Kate Gets Her Man Ch. 02

But it wasn't her ex. A young woman in a SUNY sweatshirt and faded jeans was standing there, holding a huge bouquet of roses.

"You got the right house?" Kate asked.

The girl laughed. "Come on. It's Saturday morning, My Mom got up at six o'clock for these flowers. Only one man she'd do that for. So guess who they're from?" the girl said shoving the flowers into Kate's hands before she slipped away.

There was a card, but the girl had been right. Denny was the only man she knew who could pull off this trick.

"Kate, had a wonderful time - Denny," the card read.

"Mom is Dad here?" Tommy called from the top of the stairs.

"No, it's just some flowers, but get ready your father should be here soon."

There were two dozen roses. It was obvious to Kate what Denny was about. The man was devious as hell. He knew her ex was due to pick up her son. The flowers would drive Tom Senior crazy, but at the same time the news would spread that Denny had sent them, furthering the rumor that she was his new girlfriend.

Ten o'clock came and no Tom Sullivan. It was all Kate could do to keep her son calm. The boy had been looking forward to his father coming to take him out to a planned trip to the Water Park. Kate and Tommy had been to the park several times, but it was a special treat due to the expense. Tom Senior had promised the treat to his son.

Just before eleven the phone rang. As Kate went to pick it up, the doorbell rang. Tommy raced for the door.

"Hello," she said. "Where the hell are you? Your son is waiting."

"New York...well, when are you coming?"

"Mom, it's Denny," Tommy said.

As Kate hung up the phone, Denny came walking in. He could tell instantly something was wrong with Kate.

"Tommy, I'm really thirsty, can you get me a glass of water?" Denny said.

When Tommy had run off for the water, he asked," What's wrong?"

She couldn't help it - she started to cry. It was part anger, but mostly sorrow and self-pity.

"He isn't coming... the prick didn't even try to get here...It's my fault...Tommy was counting on going to the Water Park with his father. Now what do I tell him?" she said.

Denny came to her and wrapped her in his arms. She felt how sure his embrace was, how strong.

"Stop crying...You need to smile for Tommy. Just follow my lead."

When Tommy came back with the water, Denny started in.

"Well you know I was on my way to the water park alone. Why don't you and Tommy come with me and his Dad can drop by when he gets here," Denny said.

"But I don't know when he'll arrive," Kate said, falling in with the deception.

"Just leave him a note telling him where we are," Denny said.

"Ok, Tommy, go and get your suit while I write a note," Kate said.

As Tommy disappeared up the stairs, she said," What happens when Dad doesn't show up?'

"Well he is sad, but at least he'll have a nice day at the park...Now get your suit," Denny said.

It took all of five minutes. Most of the time was taken by Kate picking out her suit. She had two - a blue one piece that was rather worn and faded, and a green bikini. The green suit showed a bit too much flesh and she hadn't worn it since a beach excursion six years ago. She hesitated but took the green suit.

Denny parked in a reserve spot at the park entrance and walked into the sales building. A moment later he walked out with three wristbands. The park was crowded on a warm summer day with Canadian visitors from the North and Americans from the East and South. Tyler was a poor county dependent on warm summers and cool winters to bring tourists, visitors to the lakes and the mountains who spent money in the stores and restaurants. Denny acted like he owned the water park, because he did, at least a sizable portion of it. He wrapped a gold and silver striped band around her wrist which they showed at the gate as they entered.

Five minutes later she was in the women's VIP dressing room. Little individual dressing rooms for those wearing the gold and silver wristbands had been provided. Denny and her son Tommy were no doubt in a similar room in the men's locker room.

Kate realized the green bikini was a mistake the instant she put on the top. When she'd bought it, she had been a perfect 40DD. But no more. Her breasts had enlarged with her constant exercise routine. They pressed into the thin fabric, making her nipples too obvious, threatening to spill out altogether.

The bottom fit awkwardly over her hard glutes. Each of her lower cheeks had a defined dimple. She was showing way too much skin, pale skin, as if from illness. Most of her was a sharp contrast from the healthy appearance of her face, neck and arms, which showed the outdoor nature of her job. She needed a good few hours in the sun to even out her coloring before she would look good. Oh and a new, more modest suit.

