My Give a Damn's Busted (15 page)

Larissa poked her head around the side and raised her voice. “Long as it’s not rap.”

“Waylon would leave me if I played that stuff,” Sharlene said.

In a few minutes music from Highway 101 was drifting around the house. It was an older CD recorded back when Paulette Carlson was still singing with them. She sang “Honky Tonk Heart” and said their song of love was almost ended.

Hank could relate to that part of the song. His and Larissa’s short-lived romance was getting close to the good-bye kiss. He’d found her in the Honky Tonk and he’d leave her there among her real friends and acquaintances, never to hold her or see her again.

There was too much of Henry Wells in him and too little of Victoria. She wouldn’t blink at doing whatever it took to get what she wanted while leaving a wide path of destruction in her wake. Henry still regretted and remembered an unwise choice made more than thirty years before.

“When we get to the other corner we’ll call it lunchtime,” Larissa said.

He blinked the past away and nodded. “We eating at Linda’s today?”

“No, at Betty’s. After which, they are coming over for the first viewing. I have to let them see it before it’s finished because several people have already called and told them about the color. Linda thinks they’re lying. Betty thinks it’s a hoot.”

“And Janice?”

“She’s waiting to pass judgment.”

“What’re we having today?”

“Elmer smoked a turkey and Betty’s making chocolate cake for dessert.”

“What is this? Feed Hank until he gets fat? It takes me a month of daily gym trips to get off what Oma puts on me every summer. And now these girls are adding to it. I’ll be until Christmas getting back in shape.” He managed a weak chuckle.

“Darlin’, there ain’t one thing wrong with your shape and I should know after that skinny-dippin’ trip. Linda says to get to a man’s heart you got to go through his stomach. They want you to stick around and they’re trying to entice you,” Larissa whispered so that Sharlene wouldn’t hear.

***

Betty opened the door with a flourish. “Hey, hey, you are here and right on time.”

“I brought one more mouth to feed. She came hunting for work so I gave her a paintbrush and promised her I wouldn’t let her starve,” Larissa said.

“Come on in here, Sharlene. We’re glad to have you. Is she pullin’ our leg about painting that house turquoise? We didn’t get home until after dark last night so we couldn’t see anything but that it was darker than white.”

“Don’t forget your sunglasses,” Sharlene said.

“Dinner is buffet style on the kitchen bar. Y’all help yourselves and find a place to sit around the dining room table,” Betty said.

“Are you serious?” Linda asked Sharlene.

“I love it. I’d paint the Honky Tonk just like it if she’d let me, and I wouldn’t charge her a dime to do it. Reckon they’d let me paint The Mule Lip or the Boar’s Nest like that?”

“You’d best not even suggest it,” Elmer said. “Those folks would rather let their places rust and rot as paint them up like hooker hotels.”

“Elmer!” Betty air slapped his arm.

“Well, he’s speaking the truth. Man, this is some good turkey. Did you smoke it with hickory or pecan?” Hank asked.

“Pear. We had to cut down an old pear tree to make room for a barn and I dried the wood for smoking,” Elmer said.

The two men joined ranks and sat together. Talk went from smoking meat, to hay, to cattle and the weather.

The five women sat at the other end of the table. Talk went from recipes, to the Honky Tonk, to paint colors, and finally to Sharlene’s new apartment.

“So you need anything?” Betty asked.

“It’s got a lovely living room outfit and a refrigerator, stove, washer, and dryer. I’ve got a bedroom suite of sorts and all the basics. I don’t have a kitchen table but it can wait,” she said.

“Cathy liked that little table and chairs so she took it with her,” Larissa said.

“I’ve got one out in the shed. Bought a new one last year but the old one was still in pretty good shape. I just got tired of a glass top. You want it, it’s yours,” Linda said.

“Thank you and I’ll be tickled to get it,” Sharlene told her.

The conversation got around to her cat Waylon and Larissa listened with one ear and did sneak-peeks at Hank. Something was definitely wrong and it went deeper than him having to go back to Dallas. Her “bullshit” radar was humming.

