Long Memory (10 page)

“What’s that noise?” Jean asked.

“My phone. I’ll be right back.” Who would call him here? Everyone he knew in Atlanta hated him. The reporters all had what they wanted from the story. That left… “Hello, Mother.”

“Hello, son. What have you found out about our little friend?”

“It’s nice to hear from you too. Nonie and Aunt Jean are doing fine. They’re playing checkers right now.” James sat down on the end of the guest bed. This room was a nightmare in Victoriana. He always felt like he was about to destroy something.

“And where is that girl?”

“Out doing Nonie’s grocery shopping.” Before she left, she’d sat at the end of the driveway talking on her phone for a few minutes, but she hadn’t called to check up on him yet. George was right. She was under too much pressure for one person. The neighbors couldn’t be relied upon enough. Once he got another job, he’d hire a nurse to help her.

“Really? Where is she getting the money for that?”

“From Nonie, where else? Mom, I looked at Aunt Jean’s financial records. I couldn’t have done a better job with them. She’s been scrupulous with her bookkeeping. Not a hint of mismanagement.” James decided it would be best if his mother didn’t know about the transposed numbers on the tax return.

“Hmm.”

James braced himself. His mother was working up to something. He hadn’t given her any ammunition, but she didn’t need any.

“You’ve checked everything, have you?”

“I have, Mom. I sat at Nonie’s table and I went over everything for the past five years.”

“Why five years?”

“Because that’s all you have to keep records for, Mom. Remember? I told you to keep your tax record for five years and then shred them. You are shredding everything, right, Mom?”

“Why are you changing the subject?”

Oops. “I’m not changing the subject, Mom.” But not for lack of trying. “I’m making sure you’re handling sensitive financial papers right.”

“You don’t think I know how to deal with my own finances?”

Oops again. All this quiet must be making him sloppy. “Of course I do, Mom. I’m just trying to help.”

“And how much money is that girl helping herself to?”

“Not a dime. She’s spending her own money on them. She takes them out a couple of times a week on her own gas. She keeps track of all their appointments and takes them to the doctor. She’s gardened the backyard, all out of her own pocket. She’s got a lot of sweat equity in this house. It’ll keep the property value high. Mom, you need to accept that Beth is doing something really nice for Nonie and Jean without expecting anything in return.”

“I’ll bet.”

James shook his head. “Beth is doing what we should have been doing all this time.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I mean that she’s been taking care of family that isn’t hers just because she wanted to. She isn’t looking to get anything out of this.”

“Everyone is looking to get something. You know your grandmother is worth at least a half million dollars, if not more.”

James closed his eyes. His mother was working on old figures. Nonie was worth a lot more than a half million dollars now, and so was Jean. A lot of their money was tied up in the houses and all of Nonie’s antiques, but their liquid assets were pretty large as well. “That doesn’t mean everyone is after it.”

“The hell it doesn’t.”

James tried to envision Beth as a gold digger. All he could think of was Beth blushing after she kissed him. The memory of the kiss itself followed shortly after.

“That girl wants something, and if you won’t find out what it is, I will.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I mean, I’m coming to town. I have my plane ticket already and I land on Friday.”

James sprinted for the kitchen calendar. “You land on Friday?” According to the calendar, the festival started Friday. “How are you going to get here?”

“You are going to pick me up at the airport.”

“I don’t know if I can. Somebody needs to be with Nonie and Aunt Jean all the time in case there’s an emergency and Beth has plans that day.”

“She can cancel them.”

“The festival starts that day. She can’t cancel the entire festival.”

“I’m sure your grandmother and great-aunt will be fine by themselves for a few hours.”

“No, Mom, they really won’t.” James held his tongue. Jean had amazing hearing and he didn’t want to hurt her feelings. He also wondered why she wasn’t standing in the door listening. The kitchen phone rang.

“What’s that?” his mother demanded.

“The landline.” James grabbed the phone from the charger and carried it in to Jean.

Nonie picked up the remote control and pressed it to her ear. “Hello?”

“Mom, you don’t need to come out here. Beth and I have everything under control.”

Jean put the phone to her ear. “Hello? Oh hello, Beth. Everything’s fine.”

“Beth and I?” His mother sobbed theatrically. “Is she stealing you from me too?”

“Mom, she’s not stealing anything. I looked at Aunt Jean’s records. I’ve worked for crooks. I know what it looks like, and this looks nothing like that.”

“He’s fighting with his mother on the phone.” Jean beamed at James. James scowled at her. “About you.”

His mother sobbed into the phone. “I can’t believe it. I just can’t believe it. My own son turning on me. Shakespeare said there was nothing sharper than a son’s betrayal.”

“I think that was a woman’s tongue, Mom.”

His mother wailed louder. James put his hand over his face.

“It doesn’t look like it’s going well,” Jean said. “You know Donna.”

“Mother, please. When you come out, I’ll go through Aunt Jean’s records with you. I can show you she’s done nothing wrong.”

“Why skim a little when she can get you and take everything?”

“I’m pretty sure that was never her plan.”

“How do you know? Those Wilsons were always good for nothing.”

