The Lullaby Sky (12 page)

If it hadn’t been so late she would have called Travis. She touched her arm, remembering the way Wyatt had reacted when he went through her phone and found she’d talked to Travis one night. The bruises had been bad enough that time that she’d had to wear a different dress from the new, sleeveless one she’d bought for the school Christmas party. Wyatt didn’t even listen to her when she told him that she’d been talking to Travis about building a gun rack for his Christmas present. Oh, no! He’d just gone off on a tangent about her making a fool of him by talking to a man behind his back.

Wyatt didn’t mind her visiting with Hannah, but he didn’t like Darcy and he’d never liked Travis, not even in high school. It was going to be a nightmare when he found out Cal was back in Crossing. She stopped by the refrigerator, but nothing looked good. Besides, her stomach felt like gypsies were dancing around a bonfire inside it.

Now that she’d admitted that she was thinking about leaving Wyatt, she couldn’t think of anything else. The pictures of his family hanging on the hallway walls glared at her. That sheep in that painting above the sofa had eyes that moved so eerily that she’d taken it down and checked to see if there were hidden cameras. After what they’d found at Hannah’s place, she wouldn’t have been surprised at anything.

When she couldn’t take the jitters any longer, she turned out all the lights, picked up her purse with both phones tucked inside, and made her way across the backyards to Hannah’s house. She rapped on the bedroom window and waited. In a few seconds, Hannah peeked out and motioned her around to the back door.

“Are you all right? Did Wyatt come home early?” The questions started the moment Hannah swung open the door.

“I’m fine, but I can’t sleep in that house tonight. Can I borrow your sofa?”

“No, but you can take one of the rooms upstairs. First, let’s have a cup of hot tea to settle your nerves.” Hannah threw an arm around Liz’s shoulders. “You are shaking like a leaf in a tornado.”

“I can’t live like this much longer,” Liz whispered.

Hannah steered her into the kitchen, turned on the light, and pulled out a chair for her. “I’m here for you. Do I smell skunk?”

“Probably. I got a whiff of one when I was crossing through Aunt Birdie’s and Miss Rosie’s backyards. Do I need to take another shower to get it off me?”

“After the tea, a long, soaking bubble bath might do you a world of good, and then a really good night’s sleep. Don’t set an alarm and sleep as long as you can tomorrow.” Hannah set about filling a pan with water and taking down a diffuser pot. She added two tablespoons of loose chamomile tea to the basket, and when the water boiled, poured it over the top.

“You were the lucky one, Hannah. Marty never came home through the week and then this last while he didn’t even come around on weekends,” Liz said.

“Yes, I was, but when he was here, it was miserable. I couldn’t even fold a napkin right, but then I was only poor white trash and he couldn’t expect anything more from me. And we won’t talk about a speck of dust on the chair rungs or folding the towels the wrong way.”

“Mind if I join you? I know exactly what you are talking about,” Elaine said from the doorway.

“Come right in,” Liz said. “We’ll call it midnight group therapy. I thought you had moved to the shelter last night.”

“Thank you. Gina is coming for me early in the morning. They had a glitch with the room I’ll be staying in. The lady who’s in there couldn’t leave until the morning. Seems like all I want to do since I got here is eat.” Elaine opened the cookie jar and took out half a dozen. “Dust on the chair rungs didn’t bother Jimmy. But he could go off in a rage over not folding the towels with the tags turned to the inside.”

“That is page one in
Abuse for Dummies
,” Hannah said. “I got my first slap across the face over not placing the silverware on the table just right.”

“My first whipping with his belt was over beer,” Elaine said. “Even an idiot child with an IQ less than a slug should know to buy beer before anything else at the grocery store.”

“Page two is the control of everything,” Liz volunteered. “Like the checkbook and the phone and . . .” She paused and blushed, as if she’d said too much already.

Hannah patted her friend on the back. “You can talk freely here, Liz. It’s okay. Consider this house Las Vegas.”

“Anything that’s said in Lullaby Sky stays in Lullaby Sky.” Elaine sat up straight and nodded. “And the amount of shampoo it takes to wash my hair. The bottle holds sixteen ounces and I should make it last a whole month. If it runs out before, then I’m being extravagant and the next month I have to wash my hair with hand soap to learn my lesson.” Elaine sipped her tea, and silence hung over the room for a moment before she went on. “I swear to God and the angels, he was worse than my stepfather. I jumped right out of the frying pan into the blue blazes. I’m so damned happy to be getting a new life that I pinch myself every now and then to be sure I’m not dreaming.”

