Her aunt’s cackle of laughter dissolved all traces of irritation.  “Just checking, sugar.  I know how you are when you’re working.  Like a bloodhound with a fresh scent.”    

Jessica knew when she’d been pegged.  “Guilty as charged.  But I know better than to get a late start.  If I’m even one minute late, you and Aunt Minerva will both start calling.”

“Oh, don’t fuss.  You know how our worry bones ache until we see you drive up.”

“I’m familiar with your worry bones.  Too bad there’s no pill for those.”

Opal laughed again.  “I’ll be over at Minerva’s house around noon.  Can’t have a Saturday Beauty Day without you.”

A tender smile spread across Jessica’s face as she imagined the afternoon she’d spend with what was left of her family.  “All right, I’m leaving now.  Want me to bring you anything from the city?”

“Just the things I asked you for last time we spoke.  Now, get a move on.  You know how my sister can nag.”

“Uh-huh,” Jessica replied, not trying to hide the sarcasm from her voice.  “You’re nothing like her.”

                     ***

            “Did Jess say when she’d be here?”  Minerva glanced through the kitchen window towards the street, then glanced back at her sister.

            Opal poured a glass of lemonade and eased herself into a ladder-back chair.  “She should be driving up in the next few minutes.  No need to worry.”

            “I’m not worried,” Minerva protested.  “You’re the one that frets about every little thing.”

            Opal grinned at the private joke and passed the lemonade to Minerva.  “I’ll admit I’m worried about Seth Dunstan.  Do you think we should tell Jess?” 

            Minerva took a long swallow.  “Guess so.  Can you imagine what Jess would say if she found out we knew and didn’t tell her?”

            “I wouldn’t want to be in the same room.”

            “I wouldn’t want to be on the same planet.”

            The two women chuckled, then sighed simultaneously.  “You have to admit,” Minerva continued, “it is unfinished between them.”

            “Perhaps,” Opal answered.  “But the question is, would Jess be better off if they never finished it?”

             “Hard to say.  She’s still grappling with the truth about her mother.  Seth’s return will only make things worse.”

“Can’t protect her any more,” Opal responded in a resigned voice.  “We probably shouldn’t have kept the truth from her as long as we did.  She’s been hurt enough for two lifetimes.”

“Seth’s cousin told me he’d been in school in Kentucky for the last few years.  Apparently, he and one of his professors went into business together, and, according to Louis, Seth made a lot of money.”

“Hmph,” Opal responded.  “Louis Koll is not known for telling the whole truth and nothing but the truth.”

 Minerva pulled back the curtains at the kitchen window and peered into the driveway.  “I hope she doesn’t forget to bring my hair color.  My gray roots are showing.”

            Opal’s dog, a cross between a German Shepherd and a horse, gave a low moan. 

            “Oh, Lord, not again,” Minerva said.  “Opal, do you have to bring that dog with you every time you come?  He expels so much gas it makes my eyes water.”

            “Tip gets lonesome.  Last time I left him, he chewed a hole in his blanket.  There were little pink threads in his poop for a week.”

            Minerva breathed a sigh that brimmed with long-suffering patience and the dog moaned again.  Minerva shot to her feet and opened the window.  “Quick, light the candle on the stove.  No, on second thought, forget the candle.  That dog farts so much a lit candle would be like a fuse to a stick of dynamite.”

            “You said fart, baby sister.”

            “I did not.”

            “Oh, yes you did.  Going to have to put a dollar in the offering plate for that one.”

            “Me?  If you put a dollar in the plate for every bad word you said, the church could finally finish the Sunday School annex.”

            Opal nodded her head in resignation.  She’d lost this argument many times before. 

            The dog gave a piercing bark of warning and Minerva returned to the kitchen window.  “There she is.  It’s about time.”

            Opal pushed herself out of the chair and rushed to the back door as quickly as her arthritic knees would allow.  Flinging it open, she gave a shout of joy.  “There’s our girl!  Get in here so I can give you a hug.”

            Jessica dodged the dog that bounded out to greet her and sprang onto the back steps, her arms loaded with bags.  “Hi, Aunt Opal.  You feeling okay?”

            Opal wrapped her arms around her niece.  “Better now that I’ve seen you, sugar.”

            Jessica stepped into the kitchen, let the bags drop onto the kitchen table, and hugged Minerva.  “How are you doing?”

            “Good as can be expected,” Minerva answered, eyeing the bags.

            “Don’t worry, I brought your hair color.”  Jessica drew out a heavy silver can from a plastic bag and handed it to Opal.  “And I brought that hairspray I was telling you about.” 

