Promises: Do You Know Where the Poison Toadstools Crow?

by Lori Beasley Bradley

  “Did you ever get lucky?”

  “Not until this morning when I saw you sittin’ there in Norm’s office all dressed up and lookin’ like a million bucks.”

  “Thanks, but you didn’t really get lucky. You just got dragged into moving furniture and hanging curtain rods in your old house full of sad memories.”

  “That’s not true.” He took the hand Ivy wasn’t using. “Being back in that house and watching you having so much fun decorating the way Cindy did was great for me. I felt alive again for the first time since watching her take her last breath in that damned hospital bed.” Dan reluctantly dropped her hand and returned to his food. “And getting the chance to tell Peggy Martin to get the hell out of my shit was a blessing I really hadn’t planned on,” he said and laughed.

  “You know she’s gonna be back down there beggin’ you for books the first chance she gets. She knew exactly when Cindy was finished with one and was right there on the porch with her hand out. I don’t think that woman’s ever paid for a book unless it was fifty cents at a yard sale.”

  “She’ll get no freebies from me. Authors make their money from the royalties when their books sell.”

  “Don’t they pay you big money to write them?” he asked, dumbfounded.

  “Some authors get paid an advance against royalties if the publisher thinks the work is marketable. The author doesn’t collect any royalties until that advance has been collected back by the publisher from the sales.” Ivy bit into the crispy crust of the eggroll after dipping it into the tangy sweet and sour sauce. “Miss Peggy will get no free books from me.”

  “Good.” Dan sucked the last of his soda from his cup.

  They finished up, and Dan held her chair as she stood.

  A gentleman, after all? I’m spent, or I think I’d offer to have him take me back home and spend the night.

  Ivy drove him back to his truck at Norman Powell’s office. He walked around to the driver’s door, and Ivy lowered the window.

  “I had a very nice day, Ivy Chandler. May I see you again?” He leaned in and kissed her.

  It wasn’t a passionate kiss at first, but it wasn’t a peck on the cheek either. Ivy didn’t pull away and allowed the kiss to go on longer than either of them had expected. He reached in and put his hand on the back of her head, pulling her closer for a moment as their tongues twined around one another’s and their lips pressed tighter.

  “Wow, now that was a goodnight kiss,” he whispered before standing and walking to his truck.

  Ivy sat in the Lexus, breathless from the unexpected kiss, and watched the pickup back out of the parking lot and drive away. She backed out as well and made her way to the cabin without encountering any stray deer along the way, to her great relief.

  Twice since arriving in the rural area, the sleek animals had darted in front of her car from the tall grasses or woods along the way to the cabin. Ivy didn’t want to hit one and injure it or wreck her new car. She found herself driving slowly and keeping her eyes on the edges of the narrow roads, looking for the reflection of her headlights in waiting eyes.

  As she pulled into her drive, Ivy was surprised to see the reflection of tail lights from another vehicle. In the glow of the porch light, Ivy saw the white head of Carl Anderson sitting in one of the wicker chairs. Ivy rolled her eyes, shifted the car into park, and stepped out.

  “Hello, Carl. What are you doing here?” Ivy stepped up onto the porch, opened the screen door, and unlocked the heavy door leading into the cabin. She glanced over to Carl, who still sat, swatting at buzzing mosquitos attracted by the light. “Are you coming in, or do you plan to stay out here with the mosquitos?”

  Carl stood and followed Ivy into the cabin. They walked into a fully furnished room decorated with a few antique lamps, a stuffed deer head, and a mantel clock ticking loudly. The ceiling fan set on low turned lazily above their heads, circulating the heavy, moist Missouri air. Glowing bulbs in the mock-antique fixture attached to the fan shined down on Dan and Ivy’s accomplishments.

  On the wall above the sofa hung a four-foot painting of a forest scene at dusk or dawn, the sky tinted in shades of pink and orange. It was one of the few frivolous decorative items Ivy had purchased from Humphry’s store, and she loved the way it accented the wall painted in the same shade of green as her bedroom, the bath, and the kitchen.

