Once and Again: Petal, Georgia, Book 1 (3 page)

Lily turned to see a petite blonde with a baby so clearly her own in one of those baby-carrier things women wore, her hands full of bags. Next to her a sleek-looking, visibly pregnant brunette holding the hand of a preschooler.

Suddenly the place was awash with Chase wives. Lily smiled at the blonde. “Hey you.”

Tate Murphy, or rather, given the pictures her mother had taken at her wedding reception, Tate Chase, hugged her around the baby in the sling. “Oh my God! Lily! You’re here. Beth said you’d be in town a bit.”

“You look fabulous.” She looked her friend over after they broke the hug. “Marriage suits you. Then again, if I was married to Matt Chase, I’d look satisfied and a little bit smug about it too.”

Tate grinned. “I have a very good life and that includes a pretty tasty-looking man to come home to every night. It’s good to see you. Olivia? You remember Lily?”

Lily looked around Tate and smiled at the woman she remembered from back in the day. “Marc Chase I hear. My mom keeps me apprised of all the comings and goings. Congratulations to you too.”

“You were a few grades down from me. I was in Nancy’s class.”

Olivia sent a raised brow to Tate, who laughed. “It’s okay, Lily knows what her sister is.” Tate turned back to Lily as they moved to put all the bags of food on the counter. “Give me an update. What’s going on with things?”

She told them a little, just the basics. If Nathan was still close to his sister—and she knew he would be—he’d tell her himself. He valued family; it was one of the things she’d admired about him, and he and Tate were especially tight.

“Well, I’m glad to have you back.” Tate held the curve of the baby in the sling as she leaned down to kiss the toddler in Cassie’s arms. “Beth’s been so happy to have you around. I’m glad you’re back for good.”

“I need to call her. I’ve been meaning to, but things keep getting in the way. I haven’t spoken to her in a week.”

“She’ll understand. Sounds like you’ve had a lot to do.”

“Yeah. Speaking of that, I have to get going. I need to pick Chris up from school and I want to drop some stuff off first. Cassie, it was nice meeting you. Nice seeing you again, Liv. Tate, when you see Beth, please tell her I’ll be calling.” She paid for the books and said her goodbyes once more before heading out to her car.

“Lily.”

She looked up to see Tate coming out of the store.

“Nathan would like to see you too, I’m sure.”

“I’ve been over to the high school already. He’s one of Chris’s teachers.”

“He’s single.”

“Not surprised. But it has nothing to do with me.”

“I know he did you wrong.
He
knows he did you wrong. But you two were good together.”

It was impossible not to love Tate Chase. “Subtlety is not your strong point.”

Tate laughed and hugged Lily again. “I fully expect you to be at Shane and Cassie’s house for Martini Friday. All my sisters will be there. All the Chase wives. We’ve got a great group of friends and I know you’d fit in like you never left.”

She paused. It had been hard…after the breakup. She’d had to distance herself from the Murphys and it had felt as if she lost part of her family. They hadn’t made her feel bad or anything, but just being around them made her think of Nathan and she couldn’t do it. It would be a good thing to have a group of close women friends again. “All right. Thank you for asking.”

Tate scribbled down an address and handed it back.

The baby in the carrier squealed and kicked her legs. Her smile was as easy and charming as Matt’s had been back in the day.

“You and Matt sure do make some sweet kids.”

“This is Elizabeth, but we call her Lil Beth. She’s pretty much all about her daddy except when she’s hungry.”

“Can’t blame her. She’s clearly got good taste.”

Tate’s already wide smile brightened. “I’m glad you’re back, Lily. I’ve missed having you around.”

Maybe, just maybe—she mused as she drove slowly through town, calling out her hellos through the open windows—she missed being around too.

Nathan walked into his sister’s house and grinned at the sight. He didn’t bother knocking or using the bell. No one would have heard it anyway.

This was his life. Filled with all these people he loved. Not a bad way to end a day.

Tate and Matt’s house was the chief gathering place for the Murphy siblings. Wall-to-wall adults, kids out in the spacious backyard playing and running. It was normal. Nice and normal. And totally noisy.

