Kaye Dacus - Menu for Romance

“I wasn’t famous, Ma. I worked long hours in menial positions so that I could try to get better hours in less menial positions.”

Her eyes clearer than he’d seen them in a long time, she patted his hand where it still rested on her arm. “I didn’t want you to have to come back here. I wanted you to get out of this town, out of this state. I wanted you to have a better life than what you could have here. I wanted you to go away so you didn’t have to watch me become this crazy old lady who drools and doesn’t know what she’s saying half the time.”

He swallowed hard. “You don’t drool.”

“That’s how little you know.” She smiled vaguely.

They sat like that for a while, touching but not speaking, the warm spring breeze bringing the scents of early blooming flowers. Major used the time to compose his emotions. If there was one thing that sent his mother over the edge faster than anything, it was to see him in anything but a completely cool and collected state.

“This is a romantic spot, don’t you think?” Ma asked.

“It is.”

“You should bring her here sometime.”

“Who?”

“Mary Kate.”

He frowned, digging deep into the recesses of his mind for anyone by that name. “Ma, I don’t know anyone called Mary Kate.”

“Mary Kate—you know her. Mary Kate.” She frowned, her confusion and consternation clear. “Mary Kate — The Quiet Man, like the poster.”

He shook his head. She must have decided that if he wasn’t going to bring a real woman here, she’d set him up with someone from one of the Duke’s movies. “I don’t think that’s possible, Ma.”

She shrugged. “She’d come if you asked her.”

“I don’t think I can ask her.”

She patted his hand. “Never mind. I’ll ask her.”

* * *

“...which leads me to my final point.”

Meredith took Pastor Kinnard’s words as her cue and slipped out of the back row of folding chairs. The Easter Sunday worship service had gone off without a hitch—she again sent up a prayer of thanks that the forecast rain never materialized. Now for the hard part of her day.

She checked in with Pam to make sure the senior event planner had everything under control to start the Easter egg–related activities immediately after the worship service ended. Mrs. McCord hadn’t been too happy when she’d learned Meredith would have to be gone for the beginning of the event, but had changed her tune when Meredith told her of Major’s accident and her need to be at Lafitte’s to make sure that Easter brunch ran smoothly.

Meredith drove as fast as she dared over to the property just off the college campus but slowed when she reached the drive up to Lafitte’s Landing. The azalea bushes lining the road exploded with color—mostly deep fuchsia, but some white and some pale pink—which made springtime in Louisiana her favorite season of all. Though when the crepe myrtle trees that shared the sides of the road with the azaleas were in bloom in the late summer and early fall, they were pretty spectacular, too.

Under the tachometer, the SUV’s clock showed 10:30a.m. when Meredith pulled into a space in the shade of one of the heavy-limbed oak trees surrounding the parking lot. Half an hour until they would begin seating guests. Hopefully by eleven thirty, she’d be able to leave and go back to the park to check on activities there. With Major unable to work and Lori on vacation for the holiday weekend, Meredith’s supervisory responsibilities had increased tenfold, but she thrived on it. She just needed to keep telling herself that.

The porters and facilities staff greeted her when she walked into the cool interior of the converted and expanded antebellum mansion.

“Everything looks wonderful, y’all. Keep up the good work,” she called, crossing the ballroom to the kitchen in the back.

As she’d hoped, she was greeted by a dull roar of activity in the large room.

“Civilian in the kitchen.” The line cook greeted her even as he announced her presence.

“Oh, good. You’re here.” For the first time since he’d worked for B-G, Steven’s appearance betrayed his stress—his cheeks red, his jacket damp with sweat, his usually spiked hair limp and lifeless.

“What’s wrong?” Meredith dropped her keys and phone into her suit coat pocket, then stripped the jacket off and stepped into the staff room to lay it over the back of a chair.

“Nothing’s wrong. I just wanted to go over everything with you to make sure it meets with your approval.” He brushed past her into the room to where several large sheets of paper were spread out on a battered table. “Here’s my diagram of where I want to put everything on the steam tables and buffet tables.”

Meredith ducked her head down to look at the sketches to hide her amusement from the overeager young chef. And just so she didn’t appear to be humoring him, she asked him questions about his decision to place the trays of sausage patties and bacon before the eggs, and if he had made labels for the two different types of quiche listed.

“I asked someone to do that. I’ll check to make sure it got done.”

“Great. Everything looks fine to me. You’ve done a good job taking over and making sure this stayed organized and on schedule. I’ll be writing an official commendation for your personnel file.”

He grinned at her. “Thanks!” He swept up his diagrams and swaggered out of the room.

Though still sticky and hot from the early spring heat wave outside, Meredith put her jacket back on before guests began arriving. Even though the sleeveless sheath dress looked fine, there was something about bare arms that didn’t feel professional to her.

By eleven thirty, everyone who’d RSVP’d and prepaid for the first seating had arrived, been greeted, and were now happily filling their plates at the tables lining the long back wall of the ballroom. Jana handled checking names off the reservations list while Meredith assumed the role of hostess, greeting guests before passing them off to a server to be shown to their tables.

Jana confirmed every name checked off.

Meredith came out of her jacket again. “Let Steven known that I’ve gone back over to the park and that I’ll be back before the one o’clock seating begins. But y’all can call me if you need me before then.”

