My Give a Damn's Busted (20 page)

Hank had fallen for the impish woman with a foggy past. Now that he knew where she came from and what she really was doing in Mingus, he admired her even more.

Now the problem lying before him was deciding who the man was eating crawdads and corn with his fingers.

In the wake of Hurricane Larissa, he made a decision as he slowly peeled crawdads. He was Hank Wells, not Hayes Radner.

***

Larissa was sitting in the middle of her king-sized bed, eating a hamburger and fries from room service when her cell phone rang. She checked caller ID before she answered it. If it was Hayes or Hank, she wasn’t answering it. She’d had enough of both of them for one night.

“Hello, Mother,” she said.

“I’m outside your door. Can I come in?”

“Sure. I’m on my way.” She pushed her food to one side, slid off the bed, and swung open the door.

Her mother swept into the room in a navy blue silk robe over matching pajamas. “What are you doing home so early?”

“How did you know I was home?” Larissa asked.

“Hayes came back to the party without you. I made excuses and Rupert brought me back to the hotel. What happened?”

“I’m having supper. Crawl up here on the bed and get comfortable. I’ll tell you all about it. Does Rupert mind you leaving him alone?” Larissa asked.

Doreen shook her head. “He’s fine.”

“Tell me before I begin what Hayes did when he came back to the party.”

“He put a bid on Martha’s painting that very few people could think about outdoing. When a couple of women tried to talk to him, he said that he had been bought for the night and the rules were that he couldn’t flirt. Martha laughed and said she was going to put him between a rock and a hard spot. He wasn’t allowed to flirt but the rules didn’t say anything about the losers flirting with him. When we left Emma and Holly were being absolutely shameless.”

Larissa turned green and laid the remains of the burger and fries on the bedside table. “Those bitches. I might scratch their eyes out yet. What will he do with the painting?”

Doreen shook her head. “You can get mad at them if you want but it’s useless. There will always be a bitch on the sidelines waiting to see if you are willing to fight for your man. It’s up to you to keep them in their place. As far as the painting, he’ll probably give it to his mother. She loves that kind of art. She and Martha were into that stuff way back when we were young and in college.”

“Tell me about his mother,” Larissa said.

“You were going to tell me about Hayes. It was pretty damn evident that you knew him or else you wouldn’t have bid so high. When you left with him, I couldn’t wait to tell Victoria that our children had finally gotten together. She was as excited as I was and wanted me to point you out to her but you were already gone.”

Larissa giggled. “You go first. My story might keep you from telling me everything you know about his mother.”

Doreen reached across her and picked up a cold French fry. “If you aren’t going to finish that, hand it over to me. Fundraiser food isn’t worth a shit, is it?”

Larissa giggled louder. “One weekend in Texas and Oklahoma and your accent and dirty words are back.”

“It’s what Rupert loves about me so I don’t try to cover it up anymore.”

“Talk to me about Victoria while you eat,” Larissa said.

“Martha, Victoria, and I have been friends for more than thirty years. Back before my folks relocated to Perry we were in the same circles in this area. Then Daddy retired and wanted a quiet life so we went to Oklahoma and they stayed here. But once a year when we were little girls, they’d come to Perry for a week at the beginning of the summer. And Mother would bring me to Dallas for a week toward the end of the summer to shop for school clothes and play with them. Now skip ahead when we were in our twenties. Victoria had just finished college and met a cowboy named Henry who is Hayes’ father. He was ten years older than her and sexy as hell. Look at Hayes and you’ll understand. He’s Henry at that age. Like they say in the love stories, he swept her off her feet. They married while they were in Vegas and about half-looped and she got pregnant right away. It was a nightmare pregnancy and divorce. Probably the catalyst for why I didn’t want to marry your father or have you. Anyway, Martha and I got her through the bad times.” Doreen stopped long enough to chew up a few more cold fries.

“Why was it so bad?” Larissa asked.

“Henry was in love with another woman. A low-class bartender and what do you grow up to be? A bartender? I just don’t have the heart to tell her that bit of news even though she and Martha and I’ve shared everything all our lives.”

