A Mayhaw Christmas Read online

  “Maybe punish was the wrong word. Teach him a lesson is better.”

  “How?”

  “Rent a sexy movie—one that will make him horny as hell—then come to bed in curlers, that big ole tent of a nightgown you have, and with cold cream slathered all over your face.”

  Allison smiled. “That wouldn’t do it,” she said. “The man has a cream fetish.”

  “All men have a cream fetish, sugar,” Bea told her. “Him creaming you is exactly why you’re in the condition you are right now.”

  The laugh she’d been hoping for came and the tears were vanquished. Allison picked up her hamburger and took a big bite.

  “If you could have seen the look on his face when I lit into him this morning,” Allison told her.

  “Oh, I’m familiar with that look, girl,” Bea assured her. “I’ve seen it many a time on Early’s freckled face.”

  “I hate putting that look on Drew’s,” Allison confessed. “He’s had enough people saying things to hurt him.”

  “He’s going to feel guilty no matter what,” Bea reminded her. “That’s just the way he was brought up.”

  “That’s what Terri did to him,” Allison said. “I feel really bad about the way I treated him.”

  “So the tears were for him and not for you,” Bea surmised.

  Allison nodded as she took a bite of her Whopper Jr.

  “How ’bout this?” Bea said, twirling a French fry in the barbeque sauce from her sandwich. “Tell him you don’t like that scruff on his face.”

  Allison looked up. “But I do.”

  “Tell him it makes him look old.”

  “It makes him look sexy as hell,” Allison protested.

  “Yeah, well, don’t tell him that. Tell him it makes him look like a moldy moon pie,” Bea continued. “See what he says.”

  “I don’t think so,” Allison replied. “I…”

  Bea knew. She knew as sure as she saw the wondrous look pass over her friend’s face. She smiled.

  “He kicked,” Allison whispered. She put both hands to her belly. “Bea, I felt it. He kicked!” She touched the spot. “Right…” She laughed. “He did it again!”

  Bea felt a pricking at the back of her eyes as she watched Allison’s face transform into the most glorious vision of joy she’d seen in a long time. She was so happy for the both of them. Neither had ever expected to have a family, to find such wonderful peace in their lives. Neither had ever hoped to know love and contentment. They had found it in one another and it was what they both deserved. They had walked through hell hand in hand and journeyed into heaven.

  “I need to get home,” Allison said, wedging herself out of the plastic seat. “I want Drew to feel this.”

  “There’s no hurry,” Bea told her with all the confidence of a woman who’d been through it time and time again. “That little booger is gonna be doing that from now on.” She cocked a shoulder as she stood. “Usually in the middle of the night when he’s kicking your full bladder.”

  “Drew needs to feel this,” Allison repeated. She wasn’t listening. Her eyes were sparkling and that special glow all pregnant women have was positively pulsing.

  *****

  Scout came yipping around the side of the house as Drew drove up. Sarge—the small, lanky, gray-striped cat that was the puppy’s nemesis—followed at a more sedate and regal pace. The other cats were nowhere to be seen, which usually meant one had gotten the others in trouble and were hiding from Daddy. Jumping up and down against the side of the truck, the pup could hardly wait until his master was out of the truck before he was clawing at Drew’s legs for attention.

  “Hey, bud,” Drew told the puppy as he squatted down to scratch the little mutt’s head. He looked over at Sarge. “How’s it going, girl?”

  Sarge ignored him—as she always did—and continued on to the front steps where she would wait for the human she had adopted to come home. Sarge was a one-woman feline.

  Picking up the puppy, Drew laughed as the mutt slurped its tongue all over the underside of Drew’s chin and along his jawline. The animal was so happy his master was home it was whimpering.

  “All right already,” Drew chuckled. “I’m your god. I get it.” He kissed the puppy atop its sleek little head then carried it with him up the steps and onto the wide porch that completely surrounded the log cabin. Taking a seat in one of the eight porch rockers Allison had purchased at the Cracker Barrel, he relaxed with the scrambling puppy still trying to lick the beard from his face. Laying his head back, he closed his eyes. It wasn’t all that cool in the shade but the brunt of the early afternoon sun was held at bay by the deep green tin roof that covered the porch.

