The Reading Circle (21 page)

M
aura Beth could not remember a time in her life when she was this excited, and she was savoring every second of the feeling. Clearly, the early-afternoon phone call yesterday from Jeremy had set the tone.

“Get set, Maurie. I'm coming down there tomorrow, and I'm going to knock your socks off, sweetheart!”

Maura Beth had played along superbly. “I've been waiting a long time for something like that to happen to me. So you just come right on down here to Cherico and rock my world.”

In truth, she did have some idea of what might be in store for her. Ratcheting up their relationship another notch was what she was hoping for, of course. It ended up costing her a good night's sleep with all the tossing and turning she had done in anticipation, but she wasn't going to complain about that. If any important part of page 25 of her college journal was about to come true, it would be well worth it.

Oddly, Jeremy seemed remarkably restrained after they hugged and kissed at the door of her apartment. “I don't know if you're ready for this or not, Maurie.”

“Try me.”

“Okay, but a person can only handle so much adrenaline in one day, and I intend to be a one-man tour de force.”

Maura Beth showed him in and played along, as she had over the phone the previous day. “I get it. This is part of the big buildup. Well, I've done my part. Please direct your attention to my feet, if you haven't already.”

He glanced down quickly and smirked. “Those are bobby socks you're wearing, right?”

“Went out and bought them especially for the occasion. You said you wanted to knock them off.”

They laughed together and indulged another round of their playful hugging and kissing. “All right, then, if you'll just follow me outside where the grand tour will begin, sweetheart.”

He took her by the hand, and she dutifully followed him all the way to the parking lot. “Here she is once again, but this time, all spruced up!” he announced, pointing proudly to the bright yellow, classic ride he had purchased soon after getting out of the hospital. He had made quite a to-do of introducing her to Maura Beth on his first trip down. “My genuine 1971 Triumph Spitfire with the four-cylinder, reworked engine now has a CD player so you and I can listen to beautiful music wherever we go. I had lots of the insurance money left over to bring her into the millennium, and now I'm going to take her out for another test drive down here.”

Maura Beth didn't even have to think about her response. “Well, she looks as spiffy as ever, and I'm more than ready. Let's do this.”

“And now that my pretty wheels can sing, so to speak,” he explained, opening the door for her, “I've decided to tweak her name. Now, she officially goes from The Canary to The Warbler. You like?”

Maura Beth giggled as she slid into the front seat. “I do, and I can't wait to hear what she's going to sing for us for her debut. Are we going anyplace special?”

“Well, the deal is I've been doing my homework. Got a map of Cherico and studied all the streets and roads carefully. I mean, every single intersection and every twist and turn, and I predict you'll see parts of this little town you've never seen before.”

“Then full speed ahead!”

After he'd settled in behind the steering wheel, he slipped a CD into the newly installed slot, and they both waited for The Warbler to do her thing.

“What is that?” Maura Beth said, cocking her head as the jangling chords kicked in. “Wait . . . don't tell me. I should definitely know this.” She took a while longer but finally broke through, touching a finger to her temple. “Stravinsky.
The Firebird Suite.
I took Music Appreciation my senior year at LSU. Even got an A.”

“Very good. You're a girl after my own heart.” He pulled out of his parking space and smiled at her approvingly. “I thought we needed some energetic music for our tour today.”

Once they were well under way, Maura Beth began conjuring up her high-school fantasies involving dangerous boys with sporty cars. Now, more than a decade later, she was actually living it in a nearly danger-proof way, even if Jeremy had taken her command literally and was driving a little faster than he should. If he was showing off slightly, well then, that was just fine and dandy with her. She intended to go wherever he led her. That was part of the thrill come true.

“Of course, I'm not through sprucing her up just yet,” he was saying as they sped along a deserted back road flanked by thick pine forests that were hemmed in by a continuous barbed-wire fence. The only sign of life was a hawk circling high overhead in the distance against the backdrop of the cloudless blue sky. “For starters, I was thinking about giving her a new paint job to brighten her up even more. You can only do so much with water and wax.”

“Well, I know for a fact that she'll appreciate it very much. We girls like to look our best when we go out in public and strut our stuff. And for your further listening pleasure, Mr. Jeremy McShay, don't forget you can check out audio books at your friendly neighborhood library,” she put in while the scenery flew by. “I'm sure you'll agree that there's nothing like riding around listening to great literature as well as classical music.”

He gave her a quick glance and winked. “Spoken like the dedicated librarian you are.”

