Where Azaleas Bloom

by Sherryl Woods

  Lynn directed Mitch to take the pies into the house, then followed him inside. Not a single one of the women gathered there were even a tiny bit subtle with their speculative looks when Lynn and Mitch walked in together.

  “Your duty’s done,” she told him, flushing under all that scrutiny. “I’m sure you don’t want to hang out in here with the women.”

  He leaned down. “I’d like to be hanging out with one woman,” he whispered in her ear, then winked. “But I can wait till later.”

  As soon as he’d left, Dana Sue picked up a dish towel and fanned herself with it. “That man is so hot for you,” she said. “It reminds me of the good old days when Ronnie was trying to win me back. He looked at me just like that.”

  “Ronnie still looks at you like that,” Maddie reminded her. “Do you have any idea how many times I’ve wanted to tell the two of you to get a room?”

  “And you think that’s not how Cal behaves around you?” Helen teased. “Every time I see the two of you together, I have to go racing straight home to my husband. He’s gotten lucky on more than one occasion, thanks to you and Cal and those vibes you send out.”

  “Okay, enough,” Raylene declared. “We’re embarrassing Lynn. Let’s talk about these pies of hers, instead. Don’t they smell amazing? And look at the crusts. They’re a perfect golden brown. Have you ever seen anything prettier?”

  Lynn shook her head. “Not even close to subtle, Raylene. I know what you’re up to.”

  Maddie looked from Raylene to Lynn. “What’s she up to?”

  “I want her to open a bakery on Main Street,” Raylene said at once. “In the space next to my boutique.”

  “What a fantastic idea!” Dana Sue said at once.

  Though her surprise seemed feigned, her enthusiasm at least sounded genuine. Lynn wanted to be sure, though. If she moved forward with this business, she didn’t want to tread on the toes of any of the existing business owners.

  “You’d be okay with that?” she pressed Dana Sue.

  “Why wouldn’t I be?” Dana Sue responded readily. “Erik makes amazingly decadent desserts, but we don’t usually sell them to anyone other than people dining at Sullivan’s. A lot of folks want a whole pie or cake to take home or maybe just a cupcake with a cup of coffee in the afternoon after shopping.” Her expression brightened. “Which is why you want it next door to your boutique, isn’t it, Raylene?”

  “Precisely,” Raylene said.

  “Are you really considering it?” Maddie asked eagerly. “I could help you put a business plan together. I did the one for The Corner Spa and helped the guys with the one for their gym.”

  “She helped me out with mine, too,” Raylene said. “Maddie’s got this knack with numbers and knowing how to put something together that will make sense to the bank or investors.”

  Lynn turned to Maddie. “Seriously? You’d do that?”

  “Sure. It would be fun. The spa’s practically running itself these days. This would give me a new challenge.”

  “If you want a silent partner, I’m in,” Dana Sue said.

  Jeanette McDonald walked into the kitchen just in time to overhear. “Somebody’s starting a new business? Count me in. Filling up all those vacant storefronts on Main Street makes my husband very happy. If I can help do that, I want to.”

  Lynn looked around the room. “Did you all plan this?”

  “Plan what?” Maddie inquired innocently.

  “All this unexpected and unsolicited support,” Lynn said.

  “Absolutely not,” Dana Sue said. “This is the first I’ve heard about the possibility of your opening a bakery. It’s a great idea. If I can help, I’d like to. Anything that’s good for Serenity is good for my business, too.”

  Raylene draped an arm over Lynn’s shoulders. “I told you it was an amazing idea, didn’t I? Just listen to them. They’re all smart businesswomen in their own right.”

  Though she had her suspicions about being set up by these sneaky Sweet Magnolia women, Lynn couldn’t help the surge of anticipation that made her want to run home and start writing up that business plan for Maddie to peruse. Not that she had the first clue about what her starting point ought to be.

  “I’ll think about all this,” she promised. “And Maddie, maybe I will give you a call, if you don’t mind.”

  “Any time,” Maddie said. “It really will be fun to help you plan this.”

  “And I can show you that property tomorrow,” Raylene said.

  Lynn’s suspicions rebounded. “You can?”

  Raylene shrugged. “Actually, I bought the space. There are renovations already under way. I can promise you a really good deal on rent.”

  Lynn shook her head incredulously. “I can’t decide if you’re crazy or just incredibly confident in your powers of persuasion.”

  “Both,” Sarah chimed in as she joined them. “The men are getting restless, by the way. Erik said the burgers and hot dogs are almost ready. He’s wondering what happened to the rest of the food.”

  “We don’t want to tick off the self-appointed chef of the day,” Raylene said. “Let’s get all these salads on the table. If everybody grabs something, maybe we can do this in one trip. Helen, there are pitchers of tea and lemonade in the refrigerator for the kids. Soft drinks are in a cooler outside. This year I remembered to put it far, far away from the beer cooler. We had a few too many close calls with the kids grabbing the wrong drinks last year.”

