by Peggy Webb
Please know that whatever happens I will always cherish the time I spent at O’Banyon Manor and I will always hold you in tender regard.
She’d signed the note simply Sandi.
Stunned, he sat on the bed calling himself every kind of fool. Sometime in the wee hours of the morning while he watched Sandi sleep, he’d come to the startling revelation that he didn’t want to lose her. Ever.
He’d decided to wait until morning to tell her of his epiphany, then he imagined the two of them making slow, sweet love together, for real this time, then going down to breakfast where they would plan the future.
Nothing permanent and earthshaking, just something sensible so they could get to know each other without the distractions of his mother’s histrionics and their own ill-fated playacting.
Now she was gone. Suitcase and all.
Matt roared out of bed, jerked on his clothes and went in search of Lucy.
She was in the library standing in front of an easel. “Hello, Matt.”
When she turned around he saw the portrait Sandi had done, Lucy sitting at the window, her expression so wistful it brought tears to his eyes.
“I know,” Lucy said. “It’s remarkable, isn’t it?”
“Yes.” He went closer so he could see the brush strokes, the colors, the wealth of detail that made his mother come to life on canvas.
“I’ve never had a better one. They always have me grinning or looking sophisticated or, heaven forbid, scholarly.”
“Sandi sees with her heart,” he said.
His mother gave him a quizzical look. And no wonder. He’d never said such a fanciful thing. He was more at home with facts and motives and the fight for justice, if such a thing existed.
“Yes, she does.” Lucy stared at the portrait a while longer, then crumpled onto the sofa and put her face in her hands.
Alarmed, Matt squatted beside her with his hand on her shoulder. “Are you all right?”
“Oh, Matt. I’ve done you a grave injustice.”
Lucy looked small and vulnerable, as fragile as a fine china teacup. Matt wanted to go back in time and hit his father.
“Mother, don’t.”
“Yes. It’s time for the truth. Past time.”
“You don’t have to say anything, Mother. I know you know.”
“How long?”
“Aunt Kitty told me while you were dying.”
Lucy smiled, just as he’d intended, then she caught his hand and pulled him down beside her.
“That’s not soon enough. I should have told you years ago that I knew Henry was cheating on me. I should never have let you carry the burden all by yourself.”
“It’s all in the past now.”
“I don’t think so. It still haunts you…and Ben. All those wasted years. All I had to do was admit the truth, then you wouldn’t have grown up with your father’s nasty secret eating you alive, and Ben and I could have had the life together that we deserve.”
“It’s not too late for you and Ben. He loves you, Mother.”
“He told you that?”
“Yes. He’s been waiting for you to face reality.”
“Well, I’m facing it now, and I hate what I see. You’ve lost Sandi because of me.”
“No, I let her go because of myself. But if I have anything to say about it, I haven’t lost her.”
“I do hope not. Call me a hopeless romantic, but the minute I saw you two together at Ellie’s wedding, I knew you were meant for each other.”
He put his arm around his mother and Lucy leaned her head on his shoulder, then they sat in silence studying the portrait. Sandi painted honest and true, seeing past the facade to the center of the soul.
Lucy’s secret had taken its toll, and Sandi had captured it in her face. But she’d captured hope, too, and it was that element that both mother and son clung to as they sat side by side facing the future.
“I have to be going, Mother. I have to find Sandi, and this time I’m going to court her for real.”
He kissed her cheek, and when he left he noticed his mother was picking up the phone.
Matt didn’t go directly to Sandi. He went home to Jackson to plan his campaign. This time he’d do the courtship right. When he’d finished, the siege of Vicksburg would look like a picnic in the park.
The next morning when he went to work he was whistling. Bob checked his watch, tapped the crystal to see if he’d read right, then said, “It’s twenty after nine. Is the world coming to an end and I don’t know about it yet?”
“No. All’s well.”
“Good, ’cause you’ve got a load of work on your desk.”
Matt called his assistant and worked diligently till three, then buzzed Bob.
“Is that invitation for golf this afternoon still open?”
“You’re going to play golf?”
“Thought I might give it a try.”
Bob whistled. “Will wonders never cease?”
Sandi loved working outside getting sweaty and dirty. The kind of hard physical labor she did at the new house site gave her a pleasant ache she planned to soothe away with a good bubble bath and a glass of wine.
“Stay for supper,” C.J. said and Clint echoed the invitation. He had already brought his grill out to their twenty-acre country place and set it up under the canopy of a hundred-year-old oak near the house site.
“Thanks, but I need to get home. I have some pictures to develop and I’m anxious to see if I’ve heard anything from the adoption agency.”
There was nothing from the agency, but there was a note on her door saying to call 555–6851, she had a special delivery.
She dialed the number. “Hello, this is Sandi Wentworth. You have a package for me?”
“I guess you could call it that.” The man laughed. “If you’re gonna be home, I’ll bring it right over.”
Now, why would he laugh? Was it some kind of practical joke?
Sandi would have to postpone her bath. She wiped the smudges off her face and had just finished a tall glass of lemonade when her doorbell rang.
“Sandi Wentworth?” She nodded. “Sign here, please.”
