“Amen to that,” Maddie said. “Those months I was on my own with Ty acting out, Kyle all closed off and Katie sobbing her heart out for her daddy every night were among the worst months of my life. And that was even with their dad only a phone call away, my mom pitching in, and after Cal came along. I can’t imagine how I would have coped without all that support and you guys around to listen to me.”
“I could speak to Karen again,” Helen offered, feeling somehow responsible for the younger woman. Maybe, deep down, she even feared that Karen’s apparent inability to cope with her kids and her job was a warning about the struggles she herself would face if she did decide to have a baby on her own.
“Come on,” Dana Sue protested. “This isn’t your problem to solve.”
“Maybe not, but Karen obviously doesn’t have the kind of support system we all have,” Helen said. “Maybe we could figure out a way to get that for her.”
Dana Sue shook her head. “No, right now I think our butting in, especially me, will only add to the pressure she’s feeling.”
Helen considered that, then sighed. “You’re probably right. But let me know if you think I can help.”
“Sure,” Dana Sue said. “There is another situation I’d like you to look in to, but Erik promised he’d fill you in.”
Helen studied her with a narrowed gaze. “His idea or yours?”
“Does it matter?” Dana Sue asked.
“More than likely,” Helen muttered.
Oddly, though, she felt a little hum of anticipation speed through her at the prospect of crossing paths with him again, no matter the reason.
Probably not a good sign.
Erik tried to get out for a walk every afternoon between the end of the lunch crowd and the beginning of the dinner rush. At one time he would have run, but recently his knee bothered him if he did. Walking wasn’t the same, but at least it gave him time to collect his thoughts, which lately had been chaotic. Helen Decatur seemed to inhabit his head a whole lot more than he was comfortable with.
Picking up his pace on the warm, sticky afternoon, he passed through downtown Serenity, if it could be called that with only Wharton’s Pharmacy and its soda fountain and Ronnie’s hardware store anchoring the main square. A lot of empty storefronts remained and probably would until a few more people showed a willingness to take the sort of risk Ronnie had when he’d revived the old hardware store and added the kind of creative spin that made it economically viable. Working with local developers to fill their construction-supply needs had been brilliant.
When Erik reached the town park, where swans swam on a small, sparkling lake, he was grateful for the shade provided by the old oak trees, heavily draped with Spanish moss.
Intent on keeping up his pace, he was almost on top of Helen before he saw her. She was seated on a bench, an oddly pensive expression on her face.
“Hey,” he said, stopping in front of her. “You playing hooky from the office again?”
Clearly startled by the sound of his voice, she glanced at him and color rose in her cheeks. “Something like that,” she said.
“Same thing troubling you that was on your mind the other day?”
“I suppose,” she said tonelessly. “What are you doing out at this time of day? Shouldn’t you be chopping and dicing and marinading for dinner by now?”
“Soon,” he said, then sat down beside her. “Actually I’ve been hoping to bump in to you.”
“Oh? Why is that?”
He grinned at the suspicion in her voice. “Do you always suspect an ulterior motive when someone wants to talk to you?”
She shrugged, her expression rueful. “Mostly.”
“Well, my motives are pure. This is about Tess, Karen’s friend.”
“Ah, yes,” Helen said. “How’s she working out?”
“Surely Dana Sue has told you,” he said.
“She has, but I’d like your perspective.”
“Well, she’s amazing,” he said, then cast a sideways glance at her. “Dana Sue says we owe you for that.”
“I didn’t find her. Karen did.”
“But you opened us up to the possibility of some solution other than firing Karen and replacing her,” he said.
“If Tess is working out so well, why did you want to discuss her with me?”
Erik took a deep breath. “She could use some legal help, but she’s not making a lot of money. I don’t think it’s the kind of problem that should be held up until she can afford to hire the best, especially since some other lawyer took her money and never did a thing to help her.”
Helen immediately sat a little straighter. “Explain,” she said briskly.
He told her what little he knew about Diego Martinez’s situation and Tess’s previous attorney. “Is there anything you can do?”
“At the very least I can pin this jerk’s tail feathers back a little and get her money returned. And I can certainly look into her husband’s case, even though immigration law is a far cry from what I normally do. Does she know you’re talking to me?”
“I mentioned that a friend of Dana Sue’s might be able to help, but Tess was reluctant to ask because of the whole money thing.”
“Tell her not to worry about that. Make sure she calls me.” She glanced at her watch. “Is she working now? If she is, I’ll walk back over to Sullivan’s with you and speak to her right now.”
“No, she’s off today, but she’ll be there tomorrow,” Erik told her. “Can you come by then?”
“I’ll try, and before you remind me, I’ll avoid coming during peak hours.”
“Tired of being drafted into working in the kitchen?” he teased.
“No, to be honest, it’s one of the few things that seems to relax me lately.”
He regarded her with surprise. “Really? What do you have to be uptight about? You’re smart. You’re successful. You’re beautiful.”
“Thank you, but it has recently come to my attention that there’s more to life.”
He laughed at that, though he gave her a commiserating look. “Dana Sue been filling your head with notions, Helen?”
“She and Maddie,” she confirmed. “I suspect you’ve fallen victim as well.”
