“It sure does, but I’m glad you were sitting beside me this morning and you’ll be beside me this afternoon.”
Tucker dragged out his black suit, a white shirt, and a tie and dusted off his best black boots. He’d sworn after Melanie’s funeral that he’d never put that suit on again, but he’d show respect, and besides, maybe wearing the suit was moving forward still another step. He looked at his reflection in the mirror, and something different shone in his face. The tension was gone, but then Jolene had come into his life and heart.
He made sure his tie was just right one more time and then stepped out into the foyer to find Jolene pacing the floor. “Are you okay?”
“These are your in-laws and I haven’t been to a funeral since my dad died—we didn’t have one for my mother. And I’m nervous about what they’ll think of me. I work in a bar and . . .”
“Well, nervous is a word I never thought I’d hear out of your mouth. I thought you were made tough as nails,” he said.
“That’s the exterior. The interior is a mixture of jelly and mush,” she said.
He started at the toes of her black high-heeled shoes and traveled up the slim black skirt that hugged her body and on up to the cute little jacket she wore over a silky-looking white blouse. They matched—him with his black suit and white shirt and her in that pretty suit. Had she worn that same one to her father’s funeral?
“You look as beautiful in that as you did in the blue sweater this morning, but I’ve got a confession to make.” He slipped an arm around her shoulders. “I like you better in your skinny jeans and work shirts. You’re downright sexy in those.”
She looped her arm in his. “I like you better in work clothes, too. I think this kind of getup means sadness and our everyday things speak to us of happiness.”
The wind had calmed down, and although it was chilly, the sun shone brightly. It was so unlike the storm, complete with thunder and lightning, the day that they’d held Melanie’s funeral and that last day he’d gone to the cemetery to see her. Maybe this day was just a reflection of what was in Tucker’s heart. On Melanie’s day he’d been so full of anger that he felt as if he could throw lightning bolts from his fingertips. But today, even though there was sadness, he was at peace with Luke’s passing.
When they reached the cemetery, Tucker helped Jolene out of the truck and took her hand in his. Just that much gave him comfort and courage. He slowed his stride to match hers, but when they reached the hearse, she let go and went on ahead to stand beside a tall pine tree. The funeral director opened the back of the hearse, and Tucker took his place with Melanie’s brothers on one side. Three men he wasn’t familiar with served as the other pallbearers.
As they carried the casket to the gravesite, Tucker could hear the rustling of last year’s dead oak leaves in the trees above them. But once they’d positioned the casket on the stand and stood back in a line, he heard a button click and Garth Brooks’s voice filled the air as he sang “The Dance.” The words said that he could have missed the pain but he’d have had to miss the dance.
It wasn’t what most people would choose to play for a funeral. It was actually a song to a lover who had left, but it wasn’t difficult to realize that it could be written to Luke from Carla on that day. Tucker glanced over at Jolene to see her wiping her eyes. Evidently the song was hitting her the same way.
Tucker thought about everything he and Jolene had been through and realized he was ready to do more than just share a bed with her. He was ready to share his life with her.
Home was Magnolia Inn in a physical sense. But home was Jolene Broussard in an emotional sense. He’d fallen in love with the woman, and now all he had to do was give her enough time and room to fall for him.
Jolene felt every word of Garth’s song, and as the words sank into her heart, she let go of the guilt and the pain of the past. She might have missed the pain, like he said, but she would have missed the dance. The good times with her father in his flower garden. The shopping trips with her mother when she was a little girl. She’d hang on to the good memories, however scarce they might be, and do her best to let go of the others.
There was a pause when the song ended, and then a woman in a bright-red dress stood up. She had a microphone in one hand and a hankie in the other.
“Saying goodbye to my precious husband is not easy, and y’all might think that song is crazy for a funeral. But it was our song. We had a rough year in our marriage the year that song came out. We lost both sets of our parents. The kids were young, and Luke had lost his job. We used up all our savings before he finally got another job. We were fighting a lot in those days about money and kids and everything else. One day he came into the house, put a cassette in the player, and held out his hand to me. He wasn’t a romantic man, so I was a little shocked, but I thought maybe . . .” She paused and dabbed at her eyes before she went on. “I thought maybe that he was ready to try a little harder, so I put my hand in his. He pushed the button on the cassette player, and that song started playing. We danced and wept all the way through it. That was the turning point in our marriage. He still wasn’t romantic, but sometimes he’d come in and put on that song again, and we’d dance. He didn’t want a funeral. He didn’t even really want this much. He just asked to be buried by our daughter, Melanie, and for me not to grieve too long. I can do it all, and maybe when the grief gets to be too much, I’ll just put on this song and remember that if I didn’t have this horrible pain today, I would’ve had to miss the dance with a fantastic man. Thank you all for coming—the song as you leave was his choice for today. It’s the one that we danced to the night before he went to be with our daughter in heaven.”
Jolene didn’t even try to keep up with the tears dripping on her jacket as Vince Gill sang “Look At Us.” She watched Carla kiss a single red rose and lay it on the casket. Then Carla sat down, and her shoulders began to shake with sobs.
