You Belong to Me Read online

  YOU BELONG TO ME

  By

  Barri Bryan

  © copyright April 2005, Billie and Herb Houston

  Cover art by Jenny Dixon © copyright April 2005

  ISBN 1-58608-371-6

  New Concepts Publishing

  Lake Park, GA 31636

  www.newconceptspublishing.com

  This is a work of fiction. All characters, events, and places are of the author's imagination and not to be confused with fact. Any resemblance to living persons or events is merely coincidence.

  Chapter One

  Julie Anderson laid her paring knife on the edge of the sink and turned swiftly. "I don't want that man in my house."

  With a stubborn toss of her head the young woman sitting at the kitchen table argued, "Well I do and it's my house too and he's my father."

  "And I'm your mother." Julie blotted her fingers with a paper towel and tried to contain her anger. "You invited him to stay here for an entire weekend?" Her breath hissed through her lips. "Shannon how could you?"

  Shannon Anderson was a remarkably beautiful young woman with a wealth of ebony colored hair and huge blue eyes. Those eyes were troubled now. "Next weekend is homecoming. He couldn't get a reservation at the hotel or even any of the motels. So when he asked if..." Her sentence ended abruptly and in midair.

  Slowly the truth dawned. "You didn't invite him. He invited himself." Julie's voice rose. "Didn't he?"

  Shannon hesitated. "Well, sort of."

  Julie snapped, "You should have let me talk to him."

  "He didn't want to talk to you, Mom."

  Julie could believe that. "Then you should have asked me first."

  "I can see that--now." Shannon lifted one hand in a pleading gesture. "Mom, please don't spoil this for me."

  Julie sighed her acceptance. What else could she do? "What's done is done." She didn't intend to let anything, not even the sudden appearance of her ex-husband, put a damper on this very special occasion.

  Shannon's dark hair fell across her face as she tossed her head. "Thanks Mom, for understanding."

  "I didn't say I understood." Julie returned to her task of slicing tomatoes. "How a man can be so..." She stopped her tirade. In the fifteen years since she and Max had divorced she'd never spoken ill of him to Shannon. She didn't intend to start now. "Thoughtless." She finished lamely.

  "You don't like Dad very much, do you?" That sudden insight seemed to trouble Shannon. "Why, Mom?"

  Why indeed? Julie could think of a dozen reasons. The main one being it was impossible to love someone as much as she had once loved Max Anderson and not end up hating him a little too. "I haven't seen him in ten years." If their last meeting was any indication of what to expect now, this would not be a pleasant encounter. "Maybe he's changed."

  "He hasn't, Mom. I see him every summer. He's still my wonderful Dad."

  An emotion dangerously near jealously surged through Julie. She quickly bought it under control. For the past twelve years Shannon had spent six weeks each summer with Max. During those visits he had apparently gone out of his way to charm and entertain his daughter. At the end of that time he had always seemed more than willing to her ship her back to Julie for the remainder of the year. "When is old wonderful Dad supposed to arrive?"

  "He said he'd call later and let me know. Mom, promise you'll be nice to him while he's here."

  Julie dumped the tomatoes into a salad bowl. "I promise." She intended to keep that promise. Nothing, not even Max's unexpected presence was going to interfere with her daughter's perfect wedding. "I want everything to be right for you. I want you to have everything I didn't have at your age."

  "You had a wedding," Shannon's belligerence was showing. "And when you were my age I was three years old."

  Some wedding Julie thought as remembering stirred bittersweet memories. "I didn't have a big church wedding." It was more like a shotgun wedding but Julie refrained from saying so. Instead she changed the subject. "Will Dan be over later?"

  Shannon glanced at the kitchen clock and yawned. "Yes, around nine."

  Julie thought that her daughter could show a little more enthusiasm about her fiancé coming to call. "Is Royce coming with him?"

  With studied indifference Shannon replied, "You see Royce every day. Did he say he'd be over tonight?"

  Royce Garner was not only the father of the groom he was also Julie's business partner. Together they owned and ran The Hungry Farmer Restaurant. "He didn't mention it."