Larissa took another bite of her burger. “Don’t the world turn around? When are you going to tell Victoria that I own a beer joint?”

Doreen set her jaw in anger. “I do not intend to. Damn, Ruth. If she knew that she’d forbid Hayes from ever seeing you again. You are off doing charity work in a foreign country for all she knows.”

Larissa’s brown eyes widened. “You lied to her? And what gives her the right to tell Hayes that he can’t see anyone? He’s a grown man and he can make up his own mind about his love life. Does she think that she’s God Almighty or something?” Larissa ranted.

“No, she told someone else that’s what she’d heard and I didn’t correct her. Get on the phone and tell room service to bring up three more of those burger dinners. I’ll take one to Rupert. I know he’s probably hungry too. And Victoria doesn’t think she’s God, honey. In her opinion she’s far above God.”

Larissa picked up the hotel phone and made the order. “So why was she mad at Henry? Hadn’t he gotten over the bartender love thing?”

“Evidently on the flight home from the honeymoon he said that he wanted to clear the air and tell her about Ruby Lee. Don’t that sound like a hick hooker’s name? He said that he would always love Victoria but he wanted to be honest. Hell, he should’ve kept his mouth shut and moved to Dallas. He could be president of the company now,” Doreen said.

“She really is high on herself, isn’t she?” Larissa shook her head slowly.

“Victoria has always gone after what she wants. She wanted Henry and she got him but she should have waited. Another month and she’d have had him out of her system and there wouldn’t have been a marriage or a baby. Then she wouldn’t have had to raise a son by herself or go through that messy divorce.”

“Okay, now it’s my turn,” Larissa said. “Remember yesterday when you said that I looked sad and only a man could do that to a woman? Well, you were right.” Larissa went on to tell the whole story from the time she first hiked a hip onto a bar stool in the Honky Tonk, through the story of Cathy and her trials until she and Travis finally got together. Then she went backwards and told her mother what she knew about Ruby Lee, had found out about Henry, and that Hayes and Hank were two men in the same body.

“And I fell for Hank, the man who is Henry’s son and works on a ranch. I do not like Hayes Radner. He’s a son-of-a-bitch in every way.”

Doreen gasped. “My God! I just made the connection. She called me and told me about the bartender at the same beer joint Ruby Lee built. That’s your Honky Tonk, isn’t it?”

Larissa nodded. “It is.”

Doreen broke out into wicked laughter and couldn’t control it. She fell backwards on the bed and put a pillow over her head but that only intensified the picture she had in her mind. Finally she threw the pillow on the floor and sat up. Her mascara had run down her cheeks in long black streaks and her lipstick was smeared.

“You called Victoria a bitch?” she asked between hiccups.

“Actually I called Hayes a bastard and she told me not to call him that. So I said then he was a son-of-a-bitch and told her that she couldn’t argue with it,” Larissa said.

“I can’t wait until Hayes introduces you to her as Ruth Lawson at brunch tomorrow morning,” Doreen said.

Larissa cut her eyes around at her mother. “What brunch?”

“I invited them to brunch with us here at the hotel before we leave. Martha and Julia, Victoria and Hayes, Rupert, you, and me.”

Larissa slowly shook her head. “Tell Martha I hope my money helped. Tell Julia it was nice to meet her. Tell Victoria she’s still a bitch. I’m going home first thing in the morning.”

“Oh, no you are not. You might not be Ruth Lawson anymore and I’m not sure how she’d handle this situation but I know how the new Larissa would. She wouldn’t run from the enemy. She’d stand up and fight and you will make that brunch. There’s our room service. I’ll just tell him to take it down the hall to our room.”

Doreen was out the door before Larissa could argue.

Larissa threw her garment bag over her shoulder and wheeled her suitcase down to the lobby. She checked out of the hotel, gave the valet her ticket, and waited for her car. She’d wrestled with the brunch idea all night and had dark circles under her eyes to prove it. They could eat pancakes or cow patties and discuss the fundraiser or religion. She was like Rhett Butler: frankly, she didn’t give a damn. She was going home.

