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Mrs. Hays laughed, her merry tone belying her serious condition. She looked well enough, but Darcy’s training allowed her to recognize the subtle signs that indicated her illness. “You said you were bringing me a surprise, Billy boy. You had my curiosity running so fast, I couldn’t sleep.”
Bill had forgotten about the comment he’d made when he’d called to say he’d be later than usual. He’d told her about ordering the new Jeep some time ago, but he hadn’t told her that he’d finally gotten it. He’d said he was bringing home a surprise.
A brilliant smile lit up Momma’s face, and Bill turned to see Darcy push open the passenger-side door and climb out, stretching after hours in the car.
“Oh son. It’s the best surprise you ever could give me,” Momma said, hurrying down the steps, her gait more steady than he’d seen in months. “I didn’t think you’d find a bride before…before…. Well, you know.” She smiled again and, arms outstretched, hurried toward Darcy.
He realized with horror what his mother must be thinking. Now, what was he supposed to do? Tell her the truth and break her heart?
Chapter Two
Bill’s mother folded Darcy into a warm embrace. “Welcome to the family, daughter,” she said, her voice thick with emotion. “It makes an old lady happy to know that her youngest son is finally going to settle down.”
Fortunately for Darcy, the fact that she was enveloped in Mrs. Hays’s frail embrace kept her from displaying her shock at what the woman had just said. Had she really just called her daughter?
What’s going on here?
She glanced over Mrs. Hays’s shoulder and saw the panicked look on Bill’s face. At least he was as startled about this as she was. Darcy started to push herself out of Mrs. Hays’s embrace and explain, but Bill shook his head and silently mouthed the word, please.
Darcy signaled her objection, but Bill just shook his head again. Considering the woman’s health and the terribly late hour, she tacitly agreed to go on with the ruse. At least until morning.
They would have to explain then and make sure Mrs. Hays understood her mistake. As if she didn’t have enough sorting out of her own to do.
She patted Mrs. Hays gently on the back and pushed herself out of the woman’s embrace. “It’s so nice to meet you, Mrs. Hays. Bill has told me so much about you.”
“Well, Billy surely hasn’t said anything at all about you,” Mrs. Hays said, shaking her head. “If you’re going to be in the family, you can call me Momma. Or, at least, Nettie. Mrs. Hays sounds so unfriendly, don’t you think?”
“Yes, ma’am, I suppose it does. I’ll be happy to call you Nettie.” There was absolutely no way Darcy was going to call the woman Momma. That would just be too cruel.
It was bad enough that she and Bill were going to have to burst her bubble in the morning. She glanced up at Bill and raised an eyebrow and hoped he got the message.
She wasn’t sure what the message was, but she did want him to know that she wasn’t happy with the turn of events.
After all, she’d just escaped from one fiancе. She certainly did not need another one.
Darcy smiled at Mrs. Hays. “It’s awfully late, Mrs. H—I mean, Nettie. Why don’t we get you settled, and we can chat in the morning.”
“I do look forward to that, hon. And you are right. I am tired. I guess all this excitement’s done worn me out.” She turned toward Bill. “Help me up the stairs, son, so I can go to bed. I’ll leave you to settle your fiancеe in—Why, I do declare, you have not introduced me to my future daughter-in-law.”
“It’s Darcy Stanton, Nettie,” Darcy said, forcing a smile. She waved and Nettie smiled back, then took Bill’s arm and allowed him to help her up the short flight of steps.
Wondering how they were going to talk their way out of this charade without hurting the woman struggling up the stairs, Darcy stood outside in the glare of the security lamp and took stock of her surroundings.
The house was small, and Darcy wondered how the woman could have raised five kids in it. But the lawn was trimmed and the flower beds neat and cared for. Obviously, Bill’s brothers and sisters were coming around to help. She thought about the strong love they must share and weighed it against her family’s feelings about duty and tradition. They didn’t compare.
She could see a couple of outbuildings beyond the small house: a chicken house, she supposed, and a shed or a small barn. Mrs. Hays might have kept some chickens and a few cows at one time, but Darcy doubted she was up to keeping them now.
