Sweet Tea at Sunrise (6 page)

Sarah shook her head.

“Why not?” Annie pressed. “I’ll tell you why not—because you know he’s going to make some big stink about it.”

“Since when do you care what Walter thinks?” Sarah retorted, her determination to do this kicking up a notch. “This isn’t about Walter.”

“Isn’t it?” Annie scoffed. “Are you telling us that on some level this isn’t an in-your-face act designed to make him crazy?”

“So what if it is?” Sarah said, even though Walter
hadn’t once crossed her mind when she’d been saying yes to Travis. “It’s not as if I’m going to be doing something disreputable that he can use against me in court.” A sudden worry nagged at her and she turned to Helen. “Right? There’s nothing wrong with having a local talk show on radio, is there?”

“Nothing I can think of,” Helen agreed. She faced Annie. “What really has you so worried?”

Annie squirmed uncomfortably. “Okay, I mentioned all this to Ty when he called tonight. The Braves have been on a road trip so his calls don’t last long, and believe me, we don’t spend the time talking about the local news. When I mentioned the radio station the other day, it was the first he’d heard that Travis McDonald was settling here. Anyway, it turns out Ty knows him, or knows of him, I guess I should say. He says he had a real reputation as a ladies’ man when be played for Boston. A couple of Ty’s teammates have known Travis ever since he played in the minors. He called me tonight to fill me in on all this.”

Sarah’s mouth gaped. “Travis played for the Boston Red Sox? You’re kidding me!”

“You didn’t know that?” Maddie asked, looking surprised.

Sarah shook her head. “He said he’d played ball for a while. He didn’t say anything about playing in the majors. I figured he was maybe on some farm team for about a minute.”

“It was a little longer than a minute, according to Ty,” Annie said. “It was long enough to make an impression on a lot of women in a lot of cities.”

“Well, so what?” Sarah said, even though she was
disconcerted by the news. “It’s not as if I’m going to date him. I’m just going to work for him. Besides, maybe he’s reformed and wants a chance to start fresh. Ty did.”

Annie winced at the reminder of her husband’s well-publicized exploits with women. He’d wound up with a son during that wild phase of his life. Trevor, in fact, was living right here with Annie while Ty was on the road with the team.

Before Annie could respond, though, Jeanette breezed in. “Sorry, I’m late. Are you talking about Travis? He just told me he’d hired you, Sarah. Congratulations!”

Maddie, Dana Sue and Helen turned on her.

“Just how well do you know him?” Dana Sue asked, radiating suspicion. “I know he’s Tom’s cousin, but you’ve never even mentioned him.”

“Haven’t I?” Jeanette asked with a shrug. “He’s been staying with us. He wanted us to keep it quiet when he first got here. He’d had his fill of publicity.”

“Did you know about the radio station?” Helen asked.

Jeanette nodded. “Of course.”

“And you never said a word,” Maddie said with a shake of her head. “What kind of Sweet Magnolia are you?”

Jeanette chuckled. “One who can keep her mouth shut,” she suggested.

“Which is not a recommendation, as far as I can tell,” Helen said. “We’re supposed to be up on all the big news in town.”

“And now you are,” Jeanette said readily. “So, what’s the emergency? Why are we all here?”

“Because some of us think Sarah’s nuts for taking this radio job, especially to work with a man with the kind of reputation Travis apparently has,” Annie told her. “No offense.”

“None taken,” Jeanette said. “But how can he possibly have any reputation when he just got to town a few weeks ago?”

“Ty,” Maddie said succinctly. “Word on the road is that Travis was a real player with the ladies when he played ball in Boston.”

“Oh, so what?” Jeanette said, dismissing the assessment as unimportant. “Sarah’s an intelligent woman. She’s not automatically going to fall under his spell. Besides, if you want an opinion based on personal observation, rather than gossip, I think he’s kind of sweet.”

Sarah tried to reconcile that impression with her own. It didn’t fit. Now Travis as a player? That fit him perfectly. But fair warning ought to be enough.

“Okay, I suppose I could back out,” she told them. “But the truth is that I want to do something that stretches my limits, something fun. Waiting on tables at Wharton’s doesn’t qualify. And, if I’m being totally honest, neither does the idea of teaching kids their ABCs. I majored in education because it was a solid, safe career choice.”

Raylene, who’d been silent up until now, nodded. “I think she should go for it. Sarah needs to prove to herself that she is so much more than that little Stepford wife Walter and the Prices wanted her to be.”