Denny and Tommy were waiting just outside the women's locker room. Given the choice she'd made, Kate had wrapped her towel around her lower half, hiding both pale flesh and the miserable fit of her suit bottom.

"Wow!" Denny said as she appeared.

"Please, haven't you any other statement of appreciation?" she replied.

"Sorry, but you know...Wow!" he said.

"I should've brought the other suit," she said.

"Not from my point of view," he said.

"Can I go to the slides now?" Tommy asked.

"Yes, just let me find a place to put our stuff," Kate said, walking off to where the beach chairs were crowded together.

The park was busy and there were few chairs left. Kate spotted some empties on the upper terrace.

"Ok, I'll be up there getting some sun," she said pointing to where she would be.

"Now let me put on your sunscreen and then you can go to the slides," she said to Tommy.

When she had applied the sun block, Tommy ran off.

"Did you bring sunscreen?" she said.

Denny shrugged.

"No, because although you have your suit, you were really on your way to the YMCA pool?" she said.

"So you caught me," he said.

"I was beginning to wonder whether you have the ability to tell the truth," she said, beginning to coat his skin in sunscreen. For a white man, he had a tint to his skin. It seemed to fit with his dark eyes and straight black hair. He was a handsome man.

"Aren't you worried about Tommy?"

The touch of his skin was warm and felt good. She had missed this kind of intimacy. "No Tommy is afraid of heights. He stays to the little slide in the small pool," she said.

There was an awkward pause as she finished coating his upper body. For a brief moment, their eyes met and the longing that each felt was apparent.

"How dark and inviting his eyes are," she thought

He was the first to flinch. "Well let me go and keep Tommy company anyway," he said.

Kate found a vacant chair on the upper deck, spread out her towel, and oiled herself for the sun.

She was working on her tan and lazing sleepily, taking in the sun. Her mind and body kept coming back to Denny Morgan. She had been too long without a man and he had got to her. By all rights, she should hate him for the criminal he was, but there was something innately likable about the unpretentious man who hid his wealth behind his guy-next-door front. Driving an old Honda and wearing clothing that could have come off the rack at Macy's.

It was mostly her body that was betraying her. A need that she had smothered for six years while she healed from the trauma of her divorce was no longer easily controllable. Men were dangerous to her. She believed most women had more ability to handle men. Physically she was the equal in strength and ability of most men, but emotionally and sexually she was weak. What Tom had down to her only this morning proved his lingering power over her and her terrible weakness for the male gender. Tom had reduced her to tears in the space of a brief phone call. All the guilt at what she had done to her son by depriving him of a father, and the shame of being just another abused wife, had come back to her. He had the power and she didn't.

She had said 'Never again!' and that was why Dennis Morgan - for all his everyman charm and good looks - would never have her. Morgan was just another batterer. He was another man seeking to take without feeling the need to give back, a user and abuser of women. Maybe all men were that way and she had fortunately found out in time.

Kate must have fallen asleep for a bit, the effect of the sun and the lingering effects of her night out. She sat up and looked for Tommy. Her heart jumped into her throat. Tommy was on the high slide. He was waving at her. In an instant, he threw himself down the whirleycues of turns, headed for the deep pool.

She jumped up and ran toward the pool. She reached the edge just as Tommy was thrown off the slide end into the arms of Dennis Morgan. That powerful swimmer made the catch with an ability to move in water the way he walked on land. Tommy was laughing and waving at her, as happy a boy as she had ever seen. Soon the two were swimming to the side of the pool, Denny coaching Tommy's every stroke like some over-protective father.

"What were you doing on the high slide," Kate asked, bending down to the pool edge.

"Oh well, you see Denny was afraid so I had to hold his hand going up the first time. And well, after that he is kind of old so he stayed down the bottom," Tommy said.

Denny was smiling like the cat that ate the canary. Kate gave him a dirty look but leaned in a little too close. In an instant, he grabbed her and pulled her in. The water was cold and took her breath away. She tried to fight back against Denny. On land, she would have had the advantage, she was taller with muscles strengthened with deliberate purpose. She had taught self-defense and had a good knowledge of martial arts

In the water, Kate could swim, but not like Denny. He handled her like a child and she ended grabbing him around the neck and holding on for dear life.

