“Mom.” For the first time, Meredith caught a glimpse of her grandmother in her mother, and loved it, but she knew Kevin was blameless. Other than loving his spoiled daughter, the man was innocent of wrongdoing in the whole mess.
He had the grace not to fumble the ball. “I can’t disagree. And the fact that Charles Bellwater is a lying, conniving, cheating scoundrel who was willing to change his identity to prey on women disgusts me.” He turned back to Meredith. “Jude Anne did you wrong.”
No doubt of that. “Yes.”
“And so did Bellwater.”
Meredith couldn’t pretend innocence she didn’t feel. “He lied, yes. And I had no idea he was married, and I broke things off as soon as I found out. But I entered the relationship of my own accord, and that was my own foolishness.”
He accepted her words with poise. “Love does funny things to people.” His steady gaze said he understood that more than most. “And everyone makes mistakes, but you shouldn’t have had to pay for it with your job. Our policy of avoiding scandal put you between a rock and a hard place because of my daughter. Yes—” he turned toward Dana and dipped his chin “—I’m willing to make monetary amends for all Meredith lost, but more than that, I’d like to offer her the job back. With a five-year contract, a hefty raise, guaranteed investiture and an opt-out clause on her part only.”
A guaranteed job.
A raise.
No one could fire her, and she could continue to seek the training of the best of the best with quick trips to Washington, Philly, New York and Boston.
“I—”
“I don’t expect an on-the-spot answer.” Kevin moved forward. “We put you in a predicament, and my family will bear that responsibility. Even if it requires the law, Mrs. Brennan.”
Dana studied him a long moment before shifting her attention back to Meredith. “My daughter and I will discuss this.”
“Yes.” Meredith acknowledged her mother’s wisdom, then turned her attention back to Kevin. “You fired Jude Anne?”
He nodded. “But then her mother swooped in, dried her tears as usual, and picked up all the pieces before carting her off to Europe.”
Another example of how messy divorce can get. Despite Jude Anne being nearly thirty, her mother coddled her. And if they did have grounds for a lawsuit, getting Jude Anne back here would be nothing but work and aggravation.
Meredith was already aggravated enough, but she’d learned a lesson from her mother. Decisions made in haste come back to haunt you. “I’ll consider the offer and the legalities, Kevin. But I want you to know one thing.” She stepped forward and stuck out her hand. “No matter what happens, I thoroughly enjoyed working for you and with you. You taught me a great deal about running a business, developing rapport, maintaining decorum. And you made sure I learned from the most qualified and innovative people in the business. I’m grateful for the opportunities you’ve offered me.”
“And I’m sorry it ended on a bad note.” He shook her hand, regret and remorse shading his features. “That is, unless you return and help us bring Evensong back to the top-quality spa it was under your direction.”
“You’re leaving?”
Cam’s voice cut in from the side room. He stood there, shoulders back, head high, looking as though she’d just confirmed his worst suspicions.
“Cam, I—”
“I’ll see myself out.” Kevin turned toward the front door, nodded to Dana, and left.
Dana exited through the kitchen door, leaving Cam and Meredith alone.
Words escaped her. She stood rooted to the soft carpet, not knowing what to say. How to explain.
Cam withdrew a newspaper from the nearby table top. “This is what you wanted to tell me, isn’t it?”
Shame cut. “Yes.”
“That you fell in love with a guy who pretended to be someone else. Who cheated on his wife, broke his vows, disgraced his kids, and lied his way through multiple affairs, if the national news reports this morning are to be trusted.”
Meredith hadn’t gone near a news station. “There are more?”
“Three so far. It seems Charles employed the girl-in-every-port mentality.”
Meredith sank onto the couch. “I can’t believe I was so stupid. That I believed him.”
He stayed where he was, watching her. Probably totally disgusted. “You weren’t alone.”
“That doesn’t make it better.”
“You loved him.”
She frowned. “I thought I did. And it seemed so glamorous at the time. A boyfriend that traveled the world, handsome and smart. Successful. Quick to spend money.” She stared at her hands before shrugging. “Stupid.”
“I’d say naive.”
“Semantics, Cam.”
“So.”
He moved halfway across the room and took a seat in the chair opposite her. Not next to her, she noted, although the sofa offered plenty of room. A telling move.
“You’re leaving.”
“Kevin offered me my job back.”
“He was your boss in Maryland?”
She nodded. “Yes. And Evensong Resort plays a part in what I didn’t get a chance to tell you. I had broken things off with Chas when I found out he was married. The internet’s an amazing thing, and I stumbled onto a picture of him and Sylvia that popped up even without his full name. I couldn’t believe my eyes. So then I researched, realized I’d been duped and dumb, and broke things off.”
She paused, wishing she could spiral time backward, wanting to even the playing field, clean her soul, but Cam had lived the sweet life of husband. Father. Widower. And she had no right to mess things up for him.
