The True Love Quilting Club (23 page)

“Sure, sure.” She waved good-bye to Sam as Joe pulled him in one direction and Lois Cheek led her in another.

His parents had updated their kitchen since the last time she’d been in it. But of course, that was sixteen years ago. The countertops were granite now, instead of tile. All the appliances were stainless steel and the walls were a popular shade of fawn, where they’d once been sunshine yellow.

“I like what you’ve done with the kitchen,” she commented.

“Bill got a nice severance package when he took early retirement. We redid the kitchen, bought the RV.” She tossed a package of popcorn at her. “You pop the corn. I’ll cook the candy syrup.”

Emma didn’t mind helping but she wondered why Lois hadn’t recruited one of her daughters. She measured out the popcorn oil and put it in the kettle to heat before adding the popcorn.

“I’ve been getting reports about you from my sister, Belinda.”

“We’re in the quilting club together.”

“I heard. I also heard about the quilt you made Charlie, and I could tell from the minute I laid eyes on Sam that Charlie wasn’t the only one you’ve charmed.”

Emma didn’t know what to say to that, so she concentrated on shaking the kettle so the popcorn wouldn’t burn.

“I want to thank you for bringing my son out of his shell,” Lois said. “I’ve never seen him so lively. He’s smiling, teasing, winking. I even heard him whistling. He was always a guarded boy, and that was one of the reasons I wasn’t thrilled with his marriage to Valerie.”

“Oh?” Emma raised her eyebrows.

“It wasn’t that I didn’t like her or that she wasn’t a
good person. She was. But they were too much alike. Both of them cautious to the point of letting life pass them by.”

“If Valerie was so cautious, why did she join the reserves?”

“To pay her way through nursing school. Honestly, she never thought she’d get called up.”

“She probably could have gotten out of it, since she was sole support of her son.”

Lois shook her head. “Valerie wasn’t like that. As I said, she and Sam were two peas in a pod. When she gave her word—just like with Sam—you knew it was golden.”

“You said their similar personalities was one of the reasons why you weren’t thrilled with his marriage to Valerie,” Emma ventured even though she realized she was treading on dangerous ground. Did she really want to know all the answers to her questions about Sam’s marriage? Why was she getting more entrenched in his life when she would be leaving soon? It wasn’t fair to either one of them. Nor to Charlie, who was getting more attached to her every time she saw him. “What were the other reasons?”

“Valerie was six years older and she was done having children. I thought Sam deserved to have a child of his own.”

“Charlie is his.”

“I know that and you couldn’t ask for a better father. But I wish he could experience the joy of bringing his biological child into the world. There’s nothing like it, especially when you’re married to your true love. And I know that while he and Valerie did love each other in their way, it wasn’t the deep, passionate love he deserves. Valerie didn’t challenge him to try new things.
They never argued. It was eerie weird. Every married couple argues.”

Emma thought of all the arguments she and Sam had had since she’d come back to Twilight.

“A soul mate helps you change and grow, pushes you to be a better person. Sam and Valerie weren’t soul mates. It hurt my heart to see him settle for less.” Lois paused in stirring the candy syrup and cocked her head toward Emma. “I always thought he really married her because she looked a little like you. Petite, red-haired, great pair of legs.”

Emma didn’t know what to say to that so she changed the subject. “I think the popcorn is ready.”

“Yes, you’re good for him.”

“Thank you,” she said. “Sam is good for me too.”

“I know, but you worry me, Emma.”

Goose bumps went up her spine. What was she talking about? “Shall I put the popcorn in a bowl?”

Lois handed her a big plastic bowl. “I think it’s great you’ve put a spring in Sam’s step, and I don’t know how we can repay you for getting Charlie to talk again. But you’re not a forever kind of girl, are you, Emma?”

Emma dumped the popcorn in the bowl; steam rose up between her and Sam’s mother.

“Sam needs—no, he deserves—someone who can commit her all to him, and we both know you can’t do that.”

Oh shit. What was she supposed to say?
Emma gulped.

“As long as he knows you’re just having fun, well, that’s okay. Does he know you’re just having fun? That this thing between you can never be serious?”

Silently, Emma nodded. A roaring sound rushed through her ears. “He knows.”

