Chapter 29

___________________

Alex

“SO, ROBERT SAID EVERYTHING is a done deal.” My father had been itching to get me alone, so we could discuss my court appearance earlier that day. We took a seat on the covered porch and puffed on our cigars while the teeming rain fell from the sky.

“Yup, he did a great job.”

My father was one of the best attorneys around, but he claimed it was unethical to represent his son in a divorce proceeding, so he let one of his most trusted colleagues handle it for me.

“Well, thank God that’s over. Now you can set your sights on someone more suited for you.”

“Yeah, well, that’s the last thing I need right now.”

“Boy, that’s probably the one thing you need right now. When was the last time you got laid?”

“Dad, I’m not having this conversation with you.”

He chuckled over my unwillingness to answer. He was right, it had been a while. “Rose seems like a really nice girl.”

I held my hand up to stop him. “No way. Rose and I are not…like that.”

“Does she not like men?”

“What?”

“Is she gay?”

“No, Dad, she’s not gay.”

“And do you not like women?”

“Of course I like women. Look, Dad, I don’t need your help finding me someone.”

“Well, judging by who you were married to, I’d say you do need help.”

As much as I hated to admit it, he was right. If I’d listened to him way back when, I wouldn’t have wasted three years of my life married to the wrong woman and another three and a half trying to get rid of her.

My dad placed his hand on my shoulder. “Don’t let one rotten apple spoil the bunch. You’re a young, good-looking guy. Don’t waste your time stewing over some girl who wasn’t good enough for you to begin with.”

That’s not what I was doing at all. My feelings for Vanessa had been null for a long time now, but the idea of Rose and me having a thing was ludicrous. She was only here tonight for lack of anything better to do, not because she wanted to spend time with me.

“What on earth?” My father stood up and walked to the top step of the porch at the sight of the police car pulling in the driveway. “What’s going on, Dane?” my father shouted as the officer got out of his car and made his way to the porch.

“There’s a huge tree down at the end of the road with some power lines entangled in it. You won’t have access to the main road until sometime tomorrow morning. I’m surprised y’all even have power…this storm is something else.”

Shit. Rose needed to get back to her hotel and with only one road in and out of the development, I was pretty sure that wasn’t going to happen. “There’s no way around it? I need to be somewhere,” I asked.

“Alex, I thought that was you. How’s life treating you in the big city?” Dane asked.

Dane Brown was a few years younger than me in school. We played football together and would frequently hang out with the same crowd back in the day.

“I’m doing well, thanks,” I replied.

“I’m afraid not, man. I’m kinda stuck in this neighborhood myself until the power company gets here and does their thing. I’m trying to go house to house to let everyone know.”

“Dane Brown, is that you, sweetheart?” my mother asked as she appeared in the doorway.

“Yes, ma’am, it is.”

“Well, come up on the porch. You’re soaked to the bone. Honestly, sometimes I think my husband loses all his manners.”

“I’m fine. I was just making my rounds to everyone to let them know the main road is closed until tomorrow because of a downed tree.”

“Well, come on in and grab a cup of coffee and a slice of my strawberry shortcake.” My mother motioned for him to follow her into the house.

My father and I put out our cigars and walked inside as well.

“What’s going on?” Rose asked.

“Hello, ma’am.” Dane removed his hat and his eyes lit up at the sight of her. He was definitely known as a ladies’ man around town and most women fell for it, but judging by the look on Rose’s face, I didn’t think she was going to fall victim.

“Hey.” She brushed off his greeting and focused her attention on me.

“Umm…Rose.” I knew she was going to freak out, so I was trying to break it to her as gently as I could.

“Looks like you’re going to be spending the night here, Miss Rose,” my father blurted out.

“Wait, why?” she exclaimed, her voice laced with panic.

“Tree down on the main road with power lines entangled in it.” Dane sounded like a robot, repeating the same thing for the third time since he’d arrived like he was reading from a script.

“Oh…no. I have to check out of my hotel tomorrow morning. I have an eight a.m. flight home.” Rose pleaded her case like it was going to remove the tree any faster.

“If I were you, I’d check your flight. They’re canceling them like crazy because of this storm,” Dane added, only making matters worse.

“Oh, no!” Rose exclaimed, pulling out her phone from her purse and frantically punching something in.

“Yeah, don’t you watch the weather? Where ya headed?”

“New York.”

“Oh…forget it, storm’s headed that way.”

“No, no, no!” Rose shouted as she stared at her phone in a sheer panic. “My freakin’ flight’s been canceled.”

“Told ya!” Dane remarked, shoving a forkful of cake in his mouth.

“Shut up!” Rose and I both said in unison.

“Rose, you can drive back with me. It’s fine.” I tried my hardest to calm her down.

“Alex, tomorrow is Saturday. I have a huge meeting on Monday morning with Wellington Collectibles. They want to buy space for a big advertising campaign. I’ve got to be there. I was the one who set it up, and the woman who runs the company is very big on women empowerment, so she’ll only deal with women. I can’t screw this up for your uncle. He was so excited to have this company on board. Not to mention, the woman is like my idol. She took her tiny little company and built it from the ground up into the multimillion-dollar corporation it is today, and she’s only twenty-eight years old.”

“Oh, I’ll give Henry a call if that’s what you’re worried about.” My father pulled out his phone.

