Heartache Falls (29 page)

“No, dear,” Celeste said. “You’ve been so consumed with your pique with your husband that you’ve missed the big news. A new restaurant has opened in Eternity Springs—the New Place.”

“Oh? You’re kidding. That is big news. Where is it? Who’s the owner? What type of cuisine do they serve?” After a moment’s pause, she added, “That’s a weird name for a restaurant.”

Sarah’s smile was bright. “It’s in that building that’s been between the fire station and the auto center on First Street, the one that’s been empty forever. Someone from out of town owns it, and I think the menu is considered eclectic.”

Ali couldn’t help feeling a little twinge of envy. She
missed the work that had filled her days during the Bristlecone project. As they walked, she relaxed and began to enjoy herself as Nic regaled them with the latest antics of her twins, which caused Sage to groan, “Thank goodness I’m doing this babysitting thing one kid at a time.”

Next, the talk turned toward Sage’s annual art exhibit in Fort Worth. When they drew close to First Street, Ali sniffed the air. “I smell steak.”

“Yum. I understand that steak is one of the mainstays of the new menu. Apparently the restaurant only offers entrees cooked on a barbecue grill. Guy who runs it says it’s the only way he knows how to cook.”

Ali shot her a baffled look. “If he can’t cook, then why is he running a restaurant?”

“That’s an interesting question,” Celeste observed. “You’ll have to ask him.”

Ali sniffed the air again. The aroma did smell tantalizing.

“What about your desserts, Sarah? Will you be supplying them to the New Place?”

“Yes, eventually. I hope. I think the new guy still has some issues to iron out.”

They arrived at the New Place, and at the door, Ali’s friends hesitated and met one another’s gaze. Celeste reached over and patted Ali’s arm. Sarah grasped the door handle saying, “Well, I don’t know about you girls, but I’m hungry.”

They filed inside and Ali glanced at the service area, noted the apron-wearing man standing in the doorway to the kitchen, then froze. She blinked once, then twice. Was she dreaming?

Underneath the ball cap and shaggy hair, behind the beard that camouflaged a square jaw, she recognized those brown eyes. Why was her husband standing at the back of the building? Why was he holding a meat fork?

“Mackenzie Stephen Timberlake? What in heaven’s name are you doing?”

Though he pasted on a brazen smile, he failed to hide a flicker of uncertainty. “Getting ready to cook you a rib eye, sweetheart. Your favorite. Medium well, just like you like it.”

Ali’s stare trailed around the room. It was as if she’d entered an alternate universe. Mac in a beard? With shaggy hair? In Eternity Springs? She felt the weight of her friends’ gazes, sensed them lining up beside her, behind her.
They have my back
.

No, she realized. They’d known he was here. They’d led her here tonight. They’d known he was here and they hadn’t said a word. She snapped her head around and glared at the quartet of traitors. To a one, they smiled back at her.

Fine. She’d deal with them later. Mac came first.

But how to deal with him? How to react? While she considered her options, Mac continued, “Welcome to the New Place, ladies. I have your table all ready. A table for five, correct?”

Ali hesitated. She could demand her friends leave, then re-create one of the murders she’d just read about in her novel. She could turn around and walk out and wait until he came after her. She could yell at him like a fishwife in front of her friends—in front of the entire town, for that matter.

Or she could let this play out, see what scenario he
had cooked up. At least she’d get a steak out of the deal.

She nodded regally, and Mac looked just a little relieved as he led them to the only table in the otherwise empty room. Taking her seat, Ali spread her napkin in her lap, then leveled an accusing gaze on each of her friends in turn. Mac handed them a handwritten menu that offered the choice of steak or grilled chicken with a green salad and baked potato, or hamburgers or hot dogs with tater tots. “Tater tots?” Sage questioned, amusement in her tone.

Ali wrinkled her nose. Tater tots were one of Mac’s favorite junk foods.

Mac cleared his throat. “I’ll be back in a few minutes to take your orders.”

When he’d retreated to the “kitchen,” which was actually a barbecue grill set out on the back stoop, Ali folded her arms, pursed her lips, and gave her friends a schoolteacher stare. “Well?”

