Georgia On My Mind (29 page)

“In the end, it didn’t matter. The night before my graduation, I came home to find my mother packing. I asked her where she was going, and she said she couldn’t be a single mother again. She’d already done it with me and wasn’t going to do it again. ‘What are we supposed to do?’ I asked her. ‘What you’ve always done, Cat,’ she said. ‘You’re more their mother than I ever was.’

“She walked out the door that night, and I’ve never spoken to her again even though she still lives here in Newport. She saw the kids a couple of times early on, but after a while I decided it was more upsetting for them to see her than not to, so I put a stop to it. She never uttered a word of protest and just disappeared from our lives.”

“What about their father?”

“He helped out some financially, but I raised those kids all by myself. I gave up the chance to go to Berklee, but it was worth it, Ian. I’m so proud of them. Marina’s a sophomore at Providence College, and Dylan’s leaving next week for Syracuse—both of them on academic scholarships. Somehow, between the three of us, we managed to pull it off.”

“I’m awestruck, Cat. I’m struggling through it at thirty-six with more help than I know what to do with, and you raised two kids,
alone
, when you were
half
my age.”

She shrugged off his praise. “I just wanted you to know it’s not personal, my thing with Rosie.”

“I understand that now.”

“Remember when I told you I’d just gotten out of a relationship?”

“The big hairy deal?”

“That’s the one. We dated for four years and broke up because he wanted to get married and have kids. He moved in with Dylan and me last year. When Dyl got his own place this summer, I snapped up the chance to move in with Georgie. I couldn’t very well stay where I was after saying no to his proposal.”

Ian looked down at the floor, his shoulders stooped with dejection.

Cat went to him and reached up to caress his face. “I’m sorry if I hurt you. I never meant to. I knew if I stuck my hand in this fire, we were both going to get burned, but I couldn’t seem to resist. I still can’t.”

“Cat,” he whispered as he crushed his lips down on hers.

She clung to him, meeting each ardent stroke of his tongue with her own and gasping in surprise when he lifted her off her feet and into his strong arms. The kiss was long and deep and desperate. It went on until Cat couldn’t take another minute of being that close to him while knowing she couldn’t have him. “We can’t keep doing this, Ian,” she said. “It just gets worse every time.”

He let her slide down the aroused front of him. “I know.”

They held each other a long time until a knock on the door startled them.

“Are you guys doing it in there?” Ernie called in a joking tone.

“No,” Ian replied without releasing her. “Come on in.”

The door opened. “The boss is looking for you, dude. I told him you had a situation.” His eyes darted from Cat to Ian and back to Ian again. “Everything all right?”

“Yeah,” Cat said, stepping out of Ian’s embrace. “I was just leaving.”

“See you around, Cat,” Ernie said as he walked away.

With a small smile for Ian, she said, “Don’t be a stranger.”

“Cat.”

Looking up at him, she took a moment to memorize every precious detail.

In a soft voice packed with emotion and regret, he said, “Did it ever occur to you that you might have a lot in common with a little girl whose mother abandoned her?” He caressed her cheek with his index finger and kissed her forehead. “Take care, babe.”

She watched him go, feeling as if he’d ripped her heart right out of her chest and taken it with him.

The lab technician removed the needle from the vein in Georgie’s arm and pressed a gauze pad into the crook of her elbow.

Georgie looked up at Nathan.

He offered an encouraging smile.

“Four to six weeks,” the tech said, reading from the orders her mother’s doctor had faxed over. “It says here he’ll call you if any further treatment is warranted. And you checked the box for mail notification of negative results. Is that correct?”

“Yes.”

“Do you have any questions?”

She had so many questions, her head spun with them. She wanted to ask the tech, what would you do? If the result is positive, would you have your breasts removed? “No. Thank you.”

With a curt nod, the tech took the vials of blood and left the small room.

Nathan helped Georgie up. “That wasn’t so bad, huh?”

“I guess not.” She glanced down at the bandage holding the gauze in place. “Four to six weeks. That’s a long time to wait.”

“It’ll go by faster than you think.”

“What do we do now?”

Slipping an arm around her shoulder, he led her to the clinic’s main door. “We put it out of our minds and live our lives.”

It sounded like a good plan. Georgie just hoped she could do it.

Georgie woke up alone early on Friday morning and was sad to realize Nathan had never made it there the night before. Realizing she had grown accustomed to waking up with him, she sat for a long time on the edge of her bed trying to decide when she’d started encouraging what was happening between them.
Right around the time you accosted him in the hospital parking lot and invited him to come sleep with you
.

