Love Rising: Spring (Mandrake Falls Series Romance Book 4) Page 7

  “This time she’s right,” grunted Walter, surprising them all. “That house is either haunted or in need of new plumbing. The sounds coming from the walls are not of this world. But the little boys sleep right through it so if it is old Grady, he doesn’t trouble the babies. Grady is a fine name. Walt and Grady Rutherford-Dean.” Walter shook his head and smiled. “Who would have thought it?”

  “Everyone thought it, dear. You were the only one surprised when Scout and Ryder announced they were in love. And now we have Jeremy and Jocelyn. To be fair, you two did take us by surprise. I pride myself on being fairly astute in these matters but you gave us no indication whatsoever! The last time I saw you together, you were at the opening night party for The Gift of the Magi. Gosh, that seems like ages ago, so much has happened. Come to think of it—Letitia Murdoch hinted something was up.”

  Jeremy glanced at Jocelyn. “What do you mean?”

  “Well, I’m on the theatrical board as you know. The night of the party, Letitia told me she was going to offer you a contract, which seemed sensible and I made some reply to that effect. Then she said it might help you out when the time came to pop the question. Of course, I thought she meant in the abstract sense of getting married one day, but now I see she meant that you wanted to marry Jocelyn and having a steady job would help. Letitia is such a romantic.”

  “I’m sorry—what?” Walter looked at his wife, aghast. “Letitia Murdoch is a battle axe with nary a romantic bone in her body. Don’t go spreading rumors, Lydie. Not everyone has your penchant for seeing folks hitched.”

  Lydia smiled blissfully at Jeremy and Jocelyn and carried on as if her husband hadn’t spoken. “But now that I see the two of you together, I can see what Letitia must have seen during rehearsals. Look, Walter. Aren’t they perfect together? It’s the height. Jeremy is tall—he needs a tall girl like Jocelyn so he doesn’t stand out like a beanpole. Show him, kids. Move closer together.”

  Lydia gave them a little push and Jocelyn crowded next to Jeremy. The top of her head reached his shoulder. It was true. Jeremy was the perfect height for her. She didn’t have to slouch or round her shoulders to stand comfortably beside him.

  “Closer,” Lydia commanded. “Come on, you are about to be married! Don’t be shy. Jeremy put your arm around her.”

  Jeremy wound an arm around her waist and Jocelyn squished up against his side. He was warm and he smelled nice. They stood side-by-side stiff as boards, blinking at Lydia and Walter Rutherford like a couple of obedient children posing for a family portrait.

  “Oh, what a beautiful couple you make,” Lydia sighed damply. “With his dark coloring and her blonde hair and that height, they are a picture. I see it now; the love that you two have. It’s beyond me how young people keep a thing like that under wraps but I’ve always said that love will have its way, haven’t I Walter?”

  “You have.” Walter nodded. “And now that we’ve got that settled, let’s let ‘em get back to their shopping. Congratulations to the both of you. Good luck with the plumbing job, Jeremy. I wish I could tell you home improvement gets easier with time but it doesn’t. Pace yourself, son.” He caught his wife by the hand and dragged her down the aisle and out of sight.

  Jeremy and Jocelyn turned to each other and spoke at the same time.

  “What just happened?”

  “I couldn’t contradict her,” Jocelyn said with awe. “I always get tongue-tied around old people. Then she said she’d buy my whole baby line as a wedding present and I couldn’t speak. My entire line of baby products, Jeremy! That’s like five hundred bucks. We just stood there like fools letting her push us together. What’s the matter with us?”

  “I don’t know. It’s like a reflex to do what grown-ups tell me to do.” Jeremy frowned. “What Lydia said about Mrs. Murdoch was really strange. I’ve never talked to Mrs. Murdoch about you. What made her think I was going to pop the question?”

  Jocelyn fingered the chrome fitting in Jeremy’s hand. “Murdoch could see you had a crush on me, that’s all. Maybe she thought the contract would help me come around. But that’s not why she offered you the job,” Jocelyn added hurriedly. “You’re a good stage manager. I keep up with theater news; I know the company is lucky to have you.”

  He smiled and shrugged but she could see he was pleased.

