Come Home to Deep River

by Jackie Ashenden

  He watched her stride out of the kitchen with her chin up and her shoulders back. He’d escaped public shame by less than a pubic hair and he knew it. The next time he went into Savannah he’d do a little shopping, something more in his size and style. In the meantime, he could certainly refrain from indulging himself in his little fantasies until the waters had calmed, so to speak.

  * * *

  The following Tuesday, Ruby came in extra early to open The Curl Up and Dye. The beginning of her workweek wasn’t usually all that busy, but she had four haircuts this morning and a root touch-up and a permanent this afternoon. It made her back ache just thinking about how long she would be on her feet.

  She was taking a load of towels out of the dryer when she caught movement out on the street. Alma Button was driving a new car. She knew the story behind the requests for new hairdos and new jewelry showing up on her customers’ hands and wondered what Alma’s husband had done that warranted buying Alma a new car. Whatever it was, Ruby just hoped none of the ramifications of their problems leaked into The Curl Up and Dye. She had enough on her hands without turning her shop into a version of The Jerry Springer Show.

  The end

  Keep reading for a sneak peek at the next book in Sharon Sala’s Blessings, Georgia series

  Available August 2020 from Sourcebooks Casablanca

  Chapter 1

  Streaks of moonlight slipped between the blinds in Cathy Terry’s bedroom, painting silver-white stripes across the dark hardwood floor. The lights of a passing patrol car swept across the wall where she lay sleeping, but all she saw was the man coming at her in her dream.

  Blaine Wagner’s face was twisted in rage—his fists doubled, ready to strike a blow.

  “You’re not going anywhere, dammit! Nobody walks out on me!”

  Cathy was scared of him, but she’d had enough, and the luxury of their lifestyle was no longer the draw it had once been.

  “I’m not nobody! I am your wife, not one of your whores, and I’ve had enough! You have cheated on me for the last time. I’ve already contacted a lawyer, and I’ll be staying in the Luxor here in Vegas until I can find an apartment.”

  “Like hell!” Blaine roared, and swung at her.

  Cathy ducked and ran, locking herself into their ensuite, and then called the police, crying and begging them to hurry as Blaine pounded on the door in continuing rage.

  The sirens and the flashing lights pulling up to the house gave her the reprieve she needed. The moment she heard him leave the room to answer the door, she flew out of the bathroom, grabbed the bag she’d already packed from the closet, and followed him down the stairs.

  He was already playing the part of the surprised spouse and telling the police it was all a misunderstanding when Cathy appeared. Her eyes were swollen from crying, and her fear was unmistakable.

  “Help me! I’ve filed for divorce and he won’t let me leave!” she said. She was trying to push past him when he grabbed her by the arm.

  In the dream, she was struggling to get free, just like she had that night. The police had come into their house at that point, yelling at Blaine to let her go, and he was screaming in her ear, “I’ll make you sorry. You’ll never have another moment’s peace as long as you live!”

  Her heart was pounding when she heard a voice from her childhood.

  Wake up! Wake up, Mary Cathleen! Wake up now!

  She gasped, and then sat straight up in bed and turned on the lamp. The hundred-watt bulb put a whole new light on the moment, helping pull her out of the dream, but she couldn’t deny what she’d heard. That was her mother’s voice, and it had been two years since she’d heard it.

  “Oh, Mama, you’re still on my side, even from the grave.” Cathy glanced at the clock.

  It was twenty minutes to four, and going back to sleep after that dream wasn’t happening, so she turned on the television, plumped up her pillows, and began scanning the available movies. She didn’t much care what she watched. Anything to get her mind off her ex would suffice.

  She was thinking about going to the kitchen for something to snack on when she saw actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s face flash on the screen, and she stopped and upped the volume. He was one of her favorites, and being tall, dark, and handsome was the antithesis of Blaine Wagner’s stocky build and blond hair.

  “That actor is one pretty man. I don’t care what this movie is about. I can mute the whole thing and just sit and look at him. That should get my ex-husband’s face out of my head.”

  But she didn’t mute it after all and wound up watching almost two hours of the movie. It wasn’t a happy-ever-after movie, but she didn’t live in a happy-ever-after world and was fine with that.

  Cathy ran to the kitchen during a commercial and made herself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, then brought it and a glass of milk back to bed.

  By the time the movie was over, the memory of the dream had mostly passed and morning was imminent. She turned off the television and took her dirty dishes back to the kitchen, started a pot of coffee, then headed back to her room to get dressed.

  A short while later she was in the kitchen, contemplating her day of doing little to nothing here in Blessings, and remembering her old life in Vegas.

  * * *

  The divorce had taken six months to finalize, ending with a lump-sum payment of thirty million dollars to her bank account. It wasn’t like Blaine couldn’t afford it. He was a billionaire…a fourth-generation Wagner, a name famous in Nevada. In early days, it was silver mines, and during the past seventy-something years, casinos had become the family business.

  After the divorce was final, she thought that would be the end of it. But she’d been wrong, and it was what he did on the courthouse steps as they were leaving that scared her.

