Dorothy Garlock (21 page)

Without warning, Carolyn looked in Sophie’s direction, a glimmer of recognition dancing across her face. In the split second
that followed, Carolyn’s eyes filled with equal parts disdain and disgust, narrowing until they were little more than slits.
Slowly, she turned her noticeably pregnant body until she was pointed directly at Sophie, looking for all of the world as
if she was going to walk over and continue the tongue-lashing she had begun at the newspaper office. She was clearly the hunter;
Sophie would be her prey. But just as she was about to take her first step, Sophie already recoiling slightly in fear, her
husband took her firmly by the hand.

“Come along, dear,” Augustus said softly. “It’s time you got some rest.”

For a moment, it looked as if Carolyn was going to argue, but instead allowed herself to be led from the theater and out into
the night. But before she left the lobby, she managed to give Sophie a wicked smile riddled through with bad intentions, a
thin-lipped grin that chilled her to the core.

What did I ever do to that woman to make her hate me so?

Sophie waited a few moments longer, absently digging in her purse for the mirror she knew was not there, before following
Carolyn Glass out of the same double doors.

Outside, the summer night air had grown surprisingly cooler; Sophie pulled her thin coat tightly around her shoulders, trying
to gain some meager warmth to chase away her chill. Above, the earlier clouds had drifted away and the moon filled the sky.
As they walked, their footsteps echoed off the closed storefronts, giving Sophie the worry that they were being followed.

“Now, I’m not one to swoon over any male movie stars,” Cole explained, his voice rising with excitement as he recalled the
film, “but you’d have to be one spectacular fool not to recognize that Cary Grant sure can take over a picture screen. Boy,
he can act! That man is smooth in ways I didn’t know existed!”

Sophie could only nod absently in answer.

“Heck, if I were to suddenly wake up and find myself in Jean Arthur’s shoes, heaven forbid,” he said with a wink, “I can’t
imagine it would have been all that difficult to make up my mind.”

Still, Sophie couldn’t bring herself to speak.

“What about you, Sophie? Which one would you have picked?”

Walking along the barren street, Sophie found it impossible to understand all that Cole was saying. Even as he spoke, her
mind raced from the burning of the barn, to the encounter at the diner, then on to her confrontation with Carolyn at the newspaper
office, and finally to the sight of Riley Mason waiting for her outside of work. No matter how much she wished for her life
to get better, no matter how much she enjoyed Cole Ambrose’s company, she could not escape the fear and worry that hounded
her at every step. She felt an unseen danger around every corner.

“Sophie?” Cole asked. “Are you all right?”

“I just… I don’t…” she mumbled.

Without Sophie realizing it, they had managed to walk back to the truck. She stood before it, droplets of rainwater glistening
on the hood, and turned to look into Cole’s worried eyes. The sad truth was that she didn’t have the slightest idea how to
answer his question; much of her life was indeed just fine, but there was no denying the worry and fear that waited at the
edges. She had spent so much time bottling up her emotions, erecting a dam through which they could not escape, that in the
face of this latest trouble she felt as if she had taken on one problem too many and her already shaky barrier were about
to burst.

“Why are you crying?” Cole asked.

Until he spoke, Sophie wasn’t aware that she had been. Gently, she raised a hand to her cheek and her fingers came back wet.
As she looked back into Cole’s eyes, her vision became clouded. Tears began to fall heavily, racing rapidly down her cheeks.

“Whatever’s the matter, Sophie?” he prodded again.

“It’s nothing…”

“Don’t tell me it was that bad a date,” Cole asked anxiously.

Sophie wanted to reassure him, but her emotions had finally become too great, overwhelming her as easily as a teacup in a
tempest.

“Oh, Cole!”

The words had scarcely left Sophie’s lips before she rushed across the short distance between them and buried her face into
his chest. Her arms laced around his waist as deep sobs began to rack her body. She clung to him tightly, his touch and smell
filling her, the beating of his heart powerful enough to be heard over the rending of her own happiness.