  Jeremy sat down on the floor to sift through a bin of rubber washers. “I hope Lydia Rutherford isn’t too pissed when she finds out the truth. She’s one of the theater’s patrons.” Jocelyn sat down beside him and crossed her legs. “Do you think Murdoch could’ve put the message in Andrea’s camera case? She was sitting in front of me in the pew. She had opportunity. She might have done it thinking she was helping you out. I know she doesn’t believe I’m good enough for you.” Jocelyn poked him in the chest. “You’re the only person in town who believes that.”

  He grinned at her. “My opinion is the only one that counts.” Jeremy shook his head and went back to sorting through the bin. “Murdoch might’ve seen who put it in the case but I know it wasn’t her who actually did the deed. Letitia Murdoch is one of the few people who knew my mom died years ago. She and my dad are sort of friendly.”

  “Ah, so that’s how you got the job with the Mandrake Falls Theatrical Society. I knew there had to be some sort of connection. Especially after you stepped in to direct. You were terrible.”

  “I wasn’t terrible, you were a brat and for your information, I was overqualified for this job. I studied stage management in college and Dad knew Mrs. Murdoch was looking for a stage manager who’d work for next to nothing. I applied for the job. I was the only applicant because it pays squat. My dad didn’t give me a leg up out of the goodness of his heart. If it were up to him, I’d be in business school right now. My father thinks this is a phase I’m going through. He’s waiting for me to get it out of my system.”

  Jocelyn sighed. “My dad thought if I took secretarial courses I could be an office manager. I gave it my best shot but I have no aptitude for office work. I dropped out of vocational school. He lost the tuition he invested and then I told him I was going to start selling organic soap. I thought he was going to have a coronary.”

  “You’re an entrepreneur. My dad would be over the moon if I showed that kind of interest in business. He was disappointed when I opted for a technical career instead of commerce. Dad wants me to be the owner of the theater, not its stage manager.”

  Jocelyn leaned back against the shelves. “You’re dad is wrong about your career path but I’m beginning to think my dad was right about mine. I had no idea it would be so hard to turn a profit. I’m grateful to Lydia Rutherford for the sale but now I have to replenish the stock and that means investing my profit into supplies. I haven’t had any extra money for months.”

  He looked at her under a shock of brown wavy hair. “Can I ask you something? You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to. All those times we thought you were hurrying off after rehearsals to meet Hudson Grace—obviously, you weren’t and you never said you were—but who were you meeting? Just out of curiosity.”

  She smiled slyly. “Just out of curiosity? No one. I went home.”

  His smile faded. “Look, you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, but don’t tell me something you think I want to hear. I hate it when girls do that.”

  “I’m not doing that. You asked and I answered. I went home. I didn’t have enough money to go to the Inn for drinks after rehearsals, and Hudson didn’t call me, so I just went home. It was cheaper to go home and let you guys believe I had a hot date lined up.”

  “You should have said something.”

  “No, you should mind your own business.” She got to her feet. “Come on. You found what you were looking for, now it’s my turn. I want to check out the cucumber seeds. If I can start the seedlings in the next couple of days, I’ll have a bumper crop this year. I have a new recipe I’m working on and I’ll need bushels of cucumbers.”

  Jeremy gathered the plumbing s
upplies in his arms and followed her to the garden center. He told her to pick out whatever she needed and they’d put it on the same bill. He left her browsing though the seed packets like a junkie in a pharmacy while he went to the cash register. Jeremy pulled out the secret credit card he only used in desperate times. Plumbing wasn’t necessarily a desperate time but he didn’t have enough in his account to cover the purchase and the taps had to be fixed since he was the one who took them apart.

  Nevertheless, Jeremy’s conscience pricked. He was breaking his personal rule to live within his means no matter what. His dad would do whatever it took to help his son succeed and that’s what Jeremy feared most. He was afraid that one day he would wake up and not know who he was or what he was good at because he’d never had to try and fail and try again. Like Jocelyn had to do, and Andrea, Paula, Jason and Trevor.

  When Jeremy decided on a career in stage management, he’d made a solemn vow to depend on his own resources to succeed. His dad believed in him and applauded his son’s determination, but Kenneth Marks insisted he take the credit card just the same.

