“Thanks, Archie.”

“It was my pleasure, Julianne.”

She’d sat up front with him, but Archie did his job and went around to the other side of the limousine and opened her door. She slipped out and gave him a peck on the cheek.

“Thanks for the ice cream. And for the shoulder.”

“Anytime. I’m here for all your limousine and bad-date needs.”

Bad date.

“The understatement of my lifetime,” she muttered as she hobbled up the sidewalk on one bare foot and one four-inch heel. “Night, Arch,” she called back to him.

“G’night, Miss Julianne.”

She stopped just inside the door and caught a glimpse of her reflection: Wild hair in every direction, mascara-stained cheeks, one missing earring, and a dribble of Rocky Road down the front of her light blue vintage dress. She suddenly remembered Suzanne’s request that she remember to snap a picture, which of course she hadn’t, and the memory ignited uncontrollable laughter. Maybe she should take a picture now? Something to remember the moment; a reminder about what pride gets you.

Just about the time she pulled herself together, her mother’s voice pierced the solitude of her laughing jag.

“I made tea.”

Just three simple words, and they set her face on fire with embarrassment and emotion. Her expression crumpled like wax paper over a lit match.

“Come here.”

Her mother extended her open arms, and Julianne headed straight for them.

Clomp. Clomp. Clomp.

“Oh, honey, take that shoe off.”

She kicked it off in the middle of the room and kept going, directly into Amanda’s embrace. After she hugged Julianne, and smoothed her crazy wild hair with the palm of her hand, Amanda gave her a little nod. With her arm around Julianne’s shoulder, she led her to the kitchen counter.

Julianne climbed up on the nearest stool while her mother set a cup of steaming tea before her. After she’d taken a sip, Amanda approached with a damp paper towel and began to wipe off the mascara mess under her eyes and down her cheeks.

“Oh, Mom, I’m such an idiot.”

“You’d better narrow that down for me, honey.”

“I paid a guy to take me out.” Julianne bit her lip, realizing she hadn’t actually paid him.

“Yes,” she said, focusing on the line of her jaw with the towel. “That was not your finest moment, I’ll admit.”

“It was so important to me, caring so much about what they all thought. I wanted to show them that they were wrong about me, and all I showed them was that they were right. Pride took ahold of me, and I couldn’t think straight.”

“And now?” her mom asked as she tossed the paper towel in the trash.

“Now? I’m just mortified.” The tears began to fall again, and she caved in to her folded arms on the counter. “And that awful Lacey!” she exclaimed. “I told you about her, didn’t I? She’s just horrible!”

“Well, it wasn’t very nice of her to ridicule you like that. But I got the feeling she just couldn’t help herself. That tends to happen when we’re focused on our own pain. We lash out and splash it all over the nearest person. And you happened to be closest, honey.”

“I hate her!”

“You do not hate her. But you surely hate what she did.”

Julianne looked around the kitchen and asked, “Where’s Phoebe?”

“She’s in the shower. She said she’d drive me home whenever I’m ready to go, but I wanted you to have some hot tea to come home to.”

Julianne chuckled and reached across the counter to take her mother’s hand. “That’s the answer to all the world’s problems for you, isn’t it, Mom? Hot tea!”

“It doesn’t hurt any, but no. It’s not the answer.”

Her face fell and crumpled again. “Then what is?” she whimpered.

Her mother didn’t reply with words. She simply pointed one finger heavenward.

An hour later, they had moved the somber party to the living room, and Phoebe had joined them. Julianne sat perched on the floor in front of the coffee table, the skirt of her chocolate-stained dress hiked up and her bare legs folded beneath her. Charming sat at attention, pressed against her, sniffing at the dried ice cream. Every now and then, he gave her dress an affectionate lick.

The lamp next to the sofa spilled a yellowish glow over the silent group, and music played so softly from the radio in Phoebe’s room that Julianne couldn’t make out the song.

Phoebe was first to shatter the silence. “Do you want to talk, Julianne?”

“Not really.”

“Okay.”

“Then I think I’ll have Phoebe drive me home now,” her mother piped up. “Unless you want me to stay.”

“No, Mom. You can take off. But thank you for being here.”

“Sometimes a girl just needs her mother,” Amanda said, and she pushed up from the sofa. “Do you want to come spend the night with me?”

“Next door to Will? I don’t think so.”