The Warbler had now come to a fork in the road. Both choices looked a little foreboding, even derelict, but Jeremy did not hesitate. “We head off to the right. You'll find the scenery changes a bit and not for the better. But don't worry your sweet little head. I know exactly where I'm going.”

Indeed, they entered a lengthy stretch of land that had been extensively cut over for timber. There was a desolate quality to it as weeds and saplings struggled for dominance among the multitude of forlorn stumps. The edgy, frenetic strains of Stravinsky even seemed to be deploring the damage that had been done.

“I trust you implicitly, of course,” Maura Beth said. “But I could swear we were lost.” Underneath it all, however, she was not the least bit concerned. There was a swagger about Jeremy behind the wheel that was thoroughly consistent with his promise to “knock her socks off,” and she was loving it.

“Just a little farther ahead, Maurie. You'll see,” he answered, his jaw firmly set.

Finally, Jeremy's circuitous tour of the outskirts of town ended up in the midst of a virgin stretch overlooking Lake Cherico. He shut off the engine and said, “And here we are.”

Farther down and to the right were the high-end homes and boathouses that Justin Brachle had developed; and beyond that, The Marina Bar and Grill. For once, there was nothing going on out on the lake—no fishing, no skiing, no recreation of any kind. There was only the placid brown water as far as the eye could see.

“Oh, I know where we are now,” Maura Beth said, looking off in the distance. “You definitely took a roundabout way to get here, and I'd have absolutely no idea how to get back.”

“Don't worry about that. I just want you to relax and listen to what I have to say.” Then he leaned over and gave her another lingering kiss before continuing.

“You have my undivided attention,” she said, catching her breath as her heart raced pleasantly.

“Good,” he began, holding on to her hand. “First, I wanted to say that I never thought I'd be uprooting myself this way from the predictable life I had going up in Nashville. I think my students at New Gallatin Academy really liked me, even if cranky old Yelverton drove me crazy with his double standard for the football team. But I was still doing what I wanted to do—teaching classic literature and trying my best to convince the current impressionable generation that reading it was a worthwhile and a noble pursuit. Plus, my parents were nearby in Brentwood, so a home-cooked meal now and then was never very far away for a bachelor like myself. Of course, I dallied with this woman and that one, but none of my relationships ever seemed to amount to much. I was in a sort of safe, comfortable routine, and nothing seemed to be able to get me off dead center.” He paused to gaze deeply into her eyes.

“Then two very unexpected and unforgettable things happened to me. First, I met you at my uncle's lodge one wonderful evening with my hands full of shrimp. Then, a few months later, I had a near-death experience that shook me to my roots. Both events had the effect of making me sit up straight and take notice of my life and just how precious it was; and after the dust had settled, I realized I was very much in love with you—and that was all that really mattered. Above all, I didn't want to waste any more time not doing something about it.”

It was then that Jeremy dug down into his pocket and produced a small black jewelry box that he offered to Maura Beth. “Go ahead, sweetheart. Open it.”

Maura Beth took it gingerly, opening it slowly and then softly sucking in air. “My God, Jeremy, this is so beautiful!”

Indeed, it was no conventional engagement ring. Instead of the traditional solitary diamond, he had ordered up a circle of diamonds in the shape of small stars and set in a narrow band of gold. “You are the star of my heart, Maurie. I love you so much,” he told her, lifting it out gently and working it down her finger. “Will you marry me?”

Her response was immediate and breathless. “Oh, of course I will.” They fell together in an effortless embrace and kissed once again. It was a kiss for the ages, not so much a matter of duration as it was undeniable passion.

When it was over, Maura Beth held up the ring to catch the light, flipping her hand back and forth to view it from every possible angle. “I just love you for creating these little stars for me. How did you think of this?”

He pulled back slightly, looking both proud and smug. “The truth is, I got the idea from all my visits to The Twinkle. All those gold and silver stars dangling from the ceiling got me started. And then I thought, ‘I need to come up with something very special for my very special sweetheart.' So I bounced my idea off Mom. She runs Beads and Crafty Needs at the Cool Springs Galleria, you know, and she has all these connections down there, including one of the most creative jewelers in town. It all came together from there.”

“It's every bit as original as you are,” she told him, unable to take her eyes off her newfound treasure.

He chuckled softly. “Well, we both are, I think. That's why we're going to be such a good match.”