  The purchase was rung up and stuffed in the bag. Jocelyn would have running water in her kitchen because of that card. Jeremy realized that when it came to the woman he loved he would use his position to make her happy. It wasn’t so easy to escape who he was after all.

  ♥

  NORM TATE saw his daughter come out of the hardware store with Jeremy Marks, a tall lanky boy with brown hair, glasses and a rumpled jacket.

  A bum who thought he had one over on Norm Tate and could do what he liked with his daughter. He’d soon see different. He’d soon see.

  Norm barreled toward them, his long legs like scissors coming at them. He grabbed Jocelyn by the arm as she was about to get into Jeremy’s Toyota.

  “Where do you think you’re going? After everything I’ve done for you, this is the thanks I get—you run off with this worthless bum of a stage manager?”

  “Daddy!” Jocelyn eyes were wide with shock. “What are you doing here?

  “Don’t daddy, me. I can read! I saw that engagement notice. Did you think I was going to twiddle my thumbs and let you marry this loser? You think it was a big joke—laughing behind my back! How long have you been planning this without telling me, huh?”

  Jeremy pushed between them. “It was a mistake, sir. Jocelyn had nothing to do with it.”

  “You better not say another word to me boy. Don’t you dare open your mouth to me!” Norm’s voice rose. People on the street stopped to look. “I’m not talking to you. This business is between me and my daughter and you have no say in it. What’s it to you where she winds up in five years? Huh? This is my daughter!” Norm Tate roared. “You think I want my girl to settle for a half-employed stage manager her whole life? A girl with Jocelyn’s looks could marry a pro-athlete or a politician or a movie star. Give me one reason why she should settle for you.”

  “I never said she should but—”

  “But what?” Norm interjected. “Jocelyn should accept whatever scraps are tossed her way because she’s stuck in Mandrake Falls and her father lives next to the town dump? Is that what you think, you middle-class shit?”

  “Daddy, please,” Jocelyn whispered. “Keep your voice down. Nothing’s happened.”

  Norm’s face purpled. “Don’t you dare lie to my face. Did he put you up to this?” He tugged on his daughter’s arm, helpless with rage and deeply embarrassed by the gathering of spectators. His conscience pricked. He had a vague idea of being in the wrong, and yet he couldn’t see how when it was he who had been deceived here.

  The fact was Norm Tate was unwilling to let anyone love his daughter. Jocelyn didn’t know the boys who wanted to date her were losers and it was his job to see that she did know. He was a bully, but he was also a buffoon, which made his outbursts worse for Jocelyn to endure.

  His daughter’s red face and downcast eyes filled Norm with inarticulate fury. Was she embarrassed by him? Norm began to think he was making a fool of himself when he was only doing what was right by her. He was the girl’s father—he had a right, damn it!

  “Dad,” Jocelyn whispered in a high voice. “Dad, please. Take it easy—”

  “Get in the truck. You’re coming with me.”

  “Dad, no. I’m a grown woman. I don’t have to do what you say anymore. I’m going back to my place with Jeremy. He’s helping me with—”

  Norm boxed her ears. A quick cuff against the side of her head that wasn’t painful so much as it was humiliating.

  Jocelyn’s eyes immediately filled with tears.

  Both Norm and Jocelyn felt the eyes of the whole town on them. Lydia and Walter Rutherford, Letitia Murdoch and Sheriff McIntyre were in the crowd. Everyone was staring at them like they were a sideshow. The sheriff took a step forward but was halted by the look on Jocelyn’s face. Please don’t interfere.

  For Jocelyn, the worst of all was the pitying look in Jeremy’s eyes. She wasn’t a goddess anymore. Real goddesses didn’t get cuffed in the street by their fathers. Her dad felt worse than she did. Norm’s face was etched with shame and misery. Hitting his kid in public like common trailer trash—Norm Tate had fought against becoming that man since Jocelyn was old enough to walk. They were poor but they weren’t going to live like everyone else they knew. No brawling or drunken rages or shitty yards filled with scrap metal or poor grades or pay day loans—Norman Tate had standards. Poverty was no excuse for being stupid. His daughter was going to make something of her life and show them all it could be done.