“Continue.”
She looked up. He sat just out of reach, watching her, but he didn’t look disgusted. Or disdainful. Sad, yes. Concerned. But not reviled, so that was good. “I kept working until last summer when Kevin’s daughter approached me. She’d found out about Chas, who he was, what I’d done, and she told me she wanted my job, that she’d do whatever proved necessary to get it. Including going public with my affair with Charles Bellwater.” Meredith paused, remembering the conversation. Jude Anne’s triumph. Her derision. “Evensong Resort doesn’t embrace scandal. I knew if she tipped the press, I’d be done anyway. So I left quietly. Came home. And you know the rest.”
She waited, wishing she could paint a better picture of her actions, but that pristine portrait didn’t exist. But it could and would. She’d decided that long ago. And despite Cam’s look of compassion, she’d lived in the southern part of Allegany County long enough to know that some folks would have a field day with this new discovery. Her immoral actions would spur old talk and new speculation, the two things she hated most. The things that had pushed her from home long ago.
Cam leaned forward, hands clasped. “I loved my wife.”
Meredith knew that. It showed in the way he talked of her, the care he gave those girls, the shadow of pain in his gaze when memories piqued him.
“We worked so well together. I was serious, she liked to play. I worked doggedly, she gave me rest. I was totally certain we weren’t ready for family and commitments, and then she got pregnant.”
“Those things have a tendency to happen in a young marriage.”
Cam regarded her with his usual calm. “Sophie was born seven months after our wedding.”
“Oh.”
He nodded. “Yeah. ‘Oh.’ And I didn’t think I was ready, but that’s because
I have this stick-in-the-mud personality that gets in the way sometimes.”
“Whereas I’d say solid. And caring. And dependable.”
He didn’t smile in agreement. His gaze rejected the affirming words. “Kristy got sick a few years later. Sophie was in preschool, Rachel was a toddler, they were always catching things. And every time she caught a cold, Rachel would get this really bad cough. Nasty sounding.”
Meredith nodded, unsure where he was going, but the pained look on his face said he didn’t revisit these days often.
“Kristy developed an awful cough, too, just like Rachel’s. It was worse at night, and she felt bad about waking me because I was working on a school house project and finishing a summer job that ran into time delays. Kristy was home with the girls, so our finances depended on my income and that summer job contract wouldn’t be paid in full until it was complete and passed the Landmark Society’s inspection. Summer gets tight for teachers financially, so I was playing catch-up each week. When Kristy got sick, she decided I needed to sleep and so she left our room and went out to sleep on the couch.”
“Because she was concerned for you, Cam.”
He grimaced. “No, because I’d gone off on the whole family that day, yelling about how I had so much to do, that I was overwhelmed, and a good night’s sleep once in a while would be appreciated.”
Guilt and disgust marked his face. Pain shadowed deeper circles beneath his eyes. He clasped his hands and moved closer. “She died that night. All alone, sleeping on the couch, so that I could get my sleep. And for the longest time I couldn’t forgive myself for letting that happen.”
God help him. Help me. Tell me what to say, what to do. Please.
No words came, nothing of import, anyway. How could she address his guilt and angst when he couldn’t come to terms with it himself?
He stood.
So did she.
“But lately, I’ve been realizing that maybe it’s not all about me. Or my mistakes. That if I believe in God, in Christ, in the word, then I have to accept that I’m not always in charge. That sometimes I have to let go. Step back.”
“And that’s not easy for you.”
“Or you.” His face softened with a slight smile. “We’ve both messed up, Mere.”
“Cam, no, you can’t possibly equate what happened to Kristy, with—”
He cupped her cheek with one hand, quieting her. “I thought God didn’t measure mistakes.”
She frowned.
He trailed his finger lightly to her cheek, her jaw. “Whither thou goest, I will go. And whither thou lodgest, I will lodge. And thy people shall be my people, Mere.”
Did he mean…?
The warm look in his eyes said yes.
His kiss confirmed it.
“Cam…”
“Meredith, if you decide to go back to Maryland, to take that job, then the girls and I will follow you. Dog your steps. Shadow you. Because you got away from me once.”
She nodded and bit her lip, quick tears of joy stinging her eyes.
“And I refuse to let that happen again. I learned the hard way we don’t know the day or the hour.”
“No.” She shook her head in agreement.
“So I’m not in the mind of wasting time, ever again. Will you marry me, Meredith? Share my life, my kids, my ups and downs and my stick-in-the-mud ways?”
She couldn’t believe this was happening, really happening. That Cam had come here, knowing what happened in Maryland. He’d bared his soul and proposed.
“You’d really come to Maryland with me?”
He gave her that point-blank studious stare she loved so much. “I believe I made that clear.”
So Cam-like. So…perfect.
