Читать книгу Prodigal Daughter - Patricia Davids - Страница 9

“Y’all be careful up there, sugar.” The elderly woman’s rich Tennessee drawl slid off each word the way warm honey slips off a spoon.

Richard McNeil glanced down at his great-aunt. At eighty-eight, Lettie was still a spry lady who faced life with wit, humor and an abiding love for her family. Today, she wore her favorite pale blue cotton print dress and a thin blue sweater tied over her slightly stooped shoulders. Her snow-white hair was styled into old-fashioned waves, and she had a death grip on the side of the rickety folding ladder he stood on.

“I’ll be fine, Aunt Lettie, but maybe you should move away…just in case.”

She scurried to the other side of the camel back sofa with amazing speed for a woman her age.

“If you fall, you’re likely to lie on this floor until the cows come home ’cause there’s no way I can be picking up a man your size.”

Richard replaced the burned-out light in the high ceiling fan and stepped down with a sigh of relief. He had lost a good twenty pounds after his doctor took him to task, but his six-foot-two-inch frame still carried plenty of muscle. The antique stepladder his great-aunt had pulled from the depths of her hall closet for the occasion had creaked and groaned, but held—this time. He would see that she had it replaced with a sturdy new one before the next bulb died.

“And the Lord said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was. Thank you, my boy. That surely will help these old eyes to see the Good Book again.”

“My pleasure, Aunt Lettie. Is there anything else I can do while I’m here?” He resisted the urge to glance at his watch. He enjoyed Wednesday afternoons with Aunt Lettie, but each time he came to visit, she would find excuse after excuse to keep him from leaving. She was lonely, he understood that. More than once over the years, he had tried to convince her to move into a retirement home where she would have the company of folks her own age.

Lettie stubbornly refused to budge from the apartment over the shop in downtown Hickory Mills, Tennessee, that had once belonged to her and her husband. Their furniture store had long since closed and the space downstairs had been sold and converted into a shoe store, but Lettie wouldn’t budge from her home. She always said that she had lived here for seventy years and the only way she was leaving was in a pine box. When it came to stubbornness, the good Lord had broken the mold after He fashioned Lettie Corbet McNeil.

Glancing around, Richard had to admit her home was cozy. The high, molded plaster ceilings made the place feel spacious while the tall arched windows with white lace curtains let in plenty of sunshine. Their gleaming panes were reflected in the polished surface of the cherrywood sideboard with its brass candlesticks and artful arrangement of old china plates and figurines. All of her antique furnishings shone with loving care, from the gilt-and-black-lacquer Regency writing desk in the corner to the massive oak pedestal dinning table with its ball-and-claw feet.

His great-aunt was, he realized, very like the things she owned—a beautifully preserved part of a bygone era.

The tiny woman laid a hand on her cheek and tapped gently as she considered what needed repairs. “Let me see. The front door gets to squeaking something awful when the humidity is high.”

“I oiled it when I first came today.”

“Oh, that’s right, you did. Well, I reckon that’s all there is, but you don’t have to run off, do you?”

“I need to get back to the office.”

“Don’t you work half days on Wednesday?”

“Things have been a bit hectic lately. I have some paperwork to catch up on.”

“Your papa would be so proud to see you in that fancy place over in Davis Landing. You might have come from humble beginnings in Hickory Mills, but you’ve made your mark in the world. And that house of yours! My, my! It’s big enough to hold a dozen young’uns.”

“It feels crowded these days.”

“How is your sister getting along? Such a sad thing, her house catching fire like that. ’Twas a blessing from the Lord that no one got hurt.”

“Angela and Dave are doing okay. The girls are adjusting, but it’s been hard on them. The renovations on their house should be done in another two months. I was glad to give them a place to stay, but I do miss my peace and quiet. Angela said to tell you that she and the girls will be over to visit on Saturday, as usual.” He picked up his suit jacket from where it lay folded over the arm of the sofa and slipped it on.

“I’ll be glad for their company, that’s for sure. I reckon having those two little girls living with you is making you wish you had a family of your own. It’s long past time you settled down and got married. You’re not getting any younger, you know.”

“I’m thirty-four. You make it sound like I’ve got one foot in the grave.”

