One Mountain Away (20 page)

“You don’t want me to order a bottle of wine? They have a great wine list.”

“It’s been a tiring week. You don’t want me falling asleep.”

“Not here,” he said, raising a brow provocatively.

“Don’t get any ideas. I’m going straight home. One dinner doesn’t make up for everything you’ve put me through, Davis. Not even at Zambra.”

He reached across the table and took her hand. “Whatever it takes, Harmony. I mean it.”

Child support for the next eighteen years? She slid her hand out from under his and picked up her menu.

“So what happened to tire you out?” he asked.

Egg met sperm, did a little dance, cozied up to the rhythm of a beating heart and found a place to settle in for nine months. And the little duo had asked her to play hostess.

But she couldn’t say that. She told him about work, then about the trip out to Capable Canines.

Their server arrived and introduced herself. The woman was just a little older than Harmony, and curvier, with artfully layered black hair that swung over a round face when she leaned against the table. Harmony watched Davis, but he seemed oblivious. He ordered her club soda and a glass of pinot noir for himself, and waited until the young woman left.

“So your friend Charlotte just scooped up this dog and took it home?”

“The owner checked her references, and said it was a go. He sent us off with five pounds of dog food and the name of his vet. It’s a really lovely little farm, Davis. He showed us around on our way out to the car. They have a big garden area, a couple of horses, chickens. They have a two- and a four-year-old who’ll be staying in South Carolina while his wife recuperates. They’re waiting for the insurance companies to stop squabbling and pay up, so they can make plans for the future. But first she has to get out of rehab.”

She realized she’d lost him. She was talking about strangers, and he wasn’t interested.

“The whole thing sounds strange,” Davis said. “This woman lives in Biltmore Forest, but she’s willing to take a bitch who’s about to whelp, and pay all the vet bills and clean up the mess?”

“She has her reasons.” Harmony didn’t plan to go into them. Charlotte had told her about her granddaughter’s epilepsy in confidence.

“I’m not sure that’s a good place for you.” He was bent over the menu, studying the night’s offerings. “She sounds flaky as all get-out. Have you checked her out?”

Harmony didn’t answer until he noticed the silence and looked up.

“You will not criticize my living situation,” she said. “Got it?”

“I’m just worried, that’s all.”

“You’re worried that I’m living in a private suite in Biltmore Forest with a woman who stretched out a hand when I needed one and hasn’t asked me for one thing in return? That worries you? The same man who wasn’t worried that sleeping with the woman who scrapes plaque off his teeth would upset me?”

“You’re going to bring that up and bring that up, aren’t you?”

“I get so much pleasure from the memory.”

“Harmony, I’m trying to make it up to you. Have you noticed? And what’s wrong with expressing concern? I want you to be safe and happy.”

“Then you’re in luck.” She lifted her menu so she could no longer see his face.

The server arrived with their drinks and a lovely smile, and Davis asked Harmony what sounded good to her. The sad truth was that tonight nothing did. They had already settled on ordering several tapas each, but she was having problems selecting anything that didn’t make her stomach churn. She decided on an egg dish, which she thought she could handle, and a wild-mushroom concoction that under better circumstances would have made her salivate in anticipation. She remembered that she’d liked the fried tofu the last time and finished with that.

Davis ordered veal sweetbreads and char-grilled octopus, along with a special lamb taco. His meal sounded like something an interrogator would threaten to feed little-old-vegetarian-her if she refused to cooperate. She couldn’t think of one secret she wouldn’t give up to avoid his meal.

When the server left, Davis held up his glass in toast and, reluctantly, she brushed it with her own. “To better times ahead. Tell me more about work.”

“Same old, same old. Ray’s going to give me some hours in the kitchen. I’d like to learn some of his techniques and recipes. I’ll just be doing prep work, at least at first, but he promised to teach me as we go.”

His expression said he thought that was a bad idea. “I wish you’d let me help you find a real job. What are you going to make in the kitchen? Minimum wage?”

“I work hard, and I get paid. Isn’t that the definition of a
real
job?”

