Scarlett Promise (The Scarletts

by Brenda Barrett

  "I agree, for some people, yes, survival is the name of the game but people do things in the name of desperation because they are afraid to take a plunge, they are afraid of change, they are afraid to lose their prestige and they have absolutely no trust in God," Nathan said simply. "And because they have no trust they hold on to those things which are familiar or dear, or are tested and proven—the road most traveled. And this can include any profession. That's why my father wanted me to be a doctor, even though I loathed med school."

  "But what if you get kicked out of the home that you've always lived in and you have no where to go and nobody to turn to?" Lisa swallowed. "What then?"

  "Then I'd wait for God's direction." Nathan narrowed his eyes at her. "Isn't that what you did?"

  Not exactly, the little voice in Lisa's head muttered. Visibly she nodded. "Sure. Yes. Of course."

  She couldn't wait to change the subject. "So Doctor Cross, what did you have to show me?"

  Nathan laughed. "Doctor Cross? I haven't heard that title in quite a long time." He ducked into the back seat and pulled out a framed photograph of her dancing in the sand. It was two weeks ago, and she had worn one of Francine's designer dresses, a multicolored caftan. The wind was blowing her hair about her face; the aqua sea and the sunset hues of pink and orange were in the background.

  It made her hair look as if it were on fire and her eyes were almost green. It was a gorgeous photo, vibrant, full of life and colors.

  "Wow," Lisa breathed. "It's really good."

  Nathan laughed. "I have a copy of this and I am calling it the Real Mona Lisa. It will have a prominent position in my bedroom."

  Lisa smiled. "Thank you, Nathan."

  "Don't mention it." Nathan winked at her. "So are you up for a driving lesson today?"

  He had offered to teach her to drive last week when she had walked to class in the rain.

  "Well, sure." Lisa grinned. "I know a thing or two already. I would pick up some things when my uncle tried to teach my grandma how to drive."

  Nathan handed her the key and got into the passenger side of the car.

  "You never talk about your family except for the fact that your grandma kicked you out and apart from the fact that your mom and your dad met, had a one-night stand and then got married. And your dad died before you were born."

  "And that's it in a nutshell." Lisa grunted as she backed out of the parking space without an issue.

  " I want to know about your uncle."

  "Nothing much to tell." Lisa grimaced. "Uncle Desmond was the apple of my grandma's eye. He could do no wrong, even when he was wrong. So every time he had a quarrel with his wife he would come to stay with Grandma Vera until things cooled down at home.

  "He made it his life's work to teach Granny to drive because he was tired of fetching and carrying stuff for her. He wanted her to be independent."

  Nathan watched her as she pulled out of the hotel gates. "Seems as if he taught you instead?"

  "Yep, I would get a turn at the wheel too, just to show Granny how easy it was; even a child could do it."

  Nathan chuckled.

  "And your grandmother? Tell me about her."

  "She was...is… moody, miserable, cantankerous, rarely, very rarely showed any affection to me, and when she did, it was with some kind of condition. You know, like pay me and I'll hug you. I worked at a bar once."

  "You did?" Nathan quirked his brow.

  "Yup, it was after my supermarket job and my grandmother was desperate to get me earning again. So she got me a bar job."

  Nathan looked at her. "I am beginning to dislike your grandmother."

  "After I got paid, I had to give her everything. And then she would give me pocket money."

  "Wow," Nathan remarked.

  "Yep. So when I lost the bar job, she started getting really inhospitable. I was suddenly a major drain on her resources, so she kicked me out."

  Lisa said it nonchalantly but it still hurt.

  She turned the car up Great Bay Road. She had never been to that part of Treasure Beach. It was what she thought of as the native side of Treasure Beach.

  "Before she kicked me out, she made up this story about me not belonging to my parents to justify it. Get this—she said I never looked like any of my relatives, hence I am not really her grandchild."

  "That must have been tough."

  "Yes." Lisa slowed down at a depression in the road. "It was a dark day and...night...for me."

