Sarah rubbed her forehead.“Milly, I’m not discussing this.”
As though Sarah hadn’t spoken, Milly straightened the table’s salt-and-pepper shakers.“Like I said, Ben’s a hot guy.Gobs of testosterone in that one, I’m betting.Glad he didn’t jump you.So, was he gentle, then?”
Sighing in defeat, Sarah guessed that she would have to at least say something to shut the other woman up.“Yes, he was gentle.”She hesitated, remembering Ben’s careful, respectful embrace.“He was ...tender.”
Milly reared back, eyes wide.“Tender!”
Sarah frowned.“Yes.He was.”
“Oh, my lawd!The man was tender?”Her hands went to her cheeks.
“What wrong with that?”
“Wrong?Oh, honey, there’s nothing wrong.”She picked up her decaf and took a healthy swallow.“It’s just that ...well, tender, now that’s a whole ‘nother pan of wax.”
“Ball,” Sarah said without thinking.She was accustomed to Milly’s mixed metaphors.
“Ball?”Milly set her coffee down.“What ball?”
“It’s ball of wax.Not pan.So, what does that mean?”
“It means...”Milly lowered her voice again, glanced left and right.“It means he really cares about you.I meanreally cares.A man who’s just feelin’ his cream of oats, he’ll just slap a girl with a Tarzan kiss.”
“Wheat,” Sarah corrected again.She looked down into her tea.She loved Milly, had long confided in her, and had never found a better judge of character.Milly was always right about these things.“Milly,” she said.“Ben and I just met yesterday.”
“So?”
“So, how could a man care much for a woman he doesn’t even know?”
“He’s already kissing you, isn’t he?”She tapped her fingernail on the table.“And doing ittenderly.”Folding her arms over her generous bosom, she sat back in the booth with the air of one who’d made a rock-solid point.
At that moment, a woman approached the table, pushing before her a teenaged girl.Behind her lagged a man, probably the husband, turning a tattered straw hat around and around in his hands.Resting in a sling wrapped around his chest lay a small baby, sound asleep.With a careworn face and wearing a plain cotton dress which had seen many washings, the woman smiled apologetically.The teenager’s color was high.
“Miss Sarah,” the woman asked.“We don’t want to bother you none.But—but we was hopin’ to ask you for somethin’.”
“Yes?”Sarah looked up to smile at the woman and the girl.
“I’m Betsy.We know” —she thrust a thumb at the man behind her— “my Virgil and me, well, we know you’ve helped folks here and there around town.Folks that’s in need.”Behind her, Virgil went from foot to foot.
A distant memory surfaced.Suddenly, Sarah remembered the man.Virgil had stepped in to help her father years ago when Big Jim had broken his foot.Virgil arrived to plant the field, feed the horses and cattle ...and would accept no payment.
“You’re my neighbor,” Virgil had told Jim back then.“Gotta help out a neighbor.”
Sarah’s memory of his kindness sent warmth blooming through her.She smiled at him.Virgil was a good man.
Now, Betsy carried on.“Anyway, young Daisy here, our daughter, is wantin’ to go to college real bad.And she got in!Go on, Daisy.Tell Miss Sarah.”She gave her daughter a little shove.
For a moment, the girl was unable to speak.Bug-eyed, she stared at Sarah with a mixture of awe and horrified embarrassment.“I got accepted, Miss Sarah,” she whispered at last.“To the University of Montana.All the way over in Missoula.”
“Congratulations, Daisy,” Sarah said warmly.“I wish I’d gone to college.What do you want to study?”
“Nursing,” she answered promptly, a bit of confidence creeping into her manner.“I want to help others.”
Betsy edged Daisy aside.“See, Miss Sarah, we don’t have the money.Not for Daisy’s first year, anyway.We ain’t asking for all four years, no, ma’am.Just the first year.Just for tuition.Daisy can live with my sister in Missoula, so she don’t need room and board.And it’s just the first year.After that, Virgil and I’ll be on our feet.I just got a job working at the animal hospital cleanin’ cages and the like, so that’ll help a lot.We gotta pay bills first, for the baby.”She indicated the small child in Virgil’s arms.“Our Daisy wants to get educated.Virgil and me, we didn’t do that.For our girl, we’re hopin’ for better.”
Sarah held out her hand to Daisy, who took a shy step forward.Sarah covered the girl’s small palm with both of hers.“Daisy, you’re right, college is important.Are your grades good?”
“Yes, I have all A’s.”She glanced at her mother and father, and they both beamed.
