Catching Fireflies (37 page)

J.C. nodded. “I think I’ve got it.”

“And?”

“I will do my best not to break her heart,” he said and meant it. It was far more likely that she’d wind up breaking his, though he’d started to have hope that maybe this time things would turn out differently.

“She’s a strong woman,” Cal said with admiration.

“The strongest,” J.C. confirmed.

“Smart, beautiful, caring.”

J.C. chuckled. “I don’t need a resume of her attributes, Cal. I can see them for myself.”

“Just thought I’d put in a good word, in case you’ve been sitting on the fence.”

“I don’t do much fence-sitting,” J.C. told him. “I’m either in or out.”

His gaze searched the yard until it fell on Laura and lingered, watching the smile blossom on her lips when she caught him staring.

“And you’re definitely in,” Cal concluded happily, watching him. “Good to know.”

Yeah, J.C. thought. He was definitely in.

* * *

Misty had been worrying all night about finally walking back into school and facing yet more stares. Sure, once she’d found out Greg Bennett was likely behind the latest online posts, it had made her plenty mad, but she was a long way from being brave enough to confront him.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to drive you to school today?” Diana asked.

“No way,” Misty said.

“How about I take you over to Katie’s? You can walk from there with her.”

Misty knew she probably ought to do this all on her own, but she seized the lifeline her mother had thrown. “Let me call and ask if that’s okay,” she said at once.

As soon as she got Katie on the phone, she told her what was going on. “Could my mom drop me off at your house?”

“Of course,” Katie said at once. “How about this? Let me make a couple of calls. I think we should show up in force. Let Greg see that you’re no longer alone, that you’re surrounded by friends who’ll stand up for you. He’s such a jerk, it probably never occurred to him that anyone would choose you over him.”

“Maybe nobody else will want to get involved,” Misty said worriedly.

“Leave that to me,” Katie said with confidence. “I’ve been telling you all along that a lot of people have been on your side. They’ve just been waiting for a signal from you that you want their help. Be here in fifteen minutes, okay? We don’t want to be late.”

“We’re leaving now,” Misty said, glancing at her mom, who smiled and nodded.

“I gather Katie has a plan,” her mom said.

Misty grinned. “Katie always has a plan. I think she was born to fight for the underdog. She’ll be a mini-Helen if she decides to go into law. Or maybe even president. She’s smart enough.”

“So are you,” her mom said loyally.

“I haven’t felt smart for a while now, but today?” She shrugged. “I almost feel like my old self again.”

There were half a dozen kids already waiting at Katie’s by the time they got there. As the group walked toward the high school, more kids fell into step with them. By the time they reached the high school, there were maybe twenty kids surrounding Misty, clearly eager to face down Greg or anyone else who dared to taunt her.

Just inside the building, Misty spotted Greg with a couple of the teammates who’d been suspended from the team along with him. He looked as if he were going to get in her face, but her friends moved en masse to block him.

Misty worked her way between them until she was facing him. “No more,” she said quietly. “This is over.”

“Not even close,” he said with what seemed more like sheer bravado than real conviction.

“Don’t you get it yet?” she asked. “You’ve lost way more than I have. Sure, you tried to ruin my reputation and I almost let you get away with it, but you’ve lost your scholarship and your whole future.” She held his gaze. “Tell me the truth, Greg. Was it worth it?”

Then, holding her head high, she walked right past him and down the hallway to her first class, her friends right there with her.

She was shaking by the time she reached her classroom, but Katie reached for her hand and gave it a squeeze. “I am so proud of you. You looked him right in the eyes, Misty. That took real guts.”

“I was shaking,” Misty admitted.

“Doesn’t matter. In fact, I think that’s what courage is, being scared and doing what needs to be done, anyway.”

Misty gave her a hug, then smiled at the others who were still standing guard around her. “Thank you, all of you.”

“Hey, it could have been any one of us,” Susie said quietly. “In fact, at one time or another, it probably has been.”

To Misty’s surprise, Hailey, a friend of Annabelle’s who’d never even given her the time of day before, separated herself from the crowd. Looking nervous, she met Misty’s gaze.

