Gage thought his wounded heart had issues, but Raine’s pain is much deeper. If something doesn’t give soon they will never have a chance at love. Can he convince her to see that “hope” and faith are the balm she needs to heal her hurting soul?
Raine Still wanted
to die. Literally. She wanted her life to be over. This was a strange
revelation to come to at this moment, but her monotonous life was just as it
had been the past thirty-five Friday nights. Maybe if she broke her routine,
stopped coming to the supermarket, picking up salmon or steak to take home and
cook and eat alone, she would feel differently. Maybe if she agreed to join her
coworkers at happy hour she would have had some fun and she’d feel differently.
Maybe if it hadn’t been so long since she’d had someone, anyone in her life
that wanted to be with her, she would feel differently. But Raine didn’t have
anyone in her life. She didn’t really like her coworkers all that much and she
was already here at the store, so it was too late for maybes.
“Ms. Still, are
you ready?”
Raine drew her
eyes to the cashier’s. As large as this city was, the cashier knew her name.
Raine knew she was Amanda, because the nametag said so, but she found it sad
that Amanda knew hers. Every Friday night, they met, and exchanged greetings
over food and money. Habit and routine were supposed to be good, but Raine had
long since believed them to be evil.
“Paper or plastic,”
Amanda asked. Amanda knew she wanted paper, but Raine had learned many Fridays
ago that the woman was required to ask, lest her listening manager scold her
for not doing so.
“Paper,” Raine
responded. Amanda promptly retrieved a bag and began to check her groceries.
The total came quickly. Raine slid her card to pay for her items, picked up her
bag and left the store. She usually made more polite conversation. After all it
would be the only conversation she’d have with a human being until she began work
again on Monday morning. But tonight, Raine wanted Amanda to remember that she
was solemn, because if the story made the news about the young woman found dead
in her Southpark residence from a suicide, Raine wanted Amanda to be able to
recount the facts to her friends accurately. She wanted Amanda to say, “She
seemed down or sad.” Raine had no idea why that mattered, when nothing, not
even breathing mattered.
She exited the
store and climbed into her car. A young mother pushed a shopping cart with two
small children past her door. She’d always wanted children. Raine had wanted a
family, and she couldn’t fathom why God had not allowed her to have the thing
she wanted most. Well, second to most. What she wanted most was her parents,
but they were both dead. She sighed and started the car.
The ride home was
unremarkable. She entered the house, kicked off her shoes and placed her bag on
the kitchen counter. Raine shed her coat and buried herself into her favorite
sofa cushion. She remembered the faces of those children at the supermarket.
For some reason, they were etched in her mind. The memory of them reminded her
of her failure. Her failure to carve out the life she wanted for herself.
Her cell phone
rang. The face of her best friend, and former college roommate, Kiara Baker
appeared on the screen. Kiara had been calling for days. She was worried. But
Kiara had moved to Phoenix
a year ago. Phoenix
seemed like a million miles away. Raine let it go to voicemail like that was
some kind of punishment for leaving her. Truthfully, she knew she wasn’t that
petty. Raine just didn’t feel like talking which was unfair to Kiara, because
she hadn’t felt like talking all week. When the phone stopped ringing, a text
message came through.
I’m
worried. Please call me.
Raine’s eyes
became wet with tears. “I can’t call you,” she whispered. She tucked her feet
under her bottom and leaned back against the sofa cushion. Raine was too sad to
call anyone. She had tried hard not to wallow in it, but she was barely holding
on. Questions swirled around in her head:
Where had she gone wrong? How did
she let herself come to this place?
She went to college, started a career like
every other woman, but then she stalled. Nothing happened. She’d had no series
of boyfriends or dates that would get her closer to marriage. Was she so
utterly unapproachable that she’d warded off every man that would have thought
she was halfway decent looking? Or had the years of teleworking in isolation
and the evenings and weekends spent working at Hope House with the homeless cut
her off from civilization? Raine didn’t know if it was her or her lifestyle
that had brought her to this place. But she did know she was tired of it. She
was tired of the life she had. Living it everyday had become a burden and she had
no idea how to change it.
Raine stood and
left the living room for the office/sitting room. She’d converted her formal
dining room into this tranquil space. It was her favorite room in the house.