***

“Oh my God. This is worse than I imagined!” Betty said when she saw the house.

Sharlene peeked around from the west end where she was painting around the windows on that side. “Hi, y’all. I told you to wear sunglasses. Ain’t it beautiful? Only someone as wild as Larissa would have the nerve to do this. I love it.”

“It’s bright,” Linda said.

Janice popped her hands on her hips and studied it for several minutes. “I like it. If I squint I can imagine the porch posts in yellow. That’s what is going to really set it off. What do they call that stuff in the antique stores? Shabby something?”

“Shabby chic,” Linda said.

“Any of y’all want me to do your house next? I’ll be looking for a second job before long if they cut back staff at the paper again,” Sharlene asked.

“Hell, no!” they said in perfect unison.

Larissa poked Hank on the arm. “They love it.”

“Sounds like it,” he said.

“It’s like a fancy ball gown. You can appreciate the style without being able to wear it yourself. Can you see Merle in something Angelina Jolie would wear on the red carpet?”

He shrugged. “I get your point.”

“We’ll see y’all at the Honky Tonk tonight,” Betty said. “We’ve got a meeting at the church this afternoon.”

“Sure you don’t want Sharlene to come up with a color scheme for your house?” Larissa teased.

“I’m very sure and you might be wishing you hadn’t painted like this when folks start walking in your front door thinking you have a beauty stop or a sell flowers in there,” she said.

Larissa laughed and waved at the ladies as they piled back into Betty’s club cab truck and drove toward the church on down the road. At five o’clock she and Hank finished the painting. She was very glad she’d bought a good grade of outside paint that was guaranteed to cover in one coat.

“I like this much less than hauling hay.” She carried the paint supplies to the backyard to wash them under a garden hose.

“I’ll stop when I get the back side done and then I’ll finish up the trim tomorrow. It’s slower going than slapping paint on the siding,” Sharlene said.

Hank grabbed Larissa around the waist and pulled her to him. They were both sweaty and smeared with paint but he didn’t care. He couldn’t come clean but he had to have one more kiss to remember what might have been. He tilted her chin up and kissed her hard, tasting her sweet lips.

“Whew! That is definitely hotter than the weather,” she said when he broke away.

“You are some lady, Larissa Morley,” he whispered into her hair. “Good-bye.”

He turned and walked away before she could say anything else.

“See you tonight at the Honky Tonk?” she called out.

He didn’t look back but crawled into his truck and slowly drove away.

“What was that all about?” Sharlene asked. “I thought the way he looked at you all day that he was the cowboy who was going to ride up on a white stallion and take you away from the Honky Tonk. I thought he was your Honky Tonk Dream.”

“I have no idea. He’s got a lot on his mind. Maybe he’s wrestling with a decision.” Larissa touched her lips.

“To see if he stays or goes?” Sharlene put her hot pink brush under the running water.

“Who knows? They say women are hard to understand. Quantum physics is nothing compared to understanding the male species.”

“A-blessed-men, sister,” Sharlene said.

The Honky Tonk parking lot was full when Betty, Janice, and Linda arrived for the town meeting. They thought they were getting there early but the parking lot was full and Linda had to circle around three times before she found a space to pull into.

“Looks like everyone and their cousin came out for this, even if it is in a beer joint. There’s Ella Ruth’s pickup truck. She’ll be on her knees for a week askin’ God to forgive her for going into a beer joint even if it is to save her town. Y’all reckon we’ll put the Radner bunch on the run?” she asked as she parked.

Janice nodded. “It’ll be worth calluses on Ella Ruth’s knees if we send the Radners home with their tail between their legs and howlin’ at the moon.”

Linda waved the smoke away from her face as they weaved between the vehicles on the way to the front door. “Betty, if you don’t give them cancer sticks up they’re goin’ to kill you, girl.”

