Rachel put her fork down and dabbed her mouth with her napkin. “You want I should help with the dishes, Mom?”
“That’s okay, honey. I’m glad you were able to come to church with us today. Being sheriff sometimes takes you out of services, and I miss you when you’re not there.”
“I know. I don’t like missin’ ‘em myself. And now I gotta go back to the office and make a phone call.”
“A business call or a personal one?” her dad asked.
Rachel quirked her mouth for a moment, then said, “Both, I guess. And no, I cain’t talk about it so don’t ask.”
Her mom’s smile dampened but didn’t vanish. “Aw, then you’re not calling Clark.”
Rachel rolled her suddenly teenaged eyes and whined, “Mo-om!”
Her parents laughed. Her dad said, “You go take care of business, Sheriff.”
“I’m not puttin’ on my uniform and I’m not really gonna be in the office. I just need some privacy ‘cause this is a very personal and private thing. I hope you don’t mind if I borrow your truck for the day.”
“No problem. It needs to be driven and I can’t get behind the wheel yet. Go take care of the adult responsibilities you carry so well.”
“Will do.” She stood and carried her dishes to the sink. “Y’all need anything while I’m out?”
“I don’t. What about you, Janey?”
“We’re pretty low on laundry soap. I’ll give you some money if you’ll—”
“Nah, I got it.” She scooped up her keys and headed for the door. “See y’all in a bit.”
*****
Lana stood. Then she sat again. Then she stood and made two laps around her living room. She strode into the kitchen and grabbed a Pepsi out of the fridge, then put it on the cabinet without opening it.
She stopped and stared at the condensation on the three unopened Pepsi cans already on the counter.
“I’m not nervous,” she said to the kitchen. “I’m terrified.”
She opened the fridge and put three of the cans back in the shelf on the door, then popped the top on the one she’d just pulled out. She took a long drink and burped, then put her hand to her mouth. “That’s very unladylike, you know,” she told the sink.
She blinked and thought for a moment, then decided to keep talking to pass the time before Rachel’s call. “That’s an understatement, too. A young lady of my demographic who was really a lady would be too smart to have an affair with a married boss who’s more than twice her age and who’s politically vulnerable to scandal. If Roger were a local lawyer, or maybe a used car dealer, it would hurt him if everybody found out, but
he’s the mayor! People will find out about me and he’ll never get elected to anything again! It would end his career and destroy his marriage. And who’d trust me, the evil scarlet woman who destroyed Roger’s life and family?
“It has to stop.” She took another sip. “It never should have started. It’s going to destroy us both.”
Lana paced back to the living room and put her soda down on the end table but didn’t sit. “How could I have been so stupid?” she asked the couch. “Marcy and the kids were out of town visiting her parents. The whole office had been working long hours all week and – and that Friday night everyone else was gone. He finally stopped just before nine-thirty and told me to go home. I told him my car was in the shop – it was, too, they had to replace the alternator – and I’d hitched a ride with one of the other girls and I’d forgotten about my car until I picked up my purse and looked for my keys. Roger offered to drive me home. I said yes. I invited him in for coffee. We sat and talked while the coffee brewed and he told me I reminded him of his wife when they were first starting out, that I worked as hard as she ever did back then.”
She sighed and turned to the silent TV. “I think he misses those times with her. She’s so busy with the kids and the house and her charitable work that she doesn’t have much time for him and I felt sorry for him so I hugged him and kissed him and he didn’t let me go and I didn’t pull back and he kissed me and I kissed him back and I forgot who I was and where I was and who he was and – and we never got to the coffee.”
Her eyes misted over and she turned to her front door. “It was here! We were right here in this room! He begged me to forgive him and I told him it was as much my fault as his and we both said it had to be a one-time mistake and it couldn’t happen again but it – I couldn’t – he looked so lonely and he tried to hide it and I stayed late one night the next week and we – we – right there in his office and I cried and he thought he’d hurt me but I told him I loved him and he – that’s when he said he loved me too and he said we were both insane and I told him he was right but whatever time he had for me I’d accept and never ask for more.”
She dropped to her knees and wailed. “I have to stop! I have to but I can’t!”
The phone in the kitchen rang. Then it rang a second time.
On the third ring, Lana forced herself to stand and go answer it. She picked up the handset from the wall as the fourth ring ended.
“Hello?” she sniffed.
“Lana? It’s Rachel. You want to talk now?”