She’d had a window seat installed under the bay window and covered the seating
with a brocade floral fabric in a satin finish that had just the right shades
of rose and mint green. Next to the window was her writing table, an antique
Queen Anne style desk that she and her mother won at an auction. This little nook
was where Raine read, relaxed, dreamed, where she penned those dreams in her
journal.
On the wall above
the desk she had a sign her father had carved and painted for her that read, A Room of Raine’s Own. The phrase was
taken from the title of an essay she’d read in college by Virginia Woolf. Raine
had talked about the insight of Ms. Woolf endlessly the summer she’d read the
essay. Eight years later when she purchased her house, her father surprised her
with the sign. He’d remembered her rambling and his effort blessed her so.
Raine didn’t think there was anything more valuable in her entire house than
that gift. She smiled just thinking about the joy it had given her over the
years.
She looked to the
right. On the other end of the room was her home office. She’d been teleworking
three to four days out of the week for a few years. That space had the same
relaxing themes, but it was in sharp contrast to her woman cave in terms of
relaxation. Though it paid extremely well, Raine despised her job and the only
reason the two spaces were in the same room was because her company required
teleworker’s home offices to be on the first floor of their dwelling. No stairs
reduced the company’s liability for workers compensation related injuries at
home. Since this was the only room on the first level of the house besides the
kitchen, living room and a powder room, this was it. She’d planned to move her
private little nook, but then her dad had passed away and her mother became ill shortly after.
Now she had no desire to move it. Besides, she was able to compartmentalize the
spaces and ignore one when she was in the other.
Raine took a seat
at her writing desk, opened the door and removed a prescription bottle of pills
that she had placed there. Two months of sleeping pills. Sixty pills would put
a dinosaur in a comma. They would surely end her misery. She opened the bottle
and poured the pills out. She played with them for a few minutes, taking in the
smooth, hard texture. She lined them up in rows of ten like white lines of
cocaine across the width of the forest green desk blotter.
Were these tiny
little pills the answer to all her problems? Could she really just take them
and disappear into heaven with her parents? Disappear from the hell she was
living that was void of anyone. She was convinced they were. Hanging herself
seemed gruesome. Raine had already failed miserably at slitting her wrist. She
didn’t like pain. Escaping pain was the whole point. She sighed. Her stomach
growled like a hungry bear was inside of her. She hadn’t eaten since morning. Taking
pills on an empty stomach might cause her to vomit and that would be
disastrous. She’d read stories about people who failed at overdosing on pills
turning into vegetables. That was not going to be her story. She was going to be successful this time. God
himself was going to have to come down from heaven to stop her. Raine was
determined when she closed her eyes tonight she would wake up on the other side
of life. She stood and went to the kitchen to make her last supper.
***
Raine stared at
the phone until it stopped ringing. It had been a local number. She didn’t know
anyone local that would be calling her after nine on a Friday evening, so she
decided it was a wrong number. She ignored it and went back to writing the
letter she was leaving for Kiara. Raine looked at the glass of water and the
pills. It wouldn’t be long before she’d be done with her short note and then
she’d have to take the next step, swallowing them all. She felt overwhelmed by
the thought. Her throat closed. She could hardly breathe enough to push the
words out of her mind and onto the paper.
The phone rang
again. Answer it, a voice in her head
said. So instead of ignoring it again, she swiped the screen.
“Hello, may I
speak to Raine Still.”
“This is she.”
Raine rolled her eyes. Who else would it be? It was her number.
“Oh, Raine, thank
goodness. This is Elissa Wilson from the arts council. How are you, dear?”
She immediately
regretted her snarky thoughts. Her mother had loved this woman. “I’m well.”
Raine put down the pen and pushed the sheet of paper away from her.
“That’s good to
hear. Well, I do apologize for calling at the last minute, but we have tickets
for you.”
Raine frowned.
“Tickets?”
“You called a few
months ago about tickets to The Show. At the time we were sold out. I know how
much your mother, God rest her soul, loved the show and supported it every
year. I felt horrible that we were sold out.”
Raine closed her
eyes and opened them to possibility. “Ms. Wilson, are you calling to say there
are tickets?”
“Why yes, dear. I
didn’t know that our director put tickets aside in your mother’s name. I just
discovered this a week ago, but I didn’t have a contact number for you. I sent
a few emails but you didn’t respond. It occurred to me that the secretary at Oak Hill
Church would have a phone
number, so I called her up and begged for your number. Again, I apologize for
the late notice. She just got back to me less than ten minutes ago.”