Nathan and his siblings didn’t have much normal when they were growing up in that tiny, suffocating trailer. But Tate had raised them, had given them all as much love as they’d needed and more. And now she was an amazing mother to her two children and her husband adored her. No one deserved it more.

Tate returned his smile when she looked up, waving him toward the kitchen where she stirred a series of pots on the stove. “Nathan Murphy! You’re late.”

“Hi there, hon.” He bent to kiss the top of her head. “Sorry. I have a problem kid in my class and I met with his sister today. I wanted to check in with some of his other teachers.”

“You didn’t miss anything. Other than mentioning the problem kid’s sister was none other than Lily Travis.” She paused, turning her head. “Meg! You give that back to Lise right now.”

He laughed at his niece, who gaped at her mother’s seemingly superhuman ability to know exactly when she was up to trouble. “Deal with it, kiddo. She has eyes in the back of her head.”

Her brow furrowed, just like her mother’s did. “Daddy!” she howled as she tore out of the room.

“Always runs to daddy.” Tate snorted.

“Matt’s a smart guy, not like he’s going to overrule you.”

Tate grinned. “Well, he’s smitten with all the women in his life.”

“Where’s the littlest of his women anyway?” He looked toward the swing, which was empty, and the little saucer thing Lil Beth jumped in and spun around while squealing.

“Matt’s doing a diaper check. So back to the subject. I ran into the most gorgeous woman today in Cassie’s bookstore. Like she stepped out of a magazine ad from 1958. Cute pants and shirt. Matching jewelry. Really just a whole package.”

He groaned. “Chris is in trouble. She’s come back to Petal to straighten him out. He needs it, Lord knows. But she’s got a big job ahead of her. I don’t envy it.”

Tate harrumphed. “Are we pretending you don’t care that she’s back in Petal?”

He put his hands up defensively. “She’s the one who dumped me. This is strictly professional. You know I’m not looking for anyone right now.” Not after his last girlfriend had gotten through with him and his bank account.

“Oh fuck that fucking woman! That’s what you get for trusting a grown person who wanted people to call her Steffie. I told you she was trouble.” Tate hissed angrily as she looked around to be sure no kids were nearby.

“I thought you were working on your little F-word issue.” He hid a smile. His beautiful, petite sister had a mouth a sailor could envy.

“I am! I was. But she makes me want to say all the really bad words and there aren’t any kids around to hear and so I stumbled a little.” She managed to make her sniff sound indignant, and Nathan only loved his sister more for it.

She shot a glare his way again briefly before turning her attention back to meal prep. “Stephanie needs her butt kicked to Texas and back. But you’re just as dumb. She was a skank, much like the rest of them have been. Which is why Lily dumped you, dumbass.”

“I clearly need to stop making any commitments to women I’m not related to. I’m not cut out for long-term relationships.” He shrugged, wishing he felt what he was saying. But with Lily back in Petal, it seemed a thinner excuse than it had been even a few days before.

The vegetables she was chopping shook a little from the force she was putting into it for a few breaths. “Oh you
clearly
need to stop making commitments? What commitments would those be? Aside from your
lack
of commitments to anyone since her, your real problem is that you’ve got appalling taste in women. Other than Lily Travis that is. You ignore all the suitable women you come across to focus on one pretty and totally vicious woman after the next. You can’t commit to that and thank God you don’t.”

“The one time I go for a woman like Lily and look how it turned out. Exactly the way it does with the rest.”

“Do you really expect me to believe you care as little for Lily breaking things off with you as you did when Stephanie did? Really? I call poop on that,” she corrected with an eye toward the dining room.

He squirmed a bit, knowing she saw right through him. “She’s a good person. I’d like to be friends with her again. But the last thing I need is to go sniffing around after anything more than that. She’s back in Petal to help with Chris but what about when he straightens up? She’ll head out to Macon and her old life.”

“You’re lots of things, Nathan, but a quitter isn’t one of them. You’re the smart one in the family. Act like it.” She
hmpf
ed and he laughed.

The only woman he’d ever been able to count on stood right there in that kitchen. Lily had been the glaring exception in what had been his choice of women for romance. He had horrible taste. He was a menace to himself.

“What can I do to help?” He picked up a bowl of green beans.

