He did give it serious thought as he drove toward Biloxi. An associate pastor of a church the size of this one meant a good salary and benefits to go with it. He had to start thinking about the future. Especially if he wanted to invite Jacey into it. The money his grandfather left him was almost gone, which was okay with him. He always thought it felt dirty, like he was using mafia money or, at best, ill-gotten money. His grandfather wasn’t really one of the good guys. He had started Jennings Construction years ago, and Colin was embarrassed by all the rumors about how crooked his grandfather was in business. One thing he could say for Jasper: When he took over the company, their reputation was improved trifold. Too bad Jasper couldn’t factor that same respectful behavior into his personal life.
Colin used a little of the money from his grandfather to buy his truck and trailer, but most of it went to rebuilding homes. But now he had to be practical. If he wanted to continue doing what he loved, he would have to find another way to finance it. Jasper Jennings was about to cut him off. He figured his father had given him the money out of guilt for never being around, but it felt worse than taking money from a crook.
In the way they had so many times over the past year, his thoughts turned to Jacey. He smiled, wondering if she’d figured it out yet. She was a smart girl, so it shouldn’t take her too long. He’d seen that look on a couple of other faces in his thirty years. In the meantime, it would do her good to wonder where he was for a few days. Playing games wasn’t his style anymore, but what Jacey needed was some space and time to think. She’d gotten an awful lot of information thrown at her at all at once. He knew expressing his feelings would scare her, but there was no sense in waiting. He’d seen too much in his life to worry with protocol. Her life had nearly ended ten minutes after he put her in a boat that day, and other lives had. No one was promised tomorrow. All the more reason to tell her today.
Jacey waited for nearly an hour before she decided to go home. Where was he? Didn’t he know she was about to burst with this newfound affection for him? Shouldn’t he be waiting around to see if she were going to come back? Who does that? she thought. You basically tell someone you’re in love with them and then go to the grocery store?
She drove home and crawled onto the sofa. She was truly exhausted . . . too many emotions last night, too much information today, added to very little sleep. She put her cell phone on her chest so she’d be sure to hear it ring, then closed her eyes. Only for a moment, she thought. I’ll just lie here and rest my eyes. She was asleep inside two minutes.
“Hello?”
Jacey stirred on the sofa. “Is it already four?” she asked.
“If it isn’t, the ER is missing a nurse,” Georgia said. “Have you been asleep all day?”
“Only since about noon, I think.” Jacey looked at her phone. Still nothing from Colin.
Georgia put down her bag and sat in the chair beside her. “Well?” she said. “Any more developments in the case?”
Jacey smiled. “I’m falling in love with him, Georgie. I am.” She spoke as if she was revealing a big secret.
“Duh,” Georgia said. “I could’ve told you that last year.”
“Whatever.” Jacey laughed. “You didn’t know.”
“Willow and I both knew. You’re the bonehead who had no clue. You walked around here all down in the dumps, dating every guy who walked by. You spent an entire week in and out of consciousness asking for Colin. It wasn’t hard to figure out.”
Jacey laughed again.
“So? Did you tell him?” Georgia asked.
“I went over there to tell him, but he wasn’t home. And I have no idea where he is. I thought he would’ve called by now.”
“Probably still stinging from that eloquent reaction and how lovely you looked this morning,” Georgia said. “I would’ve caught the first bus out of town.”
“Ha-ha, you’re so funny,” Jacey said.
“Oh, I know, but that’s not the issue here,” Georgia said. “By the way, I am officially off until next Thursday.”
“That’s right,” Jacey said. “Thursday till Thursday. I had forgotten your vacation was coming up. What are you going to do with your freedom for seven entire days?” Jacey asked.
Georgia leaned her head back. “I may spend them all in this chair. Has it always been this comfortable?”
“You say that every time you sit there,” Jacey said. “And I agree. It was our best purchase ever.”
