Second Time's the Charm

* * *

“KIRK TOLD US he came to see you.” Papa waited until they’d ordered breakfast—Lillie was just having oatmeal and fruit because she didn’t know if Jon and Abe would want an early lunch—before bringing up the subject Lillie had feared would arise.

Sipping her Diet Coke, she said, “He did,” as if Kirk’s visit was no more of a news item than traffic on the freeway. It really hadn’t been anything more than that. An irritant that put you in a bad mood and then was over.

“If he did anything...”

Reaching across the table in the booth she shared with the two people she loved most in the world, Lillie patted Papa’s hand. “He didn’t do anything, Papa. I promise. He was a perfect gentleman. You’d have been proud.”

“I can’t imagine being proud of that boy.”

Not anymore. There’d been a day—many of them—when Papa and Kirk had been closer than most fathers and sons.

“Give him a chance, Jerry,” Gayle told Kirk’s father.

“I just don’t want you giving him any chances,” Papa was looking straight at Lillie. “After what he did to you...”

She gave his hand a squeeze. “It’s okay, Papa. I’m okay. I wish you’d believe I really am happy.”

“I’ll believe it when I see you marrying and having a family of your own. You were born to be a mother, Lillie.”

“Or to support children in another way,” Lillie said, looking to Gayle for help.

Her ex-stepmother-in-law was frowning, too.

“Look, you guys. Kirk’s affair, leaving me like he did, even abandoning Braydon, weren’t the worst things I’ve ever suffered,” she reminded them. “Losing Bray...that would have happened no matter what Kirk did. And if anything keeps me tied up inside, it’s that.”

“If you’d had your husband beside you, grieving with you, you wouldn’t have been able to retreat so deep inside yourself,” Gayle said. She’d been a schoolteacher, once upon a time. Before she’d met and fallen in love with Jerry Henderson.

“I lost my parents, too,” she reminded them. “Life goes on. We don’t forget, but we move on, right? And where Kirk’s concerned, I’ve moved on.”

“I wish I could be sure of that.” Jerry’s shrewd gaze was turned fully on her.

“Besides,” Lillie added, hoping only to reassure him, “I think Kirk really might have done some growing up since the last time I saw him. He seemed more mellow.”

A little disconcerted by the glance Papa and Gayle shared, Lillie wasn’t as hungry as she’d been moments before.

And, of course, the waitress appeared right then to deliver their food. Oatmeal for Lillie and broccoli quiche for Papa and Gayle. Leaving a basket of fresh-baked goods in the center of the table, she offered to refill their drinks and left.

Papa’s silverware remained on the table in front of him. Stopping with her second spoonful of oatmeal almost to her mouth, Lillie asked, “What’s wrong?”

“I’m sorry, Lil. I just can’t allow... My son’s a smooth talker. It’s my fault. I taught him how to sell to people. But I meant him to use the skill to sell valuable products to people who needed them. Or to sell things to people with too much money on their hands.”

Papa’s honesty was one of the first things that had endeared him to her. She didn’t know how he was with his clients, but in his private life, he told it like it was.

“Kirk’s one of the top advertising executives in the company. But as a man, he’s a lowlife.”

“No, he’s not.” Lillie couldn’t stop the words from escaping her lips. “He’s weak. Selfish. But he has boundaries. He wouldn’t ever do anything illegal.”

“Just immoral,” Jerry said.

“He wouldn’t harm a child, or steal from old people or leave the scene of an accident.” She knew that firsthand. Once, when they’d been out clubbing in college, Kirk had rear-ended a car as he’d been attempting to get his car out of a tight parking spot. He’d found the owner of the damaged car and made amends.

“He wouldn’t kick a dog,” Lillie added, trying only to ease the pain she read in Papa’s eyes.

“He also turned his back on his firstborn because he was ill,” Jerry said softly, leaning forward. “And he’s missed every single major event in Ely’s life.”

Gayle wasn’t eating, either. With her eyebrows drawn in worry over dark, compassion-filled eyes, she watched the exchange between Lillie and Papa.