“Uh – yeah. Wait, can you come over? I’d rather talk face-to-face.”
Rachel’s huffed breath bounced through the line. “Look, I don’t want to get any more wrapped up in this than I already am. It really ain’t my business, ‘cept it is because it’s mayor stuff and I gotta deal with him, but I don’t wanna end up as the bad guy or have anyone afraid I’m gonna blab. Best thing for you to do is end this yourself without my interference.”
Lana leaned against the wall and slid down to the floor. “I don’t know if I can. I was just telling my living room all about it and they were no help at all.”
“Telling your – your living room?”
“Yes.”
“You mean like – you’re talking to your furniture ‘bout this?”
“Yes. None of them gave me an answer. They’re no help at all.”
There was no sound for a long moment, then Rachel said, “I’m coming over. You still alone?”
“Yes. I don’t expect anyone for the rest of the day.”
“Just hang on, girl. I’m coming.”
“Th-thank you.”
“See you in – wait. You mind if I bring someone else? Someone who’ll keep a closed mouth no matter what?”
Lana started. “Someone else? Who? Pastor Bryant? No, please—”
“No. Not the pastor. You prob’ly wanna talk to him later, but the person I got in mind can help. Knows a lot about keepin’ secrets.”
She sniffed again. “Well – okay. Just – let me tell her myself.”
“I’ll let you do all the talkin’. Be there as soon as we can.”
“All right.”
Lana hung up the phone and wondered who Rachel would bring. She hoped the woman would be as understanding as Rachel had been. Maybe it was someone who’d been in a similar situation and could help her find a way out.
*****
Lana walked back from the bathroom to the living room and glanced at the clock. Rachel had called over an hour before and she still wasn’t there. Time was passing and she was still impaled and bleeding on the horns of her dilemma. Rachel had to help her! Lana wasn’t sure she could take the stress much longer. It would be horrible to break down crying in the office while Roger’s wife Marcy was there and have her learn that – that Lana—
She put herself in Marcy’s place and tried to imagine the betrayal and pain and shame and emotional body blows a wronged wife would receive. She’d never thought about it before. She was stealing another woman’s husband, something she’d never believed could happen to her. Adultery? Not Lana Lang! Lana was an honest, upright, respected professional woman in the community. She was a churchgoing woman, never drank in public, was never heard to swear or gossip, was friendly with everyone in town. And if she’d built a life with a man for almost three decades and been hit with a hysterical mistress—
She shuddered. Lana Lang was a married man’s mistress.
The realization made her nauseous.
A mistress was a kept woman who lived in a house or apartment where the man paid the bills and bought the groceries and picked out her clothes and was at his beck and call for sex. Lana wasn’t that!
But even if he wasn’t paying her to have sex with him, she was still his mistress. Lana was “the other woman” in an illicit love affair. She was disgusted with herself.
And she still didn’t know how to end it.
A knock on the door snapped her out of her state. Finally! Rachel!
She strode to the door and yanked it open. “I’m so glad you’re—”
Rachel stood at the door with a forced smile on her face. Behind her shoulder, Clark stood there with a similar mouth-only grin.
All three of them stood silent until Clark said, “Hi, Lana. Can we come in?”
Lana backed out of the doorway and turned toward the kitchen. She heard one of them close the door as two pair of steps whispered over the floor behind her.
Lana stopped behind one of the dining chairs and grabbed the back for support. Without turning, she said, “What did she tell you?”
“I told him I had a friend who needed help and I thought he could give it,” Rachel answered. “He don’t know nothin’ past that yet.”
“She did tell me her friend was asking her furniture for advice,” he added.
“That’s what got you here?”
He shrugged. “I didn’t think I could do worse than the coffee table.”
Lana nodded once but didn’t move otherwise. When she reviewed this moment later – much later – she’d probably laugh. Then she’d cry for a long time.
After a short silence, Clark said, “Look, Lana, if this is something you don’t think I need to hear about, I’ll leave. But you’re my friend, and I can tell you’re hurting. I’d like to help if I can. And if you’ll allow me to try.”
Lana sniffed. “And if I say no?”
“Then I’ll still be your friend, just outside your home instead of inside it.”
Lana almost spluttered a chuckle. “Fine,” she managed. “Just – I hope you don’t hate me when I – when you know about all this.”
“I won’t hate you,” he said softly. “Shall we sit down? Might be easier.”
Lana nodded and sat in the chair she held, then dropped her gaze to the placemat before her. Rachel sat to her left, and Clark sat to Rachel’s left, across from Lana.
