A Forever Thing (29 page)

Theron handed her the tie tack and raised an eyebrow. How
could she put it on him without a tie? He wore baggy green flannel
pajama pants and a dark green shirt.

Fancy scooted over to him and ran her hand holding the back of
the tack under his shirt very slowly, barely touching the soft brown
hair on his chest. The other hand slipped down the front side and
chose a spot right where his tie would be if he’d been wearing one.
She leaned forward and fastened it to his shirt.

At her tentative touch Theron’s heart beat like he’d just run a
marathon and won first place. He’d relived that last kiss a dozen
times a day since it happened.

She stood up and quickly started cramming paper into a big
black garbage bag. When she picked up the paper her gift from
Theron and Tina had been wrapped in, she deftly slipped a small
piece of it into her robe pocket.

He helped with the cleanup. The tie tack looked strange on his
shirt, and the chain on the inside tickled his chest.

Their hands met during the cleanup, and he teased her palm with
his thumb. She shivered involuntarily. “Payback time,” he murmured.

She blushed but just kept working.

“Did you hear me?” he asked.

“Honey, if you want to play with the big dogs, bring it on. If not,
get off the porch,” Fancy boldly challenged him to cover up quivering at his touch.

“Is that flirting I hear?”

“It’s … stating facts.”

Theron took a deep breath. “I’m attracted to you, Fancy. But with
my track record, I’ve got to steer clear of anything … permanent.
So,” he said softly, “do you want me on the porch or off it?”

“With such romantic talk, I’ll kick you out into the yard with
the rest of the dogs, and you can lick your pride along with your
paws,” she retorted. Then she got serious. “What are we doing
here, Theron?”

“I think we’re skirting the issue of how we feel by teasing. I’ve
put my cards on the table. Are you bluffing or holding something
better?” he asked right back.

“I keep my cards close to my chest, but we can settle this right
now. I’m attracted to you too. But I’m too old to play games. I want
a forever thing in my future or nothing.”

“You proposing to me?” he asked.

“No, I’m not. Go get Uncle Joe. Here’s hoping he’s having a good
day. I’d love for him to tell me the stories behind some of those ornaments.”

“Changing the subject?”

“Protecting my hand. I’ve got a full house. What have you got?”

His eyes twinkled. He loved the bickering and the flirting, the
underlying passion in her eyes. What he was going to do about it
was much less clear.

Tina played with her new things, lining them up around and under
the tree and pretending to open them again. Fancy made a cup of hot
tea and sat at the kitchen table for a few minutes, trying to make
sense of what had just happened. She sure hadn’t planned on telling
Theron that she was attracted to him, but it had come out, and now
she had to face it.

The house phone rang, and she picked it up. “Warren residence.”

“Fancy?” her mother’s voice questioned.

“Merry Christmas, Momma!” Fancy said.

“And a Merry Christmas to you. We’re on land, and I had to call.
Everything all right there?”

“No, but there’s not much you can do about it. Theron and I
just … had words.”

“An argument?”

“Of sorts.”

“Want to talk about it?”

“We’ve laid our cards on the table.”

“And who’s winning?”

She sighed. “I think we’re both losers, but I suppose I’ll have to
live with it.”

“What’d he get you for Christmas?”

“An open heart necklace.”

“Symbolism?”

“Just a gift he thought I was looking at. I didn’t even see it”

“Don’t shut the door on possibilities. You in love with that man?”

“Probably, but I can get over it” She hoped. `Anyway, what’d
you get?”

“Les bought me a beautiful diamond ring.”

“They don’t make them like Les anymore.”

“At least not in Albany, Texas. When you find that forever thing,
I hope he’s in Florida, not Texas. Gotta run. Les is here, and we’re
going to have dinner on the beach. Just had to hear your voice. I
think my baby has grown up. This is our first Christmas ever without seeing each other.”

“The jury is out on that grown-up thing,” Fancy said.

She’d barely said good-bye and hung up when the phone rang
again. It was the real estate agent who had Hattie’s house up for
sale. “I’ve got a wonderful Christmas present for you. We’ve got
an offer on the house. Mary’s granddaughter just finished beauty
school and got married. She’s offered just two thousand less than
you were asking. Interested?”

