Love in Bloom (29 page)

“It's not. Ty got a job.”

“But that's wonderful,” Millie protested.

“He and the owner really hit it off.”

Millie poured hot water into a china teapot. “I guess there's a downside here, but I'm not seeing it.”

“The man is already talking about selling the restaurant to Ty.”

Millie stopped pouring. “Oh.”

“Yeah, oh. The food is bad news, this guy's got a lemon on his hands he wants to unload and in walks Ty, with sucker written on his forehead.”

Millie brought the teapot to the table. “I assume you and Ty discussed this.”

She set a cup and saucer in front of Amber and one in front of the chair opposite and sat down.

“I'm not sure ‘discussed' is exactly the word. Oh, God, Millie, what am I going to do?” The tear level in her eyes was dangerously high now. Any minute they were going to spill and she didn't dare let them. Not when Seth could walk into the kitchen and see her crying.

Millie poured tea in each of their cups. “Surely the owner didn't expect Ty to come in and buy him out immediately, not when he only came in looking for a job.”

Amber shook her head, trying to get herself under control. “No. Ty said something about doing this over the next five years. I don't even know how the subject came up. He was there for a long time.”

“They probably got to talking, swapping war stories.” Millie added some honey to her tea and stirred it thoughtfully.

“Millie, I don't want to own another restaurant. I don't want to lose everything I have.”

Millie leaned back in her chair. “You've already lost a business and a house. What more could you lose? Except your family?”

Amber's fingers clenched around her cup. “Ty's the one who's going to lose the family. I can't do this again, but he doesn't care. He only cares about himself.”

“What if he sees this as a second chance, an opportunity to save his family?”

“What if he sees this as a chance to save his pride?” Amber countered. Really, Millie was not helping at all.

“Well, dear, I certainly can't tell you how to live your life, but if I were in your shoes . . .”

Amber made a face. “You'd be perfect.” Why had she come over here, anyway? What had she thought she was going to hear? Millie would, of course, tell her to support her husband. Millie was from a different generation.

Millie shook her head. “I was far from perfect, both as a wife and a mother. And there were probably times when I should have put my foot down. Maybe if I'd been a little more assertive, especially in financial matters, my life would be different now.” She paused for a sip of tea.

“Then I shouldn't just go along with this?”

“I didn't say that. I do think you need to look beyond the immediate future.”

“I am,” Amber said. “Long term, we'll never own a house.”

“But if he does well and this restaurant succeeds, if you're able to buy it, you'll have built up both your husband and a valuable asset, and in the process made your family stronger. And this is still in the thinking stage, anyway. Isn't that correct?”

She guessed it was. She had been listening to Ty through her filter of fear, so it had been hard to hear the details very clearly. “I don't know.” Amber stared miserably into her cup. “I just feel like no matter what I choose, I lose. If I get behind Ty and say, ‘Go for it with the restaurant,' then we'll probably lose our shirts. If I don't, then we'll probably lose our marriage.”

Millie gave a deep sigh. “That is a hard choice. I guess you have to ask yourself which is more important.”

If she were to be honest, Amber would have to admit that right now security and peace of mind were what she wanted more than anything. “I'm just so sick of struggling. I want to be past this.”

“I felt like that when Duncan was ill,” said Millie. And now she was the one staring into her mug. “In fact, I felt like that so many times.”

“Yeah? When?” It was hard to imagine Millie having problems in her marriage.

“Oh, when the boys were little, Duncan lost his job. He developed a . . . problem.”

“What kind of problem?”

“He drank.” Millie looked embarrassed, like her husband's flaw was hers. “But he got over it.”

“Just like that?”

“Not quite. He was a member of AA for years.”

“So, how'd you manage that?”

“I didn't manage it, although God knows I tried,” Millie said with a shake of her head.

“Okay, then, what happened?”

