Save the Date

Chapter 38

38

Bert was giving her the silent treatment. And Cara was slinging it right back at him. Throughout the day the phone rang, customers walked in and out of Bloom, and they conducted business. But commerce was the only conversation that day. If she asked Bert a question he answered in clipped monosyllables.

Their normal easy work rhythm was out of sync, and as the day wore on, Cara’s anxiety increased. Arrangments for delivery backed up, and without Bert’s cooperation, she realized she’d have a long night of work ahead.

Even Poppy sensed the tension in the shop. The dog stayed directly beneath Cara’s feet while she worked, moving only to follow her owner every time Cara moved.

At five on the dot, Bert stood up. “I’m gone.” Cara glanced over at him, and then at the cooler, where only one of the six boutonnieres for the next day’s wedding was completed. She had to bite her tongue to keep from suggesting that if he left for the day, he should stay gone.

“See you,” she said.

***

At six, her cell phone rang, but she didn’t bother to see who was calling. She still had Lindsay’s bridesmaids’ bouquets to make, the boutonnieres, and two large table arrangements for the buffet table at the reception. Poppy paced around the shop, but there was no time to take the dog for a walk.

Her phone rang three more times over the next two hours, and she let it roll over to voicemail, all the while cursing her absent assistant, and also cursing herself for letting him get away with slacking off.

She was so lost in her work the first soft knock at the shop door barely registered. At the second knock, she frowned. “We’re closed!” she called out.

“Cara, it’s Jack.”

He had a huge brown paper bag with grease spots in one arm, and Shaz’s leash looped around his wrist.

“What’s this?” Cara asked, as he walked in and set the bag down on the worktable.

“Dinner. I’ve been calling and calling, but you didn’t answer. I rode by an hour ago to see if you were here, and I could see you working through the window, so I figured the only way I was going to see you tonight was if I brought dinner to you.”

She sniffed the bag. “Chinese?”

“I wasn’t sure what you liked, so I kinda got a variety. Moo shu pork, shrimp with lobster sauce, chicken with snow peas, beef and broccolis, egg drop soup…”

Cara’s stomach growled loudly, and she opened the bag and began parceling out the white boxes. “You are a lovely man, Jack Finnerty. I just now realized I haven’t eaten anything today since a banana at seven this morning.”

“Busy day?”

“Busy and horrible. I’d tell you about it, but it would just spoil your appetite. And I’m still not done. Will you hate me if we just eat down here?”

“I could never hate you,” he said.

“Hang on and I’ll go get some forks and paper plates.”

“Plates? I thought that’s what those little white boxes were for?”

“Only if you’re a lonely old maid,” Cara said, heading for the kitchenette. She glanced at the back door and saw a puddle.

“Oh, Poppy,” she said with a sigh.

The dog hung her head. Cara felt flooded with guilt. She hadn’t taken the dog for a walk, hadn’t paid her the least attention all day.

“Not your fault, girl,” she muttered, fetching paper towels and spray cleaner.

***

Cara had to force herself not to scarf down every morsel of fried rice and moo shu pork. He’d brought a six-pack of Tsingtao beer, and Jack sipped his beer and watched with obvious amusement as she made quick work of dinner.

Finally, she set her fork down with a sigh of happiness. “Thank you for that. I feel better already. But how was your day? How’s it going out at the Strayhorns’?”

“Good. We got the roof finished. Galvalume standing-seam tin, and it looks awesome. Once we finished that, Libba decided she wanted some windows to lighten the place up. We’ve ordered those. And we got the ductwork installed for the HVAC. We power-washed all the walls inside and out and now we’ve also got the floors down. Wait till you see them. We were gonna re-mill them, because of all the gouges and stains from oil and machinery, but once we took a look, we decided to leave them as is. Even Libba loved the character. We just gave the floor a light sanding, and it brought out the most amazing color, a soft gray-brown.…”

“Mouse ear,” Cara said.

“Huh?”

“Oh, it’s a paint color I saw once. I think it’s supposed to describe the color of the inside of a mouse’s ear, but I like to think of it as that soft gray-brown you just described.”

Jack leaned over and with the tip of his little finger removed a grain of rice from the corner of her mouth before kissing her lightly. “Mouse ear? As I remember, you’re not too fond of rodents.”

“No. Hate rats. And mice.” She kissed him back. “But you? I kinda like you.”

“Thanks. The feeling is mutual.”

Jack followed her into the kitchenette and they cleaned up the dinner dishes together.

“How much more work do you have to do on the barn?” Cara asked.

“The new windows should get shipped this week, and we’ll get them installed. And then Libba decided she wanted a powder room, and a kitchen, so we’ve stubbed in the plumbing for that.…”

“A kitchen and a powder room?” Cara frowned. “I had no idea they were doing that too. This is getting pretty expensive, huh?”

“Just materials, so far? We’ve spent around sixty thousand dollars, and that’s not including our labor.”

She shook her head. “All that money just for an after-party. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad it turned out to be a good job for you and Ryan, but it just seems like a crazy expense—and all for an after-party. Not even the reception. And why? Brooke Trapnell doesn’t even really care about most of this stuff.”

“Libba cares,” Jack assured her. “She’s really stoked about getting that old barn fixed up. She’s got all kinds of plans for the place.”

“I know. Grandkids. Libba is such a sweet lady. I hope she gets her wish.”

“Why wouldn’t she? What? You don’t think Brooke and Harris want kids?”

“Honestly? I’m not sure Brooke knows what she wants.”

“Harris seems like a decent guy. I guess I was expecting some snotty, stuck-up punk. The Strayhorns have more money than God. But he’s okay. He came out to the farm yesterday and helped us unload some materials. He asked a lot of questions. He’s really interested in the old building.”