Suddenly, the idea of going back to
Atlanta
held zero appeal.
What if I stayed here?
It was the first time she allowed herself to seriously consider the possibility.
I could think of something to do here for work, couldn’t I? I mean, it wouldn’t be Davidson’s, but maybe at one of the department stores in
Providence
.
How about what I owe my employees in
Atlanta
? They’re counting on me. I have to go back long enough to clean up the mess there. After that, I can do whatever I want.

Still pondering her options, she showered and headed to the center early. By nine thirty, she had done six months’ worth of filing that cleared the huge pile of paper she had inherited from her mother, paid the bills, balanced the checkbook, and sorted through a stack of correspondence. At the very bottom of the pile, she found a copy of the application for the recycling Dumpster and was reminded of the day she met Nathan. So much had happened since then.

She picked up the phone and called the city’s public works director.

“This is Georgie Quinn over at the senior center,” she said when Charlie Foster answered his extension.

“
Nancy
’s daughter?”

“That’s me.”

“I’m sorry about your mom. She was a character.”

“Thank you. The reason for my call is a copy of an application I have here that shows my mother requested a recycling Dumpster almost a year ago, and we still don’t have it.”

“Well, now, Georgie, these things take time—”

“Do you know about Styrofoam, Charlie? Do you know that when your grandkids have grandkids, the stuff we use today will
still
be sitting in the landfill?”
Nathan would be so proud
. “It doesn’t break down. Ever. We
need
that Dumpster. I don’t have the staff to clean more than a hundred trays a day. If I’m going to provide a hot lunch for the city’s seniors, I need my Styrofoam trays. Can you see the pickle I’m in?”

“Yes, but—”

“No buts, Charlie. I’ve been trucking smelly recycling trash over to the
Rec
Center
for weeks now. I could charge the city to get the stench of liver and onions out of my car. So what do you say? Get a Dumpster over here?”

“I’ll see what I can do.”

“I’d appreciate that.”

“You are
so
your mother’s daughter,” he said with a chuckle.

The statement stopped her heart. “Thank you, Charlie,” she said softly. How could he know there was no higher compliment he could pay her?

She finished cleaning up the small office and even straightened the pictures on the wall, most of which were of her mother with her constituency throughout the years. Georgie smiled as she righted the one of her mom with the dirty old men from last year’s Christmas party.

At ten o’clock, she unlocked the front door. Walter came bounding in, lifted her right off her feet, and swung her around. She wouldn’t have thought he had it in him! “What’s gotten into you?” she asked when he set her down.

“Gus is
awake
!”

“Oh!” She hugged Walter. “Oh, thank God.”

“He still has a long road ahead of him, but he’s going to make it, Georgie. He’s already talking to everyone like nothing ever happened.”

“Does he know about Roger yet?”

Walter shook his head. “Dawn decided to keep that from him until he’s stronger.”

“Probably not a bad idea.”

“I’ve got to get back over there, but we wanted to make sure you heard the news. Will you tell everyone here?”

“Of course. I’ll come by after lunch.”

He kissed her cheek and bounced out the door.

Georgie stood there for a long time, her hand over her heart, thanking God for what surely had to be a miracle. Her cell phone rang, and she tugged it out of her pocket.

“Georgie, it’s Tara,” her assistant from
Atlanta
whispered. “Something’s going on here today. I can’t really talk, but all the muckety-mucks’ doors are closed, and that bitch Nina is screaming at
Lorraine
!”

“Wow,” Georgie said, sucked right into the drama. “Nobody screams at
Lorraine
and lives to tell.”

“I know! Someone’s coming. I’ve got to go, but I’ll call you later if I can. Hurry up and get back here.”

The line went dead just as the center’s phone rang. Her head began to spin from what was shaping up to be a crazy day. Georgie ran to answer the phone.

“Georgie, Richard Andrews here,” the city’s recreation director said. “Have I caught you at a bad time?”

“Not at all. What’s up?”

“We’ve found her!” he said, his voice ebullient.

“Found who?”

“The perfect replacement for your mother—not that your mother can ever be replaced, but someone who can pick up the torch and carry it forward. She’s got a degree in gerontology and just moved here with her husband, a naval officer who’ll be teaching at the
War 
College
for the next few years. She’s ideal, Georgie, and she really wants the job.”

“Oh,” was all that Georgie seemed able to say. She looked around at the center, the place she had once seen as a prison, and her heart began to ache.

“I’m going to send her over after lunch. Around one thirty? I’ll just need your okay after you see her with the folks, and it’s a done deal. Georgie? Are you still there?”

“Yes,” she said. “I’m here.”

“Her name is Barbara Samuels. I’ll fax over her résumé. Give me a call after you meet her?”

