Sugar Springs

by Kim Law

  He opened the door and stepped from the car. Showing up in public looking like the derelict he’d been when he’d first left probably wasn’t the best idea in the world, but that was just going to have to be too bad today. He was starving, and people would have to get over it.

  Before he could grab for the restaurant door and go in, it swung out toward him and Holly stood there. Tight skirt, makeup too much for a Sunday morning in the Bible Belt, and pink high-top Chucks, which once again seemed to have nothing whatsoever to do with the outfit.

  She held a bag of food out to him. “Here’s your breakfast.”

  Before he could reply, she disappeared back behind the door, then reemerged seconds later with two covered trays of food.

  “Carry these and I’ll get the rest,” she said as she thrust them into his arms.

  “What’s going on?” But he was once again talking to a closed door.

  The third time she emerged, she held a gallon of tea in one hand and a bulging bag in the other. “Let’s go.”

  Cody turned with her toward his car before he realized what he was doing. He stopped in the middle of the sidewalk. “What are you doing, Holly? What is all this?”

  She stopped by his passenger door and sighed when she found the door locked. “I can’t believe you lock your car here. What do you think someone’s going to take? Your dog?”

  “They’d better not,” he muttered. Unsure what else to do, he set the food on the hood and reached into his pocket for his key fob. He pressed a button and the locks flipped. “What’s all this food? And where do you think I’m taking you?”

  She opened his passenger door, scratched Boss between the ears, and the traitor got up and climbed over the seat to give her his spot. “It’s food for Keri. She came home from the hospital this morning, so I want to take this over.”

  He remained standing by the hood. “Then take it.”

  “I am,” she said. She reached over and opened his door. “Get in. People are staring.”

  Setting his jaw, he tried giving her the look that normally got people to back off. She merely ignored him and turned to love on his dog some more.

  “I’m serious,” he said, though he hadn’t yet told her what he was serious about. “I can’t take you this morning. You’ll have to find someone else.”

  “Come on,” she begged. “My car is in for maintenance, and they didn’t get it back to me yesterday. I need to get this stuff to Keri so she can concentrate on the baby and not have to worry about anything else.”

  “Holly,” he said, dragging the word out. He moved to stand in his open door, and put the food down on his seat. “Look at me. I’m covered in sweat, and you can probably smell me fifty feet away. Plus, Boss wants a nap. I promised him we were going home.”

  She merely gave him a look before scooping the trays off his seat and holding them in her lap. “Fine. We’ll run by your house. Boss can sleep, you can take a five-minute shower, and then we’ll be off. No biggie. Now, let’s go. I have a breakfast casserole in here getting cold.”

  “Don’t you have to work?” he asked, but found himself climbing behind the wheel anyway. He had to get to that shower or he soon wouldn’t be able to stand being around himself.

  “I’m not needed back until the churches let out. But I want to hold that new baby for a few minutes, so quit wasting time and let’s go.”

  With a final look at the woman who’d planted herself in his dog’s spot in the car, he shook his head and headed off down the street. How was it that he kept getting pulled into things he didn’t want to be a part of?

  Ten minutes later, he emerged clean from the shower and saw that Boss had downed most of his water and was now asleep in his spot in the corner. Holly was busy flipping kitchen cabinets open and closed. The instant she saw him, she headed for the door.

  “Come on,” she said.

  “What were you looking for?”

  “Huh?” She looked back, then over at the small kitchen space. “Oh, nothing. Just bored. I get that way in this town, and since the apartment is no bigger than a matchbox, it was starting to get to me, too.”

  “In the five minutes I was gone?” he asked. He grabbed his keys off the table.

  She shrugged. “What can I say? Nothing to do around here.”

  “So you just go through strangers’ cabinets?” His life had turned into something he didn’t recognize, with people that befuddled him, yet he kept going along with it. Very strange. He followed Holly out the door.

  “You aren’t a stranger,” she said. “And it’s not like you have anything of yours in there anyway. That was all Keri’s stuff.”

  That was true. He traveled with his clothes, dog, and the few medical essentials he always kept on him.

  As they made their way down the stairs, he tossed a wave to Ms. Grayson, who stood on her porch, sweeping, but mostly keeping an eye on him. He almost hated to miss their morning chat, but apparently there were eggs in his car getting cold.

  “Talk to you later, Ms. G,” he shouted out as he slid behind the wheel.

  Holly’s shoes caught his attention again, and as he headed out onto the road, he asked, “What’s with the shoes? You always have on quite a unique pair, and though I admit I know little about women’s style, I swear they never seem to match your clothes.”

  She held her feet up in front of her and wiggled them back and forth. “Don’t you just love these? They’re some of my favorites. At least in my top five.”

  “But—”

  “I know. My shoes never seem to go with whatever I’m wearing. Yeah, I do that on purpose.”

  “Okay,” he said. “But why?”

  She gave a flippant shrug. “Because I like it. It also plays into my snap decisions about people. Some immediately turn their noses up when they see them. Others don’t even notice. Quite a few are mildly amused, like you. And the last group, they love it.”

  “And what, exactly, does that tell you about people?”

