The Blossom Sisters (23 page)

“Hell, yes, and I couldn't have said it better. So let's get started. I'm glad it all worked out, Gus.”

“Yeah, me, too. Hold on, I'm getting a text. It might be Jill or it might be my office.” Barney stared off into space while Gus checked his text. His friend's joyful-sounding whoop almost toppled him off his chair. “Well, damn, take a look at this, Barney.”

Barney's eyes popped wide. “Wow! Do you think this is another scam of hers? Or maybe she's trying to set you up for something or other?”

“Damned if I know. Want to take a break and ride out to the house to see if it's true? If she left the key, then I guess she's on the level. Give me five minutes to tell Granny, and I'll meet you out front.”

Rose, Violet, and Iris behind her viewed the message. All three asked the same question at the same time. “Do you believe this?”

“It follows her pattern according to all the detective reports I've seen. But she's leaving without a payout. She's never done that before, so, yes, maybe it is a setup of some sort. Guess I won't know till I check out the house. Barney and I are going there now to do just that. We won't be gone long, if it's okay with you ladies.”

“Go!” the sisters said in unison.

 

Gus felt detached when he walked up the steps to the deck that led to the back door. He was surprised when the key was precisely where Elaine had said it would be. He opened the door, expecting the alarm to go off. It didn't. He looked at Barney and shrugged. In the kitchen, he looked around. All was neat and tidy. There was nothing in the refrigerator.

The two old friends walked from room to room and couldn't find anything out of the ordinary. It just looked like a house that no one was living in. They walked upstairs and checked out the master bedroom. The bed was unmade, but that was the only thing to offset the impression of an unoccupied house. The closets were bare, the dresser drawers empty. The tons of makeup that used to dot the vanity in the bathroom were gone. Wet towels were hung over the shower stall.

“She's gone! Everything is gone. She had tons of stuff. I only had one small closet, and she had stuff in all the others. Tons of stuff, Barney.”

“What do you make of this?”

Gus shrugged. “I honest to God don't know, Barney. If all her stuff is gone, I guess that means she has no plans to come back. She told me to go ahead with the divorce. I have to assume she'll be in touch. I'm going to put the house up for sale and give the money back to Granny. I don't need a house like this. I'm selling my car, too. I have my eye on a Mustang convertible. If I sell the Porsche, pay off what's owed on it—which isn't much—I can pay cash for the Mustang and have no car payment. The high taxes on this house were killing me, not to mention the homeowner's insurance. That will be a big load off my shoulders. And, no, Barney, you are not going to lend or give me any money, so get that stupid look off your face.”

“But you love that Porsche.”

“Well, guess what? I love my grandmother and aunts more than I could ever love some damned car. I'll learn to love the Mustang.”

Barney wrapped his arms around his old friend. “You're one hell of a guy, Gus Hollister. You put me to shame.”

“Nah. Hey, you're the guy who is going to buy a big yellow bus to help a bunch of new friends. I envy you being able to do that without blinking. So, Barney Beezer, you're a hell of a guy yourself.”

The old friends left the house, their arms around each other's shoulders.

“You think we're making a difference, Barney?”

“Yeah, I do, Gus.”

“Then let's head back to Blossom Farm and make all those dreams of those new friends of ours come true.”

“How about heading for the DMV first, so I can pick up the application and manual for bus driving?”

“Okay.”

Fifteen minutes later, Barney climbed back into the car and waved the manual under Gus's nose. “Guess what? I have a date tomorrow night!”

“Huh?”

“Yeah, they were out of manuals, so the young lady had to send someone to fetch one. We got to talking, and I asked her out. She said yes.”

“Did you tell her who you were?” Gus laughed.

“I think she thinks I'm going to be driving a bus. I told her my name is Barney, and she didn't ask any questions.”

“Well, you better hurry up and get that bus.”

They were ten years old again as they laughed all the way back to Blossom Farm to work on making dreams come true for some wonderful people.

