by Jodi Thomas
“They did know one another,” Micah said. “Your grandmother was there with Rosa Lee when Rosa Lee had her child baptized. You now have proof. They must have been good friends if Rosa Lee named her as godmother and very close if Minnie was the only one to sign.” Micah smiled. “There’s your answer, Sidney. There’s the tie to the house you’ve been looking for.”
“Or more questions?” Sidney shook her head. “What happened to Rosa Lee’s baby? According to this it would have been two weeks older than my mother, Marbree.” Sidney looked up. “That would make Rosa Lee’s baby seventy years old. She could still be alive. But where, and how could it be possible that no one in town ever knew she lived?”
“Do you have any old letters that belonged to your grandmother Minnie? Maybe, since she was named godmother, she kept up with the baby.”
Sidney shook her head. “Nothing. When Granny Minnie moved in with us most of her things were given away. She was widowed early, as was my mom. Neither of them were collectors or savers. They combined what they had in our small house. I’m sure if there had been letters I would have found them. As far as I remember, Granny only brought her favorite chair and her paintings when she came to live with us. Maybe some kitchen stuff. She loved to cook. But our house was so small, there wasn’t much room for private things.”
Micah looked out the window of Sidney’s second-floor office. “Maybe that explains why they were friends. They must have both been pregnant at the same time.”
“I’m surprised my grandmother traveled all the way to Chicago that far along in the pregnancy. This shows her in Clifton Creek two weeks before her own child was born. She must have wanted to be with my grandfather when her baby came. I thought in those days women were put to bed when they got close. Why would my grandmother take such a risk and travel that far along?”
“Maybe she waited here to help deliver Rosa Lee’s baby,” Micah suggested. “If they were friends and for some reason Rosa Lee kept the baby a secret, Minnie might have been the only person she trusted to deliver it.”
“Granny Minnie would do something like that. Several times over her nursing career she acted as a midwife. She never judged anyone. I can see in the thirties why Rosa Lee would keep the baby a secret. An unwed mother in those days would have been ostracized, her family shunned.”
Micah watched the professor carefully. There seemed to be something she wasn’t saying and he didn’t want to pry. “I saw Sloan’s truck at Randi’s bar parking lot.” He felt like a tattletale, but knew they needed to share all information. “One of the men he was talking to looked like he had a bandage over his nose.”
Micah didn’t need to say more. Sidney would figure it out. They were silent for a while. He watched leaves whirl on the street below in pointless circles and thought of his life and Rosa Lee’s. What had she done to protect her name? What would he do to protect his?
Micah knew, if he continued seeing Randi, it would only be a matter of time before the town caught on. He didn’t want to be a man folks whispered about. And more than that, he didn’t want Randi to have a secret that everyone knew and talked about when she couldn’t hear.
“I think I trust Sloan McCormick, Micah,” Sidney said, finally breaking the silence. “If he was there, he had his reasons.”
“I agree.” Micah had always considered himself a good judge of people. He could be wrong about little things from time to time, but not that wrong. “Sloan’s probably just trying to help. He’s crazy about you.”
“We’re becoming friends,” Sidney answered the unasked question. “Just friends.”
“Friendship can turn on a dime to something more.” Micah smiled, wishing it would for Sloan and Sidney.
“Maybe,” she answered honestly. “When the vote is in and all this is over, we’ll see.”
“Has he tried to talk you into going with his oil company?” Micah saw no hint of a con in Sloan’s actions toward Sidney, but anyone could be fooled.
“Not one word,” Sidney answered. “The mayor, on the other hand, can’t wait to get this over with. Every day he calls reminding me how badly the town needs the money from the sale. Sloan’s company out of Houston put in a bid, as did Talon Graham’s company from Austin. Even a local company made an offer. They all seem interested, but not chomping at the bit.”
“Makes you wonder why the mayor bothered with a committee if he’d already made up his mind.”
