It didn’t take long to leave California behind as well. Then the rest of the country lay between her and Florida. But there was something restful about being in the car moving down the road. Being alone. Being closed away from the world in her car. She could scream. She could talk to herself. She could turn the radio up loud when she heard a good song and sing along while dreaming the next song might be by Eddie B. and the Bugs. She could imagine the hot desert sun was burning away the cancer inside her the same way her tears had been burned away weeks ago by grief. She could pretend she believed there was a heaven and she might find it.
And when the road glare got too strong or her thoughts got too lonely, she looked at the picture of little Stephen that she had stuck on the dash.
It wasn’t until she actually crossed into Arkansas and took a turn toward the northeast that she admitted to herself why she was driving across country to Florida instead of flying. It wasn’t because she had stuff she couldn’t bear to part with. She didn’t have any stuff like that. Not even clothes, since none of them fit any more. She didn’t have photo albums or cherished keepsakes. She only had the pictures Tabitha had sent her of Stephen. Ten snapshots altogether. They would have fit in her pocket.
Dr. Mike had said if she wanted to do anything, to plan on doing it soon. And she wanted to hold Stephen in her arms. She wanted to look into his little face and see herself in his beautiful brown eyes.
It didn’t matter that she’d tried to talk Tabitha into not having the baby. That had been then. This was now. A detour through Hollyhill would make the trip to Florida longer. Lots longer. But it wasn’t as if Adrienne had anything else to do. Nothing to do but die.
S
aturday morning Leigh woke up to birds singing in the tree outside her bedroom window. The last Saturday in May. In exactly one week she would walk down the aisle of the Hollyhill First Baptist Church and stand beside David Brooke and say
I do
. She’d be Mrs. David Brooke. Leigh Jacobson Brooke.
She spoke the names out loud softly. They sounded right. Good. Perfect. Amazingly perfect. Just like her wedding dress.
She lay still and imagined walking down the red-carpeted aisle in the dress. She’d tried it on again after it came back from the cleaners. She had to get it cleaned even though she worried about the lace maybe disintegrating or something. But the lace survived intact, and the dress came back smelling fresh instead of like that musty dress shop where she and Jocie had found it after the idiot driver of that other car had pulled out right in front of her. Thank the Lord, she was able to slam on her brakes and keep from hitting him, and thank the Lord, they ended up stopped right in front of the Vintage Dress Shop. She’d never noticed it there until then—she didn’t drive to Lexington all that often to shop. Most of the time she did her shopping in Grundy so she could drop by and see her parents.
Another thank the Lord. Her mother was beginning to come around. She still wasn’t exactly excited about the prospect of Leigh becoming Mrs. David Brooke, but at the shower Aunt Wilma had given for Leigh a few weeks back, Leigh’s mother had actually laughed and joined in with everybody teasing Leigh about having kids. Leigh was hoping her mother had finally opened her eyes and looked at David and seen he wasn’t all that old even if he did have a daughter who had a baby.
And what a sweet baby too. Leigh didn’t mind a bit being his stepgrandmother. Jocie had even started calling Leigh Grams to Stephen Lee. Of course Stephen Lee was still too little to say much but ma-ma and da-da, but his beautiful brown eyes lit up every time he saw her. Leigh didn’t care what the baby learned to call her as long as he kept smiling when he saw her.
Leigh loved babies. She had always loved babies. And she didn’t deny she would like to have a baby. She and David had even almost talked about it a couple of times. David said there wasn’t anything they shouldn’t be able to talk about, but babies came close. That and Edwin Hammond.
Leigh frowned and tried to push that thought away. But she couldn’t. Edwin Hammond had a way of edging into her head like an unwanted weed in a flower garden. Leigh hadn’t figured out what his problem was other than he must have a few screws loose in his head. She’d told him plain out more than once to leave her alone, to never call her again, to get lost. Then there he would be again, standing in her path. The thorn on the rose of her happiness.
She didn’t know why. She’d never once encouraged him. And while she had lost weight and gotten a new hairstyle and looked surprisingly good when she looked at herself in the mirror, she didn’t think she looked that good. Not to have some strange man chase after her when she not only hadn’t given him the first bit of encouragement but had done everything she could think of to discourage him.
