“Mama sent me to see what was taking you so long. Everybody’s waiting.”
“Not for us. For Evie and Mike.” Kate took the kid’s hand. “But come on. We’ll go sample Mama’s applesauce cake while we’re waiting for the slowpoke newlyweds.”
The little sister peered around Kate. “Is Mike having trouble getting the car started? They could have walked like you.”
“Not Evie. She aims to arrive in style,” Kate said.
Jay laughed. “Not much chance of that in Mike’s old heap.”
The kid slipped her eyes over toward Jay and smiled shyly. “Hello, Tanner.”
“Hi there, Birdie. Tell me that your mama made some lemonade to go with that cake and I’ll be one happy man.” Jay shrugged off his coat, hooked his finger in the collar, and pitched it over his left shoulder. Black coats should be outlawed for everybody but undertakers.
“Birdie?” Kate looked at Jay and then back at the little sister. “Tanner? Don’t you mean Mr. Tanner?”
“He told me nobody calls him mister.” The child hunched her shoulders and peeked up at her sister. “And you ought to call people what they want to be called, oughtn’t you?”
“So you want to be called Birdie?” Kate said.
“Not by everybody. Just by Tanner.” She shot a grin over toward Jay.
“Give the kid a break, Miss Merritt. Tell you what. You can call me Tanner too. And how about we call you Katie?”
“Ooh, that won’t work.” The kid’s eyes popped open wide as she looked from Jay to her sister. “Nobody calls Kate Katie.”
“Nobody?” Kate was giving him such a cool stare that he couldn’t keep from poking her a little more. “Not even lucky Carl?”
“What my friends do or do not call me is none of your concern, Mr. Tanner.” She emphasized the mister.
“But I want to be one of those friends, Katie.” She shot him another look and he backed up a step. “Excuse me, I meant to say Miss Merritt. It’s just that if I say Miss Merritt, I could have four girls looking my way. Which wouldn’t be too bad. Lovely misses, every one.”
“Only three now,” Kate said. “Actually only two.” She looked like she might be biting the inside of her lip to keep from grinning. That was good. He wouldn’t want to be thinking about eloping with a girl who stayed in a snit all the time.
“But aren’t there three sisters still unmarried?” he said. “Three Miss Merritts.”
“Just Kate and Tori,” the little sister spoke up. “Remember, I told you my name.”
“That’s right. It was Bird something,” Jay said. “Birdwhistle or Birdbrain. Birdhopper maybe.”
The little sister giggled, and the big sister couldn’t keep her smile hidden any longer as she said, “Tell him your name, Lorena.”
“My name is Lorena Birdsong.” Her voice had a lilt as she almost sang her name.
“And my name is Katherine Reece Merritt.” Kate grabbed the kid’s hands and danced a little circle with her.
It was obviously some kind of game they played. They both looked at him, almost laughing, as Birdie pulled a hand loose from Kate’s and reached for his. “You have to say your name too, Tanner.”
The two of them seemed to be holding their breath to see if he would join in. So, like a kid on a playground, he grabbed the little sister’s hand and, not one to pass up a great opportunity, captured the big sister’s hand too. She didn’t try to pull away but just kept looking at him with a kind of assessing smile to see if he was going to pass this playground test.
“My name is Mr. Jay Tanner.” He squeezed Kate’s hand a tiny bit as he said the mister. She laughed out loud. The sound touched something inside him, and he had to keep himself from holding on tighter when she began easing her hand free.
With a quick look over her shoulder back down the road toward the church, she said, “Well, Mr. Tanner and Miss Birdsong, now that we’ve got all the names straight, we’d better get moving or we’ll let the new Mrs. Champion beat us to Grandfather Merritt’s house. That wouldn’t do.”
The sound of a car starting up back at the church seemed to prove her words. The little sister kept hold of both of their hands and started back the way she’d come, tugging them after her. “Hurry.”