Sidney agreed. “He chose people with whom no one in town would argue. We were a safe bet. He’d get what he wanted and people wouldn’t yell at us. He’d walk away smelling like a rose.”
“He had no idea how much trouble we’d get into.”
She laughed. “Right. But, one way or the other, it will all be over Wednesday. I have to turn in the final vote then.”
Micah left her office feeling the cold more than usual. He told himself he needed to get back to work, but he drove past the bar anyway. Randi had been thick in his mind all day. Maybe he just wanted to talk to someone, he thought. But he knew it was a lie. He wanted—needed—to see her.
Micah left work early and picked up Logan. They bundled up and played in the front yard, racing leaves in the wind. Then they talked Mrs. Mac into going out for dinner. A rare thing that could never have been accomplished without Micah agreeing to tape her shows while they were gone.
The three of them went to the pizza place. They seemed a strange family among all the normal ones, but Logan didn’t notice. He hit the old pinball machine with three quarters and thought he was in heaven. While he played, Micah filled Mrs. Mac in on what had happened last night. To his surprise, she grew worried.
“I got a bad feeling about this, Micah. I don’t like it at all.”
“The sheriff will—”
She interrupted. “Granger’s a good man, but I’ve lived in this town long enough to know that when trouble comes, a few men with badges can’t always stop it.”
Micah had no doubt she was right. He’d heard about the wild twenties when the oil business was young. He could tell himself those days and those people were gone, but if Rosa Lee’s place was in the middle of some kind of oil fight, he wasn’t so sure. Would companies fight over a small plot of land?
“Maybe you should take a little vacation,” she said. “Go visit some of your friends down in Tyler.”
“I’ve lost track of most of them,” Micah admitted. “Besides, I can’t leave. Logan has school.” He didn’t add that he wouldn’t leave the committee.
She looked relieved and he realized that if he ran, he would have been leaving her alone. “We’ll be more careful, just like the sheriff says. I’ll call Fred across the street and ask him to watch our house. If he sees anyone even driving slowly, he’ll report in.”
Micah smiled. The neighbors in Clifton Creek kept an eye on one another. Maybe he was overreacting. Nothing ever happened. Nothing would happen now.
After pizza, he stopped by and visited with Billy while Mrs. Mac and Logan talked with the Rogers sisters in the waiting room. To his surprise, Mrs. Mac joined their militia, agreeing to phone in if she saw anything. Micah couldn’t help but smile. If they got all the gray hair in this town together, they’d have an army. Maybe he should stop worrying.
That night when he ran, he watched any cars that passed by. He stayed on the main streets where the light was better, and he didn’t go all the way out to Cemetery Road. He didn’t run near Randi’s place either.
But when he’d showered and crawled into bed, he couldn’t help but think about her and wish he’d stopped. Reason told him not to. If there was trouble coming, he didn’t need to involve her in any of it. But he couldn’t sleep. The need to hold her was a phantom ache within him he couldn’t heal.
The next morning, after Logan left for school, he stopped by the café for breakfast. He wasn’t surprised to see Lora Whitman at the counter. It was Tuesday after all.
“Time for your weekly dose of grease and chocolate?” he asked as he slid onto the stoo
l next to her.
She smiled, much more at ease with him than she had been last week. “You can’t beat chocolate-covered cinnamon rolls.” She raised her hand. “Polly, a roll for my friend.”
Polly groaned her usual greeting. “This ain’t no fast-service place and I ain’t asking if you want fries with that, so just wait your turn.”
Lora split her roll with him and they ate hers while waiting for his to arrive.
“Where are you headed?” he asked between bites.
“The hospital. Billy gets out today. The professor and I got him a room at the dorm. We knew he wouldn’t take it if we offered charity, so he’ll work off his room and board as the handyman. He’ll be taking a full load and working twenty hours a week at the sheriff’s office. His boss at the lumberyard said he can work there on Saturdays and breaks if he needs extra money.”
She leaned closer. “You know his family.”