  Nathan looked at her sympathetically. "But you turned it around?"

  "Yes." Lisa nodded. "I promised God that I'd do a couple of things to straighten out myself if he helped me out of it and he helped me."

  "Francine Mills called you when you were on the road heading to nowhere.” Nathan repeated the sanitized version of the story she had told him.

  "Yep." Lisa nodded. "Ricky needed a housekeeper."

  "God works in amazing ways." Nathan smiled at her.

  "Yes, he does. More than you know." Lisa inhaled. She hated not telling him the full story.

  Nathan nodded and then pointed to a pretty little yard with a lot of flowers. "Some of those flowers are unique. I have never seen those purple ones before."

  "We should stop, ask permission to take some pictures," he said excitedly. He reached into the back seat for his camera.

  Lisa shook her head. "You are so obsessed."

  "It's a healthy obsession," Nathan said when she reversed and stopped at the gate.

  Nathan got out of the car and knocked on the gate. He was practically sizzling with excitement to capture the bell-shaped deep purple flower.

  A round, short lady came to the door.

  "Are you the lady of the house?" Nathan asked politely.

  "No sar," the lady answered spiritedly. "I just clean up around here. The lady of the house is Mrs. Marla Scarlett."

  "Oh. Scarlett." Nathan grinned. "I can bet that this Marla Scarlett is related to a buddy of mine, Oliver Scarlett."

  "Maybe." The lady shrugged. "This is Scarlett country."

  "May I take a few photos of that plant?" Nathan pointed to the purple plant.

  The lady looked like she was going to say no.

  Lisa got out of the car and stretched, thinking that she could help with the negotiations. Women looked more favorably on men when they saw that they were part of a couple.

  The lady squinted at her and then looked at Nathan. "You could have said you had a Scarlett with you. Come on in, then..."

  Nathan raised his eyebrows at Lisa, who grinned. The lady went back into the house, watching them curiously while they took the pictures.

  ****

  Week five of her photography course, Lisa was over at Nathan's house until late into the evening learning to use the photo editing software she needed to polish her photos.

  Nathan had already showed her how to use the software and was now sitting in the corner of the living room sorting out which pictures to hang on the walls. He had an extensive collection from what he had termed his Treasure Beach pictures. He had already uploaded some of them to his website and had gotten sales.

  Sales! She was still awed by that. People paid real, honest–to-goodness money for photographs.

  She paused over a picture that she had taken in class. It was of a colorful fishing boat. It had looked lonely and had spoken to her somehow. It had a word etched into the side. She zoomed in closer to the boat and saw that it read ‘Pops’.

  Lisa closed her eyes and imagined the fisherman who owned it. He would be weathered looking and friendly, like the many fishermen she saw on her jaunts to take pictures. Maybe he had dreadlocks and a grin a mile wide and smoked in the afternoon with his friends at one of the several local shacks on the beach side.

  She would have loved to get him in the picture but the boat had been parked in the sand. She had taken it from a low angle so that she captured the sand that stuck to the side of the red paint with just hints of the sea in the background.

  "Do you
like this?" She turned to show Nathan the picture.

  Nate nodded. "Love it. You really have an eye for this. I like that."

  "That's a real compliment coming from you," Lisa said. She looked at the boat again. "It says Pops; what do you think it means?"

  Nathan shrugged. "I guess the fisherman likes Popsicles?"

  "Ha." Lisa saved the pic. "I don't know. Maybe it's his name."

  "I like this picture. I think this will be my main exhibit piece. It speaks to the whole atmosphere of this place. Old world, peace, quiet, industry, sea, sand."

  Nathan was nodding along with everything she said.

  "Can I get a copy of it to hang in the house?"

  "Sure." Lisa grinned. "Sure. You mean it?"

  "Yes." Nathan nodded. "I wouldn't want it decorating the walls if I didn't think it was up to my very high standards."

  Lisa clapped her hands in glee. "Are you going to be one of the judges at the exhibition? Eva said they would have expert guest judges."

