Where Azaleas Bloom

by Sherryl Woods

  “Look, it was a short-term bind. I’ll put the money back into the account.”

  “When? By noon would be good.”

  “Not possible,” he said. “But soon.”

  “Not good enough,” she declared. “I doubt the judge is going to look favorably on this. And don’t even think about trying this again. I’ll be opening a new account at the bank, and your name will not be attached to it. In fact, since your name is still on this account, I imagine Helen could make a pretty good case that you’re the one responsible for all these bad checks. We’ll just add that to your list of sins when we go back to court.”

  He was still trying to protest that when she slammed the phone down.

  What on earth was going on with him? she wondered when she’d finally calmed down enough to think rationally.

  Fortunately, before she could break down and indulge in the tears that were threatening, several customers came in. She made a couple of decent sales that improved her mood by the time Raylene arrived.

  “Everything okay?” Raylene asked, studying her worriedly. “You look awfully pale.”

  “Just a frustrating morning,” Lynn said, unwilling to disclose the depths to which her husband had sunk. She knew Raylene would keep whatever Lynn said to herself, would even offer sympathy. She was afraid, though, that at the first hint of pity, she’d start crying and wouldn’t be able to stop.

  * * *

  Mitch wasn’t sure how Lynn pulled it off, but she managed to avoid being alone with him for a second. While she took his calls, she always got off the line immediately with one excuse or another. When he stopped by, she was out.

  “She picked up a few extra hours at the boutique,” Lexie explained, though even she seemed to think there was more to Lynn’s increasingly frequent absences.

  “Thanks,” Mitch said. “You doing okay? I haven’t seen you next door much lately.”

  Lexie shrugged. “I have a lot of midterms, so I’m studying.”

  “Jeremy, too? He hasn’t been over to help out.”

  Lexie shrugged. “Who knows what he’s doing?” she said, as if her brother were a complete mystery and one she wasn’t especially interested in solving.

  Mitch forced a smile. “Just tell your mom I stopped by, okay?”

  “Sure. Anything else?” she asked hopefully.

  Nothing he intended to relay through her daughter, he thought as he shook his head.

  “See you soon,” he told Lexie, intending to make sure of it. “We’ll go out for pizza one night.”

  Lexie’s expression brightened. “That would be awesome.”

  It was the first hint of animation he’d seen on her face since he’d arrived. “Then it’s a plan,” he said. “Take care, kiddo.”

  “You, too, Mitch.”

  He walked slowly back to Raylene’s. The crew had gone, and there was nothing left to be done that couldn’t wait until morning. Instead of going into the addition, he headed for the kitchen. As he’d expected, he found Raylene in front of the stove. She smiled at him.

  “You staying for dinner tonight?” she asked at once. “Roasted chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy.”

  “Put some information on the menu and I might,” he responded.

  She gave him a curious look. “What kind of information?”

  “What’s going on with Lynn? She seems determined to avoid me. Lexie says she’s picked up some extra hours working for you at the boutique.”

  Raylene’s hand stilled over the gravy she’d been stirring.

  “I honestly don’t know what’s going on,” she told him. “She asked for the extra hours, and I’ve tried to accommodate her.” She turned to him. “There was something in her eyes that really worried me, Mitch.”

  “What?” Mitch asked.

  “Real desperation,” she said. “She didn’t open up about anything and I didn’t want to pry. I just knew I had to do whatever I could to help. Extra hours was all she asked for, so that’s what I gave her. I’ve been coming up with excuses to be away from the boutique to justify it.”

  Mitch slammed his fist onto the table, wishing he could have taken aim at Ed’s face instead. “It’s that jerk of a husband again,” he said grimly. “I’d put money on it.”

  Raylene nodded. “I think so, too. I’ve invited her over here with the kids a couple of times, but she has so much pride. Not only has she refused, but now Lexie and Jeremy are steering clear, as well. Mandy’s upset. She knows something’s wrong, but Lexie won’t say a word, either.”

  “Yeah, she pretty much stonewalled me just now, too,” Mitch said. “How are we supposed help, if we don’t know what’s going on?”

  Raylene shrugged helplessly. “The only thing I can think of is to take our cues from Lynn. We need to let her know we’re here for her, for whatever she needs.” She met his gaze. “I’ll be honest, though, the situation scares me a little. I have nightmares that they’re over there with not enough food on the table, just like before. I can’t very well go barging over there with covered dishes, though. She’d be humiliated.”

  Mitch muttered a heartfelt expletive in frustration. “If the situation is as bad as you’re thinking, I’m surprised we haven’t heard some gossip around town. Grace usually has something to say about everything, but she’s been real quiet on the subject of Lynn and her divorce.”

  “I know. I haven’t heard a peep out of anyone, either,” Raylene said.

  Mitch stood up. “Well, we need to get to the bottom of this,” he said decisively. No woman he cared about was going to suffer on his watch, not if he could help it.