Lana sighed deeply. “I guess I better start or I’ll have to feed you both.” She peeked up and saw one corner of Clark’s mouth lift. Rachel just shook her head.
“Okay,” Lana said. “I – I’m having an affair with my boss and I don’t know if I have the strength to – to break it off.”
Clark’s mouth opened for a moment, then it closed. His eyes stayed wide behind his glasses. He didn’t say anything.
Lana looked up at him. “I know you’ve lost all your respect for me and I don’t blame you a bit. I don’t have any respect for myself now.”
She sniffled and brushed at her nose with her hand. “I wish I could go back a couple of months and change everything, not let him kiss me, not let myself enjoy it, not—” She stopped and waved her hands. “Sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sure you don’t want those details. Look, I know this is wrong, I know I’m a horrible person for letting it go on this long, I know it needs to end, but I – I can’t! I’ve tried and tried but I can’t make myself tell him goodbye and mean it!”
He sat back and crossed his arms. His face assumed what Lana had always mentally referred to as his “think deep thoughts” expression. He looked around the kitchen, pursed his lips, and made his eyebrows dance.
Lana got up and went to the fridge. She took out two cans of Pepsi and one of Mountain Dew, then put them on the table and sat again. She looked at Rachel and gestured at the cans, so Rachel took a Pepsi and popped the top. The noise drew Clark’s attention and he touched the green and black can of Dew. Lana nodded, so he popped it open and took a long drink, then set it down.
He turned and leaned his elbows on the table. “I’d like to suggest a course of action to you. Whether you decide to follow my advice or not, I will never reveal anything we discuss here today to anyone. You have my word.”
His word. Clark always –
always – kept his word. “Thank you,” she whispered. “What’s your advice?”
“I think you should call in sick to your office tomorrow morning. About nine-thirty, you call an executive recruiter I know in Topeka and tell her you’re looking to move up, that you’ve accomplished everything you needed to do here and you’re ready for another challenge. I’ll give you her name and number before we go.”
Lana closed her eyes and ducked her head. “That almost sounds like I’m looking for a wealthier man to seduce.”
Clark shook his head. “If I thought that was how you operated I would’ve left ten minutes ago. And I seriously doubt Rachel would’ve asked me to come with her. This isn’t who you are at your core, Lana. You’re a good woman who’s let herself step into a bad situation, and now you’re trying to escape it. You’re trying to do that with the least amount of pain to everyone else involved. You’re trying to do the right thing.”
Lana nodded. “Okay. I call this woman, I assume I fax her my resumé, then what?”
“I’ll call Gloria at nine and explain that you’re looking for a new job in a new place. I won’t tell her anything personal about you. I’ll just say that I’ve known you most of my life and any company who hires you will hit the jackpot.”
Tears threatened to spill again. “Thank you. You – I don’t deserve friends like you two.”
Clark and Rachel each took one of her hands. “We’re your friends, Lana,” Rachel said. “This ain’t a question of who deserves what. Friends support each other. You came through for me when my daddy had his wreck. Now I’m helpin’ you out with your wreck. Like Clark said, this ain’t you. It’s why you’re so tore up inside about it. I needed help and you gave it. Now you need our help and we’re givin’ it.” Rachel squeezed Lana’s hand. “We got your back, girlfriend.”
The fluid tracked down Lana’s cheeks and she pulled her hands back. Clark’s handkerchief between her fingers surprised her and she glanced up to thank him, but her emotions overwhelmed her and she broke down.
Rachel scooted her chair closer and wrapped Lana in a warm embrace. Clark didn’t touch her, but he didn’t leave either. He just sat there with his clasped hands on the table and a soft smile on his face, gentle and strong and helpful like the good friend he was.
Lana didn’t deserve such good friends. But she had them and they weren’t going anywhere. She would lean on them and borrow their strength and make it through this horrible time in her life.
*****
Rachel climbed in her daddy’s truck and waited for Clark to close his door before she spoke. “Think she’ll make the call?”
He sighed. “I sure hope so. I’d like to see her get a fresh start somewhere else.” He turned to face her. “And I want to thank you for dropping me into that situation with no warning at all.”
She turned the key and pulled into traffic. “I didn’t want to be the one to tell you. If she hadn’t spilled the beans, all you’d know is that Lana had a problem.”
“A problem bad enough for her to consult her couch for suggestions.”
