“Well, Janice, what do you think?”
“I think you’re right. She needs to be taught a lesson. I don’t think she had the right to come in and make a play for the man you wanted.”
“That’s what I thought. I did find out that they’re definitely coming home tomorrow.”
“I’ll talk to Cliff and see what he thinks. He said he knew her in Atlanta. Maybe he has an idea of what you could do to get her out of Connor’s life.”
“Thanks, Janice. I appreciate that.”
“By the way, I talked to my brother, Derrick. He plans to come home Friday. He said he’d like to see you.”
Elsie smiled. “I always like it when men want to see me.”
“I told him you were beautiful and he said he couldn’t wait to see for himself.”
“Thanks, honey. That was sweet of you.”
“Well, you are beautiful, Elsie. I think you’re a lot prettier than your sister, though you do favor her.
“I can’t wait to tell Erline you said that. She’s such a snob. Do you know she told me I wasn’t cultured enough for her friends at the country club?”
“I don’t believe that.”
“It’s true. I’m going to get even with her someday, too.”
“How?”
“Oh, I know lots of things on my sister. Things she’d rather die than have made public. I’m thinking about putting them on the web. I even have some old pictures of her which she’d never want published.”
“Boy, Elsie, I’m glad we’re friends. I wouldn’t want you to get mad at me.”
“You don’t have a thing to worry about, Janice. You’ve never been rude to me nor done anything underhanded. You’re safe.”
“That makes me feel better.”
“Now, I’ve got to run and put my plans in action. Be sure to let me know after you talk to Cliff. Tell him I want to meet with him. You have my cell number, right?”
“Yes.”
“Good. I’ll keep it on and wait for your call. Together we’ll fix Ms. Nicole Lynch, but good! You won’t have to wonder anymore if she’s your long lost sister, and I won’t have to worry about her staying in Connor’s life. What could be better than that?”
“Not a thing, Elsie. Not a thing.”
* * * *
Nicole and Connor stood in Lita’s front hall after they returned from Savannah. He’d spent an hour with Nicole and her landlady. They talked about the trip and the wonderful food they’d had. He wasn’t going to say anything about where they stayed, but Nicole spilled it all. She told Lita how beautiful the room was and about the Jacuzzi and the wonderful service the staff at the inn rendered them. At times, he wanted to reach out and stop her, but didn’t. He knew right away Lita understood they had spent every night together.
Now as he was kissing Nicole good-by, he didn’t want to leave. He wanted to grab her suitcase and take her home with him, or at least pick her up and carry her to the room she rented upstairs. He knew he could do neither.
“I’m going to miss you tonight,” he whispered against her lips.
“I’ll miss you too,” she whispered back. “Think about me.”
“Until we’re together again, I’ll think about nothing else.”
“I love you Connor.”
“I love you, too, Nicole.”
They kissed again and she whispered, “Good night.”
“See you tomorrow, Cinderella.”
* * * *
She closed the door behind him and turned the bolt. For a minute she stood at the door wishing she could call him back for one more kiss.
Lita interrupted her thoughts. “You’re in love with him, aren’t you, Nicole?”
Nicole saw no reason not to tell Lita the truth. “Yes, I am. I’m very much in love with him.”
“He loves you too, you know.”
“I think he’s falling in love with me.”
“No, honey. He loves you. It’s written all over his face. He may not even know it yet, but he’s probably as much in love with you as you are with him.”
Nicole turned and put her arm around her landlady. “I hope you’re right, Lita. I really hope so.”
“You did use protection in Savannah, didn’t you?”
“Most of the time.”
Lita stared at her. “What do you mean, most of the time?”
“Well, one night it was storming and we woke up. And well...you know...we kind of got carried away.”
“I know what I’m going to do tomorrow,” Lita said with determination in her voice.
“What’s that?”
“I’m calling my doctor and getting you in to see him and just pray it’s not already too late. You need birth control pills, girl.”
“Lita!”
“Well, you do. Since you’ve had this romantic weekend, I’m not too old to realize you’ll be diddling around now that you’re home.”
“Lita!” Nicole said again.
“Okay, I’ll drop it for now, but I’m still calling the doctor.”
Nicole nodded. “I appreciate that. Though Connor said he’d stand by me no matter what, I don’t want to burden him with that choice.”
“Good, I’m glad you agree.” Lita patted her arm. “Now come out here in the den, I want to show you something.”
The den was cluttered with stacks of files and several banker boxes. “What in the world?” Nicole looked around.
“I decided to get busy with my husband’s old files while you were gone. There are a couple of files I want you to look at. You’re smarter than I am and I want your opinion. There are some things I find questionable.”
Nicole made a place to sit on the sofa. “Okay. What have you found?”
Lita picked up a file. “This one is kind of strange. It is a woman who refused to have some of the tests Sal wanted to do. She said she couldn’t afford it.”
Nicole took the file. She saw immediately the woman had given the doctor some conflicting information. “First she says she’s married then she says she’s a widow, then again here she says she has no children and later she says she has a son.” Nicole looked at Lita. “Do you think she could’ve had mental problems?”
“That’s a possibility, but look at the last page. Sal made some notes there.”
Nicole turned to the notes. “It says your husband decided the woman suffered from a split personality and he recommended a psychiatrist.” She looked up at Lita. “I wonder if she followed his advice.”
