Where Azaleas Bloom

He gave her a shrug. “Enough.”

Which meant, she feared, not at all. Why hadn’t she sat down with him immediately after dinner and gone over the information with him the way she used to?

Because she’d been trying to figure out how to make that paltry $24.35 last another week, she thought angrily, while her soon-to-be-ex was off dining on steak himself, no doubt.

“I’m getting you up a half hour early,” she told Jeremy. “We’ll go over the material together.”

“Mom!” he muttered with a dramatic groan.

“And don’t even think about faking a stomachache or a sore throat or an earache, you hear me?” She leaned down and gave him a noisy kiss that had him giggling, despite the required protest that he was too old for such displays of affection.

Leaving her son, she tapped on Lexie’s door. “Still studying?”

To her dismay, Lexie looked up from the book she’d apparently been pretending to read, her cheeks streaked with tears. “I miss Daddy,” she whispered. “I’m sorry, but I do.”

Lynn sat down beside her on the bed and gathered her into her arms. “You don’t ever have to be sorry about missing your father,” she assured her.

“But it must make you sad when I say that,” Lexie said knowingly. “I know how hard you’re trying to make everything seem normal.”

Lynn managed a smile for her daughter. She sometimes wondered if faking a smile would get easier with practice, but so far it hadn’t.

“I think it’s obvious that things aren’t normal and no amount of pretending is going to change that.” She tucked a finger under Lexie’s chin. “Now look at me. You love your dad and, despite what’s happened between the two of us, I know he loves you. I will never stand in the way of that.”

“Then how come he hasn’t been around for so long?”

Lynn sighed. “I wish I could explain your father’s actions, but I can’t. Maybe he’s been extra busy at work.”

“I tried his cell phone, but it went to voice mail, and Noelle in his office said he’s away,” Lexie said, proving that she’d gone as close to the source as she could get for answers. “She sounded kinda funny when I called, so I don’t think it’s on business. Do you know where he went?”

Lynn didn’t want to explain about the golf trip to Lexie. Lexie was feeling unimportant enough as it was. Besides, Lynn didn’t know for sure. Rumors were always rampant in Serenity. Only some of them proved to be true.

“Not really,” she told her daughter, whose tears were finally drying up, though the stricken expression on her face was still there. “Why don’t I see what I can find out tomorrow, so you’ll know when he’s due home. Will that help?”

Lexie nodded. “You know what I don’t get? How can I still miss him so much, when I’m so mad at him?”

Lynn allowed herself a small and this time genuine smile at the very complex question. Hadn’t she wondered the exact same thing herself more than once? As furious as she was at Ed most of the time these days, there were moments when the thought of never having his arms around her again made her want to weep.

“Relationships are complicated, sweetie. Love doesn’t go away just because someone’s done something to disappoint you. You know how mad I get when Jeremy drinks milk right out of the carton or when you leave damp towels all over the bathroom floor?” She tickled Lexie. “I still love you.”

“Or what about when you tell me ten times to clean up my room?” Lexie asked, getting into the spirit of the teasing. “I get annoyed, but I still love you.”

“Or when you deliberately disobey me no matter how many times I tell you you’re not allowed to have a snack right before dinner?” Lynn said.

Unfortunately, that one caused Lexie’s grin to fade. “Like there’s anything here to have for a snack these days.”

Once again, Lynn felt the weight of every bit of unanticipated fallout from the divorce. There were the huge things, like Ed not being around when the kids needed him or the mortgage payments being late again and again. And there were the seemingly trivial ones like this, no after-school snacks. Added together she felt as if she’d failed her kids. No matter how much she wanted to lay all the blame squarely at Ed’s feet, she couldn’t. She was their mom. She should be finding a way to provide for her children. Going to work for Raylene had been a start, but it obviously wasn’t enough, not when Ed wasn’t holding up his end of the bargain.

She vowed right then to take on a second job, even if it meant frying burgers at one of the new fast-food restaurants outside of town, anything to put an end to the dismay of seeing her children suffer because of decisions she and Ed had made.

“I’m sorry,” Lexie whispered. “I shouldn’t have said that. It was mean.”

“It was the truth,” Lynn said, then added with determination, “but not for long.”

Lexie regarded her hopefully. “What are you going to do?”

