Sumter Point

by K. G. MacGregor

  Because of her work, Beth tended to form her opinions about people based on how they treated their elders. That made Audie aces in her book, even if she was a little on the wild side.

  “Bless her heart, she sure has been good to me and her Grampaw.”

  “That’s because she loves you very much. I can see it all over her face. And I can see the same thing in yours.” Beth was startled to see a tear trickle down the old woman’s face. “What is it?”

  “Audie’s not going to have anybody when I go.”

  “No, I’m sure you’re wrong.” Beth gently brushed Miss Violet’s curly hair with her hand. “She told me she has friends who look out for her. And one of these days, I bet she’ll meet somebody and fall in love, don’t you think?”

  “I hope so.”

  “Yeah, don’t you worry, Miss Violet. Audie will meet the right person someday and be very happy.”

  Audie coaxed one of the calico kittens from its litter with a string. “See, they like to play with just about anything.” She dangled the string over the box again and another one joined in the impromptu game. “Especially each other.”

  Doug Caldwell and his daughter smiled with delight. They had come to the shelter to get the six-year-old her very first pet.

  “We just got these kittens in this morning. Four of them are adopted already. The little ones go in no time.”

  “We definitely want one, but I’ll let Kathy pick it out.”

  “I always recommend getting two so they won’t be lonely. It’s better when they’re really young if they can be with a brother or sister.”

  “I don’t think we can handle two.”

  “Oh, two aren’t any more trouble than one, Mr. Caldwell.” Audie had the sales pitch down to an art. Hardly anyone left the shelter with only one cat. “I had three once and it took the same amount of time to feed them and clean the litter box. And it’s fun to watch their little personalities develop because they’ll be different as they get older.”

  “I don’t know, Audie.” Caldwell looked at her with obvious doubt.

  “Look, you’ll probably want another one eventually anyway. If you get both of them now, you save twenty dollars on the spaying or neutering and all the shots. It’s forty-nine apiece if you get them separate, but only seventy-eight for two.” She darted the string between the two kittens she thought should stay together.

  “Besides, you’ll break their little hearts if you just take one.” She knew the little girl wouldn’t stand for that.

  “Let’s get both of them, Daddy.”

  “Are you going to take care of two?”

  The girl nodded with excitement.

  “All right. What do we have to do?” He reached for his wallet.

  “I just need you to fill out some paperwork. I’ll have somebody run them over to Dr. Martin first thing in the morning so they can be”—she paused to examine first one and then the other—“spayed. Almost all the calicos are girls. They’ll stay the night there and get their shots on Friday. They should be ready to go around noon.”

  “Why can’t we just take them with us now?”

  “Sorry, but we don’t allow animals out of here that aren’t neutered or spayed, or that don’t have their shots. We can’t afford for somebody not to follow through. Next thing we know, you’re standing there with another box of kittens.”

  Caldwell nodded and stooped to comfort his daughter, who was clearly disappointed. “I guess it’ll be Friday, honey.”

  “It’ll pass in no time, Kathy,” Audie said, holding out a kitten for the little girl to pet. “Besides, you’ve got a lot of work to do to get ready. You have to pick out names for these little babies. Then you’ve got to get their litter box set up and go to the store and buy their food and pretty little bowls. And don’t forget the toys. They like balls and little stuffed mice… and I bet they love you too!”

  “Thanks, Audie. I appreciate it.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Caldwell. I’m happy to see them going to a good home.”

  Audie smiled as she watched them walk out. The only remainders from the new arrivals were one kitten and the mama cat, not even a year old herself. She was confident she could get them out the door in a package deal too, but that was going to be trickier.

  “I wish I could get you to give lessons, Audie.”

  She turned and grinned at her boss. There were many things she liked about her job, but being appreciated by Oscar Shaw was at the top of her list. Their work at the shelter was heart wrenching sometimes, and he never took any of his staff for granted.

  “The two-for-one’s a piece of cake, especially if the kid comes in.”

  “Have you thought any more about that outreach job?”

  Audie shrugged. “A little.”

  “It won’t matter if we don’t get the endowment, but I believe we will. And if we do, you’re only going to have a week or two to make up your mind.”

  “I told you, Oscar. I have a hard time seeing myself like that… dressing up, kissing people’s asses all day. It’s just not who I am.”

  “I think it is, Audie. You may not realize this, but you’ve already got the ass kissing down to an art. That’s why you’re so good at getting these animals out the door. I want you to do it on a bigger scale. If they make us a no-kill shelter, we’re going to have a lot of these critters on our hands. We have to have people out there on the ground to educate the community and find more families willing to take them in.”

  “I like what I’m doing now.” One of the things Audie liked best about working at the shelter was the casual atmosphere. And she didn’t have to deal with bullshit when it came to the animals.

  “I know. But somebody like you can do a lot more to help these animals than a backroom technician. This is an opportunity to make what you’re doing here more than just a job. Right now, you’re making what… eighteen thousand a year?”

  Audie nodded.

  “I know money’s not all that important to everybody, but do you realize that the outreach job is going to pay almost thirty thousand?”

