I Love This Bar (23 page)

   "I'm not getting a heartbeat or a pulse. They'll pronounce a time of death when we get to the hospital with him," a small dark-haired lady said. "Y'all can follow us but…" she left the sentence hanging.

   Daisy pulled both her hands free. "We will go with him."

   
I didn't promise,
she thought as she followed the paramedics out to the ambulance with Emmett's body. Fifteen minutes before she'd been arguing with him and now he was gone and she hadn't promised so he could go on into eternity without worrying about leaving unfinished business behind. Guilt flowed over her like baptismal water.

   Jarod gripped the steering wheel in his truck so tightly that his knuckles turned white. He hadn't expected Emmett to go like that. He'd thought he'd have several sick spells, maybe spend time in the hospital, and finally go in a morphine-induced stupor. He sure hadn't expected the last words he'd hear from Emmett's mouth would be, "Daisy is your Mavis."

   Daisy touched his hand.

   He relaxed.

   "We had an argument at the breakfast table. He wanted me to come to the ranch permanently. I'm glad he went like this, sitting in his chair surrounded by all his things, and after a rousting good fight with me. He laughed until he almost cried at the end of the argument. He lived until the last minute of his life and died with dignity," she said.

   "About last night," Jarod said.

   "I can't talk about that right now, Jarod. Let's just get today finished and I'll go home," she said.

   "You could stay until after the funeral," he said.

   "Your family will need the room and you'll be busy with the arrangements."

   Jarod started the engine and followed the ambulance. "Emmett took care of everything. It's all written down. The overalls and shirt are hanging in a special place in his closet. They are the last things Mavis ironed before she died that morning. His boots are shined and ready. They are the last pair he wore when he danced with her at the Honky Tonk. His gray hair is to be parted and combed back like it was when he dated her and there's a picture of them on their wedding day that is to be put in his hands."

   Daisy scooted across the truck seat and buried her face in Jarod's shoulder. "That's the kind of love I want."

   Jarod swallowed hard but the lump in his throat didn't budge. He drove with one hand and drew her close with the other. Was Daisy truly his soul mate like Emmett kept fussing about and would she ever leave the Honky Tonk? She had the excitement of all those things that Toby sang about: bikers, truckers, hookers, lookers, loud music, even Tinker, and now her cousin, Cathy. He'd thought he'd have six weeks to decide what to do about the way he felt. That had just been snatched from him and it hurt as bad as losing Emmett.

   He parked the truck behind the ambulance. He and Daisy walked beside Emmett's sheet-covered body into the emergency room. The doctors pronounced Emmett dead on arrival at the hospital with cause of death listed as an acute cardiac arrest. Jarod kept an arm around Daisy as they watched the doctors cover Emmett with a white sheet and the nurse make the phone call for the funeral home to come and take the body away.

   It was only a few minutes before Jarod led her back out to his truck. He started up the engine, turned up the air conditioning, took his cell phone out of his pocket, and made a phone call.

   Daisy looked out the side window to try to give him some privacy.

   "Mother, Uncle Emmett had a heart attack this morning. He didn't survive it. He was gone in minutes. We are at the hospital and we're on our way back to the ranch. The hearse is here to get him now. Is there anything else I need to do before you all get here?"

   He listened for a moment.

   "I'm fine. Daisy is here with me. His final words were to Daisy." He held the cell phone to his chest and touched Daisy's shoulder. "What did he say?"

   She swallowed hard and lied. "I couldn't understand it all. He was muttering. I think he wanted to see Mavis."

   Daisy looked at the hearse backing up to the hospital doors. "You don't need to go talk to the funeral home people?"

   "No, he did all that when Mavis died. He paid for his funeral at the same time he paid for hers. He'll be at the same funeral home she was and the services will be Thursday at ten o'clock," Jarod said.

   "How do you already know that?"

   "The first conversation we had when I came to the Double M concerned his going home to be with Mavis. He will be buried two days after he dies because the devil will come hunting him on the third day. And he'll already be 'up there' with Mavis so the devil will be shit-out-of-luck. His words exactly, not mine. He's already paid the funeral home extra to do whatever they have to do to make sure it's two days after his death and at ten o'clock in the morning because that's when Mavis had her services and they're to be held at the little country church they attended. After that he'll be buried at the Liberty Cemetery beside Mavis and we are all to go home to the ranch and have dinner under the shade trees like we did when Mavis died."

   "I see," she said.

   It was all so different from when her grandmother and mother died. Granny died in the middle of the night and they flew her body back to Cherokee, North Carolina, to be buried beside her husband. By the time Daisy and her mother drove from Arkansas to North Carolina, Granny's sisters had the arrangements under control. It was an Indian funeral and Daisy didn't understand a thing that went on for the most part. She and her mother stayed long enough to eat dinner with the relatives and then they drove straight back to Arkansas without stopping for anything but food and potty breaks. Her mother was exhausted by the time they got back and slept for two whole days before she went back to work at the bar.

   When her mother died, she used what insurance money there was and buried her in the cemetery at Mena beside her first husband, Daisy's father. The latest boyfriend didn't even attend the graveside service. There were a dozen folks she'd worked with over the years who arrived to listen to one hymn and the preacher pray over her body. Cathy attended and stood beside Daisy. She hugged Cathy and they cried together, then she got into the old Maverick and drove back to southern Oklahoma.

   Emmett had passion in his life. He argued with passion and he'd loved Mavis with passion. He'd lived, not merely existed.

   "What are you thinking about?" she asked when Jarod pulled up in front of the ranch house.

   "The donkey. He never even got to see the thing he fought so hard against and gave in to you so easily when you mentioned it. Damn it, anyway."

   "I think he'd rather see Mavis than a donkey," Daisy said.

