Last Chance Family Part 21

"You can save your breath. I've already made up my mind. I'm buying him."

"Chica, I have spent the last day and a half trying to decide if I should talk to you about this or not. And I have concluded that I would not be a good friend if I did not let you know a few things."

Her chest constricted. "Angel, if you're about to tell me that Pastor Tim is gay, I think I will go off and join a nunnery."

"No, I am not here to tell you that."

"Good, then whatever it is you have to say about him, keep it to yourself. The truth is I'm tired of chasing after guys who have tons of emotional baggage. I've got enough baggage of my own. So I'm going to follow Amanda's advice and go after someone who is actually available, physically and emotionally."

"You think Pastor Tim is emotionally available? Really?"

Charlene didn't know the answer to this question. But in contrast to Mike, he definitely looked more mature. Tim was so mature he verged on boring. But really, boring would be better than having her heart mashed again. And Tim came with a big fringe benefit-Rainbow. "I think Timmy is a good catch." She folded her hands on the desk in front of her.

Angel got up and started pacing the room.

"What's the matter?"

He sat back down. "Look, Charlene, I do not want to spoil your plans, but I spoke with Miriam Randall yesterday, and she cannot remember ever saying anything about you and Tim Lake. And I am only here telling you this because I would hate to see you throw yourself at a man who is going to make you give up your cats."

"You're kidding, right?"

"No, I am not kidding."

"You'd rather I become a crazy cat lady than a married woman with a family?"

"No, of course not. But I have a hard time seeing you with a guy who is allergic to cats."

"Well, love is blind, and we can always get a hypoallergenic cat, like a Sphynx."

"A Sphynx?"

"It's a hairless breed."

"You'd get a fancy cat when there are so many in the shelter?" He seemed truly upset with her now.

"Angel, I'm just saying that marrying Tim Lake would not necessarily require me to give up cats."

"Just the ones you have right now."

"I'm not choosing cats over Tim or Rainbow," she said, trying to ease the tension in her neck. Angel was literally becoming a pain.

"Do you love him?" Angel asked.

She hesitated a moment. She should have told him a lie, but lying to Angel was impossible. "No, I don't," she said on a long breath. "Not yet, anyway. But Miriam says I will, someday."

"a.s.suming Miriam said anything at all. Tell me, chica, do you even like him?"

He certainly had her there, didn't he? She stared at him until he blinked. "d.a.m.nit all, Angel, I'm trying to be mature. I'm trying to follow Amanda's advice."

"Amanda told you to go after Tim?"

"No. She told me to quit going after guys who need fixing. You know the kind. Guys like Dr. Dave and-" She bit off the rest of the sentence before she said what was really on her mind.

"Like who?"

She looked down and pretended to rearrange the papers on her desk.

"Like who, Charlene?"

"d.a.m.nit, it's none of your business. Why are you here?"

He braced his elbows on his knees, and this time he sank his head onto his hands. He was a picture of misery. "Angel? What's the matter?"

"I did not come here to upset you. Really. I just thought you should know that Miriam does not remember saying one thing about you and Tim. But I did talk to Savannah, and she said that Tim will soon find his soulmate, and she will be someone involved in medicine. So maybe that is you."

"Veterinary science is not exactly medicine."

He looked up. "Maybe she was using an expansive definition."

"Yeah, but you came in here mainly to tell me to rethink, didn't you? You came in here determined to burst my bubble."

He shook his head. "No, that actually was not my main reason." He paused for a moment, the tension building. "My main reason for coming was to ask your advice about something."

"You need my advice? On what?"

"Dr. Dave."

She tried hard not to let her mouth drop open.

"I know," Angel said with a fluent hand gesture. "It is crazy for me to be asking you for advice about Dave. But you know him better than almost anyone."

"Okay, what do you need to know?"

"Would it be wrong if I bought him on Sat.u.r.day?"

