The Sweetgum Ladies Knit for Love - By Beth Pattillo Page 0,102
there.” She started to take the ring off, but he stopped her. She looked at him in confusion. “What?”
“It’s yours,” he said.
“Dante, I can’t marry you. This belongs to the woman you’ll spend the rest of your life with. Not me.”
“No, Cammie. That ring’s meant for you.”
“I can’t keep it.”
“You don’t have a choice.”
“Of course I have a choice.”
“Camille, you can leave Sweetgum. You can go anywhere in the world, see everything there is to see. But no matter where you go, I’ll still be here, loving you. And that will still be your ring.”
She didn’t know what to say. He reached for the key and turned the ignition. Before she could gather her thoughts, he had the car in motion, gliding down the road.
“I’ll drop you off at your house. I don’t think driving you to the lake right now is a good idea.”
“I’m not keeping the ring, Dante.”
“Yes,” he said without looking at her. “You are.” He turned, and their eyes met for a brief second. “You owe me that much, Cammie.”
She cried in earnest then, her heart breaking, torn in two by her love for Dante and her fear of being trapped in Sweetgum.
When they reached her house and pulled into her driveway, she didn’t wait for him to get out of the car and come around to open her door. She clambered out as fast as she could, and then stood there, twisting the ring on her finger.
“Please take it back,” she said.
He shook his head. “If you won’t stay, then at least take part of me with you.” He paused, his voice choked with emotion. “I love you, Camille. Maybe someday you’ll understand what that means.”
He leaned across the seat and grabbed the door handle to pull it closed. Before she could say anything, he had the car in reverse and was pulling out of the driveway.
She watched him drive away, feeling like the worst sort of traitor, knowing there was nothing else she could do. She couldn’t help how she felt about Sweetgum any more than she could help whom she loved. She hated Sweetgum as much as she loved Dante, but there was no room for compromise. It had to be one or the other. She had dreamed of escaping Sweetgum far longer than she’d loved Dante.
In the end, she’d really had no choice at all.
At the March meeting of the Sweetgum Knit Lit Society, Eugenie looked at the assembled group and wondered, not for the first time, if she’d made a critical error in judgment with the reading list. Although they still had two months and two books left in the year, she felt somehow that they were coming to an end. She wasn’t sure “Great Love Stories in Literature” had been much of a success.
“Where’s Hannah?” Merry asked, nodding toward the empty chair next to Eugenie.
“She’s at the freshman dance at the high school.”
At long last, Hannah had broken her silence and told Eugenie the whole story of her troubled relationship with Josh Hargrove. Eugenie hadn’t done much but listen and nod in the appropriate places. Hannah appeared to have worked out the problem for herself.
“I helped her pick out a dress from the shop,” Camille said. She glanced toward Esther. “I forgot to tell you. I don’t usually charge Hannah for clothes since she’s been so good about helping out. I hope you’ll keep that arrangement in the future.”
Eugenie looked from Camille to Esther in surprise.
Esther saw her confusion and smiled. “We were going to tell you all tonight. I’ve bought Maxine’s Dress Shop from Camille.”
Exclamations of surprise sounded around the table.
“I’m leaving to go to school.” Strangely Camille didn’t look as happy as Eugenie would have expected. “I’ll be around for a few more weeks, helping Esther learn the ropes. We don’t have to say any big good-byes yet.”
“I’m speechless,” Merry said with a laugh, because clearly she wasn’t. She, too, looked from Camille to Esther in both delight and surprise. “You two sure can keep a secret.”
“I wasn’t certain I’d be able to do it,” Esther admitted, “but my house finally sold. To that James Delevan from Memphis.”
Maria gasped. “What?”
“We closed on it last week. I’m living in the condo at the lake now.”
“James Delevan?” Maria said. “Are you sure?”
“I think I know who I sold my own house to.” A bit of the old Esther reappeared in her pursed lips and short answer.
“What about Ranger?” Merry asked. “Do you have room for him at the condo?”