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She pushed off the floor with her right foot, sending the stool revolving in a complete three-sixty. She couldn’t let their difficult first meeting deter her. Her reasons for telling Tyler about Jaye hadn’t changed. Clearing her conscience so she could start her life anew constituted only a minor part of it. Doing right by her daughter—and, by extension, Tyler—made up the rest.
When the stool faced frontward again, a vaguely familiar woman with dyed red hair and a matronly figure was approaching.
“Aren’t you Elaine Smith’s daughter, Diana?” the woman, who was probably in her sixties, asked in a voice Diana recognized at once.
Diana’s hand closed around the stone. She’d told Chris filling in at the welcome desk while the regular receptionist went on lunch break wasn’t a problem, but she’d lied.
She’d gotten through her initial meeting with Tyler, but she wasn’t ready to face her past and the rest of the people who populated it.
Please, God, she prayed, don’t let the woman have worked at the high school. Teachers talked, and Bentonsville High’s insulated community ensured that everybody knew Diana had been trouble. After Diana abruptly left town amidst rumors that she was an easy lay, speculation that she was pregnant must have been rampant.
“You’re right,” she admitted slowly. “I am Diana Smith.”
The woman smiled broadly, causing the tension in Diana’s shoulders to ebb but not entirely abate.
“I thought that was you. Elaine and I used to volunteer together in the school library when you were in elementary school. Have you worked here long?”
“Chris just hired me.”
“He’s such a dear, isn’t he?” The woman didn’t wait for her answer. “I’m Jake Wilson’s mother. You remember Jake, don’t you?”
Diana faintly recalled a boisterous kid with strawberry-blond hair, but Mrs. Wilson chattered on before Diana could respond. “Jake’s an engineer in Baltimore. He’s married with two adorable kids. How about you?”
Diana squeezed the stone tighter. “I have a daughter.”
Mrs. Wilson’s expression softened. “I know, dear. It’s too bad about your fiancé dying in that car accident right after your brother died, God rest both of their souls. What a tough time that must have been, with you being so young.”
Her fiancé?
“Your mother was beside herself, poor dear, especially because she was the one who insisted it’d do you good to get away from Bentonsville. You went to live with an aunt, didn’t you?”
Speechless, Diana nodded. That was the only true part of the entire story.
“I’d love to meet your little girl one day,” Mrs. Wilson said. “Please tell your mother I said hello and that she should give me a call. Or, better yet, I’ll call her.”
Diana had yet to inform her mother she’d returned to Bentonsville, a fact she wouldn’t have revealed even if her mind hadn’t been on the fiction the older woman had spun. Was Mrs. Wilson’s version of events what everybody in Bentonsville thought had happened? Is that what Tyler believed?
Mrs. Wilson chatted blithely on for a few more moments before announcing she was off to a pottery-making class, stopping along the way to talk with Chris. Diana nearly rushed the pair so she could drag Chris away and interrogate him but waited to flag him down until he finished talking.
“Tell me something, Chris,” she said before he reached the counter, not able to hold off another second. “What do you know about what happened to me after I left Bentonsville?”
Confusion stamped his features. “A lot. Don’t you remember? We talked about it over coffee a few days ago.”
“I don’t mean recently. I mean right after I left town, when I lived with my aunt.”
He scratched his head, taking a maddeningly long time to answer. “Only what your mother told me. That you met a guy and got pregnant and that he died in a car accident. I didn’t ask you about Jaye’s father because I thought it still might be a sore spot.”
“It is,” she verified, but for a different reason than Chris suspected. Jaye’s father wasn’t dead, but very much alive—and quite possibly sure he hadn’t gotten Diana pregnant.
Chris anchored both hands on the counter, obviously believing she’d cued him to change the subject. “How’s the job going, Diana?”
“Great,” she said, the wheels in her head spinning madly as the pieces of the past clicked into place. It had never occurred to her that Tyler wouldn’t have figured out she was pregnant when she left town.
“I’m glad everything’s working out,” Chris said with genuine enthusiasm. “I got the feeling you weren’t too keen on manning the welcome desk.”
She hadn’t been, fearing the people who recognized her would try to figure out who in Bentonsville had fathered Jaye. Because of the story her mother had concocted and spread, that wouldn’t be the case.
“You got me there,” Diana admitted. “I’ll have to put on my tin-foil hat the next time I see you coming.”
He laughed. “I don’t have to be a mind reader to tell you were nervous about running into people you used to know. Don’t forget, I knew you way back when.”
