some since Momma’s been sick, but it was a nice place to grow up.” And for the first time in his life, Bill realized that it had been.
“That’s exactly what I was thinking. I always dreamed of living in a place like this. I bet you had chickens and cows when you were growing up and had chores and everything.”
“Didn’t you?”
“Didn’t I what? Have chickens and cows?”
“No, chores,” Bill corrected.
“Oh, sure. Clean up my room. Dishes. I always wondered what it would be like to feed chickens, gather the eggs, and milk cows.”
Bill shrugged. “Feeding chickens is no big thing. You just toss out feed, and the chickens come running. It was a little more exciting to get the eggs. Sometimes an ol’ hen wouldn’t want to part with hers, and I’d have to shoo her off. She’d go with feathers flying and clucking fit to beat the band.” He chuckled and headed for his Jeep. “Can’t tell you much about milking, though. We just had steers.”
“Steers?” Darcy asked as Bill opened the back door to the Jeep.
Bill handed her the backpack and hoisted her duffel bag out along with his own, then slammed the door shut. “Yeah, we got bull calves free from the dairy farm down the road toward Pittsville and raised them for beef.”
He smiled inwardly as Darcy grimaced.
“How can you eat anything that you’ve looked in the face?” she said, horror written all over hers.
“You can eat anything if you’re hungry enough, I reckon,” Bill said as he turned toward the house. “You comin’?” He strode up the stairs. “It’s been a helluva long day, and I’d just as soon hit the sack than stand out here and talk about butchering beef.” He could stand around and talk with her as long as she could, but Bill could see that she was just as tired as he was. She might be wide awake right now, but he’d bet she’d drop off as soon as her head hit the pillow. Just as he would.
Just not together.
Why did he keep thinking about that?
He wouldn’t mind sleeping with her, but he’d only known Darcy for a few hours, and tomorrow they’d say goodbye. It was nice to dream about, but in the morning he would wake up and face reality.
Bill stopped at the front door to reach for the knob, and Darcy collided with him. He paused, enjoying the feeling of her soft form against him, but she drew away quickly enough. He turned around. “I want to thank you for what you did back there,” he said. “I know we’re going to have to come clean with Momma in the morning, but it was more important to get her to bed tonight. It’ll be easier for her to take when she’s rested,” he said.
“You’re probably right,” Darcy said. “But you will explain it to her first thing, won’t you?” She yawned and rubbed her eyes. “And you’ll drive me back to Montgomery?”
“I’ll take you anywhere you want,” he told her, but the only place he could think about taking her was to bed. His, not one in his sisters’ room where Momma’d said to put her. He figured it wouldn’t hurt anything to think about it. He was realistic enough to know it wasn’t going to happen anytime soon. No, he told himself, firmly. It wasn’t ever going to happen.
“Thank you,” Darcy said and yawned again. “Now, could you show me where to sleep before I curl up on that porch swing over there?”
Bill chuckled. “I think I can show you something softer than that old porch swing. Come on inside. Momma said you could have Lougenia and Earline’s room.” He pulled open the screen door and ushered Darcy inside.
A ROOSTER CROWED, and Darcy roused briefly from deep sleep. She looked around the room, still colorless in the gray morning light, and listened for any sounds to indicate anyone in the house was up. Hearing none, she rolled over and burrowed her face into the pillow.
The next time Darcy woke, daylight was streaming in through windows unshuttered against the morning sun. She smelled bacon and coffee, and suddenly she was wide awake.
She was in Bill Hays’s mother’s house, and on top of that, she was pretending to be his fiancée. But only for a few minutes longer. Bill had promised to straighten it all out with his mother. Maybe he already had.
A girl could hope.
Darcy pushed herself up on her elbows and looked around the room she’d been too tired to study last night. It had obviously been a girl’s room. Two girls. Hadn’t Bill mentioned two names last night? There was another twin bed, the mate to the one she was in. Both were draped with pink chenille bedspreads, and a collection of dolls and stuffed animals watched her from the tops of both dressers and shelves on the wall. The toys were as dusty as the curling posters on the wall were worn.
Bill had mentioned that he was the youngest, so these sisters must have preceded him by five or ten years. The posters were from the eighties. She recognized Kirk Cameron and a young John Travolta. She smiled with the realization that teenaged girls were pretty much the same no matter where or when they grew up.
A light tapping on the door caused her to jerk the chenille cover up over her chest. She hadn’t packed a nightgown in her duffle bag and had slept in a T-shirt minus her bra. “Yes?” she managed, after her heart stopped beating a mile a minute.
“I’ve got breakfast ready. I didn’t wake you, did I?” Bill asked from outside the door.
“No, I was up. I’ll just be a minute.” Darcy threw off the covers and tumbled out of the bed. She found her duffle and rummaged through it until she located fresh underwear and a clean T-shirt. She wished they weren’t so wrinkled, but it couldn’t be helped. She hadn’t expected to be meeting her fiancé’s mother.
She hadn’t expected to acquire another fiancé on the same day she’d dumped the last one.
No, she reminded herself. In ten minutes or so, they’d straighten it out, and she wouldn’t have to pretend anymore.
She pulled on the T-shirt, slipped on her shoes, then grabbed her toothbrush and headed toward the bathroom. She might as well put her best face forward when she faced the music. The best one she could, considering.
She just hoped that Mrs. Hays wouldn’t be too upset about the truth.
BILL POURED his mother a glass of orange juice and watched as she drank it. It saddened him to see her so weak, and he felt so helpless not to be able to do anything about it. She’d been so strong when he was growing up, and now she seemed so frail.
“Happy Birthday, son,” Momma said. “In all the excitement last night I plumb forgot about it. We’ll have your party tonight. Along with your birthday, we’ll have something else to celebrate.”
“Something else?”
“Well, surely you want to announce your engagement,” she said. “I called Lougenia first thing this morning and told her all about it. She was so excited.”
Damn, Bill thought. Now what do I do? Why in the hell did I think we could get away with it? We should’ve told her the truth last night. “Momma, I wish you hadn’t done that,” he said, tempering his anger. After all, he wasn’t mad at Momma. He was mad at