  Shannon asked with muted sarcasm. "Do you want me to call Dan and ask him to bring Royce along?"

  Shannon was peeved because her mother was unhappy about Max coming here for the weekend. Julie decided to ignore the remark. She took a roast from the oven. "Set the table dinner's almost ready."

  Shannon came slowly across the room. "I don't understand you, Mom. You cook all day at the restaurant and then you come home every evening and make a meal for the two of us. Why?"

  "Stop finding fault and get ready for dinner." Julie slid the roast onto a platter. She wasn't sure herself why she had insisted all these years that she and Shannon share an evening meal at the end of each day. Maybe it was a way of assuring that they were a family and not just two people living together under the same roof.

  With less than her usual grace Shannon began to put silverware and china on the table.

  "You never told me about your and Dad's wedding. Where were you married?"

  "In the office of the Justice of Peace here in Summerville." Julie put the roast on the table, pulled out a chair out and sat down.

  Shannon sat across from her and laid a napkin across her lap. "And then what happened?"

  "And then we went home." Julie's tone said back off, you're intruding.

  Shannon was not intimidated. "Didn't you have a reception?"

  Saved by the bell Julie thought as she reached for the ringing telephone. Lifting the receiver, she barked, "Hello."

  She had expected to hear Max's deep voice on the other end of the line and she was set to give him a cool reception. Instead a rough baritone demanded, "Let me speak to Shannon."

  The sound of that voice made Julie's blood run cold. Turning her back to Shannon she demanded, "Why are you calling here?"

  "That's none of your business, Mrs. Anderson. Let me speak to Shannon."

  Julie struggled to hold onto a neutral tone of voice. "Don't call here again." She very carefully put the phone back on the hook and turned to face her daughter. "You were saying?"

  Two bright spots of color burned in Shannon's cheeks. "That was Brett wasn't it? Why didn't you let me talk to him?"

  Julie couldn't let her only child become involved with Brett Morrison again. This time he could do more than break her heart--he could destroy her life. "You're engaged to Dan now. What could you possibly have to say to Brett?" Julie scooted nearer the table. "Taste the asparagus. I tried a new recipe."

  Shannon stood and tossed her napkin on the table. "You had no right to hang up on Brett without letting me talk to him!"

  Shannon had just cause to be angry. Julie had overstepped that invisible boundary between a mother and her adult child. She offered a half-hearted apology. "You're right. I'm sorry. Sit down and eat your dinner."

  "You're sorry?" Shannon echoed incredulously. Gripping the sides of the table she demanded, "What gives you the right to try to live my life for me?"

  Julie's anxiety was giving way to exasperation. "I acted without thinking. I don't want to see you hurt again."

  Shannon shook her head. "No Mom, you're not afraid I'll be hurt again. You're afraid I might do something to mess up your plans for a perfect wedding."

  As reluctant as she was to admit it, Julie knew there was som
e truth to that statement. She also knew how difficult it was for a vulnerable teenage girl to get over her first crush. God knew it had taken her long enough to get over Max. She picked up her fork. "Eat your dinner. Dan will be here soon."

  Shannon sat down and put her elbows on the table. "Maybe Brett wanted to apologize. Maybe he wanted to explain. I never gave him the chance to do either."

  "Is that what you want from Brett," Julie's mouth pulled into a thin line. "An explanation for why he prefers to play the field rather than date one girl? Do you want him to apologize for not wanting to make a commitment?"

  "Mom, I'm not a girl."

  "You're acting like one." A long forgotten scene flashed across Julie's memory as unbidden words rose from the depths of her unconscious. "I'm tired of being tied down, Julie. I want a chance to live a little before I'm an old man." Pain that she thought had died with the passing years cut across her heart like a scalpel. "Even if you took him back it would only be a matter of time before he did the same thing again."

  Shannon seemed determined to argue. "How can you know that?"

  Julie couldn't explain how she'd gained that painful knowledge without painting a very negative picture of Max. She decided to try another approach. "Forget Brett and concentrate on Dan. He loves you. Can you imagine how hurt he'd be if he knew you were talking to Brett again?"

