Only You

Chapter 13 The Scary Call

Avery thought a moment before answering the question concerning Blake. She wanted to be truthful with Rena and not scald her anymore emotionally. This was tough. Pull the bandage off slowly, she thought. "He's content to be with Courtney, sick of Ian, and would do anything in the world to get your mother to slow down."

Could that even be possible? Rena didn't want him contented. She wanted him absolutely as miserable as she was. God I miss him. Every time their eyes met part of her heart painfully ripped. She would never allow anyone to see her crack. "That's a pretty fair assessment."

"I know you're here for the details, so let me just give them to you. Everybody in this community hated the day that Clarissa packed her stuff and moved it to storage, but we all knew she was not well enough to be in that big house by herself. It hasn't turned out all bad because Dr. Clark pays good rent for that house and that's helping the restaurant. Ian is Ian. Clarissa is Clarissa. You know I don't need to say anything more about that. Eldred is very good to Clarissa."

"I finally figured that one out today. How'd that happen? You must know I was shocked."

"Everybody was shocked. This is what I heard. A lot of women in this town were after Eldred. He was tired of it and had just broken up with some woman. He's always been a friend of Blake's. One day, he called him and told Blake that young women were so shallow; he'd rather be alone. He needed some time to recover from the last relationship, so he left from the Charleston, SC port and went on a cruise."

"Are you about to tell me that my mother was on a cruise with Dr. Eldred Clark?"

"Now, can you imagine why the whole town was shocked? They got off that boat and have not been separated since...and that was 5 years ago."

Rena burst out laughing. This was the most joy she had experienced for a long time.

"My mother would never take a cruise. It had to be something major for her to do that."

"It was major. It was Ian. She took the cruise to get away from Ian and Debbie, because she'd just found out about the second mortgage. She was so stressed that she needed to get away. She struggled for two years trying to keep the restaurant afloat. Then she got sick, and that's when Blake stepped in."

Rena got up and started pacing. "This is incredible. Do you mind if we walk for a little bit. My nerves are all over the place."

"I can imagine that you're all up in arms about Blake, and you know that's where this story is about to head."

***

After Blake returned from the attorney's office he had one more thing to do. He dreaded having to do it. He needed to call Courtney and tell her that Rena would not be able to do the wedding planning, and that she needed to take on the responsibility of finding another wedding planner right now. He knew that would be nearly impossible to do, based on her business needs in Atlanta. They'd postponed the wedding before due to business conflicts and Blake surely didn't want to postpone it again, creating fodder for the gossip mill. There was enough buzz going on about him and the Blackshears. If word got out, they would certainly say that Rena had something to do with it. Despite what he was wrestling with, he didn't want to hurt Courtney.

She picked up the phone on the first ring. "Hey, baby. Glad you could call."

"How are things progressing?"

"We closed on one commercial building and the shopping mall is scheduled to close next week. After that, I will be here getting the contractors and designers in place to do the renovations. This is going to be a fantastic flip for my company. How's everything going in Savannah land?"