Honky Tonk Christmas (32 page)

Sharlene looked out across the faces of the folks who met in the library that morning in Savannah, Georgia, her first stop. Her friends had made the plans and even paid for the tickets. She’d flown from Dallas to Savannah on the first leg.

Kayla was speaking to a book club group at the library, telling them how she’d met Sharlene and about serving with her through two tours of duty in Iraq.

Sharlene didn’t know what she’d expected, but it certainly wasn’t facing that many people. There must have been forty in attendance ranging from early twenties to one lady who had to be ninety-five.

“Trust me, her new book—which will be available for anyone who wants to purchase one—is not about Iraq. Not that we didn’t talk about romance while we were there. But before I tell you everything and spoil it for you, I give you Sharlene Waverly.” Kayla started the round of applause.

Sharlene had asked Kayla what she should wear and she’d said to be herself. So she walked up to the podium in a denim skirt, red boots, and a jean jacket over a red shell. She adjusted the microphone to a lower level.

“Hi, y’all. Thank you for being here today and for listening to me talk about my love for writing and running a beer joint,” she said. She gave a ten-minute talk and a ten-minute excerpt reading. By the time she sat down her mouth was dry and a line had formed to buy books.

“I told you it would be a success,” Kayla beamed when everyone had left and thirty books had sold. “I ordered thirty-five. I’ve only got enough to give away for Christmas. We did good, girlfriend.”

“Thank you!” Sharlene said.

“I should be thanking you. When all those girls read this hot thing, they’ll think I’m real special since I’m your friend.” Kayla grinned. “Let’s go eat and talk about old times.”

“I’m not drinking,” Sharlene laughed.

“No, you are not. Not after this summer. Did the bartender call a cab? We left money for him.”

“No, Holt Jackson took me back to the hotel. Now that’s a story,” Sharlene said.

“You can tell me over dinner and don’t leave out a thing. With a name like Holt, it has to be a cowboy, right?”

That night she slept in a strange room and wished she was back home in Mingus. Judd and Waylon had had their Christmas program that day at school. As much as she’d enjoyed Kayla and the book signing, she would have rather been at the program listening to Judd sing and Waylon say his part.

***

Holt took off time from packing and went to the kids’ Christmas program. Judd was an angel draped in white with big fluffy wings and a halo. She’d bounced around enough that the halo was slightly off kilter but she did look adorable. Waylon was a snowman, dressed in a white sweat suit with big colorful pompoms pinned to the front of his shirt. He wore a stocking cap and his nose was painted orange like a carrot.

They sang “Jingle Bells,” “Frosty the Snowman,” and then the angels came forward to sing “Silent Night.” Holt was amazed at the clarity in Judd’s voice when she stepped up to the microphone to deliver her lines from the song. Their part of the program ended with the whole kindergarten, first grade, and second grade singing “All I Want for Christmas.”

That brought about a vision of Sharlene sitting in an orange rocking chair on the front porch. As much as he wanted the same thing for his Christmas present, there was no way he could make a miracle happen. He looked at the empty seat beside him and wished she was sitting right there with her hand in his.

***

Sharlene’s next stop was in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. She rented a car at the Harrisburg airport and drove an hour from there to Chambersburg, arriving an hour before time for another book club meeting in a local bookstore.

Joyce knew the owner of the small store in downtown Chambersburg and introduced her to her friends. Sharlene basically told the same story that she’d told the night before and then signed twenty books before the hour was done.

Then she and Joyce went to Red Lobster and dined on seafood while she told Joyce all about Holt.

“I figured Kayla would have beat a path to the nearest phone and spilled the whole story to you before now. Please tell me I didn’t sit here and bore you to tears with that story,” Sharlene said.

“No, she just said not to let you leave without asking you about the cowboy. God, girl, what are you going to do?” Joyce asked.

“Live with it. Can’t be in two places. I love the Honky Tonk and my life there.”

“But you love Holt,” she said.

Hearing the words said aloud brought tears to Sharlene’s eyes. “Sometimes you don’t get everything you want,” she said.

“Looks to me like it’s pretty clean cut. Him or the Tonk. You better think long and hard about it. Now let’s go home. You’ve got to be up early to catch the flight to Florida and no, I’m not telling Lelah a thing about Holt. You’re going to have to tell it all over again. And I’d love to come to your Honky Tonk Christmas thing but I couldn’t possibly leave during that time of year.”

