Song of the Road (16 page)

“I ain’t givin’ ya no kiss,” Eli said.

“Then I get two each from Mary Lee and Trudy.” Jake’s smile grew even wider.

“You won’t get any if you don’t hurry up.”

Mary Lee was grateful that Trudy could speak, because she couldn’t.

“All right. Here goes.” Jake took a deep breath and blew out all the candles. When he raised his head, his eyes, dancing as brightly as the candle flames, caught and held Mary Lee’s sparkling ones.

“What’d ya wish for?” Eli asked.

“He’s not supposed to tell,” Trudy said quickly, and pulled on Jake’s shirt so he’d bend down. She placed a kiss on his cheek. “Your turn, Mary Lee.”

Dark lashes momentarily screened Mary Lee’s eyes. A blush covered her cheeks. Her mouth went dry as a bone. Jake’s thick brows now lowered over eyes sparkling with mischief.

“Your turn, Mary Lee.” His words echoed Trudy’s.

When her upraised eyes took in the flushed, happy look on his face, her heart leaped in her throat and her body shook with a slight tremor. He was within inches of her now, forcing her to lift her face to kiss his cheek. He lowered his and, at the last second, turned it slightly so that her kiss landed on the corner of his mouth.

She backed up quickly to put space between them. Trudy and Eli didn’t seem to notice her sudden, jerky movement. Eli was removing the candles from the cake and dropping them in a paper sack. Trudy took an envelope from her pocket.

“You’ve got presents to open before you can have cake.”

“Presents?”

“Birthday presents.” Trudy handed the envelope to Jake. “From me and Mama.”

Jake backed up and sat down on the bed, then hurriedly got to his feet.

“Ladies . . .” He indicated that they sit on the bed. “I’m short of chairs. Eli and I can sit on the floor.”

“Quit stallin’ and open the envelope,” Eli said.

“It isn’t often I get presents. I’m going to make it last as long as possible.”

“You got two more after that one.”

“Well, in that case . . .” Jake pulled a slip of paper from the envelope and read, “ ‘This ticket is worth one steak dinner at Ruby’s diner.’

“By Golly! A steak dinner at Ruby’s. I’ll sure collect that.” He carefully returned the ticket to the envelope and put it in his shirt pocket. “Thanks, Trudy. I’ll thank Ruby when I go to collect.”

Mary Lee shyly handed him a small tissue-wrapped package.

“What’s this?”

“Open it and see.”

He carefully untied the ribbon, folded back the paper and lifted out the red bandanna.

“How did you know I needed one of these?”

“I didn’t think you could have too many handkerchiefs.”

“Thanks, Mary Lee. This is so new and bright, I’ll wear it on Sunday.” He folded the cloth and tied it around his neck.

“I told her you’d give the hair ribbon back,” Eli said.

“I don’t know if I’ll part with it.” Jake grinned at Mary Lee’s red face. “I just might want to wear it around my neck too.”

“Give him your present, Eli,” Mary Lee said. Then to Jake, “He wouldn’t tell me what it was.”

Eli produced a package wrapped in the colorful Sunday funny paper that had been left in one of the cabins and tied with twine.

“That’s a good idea, Eli,” Trudy said. “I’d never have thought to use the funny paper for wrapping.”

Pleased by the praise, Eli watched closely as Jake unwrapped the small copper box he had found on the trash pile behind the washhouse. After pounding out the dents and straightening the lid so that it would close, he had spent a couple of hours polishing it.

“It’s to put your razor in.”

“Or anything of value,” Jake said. “It’s so shiny I could almost use it for a mirror. Thanks, Eli. You put in a lot of work on this.”

“I polished it up with vinegar and soda. One of the few things I learned at the orphans’ home.”

Mary Lee said, “That’s a new one on me. I didn’t know vinegar and soda would shine copper.”

Eli basked in their admiration until Trudy produced the cake knife. “Now it’s time to cut the birthday cake.”

Chapter 11

“T
AKE THIS LAST PIECE,
J
AKE.
”

“I’ve had three pieces. Give it to Eli.” Jake sat cross-legged on the floor with his empty plate in his hand.