"Give-up," he said

"Never!"

"Come on, I want to go on the slide," Tommy said, pulling at them.

They spent the rest of the day together in and around the water. About four they decided it was time to get something substantial to eat. They had skipped lunch and all were hungry. As they headed out of the park, Kate realized it had been a long time since she and Tommy had had such a fun day.

Mama Lupe's was a barn turned into a restaurant. The walls of a modest old cow barn had been blown out into a great circular roofed porch. The building showed Belle Claire's architectural flare. The old barn's footprint was the kitchen. This was encircled by a bar complex and around this the restaurant spread out beneath its great sloping roof.

Denny was treated like a returning monarch. The wait staff all knew him. The place was crowded with a mix of tourists and locals. But there was never any question that a table would be found for Denny. No less a personage than Mama Lupe herself greeted them as they were seated. She was a big black woman, her short helmet of hair entirely gray. She hugged Denny to herself like he was a little boy.

"What this I hear? You no sooner free of the skinny white woman then you take up with Xena Warrior Princess. You break Mama Lupe's heart yet again!" Mama said, a big broad smile gracing her face.

Turning to Kate she said, "How is ya child, nice to meet ya. You's one lucky woman."

Introductions were made all around and they settled down to eat three of Mama's special burgers served with plates of homemade fried potatoes and onion rings. Nothing tasted as you would expect it to. The food was hot and sweet at the same time. The burger meat had a deep rich flavor. The restaurant was popular for a reason.

"Did you use the same architect for this place as Belle Claire?" Kate asked.

Denny put down his burger and thought a moment. He looked around.

"Yes, I guess we did," he said.

"The story I hear was that Mama use to work at a diner along the Interstate when one day she just opened this restaurant. Funny how people find opening a restaurant so easy in this County," she said.

"Did you ever wonder what it was like to grow a potato?" he asked. "You spend a fortune on fertilizer and pesticide not to mention seed potatoes. You face drought and the potato blight and when the crop in finally sold it goes to a broker who pays you one tenth of what the potatoes bring in the market. The same holds for everything on this table."

"And the point is?"

"What is money for if it doesn't help people? So Mama opens her restaurant and everything on her table is local. No middle man to take the farmer's profit or overcharge her. Yes, we're still not rich, but there is enough to go around. Why do you care that the money for the restaurant came from a sleazy bar on the wrong side of town?"

At that moment a grandmotherly woman appeared. She was Nancy Sommers, the director of the YWCA's children's day care center.

"Denny I am so glad I saw you. I know your note said not to mention the check, but I just can't let it go. I have to thank you," Nancy said.

"Please, it was nothing," Denny said, looking both embarrassed and nervous.

"I know that seventy- five thousand dollars means very little to a man like you, but to the daycare, the kids, and their mothers it was truly God sent. Almost a miracle! We would have closed without it. You can ask Kate here what the center means. Tommy use to come when he was smaller." Nancy turned to Kate for confirmation of the Daycare center's value. This was true - the low-cost Daycare had been a godsend when she had first arrived with a small child in Tyler County. Many women depended on it and the sacrifices that Nancy Somers and her staff made to keep the cost down.

"Well I'm happy that the money...that was just lying around went to a good purpose," Denny lied.

Kate knew the moment the sum was mentioned where it had come from, Denny's new car fund. It was why he still drove the battered old Honda, but it was also apparently the reason the daycare still functioned.

"Well we appreciate it and I want you to know how much good you have done," Nancy said giving his shoulder a squeeze before walking away.

"It would serve you right if I went after that woman and told her that you used the money you were saving for a new car. That yes it did mean something to you, but her Daycare center meant more." Kate said this as she reached her hand across the table and placed it on top of his.

She didn't mean for other's to see, but they did and heads nodded knowingly.

______________________________________________________

Sunday morning Kate took her son to church. She never went Saturday evening, and she never attended the big new modern church in the new development. The diocese had closed all the older churches, but St Thomas's had been kept open by the Newman Society to serve the University Community.