“There isn’t really a way to know. I actually called the number on the file, but the people who have the number now say they’ve never heard of this woman.” Lita picked up another file. “Now look at this one. It really is strange.”
“It’s a Jane Doe.” She frowned. “It says here she is twenty-four and not married. She refused to give her name because she doesn’t want to embarrass her family by letting them know she’s pregnant by a married man.” Again Nicole looked at Lita. “I can understand anyone not wanting to let anyone know the father was married, but were women really that afraid to let people know they were going to have a baby?”
“Yes, at that time they were. It was still a stigma and though it was getting better, it wasn’t as easy for women then as it is now.”
“Some people still look down on it, Lita.”
“I know, but those are only the snobs.”
Nicole looked back at the file. “It says here, the woman went to Atlanta when she was five months pregnant and had her baby there. She never told anyone who she was or who fathered the child.”
“What I thought unusual was the note Sal wrote saying the woman gave the baby up for adoption then returned to Macon. He said she later married and was reasonably happy.” Lita looked at Nicole. “What I wonder is how Sal knew all this unless this woman was a friend of ours.”
Nicole turned to the notes. “Maybe she confided in him. Your husband may have known who the father was, too.”
“That’s what I thought.”
Nicole looked at Lita. “Neither of these would explain why someone was harassing you or why they hurt Dora.”
“I know, unless...”
“Unless what, Lita?” Nicole asked softly.
“Honey, I don’t want you to get the wrong idea. I really loved my husband and I never had the notion to divorce him, but.... Well, he did have a couple of affairs while we were married.”
“I’m sorry, Lita.”
Lita nodded. “I might not do now what I did then, but I had three children. I didn’t have a way to support them so I always forgave him.”
“You did the right thing, I’m sure.”
Lita nodded. “It was right for me at the time. I just...”
She stopped and Nicole touched her arm. “What, Lita?”
“I wonder if Sal was the father of this woman’s baby.”
“Oh Lita, surely not.”
“I don’t know. I asked him once if he’d fathered any other children, but he brushed me off. He said if he had other kids, he didn’t know where they were. That could be taken several ways. One is that he did have them and they were given up for adoption.”
“Oh, Lita.” Nicole laid the file down. “I wish we’d never mentioned going through these files.”
“It’s too late now, dear. It has brought back a lot of memories.” She turned haunted eyes toward Nicole. “I remember about this time Dora had to go to Columbus and take care of her ailing mother. She was gone about six months and I didn’t have her to turn to when I learned Sal had had yet another affair.”
“So she wasn’t here when this woman was a patient?”
“No. Well, not for the whole time. She may have been here when the woman first came in.”
A thought crossed Nicole’s mind, but she didn’t voice it to Lita. Instead she said, “Then she won’t be any help with this, will she?”
“Not at all.”
Nicole took Lita’s hand. “Let’s think this is just a woman Sal wanted to help. She very well could’ve been a friend and he wanted to spare her. In fact, I’m almost sure that’s what happened. He wasn’t the kind of man to spread tales about the people who came to him, was he?”
“Oh, no.”
“See. If it was someone you both knew, he didn’t want to burden you with the responsibility of keeping the secret.”
Lita smiled. She patted Nicole’s hand. “I bet you’re right. I bet Dora wouldn’t have known who she was either. She probably came to Sal with some other ailment and he kept all her secrets.”
“That’s exactly what a good doctor would do.”
“Oh, Nicole. You’ve made me feel so much better.” She stood. “Let’s put this all away now and go have a cup of tea.”
“That sounds good to me.”
Later in bed, Nicole couldn’t help thinking about Dora. She remembered the older woman saying she was single when she first came to work for Lita’s husband. Could she possibly be the one who had the baby and gave it up? Did the nurse have an affair with her boss? If this was true, how did she keep it from Lita all these years?
Nicole would have thought about it longer, but the cell phone Connor had insisted she have, rang. “Hello, darling,” she said. “I love you.”
“Those words are music to my ears, baby. The only thing which would make them better is if I was there with you so you could say them in person.”
“You know it goes without saying I wish you were here, too.”
“Can I come over and slip into your bed?”
She laughed. “No, darling, you can’t.”
“I figured you’d say that.” He sighed. “I know it was only a couple of hours ago, but it seems like forever since I saw you. I couldn’t go to sleep without at least hearing your voice.”
“I had the phone right beside my bed hoping you’d call.”
“If I can’t come sleep with you, can I come over and kiss you good-night one more time?”
She laughed. “No, my love, you can’t do that either. I’ll see you in the morning.”
“I’ll come pick you up in the morning.”
“No, Connor. I want things to be as normal as possible. I want to walk to work and be at my desk when you come in. I want you to tell me good morning and smile at me, and I want to tell you good morning right back.”
“Okay, we’ll do it that way on one condition.”
“What condition is that?”
“After we say good morning you’ll follow me to my office. We’ll go inside and close the door, and I’ll take you in my arms and kiss you over and over.”
“That sounds like a good plan to me. I’ll certainly go along with it.”
“Then I’ll see you in the morning, my love.”
“Good-night, Connor.”
“Good-night, Nicole, and remember, I’m falling quickly for you and I’m not going to be denied your company very long.”
She giggled. “Are we going to Europe?”
“We might.” He laughed. “I’ll see you in the morning, love.”