The Color of Love

by Sharon Sala

  His heart began beating faster. It was her! She’d come back!

  He felt a hand on his arm, then a faint aroma of lilac as someone kissed the side of his cheek. He heard the voice again, only softer and right against his ear.

  “Hey, you, it’s me,” she whispered, and put her hand over his fingers.

  He inhaled slowly.

  * * *

  Ruby’s heart was pounding. Seeing the bandage around his head, she was afraid of what was to come. The anxiety of not knowing how much more damage there could be had kept her sleepless for most of the past week, and being only minutes from an answer was suddenly scary.

  “Can you hear my voice?” Ruby whispered. “Follow it, sweetheart. Follow the sound back to me.”

  His fingers curled around her hand.

  “Oh, honey, you hear me, don’t you?”

  His grip tightened.

  Tears welled from her relief as she leaned over him again, her voice barely above a whisper.

  “All you have to do is open your eyes. I know it’s hard, but there’s so much left for the two of us to share. Just open your eyes.”

  She saw his eyelids fluttering. There was a muscle jerking at the side of his mouth.

  “I’m here. All you have to do is look.”

  His lips parted.

  “Hear,” he mumbled.

  “Yes, yes, you hear me, don’t you, darling?”

  His eyelids fluttered again, and then opened just enough that he saw light.

  He’d done it! He was almost out of the hole. He tightened his grip on her hand, using her strength to pull himself the rest of the way up.

  Light came into his world as he began to blink. It had been so dark, and now there was light.

  “I’m here,” she whispered.

  He turned toward the sound of her voice, and then he saw her face. Yes, she was who he’d been waiting for.

  “It’s you,” he said.

  It was all Ruby could do not to cheer.

  “Yes, it’s me.”

  He sighed. “My Ruby. Love you so much.”

  Ruby gasped. “Oh my God,” she whispered, and put her hand over his heart, letting the peace of that heartbeat surround her. “You remember. You remember.”

  He looked confused. “Yes. You’re my girl.”

  “Yes, I’m your girl. You go to sleep now, sweetheart. I’ll be back.”

  “Yes…back,” he mumbled, and closed his eyes.

  Ruby kissed him goodbye and felt like she was floating all the way back to the nurses’ station.

  “He woke up,” she said softly. “He knows who I am.”

  “Oh, that’s wonderful,” the nurse said. “I’ll note that on his chart.”

  “I told him I’d be back,” Ruby said.

  The nurse smiled. “Yes, you can come back.”

  “Thank you,” Ruby said. “And you will call if there’s a change?”

  “Absolutely. You are listed as family on his records.”

  Ruby slipped out of the ward as quietly as she’d come in, but the moment she got in the elevator, she closed her eyes.

  “Thank you, Lord, for giving him back to me.”

  Epilogue

  The day he left the hospital, Peanut wanted to go to his home, where his things were and where everything was familiar, and Ruby didn’t argue. Instead, the women in his life made a schedule between them. Betty and Ruby kept him in food. Ruby stayed with him at night until after the first week had passed, and Laurel came twice a week and kept his house and clothes clean until he was well enough to do it for himself.

  At the beginning of the second week, when Ruby arrived after work, he met her at the door, sat her on the sofa, got down on one knee, and pulled a ring from his pocket.

  “I got this ring out of the safety deposit box over eight months ago, and it’s past time I put it where it was meant to be. Ruby Dye, you know I love you more than life, and I cannot imagine it without you. Will you marry me?”

  Ruby’s dark eyes welled from the love in his voice.

  “Yes, yes, yes, I will marry you.”

  He slid the single diamond on her ring finger, kissed her hand, and then scooted up beside her on the sofa and kissed her senseless.

  When she finally focused on the ring, she was shaken by the size.

  “Peanut! What on earth did you do?”

  “I mortgaged the house, but I’ll get it paid off in—”

  Ruby gasped.

  He grinned.

