“Now, tell Miss Dallas what’s wrong. You sounded just wonderful. Was it because you forgot a word?”
“No, ma’am. It’s just...” She hiccupped back another cry, tears spilling from her gorgeous green eyes.
“It’s okay, baby. You can tell me.”
“It’s just... It’s just I was missing my mommy, so...I forgot, that’s all. And since she’s gone, I won’t have anyone here to watch me sing next week.” Her little lips quivered as she tried to hold herself together.
“You know what? I know just how you feel,” Dallas said gently. “I didn’t have my mommy to watch me when I was on stage either. And it made me very sad, too. I understand just how scary that feels. But listen to me, sweetheart, you know what? I’ll be right there on the big night.” Dallas gestured toward the wings. “I will definitely be watching you, and I won’t leave you, so you can just look right over your shoulder if you get scared, and I’ll be there, listening to you and smiling at you, okay?”
“Promise me?” Sara Grace looked up at her with such sweetness and innocence, and Dallas’s heart was breaking for her.
“I promise you, baby. I’ll be right there.”
This was raw Dallas. The Dallas without all the armor. She’d spent so much time defending herself, bracing herself for disappointment and learning that she’d always have to fight for what she wanted—nothing came easy. Yet, when confronted with this vulnerable little girl, she felt all those walls quickly and easily melting away. As she sat there rocking Sara Grace, she realized how much they were the same. Both tough and outspoken on the outside, but just needing love and someone to believe in them on the inside. Sara Grace had begun to develop her own armor, and Dallas was thankful to see she may have shown up in the nick of time.
The theater was silent, but when she saw Cal making his way down to the stage, she realized that the mic had been on the whole time and that he had likely heard their whole conversation.
She stood up and called practice to an end for the day. The children scurried around gathering their things, and Betty Ann gave Dallas a confident smile.
Dallas walked backstage to get her purse. Cal met her in the wings, his look soft and sweet as opposed to his usual sour expression. She looked up at him, since in her bare feet he towered over her.
“Hey,” he said simply.
“Hey,” she said.
“I just wanted to say...um, what you did back there, for Sara Grace, that was pretty great.”
Dallas closed her eyes and exhaled. She wasn’t sure what she’d been expecting, but it wasn’t compliments from the man who’d nicknamed her the Ice Queen. “Thanks.” She couldn’t muster any more words.
“I want to apologize,” he said, stuffing his hands in his pockets.
“For what?”
“For the way I’ve been acting. I mean, I think maybe I misjudged you.”
She smiled but didn’t trust herself to say anything. Her emotions were running way too close to the surface to trust herself to speak.
“Seriously. I guess I don’t know you as well as I thought I did,” he said. “I should’ve known that a lot can change between college and now, but I didn’t really give you much of a chance.”
“Don’t worry about it, Cal. Really.” She felt the flare-up again, but this time it didn’t bother her quite so much.
“Sara Grace is one of my favorite kids here,” he said. “You did a really good thing with her.”
“Thanks.”
“Listen, I’m gonna run across the street and get some hot chocolate. I think I owe you one after making you spill yours last night. Wanna join me?”
Dallas felt her heart skip a beat. Oh, my goodness. Being asked out by Cal was her teenaged fantasy come true. Part of her thought it might be smart to quit while she was ahead. She’d won over Blake, the kids, Betty Ann and now Cal...maybe she should just head home and call it a night. But before her mind could make any decisions, her heart jumped in and took the lead.
“Sure, let me just grab my heels.”
15
Dallas was a nervous wreck—her heart racing so fast she was sure Cal could see it under her blouse. They walked across the street in the evening air, with the sun setting and a December chill creeping in. The little diner, Glory Bound, was warm and small. They grabbed a table in the corner.
“So, um, this is really nice, Cal. Thanks for asking me over here.” This awkwardness she felt was completely new to her. Dallas was the kind of woman whom men gravitated to, and she had always known how to act around them. What to say, how to smile, how to cross her legs just so to get their attention. Yet with Cal, she felt like a teenager all over again.
“I like to admit it when I’ve been wrong. It’s a habit of mine.” He glanced up shyly and smiled.
“Well, I forgive you. I’m sure I don’t help my reputation with some of my actions anyway.”
Owning up to bad behavior? That was another first for Dallas.
She thought about her most recent relationship with Dan the man Donohugh, Harry Heart’s campaign manager. That was one hundred percent a relationship of convenience. For both of them. She’d rubbed up on Dan so he would give her all the top information on Harry’s campaign, using him to leverage her career. He had been doing the same, though. Having a beautiful woman on your arm was great, but having a direct media contact for the politician you were supporting was even better.
But the relationship eventually ended, fading away after the November election once they’d found that their usefulness to each other had expired. Her experience with true love was limited to exactly one relationship during college. But that hadn’t lasted—the guy had left her because she was so busy being awesome, or trying to be, that she hadn’t paid enough attention to how awesome he was. That was the closest to romantic love Dallas had ever been, but it had been so fleeting that she hadn’t really had much time to really feel it.
