Honky Tonk Christmas (22 page)

“It’s not that easy.” Sharlene sat up and reached for her boots. “I’ve got to get back to the Honky Tonk.”

“Stay around. I’ll make breakfast. Do you like biscuits and gravy?”

Judd danced a jig right there in her pajamas. “Waylon, she’s goin’ to stay and eat with us. When she eats Uncle Holt’s biscuits she’ll let us ’dopt her, I just know it.”

Holt couldn’t keep the grin off his face. He was falling for the woman and didn’t know what to do about it.

She couldn’t tell them no so she dropped her boots. “What can I do to help?”

The day started like any other routine day for a fine fall October day. A few trees were starting to show some yellow and burgundy color. The thermometer finally dipped down below the hotter-than-hell mark. It had been two weeks since she’d fallen asleep on Holt’s sofa and the kids bugged the devil out of her every day wanting to know if she was coming home with them to spend the night.

Sharlene arose just before noon, spent two hours in front of her computer, drove to the school in her pink VW Bug, and picked up the children and brought them back to the apartment. She sliced apples, opened a container of caramel dip, and poured two glasses of milk for after school snacks. Normally the children changed clothes and raced out the door to play on the jungle gym and swings for a couple of hours while Holt and the guys finished their day. But that day it was pouring down rain and thundering so she suggested they take their Lincoln Logs and play with them in the Honky Tonk.

She’d known things were coming to an end for a few days but had no idea when the last piece of trim went up around the ceiling that evening that the job would be completely finished and right on time. When she and the kids opened the door into the empty beer joint, she found Holt and Kent sweeping the floor of the new room. Folding wooden doors that could be pulled shut had been installed. All that remained was moving the pool tables, jukeboxes, and tables and the room would be in operation. The idea that Holt wouldn’t be there every day hit her in the gut like a boxing glove on the fist of a professional boxer.

“Done and in record time,” Kent said. “Now it’s on to Merle’s to put a new room on her house. She says she’s too old to be climbing up and down basement steps so she’s hired us to build a room that’s basically all windows and faces the west so she can watch the sun go down every day.”

“What?” Sharlene asked.

Kent repeated what he’d just said.

“She didn’t tell me,” Sharlene said.

Judd patted her leg and pointed into the new room. “Can we play in here today?”

“Of course you can. Set up your Lincoln Logs in the middle of the floor and build something while Holt and I get the finances settled,” Sharlene said.

“Merle came by while you were getting the kids yesterday and talked to us. We don’t have anything else on the calendar so we took the job,” Holt explained.

“Can we keep our trailer spaces since we’re staying in town?” Kent asked.

“Can I rent the house?” Holt asked.

“Yes to both. Now let’s go sit down and take care of the final payment. When do you start Merle’s job?”

The men followed her to the bar where she pulled a checkbook from a file cabinet under the cash register. She hadn’t considered what would happen when the addition was finished. The thought of Holt leaving sent cold chills down her back. They’d become friends in the last few weeks, sharing the children and duties and talking a few minutes about his day and her writing each evening before he left.

“We start tomorrow,” Holt said. “Should take us about a month. I’m hoping to be able to stay in the area until Christmas so the kids won’t have to start school somewhere else until semester break. I think that would be easier on them.”

That gives me three months. To do what? It’s been a month since that night in the barn at Corn and he hasn’t even kissed you since he brought you home that evening. What does three more months get you? Maybe Dorie has been calling him every night and he’s decided that that hour he spent with her was the turning point in his life. Damn that woman anyway. I wish she’d get so fat that all that cleavage would be swallowed up in cellulite.

Holt figured the rest of his bill and laid it on the bar. She looked at it and whistled through her teeth. “That’s considerably less than your original estimate.”

“We finished quicker. Mainly because you helped with the kids so you reap the benefits,” he said.

“Thank you for your honesty,” she said.

“How much you going to charge me for rent now that we are done?” Holt asked.

She handed him the check when she finished writing it. “I’ll make you a deal. You can have the house if I can continue to keep the kids after school.”

“That’s not a deal.” Holt frowned. “I was going to ask you to watch them and I’d pay you.”

“Shut up. Don’t you see the golden goose when it’s right in front of you?” Kent asked.

Holt had dreaded Friday all week, knowing that the job would be finished barring any major problems.

“So?” Sharlene held her breath.

“Sounds like a fantastic deal to me. But I’d still be glad to pay rent and baby-sitting fees,” he said.