Epilogue

 

T
HE SUN WASN'T UP YET, THE SKY JUST STARTING TO PINK UP
when Gus and Barney, followed by Wilson, walked through the sliding doors and out to the deck for their first cup of coffee of the day.

Wilson wandered off to water the bushes as the two old friends sat down at the table.

“Today's the day, Gus. You ready for it?”

Gus took so long to answer the question, Barney had to prod him.

“As hard as I try to stop them, Barney, my thoughts keep going back to the day I married Elaine. I was so excited, I actually threw up. I don't feel like that today. I feel . . . anxious. I think I'm afraid to unleash my feelings. I don't want to make another mistake. And yet I can't wait to marry Jill. I feel like she's my life partner. We don't have secrets. We talk out everything. I see us growing old together, like the seniors, and loving every minute of it. I guess I'm ready, but I am scared; I won't lie to you.”

“I think that's normal, Gus, not that I'm any kind of authority.”

“Well, that's for sure. You're still dating Priscilla from the DMV. Two years is a long time not to make a commitment. What's your game plan, Barney?”

“I don't have a game plan, Gus. Priscilla loves me, I love her, but she can't come to terms with who I am. My money scares her. She'd marry me in a heartbeat if I drove a bus. She said she would never fit in with the kind of people I hang out with. With the exception of you and the seniors. When I showed her my house, which is sitting empty, she started to cry and ran out to the car. She's been on her own for a very long time. She deals with a mortgage payment, a car payment, and one credit card she pays off every month. She shops at discount stores and doesn't recognize designer labels. She's honest, she's frugal, and she allocates a portion of her yearly salary to donate to various causes, what she can comfortably afford. In my eyes, she's as perfect as you can get. I am not perfect in her eyes. Oh, and one other thing. She wants a man who comes home for a supper that she cooks. And a paycheck that goes into a joint bank account. I've asked her to marry me a hundred times and, each time, she says no. Let's not talk about me; this is your day. For whatever it's worth, Gus, you did it all the right way. You found your path, and you stayed on it. I'll find mine, but it may take a little longer.”

“Jill really likes Priscilla; they turned out to be great friends. The seniors love her, too. She's what Granny calls good people. We both know what that means.”

“I'm happy for you, Gus.”

“I know you are, and I have you to thank for it all.”

“Nah, you should thank Elaine in a crazy kind of way. If she hadn't demanded a divorce, you never would have met Jill. By the way, have you heard from Elaine?”

“The last time I heard from her was more than a year ago, when I sent the divorce papers to a box number in Alabama. They came back in overnight mail. No note, no nothing. She must be moving around, because when she sent the Quit Claim deed to the house, it was mailed from North Carolina. That was almost two years ago. Elaine is nothing more than a bad memory these days.”

“Did the nibble you had on the house come to anything?”

“It was a lowball offer. I'm holding out because I want to return the money to Granny. The market is still bad, but I would at least like to get back the price Granny paid for it, so I'm going to wait as long as I can.”

Barney shrugged. “I'm glad you and Jill agreed to get married at Shady Pines. You guys made the seniors so happy. They've been working like beavers to make sure the garden is shipshape. And asking Albert to perform the ceremony put them all over the moon.”

“Well, Al is a notary, and he casually said he could marry us if we wanted him to. I talked it over with Jill, and it seemed perfect to us. I hope he remembers the words.”

“He's been rehearsing by pretending to marry Iris and Oscar six times a day. I think he has it down pat.” Barney laughed.

Wilson trotted up to the deck, looked at Gus and Barney, and let loose with a bark that meant,
Where's my breakfast?

“Did you make the bed, Wilson? Did you take the trash out? You need to work in this house, or you don't eat. Hop to it, buddy.”

Wilson dropped to the deck and put his head between his paws. Gus shrugged.

Barney grabbed his own coffee cup and reached across the table for Gus's. He carried them into the house for refills. When he returned, he also had a Pop-Tart for Wilson.

“I closed on the house across the street yesterday, Gus. We're going to be neighbors. I bought a John Deere tractor, and they're going to deliver it later today.”