Jay let the little girl pull him along. He liked the family feeling radiating off the two of them, reaching out welcoming fingers toward him. Of course, he was on the outside and couldn’t really step into it. He was always on the outside. Ever since his mother died. Even those months he’d lived with Mike and his family, he’d not belonged. Not really. But it was better that way. No sense wanting to belong somewhere he didn’t. It was better to stay a little apart where a man could keep a cool eye on what was going on around him and be ready to run if he needed to.
They did run the last few feet to the big white house beside the road to beat the bride and groom there. The two sisters laughed every step, and when the kid stumbled, he and Kate grabbed her up into the air without even exchanging a look and swung her back to her feet. Like a dance they both already knew, even though no one had ever shown them any steps.
They slipped through the picket fence gate and joined the people waiting in the yard to welcome the newlyweds. He let go of the kid’s hand and stepped back to lean against the fence and watch Mike help his bride out of the car. Mike had his preacher face on again. A good thing too. These people probably didn’t think a preacher ought to be in a hurry to get to his honeymoon night.
Jay let his eyes flash from the flushed pink face of the bride back to Kate. She was surrounded by friends vying for her attention. It had been crazy for him to think she was anything like him. She belonged. She was part of these people. A few more months and she’d probably be the bride on the arm of that lucky Carl. He was right there in the crowd beside her. The two of them would eat their wedding cake, drink their lemonade punch, and settle down in a house here in Rosey Corner. Five years from now, Kate would be chasing after a couple of kids and Jay would still be chasing a dream of belonging somewhere.
“She’s pretty, isn’t she?”
The man who moved up beside Jay wasn’t young, but it was hard to say his age. His face had deep lines that spoke of hours outside. A farmer, no doubt. The same as a good number of the other men scattered around the yard with their hair slicked down and wearing their Sunday best. But if this man had made any attempts to slick down his hair, it hadn’t worked. He didn’t appear to be a man worried all that much about outward appearances. At the same time, there was something piercing about his gaze, as though he intended to see past a person’s slicked-down hair and smooth veneer to whatever might be making him tick.
Jay smiled over at him, wondering what the man might be thinking about him. “Most brides are pretty on their wedding day.”
“It can bring out the best in a woman, right enough.” One corner of the man’s mouth turned up and a smile filled his eyes as if Jay had said something funny. “But I wasn’t talking about Evangeline. I was talking about our Kate over there.” Now his eyes were practically laughing. “It appeared your eyes were turned more her direction than the bride’s.”
“Could be they were,” Jay admitted. “I haven’t seen this many good-looking girls all in the same place since I don’t know when.”
“Enough to give a young feller like you wedding fever.”
“Not likely.” Jay laughed. “I just sweated through a wedding. I’m not planning on doing a repeat of wearing this suit anytime soon.” He swung his jacket down off his shoulder and draped it over a picket on the fence.
“There’s some here that are a mite more eager than you.” The man’s eyes went back to the group around Kate. “Poor Carl, for one.”
“Poor Carl?” Jay looked at the man beside him. “I’d think you’d be calling him lucky Carl with a girl like Kate.”
“If he had a girl like Kate, maybe so, but Carl ain’t got nothing but a wish that ain’t coming true.” The man turned and stuck out his hand toward Jay. “By
the way, I’m Graham Lindell. Not right of me to keep you talking, knowing who you are and you with no idea what Rosey Corner yokel is bending your ear.”
The man’s fingers were long, a little bony, but his grip was strong. “Glad to meet you, Mr. Lindell.”
“Ain’t no need being so formal and all. Graham will do,” the man said.
“All right, Graham. You related to the bride?”
“Nope. Got no blood kin left living in this whole world ’cepting my sister, Fern, over there.” He gestured toward a woman sitting on the edge of the porch looking off toward the fields without seeming to pay any mind to the commotion in the yard. “But we been neighbors so long I feel the same as kin. Ain’t nothing I wouldn’t do for those girls. We been through some times together. The Merritts and me. Some good like today. Some hard like them that may be coming at us.”
