by P. C. Zick
“I hope this means the two of you have come to your senses,” Geraldine said when they stood in the living room watching her fold her new wardrobe.
“I’ve come for some of my things,” Leah said. “I’m going to move in with Susie. I think it’s best that way, and Jacob agrees.”
“Everything you have, I bought for you,” Geraldine said.
“You said those were all gifts, but if you want them back, I’ll gladly leave them. I’ve been without before.”
“Mother, you’re not going to make this difficult for Leah,” Jacob said. “She’s going to take whatever she wants that is hers, gifts included.”
Geraldine looked from Jacob to Leah. “Who’d want her stuff anyway? She only owns jeans and T-shirts. She has no sense for fashion.”
Leah and Susie went down the hallway to the bedrooms.
“You really need to think about breaking things off with Leah,” Geraldine said as soon as the two women walked down the hall. “She’s not who you think she is.”
Leah stopped outside the door to her bedroom when she heard her name.
“She’s exactly who I think she is,” Jacob said. “You don’t have anything to say about who I marry.”
“What if I told you I caught her kissing Dean the other day?”
“You say things like that all the time about everyone. That didn’t happen.”
“Then why don’t you ask her?” Geraldine stared at her son. “Leah, please come out here a second.”
Leah came back into the living room, wondering how she was going to tell Jacob about Dean. She hadn’t planned on having this conversation with him. Ever.
“Did you kiss Dean yesterday in back of the church?” Geraldine asked when Leah came into the living room.
Leah stood there staring at Geraldine unable to speak. As she tried to figure out how to respond, Jacob came to her side.
“Don’t dignify that question with an answer, Leah,” Jacob said as he put his arm around Leah’s shoulders. “She’s just trying to cause a rift between us.”
Geraldine marched over to Jacob and put her face very close to his. Jacob didn’t back down as he might have a day earlier.
“If you side with that tramp, you need to go and pack your bags as well,” Geraldine said.
“I’d be careful who you’re telling to leave,” Jacob said. “This is the parsonage provided by the church for the minister, who is me. I’ve allowed you to live her after Father’s death, but I could just as easily send you back to daddy’s hunting cabin in the woods. Don’t push me.”
Leah walked back to her soon-to-be former bedroom. Susie was just inside the door with her back against the wall. Leah shut the door behind her. The two friends fell together on the bed, holding their mouths to keep from howling in laughter at what both had just heard.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
After Susie helped Leah unpack, they headed down to the Tavern. Leah wanted to grab any leftover food, so she could take it down to the river in the morning before church. When a person doesn’t have much food to eat, it doesn’t matter if they eat dinner for breakfast or breakfast for dinner. It’s all food, and it all goes to the same place.
When they entered, Leah immediately saw him sitting at the bar talking to Reggie, who was wiping down the counter. She wanted to run out the door, and she wanted to run into his arms.
“Hey,” Susie nudged her when Leah stopped just inside the threshold, staring at Dean’s back. “I didn’t know he’d be here; just act cool, and it will be OK.”
Leah nodded her head and moved toward Reggie just as Dean turned to look at her. Immediately, her eyes were drawn into the depths of his endless stare. She walked toward him in a daze
“Hello, you two beautiful women,” Reggie said as they slid onto the barstools, and Leah regained her balance. She left a seat for Susie next to Dean. “What can I do for you?”
“That one doesn’t drink,” Dean said as he passed his thumb around Susie to point at Leah. He took a long drag on his beer. “She’ll have some lemonade.”
“I don’t want anything, thank you,” Leah said. “I just came to see if you had any food for me to take down to the river in the morning.”
“Sure do. My special was pork chops, and I didn’t sell as many as I wanted. I’ve got mashed potatoes and gravy, too, along with some collard greens.”
“Sounds like a great meal,” Leah said. “I just remembered that I haven’t had anything to eat today, except for a bite of a burger. Any chance I could have a plate right now?”
“Sure thing,” Reggie said. “I put the rest in aluminum pans because I thought you might be by tonight. You can warm them up just before you take them down there.”
“Thanks, Reggie.”
“Reggie, Leah’s going to be staying at the house for a little while,” Susie said as Leah poked her with her elbow.
“Sure, no problem, unless she hogs the bathroom when I stay over,” Reggie said. He grinned as he sat a glass of red wine in front of Susie. “Let me go get some food for this starving girl, since you didn’t serve her any dinner.”
Reggie left, and Susie slid off the stool giving Leah a long stare. “Talk to him,” she whispered before she left for the bathroom.
“You moved out?” Dean asked as soon as Susie left.
“Yes. Geradline’s making it impossible right now.”
“What about you and Jacob?”
“We’re taking some time to think about things.”
“Things?” Dean slid over to the stool next to her. He put his hands over hers resting on the bar. “Talk to me.”
“You left tonight. What do you want me to say?”
“Leah, are you leaving Jacob?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “He’s so vulnerable, yet tonight he did something I’ve never seen him do before. He stood up to Geraldine.”
“So you feel differently about him?”
“I feel affection for him.”