By the time Meredith got back out to the park, Pam had already handled getting the hamburger and hotdog grilling under way, and more than half the crowd looked as if they were almost finished eating.

“Cooking’s going a little slower than we expected,” Pam said, breathless after scurrying over to greet Meredith as soon as she got out of her car. “But everyone seems to be understanding about it, so long as we keep the activities for the kids going.”

Meredith couldn’t find anything to do at the park but walk around and talk to VIPs, former clients, and family friends she’d known her whole life. Before she left, she reviewed everything about cleanup with Pam who, as Meredith had with Steven earlier, humored her.

“Enjoy your day off tomorrow,” Meredith told Pam and waved at the rest of the staff on her way to the car.

Back at Lafitte’s, she went through almost the same routine as before, but this time powwowing with Jana and Steven to see how first service had gone and agreeing to their suggestions for how to make second service run more smoothly.

By two o’clock, tired of making small talk and shaking hands, Meredith leaned against the edge of the old table in the staff room, enjoying a piece of spinach-artichoke quiche, not having eaten anything else all day but a bowl of cereal at four this morning.

“You look like you could use a nap.” Steven slung a towel over his shoulder and stopped about five feet from her, hands clasped behind his back.

“I could. And that is exactly what I’m about to go do.” Though most of the staff had been off Friday or would be off tomorrow to make up for having to work this weekend, as the boss, Meredith didn’t have any such luxury. And with the mayor’s dinner to honor the top students from all the high schools coming up in a few weeks, as well as the Spring Debutante Cotillion the first weekend in May, followed by the library fund-raiser and three of the high schools’ proms at B-G properties after that, she’d be lucky to get a Saturday off to move before the summer wedding and event season hit full force. Of course, once Mom and Dad approved the new third event planner position and she officially promoted Corie, she might be able to get a little more time for things like Saturdays off and naps on Sunday afternoons.

“I think Jana and I can wrap things up if you’d like to go ahead and get out of here.” His eager blue eyes begged her to say yes.

“Since we don’t have anything scheduled here before week after next, it’s okay if not everything gets done this afternoon. We can always send facilities guys over to finish—put tables and chairs up or bring the steam tables back to downtown—sometime this week when we’re not having to pay them double time for working on a holiday.”

“We’ll take care of it.” He reached for her empty plate and coffee mug.

“Call me if—”

“We know. Call you if we need anything.” He swept his arm toward the door. “If you please.”

“You’ve been hanging around your boss too much.” But she obliged and departed.

No more than five minutes after she drove away, her phone’s hands-free earpiece beeped. With a sigh, she pressed the button on the side. “This is Meredith.”

“Mary Kate,” came Beverly O’Hara’s singsong voice.

“Hi, Beverly.” She had to laugh. Major’s mom had taken to calling her at the oddest times the past few days—usually when Meredith was at her most stressed and needed a reminder that her life wasn’t nearly as hard as it seemed at the moment. “What’s going on?”

“Can you come today?”

“You want me to come out and visit you today?” She pulled to a stop at a red light. Forbes had told her earlier that Major had spent most of the day yesterday at the center with his mother, and that he’d been pretty drained when Forbes picked him up last night. He must have told Beverly he didn’t plan to come today, and she was bored.

“Yes. For tea. Iced tea. Not hot tea. I don’t like hot tea. Do you know I burned my mouth on hot tea at a restaurant once? Major would never have served it that hot, because he knows that I don’t like hot things.”

Meredith stifled her laughter. Bless Beverly for keeping her entertained this stressful weekend. She wanted to go home and nap, but she wanted to get to know Major’s mom better, too. Still, a shower and a change of clothes were a necessity. “It will probably be around four o’clock before I could get there. Is that okay?”

“Four—today, right?”

“Four today—about two hours from now.”

“’Kay. See you at four.”

Meredith opened her eyes and glanced at the clock—blinked away the bleariness and glanced again.

“Oh, mercy!” She scrambled up from her prone position on the sofa and darted to her bedroom. She’d only meant to close her eyes for a few minutes after her quick shower; she’d never meant to sleep for almost an hour and a half. Now she had less than ten minutes before she was supposed to be at Beausoleil Pointe Center for tea—iced tea—with Beverly.

At her closet, she let her hand rest wistfully for a moment on the stack of folded, soft, much-worn T-shirts—the ones that had been neglected for far too long in recent months. But this wasn’t a time to dress down. Beverly deserved more respect than that. Meredith exchanged her comfy robe for her best pair of trouser jeans, a sleeveless wine-colored shell, and a three-quarter sleeve, lightweight brown cardigan.

Lastly, she stepped into brown ballet flats before making a mad dash for the car. “Lord, please don’t let her have an episode because I’m fifteen or twenty minutes late.”

At 4:05, by the clock in the dashboard, her cell phone rang.

“Hello, Beverly. I am on my way out to see you right now.”

“You’re still coming?”

Meredith wasn’t familiar enough with Beverly yet to know if her tone carried panic or excitement. “I’ll be there in about ten minutes.”

“’Kay.” The click and silence that followed were apparently the hallmark ending of a phone conversation with Beverly O’Hara.

When she arrived at the center, she had to park at the back end of the parking lot. No doubt most of the residents received regular visits from their families on Sundays. Would she ever become part of Beverly’s family?