The Summer of New Beginnings: A Magnolia Grove Novel

by Bette Lee Crosby

  There was a note of melancholy in her voice, but it came from deep down and was not obvious in the smile she wore.

  By two o’clock, the aroma wafting through the house was enough to make a person ravenous.

  “Dinner will be served in five minutes, so please come to the dining room and find a seat at the table.” She turned to Meghan. “Will you refill the wineglasses, dear?”

  After the wine was poured and the guests were seated, after they’d said grace and thanked the Lord for their bounty, after Lila had begun to carve the turkey, there was a knock at the door.

  With everyone chatting back and forth, Lila was the only one who heard it.

  “Oh, dear,” she murmured, fearful it was an unexpected guest. She’d already used the entire set of dinnerware, and there wasn’t another chair to be had. She herself was sitting on the rolling chair from Meghan’s desk. Still, on a day when there was so much to be thankful for, she couldn’t leave a hungry guest standing on the doorstep.

  Looking across the table, she said, “Tracy, I believe there’s someone at the door. Will you get it, please?”

  “Sure.” Tracy jumped up and hurried off.

  Moments later, everyone at the table heard the sound of angry voices. Lila handed Phoebe the long knife and said, “I’ve got to go check on Tracy. Finish carving and pass this around.” She got up and trotted toward the door.

  Meghan was right behind her. The driveway was filled with cars, but through the large window in the living room, Meghan saw the car with one blue fender parked alongside the curb.

  “Oh, no,” she said with a groan.

  When they got to the door, Tracy was blocking the entranceway, and Dominic was standing out on the porch.

  He was drunk—not a little tipsy, but so drunk he was listing to one side like a bent flagpole. “What do you want from me?” he whined. “I already said I’m willing to get married.”

  Even from a distance, the smell of whiskey on his breath was overpowering. “I don’t want anything! Just get out of here and leave me alone.”

  He took a step forward and steadied himself against the porch rail. “Forget about it. I’m not leaving. I drove down here to be with my family for the holiday, and that’s what I’m gonna do. I’m not taking no for an answer.”

  “You didn’t come for us, Dominic. You came to see your grandma. Go back to her house. She’s your family. The only family you’ve got!”

  “Wrong, wrong, wrong!” he slurred. “I got you and Lucas.”

  “No, you don’t. You turned your back on us a long time ago, and now we’re doing the same to you. We’ve got our own lives, and they don’t include you!”

  “The hell they don’t! Lucas is my kid! I got rights!” He let go of the railing and staggered toward Tracy. “I’m here to see him, and I’m gonna.”

  “No, you’re not.” She stepped forward, blocking his path and forcing him to back away from the door.

  As Lila peered from behind her daughter, her face became stiff and almost colorless. “I think it would be best if you just leave, Dominic. If you want to discuss this with Tracy, come back some other time. Right now we’ve got a houseful of company.”

  “Butt out!” he yelled. “I don’t give a crap about you or your company! I’m here to get what’s mine, and I’m not leaving!”

  “We’re not yours!” Tracy said angrily. “We stopped being yours when you canceled that insurance without caring what happened to Lucas.”

  Dominic reached out and grabbed hold of Tracy’s shoulder. “Jeez, Tracy, gimme a break! You know I didn’t do it to hurt him. I was just trying to make you see you needed me.”

  She jerked loose of him, stiffened her arm, and slammed her hand flat against his chest, forcing him to move back another step. “What’s done is done! The only thing you can do now is get out of here and leave us alone!”

  “Honey babe, don’t act this way. All I want is to be with my family.”

  “We’re not your family! We never were! I tried to make us one because I loved you and wanted Lucas to have a home, but that’s over and done with.”

  “It doesn’t have to be. Just come back to Philadelphia. I swear it will be different this time. We’ll get married, find a nice little apartment, and give the kid a home.”

  Hearing him call Lucas the kid rankled Tracy even more. “No way, Dominic. It’s too little, too late.”

  Tom came up behind Meghan and whispered, “Do you need help?”