  It took awhile but Scout finally settled down and made himself at home in Drew’s lap—placing his head on his master’s chest and sighing his little doggy contentment. Drew continued to stroke the puppy as he gently rocked them both.

  He was—he thought as he heard Scout sigh again—as content as the puppy. Everything was right in his world. He had the woman he loved. They had a home they had designed and lovingly built together. They had a baby on the way…

  “Life is good,” he mumbled then yawned. The heat always made him sleepy.

  How long he slept he had no idea, but the sound of gravel crunching made him wedge his eyes open.

  He frowned and sat up in the chair. The car coming down the driveway wasn’t one he recognized. He got to his feet and walked to the edge of the porch as the car came to a stop beside his pickup. When the door to the dark sedan opened and a man in a suit exited the vehicle, Drew felt a chill wiggle down his spine.

  “Mr. Dunne?” the man asked, removing the aviator sunglasses he was wearing.

  “I am,” Drew answered. “Can I help you?”

  “Indeed you can,” the man said. He came up to the porch, reached into the pocket of his expensive suit coat, and pulled out a card. He extended it to Drew.

  Drew took the card, glanced at it, and the chill became a block of ice encasing him. He looked the man in the eye. “William Bennett,” he said.

  “Yes,” the man said. “I’m Clay’s older brother, and you and I need to have a little talk.”

  *****

  The unfamiliar car sitting in her driveway gave Allison a strange feeling. As Bea pulled in behind the sleek black sedan she asked Allison to whom the car belonged.

  “I don’t know,” Allison said.

  “Cobb County tag,” Bea commented.

  For a second or two the question didn’t register but when the words finally broke over her mind, Allison stiffened. “Cobb County?” she repeated, staring at the car.

  “Isn’t that Marietta?”

  “Marietta?” she repeated.

  “Yeah, I think so. Know anyone from Cobb County?”

  Terror washed over her and she began to shake. Bea reached out to put a hand on her arm.

  “What’s wrong?” Bea asked, all business.

  “That’s where Clay’s family lives,” Allison whispered. She turned to look at Bea. “Oh my God, that’s where his family lives, Bea!”

  “Don’t get all worried, now,” Bea said. “There’s a lot of folk who live up that way. Could be a salesman of some kind. I’ll bet it’s one of those Combined Insurance men.”

  But Allison knew better. Whoever was in the house with her husband was one of Clay’s people. She knew it as surely as she felt the fear flooding her soul.

  “Want me to go in with you?” Bea asked.

  “Drew’s in there,” Allison said and she suspected that wasn’t a good thing. If whoever had come in the black sedan was one of Clay’s brothers, it was a very bad thing. If it was Clay’s father or one of his two uncles, things were worse than bad.

  “I’ll go in with you if you want me to,” Bea offered.

  “No,” Allison said, shaking her head. She opened the passenger door. “It’s all right.”

  “You sure?” Bea questioned. “I don’t mind.”

  “It’s all righ
t,” Allison repeated. She knew Bea would go home and send Early over to make sure that was true, but at the moment all she wanted to do was get inside to see what was going on. Every fiber of her being hoped it was a Combined Insurance salesman who’d come to call.

  *****

  The man sitting on the sofa bore little resemblance to the former Miller High School football coach to whom Allison had been married. William Bennett was as tall as his brother and just as wide in the shoulders and deep in the chest, but his face was softer, gentler. There was none of Clay Bennett’s merciless, angry stare shooting like darts from the older man’s gaze.

  “I want to put you at ease,” had been the first words out of Bennett’s mouth when they entered the cabin. “I’m not here to cause you any trouble.”

  “Then why are you here?” Drew asked and wished his tone hadn’t been quite so challenging. He shifted Scout in his arm for the little puppy was picking up on Drew’s distrust.

