If a portion of his brain hadn't been fried with fever, he probably could have finished the puzzle in fifteen minutes without a peep from me. Have to also fess up that I could have been a bigger help if he hadn't splashed that good-smelling shaving lotion onto his face. My thoughts weren't exactly on the capital of Peru or Nigel Julio's nickname in a 1941 movie.
"I'm feeling better. I'm going to get dressed and go out to the shop," he announced a few minutes after we finished the puzzle.
"Over my dead body. You are going to rest for at least two days; then we'll talk about it."
"Who died and made you God?"
"Remember when I asked you that? You said Gert. Well, the same answer applies to me today," I shot right back at him.
"Even Gert left me alone when I was sick," he snarled.
"I'm not God or Gert"
I picked up the remote and turned on the television. Jeopardy! was just coming on.
"Oklahoma," Billy Lee said between coughs.
"What?"
"Oklahoma is the forty-sixth state to enter the Union. After that was Arizona and New Mexico, then Alaska and Hawaii."
I switched my thoughts to the program. "Oh"
"What were you thinking about, anyway? I don't even like this show. I thought you wanted to watch it."
"I'd rather watch a movie. What have you got?"
"You didn't answer my question. What were you thinking about?"
I told a white lie. "The lake house."
"Let's go to the lake house, and I'll sit on the deck and watch the sun come up and go down. I'll even let you drive the Caddy."
"Nice try. Let's talk," I said.
"I'm sick. I don't feel like talking. It makes me cough."
"Then we'll read. Or, better yet, let's have a Lethal Weapon marathon. You own all four of them?"
"Don't own a single one. Don't even know what you're talking about. I don't watch much television," he said.
I went out to the kitchen and called Crystal on her cell phone. She was on the way to the grocery store from the nursing home. Momma was not having a good day. I told her to go to the video store and rent all four movies and leave them on the porch. And to also bring popcorn, a whole chicken, a package of noodles, and a gallon of vanilla ice cream.
"It's not fair. I'm stuck over here all by myself, and you two get to do a marathon. Lethal Weapon is my favorite, and now that I'm pregnant, that last item would be extra special," she whined.
"Rent two copies of each, and bring my new cell phone over. We'll talk later."
Billy Lee chuckled.
He was going to live.
Life was wonderful.
lost my nerve.
Billy Lee was well, but now that I wasn't taking care of him anymore, I wasn't so brave about telling him how I felt. I was terrified he'd tell me that all he wanted to be was my lifetime friend and neighbor. And I wanted so much more. I wanted to open my eyes in the morning and see him all squinty, trying to focus on my face. I wanted to hear him tell me I was beautiful.
February slipped into March. The crocuses and tulips peeked up from the frozen earth and put on their show. The kitchen cabinets were coming along very well, and the carpenters would start taking the present kitchen down to the bare studs in a few days. The greenhouse plans were finalized, and a crew from Oklahoma City would arrive the next day to start that job. We were in our normal routines and busy again.
But every time Billy Lee was in the room, and that was every single day, I wanted to sit in his lap and kiss him. I was sitting on the back part of the porch watching the kittens, Peter and Paul, romp around on the porch. Mary had spent a couple of days at the vet, so there would be no more children for her. Peter and Paul were just little boys intent on biting each other's tails and ears.
Billy Lee joined me on the porch swing. Sawdust clung to the legs of his overalls and his shirtsleeves. I flicked a piece from his left sideburn and asked if he wanted a glass of iced tea.
"No, thanks. Pretty day, isn't it?"
"Too pretty to be inside. Want to go to the lake house for a couple of days?" I asked wistfully.
"Got too much to do right now. Maybe in a few weeks. How do you feel about me, Trudy?" he asked.
I was stunned into muteness.
"As in?" Two words were my limit.
"What do you mean?" He frowned.
"As in friend, neighbor. .. as in ..." I managed a few more, but my mind was racing.
"As in me. Plain old Billy Lee Tucker."
"Billy Lee, there's nothing plain about you. You are a wonderful person. A devoted friend who's brought me through tough times and made me feel alive again. A wonderful neighbor."
"Is that all?"
"Why?" I swallowed hard.
"Because I've been in love with you my whole life. I can't remember when I didn't love you. I'm not so good with telling you romantic things that are in my heart. We can talk about wood or refinishing all day, but I get all tongue-tied when I start to tell you how I feel. But I love you with my whole heart. I've got an idea about something, but I want to know how you feel about me. I don't want you to like my idea just to be nice," he said without looking at me.
I felt as if someone had jump-started my heart with a set of those orange cables they use on a car. Electricity set every hair on my neck and arms to standing straight up.
"You love me?" I whispered.
"You had to know that," he said.
"I've been scared to death that you were going to tell me you just wanted to be my friend and neighbor, that our New Year's kiss was just because of the holiday and .. " I ran out of breath.
"So?" he asked, his voice barely above a whisper.
"Billy Lee, I can't say that I've been in love with you my whole life. But I can say that I intend to be for the rest of it. I don't even know when it happened, but it did. I can't get you off my mind or out of my heart," I said.