“I felt that for a dog once,” Dean said. “But it’s a strange way to refer to your fiancé.”
Leah felt the tears coming to the surface, and she fought them. Dean took a finger, put it under her chin, and turned her face toward him. “What is it?”
“You know what it is, and I don’t know what to do about it. I was ready to make love to you back there, and then an hour later I’m commiserating with Jacob and offering him comfort. What’s wrong with me?”
“More like what’s right with you,” Dean said. He moved back to his stool as Susie returned.
“Don’t mean to interrupt anything,” she said as she slid back on her stool.
“You’re not,” Leah said. “We were just talking about tomorrow, and what Geraldine said.”
“So what exactly did she say?” Dean asked.
“She’s threatening to run the river people away,” Susie said. “Jacob told her he supports Leah and the idea of continuing Soup’s On. She threatened to kick him out of the parsonage until Jacob reminded her that he was the minister.”
“Good for Jacob,” Dean said. “I bet she didn’t like it when Leah left.”
“She reminded Leah of everything she’s done for her and all the things she’s bought her. Jacob told her to lay off.”
“Let’s talk about something else,” Leah said. “I don’t like talking about people behind their backs.”
Reggie brought a steaming plate with two pork chops, mashed potatoes, and collard greens and set it in front of Leah. “Now, eat girl, you’re nothing but skin and bones.”
Leah was starved. She’d missed breakfast and forgot about lunch in the excitement of finding the barn. The few bites of Dean’s hamburger did little to fill her up.
When she finished, Reggie told Susie to pull her car around back so he could load up the pans. Dean offered to follow them back to the house to help them unload.
“That’s not necessary,” Leah said.
“Thanks, Dean; we could use the help,” Susie said. Leah glared at her friend,
but Susie just shrugged.
After they’d put all the food away in the spare refrigerator on the back porch of Susie’s house, Susie said good night and went inside, leaving Dean and Leah alone. They sat down on the back steps, and Dean reached for her hand.
“Look at the stars,” he said as he began to kiss each of her fingers. “Choose one and make a wish.”
“OK,” she said as her whole body tingled with the touch of his lips on her fingertips. She wished for this moment to last forever.
“Leah,” he said as she turned to face him. He pulled her close. They kissed deeply and long, but without the urgency of the previous times. This time was unhurried and luxurious as if nothing else existed in the universe but them.
When they pulled apart, they stared into one another’s eyes as Dean put his hand in her hair and his fingers massaged her scalp. She rubbed his back and felt the muscles strong and firm beneath her small hands.
“There’s something between us,” he said. “But everything’s happened so fast. I left tonight because I don’t want to mess this up. You need to leave Jacob because that’s what you have to do not because you want to come running to me.”
“But I do want to come running to you; except when I’m not with you, I feel so guilty and bad. I keep wondering how I could do that to Jacob,” she said as she broke his gaze and stared out into Susie’s backyard. “And I don’t want to let anyone down, especially those folks who need me down at the river. It’s all so mixed up in my mind, and now you want to help me, too.”
“Let’s go one step at a time,” he said. “I’m not quite sure what I want yet either.”
Leah looked at him with raised eyebrows. “What do you mean?”
“I’ve never been in a serious relationship. Mostly, I’m with a woman for one night, rarely two nights, and then I move on to someone new. But then again I’ve never had the feelings for any of those women that I’ve felt for you. I’m as confused as you are.”
“I see. Maybe you just want me because of Jacob and Geraldine,” Leah said. “It’d be a great way to get back for whatever happened before you left.”
“I’ve thought about that, but I don’t think that’s it. Now let’s talk about tomorrow. Are you going to church?”
“Yes. There’s a reporter coming to meet the river folks, so I need to get down there early with the food and ask them if they’d mind being interviewed. Then Jacob has asked Donald Cameron to call an emergency board meeting to discuss Soup’s On and Geraldine’s threats.”
Dean whistled. “Sounds like a big day ahead. What time do you want to go down to the river? I’ll come around and help you with the food.”
“Thanks, that’d be great because Susie has to wait here for the reporter.”
“What time?”
“Eight o’clock. I’ll get up early and heat everything up.”
“Pork chops for breakfast then,” he said. “I guess they won’t mind, will they?”
“They will be grateful for whatever I can bring them.”
Dean gave her another long kiss before standing up. “Get some sleep tonight. The next few days are going to be filled with plenty of fireworks and maybe more. Geraldine’s going to explode, and it’s bound to be ugly.”
“Thank you, Dean,” Leah said as she stood up on the bottom step. It brought her head to his chin and she looked up at him. “I’m glad you’re here.”
“For now, we have one goal, and that’s to get Soup’s On back to serving food to the river folks in a suitable setting. I look forward to meeting them in the morning.” He gave her a quick hug and jumped on his bike that he’d pulled around to the back of the house. “Good night, beautiful lady.”
He roared off, leaving Leah standing there with a smile on her face. She turned and walked back into the kitchen still smiling.
