One “You’ve got that look in your eye again,” pixie-faced Kelly Beaumont complained. “I swear every time you pick me up at the hospital something strange comes over you.”
Jo Marie forced a smile, but her soft mouth trembled with the effort. “You’re imagining things.”
Kelly’s narrowed look denied that, but she said nothing.
If Jo Marie had felt like being honest, she would have recognized the truth of what her friend was saying. Every visit to the hospital produced a deluge of memories. In the months that had passed, she was certain that the meeting with the dream man had blossomed and grown out of proportion in her memory. Every word, every action had been relived a thousand times until her mind had memorized the smallest detail, down to the musky, spicy scent of him. Jo Marie had never told anyone about that night of the Mardi Gras. A couple of times she’d wanted to confide in Kelly, but the words wouldn’t come. Late in the evenings after she’d prepared for bed, it was the dream man’s face that drifted into her consciousness as she fell asleep. Jo Marie couldn’t understand why this man who had invaded her life so briefly would have such an overwhelming effect. And yet those few minutes had lingered all these months. Maybe in every woman’s life there was a man who was meant to fulfill her dreams. And, in that brief five-minute interlude during Mardi Gras, Jo Marie had found hers.
“. . . Thanksgiving’s tomorrow and Christmas is just around the corner.” Kelly interrupted Jo Marie’s thoughts. The blaring horn of an irritated motorist caused them both to grimace. Whenever possible, they preferred taking the bus, but both wanted an early start on the holiday weekend.
“Where has the year gone?” Jo Marie commented absently. She was paying close attention to the heavy traffic as she merged with the late evening flow that led Interstate 10 through the downtown district. The freeway would deliver them to the two-bedroom apartment they shared.
“I saw Mark today,” Kelly said casually.
Something about the way Kelly spoke caused Jo Marie to turn her head. “Oh.” It wasn’t unnatural that her brother, a resident doctor at Tulane, would run into Kelly. After all, they both worked in the same hospital. “Did World War Three break out?” Jo Marie had never known any two people who could find more things to argue about. After three years, she’d given up trying to figure out why Mark and Kelly couldn’t get along. Saying that they rubbed each other the wrong way seemed too trite an explanation. Antagonistic behavior wasn’t characteristic of either of them. Kelly was a dedicated nurse and Mark a struggling resident doctor. But when the two were together, the lightning arced between them like a turbulent electrical storm. At one time Jo Marie had thought Kelly and Mark might be interested in each other. But after months of constant bickering she was forced to believe that the only thing between them was her overactive imagination.
“What did Mark have to say?”
Pointedly, Kelly turned her head away and stared out the window. “Oh, the usual.”
The low, forced cheerfulness in her roommate’s voice didn’t fool Jo Marie. Where Kelly was concerned, Mark was merciless. He didn’t mean to be cruel or insulting, but he loved to tease Kelly about her family’s wealth. Not that money or position was that important to Kelly. “You mean he was kidding you about playing at being a nurse again.” That was Mark’s favorite crack.
One delicate shoulder jerked in response. “Sometimes I think he must hate me,” she whispered, pretending a keen interest in the view outside the car window.
The soft catch in Kelly’s voice brought Jo Marie’s attention from the freeway to her friend. “Don’t mind Mark. He doesn’t mean anything by it. He loves to tease. You should hear some of the things he says about my job—you’d think a travel agent did nothing but hand out brochures for the tropics.”
Kelly’s abrupt nod was unconvincing.
Mentally, Jo Marie decided to have a talk with her big brother. He shouldn’t tease Kelly as if she were his sister. Kelly didn’t know how to react to it. As the youngest daughter of a large southern candy manufacturer, Kelly had been sheltered and pampered most of her life. Her only brother was years older and apparently the age difference didn’t allow for many sibling conflicts. With four brothers, Jo Marie was no stranger to family squabbles and could stand her own against any one of them.
The apartment was a welcome sight after the twenty-minute freeway drive. Jo Marie and Kelly thought of it as their port in the storm. The two-floor apartment building resembled the historic mansion from
Gone With the Wind. It maintained the flavor of the Old South without the problem of constant repairs typical of many older buildings.
The minute they were in the door, Kelly headed for her room. “If you don’t mind I think I’ll pack.”
“Sure. Go ahead.” Carelessly, Jo Marie kicked off her low-heeled shoes. Slouching on the love seat, she leaned her head back and closed her eyes. The strain of the hectic rush hour traffic and the tension of a busy day ebbed away with every relaxing breath.
The sound of running bathwater didn’t surprise Jo Marie. Kelly wanted to get an early start. Her family lived in an ultramodern home along Lakeshore Drive. The house bordered Lake Pontchartrain. Jo Marie had been inside the Beaumont home only once. That had been enough for her to realize just how good the candy business was.
Jo Marie was sure that Charles Beaumont may have disapproved of his only daughter moving into an apartment with a “nobody” like her, but once he’d learned that she was the great-great-granddaughter of Jubal Anderson Early, a Confederate Army colonel, he’d sanctioned the move. Sometime during the Civil War, Colonel Early had been instrumental in saving the life of a young Beaumont. Hence, a-hundred-and-some-odd years later, Early was a name to respect.
Humming Christmas music softly to herself, Jo Marie wandered into the kitchen and pulled the orange juice from the refrigerator shelf.
“Want a glass?” She held up the pitcher to Kelly who stepped from the bathroom, dressed in a short terry-cloth robe, with a thick towel securing her bouncy blond curls. One look at her friend and Jo Marie set the ceramic container on the kitchen counter.
“You’ve been crying.” They’d lived together for three years, and apart from one sad, sentimental movie, Jo Marie had never seen Kelly cry.
“No, something’s in my eye,” she said and sniffled.
“Then why’s your nose so red?”
“Maybe I’m catching a cold.” She offered the weak explanation and turned sharply toward her room.
Jo Marie’s smooth brow narrowed. This was Mark’s doing. She was convinced he was the cause of Kelly’s uncharacteristic display of emotion.
Something rang untrue about the whole situation between Kelly and Mark. Kelly wasn’t a soft, southern belle who fainted at the least provocation. That was another teasing comment Mark enjoyed hurling at her. Kelly was a lady, but no shrinking violet. Jo Marie had witnessed Kelly in action, fighting for her patients and several political causes. The girl didn’t back down often. After Thanksgiving, Jo Marie would help Kelly fine-tune a few witty comebacks. As Mark’s sister, Jo Marie was well acquainted with her brother’s weak spots. The only way to fight fire was with fire she mused humorously. Together, Jo Marie and Kelly would teach Mark a lesson.
“You want me to fix something to eat before you head for your parents?” Jo Marie shouted from the kitchen. She was standing in front of the cupboard, scanning its meager contents. “How does soup and a sandwich sound?”
“Boring,” Kelly returned. “I’m not really hungry.”
“Eight hours of back-breaking work on the surgical ward and you’re not interested in food? Are you having problems with your tonsils again?”
“I had them out, remember?”
Slowly, Jo Marie straightened. Yes, she remembered. All too well. It had been outside the hospital that she’d literally run into the dream man. Unbidden thoughts of him crowded her mind and forcefully she shook her head to free herself of his image.
Jo Marie had fixed herself dinner and was sitting in front of the television watching the evening news by the time Kelly reappeared.
“I’m leaving now.”
“Okay.” Jo Marie didn’t take her eyes off the television. “Have a happy Thanksgiving; don’t eat too much turkey and trimmings.”
Copyright © 2024 by Debbie Macomber. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