  Shannon's face fell. "I don't want to hurt Dan, it's just that...."

  Quickly, Julie interrupted. "A devil-may-care man like Brett Morrison may make an exciting lover, but he's poor husband material."

  Shannon took immediate offense. "Brett was never my lover." Her eyes narrowed. "You're comparing Brett to Dad, aren't you?"

  There was a frightening analogy to be drawn between the two. "They do seem to be cut from the same cloth."

  Out of the blue Shannon asked, "Why didn't you ever marry again, Mom? And don't say you didn't have the opportunity. I can name half a dozen men who pursued you through the years and of course, there's always Royce."

  Julie protested a little too quickly, "Royce and I are business partners and that's all."

  Shannon lifted an eyebrow. "Maybe now but there was a time when...."

  Julie's heart gave an uncomfortable lurch. "Whatever gave you such a ridiculous idea?"

  "Dan says that he can remember a time when...."

  "You and Dan discussed Royce and Me? Julie was appalled. "You had no right to do that."

  In a blasé tone that set Julie's teeth on edge Shannon asked, "How is it that you can interfere in my life and I can't ask questions about yours?"

  Julie snapped, "Royce and I share a very special friendship."

  Shannon quipped, "And a very strange relationship."

  Even though her every instinct told her to let it go Julie had to ask, "Strange? How?"

  "Oh, Mother, come on. The two of you work together--there was a time when you lived together. You share a business and a life but you've never married. I'd say that is a strange relationship."

  Even though Julie didn't think she owed her daughter an explanation, she offered one--of sorts. "I went to work for Royce and Jean when they first opened The Hungry Farmer. When I applied I had no idea I'd get the job. I had nothing to recommend me, no experience and not even a high school education. But Jean hired me anyway. My friendship was with her first. Later when she died Royce and I were both devastated. Through those first terrible months after Jean passed away, we became very close." She was not about to tell her daughter just how close they had become. "Our friendship has its roots in mutual respect and understanding."

  Shannon sighed, "It's a shame that you and Dad can't be friends like you and Royce are."

  Julie thought that maybe ex lovers made good friends and ex husbands made bad enemies. She said, "Maybe it's because Royce is still around. Max walked out on me."

  Shannon raised one dark eyebrow. "That's not what Dad said."

  Julie was aggravated that Max would discuss their breakup with Shannon. "Did you ask him for that information or did he volunteer it?"

  "Neither. Actually when I was about twelve years old I asked him to come home and live with us. He said you'd sent him packing a long time ago and there was no way that you'd ever let him come back."

  How like Max to put all the blame on her. "Not without reason." Julie bit her tongue. "Eat your dinner. Dan will be here soon."

  "I've lost my appetite." Shannon stood and slid her chair under the table. "I'm going to my room." She hurried away leaving a trail of lilac perfume hanging in the humid air.

  Julie, too, had lost her appetite. She pushed her plate from her. Was this what she had to look forward to after Shannon was married, lonely meals eaten in the silence of a too quiet kitchen?

  Experience had taught Julie that self-pity was a useless emotion. She was a healthy, vigorous, thirty-five year old woman. She could find something to fill her spare time. Maybe she'd go on that cruise she'd always dreamed of or take a European vacation or even....

  A voice calling, "Mom?" brought Julie back to the present with a jolt. Shannon was standing in the doorway with her handbag slung over her shoulder and her jacket hanging across her arm. "I called from the living room several times and you didn't answer."

  "Is Dan here?" Julie glanced at the kitchen clock. It was a little after eight. "He's early."

  Shannon shook her head. "Dan isn't coming over tonight after all."

  She was prying again but Julie had to ask, "And just why not?"

  "It's none of your business but I called and told him not to."

  Julie jumped to her feet. "Where do you think you're going?"

  Shannon's tone was belligerent. "I know where I'm going.

  So did Julie, all too well. "You phoned Brett!"

  Shannon walked away calling over her shoulder as she went, "I have to know, Mom. I can't marry Dan until I do."