“Wait, Dad. If we leave early tomorrow morning, we’ll be back by Saturday night. What’s the big deal?”

“Well, I just thought you were planning on spending more time here. I could just try and get a flight out on Sunday.”

“Ha! Good luck with that. Even if you do get a flight out, chances are the airport you’re flying into will have canceled.” Dane just couldn’t keep quiet.

“Are you trying to get on my nerves?” Rose snapped at him. “Because you’re doing a really good job of it!”

My father and I exchanged an amused glance with each other.

“Oh, Rose, honey, it’s fine. You spend the night here, and then you and Alex can drive home together tomorrow,” my mother chimed in.

“But I feel awful for making Alex cut his time short.”

I shook my head, not upset by it in the least. This was the perfect excuse to cut out. Just the fifteen minutes I had spent alone with my father badgering me about my love life was enough. I knew the rest of the weekend would have been filled with him getting on my case to move back here and take over the properties he managed. He was basically working two full-time jobs. One at the law firm, and the other maintaining the expansive riverfront property that had been in our family for generations and he refused to sell.

“It’s really not a big deal.”

“But what if I can’t get back at my hotel in time for checkout?”

“Where are you staying?” my dad asked.

“River Street Inn.”

“Not a big deal. I’m good friends with the owner. I’ll give him a call. They won’t be giving you a hard time.”

“Are you sure?” Rose still seemed hesitant.

“Yes, ma’am. Now, Charlotte, go show this little lady where she’ll be sleeping, and, Rose, don’t you fret about it, everything will be better in the morning.”

“Yeah, as long as they can clear that tree away.” Dane had to get in the final word.

“I would say it was nice to have met you…but I won’t.” Rose smirked at Dane then followed my mother upstairs.

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The storm had passed, and the sun was shining once again. We were finally able to get back to Rose’s hotel around noon. It was a little later than planned, but she seemed okay with it. In fact, she acted as if she didn’t want to leave my parents’ house. I wasn’t sure how late she’d stayed up with my mother watching old movies, but my mother was thrilled to find someone who shared the same love as her over the classics. She lingered over the full course breakfast my mother prepared, expressing quite a few times how she wished she had more time to hang out.

“Ready?” she asked, stepping out on her balcony where I was waiting for her to shower and dress.

I nodded and followed behind her. “You got everything?” I asked, giving her room a quick scan.

“I think so.” She stuck her head in the bathroom and gave it the once-over. “Yup, I’m good.”

I took her a little off guard when I took her bag from her hand.

“I can carry that,” she protested ever so slightly.

I ignored her feeble plea and stepped outside her room with the bag still in my hand.

“I say we get some ice cream before we leave,” she suggested as we walked down the hall of the hotel.“But you were the one who was in such a hurry to get back.”

“I know, but I really like this place, so…will you just please have some ice cream with me?”

“Fine,” I replied, trying my hardest to figure her out as she walked up to the desk to check out.

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After getting some ice cream and walking for some time along the river, we took a seat on a bench, neither one of us worrying that we had a twelve-plus-hour drive ahead of us. We just concentrated on the body of water in front of us with our biggest care being eating our ice cream before it melted away on that hot September day.

Rose asked me questions about the cargo ships as they passed by. I answered them for her then gave her a brief history of the town of Savannah. The same stories my grandfather would tell me as a little boy. Rose listened eagerly, the same way I did when I heard all these tales for the very first time, bringing me right back to my childhood days when life was just simple. Sitting there with Rose on that lazy Saturday afternoon made me doubt my grandfather for the very first time—maybe he was wrong, maybe you could get that precious gem back. It may not be as bright and beautiful as it was during the innocence of a life yet lived, but it was a glimmer of hope that maybe parts of that unspoiled time before it was tainted by adulthood still existed.

“I would definitely come back to this place,” Rose whispered, looking around and taking everything in.

I gave her a few minutes to capture everything in her mind. “Are you ready to go?” I finally asked.

She reluctantly nodded and stood up. I got up as well and grabbed her bag.

“Alex?”

“Yeah?”

She stared up at me and took me off guard when her lips touched the side of my cheek. “Thank you.”“For what?” I asked once I finally got over my shock.

“For meeting me here, even if you did think I was totally crazy with my idea. For inviting me to dinner and sharing your family with me last night. I really had a great time.”

I didn’t get her one bit. The last thing I expected was for her to be thanking me for taking her to dinner at my parents’ house. Girls like her…or at least who I once thought she was, only liked going out to dinner at expensive restaurants, but she was no longer that same girl I once perceived her to be, and maybe she never was. I had judged her so harshly, I didn’t take the time to see the real her under the rich, spoiled girl persona. But the more I was with her, the more I was starting to see that was just a mask she hid behind, and underneath it, there was a down-to-earth girl who had a lifetime of love and compassion inside her heart. My mother never really liked any of the girls I’d brought around before, but for some reason she loved Rose, and if I was being completely honest it wasn’t hard to see why.

“It really wasn’t that big of a deal,” I muttered.

“It was to me. There’s so much more I can say, but I’ll just leave it at that. I wouldn’t want to ruin the image of me to you.” She giggled.

“Too late for that.”

Her smile disappeared, and her eyes widened as she waited for me to elaborate.

“But I won’t say any more either because then your image of me will be shattered too.”

“Gotcha,” she whispered, drawing a deep breath and taking one last glimpse of the river.