“All right. But you’re going to have to talk to him sometime, young lady.”

Julianne looked up as Amanda stood over her.

“That sometime isn’t tonight,” she said softly as Judd’s words roiled around inside her like a shot of acid.

He didn’t tell you? Yeah, I’ve got a job tailor-made for him. And with all of the Parkinson’s research going on down there, I think it’s the perfect time. With Davis’s situation and all.

“I love you, honey.”

“I love you, too, Mom.”

She leaned down and kissed the top of Julianne’s head. “Promise me one thing?”

“Hmm?”

“No more Paul Weavers.”

Julianne raised three fingers, even though she’d never been a Girl Scout. “No more!”

“Good. A pretty face and good hair does not a husband make, you know.”

“I am aware; I was so foolish.”

“All right. Sleep tight.”

She watched them walk out the front door, and she tucked her arm around Charming and pulled him in for a nuzzle. They’d hardly been gone a full minute when the front door opened again. She looked up, expecting to find that her mom had forgotten something, but Will stood there looking at her instead.

Even without his jacket and his bow tie hanging loose around his neck, he still looked every bit as handsome as he had at the gala. He combed his dark hair from his face with both hands and tilted his head slightly.

“Can I come in?”

“No.”

“Come on, Jules.”

“No,” she said, and she popped up to her feet and rushed toward him.

She put her hands on his shoulders, turned him around, and pushed as hard as she could until he stood on the porch looking back at her. It wasn’t until then that she noticed her shoe in his hand.

“Julianne, this can’t wait anymore. I have to tell you—”

“There’s nothing you can tell me tonight, Will. Go home.”

One corner of his mouth quivered and turned upward before he dropped to one knee like some ridiculous, disheveled prince at the end of one of those obnoxious fairy tales that had caused so much trouble for her.

Will extended the shoe toward her. “Fair Julianne!” he exclaimed in his most noble voice. “I’ve traveled a great distance to reach you, and to tell you that I love you. I’ve always loved you. And I want you to know—”

“Oh, hush,” she muttered, and she turned around and slammed the door between them.

The echo of the thrown dead bolt stayed with Will all through the night. Julianne had slammed the front door, locked it, and shut off the porch light, all with him still on one knee declaring his undying love. He didn’t know how long he’d stayed there, but when he finally got up, he left her shoe on the mat outside the door and skulked away.

Suzanne had been right; they really were morons, both of them.

She hadn’t shown up for church that morning, and Beth Rudd told him she’d called early to ask her to cover the David and Goliath lesson in Sunday school. Will had been so preoccupied with her absence that he couldn’t even faintly remember the topic of the pastor’s message.

As he pulled his car up to the stables, he noticed Alec standing there with a young woman. When she turned around and smiled at him, Will recognized Alison waving the horse brush at him.

“I thought you were camping at Natural Bridge this weekend,” he said as he climbed out from behind the wheel and grabbed his saddlebag.

“I was. I got home this morning, and Alec invited me over to meet his new filly.”

He hadn’t seen that sort of light in Alison’s eye when they dated. Come to think of it, he’d never seen it in Alec’s. They were actually a pretty fair match-up.

“How was the gala?” she asked him, and his expression wilted. “That bad?”

“It was the Murphy’s Law of evenings.”

“Everything that can go wrong,” Alec said, nodding, “will go wrong.”

“You got it.”

“Did Julianne win the award?”

“No. She did not.”

Alison and Alec exchanged glances before Alec smacked Will’s arm. “Sorry.”

“Was she terribly disappointed?” Alison asked.

“With everything else that went wrong last night,” he answered, “I think losing out on the award was the last thing on her mind. Although I wouldn’t know, really, because she’s no longer speaking to me.”

“Oh.” Alison cringed. “Well, maybe a good ride will cheer you up?”

“Let’s hope.”

He headed toward the stable, and then he stopped in his tracks. “Hey,” he said to them. “I’m glad you two are giving it a go.”

Alison sauntered over and pecked his cheek. “Thanks, Will.”

Julianne noted that Will’s car wasn’t in the driveway, so when she didn’t find her mother at home, she felt safe wandering across the lawn to check with Davis. Sure enough, the two of them sat at the kitchen table with a pitcher of iced tea and a plate of butter cookies.

“There she is!” Davis exclaimed when he peered through the back door.

