The Mulberry Tree

“Did you see—” she said.

“When you ran straight at him, I thought it was my last minute alive,” Alex said, laughing just as hard, collapsing in the seat beside Bailey. “And I didn’t even realize that I knew that Psalm.”

“You were perfect on every word.”

They looked at each other and said in unison, “And I will fear no evil.”

“When that window opened, I thought I’d fallen—Oh, Alex.” Bailey clutched his arm; she was crying with laughter.

When Alex looked up to see Matt scowling at him, he gave a little shrug, as though to say, What can I say? The ladies love me.

Bailey wiped her eyes, and got up to go to her bedroom to get a tissue.

Matt was close behind her. “Do you know who that kid is?”

Bailey was having a hard time sobering from the laughter. “He’s one of Rodney Yates’s children. I told you about him last night. By the way, it was very nice of you to carry me into—”

“He is not a child; he’s a man. You brought a strange man—not a child, a man—into this house, a man you don’t know anything about—and you let him spend the night here. You’re even feeding him. Don’t you realize he could be dangerous?”

Bailey blinked up at Matt. “My goodness, but you’re right. But then I didn’t know you, and I let you sleep here, didn’t I? And I feed you and, gee, I think you’re a bi

t more dangerous-looking than he is. No danger of tripling his rent, is there? Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some things I need to do.” With that, she closed her bedroom door in his face.

Matt kicked a dirty towel that was lying in the middle of the hallway.

Nineteen

The next month flew by, and during that time, Bailey was so busy that the Golden Six never crossed her mind. And the truth was that she was fed up with them. Alex asked her repeatedly what she’d said to his father to send him into a rage like that, but what Bailey told him made no sense.

“He only gets like that when his latest wife says she’s divorcing him,” Alex said thoughtfully. “So I wonder what it was about what you said that sent him off.”

Bailey looked across the breakfast table at Matt, but Matt wasn’t speaking to either of them. And Bailey had to admit that Matt’s jealousy of Alex felt good.

It turned out that Alex was living in Calburn with one of Rodney’s sisters and had only been at the cabin for a few days while he visited his half siblings. Bailey wasn’t sure how it happened that Alex moved in with her and Matt, but he did. Later, when she was told that Rodney’s sister was taking care of six grandchildren, and they all lived in a two-bedroom, one-bath house, she didn’t blame Alex for taking advantage of the situation. But it was all right because Bailey enjoyed his company.

“He’s a nice kid,” Bailey told Matt. “He works after school in Wells Creek, and he saves all his money to give to his family. If it weren’t for Alex, they’d have nothing.”

Matt had muttered a reply.

Even though Alex had a job and made good grades in school, he still found time to rehearse for the school play. His teacher told Bailey in an adoring voice, “Alex is a natural at acting. All he has to do is read through a scene once, and he’s memorized it. He doesn’t need much rehearsal. He could just show up the night of the play and be perfect.”

Matt had gone with Bailey to see Alex act.

Afterward, she and Matt were in his pickup on the way home. “Alex is a very good actor,” she said. “All through the play I was thinking that I might call a man I used to know and see if he could get him a screen test in Hollywood.”

“What a great idea!” Matt said enthusiastically. “How about calling him tonight? You could arrange a screen test for the kid tomorrow. I’ll pay for his flight to Hollywood.”

Bailey laughed.

“No, really. I’ll charter a jet for him,” Matt said, making Bailey laugh harder.

Carol had flown in the day after Bailey called her, and she was eager to work. Oddly, she and Violet hit it off well, and Carol moved into Violet’s house. Two days later there were eight trucks outside the house: carpenters, plumbers, electricians, painters, landscapers, appliance delivery, furniture, and a cleaning crew. Three days after that, Carol’s daughters, aged eight and twelve, flew down with their nanny for the weekend, but they didn’t return home on Monday. Instead, they stayed with their mother, and Carol enrolled them in the local school.

And as though she knew that only work would keep her sane, Carol wrote a one-minute TV commercial to promote the Mulberry Tree Preserving Company, then used Phillip’s money to buy time during a collegiate football game that would be shown in three states. After she had the ad scheduled, she went into a frenzy of production design that had Patsy’s sewing machine running twenty hours a day. And Carol recruited nearly every person Bailey had introduced her to in Calburn to have some part in the commercial.

At the beginning of the second week, Arleen showed up on Bailey’s doorstep with twenty-eight suitcases.

“How did you find me?” Bailey gasped.