Sex, Lies & Sweet Tea Page 16

  “No need, ma’am. Employees don’t have to sign in.”

  “Okay, thanks.”

  I put my badge back into the small purse I was still carrying from last night and walked to Mimi’s wing, praying she would be awake. I knew she was an early riser, but I didn’t want to scare her by showing up too early, so I stopped at the nurses’ station first.

  “Good morning, I’m Samantha Peterson. I’m Mimi’s, I mean, Marilyn Peterson’s granddaughter. Do you know if she’s up?”

  “Good morning,” the plucky night nurse chimed. It was early for me, but she was clearly counting down the minutes until her shift was over. “She’s awake, but visiting hours aren’t until nine a.m. on Sundays.”

  “I know,” I explained. “I work here too. In the administration office.”

  “She was up early with a headache. We gave her some Tylenol.”

  “Thanks,” I replied, quickly turning on my heels for her room.

  “Mimi?” I knocked softly. “Mimi, are you awake?”

  “Sam?”

  “Hey, Mimi.” She was sitting up in bed, dressed in a beautiful nightgown and robe. She might be ninety-eight, but the old girl had style.

  “Honey, is everything okay? Is Dax alright?”

  “Yes, I’m sorry, Mimi. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

  “Honey, what are you doing here so early? It’s five-thirty. And on a Sunday?”

  “I know, I know,” I agreed. “I couldn’t sleep.”

  She paused and searched my face. Raising one eyebrow, she had three words for me. “How is he?”

  I shrugged my shoulders, fearing the tears would begin to fall.

  “The Callahan boy, Nancy’s son,” she said, making sure I knew to whom she was referring.

  “I know, Mimi. I mean, I don’t know,” I said as the tears began to well. “He’s wonderful—like no other man I’ve ever known. He scares the shit out of me.”

  She smiled and nodded. “Come sit with me, Sam.”

  I walked over, grabbing a tissue from her nightstand and dabbed my eyes.

  “Tell me all about it honey.”

  “I’ve never felt this way about a man before, Mimi. How is that possible?” I sniffed as a tear fell from my face. “How can I be alive, been married and had a baby and never felt like this?”

  “Love is a strange animal, sweetheart.”

  “Do you think that’s what this is? Love?” I asked, my voice shaking. “Because I thought I was in love with Daniel, and I was in love with Daniel, but this is different.”

  “How does he make you feel?”

  “He makes me feel wonderful when I’m with him, like I don’t have a care in the world. But I know that’s not true.”

  “And why isn’t it true?” she asked, patting my hand.

  “Because.” I paused as I thought it through. “Because he’s the kind of man who’s had lots of women in his bed. And he’s good at it,” I said, pointing at Mimi. “He’s very good at seducing women. He’s very good at seducing me.” I dropped my head and my voice. “And he’s not staying in Shadeland. He’s just passing through.”

  “And that worries you.”

  “Yes, it worries me.”

  “What makes you think he’s just passing through?”

  “He works in Washington, D.C. After he has a visit with his mom, he’ll head back there to do who knows what with who knows how many women.”

  “Do you really think that’s how he operates?”

  “I don’t know. I don’t want to know,” I said, trying to calm myself. “I don’t want him to be that way.”

  “That’s an awful lot of not knowing to be so sure of something, dear.”

  “He wants to meet Dax.” I continued as if I hadn’t heard what she said. “I don’t know how I’m going to handle him leaving for D.C. when this is all over, let alone how Dax would take it if he got attached to him.”

  “Sweetheart, if you didn’t want to fall in love with him, why did you give him your heart?”

  “I didn’t, Mimi. I swear I didn’t,” I cried. “He took it—when I wasn’t paying attention. Honestly, I thought I could act like a man and just have meaningless sex, but it’s not turning out the way I planned.”

  “Love is funny that way. You think you’ve got it all figured out. You think you have it all under control, but you know what?” Mimi asked, squeezing my hand. “Love is untamable. It’s uncontrollable. It’s like a roller coaster. I always thought maybe that’s why you have so many butterflies in your stomach when you’re in love. Just like the roller coaster, you never know when you are going to dip or dive. It’s all very unexpected. But that’s what makes it fun.”