  When both lawyers walked off, Blaine stayed behind. Cathy thought it was for a final parting of the ways, until he grabbed her arm and whispered in her ear.

  “You do understand I now view you as a threat. You know things about me and my life that aren’t healthy for you anymore.”

  Cathy tried to pull away. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

  “This isn’t a joke, Cathy. I’m just giving you fair warning. I don’t trust you anymore, and I have no intention of spending the rest of my life looking over my shoulder and waiting for the feds to come knocking. Your days are numbered.”

  Cathy’s heart skipped a beat. Oh my God. He’s serious!

  “I don’t have the faintest idea what you’re talking about. Our world consisted of your country club, our personal friends, and hosting dinner parties for your business associates now and then.”

  His eyes narrowed. “Exactly.”

  “I still don’t get it,” Cathy said, pretending total oblivion, although she was beginning to remember that some of those associates had dubious reputations, even though she knew nothing incriminating about any of them. “Go away, Blaine. Just leave me alone.”

  She twisted out of his grasp and walked away, resisting the urge to run. This was a shock. She’d never seen this coming, but she needed to disappear, and she was going to have to be smart about doing it.

  By the time she got home, she had a plan. The first thing she did was fill out papers online to change back to her maiden name. After two tense months of waiting, it was done, and that’s when she amped up the plan. She was setting up a new life with a renewed driver’s license, a new phone plan, and a new credit card.

  She knew Blaine was having her followed. She didn’t know if that was just intimidation, but leaving town with his knowledge of where she was going wouldn’t assure her safety. He’d just have her tailed to other places, and if he was still in the mind-set to get rid of her, it would be all too easy to make a death look like an accident.

  But she already knew how to disappear. She’d spent the first twelve years of her life living off the grid in Alaska. T
he last thing Blaine Wagner would ever expect was for her to take to the back roads of America on foot.

  Cathy ordered everything she needed online so her ex wouldn’t know what she was buying, and thanks to him, every friend she’d ever had in Vegas had shut her out. No more lunch dates with girlfriends. No more girlfriends. So she holed up in her apartment and quit going anywhere, and when she got hungry, she ordered in.

  The last thing she did was disperse the money from her divorce settlement into three different banks across the country.

  And early one morning she walked out the back door of her apartment, caught the Uber she’d called to take her to the bus station, and took a bus to Colorado.

  She got off in Colorado Springs and rented a motel room. She stayed long enough to buy a handgun and ammunition, and one morning just after sunrise, she shouldered her hiking gear and left the motel heading east.

  She hiked along highways, sidestepping cities for the more rural areas, and the weeks went by until she finally reached Springer Mountain, Georgia—the beginning of the Appalachian Trail. It was a place she recognized true wilderness, and one in which she felt comfortable.

  She knew how to forage, and how to fish from the rivers and streams teeming with fish. But the trail went north from there, and it was getting too close to winter to hike north, so she started hiking south. She made it all the way to a little, out-of-the-way place called Blessings, Georgia, before something about it spoke to her, and here is where she stopped. And now here she was, in something of a holding pattern. Not really participating in life. Just hiding from it.

  * * *

  Cathy set aside the memories, finished her morning coffee, and got ready to go for her morning run.

  It was mid-November, but it promised to be a nice day in the high fifties. She was wearing her running shoes, sweatpants, and a long-sleeved T-shirt as she pocketed her phone and left the house, pausing beneath the porch light to scan the area for signs of things that didn’t belong.

  The streetlights were already fading with the growing light of a new day. The morning was still, the sky cloudless. She walked to the edge of the porch and waited for the car coming up the street to pass, and then waved when she recognized the boy who delivered the morning papers. He saw her and waved back. She still didn’t know his name, but this town was friendly like that.

  She came off the porch, pausing in the driveway to stretch a few times, and then took off down the sidewalk at a jog, relishing the impact of foot to surface. The rhythm of her stride soon caught up with the thump of her heartbeat, and by the time she was making her second pass by the city park, she’d been running for an hour.

  The fat raccoon scurrying through the green space was heading for the trees and the creek that ran through the park.

  On the other side of the street, a young woman came running out of her house toward the old car parked in the drive. Cathy recognized her as one of the waitresses from Granny’s Country Kitchen. From the way she was moving, she was likely late for work.

  The thought of Granny’s led Cathy to wanting some of the gravy and biscuits she’d had there before, but she couldn’t go there all hot and sweaty and was wishing she’d pulled her hair up in a ponytail before leaving the house. Even though the morning was cool, the weight of the curls was hot against the back of her neck. She turned toward Main Street as she reached the end of the block, thinking to make one last sweep through Blessings and then head home.

  Traffic was picking up on Main, and even though she’d been running every morning since her arrival, people still stared. No one jogged in Blessings, although she had seen some kids running at the high school track field, but she didn’t care. She wasn’t here to fit in.

  She ran past the florist, and then the quirky little hair salon called the Curl Up and Dye, and was moving past Phillips Pharmacy as a huge black pickup pulled up to the curb.

  It had been months since she’d been behind the wheel of any kind of vehicle, and she was toying with the idea of leasing one for the winter. She didn’t know she’d caught the driver’s notice, and it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. She just kept running without noticing how far she’d gone until she saw the gas station at the far end of town and the city limits sign just down the road.

