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She had manners, that one did. Betty Jean had raised those girls right.
Vidalia was gaping, but Bobby Joe was giving her those same smitten puppy dog eyes he’d given her all those years ago.”
“You owe me, Vidalia. I helped you get the OK Corral up and running.”
“I paid you for that help.”
“I worked for next to nothing.”
She shrugged. “Hey, I didn’t name your price, you did.”
“And I named one so cheap you wouldn’t be able to say no.”
“Not my fault. You must’ve had your reasons.”
“I did. I wanted to be around you as much as I could possibly manage.”
She had no snappy comeback that time. Her words got stuck in her throat, and she sat there staring at him.
“Vidalia Brand, you knocked my socks off the first time I laid eyes on you. And I’ll tell you what, lady. You still do.”
She picked up his beer and drank it straight down. All in one draught. When she set it down again, she lowered her head and whispered, “I was a married woman, Bobby.”
“Not legally,” he said, sounding just like Maya. “But I know, I know you don’t see it that way. And that’s why I left after that night–”
“Will you keep it down?” She looked around the all but empty restaurant. “Jeeze, you think I want my greatest shame broadcast on the evening news?”
“Oh, come on Vidalia, no one cares about a one-night stand neither of us can remember.”
“My daughters would care.”
He went silent, staring deep into her eyes for a long silent moment, until she had to lower hers.
Bridget came back. Vidalia said, “We’re both having the buffet, hon.”
“Okay, sure. Um, just help yourselves when you’re ready.” She turned and walked away and Vidalia felt a little bit guilty for not being friendlier. But not nearly as guilty as she felt over what had happened all those years ago. Especially the parts she’d never told Bobby.
At least she hadn’t lied to him. Outright. She had kept a pretty damned huge secret from him though.
“You know it’s odd, how we both blacked out that night,” he said. “I mean, I was drinking way too much at the time, that much I know. Being in love with another man’s wife was a little more than I was man enough to deal with back then. But you never drank much. A little more than usual that night, but it didn’t seem like enough that you’d forget.”
“And this is coming from what? Your non-memory of anything that happened?”
“I remember a lot of it. I remember...most of it.”
She remembered all of it. Including waking up in his arms the next morning in the storage room on a bed made of drop cloths and their respective coats.
“And yet you left town the very next day. Not a note. Not a goodbye.” Not even after that long night of lovemaking, the likes of which Vidalia hadn’t seen before or since. If she didn’t burn in hell for it, then there was no justice in the world.
“What was left to say? You pretty much said it all when I woke up.”
She had. She’d been mortified. Horrified at what she had done. Her husband had been out of town “on business” for two months at that point. She’d been working with Bobby for six. Together every day. All day. Working, bickering playfully, laughing, touching sometimes, always accidentally of course.Feeling.
She’d woke up naked, still wrapped in his arms. And she’d been disgusted with herself. Even though by then she was sure her husband was cheating on her. Johnny couldn’t have gone two months without sex if he’d been in a coma. But that didn’t make it right. She didn’t know he had another wife, one he’d already been married to when he’d married her. And two kids, to boot.
So she’d got up, got dressed, and waited for Bobby to wake. And when he had, she’d said, “This was the biggest mistake of my life. I can’t see you anymore, Bobby. Not ever.”
She remembered how hurt he’d seemed and how he’d tried to apologize, saying he didn’t even remember coming into the store room, much less what had happened afterward. And she’d said she didn’t remember either. But she did. Oh, how vividly she did.