  Ivy thought back to Dan and wondered if her and Cindy’s tastes had more similarities than only decorating. Carl cleared his throat and brought Ivy back to the moment at hand.

  “The place looks nice,” Carl said, looking up at the wide rack of antlers on the deer above his head. “It didn’t take you long to pull things together. Where’d you find all this stuff?”

  “I had a day or so before the closing, so I found an antique mall and bought some furniture. I’m leaving the stuff in Phoenix there. My sister’s going to have it put into storage for me. I’m driving back in a week or two to pick up Cheshire and a few other things.”

  “So, you’ve decided to stay here?” Carl asked as he walked into the kitchen and flipped on the light switch. “This looks good. Lots of green, but it looks good.” Ivy had chosen dark green gingham curtains for the kitchen that were the same shade of Irish green as the kitchen cabinets. Cindy’s light green coated the walls except for the end wall with its chinked redwood logs.

  “It’s my favorite color,” Ivy said flatly. “It seems the woman who lived here before liked a lot of the same things I do.”

  “Her husband tell you that?” he sneered. Carl left the kitchen and went through the rest of the cabin, turning on lights to see what Ivy had done with the rooms.

  Ivy followed him. “Him, the man at the antique store, the guy at the furniture store, and her cousin from up the road,” she snapped.

  “Already met that many people, have you?” Carl walked into her bedroom and flipped the wall switch. The light blazed on to highlight the white-painted furniture and pastel palate of the very feminine room. Ivy followed his eyes around as he took in every painted piece of furniture. As an antique purist, Ivy knew Carl’s stomach probably turned at what he would consider an abomination and defiling of fine furniture. “Are you kidding me? What the hell is this mess supposed to be?” Carl sneered.

  “It’s my bedroom.”

  “It looks like Cinderella and Jane Austen got together for a play date.”

  “Oh, please.” Ivy rolled her eyes.

  Carl shook his head, walked past her and down the hall to the guest bedroom. Ivy turned off her bedroom light and dropped into the plush chair in the living room. He peeked into the bathroom before taking a seat on the couch. “The bathroom’s about as bad as the bedroom. I never took you for the frustrated romantic type.”

  “You’ve never really spent enough time with me to take me for anything, Carl. Where’s Judith? I’m sure she will probably do a wonderful job decorating the condos for you.”

  “Judith went back to Phoenix after the closing. We flew here in her company plane, and she had to get back to the boys.” He gave Ivy a sullen glare. “Judith is a business associate and a good friend.”

  “Right,” Ivy snapped, “a friend with great boobs, a great ass, a million-dollar company, and a private plane.” She stomped into the bathroom so Carl couldn’t see the tears seeping from her eyes. Ivy pulled herself together, blew her nose, and returned to the living room. “What do you want, Carl?”

  “I wanted to apologize for not telling you I was back in town and not returning your calls.” He scratched his head. “It was rude and inconsiderate. And I should have told you about Judith.”

  Ivy cut him off. “Judith was none of my business. She’s much more suited to your social circles than I am. I understand that.” Ivy wiped her nose again and batted back the new tears stinging her eyes. “I was hurt that you let me think you were in Wisconsin with your grandkids when you were actually in town with her. I had to find out about it in the paper, for God’s sake.”

  “I thought you mi
ght have seen that, but like I said before, we never had anything more than a friends-with-benefits sort of thing.” He stood and motioned around the room. “I never should have taken you on that trip and brought you here. I didn’t mean to lead you on or make you think there was more of a future for us than what there was in Phoenix.”

  “That’s just great, Carl.” Ivy’s temper began to boil over. “Just great. If your plane left town without you, how were you planning to get home?”

  “I thought maybe I could catch a ride with you,” Carl said calmly.

  Ivy stared at him, open-mouthed. “You’re shitting me, right? You didn’t even know I was here. How were you planning on getting home before you saw me here?”

  “Well, Judith was going to stay a bit longer, but she decided she needed to get back to the boys.”

  “Oh, I see.” Ivy didn’t see. “Carl, I’m going to be staying here. I may go back to the valley when it gets cold, but I don’t know yet.”

