Honky Tonk Christmas (31 page)

Judd snored. Sharlene wrapped her arm around her and cradled her to her side.

If the ceremony lasted much longer, Sharlene was going to flop over on Holt’s shoulder and join Judd in a snoring duet. If she ever did get married, she intended to go to the courthouse like Chigger and Larissa had done. Walk in. Get the license. Say “I do” in front of a judge. Walk out and go make wild passionate love at the nearest motel until neither she nor her groom could stand up straight.

Holt covered a yawn with the back of his hand.

“Boring!” she whispered.

“Amen!” he whispered back.

“The bride and groom have exchanged vows and given their pledge to love all the way through eternity. Let us pray,” the preacher said.

Why didn’t he say until death parted them? Is it because her first husband is gone and that might be disrespectful or did she find that in a bridal book? If Wayne dies in a hunting accident or gets smothered to death in those boobs, angels on wild horses couldn’t drag me to another of Dorie’s weddings.

The preacher cleared his throat at the end of the prayer and then said, “Amen. By the authority vested in me by God and the state of Oklahoma, I now pronounce you man and wife. Wayne, you may kiss your bride.”

“After all that he might need a refresher course in how to kiss,” Sharlene whispered to Holt.

He grinned and squeezed her knee.

After a quick peck that barely qualified as a kiss the bride and groom pranced down the aisle with the children behind them and went into the preacher’s office next to the sanctuary.

“The newlyweds would like me to extend an invitation on their behalf to everyone here to join them in the fellowship hall for a reception. You are free to go there now and the bride and groom will join you in a few minutes following a few pictures taken right here in the sanctuary. Thank you for attending. Friends and family will be the bond that holds this new family together. I ask that you not forget to remember them in your prayers.”

“More like two sections of land will hold them together. Wonder if they had a pre-nup?” Sharlene mumbled.

“What are you muttering about?” Holt asked.

“Nothing that matters.”

The fellowship hall looked like a high school prom. Crepe paper streamers twirled together in pink, silver, and white. A fountain took up the center of the floor with water spewing from two doves’ mouths. The groom’s table had a three-tiered chocolate cake covered with dipped strawberries. Two long tables were laden with every finger food imaginable. But the bride’s table was truly something to behold. The cake sat on a mirror that was at least four feet across. Life-size sugar roses covered the six-layer cake and were scattered on the mirror. Two silver punch bowls flanked the sides.

Loralou and Gloria were standing with their backs to the wall, their eyes wide as they took in the whole scene. Sharlene left Judd in Jenny’s care and joined them.

“Please tell me that you aren’t going to do something like this,” she said from the side of her mouth.

“Not us. We’re having a two o’clock double wedding. We’ve already got it all figured out. No need for finger foods since everyone will have lunch before and go on home before supper. We are having one three-tiered cake for the bride’s table. Since there’s two couples we decided to use fresh daisies on the top instead of the bride and groom thing and a full chocolate sheet cake for the groom’s table with chocolate covered strawberries on top,” Loralou said.

“Add some mints, nuts, and Sharlene’s punch Holt told us about and the jukebox to provide music for a little dancing and that’s the extent of the reception,” Gloria said.

“Decorations?” Sharlene asked.

“An arch with greenery, daisies, and ribbons woven through it for us to stand in front of for a few pictures. Hell, Sharlene, I want to be married, not put on a dramatic production that could win a spot on that redneck marriage television program,” Gloria said.

“Good. I don’t think I could sit through another three act play in such a short time.” Sharlene smiled.

“Here they come,” Gloria said.

Dorie had fastened her train up in the back. Wayne held her hand possessively as if daring anyone to try to take her from him. They went straight to the cake, cut it, and fed each other small bites for the pictures. They locked arms and drank punch from crystal glasses with their names engraved on the sides.

Well, those two gestures should glue the marriage together until… what was it? Oh, yeah, through eternity. I’m not sure it would last that long if their names hadn’t been written on the glasses and if one of those pink sugar roses had a broken thorn. God, I’m getting cynical.

“What are you thinking about? You’ve got a wicked grin,” Holt said.

“Pomp and circumstance,” she said.

“I feel like I should have bought you a corsage and should ask you to dance,” he said.

“Well, praise the lord. I thought I was the only one who saw a senior prom.”

Molly joined them. “Aren’t you going to get in line for cake? Dorie told me that cake cost her as much as she made on the lease last year for the farm. Something that expensive has to taste good.”

Sharlene shuddered. “You are kidding me, aren’t you? A person doesn’t spend that much on a cake that will be destroyed in half an hour. And what in the world is she going to do with all the leftovers? There’s enough cake and food here to feed half the troops in Iraq.”

