Hideaway Hill (7 page)

Veronica adjusted her shirt and made an
effort to go back to cleaning, but her mind was in a million
places. When the doorbell rang, Veronica was happy to put down her
dust cloth to answer the door. Arthur was still outside and she
preferred him there. As she opened the door, an unexpected face
greeted her. There in the doorway, with a tin can in her hands was
Carol Darwood. She had aged a little since the last time Veronica
had seen her, but she still held the grace and beauty Veronica
hoped to have at her age. Mrs. Darwood at five feet four inches
stood straight and proud like a model walking the runway. Even
though she had a few wrinkles, the rest of her face was just as
smooth and flawless as before. Her blue eyes twinkled at the sight
of Veronica standing at the door. She had a light pink hat that
matched her pant suit. Veronica could see a few gray hairs had come
undone from her bun; still, Carol looked well polished as
always.

“
Mrs. Darwood, what a
surprise! How are you?”

Carol was quiet for a moment. Veronica
realized she hadn’t put any makeup on when she woke up. Not
expecting company, she wasn’t too worried about the bruises on her
face, since she was staying indoors all day. Her face looked a lot
better, but one could see the marks in the right light. Standing in
the doorway at ten thirty in the morning, was all the light needed
to see the blotches on her face. Plus, from the lack of sleep, she
was certain she looked an utter mess. Reading her as if she was her
own daughter, Carol smiled and motioned towards the tin-can in her
hands.

“
I brought you welcome home
cookies.” With a raised eyebrow, she lifted the tin a little
higher. “Since you haven’t made it a point to come see me yet, I
needed a reason to come see you.”

Veronica gave her a coy smile and stepped
back.

“
Won’t you come
in?”

As Carol walked in, Veronica noticed how she
took inventory of the house. When her parents came to stay in
Alabama with her, it was more or less a last minute thing, and they
ended up leaving a lot of the furniture behind. Arthur wanted all
new items for the house, but she was able to talk him into keeping
a few belongings of her parents. Veronica guided her towards the
living room so they could sit. Before sitting, Carol placed the tin
on the end-table.

“
Can I get you something to
drink, Mrs. Darwood?”

“
Oh, no, thank you,
darling.”

Carol rubbed the sofa with her hand as she
looked up at Veronica and smiled.

“
I like what you’ve done
here. I’m sure your parents would be proud.” She sighed as her gaze
roamed the room again. “I still remember the first time I came over
here. I questioned years later, if Blake hadn’t had been such a
klutz and broken your arm, would I ever really have had the chance
to get to know you or your parents.”

Her bottom lip quivered and she looked
Veronica in the eyes. All Veronica could think about was that Blake
had his mother’s eyes. Those blue eyes were a very strong trait.
She felt a lump form in her throat, but pushed it down.

“
I’m sorry to hear about
your parents.” Carol spoke in such a small voice, Veronica knew she
was trying to maintain some composure. Without hesitation, Veronica
moved to sit next to her and reached to grab Carol’s
hand.

When Arthur entered in the house, he pulled
the women out of their moment of silence. He didn’t seem too
surprised to see Carol sitting in the living room. A slight chill
ran up Veronica’s back at the sight of Arthur. With a nervous
chuckle, she jumped up and launched into introductions.

“
Arthur, sweetie, this is
Mrs. Darwood. She brought over cookies as a welcoming gift. Mrs.
Darwood, this is Arthur, my fiancé.”

Carol stood too and stuck out her hand.

“
It’s a pleasure to meet
you.”

As they greeted one another, Veronica
watched as Blake’s mother eyed Arthur warily.

“
Well, I must be leaving. I
still need to make a few stops before I head home.”

With that, Mrs. Darwood headed for the door,
followed by Veronica. Arthur waved and picked up the tin of cookies
and began to dig through it, showing indifference to the elderly
lady. At the door, Carol stopped and gazed at Veronica. She placed
a soft hand on her cheek—where one of the bruises was—and stroked
it gently.

“
Don’t be a stranger,
darling.”

