Sweet Vidalia Brand (11 page)

Vidalia Brand was nobody’s fool. She’d raised five girls practically on her own, so she knew bullshit when she saw it. Doc had been shoveling it when he’d come out of Bobby Joe’s room, and Bobby Joe had been dealing it all along.

He was not well. She’d managed to put it all together while directing his sons to raise that Christmas tree, get it upright, straight, and properly placed.

When she arrived at home, the family was already there, every last one of them. The twins were running in and out of the living room, hanging a fresh batch of ornaments, freshly made for her in their pre-school class, on her tree. Tyler was keeping right up with them, helping them reach the higher branches. The braces he’d once worn on his legs were a thing of the past, and while he still walked with a slight limp, he was on his way to complete healing.

The men, her sons in law, were gathered in the living room, sipping beers, talking and watching the kids, while the girls were in the kitchen, bustling. Every Sunday was like a holiday around here.

When she walked in, everyone went silent and looked her way.

“How is he, Mama?” Selene asked.

Vidalia took a deep breath and decided to respect Bobby Joe’s wishes by not sharing her suspicions just yet. “Doc Shelby said he couldn’t find a thing wrong with him. Just a fluke, I think.” Selene’s eyes said she knew better, but Vidalia hurried on. “If you will all indulge me, I would like to take our Sunday Dinner over to the Long Branch.”

“If that’s what you want, Mom, sure we will,” Melusine said.

“It won’t even be hard,” Maya added. “We’ve got the sides all made already.”

“We can wrap everything up to keep it warm,” Edie put in

Vidalia frowned at them. “Why are you being so cooperative all of the sudden?”

Kara came and put a hand on her mother’s shoulder. “We saw your face when he went down in a heap, Mama. We know you...have feelings for him.”

“Well, don’t be ridiculous, I don’t have any...well...I suppose I am
fond
of the man, but it’s not as if... it’s not as if....” She shook her head. “Let’s just get this food over there, all right?”

The girls exchanged knowing looks and everyone started loading pans, kids and themselves into the vehicles that cluttered Vidalia’s driveway. Selene alone hung back, waving her beloved Cory away when he came for her. That was something, because the two were inseparable. But Cory seemed to understand, and he stepped outside, leaving the two alone together in the house. Selene closed the front door, and turning, stared into Vidalia’s eyes.

“He’s sick, isn’t he, Mama?”

Vidalia was, by now, used to her youngest daughter’s odd ways. She knew things, Selene did. There was no point in lying to her. “I think so. But I also think he doesn’t want anyone to know.”

“I could sense it. Something out of balance in him. Is there anything we can do?”

Vidalia nodded. “We can pray for him, child. I in my way, and you in yours.”

“As hard as I can,” she told her mom, and then she hugged her softly, and Vidalia had all she could do not to let her worried tears break free.

Bobby Joe’s sons had set up the banquet room for dinner. It had gold wallpaper with velvet textured swirls and roses. It was set off from the rest of the saloon by red velvet curtains with gold tassels that could be drawn for privacy. It would be crowded, as Vidalia’s family was huge. Vidalia, her five daughters, three grandkids, five sons in law, added to Bobby’s three sons, and himself made eighteen—quite a crowd for a meal.

The long table was set though, with him at the head, Vidalia at the foot, eight chairs on each side. And when the food was all laid out, wafting scents that made his mouth water, and everyone had taken their seats, an odd, tense silence made the very air in the room feel heavy.

And then Vidalia said, “So, Tyler, why don’t you tell us all what you’ve asked Santa Claus to bring you for Christmas?”

The little boy grinned. “A pony! And I think he’s gonna do it this year, I really do. I’ve been so good, and I know how to take care of him. Miss Haggerty teaches me every single week when I go out to ride Rusty. And I can board him at her place and ride him anytime I want.”

“If you get one, can the twins come and ride too?” Maya asked. Her kids started bouncing in their seats, asking “Can we, can we?” They were smack between her and Caleb, so they could keep them anchored and focused.

“Sure you can!” Tyler said, nodding eagerly. “I’ll show you everything. I know how to put on a saddle, and a bridle, and–”

“I want a baby. A real one, not make believe,” Dahlia said.

Maya and Caleb looked at each other in surprise, but their little girl went right on. “I got so many dolls. I’m tired of dolls. I want a
real
baby.”

“I want a four wheeler,” her brother said. He was all of four years old.

“Over my dead body.” Vidalia pressed a hand to her chest. “You’ll get yourself killed.”

“Oh, I don’t know, Vidalia,” Bobby Joe put in. “I think Joey had one at his age.”

“I sure did,” Joey boasted, grinning at CC. “It was red, and Dad put a control on it so it wouldn’t go faster than he thought I could handle. But my big brother Robby knew how to take it off.”

“Oh, you didn’t!” Vidalia shot a wide-eyed look at Robert.

He smiled, apparently remembering. “I did.”

“Yep, he sure did,” Jason said with a frown at his brothers. “And within the hour, Joey drove it into a tree and wound up with eighteen stitches in his head.”