  “Well, shoot,” Cathy muttered. She made a quick turn on the sidewalk and was heading back into Blessings when she came down wrong on her foot, and before she knew it, her ankle rolled and she was falling.

  The pain was instantaneous and excruciating, and as she was reaching out to break her fall, she jammed her hand against the concrete and then landed on her side with a thud.

  “Oh my lord,” she moaned, then slowly turned over onto her back, only vaguely aware of screeching brakes and then the sound of running feet.

  * * *

  It was just after 8:00 a.m. when Duke Talbot drove into Blessings and pulled up to the curb in front of Phillips Pharmacy. He was reaching for the list he’d put in the console when he caught movement from the corner of his eye and looked up just as a young woman in a long-sleeved T-shirt and sweatpants ran past the store. She was gone before he got a good look at her face, but all that curly red hair bouncing down her back was impossible to miss.

  He couldn’t remember seeing anyone jogging here before and was curious as to who might have taken it up. He didn’t know any woman with hair that color, either, but considering the Curl Up and Dye was just down the street, Ruby or one of the girls could be responsible for that. He watched the jogger until she turned a corner and disappeared before he got out.

  The bell over the door jingled as he entered the pharmacy.

  LilyAnn Dalton looked up from behind the register and smiled.

  “Good morning, Duke. You’re out early,” she said.

  “Morning, LilyAnn. Just getting an early start on a long day.” He picked up a basket from the end of the counter and started down the aisle where the shampoo and conditioners were shelved, then stopped and turned around. “Hey, LilyAnn, I just saw a redheaded woman with long, curly hair jogging past the store. I don’t think I ever knew anyone to take up jogging here in Blessings. Who is she?”

  “Oh, that’s Cathy Terry. She’s new here. She’s living in one of Dan Amos’s rental houses.”

  “What’s she do?” he asked.

  LilyAnn shrugged. “I don’t know. She comes in here now and again. Really nice lady, but she sort of keeps to herself.”

  Having his curiosity satisfied, Duke began picking up the items he’d come for. It didn’t take long for him to get everything on the list, and then he was back in his truck.

  He stopped and used the ATM drive-through at the bank for cash, and then realized he was still a little early for his haircut appointment, so he headed to the gas station to get his oil checked.

  He was thinking about the day ahead when he realized the redhead he’d seen earlier was on the sidewalk running toward him. He had a clear view of her face, and despite the pink flush on her cheeks, his first thought was how pretty she was.

  Then all of a sudden she was falling, and he groaned aloud at how hard she hit. He stomped the brakes, slammed the truck into park, and got out on the run.

  He was down on his knees beside her in seconds, and when he saw the blood on the palm of her hand, he knew that was going to burn later. Then he saw her ankle, and was shocked by how much it was already swelling.

  “Your ankle! Don’t move, it might be broken,” he said.

  And then she looked up at him, and Duke took a deep breath. He’d never seen eyes that blue, and they were swimming in tears. It took everything he had not to sweep her up in his arms, but he was afraid to move her.

  “Did you hit your head?”

  She wasn’t sure. Maybe. She’d just watched a movie with Jeffrey Dean Morgan in it, and now either she was hallucinating, or his doppelgänger was leaning over her.

  “U
h…I don’t think so. Just the right side of my body. My ankle turned, and I think I need a little help getting up.”

  “My name is Duke Talbot. I saw you fall, and from the looks of your ankle, I think you need to go to the ER,” Duke said. “Will you let me take you, or would you rather go in an ambulance?”

  Cathy frowned. “I don’t think I—”

  “One or the other,” Duke said.

  She sighed. Dictatorial male. Just what I don’t need. But both her hip and her ankle were throbbing now, and he did have a sweet, concerned expression on his face.

  “If it’s not too much trouble, maybe you could just drop me off at the ER, then.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Duke said, and then reached toward her hair, but when she flinched and then ducked, he frowned. Those were instinctive reactions someone might make from fear of being struck. “I’m sorry. You have a piece of grass in a curl. I didn’t mean to startle you.”

  Cathy sighed. “Then, thank you,” she said, and closed her eyes as Duke pulled it out.

  When she opened them again, he was on his feet and she was in his arms, and he was carrying her toward his truck.

  At that moment, a police car pulled up, and Chief Pittman got out on the run.

  “Hey, Duke! We just had a call come in that someone fell. I see you beat me to her,” Lon said, as he ran toward Duke’s truck and opened the door.

  “I saw it happen,” Duke said, as he eased Cathy down inside and then quickly reclined the seat back. “I’m taking her to the ER.”

  “I’ll lead the way,” Lon said. He glanced in the truck as Duke was buckling her in and recognized who it was. “Miss Terry, I don’t know if you remember me, but we were standing in line together at Crown Grocers last week. I’m Lon Pittman, the police chief here in Blessings. My wife, Mercy, and Duke’s sister-in-law, Hope, are sisters, which in the South means we’re all kin. You sit tight and we’ll get you to the ER in style.”