Read Yesterday's Embers Online

Authors: Deborah Raney

Yesterday's Embers (9 page)

BOOK: Yesterday's Embers
9.49Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

She’d had an absolute blast. And Doug DeVore was mostly the reason why. Scratch that. No mostly about it.

Chapter Fourteen

M
ickey changed out of her wet clothes and dried her hair. Belting a fluffy white bathrobe around her, she padded out to the kitchen and loaded the few coffee mugs and silverware that had collected in the sink into the dishwasher. She wiped off the counters in her cozy kitchen and watered the plants in the bay window behind the sink.

Sasha jumped up on the counter beside her, purring in anticipation of Mickey’s touch. She stroked the silky calico’s fur. “You know you’re not supposed to be up on the counter, little princess.” She scooped the cat into her arms and carried her to the sofa. “What did you do all day, huh?”

Sasha kneaded broad paws on Mickey’s knee, revving her feline motor.

“I bet you didn’t have as much fun as I did.” Mickey felt like an idiot grinning at
a cat who couldn’t understand a word she was saying. But she couldn’t seem to quit smiling. Weddings were usually pure torture for her, a colossal reminder of everything God had said no to over and over again for almost a decade now, ever since she’d brought the request for a husband before Him as a serious college grad dating a man who didn’t love her as much as she loved him. Jon Lundholm had kept her hanging on to the hope of a diamond for two years while he played the field at college. The handful of other guys she’d dated had been immature, cocky jocks interested in only one thing—a thing she wasn’t willing to give.

Jon was a nice enough guy, but she’d been stupid enough to try to force him into the “perfect husband” mold she’d patterned after her brothers. After he dumped her, she realized she couldn’t have wedged him inside that mold with a shoehorn. But love was blind and all that.

The chorus of “This Will Be” ambled through her mind, shoving the gloomy thoughts out. She smiled to herself and hummed along. To think she’d almost skipped Jack and Vienne’s reception this afternoon. She shot up a prayer of thanks that she hadn’t. She’d had an absolute blast. And Doug DeVore was mostly the reason why. Scratch that. No
mostly
about it.

If she closed her eyes, she could picture those blue eyes as he’d laughed down at her while they were dancing. He was a fine, fine dancer, too. And easy on the eyes, with skin bronzed by the sun and his hair bleached to the color of wheat.

She’d never once thought of Doug in that way before today. Of course, until now she’d only known him as a married man—just another father of her daycare kids. She’d always been impressed with the kind of father he was, but seeing him at the dance with Kayeleigh as his date, she’d been charmed all over again. He was so sweet with the gangly almost-teenager. Mickey knew how much that had to mean for a girl who’d lost her mother at an age when mothers were crucial.

Doug had seemed so different tonight. Even though things were a little awkward at first with Wren practically pushing them together,
they’d ended up having a great time dancing together. It was fun joking and talking out on the dance floor with him. Not just talking about his kids, either, but real conversation, getting to know each other better than they ever had.

Doug was doing well by his kids. He was exactly the kind of man she wanted to find someday. It bothered her a little—okay, a lot—that he still wore his wedding ring. A recent widower with five kids was not exactly on that list she’d given God for the man of her dreams.

She rubbed her hands together, remembering the warm urgency of Doug’s hand on hers when he’d invited her to go to Salina with him tomorrow. Somehow she didn’t think he’d planned to do that. A warning light went on—again—somewhere in the back of her brain. Maybe she’d been wrong to say yes. She did the math and it shocked her a little to realize that it hadn’t been even four months since Kaye died.

A knot twisted in the pit of her stomach when she thought of what her brothers would say if they found out she was going with Doug tomorrow. Well, she wasn’t stupid. And she wasn’t naive enough to discount that Doug had a lot of grieving left to do. Years’ worth probably.

But it wasn’t like they were talking about getting married here. Surely it couldn’t hurt anything to go to a movie with a friend. It wasn’t like it was a date. After all, they were taking the kids.

Except that had been her idea. And Doug had called it a date. But that was only after she’d made the suggestion. What else was he going to say after she was so coy with him?

She looked out the kitchen window toward the north end of town. The rain had stopped, but the night sky was inky. She couldn’t see beyond the trailing verbena that hung under the porch eaves. Maybe Doug was regretting his invitation by now.

Sighing, she closed the curtains. It was too late to back out now. She’d go with him and the kids tomorrow. McDonald’s and a movie. And they’d probably have a great time. Tomorrow would be about being
a friend to Doug and an encouragement to his kids. Nothing more.

