Southern Comfort (3 page)

Instead he was a freelance reporter, talking to an eccentric old lady about a ghost that may or may not exist.

Newland shook his head. How had his life slipped into this?

• • •

Natalie enjoyed her convertible, probably more than she should. But she loved to ride with the top down and the wind blowing her hair. Okay, so her hair was usually put up in a tidy bun, but she still enjoyed it.

And today was no different. It was warm outside, and she had turned on the air in her car to cool her while she enjoyed the sun and the wind.

She pulled up in front of the apartment she shared with her sixteen-year-old brother Aubie. She knew he hated the place. But she liked it. He thought they should move on up and buy a house in town, but the apartment was just perfect as far as she was concerned. She grabbed Oskar’s leash and led him out of the car and down the sidewalk. She rounded the corner to their apartment door and let herself in.

“Aubie?” she called as she shut the door behind her. He should be home by now. “Aubie?”

She headed for the kitchen knowing that as much as he was not the typical teenager when it came to hobbies, he definitely was when it came to food. That was where she found him lounging at the kitchen table, stuffing his face with peanut butter and crackers while thumbing through something on his phone.

“Aubie,” she said. “You need to get up and pack a bag. We’re going to Aunt Bitty’s.”

“What?” Dry bits of cracker flew out as he tried to talk with his mouth full. Another typical teenager thing that kept him just this side of savant.

“I said we’re going to Aunt Bitty’s.”

Aubie swallowed, then took a big drink of juice. “I heard what you said. But why?”

Natalie rolled her eyes. “She’s got some reporter over there going to help her find the ghost.”

“Again?” Aubie shook his head and went back to his snack. “I don’t see how this affects me.”

“It affects you because we’re going over there until he leaves. She can’t stay there with some stranger.”

“Sure she can.”

“No. She can’t.” She said the words succinctly hoping that this time they would sink in.
Nice try.
He was a teenager after all.

“Why do I have to go?”

“Because I do.”

“I can stay by myself.”

“Aubie, you’re sixteen. I can’t leave you here by yourself.”

“Sure you can. My friends stay by themselves all the time.”

It was an age-old argument between the two of them. How could Natalie explain to him that he was her responsibility since their parents were in the Mediterranean, yachting and soaking up the sun on some tiny island? He was her charge, and she would not be able to forgive herself if something happened to him because she had left him alone.

“Go pack a bag, Aubie.”

With all the drama that only a teenager could produce, Aubie stood and flung his chair back under the table, then flounced from the room. He couldn’t have executed the exit better if he’d been a girl.

Natalie sighed, fed one of the peanut butter crackers to Oskar, then let him off his leash. She would give him a few minutes to run around the house before she packed her own bag.

The last thing she wanted to do was stay with her aunt and this reporter, but she had to. Somehow she had been left as guardian of the family, and though the job was full-time, it didn’t pay well in appreciation.

She padded her way to her room, Oskar clicking behind her. She had a downstairs bedroom just off of the kitchen, while Aubie’s room took up most of the upstairs. She figured that was fair since his home office was up there as well. All she did in her room was sleep.

She grabbed her leopard print suitcase from the bottom of her closet, then started piling in her clothes. She had a couple of things to do this week. Lunch with her boyfriend Gerald tomorrow. The town meeting tonight. She tossed in her green silk dress and camel-colored heels. She looked down at herself. Her polka dot dress and red patent leather shoes were a little over the top for a town meeting but had been just right for a high tea …

“Oh crap!” She had forgotten all about the wedding tea. Gerald would be furious with her. After all, it was for his sister’s wedding.

As much as Natalie loved Gerald Davenport, she disliked his sister twice that much. Vanessa Davenport would have her name officially changed to Princess if she thought it would get her further in life. Unlike the Colemans, the Davenports came from new money. Though Natalie watched every penny in and out of the family coffers, her parents treated money much like the Davenports did. Like it was a toy to be enjoyed instead of the burden that it truly was. Natalie spent her days going to fancy lunches, high teas, and meetings of one sort or another as she ran the Coleman Foundation. Their money had been made eons ago when her great-great-great-great and maybe even one more great grandfather, Arvest Coleman, had gone to Texas after Davy Crockett. But instead of dying in the Alamo, Arvest had discovered oil. And in a land that he loved more than Mississippi.