  "No!" Julie raced after her. "Come back, Shannon." She raced into the living room in hot pursuit of her daughter. "You're making a mistake."

  Her words fell out into the empty silence. Shannon had disappeared through the front door slamming it behind her.

  Julie sank onto the overstuffed couch. Shannon seemed determined to repeat all the mistakes she had made as a teenager and Julie was helpless to stop her. Picking up a magazine she began to leaf through it.

  Forty-five minutes later she was still sitting on the couch, browsing through magazines and worrying about her daughter when a knock on the door made her drop the magazine she'd been perusing and rush to open it. Maybe Shannon had come to her senses after all. It was not Shannon but Royce who stood on the other side. One look at his troubled face and she knew that something was amiss. "What's wrong?"

  Royce paused just inside the doorway. "Shannon's car is not in the drive. Where is she?"

  Julie shrugged. "She's out."

  "That's pretty obvious. Out where?"

  "She didn't say."

  "Dan thinks Shannon's with Brett Morrison." The brackets around Royce's mouth deepened. "Is she?"

  News, even bad news traveled swiftly in this little town. "Sit down, Royce. We can talk about this." Julie sidled toward the couch.

  Royce didn't move. "Is Shannon with Brett Morrison?" When Julie seemed reluctant to answer, he shouted, "Tell me damn it. I have to know."

  Julie laid her hand across her throat. The pulse there was beating double time. "Probably so."

  "I'll take that as a yes." Royce strode toward the door. "I have to find her before Dan does."

  Julie called after him. "Wait! I'm coming with you."

  As she hurried toward the door the telephone rang. Julie skidded to a halt, grabbed the phone and pressed the receiver to her ear. To her great relief Shannon's voice sounded from the other end of the wire. "Mom?"

  "Shannon?" Julie put her hand over the receiver and mouthed to Royce. "It's Shannon."

  Royce asked, "Is Dan with her?"

  Julie was so engrossed in what Royce was saying that Shannon's next few
words eluded her. Into the telephone she breathed, "Tell me again."

  "Mom, call Royce and get over here fast."

  "Over where?" Julie was disturbed by the tears she heard in Shannon's voice.

  "To the police station--oh, Mom it was awful. Dan and Brett got into a fight. They've both been arrested."

  Royce demanded again, this time a little louder. "Is Dan with her?"

  Julie put her hand back over the receiver. "Yes."

  "Where the hell are they?"

  Julie held up her hand to stop Royce's flow of words before turning her attention back to Shannon. "Royce is here. We'll be there as soon as we can." She hung up the phone.

  "Be where?" Royce demanded impatiently.

  Julie let long a long painful sigh. "They're at the police station. Dan and Brett got into a fight. They've both been arrested."

  Royce swore loudly and explicitly. "I knew this was going to happen. What got into Shannon anyway?"

  Julie shot back, "Don't blame Shannon. She wasn't arrested for brawling in public!"

  Royce rammed his hands into his pockets. "Let's go. We can settle this..." A soft rap on the front door made him stop and turn.

  Julie pointed. "I'll get my handbag. You get the door."

  She had retrieved her bag and was halfway across the room when she heard Royce's surprised shout. "What the hell are you doing here?"

  "Maybe I should ask you the same thing." Julie stopped in her tracks. After ten long years Max Anderson had chosen this moment to waltz back into her life. She braced herself for an encounter with the man who had haunted her dreams and plagued her waking hours for twenty years.

  Royce's indignation was showing. "You're got a nerve showing up here, Anderson."

  Julie called out, "It's all right, Royce. Shannon invited him."

  Max pushed his way around Royce and with suitcase in hand entered the room. "Hello, Julie."

  After all these years it was still there, that burst of sudden joy she felt each time she saw him. Julie's heart began to race. With considerable effort she brought her emotions under control. He mustn't know--he mustn't even be given an inkling--of the effect he still had on her. She knew Max Anderson. He was ruthless enough to use her weakness to his own selfish advantage. She swallowed. "Hello, Max."