True North

Chapter 26

Stormy lay on her bed and stared up at the ceiling, her cheeks still flush with the heat of humiliation. It was bad enough that her father believed her to be some sort of brazen hussy, but to hear him actually say it out loud, and in front of Brian Lozier, well... she couldn't possibly be more mortified!

He all but accused me of having sex on the back lawn, for crying out loud!

And poor Brian! He had been completely dumbfounded—and probably mortified in his own right—by Walter's implication, unable to even summon a goodbye as she scurried past him.

Brian doesn't even like me, for Heaven's sake, let alone want to have sex with me!

Maybe she'd be lucky, and by morning he would forget her father's insolent comment, and all that it implied. Stormy groaned, knowing that he wouldn't forget it any more than she would, and that tomorrow she would have to suffer the further indignity of apologizing to him.

And she was going to have to talk to Gage as well, because obviously this whole 'friend' thing wasn't going to work out.  An innocent cup of coffee plus one chance meeting at a bar, and already the whole town was in an uproar! She had foolishly believed that they could be friends, that they could deal with the situation like responsible, mature adults, in a responsible, mature manner, and everyone would be better for it. But she hadn't accounted for appearances, and the way it would look to those who knew more than she did about Gage's marital troubles, and his supposed extramarital affairs. Civility—a courteous hello on the sidewalk, maybe a polite wave in passing—was the best that they could hope for, but true 'friendship' was out of the question, and Stormy was going to have to tell him that.

As soon as possible, she told herself.

A slight knock on her bedroom door interrupted her thoughts, and she called out permission to enter as she sat up on the bed. The door swung slowly open, and her father stood in the doorway, looking oddly uncomfortable and subdued. Stormy could count on one hand the number of times he had visited her room while she was in it, so she knew that whatever he had to say must be important. She hugged a pillow to her middle and waited for him to speak.

Walter cleared his throat. "I, uh..." he stammered, looking at the wall just above her head. "Brian told me that he saw you last night. Alone. And that the reason you were out so late is because he was talking your ear off about potatoes and tractors and whatnot..."

"And you believe him?" Stormy ventured.

"Well, as far as I know, he's never lied to me," Walter retorted.

Stormy rolled her eyes. "Oh, so because I might have lied to you a couple of times—years ago!—that means that everything I say for the rest of my life is going to be a lie!"

"A couple of times?!" Walter echoed hotly. "More like a couple hundred times! Especially after you took up with that Robichaud nitwit—" He stopped short then, seeming to realize that he was getting off track, and started again with a softer tone. "But that's neither here nor there, I suppose. What I came up here to say is that... I should have taken your word for it. This morning, I mean. About Gage. And... well, I'm sorry."

Stormy's mouth fell open, and for a moment all she could do was gape at her father in shock. Looking back over all of her twenty-eight years, she could not recall even once hearing her father issue a genuine apology, to her or anyone else! Granted, she hadn't been around for the past decade or so, but judging by the way he was fidgeting around at the doorway, looking as if he might bolt at any second, she was guessing that this was a first. She sighed, tossing the pillow aside as she slid to the edge of the bed.

"Will you do me one favor?" she asked. "Will you at least consider the possibility that at some point during the past ten years, I might possibly have done some growing up, and that maybe, just maybe, I'm not nearly as stupid as I used to be? Can you at least try to do that?"

Walter stared down at the carpet in silence, and then finally raised his eyes to hers.

"I guess I can try," he said, then pulled her door closed and shuffled down the hallway. A moment later, she heard his door click shut.

Stormy sat on her bed, amazed by what had just taken place. Her father had actually admitted that he was wrong, and then he apologized! He knew now that she hadn't been with Gage last night, and Stormy was surprised to realize just how much her father's opinion of her mattered. Of course, his turnaround had required an alibi and some corroborating details, and it wasn't as much her word that he was taking as it was—

"Brian's," Stormy whispered.

If Brian hadn't spoken up, her father would still believe that she had been with Gage.  He would still believe that she was capable of sinking that low, and she would still be miserable. But she wasn't, not anymore. Sure, it was upsetting to know that half the town believed that she was mistress to an adulterer, and she was certain that she wouldn't be able to show her face in public for at least the next hundred years or so, but... at least now her own father was on her side. Her mind flashed through a chaotic jumble of images: Tammy's hysterical accusations; the contempt and disappointment in Walter's eyes when he reached his erroneous conclusion of what Stormy had done; the whispers and sidelong glances of the townspeople at the diner; the solidity of Brian's arms around her as his hand lightly caressed her back, the sultry heat passing between them in the places where their bodies touched...

It was this last image that Stormy's mind replayed again and again. Initially, the sublime intimacy of the moment had shocked her, due not so much the physical contact as the emotional; she was ordinarily very reticent with her true feelings, and the ease with which she had exposed her inner workings to Brian was more than a bit unnerving. But he had also revealed to her something of himself, hadn't he? And based upon what he had told her about his own past mistakes, she was starting to believe that maybe things weren't quite so hopeless after all. She wouldn't know for sure until the furor had died down, and that was going to take some time. But for right now, there was one thing that couldn't wait.