“Is it set in stone?” Rupert asked so close to her that she jumped.

“What?”

“Your decision to leave without going to the brunch? Your mother stayed up half the night telling me about your story. You are a remarkable woman, Larissa.”

“Thank you,” she said. “Tell Mother to call me after the brunch.”

“Why don’t you stay and see the fireworks for yourself?”

“Don’t want to. One question before I go. Where were you raised?”

“New York City until I was a teenager. Then my Italian mother took me back to her mother country when my father died. I loved it from the first day.”

“I thought your accent had a little bit of pure old American in it. Well, good-bye Rupert. I’m glad you are marrying my mother. I’ll see y’all at the wedding.”

“Sure you won’t change your mind?”

She shook her head.

The valet pulled her car under the awning and put her bags into the car. She tipped him and he held the door for her. She slid in behind the wheel and started the engine. He slammed the door shut.

She could not make herself shift from park to drive. Finally, she shut off the engine and got out. “Please park it again. I’ll need it in an hour or less.”

Rupert smiled and held out his arm. He looked right dapper in his khaki slacks and three button knit shirt. “I’m proud of you.”

“Why?”

“You figure it out,” he said.

“What were you doing out here anyway?”

“I go for an early morning walk every day. I was just returning from a few laps around the hotel grounds. At home, there’s a hiking trail on my estate. Let’s get a cup of coffee while we wait on the rest of the party. Your mother will be down shortly. I phoned her before I saw you about to run away.”

Larissa bristled. “I wasn’t running. I just wasn’t being railroaded into another fight with the Radner Corporation. I’m sick of those people. I could have been driving home this beautiful fall morning instead of waiting for the first bomb of World War III to land. Have you alerted the staff that they’d better bend over, put their head between their legs, and kiss their ass good-bye when Victoria Radner breezes through the doors and sees me?”

Rupert laughed down deep in his chest. “If she starts firing I’ll be your bodyguard. If you see a gun, head for the elevator. I heard the glass is bulletproof.”

She grinned. “Reckon we ought to evacuate the upper floors? She might bring down the whole hotel like an implosion.”

“Might not be a bad idea. Would you look at that? Doreen is coming down the elevator and they are arriving. Leave it to your mother to make a grand entrance.”

Her heart skipped a beat then took off like a Russian race horse let loose from the chute when she saw Hank. He wore tight jeans, a chambray shirt with two buttons undone at the top, boots, and a big silver buckle. She hadn’t seen him looking like that since the night he left her place after a full day of painting. She’d seen Hayes, but not Hank, and she wanted to run across the lobby and hug him so tight that she could feel their hearts beating in unison.

Victoria was beautiful in a casual pant set the color of her eyes. And Martha was the eccentric artist in a billowing tie-dyed gauzy skirt and matching top bloused with a wide sparkling gold belt. Doreen met them and gave each a kiss on the cheek. She was the pretty one with her red hair and plain little green dress with matching sandals.

Larissa held her breath as they drew near.

Rupert reached across the table and squeezed her hand for support, then stood and greeted the guests. “We got here early so we’re having coffee.”

“What the hell?” Victoria said.

“Hello, Larissa.” Hank smiled.

“Hank.” She nodded.

“It appears that our children got together on their own without any help from us,” Doreen said. “I think you’ve met my daughter Ruth. Only she’s changed her name and her lifestyle and is now Larissa. I’m learning to like Larissa even better than Ruth. Hello, Hayes. I haven’t seen since you were a little boy. You grew up to be one handsome man. You should be proud of him, Victoria.”

“I’m very proud of Hayes. I’m not so sure about this cowboy. Now would someone tell me why no one has explained this to me?” She pointed at Larissa.

“I guess I should’ve brought her around on our trips. Then you would have known who you were dealing with and wouldn’t have tried to talk her out of her beer joint. But back when we were running around we didn’t have much time for kids, did we?” Doreen laughed.

“It’s not funny,” Victoria snapped.

“Someone has to clue me in. I feel like I’m in the eye of a tornado and there’s debris flying all around me. Wow! That’s a wonderful idea for a painting. I’ll have to work on it this afternoon. I’ll call it ‘Brunch before Disaster,’” Martha said.

