Down Home Dixie (20 page)

The road looped back around, and suddenly the only thing between him and the accident scene was a wide fenced field. He was too far away to register many particulars, but he was able to make out the tanker lying on its side and the blue car it had hit. The car was crushed, the engine rammed back into the passenger compartment. He braked and scanned the scene.

An ambulance was driving away from the wreck, traveling slowly as if in no particular hurry. That was bad. If a survivor were riding in the ambulance, it would be rushing to the hospital.

The car.
A blue car, and the blue the exact shade of Dixie's Mustang. The deputy had said the car was a convertible. His heart quickened, and he could scarcely breathe. Despite her penchant for fast driving, he wouldn't let himself believe that it could be Dixie. He racked his brains trying to remember what she was going to do that day. She'd mentioned appointments, she said she was going to the Eat Right for breakfast, and by now she'd be home.

Or
would
she be at home with Andrea staked out there? The house Dixie hoped to sell Lana was located off the Allentown Road, so she could have had a reason to go there today, especially late in the afternoon when Lana would have left work and might insist on taking another look.

He speeded up. If he could find an alternate route leading back to the Allentown Road, maybe approaching from the opposite direction, he'd be able to check and make sure that Dixie wasn't involved. His heart in his throat, he dialed her cell-phone number. She didn't answer, and his palms began to sweat. Dixie always kept her phone nearby in case she received a business call. She was hardly ever without it. Oh, if it was Dixie in that accident, he'd never forgive himself for that morning.

Sometimes when you're threatened with losing someone you love, you begin to see things with crystal clarity. You realize where you went wrong and what you should have done instead. Kyle felt everything tumbling in on him, and the very things about their relationship that he had contemplated only a few moments ago became monumental in importance. All the things he should have done, that he should have said, and what if he never had the chance? What if he lost Dixie, the most precious human being in the world? What if he never got to buy her that engagement ring?

Frantic by now, fighting the sharp bite of nausea in his gut, he slowed to assess an unpaved road on his right, but it turned out to be a driveway. It wouldn't take him back to the accident scene, so he kept going, exceeding the speed limit now, unable to worry about the slick highway or the many curves or his own well-being. He needed to know Dixie was safe.

Now he was in familiar territory. He passed the turnoff to the lake, and coming up was a familiar roadside sign touting nematocides. Beyond that, Memaw Frances's house nestled into the tree-dotted landscape, but he wouldn't stop there. He needed to get home. He needed Dixie.

At Frances's house, a number of cars were parked out front. He braked sharply as he noticed Bubba's truck. Another car he didn't recognize was there, and on the other side of it was a blue one. A Mustang convertible.

Relief washed over him at the sight of that car. His knees went weak even as his brain grappled with the reality that Dixie was at her memaw's, not in an ambulance. He parked behind Bubba's pickup, where he sat for a long moment and got a grip on himself. When he was ready to open the car door, another worry surfaced. What if something had happened to Frances?

He ran to the front door, hammered on it. By the time someone flung it open, he was ready to burst inside uninvited.

“Why, Kyle,” said Frances, beaming up at him affectionately. “Come in and join us.”

“Is Dixie—?” he stammered, needing to set eyes on her for himself. Because she might not be here, never mind her car out front. It was just a heap of metal and plastic and miscellaneous parts, not a person, and people were the most important thing in the world when they were
your
people. And she was his, he had always known it, and he should have taken steps to make her permanently his long before this.

“Kyle?” Dixie said, and her voice with its Southern lilt was as sweet as the scent of spring flowers borne on a freshening breeze.

She descended the stairs, and the sight of her made his heart leap in his chest. Once he would have disallowed anyone's claim that merely setting eyes on someone could cause such an effect. Once he had considered such notions romantic frippery. But now—now he had Dixie.

She walked to the door as if this was any ordinary day and presented her cheek for his kiss. In that moment, Bubba faded away, and Chad, whom he belatedly noticed leaning against the mantel, and Frances and her friend Dottie, whose car that must be beside Dixie's. For Kyle, no one else existed, and he drew a deep breath and closed his eyes for a long moment of thanksgiving before enfolding Dixie in his arms.

He held her close, the pulse in her temple beating against his cheek, the fragrance of her hair in his nostrils. And he couldn't wait one more instant to tell her how he felt.

He pulled slightly apart so that he could watch her facial expression. He took a deep breath and let the words tumble out.

“Dixie, I love you. I should have told you long ago, and—and I don't understand why I didn't. But if you'll have me, I want to marry you.” His eyes searched the depths of hers, one small part of him afraid that she wouldn't accept. They'd known each other a comparatively short time. But if he was so certain in his own mind that this was the way it should be, surely Dixie was, too.

At first her lovely face registered bewilderment, which gave way to confusion, and his heart almost stopped. Then, at long last, there was joy.

He'd never forget the exquisite happiness in her voice in that moment. “Oh, Kyle. Of course I'll marry you.”

“Do you love me?”
First things first.
He should have found that out before he'd impetuously blurted his proposal, but it wasn't as though his thoughts were arriving sequentially right now.

She blinked. “I love you more than I can say.” Though some of the words came out strangled with emotion, they were what he'd hoped to hear.

He kissed her then, not once but twice, then three times. She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him back in a decidedly lustful manner. That must be what started the hoots and hollers from Bubba and Chad.

Brought back to reality by their commotion, he stopped kissing Dixie. Believe it or not, he'd forgotten that there were any people in the room but the two of them.

Bubba applauded, and Chad joined in. Frances said, “I do declare!” Her friend Dottie appeared nonplussed.

