Only You

Chapter 6 If Only I'd Known

As she walked through the room, her imagination could see her and Blake at closing, cleaning off those very same tables and sliding each other across the wet floor after mopping.  She stopped when she saw the old freezer room.  She'd gotten accidently locked in there one night. When Blake found her, she was chilled through and through.  He held her until she was warm and that was the time they had their first kiss.  The memory of it was slowly making her tingle now.  Just when she was about to take another step she saw a very familiar face.  It was Mrs. Madison. She'd been with her mom for as long as she could remember.

"Well bless my heart! Am I seeing a ghost?"

"No ma'am.  It's me.  I can't believe you are still here.  It's so good to see you."

She got another bear hug.  That's just the way things go in the south.  "Can I get you anything, dear?"

"No, actually, I was hoping to see if Blake was here."

"He sure is.  They're all in the office.  You'll get to meet Blake's fiancé, Courtney."  The look on Rena's face told it all.  "You didn't know, baby.  I'm sorry.  The whole town's been buzzing with the news for months."

It took Rena a minute to recover.  "Wow."

The gentle old woman took Rena by the hand.  The restaurant was bustling with customers so they found the first available table and sat down.  Mrs. Madison was the "mother hen" of the place and the day shift manager.  She always had a kind word or listening ear for anyone that came into the restaurant.  She was an icon in the establishment.  "I feel awful to be the one to give you the news.  I thought surely you'd know by now."

Rena was stunned, but knew she didn't have a reason to feel that way. Blake tried to get her to come home many times.  She knew that it was her choice to stay away.  Blake had made his choice to move on.  She couldn't blame him for that.

Rena knew the answer to this question, but had to ask it anyway.  Having to face the last conversation she had with Blake was difficult.  She was hoping that she would never have to recall that conversation.  "How long ago did they meet?"

"Three years ago.  Her name is Courtney Parks.  Her father is the president of the First National Bank in town and she's a successful realtor.  I certainly don't want you to have any more surprises, so did you know that Ian got this place in trouble?"

"Yes."

"That's when all this got started.  Ian and Debbie were in so much trouble and your mother had gotten ill, she really couldn't manage the place, and still can't, if you ask me.  But she's got so much determination you just can't stop her from trying.  Now I've heard that Ian asked you to come home and help.  Is that true?"

"Mrs. Madison, you know why I left here.  How could I possibly come home?  I'm still angry with my mother."

"When you didn't come, Ian was desperate and he called Blake.  I tell you, that young man left everything and got down here as fast as he could.  When he saw how badly the books were kept and how much debt we had because of the second mortgage, he was so mad at Ian.  They actually had a fight.  It was so bad Ian had to go to the hospital.  He pressed charges on Blake, and your mom made him drop the charges."

"Oh, God."

"Your mother was struggling trying to keep payroll and all the other expenses because she had to pay back the second mortgage.  Blake gave her enough money to last for a few months.  Then he had to temporarily go back to Florida because he was in the middle of opening a new restaurant there.  When he got back, Ian had a better handle on things but it still wasn't enough.  By then your mother was heavy into her treatments and there was only so much Ian could do."

Rena's mind was spinning in a thousand directions.  She was finally beginning to see the cost of her last decision not to come home and she was hurting badly.  She thought about her last conversation with Blake.  She thought about what her mother said about not favoring Ian more than her.  Then she began to remember all the times Blake reached out to her.  Those thoughts were worst of all.  "So I take it that when Blake came back, he realized my mother would need a more permanent source of income.  He went to find a location for the coffee shop, needed a realtor and met Courtney."

"Yes, that's exactly what happened.  Blake decided to open a coffee shop, because he knew that opening a restaurant would have been in direct competition with The Chicken and Waffle Inn."

"He is so insightful and always looking out for everyone else."

"The man has a heart of gold. Courtney got her dad to expedite the loan to Blake to purchase the building.  Mr. Parks gladly did it, because his bank owns the loan on the second mortgage and he was doing everything he could to keep this landmark from going into foreclosure."

Rena took a deep breath and placed her face in her hands.  Every word that Mrs. Madison spoke made her ache.  "If I'd come home, none of this would have happened."

"Baby, we all do things that we wish we hadn't done.  The worst thing we can do to ourselves is not to learn from our mistakes.  Courtney's a sweet little thing.  She makes him happy.  You can't fault Blake for wanting to find a little happiness in life, can you?"

"No, ma'am.  When's the wedding?"

"In two months, but there's been so much going on they don't have hardly anything put together."

Rena reached across the table and squeezed Mrs. Madison's hand.  "Thank you so much for telling me.  Let me go on in there and face this."

"I'm so sorry, baby." 

The thought of Blake being engaged was torture.  It was a painful walk down the long hall. She and Blake had fooled around in this very hall.  As she moved, the walls surrounding the hall were like a movie screen revealing every loving memory and all the heated kisses they had shared. 

She slowly pushed the door open.  The office had been remodeled. Nice sleek office furniture and awards plastered the walls. Blake was behind the door, standing next to his fiancé.  She was beautiful.  Rena's heart sank.  Courtney had long dark hair and eyes as blue as the Caribbean.  Clarissa was behind the desk mulling over papers. She looked up, "How'd you get here?  Why didn't you tell me you were coming?"

Ian had his boots up on the other side of the desk.  She gave him a cold glare and he put his feet down.  "Back in the day, Mom would have knocked your feet clean to the floor, but now she's too weary to contend with you, Ian."

They all looked startled that she was there.  Ian had a wide grin on his face, saying, "This is going to be interesting."

***Author Note***

To: My Beloved Readers

From: Jaspira

Creating love triangles is an interesting way to create massive tension in a story. It forces the emotions to take sides. Who do you cheer for? Is it the heroine or the woman that will unfortunately not become the choice, especially when she did not do anything to put herself in that position. Courtney and Blake loved each other. It wasn't her fault that Rena showed up. Nor was it Rena's fault that she had to come home. Nor was it Blake's fault that he got tossed between the love of his past and the love of his present. Many of you have written me sharing your emotions and I love it. The emotions you've shared are all over the map - crying, sadness, upset, don't know what to think. That made my day. So in a love triangle you can create victim, victim victim and then muddle through to happily ever after for one lucky woman.