Opal adjusted her bifocals and read aloud. “Glamour Girl Super Hold Spray.  Guaranteed to hold your style in any kind of weather.”

            “Any kind of weather?”  Minerva challenged.

            “That’s what it says,” Opal replied.

            Minerva’s attempt to hide her smirk was ineffective.  “I can see it now. Next time a tornado passes through Poplar Cliff, I’ll be seeing my sister on the six o’clock news.  Her house will be a disaster, but her hair will be perfect.”

            Opal cut her eyes at her sister.  “All right, smart ass.  I don’t care how much you make fun of me, as long as I get my hair done today.”

            “Remember the first perm I gave you?” Minerva asked with a chuckle.  “Your hair looked like an explosion in a steel wool factory.”

            “Felt like it too,” Opal laughed.

            “I love the story of how y’all started the tradition of Saturday Beauty Day,” Jessica said as she kicked her shoes off and slid into a chair.

            “It was your mother who started it.  She loved to go out on Saturday night but we didn’t have money for the beauty shop,” Minerva explained.

            “That’s right,” Opal said, picking up the thread of the story.  “I learned to cut hair, Minerva learned to style it, and your momma could do nails as well as any manicurist.”

“I might not be as good as she was, but I’ll do your nails.”  Jessica poured herself a glass of lemonade.  “What’s new in Poplar Cliff?”

            The aunts eyed one another and a curious silence descended.

            “Uh-oh,” Jessica grinned with a gleam in her eyes.  “Somebody knows something and I bet it’s juicy.”

                            ***

            Jessica ran. 

As soon as her aunts had spilled the beans, she’d dashed out the back door and sprinted toward the two blocks that made up the downtown section of Poplar Cliff, Tennessee. 

Seth was home.   

Ten years of wondering, questioning the reality of her past, and now he was only a few blocks away.  She cut across the front of the public library and headed toward the sun-bleached sign for Koll’s Pharmacy, sure Seth would be there.  The last time she’d seen him, he’d been a boy, just eighteen years of tough-coated tenderness.  But he’d been her everything – her best friend, her confidante, her first love – until he’d been forced to leave.

But he was home now.  He’d come back to her.  After all these years, he’d finally come back to reclaim what they’d once shared.  Where had he been all this time?  How long had he been back?

She’d run halfway up the block before doubt ambushed her.  She stopped on a dime and bent at the waist, fighting for breath.  Two days?  Aunt Minerva said he’d been back for two days.

Why hadn’t he come straight to her?  Surely he knew she’d be anxious to see him.  What they’d been to each other wasn’t a dream or teenage whimsy.  She’d loved him and he’d loved her right back. 

Jessica crossed the street and sank onto a bench outside of Wright’s Jewelry shop.  She pulled her white cotton blouse away from her chest and fanned some cool air down her upper body. 

Where was Seth, anyway?  She rose from the bench and took a few steps toward the street, then backed up and resumed her seat.  She pulled the scrunchie from her shoulder-length hair and finger combed it, then smoothed it back into its ponytail. 

This wasn’t right.  He should have come to her first.  After all, he was the one who left, not her.  “The hell with this,” she muttered under her breath.  “If he wants to see me, he knows where to find me.”

Jessica jumped to her feet, determined to reclaim her dignity, but she’d only taken a few steps before she changed her mind again.  It was Seth.  Her Seth.  Surely he couldn’t have forgotten what they’d been to each other.  With a sigh of frustration, she returned to the bench.

“What in the world is wrong with you, girl?”

Jessica twisted to see her former high school English teacher, Mrs. Wright.  “Hi, Mrs. Wright.  Nice to see you.”

The older lady, as solid in body as she was in her knowledge of grammar, smiled at Jessica.  “How are things in the big city?”

“Fine, thank you.”

“And your aunts?  How are they?”

“Fine.  Everybody’s just fine.”

“Scoot over.”  Mrs. Wright settled her ample hips on the bench leaving Jessica no choice in the matter. “Now, what’s going on?  I’ve been watching you for the last few minutes and you’re jumpier than a frog in a hot skillet.  Something wrong?”

“No, ma’am.”  From the corner of her eye, Jessica saw someone exit the pharmacy and her head swiveled toward the door.

“Are you looking for someone special?” Mrs. Wright asked.

“No, ma’am.  I’m just…uh…”

Louis Koll strode out of the pharmacy and headed towards the bench where Jessica sat.  Should she stay there and wait for whatever it was he had to say, or bolt the way her nerves wanted her to do? 