  Her eyes narrowed. “Are you kidding me?”

  “Yes.”

  “Oh my lord, you nearly gave me a heart attack,” she said.

  “It was my mother’s engagement ring, and now it’s yours,” he said. “It’s been in the Butterman family for a little over two hundred years now.”

  Ruby was in shock that an emerald-cut, one-carat diamond was on her finger.

  “Now I’m afraid to wear it!”

  He laid his hand over the ring. “No, ma’am, you are not afraid to wear this ring. You are more than worthy to wear it. It came over from England on an ancestor’s finger. It went through the Civil War on another, and if the story is true, the woman wearing it killed the Union soldier who tried to take it from her. Someone pawned it once to save a home and then turned around and stole it back and got away with it. Strong, brave women wore this, and I can’t think of a better woman than you to follow in their footsteps.”

  Ruby threw her arms around his neck.

  “Oh, Peanut, that makes me cry. Thank you for loving me.”

  “I couldn’t help myself,” he said. “You rock my world.”

  * * *

  A couple of weeks later, Peanut had gone back to work part-time. Since it was a Monday, Ruby was home, and he’d gone to her house for lunch to discuss a date for the wedding. After they chose April 8 as the day, the venue was next to discuss, and that’s when Ruby gave Peanut an answer he didn’t expect.

  “I want to invite the whole town and hold it in the park at the gazebo.”

  Peanut grinned. “The whole town?”

  She nodded.

  “At the gazebo?”

  “Yes,” she said. “I can’t single out some and leave out others. Not when this whole town and the people in it have become the family I lost.”

  “I hear you, and I am not against that, but what if it rains?” Peanut asked.

  “It’s not going to rain on our wedding,” she said.

  He laughed, as he swept her off her feet and sat her up on the kitchen counter so they were almost eye to eye.

  “And how do you know that? What have you done? Made a deal with Mother Nature to do her hair for free?”

  Ruby laughed. “No.”

  “Then okay. So what if it rains? We won’t melt,” he said.

  Ruby just frowned. “It’s not going to rain.”

  Seeing he was not going to make a dent in her certainty, Peanut moved on.

  “So we’re having it at the park. Exactly how much of this all-town blowout are we paying for?”

  “Five hundred cupcakes. They bring their own lawn chairs and birdseed.”

  “And they throw birdseed instead of rice?”

  “Yes.”

  “You do realize how many people might be throwing birdseed at us at the same time?”

  Ruby frowned. “Why am I just now seeing this worrywart side of your character? What else are you hiding from me?”

  “Your wedding ring.”

  “I want to see!” she cried.

  “You won’t let me see your wedding gown, and I’m not letting you see the ring.”

  “What if it doesn’t fit?” she said.

  “Now who’s a worrywart?” Peanut asked.

  Ruby laughed out loud.

  “Lovey
will make our cupcakes… Well, probably Mercy. The preacher will marry us. And we’ll set up a few chairs for the elderly who would have problems with transporting their own.”

  “And what do I need to do?” he asked.

  “Pay half the bills and show up.”

  He grinned. “I can do that,” he said.

  Ruby shivered. The day couldn’t come any too soon.

  “Come to bed with me,” Peanut said, and he kissed the spot below her ear.

  “I have a pie in the oven,” Ruby said.

  “Then we’ll hurry,” he said.

  She laughed. “Oh dear lord, how I love you. We have twenty minutes.”

  He set her on her feet, grabbed her by the hand, and pulled her toward her bedroom. What had started out as a lunch break was turning into so much more.

  They undressed in haste and fell onto the bed in each other’s arms. Laughter lit the fire of joy…and then the kisses deepened, lighting a fire of another kind.

  Ruby closed her eyes, focusing on the sensation of building heat as he marauded his way down her body—stealing kisses, cupping her breasts, mapping the shape of her hips, and then moving into dangerous territory—and wanting him in a way for which she had no words.

