The Backup Plan

“You heard, I suppose,” he said, looking chagrined.

“Just that you were arguing,” she said. “Not what it was about.”

He nodded slowly. “That’s good, then.”

“Can I help?”

His lips curved slightly. “Your mother and I have been working out our own problems for a lot of years now. I don’t think we need counseling from you.”

He said it without rancor, but somehow it stung. Dinah busied herself with putting away the phone directories to avoid having him see the hurt that was in her eyes. Maybe she hadn’t been around for years now, but she still considered herself to be a part of this family, not some intrusive outsider. Her father finally muttered a curse under his breath, then hunkered down beside her. “I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings, Dinah. I was just trying to say that there’s no need for you to get all worked up over this. Your mother and I have been doing this a long time now. We’ve survived so far.”

Dinah regarded him with disbelief. “I never once heard the two of you argue.”

“Because we didn’t want you to,” he said reasonably. “Sounds as if we did one thing right.”

She studied him curiously. “You did a lot of things right. You were great parents.”

“Thanks for saying that, though it seems like you’re revising history a bit,” he said, his eyes suddenly sparkling with amusement. “Didn’t you tell us we were smothering you right before you left for New York and college?”

“Of course I did,” she said, nudging him with her elbow. “How else do you think I’d have gotten out of here without drowning the two of you in tears? There was a part of me that wanted to stay right here in my safe little cocoon.”

His expression sobered and he gave her a penetrating look. “Is that what you’re doing now, hunkering down someplace safe?”

Apparently Dinah had always sold her father short. It seemed he had more intuition than she’d ever given him credit for. “Maybe just a little,” she admitted.

“Did something happen over there?” he asked. “I mean something worse than the obvious mayhem you must have seen on a daily basis?” He searched her face, a worried crease in his forehead. “Dammit, Dinah, did someone hurt you?” he demanded angrily.

She winced at his sharp tone. “A lot of things happened over there,” she said a little too lightly, hoping to change the entire tenor of the conversation. She knew the kind of things he must be imagining and she didn’t want to go there.

“You know what I mean, Dinah,” he chided. “If there’s something on your mind, if you were hurt in some way—any way—you surely know that you can talk to me or your mother about it. Does it have anything to do with what happened a few months ago? Were you just covering up when you said you were fine so we wouldn’t worry?”

“I am fine and I do know I can always talk to you.”

He lifted his brows at her quick response. “Of course, you should know that, but just in case you’d rather talk to someone else, I do know a few people who are good listeners and more impartial than your mother and I.”

She gave him a startled look. “You mean a shrink?” It was the very last thing she’d ever expected to hear her father suggest.

He seemed amused by her surprise. “Yes, a shrink. There’s no shame in asking for help, Dinah. I imagine a lot of folks coming home from that war over there could use professional counseling to deal with what they’ve been through. When I came back from Vietnam, I wish I’d done that, rather than wrestling with all those demons on my own.”

His admission barely registered, though she knew it was something she would ponder later. It wasn’t the same for her. She wasn’t a troubled soldier.

“I don’t need a psychiatrist,” she said sharply. “I’m just a little tired. A couple more weeks of rest and I’ll be good as new.”

Her father didn’t look as if he believed her, but he nodded finally. “So what were you looking for in here? Can I help?”

She realized that he might very well know exactly how she could get in touch with Bobby, but she didn’t want to ask. She wasn’t entirely sure why, either. Maybe it was because she didn’t want to have to explain to her very traditional father why she wanted to find a man she hadn’t seen in more than a decade. Or maybe it was because she was afraid he, like Cord and Maggie, would not agree hers was a good idea and then withhold some crucial piece of information.

“I’d just like to borrow one of your phone books, if you don’t mind,” she said.

“Of course,” he said at once. “Just put it back when you’re finished.”

“Believe me, I will,” she said fervently, taking the Atlanta directory and giving her father a quick kiss before heading back up to her room.

She assured herself it was better to finish this search the way she’d started … on her own.

After all, she thought a little ruefully, she’d been independent and proud of it for a number of years now. Somehow, though, in recent months independence had lost its allure.

6

Dorothy was still seething over her argument with Marshall. He refused to attend an important function Dorothy had arranged for them to attend together.

“Go on your own,” he’d told her when he’d arrived home from work just as she’d walked in the door after a rather tedious meeting. “You love that sort of thing, but you know I hate it.”

She’d stared at him incredulously. “Since when?”

“Since forever.”

“You were always eager enough to go in the past, when it suited your business interests,” she’d reminded him, her voice ringing with impatience.

“No, I’ve been accommodating long enough,” he corrected. “Tonight I’m tired and I have no intention of going out again. If you don’t want to go alone, call Tommy Lee. I’m sure he’d be happy enough to escort you. Our son needs to spend a little time cultivating those people, if he expects to take over at the bank someday.”

She’d stared at him in shock. “What do you mean if?“ she’d demanded, her voice rising to a level she’d never in her life resorted to before. Then again, Marshall had never been more exasperating than he was being right at this moment.

“I don’t mean anything,” he said in the tone that indicated just the opposite. It merely meant he was tired of the whole subject. To prove it, he’d walked away from her, gone into his office and slammed the door.

Now she sat in front of her dressing table mirror and stared at her reflection. What on earth was happening to them? It was as if she was suddenly married to a stranger.

Their marriage had never been the passionate love match that some of their friends claimed to have, but they’d been well-suited in many ways. They’d found a rhythm for their lives that worked, especially after their children were born. Her role had been to support Marshall’s busy career, raise their children and to be socially active in a way befitting their standing in the community. She’d always accepted that she and a small cadre of her friends were the style-setters in town.

Charleston was, in many ways, still a small town with a well-defined hierarchy. With their combined family backgrounds, it had been a foregone conclusion that they’d be accepted as a part of the crème de la crème of Charleston society, but maintaining that lofty position required real effort. It wasn’t enough to send the occasional check to charity or to be seen at the right galas. They’d had to serve as chairmen of key events, which meant that she did the work and Marshall reaped the rewards. For a time she’d done it gladly.

It was only in recent years that it had all begun to bother her. She’d found her own worthwhile causes and put her time and energy into those. Maybe that was where the gulf now evident between them had started.

Tonight she’d been forced to face the fact that it would take a sturdy bridge to cross that deepening chasm.

When someone tapped on the bedroom door, she assumed it was Dinah, but it was Marshall who entered. She regarded him with dismay. She wasn’t up to another angry exchange.

“Unless you’ve come to say you’ve changed your mind about tonight, you can leave,” she said coolly.

Instead of doing as she asked, he sank down on the edge of the bed. “I came to talk about Dinah.”

“Now?” she asked incredulously.

“Yes, now, dammit! I came to tell you that I just had a very disturbing conversation with her. I saw for the first time what you meant when you came by the office to discuss your concern, Dorothy. She’s obviously distraught over something. I think we need to get to the bottom of it.”

Dorothy put aside her annoyance and turned to face him. The encounter must have been troubling indeed if it had put such a worried frown on his face. “What do you suggest we do?”

He regarded her with a helpless expression. “I have no idea. This is your area of expertise.”