CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Trish stared Cal down. “Are you really going to let Beck leave?”
She’d come over that morning with the apparent purpose of staging an intervention.
“I’m not letting him do anything. He got a job offer and decided to take it. I knew from the beginning he never meant to stay here. He’ll keep renting the land to me, maybe eventually sell it, so I got everything I wanted.”
She raised her brows. “You can’t expect me to believe that.”
Cal sighed. “Trish, I don’t want to talk about this anymore.”
Gravel crunched as a car moved slowly up the drive.
It was Irene’s gigantic sedan except—holy shit!—Elsie was driving. “Does she still have a license?”
They both held their breath as she veered off the drive and narrowly missed a tree. Finally she parked, and Cal and Trish headed toward the car.
“Where’s Irene?” Trish asked when Elsie stepped out.
“Can’t I do anything without that woman?”
Cal gestured at the sedan. “You’re driving her car.”
“Well, that’s ’cause my son sold mine right out from under me. He said I was a menace.”
“I thought you agreed to sell it after you had that wreck at the Tastee Freeze,” Cal said.
“Maybe I did, but only because I was railroaded into it.” She smoothed down her skirt. “Anyway. I wanted to come on my own. Irene doesn’t even know I’m here.”
Trish narrowed her eyes. “Does she know you have her car?”
“Yes, but she thinks I’m at the doctor.”
Trish and Cal exchanged a look that said one of them would be driving Elsie home.
“So what brings you out here?”
“I brought you a cake.” She opened the back door and brought out a tin cake safe. “I knew you’d need one what with Beckett running out on you.”
“He’s not—”
Elsie held up a hand. “He’s scared to stay. I get it. Folks ’round here don’t make it easy on people like y’all, but we’re not all so bad.”
Cal took the cake and drew Elsie into a hug. “No, you’re not. Come on in and have something to drink.”
“Are you going to tell me to mind my own business like Beck did when I visited him?”
Cal knew better than to try. “No, ma’am.”
“Good.”
When they were all seated on Cal’s porch with glasses of tea, Elsie said, “Beck is already pining for you, and you need to go after him and convince him to stay right here.”
Cal sighed. “It’s not that simple.”
“It is. Have you told him you love him?”
Cal nodded. He’d been powerless to keep himself from falling in love, and so had Beck, but what good had it done either of them? Now Cal wasn’t just alone like he’d been before Beck, his heart was ripped in two.
“Then it’s as simple as asking him to stay. Do you want him here or not?”
Did he? He’d never wanted another man around him all the time. But Beck was different. Beck was everything. So why the hell was he letting fear stop him from getting what he wanted?
“Beck doesn’t want that teaching job,” Elsie said. “He wants to be right here with you.”
Cal frowned. “Did he tell you that?”
“No, I can just tell. I was happily married for sixty years, you know. I understand what love looks like, even if other people refuse to. Did I tell you my granddaughter and her girl are getting married? You know they let you do that now?”
Cal bit his lip, trying not to laugh. “I do know. Tell her I said congratulations.”
Elsie nodded. “I will.”
“You really think Beck and I would stand a chance of keeping this business going if we were openly together? Even before Lulu Johnson caught us, Oak Baptist preschool threatened to cancel their visit just because of rumors Beck and I were going out.”
“That school ain’t worth shit.”
Cal spewed tea onto his lap, and Trish started coughing like she’d swallowed the wrong way.
“My grandson used to go there, but all they do is fill out Bible worksheets. When they told my daughter not to read Harry Potter to him, she pulled him out and put him in the Episcopal preschool. You ought to call them; they’re all right with gays.”
Trish coughed again. This time Cal was sure she was trying to keep from laughing.
“You okay, honey? You’re not taking one of them summer colds, are ya?”
“No, Miss Elsie. I’m fine.” She turned to Cal. “You know there are lots of preschools farther away that might find it worth the drive to visit the farm. There’ve got to be plenty of places in Greensboro where they wouldn’t care a bit about who you were partnered with. And maybe more of us in town need to talk up your farm as a destination to anyone we know in the area. If enough of us made a show of support for the opportunities you offer, more people would be okay with it.”
“You would do that?”
Trish nodded and so did Elsie. Then Elsie’s phone rang loud enough to wake the dead. Trish almost fell out of her chair.