Tickets to The
Show. Raine closed her eyes to the delight of it. Her mother’s very favorite
thing. She had promised her mother she’d continue to support the arts council.
She’d done so with monthly donations from her bank account, but she’d missed
the deadline to get tickets for this year’s performance.
“You must support and attend the theatre. The
arts are important. Culture is important. The only thing that separates us from
the animals is culture and education.” She’d heard that countless times
during her childhood and on up into her adulthood.
“I won’t see my grandchildren, but make sure
you take them to the theatre. Introduce them to museums and the ballet. Make
sure they see The Show every year.”
Raine felt
lightheaded. She was glad she was sitting or she surely would have fainted and
hit the floor. “Tell me, Ms. Wilson, when can I pick up the tickets?”
“Well, that’s just
it, dear. Like I said, it’s last minute. Our fault here. Please understand.”
She was getting
frustrated with the drama, but she kept her tone even and courteous. “It’s
fine, Ms. Wilson. Please give me the details.”
“The tickets are
for tomorrow night’s performance. Nine p.m. They’ll be at the window in your
name.”
Raine nodded.
Tomorrow night was perfect.
“There are four of
them,” Ms. Wilson said interrupting her thoughts.
Raine frowned
again. “I only need one.”
“Well, you have
four. Perhaps you can invite friends to join you. There’s no charge for them,
so you never know, people may be willing to shuffle plans around for free
theatre tickets.”
Friends. Raine
almost laughed out loud. She didn’t have any of those. “I doubt that’ll happen,
Ms. Wilson. I think it would be better if you tried to sell them or gift them
to someone else.”
“It’s too late for
that. If you can’t use them, they’ll just go to waste. Please do try to find a
taker amongst your friends.”
Rained nodded. “Of
course. I’ll see what I can do. Thank you, Ms. Wilson. Thank you so much for
tracking me down.”
“Enjoy the
performance, dear.”
They ended the
call.
Raine looked at
the pills and the paper and pen. She raised her hands to her ears, covered them
and shook her head.
“What am I doing?”
Her voice was a desperate squeal. She was shamed. Her parents wouldn’t want her
to do this. Even though she wanted to see them again, they would not want to
see her. Not dead at thirty-four. Her mother had to reach down from heaven and
put tickets in front of her to make her see that. She groaned. The anguish from
her pain filled the quiet room. Raine dropped her arms, turned her wrist up and
looked at the scars from the time she’d cut her wrist a year ago in an
unsuccessful attempt to end things after her mother’s funeral. Why had she let
the idea of death consume her? Why couldn’t she find the will to fight for her
life? She didn’t know, but she did know one thing. She was not killing herself
tonight. She had a date with her mother tomorrow.
Raine stood, left
the room as it was and went up the stairs to her bedroom. She opened the closet
and walked to the rear where she kept dresses for formal occasions. She chose
one she’d purchased but had never worn. It was perfect for a night at the
theatre. She hung it on the hook inside her closet door. Walked to her bed,
climbed in and pulled the comforter over her body. Her mother’s show. Raine had
a reason to live another day. God had given her the sign she prayed for. Maybe
there was something she was supposed to do with her life after all.
Chapter
2
Gage Jordan
wasn’t crazy about the theatre. In fact, at this stage of his life, he wasn’t
crazy about anything that was pretend. Having received his medical discharge
papers after serving his fifth tour in the Middle East,
he wasn’t able to reconcile anything pretentious or frivolous with the reality
of life in the war torn country he had called home for more of his adult years
than the country he actually called his real home. But it was his parent’s
anniversary. They wanted their children in attendance and standing at attention
he would be.
His cell phone
vibrated. He removed it from his pocket. The installed walkie-talkie app had an
incoming message. He pushed the button and listened.
“You are as slow
as an old woman, Gagey. Forward march your hind parts down the stairs.”
A smile touched
his lips. His sister, Cree was as animated and descriptive as she had been the
first day she uttered her first word, which was not mama or daddy, but paday
which was her version of party. And she was right. They had been waiting for
him for much too long.
He stood and took
the two steps that closed the distance between the tub and the sink. Gage had
been dressed for more than twenty minutes. Instead of exiting his bedroom and
making the trip downstairs to join his family, he’d been hiding out in his
bathroom. He’d been hiding from rest of the evening, because he’d already given
just about all the mental energy he had to his family.