“When you marry Colin, I get custody of this chair.”
“I can’t even get him to call me back. I think you’re counting your chickens.”
“We’ll see,” Georgia said.
Jacey threw a pillow at her. “I’m cooking tonight. Tacos and margaritas.”
“My dream supper,” Georgia said. “If he won’t marry you, I will.”
CHAPTER NINE
Colin woke up early the next morning and headed out to the deck of Joshua Aaron’s beachfront home. He was glad Joshua had kept the house after his parents moved to Florida when his dad retired. This house was one of Colin’s favorite places. He felt a deep sense of peace when he was here. Probably because he’d always found refuge here.
He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. He missed the Gulf when he was away, even if there was very little else he missed in Biloxi. He missed the sound of the waves rolling onto shore early in the mornings when it was still silent everywhere else in the city. He grew up listening to the Gulf every morning and every night. As he looked down the deserted beach, he could see the majestic mansion on the bluff nearly a mile away where he’d grown up and where his mother and father still lived. He’d like to say he missed his childhood home, but the truth was, he didn’t. It wasn’t his home anymore.
He took a sip of coffee and continued to stare at the lonesome stretch of beach between his youth and the man he was today. Fifteen years ago he’d run down that beach all the way to this very house with a duffel bag full of clothes, forty-six dollars in cash, and his pride. He’d swallowed that pride and gone home the next day when Jasper had found him. Colin probably should’ve planned that escapade better than he had, but at sixteen, it was the best he could do. Since then, running away from Jasper Jennings had become the thesis statement of his life. But no more. It was time to put an end to the constant turmoil that had defined his relationship with his father for as long as he could remember. He realized long ago he’d have to forgive his father for being inattentive while he was growing up, even if calling him “inattentive” was generous. There had been no playing catch in the backyard, no fishing expeditions on Saturday mornings, no tucking in at bedtime, and no camping out under the stars when Colin was a boy. In fact, his father was so absent it used to surprise Colin to catch a glimpse of Jasper at the house.
For many years, Colin used his father’s absence as an excuse to do anything he wanted. It was his favorite crutch. He had learned exactly how to hold Jasper hostage, thus beginning the four years of his life when he punished his father. He agreed to go to college if Jasper agreed to leave him alone. The older Colin got, the more Jasper wanted to permeate his life with his suggestions, but Colin couldn’t believe it. Jasper had never had a thing to do with his son—then all of a sudden when it came time for college he wanted to be his buddy? Colin wanted no part of it and didn’t even realize he was shoving away the very thing he’d craved all his life. All he knew was that it seemed to hurt his father when he didn’t want to be near him, so the games continued.
College was a four-year nonstop festival that Jasper financed without question. An endless parade of frat parties, women, and alcohol. Colin maintained a C average by the skin of his teeth. Most of the time he was in a bar with his buddies. It was in one of these bars that his life would change.
Jasper showed up unannounced a week before Christmas during Colin’s senior year. Colin was shocked when he opened the door of his apartment one day and Jasper walked straight in.
“What are you doing here?” Colin asked.
“I came to help you pack,” Jasper said.
“What?”
“Your mother wants you to come home for Christmas, and I’m here to see that you do as she wishes,” Jasper said.
“I’m afraid you wasted a trip.” Colin almost laughed. “Since when did you start caring about my mother’s feelings?”
Jasper’s face turned red, but he didn’t reply to the insult. “Where are your suitcases?”
“Dad,” Colin said, forcefully this time. “I am not coming home for Christmas. I am going on a ski trip with my . . . a girl. It’s already planned. I’m not ten years old. You don’t get to choose for me anymore.”
Jasper sat down on the sofa, and for the first time in Colin’s life, he saw defeat on his father’s face. He thought witnessing Jasper’s pain would bring satisfaction, and he waited for the euphoria that should accompany it . . . but it never came.