“Sorry. I can’t hear the fool thing when it’s in my purse if I don’t turn it up.” She pulled it out and looked at it. “It’s Irene.” She showed Cal and Trish the screen as if they might not believe her.
“Where are you?” Irene hollered when Elsie answered. Cal could hear her as clearly as if she were in the room.
Elsie cheeks turned pink. “I’m…uh… I’m at Cal’s place.”
“What? You went out there without me?”
“I didn’t want to wait. Cal can’t afford to waste any more time.”
What did that mean exactly?
“Let me talk to him,” Irene said.
Elsie held out the phone. “She wants to talk to you.”
“I heard.”
Cal didn’t dare put the phone too close to his ear. “Hello, Miss Irene.”
“You can’t let that boy get away. I know you think Helen didn’t approve of you, but it was your granddaddy she had a quarrel with. She loved Beck more than just about anything, and she’d be mad as a hornet if she thought Elsie and I let you hurt him. She wanted him living on her land, and you’re the one who can make that happen.”
“I think you’re overestimating me.”
Irene laughed, and Elsie and Trish joined in. Great, they were all ganging up on him.
“So what am I supposed to do? Drive up to Charlotte and—”
“He’s not in Charlotte,” Irene said.
“He’s not?”
“He was going to leave yesterday, but he needed another day to finish cleaning the house out. Lucy saw him gassing up the truck a little bit ago, but you might catch him if you hurry.”
“Truck? You mean like a U-Haul?”
“No, a big black pickup. Dodge Ram I think she said it was. He must’ve borrowed it from somebody, but it wasn’t loaded up yet.”
Cal didn’t want to get his hopes up. Even if he were willing to come out about his relationship with Beck, it might be too late. “You really think I’ve still got a chance?”
“Yes, I do, or I wouldn’t be calling.”
Elsie and Trish both nodded in agreement.
“Get off the phone, and go get your man,” Irene said and hung up.
Cal sat frozen for a few seconds. Then he dropped Elsie’s phone back in her purse and took off.
Katie appeared from the woods and ran with him. “Come on, girl. We gotta catch him before he gets away.”
She gave a high-pitched yip and ran ahead of him to the truck, where she pawed at the passenger door until he caught up. He dug his keys from his pocket, beeped the truck unlocked, and let Katie in. Then he raced around to the driver’s side. If he thought he wouldn’t hurt himself, he’d have slid across the hood like the fucking Dukes of Hazzard.
He cranked the engine and Katie barked, urging him on as he turned around and took off down the driveway, faster than anyone should go on a gravel road. What if he was too late? What if Beck had already left?
“Shit!” he yelled when the truck swerved after hitting a rough patch of gravel.
Slow down.
I can’t.
He looked both ways for traffic as he neared the end of the driveway, hoping he wouldn’t have to come to a full stop.
A truck whizzed by, a black Dodge Ram with the bed piled high with furniture and boxes.
No. No. No.
Katie howled mournfully. Did she know it was him?
Cal came to a stop.
Was he really going to chase Beck down?
Hell yes!
If he went the other way and circled around, he’d come out close to the bridge in time to hopefully see Beck go by. He spun out of the driveway, almost going into the ditch but managing to right himself in time at the last moment.
Katie barked, a happy sound this time, as if to encourage him.
He drove faster than he ever had. Please don’t let this be the one day the highway patrol sets a speed trap on this road.
He turned off on a narrow state highway and punched the gas. He slung the truck around a sharp curve, and Katie nearly fell off the seat. “Sorry, girl.”
When the road ended at the main highway, Cal waited, hoping no one came up behind him. A truck came into view. It was black—was it? Yes, it was Beck.
Cal turned out and sped up to catch him. He moved into the passing lane and came alongside Beck, then punched the horn several times. Beck glanced over at him, but he kept going. Had he recognized Cal?
Cal laid on the horn and motioned for him to pull over. The turn that led to the overlook where they’d viewed the bridge was just ahead, but Beck hadn’t even slowed. He considered pulling out his phone, but he doubted Beck would answer, and he wasn’t sure he could control the truck and make a call without slowing down. He gave three more sharp blasts to the horn, and just at the last second, Beck turned on his signal and slowed.