Where There's Smoke (43 page)

Ollie watched her leave, his respect for her increasing.
 
She had a lot of class.
 
She hadn't slunk past the bystanders but had walked tall and proud.
 
Neither the Tacketts nor the gawkers had daunted her.

He resolved to personally deliver her groceries to her once this crisis was over.

The wail of a siren was heard outside and moments later paramedics rushed into the store.
 
Mrs. Tackett was transported by gurney to the waiting ambulance, which sped away.
 
Key and Janellen roared after it in his yellow Lincoln.

Long after all the instant tea in aisle 4 had been swept up and the shelves straightened, store customers lingered to discuss what they'd seen and heard, and the drama was re-created for new arrivals who had missed it.
 
The seriousness of Jody Tackett's condition was speculated upon.
 
Some said she was too mean to die and would live to be one hundred.
 
Others surmised that she was only a breath away from death.

Some wondered out loud about the future of Tackett Oil.

Would Jody's death, whenever it occurred, also mean the end of the oil company, or would Key stop his globe-hopping and stay in Eden Pass to manage it, or was Miss Janellen strong and savvy enough to seize control?
 
Opinions varied widely.

However, the juiciest gossip that day centered around Dr. Lara Mallory and how, even as she faced death, Jody Tackett had refused her assistance.
 
The doctor's notorious affair with Senator Tackett was rehashed for those whose memories had faded.

Ollie was resentful of the clacking tongues.
 
Not that his opinion mattered, but he didn't think Dr.
 
Mallory was getting a fair shake.

Hadn't she saved stingy, nasty Jody Tackett's miserable hide, when she'd probably just as soon have watched the old woman swallow her own tongue?

She was almost tearfully grateful when he delivered her groceries that afternoon.
 
She thanked him profusely and offered him a cold drink for his effort.
 
She might have been a fallen woman once, but a nicer lady you'd never find, was his way of thinking.

"Can you believe it?
 
Old Jody was lying there on the floor of the Sak'n'Save, foaming at the mouth, they said, jerking and twitching something awful.
 
But the old girl had enough fight left in her to refuse medical attention from Lara Mallory."

The Winstons' housekeeper had prepared a cheesy chicken casserole for dinner.
 
Darcy was doing more talking than eating.
 
Fergus was transferring food from his plate to his mouth with single-minded purpose.
 
To Heather, the casserole looked like something that had already been regurgitated.
 
She pushed the chunks of food around her plate, pretending to eat.
 
Now that she was taking birth control pills, she counted every calorie and wasn't about to waste several hundred on this junk.

Besides, her mother's enjoyment of the gossip that had circulated through town about Mrs. Tackett's seizure had ruined Heather's appetite.
 
Darcy had learned all the gory details at the beauty shop and recounted them with disgusting enthusiasm.

"She peed her pants.
 
Jody Tackett peed her pants.
 
Can you believe it?"
 
Darcy chortled.
 
"Incontinental, they call it."

"It's incontinent,' Darcy," Fergus corrected.
 
"And it's hardly something I want to talk about over supper."

Heather reached for her glass of iced tea.
 
"Tanner's daddy said Dr.

Mallory saved Mrs. Tackett's life.
 
If I were her, I'd've let the old fart die."

Darcy's fork clattered to her plate.
 
"That's fine language for a proper young lady!
 
And this juvenile crush you have on Lara Mallory has become annoying, Heather."

"I don't have a crush' on her.
 
I just think it was stupid of Mrs.

Tackett not to let the doctor help her.
 
I mean, if you're dying, isn't any doctor, even one you personally dislike, better than none at all?"

"Not if you're Jody Tackett," Fergus remarked as he paused to blot his mouth.
 
"That woman's heart is the hardest substance on earth.

I agree with you, Heather.
 
I'd have let her choke."

"As usual, you two are taking sides against me."
 
Darcy angrily pushed her plate aside.

"Sides?"
 
Fergus asked, bewildered.
 
"I didn't know we were choosing up sides over this.
 
What's it got to do with us?"

"Not a damn thing," Darcy snapped.
 
"I just fail to see what makes Lara Mallory such a bloody heroine in Heather's eyes."

"May I be excused?"
 
Heather asked in a bored voice.

"You may not!
 
You haven't eaten a bite."

"I'm not hungry.
 
Besides, this casserole is gross.
 
It reeks with fat."

"I should have been so lucky to have a maid cook dinner for me when I was your age!"

"Oh, please."
 
Here we go, Heather thought another sob story about Mother's deprived childhood.

"She shouldn't have to eat it if she isn't hungry," Fergus said.

"Naturally, you let her have her way.

"Thanks, Daddy.
 
Tanner and I will get something later."

"You're going out with Tanner again tonight?"
 
Fergus asked.

"Of course."
 
Heather looked at her mother and smiled smugly.

"We're officially together now.

"Together?"

