Sweet Tea At Sunrise

“Isn’t it?” Annie scoffed. “Are you telling us that on some level this isn’t an in-your-face act designed to make him crazy?”

“So what if it is?” Sarah said, even though Walter hadn’t once crossed her mind when she’d been saying yes to Travis. “It’s not as if I’m going to be doing something disreputable that he can use against me in court.” A sudden worry nagged at her and she turned to Helen. “Right? There’s nothing wrong with having a local talk show on radio, is there?”

“Nothing I can think of,” Helen agreed. She faced Annie. “What really has you so worried?”

Annie squirmed uncomfortably. “Okay, I mentioned all this to Ty when he called tonight. The Braves have been on a road trip so his calls don’t last long, and believe me, we don’t spend the time talking about the local news. When I mentioned the radio station the other day, it was the first he’d heard that Travis McDonald was settling here. Anyway, it turns out Ty knows him, or knows of him, I guess I should say. He says he had a real reputation as a ladies’ man when be played for Boston. A couple of Ty’s teammates have known Travis ever since he played in the minors. He called me tonight to fill me in on all this.”

Sarah’s mouth gaped. “Travis played for the Boston Red Sox? You’re kidding me!”

“You didn’t know that?” Maddie asked, looking surprised.

Sarah shook her head. “He said he’d played ball for a while. He didn’t say anything about playing in the majors. I figured he was maybe on some farm team for about a minute.”

“It was a little longer than a minute, according to Ty,” Annie said. “It was long enough to make an impression on a lot of women in a lot of cities.”

“Well, so what?” Sarah said, even though she was disconcerted by the news. “It’s not as if I’m going to date him. I’m just going to work for him. Besides, maybe he’s reformed and wants a chance to start fresh. Ty did.”

Annie winced at the reminder of her husband’s well-publicized exploits with women. He’d wound up with a son during that wild phase of his life. Trevor, in fact, was living right here with Annie while Ty was on the road with the team.

Before Annie could respond, though, Jeanette breezed in. “Sorry, I’m late. Are you talking about Travis? He just told me he’d hired you, Sarah. Congratulations!”

Maddie, Dana Sue and Helen turned on her.

“Just how well do you know him?” Dana Sue asked, radiating suspicion. “I know he’s Tom’s cousin, but you’ve never even mentioned him.”

“Haven’t I?” Jeanette asked with a shrug. “He’s been staying with us. He wanted us to keep it quiet when he first got here. He’d had his fill of publicity.”

“Did you know about the radio station?” Helen asked.

Jeanette nodded. “Of course.”

“And you never said a word,” Maddie said with a shake of her head. “What kind of Sweet Magnolia are you?”

Jeanette chuckled. “One who can keep her mouth shut,” she suggested.

“Which is not a recommendation, as far as I can tell,” Helen said. “We’re supposed to be up on all the big news in town.”

“And now you are,” Jeanette said readily. “So, what’s the emergency? Why are we all here?”

“Because some of us think Sarah’s nuts for taking this radio job, especially to work with a man with the kind of reputation Travis apparently has,” Annie told her. “No offense.”

“None taken,” Jeanette said. “But how can he possibly have any reputation when he just got to town a few weeks ago?”

“Ty,” Maddie said succinctly. “Word on the road is that Travis was a real player with the ladies when he played ball in Boston.”

“Oh, so what?” Jeanette said, dismissing the assessment as unimportant. “Sarah’s an intelligent woman. She’s not automatically going to fall under his spell. Besides, if you want an opinion based on personal observation, rather than gossip, I think he’s kind of sweet.”

Sarah tried to reconcile that impression with her own. It didn’t fit. Now Travis as a player? That fit him perfectly. But fair warning ought to be enough.

“Okay, I suppose I could back out,” she told them. “But the truth is that I want to do something that stretches my limits, something fun. Waiting on tables at Wharton’s doesn’t qualify. And, if I’m being totally honest, neither does the idea of teaching kids their ABCs. I majored in education because it was a solid, safe career choice.”