  She smiled, the look so brilliant that it filled the car and made him wish he was the type of person who was as genuinely happy as she always seemed to be. “It tells me who my friends are.” She reached over and squeezed his hand where it curled around the steering wheel. “Thanks for noticing my shoes, Cody.”

  The girl was weird, but it didn’t mean her sincerity didn’t choke him up a little. “Did you just tell me your secret for your snap decisions?”

  She laughed again. “Oh, honey, that’s only one tiny factor in my decisions. But rest assured, I had you pegged the moment I saw you. Your interest in my shoes only sealed the deal.”

  “You are one odd creature, you know. Very strange.”

  “Yep.” Her eyes twinkled with the word, then she changed the subject and kept up a running stream of comments seemingly about anything and everything as she directed his turns through the two-lane roads.

  Ten minutes later they were pulling into Keri’s subdivision, a newer one on the outskirts of town. Holly had filled him in on the fact that Keri had purchased the house one year before. She’d apparently lived in the apartment where he now lived during her first two years in town, then had upped and bought a three-bedroom, two-bath last year. Next thing everyone had known, she was pregnant and there was no father in sight. Word was that she had used a sperm donor.

  And he wondered why he even cared.

  “Oh,” Holly piped up as she directed him through the maze of streets. “First chance we’ve had to really talk since the news broke. I almost forgot to ask.”

  “News? What?”

  He caught a sly smile out of his peripheral vision and it dawned on him what she was about to bring up. He groaned.

  “You’re a daddy,” she stated. She seemed to take some wild amount of pleasure from making that statement. “And you never had any idea?”

  It was a question, but he didn’t sense that she was really asking it. With a shake of his head, he answered. “Never a clue. Had this job opportunity not come up...” />
  He went silent. Had the opportunity not come up, would he have missed out on everything with them? Never even known them? He wanted to say no, but given the fact he’d avoided Lee Ann all these years, there was nothing to indicate he might have ever made a pit stop in town just for a chat. And in that case, then yes, he would have missed out on everything with his daughters.

  “Wow,” she said softly. “I think whatever just crossed your mind was big. They’re pretty special, huh?”

  He nodded and made another turn. “They are pretty special.”

  She pointed to a cute two-story with a small covered porch and a large backyard, and he pulled into the driveway. “Tell me about Lee Ann, then,” she urged.

  “What about her?” He wasn’t about to tell anyone that the woman from his past was constantly in his mind, begging to become the woman of his present. “She’s a terrific mother. I imagine far better than the girls’ real mother would have ever been.”

  He stopped and put the car in park, but neither of them made a move to get out.

  “Of course she’s a great mother,” Holly stated. “Everyone has known that for years. But what I’m wondering is, what about her? You and her. Seems this was what really broke her heart when you left, instead of you simply not telling her good-bye, huh? Had to have been, given the timing of everything.”

  Yes. And everyone now knew it.

  He wouldn’t say too much about any of it for fear of making Lee Ann look bad in ways he wasn’t even aware were possible, but he did sense Holly was asking more as a friend than a town mouth. And yeah, he would call her his friend, too, even though he would have sworn he didn’t need one. He sensed the bond they’d formed came about because they had things in common.

  She wanted to go. Anywhere but Sugar Springs if he were to guess, but to hear her tell it, she thought she was big city stuck in a small town. He’d been going his whole life. He often felt the same way as her during some of his contracts—big city in a small town. Only difference, he always had a plan to move on.

  So far, though, he hadn’t gotten a sense of needing to flee from Sugar Springs at all. Of course, he also had a short contract, and he had been aware of the terms of the agreement since day one. Less than five weeks and he’d be gone.

  He paused. That thought didn’t sit the same way with him as it once had.

  Finally, he turned in his seat and propped his forearm across the steering wheel. He nodded, chagrin covering his face. “Yes, that’s exactly what happened. She was the greatest person I’d ever known, and I did the worst thing ever. I don’t deserve the time of day from her.”

  Holly studied him quietly. When she was pensive as she was now, Cody sensed a whole deeper level to her than the one she presented on a daily basis. He had a feeling she might have been hurt a time or two as well.

  “Must have been a heck of a reason for you to do that,” she guessed.

  He’d once thought it was a good reason—not to cheat on her, but for getting so upset that it had led to that. Now that he was back and remembering just what he’d had, he was giving serious doubt to his prior thinking. With a shrug, he nodded. “Thought so at the time, anyway.”

  She gave a small chuckle. “Don’t we all wish we could go back and have a redo?”

  Ah, there was more to her. He didn’t ask, and didn’t sense that she wanted him to. It was merely one of those things.

  “Funny thing is,” she said, “she is giving you the time of day, isn’t she?”

  When he started to deny it, Holly went on, “And you’re thankful every time she does. I see it, you know. Most people think you’re just chasing her because it’s convenient. They want to see her with a ‘happily ever after’ and are pretending you’re stepping up to the plate. But I watch people more than most. I don’t just listen. And I see something different.”

  His blood seemed to grow thicker. Fear almost kept him from asking, “And what is it that you see?”

