Winter Winds (16 page)

“You name it, we got it,” he said with pride.

It had been a long day, she was feeling ill-used, and he wasn’t helping any. “Do you have a Mercedes ragtop? In green?” She didn’t even know if there was such a car.

There was a brief silence. “Uh, no. We only got American cars.”

“How about a gold Cadillac convertible then?” Again she had no idea whether there was such a car. “Or a silver one. I’m not particular.”

“Well, uh, uh.” He sounded frantic.

Suddenly she regretted baiting him. “So what do you have?” she asked in a gentle voice.

“Fords,” he blurted.

“Fine. A Taurus would be nice. Do you have one available?”

“Yeah. How long you want it?”

“Until Wednesday. Then it will get driven to New York City.”

“Well, I got a red one, this year’s model, great condition. And there are lots of drop-offs in New York. Cost you more though if you don’t return it to the point of origin.”

“No problem. How about you deliver my car to—” She stopped. “Wait a minute. I have to run outside and see what the address is.” When she returned to the phone, panting, she was more than slightly surprised to find him still waiting. She gave the street and number. “Can you deliver the car right away please? I need it immediately.”

“Can you pay me right away?” he countered. “I need the money immediately.”

“Got my credit card right here.”

In a half hour she had a red rental Taurus at rates that sounded like a giveaway after what she was used to in California. She drove the salesman back to his office, passing the grocery store on her way. She did the necessary paperwork, bid him good-bye, and returned to the store.

As she pushed her cart up and down the Acme aisles, Dori tried to imagine what quantities she should buy for Trev and Ryan. How much did Trev eat? She remembered a teenager who consumed quantities that would have felled an ox. But how did he eat now? And Ryan. He was a small, skinny kid, but did he eat like the kid he was or the kid he would become, if and when he grew?

She decided to get spaghetti because she could always cook more noodles and pour more sauce out of the jar. An extra bag of salad could also plug lots of hollow legs. And Amoroso rolls, good, crusty Italian rolls, the kind no one made on the west coast.

She looked at her basket, pleased. One meal taken care of. What about a rump roast with potatoes, carrots, and onions? Add a green vegetable and you had a feast. Leftovers, if there were any, would make good hot roast beef sandwiches. And a Perdue Oven Stuffer Roaster. Throw in stuffing mix and a different green vegetable and bingo.

Maybe this shopping bit wouldn’t be so hard after all. She threw in a loaf of bread, a carton of orange juice, a half gallon of milk, a box of cereal, and a twelve pack of Coke. She swung into the aisle where the cookies were and promptly bumped into a cart coming the other way.

“I’m so sorry,” she said, trying to get out of the other cart’s way. With an apologetic smile she looked up and found herself staring at Angie Warrington and her mother.

O
H, HI
,” D
ORI SAID
, smiling brightly. “Imagine bumping into the only people I know in Seaside.”

“Small world,” said Judy Warrington, her mouth pinched and hard. “And twice in one day.”

Dori smiled, trying to project warmth in spite of the chill that flowed about her like the fog from dry ice. These women were very angry, and she felt pretty sure she was the reason.

“Have you known Pastor Paul long?” Angie asked, her hands wrapped around the handle of the cart so tightly her knuckles showed white.

“Pas—Oh, you mean Trev.” She grinned. “Forever, I think. Our families have been friends since our mothers met in college.”

“Oh. I don’t think I ever heard him mention you,” Angie said, hurling the barb with obvious relish.

Dori suddenly felt the need to move on. A catfight was the last thing she wanted. “Could be. I wouldn’t know.” She tried to angle her cart around the Warringtons. “If you’ll excuse me?”

Angle’s move to block the aisle wasn’t subtle. Dori looked at her in surprise and saw genuine dislike mingled with true hurt. It was obvious that Angie cared deeply for Trev.

“Pastor Paul has been in Seaside all week.” Judy
suddenly entered the conversation. “When did he have time to get married?”

Dori prayed her face didn’t reveal her panic. Or her anger at Trev. Instead of running out to care for his flock, he should have stayed home. He should have helped her figure out the questions people would ask and the answers they would give.

Her conscience suddenly jibed. In all fairness, he hadn’t expected her to leave the house. But she had left, and she needed a fast but true answer, one that wouldn’t come back and bite them later.