Without another word, Mrs. Darwood left.

Veronica closed the door and leaned against
it for a moment before returning to the living room. She noticed
that Arthur in the process of going upstairs to take a shower, left
the cookie tin wide open on the couch. She picked the can up and
headed for the kitchen. Looking at the goodies, she decided to
leave them on the counter for Arthur to finish at his leisure. He
hadn’t washed his hands before picking through the container. Her
hip rested against the counter and she closed her eyes. She could
hear Arthur humming in the shower, the neighbors out working on the
lawns, and the kids playing in the yards. Bringing her hand up to
her temples, she began to massage the side of her head, in hopes of
relieving the sharp pain. This was the ninth headache she had in a
matter of a month. She prayed it wasn’t going to become a trend.
The last time her headaches were like this, was after her parents
were murdered.

Chapter 5

T
he last week had gone by without a hitch. Once again, Blake
counted the days that passed in which he didn’t have a run-in with
Veronica. The last time he had seen her, she looked upset as she
practically ran out of Gilligan’s. He’d seen Miller lurking around
the corner and questioned him on if he knew what was going on, but
he said he had no idea what Blake was talking about. He tried his
best to push the feeling of something being wrong with Veronica out
of his mind while he was out with Lindsay. He kept reminding
himself she was no longer his concern, and he was on a date with
Lindsay—a woman who grew up in Surpatch and who would maybe one day
make a good Mayor’s wife.

After Veronica waltzed out of his life,
Blake was depressed. He tried to hide it by keeping busy, but when
he was alone, all he could think about was Veronica. The way she
looked, her incredible smell, how her dimple showed when she
smiled, and her laughter that seemed to fill the air. As time went
on, he knew people would talk if he didn’t start to date
again—since he was one of the town’s most eligible bachelors. He
found that most of the girls were either pretty with no personality
or homely-looking and would do way too much to please him. He also
had an issue with the color of their skin-tone. He knew his
complexion probably faired in comparison to theirs, but they all
seemed just too pale. Veronica’s tone was always a radiant color.
When they were a couple, he would spend hours staring at the
features of her skin, running his hand over the smooth silky
texture.

The first date he went on was with Batrice
Jackson. She was rather shocked when he asked her out, but still
agreed. Her lineage went back almost as far as the Darwoods’ in
Surpatch. As one of the longest standing African American families
living in Surpatch, her father owned the only blacksmith shop in
the area. Since most people knew her, Blake figured they would be a
perfect match. He was wrong. They went out on two dates before
calling it quits. After Batrice, Blake dated Karen Wellock. She
wasn’t African American descent, but she tanned a lot in Webster
City. Her skin-tone didn’t come close to Veronica’s; nevertheless,
he liked her. They dated for almost a year before her mother became
ill, and the family moved to a bigger city for her to receive
medical treatment. They kept in contact until Karen fell in love
with a lawyer, and got married. At that point, Blake started to
wonder if he would find someone who was right for him.

Lindsay, like Veronica, had gone away for
college. The only difference was that she came back after college.
One day while hanging out with Miller and Parker, Lindsay
approached them and asked if she could by Blake a drink. He thought
it was cute. He sensed she was nervous, her face was beet red, but
she stood her ground. She didn’t tan as much as Karen, but she
still had an okay complexion. The only problem were a few of her
quirks, which over the years had caused them to break up a couple
of times. One thing Blake loved about Lindsay was her straight
black hair. It was always shiny, and he loved to run his fingers
through it. He hated to admit it, but it was the same texture as
Veronica’s. Besides that, the ladies had nothing else in common.
Standing next to Hayley, the women looked about the same height, so
Lindsay couldn’t be more than five foot three. She had soft, dark
brown eyes and a good head on her shoulders. However, she too, at
times seemed quick to want to please him. Having this discussion
with Miller often—Miller had always thought it was wonderful that a
woman would want to do anything to make him happy—Blake liked to
have more of a challenge. He didn’t want a woman to give him
everything he requested with no consequence to herself. Lindsay was
a year older than Veronica and a year younger than him, so they all
went to high school together. When they first started to date, she
insisted on knowing all the details of his and Veronica’s
relationship. Lindsay claimed she was worried that he wasn’t over
Veronica yet, even though it had been years since Veronica zipped
out of town. No matter how many times he tried to explain he was
over Veronica, he knew Lindsay never quite believed him. Veronica’s
first night back in Surpatch, and Blake’s reaction to seeing her,
confirmed Lindsay’s suspicions.