   "I suppose so. What about you? What were you thinking about? I'm putting off going into the house. As bad as I hate all the fighting, it will be empty without him."

   "Passion," she answered with one word.

   "Last night."

   "Not really. Passion as in zest for living and loving. I don't want to exist. I want to live like Emmett did."

   "So last night? Was it not passion?"

   "Last night was mind boggling and it was damn fine. But I want it all, not an hour a night of feeling like I'm the queen of the whole world. I want the arguing. I want the slow kisses after breakfast and the struggling to see if we can afford to buy something we really want. I want to look at what I've done with my life with pride when I get to the end and it all flashes in front of me. And I mean all of it. Not just the part everyone else thinks is good."

   "Daisy, you deserve all of it. Any man should love you enough to make sure you have it all. When you reach the end and it flashes in front of you, you shouldn't have a single regret. You should never have to settle for second best. You deserve even better than the very best."

   Tears stung her eyes but she didn't let them fall. She changed the subject. "What time will your folks be here?"

   "In about an hour," he said.

   "Good lord, are they flying?"

   He nodded. "Mom and Dad will fly. They own a small plane that they get around in when they are in a hurry. Both of them are licensed. The rest of the family will be here before suppertime."

Cathy was sitting at the dining room table with a cup of coffee in front of her. Her yellow oversized T-shirt had a hole in the sleeve. Her hair was mussed from sleeping too hard after a long night's work, and yesterday's makeup was smudged.

   "What are you doing home? Trouble in paradise so early in the marriage?" she asked when Daisy carried in her suitcase.

   "Moving back in. Emmett died this morning. You look like hell."

   "Well, your eyes are all red and you are pale so that don't leave room for you to be passin' judgment on me. Sit down and I'll pour you a cup of coffee. Tell me what happened. Start at the beginning and tell it all. Then I'll take a shower. I feel like sin on Sunday morning. I'd forgotten how much work closing up a joint is."

   Cathy moved gracefully around the kitchen. She poured coffee and dug around in a box for a couple of packages of toaster pastries. She put one package in front of Daisy and said, "Dip 'em in the coffee and you don't have to heat them up."

   Daisy began the story without telling anything about the bedroom scene from the night before. That was too fresh and too personal to share even with Cathy. She'd finished her second cup of coffee by the time she finished.

   "And you left him there alone?" Cathy asked.

   "I did but his parents were in the air and were going to land in ten minutes."

   "Where?"

   "In the pasture and he was going to drive the truck out to get them."

   "Scared to meet them, weren't you? Afraid they'd look down on you because you own the Tonk and they have an airplane and fly around the country. That makes them rich in your eyes and you poor in theirs," Cathy said.

   Daisy had her mouth open to deny it but she couldn't. "That means you give a shit and that means you like him and that means you're wadin' in deep shit, which means you could get hurt again. Be careful. I'm taking a shower now. You got anything black to wear to a funeral or do we need to shop today?"

   "I've got a basic black dress that Ruby made me buy for things like funerals and weddings. Which by the way, we're going to a wedding on Friday," Daisy said.

   Cathy finished the last bite of pastry and headed toward the bedroom. "For someone who said she'd never get all wound up in a small town, you are sure doing a good job of it again."

   Daisy was still sitting at the table when Cathy came out with an oversized towel wrapped around her body and another one around her hair. She sat down and removed the towel from her hair, shaking out long wet blond strands.

   "I really did run from getting involved. I lasted seven years. That damn Chigger is the culprit," Daisy said.

   "We are bartenders. That's what we were destined to be, girl. Jarod is pretty and he'd make your heart hurt with want but…"

   Daisy looked up. "Does there always have to be a but?"

   "I'm 'fraid so, honey. Buts are as big a part of life as they are a part of our anatomy."

   Daisy smiled weakly. "You sound like Ruby."

   "I wish I had met her," Cathy said.

   "Ruby was a hellcat in her day. I should've insisted you come down here and stay more than one day."

   "She didn't have many buts in her life," Cathy said.

   "She lived like Emmett did. With passion. She loved her motorcycle and tight blue jeans and beating Merle at pool. She liked the truckers and the bikers and she loved this old bar."

   Cathy chuckled. "Like Toby sings about."

   "Sometimes I think the song was written special for her."

   "But it's not enough for you, is it?"

   Daisy thought about that for a minute. "It will be if I can't have what I want with no buts."

   "Well said. Now let's go clean up the joint. It'll take your mind off that funeral and the wedding. Both are depressing as hell but I'll go with you."

   Cathy put money in the new jukebox. She poked the buttons and the empty joint filled with upbeat music. She picked up a broom and began sweeping up from the night before. Daisy filled a mop bucket and started cleaning behind her.

   Jeff Bates sang about "Long Slow Kisses," and Daisy shook her head to erase the memories. Damn Emmett's sorry old hide, anyway, dying like that when she could have had six more weeks of long slow kisses every night in Jarod's arms. But… there was that word again… it was difficult enough leaving after one night. After six weeks it might have been impossible, so maybe Emmett's death was fate stepping in to save her after all.

Daisy awoke the next morning to someone pounding hard on the door to her apartment. She picked up her vet bag and staggered through the living room where Cathy was sitting straight up on the sofa bed, rubbing sleep from her eyes.

   Daisy opened the door to find Jarod leaning against the jamb. He wore faded jeans, a blue chambray shirt with the top two buttons undone, and scuffed boots. His black hair was combed back and his eyes roamed over her body, clad in a white cotton sleeveless gown that reached the floor.

   "You ready?" he asked. She'd only thought she was sexy wearing nothing at all. The look of her in that cotton gown and her dark hair going every which way shot desire through him.