"Angel, I don't have any problems with same-s.e.x relations.h.i.+ps. But I'm not sure that Dave is ready to come out. I'm not even sure he knows he's gay. G.o.d knows, I was fooled."

"He knows. The thing is, Savannah said something yesterday at the meeting of the Purly Girls about how I should go for it on Sat.u.r.day. And Pat Canaday heard what she said and started speculating about which bachelor might be gay. And if Pat is speculating, that means every knitter in Last Chance is speculating, too." He paused for a moment, frowning. "Let me amend that, every knitter who isn't nearly deaf and over the age of eighty-five. So maybe I should tell him that, huh?"

"c.r.a.p. I don't know. Maybe. Or maybe you should ask some woman to buy him for you."

"Who would do that?"

A wicked look crossed her face. "Maybe you could get Wilma to do it."

He sat there for a moment as he thought it through. "Oh, my G.o.d, Charlene, you are a genius."

"I doubt it." After all, she planned to buy a man she didn't like much because of a forecast that probably hadn't happened. She leaned back in her chair feeling exactly like a desperate spinster.

Angel gave her a probing stare. "Chica, if you do not love the preacher, why are you planning to buy him?"

"Because the guy I really like is not emotionally available. And I really don't want to break my heart again."

"So you are going to settle for someone you do not really like?"

"I get to be with Rainbow if I do."

"Ah, I see. And this other person? It would not, by any chance, be the older brother of Tim Lake?"

She sighed. "I'm pathetic. I know. And if I thought for one minute that Mike Taggart might choose to settle down here in Last Chance, I'd be all over him. But he's never going to stay. He's a gambler, and he wants to get back to that life. And I can't change him. If I try, I'm going to break my heart. So I'm going to settle for second best. And you know, I won't be the first woman who ever did that."

CHAPTER.

20.

The Cut 'n Curl beauty shop was busy. The usual Sat.u.r.day regulars were there-Aunt Millie, Thelma Hanks, and Lessie Anderson-when Charlene arrived for her "makeover." Miriam Randall was absent, thank goodness.

Charlene didn't want the old lady to take back her matrimonial forecast. She wanted to believe in it. She wanted to pretend that the stuff Savannah Randall had told Angel applied to her, too. After all, veterinary science could be called medicine.

So Charlene had embraced the whole idea of finding love at the bachelor auction. And now that Sat.u.r.day had arrived, she couldn't wait for the fairy-tale moment to happen. She was going for the whole Cinderella thing in a big way, even if she didn't have a fairy G.o.dmother helping her out. Last evening, she'd run up to Orangeburg and bought herself one killer of a party dress for this evening's soiree.

Now she needed the hairdo and makeup to pull it all together. She stared at Ruby, the proprietor of the Cut 'n Curl, in the mirror at her beauty station. "I want big, glamorous hair, Ruby."

Ruby arched an eyebrow. "Really?"

"What? You don't think I should go for big?"

"Uh, well, I guess it depends. You are trying to land a preacher, right?"

Charlene nodded. "But I also need a hairdo that will complement the new dress I bought. It's black and sequined. And it's got a mermaid silhouette that shows off my figure. Oh, and it has a terrific sweetheart neckline that should get Tim's attention."

In truth, she looked like a million dollars in that dress. It fit as if someone had tailored it for her. And to sweeten the deal, it had been marked down 50 percent, proving that the Lord did have a plan, and Belk's was part of it.

"Um, sweetie," Aunt Millie said, "are you sure Pastor Tim will like a dress like that? I've heard from some of my Methodist friends that he's a bit uptight." She leaned in and whispered the last word in a furtive voice. No one in the shop was a Methodist, but you never knew when one of them might pop in.

"I heard the same thing," Thelma said. She sat in one of the dryer chairs, her roots plastered with dye, and her hair standing on end as if she'd seen a ghost or something. "I was talking to Elsie Campbell the other day, and she was saying that his sermons are deadly dull."