  Bennett looked around the great room. “Would you mind if I sit down?” he asked. “I had back surgery a couple of months ago and I’m starting to feel it after the long ride down here.”

  Drew felt bad for his lack of manners. “Ah, yeah, sure,” he mumbled. “Have a seat wherever you like.”

  “Thanks,” Bennett said. He went to the leather sofa and sat down.

  “You want something to drink?” Drew asked him. “Water? Tea? Something stronger?”

  “Allison make the tea?” Bennett surprised him by inquiring.

  Drew tensed. “Yeah, she did.”

  “Then I’d love a glass.” He settled back on the sofa, stretched his arm across the back as though he owned it.

  Setting Scout on the floor, Drew ground his teeth and walked over to the open kitchen and to the refrigerator. The puppy padded after him then made a beeline for the pet door, pushed through the flap, and left as though expecting trouble to start.

  “You have a great home,” Bennett complimented.

  “We like it,” Drew said. He took a glass from the cupboard, poured the tea then brought it to his guest. “We stayed in a similar cabin in upstate New York and appreciated the design.”

  “It’s very homey.”

  Drew handed the tea to Bennett—along with a coaster—then took a seat across from him as his visitor took a sip of the cold brew.

  “Just as I remembered,” Bennett said after taking a few large swallows. “She always made the best tea.”

  “And you came all this way so you could have another glass of it?” Drew queried.

  Bennett chuckled. “Straight and to the point with the sarcasm,” he said. “My kind of guy.” He took another sip then set the glass on the coaster atop the coffee table in front of the sofa. He leaned back again. “Let’s get one thing out in the open right off the bat.” He held Drew’s stare. “I’m not my brother.”

  “Okay,” Drew replied.

  “Just so you know and understand where I’m coming from, there was never any love lost between the two of us. My brother hated me with a passion and I avidly disliked and distrusted him,” Bennett continued. “Clay was—well—Clay. He was a nasty child and he grew up to be an even nastier adult.”

  “I won’t argue with you there,” Drew said.

  “The only men nastier than him were our father and uncles, who all thought Clay was the golden boy of the family.”

  “And now that he’s gone?” Drew pressed.

  “Let’s just say I informed them of a few things that turned the golden boy to brass in their…” He stopped, looked past Drew, and smiled. “Well, hey there, lady.”

  Drew glanced around to find Allison coming into the room. She had her oversized pocketbook held in front of her like a shield.

  “Billy,” she said, and he could hear the relief in her voice. Her smile—welcoming and happy—made him relax. “How are you?”

  “Got me some tea,” Bennett said, pointing to the glass on the coffee table. “Have any corn bread to go with it?”

  She laughed and that was all the incentive Drew needed to warm to the older Bennett brother.

  “If you’re staying for supper, I’ll make some,” she said and laid her pocketbook in the chair sitting beside Drew’s. “Please tell me you’re staying for supper.”

  “I wish I could but…” Bennett stopped as he got a look at her swollen stomach. His eyes widened and his lips parted, but the slow smile that tugged at his lips transformed his entire face. “Sweet Jesus, you’re pregnant?” He got to his feet. “You’re having a baby?”

  “It would seem so,” she said.

  Drew tensed as Bennett came around the coffee table and to Allison. Before he could get to his own feet, the man had his wife in a hug that made the male in him growl inwardly.

  “Oh, Allison, I am so happy for you, darling,” Bennett said, easing her away from him. “So goddamned happy, you have no idea.”

  Those words went a long way into ushering Drew toward liking the man.

  “When’s it due?”

  “October.”

  “Boy or girl?”

  “I’ve had the ultrasound and heard the heartbeat but we didn’t look at it just in case we could see what might be there.”

  “Or in Allison’s case, what might not be there,” Drew joked and Bennett laughed.

  “I got you,” he said.

  “The doctor gave us the ultrasound picture but we took it to the bank and put it in the safety deposit box so we wouldn’t be tempted to take a peek at it,” Allison told him. “I’ve got another ultrasound scheduled for next week but we’ll do the same thing with that picture, too.”