Raylene, who’d been silent up until now, nodded. “I think she should go for it. Sarah needs to prove to herself that she is so much more than that little Stepford wife Walter and the Prices wanted her to be.”

“Amen,” Sarah said.

Annie still looked concerned, but eventually she nodded, too. “Since I’ve been telling you ever since you got back to town that you’re much more intelligent and talented than Walter ever gave you credit for being, I suppose I can’t take it back now. Go for it.” She shot a dire look toward Jeanette. “If Travis gets out of line, the rest of us will have your back.”

Sarah laughed at the protective note in her voice. “I don’t think you need to worry about that. Somebody who’s a player when it comes to women isn’t going to take a second glance at me.”

Dana Sue reached over and squeezed her hand. “Oh, sweetie, don’t sell yourself short. Obviously, he already has.”

Rory Sue’s visit home had been an exercise in frustration for Mary Vaughn and Sonny. She had no job lined up. Nor did she seem all that concerned about finding one. She’d flatly refused to consider anything Mary Vaughn or Sonny suggested about moving back home. Her opinion of Serenity seemed to be summed up in one oft-repeated word: boring. Mary Vaughn was at her wit’s end. Sonny was even more exasperated.

“You’d think raising one child, especially a girl, would be easier than this,” he said as he and Mary Vaughn climbed into bed on Sunday evening after their precious little girl had headed back to Charleston to spend more time with her friends.

“I’m sorry we never had the boy you wanted,” Mary Vaughn told him. “But you have to admit, there’s something about a girl and her daddy that’s special. Sometimes I felt like an outsider when you and Rory Sue would team up.”

“That was true when she was nine or ten, but once she reached her teens, she didn’t have much use for either one of us.”

“And then we hit her with the divorce,” Mary Vaughn recalled. “She never entirely forgave me for that.”

“I’m the one who asked for a divorce,” Sonny said. “I told her that repeatedly.”

“But she knew you never would have filed for it if I hadn’t done something wrong.”

“Well, we’re back together now, just the way she always wanted. It’s not going to feel right if she’s living somewhere else. It’d be nice to be a family, at least for a little while longer,” he said wistfully. “One of these days she’s going to get married, and then things will change forever. I want her to be happy, but I can’t say I’m looking forward to that day.”

“It’s a funny thing,” Mary Vaughn said, “but when she was away at college and you were gone, too, I still didn’t feel like one of those empty nesters you read about. It all felt so temporary. Then, sure enough, you and I got back together, but without Rory Sue under the same roof, it doesn’t feel quite right. I finally see what all those articles I read were talking about. It’s like a piece of us is missing.”

“Exactly what I was saying,” Sonny said. “So, how do we get her home?”

Mary Vaughn considered the question thoughtfully, or as thoughtfully as she could with Sonny beginning to lazily caress the curve of her hip.

“I think we have to give her a little more time at her friend’s place in Charleston,” she finally conceded. “You know she’s not job-hunting the way she should be, or if she is, she’s finding out just how tough things are out there.”

“I guarantee she’s not too worried about it,” Sonny admitted. “She knows we’ll keep supporting her for as long as it takes.”

“That’s the thing. We can’t do that,” Mary Vaughn said, figuring it was going to be up to her to take the tough line. Sonny was putty in their daughter’s hands. “We have to give her a deadline. At the same time, I’ll give her an alternative.”

Sonny’s gaze narrowed. “What alternative?”

“She can come home and work with me.”

“Why not with me?” he said at once. “She’ll inherit that car dealership one of these days. Despite what’s happened to the auto industry, we’re still doing well. She ought to at least know the basics of running it.”

“Can you see Rory Sue getting excited about selling cars? All she cares about is driving the latest, fanciest car on your lot. And given today’s market, she’s not going to make the kind of money she’s expecting with that high-priced degree of hers.”

“And she will in real estate?”