RG2 - Twenty-Nine and a Half Reasons (8 page)

She laughed, low and sexy. “He’s taking a shower right now. Can I take a message?”

Fear and anger mingled into one unnamed entity. Finally, I choked out. “Tell him Rose called.”

“Oh! Rose!” she exclaimed in mock surprise. “I didn’t know Joe still kept you around.”

I bit back several ugly things hanging on the tip of my tongue. “Just tell him I called, please.”

Neely Kate found me sitting on the courthouse steps in the shade of a Corinthian column, blowing my nose into a tissue while tears streamed down my face. “Hey, what’s going on? Did you pass out in court again?”

I shook my head, amazed at her casual all-knowing attitude. Then I realized that finding out about my faint yesterday wouldn’t have been that difficult. Turns out, the Fenton County Courthouse would have aced the telephone game.

“No,” I wiped the tears from my cheeks. “Nothing like that.”

She sat next to me, touching my arm. “Hey, what happened? Was it Deveraux? Did he do something? That man—”

I wished. “No, it’s Joe.” Just saying his name brought a fresh batch of tears. “He didn’t call me last night, and when I called him a few minutes ago, Hilary answered and said he was in the shower.”

Neely Kate stiffened momentarily then relaxed, rubbing my arm. “I’m sure there’s a perfectly logical explanation. Was everything okay that last time you talked to him?”

“Yeah,” I sniffed. “It doesn’t make sense.”

“But Hilary still has a thing for him?”

“I think so.”

She threw out her arms and stood. “Well, there you go! She’s jealous and she’s trying to break you up. I’m tellin’ ya, Rose, if Joe wanted to be with her, he would have been with her before he started going out with you. Now let’s go to lunch.”

I stood and brushed the dirt off the back of my legs. “You’re probably right.”

Laughing, Neely Kate linked her arm in mine. “The sooner you realize that, the better off you’ll be.”

At the moment, I wasn’t about to argue.

“If you like, I’ll ask my Great Aunt Opal about it the next time I see her. She’s psychic.”

My feet stopped of their own volition and my jaw dropped. “What did you just say?”

Neely Kate scrunched her nose. “You mean about my Great Aunt Opal?” She shrugged her shoulders and gave my arm a tug. “Everybody on the western side of Fenton County knows she’s got the sight.”

“What…” My mouth had suddenly dried out and my tongue refused to work. I swallowed and tried again. “How do you know she’s psychic?”

“Because she knows stuff nobody else knows.”

“Like you?”

She grinned and winked. “I’m her protégé.”

I spent the rest of lunch wondering if Neely Kate’s Great Aunt Opal actually had the sight or if she merely had extra-perceptive powers like Neely Kate. I suspected the latter, but I couldn’t let it go.

“How is your aunt teaching you to be psychic?” I wasn’t so sure being psychic was something a person could learn. I’d simply been cursed with it. I’d give anything to
un
learn it.

“She’s teaching me all her ways. Tarot cards, horoscopes. But her specialty is reading tea leaves.”

I tried to hide my disappointment. Her aunt was a fraud.

“I can practice reading your tea leaves if you like.”

I forced a smile. “So you can predict my future?”

With a laugh, she lifted her eyebrows. “Don’t you be hatin’ on the ways of the mysterious and mystical, Rose.”

If she only knew.

Neely Kate dropped the subject and turned out to be the perfect distraction once again, telling me about her upcoming wedding and all the drama she was dealing with her fiancé’s family, who lived in the Texas Panhandle.

“They want the groomsmen to dress up as cowboys, spurs and all. Can you
even
imagine?”

No, but the most recent wedding I’d attended was Violet’s and Mike’s, and thinking about it made me sad. Maybe they just needed a night out together. I could volunteer to watch the kids overnight and they could plan a romantic getaway. The thought cheered me up.
Finally
, I’d found something I could do something about.

I was desperate to talk to Joe, now more than ever. I decided to listen to Neely Kate and trust him, but I had to admit that hearing Joe deny being with Hilary would make me feel better. Mostly I needed his advice on how to handle what I knew about Bruce Wayne.

When we returned to the courtroom, Judge McClary was fit to be tied that the A/C problem hadn’t been fixed. “This court is adjourned until morning!”

