“Yes! I’m fine. I’m sorry, Gramps. I was driving with my emotions, and I know better,” She called over to him. And no seat belt. Well that wouldn’t happen again. Donnie Whitefield wasn’t going to have the opportunity to cause her to behave like that again ever. It was a miracle that Gramps hadn’t plowed into her. She was trembling.
“If you’re sure?” Gramps said, then began to back up the truck to turn into his drive.
Seat belt. She turned to strap it on, and the old, dilapidated farm house that sat in the middle of the long field on that side of South Street caught her eye. It was alone, empty, and abandoned, that was about the way she was feeling. SOS/farm. That confusing tag tied to three keys. Shakily, she reached under the passenger seat and pulled out the cigar box. She moved the keys around until she found it. It was the oldest, most worn tag in the box. Examining it, she saw that there had been a faint dot after SO and a short black mark after the other S. SO. for south, and ST for street. South Street farm. She looked at the old house and the falling down barn and a smaller building. Three buildings, three keys. I own this, the thought. Wonder how long it’s been sitting here. Houses, and even sidewalks on one side of the street, and nothing but farmland on the other. It was like Bakers Landing until Donnie and Bud had the trees cleared out of the right side of the street to build a few small, but elegant houses.
The land wasn’t level. It rose slightly up to Bear Hollow Road where there was nothing but small farms. Hummm. Could streets be built from South Street to Bear Hollow Road and a community of small, pretty houses be built. Lots of people didn’t want three and four bedroom houses. Wonder if they’d sell? She’d talk to grandpa about it. He’d be the one to decide if it was a good idea. She started the car. She would be late for work if she didn’t hurry.
Chapter Fifty-two
Sully and Maude had borrowed Della’s Lincoln when she got up from her nap. Sully declared to Maude that he was not letting Clyde Willis decide when he could meet his daughter, and now they were turning into Forrest Lane from River Road. “The very idea of her having to get his permission to go any place. He’s not her husband, he’s her jailer!”
“Sully, calm down. We’ve got to figure out how to do this. We can’t just march in there ... Sully! Look! There she is! That’s Jimmy Lee!” Maude exclaimed. “Stop the car!” she demanded as she watched her daughter who was all but running down the sidewalk toward them.
Tires screeched as Sully slammed on the brakes and pulled to the sidewalk. Maude was out of the car immediately, rushing toward Jimmy Lee’s hurrying figure. “Honey, what is it? What’s wrong?” She asked as she grabbed her daughter in her arms.
“Mama!” Jimmy Lee exclaimed in surprise. “Oh, Mama,” she moaned, laying her head on her mother’s shoulder.
“Honey, what’s wrong? Where are you going in such a rush?”
“Let’s get in the car,” Sully said guiding the two women toward the back door of the Lincoln.
“I was afraid he might be coming after me.”
“Clyde? Why? Tell me what’s happened.” Maude demanded as she was opening the back door of the car for her heavily breathing daughter to get in.
Jimmy Lee breathed a deep sigh of relief as she settled midway of the seat. Maude took the seat beside her and closed the car door, then looked at her, waiting for an answer. Sully was seating himself on the other side leaving his car door slightly open.
“I told him I had to go to the store for some personal things, but that he didn’t have to give me any money, that I had a few dollars. Sometimes he puts the car keys on the foyer table, and I was looking for them. He came rushing toward me. I presumed to bring me the keys. Instead ...” she took a deep breath. “Instead, he grabbed my purse and said, ‘Let’s see how few’, and I grabbed back at it. We sort of scuffled, and he fell into the wall. It made him mad, and he was going to slap me, but I saw it coming. I ducked, and he hit the wall. Something went crack, and I don’t think it was the wall from the four letter words he let out with.” She looked at her mother and gave a light shrug of her shoulders. “There was the door in front of me, and it just seemed like a good time to walk through it.”
“Good for you,” Sully said.
“Oh, honey,” Maude said with sympathy.
