She sat down on the edge of the patchwork quilt. “Why are you out here again?”
“When I can’t sleep this old quilt and the yard is my orange rocking chair. I watch the stars or the moon or even the clouds and think through my problems,” he said.
“What are your problems tonight?”
“Sometimes I worry that I’m not enough for the kids; that they need more. Maybe we should settle down in one spot since they’ve started to school. Up around their dad’s people so they’d at least have family around them. Lay down here beside me.” He moved to one side and patted the quilt.
She stretched out and folded her arms over her chest. “You are doing fine, Holt. There’s lots of single parents in today’s world.”
“I know that but I want them to grow up happy and well adjusted. I want Judd to go to school with her hair all fancy and I can’t fix it like she likes. Everything is overwhelming when I think about them growing up and I’m all they have. What if something were to happen to me, Sharlene?”
She patted his arm. “Stop worrying. Momma says worrying about tomorrow robs us of any joy we might have today.”
“Thank you,” he said around the lump in his throat.
“Hey, look at that cloud. Does it remind you of anything?”
He smiled. “Which one?”
“The one just shifting over the moon. That one.” She picked up her hand and pointed toward the sky with both their hands.
“A marshmallow,” he said.
“No, it’s a big fat elephant with his trunk hunting for peanuts. The stars are the peanuts,” she laughed.
“I can see the trunk now.” He laced his fingers through hers.
His touch set a tingling up her arm, down her chest, and all the way to her toes. She definitely felt like a seventh grader who finally held hands with her pimple-faced boyfriend the first time.
Hell, no! I didn’t feel like this when Jason first grabbed my hand after church that Sunday night, she thought.
“Sharlene, is it Iraq?”
“In the clouds?”
“No, is it what happened over there that keeps you awake at night?”
She nodded.
“Want to talk about it?”
“I don’t think it would help. It’s something I have to work out for myself.”
“Okay, but I’m here anytime you need to talk. You listened to my worries. I’ll be glad to listen to yours.”
“Thank you, Holt.”
He rolled over and propped up on an elbow. “Did you see a lot of soldiers in the hospital who’d been wounded?”
She nodded again. “The helicopters brought them in.”
Her drunk rambling made more sense to him. He scooted over closer to her and wrapped her up in his arms. “Nine-eleven sure blew the bottom out of our peace, didn’t it?”
“Yes, it did,” she said.
But not as much as you do when you touch me. How can that be possible? The very thing that sets me on fire is the thing that made me rest without dreams. It’s a physical oxymoron. Right along with the idea that of all the men in the world, Holt Jackson is the very one I shouldn’t want. He needs a role model for those kids who isn’t a bartender.
She stayed awake longer than he did, watching the clouds take their place on center stage over the moon and then leave by stage left for the next set of animals to have their time in the spotlight. Then her eyes grew heavy and she decided it was time to go home, only she didn’t want to wake him. She promised herself that she’d only shut her eyes for a minute.
The sun was the tip of a big orange ball when they awoke at the same time.
She set up with a start. “I’ve got to go home. Good lord, what if the kids saw us sleeping on the front lawn?”
His smile was lazy and slow as he brushed a sweet kiss across her eyelids. “Good morning, Miz Sharlene. Don’t worry about the kids. I expect they’d want to join us. They’d think it was a party.”
“Well, I’m going home. Thanks,” she said.
“For what?”
“Sharing your quilt.” She smiled.
“You are very welcome.”
She rushed to the car and was back to the Honky Tonk before she remembered that she had not dreamed. Not about Iraq or about kids. She’d slept peacefully and completely snuggled up against Holt’s chest.
She touched her eyelids where his lips had been and moaned.
***
Kent grabbed the first available barstool the next night and asked Tessa, “Seen Loralou?”
“Not yet,” Tessa said on the run.
“I heard you and Holt are taking a weekend trip together.” He pointed to a pint of beer Sharlene was holding. “One of them.”
