Heartbreak, Tennessee (20 page)

“Amber, do you suppose
I could at least come in for a minute?”

As Amber turned and
finally gave him a smile, a tentative dimply freckle-faced smile that made his
heart leap and flip and flutter down again and convinced him that everything
was going to work out after all, he tossed his keys onto the table by the door
and glanced down briefly.

Long enough to notice
the little black box.

A velvet box.

Containing the biggest
diamond ring he’d ever seen in his life.

Mac froze. Amber
followed his gaze and, seeing the box on the table, started.

“Oh, no,” she
breathed. “The ring.”

Mac stepped back, as
though the ring were an exposed high voltage line, and looked from Amber to the
ring and back at Amber.

“An engagement ring? When
exactly were you planning to tell me about this?”

“It’s not what you think—”

“Not what I think? Tell,
me, for what other occasion does a man give a woman a piece of jewelry like
this? Was this from that guy who called the other day?”

“Well, yes, but—”

Mac slammed his fist
on the door, nearly splintering the cheap wood. “Do...you...have any idea...”

Any idea that he’d
been about to open his heart and soul to her one more time?

That he’d planned to
ask the question that another man had beaten him to?

“Forget it,” he
muttered. “Forget the whole thing.”

“Give me a chance to
explain,” Amber pleaded, crossing the room and laying a hand on his arm, a hand
that was cool and soft and promised pleasure and love and nearly stopped him in
his tracks.

Almost, but not quite.
Mac was enough of an expert on hurt to know that if he stayed, this was one
hurt he wouldn’t survive.

“No explanation
needed.”

CHAPTER
ELEVEN

“You’ve been crying!”

Sheryn took one look
at Amber and threw an arm around her shoulders, pulling her into the room.

“It’s okay, I don’t
want to intrude,” Amber snuffled, dotting her eyes with a wadded Kleenex. “I
was just getting ready for the city council meeting and—but I’ll be fine,
I just need a minute.”

Gray and Sheryn stared
at her for a moment.

“Fine,” Gray echoed
solemnly.

“Yes. I’ve looked over
your notes on our counterarguments and I think—”

“Girl, if that’s what
you call fine, I’d hate to see you when you’re having a
bad
day.”

Amber ran her fingers
through her unruly hair and sighed. So much for attempting business as usual. Oh,
hang those Sawyers. They knew her much too well.

“Dean came to visit
last night,” she managed in a wobbly voice. “He left this.”

She pulled the little
box out of her purse and tossed it to Sheryn, the same little box that had
caused so much trouble. “I can’t even stand to look at the thing.”

Sheryn gave a low
whistle as she opened it. “This must be at least three carats! But isn’t an
engagement ring traditionally worn on the finger, rather than carried in a
purse?”

“Well, yes. That’s the
problem. I’m not engaged.”

“I’m confused,” Gray
broke in, dragging a chair around for Amber, which she gratefully sank into. “Dean
drives six hours to pop the question, and you turn him down and hang him out to
dry —and he still gives you a ring? I don’t guess I’d have been feeling
quite so generous, myself.”

“No, he didn’t give it
to me. I mean, he left it. See, he told me to take some time to think, but I
didn’t need any time, but I guess he left it because he thought I might change
my mind.”

“But you won’t,” Sheryn
said gently. “Right? You have no intention of giving that poor boy another
thought. ‘Cause you’ve gone and fallen in love with somebody else.”

Gripping the arms of
her chair, Amber nodded mutely, tears spilling over her lashes and trailing
down her cheeks.

“That McBaine fellow,”
Gray said helpfully. “Seemed like a decent guy to me.”

“Oh, Gray,” Sheryn
said impatiently. “Go fetch us some coffee, will you? This isn’t exactly your
line of work.”

“Thanks,” Amber
mumbled miserably. “You guys are the best.”

“No problem, sweetie,”
Gray said, bending to give her a kiss on the cheek. “And by the way, don’t get
too worked up over that city council meeting. There’s been a change of plans.”

Patting her shoulder,
he gave her a broad wink and left, closing the door softly behind him.

Change of plans. That
didn’t sound good. Even through her misery Amber’s mind raced with
possibilities: there were any number of roadblocks Mac could create if he
wanted to take his anger out on the project. She rubbed her eyes and blew her
nose on a Kleenex that Sheryn offered. Then she looked expectantly at Sheryn
for an explanation.

“What sort of change? Did
they move the meeting?”

“No, not exactly...but
let’s talk about
you
some more before
we get into all that.”

“No. You first. What happened to the meeting? Did Mac—that is—”

“It had nothing to do
with Mac.” Sheryn was turning slightly pink. “You see, I had a change of heart
myself.”

“You did? What do you
mean?”

“Well, this whole
small town thing—I mean, don’t get me wrong, I
love
this place. I really do. But I got to thinking, if we put the
park up here, I’d have to be coming around at least every month or so, dragging
everyone along with me. You know, it wouldn’t be fair to ask Gray to keep
hauling himself down here, not to mention what it would do to his workload.”

Realization dawned on
Amber.

“You’ve given up on
building the park?”

“Well, not necessarily
forever—aw, what the heck, Amber, I’m not like you. I’m going crazy here,
trying to figure out what to do next. I’ve bought everything worth buying and
eaten everything worth eating and seen everything there is to see and—and
frankly, I’m going to lose my mind if I have to stay here much longer.”

“I see,” Amber said,
and a wave of relief passed through her, lifting for a second a little of the
gloom in her heart. “You know, I hate to admit it, but I can’t tell you how
glad I am to hear you say that. Even if things...even if Mac and I don’t work
out, I have to admit I would kind of hate to see anything happen to this place.”