“May I sit beside you?” he asked Larissa.

“Suit yourself,” she said.

“Aha, the storm grows wilder. I see lots of red and black,” Martha said as Rupert pulled out a chair beside Doreen for her. “Julia sends regrets. She and Tyler both had a hangover this morning.”

Hank seated his mother and then settled between the two women. He could feel the wind from the emotional ice storm and it was chilly enough to keep ice cream rock solid for a month.

“Explain right now!” Victoria turned to Hank.

“I’d love to tell you all about this woman. Larissa is Ruth Lawson all grown up. I didn’t know that since she’s changed her name to Larissa Morley. Of course she thought I was Hank Wells. What would you like to know about her that you don’t already?”

“I hate that name—Hank Wells. I should have never let your father talk me into naming you Henry or giving you both our last names, either. You should have been Hayes Radner like your grandfather. But no, he had to have it his way or else. So that’s why you got all of it. Henry Hayes Radner Wells. I may go to the courthouse tomorrow and take the first and last ones off.”

“Or the two middle ones,” he said.

“I’m not getting into this with you in public and I’m not ruining Doreen’s last day here,” she said.

“When was the last time you saw Ruth?” Doreen asked.

“Probably when she was five or six and you brought her to Dallas for a weekend. Remember she got sick and spent the whole time after that first night in the room with her nanny. We’d planned on taking the children to the museums that day. I left Hayes at home since Ruth couldn’t go,” Victoria said.

Doreen smiled. “And you didn’t recognize her? She hasn’t changed.”

“She damn sure has. She was a little brown-eyed girl who hid behind her nanny’s skirt tails. Now she’s mean as a snake,” Victoria said.

The waitress brought a carafe of coffee and four more cups, took their orders, and left them to their battle.

“Thank you. I like that description. Just don’t you forget it,” Larissa said.

“She called me a bitch,” Victoria snapped.

Martha poured coffee for everyone. “She got that part right. You are a bitch. Especially when you don’t get your way.”

“I’ll deal with you later. You’re supposed to be on my side,” Victoria said.

Martha sipped the coffee. “Hot damn! That tastes good. I hate weak coffee. You might as well be drinking lukewarm piss as weak coffee. And I am on your side! But that don’t keep you from being a bitch when you can’t have your way.”

“I bought that damned painting and paid twice what it was worth and you treat me like this in front of friends.” Victoria pouted.

“You got a damn good deal on that art and you didn’t buy it, Hayes did. Rupert would have paid three times its worth if Doreen had wanted it but she never learned to appreciate good art. She thinks a picture of a rocking chair on a front porch with a bucket of daisies on it is good art. God, anyone with a paint-by-number kit could do that kind of shit,” Martha said.

Larissa wished she had been invited along when her mother went to visit her Texas friends all those years if they behaved this way all the time. They were all a hoot. Even Victoria who she’d previously tagged as colder’n a three-day-old corpse was nothing but a petulant little girl when she was with Martha and Doreen.

She poked Hank on the arm and wished she hadn’t touched him. Vibes already had her humming. The touch had her nerves practically singing.

“So are you Hayes or Hank today?” she whispered.

Victoria bent forward and glared at Larissa. “He’s Hank! Can’t you tell? Are you blind as well as stupid?”

“And what would make me stupid?” Larissa shot back.

“You could have made a fortune on that shitty beer joint. I offered you a million plus for it. Anyone who’d hang on to a shack like that for sentimental reasons is stupid,” she said.

“Guess that makes you even more stupid than me and still a bitch,” Larissa said.

Victoria narrowed her eyes.

Larissa went on without skipping a beat, “Way I see it is you offered me fifty times what the place and land is worth in Mingus just for revenge on your ex-husband so that makes you pretty dumb and pathetic to boot. Add that to the bitchy nature and honey, you wouldn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell with any of the cowboys who come into my beer joint. If you’d change a little you might rope Henry into a dance or two even at your age.”

“Ouch!” Doreen said.