It had been a long
day. It began with breakfast with his parents, served by his older brother,
Chase, a gourmet chef with a rising star of a catering business. During
breakfast, anniversary gifts were presented and love and laughter were
exchanged, as they took a long trip down memory lane. Then the Jordans
met for an early dinner at his parent’s new favorite restaurant, The Cajun
Queen, where they had ridiculous cuts of blackened steak and enormous prawns
covered in rich and decadent Creole sauces.
Then, as if that
wasn’t enough, they piled into their cars and met up at The Crave Dessert Bar,
one of Cree’s haunts. There everyone loaded up on cheesecake, pies, cupcakes
and every other manner of high caloric, sinful dessert they could shove in
their mouths. And now they were headed to the theatre for their annual get
together to see The Show.
The Show was a
variety presentation of various local talents, many of them children. Most of
it was musical and included singing, dancing, and instrumental performance
pieces. There was even some comedy. It was family friendly, entertaining, well
done and any other positive words Gage could think to describe a show of its
kind, but singing and dancing and humor were hardly palatable for him. Not at
this time.
“You’re a
soldier,” he whispered to himself as he raised his hand to straighten his tie
knot. In some ways, his battle to re-enter civilian life was worse than it had
been overseas, but he was making the transition, one day at a time.
Gage exited the
bathroom, his bedroom and took the steps as quickly as he could. Clapping
loudly as he entered the room he shouted, “Okay, let’s go show them that we can
show up on time for The Show.”
Cree stood and
closed the distance between them. “You look handsome. I think this is the first
time in years that I’ve seen you in a suit that wasn’t issued by the Army.” She
pursed her lips. Then frowned as she studied his tie. “Didn’t Uncle Sam teach
you how to center your tie?” She reached for the knot. Gage grabbed her hands a
little more forcefully than he intended to.
“It’s as straight
as it needs to be,” he said apologizing with his eyes after he released her.
Cree’s bottom lip
quivered. She whispered, “Are you okay?”
He nodded. “It’s
been a long day and I’ve only been home a few weeks. I’m adjusting.”
Cree frowned again
and sighed in much the same manner as she had the other times he’d reminded her
that he was adjusting. He knew she didn’t mean any harm. She just wanted her
older brother back and having no frame of reference for all that he’d been
through meant she had high expectations for that to happen. Gage knew it was
impossible. He’d been changed forever by the war. But he could pretend with the
best of them, so he forced a grin, clapped his hands again and barked the
order, “Line up Jordan’s.”
His siblings stood and lined up at the door in
order of birth. Doing so was a habit they’d carried over from childhood. Their
mother, Evelyn Jordan, said it was easier to keep up with them if they stood in
line in ascending order of the way she’d birthed them, so it began with the
youngest, Arielle, followed by Drake, Cree, Cade, Brooke, a space for him and
then finally, the oldest of the group, his brother, Chase. The only difference
in the line up now was that all three of his brother had wives next to them,
but they were
They exited
Brooke’s townhouse, and filled as few vehicles as they could get into
comfortably. Their parents, driven by a limo they’d rented for the occasion,
were probably already in route to the theatre.
Brooke, Cree, and
Arielle happily climbed into his Hummer. The truck was a gift Gage had
purchased for himself with the intention of celebrating his exit from the
military. He now realized that not only had it been a spontaneous overindulgence,
the vehicle also symbolized a military tank. He’d only managed to remind
himself that his permanent disability retirement from the Army was not a thing
he wanted to celebrate.
He said a prayer
of protection as he always did before he started an engine and then Arielle
turned on the radio and filled the car’s cabin with music that she and Cree
rocked and sang to. He and his sister Brooke, the old folks, at thirty-six and
thirty-four respectively admonished them to lower the volume on their vocal
collaboration. They did so, but only for a minute.
Gage trailed
behind the other two cars. Chase and his wife, Pamela and Drake and his wife,
Olivia were in one vehicle and his brother, Cade and his wife, Savant were in
another. Cade and Savant never joined anyone no matter how much room was in the
car. It was said that Savant was not easy to share a small space with. Gage had
been gone for fourteen years so he didn’t know. But he assumed it was true,
because his brother, once fun and lively, seemed stressed and burdened. The
man’s chest was less out than it should have been. He was graying early, which
was something Jordan
men didn’t do. Gage knew better than anyone what stress could do to a man. His
career in the military had taught him that stress killed if it was not properly
managed. Even if one took the time to exercise, eat right, and get proper rest,
they still had to take control of their mind or thoughts about the things that
were stressing them would eat them alive. That he knew for sure, because his
own mind had practically devoured him whole.