“How about it, Eli?”

“Well, sure, if nobody else wants it.”

“Just eat it off the plate.” Trudy handed him the cake plate. “I think he’s got hollow legs,” she said in an aside to Jake.

“I didn’t know cake could be so good. Pie is the usual dessert in diners.”

All this was almost more than Jake could take in at one time. He was still in a daze. He had been alone for so long, he hadn’t known another way of life. That Mary Lee had remembered today was his birthday and had gone to such lengths to make it special for him was little less than a miracle.

“It was just plain old everyday cake. I fancied it up with white mountain icing.” Mary Lee went to the door, looked out, and was relieved to see that the cabin Frank Pierce occupied was still dark.

“One thing is sure —I’ll never forget my twenty-sixth birthday.” Jake stood. Trudy took the plate from his hand.

“I hate to break up the party, but I’ve got to be gettin’ home.” Trudy put the plates back in the paper sack. “Jake, how about you and Mary Lee givin’ me a ride home? Mama don’t want me walkin’ by myself after dark.”

“I’ve got to get back to the house,” Mary Lee said quickly.

“How would it look if folks saw me out at night alone with Jake?” Trudy replied. “Tongues would start waggin’ about a romance brewin’.”

“What would be so bad about that?”

“Maybe I’ve got my eye on another fella,” Trudy retorted sassily. “Bein’ with Jake would blow my chances.”

“You never told me.”

“I’m keepin’ it a secret.” With her back to Mary Lee, she winked at Jake.

Trudy was sure that Jake had fallen for Mary Lee. Being careful not to let Trudy catch him, Jake’s eyes had followed her friend since the moment they stepped in the door. She hoped that Mary Lee could see the real Jake behind his jail-bird reputation.

Just before he went out the door, Eli picked up the sack with the soiled dishes and forks. “I’ll keep an eye on things until you get back.”

“Oh, but —”

“We won’t be gone fifteen minutes. Come on, half-pint,” Jake said to Trudy. “Mary Lee’ll be gettin’ antsy.”

“I’m washing the cake plate. It was sticky.” Trudy worked at the small sink, then wiped the plate on one of Jake’s towels. “You’ll have to scald this plate before you use it,” she said to Mary Lee. “Jake’s probably dried his feet on this towel.”

When the three of them got into the truck, Mary Lee was hugging the cake plate to her as if it were a shield. She moved over into the middle of the seat to make room for Trudy. Her arm and shoulder were behind Jake’s; his hip and thigh, warm and hard, against hers. When he reached to shift the gears, his fingers brushed her knees, and she felt the touch to the tips of her toes.

The ride to Trudy’s house was no longer than five minutes. Trudy chattered all the way, seeming to know that she was needed to fill the silence.

“I won’t be over tomorrow, Mary Lee, unless you need me. But I’ll be there the next morning. If I get there at five, it will be soon enough to get breakfast ready by six. Eli said you were going to put up the signs in the morning, Jake. So the price for lodging goes up tomorrow? Mary Lee, are you going to charge two dollars if they eat or not?” Without waiting for an answer, Trudy said, “I would. Don’t give them a choice. Mama says that folks will dilly around if they have to make a choice. She only has four things on the menu at the diner. She said that if she had something fancy like green bean casserole with mushroom topping, most folks would still order steak and potatoes. Maybe they would order the casserole at a place like Daytonas in Santa Fe, but not at Ruby’s Diner in Cross Roads. The only traveling men who come here stop at the motor court. Oh, maybe a few of them go into town to the hotel.” Trudy paused and took a breath, then said, “I’m about to run out of anything to say.”

Both Mary Lee and Jake laughed. “I was wondering when you were going to run down,” Jake said.

“Well, you weren’t helping me none a-tall.”

“I couldn’t have gotten a word in edgeways.”

“I’ve stopped now. What did you want to say?”

“I wanted to say thank you for the party and ask you to tell your mother thanks for the present. I’ll cash in my ticket one night soon.”