  “I don’t think it’s fun anymore.” I sniffed, drying my tears.

  “What are you afraid of?” Mimi asked, sitting up in her bed a little taller, taking issue with me.

  “I’m afraid I’ve fallen in love with Mac, and he’ll leave me behind… just like Daniel. And this time Dax will have a broken heart too. I can’t survive another broken heart Mimi. I can’t.”

  “I know, sweetheart.” She sighed, tucking my hair behind my ear. “Tell me about your night.”

  I knew she wanted every last detail, but I didn’t know what I was willing to share. “Which one?” I asked through my tears.

  “Why don’t you start from the beginning?”

  “We had dinner at Lone Oak. He sent a car for me. We toured the grounds, ate dinner in a gazebo, got caught in the rain and ended up having sex three times in his room after a crazy storm made all the lights go out.”

  “Sounds like a lovely evening,” Mimi said with her ladylike drawl.

  “It was. I don’t know why I thought I could do those things and not get attached. I’m a woman, for heaven’s sake. We get attached.”

  “Sometimes we do,” Mimi agreed calmly.

  “I took a cab home early the next morning. I didn’t want to wake him. He looked so peaceful sleeping in his bed.”

  “How did he feel about you leaving him?”

  “He wasn’t happy I took a taxi, which brings me to last night.” My voice cracked a little more with each word. “We flew to an island off of Pensacola for a picnic on the beach.”

  “I’m still impressed with the young man,” she said, waving her hand into her body. “Tell me more.”

  “It took us two cars, a plane and boat to arrive, and we still made it in an hour.” I rattled off the arbitrary details, dabbing my running nose as I spoke.

  Mimi nodded slowly, urging me to continue.

  I swallowed hard, still holding back tears. “The tide was too high when we got there for him to carry me to shore without getting wet. So he took off all his clothes and carried me.”

  “Oh, my,” Mimi said with a quiet murmur. I didn’t know if she was impressed with him or disgusted with me. “Then what happened?”

  “What do you think happened, Mimi?” I groaned, looking at my hands for answers. “He took my dress off and made love to me right there on the beach. In front of God and everybody.”

  “It might have been in front of God, sweetheart, but if I know this young man, it wasn’t in front of everybody.”

  “After it was over, I think he told me he loved me, but I couldn’t tell,” I said, choking on my words and tears. “I was in such shock that I didn’t know if I heard the words correctly, or if I missed it completely since he had his face buried in my neck. He gave me a phone number to a man named Randall that works for him. Said he didn’t want me in a taxi ever again, and if I needed anything I should call Randall and he would take care of it.”

  “And that’s it?”

  “No,” I sobbed. “He read me poetry and then slipped a note in my pocket before the night was over so I would find it when I got home.”

  I handed the small piece of paper to Mimi so she could read it herself. I cried. I let it all out and just cried. There it was—the whole damn story. I looked at Mimi and she smiled at me, but it didn’t help. I just sobbed un
controllably.

  “Samantha Peterson,” Mimi said sternly. “Look at me, Samantha.”

  I pulled my teary gaze from the floor to her face.

  “You love him,” she began, completely unruffled.

  I nodded.

  “I know it’s hard to believe now, but I once loved another man besides your Gran.”

  “Who?” I asked in disbelief.

  “It’s a long story, baby girl. I don’t talk about it, because—well, just because,” she said, trying her best to not get upset.

  “You loved someone besides Gran?” I asked in amazement. “How is that even possible? You were perfect for each other. Like no two people I’ve ever known.”

  “In my bottom desk drawer, there’s a lavender box. Bring it to me,” she requested as she motioned to her desk.

  I opened the drawer, and there it was—a lavender box, delicate and worn around the edges from years of handling. Underneath were lots of old photographs, some of my parents, and some of Mimi and Gran. I closed the drawer and took the box back into the other room with me, anxious to know what was inside.