“Mom, please stop.” James went back into the bedroom, closed the door and sat with his back to it. He doubted that would stop Jean from listening. “Mom, I’ll pick you up at the airport next Friday. What time does your flight get in?”

“Two thirty-five.” She sniffled. “I had no idea this was going to happen or I never would have let you get near her. She was always such a scrappy little thing. I can’t imagine that she’s at all pretty. I don’t know what she’s doing to you to get you on her side.”

James clenched his jaw. Every response that came to mind would set off a fresh round of crying. “Mom, I’ll see you at the airport.”

“Friday at two thirty-five. From Phoenix.”

“Yes.”

“I love you, sweetie.”

“I love you too, Mom.” James ended the call and closed his phone. Atlanta was starting to sound good. Beth. Jean had been on the phone with Beth. Was she still? James tossed his phone to the middle of the bed and hurried out. Jean leaned over the checkerboard, the phone facedown on the table beside her. “What did Beth say?”

“She’s coming right home.”

“She doesn’t need to come home. It won’t change anything. Is she finished doing what she needed to do?”

Jean shrugged. “She said she had to stop at the grocery store. Maybe it’ll take her a while. Why? You need time to pull yourself together?”

“No.”

“Who called?” Nonie asked.

“Donna,” Jean answered.

“Did you tell her my mother is coming here?”

“Your mother is coming here?” Jean cleared the checkers off the board and started setting up another game.

“Next Friday.”

“You didn’t say that.”

“I had hoped you hadn’t figured it out. I didn’t want you to tell Beth and get her upset.”

“Why would she be upset that your mother is coming?”

James quirked an eyebrow at Jean. “You’re kidding, right?”

“Of course. Don’t worry. We can protect her.”

James sank back in the chair. His mother would be breathing fire when she got to town, and Beth would be in the middle of her festival. How could they protect her?

* * * *

Beth latched the screen door. She’d managed to dodge James’s every attempt to talk while she put away the groceries. Once she’d had to duck into the bathroom for a while, but he’d believed it. After she’d thrown together their dinner, she fled to her apartment.

She wasn’t sure why she didn’t want to have the inevitable conversation. According to Jean, he’d been defending her to Donna, but Donna was his mother. Wouldn’t his mother’s opinion trump all others? If it didn’t trump it, wouldn’t it at least plant a seed of doubt? Settling on the couch, she wrapped her arms around her stomach. Why did Elaine have to pick right now to have her nervous breakdown? Beth needed someone to remind her not to get involved in nowhere relationships. Elaine didn’t get involved in any relationships to the point where half the town thought she was a lesbian and the other half wasn’t sure. Who better to assemble a list of why not to date?

“Hey, Beth? It’s James.”

Beth rolled her eyes. Like she wouldn’t recognize the masculine voice at her door. “Yeah, what is it?” She’d hoped he’d taken the hint when she made dinner at three in the afternoon and latched her screen door.

“Can I talk to you for a minute?”

“I’m kinda busy.” Beth scanned the room for the list of phone calls she was supposed to make this afternoon. Six days to the festival and the whole thing was coming apart at the seams. She should have been working on those calls already.

“Just for a minute.”

Beth closed her eyes. She didn’t know what was behind that door, the lady or the tiger. Well, the man or the tiger anyway. He probably wanted to interrogate her more about the way she handled Nonie and Jean’s money and she wasn’t up to it. She walked over and looked through the screen at him. Elaine needed to define “nowhere relationships” a little better. Did she mean any relationship that didn’t end in a wedding? Was that why she was so utterly single? “Can we do it tomorrow?”

“The game is tomorrow and Nonie and Jean are asleep.”

Beth opened the door. “What does Nonie and Jean being asleep have to do with anything?”

“If Nonie and Jean are asleep, Jean won’t know how long I’ve been down here.”

“And?”

“And then I can kiss you without her figuring it out.” James grinned. “I thought I should warn you since you don’t like surprises.” Then he pulled her into his arms and kissed her.

Beth melted into his embrace. It felt so nice. She felt safe, protected, cared for. Like for once in her life she didn’t have to defend herself. His lips were hard but gentle, and she opened herself to him. All the petty insanity of the past few days drained away. Everything would be all right as long as he was here.

“Now, do you believe that I’m not going to let my mother turn me against you?” he asked when he lifted his face from hers. This close she could see gold flecks in his eyes.

“I think it’ll be harder for her. What does she want?”

James guided her to the couch and sat down with her. “I hate to say it, but my mother is greedy and she thinks everyone else is as greedy as she is.”

Beth laced her fingers in her lap. She supposed she should protest that he shouldn’t think about his mother like that, but considering how she felt about her own family she couldn’t summon the energy to throw stones at that glass house. “I’m sure she’s doing what she thinks is best.”

“So was Mark, my boss in Atlanta. It just wasn’t the right best thing. My relationship with my mother isn’t why I’m here.”

“It isn’t?” Beth wondered which “here” he meant. Here as in Nonie’s house or here on her couch.

“I wanted to thank you for taking care of my grandmother and my great-aunt.”

“You’re welcome.”

James took her hands in his. “When my mother gets here, she’s going to be difficult and I really wanted to say thank you now before I forgot.”