“What am I signing for?”
“These.” The man reached down and picked up a basket with two of the most beautiful golden retriever puppies Sandi had ever seen. She fell in love on the spot.
“But I didn’t order any puppies.”
“No, ma’am.” The deliveryman checked his invoice. “Somebody named Matthew Coltrane sent ’em. You know him?”
“Well, yes, I do.” Sandi felt a glow all the way to her bones.
“Reckon the feller must think right smart of you, then. Them puppies is purebred. Cost an arm and a leg.”
Sandi bent over the basket and two little pink tongues licked her face. “They’re adorable.”
“Yep. Them goldens is beautiful, all right. My cousin had one once. Growed up to be might’ near a hunnerd pounds.” He scratched his head. “I don’t see how you gonna keep ’em in this apartment.”
“It will be a while before they’re grown. I’ll figure that out when the time comes, I guess.”
“I reckon you will. You look like a determined lady. Kinda remind me of Tallulah Bankhead, you know, sassy and pretty all at one time, if you don’t mind my saying so.”
“No, I don’t mind.” She gave him a big tip. “Thank you…” She read the name stitched in red on his shirt. “Fred.”
“You’re welcome, ma’am. You’ll be needin’ a vet. I got a cousin name of Sims Reeves over near Columbus can help you out.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Oh, and this come, too.” Fred pointed to another very large box. “I was ’bout to forget it.”
“Thank you.”
The talkative Fred finally left Sandi alone with her new puppies and the box, which turned out to be filled with puppy chow, two stainless-steel feeding dishes, two water bowls and two sleeping baskets with lamb’s-wool pads.
At the bottom
of the box, Sandi found a note.
Every girl starting over should have a pet. Two are better than one, don’t you think? Matt
What did it all mean? Why was Matt sending her such an extravagant and thoughtful gift?
“Come on, children. We’re going for a little ride.”
She loaded her new puppies into the car and drove back to C.J. and Clint’s.
“Good,” Clint said when she got out of the car. “You changed your mind.”
“Yes. And I brought guests.”
Sandi unloaded her puppies and C.J. pounced. “What beautiful animals. Where did you get these?”
Sandi handed her the note. “I’ve always wanted a puppy. Remember how I begged Grandmother to let me have one? After she died I don’t know why I didn’t get one for myself.”
“With our menagerie next door, you didn’t need to.” C.J. examined the two puppies from stem to stern. “They seem to be in good shape. We’ll start their puppy shots tomorrow.”
Sandi laughed. “Think what I’ll save on vet bills.”
“Yeah, just think.”
“I don’t know how long I’ll be able to keep them in my apartment, though. Especially after I get the baby.”
“Maybe Matt has other plans.”
“You think so?”
C.J. hugged her. “Oh, honey, I hope so.”
Chapter Twelve
Sandi didn’t have any trouble making big decisions. She’d sold her house without a qualm, moved out of her grandmother’s house without looking back and even filled out papers to adopt a baby with only a few butterflies in her stomach.
But when it came to matters of the heart, she remembered her awful track record and couldn’t decide something as simple as picking up the phone and calling to say thank-you for the puppies.
Would a note be better? Would he think she was chasing him? Would she get so excited talking to him, she’d forget how she was going to make a new life on her own and say something to make him think she was weak and needy?
“I’m being a silly goose,” she said, and both new puppies licked her feet in happy agreement. “Just pick up the phone and call. That’s the ticket.”
Sandi picked up the phone and dialed. Sweat rolled down her face and she picked up a brochure on digital cameras to fan herself. When she heard the phone pick up, she got so excited she completely forgot what she’d been going to say.
“Hello,” he said, but it turned out to be his recorded voice. After it clicked off, Sandi said, “The puppies are wonderful, Matt. Thank you.”
She sat on the edge of the bed biting her lower lip and trying to think of something clever to say. Finally she just hung up.
“Oh, well. I’ll write him a little note.”
Patsy and Pooh tugged at her shoestrings and she got down on the floor to play. They barked and pranced and wagged and Sandi laughed till she cried. It felt almost like having her own family.
Matt played Sandi’s message four times, just to hear the sound of her voice.
“She likes them.”
He was pleased with himself. He hadn’t spent years in a courtroom for nothing. It didn’t take him long to sum up a person’s character. Of course, Sandi had taken longer than most. She was a complex woman. Plus, he’d received confusing signals. Her bombshell body said one thing and her innocent eyes another.
Tomorrow he would send flowers, the next day candy and then he’d call her up and make a dinner date. Over a rare steak and some good wine he’d lay out his plan of action. It was a good sensible plan that would serve them both well.
Smiling, he picked up another of his mother’s books, but not Sinful. It was probably a big gun, and he’d save it for last.
Patsy and Pooh gamboled around Sandi’s feet, red roses delivered the day before scented the kitchen and a box of newly delivered chocolates lay unopened on the table. A letter from the adoption agency informing her that she’d been approved for motherhood was propped against the roses.
Still in her bathrobe and slippers, feeling slightly dazed, Sandi sat on a kitchen chair biting her bottom lip and waiting for C.J.