“That’s good,” Lois chirped brightly. “Because if you break his heart, I will never, ever forgive you.”

Emma didn’t tell Sam what his mother had said, because in her heart, she knew Lois Cheek was right. She couldn’t honestly give Sam the kind of commitment he so richly deserved. Even if she wasn’t hell-bent on succeeding in acting, she had no role model for how a real wife was supposed to act. She’d grown up motherless and more or less alone. All she knew about family life was when she imitated it on the stage.

She went back to work on Monday still feeling unsettled, only to find Nina in the theater singing a ditty from
The Sound of Music
and dancing across the stage like a giddy teenager in love. Such frivolity on the normally elegant older woman took Emma aback. The same feeling of apprehension she’d experienced in Lois Cheek’s kitchen washed over her again. “Nina, are you okay?”

“Emma.” Nina waved her up onstage. “Come here, I have great news.”

Leery, Emma approached. The last time she’d gotten great news it had landed her in jail. “What’s wrong?”

Nina laughed gaily. “Wrong? There’s nothing wrong. In fact, everything is very right.”

“Okay.” Emma folded her arms across her chest.

Nina walked over and cupped a hand to her cheek. “Smile,” she murmured. “It’s a beautiful day.”

“So about this news…?”

Nina looked around. They were alone in the theater so far, but the other actors and crew would be arriving soon. “Let’s go across the street for a walk in Sweetheart Park.”

“Um, all right.”

They left the theater to stroll the park, still adorned with Halloween decorations from the holiday weekend. Workers would be along today to replace the ghosts with pilgrims, the goblins with turkeys. The hay bales and pumpkins would stay. Early morning dew glistened in the grass, and Emma snuggled deeper into her sweater.

“My ex-husband, Malcolm Talmadge is coming here on Thanksgiving Day. To see the play.”

“
The
Malcolm Talmadge? The head of Shooting Star Studios?”

“Yes.”

“Seriously?”

“Seriously.”

A chill of excitement traced over Emma. They walked past a pond. Four white swans glided gracefully past.

“I’ve got a confession to make,” Nina said.

“A confession?”

“I haven’t been completely honest with you about why I brought you here, and you deserve to know the truth.”

Hmm, she wasn’t surprised. She’d suspected all along that Nina had ulterior motives.

“You thought Twilight was your last stop, your only hope for redemption. Didn’t you?”

Emma jammed her hands into her pockets. “Yes.”

“What you didn’t understand was that you were
my
last chance at redemption.” Nina stopped beside the Sweetheart Tree and motioned at the bench underneath. “Shall we sit?”

“Is it that bad that I need to be sitting down?”

Nina smiled. “Not for you. My knees are the shaky ones.”

Nina sat down, leaving Emma with little choice except to sit beside her. A long moment stretched between them, and a faraway look came into Nina’s eyes. Finally, she said softly, “Last year, I was diagnosed with stage two breast cancer.”

Emma inhaled sharply. “I’m so sorry to hear that.”

“It could have been much worse, but I had to undergo both chemotherapy and radiation treatments. The women in this town were wonderful—Patsy, Marva, Terri, Raylene, Belinda, Dotty Mae. They rallied around me. Took care of me. Made me whole again. But it was while I was going through this process that I realized I’d never forgiven myself for something terrible I’d done. And I didn’t want to die without making amends.”

Her words sent a shiver of sympathy through Emma. “This is why you believe so deeply in giving people second chances.”

Nina tilted her head. “It is.” She paused, took a deep breath of the morning air that smelled like pumpkins and the scent of yeast bread from the Twilight Bakery. Overhead a pair of mockingbirds called to each other, batting a melody of songs back and forth across the park.

“Malcolm and I were childhood sweethearts who shared the same dream. He was a playwright. I was an actress. We married and moved to Manhattan together, shared a tiny, grungy apartment in SoHo. We struggled to feed ourselves, but there were parties all the time, people in and out of the apartment. We stayed up late, but got up early to hit the pavement looking for work. You know how it is. We were young
and in love, full of hope and ambition. It was the best time of my life.”

Emma waited for her to go on, watched a leaf the color of her hair drift down from a tree across the way.