“Getting married was an impulsive decision.” That was very true. “Spur-of-the-moment romantic.”

“But how did you manage it so fast?”

“We eloped.”

“Our pastor eloped?” Judy managed to make it seem the equivalent of murder.

“Pastors aren’t allowed to elope?” Dori asked with a mix of defensiveness and curiosity.

“Pastors are to set an example.” Judy folded her arms over her chest. “A good example.”

Dori swallowed her own rising anger. “What’s wrong with eloping? It’s not illegal, immoral, or unethical.”

“You aren’t wearing a ring,” Angie said, accusation clear in her voice. She made it sound as if Dori didn’t have on any clothes.

Dori held out her left hand and looked at her empty third finger. She had had a ring. Trev had married her with her mother’s ring, slipping it on her finger with vows of undying love and fidelity. They had talked about which ring to use, his mom’s or hers. They’d decided on hers because that left Trev’s mom’s for Phil to use some day.

Dori had taken the ring off and placed it on the TV just before she left six years ago. Many times she’d regretted that move. Now she no longer had her mother’s ring, one of the few things she’d had to remember her by.

“No time to get the ring,” she said brightly. That was true too. It dawned on her that Trev would have to give it back to her, and she would have to wear it for the next six months whether she wanted to or not. Somehow that seemed the most fraudulent of
actions. Her parents had loved each other deeply. She remembered laughter and affection freely shared. To compromise what that ring represented seemed horribly wrong, criminal even.

“Is he here with you?” Judy asked, looking around as if she expected Trev to jump out from between the Oreos and the Chips Ahoy.

Dori shook her head. An easy question. “No, he’s visiting Barry in jail and Mary who has kidney stones.”

“Some honeymoon,” Angie said, clearly pleased that Trev wasn’t with Dori.

Dori shrugged. “That’s what impulsive gets you. We’ll have to go away later.”

Angie and Judy just looked at her, and Dori realized with a start that they didn’t believe she and Trev were married. She frowned at them. Did they think that Trev, their pastor, would fake a marriage to cover an affair? And that she would cooperate? Sure, pastors fell into sexual sin all too frequently, but she doubted that even the most brazen brought their girlfriends home to masquerade as their wives.

Resentment washed through her. Dori knew she needed to move on and quickly before she said something she’d regret or that Trev would regret.

She smiled, imagining pointed shark teeth ready to take a bite out of Angie or Judy. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to get on with my shopping so I’m there when Trev gets home. We hate being apart for even a single minute.” She pushed gently on her cart, still blocked by Angle’s, as she heard the lie she’d just told. Somehow it would come back on her; she just knew it. Getting caught was the story of her life.

“Paul,” Angie said as she pulled her cart back to her side of the aisle. “His name is Paul.”

Dori tried to feel sorry for Angie, but there was something nasty about the girl’s manner that wiped out her usual compassion. “To those of us who love him, it’s always been Trev.” With a breezy wave, Dori moved on down the aisle.

In frozen foods she grabbed a pair of pizzas, the vegetables she wanted, and a bag of frozen chopped onions. You could never have too many onions. As she picked up a package of precut
boiled ham and another of American cheese, she replayed the conversation with the Warringtons. She grabbed an African violet and two planters of flowing ivy from the flower department and wondered how she should have handled things. As she checked out and drove home, she began to realize just how difficult a position Pop had put Trev in.

She pulled up to the curb in her red Taurus and climbed out. She opened the trunk and was reaching for the grocery bags when Trev appeared beside her.

“I didn’t think you were home yet,” she said, giving him an automatic smile. “I didn’t see your car.”

“It’s in the garage off the alley.” He waved that away as of no importance as he glared at her. “Where have you been? I thought—” He stopped himself and cleared his throat.

She felt a chill as she realized what he had thought. “You thought I’d left again.”

He colored but made himself look her in the eyes. “Yes.”

“I wish I could,” she said and watched him turn pale. He grabbed two grocery bags and stalked up the walk, but not before she saw the hurt in his eyes.

“Trev.” She grabbed a pair of bags, slammed the trunk shut, and hurried after him, her bags bumping against her. “That didn’t come out the way I meant it.”

