wrong?”
“How about a sandwich?” Cal said too quickly. “Jane, make Dad and me a couple of sandwiches.”
“I’ll be happy to make your father a sandwich. You can fix your own.”
Jim raised one eyebrow at his son in an expression Jane suspected meant something like,
She refused to be cowed. “Are you having some tests done? I hope you’re not ill.”
Cal shot forward. “You’ve got some dirt on your face, sweetheart, from that walk you took at Annie’s. Maybe you’d better go upstairs and get cleaned up.”
“There’s no big mystery about it,” Jim said. “I’m a doctor, and I have patients to visit.”
For a moment she couldn’t move as the magnitude of the mistake she’d made once again drove its way home. She whirled on Cal. “Your father’s a
Her own heart might be breaking, but he seemed amused. “I know you were hopin’ for a moonshiner, sweetheart, but I guess this just isn’t your lucky day. Although, come to think of it-Dad, didn’t you tell me your great-grampa had a still someplace up in the mountains?”
“That’s what my father told me.” Jim studied Jane. “Why do you care?”
Cal didn’t let her reply, which was a good thing, because the lump in her throat had grown too large to permit speech. “Jane’s sort of a hillbilly groupie. She’s a city girl herself, but she likes all that backwoods stuff, and she’s been real disappointed to find out we wear shoes.”
Jim smiled. “I guess I could take mine off.”
A woman’s voice, soft and Southern, sounded from the foyer. “Cal, where are you?”
He sighed. “In the kitchen, Mom.”
“I was passing by, and I saw the gate open.” Like Cal’s father, the woman who appeared in the doorway looked too young to have a thirty-six-year-old son, and she also seemed much too sophisticated to be the daughter of Annie Glide. Pretty, trim, and stylish, she wore her light brown hair in a short, trendy cut that curved behind her ears and emphasized a pair of clear blue eyes. Discreet frosting camouflaged whatever strands of gray had emerged. Her tall figure set off slim black trousers topped by a loosely cut fleece jacket in grape-colored wool with an abstract silver pin on the lapel. In comparison, Jane felt like a street urchin with her dirty face and leaf-flecked hair falling willy-nilly.
“You must be Jane.” She walked forward, one hand extended in welcome. “I’m Lynn Bonner.” Her greeting was warm, but as Jane took her hand, she received the impression of a deep reserve. “I hope you’re feeling better. Cal said you were under the weather.”
“I’m fine, thank you.”
“She’s thirty-four,” Jim announced from his spot next to the counter.
Lynn looked startled, and then she smiled. “I’m delighted.”
Jane found herself warming to Lynn Bonner. Jim sat down on one of the counter stools and stretched out his legs. “Cal said she’s a hillbilly groupie. She sure is gonna love you, Amber.”
Jane saw Cal shoot his father a puzzled look. She noted a faint trace of insolence in Jim Bonner’s tone that hadn’t been there before, but his wife showed no reaction. “I’m sure Cal told you we just got back from a combined vacation and medical conference. I was so sorry you weren’t feeling well enough to join us for dinner last night. We’ll make it up on Saturday. Jim, if it doesn’t rain, you can grill.”
Jim crossed his ankles. “Shoot, Amber, since Jane here likes hillbilly ways so much, why don’t you forget grilling and make her some of those Glide family specials. We could have beans and fatback, or how ’bout some of that souse like your mama used to fix. You ever eat souse, Jane?”
“No, I don’t believe I have.”
“I can’t imagine Jane wanting that,” Lynn said coolly. “Nobody eats souse anymore.”
“Maybe you could bring it back in fashion, Amber. You could tell all your ritzy friends about it next time you go to one of those big charity affairs in Asheville.”
Cal had been staring at his parents as if he’d never seen them before. “When did you start calling Mom Amber?”
“It’s her name,” Jim replied.
“Annie uses it, but I’ve never heard you do it.”
“Who says people have to keep doing things the same way?”
Cal glanced toward his mother, but she made no comment. Clearly uncomfortable, he turned away and once again opened the refrigerator door. “Are you sure nobody wants a sandwich? How about you, Mom?”
“No, thanks.”
“Souse is part of the Glide family heritage,” Jim said, unwilling to give up that particular avenue of conversation. “You haven’t forgotten about that, have you, Amber?” He stabbed his wife with eyes so remote that Jane experienced a surge of sympathy for Cal’s mother. She knew exactly how it felt to be on the receiving end of a gaze like that. Without waiting for an answer, he turned to Jane. “Souse is like sausage, Jane, but it’s made from a hog’s head, minus the eyeballs.”
Lynn smiled a bit stiffly. “It’s disgusting. I don’t know why my mother ever made it. I just talked to her on the cell phone; that’s how I knew you were feeling better. She seems to have taken to you, Jane.”
“I like her.” Jane was as anxious to change the subject as her new mother-in-law. Not only were the undercurrents of tension between Cal’s parents disconcerting, but her stomach hadn’t been entirely predictable lately, and she didn’t want to take any chances with a discussion of eyeballs and a hog’s head.
“Cal told us you’re a physicist,” Lynn said. “I’m so impressed.”
Jim rose from the stool. “My wife didn’t graduate from high school, so she sometimes gets intimidated when she meets people with advanced degrees.”
Lynn didn’t seem at all intimidated, and Jane found herself beginning to dislike Jim Bonner for his not-so-subtle put-downs. His wife might be willing to ignore his behavior, but she wasn’t. “There certainly isn’t any reason to be intimidated,”she said evenly. “Some of the most foolish people I know have advanced degrees. But why am I telling you this, Dr. Bonner? I’m sure you’ve observed the same thing firsthand.”
To her surprise, he smiled. Then he slipped his hand inside the back of his wife’s coat collar and rubbed her neck with the familiarity of someone who’d been doing exactly that for nearly four decades. The intimacy of the gesture made Jane realize she’d stepped into water far too deep for her, and she wished she’d kept her mouth shut. Whatever marital disharmony was going on between them had undoubtedly been going on for years, and it was none of her business. She had enough of her own marital disharmony to worry about.
Jim stepped away from his wife. “I’ve got to get going, or I’ll be late for my rounds.” He turned to Jane and gave her arm a friendly squeeze, then smiled at his son. “It was nice meeting you, Jane. See you tomorrow, Cal.” His affection for Cal was obvious, but as Jim left the kitchen, she noticed that he didn’t so much as glance at his wife.
Cal set a package of sandwich meat and cheese on the counter. As they heard the sound of the front door closing, he gazed at his mother.
She regarded him with perfect equanimity, and Jane noticed the invisible “No Trespassing” sign she had been wearing disappeared now that her husband had gone.
He looked troubled. “Why’s Dad calling you Amber? I don’t like it.”
“Then you’ll have to speak with him about it, won’t you?” She smiled at Jane.“Knowing Cal, he won’t think to take you any place but the Mountaineer. If you’d like to see some of the local shops, I’d be happy to show you around. We could have lunch afterward.”
“Oh, I’d love that.”
Cal stepped forward. “Now, Jane, you don’t have to be polite. Mom’s understanding.”He slipped his arm around his mother’s shoulders. “Jane can’t spare any time from her research right now, but she doesn’t want to hurt your feelings. She’s saying yes when she really wants to say no.”
“I understand completely.” Lynn’s expression said she didn’t understand at all.“Of course, your work is more important than socializing. Forget I said anything.”
Jane was appalled. “No, really-”
“Please. You don’t need to say another word.” Turning her back on Jane, she hugged Cal.“I have to get to a meeting at church. Being the minister’s mother is becoming a full-time job; I wish Ethan would get married.” She