And I suddenly had my afternoon free. I considered heading to work but just couldn’t bring myself to go there. The county was paying me for the day, no matter how long I was at the courthouse. That was good enough for me. Even if it was only eight dollars.

My cell phone rang as I walked to my car and I dug through my purse to find it. Violet’s name showed on the screen. “Hey, Vi.” I couldn’t hide my disappointment.

“Don’t sound so happy to hear from me.”

“Sorry, I just thought maybe you were Joe. I haven’t heard from him since yesterday.”

I could almost hear her happiness in her silence.

“I’m sure it’s nothing,” I said, feeling the need to defend him. “He’s just tied up with work is all.” There was no way in God’s green earth I was going to tell her about Hilary. “Hey, I was thinking, maybe you and Mike would like go out soon and I’ll bring the kids over to my house to spend the night.”

“Yeah…maybe…” Her voice brightened. “But right now, I’m calling about tonight. You’re home alone and last night was a bit tense, so I thought maybe you’d like to come over and we could grill out.”

Grilling out in this heat sounded like asking for heatstroke, but Lord knew Mike loved his smoker like a duck loved water. And spending the evening alone with my worries didn’t sound very appealing. “Yeah, that sounds good.”

“Great, see you at seven. Not a minute sooner.” Then she hung up.

Seven? That was odd. Usually dinner at Violet’s house was around six and I never arrived at a specific time. I just showed up.

The boys next door were running around their house, digging up the azalea bushes under the kitchen window. A wave of melancholy washed over me. My daddy and I had planted those for our neighbor back when I was a little girl. Gardening was the one thing we shared that Momma couldn’t take away from us.

One of the boys turned to look at me and chewed on the side of his lip. He tugged on his brother’s arm. “Andy Junior.”

“
What
?”

The boy tugged harder and Andy Jr. glanced over his shoulder, the shovel dropping to the ground.

The first boy squinted. “How come you look like you’re about to cry?”

“I was just thinking about my daddy.”

“Where is he?”

“He’s in heaven.”

The boy’s mouth dropped open into an
O
.

The topic of death caught Andy Jr.’s attention. “What happened to him?”

“His heart gave out.” Although now I wondered if he died of a broken heart. I suspect Daddy never recovered from the mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of my birth mother. “Daddy and I planted those bushes when I was about your age.” I looked to the first boy. “Your name’s Keith, isn’t it?”

His eyes widened with fear. “Yes, ma’am.”

I smiled even though I didn’t feel like smiling. My own heart hurt too bad. “You know, Keith, I don’t have kids of my own, but I have a niece around your age. The next time she comes over, maybe you can play with her.”

Andy Jr. scoffed his distain. “I ain’t playin with no
girl
.”

“Well, nobody invited
you
, did they?” I asked, aware I had just sunk to the level of a six-year-old but too cranky to care. “I was talkin’ to Keith.”

Keith beamed, his huge grin revealing a gap in his bottom teeth.

I decided to head inside before I stooped even lower than I already had. Walking into the kitchen, I tried to shake myself from my reverie. I needed to quit dwelling on sad things.

By the time I left for Violet’s, I still hadn’t heard from Joe. My discomfort had turned to fear. What if something had happened to him and Hilary hadn’t told me?

I pulled in Violet’s driveway, surprised to see an unfamiliar car parked in front of the house. I’d barely made it to the porch when the front door flew open. Violet stood in the doorway, dressed in a skirt and sleeveless blouse, and wearing a cute pair of sandals instead of her usual barefoot style. That should have been my first clue to turn around and run.

“Rose, honey, come on in.” Her voice was overly bright and cheerful, then her smile fell and her voice lowered. “Is that what you’re wearing?”

I looked down at my blue capris and gauzy white blouse.

She waved her hand and stumbled as she moved out of the opening. “Never mind. You look very bohemian.”

Shaking my head in confusion, I walked past her. “Violet,” I whispered. “Have you been drinkin’?”

She laughed, a melodious sound I’d always been jealous of, like everything else in her life. Only now it sounded brittle. “Maybe. Just a little.”

Now I was really confused. Violet rarely drank and never on a weeknight.

She pushed me out the back door and onto the covered patio, the overhead fan working overtime to stir up the air. I stopped two steps out, Violet slamming into the back of me and making me stumble.