Maura Beth finally put her hand down and caught his gaze. “I love you, Jeremy McShay, but this is just the beginning, you know. We have so much to decide. When and where the wedding will take place—how big, how small. Even when to announce it. But I just had a thought. Periwinkle's surprise birthday party is just a couple of days away, and all our close friends from the book club will be there. Why don't we announce our engagement to everyone then?”

“Sounds like a winner to me,” he said. “Especially since The Twinkle was the inspiration for your ring. It would be the perfect place to show it off, and that's exactly what I want you to do.”

“Jeremy McShay, you have just knocked my socks off as promised—metaphorically speaking, of course!”

He craned his neck to catch a glimpse of her feet. “Yeah, well, as an English teacher, I'm high on metaphors. Similes, too, for that matter.”

They both laughed; then she grew serious. “I think here is where I should tell you when I first knew we were going to make it as a couple. You probably wouldn't guess that it was my first visit to the hospital after your horrible wreck. I was just a bundle of nerves, full of all sorts of conflicting emotions, despite a pep talk I'd just received from your aunt Connie. But I finally relaxed when you said, ‘We can't go on meeting like this.' I mean, your sense of humor was nothing short of fantastic considering what you'd just been through, but it also made me realize that you were seriously thinking of how we were going to make our relationship work with you up in Nashville and me down here in Cherico. At that point I knew you really wanted this, and that made me care about you even more. Any doubts I'd had about our future together were erased.”

He rewarded her words with a quick kiss and said, “Well, shall I steer The Warbler back to your apartment, and we'll see what develops?”

She took a deep breath while gazing out at the lake. “I think that would put the perfect exclamation point on our little tour today.”

M
r. Parker Place was trying his best to keep a lid on Periwinkle's appetite without giving the game away. After the lunch crowd and its dishes had been cleared, she had fixed herself a chicken salad sandwich with all the trimmings and sat down to that with one of her famous tomato aspics and a tall tumbler of sweet tea. Then came the challenge.

“You know, I'm feeling a little sweet-toothy this afternoon, Parker. I think I'll have a great big slice of your yummy grasshopper pie. Will you be an angel and cut me one, please?”

Mr. Place glanced at his watch. A little after three. He really shouldn't let her have such a rich, filling dessert and still expect her to appreciate all the potluck dishes everyone would be bringing just after nine. “I'm about to take a batch of my white chocolate macadamia nut cookies out of the oven. Why don't you have one of those instead?”

“Well, I have an even better idea. How about I have a slice of pie and a cookie, too?”

Now he was panicking. “Why don't you pace yourself, Periwinkle? Let's both have a warm cookie together and save the pie for tonight.”

“Okay,” she said. “You talked me into it. I can't resist anything fresh from the oven.”

A minute or so later, they were nibbling at his cookies, sitting across from each other smiling. “I know what you're up to,” she said, catching his gaze.

He could only hope the surprise surging throughout his body wasn't showing up on his face. “What do you mean?”

“Don't think I haven't noticed,” she continued, breaking off another piece of her cookie. “It's very sweet of you to be holding my hand, so to speak. I mean, after I told you about my breakup with Harlan. You're a very sensitive man, Parker, and I do appreciate you trying to make things easier for me. But, you know, I think I may be pulling out of my little funk, slowly but surely.”

“That's good to hear,” he told her, feeling relief from head to toe. “Especially on your birthday. Yep, I remembered, and I have a little something to give you.” He dug down into his apron pocket and handed over an envelope. “This is just a little poem I put together for you.”

She smiled, put the rest of her cookie on her plate, opened the envelope, and began unfolding the paper. “That's really very sweet of you to think of me this way, Parker.” Then she started reading out loud:

She looked up and laughed her Periwinkle laugh of old.

“That bad, huh?” he said in a playful tone.

“As far as I'm concerned, you're the poet laureate of Cherico. Come right on over here and give me a big hug!”

He knew she probably wasn't feeling all he was feeling when she stood up and wrapped her arms around him, patting him on the back several times. He knew it was a gesture of friendship on her part more than anything else. But for now, it would do nicely.

 

Maura Beth and Jeremy were halfway out the door of her apartment headed toward The Twinkle when the phone rang. “Oh, I better get it. It might be Mr. Place with some last-minute thing about the surprise party,” she said, turning around and heading back toward the kitchenette counter.