“Are you finished at the bridge?” Mary Lee asked.

“I go back tomorrow to get my pay. After I put out your signs, I’ll go out to see Quitman and find out when he wants me to start out there.”

Jake stopped the truck in front of a small house with a long front porch. A dog came out and barked.

“Oh, be quiet, George,” Trudy scolded as she hopped out of the truck. “Thanks, Jake. See you day after tomorrow, Mary Lee.”

Jake waited until Trudy was inside the house before he moved the truck down the street. Still holding the cake plate clutched against her breast, Mary Lee moved over to the far side of the seat. He missed the warmth of her body against his. The smell of her was in his nostrils. He longed to reach out, put his arms around her and draw her back against him.

“Trudy is a chatterbox.” It was the first thing that came to Mary Lee’s mind to say. “Even when we were in school, she always had something to say.”

“And you were the shy one.”

“How did you know?”

“You’re shy sometimes now, and at other times . . . wow!” He looked at her and grinned.

“Like the night Frank Pierce had his radio on so loud? You should have heard me yelling at Ocie Clawson. I’m sure that Mr. Santez down at the filling station heard me.”

“Ocie Clawson? Was he here?” Jake asked sharply. “Yesterday.”

“Was he wanting you to get rid of me?”

“He mentioned it. Mostly he wanted to know if the baby was Bobby’s.”

“Why the . . . low-down, dirty polecat!”

“If it was, he wanted to have a hand in raising it.”

Jake was quiet for a minute, then asked, “Are you going to let him?”

Mary Lee’s brows drew together, and she looked at him as if he were crazy for even asking the question.

“I’ll hide away in one of the little mountain villages you told me about before I let him have a hand in raising my child.”

“In his defense, I’ll have to say that Ocie didn’t have much of a hand in raising Bobby. It was all his mother’s doing.”

“You said once that you went to school with Bobby.”

“My mother and I lived on the ranch. I rode fence when I wasn’t going to a one-room school. Even then, Mrs. Clawson thought Bobby knew more than the teacher.”

“How old were you then?”

“About Eli’s age, I guess. I was fifteen when my mother died. The only friend I’d had there had been Temple Clawson. He died a few months before my mother. There was nothing for me at the Circle C after that, so I took off.”

“That was ten years ago.”

“Thereabouts. I’ve learned a lot during those ten years.” Mary Lee wanted to keep him talking. “You liked the older Mr. Clawson?”

“Yeah. I did.”

“Bobby didn’t like him. Called him crude and ignorant.”

“Mrs. Clawson didn’t like him, and what Mrs. Clawson didn’t like, Bobby didn’t like.”

A light was on in number one cabin when they reached the motor court. Jake drove past it and parked the truck beside his cabin.

“I hope Frank hasn’t caused any trouble.”

“Things seem quiet. Sit with me a minute. Eli will know that we’re back, and will come for you if you’re needed.” He turned and rested his arm on the back of the seat.

“The people in number five have left already. They didn’t even bother to close the door.”

“They may be back.”

“I don’t think so.”

“One of those, huh?”

“I used to ask Daddy why people rented and didn’t stay the whole night. He never gave me a good answer. Now I know.” Mary Lee was so comfortable with him here in the darkness that she wasn’t the least embarrassed by the topic of their conversation.

There was a long silence while all sorts of wild thoughts floated through her mind. Bobby had been dead only a few months. How could she so completely forget a man she had lived with for more than a year? What was she doing, sitting in the dark with a man she had known only a few weeks, a man who had been in prison, a man who she had thought was a dangerous crook.

She turned her head and saw that he had leaned slightly toward her, his eyes warm on her face. Suddenly his hand was on her arm, moving down to clasp her hand. He lifted it, held the back of it to his mouth and kissed it. The warmth of his mouth caused a lovely feeling to unfold in her midsection. It was strange to her. She tugged on her hand. He held it between both of his.

“Mary Lee . . .” His voice was a mere whisper. “Don’t be scared. I’m trying to tell you how much this evening has meant to me. I’ve had my first birthday cake, my first birthday present, and all because of you.”