He stayed in the Republic and sent money home to his wife and children. Now, generations later, that money had built on itself. All Natalie had to do was make sure that it went to the appropriate places. It was a meaningless job, really. Though she couldn’t turn it over to anyone else. It was her responsibility to watch over Arvest’s hard work and discovery. Lord knew her parents weren’t going to.

She picked up her cell phone and dialed the number from her contact list. It rang twice before he picked up.

“Hello?”

She almost melted to hear the sound of his voice. “Gerald.”

He was by far the handsomest man in Turtle Creek. And even though the town was small that was saying a lot. There were some good-looking people in this town. Suddenly the image of Newland Tran popped into her head. She pushed it away and concentrated on the man on the other end of the line. He was her type—not tall, dark, and Asian, but blond and oh-so considerate.

“You never made it.” His words were clipped.

“Gerald, I am so sorry. I had to go to Aunt Bitty’s real quick. She had a reporter there.” She shook her head even though she knew he couldn’t see her.

“Is this about the ghost?”

“I’m afraid it is.” Natalie folded her blue dress into the suitcase and went in search of her matching shoes.

“Why is she still living there?” Gerald asked.

Natalie tucked her phone in between her shoulder and her ear, so she could fold her black pencil skirt and white silk blouse. That should do fine for tonight’s town meeting and any other casual excursion that might come up. “It’s not like I can have her committed.” Though she suspected that if Gerald had his way that was exactly what she would do.

For all of his physical beauty, wealth, power, and mostly charming demeanor, his one flaw was his aversion to her aunt. Natalie wasn’t sure why, but not everyone got along with her eccentric Aunt Bitty.

“I was just calling to say sorry about that tea. I’ll try to make it up to your sister.” Natalie managed not to gag as she said the words. She wasn’t even sure why Vanessa would want her there except so that she knew that she had the attention of everyone in town.

“I made an excuse for you,” he said, his voice sounding a little on the exasperated side. Oh how she wished she could look into those green eyes and see what he was thinking at that exact moment.

“I appreciate that.” She worked hard keeping up with everybody, making sure that her parents’ account had money in it when they needed it, that her genius brother made it to school on time when he would rather be outlining new laws for the city council, and that her aunt didn’t burn her house down and blame it on the ghost. She didn’t mind the work per se, but she hated that Gerald didn’t seem to value her efforts at all.

“I don’t think I’ll be so lucky next time.”

“With any luck there won’t be a next time, right?” Natalie said the words with a lighthearted tone, but they both knew they weren’t true. There would be plenty of next times. In fact, her life seemed to be a series of next times, unfortunate happenings, and outright craziness. As much as she tried to keep everything under control, smoothed out, and wrinkle free, it seemed that everything crinkled at the same time.

“Yes,” he said. His voice sounded distracted, and Natalie knew that she was losing him to whatever was on his desk just then. A new fundraiser or charitable promotion. Like her, he managed the family fortune.

“I’ll let you go now. I’ve got to get packed for Aunt Bitty’s.”

“What?” That got his attention. “You’re staying there?”

“I can’t leave her all by herself with a strange reporter. I don’t know this man from Adam’s house cat. How can I let him stay at my aunt’s house alone with her?”

“So you and Aubie are going to stay there so he can kill the three of you in your sleep, is that right?”

“Gerald, stop saying things like that. Everything is going to be fine. I’m more concerned about the family silver than I am a triple homicide.”

“Uh-huh.”

She had lost him again. “I’ll talk to you later, okay?” She turned off the phone without waiting for his answer.

• • •

On any given day, Natalie found dinner with her aunt to be odd, but tonight it was even more so. Bitty sat at the head of the table chatting nonstop. Newland Tran sat next to Bitty on the left, while Natalie was on the right. Aubie sat across from his aunt. The cat wound in and out of their feet waiting on someone to drop a morsel for him to snatch up. For all his pedigree and breeding, the cat was an alley cat straight up.

