Sweet Tea and Secrets (27 page)

She climbed in the truck, exhausted from all the fresh air and sunshine. Jill caught a glimpse of herself in the side mirror. “Oh no,” Jill said, then lowered the passenger visor and leaned in closer. “I’m burned to a crisp.”

Garrett lowered his sunglasses. “Oh. You’re right. Hadn’t noticed. That’s going to hurt.” He poked a finger against her shoulder. The skin went from red to white in a hurry. “That looks tender too. You should’ve worn sunscreen.”

“Thanks for the diagnosis, Dr. Malloy.” She reached for her purse and started slathering lotion on her face from a tiny sample tube. “Did it occur to you that I didn’t know we were going to be in the sun all day? That makes this your fault, y’know.”

“I promise to rub lotion on your sunburn for you.”

“Oh yeah, I bet you do. If I didn’t know better I’d think you planned this,” she teased.

The ride back to Pearl’s was a quick one. Jill didn’t mind gutting the fish. She’d done it enough over the years. A deal was a deal.

Jill was excited about getting in the kitchen and using her locally famous recipe for fried bass. The secret combination of flour, cornmeal and fresh grated parmesan always fried to a crisp delight. Pearl had taught her the secret to frying early on, a skill that wasn’t all that popular amongst the yuppity-yup boiled/grilled/sushi folks Bradley liked to hang around with. Since there were tomatoes and peppers ripe for the picking in Pearl’s garden, she’d decided to make salsa, too. Garrett used to love her salsa, the hotter the better. If it didn’t force him to take his hat off from the sweat, it wasn’t hot enough. She’d fire him up tonight.

She chopped and diced the veggies while the bass fried. Hot grease snapped and popped in the heavy cast iron skillet. Moving comfortably around the kitchen with a towel slung over her shoulder, she hummed and worked her way down the counter.

Garrett wrapped his tan arms wrapped around her from behind, gently squeezing her mid-section. “I had fun today,” he whispered into her ear.

She leaned to one side and raised the large chopping knife in her hand. “Don’t you know you should never mess with a lady while she’s armed and dangerous?”

He dropped a kiss in the crook of her neck that made her squirm. “You’re worth the risk. Dinner smells delicious.”

“Why thank you,” she exaggerated her southern drawl.

“Of course, it
is
my winning fish that smells so good.”

“Quit it.” She picked up the tongs and snapped them his way. “My fish was almost as big.”

“Yeah, right if you count the pond grass that was hanging off the line,” he teased.

 
“I want a rematch!”

“Anytime.” He squeezed her waist. “Don’t tell me. Did you? Is that your special salsa?”

“Sure is.”

“Hot damn. You’ll never get rid of me now.” He released her and went to the back door. “See this, Clyde. She’s after my tummy now. We’ll never leave if she treats us like this.”

Jill stacked plates in his arms and shooed him off to set the table so she could serve dinner. Garrett ate every last bit, and took continued delight in his win. Of course, her fish story was getting better and better with every bite, until she’d gotten to the point of trying to land Jaws with her small rod and reel. Garrett poignantly reminded her they were fresh water fishing and in waist deep water at that.
Details.

He insisted on doing the dishes since she’d done the dirty work of gutting the fish, which was fine with her. Cleaning up was her least favorite part of cooking, anyway.

Jill went into the living room and turned on the television while Garrett finished cleaning the kitchen. She tucked her feet under her on the couch and rubbed Clyde’s ears. He panted, and she could have sworn Clyde’s lips formed a grin.

“Hey, can I wrap up this mess in this newspaper that’s on the table?”

“No. I haven’t read that yet. In fact, maybe I’ll do that while you clean up.” She took some old brown paper bags from the pantry and traded Garrett for the Savannah paper.

She went back in the living room and started reading the outdated news.

“Thanks. That was a great meal.” Garrett rubbed his stomach as he leaned against the doorway.

The article about the Kase Foundation fundraiser caught her attention. “You’re welcome,” she answered, distracted.

“Something wrong?” he asked as he wiped his hands on a dish towel and leaned in the doorway.

“Nothing that can’t be fixed. They reported the Foundation numbers wrong. No big deal. I’ll get Josh to have them print a correction.” She stretched and tossed the paper on the coffee table.

“Tired?” he asked.

“I think it was all the fresh air.”

“It was all that competitive casting and reeling you were doing trying to catch up with me.”

“Well, I wasn’t going to lose without a fight.”

 
“You know,” Jill said. “I’m pretty sure the only reason I lost was because of all the aches and pains from sleeping on that couch.”

“Excuses, excuses.”

“Up for a rematch next weekend?” she asked.

“You’re on.”

Chapter Fourteen

At six in the morning, the temperature had already hit eighty-seven degrees with humidity to match. Jill grabbed water bottles from the refrigerator while Garrett fed Clyde so they could get on the road to Virginia Tech before it got too hot.

“It’s been a long time since we had to get on the road early to get back to school,” Jill teased. They both knew the ride back and forth from Tech well enough from their days as Hokies.

“Like old times, minus the goody box from Pearl,” Garrett answered nostalgically.

“I know. Remember how everyone used to hunt us down for some of her homemade fudge and chocolate chocolate-chip cookies?”

Garrett tugged at the strap of her tank top. “Man, you really did get burned.”

She slapped his hand away. “Stop it. I take it you didn’t burn at all.”

