His For Keeps: (50 Loving States, Tennessee) (11 page)

“I gotta go,” he says. “I don't have time to horse around on the phone. Especially with you.”

“How about tomorrow?” I ask him. “You got time to horse around on the phone with me tomorrow?”

He straight hangs up on me.

I lower my phone and sigh.

“No luck?”

I look up and find Josie standing in the doorway of my new attic room. It's almost a familiar sight these days. She used to live in this room when she was a kid and her mother worked for the Prescott family, and then for a few months when she was an adult and got called in to work for Beau after his accident.

Ever since I'd started working here a few weeks ago, she'd taken to popping in after work to see how I was doing and have a little girl talk. I'd gotten used to having my cousin, Bernice, up the road to talk to whenever I needed so I'd grown real fond of having another woman my age to talk to for a little bit at night, now that I was far from home, all the way down in Alabama. Josie's sister-friend company is a whole 'nother perk of what truly has been the cushiest job assignment I've ever landed.

I'd thought Josie was pretty cool before I met her, but now I think she's straight up amazing. She's funny, smart, and so kind-which is why I hate to disappoint her. But I'm already lying to her about so much, so I tell her the truth about this.

“He hung on me,” I answer with an apologetic shake of my head.

Josie's shoulders slump. “Well, we knew it would be a long shot,” she says. “But, hey, thanks for trying. Maybe I'll try talking to Beau. Explain to him why I really do need to be in touch with Colin. I mean, yeah, they had words, but he has to understand Colin is going through some stuff.”

I twist my mouth, ready to explain to her like my grandma would why even the least possessive guy wouldn't be cool with his fiancée talking to the “friend” who'd plain stated he wanted to be more with her and on more than one separate occasion. Why that would probably be just asking too much of Beau or any other man.

But before I can say anything, my phone dings. I look at the message. It's from a 615 number-a Nashville area code. And it says: “This is my direct number. Call me back tomorrow at 4pm MT.”

12

“You ever going to tell me your Alabama story?” Colin asks me a couple months later.

“You ever going to quit asking about it?” I ask him back. I'm in the grocery store, throwing enough stuff in the basket to get Beau, Josie, and me through for a few days.

“Probably not, so you might as well tell me, since you keep claiming we're friends.”

“I am your friend,” I say. “But you don't have to be mine. I've got my cousin Bernice on speed dial for girl talk.” Plus, Josie-but of course I don't tell him that, since he still has no idea I'm working for Josie.

“How is Bernice these days?” Colin asks.

“Good,” I answer.

Not real approving of my current phone friendship with the country star who has no idea how I really know Beau or that I'm currently working for him, but other than that… “Her grandma, my Aunt Beulah Mae-really my grandma's cousin, I just call her Auntie, because she's older than me-anyway, Auntie Beulah Mae just hit her five year cancer free mark, so that's a blessing. Especially for my grandma, because she and Auntie Beulah are best friends like Bernice and me are best friends.”

I keep on waiting for Colin to stop me when I tell boring stories about my various Tennessee relatives, but so far he's yet to act anything but truly interested. And this time is no different.

“That's real good to hear,” Colin says. “I'm glad.”

“Me too.” I spot some ground beef on sale and throw it in the basket, thinking I'll give Beau a choice of burgers or spaghetti for tonight's dinner.

My heart thrills as it always does at the prospect of cooking something he'll really like. Not exactly the relationship I envisioned with him while obsessing over him all these years, but close enough that I could close my eyes and pretend it was what I really wanted.

Colin interrupts my reverie with another question. “Speaking of your grandma, you talk to her today yet?”

“No, I was planning on calling her before dinner. Why?”

“Had to send you something in the mail to her house, since you still won't give me your new address.”

“I told you…”

“I know, I know. You're my friend. But you ain't sure yet if I'm yours.”

It isn't the first time he's thrown that line back at me. But just like all the other times, I notice that's all he does. Throw it back at me. He still has yet to deny that he's not feeling any actual friendship feelings toward me. Even though we've been talking on the phone literally every day for over two months.