“I’ve left with nothing but the clothes on my back. I don’t even have my purse. He was too strong for me. Do you think Della will take me in for a little while? I know she has a house full right now.”
“Oh, honey, there’s twin beds in my room. Of course Della would love to have you. We all would.”
“And don’t worry about your clothes and purse. I’ll get them for you,” Sully said as he stared at Jimmy Lee as though seeing her for the first time.
“You will?” Jimmy Lee asked looking at Sully hopefully.
“Of course I will, and anything else in that house that belongs to you.”
“Oh, Daaaa, uh, Sully, I would appreciate that.”
Sully and Maude looked at the young woman with uncertainty, then at each other.
“What did you start to call me?” Sully asked slowly, seriously.
“Why, uh, nothing. I’m just a bit nervous.”
“Jimmy Lee,” Maude said sternly. “What did you start to call Sully?”
Jimmy Lee looked down at her hands in her lap. She was silent as Sully and Maude waited. Quietly, she said, “I came back to this town hoping I’d find you.” She looked up at Maude. “And if not you, maybe I could find out who my father was.” And she looked at Sully, who sucked in his breath and exclaimed, “Maude!”
“Della says you’re my father. And I wanted it to be true – so much so that I fantasize about it until I get fantasy and reality confused sometimes. I guess I almost did then. I almost called you Dad. Sorry.”
“Sorry!” Sully exclaimed as he took both her arms. “Jimmy Lee, I am your father. Oh, please! Call me Dad. Daddy, Father, anything. It would mean so much to me – my Daughter. Oh, my precious Daughter,” he said with tears in his voice as he pulled her to him in a tender embrace.
Jimmy Lee put her arms around her father, buried her head in his shoulder and burst into tears of happiness. Sully held her, the tears rolling down his cheeks, and Maude sat in stunned silence.
When Jimmy Lee’s tears subsided, Sully handed her his handkerchief, and Maude said, “Sully, I didn’t tell Della. I told you I’d never told anyone until I told you today. Now, Jimmy Lee, I want to know who told Della?”
In a few moments, Jimmy Lee said, “Mama, you don’t have to tell Della. She figures out things for herself.” She sat up straight. Actually, the two of you told her. She looked at the surprised Sully, then at her mother, who was about to deny the accusation. “Mama, remember when you had to tell us girls that Odell wasn’t my father and I asked you who was? Well, Della remembered your answer. You said it was just somebody you fell in love with one summer.” Then she looked at Sully, “And when mama came back here and the two of you started seeing each other again, you told Della that you and mama had dated the summer before you left for college.
“Then Della figured that Johnny didn’t look like mama, but looked like her father, Odell, so I must look like my father. And she looked at your heavy black eyebrows and your fair complexion and figured you must have had black hair when you were young. So she took a couple of pictures of you...”
“With Addie’s camera. I recall her doing that,” Sully said.
“Yes. A front view and a profile. Then she colored your hair black and showed the pictures to me one day at the super market.
“I have your blue eyes, and fair skin, your black hair and heavy eyebrows, and we both have full lips. Della said, ‘Clear as drinking water’.”
“Well, I’ll be,” Maude said. “How long have you known?”
“Since July. I kept wondering and asking Della, if it was true, why didn’t one of you tell me, especially you, Mama? But Della said she believed it was because you were in love with Sully, and you wanted him to ask you
to marry him because he loved you, not because you’d had a child together. Della didn’t believe that you knew,” she said looking at her father.”
“And Della was right. I asked your mother to marry me a couple of hours or so ago. We’re getting married next Sunday in Wylene’s wedding chapel.” Then he added. “Your mother and father are getting married, my dear Daughter, and we are becoming a family. A family who will be living on Stover Drive until Della’s baby comes. Then I’m giving the house and furnishings, except my desk, its’ chair, and my recliner, to Johnny and Wayne. Then we’re going to be doing some traveling – as a family. We need time together- just the three of us. And Jimmy Lee, my home is your home. I am your father. You belong at home with me. We have a nice three bedroom, two and a half bath house.