  “I need you to meet someone,” Mimi said as she opened the box filled with old letters and photographs. “This is Thomas James Piper.” She glowed, showing me an old photograph of a handsome man in an officer’s uniform. “I loved Tom more than anything in the world.”

  “What?” I asked in disbelief, taking the photograph from her fragile hands for a closer look. “I thought Gran was the love of your life.”

  “He was, dear, he was.”

  “Then how could you love this Tom man?”

  “I met Tom when I was just twenty-four. He was handsome, smart, and came from a wonderful family. It was love at first sight. I knew I wanted to marry him and be his wife the day we met.” Mimi paused for a moment to reflect on her past as she gazed at his photo. “He shipped out after the attack on Pearl Harbor—so many boys did. We wrote almost every day for the three years he was away. He wrote me beautiful love letters. I’d never felt so special.”

  Her hands shook as she lovingly stroked his face in the photograph. I knew she was telling the story straight from her heart. “He came home on leave for Christmas and proposed to me. I was planning our wedding while he was away. On June 6, 1944, Tom and his division, the 29th Infantry landed in Normandy, France. Omaha Beach. Three thousand men died on that beach. Tom was one of them.”

  Tears filled Mimi’s eyes as she pulled a photo of the two of them in a loving embrace from the box. “He was, at the time, the love of my life.”

  “I’m so sorry, Mimi. Why didn’t you tell me about him?”

  Mimi stared fondly at the photograph. “Sweetheart, there are some things the heart keeps for itself. I received word from his parents when they got the telegraph. They never recovered his body. He never came home to me—at all.” A single tear rolled down her cheek. “I waited three long years for him. I thought my life was over.”

  I nodded and handed her a tissue. The notion of suddenly losing the man you loved was something I understood and Mimi knew it. It was then that I realized why she was so helpful to me during Daniel’s funeral. She had lived through it herself when she was young.

  “But you went on to marry Gran.”

  “I did,” Mimi agreed. “But it wasn’t easy letting go of the dreams I’d made for my old life to embrace new ones. I thought if I left behind my love for Tom…” she trailed off. “Well, you understand this. When you bury the man you love, you aren’t just burying him—you’re burying the future you planned with him. I was giving up my dreams of being his wife—the mother of his children.”

  I brushed a tear from my cheek and took a deep breath. “I don’t mean to sound selfish or anything, but Mimi, if you’d married him, I wouldn’t be here.”

  “Exactly, Sam,” she said, taking my hand in hers. “Your Gran made me the happiest woman on earth. He was good to me—kind. He had a way of knowing who I was better than I did. He wanted to take care of me and I wanted to take care of him. Life has a way of working out.”

  I nodded, wiping the tears from my face.

  Mimi picked up my chin with her frail and trembling hand. “What I learned,” she said. “Is that life is for the living. I realized I could love again, just as much, but in a different way. I couldn’t live in the past, and neither can you.”

  Too choked up to squeeze the word, yes out, I nodded and continued to wipe my endless stream of tears with a tissue.

  “You know Sam, you get more than one ticket to ride the roller coaster in life,” Mimi said, handing me a picture of her and Gran. “Sometimes you get two. My point is you can’t wait around with the ticket in your hand—you have to get back on the coaster. Otherwise, you’ll spend your whole life watching everyone else laugh and scream at what a thrilling ride it is, but never experience it again for yourself.”

  “So what you’re saying to me is I should get on the roller coaster with Mac and see what happens.”

  “I’m telling you that your life is waiting for you. Don’t let it pass you by because you were too afraid to live it.”

  “Even if the coaster goes off the rails and ends in a fiery amusement park tragedy?” I laughed through my tears.

  “Even then,” she said, hugging me tight. “I told you sweetheart, love hurts.”

  “What would I do without you, Mimi?”

  “You’d be just fine. It’s taken ninety-eight years for me to know this much. No one should live this long without giving out some helpful advice.”

  “You make me laugh, Mimi.”

  “And you make me smile.”

  “What’s this I hear about a headache waking you up this morning?” I asked while blowing my nose and trying to regain my composure.