“Colin, this isn’t about me,” Jasper said. “It’s about your mother. She is very upset that you have chosen a trip over coming home, and frankly, I am too. You should—”
“Just stop it, Dad,” Colin said. “I’m sorry you drove up here, but I don’t believe you came for Mother. It isn’t your style to go to bat for somebody else, not even my mother. I’m not buying it.” He’d never moved away from the front door and he opened it. “You need to go home.”
Jasper didn’t say a word, just picked up his hat and walked out the door without looking back.
Colin waited exactly five minutes before driving to Trinidad’s, a nearby bar. He began drinking early in the afternoon, and his buddies soon joined him and they stayed well into the evening. He’d managed to numb his feelings with Scotch, but his father’s voice still echoed in his ears. And for some reason, the look he’d seen on Jasper’s face was bothering him.
He didn’t particularly want to be in this bar, but he couldn’t go back to his apartment. If he did, that girl would call or come over and she’d stay. What was her name? He kept forgetting it, even though she’d made it a point to be at his place much more than he wanted her to be. He’d only met her a couple of weeks before, so he had no idea why he’d agreed to go to Vail with her other than his love for skiing and the fact that her parents owned a house there. It certainly had nothing to do with her. She was exactly the kind of girl he was expected to date and eventually marry, but she bored him out of his mind. He realized he was using her—for all kinds of things—and that realization didn’t make him feel any better.
His friends had long since gone home, but Colin stayed at a little corner table, alone with his thoughts and his Scotch. It was nearly one A.M. Closing time. He moved camp from the table to the dark mahogany bar and asked the waitress to pour him another round.
She wiped the bar in front of him. “I’m no expert,” she said, “but I’m pretty sure you’ve had enough tonight.”
“I’m no expert either,” Colin said, “but I don’t think a . . . twenty-five-year-old barmaid can tell me what I need or don’t need. Besides . . . I don’t wanna go home.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” she said. “The good news is, you don’t have to go home . . . but you can’t stay here.”
“Does the owner know how you treat your patrons?” Colin asked, only half-joking.
“He does.”
“I just need a nightcap,” Colin said.
“Can’t do it, buddy. I’m closing in fifteen minutes. But I’ll call you a cab.”
“Got my car outside.”
“Not on my watch,” she said, grabbing his keys off the bar.
“Hey,” Colin said. “You can’t take my keys.”
“I just did.”
He shrugged. “Just like my father, always taking,” he muttered. “Story of my life.”
She stopped wiping the counter and leaned against it. “Aw, what’s wrong, poor little rich boy? Daddy take the trust fund away?”
Colin didn’t answer.
“I struck a chord,” she said. She picked up a phone on the bar and dialed a number. “Hey, it’s Julie at Trinidad’s. Can you send me a cab, please?”
“They know you?” Colin asked.
“Not the first time I’ve had to call,” Julie said.
“Do you enjoy your job . . . Uh, what’s your . . .”
“Julie,” she said.
“Julie. You are very attractive, Julie. Do you enjoy your job?”
“Not really,” she answered. “Why?”
He shrugged. “No reason.” He didn’t know why he had asked. He really just wanted to talk to her. “You’re very perceptive, Julie. I’m a little drunk because my father has never been there for me. You don’t know what that’s like, do you? It makes me mad. Is that so bad? Does that make me a poor little rich boy?”
Julie looked at him for a moment, then began wiping the bar again without answering.
“Answer me, Julie,” he said, a little too loud.
She looked down the bar at the bouncer. He was about to get up from his stool, but she waved him off.
“What’s your name?” she asked.
“Jasper Collingsworth Jennings the fourth,” he said. “But you can call me Colin.”
“How old are you, Colin?”
“Twenty-three,” he said. “How old are you?”
She ignored the question. “So what are you doing here all by yourself on a Thursday night?”
“I’m trying to hustle a barmaid,” he said. “Do you want to go home with me? You’re pretty and I’m a good catch.”