“It was Christmas Eve. He was still out of work and he'd been
out job hunting. He stopped off for a beer and didn't come home. I took the children to my mother's and spent the night.”

“That sounds good to me,” Amber said. Talking to her mom on the phone was good, but what she'd give for a hug and a chance to fall into her old childhood bed and just sleep off this nightmare. Maybe she should move back to California.

“Being separated from my husband wasn't what I really wanted,” said Millie. “I was prepared to do it if I had to, though.”

“I guess it worked.”

“You could say that. But it wasn't as if I had a plan. It was more a case of Duncan finally coming to his senses. He came to the house Christmas morning with a note he'd written on a piece of my stationery, promising no imbibing in the new year. He never touched another drop of liquor.”

“And, obviously, he got a job.”

“In Little Haven. It turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to us.”

“Because you held his feet to the fire.”

“Oh, on the drinking, yes,” Millie agreed. “But I wasn't thrilled when he got that job, I can tell you. I didn't want to leave my family and move to Little Haven. I wanted to stay right where we were. They were my security, you see. The job he took—the pay was pitiful and I couldn't see any future in it. I was terrified.”

“So, what happened?”

Millie smiled. “I went with him. In my mind, I suppose I always hoped he'd give up and we'd move back home. But he didn't. And, in the end, things worked out. The pay got better, and Duncan eventually became vice president of the company. We had a very nice life.”

“But,” Amber began. “Yes, I know. Now here I am living with my daughter. We made some mistakes and paid for it. It happens. Life doesn't always go smoothly. What Duncan and I grew together in those early hard
years was how we survived all the bumps that came after. That was what worked for us.”

“I could survive the bumps better if my husband wasn't the one making them,” Amber muttered. “I can't take much more of this.”

Millie took a sip of her tea. “You're a strong girl. I know you'll sort everything out.”

Amber lifted her cup. “I wish this was a magic potion that would just fix everything.”

“I wish I had such a thing for you,” Millie said with a wistful smile.

Seth's laughter drifted in from the living room. “Seth likes it here. Too bad this isn't your house. Maybe we'd stay until Ty showed up with a ‘no new restaurants in the new year' card,” Amber joked. She looked at the wall clock. Five thirty. “I'd better get going so you guys can have your dinner,” she said, and stood.

“Oh, don't worry. Debra won't be home for another hour.”

Now Seth let out a high-pitched squeal.

“If I don't get my son out of here pretty soon, he's going to start spinning around the room like a flying saucer.”

They went into the living room and found Seth madly pushing video-game control buttons right along with Eric.

“A www, you got me,” Eric moaned and fell over on the couch, pretending to be dead.

That made Seth laugh all the louder.

“Come on, Sethie,” Amber said. “We need to go see if Daddy's back from his walk yet.”

“I don't want to go,” Seth whined.

“We can come back another time,” Amber promised.

“No.” Now he started to whimper.

The front door opened and in walked a woman in her late thirties. She was slender like her mother and had the same blue eyes, but there the resemblance ended. Her face was thinner than Millie's, almost gaunt, and instead of laugh lines, this woman was
carving angry furrows between her brows and beside her lips. She was like a psychic porcupine, sending out sharp, angry vibes.

“Debra, you're home early,” Millie said.

“I've got a migraine starting.” Seth, who was squeezing in one last bit of video play, let out a high-pitched screech, and the woman put a hand to her forehead.

“You should probably go right to bed,” Millie told her. “I can take care of dinner.”

“Thanks,” the woman murmured. “Sorry to be rude,” she added to Amber, but she didn't look all that sorry. Of course, she was in pain. Hard to be nice when you were in pain.

“This is my friend, Amber,” Millie said, “but you girls can get better acquainted another time.”

“We were just leaving,” Amber explained. She gave Millie a hug. “Thanks for the shrink session.” To Debra she said, “Your mom's the greatest.”

“Yes, she is,” agreed Debra, and managed a smile at her mother.