  “Where are you going?” Raylene asked, looking alarmed. “You’re not going to see Ed, are you?”

  “No,” he said. “Lexie said Lynn’s working. I assume at the boutique, unless she’s picked up some other part-time job.”

  Raylene shook her head. “The boutique closed an hour ago. If she’s at work, it has to be someplace else.”

  “Where else would she be working at this hour?” Mitch asked. “Waiting tables someplace?”

  “At some mini-mart or one of the big-box stores?” Raylene suggested.

  Mitch thought of the day he’d found Raylene in the parking lot of a mini-mart in the worst area of town. “Let’s hope it’s in one of the big-box stores,” he said grimly.

  “But her car’s in the driveway,” Raylene pointed out. “How would she get there?”

  A temporary wave of relief washed over Mitch. If she couldn’t drive to the box stores, she couldn’t get to that mini-mart, either. That was the good news. The bad news was, he had no idea where else to look.

  * * *

  Two days later, at loose ends and still thoroughly frustrated by his inability to catch up with Lynn, he found himself walking into the town’s favorite watering hole, a place with decent hamburgers and a variety of beer on tap. The place had provided a little too much solace during that rough patch after Amy’s death.

  Tonight he settled in a booth, avoiding the temptation of sitting at the bar. He glanced at the menu, then looked up and straight into Lynn’s horrified face.

  “Here?” he said incredulously. “You’re waiting tables in here?”

  Her cheeks flushed bright pink, either with humiliation or indignation, he couldn’t be quite sure.

  “It’s a perfectly respectable place,” she told him tightly. “You should know. I gather you used to be a regular.”

  The low blow was a surprise, but he
knew she’d delivered it to get herself off the hook.

  “I was,” he said mildly. “That’s not the point.”

  “Then what is?” she asked with a touch of defiance. “It’s none of your business where I work.”

  Mitch bit back the retort that was on the tip of his tongue. “Why, Lynnie? Why are you working a third job? What’s Ed done now?”

  For a minute, he thought she might actually answer the question, but then some sort of resolve seemed to settle over her. “Did you want to order?” she asked. “Or do you need a minute?”

  “I need answers,” he said, barely containing his exasperation.

  “Not here,” she replied.

  He nodded. “Fair enough. What time do you get off?”

  “Not tonight, Mitch. I need to get home to the kids. I don’t like them to be in the house alone so late.”

  “What time, Lynnie?” he said, refusing to back down. “I’ll drive you home. You’ll get there that much quicker.”

  She looked everywhere except directly at him. “I need to get a check to that table over there,” she said. “And my drink order’s ready for the booth in the back.”

  She darted off before he could argue. He sighed as he watched her go.

  One good thing, though: he could be patient when he needed to be. She was bound to get off sooner or later, and he would be sitting right here whenever that happened to be.

  * * *

  The second she’d spotted Mitch, Lynn couldn’t help wishing the floor of the bar would open up and swallow her. After all his declarations about not drinking, she’d thought this was the last place he’d ever wander into again.

  It wasn’t that she thought there was anything at all wrong with good honest work. It was knowing he’d guess that she was desperate for money again. And he had. In less than a heartbeat, he’d jumped to the conclusion that Ed was responsible for her needing a third job.

  She’d gone looking for additional work as soon as she’d spoken to Helen the same evening she’d discovered Ed’s latest financial betrayal. Helen had warned her that it was going to take longer than anticipated to straighten out the mess Ed had made of things.

  “It’s worse than we thought,” Helen had reluctantly acknowledged.

  “How can it possibly be worse?”

  “Did you know that Ed had taken out an equity line of credit against the house several months ago?”

  “What?” Lynn had been incredulous. “Absolutely not. Wouldn’t I have needed to sign off on that?”

  “Theoretically, yes. But we’re talking Ed and his old cronies at the local bank,” Helen said with disgust. “A line of credit for a good old boy? No big deal. Of course, that was before he missed those payments. Now I doubt he’d get it. The bottom line, though, is that the bank is muttering once more about foreclosure.”

  Lynn had listened to the news with a sense of being caught up in an unending nightmare. She’d made up her mind by the end of the call to never allow herself to be in this position again. She’d spoken to Raylene about extra hours and gone looking for another part-time job the next day. Thankfully, the bar had an opening. It wouldn’t have been her first choice, but the hours were manageable with her other work.

  She picked up her order for the customers in the back booth, dropped off a check at one of her tables, took their credit card to the bar, then returned for a signature. She stopped to check on refills for another group before finally acknowledging that she couldn’t put off returning to Mitch’s table forever.

  “Decided yet?” she inquired.

  “The cheeseburger, medium, with fries,” he said, snapping the menu shut and putting it back between the condiment bottles on the table.

  “Anything to drink?” she inquired, a challenging note in her voice, despite her attempt to mask it.

  “Large Coke,” he said, looking directly into her eyes as if he’d grasped the intent behind what should have been an innocent question.