“Then I met Scott Miller. He was young, yes, but he was already a director. His father had money. Scott was Ivy League, powerful, rich. He could have any woman he wanted. Actresses threw themselves at him, but not me. I didn’t care. I was desperately in love with Malcolm.”

“I have a bad feeling about where this story is headed.”

Nina patted Emma’s knee. “Of course you do. You lived it. Anyway, one afternoon following an audition, Scott cornered me backstage and propositioned me. If I’d become his mistress, then he’d give me a part that would make me a star. I turned him down. He kept after me. The more I spurned him, the more he pursued me. Malcolm and I were so broke. Although Malcolm had written an amazing script, he couldn’t get anyone to take a look at it. You know how brutal it can be trying to get attention in Manhattan. You can understand the things people are driven to do for their careers. The values that get compromised along the way.”

Emma nodded. Boy, did she ever understand that.

“Scott is brilliant at figuring out other people’s weaknesses and targeting them. He knew I wouldn’t sleep with him to further my career, but he realized Malcolm was my Achilles’ heel. He upped the ante. Sleep with him and not only would he give me the starring role in his next production, but his next production would be Malcolm’s play.”

“
Firelight
,” Emma guessed.

“Yes. Scott loves the power. He likes making people grovel and dance to his tune.” Nina tightened her jaw. “God help me, but I did it for Malcolm, and he never knew how he got his big break. At least not in the beginning.”

“I can’t imagine what that was like. Agreeing to have an affair with Scott Miller in order to help your husband achieve his dreams. It was a huge sacrifice.”

“Don’t paint me out to be altruistic,” Nina said. “I got my piece of the pie.
Firelight
went on to earn me a Tony award and it’s grossed both Malcolm and me millions over the years.”

“So what happened with your marriage?”

Nina smoothed her skirt with a palm. “I got pregnant.”

“Oh, gosh.” Emma splayed a palm to her chest.

“I had to tell Malcolm the truth. I didn’t know whose baby it was.” She took a deep breath and told the rest of the story in a rush. “When I could no longer avoid it, I finally told him the truth. He was shattered by my betrayal and he asked for a divorce. When I told Miller I was pregnant, he fired me. I fled New York, came back to Twilight, and that’s when I had the miscarriage. That day you caught me crying in the church? If he had lived, that would have been the baby’s birthday.”

Emma touched the other woman’s shoulder. “Oh, Nina, I’m so sorry.”

“I didn’t even realize I was waiting for a chance to make things right with Malcolm until I heard about what happened to you with Miller. I must confess, bringing you here was twofold. I did want to help you after you’d been devastated by that tyrant, but I also
wanted to find peace with my past. I wrote Malcolm a long letter. It was the first time I’d contacted him since losing the baby. I told him about you, how talented you were. About how Miller was treating you. About Twilight and the play. About my breast cancer. And I asked for his forgiveness. I’d kept up with what he was doing over the years. Watched his career skyrocket as he turned from writer to director to producer. I knew he’d lost his wife to cancer. That his only child, a son, enlisted in the Army and came back from overseas so traumatized he ended up taking his own life.”

“How sad,” Emma said.

Nina nodded. “Tragic.”

A school bus lumbered by. A man on a motorcycle tooted his horn. Nina waved a hand in greeting. “I didn’t hear back from Malcolm. I took it as a sign he wasn’t going to forgive me.”

They sat there, not talking, the town coming awake around them. Emma didn’t know what to think about the bombshell Nina had just dropped.

“But then he called me last night,” she said, and a happy smile curled her lips. “He’d been out of the country and hadn’t received my letter until just now. He wants to meet you and Beau. He’s pulled some strings, and a crew from
Entertainment Tonight
is coming out to cover the story of you, our quilt making, and the charity auction for our troops.”

“And you and Malcolm?”

Her smile widened. “We talked for hours. It was like forty years just fell away. Unbelievably, the love was still there. I think…” She paused. Her lips trembled. “I think we rekindled a spark.”

“Nina, that’s amazing.” Emma squeezed her hand.

“It’s amazing for you as well. If Malcolm likes your
performance, and I’m certain he will, there very well could be a part for you in one of his movies.”

“You mean it?”

Nina nodded. “But we’ve still got a lot of work ahead of us.”

“I’m up to the challenge.”