Shadows of Yesterday

She hadn’t even looked at the menu, but she quickly said, “Sliced barbecue sandwich, please.” The words were little more than mumbled syllables strung together.

Chad said, “I want two sliced sandwiches, extra sauce, but cut the onions.” He seemed fully recovered from the puissant exchange of a moment ago and smiled naughtily for Sue’s benefit at his request to hold the onions. “An order of French fries. No, make that two fries.”

“I made some of that good slaw with the sour-cream dressing you like,” Sue informed him.

“Two slaws.”

“Chad, I don’t think I can…” Leigh’s objection trailed off as he scowled at her threateningly.

Sue laughed. “You got a thin one this time, Chad.”

His eyes never left Leigh’s bewildered face. “I like them that way.”

“Well, they all like you, honey,” Sue said, patting his cheek before she left with their order.

And they all did, Leigh learned. While they ate the appalling amount of food, Chad was spoken to by virtually every woman in the place. Three country-club types with frosted hair and sculptured nails and karats of gold jewelry came by their table. Courteously Chad introduced them to Leigh. She was ignored.

One of the women laid a caressing hand on Chad’s broad shoulder. “Bubba built me that indoor pool I’ve been wanting, Chad. It’s got a hot tub on one end and a bar in the middle of it. That’s where we’re going now, to languish away the afternoon in all those hot bubbles. Come on over any time. Cold booze and hot water. You can’t beat that. You have an open invitation.”

An invitation to avail himself of the pool, the booze, and Bubba’s wife, Leigh thought wryly as the group strolled away in a cloud of musky perfume. How did an airplane mechanic come to know obviously wealthy women like that? And how intimately did he know them? a jealous voice inside her prodded.

But Bubba’s wife and her friends weren’t the only type that loved him. An elderly couple on their way out of the restaurant stopped by the table and the woman exclaimed, “Well, Chad, how is my boy?” She wrapped her arms around him, kissing him smackingly on the cheeks. “It’s been so long since we’ve seen you. Been busy? How is your mamma? I was telling Daddy just the other day that we haven’t seen your mamma and daddy in a coon’s age. Everybody’s so busy these days. I think I liked our little town better before so many strangers started moving in. You know? I don’t see my friends anymore.”

“Mr. and Mrs. Lomax, I’d like you to meet Leigh Bransom,” he broke in politely.

“How do you do,” Leigh barely had time to say before the woman launched into another monologue.

“Well, aren’t you the prettiest thing! Of course. Chad always had the girls tagging after him. My boys were so jealous. But then, Chad’s always been such a darling boy, so handsome, but not stuck-up. A good boy. That’s what I’ve always said, haven’t I, Daddy? Chad Dillon is a good boy.”

Daddy never got to say a thing before he was ushered out by his loquacious wife.

“I’m sorry about that,” Chad said. “It’s what comes of knowing so many people in town. There’s never any privacy.”

“It’s fine, really,” Leigh replied wanly.

“No, it’s not. I wanted you all to myself.” For a moment their eyes held and Leigh felt her insides melt with longing. “Is that all you’re going to eat?”

She had consumed most of the beef, none of the bread, some of the slaw, a few French fries. She nodded. “Yes, it was delicious, but I’m full.”

“Let’s get out of here. Unless you have a predilection for kissing in public places,” he added seductively.

A tickling sensation feathered up from the center of her body to her throat. Clumsily she slid out of the booth when his hand closed around her elbow. He paid the bill at the old-fashioned cash register. It was flanked by a selection of cigars, chewing gum, stomach aids, candy, road maps, key chains, and ceramic ashtrays shaped like armadillos.

Returning to the mall parking lot, Chad parked as near the entrance as he could. “When do those reindeer start flying?”

“The Sunday before Thanksgiving.”

“Before?”

“Yes. The Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving are the busiest shopping days of the year. The mall should be decked out for Christmas by then to get everyone in a buying mood. Since we have to do the actual work when the mall is closed, we do it on a Sunday.”

“Like the elves who came in during the middle of the night and made the shoes for the cobbler and his wife?”

“You know that story?”

He looked wounded. “My mother told me bedtime stories just like everyone else’s mom did.”

“And you were such a darling boy,” she parroted Mrs. Lomax. “A good boy.”