“Yes, I am. I won’t even bicker over that much. When does she
want to move in?”

“Next week. It’s a cash deal. Mary is giving her the money, and
they’re making an arrangement for repayment between them. Is
that doable?”

“You bet it is.”

“Then I can tell them they can be in the place by New Year’s.
She and her husband want to start off the year in their own home.
She’s very excited.”

“So am I, and thank you. It is a wonderful present.” She laid the
phone back on the stand.

Surely it was an omen. She could give Theron two weeks to
make arrangements for Tina and promise Sophie that she’d fly
home for a month when Aunt Maud died. She was still making her
painful plans and sipping tea when a blast of cold air preceded
Theron and Joe into the house. Theron helped Joe out of his coat
and led him into the living area to see the tree.

Tina stared at the older man with big eyes.

Fancy left her tea and went to the living room.

“Uncle Joe,” Theron began, “this is my …”

“That’s Melissa, only I don’t remember her having dark hair
and eyes like that. And that is …” He looked at Fancy for a long
time. “How’d you get here?”

“This is Fancy Lynn Sawyer. She helps me with Tina. She’s a
schoolteacher, but she’s taking a year off,” Theron said.

Uncle Joe rubbed his square chin. He sat down in the recliner
and took everything in. “You look like a girl I knew once. She
worked at the bank. She ran off with a man.”

“That would be my mother, Gwen,” Fancy said. “I’m glad you’re
home for Christmas.”

“This his home?” Tina whispered.

Fancy sat down on the sofa and pulled Tina into her lap. “Uncle
Joe and his wife, Molly, lived here for a long time.”

“That’s Molly’s tree and her popcorn,” Joe said.

“Pretty, isn’t it?” Theron said.

“We’re havin’ turkey,” Tina said.

“I like turkey.” Joe’s brow wrinkled as he tried to remember
what it was about Molly that he needed to remember.

“Want to play with my bear?” Tina offered it.

He took it and hugged it close to his chest. “Molly loved kids,
but we never could have any.”

“You can play with bear, and I’ll play with my dolly. Want to
see me ride my tricycle?”

That set off a new friendship. Uncle Joe couldn’t remember
enough to tell Fancy about the ornaments, but he laughed at Tina’s
antics, which made her show off even more. She rode her bike
around in circles and crawled up into Joe’s lap and “read” him several books. He didn’t care if the words didn’t exactly match the pictures. He just sat there and enjoyed the child.

They were sitting at the dinner table when he looked at Theron
and asked, “Where’s Molly? She in the kitchen? That woman
never could sit down long enough to eat a whole meal.”

“Molly is gone, Uncle Joe. Remember?” Theron said.

“I guess I don’t want to remember that. Most days I just think
she’s right here with me, and we talk.”

“What do you talk about?” Fancy asked.

“Whatever we want. I tell her about my day, what I can remember of it. She tells me what-all she’s done in the kitchen and the
house. This is good turkey.”

“Thank you,” Fancy said.

“I’m full now. I’d like to take a nap.” He got up and shuffled
down the hallway to his room.

They heard a shoe hit the floor and then another one, followed
by a long sigh and the squeak of the bedsprings.

“Good night, sweetheart,” they heard him say.

Tears brimmed over the edge of Fancy’s eyes. “Don’t you look
at me. I can cry if I want to. That is so sweet. He can’t remember
who he is, but he still talks to his wife. That, Theron Warren, is a
forever thing.”

“They don’t make that kind of love anymore. It got done in by
cell phones, faster planes, computers, and new technology.”

“No, it didn’t. I don’t believe that, and I never will.”

Tina finished a piece of pumpkin pie and gathered up her two
old toys. She skipped down the hall and into her room for her
nap.

Fancy started the cleanup without saying a word.

Theron put away leftovers while she ran water into the sink to
do dishes: Molly’s best china with red roses in the center of every
plate.

She turned at the same time he reached to put a small bowl in the
cabinet. He dropped his arms, and they instinctively went around
her waist. She laid her head on his chest and listened to the steady
rhythm of his heart.

