Part 21 (1/2)
”I'm sure she does, and I haven't even broached the subject with her yet. I wanted to get you on board first.”
”I'm on board for helping Susan get her ratings up. Listen, I am not a cook, I am not a home manager. The people of America certainly don't want to watch the chaos of my normal life.”
”The women of America like a woman who struggles with the same things they do. They like to see her overcome, of course, which could be part of your continuing series.”
”No.” Julie shook her head firmly. ”No. I would never take Susan's dream from her and make it mine. Never.”
”You don't have to give a final answer now; in fact, I won't accept that right now. I want you to spend some time thinking about it.”
”There's no reason. That's something I would never do. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going back to my family.” Julie hurried from the building. She made it only until she closed the door behind her before she had to run to the bushes and empty her stomach.
Chapter 32.
Susan jerked open the door so suddenly, a man with an armload of Happy Meals stumbled through it. He reached forward just in time to catch a loose box before it hit the ground.
”I'm so sorry. Are you all right?”
”No harm done. You want to slow it-”
Susan hurried inside, leaving the man and his admonition behind. There wasn't time for it right now.
It took a few seconds to get her bearings, but then she saw them. They were sitting on opposite sides of a corner booth, leaning in toward each other, holding hands across the table. Chris released Angie's right hand just long enough to wipe tears from her cheek with the back of his fingers; then he grasped onto her hand again.
The sight of her daughter so upset momentarily tempered her fury, but not completely, and not for long. If Angie was upset, then she should have come to Susan to talk about it. Sneaking off with this . . . person, was not the answer. She marched up to the booth. ”Angie Reynolds, you are coming back to the house with me right now.”
Angie jerked back in her seat and looked up. ”Mom! How did you find us here?”
”It doesn't matter. You're leaving with me right now.”
Chris nodded. ”You should go.” The ruffian had the nerve to pull Angie's hand up to his lips and kiss it before he let her go. ”I'll be praying for you.”
”I'm sure you will.” Susan couldn't believe the nerve of that boy, acting like he had any sort of real spiritual beliefs just to get on Angie's good side, or perhaps out of trouble with Susan. Either way, she wasn't buying it. ”Come on, Angie. We're leaving right now.”
Angie stood up slowly, her eyes trained on Chris the entire time. She walked to his side of the booth, leaned down, and hugged him. ”Thank you.” She let him go and stood up, her tears falling harder now. ”I'm sorry.” She more or less whispered the words, but she wasn't talking to Susan; she was still talking to Chris.
Susan waited until they were outside before she said, ”Let me get this straight, you run off in the middle of the night with a boy you were forbidden to see, and you tell him you're sorry? What about the mother who has spent the last hour frantically searching for you? Why aren't you sorry about that?”
”I am sorry, Mom, but I needed someone I could talk to. Chris is the only one who understands.”
”That boy would tell you anything to make you think he's truly interested in you, Angie. All you have to do is take one look at him to know his interests in anyone are far from n.o.ble.”
”Maybe if you spent some time caring about the inside rather than the outside of everything!” Across the parking lot, a family of four turned to watch them. Susan tried not to imagine the smug look on the wife's face.
”Don't you dare talk to me that way.” By now, Susan was shaking with rage. ”We're going to get in that truck and not say a single word in front of Gary. But as soon as we get back to the farm, we are going to have a very long talk.”
”Fine.” Angie walked past Susan toward the truck. Gary was leaning against the tailgate, obviously making a point not to look in their direction.
As Angie approached, she did say, ”Good evening, Gary.”
”Evening to you, too.” He raced around and opened the pa.s.senger-side door. Angie climbed in and slid across.
He held the door for Susan. ”Thank you so much for bringing me out to find her. Can I ask one more favor?”
”Shoot.”
”Don't tell anyone about this. I'm not asking you to lie. If someone asks, tell them the truth, but if it doesn't get brought up, will you please help keep it quiet?”
”I'll help in any way I can.”
Chapter 33.
Susan stumbled down to the kitchen the next morning and immediately lit the wood in the stove. Today's coffee would have to be extra strong, considering the fact that she and Angie had been up until well past midnight. But, in the end, the talk had been good . . . perhaps even better than that. There were many issues that had been needing a good discussion.
Susan poured the water into the percolator, then added extra grounds into the top basket. She sank down at the kitchen table, knowing it would be awhile before everything heated sufficiently. It was mornings like these that she most missed the modern conveniences like automatic-grind coffeepots with automatic brew settings.
”Knock, knock.”
Kendra walked in the door, looking every bit as fresh at 5:00 A.M. as she usually did at her normal arrival time of nine or so.
”What are you doing here so early?”
”I understand we had some excitement last night.” Her smile was huge, her blue eyes sparkled with enthusiasm.
Susan, quite suddenly, felt a deep sense of dread push down on her with a force hard enough that she couldn't even force a smile. ”What do you mean?”
”Oh, come now. Let's not pretend that we both don't know the obvious. But I've got to tell you, I'm bringing the best news I've brought since you've been here.”
”Really? What's that?”
”Two things, really. First of all, Chris will not be returning to work today. It has become more than apparent that his staying here is not going to work.”
”But, wait-”
”Just like you wanted before, right? Second, and best of all, this whole episode is exactly what we needed to happen for all of America to see you at your best. The conversation you had with your daughter last night, it was . . . compelling, amazing, heartwarming. All of America is going to love you. We've already got the snippets ready to start running today. I expect the highest ratings we've ever had on this Friday's show.”
”The conversation I had with my daughter last night?” How had she been so stupid? She'd been so caught up in the moment, the cameras had never entered her mind.
Kendra nodded. ”The one at this very table.” She stroked her hand across the oak top as if petting a dog.
”How do you even know about that?” The cameras were there all the time, but for someone to have already seen the footage of last night, to have even checked the footage for the middle of the night, someone must have known to look. There could be only one way. Gary must have come right home and called Kendra, told her to get the cameras going because this was going to make for some good stuff. The sense of betrayal she felt went clear through to her spine.