“I’ll find a better job, one with more hours. Or another part-time job,” Lynn said.

“Maybe I could get some babysitting jobs,” Lexie offered eagerly.

“I appreciate your wanting to do that, but I’d like you to be a little older before you take on that kind of responsibility,” Lynn said. “Right now your job is to get great grades so you can get into whatever college you’d like to go to. I want you and Jeremy to have the most amazing futures you can possibly have, and you’ll need college degrees for that.”

“You always say that,” Lexie protested, as yet unconcerned about the importance of winning a scholarship if she expected to get into a terrific school. She was focused on the here and now. “Lots of kids my age babysit. You let me stay with Jeremy.”

“He’s ten and he’s your brother,” Lynn reminded her. “It’s not quite the same thing as taking care of a baby or a toddler.”

“What if I took the babysitting certification class at the community center? Then could I?” She gave Lynn a pleading look. “Please. I want to help out.”

“If you do that and pass the course, then we’ll see. But this will be for your savings and your spending money, okay? It’s not up to you to chip in for expenses around here.”

Lexie threw her arms around Lynn. “Thank you, thank you, thank you! I’ll sign up tomorrow. I already know lots of people who need babysitters. The minute I pass the class, I’m going to hand out flyers.”

Lynn smiled at her enthusiasm, wishing she could muster up that same level of excitement for her own job hunt. “Okay, my little entrepreneur. For now get some sleep. Love you.”

“Love you, Mom.”

Lynn turned out the light on her way out the door, but the second she was gone, Lexie flipped it back on. Lynn smiled, knowing exactly what she was up to. She was texting Mandy the big news about taking that babysitting course. She was probably hoping to get her best friend to sign up, too.

Which Mandy would likely do, Lynn thought. Those two never did anything without the other one tagging along. It was just one more reason she intended to do everything she possibly could to stay right here in this house, so her daughter wouldn’t be ripped away from the friend who’d provided the best support system a girl Lexie’s age could possibly have.

2

Mitch had gotten into the habit of stopping in at Wharton’s for breakfast, something he’d never have considered when Amy was alive. She’d always made sure he left the house with a hearty meal to sustain him through the morning. Now Grace Wharton looked over him just as protectively, but her efforts always came with a heavy dose of meddling.

“You’re working too much,” she declared as she set a steaming cup of coffee down in front of him.

“And how would you know that?”

“You’re in here practically before I can get the coffee brewed in the morning and I know for a fact you’re over there hammering away at Raylene and Carter’s till they kick you out at night. Now, since I know you wouldn’t be looking twice at a married woman, what’s the attraction? You wouldn’t be thinking of trying to rekindle something with Lynn Morrow, now that she and Ed are divorcing, would you?”

Mitch blinked at the way she’d cut right to the heart of the matter before he’d even had a chance to consider such a thing himself. “What’s to rekindle?” he asked, hoping to throw her off stride. Not that a full-speed train heading in her direction would cause Grace to falter once she was on a mission. “Lynn and I were never an item.”

Since Wharton’s wasn’t yet busy because, as she’d noted, it was barely past dawn, Grace settled down opposite him in the booth and gave him one of her don’t-fool-with-me looks. “You must think my memory’s bad, Mitch. I can recall perfectly well the way you trailed around after her back in middle school with that lovesick expression written all over your face. If she came in here for a soda or a milk shake with her friends, you were never far behind with that adoring look about you.”

He winced at the probably accurate description. “Was I that pitiful?”

“Not pitiful,” she soothed. “Just a boy suffering from his first unrequited love, as near as I could tell.”

“Well, if you knew it was unrequited, then you also know there’s nothing to be rekindled. Besides, I rarely catch a glimpse of Lynn while I’m working over at Raylene’s.”

“Sometimes it doesn’t take more than a glimpse to know when a possibility’s intriguing,” she said. “Seems to me she could use a steady man like you in her life. Ed Morrow wasn’t exactly a prize, and if I didn’t think much of him before, I think even less of him now.” There was a weight behind her words that suggested she’d heard things that maybe others didn’t know. There were, despite what everyone in town thought, things not even Grace would share with the world, not if she felt somebody stood to be hurt by the talk.

