Coal Black Blues (14 page)

Although he remained cheerful, Caroline realized he hadn’t banished his fatalistic ideas when he answered with a shrug. “It doesn’t matter. They’ll turn out cleaner than they were but in the face of everything else, it’s not that important. I won’t need them for all that long.”

Caroline played dumb. “I hope that’s because you’re thinking about coming into the store with me?”

Neil gazed down at her, wearing one of the saddest expressions she’d ever seen. “That or whatever happens,” he said. “Have you ever heard old folks say someone walked over their grave?”

“Of course.”

“That’s how I feel.”

“It doesn’t mean anything, Neil.”

He said nothing and sighed. After a long silence, he said, “I hope it doesn’t, Carrie. I just know how it feels. It’s not what I want.”

She wanted to cry, bury her face in both hands and sob like a heartbroken child. Caroline had mistaken his good mood for a change of heart and there was none. It required every bit of inner strength she possessed and all the control she could muster to remain calm.

“You know it’s not what I want either,” she told him. “I don’t want to talk about it anymore.”

His grin was genuine. “Then we won’t, honey.”

And they didn’t.

Maybe, Caroline hoped, they never would again. Nothing bad would happen. Neil would live and he’d see how wrong he had been. Someday they would laugh about his notion. but right now, it hung heavy over them like smoke from a slow fire, acrid and impossible to ignore no matter how hard she tried.

Chapter Sixteen

He kept his word and said no more dreadful things for the rest of the day. At the store, Neil settled down at the table with a cup of coffee and held court with a changing cast of locals. Caroline, behind the register, watched with fondness. Snatches of his conversations carried across the store noise and reached her. She rang up fuel purchases, washed her hands to serve chicken tenders and catfish strips, and chatted with each customer. By now, most everyone who came into Carrie’s Corner knew who she was and the legacy. They also knew she was with Neil and that granted her an approval even deeper. As far as Caroline could tell, most people liked Neil and treated him with respect. They shared jokes, mostly clean, some even corny. She lost count of how many times someone slapped him on the back or patted his shoulder. Almost all told him they were glad he’d got over his illness and the majority had prayed for him. He accepted it all, she saw, and gave back the same affectionate regard. If he joined her in running the store, he would be a natural. He could deal with the public and since he’d helped her get things set up when she re-opened the place, Caroline had no doubt he could handle the business details with skill.

Business remained steady until around four thirty, quarter to five. By then, dark settled over the mountains like a quilt. Most people who wanted entertainment, dining, drinking, shopping or a movie, headed for the brighter lights of Charleston. Those who didn’t went home to watch a movie or decorate for the holidays. Caroline put down the last batch of catfish fillets in the deep fryer and when they were finished, she divided them between two plates. She added some fries and got a container of slaw from the cold case.

“Let’s eat while it’s not busy,” she said as she delivered the plates to the table. Neither had eaten since morning. “I’m hungry.”

“I am, too,” Neil said. “Thank you, honey.”

The fish turned out perfect, crunchy on the outside, tender within. Caroline added a little salt and savored the taste. Neil devoured his meal and scraped the last of the cold slaw up with a plastic spoon before she’d finished.

“That was good,” he said. He rested his head on his steepled hands. “Have you thought anymore about remodeling the office into a kitchen?”

“I have,” she said. She’d considered it often. Caroline wanted to do it, but she also feared the cost of expansion.

“It’s a good idea, but have you thought about putting a deli counter with all the food in back? There’s more room, and instead of using the office, you could partition off part of the storeroom instead.”

Caroline saw some advantages, especially more space, but she hesitated. “I’d have to hire someone to run it if I did. It’s too far from the cash register.”

Neil picked up her right hand. “It’d be better in a lot of ways. Since you’re taking money and serving food, you have to keep washing your hands all the time. I think it would go over huge. You sold a lot of fish and tenders and fries today, quite a few hot dogs, too.”

She nodded. “They sell pretty well most days. The cold sandwiches, too.”

“You—or someone you hired—could make those here a lot cheaper and they’d taste better.”

“I agree.” Caroline valued his input. He had good ideas and he wasn’t afraid of working hard or getting his hands dirty. “We could do a lot with the idea, that’s true.”

“Down the road a while, you might think about building on the end and putting in a laundromat. It’d do a big business, with the mines and just with people who don’t have a washer at home.”

