A Promise to Remember (11 page)

Melanie scanned through the list of price changes as she waited
for the weekly meeting to begin. One by one the others moved
into the conference room and took their seats. When Joe Server
entered she smiled at him. He offered a brief nod, then turned
away. It was then she noticed that everyone in the room seemed
to be conspicuously focused away from her.

Quit being paranoid.

Mr. Mortensen flipped the papers in front of him. "Randy,
I've gotten several complaints about the new man in produce.
What are you doing about the situation?" He scanned the table
but avoided eye contact with Melanie.

What was going on?

The meeting was brief and to the point. When it ended,
everyone scurried from the room except Joe. He shuffled through papers and rubbed at a spot on the table until Melanie stood
to walk out. He followed her.

When they were away from everyone else, he tugged her
arm. "Is it worth all this?"

Fighting for Jeff's memory was worth any price. "All what?"

"Your past, plastered before the whole world."

"What are you talking about? What about my past?"

Joe's eyes grew wide. "You didn't see the paper this morning?
I thought you always read it first thing."

"Not today." Not since the stories had stopped being about
Jeff and started being about the lawsuit. She waited until later
in the day to read now, when she felt less vulnerable than she
did first thing in the morning. Her tongue seemed thicker as
she asked the next question. "What's in the paper, Joe?"

He shook his head. "I'll let you see it yourself." He spun
around and hurried from the room, carrying his notepad under
his arm.

Melanie went in search of a paper.

Andie had just settled on the couch when the phone chimed.
She'd collapsed there this morning after making Blair's coffee
and sending him out the door with a packed lunch. See, no
matter what they saI am making an effort. And 1n)' effort for
todhr is coinp/etc.

There was nothing on today's calendar. She'd canceled a few
meetings and planned to skip the ladies' luncheon. She wanted
to sit in the quiet house and feel her pain. She was too tired to
try to find something to keep her busy and pretend the agony
wasn't there. Exhaustion killed pretense.

She lumbered over to the phone but decided to let the
machine get it. Whoever it was could wait.

"Andie, this is Carolyn Patterson from the Cancer Foundation. I have a rather urgent need to talk to you regarding the Old
Time Fair for the Cure. Please call me as soon as-"

"Hi, Carolyn. It's me. Sorry. It took a while to get to the
phone. What's up?"

A sudden glimmer sneaked up on her. Perhaps Blair had put
Carolyn up to this call. He knew the Fair was the one thing that
might get her motivated.

He had been nagging about getting out of the house and
back into life. For Andie, there was no life to get back into.
Not without Chad.

Oh, she still attended church faithfully-no need to get all
the women in an uproar about her backsliding. Still attended
meetings that were absolutely necessary, but nothing else. No
tennis. No coffee with the girls. And no gym. She suspected
that was the one that troubled Blair the most.

"What's your question about the Fair?" A fair that doesn't
happen for another two months.

"I just got a call from one of our major corporate sponsors. It
seems their CEO has heard a rumor about your family."

The News-Press kept a running documentary on the accident,
the lawsuit, and this week's toxicology results. What could possibly still be open to speculation?

"I'm so sick of all this. I'm sure he has heard a rumor, probably lots of them, but I would think he has better things to be
doing with his time. Besides, how is my personal life any of his
business? He runs a company; I run a charitable fundraiser."

"This is a little different."

"Because of gossip? A rumor like what?"

"Like your family is trying to bankrupt the mother of that
other kid. The one from the wreck."

Andie gasped. "That is a lie! She is the one suing us!"

"I don't know where the information came from, but he is
concerned and is considering withdrawing sponsorship. He says
they cannot afford a publicity problem right now."

"What kind of publicity will he get for letting a lie stop him
from supporting cancer patients and their families?"

Carolyn paused. "Andie, I certainly don't judge you, but what
about Alfords?"

Andie's legs wobbled; she collapsed into a chair. "What
about it?"

"Word is that you have called for a boycott by all Hope Ranch
residents. A boycott that will not lift until the other woman is
fired or transfers out of there."

Andie thought she might throw up. Why hadn't she stopped
Christi when the boycott idea first started? "Some of my friends
are staying away from the store, although I had nothing to do
with their decision."

"Are you telling me that you're still shopping there, then?"

Smack. "No." She remembered Blair's outrage when she suggested the unfairness of the boycott. In this instant, some of
that outrage flowed into her. "Anyway, why should they support someone who's trying to ruin my family? Haven't we been
through enough?"

Its not my call, Andie. I'm just telling you what I was
told."

"What does that have to do with corporate sponsorship?"

"Supposedly, there is going to be an editorial in tomorrow's
paper. It will describe the rich families in Hope Ranch banding together to destroy a struggling single mother who dares to
challenge them. It sounds like things are about to get pretty
ugly and pretty divided in this town."

How dare those people try to hurt her by keeping her from
helping other people? She wasn't paid a penny for the countless hours she spent doing charity work. Didn't these people see they
were only hurting the cancer victims by doing this?