Victoria shot daggers through her son and into Larissa’s smart mouth. “At my age? I’m only a year older than your mother!”

“Try lookin’ in a mirror. Bitterness sours the soul and ruins the countenance,” Larissa said. They weren’t her words but her nanny’s; however, they fit the situation well.

The waitress set a hot platter of pancakes surrounded by strawberries and covered with warm maple syrup in front of each person. “Enjoy your brunch,” she said.

“I can’t eat a bite,” Victoria said.

“Then pass yours over here. I’ll eat them. I’m starving. Next time I do a fundraiser I’m having barbecue and potato salad catered in. I don’t give a shit if someone drops a hot wing on their Versace,” Martha said.

“You touch my plate and I’ll put this fork in your greedy little paws. I’ll try to eat a few bites but I’m still so mad I could take on the Yankees,” Victoria said.

“Ball team or soldiers?” Larissa asked.

“Well, I’m not talking about a measly ball team.”

Hank put up his palms. “Truce. At least until we get through eating. Martha, darling, was the fundraiser a success? I brought in fifteen grand and bought the painting. How much did you raise last night?”

“Half a mil,” Martha said.

“With or without my money for the painting?” Victoria quipped.

Martha pointed her fork at Victoria. “Total. Eat or I’m going to steal your pancakes.”

Victoria forked a small bite into her mouth and turned to Hank. “Why did you wear those abominable clothes?”

“You must have loved a cowboy or you wouldn’t have married Henry. There’s not a man alive that’s more cowboy than he is,” Larissa said.

She wished she would have bitten her tongue off rather than smarting off again to Victoria, especially when everyone around the table would think she was fighting for Hank. But put Hayes in cowboy boots and suddenly she went all mushy and defensive. Damn it all, tomorrow morning he’d be back in a three-piece suit trying to ruin another small town. He was like his mother and didn’t need her to buy him a suit of armor to keep his mother from destroying his oversized ego.

Hank bit back the grin and stuffed pancakes into his mouth. Larissa mustn’t hate him too bad if she was willing to take up for him.

“Henry was a mistake,” Victoria said.

“If it was a mistake then let it go and move on. Thirty years is a long time to carry around a chip on your shoulder over a woman who’s been dead for years now. Might as well hang an albatross around your neck and run around smelling like shit all day,” Larissa said.

“From the mouths of babes,” Martha said.

“She’s right,” Doreen said.

“Oh, hush, both of you. I would expect you to take my side. How was I to know this spitfire hellcat was Doreen’s daughter?” Victoria turned toward Hank. “How about you? Are you going to wear that to the office tomorrow?”

He shrugged.

“Don’t come to work if you plan on it. I’ll fire you on the spot. When you are in my presence you are Hayes Radner, not Hank Wells,” she said.

He shrugged again. “I guess Dad could always use help this winter.”

“Don’t you threaten me,” Victoria said.

His eyes flashed anger when he looked at her. “Right back at you, Mother.”

Not a voice had been raised and a passerby would have thought they were having a nice family brunch before splitting up and heading in different directions. But the tension was so thick a sharp machete would have had trouble slicing through it.

“Okay, enough airing dirty laundry. We always have one lunch when we say what’s on our minds. We’ve done it and now it’s time for us all to be civil,” Doreen said. “Are you both coming to Italy for my wedding next month?”

“I wouldn’t miss it,” Martha said hurriedly. “I may stay a month.”

“You are welcome,” Rupert said. “We’ll be gone most of that time on our honeymoon. Just make yourself at home and visit all the art galleries you can fit into your schedule. The staff will be there to take care of whatever you need.”

Victoria pushed the rest of her pancakes across the table to Martha. “I may be able to get away for a week.”

Doreen clapped her hands. “Then make it the week before the wedding. You’ll both have to be fitted.”

“For what?” Martha almost choked.

“Dresses for the wedding. You’ll both stand up with me.”

“Dear God, a bride’s maid at fifty-one. That’s a ghastly thought,” Martha said. “If you put me in apricot ruffles and make me carry a parasol I will hate you forever. Hell, I might do one better and puke on the dress.”