“I met his dad once when I went by his house to ask where I could find Billy.”
Lora stabbed a piece of roll. “The old guy lives within walking distance of the hospital and hasn’t even stopped by to check on his son.”
“We can’t pick our parents.”
She nodded. “Yeah, but it makes me take a look at my own. I complain all the time about them, but they’d both die for me. It’s no wonder Billy got into trouble when he was a kid. He must have had no one looking out for him.”
“You like him, don’t you?” Micah felt strange even asking. It seemed like something a middle-school kid would say.
She grinned. “We’re friends.”
There was that word again, he thought. That word that could turn on a dime.
They talked, their heads almost touching while people walked by, glancing in their direction when Lora laughed, or when Polly griped about them ordering more coffee and a third roll.
Micah finally forced himself to say goodbye and rushed to his office, barely making it before his first couple came in for counseling. For the next few hours he worked unaware of the storm building outside. About two, Nancy brought him a cup of coffee and told him it was snowing. Micah hadn’t even had time to look out his window.
“Early, this year,” Nancy commented. “Usually we don’t see snow till after Halloween. Maybe we’ll have an early spring, as well.”
Micah watched the magic. Snow, covering everything, making the world newborn one more time.
He wasn’t surprised Logan called to ask if he could go over to Jimmy’s and make snow ice cream. Micah looked at the light dusting of snow and suggested they might have to settle for making cookies. Logan didn’t seem to mind. Micah promised to pick him up as soon as he could get away from the church.
Micah finished up the paperwork thinking how dark the day looked. As if the earth hugged the clouds close for warmth. Randi had crossed his mind several times and he’d thought of calling her. The day might seem a little less gloomy if he could hear her voice.
Finally, after everyone had left, he picked up the phone and dialed.
She answered on the first ring.
“Afternoon,” he said already smiling.
“I heard about Hatcher. How are you?” she asked, worry touching her words.
“I’m fine.” She’d known his voice, he realized. “How are you?”
“I’m missing seeing you.”
She didn’t mess around, this woman who didn’t belong in his world. She went straight to the truth. He’d thought their conversation would be small talk, casual. He should have known better.
He closed his eyes and let out a long breath he felt he’d been holding in since he’d seen her last. “Me, too.”
He could hear her breathing on the other end of the line. He didn’t have to say more. Neither did she. It was enough to know she was there.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Sidney built a fire in the fireplace of her bungalow and put on her warm flannel pajamas. She’d been cold all day. It wasn’t late, but she was ready to call it a night. After teaching her classes, she’d helped move Billy into the dorm as the day grew colder. She’d tried to call Sloan, thinking his truck would help them get all Lora had brought home from the store, but he hadn’t answered his cell.
He’d probably gone, she decided. Maybe the men Micah had seen him talking to in the bar parking lot had scared Sloan into giving up. Or maybe he’d been taken off this job and gone on to another without letting her know. After all, she didn’t exactly have a bond with Sloan. For him it was probably little more than a flirtation. He didn’t owe her reasons. He’d told her from the beginning that he had no home, so why was she surprised he turned out to be a tumbleweed? She’d let him get too close.
She made cocoa, flipped through the channels for something to watch and settled on watching the fire as she thumbed through a book she’d already read twice. Sidney was determined not to feel sorry for herself, but today was her birthday and no one had known, or noticed. Not that it mattered, but she was now forty. Now, officially an old maid. She might as well move in with the Rogers sisters and start playing for who turns out the lights.
Since her mother and grandmother had died, she’d felt alone, but never quite so much as she did tonight. Closing her eyes, she tried to think what life would have been like if they’d lived. Her Minnie would have baked a cake, a red velvet with coconut icing. And her mother, who always seemed to know what she wanted, would have brought presents. Little things like socks and books. They would have driven up before dark to her place north of Chicago, and been waiting to eat dinner when she got in from work. Then they’d all laugh as she opened the gifts. Minnie, her grandmother, would tell the story of the year Sidney was five and bought all the things she wanted to play with as gifts for them. Marbree, Sidney’s mother, would say what she said every year about how proud Sidney’s father would have been of her if he’d lived to see her all grown-up. Then, they’d settle in for the night. Sidney wouldn’t have to ask, she’d know they’d stay a few days.