“On my wedding day!”

“Yeah. I told them to put it in the garage. No big deal. Next week, Priscilla and I are going to shop for furniture, and, no, she is not moving in. She just offered to help me, so I don't get ripped off.”

“Barney, what are you going to do about your business?”

“I'm not giving it up. It's what I do. I am cutting back on my travel, but I can't give it up entirely. I'm good at what I do, and people depend on me. If I can't get Priscilla to see my side, then she and I are not meant to be. I have to be true to myself. Granny taught us that, Gus.”

Barney looked at his watch. “Five more hours, pal.”

“Hold on, Barney. I have something for you. Groom has to give his best man a present. I got one for you.”

“No kidding? You didn't give me one when you married Elaine.”

“That's because I didn't know I was supposed to give you a gift. Elaine handled all the details. Granny and the seniors are doing this one, so they explained it to me.” Gus got up and went into the house. He returned with a huge box and another Pop-Tart for Wilson.

Barney got up and stood over the box. He pried back the ends of the box and pulled out the slab of bark from the old sycamore tree. Gus watched as his fingers traced their names, then caressed the old bark. Tears rolled down his cheeks.

“Jesus, Gus, how the hell . . . ? I don't know what . . . you couldn't have given . . . this is . . . this is from our kid days. A memory I'll never forget. I don't know what to say,” he said, throwing his arms around Gus. Then they both blubbered like little boys as their memories took them both back in time.

“I don't know what you're going to do with it—a doorstop maybe,” Gus said, trying to lighten the intensely emotional moment. Barney just hugged him harder.

“I can't believe you gave me this. I guess my question would be, why didn't you keep it for yourself? And how did you get it, anyway?”

“Barney, I don't have a whole hell of a lot to give to show you how much I value our friendship and all you've done for me over the years. I thought . . . I hoped this would say it for me. I told Granny about how I wanted it, and she asked Mr. Younger when he was cutting the tree down. He had to do some serious cutting, but I think he understood how important it was to me to save it. The lightning strike ran down the side, right next to where we gouged out our names. You can see a little dark streak of it there on the side. You know, Barney, you have to stop squeezing me, or you're going to break my ribs on my wedding day.”

“Oh, sorry, Gus. I'm just so overwhelmed. Listen, I'm going to take this over to my new house so it's the first thing I bring to my new life here in the neighborhood.”

“Go ahead. Do you want me to make some breakfast?”

“No. I'm too excited to eat. Well, okay, maybe some toast and juice.”

“Well, if that's all you want, you can make it yourself. I'm going up to take my shower. Now, if you want to cook something, that's okay with me.”
Like that's going to happen.

Gus made his way upstairs on wobbly legs, Wilson at his heels. He was getting married today, in less than five hours. He pinched himself to prove he wasn't still asleep, dreaming. In the bathroom, he gripped the edge of the vanity to steady himself. He closed his eyes and thought about the past two years and about how a warm friendship had turned into a deep and abiding love for the young woman he'd once called a fireplug. He had to be the luckiest man alive. He bowed his head and thanked Elaine. Because, in the end, Barney was right; if she hadn't kicked him out and filed for divorce, he wouldn't be standing here right now and looking forward to marrying the love of his life. “Wherever you are, Elaine, I hope you're as happy as I am right this moment,” he whispered.

 

Barney drove to Shady Pines because Gus was too nervous. Both were attired in dove gray tuxedos as per Granny's suggestion. They told each other in jittery voices that they looked dashing.

As they drove down the long driveway to the main building, they took time to appreciate the seniors' hard work at sprucing up the grounds for this important day. The lawn had been mowed, and the scent of the newly mown grass permeated the air. It was not an unpleasant scent. Flowers of all kinds bloomed in profusion. There wasn't a weed to be seen. Lush, thick ferns moved gently from the rafters of the wide front porch, where the seniors congregated at night to talk or to play checkers or chess. The building itself looked clean and well kept. The shutters and trim sported a pristine white fresh coat of paint.