Sage and Nic shared an uneasy glance. Celeste gave Ali one of her beatific smiles. Sarah shrugged and said, “He wanted it to be a surprise. He was so cute about it. We didn’t want to spoil it for him, or for you.”

“He bought the building,” Sage added.

Nic smiled encouragingly. “He said it’s always been your dream to have a restaurant. Your own Italian restaurant.”

“I’m not sure, but I think he might have bought Bear’s land, too,” Sarah said. “Something I heard at the bank today makes me think that.”

Ali slumped back against her chair. “I don’t believe this.”

Sarah met Celeste’s gaze. “I told you she’d be stupid about this.”

“Stupid?” Ali repeated.

“Yeah. Stupid. Your husband just made a grand romantic gesture for you.” Sarah made a sweeping wave toward the room. “Do you know how lucky you are to have a man who would go to such lengths for you?”

With that, Ali’s temper flared. “I understand that point, Sarah. What you don’t understand is that while my husband’s grand romantic gesture is in some ways quite lovely, it is also one more instance in a long line of instances where he has failed to respect me.”

She smoothed her napkin on her lap. “See, he decided all on his own to walk away from the job he’d worked all his adult life to earn. It’s his job, his life, so okay. Only he didn’t let it stop there.”

The words poured out of her despite her efforts to stop them, and she knew without turning to see that he had walked into the room and was listening. “Next he made the momentous decision not only to buy personal property, but business property, too. Again, he did this all on his own without including me in the process. It’s the same thing he’s been doing all his life. Taking charge. Taking over.”

She felt shaky, as if she were coming down with the flu. Something certainly wasn’t right with her, because she didn’t do this—she didn’t air dirty marital laundry in front of others. Not only did it belittle her and Mac, it surely made her friends feel uncomfortable.

What is wrong with me?

Maybe it was the realization that after everything
she and Mac had gone through this past year, in the end, nothing had really changed in their marriage. He still captained the boat; it was his hand firmly on the tiller.

And have I figured out that I’d rather be along for the ride than sailing my ship alone?

Her stomach sank. Was that it? Was she willing to settle, after all?

Ali was confused. She needed to think. Now, however, wasn’t the time. Mac
had
gone to a lot of trouble. He
was
trying. She couldn’t throw that in his face.

Therefore, once again, just like a million other times in her marriage, Ali swallowed her feelings and buried her emotions. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have spouted off like that.” Then, pasting on a crooked grin, she glanced up at her husband. “I think we’re ready to order.”

After a moment’s hesitation, he warily observed, “Okay.”

Sage made a stab at slicing through the tension by saying, “Tater tots, Mac? Really?”

He shrugged and offered a bashful grin. “I don’t know anything about menu planning.”

“You don’t know anything about running a restaurant,” Ali said.

“I know that,” he replied, watching her closely. “I certainly need some help.”

“I might be able to pitch in,” she told him. “Another time, though. Not tonight. This is girls’ night out.”

He visibly relaxed just a little at that. “In that case, I’d better get to work.”

“I guess you’d better. Do you have a wine list?”

He named her favorite cabernet, and she nodded. “That will be fine.”

Following that shaky start, she and her friends actually had a lovely meal. Mac did know how to grill a steak, and once everyone realized they weren’t about to become part of an ugly marital spat, they relaxed, too. Conversation, laughter, and general good times flowed. Eventually Nic broke the dinner party up by saying, “I need to get home before I fall asleep right here.”

“Well, sorry you find us so boring,” Sarah fired back in mock offense.

“True.” Nic’s glanced at her watch, then wryly added, “The nighttime schedule of twins has nothing to do with it.”

As her friends stood to leave, Celeste called out, “Mac, may I have the check?”

He came out of the kitchen and shook his head. “Tonight’s meal was on the house, ladies.”

Sage snickered and looked at Ali. “He needs
a lot
of help running a restaurant.”

“I won’t argue that.”

At that point, everyone looked expectantly at Ali, and she realized they were waiting to see if she intended to stay to talk with Mac or leave with the girls. Part of her wanted to leave, but what good would that accomplish? “It’s been fun, ladies. I’ll see you all tomorrow.”

After thanking Mac, her friends departed. Ali followed them to the door, then flipped the lock. The last thing she wanted now was to be interrupted by a
curious citizen investigating why lights were on in an empty building.