  "No." Nathan headed to the stereo and turned it on. Michael Bolton's voice came on softly in the background. "There is the bias factor. I love one of their students."

  Lisa nearly choked on her tongue. She swung back around to him. "Say that again."

  Nathan grinned. "Said I loved you but I lied."

  She grinned. "The song is saying the same thing. You are a goof."

  "But I was serious, though." Nathan swung the chair around to face her; he stooped to her level and came close to her, until they were nose to nose.

  "You can't love me," Lisa whispered. "You are a boy genius medical doctor photographer and I am just a high school graduate with an iffy family history and ..."

  "... a crazy chip on her shoulder," Nathan finished for her. He pulled her closer to him and kissed her, but she was the goof; she didn't know how to kiss.

  By the time she confessed this to Nathan he looked at her with hooded eyes. "You serious?"

  "Yes," Lisa said, embarrassment taking her over.

  "Then I'll have fun teaching you." He pulled her closer to him and by the time his phone rang and interrupted them, she realized that she was a quick learner.

  Nathan pulled away from her reluctantly, kissing her on the tip of her nose.

  "Hello." His voice was husky.

  When he came off the phone he looked at her apologetically.

  "That was my friend, Watson—works at SofServ. He is panicking. Their photographer is down with the flu and they need someone to help them with some professional photos."

  Lisa nodded. "It is going to be a long weekend without you."

  "I know, for me too." Nathan inhaled. "Your first kiss, huh? I feel honored."

  Lisa swung back to the computer, her ears burning.

  He hugged her from behind.

  "I knew from the moment that I saw you that you were a keeper," he whispered in her ear, which caused her to shiver from his closeness and his words.

  She sighed. It was becoming harder and harder not to tell him that the first time she saw him was at his father's house and not Treasure Beach.

  Chapter Twelve

  "Well, if it isn't the housekeeper sneaking in late at night?" Lisa jumped as Madison turned on the kitchen light. She bumped her head on the archway.

  "Madison, what are you doing?"

  "Curiosity," Madison growled. "There is this insidious little mystery about you that is bothering me. Who are you really, Lisa Barclay?" She spat the ‘Lisa’ as if she had said something vile and poisonous.

  "What has gotten into you?" Lisa asked, puzzled.

  "You." Madison's hair was wild and she was in an all-black ensemble of black jeans and what looked like a dress.

  "Okay, let me tell you what doesn't add up, little missy," Madison spat. "You do photography classes. You flit about with Nathan whenever you want, you never lift your hand by doing any housework around here, you wear Francine Mills' designer clothes as if they are yours, and you do so with the boss' blessing. You have secret conversations with the boss, whispering together and acting all chummy. Something is not right. You are not family; you are not an employee. What the hell are you?"

  Lisa shook her head. "That's none of your business."

  "It is my business!" Madison shouted. "I have watched you monopolize Nate's attention these past couple of weeks. I have had to listen to you prattle on and on about Nate this and Nate that.

  "I have sucked it up. I can't anymore. No, I am done with this place. But before I go, I am going to let Nate know about you."

  "What exactly are you going to tell him?" Lisa asked, watching as Madison started pacing.

  "It doesn't matter now, does it?” Madison spat. "You have secrets and I am going to find them."

  Her voice hitched on a sob. "You are a manipulator! You manipulate men; they do your bidding. It is not normal!"

  Lisa heard a throat clearing by the archway.

  Ricky was staring at the two of them, a half-smile on his face. "Another physiotherapist on their way out because of you, Lisa?"

  "Seems so," Lisa said tiredly.

  Ricky patted her back as she passed him. "Don't worry, I can do all of my exercises just fine now."

  "See!" Madison screeched. "There is something off about the two of you. There is something off! Why take her side, why be so calm and cool about your precious Lisa?"

  She started sobbing. "Everybody loves Lisa! Why?"

  Lisa glanced at the grandfather clock in the living room. It was ten o'clock. She had really spent a long time over at Nate's.