“Amen,” Sarah said.

Annie still looked concerned, but eventually she nodded, too. “Since I’ve been telling you ever since you got back to town that you’re much more intelligent and talented than Walter ever gave you credit for being, I suppose I can’t take it back now. Go for it.” She shot a dire look toward Jeanette. “If Travis gets out of line, the rest of us will have your back.”

Sarah laughed at the protective note in her voice. “I don’t think you need to worry about that. Somebody who’s a player when it comes to women isn’t going to take a second glance at me.”

Dana Sue reached over and squeezed her hand. “Oh, sweetie, don’t sell yourself short. Obviously, he already has.”

Rory Sue’s visit home had been an exercise in frustration for Mary Vaughn and Sonny. She had no job lined up. Nor did she seem all that concerned about finding one. She’d flatly refused to consider anything Mary Vaughn or Sonny suggested about moving back home. Her opinion of Serenity seemed to be summed up in one oft-repeated word: boring. Mary Vaughn was at her wit’s end. Sonny was even more exasperated.

“You’d think raising one child, especially a girl, would be easier than this,” he said as he and Mary Vaughn climbed into bed on Sunday evening after their precious little girl had headed back to Charleston to spend more time with her friends.

“I’m sorry we never had the boy you wanted,” Mary Vaughn told him. “But you have to admit, there’s something about a girl and her daddy that’s special. Some
times I felt like an outsider when you and Rory Sue would team up.”

“That was true when she was nine or ten, but once she reached her teens, she didn’t have much use for either one of us.”

“And then we hit her with the divorce,” Mary Vaughn recalled. “She never entirely forgave me for that.”

“I’m the one who asked for a divorce,” Sonny said. “I told her that repeatedly.”

“But she knew you never would have filed for it if I hadn’t done something wrong.”

“Well, we’re back together now, just the way she always wanted. It’s not going to feel right if she’s living somewhere else. It’d be nice to be a family, at least for a little while longer,” he said wistfully. “One of these days she’s going to get married, and then things will change forever. I want her to be happy, but I can’t say I’m looking forward to that day.”

“It’s a funny thing,” Mary Vaughn said, “but when she was away at college and you were gone, too, I still didn’t feel like one of those empty nesters you read about. It all felt so temporary. Then, sure enough, you and I got back together, but without Rory Sue under the same roof, it doesn’t feel quite right. I finally see what all those articles I read were talking about. It’s like a piece of us is missing.”

“Exactly what I was saying,” Sonny said. “So, how do we get her home?”

Mary Vaughn considered the question thoughtfully, or as thoughtfully as she could with Sonny beginning to lazily caress the curve of her hip.

“I think we have to give her a little more time at her
friend’s place in Charleston,” she finally conceded. “You know she’s not job-hunting the way she should be, or if she is, she’s finding out just how tough things are out there.”

“I guarantee she’s not too worried about it,” Sonny admitted. “She knows we’ll keep supporting her for as long as it takes.”

“That’s the thing. We can’t do that,” Mary Vaughn said, figuring it was going to be up to her to take the tough line. Sonny was putty in their daughter’s hands. “We have to give her a deadline. At the same time, I’ll give her an alternative.”

Sonny’s gaze narrowed. “What alternative?”

“She can come home and work with me.”

“Why not with me?” he said at once. “She’ll inherit that car dealership one of these days. Despite what’s happened to the auto industry, we’re still doing well. She ought to at least know the basics of running it.”

“Can you see Rory Sue getting excited about selling cars? All she cares about is driving the latest, fanciest car on your lot. And given today’s market, she’s not going to make the kind of money she’s expecting with that high-priced degree of hers.”

“And she will in real estate?”

“She will working with me,” Mary Vaughn said confidently.

Sonny finally nodded. “Okay, then, we have a plan.” He met her gaze. “Now I have a few ideas of my own.”

Mary Vaughn reached for him at once. “Why, Mr. Lewis, I do believe we’ve been thinking along the same lines.” Even as she settled into her husband’s embrace, she was struck by reality. “You do know, don’t you, that
if she comes home for good, we’re going to have to start behaving ourselves around here. No more skinny-dipping in the pool, for one thing. No afternoon quickies in the middle of the living room.”

Sonny looked into her eyes, but it wasn’t alarm or even dismay she saw there. It was excitement.