“Some friend you are.”

Joyce laughed. “That’s what you get for getting drunk and passing out.”

Half an hour later she’d kicked her boots off and peeled off her clothes, and taken a long hot shower before putting on a worn old nightshirt that reminded her of home. She dug her cell phone out of her purse and called the Tonk. The noise in the background brought tears to her eyes.

“Hey, famous lady,” Darla said. “How’d it go today?”

“It went fine. I’m tired of talking,” Sharlene said.

“I don’t believe it. And you got the rest of the week to go?”

“Yes, I do. By the time I get home I may be mute for a month.”

“I’ll believe it when I see it. Miss us?”

“It seems like I’ve been gone a month,” Sharlene said. “Hey, I’ve got a beep here. Tell Tessa and Luther hi for me. I’ll call again tomorrow night.” She hit the right buttons and said, “Hello?”

Holt’s deep southern drawl sent shivers trailing down her backbone. “Sharlene, how did it go?”

“It was fine. Now tell me about the kids’ program yesterday. Did Judd sing good? She’s got the voice of an angel and how did Waylon do? Did he deliver his lines without stuttering? We’ve been working on them all week. I can’t believe they had the program when I couldn’t be there. It wasn’t fair.”

Holt laughed.

She shut her eyes. “Holt, I’ve got an idea. Your work is finished at the barn and the kids only have two more days of school before Christmas break. Why don’t y’all fly to Florida tomorrow and see me. You can finish the book tour with me. The kids would love all the flying and seeing new places. Y’all could sightsee while I do my stuff and we could be together at night.”

A long pause on the other end gave her hope that he was thinking about the proposition. “Sharlene, we agreed, no good-byes because you’ll be in Corn for Christmas and no regrets. That would be fun but I’ve got to move and get things in motion. We start our first project on January fourth.”

“I’m lonely,” she said.

“It wouldn’t change anything, would it?”

“No.”

“Okay, then let me tell you all about the program and we’ll forget that you came up with such an idea. Judd’s halo was crooked but she put on quite a dramatic show when she was singing her song. She rolled her eyes toward the spotlights and tilted her chin up like she was a real angel just waiting to go to heaven. And Waylon stepped up to that mic and spit out his lines louder than any snowman I’d ever heard. You would have been so proud of them.” He went on to regale her with every detail he could remember.

“Did you ever find out what they want for Christmas? I could look for it while I’m out and about between engagements,” she said.

“Merle told me but I’m sworn to secrecy and I’m afraid it’ll take a miracle,” he said.

“Tell me. I might be able to do a miracle.”

“You might but I can’t tell you because it’s a secret. Merle swore she’d put out a contract on me if I told.”

“I miss home,” Sharlene said softly.

“Home misses you,” Holt whispered. She’d never know how much it hurt to tell her no. His heart was screaming at him to catch the next flight from Dallas to Florida and spend as much time as he could with her, but he couldn’t. The split threatened to kill him; seeing her again would make it only more difficult. He couldn’t even look at the orange chairs without his chest drawing up in knots and when the kids kept saying that they’d have Sharlene after Christmas, his mind went stone cold numb.

***

Sharlene fell in love with the white sand at Panama City Beach. Lelah’s condo opened onto a deck with steps leading right down onto the beach. After talking to the library group, she and Lelah had dinner together then Lelah got called to the hospital for an emergency shift. She felt horrible but at least she’d gotten to hear the Holt story. She told Sharlene to make herself at home and enjoy anything she could find.

Sharlene threw her clothes on the bed, donned a pair of cutoff jeans and a T-shirt, and went for a long walk in her bare feet up the beach at the water’s edge. The surf licked her toes as it rolled in and out and the sun set at the edge of the world.

If they had joined her, Judd and Waylon would be squealing and dancing in and out of the water as the waves splashed up onto the sand. They’d have a competition going about who could build the biggest sand castle or who could make the most footprints in the sand. She picked up a handful of shells and tucked them into a pocket made by folding up the hem of her shirt. She’d give them to the kids at Christmas and tell them all about the beautiful shore.

The sun was a brilliant array of colors when she made it back to her deck. She filled a glass with water and watched the day end from an Adirondack chair and yearned for Holt to share the sight with her.