  By the time he moved between her legs and took her, she’d lost focus on everything but how he was making her feel. She wanted it to last forever, but the more it built, the harder it was to bear the ache.

  Then his breathing shifted. He was moving faster, going deeper, and she thought she couldn’t bear for him to stop, until the feeling grew so intense that she needed that rush of blood to stop it.

  It happened in a glorious, mind-numbing, spilling-over-into-another-world climax that left both of them breathless. For one long moment, neither spoke, and then from off in another part of the house, they both heard a ding. The timer on the pie had gone off.

  Peanut raised up on one elbow to gaze down at her face—her sweet, beautiful face.

  “We get better every time,” Ruby said.

  He leaned down and kissed her.

  “I work best under pressure.”

  She burst into laughter. “You crazy man. Let me up, or my pie will burn.”

  He grinned, then rolled over, admiring her bare backside as she grabbed a robe and raced out of the bedroom.

  He stretched, then got up. She was still gone when he began to get dressed.

  When she came hurrying back, she was clutching the robe together at her waist and laughing so hard she could barely talk.

  “What’s so funny?” Peanut asked.

  “The mailman caught a glimpse of me running through the house with my robe flapping as he came up the steps. He looked back at your car in the driveway and turned red as a beet.”

  Peanut grinned.

  “Well, then it’s a good thing I’m making an honest woman of you.”

  Ruby grinned and then glanced at the clock.

  “I love you, mister, but you’re going to be late for your next appointment if you don’t leave now.”

  “Yes, ma’am, uh…and I have a question. Are you giving that pie away?”

  “No, why?” Ruby asked.

  “Well, since I like pie, I thought I might swing by with barbecue this evening and trade you some ribs for some pie à la mode.”

  Ruby laughed. “I’ll be home about five thirty, and barbecue sounds wonderful.”

  “I’ll be here at six with the food. No cooking for either of us tonight.”

  “And come April 8th, we’ll be cooking meals together,” Ruby said.

  “April 8th can’t come soon enough,” Peanut said, and then kissed her goodbye. “I’ll let myself out.”

  * * *

  Ruby and Peanut’s wedding invitation, which came out two weeks before the event, was a full-page ad in the local paper addressed to every resident of Blessings, and anyone else who knew them, stating that everyone was invited to the high-noon wedding, which would be held in the gazebo at the city park on Saturday, April 8.

  Bring your own lawn chairs and picnic lunches. Dinner on the ground after the service. Wedding cake provided until it runs out, it read.

  The next two weeks were the longest of Ruby’s life.

  * * *

  Then Saturday, April 8, finally arrived.

  Peanut was dreaming about putting up umbrellas all over the park for people to get out of the rain when he woke. After that crazy dream, he jumped up and looked out to check the weather.

  When he saw the sun shining and not a cloud in the sky, he laughed out loud. Ruby had gotten her sunshiny day, and he was going to get a wife. He was definitely coming out the winner here. Unwilling to waste a moment, he made his bed, then jumped in the shower.

  Afterward, he took extra time with his grooming, trying to find a way to comb his hair so that most, if not all, of the scars on his head were concealed, and then gave it up as a lost cause. He and Ruby were alive and well, and that was all that mattered.

  He shaved before putting on a pair of gym shorts and went to make breakfast. It would be the last morning that he would make breakfast alone.

  After that, time seemed to fly by. Before he knew it, it was time to get dressed and head for the park.

  Peanut’s tuxedo and pleated cummerbund were black; his shirt was pristine white—but without the damn ruffles, as he’d told the tailor. He had shiny new dress shoes, and Ruby’s ring was in his pocket.

  He grabbed his wallet, tossed his suitcase in the trunk of his car, and then locked his house. It would be a few days before they’d be back. He was getting antsy by the time he jumped in the car and drove away.

