“He’s my great-grandfather; you know I’m in.” Julie looked at Gustavia who shouted, “Scoobies ride again.”
“We have got to think of a better name.” A wry comment from Amethyst.
Chapter 14
Letting Pam know about her dinner with Callum proved to be Adriel’s undoing. Not only was she forced to endure a second shopping trip, but this one included a session of hair and makeup.
“Is this really necessary? We’re going to Athena’s for pizza. It’s just pizza. It’s not a date.”
Pulling dresses off the racks as she went, Pam marched down aisles filled with bright color and pattern. “It’s a date with Longbrook’s most eligible bachelor,” she said, like it was a good thing.
“And why is that? Don’t you think there’s something wrong when a man his age has never married?” Following behind, Adriel returned all of Pam’s choices to the racks for being too short or too bright.
Pam tossed a withering look over her shoulder, “He has been waiting for the right woman,” she insisted.
“I can promise you I’m not her.” At the end of the aisle, Adriel’s empty hands earned her a long-suffering sigh. “Why don’t you go out with him if he’s so wonderful?” She tossed the comment off lightly; was unprepared for the pain she saw slide across Pam’s features.
“He never asked me,” a twist of the lips accompanied the muttered admission, “every other woman in town, but never me.”
Figuring it might take days to get the taste of shoe out of her mouth, Adriel wasn’t sure what to say. “He remembers fondly.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Pam said—hands on hips, hot color in her face.
That foot wasn’t coming out of her mouth without surgical intervention now. Adriel spent a moment trying to find the right words. She held up both hands in surrender. “Nothing bad, I swear. Right after they found Ben he stopped by to…well, I don’t know why he stopped by, but he seemed to need to talk about the past. It was a short conversation and he only mentioned—in passing—how he felt sorry for you and that you had guts.”
“Lovely. I have other,” Pam glanced down, “attributes. All he sees are my guts. I don’t know what’s worse, that he hasn’t noticed them or that he pities me.”
“You’re looking at this the wrong way. I’ve known plenty of Lotharios in my time. None of them respected their conquests. Callum respects you.”
“This is a weird conversation to have about the man you’re going out on a date with tonight.”
“It’s not a date. Is there another way I can say it so it sinks in?”
Pam shrugged off the truth, along with regrets about her non-relationship with Callum, and got right back on the giddy train.
“Look at these wedges, they’d go perfect with that little strappy number.”
“The one so tight I’d have to unzip it to breathe? You remember where I came from, right? I might not even be allowed to date. There are probably rules. For all I know, a bolt of lightning could blast Athena’s off the map.”
“I hope not; they make the best calzone in three counties. Besides, it’s just a date, nobody said you have to go to bed with him.”
No amount of argument swayed Pam from her chosen course of action. Pizza was more of a date than she’d had in years, and she planned to live vicariously whether Adriel liked it or not. Although, with the stigma of Ben’s death lifted, she might just say yes the next time Paul the delivery guy asked her out. For now, though, Adriel was getting a new hairstyle, and if there was a second opening at the salon, Pam might hedge her bets with Paul and try something new, too. Highlights might be nice.
In the end, Adriel left the salon looking only subtly different. A scant layer of red decorated the salon floor—just enough to remove split ends and thin back some of the bulk. Her head felt lighter, though, which wasn’t the worst thing. Pam, however, walked out looking like a new woman in a sleek bob with an underlay of royal blue highlights that peeked through when she shook her head.
Buyer’s remorse set in before they made it back to the Jeep. “It’s too much, isn’t it? I’m not a teenager. What will people think?”
Adriel placed a hand on Pam’s arm, exerted enough pressure to stop her forward motion. “Does it really matter what people think? How does it make you feel?”
“Bold. It makes me feel bold.”
“Then be bold.”
“But what about vanity; isn’t it one of the deadly sins?”
Adriel waited until they were seated in the Jeep to answer.
“Have you ever seen a sunset?” She asked.
“Of course.”
“What about a field of daisies? Or a perfect white cloud in a perfect blue sky? A butterfly? A kitten?”
Pam nodded. “Then what makes you think a creator who would go to the trouble to make so many beautiful things would condemn you for doing the same?”
“When you put it like that…” Pam grinned and shook her head. “I really do love it.”
***
Callum McCord sat on Adriel’s front porch and watched the Jeep pull in. Sure, he was a little early, but she was also a little late. He looked forward to teasing her about it just to see what that quick tongue of hers would fire back at him. He liked a woman with spunk.
Ignoring Adriel for the time being, he carefully levered himself out of the plastic lawn chair, taking care to keep the spindly legs from folding under the stress. The last thing he wanted to do was land in a sprawl on the porch floor. There was no coming back from something like that. He made his way to the driver’s side to say hello to Pam Allen. He owed her a word of sympathy about Ben anyway.
He wasn’t prepared for the new and improved version he saw when the tinted window slid down. Years of stress and worry were gone from a face he remembered was
