Where Azaleas Bloom. Sherryl Woods

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      1

      Lynn Morrow was at her wit’s end. Her tiny desk tucked into a corner of the kitchen was piled high with bills and her checkbook balance was a stunningly low $24.35. Not since college had she seen such a scary balance.

      The refrigerator held a half-empty carton of milk, five eggs and some rapidly wilting lettuce. There was a can of diced tomatoes in the cupboard, along with a box of spaghetti, a few spoonfuls of peanut butter left in a jar and maybe a bowlful of Cheerios in the bottom of the box. That, too, reminded her of college. But it was one thing to scrape by at nineteen, and quite another to try to do it in her forties with kids to care for.

      “Mom, I’m starving,” Jeremy announced when he walked in the door from school. It was the standard cry of her ten-year-old. “What can I have for a snack?”

      Lexie, who was right on his heels, took one look at her mother, apparently interpreted her dire expression for the near-panic Lynn was feeling, and turned on her brother. “You don’t need food. You need sensitivity training.”

      Tears sprang to Lynn’s eyes as Jeremy bolted from the room. Lately, Alexis, who was only fourteen, had spent way too much time trying to protect her mother. Ever since the divorce proceedings had been initiated, Lynn had been struggling to make ends meet. She and Ed were still in court wrangling over everything from custody of the kids to support. The temporary order in place barely kept her and the kids above water and, by the end of the month, she was scraping bottom financially, even with the part-time job she’d managed to find at her neighbor Raylene’s boutique on Serenity’s Main Street.

      One of these days she supposed she’d thank Ed for providing this unexpected life challenge, but she really, really wasn’t there yet. She was spitting mad, not because he’d left, but because of the upheaval he’d left in his wake.

      She’d worked hard to keep her worries from spilling over onto the kids, but Lexie was a smart girl. She’d quickly figured out what was going on. Sometimes her overnight transformation from carefree teen into world-weary adult nearly broke Lynn’s heart. Lexie should be paying attention to her grades, maybe having her first crush on a boy, not trying to be her mother’s savior.

      Now, with her brother gone in an indignant huff, Lexie came over to give Lynn a hug. She seemed to know instinctively just when Lynn was in desperate need of one.

      “Dad’s late with the check again, isn’t he? How bad is it?” Lexie asked.

      Lynn tried to reassure her. “We’re going to be fine, sweetie. I don’t want you to worry about this.”

      “We’re not going to be fine,” Lexie retorted angrily. “How did Dad turn out to be such a huge jerk?”

      Lynn wondered about the same thing, but somehow Ed had turned into a man she didn’t even recognize any longer. He’d taken his midlife crisis to new heights. He was self-absorbed, self-indulgent and thoughtless.

      His family might not have enough money to put food on the table, but she’d overheard a conversation two days ago when it was mentioned that he was off on some expensive golf vacation, his third in the past six months. The wife of one of his business associates apparently hadn’t realized Lynn was nearby when she’d made her remarks about Ed’s latest spending spree. Or perhaps she had, Lynn thought cynically.

      “Don’t talk about your father that way,” she admonished Lexie now, albeit halfheartedly. She didn’t want her children to start hating their father, but she wasn’t quite prepared to sing his praises, either. Every single day felt like a balancing act between her own ragged emotions and her children’s needs. No matter how upbeat she pretended to be, lately it seemed she wasn’t fooling anyone.

      Lexie’s eyes filled with tears, though it was impossible to tell if she was reacting to Lynn’s stern admonition or to her own panic. “It’s really bad, isn’t it?”

      “Bad enough,” Lynn admitted carefully. She gave Lexie’s hand a squeeze. “But this is a temporary blip, sweetheart. It will get sorted out. I promise.”

      “Are we going to have to move?” Lexie asked, giving voice to what was obviously her greatest fear.

      Lynn wasn’t one to sugarcoat bad news, though she’d hoped to have a plan in place before revealing the sad truth. “More than likely,” she said quietly.

      Though she’d been counting on Helen Decatur-Whitney, who was fierce when it came to getting the best possible settlement for her clients, she also knew that even Helen couldn’t work miracles. Still, she tried to reassure her daughter. “Hopefully, Helen will be able to work this out in court before it comes to that, but I won’t lie to you—giving up the house is a real possibility.”

      “But I love it here,” Lexie protested with a sniff. “It’s a great house and my best friend lives right next door.” Then, apparently seeing something in Lynn’s face, she squared her shoulders. “But it’ll be okay.” She gave her mother a plaintive look that nearly shredded what was left of Lynn’s heart. “Won’t it?”

      “As long as you, Jeremy and I are together, it will be okay,” she vowed.

      She would do everything in her power to see that it was. Right now, though, with unpaid bills and little money, she was feeling pretty darn powerless. For a woman who’d always felt confident and in control, that was a new sensation, one she didn’t much like. Just one more thing to lay at Ed’s feet when she was doling out blame.

      * * *

      Contractor Mitch Franklin had been working on a new addition for Raylene and Carter Rollins for a few weeks now. He’d started in late fall, taken only a brief break during the holidays, and was hoping to have every interior detail finished for them in time for the annual Memorial Day party the couple hosted for all their friends. Normally, winters in Serenity tended to be mild with only a few days when the weather was too bad for construction, but this year had been a nasty exception with bitter cold and more snow and ice storms than he could remember in a lifetime here in South Carolina. While the snow and ice seldom lasted, he was still further behind schedule than he liked.

      With various other jobs he was finishing up—mostly interior work—Mitch was proud that he’d kept his crew working enough to put paychecks in their pockets. Now, though, the crunch was on to get this addition built. To keep costs in check he had his men working the usual number of hours, but he’d gotten into the habit of putting in a lot of overtime. He had a reputation for bringing his jobs in on time and he didn’t want this to be an exception.

      Of course, there were other things motivating him, as well. For one thing, Raylene was an amazing cook, who usually invited him to join the family for a meal if he was still hanging around at dinnertime. For another, his home felt way too empty without his wife, who’d been killed by a drunk driver a year ago. It had been bad enough with his two boys away at school, but with Amy gone, too, he could barely stand to be in his house even to sleep. The bed he’d shared with his wife for twenty-two years was way too cold and lonely.

      His sons were exactly where they needed to be, in college and living their lives, but he was at loose ends way more than he liked. Raylene, Carter and Carter’s younger sisters were filling a huge, gaping hole in Mitch’s life. He suspected СКАЧАТЬ