Chapter 3
Chapter Three
Scottie
Under a spring cottonwood, Scottie sat alone on a Gardenia Park bench with a brass dedication plate.
In loving memory of Merle and Hattie Lerner. Sixty-seven years of wedded bliss.
Sixty-seven years. She happened to know Merle and Miss Hattie Lerner made it to seventy years of wedded bliss before Hattie died in her sleep. Merle lasted two more weeks. The legend around town was ole Merle couldn’t breathe without Miss Hattie.
Up on the park stage, a crew worked under a bright light as they dismantled the sound equipment. Scottie watched them a moment, then returned to the memory of Merle and Miss Hattie.
More and more benches with brass plates dedicated to enduring love had popped up around the park.
When Miss Jean-Ann died last year, six months after her husband, their daughter, Dolly Tuggle, wept at her funeral saying, “Mama warned us if Daddy went first, she’d not be long behind.
He was her joy and light, her one true love. ”
There’d been so much emotional vibration in her words, Scottie actually began to believe in the fairy tale of a “one true love.” Something she’d not observed often in her thirty-eight years.
She certainly didn’t observe it tonight during her Fry Hut dinner-in-the-park with Cap Henderson. But his unusual demeanor in her office this afternoon finally made sense.
Did Scottie believe in true love? Yes, of course, the world was too big and beautiful not to believe. It was just, with the greatest of all doubts, she wondered if true love would ever aim its arrow at her.
Her grandparents, Shug and Fritz, were examples of solid, lasting love, but as the kid of a single dad with a supposedly deceased mother, true love seemed like a Disney movie. In real life, a couple like Shug and Fritz were the lucky strike.
Her whole life, Dad had lived with a broken heart beating in his chest. He loved Kate Rein, the girl he’d spied across Lauchtenland’s Haxton University campus his sophomore year.
He hurdled benches and bushes to chase the “vision of beauty” before him.
(Dad was as confident as he was corny in his twenties.) Right then and there, he determined to marry her.
Being a brash American, little did he know she was the Crown Princess of Lauchtenland.
Yet Dad being Dad, he’d won her heart. They fell in love. Conceived a child. Kate assured him the modern ways of a royal family in the 1980s would not hinder their relationship. But she was wrong. Dead wrong.
Her father, King Rein IV, dropped a bomb on their relationship that left shrapnel in Dad’s heart for years. Kate had been forced to choose between the man she loved and her country and royal duty. Duty won out.
Kate delivered a daughter, left the child in her father’s care, and never looked back because everyone agreed—it was for the best.
Dad’s crushed heart never loved deeply again. Except for his baby girl, to whom he gave everything. He modeled a life well-lived with a solid work ethic, family loyalty, and friendship with the community. But he never modeled heart melding, you’re-my-soulmate, committed and devotional love.
When Scottie met Cap Henderson two years ago, his hero’s swagger, sparkling green eyes, and cocky grin made her wonder if she’d tripped into something marvelous.
Yet heart-fluttering sensations were only the start of a love story, right? The trick was making it to “sixty-seven years of wedded bliss.”
Take Dad and Kate. Such a beautiful beginning with a tragic ending. Kate not only lost Dad but also her child. She’d confessed to Scottie how she wept and wept once she returned home to Lauchtenland—her arms and soul so empty.
Then on a day she was forced to fulfill her duty, she met Edric, Duke of Connought. His kind eyes and easy laugh somehow put the first piece back into her shattered heart.
If anyone understood heartache, it was the Queen of Lauchtenland. The notion call her whispered to Scottie. She’d understand.
“Scottie O’Shay, you okay?” One of Hearts Bend’s finest, Officer Chris Mynheir, leaned to see her face, his gold shield glinting with the soft light of Gardenia Park. “The show’s over. Everyone’s gone home. The crew’s packed up.”
“Hey, Chris, I know… I’m not ready to leave yet.” Being alone in the park was better than being alone at home.
“Suit yourself, but I’m going to sit over there, keep an eye on you. I can’t allow our local princess to be exposed.”
She scoffed softly. “I’m not a princess, Chris. But thank you.”
Knowing he kept one eye on her restrained her tears.
She had known something was off with Cap for a while now.
Even more when he’d stopped by her office.
Tonight, he made a shocking announcement between bites of burgers, fingers of fries, and saying hello to locals—that he was in love with his ex-wife.