It reminded her of something out of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books she’d loved as a child. Darcy suspected that it had been fun growing up here where the kids could run free and grow like weeds. Not like her own heavily restricted upbringing on military bases all over the world. She’d often had to be escorted to school by armed guards and had only dreamed of running free. The Hays family might have been poor, but her upbringing hadn’t been any better. At least, Bill and his siblings had the roots and stability she’d always craved.
“What do you think?”
Darcy turned, startled, at the sound of Bill’s voice behind her. “About what?”
She looked so much like an angel, Bill thought as he hurried down the porch steps to where Darcy waited outside in the yard. He shouldn’t have left her there, but he had to take care of Momma first. Hell, he shouldn’t have gotten Darcy in this mess in the first place.
He drew in a long breath and answered her question. “The Hays homestead, I suppose,” Bill said. “It’s gone to seed some since Momma’s been sick, but it was a nice place to grow up.” And for the first time in his life, Bill realized that it had been.
“That’s exactly what I was thinking. I always dreamed of living in a place like this. I bet you had chickens and cows when you were growing up and had chores and everything.”
“Didn’t you?”
“Didn’t I what? Have chickens and cows?”
“No, chores,” Bill corrected.
“Oh, sure. Clean up my room. Dishes. I always wondered what it would be like to feed chickens, gather the eggs, and milk cows.”
Bill shrugged. “Feeding chickens is no big thing. You just toss out feed, and the chickens come running. It was a little more exciting to get the eggs. Sometimes an ol’ hen wouldn’t want to part with hers, and I’d have to shoo her off. She’d go with feathers flying and clucking fit to beat the band.” He chuckled and headed for his Jeep. “Can’t tell you much about milking, though. We just had steers.”
“Steers?” Darcy asked as Bill opened the back door to the Jeep.
Bill handed her the backpack and hoisted her duffel bag out along with his own, then slammed the door shut. “Yeah, we got bull calves free from the dairy farm down the road toward Pittsville and raised them for beef.”
He smiled inwardly as Darcy grimaced.
“How can you eat anything that you’ve looked in the face?” she said, horror written all over hers.
“You can eat anything if you’re hungry enough, I reckon,” Bill said as he turned toward the house. “You comin’?” He strode up the stairs. “It’s been a helluva long day, and I’d just as soon hit the sack than stand out here and talk about butchering beef.” He could stand around and talk with her as long as she could, but Bill could see that she was just as tired as he was. She might be wide awake right now, but he’d bet she’d drop off as soon as her head hit the pillow. Just as he would.
Just not together.
Why did he keep thinking about that?
He wouldn’t mind sleeping with her, but he’d only known Darcy for a few hours, and tomorrow they’d say goodbye. It was nice to dream about, but in the morning he would wake up and face reality.
Bill stopped at the front door to reach for the knob, and Darcy collided with him. He paused, enjoying the feeling of her soft form against him, but she drew away quickly enough. He turned around. “I want to thank you for what you did back there,” he said. “I know we’re going to have to come clean with Momma in the morning, but it was more important to get her to bed tonight. It’ll be easier for her to take when she’s rested,” he said.
“You’re probably right,” Darcy said. “But you will explain it to her first thing, won’t you?” She yawned and rubbed her eyes. “And you’ll drive me back to Montgomery?”
“I’ll take you anywhere you want,” he told her, but the only place he could think about taking her was to bed. His, not one in his sisters’ room where Momma’d said to put her. He figured it wouldn’t hurt anything to think about it. He was realistic enough to know it wasn’t going to happen anytime soon. No, he told himself, firmly. It wasn’t ever going to happen.
“Thank you,” Darcy said and yawned again. “Now, could you show me where to sleep before I curl up on that porch swing over there?”
Bill chuckled. “I think I can show you something softer than that old porch swing. Come on inside. Momma said you could have Lougenia and Earline’s room.” He pulled open the screen door and ushered Darcy inside.
A ROOSTER CROWED, and Darcy roused briefly from deep sleep. She looked around the room, still colorless in the gray morning light, and listened for any sounds to indicate anyone in the house was up. Hearing none, she rolled over and burrowed her face into the pillow.
The next time Darcy woke, daylight was streaming in through windows unshuttered against the morning sun. She smelled bacon and coffee, and suddenly she was wide awake.