He gave me his best crooked smile. His gorgeous blue eyes sparkled. Before I could open my mouth to say another word, he'd slid across the swing and proved that all his kisses would set my heart to singing. He finally pulled his lips away but kept his arms around me.
I laid my head on his shoulder. "It feels so good to get that off my chest. I was afraid..
"Hush," he said, and he kissed me again.
He held me tightly and whispered, "Trudy, I've waited nearly forty years to hear you say that."
I took a deep breath. "Billy Lee, are you going to ask, or do I have to?"
"Ask what?"
"If we're going to get married."
"I've waited almost forty years. I can wait until you're ready."
"We're going to have a church wedding at our church-you know, at our church on Broadway Street. How about in two weeks? That will give us time to plan a simple wedding, and the reception can be in the fellowship hall." I snuggled down into his chest. I fit there as if I belonged.
"You sure you want something that public?"
"You are the man I've fallen in love with. I love you and can't wait to be your wife. Two weeks is my limit."
He raised an eyebrow. "You plan whatever you want. I'll be there. I'd like a wedding at our church"
I cuddled down even deeper into his arms. "Then I'll tell Crystal, and we'll plan it for two weeks from today."
"Want to hear my idea now?"
"If it's got to do with more kisses, yes"
"Actually, it kind of pales in comparison to our kisses, but I was thinking that maybe Crystal could have my house, and it would give her and the baby more independence, and I could move in here with you"
"I love it. "-l pulled his lips down to mine.
He hugged me tightly, and then we broke apart. "Where do you want to honeymoon? I'll plan that while you and Crystal put together a wedding," he offered.
"The lake house."
"Trudy, I can take you anywhere in the world. Name it, and we'll go"
"The lake house. And bring a `Do Not Disturb' sign."
&n
bsp; He kissed me again, and I was very sure about my honeymoon.
We were married four years ago. Momma was good that day. Crystal served as my bridesmaid. I wore an ecru brocade suit, and Billy Lee wore the same suit he'd worn for Gert's funeral. We spent a whole week at the lake house.
Billy Lee and I talked about children for six months and decided that we'd just enjoy our granddaughter, Malee. After all, we were both over forty, and Crystal was grown with a child of her own, so we made up our minds and didn't look back.
It's said that when you set your plans in stone, God pitches in a monkey wrench to show you who's really boss. I thought I had the flu; then I thought I was going through menopause. Wil was born the day we were married eighteen months.
Malee is four now. Crystal hired a local man named Joshua Valdez to help her in the greenhouse when the business took off-like a bottle rocket, I should add. They had so much in common and became such fast friends while they worked together, it was no big surprise when they married when Malee was a year old. Now there's another little girl, Tess, over in the house next door. They talk of adding a wing to it, and I expect that'll be the next big project around here, since Crystal is pregnant again. So poor little Wil tags along with those girls and does the best he can. I'm reminded of Billy Lee having to make do with me and my cousins all those years ago.
Drew talks to Crystal occasionally. He isn't involved with the granddaughters and doesn't remember their birthdays or even Christmas. I don't think he'll ever change, but that's his problem. I'm too happy to waste even one precious moment thinking of him.
Momma had a couple of good days after Wil was born, and I'll always have those memories. But a year ago the disease progressed to the point that she didn't know any of us anymore. She died in July, a few days after my birthday, and I miss her terribly. Lessie joined her three weeks later. It seemed fitting in a way, since they'd become such good friends. But losing them both so close together wasn't easy.
Marty and Betsy come to holiday dinners. Both of them are recipients of the Gertrude Martin divorced-women "scholarship." Marty owns a doughnut shop and has stopped smoking. Betsy has a flower shop on Main Street and buys her plants from Crystal. She made a gorgeous piece for Momma's casket. I think Momma would have liked that.
At Crystal and Billy Lee's encouragement, I began to write in earnest. First it was just a column for the local newspaper, and then it became syndicated. It's just about everyday occurrences that everyone has lived or will live through. It had all started that Christmas night I stepped on that slug in the kitchen.
One day I was writing a column about Thanksgiving, when I remembered Aunt Gert's fussing at me for buying a turkey from the store, already plucked and frozen. A lightbulb flickered a few times, then shined brightly inside my head.
Until then I thought she'd left her fortune to me, but in that moment I realized she had done no such thing. In her own way she'd left everything to Billy Lee. If she had left him the house and all the money outright, I never would have moved in next door to him and figured out that I loved him. She'd known I would find out about Drew eventually. I wondered if she'd put it into Marty and Betsy's minds to follow me into the ladies' room that day of her own funeral. I'd put nothing past her when it came to giving Billy Lee Tucker what he wanted.
Billy Lee had once asked Crystal what her passion was, and she'd said she'd always liked digging in the dirt and growing things. She had then made her passion her success. We've all had our successes: Billy Lee's gorgeous furniture; Crystal and Joshua's greenhouse; my writing; Marty's doughnut shop; and Betsy's florist business.
But none of that is really my passion. My and Billy Lee's passion is our love for each other. I will always be grateful to Aunt Gert for giving us that. And, much as I hate to admit it, I'm also grateful for that day in the ladies' room. It changed my life forever-and for the best.
The Ladies' Room Page 22
