Wedding Belles

by Beth Albright

  But I will never forget that feeling of seeing him and what he looked like when he glanced up at me. He was in a lightweight crimson sweater, tan corduroys and loafers with no socks. His long, golden-brown bangs hung over his forehead just a tad too long. He slid his fingers through his hair, pushing it out of his eyes when he looked up and saw me.

  He grinned that trademark grin and walked over to me. I was standing in a little cubby at the end of the stacks. He was very close to me, propping his arm on the door frame and leaning into me. I could smell his cologne and peppermint gum, and I vividly remember tingling all over.

  He hugged me hello, and we talked, trying awkwardly to catch up, saying how we don’t know how we missed seeing each other all this time.

  “You seein’ anybody in particular?” he asked.

  “Not in particular,” I answered, smiling.

  And I wasn’t, really. I had been seeing several guys at the moment, but not one of them in particular, I reasoned.

  “I would love to see you, maybe Saturday, after the game? I’m working the sidelines that day, but maybe after?”

  He was looking at me in that way he did that would always make me melt. He had a power over me and he knew it.

  “Sure,” was all I could muster.

  Sonny leaned down and brushed his lips across mine, then pulled back and smiled. A tease for sure. He knew I loved that.

  “You’ve still got the most beautiful eyes I have ever seen,” I said. He leaned down again and pressed his lips to mine, holding there for a minute, gently nibbling before he pulled away.

  “I’ve missed you, Blake. I’ll meet you at the main gate right after the game.”

  I smiled. “See you then.” I was in a trance.

  We had been on and off again since we were fourteen, and this encounter would lead to our final attempt at being together before I met Harry.

  I went home that night in a daze. How did he do this to me every single time? He could make me forget everything. The two days went by in a blur and, by Saturday, I was giddy. I hadn’t even held “rehearsal” with Steve in the forty-eight hours since running into Sonny.

  I waited for Sonny at the main gate after the game. The crowd was crazy with the big Bama win over Ol’ Miss. My sorority sisters scattered to local bars on the famous strip, meeting frat boys and football players. I stood under the entryway to Bryant-Denny Stadium, nervously fidgeting and glancing around.

  Then, there he was, walking toward me with his familiar swagger and that precious grin, in his uniform. He looked so good. My heart skipped. I had never seen him dressed in his professional clothes. It somehow made me feel older, more mature. Serious in a way that was so above and beyond the rest of my friends.

  I couldn’t wait to get my hands on him.

  “Hey, Blake,” he said as he approached. “You look great.” He leaned down and hugged me tightly.

  “I have to go back to my apartment and get changed,” he said.

  I liked the sound of that.

  “I promise I won’t be long. Wanna go see where I live these days?”

  “I would love that,” I said, smiling and maybe sounding a little too enthusiastic.

  His apartment was scattered a bit but not messy. Mismatched furniture, but tasteful. Muted masculine colors, his trombone in a corner, and outdoor paraphernalia here and there. His backpack, some binoculars, a telescope. Any visitor would know right away he liked being outside on an adventure.

  “Make yourself comfortable, I’ll be right back,” he said, heading to his bedroom.

  “Okay,” I said, smiling as I sat down on his dark brown leather couch. Sonny disappeared and I could hear him rummaging through his closet. I wanted to get up and check things out some more.

  “I’m gonna use the restroom, okay?”

  “Okay,” he said, “but I’m not sure how clean it is.” He was so nervous, but at that point, nothing would have made me not want that night. He could have clothes and dirty underwear strewn from here to Mississippi and I wouldn’t have cared. I was blinded by the thought of being alone with him. We were grown-ups now.

  “It’s up the hall on the right,” he said.

  I walked up the hall and glimpsed Sonny in his bedroom. The door was half-closed but open just enough for me to see him standing in his boxer briefs and no shirt. My stomach dropped like on a roller coaster ride. I took a deep breath and headed on into the bathroom.

  It was small but had matching towels and shower curtain. His aftershave and cologne were on the sink. His razor next to his shaving cream, I breathed it all in deeply. Sonny was so masculine, even at nineteen.

  I was in his man cave.

  “Okay, ready if you are,” he said, emerging from the bedroom. The image of him in his underwear from moments ago reappeared in my head. Was I ready? Did I want to go out or stay in? I was sure we needed to go before we got out of control. Sonny and I had always had an unexplainable, raging, combustible chemistry. Yes, we had better go out, I thought.

  Sonny lived right off the strip, close to all the bars and restaurants. We walked to a little pizza place and shared a pepperoni. Small talk and catching up and a few awkward moments followed until Sonny reached across the table and cupped his hand over mine.

  “This feels really good, Blake. I, uh, well...” He stumbled. “I hope you feel the same way.”

  I smiled at him and placed my other hand over his. “Of course I do, Sonny. I always do.”

  “I wanted to ask you if you’d like to go somewhere with me next weekend,” he said with a hopeful tone in his voice. “I’m going with my ragtime band over to Georgia for a little concert. Wanna go with me?”

  Oh, I was elated inside, just bubbling over. I knew Sonny played his trombone in an old-fashioned group and now I would finally get to see him.

