Plus None 2 (19 page)

“Longer than that tirade you just threw at us?” Jolene asks then goes back to her fingernails.

“Ignore her.” Brook dismisses her sister. “Now go on. Tell Aunty Brook what’s happened.”

I don’t know where to begin, so I start from the beginning. “I met Alex at Paige’s twenty-third birthday party. The fancy one she had in Dallas? I was wearing some heels she loaned me and I fell over. He helped me up.”

Jolene smiles, gossip soothing her pride. She nods for me to go on.

“We, uh, we spent the night together.”

Brook’s interest skyrockets. She leans in, eager for more.

“Anyway, the next morning I was in the bathroom, freshening up, and his phone started buzzin’. He got a text message from Cadence.”

Brook interrupts. “As in Paige’s Cadence?”

“Yeah.”

“What’s she got to do with anything?” Jolene picks up the mug in front of her, taking a drink of coffee.

“As it turns out, she’s got everything to do with it.” I pause, wondering where I should pick up the thread. “Her text implied she and Alex may’ve been together and I didn’t really see how I could compete, so I high-tailed it out of there.”

“You let that little waspy thing get the better of you?” Brook’s indignation humbles me. Cadence has almost always gotten the better of me. I’m supposed to be the tough one. I’m the one from the wrong side of the tracks, after all. But she knows how to get under my skin and I haven’t figured out how to protect myself from her.

Jolene drains the rest of her mug. “So what’s happened in the two years since?”

“Nothing. I didn’t hear from him again until he walked in here last month.”

“Oh honey--” Brook fans herself with the bottom of her apron. “--we remember that.”

A blush warms my skin. “Yeah, well, he caught me off guard.”

“I’ll say,” Brook mumbles.

Jolene shushes her and motions for me to continue. I’m not sure I should tell them about Alex and his deal to marry Cadence, but I’ve come this far. “When Alex came in that day, I thought maybe he’d changed his mind about wanting to be with me. I mean, he didn’t try to get in touch with me after the party so I just assumed he’d only been interested in the sex.”

Brook smirks. “Mmmm-hmmm.”

“Dogs. Every one of them,” Jolene contributes.

“It wasn’t like that. We just have this connection, you know? I can’t really describe how he makes me feel.” I close my eyes and picture his mouth. The way it looks when he’s smiling and his dimples come out. “I hadn’t been with anyone since that night in Dallas.”

A joint, appalled gasp issues from the table. I open my eyes.

“Two years?” Brook asks. Her tone hinges on accusatory, like I’ve been caught stealing from the Piggly Wiggly.

“Y’all don’t need to look so surprised.”

Jolene shakes her head in astonishment. “A pretty little thing like you should be out enjoying life, not pining away for a one-night stand.”

“There are other ways to enjoy life you know.”

“Like what?” they ask in unison.

Six divorces between the three…remember that. “
Anyway
,” I say loudly and move on, “we got together after Paige’s dress fitting and were seeing a lot of one another right up until the engagement party. We were having a great time and I thought he could be the one…”

To their credit, neither of them laughs.

“And then I met his father. He was…not impressed.”

Jolene makes a spiffing noise and turns her head. “That party was full of people too big for their britches.”

“True enough. But he wasn’t the one making me feel bad. It was Alex. He kept jumping in, like he had to defend me because my life to this point hasn’t exactly been one of luxury. It made me feel like dirt. So we fought. I told him I’m fine with who I am and where I come from.”

“Good for you, baby,” says Jolene.

Brook nods fervently. “Ain’t nothing to be ashamed of.”

“I know.” I smile at them. “Sorry about calling us trash. I didn’t mean it. I just -- well there’s more to the story. Cadence showed up while we were arguing and it became very clear to me that there was more going on between them than he would admit to. So I left. Again.”

“And Paige showed up and threw a handbag at your face,” Brook says, keeping up.

“Yeah. She told me something that sort of changed everything.”

Neither of them moves a muscle. Even the tick of the clock behind me seems to slow down.

“She said Alex’s father had gotten into some financial trouble a while back. To dig himself and his family out of it, Alex had to agree to marry his new partner’s daughter.”

Tick…tock…

“Cadence.”

Jolene slaps her hand on the table and sets the cups rattling.