The three car
caravan moved effortlessly through the streets of Charlotte,
from Myers Park
area where most of his siblings lived to the Plaza-Midwood area where the East Charlotte
Black Art
Theatre was located. When
they arrived, their parents, Nathaniel and Evelyn Jordan were stepping out of their
limousine.
Gage observed his
father’s tender handling of his mother. Of all the men he’d respected in his
fourteen year career in the military he had never met a man that he thought
more of than his father. Forty years of marriage and an unquestionable devotion
to a woman he met and married in a week, seven children and a successful
business in Jordan Home Renovations that they had grown together and were now transitioning
to sons Cade and Drake was a lot to admire.
He didn’t know many people who could testify to such a fine example of
commitment and hard work.
He followed the
other two cars into the parking lot outside the small theater, hopped out and
opened the three passenger doors and helped his sisters down from the tall
vehicle.
“That was a nice
ride,” Arielle crooned. “As soon as I get good and in the black I’m going to
get me a nice used H2.” Arielle had just started a business management
consulting company. She was working hard. But business was contract to contract
with some weeks in between clients, which made her anxious. Though her father
and siblings assured her that all entrepreneurs had to build a portfolio and
that a business didn’t grow overnight. Gage was proud of her for leaving
corporate America
and doing her own thing.
“You can take this
one off my hands if I don’t get a job soon,” he replied.
Cree laughed as he
reached in to help her. “You’re going to get that job with the feds next week.”
She reached up for his tie and pushed the knot again. “What’s wrong with this
tie?” This time he didn’t stop her from her manipulation. “I’m not used to you
not being all buttoned up properly.”
A smile lifted the
corner of his mouth. “Maybe I’m trying to relax my look. Who knows, next week I
might show up with a blazer and no shirt.”
All three of his
sisters laughed.
It was Brooke who
said something this time. “It doesn’t hurt to do something different.
Especially if what you’ve been doing isn’t working.”
Cree smirked.
“Listen to Ms. All In Love trying to tell someone to step out of the box. If it
wasn’t for me, you’d still be tied to some laptop doing that work-a-holic
thing.”
Brooke planted her
hands on her hips. “Do not try to take credit for the new me. My man helped me
to step away from the computer. Not you.”
Cree rolled her
eyes. “Yeah, but I had to convince you to give your man a chance. You almost blew that.”
Brooke waved
Cree’s statement off. “Ain’t nobody got time for all this fiction. Mom and Dad
are waiting for us.”
They met up with
their coupled siblings and made their way across the street to the theater.
The smile on his
mother’s face made the effort to be here worth it. She’d supported this venue
since the days when she and his father lived in the neighborhood and that had
been more than twenty years ago. The effort began with an afterschool program
in a small community center. Drama, music, and visual arts were introduced to
low income children in the neighborhood. Soon it became apparent that the
children loved acting and dancing and singing more than anything else, so the
center director shifted most of the activities that way and The Show evolved.
The Black History Show known simply as The Show was a showcase of different
scenes from slavery to the civil rights movement. Adults were also in the
performance and every year they managed to get a celebrity to join the cast.
This year the spotlight would be on television and movie personality, Loretta
Divine.
Cree and Brooke
joined their mother in the line to pick up tickets and the rest of the group
waited off to the side and debated about whether or not the Panthers would go
all the way in the playoffs.
“What do you mean?
I spoke with Ms. Wilson yesterday.” Gage heard his mother say. There seemed to
be some kind of misunderstanding at the box office that his brothers and father
had not yet become aware of because of their banter about football. Gage left
the discussion to see about the issue his mother was having.
“What’s up?” he
asked.
“There’s a mix up
with the tickets. They’re trying to work it out now.” Cree’s mouth was a thin
line of disappointment. “I don’t know why these people won’t email you tickets.
All this will call at the box office is prehistoric.”
“Or at least
pre-email,” Gage teased.
Cree hit him
playfully and more light entered her eyes. “You got jokes. It’s good to hear
one come out of your mouth.”