“He’s nice,” Cara agreed.

“What? You don’t like their chances either?”

Cara shugged. “Doesn’t matter. It’s not like I’m an expert.”

“You seem pretty down tonight.”

“Just a little tired. Want to go upstairs?”

He grinned. “I thought you’d never ask.”

***

Their lovemaking had a different edge this time, but neither of them could have said why.

Afterward, Cara lay with her chin on Jack’s chest, and with his fingertip he traced slow circles on her bare back. “Want to talk about your day? I’m happy to listen. Are you still worried about your building being sold?”

“It’s just been an all-around sucky day. And not just that. I haven’t even really had time to think about calling my real-estate agent.”

“Why don’t you just go see this Cullen Kane? Put your cards on the table. Let him know you want to stay.”

She hesitated. “The thing is—maybe I shouldn’t stay.”

“Hey!” He cupped his hand under her chin. “What’s that mean?”

“The Colonel—my father, called this morning. He wants his money back, which is not new, but now he’s taken things to an entirely new level of guilt inducement. He actually told me it was a good thing my mom was dead—so she can’t see what a disappointment I’ve become.”

She forced a brittle smile. “He never says he misses her. But I know he does, and I guess his pressuring me to come home is his screwed-up way of saying he misses me too.”

Jack wrapped both arms around her. “Oh God, honey. I’m sorry. No wonder you’re so on edge tonight. So… what? You’re saying maybe you should close up the shop and go home to be with your dad? I get that. But if you’re not sure?”

“No,” Cara cut him off. “I don’t want to go home. Ohio’s his home, not mine. It’s the last place I want to be right now. Which pretty much makes me the worst daughter ever. I’m a horrible person, you know.”

She gave him a sad smile. “Run away, Jack Finnerty. You’re much too nice for a selfish, rotten person like me.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” he said firmly. “If you don’t want to go back to Ohio, you must have your reasons. And you’re not a horrible person.”

“Maybe not. But I’m pretty screwed up.” She gave him a condensed version of her parents’ toxic marriage. “I can’t remember a time when either of them seemed happy together. When my dad was stationed overseas, my mom resented his being gone. I guess that’s when the drinking started. But when he was home, it was even worse. When I was away at college, I used to look for any excuse not to go home to see them. Freshman year, I even went skiing with a friend in Tahoe, just so I wouldn’t have to spend Christmas listening to them snipe at each other. I went away for spring break too, and as soon as I got back, that’s when she got really sick. Six months later, she was dead.”

“Why do you think they stayed together all that time?” Jack asked.

She gave a rueful laugh. “I’ve asked myself that same question a hundred times. I don’t know. Maybe they were so used to miserable they didn’t know there were any other possibilities.”

Jack squeezed her shoulder.

“In a way, I think maybe that’s why when Leo asked me to marry him, I said yes.”

“Just so you could get away from home?”

“That was part of it. But a big part of it was Leo’s family. They are absolutely the nicest, most normal people you ever met. His parents have been married forever. They ran a business together, and they’re retired now, but they still do everything together. They hold hands in the grocery store, and his dad calls his mom his bride. And he has this sweet grandmother—everybody calls her Grannie Annie. Leo has two younger brothers and a sister, who was like my best friend, until the divorce. I think I convinced myself that if I married Leo, we would have the same kind of marriage his parents had.”

“If he comes from such a great family, how come Leo turned out so bad?”

“I wish I knew. Sometimes, I wonder if things would have been different if we’d stayed up in Ohio, you know, around his family, instead of moving down here to Savannah.”

“No,” Jack said succinctly. “He would have had an affair with an Ohio secretary or an Ohio babysitter. Your ex sounds like a player, darlin’, and a player is always gonna play.”

Cara smiled up at him. “Did you just call me darlin’?”

“I dunno. Did I? Did you like that?”

“Say it again.”

“Maybe later. Something I’ve been wondering. Why were things so bad here for you? Is it the town? Do you hate Savannah?”

“Not really. Well, at first maybe I did. It’s just that—this is pathetic. I still sometimes feel like an alien down here. I guess part of it’s that I sound like a Yankee.”

“Not all the time.”

“You’re just saying that so you can get in my pants,” Cara teased.

“It worked, didn’t it?”

“Leo? As soon as we moved down here, he was in his element. He was here a week and he was already saying ‘fixin’ to,’ and ‘hey y’all’ and ‘bless your heart.’ He just fit right in.”

“Like a pig in slop,” Jack said.

“Huh?”

“It’s a Southern thing, darlin’. And you’re saying you didn’t fit in?”

“Not really. After I left Leo, I didn’t even have a girlfriend I could call up to help me move. I only had Bert, who, come to think of it, is my only girlfriend in Savannah.”

Cara sighed deeply. “That’s why I’m so bugged by how he’s been acting lately. He’s apparently got some new boyfriend he won’t talk about. Which is not like Bert at all. Usually, he wants to spill all the tawdry little details of his latest conquest. I don’t know. Maybe I’m just jealous.”

“It sounds like you’ve got good reason to be upset with him, if he’s not doing his job,” Jack pointed out.

“The thing is, if he keeps up this way, I won’t have any other choice but to fire him. And I don’t want that. I want to keep him, as my assistant, and my friend.”

Jack kissed her shoulder and ran his hands down her back, lingering on her butt. “I’ll be your friend.” He pulled her closer and nudged a knee between her thighs. “I’m a really awesome friend.”

“Mmm,” Cara said slowly. “But can you fix flowers?”