The wedding was being held at the back of the property, on the wide expanse of lawn, under a lattice arch. White roses and blooming Confederate jasmine climbed the trellis. Gus thought it looked beautiful.

Barney parked as close as he could to the south entrance to Shady Pines, the door Granny had told them to come to, where they could wait until it was time to see the bride.

“Did Granny tell you what's on the buffet for the luncheon?” Barney asked.

“Everything under the sun. Each senior's favorite, each of our favorites, and, of course, the wedding cake that Lewis Lippman made for the occasion, which Granny said was, as per the instructions, decorated with fortune cookies. One for each guest. Jill thought that the fortune cookie cake was the best idea she'd ever heard of and said she would have liked to have seen the look on Lewis's face when the request for the fortune cookies had arrived.”

“They all love Jill. I told you that would happen, Gus. Jill loves having so many grandmothers and grandfathers. She adores each and every one of them. It turned out just the way we thought it would.”

Gus laughed. “With a little help from Barney Beezer, who keeps feeding the coffers. I appreciate the help, Barney. The seniors would, too, if they knew. The twenty extra seniors we added the last two years ate into our reserve, but with your help and my creative accounting and Jill's expertise, it's working perfectly. We might have to cut back on the bonus each one gets next year. I don't think anyone will mind. I was also thinking of cutting back vacations from two weeks to one week. Again, I don't think anyone will mind. If we do that, we can take in ten more seniors. You prepared to commit to that?”

“It's done.”

“You're a hell of a guy, Barney Beezer. I just wish you'd let me tell all of them how much you've done for them that they don't even know about.”

“No. We agreed, Gus. I don't even want Granny or the aunts to know.”

“It doesn't seem fair somehow.”

“To me, it's fair. So, you ready to get out of the car? Do you think you can stand up? You're gonna be okay, aren't you, Gus?”

“God, Barney, I don't know. I feel like that night when we picked up our dates for our first prom. Remember that?”

“Jesus, is that how you feel?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, get over it right now. You are going to marry the most wonderful young woman in this world. You have a huge family here to cheer you on and to wish you well. You have to stand up to that. So, let's put one foot in front of the other and head to the room that was assigned to just you, me, and Albert.”

Gus climbed out of the car and stood upright. He started to laugh then and couldn't stop. “I'm getting married!” he bellowed.

“'Bout time you got here, young fella. Thought you might be late for your own wedding there for a minute,” Albert said, chuckling.

Gus gaped at the man standing in front of him. He knew it was Albert, yet it wasn't the Albert he knew. The beard was gone, his hair was trimmed, and he wore a stunning blue-and-white seersucker suit that had to be sixty years old. A white sash was draped over his shoulder. Not only was Albert marrying him, he was also going to do all the photography. They all shook hands as Albert paced and recited the words he would say once the wedding was under way.

Granny poked her head in the door. “Ten minutes, Augustus. Violet will escort you and Barney to the waiting area. May I be the first to tell you how beautiful your bride-to-be looks?”

Gus gulped. He felt as nervous as a cat on a hot griddle, a favorite saying of his grandmother's. Now he knew what that particular saying meant.

Violet swooped into the room, checked out Albert from head to toe, then she gave his tie a jerk to straighten it. “Okay, Albert, Iris is going to escort you to the trellis. You go first.” Albert smiled as he left the room just as soon as Iris knocked on the door.

“Now, it's your turn, nephew.” Violet leaned forward, her gaze soft and gentle. “I want to tell you how proud of you I am, Augustus. You truly redeemed yourself in our eyes. I want to thank you for that. Having said that, neither I nor my two sisters will ever apologize for our actions prior to your first wife's kicking you out of the house. We love you, dear, you're our family, and we care about you, and perhaps, back then, we cared too much. Whatever, that's all water under the bridge. This is now. I hope you will always be as happy as you are today.” Then Violet pulled Gus close and whispered in his ear. Gus blinked, then blinked again, as Violet moved forward to lead the two men out of the room, down the hall, and out to the velvety lawn, where they would wait for Jill to make her appearance.