CHAPTER TEN BACK AGAIN
CHAPTER TEN
BACK AGAIN
E aster came and went without an event, which was a blessing to Sam. She feared Jack would come looking for her, full of anger that they had called the cops on him. But several days went by, and Jack didn’t show. Sam didn’t go to church that Easter Sunday. When she asked the ladies how the service went, Kathleen remarked that Noah had walked over to their pew and asked about her after the service had ended.
But he still didn’t call.
Kathleen seemed to be more militant about Sam’s safety now than even her roses. She insisted that Sam take her car when she went anywhere. She had banned Sam from her nightly walks, doubling down on all measures so that Sam would never run into Jack. Sam had obeyed willingly for a few days, but there came a day that the rigid routine of only being in the florist shop or Rose Garden finally got to her.
Instead of going back to the B&B after closing the flower shop that afternoon, Sam went for a walk down the hill to the town square. She stopped at the café on the other side of the square. A pretty woman with curly blond hair led her to a booth and brought her a water with lemon.
Justice or Justine . Sam tried to remember. Her mind had stopped listening until the woman said that she was Laura’s mother, then it perked right up.
“Good to meet you. I’m Sam. Uh, how is Laura doing?”
The woman’s face lit up at this question. “She is doing great! They landed in Waikiki a few days ago, and they’re taking the next couple weeks to explore and get a view of the land. They’re actually looking at houses tomorrow.” The woman beamed with the good report from her daughter, her happiness apparent.
“Well, I’m happy for her! I’m glad she got out of Homestead. Er, I mean because she didn’t like it here, not like I wanted her to leave, you know what I meant.” Sam hadn’t meant to say it like that and blushed scarlet. She was surprised the woman shared so much, and even more surprised that Laura had just moved on from someone like Noah so quickly.
The older lady with round blue eyes folded her notepad up and stuck it back in her apron with a knowing smile. “I understood ya, honey. I’m glad for her sake that she left Homestead too.”
Sam’s eyes darted to her name tag again to see it said Justine. With a nicety about working on filling up her sweet tea and checking in with the kitchen on her order, Justine left Sam alone again with her thoughts.
Justine brought her more tea, slid into the booth across from her, and leaned forward as she whispered fervently, “Listen, I can’t not tell you this and not regret it later. You need to be careful with Jack. He can be physical when he’s angry. He was rough with Laura when they dated.”
“Laura and Jack dated?” Sam asked, amazed that Justine was dropping whispered bombshells.
“Yes, on and off before she wised up and got with Noah. She pretends it didn’t happen. She avoids him like the plague now, but he got physical with her near the end. Just please be careful.”
Sam’s mouth was bone dry by the time the woman finished. She reached her hand out to Justine, and said, “I know.”
That was all Sam had to say for Justine’s eyes to mist up. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. Kathleen called the cops.”
Justine looked at the ceiling with her mouth set in a tight line and shook her head. “Oh thank the heavens that you are alright. I should’ve gone straight to Kathleen and told her what had happened back then when I heard he was after you. I just didn’t want to spill Laura’s secret. It should be her story to tell if she wants to.”
“The sheriff has given Jack a healthy talking-to, and now his actions are on file. I appreciate you warning me though,” Sam said.
Sam liked Justine from the get-go. She sent Sam on her way with a free slice of apple pie wrapped in tin foil on top of her leftovers, and Sam felt another part of Homestead instantly become homier to her.
Sam pinpointed the café as another safe space to visit with no fear of running into Jack.
Something other than Jack set Sam’s mind into a whirl on the way back home. Justine had just given her a secondary confirmation that Laura had left Noah and he was officially single. A little flicker of hope came alive deep inside her, but it was probably too soon after a long-term relationship breakup to strike up their friendship again. Also, what if it wasn’t Laura that made Noah change his hours? He also could have wanted the friendship to end. He had supposedly asked about Sam at church but never called. Not once.
Thinking about Noah, Sam called the bar when she realized she had left his flashlight there last week and asked Rita to drop it by Everbloom for her. And though Rita Jo seemed grouchy at this request, she begrudgingly agreed when Sam promised to have a thank-you bouquet of wildflowers and sunflowers ready for pickup tomorrow at the Rose Petal with Rita Jo’s name on it.
“I noticed the sunflower tattoos down your arm and collar bone,” she said sweetly.
“I’ll do it,” Rita Jo said, “if you will sign the card from your secret admirer .”
That saved Sam from a run-in with either of the men she needed to avoid for now. Two birds, one flashlight. It also saved her from going into the bar at all. She had reflected a lot about Jack since the cabin brawl. And what hindsight had made the clearest was that any time Jack Reynolds came into the picture, too much Jack Daniels followed soon after it, and the two of them had come hand in hand into her life. Aside from the physical stuff, that was reason enough to rid her life of both of them. She couldn’t even think about Jack now without remembering what Justine had said about Laura. The memory of him made her sick.