“Who knows. They are leaving the kids with her mother and going away for a cruise so I don’t know where all the leftovers will go,” Molly said.

“Which house are they going to live in?” Sharlene asked.

“His for now but he’s building her one of those new fancy things. They’ll leave the old house and offer it to the couple he intends to hire. The man will serve as foreman and his wife as cook, baby-sitter, and housekeeper for Dorie. No one knew just how rich Wayne is until now,” Molly said.

“I bet Dorie did,” Sharlene said.

“If I may have your attention, the bride and groom and their parents are now forming a receiving line. Please go through and give them your blessing and then help yourself to the food tables as well as cake and punch,” the preacher announced.

When Sharlene’s turn came to hug the bride, Dorie pulled her close to her side and whispered, “You should’ve paid more attention. I won. You lost. You can have your cowboy carpenter and his kids. I’ve got Wayne and he adores me.”

“I hope you are always as happy as you are today.” Sharlene headed to the punch table to get a drink of something to get the taste of a lie from her mouth.

Molly was right behind her. “Holt and your dad have gone on home with the kids. They’ve had about all of this they could stand and the kids were beginning to fidget. Holt is going to get them bathed and feed them more leftovers. That Waylon does love baked beans and turkey.”

“They could have eaten here,” Sharlene said.

“They’d rather have leftovers and play with puzzles in their pajamas,” Molly told her.

“Me too. Can I go now?”

“In thirty minutes. That way she won’t think she’s got one over on you,” Molly said softly.

“Momma!”

“What she said was rude and I was proud of you for not letting her get under your skin.” Molly patted her on the shoulder.

“I’ll be damned if I let her know it but I’m mad enough to spit tacks.”

“That’s my girl. I knew you got some of my genes.”

At birth, babies do not get a signed document from the hospital saying that life is going to always be totally fair. If they did Sharlene wouldn’t be staring out the window at two travel trailers parked in the backyard. Kent and Loralou could talk about their day and all those in the future. Chad and Gloria could do the same. It just plain wasn’t fair that she was in one room and Holt in another.

While she was wallowing in the pity pool she realized how much she’d come to value their friendship. When they’d had sex it set the world off its axis several degrees and when they argued it was with passion. When she was in his arms the nightmares disappeared and all that was very good. But she would miss the friendship as much as the passion when he left Mingus.

She watched the clock as she waited for him every weekday to arrive at the beer joint to get the kids. While they gathered up their things she’d ask how his job was coming along and he’d tell her what they accomplished that day. He’d ask about her writing and she’d fill him in on the plot development. That fifteen minutes after his workday ended was the highlight of her day and she didn’t realize it until right then.

“It was like the building of the addition. We started out with a foundation. Him taking care of me when I was piss drunk. Then the walls. Him sharing the kids with me. Then the roof. Coming to Corn with me for a weekend. Then the finish work. One day building on the next and now I’m in love with the man and there’s nothing I can do about it,” she said.

A gentle rap on her door brought her up out of the bed. She opened it to find Holt leaned up against the jamb. He wore flannel bottoms and a white T-shirt, his hair was all mussed, and he had enough scruff on his face to prove that he hadn’t shaved since the morning before.

“Can we go to the kitchen and talk?” he asked.

She looked as good with her red curls all frizzled and no makeup as she had all dressed up for the wedding. From the time he carried her piss drunk into the motel until now, he couldn’t think of a single time that she hadn’t been beautiful to him.

She nodded and stepped around him and headed that way. “I could use a cup of hot chocolate. Want one?”

“I’d rather have a glass of tea,” he whispered.

She turned on the light above the stove and heated milk in a pan for hot chocolate. He filled a glass with ice and poured sweet tea over it.

“What do you want to talk about?” She poured a package of hot chocolate mix into the milk and stirred.

He sat down at the small kitchen table in the semi-dark. “I missed talking to you. We haven’t really hashed out this move and I didn’t tell you that we are going to have the last of the barn done next week and Elmer and Betty really are having a barn dance. It’s for kids and adults too so we want you to go with us. They’re planning it for Sunday night before you leave on Wednesday to see all your friends and sign books. By the time you get back from that we’ll be moved up here. That’s going to be tough on the kids,” he said.

She pulled out a chair on the opposite side and sat down. “And you?”

“Sharlene, my heart tells me it’s the right thing. Everything is working to that end so smoothly,” he said.

“Except?” she asked miserably.

“Us.”