“You’re taking that as a challenge, aren’t you, Sonny Lewis?”

A grin spread across his face. “You know, I am. The fear of getting caught could add an interesting edge of danger to these trysts of ours.”

She laughed. “I don’t know about you, but I’m not sure how much more excitement I can stand.”

His touches became more intimate. “Why don’t we experiment a little and find out?”

Before she could reply, Mary Vaughn completely lost her train of thought. Whatever she’d been about to say couldn’t possibly be more important than the way Sonny made her feel whenever he put his mind to it. And lately, to her delight, he’d been putting his mind to it quite a lot.

U
ntil Sarah walked through the door at the radio station on Wednesday after her shift at Wharton’s, Travis hadn’t been totally convinced she’d show up. He figured, based on what Jeanette had told him about some screwy ritual called a Sweet Magnolias margarita night, that Sarah had probably had second and third thoughts by now.

He hadn’t expected his reputation with women to come into play at all, but apparently it had. He’d been tempted a couple of times to tell Sarah he’d put that life behind him, but he doubted she’d believe him, especially since he’d been flirting with her since the day they’d met.

When she stepped into the office at the back of the station, he was overwhelmed by relief. He couldn’t seem to stop the grin that spread across his face.

“Well, look who’s here. It’s our morning deejay,” he said, standing up to move the pile of papers from the seat of the only remaining chair in the cramped space. “Welcome aboard, sugar. Have you met Bill Roberts?”

She shook her head. “I did see you at the press conference, though.”

“Well, Bill’s the one who’s going to make sure we don’t go on the air and make fools out of ourselves,” Travis said.

Sarah gave him a weak smile. “Then you’re probably going to have your work cut out for you. This is all new to me. I’m still not a hundred percent convinced that putting me on the air makes a lick of sense.”

“Travis believes it does, and that’s what counts,” Bill told her. Ever the Southern gentleman, he stood until she’d taken a seat. “He tells me you can charm the socks off anybody. Now instead of doing that one customer at a time, you’ll be charming as many people as this station’s signal can reach all at the same time.”

“Oh, God,” she murmured, turning pale. Her grip on the pen and pad she’d brought along tightened until her knuckles turned white.

Travis regarded her with sympathy. “Maybe you shouldn’t think of it that way just yet. Concentrate on talking to one person. Everybody else, well, they’re just eavesdropping.”

A spark lit her eyes. “You certainly have the knack for that down, don’t you?”

“Hey,” Travis protested, pretending to be wounded. “Let’s not start picking on the boss on your first day on the job.”

“Sorry.” She sounded contrite, but the glint in her eyes suggested she was anything but sorry.

Bill stepped in. “How about we go in the studio so you can see how things work? Once you have a feel for all the monitors and controls, I think you’ll start to feel comfortable in there. I’m going to be around for a couple of weeks acting as your producer, so initially all
you’ll really have to do is interview your guests, maybe chat a little between songs. Once you’re both settled in and comfortable on the air, you’ll be able to handle your shows on your own.”

Sarah’s eyes widened with alarm. “You didn’t say anything about me having to do the technical stuff,” she said accusingly to Travis. “Just go on the air and talk. That’s what you said.”

Travis put an arm around her shoulders as he urged her toward the studio. “And that’s all that matters. If ad sales keep going the way they have been for the first month, I’ll be able to hire a producer before too long. First, though, I have to get an afternoon deejay on board.”

“What about you?” she asked, looking vaguely disappointed. “Are you just the big-shot owner, who’s going to disappear once this place is up and running?”

“Come on now, sugar. Didn’t I tell you we were in this together?” he asked.

She gave him a wry look. “Men have lied to me before.”

There was an edge in her voice that told him she didn’t intend to put up with it again. “Those men, whoever they were, were idiots. You can trust me. I’m sticking around for the long haul.”

“We’ll see,” she said skeptically.

“Okay, then, here’s the plan,” Travis began as he settled her into the comfortable chair behind the microphone. “You’ll be on the air in the morning from six until noon. That’s a long shift, but we’re starting on a shoestring budget. I’ll reduce your hours later.” At her look of alarm, he added, “Your pay will stay the same.”

“What on earth am I going to do for six whole hours?”

“You’ll interview a couple of folks, play some music, chat about any subject that appeals to you, take a few calls. The new guy, whoever it turns out to be, will take over at noon and stay on the air until six. I’ll come on then and hang out till midnight.”

