The Queen of Cool (32 page)

Q

Saturday, early morning—2:35 a.m.

Fairmount Historic District

Days: 106

Fully dressed, Lo waited in the dark near
the front door of her apartment. For the last two weeks, Amanda had
taken to coming in around two in the morning. She’d sneak into her
bedroom and then rush off to work at the Queen of Cool in the
morning. Lo hadn’t had an actual conversation with her in almost
two weeks. Whenever they were in the same room together, Amanda
made some excuse to rush off and do something else.

Lo knew the symptoms.

Amanda was in love. And didn’t want Lo to
find out.

The reasons for Amanda not wanting Lo to
know were vast. While Amanda usually told Lo every detail of
everything that went on in her life, she could be very tight lipped
about her relationships. As a rule, Don didn’t like the boys who
liked his girls. So they both learned early on to keep their mouths
shut when it came to boys. Amanda liked to be sure of herself and
her relationships before she told Lo every little detail.

With everything going on in their lives, Lo
didn’t want to wait. She was terrified someone had gotten close to
Amanda as a way of getting in on their investigation. Or even
worse, Amanda was dating Will Wallace again.

For the last few nights, Lo had thought
there was a man in the apartment. It wasn’t so much a thought as a
sense of a man nearby. Tonight, she was going to meet Amanda’s new
boyfriend and her mystery guest.

She heard the key slipping into the door
knob.

“
Shh,” Amanda whispered. “I
know she’s on to us. We have to be really quiet.”

A man’s voice mumbled something. The door
opened and Amanda stepped over the threshold. Lo turned on the
floor lamp.

“
Lo!” Amanda jumped back
with surprise. A tall, blonde man’s face appeared behind her. He
gave Lo an embarrassed smile.

“
Larry?”

Q

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

“
This is none of your
business.” In a gesture Lo recognized as one of her own, Amanda put
her hands on her hips and gave an independent flip of her
hair.

“
I think it is,” Lo said.
She got up from her seat. “Why don’t I make some tea and we can
talk?”

Without waiting for them to agree, Lo went
to the kitchen. She heard them whisper back and forth in the
doorway. A few minutes later, Amanda slunk down the hallway to the
living area with Larry walking behind.

“
Mint, okay?” Lo asked. She
filled a teapot and turned on the stove.

“
Can I have hot chocolate?”
Amanda asked.

“
Good idea,” Lo said.
“Let’s have some cocoa. Larry, can you help me with
snacks?”

“
Oh no,” Amanda said.
“You’re not going in there and talking about me like last time. I’m
an adult now, Lo. I’m twenty-one and I can make my own
choices.”

Lo smiled. Amanda’s workouts were paying
off. Standing in the doorway, she looked like a real tough cookie.
Amanda nodded as if she could hear Lo’s assessment.

“
Oh, go ahead. You’re going
to talk about me at some point,” Amanda gestured to Larry. “I have
to pee anyway.”

Larry looked from Amanda to Lo. Amanda gave
him a little push. Smirking at her, he went into the kitchen.
Amanda trotted to her bathroom.

“
Chips and salsa?” Larry
asked.

“
I was thinking of cinnamon
toast,” Lo said. “Would go better with our cocoa.”

She waited until she heard Amanda close her
door.

“
So you’re the married man
she’s been seeing off and on?” Lo asked.

“
I guess so,” Larry said.
“It just kind of happened.”

“
Kind of happened?” Lo
asked.

“
Okay, that sounds really
lame,” Larry said. “Especially after everything that Don said and
you said and…”

“
Should we wait for
Amanda?” Lo asked.

“
No,” Larry said. “I met
Don and his kids when you married him. Amanda and I danced at your
wedding, but she was…”

“
Six,” Lo said.

“
Right,” Larry said. “A
little kid. Eleven years younger than me. I know. And Don talked to
me about her crush on me. And I was really careful. All those times
I stayed with you when I was in the service and even after that, I
was really careful. I didn’t want to take advantage of her. Lo, you
know me. I’d never take advantage of anyone. Ever.”