“Ah, you’re just wantin’ one and can’t have it. We all got to die. Might as well go out with our vice in our hand and a smile on our face.” Betty tossed the butt on the parking lot and ground out the last embers with the heel of her boot. “Okay, girls, let’s go kick some ass. Not just for us but for Larissa. For some reason that Radner bunch wants her beer joint more than anything else.”

“Wonder why? Boiled down it ain’t nothin’ but a wood building with a concrete parking lot. Why would they be so hot to own it?” Linda asked.

“It’s the gateway to paradise.” Janice laughed.

Linda laughed. “Well, let’s go on inside and join forces to put the big Dallas corporation out of town. We don’t need their money and the grandkids couldn’t come home to an amusement park for Thanksgiving dinner, now could they?”

Sharlene and Larissa had cleaned the place, set up a table on one end to use as a podium, and arranged chairs in two rows. The rest of the folks would have to stand, but it shouldn’t be a long meeting. A show of hands, a short speech from Larissa, and if Hayes Radner showed his sorry face, a few minutes for him to give his sales pitch and then the Radners could go back to the big city and let the Mingus citizens alone. Cookies and lemonade was set up on the bar.

A small group of women led by Ella Ruth made a beeline for Janice, Betty, and Linda when they came into the joint. “We were hoping y’all would get here soon. We ain’t never been in a beer joint and it’s kind of scary.”

“Lightning ain’t hit it in all the years it’s been here so I reckon you’re safe in the middle of the afternoon. It ain’t nothin’ but a building, not so different from a church. ’Cept you get happy in church for a different reason,” Janice said.

“Well, we’re glad y’all are here. We couldn’t never come back when they were servin’ liquor and beer and such. God don’t cotton to such things and you better watch your mouth, Janice. What you said is pretty close to blasphemy,” Ella Ruth Jackson said with a sniff.

Janice sucked up a lungful of air to argue but Betty poked her in the ribs and shook her head.

“You got a mind to sell your land?” Betty asked.

“Lands no. That was my granddaddy’s land. It’ll go to my kids or my grandkids the way it’s supposed to. Besides, I’ve got property butted up to the downtown part. You think I want an amusement park out my back door? Can you imagine the noise and the traffic?” Ella Ruth answered.

“Grandkids would love it,” Linda said.

“Yes they would but that would be a couple of times a year. I’d have to live with the thing all the rest of the time. No thank you. I will not sell one square inch,” Ella Ruth declared.

“Y’all feel the same?” Janice asked the rest of the group.

They all nodded as they ate cookies and sipped cold lemonade from paper cups. “You changed your mind yet?” Ella Ruth asked Larissa when she walked past the group.

“Hell no!”

“Don’t go gettin’ all up in arms with me. I just asked a question.” Ella Ruth puffed up.

Larissa patted her on the shoulder. “Sorry, Miz Jackson. I’m just nervous.”

Sharlene joined the group. “We should’ve made a big bowl of fresh fruit and put a package of those wipe-and-go things beside it.”

Larissa asked, “Why would we want fruit? We’ve got cookies and lemonade.”

Sharlene pretended to grab a handful and throw it at the podium, then grabbed an invisible wet toilette and wiped at her hands.

Larissa giggled nervously. “We missed a good opportunity. Only trouble is if he comes in here offering half of Fort Knox and I oppose, they might throw the fruit at me.”

“Well…” Sharlene smiled wickedly. “I suppose Hank could have supper off your body then.”

“Oh, dear, the way these young people talk. Why in my day we would have never thought such things much less said them out loud,” Ella Ruth said.

“Yes, but it does sound awfully naughty and I remember when you were the wildest thing in Mingus,” Wanda said.

“Hush, now.” Ella Ruth blushed.

Sharlene grabbed Larissa’s arm and pulled her away. “Wouldn’t you like to be just a little naughty to take the edge off your nerves before this meeting?”