  “But that’s great, baby. You’ll be here to do the management of the rentals like we talked about before.” He looked around the big living room. “We can get you a little office space set up over there in the corner, and you can take care of the reservations and the advertising.”

  “Carl, stop,” Ivy interrupted. “I’m going to be concentrating on my writing. My agent says they’ll be sending me around to bookstores doing signings once they launch the first book. She’s talked them into a major promotional campaign, and I don’t think I’m going to have time to be your secretary.”

  “But I thought you wanted to have a relationship with me.” He looked awestruck at her refusal.

  “I did, but not just a business relationship. I want a man who wants to have me on his arm at award dinners and not just in his bed as an after-thought or taking care of his properties. I deserve better than that. I deserve to be loved.”

  “And you think you’re going to find love out here in Hillbilly Heaven?” He laughed. “You couldn’t find it begging for dates on the internet back in Phoenix. What makes you think you’ll find it out here in the sticks?”

  They were interrupted by a knock on the door. Ivy stormed past Carl and opened the door to see a cleanly shaven Dan Wingate standing on her porch. “Am I interrupting something here?” he asked as he walked in past Ivy and saw Carl on the couch.

  “Yes,” Carl snapped rudely.

  “No, Carl was just leaving,” Ivy snapped back, holding the door, and glaring at the red-faced Carl. “We’ve said all we have to say to one another.”

  Carl stood and strode past Ivy out the door without speaking. She heard the door on his rental car slam and gravel spray as he backed out of the drive.

  “What’s his problem?” Dan asked. He took Ivy’s hand, pried her fingers from the brass knob, and shut the door. “Are you alright, Ivy? What’s going on?” He took a clean white cotton handkerchief from the pocket of his clean jeans and handed it to her when he saw tears sliding down her pale cheeks.

  Ivy took the handkerchief with trembling fingers and wiped away the tears with haste. “Thanks.” She took a deep breath and wiped at her nose. “Carl and I just had a final parting of ways.”

  “I didn’t think you two were going together.”

  “We weren’t really.” Ivy went on to explain to Dan about her on-again-off-again relationship with Carl and how he’d assumed she would jump at the chance to work for him here in Branson. Ivy got them both glasses of ice water. “I’m sorry I don’t have anything stronger. I haven’t been to the grocery store yet.”

  “We can take care of that if you want to run into Wal-Mart. It’s open all night.”

  “I’d rather shop at the local market.”

  “Frank Parson will appreciate that. He runs the IGA and loses a lot of business to Wal-Mart since it started selling groceries.”

  “I’m sure he does.” Ivy handed him the glass of water, ice cubes tinkling against the sides of the tumbler. “I’ll run into town in the morning to stock up. So what brought you all the way back out here tonight?” She sat down next to him on the comfortable couch.

  “Honestly?” he asked with a sheepish grin.

  “Always. I’m too damned old for games and bullshit anymore. Just be honest with me. Please.” Ivy took a long drink of the icy water.

  “It was that kiss.” He took her by the chin, leaned in, and kissed her again. This time Ivy felt the passion, without any doubt. She didn’t know if it was needed or if it was just her anger at Carl, but she returned the fiery kiss. Their lips did not part for some time, and their hands began exploring one another’s bodies beneath their clothes. Ivy could smell fresh shampoo and knew Dan had showered and changed before returning to see her.

  “Wait a minute,” he said, pulling away. “I don’t want to take advantage. I don’t want to be the guy you screw because you’re pissed at that other guy you screw.” He moved away from her and picked up his water. “I may have come out here lookin’ to get laid, but I don’t want it like that. Does that make sense, or does it make me sound like an idiot?”

  “It makes you sound like you have more integrity than other men I screw,” Ivy said with a grin.

  “If you’re talking about that Carl guy, then I agree. He sounds like nothing but a user to me.”

  “I guess I never saw it before, but I think he is.” Ivy yawned and stretched. “My mom used to say that rich men didn’t get rich passing around their money. They stay rich by getting as much as they can for nothing. I guess Carl thought because he was getting one thing from me for nothing, he could get more.”

  “That’s just not right. You’re a beautiful, smart woman any man would be proud to have. Is he a rich guy?”