She was in Bill Hays’s mother’s house, and on top of that, she was pretending to be his fiancеe. But only for a few minutes longer. Bill had promised to straighten it all out with his mother. Maybe he already had.
A girl could hope.
Darcy pushed herself up on her elbows and looked around the room she’d been too tired to study last night. It had obviously been a girl’s room. Two girls. Hadn’t Bill mentioned two names last night? There was another twin bed, the mate to the one she was in. Both were draped with pink chenille bedspreads, and a collection of dolls and stuffed animals watched her from the tops of both dressers and shelves on the wall. The toys were as dusty as the curling posters on the wall were worn.
Bill had mentioned that he was the youngest, so these sisters must have preceded him by five or ten years. The posters were from the eighties. She recognized Kirk Cameron and a young John Travolta. She smiled with the realization that teenaged girls were pretty much the same no matter where or when they grew up.
A light tapping on the door caused her to jerk the chenille cover up over her chest. She hadn’t packed a nightgown in her duffle bag and had slept in a T-shirt minus her bra. “Yes?” she managed, after her heart stopped beating a mile a minute.
“I’ve got breakfast ready. I didn’t wake you, did I?” Bill asked from outside the door.
“No, I was up. I’ll just be a minute.” Darcy threw off the covers and tumbled out of the bed. She found her duffle and rummaged through it until she located fresh underwear and a clean T-shirt. She wished they weren’t so wrinkled, but it couldn’t be helped. She hadn’t expected to be meeting her fiancе’s mother.
She hadn’t expected to acquire another fiancе on the same day she’d dumped the last one.
No, she reminded herself. In ten minutes or so, they’d straighten it out, and she wouldn’t have to pretend anymore.
She pulled on the T-shirt, slipped on her shoes, then grabbed her toothbrush and headed toward the bathroom. She might as well put her best face forward when she faced the music. The best one she could, considering.
She just hoped that Mrs. Hays wouldn’t be too upset about the truth.
BILL POURED his mother a glass of orange juice and watched as she drank it. It saddened him to see her so weak, and he felt so helpless not to be able to do anything about it. She’d been so strong when he was growing up, and now she seemed so frail.
“Happy Birthday, son,” Momma said. “In all the excitement last night I plumb forgot about it. We’ll have your party tonight. Along with your birthday, we’ll have something else to celebrate.”
“Something else?”
“Well, surely you want to announce your engagement,” she said. “I called Lougenia first thing this morning and told her all about it. She was so excited.”
Damn, Bill thought. Now what do I do? Why in the hell did I think we could get away with it? We should’ve told her the truth last night. “Momma, I wish you hadn’t done that,” he said, tempering his anger. After all, he wasn’t mad at Momma. He was mad at himself.
“Oh, did you want to save it till the party this evenin’?” She looked apologetic. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to steal your thunder by telling your sister.”
“It’s all right, Momma. We’ll sort it out later.” The sooner it happened, the better it would be for everyone, Bill couldn’t help thinking. At least, Momma hadn’t told his sister Earline. If she had, everyone in Pitt County would know by now.
“Why didn’t you tell us about your sweetheart, son?”
Bill drew in a deep breath. Why didn’t he just get it over with now? He looked up and saw Darcy coming down the hallway toward the kitchen. Might as well wait until they could do it together. “We haven’t known each other very long. She’s been away in school.” It was the truth, as far as it went.
“Why, good morning, Darcy. Did you sleep good?” Momma’s face lit up like a runway strobe light when Darcy entered the room.
Darcy looked so fresh and beautiful in a well-scrubbed way, even after their late, late night and sleeping in a strange bed. Bill knew he couldn’t have her, but he sure wished he could. Listen to him. He sounded like he was talking about a stray puppy, not a person with real feelings and needs.
“Yes, ma’am. Like a baby.” Darcy shot a questioning glance Bill’s way, and he shook his head slightly in answer to her unspoken question.
“Bacon’s ready, and I’ll have eggs scrambled in a couple of minutes,” Bill said. Anything to change the subject.
Darcy smiled at Momma, then hurried over to Bill. She spoke to him in a low whisper. “Should your mother be eating eggs and bacon, considering her condition?”