She called him that night and found that he had most of the packing done. Claud had talked to the right people and the utilities would be turned on in the house where he and the kids would be living. They planned to leave right after school the next day. Judd and Waylon were both floating around on clouds and couldn’t wait to get there and have Christmas.

“One last favor, please,” he asked. “Would you sell me one of the orange rocking chairs?”

“Hell no!”

“Please. They want their Christmas present delivered in the orange rocking chair. If I can work a miracle it won’t be the whole package if I don’t have a rocking chair to put it in on Christmas morning,” he said.

It would be symbolic of the split. One would stay in Mingus; the other would go to Corn. If the kids wanted it she couldn’t refuse them. “I won’t sell it but I’ll give it to you. They are just alike. Pick out the one you like best.”

“I’ll take the one you were sitting in the night you woke me up and told me that you’d been a sniper,” he said.

“Why?”

“Because then I’ll be taking a part of you with me,” he answered.

“Then you go sit in the other one and leave part of you in Mingus,” she said.

***

On Friday she flew to Nashville to talk in the back room of a bookstore that Maria frequented. There were twenty people present and twenty-five books sold, which made the owner of the little bookstore very happy. She and Maria had dinner with Abby and then went to the Grand Old Opry. It was after midnight when she called the Honky Tonk and Tessa picked up the phone.

“Was it wonderful?” she asked.

“Make Luther bring you here for your honeymoon when you finally say yes,” Sharlene said. “The hotel is fabulous and the Opry was something every bartender with a jukebox as old as ours needs to experience.”

“Who’d you see?”

“Alan Jackson stopped by and Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert. Brad Paisley did a song,” she said.

“I’m so jealous I could spit.”

“Make Luther marry you and bring you here for New Year’s. I bet that Friday night will be a hoot,” Sharlene said.

“Maybe for Valentine’s.”

“Speaking of holidays, everything is still going smooth for our Honky Tonk Christmas, isn’t it?”

“Smooth as a baby’s butt,” Tessa laughed. “See you in a week.”

She hung up and wanted to call Holt but he’d be on the road or else trying to get the kids to bed. Claud and Molly had insisted that he stay with them the first two nights until he could get things unpacked.

She had finished her shower and was wrapping a towel around her body when the phone rang. Figuring it was Tessa with a Honky Tonk problem she grabbed it on the first ring, “Hello!”

“Well, you sound all spry.” Holt sounded exhausted. She hadn’t heard that kind of weariness in his voice even after a long day of work.

“Not really. This getting up early is about to kill me. I can’t sleep at night and when I do the nightmares are horrible. The farther I get from home the worse they are,” she said.

“We ran into a traffic snag in Wichita Falls and didn’t get here until thirty minutes ago. Molly and Claud carried the kids in and put them to bed for me. I’m on the swings in the backyard. I just wanted to hear your voice.”

She shut her eyes tightly and imagined him sitting on the same swing she’d sat on the night they wound up in the barn. She touched her lips and remembered how his kisses made her feel.

What am I going to do when I get home and he’s not there? These nightly calls will fade away eventually. Nothing can withstand five hours of distance with no end in sight.

“Did you take a rocking chair with you?”

“Oh, yes! Judd insisted on it. She said Santa couldn’t do his job without it,” Holt said. “Tell me again when you’ll be here. Oh yeah, Larissa stopped by and left me one of your books. I started reading it tonight. You are so good that it’s like you are telling me the story. I can even imagine your Southern twang talking,” he said.

“You are reading a romance book?” she asked.

“Yes, ma’am, I am. And it’s a damn fine book. Now when are you going to be at the airport?”

“I’m staying here another day with Maria. We’re doing the tourist thing in Nashville tomorrow. Then I’m flying home to Dallas. My ugly car is waiting for me and I’m missing it.”

***

She got off the plane late Saturday night and fought the Dallas traffic until she was on the other side of Fort Worth, then it thinned out to what she considered normal. The further west she went the less town she saw and the more country and the better she liked it. It was only an hour to closing when she reached the Honky Tonk. She went straight for the bar and started helping Tessa and Darla, so glad to be home that she could have kissed the Honky Tonk parking lot. At closing time, Luther called it a night and the four of them talked until two thirty.