Trey waited beside a huge potted plant only a few feet from the door. “Everything straightened out?”
“Everything is fine,” Roseanna took his arm and let him lead her through the maze of people to introduce her to his grandparents, whom she’d only met twice in their four years of marriage.
“We’d like to thank you for taking care of that little matter,” the grandmother said when she air-hugged Roseanna.
“You are very welcome,” Roseanna said.
Trey smiled at his grandparents. “Fifty-five years. That’s quite an accomplishment in today’s world.”
His grandfather slipped an arm around his wife’s waist and drew her close to his side. “It is, but then your grandmother is an extraordinary woman to put up with this old codger.”
“Sometimes even a Bostonian knows a diamond in the rough when she sees it. This old Texan stole my heart so I had to go about training him,” she teased.
Trey and Roseanna both smiled and moved on to allow other people to speak to the guests of honor.
“There was something you said about second thoughts. Have you put them to rest? See, my grandparents didn’t draw swords and kill you on the spot,” Trey asked.
“I was sweating it for a while. Maybe I’ve changed my mind.”
Laura and her father zeroed in on them and were crossing the room at incredible speed.
“But then again, maybe not,” Roseanna said.
Laura kissed Trey on the cheek. “Darling, how wonderful to see you looking so fit. And who is this? Your new psychiatrist? I understand you are in some kind of therapy for the summer. Poor baby, that must have been so frightening to you. Oh, my, it’s Roseanna. You look so different. Why are you here?”
“She’s here with me,” Trey said. “And no, I’m not in therapy. I’m working this summer, teaching at the junior college in Tishomingo. I’m hoping they hire me full time in the fall.”
“Oh, dear, I’d so hoped you would have gotten over that idea,” Laura exclaimed. “Oh, I must speak to your grandparents. Such lovely folks. Come along, father.”
“Good to see you again, Trey. I’m sorry to hear about your company. If there’s anything I can do, let me know. I’m always there for your family. Did you hear the latest? Laura is seeing Rupert Brewster.” Cyrus smiled.
“They’d make a wonderful couple, I’m sure. Rupert has been in love with Laura since third grade.” Trey steered Roseanna away from the Ashbloods.
“Let’s dance. That way we won’t be interrupted.” He drew her close and they began to waltz in time to the music from the bandstand.
She tried to put feelings into words but it wasn’t possible. Finally after several minutes she said, “The second thoughts are still there, Trey, and as long as they are …”
“When you believe in love again, let me know. I’ll be waiting,” he dipped her low when the music ended. “Thank you for the dance.”
“Thank you, Trey.”
“Everyone is being seated for dinner. We’ll have to eat before we can escape.”
The long dangling earrings glittered in the bright lights when she shook her head, and yet it was more like a shudder from the neck up than a negative expression. Surely he hadn’t said they could leave early. Trey always stayed until the last dog died at any formal function. He was in his element amongst the shamefully rich and famous.
“Escape?” She frowned.
His eyes started at her bare toes and traveled up to the curls on top of her head. With the high heels they were the same height. All he had to do was lean forward slightly and he could touch her lips. “Sure. I don’t intend to stay until the band packs up.”
“You don’t get brownie points for this,” she said.
“I’m not looking for any. Are you telling me you want to stay? After all the times when you looked across the room at me with those big old green eyes begging to go home?”
“Are you telling me you want to go? After all the times you ignored my pleas for rescue?”
“Looks like we’ve got a … what do they call it … a role reversal?”
“I didn’t want to be here in the first place. I sure don’t want to stay longer than necessary, but have you considered what all these people are going to think, Trey?”
He crooked his arm. “No. I don’t really care what they think. Colin Vance Fields, the third and guest have a place at the head table. Shall we sit?”
She took it and felt that old familiar jolt of desire even through the fabric of the tux. Confusion filled her heart and soul. A waiter appeared the moment they were seated, took their order and in moments set a plate before them. Roseanna picked at the salad and ignored the chicken. Trey cut two bites from his steak and barely touched a stuffed baked potato.
Greta and her date took their place beside Roseanna. “I hope people realize this isn’t my choice … sitting beside you,” she whispered with a big smile on her face.
“I’m sure if they are that nosy they can look at the name cards and see that I’m not Roseanna Cahill. I am merely Colin Vance Field’s guest. Kind of makes me anyone, doesn’t it? Have you heard the latest gossip? Oh, there it is. A picture is worth a million words.” Roseanna pointed with her fork toward Laura and Rupert on the dance floor. She did it just to infuriate Greta.
“You ever think of taking a course in charm school before you attend one of these functions?” Greta asked.
Roseanna dabbed her mouth with the white linen napkin. “I did attend one, darlin’.”
“Did you flunk out?” Greta asked.
“Oh, no, I was a star pupil.”
“Good Lord, is she really seeing that geek?” Greta said behind her own napkin.
“Looks like it,” Roseanna nodded. “Be careful. Letting people see you conversing with me might give the impression you agree with your brother.”
“I can agree that he’s an idiot. He got rid of you once and now he’s coming back for a second round evidently. When did you go to charm school?”