Cole never said a word as she cried, never asked the reason for her outburst, but instead held her close, his hands running
gently through her dark hair. Occasionally, he whispered something sweet into her ear, the words lost to her but the sentiment
every bit as clear as the stars above.

Calm began to slowly settle over Sophie as she stood in Cole’s embrace. She could only marvel at how safe she felt in his
presence, protected from the danger that assailed her, secure in the knowledge that he would protect her. When her breathing
had righted itself, she pushed herself away from him and, after further composing herself, looked up into his eyes.

“I’m sorry, Cole,” she finally said, her voice still heavy with emotion.

“You don’t have any reason to apologize,” he answered softly.

“It’s just that sometimes I get overwhelmed. Sometimes…”

“Shhh,” he whispered, quieting her explanation. His deep eyes were as luminous as the multitude of stars in the sky, even
of the moon that looked back at her over his shoulder. “You don’t have to explain yourself to me. Whatever is bothering you…
you can share it with me when you’re ready. All that matters to me is that you stop crying and smile again.”

Words failed Sophie. As she looked up into Cole’s eyes, a different emotion than fear filled her, a longing for something
she couldn’t put into words. The sudden urge to give in to those feelings was so overpowering that she surrendered to them.

She rose to meet him swiftly, her lips rushing to his as if they had their own urgent need that had to be answered. His body
flinched in surprise for only an instant, but then his strong hands pulled her quickly back to him as he strove to meet her
passion. The wet warmth of his searching mouth sent waves of sensation crashing over her; it was as if time were standing
still, that they were the only two people the moon was watching over. The more that she kissed him, the more she wished that
it would go on forever. Her own boldness had given her a reward greater than she could have imagined, and in that instant
she knew that what she shared with Cole Ambrose was far more than any dream. When their lips finally broke apart, his deep
eyes continued to hold her tenderly, refusing to completely let her go.

“I guess it wasn’t that bad a date after all,” he said, smiling.

“No, it wasn’t. Even better than a date with Cary Grant!”

“Now, don’t that beat any goddamn picture show!”

Graham Grier frowned angrily as he struggled to resist the urge to slug Riley Mason right in his filthy, no-good mouth. Instead,
he continued to silently stare across the quiet, blackened street, the sight that greeted him souring his stomach. It was
there, standing in front of that worthless, crippled teacher’s truck, that he saw the girl of his dreams.

Kissing another man!

When Riley had called him and said that he had just seen Sophie Heller walking into the Majestic Theater, his first instinct
had been to hang up the phone. But when the man had kept on, had explained that he had seen her in the company of another
man, Graham had felt the need to act. He’d hurried out the door without a word to his father, and had been waiting in the
darkened alley across the street for nearly an hour for the film to let out. All the while, he’d been hoping that Riley hadn’t
seen it correctly, had drunk a bit too much booze and imagined the whole thing. But in that he had been sorely disappointed.

His first surprise upon arriving at the Majestic had been in seeing Carolyn Glass leaving the theater with her husband. Gazing
upon her pregnant belly, growing steadily larger since the fateful night he had spent in her bed, erased any lingering hope
he might have had that his personal nightmare was simply that, a dream.

She’s carrying my child!

Riley had leered and nudged Graham at the sight of Carolyn, clearly reminding him of the rock and a hard place he stood between.
While he had no idea how Ellis had found out about him and Carolyn, the threat of revealing their affair was all that was
needed to keep him in line.

Graham had wanted to walk away then and there, but the need to know if Riley was telling the truth about Sophie kept him rooted
in place. Now that he had seen her kissing another man, he wished he had left.

“You reckon she’s gonna head back to his place?”

“Shut your mouth,” Graham warned.

“Don’t go gettin’ in a huff.” Riley smirked mischievously. “You’re the one that’s sweet on her, so I done figured you’d be
the one to ask just how easy she is. Besides, if there’s anyone that should wanna beat on that there crippled fella, it’d
be me. Put a goddamn bruise on my wrist when he snatched it! If it weren’t for Ellis, why I woulda…”

Graham let the man continue ranting as he kept his gaze trained intently on Sophie. It was hard for him to be so near to a
degenerate like Riley without retching. Though Ellis was every bit the scum that Riley was, at least he looked somewhat presentable.
If Riley hadn’t called about Sophie, Graham doubted he would have come, even if it had meant the other man’s life.