Tucker left his place with the pallbearers to hug her. “Call me anytime. I’m here for you and the boys.”
“Thank you,” Carla said.
He took a few steps toward Jolene. She met him halfway, and their tears blended together, washing away the past.
He handed her his handkerchief. “I need to say something right now, Jolene, because we might not have anything but this moment. I’m falling in love with you.”
“I never believed that love conquered everything. But maybe, in our case, it could be right.” She wiped her eyes and handed it back to him. “I feel the same about you. Do we go home now?”
“We should go to the house,” he said. “Carla wants to meet you.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Conversation flowed in low tones as they reached the house. Tucker kept her by his side for a while, and then Carla looped an arm in hers and said, “You boys go on in the living room and talk. I want to show Jolene something.”
Jolene sent a frantic look toward Tucker, begging him to make an excuse to take her home, but he just nodded and went into another room with Will and Patrick.
Carla led her into a study, shut the door, and slumped down in a chair. “I love my family, but I need a moment. Please sit down and let’s catch our breath.”
Jolene sat down next to her and crossed her legs at the ankles. She was reminded of how she’d sneaked away after her father’s funeral. All those people milling around. Her mother in tears. She’d felt the walls closing in on her and gone outside. Uncle Jasper had finally missed her and had come out to sit beside her. He didn’t say anything at all, but just held her hand for a long time.
Now it was her turn to be the one to comfort someone—a complete stranger, and yet grief is no respecter of persons. She reached across the distance and laid a hand on Carla’s arm. “Your eulogy was wonderful. So heartfelt and personal. More funerals should be like that,” Jolene said.
“Thank you so much. I want to say something to you, but I’m not even sure where to begin.” Carla fidgeted with the handkerchief in her hands.
Carla sucked in a lungful of air and let it out in a whoosh. “I felt like I’d lost two kids when Melanie died and Tucker didn’t come around anymore. I didn’t think he’d ever get over it, and I’m not so sure he would have without you in his life. I know it’s a crazy thing to ask under the circumstances, but I’d like for us to be friends. We, my sons and I, want Tucker back in our lives, and this is going to sound insane,” Carla whispered. “I had a dream last night. You’d think it would be about Luke, but it was about Melanie. I could see her sitting on her tombstone, wearing her wedding dress, of all things, and she told me that she had a new friend named Jolene that was going to help Tucker. Luke told me that you see things different when you’re lookin’ at death. I thought he was bat-crap crazy, but I’ve changed my mind since that dream. The last thing she said as she faded away, leaving just the tombstone, was that I’d like her new friend, too.” She took several sips of her tea.
A cold shiver chased down Jolene’s spine. Those two songs that were so unlike funeral music, hearing Tucker say that he was in love with her and saying it back to him, the way she’d felt when she awoke in the middle of the night to find him still in bed with her—it was all surreal, but not as much as Carla telling her about that dream. But then, looking back over the past month, not much hadn’t been slightly weird.
Carla went on. “I won’t smother you, I promise, but I do miss having a . . . well, maybe I should just say having a younger woman to go shopping with sometimes or out to lunch or maybe even just to talk to on the phone.”
Jolene flashed her brightest smile, and it was sincere. “I’d like that.”
“Let’s just sit here a few more minutes. I need the time,” Carla said with a weak smile.
“When you’re ready,” Jolene said. “Give me a call when things settle down.”
A gentle knock on the door was followed by Tucker’s face as he peeked inside the office. “I’m not rushin’ you, but we probably should be getting home.”
Jolene stood and then bent to hug Carla. “You don’t have to call before you come see me. Just drop in anytime.”
Tucker escorted her out of the house and into his truck, where he promptly removed his tie and tossed it over the seat. “Are you okay? What happened in there?”
She told him what had happened, and he leaned over the console and kissed her. It started out slow and sweet, but before long, his tongue was teasing her lips open. When he finally broke away, he was breathing hard. “You never cease to amaze me, woman.”
“Because I told your mother-in-law we could be friends? That’s as much to my benefit as to hers. I liked her honesty and the way she handled that funeral. We’ll be good friends. I can feel it in my heart,” Jolene said. “And you need a family, too, Tucker.”
Jolene slung the door open the day after the funeral. “Aunt Sugar, are you sure you want to climb up into that attic today? It’s going to be chilly.”
“And dusty, but there shouldn’t be any mice scampering around. Me and Jasper put out a fresh batch of poison before we left last month.” Sugar started up to the second floor. “I wore my oldest work coat, so it won’t matter if it gets dusty and dirty.”
Jolene followed along behind her. “Why are we doing this today, Aunt Sugar?”
“Because I want to take some of the old picture albums to my new house, and there used to be a little library stand up there that I could use in the corner of the living room. I’ve about got all the big pieces of furniture in the house. I thought I wanted all new things, but I need a few old comfortable pieces. A house isn’t a real home without some past, present, and future in it.”