“We won’t talk about even glancing at a book with a man on the cover. That means we’re lusting after someone else,” Liz said. “And if we argue, it’s an automatic fight and then apologies with vows that it will never happen again. By the end of summer, I will be Miss Andrews again and not Mrs. Pope.”

“And how does that make you feel?” Elaine asked.

“I can’t even explain it,” Liz said. “It must be what you felt when you saw the shelter sign after walking all night. Deep, deep relief, but even that doesn’t come close to the feeling.”

“It was one pretty sight, for sure. If I could just get through the door of that house, I knew there was a chance I wouldn’t die. And”—she tucked her chin to her chest—“before tomorrow I want to thank you two especially for all you’ve done for me. I’m not good with words, but I can’t thank you enough.”

“I should be thanking you, Elaine. You gave me this courage, and Hannah gave me the willpower to do this,” Liz said.

“And you both are helping me,” Hannah said. “So this is a win-win-win situation.”

Hannah sent up a silent prayer of thanks to Gina for going with her gut feeling and bringing Elaine to her house.

C
HAPTER
E
LEVEN

O
n Thursday morning Hannah was up at the crack of dawn so she could tell Elaine good-bye. Sophie hated good-byes, so Travis promised her that they would grill hot dogs and hamburgers that evening out in the backyard. And when she asked for a movie under the stars, he said they could set up the television on a couple of sawhorses on the back porch. But when Hannah made her way to the kitchen, she caught a flash of lightning.

She pulled the window blinds up to see a slow, soft rain was falling. She found the remote and turned on the television, found The Weather Channel, and learned that the storm had settled right over Crossing. Rain with occasional lightning but no chance of a tornado was the forecast.

Time to change plans. They would have a picnic in the house with the red-and-white plastic tablecloth on the kitchen table instead of the picnic table in the backyard. She’d make the hot dogs on the cast-iron griddle and they’d have a movie in the living room. She lifted a window so she could smell the rain.

“You didn’t have to get up this early.” Elaine carried a used suitcase that Miss Rosie had brought over into the kitchen. She set it on the floor and hugged Hannah tightly. “Gina says I’ve got a good job waiting and a new name with a new driver’s license. You all have given me courage. I feel like God has smiled on me.”

“He has,” Hannah said. “We probably won’t ever meet again, but I’ll always remember you, Elaine.”

“I’m hoping when it’s been six months that I will be like you.” Elaine was a pretty woman, but she’d be even more striking when she had the self-confidence to back up that sweet smile.

Hannah looked at the time and date on the bottom of the television screen. “Today is June 16,” she said. “My husband made excuses not to come home for six months, but it’s been only two weeks and one day since I faced him in court. You’ll be surprised how much strength you get every single day.”

“I hate good-byes,” Elaine said.

“Me, too, and I hear a car pulling up by the back porch. I guess it’s time.”

Elaine picked up the suitcase. “We’ve already had a hug, so don’t walk me to the door and I won’t look back. When I think of Lullaby Sky, I will smile,” Elaine said as she closed the door gently behind her.

Hannah sat down on the sofa, put her head in her hands, and reminded herself that this was part of the job of helping other women. Good-byes had to be said in order for them to move on with their lives.

But I’m supposed to be helping them, and I feel like Elaine helped me more than I did her,
she thought.

And that is the beauty of this service,
the voice in her head said.

“Mama, Mama!” Sophie bounced into the room. She wrapped her arms around her mother’s waist and hugged her tightly. “Since it’s rainin’, does that mean Laney gets to stay another day?”

Hannah bent to kiss Sophie on the top of her head. “No, baby girl, it means that we can’t have our movie under the stars outside, but we can have a party in our house and everyone can come. Have you invited Nadine and Anna Lou?”

“No, silly Mama. They can’t come in the house.” Sophie giggled.

Hannah took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Elaine has already gone. You told her good-bye last night, remember? Have you done your job and picked out the perfect movie for us to watch?”

“I’m workin’ on it. I’ve got two lyin’ on my dresser. I really liked her, Mama. Will she come back someday?”

“I don’t think so, but we have two whole days’ worth of memories with her, don’t we?” Hannah answered.