  Outside, the heat of the day had cooled to a few degrees above simmering, but a breeze kept it from being too oppressive. The kids were served first and sent off to find places on the blankets that had been spread around the yard.

  Lynn filled her plate, then headed for a lounge chair on the deck. She wasn’t a bit surprised when Mitch took the chair next to her, balancing a plate in one hand and carrying two beers in the other. She stiffened at the sight of them.

  “Having fun?” he asked as he settled beside her. He held out one of the beers for her. “They’re ice-cold. Perfect for this weather.”

  When she didn’t immediately reach out to take the one he was offering, he regarded her curiously. “You don’t want one?”

  She shook her head. “I have iced tea.”

  He studied her intently. “And you disapprove of me having the beer,” he concluded.

  “It’s not up to me to approve or disapprove. I just thought you’d…” She shrugged. “Never mind.”

  “Say it, Lynnie. You thought I’d stopped drinking.”

  She nodded, her expression challenging his. “That is what you told me.”

  “One beer isn’t going to turn me into a drunk,” he said defensively. “I told you that even when things were bad and I was grieving, I recognized when it might be problematic and stopped.”

  “But obviously not permanently,” she said, fighting tears. “Do you have a drinking problem or not, Mitch?”

  He frowned at her. “Look, I get why it would matter to you if I had a problem with alcohol.”

  “No, you don’t. You can’t possibly know why,” she told him.

  “Then I think you’d better explain it to me,” he said.

  “I grew up with an alcoholic, Mitch. I lived every second with uncertainty, not knowing what sort of mood my dad would be in when he got home or even if he would get home.” She gave him a defiant look. “I won’t do that again. Not to myself, and certainly not to my kids.”

  Mitch looked taken aback by the vehemence in her vo
ice, or maybe it was simply the revelation that threw him. Either way, he seemed shaken. “I had no idea.”

  “Of course you didn’t. Nobody here knows. I never invited anyone to my house after we moved here. I can promise you, though, that I live with the scars every day of my life.”

  “Okay, I understand what you’re saying. Does it bother you that just about everyone else here is drinking tonight?”

  “Not really,” she responded, aware that he was trying to make a point.

  “And those Sweet Magnolias parties—people drink margaritas at those. That doesn’t freak you out?”

  She shook her head. “I know what they can handle. I’ve never seen one of them falling-down drunk. And don’t think you’re the only person with whom I’ve reacted this way. Until I know how someone handles their liquor, I always have a knot in my stomach around them when they’re drinking, if that’s what you’re getting at.”

  “Have you ever seen me falling-down drunk? For that matter, until tonight had you ever even seen me with a drink?”

  “No, but that’s what scares me. I heard about your drinking back after Amy died. Then you even admitted you had a problem. Raylene mentioned recently that all you guys were going out for beers after playing basketball. I’ll admit that set off an alarm. Just now, seeing you with that beer terrified me. Alcoholics can’t have just one, no matter how hard they try to delude themselves that they can.”

  “I honestly don’t think I’m even close to being an alcoholic,” Mitch said. “I relied on drinking to dull the pain after Amy died, realized it was a bad way to handle things and stopped. I never overindulged before that and I haven’t since.” He looked her in the eye. “But if it scares you this much to see me with a drink in my hand, it’s gone, okay? I’d choose you over a beer or a whole truckload of beers any day.”

  He stood up, walked to the edge of the deck and after glancing below poured both beers out. “That’s it. They’re gone.”

  He gave her a smile. “Of course, now you’re going to have to share your tea with me.”

  Lynn laughed, breaking the tension. “I’ll get you your own pitcher,” she offered.

  Mitch smiled. “That’s better. I hate seeing you upset, and I don’t ever want to be the one responsible for it.”

  “I’m sorry for overreacting.”

  “I don’t think you were,” he said. “I think you were bringing a very bad past experience into the middle of our relationship. Now that I know about that, I can deal with it.”

  “I wasn’t exactly being fair to you, though. You were honest with me from the beginning, and you’ve never done anything to cause me not to trust you.”

  “I’d say right now you have plenty of trust issues on your plate. I may not be responsible for any of them, but I can take it if they spill over in my direction. You can trust me, Lynnie, but I’m not going anywhere while you work on accepting that.”

  There it was again, that steadiness she’d been craving, that unwavering commitment. She wanted to reach out and hold on to it for dear life, but even now she was still shaken by the one instant of doubt when she’d seen those beers in his hand. One instant, weighed against everything else, shouldn’t matter, she knew.

  But it did.

  * * *

  Mitch had finally convinced Lynn to join some of the other couples who were dancing on the deck after dinner, when he glanced across the yard and spotted Luke standing there, slack-jawed with shock. His heart stilled at his son’s obvious dismay.

  “Lynn, I need to go,” he said, stepping away from her.

  She regarded him with surprise, her expression vaguely dazed. As soon as she got a good look at his expression, though, she clearly understood that something was wrong.

  “What is it?” she asked.