“
I know how upset you were
when we talked to you,” Lo said.

“
I felt like you were
accusing me of… a six-year-old girl…” Larry said. “I’d
never…”

“
I know,” Lo said. “We just
wanted you to be careful.”

“
She is very tender.”
Larry’s voice became soft. “Precious.”

Lo smiled at the change in him. He lifted a
shoulder in a shrug. She took out the bread and butter while he
went to the cabinet to find the cinnamon and sugar.

“
Do you think Don knew
about…?” Larry gestured with the butter knife. “This?”

“
I’m sure he guessed,” Lo
said. “You said it when we were at Whataburger; he always seemed to
know what was going to happen. Were you referring to
Amanda?”

“
Sort of,” Larry said.
“Looking back, it’s like he was saying, ‘be careful now; you don’t
want to fumble something beautiful just because the timing is
wrong.’”

“
Sounds like something Don
would say,” Lo said.

“
I miss him, Lo,” Larry
said. “I can’t imagine how you feel. I think all of us are trying
to grab onto what’s precious, because he’s gone.”

“
I guess that’s a good
thing,” Lo smiled.

“
No, Lo,” Larry said.
“There’s nothing good about Don being gone.”

“
So,” Amanda came into the
kitchen. Lo held two mugs out to her and she took them. “What did
you tell her?”

“
We talked about your dad,”
Larry said.

Amanda nodded. Larry took the cinnamon sugar
toast from the toaster oven and set it on a plate.

“
I thought you’d want to be
here when we talked about you,” Lo said. “Shall we?”

“
What about the whipped
cream?” Amanda asked. “You left it off.”

Smiling, Larry got a can of whipped cream
from the refrigerator. They went into the living area. Lo sat in a
chair while Amanda and Larry sat across from her on the couch. For
a few moments, they were silent while they added whipped cream to
their hot chocolate.

“
Lo, this is not something
creepy,” Amanda said. “I’m an adult now. I can make my own
choices.”

“
Larry was telling me how
it started?” Lo asked.

“
You know I work that Bare
Chested charity event at Baylor,” Larry said. “Guys volunteer to
work concessions at a football game and the food is donated by the
school. The charity gets the proceeds. I’ve done it since I was in
the Air Force.”

“
I heard there was the
cutest guy working this one concession stand,” Amanda smiled at
him. “His line was huge. I almost gave up. I was talking to my
friends and laughing and…”

She shrugged.

“
She got up to the front,”
Larry said. “It was like ‘Hi, how are you, long time’ or whatever.
She had some fries I think. Anyway, I was passing the food to her
and our hands touched. It was weird, Lo. Like a shock.”

“
I felt it too,” Amanda
nodded.

“
She hung around and helped
me,” Larry said. “I…”

“
We talked all night,”
Amanda said. “Just talked. All night.”

“
I’m usually out all night
for that event. When I got home, I tried to end it with Ruth Ann,”
Larry said. “We were both really unhappy, had been for a long time,
but she…”

“
She tried to kill
herself,” Amanda said.

Lo nodded. She remembered Ruth Ann slitting
her wrists.

“
So I was stuck,” Larry
said.

“
I wasn’t going to be with
a married man,” Amanda said. “Plus, I knew you would kill us
both.”

Lo smiled.

“
That’s kind of it,” Larry
said.

“
We saw each other off and
on,” Amanda said. “But when Ruth Ann threw him out…”

“
She’s filed the divorce
papers,” Larry said. “And…”

“
We’re not really you or
Dad,” Amanda said. “We’re not getting married right away or
anything like that. And I’m not fifteen. He’s not my first
boyfriend or whatever.”

“
We don’t know where this
is going to go.”

“
But it’s nice? Right now?”
Lo asked.

Amanda and Larry nodded.

“
What happens to the family
if things go bad?” Lo asked.

“
I knew you were going to
ask that,” Larry smiled at her. “I knew it.”

“
We’ve talked about it,”
Amanda said. “We’re not bad people. I’ve never dumped someone or
treated them bad. And Ruth Ann might disagree, but Larry hasn’t
either.”