But he didn’t know her secret. Apparently nobody except her immediate family members were aware that the father of Diana’s child was from Bentonsville.
“I need you to do something for me,” Chris announced, drawing her attention back to the present. She’d think about Tyler and the implications of what she’d learned later. Chris might be her friend, but first and foremost he was her boss. “Remember how I mentioned the turnout for the teen program has been disappointing? Tyler Benton is planning some fund-raising so we can equip the study lounge with computers.”
Surprise jolted through her even though she’d seen Tyler in the community center only a few hours before. “I didn’t know Tyler was involved with the center.”
“People as ambitious as Benton get involved with places like this all the time,” Chris said, then remarked, “It looks good on their resumes.”
Even as a teenager, Tyler had talked about surpassing the accomplishments of his very successful father and grandfather and one day becoming a judge. To that end, he’d taken the most advanced classes at Bentonsville High, read incessantly and applied to the best colleges. He poured himself into whatever he did, whether it was playing on the basketball team or taking an exam. Or kissing her. But something inside Diana rebelled at Chris’s comment.
“Tyler wouldn’t use the community center to make himself look good,” she said. “He’s not like that.”
Chris squinted at her. “I thought you said you didn’t know him that well.”
“I don’t. I mean, I only know what I remember about him.”
“People change, Diana. You’d do well to remember that. But I’m not going to question Benton’s motives. What I need you to do is let me know if he makes any progress on getting those computers.”
“Okay,” she said, her heart beating harder at the prospect of seeing Tyler again. “I’ll see what I can do.”
“You won’t need to try too hard. Benton’s a semi-regular at the basketball games that go on here at night. He mentioned he’s about to start a trial, so you might not see him for a couple days. But believe me, he’ll be around.”
Diana’s stomach jumped with anticipation at seeing Tyler again now that she was armed with her newfound knowledge. A bitterness she hadn’t realized she harbored seemed to melt away from her heart as her mind formulated a plan.
Maybe she could ask Tyler out for coffee, possibly at the same Starbucks where Chris had taken her. The establishment had an outside seating area, where they could talk in relative privacy.
“Diana, are you listening to me?”
Her head snapped up. “Sorry. What did you say?”
“I asked if you figured out the filing system and familiarized yourself with the types of programs the center offers?”
“I did,” she said.
He lightly rapped the desk. “Great. Let me know if you need anything else, including the number of the Realtor who’s renting that place I told you about.”
He’d mentioned the apartment enough times that she’d devised a tactful reply about being careful not to act in haste and repent in leisure. But that was before she’d learned the story her mother had invented about her pregnancy. Before she realized nobody would gossip about Jaye after her daughter moved in with her.
“Actually,” she said, “I would like that number.”
He grinned, reached into his wallet, pulled out a business card decorated with a Realtor’s logo and slapped it on the counter. “Hot damn. That’s good news. It means my newest hire is here to stay.”
She smiled at his enthusiasm. “How do you figure that?”
“You wouldn’t consider living in Bentonsville if you didn’t think things would work out here.”
She rested her hands on her hips. “I’ll have to get out that tin-foil hat after all.”
His good-natured laughter lingered in her ears even after he was gone. The sound traveled through her and stirred up the hope bubbling inside her.
Mere days ago, the thought of returning to Bentonsville had terrified her. Now with a little luck she’d be able to move out of the lonely hotel room in the next few days. Then she’d have the fast-approaching weekend to fix her new place up to her liking. She could spend part of it decorating the second bedroom in shades of pink, Jaye’s favorite color.
She still had some major hurdles to overcome before she could get Jaye back—including dealing with her mother—but the biggest obstacle no longer seemed so high.
To think that for all these years she’d harbored an unfounded grudge against Tyler for not at least trying to find out whether he was Jaye’s father.
The hope that everything would work out rose in her like the helium in a balloon. She picked up the colorful stone from the surface of the desk, tossed it into the air and caught it.
For the first time since she’d set foot in Bentonsville again, she truly believed the town where her daughter’s father lived represented the perfect place to start over.
TO MOLLY JACOBY, anywhere was better than home. Even the community center, with the funny old ladies playing cards and the little kids squealing on the playground.
Besides, she’d catch hell if she got home before school let out. If there was anybody home to catch her. Her dad had moved in with his girlfriend after the divorce and still lived in Virginia, which Molly liked better than this nothing little town. Her mom was a nurse who was always around except when she needed her.