  The only trouble was Jocelyn Tate had no skills, confidence or aptitude. She wasn’t smart like Andrea Tarnham or disciplined like Paula Dunlop to finish hairdressing school, or skilled like Jeremy Marks who could fix anything. She was pretty. And she liked growing things in her back yard. She was good at growing herbs and organic vegetables, but who was going to pay her to grow plants in Vermont where everyone had a green thumb? Jocelyn had big dreams just like her father but no means to pull them off. Marrying wealth was the only option for her.

  Father and daughter struggled with this reality in the middle of Mandrake Falls under the curious gaze of most of the town. Their shared humiliation had one source: they were poor and her father wasn’t going to let her forget it for one moment.

  “Mr. Tate,” Jeremy said in a low voice, controlling his rage, “you have to back off.”

  “Or what?” Norm sneered uneasily. Getting into a street brawl with the boy would be the final nail in the coffin. If he laid a hand on him, he’d lose Jocelyn forever if he hadn’t already. From the look on her face, Norm knew he was close.

  Jocelyn touched her father’s arm. “Dad, please go on home. I’m all right. I’ll call you later.”

  Norm was privately relieved she was still speaking to him and grateful she still called him Dad. Humbled, Norm could only nod mutely and shuffle away, defeat in his rounded shoulders.

  Jeremy opened the car door and Jocelyn climbed inside. As he closed it, he glanced up at the onlookers. “If you’re standing around staring because you want to help, then go after Mr. Tate. I’m sure he could use a friend right now. Otherwise, get out of our sight.”

  Jocelyn heard him. She heard every word. She slumped in the passenger seat of the beat-up Toyota, shaking with gratitude and embarrassment. She didn’t care that he drove a piece-of-shit car or that he wore horrible sweaters that came from a thrift store or that he had a crappy job and lived over a theater. Jeremy Marks was the nicest guy she’d ever met.

  That had to count for something. In terms of personal happiness, being with a man who had integrity had to mean more than being with a man who had a great bank account. Jocelyn knew that deep down her father would agree.

  Chapter 8: The Girl She Really Is

  JEREMY FOLLOWED Jocelyn into her house and closed the door behind him. The smell of musty wood, humidity and plants choked the air. Jocelyn dropped her keys in a bowl on the side table and drifted into the living room like she didn
’t really belong there. Her face on the ride home was white and immobile, and she didn’t speak. Jeremy had come inside to finish the repair on the sink knowing she wanted him there, but a terrible pall had fallen over them both. Her mortification and his helplessness in the situation had struck them dumb.

  They set to work on fixing the sink efficiently and formally; normal conversation constricted by what had happened. Jeremy couldn’t get past the exposure Norm had subjected Jocelyn to—her life story played out on Main Street. A life she’d obviously kept to herself. Jeremy realized how little he knew about Jocelyn Tate.

  “You never talk about your mom,” he said suddenly, breaking the silence.

  Her beauty was like a mask. It was terrible how beauty could be like a veil on a girl, Jeremy thought. She could disappear behind it and people wouldn’t know she wasn’t really there. People were content to stare at a beautiful as if they were looking at an image in a glossy magazine. It was easy to forget the girl behind the face. Had he been guilty of the same thing—of forgetting Jocelyn was a human being? He’d never thought about it until this moment.

  Jocelyn answered his question without looking at him. “Josephine died of cancer when I was thirteen. She was sick for a long time before that and the hospital bills more or less wiped us out. I hope you don’t think Norm is a bad father because of what happened. He isn’t usually like that unless he thinks he’s being made a fool of. That gets him angry.”

  “That gets all of us angry. But no one was making a fool of him.”

  “You have to see it from his point of view.”

  Jeremy wisely did not contradict her. He wasn’t going to get into a power struggle with Norman Tate for his daughter’s affections.

  “Since my mom died, I’ve become his world. He feels threatened when I meet a new guy. If it makes you feel any better he hasn’t liked any of the guys I’ve gone out with.”

  Jeremy knew without being told that Norman Tate was selfish and stingy with his love and if he couldn’t keep his daughter one way, he’d keep her another. Driving off the guys who liked her was one tactic. Making his daughter feel worthless was another.