“I just wanted to say I’m sorry,” she said in a whisper. “For everything.”

Before Misty could absorb the wonder of that admission, Hailey was gone.

The warning bell rang then and they all scattered. Misty walked into her classroom and for the first time in months felt the knot in her stomach finally ease.

* * *

Laura was still a little flushed and giddy from an incredible, passion-filled night when she was called into Betty’s office the next morning.

After a precious few moments of pleasantries, Betty inquired, “Do I need to remind you that we have a very strict morals clause in our contract with our teachers?”

Laura stared at her. “Excuse me?” But even as the words left her mouth, she put two and two together. “Let me guess. Mariah Litchfield was on the phone to you first thing this morning because she spotted J.C.’s car at my house.”

“Correct,” Betty said.

“And after everything that’s gone on, you can’t see that for the attempt at retaliation it is?”

“Of course I can,” Betty said impatiently. “I told her I’d bring it to your attention and I have.”

Then to Laura’s surprise, she grinned. “Under the circumstances, I wouldn’t worry too much about it. The school board is very impressed with how well you and J.C. handled the whole thing with Annabelle and Misty. That much was evident at the emergency board meeting. You could probably get away with just about anything right now, and I’m in a pretty generous and forgiving mood myself these days.”

Laura thought of what they’d discovered on Friday. They were still awaiting confirmation from Chief Rollins’s sources before tackling the latest situation.

“Well, you might want to prepare them for the possibility that it’s not over just yet,” she said, then filled Betty in on their suspicions about Greg Bennett, not only stirring things up at the rally, but taking over where Annabelle had left off online.

“Oh, sweet heaven!” Betty murmured.

Laura held up her hand. “I think Misty wants to tackle this one on her own. She’s back in school today, and she fully intends to deal with Greg in her own way. Let’s give her that chance. She needs to feel in control of her life again.”

“You’ve got her back?” Betty asked.

“Absolutely.”

Betty nodded. “Then we’ll see how it goes, but expulsion is not out of the question, even if he is captain of the football team. I would have thought he’d understand that after seeing Annabelle get sent off to another school and being suspended himself from playing for the rest of the football season.”

“Hopefully it won’t come to that,” Laura said. “But it was good to see Misty walk in here this morning with her head held high and her friends around her.”

Betty gave her a surprising smile. “And it was nice to see you walk in here today with some color in your cheeks. I hope it works out for you and J.C. He’s a good guy.”

“Yes, he is,” Laura said. “But it’s still early going.”

After the past few days, though, it already felt as if they were a whole lot closer to forever.

Still, she knew his history and his conviction that Fullerton men were bad bets when it came to lasting commitments. She had no idea if he’d ever be able to take the kind of leap of faith required to claim the future she was starting to want. Then again, she’d managed to overcome her past. Surely a man as smart and sensitive as J.C. could do the same.

23

A
fter the post-school board celebration at Carter and Raylene’s house, J.C. knew he’d finally been accepted by the Sweet Magnolias, for better or worse, he thought, given their penchant for meddling.

Still, he was pleasantly surprised when town manager Tom McDonald and his cousin Travis approached him and invited him to join the entire Sweet Magnolias crowd for Thanksgiving. Tom and Travis had befriended J.C. early on, even before the other men, because they hadn’t been around during the tense days of Maddie’s divorce from Bill Townsend.

“And bring Laura along, of course,” Tom told him. “I’m sure the women are planning to invite her, but just in case, I want you both to know we’d love to have you there. You two seem to have the Sweet Magnolias’ stamp of approval these days. Young, attractive vigilantes for social justice and all that. As town manager, I can’t tell you what it means to have people like the two of you in this community. I’d like to attract more young professionals just like you.”

“Bill’s just hired a nurse practitioner who’ll be joining us soon. I think she’ll fit right in with your view of what Serenity can become moving forward,” J.C. said. He gave Tom a wry look. “As for that stamp of approval you mentioned, is that really a good thing?”

It seemed to him it came with a lot of pressure. He’d seen that in the speculative glances directed at him and Laura the other night at Raylene’s, to say nothing of Cal’s pointed cross-examination, obviously at Maddie’s behest.