With Veronica back in town and Lindsay on
the defense, Blake felt off-kilter. He was now working overtime.
Besides trying to run a town, Blake spent most of his days fighting
the battle between hating Veronica, and just trying to be her
friend, and the other half, trying to figure out a way to show
Lindsay that he did care for her. She wanted to get married, but he
didn’t think marriage was the answer for them yet. They still had a
few more hurdles to jump before he knew he could ask her to be his
wife. While at the Watering Hole, after Veronica stormed out, Blake
did his best to make Lindsay believe seeing Veronica had done
nothing to damper his mood for the evening. It was a Friday night
so a lot of the tables were put away to open the floor up for
dancing. Though Lindsay was skeptical, she eventually loosened up
and they had a good time.

Blake walked into Zimmerman’s Bakery and all
happy thoughts of how he and Lindsay were going to spend the
weekend, after his parents’ thirty-fifth wedding anniversary went
out the window. Being the only bakery in town, Zimmerman’s was
opened Monday through Friday. His mother’s favorite bread came from
the bakery, so Blake figured he would swing by and pick some up for
their family dinner that night. It was lunch time, and he was
surprised the bakery wasn’t packed. He also was surprised to find
Veronica standing at the counter placing an order. She hadn’t
noticed his entrance. This gave him time to gather himself.
Approaching the counter, Leo Zimmerman called out to him.

“
Hey, Mr. Mayor, I’ll be
right with you.”

As Leo announced Blake’s
presence, Veronica’s back straightened. She turned and flashed him
a brilliant smile. His heart stopped beating.
Why did she have to smile?
Blake
needed to keep a clear mind. He swallowed and adjusted his tie
before speaking.

“
We just keep running into
each other, don’t we?”

His composure was failing. A nervous chuckle
rumbled in his chest as he placed his hand on the counter. Her
smile dimmed a little bit, but she chuckled too.

“
Yes, we do. How are you
today, Mayor?”

Blake liked the way ‘Mayor’ sounded coming
from her lips. As Veronica called him by is title, her lips pulled
into a smirk. Without thinking, his gaze shifted to her cheeks. He
heard both stories in the last few days. The one Parker told him
through Hayley, and the one his mother called to tell him. Blake
couldn’t see any bruises, and she wasn’t wearing any makeup. With
all of his heart, he wanted to believe Hayley’s story was true, and
that a box hit her, yet his mother was so sure the bruises were in
the shape of fingers. Carol felt bad about calling Blake, but she
and Hayley had lunch the day before, and Hayley talked about how
weird Arthur acted while they were out having ladies’ night. His
mother wanted nothing more than to believe that it was just her
imagination, still she wanted Blake to know. It had taken him
almost an hour to try to make her understand that Veronica was not
his concern. Besides being an excellent listener when it came to
his relationship issues, Carol had pretty much stayed out of his
love life. She was fond of Lindsay, but the moment she heard
Veronica was moving back to town, she secretly hoped they might
reconnect. She told him so, one day when the news first broke.
Carol wanted to see him happy again, and the happiest he’d been was
with Veronica.

It had just started to rain outside. Blake
could hear the raindrops hitting the roof. As the downpour began to
pound against the building, Veronica turned to look out the huge
store front window. Blake hadn’t realized it, but he had been
staring at Veronica, perhaps too long. She gave him a quizzical
glance. Time melted away and Blake absentmindedly reached his hand
up to touch the side of her face. Catching on to what he was about
to do, Veronica backed up.

“
Blake, what are you
doing?” her voice lashed out in a sharp crack.