She stared at him incredulously. “You’re planning to run a radio station with three people? Not counting Bill, of course.”

“Pretty much,” he admitted. “And Bill’s our ace in the hole. He knows every aspect of running a station. Plus I’ve bought a syndicated music package that will last from midnight until you’re back here in the morning. I’ve picked up some other programming for the weekends. I know that’s a skeleton crew, and for now we’re all going to be working like crazy, but hopefully I’ll be able to get some other people in place in a month or so. I just need to get us up and running as quickly as possible. Then I can start focusing on expanding our staff.”

“You really are nuts,” she said with despair.

“Come on, where’s your spirit of adventure?” he asked.

“You sound like the kid in those old movies—Mickey Rooney, I think—who used to get some neighborhood kids together and suggest they stage a play,” she said.

“Hey, we’re not amateurs,” Travis protested. “I have a degree in broadcasting. And let’s not forget about Bill. He’s been in this business for thirty years or so. He knows what he’s doing.”

“And he’s going to abandon ship,” she said direly. “He just said so.”

“Not until things are running smoothly and you’re all comfortable,” Bill assured her. “And even after I’m officially gone, I’ll only be a half hour away. Travis can get me back over here on just about a moment’s notice, especially if the fish aren’t biting. Right now the idea of sitting out on the lake in a little motor boat with a fishing rod in hand holds a lot of allure, but my wife predicts I’ll be bored to death in a month. She’s probably right, in which case you’re likely to find me hanging around here begging for things to do.”

“And I will hire more people,” Travis promised. “I just want to get this station on the air and then I’ll fill whatever vacancies we have. By then I’ll have a better idea of whether we need more people on-air or selling advertising or what.”

“An afternoon deejay is a pretty big vacancy,” she said. “What if you don’t find someone in time?”

“I will,” Travis said confidently.

“Or I’ll fill in,” Bill said. “No need to panic.”

Sarah sighed. “One of us probably should. And since the two of you seem to be living in a dream world, I suppose it’s going to have to be me.”

Travis hid his desire to chuckle at her resigned expression. At least she hadn’t bolted for the door. He’d known that hiring her was going to be a smart decision and she was already proving it.

“Let’s talk about the scheduling again. That’s not really an eight-hour day,” Sarah said. “The salary you mentioned was for a full day’s work.”

“Because you’ll be using the extra time to book
guests and maybe even pitch in to help me sell advertising.”

Her plucky attitude seemed to falter. In fact, she suddenly looked shell-shocked. “I don’t know anything about selling advertising.”

“You go, you schmooze, you sell,” Travis said. “We’re offering something brand new in this town. So far, people have been really receptive.” He thought of one or two very vocal doubters, but shrugged off the encounters. “For the most part, anyway.”

“It’s going to be fine,” Bill said, stepping in when it became obvious that nothing Travis had said had relieved her anxiety. “Right now it’s all unfamiliar, but I guarantee you’ll find your groove in a couple of weeks and it’ll feel like you’ve been doing this all your life. I’m a seasoned pro and you can count on me being here to pick up any slack until this place is running like a well-oiled machine. That’s a promise.”

Sarah turned to him as if he’d just thrown her a lifeline. “Don’t you dare leave me on my own, you hear me!”

Bill chuckled. “I wouldn’t dream of it.”

“What about me?” Travis said. “How come you’re not turning to me?”

“Because something tells me that despite that fancy college degree, you only know a smidgen more than I do, and you’re not even going to be around in the daytime.”

She sounded surprisingly disappointed by that. Travis tucked a finger under her chin. “Don’t worry about that. I’ll be here so much, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without me underfoot.”

His promise seemed to disconcert, rather than reassure her. He grinned. “I told you this was going to be fun, didn’t I?”

“We’ll just see about that,” she said, then turned back to Bill. “Start with the basics and talk real slow,” she told him. “I need to take notes and then I’m going to want about a hundred hours of rehearsal time before we go on the air.” She glanced at Travis. “When is that going to be, by the way?”

“July first,” he said. “I’ll kick things off at midnight that night and then we’ll be rolling.”

Sarah swallowed hard. “That’s less than two weeks away,” she whispered.

Travis winked at her. “Why, yes, I believe it is, but you want to know the good news?”

“Desperately,” she said.

“With the town’s Fourth of July celebration only a few days away, you’ll have plenty of things to talk about.”