Oh, she had been married three times, but those didn’t really count as far as true love was concerned. She’d never experienced really being head over heels in love. The kind of love you live for. That all-encompassing “I can’t live without you” sort of love. All of her marriages had been purely to help her career or to get some money that would help her career. And they had only wanted Dallas as arm candy—a trophy wife to parade around at office parties and corporate events. Every marriage had lasted less than a year, each of them used as a step up a ladder to career fame. She wasn’t exactly proud of that, but she hadn’t chosen anyone who had real feelings for her anyway. No hearts had been broken when it was time to part ways, so she’d always just considered those relationships as mutual business transactions. One of the best “deals” she’d made was to keep the name from her last marriage. Dubois had some star quality to it.
But after all these years, Dallas longed for some real closeness, something more intimate and substantial, something more like love. But she was an awkward person when it came to being real. And that thick firewall she had built up sure didn’t help any. But holding Sara Grace tonight had changed her somehow. It had felt like a revelation, like a new beginning. And most of all, it had felt like such a relief.
“I wanted to tell you, Cal, I really appreciate what you said...about being wrong about me. Coming from you, that really means something.”
“Well, it’s just the way I was raised, ya know? If you’re wrong, say it and clear the air.”
He was sweet, Dallas thought, noticing a glint in his eyes when he looked at her. He had a shyness to him that she found endearing. These were things she had actually never even paid attention to before. Over all the years she had known him and had a crush on him, she’d never gotten past that gorgeous hair and that delicious body.
“Tell me a little about them, I mean about your family, Cal. All I know is your dad played football at Alabama, jus
t like you.” She was surprised that she genuinely wanted to know. Plus, she was a reporter at heart, so the questions were bubbling up anyway. And it kept him sitting across from her a little longer.
“Yeah, well, my dad and even my granddad and both my uncles played for Alabama. Both of my older brothers played, too. I guess it runs in the blood. I’m the only one, though, that got my doctorate, and I’m definitely the only computer geek in the family,” he said, smiling at her. “Tell me about your family.”
Oh, God, she wasn’t ready for that. She didn’t want to say too much, since all of this with him was so new, and she was afraid it might scare him off. She swallowed hard, feeling her anxiety take over.
“Oh, you know, nothing special,” she said nonchalantly. “My dad was a businessman,” she added. It was the first thing that came to mind that she wasn’t ashamed of admitting.
“You mean nobody else was a broadcaster?” he said with a grin. He had one dimple on the left cheek, and she noticed she could only see it when he smiled a certain way. She had never seen him smile like this before.
“No, just me.”
Just then, a young woman came up to their little table.
“Aren’t you that TV reporter? I just love your work,” she gushed. Then, “Ohmygosh! And you’re our old quarterback. Hollingsworth, right? I was such a fan. I used to keep your picture up in my locker.”
Both of them smiled.
“Oh, my lord, I’d just love to get autographs! Do y’all mind?” she asked.
“No, sweetheart, of course not,” Dallas said. She was in her element now. She reached up and took the paper and pen from the woman and signed her name, then handed them both over to Cal.
“Oh, I dunno, I might need some liniment for my old crippled hands, you know, since I’m the old quarterback,” he teased.
Dallas laughed. She wished she had gotten to know him better when they were younger. Cal signed his name and put his old number down, 15, then handed the paper back to the young woman.
“Thanks so much. This is awesome! Oh...are y’all...together? Did I just interrupt your date?” She cringed a little with embarrassment.
Cal and Dallas sat still, looking at each other, then at the girl, then back to each other’s eyes.
“Um,” Dallas tried to fill the dead air. It was a habit. “Well...we’re old friends.”
Cal looked up at the girl and smiled. “Yes. Old friends.”
16
Dallas’s head was spinning as she unlocked her front door. Cal was swirling around in her mind. The smile remained on her face involuntarily that night, even while she was falling sleep. Maybe she could have the fairy tale she had dreamed of as a little girl. At least the handsome prince part. But Dallas’s fairy tale went beyond catching her dream man—it also included a dream career, being a respected news anchor.
The next morning, Wilhelmina woke her by licking her nose with her warm, sandpapery tongue.
“Good morning, pretty girl,” Dallas said, sliding her hand down the kitty’s back. She made a sleepy wobble to the kitchen, fed Wilhelmina, then poured herself a hot cup of coffee from the auto-timed coffeemaker on the counter. She may not have been a domestic goddess, but at least she could make coffee.
Her little, two-bedroom house was sweet, and it suited her perfectly. Though it was in an older part of town near the campus, it was really smack-dab in the center of things, close to the TV station, campus and downtown. It didn’t take her long to get anywhere, just in case she was called out on a story.
Her cozy little kitchen was well appointed with all the appliances, but most of them were older models. She had never turned on the oven once since she’d moved in, and the stove scared her because the older model was gas, and the pilot light was out. She’d have to stick a match to the burner to light the eye, and there was no way that was gonna happen. So she stuck to the microwave.