She set her hands on her hips and leaned back to look up at him. “Like I said—long past time.”

He leaned down and kissed her wrinkled cheek. “I’ll get married when I find a girl who can bake a pecan pie as good as yours and not before.”

“Oh, go on! Flattery will get you nowhere.”

“I was hoping it would get me one more piece of pie.”

“You take the rest of it home with you for those girls. And mind you don’t go eatin’ more than your share on the way.”

Ten minutes later, Richard sat behind the wheel of his black Mercedes in downtown Hickory Mills and switched on his windshield wipers as drizzle began to fall from the leaden sky. If only he could have left Lettie’s fifteen minutes earlier, he would have missed the jam of traffic that accompanied the local dockworkers getting off shift and the arrival of the afternoon bus. Visiting with Lettie was always a high point in his week, but he hated wasting time in traffic.

As he waited impatiently behind two taxis loading baggage and passengers, he noticed the Collin’s Drugstore across the street was for sale.

The tall window cases were bare except for the red-and-white For Sale sign taped to the glass. He had worked there as a stock boy through most of high school. Several other stores on the block had closed over the past few years and hadn’t found new owners. Graffiti marred the cinder block wall beside the bus station and trash littered the alley. It was sad to see his old neighborhood going downhill.

His cell phone rang and interrupted his musing. He pulled it from his pocket. His secretary’s quiet voice claimed his attention.

“Mr. Delaney is here to see you, sir.”

“Delaney? He doesn’t have an appointment today.”

“I told him that, sir.” Margaret Woodrow’s voice dropped even lower. “He insists you said it would be all right to just drop by any old time and add a codicil to his will.”

Richard chuckled. “He probably wants to disinherit his ungrateful nephew again. Or is he adding him back? I can’t remember—he’s changed it so many times. All right, Margaret. I’m still in Hickory Mills. I’ll be there in about twenty minutes. If he can wait, I’ll see him.”

He tucked his cell phone back in his pocket. The line of traffic hadn’t moved, but at least the other lane was clear. He checked in his rearview mirror before pulling out and stopped short. Was that Melissa Hamilton leaving the bus station?

Turning his head to get a better view, he saw that he was right. She walked past him to the street corner. There, she set down her black duffel bag and raised a hand to sweep her long blond hair back over her shoulder.

She certainly was as lovely as ever. The overcast sky couldn’t dim the taffy and honey brightness of her thick hair. It flowed in rippling waves almost to the center of her back. She was dressed in a flared skirt with big yellow sunflowers on a red background and a yellow blouse with short puff sleeves. Over her arms she had draped a red shawl with a yellow fringe. Pulling the flimsy shawl up to cover her shoulders, she shivered and turned her back to the wind. The late-October air definitely had a chill in it. As he watched her, the rain began in earnest. She glanced up, then lifted her shawl to cover her head.

Richard frowned. What on earth was the daughter of Wallace Hamilton doing coming into town on the bus?

Not that it mattered how she got here. The important thing was that she was home again. Wallace and Nora had both been worried sick about their youngest child. Melissa had left town with her boyfriend months ago and no one had heard from her since. That in itself was bad enough, but to disappear when her father was seriously ill seemed totally selfish. As the baby of the Hamilton family, she had always been overindulged and spoiled, but this time she had gone too far.

Wallace’s publishing firm, Hamilton Media, was one of Richard’s most important clients, but more than that, Wallace and Nora were his friends. He knew what a strain Wallace’s leukemia and bone marrow transplant had put on the man and his family. That Melissa had run off without a word hadn’t set well with Richard and a lot of other people.

He had always hoped the lovable but wayward girl would come around and grow up into a responsible adult like the rest of the Hamilton kids, but maybe he had been wrong about her.

He watched as she tried to hail a cab, but the taxis in line already had fares. She looked around as if she didn’t know what to do next. Suddenly, he was struck by how fragile and bewildered she looked.

Vivacious and flirty was the way he would have described Melissa five months ago. She had always used her charm, including batting those big brown eyes at men, in order to get her way. Now, the woman shivering on the corner simply looked tired and lost.

