Catching Fireflies

Dana Sue grinned. “Since we have no solutions for that, how about some hot gossip to chew on? You’ll never guess who was having dinner at Sullivan’s just now when I left.”

“Who?”

“J. C. Fullerton and Laura Reed, the self-professed bachelor and the introvert teacher. Want to know the best part? They were actually laughing.”

“Holy mackerel,” Maddie said, obviously impressed. “J.C. is cute as can be, but this is the first I’ve heard of him going out with anyone in town. Even Bill’s mentioned what a hermit he’s been since he moved here. And Laura? She’s absolutely lovely, but awfully quiet. Who would have imagined the two of them hitting it off?”

“All I know is what I saw with my own eyes,” Dana Sue said. “They had their heads together and looked to me as if they were deep in conversation. I imagine it’ll be tomorrow’s headline at Wharton’s. Everyone in the place was grabbing for a cell phone to make a call.”

Maddie chuckled. “You gotta love the Serenity grapevine.”

“At least as long as you’re not the hot topic on it,” Dana Sue agreed. “We’ve both been there, done that.”

“Amen, sister!” Maddie said, just as the men returned with food and drinks.

Cal regarded them suspiciously. “Do we even want to know what you two had your heads together about?”

“I doubt it,” Dana Sue said breezily. “You macho men never give two hoots about girl talk.”

“I can always fill you in,” Kyle said, giving them a wicked grin. “They forgot all about me being right here. They were never that careless when I was a kid. All Katie, Ty and I ever heard around the house when the Sweet Magnolias got together was ‘little pitchers have big ears.’ We missed all the good stuff.”

“What’s it going to cost for you to pretend you didn’t hear any of this?” Dana Sue inquired.

Kyle’s smile spread. “I could use a coupon for dinner at Sullivan’s. I have a hot date tomorrow night.”

“Don’t you dare!” Maddie said to Dana Sue. “I will not have one of my children blackmailing you.” She whirled on Kyle. “As for you, you’re not too old for me to ground you.”

“Mom, I don’t live at home anymore,” he reminded her patiently. “I can always head back to college.”

Maddie buried her face in her hands. “What ever made me think that parenting would get easier with experience?”

Cal draped a comforting arm over her shoulders. “You were delusional, all right.”

She turned an accusing look on him. “And just when I had three almost grown and out of the house, thanks to you I have two more little ones.”

Cal laughed. “How can you complain when creating them was so much fun?”

Maddie shook her head. “Let’s have this conversation again when they hit their teens.”

“The teens,” Ronnie said, nodding knowingly.

“Oh, don’t even try to sound like you suffered through those years,” Dana Sue said. “We were divorced most of the time when Annie was a teenager and you weren’t even living here in Serenity.”

Ronnie winced. “Probably best not to revisit that time right now. Sorry.”

She pressed a kiss to his cheek. “It’s okay. I’ve forgiven you. Mostly, anyway.”

But an occasional reminder of that awful time did wonders to keep their marriage on track these days. Just like Maddie and Helen, she found herself counting her blessings when it came to love. Who could have imagined it would take the drastic step of a divorce to get her and Ronnie to such an incredible place?

* * *

J.C. glanced surreptitiously at his watch and realized that the football game at the high school would already be well under way. He enjoyed stopping by the games. The whole community usually attended, and he liked feeling a part of things. He should have noticed the time when Sullivan’s had started emptying out a half hour ago.

“Am I keeping you from something?” Laura asked, studying him with concern. “I’m so sorry. It never occurred to me that you might have other plans. It’s a Friday night. Of course you do.”

He smiled, enjoying the flustered rise of color in her cheeks. “I mentioned before we came that I’d planned to stop by the game. You said you were planning on going, as well. I lost track of the time and just now realized it’s probably started.”

She looked even more nonplussed. “Oh, my gosh, we did talk about that. I need to make a call. The other teachers will wonder what on earth has happened to me.”

“Why don’t we drive over together? It’ll be faster than going back to my office for your car.”

“Are you sure you don’t mind?”

“Of course not.”

He quickly paid the check, then led the way to his car, which he’d wisely parked on the street, rather than in the crowded lot. Now that lot was almost empty.

Ten minutes later he found a parking space a block from the field. As soon as they got out, he could hear the shouts of the crowd and smell the aroma of popcorn.

“Sounds to me as if we just missed a great play,” he said, as he helped Laura out of the car.

“Are you a big football fan?”

“Big enough,” he said. “I played a couple of years in college, but it was tough to do that and keep my grades high enough in premed. Since I knew I’d never go pro, I dropped off the team. Let me tell you, it put a crimp in my social life.”

She studied him curiously. “Then you weren’t always averse to dating?”

“Not always,” he said, leaving it at that.

“There’s a story there,” she said, holding his gaze. “Maybe you’ll tell me sometime.”

“Maybe,” he said, evasively. Surprisingly, though, the thought of revealing that time of his life didn’t seem as depressing as it usually did. The best thing about moving to Serenity had been the fact that not a soul in town knew a thing about his marriage to his childhood sweetheart or how it had blown up in his face.

When he’d paid for his ticket and Laura had shown her pass, they walked into the stadium just in time for the Serenity team to score a touchdown on a pass from quarterback Greg Bennett.

“That kid has an incredible arm,” he commented.

Laura nodded, but there was something in her expression that suggested she wasn’t half as impressed with him as J.C. was.

“You don’t like him,” he said intuitively.

“He’s a good player,” she said carefully.

“But you don’t like him,” he repeated. “Why?”

She hesitated, then said, “If you really want the truth, he has a massive ego and I’ve seen the careless way he treats the girls at school. It’s a bad combination.”

J.C. nodded. “I don’t really know him personally. He’s Bill’s patient. All I know is what I see on the field.”