She frowned at him. “Quit complainin’. Clark Kent got to help save someone today.”
His face changed and she turned back to the road. After a moment, he said, “I’m sorry. You’re right. Superman does a lot of that, but Clark doesn’t often get the opportunity.” He put his hand on hers and squeezed. “Thank you.”
His touch made her stop thinking of Lana for a few seconds, then his hand slid away. “You’re welcome,” she managed. “You want to get an early dinner? Or a late lunch? Or a mid-afternoon snack?”
Clark chuckled. “A meal that comes between breakfast and lunch is ‘brunch,’ so is a meal that comes between lunch and dinner called ‘lunner?’”
She laughed. She always felt good when Clark made jokes, no matter how bad they might be. It meant he was relaxed and comfortable. “What are you in the mood for? We can go to Maisie’s or pick up subs or hit the Wendy’s drive-through.”
He tilted his head in apparent thought, then said, “How about sub sandwiches at the drive-through and we eat at my office? I have a couch Mr. Kramer gave me. He said it came from a dentist’s waiting room.”
“As long as there ain’t no leftover loose teeth in it. Don’t wanna get bit in a sensitive spot.”
He grinned again and shook his head. “I wouldn’t think getting bitten anywhere would be something on your to-do list today. You don’t need any added stress.”
*****
Rachel walked back to Clark’s office from the second-floor ladies’ room with a smile on her face. The half-hour and more that they’d spent with Lana had gone more smoothly than she’d hoped. And Clark’s offer to help Lana get out of her situation had been perfect – he’d set up a path for her to follow but hadn’t tried to force her to travel it. If she really wanted to get free of her situation, she’d have to take definite action.
The early dinner with Clark had been great, too. For Rachel, the day had been a win all around.
Now all she needed was the courage to take one more step with him.
*****
Clark tapped the keyboard on his laptop twice more, then sat back and smiled. His latest travel piece was coursing along the Internet to Perry White’s inbox, along with his mother’s recipe for snickerdoodles and her admonition to Alice to make small batches – unless, of course, she was planning to drop off a basket of them in the newsroom. Drop them off personally, of course, unless she wanted to risk a spike Perry’s blood sugar. The man couldn’t say no to a donut, a fancy cigar, or a plate of snickerdoodles.
The article he’d just sent was a profile of the Grand Canyon in Arizona. The first written references were from Spanish soldiers – specifically Francisco Vázquez de Coronado in 1540 – who were searching in vain for Indian gold, but the accounts he found were lacking in the detail he wanted. So his next deep dive into the reference material dug up John Wesley Powell’s accounts from 1869 through 1872, when he and his party were the first Euro-Americans to travel down the Colorado River for the length of the canyon.
He’d visited the canyon the previous week. A park ranger named Christie Powers provided her account of hiking the canyon and kayaking the river with a group of her friends. Her help had been invaluable and he’d given her full credit in the article, including her admonition to drink a lot of water whether or not one was thirsty. The temperature at river level, except at midday when the sun shone directly on the bottom of the canyon, was lower than it might have been because the flowing water dispersed the heat. Clark had witnessed Christie’s group of hikers emerge at the canyon rim, then had watched every member purchase and gulp a two-liter bottle of water from a convenience store near the railroad terminal. Every bottle had been emptied within thirty minutes. They’d been exhausted and slightly dehydrated but happy.
He caught Rachel’s steps as she approached the open door to his office. As she walked in, he impishly chirped, “Welcome back. Everything come out all right?”
She stopped as if she’d tripped, then sneered at him. He laughed and she joined in. “Good thing you can write, Clark. You ain’t gonna make it as a standup comic.”
“You laughed.”
“Only cause you did. Didn’t want you to feel too bad laughin’ at your own weak jokes.”
“Fine, I’ll keep my day job.”
“Don’t you mean ‘jobs’ as in two of ‘em?”
He sobered. “Yeah, I kinda forgot you knew. It’d be easier to remember if you’d act, oh, I don’t know – impressed? Just a little bit?”
She grinned and sat on the corner of the desk closest to him. “I don’t act nervous when I’m roustin’ drug dealers, even if I’m really so scared I can’t breathe good. Bein’ sheriff’s taught me not to react too much on the outside.”
He nodded. “I guess calm and controlled is better than volcanic fury and accusations of betrayal.”
Rachel sighed and put her hand on his shoulder. “I’m sorry she blew up like that. That ain’t who I thought she was.”
