Never Tell Your Dreams (3 page)

“As a matter of fact, I usually make her a big
breakfast, but I’ll tell her we are eating at the Fatted Pig instead.”

“I don’t want you to feel like you have to run her
off.” Mitch didn’t want Hazel to miss out on time with Maggie, but the quicker
she left town, the better off he was going to be.

“I’m afraid the longer she stays, the more curious
she’s going to get and she will dig around. It’s her nature. And you know I
don’t want her to find out.” There was concern in her voice. “If we tell Maggie
about this, she’ll come home and try to fix it. Even though I don’t want her to
marry that boy, I don’t want to cause her anymore stress the next couple
weeks.”

When the Pelt Company came in and tried to buy up
the Greenlee property, Hazel made sure no one breathed a word to Maggie. And
that included Mitch. She told him that she wanted Maggie to come back on her
own time, not Hazel’s or Grandberry Falls.

“I’ve gotta go. Paula has a great bargain on Home
Shopping Club,” Hazel said and then hung up.

Mitch smirked. Hazel Greenlee was one hip and
happening grandmother who loved a good deal from the Home Shopping Club.

Chapter 3

Superstition:
Always leave out the same door you entered.

Gravel spit from under Maggie’s tires as she drove
up Hazel’s driveway. It was already spring and Hazel should’ve had the rocks
dampened down by now. That wasn’t the only untidy thing Maggie noticed. The
black paint was chipping off on the Kentucky Post fence, showing wear and tear
from the past winter. She checked her watch. Usually the farm hands were busy
tending to the crop of corn and bush hogs tilling the other fields getting them
ready for planting.

But no matter how battered the farm looked, Maggie’s
heart warmed with the wonderful memories of growing up there when she pulled
up. The years had taken a toll on the old place, but the red brick was still in
great shape. The ivy growing around the front door was still vibrant creating a
beautiful and welcoming green frame.

Maggie sat in her car for a moment, wondering how
different her life might have been if she had come back to Grandberry Falls
after college and made a life here.

It was Maggie’s last year of high school when she
decided she wanted to explore the world. She ended up in New York. In the back
of her mind, she knew she’d have to pay back the Grandberry Falls Community
Scholarship. After all, one of the stipulations was her services to the
community after she graduated. When Maggie did get that degree and graduated at
the top of her law school class, she got a job offer from one of the biggest
law firms in New York City—Van Meter and Associates. Coming back to Grandberry
Falls to fulfill her scholarship commitment of practicing law was no longer in
her plan. Slowly, she’d paid back the monetary scholarship, somewhat easing the
guilty feeling for not coming back.

“Granny?” The front door was unlocked, and slightly
cracked. No one locked their doors in Grandberry Falls—though Maggie tried to
get Hazel to many times before. She stepped up onto the threshold, pushed the
door wider. “Granny?”

“Come on in, honey,” Hazel chirped.

Maggie followed her nose into the family room. A
potpourri canister steamed from the pot-belly stove insert her grandfather put
in when she was
knee-high to a grasshopper
, as he would’ve said. The
console television had been replaced by a fifty-inch flat screen, from the Home
Shopping Club no doubt.

Hazel was sitting in her pink paisley Lazyboy with
the old rotary phone attached to her ear. She’d never get a cordless. “Too
fancy and not reliable,” she’d say.

Maggie bent down and kissed her on the head,
inhaling deeply—comfort. Maggie sighed. The scent of Dove soap swirled around
Maggie’s nose. Hazel waved her hand in the air like the person on the other end
of the line could see her. Her signature bangles jingled up and down her wrist
with each twist.

Maggie sat down on the couch. They had a few minutes
before they needed to get going. And rushing Hazel wasn’t going to get her
anywhere, so she might as well make herself comfortable.

All the family photos, hanging on the wall, told a
story. The years progressed with the pictures. Many of them were taken with
Mitch Dozier in them. He was always around, especially during family functions.
He and Maggie spent many nights pulling Belle’s hair through a plastic cap and
applying all sorts of cream with a paint brush trying to get the Marilyn Monroe
platinum blonde look that Belle so craved.

