Evelyn shook her head. “Well, she’s upset, naturally. Honestly, Riley, what were you thinking?”
“Me? I was thinking I’m a grown woman—a single grown woman, by the way, who is allowed to have a relationship with a single grown man without having everybody in my life freaking out and calling me names.”
“You’re a widow, for God’s sake. We haven’t even buried Wendell yet! And I did not raise my daughter to act like this, going around necking with some man in public at seven o’clock in the morning. It’s indecent. Have you no sense of propriety at all?”
“We weren’t necking, Mama. He kissed me good-bye. It was at the ferry. People kiss each other hello and good-bye all the time. I saw you and Daddy do it a million times, growing up. And I’m not scarred for life.”
“Your father and I were married. And I seriously doubt you ever saw him put his tongue in my mouth in public, for God and everybody to see.”
Riley felt her face get hot. “So you saw that picture, too.”
“I did. And I found it revolting. So it’s no surprise that your daughter would, too. You might not care that Wendell is dead, but Maggy is still mourning her father. I would think you would be just a little sensitive to her feelings before you go cavorting around like some gay divorcée.”
Riley was struggling to keep her temper. “No, the timing of this isn’t the best in the world. But we don’t live in the past. I’m not Queen Victoria, and I’m not going to wear black and hang scarves over mirrors for the rest of my life just because my soon-to-be ex-husband got himself murdered.”
Evelyn threw her dust rag onto the tooled-leather desktop. “Nobody expects you to throw yourself on some funeral pyre, Riley. But I don’t think it’s too much to expect for you to wait a decent amount of time before you start dating again, out of respect for Wendell.”
“Respect for Wendell? For the man who bankrupted me, stole from me, stole from my family, and who, by the way, was sleeping around on me? I’m sorry, Mama, but yes, that is too much to expect. I didn’t go looking to find somebody new. It just happened. And I can’t believe I got this lucky—that this man, this wonderful, kind, decent, caring guy, wants to be in my life.”
“You obviously see something in Nate Milas that I can’t see,” Evelyn said with a sniff. “Yes, he’s been successful in business, but that hardly makes him suitable for somebody like you. You can call me a snob if you want, but it’s the truth and you know it. And have you forgotten how he ruined your debut? I haven’t and, no matter what, I’ll never forgive him for humiliating our family that way.”
“Okay,” Riley said wearily. “I give up. I do. Unfortunately, I don’t have the financial resources at the moment to allow Maggy and me to find a place of our own here on the island. Out of respect for your insane dislike for him, I won’t bring Nate around here. But I’m not going to keep our relationship a secret any longer. I’m going to keep seeing Nate, and I’m going to create a new life for my daughter and me.”
“Do as you like,” Evelyn said, carpet-bombing the desktop with Pledge.
“I intend to,” Riley said.
54
Riley’s cell phone rang, and, when she saw that the caller was Porter Burroughs, she grabbed it. Porter was her longtime agent. The agent she’d been calling and e-mailing for a month. Riley hit the connect button.
“Riley!” Porter’s booming voice reflected his roots in shock radio. “How are things at the beach?”
“Oh, you know, sunny and beachy. I’ve been hoping I’d hear back from you. Getting a little anxious, you know?”
“Yeah, sorry about that. One of my client’s contracts expired, and we got involved in a bidding war. Pretty exciting stuff, but also crazy-making. Bottom line is she’s gonna be evening anchor at the number-one station in a top-five market. And I’m gonna be one happy son of a bitch when I cash that commission check.”
“How nice for both of you,” Riley said, feeling long-dormant pangs of professional jealousy. At one point in her career, she, too, had aspired to that kind of a career trajectory. Now she’d be happy just to be able to pay her mounting bills.
“Has anything turned up for me?” she asked.
“Honey, you know everybody in the business loves you, right? You’ve got class, experience, smarts…”
“And a forty-two-year-old face,” Riley said.
“Yeah. Don’t take this wrong, but one of my clients down in Florida just flew to Mexico for a little tune-up. Fabulous results. It’s like a spa, right? You stay two weeks, get a little R-and-R and some ice packs, and boom! When you come back, you’re ten years younger. Only ten thousand dollars. Think about it, okay?”
“I just thought about it. But I don’t have ten thousand dollars, Porter, which is why I really need for you to find something for me.”
“Did I say I haven’t?”
“Does that mean you have an offer for me?”
“I’m getting to that. You know there’s just not a lot out there right now. I do have an assistant line producer opening in Huntsville, Alabama.…”
“Nothing out of state. Remember I told you that?”
“Which is why I’m calling to tell you about a great opportunity. It’s right near you, in Durham. That’s near you, right?”
“Right,” she said cautiously. “Tell me more.”
“It’s a new concept for that market. A lunchtime magazine format, heavy on women’s interest. It’s an owner-operated ABC affiliate, four times a week…”
“I’ll take it,” Riley said. “What’s the pay?”
“Welllll, it’s not what you’re used to making,” Porter said. “But they’re building it from the ground up, so I’d say if ratings are okay, we can go back and renegotiate at a later time. The main thing is to get you back on the air and your foot in the door.”
He named a salary so low that Riley was momentarily too stunned to speak. “Porter, I can’t survive on that. I’m a single mom now,” she said.
“I thought about that, but we’ll get you lined up to do some commercials, endorsements, and some voice work. There’s actually a vinyl siding company in town that wants to hire you to do Riley from Raleigh commercials. You’d do live shots, travel around to home shows, that kind of thing. Money’s decent. And one of the sponsors for the show is a snazzy local women’s boutique, so your wardrobe is comped.”
“All right,” she said finally. “When do they want me to start?”
“Second week in August.”
“Okay, Maggy’s school starts back around then, too.”
“I’ll send you the contract,” Porter said.
* * *
She fixed herself a sandwich and a glass of iced tea and went out on the front porch to have lunch and compile a mental list of all the things she’d need to accomplish as soon as she got home to Raleigh.
It had been an unusually cool and rainy week, and Maggy had been moodier than ever, bored and hostile toward every adult she encountered. Riley was actually grateful she’d gone to town with Annabelle to see a movie. She was grateful too, that Evelyn, who wasn’t currently speaking to her, was at her garden club.