“I have,” he said.
“Any advice?”
“Hey, you’ve known Dana Sue longer than I have. You could probably give me a few pointers.”
“I seem to have run out of arguments that work with her, especially since she’s back with Ronnie and thinks the world should operate like Noah’s ark, you know, in pairs.”
Erik’s gaze locked with hers. He couldn’t seem to look away from that hint of vulnerability he saw once again in her eyes. “I guess we both just need to stick to our guns.”
“I suppose so,” she said, though with surprisingly little enthusiasm.
“We could go out for coffee sometime, plan our strategy for keeping Dana Sue from meddling in our lives,” he suggested. “How much misery can she stir up if we’re both on the same page?”
Something that might have been disappointment streaked across her face, but she recovered so quickly, Erik was certain he’d been mistaken.
“That sounds like a plan,” she finally agreed with a forced note of cheer in her voice. “I guess Grace was right about you.”
“Grace? How did she get involved in this?”
“She says you’re a confirmed bachelor.”
“Not always,” he said, clearly taking her by surprise.
“You’ve been married?”
He nodded.
“Divorced?”
He shook his head. “She died.” Before Helen could pester him with a lot of questions he had no intention of answering, he was on his feet. “Thanks for agreeing to look into Tess’s situation, Helen.”
“Not a problem. See, even barracuda attorneys have their good side.”
Erik winced. “Sorry about calling you that.”
“Hey, you’re entitled to your opinion. And frankly, I’m rather p
roud to be called that. If you have to go into court, a barracuda attorney is exactly who you want fighting for you.”
“So, we’re still friends?”
She grinned at him. “Of course we are, though it would help if you’d answer some of my questions, instead of stonewalling me. Real friendship is all about conversational give-and-take.”
“So I hear,” Erik said.
“Then you’ll tell me all your deep, dark secrets?” she asked.
“Nah,” he replied. “What would be the fun in that? I think I like the idea of you being frustrated and wanting more.”
“Is that an ego thing?”
“Nope. It’s a guy thing. See you around. Come by and chop and dice sometime,” he invited. “We miss you in the kitchen. And we will have that coffee one of these days.”
Even as he walked away, he realized that the offhand comment about missing her was absolutely true. He’d enjoyed having her underfoot in the kitchen. When Helen was on his turf, the whole barracuda thing disappeared and she was just an intelligent, attractive woman who made his hormones sit up and take notice. It had been a very long time since any woman had done that.
And that was something he hoped to hell Dana Sue never found out or she’d make both their lives a matchmaking nightmare.
Three-year-old Mack had barely closed his eyes for the night when he woke up screaming. Karen, who’d fallen asleep in front of the TV, jolted awake and ran into the bedroom to find Mack trying to climb out of his crib and Daisy trying to shove him back in, which only made Mack cry harder.
“It’s okay,” Karen told Daisy. “I’ve got him.”
“If he gets to stay up, I do, too,” Daisy said, her face setting stubbornly.
“No,” Karen said, holding on to her temper by a thread. “You need to get some sleep. You have school in the morning.”
“It’s not fair,” Daisy wailed.
“I don’t care if it’s fair or not. It’s the way it is,” Karen told her, even as Mack continued to sob in her arms. “Please, sweetie, let me try to get your brother to settle down. Go back to sleep.”
“He’s making too much noise,” Daisy protested.
“Which is why I’m taking him with me into the other room,” Karen explained patiently. “Now, crawl back into bed and put your head down. You’ll be asleep in no time.”
After giving her mother one last mulish look, Daisy finally did as she’d asked. Karen bent over to press a kiss to her forehead, then carried Mack into the living room.
“Okay, sweetie, what’s up with this?” she asked, resting a hand against Mack’s damp, satin-soft cheek. “Do you have a fever? Or did you just have a bad dream?”
Mack whimpered and stared back at her, his dark blue eyes swimming with tears. He clung to Karen’s neck with a viselike grip. When Karen tried to loosen the hold, Mack started sobbing again.
“Oh, baby, what is it? Please calm down. Mommy’s here. Everything’s fine.” She settled into an old wooden rocker she’d found at a flea market before Daisy was born and tried rocking Mack back to sleep. It used to work like a charm, but tonight every time Mack’s eyes started to drift shut, he’d yank himself awake and starting crying loudly all over again. Nothing Karen tried seemed to soothe him.
With each new round of sobs, Karen’s nerves stretched a little tighter. When Daisy appeared, begging for a glass of water, something inside her snapped.
“No!” she shouted. “I want you back in bed right this instant!”
Her daughter stared at her for a heartbeat, obviously startled by her sharp tone, and then she began to cry, too. The sound of the two of them rose to a pitch that left Karen shaking with rage and dismay. Completely overwhelmed, she all but ran out of her apartment and across the hall, with Mack still in her arms and Daisy trailing behind. Oblivious to the late hour, she knocked frantically on Frances’s door.
“What on earth?” Frances said when she responded to Karen’s knock wearing a bathrobe, her hair in curlers. She took one look at Karen and the two squalling children and led them inside, where a TV was tuned in to a late-night talk show. Taking Mack from Karen’s arms, she began patting his back, then sent Daisy into the kitchen for a glass of water.