It only took him a moment to decide what to do next. It wasn’t the first time he’d helped Melissa Hamilton out of a jam and it wasn’t likely to be the last. He pulled out around the taxis and stopped at the corner in front of her. He pressed the electric button and the passenger-side window slid open. He leaned across the seat and called out. “Melissa, do you need a ride?”

Melissa jumped, startled by the sound of someone calling her name. She clutched her shawl more tightly and leaned down to look in the car that had pulled up beside her. Her father’s attorney sat behind the wheel of a shiny, black sedan.

She had to admit that Richard McNeil looked decidedly handsome in his charcoal-gray tailored suit and white button-down dress shirt minus a tie. It had always amazed her how such a big man could wear his clothes so well. With his rugged good looks, black hair and fabulous bright blue eyes, it wasn’t surprising that she had suffered a crush on him in her teenage years. Maybe she still harbored a trace of it, she thought, if she were being honest with herself.

Of all the people who knew her family, why did Richard McNeil have to be the one to see her slinking back into town?

“Mr. McNeil, what are you doing here?”

“It looks like I’m offering you a lift.”

She hesitated, not sure what to do next. Glancing around, she saw that no empty taxi had appeared. Waiting for one would only prolong the inevitable encounter with her sister. She took a step toward the car. “I hate to be any trouble.”

“It’s no trouble. I’m on my way back to my office, but I can drop you off at your home if you like.”

She bit her lip and hesitated, then said, “Could you drop me off at my sister Amy’s instead?”

“Sure thing. Hop in before you get any wetter.” A flurry of raindrops accompanied his words.

“All right. If you’re sure it isn’t any trouble.” She picked up her bag, opened the door and slid into the front seat. Instantly, she was engulfed by the masculine scent of his aftershave, the smell of leather upholstery and the aroma of…was that pecan pie? Her stomach did a flip-flop.

“I can put your bag in the trunk,” he offered.

“No, this is fine. Thank you.” She wrapped her arms around her duffel and held it tightly in her lap, hoping to hide her pregnancy for a little while longer. At five months she wasn’t showing much, but it wouldn’t be long before even her full skirt and baggy peasant blouse wouldn’t conceal how far Wallace Hamilton’s youngest daughter had fallen.

She asked, “Do I smell pecan pie?”

“You do. My great-aunt Lettie sent one home with me. It’s on the back seat if you’d like a piece.”

“No thanks.” Her stomach rumbled. She couldn’t tell if she was hungry or if she was going to be sick again. Either way, the thought of pie wasn’t appealing. She rolled her window down an inch to let in some fresh air.

“Are you okay?” he asked, looking at her in concern.

“I’m fine.” She wasn’t, but she didn’t want to elaborate on the cause. She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, then looked straight ahead. As he pulled out into traffic, Melissa rode in silence. After all, what could she say to defend the way she had acted? She glanced at him several more times. His face was set in stern lines, making her feel nervous and ill at ease even though she had known the man since she was eleven.

Face it, Melissa. It’s time to stop procrastinating. She knew why he was upset. “Have you seen my dad lately?”

“I was about to ask you the same thing.” He didn’t quite mask the edge of sarcasm in his voice.

Here it was, the conversation she had been dreading. “I know what I did wasn’t right, but I do love my father, and I am worried about him.”

“You have a funny way of showing it.”

“Yeah, well things aren’t always what they seem, are they?” He wouldn’t understand the irrational panic that swept over her at the very thought of seeing her father in a hospital bed. No one understood it. Least of all Melissa herself.

She had tried to visit when her father was first admitted. She had made it to the wide doorway of the stark glass-and-steel building, but she couldn’t make herself go in. She had wanted to—but she couldn’t. If she had needed to save her own life by walking through those doors, she would have died on the sidewalk. Instead, she had run to Dean and kept on running. Until now.

Richard cast her a puzzled glance. Instead of the scolding she expected, he said, “I’m sorry if I sound like I’m condemning you. Your parents and your brothers and sisters have been very worried about you.”

“I know. How is Daddy?”

“He’s back in the hospital, but he’s doing a little better. They were able to find a bone marrow donor for him and it looks like the graft is working. He’s had a few setbacks, including a nasty infection his doctors have been fighting, but your mother is hopeful that he’ll make a full recovery.”