  “Yes, absolutely,” I said. “Can’t wait.”

  When we left the pizza place, he offered to walk me back to my sorority.

  “Let’s go back to your place for a little while, instead,” I suggested.

  Sonny raised his eyebrow and grinned. “I would’ve asked, but I didn’t want to push you,” he said.

  “No, it’s fine, I’d like to keep talking,” I said, sure that my eyes were saying I wanted a lot more than just talking.

  We walked back to his apartment, holding hands, as comfortable together as though we’d never been apart. When we got inside, I perched on his couch while he grabbed us a couple of soft drinks. Then he sat down in front of me, placing them on the coffee table among newspapers and school notebooks.

  “Blake, I want to be honest with you,” he said seriously. “All this time we’ve been apart... Well, I’ve missed you. I think we’re right together, and I don’t want to waste any more time. I want to get back together. What do ya think?”

  I could tell how nervous he was from the way he kept running his fingers through his hair. It was his nervous tick, and I’d always thought it was so cute. My heart was racing.

  “Me, too. I mean, yes, I think that’s a good idea.” We were both awkward, in that nineteen-year-old way. So full of emotions and desires, but so unsure about how to act on them.

  Sonny leaned over and kissed me, softly, then with force and passion. We made out, touching and exploring for most of the night, before he walked me all the way back to my sorority house in the wee hours. He was a gentleman, and a sensual, generous lover. I knew one thing, I definitely wanted more, though I wasn’t sure I was ready. But Sonny never pushed me. And in the end we never did actually sleep together.

  For several months, things were amazing and I was happy. I was falling hard; something had happened to me over that semester that made me know this relationship with Sonny could be it. But then we went on that fateful trip to Nashville. It was spring and I had been going on little jaunts to see hi
s group perform. That particular weekend we were just over the Alabama line, and it was about 11:00 p.m. when we stopped for a late bite at the Waffle House. Eventually, talk turned to my plans for the fall. I was hoping to spend the next semester in New York, but Sonny didn’t want me to go.

  “I love you, Blake. I always have. I think we’ve got a good thing goin’ here, don’t you?”

  “Yes, I love you, too, baby. You know that.”

  “Then why are you leavin’ to go so far away to New York?”

  “I have to, Sonny. It’s such an amazing opportunity and I’m so excited! They only chose twenty students from all over the country to study there and I am one of them. It will be so good for my career,” I explained.

  “I know, but I’ll just miss you so bad. I was hoping we could take this to the next level, if you stay.”

  “Oh, Sonny, what do you mean?”

  “I mean...I’m thinking about forever.” He stopped, realizing the gravity of what he had just said. It threw me. We were barely twenty and he wanted to talk about marriage.

  “I do think about forever all the time,” I said.

  “But Blake, be realistic. If you go to New York, anything could happen.”

  “Sonny, don’t you trust me? I don’t see why we couldn’t continue things just like they are,” I said, trying to make sense of what he was saying.

  “But Blake, I can’t do a long-distance relationship with you. And I know you’ll meet people there, too.”

  “Sonny, please, I know we can do it.”

  “I can’t. I’m sorry.”

  I started to tear up. “What does this mean?” I asked.

  “Well, I guess we’ll have to just see how it goes. See where we are when you get back.” He was quiet, then, and we both sat staring at our half-eaten waffles. After a few minutes like that, it seemed there was simply nothing more to say. We loved each other and wanted things to last forever, but we were just too young to make the sort of commitments and sacrifices it would take to stay together. I could tell he was sad as he started the car, and we drove the nearly three hours back in silence.

  Things faded away slowly after that talk. I knew he was hurt. I just didn’t know how much at the time. I went on to New York and that’s when I met Harry. Sonny went on and finished his police training and met Laura, his now ex-wife. But I never forgot that familiar feeling I got every time I was near him, comfort like I’ve never felt with anyone else. It was hard to believe it has taken us all these years to finally find our way back to each other. But now that we had, it sure felt like coming home.

  * * *

  Wanda Jo announced the Aarons and showed them in. They had all the paperwork they could find and even said they had information on Walter’s girlfriend.

  “Hey, y’all, so glad to see you. Come right on in and have a seat,” I said, motioning to the chairs in front of my desk.

  “Y’all need anything else, just holler.” Wanda Jo stepped out and went back to her desk.

  “We found all of Walter’s papers. I can’t believe he wouldn’t tell us this, but...well, it seems he did get married and it was just a few weeks before he died.” Wayne handed me the paperwork. It was all of Walter’s insurance papers and his will.

  “I should tell you,” I began as carefully as I could, “that I found out just recently that the homicide investigators have evidence to the fact that foul play may have been involved in Walter’s death.”

  “I knew it,” Wynona said. “There was no damn way he would jump.”

  “What does this mean, Mrs. Heart?” Wayne asked.

  “Well, it will hold up the settlement until we find out just what happened. But the police think someone wanted him off that boat.”