“Just think, the two of ’em was in that dark picture show. Bet that sets you off.”

“I told you to shut up.”

Graham sneered into the darkness. He knew just which two people Riley was talking about, and it made him hate the squirrelly
bastard all the more. Being reminded of it caused him to feel weak, utterly powerless. He had agreed to be a part of this
madness because he believed that he could protect Sophie and her family. Now it seemed as if she had found a new protector
and had forgotten all about Graham Grier.

Since that fateful day in front of the newspaper office, Graham had wondered why Sophie had appeared to be so happy. Now he
knew the answer: she had found someone else. He had every reason to blame himself for this turn of events, but his growing
rage was making him blind to that particular truth. Surprisingly, he found himself growing angry with Sophie. He was still
distraught by the way she had looked in the diner, by how she had spoken to him, but now a new kind of disgust filled him.

“You figure if they were to have a kid, it’d pop out just as much a cripple as that fella is?” the scruffy thug asked.

The thought of what Riley Mason was suggesting was far more than Graham could bear. Grabbing the man by two fistfuls of his
filthy shirt, he hefted him off his feet and slammed him into the brick wall of the alleyway. His arms taut, he held Riley
in place as easily as he would a child. All of the pent-up anger and rage seemed to explode from him in an instant, and as
he stared into the murky depths of the other man’s face, he struggled to suppress the desire to wring the son of a bitch’s
neck.

“Don’t you ever so much as suggest that again,” Graham growled.

“You best remember your place, rich boy,” Riley threatened. Though he was pinned tightly to the wall, his eyes held the restrained
fury of a caged animal; murder and mayhem were only a moment away. “Don’t tell me you done forgot what all you stand to lose.”

“Keep your mouth shut about her, Riley.”

“Or what?” The man smiled.

Without answer, Graham let him go and turned back to Sophie.

“Don’t
you
dare forget,” Riley hissed through clenched teeth. In that instant, Graham knew that this was another transgression that
would not be forgotten, but rather filed away for later.

T
HE EARLY MORNING
air was filled with a wide variety of sounds: the back-and-forth sawing of wood, the relentless pounding of nails, the deep
rumble of trucks, and, quite faintly, the chirping of birds. The sun had barely peeked over the eastern horizon, dappling
the treetops with a golden liquid color, and already the day appeared to be in full swing.

Sophie stood on the front porch of the farmhouse, the light of the oncoming day warming her face. She had been awake for hours,
since long before dawn, helping her mother cook, for those who would soon arrive. And arrive they had! All around her, dozens
of men hurried to and fro, diligently working to raise her family’s new barn. Their good-natured shouts broke the stillness
of the morning.

“Someone go get another sack of nails.”

“Once we get the trusses, it ain’t gonna be long until…”

“Here you go, Hermann! Hold on to that ladder.”

The many noises created a strange symphony. Some men hammered the trusses that would support the barn’s new roof; others prepared
the sturdy struts that would form the building’s base; a few even busied themselves rolling out great lengths of rope that
would be slipped through pulleys to raise the framework and hold it in place as it was nailed together. It was quite an impressive
sight. With everyone appearing to move at once, it resembled the frenzied work of an anthill.

Cole and his father had been among the first to arrive; the sun had been little more than a smear of blue and orange in the
sky when their truck had bounced up the drive. Others had followed closely behind them; the Hellers’ nearest neighbors, the
Sanderses and the Moores, had shown up in their entirety before the first nail had been pounded. Sophie recognized the face
of every man, woman, and child who had come to help.

“My big ol’ round belly’s already lookin’ forward to lunch!” Charley Tatum bellowed as he rose from sawing support planks
with a jiggle of his ample midsection. “If Maria Heller don’t make the finest corn beef and cabbage this side of the Mississippi,
I sure ain’t eat from the table of the woman who does! I do believe I might have been dreamin’ about it last night!”