The Beach House (32 page)

“I was drunk.” There went that resolution.

“A part of you wasn’t. That part deep inside of you that always listened to us no matter how plastered you were.”

Jo stared, now the one at a loss for words.

“I didn’t sleep with Todd.”

Gratitude flooded Jo. Molly smiled.

“And Andie didn’t sleep with Julian. He and I talked at two o’clock this morning on the boardwalk, down a ways. I didn’t want to sleep here, either. Guilt and shame.” She shook her head. “I asked him if I could use his upstairs apartment and he said someone was in it. If that someone wasn’t Andie, I’ll snip every single one of my credit cards in half.”

Jo said, “Appearances.”

Char went on. “Yes, but you were on the mark with my appearances. With Todd, I—Well, you can imagine. I should thank you both for the lectures. No.” She paused, batting eyelashes damp with tears. “What I want to thank you for is showing me how much you care. Even after all this time.”

Molly reached over and clasped Char’s hand on the table. “And even if something had happened last night, we would still love you.”

“Something did happen! I went out with him, with motives nowhere near resembling innocent. I have flirted shamelessly with him for years. I feel so guilty.” She cackled in an unladylike way. “Probably because I am.”

Molly said, “It doesn’t change our love for you or God’s.”

“Oh, Molly. He can’t want me!”

“Yes, He can.”

“But I drained the hot water heater this morning trying to scrub all this gunk off of me.”

“What gunk, hon?”

“This
whatever
. It feels like tar!” She pulled at her sweater sleeve. “And I keep looking over my shoulder. Something is
there
. I know it! I can feel it!”

“Char, we need to pray. Right now.”

Char’s face crumpled. “Okay.”

Molly held her other hand out to Jo. She placed hers in Molly’s, took Char’s free one, and tried not to think about pedestrians not a dozen feet behind her gawking at them.

Molly closed her eyes. “Lord, I praise Your holy name. Come be with us right now and touch Char in a special way. She feels the weight of her sin. It feels like guilt and shame. Like tar. I know You’re listening to her now.” She paused. “Char, you can pray out loud if you want or not. You know all about confessing to a priest. Well, your Holy Priest is here right now, waiting to hear from you. Ask Him to forgive you.”

Even if Char had wanted to pray aloud, Jo didn’t think she could. Her sobs were too great.

After a time, Molly said, “Lord, help Char to receive Your forgiveness, to accept Your death as the payment she owes. Thank You. Amen.”

Molly let go of their hands and scooted her chair closer to Char’s. She put her arms around her, and for a long time Char cried softly against her shoulder.

“Oh, Molly.” She sat up and whispered as if in awe. “When I told Him all about how I wanted to commit adultery, how I already had in my heart, it was like I could see Him on the cross and all that tar was covering
Him!
Then all at once I felt sparkling clean, inside and out. Everything seemed bright and I thought ‘It’s over, it’s over,’ only it wasn’t exactly me thinking that. It was more like a knowledge put deep in my heart. He really forgives me, doesn’t He?”

Molly smiled. “Yes, He really does.”

Jo felt as dazed as the other two looked. Evidently the Molly Effect had struck again.

Char shook toast crumbs from a paper napkin and blew her nose into it. The first rays of sun broke over a roofline, bursting through the morning’s cloud cover and casting glorious brilliance everywhere.

It was exactly how she felt on the inside and the outside, covered in brand-new, scrubbed-clean baby skin.

The tar was gone.

A sense of being followed was gone.

Sunshine filled her being. There was no other word for it.

“Oh, my. Oh, my.” She couldn’t stop repeating the phrase. She couldn’t think of anything else to say. And she couldn’t stop smiling.

Molly laughed.

“Molly! Whatever did you do?”

“Nothing. Well, I talked to God, who is right here with us. His Spirit did the rest.”

Jo said, “I call it the Molly Effect.”

“Jo, it’s not my power.”

“I know. But you tap into it.”

“Whatever.” Char laughed, for no good reason she could think of except it bubbled out. “Wait until I tell the kids—Oh!” She clapped a hand to her mouth. Cam! She had told him she was about to commit adultery and then hung up on him!

“Char, what is it?”

She shoved back her chair and stood. “It’s Cam. I have to talk to him. Right this very instant!”

The screen door fell shut with a thud behind her.

No one in Char’s family answered the house phone or their individual cell phones.

She sat in her bedroom on a small, old-fashioned, straight-back padded chair and stared at her phone as if it could explain.

Savannah
always
answered hers unless she was in a class. It was the weekend; she wasn’t in school. She was at a friend’s or the mall. Cole would be at football practice. Cam might still be with patients; he kept Saturday morning hours. Not that he ever answered his phone, but he had one and, given last night’s information, one would
think
he’d carry the thing in his pocket, the power switched on, and that he’d answer even while in the middle of drilling someone’s tooth!