“Morning, ladies,” Louis greeted them, as if there were nothing special about the day.

“Morning, Louis,” Mrs. Wright answered.  “How are you today?”

“Fine, just fine,” he said as he sauntered by.

Jessica watched his back as he disappeared down the block.  The look she gave Mrs. Wright was pure befuddlement. 

“Now, Jessica.  What’s this all about?”

An unspoken answer flitted through Jess’s mind.  My first love was run out of town and I never heard a word from him for ten years and now he’s back but I don’t know if he wants to see me because if he did want to see me wouldn’t he have already come by my aunt’s house or found me in Chattanooga because I know he’s back but even his cousin doesn’t seem to want to tell me about it because he just walked past me like I was selling snake oil. 

But the thought remained unspoken.  Not only was Mrs. Wright not a close friend, Jessica feared her former teacher would chastise her for the run-on sentence.  Instead she said, “I just came into town to get something for Aunt Minerva, but, silly me, I forgot my money.  Guess I’ll just walk on back to her house.  Nice to see you, Mrs. Wright.”

Jessica gave her a small wave and set off in the direction from which she’d come.  Halfway down the block, she darted into the ice cream shop.  A few minutes, she told herself.  A few minutes to gather her thoughts and then she’d either go back to her aunts or forward toward Seth.

“May I help you?”

Just her luck the shop was empty.  Hard to hide in an empty shop and hard to buy an ice cream cone when all you have is a smile. 

“May I have a glass of water?” Jessica asked.

“Water?”

“Yes, please.”

The teenaged boy rolled his eyes and gave Jessica a conical paper cup filled with cool water.  “Want some ice cream with that?”

“No,” she answered.  “Not today.”  She stared at the boy across the freezer.  “May I have some more?”

“More water?  Guess so.”  He refilled the cup and Jessica took it to a small table near the window.

Surely, she was the queen of fools.  One mention of Seth being back in town and she’d bolted from her aunt’s house, her legs running toward him as if they had a will of their own.  How she wanted to touch him again, to prove he was real, to wrap her arms around him and hold on until she was sure he wouldn’t disappear. 

But then doubt had overruled her heart. 

Ten years was a long time.  God knew how much a person changed from seventeen to twenty-seven.  She was evidence of that.  And Seth?  What if she didn’t even recognize him?

She shook her head to clear it.  Of course she’d recognize Seth.  Dark wavy hair that never looked combed, his clear gray eyes, the crescent-shaped scar under his left eye.  The image she carried in her heart was as strong as ever.  She could close her eyes and remember him in a thousand different settings – walking home from school, studying in Aunt Minerva’s kitchen, kissing her in the moonlight.

Jessica lowered her head onto the cool metal table and closed her eyes.  The nerve of him.  The dozens of letters she’d sent that first year had all been returned unopened, the personal notices she’d run in the big city newspapers had all been fruitless, the internet searches had all been dead ends.  And all that time, he’d been only one state away.      

Ten years.  Ten years of worry, grief, and resignation.  She’d loved him with all the innocence and fervor of a seventeen-year-old heart, then lost him for ten years.

How dare he come back and not come immediately to her?  “I’ll be damned if I’m going to chase after him,” Jessica muttered as she shot to her feet.

“Need something?” the teenager asked.

“No,” Jessica answered, her voice only a few degrees shy of strident.  “I don’t need a damn thing.”

                     ***

            Louis sauntered through the back door of the pharmacy and into his small office.  “Here you go, Seth.  One freshly pressed suit from the dry cleaners.”

            Seth took the plastic-wrapped package and smiled easily at his cousin.  “Thanks.  But I could have gotten it myself.”

            Louis sank into a chair behind his cluttered desk.  “If you’re really going to go through with your plan to surprise Jessica, then it’s a good thing you didn’t go.  I saw her right across the street.”

            Seth shot out of the office and headed toward the front of the store.  “Is she still there?”

            “Hold on,” Louis called after him.  “She isn’t there now.  She’s probably at her aunt’s house.  Maybe you should give her a call.”

            Seth stopped for a few seconds while he thought it over, then returned to Louis’s office.  “No, I don’t think so.  I’ve waited this long to see her, I can wait two more days.”

            Louis examined Seth with a concerned look.  “Have you really thought this over?”

            A confident grin lit Seth’s face as he sank into the metal chair across from Louis’s desk.  “Are you kidding?  That’s all I’ve thought about the last six months.”