She waved the idea away. “We’ll talk about it again later. Right now I don’t have time to think about anything.”

“Then how can you have time to keep two rambunctious twins who are forever arguing?” Holt asked.

“They are my inspiration. They put order into my day. I’ve gotten more done this past month than my editor can believe. I get up and know that I’ve got to get so much done before I get the kids at school. I take a break with them, refresh my mind, laugh at their arguments, and after they leave I’m ready to write another couple of hours before the Tonk opens. I’ve got a routine and if I can keep it going, I’ll have my book done by mid-December. Then my celebration will be even better. One will be on the market, the new Tonk can be christened, and the next one will be finished and on the way to the publisher.”

“You talk too much.” Holt grinned.

“That is not a secret and you knew it from the beginning,” she said.

“Maybe that’s where Judd gets it,” Kent said.

“Probably. She already had the tendency but being around Sharlene all this time didn’t curb it a bit. She’ll be even worse by Christmas,” Holt said.

“Is that a bad thing?” Sharlene asked. If only she could find a reason to fight with him or not like him, it would be so much easier to see him leave.

“It is,” Holt nodded. “The hardest lesson some folks never learn is when to shut up and listen. Judd needs to learn that.”

“Are you saying that I don’t know when to shut up?”

“No, I love to listen to you talk. Your voice is soothing but talking just to hear the sound of your own voice is what Judd does,” Holt said.

Were they finally having a big battle? If they did would he get over the attraction he had for her and get on with his life?

“Hey, no fighting on celebration day!” Kent said. “Break out a bottle of champagne and let’s celebrate, Sharlene.”

“We’ll celebrate on Christmas Eve when we christen the new room and have our party. You are all invited.”

“Even the kids?” Holt asked.

“The party is going to be held in the afternoon. Larissa is bringing Ruby. Cathy and Travis will have their baby by then and Daisy and Jarod’s child will be over a year old. So there will be children here. Also the old crowds, like Chigger and Jim Bob and their kids and Billy Bob and his wife and their combined family. Garret and Angel. Merle and Amos and everyone that has had a part in the stories of the Honky Tonk all these years. They’re all going to come around sometime in the afternoon. I’ve already sent invitations so they could plan their holidays in advance,” she said.

“So among all that talk, I take it that it’s a yes?” he asked.

She shot him a look. “It’s a definite yes. The kids are all invited.”

“Sounds good to me. I’m picking up Loralou for supper and then we’re going to a movie, so I’m leaving.” Kent waved at the kids and headed out the door.

“Where’s Chad and Bennie?” Sharlene asked.

“Chad went on up to Wichita about an hour ago. Bennie’s outside putting the equipment in the trailer,” Holt said.

He’d see her every day when he picked up the kids after work so why was it so hard to walk away? It seemed like a final good-bye and he wasn’t ready.

“It’s only a half an hour from when you usually call it a day. Let’s celebrate by having an early supper at the Smokestack. The kids barely ate half an apple apiece so they’ll be hungry and I got busy and forgot to eat lunch. And we really should have a celebration, don’t you think?”

A slow easy smile toyed with the corners of his mouth. “You do talk too much.”

“You’ve said that before. I’ve acknowledged it. Don’t beat a dead horse until it’s blue.”

“Okay, point taken and I won’t mention it again, ever. Got to admit I didn’t eat much lunch either and I’m starving. So let’s celebrate. Hey kids, put your toys away and we’ll go out to eat.” Holt’s voice echoed in the emptiness of the new room.

“Where are we going? Can I have French fries and gravy? Is it McDonald’s? I didn’t know there was a McDonald’s here in Mingus. You didn’t tell me, Uncle Holt. Where is it anyway and how come you didn’t tell me?” Judd asked.

Holt and Sharlene looked at each other and started laughing.

“What’s so funny about McDonald’s? Do they have a jungle gym and can we play on it if it’s not outside and in the rain and move your ass, Waylon, we’re going to McDonald’s and you got to put your half of the toys in the bucket,” Judd said.

“Judd!” Holt exclaimed.

Judd did a head wiggle and said, “Sorry about that. Sometimes he’s slow and won’t get busy. He thinks he’s got to take it all down one piece at a time when he could pick up a whole handful and besides, it was a castle not a fort and he didn’t even want it to be a castle so why does it matter how it comes apart?”

“Ah, stop your belly achin’, Judd. You talk so much it hurts my ears,” Waylon said.