Maya shot Caleb a terrified look. Caleb patted her hand. “They have little ones that barely go five miles an hour, hon. Far more suited to a four-year-old.”

Soon they were all exchanging childhood memories, and eventually, Christmas memories. Maya told about the birth of the twins the year of that freak snowstorm. Kara talked about her first Christmas with Tyler and Jimmy, leaving out the scary parts involving Jim’s addict ex and her porn-king boyfriend. At that point, Bobby Joe’s boys seemed to run out of tales of their own to offer, and Vidalia shot a look across the table at him, about to try to prompt him for some more, he thought.

“I want a Christmas like that, this year,” he said. “Well, minus the blizzard and home delivery of twins, that is.” Everyone laughed softly and beamed at Maya and Caleb. Then Bobby went on. “I want an old-fashioned holiday, full of pine needles and piles of food and noisy family members all talking at once.”

“Kind of like this right here, right now, you mean?” Vidalia asked him.

Smiling, he nodded hard. “Just like this.” He looked at his sons. “That’s part of the reason I asked you boys to come up here. So we could have that together, right here in Big Falls. My adopted hometown. That’s how I’ve thought of it ever since I left it behind.”

“I think that’s a beautiful idea,” Vidalia said. “And I’d be real pleased if we could have that together, Bobby. You and your boys are welcome to share your holidays with us.”

“I was hoping you’d say that.” He lifted a glass. “To family.”

“To family,” Vidalia agreed, and they all lifted their glasses in agreement. Even the children picked up their glasses of juice and tinked them together.

Bobby met Vidalia’s eyes across the table and held them as their families all started talking at once and food was passed around and compliments were paid. And he couldn’t help thinking that this should’ve been
their
family. His and hers. They should’ve been spending
every
holiday season all gathered around together, all talking at once with kids making a mess of their food and dreaming of ponies and babies and Santa Claus.

When the meal ended, he left their offspring to clean up the mess, and took Vidalia with him into the main part of the saloon. The eighteen-foot tree stood bare and waiting. “We’re gonna deck these halls tonight. Then, dessert by the fireplace. Will you stay?”

“You couldn’t get me out of here if you tried, Bobby Joe.”

He smiled at her, and he knew he was going to have to tell her the truth pretty soon. But maybe it could wait just a few more nights. Just a few. He wanted a Christmas without heartache. One so chock full of joy and sappy holiday magic that his sons would never forget it. He wanted that, just once, before he died.

They all stood around the eighteen-foot beauty of a tree, and Bobby Joe said, “I bought decorations, but I don’t think there’s gonna be anywhere near enough.”

“Don’t worry about that,” Selene said, walking right up beside him and resting her hand on his shoulder. “Mom had us bring a small portion of the horde of holiday decor she had stashed at home in the attic.”

“I think we have enough for ten trees,” Vidalia said. “Plus two.” She gazed at the boxes, smiling in self-deprecation. “Some of these haven’t seen daylight in several years. I can’t wait to go through them. Shall we?”

“Lights first,” Caleb called. “We have to string the lights first. That’s how we always do it.”

“I’m with you on that Caleb,” Jason said.

“Fine, you young men handle the lights,” Vidalia told him. “Robert, can you find us a couple of stepladders around here?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Robert said. And if Bobby Joe didn’t know better, he would think Rob was starting to enjoy himself a bit. His sadness seemed distant, and he was even smiling now and then.

Melusine cranked up the music. Caleb and Rob strung the lights, while Vidalia gave constant direction. The others girls vanished into the kitchen. But in short order, they were back, handing cups of hot cocoa around. Jimmy, Kara’s husband, turned up the music a little louder, and when Randy Travis started singing Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer, the children all sang along.

They were are all picking through boxes of ornaments, re-attaching hooks or strings, and passing them around to be placed on the tree. And it seemed to Bobby Joe that every single piece in Vidalia’s old dusty boxes from the attic had a story attached to it. Her girls didn’t mind one bit telling them as each one was added to the tree.

He heard all about the Christmas when they’d all made homemade gifts for each other because money was low, but how somehow, they’d still found Cabbage Patch dolls under the tree, one for each of those girls, from Santa.

“You never told us how you did it, Mama,” Maya said softly.

“I got up at two a.m. on Black Friday to be first in line at the Kmart, where they had a five doll limit. I pawned my wedding ring to pay for them.” She rolled her eyes. “Oh your father was furious when he came home and saw my ring finger bare. Course, by then it was February, and I’d saved up enough to buy it back.”

Selene pulled out an ornament, a picture frame shaped like Santa’s sleigh with a baby in the seat beside Santa. “This was me!” she said happily. “Look!” She held it up.

“Baby’s first Christmas” was part of the frame itself. But someone had taken a green marker and carefully inscribed “Selene Brand,” and her birthday.

She grinned and handed it to Joey. “We always joke that I was conceived by the Corral. Born nine months to the day after her doors opened.”

“Yeah, Barroom Baby,” said Melusine.

“Saloon Sister!” Kara threw in.

“Beer Barrel Brat,” Maya called.

“Happy Hour Half-Pint,” Edie sang.