Blackberry Winter by Cheryl Reavis

Author:Cheryl Reavis
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2005-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 11

“What do you want?”

Maddie heard the question plainly, but she made no attempt to answer it. She stared at him, taken completely by surprise. She had opened the door expecting to see Meyer on the porch, or perhaps Bobby Ray. Not for one moment did she think that Tommy would come to her. She thought she’d have to negotiate a face-to-face meeting with him or even have to corner him someplace. She kept looking at him, knowing she could have passed him on the street and not realized it—unless she happened to look into his eyes. The eyes were the same. The eyes were Tommy, the boy she had loved.

“What do you want?” he said again, the hard edge to his voice surprising her, as well. He was behaving as if he were the injured party here.

“Well, I used to want you to marry me, but I got over it,” she said.

“Don’t play with me, Maddie. You been asking after me. Now I want to know what for.”

She stood looking at him, feeling the anger rising in her—after all this time. She felt suddenly as if she had split in two somehow, and she was both participant and observer.

“What could I possibly want from you?”

“Damn it, woman! You’re the one stayed gone—”

“I stayed gone? You left me. You knew what living with Foy Kimball was like, and you knew I loved you. You still walked off and left me. It takes a cruel man to do what you did. It takes a man just like Foy—”

“I ain’t like your daddy!”

“What’s going on?”

The question made both of them turn. Loran stood at the end of the porch.

“Nothing. He was just leaving,” Maddie said.

“Maddie, you are the one started this—you sent your girl after me—”

Maddie gave Loran a look. Her girl was more enterprising than she’d imagined.

“I’ve changed my mind,” Maddie said. “You know how that is.”

“Maddie—”

“All right!” Maddie said suddenly, the anger flaring up white-hot now, and there was nothing she could do to stop it. “You wouldn’t marry me—maybe you can bury me, instead. I want you to make my coffin, Tommy. I want you to dig my grave. I want you to sit up all night with my body, like they used to do. You owe me that much, don’t you think? We could say it’s just for old time’s sake.”

She abruptly turned and walked back into the cabin because she knew she was going to cry. She hadn’t cried over Tommy Garth in—she couldn’t remember when—but she was going to cry now. The tears were already spilling down her cheeks. She walked blindly to the window on the far side of the room and stood there, trying to regain control.

She could hear Loran say something to him, then come inside. Loran hesitated behind her, then took off her coat and walked to the kitchen area to fill the kettle and put it on the stove to heat.

“Mother?” she said when she’d finished.

“Is he gone?”

“No. Yes. Mother—”

“I thought you were going back home.

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