“Hurry, hurry, hurry,” she said, and Patsy Cline barked her waiting’s-a-lonesome-thing song.
The door banged open and C.J. bustled in. “Sorry it took so long, but I had to run by Bricks and Mortar, Etc. to check on toilet fixtures, then I stopped by Clint’s office and left a sandwich for his supper along with strict instructions to eat it. He’s so excited about owning his own newspaper that if I didn’t remind him, he never would eat.”
Usually Sandi wanted to hear all C.J.’s news, but today she had more pressing matters on her mind.
“Did you get it?”
“I got it.” C.J. plopped an early-pregnancy testing kit on the table. “Thank goodness you called me instead of going yourself. You’re in no condition to drive.”
C.J. was right. Sandi was so nervous and excited and scared, she couldn’t even open the box, let alone operate a car.
“Here, let me.” C.J. ripped it open, scanned the instructions and then had to repeat them to Sandi twice before she understood.
“I’ll be right back,” Sandi said.
She thought she knew what the results would be even before she took the test. Since she’d left O’Banyon Manor the first time, she’d been so busy she hadn’t noticed the missed periods.
When she woke up this morning feeling nauseated, she’d stayed in bed all day thinking she was coming down with a virus. By evening she was ravenous and feeling strong as a plow horse. While she ate everything in the kitchen except the sink, she’d noticed the heaviness in her breasts and she’d started counting backward.
Then she’d called C.J.
“Well?” C.J. asked when Sandi emerged from the bathroom.
Sandi ripped open the box of candy Matt had sent. “We need chocolate, and lots of it.”
“You’re pregnant?”
“Yes.” All of a sudden it hit Sandi. At long last she was going to have the thing she most wanted in the world—a family of her own. Not one child, but two. And two dogs to make the picture complete. “Yes! Oh, C.J., isn’t it wonderful?”
She caught C.J.’s hands and the two of them twirled around the kitchen until Patsy was in such a barking frenzy that Pooh hid under a chair.
Sandi and C.J. collapsed into a couple of chairs then reached for chocolate.
“So, how are you going to handle telling Matt?”
“I don’t know. I don’t even know when I’ll see him, or if I will.”
“He’s sent gifts every day. I think that’s a pretty clear sign he wants to see you.”
“Seeing me and marrying me are two vastly different propositions. I don’t want him to feel trapped. I couldn’t bear it if I thought he married me only because of the baby.”
“I understand. I’d feel exactly the same way. With me it’s love or nothing at all.”
“That’s exactly how I feel.” Sandi dug into the chocolate. “This is the best I’ve ever tasted.”
“They say everything tastes great when you’re pregnant.”
“I guess I’ll get as big as a barn.” Sandi giggled. “I can’t wait.”
“If you get too big to move, Clint and I will fetch and carry.”
“I’ll want the two of you to be godparents. For both my children.”
“If you hadn’t said it, I was going to horn in and insist.”
Laughing, the two old friends ate chocolate until half the box was gone, then Sandi had a sobering thought.
“This little apartment won’t possibly be big enough for two big dogs and two children. I’ll have to find a house.”
“Too bad you just sold yours.”
“No. I don’t regret that. It was a cold house filled with bad memories. I want something filled with light and warmth…and an antique four-poster bed.”
“An antique four-poster bed?”
Sandi flushed. “Like the one in O’Banyon Manor. I want to give birth in a bed like
that.”
“I’ll help you find one. I have another couple of weeks before I’m back in school. We’ll shop tomorrow.”
“Oh, gosh, I’ll have to get baby clothes and a crib and…” Suddenly Sandi felt overwhelmed. “C.J., how am I going to do this all by myself?”
“You’re not. I’m going to help you. Clint, too.”
Though Sandi had already told her the details, including that her pregnancy didn’t negate the adoption, C.J. picked up the letter from the agency and read it. The little girl Sandi would bring back from China was nearly two years old. She would be dealing with a language barrier, but at least she wouldn’t be dealing with two small babies.
“It will be another two months before you go to China. You can still travel safely, and that gives us plenty of time to get ready for your little girl.”
Sandi caught her hand. “What would I do without you?”
“You don’t ever have to find out.”
Matt checked his watch. He’d timed his arrival exactly right. He would be at Sandi’s apartment and they’d have an hour to talk before dinner.
He was proud of himself. His plan was working out exactly according to schedule. He’d called a week ago, the day after she’d received the chocolate, and she’d said, “Yes, I’ll be happy to have dinner with you.”
Just like that. The reserve in her had surprised him a little, especially after he’d softened her up with gifts, but then, what had he expected? His invitation was a complete turnaround from his earlier stance.
He parked his car and went up her sidewalk whistling and bearing a corsage of gardenias, the fragrance so redolent of Sandi herself that he was having a hard time not acting like a sixteen-year-old schoolboy.
He punched the doorbell and suddenly there she was, glorious and radiant.
“You take my breath away,” he said, then could have kicked himself.
Where was all the restraint he meant to use? The control? At the rate he was going he’d have her in the bed within the next ten minutes.