“I knew I’d find my mom here,” she said with a smile as she slipped in and sat down next to Amanda. “I just wanted to drop by and thank you for last night. I really appreciated you sticking around and making me feel better.”

“That’s what mothers do.”

Julianne winced as her eyes met Davis’s. “I guess you heard about last night.”

“I heard plenty,” he replied.

“Well, I hope you won’t think less of me, Davis. I lost my mind.”

“Which part has you losing your mind?” he asked directly. “The part where you offered to pay the louse, or the part where Will wrote the check?”

Julianne’s pulse began to pound. “Will paid him?”

“He did.”

She fished into her purse and produced her checkbook. “I’ll leave him a check then. That was … really … unexpected of him!”

“I guess that’s not all that was unexpected last night.”

The minute their eyes met again, tears plummeted down Julianne’s face. “Are you two really moving to Lexington, Davis?” she asked. “When was Will going to tell me?”

“What!” her mom exclaimed with a gasp. “No one’s moving anywhere, Davis Hanes! I suwanee! What, you’re going to just up and leave me? What would I do without you?”

“You might find a dancing partner who could give you the life you deserve,” he replied.

Julianne looked on as her mother’s eyes misted with emotion. “You old coot. I don’t need a dancing partner. I just—” She lowered her head and whispered, “I just need you.”

“You’re crazy, woman,” Davis said. “More crazy’n your daughter.”

“Hey!” Julianne interjected. “How did this get turned around on me? Let’s hit rewind because I thought I’d never see the day when you two finally admitted you have feelings for one another, and you were getting very close there for a second.”

“Julianna Margaret!” her mother exclaimed.

“Well, for crying out loud, Mom. You and Davis have been like an old married couple for years now, except for that patch of grass between the two houses.”

“Look who’s talking about this!” Davis cackled. “Julianne, you don’t know a confession of feelings when it’s right there on its knee in front of you.”

“What?”

“Will had other things to tell you before we decided about Lexington,” he said, leaning forward and locking Julianne’s eyes with his. “And I hear you didn’t have much to say when he finally did.”

She scratched her temple as she said, “I don’t know what you mean.”

“That boy’s been screwing up his courage for twenty years, Julianne. And he finally manages to tell you his feelings, and you shut the door in his face.”

“He … What? … What are you talking about?” Amanda asked.

Davis tapped his fist lightly on the tabletop before turning to Amanda and shaking his head. “Will got on one knee and declared his love for your daughter last night.”

“He what?!” Her mother smacked Julianne’s arm. “You didn’t tell me that.”

“There’s nothing to tell. He wasn’t declaring his forever love, Davis. He was mocking me.”

“Will wouldn’t do that,” Amanda said. “Tsk, Julianne.”

“Well, he did.”

“Are you really that daft, girl?” Davis asked.

She frowned at Davis. “I am not daft.”

“Well, honey,” her mother cut in. “You aren’t exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer when it comes to love.”

“The girl is thick as two short planks!” Davis exclaimed.

“Davis!” Julianne said as she hopped to her feet. “You’re hurting my feelings.”

“Everyone in southern Ohio has known what you can’t seem to figure out, dumplin’. My boy is silly with love for you. He wasn’t mockin’. He was confessin’.”

Julianne looked from Davis to her mother and back again. “Confessing … What?”

“Oh, honey. God put him in your life long ago. Will has loved you since before you shaved your legs for the first time,” Amanda said with a smile.

“What?”

“You gonna stand there askin’ What? Or are you going to get in your car and go find him?”

“I … I don’t know where … Are you sure about this?”

Davis thumped his fist on the table again and leaned back into his chair with a groan. “He went ridin,’” he told her. “Over at the Ross place.” When Julianne just stood there, frozen to the linoleum kitchen floor, her thoughts all logjammed together, Davis clapped his hands in front of her. “Get on the stick!”

Julianne turned to Amanda, her brain twisted like a question mark. “Mom?”

“Do you love him, honey?”

“I … I … don’t know. He’s … Will!”

“That’s close enough,” Davis snapped. “Go on.”

One more smile from her mother, and Julianne reeled into action and ran for the door. Before it closed behind her, she heard Davis pipe up. “Now, why don’t you tell me more about how you can’t live without me.”

Julianne hadn’t heard her mother actually giggle in … maybe ever. But giggle she did before adding, “You old coot.”