  He looked at her pointedly as he dug his keys from his pocket. Then he turned out the lights and held the door for her to walk out first. “Where else is somebody without a college degree going to make that much money in Sumter?”

  “I know.”

  “Keep thinking about it. You might not get but one chance at this.”

  Audie slung her backpack over her shoulder and waved goodnight, her head reeling from the numbers Oscar had dropped. He was right on every single point, but she still hated feeling like she was being pushed into something, especially since he was a hell of a lot more confident about how she would do in that job than she was. The last thing she wanted was to take the promotion and fall on her ass.

  What she really needed was somebody to talk it all out with—the pros, the cons, the unknowns. She already knew what Dennis would say. To him, the best jobs were the ones you walked away from at five o’clock. She could do that as a vet tech, but probably not in outreach. Jobs like that practically never stopped.

  She also had a good idea how Joel would feel about it. Work wasn’t about money to him. It was about making the world a better place, and that’s what he did as a physician. So if Oscar was right that she could be more effective in the outreach job, that’s what he would advise her to do.

  The real problem was that Audie wasn’t ready for such a big change right now. There was so much going on with Grammaw that she needed to be able to leave her work behind at quitting time. But she didn’t want to be stuck in a low-paying job forever, so she was afraid to let this big chance pass her by.

  She opened the door to her SUV and tossed her backpack across the front seat, where it scattered the library books she had picked up this morning for her Grammaw. The image of Beth Hester popped into her head, and she suddenly got a great idea about who she could talk things over with.

  Beth scraped her plate into the sink and rinsed it thoroughly before placing it
inside the dishwasher. Crumbs and garbage attracted ants, and it didn’t take long for them to take over the kitchen. She had spotted two or three over the weekend and had to set aside her test preparations to give the kitchen a good scrubbing.

  Ginger had called earlier in the evening to say she was just about ready for the U-Haul, now that she and Mallory had seen each other three nights in a row, including a sleepover last night.

  Beth was happy for her friend, but she wasn’t really interested in the level of detail Ginger wanted to share.

  All evening, Beth had thought about calling Audie. The story Miss Violet had told about how the girl’s mother had just dumped her with her grandparents really touched her heart. There was a whole lot more to Audie Pippin than she ever would have guessed.

  She still had her brash side—youthful and perhaps a bit reckless—but there was no way a person could survive a rough start like that and not have a lot of inner strength.

  Beth pulled the scrap of paper from her pocket and looked at the number, which she had already committed to memory. It wasn’t critical that she talk to Audie, but she had a perfectly legitimate reason. Several reasons, in fact.

  She dialed the number and waited through four rings. She was about to hang up when she heard the phone pick up.

  “Not tonight, Tinkerbell! I’ve got a headache.”

  Tinkerbell? “Uh, hello?”

  After several seconds of silence, a meek voice answered, “Hello.”

  “Is this Audie?”

  “Yes.”

  “It’s Beth. Beth Hester, from the nursing home.”

  “What’s happened?” Audie practically shouted.

  Beth’s heart suddenly pounded with panic. It hadn’t even occurred to her that a sudden call from her might be frightening.

  “Nothing! Sorry, nothing’s wrong. Your grandmother’s fine.”

  “God, you scared me half to death.”

  “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to.”

  “It’s okay. I probably didn’t need those ten extra years anyway.”

  Beth hadn’t embarrassed herself this badly in a long time.

  Phoning Audie had been a mistake. “I really am sorry. I just wanted to tell you that I was able to order the chair today like I said, so you won’t have to bring in your checkbook tomorrow.”

  “Oh.” More awkward silence for Beth to endure. “Thanks for letting me know.”

  “You’re welcome.” Calling Audie at home just to tell her about the chair order now seemed like a pretty flimsy justification for scaring her out of her wits. “I also wanted to let you know that your grandmother seems to be adjusting very well. I know people don’t always like to discuss care in front of the patient, so I sometimes call the families after work. I hope this is okay.”

  In truth, she rarely called a patient’s family at home. That job usually fell to Hazel or Clara, and she started to panic at the possibility that Audie would realize that.

  “Sure… I don’t mind at all.”

  Beth breathed a sigh of relief. Audie had calmed down and her own heart was getting back to its slow, steady pace. “You left today before I had a chance to tell you how well she was doing.”

  “Yeah, I don’t think Grammaw really wants me around when she’s getting a bath or something like that. I didn’t want her to be embarrassed or anything.”

  “I can understand that. It’s always kind of tough for people to handle when they first realize they need help with personal things. What’s funny is that nine times out of ten, what bothers patients most is knowing how uncomfortable other people are when they see all the things they need.”

  “I didn’t mean to make a big deal out of it. Was Grammaw upset that I left?”

  “Not upset, really. But she seemed a little down about it, if you want to know the truth. I think she thought you were embarrassed and that made her feel bad because she can’t help it.” Beth hadn’t meant to go off on this tangent, so she hadn’t really thought through her next words. “Sometimes we just have to give the people we love permission to be sick and let them know it’s okay.”

  “What are you saying?”