She finished the order she was working on and filled a jar for him. By the time she set it in front of him, Merle was sitting beside him. “Where’s your brother?”
“He goes home every weekend to see his girlfriend,” Kent said.
“And Holt?”
“He’s at home with the kids, I suppose. Got to get a good night’s sleep so he can drive to Corn tomorrow.” Kent talked to Merle but looked at Sharlene.
“Why would he go to Corn?” Merle asked.
“Ask Sharlene,” Kent said.
She threw up both hands, one with a bar rag and the other with an empty beer bottle. “Because I asked him and the kids to go home with me for the weekend. Don’t worry, the Tonk will open on Monday night as usual. If I’m not back right on the minute then Tessa is opening for me and she can go home early and I’ll close up.”
“Why?” Merle asked.
“Because Momma is bugging me to bring someone home or else she’s going to start combing the wheat fields again for me to find a husband. She even threatened to come to Dallas.”
“Dallas?”
“Momma has no idea that I’m in Mingus or that I own the Tonk or the house. She doesn’t know about my book either. And she threatened to have Daddy drive her down here to see me,” Sharlene said.
Merle shivered. “Go home, kiddo. That could be disastrous.”
Sharlene nodded rapidly. “I know. It’s easier this way. I told her that Holt was my friend but she’s already thinking about three-tiered cakes. It’s not such a big deal. The men congregate in one place. The kids go wild. The women sit around the kitchen table and catch up on gossip. We won’t even see each other except at meal times and then there’s so many of us, it’s served buffet and sit-where-you-find-a-place.”
Merle fluffed at her freshly done hair. “You trying to convince me or you? Come on, boy, you’ll have to do tonight since your brother has to go chase his woman.”
“When Loralou gets in here holler at me,” Kent said.
“Y’all been seein’ a lot of each other,” Tessa commented.
“It’s not a big deal.” He grinned.
Sharlene cocked her head to one side. “Don’t look at me. I told you about the curse of the Honky Tonk. You want to take your bachelorhood in your hands, that’s your decision.”
“I’m not superstitious,” he declared.
Tessa pushed her black-rimmed glasses up on her sweaty nose. “Well, good for you.”
“What are you doing for the holiday?” Sharlene turned around with her back to the bar and asked Tessa.
“Luther and I are going up to Ardmore to see his parents. I’m nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. I know how Holt must feel.”
Sharlene rolled her green eyes toward the ceiling. “You and Luther have been seeing each other a year. He’s in love with you. It’s a whole different situation. I asked them to go with me because Momma was pressuring me and besides, I wanted to take the kids up to the farm and let them play with all my nieces and nephews. I’m not taking Holt home to meet the family.”
“Did you sleep with him yet?” Tessa asked bluntly.
Sharlene went scarlet in a flash and stammered, “Why in the hell would you ask me that dumb question?”
“Because I
wanted to know. Here comes a whole new bunch in the door. Get ready for a rush,” Tessa answered.
Thank the lord for thirsty, lusty women and dusty old cowboys who are tired after a week’s work, Sharlene thought as she started getting clean Mason jars out of the dishwasher and setting them up six to a tray.
Loralou timed her entrance perfectly. Kent had lost his first game to Merle and there was a line of preppies itching to try to beat the pro they’d heard so much about. Kent bought her a martini and led her to the nearest table where they sat close together and talked until a slow song started. Then he led her out to the dance floor and they two-stepped to Alan Jackson, to a Blake Shelton song, and finally to a faster tune by the Zac Brown Band.
Sharlene liked the last song. It talked about having his toes in the water, his ass in the sand, and a cold beer in his hand. She’d like to take a long vacation where the waters were clear and there was nothing between her and sky but ocean. After a couple of days in Corn, she’d be ready for a trip to the sand and a cold beer. Iraq sounded good compared to Corn.