Sam had reeled when the gossip about Laura cheating finally reached her at the floral shop, but she honestly didn’t know if she had really believed it until now. Loretta had walked into the shop with her phone to her ear that morning. Her eyes had glittered as she listened to whatever were the newest, juiciest rumors. She came close to pacing a hole through the black-and-white tile of the shop’s front display room floor and wondered what in the world had gotten her so worked up.
“Laura slept with a man at the courthouse, and they’re moving to Hawaii, and now Noah is single!” she squealed so loudly that her voice could have raised the dead when she finally hung up. She had done a little dance in her pink kitten heels, tapping in a circle with her arms above her head.
“Wait … what?” Sam had waited for Loretta to explain before she allowed herself to feel any sense of hope. Soon after Loretta had started full tilt into the story she had heard, Jack had called the shop and distracted Sam from the Noah debacle again by inviting her to sneak out and meet him that night at Scottie’s.
After that night’s events and midnight dash back to Rose Garden to get away from Jack, Sam honestly hadn’t thought much of the Noah situation. She was constantly looking over her shoulder and jumping at shadows in the road and was on constant high alert over the next few days. Even her sleep suffered, but the worry had so far all been for naught.
Jack did not show, and neither did Noah.
Sam’s phone buzzed in her pocket as she locked up the Rose Petal Wednesday evening and slid into Kathleen’s car parked behind the B&B. She bit back a moan when she realized it was her mama. There was still the better half of a week left before she had to figure out a way to get to Rosepine. Without an answer on transportation yet and the engine light flashing in the dash of Kathleen’s Cadillac, she ignored the call and pushed down the guilt by promising the angel on her shoulder she would call Wanette back when she got to the Rose Garden. When her mama’s picture flashed on the screen again, Samantha knew she had to answer or she’d be in big trouble.
“Is something wrong? Are you and Daddy okay?” she blurted out. Their family had an understood rule. If you call once, they can call you back. If you call twice, it’s something serious. And by the tone of her mama’s voice, this was indeed serious.
“I don’t know how else to say this, but I had to tell you before you came home. Chase proposed. He and Liza Beth are getting married.”
The world stopped.
The sun stood still.
Not even a bird sang in the tall pine trees.
“Are you still there?” Wanetta asked.
“I’m here,” Sam whispered.
“Do you want details? Or do you want to just sit with this? I’m sorry, honey. I wish I didn’t have to tell you, but you needed some forewarning if you’re still coming into town. I hope this doesn’t run you off even longer.” Sam could tell from her mother’s tone that she couldn’t skip out on Mother’s Day in Rosepine, even though now she would rather visit hell than her and Liza Beth’s hometown for the weekend.
“When are they getting married?”
“An August wedding is what folks are saying. The rumor is she’s knocked up, that’s why all the rush.”
Sam felt herself want to double over in her seat. “And you’re sure of this, Mama?” Her voice was shrill, and tears dammed up in her eyes.
“It’s on Facebook.”
Those three words came as the last ceremonial nail in her coffin.
Wanette went on, “You’re going to be just fine, Samantha. Those two deserve each other after how they did you. They’ll drive each other crazy sooner or later. You keep your head on straight and don’t let this get you down. He can’t be trusted, and besides he’ll go bald like his daddy one day anyhow, and she’ll gain fifty pounds.”
Sam choked on a laugh that was stuck in her throat while tears rolled down her cheeks. “I’m fine, it’s fine. I gotta go though, Mama. I got another call coming in.”
“Okay, well I love you, and I’m praying for you. They’ll have hideous babies. You just dodged an ugly, white-trash bullet. We love you. Finish your call and go take a bath and have a good cry if you need to, but remember that everything happens for a reason. It’s going to be alright. Bye, now.”
Sam stared at the phone and wondered how time had moved so slowly for her here in Homestead yet so quickly back in Rosepine. She raced back to Rose Garden to seek out Loretta and Kathleen but found an empty house with a note on the kitchen counter instead of their lively chatter.
Taking a wedding delivery north of Jefferson. Won’t be back till later in the evening.
She hadn’t felt this alone since she had found Liza Beth and Chase in their bed and sat out in Patsy and cried until her eyes were almost swollen shut. This was the same kind of lonesome flooding in. She felt her legs finally give, and she melted onto the kitchen floor, her face in her hands as she sobbed.
She had hit a wall where she couldn’t move on if she didn’t cry it out and bow under the culmination of weight she had carried for half a year now. All the pain and the insecurities Chase and Liza Beth’s actions had caused her to experience, the recent fear of Jack lingering around, the confusion with Noah—it was all too much.
She really lost it. At some point, maybe minutes or even hours since Sam had started crying, the phone on the wall above her rang. Sam wanted to ignore it, but considering it could be Kathleen or a customer, she wiped her face and reached for the receiver.