“
I think it will be all
right,” Larry said.

“
And if it’s not?” Lo
asked.

“
We agreed to make it all
right,” Amanda said. “It was a condition on us… trying
it.”

Larry nodded. They sat silently watching
each other. Amanda sighed.

“
It would be really nice
for us if it was all right with you that we try this out,” Amanda
smiled and looked at Larry. “I can’t believe I said
that.”

Lo smiled.

“
I’d like to know what you
think,” Larry said.

“
I think Alisha is going to
have a fit,” Lo said. “I think we can’t afford to have secrets
right now. So, I’m glad you told me.”

“
What do you think about…?”
Larry and Amanda looked at each other and then at Lo.

“
I think you’ll have to
see,” Lo said. “Relationships are hard even in the best of times.
But we’re not in the best of times and everyone’s starting
relationships. So…”

Lo shrugged.

“
I think losing Daddy made
us all see what was important,” Amanda said. “At least for me. You
and Dad had something so amazing. It gave off this warm glow that
all of us felt. I was always like, ‘I’m going to have that some
day.’ But now that he’s gone, my life seems a little darker. If I
want that glow again, I have to make that for myself. It’s not just
going to happen.”

“
Mutt said something just
like that to me,” Larry said. “I feel that way. I have to make my
life happy.”

Nodding, Lo smiled. She couldn’t think of
anything else to say, so she let them talk. The conversation
drifted into more comfortable topics. The bees in their backyard
were making honey. The garden was growing well under Larry’s care.
Lisa was acting like she was pregnant. Earl seemed happy taking
care of the kids. These easier topics brought out the lighter side
of their budding relationship. Amanda seemed happy. Larry looked
more comfortable than he had in years. Every once in a while, Lo
saw a flicker of love pass between them.

She wanted Amanda to be happy. She wanted
Larry to be happy. She wanted them each to find love. Seeing it
happen before her, she had to smile. She couldn’t have been happier
for them. After a while, she said her goodnights and went to
bed.

She lay in bed
long past the time she heard Larry leave and Amanda’s door close.
Lying in the still silence, she felt a twinge of relief. She’d
worried about Amanda
and
Larry. Amanda was
so precious and Larry had seemed so lost for so long. They were her
last worry.

She could finally let go and be with
Don.

Shocked by her own thought, Lo sat up in
bed. Mrs. Williams was right. At this rate, she wasn’t going to
make it. Lo got up and went down to the garage for a heavy weight
workout.

Q

Ten hours later

Sunday afternoon—2:25 p.m.

Fairmount Historic District

Days: 135

Every week, Lo promised over pie and coffee
that she would look through the appreciation journal. And every
week, Lo couldn’t bear to look at the book. She carried it around
with her everywhere but could never crack the binding. She’d even
taken it to Don’s grave when she went for a visit with Yazmin and
Mutt.

She’d never read Don’s words herself. He’d
always read to her from his journals. She felt like she was
violating his trust by even touching the binding.

After their meeting on Friday, Manny told
her that she didn’t have to read the whole journal. She just had to
look for anything that was different or unusual. She could save
reading the whole journal for when she was stronger or the baby
wanted to know about his dad. Manny’s words had strengthened her
and still she waited two more days before looking at the
journal.

Today was the day.

Alisha was working at Rick’s office
downtown. Amanda and Larry were at the Lake Worth house for the
weekend. Lisa and Earl had taken the kids to the Fort Worth Zoo.
Mutt and Yazmin were in Dallas for the weekend to, in his words,
create the baby his mother kept seeing in her dreams. Even Mrs.
Williams was out enjoying the summer at her daughter’s house.

Lo was alone with only Truman the pit bull
for company. After making sure the driveway gate was closed and her
door was locked, she prepared for her descent into the journal. She
took a pint of her favorite Blue Bell ice cream, Dutch Chocolate,
from the freezer and got a spoon. She checked to make sure the box
of tissues on the side table was full. She filled a water bottle
and sat down in a comfortable chair in her living area. She was as
ready as she could be.