Hang it all
. She wasn’t about to call the office and leave a message with his staff.

Obviously last night’s information had not made an impact. By morning he could have thought he dreamt the whole thing.

Even couch potatoes breathe
. It was Julian’s voice, referring to C.P. He had said it that night he saw her talking on the phone with Todd. He thought she was having a tête-à-tête with her husband until she set him straight about that relationship.

What else had Julian said? Something about her. She wasn’t sure whether it was a compliment or not.

Do you know what I see when I look at you? An attractive, delightful blonde with an irresistible zest for life. Somewhere in old Cam’s heart lingers a yearning to have a tête-à-tête with you
. And yesterday morning as they drank special coffee at the restaurant.
Old Cam just needs some encouragement
.

That was it. Both times she had figured Julian meant it was all her fault romance had died with Cam.

It takes two, sugar
. Her mama’s voice now.
Two to tango, two to fall in love, two to disagree
.

No, it wasn’t all her fault. Perhaps Julian simply meant what he said. Cam yearned.

“Color me flabbergasted.”

She pondered the new thought for a moment. If it was true…then she should tell him he had a funny way of showing he cared.

Or maybe she should just shut up for a change.

Well, for now her choice was clear. He couldn’t exactly listen to her if he didn’t answer her calls. She would have to keep her mouth shut as far as he was concerned.

She closed up her phone and headed back out to the patio.

“Last night I told Cam about Todd.” Char lifted her coffee mug and met her friends’ stares of disbelief over its rim.

Molly said, “You what? You told him about Todd?”

“I did. I called him from the ladies’ lounge.”

Jo said, “The ladies’ lounge! What? In between courses?”

“Before dessert.” If only she had left things alone. Just listened to her conscience and told Todd to take a hike and not bothered phoning Cam.

“What did he say?” Molly asked.

“He was stunned. I reamed him. Told him he should have noticed. He should have been aware.”

Jo said, “That’s probably true enough.”

“But I left him hanging. He said what am I going to do, and I said I don’t know. And then I hung up.”

“Yikes,” Molly said. “And now he’s not answering?”

“No.”

“He’s hurting.”

Jo said, “And madder than a hornet.”

Char set down her cup. “I honestly can’t say which or if either.”

“You don’t think he cares?” Molly asked.

“Well, he pays the bills. That says something.”

They exchanged uncertain glances.

Molly said, “It does say something.”

“He didn’t call me yesterday. That more or less sums up how things are between us, even if he does pay the bills. As far as I know, he loves the television remote more than he does me.”

Jo said, “But he’s not like Paul, is he?”

“No, he’s not in the least like Paul. He respects me, I have to say that for him. He did respect me, anyway…before last night…”

Molly patted her arm. “Last night is where love kicks in. I’m sure he loves you, hon.”

Jo said, “Of course he does. What’s not to love about our charming Georgia peach?”

She smiled at their encouragement. “Any number of things, I’m sure.”

“As Andie would say, fiddlesticks!” Jo shrugged. “So do you want to tell us about the rest of last night? What happened over dessert?”

“Pff.” Her lips vibrated with an expulsion of breath. “Dessert! I skedaddled right out of the place. I didn’t even go back to the table. I just made a beeline for the front door. I told the valet I had a most distressing phone conversation and would he please tell the guy who would come out to pick up the red convertible that his date had to leave. It was a dire emergency. I should have tipped him, but I only had a fifty and there was a taxi at the curb.”

Jo laughed. Molly clapped her hands and whistled.

Char’s suspicions were true. They really, truly did not like Todd in the least.

“The valet said no problem and opened the taxi door for me. I hopped in and said to the driver please just go. He wasn’t too swift. He’d never make it in Chicago. I think that was when I yelled.”

They both hooted now.

“Something like ‘Get out of this parking lot!’ I didn’t know where to go. I didn’t want to come to the house for fear Todd would show up and I’d have to talk to him. Did he come?”

They shook their heads. Molly asked, “Has he called?”

“I turned off my phone after I talked to Cam last night. Just now I skimmed through the missed calls looking for Cam’s number—he did not call, by the way—and noticed Todd’s number. I didn’t check voice mail. I’m sure he got the hint.” She paused. “Also I didn’t want to come here because I simply could not face you three.”

Now they nodded.

That memory jumped at her again, the one from her sixteenth birthday, more vivid than earlier. She saw Molly, Jo, and Andie in the restaurant booth, nodding vigorously, compassion and understanding clearly written on their youthful faces. She heard Andie’s invitation as loud and clear as she had that day:
You can live at my house
.

They were right there with her, all those years ago and now today. They knew shame kept her away last night until the wee hours of the morning. They understood she would have blamed them for her feeling that way.

Oh, God! How could I have been so blind
?