She’d missed this giddy sensation in her head, this off-kilter sensation in the pit of her stomach. She wanted it to last a little longer. Dana Sue was right. Caution might keep her safe, but it wasn’t really living. It had been far too long since she’d felt this way, far too long since a man had looked at her the way Tom was looking at her now. So what if it didn’t last forever? She’d survived a broken heart more times than she could count. She knew she could do it.
As Tom reached for her hand, lifted it to his lips and kissed her knuckles in a gesture straight out of the old black-and-white movies she loved, she sighed and let herself fall just a little bit in love. She ignored all the warning signs of disaster ahead—including the troubling image of his harridan of a mother—and uttered a silent prayer that this time things would work out and her heart would remain intact.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
The very last thing Mary Vaughn wanted to do was ask her ex-husband for anything, but Sonny was necessary if she was to make this traditional-Christmas thing work for Rory Sue. Her daughter was still grumbling about not being allowed to go to Aspen for Christmas, so Mary Vaughn knew she had to make good on her promise that the holiday would be magical, the way it had been when Rory Sue was a child. She also needed to make it very clear to Sonny that Rory Sue could not be allowed to play them off against each other, that they had to work as a team. Howard had promised to leave it to her to work this out with Sonny, but if she put this conversation off for too long, he was bound to stick his nose in it. Her former father-in-law was incapable of butting out.
She might as well make the call while she was sitting around waiting for prospective buyers to check out the open house she was holding today. Even talking to Sonny was preferable to sitting around here being bored to tears. Only a half-dozen people had wandered through all day and not one of them had expressed much interest. She’d shown the house to a young couple the night before, but they hadn’t come back as they’d said they would.
She dialed Sonny’s direct line. To her surprise the sound of his voice gave her a little jolt. Puzzling. She and Sonny hadn’t had that much chemistry when they were married. It was unlikely that had changed at this late date.
Like his daddy, Sonny was basically a jovial guy. The divorce had been amicable, even if she made it her business not to set eyes on him any more than necessary. She was still humiliated by the fact that Sonny was the one who’d cut her loose and not the other way around.
“What’s up, darlin’?” he asked now. “That little girl of ours having problems?”
“Rory Sue is fine,” she assured him. “But I am calling because of her.”
“Oh? Why’s that?” Sonny asked, then murmured something to someone else. “Sorry, darlin’. Just give me a minute, okay?”
Mary Vaughn tapped her foot as she waited for his undivided attention. He’d once been very good at giving her that. It was why she’d turned to him way back in high school when Ronnie Sullivan had rejected her. Sonny had been there and waiting, like an eager puppy. It was a shock to realize that was no longer the case. Even though they’d been divorced for nine years now, she’d always believed she could get him back with the snap of her fingers. Now, it seemed, she couldn’t even keep his attention for the length of a phone call. The discovery made her even edgier.
“Sorry,” he said again when he finally came back on the line. “It’s been crazy around here today. Everybody and their brother has decided they need a new pickup and they all need it right this second. I swear I haven’t had this much business since I opened the dealership twenty-five years ago. So, tell me quick, what’s going on?”
“We need to talk,” she said.
“We are talking.”
“In person,” she said, growing exasperated.
“Is this about that ski-trip business? I told Rory Sue it was up to you.”
“And I’d already told her she couldn’t go. Thanks for backing me up,” she said sarcastically.
“Hey, darlin’, don’t bite my head off,” he replied testily. “Rory Sue never mentioned that she’d already discussed it with you.”
“Well, of course she didn’t,” Mary Vaughn said. “Sonny Lewis, aren’t you onto her by now? From the time she was a baby, she’s always come to you after I’ve told her no. The other day she even tried going to your daddy, but I put a stop to that. For once, Howard is actually on my side. Christmas without Rory Sue here is just not acceptable. I’m surprised you would even consider such a thing.”
“To tell you the truth, she caught me at a bad time and I was only half listening to her,” he admitted. “Once I’d said okay, I could hardly change my mind just because I’d had time for regrets.”
It was just as Mary Vaughn had thought, though for once it gave her little satisfaction. “I’ll just bet she deliberately called in the middle of your weekly sales meeting, am I right? It would be just like her.”
“As a matter of fact, that’s exactly when it was,” he said. “That girl is a whole lot sneakier than I thought. I’ll have to watch that from here on out.”
“In the meantime, can you meet me at Sullivan’s for dinner Tuesday night so we can figure out what we’re going to do over the holidays? My treat, of course.” It was a point of pride to her that she was every bit as successful as he was, that she hadn’t taken one dime of alimony from him, only support for Rory