  “I don’t know. He lives like one and does big business deals all over the country. He just bought two condos by the lake here and paid almost a million dollars for them.”

  “But didn’t he say that blonde was underwriting the deal? Doesn’t underwriting mean the same as financing?”

  “I think it does. Well, I guess she’s his business partner now or something. He says she flew back to Phoenix and left him here to get the condos furnished and decorated. He wanted me to give him a ride back home.”

  “Ballsy,” Dan said with a laugh.

  “Yeah, that’s what I thought.” Ivy emptied her glass of water. “So, what is it you’re looking for, Dan, besides getting laid?”

  He stared at her with a deep furrow above the bridge of his nose. “It’s been over a year since Cindy passed, and she was sick for two years with chemo and radiation treatments for the cancer. Don’t get me wrong, she was a trooper through all of it, and I’d give anything to have her here, but I miss having a woman in my life.” He took a breath. “Not just for the sex. I can get sex anytime I want it, but having a woman to come home to every night and curl up next to is different. You know what I’m talking about?”

  “Yes, I do.” Ivy reached for his hand. “I’d hoped to have that with Carl, but I think he thought I was just looking for a sugar daddy.”

  “You don’t need one of those, do you?”

  “Not anymore, but I sort of did when I first met him. I only just recently signed with a publisher and came into some cash.”

  “You’re still the same person, though. I didn’t know you had money when I saw you at the truck stop and liked you right off. You’re beautiful, and you’re smart. I like that in a woman.”

  “And you have integrity.” Ivy leaned over and kissed him gently on his full, soft mouth. “I like that in a man.”

  Dan leaned into her, wrapped his muscular arms around her, and pulled Ivy close. “You smell good, woman,” he whispered, nuzzling her ear beneath her dusty and sweat-stiff hair.

  “Now I know that’s not true.” Ivy stared into his hazel eyes, chuckling. “Unless you like the smell of sweaty, dust-caked women.” Ivy stood and took his big hand. “I need a shower. I can tell you’ve just had one.” She ran her fingers through his damp curls then down to caress his smo
oth, freshly shaven face. “You don’t need to join me, but you can watch,” Ivy teased and pulled him toward the bathroom.

  “You’re a tease, woman,” he said and smiled as he rose to follow Ivy into the girly pastel bathroom. “I like that in a woman too.”

  16

  Ivy woke early with the sunlight filtering through the lacy drapes into her eyes. It took her a moment to get her bearings and remember where she was. She attempted to roll on her side and rise, but an arm lay across her belly, pinning her to the mattress. Soft, even snores breathed from beside her head, and Ivy turned to see the serene, handsome face and tousled brown hair of Dan Wingate asleep beside her.

  “Mornin’,” he mumbled when he felt her move beneath his arm. He used the muscular limb over her mid-section to pull Ivy closer into his warm, naked body.

  Something stirred in Ivy, and she rolled to face him. Their lips met in a soft kiss of new familiarity. Dan’s rough hand found a breast and began pinching a nipple until she shivered and moaned with delight. During the night, they’d explored one another, finding the erogenous zones that elicited the pleasurable moans and erotic responses from one another. Ivy found his heavy balls and used her fingernails to tease with light scratches until she felt his penis firming against her leg, oozing pre-cum.

  Dan rolled her onto her back. “You’re a devil, woman. You drive me mad with lust.” He straddled Ivy’s slim hips and used a knee to push her legs apart. She opened herself to him gladly and moaned with pleasure as he entered her.

  “Oh, my god. That feels so good.” Though tender from their multiple couplings the night before, Ivy arched her back up to meet his ardent thrusts and clenched her vaginal walls to tighten around his thick cock.

  “Keep doin’ that. I love it,” he said, panting above her.

  Ivy complied but found herself lost in the pleasure he wrought, sliding between her thighs. Soon her groin exploded with multiple bursts of exquisite delight, and she groaned and moaned with each shuddering blast, causing her body to shiver and stiffen at the same time. “Oh, my God, Dan. Don’t stop.” Ivy dug her fingers into the pillows behind her head and breathed heavily. “Don’t you dare fucking stop.”