  She turned to him with a look of concern. “Tracy is having trouble getting Dominic to leave.”

  Tom listened to the exchange for a moment, then edged past Meghan and eyed Dominic. “Do we have a problem here?”

  “We?” Dominic replied with a sardonic laugh. “You’ve got nothing to do with this, buddy boy, so get your sorry ass back inside and leave us alone. This is between my wife and me.”

  “I’m not your wife!” Tracy shouted. “Not now and not ever!”

  A tear glinted in Dominic’s eye, and his voice turned mellow, more pleading than demanding. “Aw, don’t say that, babe. You know we belong together.”

  “No, we don’t, Dominic. It’s over. There is no we.”

  “But if you’d come home—”

  “I’m not going back to Philadelphia. Not ever. The only thing I want is for you to leave me alone. Let me raise Lucas in a place where he’s loved.” Her tone was level and resolute.

  “I’m not buying that crap!” he said, his voice angrier, louder, and more aggressive. “He’s my kid, too. I got rights! Either you get your ass home, or I tell the cops you kidnapped him and sue for custody! We’ll see how much you like it when they come and cart him off!”

  The thought of his taking Lucas came at Tracy like a tidal wave. She fisted her hands and pounded them furiously against his chest. “If you ever do anything to hurt him, I’ll—”

  Dominic grabbed her arms, pinned them back, pulled her body to his, and lowered his mouth toward hers.

  “No!” she screamed, and turned her face.

  In the blink of an eye, Tom bolted past everyone else and pulled Dominic away from Tracy. In what seemed a singular movement, he had Dominic’s right arm twisted behind his back.

  “No means no!” he said, and keeping Dominic’s arm pinned, he edged him toward the steps. “I think you’d better leave now.”

  Given no alternative, Dominic lowered his right foot down onto the top step. As soon as his arm was freed, he turned back and lunged at Tom.

  Tom instinctively swung, and his fist smashed hard against the right side of Dominic’s jaw.

  For a brief moment, Dominic wobbled, then staggered backward, missed the step, and fell spread eagle on the front lawn. The side of his face had already begun to swell.

  Looking up at both Tom and Tracy, he narrowed his eyes and swore. “This ain’t over. Not by a long shot.” His words had a menacing tone, and Tracy feared that he’d spoken the truth.

  Tom wrapped a protective arm around her shoulders and turned toward the doorway. Just before they stepped inside, Tom looked back and warned, “Don’t say things you’ll come to regret.”

  As the door clicked shut, they heard Dominic yell, “Screw you!”

  Standing there on one side of the door with Dominic still screaming obscenities on the other, Tracy began to tremble, and tears cascaded down her cheeks.

  “It’s okay now,” Tom said, and squeezed her shoulder. “That was just the whiskey talking. I’m sure when Dominic sobers up, he’ll feel terrible about the things he said.”

  Tracy wanted to believe that, but a small niggling doubt remained in her mind. “Let’s hope so,” she replied wearily.

  Meghan wrapped her arms around her sister and held her close.

  “Tomorrow we’ll get a restraining order to make sure he doesn’t show up here again.”

  Turning to Lila, Meghan said, “Go see to dinner, Mama. Tom and I will stay with Tracy for a while.”

  As Lila returned to the dining room and
slid into her seat, she noticed the anxious faces around the table and realized they had heard everything. “I’m sorry about the ruckus,” she said. “But there’s nothing to worry about. Everything is okay now.” She scooped a ball of mashed potatoes onto her plate, then passed the bowl to Phoebe. “You must try these. They’re made with sour cream.”

  Despite the air of nonchalance, Phoebe saw how Lila’s brows were knitted together and her face paled to a ghastly white. “You sure everything is okay?”

  “Absolutely,” Lila answered, and gave a stiff smile.

  It was almost ten minutes before Tracy was composed enough to rejoin the others. She’d stood there listening for the sound of Dominic’s car roaring off, but it didn’t happen. When she finally turned away, she glanced out the side window and saw his car still parked in front of the house. She felt a strange new ache settling into her heart, partly because of the family they had never been and partly because of what she feared might happen in the days to come.