“It don’t seem like she was here that long.”

“She slept the whole first day and stayed in her room. That’s why it doesn’t seem like we got to keep her longer, but . . .” Hannah paused.

“I love it when you say
but
.” Sophie grinned. “That means something good is going to happen, right?”

“Aunt Darcy is coming to the party tonight and so is Aunt Liz.”

“Yes, yes, yes!” Sophie pumped her little fist in the air. “Can Aunt Darcy spend the night?”

“You can ask her.” Hannah hugged her daughter closer to her side. “Let’s go make breakfast. A rainy day calls for oatmeal with raisins and pecans and brown sugar.”

“And toast with peanut butter and bacon?”

“You got it. Race you to the kitchen,” Hannah said.

Sophie put her small hand in Hannah’s. “Let’s just walk, Mama, and have breakfast with just us like we used to. But when it’s over, can I go over to Aunt Birdie’s and see if she wants to play cards with me this morning?”

“We’ll call her and see if she has something else planned, but if she doesn’t, I bet she’d love to play cards with you this old rainy morning,” Hannah said.

After breakfast Hannah donned a bright-yellow raincoat, kicked off her shoes, and headed toward the hangar in her bare feet. The wet grass felt like velvet between her toes, and the scent of wet dirt was as intoxicating as a double shot of Jack Daniel’s on the rocks. She stopped and held out her hands, letting the soft rain fill them until there was enough to bring to her nose to smell it up close and personal. No chlorine. No artificial flavor enhancers. Just plain old rain, straight from heaven, to nourish the earth.

“That’s what I want if I ever go into another relationship. I don’t want a husband with money. I don’t want fancy frills. I just want someone who loves to walk barefoot in the rain and smell the wet dirt with me.” She splayed open her fingers and let the water run through to trickle onto her feet with the other raindrops.

“Which will never happen.” She sighed and started walking again toward the hangar.

She expected to hear the noise of hammers and buzz saws, yet there was nothing but crickets complaining about getting wet and tree frogs singing songs of praise for the glorious rain.

“It’s all in how you look at it and how you study it, as Aunt Birdie says. What is one person’s blessing is another’s nightmare,” she said as she swung open the door into the office and stepped inside for the first time in a year.

“Who’s having nightmares? Is Sophie all right?” Travis looked up from a roll of papers stretched out across Marty’s oversize oak desk.

“She’s fine. I was philosophizing to myself,” Hannah said.

The office had been built according to Marty’s specifications. Like everything he had a hand in doing, it was either big or bust. Given how little he used it, he could have easily been comfortable with a small desk, a phone, and maybe one metal file cabinet. But that was not Marty’s style. An oversize desk that probably cost more than Hannah made in a year at her teacher’s aide job sat in the middle of the floor.

And yet that wasn’t the way to describe it, either. It sat
perfectly
in the middle of the room. The distance from one wall to the center of the thing equaled the distance from the far wall to the center. Behind it stood two tall matching oak file cabinets, the keys to the locks hanging on the handles of the top drawers. A desk chair that was probably fancier than the president used in the Oval Office had been shoved over into a corner, and two burgundy leather chairs faced the desk.

No one had ever sat in those chairs. Not Sophie, who wasn’t allowed to enter the hangar or the office. Certainly not Hannah. Unless . . .

She gasped so loudly that Travis jerked his head up to check on her. “Are you okay? Does this room bring painful memories? We can go out into the hangar if it does. That’s where Calvin is working with a tape measure so he’ll know how many bins we can put in for his fabrics.”

“I’m fine,” she murmured. But that wasn’t the truth—not at all. She’d gotten a vision of the pregnant redhead she’d seen in the courtroom sitting in one of those chairs. Had she and Marty made the baby on that desk? The last few times he’d been home, he’d spent more time than usual in his office. She shook her head. Marty might be manipulative and controlling, but he wouldn’t bring a woman to his office in Crossing, because he’d have to explain why he even had a place in such a tiny town. It was far more likely he spent time in his office talking to his new girlfriend on the phone, telling her lies about how he had to work late and couldn’t see her that night.

Travis rounded the end of the desk and put his hands on her shoulders. “Don’t go to that bad place.”

“What makes you—” she started.