The three of them had been so much alike, not in looks, but in temperament. Through three generations, they could read each other’s thoughts and moods.
A tear fought its way down Sidney’s cheek. If she’d known them so well, why hadn’t her grandmother told her about knowing Rosa Lee? In all the thousands of hours they must have talked, why hadn’t she told of living in Clifton Creek? Sidney had to wonder if her grandmother had kept the secret from just her, or from her mother, as well.
They’d been her stable ground all her life and now they were gone. She hadn’t even been able to say goodbye. In one car wreck all her family had died. And now, she’d have the rest of her birthdays alone with only memories for company. She’d never be able to ask Minnie her questions or find out if her mother knew the secrets of Rosa Lee that her grandmother had written about. She’d probably never know for sure if it was Clifton Creek they’d been heading to the day they’d both been killed.
Sidney jumped when the doorbell rang. The sudden jolt back to reality shook her. She glanced out at the snow-covered yard and saw Sloan’s truck parked in front.
For a moment, she thought of not answering. After all, it was late, probably close to nine. She was ready for bed. He hadn’t called. She hadn’t dated enough in the past few years to know what the rules were anymore, but surely just dropping by when they’d only gone out on one real date wasn’t acceptable.
But none of that really mattered. He was here, standing on her doorstep, freezing.
She opened the door.
The sight that greeted her made her laugh. He stood there, all six foot four of him, his hair and shoulders dusted in snow, with a cake box in one hand and a bottle of wine in the other.
“May I come in?” he asked. “The guy at the store said this wine doesn’t need to be chilled.”
“And if I say no?”
He frowned as if he feared she might. “I’m not moving, Sidney. If you don’t let me in I’ll freeze and you’ll have the largest yard elf in town.”
She giggled as she backed out of the way and he walked straight to her kitchen. He sat the cake and wine down and turned toward her. “Happy birthday!”
He flipped open the top of the box. The cake was decorated with red icing roses. Happy Birthday Sidney Elizabeth was printed in bright green icing.
Sidney laughed. “My middle name is Lee, not Elizabeth.”
Sloan ran his finger across a few of the letters and ate part of the e and l. “I was afraid of that. I had no idea what it would be so I picked the longest name I could think of hoping for more icing.” He took another finger full. “I love this stuff.” He offered her a taste.
Sidney smiled, her melancholy mood forgotten. “What kind of wine goes with cake?”
“The man at the gas service recommended red. I’ve always had the feeling wine should be reserved for communion and cooking, but I thought a bottle of whiskey might look just a little strange to give a lady like yourself, Professor.”
“Wise choice.”
While Sloan opened the wine, Sidney found plates. She considered asking him where he’d been all day, but wasn’t sure she wanted to know. She liked him, a deep down kind of like that would forgive much, she decided.
They drank wine in front of the fire. He pulled off his boots and stretched out, his long legs crossing half the space in her living area. “So your middle name is Lee,” he said.
She nodded. “My mother was Marbree Lee, so I’m Sidney Lee.”
He studied her closely before adding, “Like Rosa Lee.”
The possibility that had been nagging in her mind since the preacher had told her about the baptism record filled her thoughts. She knew Sloan probably wasn’t the one to talk to, but there didn’t seem to be anyone else.
“I’ve had a wild thought haunting me,” she said trying to make her words sound casual. She laid out all the facts. The note on the recipe card her grandmother kept in a safety deposit box, the baptism her grandmother attended two weeks before her mother was born, the fact that Rosa Lee left her house to Minnie if claimed within a year, and now Lee being her middle name.