  “We don’t want to know the sex of the baby,” Drew said. “We want it to be a surprise.”

  “Of course you do,” Bennett agreed. “I would, too.” He still had his hands wrapped around Allison’s upper arms but seemed to realize it might make his host uneasy so he stepped back. “This is great. Just great. Names?”

  “Avery for a boy and Bailey if it’s a girl,” she answered.

  “Which it will be,” Drew said. He moved over to his wife and slid his arm around her shoulders. “But she’s hoping for a boy.”

  “She always wanted one,” Bennett said then cleared his throat as if he thought that might have been the wrong thing to say to her new husband.

  “We’ll be happy with whichever God sees fit to give us,” she said then swept her arm toward the sofa. “Sit. Tell me why you can’t stay for supper.”

  Bennett moved back to the sofa. “I’m on my way down to Milton,” he said. “Bennett Enterprises is putting in some condos out near Whiting Field for the Navy fly boys. We ran into some problems down there so Daddy dispatched me to see to it.”

  “Nothing serious I hope,” she said.

  “No, I don’t think so. Colquitt wasn’t that far out of the way so I wanted to come by and see you.”

  “Well, we’re glad you did,” she said. She moved over to the chair and took a seat. “So tell me what you’ve been up to.”

  Drew went back to his chair and sat listening to the two of them talking. It was evident from the easy way they spoke to one another that there wasn’t—nor had there ever been—any enmity between them. Allison was comfortable and it showed in her body language and the way she spoke to Bennett. The easy way she laughed. He couldn’t help but wonder if William Bennett was the only member of her late husband’s family she had liked. She never spoke of them except to say they were filthy rich and entitled. Although speaking ill of people wasn’t part of her genetic makeup to begin with.

  When Bennett left an hour later, Allison was in such a good mood she seemed to be floating on the air.

  “You like him, huh?” Drew asked her.

  “He was always nice to me,” she said. She lowered her voice. “He’s gay, you know.”

  He didn’t and that surprised the hell out of him, but it answered the question as to why Bennett and his jock of a brother had never gotten along.

  “So did you buy out the store
s?” he asked as she poured a glass of milk for herself.

  “I got a few things for the nursery but I didn’t break the bank. I left the packages in Bea’s car, by the way, so you need to go fetch ’em,” she answered. “Bea, however, made a serious dent in Early’s bank account.” Her eyebrows drew together. “I would have sworn he’d have come over as soon as she got home.”

  “Why?”

  “Because of the car in the driveway,” she answered. “I saw the tag and it spooked me.”

  “Ah, so Bea would have sent in the cavalry,” he said.

  “Wonder why he didn’t?” she mused.

  “He’s not here. He had to go back over to Dothan to get some parts. He won’t be back for a while.”

  “I’m surprised she hasn’t called, then.”

  “Or sent one of the kids over to scope out the situation?” he countered. He crossed his arms and leaned his hips against the sink. “Whatcha wanna bet she snuck in the front door, listened for a bit, decided everything was kosher than slipped out like Mata Hari?”

  “That is entirely possible,” Allison replied. She left the kitchen and went back to the den, sat down on the sofa, and curled her legs under her. As she sipped the milk, she put a hand to her stomach in a gesture that made his heart ache.

  “Want to go to Albany with me tomorrow?” he asked, coming to sit beside her.

  “What are you going over there for?” she parried.

  “They finally got the lot cleared off and the new house started,” he told her. “I wanted to see how things were looking.”

  A shadow entered her eyes and he knew what she was thinking. The house that had once stood on that lot had been burned to the ground by the man he’d believed was his father. He’d thought he was going to die that day at the hands of Wade Dunne or Clay Bennett. They hadn’t talked about the house for months and he was sorry he had brought it up.

  “I don’t really want to go back there,” she said. “Too many bad memories.”

  He nodded. “For me, too, but I should check on it.”

  “You should sell it,” she said. “Whenever the house is finished.”

  “I will if that’s what you want.”

  “It is,” she said then laid her cheek against the back of the sofa. “No reminders of what happened there.”