Return of the Runaway Bride (3 page)

Savanna shoved aside the clamor of emotions that careered inside her at the thought of strangers owning her childhood home. "It's a good investment." She nodded emphatically as she said the words.

Ida's eyebrows lifted a fraction.
"An investment?"

"Um-hmm.
I plan to renovate the house and rent it out." She shrugged. "I may stay in Fulton a few weeks, a month maybe, while I do some fixing up, but then I have to go back to Baltimore."

"Oh." Ida's voice held a note of bewilderment. After a moment of silence, she blurted, "I sure am glad you and your ma are back on speaking terms." Her voice lowered to a murmur as she said, "For a long while there, every time your name was mentioned your ma's mouth would pucker up like she was sucking a lemon."

Savanna shrugged an admission. "Mom was pretty upset about my... leaving Fulton the way I did."

Ida pursed her lips and whistled. "Upset is putting it mildly, honey. She was fuming. Mad as the proverbial wet hen, she was." Then her face became serious. "She finally got over it, though."

"Yes, she finally did. I can't tell you the number of letters she returned to me unopened. Or the number of times she hung up the phone just hearing my voice on the other end."

Ida's eyes softened. "That must have hurt, child."

"Well," Savanna said, "she was..." Her voice trailed as she shook her head.

"I know, angry.
And embarrassed."
Ida's chin dipped as she commented, "And there wasn't another person in Fulton who could hold a grudge like Margaret Langford. Remember that time when Les
Richards let his pooch go
doodie
in your mother's flower beds?
Lordy
, she was fit to be tied." Ida's eyes danced at the humorous memory. "She never did speak to that man again. And she tried to douse that dog with the water hose every time he came anywhere near her yard." Ida hooted with laughter.

"I was never allowed to play with Rags again," Savanna added. "It was awful because I loved that pup." The disconcerting memory wasn't enough to keep her from joining in with Ida's amusement.

"Your mother was one stubborn woman," Ida commented.

“It wasn't all her fault that it took months to straighten things out between
us,
" Savanna had to admit. "For a while she didn't even know where I was."

"Well," Ida said, her tone making the word light and airy, "that's certainly understandable. You needed time to sort things out for yourself."

The empathy in Ida's eyes pulled at Savanna to elaborate. But before she could speak, warning bells jangled in her head, signals that were a reminder of Ida's gossipy nature. Savanna had come into the store seeking information about public opinion concerning
herself
, not to disclose some tidbit that would start stories flying like a flock of squawking crows. She was certain there would be enough of that without her help.

When Savanna made no move to expound on the past six years, Ida started pulling groceries out of the basket and lining the items on the counter. "I guess you didn't have much time for anything else but that highfalutin job your ma told me about."

Savanna could tell the statement was a compliment and took it as such. "Owning my own business does
keep me busy," she said. "I spend a lot of time flying up and down the east coast, but I'm based in Baltimore."

"Your ma said your job had something to do with raising money."

Ida's statement seemed more like a question, but Savanna didn't mind. She liked nothing more than talking about her work. After all, it was the main focus in her life.

"After college-"

"Your ma preened like a peacock with that news,"
Miz
Ida put in. "She went on and on about how proud she was that you worked your way through college with help from no one. And everybody with ears to hear had to listen to your daddy
tell
them how you finished a four-year degree in three."

A lump rose in Savanna's throat at the thought of her mother and daddy boasting about her. She loved her parents dearly and was happy to know they were proud of her.

They'd been hurt when she'd fled town. It had taken Savanna and her parents months to finally reconcile, and even longer to find some middle ground on which to build their new adult relationship.

But even after six years there were certain topics of conversation that were strictly off-limits, Danny Walsh, his parents, Fulton, anything that had to do with "the big scandal" were among the subjects that were never mentioned. It was best that way.
Easier for everyone concerned.

Suddenly her chin dipped nearly to her chest as she realized how useless it was to lie to
herself
. She knew her parents followed the unwritten rule of silence, not because they wanted to or were comfortable with it,
but because it was what was easiest for
her
, their only child.

Savanna noticed the silence the same time she became aware of Ida's intent gaze. Heat flushed her face, but she ignored the embarrassment at having become lost in her thoughts, and she started her story again. "After college, I landed a job for myself raising funds for a senatorial campaign. I enjoyed myself so
much,
I decided to give it a try professionally." She lifted her hands, palms up. "With the senator's recommendation, things just took off. And here I am with a successful career."

Ida looked at her a moment, then her forehead creased. "Well, if things are going so well for you in Baltimore, why come back to Fulton? Why buy your parents' house? Why come to such a small town, when you obviously need to be near cities and airports and such?"

Ida's frank questions weren't new. They'd been asked by the few friends she'd made in Baltimore and by her worried clients far and wide. She'd given them all the same pat answer she now offered
Miz
Ida. "Well, the economy is so slow right now. The house had been on the market for weeks, and Mom and Dad really wanted to move to Georgia."