Then things got so busy that she and Tessa didn’t have time to talk about anything other than mixed drinks and beers. It was like that record-breaking Saturday night that she decided to open the new room as soon as possible and christen it at the Christmas party in December. She would definitely need to hire a third bartender. Luther said the parking lot was jam packed all night and the line waiting to get a foot in the door was all the way out to the new addition. At closing more than a hundred people still hadn’t gotten past the porch.
She glanced at Loralou. Maybe she’d be interested in making a few extra dollars.
“No, wouldn’t ever work,” Sharlene muttered. The woman was smitten and Kent was about to feel old Cupid’s arrow piercing his little heart.
At five minutes until two Luther unplugged the jukebox and pointed at the clock. Amidst moans and groans, the customers left and Tessa wiped down the bar one more time before she swung the doors open at the end of the bar and joined Luther.
“Have fun in Ardmore,” Sharlene said as Tessa and Luther started out the door.
Tessa held up the keys to the Honky Tonk. “Don’t rush back. I’ll open and you can close.”
“Thanks, Tess.”
“Keep your running shoes right handy. You might need them if your whole family gangs up on you.”
“Got ’em packed. It’s not me that’ll need to outrun ’em though. It’s Holt. Bless his heart, he doesn’t have a clue.”
“Don’t tell him. He’d back out. Good night,” she called as she and Luther disappeared out into the night.
Sharlene popped the top off a beer and carried it to the nearest table. She usually waited until morning to clean up but that night she started in as soon as she locked the door. The mess wasn’t too bad considering the amount of people who’d come and gone in the six-hour shift, but it still took until almost four to get it in shape for Tessa to open on Monday evening.
Chapter 6
The sun was making a glorious entrance on the eastern horizon when Holt pulled up in the Honky Tonk parking lot. By the time afternoon arrived it would be another hot day. The addition was a skeleton with a roof but it was coming along very well. Even if they did get rain for a whole week, he’d still meet his deadline. He stepped out of the pickup truck, shook the legs of his jeans down over his boot tops, and ran his fingers through his dark hair. When he stepped up on the porch, Sharlene opened the Honky Tonk door and set her bags out.
She wore an emerald green sleeveless western cut shirt with lace accents, a belt with a double heart rhinestone buckle, and snug fitting jeans. Her boots were shined to a high gloss and the same color green as her shirt. A chunky rhinestone heart pendant on a silver chain dropped down between her breasts. Just looking at her made his mouth go as dry as if he’d just eaten a sawdust and dirt sandwich and washed it down with a healthy dose of alum laced iced tea.
He tried to whistle but it came out too weak to be a whistle and sounded more like a dying groan. “You look very nice today.”
“Thank you. You look mighty fine yourself,” she said. His boots had been polished jet black, his jeans creased and starched and bunched up just right over his boot tops, and his dark brown hair feathered back. He wore the same turquoise plaid western shirt that he’d had on the night he came to the Honky Tonk and the colors brought out the green in his eyes. He tipped his black hat when she complimented him and she caught a whiff of his aftershave and almost melted at his feet in a puddle of whining hormones. Stetson aftershave and a Stetson cowboy hat both on a morning when she hadn’t had enough sleep. What sin had she committed to be punished like that?
Damn! Damn! Damn! She had no time for any kind of relationship in her busy life. She’d finally gotten where she wanted to be and her roots ran deeper than any of the previous bartenders at the Tonk. Besides, there was that business in Iraq and if she told him the whole story, he wouldn’t be available anyway. Her conscience argued that she should spit out the fact that she was a shooter in the army right then and there and see what happened. But she didn’t want to arrive in Corn without him and the kids. Her mother would hang her from the nearest pecan tree.
“Perfect timing. You packed light.” He was amazed that words flowed from his addled brain to his mouth and he could speak intelligently.
“It’s just for one day and I didn’t know how much room you had.” He might not hear the heat from her unnaturally high-pitched voice but she dang sure felt it.