  I went through the insurance papers to see who was listed as the beneficiary. I was looking for the name of Walter’s wife, when I noticed something quite strange. His wife’s name was Tamlyn M. Hartman. It took about a minute before I realized why the name sounded so familiar. Lewis’s estranged wife also had the last name Hartman. Another Hartman? I wondered. Well, Tuscaloosa did have a few of them. I remembered I’d even gone to school with a Katie Hartman.

  “Do y’all happen to have a picture of Walter’s new wife?” I asked.

  “No, nothing. As we said, we had no idea who she was or that their relationship was so serious. And there were no pictures in the paperwork and files we went through, either,” Wayne answered. “Is there a way to know if she ever filed to get her settlement?” he asked.

  “I’ll be checking in with the insurance company later. I know y’all are trying to settle his will as soon as possible, so I’ll go over all of his papers. My guess is that he never had time to change his will if all of this happened so suddenly.”

  But even if that were true, the Aarons still had a lot to be concerned about. While the will might state that they were the ones to get his estate, this revelation about the new insurance beneficiary meant we’d have a lot more to straighten out.

  “Y’all just hang on. We will get to the bottom of this.” I was trying to be reassuring but this case was getting messier by the day.

  Wanda Jo interrupted and handed me a message on a piece of paper.

  Call Sonny. They have turned up some evidence on the barge.

  I told the Aarons I would call them the minute we could track Ms. Hartman down, and then walked them to the front office where Wanda Jo showed them out. I hurried back to my office and called Sonny.

  “What’s the news?” I asked, breathless.

  “We found a cell phone. I think it may be Walter’s. Bonita found it out there today. She went out there for one more look and found it on the barge itself. I’m not sure how we missed it before, but I guess that’s why I hired Bonita. Anyway, the battery was dry. We’re charging it now to see if there’s anything else it can tell us about what happened to Walter Aaron.”

  “Great news, baby. I’ll be there in ten minutes.”

  I grabbed my purse and told Wanda Jo I had to get to the station. I ran out without hearing her say goodbye.

  16

  I made it to the station in record time and ran into Bonita and Sonny talking in the front lobby.

  “Hey, y’all. I heard there was some excitement out at the barge today.”

  “Yep, Bonita is determined. And she was right. There was more to find out there. The Aarons have gotta be on the edge of their seats.”

  “Speaking of which, they turned up some good information y’all can probably use. They found the wedding certificate and the new wife’s name matches the beneficiary on Walter’s updated insurance policy. It’s a woman by the name of Tamlyn M. Hartman.”

  “Hartman?” Bonita jumped in. “Isn’t that the last name of the woman Lewis is supposedly married to?”

  “Bonita, you have a brain like a lockbox. It sure is. I haven’t had a chance to look into it to see if, by some wild chance, the two are related. But I brought the Aarons’ copies of the documents with me, in case you want to look at them now.”

  “We’re meeting with them tomorrow,” Sonny said, “but if there’s something we can work with today, that would be great.”

  We made our way into a conference room and spread the papers on the table. Sonny went over to where the cell phone they’d found was charging to check its status.

  “I’m so glad you were persistent, Bonita. The cell phone could be a real break in the case,” I said.

  She shrugged off my praise. “I just had this nagging feeling that there had to be more out there. Keys, or something.”

  Sonny joined us at the table. “Okay, we got us a phone, y’all. Let’s take a quick peek.” He turned on the cell. They both wore white gloves to protect the evidence and the phone was in a plastic bag, but we could still see through it and make out the names in his contacts
list.

  “Pull up the pictures, in case we got lucky,” Bonita said.

  “Your wish is my command,” Sonny said, bringing up the most recent photos Walter took.

  We gazed at a picture of Walter with a blonde bombshell. The woman had long, straight blond hair and a deep tan. She wore a white dress and was standing, in profile, next to Walter. The next shot was a close-up of wedding rings. This had to be Tamlyn Hartman.

  Sonny turned to me. “Does she look familiar to you?”

  I hesitated. Maybe I just had the whole Lewis situation on my mind, but this woman definitely reminded me of the photos we’d found of his estranged wife—though not nearly as redneck as I remembered from the camo bikini picture. But it seemed a pretty big leap. Just because they were both blonde and had the same last name didn’t mean anything. And I didn’t want to jump to any wild conclusions in front of Sonny and Bonita. “I can’t see much of her face,” I told them, “but she does look familiar.”

  “I’m gonna call Lewis’s friend Cal, out at the university. He’s a computer guy with some pretty impressive tracking skills. We may need him.” Sonny passed the phone to Bonita for further inspection. Cal, I remembered, was one of Lewis’s gorgeous frat brothers from college. He was smart beyond reason and an athlete to boot. The complete package. He played football at Alabama with Lewis, but now ran the entire computer science department there. He was one of those rare finds—a handsome, sexy jock but with the smarts to back it all up.

  “Yes,” Bonita said, flicking through the phone’s call directory. “Cal needs to find us Mrs. Tamlyn M. Hartman Aaron. From what I can see here, the calls to her number only go back a few weeks.”

  We said our goodbyes, and then Sonny and Bonita headed out to the campus to talk to Cal, while I went my separate way. I’d been shocked they let me into the investigation as much as they did, but I was thrilled I’d been able to help.