“So what did you send me?” I ask him.

“You'll find out,” he says in a tone that's half amused, half gravelly threat.

“It's a cease and desist letter, ain't it?”

“Nah, you got to have those delivered in person, and I don't know where you are,” he answers. “This is just your standard restraining order.”

I laugh, thinking not for first time that Colin is a surprisingly funny guy. Josie, who had to help women get restraining orders day in and day out as the new director of the Ruth's House Domestic Violence Shelter, wouldn't have thought so, I know. But I can't help but laugh.

“You won't be laughing when the police come to your door with a warrant for your arrest,” he tells me now.

“If they can find me,” I shoot back.

“If they can find you,” he agrees.

“I'll call my grandma and tell her to burn the letter as soon as I get off the phone. That way I can keep on harassing you. What's that thing they're always saying on those lawyer shows? Ignorance is nine-tenths of the law?”

“That's not even nearly how it goes, Red.”

“Purple,” I tell him.

“What?”

“I dyed my hair purple a few nights ago, so you're going to have to stop calling me Red.”

“And what does your employer think of that?” Colin asks.

I shrug and grab a gallon of milk to put into my basket. “He doesn't care.”

It's the truth. I'm driving Beau to UAB's Callahan Eye Hospital to get pre-tested for a possible neural stem cell transplant trial he might be taking part in late the following year. But other than that, he's still blind. I'm not sure Josie's bothered to tell him my hair's purple now, or that it was red before.

Speaking of which, “I've got to drive my client to an appointment in about twenty minutes, so I better get off this phone and pay for these groceries. When do you want me to call you tomorrow?”

“Don't forget to check in with your grandma about that restraining order,” Colin answers. “And it's a travel day tomorrow, so I'll call you.”

I'm still chuckling as I go through the check out. Life, I have to admit, has been good lately. I'm working at a job that not only allows me to see Beau every single day, but also let's me get to do things like talk to him and help him. I'm closer to Beau now than I ever could have imagined back when I was a teenager.

And on top of that, I get to talk to Colin every single day, which is… truthfully better than I thought it would be. The first time I called him, it had been awkward. A balls-to-the-wall sales pitch I was pretty sure wouldn't work. But over the last two months, I've become used to talking to him every day. Sometimes just for five minutes. Sometimes for an hour or two. Now talking on the phone with Colin feels simple to me. Like the best part of my day.

As I walk out of the grocery store, I'm not only still thinking about our latest conversation, but also looking forward to the next one.

Which is why I don't notice Mike Lancer until my basket crashes into his.

“Sorry,” I start to say. But then I stop, because even though the man glaring at me is wearing a UAB hat low on his head, and is about fifty pounds heavier than the nineteen-year-old I knew, I still recognize him. All too well.

13

“Sorry,” I mumble. Then I duck my head and start to go around him. Colin didn't recognize me. Neither did Beau. So maybe Mike Lancer won't either.

“Kyra. Kyra Whatshername.” He bangs his cart into mine again. This time on purpose. To stop me from going any further. “I thought that was you I saw coming out of Beau Prescott's house the other day, but I didn't recognize you with the purple hair.”

He's slurring his words, and even though it's the middle of the day, he smells like a bottle whiskey. And unfortunately, I have enough experience with drunks to know when one's not going to let you by without some kind of scene.

“Hi, Mike,” I say, guessing we were bound to run into each other sooner or later. Forest Brook is a small town and he still lives right down the street from Beau and Josie, since both he and Beau took over their family homes. I was just hoping it would be much later or maybe never at all, since he and Beau don't seem to be friends anymore.

Mike smiles at me, but it's fake as patent leather and it don't go anywhere near his weasely eyes. “So you're the one who replaced that bitch Josie as Beau's housekeeper now she's wormed her way into his bed.”

My eyes narrow. No, he did not just call Josie, one of the nicest, most giving women I'd ever met, a bitch.

But before I can come to Josie's defense, Mike leans over his basket and says, “I want you to give that uppity bitch a message. Tell her she better stay out of my marriage, or else I'm going make her sorry. Real sorry.” Then he says in a low voice only I can hear, “I should have known she'd hire somebody like you. Guess you black sluts like to stick together.”