  Beth noted Audie’s defensive tone and scrambled in her head to get clear on what she wanted to say. The last thing she wanted was to make her feel bad about anything. Audie was like a breath of fresh air at the nursing home in the way she doted on her grandmother.

  “I’m just saying that… it’s kind of like what we were talking about last week. Your Grammaw’s more worried about you than she is about herself. I think she needs to know that you accept her like this.”

  Beth got a sinking feeling as Audie went silent, no doubt wallowing again in her feelings that the whole situation was somehow her fault. Everything about this call was turning out wrong.

  “Look, I didn’t mean to make you feel bad. The best part of your grandmother’s day is when you’re there, and it’s really great you’re so faithful about your visits.”

  “I’m—it’s not just being faithful,” Audie sputtered, the frustration in her voice growing. “I don’t come to see Grammaw because I feel obligated. I come because I love her and I miss her being at home.”

  “I know, I know.” Beth began to think she should just hang up already before she made things worse. “I think I probably should let you go. I didn’t mean to scare you by calling you at home. I really just wanted to tell you about the chair and let you know that she’s very well and a lot of that is thanks to you.”

  “Thanks… and I’ll think about what you said.”

  “Okay… goodbye.”

  “Bye.”

  Beth pressed the button to disconnect the phone. Then she buried her face in her hands and groaned.

  Chapter 5

  Audie shifted beneath the sheets, her brain registering immediately that she wasn’t in her own bed. She opened her eyes in the familiar room and sat up, searching for a clock. It was there, on the other side of Regan, but it was turned away.

  She stretched across the slumbering form to check the time, unconcerned that she was squashing her bed partner. Seven fortyfive.

  Time flies when you’re having sex, she thought.

  She dropped a loud smooch on Regan’s naked shoulder, her playful signal that it was time to get up.

  “Go back to sleep,” the woman mumbled.

  “Can’t. Grammaw’s moving to a new room today and I promised I’d help.”

  “Two more hours.”

  Audie fixed her lips on Regan’s neck and pretended to suck, prompting the girl to scoot away and rub the skin furiously.

  “God, you’re mean!”

  “I was giving you a passion mark. How can you call that mean?”

  “Passion, my ass! You’ll go to hell for lying. You were giving me a hickey to get me up.” Despite her protests, she slowly rose in the bed.

  Audie chuckled with mischief. Of all the women she knew from the Gallery, Regan was her favorite. She was sweet and sexy, and like Audie, wasn’t looking for anything but a good time. “You’re the one that made the deal with the devil. All-night sexual favors for taking me back to my car in the morning.”

  “I was drunk and horny. Those promises shouldn’t count.”

  “Fine. I’ll just take your car and leave it in the lot at the Gallery.”

  “How can somebody be so sweet at night and so ruthless in the morning?”

  “I was drunk and horny too. At least you can go back to bed. You don’t have to be at work until three.”

  “I suppose I should be counting my blessings that I didn’t offer to help you move your Grammaw today.” Regan stood up and stretched, allowing Audie to admire her body.

  “It’s not too late to do the right thing. Especially since I gave you everything you wanted last night.” Audie swung her legs out of bed and tugged on her jeans.

  “Nobody’s that good, Audie. Not even you.”

  Audie clutched her chest as though taking a dagger. “I simply can’t bear this anymore, Regan. You t
reat me like a plaything,” she said, her voice dripping with overly dramatic sarcasm.

  “You are a plaything.”

  “Oh, okay.”

  Beth steered Miss Violet’s chair into the hallway and looked over her shoulder at the two young men who had come to execute the move. “You can leave that recliner, but there’s a new one in the storage room that needs to be set up.”

  “You want the bed to go first, though. Right?”

  “That’s right. Then bring the nightstand and everything in the closet.”

  “What about this TV?”

  Beth leaned over Miss Violet’s shoulder. “Audie’s picking that one up, isn’t she?”

  Miss Violet nodded. “And bringing me a new one.”

  “You can leave it,” she said to the workmen. Beth pushed her charge into the sunroom, from where they had a view of the parking lot. There was no sign yet of Audie’s bright yellow Xterra. Beth had seen it out there practically every day, but Audie seemed to be avoiding her since their ill-fated phone conversation of a couple of weeks ago.

  The decision to call Audie at home that night was one she regretted, especially the part about giving Audie unwanted advice.

  Not only had she insulted someone who might have been a potential friend, she had damaged communications with the family of a patient. If things didn’t smooth over soon, she was going to have to report the situation to Hazel.

  “There’s Audie now,” Miss Violet said.

  Beth looked out the window to see Audie struggling with a large box, apparently Miss Violet’s new TV. “That looks heavy. I’ll go lend her a hand.”

  She hurried out to the lot just in time to grab the door of the cargo hatch.

  “Thanks,” Audie grunted under the weight of the TV.

  “Let me take one end.”

  “I think I can get it.”

  Beth couldn’t tell if Audie was trying to push her away, or just trying to look tough, but when Audie started to struggle, she jumped in to help with the load. “I think your Grammaw’s going to love this bigger one.”

  “Yeah, it was on sale for one twenty-nine. That’s about two dollars a pound, just like hamburger.”