“I’m not sure there ever could be an us. We are fantastic in bed. You make the nightmares disappear when you hold me. But…”

“Does there always have to be a but?” he asked.

Her smile was bittersweet. “Most of the time. In this case the but is what I do and have been.”

“Hell, I don’t care what you have been, Sharlene. You deserve a medal for what you did for this country. That doesn’t bother me a bit. I do not have a problem with that,” he said.

“Go on to the next but then. My beer joint?”

“Used to, but not anymore. It’s the location of the beer joint. I’m going to live in Corn. I’ll build you one right next to the post office in Corn if you want one,” he said.

She swallowed quickly to keep from spewing hot liquid all over the table. “Holt, look around Corn. It’s Mennonite country. Religious as the angels in heaven. A beer joint would go bankrupt the first month.”

“You can’t tell me everyone in this county is a tee-totaler,” Holt said.

“No, but they don’t frequent beer joints enough to keep them in business. If they do it’s not in their own backyard. They might go partying over in Weatherford or in Oklahoma City, but not right here in Corn. And what happens if I move up here and we decide we can’t stand each other?”

“Then at least we’d know,” he said.

“Did my parents put you up to this? Did they make a bunch of calls and offer you the moon to move to Corn?” The light was beginning to dawn and it was so bright that it threatened to blind her.

“No, they did not. When we got home last September the kids kept talking about the farm and how much fun they had. Judd asked me if your parents could be her real grandmother and grandfather. I was the one who made the first call and asked Claud if he and your family was serious about needing a year’s worth of work done up here.”

The light dimmed. “And Dorie’s calls?”

“She got my business number from the Internet and called me twice.”

“Twice?”

“First time to flirt. Second to tell me she was going on a date with Wayne and basically to make sure there wasn’t a chance for the two of us,” he said. “I guess when she figured out the difference in our bank accounts the flirting changed horses in the middle of the stream.”

“I see. So the job out at Elmer’s is about done?” Sharlene heard the pain in her own voice.

“Next few days it will be. Putting up a barn doesn’t take as long as adding a room onto Merle’s house or an addition to the Honky Tonk. Oh, by the way, Betty said she’d pick up the kids at school on Monday so you don’t have to hurry home. We’ll be heading back that way right after lunch tomorrow so we can get the laundry caught up. I think Kent and Loralou are staying until lunch but Chad and Gloria are pulling out at dawn. She promised her family they’d be there for an engagement dinner tomorrow at noon.”

“I’ll be home in time to get the kids at school. I don’t want to miss a single day with them,” she said.

“If you change your mind, just call Betty. I’ve missed you these last couple of days. We’ve been living under the same roof and actually see each other more but we haven’t had any time alone.” He reached across the table and laid his hands over hers.

“Me too. Guess we’d better get used to it, hadn’t we?” She didn’t want him to ever take his hands away, to always be there to keep the monsters at bay, to hold her while she went to sleep. But she could not leave Mingus or the Honky Tonk.

He nodded and stood up. He led her down the hall and stopped in front of her bedroom door and brushed a soft kiss across her lips. “Good night, Sharlene.”

“Good night.” She gently closed the door and fell back on the bed. Even a peck on the lips was enough to create a topsy-turvy swirl that flashed bright colors and made her heart thump.

It would be better when she was home in the Honky Tonk in her old routine. Even though it would tear her heart out by the roots she would be better when they were gone and it was all finished. It would heal eventually and life would go on.

“No, it won’t!” Her face crumpled and the dam broke. Tears flowed like a river down sides of her face and into her ears. She swiped at them with the back of her hand and buried her face in a pillow so no one could hear her sobs.

She slept poorly with even more vivid nightmares waking her more than once in drenching sweat and an aching chest. Finally at five o’clock she took a shower, dressed in fresh pajamas, and padded to the kitchen.

“Well, good morning, sunshine,” Claud said from the stove. “Coffee just quit perking. You must’ve smelled it.”

“You made real coffee.” She smiled.

“Sunday morning coffee. Made on the stove until it’s just the right color. Not any of that drip through the pot one time stuff,” he said.

From way back when she was a little girl in one-piece pajamas that zipped up the front she could remember going to the kitchen on Sunday morning to find her dad making coffee in an old glass percolator on the kitchen stove. He’d pour her a cup full in a tiny little espresso cup that had belonged to her grandmother and they’d sit at the table together.

That morning he opened the cabinet to get their cups and spied the small gold cup and brought it down. She swallowed hard and pasted a smile on her face when he filled it and carefully passed it to her.

“I figured that would have gotten lost years ago,” she said.