Brook’s hand, covered in costume jewelry, flies to her mouth. “This is just like
Knots Landing
.”

I sit back and let the words sink in. “I know. I couldn’t believe it either. Whoever heard of arranged marriages in Texas?”

“Mail order brides, sure,” says Brook.

“And let’s not forget about poor Desiree Trambeau who wound up pregnant with quintuplets, and had to marry Frank Dunesbury,” says Jolene. “Best case for birth control ever made.”

All three of us nod in agreement.

Brook motions for me to continue.

“Right, well, I saw him about a week after the engagement party when Luke took me dancing. He was there with Cadence and some college buddy of his that’s always hitting on me. I told him I could not, under any circumstances, continue to be with him if he was going to go through with the marriage. I had Luke take me home and I thought that would be the end of it. Then he shows up when we’re all set to go fishin’ last weekend. I nearly killed him with a canoe paddle and we haven’t been able to keep our hands off one another since.”

“Well that sounds promising.” Jolene obviously wasn’t listening when I said I nearly murdered my boyfriend on our family fishing trip.

“It was, until yesterday.”

 “What happened yesterday?” Brook hunches forward.

I pick at the hem of my yellow and white dress. The same one I wore to the dress shop before confronting Cadence. The same one I had to pick up off the hallway floor this morning when I was scrambling to get back to the bakery. “I had a fight with Cadence when we went to try on the bridesmaids’ dresses and I told her about Alex and me.”

“No!” Clearly, I should’ve made Brook some popcorn before starting this story.

“It wasn’t my proudest moment. When I told Alex what I’d done he got all weird and quiet. I think he’s really scared about what will happen when he tells his dad he’s not going through with the wedding.”

“Surely that can’t be the worst thing in the world?” Jolene asks.

“That’s what I’d been thinking, but I don’t know. He seemed genuinely scared and it’s got me scared…”

This is the part I’m not eager to share with my aunts. They’re tough as nails, I know, but sometimes the truth hits you in the face like a cast-iron frying pan.

“Go on.” Brook waves her hand at me.

“We’re not fancy, like his family. Hell, we’re not even fancy by redneck standards. And I’m okay with that. But maybe being with me would ruin his life. I don’t want to be responsible for his parent’s losing everything. Hell, I
hate
Cadence but I don’t want to be the one that breaks her heart either. And…I’ll never be able to fit into the world he’s grown up in. For goodness sake, two-thirds of our entire town is literally on the wrong side of the tracks. He thinks he loves me but when all’s said and done, I feel like I’m just a nobody from nowhere.”

Jolene leans in and places a hand on the chair behind me. I can see every line, every sparkle of make-up on her face. “Now you listen here. If your sainted mama taught you anything, it’s that money can’t buy what’s important in life. I mean, I know your sister thinks the Princess is the worst place on earth,” she says, “but you should’ve seen where
we
grew up. It was a pit, Charlie.”

“A sty,” Brook adds.

“It weren’t no more than a shanty in the woods, but your mama would find wildflowers and put them in jars all around the house. She even scraped all the chipped paint off the wood boards one summer while the rest of us was playin’ in the creek. After a week that old shack looked positively transformed. She understood that you didn’t need to be rich to have a nice home. You just needed pride in yourself and in your family.”

Brook carefully wipes a tear from beneath her thick eyelashes. “She was the best of the four of us.”

Jolene nods. “She sure was. I always thought Paige was so much like her when she was little. Always tidying things up and tending to the flowers in front. I thought she was a little mini Delilah…” She pauses, a sweet smile on her lips. “She even had the best name.” Jolene looks hard at me. “But over the years I’ve come to see that it’s not Paige, but you that reminds me so much of her.”

I’m afraid tears will start if I speak, so I remain quiet.

“Paige may’ve gotten your mama’s graceful ways and desire for a better lot in life, but you got the best part of her, Charlie.”

I take in a deep, shaky breath.

Jolene grips my hand. “You got her caring soul that has kept this family together against all odds. Your cousins may be dumber than a bag of hair--”

“Mmmm-hmmm,” Brook hums.

“--but they’d do anything for you. And us three, your mama’s sisters left on this earth to watch over you, we might not be as sophisticated as Mrs. Doctor Chamberlain the Second,” she says in a posh voice, “but we’d never turn our backs on you. You got family, girl. And that’s a lot more than most.”