  She nodded, oddly relieved by his response. “I’ll be right back.”

  Other than delivering his meal, Lynn managed to avoid Mitch for most of the evening, though she could feel him watching her as she worked. It was evident that he had no intention of leaving until she did. He ordered repeated refills on his Coke, nursing the drinks as if he was ready to wait all night if need be.

  “This is crazy,” she muttered at one point. “You don’t need to wait for me.”

  “Sorry. I think I do,” he said, his gaze steady and unrelenting.

  It was after eleven and nearly her quitting time when Ed walked in. Lynn stared at her husband in shock. He never came here. In fact, other than Sullivan’s with its high-powered regional reputation, he rarely went into any of the restaurants in town. He didn’t like being seen anyplace he considered low-class. The country club was his hangout of choice.

  To Lynn’s further shock, just after he entered, Jimmy Bob joined him.

  Reluctantly, Lynn walked over to their table. “What can I get you?” she asked, every polite word tasting bitter on her tongue.

  “Why are you working here?” Ed demanded. “Is this meant to be more humiliation for me?”

  Lynn stared at him, openmouthed with astonishment. “You really do not want to ask me that,” she said in an undertone. “Because, believe me, once I get started, you’re going to get another earful.”

  “Leave it be, Ed,” Jimmy Bob ordered at the same time.

  Just then, Mitch stood up and headed their way. Lynn gave him a warning look, but he kept right on coming.

  “Problems?” Mitch asked, his tone deceptively mild. Lynn saw the coiled tension in his body.

  Ed rose halfway out of his seat, but a hissed order from Jimmy Bob had him sitting right back down again.

  “I’ll send over another waitress,” Lynn said, walking away before the scene could escalate.

  Thankfully, Mitch returned to his own booth, apparently satisfied that she was going to keep her distance and that Ed wasn’t going to start anything with her.

  “Betty Lou, could you handle table nine for me?” Lynn asked her coworker.

  Betty Lou nodded in immediate understanding. “Got it, hon. Why don’t you head on out? I’ll pass along your tips tomorrow.”

  Lynn regarded her gratefully. “Thank you. You’re an angel.”

  The older woman chuckled. “Hardly that, but I know trouble when I see it.”

  Lynn spoke to their boss, who readily agreed, then grabbed her purse from the back room.

  She walked outside, drew in a deep breath of fresh air and counted herself lucky that things hadn’t been worse.

  “You okay?” Mitch asked, pulling away from the wall where he’d been leaning.

  Lynn jumped. “You just about scared me to death.”

  “I figured you’d be expecting me to be waiting out here.”

  “Well, I wasn’t.”

  “I’ll let that little white lie pass,” he said. “My truck’s just down the block.”

  “I don’t want to take you out of your way. I can walk,” she insisted, making one last attempt to put off this conversation.

  “I don’t think so,” he said evenly.

  She gave him an exasperated look. “Lordy, but you’re stubborn.”

  He grinned then. “You’d be wise to remember that.”

  He held the door to his truck open and put a hand under her elbow to help her up. Lynn had to admit that sitting down and sinking into the comfortable
leather seat felt good. She still wasn’t used to being on her feet all day long, first at the boutique and then here.

  “You look worn-out,” Mitch said, glancing over at her.

  “How flattering,” she murmured.

  “If you’re looking for flattery, I can list all the ways I find you beautiful, but I thought maybe you’d like an honest observation.”

  “I didn’t need one, thank you,” she said wryly. “I am worn-out. I can hardly pretend otherwise.”

  “Then why are you doing this, or do I even need to ask? You need money.”

  “Why else does anyone work three mundane jobs?” she said angrily, then realized that one of those mundane jobs was his. “Sorry, no offense.”

  “None taken,” he assured her.

  “I just meant that if I was working purely for professional satisfaction, I’d be hunting for a different career, something interesting and challenging.”

  “I know.” He paused before asking. “What’s Ed done now?”

  She looked away from the compassion she saw in his eyes. “I can’t talk about it,” she told him. “I’m too exhausted to have this conversation now, Mitch. Besides, it’s humiliating.”

  “We’re friends, Lynnie. And a lot more, I thought. There’s no such thing as humiliating between us.”

  There was so much gentle sincerity behind his words, it brought tears to her eyes. She looked away. Here was this wonderful man, willing to do anything he could to help, and she was such a mess that all she wanted was to go home and hide under the covers and nurse her wounds…alone.

  “Humiliation goes hand in hand with having to admit how stupid I was to fall in love with that man or to trust him for a single second.” She turned back to him and asked with genuine bewilderment, “How could my judgment possibly be that misguided?”

  “Love and good judgment don’t always go together,” he said simply. He waited, but when she offered no details, he shrugged. “Okay, if you don’t want to tell me what Ed did this time, how about this? Tell me what I can do to help.”

  She immediately shook her head. “You’ve already done more than enough.”