  He nodded toward where he’d last seen his son. “Luke just showed up.”

  “And saw me in your arms,” she concluded. “Oh, Mitch, go find him.”

  “You’ll be okay?”

  “Of course.”

  “I’ll be back or I’ll call you later if I can’t get back,” he promised.

  “Whatever. Just go.”

  Mitch searched the yard, cursing himself as he went for being so careless. He’d left a note at the house for Luke, telling him to stop by the party, but the truth was, he hadn’t really expected him to show up. He certainly hadn’t envisioned the consequences of Luke’s seeing another woman in his dad’s arms.

  “Have you seen Luke?” he asked Maddie’s son, Kyle Townsend, who was about the same age and had been in school with Luke.

  “He was here for a couple of minutes, but he took off,” Kyle said. “Did something happen? He looked upset.”

  “My fault,” Mitch said. “Thanks, Kyle.”

  He jumped in his truck and headed for home, praying that Luke had gone straight there rather than cruising around town. He had no business being behind the wheel when he was hurt and probably angry.

  As he turned the corner, he spotted his son’s small Mini-Cooper in the driveway and breathed a sigh of relief. After cutting the truck’s engine, he drew in a deep breath and tried to figure out what on earth he was going to say to him to make this right.

  He found Luke in the kitchen, an unopened beer on the counter, as he slapped some lunch meat between two slices of bread on which he’d slathered enough mayonnaise to make potato salad for twenty. He barely looked up as Mitch entered, but there was no mistaking the deepening scowl on his face.

  “I’m sorry,” Mitch said succinctly.

  Luke did glance up at that. “For what? Cheating on Mom?”

  Mitch held his gaze until his son finally blinked, then sighed.

  “Okay, I know that was a low blow,” Luke said, his expression miserable. “I just wasn’t expecting it.”

  “I know,” Mitch said quietly. “I should have prepared you.”

  “You’d only need to prepare me if this is serious,” Luke said. “Is it, Dad? Are you really involved with Mrs. Morrow? That’s who it was, right?”

  Mitch nodded. “Lynn and I went to school together. We’ve known each other forever.”

  “I thought she was married to that hot-shot insurance guy.”

  “She was. They’re getting a divorce.”

  Luke frowned. “Because of you?”

  “No, the divorce was already well under way before I walked into the picture. She lives next door to Raylene and Carter Rollins.”

  “Where you were tonight,” Luke said, putting it together. “So she was handy.”

  Mitch didn’t much like the tone in his son’s voice, but he gave him a temporary pass. “It wasn’t like that at all,” he corrected mildly. “We reconnected, just a couple of old friends going through a tough time.”

  “Dad, I may not be a genius, but I’m not exactly brain-dead. What I saw tonight wasn’t some platonic thing between a couple of old friends.”

  Mitch nodded. “Fair enough. It is more than that, but her life is still pretty complicated. We’re moving slowly.” He pointedly held his son’s gaze. “Glacier-slow, in fact.”

  “Given that heat I saw, the whole glacier thing must be in danger,” Luke said.

  Mitch chuckled. “Every minute I spend with her.”

  “Then it is serious?” Luke repeated.

  “Getting there, if I have my way,” Mitch responded candidly.

  Luke put away his unopened beer, then took his time pouring himself a glass of iced tea, his
expression thoughtful as he apparently tried to absorb what he’d learned. Mitch waited him out.

  “Why didn’t you tell Nate and me?” Luke asked eventually.

  “Because I knew it might be hard for you, and I wasn’t sure there was anything to tell,” Mitch said.

  “Oh, there’s something to tell,” Luke said wryly. “And don’t worry about Nate finding out. I’ve already called him. He’ll be home in the morning.”

  Mitch regarded him incredulously. “To do what? Lock me in my room?”

  Luke grinned. “You and Mom did that to us a time or two when you thought we were acting crazy,” he reminded Mitch.

  “You were kids. Last I checked, I’m still your parent.”

  Luke shrugged. “Maybe for a minute there tonight, I overreacted,” he said sheepishly. “I thought you might be acting like an out-of-control teenager.”

  “Thanks for having such a high opinion of my judgment,” Mitch said, but he couldn’t help laughing. “You really called your brother home to lecture me?”

  “Pretty much.”

  Mitch picked his son up in a bear hug. “Do you have even half a clue how much I love you guys?”

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Luke said, breaking free. “Don’t go getting all mushy on me.”

  He finished putting his thick sandwich together, eyed it longingly, then held the plate out to Mitch. “Want one?”

  Mitch wasn’t the least bit hungry, but he accepted the peace offering. “Thanks.”

  Luke made himself another sandwich, this one twice as thick, then regarded Mitch thoughtfully. “So when do Nate and I get a closer look at this woman? If this is getting serious, you need our stamp of approval.”

  “I don’t need it,” Mitch corrected. “But I sure am hoping you’ll give it to me.”

  “Then tomorrow would be good,” Luke said. “No point in letting Nate waste a trip home.”