“Oh, hush. He hasn’t even showed up or called. He might have gone on back to Dallas,” Larissa said. The day before had been a whirlwind of yellow and pink paint but she and Sharlene had finished the trim work. Then they’d had a record night at the Honky Tonk with people waiting in the parking lot to get through the doors. She should think about adding an addition to the Tonk to accommodate more people. It didn’t look like the popularity of the Honky Tonk was a passing phase after all.

She took her place behind the table and clapped her hands. The room went silent as everyone looked to her.

She took a deep breath and began. “First of all, thank you for attending. I’m not going to give you a long-winded speech about why you should or should not sell your property to the Radner group for an amusement park. I figure you’ve all pretty much made up your minds before you came. But I would like to take a poll. How many people here are definitely not interested in selling your property?”

More than half the hands in the place went up.

“Okay now, how many are interested but not sure?” she asked.

Half of what was left went up.

“One more showing. How many would sell today if Hayes Radner offered you enough money?”

Six hands were raised.

The door opened and three people squeezed inside the Honky Tonk. A woman in a black power suit, blond hair cut chin length, and a leather briefcase. One of the two men had a bald head and looked vaguely familiar to Larissa. She frowned as she tried to remember where she’d seen him but it quickly turned to a grin when she looked beyond him and saw Hank.

His black hair was feathered back and she imagined she could smell Stetson all the way across the room. She smiled and he bent his head ever so slightly.

“Okay, then,” she said. “This place is packed and I don’t know some of you folks, so if Hayes Radner is here, we’ll give him the floor to make his offers.” She left her spot and sat down in a chair on the front row with Betty on one side and Sharlene on the other.

The three people who’d walked in at the last minute made their way to the front. The woman and man stood behind the table and Hank propped a hip at the front of the table.

Larissa looked up at him. “What are you doing?”

He looked straight ahead. If he looked into her brown eyes he wouldn’t be able to utter a single word. “Hello, everyone. Some of you know me because you are regulars in the Honky Tonk. Some of you I’ve never met. I’d like to introduce myself, my mother, and our assistant. The man behind me is Wayne Johnston. He’s the one who’s been making most of the calls in an effort to buy your land. My mother, Victoria Radner, has had her heart set on owning this place for several years and has investors ready to put their money into an amusement park. I am Henry Hayes Radner Wells,” he said.

Larissa shot up like a bottle rocket. “You are who?”

Hank’s face was hardened steel. “You heard me. And I’m here to say that my mother and Wayne will still buy whatever land any of you are willing to sell at ten percent over today’s market price for land with the hopes that it will have the domino effect and others will sell if you do.”

“But we thought you were going to pay millions,” an older lady said from the back of the room.

Victoria stood up and spoke. “We have made our offer. We would have paid ten times what it was worth to have the Honky Tonk, but the rest of the land will be bought at ten percent over market. That’s quite an offer in today’s repressed market. I will be more than glad to have Wayne draw up intent to sell papers today. Are you sure you won’t sell me this godforsaken place, Miz Morley?”

Larissa shot icy daggers at the woman. Larissa had seen her type before—every time Doreen came home to Perry from one of her trips. “It will be a cold day in hell, madam, when I sell this beer joint to anyone. Why are you so dead set on having it anyway? It could easily be outside your amusement park.”

“Personal reasons. I will burn it to the ground and concrete the whole area for a parking lot for my amusement park,” Victoria said coldly.

“Well, for personal reasons I would burn it before I sold it to you,” Larissa said.

“Must be the place. Makes bitches out of everyone who owns it,” Victoria said.

“That’s enough, Mother,” Hank said.

Larissa turned on him. “This is between me and your mother. You keep your two cents in your pocket. Now…” she spun back around to face Victoria. “You don’t know me and you didn’t know Daisy or Cathy. I don’t know about Ruby Lee, but I can vouch the rest of us are loudmouthed and brassy. But we are not bitches. You are in my place of business so you’d do well to watch your tongue.”

“If you have business to discuss with my mother, feel free to come forward. I’m leaving now.” Hank was exasperated. It all made sense now. Owning the Honky Tonk would be a slap in Henry’s face.