“Come on, Sethie,” Amber said. “Let's go.”

“Noooo.”

“Yes.” She picked him up from the couch, and now, naturally, in front of the porcupine chick who clearly didn't want them there, Seth decided to make a scene, crying and protesting. “Sorry,” Amber muttered. “He's tired.” And, with that, she carried her wailing child out of the house. An unhappy kid, an unhappy husband—
Are we having fun yet?

Ty was nowhere to be seen when Amber got home. That was just as well, she decided as she made burritos for her and Seth. She didn't want to talk to her husband anyway, not if they were going to talk about starting another restaurant.

“I want to get a Halo game,” Seth announced as they ate dinner.

In his dreams, but she said, “We'll see.”

They finished eating and she put Seth in the tub to play with his soap chalk. She was cleaning up the kitchen when Ty finally showed
up. And what was this? Flowers? “I walked into town,” he said. “I thought you might like these.”

Who are you and what have you done with my husband?
“What are these for?”

He shrugged and leaned against the kitchen counter. “I'm a rat's ass.”

“I'm . . . not following.”

“I'm sorry I got so pissed. I was mad because . . .” He stopped.

“Because why?” she prompted.

He didn't look her in the eye. Instead, he shifted his gaze out the kitchen window to the lake, slowly darkening in the twilight. “I want you to believe in me.” His jaw clenched tighter with each word. “But I haven't given you any reason to, so I guess I can't blame you. Anyway, you were trying to make a celebration and I ruined it. You've been trying hard. I've been nothing but a loser.”

She felt her throat tightening. “Oh, Ty.” She didn't want to not believe in him, but she supposed the bottom line was, she didn't. She came closer and slipped her arms around his waist. “I'm so scared. I have been for so long. We lost everything. And then, I lost you. I just . . . want to feel safe.”

He didn't say anything, but his arms came around her.

“Oh, God,” she whimpered, and began to cry. “I don't want to lose anything more.”

He was rubbing her back now. “I know. I'm sorry.”

She hated herself for not being a Millie, not being willing to gamble everything for her man, but she couldn't. She just couldn't. She craved time to simply savor the stability of a steady paycheck. “Can we just wait for a while and see how this place does? Do we have to make a big decision like this right now? I need to be able to stop holding my breath.” As soon as the words were out, she realized what she'd done. She'd opened the door to the dangerous possibility that they'd risk it all again.

He hugged her close. “We can wait.”

“And what if I don't want to buy the restaurant, what if I never want to?” She looked up into his face, searching for the one answer that would truly allow her to breathe easy.

He looked like a man bracing to face the gas chamber, but he nodded. “We have to both want it or I won't do it.”

“You mean it?” Could he really do this?

He nodded. “I want my own place, but I'm not going to throw us under the bus again. For now, I can be happy to be working.”

“What are you going to tell Charlie Thomas?”

“Just that.”

“Thank you,” she whispered. Maybe they hadn't lost everything. Maybe they still had each other. To see, she kissed him.

He kissed her back. Really kissed her. And, next thing she knew, she was on the kitchen counter with her legs wrapped around his waist and they were going at it hot and heavy, like a couple celebrating the end of a long war.

“Mommy, I'm done,” Seth called from the bathroom.

They broke off the kiss. “I guess we are, too,” said Amber.

Ty was smiling, and she hadn't seen that glint in his eye in months. “No, we're not. We'll finish this later.”

And later Amber realized they weren't going to be finished for a long time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TIPS FOR THE BEST BLOOMS

 

To keep your early spring bloomers performing at
their best year after year, give them a good trim
and fertilize them about two weeks after they quit
blooming. This sets them up to do their job
optimally next spring.

 

Summer-blooming perennials will look their best if
you give them a shape-up trim in early spring. Their
bloom will only be delayed by a couple of weeks,
and you will enjoy a much more attractive and
vigorous bloomer the whole season long.