Love Me ~ Like That (11 page)

“Really, Bailey, do you want to go there right now?”

I guess that answers my question. He gives me a glare before he returns to that perfect smile. I can’t help but wonder if she is someone from his past or someone who wants to be in his future. Something tells me that she is someone in his past. I plaster a smile on my face. I can do this. I’m not going to let something in the past bother me now. Your past is in the past for a reason.

I don’t see any empty tables besides the ones which seat six or eight. I wonder if we are that late. He keeps walking like he has a destination in mind, so I keep walking. The dining room is beautiful with real flowers on every table. A gigantic chandelier hangs from the center, casting prisms of color from the sparkling crystals. I wouldn’t want to be the person in charge of keeping that fixture clean. Too many little doodads are hanging from the lamp. I wouldn’t be able to keep track of what I’d cleaned and what needed to be cleaned.

I am too busy taking in the room to notice where we are headed. We stop and Hendrix gestures where he wants me to sit. He pulls out his chair to sit as the waiter gets mine.

“Hmmumm.”

I hear a throat clearing, and I look over to my left at a woman I presume is his mother. No, I am not meeting his mom. Tell me this is not the night. She is dressed impeccably and her hair is the most beautiful shade of blonde. Actually, the strands look like spun silk. She has her arms crossed. Her smile looks as fake I’m sure as her hair color is.

“Hendrix, who is this, dear?”

I snap my gaze to his. I’m sure my eyes are as wide as saucers. This is where I lose my appetite. I like to prepare myself for these kinds of things, give myself a little pep talk.

“This is Bailey. Mother, I told you I was bringing her.”

He is seated between the two of us. I suddenly feel very uncomfortable and heat rises in my face. That wasn’t a real introduction. She is looking at me with disgust, or what I think is disgust. She has a hard time moving her face. I hear that happens with Botox. All I want to do is crawl under the table. There’s enough room for me; no one has to know I’m here. No. I’m confident and sweet. I can meet anyone, anytime. Nothing fazes me. The quick pep talk doesn’t help, but what can I do? It’s now or never. Show her what you’re made of Bailey. I hold my head up and put my shoulders back. I learned that from watching Dirty Dancing. A positive and confident attitude changes everything. I’ll show her I’m self-assured and mature.

I smile as sweetly as possible. “Hello Mrs. Livingston, I’m Bailey Reynolds. It is a pleasure to finally meet you.” I offer my hand. She looks at my hand with amusement on her face. I’m not sure what I have done to offend her already, but I can tell she isn’t very happy. She looks at Hendrix.

“What does she mean by “to finally meet” me, Hendrix?”

She sneers, and I pull my hand away and settle back in my seat. I can tell already that I don’t like her. Has he never mentioned me in all of the time we have been dating?

“Can we just eat, Mother? I know how much you dislike tardiness.”

I fiddle with the silverware on the table to have something to do with my hands. I get a curious look from Hendrix, so I stop and reach for my glass of water, nearly knocking it over. I decide to place my hands in my lap where they will be safe. I take my cue from Hendrix and Mrs. Livingston and place my napkin in my lap as the waiter places salads in front of us. I haven’t even ordered yet. I give Hendrix a puzzled look.

He rolls his eyes. “Bailey, Mother takes the liberty of ordering for her guests.” He pats her on her hand.

At least I know which fork to use, so I don’t look completely stupid. Looking at my salad, I smile and wait for Mrs. Livingston to start eating. The waiter is back filling wine glasses, “Oh, none for me, thank you. Would you have any sweet tea?” They don’t of course have any, and no I don’t want to sweeten it myself.

“You can’t be serious. Where did you find this one, Hendrix? On a farm?”

She looks very amused with herself, and I can feel my face flush, “I actually went to school with Hendrix. We took Business Law together our junior year,” I say in my most satisfied, up your ass, bitch voice. I can’t be sweet to someone who is that much of a bitch.

When the waiter brings our next course, he sits a small black metal dish in front of each of us containing shells and green pesto looking stuff. He places a small utensil with two prongs and some funny looking tongs.

He must notice the discomfort on my face because he leans to straighten the tablecloth and whispers in my ear, “Escargot à la Bourguignonne.”

I’m not one hundred percent sure exactly what that is, but I seem to recall escargot being snails, and the more I look at the shells, I can tell they are snails.
Lovely.

Behind us I hear a commotion.

“Miss, miss, you can’t go in dressed like that,” a stern male voice says.

Everyone turns to see what is happening.

“Like hell I can’t. Who is going to stop me?”

I’d know that voice anywhere. I close my eyes and say a silent prayer. I shrink three sizes and turn.

Hendrix grabs my elbow and pulls me to him. “What is Elizabeth doing here?”

He is beyond mad. Lizzie is frantically looking around for me. I cringe when I see her cut-off blue jean shorts, tank top, and flip-flops. I give him a small shrug. His mother is sitting with her mouth wide open. I’m sure she will have a lot to say about this.

Lizzie notices me about the time I stand. Something has to be wrong for her to show up here. She would avoid this place at all cost, otherwise.

“Elizabeth, why are you here? I know you’re not an invited guest.” He leans in and whispers so only we can hear him, “You skank ass hoe.”

I wouldn’t be surprised if Lizzie didn’t knock the crap out of him. She doesn’t take shit off of anyone, especially when something’s going on.

“Shut up, pompous ass or I will cut off your fucking nuts.”

She’s in his face. I’m hoping no one else can hear her, but that Lizzie has never been known to be quiet. I see that she has been crying because her eyes are all red rimmed.