“Rose Garden,” she said in a nasally voice, her nose stuffy from weeping.
“Sam, thank God,” Noah said. “Bobby Lightner just came in to grab something for his kids and told me what happened with Jack. Are you okay? Did he hurt you?”
“Chase and Liza Beth are getting married,” she wailed.
“What? Just hold on. I’m headed to the Rose Garden now. I’ll be there soon.” He hung up, and Sam broke into a fresh set of sobs.
In what seemed like seconds, she heard a truck slinging gravel as it braked outside and the bounding footsteps of Noah running onto the front porch. He flung the front door against the hallway wall and ran into the room, catching himself on the doorway and searching the room frantically until he saw her.
She knew she looked pathetic, but he didn’t say anything. He just plopped down beside her and pulled her into his arms, rocking her a bit as she continued to let out even more racking sobs as she held on to the front of his shirt tightly and pushed her face into his chest. Memories of the time when she and Liza Beth tried on diamond rings together kept replaying.
Noah asked questions in a soft voice, but Sam could hardly answer. Even her breaths came out as gasps, and her chest tightened when she tried to breathe deeply. She didn’t know how long they sat there on the kitchen floor with their arms wrapped around each other. But soon her breathing slowed, the tears ebbed, and she pulled her sticky face away from his damp shirt. He tucked a stray tendril of hair behind her ear.
She sniffed loudly and felt sheepish. “I’m sorry.”
“There’s nothing to be sorry for,” he said. “Just breathe. You’re safe.”
“Thank you.” She laid her head back on his chest and took a deep breath and felt her body slowly relax a bit. “Chase and Liza Beth are engaged. They’re getting married by the end of summer.”
“Oh?” Noah said.
“Yeah, oh.” Sam sniffed again and wiped her wet face with her sleeve.
His left arm curved around her back so she could lean against him in a more comfortable way. “Talk to me and tell me all about it.”
“I always thought we’d be each other’s maids of honor. That was our plan.” She forced her bottom lip to stop quivering. “I guess now she’ll have to play nice with the other women in town who she used to call brats. I bet Chloe Harper would be thrilled to be her maid of honor after all the crap she spread about her in school, I mean, get real.” She rolled her eyes. “Thank you for holding me. Sorry … I just felt like I couldn’t breathe when I got home, and Kathleen and Loretta were gone, and it finally hit me.”
“I think you were having a panic attack, and I’m speaking as someone who has had his share of them.” His eyes held a forlorn expression. “I hate this is happening to you, Sam, but I am happy this isn’t about Jack. I thought he had come back up here when you answered the phone and were crying.” Noah’s voice was soft and soothing.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.” She reached up and cupped his cheek with her hand for just a moment and curled back into his chest.
His arms tensed around her for a beat, and his mouth turned up in a sweet smile. “Stop apologizing, Sam, I’m just happy you’re okay.”
It was the right time to leave his impromptu embrace, but nothing in her body would allow her to move. Noah seemed fine to stay where he was, so she rested in the curve of his arms and told him about Jack. Her story started on the fateful night she saw the light on in Everbloom, but she skipped that section, starting with the first time she went inside the bar. She would save the part about seeing him dancing with Laura for another day.
She told him of Jack’s courtship, how he kept showing up, kept buying drinks, kept pressuring her even when she said no. His expressions were the same as Kathleen’s as he listened. His eyebrows inched lower and closer together until she told him about knocking Jack in the privates.
That’s when he tossed his head back and howled with laughter. “Where’d you learn to do that?”
“My daddy taught me lots of self-defense stuff. He was military and taught all his girls how to defend themselves.”
The darkness from Noah’s eyes returned. “So, he didn’t hurt you? I mean, other than shoving you on the ground and trying to …”
“No, I got out of Dodge, or the cabin as it were, and Kathleen called the cops when I got home.”
He looked up at the tin ceiling of the Rose Garden’s kitchen. “Thank you, Lord.”
Sam shook her head sadly and gazed up into Noah’s eyes with a haunted look. “You were right, Noah. Jack isn’t a good person, and I didn’t listen.”
“I wish I could have protected you from this. You did nothing wrong, Sam.”
He looked at her with such intensity, his eyes saying something she couldn’t understand.
Noah ran his thumb over her cheek and then slipped a finger under her chin. “I should’ve come up here sooner. I just wanted to give you time. I have missed you so much, and I have been trying my best to not think about—”
The door opened with a bang.
Sam scrambled away from Noah like they were teenagers caught in the act.
Kathleen walked in, swinging two arms full of groceries, her face cracking into a wide smile as she looked from Sam’s red face to Noah sprawled on the floor beside her.
“Well, I’m glad you’re here, Noah! We just grabbed fried chicken on the way home, and we got too much! Come on, and y’all help me unload the van. I got enough for an army, and I want to talk to you about something anyway, Noah, my boy. Do you have any plans this weekend?”