The Sweet Gum Tree (21 page)

Cutting it carefully from the magazine, I’d clipped it to a blank sheet of paper and then spent hours designing the inside. It was my dream house, the one I would have built if I’d had any choice in the matter. And now it stared back at me from Nick’s blueprints, every detail exactly as I’d drawn it.

“What do you think?” he asked, his voice soft, hopeful.

“Where did you get this?” My hands were shaking so hard the paper rattled.

“From you. You left it in my room one night, and I’ve been carrying it around with me for the last fifteen years. When I knew we were coming back, I had the plans drawn up from your sketches. I wasn’t sure you’d remember it.” Not only did I remember it, I remembered the night I left it. We’d made love, one of the last times we’d spent together in his room, and I hadn’t thought to take my drawings with me when I’d left. By the time I did think about them again, Nick was gone and I’d married Hugh. I had assumed the plans were thrown away when Aunt Darla cleaned out the room.

Now Nick was going to build it. For him and Lindsey. My anger boiled, seethed until I could barely speak. “I see.” The plans rolled up with a snap as I released them.

“Kenny can figure it up for you. When you get the foundation down, just call him and he’ll get the material delivered out to you.”

“Alix…” He reached for my hand, but I pulled away just as movement from his left caught my attention. I never found out what he intended to say because my legs went rubbery and I couldn’t breathe. All I could do was stare at the boy who’d stopped beside him. It was like seeing Nick again as he’d been at fifteen, like seeing a male version of what Katie would be if she’d lived.

“Hey, Dad. Bowie is taking Lindsey and me to Jonesboro for supper and to do some shopping. He wants to know if we should wait on you.” The expression on Nick’s face when he looked at the boy screamed love and pride.

Casually, he slung an arm around the young man’s shoulders. “Daniel, this is Alix French. Alix, this is my son, Daniel.”

Twin dimples popped out when Daniel grinned and my heart stuttered to a standstill. Agonizing pain ripped through me as he extended a hand.

“Hi. It’s a pleasure. Dad’s told me all about you.” 118

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Somehow, I managed to shake his hand and welcome him to Morganville, all while my brain chanted over and over, “
he’s Katie’s brother
−
he’s Katie’s brother.
” It had honestly never occurred to me that Nick might have other children. Maybe because I hadn’t
wanted
to think about it. Stupid of me, in retrospect, but I now felt doubly betrayed and was even more determined that he’d never find out about Katie.

“You go ahead,” Nick was telling Daniel. “I’ll see you guys later.” Dear Lord. Even Nick’s accent was gone. He didn’t exactly sound northern, but he didn’t sound southern anymore either.

As Daniel headed for the door, I waved Kenny over. “Kenny, this is Mr. Anderson.

You’ll be taking care of his account from now on.” Picking up the form Nick had filled out, I shoved it in Kenny’s hand and turned, fully intending to leave Nick standing there.

“Alix, wait. How about letting me buy you dinner tonight? We can talk over old times, catch up with what’s been happening.”

I suspect my hair was standing on end when I rounded furiously on Nick. My anger and pain had finally reached the point of no return.

“Old times? Listen to me, you bastard. The only thing I want to do is forget you ever existed. And if that’s not clear enough for you, let me spell it out. I will not have dinner with you, ever. Not only do I
not
want to ‘catch up’, I don’t give a damn what you’ve been doing all this time. In other words, leave me the hell alone!”
Jenna would be
proud of me
, I thought a bit hysterically. I certainly wasn’t reacting like an unemotional robot now.

The blood drained from Nick’s face, and poor Kenny’s eyes were the size of dinner plates. “Kenny, you’re in charge,” I snarled, grabbing my purse from beneath the counter. “I’m leaving early.”

But I’d forgotten how stubborn and determined Nick could be. He caught up with me as I reached the Chevy and grabbed my arm. All over the parking lot, customers stopped what they were doing to watch.

His eyes narrowed as he stared at me. “Do you want to tell me what that was all about?”

“Think about it.” I struggled to retake possession of my arm, but he hung on, his grip firm yet gentle.