“I suggest we go to the shopping center, get you whatever you need for the week-end, or whatever you want, pick up some flowers, candy, and books for Henrietta – then we visit Henrietta. And, Maude, will you go home with our daughter and me?”
“Oh, Sully, thank you, but I think you two need this time together. You’ll have a whole week together...”
“Then, Jimmy Lee, we’d better pick up some food while we’re at the shopping center. I eat dinner with Mattie, so you will too, but we need breakfast and lunch stuff – plus snacking. I’m a great snacker. Then we’ll go home tonight and do some list making. While we’re getting acquainted as father and daughter.”
“List making?” Maude asked.
“Yeah. You know – a ‘to do list’, and a ‘to buy list’, and a ‘to go’ list.”
“Sully, I think being a father has gone to your head.”
“No, my dear Maude. First thing on the ‘to do list’ will be Jimmy Lee’s attorney accompanying her to Clyde Willis’ house to collect her clothes and things. Second will be her father and mother taking her to see the two-bedroom house in Victoria Park that the boys say will be ready in about three weeks. If she likes it, I suggest we give it to her. There is two lots in the Park, but I know that Donnie Whitefield has plans for the one next to the river. So I’ll buy the other one for us. We’ll need at least two bedrooms and an office, but let’s make it all on one floor, please.
“Then third will be to apply for our passports. Fourth will be taking her to the bank to open a checking and savings account...”
“Oh, Daddy, is this real? Am I dreaming?”
Sully looked over Jimmy Lee at Maude. “The three of us, my Daughter, have a lot of years to catch up on, and thanks to my roly-poly wife, Emma, who wouldn’t give me a child, we have the money to do the catching up.”
Chapter Fifty-three
Addie barely reached Stonegate in time to check the library for grandpa before taking up her post as hostess. And there he was sitting at the bar like a customer, and looking exactly like his portrait. She would like to have the portrait in her little house, but the men liked to toast him with their non-alcoholic drinks, and grandpa enjoyed it. He was watching the news on the TV mounted above the bar.
“Ah, there you are, young Addie. Did Della’s family all get moved in, and has Henrietta come home?”
She had taken pictures of her mother’s house, inside and out, for him to see, and wished that she had snapped one of that farm.
“Yes, Grandpa, and when I have a lull between sittings I’ll tell you all about it, and I need to talk to you about something. So hang around.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” he chuckled.
It was surf and turf night, and the men all loved surf and turf, so it would be a full house. And the first members to arrive were the Mobleys. Wouldn’t you know? She thought. Eve Mobley didn’t want to lose her ‘see and be seen’ table to anyone else.
As she was seating them, Mrs. Mobley said, “Evelyn Ann wasn’t feeling well tonight, so we left her at home. And, Addie, she doesn’t like her little part time job. Do you know if Mattie is taking on anymore servers? I think Evelyn Ann would like working here.”
According to the story her friend, Heather Franklin, was spreading around, Addie recalled, she was fired for failure to show up at work. And she’s being punished – has to stay in all weekend. “I wouldn’t know, Mrs. Mobley. But Miss Mattie interviews on Monday afternoons. Evelyn Ann could call her Monday morning.”
“I’ll have her do that,” Mrs. Mobley said as Mr. Mobley said, “Take her off tomorrow’s brunch list, please, Addie.”
“Yes, Sir,” she said. Then, “Callie will be your server this evening. She’ll be right with you.”
Back at her station, she found Mr. Arbuckle and three men, businessmen, she would judge from the way they were dressed, waiting for her. And she had assumed that ‘Arbuckle 4’ meant him, his wife, his son, and daughter-in-law. But that was for the second seating! Had somebody goofed?
“Addie,” Arbuckle said, “I know we’re for the seven o’clock seating, and we would like that private table in the corner of the library if it’s not taken?”
“I’ll save it for you Mr. Arbuckle,” she promised wondering why they had come so early?