  She hadn't realized that Madison had been simmering with resentment the past couple of weeks. She had hardly seen her because she had been so caught up in her new-found photography course which she genuinely loved.

  She was usually gone in the morning before Ricky's sessions with Madison and she came back pretty late at night, when Madison was in bed.

  She was fortunate that Madison was not a psycho murderer or she would be dead by now. She had totally ignored the warning signs Madison was showing. She thought of calling Nathan to tell him but decided against it. There was nothing that Madison could tell him about her that was incriminating. All she could say about her was that something was not right.

  She could go to sleep now with a smile on her face. She had a lot of things to process, like her kiss with Nathan. Madison's jealous rage was not a concern.

  ****

  Ricky called Francine after trying to calm down Madison in the kitchen.

  Francine answered the phone quite jovially and sounded like she was at a cocktail party. He heard the buzz of people talking in the background and the distinct clanging of cutlery.

  "Another physiotherapist hits the dust," Ricky said to Francine almost smugly. "I can do my workouts just fine without a nanny."

  "Did you fire her?" Francine asked icily. "Ricky, what did I tell you about this? You need the help. So the first one was hitting on Lisa. Don't tell me this girl, what's her name, was hitting on her too?"

  "No," Ricky replied. "Lisa is seeing Nathan Cross, who is living next door."

  "Good God Almighty. No," Francine swore. She entered a space which was buzz-free. Ricky heard a door closing and then blessed silence in the background.

  "Why is Lisa dating Nathan? Why didn't you stop her? Nathan is too close to this. Isn't she afraid that he will find out that just three months ago she was playing whore to his father? If the poor sod hadn't died, the mind boggles to think how convoluted this mess would be right now..."

  "I can't police Lisa's emotions, Francine." Ricky sighed. "When is all of this going to be over? The announcement for the contract is in two days."

  Francine snorted. "These government things take a while. God, I hate doing business with them. But I already got the stupid contract, which is costing me more pain than it is worth. Did you know Raybourne and his contracts were under investigation?"

  "No," Ricky muttered. "How would I know?"

  "The idiot had a bidding system going
where only the highest payouts got the contracts. Now when they announce my name Monday, I will be on the investigators’ radar. I wish I had not entered into this unholy pact with him."

  Francine sighed. "Then you would get to keep your physiotherapists because there would be no Lisa. Having her there with you as insurance not to talk is costing you progress."

  "No, it's not. I like her. She's a nice kid."

  Francine snorted. "She is more trouble than she is worth. I am this close to cutting her loose. In four days when the contract is announced as mine, I am coming down there for some well-deserved R and R. I will assess what I will do with her then."

  "Whatever, Francine, just remember that Lisa has been good throughout all of this. I should go."

  He hung up the phone, not realizing that there was another click on the house line.

  Madison clutched the phone to her, a beatific smile on her face. Dirt! She had hit pay dirt. She almost did a jig in the hallway. But she needed to tamper her enthusiasm.

  Now she knew.

  First she would punish Ricardo Mills for taking Lisa's side against her and then she was going to ensure that Nathan did not speak to Lisa again.

  Her ears were still ringing with the information. Lisa had been one of Raybourne Cross' whores?

  Francine Mills could be in the height of the latest bribing scandal enveloping the country?

  She couldn't sleep that night; the information was almost too good to be true.

  ****

  It was raining when Lisa got up on Friday morning. Ricky was alone in the kitchen reading his usual paper.

  "Where's Madison?" Lisa asked, sitting down with her usual plate of eggs and a slice of toast.

  Ricky shrugged. "Don't know. Why do you care? She is out to get you."

  "I know. She was scary last night. Are you really fine with her leaving?"

  "Yes. Sure. Whatever." Ricky shrugged. “My legs are stronger. I can do the exercises in my sleep. I won't quit exercising again. I am pretty motivated to keep on doing it. I don't need a babysitter. Especially a psycho one."