It turned out to be Miss Voncille at the other end, however, and she lost no time in getting to the purpose of her call. “We've been keeping this a secret until we could get in touch with Locke's children and get everything straightened out with them. At first we thought they were going to be a problem, but Locke laid down the law and brought them around. He told them, ‘This is my life, and your mother would want me to be happy, so that settles it,' ” she was explaining. “But tonight at the party, we were thinking about announcing to everyone that Locke and I are definitely getting married. We've set the date for August in his church.”

Maura Beth was gazing fondly at Jeremy as she answered. “Well, congratulations to both of you, Miss Voncille. We've all been wondering when it would happen, not if. And I think your timing is perfect. You may not believe the coincidence, but Jeremy and I were planning on announcing our engagement, too. We just decided to make it official the other day. We were thinking of an August wedding as well—just before Jeremy starts his new position down here at Cherico High.” Then she paused to gather her thoughts. “Do you think we ought to coordinate who goes first tonight at The Twinkle, Miss Voncille?”

“Let me think.” Then there was a sharp intake of air. “I know. We'll have some fun with this, do a New Year's countdown, and then the four of us will announce we're all getting married?”

Maura Beth couldn't help but giggle. “You're not worried everyone will think we're a foursome?”

“Oh, I see what you mean. What could I have been thinking?” There was further silence. “Well, we could do a twist. Locke and I could announce that you and Jeremy are getting married, and you could do the same for us.”

Jeremy was brandishing his wrist and pointing emphatically to his watch, and Maura Beth nodded. “Or, we could just play it straight when we get there. Sometimes the simplest solution is the best. Now, we don't want to be late for the big occasion, so see you and Locke in just a few minutes. Bye now.” She hung up and motioned Jeremy toward the door. “I'll tell you all about it in The Warbler on the way there. But in a nutshell—there are going to be lots of changes among friends.”

 

Douglas was gazing out one of his great room windows at the lake, marveling once again at the feeling of redemption it always produced somewhere deep inside him. Whether at early dawn, sunset, or anywhere in between, it spoke to him in ways he could not put into words. Fishing was just the excuse he used to be near the lessons it was trying to teach him.

Connie soon joined him and began peering out into the night herself. “What is it we're looking for?” she said. “The Lake Cherico Monster? We could always get a myth started and make The Guinness Book of World Records.”

He turned and put his arm around her, smiling. “I was just thinking that we haven't done enough yet. To help Cherico, I mean. I'm still not satisfied.”

She pulled away just enough to catch the intensity in his dark eyes. “You want to do something more than help pay for the library repairs?”

He nodded slowly and then faced the lake and its shimmering moonlit surface again. “We have so much acreage out here. This was the biggest parcel Justin Brachle had for sale back then, and we got it for a song. I was halfway thinking at the time that we might build a guest house on it someday. It would give Lindy and Melissa a place of their own whenever they came to visit. But not so much anymore. My idea now is that we donate a couple of acres to Cherico as a site for the new library. Maura Beth says they haven't come up with the land yet. Well, there's plenty of room between our property line and the Milners. They've planted us out with all those willows and pines, so they wouldn't see it anyway. But imagine it—a library with a view. Maybe they could design a deck overlooking the water like The Marina Bar and Grill. A library like that couldn't help but have outstanding circulation.”

Connie lifted her chin and narrowed her eyes, clearly trying to picture it. “I think it sounds lovely. But what about the location? Do you think people would want to drive out here to check out books and get on the Internet?”

“It's a five-minute drive,” Douglas pointed out. “In fact, you know as well as I do that you can get anywhere you want in Cherico in five minutes. The inside joke here is that there really is no
greater
in Greater Cherico. It's a wonderfully funny expression, though.”

“When you put it like that, I have to agree.”

He pulled her in again, and their heads touched gently. “I was thinking we could announce our intentions tonight at The Twinkle.”

“I know Maura Beth would be thrilled.”

He took a moment and then pointed to the water. “When I was out there today, I didn't even cast my line. I just wanted to listen.”

“To what?”

“To the lake. It laps at the shore very gently, and I just listen. And after I'd gotten my usual fill of the sun and started in to the pier, it came to me just what I ought to do with all this extra land we have. But you're my wife, and this is your land, too. So, tell me, would you like to do this together? I won't make a decision this big without you being on board.”

Connie looked into his eyes again and kissed him gently on the lips. “You know I've been looking forward to sharing our retirement here, and I can't think of a better way to do it. We'll tell Maura Beth and the others tonight. Speaking of which, I'll round up the baked chicken, and we better get going or we'll be late.”