“Yes, Paula, I’m here.” Hazel’s eyes widened. Home
Shopping Club was Hazel’s favorite channel. Most the items in the house came
from HSC and on Paula, the primary host’s, watch. Paula could sell a gumball
for fifty dollars and Hazel would order it. “My granddaughter is getting
married and I need to get my son-in-law a great camera.”

Finally!
Maggie was
beyond thrilled. Hazel had accepted the fact Maggie was getting married to
Grady and not Mitch.

“You can’t go wrong with the Nikon D3100, Hazel.”
The voice boomed from the TV and brought Maggie back from her thoughts. “He is
going to love it. Look at this.” The cameras panned into Paula’s perfectly
manicured nails that held the digital gadget. “Crisp picture every time. When’s
the big day?”

Maggie laughed. Hazel was on live TV.

“They don’t have a date set yet, Paula.”

Maggie was sure Hazel was confused. The wedding was
three weeks away.

“But I’ll have it for when they do.” Hazel nodded as
if Paula was in front of her.

Maggie cursed under her breath. Hazel was back to
her old ways and Maggie wasn’t sure how she was going to handle it. She paused,
looked over and noticed Hazel had lost some weight. Things were adding up,
weight loss, gravel, chipping paint, and no farm hands. Sadness swept over
Maggie. Hazel’s health had to be failing her.

“Great, Hazel.” Paula’s teeth glistened like the
ones on the whitening strip commercials. “Make sure you stay tuned. We have a
really great case coming up in the next half hour just for this particular
model.”

“I will.” Hazel put the phone back on the hook. She
stood up and brushed her zebra print tunic shirt down over her white jeans.
“You ready?”

“Granny, are you feeling okay?” Maggie sat calmly
with her hands between her knees, preparing herself for the truth.

“Never felt better. I’ve been walking over at the Y
with Jenna.” Hazel clapped her hands and laughed. She stood up and ran her
hands along her silhouette. “Can you tell? I’ve gone down an inch.”

Maggie followed Hazel to the kitchen. She stopped
and looked at the pictures that lined the hallway.

“Then what was that about?” She found no joy in
Hazel’s newfound figure or comments to Paula. Maggie’s brows dipped. “Grady and
I are getting married in three weeks. Granny, just because he spilled the salt
shaker and didn’t throw a pinch over his shoulder, doesn’t make him a bad guy.”

Maggie searched all over the wall for the engagement
photo she had sent Hazel that was taken in Time Square. Not only did she get
the picture professionally framed, she’d sent it first class with insurance.
She even got confirmation that Hazel signed for it. “Where’s the photo I sent
you?”

Maggie walked into the kitchen where Hazel was
sitting in the chair slipping on her sandals.

When the last buckle was in the hole, Hazel stood
next to Maggie and took her hands. “You know how superstition I am. And I’m
surprised how he refused to throw a simple speck of salt over his shoulder just
to keep the peace. Humor an old woman.” Hazel leaned in toward her as if she
was going to tell a big secret. “I look good, don’t I?”

“I’m glad you find my future a big joke.” Maggie
jerked her hands away and walked into the dining room, with a tad bit of relief
that Hazel hadn’t lost her marbles or was sick.

She scoured the top of the antique buffet table
searching for the picture. Nothing. Not a light from Times Square to be seen.
She could’ve at least re-used the expensive frame Maggie had gotten.

“Maggie Greenlee, I know you better than you do.”
Lines creased her forehead as her brows dipped. “I’m not asking you to break
off your engagement. I’m suggesting you two take more time to get to know each
other.”

Maggie’s blood pressure was rising, or so she
thought. She inhaled deeply. She was tired of hearing, from her friends in New
York to her family in Grandberry Falls, that she didn’t know Grady and should
take more time. They’d known each other for almost two years—long enough in her
book.