“Granny Etta and Momma taught all four of us Cahill girls lots of charm. They taught us we ain’t supposed to eat with our fingers or put our elbows on the table.”
“God, girl, didn’t they teach you that ‘ain’t’ is not proper English?”
“Oh, yes, Greta, Momma and Granny Etta taught me to be quite charming. Even though I feel like it, I haven’t told you to drop dead in a fresh pile of cow manure.”
“You haven’t changed a bit,” Greta said.
Roseanna tilted her head to one side and smiled. “Ain’t that nice.”
Trey stood up and held his hand out to Roseanna. “May I have this dance?”
Roseanna rose with grace. “Yes, sir.”
“You are a complete idiot,” Greta whispered when her brother passed her chair.
“Thank you. I’m very happy and content right now. If it takes being an idiot to keep me that way, then I’ll be the best idiot in the world.”
Greta gritted her teeth.
“Think she’ll ever grow up?” Roseanna asked when they reached the dance floor.
“It’ll take a miracle or a lot of hard luck. Some of us just take awhile.” Trey liked the way Rosy fit into his arms; it was a delicious little shiver when his fingers brushed her bare shoulder.
“Why did you drag me away from the table? I’m still hungry.”
“Me, too, to be honest. I was sitting there eating reception food. It’s not bad but then I remembered the pizza we had in the motel after we came down out of the mountains and got hungry for pizza. Let’s sneak out of here and go to the nearest Pizza Hut and eat real food,” he said.
“Trey Fields, impulsive? I don’t believe it.”
“Trey Fields, hungry? Believe it. You game or not?”
“Oh, yes, I’m game. Meat lovers with thick crust.”
“Dance toward the door with me,” he grinned.
The dance ended but he didn’t let go of her hand, keeping it firmly in his as they very quietly left the party. He hail
ed a taxi when they were out the front doors and told him to take them to the nearest Pizza Hut.
“You and Greta were talking. Was it good?”
“It was a first rate cat fight,” she said honestly.
He chuckled. “You won’t have to be around her all that much. A few parties a year. Evidently you held your own since she called me an idiot.”
“I can hold my own,” she nodded.
“I don’t doubt it.”
The taxi stopped in front of a Pizza Hut. “Here we are.”
She looked down at the red dress and shoes. “Pizza? Doesn’t seem like such a good idea now, does it?”
He paid the taxi bill and escorted her inside as if they were going to see the Queen of England. “Yep, pizza. We might be just a little over dressed but I’m guaranteeing there won’t be any of the old crowd in here to make you uncomfortable. Laura and Rupert will be eating steak and shrimp until well after midnight. Greta loves pizza but she wouldn’t be caught dead in this part of town. So pizza it is, my lady.”
They sat down at a table covered with a red and white checked cloth in a back corner of the restaurant. A teenage waitress brought menus and took orders for their drinks. She returned in a few minutes with tall glasses of iced tea.
“Are you ready to order? Where ya’ll been tonight? A wedding? I bet you was the bridesmaid and you was the groomsman, weren’t you?”
“No, we were at an anniversary party for my grandparents,” Trey said with a big smile on his face.
“Really? Are you movie stars?”
“No, just common people all dressed up,” Roseanna said. “I’ll have a medium meat lover’s pizza with hand tossed crust and a salad.”
“Well, ya’ll sure do look pretty,” the waitress said.
“Thank you. I’ll have the same thing she just ordered,” Trey handed her both menus.
“Help yourselves to the salad bar. I’ll have your pizzas out here in twenty minutes.”
Roseanna looked across the table at him, her deep green eyes locking with his, burning holes in the space between them.
“Did I ever tell you that your eyes are mesmerizing?” He asked.
“Are you flirting?”
“Stating facts, Ma’am. Just stating facts.”
Twenty minutes loomed ahead like an eternity.
“Trey …”
“I know, I’m crazy. All that wonderful food at the reception and here we sit eating pizza, but I wanted time with you and besides I was hungry. Would you have rather gone to something more formal?”
“No, this is fine. I just can’t believe we are here. What happened or is this a game? When you finally get what you want, will you want it?”
“Enjoy the moment, Rosy. Let’s talk. Not about important things, but just things. I love the time in the mornings when we’re making breakfast together or cleaning up after supper when I tell you about my students and the faculty. I love sharing things with you. Did you see the look on Greta’s face when she saw you there? Looked like she’d seen a ghost.”
Did she really say that he’d finally get what he wanted? Was she starting to believe in happily-ever-after again? His heart practically did flip flops. He hoped the buttons didn’t pop off the vest of his tux.
“More like the ghost of receptions past,” Rosy laughed.
She’d come to enjoy those times too, when they talked about their day. When she told him about the things on the ranch and he told her about his classes, his students and how times had changed since he had been in college, and yet even in the change, people and their attitudes stayed the same.
He sipped iced tea. “She’ll come around. Father offered me a job tonight. He said after the downsizing there was still room for a CEO in Tulsa.”
Her heart stopped. The laughter ceased. Her eyes filled with tears she refused to let spill down her cheeks. She didn’t want him to go. She didn’t want him to stay. Bewilderment chilled every nerve in her body.
