The Harrises and the St. Claires attended the same church, and Lisa had stopped by the Harris Autos garage, wanting someone to check out a clinking noise she’d been hearing whenever she drove her car. Ronald had introduced them. At the time Lisa had been seventeen and in her last year of high school. He had been twenty-two years old and enrolled in an auto mechanics class at night while working at the garage during the day.
Sheila had come into the picture after Lisa went off to college in Gainesville and Sheila had been her roommate that first year. Sheila would often come home with Lisa on the weekends and it was during one of those weekend visits that Lisa had introduced her to Ronald. The reason it had taken so long for them to tie the knot was because Sheila had been a medical student but was now a resident intern.
“What else was I to think when you weren’t talking?” Ronald said, interrupting his thoughts. “It was either thinking that or believing her family had run you off. I of all people know her sisters can be a pain in the rear end, but you always seemed to be able to handle them.”
Myles shook his head at the mention of Lisa’s sisters—the notorious busybody triplets. George St. Claire had worked at the local television station as the weatherman for years and evidently thought it was cute to name his three daughters Sunnie, Wendy and Noraine. By the time Lisa had come around, evidently Lilly St. Claire had put her foot down and insisted their fourth daughter be named after her mother. The joke was that Lisa had been spared being named Stormy.
Ronald was right. Sunnie, Wendy and Noraine were a handful. There was a five-year age difference between them and Lisa and they had taken their roles of oldest sisters to the max. They hadn’t liked him because they felt he hadn’t been good enough for their baby sister. The feelings were mutual. He hoped they had lightened up and had found lives of their own instead of constantly being in Lisa’s.
He glanced back at Lisa. Now she was talking to Sheila, which made him wonder if she was deliberately avoiding him. “We’ll talk about it in the car,” he finally said to Ronald. “There are things I think you should know.”
“About time,” Ronald said, although this time Myles was well aware Ronald’s focus was on Sheila.
“Hey, you only have one more night,” Myles said, thinking that would ease Ronald’s torture somewhat.
Ronald met his eyes and smiled. “Yeah, man, but the wait is killing me.”
CHAPTER TWO
“SO, YOU WANT to tell me what that kiss was about?” Sheila asked as Lisa eased her car out of the parking lot to follow the one ahead of them. The one that Myles was driving and Ronald was a passenger in.
Lisa shrugged her shoulders. “I have no idea. Myles made the first move.”
Sheila laughed as she pushed a few strands of blond hair from her face. “Yes, but I didn’t see you resisting.”
“In front of everyone? No way.”
Now it was Sheila’s time to shrug her shoulders. “Why not? There wasn’t a soul in church tonight who didn’t know your and Myles’s history, including the untimely breakup.”
Lisa didn’t say anything for a moment. “I guess that kiss was Myles’s way of saying, in front of everyone, that we’re still friends.”
“How do you feel about that?”
Again Lisa took a moment to think about Sheila’s questions. And then she responded. “Honestly, I’m trying not to say much of anything, and as far as my feelings, you of all people know what I went through when Myles left the way he did. Right now I’m just trying to handle him being here the best way that I can.”
When the car came to a stop at a traffic light, Sheila seized the moment to reach out and touch Lisa’s shoulder. When she had her attention, she asked softly, “You still love him, don’t you?”
Lisa felt a sensation in her stomach when she recalled the moment of walking into the church and seeing him. And then when he had turned his dark gaze on her… Her heart rate increased just thinking about it now. “A part of me will always care for Myles, Sheila. We have too much history for me not to. But there’s love and then there is love. I loved him once but don’t know just what I feel now. Besides, I’m not so certain he truly loved me back then.”
Sheila frowned. “Now that’s where you and I differ in our beliefs. I always thought Myles loved you, just like I’ve always thought there was more to him leaving town than what he’d said.”
“There was no other reason for him to leave, Sheila. He had the opportunity of a lifetime come his way and he seized it.”
“Are you still bitter?”
“I tell myself I’m not, but then I have to admit a part of me is bitter. His dreams had become mine and to know he fulfilled them without me still hurts. But then at the same time, I am so proud of what he has achieved in just five years. There hasn’t been a race he’s participated in that I wasn’t cheering him on, all the way. I may not have been there on the sidelines, but I was there.”
Sheila nodded. “Now for my final question. You know how your family felt about Myles in the past. They will hear—if they haven’t already—that he’s back in town for the wedding. And they will see him tomorrow since they’re attending the wedding. How will you handle them, especially your sisters?”
Lisa frowned. “My family doesn’t have anything to worry about regarding Myles, but even if they did, what goes on in my life is my business and they should know that by now. My sisters can’t find husbands of their own because they are too busy trying to run my life. I love them but they can get on my last nerve.”
“Well, I think you just need to be prepared. Dorothy Satterwhite was on the piano tonight and you know what a gossip she is. Chances are everyone in Chiefland knows that Myles kissed you today. At least they’ll know by tomorrow morning.”
“It wasn’t that kind of kiss.”
“You and I know it wasn’t, since I’ve walked in on you and caught you and Myles kissing before and could actually feel the heat ten feet away. But you know how Dorothy likes to embellish things, so like I said, be prepared.”
Lisa knew that, unfortunately, Sheila’s warning wasn’t anything she could take lightly.
* * *
RONALD SAID NOTHING for the longest time after listening to what Myles had told him. Then he said, “Gee, man, Lisa’s folks used your love for her to get you to do what they wanted. I wonder if Lisa knows the whole story now.”
Myles glanced over at Ronald as he turned into the restaurant’s parking lot. “I doubt it. I can’t see them ever coming clean and admitting to anything.”
“You’re probably right. Besides, if they had, she would have told Sheila and Sheila would have told me.”
Myles nodded. “I’m not finding fault with her parents for what they did. They saw me as a threat to the life they wanted for Lisa and felt they had to do something about it.”
“Hmm, I wonder what they think now, with the way your career has gone.” Ronald chuckled as the car came to a stop. “Hey, you wouldn’t be a bad catch for a son-in-law.”
Myles decided not to mention that evidently a number of people felt that way. He didn’t want to think of the number of his friends who’d tried playing their hands at matchmaking by introducing him to a number of eager prospects—daughters, sisters, cousins and so on.