“I’ve thought about a lot of things the last fifteen years, things we need to talk about.”

“Well, I don’t want to talk to you.” Oh, God. I sounded like a spoiled four-year-old, and the situation was deteriorating rapidly. I had to get away from him. “Please let go of me.”

He hesitated, then released my arm. But he didn’t back off. Instead, he cupped my cheek with one hand, his thumb caressing my skin. “I’ve missed you, Peewee. I don’t know why you hate me now, but I’m going to find out, and I’m not going to leave you 119

Katherine Allred

alone. I came home thinking you were happily married to Hugh, but even then I hoped at the very least we could still be friends.”

“Oh, is that what we were? Friends?” I jerked away from him, climbed into the Chevy, and slammed the door shut. “You know something, Nick? That may just be the only truthful thing you’ve ever said to me. And you know something else? I don’t need or want friends like you.” I started the car and put it in gear. “Say hello to Lindsey for me,” I snapped as the car shot backward out of the parking space.

It was a miracle I didn’t hit someone. When I glanced back at the store, Nick was standing there watching me leave, his hands knotted into fists at his sides.
Take that, you
asshole
, I thought.

Morganville had changed drastically since my childhood. The old general store had been converted into an IGA, the benches adorned with old men in deep conversations were gone from the front sidewalk now. The one-room plank post office with the rickety steps had been hauled to the middle of a field where it sat alone, falling into more disrepair every year. The new one was a modern brick building on Main Street and the old site now held the barbershop and a laundromat.

The streets were paved instead of the gravel I had once scampered over barefoot, and city hall had been moved to a newer building with more office space, the old one sitting empty, used only for meetings of the senior citizens’ group. At the traffic light that had been installed on the highway, a convenience store sat on the corner to the right, and what had once been Hawkins’ Gas Station on the left was now an auto parts store. But I saw none of the changes as I drove through town this time. Anger blurred my vision.

By the time I made it home, I was shaking. What the hell was wrong with me? I never reacted like that, never. The last time I’d lost control of my temper had been that night at the Burger Zone, and I figured being drunk was a pretty good excuse for that episode.

This time I had no excuse. I’d done exactly what I’d promised myself I wouldn’t do.

I had let Nick get to me. He’d have to be pretty stupid not to figure out how I felt about Lindsey after that fit I threw, and Nick had never been stupid.

Taking the picture of Katie from my wallet, I curled up on the bed and ran my finger over her tiny face. It was the last picture I’d had made of her, one of the few I kept with me.

“Your father’s back, baby,” I whispered. “And you’ve got a brother. Oh, Katie, he looks so much like you that it hurts to see him. But don’t you worry. We’re going to be just fine, I promise. I don’t care how mad he makes me, he’ll never find out about you.

He doesn’t deserve to know. Not after he abandoned us. Not after he let you die.” The phone rang, but I ignored it. I was too busy repairing the crack Nick had put in my protective walls to deal with anyone right now. Brick by brick, I reinforced each section, making myself remember why I hated him, why I couldn’t go through this again.

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It took me over an hour, but when it was finished, I was calm and cool, sure that nothing could endanger my emotional stability ever again. Especially not Nick.

Famous last words, or a premonition? Because Nick had meant it when he’d said he wasn’t going to leave me alone.

121

Katherine Allred

After changing into a pair of shorts and a T-shirt, I slapped a couple of ham sandwiches together and carried my plate and a glass of tea to the bench in front of the barn. For someone who didn’t normally have much of an appetite, I was amazingly starved. It didn’t help that I could smell the mouthwatering scent of pork chops drifting from the house.

Finding a spot in the sunshine, I closed my eyes and pictured the supper being prepared. Fried potatoes and probably greens, I decided. With a sigh, I opened my eyes and took a bite from my own supper. I hadn’t felt welcome in the house since I’d left Hugh, especially not when Mama was there, like she was this evening.

The newest batch of kittens swarmed around my feet. They hadn’t learned the cool disdain of their elders yet, and begged pitifully for food, their tiny eyes nearly crossing with the effort they put into their cries. Needless to say, they wound up polishing off my second sandwich. I always had been a sucker for the underdog, or in this case, the undercat.

