Dress Me in Wildflowers (23 page)

Farrin set the quilts on a chair and looked at the patterns. “These are wonderful.”

“Well, let’s see what they look like on the beds. Not those two, those are for the gift shop.”

The four of them grabbed quilts and made their way up the stairs. Each quilt was labeled with the name of the room, so within only a few minutes all the beds had new, bright covers.

“Opal, would you look at this?” Faye said from one of the rooms.

The other three women followed the sound of her voice to find her staring at one of Janie’s pictures, this one a view from the overlook on the Cane Ridge Trail.

“That is just stunning,” Faye said. “I want one of those. Janie, dear, do you have any more?”

“Yeah.”

“I remember going up there when I was a young thing like you two,” Faye said as she waved her hand between Janie and Farrin. “This picture is the only way I can see that view now. I’d expire halfway up that trail.” She looked at Opal. “Did I ever tell you that was where Hank first kissed me?”

“Only about nine hundred times.”

Farrin laughed at the two older ladies and had a sudden vision of her and Tammie sharing stories like that when they were wearing knee-high stockings and orthopedic shoes. She glanced over at Janie, and her heart squeezed. Would Janie even reach that age?

Of course she would. She was young, determined, and other than the disease, strong. She’d beat it, and maybe she’d eventually win over Tammie and the three of them could share cookies and coffee over a game of cards as they entered their golden years.

She saw the moment the same question formed in Janie’s brain. Her smile dimmed, and her eyes took on a faraway look. Unable to face it, Farrin turned toward the older ladies. “Anyone up for coffee?”

“You read my mind,” Faye said.

Everyone filed out in front of Farrin. She followed their slow descent down the stairs, swallowing against the lump growing in her throat. Had she reconnected with these women only to have to face their deaths in the coming years? She stopped and took a deep breath. She imagined Death standing just out of sight, waiting for the opportunity to rip another important person out of her life. The cruel bastard had taken Hank, her mother, the sister she’d never known and quite possibly her father. Would he even hesitate to strike again?

****

The next morning, Farrin pushed away dark thoughts of death and Katrina Wellington’s digging by taking the twins to Johnson City to shop for Christmas decorations for the inn. When they returned to Oak Valley after lunch, Janie’s eyes widened at the bags after bags of purchases. Little did Janie know that Farrin had helped the children pick out some gifts for their mother. Those she’d agreed to hide at Faye’s house until Christmas Eve.

When she’d made that promise, she’d halted in the middle of an aisle full of garland and blinking white lights. When had her mind made the decision to spend Christmas in Oak Valley?

It made sense though. She had no family, and her only friends in New York had families with whom to spend the holidays. In recent years, she’d treated Christmas like any other day. No more. She loved Christmas, and she wouldn’t pretend it didn’t exist anymore just because she didn’t have a big family with whom to open presents and eat sweets until she popped.

“Did you all leave anything for the rest of the people in Johnson City to buy?” Janie asked.

“A little,” Jason said with a mischievous grin.

They spent the rest of the day decorating and singing along to Christmas music, laughing and drinking warm cider. Farrin couldn’t remember when she’d felt so . . . buoyant.

A gust of air from the front door rustled the garland rimming the doorways throughout the entry hall. “Well, this is a merry scene,” Drew said.

“Hey, would you like some cider?” Janie asked from her position at the bottom of the stairs.

“That sounds great. Thanks.”

Farrin caught a look on Janie’s face that reminded her of Tammie. No, it reminded her of the mischievous grin on Jason’s face earlier.

“You got a minute?” Drew asked.

“Sure.”

He nodded toward one of the parlors off the hall, and Farrin descended the last few steps and led the way into the room.

“What’s up?”

“I got a call a few minutes ago from a researcher in New York wanting to know about your purchase of the inn.”

Farrin crossed her arms. “Let me guess. This researcher worked for the
Katrina Live
.”

“Yeah. You knew about this?”

“Yes, it seems Katrina Wellington has nothing better to do than to dig up every detail of my past in the name of entertainment.”

“Why is you buying this inn a story, well beyond Oak Valley that is?”

“It’s not so much about that as what she sees as a fabulous rags-to-riches story. One that will get her ratings.”

“You want to fight it? I can work up a letter, try to scare her away.”

Farrin shook her head. “That’ll just make her more determined. She knows how to tread carefully. She’ll dramatize every speck of woe to maximum effect, but she’ll stop at outright lies so she doesn’t get sued.”

“Any idea when she plans to run this story?”

“I’m guessing February, during sweeps.”

“Then we’ve got some time to come up with a plan.”

“A plan?”

“Of taking the surprise out of the story.”

“And how do you propose I do that?”

“By telling your own story to someone else first.”

“Beat her to the punch?”

“Yeah.” For a moment, his expression looked like a mixture of the lawyer going in for the kill and a little boy about to get away with something.

Farrin made a circuit of the room. “I don’t know. I really don’t want to invite the world into my life like that. It’s none of their business.”

“No, it’s not, but wouldn’t you rather control the story rather than have someone else paint your image for you?”

She sighed and sank into a stuffed chair.

“It won’t be as bad as you think,” Drew said as he came to sit on a settee across from her.

“It’s not your life.”

“True, but I doubt seriously you have any skeletons in your closet.”

Farrin jerked at the phrasing. How deep should she go into her past in her big revelation? How could she know how far Katrina would dig? She didn’t want to reveal more than she had to, but there was no way to know what that was.