She looked as if she couldn’t think of one.

“The fireworks display,” he coached. “What time things are going to be happening on the green. Fireworks safety. You might want to get Grace in here to reminisce about past festivities. And on the Fourth, you’ll be able to see everything from the studio and give those who aren’t here a bird’s-eye view of everything that’s happening from the parade to the festival. I predict that’ll entice even more people to town for the fireworks that night.”

Her expression slowly brightened as he went on. “I can do that,” she said. “I don’t think I missed a single Fourth of July celebration here in town when I was a kid. I loved the parade almost as much as the fireworks.”

“Then you’ll have plenty to talk about, won’t you?” Travis said, loving the bloom of color in her cheeks as she gained confidence in herself. “Keep in mind it’s going to be like a day at Wharton’s, just with a whole lot of people listening in. If you focus on that, you’re all set.”

“This could turn out to be fun, after all,” she said, already scribbling madly in her notebook.

“Isn’t that what I told you?” he said.

She waved him away. “I need to concentrate.”

Bill chuckled at Travis’s disgruntled look. “You wanted a star. I think you’ve got one in the making.” As they left Sarah sitting at the desk in the studio, Bill grinned. “Or were you really hoping she was going to depend on you for every little thing?”

“It might have been nice if she’d done that for maybe five minutes,” Travis grumbled, even though he was ridiculously pleased to see Sarah getting into the spirit of the job so quickly.

“Want a piece of advice from a man who’s been around a lot longer than you have?” Bill asked. “Be thankful when a woman’s independent.”

“Why is that?”

“Because the worst thing in the world is having anyone’s happiness all tied up in what you can offer them,” Bill said. “They need to make their own. Then you come together as equals, and what you find as a couple is just the icing on the cake.”

“Isn’t there a risk, then, that they won’t need you at all?” Travis asked, watching as Sarah bent over her notebook, a line of concentration furrowed in her brow.

“Maybe, but I’ve found it’s more important for
someone to be with you because they can’t imagine life without you than because they can’t figure out how to fix a leaky faucet…or put together a radio show.”

What Bill said made sense. Ironically Travis had never felt this yearning to be needed before. He’d never wanted permanency, figured he wasn’t cut out for it, in fact, just like his daddy. After all these years of thinking he knew that much about himself, he supposed it was going to take a little time to determine why the desire for forever had stolen up on him after meeting Sarah.

“Your muscles are in knots,” Jeanette told Sarah when she stopped by The Corner Spa to use the gift certificate for a massage that Raylene had given her a few days before.

“The station’s going on the air in less than a week and I still don’t have any idea what I’m doing,” Sarah admitted. “Every time I say that to Travis, though, he just tells me everything will be fine, as if that’s magically going to happen.”

“He seems pretty sure of himself,” Jeanette said, as she tried to knead away the tension that had settled in Sarah’s shoulders. “Maybe you should trust him.”

“Oh, he’s sure of himself, all right.
He’s
not the problem. I’ve heard him in the studio rehearsing and he chats away as if he was born to be on the radio. He’s talking to
himself,
for goodness’ sake, and he sounds perfectly natural. I try to do that and I sound like an idiot.”

“But your show is supposed to be a talk show, which implies you’ll be conversing with someone else,” Jeanette said. “Isn’t someone rehearsing with you?”

“Who?” Sarah asked. “It’s not as if the station’s exactly swarming with warm bodies. The afternoon guy isn’t even showing up until next week, one day before he goes on the air. He has plenty of experience, according to Travis, but how can he not be hanging around the station every second to get ready? I’d be a wreck.”

“Because you’re new to all this. Why not bring in a couple of people just to get some interviewing practice?” Jeanette suggested. “I’ll stop by and you can interview me. I’ll get Tom to come by, too. And I know Maddie will volunteer. And Dana Sue.”

Sarah propped herself up to meet Jeanette’s gaze. “You’d do that?”

“Of course. You can even tape the interviews, so you’ll have them in case somebody cancels one day and you need a last-second fill-in. You can just pop them into the tape-player or whatever and sit back and relax.”

The idea was amazing. Sarah couldn’t imagine why she hadn’t thought of it herself. Maybe it was because she’d been so focused on filling her notebook with instructions and the calendar on her desk with scheduled guests for the first month. She hadn’t even considered lining up some backup material for a crisis. That it would also give her some experience was a major bonus.