The Resurrection of Tess Blessing (38 page)

Tess is devastated, and intends to make a break for it. She’ll have Roger call her a cab. “Would you mind…?”

It appears that the time has come to pay another visit to my friend.

I come up behind her, say, “Fancy meetin’ you here, sugar,” and shove her through the supper-club doors.

The house lights had been dimmed, and it takes a few seconds for Tess’s eyes to adjust, so when the “SURPRISE!” comes barreling at her, she ducks.

She’s not given enough time to orient herself before Will comes rushing toward her, Haddie and Henry too, and Birdie is clapping her hands and bouncing up and down. Otto looks as stunned as Tess and has assumed a warrior stance, but the rest of the diners are on their feet and the band is still playing
their
song.

Tessie says, “What…? Will…?”

“May I have this dance?” He leads his stunned wife onto the floor. “Happy anniversary,
ma chérie
” he says as he takes her in his arms and proceeds to lead her in a passionate and thoroughly professional tango.

Tess is not only bowled over by the party, she’s amazed by her husband’s dancing. When did he get a right foot?

When the last notes of
Hernando’s Hideaway
fade, he dips his wife of thirty years, and bestows a deep kiss upon her lips. “I told you I had a little something planned,” he says cockily.

Folks are clapping and gathering around the Mr. and Mrs. Blessing and shouting, “Happy thirtieth anniversary, Will and Tess!” The staff from the restaurant, some of the old folks from Horizons, Richie Mattigan’s wife and kids, most of their regular diner customers, including crabby Mare Hanson and Nurse Jerry, Irwin, Cliff, and little Marty from the St. Joe’s Cancer Center, and loads of Ruby Falls neighbors who haven’t registered yet are whooping and hollering above Garbo’s barking.

Haddie and Henry hug Tess and Will, and when Birdie comes in close, she gives her sister a mischievous grin and disappears back into the crowd.

The lights…the noise…the swarming crowd. Tess needs to retreat to someplace quiet to pull herself together. She smiles at Will and tells him, “I’ll be right back. I…ah…need to powder my nose,” but as she turns and steps in the direction of the ladies’ room, Connie Lushman materializes in front of her with a storybook handsome dark-haired man.

“Tess? This is Rod Albright,” she gushes, “my boyfriend.” By the looks they’re giving one another, it’s plain to see that these two have it bad for one another. “I’ve been dying to tell you about him, but I knew you’d ask me what he did for a living and I’m the worse liar and…I thought you might figure out what Will was up to if I told you that Rod’s a dance instructor.” She smiles at him like he’s the bees’ knees. “The best in Milwaukee.”

Tess is so dumbfounded that she can’t even tell Rod that it’s nice to meet him.

“Will wanted to surprise you on your anniversary by recreating the tango you did at your wedding, only a lot, lot better,” Connie says. “He needed a partner.” She’d never said anything to Tess about how he had left her standing at the altar. She had always been friendly and there has never been any rancor in her voice. “Will knows how much I like to dance and asked if I’d help him out. He arranged for Rod to drive up from the city and teach us at my place every Wednesday night.”

So…
that’s
how one of her long blond hairs got onto Will’s blue shirt. Why he smelled of her perfume. They
had
been spending time in each other’s arms.

Will, who’s been hovering behind Connie and Rod, sweeps in and says, “Excuse me. I need to have few words with my bride.” He picks Tess up in his arms and whisks her to one of the high-backed leather booths that line the dance floor.

Once she settles in, she notices the French-themed decorations spread haphazardly throughout the club to commemorate the Blessings’ honeymoon. A plastic Eiffel tower here berets there. Instead of their usual ’40s gun-moll uniforms, the Edge of Town waitresses are wearing can-can costumes. And Haddie must have raided the family album. Blown-up pictures of Tess and Will taken throughout their many years together are taped to the walls and bar. Henry playing soccer. The award-winning photo of Garbo sailing through the air with the Frisbee in her mouth. A beautiful summer shot of their home and gardens. Tess decides that Will must’ve chosen the decorations because there’s no underlying theme other than their enduring love.

She tells him, “I can’t believe you managed to pull this off. You’re not usually this….” She checks beneath the tablecloth to see if his barn door is zipped up.

“I had lots of help,” Will says. “The kids, Connie and Rod, even Birdie pitched in.”

“Birdie
knew
?!” Tess flashes back to the scene in the kitchen yesterday when she and Will were flipping pancakes. She hadn’t imagined it. They
had
been conspiring. Probably working out the details about tonight.

Will gives his wife his irresistible gap-toothed grin. “I wanted to clue you in after she told me that you suspected Connie and me were fooling around, but she made me promise not to, and she can be pretty persuasive with or without a butcher knife in her hand.”

Tess feels horribly guilty for ever doubting him. “I’m really sorry for—”

“Don’t be. I get it. First there was my midlife crisis, and then I lost my confidence, and you got sick and I was afraid I’d hurt you, and between planning the party and running the diner…I dropped the ball.” He looks so contrite that Tess doesn’t make a joke about his turn of phrase. “But,” he nibbles on her earlobe, “I’m sure you noticed while we were doing the tango that the
monsieur
has made a rousing comeback.”

She had. A standing-at-attention Pierre was pretty hard to miss.