“Bailey, it’s Granny. They think she’s had a heart attack. I’ve been calling you. Why haven’t you answered your phone?”

I look at her bewildered.
What?
Granny has had a heart attack? She seemed fine when I left her.

“Never mind why, we have to go, now!” She pulls my arm.

“Young lady, you will settle yourself down this instant,” says Mrs. Livingston. “You are not to come into this country club dressed like a vagrant and you are to lower your voice. Only trash uses language like that. Were you not raised any better than that?”

Lizzie looks over at me, and I know what is about to happen. I can’t do much to stop it. You can’t talk about our raising and not have Lizzie go off on you.

I pull on Lizzie’s arm, trying to get her attention. “Come on, Lizzie. Let’s go.”

“Really, Hendrix, you found a real winner this time,” Mrs. Livingston flips her hands in my direction.

She’s added fuel to the flame with her nasty comment.

“Like hell I will. Our granny is on her deathbed and you want me to calm down? I see where your son gets his pretentious ass from now. Let me tell you something. The clothes you wear don’t make you who you are. It is what you are on the inside that counts. I would much rather have a good heart than all the money in the world. Now, you can take your thumb and stick it up your egotistical ass! You are nothing but an old washed up ninny. Come on, Bailey, we need to go.” Lizzie pulls my hand.

“I will text you later, okay?” I tell Hendrix, and I see he looks upset. I glance at Mrs. Livingston. I know I need to say it was nice to meet her, but it wasn’t nice to meet her and with the way she treated Lizzie, I can’t bring myself to acknowledge her. As we walk away, I hear Hendrix’s mom whispering to him. I can’t make out what she is saying and I can’t summon up any reason to care what she thinks at the moment. I leave without a glance back at them.

We rush out of the country club to Lizzie’s VW Beetle, which is waiting for us at the door. The valet doesn’t look very happy.

“He should apologize to you for his bitch of a mother. You look adorable, by the way,” Lizzie says.

A tear runs down my face, and I try to catch it before she notices. I look in my purse for my phone.
Shit
, “I guess I forgot my phone at home. Thank you for coming to get me. How is Granny? Do we know anything?” I wring my hands.

Lizzie is flying down streets and running lights. She can’t drive on a good day, much less in an emergency.

“Did you want me to drive?” I look at her and she cuts her eyes over to me. I know that means not to start on her driving.

“We don’t know anything yet. Cash was there and heard her fall. He called 911 and got Papa to the hospital.” She whips into the emergency room parking lot nearly taking out another car then looks at me. “Not a word.”

No way am I going to say anything. I know how she gets when she is all panicky. As long as she doesn’t talk about my parking, I won’t say a word about her driving. Plus she’s in as much of a hurry to get to the hospital as I am. This is her family, too. She squeals into a parking place, pulls the emergency brake and is out of the car before I can get my seatbelt undone.

“Bailey, are you coming?”

Running across the parking lot, we rush through the emergency room doors. Lizzie heads straight for the nurses’ desk, and I look around for our family. I don’t recognize anyone. Where the hell is everyone? Lizzie motions for me to follow her, and we head to the elevators.

“They have moved her up to surgery.” Lizzie pushes the button several times.

She’s already in surgery? How much have I missed
? The elevator takes forever. Decatur, Alabama isn’t that big. Is everyone in the whole damn city here? Finally, we hear the ding of the elevator. This time, I’m the one pulling on Lizzie. Thankfully, the elevator doesn’t seem to take as long getting us to the 3rd floor as it did to arrive at the lobby.

When the door opens across from the OR waiting room, I see Mom, Dad, my younger brother, Jake, and a few cousins who are sitting with Papa. Mom gets up and hugs my neck, and shakes her head and tears well up in her eyes. “We’ve been worried about you, Bailey. Why didn’t you answer your phone, honey?”

“Mom, I accidentally left it at home because we were in a hurry. I’m here now, though. Do we know anything? How’s Papa taking all of this?”

“He seems to respond well to Cash, the new neighbor. At least for a few minutes at a time.”

Dad and Jake are deep into conversation. I give them each a hug then glance over at Papa. He looks like he could use some cheering up. I walk over and kneel in front of him because there isn’t an empty seat next to him.

He gazes at me with an expression I’ve never seen on him before. He looks scared, defeated and his eyes have changed to a deeper green. This can’t be easy for him. I don’t know if I will be able to help, but I am going to try. From past experience, I know it’s better if we don’t let him get too upset.

The elevator doors open and a beautiful vision in white steps off. Bailey looks like an angel, and I want to be the devil that corrupts her. Her lips are absolutely perfect with a slightly puckered pout. I shouldn’t be thinking like that with all of this commotion. She isn’t even aware of what is going on around her because she’s so focused on Mr. Jackson. She smiles and even if it makes me sound sappy, I would swear her expression takes away my breath.

“Hey, Papa. Everything is going to be okay. Granny is a strong woman and she isn’t going to let a little thing like this stop her.” Bailey says.

She gently strokes his hand. Tears are in his eyes and his weathered beat-up hands are atop his cane. So much pain is reflected in Bailey’s eyes and I can hear the agony in her voice.

“You don’t understand. That’s my life in there.” He looks away.

I can literally feel my heart breaking for him.

“I love her and I’m not whole without her. She is part of my soul. I’m scared to lose her,” Mr. Jackson says. “We have been married sixty-five years.”

He looks at me. I’m going to lose it because this is some deep emotional shit.