Janie entered the room with two cups of cider, then disappeared again. Farrin would swear she winked at her as she passed through the door into the hall.

“Are there any TV journalists you admire?” Drew asked after taking a long drink of his warm cider.

“Not particularly. Zora Marshall was wonderful, the last decent person in television in my opinion. But she’s retired now.” And Katrina Wellington had unfortunately taken Zora’s spot as the top daytime talk show host.

“Do you know her?”

“We’ve met several times, had dinner once.”

“You think she’d come out of retirement to do a special?”

Farrin thought about it, then smiled. “That would certainly take the wind out of Katrina’s sails, wouldn’t it?”

“Precisely.”

“I like how you think.”

Before she lost her nerve, Farrin pulled out her cell phone and called Justine. “I need for you to track down Zora Marshall and have her call me as soon as she can.”

“What’s up?”

“I’m building a torpedo.”

When she ended the call, the nerves in her stomach started swirling.

“Take a deep breath. It’ll be okay,” Drew said.

“I know. I’ve done a million interviews. Just...”

“This one isn’t about dresses.”

“Yeah.”

“What if you made it about dresses?”

“That’s nothing new.”

“It’d be new if you opened a satellite of your business here, in the inn.”

She leaned forward. “Drew, I seriously doubt many brides in Oak Valley can afford the price tag on the gowns I design.”

“Then make less expensive ones. Hire local people to make them. Think of the positive publicity.”

Farrin watched him for a moment. “You’re the second person who has mentioned a line of cheaper gowns.”

“Maybe the idea has some merit. I’ve been known to have a good idea a time or two.”

“Why are you so interested in this, in how I look to the world?”

“Because I like you, and you’ve done good here whether you meant to be altruistic or not.”

“I don’t want this to be a rah-rah for me thing.”

“Then guide the discussion, focus on the people who are taking part in the ventures here. But you know, whoever does the interview, they’re going to want to focus on you and your past. It’s inevitable.”

Farrin stood and paced the room. “I know.”

“If you think it’ll make it easier and you want to practice beforehand, I’m willing to listen.”

Farrin stopped her pacing and stared at him. “No offense, but I think that would be more difficult than telling millions of TV viewers.”

“Why? I’m not that scary, am I?”

Because I loved you back then, and given half a chance I’d find myself falling for you again.

“Just that . . . you knew me back then, saw my gawky teenage years firsthand.”

“You weren’t gawky.”

“I wasn’t exactly Princess Grace either.”

“I thought you were pretty.”

Farrin laughed. “Yeah, right.”

“Just because a guy is too dumb to say anything doesn’t mean he’s not thinking it.”

She had no idea what to say to that. She’d give anything to escape the room right now. Drew, damn him, proved himself more sensitive by getting to his feet and moving toward the door. Before he stepped into the hallway, however, he turned back toward her.

“Seems we’re all facing the past, and I’m owning up to the fact that I was way too concerned about what everyone else thought back then, more so than I realized. I hope you’ll allow me to make it up to you.”

Farrin stood, unable to speak or move, long after she heard Drew’s footsteps fade down the hallway and the sound of the door clicking shut behind him.

A burst of the twins’ laughter broke the frozen moment, and Farrin walked to the window to stare into the garden. The softer tread of Janie’s footsteps moved down the hall, then paused in the doorway.

“Do you like him?” Janie asked.

“He’s a nice guy.”

“I know that, but do you like him romantically?”

Farrin turned to face Janie. “What is it with everyone trying to push me into Drew Murphy’s arms.”

“You seem lonely sometimes.”

“I don’t have time to be lonely.”

“Being busy and being lonely are not mutually exclusive. I should know.”

Farrin looked at Janie more closely. “Then why don’t you date Drew?”

Janie smiled. “We did date a few times in high school. No chemistry. And let’s just say there aren’t a lot of guys lining up to go out with a woman with two kids. It scares any attraction right out of them.”

“What about . . . ?”

“The kids’ father?” Janie sighed and leaned against the doorway. “I don’t know who he is. I’ve wished a million times I did, especially since I got sick. But there were so many people at the party that night, all of them drinking. He probably doesn’t remember me any more than I remember him.”

“I’m sorry.”

Janie shrugged. “It was a stupid mistake, and I’ve paid for it. I love my children more than life itself, but there have been other prices to pay.”

No doubt because of her parents’ reaction to her mistake.

“But this conversation isn’t about me,” Janie said. “It’s about you. I think you should go out with Drew, have a good time.”

“Everyone seems to keep forgetting that I don’t live here.”

“I’m not saying move in with the guy. You’re here enough for some casual dating. And he seems to like you based on how often he asks about you when you’re not here.”

“He asks about me?” Farrin bit her tongue, hating the hopeful tone that had a little too much of her teenage self in it.

Janie smiled. “Yes. He tries to be subtle about it, but men are so dreadfully obvious.”

Farrin had no idea how to respond.

“You need to grab happiness whenever you can in life because you never know how much time you have. Make the most of it.”

Janie disappeared from the doorway, leaving Farrin wondering if she could let go of caution, of the knowledge that Drew had seen her at her most pitiful, and see where things led with him now. The thought was more frightening than her first fashion show, more terrifying even than exposing her life for the world to see. She didn’t know all those TV viewers. She knew Drew, and once upon a time his opinion had mattered more than anyone’s.