“I’ll do that.”

“Fingers crossed, Georgie. This is what you’ve been waiting for. I can’t thank you enough for pitching in over there the way you have. I don’t know what we would’ve done without you.”

“No problem,” Georgie said, in what had to be the understatement of the decade.

After lunch, Georgie ran home to shower off the stench of beef stroganoff before her interview with Barbara, all the while telling herself it was
good
that they had found this woman. It was what Georgie had been waiting weeks for. Except, for some reason, it didn’t feel good. It felt like everything was coming to an end, and as much as she had once yearned to get home to
Atlanta
, now she wanted to stay here. If only she could have the same type of career here that she’d had in
Atlanta
.

As she was leaving the house to go back to the center, the mailman came down the hill.

“Afternoon,” he said, handing her the day’s mail.

“Thank you.”

“Lovely day,” he said before continuing on with a whistle.

“Yes,” Georgie agreed. She flipped absently through the stack of catalogs and bills and stopped short at the sight of her father’s familiar handwriting. “Oh my God! Oh God.
Finally
.”

Throwing the rest of the mail onto the wicker table, Georgie sat on the porch sofa and tore open the envelope.

Dear Ali and Georgie,

I received a shocking phone call from Georgie’s friend Nathan Caldwell yesterday. Girls, I had no idea your mother was even sick, and the news of her death has left me speechless.
Nancy
was always such a life force. I can’t believe she’s gone, and I’m so very sorry for your loss.

I want to apologize for being out of touch the last few months. I’ve been through a rough patch lately, including the end of my marriage and some significant financial problems. I hate to think that my failure to meet my obligations to your mother might have caused her any dismay during her final days. We closed recently on the sale of our house, and I’ve enclosed a check to cover the outstanding alimony I owed your mother. Please keep the money and use it for anything you need.

I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you girls when you needed me, but I want you to know I’m here anytime you need me in the future. I’ve enclosed my card with my contact information. I hope to hear from you both. I love you very much.

Dad

P.S. Despite the dressing down I received from him, Nathan seems like a nice young man who cares a great deal about you, Georgie.

Georgie wasn’t sure if she wanted to strangle Nathan or hug him for getting involved without her knowledge. She would have to think about that later, once she’d had time to process her father’s letter and share it with Ali.

Relieved to know her father was still alive, she glanced at the check for thirty thousand dollars before folding up the whole thing and returning it to the torn envelope. Taking the mail into the house, she ran the letter from her father upstairs to stick it under her pillow and then left to go back to the center. She was reaching for her phone to call Ali when it rang. A check of the caller ID showed the 404 area code.
Atlanta
.

“Georgie,” a voice whispered. “It’s
Lorraine
.”

“Why are you whispering?”

“I’m in the supply closet.”

“What the heck is going on down there today?
Tara
already called me.”

“It’s a world gone mad. They
fired
Terry Paulson,”
Lorraine
said, referring to the regional manager who insisted Georgie be replaced. “Nina is going to be out on her ass, too, but they told me I can’t tell her yet. God, I can’t
wait
to tell her. That smug bitch has made my life a living hell this week. Everyone hates her.”

“So I’ve heard.”

“Listen to me, Georgie. Have your butt in your seat at nine a.m. on Monday, and we’ll act like nothing ever happened. The person they bring in to replace Terry won’t figure it out until you’ve been back for weeks. I’ve even heard rumblings that they’ve got their eye on yours truly for his job. If that happens, I’d move you up to my office. I’d insist on it as a condition of my promotion.”

The big time
, Georgie thought, as all the pieces slid into place for a promotion she had dreamed of for years. She would have full control over ten stores, more than a hundred employees working for her, and a boss she already knew she could work with successfully.

“Don’t breathe a word of this to anyone,”
Lorraine
added.

“I won’t.”

“Can I count on you to be here on Monday, Georgie?”

Georgie’s heart ached when she thought of Nathan, but how could she pass up this chance to erase the firing and get her career back on track? Surely he would understand that she
needed
to do this, wouldn’t he?

“Georgie?”

“Yes,” she said. “I’ll be there.”

Barbara Samuels arrived in a white summer suit that Georgie instantly recognized as Dior. In her late forties, Barbara had thick blonde hair cut into a bob that suited her to perfection, make up that was subtle but artfully applied, and an accent Georgie would know anywhere.

“Are you from
Georgia
?”

“
Savannah
,” Barbara confirmed. “How’d you guess?”

“Twelve years in
Atlanta
. I know
Georgia
when I hear it.”

“I lived in Buckhead for five years before I was married.”

“That’s where I live now!”

Barbara smiled at the coincidence. “What do you do there?”