  * * *

  Ruby’s morning was moving along at a similar pace. Her clothes were packed for the honeymoon, and Lovey was taking her to the park so that she could leave her car at home while they were gone.

  But when she went into the kitchen to make breakfast, it was a poignant moment, knowing she would never wake up in this house again.

  She still hadn’t decided what she was going to do with it, but that didn’t matter. Today, the only thing that mattered was marrying Peanut.

  When it came time to get dressed, she began to fuss. She’d already done her hair and makeup, and now all she had to do was get the wedding dress on without messing it all up. It had been hanging on the outside of her closet door all morning, and she couldn’t wait for Peanut to see her in it.

  Even though she’d been married before, Ruby had still chosen white, and knowing she was going to be in broad daylight when she wore it, she’d purposefully chosen a dress with lots of sparkle. Since the ceremony was being held outside, she hadn’t bothered to look at full-length gowns because she didn’t want to drag one through the grass. What she had chosen was in rich white brocade, above-the-knees short, and sleeveless, with a plunging neckline and a fitted bodice. And…there was enough bling on it to light a darkened room.

  Ruby managed to get the dress on without messing up her hair but then couldn’t zip it. She had to wait for Lovey, who arrived a couple of minutes later in a flurry of anxiety, zipped Ruby into the dress, and then helped her put on the veil.

  “Oh, sister, you are so beautiful,” Lovey said, and then wiped her eyes and blew her nose. “You and Peanut paid dearly to get to this day, and I couldn’t be happier for the both of you. Now where’s your luggage?”

  Ruby pointed to the bags. “Those two.”

  “I’ll carry them to the car. You gather up what you need from in here. I’ll be waiting for you outside.”

  “Something old. Something new. Something borrowed. Something blue. And a penny in my shoe,” Ruby said, then checked to make sure she had them all.

  Her something old was the one-carat diamond in the engagement ring Peanut had given her. Something new was her dress. Something borrowed were Lovey’s diamond earrings. They’d been
given to her by her last husband. And the something blue was the blue garter at mid-thigh on her leg. The penny in her shoe was a 1901 penny she’d received in payment the first year she was in business and had kept for good luck.

  She looked around at all of her beloved things, some of which she would take with her to her new home, and some of which would stay here.

  “I’ll find someone wonderful for you,” Ruby said, and then hurried out, locking the door behind her.

  The drive to the park felt surreal. She was quiet all the way, thinking of the journey it had taken for her and Peanut to get to this day.

  And then they reached the park. Myra Franklin was waiting on the other side of the street with Ruby’s bouquet.

  “This is beautiful,” Ruby said, eyeing all of the sparkle Myra had incorporated among the white gardenias and the deep green of the waxy magnolia leaves.

  Then she looked across the street at the moving mass of people coming in with chairs and blankets and big picnic baskets on their arms, and laughed out loud.

  “Just like the Fourth of July,” Ruby said.

  “But without the fireworks,” Myra added.

  “Oh, there will be fireworks somewhere before this day is over,” Lovey said, and then winked.

  Ruby grinned. “Most likely you will be right. So let’s get this started.”

  As Ruby and Lovey started across the street, Lovey made a quick call to the band director from the high school who was waiting for her signal.

  “Hey, Justin, we’re here. Start the music.”

  Within seconds, the sounds of the “Wedding March” rang out through the loudspeakers set up around the gazebo.

  The last thing Lovey did was pull the veil over Ruby’s face. Then she disappeared into the crowd, leaving Ruby alone at the sidewalk.

  The moment the music began, people turned toward the street and saw her waiting. There was a group sigh from the crowd as they began moving aside, leaving her a near-perfect aisle to the gazebo.

  Ruby’s heart was pounding as she started walking across the spring-green grass.

  Their wedding flowers were the blooming lilac bushes and the beds of yellow jonquils and bright-red tulips scattered about the park. The birds in the trees were chirping and flying from tree to tree in brief flashes of bluebird blue and robin red.