            “Well, it’s up to you I suppose.  But think about it from Jessica’s perspective.  The shock of seeing you after so long is going to be hard on her.”

            Seth stretched out his long legs and used one hand to wave away Louis’s concerns.  “You worry too much, Louis.  I know she’ll be glad to see me.  We’ve got a lot of unfinished business to talk about.”

            Louis folded his hands on his desk and leaned closer to Seth.  “How are you going to explain not getting in touch with her?  Ten years is a long time to go without even a phone call.”

            Seth nodded in agreement and his voice softened.  “I know.  For the first month, I thought about calling her every day.  I must have written hundreds of letters but I threw each one of them away.”

            “Why?”

            “To tell you the truth, Louis, I was ashamed.”  Seth glanced at his cousin, expecting censure, but saw only patient sympathy.  He blew out a long breath and continued.  “I used to write Jess, tell her how much I missed her, and once I asked if her family could help me.  Then I realized that only a loser would whine like that.” 

            Louis picked up a pencil from his desk and fingered it, not able to look at Seth.  “I sure wish I could make it up to you.  That was an awful thing my wife did.  I’m still working on forgiving her.”

            Seth shrugged off the apology.  “It doesn’t matter now.  Besides, if Eunice hadn’t hated me so much, I might never have gone to Louisville.  Getting away from Poplar Cliff made everything possible.”

            Louis met Seth’s eyes.  “A man like you would have found a way to make his dreams come true.  You did all right for yourself.”

            Seth nodded and smiled broadly.  “Damn straight.  I can’t wait to surprise Jess with the news.”

            “You think it will matter to her?”

            “Probably not, but it matters to me.  There was no way I’d come back until I could show Jess, and everyone else, that I’d made a success of myself.”

Louis was quiet for a moment, letting Seth savor the moment.  When he spoke, his voice was quiet and careful.  “I know this might not be any of my business, but these last ten years haven’t been all fun and games for Jess either.”

            Seth straightened in his chair.  “What do you mean?  You told me she’d gone to law school and was working in Chattanooga.”

            “Yeah, she got through law school, passed the bar exam on her first try, and got a good job.  But that’s not all there is.”

            Seth leaned over the edge of Louis’s desk.  “What are you talking about?”

            “Remember how we all believed that Jess’s parents died in a car accident?”

            “Yeah.”

            “Seems like that wasn’t the whole truth and nothing but the truth.”

            When was Louis going to get to the point?  “Go on,” Seth prodded.

            Louis tapped the pencil on the desk to stress his words.  “What I know is mostly rumor, but I heard that there never was a car accident.  Seems as though Jess’s aunts made up that story to keep her from knowing a bitter truth.”

            “Such as?”

            Louis’s voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper.  “I haven’t been able to find out the details.  But a few years ago, Jess disappeared from Poplar Cliff.  I asked Miss Minerva what was going on, and she said that Jess was too busy with her new job to come home.  But if you ask me…”  Louis raised his head to check for unwanted listeners.

            “Go on,” Seth urged.

            “Well, if you ask me, Jess found out the truth and it made her so mad she cold-shouldered her aunts for quite a while.”

            Seth frowned in confusion.  “That doesn’t sound like Jess.  She loves those two old women.”

            “That’s what I mean.  It must have been something awful for her to react the way she did.”

            “That’s all you know?”

            “That’s it.”

            Seth visibly relaxed into his chair and crossed his arms in front of his chest.  “Hell, Louis.  You got me all concerned over nothing.  She’s all right now, isn’t she?”

            Louis shrugged.  “Guess so.”

            “I’ll see for myself on Monday morning.  You’ll see.  Everything will be perfect.”

                             ***

            “Morning,” Jessica mumbled as she strode into her office at Dunlavy and Webster, Attorneys at Law.

            “Good morning,” her assistant, Irma, answered.  “How was your weekend?”

            “What’s on the schedule for today?”

            Ignoring the fact that Jessica hadn’t answered her question, Irma replied, “You have a 9:30 appointment with a new client and a lunch meeting with Justin Fowles.”

            “I remember.  Dr. William Ely of Louisville.  He wanted to meet with me about drawing up a partnership agreement for his new business.”

            Irma glanced at the appointment book in her hand.  “Right, but there’s been a last minute change.  Instead of Dr. Ely, his associate is coming.”

“His associate?”

“Yes.  Someone called Seth Dunstan of Ely and Dunstan Enterprises.”