He swallowed a
protest. It was true that he’d been less than fun to be around since his
discharge, but he was trying. He was trying so very hard and no one in world
understood all that he was dealing with. They had no idea how hard it was to
transition to civilian life after being a soldier for nearly fourteen years.
And then there was his guilt over what had happened to his friend, J.J., during
his last assignment. Gage was still trying to recover from that. Before his
mind wandered back to the memories, he heard Brooke exclaim loudly.
“Oh my goodness!
Raine Still!”
Gage and Cree
turned in the direction of the woman who had caught Brooke’s attention. Brooke
closed the distance between Raine and herself. It seemed to take a few seconds
for her to recognize Brooke. When she did, a warm smiled formed over brilliant
teeth. She accepted the heartfelt hug from Brooke. Before they parted, Raine
looked over Brooke’s shoulder right into his eyes. Gage felt his stomach drop.
“How are you?”
Brooke asked, pulling Raine’s attention back to herself. They began the girl
chatter involved in catching up.
Gage couldn’t pull
his eyes away. Her elegant shoulders rose and fell as she released an
exaggerated huff about her dress being an old thing when Brooke complimented
it. She raised a hand with long, pretty fingers to sweep her shoulder-length,
straight styled hair behind an ear.
Cree’s voice sliced
through his thoughts. “Wasn’t she in school the same time you were?” Then she
waved off her question. “Never mind. You probably wouldn’t remember her. She
was a few years behind you.”
I remember her, he thought. It had been
years since he’d seen her. “She attended Cade’s wedding,” he offered like that
was his only instance of acquaintance. It was not.
Cree frowned.
“That’s right. Her mother sang.”
Gage’s exchange
with Raine at the wedding had been brief. A dance that he’d wished could have
lasted longer. But her mother became ill, something about eating nuts and
needing to go home to take Benadryl. The sudden break seemed just as
disappointing for her as it had been for him. Two days later he’d shipped off
for his first tour to Afghanistan.
That had been his first of two encounters with Raine.
“You all remember
Raine,” Brooke said as she practically pulled the woman by her arm toward them.
“Of course,” Cree
replied as she stepped and air kissed her. “It’s been a minute. Fab dress.”
She thanked Cree
and then raised her eyes to his again.
Gage thought his
heart would come out of his chest. She hadn’t changed. He knew that because he
remembered every line of her beautiful face, which seemed to have gotten better
looking over the years, probably because she’d filled out some. She was a
skinny teenager. Scrawny might be an even a better description. Braces and a
mass of wild curly hair that no ponytail holder or cornrows seemed to tame, at
least not by her adoptive Caucasian mother. But she was pretty. He remembered
always thinking those huge brown eyes would make some man melt one day.
Gage had been a
senior when she entered their high school. Captain of the football team, he’d
been tied down with the head cheerleader. But he’d always been curious about
Raine Still, the loner with the eccentric seventy year-old parents. That’s why
he’d asked her to dance that night at the wedding. That’s why his heart was
pounding out of his chest now.
Gage spoke her
name as a greeting. “Raine.” He didn’t know if he was supposed to hug her or
shake her hand, so he did neither. She smiled coyly, but those big brown eyes
were not shy. “It’s good to see you again,” he added.
Before she could
respond their mother broke the conversation. Her face was a mask of
disappointment. “You’re not going to believe this.”
“What is it?” Cree
asked.
“They don’t have
all my tickets.” His mother practically cried out the words. She handed the
tickets to Cree and reached into her handbag for a tissue.
“Well, are they
sold out?” Brooke asked.
“You know this
show sells out before Halloween every year.” His mother continued. “This is
ridiculous.”
They were
regrouping and trying to figure out what they could do when Raine spoke up.
“Maybe I can
help.” Her words offered hope. She was speaking to his mother, but she drew her
eyes to his for a moment. “How many do you need?”
A curious
expression came over his mother’s face and while frustration still tainted her
words, there was a slight lilt in her tone when she replied, “Just two.”
“I have two extra
tickets,” Raine said and then she smiled. It was a smile that was brighter than
any of the stars in the sky. Gage felt his stomach drop again.
Raine swept past
Cree and went to the now empty ticket counter, exchanged a few words with the
gentleman there and came back with two tickets in her hand. “I had four, but I
don’t need them.”
His mother
blinked, then broke into a gracious smile. “Are you sure dear?”
Rained nodded. “Of
course I am.”
“What do we owe
you?” Gage interjected removing his wallet from his pocket. He knew from the
conversation in the car ride that the tickets were expensive.