“You think I’m letting you change the subject, Nathan, but I’m not. Lily is good for you and she’s back. I can’t for the life of me imagine why you’d let her go the second time. You’re pretty, but you’re not dumb. Now, take those beans out and get the garlic bread from the oven. We’ll start dishing up the food for the kids before calling them in.”

He nearly kicked the tile floor and said, “Aww, Tate!” but his pride kept his control.

She took his arm after he’d called the kids in from outside. “All that nameless, faceless fuckbuddy business is beneath you, Nathan. You need a woman who’s worthy of you. Stop dragging the bottom of the barrel and you might find one who won’t screw you over. Lily loved you something fierce. She’s exactly the kind of woman you need. You made a mistake, but I believe you two have been given another chance. Don’t mess it up this time.”

She tiptoed up, kissed his cheek and swatted his behind with a towel as she guided the kids who’d just started to come in the door to their seats.

And he thought about what his world would be like with Lily in it and then realized he didn’t know. He’d certainly changed in the last six years, she would have too.

But it wasn’t an altogether bad thing. He realized he really wanted to find out who they were after all this time.

“Lily, where are the keys to my car?” Pamela wandered into the room.

Lily looked up from the essay she was proofing for her brother. “On the counter. Why? Do you need me to run an errand for you?” There was no way she was letting her mother drive in the state she was in.

“Chris needs to run to a friend’s house. He needs to borrow it.”

She looked at her mother, blinking. “We talked about this.”

“He told me he made it through the whole week without being late once.”

“It’s
one
week. He hasn’t turned in an assignment in his math class since November. He’s on lockdown, Mom. He’s got a long way to go to keep from failing his entire sophomore year.”

“Nancy thinks you should give him some rewards.”

She looked around the room. “Nancy’s not here. I am. Now, I told him no and you said you’d back me up. Worse, he
knows
he’s not allowed to have the car.”

“I’m his mother, Lily. It’s my job to take care of him.”

She looked at her mother and held back the scream of frustration roiling in her gut. She wanted to yell,
So do it!
But it wouldn’t help to get angry. Pamela would retreat and it would only complicate matters with Chris.

But.

“I didn’t give up my house and my life in another city to move here and help with Chris, to be undermined at every step. We made a plan. The counselor seems to think it’s a good plan. He’s responding really well to our united front. And to the stability. He’s going to school and turning his work in. Now he has to clear out the backlog. As for these friends of his, you and I both know none of them are good for him. We agreed to hold him accountable. Period. He needs stability. We need to stay strong. This is for him and his benefit.”

Pamela sighed, but Lily could see her spine hunch a little as she let it go.

Lily stood. “I’ll handle Chris myself.” She’d been the one to deal with the homework anyway.

He had the good sense to show fear in his eyes when she came into his room. “Expecting to see Mom instead?” She tossed the paper to him. “Took the liberty of helping you recognize your potential. That’s sloppy work and you’re capable of more.”

“I’ll do it better next time.”

“Oh I’m sure you will. And you’ll do better this time too. Right now. You have time since you won’t be going anywhere. Don’t go around me to her again.”

He stuck his chin out, defiant. “She’s my mother.”

“She’s mine too. And we both know she’s having a rough time of it right now. So I’m in charge. It’s not ideal, but it’s what you’ve got. Get your act together and stop being a brat. Everyone’s too tired for it.” She waved over her shoulder as she left the room. “Bring me the revisions. I’m going up to my room now.”

Chapter Three

Lily wasn’t sure why she was nervous. After all, she’d known Beth Murphy most of her life and through her, Beth’s sisters. She knew Maggie Chase and probably every woman on the other side of the door.

She knocked before she could change her mind only to have the door yanked open by a grinning Beth Murphy. “Sugar, you’re here!”

She hugged her friend and was yanked inside.

Maggie Chase approached, grinning. “It’s been way too long since I’ve seen you last. Come on in.”

Lily put her bag on the little bench at the entry and kicked off her shoes, following Maggie and Beth into the wide and full living room.

“We’ve got sour apple and lemon drops made so far. Want one?” Beth indicated the counter lined with pretty martini glasses and two pitchers.