Misty worked her way between them until she was facing him. “No more,” she said quietly. “This is over.”
“Not even close,” he said with what seemed more like sheer bravado than real conviction.
“Don’t you get it yet?” she asked. “You’ve lost way more than I have. Sure, you tried to ruin my reputation and I almost let you get away with it, but you’ve lost your scholarship and your whole future.” She held his gaze. “Tell me the truth, Greg. Was it worth it?”
Then, holding her head high, she walked right past him and down the hallway to her first class, her friends right there with her.
She was shaking by the time she reached her classroom, but Katie reached for her hand and gave it a squeeze. “I am so proud of you. You looked him right in the eyes, Misty. That took real guts.”
“I was shaking,” Misty admitted.
“Doesn’t matter. In fact, I think that’s what courage is, being scared and doing what needs to be done, anyway.”
Misty gave her a hug, then smiled at the others who were still standing guard around her. “Thank you, all of you.”
“Hey, it could have been any one of us,” Susie said quietly. “In fact, at one time or another, it probably has been.”
To Misty’s surprise, Hailey, a friend of Annabelle’s who’d never even given her the time of day before, separated herself from the crowd. Looking nervous, she met Misty’s gaze.
“I just wanted to say I’m sorry,” she said in a whisper. “For everything.”
Before Misty could absorb the wonder of that admission, Hailey was gone.
The warning bell rang then and they all scattered. Misty walked into her classroom and for the first time in months felt the knot in her stomach finally ease.
* * *
Laura was still a little flushed and giddy from an incredible, passion-filled night when she was called into Betty’s office the next morning.
After a precious few moments of pleasantries, Betty inquired, “Do I need to remind you that we have a very strict morals clause in our contract with our teachers?”
Laura stared at her. “Excuse me?” But even as the words left her mouth, she put two and two together. “Let me guess. Mariah Litchfield was on the phone to you first thing this morning because she spotted J.C.’s car at my house.”
“Correct,” Betty said.
“And after everything that’s gone on, you can’t see that for the attempt at retaliation it is?”
“Of course I can,” Betty said impatiently. “I told her I’d bring it to your attention and I have.”
Then to Laura’s surprise, she grinned. “Under the circumstances, I wouldn’t worry too much about it. The school board is very impressed with how well you and J.C. handled the whole thing with Annabelle and Misty. That much was evident at the emergency board meeting. You could probably get away with just about anything right now, and I’m in a pretty generous and forgiving mood myself these days.”
Laura thought of what they’d discovered on Friday. They were still awaiting confirmation from Chief Rollins’s sources before tackling the latest situation.
“Well, you might want to prepare them for the possibility that it’s not over just yet,” she said, then filled Betty in on their suspicions about Greg Bennett, not only stirring things up at the rally, but taking over where Annabelle had left off online.
“Oh, sweet heaven!” Betty murmured.
Laura held up her hand. “I think Misty wants to tackle this one on her own. She’s back in school today, and she fully intends to deal with Greg in her own way. Let’s give her that chance. She needs to feel in control of her life again.”
“You’ve got her back?” Betty asked.
“Absolutely.”
Betty nodded. “Then we’ll see how it goes, but expulsion is not out of the question, even if he is captain of the football team. I would have thought he’d understand that after seeing Annabelle get sent off to another school and being suspended himself from playing for the rest of the football season.”
“Hopefully it won’t come to that,” Laura said. “But it was good to see Misty walk in here this morning with her head held high and her friends around her.”
Betty gave her a surprising smile. “And it was nice to see you walk in here today with some color in your cheeks. I hope it works out for you and J.C. He’s a good guy.”
“Yes, he is,” Laura said. “But it’s still early going.”
After the past few days, though, it already felt as if they were a whole lot closer to forever.
Still, she knew his history and his conviction that Fullerton men were bad bets when it came to lasting commitments. She had no idea if he’d ever be able to take the kind of leap of faith required to claim the future she was starting to want. Then again, she’d managed to overcome her past. Surely a man as smart and sensitive as J.C. could do the same.
23
After the post-school board celebration at Carter and Raylene’s house, J.C. knew he’d finally been accepted by the Sweet Magnolias, for better or worse, he thought, given their penchant for meddling.
Still, he was pleasantly surprised when town manager Tom McDonald and his cousin Travis approached him and invited him to join the entire Sweet Magnolias crowd for Thanksgiving. Tom and Travis had befriended J.C. early on, even before the other men, because they hadn’t been around during the tense days of Maddie’s divorce from Bill Townsend.
“And bring Laura along, of course,” Tom told him. “I’m sure the women are planning to invite her, but just in case, I want you both to know we’d love to have you there. You two seem to have the Sweet Magnolias’ stamp of approval these days. Young, attractive vigilantes for social justice and all that. As town manager, I can’t tell you what it means to have people like the two of you in this community. I’d like to attract more young professionals just like you.”
“Bill’s just hired a nurse practitioner who’ll be joining us soon. I think she’ll fit right in with your view of what Serenity can become moving forward,” J.C. said. He gave Tom a wry look. “As for that stamp of approval you mentioned, is that really a good thing?”