For once I don't have a quick come back. I'm so shocked he'd even dare speak to me like this out in public, I stand there with my mouth hanging open.

This time it's Mike who maneuvers his basket around mine, walking into the grocery store like he didn't just say what he just said about Josie and me.

And suddenly the day, which seemed so bright and full of blessings a few minutes ago, turns dark and ugly.

I rush back to Beau and Josie's home, the same Tudor style mansion Beau grew up in, which I had to pretend to have never seen before when Josie showed me around on my first day. I do a sloppy job of putting all the groceries away, promising myself I'll come back later and fix it. Part of my job is to make sure everything is placed logistically so Beau can find what he needs without any help from Josie or me.

I poke my head into Beau's study. He's on his computer, typing slowly on a special braille keyboard that talks to him as he types out certain words.

“I've got a couple of calls to make, but then I'll be right back down to take you to your appointment at the hospital,” I tell him.

Beau gives me a thumbs up without looking up from his computer, and I rush upstairs to my attic room, far away from where he can hear. My first call is to Josie.

“Are you all right? How are you doing right now?” is the first thing she asks me after I finish telling her what happened with Mike, minus all the backstory about how he knows me, of course. In my version of the story, he saw me coming out of their house and decided to approach me at the grocery store.

“I'm fine,” I tell her. “But he was off the chain, Josie. I'm more worried about you.”

“We both need to be worried about his ex-wife. We're in the middle of helping her change her name and move to another state because he's made things so bad for her since they divorced and she was rewarded full custody of their children. But the process of moving out of state without opening her up to legal ramifications is really tricky-especially with children involved. And unfortunately, he's got friends in high places. He can't find her, so now he's coming after Ruth's House. We've had just about every sort of surprise state and city inspection you can think of visited on us in the months since we've been helping his ex-wife escape. Luckily, she was smart enough to keep meticulous records of all the times he put her or their children in the hospital, or we'd have to be dealing with visitation rights, too.”

It's a chilling story for sure, but not one I can say I'm all too surprised to hear. I'd long suspected that the Mike who'd so casually destroyed Colin's violin just because Colin “got in his way,” was closer to the real Mike than the one who had sweet-talked me that summer.

“I wish there was something I could do to help.”

“This helps,” Josie assures me, but she sounds wrung out. Like Mike Lancer is drying all her energy up, when this should be the happiest time of her life, what with her engagement to Beau and all.

“Is there anything else I can do?” I ask her.

“Yes, but you might not like it.” I can practically hear Josie chewing on her lip on the other side of the phone. “I'm going to need you to not tell Beau about any of this. He's got that big event for his new charity coming up, and I don't want him worrying about me.”

Now it's my turn to chew my lip. The thing is, Beau wouldn't just worry about Josie. She's his whole world. There's no doubt in my mind if he knew Mike Lancer was threatening her, he'd do something about it.

“I don't know, Josie. I don't want to be the one to tell you how to handle your personal business, but don't you think Beau's going to want to know about this?”

Josie lets out a weary sigh. “Yes, but I don't want him to do anything that would get him in trouble. Or the shelter. Please, I know it's a lot to ask, but can you keep quiet about this for a little while longer, just until we can get his wife out of town?”

“Okay, yeah, I guess I can do that,” I say. Not because I necessarily think it's right. More because I don't think somebody who's keeping as many secrets as I am should force the woman who'd been nothing but generous to me to tell her husband that the wife abuser down the street has been talking all sorts of trash.

Still, it's a relief to get off the phone with Josie and then back on it with my grandma.

“It's my best grandbaby!” my grandma says when she picks up.

I smile. My grandma is old school. She has ten grandchildren, and even more great grandchildren, but she'll call me her “best grandbaby” in a room chock full of them. And if anyone tries to tell her you're not supposed to play favorites, she'll say, “Any of you want to move in here with me and take me to all my appointments on your day off?” Then she uses the quiet that follows that question to call me her best grandbaby again.