“Nope. I’m golden.”

“Figures. Must be nice to have skin like that.” She faked a pout.

“I’d love to have fair skin.” Garrett stepped closer. “Yours. In my arms, that is.”

She laughed at the silly play on words. “We better hit the road.”

Garrett leaned against the counter as Jill rifled through her purse, balancing the water bottles in the crook of her arm. “That car is a real piece of junk. Does it even have air?”

Jill retrieved Lindy’s troll keychain. “You’re kidding, right?”

“Does that mean yes or no?”

“Uh, no. Well, technically it has air, but it doesn’t work,” she said.

“Toss me the keys.”

She clutched the keys in her hand. “Why?”

“I’ll drive the beater. It’s too hot for no air.”

“No way. I’m driving it. It’s my commitment and my mess. Besides, the drive is all interstate. The wind will keep me cool.”

“Ninety degrees is ninety degrees no matter how fast you drive.”

Jill pushed past him toward the door. “Let’s get this show on the road.”

“You’re as hard-headed as your grandmother,” he said.

“I’ll take that as a compliment, thank you very much.” By the time Garrett had the door locked, Jill had already started the Mustang and pulled her hair up in a pony tail.

“I’ll follow you in case that jalopy breaks down.”

Jill gave him a thumb up and eased down the lane, giving him time to catch up.

The wind whipped Jill’s ponytail against her face during the hot and sticky drive. By the time they got to Blacksburg, her hair had curled in a hundred different directions. They parked in front of Poncho Fish Taco. Lindy was already there.

“Hi.” Lindy bounced off the curb and came to the side of the car.

Jill peeled herself out, her sweaty legs sticking to the vinyl seat. “Hey, girl.”

Lindy looked disgusted. “I was going to give you a hug, but you’re kind of sweaty.”

“You’ve got to get that air fixed. How do you stand it?”

“Oh man. I guess Mom should have told you. You have to turn it to heat for the A/C to work. It’s like all backwards,” Lindy explained.

“You’re kidding.”

Garrett stepped up behind Jill, laughing. “Nice hair.”

“Shut up.” Jill swatted him and turned her attention back to Lindy. “This is my…this is Garrett Malloy.”

Lindy smiled a perfect over-bleached smile and extended her hand. “Nice to meet you.”

“I really appreciate using your car,” Jill said. “Even without the air. I filled the tank for you.”

“Oh, you’re welcome. It actually saved me a trip home to get it. This is perfect. Oh yeah, Mom sent this for me to give to you too.” Lindy handed Jill an envelope. “Some news clipping or something. She didn’t have your address.”

“Thanks. Let’s get some lunch. I love Poncho’s.”

Lindy bit her lip and wrinkled her nose. “Do you mind if we don’t? I sorta’ have other plans.”

Jill recalled being Lindy’s age and how she would’ve felt about some of Pearl’s friends coming to visit her. She’d have been mortified. “Not at all. Garrett, why don’t you grab us a table for two. I’ll be right there.”

“Sounds good. Nice meeting you, Lindy.”

Lindy’s eyes followed Garrett until he crossed through the door to Poncho’s. “Oh… my… God. He is like so hot,” Lindy squealed.

“He’s a friend.”

Lindy rolled her eyes. “Yeah. Right. Whatever.”

“You sure you won’t have lunch. It’s my treat.”

“No thanks. I gotta’ run.” Lindy grabbed the troll keychain from Jill’s outstretched palm and jumped in the driver seat and gunned the engine. “See,” she twisted the knob and pointed the air vent toward the driver’s window. “Cool air.”

Jill reached inside. Sure enough, cool air poured from the vents.

Lindy put the window up and sped off.

Jill waved as she headed to join Garrett in Poncho’s.

“Can you believe that car had air conditioning? I sacrificed a perfectly good hair day for nothing.”

“You look adorable,” Garrett said. “I already ordered.”

She slid into the seat wondering if Garrett had forgotten even one fact about her over the past year. Then, she wondered if Pearl had ever forgotten anything about John Carlo.

The waitress walked up and placed the heaping plates in front of them.

Jill took a bite of her taco. White cilantro sauce dripped down the side of her pinky. “Man that’s good.” She licked the sauce from her hand. “Lindy thought you were hot.”

“I still have it with the college girls, huh?”

“Guess so, old fart.”

“What about you?”

“I don’t think she thought I was hot,” Jill teased, trying to hold back a smile.

“Funny. You’re just not going to give me a break today are you?”

“Have I ever?” she teased, taking a long sip from her second tall glass of ice water. “Thought that’s what you loved about me.”

“That and about a hundred other things.”

Thankful her mouth was full, she didn’t respond. She wiped her hands and ran a finger under the fold of the envelope from Melanie. Inside, she found a short note, three articles about the success of the Foundation event, and one not-so-nice article about Bradley and some supposedly dodgy business deals.

“Melanie sent these to me through Lindy. She didn’t have my address.” Jill scanned the articles, scowling.

“What’s wrong,” Garrett asked.

“This article. It has a corrected total from the event I told you about, and it’s even farther off the true total than the other one. About a hundred thousand off, in fact.”

“Let me see.” He reached for the articles and looked them over. “Impressive. Nice work, Jill.”

“Thanks. I just wish they’d gotten the numbers right. I’ll have to call Josh. He’s my right hand on the money stuff. I wonder if he’s heard anything about the other article.”