LaVyrle Spencer - The hellion

Seeing him, that first glimpse as he entered a room, rounded a corner, opened a door as he had just now, brought the most astounding response. Her heart accelerated as it had long ago, and she felt warm and knew her cheeks grew pink each time his eyes sought her out as they did now across the scented shop.

"All ready, darling?" he asked, crossing to her, touching his lips briefly to hers.

"Almost. We're just closing up." She moved to the armoire and switched off its light, then to her desk to tamp some papers into a neat pile and push the chair beneath the kneehole.

Verda looked on benevolently-by now she had grown used to Tommy Lee coming in this way. There was a new glow about Rachel since she'd been seeing him, and he was looking sexier than ever, though today he wore a distant, worried expression.

Verda offered, "You two go on. I'll lock up."

Rachel flashed her a grateful smile. "Thanks, Verda. See you tomorrow."

It was a drive of only minutes from the store to Cotako Street. As they pulled up before the Gentry house, Tommy Lee was silent and introspective. He smoked his cigarette voraciously, though Rachel was quite sure he didn't even realize he had it between his fingers. She reached over and brushed the back of his hand.

"Are you sure you want me to come in with you?"

The hand turned over and his fingers gripped hers. "Yes. Please. I need you."

"You're sure you wouldn't rather talk to them alone?"

But the pressure on her fingers told her how tense he was, how much he relied upon her for moral support. She leaned over to kiss his cheek and said, "All right, then, let's get it over with."

It felt awkward, standing on the front step waiting for someone to answer the bell-after all, they'd scampered at will into and out of this house for years. Tommy Lee stood with his hands buried in his coat pockets, his collar still turned up, his expression grave as he stared at the black metal mailbox beside the door. The wind lifted his coattail and slapped it back across his thigh, and Rachel placed her hand on his sleeve to squeeze his arm reassuringly.

The door opened and there stood Lily, gaping as if they were ghosts, holding the edge of the door and not moving a muscle.

Finally Tommy Lee said, "Hello, Mother."

His words seemed to shake her out of her trance. Her lips opened and her eyes skipped from Tommy Lee to Rachel and back, but though her throat worked, no sound came out. So Rachel added, "Hello, Lily."

At last Lily found her voice.

"Have-hello," she said, though it was no more than a weak, breathless squeak.

"We wondered if we could talk to you and Daddy."

"Which-why, of course. Come in. Come in." Suddenly she was all action and smiling solicitousness, stepping back and waving them in with fluttery, nervous gestures. "Well, my gracious, what a surprise this is. I was just… Come, sit. Where did he… Gaines?" she finally called, glancing around as if she'd misplaced him.

"Lily, where are my slippers?" came his voice from upstairs.

Lily flapped her hands. "Oh, that man, forever losing something. Just… Would it… Excuse me just a minute." She went to the bottom of the stairs and called up, "Gaines, we have company. Leave your shoes on."

"Company? Who?"

"Come see," she answered.

A moment later Gaines Gentry appeared at the foot of the stairs, and when he saw who stood across the room he stopped dead in his tracks. His eyes zeroed in on Tommy Lee, held for some time before shifting to Rachel momentarily, then settling on his son again. Disbelief registered on his face. His cheeks began turning an electric pink, and finally his feet started moving.

"Well, this is a surprise."

"Hello, Daddy. I hope we're not interrupting your dinner," Tommy Lee began.

"No… no!" Gaines responded eagerly. "We hadn't started yet. Your mother was just setting the table." He stood near enough to touch, but both he and Tommy Lee refrained from reaching out to each other. Rachel sensed his breathlessness and noted a trembling in his hand as he patted his shirtfront and repeated, "Well, this is quite a surprise. Tommy Lee." And as if just now remembering himself, Gaines turned to include his other visitor. "And Rachel, too."

"Hello, Gaines."

Tommy Lee cleared his throat. "We'd like to talk to both of you if you have a minute."

"Why, sure, sure… let's sit down. Lily, is there any coffee?" he rambled nervously.

"No," Tommy Lee interjected. "No coffee for us. We'll only be a minute."

"Well, sit down anyway. Can I take your coats?"

The whole thing was starting out just as Rachel had suspected it would, with everyone walking on eggshells. Gaines's face was so bright by now he looked in danger of having a stroke, and Lily wore a porcelain smile that made it quite impossible to look her in the eye. Finally they were all perched, Gaines and Lily on overstuffed armchairs, Tommy Lee on a davenport beside Rachel, the only one to lean back with any semblance of composure.

Silence fell for several uncomfortable seconds. Then Tommy Lee cleared his throat, rested his elbows on his knees, and chafed his hands together, studying the floor between his feet, finally glancing up to ask, "So, how have you both been?"

"Fine!" they replied together, then glanced at each other sheepishly while the room grew tingly with tension.

"Me, too. I ah… live out on the lake now."

"Yes, we heard."

"My daughter lives with me."

"Your daughter!" Lily said, as if surprised.

"Yes, the one you've seen with me at church."

"Oh, yes, of course. My, but she's pretty."

Tommy Lee allowed himself to smile, raising his eyes to Rachel as if for fortification. "Rachel says she looks like you." Lily grew fluttery again, and Tommy Lee cleared his throat and lurched to his feet, then began pacing nervously.

"We, ah… Rachel and I have been seeing quite a bit of each other since her husband died."

"We were so sorry to hear the news, Rachel. Such a young man."

"Yes… well…" Rachel searched for something to say to cover the awkward moment. "Tommy Lee has helped me tremendously to get over Owen's death."

She lifted her face to Tommy Lee, and their eyes met and held as he added, "And Rachel has helped me, too. I've been managing, with her help, to get my life back on track." He drew a prolonged breath, and she offered a smile of reassurance to force him on. "I was running pretty wild there for a quite a few years… thought I had the world by the tail, but actually I was on a self-destruction course. Rachel made me realize that." Still their eyes communicated as he added more softly, "Rachel's made me see a lot of things."

Gaines and Lily observed the tender expression passing between the two and dropped their eyes to the carpet, but their son suddenly seemed to draw himself back to the present, squaring his shoulders and facing the two seated on the matched chairs.

"You see, it's because of her that I'm here. She and I… we're…" Tommy Lee's troubled eyes wavered from his mother to his father. Then he swung around, took two jerky steps toward the fireplace, shoved one hand through his hair, and mumbled, "Oh, hell." Finally he spun to face them once more, and when at last he said what he'd come to say, it came out all in a rush. "Rachel and I are going to get married this Saturday, but before she would agree to it she made me promise to come here and settle things with you, so here we are."

Not a sound adulterated the silence. From the kitchen came the smell of supper cooking, while in the living room four uncertain people faced one another, each waiting for the next one to say something.

Lily was the first to respond. She pulled her lips together long enough to breathe, "Married?" Her eyes were enormous as she looked up at her towering son, who stood with his hands buried in his coat pockets, a defensive scowl on his face.