Once and Again - By Lauren Dane Page 0,22
Holy shit.
But her look was apologetic as he stood while she slid into the booth.
“I’m sorry. I meant to go back home to change but things ran late.”
“Wow. What is it you’re apologizing for? Sugar, you look amazing.”
She paused, surprised pleasure washing over her face. “Thank you.” She slipped from the jacket and folded it carefully. “A friend of mine, also a photographer, did some shots of me in some of the clothes I make.”
“Do you need a menu? Oh, hey there, Mr. Murphy.” Their server, clearly a third-generation Sands, was in his first-period AP English-lit class.
“Hello there, Derek.” Nathan looked back to Lily. “Do you need a menu?”
Lily turned her smile on the kid. Nathan nearly swallowed his tongue at how pretty she was when she smiled. “Heck no. I’d like the pot roast with greens and scalloped potatoes. Tea and what’s the pie situation? Do I need to stake out some lemon meringue?” She was teasing, not inappropriate at all, but Derek there seemed struck dumb.
The boy was simply ensorcelled by all that abundance of feminine beauty. He sputtered and gulped.
Nathan interrupted to give the kid a break. “I see you still consider pie a food group.” He grinned at Lily, who blushed. “I’ll have the chicken. Sweet potatoes and some corn bread. Tea and a slice of the pecan for me. With ice cream.”
Once the boy was out of range, Nathan turned back to Lily, laughing. “That boy might hurt himself you got him so twisted up.”
“I was going to go home but then I’d have been late and you might have thought I wasn’t coming, and I didn’t want to hurt your feelings.” She looked less than pleased at the last bit. But he liked it just fine.
“You make clothes?” He steered her back to the conversation they’d been having earlier.
“Oh, yes. I do. I made what I’m wearing. Anyway,” she continued as if it wasn’t an amazing thing that she’d made the clothing she wore, “two years ago I started making a limited number of outfits and separates every year. I have a consignment place in Macon that I work with. They sell my stuff there and I’ve got word-of-mouth clients.”
She sipped her freshly delivered tea before continuing.
“But Beth suggested I set up a little website. Nothing too fancy, just pictures of the items I had in stock and also some of the other pieces I’ve made in the past to be special ordered. There are different places online—crafting communities and the like—and I can have my store listed there as well.” She shrugged. “So a friend of mine, another photographer I know, owed me a big favor and today he paid up by taking pictures of me for the website. I’ll need a way to make a living here. The extra money will be helpful.”
“I guess I was wrong.” About so many things.
“About what?”
“I was just wondering if you’d be back to Macon again once the situation with Chris evened out. I figured you would.”
“I told you I was back for good.”
“You did. I misjudged you.” He paused when their food arrived.
“I missed this place.” She looked around, avoiding the subject. He let her. For the moment.
“I lived in Atlanta for school and liked it. I’ve traveled around the country and even went to Italy three years ago, but Petal is home. How’s your mom holding up?”
She sighed and forked up some potatoes. “Some days she’s close to the woman she was when I was growing up. Those are the days I think she’ll pull her head out of her behind and get her life in order. Some days she’s stuck in a bottle with a handful of pills. Christ. I don’t know what to do with her.”
“I take it your dad isn’t any help.”
“If only I happened to be a twenty-year-old looking to cash in.” Her laugh was laced in irony. “He told me to take out a loan to send Chris to military school.”
He had his own crazy, selfish, abusive parents, but hers were worse to his mind. There was no reason for a good kid like Chris to have fallen behind the way he had. No reason for it to have gone on for so long before Pamela admitted she needed some help. And for any man to turn his back on his own child so he could keep on getting some young thing in his bed? Nathan wanted to punch the guy right in the face.
“You’re making a difference with