“My insurance guy said he might need somebody in his office. Filing, answering phones. You could probably learn the business from the ground up.”

The suggestion was beyond awful. Not only was Davis trying to settle her into a position that sounded more important—at least to the people he hoped to impress—the idea came with more personal baggage than a flight to Australia.

She leaned forward, so he wouldn’t miss the significance of her words. “My father sells insurance. Do you honestly think I want to follow in his footsteps?”

“Your father sells insurance to truckers, right? This is hardly the same thing. It’s a white-collar job. You wouldn’t be scrambling around truck stops knocking back brewskis with the boys.”

“My father has an office, Davis, with his own secretary. And he doesn’t drink, smoke, use drugs or even celebrate holidays. He’s rigid and hateful, and for fun, he beats the women in his family to help set them on the right path. And no, the sickness in his soul has nothing to do with selling insurance, but you can see, if you try, why I might not be inclined to wend my way along the same career path.”

If Davis picked up on the emotion in her words, he didn’t acknowledge it. “You’re overreacting, but just listen to yourself, to the way you said that. What you really ought to do is go to school. You’re so smart, Harmony. If you move back in with me, you can go to AB Tech and get a couple of years behind you there. You can afford it on what you make if you aren’t paying for rent or food. I’ll help. I’d like that.”

She wasn’t warmed by the offer. She thought Davis probably
would
like that version of her life. If he was more or less supporting her, wouldn’t that give him more power?

And besides, wasn’t all this just so much smoke in the wind? A baby was on the way, and everything was destined to change.

Their server arrived, and she was saved from answering. The pretty brunette delivered the mushrooms to Harmony and the octopus to Davis. She focused on her own plate and began to eat. The mushrooms were succulent and subtly flavored. She took a piece of the bread Davis had ordered for both of them, and ate slowly and carefully. Her stomach began to calm.

“How’s work?” she asked.

“They’re pleased with me. I think I’ve exceeded their expectations. I’ll be promoted as soon as they’re sure I plan to stay and invest myself in the community.”

“What does that mean?”

“I’m not sure. I think they’re watching a couple of us for proof we’re not planning to take better offers in bigger cities.”

“Why
don’t
you take a better offer somewhere else?”

He smiled seductively. “Because you’re here.”

“Sure,” she said with no conviction. “And what else?”

“I’m settled. Weather’s good. Real estate’s not crazy expensive anymore, and I’ll be able to afford a house before too long. I’d rather be at the top of a firm here than hanging out in the middle of one in Atlanta or Chicago. Good schools, pretty scenery. Great restaurants. Mostly, though, I’m settled. Why pull up stakes when this meets my needs?”

She had singled out one phrase. “What do good schools have to do with anything?”

“Businesses don’t move into communities where their employees don’t want to live. If the schools are bad, they look elsewhere. Bad schools equal a lousy economy. More local governments should figure that out.”

For a moment she’d been hopeful.

Their server arrived with their next selections. She set the plates on the table and promised she would be back in a few minutes.

Harmony took the one closest to her, the egg dish that looked less like an omelet than eggs and sauce scrambled with a variety of vegetables and herbs. She took a bite, and while it wasn’t what she’d expected, it wasn’t exactly unpleasant, either. Just different.

“I thought you didn’t eat veal,” Davis said, looking up. “Aren’t you all animal-rights-vegetarian? I can’t believe you’re eating sweetbreads, of all things.”

His words took a moment to sink in. Then she looked down with horror at the plate and shoved it toward him, her stomach erupting like a dormant volcano. “I thought—” Suddenly there was nothing else to think about. She jumped up from the table and ran toward the doorway into the restaurant.

Ten minutes later, pale and shaking, she found her way back to the table. She wasn’t sure what she would find, but Davis was still sitting there, although the plates looked untouched. His wineglass was full, though, and she knew he’d made decent headway on his first glass before she left. She wondered if this was glass number two or three.

“Hey, don’t apologize,” he said, when she sat. “Not for getting sick. Maybe for not telling me you’re pregnant, though.”

She didn’t deny it.