Jocie was right when she called him Mr. Creep. Not that Leigh would tell Jocie that. It wasn’t exactly respectful to call a teacher a creep even if it was true. So instead she kept telling Jocie school was almost over and that the man would be gone then. The school board hadn’t hired him for the next year.
Jocie had already known that. She’d said the man had actually cornered her outside the school building and yelled at her.
“What did he say?” Leigh had asked her. She was giving Jocie a ride out to the park to take pictures of some Little Leaguers playing ball.
Jocie stared down at the camera in her lap and ran her finger over its edges. She didn’t seem to want to answer Leigh, but she finally said, “Nothing that made much sense.
Something about me being the reason he wasn’t being hired back. That he knew I went and talked to Mr. Madison about him. And I did do that, but I don’t think Mr. Madison paid much attention to anything I said.”
“So what did you tell him?”
“I didn’t want to tell him anything, but he kept stepping in front of me when I tried to leave.” Jocie’s voice trembled a little as if even thinking about the man in front of her scared her.
Leigh reached over and touched Jocie’s arm. “He didn’t hurt you, did he?”
“He didn’t hit me or anything, if that’s what you mean, but I got the feeling he might. I mean, Dad told me to pray about it all, and I have. I’ve tried every kind of prayer you can think of. Let me get sick and have to study at home. Let some miracle happen that they let school out early. Give me courage to sit in English for an hour every day. Help me survive the year. And I guess the Lord did answer those last ones. School will be over in a couple of weeks and so far I’ve survived.”
“Maybe you should tell your father more about what’s going on.”
“No, he’d just get too upset.” Jocie looked over at Leigh. “And you have to promise not to tell him either. Please.”
It wasn’t a promise Leigh should have made. David had already told her they shouldn’t keep secrets from one another. But she was already not telling David some things. She hadn’t seen the need to tell him about all the notes Edwin Hammond kept sticking in the keyhole of her door. She tore them up without reading them, so what was there to tell? And maybe when she kept spotting the man hanging around her street, it was just coincidence. Hollyhill was a small place and the man lived a couple of streets over. He could just be out taking a walk or something.
So when Jocie had begged her, Leigh had said, “All right. But you should tell him yourself. Your father can’t help you if he doesn’t know what’s going on.”
“Nothing’s going on. Nothing that I can’t survive. With the Lord’s help. Maybe you could pray about it too sometimes,” Jocie said. “Both of us praying will surely make the days go faster so school will be out. And that way it’ll be June. You’ll be walking down the aisle in that dress the Lord helped us find. You and Dad will be married. Summer will stretch out wonderfully in front of us. And Mr. Creep will disappear back to wherever he came from.”
Now Leigh shut her eyes and said that very prayer. Two more days until school was out. Seven more days until she became Mrs. David Brooke. “Please, Lord, let the days go fast and then let next Saturday be the best day of all,” she whispered. She moved her hand down the sheet beside her. She’d be sharing a bed next Saturday night.
The thought made tingles run through her and a flush climb up into her cheeks. She wanted to be married in every way. Heart and mind. Body and soul. But at the same time she was nervous that she might turn out to be totally inept at certain aspects of marriage. What if she did everything all wrong?
She stood up and went to the bathroom to splash cold water on her face. It was a natural thing. Hadn’t she been able to kiss David without the first bit of trouble when she’d been worried about that back when David first started coming to the park to walk with her? But they’d kissed and it had been easy and now wasn’t it like second nature to just put her arms around David and kiss him?
That’s how Wes had told her the other would be too. Easy. Natural. Wes, of all people, had been the one to look at her and know she needed advice even though she’d been way too embarrassed to ask for any. She’d thought about asking, but hadn’t known who to ask. Zella certainly wouldn’t have been any help. Not only had she never been married, but she’d probably come up with some wild ideas she’d gleaned from all those romance novels she read that weren’t a bit like real life.
She’d thought about talking to Miss Sally out at the church. A person could talk to Miss Sally about anything without ever having the first worry of her laughing at you or of anybody else knowing about what was worrying you. But Miss Sally had never been married either. Leigh figured she’d just make both of them blush.