Bill started to answer, but Momma answered for him. “Ain’t nothing wrong with my hearing. I know I can’t eat that high c’lesterol stuff, but I keep it on hand for Bill when he comes. Already had my oatmeal.”
“Darcy just graduated from nursing school,” Bill volunteered, perhaps as a way of explaining her…what? Concern?
“Well, that is so wonderful. Earline wanted to go to nursing school, but she married Edd instead. Did get her Licensed Practical Nurse Certificate at the vocational school. But she don’t use it since the kids come along.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Darcy stood awkwardly between the table and the stove and hooked her thumbs in her belt loops while Bill scrambled the eggs. “Can I help with anything?”
At least he could give her something to do. “Here, put the bacon on the table.” Bill didn’t wait for her to do it, but poured the beaten eggs into the skillet. The eggs sizzled as they hit the hot surface, and he quickly stirred them up. “Coffee and mugs are on the counter.”
“Will you be staying here the whole time of Bill’s leave?”
“No, ma’am,” Darcy said as she put the bacon down and reached for a mug and coffee.
“Please, hon. You make me sound like an old school teacher or something. Call me Nettie if you can’t call me Momma.”
“Yes, ma—I mean, Nettie. No, ma’am. I have to look for a place in Montgomery.” She stirred some powdered creamer into her coffee from a jar on the counter, then settled at the table across from Momma. “I thought there might be some hospitals in town with openings for nurses, so I thought I’d apply. I’m so ready to get a job and live on my own after all the rules and restrictions of school.”
He had to hand it to her, Bill thought. She was covering herself well. So far, she hadn’t lied, but she hadn’t said anything that would get him in any serious trouble, either. He scraped the eggs onto two plates and carried them to the table.
“Thank you,” Darcy said. “I could get used to being waited on.”
“Well, you’d best get what you can now,” Momma said. “Once you start at a hospital, I reckon you’ll be waiting on everybody else.” She turned to Bill. “Son, get some silverware and set down before everything turns to rubber.”
Darcy smiled. Bill had seemed so in command when she’d met him on the road. When they’d talked in the car and at the restaurant, even when he had allowed her that brief glimpse of his vulnerable side, she’d had the feeling that he was in charge. Now, she could see that his mother had him wrapped around her little finger.
“What’s so funny?” Bill said as he plopped a fork down in front of her and took another chair.
“Nothing. I was just enjoying watching your mother boss you around.”
Bill grimaced, the wry expression softening the angular lines of his face and making him look briefly boyish. “Believe me, I have people telling me what to do every day.” He scooped up a forkful of eggs.
“You know something, hon,” Nettie said abruptly, interrupting the pleasant banter. “Doctor Williamson in Pittsville is looking for a new nurse. I’d bet he’d hire you in a minute.”
Darcy swallowed her eggs, almost choking on them. Every time she thought she was about to extricate herself from this mess, she found herself in deeper. “I was really looking forward to hospital work,” she said. “They pay better. I do have to support myself, you know.”
“Don’t be silly. You can stay here with me. After all, you’re going to be part of the family. Doc’s my doctor, and he’s just about ten miles down the road. You’d have much better hours, and you could save what you earn toward your weddin’.”
“You think you have it all figured out. Don’t you, Momma?” Bill said. “Darcy wants to live on her own for a while before she gets tied down with marriage.”
“Psh. It’s lonely livin’ by yourself. I should know. And I know too darn much about working odd shifts. I did enough of that at the cotton gin when you were growing up.” She smiled at Darcy. “At least, think about it, hon. I could surely use the company.”
“Yes, ma’am. I’ll think about it.”
“Well, if you don’t mind, I’m going to go on and set on the porch for a while. I do love to swing and smell the flowers while it’s cool in the mornings.” She pushed herself up out of her chair and slowly made her way toward the front door.
“I thought we were going to straighten out this mess first thing in the morning,” Darcy hissed, the minute she thought Nettie was out of hearing range. “You can’t keep lying to your mother like this. The longer it goes on, the harder it’ll be for us to explain our way out of it.”
“I know,” Bill said slowly. “I tried this morning before you got up, but damn it, she’s already gone and told Lougenia about it. Lou’ll probably tell somebody else, and so on and so on. If she’s told Earline, it’ll be all over the county by nightfall. I don’t know what to do.”