  As they returned to the dining room and settled at the table, Meghan gave a lighthearted shrug and offered up a feeble explanation. “Just an angry ex looking to crash the party.”

  After a few minutes of stilted conversation, she segued to the subject of Charles’s wine-tasting tour, and, as suspected, he took it from there. Before long, the guests were back to chatting as they had previously.

  Later on, while Meghan helped Lila set pies and cakes on the table, Tracy went back to the living room and again peeked from the side of the window. Dominic’s car was gone. She breathed a sigh of relief and returned to the table.

  Sitting next to her, Gabriel folded his hand over hers and asked, “Are you all right?”

  She gave a thin smile and nodded.

  Late in the day, it turned chilly, so Tom and Gabriel gathered kindling and lit the fire pit in the backyard. Claiming it was much too cold to be sitting outside, Phoebe and Charles plopped down on the sofa and remained in the living room, as did Lila and several other guests.

  “I think it’s refreshing,” Tracy said. She shrugged on a wool sweater and bundled Lucas into a jacket. When they pulled the Adirondack chairs close to the pit, she sat him in her lap.

  For a short while, Sox chased squirrels around the yard, then he settled alongside Meghan’s feet. As the sun slowly slipped from the sky, most of those in the outside group left and returned to the warmth of the house. By the time the stars appeared, it was only the sisters, Gabriel, and Tom. Meghan went into the house and returned with four mugs of hot cider, and they sat there talking long after the other guests were gone. Tracy said because of the school, Lucas was learning new things every day. She laughed.

  “With all the baking Mama’s been doing, she’s taught him to say pie.”

  This was only partially true. While he made an attempt at the word, it came out sounding like “eye.”

  “None of this would have happened if Meghan hadn’t reached out to Gabriel,” she added.

  Meghan described the first time she’d met Gabriel and how she’d sat and listened to his music for almost two hours.

  “I was in high school then, and yet I still remember how I could hear the sound of his guitar almost two blocks away.” She looked at Gabriel with a smile that lit her eyes. “It was almost a magical experience.”

  “Magical?” Gabriel said, and gave a shy grin.

  With only the slightest bit of persuasion, he got his guitar from the car and began to play. In an odd way—a way she couldn’t quite put a name to—that evening also seemed magical, and it would remain in Meghan’s heart for a long time.

  Secret Santa

  On the Monday after Thanksgiving, Meghan began work at the clinic. That morning she carried her laptop into Tom’s office and sat at the opposite side of the desk as she signed on and registered for the ACT Veterinary Assistant Training Course. After ten sessions of study and ninety hours of hands-on training with Tom, she would receive her certification.

  By lunchtime, she was halfway through the first section on office etiquette and hospital procedures.

  That same afternoon, she donned one of the colorful new smocks Emily had ordered from the laundry service and stepped in to calm Clara Albright’s cat so that Tom could inspect a suspicious growth in the animal’s ear. Afterward she walked the dogs and put clean bowls of water in every cage.

  One day rolled into another, and this new routine quickly became a way of life for both Meghan and Sox. In the early part of the day, as she sat at the laptop and studied, he curled up beneath the desk and napped. In the afternoon when she worked alongside Tom, Sox explored the clinic and entertained the customers by sniffing out loose treats that had fallen to the floor.

  On Wednesday, Meghan moved on to section two, which covered animal restraint and handling. That day she trimmed Biscuit’s nails and applied a salve to the hot spot poor Hershey had chewed raw. She’d taken an extra few minutes to scratch his ears and hug his neck, and afterward the large brown Labrador stood quietly, allowing her to disinfect the area and bandage his leg.

  “Sweet baby,” she cooed, talking to the dog in much the same way she did Lucas. The soothing sound of her voice seemed to have a calming effect on both.

  Tom shook his head and smiled. “You’ve got the touch. No question about it.”

  Meghan glanced over at him.

  “You were right,” she said, smiling. “I love working with animals.” She rolled the gauze around Hershey’s hind leg another time and sighed. “I can’t imagine why it took me all these years to realize it.”