Travis laughed at his skepticism. “It’s definitely a good thing,” he insisted. “Have you not heard the way Maddie and Helen have been singing Laura’s praises for how she handled the whole bullying incident? Your contribution has not gone without notice, either. You got a lot of points for the way you opened up at the rally. And the way I hear it, they’re crediting you for getting Bill to speak, as well. That did a lot toward redeeming him in their view.”

“He wanted to be there,” J.C. said. “And I know he felt every word he said very deeply. I hope they’ll finally give him the credit he deserves for turning his life around after messing up so badly.”

Travis held up his hands. “Not up to us. If it were, it would be a nonissue, but we take our cues from our wives when it comes to this sort of thing. I’m not going into battle against the full fury of the Sweet Magnolias. Helen, in particular, scares me to death.”

J.C. laughed. “She has that effect on a lot of people.”

“And yet no one can deny that she’s the best friend ever,” Tom said. “We’ve all seen that side of her.”

“Indeed,” J.C. agreed.

“Back to Thanksgiving,” Tom said. “You have to come. The tradition is to do this at Sullivan’s because the crowd keeps growing. Dana Sue and Erik do most of the cooking, the turkey, stuffing and so on, mostly because nobody wants to try to outdo them in the kitchen. Even so, all the wives contribute a dish or two. There’s enough food for an army.”

Seeing no gracious way to get out of it, J.C. finally said, “Okay, count me in. And I’ll check with Laura and let you know.”

“So, how serious are you two anyway?” Travis asked. “You’ve looked pretty tight every time I’ve seen you together. Sarah’s convinced there will be a wedding by spring.”

J.C.’s nervousness rocketed off the charts. “What is it about this town that everybody thinks they deserve inside information on every relationship in Serenity?”

“The pools at Wharton’s are a big incentive,” Travis said, clearly not joking. “That money adds up fast.”

J.C. turned to Tom. “Surely there’s some law around here about gambling.”

“Oh, I’m sure there is,” Tom agreed. “Do you want to tell Grace about it? Besides, I think all this meddling is part of our civic charm.” He grinned at J.C. “So, answer the question. How serious is this?”

J.C. thought of how quickly and hard he’d fallen for Laura despite every well-honed defense mechanism in his arsenal. “I think maybe she ought to know if it’s serious before either of you do.”

Both men hooted at the evasive response.

“Oh, boy, he’s down for the count,” Travis exulted, giving his cousin a high-five. “Told you so.”

J.C. gave him a resigned look. “I don’t suppose I could convince you to keep that to yourselves, could I?” He might be down for the count, but he still wasn’t sure what he intended to do about it.

“You want us to keep a secret from our wives?” Tom inquired with feigned horror.

“Yes,” J.C. said flatly.

Travis’s gaze narrowed. “For how long?”

“Until Thanksgiving,” J.C. said on impulse.

The date seemed appropriate. He’d been fighting the depth of this attraction for a while, but that was the past talking, not the present. Maybe it was time to leave the past where it belonged—behind him—and lock in the biggest blessing to ever come into his life.

* * *

Laura debated long and hard with herself before coming to the conclusion that there was one last thing she had to do to put the entire bullying incident behind her. In the spirit of Thanksgiving and with her heart open to forgiveness, she found herself driving over to the Litchfields’ on the day before the holiday. She’d heard that Annabelle would be going away to a small girls’ school in Charleston right after the long Thanksgiving weekend.

She rang the bell on the brick Colonial house and waited nervously. It wouldn’t have surprised her to have the door closed in her face, but when Mariah opened it, she merely stood there in openmouthed shock.

“You!” Mariah said. “How dare you come here after what you’ve done?”

“Could we talk?” Laura asked. “Please.”

For a moment, it looked as if Mariah would shut the door, but instead she eventually stepped aside to allow Laura to come in.

“Come to gloat?” Mariah asked as she showed the way into a living room that had been carefully designed as a showcase rather than a room to be enjoyed. There wasn’t a speck of dust on any surface. Every picture hung precisely straight on the walls, and not one single object seemed out of place. All gleamed from recent polishing.