Place Your Betts (The Marilyns) (27 page)

Being a dinner party of sorts, Betts had chosen what she liked to call a “Sunday” meal of pot roast, carrots, mashed potatoes, green beans cooked down with bacon, hot rolls, and chocolate cake. The roast was about ready. She checked the clock on the microwave. It was five fifty-five. Gabe would be here any minute. Years of living in the public eye had taught her how to pull off calm even when she wasn’t; hopefully she could pull it off around Gabe and Tom. The last thing she wanted was to make Tom uncomfortable.

The crunching of tires against gravel got louder. Gabe’s truck. Betts sank into a chair and resisted the urge to spy out the window. The wrestling match in her stomach turned into a full-on cage match. The door slammed, and a few seconds later, so did the one for the house.

He was running late from wherever he went during the day. A long time ago, he couldn’t wait to share his day with her, but now, things were different.

But he had loved her.

It was amazing how one tiny detail could change an entire outlook. Her fingers fidgeted with the tiny row of peach ribbon roses that outlined the scoop neck of her dress. Did she have a right to think that he might still care about her?

Someone knocked on the door. Betts jumped about a foot in the air. She sucked in a deep, calming breath, reached over, and pushed the button. She would be the picture of confidence and serenity.

Gabe’s eyes roamed over her. “Nice.” He shuffled from foot to foot with his hands behind his back. “Could you come outside? I’m dirty so I can’t come up.”

Her serene majesty walked very slowly down the stairs, concentrating on not falling on her face. “Sure.”

As she stepped down onto the crunchy grass, Gabe backed up. He was hiding something behind his back.

His gaze ran from her head to her toes. “You look beautiful.”

Her heart flip-flopped, and her nerves settled a bit.

“Thanks.” Betts forced a smile. Gabe was as eager and excited as the night she’d first met him. Here was the boy she’d loved and had wanted to spend her life with.

“I, um…got you something. That’s why I’m running late.” Gabe produced a photo album from behind his back and looked over his shoulder like he was passing her state secrets. “It might not be a good idea to let Tom see it.” Gabe handed it to her.

It was déjà vu. Only back then, he’d handed her a bouquet of wildflowers he’d picked on his way over that she couldn’t let Gigi see. So many secrets; nothing had changed.

“Thanks.” She was a paragon of one-word answers.

“I gotta go.” Gabe leaned down, kissed her briefly on the mouth, and then strode purposefully toward the house.

When Gabe got to the porch, he turned around. “Tom’s gonna be a little late. Old man Kurek’s prized stallion got out, and Tom’s out to impress Kaitlin by helping get him back behind the fence.”

“Okay.” More ruminations from the monosyllabic.

Gabe walked inside and then came back out. “I like your hair messy and curling down your back like that. Makes me wonder what it would feel like trailing across my chest after we made love.”

Her mouth fell open, and her cheeks flamed. Had she heard him correctly?

Gabe blew her a kiss. “See you in a few, Red.”

Betts stood there for five whole minutes staring at the closed door. Was he flirting with her? Love made her stupid and giddy. She wanted so badly for it to be true.

She glanced down at the book in her hands. A gift or bribe? Betts was out of answers and short on the will to find them. A sleepless night combined with too much self-contemplation had left her drained physically, emotionally, and mentally. Slowly, she made her way back to her bus. What she wouldn’t give for an evening alone.

Inside her bus, she opened her gift.

On the first page was a picture of Tom as a toddler. Her heart bloomed to the size of a station wagon. He was wearing a diaper and cowboy boots, posing with a floppy stuffed bunny. Her redheaded baby boy—small and skinny and perfect—more boy than the tiny baby she’d kissed and nuzzled. She ripped the corner up, peeled it back, and carefully pried the photo off the sticky page. 
Tom, two years
was hand-printed on the back. Her fingers traced the line of his jaw as she held the picture an inch from her face memorizing every detail. The planes of his face and his round knobby knees went out of focus she stared at it so long. As if it were made of priceless crystal, she gently pressed the photo back into place.

She turned the page. Where were his baby pictures?

On the next page, Tom sat behind a lopsided, blue-frosted birthday cake with three lit candles on top. A Superman party hat leaned precariously over his right ear, and his cheeks were puffed out, releasing a mouthful of air to blow out the candles.