Chad grinned approvingly. “I give you credit, bro. That's the best marriage proposal I've ever heard in my life. Not that I've heard all that many.”

“Me, too,” said Dottie in a quavering voice. She was an elderly woman wearing too much blusher, or maybe she was just embarrassed by the wild display of emotion on his part.

Frances didn't miss a beat. “Welcome to the family,” she said. “Even though you are a Yan—”

“Memaw,” warned Dixie, and Frances bit her lip.

Kyle knew what Frances had been about to say, but she was easy to forgive. “For your information, Frances,” he said, still hanging on to Dixie for dear life, “I'm planning to switch sides. Chad has invited me to join his group of Confederate reenactors.”

“You did?” Dixie asked Chad.

Chad shrugged. “Why not.”

“And you'll try it?” she asked Kyle.

“If they don't mind a Yankee in their midst.”

“Yeehaw!” Chad shouted, a full-blown rebel yell.

“I heard the timer go off in the kitchen,” Frances said. She grabbed Dottie's elbow and bustled off. Following Frances's lead, perhaps understanding his and Dixie's need for privacy, Bubba and Chad announced that it was time to leave.

“We've promised to help Milo move furniture into his new double-wide this evening,” Chad said. “He's got some girlfriend from up north who needs a place to stay. Says she's sick with a cold and has a little dog.”

Dixie and Kyle shared a baffled glance, but it went unobserved by Bubba and Chad, who ducked into the kitchen to say goodbye to Frances and Dottie.

As the two men walked out the door, Kyle was gazing at Dixie, could hardly take his eyes off her. He was glad to be blessedly alone with the woman he loved.

“I have to tell you something,” he said. “I was afraid you'd been in an accident and I panicked. I was terrified that you'd been hurt or worse before I could tell you all that's in my heart. Oh, Dixie, when I saw your car parked here at this house, I felt as if I'd been given a second chance, and I couldn't mess it up. That's why I didn't wait for a more romantic moment to ask you to marry me. If you like, we can do this over with a bouquet of flowers, a ring and beautiful music under the moon somewhere. I'll even get down on bended knee. When I saw you, realized that you were all right, my shattered world came back together again.”

“Wait,” Dixie said. “Why did you think I'd been in an accident?”

He told her about the radio bulletin, the detour and the car that so resembled hers. Her eyes grew round, and she rested her cheek against his shoulder for a moment.

“Dixie, why are you here? Is this some family occasion?”

She led him to the couch and they sat down as she started to explain. “Memaw invited us to stay here until Andrea leaves, and I took her up on it. I told Andrea to tell you, but you haven't seen her. Then Bubba and Chad stopped by because they saw my car parked outside and they wanted to say hi.”

“Right.”

“The surprising thing is, Kyle, that when I got here, Memaw shared a confidence that blows my mind.”

“Which is?” He couldn't stop looking at her, couldn't believe how lucky he was to be the man she loved.

Dixie paused for dramatic effect. “Kyle, Memaw drank moonshine and slept with Granddaddy before she was married. Back in those days, that was an unconventional thing to do.”

After taking a moment to absorb this astonishing information, Kyle threw his head back and laughed. “Your grandmother is my kind of girl.”

“She doesn't mind if we share a bed at her house after all. It's amazing.”

He kissed her forehead. “
You're
amazing. I'm glad I found you.”

“So am I. Oh, bad news. Lana isn't going to buy the house.”

Closing this deal had meant so much to her. “I'm sorry, Dixie.”

She brightened. “Yes, but the day hasn't been a total waste. From my point of view, I mean.”

“Promise me we'll never part in the morning without our goodbye kiss,” he said.

“That's easy. I was out of sorts all day because we started out on a sour note. We won't do that anymore, Kyle.”

“When can we get married?” He'd say the vows tomorrow if they could arrange it.

“We could have a big June wedding in church with bridesmaids and flower girls and a reception at the Moose Hall. I'll borrow Memaw's string of pearls. Oh, and the blue garter that my sister wore at her wedding. I'll wear a long white dress with lots of buttons down the back, a demi-train and—”

“And a real low neckline?” he asked optimistically, figuring that if she was going to insist on a wedding with all the trimmings, there should be something for him to look forward to.

“Maybe. Voncille's daughters can be flower girls, and little Petey can be the ring bearer, and we'll need to find something for Paul to do so he doesn't get bored. Maybe he could recite a poem or something. And—”

“Dixie, honey, slow down. Shouldn't we figure out more practical things first, such as who takes out the garbage?”

“I'm more interested in a band for the reception. There's this group out of Florence—”

He stopped her in midsentence by kissing her. “Let's talk about that later.”

She sighed. “Okay. I'm just so happy and I love you so much and I never want to be apart as long as we live.”

“That's more or less the whole idea of marriage,” he said drily and was rewarded by an incandescent smile.

“Hey, bride-to-be,” he said softly, tipping her face toward his. “There's one thing I want to settle right now.”

“What's that, future husband?” She had tears in her eyes as she spoke, but they were tears for happy, not for sad.

“Have you ever made love on your honeymoon before?”

“No,” she said seriously, “but I'm pretty sure you and I can figure it out just fine.”

Ms. Dixie Lee Smith

and

Mr. Kyle Tecumseh Sherman
have chosen the first day
of their new life together
as June 14, 2008.

You are invited to share in their joy
as they exchange marriage vows
at 7:00 p.m.

Sycamore Branch Community Church
Yewville, South Carolina.

Reception immediately following at the
Loyal Order of the Moose Hall
2129 Palmetto Street
Yewville

Y'all come!