The walls in this room were a creamy yellow, and the Formica countertops were a buttery pastel. Over the little porcelain sink was a nice-size window that overlooked the small but fertile backyard. Crabapple tress, a weeping willow and a couple of mimosa trees were scattered around the lot. One giant magnolia tree kept watch over the little backyard from the far left corner. In the springtime the yard was fragrant and lovely. There was a tiny, screened-in back porch just off the back door, and Dallas could sit out there on warmer mornings and watch the birds and butterflies chase each other.
But not today. Temperatures were back down in the low forties and dropping. An ice storm was predicted for later that night. She dressed in a thick scarf and her heavy winter-white coat, then headed out to work, her warm coffee cup refilled on the way out.
She arrived at work to a flurry of activity in the newsroom.
“Hey, Daniel,” she called when she spotted him amongst the chaos. “I hear ice is predicted for tonight. Guess that’ll be the lead.”
“Nope, the lead is that every single store from here to Birmingham is sold outta milk and bread,” he said, laughing, as he walked over to her desk. “Why is it that with any winter storm, everybody thinks milk and bread is the hunker-down cure?”
“Been that way as long as I can remember. People are crazy. Hey, you think we can cover that expansion of the Baby Jesus story today?”
“Sounds good to me. There’s Mike. Go ask him.”
Dallas told Mike what she had in mind, but he had other things for her on his agenda.
“How ’bout you get out there and take the lead on the storm today?”
Dallas was thrilled. ”Sure! Absolutely.” She felt like Rudolph during that Christmas Eve blizzard. Ready, Santa!
“What’s the angle you’re thinking about?” she asked.
“The usual. All the milk and bread from here to Georgia are sold out already. Then do the stand-up from Walmart or someplace where they’re cleaned out.”
“Perfect.” She turned to find Daniel when she suddenly remembered there was another play rehearsal scheduled for that evening. She was stuck between a rock and a hard place. There was no way she was gonna miss an opportunity to make up for the last two live shots she had screwed up, but she also had an important obligation to the kids. She was just starting to break the ice with them, and it would be a major setback to disappoint them now.
And then, of course, there was the ice she was breaking with Cal.
Dallas knew she could find a way through this.
“Daniel, you gotta help me. I have rehearsal, and Mike’s forgotten and given me the lead. I’m supposed to be at the theater from four to six today. What can we do?”
Daniel closed his eyes for a minute to think. She could see the minute the idea hit him. “We shoot the package. I park the live truck in front of the Bama Theatre and when you’re done with rehearsal, you race out and we do the stand-up. Easy.”
“Oh, Daniel, you’re a lifesaver! Thank you.” Then she remembered Mike said do the stand-up in front of a store where they would be sold out of milk and bread. She wasn’t sure how to pull that off, but she didn’t dare mention it to Mike. He’d just throw the lead story to someone else. No, she’d just figure it out.
Dallas finally sat down at her desk to get organized for the day. Her messages stacked high, she began sifting through them.
Dallas, I’m sorry about the other night. Please reconsider.
Her mother again. She crumpled it up and threw it in the trash. A few more, one from Abigail Harper at the radio station.
The scavenger hunt has suddenly heated up. Looks like we will have a winner. Wondering if we can announce the iPad recipient the night of the children’s Christmas play?
Dallas thought about it. It sounded like a perfect idea, since both broadcast organizations were raising money for the Tuscaloosa Children’s Home. She’d call Abigail and tell her. Maybe she’d even set up
a story about it. Looked as if the twenty-third was gearing up to be the quite the day.
The next message stopped her cold.
I had a nice time last night. Let’s try it again sometime.
It was from Cal. She took a deep breath and smiled, pressing the note to her chest. No, she thought, there was no way in hell she was missing play practice, even for the lead story.
17
Dallas and Daniel ran all over town with their mic and camera. Sure enough, every store, from Walmart to the Zippy Marts, was selling out of milk and bread as if it was the end of the world. Daniel shot the B-roll, and Dallas interviewed the frantic shoppers. It hardly ever got cold enough in Alabama for an ice storm, at least not in West Central Alabama. Snow was a rarity—maybe once a season, if at all. So this was huge. Everyone was getting ready to hunker down.
Once they got all the footage they needed, Daniel and Dallas sped back to the station to package the story. It was pretty routine, so it didn’t take long. Dallas had gotten word from the theater board that rehearsal was still a go, since the ice storm was not expected to arrive till after suppertime, so after they finished with their edits, they sneaked out of WTAL and headed to the Bama. They had to be extra careful. In the TV news business, days like this—where there was a lot going on and everybody was crazy busy—were called A news days. A little old ice storm could create an A news day in Tuscaloosa.
Daniel pulled up to the front entrance of the theater.
“Thanks for the ride, Daniel. And remember, don’t be late,” Dallas said, jumping out of the news van.
“I know. I’m gonna call Mike and tell him we left early to set up. That should keep him from asking questions.”
“Great idea! What would I do without you?” She smiled and shut the door and ran inside the lobby of the grand old theater. Cal was just rounding the corner from the steps up to the booth, and she nearly knocked him down.
“Hey, Ms. TV star, slow it down. I’ll have to sign you up for linebacker tryouts if you don’t.”
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