Emotion ran so deep that tears didn’t come. The part of her soul that she’d closed off when Tom had been taken away cracked open as she flipped page after page. When she had time, she would analyze and dote, but now she only had time for the overview.

Here, Tom was about ten, sitting on a horse. The last page was his school photo from last year. Slowly, she closed the book and hugged it to her chest and then rested her chin on it. She felt like a stranger standing at a window and peeping at the happy family inside. Secondhand memories—that was as close as she could come to the real thing.

She flipped through the pages. Where were the baby pictures? Maybe Gabe had forgotten to add them to the book? She shook her head. This glimpse into Tom’s childhood was priceless. How could she ever repay Gabe?

He was sentimental, and it seemed that fatherhood had made him a better man. Tom got his romantic streak from Gabe. It made sense now. Betts leaned back in the captain’s chair. Her son had carried a torch from a torrid third-grade romance, and more than likely, he’d gotten that gene from his father.

There was a knock at her door. Betts jumped.

“Who is it?”

“It’s Tom and Kaitlin,” Tom said on a laugh.

“Be right there.” She opened the cabinet above the sink, slid the album inside, and slammed it shut.

One day, they would look at the album together, but call her a coward—she didn’t want to rock the boat right now. Life was too good.

Betts pushed the door button.

“Sorry we’re late.” Tom had his hand at the small of Kaitlin’s back leading her up the stairs.

“Tom stopped to help his neighbor.” Kaitlin beamed at him. “Isn’t he nice?” She brushed her boob against his arm.

Maternal alarm bells didn’t just go off, they blinked red flashing lights. Her son and Kaitlin had only been together for a few days, and already the accidental boob graze was so commonplace that Tom didn’t react or even glance down.

Betts pressed her lips together. Gabe had better have had the safe sex talk because Betts was too young to be a grandmother. She plastered on her best media smile.

“I hope you’re hungry because I made enough food for an army.” This meal was dedicated to Marva Ann Smith and all the foods that Kaitlin had been denied.

Tom plopped down in a captain’s chair and hit the button next to it. A TV rose from the console. “Kat, you gotta see this.”

“That is so cool.” Kaitlin turned back to Betts. “Want me to set the table?”

Kaitlin had manners, and she was trying.

“Sure.” Betts pulled out placemats, plates, tableware, and glasses. “Y’all think it’s too cold to eat outside?”

“Naw, not if we do it in our backyard. Dad built a fire pit, and there’s a picnic table.” Tom jumped up. “I could build a fire.”

“Really?” Kaitlin sounded as impressed as if he’d offered to bring down fire from Mt. Olympus.

“Yep. No problem.” He made a big show of shrugging.

“That sounds like a plan.” Betts hunted down a tablecloth and handed it to Tom. “Make it so, Number One.”

Tom’s eyes got big. “You’re a Star Trek fan? That’s so cool.”

“Here’s a little known fact. I own the Next Gen captain’s chair. I had it signed by the entire cast.” Betts pulled the roast out of the oven. “And Bill Shatner and I did a charity benefit together last year.”

“No way.” Tom was definitely in awe.

“Way.” Betts nodded her head.

Kaitlin rolled her eyes. “May the force be with us.”

Tom put his hand over his heart. “That’s Star Wars. Don’t mistake the two sci-fi titans.”

Kaitlin laughed. “Help me set the table, Space Boy.” She pulled him down the stairs.

“I take it we’re eating in my backyard.” Gabe filled the doorway, his hair still damp from his shower. His crisp jeans had been starched within an inch of their life, and the faded denim shirt matched his eyes. His straw hat was in one hand and a small potted plant in the other. “This was the best I could do by way of flowers. It’s nice, I think.”

Betts took the pot. Thyme trailed down the side. “I don’t understand.”

“Isn’t it customary for a man to bring a lady flowers on a date?” Gabe laid his straw cowboy hat crown down on the kitchen table. “I have to admit I haven’t been on one in a while. Things could have changed.”

“Oh.” He brought her a plant and thought this was a date? Happiness made her stomach turn squishy.

Gabe’s eyes lingered on her hair as he tucked a lock of it behind her ear. “I love your hair. I want to run my hands through it and bury my face in it.”