“I thanked him for the offer and his trust in me, but I refused, and you know what I felt when I did? Pure relief. I love my job at the college.”
“But what if they don’t rehire you for the fall?” she asked.
“Then I’ll find another teaching job. I’ll even teach in a high school if I need to. I’ve found what I like and that’s what I’m going to do.”
“You going to change your mind in six months?”
He reached across the table and covered her hands with his. “Can’t say. Right now I’d say I’ll never change my mind, but tomorrow things might be different. And if I change my mind about my life’s work, I can guarantee you I won’t change my mind about you, Rosy. I was foolish enough to lose you once. Remember what the ladies said last week about that old Conway song. I downloaded it off my computer so I could listen to it. You can rest your love on me. I’ve got wide shoulders for your troubles. And I intend to stand so close to you that you can slip your worries in my pocket anytime you need to. Just give me a chance.”
“How much time do I have to think about that?”
“As long as you need.”
“Promise.”
He leaned across the space and kissed her lightly on the lips. “I promise.”
Chapter Fifteen
“It’s tradition,” Roseanna explained to Trey at the breakfast table. “If we have guests—after supper we all go to Roxie’s house to watch the fireworks. If we don’t we’re invited for supper. That’ll be hot dogs and hamburgers on the grill and you guys cook them. We girls take care of potato salad, baked beans and desserts in the kitchen. After we eat the ladies sit on the porch with Roxie, Granny Etta and Granny Molly … Lord, we’ll miss Granny Molly this year. It’ll be the first time in my life that the grand queens won’t be in attendance. Anyway, ladies sit on the porch while the men folk set off the fireworks.”
Trey buttered the last biscuit. “But Roxie and Granny Etta are away.”
“Doesn’t matter. Dee says there’ll be food and fireworks this year. She’s missed them even more years than I did. And Stella and Rance are coming. And my whole family as well as Stella’s and …”
“Is it some ritual in which one male will be sacrificed at the end of the night? I’ll be the outsider so I’ll be the most likely candidate.”
She snagged part of his biscuit and popped it into her mouth. “No fair. I went to your family thing with all those people around who had a guillotine with my name on the blade so you can suck it up and go to my fireworks show.”
“Why didn’t we eat breakfast together all those years?” He asked.
She thought about the question for several minutes before she answered. “Because we grew apart rather than together, Trey. It’s easy to do, isn’t it?”
He nodded. “Time to mow the grass if I want to get it done before the real heat gets here. What’s on your agenda for the day?”
“Potato salad is all I’m supposed to bring. I’ll run the weed eater for you,” she volunteered.
He’s done it. He’s weaseled his way back into my heart and life, and I’ve let him do it. It’s time to back up ten steps and think. It took him four weeks to convince you to elope with him last time. The marriage lasted four years and the last two made both of you were miserable. His sister despises you. His friends think you are a country bumpkin. When he gets tired of his job and starts yearning for the finer things in life, you’ll be miserable again.
By the time the job was finished, she’d worked up a confused anger. She stormed onto the porch.
“What’s the matter with you?” He sipped iced tea from a tall, sweating glass.
He’d set another glass on the table beside the rocking chair for her. Condensation gathered on the outside of the glass and ran down into a puddle on the table. She picked it up and held it against her forehead before drinking half of it before she came up for air.
“Nothing is the matter with me. I’m going to take a bath and go into town. What are you doing today?”
“Grading papers
at the dining room table.”
“Have fun.” She took the tea with her and literally stomped through the lobby, the dining room, down the hall and into her bedroom. She hadn’t been so mad since the day Kyle told her she couldn’t sing at the Arbuckle Ballroom. In those days, her temper flared up quicker but nowadays it hung around longer, eating on her like rust on an old tractor.
“What’d I do?” Trey threw up his hands and went inside to gather up his papers. When he had them arranged on the table in neat stacks, he leaned back, pinched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger and replayed the morning. What had he done to upset her so much?
She doesn’t believe. She’s skeptical. Think about it. I should be too. What happens if I do talk her into another commitment? The attraction is there. I’m happy right now. Will I be in a few years? Will I want my old lifestyle later?
He had a headache by the time she breezed past him with a “see you later,” and disappeared out the door.
They drove to Roxie’s place located south of the lodge in the late afternoon. Silence lay between them like a solid sheet of plate glass. They could see each other through it, but they couldn’t touch and talking required too much energy. They struggled within the net of uncertainty, doubts and fears and each time either of them fought their way clear of the tangled mess, something else wrapped itself around their souls and strangled what little progress they’d made.
Dee met them at the door, took the potato salad from Roseanna and told Trey the men were in the back firing up the grill. Roseanna followed her to the kitchen. Dee’s sister, Tally, as well as Stella, Jodie, Joann and Stella’s sister, Maggie, and niece, Lauren, were gathered around the table. They scooted chairs around and made room for Roseanna.
“So tell us about Trey,” Lauren said.
“He’s exasperating,” Roseanna shrugged.
“Ain’t they all,” Joann smiled.
To Believe Page 16