Being directly across from Tran at the table was a tad on the trying side. Natalie told herself it was because she wasn’t used to having somebody sit in that chair when she ate with her aunt. Truth was she wasn’t used to anybody being in attendance when she ate with Aunt Bitty. For all of Aubie’s talk about serving the community, the last person he wanted to spend time with was his crazy aunt.

She knew he was trying to keep up his reputation in the town. But she thought it would be better served by not separating himself from his only grandmother figure and instead embrace his family. Who knew what voters wanted today anyway?

“Aubie,” she started with a frown. “Put your phone away at the table.”

“Uh-huh.” He didn’t bother to look up from what was coming through. Knowing him it could’ve been an online comic or the city charter.

“Aubie.” She said it louder this time.

“Yeah, yeah.” He didn’t bother to look up from the screen.

Natalie sighed. Was it too much to ask to have his attention at the table?

She reached across and plucked the device from his fingers, setting it in the chair next to her.

“Hey!”

Natalie shook her head. “Eat your supper, and I’ll give it back to you.” If he hadn’t eaten so many peanut butter crackers this afternoon he might be hungrier. As it was, the southern-cooked meal on his plate was much more nutritious than the snack he’d scarfed down earlier.

He looked as if he was about to protest, then thought better of it and picked up his piece of cornbread. He took a bite and chewed, glaring at her all the while.

Natalie looked back at her plate. She was used to such behavior from Aubie. One day he would miss her when she was gone. When she … Well, when she married Gerald she wouldn’t leave; she would stay right here in town. But there would come a day when she wouldn’t be making sure Aubie’s socks matched or that he went to study hall with as much regularity as he did the town meetings.

“So, Mr. Tran,” Aunt Bitty started. “What do you think of our little town?”

“Please, call me Newland,” he said. To his credit he didn’t choke when he had been asked what he thought of Turtle Creek, Mississippi.

Natalie had looked him up online right after she finished packing her suitcase and though he seemed to be legitimate and completely on the level, he was a Yankee.

Aubie checked his watch, then stood with haste. He shoved his phone in his pocket and continued to nibble on his cornbread. “I’ve got to go now.”

Natalie barely had time to register Newland’s bewildered look before she pushed herself back from her place as well. “You can’t even stay and finish your supper?”

“No time.” He threw the words over his shoulder as he continued toward the front door.

Natalie turned back to her aunt and their wonderful houseguest. “I’ve got to go, Aunt Bitty. I’ll help clean up when I get back, okay? This shouldn’t take more than a couple of hours.” So much for changing into something less polka-dotty before the meeting.

“What shouldn’t take more than a couple hours?” the reporter asked.

“Why the town meeting, dear,” Aunt Bitty said. She patted his hand where it lay on the table.

Newland nodded to where Aubie had just made his exit. “He’s what? Thirteen? Twelve?”

“He’s sixteen,” Natalie said.
Going on eight when it comes to video games and thirty on the matters of politics.

“He’s sixteen, and he’s going to the town meeting?”

Natalie shrugged. “He sort of has to. You see, he’s the mayor.”

The mayor?

Newland stood, tossing his linen napkin onto the table beside his plate. He almost felt guilty using the piece of cloth to wipe his mouth. Who these days used linen tablecloths and napkins for an everyday dinner?

Scratch that. He was in the South now, and they called it supper.

“He’s the mayor?” He turned back to Natalie, but she was already striding toward the front door. He gave his hostess an apologetic smile. “I think I should go to this. In the interest of back story.” He nodded reassuringly, hoping she would buy the excuse. This was just one more story he could add to his profile. Small town mayor at sixteen? It was beautiful.

“Go right ahead, dear.” Bitty Duncan waved him away as if she was prepared for such abandonment.

Newland wasn’t sure if she had suspected all along that he would follow behind, or if she was just clueless to the tension that surrounded her niece and nephew.

He gave her another small smile, then hurried toward the door.

Newland cleared the house just as Natalie was getting into some sort of low-slung car. He didn’t know the make right off but it was expensive and seemed a little out of place in this dusty southern town.