“It’s not who I thought she was either.” He slapped his hands on the desk and stood. “No sense sitting here and moping over the past. Didn’t you say you needed to stop at the grocery store for your mom?”
“Yes, but I – I want to talk to you about somethin’ before we go.”
“Okay.”
“Um – I need to sit down first.”
He started to return to his desk chair but she stopped him. “No. I need – can you sit on the couch? With me?”
He felt himself frown for a moment, then he smiled. “Sure.”
He sat at one end and turned toward her so that his left knee was on the middle cushion. She sat at the other end with her knees forward.
Her hands grabbed each other and lifted, then settled in her lap. She didn’t look at him. Whatever this was, it was important to her. “Rach, relax. Whatever it is, you can tell me. We’re friends, remember?”
She nodded and stared at the far wall. “I – I don’t want to feel like I’m pushing you to do or be something you don’t wanna do or be. I just want you to – to know how I feel.”
Uh-oh. This sounded like – he suddenly wanted to hear her say it.
“I want to say – oh, crap!” Her hands flew up and she reddened. “I’m sorry. I don’t know the best way to say this but I’ve come too far and I can’t stop now.” She turned to face him. “Clark – can I kiss you?”
He sat up and put both feet on the floor. This time he turned to look at the far wall and think.
She’s going to tell me she loves me, he thought. And I don’t know what to do about that. But a kiss? How will it hurt?
He turned back to her. “Yes.”
She smiled and slid toward him, but stopped as their knees touched. Her hands rose and gently captured his face as she guided her lips toward his.
Her mouth was soft and warm and gentle and he lost himself in the moment.
After a few brief seconds, she pulled back. When he managed to open his eyes, he saw her smile. “How do you feel?” she whispered.
He licked his lips and thought, then told her the truth. “I – I’m not sure. I mean, I like you and respect you and I think very highly of you and that was a very good kiss but I don’t—”
She touched his lips with two fingers. “Hush,” she breathed. “Lemme try again.”
Before he could either object or agree, she leaned in a second time.
This one was – better. It was deeper without intruding, firmer without pushing, intimate without stepping over the line. It was also longer, and he wondered for an instant about her air supply.
Only for an instant.
This time his hands rose to her sides and pressed very lightly. When her mouth slipped to one side of his face, he found that he needed to breathe.
She slid under his arm that was against the couch and tightly wrapped her arms around him from under his shoulders. His left arm slipped around her neck and his right wrapped around her ribs. He squeezed very gently and held her close.
They held that position for long moments. Clark hoped Rachel enjoyed the embrace as much as he did.
Finally he moved his lips to her ear. “Is that what you wanted to say to me?”
Her shoulders bounced with suppressed laughter. “Partly.” She pulled back and beamed at him from four inches away. “What I really want to tell you is – I love you.”
He’d expected it. The words still stunned him. And a small part of him wanted to repeat them back to her.
But he couldn’t. Not yet. Not with so much unresolved conflict in his life. He had to explain it to her.
“Rachel, I don’t—”
She kissed him again. It would have been rude to talk at that point.
She pulled back and put those same fingers on his lips. “Don’t say nothin’. I don’t expect anything from you, leastways not now. There’s time for that later, assumin’ you decide you feel the same way. No pressure, okay?”
He took a breath. “That’s kind of how Lana described her feelings earlier.”
She pulled further back and nodded. “I know. Difference is, you ain’t married and I don’t work for you. Y’know, ol’ Roger could get a sexual harassment suit filed on him if he don’t do right by Lana and let her go.” She lifted his hands and kissed each one in turn. “You can’t.”
He shrugged. “Yeah, but you started this. I might sue you.”
She chuckled. “All I’d need to do is get a lady judge, get you in the courtroom so she can see you, let me describe what a good kisser you are, and she’d slap her gavel down and yell ‘Case dismissed! C’mere, you red-hot witness you! I wanna make sure the sheriff told the truth!’”
He laughed with her.
He also thought about Rachel. She was kind, she was honest to a fault, she was diligent in upholding the law, she was trustworthy, she was calm and controlled, and she didn’t demand anything of him. On top of that, she was more than pretty, she had a terrific smile, and she really was a wonderful kisser.
He thought he might be a little bit in love with Rachel Harris. And at that moment, he didn’t know whether that was a good thing or a bad thing.
He did know that her confession of love warmed his heart. So maybe “good thing” would come in first in that race.
Story comments