"Going steady," Darcy clarified impatiently, never taking her eyes off Heather.
 
"I can't say I'm thrilled about it."

Heather, holding her mother's stare, took another sip of tea.

Putting her on birth control pills had been Darcy's doing, but Heather was getting back.
 
She seized every opportunity to remind her mother that whenever she and Tanner went out on a date, they could have sex without suffering any consequences.

Darcy couldn't say anything to her, especially in front of Fergus.

He still didn't know about the contraceptives and would have raised hell with Darcy for encouraging them.
 
He clung to the quaint notion that morality was a deterrent to premarital sex.

Heather took pleasure in keeping her mother perpetually miffed.

Her sidelong glances and innuendoes conveyed that she was now sexually active.
 
But she hadn't let Tanner go all the way yet.
 
It wasn't because she didn't love him, or that she feared an unwanted pregnancy, and there certainly was nothing to fear in the way of parental reprisal.

Her reason for holding out was the same as it always had been.

She didn't want to become a replica of her mother.

Tanner was being very sweet about her abstinence.
 
Since that night at the lake when he had disgraced himself, he was loving and patient, gratefully taking whatever crumbs of eroticism she chose to toss him and asking for nothing more.

Heather was still Fergus's little angel, and when she was with him she strove to maintain his image of her.
 
Her relationship with her mother, however, had deteriorated.
 
They were undeclared adversaries, two women in a silent face-off.
 
The battle lines that had been suggested before were now clearly drawn.

"I didn't realize that you'd made Dr. Mallory an idol, Heather,"

Fergus observed as he stirred sugar into his coffee.
 
"I didn't even know you'd met her."

"Mother took me to see her.
 
Didn't she tell you?"

"For a checkup," Darcy said hastily.
 
"She needed a physical exam for cheerleading, and it was going to be a month before she could see an out-of-town doctor.
 
I decided it was silly to shun Dr. Mallory just because she was involved with Clark Tackett at one time.
 
Who cares?

It's ancient history.
 
Besides, an enemy of Jody Tackett's is a friend of yours, right?"

"I must say Dr. Mallory showed a lot of gumption by moving to Eden Pass in the first place.
 
She shoots straight from the hip, too.
 
I like that."

"When have you talked to her?"
 
Darcy wanted to know.

"Yesterday.
 
She called me and asked for an audience with the school board.
 
She wants to speak to the high school kids about sexual responsibility.
 
I think the idea is a little bit radical for Eden Pass, but I told her we'd hear her ideas at the meeting next week."

For several moments Darcy regarded him without comment.

"You're right, Fergus.
 
She's got her nerve.
 
She was caught in adultery.
 
How sexually irresponsible can you get?"

"She emphasized that she wasn't concerned with the moral aspects.
 
She only wants to alert the kids to the health risks involved."

"I doubt that'll go down well with the local preachers.
 
And don't be so sure that morality doesn't figure in there somewhere.
 
Lax morality, that is.
 
She told Heather to make sure she always had a condom handy."

"That's not what she said!"
 
Heather exclaimed.

"Same as," Darcy said curtly.
 
"Before we know it, the kids at the high school will start packing rubbers in their lunch boxes and having quickies between classes."

Saniora Bro'n "Darcy, please!"
 
Fergus harrumphed.
 
"Heather shouldn't be listening to this."

"Wake up and smell the coffee, Fergus.
 
Kids nowadays know all about everything.
 
Once Lara Mallory gives them the green light, they'll be screwing like rabbits."

Fergus flinched.
 
"She's not going to encourage them to have sex.

She wants to warn them of the possible consequences.

"Oh, brother!
 
She really snowed you, didn't she?
 
What I think she wants is an outbreak of teenage pregnancies in order to drum up some much-needed business."

"That's ridiculous, Mother."

"Shut up, Heather!
 
I'm talking to your father."

"But you're twisting Dr.
 
Mallory's words around.
 
It's not fair."

"This is an adult conversation, and no one invited you to join At that moment Heather hated her mother and wanted badly to expose her hypocrisy.
 
But her love for her father guaranteed her silence.
 
Darcy knew that and used it.
 
She was the one now wearing the smug smile.

Heather scraped back her chair and flounced from the dining room.

On her way out she heard her mother say, "Co ahead and grant Dr.

Mallory an audience with the school board, Fergus.
 
It'll be fun to sit back and watch the fur fly."

"I thought I'd .
 
. . I probably shouldn't have come."
 
Now that she was standing on the front porch of Lara Mallory's clinic, spotlighted by the overhead light fixture, Janellen felt like a fool.
 
It wouldn't surprise her if the doctor slammed the door in her face.
 
She wouldn't blame her, either.

"I'm glad you came, Miss Tackett.
 
Come in."

Janellen stepped into the dim waiting room and glanced around.

"It's late.
 
I shouldn't have disturbed you."