It was too soon for anything else—if “anything else” was even a future possibility. And she doubted it was from Doug’s perspective. He was lonely. That was all.

A veil of melancholy settled over her. Why couldn’t the men she was attracted to ever be
available
? Was that too much to ask?

 

D
oug squirmed in the pew and folded the bulletin in half and then into quarters. If he was nervous yesterday, before the wedding, he was in full panic mode now. What in the world had he been thinking when he asked Miss Mickey on a date? Good grief. Suddenly he couldn’t even think of her outside of the name his kids called her by?

Twisting his wedding ring, he shifted in the pew again. He might technically be a widower, but he couldn’t have felt more married if Kaye were sitting here beside him. So why did he have a date this afternoon?

He’d watched grieving people do stupid things before and wondered what they were thinking. Well, now he knew. They
weren’t
thinking. Last night he’d been caught up in the relief of the moment—a chance to smile and forget for a few hours about the tragedy that had cut him down.

Kayeleigh had moped the rest of the night over having to leave the dance early, but despite her efforts to ruin the evening, he’d gone to bed last night excited about the plans for this afternoon.

But the minute he’d come awake this morning, he’d begun to second-guess himself. Well, it was too late to back out now.

When the pastor spoke the benediction, he quickly herded the kids out to the foyer. He sent Kayeleigh to pick up Harley in the nursery and hurried the rest of the kids out to the car. His purposeful stride apparently worked. At least no one tried to stop him to offer condolences.
Maybe he’d finally reached some magical point in the mourning period where people felt they’d said enough.

Good. Though he knew they were well meaning, he’d grown a little weary of being the object of the town’s sympathy.

He’d asked Harriet to keep Harley again this afternoon. He and Kaye had learned the hard way that a two-year-old was impossible to keep quiet in a movie theater. Even if the film was geared toward kids, Harley would rather make friends with the people in the row behind them. Or, like their last disastrous trip to the movies with her, see how much popcorn she could toss into the pouffy hair of the woman in front of them. The memory made him smile…and caused a fresh wave of longing for the way things used to be.

He forced his mind to shift gears and concentrated on getting everybody buckled into the Suburban. Nowadays, Kayeleigh sat up front with him and the twins shared the backseat, while Landon rode with Harley in the middle bench. He’d have to warn Kayeleigh that she’d be giving up her seat today.

He hadn’t told the kids yet that Mickey was going with them. He hadn’t wanted to answer a bunch of questions. But now that they were minutes from picking her up, he pictured himself answering hard questions in front of her.

Not a pleasant prospect.

As soon as they pulled out of the parking lot, he plunged in. “Listen, guys, as soon as we drop Harley off at Grandma’s, we’re going to go pick up Miss Valdez—Miss Mickey—and she’s going with us to the movie.”

In his rearview mirror the twins exchanged wide-eyed looks and started bouncing on the seats. They clapped and squealed, “Miss Mickey! Miss Mickey!”

“Why’s
she
going with us?” He barely heard Landon’s low voice over the twins’ noise.

“I invited her. Thought she’d enjoy…the movie.” He met Landon’s
skeptical expression in the mirror and turned to Kayeleigh, hoping for support. “Won’t that be fun?”

She leveled a suspicious glare at him. “You have a
date
with Miss Valdez?” She wrinkled her nose and dangled the question before him like it was one of Harley’s dirty diapers.

He shook his head and glued his eyes to the street. “It’s not a date exactly.” But what if Mickey referred to it as that? “We just thought it would be fun to do something together today.”

Kayeleigh twisted in her seat, suddenly allies with her brother. “Dad danced with Miss Valdez half the night last night at the wedding.”

“Gross!”

“Cut it out you two. And be nice to Mick—Miss Valdez. I mean it.”

“You’re taking her to McDonald’s? Oh, that’s real cool.” Kayeleigh rolled her eyes in full, sassy-preteen mode—a mood she wore quite regularly lately.

He tried for levity, using a term he’d heard Kayeleigh toss out. “It’s not like it’s a hot date or anything.”

“Daddy, please. Stop talking about it. I don’t even want to
think
about it.” Kayeleigh shuddered.

This was going to be tougher than he thought.

He made the kids stay in the car while he took Harley in to Harriet’s. Kaye’s mother was still in her church clothes. He set Harley on the floor and she toddled over to the basket of toys Harriet kept by the sofa.

