“Suzanna, honey, you make it sound like a bad thing. It’s not, I’ve still got feelings—”
“Really?” Her voice was thick with sarcasm. “After not giving a crap for eight years, now you’ve decided you’ve got feelings?”
“That’s not fair; I tried to get in touch. I went to your house looking for you, not just once, but a number of times. You know what happened? Your old man told me you were gone. That’s it, just gone. No message, nothing. He wouldn’t say where to find you, just get out of his house, that was it. You think it was easy, Suzanna? Not knowing—”
“Stop calling me Suzanna!”
“Yeah, right.” He gave her a slant-eyed look of cynicism. “I almost forgot, you’ve got yourself a new name, and from what I hear a grandma who never before existed. Clue me in, Darla Jean, what exactly are you up to?”
“Not what you think, Bobby. Mrs. Parker mistook me for her granddaughter, and I…” Her voice faltered, and she turned her face toward the window.
“You what? Saw a golden opportunity and decided to cash in on it?”
“Is that really what you think of me?” She didn’t turn or look back.
They drove in silence until he pulled into a parking space at the Pig n’ Pint. After the engine was switched off, he reached across the seat and touched his hand to the back of her neck.
“Look, Suzanna, I’m not here to hurt you. I came because I’ve never forgotten that night. I’ve regretted it a thousand times over, but with not knowing where you were there was nothing I could do about it. I had no way to make things right.”
His words were so sincere, his touch so familiar. In an odd way it seemed as though no time had passed since they were last together. They stepped out of the car and Suzanna offered no resistance as they walked into the restaurant, his hand on the small of her back, steering her toward a booth behind the bar.
After the drinks were ordered, they began to talk. Bobby explained how his brother had been at the fashion show.
“You probably didn’t recognize Eddie,” he said. “He’s gained weight and now has a beard.”
“I guess we’ve all changed,” Suzanna said wistfully. She looked into his eyes remembering how, over the years, she’d wished for this moment so many times. She’d imagined it a thousand different ways but never quite like this. “I have a good life now, someone I care for, a beautiful little daughter—”
He nodded then reached across the table, taking her hand in his. “Eddie told me. She’s our child, isn’t she?”
Suzanna hesitated a long time before she answered. She could say no, end it here and now, and hold on to the life she’d built. It was a good life; the life she’d dreamt of having. Telling the truth would complicate things. Once Bobby knew, the others would find out and it would be like opening up Pandora’s box. The lies would come tumbling out, one atop the other, destroying everything she’d worked so hard to build. She’d be branded a liar and the people she loved would turn away with a look of disappointment or, worse yet, disgust. She would no longer be Darla Jean Parker, she’d lose the grandmother she’d come to love, and Gregg also, maybe even her job. Once she opened that door, there would be no closing it. The word no lingered on her tongue for several minutes, but it never came out.
This wasn’t about her. It was about Annie. Good or bad, she deserved to know her father.
Suzanna gave a weary sigh, one weighted with the knowledge of all she was risking.
“Yes, Annie is our daughter,” she said, “but she knows nothing of you or the circumstances of her birth.” She continued on, explaining how with no place else to go, she’d moved in with Earl. “He was good to me when I needed somebody to lean on, but he was never good to Annie. He barely tolerated her. Last summer I finally realized he was little more than a carbon copy of my daddy, and I wanted something better for our daughter.” She went on to tell of Earl’s drinking, the subsequent abusiveness, and how one morning she and Annie left, hitched a ride, and landed in Cousins, Georgia.
As she spoke, a pained look settled on Bobby’s face. “I’m sorry, I had no idea…”
“That’s not true, Bobby. You knew I was carrying your child, and you turned away. When we passed one another in the hallways, you looked the other way and started laughing it up with your buddies. I wanted to be there for graduation, but I couldn’t stand the shame so I stopped going to school. A week later, my daddy told me to get out.”
“I’ll make it up to you, Suzanna. I’ve got money now. I can help out.”
Suzanna pulled her hand away from his. “Money? Is that what you think this is about?”
“No, of course not. I want to pick up where we left off, Suzanna. We were good together, you know that, don’t you?”
“Good together, how? In the back seat of your daddy’s car?”
“Of course, there was that, but there was a lot more. We had a connection, like this feeling we were supposed to be together.”
“Then why did that great connection end the minute I said we should get married?”
He gave an almost imperceptible shrug. “It wasn’t because I didn’t love you, but the timing and the circumstances were wrong. We were too young, I had my scholarship—”
“So, what’s changed, Bobby? Is this where you tell me you want to start over and make things right?”
Instead of answering her question, he leaned forward, so close that she could feel his breath on her cheek and when he spoke, his voice was as soulful and