I accept Jolene’s hug and return it fiercely. It’s like being smothered with a perfume sample this close up, but it does make me feel better. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you. I do love this family, you know that.”

Brook’s grabs the hand in my lap. “No offence taken. Family can say what it likes. It’s the rest of the world that’ll catch an ass-kickin’ if they dare to call us rednecks.”

Jolene pats my face as she pulls away from me. “Now, what are you going do about this fella of yours? You going kiss and make up?”

“I don’t know. It seems so complicated. He wants to be with me--I know he does-- but I just don’t know what’s going to happen. I don’t want to hurt his family.”

Brook gathers the cups and takes them to the counter. “Well maybe it’s time to meet them then.”

“His family?” I ask, turning in my chair.

“Why not?” She deposits the dishes in the sink and leans against the counter facing us.

“I already met his father, remember? I didn’t make the best first impression.”

“Ah.” She holds a finger up. “But that’s when you were unprepared and didn’t know the truth about him. Now you’ve got ammunition. I say go to dinner, wear your best dress, and give it back as good as you get. You’re a Davies by marriage, Charlotte Dolly, but a Jude by blood. And, honey, we don’t go down easy.”

My aunts leave me alone at the table and clear away the pans and plates from the morning’s service. They must feel really bad for me, risking their manicures like this.

Would making a good impression on Alex’s parents make the whole, sorry-I-ruined-your-expensive-lifestyle-by-falling-in-love-with-your-son-situation, any better? I’ve already come up against his father. Will he be able to accept me in place of Cadence? And what about his mother? Could she be an ally in all of this? Surely she wouldn’t want her only son forced into a loveless marriage?

I join Jolene and Brook at the sink. They’re singing and swaying to an old ditty I remember from childhood and I join in. I’m not sure I’ve ever really listened to the lyrics before, but as I dry the dishes handed to me, I realize it’s a song about a family prone to drinkin’, fightin’, and trouble makin.’ But the family sticks together when times get tough. They see each other through to the end, stolen pickup trucks, broken hearts and all.

Chapter Fourteen

Fourteen Days Until Patsy’s Girdle Goes Kaput

Alex’s apartment smells like him. I don’t know how to describe it, really, but it’s sort of a good blend of leather, tobacco, and something spicy, like incense. Strangely enough the only one of the three that actually exists in the place is leather, but that doesn’t stop the other scents from lingering.

I’ve been so nervous all day I’ve barely eaten a thing. I guess it’s good we’re going to dinner. Less appealing is where. When I phoned Alex last night, and asked him what he thought about me meeting his parents, he was surprisingly okay with the idea. I guess since he spoke with Cadence yesterday there’s no point in delaying the inevitable. Still, I think a part of me hoped we could simply hide away, and protect each other from the shit storm Cadence’s father is sure to rain down upon us.

I step into my new dress and pull the side zipper up. As soon as I got to Dallas this afternoon I went shopping for something to wear. I had a zero balance on my MasterCard and a goal. Make a good second impression.

I wanted to call Paige, she’s got such a good eye for fashion, but she hasn’t phoned me since the dress shop and, quite frankly, I’m tired of feeling like I’ve disappointed her. I drove to the Galleria then picked the most expensive looking store. Since I live in jeans, t-shirts and cowboy boots, and have no idea what a ‘peplum’ is, I just walked around the store until I found a mannequin I liked and told the salesgirl, “I’ll try on all of that.”

I know I’m in there somewhere, but the stranger in the reflection is more lovely and refined than I’ve ever been. The deep cobalt color makes my eyes look impossibly blue. I turn and can’t help but admire the way the silhouette of the dress hugs every curve of my body. The enticing neckline shows just a subtle hint of cleavage while the hem rests modestly at my knees. My favorite feature, however, is the black lace insert just above each hip. Cut in a diamond pattern to reveal just a glimpse of skin, giving the whole dress a romantic flare.

I’ll wait until the last possible moment before slipping into the black leather heels I bought. After all, it’s still me under the carefully constructed hair and soft makeup, which means there’s a very good chance I’ll fall over at some point tonight. No need to rush the inevitable.