“Things bad here in Rosey Corner?” Jay asked. “It’s looking like all happiness to me right now.”
“Things is rosy here for a fact, but if I don’t miss my guess, the world is likely to come calling with all its troubles.”
Jay’s smile disappeared. “You’re talking about the war over in Europe. But that’s over there. We’re over here.”
“For now,” Graham said. “For now. We were over here last time too and ended up over there.”
“Did you serve in the World War?”
“Nope. I was studying to be a doctor and hoping to go over soon as I got out of school, but the war ended first.”
“So I should call you Dr. Graham.” Jay looked at him a little closer. He’d have never guessed him for a doctor.
The man shook his head. “Didn’t get that done either. Things happened. Some of those bad things, and I started down a different path. Made some good turns though and live with more freedom than most I know.” Graham’s smile came back. “But no need dampening the day with past worries. You’re looking like you got enough of them your own self anyhow.”
“Not at all. I live that free life too. Go where I want. Do what I want.”
“Ain’t got no family then.”
The man’s words skewered Jay, but he pretended not to be bothered by that truth as he said, “None that matter.”
“Family always matters. You can see that plain as day right here before your eyes.” Graham motioned toward the people in the yard. “We got family all over in Rosey Corner. Family families. Church families. Neighborhood families. Nobody goes wanting for family around here.”
Jay looked back at the people who had let Mike and his bride pass through them into the house. It would be cake cutting time soon. He didn’t see Kate anywhere, and he was sorry he’d let the man distract him so much that he didn’t know where she’d gone. “Yeah, I can see that. Same kind of place Mike grew up in.”
“I thought you grew up in the same town.”
“His growing up and my growing up were some different,” Jay said. “Guess I was free of that kind of family ties back then too.”
“A loner, huh?” The man didn’t wait for him to admit it. “Not a bad thing.” He narrowed his eyes on Jay before he went on. “If that’s what a man hankers after.”
“A free man does what he wants.” Jay kept his voice light.
“That he does,” Graham agreed. “Where you going from here?”
“Hard to say for sure.” Jay shrugged a little. “I may go north awhile. I hear Chicago is a busy town. A man should be able to find work there.”
“Why don’t you spend some time here in Rosey Corner? That is, if you don’t have nothing pulling at you. Victor, that’s the daddy of the bride, he lets me sleep up over his smithy. It can be kind of warm at times with the forge running, but it’s bearable with all the windows and doors flung open. I got an extra cot if you can keep Poe off it. Poe, that’s my dog. And truth be told, the poor old boy has a struggle climbing up on the cot these days anyhow. He might be glad for the chance to sleep on the floor.”
“He have fleas?”
“It’s likely, seeing as how he’s a dog. But he generally keeps them all to hisself.” Graham clapped Jay on the shoulder. “You look like a man who needs to take a pause in his traveling, and I could use fresh ears for my stories.”
“But a man has to work.” Jay didn’t know why the offer was tempting him. He’d left country living behind as soon as he got out of school. Cities were where life was happening. That was where he intended to be now. As far from the cow barns and cornfields as his car would take him.
Graham gave him another considering look. “Fact is, I do some odd jobs around Rosey Corner now and again. Just to keep from getting too lazy, but then folks find out you’re willing to paint a house, they all start wanting their houses painted. I could use a fellow like you. Somebody who wouldn’t have no trouble climbing around on a ladder to do the tall painting. I’ll split the profits even with you.”
“That might be too generous of you,” Jay said.
“Worth every penny if it keeps me from breaking my neck. So what do you say? A couple of weeks wielding a paintbrush outside in the fresh air. Then you can be on your way to some big town where they’ll shut you up in a factory and make you screw bits and pieces together. I’d take the sunshine and rain every time.”
“I’ve never done much painting.”
“Don’t take no genius.”
Jay was smiling, getting ready to shake his head and thank the man for the offer, when Kate came out the door of the house and down off the porch straight toward him. Suddenly he was thinking a few weeks in a place called Rosey Corner might not be so bad. Give him a little change in his pocket before he moved on. October could be a beautiful month. He looked over at Graham. “Well, I’m no genius for sure. So maybe I’ll just take you up on that offer.”