She looked up. “Theron, we. .

His mouth covered hers, and she kissed him back. She wanted it to go on forever. As if Theron understood her wish, he broke the
kiss but only to start another one. Finally she took a step backward
and nodded down the hallway.

“Can’t nap,” Tina said, rubbing her eyes. “Where’s Joe?”

“Shh, he’s still asleep.”

Tina put her hand in Fancy’s. “Let’s wake him up.”

“You play with your toys, and he’ll wake up in a little while.”

“Fancy, we need to talk,” Theron said.

“No, we don’t, Theron. Granny’s house sold today. I’m going
home to Florida in a couple of weeks. You’re going to need to find
a new nanny for Tina.”

“What?” Theron looked stricken. A big rope seemed to tie itself firmly around his heart and squeeze the life from it. “When did
this happen?”

“I got the call while you went after Uncle Joe.”

Tina took off for the bathroom. When she returned, she said,
“Uncle Joe fell out of bed.”

“How do you know that?” Theron asked.

“Because I peeked in, and he’s on the floor.”

Their conversation stopped as they rushed to his room. Theron
quickly dialed 911 and stayed on the phone with them until the paramedics pounded on the front door. They loaded Joe into the ambulance, with Theron and Fancy and Tina following in the truck.

“I’m so sorry. What happened?” Fancy asked.

“Doctor will fix him, like Fanny,” Tina assured them.

But the doctor couldn’t fix Joe. He had died instantly of a massive stroke when he slung his feet over the bed to stand up. He’d
simply slumped to the floor. “Nothing anyone could have done,”
the emergency room doctor explained. “It would have happened
no matter where he’d been at the time.”

Theron nodded.

“Do you have a funeral home that you’d like us to contact?”

Too much had happened too fast. Theron stared at him as if he
were speaking a foreign language. “I have no idea. I need to make
a phone call before I can tell you.”

He called his father, who had taken over the care of Joe’s business, and learned that Joe was to have a graveside service only and
be buried next to his beloved Molly.

“I’ll take care of it from this end,” his father said.

“Dad, I feel so terrible.”

“Don’t. He was in his home with memories of Molly all around
him. If he’d been able to choose his end, he would have wanted it
just like it happened. We’ll be down there tomorrow. We’ll plan to
have the funeral the day after.”

“Okay,” Theron said, and he told the doctor which funeral home
to call.

Fancy led Theron out of the waiting room, and Tina held his
hand tightly.

“Where’s Uncle Joe?” she asked on the way back to the ranch.

“He’s gone to live with the angels,” Fancy said.

“Like the one on the tree?”

“That’s right. He’s very happy now because he’s with Molly,”
Fancy said around the lump in her throat.

“Molly is his Fanny?”

“That’s right.”

“Can we have turkey when we get home?” Tina asked.

Theron nodded at Tina and patted her head. “Thank you,” he
mouthed to Fancy.

“Welcome,” she whispered.

They got through the rest of the day and the evening, but neither
of them talked about anything that had happened. They read to
Tina, then watched a Disney movie she’d gotten for Christmas.
Anything to keep busy; anything to avoid what was in their hearts.

Fancy went to bed at the same time Tina did, but she couldn’t
sleep. The strong desire to slip across the hallway and hold Theron
was so overpowering that she kicked the covers off and went to the
living room. She plugged in the Christmas tree lights and thought
about everything that had happened since the first time she’d met
him.

She felt his presence rather than saw him when he joined her on
the sofa. The skin on her neck began to prickle, and her insides
went to mush. His hand inched across the middle cushion and
covered hers. The comfort in his touch brought tears to her eyes.

“Dad told me that Joe couldn’t have left this world in a better
way. That he would have wanted it this way if he’d had a choice.”

“I keep hearing his last words. He said, `Good night, sweetheart.’ He was talking to Molly. He was in the bed they’d shared,
wasn’t he?” Fancy asked.

Theron nodded and swallowed past the lump in his throat.

“I still want that, Theron. I can’t settle for anything less.”