"So what am I supposed to do?"

"Just lay low for now. We're going to make certain your name
is not publicly attached to anything involved with the Fair. If
things die down quickly, and I'm sure they will, we will continue
with business as normal. By Fair time, we'll forget we ever had
this conversation."

"And if things don't die down?"

"well..."

"Well, what?"

"We may have to ask you to resign as director."

"No." They couldn't rip Andie's only measure of comfort from
her grasp like this. "Please, no." She wiped a stray tear, her hands
ice-cold against her cheek.

"We won't do anything in haste, Andie. I just wanted you to
know what's happening. In case."

Andie found it almost impossible to speak, but somehow she
finally swallowed and answered in a most civil voice. "Thank you
for calling. Of course I want what's right for the Cancer Center,
so I'll do what I have to do. Thank you for your support."

As soon as the click sounded at the other end, Andie hurled
her phone across the room. Those horrible people! For the first
time since Chad's accident, she was able to feel something
besides overwhelming pain. Outrage. It bubbled into her blood
and spread through her limbs, restoring the energy that grief
had drained from them.

If they wanted a fight, she would fight. No one was going to
take away the gains she had made in cancer fundraising just to
win sympathy in a lawsuit.

Andie bolted toward her bedroom, pulling the sweatshirt over
her head as she went. She hopped into a burning hot shower
and scrubbed away the dirtiness that seemed to cling to her. She emerged from the shower as a woman with a renewed
sense of purpose. She would save the Fair, and make certain
everyone who threatened to bring it down got what was coming to them.

Christi Baur watched Susie's face closely. So far, no signs of
shock or outrage. Next toAndie, Susie was the biggest wimp of
the group. Her reaction would most closely resemble Andie's.

Susie's forehead gathered in the wrinkles of deep thought. At
one point, she gasped and covered her mouth with her hand.
Christi pictured the rest of Santa Barbara doing the same as
they read about Melanie Johnston's checkered past. All of the
city was being enlightened today.

She wondered what the most outspoken supporters of the
valiant and hard working single mother would say about this. By
now, everyone would realize the woman they rallied behind had
not been married when Jeff was born. By the time her second
child came around, she had married the guy, but of course there
were several drug arrests in the interim. Christi smiled. About
time the truth came out.

Susie lowered the paper, took a deep breath, then carefully
folded it before placing it on the round table. She didn't look at
Christi, but instead seemed fascinated with the barista and the
steamed milk she was spooning into a customer's latte.

Christi couldn't take it. "Well? Come on. What did you
think?"

Susie looked at her. "It was a bit ... rough. Don't you think?
Bu"

"A bit rough? Are you kidding me? That woman has been
coming across like Mother Teresa all this time, when she's probably not even a fit mother at all. Who's to say she's kicked the
drug habit?"

Susie leaned forward. "You interrupted me. I hate it when
you do that." She quirked her eyebrows and sat back into her
seat.

Christi recognized the look in Susie's eyes and knew the
information would be slow in coming. Susie tweaked Christi's
impatience anytime she got a chance, and now she had the
perfect opportunity.

Christi assumed her most humble expression and tried to
look bored, as though she had all the time in the world. "Sorry.
What was it you were about to say'r"

Susie took a sip of her double decaf latte. She set the cup
onto the wooden table and ran the tip of her index finger around
the plastic lid.

Oh, she's going to draw this out, all right.

"What I was about to say ..." She paused for another sip of
her coffee. "Is that it was a little rough. The woman did lose her
son, after all. But-and this is the part where you interrupted
me before-there are some things here that need to be taken
into consideration. Up until this point, it seems to me that all
the negative talk has been centered onAndie and Blair. It's nice
to see her taking some heat for a change."

Christi felt a growing sense of satisfaction. She'd been certain
there was some trash to be found, but Scott's partner feared
public backlash too much to use it. Public backlash did not
concern Christi at all. Audie was her concern. Softhearted wimp
though she was, Christi did love her.

So she'd hired her own investigator, who uncovered this part
of the story. She had then fed these juicy tidbits to her favorite
News-Press reporter, and no one would ever know she was the
source of this most helpful information. Her biggest fear was that
this story would upset Andie into doing something stupid.

She had planned to drive to her house this morning and see
how she was taking it. After seeing Susie's reaction, maybe she'd
call on the cell phone and see if that was necessary after all.

"I've gotta run. See you tomorrow at nine?" Susie stood and
smoothed her tennis skirt over legs Christi couldn't help but
admire.

"Yep. Court three."

Christi carried the paper out of the shop and slung it in the
bacl:seat on top of her tennis racket. She fired up the engine
and waited only until the first light to call up Andie's number
on her cell phone.

Andie answered on the second ring. "Christi, did you have
anything to do with that article today?"

Christi both loved and hated caller ID. How could you surprise anyone anymore? "Well ...yes and no." The light turned
green. She needed to ask the question she really didn't want to
ask. It was the only way she would know whether to turn right
or left at the next light. "What did you think?"