So she hadn’t talked to anybody, but Wes had caught her off to herself last Tuesday after they’d folded the paper for delivery on Wednesday. “Looks like something might be worrying you, Miss Leigh,” he said.
“What makes you say that?” she asked.
“Oh, just a hunch.” He looked at her with that slow smile of his. “Maybe something about getting married.”
“Not exactly getting married. More being married.” Leigh blushed scarlet.
“I sort of thought that might be the case.” Wes put his hand on her shoulder. “Don’t you worry one minute about any of that. It’ll come as natural as a frog hopping off a lily pad into a pond.”
“But I don’t have the first bit of experience.” Leigh picked up a piece of paper to fan her burning cheeks. She kept her eyes away from Wes as she said, “In hopping, I mean.”
Wes chuckled and squeezed her shoulder. “That’s good. No experience needed for this job the Lord has given you. The good Lord designed a man and woman to want to be together, and when both parties want to be together, there ain’t an easier thing in the world to do. You know to go hopping in a pond somewhere together.”
Leigh peeked over at Wes. “Then you don’t think I’ll be a disappointment to David? I mean everybody says Adrienne was so pretty, so, so . . .” Leigh hesitated as she tried to come up with a word she could say to Wes without totally melting down with embarrassment. “So enthralling.”
“She was pretty, best I recall, but truth is, David never seemed all that enamored with her, at least not after I was around. Not like he is with you. He loves you. And you love him. Love makes a difference. A big difference. David won’t be a bit disappointed. Not one bit.” Wes had grinned at her. “And neither will you. Just trust your old Uncle Wes on this one.”
Love makes a difference.
It would, Leigh decided as she stared into her eyes in the mirror. Then she picked her watch up off the sink and checked the time. She should have time for a quick walk in the park before she had to get ready for the big shower at the church that afternoon. David wouldn’t be at the park to walk with her. He’d told her he’d have to work on his sermon this morning since the shower would take up most of the afternoon.
The people at Mt. Pleasant had been looking forward to throwing them the shower for weeks. David said no telling what his deacons were going to do to try to embarrass him, but that no matter what, they’d have to keep smiling and let the church people have their fun. Thank goodness the sun was shining because they’d invited way more people than could fit in the basement of the church. Dorothy McDermott had told Leigh they’d borrowed folding chairs from one of the other country churches to be sure they would have enough seats for everybody.
Leigh’s mother and father were even supposed to drive down to attend. Her father had been complaining about missing his golf game every time Leigh talked to him. Not only this Saturday, but the next one as well for her wedding. Two Saturdays without golf at the best time of the year to play the game before the weather got too hot. Couldn’t she have gotten married in March when it would be raining or something?
Leigh had just laughed at him and hadn’t let him off the hook. She’d told him he had to come and bring her mother. They needed to see where she was going to live. They needed to see the church that loved David and now her. They needed to get used to how happy she was.
When Leigh went out the door, a rolled-up note fell out of the keyhole. Leigh just picked it up and crumpled it in her hand without unrolling the first curl. She pitched it in the trashcan at the bottom of the stairs. Nothing was going to spoil this day for her. Nothing.
E
arly Saturday morning, Jocie rode her bike to town to help Wes clean the press and sweep out the pressroom. Her father usually helped with the cleanup chores, but he had to stay home to work on his sermon for the next day. He was still closed up in his bedroom when Jocie got home around noon, but he’d have to come out soon, whether or not the Scripture had spoken to him. The people at church might forgive a bad sermon but they’d never forgive him not showing up for the shower.
Jocie had her present all wrapped and safely out of Stephen Lee’s reach. The baby was pulling up to everything, and he liked tearing paper above all else. Besides, her present was breakable. She’d found some great iced tea glasses decorated with strawberries on special sale at the ten-cent store. She figured she couldn’t go wrong with glasses, since they averaged at least one broken glass a week and sometimes were reduced to drinking their iced tea out of pint mason jars. Jocie couldn’t wait to see all the presents the church people were going to give her father and Leigh. It felt almost like Christmas.