“Arguing slows you down. And we’re not going to McDonald’s, Judd. So that answers your question about playing on the equipment. We’re going to the Smokestack,” Holt said.

“Well, damn,” Judd said.

“Judd!” Holt said again.

“Well, Uncle Holt, sometimes them bad words just slip out and I don’t even know it until they’re already said and I can’t put them back in my mouth. I would if I could but it don’t work that way. I love this room. I’m going to grow up and own a honky tonk and have a room like this. Will you build it for me? And the people are going to come and dance just like they do here. Sharlene, will you show me how to be a honky tonk owner?”

Sharlene blushed. “When you grow up you’re going to fly airplanes or be a lawyer or maybe even be the president of the United States, Judd.”

“And the teacher said if she says another word like that then she has to stand on the wall next time. They might not let her be president if she don’t stop saying bad words,” Waylon said. “Today she said she was going to kick Jerrell’s ass up between his shoulders and he said he’d whup her all over the playground if she tried.”

Holt left the barstool and leaned on the doorjamb into the new room. “Why’d you say that?”

“Because he was picking on Waylon. He said Waylon wasn’t a real cowboy and real cowboys was all that could belong to their club and Waylon wanted to play football with them and they wouldn’t let him because he didn’t wear cowboy boots,” Judd said.

Holt’s jaw worked in anger. “Next time you go tell the teacher.”

“Next time I’ll whip his sorry old ass only I’ll just do it instead of using a bad word,” Judd said seriously. “I might have to stand on the wall but it won’t be for saying a dirty word and I bet Jerrell ain’t so big in his fancy old cowboy boots after that.”

“No more dirty words or you’re going to stand on the wall in the restaurant,” Holt threatened.

“Okay, okay. But it’d be worth it if Jerrell got his… hind end… whuped.”

Holt went back to the bar. “What am I going to do with her?”

“My dad loved me like I was,” she said.

“Claud Waverly is a bigger man than I am,” Holt said.

Half an hour later they were seated in the first table on the west side of the Smokestack: Judd and Sharlene on one side with Holt and Waylon on the other. Sharlene and Holt ordered chicken fried steaks. Judd asked for French fries, a grilled cheese sandwich, and green beans. Waylon wanted a hamburger with mashed potatoes and gravy on the side.

When their food arrived, Judd laid both her hands on the table. “I’m the youngest so Gramps said the youngest got to say the prayer and everyone has to hold hands and bow your head and shut your eyes while I say it.”

Waylon slipped his hand into Holt’s and Judd’s. She looked at Sharlene who obeyed with her left hand and reached toward Holt with her right. It was the first physical contact they’d had since he kissed her two weeks before but the heat hadn’t cooled a bit.

Holt wondered what he was going to do about the attraction. Was it fatal? Would it kill his heart and soul when he moved away from Mingus and Sharlene? Or would the old adage about out of sight, out of mind work for him?

Sharlene didn’t want to let go of Holt’s callused hand or the emotions it caused. If she put her hand in his permanently there would be peace in her heart and soul and the nightmares would go away. But he’d never really ask a barmaid to raise his kids. It was all right for her to watch them a couple of hours after school but anything more than that would be like asking God to send an air conditioner to hell for Lucifer.

Waylon shut his eyes and hoped that if Jerrell yelled at him again that Judd did beat the crap out of him. He’d even stand on the wall for her if she’d knock Jerrell down and black his eye or make his nose bleed.

Judd looked around to be sure that everyone had their eyes shut and began, “Now I lay me down to sleep. Thank you God for these good green beans and for Waylon’s mashed potatoes. Uncle Holt’s have lumps in them and Waylon don’t like lumps in his potatoes. And thank you God for Sharlene. Make Uncle Holt like her so she’ll come and live with us all the time and make me pretty for school so that rotten Emily won’t make fun of my hair. And help me to stop using bad words but if I get in a fight with Jerrell help me whip his mean old… hind end… all over the school yard so he’ll leave Waylon alone. And…”

“Amen!” Waylon said and dropped both Judd’s and Holt’s hands.

Judd jerked her head up and glared at him. “You don’t interrupt a prayer. You won’t get to go to heaven with Momma if you don’t let me talk to God before we eat.”

“Yes I will and my potatoes are getting cold and I don’t like them cold. And God says that you talk too much anyway.” Waylon filled his mouth with potatoes and gravy.