He pointed to the back of the truck. “I put the cover on in case it rains so nothing would get wet. I threatened to put the kids back there if they weren’t good.”
The corners of her mouth turned up in a brilliant smile. “Shame on you!”
He opened the tailgate, slid her duffle bag under the cover, and snapped the tailgate back shut. When he rounded the end of the truck to open the door for her she was already in the passenger’s seat and talking to the children.
He kept walking and crawled in his side, sending another wave of the aroma of his cologne her way. She inhaled deeply and let it out slowly, savoring the sight of him all cleaned up and smelling like heaven.
He fastened his seat belt and started the truck. “Okay, I know we’re going north but which way is best? I’m not sure where Corn is. Somewhere up in the panhandle?”
“Not that far. It’s just west of the middle of the state. First you go to Wichita Falls, then to Vernon, and then I’ll tell you which turns to make. Can’t ever remember the highway names but I can get there blindfolded in the middle of a…”
“Shalaka storm?” His eyes glittered.
“What?” she asked.
“One of those things in Iraq.”
“Shalma or Sharqi. But I was about to say a blizzard. I’d rather face off with snow as sand,” she said.
“How far is it?” Judd asked.
“Five hours. Member, that’s what Uncle Holt said. Five hours. That’s two movies or ten times watching cartoons,” Waylon said.
“But that’s forever,” Judd moaned.
“Just think how long you get to play with the kids when you get there then it won’t seem so long,” Sharlene said.
“Okay,” Judd sighed. “Let’s color. I betcha I can stay in the lines better than you can.”
“Can not!”
“Can too and I don’t color hair purple and green, either,” Judd said.
“Well, I don’t color it pink!” Waylon shot back at her.
“The joys of parenting,” Holt said.
“There were five of us acting like that most of the time in a car. I usually sat between Momma and Daddy in the front seat and all four boys were in the back. Now I understand why we never went anywhere five hours away,” Sharlene said.
“What was the longest distance you’d been before you moved to Dallas?”
“I left home right out of high school and I’d never been out of the state of Oklahoma. My grandparents were raised in Corn, so
were my parents. Both sets of my grandparents are still alive and farming still yet. So I went from Corn to army to Dallas.”
Holt twisted his neck around and looked at her. “You’ve got grandparents still alive?”
She nodded.
“And you haven’t been home to see them in how long?”
“I was there for Christmas.”
He slowly shook his head. “Shame on you!”
“Don’t you talk to me like that! How long has it been since you’ve seen your folks?”
“My grandparents died when I was a little kid. My parents both died the year that Callie, the twin’s mother, graduated from high school. They never saw their grandchildren. Car crash got Dad. Momma died with a brain aneurism. She was washing dishes and gone before she hit the floor. Don’t take family for granted, Sharlene. Things can change pretty damn quick.”
She felt horrible that she’d been so rude. “I’m sorry. How old were they?”
“Dad was seventy and Momma was sixty-eight. They were both older than most parents with kids our age but they didn’t marry until they were past thirty,” he explained.
“My mother was sixteen when she and Daddy married. He was twenty. By the time she was my age, she had five kids,” Sharlene said.
Holt’s eyes twinkled when he grinned. “You really are behind, aren’t you?”
They made it all the way to Wichita Falls before Judd began to squirm and fuss about needing to go to the bathroom.
“How far is it, Uncle Holt? I really, really got to go,” Judd said.
“And I’m hungry. Can we get some pancakes at McDonald’s?” Waylon asked.
“I don’t want pancakes. I want eggs,” Judd said.
“How about you? Are you hungry? Do you need to find a little girls’ room?” Holt asked Sharlene as he took the next exit advertising a McDonald’s.
“Both,” she answered.
Holt pulled into a parking space and Judd fumbled with the seat belt. She jumped out of the truck, grabbed Sharlene’s hand, and tugged on it. Sharlene jogged along beside her all the way inside where Judd came to a screeching halt and looked up at Sharlene.
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