“That’s Mom. The family’s eternal optimist.”

“Your mother relies on her strong faith, Melissa. That’s what has gotten her through this.”

“People always give God credit for getting them through the bad times. Kind of funny, isn’t it, when He gave them the bad times to start with.” Melissa didn’t try to conceal the bitterness in her words.

He cleared his throat once, then asked, “Are you back in town to stay or is this merely a visit?”

“I’m not sure.” Besides her parents, she had three brothers and two sisters who would soon know about her condition. No doubt they were all angry with her for running away when their father was ill and the family was in such turmoil. For an instant, she considered getting out of the car and heading back to the bus station. It would be easy to just ride away from the painful confrontations ahead of her, but her seldom-used common sense kicked in.

A hundred and twenty-four dollars was all she had left of the money her sister, Amy, had sent. It wouldn’t last long. It certainly wouldn’t be enough to get a place to live while she looked for a job.

“I take it things aren’t going too well for you and…what is his name?”

“Dean Orton. No, things aren’t going well for us.”

That had to be the understatement of the century. She was twenty-three years old, single and pregnant. She had no money, no job and her baby’s father was long gone.

It wasn’t fair. All she had wanted was a life free of the expectations tied to being the daughter of Wallace Hamilton. She thought Dean would give her that life. She desperately wanted to love him and be loved in return. His dreams of making it big with his rock band had sounded exciting and exotic.

If he had been surprised by her sudden offer to travel on tour with him, he hid it well. Life on the road with Dean was a far cry from her family’s successful publishing business and the strict Southern upbringing she had known.

Only Dean hadn’t really loved her. All he wanted was a piece of the Hamilton fortune. When she realized that, she had been heartbroken. And she discovered that having morning sickness in a run-down motel on the outskirts of Detroit wasn’t exotic at all.

“I’m sorry things didn’t work out for the two of you,” Richard said, turning on to Mill Road and heading toward the bridge that led to Davis Landing.

She scowled at him. “You don’t sound sorry at all.”

“Melissa, I’ve known you since you were a kid. I play golf with your dad, and your mother invites me to dinner. I’m a friend of the family, and that means all of the family. I care about you and your happiness.” The rain had stopped and he turned off his wipers.

“I know,” she admitted, turning to stare out the window. “Things are just so messed-up right now.”

The sounds of the tires changed as the car rolled across the bridge spanning the Cumberland River as it snaked its way through the beautiful tree-covered hills of Tennessee. Upriver she could see the hills were ablaze with fall colors of gold and scarlet, but even their beauty didn’t lift her spirits. Below her, Melissa watched two paddle wheelers moving with stately grace as they steamed past each other. Their stern paddles churned the gray river water into white latte foam behind them.

On board, their cargo of tourists hung over the pristine white wooden rails festooned with swags of red, white and blue as they enjoyed a trip back in time. The boats were from Nashville and Davis Landing was one of several stops on their itinerary. How many times as a child had she begged her father to take her on board one of them? No matter how many times he had relented and agreed, she had never tired of the ride. What she wouldn’t give to go back to those carefree days.

Richard reached over and laid a hand on hers. “I, for one, am glad you decided to come back, Melissa. Your family needs you. I don’t know how much you know about what’s been going on since you left.”

“I spoke with Amy not long ago. She sort of filled me in. I know that Jeremy is only our half brother.” She cast Richard a sidelong glance. As the family attorney, had he been privy to that secret before the rest of them?

He said, “It came as a shock to everyone. Especially to Jeremy.”

Another major understatement. “No kidding. Did you know that Mother was pregnant when she met Dad?”

“No, they never told me. It wasn’t until your father became so ill that anyone knew. He’d accepted Jeremy as his own child. He told me keeping the secret was his decision. I think he knows now that it wasn’t a very wise one.”

The car left the bridge and entered the business district of Davis Landing. Old redbrick-fronted stores and black iron lampposts added to the town’s quaint turn-of-the-century charm. Just ahead, she saw the three-story brick office building that housed her family’s business, Hamilton Media. Both the Davis Landing Dispatch newspaper and the Nashville Living magazine had offices there.