“You know. I just thought you might.” Graham laughed. He looked from Jay to Kate and repeated, “I just thought you might.”
5
When Kate saw Jay Tanner laughing with Graham out by the yard fence and then grinning her way like maybe Graham was telling him some embarrassing story about her, a little finger of irritation poked her. She thought about turning around and going back in the house. Let Mike come out himself and make sure his friend wasn’t left out.
They’d been all set to cut the cake when Mike noticed Jay hadn’t followed them into the house. Mike claimed the best man had to be there watching. Why, Kate had no idea. Jay Tanner didn’t look like a man who cared about wedding cakes, but Mike asked Kate to go find him.
Evie wasn’t pleased. She didn’t stop smiling. Oh no. People were watching, but Kate knew Evie. She saw the twitch at the corner of her eye and knew a flood of tears might not be too far behind. Evie did like things to go smoothly, and she was already holding the special knife she’d festooned with blue and white ribbons exactly the same as the one she’d seen in a magazine. She was showing Mike how to put his hand overtop of hers to make the first cut in the cake when he had looked around for his best man.
Kate was ready to get on with it too. So many people were crowded into Grandfather Merritt’s front parlor that the place was as hot as her father’s blacksmith shop. Several of the men had out handkerchiefs, wiping off their faces, and a few of the more amply blessed ladies looked near to fainting. Worse, the icing roses and fluted edges on the cake Kate’s mother and Aunt Hattie had spent the better part of two days decorating were beginning to melt.
That morning Kate had declared the cake too pretty to eat, but Aunt Hattie had waved that off as nonsense. “Cakes is supposed to be eaten. ’Course it’s good this one will get some looking at first. It was a mite of trouble.” She’d licked a smear of frosting off her finger. “But nows we’re practiced. We can get yours done in half the time, Katherine Reece.”
“No cake for me,” Kate told her, picking up the icing spoon to scrape a taste of the sweet concoction out of the bowl. “I’m eloping.”
The word echoed in Kate’s head now as Jay Tanner kept staring her way. She should have scared the
socks off him by grabbing his hand and pretending to say yes when he asked her to elope. Then the joke would have been on him.
He was a charmer. Had even charmed Lorena. Calling her Birdie. Kate would have to have a talk with her. She might only be ten, but a girl was never too young to learn to be careful around some guys. Guys like Jay Tanner. Kate had been reminding herself of that very thing since the first smile he’d sent her way last night had sent a strange little tickle up her spine. A tickle that had turned to a delicious little shiver while they were laughing and running down the road with Lorena between them. A dangerous man. She was surprised Graham wasn’t picking up on that instead of smiling like he’d just found a best buddy.
That made Kate want to frown even more. She was Graham’s best buddy. It didn’t matter that Graham was several years older than her father. Age disappeared between real friends. But she had a feeling now he was plotting something. Something to do with her and Mike’s best man. Something he shouldn’t be plotting if the grin on his face was any indication.
Kate stopped halfway across the yard to call to them. “Hey, you two. Get on in here. They’re waiting on you before they cut the cake.”
“Aww, Kate.” Graham’s grin slid off his face. “You know as much as I love your sister I can’t be smothered in amongst all those people.”
“You can stand by the door, but you’ve got to come on. It’s so hot in there the icing is threatening to slide off the cake. That happens, Evie will be a puddle of tears.” Kate’s eyes touched on Jay. “Mike says his best man has to be in attendance and not lollygagging out here in the shade.”
Graham pretended a wounded look. “We weren’t lollygagging. We were talking business.”
“Business?” Kate gave Graham another suspicious look. “What business is that?”
His smile came back. “Men’s business.”
“Then it’s nothing I want to know about.” Kate waved her hand in dismissal. “But I’ve never known you to pass up a piece of cake.”
Small Town Girl Page 4