“Starting to feel like
home again, is it?”

Amber turned away to
hide the pain in her eyes. “Actually, I—I think that I may have just lost
my last chance to call this place home.”

“Nonsense,” Sheryn
said. “I don’t want to hear that kind of talk from you.”

“But you don’t understand. He saw the ring, and he was so angry—”

“A simple
misunderstanding.” Sheryn wrinkled her nose. “Believe me, the road to happily
ever after is littered with ‘em. If I had a nickel for every time I was ready
to hang Gray, I’d be loaded.”

“You
are
loaded, Sheryn,” Amber reminded her.
“But...I think you might have a point.”

“That’s right, Sugar,”
Sheryn nodded. “Trust me on this one and go out there and give it your all. What
have you got to lose?”

“‘I think you forgot
to take this with you,’“ Amber wrote carefully on the piece of paper the postal
clerk had given her. “I’ve thought about it, as you asked, and I’m afraid my
answer is still no. I’ll call you when I get back.”

She signed her name
with a sigh and folded the note carefully.

“Can you sell me a
real secure box? I need to be absolutely sure this gets where it’s going.” She
took the small black velvet box from her pocked and laid it on the counter.

“Why, sure,” the clerk
said, and began rummaging around behind the counter. “I imagine we can come up
with something.”

Something about the
man looked familiar to Amber, and she studied him carefully. Kind smile, eyes
the color of faded denim, deep dimples on both sides of his mouth...

“Hutch Stapleton, is
that you?”

The clerk straightened
and stared at Amber hard. “Why yes ma’am, guilty as charged, but—”

Then a shock of
recognition lit up his face.

“Amber.” He said
softly, and his smile became even softer.

Maybe he remembered
that first stolen kiss, too.

Amber blushed a little
and nodded. “You know, when I came to town, I was in such a rush I decided I
wouldn’t look anyone up. Now I’m kind of sorry. It sure is nice to see you
again. How’re your folks?”

“Fine, fine,” Hutch
said, taking the little box and nestling it into a cardboard box stuffed with
crumpled paper. Then he taped and tied it until it would have taken a stick of
dynamite to disturb the contents inside, talking all the while. “I married Sue
Manchewski, you might have heard. We’ve got twins now.”

“Twins! How wonderful!
Boys or girls?”

“Little girls, coming
up on six. Jenny and Bix. Well, Bix is really Beatrice—”

“—after your
mother,” Amber finished for him. A memory of the woman, stocky, with work-worn
hands, came to her mind. How many dozens of times had she sat at Beatrice
Stapleton’s kitchen table after school, sharing fresh-baked cookies and milk
with Hutch? “How is she?”

Hutch frowned,
snipping the ends of the twine carefully. “Well, I’m afraid she passed away
last year,” he said. “I’m just glad we had the time we did with her. I was
offered a job up in Blountville—remember my cousin Hal, he’s got a Chevy
dealership up there now—but Sue and I decided to stay here in Heartbreak.
Best decision we ever made,” he added, pushing the package towards her across
the counter for her inspection.

“You’ve been happy
here, then?”

“Yeah. I got to be
near Mom, and then there’s Sue’s family, too. But I tell you, the best is
taking Jenny and Bix around and showing ‘em all the places we used to go. Looking
up at the stars in that big old field behind Hawk’s place—remember doing
that? Or getting a banana split down at the Penguin Point on a hot day. Heck, I’ve
even got the girls fishing down at the creek. Some days I close my eyes and
think I’m eight years old again.”

Hutch laughed, and
Amber heard true contentment in his voice. For a moment she was overwhelmed by
it, moved nearly to tears by the simple pleasures he described.

Hutch had never had a
glamorous life, and the years had added some pounds around his middle, a fine
map of lines around his eyes, thick calluses on his hands. But at that moment
Amber would have given everything she had to bask in the simple rewards he’d
earned.

But maybe she still
had a chance.

“Hutch, thank you,”
she said, lettering Dean’s address with care, and handing him some bills to
cover postage for the neat little package. “I don’t—I’m sorry that I didn’t
stay in touch all these years. I think I may have missed out on a wonderful
friendship. But maybe I’ll get another chance someday. Give my love to Sue,
will you please?

“I sure will, Amber. You
look just as pretty as ever,” he added. “I’m sorry I didn’t recognize you at
first. Your hair’s different, and you’re dressing a little different too.
Still, the minute I really studied you, I knew it was you.”

Amber impulsively
leaned across the counter to plant a quick kiss on Hutch’s cheek, as innocent
and fleeting as that kiss so long ago. As she opened the glass door of the post
office to leave, Hutch called after her.

“Hey, have you seen
Mac since you were in town?”

Amber turned and gave
Hutch an uncertain smile. “As a matter of fact, I’m on my way to see him now.”

“He always was crazy
about you,” Hutch said. “Y’all sure had something special, even back then. I
have to admit...I always envied that guy. He had it all.”

“No,” Amber said
softly. “
You’re
the one who has it
all.”

She knew he wasn’t
there even before she knocked. The house seemed too still somehow, his absence
something she sensed inside. His truck was gone, too.

Inside, the dogs began
barking when she knocked.

“Hi guys,” she called.
“Hush now, hear?”

Hearing her voice, the
dogs escalated their chorus to baying and howling. They sounded so mournful
that Amber sighed and tried the door. Unlocked, of course.

She gave it a good
shove and was nearly knocked down by the two beagles, who leapt up and placed
their front paws against her legs, barking joyfully. Then they seemed to
remember their manners and stopped jumping, rolling instead onto the backs to
show her their twin plump bellies, speckled with pink freckles in the white
fur.