Mac poured himself a scotch, leaned back against the bar, and said, “Well, then. Something tells me that this surprise ranks right up there with the electric broom I bought you for our second anniversary.”

Mac alternated between feeling bad and feeling put out. His big surprise hadn’t thrilled her like he’d expected, but for crying out loud, what was wrong with giving her something he knew without a doubt that she wanted very much?

After more than two decades of marriage, he knew this woman inside and out. So why did he so often miss the mark about pleasing her? Why couldn’t he make his wife happy?

“I’m sorry for the flash of temper,” Ali said quietly. “I shouldn’t have embarrassed us both in front of my friends.”

He accepted the apology with a shrug. “So how badly did I screw up? Are you going to call it quits again?”

“No, I’m not going to call it quits again,” she parroted, a snippy note in her tone. “That said, I have to ask. What in the world were you thinking, Mac? You are a federal court judge! You can’t walk away from that to run a restaurant.”

Working to maintain his patience, he spoke in a conciliatory tone. “Actually, I don’t want to run a restaurant. That’s your dream.”

She dropped her chin to her chest and linked her fingers behind her head. Knowing Ali, he sensed that
she was counting to ten. Quietly she asked, “How do you know that, Mac? You didn’t ask me.”

“You brought it up last summer,” he shot back. “That’s how I know. More than twenty years later and you still mention it—that’s real.”

Now she dropped her hands to her sides and walked toward him, stopping at the table closest to the bar, her hand grasping the back of a chair. “Let’s shift the focus for a minute. I think this might go better if I understand why you took a leave of absence from the federal bench.”

Mac stared down at his scotch on the rocks and rotated the glass, swishing the amber liquor over and around the ice. Maybe she had a point. “I have a laundry list of individual reasons, but they basically all add up to the fact that I was miserable.” He glanced up. “I didn’t like the job, Alison. It wasn’t what I’d always expected it to be.”

“It was the Sandberg case,” she replied, shaking her head. “And the Desai case before that. You didn’t feel that way until the high-profile trials took over your life.”

“That’s what I told myself, too, until I spent some time thinking it through. That’s what I’ve been doing these last few weeks. I came up here where it is quiet and peaceful, and I examined every aspect of my life with the goal of assessing where I am now and how I want to go forward. It’s something your friend Celeste suggested to me.”

Surprise lit her eyes. “Celeste?”

“Yep.

Now she arched her brows in disbelief. “She told you to quit your job?”

“No.” A smile played on Mac’s lips. “She introduced the concept of the second half of life. It helped me realize that just because I wanted something when I was young didn’t mean I still had to want it today.”

“Well, as your wife of twenty-four years,” Ali said, tugging a chair out from beneath the table and taking a seat, “I have to say I find that less than reassuring.”

“Stop it.” Mac circled the end of the bar and joined Ali at the table. “I’m not talking about you and you know it. I’m talking about the bench. I don’t want it.”

For a long moment, she stared at him. “I’m sorry, but this just blows me away. Your goal of becoming a judge is … who you are. It’s what you worked to achieve for as long as I’ve known you. Every important decision of your life has been made to further that goal. And now that you have it, you’re ready to throw it away?”

He sipped his drink. “Sad, isn’t it, that I was so wrong about myself?”

“I don’t get it.” She drummed her fingers against the tabletop. “At risk of being as rude to you as you were to me last spring, maybe this is some sort of midlife crisis, a hormonal thing. Something you’ll get past with a little distance.”

For a long moment he simply looked at her. Then he observed, “Wow, if this is how it felt, it’s a wonder you didn’t throw something at me that day.”

She shook her head. “I’m sorry, but this is simply wrong. You can’t do this. Not when it’s your life’s goal.” She rose from her seat and began pacing the room, staring blindly into space. “This is my fault. If I’d gone straight home and stayed there after your
first trip to Eternity, we wouldn’t be having this discussion.”

“Now, Ali.”

“Don’t ‘now, Ali’ me.” She rounded on him. “I hate it when you placate and patronize and … and … pat me on the head. Can you deny it? Had I gone home with you, would we be having this conversation?”