“Does it sweeten the deal if I say that I don’t ever want to go back to Evensong Resort in this lifetime? That I’ve had enough of backdoor politics and high-income drama to last forever? That all I want to do is open Stillwaters and grow old with you, all the days of my life?”
He grinned, grabbed her into a longer, lingering kiss, then turned her around. “Better yet, come on, grab your jacket. It’s crazy cold out there for April.”
“Because?”
“We’ve got to tell the girls, your mother, my mother…”
He tugged her closer as a voice called from the kitchen, “I’m good! I’ve been listening and you did quite well, Cameron, if I do say so myself. And of course you’ll let me help with the planning end, right?”
Meredith met Cam’s gaze with a silent promise of tomorrow. “How fast can you plan, Mom?”
Dana bustled through the door, her laptop in hand. “I’ve already drawn up the guest lists we used for the boys’ weddings, so we’ve got a head start. You guys give me a date when you get done kissing, and we’ll go from there.”
“Will the White Church at the Bend be in good shape by August?”
“Should be.” Dana nodded, matter-of-fact and purposeful, tapping keys the moment she sat. “Matt and his father-in-law have a crew lined up to do the roofing and plaster work once the weather dries up.”
“Can Reverend Hannity join in with Simon?” Cam asked.
“Love ’em both, so yes,” Meredith agreed. “If they’ve got time. And in all seriousness, Cam?” Meredith cradled his face and kissed him gently. “I’d marry you tomorrow with no pomp and circumstance required.”
“Then…”
“But—” she flicked him a grin, grabbed her jacket, and headed for the door, pulling him along “—there are two little girls who would love a chance to be in a wedding, I expect. And a few months will give me time to get to know them better. And build a better relationship with your mother. And open a spa. And…”
He laughed, waved to Dana, and followed his future bride through the door. “I get it. But just so you know.” He stopped her forward progress and drew her in for one more drawn-out, love-you-so-much kiss. “I will be a wonderful husband to you, Meredith.”
A smile and a sheen of tears mixed her expression. “I know. And I’ll give the whole family free haircuts, totally a win/win.”
He sighed as she dropped her head to his chest, the feel of holding her, loving her, filling his heart. Calming his soul.
She was on the phone before he put the car in gear, checking her calendar with Pastor Simon, throwing out dates, figuring out how to squeeze in a wedding between soccer tournaments, his summer job at the new cooperative and the opening of Stillwaters.
Listening to her, he realized her fears of being like her father were unwarranted. Meredith Brennan was her mother’s daughter, a gentle, trusting, hardworking soul that simply wanted to do a good job.
And he couldn’t wait to get started on that together.
* * * * *
Keep reading to read an excerpt of The Promise of Home by Kathryn Springer!
Dear Reader,
I love this story of Meredith and Cam’s reunion, their second chance. Teenage love is filled with the tempest of the moment, the hour, the day. It’s a high-energy time, ripe with expectations.
Mature love sees beyond the romance and takes the chance anyway, knowing that faith, hope and love abide. Cam’s story was based on a glimpse into Southern Tier life afforded me by a seatmate on my plane ride from Orlando to Rochester, New York. She told me of a teacher who goes beyond…a shop teacher who buys old buildings and uses their refurbishing to teach his class life skills. AWESOME!
Meredith? She’s based on a local gal who lived her drea
m, despite being advised against it. Jackie Fridd Leturneau was a smart teen who wanted to do hair. She was advised to go to college and make something of herself. Her family disagreed, because shouldn’t we all be able to make money doing what we love?
In 1993 the family started a small salon. Jackie’s mother Judy was on board, and soon her sister Jennifer joined the group. Together, these three women built a business that necessitated a move in seven short years. Nine years later they built a 10,000-square-foot spa and salon, offering warm and engaging services to upstate New York. Their story, their success, became Meredith Brennan’s work story. I love women who go outside the norm to achieve their dreams, and when I was first introduced to Solutions Studio and Spa in Rochester (by my beautiful daughter-in-law Lacey), I was amazed by what these gals had done.
Life isn’t always easy. Life demands choices and change. In Meredith’s case it meant owning bad choices. In Cam’s it meant dealing with guilt and moving on. But with God’s help, with his direction, our past can become the floorboards of the present. Something to stand on and learn from, no more, no less.
I hope you enjoy this story of forging a new family, right here in Allegany County, New York!
Ruthy
Questions for Discussion
Meredith Brennan has returned to Allegany County for a fresh start, a new beginning. “Coming home” after a long absence can be exhilarating and scary. Have you ever had to return to an old place, an old time? Was the return easy? Why or why not?
Meredith is clearly ashamed of her past and regrets her actions. Do you think it would be easy to get swept up in a fast-paced lifestyle when surrounded by well-to-do people? Does that make it easier to excuse your actions?
A Family to Cherish Page 20