened her seatbelt and turned to face him. "I didn't talk you into anything. You're the one who wanted to see if this place still looked the same."
"You're the one who mentioned it first."
Julie began to laugh. "Talk about deja vu. We sound like we did twenty years ago, fighting over nothing and blaming each other for everything."
In the darkness she could feel Max's smile. "Let's get out and look around. I'll turn on the car lights so we can see." He hit the switch flooding the pit with a soft eerie light. Curls of fog and mist rose from its depths and climbed like apparitions in the night air.
As they met in front of the car, Max extended his arm. "Give me your hand." Julie laced her fingers through his. They were warm and strong to her touch. They picked their way over the rough terrain, stepping cautiously and being careful to stay in the beam of the headlights.
When they reached the side of the pit, Max sank down on a grassy knoll and pulled Julie down beside him. "What memories this place evokes. It's like stepping backward in time."
Julie stared down into the murky waters and closed her eyes against a sudden rush of pain. This dark, damaged, hidden hole in the ground would always be a part of her. Here she had given Max her heart. It was a child's heart that she had offered so freely--honest, loving and so full of trust, but greedy, too, and passionate and foolish. It was in this place, too, that her illusions had vanished in one short space of time, leaving her forever doubting and old. She sighed and swallowed over the lump in her throat.
"Julie?" Max's hand rested on her shoulder. "What are you thinking?"
The car lights cast harsh shadows across his face, accentuating its austere lines and angular planes. Caution the fruit of bitter experience made Julie oh, so wary. "I was thinking that if I could go back I'd give myself more time to be a child." An unbidden tear slid down her cheek. She brushed it away with the back of her hand. "What about you, Max, If you could go back, what would you do differently?"
Max stretched his long legs out in front of him "So many things. For one, I'd spend more time with Shannon. I missed so much of her growing up. I wasn't around on special holidays like Easter and Christmas. I missed her first communion, her first date, her piano recitals, her basketball games..." His voice trailed away and then rallied, "I missed all those good times."
"You also missed all of the bad ones." Julie smiled as she remembered "Like when she had the chicken pox, the time she broke her arm, the day she played hooky from school; the Sunday afternoon that she hit a baseball through Mr. Thompson's plate glass window." Pulling her legs up under her chin, Julie wrapped her arms around her knees. "Raising a child is not all fun and games."
Max turned his head to one side and frowned. "You haven't had an easy time of it have you?"
"In a way, that's true." Introspection made Julie pensive. "It's not easy being a single parent. You're always responsible for another person. You have to put that person's needs above your own. Sometimes I felt I was sacrificing my life to give Shannon hers." Good Lord, she was indulging in the most craven of all emotions, self pity. Julie straightened her shoulders. "That's behind me now. Shannon's almost a married woman. From this day forward I'm going to be footloose and fancy free."
You Belong to Me Page 4