“We hit a rough patch,” Will says as he places his hand tenderly atop hers. “But it’s over now.” He withdraws a long velvet box out of his suit coat pocket. “They’re from Hawaii.”

“Oh, Will,” Tess says as he fastens the black pearls around her neck.

The kiss that follows is faith-restoring.

Hours later, after the cake from Betty’s Bakery was served and the champagne toasts made and the band packed up their instruments, Tess ambushed Birdie at the bar. She gets her around the neck and gives her a noogie for the part she’d played in perpetrating the surprise.

Birdie laughs and says, “
Gotcha!
” the same way their daddy would’ve if was here. (He is.)

“Take the Vulva,” Tess tells her. “I’ll ride home with Will.”

Birdie looks over at Otto, who is eyeing the corners of the supper club with his night-vision glasses. “Don’t wait up for me,” she says. “You get my drift?”

“Roger, that,” Tessie says with a parting hug.

After Will left to bring the Chevy around, and while the children are finishing up with their good-byes, my exhausted, but exuberant friend, steps outside to breathe in the night air. No one else is around, but she’s not alone. She can hear the refrain of
At Last
and she feels me beside her.

“Grace,” she says with a bow of her head. “You, little rascal, you.”

On the drive home, the Blessing family is abuzz with the excitement of the occasion, and the children may have had one too many glasses of the bubbly. Especially Henry. Even Garbo’s smiling.

After Will pulls into their driveway, he tells the kids, “Your mom and I need some private time when we get home. Make yourselves scarce.”

Henry and Haddie can’t wobble into the house fast enough.

Hand in hand, Mr. and Mrs. Blessing stroll beneath the old-fashioned streetlights that line the sidewalk in front of their sturdy home. Tess makes him laugh, and Will tells her a few more details about the intricacies of planning the surprise party, and the reason why it was held two days before their actual anniversary instead of the day of. “I’m taking you back to the Holiday Inn in Paris for a second, no…third honeymoon. We leave first thing in the morning.”

“Well, maybe not
first
thing.” Tess gets that hooded look in her eyes and begins softly singing, “I know a dark, secluded place….”

Will takes her in his arms and they recreate the expert tango they’d performed earlier, up the block and back again to the ancient oak tree that he’d carved their initials into the same way his father had his mother’s. He presses Tess against the rough bark and cups her breasts in his hands, lays his lips against hers with insistent tenderness until she feels him rise to the occasion.

They didn’t make it up to the bedroom.

I found
this
crumpled up in the pocket of Tessie’s green chenille robe this morning after she and Will took off on their trip to Paris, Illinois.

TO-DO LIST

1. Buy broccoli.
   
2. Hope that Haddie gets the help she needs from a better therapist.
   
3. Set up vocational counseling appointment for Henry.
   
4. Convince Will to love me again. (What about Connie?)
   
5. Get Birdie to talk to me again.
   
6. Bury Louise once and for all. (With Birdie.)
   
7. Have a religious epiphany so #8 is going to be okay with me.
   
8. Die.
   
9. Tell Haddie about the cancer.
   
10. Prepare the guest room.
    
11. Deal with the part you played in Haddie’s eating disorder.
    
12. Beg Police Chief Whitehall to release Otto and Birdie on their own recognizance.
    
13. Figure out if Henry has a drinking problem.
    
14. Speak to Will again about talking more in a standing position.
    
15. Work up a routine for The Pink Ladies.
    
16. Buy broccoli.
    

The past year has been the most difficult and devastating of my life. With deepest gratitude, I thank all who loaned me their strength, gave me a shoulder to cry on, and were there for me in tender ways that I never even knew existed.

My family: my eternally sweet, mischievous, talented, and daring boy, Riley, whose kindred spirit never leaves my side. Casey, my best friend, daughter, and hero. Our southern man, John-Michael, an exceptional father and husband, whose love for my girl and their children is boundless. And the glue that holds us all together…our joyful little ones, Charlie William and Hadley Ann Orion.

Publisher, Crystal Patriarche, and the team at SparkPress: kudos for making publishing a truly cooperative effort.

Editor, Wayne Parrish: heartfelt thanks for your patience and infinite wisdom.

My literary agent, Kim Witherspoon, and everyone at Inkwell Management: your belief in me never ceases to amaze.

The James E. and Rebecca Winner Foundation for the Arts: thank you for so graciously and generously contributing to my efforts.

My sister writers and early readers who held my hand during the writing and beyond, I am beholden: Becky Winner, Sandy Kring, Emily Lewis, Kerry Tanner, Lenore Buss, Bonnie Shimko, Beth Hoffman, Laurie and Nora Clark, Nancy Lindhjem, Jean Oly, Meagan Harris, and Eileen Sherman.

And to you, dear reader: your startling kindness and sweet words of encouragement have deeply touched me. I cannot thank you enough for your continued support. I can only hope that Tessie and Birdie have become as dear to you as you are to me.

Lesley Kagen is an actress, voice-over talent, former restaurateur, sought-after speaker, and award-winning,
New York Times
bestselling author of six previous novels. Her work has been translated into seven languages. She’s the mother of two and grandmother of two. She lives in a hundred-year-old farmhouse in a small town in Wisconsin.

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