“Some things, like home and family and little gold cups, are precious enough for a father to preserve,” he said.

“I wish I could be that little girl again,” she whispered.

“You always will be to me. Now let’s talk about Christmas before you cry. It’s on Saturday. Can you get your help to take care of your business and stay a few days? By then the crew will be settled in and Judd and Waylon will be itching to show you their new house. Judd told me she wants to paint it blue and pink and yellow.”

“And I bet Holt rushed right out and had the paint mixed,” Sharlene said.

Claud chuckled. “He asked her which she wanted for Christmas most. A multicolored house or what she asked Santa for?”

Sharlene finished the coffee in the small cup and poured more. “Do you know what she and Waylon asked for?”

“No, I understand that it’s between them and Santa and they don’t have to tell anyone else. Remember when you asked Santa for a wagon that Christmas?”

Sharlene nodded. “I sat on his knee at the store over in Weatherford and whispered in his ear. How’d you find out what I asked for anyway?”

“You told Jeff on Christmas Eve morning. Your momma had twenty dollars in the cookie jar that she’d been saving to buy one of them fancy mixers. Jeff told her and she gave me that money and told me not to come home until I found a wagon. I went to Oklahoma City and visited six stores. The last one had one little red wagon left and it was under the tree for you on Christmas morning.”

Sharlene swallowed but the lump wouldn’t go down. “No one ever told me that story.”

“Didn’t need to tell you. Shall we have pumpkin pancakes for breakfast?”

“I’d like that, Daddy,” she said. “If the kids tell anyone what they want, will you tell me?”

“I reckon I could do that if I get downwind of a conversation.” He smiled.

***

Sharlene dressed in jeans, a bright green sweater, and her cowboy boots. The week had passed like a whirlwind. She’d barely gotten home on Monday in time to get the kids at school and then every single night had been a record breaker at the Honky Tonk. Add that to polishing off the last two chapters of her book, proofing it, and sending the final draft to her editor on Saturday and the time had whizzed by.

She brushed on a little blush, applied mascara and a touch of green eye shadow, and slapped a layer of lipstick across her lips. She picked up her purse and slung a leather bomber jacket over her shoulder and headed out to the garage.

“Two more days to spend a little time with the kids and see Holt and then it’ll be all over. I’ll be busy with this trip and then I’ll start a new book and it will take all my time. Maybe I’ll go to the shelter and pick out a cat. I think I’d like a big black fluffy one this time since my next book has a black cat in it.” She talked to herself as she crawled into the pink VW Bug and headed east toward Elmer and Betty’s place for the new barn party and dance.

Judd met her at the door and grabbed her hand tightly. “We been waiting for you. Did you know that there’s a real band up there with real guitars and everything and that they are playing for us to dance? And there’s food over there and Betty says everyone can just eat when they want kind of like at Granny’s house and this barn ain’t got no cats yet but Betty says it will have when we come back to visit you and maybe even kittens and you have to bring us to see them.” She inhaled deeply and took off on another tangent. “And did you know that we are moving up there to live in their town and me and Waylon get to go to their church and we get to see them on Sunday dinnertime? Ain’t it going to be wonderful?”

“Are you going to miss me?” Sharlene asked.

“Yep, but you got to go on the book thing before you can come home for Christmas and after that I won’t never miss you no more,” Judd said.

“Why won’t you miss me?” Sharlene asked.

“You’ll be in Corn with me and Waylon!” Judd let go of Sharlene’s hand and waved at Merle. “I got to go talk to Merle. She don’t have a little girl like you got me and she needs someone to make her happy.”

“You look stunning,” Holt said right behind her.

“Thank you. You look pretty handsome yourself. Haven’t you told Judd and Waylon that I’m not moving?”

“I did but they just giggle and put their heads together,” he said.

“Maybe I need to talk to them,” she said.

“Go ahead but they won’t believe you either.”

He wore starched, creased jeans, bunched up just right over his boot tops, a plaid western shirt, and he’d gotten a haircut since she’d seen him on Friday. She wanted to take him up to the hay mow and spend her whole evening with him. Time was speeding and every moment was precious.

“May I have this dance?” He held out his hand when the band started playing “To Make You Feel My Love.”

She melted into his arms. “This is the song that Larissa and Hank danced to at their wedding reception. It was one of those moments.”

“So is this,” Holt whispered into her hair. His heart was torn in half as he waltzed around the dance floor with Sharlene in his arms. He wanted to move to Oklahoma. It was the right thing to do but how could he ever live without Sharlene and when in the hell had he fallen in love with her?