“Man, you’ve got it bad,” Susie said when Leah walked into the kitchen. Susie was sitting at the kitchen table reading the paper and drinking a glass of milk. “But I guess I can’t blame you, even though I feel sorry for Jacob.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
As promised, Dean showed up at Susie’s house at precisely eight o’clock. Susie handed him a cup of coffee when he came into the kitchen. Leah was pulling a large pan out of the oven.
“Good morning,” he said as he came over to the stove to sniff the trays of food warm from the oven. “Are we taking Susie’s car?”
“Since I don’t have the use of the church van, I guess that’s it,” Leah said. “Tommy’s going to be here in a couple of hours so if we’re not back, she can ride to church with him.”
Susie walked into the kitchen. “I put the box of silverware and plates in the trunk already,” she said. “Clara donated a bunch of paper products. Those should last for a few weeks.”
Susie left to take her shower, and Dean sat at the table with Leah while they drank their coffee.
“How did you sleep last night?” he asked.
“Very well. I was exhausted, and after that big meal I fell into bed.” She smiled at him over the rim of her coffee cup.
“You shouldn’t say things like that to me,” Dean said as he grinned back at her.
“Why not? You asked me how I slept.”
“Because when you mention things like bed, I imagine us together in one.”
They stared at one another, both grinning broadly. Finally, Leah stood up and went over to the stove.
“These are probably cool enough to transport, but still warm enough to taste good,” she said.
Using oven mitts lying on the counter, they carried the four trays out to Susie’s car and arranged them on towels on the backseat. Leah got in the driver’s side, and she carefully drove over the bumpy backyard to the driveway.
“Everything’s fine back there,” Dean said once they made it to the asphalt road. “I borrowed Reggie’s truck after I left you last night and set up a table using his sawhorses and a few boards he had lying around. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to sleep.”
“You did? That’s very thoughtful of you,” Leah said as she glanced over at him for a second. She placed her right hand on the center console, and he reached over and held her hand in his.
“You have tiny hands,” he said. “And for a Florida girl, you’re pretty pale.”
“You’ve got gigantic hands, and I don’t want to get skin cancer,” she said. “You might have noticed that I don’t have a lot of pigment.”
Dean laughed. “I guess that’s true.”
“How did you get such a bronzed skin? No one else in your family looks like you.”
“That’s what I’ve always heard,” Dean said. “But as I grew older, I wished every night on the star that I would be told one day that I was adopted. I didn’t want much of anything to do with anyone in my family.”
“Even Big Jim?”
“For a long time, I blamed him for everything. But in the end, right before he died, we made peace. I don’t think he told Geraldine.”
“I’m sure he didn’t,” Leah said. “I always liked your father, too. In fact, I loved him as if he was my own father.” Leah was quiet for a minute as she remembered the gruff way Big Jim took care of his family. “What happened between you and your mother?”
Dean stared straight ahead and withdrew his hand. “You’d never understand so let’s drop it, all right?”
She couldn’t imagine what could have happened that would be so awful, but then she never thought Geraldine would be as cruel as she’d been in the past few days when she disobeyed her.
“Whenever you want to talk about it, just let me know,” Leah said. “I’m a pretty good listener, and I’ve heard lots of stories over the years. Nothing could shock me.”
“Thanks, but let’s drop it,” he said as she pulled up to the barn. “What’s the plan?”
“Let’s go down to the river, and I’ll introduce you to everyone,” Leah said. “Then we’ll set everything up on that table you brought down. Thank you for doing that.”
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br /> “You’re welcome. OK, let’s go meet the Deer River people and get them some chow.”
When Leah told Joshua and Carol about the reporter, they said they didn’t mind the idea, but they cautioned Leah that not everyone would be able to answer the questions.
“Especially Bud,” Carol said. “He might make things worse.”
“That just shows that all types are living down here,” Leah said. “You need to stress in your stories how you came to the river. Also, you both can tell Bud’s story for him, right?”
“That’s right,” Joshua said. “We can tell all the stories, if it bothers the others to talk.”
As they were finishing up their meal, an SUV pulled up to the barn, and Susie jumped out with a tall skinny man following her. Tommy Jackson was about 6’5” with the reddest hair Leah had ever seen, even redder than Susie’s. His freckles and white skin were protected with a ball cap with the Miami Dolphins logo.
“Good morning, folks,” Tommy said as he went around the group shaking hands after Susie introduced him. “I appreciate you letting me join you like this.”
“Tommy, great to see you,” Dean said as he came from around the side of Reggie’s truck. “You haven’t changed a bit.”
“If it isn’t the famous tatter from South Beach,” Tommy said as he grabbed Dean’s offered hand. “You still going by Dean or should I call you Harold Grant, the finest tat artist in the country?”
“Harold Grant?” Leah asked. “Who’s that?”
“I guess Dean forgot to tell you that bit of news,” Susie said. “He’s one of the most famous tattoo artists in the country, except he goes by the name of Harold Grant. I didn’t know until Reggie told me yesterday.”
“Want some pork chops?” Joshua asked before Leah could ask any more questions. “We got a few left.”