            Jessica’s heart skipped a beat and her throat ached from the breath fighting to get out.  Seth was coming to her office.  She struggled to make her voice approximate normal.  “Do you know anything about this Mr. Dunstan?”

            “Not a clue.”

            Jessica took a bottle of water from the mini-fridge beside her desk, opened it and drank deeply.  “Why the change?”

            “Don’t know.   When the receptionist called to confirm the appointment, she was told that Seth Dunstan would be coming instead of Dr. Ely.”

            Jessica glanced at the clock on her computer screen.  Eight forty-five.  She had only minutes to get herself under control and prepare to see Seth.

            “How were the aunts?” Irma asked.

            “What?” 

            “Your aunts.  Were they doing okay?”

            “Y-yes.  Thanks.  Everybody’s fine.  Will you see what you can find out about the new client before nine-thirty?”

            “Sure,” Irma answered as she stepped away from Jessica’s desk.  “Can I get you anything?”

            “What?  Oh, no.  Thanks anyway.  I’m fine.”

            Irma’s frown made it clear she didn’t believe Jessica.  “Uh-huh.  I’ll get you some chamomile tea.  That’s supposed to induce a sense of calm.”

            Jessica watched the door close behind Irma and blew out the breath she’d unconsciously been holding.  Seth Dunstan, in her office, in forty-five minutes.  It would take more than chamomile tea to calm her down.

            So that was his plan - to surprise her at work.  That would be a surprise all right.  The kind that induced heart attacks.  Jessica crossed her office to the closet and regarded her face in the mirror that hung inside the door.  Hair was okay, makeup could use some freshening.  She was reapplying her lipstick when Irma entered with an armful of files.

            “Everything all right?” Irma’s concern was etched on her face.

            “Fine.”

            “You’re sure?  I’ve been working with you for two years and I’ve never seen you this nervous about a new client.”

            “I’m fine.  Just fine.  Did you find out anything?”

            “No, not yet.  I’ll do it now.”

            “Let me know.”

            “I will, I will.”  Irma said as she placed the files on Jessica’s desk.  She closed the door behind her, but not before giving Jessica a worried look.

            Jessica sank into her desk chair.  Of all the ways to start a Monday morning.

            Seth.  First he’d come back to Poplar Cliff, now he was minutes away from showing up in her office.  Why hadn’t he at least warned her; a friendly email or phone call?     

            All of Jessica’s questions were about to be answered.  In a few minutes, Seth Dunstan would walk into her office.  She tried to prepare herself.  Even though she’d never forgotten him, never stopped loving him, it didn’t mean he felt the same.  Maybe he had another reason for the appointment.  Maybe he just needed a lawyer.

            The ring of her phone startled her out of her worries.  A quick glance showed her that Irma was on the line.

            “Yes?”

            “Your nine-thirty appointment is downstairs.”

            “But…he’s early.  It’s only nine o’clock.”

            “Want me to have him wait?”

            Yes, Jessica thought.  Let him wait downstairs until she was ready.  That should only take a few more days.  He’d made her wait, now he could as well.

No, she thought.  She wanted to see him, to hear his voice and find out why it had taken him so long to come back.  “It’s fine,” she finally answered.  “Go get him.”

            “Okay.”

            “Wait!”

            “Yes?”

            “Did you find out anything about him?”

            “I’ll send you the web site I found before I go downstairs.  That’s all I had time for.”

            “Okay, thanks.  And, Irma?”

            “Yes?”

            “Take your time walking him up here.”

            “Got it.”

            Jessica hung up the phone and quickly turned to her email to open the attachment Irma had sent her.

                        Two entrepreneurs make big money on artificial organs.  William Ely of Rutledge University and his graduate student, Seth Dunstan, have successfully patented the world’s first prototype of an artificial kidney.  “The keys,” reported Dr. Ely, “were finding the right way to get the body to accept the artificial device as well as a way to internally fuel the device without causing harm to the body’s systems.”  Dr. Ely and his associate are keeping mum on their discovery for the moment, but it is public knowledge that they sold their patent for approximately ten million dollars to Lambert Pharmaceuticals, one of the major players in medical technology.  When asked about future plans, Dr. Ely disclosed that he and his associate would be establishing a research facility.  “We have hundreds of ideas,” Dr. Ely reported, “and now we have the funds to bring them to life.”

            The information was weaving through her brain as Irma tapped on the door.  “Jess?”

            Jessica turned away from her computer screen and looked into Irma’s calm face. 

“Mr. Dunstan is here to see you.”  Irma cleared the doorway and Jessica shot to her feet.