  On the first day of December, Meghan came into the office carrying a large poinsettia and a shopping bag filled with holly garland and pinecones. Sox trotted along behind her, a bright-red bow tied to his collar.

  “’Tis the season,” she said gaily, placing the poinsettia on Emily’s desk as she breezed by. Before the first customer arrived, there was a jar of candy canes on the counter and a festive garland strung across the back wall. Once everything was in place, Meghan eyed the reception room and noticed a bare spot on the wall behind Emily’s desk.

  “That wall needs a wreath,” she said.

  Emily, who had never in all her years of working for Dr. Anderson considered the wall behind her, turned, and looked.

  “Golly, you’re right. I’ll pick one up at lunchtime.”

  That afternoon, Councilman Dolan came in and asked if he might put a sign about the tree lighting in the front window.

  “Sure,” Tom said, “and if you’ve got extras I’ll stand one on the reception desk.”

  Councilman Dolan, of course, had extras. The Christmas tree lighting was one of Magnolia Grove’s biggest events. Bigger even than the Fourth of July parade.

  “You’ll be there, won’t you? Doc Anderson is this year’s Santa.”

  Tom eyed the date of the lighting. December fifteenth. “So Doc Anderson’s Santa, huh?”

  Dolan nodded. “Yeah, he’s gonna be great. After we do the community sing-along and light the tree, he’ll go around passing out candy and toys to the kids.”

  Tom grinned, knowing this would be the perfect time and place for his next plan.

  “I’ll be there,” he said. “We all will.”

  After Dolan left, Tom went into his office, closed the door, and made several phone calls. The first was to Doc Anderson.

  “I’ve got this idea,” he said, “but I’m going to need your help . . . ” He went on to explain everything.

  “That’s a good one,” Anderson said, chuckling. “I’d be happy to do it.”

  Tom made a few more calls, then went out and whispered something in Emily’s ear.

  She laughed. “You think she’s really gonna believe that?”

  Tom nodded. “I’m hoping.”

  Before the day ended, Emily announced that she was getting ready to place another order for surgical gloves and asked if Meghan knew her size.

  “Small, I guess,” Meghan replied.

  Emily looked up, trying to keep
a straight face. “They don’t come small, medium, large. These are surgical gloves. You need a specific size.” Turning back to the computer, she said, “Ask Tom to measure your hand.”

  “Okay.”

  Meghan turned down the hallway and popped her head through the doorway to Tom’s office. “Emily said you need to measure me for surgical gloves.”

  With his face deadpan, Tom pulled a length of twine and a ruler from his desk. He started with her wrist, then measured the width of her palm and lastly all four fingers one by one. When he’d finished he said, “That’s it,” and smiled.

  The surgical gloves were not mentioned again, but the following Monday, a carpenter came and framed out a small office directly across the hall from Tom’s. By Wednesday the walls were up. It was painted on Thursday, and on Friday, a new desk was delivered. By then Meghan had plowed through emergency room procedures and was partway through pharmacy and pharmacology.

  As the tree lighting drew closer, an aura of excitement seemed to settle over the whole town. Shopkeepers decorated their front windows with oversize wreaths, blinking lights, and spray-on snow, and passersby who throughout most of the year gave only a nod stopped to shake hands and say Merry Christmas.

  On the eighth of the month, ladders went up around the Virginia pine in the center of the square, and for two days a volunteer team worked at weaving strands of lights through the branches, hanging colored globes, and draping countless yards of sparkly gold garland.

  Lila baked six trays of sprinkled cookies for Santa to hand out at the tree lighting, and Tracy wrapped each one in festive holiday paper. The cover of that week’s Snip ’N’ Save was a photo of Lucas dressed in a pointy green hat and elf suit. Below his picture was a banner that read: DON’T FORGET THE TREE LIGHTING . . . 6:00 P.M., DECEMBER FIFTEENTH.

  The Wednesday of the tree lighting, the Anderson Animal Clinic closed an hour early, and everyone went home to get ready for the big event.