“Looks like it’s just you and me, fellows,” I told them, tearing the sandwich into bite-sized pieces they could handle, and making sure it was distributed equitably.

While miniature growls and paw-slapping erupted around me, I picked up my tea and stared toward Nick’s property. Curiosity was killing me, but hell would freeze over before I’d go over there. Apparently, the hammering yesterday had been due to driving in stakes that laid out the foundation of the house, and I could see small mounds of dirt that indicated the footing had been dug sometime today.

Nick certainly wasn’t wasting any time. And what made it even worse, he’d chosen the exact spot for the house that I would have. When finished, the house would be surrounded by trees. The huge mimosa I’d climbed as a child would be situated near the back porch, allowing the fragrance from its pink hula-skirt blooms to wash over anyone who sat there during the summer.

If he’d planned for years, he couldn’t have come up with a better way to drive his betrayal home. He was building my house, in my spot, and he was building it for Lindsey. The very thought made me so sick I was glad I hadn’t eaten that second sandwich.

I looked around hopefully when I heard the back door of the house close, but it was only Daddy. Taking a sip of tea, I leaned my head back against the barn wall and watched him approach. He sat beside me, dodging cats, and stretched his long legs out in front of him. A kitten promptly began crawling upward, using him for a ladder.
Why
couldn’t I have inherited his height?
I thought irritably. Being short, with everything out of reach, was a pain in the rear.

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The Sweet Gum Tree

“You look tired,” he said.

“Not really. The sun is making me sleepy.”

“Why don’t you come to the house and have supper with us?” The kitten reached his knee and I scooped it up, cuddling it close, feeling it vibrate against me as it purred. “I can’t, Daddy.”

“Alix, cutting yourself off isn’t going to help. Your mother loves you.”

“Does she?” I turned my head to look at him. “I haven’t seen much sign of it lately.

All she cares about is her status, about how people will treat her now that I’ve left Hugh. It doesn’t matter to her that I was miserable being married to him.”

“Have you told her that?”

“No. The only thing she wants me to say is that I’m going back to Hugh.” He rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Talking works both ways, Alix. You have to give her a chance to understand. Right now, all she’s hearing is Helena’s side of the story, and the woman has your mother fit to be tied. She’s just about convinced Ellie that you need therapy, that you’re suffering from depression and once you get help things will go back to the way they were.” He hesitated. “That episode today isn’t going to help matters any.”

“Episode?” I arched a brow at him.

“Kenny called. It seems you scared him right out of his socks, and then when you didn’t answer the phone, he really got worried. He’s never seen you blow up at a customer before.”

“Christ.” My head started to pound. “The whole family knows?”

“Alix, half the town witnessed it firsthand. Everyone knows. They probably have a couple more betting pools going by now.” He grinned. “You’re getting rather notorious lately.”

This was going from bad to worse. “And what is so humorous about that?”

“Honestly?” He chuckled. “I’m thrilled something finally happened to shake you up a bit. If it took Nick coming back, then I’m grateful to him.”

“So you think I’m depressed, too?”

“Depressed, no.” His smile faded as he studied me. “But for a long time now I’ve watched you slowly shut your emotions away where no one can touch them. It’s not healthy, Alix, and I admit it’s worried me more than a little. That stunt you pulled today gives me hope. Anger is an honest emotion and you showed it in spades. Maybe you’re finally starting to come to life again.” Jenna had called me a robot, Mama thought I need a shrink, then Daddy got all proud because I’d made a fool of myself. I needed some aspirin.

He glanced toward the house, then got to his feet. “There’s one more thing you should probably know. I’ve heard some rumors that a few people aren’t happy about Nick being back. They don’t like having a murderer running loose.” 123

Katherine Allred

I may have convinced myself that I hated Nick, but that didn’t mean I wanted lies spread about him. “That’s silly. It was self-defense. Nick is no more a murderer than I am.”

“I know. But the town has a long memory, and gossips don’t discriminate in their choice of victims. You should know that better than most.”

“Well, even if it’s true, there’s not much I can do about it. I can’t even get them to stop talking about me.”