Ida snorted indelicately. "It can take months to sell a house. Your parents knew that before they put out the for sale sign."

"Well," she hesitated. "I could afford to buy the house and... I wanted to do something nice for my parents." Her chin set with determination as she remarked, "It
is
a good investment.
Too good for me to pass up."

"Good investment, my foot," Ida declared. "You'll be a good two-hour drive from your so-called 'good
investment.' What if the roof springs a
leak,
or termites eat into the foundation? What if a bad storm blows through? Those things can wreak havoc. Why, there's dozens of problems that could crop up. What if the tenants don't pay the rent?
You going
to keep running down here to straighten things out?"

"I hadn't really thought about it." The sentence came out sounding drawn out and lame even to
her own
ears.

Savanna knew exactly why she'd bought her childhood home. Even though she hadn't been back to Fulton for years, she'd always felt that, with her parents living here, she still had some small thread binding her to the town. That thread had been in danger of being cut when her mother and father announced their intentions of moving to Georgia where her father had been born and raised.

She'd fretted for weeks while the house was on the market. How could she finally make things right with everyone in Fulton if her best excuse for returning, her parents, were no longer there? She was devastated and riddled with guilt to think that she'd waited too long to right all her wrongs.

Then the answer had dawned on her; she should solve this problem as she'd learned to solve all her problems.
Head-on.
She needed no manufactured excuse to return to Fulton, to make things right with her friends. The fact that she could afford to buy the house and help her parents realize their dream was simply icing on the cake.

So, she wondered
,
if her intention was to face her demons, why was she hemming and hawing with
Miz
Ida's questions?

Savanna leveled her gaze at the woman and said, "The truth is, I have other reasons for coming home."

Ida simply pressed her lips together as if she were a mind reader.

"But buying the house
is
a good investment," Savanna stressed.

Miz
Ida nodded. "I'm sure it is," she murmured without
pausing
her tally. "And it was darn nice of you to do it too."

When the final total showed in the small window of the register,
Miz
Ida asked, "You want these things in a box or is a bag okay?"

"A bag is fine," Savanna said, relieved that Ida didn't press her to explain her 'other reasons' for returning to town.

Ida bagged the groceries in a brown paper bag. "A salesman came in here not too long ago and tried to tell me how much money I'd save by using plastic bags instead of paper." She snickered. "He
hightailed
it out of here right quick when I gave him a long lecture on the environmental soundness of paper versus plastic." Making a disgusted noise, she said, "Some people think that stupidity comes with wrinkles."

"But then some people just don't think," Savanna added, chuckling.

"You can say that again." Ida looked directly into Savanna's eyes and asked, "Have you seen Daniel Walsh?"

The unexpected inquiry left Savanna momentarily speechless as she was stabbed with knife-sharp guilt. Daniel Walsh, Danny's father, had always treated her as if she were his daughter. His wife, Susan, had done the same. And Savanna, in turn, had loved them as if they were her own parents. She knew she should have talked to them, called them,
something.
But when she had first left Fulton, she hadn't been able to bring herself to contact anyone…other than the one letter she'd written to Danny, the letter he'd never bothered to answer. As the months had turned into years, Sa
vanna had found it harder to generate the courage to get in touch. So she simply hadn't, and she'd lived for the past six years with the guilt of knowing her behavior had been inexcusable.

But she was here to fix all that. She had every intention of visiting Daniel and Susan Walsh, every intention of apologizing for her actions of six years ago.

Her thoughts of Daniel and Susan Walsh prompted a sudden, uninvited picture of their son. A crystal-clear image of the smile that gently curved Danny's mouth, of his dark eyes gazing at her lovingly just before she'd run away from him, their wedding, and the future they had spent so much time planning and dreaming about.

She clamped down on the vision, shutting it from her mind.

"No, I haven't seen him." Her tone was meek. "I just now drove into town. But I plan to." In an effort to discourage any more probing questions, Savanna asked, "How much do I owe you,
Miz
Ida?"

Savanna handed a few bills across the counter and received change. As she hefted the bag on her hip, she tried to smile. "I'm sure I'll see you again soon."

"You come in anytime," Ida told her. "Don't wait till you need something. Just come for a visit."

"I will," Savanna promised.

"Oh, wait." Ida scooped her hand into the large candy bowl on the counter. "Take some of these with you. They always were your favorite." Her lips drew into a grin. "You thought I forgot, didn't you?"

Savanna popped a cinnamon jawbreaker into her mouth and smiled. She waved a goodbye over her shoulder and walked out into the sunshine.

If everyone she encountered was as blunt with questions as Ida had been, Savanna mused, this visit to her home
town was going to be filled with some complicated emotions. But then she'd expected that, hadn't she? There were wrongs to right, hurt feelings to assuage. She definitely had a huge job in front of her.