car.” The Camaro wasn't much in the hauling department either, but she rubbed a couple of late-blooming tears out of her eyes with her fists and gave him a spunky little smile. “So what do you say? It'll only take about an hour, maybe a little longer.”
He glanced down at the passenger seat, crammed with packages.
“I'm going to take all that stuff back,” she said inanely. “I wanted to give Maggie and Li'l Bit something—presents—you know? But Maggie is so fussy about what she wears, and Li'l Bit will never figure out how to use the CD player, and I've never been any good at picking out things to give people—”
“If you open your trunk I can put the packages in it,” he cut in.
“You're gonna come with me?”
“Are you kidding? I want to see you drive this thing.”
She handed him the packages to put in the trunk. But he couldn't fit them in because Li'l Bit's CD player was taking up all the room, so he stowed the overflow in the front seat of his own car. Then she watched as he slid into the passenger seat of the Viper with admirable grace. He eyed the Viper's gearshift.
“You do know what you're doing, right?” he asked. By way of an answer, she turned the ignition key and peeled out of the parking lot.
“Am I scaring you?” she asked sweetly, over the roar of the motor.
“Girl, do your thing!” he shouted. And as she hit the gas, the ever-so-dependable Dr. Douglass threw his head back and let out a rebel yell. Proving that Charles Valley's very own Doogie Howser was still a kid.
Laurel had been the one who'd asked Perry to take care of Peggy. When Peggy first came back from the hospital, she'd dutifully continued going into Atlanta to her oncologist at Emory for her treatments. But as she got weaker and her prognosis worsened, she didn't want to undergo the exhausting trip anymore. Her specialist wasn't about to trust the widow of Dalton Garrison to some local practitioner out in the sticks, and he wanted her to stay in Atlanta, but Laurel thought of Denny's beautiful baby brother who had just moved back home and was working for Maggie.
“Peggy needs to watch the sunsets with Maggie and Li'l Bit,” she'd said to him.
And he understood. The city doctor hadn't, but The Wiener was a Charles Valley boy who knew all about the three Miss Margarets sitting on Miss Li'l Bit's porch every afternoon. The next day he'd taken his Harvard-educated self up to Atlanta to meet with Peggy's specialist, and then Peggy was home for good.
After a while, when Peggy was too sick for sunsets on Li'l Bit's porch and Laurel was spending all her time at Peggy's house, Perry started coming by every day after his work at the clinic. He brought Peggy's favorite foods: pulled pork sandwiches with the sweet sauce (not the hot) from Lenny's Barbecue, fried chicken from the Sportsman's Grill, and, once, a bag of tomatoes from the garden he'd planted in his backyard.
Laurel had opened the bag and was hit with the smell of sun and dirt that always accompanies fresh-picked tomatoes. They were at their absolute peak, bright red, and so full of juice it felt like it was going to burst through the skin when she touched them. She put down the bag and started out the kitchen door. “Don't you do a thing with those,” she said over her shoulder to Peggy's night nurse, who was saying something about a nice healthy salad.
Laurel came back twenty minutes later with a jar of Hellmann's mayonnaise, a giant economy-size roll of paper towels, salt, pepper, and the freshest loaf of Wonder Bread she could find in Brown's Convenience Store.
“The bread's got to be soft,” she told the nurse, who hailed from somewhere up north. While Perry and Peggy looked on in happy anticipation, Laurel spooned up mayonnaise in big dollops and spread it on the bread. She cut the tomatoes into slices, laid them on top, and then she added lots of salt and black pepper—not the pepper you had to grind, the kind from a little red-and-white
He glanced down at the passenger seat, crammed with packages.
“I'm going to take all that stuff back,” she said inanely. “I wanted to give Maggie and Li'l Bit something—presents—you know? But Maggie is so fussy about what she wears, and Li'l Bit will never figure out how to use the CD player, and I've never been any good at picking out things to give people—”
“If you open your trunk I can put the packages in it,” he cut in.
“You're gonna come with me?”
“Are you kidding? I want to see you drive this thing.”
She handed him the packages to put in the trunk. But he couldn't fit them in because Li'l Bit's CD player was taking up all the room, so he stowed the overflow in the front seat of his own car. Then she watched as he slid into the passenger seat of the Viper with admirable grace. He eyed the Viper's gearshift.
“You do know what you're doing, right?” he asked. By way of an answer, she turned the ignition key and peeled out of the parking lot.
“Am I scaring you?” she asked sweetly, over the roar of the motor.
“Girl, do your thing!” he shouted. And as she hit the gas, the ever-so-dependable Dr. Douglass threw his head back and let out a rebel yell. Proving that Charles Valley's very own Doogie Howser was still a kid.
Laurel had been the one who'd asked Perry to take care of Peggy. When Peggy first came back from the hospital, she'd dutifully continued going into Atlanta to her oncologist at Emory for her treatments. But as she got weaker and her prognosis worsened, she didn't want to undergo the exhausting trip anymore. Her specialist wasn't about to trust the widow of Dalton Garrison to some local practitioner out in the sticks, and he wanted her to stay in Atlanta, but Laurel thought of Denny's beautiful baby brother who had just moved back home and was working for Maggie.
“Peggy needs to watch the sunsets with Maggie and Li'l Bit,” she'd said to him.
And he understood. The city doctor hadn't, but The Wiener was a Charles Valley boy who knew all about the three Miss Margarets sitting on Miss Li'l Bit's porch every afternoon. The next day he'd taken his Harvard-educated self up to Atlanta to meet with Peggy's specialist, and then Peggy was home for good.
After a while, when Peggy was too sick for sunsets on Li'l Bit's porch and Laurel was spending all her time at Peggy's house, Perry started coming by every day after his work at the clinic. He brought Peggy's favorite foods: pulled pork sandwiches with the sweet sauce (not the hot) from Lenny's Barbecue, fried chicken from the Sportsman's Grill, and, once, a bag of tomatoes from the garden he'd planted in his backyard.
Laurel had opened the bag and was hit with the smell of sun and dirt that always accompanies fresh-picked tomatoes. They were at their absolute peak, bright red, and so full of juice it felt like it was going to burst through the skin when she touched them. She put down the bag and started out the kitchen door. “Don't you do a thing with those,” she said over her shoulder to Peggy's night nurse, who was saying something about a nice healthy salad.
Laurel came back twenty minutes later with a jar of Hellmann's mayonnaise, a giant economy-size roll of paper towels, salt, pepper, and the freshest loaf of Wonder Bread she could find in Brown's Convenience Store.
“The bread's got to be soft,” she told the nurse, who hailed from somewhere up north. While Perry and Peggy looked on in happy anticipation, Laurel spooned up mayonnaise in big dollops and spread it on the bread. She cut the tomatoes into slices, laid them on top, and then she added lots of salt and black pepper—not the pepper you had to grind, the kind from a little red-and-white
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