She chuckled. “I appreciate the offer, but no. I don’t want to go home with you.”
“Why not?” he asked. “I’d think a girl like you would jump at the chance to bed down with a guy like me.”
She stopped cleaning again and looked at him. “A girl like me?”
He shrugged. “You know,” he said. “You’re a . . . bar girl.”
“Lord, give me patience, because if you give me strength I’m gonna need bail money too.”
The burly bouncer laughed but kept his seat.
“Colin, you are spoiled, entitled, and drunk, and your words are offensive,” Julie said. “I don’t find any of those things endearing.”
“You can’t talk to me like that. You don’t even know me.”
“And you don’t know me either,” Julie said. “Yet you were quick to decide my life would magically get better if I slept with you.”
“It couldn’t get any worse.” He snickered.
She sighed. “I’m going to tell you this because there is an outside chance it will help you. Then my friend Shorty down there at the end of the bar is going to escort you outside to wait on your cab.”
Colin glanced at Shorty, who was huge. Oops. “Okay,” he said.
“I am twenty-two years old,” Julie began. “I have a four-year-old daughter at home with my grandmother, because one night I fell for a line from a boy just like you. Never heard from him again, and that hurt me very much. So you know what I did? Instead of going to a bar every night and drowning my sorrows in alcohol, I picked myself up, dusted myself off, and got a night job at a bar so I could go to school during the day and make life better for me and my little girl. Your daddy’s ignoring you? Boo-hoo. How sad. I have no idea who my daddy is. So before you come back in here with another lame sob story, you might want to find out the circumstances of the person you’re whining to first. Good night, rich boy. You can come get your keys tomorrow.”
Colin stared at her. She was amazing. And whatever she was eating, reading, snorting, or drinking to get that way, he wanted some of it.
“Time for you to go home, Colin,” she said. He saw Shorty approaching him and he stood up. He wasn’t drunk enough to think he could do anything to this guy. They headed toward the door. Then Colin turned around.
“Julie?” he said.
She turned around behind the bar and looked at him. “What?”
“What do you do?”
“What do you mean?” she said.
“Wh
en it falls apart around you?”
She smiled a little. “I pray, Colin.”
I pray. Those two words changed his life and the way he treated people. It didn’t happen overnight, but those words set the wheels in motion.
CHAPTER TEN
“Wake up, Georgie.”
Georgia didn’t move.
Jacey shook her friend. “Come on,” she said. “I have to be rattling your teeth by now. Get up.”
“What do you want?” Georgia flipped over quickly, her face inches from Jacey’s.
Jacey moved back. “Your breath is atrocious.”
“So is your timing,” Georgia said. “I told you I was sleeping twenty-four hours straight.”
“It’s been ten, which is enough,” Jacey said. “Get up. Pack a bag. We’re going to Biloxi.”
Georgia made a face. “Why?”
“I’ve done some research, and I know where to start looking for the kids,” Jacey said. “I want to get there before the office closes. Get up.”
“Why don’t you just call Colin?”
“Because Colin isn’t answering his phone,” Jacey said. “Anyway, I’m mad at him.”
Georgia yawned. “Why? For not catering to your every whim?”
“No, certainly not,” Jacey said. “Okay, yes! Where is he?”
“Probably at the library checking out a book on how to deal with neurotic women,” Georgia said.
“Do you ever get tired of being a smart a—”
Georgia cut her off. “No, no,” she said. “Watch your mouth. You’re a preacher’s wife now.”
“You make me want to punch you in the face,” Jacey said.
“Before or after you force me from my slumber to go on a wild goose chase with you to Biloxi?”
Jacey sighed. “After.”
“Out of my way,” Georgia said, throwing back the bedcovers. “I’ll shower and pack three bikinis. Then I’ll be ready.”
“It’s not a vacation,” Jacey told her.
The Sweet Smell of Magnolias and Memories Page 9