“What?” Way to bury the lede, Henderson. “You talked to Freya? When? I thought you said she was ’outta here.’”
Cap had been forthcoming on their first date about his first love, Freya, who he met after college between deployments. They married in a romantic rush, but after a couple of years, she bailed, unable to deal with the stress of her husband’s deployments.
“She was, or so I thought. I’ve not talked to her for over a year, then a couple months ago, she texted me about something and well, we started talking, apologizing, reminiscing. Two weeks ago, we met for dinner and—”
“—remembered why you fell in love,” Scottie said.
“Scottie, I promise, I never anticipated this.” Cap was crushing his empty soda cup in his strong, solid hand. “I wanted it to be you, but we never seemed to go beyond pals who had some amazing make out sessions. I’m sorry, I really am.”
“I know. It’s okay.” Scottie tossed her empty cup into the trash bin. “But you should at least give me the ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ speech.”
“It’s definitely not you, Scottie O’Shay. You’re amazing. I was really hoping to be your trophy husband and talk you into investing in the farm.”
Scottie’s final memory of her last date with Cap Henderson was when he scooped her in his arms and softly kissed her goodbye.
“Hey,” she’d said as he stood to go, the final band of the evening holding out the last note of their last song. “Invite me to the wedding.”
Then ker-plunk, the amphitheater lights shut off. The stragglers moseyed toward their cars, and except for the glow of Victorian lamps, Scottie sat in the dark.
The town clock chimed midnight.
“I’m still here,” Officer Mynheir said.
“Are you on the midnight shift, officer?” She spoke toward the shadows.
“No, but I ain’t leaving till you do.”
Scottie smiled. “Thank you. Not much longer.” She glanced down at the foil wrapped cake with two forks taped on top resting on the bench next to her. “Care for a piece of cake, Officer Mynheir?”
“Really?” He walked through the lamplight toward her. “Don’t mind if I do.”
When he retreated to his post, a thought ran through Scottie again.
Call her. She stared at her phone, then with a deep inhale, dialed her mother.
On the third ring, Scottie realized the six-hour time difference between Hearts Bend and Port Fressa, Lauchtenland.
She was about to hang up when Kate answered.
“Hello? Darling?” Her greeting was soft yet awake. “Is everything all right? It must be midnight in Hearts Bend.”
“It is and I’m sorry to wake you. I can call you later.”
“No, no, I’m up, padding my way to the tea trolly. Edric rises at five for a brisk walk round the garden. I’d love to join him but, well… Goodness, you didn’t call to hear about me.”
“Guillain-Barré is still giving you trouble.” A statement. Not a question.
“Though I hate to admit it. Two years, and I’m still fighting the usual suspects. Muscle weakness, fatigue, various pains. My physio is coming up with therapies to keep me strong, but some days the pain flat sets me aside.”
“I’m sorry, Kate. What a nasty virus—and such brass nerve to inflict a queen.”
Her mother’s warm laugh confirmed why Scottie made the call. “My sentiments exactly. Now, how is your world? Why are you up at midnight?”
“Cap and I ended things. He’s in love with his ex-wife.”
“His ex-wife? Goodness—”
“He was sweet about it, Kate. He didn’t know he still loved her or that she still loved him.” When Scottie had visited Lauchtenland between Christmas and New Year’s, she shared a little about Cap, wondering if Kate wanted to meet him. “He could be the one.”
“Are you all right, darling? What does your father say?”
“Dad? He doesn’t know yet. I’m still in town, at Gardenia Park.”
“Alone?”
Scottie glanced at Officer Mynheir. “No, a police officer is watching over me.”
“Good. I know Hearts Bend is your city, but do take care, love. Word’s out. You’re part Blue now.”
“No offense, but that’s nothing to the country music royalty around here.”
“Still, you take care, please.” So far in their relationship, Kate walked the thin line between being a friend and long-lost-mother with queenly ease. “So, your young man has moved on. I’m so sorry. How can I help?”
“I don’t know. What do mothers say to their disappointed daughters?”
Kate laughed. “Shall I ring your aunt Arabella? I only had sons, remember?”
“Do you think I’ll find love one day, Kate? I never thought much about it until Cap. Now I’m wondering. Am I one of those girls who never marries but gives her life to her career?”
Which, in her younger days, Scottie believed was the superior option.
“I don’t believe so. Love finds those who are seeking.”
“How did you know Edric was really the one after Dad? I mean, you were so brokenhearted. You loved Dad so much.”