A man wearing jeans and a polo shirt rose from the patio chair he’d been sitting in and grabbed my elbow to steady me. “You must be Rose. I’ve heard so much about you.” He smiled at Violet, then held out his right hand. “I’m Austin Kent.”

His hand hung in the air, and I was torn between shaking it and turning around and running home.

I shot a glare in Violet’s direction, then turned to Austin and shook his hand. It wasn’t his fault I’d been set up, and I couldn’t bring myself to be rude.

Just like Violet planned.

“Hi, I’m Rose. Oh wait, I guess you knew that already.” I laughed, flustered, especially since Austin was still holding my hand.

Mike, who’d kept his attention on the steaks on the grill, picked up his beer bottle and took a long swallow.

Looked like I wasn’t the only one who’d been set up.

“Austin brought a bottle of wine to go with the steaks,” Violet gushed. “Wasn’t that sweet of him? I’ll go pour you a glass.”

I pulled my hand from his tight grip. “I’ll go with you.”

“No!” She pushed me down into the chair next to the man. “You chat with Austin and I’ll be right back.”

There was no way out of that one.

Austin sat next to me and I gave him a genuine smile. I couldn’t very well be rude. “So how do you know Mike and Violet?”

“We all went to high school together.”

“I haven’t seen you around.” I glanced into the yard at Ashley and Mikey playing on the playset.

Austin laughed. “I disappeared for several years. I went to the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville for my architecture degree, did an internship, worked in Little Rock and decided I missed home. I just got back to Henryetta a couple of months ago. I’m settin’ up my own firm and hope to work with Mike.”

Austin seemed self-assured yet not arrogant. A man who knew what he wanted in life and how he planned to get it. There was no doubt that he was handsome; his chest filled out his shirt nicely and his tan set off his hazel eyes and dark brown hair. And I had to admit, if Joe wasn’t in my life, I’d have been interested in him. What surprised me was the way his eyes followed my every move. This experience was vastly different than the first blind date Violet set me up with.

Blind date
. Crappy doodles. I was gonna kill Violet.

“Here you go.” Violet put a glass of red wine in my hand, taking a large sip of her own. As weird as she was acting, I wondered how much she’d had to drink before I got there.

“I’ve never had red wine before, only white.” I blurted out before I thought to stop myself. People didn’t just say things like that.

But Austin smiled, making his eyes twinkle. “Then I feel privileged to have provided the selection for your first taste.” He bowed his head with a wink.

He watched me as I self-consciously took a sip. It wasn’t as sweet as the white wines I’d had. Austin waited for my response, so I smiled. “It’s wonderful.”

Austin went on to tell Violet and me why he’d choose this particular vintage (its smoky taste blended well with grilled red meat) and why that particular year (the vintage from the year before had experienced a drought). Violet rested her chin on her hand, listening to Austin as though he was sharing the secret of life. Mike continued to give rapt attention to his barbecue tongs. I longed to be over there with him.

I set my wine glass on the side table and stood. “If y’all will excuse me for a moment, I need to visit the restroom,” I said as sweetly as possible.

Mike shot me an apologetic glance.

“Well, hurry up darlin’,” Violet drawled. “The steaks are almost ready.”

“I’m only going to the restroom, Vi. I’m not making a cross country road trip.” Although at the moment, that sounded like a great idea.

Mike snickered then chugged his beer before Violet caught him.

Hurrying to the bathroom, I shut the door and pushed my back into it, the molding pressing into my neck. I took deep breath and dug out my cell phone, hoping against hope that I’d missed a call from Joe.

Nothing.

Forlorn and having given up all pride, I called his number, preparing to hear Hilary’s voice. Instead, it went to voice mail. “Joe, I really need to talk to you.” My words cracked like kindling on a fire and I sucked in a breath. “I miss you. Call me.
Please
.” I hung up, embarrassed over my clinginess. What would Joe think when he heard me begging him to call? I might have just sent him running into Hilary’s waiting arms.

Stop it, Rose Anne Gardner. We don’t wallow
.

And while it was true, I felt a little entitled. If that wasn’t dangerous thinking, I didn’t know what was. Wallowing was never the answer, which reminded me I had another task at hand. Time to go out and face the disaster of an evening.

While I’d been in the bathroom, everyone had moved inside. Austin handed my wine glass to me and pressed his hand into the small of my back, guiding me into the rarely used dining room. Violet was going all out for the occasion.