Father Stevenson conducted the morning services. He was a man of late middle age. He had no opinions on birth control, abortion, or divorce. He preached each Sunday on tolerance and loving your neighbor. He was exactly the priest a divorced single mother needed.

The little nineteenth chapel was principally run by co-eds from the University. The girls cleaned it, served at the mass, and took the collection. They ran the Sunday school and served coffee and cakes after the service. Father said that he could not have functioned without them. This Sunday they were watching Tommy so his mother could talk over a problem with Father Stevenson.

Kate and her priest sat in the little office in the building behind the church.

"What can I do for you?" The Priest asked.

"I have a problem. I need for someone to tell me how a good man can do something terrible without the slightest bit of remorse," Kate said.

"Yes Denny Morgan is a puzzle," the Priest said.

"You've heard."

"Of course, it's the first topic of conversation. The outsider Sheriff's deputy and the town's favorite son make interesting conversation."

"It's not all true or mostly not true...It's just that I'm having these feelings and I need help," she said.

"I came from Boston originally, but I've been here a few years. Maybe it's my occupation or just my natural inclination, but I tend to remember the actual events, not what most people choose to remember," he said.

"What do you mean?" she said.

"Well take Denny. Most people remember the bright and happy kid. The young man who seemed to have the Midas touch. Yet his steelworker father died before he was five, a bridge accident I believe. I recall that his sister Ellen was the high school valedictorian. She was the girl with the bright future and a hovering mother who saw nothing as too good for her blue-eyed daughter. The son was the failure, the swimmer who missed the cut.

"Ellen went to an Ivy League College, I forget which. She attended medical school, but when her mother became sick, that was her brother's problem. When the mother died Ellen appeared briefly, oversaw the sale of the family home, took her share, and left her college-age brother to fend for himself as best he could. You see, Ellen had no use for her brother or the rest of the Morgan clan. They are a big but poor family. I believe she referred to them as trailer trash."

"You're saying he had a hard life," she said.

"No, I'm just remembering the facts. You must judge for yourself. His first wife was a pretty petite girl. I remember her as a few years younger than Denny, and maybe a person who was a bit immature. However, they were very much in love. Two people that made you smile when you saw them walking down the street holding hands.

"He was right out of law school and struggling to make their living. She took a job at the University as a secretary in the Anthropology Department. The man was visiting faculty from the West Coast. A big University put him on sabbatical for a year. Rumor said there was some scandal. They needed him gone for a while. The School here treated him like a prince. He was the big man from a big school.

"That professor was handsome enough, and he had sophistication I guess. Whatever it was, Denny's wife took up with him and left for California after the divorce. It seemed to me that the real Denny disappeared then and the current incarnation appeared.

"I'm not saying this is a bad thing. Five years ago when the roof blew off the Church during a winter storm, I spent a morning walking around in a hopeless fog. In the afternoon, the men and materials appeared to put on the roof. No payment needed, all taken care of by Denny Morgan."

"You haven't answered the question, Father. How could the man who fixed the Church roof and kept the Daycare open brutally rape his wife?" She said.

"Most people do not believe he did. Some do believe it but see the act as justified. I fear you fall into a small minority who believe he did it and should be punished. You must be in a difficult place because you are naturally attracted to his goodness. But repelled by the dark place that may lurk within." As he said this he put his arm around Kate and began to pray.

"Hail Mary, full of grace. Our Lord is with you.

Blessed are you among women,..."

_____________________________________________________________

"You sure had me fooled," Jim Lefave said.

"What are you talking about?" Kate demanded

"You and Denny Morgan," he said.

It was Monday morning and she was at work. Everyone was looking at her funny.

"Look you don't know what you are talking about. I was out this weekend with Dennis Morgan, but that is as far as it goes. We are not together. I'm not romantically involved with him," she said loud enough for others to hear.

"Well I hear different and from a reliable source," Jim said.

"Who would that be?"

Karen got it direct from Alice Dupree, Dan Dupree's wife, and he is the cook at the Montague," Jim said.