“
Were
you going to tell me?” His tone was even, but cool, the way it might be if he was interrogating a client who’d been cheating on his income tax.

She was cringing inside, the way she’d cringed as a child when she knew her father was growing angry—a situation that never ended well. She tried to sound strong. She told herself she’d done nothing wrong. But she felt both weak and guilty.

“When I decided the time was right,” she said.

“How would you know? When the time was right, I mean?”

“First, when I knew what I planned to do. Second, when I knew what I planned to do about
you
.”

“You have lots of choices, Harmony, but what to do about me probably isn’t one of them.”

She inclined her head regally, as if that was not unexpected.

“I assume I’m the father?” he asked.

“Was somebody else in our bed? Besides the woman who found the cavity in your upper left molar?”

“I can’t say. I don’t know what you were doing when I was at work. Maybe you were getting it on with the
dentist
.”

Since the dentist was pushing seventy, she knew he was just being hateful, but she was suddenly furious. This time she worked to keep her tone even for a different reason. “Let me put your mind at ease. In what free time I had between shifts, I was cooking, scrubbing, taking your clothes to the cleaner, having your oil changed. Unless one of those activities leads to pregnancy, we can assume you’re the father. Something a paternity test will prove.”

“If you’re talking tests, I gather you’re not having an abortion?”

She reached for her beaded clutch purse, a dollar purchase at a garage sale, and stood. “I’m not having an abortion, I’m having a
baby
. And I may be young and stupid, which this whole episode proves beyond a reasonable doubt, but I’m not so stupid I’m going to forego child support. The baby deserves it. So put that in your budget, along with your toilet paper and the internet. I don’t care what else you contribute, but this child is going to have the things it needs most.”

When he didn’t reply, she turned and hurried out to the sidewalk. By the time she reached her car, her stomach was in turmoil again. But she was safe. There was nothing left inside her to expel except anger.

Chapter Nineteen

VELVET HAD A cold nose and a warm heart. While most dogs in her situation would have waited impatiently at the door to go home, Velvet was smarter. She’d immediately taken stock of her new situation and realized she had two women ready to do anything she wanted. Introduced to her new quarters in the laundry room, she had daintily pawed the blankets, then looked up as if to say,
Well, it’s very nice, but I think you can do better.

She had been marginally happier with an expensive suede cloth bed, placed in the butler’s pantry, which was closer to the action. But a week later she was even happier, because her new sleeping quarters were in Charlotte’s bedroom.

The master bedroom suite had his-and-hers walk-in closets, and Velvet was now sole resident of the “his” closet. The few things Charlotte had stored there had been moved to a guest room. Velvet had a water dish in Charlotte’s bathroom, and a bowl of kibble in case she felt like a snack. In truth, though, at night she slept on the priceless Flokati rug beside Charlotte’s bed. In fact, Charlotte was pretty sure if the dog hadn’t been about to bring a litter of puppies into the world, she would have been happy to leap right up onto the Egyptian cotton sheets and make herself at home.

On Saturday morning Charlotte arrived for breakfast with Velvet leading the way. Harmony was making whole-wheat pancakes topped with fresh fruit. Charlotte might have protested all the work, but the young woman really loved to cook, really loved the kitchen with all its gadgets and cookware, and really loved to please. Charlotte knew she was lucky.

Halfway through the one and only pancake she could eat, Charlotte put down her fork. “Have I mentioned that with my calling plan, phone calls are free? Unless you call Beijing or the North Pole, there’s no charge to me.”

Harmony looked up from her third pancake. “Thank you. But I don’t have anybody to call.”

Charlotte debated. There was a line between helping too much and too little, and it was never easy to find. Harmony hadn’t confided in her since Saturday, when they had brought Velvet home, but the girl had been quiet, clearly considering something, or feeling the weight of her new burden.

“Okay,” Charlotte said, after a brief hesitation. “But if that changes, now you know you’re welcome to call anybody you’d like to.”

“You think I should call my mother, don’t you?”

Charlotte laid down her fork. “It’s not my decision. I just thought you ought to know you can if you want to.”