He put a finger on her lips. “Trust me, darlin’. I can tell when you are going there even if I don’t know all of what happened in those times and places. I care too much about you to ever want you to go back. Shake it off and look forward. Leave the past in a fog where even memories don’t exist.”

She wrapped her arms around him and leaned into his chest, her ear against his steady heartbeat. “Travis, have I told you today that I love you?”

Holy smokin’ hell! Had she really said those words out loud? Hannah pulled back and stammered, “I’m sorry . . . I mean . . . I do love . . .”

“It’s okay, and darlin’, I love you, too. We all do.” He grinned as he pushed his glasses up on his nose. “And I was really getting worried that you didn’t love me at all.”

“Whoa! Get a room!” Calvin pushed his way into the room.

Hannah giggled and took a couple of steps back. “Travis was interrupting my trip into the dark world of the past. He deserved a hug for pulling me from the abyss.”

“Well, dammit!” Cal chuckled. “I thought maybe Cupid made his way through the rain and shot you both with one of his darts. Darts!” His eyes twinkled. “Little silver darts printed on black chiffon layered over a brilliant blue that would make the darts sparkle in the light. You two are an inspiration.” He quickly removed a notebook, wrote down a few words, and shoved it back into the pocket of his khaki cargo shorts.

“So I should hug Travis more, right?” Hannah asked.

“Oh, yes, darlin’. If I can get a glorious revelation from one hug, just think what I could get if you—”

She slapped a hand over his mouth. “Don’t go there, Calvin Winters.”

He removed her hand and kissed her knuckles. “Too soon?”

“Definitely too soon,” she whispered back.

Travis chuckled. “He’s in love with Darcy and all this new stuff he’s designing for his next show, so he’s got cupids on the brain.”

“Maybe I should tell you to get a room.” Hannah cocked her head to one side.

Cal’s gaze caught hers and held. “I know how close y’all are, but please don’t say anything.”

“I’ll keep your secret.” Hannah wanted to hug herself. Darcy loved him. He loved Darcy. Until it was revealed, Hannah would simply enjoy knowing that it would happen.

“Let’s change the subject,” Cal said. “I love this big office. It’s twice the size of the one I had in the city. I’ve already unloaded my files into the cabinets and there’s still an empty drawer. Marty must have known he was leaving. He cleaned all that out. I can’t believe he forgot the airplane.”

“To my knowledge, those cabinets were never used,” Hannah said, eyeing the phone on the desk. She unplugged the thing from the wall. “Where’s your bug zapper, Travis?”

“It’s at the house, but I can take a look inside that phone without it.” He checked the outlet first, then went on to the phone, where he found and removed the dime-size device hiding in the mouthpiece.

“One down,” he said. “I guess he wanted to be sure you weren’t using this to make calls to anyone.”

“Looks like we’d better sweep the office,” Cal said. “And if you are listening right now, Marty, call me if you are interested in buying this airplane that I own. This phone will stay hooked up for two more days. Then the company is coming to remove it and put in a better one with my business number attached to it. So you’ve got two days to call me, then I intend to put the damn thing on Craigslist.”

“And now”—Travis tucked Hannah’s arm into his—“we will step out of here and into the hangar, where we know we have privacy.”

“How?” Hannah asked.

He led her through the open door and nodded toward Calvin, who picked up a remote and hit a few buttons. “Redneck Woman” by Gretchen Wilson blared through two speakers Calvin had set up.

“With that playing and the rain on the metal roof, he can’t hear anything,” Travis answered. “Where is Sophie?”

“Aunt Birdie wants to keep her and let me have a day to myself. So I came down here to see y’all and to walk in the rain. I love the feel of wet green grass on my bare feet.”

He looked down at her toes. “And such lovely feet, too.”

“Yes, they are. Yes, yes!” Calvin clapped his hands. “I’m going to design a line of clothing and instead of high heels on my runway models, they are going to wear ankle bracelets and toe rings and go in their bare feet. Who’d have thought I could get so much inspiration from Crossing, Texas?” He pulled the notebook out of his pocket again and wrote a few phrases.

“Don’t get him started on the rain. He’s already got visions of something that Darcy will model that involves raindrops on chalice,” Travis said from the corner of his mouth.

“You mean challis?” Hannah asked.

“Yeah, that’s it. Sha-lee, cha-lice. It all sounds the same to me. I know the difference between denim and T-shirt knit, and that’s about it.” Travis grinned.