She followed Hazel into the kitchen, noticing the
file folder Hazel had picked up off the counter and slid into a drawer. Hazel
was definitely acting strange. “What’s that?” Maggie pointed. Her temples were
already throbbing. That wasn’t a good sign since she just got there.

Hazel twirled around. “I’m getting my purse.” She
snatched the sequined jewel clutch and polka dotted gift off the counter.

“No.” Maggie leaned forward. “The file you put in
the drawer.”

“Junk,” Hazel replied. “You ready?”

There was a nagging suspicion in the pit of Maggie’s
stomach that Hazel was hiding something. Maybe the coin toss was just a waste
of money.

“Okay, we can agree to disagree. For now.” Maggie
said, letting it go.

Maggie wasn’t going to argue with her. Hazel was the
most important person in her life and she was confident Hazel would come to her
senses. She’d see how happy Maggie would be. She would prove it to her.

She’d check the drawer later when Hazel wasn’t
looking. She headed for the back door.

“Maggie Greenlee, I know you’ve lost your mind now!”
Hazel shouted.

Maggie jumped. She hadn’t heard Hazel yell this loud
in years.

“You came in the front door, you need to leave out
of the front door. Your boyfriend might not believe in superstition, but when
you are in this house,
you
will.”

“Fiancé,” Maggie whispered looking down at her ring.
“Fiancé.”

The front door slammed. Maggie stood with her hand
on the back door knob. She closed her eyes and took a big deep breath. She
sighed.

Just one night. You can do one night.

Chapter 4

Superstition: The first bridal gift
opened is the first gift used.

“I’m glad to see the Buy-N-Fly is still around.”
Maggie said as they drove past the small store near the farm. She was desperate
for conversation, anything instead of the silence that lingered between them.
She was used to Hazel spilling her guts about all the gossip going on in town,
but today Granny’s lips were tighter than bark on a tree.

“Why wouldn’t it be?” Hazel snapped, not sounding
one bit like herself. She turned her back on Maggie and stared out the window.

Maggie ignored Hazel for a moment. “I saw Mitch
Dozier today.” Maggie was stooping low. Hazel’s soft spot for Mitch would
surely open up the lines of communication. “Mayor Dozier.”

Maggie giggled at the sound.

Hazel’s eyebrows cocked up and she defensively
asked, “Where? What did he say?”

“Take it easy.” There was definitely something going
on. Hazel was too attacking. “We talked about my shower.” Glancing at her
grandmother again, Maggie pressed her lips together. Something was definitely
off with her today. Usually she wasn’t so belligerent.

Maggie fiddled with her ring while holding onto the
steering wheel. She recalled the shocked look on Mitch’s face this morning when
he noticed.

“Hmph.” Hazel crossed her arms and stared ahead.

Hazel made it very clear she didn’t want to talk,
and Maggie wasn’t going to make her.

Thank God, there are only three stoplights in town,
and the Hair Pin was right past the third. Maggie never thought she’d be so happy
to get there.

###

“She’s here!” Belle screamed, making all the guests
turn and rush to Maggie’s side when she walked into the party.

Maggie’s cheeks flushed when the girls grabbed her
hand ogling her ring. She’d never worn a lot of jewelry and something this size
was not what she pictured when she thought about engagement rings.

“I told you it was big.” Belle held Maggie’s hand in
the air, confirming the size of the rock. Maggie blushed. She was never one to
brag, much less stand out.

They all oohed and aahed over it. Maggie pulled her
hand away and tucked it in her pocket.

“Stop. It’s not that big,” she whispered to Belle.

She tried to play modest, but it was hard to conceal
a five-carat diamond. After all, what she really only wanted was an antique band
with no diamonds, so when Grady gave it to her, she didn’t say anything, though
her heart ached.

“Maggie!” Wendy Owens waved Maggie over.

Wendy was Maggie’s best friend and she looked
exactly the same as she had in high school. Her hair was still the beautiful
natural blonde which made her blue eyes pop.