All the air went out of Betts’s lungs. He’d always done that—told her what he wanted to do to her. “Um…”

“I guess my plan to snuggle with you on my sofa and watch a movie on my huge new TV is out. I was gonna try for second base.” He slung an arm around her shoulders. “I had it all worked out. I was gonna nuzzle your neck right here.” He trailed a finger below her ear. “Just where you like it. After you melted into me, I was gonna kiss you until you make that little moaning sound that drives me crazy. My next move involved an intricate hug/unhook bra maneuver and then fingering your nipples through your dress. If I played my cards right and was very lucky, I was hoping to get my mouth on you.”

Her nipples contracted, and she could practically feel his tongue laving the tender tips. A flush started at her cheeks and worked its way down to her toes.

“So, you think the friends with benefits thing is a good idea?”

Gabe shoved his hands in his pockets and stared at her breasts. “It has merit.”

“Good.” Betts nodded. “Should we get started tonight after Tom goes to bed?”

It sounded like she was scheduling a mammogram. But it was a way to get close to him. She wanted forever, but she’d take right now.

“Not tonight. I’ve got a better plan.” Gabe took both her hands. “Will you go to the homecoming football game with me?”

A real date, out in public for all the world to see. That meant something.

“Sure.” It was all she could get out.

Gabe ran his finger up and down her inner arm. Pleasure tingled wherever he touched. “And after the game, I thought we might fog up the window of my truck like we used to do in my old Camaro.” He raised her wrist to his mouth and kissed it softly. “Well, not immediately after. I’m chaperoning the homecoming dance.”

Betts smiled, and the sixteen-year-old inside of her did the happy dance. “I’ve never been to a high school dance before.”

At Gabe’s puzzled look, she rolled her eyes. How could she have been so stupid? Rehashing the past was a step backwards.

“I dropped out of school.” Betts rubbed the tense muscles at the back of her neck.

“Why?” Gabe’s eyes went wide. “You’re so smart. You had a scholarship to the fancy school.”

“It was because my…um…situation was becoming obvious.”

Gabe continued to stare at her like he was waiting for her to decode the mysteries of the universe.

Betts pantomimed a baby bump over her flat tummy. “The headmistress revoked my scholarship and kicked me out. I got my GED. Technically, I graduated high school at sixteen.”

“I had no idea.” His gaze dropped to her lower abdomen, and she knew he was picturing her scar.

A plastic surgeon she’d dated briefly had told her he could revise her scar to make it disappear, but Betts had refused. It was the only claim she had to motherhood, and it matched the scar on her heart.

“How pissed was your mom when she had to come back from the cruise ship job after you left school?”

It took Betts a moment to understand. “Mama wasn’t working on a cruise ship. That was the lie I told everyone.” Except for Lucky and Charlie, who knew the truth. “Mama was in prison. She served eighteen months on drug charges.”

Her boyfriend had convinced her that driving in a carload of marijuana across the border was the best way to make money. When she’d been arrested, he’d promptly disappeared.

“You didn’t come back here. I don’t understand.” Gabe continued to stare.

“It doesn’t matter.” He’d already opened an old wound; there wasn’t any point in making it bleed again. The pregnancy months had been bleak and terrifying. If she hadn’t had Tom and her friends, she wasn’t sure she’d have made it.

“It matters to me.” Gabe wasn’t giving up until he had the whole story.

Betts took a deep, steadying breath. “I moved into Charlie’s house.” She nodded at the memory. “More specifically, her father’s guest house. She bribed the housekeeper not to tell. Her father was a state senator then so he bought a house in Baton Rouge and was never at their family home in New Orleans. Lucky and Charlie would visit me on the weekends. They’d bring food, money, medicine—whatever I needed.”

But mostly, Betts had been alone. After Tom had been born, she’d gotten a job and saved for a place of her own in the youthful hope that she’d get her baby back.

“What about your mother?” The agony on his face was tough to take.

“I didn’t tell Mama until after she got out.” Betts tried to shrug it off, but the motion was jerky and forced. “Mama was so mad at me…and Gigi, but she got over it.”

“You were alone.” His voice broke.

“No, I had my friends and my precious child growing inside me. I wasn’t alone.” But she had been, and they both knew it.

“I’m so sorry.” The apology in his eyes was more moving than the words.

The final pieces of her shattered heart mended.

“I’m not. I got to spend more time singing.” Betts looked at her feet because his blue eyes were pools of sincerity. “Let’s talk about something else.”