Shock and anger hit Larissa in slow motion. “You bastard,” she whispered to Hank.

“Don’t call my son that!” Victoria fired up for a second round. She didn’t care if it was an audience or that she’d lost her frosty business shell. She was in the wretched Honky Tonk, the place Ruby Lee owned.

Larissa glared at her. “I guess it’s not appropriate since you and his father were married. I take it back, Hank. You are a son-of-a-bitch and that’s irrefutable.”

“I’m not interested in ten percent above market. I’ll keep my land,” Delores Wilson said. “Come on, Mavis. Let’s go home.”

“I’m sorry,” Hank said softly. He longed to reach out and touch Larissa, to hold her and apologize with more than two words. She hadn’t asked for any of this. He should have listened to his heart and now it was too late.

“Sorry?” Larissa raised her voice. “You have deceived me and all you’ve got to say is sorry!”

“I’m going home, Mother. You and Wayne can take care of this,” he said. “A word outside, please, Larissa.”

“Oh, you’ll get a word, all right.” She marched resolutely to the door without looking back to see if he was following.

Victoria turned to Wayne. “This was a big waste of my time. What in the hell is going on here and why is my son going outside with that woman?”

“That’s Larissa Morley and I guess they’ve gotten acquainted over the last month,” he said.

“Well, he can damn sure get unacquainted. When it matters the most, he is too much like his father.” She looked around the Honky Tonk. “What is it about this shabby place that draws men? It’s nothing but a shack with a neon sign. Let’s go home and start looking for another place for our investors to put their money.”

“I reckon that would be a good idea, ma’am,” Luther said.

Victoria shot looks at the big man that would have frozen anyone. “Who are you?”

Luther didn’t flinch at the icy glare. “I’m the bouncer in this place and I reckon you and your son have stirred up enough trouble in town for a lifetime. You got your answer once and for all. Don’t be comin’ around no more.”

“What happened to Tinker?” Victoria asked.

“Retired. He wouldn’t like you any better than I do.”

“That would make us even. I didn’t like him either.” Victoria huffed as she picked up her briefcase and headed for the door with Wayne Johnston behind her like a pet pig on a leash.

“What’d Tinker ever do to you?” Luther asked.

“That is none of your business.” She threw over her shoulder.

***

Larissa stomped all the way to the garage behind the beer joint. So he wanted a word? Well, she’d give him enough words to burn the hair out of his ears for the next twenty years. If he wanted just one word she’d have to hyphenate it because all she could think of in a single word was
drop-dead.

“Stop! Talk to me, Larissa,” he raised his voice.

“You don’t get to tell me what to do,” she yelled and kept going until they were behind the garage. Then she turned around, popped her hands on her hips, and shot poisonous darts from her brown eyes. How could she have been so deceived? Hank was Hayes. She should have seen it from the beginning. Henry should have told her. She should have asked him for more details when she was out there hauling hay. A million thoughts tumbled through her mind and all she could get a hold on was the one that said she’d been such a fool to fall for him.

“Larissa, I wanted to tell you who I really am but it all got out of hand and…”

He paused and looked at her so bewildered that she might have felt sorry for him if she hadn’t been so mad.

“…and what, Hank? Or is it Hayes now that you are wearing a custom tailored suit and dress shoes instead of jeans and boots? Was any of it real or was it all just a game to see if you could find out something about me that you could use to make me sell the Honky Tonk? And why in the hell is it so important that you have it?” Her tone was pure ice without a drop of warmth in it.

“I couldn’t tell you because it
was
real. You’re right. I wanted to get to know you so I could find out if you had a weakness. Neither Daisy nor Cathy did but there was that possibility and Mother has been trying to buy the Honky Tonk for years. Every scheme she could come up with and every owner was a new challenge. It’s her one obsession. It was
my job
and I didn’t intend to fall for you but I did and I couldn’t tell you,” he said.