She laughed. “I bet you thought that one up this morning.”

He grinned. “I did. What do you think?”

“It’s a great idea. It would be a while though, a year or two, maybe three. I want to get this place running in the black, making a profit before I do much expanding. I’ll do the food items, though. I thought maybe sometime after the first of the year we could get started. You probably know some contractors to give me estimates.”

Neil’s face sobered. “I do and I will if I’m around.”

Once, she would’ve thought he meant his availability around his work schedule but now, after all he’d said, Caroline got another meaning. She didn’t like it. Her appetite vanished and she put down the last piece of fish, one she’d hardly touched. The afternoon had gone well and so she chose to ignore his statement. If she said anything, they’d argue or she’d cry. Caroline preferred to avoid both so she picked up his empty plate and her half-full one.

“Are you finished?”

He nodded. “Yeah, I’m done. Aren’t you goin’ to eat the rest of it?”

Caroline glared at him. “No.”

His tone gentled. “Are you okay?”

Was she? Caroline shook her head. “I think I ate too fast.”

What riled her stomach was worry, not how fast or what she’d eaten, but she wasn’t telling him that. Not now. So Caroline turned their conversation to other things including Christmas.

“I saw you brought your old decorations down from the attic,” Neil said. He seemed as eager as she to move away from the difficult topic. “I suppose you want a tree.”

Her smile came easily. “I do, Neil, a real one.”

He laughed. “I wasn’t proposing to put up a fake tree, Carrie. I suppose the supermarkets and nurseries over to Charleston probably have trees out for sale. We can head over there tomorrow if you want or next weekend.”

Caroline shook her head. “I don’t want to put it up until next Saturday or Sunday but I don’t want a tree trucked in from who knows where.”

“What do you want?”

“A cedar tree,” she told him, remembering the aromatic trees her grandparents had always put up. “To me, that’s a real Christmas tree.”

He grinned. “It’ll be a sticky mess, probably shed all over your house, but if it’s what you want…”

“It is.”

“Then I’ll help you find the perfect old-fashioned Christmas tree. There’s some up behind your place and a bunch out by my Uncle Sammy’s place up on Bear Hollow Trail.”

Her mood lifted, at least for the moment. “Okay, sure.”

“Just promise me we’ll put strings of popcorn on it along with whatever you dig out of those boxes,” he said. “And hang red and white striped candy canes on the branches.”

Caroline loved the idea. “It wouldn’t be a proper tree without either one, so yes, I promise.”

“Good. Then we won’t have to go up to town.”

She shook her head. “Yes, we will. I need to do a little Christmas shopping and I want to get some decorations for the store, too. We could do that Saturday and get the tree on Sunday if that works for you.”

“Whatever you want is okay with me, honey. Here comes young Jackson Curtis now. Looks like he won at his wrestling match.”

Caroline’s youngest employee came into the store with a wide grin and brandishing a medal with a ribbon attached. Neil greeted him. “Hey, kid, you won!”

Jackson grinned. “I did. Sorry if I’m a little late.”

“No problem,” Caroline told him. “We were busy, but things slacked off for now.”

“It’ll pick up again before we close,” Jackson told her. “People will run down here for something they forgot to pick up. Some of them will want to fill up their tanks on the way home from town, or grab a late snack.”

“It’s all yours,” she said. “Neil, are you ready to go?”

He came to his feet. “Sure. Do you want to go somewhere, do something?”

“Like what?”

“How about dancing, hot rodding, honky tonkin’, raisin’ hell, or all of the above.”

Caroline laughed. “I hope you’re kidding.”

Neil met her gaze. “I am, Carrie. I’d go if you wanted, but I’m worn out.”

She studied his face and saw how tired he appeared. Dark patches beneath his eyes and fatigue lines aged him. “Good. Then let’s go home.”

On the way, snuggled next to him in the pickup, Hank Williams classic music singing from the speakers, Caroline tasted contentment. She was more at home riding shotgun with Neil than she’d ever been in her years with Dylan. Although it wasn’t the same truck, the music, the night and Neil bridged between her teenage years and now.
It’s almost like no time has passed
, she thought, and yet it was. Caroline had loved him then, but as a seasoned woman, she loved him more now in a deeper, more complete way. The past had provided a foundation on which to build the future she craved.