Not that Molly had needed her in a very long time. Not like her younger brothers and sister did. Jeremy and Jason, the twins, were second-graders. Little Rosie had just started kindergarten.
Molly was sixteen, as her mom constantly reminded her. Old enough to chip in now that her dad was gone. So how come Molly didn’t help around the house more, babysit the kids and make better grades while she was at it?
Nag, nag, nag.
It had gotten so bad Molly invented lies so she didn’t have to come home. Her mom actually believed she was on the technical crew for the school play. As if Molly would have anything to do with a production as lame as Peter Pan.
Although the center was one of her daytime hangouts, she seldom showed up after dark. The past couple nights, she’d hung with the crowd that snuck into the county park after closing. She’d made few friends since moving to town a month ago so she’d jumped when Bobby Martinelli told her she should come. She’d almost died on the spot that a boy as good looking as Bobby had noticed her at all.
He and his friends mostly drank beer at one of the picnic shelters. It tasted gross, so Molly didn’t take more than a swallow or two even though Bobby urged her to drink more. Bobby had been pushing her to do a lot of other things, too, but so far she hadn’t let him past second base.
Her mom would throw a fit if she knew where Molly had been spending her nights. And who she’d been spending them with. But her mom was so busy with the little kids and so bitter about the divorce, she didn’t have the energy to keep tabs on Molly.
She sure could muster the strength to yell at her, though.
The teen study lounge was deserted, pretty much its usual state. Molly had lurked outside the center until Valerie, the usual receptionist, had left her post, then slipped inside, minimizing the chance that anybody would give her the third degree.
Molly dropped her backpack beside an armchair, then dug around for her CD player. Most of the other kids had iPods, but not Molly. Her mom claimed they were an “unnecessary extravagance.”
She put in a CD by a loud rock band, plugged in her earphones and curled up on the chair with a book she’d lifted from the school library just to see if she could.
She tucked her legs up under her and soon lost herself in a Terry Pratchett book set in a make-believe land with trolls and elves and lots of other cool stuff. Just when she was getting to the epic battle, a shadow fell over her.
A woman she’d never seen before wearing a name tag that identified herself as a center employee stood over her. Younger than most of the people at the center, she was still a good ten years older than Molly. An adult. Rolling her eyes, Molly took out her earphones, cutting off a heavy metal riff.
“You surprised me, too,” the woman said. “I didn’t know anyone was in here.”
Molly said nothing, hoping the woman would take the hint and go away. She looked nervous enough. Instead, the woman asked, “Good book?”
Molly shrugged. “It’s okay.”
The woman angled her head, reading the author’s name on the back cover. “Oh, I love Terry Pratchett. Have you read the one where the Grim Reaper takes an apprentice? That’s my favorite.”
Molly loved that book most, too, but she only grunted.
The woman’s smile faltered, but she stuck out a hand. “I’m Diana Smith. I started working here a couple days ago.”
Molly ignored her hand, but enough manners had been drilled into her that she grudgingly said, “I’m Molly.”
“So, Molly,” she said, her voice wavering a little, “what brings you here at this time of day?”
So that was what this was all about. Goody Two-shoes obviously knew school was still in session. Molly went on the defensive. “They don’t care if you leave early if you have study hall last period.”
Diana squirmed, as though talking to Molly made her uncomfortable. But that couldn’t be. She was very pretty with great skin, clear and pale. Molly used tons of zit cream to ensure she didn’t scare young children.
“How’d you do it?” Diana asked. “Forge a note about a doctor’s appointment or slip out that back door by the gym?”
“How’d you know about the back door?”
“I went to Bentonsville High,” she said. “If you go out that door and cross a road, the woods are right there. Then you’re home free.”
“You used that escape route?” Molly injected heavy skepticism into her voice.
“All the time.” Diana’s words carried a ring of truth, although she seemed ashamed of the admission.
Well, Molly didn’t feel guilty. “I went out the back door. It was easy because I have PE last period. The teacher loses track of who’s there and who’s not.”
Molly had forged her mom’s signature before, too. She’d never leave school without covering her tracks. A terrible thought occurred to her, and her heart raced. “You’re not going to tell my mom, are you?”
“Why would I do that?”
Molly’s heart rate returned to normal. “Because I shouldn’t be skipping school.”
“Then why are you?”
“Why did you?” Molly shot back.
Diana didn’t answer for a moment. “I guess because I didn’t want to be there.”
“That’s my reason, too.”
“Okay,” Diana said, as though she actually accepted that. “I’ve got to get back to work.”