Raine shook her
head. “Oh, no, they were complimentary, so…” Her eyes met his again and her
voice came across with a nervous tremble. “They were free.”
Gage returned his wallet
to his pocket. She was blushing. Still
shy, he thought. And he still found it incredibly sexy.
Brooke’s
interruption broke their gazes. “You’re a godsend, Raine. Mother, you remember
Raine, her mother Amanda Still sang at –”
Evelyn Jordan
gave Brooke a look that shut her eldest daughter’s mouth. “Of course. Her
mother and I worked on the arts council together for years. How could I not
know her?” She leaned in and gave Raine a motherly hug. “How have you been,
honey?”
Raine closed her
eyes, and made the hug deeper as she held on longer than most would with
someone who wasn’t family. If Gage didn’t know any better he’d think she was
soaking in some motherly love. When the hug broke, Raine replied, “I’ve been
fine, ma’am.”
His mother
continued, “I tried to reach out to you after the funeral.”
Raine nodded. Her
eyes became misty and her voice trembled some more. “I know, Mrs. Jordan.
I apologize for not responding.”
His mother nodded
understanding. “I know it’s been hard.”
“Yes, ma’am,”
Raine was gracious, but Gage knew she was heartbroken. He could see it in her
eyes and hear it in her voice. He wondered who had passed away. Both her
parents had to be in their late eighties.
“Are we going in
or not?” Savant Jordan, Cade’s irritable wife, interrupted in a less than
amiable tone. “I’d love to take these five inches off underneath my feet. It’s
cold out here and it’s going to get crowded in there. We don’t want to have to
sit in the back.”
The air in their
space suddenly got a little chillier. Cree handed her all but four of the
tickets. Through a tight smile she said, “Why don’t you disperse those, Sugar,
and go on in.”
Gage noticed
everybody’s smile was tight around Savant. The failing actress seemed to be
failing at more than her career. Gage also noticed she and Cade were at each
other’s throats most of the time in arguments sparked by her temper. Rumors of
a separation were in the air. Jordan’s
didn’t end marriages, so Cade was holding on for dear life.
Savant swished
away. She shoved all of the tickets but two at Arielle, took Cade by arm and
pulled him into the theater with her. Gage wondered if it was normal for her to
run down a list of complaints like she’d just done. Shoes, cold, crowd...he
felt sorry for his brother.
The rest of the
family stepped to their party. After introducing Raine as an old friend, Brooke
announced it was time to be seated because a swarm of people were coming from
the parking lot.
His parents locked
arms. His father said, “I should make y’all line up.”
The Jordan’s
laughed and their little crowd made a move to the main entrance.
Brooke hung on to
Raine for a moment, expressing how good it was to see her, but then looked
around and asked, “Who are you here with?”
Raine’s bottom lip
quivered and the glow left her eyes. She shrugged. “Late. I’m sure they’ll be
here in a minute.”
Gage sensed her
disappointment. True to herself, Brooke offered, “Come in and sit with us
until.”
Raine declined
with a shake of her head. “I might have missed seeing their car go into the
parking lot while we talked. Really, it was wonderful seeing you again, Brooke.
You look fantastic.”
Brooke smiled
widely. “So do you.”
Gage couldn’t
agree more. Brooke looped her arm through his and said, “Thank you so much for
the save. It’s our parent’s anniversary, so it’s a special night.”
Raine tilted her
head to the left and said, “Please congratulate your parents for me. It was my
pleasure to help with the tickets.”
But something
about those tickets hadn’t been her pleasure. Gage could see it in her eyes.
They weren’t quite as bright and the smile on her face reminded him of the one
Cree had given Savant. It was disingenuous, but in a sad way.
“Good to see you
again.” He nodded and fell into step with his sister.
Gage released
Brooke’s arm to allow her to enter the single door ahead of him, then glanced
back. Raine was not facing their direction. He hesitated, hoping she would, but
she continued to look towards the parking lot.
Her date is late, he thought. Must be a
woman because surely a man would have picked her up at home. He chastised
himself for wondering if it was some out of order dude. That was none of his
business, but the rapid beating of his heart made him think he wished it was. He
pushed the thought from his mind before he slipped through the door to join his
family.
Live A Little will be available on Feb 12th on Kindle/Nook and Smashwords and in paperback on Feb 21st.
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