He kept walking. She followed him up the stairs and into the house. “I just meant that I wish Pop hadn’t done this to us, locking us in this untenable situation. It’s so unfair to you.”

He dumped the bags on the kitchen counter. “I know what you meant.” His voice was chill.

She set her bags down, grabbed his arm, and turned him to her. “No, you don’t. I met Angie and Judy Warrington at the store, and they began asking questions. As I skated about, trying to be truthful but careful—” except for that one little misstatement about never wanting to be apart—“I realized how much is at stake for you, and how complicated things are. When I said I wished I could leave, it had no bearing on you personally, just the hard situation. I don’t like having to try to explain every little move.”

He looked at her without expression for a moment, and she held her breath. A couple of hours ago she had wanted to boil him
in oil, and now she couldn’t stand the fact that she’d inadvertently hurt him. These fluctuating emotions were going to make her crazy.

When he nodded understanding, she sagged with relief. He looked toward the front door. “Where’d the car come from?”

“I rented it.”

“Really?” He looked impressed. “You sure move fast.”

“Self-preservation. I opened the refrigerator.” She began unloading the bags while Trev watched with interest. “By the way, you’re allowed to help.”

Trev rolled his eyes as he reached in a bag and began dragging items out.

“So how was Barry?” Dori asked.

Trev sighed. “He’s in deep trouble this time. They’re going to make it as hard as possible for him to get out. There’s a bail hearing Tuesday, but I don’t think the judge will allow bail.”

“Maybe that’s good.”

“Maybe. Obviously he can’t control his compulsions, and he can’t be allowed to continue to scare women so badly. It’s especially hard on the younger victims. They expect to be attacked. So far there seems to have been some inner control that’s never let him go farther than flashing or streaking, but who knows if and when that might change.” Trev slid the pizzas in the freezer. “Such a waste of a life.”

“And Mary with the kidney stones?”

“She’s uncomfortable to put it mildly. They’ll probably shoot the stones with ultrasound on Monday. Knowing Mary, I wouldn’t be surprised if she tried to tell the doctors how they should do it.”

They laughed softly together, and she became aware of him staring at her.

“What?”

“I’ve always loved to watch you laugh,” he said. “You have such a wonderful smile.”

She looked at him, totally surprised, not knowing how to respond.

“But what I really need to say to you is that I’m sorry.” He crumpled a plastic grocery bag in his hand. “I should never have
spoken in such anger earlier. I said some things I’m ashamed of. Please say you forgive me.”

Dori nodded as she put the milk and juice in the refrigerator. “I know. Me too.” She put the twelve-pack of Coke on the bottom shelf. “Do you realize we’ve never spoken to each other in anger before in our whole lives?”

He opened the freezer and slid in the chicken and the roast. “Now that you mention it, I think you’re right.”

“I know I’m right.” She picked a cupboard at random for the cookies.

He folded the bag. “Anyway, as an apology, I’d like to take you out to dinner tonight.”

Dori stilled. “Yeah?” She pulled a dead leaf off the ivy plant, then set it in the middle of the kitchen table. She turned to him with a smile. “Sounds very nice. I’d love to go.”

“Good.” He opened the refrigerator door and dumped the potatoes and carrots in the crisper drawer. He grinned at her over his shoulder. “Good.”

She cleared her throat. “That’s the first time you’ve ever asked me for something that could even loosely be termed a date.”

He was quiet for a minute, but she could feel his eyes on her as she put the African violet on the windowsill. Then he came to her and turned her to him. His arms encircled her and hers automatically slid around his waist. He studied her with eyes full of regret and something else she couldn’t quite define.

“I’ll see if I can do better this time around,” he said softly. He bent and kissed her forehead. “Now go put on the best thing you’ve got with you.”

With an unsettling mix of regret and relief, she stepped out of his embrace and hurried upstairs. As she thought over the clothes she had with her, she realized that she hadn’t packed anything particularly dressy. She’d expected to be at the hospital or at Pop and Honey’s. Neither place called for anything but slacks and tops.

Her navy slacks and white T would look nice with her chenille jacket, but it was a long way from elegant. She hoped Trev wouldn’t be disappointed because he wanted to take her somewhere fancy. After Tuesday when Randy brought her things, she
could go anywhere Trev wanted to take her. Tonight he’d just have to make do with her as she was.