  She gave a small nod. “She’s scared of letting you in, but at the same time that’s what she’s doing. Shopping, basketball practice, dinner...almost kissing.”

  “Geez, is nothing secret in this town?” he muttered. But it was a stupid question. Of course nothing was, he knew that.

  “It’s as if she can’t help herself any more than you can,” Holly finished, ignoring the question.

  “We’re just—”

  “I get it. You’re just parents to the same kids, and you’re trying to get along and be friends for the girls’ sake. Only, I think you want more. You both want more, if you ask me. And just maybe something stronger than both of you is at work here.”

  It was merely old chemistry reigniting—something they didn’t get out of the way the first time flaring back to life, wasn’t it? Hell, he had no idea what it was or what he was doing. But he also couldn’t turn back at this point.

  Holly put a bright smile on her face and pushed her pensiveness aside to return to being the fun girl he’d first met at the diner. “But you didn’t ask me, now, did you?” She winked. “I’ll shut my mouth. Just wanted to see if my accuracy percentage was going to hold up in this one or not.”

  “And what did you decide?” He opened his door. They’d been sitting in Keri’s driveway for several minutes. No doubt someone on the street around them was curious as to just what was going on inside the car.

  She grinned and winked again. “I think I’ll keep this one to myself. It’ll be more fun watching it play out.”

  She got out of the car and gave him commands on what to carry. He did as ordered. Something about the women of this town...He constantly found himself doing whatever they said. The notion made him think of Lee Ann again. He’d wanted to spend the day with her and the girls, but she’d said they needed a day off so that was apparently what they were having. And now he was here with two other women and a baby.

  His life had definitely turned weird.

  Holly didn’t knock. Instead, she used her own key and let them in.

  “It’s me, Keri,” she called out as they entered through the kitchen door. “And I have Cody. He’s got the food.”

  Keri appeared in the opening to the living room with a very small baby held snugly in her arms and an exhausted glow shining from her face, and Cody instantly had another one of those visions he’d been getting lately. He wondered if Lee Ann had looked that happy when she’d held Candy and Kendra in her arms after they’d been born.

  Probably it hadn’t been quite the same given the circumstances at the time, but he could imagine her looking just like that today. Only with a baby the two of them had made.

  Whoa. Where had that come from?

  “Thanks for bringing all that food over, Hol.” Keri gave her friend a smile. “Want to hold Eli while I see what I’ve got?”

  Holly laughed and held out her arms. “I want to hold Eli no matter what you do. You don’t think we brought all this over just because of you, do you?”

  Both women went on about their business as Cody stood rooted to the spot, pans of food still warm in his hands. He wanted to make a baby with Lee Ann?

  No. His head moved slightly in a negative shake. That made no sense.

  He didn’t want to make a baby. With anyone. It was just seeing this baby, and having recently discovered kids of his own...and Lee Ann again...It was understandable to mix them all up together like that.

  But no, he didn’t want a baby. Definitely not. And he didn’t want that kind of relationship with Lee Ann, either. That would mean he’d have to change his life and possibly stick to one place all the time. A new mother wouldn’t want to be constantly moving to a new city.

  No, he didn’t want—couldn’t have—that kind of relationship with her. Or anyone.

  His blood began to flow again, and he realized that somehow he was going to have to figure out how to have some sort of relationship with his kids, though, if with no one else. Because he felt the same way as the woman he was now watching—the one who’d given birth only t
wo days before—looked like she felt.

  Like there was no way anyone was going to take his family from him. Not if he could help it.

  “He won’t stop flirting with me.” Lee Ann collapsed into the pedicure chair and groaned. She fiddled with the controls to get the chair’s massage rollers going but didn’t bother with letting water into the footbath.

  “I assume you mean Cody?” Joanie asked. She looked up from the paperwork she had scattered on the back floor of the salon, her hair blonde and red this week instead of black and red. Same cut, just a different base color. Lee Ann liked it. It wasn’t quite as harsh.

  “Of course I mean Cody. Who else around here would be flirting with me?”

  A snort came from across the room. “Any number of men if only you’d take down the walls every once in a while.”

  “Well, I didn’t remove any walls for Cody, yet that didn’t stop him, did it?”

  She wondered why that was. She hadn’t put out signals that she wanted more than for him to be the girls’ father, had she? When Joanie grabbed a bottle of bright green polish with glittery specks and held it up in question, Lee Ann waved her offer away. “I don’t need a pedi, I just need Cody to leave me alone. He’s been hanging around every day since he found out. Well, not yesterday. I told him not to come around yesterday.”

  “Ah, so that’s why he hung out with Holly instead of you. I guess he hasn’t changed as much as I thought. He still lets you control the situation, just like you used to.”

  “What are you talking about? I don’t control the situation.” And what did she mean he’d hung out with Holly? Doing what?

  “I know, sweetie.” Joanie pacified her as she flipped through papers, seeming to be accomplishing nothing but making a mess. “Of course you don’t. You simply don’t allow anything to be done concerning you or the kids without it being done your way. It was unfair of me to suggest that’s controlling.”