She looked Mitch directly in the eye. “And you already know what I think about it being time for you to move on.”

He laughed. “Grace, you probably know a lot more about romance than I ever did, but it seems to me that being steady almost never sends a woman’s pulse scrambling.”

“It does when she’s been dealing with a man like Ed. And you know exactly what I mean, a man with a broken moral compass,” Grace replied firmly. “Trust me on that. I hear things.”

Mitch nodded. “More than you need to, I suspect,” he said wryly. “And I’ll keep your advice in mind should something change. Now, do you suppose I could get my eggs, ham and grits?”

“You’ll get oatmeal on a chilly morning like this,” she countered, then gave him a wink. “Then we’ll see about the rest.”

“How on earth do you keep customers coming in here if you boss ’em around like this?”

“What can I say? I have a charming personality,” she said. “And I always have the best gossip in town.”

That, to his dismay, was all too true. “Just as long as I’m not your hot topic for today, I’ll put up with the oatmeal,” he called after her.

“Why would I talk about you? So far, you haven’t done a single outrageous thing,” she called back, then added, “more’s the pity.”

Trying to imagine what would happen if he did break any of the hard and fast rules he’d lived by since Amy’s death, Mitch prayed for the fortitude to keep it that way. As much as he loved Grace’s sass and vinegar, he wasn’t quite ready to be on the menu right along with the tuna melt.

* * *

Satisfied that she’d grilled Jeremy sufficiently to eke out a passing grade on his history test, Lynn sent him off to school, then walked into town. Outside Wharton’s, she grabbed the local weekly, then went in for a cup of coffee she intended to nurse as long as possible. Grace gave frequent refills, so it was usually enough caffeine to get Lynn through the day.

“Well, well, look who’s here,” Grace said loudly as she entered.

Only then did Lynn notice Mitch sitting by himself in a booth just inside the door. He gave her what looked like a nervous smile, then gestured to the table. “Join me?” he asked with apparent sincerity.

“Are you sure? You look as if you’ve finished. Don’t you need to be over at Raylene’s soon?”

“The crew knows what to do if they get there before I do,” he assured her. “Coffee?”

“Yes,” she said eagerly even as Grace arrived with a cup and filled it to the brim, then refilled Mitch’s, a smirk on her face.

Lynn watched her walk away. “Was she smirking?”

Mitch sighed. “She was. Trust me, you don’t want to know why. How about something to eat? My treat.”

“No, thanks,” she said, though she couldn’t help gazing longingly at a plate of French toast as Grace carried it by.

“When was the last time you had Grace’s French toast?” Mitch asked with a knowing grin.

“A while,” she admitted. “But seriously, I’m not hungry.”

“Nobody looks at food the way you just did unless it’s a real temptation,” Mitch said, then called out to Grace. “An order of French toast, Grace, and put it on my tab.”

“Done,” she called back.

Lynn regarded him with dismay. “You really didn’t have to do that.”

“I wanted to. Having someone besides Grace to talk to while I finish my second cup of coffee is a real treat.”

“I heard that,” Grace said as she passed by. She gave Lynn a wink. “The man has the hots for me, and don’t think I don’t know it. So does Neville, but my husband claims he’s past caring what I do as long as I quit bothering him.”

Lynn laughed, noting the pained expression on Mitch’s face. “You know she wouldn’t tease you like that if she didn’t adore you.”

“I know.” He leaned across the table and confided, “The woman scares the daylights out of me. If she has her way, she’ll marry me off before the summer’s over. You probably want to run for your life.”

Once again, Lynn couldn’t control a chuckle. “I think you’re tougher than that.”

He gave her a look then that she couldn’t quite interpret.

“I used to think so, too,” he said, his voice suddenly sober.

Before she could try to figure out what he’d meant by that, Grace put a plate of thick, golden French toast in front of her, along with a pitcher of warm maple syrup, butter and a shaker of cinnamon and sugar.

“I wasn’t sure which way you liked it,” Grace said. “Me, I like the syrup, but a lot of folks prefer the cinnamon.”

“I like it drowning in butter and syrup,” Lynn admitted. She spread butter over the slices, doused them in syrup, then tried the first mouthful. “Oh, my God,” she murmured, drawing a smile from Mitch. “What?”