Handing Harriet the diaper bag, he backed toward the door. “She’ll probably take a long nap this afternoon. We should be back by six or seven at the latest.” He patted his pocket. “Call my cell if you need me.”

“We’ll be fine.” Harriet spoke in clipped tones and avoided his eyes. If he hadn’t had such a warm conversation with her when he picked up the kids last night, he would have thought she was mad at him.

“Is everything all right? I-I hope I’m not taking advantage of your offer to keep the kids. If I am—”

“I’ll tell you what you’re taking advantage of.” Kaye’s mother straightened to her full five-foot-nine height and looked him in the eye. “My daughter’s reputation.”

Uh-oh. This couldn’t be good. “What are you talking about, Harriet?”

Harriet’s moods had always kept their lives interesting, but she was beyond moody right now. Propping her hands on her hips, she let him have it with both barrels. “Rumors are flying all over town about you and that Valdez girl at the reception last night.”

He steeled himself for the worst. “Exactly what kind of rumors?”

“Did you take her to the dance?”

“No, Harriet. I took Kayeleigh. I took my daughter to the dance.”

“But you danced with Mickey Valdez.” It wasn’t a question.

“I did.” His defenses shot up, but he worked to keep his voice even. “I wasn’t aware it was a crime to dance with a friend.”

“Well, from what I’ve been hearing, you two were”—her face flushed crimson and she looked away—“you were all over each other.”

“What? Who in the Sam Hill did you hear
that
from?” This was crazy. But then, he shouldn’t have been surprised. He’d grown up with the rumor mills of small-town life.

“I heard it from
everybody
, that’s who.” Harriet’s voice rose. “The phone’s been ringing off the hook ever since I got home from church this morning.”

That probably meant she’d had one phone call, but Harriet wasn’t going to let this go. “Not to mention the way people were looking at me during the service this morning. I’ve half a mind to take the phone off the hook.”

He resisted the urge to expound on her half-a-mind comment. Still, even if she’d received one call, it was one too many. “Who called you? I want to know what’s being said, because if it included that Mickey and I were ‘all over each other,’ I can put that rumor to rest right now.”

“I’m not going to say who it was, Douglas, but it was somebody who
was there and saw it with her own eyes, and Clara does not—” Harriet clapped a hand over her mouth.

He rolled his eyes. Clara Berger. He should have figured as much. Kaye always said Clara’s motto was: Spread the gossip first, verify later. Well, if that was the juiciest morsel the old bag could come up with, she needed to move out of Clayburn.

“Harriet, I don’t know what that woman told you, but I assure you nobody was all over anybody. I had Kayeleigh with me, for Pete’s sake. You think I’m going to act like that?” Shaking his head, he let his words trail off. It didn’t pay to argue over something like this. But he also needed to do some major damage control.

He took a deep breath. “I danced with Mickey a couple of times. And you may as well know that she’s going to Salina with the kids and me this afternoon.”

“She’s
what
?” Harriet put a hand to her throat. “You mean, you have a
date
with her?” Her face went pale, and for a minute Doug thought she might faint.

“We’re grabbing lunch at McDonald’s and taking the kids to see a movie. That’s it. For crying out loud, she’s the kids’ daycare teacher.” Why did he feel compelled to reassure everyone that this was not a date, when he’d conceded to Mickey that it was?

Harriet looked at the floor and shook her head. “I can’t believe you would do this to Kaye. She’s barely been
gone
”—she choked on the word—“a few months and you’ve already moved on. I simply cannot believe you would behave like this. Disgrace the mother of your children this way.”

“Harriet. Stop it.”

Harley looked up from the plastic toy she was chewing on, her little blond eyebrows knit. “Da-da?”

“It’s okay, sweetie.” He forced his adrenaline to a noncrisis level and reached to put a soothing hand on Harriet’s arm—more for Harley’s sake than Harriet’s. But she jerked out from under his touch.

BOOK: Yesterday's Embers
9.49Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

Other books

Animals in Translation by Temple Grandin
Pole Position by H. M. Montes
Storm of Prophecy: Book 1, Dark Awakening by Von Werner, Michael, Felix Diroma
El orígen del mal by Jean-Christophe Grangé
Taste Me by Candi Silk
Have His Carcase by Dorothy L. Sayers
Skin Game by Jim Butcher
The Moon by Night by Madeleine L'engle