Where There's Smoke

However, the juiciest gossip that day centered around Dr. Lara Mallory and how, even as she faced death, Jody Tackett had refused her assistance. The doctor’s notorious affair with Senator Tackett was rehashed for those whose memories had faded.

Ollie was resentful of the clacking tongues. Not that his opinion mattered, but he didn’t think Dr. Mallory was getting a fair shake. Hadn’t she saved stingy, nasty Jody Tacke

tt’s miserable hide, when she’d probably just as soon have watched the old woman die?

She was almost tearfully grateful when he delivered her groceries that afternoon. She thanked him profusely and offered him a cold drink for his effort. She might have been a fallen woman once, but a nicer lady you’d never find, was his way of thinking.

“Can you believe it? Old Jody was lying there on the floor of the Sak’n’Save, foaming at the mouth, they said, jerking and twitching something awful. But the old girl had enough fight left in her to refuse medical attention from Lara Mallory.”

The Winstons’ housekeeper had prepared a cheesy chicken casserole for dinner. Darcy was doing more talking than eating. Fergus was transferring food from his plate to his mouth with single-minded purpose. To Heather, the casserole looked like something that had already been regurgitated. She pushed the chunks of food around her plate, pretending to eat. Now that she was taking birth control pills, she counted every calorie and wasn’t about to waste several hundred on this junk.

Besides, her mother’s enjoyment of the gossip that had circulated through town about Mrs. Tackett’s seizure had ruined Heather’s appetite. Darcy had learned all the gory details at the beauty shop and recounted them with disgusting enthusiasm.

“She peed her pants. Jody Tackett peed her pants. Can you believe it?” Darcy chortled. “Incontinental, they call it.”

“It’s ‘incontinent,’ Darcy,” Fergus corrected. “And it’s hardly something I want to talk about over supper.”

Heather reached for her glass of iced tea. “Tanner’s daddy said Dr. Mallory saved Mrs. Tackett’s life. If I were her, I’d’ve let the old fart die.”

Darcy’s fork clattered to her plate. “That’s fine language for a proper young lady! And this juvenile crush you have on Lara Mallory has become annoying, Heather.”

“I don’t have a ‘crush’ on her. I just think it was stupid of Mrs. Tackett not to let the doctor help her. I mean, if you’re dying, isn’t any doctor, even one you personally dislike, better than none at all?”

“Not if you’re Jody Tackett,” Fergus remarked as he paused to blot his mouth. “That woman’s heart is the hardest substance on earth. I agree with you, Heather. I’d have let her choke.”

“As usual, you two are taking sides against me.” Darcy angrily pushed her plate aside.

“Sides?” Fergus asked, bewildered. “I didn’t know we were choosing up sides over this. What’s it got to do with us?”

“Not a damn thing,” Darcy snapped. “I just fail to see what makes Lara Mallory such a bloody heroine in Heather’s eyes.”

“May I be excused?” Heather asked in a bored voice.

“You may not! You haven’t eaten a bite.”

“I’m not hungry. Besides, this casserole is gross. It reeks with fat.”

“I should have been so lucky to have a maid cook dinner for me when I was your age!”

“Oh, please.” Here we go, Heather thought—another sob story about Mother’s deprived childhood.

“She shouldn’t have to eat it if she isn’t hungry,” Fergus said.

“Naturally, you let her have her way.”

“Thanks, Daddy. Tanner and I will get something later.”

“You’re going out with Tanner again tonight?” Fergus asked.

“Of course.” Heather looked at her mother and smiled smugly. “We’re officially together now.”

“Together?”

“Going steady,” Darcy clarified impatiently, never taking her eyes off Heather. “I can’t say I’m thrilled about it.”

Heather, holding her mother’s stare, took another sip of tea. Putting her on birth control pills had been Darcy’s doing, but Heather was getting back. She seized every opportunity to remind her mother that whenever she and Tanner went out on a date, they could have sex without suffering any consequences.

Darcy couldn’t say anything to her, especially in front of Fergus. He still didn’t know about the contraceptives and would have raised hell with Darcy for encouraging them. He clung to the quaint notion that morality was a deterrent to premarital sex.