It seemed to him it came with a lot of pressure. He’d seen that in the speculative glances directed at him and Laura the other night at Raylene’s, to say nothing of Cal’s pointed cross-examination, obviously at Maddie’s behest.
Travis laughed at his skepticism. “It’s definitely a good thing,” he insisted. “Have you not heard the way Maddie and Helen have been singing Laura’s praises for how she handled the whole bullying incident? Your contribution has not gone without notice, either. You got a lot of points for the way you opened up at the rally. And the way I hear it, they’re crediting you for getting Bill to speak, as well. That did a lot toward redeeming him in their view.”
“He wanted to be there,” J.C. said. “And I know he felt every word he said very deeply. I hope they’ll finally give him the credit he deserves for turning his life around after messing up so badly.”
Travis held up his hands. “Not up to us. If it were, it would be a nonissue, but we take our cues from our wives when it comes to this sort of thing. I’m not going into battle against the full fury of the Sweet Magnolias. Helen, in particular, scares me to death.”
J.C. laughed. “She has that effect on a lot of people.”
“And yet no one can deny that she’s the best friend ever,” Tom said. “We’ve all seen that side of her.”
“Indeed,” J.C. agreed.
“Back to Thanksgiving,” Tom said. “You have to come. The tradition is to do this at Sullivan’s because the crowd keeps growing. Dana Sue and Erik do most of the cooking, the turkey, stuffing and so on, mostly because nobody wants to try to outdo them in the kitchen. Even so, all the wives contribute a dish or two. There’s enough food for an army.”
Seeing no gracious way to get out of it, J.C. finally said, “Okay, count me in. And I’ll check with Laura and let you know.”
“So, how ser
ious are you two anyway?” Travis asked. “You’ve looked pretty tight every time I’ve seen you together. Sarah’s convinced there will be a wedding by spring.”
J.C.’s nervousness rocketed off the charts. “What is it about this town that everybody thinks they deserve inside information on every relationship in Serenity?”
“The pools at Wharton’s are a big incentive,” Travis said, clearly not joking. “That money adds up fast.”
J.C. turned to Tom. “Surely there’s some law around here about gambling.”
“Oh, I’m sure there is,” Tom agreed. “Do you want to tell Grace about it? Besides, I think all this meddling is part of our civic charm.” He grinned at J.C. “So, answer the question. How serious is this?”
J.C. thought of how quickly and hard he’d fallen for Laura despite every well-honed defense mechanism in his arsenal. “I think maybe she ought to know if it’s serious before either of you do.”
Both men hooted at the evasive response.
“Oh, boy, he’s down for the count,” Travis exulted, giving his cousin a high-five. “Told you so.”
J.C. gave him a resigned look. “I don’t suppose I could convince you to keep that to yourselves, could I?” He might be down for the count, but he still wasn’t sure what he intended to do about it.
“You want us to keep a secret from our wives?” Tom inquired with feigned horror.
“Yes,” J.C. said flatly.
Travis’s gaze narrowed. “For how long?”
“Until Thanksgiving,” J.C. said on impulse.
The date seemed appropriate. He’d been fighting the depth of this attraction for a while, but that was the past talking, not the present. Maybe it was time to leave the past where it belonged—behind him—and lock in the biggest blessing to ever come into his life.
* * *
Laura debated long and hard with herself before coming to the conclusion that there was one last thing she had to do to put the entire bullying incident behind her. In the spirit of Thanksgiving and with her heart open to forgiveness, she found herself driving over to the Litchfields’ on the day before the holiday. She’d heard that Annabelle would be going away to a small girls’ school in Charleston right after the long Thanksgiving weekend.
She rang the bell on the brick Colonial house and waited nervously. It wouldn’t have surprised her to have the door closed in her face, but when Mariah opened it, she merely stood there in openmouthed shock.
“You!” Mariah said. “How dare you come here after what you’ve done?”
“Could we talk?” Laura asked. “Please.”
For a moment, it looked as if Mariah would shut the door, but instead she eventually stepped aside to allow Laura to come in.
“Come to gloat?” Mariah asked as she showed the way into a living room that had been carefully designed as a showcase rather than a room to be enjoyed. There wasn’t a speck of dust on any surface. Every picture hung precisely straight on the walls, and not one single object seemed out of place. All gleamed from recent polishing.
Laura sat on the edge of an antique Queen Anne sofa chosen to reflect status, rather than for comfort.
“I’m so sorry you think that’s the kind of person I am, that I would come here to gloat about what has been a tragedy for so many young people in this town,” she said.
“Then why are you here?”
“To see how you and Annabelle are coping with all this. No matter how it seems to you, I know how much you love your daughter and how devastating all of this has been to your plans for her future.”
Rather than responding to the olive branch Laura was attempting to hold out, Mariah’s gaze narrowed. “Annabelle’s future is not over, not by a long shot, despite your best efforts to destroy her.”
Laura sighed. “I never wanted to destroy anyone, Mariah. I wanted her to wake up and realize that what she was doing to Misty was wrong. I wanted you to see that young people need guidance, not a free pass. Everyone in Serenity has always shared your dreams for Annabelle. She’s amazingly talented. But that doesn’t mean she’s better than everyone else or that her actions don’t need to have consequences. I honestly hope she’s going to be a better person because of what’s happened.”