"I'm sure it's only because he's unmarried," Lessie said. Jane Rhodes, Ruby's daughter-in-law, bent over Lessie's hands, working on the old lady's manicure. "He's probably a virgin, you know," Lessie added.

That shut everyone up for a moment. "You really think so?" Charlene found herself saying right out loud as her stomach twisted itself into a knot.

"He's a devout minister," Thelma said. "I bet he's never even been to third base with a girl." And then she grinned. "I think the Methodists are going to be so happy when you and Pastor Tim are married. I'm sure you'll loosen him up a little."

c.r.a.p. Did the Methodist ladies expect her to fix him? No, she had sworn off that. She expected to find a soulmate-someone she loved, flaws and all.

Charlene stared at her reflection in the mirror, catching Ruby's arch look. It had never even occurred to her that she might be about to fall in love with a man who was that inexperienced. Wow, that didn't sound like all that much fun, did it?

"So," Ruby said, "I think we need to put the hair up in something cla.s.sic, like a chignon. I'm not sure an uptight, thirty-something, virgin minister could handle you in a dress with a plunging neckline and big hair, too."

The Cut 'n Curl's door opened, and Amanda strode in looking like a woman on a mission. "I've been trying to call you for days and days, and you've been avoiding me. We need to talk."

Oh, boy. Why were her friends lining up against her plan? It was such a perfect plan. It would get her a sober and dull husband and a kid, all in one fell swoop.

"I don't want to talk," Charlene said.

"Of course you don't, or you would have answered my calls. But I wouldn't be a very good friend unless I made you talk. I saw your truck parked out back and figured you were here. And I'm not leaving until I speak my mind."

"Amanda, I'm getting my hair done. My mind's made up."

"This is all about Dr. Dave, isn't it? You've been sulking ever since I told you he was gay. And I feel so responsible for what happened. Honey, you don't have to go throw yourself at Tim Lake just because the man of your dreams isn't interested in girls."

"Dr. Dave is gay?" Aunt Millie said. The other women in the room didn't look all that surprised. But Millie's bubble certainly had been burst.

Amanda turned toward Millie. "Aunt Mil, I hate to tell you this, but everyone knows he's gay, except maybe you and your niece."

"Oh. My. G.o.d! Amanda! You've just outed him," Charlene said.

"Well, it's about time he climbed out of the closet."

"That's your opinion. But it's his life and his choice." Charlene turned and gave the rest of the ladies in the shop a stern look. "Y'all, just remember. What happens in the Cut 'n Curl stays in the Cut 'n Curl."

She got nothing but blank stares from the women, who were probably the biggest gossips in town. "I mean it," Charlene said. "There's a reason Dave hasn't wanted to come out, and it would hurt him if y'all started gossiping about him. So please don't do that."

They all closed their mouths and nodded, but Charlene had no faith that any of them would keep this quiet. Aunt Millie would be the first one blabbing all over town.

Charlene turned in her chair and put her face in her hands. Her life had gotten way too complicated the last few days.

"Charlene," Amanda said, "I don't give a rat's behind about David Underhill. But I do care about you. And I think the idea of you throwing yourself at a Methodist minister you don't love is just, well, I hate to say it, but it's dumb."

"Of course I don't love him. Not yet. All that's supposed to happen tonight at the party."

"Oh, good lord." Amanda sank down into one of the dryer chairs. "Honey, you're doing this because Mike Taggart talked you into it, aren't you?"

"No." She didn't sound all that convincing.

"Yes, you are. I've spoken with Mike. His heart's in the right place, and I believe he truly thinks you'd make a terrific mother for Rainbow. And you would. But you can't throw yourself at Pastor Tim because you're infatuated with the child. And using the rumor about Miriam Randall's prediction is just wrong. If you and Tim were truly soulmates, you'd know it. Believe me. The minute I saw Grant I knew it.