Her great-grandfather had started the paper as a local weekly in the 1920s. Under the sound business hands of both her grandfather and then her father, the business had grown to a daily paper and now included a monthly lifestyle magazine that enjoyed tremendous success locally and across the region. Except for her brother, Chris, who had decided to become a cop, all of the Hamilton children had worked alongside their father in the family business.

“Amy said that Jeremy and Dad had a falling-out, that Jeremy quit.” As the company’s vice president, her oldest brother, Jeremy, had been her Dad’s right-hand man and everyone assumed he would take over the company when the time came. Now what would happen? Would her brother, Tim, as second in line, step in to run both the paper and the magazine?

Richard nodded. “That’s true. Apparently Jeremy and Tim had quite a fight about it. To make matters worse, the story was leaked to the Observer.”

“I imagine they had a field day with that. The Observer loves a good scandal and they’ve been trying to put Hamilton Media out of business for years.”

“A smear campaign won’t accomplish that.”

“You’re our attorney. Why don’t we sue them?”

“Because what they printed was true.”

She waved aside his comment. “Oh, that’s just a technicality.”

“It’s an important one in court. We were worried about how the news leak would affect your father, but he’s holding up well.”

“What about Mom? She must feel like her reputation is in shreds.” Melissa knew exactly how that felt.

“Your mother’s answer was that if people who didn’t know her wanted to talk, she couldn’t stop them. She said the only thing that matters is how she is living her life today—not what she did thirty-five years ago. She’s kept her head high. Your mother is a true lady.”

“Now I’m back to add to their troubles.” Melissa wondered if she would be able to hold her head up when her condition became known.

“What’s wrong, Melissa?”

“Nothing.”

“I don’t think that’s true.”

“Okay, it’s not, but it’s not something I can talk about right now.”

“If I can help, you know I will,” he said gently.

He sounded sincere. She was tempted to confide in him, to share her troubles, but she held back. “Thanks, Mr. McNeil.”

“You used to call me Richard.”

“And you used to call me a brat.”

He chuckled. “Not to your face.”

She smiled for the first time in days. “No, not to my face, but I knew you disapproved of me.”

He stopped the car in front of the entrance to the Enclave, an upscale condominium not far from the downtown area. Turning in his seat to face her, he said, “I never disapproved of you, Melissa, but sometimes I disapproved of the things you did.”

She couldn’t meet his gaze. Instead, she looked up at the building where three of her siblings made their homes. “The wildest Hamilton kid has a news flash for you, Richard. Recently, I’ve done a lot of things you wouldn’t approve of. Making mistakes seems to have become my forte.”

“People can change, Melissa. It’s not too late.”

“I hope you’re right.”

“I know I am. Just take it one small step at a time. The Lord will carry your burdens for you if you let Him.”

She chose not to offend him by offering an opinion on his beliefs. He was welcome to them; she just didn’t share them anymore. She pushed open the door of his car and stepped out. Hefting her duffel bag over her shoulder, she leaned down and said, “Thanks for the lift, and I’d like to ask for one more favor.”

“Certainly, if I can.”

“Please don’t tell my parents that you’ve seen me.”

“Very well, but may I ask why?”

“I’ve got to make some decisions before I see them. But don’t worry, I’ll see them soon.”

“All right. Take care of yourself, Melissa.”

“I will. Goodbye.”

As he drove away, Melissa felt as if her only friend were leaving her in front of the lion’s den. Facing the building, she looked up at the six-story structure with renewed qualms about the wisdom of this move.

“The truth is, I don’t have much in the way of options,” she muttered.

She squared her shoulders and walked through the front doors. The uniform-clad guard on duty was one who knew her on sight. He nodded in her direction, then went back to reading the paper. The Observer, she noticed, not her family’s paper, the Dispatch. Even burly security guards liked a little scandal, it seemed.

She took the elevator to the fourth floor and quickly found Amy’s apartment. Standing in front of her sister’s door, a dozen doubts flew through Melissa’s mind. What if Amy wouldn’t let her stay? What if she insisted on telling Mom and Dad about the baby? What if none of the family wanted her back?

“One small step at a time, Melissa. That’s all you have to do,” she whispered, remembering Richard’s words.

Taking a deep breath to quell the butterflies in her stomach, she raised her hand and knocked on the door.