“I remember that look,” he said. “You used to get the same expression on your face at Rosalina’s when you’d take your first bite of pizza.”

“As if I’d died and gone to heaven?” she said. “No doubt about it. When it comes to certain foods, it’s as if they speak to some part of my soul.”

“So, pizza and French toast do that?” he asked, clearly amused. “What else?”

“Chocolate decadence cake,” she said readily. “Almost better than sex.” The second the words left her mouth, she felt herself blushing furiously. “Sorry. I probably shouldn’t have said that.”

He laughed. “I don’t see why not, if it’s true. I’ll have to remember your very high opinion of those things. Now tell me what you’re doing in here so early.”

She tapped the newspaper she’d set on the table. “Looking for another job.”

Mitch frowned. “I thought you were working for Raylene.”

“Only part-time. I need more hours.”

“But what about the kids?” he asked, then waved off the question. “Sorry, none of my business. I guess I just assumed Ed would be paying support.”

“He is,” she said quickly.

Mitch held her gaze. “But? I know I heard a but in your voice just then.”

“Nothing. It doesn’t matter.”

“Is he late with a check or something?”

Lynn squirmed. “Mitch, I’m really not comfortable talking about this.” She didn’t want everyone in town speculating about Ed and the way he was behaving. Not that they weren’t already, but she didn’t want to confirm or add to the talk.

Mitch clearly wasn’t going to back down, though. His expression filled with concern, he pressed, “I thought we were old friends. If there’s a problem, maybe I can help.”

“It’s sweet of you to offer, it really is, but this will work out,” she insisted. “And it’s not going to kill me to work a few more hours every week. It won’t hurt the kids, either,” she added defensively.

“I know you’re a great mother, Lynn,” he replied patiently. “I wasn’t suggesting otherwise. I see enough of Jeremy and Lexie over at Raylene’s to see how well they’re turning out, and I know they have you to thank for that.”

She drank in his praise. She’d heard far too little of it from her soon-to-be-ex-husband. “Thank you for saying that. They’re great kids. I worry myself sick sometimes about how the divorce is affecting them. Lexie’s growing up too fast, that’s for sure. She’s a sensitive girl and no matter how hard I try to keep my problems from her, she picks up on everything.”

“She looks just fine to me,” Mitch consoled her. “You should hear her and Mandy over at Raylene’s. I can hear them giggling over the sound of all the hammering and, even more impressive, over that music they play. She sounds like a happy, healthy teenager to me.”

“I wish I’d heard that,” Lynn said wistfully. “She and Mandy don’t hang out at our house much these days.”

“Could be she feels guilty about having fun when she knows you’re sad,” Mitch said, surprising her with his insightfulness. “Kids are like that. Those first months after Amy died, mine did plenty of tiptoeing around whenever they came home on visits. Surprised the heck out of me. I didn’t think either one of those boys had a sensitive bone in their bodies, but they were raised by Amy, so of course they did.”

She saw the faraway look in his eyes and responded to that. “There’s no mistaking how much you loved her, Mitch,” she said gently. As hard as the divorce proceedings were, she knew it was nothing like losing someone you loved so deeply with such finality.

“Always will, I imagine,” he said. “But every day does get a little easier.”

He seemed to snap himself back to the moment. “Now I’d better get over to Raylene’s or she’ll be wondering what happened to me. She always has some kind of checklist for me before she goes off to work.” He leaned closer and confided, “Don’t tell her, but I stuff ’em in my pocket and never look at ’em again.”

“Is that because you really don’t give a hoot about what she wants or because you have a photographic memory?” Lynn asked.

He shrugged. “Maybe a little of both. I know I’ll get to all of it eventually. I haven’t been in this business my entire life without knowing what needs to be done and when. See you around, Lynn. Thanks for the company.”

“Thanks for the breakfast,” she said, then watched as he walked away. She was still following him with her gaze when Grace appeared just as he was climbing into his shiny new four-by-four parked out front. She couldn’t help wondering if a man who took such good care of his truck would be equally thoughtful when it came to caring for a woman.

“That man does look good in a pair of jeans,” Grace said with a dramatic sigh. She pinned Lynn with a look. “Just in case you hadn’t noticed.”