 

About a quarter past nine Periwinkle was back in the kitchen getting ready to pour herself a steaming bowl of chicken gumbo and then have that postponed slice of sinful grasshopper pie when she heard the relentless knocking at the front door. “Will you go see what that's about, Parker? Can't people read the sign and see we're closed? You'd think they'd know our hours by now anyway. I don't know what gets into people.”

Mr. Place could barely contain his excitement as he headed out. “Will do. Can't imagine what's going on, either.” But once he'd let the Brachles, McShays, Miss Voncille, Locke Linwood, Nora Duddney, Maura Beth, and Jeremy inside, he shouted back. “Oh, Periwinkle, there are some people out here to see you, and they just won't take no for an answer!”

“What on earth are you talking about!” she cried out, her irritation beginning to bubble over. “Stand up to them, for heaven's sake!”

“They won't listen to me. They really insist on seeing you. You need to come out here and take care of this!”

The ploy worked, and a few seconds later, Periwinkle was greeted with the loudest orchestrated “Happy Surprise Birthday!” of her life. It was clear from her expression and the way she clasped her hands together that she was genuinely caught off guard. But she quickly recovered.

“Well, dang-it-all, it looks like a girl just can't keep her age a secret these days, can she?”

Many hugs and kisses on the cheek followed, and it took a while for everyone to get settled in, particularly with the covered dishes they had brought along with them. “I'll take all of those back to the kitchen,” Mr. Place offered. “I'll be officially in charge of the warming and serving, too. This is your special night, Periwinkle, so you just sit back and relax and let us do all the work.”

Periwinkle scanned the faces of her friends and asked, “Whose idea was this? Was it yours, Maura Beth?”

“Afraid not,” she answered, pointing to Mr. Place. “You can thank your right-hand man there for this little scheme.”

Periwinkle turned and gave him a sweet smile. “So that's what you've been up to all day. Really, Parker, I thought you might have joined Weight Watchers or something the way you were paying so much attention to my diet today.”

Mr. Place shrugged with a display of his hands. “What can I say? I guess I'm not a very good actor.”

“But you're a very good friend, Parker, and I thank you for thinking of me from the bottom of my heart. Come on over here, and let's hug it out again.”

Everyone looked on, smiling and making noises of approval at the spontaneous display of affection, and then it was time to get the celebration under way.

“We all decided that the best gifts to bring you would be lots of potluck choices so you wouldn't have to serve your own food at your own birthday party,” Maura Beth said. “Let's see, if I remember correctly, I made some stuffed mushrooms, Nora whipped up a layered salad, Becca brought clam canapés and hot fruit, Connie brought some baked chicken, and, oh, yes, Miss Voncille brought her wonderful biscuits and green pepper jelly. I think that about covers it.”

“Except for the chocolate caramel sheet cake I made that's been hiding at the back of the fridge all this time,” Mr. Place put in.

“Aha!” Periwinkle exclaimed, pouncing upon his words. “You mean the one you kept on describing as an experimental dessert, and I'd better not peek under the aluminum foil in case it didn't turn out well? I thought you were probably up to something, but I gave you the benefit of the doubt. Experimental, my foot! Meanwhile, I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm starving. So let's heat up all this good food and chow down on my birthday feast!”

 

In the end, Maura Beth and Miss Voncille had decided to draw straws in the ladies' room to see who went first with the straightforward engagement announcements. Well, not straws exactly. Lacking a broom, they had each offered up their lipsticks, and Maura Beth had concealed them behind her back, one in each hand.

“You pick,” Maura Beth had told her. “If it's yours, you go first.”

“Right hand,” Miss Voncille had said, touching a spot in midair with her finger.

She had chosen her own but had been gracious about it. “Age before beauty, I suppose.”

“Now, none of that, Miss Voncille,” Maura Beth had returned with equal aplomb. “The fact is, you are both ageless and a beauty.”

Miss Voncille nodded in her general direction. “Why, thank you, my dear. You are a true Southern lady. I've thought so from the day you took over from Annie Scott, who was always out of sorts and let you know about it, too.”

When it was time for the actual announcements after everyone had eaten their fill of all the delicious offerings, Miss Voncille chimed her glass of white wine several times. Both she and Locke then stood up while everyone seated around the well-lubricated table halted their chatter and gave them their quizzical attention. After all, Periwinkle had been toasted several times over. Was there anything more left to say?