“Gentlemen, this is Addie Martin, the owner of Stonegate, and, Addie, this is Mr. Felton, Mr. Graves, and Mr. Collier.” The introductions were acknowledged by Addie and all three men. Then Arbuckle asked, “Addie, these men would like to tour the building, if it’s at all possible?”
She wanted to ask why, and it certainly wasn’t convenient.
Arbuckle was aware of her hesitation. “I know it’s not a good time, but we’ve had a busy day, and they must leave right after dinner.”
“If you could wait a few minutes, Tobias has reservations, and he always comes early. He would show you around for me.” She still wanted to know why. She’d have grandpa do a bit of eavesdropping. “You could wait in the bar, if you like?”
They entered the library, and Addie summoned grandpa.
“You interrupted an Irish toast, young Addie.”
“You sure enjoy being toasted, don’t you?” she asked silently.
“Yes, I do. But I’m waiting for some youngster to toast me with a glass of milk.”
“Buttermilk, a double,” she said.
“Yuck! And double Yuck! You make me shudder just mentioning it.”
“I like buttermilk.”
“You kids will drink anything,” he said, and Addie chuckled.
“Better stop that giggling. People will be looking at you real funny.”
“Listen. I need you to do some eavesdropping. Those three men with Mr. Arbuckle want to tour the building. Go with them. Find out why if you can, and let me know.”
“Will do, young Addie. And here comes Tobias, one of my favorite people.”
“Thanks, Grandpa,” she said and went to the door to greet the little man. Tobias’ appearance had undergone a change since he had met the rather short Mitsy Rogers, a clerk in the Sweet Shop on the Square. His bushy white hair had been thinned and cut much closer to his head, which made it curl even more. And he dressed more stylish. Addie wondered where he got clothes his size? She greeted him and told him what she needed him to do for her. “Would you mind doing it?” she asked.
“Anything for my favorite business partner.”
“Your only business partner, Tobias,” she said with a smile, and wished she could tell him how much grandpa liked him, and that he would be going with them. She took him into the library to introduce him to the three men with Arbuckle.
Mr. Collier was saying, “Well, no liquor, I guess means no town drunks.”
“We had a town derelict, but he was in a fire and was transported to a burn center farther north. When he got out, he decided he liked the town, and he stayed,” Arbuckle said, then he saw Addie and Tobias.
“Ah, here we are,” he said. “Gentlemen, I’d like you to meet Tobias Macintosh. Tobias is the proprietor of the Stonegate Treasures that you saw on the town’s Square.” Mr. Arbuckle finished his introductions and Addie left the four men in Tobias’ care, as she returned to her station thinking, it sounds l
ike they’ve been touring the town, and she was anxious for grandpa to learn why.
Grandpa, returned by the time Addie had everyone seated for the first seating. She was surprised to see him back so soon. She was going over her list of reservations for the second seating.
“You seem awfully happy about something, so I take it that their nosing around is not bad news.”
“Oh, to the contrary,” he said with a satisfied smile.
“Well?”
“They like our trolleys.”
“That’s nice. We like them too.”
“They like our town Square”
“That’s nice. So?”
“And they like our plans to make the shopping center as much like the Square as possible. And they liked what they saw of Victoria Park. And they were being very impressed with what they were seeing of the mansion ... “
“Grandpa! Will you get to the point? I don’t have all night, and I have something I want to talk to you about.”
“Young Addie, I think we’ve accomplished our goal,” grandpa said with as much zeal and excitement as he was capable of.
“What are you saying?” She demanded.
“Those men, young Addie, are interested in buying the old clock factory. They plan to manufacture something. I didn’t find out what.”
“Oh, Grandpa! You don’t mean it! Oh, won’t that be the greatest! Are you sure?” Addie was all but jumping up an down.
“Yes, but you’d better calm down. What will people think?”
“I can’t help it. This is so great. Oh, I hope they do. Think what it will mean to Riverbend.”
The Daughters of Julian Dane Page 76