“Hard not to notice,” Lynn replied, then gave Grace a chiding look. “But don’t go getting any ideas in your head, you hear me? I’m not looking for a man, and he says he’s not looking for anyone, either.”

“And sometimes people lie to themselves because it feels safer,” Grace retorted.

She sashayed off, leaving Lynn alone with the discouragingly paltry list of classified ads. Contemplating Mitch’s sexy butt in a pair of jeans was a whole lot more fascinating than the few menial jobs available in Serenity.

But, she told herself staunchly as she forced her gaze back to the paper, ogling a man wouldn’t put food on the table. And that was what she needed today, not the fleeting and dangerous satisfaction of feeling her pulse race for the first time in a very long time.

* * *

Lynn was down to her last possibility, a cashier’s job at a mini-mart in a dicey section of town. Even in a tranquil community like Serenity, there were places to be avoided. Unfortunately, she was too desperate to take that into consideration.

To her chagrin, she was being interviewed by a girl half her age. She’d probably barely met the twenty-one-year-old age requirement specified in the ad.

“You willing to work nights?” Karena asked, snapping gum as she spoke, her expression bored.

“What are the hours exactly?” Lynn asked, inwardly cringing at the thought of leaving the kids at home alone in the evening.

“Eleven at night to seven in the morning,” Karena replied.

Dismayed, Lynn shook her head at once. That was out of the question. “Sorry. I have kids at home. I can’t do that.”

“Well, that’s all we have.” Karena stood up, ending the interview.

“Thanks, anyway,” Lynn managed to say. “Sorry to have wasted your time, but the ad didn’t mention that it was a night job.”

When she got back to her car, she rested her head against the steering wheel and fought the tears that were never far away these days. She tried hard not to give in to them, but sometimes she simply couldn’t hold back all the pain and frustration. A few minutes later, a tap on her window had her sitting upright, her heart racing.

“Mitch!” she exclaimed. “You scared me half to death.”

He gestured for her to roll down the window. When she’d complied, he regarded her with what looked like real distress. “Please tell me you were not even thinking about applying for a job here,” he said, heat in his voice.

She frowned at his tone. “I did apply, but the only thing available is overnight. Obviously, I can’t do that.”

“You shouldn’t be working here at any hour. It’s dangerous.”

“If the clientele’s so rough, what are you doing here?”

“I was on my way to my plumbing supplier’s and saw the HELP WANTED sign in the window and your car in the parking lot. After our conversation earlier, I stopped to check it out, make sure you weren’t about to do anything crazy.”

“There’s nothing crazy about needing a job.”

“Of course not, but not here, Lynn,” he said flatly.

Annoyed by his attitude, she retorted, “I already told you I couldn’t take it because of the hours. What business is this of yours, anyway?”

“Just one friend looking out for another,” he said, clearly not fazed by her attitude. “Do you know the reason they need a new night clerk? The last one was shot a week ago during a robbery.”

Lynn started trembling uncontrollably. “Good God,” she murmured. “I had no idea.”

“It was in the paper, the same one you were reading this morning.”

“I just checked out the ads.”

“Well, I imagine if I hadn’t come along to tell you, Carter would have stepped in. He has more problems around this area than anywhere else in town.” He hesitated, clearly waging some sort of internal debate with himself. “If you’re this desperate for a job, work for me,” he said with unmistakable reluctance.

She almost laughed, but the expression on his face said he was serious. Not happy, but definitely serious. “You? Doing what? The last do-it-yourself job I tried to tackle at the house was such a disaster, it had to be redone by a professional.”

He had the audacity to smile at that. “I wasn’t suggesting putting you on one of my construction crews. I could use the help with paperwork.”

She studied him skeptically. “Don’t you already have someone?”

“Nah. In the winter I can usually keep up with the billing and payroll myself, but with spring coming on and more jobs, it’s harder for me to manage all that and the paperwork, too.”

“I doubt I’d be much better at that than I was at wallpapering the kitchen,” she told him candidly.

“It’s an easy system,” he assured her. “I can teach you in an hour.”

“You have an office?”

“No, that’s the beauty of it. You can work at home. I’ll just bring my laptop and a printer to your place and leave ’em. How about we give it a trial run, see how it goes? If you’re comfortable with it, we’ll take it from there.”