At the house, Caroline lingered despite the cold and gazed upward at the stars, brilliant over the West Virginia mountains. Wind blew through the cedars behind the house and moaned beneath the eaves, both familiar sounds of home. Neil came behind and put an arm around her. He whispered a question in her ear, one cribbed from the last song they’d listened to on the way. “How’s about cookin’ something up with me?”

She shivered as a delicious anticipation shot through her. She wanted and needed him, craved his closeness and she leaned back into him. “I’d like nothing more, Neil.”

His lips nuzzled the back of her neck. “Then let’s get started.”

His words were tinder to her kindled emotions and charged body. Caroline turned to face him and kissed him back, full and slow. They clung together, despite the bulky coats and she tasted his hunger in her own. She dismissed the cold temperatures, focused on the man who held her in his arms. Left to Caroline, they might’ve tempted frostbite or frozen to death, but Neil pulled back after what seemed like forever. “Let’s go in the house,” he said. “It’s snowing.”

Large white flakes, each one a white lace confection, drifted downward without any hurry. Caroline realized clouds had moved in with speed and covered the stars. When she shivered, she noticed how cold she’d become. Neil’s gloveless hand touched her face and she winced from his frozen fingers. She nodded and reached for his hand, holding it as they went inside.

Neil peeled off his coat and dropped it to the floor. Caroline shucked her outer garments too and practically fell into his arms. While he kissed her with serious intent, she undid the buttons on his shirt and he paused to take his arms out of the sleeves. She pulled the shirt free and dropped it. Neil pulled off his thermal undershirt, baring his chest, scars and all. He removed Caroline’s blouse and bra with urgent motions. Then, in tandem, they undressed until both stood nude in the living room.

One small lamp banished some of the shadows, but the room remained dim. The fire Neil had banked hours earlier had all but gone out, and Caroline thought if she tried, she might see her breath. Instead, she came to Neil and touched him. Her fingers caressed his scars, his chest, his skin anywhere she could. He stood still, as if carved from granite, and let her. Caroline cupped his cheek with one hand. Then she lowered the other to lift his cock into her hand. She held it and it hardened more when she did. Neil made a slight sound, something between a moan and a groan.

“Girl, I want you,” he whispered. In the dim light, his gray eyes reflected darker than usual. “I need you.”

“I’m yours.” She was and had always been, even in the years of separation, even when she hadn’t known it.

Neil pulled her tight against him, his arms locked around her, and kissed her hard but with such tenderness Caroline wanted to weep with joy. Their mouths mingled, lingering in the kiss as if time had no meaning. His tongue strayed between her lips and he French kissed her deep and long. Caroline shuddered with the force of it, the physical need it awakened with emotional power.

His lips strayed from her mouth, kissing both sides of her throat with precise heat. Neil nibbled at her flesh and then bent his head between her breasts. He kissed her there and then used his mouth to suckle her nipples, one at a glorious time. His teeth raked the tender buds just short of pain and caused exquisite delight to erupt. Caroline’s body trembled with it and she thought her legs might buckle.

As Neil kissed and bit, he whispered sweet things, endearments and words of love. “Honey, you’re beautiful as the moon over the mountains,” he crooned. “Baby, I love you. Always did, always will… Oh, sweet Lord, my love, my woman.”

He kneeled down and his warm breath against her thighs almost sent her over the edge. Before Caroline could topple, Neil stopped. He nudged her toward the couch and she sprawled onto it. Quick as a panther in the forest, he straddled her, then lowered his mouth to her pussy.

Neil kissed her and then used his tongue in ways that made her clench both fists and cry out. A warm tide prepared the way and when he said, “I cain’t wait any more, baby,” Caroline needed the release as much as he did. She spread her legs wide to let him enter and he did, swift and as sure as a marksman claiming the bull’s eye.

She convulsed with the incredible rush of pleasure as sensations overcome all her senses. Caroline closed her eyes, unable to see, and let the crescendo hit with force. They bucked together, both crying out as their bodies rocked together in the ancient rhythms. She knew when he came because he stilled, then went deeper and then bellowed his joy.

After, until they caught their breaths and realized how cold the room was around them, they lay together, sated. Neil moved first and when he did, Caroline grieved their connection.

“I’m about to freeze to death,” he said. “And if I don’t move soon, I’ll be too stiff to do it later.”

The mines, she remembered, were hard on the men’s joints, too, often leading to arthritis.