“Really?” Mariah said scathingly. “That’s what you hope?”
“It is,” Laura said, holding her gaze with an unblinking gaze of her own.
Suddenly Mariah seemed to crumble before her eyes. She buried her face in her hands. “I had so many dreams for her, so many hopes,” she whispered tearfully. “I know everyone thought I was pushing her, making her do this to make up for my own dreams getting shoved aside when I got pregnant, but it wasn’t about that at all.”
“Tell me,” Laura said, honestly wanting to understand.
“From the day Annabelle first stood in church and sang a solo, I knew she had something special. She was better than I’d ever dreamed of being. We all heard it, and she was only eight years old. From that moment, I’ve devoted myself to making sure she had everything she needed. I had no idea it could go so terribly wrong.”
Laura regarded her with compassion. “Few parents completely understand how fine the line is between supporting and loving their children unconditionally and giving them carte blanche to do whatever they want to do. I may not be a parent, but I struggle with discipline every single day in my classroom. I need my students to follow the rules, but I also want them to understand why those rules matter, to get that I’m not just being vindictive or arbitrary.”
Mariah nodded, her expression filled with sorrow and regret. “I don’t talk about this ever, because there’s no point, but maybe it will help you to understand just a little.” She drew in a deep breath, then said, “My father was an incredibly tough disciplinarian, at least that’s how he saw his actions. He used a belt to keep us kids in line.”
Laura winced as she heard the pain in Mariah’s voice.
“He said it was because he loved us,” Mariah said wryly, “but it was hard to believe that with welts on our backsides more often than not. I vowed I’d never be like that. I wanted Annabelle never to doubt for a single second that I loved her more than my own life.”
“You’ve proven that,” Laura assured her. “And you’re not the first parent to go to an opposite extreme from the way they were parented.”
“But I think it’s clear that leniency wasn’t the answer, either. You should hear the conversations Annabelle’s father and I have been having about that these past couple of weeks. He’d been warning me for a long time I was too easy on her, but I couldn’t see it.”
“Then perhaps this has been a wake-up call that will turn things around for all of you,” Laura said. “Maybe you could focus on being grateful that it came in time and before any real lasting harm came to Misty or, for that matter, to Annabelle.”
Mariah didn’t look entirely convinced, but at least the hostility that had been in the air when Laura arrived was gone.
“Thank you for coming by,” she said at last. “It took real courage and grace to do that. I’m not sure I’d have done the same.”
Laura smiled. “Who knows? You might have surprised yourself.”
At the door, she held out her hand, waited perhaps a beat too long until Mariah took it. “Happy Thanksgiving, Mariah.”
“Happy Thanksgiving to you, too,” Mariah said. There was even a hint of real sincerity behind the words.
As Laura walked away, relief washed over her. This sad chapter, she hoped, was finally closed.
* * *
Thanksgiving morning in South Carolina didn’t always have the cool, crisp weather that Laura had grown up with in Iowa, but the skies were blue and the air balmy. She returned home from a church service and coffee hour to find J.C. pacing impatiently in front of her house.
“Where have you been?” he asked.
“Where do a lot of people usually go on Thanksgiving morning?” she retorted.
He winced. “Church. Of course.”
> “Is there a reason you’re here so early? I thought you weren’t picking me up to go to Sullivan’s until two o’clock.”
“There’s something I wanted to talk to you about before that,” he said, following her inside, where he continued to pace.
Laura regarded him with curiosity. “Is something wrong? You seem particularly agitated this morning.”
“I need coffee,” he said. “Do you have any coffee?”
“I can make some.”
He waved off the offer. “No, don’t bother. I’ll have water.”
He charged off to the kitchen. Laura let him go. He obviously needed time to compose himself, though she couldn’t imagine why.
When he came back into the living room, he sat down next to her on the sofa, then popped right back up.
“You and I,” he began, then stopped.
Laura had seen plenty of nervous kids in her classroom trying to work up the courage to do an oral report. It was usually best to nudge them along.
“Yes,” she said. “You and I…”
He shook his head as if she’d snapped him back from some faraway place. “I never thought I’d be doing this again,” he said, making absolutely no sense.
“Doing what?”
He looked her in the eyes, his expression charmingly bewildered. “Proposing.”
Laura couldn’t seem to keep her jaw from dropping. “That’s what you’re doing?”
He nodded. “Making a real mess of it so far, huh? You can’t even tell what I’m up to. How pitiful is that?”
Even though her heart was pounding and she was trying valiantly to keep from shouting yes, she managed to look him in the eye. “Is that what you really want to do, to propose?”
He nodded. “I never expected this. You, me. Falling in love.” He groaned. “I am so sorry. This is such a disaster. I should probably wait, start over another time. Take you out for a romantic dinner or something.” He frowned. “We’ve never even had a romantic dinner, not really. Why would you want to marry a man who hasn’t even courted you properly?” He raked his hand through his hair, leaving it charmingly rumpled. “What is wrong with me?”
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