Callie Mae cocked an eyebrow and said, 'Oh?' But she wiped all expression off her face and busied herself unnecessarily dusting a table with her apron while advising softly, 'And you mustn't forget, there's the fact that Mr. Owen, he's only been gone a few months. And your daddy would have a conniption fit if he was to find out Tommy Lee been nosin' around his daughter again. And o' course we all know what the Good Book says about honorin' fathers, no matter if they're right or wrong. But there couldn't be no question about your daddy bein' right. After all, he's got one o' the best heads in this county. Why, he runs that bank over there like them Yankees run the war- merciless. You know he always gonna end up winnin', and though he don't always smile a lot, people got respect for him, and there's them that say he's a mite cold and calculatin' at times, but he seems to get along just fine without a lot o' friends since your mama died. Yes, ma'am, your daddy, he's one smart man, got the respect of everybody in this county. And folks say you're turnin' out just like him. You want I
should put this sack of junk out for the garbage man to pick up tomorrow?' Callie Mae looked up innocently, holding the sack of beer cans now.
Rachel glanced from the sack to Callie Mae's face, then back again, trying to think of a reply. But she was too shaken to know what to say, and finally Callie Mae trudged off through the house, dragging Tommy Lee's offering with her while mumbling something about it being worthless and wondering what that crazy white boy was thinking to drop such trash on people's front steps!
Rachel remained where Callie Mae had left her, round-eyed and stunned, digesting what the woman had just said, quite horrified at the thought that she might be turning out just like her father. Was she really all those things? Merciless? Cold? A person who'd rather have the town's respect than smile a lot? She swallowed convulsively, closed her eyes, and bit her trembling lip, wanting to deny it.
But that made two people now who'd told her the same thing, for hadn't Tommy Lee called her a smug, supercilious socialite?
And if it wasn't true, why was she crying?
CHAPTER EIGHT
To Rachel's utter surprise, Tommy Lee showed up at church the following Sunday morning. He was standing on the steps when she arrived, and she realized her mistake the moment her feet stopped moving. Their eyes met, and her first thought was that he had new glasses, styled like the old ones, except that these had clear lenses through which she could clearly see him taking in her white and brown linen dress and matching spectator pumps.
She felt herself blush but could not tear her eyes away from him. He looked magnificent! His skin was brown and healthy looking, and he appeared thinner, dressed in a pale blue suit with a rich navy shirt. The midmorning sun caught the black and silver strands of his hair and threw chips of gold off his tie clasp and the rims of his glasses while a light breeze lifted the end of his tie and gently turned it back, then settled it into place again.
She wasn't certain how long she stood staring
before becoming aware of the girl at his side. She was tall and lanky with dark shoulder-length hair, and from the way she took his arm and gazed up at him, there was no question she adored him. Just then the breeze furled the girl's hair and blew it back from her temple, and as Rachel caught sight of the red button earrings, her heart sank.
Oh, no, she thought, not again. This one's young enough to be his daughter.
Just then the girl turned, revealing Lily's cupid's-bow mouth and brown eyes that might easily have belonged to Tommy Lee himself at age fourteen. Rachel stared, transfixed, feeling her composure slip as she confronted the girl who, had circumstances been different, might have been her own daughter. Her eyes were helplessly drawn to Tommy Lee again, and they stood like a pair of marble statues. Move! she told her feet. Half the town is watching you gape at him, including his daughter and your own father! For in that horrifying moment Rachel realized Everett had joined her, after parking the car, and stood watching the silent tableau with growing disapproval.
Beth's eyes flashed from her father to the pretty dark-haired woman and back again. Then,
to Rachel's relief, Tommy Lee 237 gave a silent nod and moved away with her.
Beside her Everett said stiffly, 'Rachel, for God's sake, people are staring.'
To her horror, she glanced around to find it was true. Several pairs of curious eyes had taken in the scene, but as Rachel looked up, they all quickly glanced away.
The church service seemed interminable. It took a great deal of self-restraint for Rachel to face front for a full ten minutes before checking behind her under the guise of picking up a hymnal from the seat. Just as she'd suspected, Tommy Lee and Beth were only a few pews back. Surreptitiously she glanced at her father, but he was facing front with a stern, forbidding expression on his face. When she opened the hymnal, the print seemed to blur, and she was terribly conscious of Tommy Lee's eyes boring into her back. In a panic, she wondered where Gaines and Lily Gentry were sitting. Were they watching him watch her? Undoubtedly they were as shocked as she was to see him here this morning. After countless years of absence, he couldn't possibly attend without being conspicuous.
When the service ended and everyone flooded the center aisle, she picked him out from behind by the thinning hair at the crown of his head. Odd how the sight of it lent him a certain vulnerability; she felt guilty to be studying it. And a little sad.
Outside, she witnessed the stunned reactions parade across the faces of Tommy Lee's parents as they paused to watch their son and granddaughter leaving the church behind them. Gaines Gentry's hand went to Lily's elbow, and her free hand covered her lips while their eyes followed Tommy Lee's progress until he became aware of them and halted in mid-stride, pulling Beth up short, too. Rachel sensed the girl's momentary confusion, and the yearning among the other three. But then Tommy Lee nodded brusquely and headed toward his car with long- legged steps, already lighting a cigarette as Beth trailed along beside him.
Everett drove Rachel home in stony silence, but the moment they were inside he confronted her directly, his face rigid and darkened by a scowl. 'What's going on between you and Gentry?'
She spun to face him angrily. 'Nothing!'
'Nothing?' He snorted. 'I wasn't born
yesterday, Rachel. If nothing's going 239 on, then tell me what was all that about on the church steps?'
'All what? I didn't even speak to the man!'
'You didn't have to, to set the whole town talking.'
Suddenly Callie Mae's words came back, and Rachel stiffened her spine. 'The town, the town! That's always your first concern, isn't it, Daddy? What the town might be saying! What business is it of theirs anyway?'
'Rachel, are you forgetting what you have made of yourself? You're one of Russellville's leading citizens. You're a businesswoman whose reputation must-was
'Oh, for heaven's sake, Daddy, stop.' She pressed one hand to her forehead and turned away. 'I don't want to hear it.'
He whirled her around by an arm. 'Well, you're going to! I will not have you seeing Tommy Lee Gentry. Is that understood?'
For a moment she was a girl again, hearing those same words, experiencing the same eruption of anger she'd felt then. It swirled up in a red
haze, bringing with it the rage and rebellion she'd been unable to display then, when she could do nothing but bend to his will. But she no longer had to buckle under to her father's demands. She clamped her jaw in defiance, her face took on a belligerent expression, and there came a sweeping sense of a release in rebelling against him at last.
'I'm not seventeen anymore. By what right do you tell me whom I can and cannot see?'
'You're still my daughter. When a daughter behaves irresponsibly, what else is a father supposed to do?'
'You could try letting me make my own choices,' she returned brittlely. 'I'm forty-one. Wouldn't you say it's time?'
His face took on an apoplectic hue as he shouted, pointing toward the church, 'And that's the choice you propose to make?'
'Suppose I did, would that be so terrible?'