Her soothing, matter-of-fact tone accomplished what Karen had been unable to. Both children quieted down almost immediately.
“I can’t do it,” Karen told Frances, swiping at her own tears. Never in her life had she imagined herself as the kind of mom who could snap in an instant and hit one of her children or even yell the way she had at Daisy. “I can’t handle this another minute. I’m afraid of what will happen if I try.”
“Come now,” Frances murmured, soothing her as if she were one of the distraught children. “You’re a good mother. You brought them over here, didn’t you? You would never hurt these babies.”
“Oh, God,” Karen said. “It makes me sick to even think I could.”
“Then we’ll see what we can do to fix this,” Frances told her in the same calm, matter-of-fact tone. “You just leave these two with me for now, okay? Go back to your place and take a little nap.”
“I can’t leave them with you! It’s too much.”
“We’ll be fine. You need a decent night’s sleep. I don’t want to see you back here before tomorrow afternoon. I’m going to speak to Dana Sue and explain what’s happened.”
“You can’t do that,” Karen protested. “It will be the last straw. I know it will.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Frances admonished firmly. “She’ll understand. I’ll make sure of that. Now, go. The kids and I will be fine tonight and I can get them off to school and day care in the morning. I have a key so I can get their clothes and I know the routine.”
“Are you sure?” Karen asked halfheartedly. The idea of sleeping through an entire night lured her like some kind of lighthouse showing her the way home. Uninterrupted sleep would be a godsend.
“I’m sure,” Frances said. “We’ll talk some more tomorrow. You come over here when you wake up and I’ll fix you a nice, big breakfast.”
Impulsively, Karen went back and threw her arms around Frances and the now sleeping Mack. “Thank you. I honestly don’t know what I would have done if you weren’t here. And thanks for offering to speak to Dana Sue.”
Even if Dana Sue did fire her in the morning, an entire night in bed when she didn’t have to listen for the sound of the kids waking and a morning when she might actually awake refreshed, rather than exhausted would be worth it. She couldn’t go on as she had been. Tonight had proved that.
Defeated, she dragged herself back across the hall and climbed into bed. Clutching her pillow, she started to sob, letting out all the frustration and fear that had been bottled up inside for weeks now. She didn’t know what tomorrow might hold, but it had to be better than this emotional roller coaster she’d been on.
8
The phone call woke Helen out of a sound sleep. Used to snapping awake to deal with legal emergencies that occasionally befell her clients, she was sitting on the edge of the bed with the light on and pen in hand to take notes before she even picked up the receiver.
“Helen, it’s Dana Sue. We have a situation,” she said, sounding shaken.
“What kind of situation?” Helen inquired, her stomach dropping. The last time Dana Sue had had a middle-of-the-night crisis, her daughter had been taken to the hospital with complications from anorexia. Fearing the worst, she asked, “Is it Annie?”
“No, it’s Karen.”
“Karen? I don’t understand. What’s going on with her at this hour? And why call me?”
“Please, can you just come over to her apartment now? I’m already here and I’ll explain when you get here.”
Never one to waste time asking unnecessary questions in a crisis, especially when it was one of the Sweet Magnolias asking for her help, Helen jotted down the address. “I’m on my way. Give me ten minutes.”
“Thanks.”
Helen yanked on a pair of slack
s and a blouse without bothering to tuck it in. She shoved her feet into a pair of expensive backless slides that were about as casual as any shoes she owned. Grabbing her briefcase out of habit on the way out, she was on her way in under five minutes.
When she arrived across town at the apartment building where Karen lived, she noted that lights were blazing in both of the downstairs apartments despite the lateness of the hour. As soon as she entered the building, Dana Sue greeted her and pulled her into an apartment on the right.
“Karen’s had some kind of breakdown,” she said, her voice low and her gaze directed at a closed door to what was most likely a bedroom in the cramped unit. “Her neighbor called me after Karen knocked on her door and woke her up, pleading with her for help. She told me Karen was afraid she was going to hurt her kids. Frances—you know her, right? Frances Wingate…?”
Helen nodded. Frances had taught them all when they were in school. She’d been strict, but fair, and she definitely wasn’t prone to exaggeration. If she was afraid for Karen and the kids, then there was reason to be afraid.
Trying to keep herself from overreacting, she asked, “Did she hit them? Shake them?”
“No, they’re both fine,” Dana Sue said. “But Karen’s in the bedroom. She’s pretty hysterical. Frances was going to wait to call me in the morning, because she thought Karen would go to bed and get a good night’s sleep. But she came over to check on her and Karen was locked in her bedroom, sobbing. Frances called me to ask what I thought she ought to do. She thought Karen might need medical attention or something.”
“So naturally you came running over,” Helen said.
“Of course. What was I supposed to do? Karen’s my employee and a friend. She’s obviously completely distraught. She wouldn’t open the bedroom door for me. I thought about getting Ronnie over here to break it down so we could take her to the hospital, but I was afraid to do that. I wasn’t sure if social services would have to come and take the kids. That’s why I wanted you here before we did anything.”
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