  “It’s nothing, sweetheart. I’m just wearing out. It’s taken a long damn time, but it’s finally happening.”

  “Please don’t say that.”

  “Coming into this world and going out might be a little rough, but it’s what happens in between that matters. I’d be just fine to go whenever the good Lord wants to take me.”

  “Yeah, but I don’t want the good Lord to take you.”

  “Oh, don’t worry honey, the devil doesn’t want me, and Jesus isn’t ready for me. Besides, I need to hear more about your sexcapades with Mac Callahan.”

  “Mimi!” I scolded her and gave her one last kiss goodbye. “Behave yourself.”

  She nodded and patted my hand. “You’re gonna be just fine, Sam.”

  *

  I walked down the long corridor to the front door. It was almost seven a.m. and I knew my little man would soon be up and looking for his breakfast—and me. I flashed my badge and waved goodbye to the new security guard on duty and walked to my car in the early dawn of the morning. It was going to be a beautiful day, and I’d made the decision to share it with the two most important men in my life – Dax and Mac.

  I climbed into my car and started the engine and pulled out my phone to text Mac. I took a deep breath and began.

  SAM: Are you still awake?

  MAC: Hey, beautiful.

  SAM: Do you have plans for today?

  MAC: Don’t know. Do I?

  SAM: Would you like to spend the day with us? Dax and me?

  MAC: Yes. Very much. What do you have planned?

  SAM: Nothing yet. He’s pretty easy to please.

  MAC: Would you like to come to Lone Oak for a swim and a visit with the horses? I’ll have Miss Celia make lunch. She makes a mean PB&J.

  I thought hard before texting him back. Did I want to just dip my toes in the pool of this scenario or jump in cannonball style? Cannonball. I wanted cannonball.

  SAM: That sounds lovely. What time should we come over?

  MAC: I’ll come get you at 11.

  SAM: Perfect.

  MAC: Samantha… thank you for asking.

  I read his last text and held the phone to my heart.

  17

  MAC

  I drug my bod
y out of bed and ran my hands through my long hair. God knew I needed a haircut, but I kinda liked the way my hair had started to turn blonde from the Southern sunshine. My thoughts raced after getting texts from Sam, and I decided to shower, still needing to wash away the remaining sand and salt water from last night. I lathered up and shaved my face, reliving the moments from the night before.

  The beach with Sam was so hot and sexy, but it felt like more. What the hell was I thinking almost telling her I loved her? I’d uttered those words to one woman—my mother. I need to lock that shit down. The problem was I already loved Sam more than I ever thought I could love another person. I was starting to lose the battle with myself to keep my heart walled off.

  I came out of the shower feeling queasy and it wasn’t from the lack of sleep or travel. My head was spinning, and I knew Samantha was the reason. I couldn’t stay away from her, but I knew eventually I would be forced back to D.C.—back to my empty city life, leaving Sam, the South and all its charm behind.

  I picked up the house phone to call Miss Celia in the kitchen, still naked and dripping from the shower.

  “Yes, baby,” she drawled.

  “Miss Celia, I’m going to have a couple of guests for lunch today. Can you whip something up?”

  “You know I can. What would you like?”

  “Well, one of my guests is three, so maybe PB&J?”

  “I believe I can handle that. Where would you like to have your lunch?”

  “By the pool?” I asked, questioning my own judgment. “I think we’re going to swim and maybe ride the horses.”

  “I’ll take care of everything. Don’t you worry.”

  “Thank you, Celia.”

  Dressing in khaki shorts and a white T-shirt, I put my gold ring on and went to the closet to look for flip-flops. I took one last glance at myself before making my way downstairs. It was only ten a.m., and I had just a little bit of time before leaving to pick them up.

  “Do we have any sweet tea?” I asked Miss Celia as I hurried into the kitchen.

  “You know better than to ask me that question, young man.”

  “I’m thirstier than a dog after the hunt, Celia.”

  “Too much fun last night?” she asked, grinning as she poured me a tall glass.