As they made their way, single file, up the narrow steps at the end of the hallway, Jolene asked, “And how are you going to put future in the house?”
When they reached the top, Jolene was amazed at all the stuff that had been stored. She’d known for years that the door led to the attic, but she’d always been afraid of mice and thought that there could be one hiding up there.
Sugar pulled a rocking chair over to a roll-top trunk. “I need some doilies, and I know there’s a box of them in this trunk because I put them here years ago.”
“You didn’t answer me,” Jolene pressed. “That’s the past. The present is the new things. What about the future?”
“See that baby bed over there? I’ll send Jasper out here tomorrow for it. Tucker can help get it down the stairs. I slept in that crib, your mother did, and so did you when she brought you to visit as a small baby. That is the future, because your children are going to sleep in it when I babysit them,” she answered as she brought out a thick picture album. “I’m going to pick out several of these of you and have them framed to go in the nursery.”
“Gettin’ the cart before the horse, aren’t you?” Jolene blushed. “Did Reuben ever sleep in that crib?”
“No, he didn’t come stay with us until he was about seven. That’s when his mama started letting him out of her sight for more than an hour for what you kids today call playdates,” Sugar answered. “And I’m not gettin’ the cart before the horse, either.”
“Tucker and I’ve known each other less than two months,” Jolene argued.
“I knew Jasper fifteen minutes when he proposed to me. He was the shyest boy I’d ever known. I was so surprised when he blurted out that he fell in love with me at first sight. I told him he was crazy, but he proposed again six weeks later and meant it. I’m just gettin’ ready.” Sugar pointed at the album. “I hope the first baby is a girl and she looks just like you. Jasper and I are so ready to be grandparents.”
Jolene blushed again. “Aunt Sugar!”
“Oh, stop that blushing. I know y’all are sleeping together. I figure you’re on the pill,” Sugar said. “But me and the girls have been praying ever since I got home that they fail. We need a baby to spoil. We ain’t had one in more than thirty years, and that’s too long. Dotty is already knitting blankets. Lucy is keeping an eye out for one of those rocking cradles for her house, and Flossie is stockpiling diapers when she finds them on sale.”
Jolene’s hands went to her cheeks.
“And that’s the picture of the future,” Sugar said with a lilt in her voice. “I’m taking this album and going home.”
“I’ll walk you out,” Jolene said.
“Not necessary. You stay up here and stare at that baby bed. Maybe it’ll put ideas in your head.” Sugar left Jolene speechless.
Tucker waited until Sugar had left before he went up to the attic. “It’s cold up here. Why didn’t you come down with Sugar?”
“Because she shocked the hell out of me, and I’m trying to get my bearings,” Jolene answered. “She’s talking about babies, and the girls are already getting ready to babysit, and I don’t even know where we are in this relationship, but it’s sure not to the point where we discuss babies.” She stopped to catch her breath.
He sat down beside her. “I’d ask you to marry me and have my children. But if it’s too soon, I can ask later on. And babies sound pretty good to me.”
“We’ve only known each other . . . ,” she started.
He scooted over closer to her and took her hand in his. “I’m not in a hurry. Like I said, I can do this another time. This is not the most romantic place in the world, is it?”
Past.
Present.
Future.
The three words raced through her mind. They were sitting in the attic with the past all around them. They were living in the present and talking about the future.
“Why come back another time? We’re right here, right now.”
“Okay then.” He moved around until he was on one knee. “Jolene Broussard, I don’t even have a ring, a
nd I can’t say I loved you from the time we met. But I can say that I intend to love you until we are both old and gray and lots of babies have used that crib over there. So will you marry me?”
“Yes!” She wrapped her arms around his neck. “Want to go start one of those babies right now?”
“Now that sounds like a plan.” He took her by the hand and led her down to the bedroom.
Epilogue
Eighteen months later
Jolene dressed in a pretty, lacy dress. She swept her hair up into a bundle of curls and tucked some baby’s breath in the side. Aunt Sugar and Uncle Jasper were repeating their vows that day in the wedding/dining room of the Magnolia. Jolene had the urge to pinch herself just to see if this was all real or if she was dreaming. Her life had changed so much, and all of it was for the better.
Tucker knocked on the door of what they’d dubbed the rose room and poked his head inside. “Well, hello, gorgeous.”
“Hello, sexy cowboy.” She crossed the room, slipped her arms under his suit coat, and laid her head on his chest. After more than a year, that steady heartbeat still calmed her soul.
He’d been wrong when he said he wasn’t romantic, but then, their definition of the word wasn’t the same as other folks’. Bringing in the first daffodil of the spring meant more than a dozen red roses on Valentine’s Day. Sneaking out of bed early in the morning to have the coffee ready or, better yet, giving her a whole hour with no interruptions for a long, hot bath after she’d had a rough night. What were those things, if not romantic?
“This is a milestone that goes on the calendar,” she said.
He tipped her chin up with his thumbs and kissed her. “The day I bought half ownership in this place changed my life for the better.”
The Magnolia Inn Page 25
